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Candidates Court Voters Ahead of Super Tuesday; Trump, Rubio Spar as GOP Fight Intensifies; Cruz Tours the South Ahead of Super Tuesday. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired February 27, 2016 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:00:23] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour, 4:00 p.m. Eastern. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Poppy Harlow, live in Columbia, South Carolina.
It is election day here. This is CNN's Special live coverage of the South Carolina Democratic primary. Right now, Hillary Clinton is looking to try to extend her winning streak just three days before the all important Super Tuesday showdown. Her rival Bernie Sanders is not campaigning here in South Carolina today. He was here last night but he moved on. Hop scotching across the country focusing on states where he believes he has a better chance of winning on Tuesday.
On the Republican side the bitter brawl for the future, not only of the White House but of the party gets more intense by the hour. Senator Marco Rubio accusing Donald Trump of trying to high-jack the GOP. Trump retaliating calling him, "little Rubio and Mr. Meltdwn." Ted Cruz slamming Trump for not releasing his tax return.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe his tax return that he has been giving money to a bunch of liberal causes that in addition, in addition to supporting Hillary Clinton, and Chuck Schumer, and Harry Reid, and Joe Biden, and Jimmy Carter, and John Kerry, maybe in addition to that last year he wrote a big check to Planned Parenthood. Now I have no idea if he did or not. Why, because he hasn't released his taxes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Our team following it all. Brianna Keilar tracking the Clinton camp. Also standing by, CNN commentator, Van Jones, former Republican adviser Hogan Gidley, also the "New Uorker's" Ryan Lizza. Thank you all for being here.
You know when you look at South Carolina right now, Democrats are making their choice, Brianna Keilar to you, what are we hearing from the Clinton camp?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, perhaps it's no surprise, Poppy, she's talking about education. She was there at Miles College, a historically black college in Alabama, and this is really one of the centerpieces of the message she's putting out here in South Carolina as well. As she looks to those southern states that we'll see voters going to the polls for Super Tuesday.
She is talking about a fund that she will have for historically black colleges and universities, and she's also taking a little aim at Bernie Sanders because he's proposing free college, public college, and she is saying "I don't want to pay for college for Donald Trump's kids" and she's also highlighting that he doesn't really have a plan for historically black colleges and universities, something that is so important. This is something tha gave her her biggest applause line yesterday in Orangeburg, South Carolina. She's also pivoting to the general election. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you know, I don't know who they are going to nominate and I'm hopeful I will be the nominee to take on whoever they nominate. You know.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Hillary! Hillary!
CLINTON: There is - there is something to be said for all the scar tissue that I've developed over the last 25 years. But you know, it's troubling to me because they are all saying the same thing. And they want us to forget about what President Obama inherited.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: So Hillary Clinton there today ahead of the south Carolina primary taking aim at the Republican field and Poppy, it's pretty interesting she took specific aim at the front-runner Donald Trump. She said, "as president you have to be careful what you say and how you say it." She talked about the leading candidate on the Republican side spending half of his time insulting people. She said you have to be careful when the president talks, markets fall and rise. Basically saying that she doesn't think that Trump is cut out to be president.
[16:05:10]
HARLOW: Already looking ahead of the general indeed. Brianna Keilar, thank you so much. Here in Columbia, South Carolina, Brianna will be with us a little later.
Let's break it all down. Because for the Democrats, the race for the White House certainly influenced by what is going on right now inside the GOP, as you just heard from Brianna.
Let's talk about it with our panel here. Here with me, CNN political commentator Ryan Lizza, former senior communications adviser to Mike Huckabee's 2016 race, he is Hogan Gidley. He is here with me and in Washington, CNN political commentator, Van Jones. Thank you all for being here.
Hogan, let me begin with you. I want to read you something from a fascinating "New York Times" piece this morning. OK.
HOGAN GIDLEY, FMR. SENIOR COMMUNICATIONS ADVISER TO MIKE HUCKABEE 2016 RACE: OK.
