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CNN NEWSROOM

South Korean Artists to Perform in North Korea; U.S. and South Korea Begin Joint Military Exercise; Sheriff's Vehicle Strikes Protesters in Sacramento; Deaths in Gaza Protests; Trump Accuses Amazon of Scamming USPS; Some Rural Kentuckians without Safe Drinking Water; Why Quitting Facebook Is So Hard; Unclear Whether Missouri Voters Will Back Trump; Christians Worldwide Celebrate Easter. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired April 1, 2018 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:00]

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black lives matter. Black lives matter.

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Protests in the state of California. People calling for justice in the police shooting of an unarmed African American man.

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Also at this hour the United States and South Korea begin their joint annual military drills like these.

HOWELL (voice-over): Later, Facebook battling a massive data misuse scandal. We will ask an industry expert what impact this might all have. Live from CNN World Headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to our viewers from around the world. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN (voice-over): I'm Natalie Allen. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

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HOWELL: 5:00 am here on the U.S. East Coast. We start with the war games taking place in the Korean Peninsula. The United States and South Korea are kicking off an annual military exercise. The U.S. says it's similar in scope to drills like this one last year but will be shorter.

N. ALLEN: This show of force comes despite thawing tensions on the peninsula. North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is set to meet with South Korean President Moon Jae-in later this month, a meeting between Mr. Kim and U.S. president Donald Trump could follow the month after.

HOWELL: Those war games also start as a group of South Korean artists prepare to perform in the North. Let's bring in Paula Hancocks live in Seoul, South Korea. Before we talk about K-pop, let's talk about the serious matter at

hand, these drills. Certainly, shorter than last year.

Is this seen as a concession with so much diplomacy under way?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: George, it's certainly not the way that the Pentagon is selling this. They are saying that it's the same size, it's the same scope of what we saw in previous years. Clearly, it's half the duration it usually is.

It's lasting about a month and usually we see anything up to two months that is Foal Eagle, this field training exercise, which every single spring, when it starts, does annoy Pyongyang. They see it as a dress rehearsal for invasion and we often see missile launches from North Korea in retaliation to these drills.

Certainly we are not expecting that this time around, though. It's a very different situation. The South Korean delegation that met with Kim Jong-un last month said that they had discussed these drills, saying they had to go ahead and that Kim Jong-un understood that they would be going ahead.

He also said as well that he wouldn't have any missile or nuclear tests while these negotiations were going on. So it is a very different setting that we are seeing these drills but they are still significant; 11,500 U.S. troops and 290,000 South Korean troops.

The interesting part, though, is we haven't heard of any media date at this point. It is very likely that the U.S. military is not going to invite the world's media to film them as they usually do to send a message to the North Koreans.

They are very visual and the North Koreans see them as provocative. But if they don't see them this time around potentially it's easier for North Korea to ignore.

HOWELL: So the drills on one hand and cultural exchanges on the other. Experience the significance of K-pop in North Korea.

HANCOCKS: You can't imagine too many North Koreans would be very well aware of K-pop but certainly this is significant. It's the first time since 2005 that you have this kind of cultural exchange. That was the last time a South Korean group went to perform in North Korea.

There is going to be a concert starting shortly. The timing of it has changed a couple of times. We haven't been told why. But certainly it's going to be an interesting look at whether or not the North Korean leader Kim Jong-un is going to be there.

When the North Korean delegation came to the South during the Olympics, then the South Korean president Moon Jae-in did go and watch them perform. The sports minister, culture minister here in South Korea says he hopes it'll be a return favor, hoping Kim Jong-un will be there. We don't know at this point.

But it's significant that this is even taking place at all. It just shows the momentum that is building around these improving inter- Korean relationship.

HOWELL: 6:04 pm in Seoul, South Korea, Paula Hancocks on the story, thank you so much for that report.

N. ALLEN: We turn now to the anger in the streets of California in Sacramento, two weeks after the death of Stephon Clark, an unarmed African American man, who was shot by police. He was just holding a cell phone.

HOWELL: Take a look here at the scene in Sacramento, California. Late Saturday night, the protests started peacefully, with demonstrators chanting Stephon Clark's name, people there demanding justice.

