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Protester Rushes Stage at Trump Rally; Clinton Condemns Donald Trump's Divisive Rhetoric; Interview with Reverend Darrell Scott; Candidates Shift Super Tuesday 3 Strategies; Rubio Fighting to Win GOP Primary in Home State; Florida Newspaper Refuses to Endorse GOP Candidate. Aired 1-2p ET

Aired March 12, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:12] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, again, and thanks so much for joining us. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

Tensions are high and security concerns even higher at Donald Trump rallies today in Ohio. A jarring moment at rally near Dayton. A protester attempted to rush the stage and then Trump ducking. And Secret Service agents immediately surrounded him as you see right there.

Pretty unnerving moment there. This all comes one day after violent clashes broke out both inside and outside a Trump rally at the University of Chicago. The rally was canceled before Trump actually arrived and at one of two rallies he is hosting today in Ohio Trump said the fistfights were, quote, "planned attacks."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But what happened, it was very interesting. So what happened, these were great people. These are people like yourselves, these were people that want to make America great again. That's all it is.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: And they were pouring into the arena, good arena, everything nice, and all of sudden a planned attack, just came out of nowhere. Printed by -- and it was printed by people that were professional people. If you look at the posters they're all printed to have a mark on them, who made them. All done by a group, all very professionally done, a disgrace if you want to know the truth.

We cannot let our First Amendment -- we just can't, we cannot let our First Amendment rights be taken away from us, folks. We can't let it happen. We can't let it happen.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: We have a right to speak. I mean, we are law-abiding people. We're people that work very hard. We're people that have built this country and made this country great. And we're all together. And we want to get along with everybody. But when they have organized professionally staged wise guys, we've got to fight back. We've got to fight back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Trump has a second rally in Cleveland in the next hour where some protesters have already started to gather and get into some rather heated conversations, as you see right there, with people.

So let's go to CNN's Sara Murray and Martin Savidge who are both there, and CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston who is in Vandalia, Ohio, where that last rally was taking place.

OK, so, Sara, let me begin with you. Trump visibly, you know, shaken. He responded to what appeared to be something thrown at him on stage. His Secret Service rushing to his side. So what are the preparations in place there, a bigger city, much more diverse there in Cleveland, for his arrival and for, you know, the turnout?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Fred. I mean, obviously that was sort of a frightening event at his earlier event in Ohio today. But here in Cleveland, his event is going to be a little bit outside of this city which should help sort of calm down the protesters. In terms of what we've seen outside so far, we've only seen a couple dozen protesters. It's relative small. They were exchanging heated words but it didn't escalate into anything more than that.

And there is a visible security presence here. There are police officers outside, they're on horseback, people of course have to go through security to be able to get into this event but in talking to folks here on the ground, as of right now they're not anticipating any kind of big major protests, obviously as we saw at the first event it can only take one person to escalate the situation and clearly the campaign is going to hope to avoid anything like that today and Donald Trump will of course have his usual Secret Service detail with him to help prevent anything like that -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: And, Martin, what are the conversations you're having with people there as they line up behind you to get into that space. What are they anticipating? What are they looking forward to?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're looking forward, of course, to seeing and hearing Donald Trump. We just saw, as Trump's aircraft touched down here at Hopkins Airport, and this group here, they could see it, too. The runway is clearly in view so they let out a cheer.

This, by the way, is just a small fraction of the people that have come to this event. They're waiting to clear security. People were lined up since 9:00, 10:00 this morning, and reiterating what you just heard the security presence is very tight.

I talked to authorities to ask, hey, have you changed anything as a result of what happened in Chicago? They won't talk about that, they won't talk about numbers. But they've got the Cleveland Police, they've got the state police. Secret Service here, they have helicopters hovering overhead. They've got bomb-sniffing dogs here in the parking lot and you've also got the Mountain Police.

