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Chris Christie Endorses Donald Trump; Rubio Attacks Trump; Christie Book Author Talks Endorsement; Rubio Speaks to Reporters. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired February 26, 2016 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Sara, can you just take us into some of the thinking here from the Christie camp about why they decided to do this endorsement for Trump, why right now?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: There are a lot of different elements. One of it is Trump and Christie and their families have a long personal relationship already. There was already a certain level of comfort and friendliness there. He has a certain level of disdain left for Marco Rubio after that tough debate after they attacked Marco Rubio against him in New Hampshire. For him this is also a pitch about electability. He thinks Donald Trump has the best path to the nomination at this point and he also said in the press conference you held together that Hillary Clinton already knows how to run against a first-term Senator, what she doesn't know how to do is run against someone like Donald Trump, a guy who has rewritten the politically playbook from top to bottom. That's how Christie ended up in Texas, throwing out this endorsement and surprising pretty much everyone -- Poppy?

HARLOW: No question. The ultimate case study will one day be written on all of this.

Sara Murray, thank you.

Let's talk about all of what has just happened. With me, political strategist, Angela Rye, former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus; McKay Coppins, senior political writer, "Buzzfeed"; Darrell Scott, founder and senior pastor, New Spirit Revival Center in Cleveland and a Trump supporter; and also with us, Jamie Weinstein, senior editor of "The Daily Caller."

Thank you for being here. We have so much to chew on.

Let's begin, Jamie, with you.

React to the turn of events just this afternoon.

JAMIE WEINSTEIN, SENIOR EDITOR, THE DAILY CALLER: Well, it's pretty remarkable. I think it needs to be pointed out how big of a sellout this is for Chris Christie. Christie based his campaign in New Hampshire on the need for entitlement reform. If we don't reform Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, we will go bankrupt. So Christie has kind of gone against his entire campaign by endorsing Donald Trump. Help also just endorsed a man who in that speech basically called for the end of the First Amendment. He said we want to open up the floodgates of libel laws. This is not something that -- something that's kind of amazing. The only thing these two maybe have in common is they were both total failures in Atlantic City. Maybe that's the only commonalty other than this endorsement.

HARLOW: McKay, then why do you do this? If you're Chris Christie, and our Jake Tapper reporting some of the thinking from the Christie camp, in additional to what Sara said, was inevitable. The party needs to rally behind someone looking more and more inevitable by the day. Also defeating Hillary Clinton. Seeing him, Trump, as the best option. And then also in terms of his feelings towards Rubio, why not back Rubio. He really genuinely feels very opposed to Rubio the same way that was displaced on that debate stage in New Hampshire. McKay, you know, is this about becoming attorney general? Is this about a V.P. spot?

MCKAY COPPINS, SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER, BUZZFEED: There certainly is an element of calculation here. I think Christie also is known for practicing politics at the gut level and he just does not like Marco Rubio. We saw that time and again throughout the campaign especially as they battled in New Hampshire to become the establishment bearer. In that last debate, Christie, I know from sources in his camp, was very angry and upset that he kind of so ruthlessly and effectively took apart Rubio on that debate stage and didn't end up Benefiting from it very much in the polls. He felt his ego was kind of d from that. He felt very upset by that. I think there was a lot of animosity between the Christie and Rubio camps. I think there was an element of personality here. But, I mean, you know, it is pretty remarkable at a time when the rest of the Republican establishment is rallying around Marco Rubio as kind of their last best hope to take down Donald Trump, to see somebody like Chris Christie get behind Trump is a pretty remarkable development.

HARLOW: Angela, to you, we know part of the thinking from the Christie camp is they think this point, Donald Trump has the best shot at defeating Donald Trump. You know, as Sara Murray put it, there's no playbook, what's the playbook for beating Donald Trump? Your thoughts?

ANGELA RYE, POLITICAL STRATEGIST & FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: Well, I think there's several things. One is we saw some of the things that rattled Donald Trump on the debate stage last night. We saw for the first time really in debate ten Senators teaming up that don't even really like each other and haven't been very supportive of each other to attack Trump. The thing that works the best on Donald Trump is attacking him on his finances. Whether it is the tax returns that he claims are still being audited and therefore cannot share publicly. Whether it's a loan from his father that he says was a small loan of $1 million which most of America doesn't understand a small loan of $1 million. Or the fact that Marco Rubio talked about the $200 million that he received from his father yet to be fact checked. I haven't seen that but we know it was a substantial inheritance. Donald Trump was going on today that he had to spill" amongst five of his brothers and sisters. The things that he responds to are attacks about his money. How wealthy he is or how wealthy he is not. Trump University is something else that came up. From what I understand from the Democratic side of the aisle is that they only use about 20 percent. So they just scratched the surface on attacks to come with opposition research that exists.

