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Interview With Ron Paul; Interview with Hillary for America Spokesman Brian Fallon; Democratic Voters Quit Party for Massachusetts Primary; Economy Tops Voters Minds on Super Tuesday; Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 01, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:26] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump causing waves within the Republican establishment. As we've been telling you for the past few days, Mr. Trump vacillated when it came to denouncing David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan when he was speaking to Jake Tapper over the weekend. Well, the House leadership had their weekly press gaggle. The House Speaker Paul Ryan just spoke out about that. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: So today I want to be very clear about something. If a person wants to be the nominee of the Republican Party, there can be no evasion and no games. They must reject any group or cause that is built on bigotry. This party does not prey on people's prejudices. We appeal to their highest ideals. This is the party of Lincoln. We believe all people are created equal in the eyes of God and our government.

This is fundamental. And if someone wants to be our nominee, they must understand this. I hope this is the last time I need to speak out on this race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. That was the House leadership, Paul Ryan, the House Speaker Paul Ryan, speaking out about Donald Trump's comments on CNN when it came to David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan.

I want to bring in my next guest now to talk more about this, Ron Paul.

Welcome, Congressman. I'm glad you're here with me.

DR. RON PAUL (R), FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Your thoughts about this hullabaloo over David Duke and the Ku Klux Klan?

PAUL: Well, it's pretty amazing, and a campaign has a lot of involvement. It's interesting that the media is able to create the issue the Ku Klux Klan. You know, I don't even know if there's 100 people in the country that even know about it. Of course it has to be condemned, but why are people able to bring this up? No politician would want it to be brought up. So it has to be, you know, a plant by the media to instigate it and try to make accusations. So to me --

COSTELLO: You don't blame -- you don't Donald Trump?

PAUL: You know just part of the process which I --

COSTELLO: You don't blame Donald Trump, you blame the media for bring it up?

PAUL: Well, of course. Of course he should do it because -- let's blame him and let's blame the media for, you know, tracking him. But the whole thing is, why did it can come up? Sure, we can blame Donald Trump. I blame him for everything else, so blame him, but how did this become the issue of the day?

The first question you asked on Super Tuesday is the Ku Klux Klan. This is unbelievable to me. This has been condemned and they have been marginalized. Nobody cares about them. They're evil, they're monsters, and yet now it's going to be the issue of the day. That, to me, should be the issue is how in the world do these things occur? Why aren't we talking about the military industrial complex, the Federal Reserve, the deficits, the intrusion of our privacy, and all the intrusions of our liberties which are never touched? The protectionism that's going on and presented is socialism versus national populism.

COSTELLO: Well, I --

PAUL: Those are the issues. Today it's the Ku Klux Klan.

COSTELLO: I think that -- I think that many voters would have -- I understand. And the reason I asked you was because Paul Ryan just spoke out about it and David Duke --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: -- behind Donald Trump. That's why I asked you about it. Just to be clear. Just to be clear. But I hear you. I hear you, Congressman.

PAUL: OK, OK.

COSTELLO: So let me ask you about issues because this election, especially on the Republican side, seems to be all about emotion and anger. Your son tried to talk about issues, but it didn't work for him.

PAUL: Well, maybe Trump got more attention for the media than liberty got. You know, if people understood the true revolution going on is away from obtrusive government and that there are answers on the libertarian side, but the people, the people don't understand that quite as well, but the media doesn't understand it. They don't understand free market economics. They don't understand what's the fed going to do next week, raise or lower interest rates. They don't understand this, so it's not interesting.

But I find it fascinating and I find that the college kids that I talk to, they find it fascinating, too, when they hear the truth about economics, the truth about nonintervention foreign policy and the truth about our Fourth Amendment, and why government shouldn't be invading our privacy. They understand this, but that's not what this is about. Matter of fact, my biggest beef is from a libertarian viewpoint, there is absolutely no difference of -- some meaningful difference between Hillary and Trump.

[10:35:03] I mean, they both support military industrial complex, the Federal Reserve, deficits, entitlements, invasion of our privacy. And it is -- it's super nationalistic populism versus socialism, and that's -- that is so remote.

COSTELLO: So --

PAUL: From what we need to be doing. We need to be moving ourselves away from tyranny toward liberty.

COSTELLO: So are you endorsing anyone? Are you endorsing any of the Republican candidates? I know that you're not endorsing Trump. I could hear that in your words today.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: No, I'm not going to be endorsing any of the ones that are running -- you know, that are left on the stage.

COSTELLO: Why not?

PAUL: No -- because their positions, just like I stated, from the libertarian viewpoint of limiting government, there's nothing there offered to reduce the size and scope and intrusion of government. Who offers any cuts in spending? Who offers protections of our liberty? Who -- I mean, some of the top candidates want to carpet bomb the world, you know, this sort of thing. So no, libertarians can't endorse the authoritarian approach. Authoritarianism is the opposite of libertarianism and that is that there are people who want to be the boss in economic or social or military terms, and they want to run things.