So much of this is a subdued presence, just out of view. But clearly, you know, Cleveland has a lot riding on this because they know they are the host of the Republican convention. So with that pressure, they want to make sure, even for this event, everything goes smoothly -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: OK. And so just moments ago, maybe about a little over an hour ago, Mark Preston, Phil Mattingly, both at that event there in Vandalia, Ohio, where there was some disruption, you know, from Donald Trump as he was speaking.

[13:05:05] And so, Phil, anything more about what happened? What was that, you know, kind of security scare?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, definitely a scare. And one that was really kind of out of character for the rest of the event which was largely calm especially in comparison to other Trump events. And obviously last night in Chicago.

What we do know now is the man who rushed the stage has been arrested. A law enforcement source says he will be charged with disorderly conduct at some point later today. And what you saw really was the Secret Service do what the Secret Service does best. They collapsed on Donald Trump. Clearly if you watch the video, Trump very startled by what occurred, and then quickly bounced back, gave a thumbs up, thanked the audience for what he said, gave him a warning about the man rushing from behind him, and then said he would have taken it himself but it was easier to let the cops do it for him.

So the man who did attempt to rush the stage was arrested. He will be charged later today but for right now just a momentary scare, the Secret Service doing their job and Donald Trump continuing right on with his rally.

WHITFIELD: And so, Mark, I wonder how or if this kind of incident will impact change, you know, the tenor of what's to come. Donald Trump's proximity to the audience, any of that?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, certainly I suspect the Secret Service over the past couple of weeks have been taking a look at the security precautions around Donald Trump given what we've seen now and certainly over the last 48 hours. I mean, look, these guys are pros, they know what they're doing. They're used to protecting, you know, the president and the vice president. So they certainly know that.

But I do have to tell you that the energy leaving this rally, despite the disruptions and that gentleman trying to rush the stage, was very high. You know, just to put it in really -- in economic terms, I spoke to one of the vendors out here, Fred, who's selling T-shirts and hats and what have you, he said he made $1500 selling T-shirts and hats in just a couple of hours.

I got to tell you, having watched the brisk business he was doing, I can believe that he was. So we have about 5,000 plus people that left here today. I think, you know, ready to go to the polls for Donald Trump in Ohio, not shaken by what they saw in Chicago last night.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you to all of you, appreciate it, Sara, Mark, Martin and Phil. Appreciate it. We'll check back with you.

All right. So the big concern ahead of that event for Donald Trump later on, the one that's about to take place, security of course.

Joining me right now on the phone is Stephen Loomis. He is the president of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association.

All right, so, Steven, talk to me about police security. What is anticipated to secure both Donald Trump and his supporters?

STEPHEN LOOMIS, PRESIDENT, CLEVELAND POLICE PATROLMEN'S ASSOCIATION: Well, good afternoon, first of all. The security measures that are in place right now. The Cleveland police -- men and women of the Cleveland Police Patrolmen's Association, the Cleveland Police Department, the State Highway Patrol is out there. And we don't anticipate -- as Mr. Savidge said, we don't anticipate a large problem like they had in Chicago the men and women of the Chicago police department are to be commended as well.

We're here to make sure that everybody's right to free speech is heard and that it's done in a peaceful way, and, you know, without getting into the politics of the whole situation. So.

WHITFIELD: Did the plan or the dynamic of the plans in any way change or were they altered as a result of, you know, the man that Phil Mattingly, you know, was reporting on, kind of rushed the stage, someone who tried to get too close to Donald Trump? How is that impacting how police -- how security will carried out at this event in Cleveland?

LOOMIS: I don't think that that event today had any change to our plans in anyway. Probably the people making these decisions were probably taking a good hard look at what was going on in Chicago and probably stepped up a little bit off of what we were planning on doing here.

WHITFIELD: So Secret Service and local police are working together at an event like this. In what capacity? Who kind of takes the lead?

