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Donald Trump's Rallies Protested by Bernie Sanders Supporters; Democratic Candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Will Be Face- To-Face With Ohio Voters; Rubio Facing Uphill Primary Battle In Home State; Clinton, Sanders Face Ohio Voters On CNN; Rubio: If You Want To Defeat Trump In Ohio, Vote Kasich; Explosion In Turkey 27 Dead, 75 Wounded. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired March 13, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[14:00:12] FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Do you ever consider whether you should be trying to lower the temperatures when these protests erupt?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think in many cases I do lower the temperature. I tell the police, please take it easy when people are punching the police and trying to hurt people.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is not just a protesters in Chicago. This is now multiple rallies where people are assaulted and beat up.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Mr. Trump's words with a grain of salt because I think, as almost everybody knows, this man cannot stop lying.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no question that Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere, pitting one group against another. You can go into a room and get people depressed and down and angry or walk into that room with the same people and you can lift them and give them hope and I think we need to be hopeful in America, not depressed.

WHITFIELD: All straight ahead. NEWSROOM starts right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Hello, everyone. And thanks for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield live at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The stage is set in just six hours, Democratic candidates Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton will be face-to-face with Ohio voters answering their questions and making their final pushes before the Tuesday primary.

There are 691 delegates at stake in five states for Clinton and Sanders. On the Republican side, 367 delegates are up for grabs, including two big winner-take-all states of Ohio and Florida.

Marco Rubio won the Washington, D.C., GOP primary on Saturday marking his third contest win in this presidential race. Ted Cruz won nine Wyoming delegates Saturday and is still clinching the runner-up spot while Donald Trump remains the Republican front-runner.

And in the battle for the Democratic nomination, Hillary Clintons leading Bernie Sanders with more than double the number of delegates. You see the numbers right there.

Let's talk some more about the Democratic race and what we can expect at tonight's town hall with CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns and CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. Good to see both of you.

OK. So these candidates, you would think, you know, this neck-and- neck horse race would mean the momentum is very strong. Bernie Sanders seems to be going into this feeling like he has an advantage.

Joe, you have been following Bernie Sanders, particularly the campaign. Why do they feel so enthusiastic and strong here in the state of Ohio?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Michigan, a probably here on t Ohio State University campus, quite frankly. Those two schools and those two states see themselves in competition. But because of what he did in Michigan, I think there's a strong expectation that Ohio, another industrial state that buys into the arguments about trade. We were just talking about how the north American free trade agreement, NAFTA, other trade agreements have affected jobs in this state might give him an advantage at the last minute.

On the downside of that, he pushes very hard on young voters. 17- year-olds even went to court in this state.

WHITFIELD: Right. And that's something I want to talk more about. In fact, while you are talking, this is your home state. You know Ohio very well. Let's go to St. Louis, Missouri, actually, where Bernie Sanders is before he spent his time here and taking center stage with Hillary Clinton at the town hall right now to St. Louis.

SANDERS: Secretary Clinton is getting a little bit nervous. She lost last week.

And that is part of what the political revolution is about, is getting people to stand up, fight back and create a government that works for all of us, not just the one percent.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: But when the voter turnout is low, we lose. So our challenge I the next two days is to make sure we have a huge voter turnout! Now, this campaign is succeeding because we are doing something very radical in American politics. We're telling the people the truth. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And you know what, telling the truth is not always easy and it is not always pleasant because a lot of the things that are going on in this country are wrong. A lot of people are being hurt. But unless we have the courage to look at reality, there is no way that we can rectify the problems and go forward.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

[14:05:30] WHITFIELD: All right. Bernie Sanders here in St. Louis, Missouri before he makes his way here to Ohio, Columbus this evening for the town hall. He is also going to be at a big rally right here on campus at a big arena on campus. So he is feeling that momentum, especially as Joe Johns is here with me and Brianna Keilar, Joe just mentioning that it is Michigan, Michigan, Michigan. He's feeling that momentum.