N. ALLEN: But they grew tense later with --

[05:05:00]

N. ALLEN: -- a crowd of about 100 or more facing off with a line of riot police. Protesters also blocked traffic and police are investigating after a sheriff's vehicle struck a woman who was a protester in the street. Here is video of that.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE), oh, my god! Oh, my god!

HOWELL (voice-over): You saw the moment of impact right there. This from the other side of that car. You can see the panicked reactions of the other protesters. The woman was taken to the hospital with minor injuries. An eyewitness described what he saw. Listen.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A woman was walking in between the two vehicles, stopped in front of the deputy's vehicle, put up her hand in a stop sign. And the vehicle accelerated and struck her, accelerated very fast and struck her violently. And she fell to the ground and the deputies then sped off.

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N. ALLEN: She is expected to be OK. For more now on the protests, here is CNN's Ryan Young in Sacramento.

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RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The protests for Stephon Clark in Sacramento have been peaceful up until this point. Tonight we felt the most tense interaction between police and protesters. You look behind me, you can see that police have donned their riot gear.

That is after an interaction between a sheriff's deputy and a protester. It appeared a woman was trying to stop a sheriff's deputy's car from moving through protesters. And then there was a hit. There was an impact between the two. We're not sure exactly what happened.

But to show you what is happening now, look at all the sheriff's deputies and police officers from around the area that have decided to come down here. They are queued just in case anything happens here.

Of course, this is after a day full of protests, where nothing has happened. But now that tenseness has bubbled up and there is definitely a tense moment. not only between protesters but between police officers, who are definitely trying to protect and maintain the peace.

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HOWELL: Ryan Young there on the story.

Stephon Clark's death is touching a raw nerve in the United States. According to a 2016 study, police shootings are three times more likely to shoot and kill African Americans than white men. An independent autopsy showed that Clark was shot eight times, six of those bullets entering his back.

N. ALLEN: That is significant. A lawyer for his family says that autopsy contradicts the police account that Clark was charging toward them.

And Stephon Clark's loved ones say that doesn't square how they knew him, as a loving man and a doting father to two young sons.

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UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Love. Love. He was full of love. He was always smiling. He was happy. He wanted everyone around him to feel loved. He wanted them to be happy.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All he wanted to be was a good father. He read stories to them. He played games. He sang. He danced. He videotaped everything they did. He was so proud. He was the most proud he has ever been when those boys came into the world.

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N. ALLEN: We'll continue to cover developments there in Sacramento.

The European Union is calling for a transparent investigation into the deaths of 17 Palestinians in clashes with Israeli troops Friday. Hundreds of Palestinians were wounded in the unrest at the Gaza border according to U.N. diplomats the United States has blocked the U.N. Security Council from adopting a similar statement, urging and independent investigation into what happened.

HOWELL: In the video posted by the Palestinian Media Center, a woman waving a Palestinian flag is seen running back and forth. Gunfire is heard and she appears to fall. The Palestinian Media Center says she was shot by Israeli forces during Friday's unrest.

In the meantime, the Israeli Defense Forces say their own videos like this show its troops confronted with gunshots, with firebombs and burning tires, as alleged terrorists attempted to, quote, "infiltrate Israeli territory." The Israeli military insists its troops fired only when necessary.

N. ALLEN: Let's talk more about it with CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson who is live for us in Jerusalem.

Nic, any sign yet what might transpire there today?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, we have heard from Israeli officials about the E.U. call for an inquiry and also about the secretary-general calling for an inquiry at the United Nations, that was blocked there.

Avigdor Lieberman, the defense minister here, said that the Israeli troops, the IDF acted appropriately and properly. The Israel Defense Forces point to those videos that they've released that show in some cases at night, you can see men approaching the fence with what appear to be weapons, explosives being placed on the fence, explosions at the fence; daytime videos of people setting fire to the fence.

[05:10:00]

ROBERTSON: And what the defense minister, Mr. Lieberman, is saying is that these calls for an inquiry are hypocritical. He says why is the United Nations or the European Union pointing at Israel so quickly and calling for this inquiry when, in Syria, 500,000 people have been killed and there isn't the same outcry and rush for an inquiry there.

