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30 GOP Delegates At Stake In Nevada Caucuses; Cruz Asks Spokesman To Resign Over Rubio Tape; Nevada Voters To Make GOP Choice Today; Nevada Caucus Results Tonight; Clinton And Sanders Face Voters In CNN Town Hall; Democratic Battle for the White House; Obama's Plan for Closure of Guantanamo. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 23, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone, I'm Kate Bolduan. Wolf Blitzer is on assignment getting ready for the big CNN debate coming up this Thursday. It is 10:00 a.m. in Las Vegas, 1:00 p.m. here in New York and 8:00 p.m. in Damascus, Syria. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you so much for joining us.

We want to start right now with the next round for the -- for Republicans in the presidential race. It is caucus day in Nevada, where the candidates are making their final pitch before the voters decide tonight.

Donald Trump is angling for his third straight victory following big wins in South Carolina and New Hampshire. Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio are again battling for second, and John Kasich says he's not going anywhere.

National Political Reporter Maeve Reston, she's live in Sparks, Nevada where Trump will be holding his final rally ahead of the caucuses there. Maeve, Trump has held a healthy lead in the polls in Nevada, but it is important, I think, to re-enforce to our viewers that Nevada is notoriously hard to predict.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely. But I have to say, Kate, traveling Nevada over the last week, talking to many Republican voters, there is no question that this is Trump country. So, if Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio were able to pull off some kind of surprise here tonight, it would be a huge feat that we'd be talking about for months.

We know that the polling is unreliable here in Nevada, but we also know that Trump has actually been organized here. He's been doing caucus training since last year. And they're not expecting the turnout to be that big here in Nevada. It was only 33,000 people in 2012, and all the experts here are saying that might be something close to 40,000 this time.

BOLDUAN: So, talking about -- I mean, we'll see where turnout lands. I mean, it's amazing when you think of where turnout is and what the actual number of eligible voters. I mean, not a lot of people turn out in Nevada, especially on the Republican side. Let's talk about for the race for number two. Ted Cruz, he's had a tough go of it this week. I mean, he fired a top aide, effectively after the aide sent around that false video of Marco Rubio looking as if he was disparaging the bible which he was not. And Trump was so eager to pile on this morning, tweeting that Cruz used that aide as a scapegoat fired like a dog. Ted panicked, Trump tweets. And this isn't the first time that the Cruz camp is being accused of dirty tricks. So, how does Ted Cruz turn this around now? What are you hearing on the ground?

RESTON: Well, it's really interesting. We were with Ted Cruz in Elko, Nevada yesterday in the rural area. It's got a really, really strong crowd out there. And Glenn Beck actually introduced him at that rally, talking about how Trump is a bully who's been piling on and how that's un-American.

So, it's going to be interesting to watch whether Ted Cruz tries to come back at Trump with this bullying narrative. But I will say that he does have a lot of fans here in Nevada, but he's getting it clearly from both sides, from Marco Rubio and Donald Trump.

At the same time, he really has a huge opportunity in the next couple of weeks in some of these big Super Tuesday primary days. He's doing well among southern voters. And we'll have to see whether or not he can make up the difference with evangelical voters who Trump did better with in South Carolina. There aren't that many of them here.

But what Ted Cruz has been doing is really making an appeal to the libertarian voters here. So, if he comes in a strong second tonight, that could go a long way for him.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and you look at the travel schedules, you can see that Super Tuesday is, oh, so there on the front of their minds even though they have got the caucuses in Nevada first.

Maeve is there at the Trump rally that'll be starting in just a couple hours. Maeve, thanks so much for keeping an eye on this rally for all of you.

She mentioned, Maeve also mentioned, Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He is battling for a surprise finish in Nevada tonight. His main target remains not really the frontrunner, Donald Trump, but rather Senator Ted Cruz. Rubio lists -- Rubio -- and also, at the very same time, Rubio's list of big name endorsement, it continues to grow. Just look at that. Adding now, former Jeb Bush supporters like Bob Dole, influential senator; Orin Hatch, adding him to his team.