So at the same time, Brianna, Hillary Clinton's camp while they felt very comfortable. They've got, you know, what, 1231 delegates, very strong. Yet, the campaign is not feeling so overly confident. Why?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, when you look at Missouri and the answer is the same, it is Michigan. When you look at Illinois, Ohio and Missouri, these are industrial states and they worry that what happened in Michigan, when Bernie Sanders was behind her and at least the public polling, I think internally for both campaigns. It was a little closer. He creamed her and they are worried that that could happen again. Very worried about that. That maybe his arguments about trade resonated and that maybe she wasn't able to adequately articulate her argument about his position on the auto bailout. They are certainly -- and I think they are sort of dealing with expectations, trying to set it up that if we do see some Bernie Sanders wins in these states, it's not going to come as much of a surprise as we saw it in Michigan.

WHITFIELD: Well, isn't that interesting? Because even last night here on the local television stations here, many of the stations were really focusing on Hillary Clinton's most recent kind of promise of bringing back industries. This is not jargon we have been hearing from Clinton. It's something that we've been, in fact, hearing from Donald Trump. But Hillary Clinton speaking to the audience here, knowing that Bernie Sanders is going to go to Youngstown tomorrow, which is known to be a real, you know, rust belt kind of location. So, how are both of these candidates kind of adjusting, you know, their promises, their strategy, their campaigns for this audience in particular?

KEILAR: Well, the Clinton campaign is trying to talk about manufacturing and focus on the future. They think that Bernie Sanders, talking about trade deals of the past, is him looking backwards and re-litigating a fight. So what the Hillary Clinton campaign is trying to do is say, hey, let's look at the future. OK. There are problems. What are the solutions going to be?

His promises perhaps a little more simplistic, I think are resonating more with voters. That's one of the challenges. And also that Hillary Clinton has supported trade agreements and that's really tricky for her in these states.

But you mentioned that delegate lead that she has. When you consider the super delegates, several hundred delegate lead, right. And so, what they are trying to also I think raise is this idea of maybe he has momentum but maybe it's faux-mentum as I heard one aide say. Because you look at that huge night he had in Michigan. Well, when you also look at Mississippi that night, she netted more delegates and she already had a wide lead.

WHITFIELD: Yes, crunching 80 percent of the vote.

And so, Joe, you know, Bernie Sanders - I mean, they have to not just win because we are talking about mostly proportional, you know, states upcoming, he's got to win huge.

JOHNS: Sixty percent or more. And it's difficult for Hillary Clinton in another way, too. You talked a little about the trade agreement she supported before. People here because -- they talk about NAFTA when you go to these events. And what we have now is another agreement, the transpacific partnership, right, the Asian trade agreement which Hillary Clinton, while she was secretary of state under President Obama, actually had to support -- she was obligated really to support it as part of the administration and now she says she's against it and that doesn't sit so well.

WHITFIELD: So it's not enough to distance yourself at this point because people are still thinking initially what the promise was?

JOHNS: Yes. Exactly. And it's difficult because again and again when you talk to people on the campaign trail who support Bernie Sanders, they say -- they use different words but they basically say, I get confused about her positions because it seems like sometimes she was for this. Sometimes she was for that. And there's always this distinguishing of issues on Hillary Clinton that translates into a question of trust. So that is a bit of a problem for her even though the polls, the exit polls show again and again that Democrats see less of an issue of trust with her than Republican.

WHITFIELD: And I wonder if the Hillary camp is worried too because Bernie Sanders is running like he in the lead, filling up arenas, you know, by the thousands, making giant, you know, promises by picking large venues that he can fill it up and apparently he is. I mean, this arena, you know, just down the street here on campus is a big basketball arena and it's getting, you know, ready for his rally tonight and that rally comes before the town hall. So he's also exuding the stamina which is extraordinary.

[14:10:15] JOHNS: Yes.

KEILAR: And he has such a concentration of energy. I think if you go to a Bernie Sanders event, you go to a Hillary Clinton event, there's really no comparison. But she also has a lot of advantages that he does not. And you see that in the fact that she is beating him and that he - I mean, it's almost an impossible feat that he will have to pull off if he is going to clinch the nomination. So he has this energy but there's more to that than all of this. There has to be the organization and she is, you know, way ahead of on that.

WHITFIELD: How is he running like he's winning?

JOHNS: Well, you have to look at the crowds, too, right. And a lot of younger people, a lot of college student, you know, as I said, he went to court to try to make sure the 17-year-olds who were eligible to vote in the general election at 18 years old could vote in the primary. So he is pushing these younger people into these rooms and they have great energy and they applaud at things that 20 years ago you would not have heard. One of his big applause lines is something along the lines of let me tell you a radical idea, right? Here is your boss, right.

