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California Trump Rally Sparks; Protests North Korea Sentenced U.S. Man for Espionage; 3 Arrested in San Bernardino Terrorism Case; Opioids Found in Prince's Home; Video Shows Abusive Language Towards Women Sports Commentators. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired April 29, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN HOST: Hello and welcome, everybody, to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. Great to have you with us. I'm John Vause in Los Angeles and this is NEWSROOM L.A.

We will begin right here in Southern California, where protesters have spilled onto the streets of Costa Mesa, blocking traffic outside a Donald Trump rally. Police say there have been no reports of injuries. Protesters were seen rocking a police car about 30 minutes ago. Others have been seen handcuffed.

Inside the rally, Trump lashed out at his rivals and again hit on one of his favorite targets.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But we will build a wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall. We're going to stop drugs from coming in. The drugs are poisoning our youth and a lot of other people. And we're going to get it stopped.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Police say they're now trying to keep the protesters separate from the Trump supporters as they leave the rally.

So Trump wrapped up that huge campaign open-air event about an hour ago. Of course it was all part of his swing through California with the primaries here, which will matter for the first time in ages, just a few weeks away.

Meanwhile, Trump's closest challenger, Ted Cruz, is being compared to Satan by the former U.S. Speaker of the House, John Boehner. CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump is no longer alone in coining his own nasty nicknames for Ted Cruz.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So we came up with Lyin' Ted. L-Y-I-N, boom, hyphen.

ACOSTA: Former House speaker John Boehner had some choice words for Cruz this week, telling college students at Stanford the Texas senator is hell to work with.

JOHN BOEHNER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Lucifer in the flesh. I have Democrat friends and I have Republican friends. I get along with almost everyone, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a bitch in my life.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He allowed his inner Trump to come out.

ACOSTA: Cruz clashed with Boehner during government shutdown in 2013 rejecting the former speaker's remarks while campaigning in Indiana, a state that's now a must-win for him.

CRUZ: He said something like, "He's the worst SOB I've ever worked with." Something like that. But the interesting thing is, he said that I've ever worked with him. I've never worked with John Boehner. Truth of the matter is, I don't know the man.

ACOSTA: But tell that to Boehner, who revealed two years ago that Cruz was once his attorney.

BOEHNER: Ted Cruz used to be my attorney a long time ago.

JAY LENO, FORMER HOST, NBC'S "THE TONIGHT SHOW": Is that right?

BOEHNER: Yes. He's a good guy. I often disagree with him, but he's a good guy.

ACOSTA: Cruz also threw cold water on the pact he announced this week with John Kasich, that was supposed to mean the Ohio governor would no longer compete in Indiana.

CRUZ: There is no alliance.

ACOSTA: Moments after that comment, Kasich's chief strategist tweeted, "I can't stand liars." Ohio Senator Rob Portman, a Kasich supporter, seemed to acknowledge the deal with Cruz is dead, saying the governor could pull off a surprise in Indiana.

SEN. ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: I think he may surprise people in Indiana. I was there on Monday.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: But I thought he made a deal with -- I thought he made a deal with Cruz not to campaign in Indiana and basically give up Indiana, let Cruz try to win.

PORTMAN: You know, I think that was supposed to be the deal at one point. ACOSTA: Drama surrounding Cruz's campaign has taken some heat off Trump, who is still trying to explain his comment that Hillary Clinton is playing the woman card.

TRUMP: Nobody cherishes and nobody respects women more than Donald Trump. That I can tell you. I will be so much better to women than Hillary Clinton is.

ACOSTA: Joined by his running mate Carly Fiorina, who once clashed with Trump herself, Cruz pointed to the GOP front-runner's pattern with women.

CRUZ: Donald has a problem with strong women.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Dave Jacobson is a Democratic strategist and campaign consultant with Shellman (ph) Communications and nationally syndicated radio host and conservative analyst, Larry Elder, is with me now here in Los Angeles.

Thank you for both being with us. John Boehner certainly has a way with words, doesn't he?

Doesn't matter though at this point. Ted Cruz is down, trying to spin this into some kind of endorsement, proof he's against the establishment. He didn't deny that he's Lucifer in the flesh.

Is it a good thing to be compared to Satan?

LARRY ELDER, RADIO HOST AND CONSERVATIVE ANALYST: At this point I don't think it really matters. What this does show you is that Cruz's strategy of attempting to stop Donald Trump on the first ballot and then the so-called establishment turning to him is a nonstarter.

If there's an establishment guy, it's Boehner. And Boehner despises Ted Cruz, probably because he knows him. He doesn't know Donald Trump but he knows Ted Cruz and he doesn't like him.

