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Anger Simmers At Trump Protest; U.S. State Department Watchdog: Clinton Broke Email Rules; Trump Defends Housing Market Comments; ISIS Militants Infiltrating Migrant Trips From Libya; Obama Apologized for Okinawa Woman's Death; Obama to Visit Hiroshima Memorial Site; Tommy Chong Supports Sanders; Depp, Heard Call it Quits; "Top Gear" Returns with New Crew. Aired 1-2a ET

Aired May 26, 2016 - 01:00   ET

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


ISHA SESAY, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: This is CNN NEWSROOM live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Ahead this hour --

(HEADLINES)

SESAY: Hello and thank you for joining us. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: Great to have you with us. Another hour of NEWSROOM L.A. starts now.

SESAY: A crowd of protesters gathered outside where Donald Trump was greeted with applause inside Jimmy Kimmel studios here in Hollywood.

VAUSE: The Republican frontrunner in the U.S. presidential race appeared on the late night show a few hours ago, and Kimmel wasted no time asking Trump about some of the friendlier words he once had for Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT SHOW HOST: In 2008, I want to get this right. You said you thought Hillary would make an excellent president. As recently as 2012, you thought she was terrific. What did she do?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let me explain to you. I will tell you. When I'm a businessman, I had a beautiful story where they had Trump as a world class businessman. All over the world we are doing jobs. I speak well of everybody.

If people ask me about politicians, I speak well. So when they asked me about Hillary, she's wonderful. Everybody's wonderful and that's way it is including contributions. They asked me for contributions. I give contributions.

KIMMEL: So you were full of (inaudible) when you said that?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Well, earlier, in Anaheim, Trump told crowd at his rally just what does he thinks of Clinton now?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Let me tell you something. If she wins -- and I hope she doesn't, but if she wins, you better get used to it because you'll have nothing but turmoil and you'll have nothing but four more years of Obama, and you can't take that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Outside that rally in Anaheim, angry anti-Trump demonstrators faced off with armed police in riot gear. Kyung Lah was there.

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John and Isha, what you're looking at here are police officers in the city of Anaheim still trying to clear the streets after some protesters broke off from the main protest site outside the Donald Trump rally in Anaheim and shut down some streets.

And for about 30 to 40 minutes, what we saw were a number of arrests. We could see police officers picking out protesters in the crowd. The people who appeared to be leading the protesters, grabbing them, arresting them and taking them out of the crowd.

It's an attempt to try to disperse the crowd. The chopper overhead had made the announcement multiple times that they wanted the streets cleared. That they wanted to allow for peaceful assembly, but at the same time make sure that people in this city could drive through their streets.

So again, what you are seeing here are officers in riot gear. You can see that they are fully prepared to arrest anyone who might be causing any problems. What we have seen so far, five people at least arrested.

The city of Anaheim says that they are still in the process of making sure that these streets are once again drivable to the people here -- John, Isha.

VAUSE: Kyung, thank you. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton spending a lot of time in California campaigning ahead of the June 7th primary.

SESAY: And she's spending closer to a million dollar in advertising to try to ensure a win over rival Bernie Sanders, but on her rally, she's been focusing more on her Republican opponent.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So pay attention to what Donald Trump says because he is telling what you he wants to do. He does want to have a deportation force to round up 11 million people to deport them, which will mean knocking on doors, maybe in your home, where somebody works. Rounding up the farm workers in the fields. Taking people off of construction jobs and separating parents from their children. Is that the kind of country we are? I don't think so, my friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: One issue, though, that keeps dogging Clinton, just won't go away, a State Department watchdog says Clinton broke federal record keeping rules when she used a private e-mail server as secretary of state.

SESAY: Sunlen Serfaty has more on the report and political fallout.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONENT: Hillary Clinton said time and time again she believes that she was in compliance with State Department rules when she set up and used this private e-mail server, but this is a scathing new 83-page report done by the State Department's own inspector general that finds exactly the opposite.

[01:05:00]Their audit has determined that Clinton violated federal rules and it really scolds the former secretary of state for using that server to conduct official State Department business.

