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Trump Wins Third Straight State; Bernie Sanders Hold News Conference in South Carolina.Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[09:00:24] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Donald Trump leaves Las Vegas a winner.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now we're going to get greedy for the United States. We're going to grab and grab and grab.

COSTELLO: The billionaire dominating by double digits in Nevada.

TRUMP: We won the evangelicals. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. Number one with Hispanics.

COSTELLO: Three straight wins. A lot of momentum heading into tomorrow's CNN debate. And now backlash within the GOP.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's really just playing us for chumps.

COSTELLO: Some Republican groups spending big to derail the frontrunner. But is it too late?

Plus Bernie Sanders cozies up to President Obama?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: On the day that Obama was inaugurated Republicans came together and said what are we going to do? And what they concluded is we're going to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct.

COSTELLO: And Clinton shows her compassion.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have serious challenges. And I think it's important for people and particularly for white people to be honest about those.

COSTELLO: Next, South Carolina, then Super Tuesday. Can Sanders stay in the hunt?

Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

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COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. We begin with two big political stories.

Donald Trump picks up his third straight win with a sweeping victory in Nevada and at any minute we're expecting Democrat Bernie Sanders to hold a news conference in Columbia, South Carolina.

We'll keep an eye on that podium but first let's begin with Trump's big win in the west because hey, Donald Trump hit the jackpot in Nevada. In a total blowout the Republican presidential hopeful now moves one step closer to the GOP nomination.

Here are the final results from last night's caucuses. Trump winning and winning big. Picking up as I said his third consecutive win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: A couple of months ago we weren't expected to win this one. You know that, right? We weren't. Of course if you listen to the pundits we weren't expected to win too much. And now we're winning, winning, winning the country.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: And soon the country is going to start winning, winning, winning, winning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Senator Ted Cruz now trying to bounce back after a disappointing finish by setting his sights on Super Tuesday.

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SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: One week from today will be the most important night of this campaign. One week from today is Super Tuesday. One week from today, the most delegates that are awarded on a single day will be awarded next Tuesday. The role of the first four states is to narrow the field and give Super Tuesday a clear choice. And now the voters can decide.

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COSTELLO: Super Tuesday. Missing from last night's action Senator Marco Rubio who left the Silver State early. This morning he's brushing off Trump's big win.

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SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is a very unusual year and a very unusual process. And the Nevada caucuses by the way are atypical. I respect Nevada very much but last night that process was just different than the rest of the country.

Here's the bottom line fact, the vast and overwhelming majority of Republicans do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee.

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COSTELLO: All right. So the question now, can Trump be stopped ahead of Super Tuesday?

Let's bring in CNN's Sara Murray. She's live in Las Vegas. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. Good morning, Carol. It's a great question because Donald Trump just trounced his Republican rivals last night. But look at his showing so far. I mean, he's proven he can win in New Hampshire, which is a more centric state. He's proven he can win in the South among more conservative Republicans in South Carolina. And last night he picked up his first western win in one of these tricky caucus states.

And of course all of this is happening as his Republican rivals are still squabbling amongst each other trying to prove that they can be the alternative to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump emerging victorious for the third contest in a row.

TRUMP: We love Nevada. We love Nevada.

MURRAY: Dominating the Nevada caucuses and steamrolling his opponents.

TRUMP: 46 percent with the Hispanics. 46 percent. Number one with Hispanic. We won with evangelicals, we won with young, we won with old, we won with highly educated, we won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.

MURRAY: For both Senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz a disappointing loss.

CRUZ: I want to congratulate Donald Trump on a strong evening tonight.

[09:05:03] MURRAY: In his concession speech Cruz pointing to his early Iowa caucus win and arguing he's the strongest alternative to Trump.

CRUZ: The first four states have shown is that the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign.

MURRAY: While Cruz advisors tell CNN the candidate has reached his boiling point with Trump. And to expect a more aggressive Cruz in the coming days. Meanwhile the pressure is mounting on Dr. Ben Carson and John Kasich to drop out after their dismal results.

