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Trump Attacks Cruz; Republican Presidential Race; Democratic Presidential Race; Hulk Hogan's Lawsuit. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 07, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: NEWSROOM with Brooke Baldwin starts right now.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf Blitzer, thank you, my friend.

Great to be with you on this Monday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You, of course, are watching CNN.

We may be on the cusp of a pivotal turn in the Republican race for president. Question, are we seeing the begins of the rise of Senator Ted Cruz against frontrunner Donald Trump? Well, tomorrow could bring even more clarity here. Four states - you see them on your screen - four states hold the Republican nominating contests. One hundred and fifty critical delegates will be at stake then and the races may confirm a trend that actually happened Saturday when Senator Cruz resoundingly won Kansas and Maine, grabbing the most delegates that day. Mr. Trump won both Kentucky and Louisiana but by much slimmer margins against Cruz, who came in second place.

The billionaire still leads in the delegate count here, which directly determines who is nominated, but no question Ted Cruz is closing in. And Trump is acknowledging this competition is emerging in a two-man race, even calling for Florida Senator Marco Rubio to get out.

Let's kick off our coverage this hour with Chris Frates. He is live in Concord, North Carolina, where Donald Trump just wrapped a rally.

Chris Frates, nice to see you, my friend. What did Donald Trump say?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'll tell you, Brooke, it's not a big surprise here, aiming most of his insults and vitriol at Ted Cruz. And that's because look at the map on Saturday. You had Ted Cruz pick up two states. Donald Trump picked up two states, with Cruz winning in Kansas and Maine. And Donald Trump even making a little bit of fun at Ted Cruz there saying, well, of course he won Maine, he's from Canada, that's basically home turf for him.

But let's break down the delegates, because this is not just about who won what states. They both picked up two states. But Ted Cruz won the bulk of those delegates. Really closing in on Donald Trump now. Donald Trump still leading 389 of those crucial delegates. Ted Cruz, of course, has 302 of them. So that is what has Donald Trump a little bit on the defensive today and it was not surprising to hear him on the stump talking about lying Ted Cruz. That's one of his favorite stump lines. He continued to trot that out as - painting Ted Cruz as a typical politician.

Let's take a listen to what he just said a few moments ago, Brooke.

BALDWIN: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's always a lobbyist to take care of a politician. They have lobbyists where they virtually advertise, I'll take care of Rubio. They have guys that specialize in Rubio. They have guys that specialize in lying Ted Cruz, OK. No, they have - they - they specialize. You know, Ted Cruz, he comes in, Bible high, Bible high, puts the Bible down, then lies to you. He told you - I mean it's unbelievable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ouch.

FRATES: So there you have it. Exactly. You have, you know, Donald Trump hitting Ted Cruz. But, of course, Donald Trump, an equal opportunity insulter, also taking some shots at Marco Rubio, calling him a choker and saying that he's a scoundrel. So, of course, Marco Rubio still hanging in there, you know, getting some insults and some takedowns from Donald Trump. But Trump really, Brooke, focused on Ted Cruz as we go into this crucial four-state race tomorrow.

BALDWIN: All right, Chris Frates, in North Carolina, thank you so much.

Let's broaden this out and let me tell you this. Also this just in moments ago. Monmouth released a poll showing Marco Rubio in serious trouble in his home state of Florida. Note the poll was taken just this past weekend. Trump, a huge number there, 38 percent, beating the senator by eight points, well beyond the margin of error here. The poll also found Rubio was first among voters who already cast their ballots. Florida does have early voting. But among those yet to vote, the state votes on March 15th, and Trump has a pretty significant lead.

So let's broaden this out and bring in CNN political commentator and veteran journalist Carl Bernstein. He is also author of "A Woman in Charge: The Life of Hillary Rodham Clinton." I have Rebecca Berg with us today, national political reporter for Real Clear Politics. And Matt Flegenheimer, who is with "The New York Times.

So welcome to all of you.

