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GOP Rivals Square Off at CNN Debate Tonight; Sanders, Clinton Trade Blow in Testy Univision Debate; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 10, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:28] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me from the University of Miami campus where the GOP debate will be held later tonight. It is the final faceoff before a crucial Super Tuesday.

Hours from now the GOP candidates go head-to-head at the CNN Republican debate right here at the University of Miami.

Are you ready for a brawl? Well, Mr. Trump says not so fast.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think this is going to be much different. Now I may be -- I may be wrong. But I am now far and away the frontrunner.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're ready for anything.

TRUMP: I think it's going to be softer but I'll be ready. I mean, you know, I think that Marco is going to be a different person. Marco has been, you know, mortally wounded. You know, questions will Marco even be there. I hope he makes the right decision. I'm not going to make the decision for him, but Marco has been, you know, pretty badly wounded. It'll be interesting to see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And while Trump takes aim at Rubio, Senator Ted Cruz comes out swinging against Trump.

Let's bring CNN's Sara Murray. She has the latest. Good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. So -- you know, so much for being a softer, friendlier debate. We're already seeing Ted Cruz come out and essentially say that the reason people are voting for Trump is because they're uninformed.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, Donald gave a press conference where he said, to quote him, "I love the poorly educated." Listen, part of it is I think Donald is taking advantage of his voters because I understand what they're angry about, but Donald, if you're angry at the corruption of Washington, you won't solve it by supporting someone who has been enmeshed in the Washington corruption for 40 years.

Donald does well with voters who have relatively low information, who are not that engaged and who are angry and they see him as an angry voice. Where we are beating him is when voters get more engaged and they get more informed. When they inform themselves, they realize his record. He's what they're angry at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now obviously Ted Cruz wants to turn this into a two-man race with Donald Trump. We know that. I think that's probably a risky way to do it because what we've seen with Donald Trump support as it did start off it's a lot of blue-collars, sort of lower-educated supporters, but it's grown. It's grown to include people at all different education levels, at all different income levels. So we will see how that line works out for Cruz.

COSTELLO: It sounds like he's disrespecting voters, too.

MURRAY: Well, that's the thing. You don't want to alienate, you know, another candidate's voters because ultimately you want to win them over. You want to bring them on to your team, and that's certainly true for Ted Cruz.

COSTELLO: OK. So Donald Trump says he's going to be softer. But I don't really believe that. Yesterday he came out kind of swinging against John Kasich.

MURRAY: I can't imagine why you wouldn't believe that, Carol. Yes. So just shortly after he said it was going to be a softer, friendlier tone, he went out to a campaign event and had this to say about the Ohio governor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We, as you know, we have Ohio where you have an absentee governor. Absentee. And we're going to have -- no, we're going to have -- I think we're going to do great in Ohio. We'll do great, great, great in Ohio.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now we haven't really seen Donald Trump attack John Kasich yet. I think this is a reflection of the fact that Kasich's poll numbers are rising. It could mean he's going to face a little bit more heat on the debate stage than he has before. But, you know, the Kasich people are throwing everything they can at this to try to win Ohio. They rolled out what I have to imagine is the last out endorsement he hasn't picked up yet, which is Irvin Myer, the head coach of the Ohio State University.

COSTELLO: That's a big one.

MURRAY: So -- COSTELLO: You may laugh at that, but the coaches in Ohio guy.

MURRAY: I would never --

COSTELLO: He's very well respected and in Ohio State he's kind.

MURRAY: I would never laugh at the Ohio State University, even though I am from Michigan so --

COSTELLO: Get away, Sara Murray.

MURRAY: I'm sorry. I guess it might help him there.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I think it will definitely. Sara Murray, thanks so much.

All right. So let's talk about all of this. With me now to do that, CNN political commentator and Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany, former communications director for Jeb Bush's presidential campaign, Tim Miller, he's also the founder of America Rising PAC, and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp.

