Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Trump Adds Louisiana and Kentucky to Wins; Sanders Keeps Campaign Alive; U.N.'s Harsh New Sanctions Against North Korea; Malaysia Remembering MH-370 Victims; Vatican Says 16 People Including Four Nuns Killed in Yemen; Makeshift Camp on Greek Border Grows by the Day; Flint Families on Water Struggles. Aired 5-6a ET

Aired March 06, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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


[05:00:00] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In all likelihood Hillary wins.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: No doubt it was a Super Saturday for Ted Cruz in the republican race for the White House, and of the democrats, Bernie Sanders did enough to ensure that Hillary Clinton won't get it all right away.

Plus, a rough night for Marco Rubio. Why Donald Trump is telling him to throw in the towel.

And the never-ending wave of humanity facing little or no relief. A look at the growing refugee crisis in Greece.

From CNN world headquarters, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

America's choice 2016, and Super Saturday. It is on the books now in a wild election cycle that has had pleasant of twists and turns. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump did not get a clean sweep as his opponents feared, but he did score both Louisiana and Kentucky adding to his lead over the field.

Ted Cruz also had a strong showing winning the States of Kansas and Maine. He may be emerging as the Trump challenging with the most staying power. Saturday helped Cruz close in on Trump's delegate lead with Marco Rubio now at a distant third.

On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton took home her main target which was the State of Louisiana. But her opponent Bernie Sanders earned wins in both the States of Kansas and Nebraska keeping that campaign alive. Sanders has an uphill climb now for the nomination but Saturday proved that he has no intention of throwing in the towel either.

Ted Cruz is urging republicans to look to him as the alternative to Donald Trump after his two wins on Saturday; Cruz claims that he has the best shot to get past Donald Trump. He welcomed voters to get on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Today, we've beaten Donald Trump not once, not twice, but seven times in states all across this country with wide geographic diversity, wide ideological diversity.

And if you're one of those republicans at home who doesn't think Donald Trump is the best candidate for us to nominate, who doesn't think we should be nominating a candidate who has been liberal democrat most of his life, who agrees with Hillary Clinton on foreign policy, who agrees on Hillary Clinton on here cronyism and corporate welfare, who agrees with Hillary Clinton on issue after issue after issue, then I welcome you to join us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Now there is no question that Ted Cruz still has a great deal of work to do if he wants to catch up with Donald Trump and present himself to voters as the Trump alternative. But Rubio, and for that matter, John Kasich have given no indication that they will be stepping aside either.

Jim Acosta reports on the very latest from the republican field.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump declared victory in two of the four contests that were up for grabs after winning in both Louisiana and Kentucky. Donald Trump said that that was a testament to the organization that he's put together and also the movement that he's leading in this country.

As for Ted Cruz, who also won two states on the Super Saturday, Trump said that the victory for Ted Cruz in Maine was due to the fact that he was born in Canada. As for his other big rival in this race, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump suggested that he should drop out. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Marco -- Marco Rubio had a very, very bad night and personally I'd call for him to drop out of the race. I think it's time now that he drops out of the race. I really think so.

(APPLAUSE)

I think it's probably time. You know, I don't think tonight he can get up and run and rave, he did great. He comes in third, he comes in fourth. Every time he comes in third or fourth, he says, you've got to be able to win, and he has not been able to win. And I think it's time that he drops out.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ACOSTA: Trump also defended the level of discourse he's bringing to

the campaign saying that the occasional scuffles that brake out at his rallies are due to the fact that his events are larger than those of the other candidates.

Jim Acosta, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.

HOWELL: Jim, thank you. Bernie Sanders touched on the potential of a general election match-up with Donald Trump. This pivot in messaging came after his two state victories on Super Saturday. The Vermont Senator won Kansas and Nebraska and now he is looking ahead to the State of Michigan and the primary there.

Senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns has this report for us.

JOE JOHNS, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders appearing on Super Saturday at Macomb Community College in Michigan, the very same school where Donald Trump had appeared just one day before the campaign said that Sanders appearance was not in reaction to the Trump appearance.

However, during a speech here, Sanders did talk about a CNN poll that says he would beat Trump in a general election match-up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American people know that togetherness, standing together Trump's divisiveness.

(CROWD CHEERING)

The American people know that community helping each other Trump's selfishness.

