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Protestor Rushes Donald Trump onstage at Rally; Donald Trump Holds Rally in Ohio. Marco Rubio Campaigns in Florida. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired March 12, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:00:11] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello again, everyone. Thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Republican candidates out in full force this hour. Donald Trump expected to take the podium at any moment right now in Cleveland, as his supporters are introducing him. We're also seeing a new crop of protestors turn out for this event on the heels of last night's chaos that erupted in Chicago.

Meanwhile, the frontrunner's biggest rival, Texas Senator Ted Cruz, is gearing to rally in Kansas City, Missouri, where voters head to the polls on Tuesday as well. And Governor John Kasich also in Ohio holding a town hall making where he is making a final push in his home state ahead of next week's primary.

And Senator Marco Rubio also on a marathon in Florida. He's expected to host a meet and greet in Tampa at any minute, marking the third of his five scheduled events today.

All right, to Ohio now. Tensions are high, especially for Donald Trump. A jarring moment at a rally near Dayton, a protestor attempted to rush the stage. Trump ducking and Secret Service agents immediately surrounded him as you see right there. At his second rally in Cleveland, some protestors have already started to gather.

Let's go now to CNN's Sara Murray and Martin Savidge, both there. Sara, you first. Donald Trump did look visibly shaken when the Secret Service kind of rushed onstage to protect him. What is the mood there in Cleveland? Is there a real feeling that he is vulnerable in anyway as a result of what happened?

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think the mood here in Cleveland is actually a very jovial, energetic crowd right now that you can hear the speakers kind of warming them up. There are thousands already in here. There is still a line of people outside to get in.

And there are concessions. They've been eating ice cream. They've been munching on cheese fries, kind of waiting. But I did talk to a couple Donald Trump supporters who were here who said they had second thoughts after seeing what happened in Chicago last night about whether they should come to this event today, about whether they will be safe. They said they ultimately decided they wanted to be here. They wanted

to support Trump. They wanted to express their own First Amendment rights to support Donald Trump for president. But there was a certain sense of people being worried about their own security coming into these events. As for Trump, he will be traveling here of course with his own Secret Service detail. You saw how they reacted at that earlier event. So if there is another incident like that today, of course they would be around to protect him. But I've got tell you right now it is a pretty jovial, not very tense sort of feeling inside the arena.

WHITFIELD: And Martin, you have had a chance to talk to some of the folks who have been lining up to get inside. What are they saying?

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're excited, of course, to see their candidate, Donald Trump. Many of them have come from all parts of Ohio. They are people who were planned to show up at this event, ever since it was announced. So they started lining up at around 9:00 this morning. These are the last waiting to get in. It's primarily the backup is clearing through security. No shortage of running out of space in there.

This place is huge, to quote Donald Trump. It is one of the largest venues like this in the nation and the world, 2 million square feet. Most people talk about, yes, the security. They're glad to see it. They've been boisterous but there's been no ugly incidents of any kind.

Protestors are along the drive coming in. There's been some altercations there, but it's primarily back and forth, fingers in faces, and loud exchanges, but for the most part everything has been peaceful here. Cleveland, of course, is hosting the Republican national convention. So they want to make sure that anything politically here goes well. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Yes, and there we see Donald Trump making his way through the crowd there as he heads towards the podium. And so I wonder, you know, Sara, what took place in Chicago, the moment in -- in Ohio a little earlier today, about two hours ago, whether that in any way kind of impacts what his schedule is looking like leading up to, you know, Tuesday's Republican primary in Ohio, or whether it will in any way kind of reshape what he's saying, how he's saying it, and where he is visiting in the course of, you know, days to come.

MURRAY: I think that's a great question. So far we have not seen any dramatic changes to his schedule as a result of this. And you sort of heard him in television interviews last night saying he doesn't want to see violence, but not exactly taking responsibility for the tone that we've seen at some of these events. He also said at certain times that protestors deserve to be roughed up. So it will be interesting to see if he changes his tone on that at all. I'm certainly not expecting it at this point, but he's getting started behind me.

[14:05:06] WHITFIELD: OK, totally being drowned out there, Sara Murray. Thanks so much. We're going to listen in. This is like the start of a boxing match or something, the way he entered into this arena. Now let's listen in to Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to thank everybody. This is incredible. Look at all of that media back there. Look at all of those cameras. Oh, boy. They know who to follow. I wish they could be honest. I wish, wish, wish.

You know, before we had a tremendous, in Dayton we had a tremendous hangar, like this. It was packed, packed with people. And I was called by my people. They said, you were so tight in my face. My face took the whole screen. They didn't want to show the crowd. They didn't want to show the crowd. The whole thing was big.

(BOOS)

TRUMP: No good, right? No good. Very dishonest people, I have to tell you that.

So you know, I have to thank -- before I even begin, but I have to thank a couple of friends of mine. They're incredible people. They are just incredible people. Oh, so early. Look at that. Look at that. Look at that. Shocking. It's -- do we love our protestors? Right? We love our protestors. All right, get them out of here. Get them out.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Where do these people come from? You know, Bernie was saying, Mr. Trump should speak to his crowd. Mr. Trump -- you know where they come from? Bernie's crowd.