Now the Clinton campaign is trying very hard to downplay the significance of all this. Spokesman Brian Vallen (ph) saying in a statement, quote, "The inspector general documents how consistent her e-mail practices were with those of other secretaries and senior officials at the State Department who also used personal e-mail."

Now all of this giving fresh fodder to Donald Trump who's already brought this up from the campaign trail.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Crooked Hillary, she is as crooked as they come. She had a little bad news today from some reports that came down, weren't so good. But inspector general's report, not good. I want to run against Hillary. I just want to run against her.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: There has been considerable push back to all of this not only from the State Department who says that they have implemented many of the changes that the report recommends, but also from many Democrats on Capitol Hill, who are calling out this report for being too partisan, which is a point that the Clinton campaign has been alluding as well. Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Cathedral City, California.

VAUSE: Joining us now to discuss Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, Democratic strategist, Matthew Littman here in Los Angeles.

SESAY: And in San Diego, conservative radio host, Mike Slater.

VAUSE: OK, Matt, first to you. I will put this to you. If you support Hillary Clinton right now, this report that's come out from the State Department doesn't mean anything. It's not going to change your opinion, but it might change those who are on the fence.

MATTHEW LITTMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I don't think so. I think we've heard way worse about what we might be in there. So this really is not that bad. I think compared to a lot of the positions that Donald Trump takes, this is fairly meaningless. But I think if we are waiting for a bombshell report, this certainly is not it.

SESAY: So Mike, I'm guessing you disagree and in fact, I would (inaudible) to suggest for the GOP, it's a case of doubling down on everything that's come out in this report.

MIKE SLATER, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: Yes, it's almost don't want a bombshell because there is something powerful about the drip, drip, drip for the next six months of this. She can't shake it. If there was a bottom shell, she could deal with it and then move on.

But it's going to keep coming out. The FBI still hasn't done their full investigation. The Justice Department hasn't made a determination. There is still a long way to go and every time it is mentioned, it's going to hurt her.

VAUSE: Matt to you, but isn't that an issue that there is at the very least a perception problem?

LITTMAN: I agree with you. I would rather talk about the issues and I would love to be able to put it behind us. And Mike is right to an extent, there is other news that's going to come out during the campaign. Hillary made a mistake. She said she made a mistake compared to the other things like Donald Trump's positions on the issues, this is nothing.

SESAY: All right, so Hillary made a mistake, you said that, but did her campaign also make a mistake, her strategists? Did they make a mistake in the way they handled this and that they didn't get a head of something they knew was coming?

LITTMAN: Well, look, I think they've been out there today talking about this and she said she made a mistake so there's not much more for them to talk about. They've talked about the fact that Colin Powell uses the private e-mail addresses. There is not much to say at this point.

So I think they want to move on. I think, you know, we hear a lot from Donald Trump making fun of a lot of people and attacking the governor of New Mexico and obviously not -- and all these conspiracy theories not talking about any of the issues.

There is a reason for that. So I think Hillary's campaign wants to talk about the issues and I think that's what we should be talking about.

VAUSE: OK, Hillary Clinton was campaigning today and no mention of this e-mail inquiry instead going out to Donald Trump cheering for the collapse of the property market. This is what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CLINTON: I want you to know that Donald Trump actually rooted for the housing crash that cost five million families their homes. I'm not making this up. We called him out on it yesterday using his own words. And you know what he said?

He bragged about it. He said and I'm quoting now, that's the kind of thing our country needs. He said profiting off working people losing their homes would be a quote "good result." A good result in Donald Trump's world is he gets his and you get hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: A little longer there than we were hoping for, but Donald Trump came back with some really tough language directed at Mrs. Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And I see this low life tonight. She puts on an ad, did you know that Donald Trump was rooting against housing because he wanted housing to go down because he wanted to buy them.

[01:10:06]And they have some clip of me from many years ago where I'm saying, yes, if it goes down, I'm going to buy. I'm a business man. That's what I'm supposed to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Low life? Calling Secretary Clinton a low life? Is this language a concern to you and others in the Republican Party and do you worry this attack by Clinton that Trump was cheering for others to lose is going to work?