HARLOW: Talks about Mitch McConnell. It said while he's begun preparing senators for the prospect of a Trump nomination, assuring them that if it threatened to harm them in the general election they could run negative ads about Mr. Trump. Let's just step back and think about that. That is you know, the highest ranking Mitch McConnell saying that his fellow senators can run negative ads against the party's nominee.
GIDLEY: Right. Also make the comment that we drop him like a hot rock, I think is what he said. I want to know who the "we" is. The establishment? I mean, they've already gut punched the American worker time and time again. They've already hurt the Republican party time and time again, so I'm not exactly sure where he's going with that. I understand he is trying to protect his (INAUDIBLE), he's trying to protect the senate but that's what makes Donald Trump so popular is that he's going against what they stand for.
HARLOW: So that hurts them even more.
GIDLEY: Absolutely and it gives him some leg to stand on say "I'm the outsider here, they're coming after me."
HARLOW: (INAUDIBLE) because I have been sort of on this bandwagon, this is in my head all week and that is, at what point are we and by we, I just mean, you know, just in general, what point is it disrespectful to the voter, the voter that has spoken so loudly in these races supporting Trump.
RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think what McConnell is saying from what I understand is if Donald Trump is a drag on Republican - on Republicans at the top of a Senate campaign or perhaps the House campaign, then McConnell who cares about making sure that Republicans maintain the Senate because after all they want to be able to put someone on the Supreme Court, he's saying we'll drop Donald Trump, we'll run ads against him if he's not popular.
It's not exactly unprecedented for - someone at the top of the ticket a presidential candidate is unpopular - it's not unprecedented for candidates lower down to disassociate themselves. It happens in midterm elections a lot. This is a little bit different.
HARLOW: Trying to get a Republican nominated to the White House. I want to get Van in there. I want to get back to you.
Van, when you look at just the general election, hypothetical match-up polls I think we can show them here. You do have standards actually beating Trump by a wider margin in a general election matcup nationally than Hillary Clinton does. What's your take?
VAN JONES: Well, first of all, you have two front-runners that are unusual in that when you're talking about Trump and we are talking about Secretary Clinton they have such high negatives, they are such polarizing figures, and so you have people really biting their nails in both parties now, a little bit of pre-buyer's remorse saying that people are not quite sure if these are the right front-runners, at the same time Sanders does have a great deal of appeal.
He's, however, not had the same level of attacks against him from Republicans. Hillary Clinton's numbers reflect not just the past day, not just the past week but the past two decades of Republican attacks. One of the things that's now starting to circulate though on the Democratic side. People beginning to look at Bernie Sanders as a possible better matchup against Donald Trump.
Because you can't go after him on personal stuff the way you can with Hillary Clinton. And because you can't get Bernie off of his message and he might force Donald Trump to have to deal with some actual issues. Starting to see that beginning to move among Democrats but at the same time I think most people understand that Hillary Clinton, the front-runner that both inspires people but also inspires her opponents.
HARLOW: I also have the question, Hogan, to you, and that is how can Donald Trump go after Hillary Clinton say in a general on her e-mails if he won't release his tax returns?
GIDLEY: Well, has she released her taxes?
LIZZA: I don't know that.
HARLOW: I'm talking about the e-mails. How can he go after her e- mails -
GIDLEY: I'm with you.
HARLOW: But there are documents that the public is saying they want to see.
LIZZA: Transparency.
GIDLEY: It's transparency though - I mean regardless whether it's e- mails or whether its tax returns. It's a transparency issue. But look, we've already seen Hillary try to attack Trump in this. She called him a sexist. Had this been Romney at a conventional cycle -
HARLOW: Or the transcripts of her speeches.
GIDLEY: What I'm saying, had this been Romney, we're going to see (INAUDIBLE) full of women. We would have brought in every woman he ever hired and say see, I'm not sexist. He's been on the defensive.
