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Trump Takes All 50 South Carolina Delegates; Shooting in Michigan Killed Six; Clinton Versus Sanders; Vanity Fair Referred to CNN's Recent GOP Town Hall. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired February 21, 2016 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00] FREDRICK WHITIFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Fresh off a pivotal primary win in South Carolina. Donald Trump is wasting no time on the campaign trail. Take a look at people lining up for Trump's rally in Atlanta. He is expected to address a crowd of thousands at any moment. Those are the lines outside, inside, there are thousands of people who have already gathered and as it takes place, as Donald Trump steps out, we will bring that to you live as it happens.

First, new developments in the South Carolina results. Donald Trump taking all 50 delegates in South Carolina, a decisive victory. This is important because since 1980, South Carolina has an almost perfect record of predicting who will win the Republican nomination. Today's headlines, speak for themselves. Take a look right there - Is there any stopping Donald Trump? Is he inevitable? If Trump can't stop Trump, who can?

Well, this morning, CNN's Jake Tapper posed this very question to Trump himself.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Are you unstoppable?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, certainly you can be stopped. I mean, I'm dealing with very talented people. They are politicians. They're senators and I guess do we have any governors left? I don't know. Let's see, I don't think so. But we have a lot of talented people. We will see what happens but certainly no one is unstoppable.

TAPPER: Are you concerned at all that party leaders might try to block your nomination at the convention?

TRUMP: I don't think we're going to have a convention, a brokered convention. I think it is unlikely. I think I'm doing better than that. So far I'm really on my way. I thought I actually won Iowa, if you look at it really closely. But even if I didn't, I got just one delegate less. Because I came in a very, very close second. So I have a second and I have two firsts. New Hampshire was a blow-out. This one was a blow-out. I don't see where this is a convention. I think most of the smart people are saying there's not going to be a convention. Interestingly, the ones that say there is going to be a convention usually they are the pundits that have been wrong forever.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's go to CNN's Jeremy Diamond who is at the Trump rally. So Jeremy, the last time we spoke, a little over an hour ago, about 2,000 people in 9,500 capacity room. So what's it look like now?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, certainly filled up more than that. It has probably doubled in size already. I don't want to give an exact number because we know how touchy Mr. Trump can be about getting his crowd sizes wrong. But it is filling up here as we get a little bit closer to show time. One thing for sure is the excitement here is real.

Trump is kind of trying to ride off of his momentum with two consecutive victories in New Hampshire and now in South Carolina and he is going into the SEC states who is going to vote on March 1st. That includes Georgia which is going to vote on March 1st. Got a number of delegates up for grabs to help Trump on his path to the nomination.

WHITFIELD: So have you gotten an idea from his supporters there? What kind of message they want to hear from Donald Trump?

DIAMOND: You know, it is pretty consistent as we are at Donald Trump rallies. It's always the same thing. They want to hear the classic Donald Trump. They want to hear him defy the kind of political correctness that a lot of supporters feel have kidn of overtaken this country and they want to hear about Donald Trump's plans to combat ISIS. He has a very brash rhetoric on that and of course, there is always that moment when Donald Trump asks the supporters who is going to pay for the wall that he plans to build and his response - the response from the crowd is always a resounding Mexico. That's always a moment he has been doing lately at his rallies.

WHITFIELD: All right. We will come back to you as Donald Trump arrives there on that stage, on that podium, there in Atlanta. Thanks so much, Jeremy Diamond, appreciate it.

All right. In the meantime, Ted Cruz has put South Carolina in his rearview mirror. Next hour, he will hold a rally in Nevada, the next challenge for Republicans. The caucuses there are on Tuesday. But after his third place finish in South Carolina, what is his strategy moving forward now?

Many evangelical voters, his core support, deserted him and threw their support behind Donald Trump. In fact, look at exit polling there. And yet Cruz insists that he is the only one who can beat Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is now apparent that the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump and that has beaten Donald Trump is our campaign. Although Donald has consistently managed to score numbers in the 20s and 30s, his unfavorables an awful lot of Republicans are very concerned Donald Trump is not the right candidate to go head to head with Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders and as the field narrows, we are seeing more and more people coming to us because we're looking for a strong proven constitutional conservative to stand up and present a clear contrast with the Democrats and win in November.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Victoria Coates is a senior foreign policy adviser to Ted Cruz. Good to see you. So I wonder, how can your candidate confidently be saying that when Donald Trump won handedly there in South Carolina?