Welcome to all of you. All right. Let's start with Senator Ted Cruz's remarks, shall we? Because, Kayleigh, he kind of said Trump is appealing to those voters who are not so well-informed and he's pulling the wool over their eyes.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That is never a good choice to go after someone's supporters rather than going after the candidate himself. You know, we've seen Donald Trump's national support in the CNN poll about a month ago reach nearly 49 percent. So in dismissing his voters, you're dismissing nearly half of the people you hope will move over and vote for you. I think it's an elitist attitude. It's an elitist attack.

[10:05:01] And also it's simply not true. Sara pointed out Trump has increased his support among college educated voters. Won them in Michigan. So it's just simply not a true attack either.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you're absolutely right. And in addition to call Trump supporters disengaged, unengaged is patently false. He is getting first-time caucus goers. He is bringing people into the political process that had stayed out of it previously. So it's not -- it's not accurate, it's not smart. I think where he could go after this tactic is to say, look, to Trump supporters, I get your anger, and I get what you like, but he simply can't -- Trump simply can't do a lot of the things he's promising he can do, and that should really bother you. That should make you a little cautious.

All of the promises he's making, constitutionally, with Congress, internationally, he just can't get a lot of it done. I can. That should be, I think his argument.

(CROSSTALK) TIM MILLER, FOUNDER, AMERICA RISING PAC: One thing that Cruz is right about is that voters haven't been educated about Trump's real record because of the show, right? The bravado has overtaken, you know, a conversation about what Donald Trump has done in his career. He's been an outsourcer. He outsources ties, his suits, his body wash, his umbrellas. All the Trump things are outsourced. Right? He imported foreign workers. At Mar-a-Lago he basically used the Chamber of Commerce establishment talking points saying, you know, Americans don't want to do this job. At Mar-a-Lago? It's a resort. Americans do want to do that job.

COSTELLO: Because he's in Florida.

MILLER: And he brought in foreign cheaper workers. So I do think the voters have to be educated about Donald Trump's real record. And I think Ted Cruz could be successful if he framed it that way.

COSTELLO: The thing about voters, though, you know, they live in their own worlds. They have their own problems.

MILLER: Sure.

COSTELLO: And the y listen to the candidate who most appeals to their problems. They don't much care about other things. They care about their own lives. And that's what Donald Trump does very well.

MCENANY: He definitely does and also I think that they can see through these false attacks or these unsubstantial attacks, because look --

COSTELLO: Well, I don't think they're all false attacks.

MCENANY: Not all but --

COSTELLO: I just think that they don't care.

(CROSSTALK)

MILLER: Look at the label. Made in Bangladesh.

MCENANY: I'm referring specifically -- I'm referring specifically to Tim's. They understand that when you operate a $10 billion brand in the Obama economy, you have to play by the same rules as everyone else does. You will go to the cheapest place to make your clothes because you are a businessman. Now you can advocate for changing the law when you get into office and you have the power to do so, but you're not going to have a successful business if you don't play by the same rules as everyone else.

MILLER: So, Carol, I think this gets to your point, though. Regular people's problems particularly in places like Ohio is that their jobs are going overseas, and Donald Trump could have made his ties in Ohio. There's no law against it. There are no rules against it. There are plenty of companies that make shirts and ties --

COSTELLO: No. It would just cost him more, right? MILLER: -- here in America. And if he's worth as much as he says

he's worth, which I'm not sure is true, then -- he could, you know, maybe spend a little bit more on the American worker, and I think that as voters are educated about that, you're seeing Donald Trump support start to fade.

COSTELLO: Is that true, S.E.? Are we starting to see Donald Trump support fading?

CUPP: No.

MILLER: Sure we are.

CUPP: I don't think so. I think, you know, the idea that because Trump didn't win Maine, somehow he's in a slump. I just don't buy it. I think the winds are completely behind Donald Trump. That doesn't mean that Ted Cruz isn't gaining some steam. He is. But no, I think -- I think coming out of the last primaries, Donald Trump is looking very good, and I think poised to win the nomination I think particularly in Michigan when he won counties like Oakland County, of all places. Like I lived in Michigan. That is not a place where you would imagine Donald Trump to win very affluent, very well-educated. If he can win there, there's not a lot of places he can't win.