SLATER: It's interesting that this is the first I heard of that attack. If played well, it could be effective because it creates a very us versus them, rich guy attacking the little guy narrative.

Now the Clintons are not the best family to make that attack because they are not a bunch of poppers either so it's kind of hard to do that.

My first thought when I hear housing crisis and I wonder if Trump will bring this up, is going back to Bill Clinton and W Bush, who really pushed home ownership in a really inappropriate way, which led to the housing bubble in the first place.

So she is not and the Clintons are not the ones to really talk much about the housing criis when they were major contributors in the first place.

LITTMAN: So here's what Hillary needs to do. They need to connect it to the fact that Trump is out for himself. They need to make that case a little bit better. Trump is obviously defensive about it.

The point is that he said he would be excited if the housing market crashed. Not that he would buy some houses if the housing market (inaudible) to be excited.

But they need to connect this to the fact that Trump is really a Republican. He is Donald Trump. He cares about himself. He wants to lower taxes for Donald Trump and believes the minimum wage of 7.25 is too high.

He wants to cut taxes for hedge fund managers and also believe that is the big banks are too small. He believes they should be bigger. This is all part of Donald Trump's policies and these are the things that Hillary needs to connect this to.

SLATER: I was going to say I think Trump has a pretty good out on this. I was a businessman. I was going to buy the houses at a low price. When Hillary tried to attack him for his failed companies. He said, listen, I'm a businessman. I had lots of successful companies and some are not going to be great. I think he may have a pretty good out on this, though, but we'll see.

VAUSE: All right, I want to get to the "National Review," this conservative magazine. Holding out hope that Mitt Romney make this run as an independent. They wrote today, "Mitt Romney is the only man who combines the integrity, financial resources, name recognition, and broad public support to make a realistic and independent run at the presidency.

He is conservative and has an enviable record in business and government. He's demonstrated a unique capacity for turning around failing enterprises." And he has incredibly good hair.

Really seriously, conservatives still fantasizing that Mitt Romney will run? This is kind of --

SLATER: David French there -- yes, David French, I have great respect for him and I love him, but that's a great argument he made in 2008. It's not 2008 anymore, wake up. It's a different time. I don't know why you guys laughed in the last hour, by the way.

Let's get down to this now that we have a minute. I said if you are against Trump, but you are a former Cruz supporter, you should jump on the Trump train not because you agree with him or because you can influence him for the better.

So I want to give you guys a rebuttal and why you think that's a bad argument --

LITTMAN: Wait, hold on. Can I rebut?

SESAY: Yes, you rebut.

LITTMAN: Yes, it's very nice of you to think that, but no one has any influence on Donald Trump except Donald Trump. So you can sit there and you could all go to the convention and wave your banners and whatever. But the only person Donald Trump cares about is Donald Trump. He doesn't care about the delegates or the Cruz supporters or anybody else. Maybe Ivanka and maybe a little too much. SLATER: It's fair. My rebuttal isn't so much that you can influence Donald Trump, but you can influence Donald Trump supporters, which big picture, may influence him in the long run. That's the argument, but I see what you say.

SESAY: At least there was an admission there that you do see --

VAUSE: Nice little stuff on the conversation. Matt Littman here in Los Angeles.

SESAY: Mike Slater in San Diego, appreciate it.

VAUSE: Thanks, guys. We will take a short break. When we come back, there is a new element of risk in an already dangerous voyage. Coming up, migrants resume their attempts to reach Europe.

SESAY: Plus one of Italy's most famous cities has quite a cleanup ahead after a road collapse in a popular tourist spot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE REILLY, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I'm Kate Reilly with your CNN World Sports headlines. We were all expecting Jose (inaudible) to be named officially as the Newman Chester United (inaudible) on Wednesday, but we are still waiting.

There were reports coming out of the U.K. that Marinio's former club Chelsea still own the rights to his name. It could be a possible reason for the delay in the announcement. It's also being claimed there are issues over Marinio's image rights as well.

In other managerial news that can be confirmed, Benitez is staying at Newcastle United manager after signing a new three-year contract for their relegation from the premier league. (Inaudible) was appointed in March following Steve McClarence (ph), but was unable to keep Newcastle in the flight. Benitez had a break clause in his contract (inaudible) and had been expected to leave.

