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Donald Trump to Hold Rally in Arizona; Anti-Trump Protestors Demonstrate in Front of Trump Tower; Protestors Gather at Trump Rally in Arizona. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired March 19, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00] SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's unclear how many made that trip. And I do have to say, it seems that it was one or two people who really started to pick fights with the police, but at this point there are certainly quite a few who have taken this uncertain route --

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: OK.

GANIM: -- to Trump Tower.

WHITFIELD: Good job. Be careful out there. Sara Ganim, thank you so much for that report there at the 56th and Madison location of midtown.

GANIM: We are getting here to Trump Tower now here, Fred. So they're arriving right now.

WHITFIELD: OK.

GANIM: This is where the crowd is arriving. And the plan here was also, again, to stay out of the street. The police told us they would not be closing down the street today for this protest. They wanted people to peacefully protest on the sidewalk. But take a look around. That is clearly not happening.

WHITFIELD: All right. OK, we're going to keep our eye on this. In fact, Sara Ganim, I think what we're going to try and do here if we could to my director, I wonder if we can just kind of squeeze the shot, keep it in the shot as we continue the conversation about what's transpiring there in New York at the same time watching developments in Arizona just outside of Phoenix where a number of people have gathered in demonstration of Donald Trump's soon arrival there in Phoenix.

So to the right of your screen you're seeing the earlier images where roughly 50 people, according to the sheriff's deputies opposite, had blocked a major thoroughfare, blocking the passage for many motorists to get to a Donald Trump rally that's expected to take place at any moment now. and then on the left of your screen you're seeing anti- Trump demonstrators described by our Sara Ganim there in midtown Manhattan outside of Trump Towers where people are gathering right there.

So I have got a few people with me, I believe, both in front of the camera and perhaps even on the phone. Mike Shields is in Washington, D.C. and politics reporter Jeremy Diamond is also with us out of Phoenix, Arizona. So Mike Shields, formerly chief of staff of the Republican Party. When you see this transpire, earlier you and I spoke and it was ahead of these demonstrations. Instead we were talking about a large number of people who had gathered in Phoenix, Arizona, in anticipation for the Donald Trump rally and that many people who were also blocking some of the roadways. What's your reaction now to what is happening here? How do you assess all of this?

MIKE SHIELDS, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: First of all, God bless the law enforcement officers that put themselves into harm's way and really tried to walk this balance between letting Americans exercise their right to free speech, but stopping them from doing it in that way that's not lawful. If they tell them not in the street because they want other Americans to have their rights to pass through New York City peacefully, then they've got to stay off the streets. And I think not allowing that, the temperature to rise and turn into something violent is really, really, a difficult task for law enforcement and everyone should appreciate in both Arizona and New York how law enforcement handle these things to let people protest and keep it peaceful.

I think what you're also seeing here is, on the left you have a professionalization of protesting. This is what they do. And what we can't do as Republicans is cede the moral high ground where they will come and try and demonstrate in a way that does incite a problem and make us look bad because now there's a problem that they incited. If we're not inciting any problems on our side, then clearly they're causing the problems.

But our side therefore has to take the high road, never use words that look like they're going to cause violence, don't have our people get involved in this, and clearly identify that it is these folks that are sort of professionalized protestors that are doing it.

But unfortunately what we've seen in recent rallies is that our side mixes it up, and that does their job for them. That's exactly what they want to happen. They want to start these protests and have them escalate into something else so that we get dragged into it. So I think today is a perfect example why Republicans need to sit back, let these professional protestors do what they're doing, have their voice heard. That's fine, but don't engage them in a way that escalates things into something that can turn into something bad.

WHITFIELD: Also with us, Trump supporter Jeremy Lord.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Jeffrey.

WHITFIELD: I'm sorry, Jeffrey Lord. I'm sorry. I'm thinking of our Jeremy Diamond. Sorry about that.

LORD: That's OK.

WHITFIELD: Right. As you look at these images, right here, how much -- how much do you extrapolate here? And you heard Mike Shields say it's time for the Republican Party to kind of sit back and let, you know, people do what they're doing, demonstrate here. How do you see this? What should the response be from the party and from Donald Trump?

LORD: First of all, I want to -- I'm a First Amendment freak, if you will, and they have an absolute First Amendment right to protest. That said, I'm also a child of the 1960s, and this is the American left at work. This has, in essence, nothing to do with Donald Trump. He is just the excuse of the moment.

[14:05:01] They were doing this 48 years ago with Hubert Humphrey not only at the Democratic National Convention, but once he was nominated on the campaign trail.

WHITFIELD: Are you really saying this has nothing to do with Donald Trump when you hear people shout be Trump's name? You have other images of people holding up signs?