(CROWD CHEERING)

[05:05:05] And most importantly, the American people know and every religion teaches us this, that love Trump's hatred.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Sanders also talked about Flint, Michigan, the site of the water crisis and the scene of the CNN democratic debate on Sunday night. And he once again called on Michigan's governor to step down over the issue.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: When you have that kind of dereliction, dereliction in duty, I think the governor should do the right thing and resign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Sanders may be fighting an uphill battle here, but he needs to make a strong showing in the primary on Tuesday. Joe Johns, CNN, Warren, Michigan.

HOWELL: Earliear, I spoke with Jacob Parakilas with London's Chatham House bout the Super Saturday results. I asked him about the implications of Ted Cruz's victories in these two key states and what it means for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio moving ahead.

JACOB PARAKILAS, CHATHAM HOUSE ASSISTANT PROJECT DIRECTOR: The sort of underlying aspect of it all has been when it is going to turn into a two-man race. And I think today you're beginning to see the emergence of the possibility of a sort of a two-man Donald Trump/Ted Cruz race for the republican nomination.

Now it's difficult to see how Cruz could actually accumulate the full number of delegates that he would to win on the first battle after republican convention, but you have the possibility of actually having a floor fight at the convention which is something that hasn't happened in modern American history.

HOWELL: Wait a minute. I can hear the Rubio camp saying, hey, wait a minute, don't count us out because Marco Rubio is counting on Florida, you know, determined to stay in this race. What do you see?

PARAKILAS: It's difficult to see how Rubio could overcome even Cruz at this point. I mean, if you look at what the Rubio camp was saying, they were talking about the number of places they beat Cruz without mentioning Donald Trump.

So, I really don't see what Rubio could do, aside from sort of build up to the point where he and Cruz could jointly contest Trump's nomination at the convention. But it's just difficult to imagine sort of Rubio superseding Cruz's delegate count at this point and being the strong, the sort of obvious alternative to Trump.

HOWELL: Jacob, let's talk the democrats. Bernie Sanders, you know, we now hear him pivoting talking more about taking on Donald Trump really than sparring against Hillary Clinton, though, Clinton maintained the lead with delegates. What does Sanders have to do to keep up his momentum?

PARAKILAS: Sanders would have to massively expand his votes amongst non-white parts of democratic block. Because every state Sanders has won has been over -- has largely white and very liberal and that's not necessarily a demographic that's true for the upcoming big winner take all states.

So, he actually sort of has his work cut out for him. He needs to do very well in the big democratic strong hold in Michigan and in Florida and California to come.

Clinton got a very strong delegate lead. She also has a strong establishment support. And you're seeing that in her tone where she's talking more about, sort of the general election and trying to be accommodating and gracious about Sanders rather than attacking him as she did earlier when I think she was a bit more worried about his challenge after New Hampshire. HOWELL: You know, just a few days ago, we heard Mitt Romney come out

very strongly against Donald Trump making the case there. And we just heard Donald Trump seemingly concerned about this idea of a third party candidate. He basically says that, you know, if that were to happen, the republicans would hand the election over to the democrats. What do you make of it?

PARAKILAS: I think the idea of a third party candidate is interesting. I think it would be incredibly difficult to do at this point. Ballot access laws would mean that a third party candidate at this point would almost certainly have to run a write-in campaign.

Now Donald Trump can threaten that because he has almost universal name recognition at this point, every one everywhere knows who Donald Trump is. So, if he says I'm running a write-in campaign. Then he could probably -- he probably couldn't win the election but he could probably throw it.

He can get enough votes to guarantee a democratic win. It's difficult to see who the republicans could put as a sort of independent republican on a write-in candidate up who would threaten Trump. So, I'm not sure how plausible that is.

HOWELL: Jacob, just quickly here, the view from outside the United States for those that are watching this election process take place about the two frontrunners, what are the two feelings about Donald Trump for the republicans and Hillary Clinton as it stands now for the democrats?

PARAKILAS: There's a lot of concern about Trump. I mean, people are worried about his bellicose rhetoric. They worry in Europe particularly about the extent to which he would maintain traditional American alliance commitment and the extent which he would sort of swap those out for a more transactional view of America's role in the world.

[05:09:59] Clinton is much more of a known quantity. I think she's seen as more, representing more of continuity with Obama than a significant step change of any kind.