[16:05:10]

VICTORIA COATES, SR. FOREIGN POLICY ADVISER, TED CRUZ: Hi, Fredricka. It's good to be with you. Well, I think what Senator Cruz was saying is the reality he is the only one who has beaten Donald Trump and I congratulate Mr. Trump on his victory. But what he said to Jake I thought wasn't all that accurate. He lost in Iowa. It was a clear loss. And it was a victory for Senator Cruz.

We were pleased with New Hampshire. Obviously, it would have been nice to get that extra couple of votes last night. Overall, coming in first and two bronzes is an admirable record. I think we're in a good place.

WHITFIELD: So what is the strategy moving forward? Every candidate likes to make a few adjustments as they move on to the next primary or caucus state. The next GOP in Nevada there on Tuesday. So what kinds of adjustments whether it be in the message or in the demeanor of a Ted Cruz might people expect?

COATES: Well, I certainly think you see events driving a lot of the narrative in particular the passing of Justice Scalia last week. A great tragedy for our country. And I think a real clarifying moment about what is at stake here. We have not just the executive branch but also the judiciary branch hanging in the balance. Certainly Senator Cruz is one of the finest legal minds of our generation and I think a lot of voters are going to be giving some very serious thought about who should be picking our next supreme court justices.

WHITFIELD: So how confident is Ted Cruz feeling about Nevada? I mean, what are his strong points for that very unique state?

COATES: Well, it is. It is a wonderful state and one of the things I was most encouraged about from the exit polling was the fact that Senator Cruz is the first choice of South Carolynians worried about terrorism. I think that's a major issue as well in Nevada. You have a lot of immigration issuees. People who are very concerned about that issue.

As Senator Cruz has been very clear, border security is national security. That's a message I think that has been resonating for him in South Carolina and will also resonate very strongly in Nevada.

WHITFIELD: Aand Ted Cruz is counting on Texas. His state, but at the same time when you look at outcome of the evangelical vote split in half there in South Carolina, is it time for Ted Cruz to worry about his home state?

COATES: Well, I mean, you certainly never want to take any votes for granted. In Texas, obviously, Senator Cruz is very powerful allegiance to his home state. He is very, very popular there. And I think though, as I said, would not take anything for granted. Working very hard in Texas. We have the debate coming up on Thursday night which is conveniently in his hometown of Houston. So that's something we will just be looking forward to working on over these next days.

WHITFIELD: When you talk about winning bronze a couple of times is admirable but then starting next month, these contests are winner take all. So what does that, you know, say for the demise potentially of Ted Cruz how he evaluates, you know, his viability in the race if he doesn't win.

COATES: Well, I think he has proven he can win. That's the great thing. I think I would be much more concerned if I had a candidate who had neither won a contest yet nor had any prospect of winning any. I think he is very well positioned, has worked extremely hard throughout what we call the SEC primary states, which will be coming up on March 1st, and we that will continue to do that hard work over these next days and I think he will be very successful.

WHITFIELD: All right. One win, Iowa, under his belt. We'll see what's next. Victoria Coates, thank you so much. Good to see you.

COATES: Thank you. Take care.

WHITFIELD: All right. The Marco Rubio-Ted Cruz results in South Carolina, truly show that individual votes matter. Rubio beating Cruz by just over a thousand vote. And with Jeb Bush now suspending his campaign, Rubio knows those votes could be his for the taking. Right now he is in Franklin, Tennessee with this plea.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And so in a race where you still have many choices, I'm asking you here in Tennessee to vote for me. If you vote for me, I will unite this party. If you vote for me, I will grow this party. If you vote for me, we will win this election.

