Cleveland Prepares for Republican National Convention; Libertarian Presidential and Vice Presidential Candidates Give Joint Interview.
PAUL: Thanks for keeping us company on this Saturday. I'm Christi Paul.</s>BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell. It's good to be with you. You are in the CNN Newsroom.</s>PAUL: Wherever Donald Trump goes there are protestors that seem to follow. Look at the city of San Diego. Victor was just having this conversation as well. But protestors scuffling there with police. Officers armed with batons, with pepper spray. In just a few weeks Cleveland is hosting the Republican National Convention and there are a lot of questions about what that city is able to do to prepare for scenes very similar to this. Let's bring in Kevin Kelley, president of the Cleveland City Council. Mr. Kelley, thank you for being with us.</s>KEVIN KELLEY, PRESIDENT, CLEVELAND CITY COUNCIL: Thank you for having me.</s>BLACKWELL: Sure. Let me ask you first and foremost what precautions are you taking and how confidence are you in the preparations Cleveland is making for this convention?</s>KELLEY: I'm very confident, Christi. The city has been preparing for this for well over a year. We are working with the Secret Service. Our police intelligence community is very good. This is something that -- this isn't a rally that has sprung up, this isn't a candidates' even. This is major league event that we've been preparing for for years -- excuse me, not years, but a year, and we are very well prepare for this.</s>PAUL: In watching some of what's happened over the last several months and some of the protesters and violence that we've seen, surely when you took on this event did not possibly see this coming. I'm wondering if you've had to shift strategies at all and how financially it's impacting the city in this regard.</s>KELLEY: Maybe slightly. The thing to remember about a political convention is that there are always protests. That a part of the event you prepare for. So even if the nominee weren't Donald Trump and weren't an inflammatory nominee, we were planning on protests and planning on unrest anyhow. So this certainly ratchets it up a little bit, so we adjust our plan. But we never thought that we'd go through July without protest or without people trying to make political statements. That's part of political conventions.</s>PAUL: And it's their right to do so, obviously. So have you delegated certain areas of town outside the convention center where protesters will be and supporters will be?</s>KELLEY: Yes. And we rolled that out just this week, and significantly the protest areas and where the protest and parade routes go, they're going to be closer to the arena than they were in Tampa and many other convention cities. We believe that we have set up a route and a zone that is both constitutional. It allows people to express themselves. It's also going to ensure the safety of the delegates of the guests of the police officers, of other law enforcement officers. So it has been released and I'm confident that we're going to meet all of those goals.</s>PAUL: There are conversations being had in this political arena about possible death threats to people. I'm wondering if anybody in the city of Cleveland has gotten any sort of threat or any violence being planned. And how are you watching that? Are you watching social media?</s>KELLEY: I have no specific knowledge of that. But I know that the intelligence unit of the Cleveland division of police is very aware of all of the social media conversations, everything that goes on. They are very good. This community has dealt with situations of unrest somewhat recently. In the fall we had some very unfortunate police- citizen events that really tested this community and really tested how we're going to respond to unrest and to protesters and those that were legitimately angry and hurt. And I think we really did well and we showed an example to the nation of how this city would respond to events of unrest.</s>PAUL: Good to know. Mr. Kevin Kelley, we appreciate you being here. Thank you.</s>KELLEY: Thank you for having me. You have a great rest of the day and Memorial Day weekend.</s>PAUL: You, too, thanks.</s>BLACKWELL: Libertarians gathering in Orlando are trying to decide on the party's presidential and vice presidential nominees. Top of the list right now are former governors Gary Johnson and Bill Weld. I say down with them yesterday. It's their first every joint interview. I asked about Weld's relationship with Donald Trump.</s>BLACKWELL: What's your opinion of him?</s>BILL WELD, LIBERTARIAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, you know, there's the Donald Trump you meet socially, and he's a warm person, not an ungenerous person. Some of the stuff that he's running on I think is absolutely chaotic. I'm going to do this to Mexico. OK, that's a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is the supreme law of the land. It's a treaty. We signed it. I'm going to do this to China, no questions asked. OK, that's a violation of the World Trade Organization rules, exposing us, the United States, to sanctions there. So we would be the rogue nation. I don't think we want to be the rogue nation. Let's let North Korea be the rogue nation, not us.</s>BLACKWELL: Right before you announced your 2016 candidacy for president, you were CEO of a company called Cannabis Sativa, the maker of cannabis products. You've been very open about your use of cannabis products. I wonder, would a President Johnson use cannabis products in the White House?</s>GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I wouldn't. And I've been on record saying that. I haven't had a drink in 29 years. And no, I think I really have a proven record of discipline beyond most people. And, no, I don't think you want to have the president of the United States impaired, or potentially being impaired in any way whatsoever.</s>BLACKWELL: A small part of my interview. You can watch the full interview with Gary Johnson and Bill Weld, former governors, at our website CNN.com. And CNN is at the libertarian convention in Orlando all weekend. We have live coverage beginning in just a few hours on CNN Newsroom.</s>PAUL: Live pictures we want to bring you right now of flooding in Texas. This is coming to CNN as we speak here. But take a look at how high some of that water is. Remember, the state received more than 16 inches of rain yesterday. And a big part of the problem right now are students who have been trapped at a school and they had to stay there overnight. We understand they're hoping to reunite with their families soon.</s>BLACKWELL: And you see the communities here are completely inundated with waters. This is recorded video here. People carried their belongings out of those flooded cars. Back to the school that Christi was talking about. School Superintendent Walter Jackson said he hopes the remaining student would be soon reunited with their families. But another look here at those flooded roads here in Texas. Live pictures. This is an apartment complex where those cars are stranded there. And unfortunately there is more rain on the way for the southeast. We'll be talking about that throughout the latter part of the morning and afternoon.</s>PAUL: At least there's sunshine now so they can at least get a brief reprieve. It is a superbug that can't be fought with normal antibiotics. And doctors are warning this could be a sign of more dangerous bacteria to come.