HOWELL: Jacob Parakilas, live for us in London. Jacob, thank you so much for your insight.

PARAKILAS: Thank you.

HOWELL: That interview with Jacob from earlier.

Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off on the debate stage once again in this CNN democratic debate later today, live from Flint, Michigan. Our own Anderson Cooper moderates. That will be at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, 1 a.m. Monday in London only here on CNN.

This is CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, much more on Super Saturday coming up. Hillary Clinton did not win the most states yesterday, but she is just as confident heading into the Michigan primary. We'll have details with why ahead.

Plus, it has been a painful legal and emotional battle for the families of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Ahead, how the victims are being remembered two years after.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: The Philippine Coast Guard has impounded the ship you see here enforcing harsh new sanctions imposed by the U.N. on North Korea. The cargo ship was flying a flag from Sierra Leone when it docked in Subic Bay on Thursday.

The documents show all 21 crew members on board are North Korean nationals. Authorities plan to deport the crew. Among that with the new sanctions, all countries are required now to inspect cargo going into and from North Korea.

There's also a complete ban on small arms going into the country. And the sanctions call for the expulsion of North Korean diplomats who engage in, quote, "illicit activities." Sanctions further include a wider ban on luxury items, like watches, jet skis, and recreational vehicles.

Aviation fuel would also be banned as well because it can be converted to weapons production. The sanctions also limit the imports of North Korean coal and iron ore if it can be shown that the sales would support "illicit activities."

Two years ago, 239 people lost their lives on board Malaysian Airlines flight 370. And ever since, the relatives of those on board have found very few answers sine the Boeing 777 disappeared on its way to Beijing from Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

[05:15:02] But now, the deadline for families to sue the airline is March eighth.

Our Saima Mohsin reports from Malaysia on how the victims are being remembered.

SAIMA MOHSIN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Family, friends and well wishes are gathering here today to mark a day of remembrance for the 239 passenger and crew members on board flight MH370. Kuala Lumpur, of course is where the plane took off from bound to Beijing. They didn't arrive in its destination. It's where their loved ones were last seen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, today is the 6th and I'm recalling what Patrick did on the sixth. And in tomorrow I'll remember what he did on the seventh, you know, where he went for a safety cause. And then I will remember on the eighth a call coming in an all that. So, it's all remained -- it's the rewinding and now playing back. That's tough, but I'm -- you know, I'll try to stay strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MOHSIN: The family members are also taking this opportunity to launch

a petition search on. They're asking people to re-evaluate and reinvestigate the disappearance of flight MH370. They're concerned that once the current search of 120,000 kilometers in the deepest Southern Indian Ocean ends, the search may end with it and they may never find the plane or their loved ones.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're been talking stopping the search in the end of June, early July. And we are not ready for them to stop searching. We want the search to go on. We think that giving up right now would be premature. It's so unprecedented, so bizarre. They have to be willing to take unprecedented steps so they may not normally look for a plane for this long but this is an unprecedented even then they need to take unprecedented steps as well to recover the plane.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MOHSIN: Each of these balloons has someone's on board flight MH370 name attached them. These are for the 12 crew members, the rest 227 passengers on board. These families are still hoping they might turn up and that is why events like this is so important for them to raise awareness to keep the greatest aviation mystery alive, perhaps, hoping that it's a mystery no more than they find the plan.

Saima Mohsin, CNN, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

HOWELL: The Vatican says 16 people, including four nuns were gunmen stormed an elderly home in the port City of Aden. Officials say the killers bursts into the facility then went room to room handcuffing victims before then shooting all 16 in the head.

The pope quickly rebuked the attack as, quote "senseless and diabolical."

Let's go live to Yemen. Journalist Hakim Almasmari joins us with the very latest on this situation. Hakim, good to have you with us. If you could just tell us what happened here. What more do we know about this attack?

HAKIM ALMASMARI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unexpected tragic, especially for nuns at a nursing homes who have been living in Yemen for many years and have been helping the Yemenis for many years and were loved by almost all of the people of Aden for helping those people.

This attack was so tragic as back even Al Qaeda. AQAP condemned that death or the attack on these nuns and civilians in this nursing home. It's not the first time attacks happened against Christians, this happened many years back in the early '90s in the port City of Aden.