The Democrats do not want to run against me but I cannot wait to run against them. If you vote for me, you will have a president that will never shy away from strongly and firmly stating my beliefs and the traditional values that made his great. If you vote for me, you will have a president that will never be ashamed to say, that all human life is worthy of the protection of our laws.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:10:05]

WHITFIELD: Coming off her big win in Nevada, Hillary Clinton acknowledged today on CNN that she still has a lot of work to do, connecting with voters and convincing them that she is trustworthy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand that voters have questions. I'm going to do my very best to answer those questions. I think there's an underlying question that may be is really in the back of people's mind. And that is, you know, is she in it for us or in it for herself? I think that's, you know, a question that people are trying to sort through. And I'm going to demonstrate that I've always been the same person fighting for the same values, fighting to make a real difference in people's lives. Long before I was ever in elected office, even before my husband was in the presidency.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: CNN's Brianna Keilar is following the campaign in Houston today, Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, the Clinton campaign savoring a win this morning they really thought could have been a lost in Nevada. Talking to top campaign aides, they say this was the best day of the campaign since Hillary Clinton declared her candidacy. She came here to Houston immediately pivoting forward to South Carolina and the issues that matter to voters there.

She went to a historically black college here in Houston where she accused Bernie Sanders of overpromising.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I absolutely respect my opponent's passion and commitment. We both see the need for bold progressive solutions to solve our nation's problems. But I don't think it's right to look a person in the eye who's hurting and needs help and tell them that if they vote for you, you will get $5,000 of health care but only have to pay $500 for it. You shouldn't say that unless you can really deliver it. And I don't think you should tell millions of young people they'll get free tuition if it actually depends on Republican governors, like yours, deciding to kick in tens of billions of dollars. If the numbers don't add up, it's wrong to make those promises.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now it is on to the first in the South primary in South Carolina on Saturday. This is friendlier terrain for Hillary Clinton. She is outperforming Bernie Sanders overall with African- American voters. A key voting block in the Palmetto state. He is trying to chip away at that support with younger African-Americans but she has a sizeable lead in South Carolina and then looking forward to super Tuesday here in a weekend change, she also has the advantage there. Bernie Sanders going to have to try for a game-changer if he wants it make this up. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right, BBrianna Keilar, thank you so much.

All right. Super Tuesday is fast approaching and candidates are making sure to reach all of their supporters before the primaries. One important group of voters that can easily be looked over. Americans living outside of the country. Today Bernie Sanders and former secretary of state Madeleine Albright sitting in for Hillary Clinton participating in a video town hall reaching some 65 countries around the world.

Sanders spoke about his political revolution bringing up the issue of a corrupt campaign finance system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are all abroad but I'm sure that you are paying attention to the fact that this disastrous Citizens United Supreme Court decision has enabled a billionaires and Wall Street and large corporations to essential take over our political process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Sanders even took questions from the virtual audience. There will be 127 voting locations in 40 different countries around the world for Americans to vote abroad.

CNN is the place to be for the 2016 election. Join us Tuesday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be answering questions from South Carolina voters directly at a CNN town hall. Two days later, Chris Cuomo moderates the last presidential debate before Super Tuesday. That's Thursday 8:30 p.m. Eastern, right here on CNN.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back, I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We're learning more information about a horrific series of random shootings in Michigan that killed six people. The rampage lasted nearly seven hours and took place at three locations in and around kalamazoo Michigan last night. An Uber driver is accused of carrying out the violent killing spree. (INAUDIBLE) tells CNN the suspect was picking up passengers in between the shootings.

The suspected gunman 45-year-old Jason Brian Dalton was arrested early this morning. It appears all of the shootings were completely random.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF GETTLING, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY, KALAMAZOO COUNTY: The connection between these three incidents, between these three case is the defendant, Mr. Dalton. There is no connection that we're aware of between the three different sets of victims to each other or any of the victims to Mr. Dalton. They appear to have been chosen at random because they were available.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Joining me now, from Kalamazoo, Michigan, is CNN's Nick Valencia with the latest on this investigation. Nick?

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, there, Fred, I just got off the phone with the police chief here for the Department of Public Safety in Kalamazoo. They tell me that the suspect has been interrogated by investigators but even still they don't have a motive as to what happened or what triggered this shooting rampage on Saturday night.

The suspect is described by the police chief as as being, for all intents and purposes, an average Joe who chose his targets at random. He told me they did seize a semiautomatic handgun from the suspect. He was taken into custody at about 12:30 a.m. overnight outside of a local bar.