(BOOS)

TRUMP: They're Bernie's crowd. Yes, thank you. Get them out. Good. Every five minutes or so one of Bernie's people -- and sometimes Hillary -- but there's not a lot of flavor and not a lot of fervor with Hillary. So you don't have too much of Hillary, I'll tell you. So, anyway.

Thank you. Oh, where do these people come from? But I want to introduce two friends of mine. They've done an incredible -- an incredible job. They love Cleveland. They love Ohio. They own this place. They run it beautifully. Patrick Park and Raymond Park, come up for a second, Patrick, Raymond -- get up here. Patrick, get up here. Come on. What a great guy. Where is Raymond, Patrick? Get Raymond. Come on. These two folks they employ a lot of people, they spend a lot of money in the area, and I just wanted to thank them very much. Come here, Patrick.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Any of our guys here? Yes!

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next president of the United States, the people's choice, Donald Trump!

WHITFIELD: All right, so listening to Donald Trump there. Really kind of praised the crowd, and issued a little criticism towards Bernie Sanders' comments about Bernie Sanders saying he really needs to kind temper the mood by talking to his supporters.

All right, we'll continue to monitor Donald Trump's rally and discuss with our panel on the other side of the break. We'll be right back.

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[14:12:24] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. What has become a fixture at the Donald Trump rallies, protestors. And we heard Donald Trump moments ago say "Get them out, get them out." And then to the left of your screen in Heath, Ohio, John Kasich making a last-minute pitch to win as much support as he can in his home state as the governor there. The stakes for the presidential candidates are incredibly high ahead of Tuesday's vote, especially in the wake of the protests that broke out last night and disruptions today at Donald Trump rallies.

I want to bring in my guests now, CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord, Democratic strategist Nomiki Konst, and CNN commentator Buck Sexton. Good to see all of you.

All right, Jeffrey, you first. You are a Donald Trump supporter. And there he was. He is not backing down in any way by asking that those who are protesting be taken out. And he also responded to Bernie Sanders, who said that Donald Trump needs to kind of temper the environment by talking to his supporters. He said he's not going to do that. So what is really going on here? Does Donald Trump have full command of the culture and the tenor are his campaign, and is an advantageous?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, no candidate can control, if you will, the culture of a campaign. I mean, we were working with a country with 300-plus million people who are divided in all kinds of ways. So I just think in terms of Bernie Sanders, I find it very interesting some of those protestors at the event last night that was disrupted were yelling, "Bernie, Bernie, Bernie." Perhaps Senator Sanders should be having a conversation with his supporters.

WHITFIELD: And Nomiki, you are a Bernie Sanders supporter. So how do you respond to that? Should Bernie Sanders also have something to say about the people who disrupted Donald Trump who say they were Bernie Sanders supporters?

NOMIKI KONST, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: We have a long history of protests in this country. We wouldn't have some of the most important civil rights legislation passed if we didn't have protests, peaceful protests for the majority. And Bernie Sanders protestors are peaceful. The difference between the Donald Trump protestors or Donald Trump audience and supporters in those audiences, they've had audience members, Donald Trump supporters, punch reporters. They've had them punch protestors. They've escorted people out. Donald Trump's own staff member grabbed a reporter. So we're talking about two very different groups of people.

And Donald Trump, let's be very clear here. He's inciting this. He's encouraging it. He is legitimizing racist violence in his own arenas where he's giving these speeches. And that's very dangerous for society.

[14:15:00] Words have consequences. I don't care if he's pandering to his base, the results are disastrous, very dangerous, and Bernie Sanders has nothing to do with this. These are people who feel disrespected, not just unheard but totally disrespected and in fear of the future of America.

WHITFIELD: And so, Buck, how influential might this be, what we're witnessing in recent hours? How might it impact these five races on Tuesday?

BUCK SEXTON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think you'll see even greater support for Donald Trump in the aftermath of what happened last night in Chicago. Look, a majority of the violence and the threats and the intimidation that occurred was occurring against Trump supporters, and there's just no excuse for this. I am not a Trump supporter, but when people do things like stand outside of a political rally and threaten people and spit at them and push them because they think they have some sort of a mandate from the social justice warriors of the left to do this, sort of the shock troops of the progressives, if you will, that makes me want to support Trump more, actually. It makes a lot of conservatives, a lot of Republicans say, you know what, we're just not going to stand for this kind of thing.

It always seems to come from one side of the political aisle. You have not seen a Bernie Sanders rally shut down. You don't see Hillary Clinton rallies getting shouted down, or people shouted down at them. Hillary shouted down. You don't see the candidate having to worry if they're going to be hit with tomatoes or whatever else. This is very serious business, and the Secret Service is obviously taking it as such.