We want to run our own lives. We don't -- we're not looking for an authoritarian to be the boss. We want -- we want our freedoms, our liberties, and we want to be responsible for ourselves.

COSTELLO: Well, some of what you say --

PAUL: And we want to understand the free market.

COSTELLO: Some of what you say, it really does liberate -- resonate, rather, with a lot of voters who want smaller government.

PAUL: Right.

COSTELLO: And your son preached that all the time. So when you stand back -- I don't know, do you wish you were more involved in your son's campaign, and would you offer him advice now as to why it didn't work out for him?

PAUL: No. I'd offer advice to the media to be more aware of what he was talking about. You know, when I ran, you know, I had the largest crowds, but not once were we covered. We'd get 8,000 to 10,000, which is mediocre compared today, but then it was the biggest crowds, but there was never a bit of coverage, you know, of Ron Paul had a big rally. Matter of fact, when I came in second, they didn't even mention my name.

So it's the way things are reported. So, yes, that's where the biggest trouble is. No, I'm sure he would admit that he didn't run a perfect campaign or he'd be still in the race, but it has a lot to do with the people's acceptance of it because in one way, I think it's a shame that the people aren't more with us and the media doesn't understand us. At the same time, I'm very excited and I have a very positive attitude, I'm optimistic about the young people, the nucleus of people who care about ideas because we believe as libertarians that ideas are the only thing that have consequences.

So even though we have Hillary and we have Trump, the ideology that they follow is interventionism in our personal lives. You know, in the military thing. And --

COSTELLO: So I just want to ask you this.

PAUL: And the deficits.

COSTELLO: I just want to ask you this last question because I'm running out of time. So would you ever think of supporting Bernie Sanders?

PAUL: OK. No. No. Because he's an authoritarian.

(LAUGHTER)

PAUL: He wants to -- because he's just a variant of Trump. Trump wants to be the boss. And -- but even the things that I work with on Bernie on some of the foreign policy, I mean, he's part of the military industrial complex. You look at his vote. He was a big voter for militarism, he had one vote that he can brag about. But he was very much involved -- no, he's an authoritarian of a different color. But Trump is a super authoritarian because he wants to -- he wants to be the boss.

I don't want a boss and libertarians don't want -- most Americans don't want a boss. They'd like to be left alone.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

Congressman Ron Paul, thanks for stopping by.

Donald Trump says he won't just win the nomination, he'll win the White House, too. But the Republican frontrunner says he hasn't even started prepping his attacks on Hillary Clinton yet. He does seem awfully confident, though, considering the latest GOP poll. It indicates -- actually it shows that Trump will lose by eight points in a Clinton-Trump matchup.

With me now Brian Fallon, he's the press secretary for Hillary for America.

Welcome.

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY FOR HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Thanks for having me.

COSTELLO: I'm still recovering from --

FALLON: That was interesting.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Yes, it was.

FALLON: It's all your fault, Carol.

COSTELLO: I know. It's all my fault. So according to an article in the "New York Times," Hillary Clinton's campaign has already started, is already prepping to beat Donald Trump in a general election. Is that true?

FALLON: I read that report, and you know, it mostly relies on outside Democrats, many of whom are our supporters, giving their thoughts on how they think a Trump candidacy should be opposed in a general election. And we're really not focused on that. That story doesn't reflect the aim of our campaign which right now is focused on Super Tuesday and vying for the Democratic nomination.

[10:40:03] You know, we've been fortunate to win in three of the first four early states but they only award 4 percent of the overall delegates that it takes to win the nomination. So we're looking ahead to today where 11 states will vote. One fifth of the delegates are up for grabs today. And we're hoping to build on a lead we enter today with a 91-65 lead among pledged delegates. We're expecting to build on that and win a majority of the delegates up for grabs today.

COSTELLO: Well, let me go back to that for just a second because Donald Trump said on "GMA" this morning, he said, I have not even begun my attack strategy against Hillary Clinton. And you know what he's going to bring up. He's going to bring up the e-mail controversy. He's going to talk about whether they want a sitting -- whether people want a sitting president who will be arrested in the middle of her term. And that could be effective.

FALLON: Well, look, like I said, we are staying focused on our primary campaign. That's where our focus should be and that's where we can afford for it to be. Because just take a look at the state of the Republican race right now. When you have an internal debate going on within the Republican Party over whether or not to disavow the KKK, I think that tells you everything about the relative position that they're in. So we can afford to focus on our race, we can afford to work on

mobilizing our supporters, growing our party, and I think our party will be stronger because of this process where we've had a competitive primary. Senator Sanders has done a great job of raising issues and expanding the appeal of the Democratic brand. And so I think that we'll be in a better position in the general election having gone through this competitive contest. But for now our focus is appropriately placed on winning that nomination.

COSTELLO: Brian Fallon, thanks for stopping by.