LOOMIS: Well, the Secret Service, they have one job and one job only and that's to protect Mr. Trump and his entourage, so we do work with them and we communicate with them but we have different -- very different paths in life at this events. Secret Service is charged that. We're charged with keeping everybody else safe and that's what we take a lot of pride in doing.

WHITFIELD: All right. Stephen Loomis, thank you so much for your time.

LOOMIS: Yes, ma'am, thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Stay with CNN. Tomorrow morning we'll hear from a long list of presidential candidates. Jake Tapper is talking with John Kasich, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders. That's on "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time.

And coming up, Bernie Sanders says Donald Trump has encouraged the violence that we saw at that rally in Chicago.

[13:10:01] Both Sanders and Hillary Clinton responding to the violence. We'll hear from the two candidates next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Senator Bernie Sanders is speaking out after Donald Trump supporters and protesters clashed in Chicago. Among those in the crowd last night were people holding Bernie Sanders signs and some demonstrators could be heard chanting the senator's name. Well, this morning Sanders was asked if his supporters incited some of the violence in Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I don't think our -- our supporters are inciting. What our supporters are doing is responding to a candidate who has, in fact, in many ways encouraged violence when he talks about, you know, things -- you know, I wish we were in the old days when you could punch somebody in the head. What do you think that says to his supporters? And what happened the other day when some young man was being escorted out and he was sucker punched? And we have seen other incidents. So the issue now is that Donald Trump has got to be loud and clear and tell his supporters that violence at rallies is not what America is about and to end it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Sanders is weighing in just three days now before primaries in several key states, including Ohio. Hillary Clinton is also weighing in on last night's violence in Chicago and condemning Donald Trump's campaign rhetoric in very strong terms today.

CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny is in the Windy City for us and joins us now with more on what Clinton had to say.

Jeff, she was not subtle at all. She really said that he needs to take greater responsibility with the rhetoric, with the words, and the results that come from it.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: She did, Fredricka. I mean, across the board today we've seen presidential candidates, the Republican field of presidential candidates as well as both Democrats running, condemning the tone and just the vigor coming in response to that rally but Hillary Clinton is campaigning in Missouri today.

[13:15:04] But of course she was born near Chicago. She is a product of the Windy City of Chicago here and she had some very, very strong words for Donald Trump. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will always have our differences. That's what happens in a democracy and it is healthy for us to debate, to dialogue, to disagree. But the ugly, divisive rhetoric we are hearing from Donald Trump and the encouragement he has given to violence and aggression is not only wrong, it's dangerous, my friends.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: You know, if you play with matches you can start a fire you can't control. That is not leadership, it is political arson. The test of leadership and of citizenship is absolutely the opposite in our country. If you see bigotry, you should oppose it. If you see violence, you should condemn it. And if you see a bully, you should stand up to him.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And interesting, that last line right there, Fredricka, if you see a bully, you should stand up to him. That is exactly what a protester last night told me when I was walking along with him in the streets of Chicago. He said Chicago needs to stand up to this bully. If we're able to do it, other people can stand up to this bully. So we're entering a very uncertain moment here in American politics.

I think that, you know, when Donald Trump tweeted this morning that those protests in Chicago have energized America, he might be right about that but I think it's energized both sides. And Democrats are going to be just as fired up about this going into the next phase of this campaign. And so important here in just three days, as you said, Fredricka, five states are voting, Illinois, Missouri, Ohio, North Carolina and Florida.

I'm not sure what this does to the vote there. It does energize Donald Trump supporters but it keeps him from expanding his supporters and it also energizes this Democratic base -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thank you so much in Chicago. Appreciate that.