This is only occurring from the left right now, and yet everyone wants to talk about Donald Trump's tone. I've only seen one political candidate who has had to worry about what's being thrown at him and someone charging him. That candidate is Donald Trump. That candidate is not a Democrat. That candidate is somebody who I think is going to have to continue to watch his back because of what's being done at these rallies. It's just completely unconscionable, and I hate the double standard.

(CROSSTALK)

LORD: If I could add -- if I could add to what Buck has said. What Buck justified said is not only quite accurate but this is part of the larger culture of the American left and it has always been. I mean, these are people --

KONST: Come on.

LORD: Hey, look. The Chicago Democratic convention in 1968, People's Park in California in 1969, so-called --

KONST: KKK lynching, go through history. We're talking about right now. Are you listening to the words coming out of Donald Trump's mouth?

LORD: I'm sorry?

KONST: He's saying let's purge the left. Are you listening to his speeches? Don't victim-blame. These are people who feel disrespected, fearful of their lives, and they want to voice concerns with a presidential candidate. This man wants to be president.

LORD: -- smashing windows. The victims are the merchants, are the shop owners, and Occupy Wall Street, supported, I might add, by President Obama, Nancy Pelosi, and David Duke.

KONST: What does that have to do with Donald Trump?

LORD: Out there smashing windows. They're anti-Semitic.

KONST: None of that is happening.

WHITFIELD: So why is it turning out, or is it turning out to be advantageous that this tone benefits Donald Trump? I mean, there is going to be a lot of criticism and observations about what's happening, but it seems that his support seems to grow. What's behind that?

SEXTON: Fred, that's because there is this sort of babyish conduct that you see from his detractors, these so-called protestors. Yes, some are protestors. Some are just rubble rousers. Some of them think that because they're feelings are hurt or because they're suffering from a micro-aggression, they have right to shout people down and prevent them from having any free speech rights.

And those of us who believe in the First Amendment and think that the free and open exchange of ideas is essential to democracy, is essentially to this republic, see that and say to ourselves this is completely unacceptable behavior. It's a spillover, by the way, from the authoritarian and the totalitarian mindset you see on college campuses across the country. This is now an identifying characteristic of the progressive left, who, by the way, makes up a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters. I actually think Bernie Sanders is a guy --

KONST: These are conspiracy theories. You are literally making conspiracy theories. You're vocalizing conspiracy theories. Everybody's seen the videos.

SEXTON: That wasn't conspiracy theory.

KONST: We've seen African-Americans at the rallies being kicked and punched. We've seen them get arrested rather than 68-year-old man who punched a peaceful protestors, an African-American, while the police jumped on the peaceful protestors rather than the 68-year-old man who punched him. This is what's happening at Donald Trump. It's not conspiracy theories about the left.

WHITFIELD: We're going to leave it right there. We're going to leave it right there. SEXTON: That was wrong. That was a bad thing that that person did

and he should be punished and prosecuted.

WHITFIELD: And now that there is videotape it looks like some action has been taken as a result. But at first, it didn't seem like there was going to be. So Jeffrey Lord, Nomiki Konst, Buck Sexton, thanks to all of you. We'll be right back.

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[14:23:47] WHITFIELD: All right,, if Marco Rubio does not win his home state on Tuesday that could be a turning point for his campaign. So he's blitzing that state today. He's holding five political events. Our Jason Carroll is following it from Tampa. He is expected to speak at any moment. So Jason, what might the message be, and what's the turnout like?

JASON CARROLL, FOX NEWS CORRESPONDENT: Well, turnout is great here for this sort of meet and greet that he had here in Tampa. What we heard here, Fredricka, and much of what we've heard before, that he is the man to take the party forward. He is asking for every single vote.

A little earlier today, that's where we got something out of Rubio that was more interesting. It was about whether or not he would support him as the nominee. And I want you just listen to part of a quote the "New York Times" printed from Rubio this morning, basically comparing Trump to a third world dictator. He said, "People deposit their hopes in a person who has strong leadership, who says, put me in power and I will make the country better. That's exactly what he is doing." Earlier this morning, Fredricka, he explained a little bit more and a little more detail why it might be hard for him to support Trump as the nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:25:02] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- support him as the nominee if he is the nominee?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't know. I mean, I already talked about the fact I think Hillary Clinton would be terrible for this country, but the fact you're even asking me that question, I still at this moment continue to intend to support the Republican nominee. But it's getting harder every day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: And once again, Fredricka, it is Rubio's belief that he is the best person to be the nominee, telling the crowd here today he wants all of their votes, encouraging the people here in the state of Florida to get out and to vote early. As for those polls which show Trump leading, he says he does not believe those polls. Certainly a number of his supporters are hoping those polls are not correct. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right, Jason Carroll in Tampa, thank you so much. Thank you so much for being with me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield.

We have so much more in the Newsroom at the top of the hours. Tomorrow we'll be on the road. We'll be bringing the newsroom from Columbus, Ohio, Ohio State University beginning at 2:00 eastern time. Right now "Vital Signs" with Dr. Sanjay Gupta starts right after a quick break.

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