Trump says "I don't think Hillary Clinton is the best person to be talking to me about sexism when you consider who her husband is." Then the media narrative for four days was saying is this - can we bring this up? Is this going to be fair game in the election? He won that first battle by going on the offensive and so we've seen a little sympathy to that. I don't know if that works in a general.
[16:10:13] LIZZA: Yes.
GIDLEY: But it sure fired up everybody in the primary.
LIZZA: Honestly, it's a different dynamic in a primary where very conservative voters matter a lot and important to Trump. And they don't like Bill Clinton and I think it's great to go after his record with women.
In a general election, when most of the country has sort of made up their minds about the Clintons and the scandals from the 90s, I don't think you're going to get a lot of traction as a Republican nominee no matter who it is, relitigating that stuff.
GIDLEY: But so many young voters don't know about it. They have no clue who the Clintons are otherwise they would be gravitating toward them frm the beginning as a kind of a homage to all the things Hillary.
LIZZA: Sanders is showing that she has serious weakness among young -
HARLOW: Van Jones jump in here.
JONES: Yes. I mean, first of all, Ryan has a point but at the same time, notice that Bill Clinton fell silent in some ways this is a very, very bad line of attack for Republicans because it raises all this stuff again, it's kind of litigated. On the other hand I was surprised that when it came, Bill Clinton fell silent. And so this may be a more explosive issue than Democrats assume. We have to think about that.
The other thing I just want to say very simply is that I think that Bernie Sanders has kind of run into a lot of trouble in the south because even though his heart is with the civil rights movement he hasn't spent a lot of time there. And yet, when you look at some of these deeper trends, today you've got to see fine, the African- American community is for Hillary Clinton. But what is the turnout. What are the numbers looking like?
If in fact we have a very - I was in South Carolina yesterday. I didn't feel the energy. I didn't feel the excitement. I didn't feel like New Hampshire. So even though he may - he may not be able to win over black voters she may not be able to fire up black voters. And so she may have problems we have not considered even with the black vote.
HARLOW: Hey, Van Jones, our Joe Johns said the same thing, just anecdotally at the polls. Before I let you go, my friend, I do have this question. As a Democrat, you got "The New York Times" coming out this week, a paper that endorsed Secretary Clinton thinks she has to show those bank transcripts saying voters have every right to know what she told these groups. Van, do you want to see Clinton quickly release those transcripts of those speeches?
JONES: Look, I do think there is a double standard here. She may have made a mistake by saying that she would release them and now she's trying to go back on it. I do think there's a double standard here. People give speeches all the time. Really, as a practical matter it's almost impossible. I can't tell you how many speeches I've given, to go find the transcripts, so I just think that she made a mistake to say that she was going to do it in the first place. Where she is now, I'll do what everybody else says I think it's very, very defensible. I just don't think this is the issue she is going to rise or fall on.
HARLOW: All right. Van Jones, thank you so much. Hogan Gidley, Ryan Lizza, thank you, both of you will be back with me in a moment. Ahead this hour a lot and a lot of politics, live pictures now of Marco Rubio at a rally in Birmingham, Alabama. Show you that, also we'll talk to one of his supporters who joins me live.
And later we will speak with a Ted Cruz supporter. We'll also take you live this hour to a Donald Trump rally, this is CNN's special coverage of the South Carolina primary. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:16:30]
HARLOW: You're looking at live pictures of Marco Rubio speaking in Birmingham, Alabama. Ahead of the critical Super Tuesday votes. He started his day in Georgia, he will end his day tonight with another rally in Arkansas.
Super Tuesday, fast approaching. Crucial delegates up for grabs and the question on a lot of people's minds today is, where has this Senator Marco Rubio been? What changed on Thursday night? Let's take a moment and just listen in to what he's saying.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... Ronald Reagan defined what it meant to be a conservative. Now the time has come for us to define it once again for a new generation of Americans, especially now after eight years of Barack Obama. We get the election wrong we'll lose the conservative movement and we will lose the future of this country. That's why 2016 is so critical.