You mentioned, he was an Uber driver picking up fares in between the shootings. Police believe that he was still looking for fares, actively working after completing his shooting spree going to at least three different places throughout this community here. Police also telling me they did search his residents where they discovered several other weapons. They are working on figuring it out if any other weapons seized from his residents were used in the commission of the shooting spree.

Six people have been killed as a result of this shooting spree. Two others critically wounded. I did check in on the status of those two that were injured. Police telling me that one of the mothers - the mother that was shot in this incident, was still in the hospital recovering. They are very worried about the 14-year-old who is still in grave condition. She was in surgery earlier this morning but is still very, very critical and police are worried about her prognosis.

As far as the threats of the community, police believed that this suspect acted alone. No other wider connections to terrorism, they tell me. But this community, of course, still very shaken by what happened here overnight. Fred?

WHITFIELD: All right. Nick Valencia, thank you so much.

And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:23:45]

WHITFIELD: A tough job and a busy week ahead in the race for the White House. On Tuesday, CNN host a democratic town hall in South Carolina and that's also the day of the Nevada GOP caucuses. Then Thursday, all five Republican candidates will face off in a CNN debate hosted by, moderated by our own Wolf Blitzer from Houston.

And Saturday the democrats compete in the South Carolina primary. Three days before Super Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD (voice-over): Now it's the democrats turn in South Carolina. Among voters we talked to leading up to the GOP primary vote here, the complications of choosing among the Republican candidates as varied as the candidates themselves.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I'm definitely excited and involved in watching everything going on with the primary.

WHITFIELD: So you made a decision about who you would vote for?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: No, not yet.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: Definitely, not Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want to protect the institution of traditional marriage. Those are at the top of my list. Of course a strong economy and defense, of course.

WHITFIELD: Democrats here anxious to welcome back Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Fresh off the Nevada caucuses. This week's democratic town hall on CNN at University of South Carolina in Columbia, sure to be intense. Voters we met up with on their picks and why.

[16:25:02]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm on the fence still. But I'll probably go for Bernie Sanders.

WHITFIELD: Why?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think that because I think that sort of poverty has been one of the main focuses of what I have - what been at my heart for a long time and that sort of what I think of as the linchpin of his momentum.

WHITFIELD: When the polling stations opened for the democratic primaries on Saturday, this trio of Sanders supporters are banking on a Clinton upset.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: We're out here kind of in support of Bernie Sanders and kind of taking a stand against Donald Trump. I'm a big fan of immigration and I think everybody should support immigrants and should welcome Syrian refugees and everybody else in because I think that's the right thing to do.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Bernie cares about bringing the middle class back. He cares about women. He cares about student. All these groups that no one really has paid attention to or really cared about before.

WHITFIELD: This couple is backing Clinton in the primary. Even if it means upsetting family traditions in this mostly conservative Palmetto state.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I'll definitely support Hillary.

WHITFIELD: But your family is Republican. So has that created any consternation, any interesting family dinner dialogues? Family gathering dialogues?

UNIDENTIFED MALE: We tend to stray away from political talk during those kind of dinners and that sort of thing.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did confirm that they were not Trump supporters.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Those are some of the sentiments from South Carolina. We'll be back there on Saturday for the democratic primary. So now that Jeb Bush backed out of the presidential race, the big question is, which candidate will gain his influential supporters and deep pockets? Some answers coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Thanks again for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfiled.

So he seemed like the natural shoe-in. He had the money, the name, and the plan. But Jeb Bush is now out of the race and is leaving many to question, where do his big money donors go and more importantly who gets those votes? This political headline lays it all out inside Jeb Bush's $150 million failure. So let's talk about this.

[16:30:13] Joining me now is Republican strategist Brian Morgenstern as well as columnist and co-author of "The Party is Over" Ellis Henican. All right. Good to see both of you.

OK, so Brian you first. There's a whole lot of money about $20 million or so up for grabs that would have gone to Jeb Bush instead now to someone else, who might get that?

BRIAN MORGENSTERN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: I think Rubio stands to gain quite a bit of that because, not only because they are both from Florida but because they are both are appealing to many of the same donors and activists and such. The attitude down in Florida at least is everybody loves Jeb and really, really likes Marco as well.