All right. Tomorrow we will be live from Ohio ahead of the Democratic town hall. Jake Tapper hosts both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, will be taking questions from the Ohio voters during the town hall tomorrow at 8:00 p.m. only right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:21:13] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. They are lining up there in Cleveland trying to get into that space where soon Donald Trump will be arriving and address the supporters there. In the next hour Donald Trump holding his second event of the day in Ohio. Just three days now before people cast their ballots in the pivotal winner-take-all state of the primaries. He is set to speak to voters in Cleveland soon and our next guest is going to introduce Mr. Trump at that rally. Joining us right now is Reverend Darrell Scott. He is a Trump

supporter, along with founder and senior pastor at the New Spirit Revival Center.

All right. Reverend Scott, good to see you.

REV. DARRELL SCOTT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Good to see you, too.

WHITFIELD: So you've got a huge crowd there --

SCOTT: Right here live in Cleveland, Ohio.

WHITFIELD: That's right. We're glad that you are welcoming us there to Cleveland. So, first of all, why is this important to you to introduce Donald Trump? You have a huge turnout there. What is it about Donald Trump that has won your heart?

SCOTT: Well, Donald Trump and I have a relationship that goes back several years and I've been very impressed with him not only as a businessman but as a man, as a gentleman, and more recently as a political candidate, and so because of the relationship that he and I have, because of the relationship that I have with the Trump Organization and with the Trump campaign, I thought it should be fitting that I introduce him. Especially with me being African- American because there's a perception of Mr. Trump that has been created that is inaccurate, that he is not sensitive to minority community which is I know him to be.

And he and I have a very good friendship, a very good relationship and I think if he comes to Cleveland I should be the guy that's introducing him.

WHITFIELD: And how can you counter that? That you just described that some people have this feeling that he, you know, is not one of -- he doesn't represent unity but instead division, and you saw the protests that took place last night in Chicago which meant the event was postponed. So what's your reaction to what is being said? The placards that people are holding saying, you know, Trump equals hate. How do you counter that? How do you respond to that?

SCOTT: Well, first of all, Mr. Trump canceled the meeting last night in the interest of peace. He cancelled the meeting so that there would be no disruption or there would be no conflict. However, you had a Friday night, a warm Friday night in Chicago, people didn't have anything to do and it escalated into violence. But Mr. Trump is not an agent of hate, he's an agent of change in America, and oftentimes where is a change or there's going to be a change you have people that are resistant to change and they react irrationally.

But by no means is he hostile to any minority communities. By no means does he foster or promote hatred of any kind.

WHITFIELD: So what will you say as you introduce him today?

SCOTT: Well, I'm going to give a little bit of my back story with Mr. Trump, the experience that I've had with him. I will say this, rather than being a divider, I would say that Mr. Trump is a unifier because Mr. Trump brings together people of all different ethnic groups and all different religions. He brings them together to support him so he's interested in making America great, not making America fractured.

WHITFIELD: And you say that -- I mean, you talk about your own personal experience, but when you look at the crowds, would you say that it is incredibly diverse?

SCOTT: There is a great amount of diversity here and there's going to be more diversity as we proceed forward in this campaign. I guarantee you that.

[13:25:03] WHITFIELD: If you had any, you know, pastoral advice to give to Mr. Trump about the days ahead, about better positioning himself as he heads into five races on Tuesday and beyond. What's the advice that you would give him that perhaps you think he could use?

SCOTT: As a pastor, I simply would ask him to seek God in all of his decision-making processes. Ask God to lead him to not only say the right thing but to do the right thing and to give him the wisdom that he will need to lead this great country.

WHITFIELD: All right. People are looking at the live pictures of Donald Trump's plane arriving there in Cleveland. He's only moments away from joining you there.

SCOTT: I have to go and introduce him.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead.

SCOTT: I have to go introduce Mr. Trump now. So it's been a pleasure.

WHITFIELD: Thank you so much, Reverend Scott. Appreciate, Darrell Scott, for your time. And we'll be listening to your introduction as Donald Trump is soon to emerge from his plane there just landing in Cleveland and then making it to that space where there are many people awaiting his arrival.

