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Democrats Get Testy in Fiery CNN Debate; Republicans Hit Campaign Trail Ahead of Next Super Tuesday; Remembering The Life And Legacy Of Nancy Reagan; A Presidential Love Story. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired March 07, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:01] CUOMO: Jake said he hopes to be like Scott one day.
PEREIRA: What a great man.
CUOMO: Right?
CAMEROTA: You just made Monday better.
CUOMO: Right?
PEREIRA: You did. Yes.
CAMEROTA: Yes.
PEREIRA: We can do that now.
CUOMO: We can all have limitations and we can all do more with them. There's the point.
PEREIRA: Exactly.
CAMEROTA: There you go. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello. Hi, Carol.
PEREIRA: Good morning.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Have a great day. Thank you. NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, face-off in Flint.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Excuse me, I'm talking.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you're going to talk, tell the whole story.
COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton launched new attacks at the CNN's Democratic debate.
CLINTON: OK. Go.
SANDERS: Wait a minute. Can I finish? You'll have your turn.
COSTELLO: And Super Tuesday take two. Ted Cruz on a roll. And Marco Rubio playing catch up.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I need your help. I need to win here. And I need your votes to do that. I don't just need your vote. I need you to go out and find other people to vote for me.
COSTELLO: Plus remembering Nancy Reagan.
NANCY REAGAN, FORMER FIRST LADY: I can't imagine a marriage being any other way but the way that Ronnie's and mine was.
COSTELLO: A love story that can never die.
Let's talk. Live at the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Time is short and tempers even shorter. Democrats Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders get testy at a Michigan debate ahead of Tuesday's primary. Sanders gaining ground and racking up some weekend victories. Clinton holding the lead and anxious to kill off his challenge. The two candidates stuck to the issues but make no mistake they came ready to rumble.
CNN's Brianna Keilar live in Detroit with more. Good morning.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This was a debate in Flint, Michigan, so a lot of it was about the failure of government when it comes to the toxic water crisis there. But Michigan is also a labor stronghold. So Hillary Clinton landing some punches on Bernie Sanders. He did the same with her when it came to her trade positions from the past. He took aim at her over -- or pardon me, she took aim at him over his auto bailout position. But it was really, as you said, the tone that captured so much attention.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
CLINTON: It is raining lead in Flint and the state is derelict in not coming forward with the money that is required.
KEILAR (voice-over): With Michigan's primary looming contaminated water and lost jobs dominated.
SANDERS: Children in America should not be poisoned.
KEILAR: Senator Bernie Sanders and Secretary Hillary Clinton sparring more aggressively than ever before over Wall Street ties and the economy.
CLINTON: I voted to save the auto industry. He voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry.
SANDERS: If you are talking about the Wall Street bailout where some of your friends destroyed this economy --
CLINTON: You know --
SANDERS: Excuse me, I'm talking.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN MODERATE DEBATE: Let him (INAUDIBLE).
CLINTON: If you're going to talk, tell the whole story, Senator Sanders.
SANDERS: Let me tell my story, you tell yours.
CLINTON: I will.
CLINTON: Sanders supported a standalone auto bailout bill that failed, but voted against a larger bill that included money to bail out Wall Street and money to bail out the auto companies. Sanders cutting Clinton off a second time to make his point.
SANDERS: I said let the billionaires themselves bail out Wall Street. It shouldn't be the middle class of this country.
CLINTON: OK, so --
COOPER: Secretary Clinton --
SANDERS: Hang on a minute. Wait -- can I finish? You'll have your turn.
KEILAR: Clinton optimistic about growing the economy.
CLINTON: We're going to stop this kind of job exporting and we are going to start importing and growing jobs again.
KEILAR: Only to be slammed by Sanders over trade agreement she supported two decades ago.
SANDERS: I am very glad, Anderson, that Secretary Clinton has discovered religion on this issue. But it is a little bit too late. Secretary Clinton supported virtually every of these disastrous trade agreements written by corporate America.
KEILAR: And butting heads again over gun control.
SANDERS: Essentially your position is there should not be guns in America, period.
CLINTON: That is --
SANDERS: Now I am --
CLINTON: That is like the NRA position.
SANDERS: Can I finish, please?
CLINTON: No.
