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Trump Security Cracks Down on Protesters; Florida is a Must-Win for Rubio; Trump Cancelled Morning Show Appearances. Aired 2:30-3p ET
Aired March 08, 2016 - 14:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[14:30:00] BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: M.J., just turning to you, two main things of who is attending these rallies, the people who are angry and the people who are extraordinarily loyal, yes?
M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Right. And having covered Trump and some of the other Republican candidates, I think it's completely fair to say there's this electric energy and passion --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: You feel it, walking into the arena.
LEE: You completely feel it, right? It is not just about crowd size. It's not that he easily draws thousands of people to his events. It is that these people are angrier and rowdier than the people you might see at a Marco Rubio rally or the folks saw at Jeb Bush rallies. I think we really saw these emotions manifest themselves in of the races we've already had. When you looked at the exit polls coming out of states like Georgia, Alabama, Arkansas, Trump really performed the best of all the Republican candidates among people who said they're angry or dissatisfied.
BALDWIN: He's tapping into that very successfully.
LEE: The other emotion I think that's also important and very key to Trump's popularity is the sense that people are feeling like they're betrayed by Republican politicians who have already been elected to office. So when they look at Trump, they see him as being the polar opposite and not being a part of the Republicans who already in Congress in Washington, who they feel like they elected to do something else and be something else.
BALDWIN: Sure.
Chris Frates, I want you to tell me, either at the rally we just saw that Gary Tuchman featured in the piece, what is it you see that we don't by watching it on television?
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: There's a lot you don't see just by watching Donald Trump on politics. I've done three presidential cycles. Nothing like these Trump rallies. We talked about the protesters. There were about nine on that yesterday with Gary Tuchman. That's about normal. That's not a lot of protesters. Usually, you can get over a dozen protests. And what's interesting, too, is the way that Trump kind of works the
crowd. I mean, he's almost like an evangelist. Yesterday, I called it the church of Trump. People are coming to hear him. There's hardly anything that Trump could say that these folks would be turned off by. I had one woman tell me, maybe if he said he was a crackhead or coke addict, maybe. That's a big maybe.
BALDWIN: Maybe?
(LAUGHTER)
FRATES: The other thing he likes to do -- maybe, right, exactly. The other thing he likes to do, he always targets the media. He always has the crowd turn around and he points out that he loves the protesters because that allows the cameras to pan to show the protesters and show how much of a crowd is there. Now, of course, there are cameras that are always filming the crowd. They don't always turn when Trump commands them to. The head-on cameras, as you and I know, they're never going to turn. They have to stay focused on Donald Trump. He gets the crowd whipped up a little bit. He likes to, you know, say that we're the most dishonest, you know, the most terrible people ever. You see these -- I've been given the middle finger. I have, you know, been shouted at. That kind of anger permeates. When you see these folks getting kicked out, sometimes it looks almost a little dangerous.
BALDWIN: I was about to say, it makes me nervous watching some of this.
FRATES: Right. Here's an example, on Saturday, we were out at a Trump rally. There were two young protesters. They were close to Donald Trump, behind him. They got his attention. He turned around and seemed to be listening to them. What looked like a Trump volunteer. He was in a Trump T-shirt and lanyard issued by the campaign, basically tackled the young protesters. It was a bit of a brouhaha that occurred. And everybody got kicked out, the volunteer and the protesters. They're bringing in private security now to police the grounds, these plain-clothed private security guys. They're trying to get protesters out even faster. And as Trump as ascended, we've seen more and more of these protesters attending -- Brooke?
BALDWIN: The protesters and supporters as well. They want to go see him speak. They believe in him as we saw in Gary's piece.
M.J. and Chris, thank you, lifting the veil on the Donald Trump events. Coming up next, Mitt Romney still making his voice heard, working the
phones in four primary states today, but on whose behalf?