FALLON: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, I'll take you live to Massachusetts. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders fighting for that state. But are some of their supporters abandoning ship altogether? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:46:09] COSTELLO: The Trump phenomenon. That's how top election officials in the state of Massachusetts are describing the move by thousands of voters to dump the Democratic Party and register as independents or Republicans.

CNN's Boris Sanchez live in Roxbury, Massachusetts, to tell us more. Good morning.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. About 20,000 Democrats have essentially left the party since January 1st. 16,000 of them or so have labeled themselves as independents. The other 3,000 or so are now part of the GOP. As you called it the Trump phenomenon.

The belief is that many of those voters because of the way that rules are set here in Massachusetts have switched to independents or Republicans in order to vote in the GOP primary and potentially the reason for that is that they want to elect Trump so he takes the Republican nomination. They see him as a more easily beatable adversary, perhaps, than Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz, some of the other candidates on the Republican side.

I can tell you, though, here at this polling location, we've seen quite a few people coming in and out. There was a huge ruckus about an hour ago when former President Bill Clinton was here. This is a big state for the Clinton campaign. And Clinton is going from polling location to polling location throughout the day to try to boost the message for Hillary.

This is a state where she's neck and neck with Bernie Sanders. They're both roughly at 46 percent support. It would be a huge victory for Hillary if she could win here, a state that is really more of a Bernie type territory. There's more than 75 percent white voters here in Massachusetts. Bernie is not expected to do well in southern states that are more diverse. South Carolina comes to mind where Hillary trounced him essentially.

Hillary is expected to do well in other southern states. Today the SEC primary as it's called. But if she can win here, it'll be a big blow to Bernie Sanders. We'll keep our eyes peeled and see how it goes the rest of the day -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. Going back to those voters, I just want to make sure I heard it correctly. So people are switching their party affiliation to vote for Donald Trump because they support Donald Trump or because they want Trump to win because he's -- he would be easily beatable in a general election?

SANCHEZ: The belief is that it's split. Some people -- I would say a lot of independents here that we've spoken to are large supporters of Trump. Others are believed to be switching because they believe he's more beatable in a general than some of the other candidates. But if Trump does well here, it could be a bellwether for him in the general election. There's a large number of independent voters here, especially blue-collar Democrats that he's hoping to attract.

COSTELLO: All right. Boris Sanchez, reporting live from Boston this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, we're breaking down the issues voters say are most important to them. How the economy may determine their presidential pick, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:53:09] COSTELLO: Democratic and Republican voters agree the economy is their main concern heading to the polls today. According to a new CNN-ORC poll 47 percent of registered voters say the economy is the most important issue. Health care and terrorism a distant second and third. If you break the numbers down among party lines, 51 percent of Democrats and 42 percent of Republicans feel this way.

Christine Romans is here with more. Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Those are the issues that people will be thinking about as they head to the polls today and they choose those all-important delegates for who will be their nominee.

I mean, the issues here again and again, we have seen the economy top the list. Jobs, the economy, health care, the things that are pocketbook issues are the things that are first in mind.

It's interesting gas prices today, Carol, are $2 cheaper they were last time. Last time. Let's talk about the math here, because this is what's incredibly important here. It's all the math, and the math favors Donald Trump here. I want to begin with the delegates on the board right now and start with the GOP. 125 delegates have already been pledged. Donald Trump won three big states. He's got 82 delegates already after those wins in New Hampshire, South Carolina and Nevada. Super Tuesday, a dozen states up for grabs. Arguably this will be the

most important day, and people will be thinking about their personal economy as they go and make their choices. About half of the 1,237 Republican delegates needed to secure the nomination are at stake, and polls show Donald Trump -- polls show Donald Trump is coming in with a dominating position. 49 percent in our most recent poll, up eight points in just a month.

So, Carol, here's what I want to focus on here. I want to talk about the big prize here. 155 delegates in Texas. Home to Senator Ted Cruz, he's been campaigning hard in his state. These will be awarded proportionally. Right? So Cruz needs to win big here, big here if he's going to make sure that Trump doesn't run up the delegate numbers. Cruz at 39 percent. Trump and Rubio at 16.

Finally I want to look over here in Georgia. This -- a lot -- all the campaigns say it's competitive.

[10:55:05] It is the second biggest haul for the night. 76 delegates. The latest poll is favoring Trump. But look, Cruz and Rubio think that they might have a shot there. And look, you know, Marco Rubio is still looking for his first win. He needs to put something on the board, Carol. Maybe Arkansas, Ted Cruz is hoping there. Virginia, maybe the 38 delegates in Minnesota. Incredibly important here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Christine Romans reporting on the numbers. Thanks so much.

That will do it for me. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you for joining me today. "AT THIS HOUR WITH BERMAN AND BOLDUAN" after a break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will go anywhere to speak to anyone before I let a con artist get ahold of the Republican Party.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's like a robot. You wind him up and he talks.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I intend to remain the adult.

DR. BEN CARSON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They're saying, please do not get out.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You can't just say whatever pops into your head if you want to be the president of the United States.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is nothing more than I would love to do than run against Donald Trump.