All right. It's not just Donald Trump on the trail today. Senator John Kasich is also expected to speak at any moment. We'll take you there live and hear his response to the violence in Chicago last night.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Mortgage rates inched up this week. Take a look.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Live pictures right now. The stage is set now. The only thing missing is Donald Trump to emerge himself. He is just leaving his plane that touched down just moments ago there in Cleveland, Ohio, and he will be greeted by a very sizable crowd. And all of this just three days now before the winner-takes- all Republican primary election in Ohio. [13:30:04] We also know a little bit more about what happened at his

earlier rally in Vandalia, Ohio, in that moment right there where it appeared as though an object of some sort was thrown on stage. And according to the Trump spokeswoman, Hope Hicks, now, quote, "A man attempted to breach the secure buffer and was removed rapidly and professionally," end quote. "And all further inquiries should be directed to the United States Secret Service." That also part of the statement.

All right. So this Tuesday's primaries could be a major game changer as candidates are switching up their strategies to do whatever they can to try to stop Donald Trump.

Let's talk more about this with CNN political commentator Buck Sexton, Julian Zelizer, a historian and professor at Princeton University, and Larry Sabato, who is the director at the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Good to see all of you.

All right, Buck, you first. So Tuesday's primaries, the GOP's last chance, say many, to stop Donald Trump. What are the chances?

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It certainly is the establishment's last chance to stop him in a way that it doesn't look like down the line the machinery of the GOP establishment will be responsible for stealing the nomination away from Trump, so essentially if Trump has a really big week, a really big Tuesday coming up here, even if he doesn't get to that magic number 1237, even if he doesn't get the delegate he needed to clinch the nomination before the convention, it will be clear that he's going to be the frontrunner going into the convention.

And so for his supporters, for the Trump coalition such as it is, any reality or any eventuality that ends up with somebody other than Trump coming out of that convention as a nomine will be completely unacceptable and you can expect Donald would at least consider going third party and his supporters would sit out so this is it. Unless you have Kasich taking Ohio and Rubio taking Florida, which then continues this war of attrition and perhaps opens a door for Cruz to get ahead of Donald going into the convention, Donald will be the guy that has to come out of the convention or else the Republican Party is going to be hopelessly fractured.

WHITFIELD: All right. And, Julian, this race for the White House has been so unpredictable on so many levels. And now you've got Rubio, an adviser telling voters there to vote Kasich because he has the best chance there to beat Donald Trump. So this is like a chess game. This has become like a road gambling game.

JULIAN ZELIZER, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS, WOODROW WILSON SCHOOL: It is. It's a chess game with the moves out in the open so Mitt Romney did a similar thing in his speech where he was essentially signaling where people should put their votes in different states so that the net result would be not Trump. And now you have Rubio feeling very desperate given the numbers in Florida and given Cruz's decision to run there. But obviously the more you forecast what you're going to do the more Donald Trump and Ted Cruz know exactly what the game is going to look like.

WHITFIELD: And, Larry, you know, this week Ted Cruz said Trump supporters are uneducated. Is Trump taking advantage of ill-informed voters? It wasn't that long ago when, remember, you know, Donald Trump was like, "And I love the uneducated."

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, I think that's a bit unfair certainly to some of the Trump supporters. One thing I've noticed is that while Trump started out with his backers heavily concentrated among blue-collars and those without a college education, Fred, he's actually broadened his support within the Republican Party. We're just talking about the Republican Party here.

Actually, Fred, I think Buck's outline was basically right that there is an in-between that might has been on Tuesday. John Kasich has a much better chance to beat Trump in Ohio than Marco Rubio does in Florida, so you could have find of a split decision and I can see this going on for a while into some of the larger states of the northeast and even the West Coast.