What the word "radical" would be something completely different 20 years ago and people wouldn't accept this. So these are different people. His problem also though here in Ohio is making sure that those younger people get to the polls. Ohio State is a case in point because Ohio State is on spring break starting tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: And you wouldn't know it because you listened to the students standing where we are and there's a lot of excite.

KEILAR: Right.

WHITFIELD: But yes, they are on spring break.

JOHNS: Are they going to go to the polls? Did they all go and do absentee ballots before they left or are they going to vote at home? That's a big question for Bernie Sanders tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: Well, a different OSU and different for you, too, because you are from here, and this is home for you Columbus Ohio, but you've seen the changes right here on campus.

JOHNS: Yes. Big changes.

WHITFIELD: All right, we will talk more. Thanks so much to both of you. I know - it is incredible. Very nice.

All right. Thanks so much. And we are glad that they are hosting us here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Well, tonight you don't want to miss the CNN/TV one democratic presidential town hall right here on campus. Ohio voters get a chance to ask Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton up close and personal, their questions two days before Tuesday. It is critical primary. That is tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

All right. And now to the GOP race. As you're looking at live pictures at crowds in Westchester, Ohio, where Donald Trump at any moment is to speak there. Lots of folks turning out to see him and to hear whatever it is that he has to say on this lovely Sunday. All right. So for the GOP front-runner, he said the culprit for the

protesters taking place at his rally. He is blaming Bernie Sanders. And Sanders is wholeheartedly refuting those accusations and defending his supporters. Both Trump and Sanders responded today on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think in many cases I do lower the temperature. I tell the police, take it easy when people are punching the police and trying to hut people. When I say things like that, I would like to punch him, frankly, this person that was absolutely violent and was like a crazed individual. A lot of them are - you know, I don't even call them protesters. I call them disrupters. A lot of them come from Bernie Sanders, whether he wants to say it or not. And if he says no, then he is lying. Bernie Sanders, they have Sanders signs all over the place. And they are made by the same people that make the regular Bernie Sanders signs. They are professionally made.

You know, everybody thinks I'm a bad guy. When if my people went into one of his rallies and said, oh, this is a terrible thing, they being arrested and all sorts of things would happen to them. If conservative Republicans ever went into his rally, you would see things happen that would be unbelievable and Bernie would be, poor Bernie. Isn't that a shame? There's a horrible thing going on in the media. We are treated so unfairly and I'm treated very unfairly.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We should take Mr. Trump's words with a grain of salt because I think, as almost everybody knows, this man cannot stop lying about anything. To call me a communist is a lie. To talk about our organization or our campaign disrupting his meeting is a lie. Were there some people -- there were thousands of people, as I understand it. Some were supporters of mine. But certainly, absolutely. We had nothing to do with our campaign or with disrupting his meeting.

I think what you see, Jake, is a man and even his Republican colleagues make this point. His language, his intonations, when he talks about carrying people out on stretchers, when you see at his rallies, people sucker punch and kick people when they are down. This is a command who keeps implying violence and then you end up getting what you see.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[14:15:03] WHITFIELD: All right. Joining me now, CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. He is inside the rally there in Westchester and CNN's Phil Mattingly is outside with the overflow crowds there.

So Phil, you first. You were at that rally yesterday during that moment where a protester rushed the stage. We have actually new video right to show of that incident. There you can see it. And then you can see the secret service rushing to the aide of Donald Trump. And then last night at a Trump event in Kansas City, Missouri, police had to use pepper spray against protesters there.

So Phil, you know, how are supporters there reacting in Ohio here to those recent accidents? Are they bracing for anything? Are they talking about it at all, expressing concerns?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Fredricka, you know, what is interesting about this event, it is a little bit different than the ones that I saw yesterday, the one in Dayton yesterday, is in talking to the protesters that are here. They called the police in advance and got it specifically cordoned off place across. Now, as it currently stand, they are standing more or less face-to-face with the Trump supporters so it's a little bit tense in that sense, but the cops are standing right in between them. So they are keeping the very safe. Interesting element here from the protesters, a number of them that I spoke to said pointing to Chicago and actually pointing to some of the events yesterday and said what happened there is hurting their cause. They are very concerned about how Trump has been able, in the last 24 hours, to use it against them. They want to keep things nonviolent. That's why they called the police in advance. That's their big component here. Try and keep things peaceful but try and get their point across, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right.