And, Rebecca, to you first. Just looking at some of these numbers, and I don't want to get too numbers heavy, but the poll finds - this is Florida, because Florida's the story really - Trump eight points ahead of Rubio, Rubio's home state. In a hypothetical two-way race between Trump and Rubio, Trump edges out Rubio by a statistical not significant two points. Even in Ohio, Kasich is closer with Trump. Is Trump in trouble or, rather, is Rubio in trouble?

REBECCA BERG, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, REAL CLEAR POLITICS: It certainly doesn't bode well for Rubio, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Yes.

BERG: This is a must-win state for his campaign. He knows that. His campaign knows that. His donors certainly know that. And they're getting nervous looking at these numbers. I would especially point you to some of these races we saw over the weekend, Louisiana being one of them, and what we saw was that in early voting, Rubio was doing quite well, actually, exceeding Cruz in many of those votes. But when it came to election day, we saw Rubio's support pretty much collapse. And so it shows that over the past week or so, he and his campaign have not been doing a good job closing this deal and that's going to matter in Florida on election day and so he's going to need to make up a lot of ground in the next few days.

[14:05:11] BALDWIN: Look at the wins, Carl, over the weekend, two and two, Cruz winning Kansas and Maine, Trump winning Kentucky and Louisiana, is this showing signs of a vulnerable Donald Trump?

CARL BERNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, and the Republican base is coming back to some extent to Cruz who very much represents the positions of the Republican base. There's something really interesting going on here, and that is that there is recognition within the, quote, "regular Republican Party." I think that Donald Trump's message represents a kind of fascism. I keep coming back to this -

BALDWIN: You do. You do.

BERNSTEIN: That we've never seen in our politics. And, finally, I think you see the print press is writing extensively about the emphasis of authoritarianism, a neo fascist message that Trump is promulgating. Yes, he's reckless. Yes, he's theatrical. Yes, he's vulgar. But the real thing to focus on here and why he is starting to run into trouble I believe is recognition that there's something dangerous about his message. And that is why we now have a new dynamic in the race. And I think it also - it's time for television, cable news particularly, to start looking at what neo fascism is and whether or not Trump represents it. We need to do some reporting.

BALDWIN: Amen, Carl Bernstein, I agree with you.

And, Matt, I'm looking to you, representing the, you know, the print press here and a great piece you and Maggie Harborman (ph) co-wrote this morning in terms of the - the attack ads against Donald Trump and especially - I was reading about the state of Florida. I don't know if it was Florida specific that was 10 million, but tell me about what you've been reporting.

MATT FLEGENHEIMER, REPORTER, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": Yes, in Florida and in Illinois in particular, the states that vote on March 15th, you're seeing this onslaught now. The question is whether it's too late. It's -

BALDWIN: What is it? First tell me what it is. FLEGENHEIMER: There's a - a few fronts. And one in particular, there's a very resonant ad about Trump's history as a - as a draft dodger essentially is what the ad alleges, that he hasn't, you know, fought for the country for a day in his life, that he's not who he says he is, sort of the garden variety, you know, look at his past liberal positions, sort of casting him as a huckster, as well as a businessman. Sort of the thread that Marco Rubio's been pulling on for a while now. But, again, there's this sort of question that's kind of sounding through these Republican circles of where was this three months ago, six months ago.

BALDWIN: Where was this months ago?

FLEGENHEIMER: Exactly.

BALDWIN: And the answer would be what from these folks?

FLEGENHEIMER: I -

BALDWIN: Were they too worried to -

FLEGENHEIMER: I think we've seen a sort of collective reckoning in these last couple of weeks as the primary season's unfolded, that this could actually happen. And that's when you've seen this sort of mad rush to stop him.

BALDWIN: Rebecca, to you, with regard to Marco Rubio, there was a great piece in "The Washington Post" today, essentially taking a look at I believe the word was meltdown of the Marco Rubio campaign. And they talked about the campaign itself and they talked about messaging. But at the end of the day, doesn't the buck stop with the candidate?

BERG: It absolutely does, Brooke. And I think his campaign probably gave him a little too much credit as a candidate to pick up the slack from their organization. They didn't have the sort of national organization, for example, that Ted Cruz was building over the course of these past few weeks. They didn't have the sort of organization that Jeb Bush built, even though as a candidate he obviously had his flaws that ended up sinking his campaign.