And National Correspondent Jason Carroll, he's following the Rubio campaign in Las Vegas today. So, Jason, Rubio, he wrapped up the -- his final rally in that state just a short time ago. What is the Rubio campaign saying today? How confident are they? Where are their heads?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I'm going to get to that in one quick second. First, we're going to talk about some of those endorsements that you were talking about. Rubio said something very interesting during his rally today. He says and told the crowd, look, I know I wasn't your first choice, but I am the best choice, at this point. And I think that speaks to a number of endorsements that he's been getting lately.

The GOP party surrounding him. The establishment surrounding him. Perhaps that's why we're now seeing so many of these endorsements coming out. I mean, every time I look at my iPhone, I'm getting another announcement from the Rubio camp that here's another endorsement and another endorsement. But will it at all help? Will it translate into votes? That's the big question.

[13:05:02] And in terms of his showing here, will he have a good showing? I think what they're hoping for, at this point, is a respectable showing. I mean, this rally that we attended here today, this is going to be the last event that Rubio is going to be attending here in Nevada. He's actually taking off, heading for Minnesota, heading for Michigan. He won't even be here tonight for the watch party. So, perhaps that's some indication of how they think they're going to do here in the state of Nevada.

BOLDUAN: Yes, you can -- their travel schedules do always tell you a little more than maybe their press releases are.

So, as we were talking about with Maeve, Jason, Rubio he's at the center of this latest dust-up with Ted Cruz.

CARROLL: Yes.

BOLDUAN: Rubio accusing him of dirty tricks. A top aide for Cruz is now gone because of it. What is the Rubio campaign saying about that today?

CARROLL: Right. Rick Tyler, as you know, and you heard -- you guys were talking about it before, Rick Tyler now out of a job after that controversial ad which showed Marco Rubio not saying something about the bible. You know, this is something that Rubio has been saying about Cruz for quite some time, saying that he's not trustworthy, that he doesn't tell the truth. He did speak about that when he spoke to reporters. But he also took an opportunity to take a swipe at Ted -- at Donald Trump as well. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But I've never spent a lot of time and I don't think we spent any campaign money attacking other Republicans. And that's not what I'm -- I'm not going to change now. I'm -- Donald has a base of support. And -- but the majority of our party doesn't want him as our nominee and we'll continue to work towards consolidating that. Right now, Ted Cruz is in charge of his campaign. He is the head of his campaign. And if his campaign has created a culture of misleading people and saying things that aren't true and lies, he's responsible for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And, once again, Rubio saying that what he is seeing out of the Cruz campaign is a pattern of deceit that starts with the top. That is not a candidate who can be trusted.

As for Trump, he's saying that in telling voters that, look, you cannot vote for the loudest person in the room. That doesn't necessarily mean that's a person who can get the job done. Trump's voters clearly not listening -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Not at least to this point. Let's see, Jason Carroll at where Marco Rubio was. Marco Rubio now off to Minnesota with an eye towards Super Tuesday, as the voters will be heading to caucus sites in Nevada very soon.

Jason, thanks so much.

Let's talk -- let's talk much more about the state of the race and the Cruz campaign especially, and the attacks that are coming at Ted Cruz from both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio. Joining me now is Bob Vander Plaats, Executive President of The Family Leader and a Ted Cruz supporter. Bob, it's great to see you. It's been a while.

BOB VANDER PLAATS, EXECUTIVE PRESIDENT, THE FAMILY LEADER: It has been. Good to see you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, too. So, give me your thoughts here. You've been -- you know politics. You know the Cruz campaign. Did Ted Cruz do the right thing by effectively firing his aide, Rick Tyler?

VANDER PLAATS: Well, I think he did. I mean, everybody likes Rick Tyler. Rick Tyler is a true professional. But, in a lack of judgment, he retweeted something that shouldn't have been retweeted. It was false. It violated a core value of the campaign, and that's the integrity piece of it.

And so, I think Ted Cruz had to do that, is to show that he would fire Rick Tyler over violating the integrity issue. So, when I -- when I hear the things all about misleading and those things, Kate, if Ted Cruz was misleading anybody, I would no longer be part of this campaign. His campaign is run with a great deal of integrity.