[14:35:36] HARLOW: Pastor Darrell Scott, this is your candidate this is your man, Donald Trump. You've gotten behind him very vocally. He was, indeed, ruffled a bit last night from Marco Rubio. Your take?

DARRELL SCOTT, FOUNDER & SENIOR PASTOR, NEW SPIRIT REVIVAL CENTER: I don't really think he was ruffled. I think he was irritated. The same way you get irritated at a gnat or a fly around your head. You have this new Rubio, new tough guy Rubio on here. I call him Marco choke-o. He probably prepped for the debate by looking in the mirror and saying, I will not let Donald Trump punk me. So he went in with the attitude of not getting punked but he came across as a smart aleck kid and as a man who is used to respect -- I mean, he's an executive, he's a leader, he was actually an annoyance, and fresh-faced kid trying to get on my nerve. He irritated him, that's all, minor irritation.

HARLOW: Guys, stand by. Got to get a quick break in. We're going to be back with all of you. Don't go anywhere.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CHEERING)

[14:40:44] DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: It's Rubio!

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: All right, Donald Trump just moments ago at his rally in Fort Worth, Texas. Another jab back at Marco Rubio. This is what's been going on all day.

I've got my panel back with me. We're going to break it down with them in just a moment.

I want to talk to Brian Stelter, our senior media correspondent, host of "Reliable Sources."

Brian, the numbers came in last night and they were huge in terms of how many FOX watched this all transpire.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: The numbers just came in, 14 million viewers. That's the highest debate since December when CNN was in Vegas with all the candidates. It's only 18 hours later and it feels like a lifetime ago because this Christie Trump news has changed the race. This debate was significant last night but now, of course, a whole new development today. It's almost as if we've seen roles reversed. I saw on Twitter this really smart point. Rubio is the one out there mocking Trump, using very personal language. Trump is the one getting a valuable endorsement. It's like they reversed roles.

HARLOW: Very interesting.

All right, Brian, stay with us.

I want to bring my panel back in.

I want to go to you first, Jamie.

The Christie endorsement, first of all, no one leaked it, which is a phenomenon. We were all surprised. Do you think Christie endorsing Trump is a signal to the establishment that says in so many words, hey, guys, we have to rally around Trump because, if we don't and if we don't do it soon, he's going to lose to whoever the Democratic candidate is?

WEINSTEIN: To a degree. Two important aspects of it. One it dominates the news cycle. Gets his pummeling last night out of the news and we are talking about this big major endorsement. I don't know if it rallies the establishment around him but it may bring some people from the sidelines who have been kind of leaning towards him to come out fully endorsing him. I'm thinking Rudy Giuliani or Newt Gingrich. It might bring some of those people who have been saying nice things but haven't officially endorsed him to maybe come out $, and put their necks on the line and actually come out and endorse Trump.

HARLOW: McKay to you, interesting, you were just reporting about an e-mail that the Rubio camp sent out last night. What was the key from that?

COPPINS: It was just a couple hours after the debate. They sent out a fund-raising e-mail to their supporters saying Marco shocked tonight. He is the only candidate who can take it to Trump. What that says is that last night was obviously a calculated move. Rubio knew that he was going to get bruised by getting in these skirmishes with Trump. You can't get into a fight with Trump and not emerge with at least a couple, you know, scrapes and cuts to show for it. What Rubio did show was that he, much more than Ted Cruz or any other candidate on that stake w stage was the one going head to head with Trump. You showed him reading angry tweets from Trump on his phone to supporters. The Trump supporter on our panel like a smart-alecky kid. I think there's some truth to that. I think some people read it that way. I think there's a lot of Republican voters who are going to kind of delight in seeing a candidate play Trump's game basically and mock him back. And that's what at least the Rubio campaign is counting on.

HARLOW: Angela, where's Ted Cruz in all this?

RYE: Well, it's interesting, right, because Ted Cruz joined in on the piling on of Donald Trump yesterday. But I thought that Donald Trump's response to him, which has been very effective before and I think was effective again last night, you're a liar and you committed something that was fraudulent against Ben Carson. Someone, who I like, right. And everyone liked Ben Carson. I just don't think many people want Ben Carson to be president because he says things like I'm going to consider the fruit salad of their lives. And so I think that Ted Cruz was effective last night, but I think he did get lost in the shuffle a bit, as again you saw today with both of their rallies.