And then Jim, you were inside the place where that rally is about to get under way. Have you noticed whether any new security measures have been taken? Is there any sign of bracing for the recent events to recur?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, let me show you what we are seeing inside this auditorium, Fredricka. I think it is interesting. It looks like the stage is set for a slightly different kind of event for Donald Trump, more of a town hall type of an event. That may help keep things a little more settle down than we have seen in the last 48 hours. And the other thing that we can tell at this point, Fredricka, is that we are not seeing, you know, those scores and scores of protesters who aren't really trying to hide what they want to do like we saw in Chicago.

What's interesting about Kansas City, you were showing the video of the pepper spraying in Kansa City. We were down there last night. You know, those protesters were much more stealth. That's the only way to describe it when they went into that historic theater in downtown, Kansas City. You really had no idea that they were intending to disrupt that rally. And then all of a sudden they were pulling out these signs and pulling out these banners to start disrupting the rally. So it was much more a stealth effort on the part of the protesters. So if that's the situation that we have here, perhaps we may see more of that at this event in Ohio. But at this point, Fredricka, it does not look like we are going to see that kind of thing play out here.

Donald Trump should be out in a few minutes. And as you heard him say throughout this day, he is still not backing down. He blames the Bernie Sanders campaign and other progressive groups for causing these disruptions at his rallies. And one thing that we heard him say last night in Kansas City, Fredricka, he is talking about now pressing charges against protesters as much as possible. As a deterrent, he said if you can press charges, you might be able to ruin their lives and that might deter them from disrupting other rallies in the future. Those are the words he used. And this coming from a candidate who has been saying in the last, you know, several months, that he likes the protesters because it makes the cameras go to them and then it shows how big the rallies are. So a sign of the growing frustration inside the Trump campaign and with the candidate himself about what is unfolding at his events - Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: All right. Jim Acosta, Phil Mattingly, thank you so much there in Westchester, Ohio just outside of Cincinnati. Thank you. We will check back with you.

All right. Meantime, the stakes could not be higher on Tuesday for Marco Rubio and John Kasich. Rubio needs to win Florida and Kasich, of course, needs to win his state of Ohio.

Next, I'm talking to an Ohio lawmaker about her governor's chances here.

Plus, could Bernie Sanders pull off a surprise in Ohio like he did in Michigan?

We're back live from Columbus, Ohio, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:22:39] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Columbus, Ohio. And we are at the Ohio state student union where it's bustling. So Ohio overall is one of two big winner take all state up for grabs for the Republicans on Tuesday. It's also a do or die moment for Ohio Governor John Kasich. He says if he doesn't win his home state, he will end his run for the presidential nomination.

As governor Kasich has a 77 percent approval rating among state Republicans. He also has a slight edge over Donald Trump in the state, according to one new poll. You see the numbers right there. Marco Rubio who is a distant fourth in Ohio, suggests that his support vote for Kasich in that state - the state rather in order to beat Trump.

Well, earlier today, Kasich told CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION" Jake Tapper why Ohio voters should choose him over Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASICH: There's no question that Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere pitting one group against another and name calling and all those kinds of things. I think there are people that would go to a rally who would look to disrupt. But look, the environment is there and he needs to back off of this and start being more aspirational, telling people we can get it together. You can go into a room and get people depressed and down and angry or you can walk into the room with the same people and you lift them and give them hope. And I think we need to be hopeful in America, not depressed. (END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. So, can Kasich parlay that all of that into a win in Ohio and the 66 delegates that go with it? I want to bring in Ohio state governor, Capri Cafaro. She is a Democrat, a Hillary Clinton supporter and former minority leader in the Ohio state Senate.

All right. Good to see you.

CAPRI CAFARO (D), FORMER MINORITY LEADER, OHIO STATE SENATE: Happy to be here.

WHITFIELD: So he has felt very confident about Ohio. There's been a lot of very active early voting. Should he feel fairly confident about that?