And so -- and there was some sort of consternation when right to rise was going after Marco so much because he has so many Republican's second choice. You know, many have at least their first choice but even more have them as their second choice and so I think he is in a very good position. I think if Kasich were in a stronger position in the polls he might stand against some of that but I think the leading contender right now is Marco.

WHITFIELD: So, then Ellis, even if you know, Marco Rubio has been considered kind of the, you know, the second runner-up if things didn't work out so well for Jeb Bush in terms of those donors does Marco Rubio still have to sell himself to them, you know, offer some assurances that this money, you know, is going to be well spent?

ELLIS HENICAN, COLUMNIST AND CO-AUTHOR OF "THE PARTY'S OVER": Of course he does. And look how poorly we spent the last time.

WHITFIELD: How did he do that?

HENICAN: I mean he's got to convince all those folks that it isn't a complete waste, right. I mean -- they gave and it's a lot more than $20 million that just went through the Bush's hands and Super Pac as well. And there's no evidence that any of it did squat's worth the difference to quote John Kasich.

WHITFIELD: But how does he -- how does he do that? I mean do we have to see a reenergized, a different kind of Marco Rubio I mean even just listening to him last night and hearing him this morning, it seemed his tenor was a little different perhaps a little bit influenced by, you know, his second place, you know, winning there in South Carolina. But, you know, I wonder Ellis, you know, if it's going to take a lot of reinvention, a lot of convincing on Marco Rubio's, you know, part to say that you know, he is going to earn the support of those donors if not the vote.

HENICAN: I think he is fairly well suited to those donors. But, I mean you still got this maddening game of fractions that somehow or another anyone who wants to challenge Trump has to get beyond, right?

WHITFIELD: Yes.

HENICAN: Which is that -- as long as the non-Trump vote is divided into three or four slices, it is real hard for anyone to pull ahead. So the best thing can you do would to try and convince some of the others to get out and that's going to be a tough sell.

WHITFIELD: And so Brian, who's going to be the target now? You've got the last big GOP debate right here on CNN before, you know, Super Tuesday. And we know -- we know in New Hampshire, the target was Marco Rubio. You know, when it was Chris Christie who was really launching most of the jabs. But when it comes down to really trying to standout, who might be the target or how does Marco Rubio best prepare himself so that he doesn't have another repeat of what we saw in New Hampshire?

MORGENSTERN: Well, I think that if the past is prologue, we've seen both Trump and Rubio defining Cruz as deceptive and a liar based on his campaign tactics. So, I think we may see a little more of that. It seems to be a bit of, you know, strange bed fellow situation.

At this time, when they both are interested in getting Cruz out of the way because Cruz could potentially free up voters for each of them. They each believe that Cruz voters, might you know, the majority might go to them. So, that -- we may see some of that.

To your question about how to convince donors, this is going to be a strategic sort of pitch, you know, to investors in a campaign. Here's how we win. We unite the non-Trump, non-Cruz people behind me and we have this message of unity and our -- which makes our ceiling higher than Cruz and Trump whose negatives are so high.

So, it will back on a strategic pitch I think to donors and I think they will be pretty convincing.

WHITFIELD: OK, all right. Hey, hold your thought right there. Because we're going to go right here in Atlanta, right down the street. And Donald Trump is now at the stage there. You see him waving to the supporters there who have been waiting, waiting, waiting for him. Let's see.

Is he going to the microphone right now? All right, well when he does, let's listen to him. But for now, real quick, Brian, let me ask you about Texas since you brought it up. A real conflict there -- never mind. Let's listen to Donald Trump.

(LAUGHTER)

DONALD TRUMP, 2016 U.S. PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: We have such an amazing victory yesterday incredible, incredible...

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: ...incredible. That was something. And the week before, I'll tell you what, we're just going one after another. Are we going to win Georgia, yes?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[16:35:00] TRUMP: We're going to. I see it. I feel it. I feel it. But it is crunch time. We have to go out and vote. We have to get out there. We have to vote. We're running for so much. You know, "Time" magazine just recently had a cover story and they talked about the momentum that we have, but they really talked about the fact that this is a movement.

