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New Cases Of Zika Virus May Have Been Sexually Transmitted; Supreme Court Nomination Battle Rages On. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 23, 2016 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Couple of years - little few years later, guy sells it for $525 million. And then they tell you what to do. They buy "the Boston Globe" for $1.3 billion. They sell it for $1. And then they write an editorial where they tell you how to run your life. Give me a break.

And actually if you think of it, I know why I get bad treatment in New York, because it's owned by Mexico. I don't know if you know. A rich guy in Mexico --.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN HOST: All right. Donald Trump talking about the media there. We are going to jump put for a second. We will keep monitoring it.

But at the top of that, Eliana to you, he did talk about Ted Cruz and it is really a back and forth, back and forth battle. And it leaves some people asking why isn't he going after Rubio harder?

ELIANA JOHNSON, WASHINGTON EDITOR, NATIONAL REVIEW: I think Trump sees Cruz as his primary adversary right now and it's hurting Cruz. He's getting hammered on one side from Trump calling him dishonest and on the other side from Marco Rubio calling him dishonest. And I think that really showed up in the exit polls from South Carolina where a full 33 percent of voters told pollsters that they thought Ted Cruz was running most untrustworthy campaign. That was second only to Donald Trump. And I don't think Marco Rubio should get so comfortable because if Ted Cruz has, of course, bows out of the race after Super Tuesday, he will set his sights on Marco Rubio and start hurling the same insults at him.

HARLOW: Gloria, I want to talk about Ohio, I should say, a state not exactly around the corner, but what we saw today is the polling there. Despite Kasich having a 77 percent approval rating as governor there, right, and can banking on that state, the latest poll from Quinnipiac shows that Trump is beating him in his own state.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Ouch, right. I think that it's by a handful of points. And I think that Kasich needs to win Ohio just like Rubio would potentially need to win Florida, right? These are their home states. You don't want to lose in your home state. He is the sitting governor of the state of Ohio.

And I think Trump, Trump has been up in the polls in a lot of states all over the country. And I think Kasich has to play a little catch- up there. But again, it's early. And we have to see what Kasich's momentum is if there is any going into the state of Ohio. But I really do see it as a must win for him.

HARLOW: And you know, it's interesting, Eliana, CNN's been reporting that there are some of these major Republican donors who intend in the next few days to privately urge Kasich to drop out. That's according to a big bundler for the GOP. Kasich was asked about that by Wolf Blitzer yesterday and he said I haven't heard of any of the special interests to get me to drop out. But there is concern that the field is still too big to get sort of clear numbers here in terms of who could potentially really take on Trump.

JOHNSON: Right, look, John Kasich has no path to the nomination. To say Ohio is a must win state presumes that he has a path to the nomination when he doesn't. And the reason he is getting leaned on to get out, I have to say it was the only reason he could be in this race, is because he thinks it going to be a contested convention, which would make sense. But he is getting leaned on to get out because he is taking a share of the vote that would go to other people and boost the candidate over Trump.

And also, there has been increasing chatter that one of these candidates should outright offer him a spot on the ticket which is another reason that he could still be in this, to try to exert some leverage over a nominee and force himself on the ticket as vice president.

But yes, I think you are going to hear increasing chatter about why Kasich is still in the race and what he wants, either a spot on the ticket or whether he so firmly believes it's going to be a contested convention that it's no reason for him to drop out.

HARLOW: The thing is Kasich said, as you know Gloria, in the past interview, that he is quote "his own man," and that no interest in being a VP.

BORGER: Right, he told me that.

HARLOW: It was your great interview, Gloria.

BORGER: It was. He said he would be the worst vice president in history. So we have that On the Record.

You know, I was talking to somebody who is a friend of Kasich's yesterday. And he said to me, look, Gloria, when you talk to John Kasich, you understand what this isn't so much a campaign as it is a mission or a crusade for him. So people who may be calling him and saying, you know, you want to think this over, maybe you don't have a path, as Eliana says, and there is no clear path, his answer is are you kidding me? Tell me what Rubio's path is who has never won anything, right? So he says what's the difference between, you know, between me and Rubio? So I don't think you're -- Republicans are going to get very far with Kasich on that front.

HARLOW: Yes, all right. Go read Gloria's great interview with him. I knew it was from a fabulous interview.

Gloria, thank you very much. Eliana, thank you as well. Appreciate it.

We are going to take a quick break. We are going to bring you back to listen more to Trump speaking live in Sparks, Nevada, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:39:28] HARLOW: All right, we want to take you back to Sparks, Nevada, now, where Donald Trump is speaking live ahead of tonight's caucuses. Let's listen in.

TRUMP: And we are going to build a wall. And the wall is going to be a beautiful wall. It is going to be a very tall wall. Much taller than this very low ceiling, believe me. It's going to be a wall that if you get up there, you are not going to want to come down. It's going to be like, can you send a crane to get this poor gentleman down. And we are going to stop drugs and we're going to stop all of the problems that are pouring into our country.

And the Pope was terrific but he heard one side of the story. The following day, he could not have been nicer. But he heard the officials from Mexico who I respect. They are smarter and they are sharper than our leader, if you call him a leader. I don't call him a leader. He calls Iran. He said, I spoke with the supreme leader. Give me a break, the supreme leader. He's not the supreme leader for us, I can tell you that.

But if you look at it, we are going to have a wall and it's going to be a great wall, and it's going to work. You know, if you look at the kind of damage being done to this country between the crime and the drugs that are pouring in and the economic development, by the way, because they're taking jobs of American citizens.