CAFARO: Well, I think if only Republicans were voting in the Republican primary, governor Kasich would have it locked up. But that's not the case. We have open primaries here in the state of Ohio and we have early voting. We've been voting since right after Presidents' Day. And there have been thousands of votes cast already up to this point.

Here in Franklin County, we have seen about 5700 people that are considered independents pull ballots to go vote Republican. So I think that's a very interesting number. Up in (INAUDIBLE) in northeastern Ohio, Mahony County, where the city of Youngstown is, which is considered deep blue in the state of Ohio. We have seen about a thousand people turn from deed R. Now, those people are not voting for John Kasich. Democratic primary voters, they know John Kasich's record. They know that he is someone to try to destroy collective bargaining rights that just signed a bill to defund Planned Parenthood. Those people are crossing over to vote for Donald Trump.

[14:25:23] WHITFIELD: Interesting.

CAFARO: They hear his message about trade, about immigration and those, you know, blue collar traditionally Reagan Democrats, those folks are going to be the difference between a John Kasich win and a Donald Trump win.

WHITFIELD: So these industrial areas that you just spelled out, Youngstown being one, Bernie Sanders is going to be making an appearance there at a very, you know, a very intimidating arena, right? One that you told me what Elton John performed there.

CAFARO: That's right.

WHITFIELD: So it's huge. He expects to be able to fill that arena. And he also feel comfortable in that setting because you said it's deep blue. But you also have the issue of Donald Trump winning over people in that industrial area because they feel like he is speaking to them.

CAFARO: Right.

WHITFIELD: So is this a big risk, big chance that Bernie Sanders would make to try to appeal to them?

CAFARO: No. I think that he has to continue to beat that message of income inequality and concerns around trade. Last night, Secretary Clinton was in Youngstown talking about this with Sherrod Brown, our United States senator, by her side talking about the importance of trying to address what it means to be made in America as far as industrial goods are concerned and trying to use that to bring jobs back to the United States. So she's trying to take a page out of Donald Trump's playbook.

Bernie Sanders has kind been saying this all along. And I think, depending on who is left in the Democratic primary, again, you're going to get some of these folks that I think voted for Hillary Clinton in 2008 that are crossing over and probably voting for Donald Trump this time around. So who is left voting in the Democratic primary? And I think that's the question. It's going to be Bernie voters and, you know, sort of middle-aged women who are Hillary Clinton base. The question is, who wins out in that pool of voters.

WHITFIELD: And how potentially pivotal is it to address that audience particularly because we are talking about people as they have seen their factories dry up. They have felt invisible, overlooked and now you have the attention of presidential candidates. But it's an issue of who is making the most convincing argument, who can really persuade and convince that this is will be a presidential duty to try to bring factories back to places that once thrived on it.

CAFARO: Well, I think right now what we're seeing is Donald Trump is actually winning that message battle. That he is getting out there with his plain-spoken demeanor.

WHITFIELD: But no one has been specific about how they are going to it. They have only --.

CAFARO: True. Well, Hillary Clinton was the most specific that I've seen up to this point talking about the content rule surrounding what, you know, it means to be made in America. I mean, that was a pretty specific thing there. But then again, you know, people also remember her flip-flopping on TTP, her husband's support of NAFTA. And so I think that there are folks that are traditional Democratic blue collar voters here in the industrial Midwest that are not really sure what to make of this electoral landscape that we are facing right now.

WHITFIELD: All right. State senator Capri Cafaro, thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

CAFARO: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: All right. Coming up, Marco Rubio taking an urgent and eminent tone saying that Donald Trump has taken this election in a very dangerous direction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: He has turned the most important election in a generation into a circus. At some point, people have to wake up here. This is really going to do damage to America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:23] WHITFIELD: All right. Welcome back to Columbus, Ohio, and the campus of Ohio State University. Tonight, CNN is hosting the town hall for the Democratic presidential candidates.

Let's now turn to the Florida primary where Marco Rubio faces an uphill battle in winning his home state. Earlier today, Rubio told CNN why voters need to repudiate Trump at the polls on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Maybe you think it's a joke, but there are people out there that are not balanced. There are people out there that are not completely in control of themselves.

And they hear something like this from a leader, you don't know what they are going to do next. And when someone is seeking a position of leadership and is already in a position of influence, you speak responsibly.

