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Big Winners of Super Tuesday 3; Senator Marco Rubio Loses Florida; President Obama to Announce His Supreme Court Justice Nominee. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired March 16, 2016 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:55]

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.

Just 30 minutes from now, I'm going to take you back to the Rose Garden where President Obama is expected to announce his pick to replace Justice Antonin Scalia. He is expected to pick a moderate whose name is Merrick Garland who is eminently qualified but as you know Senate Republicans are already picking a fight. So when that ceremony begins in the Rose Garden, of course, we'll take you back to Washington.

Let's talk about the big election now, shall we? Super Tuesday becomes a winning Wednesday as front-runners Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump pull farther ahead of their competition.

Clinton trounces Bernie Sanders winning four of five states. Missouri right now is too close to call. Clinton's forces surprisingly strong wind in the state of Ohio denying Sanders another dose of that Midwest magic that propelled him to last week's huge upset in Michigan. Clinton's big night leaves her with about as twice as many delegates as Sanders and has her looking ahead to the general election showdown with the Republican nominee.

And Donald Trump may appear more likely in that role than ever. He wins three states. And Missouri, again, too close to call. That's his only known possible -- actually, his only known loss of the night is the state of Ohio, a big one.

The popular Governor John Kasich won big there keeping his campaign alive with his home state victory. Marco Rubio ending his presidential bid after getting hammered in Florida. He becomes the first sitting senator since 1960 to lose his home state in a presidential primary.

This morning, a triumphant Donald Trump was asked about Rubio as a possible running mate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Would you consider him for a V.P.? People are saying inside the party that would go a long way towards healing a lot of concerns. DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I just think it's too

early to think about it, Chris. I don't like to think about it. I'd like to get the deal (ph) --

CUOMO: But is he -- is he -- is he in consideration?

TRUMP: Well, I like him. I've always liked him. Then he got nasty two or three weeks ago and, you know, I got nastier than he did, I guess. And that's why -- then people got angry at me --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Then you can't be too upset at him. If you got -- if you got nastier than he did, you can't be too upset at him and you did say it's time for healing. So I'm just wondering, is he in consideration?

TRUMP: Well, I think he's a fine person. And you know, I'm looking -- look, I'm looking at lots of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Trump still holding a big lead over Ted Cruz with time running out. Cruz, a Tea Party champion and self-described outsider says he is the establishment's best hope at defeating Trump but Kasich, he said, needs to quit now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He doesn't have any chance of winning there. It is true John Kasich might take just enough votes to give those states to Donald Trump. If he sticks around, John Kasich will become Donald Trump's best friend.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's begin our coverage in Florida where at least one presidential dream went to die. CNN national correspondent, Jason Carroll, in Miami with that story. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. You know, a devastating loss for Marco Rubio. You know, even until late afternoon, early evening yesterday here in Miami, you could hear Marco Rubio out on the airwaves saying he was ready to go the distance. But shortly after the polls closed, it was clear that that was not going to be the case.

Just to give you some perspective in term of how badly he lost here in this state, he lost every single county with the exception of Miami- Dade where we are. Put that into perspective compare what happened in 2010 when he ran for the Senate, he won 62 out of 67 counties here in the state.

So, as you can imagine, a lot of questions here this morning about what exactly -- what went wrong. And you talk to a number of people, there are different schools of thoughts on that, Carol. Some say he simply wasn't ready. Others simply say, well look, when we -- you know, when we elected him to the Senate, he didn't do what he needed to do in terms of pushing conservative values.

Rubio says all of that not true. He simply says, the voters were not ready for his positive message. And last night -- last night, Carol, he warned them not to give in to fear.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The politics of resentment against other people will not just leave us a fractured party, they are going to leave us a fractured nation. They are going to leave us as a nation where people literally hate each other because they have different political opinions.

[10:35:08]

CARROLL: Rubio went on to say that he did not want to run a campaign based on anxiety. Trump, for his part, you heard -- part of what he had to say there about potential running mate. But he also congratulated Rubio, said that he ran a tough campaign and that he has a very bright future.

In terms of his future, you know, I remember him several times out in the campaign trail, Carol, he said he would do whatever it takes to stop Trump even if it meant getting out in a pickup truck and driving across the country to get out that message. No word on that pickup truck but this morning I spoke to one of his campaign advisers who told me that in terms of said his immediate future he'll be -- he'll be spending time with his family and his friends right here in Miami. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live from Miami this morning, Thank you.