Kasich's camp quick to rub salt in Rubio's wound in a biting press release, saying, "Senator Rubio just endured another disappointing performance despite being the highest spending candidate in Nevada."

Last night larger voter turnout caused some problems at the polls like ballot shortages and incidents of volunteers checking in caucus-goers without verifying ID. Voters even took to Twitter to complain of poll workers openly showing support for Trump. Nevada GOP officials say there have been no official reports of voter

irregularities or violations and it is not against the rules for volunteers to wear candidate gear.

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MURRAY: Now, Carol, we're about to test the conventional wisdom as to whether anyone can be an alternative to Trump or Ted Cruz. That test comes on March 1st to see if he can in fact win Texas and move on. For Marco Rubio, like you said, we didn't even hear from him last night but this morning he did a couple of interviews and in one of them he promised that he was going to win Florida. So we'll have to see if he is able to pull that out and able to pick up a little momentum to keep him in the race between now and then -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray, reporting live from Las Vegas this morning, thank you.

Today Trump is riding high after his sweeping victory in Nevada. Here is what he said earlier this morning.

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TRUMP: We won with every single group. Every single group. Men, women, evangelicals. We won with all sorts of education. If you talk about education at the highest level to the -- to a lower level. We won with that. We won with everything.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: In terms of delegates, Trump is beating Cruz and Rubio's numbers combined. You see them there.

With me now to talk about this CNN political analyst John Avlon. I'm also joined by Republican strategist Rich Galen.

Welcome to both of you.

RICH GALEN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thanks.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, John, you heard Trump. He said he won in all the demos. Is it too late to stop him?

AVLON: That window is closing. Donald Trump had a massive win last night across all demographics. He beat Cruz among the evangelicals, he beat Cruz and Rubio among Latinos. And the delegate math and the polls on Super Tuesday look really tough. And Rubio can talk about how a majority of Republicans want somebody else but the lack of wins, the lack of momentum on the part shows that Donald Trump is a phenomena right now, that the Republican Party has created, and fasten your seatbelts, folks, because this is going to get even weirder.

(LAUGHTER) COSTELLO: OK. So, Rich, Senator Cruz, he keeps saying he's the only candidate who's won against Trump. But in Nevada he lost by more than 20 points, so does it really matter what he did in Iowa?

GALEN: No, but that's what you do. You look for some -- you look for some ray of sunshine on a cloudy day to quote a song. And that's what everybody has to do. But you know, I think that we have to remember that Republicans are doing this. I mean, Republicans are voting for Trump. If it were reversed and we had, you know, seven guys in Washington and New York deciding who the nominee was going to be, you know, everybody would be up in arms that the establishment is trying to change the deal.

But everybody -- you know, the number of people that participated last night was one tenth of the number of people that voted in South Carolina. But everybody was in that same ballpark. Everybody had to deal with the same things. Everybody had the same opportunity with Hispanics. If Trumps is on this roll and stays on this roll, and by the way Real Clear Politics has him leading in, what, John, 10 out of the 11 states on Super Tuesday? I mean, that will pretty much put the deal to bed I think.

COSTELLO: Can't much argue with that if that holds true. I guess we'll have to see, though. Of course the elections haven't taken place.

John, more than one analyst says Senator Cruz and Senator Rubio should gang up on Trump and just go and attack him and attack him. Would that work?

AVLON: Well, it may be too late for that to work. But, I mean, you know, early on there seemed to be a decision that all of these second tier candidates would attack each other in the belief that Donald Trump would fade out of the weight of his own absurdity. Well, that hasn't happened and instead they've killed each other one by one and they have let Trump sneak in on a populous wave. I mean, absurdity also of a billionaire populous is something we can get into at another time.

[09:10:04] But that failure to do so, to really hit Trump hard, has what has enabled his strength as they've killed each other off in the second tier.

COSTELLO: OK. So here's another strategy people are talking about, Rich. Analysts say John Kasich should drop out so that support can consolidate behind Marco Rubio. But Kasich made it clear he's not going anywhere. His campaign says it is jazzed by his 4 percent showing in Nevada.