I watched the other night as another candidate on the stage of that debate spent 30 seconds to 45 seconds defending Planned Parenthood using the same words, the exact same words - Donald used the same words that Hillary Clinton does to defend Planned Parenthood. I watched him use the same talking points, for example, about the issue of health care. That somehow the government doesn't run our health care system, people are going to die in the streets.
I watched them also say when it comes to Israel and the Palestinians he doesn't want to take a side. I'm going to take a side. I'm going to be on Israel's side 100 percent every single day.
So, if you watched me campaign this year you noticed that I very rarely try to attack other Republicans because I don't like it. I think the Democrats love when we do that. I think they cheer when we do that. But we've come to a point now we have no choice but to talk about some of these differences because I'm telling you what's at stake is the party of Lincoln and Reagan, what's at stake is the conservative movement.
And I am not going to stand by and watch the conservative movement be taken over by someone who is not a conservative. By someone who is conning us. I used strong words and my parents didn't raise me that way but I've used strong words because I feel that passionately about it. OK. I believe that there are Americans today that are being fooled by this guy. I really do.
What do I mean by that? People - when someone is upset, when someone is uncertain about the future, when someone is insecure about what's going on you become vulnerable to people that come to you and say give me the power, give me the power and I'm going to turn your life around. That's how con jobs work. OK. That is how con jobs work.
That's how Trump University happened. He went to people looking for a better life and he convinced them, you know, sign up for this program, and I'm going to make you a successful as I am in real estate and people borrowed $36,000 to take these courses and they got nothing in return. That's just one small scale example. And the result is they got nothing but a picture with a card board cutout of Donald Trump.
Now imagine happening to a country. Imagine people now being told in America look, come on board, vote for me because I'm a strong leader, I'm going to take on illegal immigration, well, how are you going to take on illegal immigration when you are hiring illegal immigrants to build your signature tower. I'm going to protect the American worker he says. He's going to protect the American worker, I live in Florida where he has a hotel and he's hiring people from Romania because me says he can't find Americans to do that job. I can.
[16:20:10]
Those are the jobs my parents did. My mom was a maid. My dad worked at a hotel. 300 people in Florida applied for those jobs. He says he is going to bring jobs back from China and Mexico. He is taking ties and hats in China and Mexico. Why do I say all this to you? Because it proves that this is a con job. And we cannot allow the conservative movement to be taken away from us.
Because if it is, there's nothing left to stand up to the Democrats, there's nothing left to stand up to the liberals. This is not just about winning or losing an election, guys, it isn't. Most of these elections we're all pretty much the same. For the most part on our issues. Look, he is not here today and I've had my differences with Ted Cruz on defense stuff but Ted and I are friends. Ted and I get along, we know each other personally.
In the end I understand that while we may not agree on everything I've never said he's not a conservative. I don't think he's ever said that about me. But we cannot lose this election to nomination to someone that the Democrats will rip apart. We cannot. And the press knows this. And the press knows this. And the press knows this. That's why they give him a pass.
When is the last time you ever saw the press cheering for a Republican to win the nomination? It doesn't happen. You know why they are doing it? Because they can't wait until he gets the nomination and then they are going to shred him to pieces so they can hand it to Hillary Clinton or god forbid to Bernie Sanders who is a socialist. And we can't lose this.
Bernie Sanders is a socialist. When you say this about someone in American politics they always deny it. I'm not a socialist, you're smearing me. He says it on his commercials. He is a socialist. I said a few weeks ago he should be president of Sweden. Sweden got mad. I said OK, he should be president of Norway. The Norweigians got fired up about it. So is anybody here from Luxembourg? I can tell you if you want to be a socialist country you should move to a socialist country. We want to be the United States of America.
And Hillary Clinton, Hillary Clinton is unqualified to be president of the United States. Unqualified. She put classified information on her private server because she thinks she is above the law. Her husband thought he was above the law. No one is above the law. By the way, she's disqualified from being commander in chief because on the 11th of September of 2012, four Americans died in Benghazi. She told their families that they died because of a movie. And she knew they died because of a terrorist attack.