That is what he is saying. We've also heard from the Israeli representative at the United Nations, Danny Danone, saying that the emergency meeting that was called at the United Nations about the killings at the Gaza fence on Friday, that was called on the first night of Passover and that as we say sort of an inappropriate use of this sort of emergency protocols at the United Nations, antithetical to the way the U.N. is supposed to be structured. That was his view.

He also said that the Palestinian representative at the U.N. who had said these were unarmed protesters, that he was wrong in saying that.

So what the situation we're in at the moment the European Union calling for transparent investigation. The U.N. blocked and calling for an independent inquiry. The Palestinians saying that people are being killed, you know, and pointing to what they say is evidence of people being shot in the back.

And, you know, from the Israeli perspective, a real concern about that fence being breached, saying the soldiers are doing what they should be doing, turning down any, you know, any calls for an inquiry.

And really the concern going forward here, that nothing in the dynamic has been changed, that the protests will continue. And Israeli officials still fear this push, that could lead to thousands of people trying to cross that border fence in Gaza.

N. ALLEN: We know that there will be weeks more of these protests. We only hope that they will be peaceful after what has happened. Thank you, Nic Robertson, for bringing us more information about it.

Some of the Russian diplomats expelled by the U.S. have arrived in Moscow. Two Russian planed carrying the envoys took off from Washington Saturday. More than 20 countries now have expelled Russian diplomats over the poisoning with a nerve agent of a former spy and his daughter in the U.K. Russia involves any involvement.

HOWELL: In the meantime, the Kremlin wants the U.K. to pull out more diplomatic staff from Russia so the diplomatic missions in both countries are equal in size. Now there is another indication that President Trump could significant changes to the U.S. involvement in Syria.

Mr. Trump has placed on hold more than 200 million dollars meant to be used for a Syria recovery fund. It's supposed to be use for basic infrastructure projects, such as restoring power and water services.

N. ALLEN: On Thursday, President Trump said the U.S. will withdraw from Syria, quote, "very soon." U.S. officials fear a complete and quick withdrawal of U.S. troops could lead to a dangerous power vacuum there.

We are also learning more about the two soldiers killed in a bomb attack in Syria on Thursday. One of them was British. The other from the U.S. They were taking part in an operation against ISIS in the northern city of Manbij.

HOWELL: U.S. Defense officials say that British Sergeant Matt Tonroe was a natural leader. The Pentagon says Army Master Sergeant Jonathan Dunbar died from his wounds on Friday. The 36-year-old was from Austin, Texas.

Let's bring in chief diplomatic correspondent from "The New York Times," Steven Erlanger, following the story, live from the Belgian capital of Brussels.

Good to have you with us, Steven. Let's go back to the situation. The latest tweet we understand from the special presidential envoy for the global coalition to defeat ISIS, Brett McGurk, essentially said that our fight against ISIS not over. Compare that to what President Trump said just a few days ago about Syria. Listen.

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TRUMP: We are knocking the hell out of ISIS and coming out of Syria I like, very soon. Let the other people take care of now. Very soon, very soon, we are coming out.

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HOWELL: You'll remember President Trump on the campaign trail said he wouldn't announce his plans. He just did there. There is a meeting set for Tuesday to discuss Syria and he is withholding funds.

Steven, what do you make of these contradictions or could there be a plan truly changing here? STEVEN ERLANGER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": No one ever knows with Donald Trump. I do remember he criticized President Obama viciously for saying that American troops would get out of Afghanistan by a date certain, right?

That there would be a big pull-out. And he said this was a very bad idea, that it told America's enemies information they didn't need to know, they could just wait and see. He has now done the same thing with Syria. The big question is he --

[05:15:00]

ERLANGER: -- telling -- is he telling the truth, as he sees it but will that, in fact, be carried out?

And when he says soon, what does he mean?

There is a debate, obviously, inside the American government. And he often does, in the end, listen to his generals. And his generals believe that the fight against ISIS is not over and that American troops shouldn't leave right now.

Now the question of reconstruction aid is a really, much more complicated one because, in a way, you have a lot of the countries and troops helping Bashar al-Assad, including Russia, Hezbollah and Iran, who are hoping that particularly Russia and other countries will come in and rebuild Syria, once they have helped Assad retain control.