This notion that a president can just say anything they want or even a presidential candidate can say anything they want whatever comes to mind, it's just not true. It's reckless and dangerous.

I hope people wake up on time and realize what is happening here because if we reach a point in this country where we can't have a debate about politics without it getting to levels of violence and anger.

Where people think that just because you're angry you can say and do almost anything you want, we're going to lose our republic. We are going to have a big problem. Those images from Chicago the other night, it looked like something out of a third world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: Our Jason Carroll joins us live now from the villages in Florida where Rubio is holding a rally very soon there. So Jason, does the Rubio campaign believe that it can overcome sort of this deficit or is this a new Marco Rubio who is taking this tone of saying there has to be more civility?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, they do. They do believe that they can overcome that deficit. In fact, they don't believe that these polls are accurate. They do not believe the poll reflects what happened in Chicago. They believe that's going to have a negative impact on Trump and some of his supporters.

We'll see if that's true, but the polls are still sobering, nonetheless. The most recent poll shows right here in the state of Florida, Trump at 43 percent, Rubio at 22 percent, closely followed behind by Cruz at 21 percent followed by Kasich as 9 percent. But once again, the Rubio camp believing these polls are not accurate. They say it does not reflect for one thing early voting here in the state, which they say seems to show people leaning towards Rubio rather than Trump.

So what do you do when polls like that come out, Fredricka? You stay on message. You continue with the message that Rubio is the one who can unite the party.

Rubio as you heard over the weekend saying that what happened in Chicago is further proof, in his words, that Trump cannot unite the party so you stay on message. The other message here, Rubio saying that a vote for Kasich, a vote for Cruz is essentially a vote for Trump.

[14:35:02]WHITFIELD: All right. Jason Carroll, thank you so much at the villages there in Florida. We'll check back with you when Marco Rubio takes to the stage there and is greeting all of the supporters who turned out.

All right, in the meantime, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are getting ready to take the stage tonight to answer questions directly from the Ohio voters right there at Mershon Auditorium right here on the Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio campus.

Ohio voters will be asking them questions, talking to them. Next, we'll find out exactly what these candidates need to say in this critical moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Columbus, Ohio. Live pictures right now at Mershon Auditorium here on the Ohio State University campus.

That is the stage in which the CNN Democratic town hall along with TV One will be taking place this evening. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton taking questions directly from Ohio voters right here tonight at 8 p.m. Eastern.

Meantime, we're also getting some insight into Hillary Clinton's strategy for tonight. This morning, she spoke at a church in Cleveland. She used her speech to indirectly attack Sanders and Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: -- you know, I've listened to everybody else. They will tell you what they are against. Well, I'm against bad things, too. I'm going to stop bad actors. I'm never going to let Wall Street wreck Main Street again. That's not going to happen on my watch.

But you know what? It's not enough if you want to be president of our country to tell people what you're against, to point fingers, to scapegoat, to blame. We are country that lives on hope and opportunity and making the future better than today and yesterday.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's talk more about Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, their messages here in Ohio. Brian Morgenstern, Republican strategist and Marco Rubio supporter with us. And Ellis Henican, columnist and political commentator also with us. Good to see both of you.

[14:40:07]BRIAN MORGENSTERN, SENATOR MARCO RUBIO SUPPORTER: You, too, Fred.

WHITFIELD: Ellis, let me begin with you and the Democrats. When you listen to Hillary Clinton, you see her stumping in Ohio here and Bernie Sanders also stumping in St. Louis before he makes his way here to Ohio.

Does it seem to you that Hillary Clinton is running as though she's the underdog? But she's the one who has more than 1,200 delegates to Bernie Sanders more than 500 delegates.

ELLIS HENICAN, COLUMNIST AND POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: She's no underdog. I think what she's really scared off is another Michigan, right, where that energy, the class-driven energy, the kind of passion, frankly, that has propelled Donald Trump and has propelled Bernie Sanders might allow Bernie to pick off a couple of new ones in this group of five on Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: And is the worry, if he were to do better than Hillary Clinton in Ohio, that the momentum would be so unbreakable? I mean, he still -- she's still so much -- so far ahead, even if he were to win Ohio, would it make a huge difference?