Here's a bit from a press release they released last night. Quote, "Republicans are now left to wonder whether investing in Marco Rubio is throwing good money after bad. Rubio appears likely to pick up more than seven more delegates than Governor Kasich in Nevada despite the fact that the Kasich campaign spent virtually no resources in the state."

And then the Kasich camp goes on to say, you know, we're patient and it's going to be great but really is it?

GALEN: Well, there's a problem with the Kasich campaign, and I like John a lot. I've known him since he was a freshman in Congress. But the problem that they've got is that he's not in the story other than this type of story. And that is what happened to Carly Fiorina in between debates. There was anything to keep the thing going.

I think what the Kasich campaign is looking at, clearly they are looking at March 15th and the week before that in Michigan to get into the Midwest where he's strongest. And if he can win Ohio on the 15th then he pops to the top of the probable VP list. Certainly among the finalists because he can deliver Ohio and every Republican needs Ohio. So I think they're perfectly willing to wait.

COSTELLO: OK. There was a Quinnipiac poll, by the way, that showed Trump leading John Kasich in the state of Ohio.

GALEN: Yes, but not by much.

AVLON: Yes.

COSTELLO: Not by much, I know, but still he's the governor of Ohio, and he's a popular governor to boot so it is kind of strange.

GALEN: This is what everybody --

COSTELLO: I know.

GALEN: This is why Trump is so tough.

AVLON: Yes.

COSTELLO: All right. I got to leave it there. John Avlon, Rich Galen, thanks to both of you.

I want to head back out to Columbia, South Carolina. Bernie Sanders is holding a news conference. Let's listen.

SANDERS: Not by the number of millionaires and billionaires it has. You judge a country on how it treats its weakest and most vulnerable people. You know, that's what the bible talks about. That's what every religion on earth talks about. How we treat the most vulnerable.

Well, 21 percent of our children in this country are living in poverty, over 15 million children. 37 percent of African-American children are living in poverty. 47 percent of Native American children are living in poverty. 1.2 million children in grades k-12 were homeless in 2012 through 2013. Children in the United States of America.

Now once again we don't talk about this much. The media doesn't talk about it much. Politicians don't talk about it much. Congress doesn't talk about much. I'm in the United States Senate. I don't hear the word poverty talked about terribly much at all. So what are we going to do? What are we going to do to address the

crisis of poverty? What we're going to do in this country if I have anything to say about it is to say that if somebody works 40 hours a week, that person is not going to live in poverty.

Today, the minimum wage of $7.25 is nothing less than a starvation wage. We've got to raise that minimum wage over a period of a few years to 15 bucks an hour. Today in America --

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away as Bernie Sanders outlined his plan to help the poor in America because, you know, the South Carolina primary is -- it's looming for Democrats and he's lagging far behind Hillary Clinton. We'll keep you posted on that news conference.

I got to take a break. I'll be back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

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[09:17:52] COSTELLO: All right. We want to head back to Columbia, South Carolina, and Bernie Sanders who's selling his economic plan to help lift working families out of poverty. Let's listen.

SANDERS: Andrea, Andrea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator, we're only a few days before the primary here. You are leaving for Super Tuesday. I know you're going to be back for the election.

SANDERS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But there is a feeling among some in South Carolina that you are writing off --

SANDERS: No, no, no, no. No, let me just say, and I say that with these two guys by my side, and I thank them so much for their support and I think media does this a whole lot, Andrea. We came to South Carolina. And if you look at the polls we were like 7 percent, 8 percent, 9 percent in the polls. We were 50, 60, 70 points behind. We have waged a very, very vigorous campaign. We have picked up a lot of support. And we have closed the gap very, very significantly. But this from day one was going to be a very difficult stay for us. We're not writing off South Carolina.

You all know that an March 1st, there are a dozen states that are holding elections. And the nature of the world is we got to go out to other states. I think I'm leaving for Oklahoma in a little while, where we think we have a shot to win. We have a shot to win in Massachusetts, Colorado, Minnesota, and in other states. My own state, I think we're 80 percent in the polls so I think we're going to win there as well.