And it's a question of whether the United States really wants to do that and the European Union is having the same debate. Russia would like not to have to spend the money. So it seems like once again the poor Syrian population is caught in the middle of what has become a very ugly proxy war.

HOWELL: It does seem, you know, between the tweet from McGurk and the president's own words, you know, officials not on the same page with regards to Syria.

From Syria, now I want to tell our viewers with the situation about Amazon. Stand by for a moment here, Steven. The background here, President Trump is accusing Amazon of scamming the U.S. Postal Service.

President Trump tweeted, "The United States Postal Service loses money on each Amazon package it delivers."

The president also accused the "The Washington Post" of being a lobbyist for Amazon.

OK. Facts first: Amazon actually pays the same as other bulk shippers. The U.S. Postal Service says its deals with Amazon are mutually beneficial, I should say. While both "The Washington Post" and Amazon have the same owner, Jeff Bezos, they operate independently.

In fact, Amazon does not have a stake in the newspaper. So Steven, is this an attack on Amazon over policy or, rather, is it

an attack on the company's CEO, Jeff Bezos?

ERLANGER: Well, first, remember, I work for "The New York Times" and so I have great respect for "The Washington Post." "The Washington Post" is privately owned now by Jeff Bezos, who is the owner of Amazon.

And it's clear that Donald Trump is using this ownership as a way to attack "The Washington Post." He has been attacking "The New York Times," CNN, "The Washington Post," almost everyone in what he calls the mainstream media, the fake news media, except perhaps for FOX News.

So this is just one more effort for him to undermine the credible reporting of "The Washington Post," as he has tried to undermine the credible reporting of my newspaper and your network.

So this, I think, we should just see as, you know, more push from Mr. Trump towards his base to try, again, to reduce the credibility of the media outlets, who are pursuing him and his administration, who are looking into alleged ties with Russia, who are getting leaks from inside the White House about confusion or chaos there.

I mean, Trump, as you know, he loves press. He loves the press. He just wants it to be his press. When he was in New York, he had a great relationship with the tabloids, with the "New York Post" and the "Daily News." He loved to manipulate his image inside those tabloids.

And I think he finds it very frustrating as president, which should be so powerful, he has trouble doing the same. So that is how I see it. The attack on Amazon is really an attack on "The Washington Post."

HOWELL: Well, the name calling aside with the media, you know, we soldier on, for sure. Steven Erlanger, thank you for your time.

ERLANGER: All the best. Take care.

N. ALLEN: You were just talking about the president's speech touting his infrastructure goals this week. But in rural Kentucky, they can't even drink the water and that is not the only place with serious water trouble. We will have a report coming up here.

HOWELL: Plus, Facebook under scrutiny for its handling of your data. We discuss how to keep your data safe with a tech expert. Stay with us.

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HOWELL: U.S. president Donald Trump is promising to focus on America's infrastructure, taking on what he calls rundown highways, railways and waterways and rebuilding them, repairing them under budget and ahead of schedule.

N. ALLEN: He was just talking about that this week. But for one county in Kentucky, this is more than a speech topic. CNN's chief medical correspondent, Sanjay Gupta, takes us to Inez, Kentucky.

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DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The hills of Appalachia are part of America's legacy. The people here in Martin County, Kentucky, proudly self-sufficient, but it's hard to take care of yourself when you don't have the most basic of necessities.

HOPE WORKMAN, RESIDENT, MARTIN COUNTY: So we have blue water here. That is crazy.

GUPTA: It's left Hope Workman with no other choice. Twice a week, Hope and her daughter drive up this dirt path on the side of a mountain.

WORKMAN: This is what we go through to get water.

GUPTA: Twenty years ago, she placed this 3.5 foot long pipe into this hillside to tap a spring just to collect clean drinking water because, obviously, no one drinks the water here.

(on camera): Do you drink it?

GARY BALL, EDITOR IN CHIEF, MOUNTAIN CITIZEN: Oh, no. No, no, no, there's no way that I drink it.

GUPTA (voice-over): Gary Ball is the editor in chief of the local weekly paper, the "Mountain Citizen." Water has been a front page story for most of his career.