And I so - I think you are starting to see some serious panic, not just among his campaign, but also among his donors and his supporters. Looking at the polling in Florida, looking at the way that their campaign has handled the past week, and they're not happy about it, especially - I've talked to so many Republicans supporting Marco Rubio who were deeply, deeply disappointed in the tone that he took over the past week, launching these sort of petty insults at Donald Trump, and I think they saw that as sort of a sign of desperation on the part of their campaign and not really knowing how to handle the current situation. And, of course, it all comes down to Florida for them.

BALDWIN: You know, let's look beyond Florida, Carl, because I know you've talked extensively, as we all have about the potential for a brokered convention. And when you look at this potential, maybe we'll call it a mini Ted Cruz surge, which could make him look more unlikely. Even the fact that I think, you know, former California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger has come out with John Kasich, but I believe this weekend was officially, you know, the endorsement. And I'm just wondering, you know, so late in the game, these high-profile endorsements for someone like the Ohio governor, do you see a brokered convention as really the likelihood moving ahead?

BERNSTEIN: I think there's a real chance of it. If Trump falters, yes, there will be a brokered convention. Kasich, if he wins in Ohio, if he does well in Michigan, does well through the industrial Midwest, he could go into a brokered convention with real strength. But -

BALDWIN: He called it exciting when I talked to him Friday, Governor Kasich.

BERNSTEIN: Well, he ought to be excited because he's emerging as a viable alternative. Remember, Ted Cruz is deeply unpopular in the Republican Party, except among the Tea Party right. And he's an outsider in his own party.

[14:10:07] But if there's a brokered convention, I keep coming back, you know, there's talk that Romney would make himself available. I think it much more likely that there would be a movement to draft somebody, like Representative Ryan, the speaker in the House -

BALDWIN: Yes.

BERNSTEIN: Because he is someone who has run in the national election, is popular within the party among many factions, and I would say, let's keep our eye on other possibilities in a brokered convention.

The other thing about Trump that we need to look at is that there are numerous pieces in preparation, in the print press, about his business record, about his personal life, and we're going to see - he knows that that's coming. And it's one of the reasons that he keeps saying, we need to wrap this up quick. If he's going to get the nomination, he might need to wrap it up pretty quick before those pieces come out. I don't want to throw out innuendo or anything, but it's about stuff for the most part that is well known about his record, but I don't think that the voters know what's in there that's likely to be in these pieces.

BALDWIN: Sure. Sure.

BERNSTEIN: But it's coming.

BALDWIN: Sure. Business records. Mitt Romney is the one who keeps calling for his tax records, keeps saying bombshell. There's that.

I want you to all stick around with me because I'm not quite finished with you all. It is a huge, huge political week here on CNN. Tomorrow we have complete coverage of Super Tuesday part two. The March madness continues. Wednesday, the Democrats debate in Miami. Thursday, it is the Republicans on stage for a debate in Miami. We will be there. You will see it here live on CNN.

Meantime, we have to talk about the Democrats. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders snap at each other during a fiery debate. The surprise attack that Clinton has been holding in her back pocket until that moment last evening.

Plus, live pictures of Hulk Hogan here. He is now taking the stand against Gawker in the case involving his sex tape. Why he says the website had no right to post it.

And breaking news, the U.S. military launching a major strike against what's called an imminent threat, a quote/unquote "large scale attack." We have a report from the Pentagon ahead.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. You're watching CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:17] BALDWIN: And we're back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Our Democratic face-off in flint, Michigan. Let's talk about that. A city of common ground in the sense both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders say they're appalled at the political action - really inaction that turned the city's tap water toxic. Hillary Clinton even reversing her earlier position and calling for Michigan's governor to step down. But on most everything else, the two rivals found plenty to argue about.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am very glad, Anderson, that Secretary Clinton has discovered religion on this issue. But it's a little bit too late.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'll tell you something else that Senator Sanders was against. He was against the auto bailout.