VAUSE: Here's the thing, Dave. I think Cruz has got, what, four Republican senators who have endorsed him and that's it?

DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: I think this was a tacit endorsement of Donald Trump. He called Donald Trump like his text buddy. And I think it was at a certain level a vindication for John Boehner.

But how long do you think he has been holding this in?

He was waiting for the ripe opportunity to take down Ted Cruz and Indiana is the best opportunity. It's a do-or-die state for Ted Cruz, if he doesn't prevail there, his campaign is over.

VAUSE: This is also a reflection of Ted Cruz and his scorched earth policy in the Senate over the last couple of years. We mentioned he doesn't have a lot of support amongst his Senate colleagues or his congressional colleagues, either.

Peter King, a senior Republican, this is what he had to say about that insult.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PETER KING (R), N.Y.: I fully agree with John Boehner. And maybe he gives Lucifer --

[01:05:00]

KING: -- a bad name by comparing him to Ted Cruz.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Maybe he gives Lucifer a bad name.

Could all of this have been avoided, though, by Ted Cruz if he had just made an effort to make peace with the party elders, with the establishment?

ELDER: Well, he got elected as a Tea Party guy. He got elected to shake up the establishment. He got elected because the establishment promises to stop ObamaCare, they don't stop ObamaCare.

Promises to stop Obama from signing all these executive orders shielding millions of illegal aliens from deportation, they don't. That was Ted Cruz's whole thing.

And his argument is, once we get elected, then all of a sudden we go Potomac on people and I'm not going to do that, I'm going to talk the talk and walk the walk. And that's what he's done.

It's alienated a lot of people because it put pressure on Republicans to run against some of these people that sold out. So they were primary and they felt that Ted Cruz was responsible for all of that.

JACOBSON: I think that Ted Cruz issue has sort of exacerbated the gridlock in Washington. You can dive into this if you'd like. But I think the reality is he was elected on this mandate to get stuff done. And I think the challenge that Ted Cruz had is he was making the job more difficult for the John Boehners of the world.

He hasn't even had a conversation with Mitch McConnell since he called him a liar. I mean, that's the challenge. And that gave birth to Donald Trump. People are angry and frustrated because they're not seeing anything happening in Washington and Ted Cruz exacerbated that issue.

VAUSE: Interesting. Ted Cruz has also been hammering Donald Trump pretty much for everything. He's sort of throwing spaghetti at the wall right now. We had the John Kasich agreement, which seems to have fallen apart. We had the very strange Carly Fiorina announcement, that he said, V.P. pick, going to be the running mate.

And now we've got the issue, he's hammering Donald Trump over these transgender bathrooms. Trump says transgender people should be able to use the bathroom which identify with, so their gender.

Cruz backs those conservative states, he says it should be whatever is on their birth certificate. And this is what he's been saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Donald Trump dresses as Hillary Clinton, he still can't use the little girls' restroom. And I apologize for putting that image in your mind. You know, Donald in a bright blue pantsuit is a little terrifying.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK, we all got a lot of mixed messages coming out of Ted Cruz.

But in Indiana, at least, is this about firing up the evangelical?

Not just the evangelical voters but the evangelical volunteers, who he's going to need?

ELDER: I'm on radio 15 hours a week, John. I have not had a single phone call about anybody who cares about this issue. It is something that Ted Cruz is using to make some sort of difference between him and Donald Trump.

People are angry. They are mad about the economy. They feel they're not getting ahead.

Both Bernie Sanders supporters and Donald Trump supporters are mad about the same thing. They may have different answers as to what to do about it but that's what they're really mad about, not about who gets to use the bathroom.

VAUSE: (INAUDIBLE)?

JACOBSON: Look, I think he's doing whatever he can to appeal to a very conservative electorate in Indiana. He knows it's an open primary in that state. So independents can actually participate. He knows Donald Trump's going to do well with independents and with the more sort of moderate Republicans.

I think he's doing whatever he can, sort of throwing the kitchen sink to those conservative voters, to try to get them to rally behind his campaign and inject some momentum into his campaign before it dies if he loses.

ELDER: He's toast.

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VAUSE: OK. So if he loses Indiana, it's gone from a bankable win to now a kind of a campaign deal breaker. But that then means everything comes back down to California if he has any hope of denying Donald Trump the 1,237, the majority of the delegates.

Donald Trump held a huge campaign here in Costa Mesa, I mean, there were protesters outside.

But there were thousands of people here in Orange County that turned up to see Donald Trump. He's ahead in the polls. This is a state which, not (INAUDIBLE) evangelicals, it's sort of a more of a liberal- leaning Republican state.