Anybody who lies to the families of Americans who have lost their lives serving our country can never be the commander in chief of the United States of America. We cannot lose this election. Because losing this election doesn't just mean we lost the election. It means we'll lose our identity as a nation and as a people. I know that if I'm nominated I'll win. The Democrats know. They attack me more than any other Republican in this race. Because they know that if I'm the nominee, we win.
I'll unite the Republican Party. I've already proven just in the last week that I can bring people together from different parts of this party. I'll grow it. We're going to take the conservative movement. Not by watering it down. Take it and grow it taking it to people who don't vote for us now. There are millions of people in this country -
HARLOW: That is Marco Rubio speaking live in Birmingham, Alabama today. He is hitting three states today. Making quite a sweep across the south ahead of Super Tuesday. We're going to take a break.
Joining me next will be one of Rubio's biggest supporters live from Texas. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:27:45]
HARLOW: Welcome back. I'm Poppy Harlow, live in Columbia, South Carolina, the day that voters on the democratic side go to the polls this as the Republican race for the White House heats up.
You're looking at Marco Rubio speaking live in Birmingham, Alabama. As Super Tuesday is fast approaching, he is doing a sweep of the south trying to lock in those votes, crucial delegates up for grabs and the question on a lot of people's minds today, where has this Senator Marco Rubio been? In the last 24-36 hours, the presidential candidate took off the proverbial gloves and has been hammering front-runner Donald Trump on everything from his business record to his wardrobe and even according to some, that just made Rubio a real contender.
Let's talk about it with the woman who is a big Rubio backer, Roseanne Rodriguez, and she's also former field director at Harris County's Republican Party there in Texas. Thanks for joining me.
ROSEANNE RODRIGUEZ, RUBIO SUPPORTER: Thanks for having me.
HARLOW: All right. I want you to listen to what Rubio just said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: I had my differences with Ted Cruz on defense stuff but Ted and I are friends. Ted and I get along, we know each other personally. In the end I understand while we may not agree on everything I never said he's not a conservative. I don't think he said that about me. But we cannot lose this election, nomination to someone that the Democrats will rip apart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: All right. Roseanne, to a lot of folks that sounds like all of a sudden Rubio and Cruz are coming together. Maybe teaming up. Potentially. What do you make of that? Is that the only way to defeat Donald Trump?
RODRIGUEZ: I think what he's doing, I don't know if he is making peace or friends with Senator Ted Cruz, but he's definitely taking on the front-runner and that's probably, I mean they all see that he is a threat. I think for a long time, you know, Trump has kind of been this reality star, he's not a legitimate candidate, you know. This is a show. Eventually once people start voting they are going to really vote with their conscience and vote for somebody who can actually win and should be and has the temperament to be president of the United States.
[16:30:00] Now here we are four primaries in and he is a front-runner and is leading in the polls. So now is the time for them to go ahead and take him on. So I think that's more what it's about.
HARLOW: So, let's listen to what has transpired in the last 36 hours between Rubio and Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: We have a con artist as the frontrunner in the Republican Party.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, he is a nervous basket case.
RUBIO: Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.
TRUMP: He was putting on makeup with a trowel. I don't want to say that. I will not say that he was trying to cover up his ears. I will not say that.
RUBIO: Then he asked for a full length mirror. I don't know why because the podium went up to here, but he wanted a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet, I don't know.
TRUMP: It's Rubio.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: Back and forth, back and forth. Personal jabs talking about makeup, talking about wardrobe, not talking about the issues in those sort of attacks. Who ultimately do you think this is good for?
RODRIGUEZ: Well, I don't think it's good for the American people and for a long time when Trump was doing it, I was -- I didn't know what to think about it. I was like this is not a reality show, this is for a position of the most powerful position here in America of president, someone who is going to be a leader in this country.