And our next guest says there will likely be no Republican nominee by the July convention in Cleveland. We will talk to the RNC's Henry Barbour.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [14:39:06] BALDWIN: Voters in four states are casting their ballots at this very moment but you will not find Marco Rubio campaigning in any of them. Instead, he's focusing his attention on winning that all-important state of Florida, which is one week from today. It is shaping up as truly a must-win for the Florida Senator.
Today, Mitt Romney has got some support headed toward Marco Rubio and also the rest of the map. The former nominee recorded some robo-calls for Rubio, pushing his bona fides and taking shots at Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY, (R), FORMER MASSACHUSETTS GOVERNOR & FORMER PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE (voice-over): Hello, this is Mitt Romney, and I'll calling on behalf of Marco Rubio for president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Romney is also making calls on behalf of John Kasich in Michigan today.
Let's talk more about Marco Rubio. I have Henry Barbour with me, a member of the Republican National Committee there in Mississippi, and a big Marco Rubio supporter.
Henry, nice to have you. Thank you for joining me.
HENRY BARBOUR, MEMBER, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Glad to be with you.
[14:40:08] BALDWIN: So let's just get right to it. The news with regard to Marco Rubio, I know the campaign is absolutely refuting it, but CNN is reporting that some aids in the campaign are worried, they're saying Rubio should drop out ahead of the primary. What can you tell me about that or your response?
BARBOUR: Those rumors are false and what's going to happen is next week Marco Rubio is going to win in Florida. Just as in 2010 when he decided to run for the U.S. Senate against a sitting governor. Everybody told him he couldn't win. Marco took on the establishment, Brooke, and he won. That's what's going to happen next week. He's going to take the folks on who are attempting to defeat him in Florida, namely Donald Trump, and he's going to beat them.
BALDWIN: Florida is a must win, yes?
BARBOUR: Yes, look, absolutely, got to win your home state. Ted Cruz faces that some dark consequence a week or so ago. It will be Marco's turn next week.
BALDWIN: What about the all-important south, where you are? You know, we know that Trump did extraordinarily well in the Deep South per Tuesday. Yes, he won Louisiana over the weekend, not by a whole heck of a lot, but where is Marco Rubio in the south? What if he doesn't have a good day today? BARBOUR: Well, look, this is about getting to delegates. You have to
have a majority of the delegates at the convention in Cleveland. Don't believe anybody is going to have a majority of the delegates on that first ballot. We have a front runner who is opposed by about two-thirds of Republican voters, that's Donald Trump, and he needs, Trump needs, 60, of the delegates that are remaining, 853 delegates he need, and that's 60 percent of the remaining bound delegates. That's a very high hurdle. It means he has to win all these winner-take-all states. I think when we get to Cleveland, we're not going to have any candidate who has the required number of delegates, so I think we'll end up with an open and contested convention.
BALDWIN: You are potentially quite spot on, on the map and on delegates. We heard from Rubio talking about his potential of a brokered convention. Here he was.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So this is just a very year. This is going to take a long time. I don't think anyone has a clear path to the delegates so buckle up your seat belts. This ride has got a few more turns.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: So from the brokered convention, though, Henry, I wanted to ask you about Jeb Bush. As we talk about Florida, winner-take-all, you say Rubio's got it but, you know, CNN's reporting there have been a couple of phone calls between these two, mentor and mentee. I understand there is still bad blood. Do you think a Jeb Bush endorsement ahead of the Florida primary, would that even matter?
BARBOUR: Well, look, Jeb Bush is believed in Florida. Probably the greatest governor that Florida has ever had. Certainly, it would matter, but generally speaking, endorsements don't mean much. People are -- people who want to stop Donald Trump and in Florida have one choice, and that's Marco Rubio. With two-thirds of Republican Americans opposing Trump, it makes it -- I think people are going to coalesce behind Rubio in Florida and I think that could give him the momentum that we saw Reagan had in '76. He lost six primaries in a row, won in Pennsylvania, won in Texas, closed it out, took it to the convention in Kansas City in 1976 where he and Ford were in a tie. So I think my man, Marco Rubio, can take that same path to Cleveland, Ohio.