So Ted Cruz, if he's counting on California, is he in trouble then?

ELDER: He's in trouble. He's in trouble if he doesn't win Indiana. He's completely done if he doesn't win Indiana. Even if he does and even if he were to stop Donald Trump from having a first ballot victory in Cleveland, as I mentioned, they're not going to turn to him.

They're going to turn to somebody else in the second ballot if they turn to somebody else. But I think Donald Trump has now got a much better ground game. He's picking up some of these unpledged delegates.

I think he's going to have a good shot at getting real close to 1,237. And if not, he's already convinced most Republicans that the one that's won the most contests and has the most votes and has the most delegates should get the nomination.

JACOBSON: He's got 75 percent of the delegates. He's got the momentum. This is all about momentum in presidential politics.

He won New York in a much bigger landslide than what was anticipated. He won all five states. He's now got momentum going into Indiana. He was only up 6 percentage points -- 6 points, pardon me, before the Northeastern states.

Now he's got more momentum. There haven't been any polls that have come out in the last couple of days but I guarantee that he's leading now by double digits. And the reality is if he wins there, it's going to propel him with momentum to California and ultimately lock up this nomination.

ELDER: Right.

And can I add one more thing?

There was a poll three or four days ago, the George Washington University battleground poll. And it has him just behind Hillary by 3 points. That's within the margin of error, that's the first national poll that's respected that has that.

So the argument that Cruz and Kasich have been having is that this guy is unelectable goes out of the window.

VAUSE: We're in a delegate situation where, as you say, Trump has got the wind at his back, 1,237 now very much in reach?

ELDER: Right.

[01:10:00] ELDER: I think so.

VAUSE: OK. So we also have the situation in Indiana, because we're all looking at Indiana next week. Donald Trump picked up an endorsement there, a very, very big endorsement. He doesn't normally like endorsements but he himself said that this one was very special, very important. It was the legendary basketball coach, Bobby Knight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOBBY KNIGHT, BASKETBALL COACH: And Harry Truman, with what he did in dropping and having the guts to drop the bomb in 1944, saved millions of American lives. And here's a man who would do the same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: OK, we get it. Coach Knight is huge; he's a man not without controversy himself.

Do you really want the guy coming out endorsing you saying, you're the president who would drop a nuclear bomb?

ELDER: Well, especially he's talking about a Democrat that did it as well. So I would have thought that he would have used a Ronald Reagan reference.

(CROSSTALK)

ELDER: But Bobby Knight is very, very popular in Indiana. If he ran, he'd get 110 percent of the vote. And getting his endorsement is a real big deal.

JACOBSON: I think real quick -- look, the paradox for Donald Trump is yesterday he gave this massive foreign policy speech that basically tried to calm the nerves of people thinking that, in terms of foreign policy, he's a radical, chaotic --

(CROSSTALK)

JACOBSON: -- right, exactly.

And then you have this pivot now today, where people are saying, he's going to drop the bomb, he's got the guts to do it. And I think that's the challenge is he's sort of all over the map on foreign policy.

ELDER: But people do feel that we're on the wrong track as far as foreign policy is concerned. They feel that ISIS is winning, they feel that Putin is running all over Obama, so having the tough guy there is not the worst thing in the world.

VAUSE: I've got to say, on the Democratic side, we have Bernie Sanders. He seems to have listened to the Clinton campaign. He's toned down the attacks a little, at least in the past 24 hours. The tone has changed.

But we're also hearing from his wife, Joan, she was on CNN earlier. She's insisting that this campaign will go on.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANE SANDERS, BERNIE'S WIFE: Well, he's always had a two-pronged approach right from the beginning, which was in it to win it and build a political revolution. He's still doing that. He's not doing it just to influence things.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Jane Sanders, I should say. I've had this stuck in my head all day, the wrong name.

ELDER: Bernie Sanders' wife.

VAUSE: Exactly.

Is it hard to have a revolution when you're laying off staff?

ELDER: It is hard to have a revolution if you're laying off staff. But as far as she's concerned, she also threw another missile. And what she said was she hopes the FBI investigation moves along, suggesting that if there's a criminal referral and if the DOJ were to indict Hillary, maybe, just maybe her husband does have a shot.

VAUSE: So from the Democrat point of view?

JACOBSON: Look, Bernie Sanders has the resources to compete all the way to California. He's raised and spent the most money in terms of any of the presidential candidates, $166 million to date. He's still got about $17 million cash on hand. The reality is he has the ability to stay in the race until the end.

I think it's largely a function at this point of helping to shape the narrative for the platform when it comes to convention time. He wants his issues to be tied to the hip of Hillary Clinton's general election campaign.