Let's talk about the Democrats for a bit, shall we? Hillary Clinton -- Hillary Clinton racking up some big wins in Florida, North Carolina, Ohio and Illinois. As I said Missouri still too close to call. Was it a great night for Bernie Sanders?

So let's head live to Jeff Zeleny right now. How is -- how is the Sanders' camp spinning this?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well good morning, Carol.

The Sanders campaign is saying, look, we're going to go ahead. Only about half the delegates have been selected but the political reality is slightly different here.

Yesterday was a moment, an opportunity for Senator Sanders to keep this sort of a push alive that he had last week in Michigan to keep making the argument to Democrats that this race is still worth having on the primary side. And he simply failed to win in Ohio. Got beat by 14 percentage points. It was narrower here in Illinois and it's still too close to call in Missouri where she has a slight lead.

So the political reality is beginning to set in here. Yes, this race is going to go on for at least a couple more months until the end of the calendar, most likely on June 7th in California. Senator Sanders will have hundreds of delegates to take to that convention but there's no doubt about it, you can feel the shift and the political side of this.

The Clinton campaign is really mathematically impossible to beat at this point here. That's not saying he's not going to win some western states next week. There's Arizona and others. But, you know, we're going to see a shift here and we've been talking about the Supreme Court fight all morning. This is going to be a rallying point the Clinton campaign believes for Democrats, for her to join the White House in this movement to urge Senate Republicans to confirm his choice here. So that's going to shift to the presidential landscape.

But Hillary Clinton is going to be fund raising and taking a bit of time off the campaign trail. She believes her next race is ahead of her in the fall, if it's Donald Trump or whoever the Republican nominee should be. That's where they are going to start gently turning their focus. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jeff Zeleny reporting live from Chicago for us. Thanks so much.

So as you heard, mathematically, it appears Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton will win the nomination for their respective parties. And for the first time in history, that means one of two candidates who many voters don't actually like or don't trust may become president of the United States.

Take a look at this CNN ORC poll from earlier this month. It shows that 60 percent of all Americans view Mr. Trump unfavorably while 55 percent of all Americans view Hillary Clinton unfavorably. Even within their own parties they are fighting negatives. Thirty-two percent of registered Republicans view Donald Trump unfavorably and 19 percent of registered Democrats view Hillary Clinton unfavorably. Strange, right?

Joining me now to discuss Jeff DeWit, a Trump surrogate and Arizona State treasurer, Van Jones, a former adviser to President Obama, and Eric Fehrnstrom, is a former senior adviser to the Romney campaign.

So Eric, I want to pose that question for you. I mean, you know, everybody thought that people picked a president that they want to have a cup of coffee with or go out to dinner with but not so this time, apparently.

ERIC FEHRNSTROM, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER, ROMNEY 2012 CAMPAIGN: Yes, Carol. It looks like both parties are bringing forward their least electable candidates as your polling shows the number of people who dislike Hillary Clinton are only slightly less numerous than those who view Donald Trump unfavorably. So what does that mean for the general election?

Well, because you don't have a race between two popular candidates, they are not going to be running a cheery, optimistic campaign. This is going to be a race to the bottom, a real demolition derby where they are both trying to tear each other down. And I think the challenge for Hillary Clinton, it's not going to be to rally the party behind her. She'll have a fairly simple job of doing that. It's -- it's in facing an asymmetrical opponent like Donald Trump. We've seen how unconventional he is and unconventional candidates take risks and it's very hard to plot a strategy against that type of candidate.

[10:39:59]

COSTELLO: So, on the Republican side, Jeff, and Mr. Trump appears -- you know, it appears that he's well on his way to becoming the nominee. A lot of Republicans still don't like that idea. In fact, I talked -- I talked to the RNC communications director, Sean

Spicer, this morning. He thinks there is a possibility of a contested convention. Do you think that might happen?

JEFF DEWIT, TRUMP SURROGATE: I think it's less likely after yesterday's results. The mathematically -- Kasich is out. Kasich -- even though he's going to keep running, obviously trying to get a contested convention, he's mathematically cannot win the nomination. And Ted Cruz has a very, very high hill to climb and it's very possible, within a few weeks, he mathematically cannot win the nomination.