One of the favorites at this year's French Open, Andy Murray is through to the third round, but he was pushed to the limit by the 22- year-old (inaudible). The Frenchman is ranked 164th in the world. However, he won two straight sets after dropping behind the crowd.

Not only had he not won a match, but never faced a player from the top 50. He won sets four and five comfortably. That's a look at the headlines. I'm Kate Reilly.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. There is some significant damage right in the heart of one of Italy's most famous cities. A giant hole swallowed up part of a street near the (inaudible) River in Florence.

VAUSE: Officials say a water main burst in the ground above gateway taking about 20 cars with it. Later, another ten meters of the city fell apart. No one was hurt. The two buildings were evacuated as a precaution.

Warmer weather and calmer seas are luring more migrants to Europe and the results are being deadly. These dramatic images show what happened in the Mediterranean when an Italian patrol boat approached an overcrowded migrant boat to offer life jackets. The passengers rushed to one side causing the boat to rock violently before capsizing.

SESAY: The Italian crew lifejackets to the people who spilled into the sea. The Navy says more than 560 migrants are rescued, but five people died.

VAUSE: These migrants making this dangerous journey and now facing another ominous risk.

SESAY: Yes, Libyan officials tell CNN ISIS militants are infiltrating the migrant groups so they can establish (inaudible) in Europe. Nick Paton Walsh have this exclusive report.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): This is the moment when desperate dreams come to an end. We are with the Libyan immigration police in a warehouse of migrant hopefuls that just raided right on the Tripoli beachfront.

As Turkey and Greece closed their shores, the Libyan route to Europe has exploded again. Here among the squalor that a lifetime savings buys is where fantasies of a future in Europe falls apart.

[01:20:08](on camera): Where are you from?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: From Nigeria.

WALSH (voice-over): (Inaudible) fled ISIS loyal Boko Haram in Nigeria whose bombs killed his father and brother. He survived the desert trek until here. This is the smuggler's neighborhood and there is a new threat.

EUGENE, NIGERIAN REFUGEE: (Inaudible).

WALSH: We leave quickly as this is the smugglers neighborhood, but there is a new threat here. Smugglers and police telling us that ISIS have hidden fighters among other groups of migrants bound for Europe.

(on camera): This trade in human souls is awful enough until you think that perhaps ISIS are using this passage of human life into Europe to try and infiltrate with sleeper cells.

(voice-over): Police tells off camera they've caught different other migrants with ISIS links and a top Libyan intelligence official warns us the threat is real.

ISMAIL AL-SHUKAI, MISRATA POLICE COMMANDER (through translator): ISIS can be among the legal immigrants on the boats. They travel with families without weapons as normal illegal immigrants. They will wear an American dress and have English language papers so they cause no suspicion.

WALSH: There is a huge and un-patrolable coastline where smugglers rule. We talked to one who said in the past two months that ISIS has become part of the trade.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: About 2 weeks ago, a boat left the ISIS stronghold, Sirt (ph), among them were about 40 ISIS heading to Europe, but bad weather turned them back. Ten days later they tried again and I don't know if they got there.

About a month ago, I got a call from a devout guy I knew was ISIS, he wanted a small boat for 25 people and was willing to pay about $40,000. I didn't take the deal.

(on camera): Do you and other smugglers feel comfortable moving people who know maybe ISIS towards Europe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through translator): Smugglers only interested in smuggling, ISIS, anyone, they don't care. Only money matters.

WALSH (voice-over): The Libyan state is torn apart by the in- fighting. Its coast guard is struggling to even find boats.

(on camera): Fighting the migrant trade across this the whole coastline of the Libyan capital, Tripoli adjust six boats like this. It's not in particularly good service. You simply can't imagine how under resourced things are here so close to Europe.

These are the desperate scenes as they tried to rescue some African migrants whose dinghy collapsed late last year. Smugglers now prefer these dinghies, vulnerable to the slightest weather change.