MILLER: Just look at the head-to-head poll numbers, though. If it gets down to a two-man race, Cruz beating Trump by 13. Marco beating him by 8. They didn't poll Kasich. Bu I suspect Kasich would be beating him as well. So Trump is still vulnerable.

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: When are they going to get out, Tim? I agree with you. When are they going to get out? Not until Florida, not until Ohio.

MILLER: Well look --

(CROSSTALK)

CUPP: We don't get there for a while.

MCENANY: And those are national numbers. Here's the thing, in a head-to-head poll of Cruz over Trump, well, most of the states that Cruz plays well in have already voted. When you look ahead to the map, Ted Cruz is not going to win California.

MILLER: I don't think that's true at all.

MCENANY: He's not going to win New York. He's not going to win Connecticut.

MILLER: Why couldn't he win California? He's winning in Illinois right now. There's a lot of similarities there.

MCENANY: He has a conservative base. He does not appeal to blue- collar workers and those sorts of states. He just doesn't do it. You can say he has a broad based appeal, that doesn't bear out in the poll and he will not win in those states.

MILLER: I'm glad you're looking ahead to California because that's in June. And that's the point that we're making. This is a -- this is going to be a long campaign. I think Cruz could beat Trump in California.

COSTELLO: Well, let's concentrate on Ohio for just a second because Donald Trump came out and, you know, said that Governor Kasich was an absentee governor in the state of Ohio. So that probably means he's going to throw some punches at tonight's debate despite his promise of a softer tone. So does that mean really we should be paying attention to Kasich and not so much Cruz?

MILLER: Look, I'm with a group called Our Principles PAC. And we just went up with some ads in Ohio talking about what I just was talking about. The outsourcing in Ohio. So look, that's a really close race right now in Ohio between Kasich and Trump. [10:10:04] Far be it for me to predict what John Kasich is going to do

on the stage tonight. He was given an opportunity to take on Trump on Putin in the last debate, took a pass on that. But -- and who the heck knows what Donald Trump is going to do with relation to John Kasich. But I think that's a really close race in Ohio. And then as you look at Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, you're also seeing three races that are going to be very close on Super Tuesday with Cruz more likely to be in position there, and then, you know, the race against Marco here in Florida.

COSTELLO: What do you think, S.E.?

CUPP: I think Kasich has been playing for veep all along. I think it's why he's framed his campaign as sort of, you know, the adult in the room. I'm not going to take swipes at any of the candidates because he wants to be every candidate's first pick. I don't know that that has the staying power to last and really build momentum. I don't think his sort of rustbelt revolution is a real thing. But I would expect him to maintain that tone tonight even if Donald Trump starts taking swings at him. I just think that's -- he's playing to be the veep candidate.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Would Mr. Trump be interested?

MCENANY: I think absolutely. I think anyone would be interested in John Kasich. He could bring a state like Ohio which would be huge, it would be massive for Republicans. He is a popular governor. He's had 62 percent approval. That is very high in the state of Ohio, and he's just great all around. I like the optimistic feel, and Trump has said that much, that he wants someone who has been in government, someone who knows how to govern. He wants a political insider. I think Kasich would be excellent. And I think S.E. is exactly right that Kasich is playing for that role.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I don't know that Kasich would say that. But maybe --

CUPP: No. Publicly not. COSTELLO: Not publicly. Right. I have to leave it there.

Tim, S.E., Kayleigh, thanks to all of you.

Coverage of tonight's GOP debate moderated by Jake Tapper begins at 8:30 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

Happening right now at the White House, President Obama is sitting down with Canada's prime minister, Justin Trudeau. We were allowed to get a glimpse inside that meeting just a few moments ago. The two men discussing issues that sometimes divide the allies of trade deals, climate change, and the efforts to secure our shared border. But in a sign of the warm welcome tonight, the White House will host its first state dinner for a Canadian leader in nearly two decades. And it just looks like they're having a lot of fun.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ready, set, go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Eating hot peppers to show they really do feel the Bern. Sanders' fire breathing fans and why they're rallying behind -- that was a jalapeno pepper.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: I believe that we will win. I believe that we will win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:17:04] COSTELLO: Very passionate young people feeling the Bern outside the debate hall at Miami-Dade College last night but inside supporters could feel the tension. Sanders versus Clinton and the candidates versus the questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JORGE RAMOS, UNIVISION DEBATE MODERATOR: If you get indicted, would you drop out?