HARLOW: We haven't seen him at all today so you wonder how he's going to get back in the headlines and jump into this mix and sort of what shape that's going to take. It will be a huge endorsement, what is it going to be.

Pastor, to you. Look, Donald Trump always says, I don't attack, I only counterpunch. I only attack when I am attacked.

Let's take a moment to just all listen to a man who was running against these guys not that long ago, Senator Lindsey Graham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:45:30] SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: Most dishonest person in America's a woman --

(LAUGHTER)

-- who's about to be president.

(LAUGHTER)

How could that be? My party is going (EXPLETIVE DELETED) crazy.

(LAUGHTER)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: You heard what he said there at the end about how his party is going blank crazy. Pastor, to you, when you look at this and how this entire game has changed, as a pastor, are you at all concerned about the words being thrown back and forth?

SCOTT: Well, I mean, this part of the fiber of American society now to engage in --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: I don't know we've seen an election like this. This is new.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: You know what it is. It seems like everyone that once criticized Trump's style is trying to copy is now. This shows you right there that Trump is an innovator. Trump hasn't changed his strategy, but everybody is trying to "out-Trump" Trump now and that's not going to happen. Rubio and Cruz is like a new couple now, like a new rap group, choke and liar. Choke on this side, liar on this side, Trump in the middle trying to fend them off. How can we out-Trump Trump? They used to accentuate the fact that we discuss policy. They're not discussing policy anymore. They're just discussing Trump. And so they've turned themselves into Trump clones. But they're knockoffs. They don't come across as good.

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: It's a bad look for Cruz and Rubio.

HARLOW: Jamie, do you think it's too late, too little too late for Rubio? The latest poll shows Rubio beating him in his own state.

WEINSTEIN: It's interesting, a pastor endorsed Donald Trump. That kind of is contradictory.

(LAUGHTER)

(CROSSTALK)

WEINSTEIN: The two things he's sensitive about is, one is his financial situation. The comedy central roost that he did, he asked the comedians not to make fun of maybe he's not as worth as much as people say he is. He's sensitive of that. The other thing is he's apparently sensitive about claims he has short stubby fingers. He gets very angry at this.

(LAUGHTER)

So I would suggest that Marco Rubio bring that up in the debate and you might see Trump meltdown on stage.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Pastor, I'll give you a chance to respond to what Jamie said.

SCOTT: You're saying that Marco Rubio's entire campaign strategy should shift from discussing American policy to try to get under Donald Trump's skin? That shows you how much of an influence Donald Trump has in his life. You went from running for president, now you just want to irritate Donald Trump. That shows what a lightweight you really are.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: Think about the campaign on the Democratic side versus the Republican side right now. Something really big is happening amid all these insults. This may be a break-up of the Republican Party. Certainly a hijacking of the Republican Party by Donald Trump.

(CROSSTALK)

STELTER: I'm sitting here almost afraid to take a sip of water because Donald Trump is making fun of Marco Rubio about that. I think for a lot of viewers at home, it makes people very uncomfortable to see how personal and how insulting this has been. Even the curse words sometimes we see --

(CROSSTALK)

SCOTT: -- not using those words anymore -- (CROSSTALK)

STELTER: I'm on the edge of my seat, but it's also everybody nerving.

HARLOW: The more the argument is about the words and personal things, the less the argument is about issues that affect millions of Americans.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: I'm not talking about what works in a campaign. I'm just saying that the issues are ultimately what impact the American people.

Hold your thoughts. We're going to take a break. You'll join us on the other side.

We're also going to speak with the man who wrote a book about Governor Chris Christie, knows him inside and out. What does he think about this endorsement, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:53:45] CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R), NEW JERSEY GOVERNOR: And there is no one better prepared to provide America with the strong leadership that it needs both at home and around the world then Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A wild presidential race just took a stunning turn. New Jersey governor, former presidential candidate, Chris Christie, just endorsing Donald Trump.

Let's dissect this really unexpected endorsement with Matt Katz. He covered the governor for WNYC, New Jersey Public Radio. He also wrote a book on the governor, called "American Governor: Chris Christie's Bridge to Redemption."

Thank you for being here.

Walk me through the personal relationship that has spanned years between Christie and Trump.