(on camera): What's going on here? I mean, for the citizens, the people who live here and deal with this every day, where do they put this on their list of concerns?

BALL: In 2018, in the very place where LBJ declared war on poverty 54 years ago, water is our number one issue. That's hard to imagine.

GUPTA: You declare a war on poverty, 54 years later you come back there and you can't even reliably get clean water? What progress have we really made?

BALL: It's like a third world country here as far as water. We let our water system just dilapidate to the point of collapse.

GUPTA: You went how long without water?

WORKMAN: At that time, it was 10 days.

GUPTA (voice-over): To manage that, Hope has turned her pool into a makeshift reservoir, collecting rain water for even the most basic needs.

(On camera): In order to wash your clothes, in order to get water to bathe in, this is what you have to do?

WORKMAN: Yes, I did this in 17-degree weather and we had to take a chainsaw to drill through the ice.

GUPTA: Oh my goodness.

WORKMAN: To get to the water.

GUPTA: So you used the chainsaw to get through the ice.

WORKMAN: Yes.

GUPTA: And then siphoned the water with your mouth out of this hose?

WORKMAN: Yes. Yes.

GUPTA: That's what it's come to?

WORKMAN: That's what it's come to.

GUPTA (voice-over): In fact, the American Society of Civil Engineers gives the United States drinking water infrastructure a grade --

[05:25:00]

GUPTA: -- of a D.

BALL: I think it's somewhat of a systematic representation of what is happening in a lot of other places that no one is looking. It's almost like the proverbial canary in the mine.

WORKMAN: This is the water that's coming out of my bath.

GUPTA: So how does the water get so contaminated here in Martin County? It's worth looking at how we get our water. Here, it comes from the Tug Fork River, where it is then pumped into the Crum Reservoir and from there it makes its way to this water treatment center.

(on camera): After getting treated, about 2 million gallons per day of fairly clean water then leaves this treatment facility through a cascade of pipes traveling all over the county. Problem is, those pipes are all so old and cracked. More than 50 percent of the water leaks out before it gets to the people who need it. Even worse, it's what's getting into those pipes and into the water.

(voice-over): We've reviewed the most recent EPA data and the Martin County Water District has violated federal drinking water standards every quarter between October 2014 and September 2017. In fact, until just a few months ago, the district's nearly 10,000 customers received notices that their water had exceeded federal limits for potentially cancer-causing chemicals.

(on camera): Doc, I got this thing, what am I supposed to do about them? Am I going to get cancer?

DR. LON LAFFERTY, FAMILY MEDICINE: It's a very difficult question. I can't tell them that it's safe or that it isn't safe.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Lon Lafferty is the quintessential small town doc. He's pretty sure that almost every person in this county has come to see him at some point in his clinic.

LAFFERTY: We shouldn't have to be asking in 2018 whether or not the water is causing cancer in our region. We should be to the point in 2018 in the richest country in the history of the earth that we have clean water. It shouldn't be a question.

GUPTA: Eastern Kentucky has some of the highest cancer rates in the country and there's plenty to blame, smoking, obesity, but one thing stands out to many who live there, the water.

(On camera): Is it the rainwater that you're getting is better than what's coming out of your faucet?

WORKMAN: Yes.

GUPTA (voice-over): On this day, Hope is filling up three additional pots of water from her pool.

WORKMAN: It's not easy, but it beats not being able to flush the toilet or take a bath. I hope you see this, Mr. Trump, because I don't know who else to talk to about it, they ain't doing a damn thing.

GUPTA: President Trump released a $1.5 trillion plan to address all of the infrastructure for the whole country, but experts estimate $1 trillion alone is needed just to meet our drinking water demands for the next 25 years.

LAFFERTY: Central Appalachia at this point is being left behind. Central Appalachia certainly voted for President Trump, but we always kind of take a wait-and-see kind of attitude, time will tell.

GUPTA (on camera): Is water a basic human right?

BALL: I believe so. I believe so.

GUPTA: That's not happening here.

BALL: That's not happening here.

GUPTA (voice-over): Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, Inez, Kentucky.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

N. ALLEN: Hard to believe that is the United States right there.

HOWELL: Yes.