WHITFIELD: Wow. And, Larry, you know, let's talk about Chicago, you know, and Bernie Sanders. He went to school at University of Chicago, he's got roots there. Hillary Clinton has her roots in the Chicago area. Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago now endorsing Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders responding by saying this in a tweet, "I want to thank Rahm Emanuel for not endorsing me. I don't want the endorsement of a mayor shutting down schools and firing teachers."

So talk about change of strategy left and right. How is this advantageous for Bernie Sanders?

SABATO: Well, Rahm Emanuel, with all due respect to the mayor, is not terribly popular right now, even in Chicago much less down state. So I think Bernie Sanders for solid political reasons has decided to run against Emanuel as much as Hillary. That's the source of that. But remember Hillary was born in Illinois. She's got a lot of strong support there but Illinois is fairly competitive. It's not like Florida which is heavily for Clinton or North Carolina for Clinton. That one is competitive along with Missouri and Ohio on the Democratic side.

[13:35:09] WHITFIELD: All right. Larry Sabato, Buck Sexton, Julian Zelizer, thanks so much to all of you. Appreciate it.

SEXTON: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Marco Rubio, a very busy man today. He had five events scheduled today in his home state in Florida. We'll look at his chances of beating Donald Trump next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. We're just three days away from the Republican primary in Florida and that could be a turning point for Marco Rubio if he doesn't win his home state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So as usually is the case, Florida, it comes down to you, and I hope I can earn your support so that we continue this campaign moving forward into other states and other parts of this country.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

RUBIO: I know what the media says. He's an underdog, he's behind, he's trailing. Whatever, I heard that before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: I guess that's another way of looking at it. Even if he is -- if he were to win Florida -- Jason Carroll with us now -- that, too, would be a turning point.

You're following Rubio from Tampa. So he is expected to speak in the next hour. What's the turnout for him? And you know, does it seem at all that his demeanor has changed? Is he looking less confident or is he just trying to hang in there best he can?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, first of all, let me just say it's not the media who's just called him an underdog. He himself has referred to himself as an underdog.

[13:40:04] What we're expecting to hear today, Fredricka, is more of the same in terms of staying on message that he is the one that can unite the party. Rubio saying a little earlier today that what happened last night in Chicago is more evidence of the fact that he says that Donald Trump is not someone who is a uniter. He says he is a divider, not someone who is ready to be the nominee.

He said earlier today, Fredricka, that what happened last night, he said there was a lot of blame to go around.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: The protesters last night are not blameless. Some of these people are organized elements who are paid. Others just went there for the intent of disrupting an event and you don't have the right to disrupt an event just because you disagree with someone. But I think we also have to look at the rhetoric coming from the frontrunner in the presidential campaign.

This is a man who in rallies has told his supporters to basically beat up the people who are in the crowd and he'll pay their legal fees. Someone who's basically encouraged people in the audience to rough up anyone who stands up and says something he doesn't like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: So going forward, Fredricka, here's what the strategy is. Once again stay on message but, two, try to take as many votes away from Trump as possible. So here's what that means for the state of Ohio where you know Rubio basically does not have a chance, he acknowledges that, but he does know that Kasich has a very good chance possibly of taking that winner-take-all state so perhaps that's why Rubio's communications director told CNN that Rubio voters there in Ohio should vote for Kasich.

Again, not -- that's not the case here in Florida. Much different story here in Florida where Rubio says despite what those polls are showing he doesn't believe those polls, he says he has a chance of winning here in the state -- Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jason Carroll, thank you so much. All right. Speaking of John Kasich, he actually is holding a rally in his home state of Ohio. He wants to win, he needs to win that state right there. He's on stage. Hoping that he has home court advantage so to speak. We'll continue to monitor the development there. When of course he takes to the microphone, we'll dip in.