KEILAR: Post-debate, Clinton's campaign chair telling me Sanders' performance was a disappointment.
JOHN PODESTA, HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN: He has repeatedly said he wants to run a positive campaign. In recent days it seems a little more negative, a little more desperate. And I thought his tone tonight bordered on disrespectful.
KEILAR: The Sanders campaign dismissing the charge as a distraction.
JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: They don't want to talk about her bad trade record. They don't want to talk about her record of taking Wall Street contributions. They don't want to talk about these things. It was really a bad night for the Clinton people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
KEILAR: So how is this race in Michigan shaping up? Well, the latest NBC News-"Wall Street Journal" poll has Hillary Clinton leading by 17 points with likely voters, Carol. So we look at that, we see, that's quite the spread, right? But I was talking to a Sanders aide who says that their poll shows it's actually much tighter than that.
[09:05:04] We'll see tomorrow night. But this is one of those states, you know, it's not winner-take-all. It's proportional delegates. So there's really a lot for both of these candidates to gain.
COSTELLO: We'll see. Brianna Keilar, reporting live in Detroit, Michigan, this morning. Thank you.
Michigan is a must-win state for Bernie Sanders, though. Yes, he won three states over the weekend but Clinton really does kill when it comes to delegates. Take a look at the count. She is way ahead with 1,147 delegates to Sanders' 498. That means Sanders has to do better with African-American voters. All of the states he's won are overwhelmingly white.
I want you to listen to one remark that lit up social media last night. While the message is well-intentioned the actual words are awkward at best.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: When you're white you don't know what it is like to be living in a ghetto. You don't know what it's like to be poor. You don't know what it's like to be hassled when you walk down the street, or you get dragged out of a car.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. So let's talk about that. With me now Nomiki Konst, she's a Bernie Sanders supporter and former at large member of the DNC Council and former national co-chair of GEN44. I'm also joined by CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable, Error Louis.
Welcome to both of you.
NOMIKI KONST, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Thank you.
ERROL LOUIS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Nomiki, let's start with that kind of awkward comment that Bernie Sanders made about the nation's poor. Does he realize that most poor people in America are actually white?
KONST: I think Bernie Sanders is well aware of the demographics and the numbers. I mean, this is the guy who's committed his entire life against fighting poverty. But this is also, you know, we have to be real here for a moment. These candidates have been campaigning every single day. So they're going to have off moments, there's going to be moments where they're caught off guard, their message isn't 100 percent spot on. It's just unfortunate it happened during a debate.
Now with all of that being said I think this is a distraction. I think what you saw -- you just saw John Podesta come out, he spun that message so that the media would be talking about that statement rather than the fact that his record for African-Americans in impoverished communities, for white Americans in impoverished communities, for racial injustice has been the strongest. And Hillary Clinton's is about -- you know, she was the architect of welfare reform. Her own --
COSTELLO: That may be true. That may be true but African-Americans by and large aren't feeling that because Hillary Clinton, Errol, wins African-Americans by a landslide.
LOUIS: Well, one reason for it is that she has a certain fluency not because of the issues or even because of her personal biography so much as when Bernie Sanders is running against the establishment, well, who is the Democratic establishment? Well, in certain communities it is black elected officials, civic leaders, religious leaders, who have been working for decades, sort of the toiling the way, and a lot of ways they are allies with Mrs. Clinton not simply because of positions that she's taken but because she's done the things that make politics work over the years.
You know, an appearance, a fundraiser, a nice personal note, you know, when someone's mom dies. That sort of a thing. It means a lot to local politicians. And they are the people who bring out the vote. I mean, you know, voters don't just pop up and show up in the polls because they feel like it or because they like what you did 30 years ago. Somebody has got to sort of tend to that and Bernie Sanders, the outsider running against the establishment, basically has not done that. And he's got a lot of ground to make up.
COSTELLO: How can he possibly make up that ground? Because he really needs to win Michigan. Michigan is, what, 14 percent African- American? So there's plenty of votes there.
KONST: And it's -- as we said earlier, it was proportional representation in Michigan. So the polls are very close. So if it does come head -to-head, you know, those delegates get split up between the two of them. And the reality here is aside from super delegates which could turn if it becomes a neck and neck race, there are 200 delegates apart from each other. So as that delegate count gets closer, expect many super delegates to turn, many outsider liberal super delegate who are supporting the establishment candidate for the reasons that Error mentioned.