N. ALLEN: Facebook at the center of the scandal over abuse of its user data.

Is your information fake?

HOWELL: We will ask an industry expert about that ahead. Stay with us.

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HOWELL (voice-over): Live coast-to-coast this hour across the United States from London to Sydney and all points in between, you're watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell.

ALLEN (voice-over): I'm Natalie Allen with our top stories.

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HOWELL: Here in the United States, Facebook is working to counter a crisis in confidence. This after it came to light that the data firm Cambridge Analytica accessed an improperly stored information from millions of users.

N. ALLEN: Facebook is now distancing itself from companies that collect information from consumers. But many users say it is too little, too late, and they have already decided to quit Facebook. Our senior tech correspondent Laurie Segall explains that might be easier said than done.

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LAURIE SEGALL, CNNMONEY TECHNOLOGY CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): So you want to delete your Facebook page?

Before you click that button, are you sure?

Maybe you're sick of the constant flood of updates from people you never see anymore or maybe you just want to keep your data more secure.

Whatever your reasons for closing the proverbial book might be, boycotting Facebook is not as easy as it sounds. For starters, close friends and family might still be able to get through to you by other means. But you might have a tough time keeping up with other groups or events in your area.

So you think, no problem. I'll find other ways to stay in the loop. Well, deleting your profile on Facebook might have repercussions on other third-party apps. Many of us use Facebook logins to authenticate apps like Tinder, Airbnb, (INAUDIBLE). So f you get rid of Facebook you will have to come up with new unique

logins for each service and though you might gain control over your data you may actually lose some stored data in the process.

For example, if you created your premium Spotify account with Facebook you would have to cancel your subscription and make a new one, waving goodbye to all of your perfectly curated playlists.

Now if you're OK with that and you still are ready to delete, remember, Facebook is more than just facebook.com. The company owns other popular apps like Instagram and WhatsApp.

So if you're serious about cutting ties, you'll have to delete those, too.

So if you change your mind about deleting the whole account, what data privacy options do you have?

You can start by going into your settings and changing your sharing preferences. Facebook will still own your data but you'll be able to --

[05:35:00]

SEGALL: -- put some limits on what they share with whom. But if you have got your affairs in order and you are still ready to say goodbye to Facebook, you can deactivate your account at any time. Just know that if do you choose to permanently delete it, it could take up to 90 days for Facebook to wipe out that data and then there is no going back.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HOWELL: All right. Seems complicated to leave Facebook. Let's bring in Dennis Yu to talk about it. Dennis is the chief technology officer for Blitz Metrics.

It's good to have you with us. So Laurie laid it out there. It is a little complicated it seems to delete Facebook. But there is that movement, #DeleteFacebook.

Do you see this really making a big impact on this company or can it weather this storm?

DENNIS YU, BLITZ METRICS: Are people leaving United Airlines just because something bad happen?

N. ALLEN: Some did, yes. They say they will.

(CROSSTALK)

HOWELL: Then they get a ticket again, right?

YU: But if you're going to delete Facebook because of data privacy, you're deleting Google and Amazon and all of the other online services. Good luck trying to survive as a digital citizen and not have Facebook login. The number of things that are connected to Facebook are just immense.

And Facebook has a ton of data but other guys have even more data than that.

So are you doing it as a backlash to the fact that there is Cambridge Analytica, where those guys couldn't cause any real damage?

Or is there a real issue with data security?

I don't believe there is one.

N. ALLEN: So you're saying we are defenseless?

(LAUGHTER)

YU: We are part of the Borg. You will be assimilated.

N. ALLEN: That's depressing, a little bit.

HOWELL: Facebook has been pointing the finger at Cambridge Analytica; that company denies any wrongdoing.

Who is at fault here in your estimation?

YU: There are folks like Cambridge Analytica that will prey upon the public's ignorance of what is possible with data. So Facebook has allowed to create apps like the original quiz creator guys that sold that data to Cambridge. But there's nothing they could have done with that data. There's no way Facebook can actually say, did you delete that data or not?

And I know they have these new certification processes coming out. But there is an issue of how to protect your data. Facebook never sells user data. They never allow you to export user data for advertising. They never have that in their ad system.