But over the last 20 years this is the first time. There are numerous of other nursing homes run by Christian nuns around the Yemen and all of them are safe. Now this according to the governor of Aden holds the hallmarks of ISIS in Aden. This is not a secret that ISIS has strong presence in Aden where these

attacks took place. Dozens have check points are currently under ISIS control in Aden. So, this is the result of chaos that has been the result of 11 months of Saudi war, that has caused complete sort of the turmoil all over the country.

HOWELL: I want to talk more about that because people are aware of the conflict between Houthi rebels and Saudi. But when it comes to ISIS gaining more control, more grip in that country, we're seeing that in countries as well in Afghanistan. Tell our viewers what's happening there when it comes to ISIS.

ALMASMARI: Last year, ISIS was not present in Yemen. It's in their group, it's mainly started when the Houthis were forced to or defeated in southern provinces by Saudi allies and its forces. Sadly and unfortunately, after the Saudi collision control of many Yemeni province of the south, there was lack of seriousness by the Saudi coalition which led ISIS control many of these provinces.

[05:20:03] By now, ISIS controls more territory in Yemen. When I say ISIS, I mean ISIS and other affiliated groups like Al Qaeda. They control more territory in Yemen than the Yemeni government than even the Houthis in the north.

So, this because every -- or the majority of areas that are -- the Houthis came out from and taking by the Saudi coalition is sadly controlled by ISIS. In Aden it's only one example. You have the Hadhramaut and other provinces and their number today in Yemen exceed in the thousands, whereas, as last year, there were not in the tens.

HOWELL: The Saudi-led air strikes have been going on now for 11 months. And many people, many civilians are caught up in the middle of it. What more can you tell us about civilians of getting aid to them, these people who are suffering in the middle of all of this.

ALMASMARI: It's unbelievable. Right now the 90 percent of those killed have been civilians. Over 20 million civilians that's 80 percent of the population today in Yemen are suffering from severe hunger crisis. They sleep hungry. Millions of children suffer from malnutrition because of this 11 months war that Yemen was already the poorest country in the Middle East even before the war.

Adding to that, 90 percent of those killed have been civilians. The Yemen government says that that number exceeds 8,500 civilians killed, while the U.N. numbers are around 2,500. In the end, this war has only caused more tragedy to civilians and this is the reason why Saudi allied coalition is not succeeding in this war or not seeing any breakthrough because most of these casualties have been civilians and not soldiers.

HOWELL: Joining us live from Sana'a in Yemen, Hakim Almasmari. We wish you continued safety there and we always appreciate your reporting for us here on CNN.

A makeshift camp along the Greek border keeps getting bigger and bigger by the day as hundreds of migrants continue arriving hoping to cross into Macedonia. A drone captured the aerials that you see here showing hundreds of tents that are hauled along a rail line at that border.

Macedonia has imposed tight restrictions on migrant crossings. There are more than 10,000 migrants stranded at that camp. The camp designed though, to hold just 1,500 people.

CNN Arwa Damon caught up with some of the migrants at that camp to see how they're coping with the many, many challenges there.

(FOREIGN LANGUAGE)

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The children will find anything that they can to actually be able to play with. That game is called the bus. This is the situation as it exists along the Greece-Macedonia border, where the kids will do whatever they can the way children always do with their phenomenal resilience to try to entertain themselves, but it is always phenomenally difficult on the parents.

There are upwards of 10,000 people that are currently stuck here. Macedonia has reduced the numbers being allowed through to about a few dozen a day and only Iraqis and Syrians. And this is largely because other countries that are meant to be receiving the refugees and the migrants are saying that they simply at this stage cannot take the numbers or cope with the influx.

But by simply shutting down the border, it has resulted in this massive expansion that we are seeing here right now. All of these brightly colored tents were donated by various different organizations because the aide group that exists here quite simply can't handle the sheer volume of people that have been built up here at what is now a bottleneck.

And you can see other families getting ready for the night. It does get bitterly cold out here at night and then the long line of people waiting to get food. A line that they sometimes spend an hour, if not two in it just to get a sandwich.

And everyone who we've been speaking to here says they can deal with just about anything, it's the uncertainty of it all that makes it so difficult.

Arwa Damon, CNN, on the Greece-Macedonia border.