Meantime, you don't want to miss the Democratic town hall, that's tomorrow night from Columbus, Ohio. And we will take our show on the road tomorrow, too, ahead of the town hall. That is scheduled for 8:00 p.m. Be sure to join us from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio, beginning at 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:46:12] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back. Florida is a winner- take-all primary and a likely must-win for Marco Rubio if he hopes to stay in the race, but the Florida senator isn't getting much help from his hometown newspaper. The "Sun Sentinel" refused to endorse Marco Rubio. But he's not alone. The editorial board decided not to endorse any of the Republican candidates.

Let's talk more about this with Rosemary O'Hara, the editorial page editor from the "Sun Sentinel."

Good to see you, Rosemary. So why? Why are you not endorsing anyone?

ROSEMARY O'HARA, SUN SENTINEL EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR: Well, we don't make the decision lightly. We know that people when they go in the voting booth have to make a choice and we want to help people understand what we think, not because we expect them to agree with us but because if they hear how we think maybe, you know, it tests their thinking but when we look at the people who are running in the GOP primary, we don't think Donald Trump, Marco Rubio, or Ted Cruz are really qualified or prepared to be president. And John Kasich, while the best of the bunch, hasn't put on much of a campaign here in Florida to make your vote count for much.

WHITFIELD: So will -- are you laying the ground work for potentially the newspaper not endorsing anyone? Or the newspaper endorsing a Democrat?

O'HARA: Well, you know, November is a long way away and how the campaign -- how a candidate conducts their campaign still matters. So we did endorse Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary, although it wasn't, you know, a robust endorsement but we think that she's got the resume, she's more qualified, she's got the experience at leadership, even if she hasn't been -- she's not a very exciting candidate.

WHITFIELD: And what will this "Sun Sentinel" endorsement, how will that translate to voters?

O'HARA: You know, people want to know what you think, but it -- and I don't -- and what we think, it's not unusual, actually, for newspaper endorsements to not go with the hometown guy. When the editorial page in New Hampshire, the first to do an endorsement this season, came out for Chris Christie, the "Newark Star Ledger" editor called him up and said what are you thinking? And in Texas the "Dallas Morning News" didn't endorse Ted Cruz.

And we didn't endorse our hometown senator because while we endorsed him for Senate, he's been a big disappointment since he went to Washington. And ever since he got there he's been running for president and we haven't seen much of him on the ground here and that's why he doesn't have the kind of momentum going for him that John Kasich has in Ohio. And really his pitch is really a protest vote.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, so you said Marco Rubio has been a big disappointment. In a few words, how do you summarize Donald Trump?

O'HARA: Oh, god. You know, it's -- he's scary. I think that he speaks to the middle class in a way that Marco has -- Marco says he's a new-age Republican but his positions really sound a lot like the GOP of yesteryear. Donald Trump seems to be speaking to people who want their points of view spoken, but, boy, he's scary, you know?

The only thing you can say for him, really, in my opinion, is that if he goes to Washington, it won't be Washington like we know it now. The people's frustration with Washington and the gridlock and people on either side, they might be united in their agenda against Trump so it would definitely shake up the nation's capital.

[13:50:06] But I don't -- you know, he hasn't got any experience in Washington. He doesn't know how government works and do you really want somebody in the presidency learning on the job?

WHITFIELD: How about Ted Cruz? I mean, everyone essentially will be learning on the job, right? Because no one has been president.

O'HARA: Right.

WHITFIELD: Before, I mean, you know, of all of the candidates.

O'HARA: Right.

WHITFIELD: But what is your feeling about Ted Cruz?

O'HARA: Well, Ted Cruz makes us nervous because he's just so uncompromising. You know? He wanted to shut down government as a protest against Obamacare. He talks about carpet bombing. You know, civilians. That includes civilians carpet bombing, and, you know, and he's just such a -- if you like the gridlock that we have in Washington today, then a vote for Ted Cruz, but I think it's an indicator that -- how people who work with you feel about you, and that so few in the Senate -- you know, and Lindsey Graham said, you know, if you -- if somebody shot him and the trial was in the Senate, there wouldn't be a conviction. The people who work with him don't like him much resonates.