HENICAN: You know, honestly, the threat for her most likely comes in November. She's probably going to be able to dispatch Bernie without a huge amount of trouble, but that same energy, boy, you put that in Donald Trump's hands who is a much rougher customer than Bernie Sanders is. She may have issues with that kind of passion in November.

WHITFIELD: And then Brian, Marco Rubio, you are supporting his campaign. He's in the villages of Florida today, but he was on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper earlier today talking about a great concern of the tenure of the race to the White House. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Third world dictator yesterday in an interview with "The New York Times." How so?

RUBIO: Well, I don't know about a dictator. I said a third-world strong man. He's running for president. No matter what, he won't be a dictator, unless our republic completely crumbles, which I don't anticipate it will. But yes, here's what happened to many countries around the world, you have a leader that emerges and basically says, don't put your faith in yourselves, don't put your faith in society.

Put your faith in me. I'm a strong leader. I'm going to make things better all by myself. It's very typical. You see it very typical in the third world.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, so Brian, a couple of things here. A, we are seeing a different Marco Rubio. He seemed a little bit more reflective now as opposed to talking about what he will or how needed it is for him to win Florida.

At the same time, he's trying to convey a message to voters or helping them to see what he sees in a Donald Trump. He says -- he used the words as being very reckless and dangerous. So what is the mission of a Marco Rubio right now, in your view? What's happening?

MORGENSTERN: It's trying to make voters wake up, that they are so far supporting a guy who acts like the bully from "Back to the Future." That's not the guy people should be voting for. It's a guy that they should root against.

And to his point about strong men, "The Daily Show" of all sources, did a whole montage comparing Trump's language with African dictators, about how everybody loves me and I'm so rich and basically just, you know, building themselves up and how sometimes people respond to that.

It's kind of remarkable to comparison and it is a little shocking and worrying. So he's trying to basically put the fear of God into people that this is not a good moment in our history where people are violently reacting to a political speech on a regular basis and we need to get back on track here. And so he's trying to make sure that message gets through.

WHITFIELD: But Ellis, Donald Trump has not changed his persona. This is who he has revealed himself to be from the very start. The only difference or a difference now is that you're seeing in the audience of supporters and some who were protesting are clashing.

That's different. But the demeanor of a Donald Trump hasn't changed. So this doesn't seem to be impacting the momentum of a Donald Trump, does it?

HENICAN: There's no evidence that it has yet. Listen, we can denounce bullies but bullies rather die alone. Donald has an audience. There's no denying that. I sympathize with Brian's point of view. I almost wanted to reach out and give Marco a hug there. He seemed so sad. It doesn't seem to be connecting even in Florida.

MORGENSTERN: Well, it --

WHITFIELD: All right, well, we will soon find -- go ahead real quick. MORGENSTERN: I was just going to say there's still time left. I was down there for a meeting in Miami. There are some very good polls. There were some polls that looked dire, but three polls on Friday had Rubio within single digits and south Florida will turn out pretty heavily. Certainly don't write him off. I think it's going to be competitive on Tuesday.

WHITFIELD: All right, great, we have a bit of an audio delay, but we can hear each other just fine. All right, Brian Morgenstern, Ellis Henican, thanks so much. Appreciate it. We'll be right back from Columbus, Ohio.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:48:50]

WHITFIELD: We're getting reports right of a large blast in Ankara, Turkey with dozens of casualties. Our Arwa Damon joins us on the phone with the very latest -- Arwa.

ARWA DAMON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): There are at least 27 people that have died and another 75 wounded. This happened in a very popular central part of the capital, an area that has all sorts of restaurants and open air cafes and shops and a transit hub.

There is an entrance for a subway station and bus station. According to eyewitnesses, the blast happened very close to this bus station at a time when a number of people were actually waiting.

And the images that we have seen showed a bus that appears as if it had been on fire, just the skeleton of it remaining. The damage caused fairly extensive damage. Another number of cars also damaged in the blast.

No claims of responsibility just yet at this stage, but there are a number of groups that could potentially be responsible. The Turkish government saying that they are still in the process of investigating who may have been behind this kind of violence.

[14:50:03]But this comes at a time when Ankara in of itself was already on heightened. Security significantly tightened. Interestingly, the U.S. embassy just put out a warning to its citizens

a few days ago on March 11th warning about a potential terrorist attack on Turkish government buildings and institutions located in a different area to where this particular blast did take place.