And if he gets out today, there's no guarantee that that's going to happen. If he continues past June 7th, he's going to increase the likelihood of that happens.

VAUSE: Larry, very quickly, no surprise the Socialist has raised and spent the most amount of money so far?

ELDER: It really is quite shocking. I think he's done better than he thought he was going to do, just as I think Donald Trump has done better than he thought he was going to do.

VAUSE: OK. Larry, Dave, thank you both for being here, appreciate it.

ELDER: Thank you.

VAUSE: And we'll take a short break. When we come back, Republican voters are split over Donald Trump. We'll meet a group from Indiana as they get ready to cast their votes next week.

Also ahead, we're learning new information about the prescription medication that was found on Prince the day he died.

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VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. We have more now on the U.S. election. And Donald Trump is getting his share of criticism for his claim that Hillary Clinton is playing the woman card.

Trump told FOX News on Thursday, quote, "It's the only thing she's got going." That does not sit well with many women voters. CNN's Randi Kaye reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When I say Donald Trump, what the first word that comes to mind?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Powerful.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scary.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Surprising.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dangerous.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Divisive.

KAYE: Six Republican women from Indiana weighing on in Donald Trump's comments about women and his suggestion that Hillary Clinton is playing the women's card.

TRUMP: Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.

MOLLY: That's insulting, regardless of how you feel about Hillary Clinton, to imply that her background as U.S. senator and secretary of state give her zero qualifications. And Trump's assertion that Hillary would only have the support of 5 percent of the population is ridiculous.

Who does he think the rest of her supporters would go for, him? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think these comments are helpful to him or to his campaign. However, I still believe he is still playing the theatrical card.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm scared to death of a person who's setting that sort of a tone.

KAYE: Some of these women are willing to overlook Trump's comments because they think he's strong on the economy and jobs. Though after calling Megyn Kelly crazy and making fun of Carly Fiorina's face, some here are surprised Trump is still on top.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I thought when he made those derogatory remarks about Carly Fiorina's personal stature and her beauty, that would sink him.

KAYE: In fact, some in our group said they'd still support Trump even after comments he made to Howard Stern years ago. The men were talking about women in the beauty pageant Trump once owned.

TRUMP: First of all, she's unbelievably short and I'm a little bit surprised. I think that the boob job is terrible. You know, they look like two light posts coming out of a body.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I call this cocktail talk and he just doesn't know any better.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's talking about contestants in the pageant, it's another way to get people to watch the pageant.

MOLLY: Ladies, I can't believe you're excusing his behavior as the world of business or as good old boys' network. I mean, those are the exact same justifications used for sexual harassment for years. To use the word --

[01:20:00]

MOLLY: -- "boobs" several times, that's not promoting the pageant.

KAYE: These comments would not prevent you from voting for Donald Trump?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, they will not.

KAYE: Brenda Gerber Vincent is disgusted by all of Trump's comments about women but is still considering him for president.

Is there anything he could do to win your vote?

VINCENT: We're smart. We're really smart. We understand policy. We understand what's necessary for the country to move forward. We understand economic development. Start speaking to us as partners.

TRUMP: Thank you, everybody.

KAYE: In the end, though, Trump may drive some of these Republican women to vote Democratic. If Donald Trump is the nominee would any of you consider voting for Hillary Clinton -- voting Democratic?

VINCENT: No.

KAYE: Molly says yes.

MOLLY: Yes. I am undecided of what I will do in the fall if Trump is the nominee.

KAYE: So you may actually vote for the other party?

MOLLY: I may.

KAYE: Randi Kaye, CNN, Indianapolis.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Joining me now is our senior political analyst and senior editor at "The Atlantic," Ron Brownstein.

Ron, always good to have you. It really is, for these conservative women out there, this could come down to a choice of a billionaire businessman whom they loathe or the possible first female president who they despise.

And I guess the equation here in Randi's piece, the point they're trying to make is if they're confronted by that, maybe they're going to come down for Clinton.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, maybe. Look, they have room to grow. People talk about the gender gap all the time. Since the 1980s, the tendency of women to vote more Democratic than men do or the other way around, men to vote more Republican than women do.

But that is inflated or exacerbated by the overwhelming dominance of Democrats among minority women. In 2012, Mitt Romney beat Barack Obama among white women 56 to 42, the widest margin for a Republican since Ronald Reagan over Walter Mondale in 1984.

And yet Obama still won by 5 million votes. That's the scary thing for Republicans.

There's a lot of room for Hillary Clinton to grow among white women. The number was low in 2012, particularly among those college-educated white women, who I think are going to be the most put off by Donald Trump. And yet he was able to win with that low number.