BALDWIN: Before I let you go, Henry, I just have to ask about your very popular, you know, two consecutive term Mississippi governor, uncle, Haley Barbour, you know, state bleeds deep red. This is someone who really represents establishment Republican Party. I'm curious what does he think about this race?
BARBOUR: Well, he thinks we're going to beat Hillary Clinton in November. He realizes Republicans have got to win the White House in November. We cannot afford four more years of Barack Obama. It's time for somebody like Rubio who has to get in there and undo the left wing policies that President Obama has hurt the country, shed economic growth and given us weak foreign policy. Time to get America back on track.
BALDWIN: Has he said anything about Trump? Just curious.
BARBOUR: Does he say anything about Trump, is that what you --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Yes, sir.
BARBOUR: Now I have an earpiece issue.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Yes, Trump, has he said anything?
BARBOUR: Yes, ma'am. Well, I will tell you, Haley's focus is on making sure we win. I can tell you that's where his focus is as a former RNC chairman.
BALDWIN: Got it.
Henry Barbour, thank you, earpiece and all. Appreciate the sense of humor.
BARBOUR: Thank you.
[14:45:14] BALDWIN: Thank you. Thank you.
Meantime, speaking of Donald Trump, cancelling live appearances this morning on multiple morning shows. Last minute, decided to call in instead. What happened? We have the back story for you coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MATT LAUER, CO-HOST, THE TODAY SHOW: Donald Trump joins us on the phone right now.
Mr. Trump, good morning to you.
DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: Good morning.
MIKA BRZEZINSKI, CO-ANCHOR, MORNING JOE: Donald, good to have you on board.
TRUMP: Good morning.
BRZEZINSKI: Morning.
GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS, ANCHOR, ABC NEWS: Mr. Trump, thanks for being us this morning.
TRUMP: OK. Thank you very much. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: Matt Lauer, Robin Roberts, coffee mugs and Donald Trump, what do they all have in common? You can't wake up without them. Trump usually calls in from who knows where. This morning, at the last second, he actually scrapped plans to do TV interviews on camera. Why?
Let's bring in CNN's Brian Stelter and Michael Calderone, senior media reporter for the "Huffington Post."
Hello, guys.
(CROSSTALK)
To you, first, sir, on your reporting, what happened?
[14:50:00] BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, RELIABLE SOURCES: I was just hearing from a source about this. Some angst about this in TV news circles this morning. They had a satellite arranged. At the last minute, after a couple of these TV interviews, he said, don't like the way it looks, doesn't sound right, there are all these problems. So he decided to call in instead. One of the networks said thanks phone interviews. We were not going to start. So "CBS This Morning" said no. Everybody else said yes. He had already chosen not to appear on CNN on "New Day." All the other networks were on the phone as he's done many times. It's essentially become a new sort of Trump rule. And the question is whether it's appropriate or not.
BALDWIN: OK, pause.
To you, sir, because this whole notion of appearing on camera versus calling in for the viewer. Why do they care? What's the difference?
MICHAEL CALDERONE, SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER, HUFFINGTON POST: The difference is Trump oftentimes he calls on the phone, he's able to get around the questions. We're sitting here like this.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: I've got you, Michael. I can cut you off.
CALDERONE: You can vet me. The problem is too many times I've watched these interviews with where they go on for 10, 15, 20 minute, and it seems Trump is able to skirt around the questions, able to get out of specifically answering his policies and stances. Sometime these phone interviews are good. They can pinpoint and get him in real time to respond to something. But too often it felt like Trump dictates the terms of his interviews. It's Trump who says all the time he has leverage because he has ratings.
STELTER: You can see a person sweat on camera, right? You can see what a person is like when they're on camera. The counterargument is other candidates should be learning from Trump.