But as you can see, Rubio has gone around, he's been on message. He tells people he's inspiring but that hasn't really resonated. You know, he goes out there and he starts to tear down at the facade that Trump has built, pressing him on the issues, getting him to you know, say where he stands on the issues and now you're starting to see he's getting more coverage, people are more excited.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Now he is doing just what you didn't -- he's doing what you didn't like to see Donald Trump do, when we talk about Florida, his home state that obviously he says he'll win, wants to win, you want him to win Florida, the latest Quinnipiac poll shows he is trailing Donald Trump by 16 points in Florida. Your take.
RODRIGUEZ: Well, you know, I didn't like it when it was happening and I can't say that I agree that it should be happening on Rubio's side. But like I said, he has tried to put the issues out there and it wasn't resonating with the American people. Now it's not that it's too late, but there's too much at stake for us to sit around and for Rubio just to continue with the track he was on.
I mean, at the debate he pressed him really hard, he pressed Trump really hard and Trump wasn't able to respond. He is trailing but I think the momentum after that debate, after the debate we had so many people calling trying to volunteer, wanting to get involved with the campaign. I think it really showed that he could take Trump on.
And probably not the best thing for the country, this isn't a reality show, this is real politics and real America. But it looks like this is where we have to go to take him down.
HARLOW: All right. Roseanne Rodriguez, appreciate you joining me. Thank you so much.
RODRIGUEZ: Thank you so much for having me.
HARLOW: Of course.
All right. So will this new Marco Rubio give Donald Trump a run for his money? And how many more insults will Trump throw at him? We're going to take you live to Tennessee ahead of what is sure to be another fiery Trump rally.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:35:11] HARLOW: Welcome back to our special live coverage today in Columbia, South Carolina, where Democrats are heading to the polls as the mudslinging between GOP candidates Marco Rubio and Donald Trump continues. It is frankly stealing the spotlight from the rest of the Republican field, as the battle that started on Thursday at CNN's debate has just escalated.
Trump blasting Rubio at a rally in Arkansas just moments ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: But I will address you know, little Rubio. This guy has a fresh mouth, he's a very nasty guy. And I actually thought that Ted Cruz was a liar but Rubio is worse. I mean he's worse.
This is lightweight Rubio. Total lightweight. Little mouth on him. Bing, bing, bing. Bing, bing, bing, bing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
HARLOW: MJ Lee, our CNN politics reporter, is in Millington, Tennessee. That's where Trump will hold his next rally set to start in just a few hours.
All right. I know one thing is guaranteed, and that is that he will go hard at Rubio. What else, though?
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, Poppy. First of all, I want to explain to you where we are right now in Millington, Tennessee, at a local airport.
And I don't know if you can see the runway behind me but Trump has been acting presidential recently, and one of the ways in which he has done that is to literally fly into the space where he is holding his campaign rally so everyone in the crowd can see the plane "Trump Force One" we have been calling it, see the plane actually fly in and then make this grand entrance, playing the music from the movie "Air Force One".
So this is a candidate who I think has the general election in mind and I think that just based on past campaign events where he has done this we can expect the crowd to be very excited to see the whole production. And as you were saying, Trump and Rubio, they are really going at each other using deeply personal attacks, we saw Trump make the case against Rubio just this morning in Arkansas, we can expect him to do the same in Tennessee.
And, of course, all of this coming as we are anticipating the March 15th race we're watching is the GOP primary in Florida, Rubio's home state. We learn that Trump will be spending the night of Super Tuesday in Florida, so sending a signal maybe to Marco Rubio.
HARLOW: Probably no prize he wants more than to take Rubio's home state from him. Rubio guaranteeing that he will win that state. We'll watch.
MJ Lee, thank you. Let us know when the plane lands there ahead of the rally in Tennessee tonight.
[16:40:01] Much more on Election Day here live from Columbia, South Carolina, in just a minute.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
HARLOW: Ted Cruz making a campaign blitz across the South today. The Republican contender just wrapping up an event in Georgia. He is now headed to Alabama. It's all to try to gain crucial votes ahead of Super Tuesday. Can he do it?