So I think there's a lot of education that -- I think Facebook has been doing the right thing. But they have not been educating businesses and consumers and regulators what is really possible.

N. ALLEN: They kind of bury it down into Facebook, how to change this setting and that setting or allow this and not allow that, don't they?

YU: Yes. And consumers are fundamentally not OK with having ads. So there are settings where you can actually say, I don't want to have any of my data shown for targeting.

I went into my Facebook last week and I found that I have 238 targeting pixels on me. So you go to a website and maybe see some red shoes and those shoes follow you around. That's retargeting. So Facebook is making money by serving targeted ads. But you can opt out of all of that. But you can't completely opt out of advertising because Facebook is an ad supported network.

N. ALLEN: I want to talk about this internal memo leaked from Facebook. It's adding insult to injury, to say the least, this from the former executive, Andrew Bosworth. Specifically this part of says, "Anything that allows us to connect more people more often is de facto good, even if the platform is used by bullies or people coordinating a terror attack."

Bosworth says that was taken out of context but a lot of people are seeing this as they're saying, wait a minute.

YU: Growth at all costs. That is part of the brogrammer mentality that I was a part of in Silicon Valley a few years ago.

(CROSSTALK)

YU: And when it's an internal team and you have an engineer that's trying to rally the troops, that's the kind of thing. Like we will win at all costs. But now that that's come out, Facebook is trying to shut down the PR around that, trying to figure out who leaked that. Because it looks bad.

They can't just say, totally, growth at all costs, doesn't matter if people are committing suicide and people's heads are getting cut off and getting shot. They have to denounce that; at the same time they weren't playing the PR angle properly.

N. ALLEN: Is this PR angle that you mention, Facebook is Facebook. You know?

It's what everyone loves.

But is this a stain on Facebook that is going to have repercussions?

YU: It is. And this is going to be a permanent stain because years ago, it was just us college students that were just sharing funny photos and rating other people. Now it's a monolith. It's a $460 billion company with $40 million in cash. They can't behave like a teenager wearing, you know, flip-flops and hoodies anymore.

HOWELL: Yes, things have changed and people want answers for this. Dennis Yu, thank you so much.

N. ALLEN: Thanks, Dennis, appreciate it.

It's enlightening.

HOWELL: It is Easter Sunday. Pope Frances tweeted, "The faith of Christians is born on Easter morning." He's been presiding over holy Easter mass. We go live to the Vatican ahead.

N. ALLEN: Plus:

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PAM MEADOWS, PIANO TEACHER: I didn't vote for a pastor. I would not want him to be the person that led me in the areas of morality or my family or anything like that. That's not what a president is supposed to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

N. ALLEN: She is talking about Mr. Trump. She voted for him once. Will she again in 2020?

[05:40:00]

N. ALLEN: Next, we take you to Trump country to see if voters have changed their perspective on this president.

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N. ALLEN: The latest CNN poll finds president Donald Trump's approval rating increasing by 7 points. That was for March. Analysts are now debating why recent scandals seem to not be hurting the president in the polls.

HOWELL: Our Miguel Marquez spoke to voters in the state of Missouri where the race for the midterm elections is already heating up.

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MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Liberty, Missouri, in Clay County, the Kansas City suburbs, Trump country.

You voted for Donald Trump?

MEADOWS: I did.

MARQUEZ: Pam Meadows, a piano teacher, registered Republican and person of the faith, says she likes everything from his policies to his leadership style. The Clay County economy growing since 2013, going gang busters now. Today, jobs are plentiful, unemployment, less than four percent.

MEADOWS: I see the economy has turned around. I believe that he's definitely a straight shooter and what we see is what we get.

MARQUEZ: Even the adult actress, Stormy Daniels an extramarital affair with Donald Trump in 2006 and claims she was harass by those loyal to the President, doesn't shake her faith.

MEADOWS: I didn't vote for a pastor. I would not want him to be the person that led me in the areas of morality or my family or anything like that. That's not what a president is supposed to do.

MARQUEZ: Missouri went big for Trump in 2016, beating Hillary Clinton here by --

[05:45:00]

MARQUEZ: -- 19 points. His support may be narrowing. Gallup put his approval among Missouri voters at 47 percent last year. Those disapproving, 48 percent.