When you want to talk about misleading, campaign as a Tea Party conservative like Marco Rubio and then lead with Schumer and McCain and Obama and the gang of eight or Donald Trump, who's misleading a lot of conservatives, when you look at his private property record, his Planned Parenthood issues and a host of other issues that just aren't conservative.

So, I think Ted Cruz is well-positioned to finish strong here and become our nominee.

BOLDUAN: Well, Bob, let me ask you about that because you said, if you didn't basically like the man or trust the man or believe in his values, you would not be part of this campaign. You would not be supporting him. This is not the first time in the last few weeks that Ted Cruz and his campaign have been accused of dirty trick -- dirty tricks, some of them starting in your state in Iowa. And a lot of folks say the culture of a campaign starts at the top. Does the buck stop with Ted Cruz? Shoudn't it?

VANDER PLAATS: Well, of course it stops with Ted Cruz, and that's why I'm with Ted Cruz. He is a man of great integrity. As a matter of fact, when you talk about to our state of Iowa, I'm still waiting for the first person to say that they switched their vote from Dr. Ben Carson to any other candidate based on that information. I ask the Carson campaign, did you fire the person, the staff person that went to CNN 45 minutes before our caucus to let them know that you were not going to New Hampshire? That is relevant news. That's not a campaign of deceit. That's a campaign of relevant news.

And so, Ted Cruz has -- is a principled conservative. He's been consistent. I think people are going to see that. They're -- and that's why they're rallying around him.

[13:10:02] So, I think there's going to be a clear choice. And as this field narrows, all of our polls shows that Ted Cruz does exceptionally well. So, we're looking very forward and very optimistic about this race.

BOLDUAN: Let's look forward but not too much. Let's just look forward to tonight. What's a win in Nevada tonight for Ted Cruz?

VANDER PLAATS: Well, I think -- I think a win in Nevada tonight is top three. He said all along as a matter of fact, when he was outlining his strategy to me, he said, listen, the first four states, we just need to show up and probably place and do well. We don't even need to win the first four, and although he won Iowa. But let's get this thing to a national campaign. He's got the resources. He's got the infrastructure. He's got the message. And I think the more people that -- well, I do agree with Marco Rubio. There is a large segment of the Republican Party who do not want Donald Trump to be their nominee.

(CROSSTALK)

BOLDUAN: But, Bob, do you really think three is the new -- is the new first place?

VANDER PLAATS: Well, no, but I think it's doing well right now. But I think what it is is now you look forward to March one then to March 15. We've got a long ways to go. I mean, right now, you need 1,237 delegates to wrap up the nomination. Trump has got 67. People are going to start looking at his 911 conspiracy. How he says George W. Bush lied. The private property issues. There's a lot of issues that people do not line up with Donald Trump. And they're going to be looking elsewhere to go and I think they're going to be looking to Ted Cruz.

BOLDUAN: Bob Vander Plaats. It's always great to have your take, Bob. Thanks so much.

VANDER PLAATS: Thank you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: And a reminder to all of you, you can follow the results, every moment of it in Nevada tonight, right here on CNN. All night. Doing it only the way that CNN can.

Four days until Democrats head to the polls now in South Carolina. Seven days until Super Tuesday. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are making their final pitch tonight right here on CNN. But it's not just about the votes. It's also about these delegates. Clinton has a solid advantage there, but that can change and change very fast. The details coming up next.

Plus, it was one of her -- his first promises after taking office. More than seven years later, president Obama has rolled out his plan to close the Guantanamo Bay detention facility. How will it work and will Congress go along with it?

[13:12:11]

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[13:16:00] BOLDUAN: It's a big day in the race for the White House. Just hours from now, a big moment for the Democrats. You're looking at live pictures of Columbia, South Carolina, where our town hall will be held and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be taking the stage, talking right to the voters of South Carolina, just four days before the primary there, just a week before Super Tuesday.