Some are fleeing ISIS themselves only to find ISIS now seek to hijack their deadly journey to spread more suffering. Nick Paton Walsh, CNN, Tripoli.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: I want to delve deeper into ISIS now and the impact on communities. Our senior international correspondent, Arwa Damon is here. She is not in the field. She is here in the studio in L.A. Welcome.

You know, Falluja in the headlines right now, with Iraqi offensive on the way to try and retake that city. And of course, we know tens of thousands of people are trapped in that city. The fear is there will be a humanitarian crisis if it isn't already underway. What are you hearing about the situation?

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: This will give you a bit of an idea of how difficult it is. People can't get a cell phone signal very easily anymore. So to do that, they go to the roof of their homes to try to make a call or even reach our sources there.

If you are spotted by ISIS on the roof of your home, they automatically assume that you might helping to direct coalition airstrikes so even that a phone call could possibly make you a target.

People can't leave Falluja. ISIS will not let them go. Some have managed to escape and navigate their way at great risk to themselves. Some of them even fighting their way out to try to get to these alleged corridors that the government established. That's not easy.

If people could flee Falluja, that would be the best case scenario. Right now, they are literally trapped, afraid they will get killed at any moment in the air strikes or in the clashes when they eventually do reach the city.

VAUSE: So here is the situation right now in Falluja. If you are a resident there, the government said get out. If you try to get out and you are a Sunni and you make it to the outskirts, you are confronted by the Shia militia. They are going to shoot you.

[01:25:00]If you stay inside and put a white flag above your house. If you do that ISIS will shoot you. If you stay in town and do nothing, you will get killed by a U.S. air strike. About 50,000 people in a no win situation right now.

DAMON: It's a completely impossible situation. This is a city that ISIS has had years to booby trap and really entrench itself into. There is no logical situation for a civilian who wants to get out. There is no way to protect your family or yourself. The government has to be the entity in all of these different players

that somehow tries to find a solution to this impossible scenario. There is no easy solution and way to ensure that you are going to protect civilians or attempt to because they are in the scenario.

We saw ISIS doing this in some of the villages outside of Mosul where they took the civilian population in the village and put them in the home in the middle of the village and wouldn't let them leave.

They were shooting at Iraqi Security Forces out of the same building. Of course, people are going to die.

SESAY: You were in Tikrit over a year ago after they retook it. You have seen firsthand what ISIS does to -- take hold of them basically.

DAMON: ISIS was only in Tikrit for a short period of time and they had managed to booby trapped buildings and roads. They had bombs and explosives just about every single corner of that city.

That pales in comparison as to what they have in Falluja and then it's going to pale in comparison as to what they have in Mosul.

My big concern is how much do we know about how far ISIS is willing to go to try to maintain control over these key cities because we know that they're willing to die for this fight. How many other people are going to have to die for it?

VAUSE: And of course, all of this turmoil in Iraq and Syria and other places, a lot of Iraq is driving this migrant crisis that we are seeing in Europe right now. Last year, you were on the Hungary and Serbia border. You were live at the time and there was a rush to get across the border. This is what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAMON: The break out from the holding area in the field. These are all people that just managed to break out and they have been running now for about the last half hour, and they have been running through the sun flower fields, the cornfields.

They are very afraid because you can see there, they are noticing that the police are over the side. We've been hearing sirens. The groups with the children -- the groups with the children are the ones that are falling behind. That's why you see them coming up along the end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You feel them being pushed away by ISIS and the little boy waving at the camera. Do you know what happened to those people? Did they make it through?

DAMON: That group probably did make it through at the time because the route was relatively speaking, open per se. They have all of these borders. That day was such an epitome of what these people are facing.

They have been treated like garbage by the Hungarian police and they were made to wait in the sun. I have seen a lot, but never seen something as jarring as what I had seen in these European countries.

When you get there, you are not supposed to suffer that much. They will have dignity and these people decided to break through the police lines because they couldn't take it anymore.

They sacrificed so much to get to that point and couldn't allow themselves to be at the mercy of others who clearly at that stage were not treating them with the respect and dignity they thought they would find and had to make it. They literally snapped and broke through the line and ran.