MATT KATZ, WYYC, NEW JERSEY PUBLIC RADIO & AUTHOR: When Christie was U.S. Attorney about a dozen years ago, he was going around meeting federal judges and he met Donald Trump's sister who's a federal judge in New Jersey and she said, my brother wants to meet you. He went across the Hudson River, went to Trump tower, had dinner with Donald Trump. Donald ordered food for him. Christie wasn't able to pick his own food. Trump talked a lot at that meal. Then they would have dinner pretty regularly with their families. Trump invited Christie to his wedding, his third wedding. Christie went to that wedding. In fact, he introduced himself to Bill Clinton there. Clinton, the Christies and the Trumps were all hanging out. And they continued to remain friends through the years. [14:55:12] HARLOW: Oh, my, how things have changed.

Hey, look, this is a guy, Chris Christie -- let's not forget, there's no love lost. Chris Christie is someone who has called Trump someone who doesn't have the, quote, temperament to be president, someone who is, quote, "entertainer in chief." Let's listen to what Donald Trump said about Chris Christie back in December.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Honestly, it was terrible. They had the flood. They had the hurricane and Obama went to New Jersey, and he was like a little child, like a little boy. Oh, I'm with the president. Remember, he flew in the helicopter and he was all excited. I said, I would have put you in my helicopter, it's much nicer. I thought it was a terrible thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Does that not matter to voters?

KATZ: Yeah, you know, he went even further, he said maybe even Christie voted for Obama. Trump has also said that Christie knew about bridge-gate, this lane closure scandal that hit Christie so hard in 2013. Trump has gone further in saying Christie is guilty for bridge-gate. They both went after each other on the campaign trail. Chris Christie would do this impression of Trump, make fun of his voice as a regular theme at his town hall meetings but, you know, they've decided I guess to bury the past and move forward. I think there are various reasons for this. If you're Chris Christie, obviously, they have a personal --

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Hang on for me one minute, Matt Katz. Stay with me as we listen to Marco Rubio speaking to reporters live.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- are you comfortable with the level -- (INAUDIBLE)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a con man. I think it's time to unmask. He's trying to take over the conservative movement even though he's not a conservative. More importantly, he's a con. He's a con man who's taking advantage of people's fears and anxieties about the future, portraying himself as some sort of strong guy. He's not a strong guy. He's never, you know, he's never faced real adversity before. He's a guy who portrays himself as some sort of great business man. He's hat colossal business failures. He's built much of his empire by taking advantage of people. We're going to work every day to make sure the conservative movement does not fall into the hands of someone whose policy positions are indistinguishable from Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Did you study Donald Trump's insults for this morning's stand-up routine?

RUBIO: Study his insults? No, I'm not sure about study his insults. He portrays himself as something he's not. We look forward to unmasking him. What's at stake now is important. He's the front- runner according to the polls and the elections. He could become the nominee. We're not going to let that happen. There's no way we're going to allow the party of Reagan or the conservative movement to be taken over by a con man.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Will you support him as the nominee?

RUBIO: He's not going to be the nominee: The Republican party will be split apart if he's the nominee. Can't allow the party of Reagan to be taken over by a con man.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Do you think that's enough to get you where you need to be?

RUBIO: Obviously, it's an important group. What we're dating here, when they start their businesses, trying to do that now, so they have as much at stake in this country. The other thing I say, I won't just unify the Republican Party, I'll grow it. Part of it will be to take our message to people that perhaps in the past have not voted for Republicans.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Are you concerned about --

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: With this -- are you afraid of not appearing presidential -- (INAUDIBLE)

RUBIO: As compared to Donald Trump? No, I'm not concerned about not looking presidential. I think it means the ability to answer serious questions about important topics and Donald again proved last night he has no plan for health care and no idea on how to balance the budget. I wish Wolf Blitzer and the moderators would have pressed him more on that. And everyone for that matter. A guy that doesn't know what the nuclear triad is. Has no idea that South Carolina con tributes to the agreement we have with them. And he wants the power to send young men and women off to war. We're going to unmask him for the con man that he is.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: -- time and money left before March 1st to slow or stop Donald Trump with this?

RUBIO: Sure, look, he's the front runner, no doubt about it. There's no sense of urgency about it. The Republican Party and the conservative movement could fall into the has-beens of someone who basically has conned a significant number of Americans into believing he's something he's not and this is important. This is the party of Reagan. A party built on optimism and limited government. Last night, you had the front-runner in the Republican debate defending Planned Parenthood. You had the front-runner in the Republican debate saying he's not going to take sides between Israel and the Palestinians. That would be a stunning shift in this party. And quite frankly, it would make us indistinguishable from the Democrats.

(CROSSTALK)

RUBIO: We're going to do it.

UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Senator --