Steve Lonegan joins me. He is the Cruz campaign state director for New Jersey.
Thank you for being with me, sir.
STEVE LONEGAN, CRUZ SURROGATE: Poppy, thanks for having me.
HARLOW: Jump right into New Jersey, because, of course, New Jersey is now big part of this campaign again because you've got the governor of your state, Chris Christie, not backing your guy, he's backing Trump. What do you make of that?
LONEGAN: Poppy, that doesn't surprise me. I don't think the governor's endorsement amounts to much. New Jersey had 29 percent approval rating the lowest of a governor in my life time.
HARLOW: Really, you don't think it brings credibility and some of the establishment to Trump?
LONEGAN: No, I don't think so. It's a case of birds of a feather flock together. You know, Donald Trump is a heavy-handed authoritarian type. Chris Christie is a prosecutor. They will make a good pair. But it's not good for the future of this country.
What's important is that the Republican Party cannot allow the Trojan horse of Donald Trump roll in. We cannot allow Donald Trump's liberal big government Democrat policies trump to conservative policies. We can't allow Donald Trump's vulgar insults trump integrity. We can't allow Donald Trump's opportunistic populism trump true conservative ideology. And we can't allow Donald Trump's reality TV show to trump reality.
This is about the future of the Republican Party?
HARLOW: So then, Steve, where is your guy, where has Cruz been in the last 36 hours, does he need to jump in and take his gloves off in this whole Rubio/Trump thing?
[16:45:05] LONEGAN: I think that the senator has done so in this way. He is a very articulate communicator. He is gentleman. He's a southern gentleman and not that kind after street brawler. Maybe to some extent, that's a detriment, but I think over time voters appreciate that.
Senator Cruz's leadership, his character, his consistently has been steady throughout this campaign and throughout his career. You know, Ted Cruz has written more legal briefs in the U.S. Constitution than any presidential candidate in the last 100 years.
The future of the party is going to depend very much on what happens in the next couple days. You know, the fact that Donald Trump will not release his tax returns is very, very disturbing. I'll tell you why -- I truly believe we'll find out that Donald Trump gave a lot of money to Mike Bloomberg's anti-Second Amendment clause, a lot to Planned Parenthood, maybe even to pro-illegal immigration groups, and he doesn't people to know that.
HARLOW: All right. Just to be very clear, we know none of those things. No one has seen those returns.
(CROSSTALK)
HARLOW: Accountants and his lawyers.
So I want to preface that. I do want to get your take on this, Steve. I want you to listen to Trump slamming Cruz in the GOP debate this week says no one likes Cruz. Cruz fires back. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: You don't have the endorsement of one Republican senator and you work with these people. You should be ashamed of yourself.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I actually think Donald is right, he is promising if he is elected he will cut deals in Washington and he's right.
TRUMP: Good deals, good deals.
CRUZ: He has supported, he has given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats.
When you stand up to Washington, you honor the promise you made to the men and women who elected you and say enough with the corruption, enough with the cronyism, let's actually stand for the working men and women of this country, Washington doesn't like it and, Donald, if you want to be liked in Washington, that's not a good attribute for a president.
(APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP) HARLOW: So, Steve, we have seen pretty much eight years, especially the last four years of gridlock really shutting down a lot of President Obama's agenda. How would a President Cruz have a different shot at getting things through, getting his agenda through? How do you think he'd do?
LONEGAN: Because he stands on principle. While he'll compromise on certain elements, he doesn't compromise on principle.
But I have to laugh at Donald Trump's allegations. In the meantime in the last 24 hours, Mitch McConnell said if Donald Trump is the candidate, they are going to drop him like a hot rock. So, he doesn't seem to have friends on the so called establishment. He does have a lot of friends on the Democrat side where he's donated millions of dollars to the Democrat Party.
You know, how can someone call themselves a conservative if they are acceptable and friendly with Harry Reid and Jimmy Carter. They can accept it. How can a Republican be a Republican when he's giving tens of thousands to Jimmy Carter, Hillary Clinton, Bill Clinton, Barack Obama, John Kerry and so on. That's no Republican.