LORD: Sure, absolutely, because I've seen the left do this at Columbia University decades ago. They did it at my own college, Franklin Marshall College and shut it down over the war in Vietnam and Kent State. I saw them do this at Kent state. This is what Occupy Wall Street does in today's world. I've seen them shut down -- Black Lives Matter, people shut down Bernie Sanders one of his rallies. The subject always changes. The subject is always convenient.

What I'm talking about here is this is what I call the violent left in action. And they are always there, and they will pick on somebody. Today it's Donald Trump. Yesterday it was Occupy Wall Street, as it were. So this is what they do, and now they are doing it to Donald Trump.

WHITFIELD: Is this a setback for Donald Trump's campaign, Jeffrey?

LORD: No. And the ironic thing is all of these '60s protests led to the election in 1968 of Richard Nixon who was, you know, flatly opposed to all of this, and quite vividly so. It led to the election of Ronald Reagan as governor of California in 1966 when all this turmoil r was on California campuses. This is the kind of thing exactly that will help Donald Trump. If their objective is to harm him politically, all they're doing is helping him.

WHITFIELD: Jeremy Diamond is also with us out of Phoenix. He is at that rally to get underway at any moment there in the Fountain Hills area of Phoenix. And so Jeremy, how much do the supporters there know about the gathering of anti-Trump protestors, you know, on the road leading into that rally, and now what's also transpiring in New York?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Unless you're checking Twitter or watching the news you don't have any sense of that here at all. We really have thousands of Trump supporters are gathered here, very little protestors within our field of vision here. So certainly Trump supporters waiting for Donald Trump anxiously. They've been standing out in the sun, some for hours, and are certainly ready for this to get underway. WHITFIELD: So it's a very jovial kind of setting there. Are you

hearing from even Donald Trump's people whether there is any -- I guess an adjustment in how he will arrive, or whether he will still arrive?

DIAMOND: We haven't heard any of that yet. They usually don't discuss security matters like that. But certainly protests aren't anything unusual at a Trump rally and not for the Trump campaign. They are now used to dealing with these kinds of protests whether blocking a roadway or outside of the venue or if it's inside the venue where there is always a possibility you have protestors infiltrating the venue without showing they are protestors, of course, and then demonstrating, interrupting Trump in the middle of his speech. We've certainly seen that happen dozens of times in the last couple of weeks with Trump being interrupted at least a dozen times in single rallies. So certainly something that the campaign is used to and they are prepared for it. They have private security as well who do help with escorting and ejecting protestors from inside the venue and getting them outside. So there are certainly prepared for any eventualities over here.

WHITFIELD: And then, Jeffrey, we had sheriff of Maricopa County, Sheriff Joe Arpaio on with us less than 30 minutes or so ago, and he's Donald Trump at that Fountain Hills rally, and he said he wants people to be able to enjoy a peaceful, safe rally. At the same time he says he doesn't want to stand in the way of people's right to protest, but his paramount concern is the safety for Donald Trump. Do you suppose his rally takes on a totally different tone when you have Sheriff Arpaio, who will be introducing him? They've been seen prior in other events, but today when you have this kind of sentiment, you know, kind of -- you know, from Arizona to now New York, does it translate any differently now?

LORD: No. You know -- I mean, Fredricka, Sheriff Arpaio has First Amendment rights too. Everybody in America has First Amendment rights. It doesn't make any difference what side of the political fence you are on. So his right to speak shouldn't be limited or, quote-unquote, "toned down" because he believes a, b, or c. I would apply the same to anybody on the left. You have a right to stand up and make a speech, certainly at a rally, an organized rally. So I just think, again, any of these protests, particularly if they turn violent, are only going to help Donald Trump.

WHITFIELD: And, Mike, do these protests in any way detract from Donald Trump's message, in your view?

[14:10:06] SHIELDS: I don't think they detract from his message. But just to sort of piggyback on what Jeffrey was saying, I agree with him this goes back to the WTO riots, Occupy Wall Street. It's the same crowd of people. But we as Republicans lend credibility to them if we lean in and start fighting back to them. If we start using words from the podium that says "I'd like to punch that guy in the face." I think that's when we do their work for them. That's exactly what they want us to do. They want to show up, try to start a fight, and then blame us for it. And I think that we as Republicans usually have a tradition -- the

American people see this for what it is. If they see protestors going and starting something because they come from a deeply left position and they're just trying to use this as the latest excuse, they can see through that. But they think a protestor showing up because there's a movement against a candidate that's real and the candidate's leaning into it and he's sort of fighting back, saying, you know, using words to incite his own supporters to fight back, then I think they can see that for what it is, too.