But we are fighting here in South Carolina as hard as we can. But within the context, you know, I think Secretary Clinton was in California the other day. I don't mean she's writing off the state. That's the real world that we live in. And let me just say something else. I was asked a funny story. And

mostly I want to stay on poverty today. I know because this is -- we got off on this. When I was in Iowa there was some bad poll came out. I was 40 points behind. Somebody, well in you lose Iowa you're going to drop out of the race. So let me remind my friends in the media, Iowa is one state. New Hampshire is another state. Nevada is another state. Great state of South Carolina is another state.

[09:20:03] And do you know what? There are dozens and dozens and dozens of states that follow. In some of those states I expect we are going do very well and win, maybe by large amounts. In some states we're going to lose. We won New Hampshire by 20 votes. Not the end of the world for Secretary Clinton. There are states we're going to lose.

But the race goes on. And this is a race. We got to get 2400 delegates. 2400 delegates. So we are in this race to win it. And I think we are going to pull off one of the great political upsets. Yes, Andrea.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why do you think Democratic turnout is down?

SANDERS: Let me say that. All right.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Donald Trump seems has enormously expanded.

SANDERS: Let me say this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

SANDERS: Tell me about -- turn around. What we are being compared to is the phenomenon which I have said for a long, long time, of Barack Obama in 2008. Barack Obama broke the mold. The turnouts that he brought out were beyond belief. In states they ran out of ballots. All right? The truth is the Democratic turnout in Iowa was very, very good. Not as good as 2008. Compare it I think it was the second largest turnout in history. Turnout in New Hampshire was actually very, very, very good. Not quite where Obama was in -- and remember also when you compare just 2008 you have not only Obama and Clinton, you had John Edwards and other candidates. Each one bringing out their own campaign.

So if you want to compare turnout just to 2008 I don't think that that's fully fair. Go back to 2004, go back to 2005, we're doing pretty well. Now in Nevada did we have the kind of turnout that we wanted? Absolutely not. Yes, Nancy.

COSTELLO: OK. We're going to jump out of this press conference now. That's Bernie Sanders and he's talking about voter turnout which is very important in his mind because the bigger the voter turnout, the better Bernie Sanders supposedly does.

I want to bring in Errol Louis, our political anchor for New York One News, and also a political analyst for CNN, and Hilary Rosen, an adviser to the Democratic National Committee.

Welcome to both of you.

So, Errol, why is Bernie Sanders saying turnout is great but it's not as great as 2008 because that was historic. Why is he making such a big deal of that, Errol?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's true for one thing. I mean, if you get peppered with questions about well, gee, turnout seems to be down, there is not so much enthusiasm for you, you know, you've got really sort of recalibrate it and sort of make clear that what happened in 2008 really was unusual on a lot of different levels. It also points, by the way, down the road to a larger problem for the Democrats, which is that you've got this Republican romp that is going on. And it is really stirring up record turnouts getting people really energized.

A lot of times that can come back to haunt the other party. The Democrats, you know, by trying to sort of get the nomination into Clinton's hands without much fuss or fight or a lot of debates they really risk putting a lot of the electorate to sleep. It's a concern not just in the primary for Bernie Sanders but for the Democratic Party as a whole.

COSTELLO: Well, here's the thing with that, Hilary. So let's say we get to the general election and it's between either Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and of course Trump wins the nomination. Won't that energize Democratic voters to come out just because Trump is in the race?

HILARY ROSEN, ADVISER TO THE DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Trump will definitely energize Democratic voters. You know, the challenge with Trump is going to be where does this broad swath of independent voters go in the general election? Where, you know, historically -- well, at least for the last two elections they helped carry Barack Obama into the White House. And I think that, you know, we are going to see Barack Obama play an important role here in the Democratic -- in the general election because there are very few people who can kind of take on Donald Trump.

And I think it is going to be hard -- you know, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders don't have sort of magic fairy dust to diminish Trump's supporters. He's got a lot of vulnerabilities that the Republicans haven't gone after at this point. And I think Barack Obama is going to help people go after those.