BALDWIN: Why aren't they calling in?
STELTER: Why aren't they calling in?
BALDWIN: Marco Rubio, call in right now, we will take you live on this show right now.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Right.
STELTER: That's the thing, Trump has changed the dynamic. We can love it, we can hate it, but he's changed it. What I don't understand is why other candidates aren't taking more advantage of this.
We have seen on a couple of --
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: Because candidates have said, hang on a second, people are covering Trump too much, but Trump is making himself available.
STELTER: He's uniquely accessible.
BALDWIN: On television, calling in.
STELTER: He's running much more of a television and media campaign then all the other candidates.
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: What's surprising to me is others haven't learned from it yet.
CALDERONE: You're seeing this all the time. Ted Cruz is on Sunday criticizing Trump. The amount of media he's getting from --
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: Meaning we cover him for free.
CALDERONE: Yes, he's getting millions of dollars from going on TV. And, you know, to me, the issue of him appearing, you know, for 15, 20 minutes on each of these shows calling in, part of a broader pattern where Trump press conferences are covered live, his rallies are covered live, so it seems like he just blankets TV coverage.
Brian's right, other candidates can take advantage of this. I wish Hillary Clinton would come on more than she does.
(CROSSTALK)
BALDWIN: People who are covering Hillary have gotten frustrated.
CALDERONE: It's good that Donald Trump is accessible, but I think it's incumbent upon the networks to question, you know, what they're getting out of this versus maybe what he's getting out of this by playing by his own rules.
BALDWIN: Well said, sir.
Michael Calderone, thank you so much.
Brian Stelter, thank you as well.
STELTER: Thank you.
BALDWIN: "Reliable Sources." He's your man.
STELTER: 11:00 a.m., Sunday.
(LAUGHTER)
BALDWIN: Coming up next, today, it's the most important day of the 2016 presidential campaign, thus far, with voters heading to the polls in four states here. Will Donald Trump break away? And what about the race for second place? We have reporters fanned out across the country. Do not miss a beat. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[14:57:55] BALDWIN: In today's "Impact Your World," how one community has come together to take on poverty in the struggling nation of Ukraine.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Political unrest and economic decline has hit Ukraine's poor hard. Residents struggle to maintain a sense of normalcy. But thousands of elderly young and displaced families can't afford the basics.
INNA ZBOROUSKAYA (ph), AMERICAN JEWISH JOINT DISTRIBUTION COMMITTEE: They really do not have any other chances and it's fairly challenging.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: Winter presents the biggest challenge.
ZBOROUSKAYA (ph): During the winter, the cost of the utilities going up means that biggest part of the pension goes to cover utilities.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee is trying to support the poor of Ukraine.
ZBOROUSKAYA (ph): If the help can be very basic like food, medications, very basic supplies. We provide them with the blankets, warm clothing. We do our best in order to support them.
UNIDENTIFIED CNN CORRESPONDENT: For 96-year-old Liza Kesselman (ph), the support is a god send.
LIZA KESSELMAN (ph), UKRAINIAN RESIDENT (through translation): If it was not for them, I can't imagine what my life would be like.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BALDWIN: Here we go. Hour two. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.
Right now, voters are hitting the polls, which means we are hours away from knowing to answer the question: Will Donald Trump break away with an even greater lead after tonight or will another candidate slow Trump's roll toward a potential nomination. Ted Cruz showing a little bit of possibility of doing that just over the weekend.
Today, on the Republican side, Michigan, Mississippi, Idaho, Hawaii, all holding primaries or caucuses. 150 delegates at stake on the GOP side.
For Democrats, it's also a truly significant day. We're looking specifically at Michigan, Mississippi. Voters choosing between Hillary Clinton and Sanders with 156 delegates up for grabs in those states.
First, to the polling places to get a feel of what's happening there.
Let's go to CNN's Polo Sandoval in Jackson, Mississippi, and Jean Casarez in Warren, Michigan.