And when it comes to incarceration -

DON LEMON, MODERATOR: But, secretary -

CLINTON: That means we have to limit mandatory minimums, we have to end disparities in treatment that leads to incarceration.

LEMON: The question, though, Secretary Clinton is - is why should black people trust you this time to get it right? That's the question.

CLINTON: Well, Senator Sanders voted for it as well. Are you going to ask him the same question?

SANDER: Probably will.

LEMON: Do you think your support - your husband, your husband has said that this bill was a mistake. Do you think it was a mistake?

CLINTON: I just said that.

SANDERS: If you are talking about the Wall Street bailout where some of your friends destroyed this economy through - CLINTON: You know -

SANDERS: Excuse me, I'm talking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ooh.

They are back with me. Carl Bernstein, CNN political commentator and Matt Flegenheimer, reporter for "The New York Times," Rebecca Berg, national political reporter for Real Clear Politics.

Carl, beginning with Hillary Clinton, listen, she is still acting like this is a very, very tight race. Obviously Bernie Sanders is still win it - in it with some, you know, wins over the weekend. But she is taking this quite seriously.

BERNSTEIN: Well, of course she is. She has some vulnerabilities, as we saw on the two questions about her speeches to Wall Street, Goldman Sachs, and about the server, because on those questions she becomes defensive, obfuscates, is not transparent and that goes to the question of trustworthiness, where she does very badly, even among Democratic voters. However, she has become an infinitely better candidate. She was really good on broadsiding Bernie Sanders on the auto bailout mentioned yesterday, which is going to hurt him.

BALDWIN: On that - on that actually let me - let me jump in, let me jump in because that is an excellent point.

BERNSTEIN: Right.

BALDWIN: This is something that we had not heard in any of these Democratic debates.

BERNSTEIN: Exactly.

BALDWIN: And here she is, she brings up the auto bailout. This is - this is - you know, here they are in Detroit's backyard. This is a moment from last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I voted to save the auto industry. He voted against the money that ended up saving the auto industry.

SANDERS: Oooh.

CLINTON: I think that is a pretty big difference.

SANDERS: Did I vote against the Wall Street bailout, when billionaires on Wall Street destroyed this economy, they went to Congress and they said, oh, please, we'll be good boys, bail us out. You know what I said? I said, let the billionaires themselves bail out Wall Street. It shouldn't be the middle class of this country.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BALDWIN: So on that, Carl, let me come back to you, but, Matt, I'm going to turn to you, what did you make of the - his response?

FLEGENHEIMER: The tone is really striking. We've seen him, you know, counterpunch on a couple of issues. But to see this sort of exchange, it really does show that he seems willing to engage in a way that, you know, people have questioned whether he really wants to win or if it's more of a sort of protest candidacy. I think the way he's raising money, the way he's making these attacks makes it very clear that he takes this as seriously as possible and that Hillary takes him very seriously.

BALDWIN: But even before we have a whole - because I feel like there's a whole conversation to be had on tone, Rebecca, on substance, what did you think of the exchange?

BERG: Well, on substance, it plays perfectly to Bernie Sanders' base and to Hillary Clinton's base. I think that could be an exchange that's beneficial for both of them. But what I think is remarkable about the way that these Democratic debates have played out relative to the Republican ones is that you have these really substantive exchanges that focus on policy -

[14:20:19] BALDWIN: Yes.

BERG: That focus on the contrast between the candidates, and it hasn't gotten personal. While on the Republican side, I talked to Republicans watching these debates who are embarrassed, who are mortified at the way these debates are playing out because it has really veered away from the policy for them and into the personal and the petty attacks. And I think democrats are probably very happy that their debates are not in that territory at this point.

BALDWIN: No, no screaming idiots, losers, or notions of hand size whatsoever.

But on tone, you know, when you read a lot about some of the critics were pointing out, Carl, on both sides, especially even really critics loud about Bernie Sanders, you know, "stop interrupting," it was - it was a tone change.

BERNSTEIN: I must say, I was not disturbed by that tone.

BALDWIN: You weren't?