HOWELL: Tens of thousands of refugees from Syria have crossed the sea from Turkey into Greece in just the first two months of this year. And for some, that journey was a dangerous and nightmarish journey.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OMAR, SYRIAN REFUGEE (TRANSLATED): We were about 60 people. We did not want to go on the boat but they got us on it. In the middle of the sea the boat started sinking. I called the Greek Coast Guard. A few boats arrived. They saved my siblings, the driver is the one who sank the boat. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:25:04] HOWELL: Omar told us that after the boat started sinking, the Turkish Coast Guard rescued his five younger siblings and took them to Turkey.

Well, the Greek Coast Guard rescued him and his mother and then took them to Greece. Now, after nearly two weeks of separation, the family was finally reunited in Greece. A happy ending after certainly a scary ordeal.

You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, Marco Rubio's campaign suffered a rough day on Super Saturday. We will explain why he is trying to court voters in Puerto Rico to stop the bleeding.

Plus, hear how two families in Flint, Michigan have been getting by without using that city's contaminated city supply.

Broadcasting from Atlanta and on our networks around the world this hour, you're watching CNN worldwide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Good to have you with us. I'm George Howell.

The headlines we're following for you this hour. Super Saturday brought some mixed results to the U.S. presidential race. Republicans Ted Cruz and Donald Trump each won two states as both candidates now look to narrow the race to a one to one contest.

Meanwhile, democrat Bernie Sanders stayed alive with two wins of his own, but Hillary Clinton keeps the lead of delegates.

The 239 people on board Malaysia Airlines flight 370 are being remembered right now in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Nearly two years ago, that plane mysteriously vanished on its way to Beijing. March 8th is the deadline for families to sue that airline.

[05:30:02] The Vatican says gunmen had executed 16 people, including four nuns in Yemen. The attack happened on Friday at an elderly home in the port City of Aden. The pope is condemning the killings as, quote, "senseless and diabolical."

America's choice 2016. Our top story, the race for the White House and mixed results from Super Saturday. In case you missed all the action here on CNN, here is a quick recap for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: The field is narrowing only six candidates, two democrats, four republicans with 155 delegates at stake today for the democrats. There are 109 delegates at state.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The process of counting votes begins as I take you around the room here, you can hear people counting.

BLITZER: Ted Cruz is the winner of the Kansas republican presidential caucuses.

RICK BENNETT, MAINE GOP CHAIRMAN: Senator Ted Cruz with 45.84 percent of the vote.

CRUZ: What we're seeing is men and women who love freedom.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Go back to 1880 when Garfield ended up being nominated because the two frontrunners were completely disposed of going into this convention. That's right. I said, Garfield.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Garfield or Morris? Which was your favorite grumpy cat?

BLITZER: Bernie Sanders is the winner in Kansas State of Nebraska.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're waving your arms to get my attention.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: So, by the way...

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was not unhappy to talk.

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton will win Louisiana democratic presidential primary.

CLINTON: Let's try to find a little more love and kindness in our hearts.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have not heard the name Marco Rubio in a positive way all night.

BLITZER: Donald Trump wins Louisiana republican primary. Will win Kentucky.

TRUMP: What's happening is a movement and I'm very honored to say that if I were not involved that wouldn't be happening.

I'll say I'm kidding because I want them to say I'm a nice person.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That is super for other tonight. The two frontrunner, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton finishing the night still in the lead in terms of overall delegates but not without seeing some very big losses.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: What a night in U.S. politics. But Super Saturday wasn't all so super for Marco Rubio when all is said and done. But he is pressing on. Looking ahead now to his home State of Florida, hoping to keep his campaign alive, right now he's in Puerto Rico, of all places.

Boris Sanchez explains why.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Senator Marco Rubio making a push for Puerto Rico on Saturday night. The senator coming after a stop in Florida and Jacksonville, and what was overall a disappointing Super Saturday for Marco Rubio.

He only stayed in the teens and single digits in several contests around the country, including Kansas, Kentucky, and Maine. Despite his poor performance overall, he's still holding out hope. Here is his response when I asked him about his difficult Super Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R-FL) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, these are important states, we were in Kansas yesterday. There state have a certain profile that other candidates do better and we recognize that but it's proportional. What you need to understand is that all of these states are awarding delegates by proportion.