This is something they haven't really seen before. I think they're saying they've never seen anything like this before. And we have such amazing people, whether it's here or Dallas or Mobile, Alabama or Houston or any place. It's always the people of our country are amazing, amazing people. And we want to win again. We're going to win. We're going to win. We're going to win.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Isn't it true though, you know, we look at ourselves and we're all very capable people and we know what we're doing and we know what we want but isn't it true, our country does not win any more. We don't win against ISIS. We don't win with trade. We don't win with healthcare. We're by the way terminating ObamaCare. We're going to come up with something so good. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We don't win at the border with Mexico. We don't win anywhere. But we're going to win, oh we're we going to win. You're going to get so tired of winning. You're going to get so tired. You're going to say, please, please, Mr. President, we can't stand it anymore. We don't want to keep winning. We can't stand it. And I'm going to say, I don't care. We're going to keep winning. We're going to make America great again.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: No, no, we're going to win a lot and you're going to love winning because we haven't -- we need to pick up some slack. It's been a long time. It's been a long time. So we just got back from South Carolina and the people there, again, amazing. What they've sent us off with such a beautiful victory, such a conclusive victory. Out of the seven congressional districts, we won all seven.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We picked up 100% -- amazing -- a record. That's a record. We picked up every single vote. We picked up every single delegate. We walked away with 50-0 or 50 and we picked up 50. That's great.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Great. So and you know, it's just a signal. It was just amazing. I went from place to place to place. I'd make these speeches four or five a day. You think that's easy? It's not easy, OK? It's not easy. How many people do you have like 12 -- 13,000? That's not big, there's a lot of people in here.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Wow. The place is packed. I do hope though that we have a few protesters so the cameras will turn, you know. Because they'll never -- I always tell, they focus on my face and I go home and my wife is always saying, "I didn't know, I didn't see the crowd." She hears the crowd. You know, a crowd like this has a roar, right? She hears...

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: ...she hears it.

WHITFIELD: OK. You're listening to Donald Trump there in Atlanta talking about his conclusive victory in South Carolina winning all 50 delegates and Brian, Ellis back with me. And Brian, I couldn't help but notice you were laughing so hard when he was talking about you're going to get tired of winning. But, you know, he is excited about winning.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: What, you know, I don't know how you even assess, you know, him coming off this big win, what's next for him? You know, there's been lots of analysis about whether he is unstoppable at this point. Whether there is anything to stand in the way of his momentum? How do you see it, Brian?

MORGENSTERN: Well, I think he solidified his 30 to 35% of voters. He seems to, you know, not be willing to abandon him for anything. And they love to hear about how sick of winning they'll be. But the rest of the Republican Party, if it were to unite, would make up more voters than his supporters.

So you know, the other candidates, if they can come up with some way of unifying could defeat him. But, at this point, he can keep winning 35% of the vote in every state and win every state by doing that. So, as long as a plurality will win because there's so many other candidates, then he is in good shape.

That's, you know, we're going to see what happens on that Super Tuesday. To me, more than just the southern states with Trump's demographic. There's going to be Massachusetts and Virginia, North Carolina, some purple states that may go for some candidate other than trump.

So I think, you know, starting with March 1st, we may have a shake-up. And voters may start to gravitate elsewhere and it may be a much more competitive season.

[16:40:00] WHITFIELD: Ellis, do you see -- what do you see on the horizon with that potential shake-up for Super Tuesday. Because Donald Trump does it very confidently of course, you know, we're hearing from Marco Rubio who was feeling like he's got some momentum by coming in second and that, you know, is a big feather in his cap. But then it's Ted Cruz who is saying, "Well, wait a minute, you know, it's not over yet." It was pretty neck and neck between he and Marco Rubio.

HENICAN: Yes. And I'm still waiting to hear Donald wasn't specific about how he's going to win. Listen, you know, don't know the answer to that, honestly. What goes through my mind is wondering what kind of party would have that guy as the front-runner. I mean he hasn't said anything. He just repeats -- just like a stream of consciousness poem...

WHITFIELD: But that was amazing. And so far it doesn't seem to be...

HENICAN: It's amazing.

WHITFIELD: ...mattering to anyone.