Now, when we need extra people, we will work it out. When they come in, they go back. They come in, they go back. The grape industries an example. I don't want to hurt an industry. We are going to make our industry stronger, better than ever. We are lowering taxes for businesses bigly. We are going to make us -- you know, we pay the highest taxes in the world. I don't know if you know that. Pfizer's leaving our country now because the taxes are so high.

HARLOW: All right. There you have it, Donald Trump speaking in Sparks, Nevada, trying to convince voters to caucus for him tonight. Of course, we have full coverage all night tonight of the Nevada caucuses. We'll keep monitoring Donald Trump. Also expecting Ted Cruz to speak shortly in Nevada as well.

Coming up, just before Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off in tonight's CNN Democratic town hall, Spike Lee revealing which candidate he is backing. Hear why the actor/director is telling voters to quote "wake up."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:53] HARLOW: All right. In just a few hours, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will make their case to voters in South Carolina and to you during CNN's town hall that is tonight. It could be a pivotal moment for both of them. It comes off a win for Clinton in Nevada as she tries to build momentum in the south and push on towards Super Tuesday.

For Sanders, he is trying to turn the tide, attract more African- American voters. He is already sharpening his attacks on Clinton blasting her Wall Street ties and complaining that she is now campaigning using his messages.

Let's go straight to CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He is at the site of the town hall tonight. What can we expect?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Poppy, I think we can expect a pretty dynamic showing from both candidates. Actually, just a couple of minutes ago, Bernie Sanders sent out an email to his vast list of supports. And listens to it said. It says, it's no exaggeration to say that this is the most important stretch of our campaign.

Sounds pretty obvious, right, but he is trying to gain back the momentum that they lost by losing Nevada, particularly in this delegate fight. As these campaigns stretch out and become longer and longer, it does become a delegate fight. And the Clinton campaign is winning slightly in pledge delegates but a lot more in super delegates. So the Sanders campaign is trying to send the message, look, we are still very much in this.

But we are seeing senator Sanders increase the volume of his criticism and attacks on her, but so much so today when he was in Virginia, the crowd started booing her. He had this to say. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is what we are up against. Let me give you an example. One of the areas where my opponent, Secretary Clinton and I, have a strong disagreement. No, no, no, no, no. No, no, no, I respect Clinton, we can have differences.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So he was trying to sort of halt some of his supporters from booing there. But, Poppy, I can tell you, I was at his Nevada speech when he lost the Nevada caucuses. The crowd was burning so loudly. That is the dynamic of this party right now. The Democratic Party is divided and split. So regardless of who wins the nomination, that's one question here, will they be able to come together?

But Secretary Clinton also wants to sort of keep her foot going straight ahead on the gas here and keep defining Bernie Sanders and stay in this position. She has a commanding presence here in South Carolina. So she will be looking for a strong win here on Saturday. Bernie Sanders wants to look ahead until Super Tuesday.

HARLOW: Yes, absolutely. But you know what I love about these town halls is we are going to have another one tonight, Jeff, is the fact that you get to learn about the candidate personally much more about them and not just the debate style. So we will be watching 8:00 tonight.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much.

Coming up next, the strongest statement yet from the majority leader that he will not allow a vote on any Supreme Court nominee that comes from President Obama, but some Republican senators have openly disagreed with him. We will take you live for the latest on that to Washington next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:52:58] HARLOW: There will be no confirmation hearings on the Supreme Court nominee put forward by President Obama, this according to the top Republican leaders on the Senate Judiciary Committee. Republican majority leader senator Mitch McConnell making that announcement after lawmakers met on Capitol Hill today.

Our senior political reporter Manu Raju is live in Washington.

He made it very, very, very clear, there is no getting around this the way he sees it.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: There really is not, Poppy. This is the most aggressive position the Republicans have taken since the vacancy was created, spawned by Justice Scalia's death.

Now, Republicans said there will be no hearings and no votes in the Senate. That is truly unprecedented move. Since 1955, which is modern era of when confirmation hearings actually took place, no nominee has been denied a hearing unless voluntarily withdrawn. And we know President Obama is moving forward with the nominee.

Now, not only are the Republicans not going to hold hearings but they actually won't even meet with the nominee. I asked Senator McConnell and Senator John Cornyn, who is the number two Republican, if they would actually meet with the nominee. They said they would not. The reason why they believe that we are in an elections year. Voters should have a chance to decide, not a lame duck president, and not this current Senate.

They want to put this right into the electorate. It's a risky move but it is something they believe in will pay off in the middle of the tense very race not just for the White House, but also for Senate candidates as well. As we know Republicans have a very tenuous hold on the majority but that this will be a huge issue for them rallying both bases to decide who can -- who will be the next Supreme Court nominee, Poppy.

HARLOW: Yes. And if any of the senators running for election will be held responsible by their constituents if they won't even hold a hearing. We will watch.

Manu Raju, live for us in Washington. Thank you very much. Coming up next, switching gears to a very, very important topic, what

we just learned about new cases of the Zika virus possibly spread through sexual contact. We will talk about it in the context of this country is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:11] HARLOW: All right. The CDC says it is looking into reports of new cases of the Zika virus that may have been sexually transmitted. There have been 14 new reports of possible infections. Officials say several of these cases are among pregnant women, who as you know are most at risk.

Two involve women who could have only contracted the virus from their partners who returned from infected areas, CDC's guidance calls for people at risk to practice abstinence or protected sex, because of the new danger. The agency stresses there is no evidence that women can transmit the Zika virus to their sexual partners and that the most likely way to become infected is from the mosquito carrying the virus. We'll keep you posted on that.

All right. That will do it for me this afternoon. Thank you so much for joining us.

"The LEAD" with Jake Tapper begins right now.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Thanks, Poppy.

Time for Republicans to show their cards in state that knows all about high stakes.

"THE LEAD" starts right now.