So I don't believe we're going to have a contested convention. I think it's going to -- everyone is going to start to consolidate around Donald Trump. But, you know, in both their cases and in the case of Donald Trump and in Hillary Clinton, they've been the presumptive front-runner -- presumptive nominees for a long time and so they've also been the subject of most of their own parties' attacks. In Donald Trump, more money has been spent against him than anybody, I believe. (INAUDIBLE) Jeb Bush spent millions and millions -- tens of millions against him. So you know, once this turns and the party gets behind their candidate and starts to promote a positive message, I think we'll see some of those numbers change. Especially in Donald Trump case, where he has the business background to do a lot of things and he wins in terms of the economy and immigration and jobs over Hillary Clinton head on -- head-to-head right now. So I think we'll see that change.

COSTELLO: So going back to this contested convention -- and Van, I want to pose this question to you. So Donald Trump said this morning on "NEW DAY" that if there is a contested convention in the city of Cleveland, there might be riots. Why do you -- what do you make of that? I'll just ask it to you that way.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, you know, those are the kind of comments that if any other candidate made, it would be considered a big threat. How can you say that if you have a normal process, if he doesn't get there with all of his -- with 1237, you're supposed to go through multiple ballots and you have an open convention. But if it doesn't go that way, you're going to have riots.

That's the kind of stuff that for some people would make him love him because he's blunt, he's -- he's -- he's telling it like it is. Other people are saying that he's very, very frightening. And what you're going to have, I think, with Hillary Clinton and with Donald Trump, this is going to be King Kong versus Godzilla. You've got two massive, mega global celebrities with high negatives, huge fan bases going against each other and it's going to be who can scare who the most.

Hillary Clinton is going to say he's the scariest guy ever, do you want this guy with the military, the bomb, the FBI, the CIA? He's going to be saying, hey, do you want this person that you can't trust that can be bought by anybody to give you the same old, same old? And it's just going to be a massive demolition derby between two huge, huge global personalities. You've never seen anything like it before but it's -- it's going to be one of those races that will people remember for the rest of their life.

COSTELLO: So Eric, I'm just trying to think, is this good for the country? Because it means people will be paying attention in greater numbers. Right? I mean, I'm sad to say that, but it's true.

FEHRNSTROM: Well, I'd tell you what's good for Trump. I think the president did him a big favor today because this is going to help Donald Trump rally the Republican Party behind him. There is no more important issue to conservatives today than the vacancy on the court and who fills it.

And Donald Trump is an unorthodox candidate but he does have conservative positions on taxes, on a strong military, and most importantly he has promised to appoint a Scalia-like candidate to fill the current vacancy on the court. That is going to have a lot of a lot of strong appeal with conservatives. So this is...

(CROSSTALK)

FEHRNSTROM: ... the (ph) issue (ph) that Donald Trump has been looking for.

JONES: I see it somewhat differently.

I think President Obama actually did something really, really good for the country and really, really smart. He didn't go with a strong liberal. He was under tremendous pressure to pick an African-American woman, a Native American woman, somebody that would really rally the base.

This president said, you know what? I'm going to give you the head of the D.C. circuit court. This guy is so boring and so milk toast, nobody can get excited on the left about it. He's really doing his best to try to give the Republicans somebody to say yes to. If the Republicans can't say yes to this guy, he's pro cop, I mean, this is a -- he's barely a Democrat. I think it actually gives the Republicans a black eye to stand and say that they are not going to back this guy. This is not -- this is not some liberal crazy. So I don't know if this helps Trump as much as you think.

COSTELLO: We'll see. I've got to leave it there. Jeff DeWit, Van Jones, Eric Fehrnstrom, thanks so much.

[10:45:00]

Coming up in the NEWSROOM.

What if there is a contested convention and what exactly is that, anyway? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:47:28]

COSTELLO: It is now secret that Donald Trump is disliked by many Americans even within his own party. But he's proving wildly popular among primary voters and has won the GOP again (INAUDIBLE) a brokered or contested convention. Even suggesting there could be riots if he does not get the nomination.

With me now to help explain all of this is Larry Sabato. He's the director of Center for Politics at the University of Virginia. Larry, welcome.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Carol.

Do you think, in a nutshell, you can explain to people what a contested convention might look like?

SABATO: Sure. A contested convention is when no candidate has managed to accumulate the magic number, in this case, 1,237 delegates needed for nomination, and the convention will have to sort it out. So we've had conventions in American history with more than a hundred ballots. That won't happen and we may not even get past ballot number one. We'll see what happens.

COSTELLO: What's your prediction? Because, you know, Donald Trump came out and said, you know, if there's a contested convention, there could be riots. I don't know exactly why he said that but it sounds like there better not be a contested convention to me.