Now, this would appear to be the work of an organization like ISIS potentially given the fact that it was against a soft civilian target, intended to cause massive casualties and instill the most amount of fear.

This is a country that has been on edge for quite some time now and seen a lot of violent explosion over the last few months.

WHITFIELD: Terrible situation. All right, Arwa Damon, thank you so much reporting from Istanbul on this blast taking place in the capital of Ankara.

Welcome back. We're in Columbus, Ohio, where tonight CNN is hosting the Democratic town hall and we're going to talk more about politics now in the U.S.

Senator Marco Rubio knows that he has to win his home state of Florida on Tuesday where the Republican primary is about to be under way. And if he does, he will secure 99 delegates. Florida is a winner-take-all state.

Joining me right now Nancy Ancrum, editorial page editor for "The Miami Herald." Her paper endorsed Marco Rubio for the Republican nomination. Good to see you.

NANCY ANCRUM, EDITORIAL PAGE EDITOR, "THE MIAMI HERALD": Hi, there.

WHITFIELD: So is there a lot of confidence that Marco Rubio will be able to secure his home state?

ANCRUM: I don't think so. I want to clarify one thing, my newspaper did not endorse Marco Rubio for the primary. We recommended him. We never endorsed simply because that means we buy hook, line and sinker into everything that a candidate believes and that's the case here.

WHITFIELD: So what's the difference? Why would a newspaper recommend and not endorse?

ANCRUM: Well, we make recommendations taking into account warts and all of a candidate. And we have had our disagreements with Senator Rubio in the area of abortion, LGBT rights, Obamacare, you name it, climate change.

However, in this particular race, we recommended Marco Rubio as the best candidate to help the GOP unite behind it. So many of the other candidates, Trump, of course, and Cruz are divisive.

And our concern is that there needs to be a strong candidate from the GOP. And despite our differences, we recommended Senator Rubio.

WHITFIELD: OK. So that's interesting, you were talking about him being a uniter, but then there have been so many reports of him burning bridges with Florida's political elite like the former mayor (inaudible), Raul Martinez. He was quoted about Rubio, he would sell his soul to reach his objective. He's disloyal from his own people, the people who gave him his start.

ANCRUM: You know, we did not recommend him for saint. We recommended him for the Republican primary, and yes, he comes with a lot of demerits as will the Democratic candidate whomever that is.

However, people are going to vote and someone is going to win this primary and we thought and talked about this deeply we thought that Senator Rubio held the most potential who step back from some of the more extreme comments that he has made, maybe in relation to having to confront a Donald Trump and (inaudible) and become the more level- headed candidate that we have seen in the past. WHITFIELD: All right. And having lived in Miami in the south Florida area, the Cuban-American community is very sizable there, very politically active. When you have two Republican candidates with Cuban roots, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, are you hearing from voters there whether there is a lean one way or another?

ANCRUM: No. He made an appeal. Senator Rubio made a very heartfelt appeal through the Cuban-American community and Hispanic in general here in South Florida and I don't think that Cruz is really on their radar at all. He is a Texan. He's not a Floridian. Senator Rubio is basically, for all intents and purposes, the home town boy.

[14:55:06]WHITFIELD: All right, Nancy Ancrum, thank you so much, "The Miami Herald," appreciate your time.

ANCRUM: Thank you very much.

WHITFIELD: Coming up, I'm talking to a top Ohio Democrat who switched from supporting Hillary Clinton to endorsing Bernie Sanders. She'll explain why she changed her mind. We're back live from Columbus, Ohio, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: All right. Hello again and thanks so much for joining me. I'm Fredricka Whitfield live at Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. The stage is set here.

In just five hours, the Democratic candidates, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, will go face-to-face with Ohio voters right there just down the street about the distance of two blocks or so at Mershon Auditorium.

They are making the final pushes before this Tuesday's primary in this state. There are 691 delegates at stake in five states including Ohio for Clinton and Sanders.

On the Republican side, 367 delegates up for grabs including two big winner-take-all states of Ohio and Florida. Marco Rubio won the Washington, D.C. GOP primary just Saturday marking his third contest win in this presidential race.