VAUSE: Out of desperation. Arwa, thanks for coming in.

SESAY: Incredible reporting.

VAUSE: You were in town to pick up an award. You got another award which you really deserve.

SESAY: Very, very well deserved.

We will take a quick break now. As world leaders gather in Japan for the G7 Summit, U.S. President Barack Obama is apologizing to the host nation. Details ahead.

VAUSE: And also ahead, a possible casualty of the war on (inaudible). Hollywood power couple, Johnny Depp is getting a divorce.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:30:09] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm John Vause.

SESAY: And I'm Isha Sesay.

The headlines this hour --

(HEADLINES)

SESAY: Seven of the most powerful world leaders are in Japan talking terrorism and the global economy.

VAUSE: Prime Minister Shinzo Abe welcomed Barack Obama, Justin Trudeau and others a few hours ago for the G-7 summit.

Ahead of that, Mr. Obama apologized for the murder of a Japanese woman in Okinawa originally by a former U.S. Marine. The Japanese prime minister said all of Japan was outraged over the crime. Authorities arrested a worker at the air base in connection with the death of a 20-year-old woman.

SESAY: Athena Jones is following all the latest.

Athena, that public scolding of President Obama really setting off his trip on a rocky start.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It was a difficult moment at the beginning of the president's arrival in Japan last night. Prime Minister Abe said this was a crime that outraged and shocked all of Japan. He called it a self-centered and despicable crime. And the president said he offered sincerest condolences and regrets for this murder at the hands of that former U.S. Marine. He said the U.S. will cooperate fully and make sure justice is done. They want to see justice done, just as you would want to see back in America if there is a horrific crime. He said, "I think we should make sure the Japanese people should know we are deeply moved and working with the Japanese government to prosecute not only this crime but to prevent any crimes like this from happening ever again."

So a somewhat difficult start at the beginning of his trip here last night.

[01:35:48] But today, they moved on about the world economy and climate change, terrorism, ISIS and a range of issues that will be dealt with by all of the countries of G-7 in the meetings here -- John, Isha?

VAUSE: President Obama will head to Hiroshima on Friday. The first time a sitting president has been there where the nuclear atomic bomb was dropped. There will be no apology, but how are Japanese viewing this historic trip by Barack Obama?

JONES: There seems to be widespread support for the fact that the president is visiting. He is making this important trip to Hiroshima as you said. The first sitting president to make a visit to the site of that atomic bomb dropping over 70 years ago. The White House said you are right, this is not an apology. The president is not going to revisit the decision to drop the bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in August of 1945. This will be more forward looking, but a chance for him to promote goals of a nuclear weapon-free world. This has been a big part of the president's foreign policy agenda since he first took office. He delivered a speech in practicing of laying out a world without nuclear weapons. He said it would take a while. It may not happen in his time, but the fact that U.S. is the only country to have used a nuclear weapon in the war, the U.S. should be leading to reduce nuclear stockpiles, reduce proliferation and to reach the goal of a world without nuclear weapons. That's something they want to use the trip tomorrow as a highlight. In addition to commenting on the loss of lives in World War II, but it won't be an apology and so backwards focused. It will be focused on the future -- John, Isha?

VAUSE: Thank you very much, Athena Jones, live at the G-7 summit, just about to get under way.

SESAY: Athena, thank you.

VAUSE: The Afghan Taliban's new leader is rejecting the return to peace talks. A Taliban source also said the new leader intends to pursue the group's founding principals, which include, quote, "terror on enemies."

SESAY: The U.S. says it killed the Taliban's previous ruler on Saturday.

A short break here. Still to come on NEWSROOM L.A., one member of the comedy pair, Cheech & Chong, joins us in the studio to talk about why he is feeling the Bern.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TOMMY CHONG, COMEDIAN & BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Only one candidate this year that has said things I truly believe in, like supporting the legalization of a fair and humane immigration policy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[01:41:40] VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. U.S. Democratic presidential candidate, Bernie Sanders, has his sights set on California. He wrapped up an event in Lancaster a short while ago. California's primary is on June seventh.