BERNSTEIN: I think both of them get - I think both of them get exercised and frustrated by the other and I think it's just fine to see. I think the notion that his tone was somehow sexist because he said, "let me speak," is utter nonsense. Look, people in sharp debates sometimes use their elbows a little. And they did it, it seems to me, in a fine way and it had to do with the substance and onward from this point.

I think - I want to come back, though, to the tone that she uses -

BALDWIN: Yes. BERNSTEIN: When it gets to the question of trustworthiness, the server, and these questions about her speeches to Wall Street. You know, if you look at my website, I've put up the end of my book about Hillary Clinton, and this question of openness, trust worthiness, carlbernstein.com, because here is a book that is very empathic toward Hillary Clinton. It really explains a lot of her life. And at the same time, we need to look at this dichotomy that we keep seeing. It is a pattern that goes through all of her public life. And that's what we saw in that debate yesterday.

The real tone change I thought came on the questions when Anderson asked her about those speeches and particularly about the server, she came up with a different voice altogether and didn't answer the question. So I think we've got a number of tonal questions we need to look at here. And, obviously, she doesn't want to go to those places. And Bernie Sanders, knowing that the Democrats, from his point of view, have to win this election, has not attacked her on - on the server question, but it's going to certainly be the focus of the Republicans.

BALDWIN: It will. It will come general election time.

Carl Bernstein, Matt Flegenheimer, Rebecca Berg, thank you all so much, both on Republicans and Dems.

But coming up next, we're going to talk about the tale of the tape. Day one in this trial between Hulk Hogan and the gossip website Gawker over this sex tape that was posted online some years ago. We'll take you inside the courtroom. As you can see, Hulk Hogan still on the stand. We will take you there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:27:50] BALDWIN: One of the most well-known personalities in the world took the stand today in his sex tape trial, Hulk Hogan. He wants to be - wants to be known in court by his given name, Terry Bollea, who's suing a website for $100 million. Hogan's attorney says the website Gawker, gossip website, gawker.com, has zero right to publish that tape. Gawker maintains Hogan lived his life in public and has no right to complain.

Criminal defense attorney Randy Zelin is here with me now.

Hello, sir.

RANDY ZELIN, CRIMINAL DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Hello.

BALDWIN: Hi.

All right, so you have this very public figure says he was living his private life. Meantime, he was also living a very public life with a reality show and a radio show and talking about his sex life. So where do you draw the line?

ZELIN: Well, I don't think that you draw the line here. It's very interesting. Your opening statement I think is the entire defense, which is, you're talking about someone who is so recognizable, so world known that I would guess that may 15 people know what his real name is. Everyone knows him as the Hulk. And as the result of being such a public person, Gawker, I think, is correct in saying, this is newsworthy. People want to know about this. People want to know about this guy. Good guy, bad guy, claims to be all America apple pie for little kids or is he a bad guy? But whatever he is, we're not doing this to hurt him, we're doing this because the public wants to know.

BALDWIN: That's what they're maintaining, harm, right? It's harm versus newsworthiness. That's the crux of it.

ZELIN: That, to me - that, to me, is how you get around the fact that it's newsworthy. But for me, it is trying to pound a square peg into a round hole. The bottom line is, what godly reason would the Gawker have to hurt Hulk Hogan? It's not like Hulk Hogan slept with the publisher's wife. So I don't see that malice, that intent to do harm. It was newsworthy. They put it on. They ran it. And, you know what, it turned out to be very newsworthy. Millions of people watched it.

BALDWIN: Yes. Yes. Among the evidence, Hulk Hogan's attorney showed site traffic, to your point, Gawker's internal chats at the time in which staffers mocked him.

ZELIN: They did that not just for giggles. They did that for a legal reason. Because in order to remove this from a win for the plaintiff, in order to make it newsworthy -

BALDWIN: Yes.

[14:30:00] ZELIN: The fact that they commented on it, the fact that they discussed it, now it's not simply for commercial gain, now it's not simply to hurt someone, it's newsworthy and they're providing commentary on the video. That was calculated.