And one super important thing to remember, it's not just the vote count. It is the delegate count that matters as well. After the first three contests, here's where the candidates stand. Add in the super delegates who have already pledged, Hillary Clinton currently has a very big advantage, but that can change.

Let's bring in CNN's political director David Chalian for much more on this, our guru -- our delegate guru -- our guru on all things, but let's look toward tonight first, the big town hall, David. What is at stake for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, let's start with what's immediately in front of them. It's taking place, as you just noted, in Columbia, South Carolina. That primary is Saturday. And as you know, Kate, that is a majority African-American electorate. More than half of the Democratic voters who will go to the polls on Saturday are African-Americans. So that puts the African-American vote front and center in a way that it wasn't in Iowa and new Hampshire, obviously. We saw Hillary Clinton with a big African-American advantage in Nevada. She clearly has been polling with that big advantage in South Carolina, but this is now Bernie Sanders' mission to show that he can make some inroads there, because it's not just important in South Carolina. The African-American vote is actually quite critical throughout the entire Democratic nomination process from here on out.

BOLDUAN: And that, obviously, is definitely going to be a focus tonight in the town hall. I mean you really lay it out perfectly, that Sanders has an uphill climb when it comes to that key electorate, that key voting bloc. But Sanders has picked up a new endorsement that could potentially help, director Spike Lee. He cut a radio ad for Bernie Sanders. I think we have a little bit of it. Listen here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SPIKE LEE, DIRECTOR (voice-over): Bernie takes no money from corporations. Nada. Which means he is not on the take. And when Bernie gets in the White House, he will do the right thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: So with the uphill climb that Sanders has when it comes to African-American voters, how can Spike Lee help? How does Bernie Sanders chip away at that?

CHALIAN: You love the use of "do the right thing," right, in a Spike Lee ad?

BOLDUAN: I do. Exactly.

CHALIAN: Listen, I -- these endorsements are important as validating moments for Bernie Sanders. I don't think Spike Lee delivers a treasure-trove of voters with his endorsement or Danny Glover or some other folks that Bernie Sanders has put out front and center right now. But they do help validate that Bernie Sanders' economic message is one that speaks directly to the African-American community. This is the argument that Bernie Sanders has been making for the better part of the last year.

It's just that though Bernie Sanders, obviously, has been spending most of his political career in very white Vermont, hasn't had to sort of court the African-American vote the way that he does now in a presidential race for the Democratic nomination. And so he's going to have to just continue to show that he can make steady progress. Having Spike Lee onboard certainly doesn't hurt, but I don't think it delivers voters his way necessarily.

BOLDUAN: Yes, and Bernie Sanders supporters, they say it's also because he doesn't have high name I.D., they argue, when it comes to the African-American communities, exactly to your point --

CHALIAN: It's true.

BOLDUAN: But Hillary Clinton's campaign, they said that's not good enough. You can be sure.

David, it's great to see you. Thanks, man.

CHALIAN: My pleasure.

BOLDUAN: Let's talk much more about this now with CNN political commentator Hilary Rosen. She's also a Democratic strategist and a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Hilary, it's great to see you. Let's start counterintuitively, if we can. What is, in your mind, a win for Bernie Sanders tonight when it comes to this town hall?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, you know, Bernie Sanders, I think, just has -- he's got -- he's ignited a lot of excitement, and I think he has to now convince people that as we go through this very delegate-heavy March, that he actually can win. And I think the way he does that really is by convincing Democrats that he's not just a -- a candidate of principle. That he's actually also going to be a candidate of progress.

[13:20:18] And I think that's where Hillary Clinton has really put her emphasis. I think it's a little bit of a shortcoming of his. And I think that he needs to be much more concrete. You know, she probably needs to be a little airier and he needs to be much more concrete.

BOLDUAN: And that's exactly what I was going to ask you then, what do you think -- what does Hillary Clinton need to bring tonight on the stage?