They don't have a lot to give here. And she clearly seems to have some running room on that side.

VAUSE: And for Donald Trump, we've said this over and over and over again. He does have a big problem, at least right now, with women voters. So he's doubling down and attacking his likely female opponent because she is a woman.

BROWNSTEIN: So the theory -- look, the Trump defenders will say, this is what George Bush and the critics to John Kerry did in 2004, you attack the strength. This will be the gender equivalent of swift boating, basically saying she really hasn't done anything for women.

The symbolism is the only thing, the only card that she has. But it's a tough argument, it's a tough argument, A, because she has, in fact, spent a lot of her career focusing on issues of particular concern to women. Has returned to that this year after downplaying it in 2008.

And then you have Donald Trump, who let's say is not the perfect deliverer -- delivery mechanism for that message, given his own issues with women.

VAUSE: Absolutely. OK.

But the one thing Donald Trump does have going for him, he's been very effective at labeling his opponents. Up until this point, he's managed to get, what, 15 people who were challenging him for the nomination, they've gone by the by. He was here at this rally in California, it ended about an hour or so ago. And again, he was at it. Listen to this.

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TRUMP: We have this guy, Lyin' Ted Cruz. We know Lyin' Ted, right?

I mean, nobody likes him. I've never seen a guy like this. In fact...

Have we branded this guy or what?

I mean, he probably --

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: -- he probably -- I see him walking into these beautiful corridors in Washington and guys saying, hey, Lyin' Ted, how you doing?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Lyin' Ted, Little Marco, It's schoolyard, it's kind of juvenile but it works.

BROWNSTEIN: Well, he's been a master of the modern media in terms of driving the debate and really making it more about these kind of personal comparisons and kind of invective than about issue distinctions.

It works to a point, though. Yes, it has worked within the Republican primary context to get him to be a plurality front-runner. He's now reaching 50 percent. But he's won about 40 percent of the total vote, maybe 41 percent.

And the cost of all that has been his extraordinarily high negatives, which he now is going to have to try to dig out of in a general election. It's one thing to face an 80 percent unfavorable rating among Hispanics or African Americans, who are roughly somewhere between 12 percent, maybe 10 percent, 12 percent, 15 percent of the electorate.

When you're looking at 75 percent unfavorable among women, that's a majority of the electorate.

VAUSE: Yes. It's going to be hard to win if those numbers don't change.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. That's a big hole that you've got to dig out of.

VAUSE: OK. One of his opponents who he labeled low energy, Jeb Bush, he gave his first interview since he dropped out of the race --

[01:25:00]

VAUSE: -- he gave it to CNN and essentially voicing the hope that so many in the Republicans have been clinging to, maybe they're sort of moving away from this now, let's listen to Jeb Bush.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEB BUSH (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF FLORIDA: He's behind. But after the first ballot, anything could happen. And I believe that the likely occurrence, if Donald Trump doesn't win the nomination on the first ballot, is that Ted Cruz is the only other candidate that is likely to win the nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It does seem that the hopes for a contested convention are fading very, very quickly.

I was wondering, something that the former House Speaker, Newt Gingrich, told "The Washington Post," this is what he said.

"Trump has become a fact rather than a problem. Show me mathematically how you're going to stop him. This all assumes, by the way, that the guy who wrote "The Art of the Deal" can't figure out a way to make a deal with the undecided delegates."

And that's a pretty good point by the former Speaker.

BROWNSTEIN: And Donald Trump now only needs to win about half of the remaining delegates to get over the top on the first ballot. Not guaranteed but certainly a lot more achievable than it was before his big wins Tuesday and of course the Tuesday before that in New York.

And I think those wins really strengthened his hand if he does fall short because what you saw for the first time were voters beginning to consolidate around him.

Up until New York he had not won 50 percent of the vote in any state, a remarkable dynamic for a front-runner. Now he's won it in six straight states. He won men and women at the highest rates in any -- he won somewhat conservative voters and he won college and non-college voters, some of his best performances ever, putting him in a much stronger position, I think, even if he falls a little short to make the case the party has chosen, I'm the guy.

VAUSE: I also get the feeling that people just want this to be over, there's sort of a coalescing, like, OK, let's bring this to an end, it's gone on long enough.

BROWNSTEIN: Still a lot of fear about what it means for the general election in big portions of the Republican Party.

VAUSE: One step at a time.

BROWNSTEIN: Exactly.

VAUSE: Ron, thank you.

We'll take a short break. You're on CNN. When we come back, reports that North Korea has just sentenced an American citizen to 10 years' hard labor.

Also, a powerful video confronts what many women in sports media say they deal with on a near daily basis.