SABATO: Yes that's his leverage, Carol. He's -- he's using the fact that his supporters are very intense, as we've seen at the rallies. And we've seen some violent incidents connected to those rallies. And so he's using this as leverage to the Republicans and the leadership of the Republican Party saying, if you try to snatch this nomination from me when I'm going to have far more delegates than anybody else and I'll be very close to the magic number, here's what you're going to get. Chaos. A meltdown. And it may work. You know, he's been very effective at this so far.

COSTELLO: Well, I don't know whether his comments had anything to do with it, but the house speaker, Paul Ryan, came out this morning and made it clear that he would not accept a nomination to become president at a Republican contested convention. But others might be willing to do that, right? Like John Kasich, for example. Is that possible?

SABATO: Well, anything is possible.

You know, he would have to then 110 percent of the remaining delegates. Yes. He would have to win more delegates than there even are unallocated to win the Republican nomination. So I don't think that Govern Kasich is really in contention for that.

[10:50:00]

What he could end up being is one of those brokers at the convention who determines which candidate gets the nomination between Trump and the runner-up, most likely Ted Cruz.

COSTELLO: So I talked with the communications director from the Republican National Committee this morning, Sean Spicer. And he said there is a possibility of a contested convention. With that said, what do you think is happening behind the scenes with the RNC today?

SABATO: I don't think the RNC is in a position to do much brokering or negotiating. But I'll tell, Carol, what people haven't focused on, this is clearly going to go through the final primaries on June 7th. While the Republican convention isn't (INAUDIBLE) to order until July 18th, there are 40 precious days available for negotiation between the candidates, the staff and others in the Republican Party. That's when the decision may be made.

COSTELLO: All right. Larry Sabato, thank you for your wise insight as usual. We appreciate it.

SABATO: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thank you for joining me today.

I'm Carol Costello. Our special coverage of the President's Supreme Court nomination with Wolf Blitzer and Jake Tapper starts now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Jake Tapper. This is CNN's special live coverage of an historic moment for the nation's highest court.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Wolf Blitzer. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

Moments from now, President Obama will address the nation from the White House to announce his choice to fill the empty seat at the U.S. Supreme Court. He's expected to step into the Rose Garden to introduce his nominee.

Take a look at this. Live pictures coming in from the White House Rose Garden right now. CNN has confirmed that Merrick Garland is the president's nominee. He's the chief judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. This decision comes just one month after the sudden death of the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia. The announcement will setup a major partisan war. Senate Republicans have vowed not to hold hearings on the president's nominee. They insisted the decision should be made by the next president of the United States. TAPPER: We have reporters standing by to cover -- to cover every angle of the story. Manu Raju on Capitol Hill, we have Michelle Kosinski at the Rose Garden.

But first, let's go to CNN justice correspondent, Pamela Brown.

Pamela, what can you tell us about Merrick Garland? On his face this seems like a fairly establishment moderate pick for President Obama.

PAMELA BROWN, CNN JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. No doubt about it.

Merrick Garland is the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit Court. He was nominated to the seat by President Clinton in 1997 with the 76-23 vote. He's wildly respected across the aisle both Republicans and Democrats have come out to support him over the years. In fact, in the past, he has been considered a front-runner for other high court seats. But those ultimately went to Justices Kagan and Sotomayor.

He's 63 years old which, Jake, is considered old by Supreme Court standards. It's rare to have someone in their 60s appointed or nominated to the high court. But of course, this is a different ball game because Republicans are saying they are not going to hold a hearing.

Merrick Garland worked for the Justice Department and he prosecuted Timothy McVeigh in the Oklahoma City bombing. That was probably the most high profile case he worked on in the Justice Department. And then he has been a part of the D.C. Circuit Court for couple -- nearly a couple of decades. As we've been talking about the D.C. Circuit Court is seen as a launch pad to the high court.

I will mention, though, that he is seen as conservative when it comes to criminal law. In some cases, he voted in favor of law enforcement, not the criminal defendant. So that is something that, of course, liberals won't (ph) like. On the other hand, Jake, he may carry on Obama's legacy when it comes to gun control. In fact, you may remember the Heller (ph) case, the D.C. law restricting gun rights to gun owners. He actually voted not to strike that law down. So that could be something, of course, that the liberals like. But no matter what, Republicans are vowing not to hold a hearing. It could be a different situation, though, come November depending on who is elected. Jake?

TAPPER: All right. Pamela Brown, thank you so much.

BLITZER: Let's go to our White House correspondent Michelle Kosinski. She's in the Rose Garden where the president will be making the official announcement any moment now.