When you're part of a political machine you have to kind of play a certain game, otherwise guess what? You're not going to get promoted to positions in Congress. You're not going to get promoted to party positions. You have to oil that machine to keep it working. But without that being said, millennial African-American support is siding with Bernie Sanders. And we have to pay attention to that.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Many people get out to vote for Bernie Sanders.
I want to talk about tone for just a second because Sanders appeared frustrated by Clinton at times as the "Washington Post" said, "His 'can I finish, please' retort insured that his tone and his approach to someone trying to become first female presidential nominee in either party would be the story of the night."
Errol, was it the story of the night?
LOUIS: I don't know if it was the story of the night. It was certainly the story of the minutes that surrounded it because it kind of knocked me back just watching it. And then you look at the Twitter feed and the social media, and that was a common perception around the country.
It's a minefield. It's very difficult. You know, and we all know and I think it's probably in textbooks by now, campaign textbook, what happened when Hillary Clinton's first opponent when she ran for Senate was a guy named Rick Lazio who tried, you know, one of these little stunts to look assertive and walked over to her and loomed over and asked her to sign a piece of paper and all of this other stuff.
[09:10:08] And essentially the campaign was over at that point. I mean, he couldn't have done a worst thing. It's very difficult for men to know how and when to be assertive because you can go right up to the line. I think Bernie Sanders went right up to the line. I don't know if he crossed it between being assertive and being obnoxious.
COSTELLO: Nomiki, I will only say this. You know, Hillary Clinton has run a presidential campaign before. People have talked nasty and it hasn't worked, but this is the second time around, this is a particularly nasty campaign. So she really does go against Donald Trump he is going to be nasty and frankly I don't think that voters who don't like Hillary Clinton will care very much.
KONST: I agree with you. And I think, you know, one of the things a lot of people don't know in the audience this is a debate trick. Anybody who's ever done high school and college debate knows very well that when someone interrupts you, you keep pushing back so it looks like they're the ones cutting you off by saying, don't interrupt me. And that's also a debate trick. And she also got in the last word and she stayed composed. Bernie Sanders doesn't follow any of those rules. I mean, he is as unconventional as you can get for a guy who's been in office for 35 years.
COSTELLO: OK, I have to leave it there but it was a fun conversation.
Nomiki Konst, Errol Louis, thanks so much.
All right. Now to the Republicans and Marco Rubio. He's turning his attention to Florida today after notching his second win of the 2016 season in the Puerto Rico primaries. Rubio pivoting to a state he says he will win even as a recent Quinnipiac poll shows him trailing Donald Trump by double digits. I'm talking about Florida here. Not Puerto Rico because he's already won that and it's not a state.
CNN's Jason Carroll tracking the Rubio campaign. He joins us live from Tampa with more. Good morning.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. As you know Florida is a must-win state for Rubio just like Ohio is a must-win state for Kasich.
The Rubio camp believes that they have a good chance here. They know the state, obviously, they feel as though they have a good ground game here. So they feel despite what the polls are saying, they can pull out a win here. We're going to be watching to see what happens when Rubio has his rally here in Tampa later on today, Carol, to see if he continues to attack Donald Trump to see if he hones in on that controversial issue involving Trump and his stance on torture.
As you know, he flip-flopped on the issue, initially saying he would abide by U.S. laws regarding torture then later on saying that he -- he moved on and that he would try to expand laws to try to change it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, you have to play the game the way they are playing the game. You are not going to win if we're soft and they're -- they have no rules. Now, I want to stay within the laws. I want to do all of that but I think we have to increase the laws because the laws are not working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARROLL: A number of Republican security experts condemned Trump's stance calling it inexcusable and actually since we have been here in the state of Florida, Carol, we've seen a number of anti-Trump ads running on TV. You can barely turn on the TV without seeing one of those spots.
Trump, in true Trump fashion, had a response to that early this morning. Just about an hour ago he tweeted the following. He said, "We cannot let the failing Republican establishment who cannot stop Obama twice ruin the movement with millions of dollars in false ads."