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For goodness, that is not going to happen. I'm not even answering that question.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

RAMOS: Can you promise tonight that you won't deport children, children who are already here?

CLINTON: I will not deport children. I would not deport children. I do not want to deport family members either.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The essence of what we are trying to do is unite families, not to divide families. The idea -- the idea that a mother is living here and her children are on the other side of the border is wrong and immoral.

CLINTON: In 2006 Senator Sanders supported indefinite detention for people facing deportation and stood with the minutemen vigilantes.

SANDERS: What the secretary is doing tonight and has done very often is take large pieces of legislation and take pieces out of it. There is a reason why Wall Street has provided $15 million just in the last reporting period to the secretary's super PAC.

CLINTON: I do have the toughest most comprehensive plan to go after Wall Street.

SANDERS: Clearly the secretary's words to Wall Street has really intimidated them. And that is why they are giving her $15 million in campaign contributions.

CLINTON: Senator Sanders has talked about free college for everybody. He's talked about universal single-payer health care for everybody. And yet when you ask questions as many of us have and more importantly, independent experts, it's very hard to get answers. And a lot of the answers say that, you know, this is going to be much more expensive than anything Senator Sanders is admitting to. This is going to increase --

RAMOS: Thank you, Secretary.

CLINTON: -- the federal government dramatically. And you know, my dad used to say, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

SANDERS: Let me respond. I want you all to think what Secretary Clinton is saying is that the United States should continue to be the only major country on earth that doesn't guarantee health care to all of our people. I think that the rest of the world can do it, we can.

KAREN TUMULTY, UNIVISION DEBATE MODERATOR: Is Donald Trump a racist?

CLINTON: I was the first one to call him out. I called him out when he was calling Mexicans rapists, when he was engaging in rhetoric that I found deeply offensive. I said, "Basta."

SANDERS: And let us not forget that several years ago Trump was in the middle of a so-called birther movement, trying to delegitimize the president of the United States of America.

[10:20:10] CLINTON: I am not a natural politician, in case you haven't noticed, like my husband or President Obama. So I have a view that I just have to do the best I can.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So that's what happened inside the debate. But outside, I was talking to those protesting students. They were something else. High school students and college students. I actually talked with one of them. His name is Marco Ciklovan. He's a high school senior. He's 18 years old who is actively campaigning for Bernie Sanders. He feels the Bern because of Sanders' big, bold ideas. I also asked Marco if he gets the Trump phenomenon. This is what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Some people compare Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump because they're kind of like running a revolution of sorts but in different ways. Does anything about Donald Trump appeal to you at all?

MARCO CIKLOVAN, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Yes, actually. His attitude of I don't care what anyone says about me, I will still do it. Bernie has that. That's where these extreme ideas come from. The thing is with Donald Trump is that instead of thinking of I don't care about anyone else, I'm caring about we, he is thinking, I don't care about anyone else, I care about me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Got that? Joining me now to talk about that and more, Ron Brownstein, senior editor with the "Atlantic," and Maeve Reston, CNN national political reporter.

Welcome to both of you.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Wasn't that kid smart?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

(LAUGHTER)

BROWNSTEIN: First, you know, I was sitting here calculating, I bet that Bernie Sanders has won about the same share of the Democratic vote total as Donald Trump has won the Republican vote total. The difference of course is Bernie Sanders is running against one candidate, and Donald Trump has been running against 15 and shrinking. But it does -- it does kind of give you that kind of thematic, you know, convergence.