COSTELLO: OK. I want to dip back into Bernie Sanders' newser here because he was talking about his complete support of President Obama and I want to talk about that next. Let's listen to what he's saying now.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You began a pilot program where they can track officer-involved death, something that previously only being done media outlets like (INAUDIBLE). Such information remains voluntary. Do you think that police departments should be mandated to report --

SANDERS: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- to the federal government when they kill Americans --

SANDERS: Well, let's -- let's rephrase it. When -- you have made a judgment, they kill. But when individuals die under police apprehension or police custody, should that be mandatory? Yes, I do believe that.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: And would you support any legislation?

SANDERS: Pardon me?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Would you support legislation?

SANDERS: Yes. Yes. OK. Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator, in the event that this math does not eventually add up for you and you do continue to --

SANDERS: And your concern is about poverty in South Carolina? Was that your question? Is that where you're going?

[09:25:0] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going follow up with the poverty question. But first, I just want to say -- well, and you can answer it this way. What would your priorities be? You're going to have significant delegate support walking into the Democratic convention --

SANDERS: My priorities are to win the Democratic --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: -- Democratic Party at the convention.

SANDERS: To nominate Bernie Sanders as president. You know, look, look, look. Let me rephrase it again. OK. When we began this campaign essentially it was almost believed by most that Secretary Clinton was the inevitable candidate. She is not the inevitable candidate now. I think we've got a real shot to win it. And what I would ask of the media is not to look at it state by state. You know, we're going to win some states. We're going to lose some states. There are -- it is necessary to get 2400 delegates. We are going to have good days. We're going to have bad days. Secretary Clinton will have good days and bad days.

But let's kind of look at the long-term thing. We have momentum. And if you want -- again I don't want to stress polls too much. I'm not a great believer in them. But short look at the polls and state by state, do you know what you are seeing? The gaps are narrowing. Clinton is still in the lead, her lead is narrower. We think we have momentum and momentum is very important. So I think we are on a path toward victory. It is a tough fight. And let me tell you something, if we win this it will probably be the biggest upset in the history of America.

Gentlemen in the back, yes, sir.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Senator, two questions. Just to fact check real quick. Mrs. Clinton, Secretary Clinton was first lady back in 1996. So is there substantiation for the notion that she actually rounded up votes? SANDERS: Yes.

JOHNS: And second question I think --

SANDERS: I'm saying she was active on this issue. You're right. She was first lady.

JOHNS: All right. And to this issue of economics in South Carolina. Just sort of directly. This has come up many times but could you just sort of directly address your view of racism as a byproduct of economics? Or do you see racism as an issue that is cultural and needs to be dealt with in a cultural way?

SANDERS: Let me talk about South Carolina and just say one thing. I'm on the committee that wrote the Affordable Care Act. OK? And I can tell you to the best of my memory, there was not any discussion on that committee -- and we had dozens of meetings about states not taking advantage of their ability to expand Medicaid that we gave them. And it was shocking to me, not just in South Carolina, but other states. How many folks? Hundreds of thousands of people now who could get healthcare? Who are not getting healthcare in South Carolina simply because of ideological reasons.

They are black and they are white. Who are not getting healthcare. Some of them will certainly die and be much sicker than they would have been. And let me just answer your question by saying this. I was, I know I always get nervous because I date myself when saying this. I was there with -- to march in Washington in 1963 with Dr. King. And do you remember what the title -- the full title of that march was? It was called the March for Jobs and Freedom. Jobs and freedom.

In other words, what Dr. King understood is that to be fully human, you have to have a decent income. You have to have employment. Not to mention that we have to break down the barriers of racism and bigotry. Both. All right. Thank you all so much. Thank you.

COSTELLO: All right. That was Bernie Sanders holding a news conference in Columbia, South Carolina. He wants of course to get as many votes as possible before the big primary between the Democrats heats up later this week.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the race is on for the big one. That would be Super Tuesday. We'll talk with Trump's campaign spokeswoman about his big win last night and a million dollars worth of attack ads set to begin today against Donald Trump.

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