So once again there is Trump speaking out again. Trump believing that this is a two-man race between himself and Ted Cruz. Trump will be campaigning in North Carolina and Mississippi today. Cruz for his part will be in Florida tomorrow -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live from Florida this morning.
It is a big political week on CNN. Tomorrow we have complete coverage of Super Tuesday part two. Wednesday the Democrats debate in Miami and on Thursday it's the Republicans on stage for another debate in Miami and you can see it all right here on CNN.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, devoted, passionate and loyal. How Nancy Reagan redefined the role of first lady and captivated the country with her presidential love story.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
NANCY REAGAN, FORMER FIRST LADY: I'm lonely because I don't have him. And, you know, everywhere I look there's a reminder of him which is the way I want it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
FORMER FIRST LADY NANCY REAGAN: Right away, right away. It was a blind date. I knew right away. It took him a little bit longer.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Not much longer. Nancy Reagan talking about her first date with President Ronald Reagan although he wasn't president then.
Today, she was remembered for her devotion, but for her influence on her husband's presidency. Mrs. Reagan died at home in Los Angeles on Sunday of congestive heart failure. She was 94.
She was one of history's most influential and iconic first ladies, a political force in her own right. In addition to being a fierce protector of her husband, she was a mother, an actress, a breast cancer survivor, and a crusader of the "Just Say No" anti-drug campaign.
Stephanie Elam live at the Ronald Reagan Presidential Library in Simi Valley, California with more. Good morning, Stephanie.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. That's right. Nancy Reagan and Ronald Reagan may have met in Hollywood, but she said the role that she most valued was that of being Ronald Reagan's wife. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM (voice-over): A country in mourning for one of the most influential first ladies of the 20th Century during a campaign that is so invoked Ronald Reagan's legacy, the Republican presidential candidates quick to express their condolences.
Donald Trump called Mrs. Reagan, quote, "an amazing woman." Ted Cruz said that she will be remembered for her deep passion for this nation and love for her husband.
[09:20:08]A moment of silence for her at the Democratic debate Sunday. The president and First Lady Michelle Obama say they are grateful for her life and pray she and her beloved husband are together again.
Born in New York City and raised in Chicago, Nancy Reagan began her career as an actress in Hollywood where she met fellow actor, Ronald Reagan in 1949. The two married in 1952 beginning one of Hollywood's and Washington's most enduring partnerships.
REAGAN: Everything just fell into place with Ronnie and me. We completed each other.
ELAM: Nancy played a pivotal role in the rise of her husband's political career from governorship to the presidency always by his side gazing adoringly.
REAGAN: I remember thinking anything except here, my gosh, he is and he is president.
ELAM: As California's first lady, she focused her efforts on helping Vietnam veterans. As America's first lady, she championed the fight against drug abuse bringing national attention to the issue with her "Just Say No" campaign.
She had her own special grit. President Reagan's fiercest protector never leaving his side after an assassination attempt.
Later in life, she nursed her husband during his battle with Alzheimer's and became a leading activist raising millions for research.
REAGAN: It's sad to see somebody you loved and been married for so long and you can't share memories.
ELAM: After his death in 2004, she remained committed to preserving her husband's legacy, a symbol of the Republican Party.
REAGAN: When you balance it all out I have had a pretty fabulous life.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ELAM: It is pouring here right now in Simi Valley at the Reagan Library. This is where Nancy Reagan will be laid to rest right next to her husband. Preparations are already underway for a very large private memorial that will be held here.
But at the same time the library is preparing for people in the public who want to come and pay their respects to the first lady to come here at some point and be able to do that.
Some people have already brought flowers as a matter of fact, Carol, but they are saying that Nancy Reagan's last wish, one of her last wishes, was that if you wanted to bring flowers in lieu of doing that donate to the library instead and supporting the legacy of her husband -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Stephanie Elam reporting live from Simi Valley, California today.
The Reagan's love story overshadowed all of Nancy Reagan's accomplishments, a relationship everyone wants but few have. Reagan's son, Ron, talked about that with Matt Lauer.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RON REAGAN, SON OF NANCY AND RONALD REAGAN (via telephone): She loved her husband more than anything in the world and I think you can make the case that the Ronald Reagan that we all came to know as president would not have existed without Nancy Reagan.