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[01:30:39] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. Just going 10:30 on a Thursday night. I'm John Vause with the headlines this hour.

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VAUSE: North Korea just sentenced an American for 10 years' hard labor for espionage. He admitted to gathering information about Pyongyang's nuclear program and military facilities but CNN has been unable to determine if that confession was made under duress.

Paula Hancocks live in Seoul, South Korea.

What do we know about the fate of Mr. Kim?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, we know in March, he actually had a press conference where he told reporters in Pyongyang that he wanted to give a public apology and he was guilty of espionage. Now we don't know if that was coerced by North Korea or whether those were his own words. And we now know that according to Xinhua Chinese state-run media, he has been sentenced, 10 years hard labor.

This is not the first time this has happened. Kim is said to be born in South Korea, a naturalized American citizen. This comes on the heels as well of another American citizen, a U.S. student who was sentenced to 15 years' hard labor recently for acts against the state. This is really the latest in a long run of American citizens who North Korea perceives to have done things against their laws and often we do see these public apologies and often we do see them sentenced before there is the high-profile individual from America that goes to Pyongyang and tries to secure their release -- John?

VAUSE: Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks live in Seoul.

The FBI has arrested three people linked to the San Bernardino shooter. Syed Farook and his wife were responsible for December's mass shooting here in southern California that killed 14 people. The trio arrested on Thursday have all pleaded not guilty to charges of marriage fraud.

Details now from Paul Vercammen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, the three suspected marriage fraud suspects shuffled into court in leg irons and handcuffs. Raheel Farook, brother of Syed Farook, the San Bernardino terrorist. He was visibly upset, tears welling in his eyes, while he and the other suspects must have been relieved when the judge flatly stated that this was a case of marriage fraud and that it was not about acts of terror.

UNIDENTIFIED CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: I think what it brings to us is a comfort that we know now we're not addressing for these people what people thought was the problem. And that's a comfort. So victory is not something we should speak here because there are people that are hurting. But this is comforting for those families to know that these people, the Farooks, the sister-in-law and the brother, don't have anything to do with that.

VERCAMMEN: The judge and lawyers worked out a complex set of conditions that will lead to the release of the Farooks, two of the three suspects, including posting bond and surrendering passports. The third suspect, Maria Chernick, she is going to be put on an immigration hold and after she gets out of that hold then she would go back into custody in riverside county. But the headline today is that judge saying that this is not a case of acts of terror.

Back to you, John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[01:35:00] VAUSE: Our thanks to Paul Vercammen.

We'll take a short break. When we come back, new details have emerged about the death of music icon, Prince. What authorities say they found in his home.

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VAUSE: Now the death of music icon Prince, a law enforcement official tells CNN opioid medication was found on the musician and in his home. So far, there's no evidence he had a valid prescription for the painkillers.

CNN's Sara Sidner has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, as the public memorial to the man who they adore and the music they will always remember grows here outside Paisley Park, we are learning new information as to the investigation into how Prince died.

(voice-over): Prince's fiercely guarded private life and struggles slowly coming to light after his death. The sheriff's office has now released incident call reports involving all call in the last five years from Prince's Paisley Park estate to local law enforcement. There were 47 calls in all, some for suspicious activity, others for harassing phone calls. But four were for medical issues, including the day Prince died. But there is no indication yet whether the three other medical incidents involved Prince himself.

What a law enforcement source is telling CNN, when Prince was found dead in the elevator at Paisley Park, prescription opioid medication was found in his possession. The medication, commonly used to treat severe pain, was also found inside Prince's home, the source said.

(on camera): Then there's this. Investigators telling us that they have been unable to find any evidence that Prince had a valid prescription for that medication.

(voice-over): We now know that Prince may have been struggling with severe pain and using the prescription painkillers six days before he was found dead when he is pilot called air traffic control to make an unscheduled landing.

(BEGIN AUDIO FEED)

911 OPERATOR: What's the nature of the emergency?

CALLER: An unresponsive passenger.

911 OPERATOR: Male or female passenger?

CALLER: A male passenger.

(END AUDIO FEED)

[01:40:05] SIDNER: Prince was unconscious. He was rushed to the hospital in Moline, Illinois, where investigators say Prince was treated for potential overdose of pain medication. His publicist at the time said he was suffering from the flu.

But now the Drug Enforcement Administration has been called in to help investigate Prince's death.

A former DEA agent says the DEA's involvement may give us a clue the investigators may be looking into criminality involving the drugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FORMER DEA AGENT: If I knew that you were drug dependant and I knew you were in bad physical condition, that's not even necessary, but if I gave you the pills anyway and you subsequently died, that's reckless indifference. And reckless indifference to your safety and your life is homicide.