So, tonight, we will have more delegates than we did last night. We continue to pick up delegates and we will continue to do so and this map only gets better for us as we move forward in some of the other states.

Many of those states that voted tonight are states that quite frankly some of my opponents do better in. And we recognized that going in, but we wanted to make sure that we got our fair share of delegates in this proportional process. We're soon going to be in the winner-takes- all process in larger states like Florida and other places like that, and that's where we feel very confident as we move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: So, the big question is, why is the senator in Puerto Rico, a territory holds only about 23 delegates, not a huge number in the grand scheme of things. But there are two symbolic and significant victories potentially here for Senator Rubio.

First, there are about a million Puerto Rican voters in Florida, which is a do or die state for the senator. Ninety nine delegates in all and if can he can take them, it will sustain his campaign at least moving forward into the next few weeks.

The other symbolic victory would be that Puerto Rico is obviously a large Hispanic population and it could give the senator ammunition moving forward against Donald Trump and his claim that Hispanics love him. So, despite an overall disappointing Saturday for Senator Marco Rubio, he moves forward with hope in the campaign looking forward Florida.

Boris Sanchez, Levittown, Puerto Rico, CNN.

HOWELL: All right. So, Super Saturday it is now in the books. It is in the rear-view mirror, and democrats running for president, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders they're turning their attention to Michigan. One hundred thirty delegates up for grabs there in the democratic

primary that is to be held Tuesday in that state.

Our senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar reports that Hillary Clinton hopes to maintain her substantial lead in that delegate count.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The contest may have been in Nebraska, Kansas, and Louisiana, but both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders here in Michigan, ahead of the CNN debate Sunday, and the key primary in this state on Tuesday, both of them attending the Michigan Democratic Party dinner, where Clinton congratulated Sanders and didn't take him on too sharply.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[05:35:10] CLINTON: Today democrats caucused and voted in Louisiana, Kansas, and Nebraska. I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for running a strong campaign. I am thrilled we're adding to our pledged delegate count.

I'm grateful to everyone who turned out to support us, but now all eyes turn to Michigan.

(APPLAUSE)

And I can tell you this, we're going to work for every vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And as Secretary Clinton referenced there, she and her campaign are stressing her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders that he may have picked up states than her on this Super Saturday, two to her one.

But she picked up more delegates. They're also stressing that her margin over Bernie Sanders is bigger than anyone that Barack Obama had in 2008, implicit in that, they're asserting that Bernie Sanders cannot bust her.

Brianna Keilar, CNN, Detroit.

HOWELL: And a orogramming note as Briana mentioned, the democratic candidates, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face off on the debate stage once again on the CNN democratic debate. It is live from Flint, Michigan, Anderson Cooper moderates, that is at 8 p.m. Sunday here on CNN on the U.S. East Coast and 1 a.m. Monday in London.

As Clinton and Sanders focus in on Michigan, both have condemned the disastrous water crisis in the City of Flint, that is where service crews have begun replacing pipes that have contaminated the city's water supply with led.

Two families in Flint documented how they go about their daily routines living on bottled water.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

When this started to happen we immediately started using bottle water.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is this led water?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No, honey.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At four years, he's got acid washed saline water. It's crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Couple of little clips here.

DELANO WHIDBEE, FLINT RESIDENT: No matter what the test is going or remember it gets, I don't want to test the water. I don't -- I don't want to ingest the water. I don't want my kids to ingest the water. I don't anyone in Flint to ingest the water right now.

We don't even brush our teeth with the water. My oldest child Madison, we use the water bottle to rinse off and put the toothbrush back.

WHIDBEE: Say cheese.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Cheese.

WHIDBEE: While making my daughter, two of my old buddies, I saw -- I found myself using the tap water and I have to pour it out and remake the bottles using bottled waters. So, for now when I get up and I make myself coffee I make sure that I fill up a bottle six bottles, and I leave about three bottles here for more and when we get off work, and she gets home.

HEATHER BEACH, FLINT RESIDENT: I don't know what it is.

JAY REYNOLDS, FLINT RESIDENT: My 11-year-old son, he was hospitalized back in July of 2015, near the end of the month with this severe diagnosis was pneumonia as (Inaudible) organism. He was in ICU. His pediatrician said that if he would have been seen a day letter, we were probably not be. We're now pretty sure that he will probably lead (Inaudible) and they refuse to test for him. The thing as a parent is to see your child suffering, to see them get sick all the time.