LINDSEY GRUDYSON, VOTED FOR CLINTON: I think that he demonstrates a lack of awareness of the way that Democratic politics works.

MARQUEZ: 25-year-old Lindsey Grudyson initially registered Republican. Today she's an independent who voted for Hillary Clinton.

Is the country going in the right direction?

GRUDYSON: I would say no.

MARQUEZ: Where is it going?

GRUDYSON: Toward a place of increasing division.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is Josh Hawley bought and paid for.

MARQUEZ: Missouri is home to one of the most competitive Senate races in the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: When she had the chance, she said no.

MARQUEZ: Moderate Democratic incumbent Claire McCaskill in an uphill fight.

Do you approve of the job the President is doing?

JUAN JAIME, SANDERS SUPPORTER: No.

MARQUEZ: Name, supported Bernie Sanders but says his dislike of the President is a motivating factor in November.

Will your dislike of Donald Trump drive you to the polls in November for Senator McCaskill?

JAIME: Yes.

MARQUEZ: She's a middle of the road Democrat, often votes conservatively.

JAIME: Yes.

MARQUEZ: But you'll support her.

JAIME: I will support her.

MARQUEZ: Even for those who support the President now, admit he may not have their vote in the future.

So when 2020 rolls around, you will happily cast your vote for him again.

MEADOWS: I cannot say that right now.

MARQUEZ: Really.

MEADOWS: I don't know who will be running against him.

MARQUEZ: So after a couple of days here, a couple of trends seem to be coming clear. Dislike of the president is driving not only moderate Democrats to the polls but even those far left Democrats, those who voted for Bernie Sanders, to the polls in November.

And also who like the president today, they would consider voting for somebody else in 2020 -- Miguel Marquez, CNN, Liberty, Missouri.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

N. ALLEN: On this Easter Sunday, we want to take you now live to Rome, where we are seeing the pope make his way in from the crowd. Soon, he will deliver his Urbi et Orbi address. That translates as a blessing to Rome and the world. We will hear what the pope has to say, live from the Vatican, coming up after this.

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HOWELL: It is Easter Sunday, the important Christian holiday that celebrates the resurrection of Jesus. These live pictures from the Vatican right now.

N. ALLEN: Pope Francis has been presiding over Easter mass at the Vatican. Thousands gathered in St. Peter's Square to hear him. The pope asked if their heart is open to God's message.

His words echoed his Easter vigil homily on Saturday when he urged people to act in the face of injustice.

Beautiful words as always from Pope Francis , encouraging us on.

Hello, there. We will talk with our Vatican analyst now, John Allen.

Happy Easter to you, John. And now we have another expectation from this pope. Tell us about it.

JOHN ALLEN, CNN SR. VATICAN ANALYST: Well, first of all, happy Easter to you, Natalie and to George, on what is, I have to save a fairly lovely and sun-splashed Roman Sunday though it's still a little bit chilly. Spring has not quite gotten here.

Pope Francis, as you say, is a messenger of hope on the global stage. What we heard from him today in his homily at the traditional Easter Sunday mass is he was underlining this surprise of what Christians believe happened today.

Today is about the resurrection of Christ, him rising from the dead after three days in the tomb. And that's something that even his closest followers didn't see coming and Pope Francis said that is what God is like. God always surprises us.

In fact, he says God doesn't know how to tell us something without surprising us. The pope made the point quickly that those surprises are supposed to get us moving and shake us up and put us into action.

I couldn't help but think that that is Pope Francis in miniature, himself. He, too is a figure always capable of surprises and he is always a man on a mission, a man in motion. So that was his message for Easter Sunday 2018.

N. ALLEN: And now he delivers his message to the world. We will be listening. John Allen for us at the Vatican, thanks as always. Again, Happy Easter to you. Sorry it's chilly there.

HOWELL: The day always April Fool's. And you know what's on an April Fool's joke?

Snow.

ALLEN: It's chilly. Chilly in Rome.

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[05:55:00]

ALLEN: Thank you all for watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Natalie Allen.

HOWELL: I'm George Howell. The news continues here on CNN.