SIDNER (voice-over): His family, fans, and investigators are waiting to see exactly what comes back from the toxicology reports as well as the autopsy. We do not expect to get all those results back for some time now -- John?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Sara, thank you.

For more on this medication which treats severe pain and how it could be fatal, we're joined by Dr. Drew, host of "The Dr. Drew Show" on HLN.

Doctor Drew, let's be clear, the official cause of death has not been released. It's not known if opiate use was involved. As we look at the facts as we know them now, do you see a picture starting to emerge?

DR. DREW PINSKY, HLN HOST, THE DR. DREW SHOW: There is something starting to emerge or at least opioid pain medication was involved in this overall medical picture. It's a reminder of something that I've been talking about for many years, which is the overprescribing of opiates. 81 percent of Percocet prescribed on earth, between 1993 and 2013, was prescribed in this country. Nearly 100 percent of the Vicodin in this country. Nearly 90 percent of all opiates in the world prescribed in this country. We are utterly too liberal and too prone to seeking opioid pain medication without appreciating their potential to do serious harm. My greatest fear is that we have been robbed of a great talent, he has been robbed of his life, because of a medical misadventure.

VAUSE: OK, and let's be clear. When doctors are talking about opioids, it's pain medication, but this is not Tylenol. It's opioids. And from the poppy plants that essentially make heroin.

PINSKY: Right, opiate derivatives, opioid. These are commonly prescribed, excellent medication for acute pain, but it's not at all clear they should be used for chronic pain. Again, because of so much overprescribing in this country, we have people who are disabled, people who are dying. If you develop addiction today and die of the disease of addiction, there's a nearly 100 percent probability you're going to die of a prescription medication combination of opioid pain medication and Benzodiazepine. I believe if it's led to his demise, it's potentially a deadly common combination.

VAUSE: So we're talking about the combination here now. Opioids by themselves, are they deadly?

PINSKY: Opioids -- you can but it's hard to, very difficult. It's difficult to die of a Benzodiazepine overdose or opiate opioid overdose. You can shoot drugs like heroin, get massive sudden infusions, can stop breathing. With oral opioids, very difficult. Add in even a small amount of Benzodiazepine, it's very easy.

VAUSE: The early reporting we had when Prince died was that he was suffering from a bad flu in the week leading up to this. Could opioids pause some kind of deadly complication if someone had the flu, for instance?

PINSKY: Well, he didn't have the flu. You don't magically get over the flu in a day, you're out for a week. The number one description of opiate withdrawal is, I feel like I have the flu. So my suspicion is that he was trying to get away from these medications, he had been prescribed for an unknown period of time, he developed the usual withdrawal syndrome which makes someone feel they're in the flu. He doesn't sleep, opiate addicts complain of no sleep. Then a doctor adds in a sleeping medicine. The opiates are there. That's how we get into serious trouble here.

VAUSE: We're waiting for the autopsy report, waiting for the toxicology report. Essentially, how long do these things take and what will they be looking for?

PINSKY: Weeks, they take weeks. They can't be rushed. It's a scientific process that takes what it takes. I find it curious the media is always hammering for it to go faster, like asking to have time speeded up. We can't do it. It takes what it takes to get to -- it's not like CSI where you're doing the microscope right there in the police lab. It takes a while to process these materials. And once we have it you'll know whether there was any other medication on board. You'll also know whether it's any other medical issue contributing here. And my hunch is -- again, 30 years as a physician, 20 years working in addiction medicine, my hunch is this is not addiction. This is dependency, a medical misadventure. You don't see a long history of him struggling with treatment, people worrying about his relationship with substances. You hear quite the opposite. I don't think this is addiction per se. But I have a hunch that there's some underlying medical problem which is why he was interacting regularly with the medical system. He got involved with opiates, it got away from him and his caretakers, and this is where we end up.

[01:45:50] VAUSE: Dr. Drew, good to speak with you. Thank you so much.

PINSKY: You bet. Thanks, John.

VAUSE: We'll take a short break. When we come back, the hateful and frightening online comments women sports writers have to deal with almost every day.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm just reading this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Huh. I mean -- OK. Uh --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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(WEATHER REPORT)

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[01:50:15] VAUSE: Welcome back. A new video has gone viral. It exposes the abusive and nasty comments women sports reporters are subjected to in the anonymous world of social media. A few men, who didn't write the comments, were asked to read them to the two sports reporters who were on the receiving end of some of those nasty tweets. This all starts out with mild jabs. Then it gets pretty ugly.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sounds like a nagging wife on TV today.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not even married yet.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a run of the mill, mediocre beat writer.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not atrocious, not good, just sort of there.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm actually not a beat writer at all, but OK.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sarah Spain is just a scrub muffin?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't know what a scrub muffin is.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love muffins.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the players should beat you to death with their hockey stick like the whore you are.