HENICAN: It's absolutely working. And you know, you've got a difference where there's no incentive for any individual to leave prematurely, as long as they can hang around. Each one figures, hey maybe I'll be the last guy standing. And so we'll let one of the others leave. I think it's going to go along a good long while when, you know, he looks like he is cruising to me.

WHITFIELD: Brian, you know, some -- the supporters would say what they're hearing specifically is that, you know, he is defying the norm of politics. He's defying, you know, all expectations of what Americans are accustomed to seeing in the race for the White House.

MORGENSTERN: Yes, it's performance art that we're not used to seeing on a presidential campaign trip...

WHITFIELD: No.

MORGENSTERN: ...I think that's true, he makes everybody laugh, he channels their anger and for voters -- there are a number of voters out there for whom sort of...

WHITFIELD: Yes.

MORGENSTERN: ...solutions to problems and perhaps tax are not particularly compelling.

WHITFIELD: All right.

MORGENSTERN: But the Trump Show that we're seeing right now on our screen is pretty compelling for many of those voters.

(CROSSTALK)

WHITFIELD: All right, we're going to leave right there and hey, we got to chuckle a little bit. That was a little bit of fun there.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: All right. Brian Morgenstern, Ellis Henican thank you so much for sharing that. All right, coming up returning to the Democrats and why super delegates could be a game-changer for Hillary Clinton?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:45:45] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Hillary Clinton may have beat Bernie Sanders in two out of three primaries contest, I should say so far but in order to clinch a presidential nomination it is possible Clinton won't need just delegates but super delegates. Here is CNN, Chief National Correspondent, John King.

JOHN KING, CNN, CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: She just want Nevada. This assigns her South Carolina next week at a 55/45 margin. She wins 55/45. Let's assume, OK that's a hypothetical let's assume she wins everything else, right she wins Super Tuesday, 55/45. Then she would start to pull away with delegates.

Let's assume throughout the month of March, Hillary Clinton won everything. Now the Sanders campaign thinks it's going to win some of this station, right? They think they're going to win Vermont for example, this is hypothetical. Let's assume she wins 55-45 all through there.

Then we get to May, she is continuing to move 55-45, then we finished out the final progress. If she won 55-45 all of the way out she would still be short of what she needs to clinch the nomination if Sanders stays into the end because of the Democratic Party value rules. But she has over 400 super delegates right now and she actually has more. People who have pledged to support her but keeping it private for now in case they want to roll them out maybe when their state is up if she has a bad week and wants to roll out of endorsements.

So if she wants everything 55-45 and again Bernie Sanders may win some of these states, so Hillary Clinton may win some states by 65%. You know, but if you just hypothetically play it out like this in a long contest it is conceivable she gets to the convention even if she won 49 states she could end up short of the delegates, the pledged delegates from the primaries and caucuses she needs the super delegates.

The way to keep the super delegates is to keep the party support by winning contests. This isn't winning beautiful Iowa and Nevada. Some people would say it's winning ugly or it's winning close, but it's winning and that's how you keep the party establishment on your side.

WHITFIELD: All right, talk more about this, now joining me right now are Democratic Strategist and Bernie Sanders supporter Nomiki Konst and CNN political commentator and a Democratic super delegate, Maria Cardona. Welcome back, ladies.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR AND A SUPER DELEGATE: Thank you, Fred.

WHITFIELD: OK, so Maria you first. Talk to us about the power -- the potential power of you and other super delegates.

(LAUGHTER)

CARDONA: You know, it's so interesting that all of the attention that a super delegates are getting when in reality if you actually look at 2008 and the role of the super delegates, they followed what the voice of the people ended up being or at least the voice of the primaries and caucuses and who the winners of those were which was -- and the normal delegates from the states, which was Barack Obama.

Now, interestingly enough, what ended up happening is that a lot of the super delegates that Hillary Clinton had pledged even before the beginning of the primary process started, a lot of those super delegates switched over to then Senator Obama when he started winning a lot of the caucuses.

So, I would suggest that Bernie Sanders focus on exactly what Hillary Clinton is focused on winning as many contests as many caucuses, as many primaries as possible. And then the rest of it will fall into place.