Michelle, I understand the president will walk out of the Oval Office together with Merrick Garland. The president will speak then Garland will speak. There are not going to be any questions. But the president has been waiting quite awhile to do this. He thinks he has what they call a consensus candidate.

MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. I mean, that was the big deal here.

[10:55:00]

How much of a consensus candidate would each of the people who were considered be? But in the end the question is, will that even matter? Because no matter how moderate someone could be, what decisions did Garland make that were more on the conservative side as we've been talking about, is that even going to matter to Senate Republicans? And we're already hearing from some saying, no, it's not about the person. It is about the process. And they, of course, want the American public to weigh in in the next election.

What the White House has countered is, you know, the American public has already chosen -- they have already weighed in by choosing President Obama back in 2012. And so, you know, this is going to be something that the president needs to do by duty, something that the Senate needs to do according to duty. That's what we've been hearing repeatedly from the White House.

So we expect the president to go through Garland's credentials. You know, the president has laid out who he thought would be an ideal candidate, somebody who obviously has the judicial chops, somebody who doesn't want to legislate from the bench, somebody who understands life experience and has a lot of life experience, that's something that the White House has emphasized. But you know the White House also today really wants to hammer home, you know, this is part of their sort of P.R. push that the Senate should take this up.

They understand the reality. They understand the rhetoric that's been out there. They know what's been said but the way the White House has framed it, is they believe that public opinion will also play a role here, that the public will see the nominee, they'll see garland's credentials and they will sympathize with the place where the White House is right now, that they will -- they will agree with President Obama that the Senate should take this up.

How it's going to work out in the end is another story but the White House isn't going to stand by and, you know, rest while Republicans are making their case. They are going to make their push starting today for this to really happen and to go through and at least get this to the hearing stage. But that seems doubtful, depending on whom you talk to, Jake and Wolf.

BLITZER: We see the Democratic leader Harry Reid sitting there with Patrick Leahy of the Judiciary Committee. Dick Durbin is there. Al Franken another senator. I wonder if there -- Jake, I wonder if there are any Republicans who are in the Rose Garden watching this right now. My suspicion is no Republican senators but we'll take a closer look.

TAPPER: Let's bring in CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill.

Manu, let's be frank, President Obama was under a lot of pressure to appoint somebody or nominate someone rather who was a representative of a minority group, an African-American, a Native American, a Latino, somebody around who liberals could find a cause and they could help get voters to the polls. Merrick Garland, a relatively moderate middle-aged -- or 63-year-old, I should say, white guy is not a nakedly political pick.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it is really surprising in that sense given that we are in a political year and whoever is chosen essentially will be part of that presidential debate going forward.

It will be interesting to see the extent to which a number of nominees may uphold themselves out of consideration given the fact that the Senate looks like they are not going to move forward on anybody. Now, as we've been talking about Merrick Garland was overwhelmingly confirmed in 1997. And back then, there were seven Republican senators who are still United State senators who voted for Merrick Garland and it's not clear if any of them will vote for Merrick Garland now.

I just caught up with one of them, Pat Roberts, a Kansas Republican senator. I said, well you -- well, why did you support him in 1997? He said, I just supported him. I said, will you support him now? He said, no, it's not about the person, it's about the process. It's about the same argument that they have been making going forward.

You are not going to hear senate Republicans dispute Merrick Garland's qualifications. But what you are going to hear is that argument that it should be left up to the voters. Republicans believe that they can -- this gives them an issue to run on in those Senate races. They can say there's a firewall against a potential progressive justice.

But Democrats really believe that this is going to be an issue that turns these key Senate races, expecting this upcoming two-week recess that starts on Monday, an aggressive push in these blue states Republican senators' districts -- back home in their states when they are having town hall meetings to be vocal protests outside of those meetings. Particularly looking at Chuck Grassley, the Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman, who I should note actually voted against Merrick Garland in 1997, Democrats are really focusing on him. They have recruited a candidate to run against him in his own Senate race.

They believe that pressure back home could force Chuck Grassley to cave but Republicans right now are saying that is really misguided. They are not going to cave on this. They have dug their heels and say that they believe they are in a good political position but the date -- one thing, Jake, the date on the calendar to look at is whether there is any movement by late June. I'm told that is a key moment here because when we get into July, we get into those nominating conventions. We get into the August recess and then we're in full onslaught presidential mode (ph).

[11:00:00]

So Democrats really need to see movement from Republicans by the end of June otherwise probably we're going to have to wait for the next president no matter what.