So I think all of these things are actually an opportunity for Donald Trump to show some leadership. It he's going to be the nominee of the party, and that's in question, but if he does wind up being the nominee of the party, then he is going to have to show leadership. He's going to have to bring people together. He's going to have to heal the country. He's going to have to show he can lead a party and a nation in troubled times. So I think every one of these rallies that you see where there are these protestors, what are the word coming out? What's the stance that we're taking to take the high road and to show that we can bring people together?

WHITFIELD: All right, Mike, Jeremy, and Jeffrey, thanks to all of you. Please stick around. We're going to take a short break right now. We're going to keep our eyes on Arizona as well as New York, these demonstrations taking place as it pertains to Donald Trump and his candidacy.

Meantime, the Democratic and Republican candidates all making their cases to the voters on the same night, same network, the final five candidates Monday 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN. And we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:15:27] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. We're watching a couple of heated moments right now on the campaign trail. In Arizona we saw a blockade of sorts by what sheriff's deputies are calling anti-Trump demonstrators trying to keep the hundreds if not thousands of people who are trying to turn out for a Donald Trump rally to begin at any moment now. It's about 15 minutes late based on its earlier schedule.

And also in New York, a number of what are being called anti-Trump demonstrators who have been walking through midtown Manhattan and have now all converged right outside Trump Tower. A few demonstrators were pepper sprayed. We continue to watch developments on both ends.

And I want to welcome back a panel joining me on what this all means for the campaign trail. Mike Shields, formerly a chief of staff of the RNC with me from Washington, D.C. CNN politics reporter Jeremy Diamond, who is in Phoenix, Arizona, in the crowd of the rally about to get underway at any moments. From Washington D.C., CNN's Chris Frates, also Jeffrey Lord, who is a Trump supporter, all joining us now in trying to assess what's taking place just a couple days ahead of Arizona's primaries, and caucuses in Utah, and now we're looking at what is transpiring in Arizona as well as in New York. All right, so let's pick up where we left off. Mike Shields, you said

that, you know, the Republican Party and namely Donald Trump will have to show leadership in a moment like this. At any moment, perhaps, he will come to the podium. There he will be introduced, by the way, by the Maricopa County Sheriff, Joe Arpaio. He'll be introducing him.

But, Mike, elaborate a little further on how you see the responsibility will fall on Donald Trump to try to show some leadership, in a moment like this, contentious moments in Arizona as well as New York, and also be that person, if he becomes the nominee, he would have to try to heal a party and perhaps even a nation to some extent?

SHIELDS: Yes. First of all, like I said, what you say from the podium at times like these matters, and we've heard some things that frankly I think were not helpful to calming everybody down. So if you're going to be a leader, let's start there.

But in terms of being the leader of the party, whoever the nominee, whether it's Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, John Kasich, anybody that comes out of the convention as the nominee, you're going to have a party you need to heal because they're split. It's Donald Trump, if he doesn't get the nomination, he's going to have a huge number of supporters that back him through this. They're going to be upset. If he does get it, you're going to have a large number of people that haven't been supporting Donald Trump that are going to be upset.

And so coming out of that convention you're going to need to show leadership and bring people together whoever it is. In some ways that's what happens after every presidential nominating contest. There's a fractious fight. This one has been particularly difficult, and I think it's going to go all the way through until June before we have an idea or all the way to the convention. On June 7th you have 303 delegates that are going to be assigned, so a really big chunk at the very end of the primary process. We may not know then, until then or even after then, who the nominee is.

And so coming out of a convention where the nominee may be chosen by the delegates at the convention, that's a situation that not many of these folks have faced before and requires real leadership, someone who can bring people together, who can demonstrate I want everyone to be on the same team. I want us all to work together moving forward. And so I think every step of the way as we go through the primary process are opportunities to demonstrate I can be that candidate. I can heal the party. I can bring people together.

WHITFIELD: And so, Jeffrey, how can Donald Trump be a unifier when you have demonstrations like we're seeing today, protests that are seemingly picking up pace as it pertains to him and his candidacy?

LORD: Well, there's two aspects of unifying here. I mean, one, and I know that this is already begun behind the scenes. Donald Trump is meeting with various conservative leaders, you know, in private, having conversations, reaching out to people. So that aspect of this has already begun. But in terms of the protestors, I mean, we need to be quite candid

here. These folks are not going to be -- you know, they're not going to be unified, quote-unquote. They oppose Donald Trump. They oppose the Republican Party. They oppose a, b, c, et cetera. They're going to keep these protests up. And if experience is a guide, they will keep doing this all the way through the election cycle and well on. And if Donald Trump is elected president they'll keep on doing it. They'll do it at the inauguration. They'll do it on into his first term.

[14:20:05] So I don't really expect that part of it to change because they're not about unification. They are about disruption. That is their thing.

WHITFIELD: How do you see this as serving potentially Donald Trump?