WHITFIELD: OK. And so Nomiki, how does your candidate, Bernie Sanders, try to seize on the opportunity by appealing to super delegates since it really to go either way regardless of what the outcome of the vote or caucusing is for any state.

NOMIKI KONST, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST AND BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Well, obviously the Sanders' campaign is focused on winning state by state right now. And that is obviously the path to victory. But the difference between this year and 2008 is that there was a real primary.

There was a long primary in 2008 with many different candidates and Hillary Clinton didn't have them endorsed her as early as August like she did last year, 350 super delegates. Not just support her but endorsed her. Those are Democratic Party leaders, those are party officials, those are people who are monitoring these elections let's keep that in mind during these primaries.

So you know, this is very different process than 2008 and to be fair, this came about in the '80s when we were under a different -- we had a different Democratic Party. We were trying to win elections against Republicans and run Blue Dog. But the party is 70% more progressive.

And that is why Bernie Sanders is a reflection of the future of the Democratic Party and if he sends that message to super delegate explaining to them that it is an investment in the future by investing in his campaign rather than the '90s which is the Hillary Clinton campaign, you know, this is very important for the Democrats so that they can survive in the future.

[16:50:00] WHITFIELD: OK, and really quick 10 seconds each, is it really important right now as the two candidates both kind of fight over the label progressive. How important is it, Maria that either candidate really convinces South Carolina voters that they are the more progressive one?

CARDONA: I think the more important thing is convince these voters that the candidate is on their side and that is exactly what Hillary Clinton is going to be focused on. Right now, she is ahead there by quite a bit...

WHITFIELD: OK.

CARDONA: ...but she is not taking anything for granted.

WHITFIELD: All right, Nomiki real quick.

KONST: I think Bernie Sanders needs to connect the dots made the state for income and equality and racial injustice. When the average African-American family has a net worth of $11,000 and the average white family has $141,000 average net worth that's a big problem, that's an economic problem and that's his message.

WHITFIELD: All right Nomiki Konst, Maria Cardona thanks so much ladies, appreciate it.

CARDONA: Thanks Fred, good to be with you.

KONST: Thanks Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) WHITFIELD: All right, ever since Bill Clinton famously went on late night television to play his saxophone, political candidates themselves climb to display their own musical talent even if they were pretty slim at times. Here's a look, cartoon style by CNNs, Jake Tapper.

JAKE TAPPER, AMERICAN JOURNALIST, CARTOONIST, AUTHOR: Vanity fair referred to the CNNs recent Republican Town Hall last the day that music died, thanks to Marco Rubio trying to reassure South Carolinians that the Electronic Dance Music or EDM remix (ph) is perfectly wholesome.

MARCO RUBIO, 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The lyrics are clean. The beats and music is fun. I've gotten into it.

[16:55:00] TAPPER: And even more questionably, Ted Cruz recreating a song he privately performs for his wife.

TED CRUZ, 2016 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I just called to say I love you. I just called to say I care...

(SHOUTING)

TAPPER: Truth is, with the exception of dearly departed Martin O'Malley whose thrashing skills were impressive, this pour rays (ph) into music are risky for every President Obama pulling off Al Green.

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: I'm so in love with you.

(CHEERING)

TAPPER: There are at least five failed attempts like Mitt Romney channelling the Baja man.

MITT ROMNEY, AMERICAN BUSINESSMAN AND POLITICAN: Who let the dogs out?

TAPPER: John McCain's Beach Boys.

JOHN MCCAIN, SENIOR UNITED STATES SENATOR FROM ARIZONA: The old beach boy song, bah, bah, bah -- anyway.

TAPPER: Or Hillary Clinton doing the Nae, Nae on Ellen.

(CHEERING)

TAPPER: And at class all his own of course, is Bernie Sanders who put out a folk album.

BERNIE SANDERS, 2016 U.S. PRESIDENT CANDIDATE: As I went walking that ribbon of highway...

TAPPER: This is a real thing perhaps to be charitable, Mr. Sanders is trying to get the nation to unite in common cause, in this case that this should never be heard again.

Sanders: This land was made for you and me... WHITFIELD: All right, they have us all tapping our toes, very

impressive. All right, I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much more for joining me. We have so much more straight ahead in the newsroom with Poppy Harlow and all starts right after this.