WHITFIELD: And John Kasich?

O'HARA: Well, John Kasich is the best of the bunch. You know, he's got experience at both the state and the federal level. He has grown jobs. He did find a way to compromise on the issue of Medicaid expansion, but he -- he hasn't come across as real presidential in the debates, and like I said, he just hasn't gained -- he hasn't put on, at least in Florida, the kind of campaign that this gives you confidence that this guy is going to take that hill, and that he can win.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, Rosemary O'Hara, perhaps this is John Kasich's last ditch effort to try to convince you otherwise because right now he is speaking in Heath, Ohio. Let's listen in.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The third one is jobs, exactly right. And so I've spent my whole --

(APPLAUSE)

KASICH: My whole political career thinking about how to create an environment for job growth. Senator Portman talked about these numbers. They tell me that after -- well, you know, that was another fight I had to make. I fought to balance the budget for 10 years of my life, and I fought the establishment in Washington, who really weren't interested in change.

If you don't have change in business, you die. If you don't have change in government, the debt clock rings up, and I always knew that there were two elements to this. One is the 58,000 per kid, which our children are going to have to pay, but the 19,000 sends a message to the job creators that the earth is not secure. That there is shaking. And when job creators get nervous, they sit on their wallet, and who pays the price? We do. Our families do. Our kids do.

Particularly small businesses because they're the ones that employ most of the people and new jobs in this country. That's why we have to respect the small business creators. In fact, they're heroes. The men and women that create these businesses, they've got the guts, and they do, really, the lord's work in creating an environment for more job growth.

I know when this is out of whack, it doesn't work very well, and that's why I spent 10 years to get us to a balanced budget and in the meantime, we also reformed welfare. You know why? Because when you get up and go to work every day, we have to make sure that you are not giving money to people who need to learn how to be responsible, and my mother told me this -- and I believe it. It's a sin not to help somebody who needs help, but it's equally a sin to continue to help somebody who needs -- to learn how to help themselves. And we use that philosophy --

(APPLAUSE)

KASICH: To reform welfare, which President Clinton wasn't too thrilled about. You know, Bill Clinton, he's a guy that if he see a riot coming at him he'll get in front of it and call it a parade. But we finally got to the balanced budget, and I'll tell you what happened. We balanced the budget four years in a row. We paid down a half a trillion dollars of the debt. Those numbers started going down, in Times Square, they tell me.

And we never thought about income inequality or wage growth because we were growing like crazy in America. America was exploding with jobs and opportunity. And we reformed that Pentagon, to make sure that the men and women had what they needed, and I was also involved in an effort to say that the services need to work together.

[13:55:02] We can't have helicopters crashing in the desert like we saw, many of us saw years ago because the services had not really trained together and we fixed that, and we had the budget balanced and we had a $5 trillion projected surplus and jobs were growing, and I left. I got back to Westerville, and one of my buddies said, you know, John, the fact is, is now that you've left with all your buddies they're going to blow the $5 trillion projected surplus. I said, you can't blow $5 trillion.

(LAUGHTER)

KASICH: You've got to get up every day and think about blowing that. And they did. And they were Republicans. In the House, and in the Senate, in the White House.

I'll tell you a little secret. Democrats love to spend. We got one here, Nick Zimmers. He loved spend when he was in the legislature, but let me tell you something about Republicans. They love to spend, too, they just feel guilty when they do it. OK.

(LAUGHTER)

WHITFIELD: Ohio governor John Kasich there trying to harness support in his home state just days away now from a very important Republican primary there. We'll continue to monitor his remarks and this reminder, tomorrow morning, we will hear from a long list of presidential candidates. Jake Tapper is talking with John Kasich, Donald Trump, Marco Rubio and Bernie Sanders. That's on "STATE OF THE UNION" tomorrow at 9:00 a.m. Eastern Time, and we will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Hello, again, everyone. And thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.