SESAY: And Tommy Chong, of the stoner comedy duo Cheech & Chong, is backing the Sanders campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHONG: Only one candidate this year that has said things I truly believe in, like supporting the legalization of a fair and humane immigration policy, something that Donald Trump would never support. The legalization of a real living wage, the legalization of equality for all. You get my point.

Oh, and yes, Bernie supports that other form of legalization that I care so deeply about, the legalization of the super medicine, marijuana.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And Tommy Chong joins us here.

Tommy, thank you so much for coming in.

SESAY: Welcome. Welcome.

VAUSE: It's great to have you here to get a different perspective.

In the video, you say, Bernie Sanders, you compare him to the best weed you can get. He is the only candidate supporting the legalization of marijuana. Is that why you support him?

CHONG: That's the main reason. I sincerely believe that cannabis is going to save the world.

VAUSE: How so?

CHONG: Every which way. Medically. It's good for epilepsy and M.S. and Alzheimer's, cancer. I'm a cancer survivor and part of my treatment was marijuana, or cannabis. I think that is a very important issue.

SESAY: Let's look at the support for Bernie. It is still going strong. When we look at the data, it's mathematically impossible for him to win the nomination. Tell me why the feeling is still so strong for Bernie among his supporters.

CHONG: It's like a good movie. It doesn't look like the guy is going to win. It looks like he's going to lose, but at the last minute, he comes in and he wins.

SESAY: That's wishful thinking if you look at the math though, Mr. Chong.

CHONG: Look at our past. Look what we have gone through. The Nixon years. Look at the Bush years. Bush ought to be put in jail for selling bongs.

VAUSE: You did like nine months in jail.

CHONG: Yeah, I did nine months in jail.

(CROSSTALK)

CHONG: When you get a guy like Bernie talking not only the truth, but he is talking the future. He is talking about climate change. That's very important. We have a candidate that doesn't believe in climate change after the icecaps have been melting.

VAUSE: Happy birthday, by the way.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Are you still battling cancer right now?

CHONG: I'm cancer-free. As far as the chemo doctors and that goes. I have to go in for an MRI.

SESAY: Congratulations.

VAUSE: Why not at this point in your life sit back and relax? Take it easy.

CHONG: I can't sit back because I had an operation.

(LAUGHTER)

I have to stand a lot.

And not only that, but working and a beautiful wife will keep you young. I got both. I got the job and we are still in demand out there. Cheech and I and my wife, Shelby, and we are doing real good.

SESAY: Tell me, back to the political race, will you support Hillary?

CHONG: Absolutely.

SESAY: You will?

CHONG: Absolutely. We need a woman in the White House, for sure. Bernie is like a Jewish mom. Hillary would be great. We need someone that cares about people. We don't need a businessman that only cares about his own personal wealth.

You worry that a lot of people say Bernie Sanders staying in the race hurt Hillary's chances.

CHONG: Not at all. He is not hurting anything. The differences between Hillary and Bernie is nothing. There is no difference.

SESAY: His other supporters don't feel that way. They feel the differences are quite large.

CHONG: CNN has a way of finding people that say things like that. If you look at really intelligent people, they will see through all of that. You get passionate about a candidate, like Barack Obama, for instance. When him and Hillary are going at it, it was the same thing. Only it was reversed. Hillary was trying to doom the Bernie thing.

VAUSE: There has been angry protests against Donald Trump and Bernie supporters are quite angry. Anything else out there that might take the edge off of this election?

CHONG: Absolutely.

(LAUGHTER)

In fact, I've got a new strain out. We got a strain, Chong's Choice. This is my company's distribution. And I got a new strain for Donald Trump. It's called The Donald. You take a toke and you start lying.

(LAUGHTER)

VAUSE: We will leave it at that.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Thanks so much. Great to see you.

SESAY: Thank you.

CHONG: Thank you.

SESAY: What a line.

VAUSE: That was a great line.

SESAY: Time for a quick break. Next on CNN NEWSROOM, just a few weeks after this went viral awful apology, Johnny Depp and Amber Heard are calling it quits.