ROSEN: You know, I think the last couple of days she's come into her own in terms of a few new things, which is, she's got to run her own race. And I don't think it's only my opinion that for the last, you know, six weeks or so she was really in some respects following Bernie Sanders around the Democratic left. But coming into her own means talking about jobs, not just -- you know, it's not enough to break up the banks. It's about giving America a raise. It's not enough to talk about, you know, getting money out of the political system, it's about getting more money in people's pocketbooks. And I think she actually really excels when she's talking about some of those kind of nuts and bolts issues and she needs to talk about it more in the context of how it -- how it affects people, not just what the policy is.

BOLDUAN: You start hearing that the "we" -- the "we" element in her speech --

ROSEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: In her speech after Nevada. Let me ask you, when you talk about she's kind of coming into her own and he needs to run her own race, interesting that you put it that way because that is kind of the new line of criticism coming from Sanders towards Hillary Clinton.

ROSEN: Yes.

BOLDUAN: He says when he hears her ad, he thinks, that's me! Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am delighted that Secretary Clinton, month after month after month, seems to be adopting more and more of the positions that we have advocated. That's good. And, in fact, is beginning to use a lot of the language and phraseology that we have used. In fact, I think I saw her TV ad and I thought it was me, but it turned out it was Secretary Clinton's picture in the ad.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Hilary, is Clinton moving closer to him politically? Is she using his phraseology? ROSEN: Well, you know, if you just look at their policies, they're

very, very similar and have been for this entire campaign. So I think he's trying to create more distance around that, but I don't think that that's successful.

What is true, though, is that he has been better at her in creating empathy around the problems, and around the heartfelt frustration that Democrats were feeling. And so is she thinking about that more differently, how she phrases it differently? I think she probably is. But let's not -- you know, it works both ways. I mean he has -- he never talked about criminal justice reform before. He never talked about race issues before. I mean they're both kind of seeing what's working and trying to figure out how it fits with their own -- with their own assets and putting it their way.

BOLDUAN: A long race still ahead, that's for darn sure. It was great to see you, Hilary. Thank you.

ROSE: Take care, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Thanks.

Ahead for us, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they will come face to face with the voters of South Carolina tonight. It is part of a live CNN town hall from Columbia, South Carolina. Remember, it begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern only here on CNN.

Also ahead, backlash is already rolling in against the president's plan to close Guantanamo Bay, the detention facility there. A plan that could include bringing detainees to the United States. We're going to talk it over, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:15] BOLDUAN: Just hours ago, President Obama laid out his strategy for closing the Guantanamo Bay detention facility and transfer up to 60 terror suspects to U.S. prisons. This was one of the president's first pledges, you'll remember, after taking office in January of 2009. Today, a last-ditch effort to fulfill that promise. Listen here to the president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Guantanamo harms our partnerships with allies in other countries whose cooperation we need against terrorism. When I talk to other world leaders, they bring up the fact that Guantanamo's not resolved. Moreover, keeping this facility open is contrary to our values. It undermines our standing in the world. It is viewed as a stain on our broader record of upholding the highest standards of rule of law.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Joining me now to discuss is Republican Congresswoman Jackie Walorski from Indiana. She sits on the Armed Services Committee.

It's great to see you again, congresswoman. Thank you so much for joining me.

REP. JACKIE WALORSKI (R-IN), HOUSE ARMED SERVICES COMMITTEE: Thanks so much, Kate, appreciate it.

BOLDUAN: Of course. You oppose the president's plan to close Guantanamo. What is your reaction then to what you heard from the president today?

WALORSKI: Well, this is not a great surprise.

BOLDUAN: Right.

WALORSKI: You know, he's been talking about this for quite a few years now. And I think all he's really done today is do a -- kind of like a press release saying, OK, here's my shot across the bow. I want to send terrorists who have killed Americans into American soil, and it's in writing. And that's really the only difference today from what he's been talking about from what we've seen on the Armed Services Committee as well.

BOLDUAN: I mean I don't think it's a surprise that maybe what the president said today isn't going to be changing any opinions on Capitol Hill, but I do want to talk about one part of the plan that is getting a lot of the focus.

WALORSKI: Sure.

[13:29:59] BOLDUAN: It would likely bring detainees to prisons here in the United States. You have fought very hard against just that. But, congresswoman, there are already terror suspects in prisons here in the United States.