Once they had bonded together they really were inseparable. It sounds cliche. I don't think they ever spent a day apart where they didn't call, speak on the phone. He wrote her letters in all her life all his life. They were in love. They stayed in love for 52 some odd years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: With me now Carl Anthony, he is a historian at the National First Ladies Library and a former speech writer for Nancy Reagan. I'm also joined by CNN's senior political analyst, David Gergen. He served as presidential adviser in the Reagan White House. Welcome to both of you.
I want to talk about the Reagan's love story, Carl. You know, we talk about Nancy Reagan's devotion to her husband but he adored her. Tell us about that.
CARL ANTHONY, HISTORIAN, NATIONAL FIRST LADIES LIBRARY: Well, he was very protective of her. And you know I remember a wonderful quote of his when during the White House years when they asked him what he shared with his wife and he said I just assumed she is cleared for top secret.
So he really shared with her his work, but what is really interesting when you break a lot of this down what are we talking about? We are talking about personalities. Of course, policy is complex and budgets.
But at the end of the day, we are also talking about personalities and forming friendships. I think so much of what Mrs. Reagan encouraged in her husband was the idea that you can have political differences but, you know, you can still be friends.
You can still keep a dialogue. That is something she once told me that she observed with her mother who was, by the way, to the end of her life a Democrat and her father, her step father was actually a Republican.
[09:25:12]COSTELLO: Interesting. So David, you knew Nancy Reagan. She wielded power behind the scenes. Everybody knew it but she would have never admitted that. Tell us about that part of Nancy Reagan's first (inaudible).
DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I once interviewed a prominent presidential historian and asked him, what is the most important asset a president needs? And he said a friend.
And I have always thought of Nancy Reagan as not only first lady but first friend. She was there for her husband. She was his anchor. She was his refuge more than anything else.
At night they loved to spend evenings together alone, having dinner off a TV tray and watching the news or whatever and just talking. They liked that. They liked that privacy.
I think that is where he was nourished. He came to rely on her heavily for advice. She didn't bring in a long agenda. She wasn't involved in every policy issue.
You know, for the role of first lady really changed a lot with Hillary Clinton. Nancy was much more up there for her husband. She did influence him on his support of gun control, on the Brady Bill named after Jim Brady, who had been shot at the same time the president was shot.
She influenced heavily on the question of trying to work through to a peaceful resolution of the cold war because he had come in as -- he wanted to increase the defense budget.
He could never find anybody to talk to in the Soviet Union because every few months somebody would die. Then we built up defenses and she persuaded him to sit down and talking to Gorbachev.
She thought talking was healthy. She made a lot of friends for him in Washington doing that.
COSTELLO: In light of the election season we are having right now, I feel like I have to ask this question. Carl, what do you think Mrs. Reagan would think of the election we are having in 2016?
ANTHONY: You know, on the one hand appalling and on the other hand I remember talking to her about so many of the things that were said about her that were not just exaggerations but often times outright lies.
And you know, she was stupefied by some of that. I think it got to a point where, you know, nothing -- sometimes I think in politics nothing surprised her. I mean, in terms of her personal boundary of what was permissible she would find I think all of this appalling. But I think in the game of politics she knew that some people just nothing stopped them in the grasp for the highest office.
COSTELLO: David, what do you think?
GERGEN: I do think she was used to the rough and tough politics. She didn't like it very much. That was not who she was. She wanted to protect her husband from a lot of that. She took a lot of abuse for him.
She wanted -- they both believed in the dignity of the office. I think one thing she would be particularly appalled about is how irreverently the office is treated in our discourse.
You know, when you start talking body parts would be completely alien to her way of thinking. When Ronald Reagan was in the oval office, he always kept his coat and tie on out of respect for the dignity of the office.
When he was shot and arrived at the hospital he got out of the car and stood up and buttoned his coat. He was really hurting, but he walked across the drive way. When he was out of sight to the photographers he collapsed.
He believed so much the dignity of the office. I think they would be really upset by the way people are treating this as sort of like anything else like so politicized.
COSTELLO: I have to leave it there. David Gergen, Carl Anthony, thanks to both of you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Super Tuesday round two as Ted Cruz and Donald Trump are increasingly locked in a one-on-one battle, will Marco Rubio soon be forced out?
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