HARLOW: He says he was doing smart business as a business man. You give money to folks on both sides. Thank you so much, Steve.
LONEGAN: He knows how to grease the skids for his own business deal. Thank you, Poppy. Appreciate it.
HARLOW: Thank you. Nice to have you on.
Coming up next, candidates like Senator Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton are not the only ones trying to break barriers in the tech world. African-Americans are forging careers in an industry not always welcoming to minorities, American opportunity on that is next.
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HARLOW: In today's American opportunity every election is about opportunity, choosing the man or woman who will make your life better, that is the choice facing voters in this country. Today, voters on the Democratic side are going to the polls here in South Carolina, it's an important issue and for those denied opportunities in the past especially like African-Americans barriers still exist in many, many sectors for them to break, including in the technology sector.
Gregory Lowe learned that the hard way. He taught himself what he needed to know to launch a successful -- a successful app and break into the tech industry. As an African-American with no formal coding education or investor relations training, he never forgets the difficulties that he faced starting out.
Our very own Dominique Dobly (ph) sat down to discuss his inspiring journey in this week's "American Opportunity".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) GREGORY LOWE, CEO, LOWEKEY MEDIA: I was growing up, it was always to be Jerry Rice, it was always to be Randy Moss. It was never to be Mark Zuckerberg or some of the other influential characters in technology as they are today.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESONDENT (voice-over): In 2014, African- Americans made up between 1 percent and 6 percent of the workforce in four of the biggest tech companies, Apple, Google, Microsoft and Facebook. Only 1 percent of tech entrepreneurs who received venture capital money in the first half of 2010 were black.
LOWELL: For minorities to create a job opportunity for themselves, the technology industry offers a great portal for that.
MARQUEZ: Lowe moved to L.A. after college and began his journey in the tech world.
LOWE: One of my neighbors was a coder. He was website developer. He told me that market was taking off and I need to be in that market. I didn't know how. I didn't know where to start. C plus plus, X codes, swift now, it was foreign language to me. I sat with this guy. Every day.
He had me creating a line of code where the ball would jump across the screen to the other side of the screen. If one line of code out of 30 lines wasn't correct, the entire thing would crash and call it an error. I start to see that this was something I could probably do this.
MARQUEZ: Lowe had to raise money for his first idea.
LOWE: You can have the greatest idea. If you don't have the capital to push it, it's going to be hard for you to get that idea to the world.
It was very hard in the beginning, walking into rooms and knowing that you know, I'm going to kill this but guess what, there is a whole other wall that skin color thing.
MARQUEZ: Lowe remembers looking and sounding different when he met with investors.
[16:55:00] He was approached with caution but in the end, he raised around $150,000 for his first app.
LOWE: So we came up with iFlypt, it was a remix applications, where you could press buttons and sound would come out. It would be like a deejay experience. I picked up the phone, I called my mother. Mom, I want to be a voice for this industry, for people who are coming up behind me.
MARQUEZ: Lowe recently launched Fitbox, a leisure wear company and fitness app.
LOWE: All you have to do is have a great idea. Now you have so many avenues you can go to in order to create that idea and help people help you create that.
So, as an African-American on the forefront of that, it helps me to bring up younger minorities to say you know what, you don't have to be an athlete, you don't have to be a rapper or a singer, you can enter in this industry and create a business from anything, and offer a portal through the mobile phone that people can access.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
HARLOW: Congrats to him. Lowe has plans to start a coding camp for minorities this summer. We will follow his progress.
You can see a lot more of our American opportunities stories. Just go to CNNMoney.com/AmericanOpportunity.
Coming up next, we will speak live with some of those young voters here in South Carolina who went to the polls for Donald Trump last weekend, handing him a decisive victory just one week ago in South Carolina. What do they say motivated them? These are folks that go to school here at the University of South Carolina.
Stay with us for that.
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