WHIDBEE: I think that's what hurts you more when you don't even play the part in what's wrong. How can you fix it if you didn't do it, and what can the average citizen do to fix it. You know, that's what hurts me the most, you've got little kids, little young babies and it's like no one care about their lives. Like their lives didn't matter.

REYNOLDS: I just got quick word from my neighbors that down at city hall, they're doing a lot of driving and they're pretty much reloading your vehicle with water, so I am on my way down there now. I hope that I get enough to last us for a while, because I personally am tired of having to run to go get water.

The city is hard at work here. Loading up water and there is working their butts out. I've got to hand them, I got to the people who don't have the water. [05:40:02] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do want some gallons and we'll get

some of these guys...

(CROSSTALK)

REYNOLDS: Yes, that will be great. Whatever you want to give me, I've got a family of seven at home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, OK. He's got a family of seven, let's load him up. We got you, honey.

REYNOLDS: Thank you. Just got back home. We have 1140 packs of water, six gallons of water and a few loose bottles. This is awesome. Now we want to get water for a couple of weeks.

WHIDBEE: I hate to say upside to it, there's no upside to it. But the one good thing I can say to is I love how it brought our people together and I don't mean black people, but our people, I mean, from the yellow ones, the light skinned ones, the dark ones, the pink ones, the red ones, it has everybody aware and coming out and donating and just helping and just hugging.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're doing real good. You have a wonderful day.

REYNOLDS: This situation right now, this crisis, it affects everybody in that city, African-Americans, whites, Chinese, Hispanics, you name it. And it's frustrating when people try to make it out that it's a racist issue and stuff like that, because there is no -- there is type of racist situation going on when it effects an entire community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: The thing most striking about that report just the juxtaposition of the smiles on the children's faces and at least parents worried and aware of the reality that, you know, this has happened. It was reported and officials didn't do anything about it. Things are happening now.

This is CNN NEWSROOM. We'll be back after the break.

[05:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: Welcome back to CNN NEWSROOM. You've got Derek Van Dam here talking about the pineapple express on the West Coast and snow to the State of California.

DEREK VAN DAM, AMS METEOROLOGIST: It is. Is it going to be a drought buster? Well, it's got a lot of work to do. I mean, we can put it that way. We've been talking about this well-advertised El Nino that's taking place across the western half of the United States or at least causing some interesting weather I should say.

Here is some visuals coming out of the Sierra Nevada mountain range that will get you if you're a skier, snowboarder rather excited. Full disclosure, I am a snowboarder, if you're a skier or snowboarder. I am snowboarder myself and I love to see the stuff, George. I want to see more of it.

Now, of course, it can be a headache on the roadways. I heard Donner Pass at the moment just on i-80 just north of Lake Tahoe is undergoing some pretty rough weather. And our current radar at the moment shows the batch of precipitation that's moving through the region.

We've had hefty range showers and dropping snow levels started at about roughly 8,000 feet over night and the cold front swept through and those have dropped down to about 5,500 feet at the moment.

So, that means that places like Lake Tahoe and the Donner Pass will continue to get snow from here on out. Here is our pineapple express to help give a little light into why we -- this is strange terminology. It's all because we followed the moisture train that really extends from Hawaii all the way to the Western United States.

Look at that shading of blue, you see Hawaii there. There's the West Coast to the U.S., and that is our pineapple express. It has a lot of characteristics of a very tropical nature, let's say, some meteorologist actually compare that to the flow of the Amazon River, in fact, it's got that much moisture to it.

So, that is our specific moisture that's tapping into it and it is allowing for that dilutes of rain from California to the Pacific Northwest. We also have a strong polar drought that's diving south and that's allowing for the cold air to come in on the backside and transition this precipitation into some snow fall, especially at the higher elevation.

We are talking about three feet of snow that's just through Monday evening for the Sierra Nevada Mountain ranges, great news for the skiers and snowboarders out there. But of course it's going to cause some headaches on the roadways out there and especially for those lower elevations.

In fact, the National Weather Service currently has flood watches from San Francisco into parts of the Sacramento Valley. And we also have coastal flood advisories for the greater Los Angeles region, and that is thanks to this high waves that will be accompanied with this particular storm.