COSTELLO: Yes. You laugh at these kids. It's easy to laugh at these kids, they're 18 years old. Very idealistic. You know, they were heating hot peppers for Bernie Sanders. But I will say, they were doing that for a reason. They were raising money for him. And they found a way to do it without Bernie Sanders having to ask.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Right.

COSTELLO: And that's valuable.

RESTON: Right. That's what Clinton, you know, doesn't seem to have going for her campaign is that kind of energy and willingness to eat a hot pepper or do whatever it takes, you know, to get him elected. And that's going to be, you know, the biggest challenge that she has going forward. This race obviously is going to go on for a little while. But if she ultimately does win the nomination, really being able to generate that excitement, particularly among young voters. That's their biggest challenge.

BROWNSTEIN: They're really counting on Donald Trump to be the solution to that challenge.

RESTON: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: If he is the Republican nominee, he might provide more fuel for the Democratic coalition to come out and she does as the nominee.

COSTELLO: Was there any moment that stood out to you, Ron, during last night's debate?

BROWNSTEIN: I thought the exchange over Cuba was quite striking, where they played the tape of Bernie Sanders kind of praising what had happened in Cuba under the Castros and Clinton jumped on it really from the center or the right. And there really haven't been that many moments in this campaign. Mostly it's just kind of danced like a tennis player or something, you know, trying to hit her in her forehand. She's gone around to the other side to try to criticize him from the left.

I thought it was the rare case where she was saying, look, he has just taken a position too far that is outside of the political mainstream. And of course, here in Florida, I think that might be an especially resonant argument. So it'll be interesting to see how that plays out in the Cuban American vote in the primary next week.

COSTELLO: They talked a lot about immigration, right?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

COSTELLO: And both of them sort of split from President Obama and said, you know, we're never, never going to deport undocumented children, under no circumstances.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

COSTELLO: And some voters might think that's a little extreme, Maeve.

RESTON: Yes. Absolutely. And Ron was just making this point that you know, perhaps that was going to be a bridge too far for some voters. But you think about how far Donald Trump has drawn the debate on the right, it's now we're going to come into a general election with these two sides so far apart and how they would handle all of these people who are undocumented people who are undocumented in this country. It was really fascinating and it was -- you know, it was a night where they clearly were trying to best each other on that issue.

Bernie Sanders is clearly looking ahead to states like Arizona where he thinks his campaign can do well running these five-minute ads on Univision and -- that's focusing on his work on those issues so it'll be really interesting.

BROWNSTEIN: You know, Carol, I -- I've been writing about polling about immigration for 25 years. And I think two notes are really consistent. People are pragmatic. They don't support unrealistic ideas. The idea of rounding up 11 or 12 million people or deporting them has never been -- had majority support, even in the Republican primaries in virtually every state. A majority of Republican primary voters, as you have just said, they don't support it.

On the other hand, they do support the rule of law. They believe there should be a rule of law and for the candidates to go so far as to say we're simply not going to enforce the law at all, that seemed to me a big step. Especially with the legality of President Obama's executive action still hanging in the balance in the court. So I think that was a moment we should file away for the general election if they get that far.

COSTELLO: It's a big vulnerability.

RESTON: Yes.

COSTELLO: If Trump wins the nomination, it's strange, they have these mirror images.

BROWNSTEIN: It's -- right.

COSTELLO: One extreme or the other.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Right. And most people would be in the middle.

COSTELLO: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

[10:25:02] COSTELLO: Ron Brownstein, Maeve Reston, thanks to both of you.

RESTON: Thank you.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

COSTELLO: All right. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Marco Rubio puts it all on the line in Florida and risks losing to Donald Trump. I'll talk with the state's Republican Party chair about whether it's time to get behind the frontrunner or move on.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Checking some top stories at 29 minutes past. A manhunt is ramping up in New Mexico for two inmates who escaped during a prisoner transport. Police described both men as violent and dangerous. 29- year-old Lionel Claw on the left is wanted for a felony assault with a deadly weapon on a police officer. 32-year-old Joseph Cruz on the right is wanted for first-degree murder and attempted first-degree murder.