(EXPLETIVE DELETED).

VAUSE: Lindsey Thiry is a sports reporter for the "Los Angeles Times."

LINDSEY THIRY, SPORTS REPORTER, LOS ANGLES TIMES: Thanks for having me.

VAUSE: What has your personal experience been?

THIRY: Not as drastic as some. I've never received a death threat, never received any threat of my safety. Even last night covering a basketball game in Los Angeles, I received a handful of messages that really kind of make you stop and look twice, think twice about what people are willing to say to you on the Internet.

VAUSE: The anonymity gives people a lot of courage.

As this video goes on, the guys who are reading out the comments, they actually get quite more than emotional. Look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't -- hm. Hm. I don't think I can say that.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Whoo. Um --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I hope your boyfriend beats you. I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It's really uncomfortable to watch. But what do you think is going on there?

THIRY: I think that there's just something about reading those things aloud, people have asked me in the last few days, the last couple of years that I've been doing this, some of the nasty stuff that people say. And it's hard to say some of these things out loud. We weren't raised to make these kinds of comments.

VAUSE: Do you think there's a realization with these guys of what these women have gone through?

THIRY: Absolutely. I spoke with several colleagues over the last week. As it's built up to this video. My colleagues were surprised. I think everyone's surprised exactly to what degree some of these comments go to.

VAUSE: And we should point out male reporters, we get harassed online.

THIRY: Absolutely.

VAUSE: But it's different because no one threatens to gang rape me.

THIRY: Right.

VAUSE: There's a misogyny in some of these comments. Why do they go to that point, do you think?

THIRY: I think it's just the lowest common denominator. You get all that testosterone, these guys are cheering for their sports teams, a lot of the comments I think come from men who don't like what women are saying or that reporter is saying about their team. So they go to the lowest common denominator. It's one thing to say, I disagree with you, or you stink, or some immature comment. But to go that team, that's how much they love their sports team, somehow in their mind it connects. But it doesn't connect.

VAUSE: We raise the fact that social media, Twitter, it's anonymous. These people were talking to you, there's no way in the world they'd use this language.

THIRY: Absolutely not. Last night somebody sent me a tweet. I tweeted it and answered the man's question and sarcastically thanked him for his derogatory comment. Then a bunch of people piled on and told him, I can't believe you said this to her. What do you know, the man deletes his tweet, it goes away. A couple of people I know brought up his LinkedIn account. He wasn't anonymous.

VAUSE: He got shamed.

THIRY: He got shamed. I think that's the thing. This video is great but how many people who are doing this are actually watching the video? Individually when you shame them, that actually kind of brings a little bit more awareness, at least to the individual.

VAUSE: One other thing, in January, there was a situation in Australia, a sports reporter, Melanie McLachlan, she was hit on by a cricket player while she was trying to do a live report. This was some of that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED CRICKET PLAYER: I'm doing an interview with you as well. That's the reason I'm here. To see your eyes for the first time. It's nice. Hopefully, we win this game, we can have a drink after. Don't blush, baby.

MELANIE MCLACHLAN, SPORTS REPORTER: I'm not blushing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I'm curious, women have been reporting sport for a long time, do you think there's still a lack of respect for women in what is still essentially a male-dominated field?

[01:55:09] THIRY: I think there's a lack of respect for a lot of reporters, women especially. Obviously in that situation, that's not an uncommon situation to be hit on while you're at work. I think there's levels to it. Perhaps -- I don't know the full context of that video but perhaps it was kind of like Craig Sager and he was happy to be interviewed by her, it means he did well in the game, then he took it to another level. The baby comment, you throw that out the window and think, where are your manners?

VAUSE: Finally, abuse and bullying, especially on Twitter, it's been a problem for a very long time. Not just for bankers and writers but a lot of people. Is Twitter doing enough? Is there something they could do more do you think?

THIRY: I think they could really try to monitor the actual threats in that more than mean tweets video. If somebody's threatening to rape you, somebody's threatening your safety to come and find you, that's definitely a line where Twitter needs to find a way to police those people. The everyday mean comments I think we just need to live with, we're adults.

VAUSE: We're grown-ups.

Lindsey, thanks for coming in. Good to chat.

THIRY: Thank you.

VAUSE: You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause. That's it for us.

The news continues with Natalie Allen after a short break.

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[02:00:10] NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR: Huge late-night protests after a Donald Trump rally in California.