San Francisco could see about three inches of rain over the next seven days, not enough to break the drought, but we will take it because we haven't seen that much rain in quite some time. And this is right on par with the kind of prediction centers above average rainfall forecast at least through the extended period, 11 to 10 days on.

Now this is interesting. This storm is going to break off an upper level low pressure and that's going to dive south into the country of Mexico, not New Mexico. But it's going to bring snow fall to the mountain ranges just outside of Mexico City. Wow.

All right. I said I'm going to snowboard, I'm going to take you to Vail really quickly, because we've got a great couple of visuals of, well, Shaun White, the man himself winning the Burton U.S. Snowboard Halfpipe championship there. And, wow, you can see exactly why that man is king of what he does absolutely spectacular. What a dangerous sport. But this is amazing to watch.

HOWELL: Do you think you can get there and do that. Can you do that?

DAM: I don't think I can do that. But I will give my best.

HOWELL: Let's just see if you can grab a kick.

DAM: I agree.

HOWELL: OK. Derek, thank you so much.

DAM: Sure.

HOWELL: You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still ahead, more on the race for the White House. Next we will hear what the presidential candidates had to say, once the Super Saturday results came in.

It is 5.48 on the East Coast. This is CNN NEWSROOM.

[05:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(WORLD SPORTS)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HOWELL: All right. Super Saturday, the results are on the books. And now the candidates made their voices heard. Here are some highlights from all the speeches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD SHOUTING)

CLINTON: Hi. Hello.

TRUMP: There's nothing so exciting as this stuff.

CRUZ: God bless Kansas. And God bless Maine.

TRUMP: He should do well in Maine because it's very close to Canada, let's face it, I mean...

CRUZ: Today has been a very good day.

(CROWD CHEERING)

TRUMP: Thank you to Louisiana and thank you to Kentucky.

RUBIO: We want to continue to increase our delegate total and the map only gets friendlier for us after tonight and after Super Tuesday. We needed this to be roughest period in the campaign given the makeup of the electoral map.

TRUMP: Marco Rubio had a very, very bad night. And personally I'll call for him to drop out of the race. I think it's time now that he drops out of the race. I really think so. (APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Today democrats caucused and voted in Louisiana, Kansas, and Nebraska. I want to congratulate Senator Sanders for running a strong campaign.

SANDERS: The reason that we are doing so well internationally is because we are doing our best to listen to the people, not just wealthy campaign excellence.

(CROWD CHEERING)

CLINTON: But now all eyes turn to Michigan.

(CROWD CHEERING)

SANDERS: Here in Michigan.

CRUZ: Well, look, it's important, nobody have had two wins against Donald. One candidate has beaten him anywhere. One candidate has won. We have now beaten him, it appears seven. We'll see the final tally.

TRUMP: I would love to take on Ted one on one. That would be so much fun. Because Ted can't win New York, he can't win New Jersey, he can't Pennsylvania, and he can't win California. I want Ted one on one. OK.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: This democratic nomination, I have not the slighted doubt that on our worst day we will be infinitely better than the republicans on their best day.

(APPLAUSE)

[05:55:06] HOWELL: All right. From the ridiculous to the outrageous and the simply bizarre, the U.S. presidential race has provided plenty of comedy materials for the American satirical show Saturday Night Live. SNL repeatedly made fun of the republican frontrunner Donald Trump. And last night was no exception. What you're about to see is not CNN, but take a look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What a great, great night. I really am running the best campaign, aren't I? The mere they are saying they haven't seen anything like this not since Germany in the 1930s.

(CROWD LAUGHING)

I mean, not everyone loves me, races, ugly racists, people who didn't know they were racists, people whose eyes are like this. This guy loves me, don't you? Wait, what's that, get him out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton was also mocked, well, via at Trump's expense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They're strong, they're beautiful and they've all been punched in the nose at a Trump rally.

And speaking of Trump, he's on track to become the republican nominee. To all of you voters out there who have thought for years, I hate Hillary I can never vote for her, to you I say, welcome. Because I've got fans to the left of me, got jokers to the right, and here you are stuck in the middle with me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOWELL: And the show also made fun of republican candidate Ted Cruz and plenty of material, I'm sure in the days ahead.

That is CNN NEWSROOM. I'm George Howell. Thank you for joining us.

[06:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)