VAUSE: Plus, one of the most popular programs on the planet returns this weekend. "Top Gear" is back with a whole new crew.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WEATHER REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:51:24] VAUSE: Celebrity couple, Amber Heard and Johnny Depp, are reportedly filing for divorce after just 15 months of marriage. She cites irreconcilable differences.

SESAY: The pair made headlines for what some call the War on Terriers when they failed to declare their dogs when entering Australia. Their infamous apology video was seen around the world.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMBER HEARD, ACTRESS: Australia is a wonderful island with a treasure trove of plants, animals and people.

JOHNNY DEPP, ACTOR: It has to be protected.

HEARD: Australia is free of pets and diseases that are common place around the world. That is why they have to have such strong biosecurity laws.

DEPP: Australians are just as unique, both warm and direct. When you disrespect Australian law, they tell you firmly.

HEARD: I am truly sorry that Pistol and Boom were not declared. Protecting Australia is important.

DEPP: Declare everything when you enter Australia. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(LAUGHTER)

SESAY: A thing of beauty.

VAUSE: This was an excuse to run that. Clearly, it's trouble between them when making that video.

SESAY: Maybe that tension was not fake.

VAUSE: Wasn't fake.

SESAY: Wasn't fake at all.

VAUSE: "Top Gear" fans rejoice. The popular BBC series returns this Sunday, but without long time actors presenters Jeremy Clarkson, Richard Hammond and James May.

SESAY: The show has new faces, including from a popular U.S. sitcom.

Phil Black has a preview and a look at what the old crew is up to.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One, two, three, four.

PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT (on camera): The world is about to find out what the BBC has done to one of the planet's most watched programs. "Top Gear" is back. This is just a taste.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACK: It looks the same. Fast cars, silly stunts, awful beautifully shot. But the faces are news. If you are one of the show's 350 million viewers, or if you are not, you probably know where the change was necessary. Last year, presenter, Jeremy Clarkson, got punchy with a producer after a long day at work so the BBC sacked him. Co- presenters James May and Richard Hammond decided to walk away too. And ever since, the BBC has been working to save one its most lucrative brands.

MATT LE BLANC, ACTOR: No, no. It's like car tinder. She's hot.

BLACK: They made a big hire, Matt Le Blanc, the former "Friends" star.

LE BLANC: How far is Glasgow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Not that far.

(SHOUTING) BLACK: Le Blanc and British broadcaster, Chris Evans, recovered. There's is a new wider team of presenters, too. The Fig is still the Fig.

CHRIS EVANS, PRESENTER, TOP GEAR: We know within a few hours, it will be seen on six continents. It's a big audition. We will have to wait and see.

BLACK: Chris Evans has become a regular target for Britain's tabloid press. They accused him of bullying and feuding with Le Blanc. Evans, Le Blanc, the show, the BBC say that's all nonsense. Evans says he has a lot of respect for Le Blanc's car cred.

EVANS: He loves cars. He can fix a car and put it back together almost blindfolded. And he's a brilliant driver.

BLACK: Meanwhile, Clarkson, May and Hammond are beavering away on their new project on the streaming service, Amazon Prime. They have focused on the search for the show's name.

JEREMY CLARKSON, ACTOR: The show I think will sit on the Internet, like, and I'm suggesting for the name, the Small Puddle of Excellence.

[01:55:16] BLACK: They eventually settled on The Grand Tour. The premier is still months away.

Long before then, the "Top Gear" fans will declare judgment on whether the new version of their beloved show is firing on all cylinders.

Phil Black, CNN, London.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SESAY: The small puddle of excellence, like the show.

VAUSE: Tidy. I think I don't know a lot of people that clearly have different hosts. Matt Le Blanc has admitted to being a stunt driver now. That show was Jeremy Clarkson.

SESAY: Yeah.

VAUSE: For better or worse. Love him, hate him, or both.

SESAY: It's also shot beautifully and has lots of great cars and gimmicks.

VAUSE: You can shoot it as beautifully as you want.

SESAY: I'm going to root for them.

VAUSE: I wish them well. It will be great. Tough act to follow.

SESAY: It is. We wish them the best.

You are watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: I'm John Vause.

The news continues with Rosemary Church and Errol Barnett right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)