LORD: Well, because there's the backlash. Richard Nixon in 1969 after he was elected, not quite a year, about a year after he was elected, gave a speech that was on Vietnam. But that is the speech in which he referred to the great silent majority. And that became sort of a staple of his administration, an appeal to the folks as he described it, in essence, I'm paraphrasing here, but I remember I was a college student at the time, and I was protesting the Vietnam War on occasion. And I remember at the time he was appealing to people like my parents who were not in the streets, who very much opposed violence, who were disturbed to see their son and others in all of these open protests. And he was quite successful politically in doing so. So I see Donald Trump in somewhat that same position.

WHITFIELD: Interesting. All right, Stephanie Elam is in the thick of it all there in Fountain Hills, Arizona, where what was described earlier as about 50 demonstrators who were blocking the road there, who then started walking towards the rally. So describe where you are and what are you seeing?

STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Fred. What we're seeing here is this state route 87 that we're walking along right here. And what this traffic is, it's all backed up because where the protestors were at the intersection of Shea and State Route 87. For the people who know, it's on the way, one of the only ways to get into Fountain Hills where Donald Trump is speaking right now.

What we've seen, though, is that people pulled over to the side of the road. They parked their cars further up. It took us some time to get around because we had to down and do a U-turn to come back. So we're walking back towards it. But they had parked cars on the side of the road and we saw people walking. It's almost three miles from where they have left their cars to the Donald Trump rally. They have parked their cars on the side of the road. But what the police officers have told us is that what they plan on doing now is towing those cars on the side of the road. So some of these people who have parked out here and have walked the three miles are then going to have to turn around, come back, and find their cars are not here.

It is also about 90 degrees, I should point that out, in the Arizona sun. So what we've seen is the police have come in, shut down the intersection. They're not letting anyone turn to head to that rally. We understand that things are progressing as usual, but a lot of the people who are out here protesting just continued to march on foot to then protest at the rally, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then what are those protestors saying?

ELAM: A lot of it is about -- a lot of the signs you see is about equality. A lot of people talking about that humans should be treated like humans. I've seen signs about that. I've also seen people who were making fun of Donald Trump. You definitely see that as well. You saw some people talking about the need for education, that that is really what helps the country, not voting for a president. There's a lot of that.

But for the most part, people while I was at the rally, a lot of people who were complaining about Donald Trump, they held up their signs. There were some boos, but it was all rather tame on both sides from what we saw so far.

WHITFIELD: OK, all right, thank you so much, Stephanie Elam, keep us posted.

Meantime I want to go to Washington and Chris Frates. Perhaps, Chris, you can help all kind of us digest what is happening and how it may be folded into the Monday night CNN event five, all five candidates, Democrats, Republicans, who will have to make their appeals and answer to voters.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right. This is going to be a huge event right before the primary, Fred. And what is so interesting to watch is the two different approaches from Republicans and Democrats in Arizona. You have Donald Trump who's going to be in Arizona with Sheriff Joe Arpaio, very tough on illegal immigrants. In fact, you had Jane Sanders, Bernie Sanders wife, go to Sheriff Arpaio's tent city, really criticizing and questioning Sheriff Arpaio about the conditions there, about why people are kept outside and kept, you know, in what are pretty poor conditions there. So, you know, that is kind of the split we have in Arizona.

Remember, 30 percent of the population in Arizona is Hispanic, and you have Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton really trying to play to that base. They're competing for those voters and trying to make sure that they win the big prize of 75 delegates on Tuesday night. Meanwhile, you have Donald Trump talking about building a wall, about being tougher on immigration, and you have these protests. What's fascinating, we just heard from Bernie Sanders who did an event along the Arizona/Mexico border, and he basically was making the point and taking shots at Donald Trump, essentially saying, look, we don't need a wall, we don't need barbed wire. And that's really, really interesting to watch, Fred, because he is hitting Donald Trump and making the case that Trump is wrong here.

[14:25:05] Hillary Clinton calling in to a radio show earlier this week saying, like, I think we've done a good job securing the border. I think, you know, when I was in the Senate I voted for that. So you have these two different dynamics playing out here in the west where immigration and Hispanics are a huge part of the voting bloc. It's a place where Republicans, remember, four years a said we need to do better with Hispanics. We need to reach out to Hispanics. That's part of the reason why people have been wrenching their hands about Donald Trump in the GOP establishment. So I think that will be a great question to ask, is, how do you reach out to these Hispanic voters and what is the importance here, because these protest, as Jeffrey Lord pointed out, Fred, aren't going away.

WHITFIELD: And Jeremy Diamond, hopefully you're still with us, because you are right there in the thick of it at that scheduled rally. It's late, right, by about 25 minutes. It was supposed to start at the top of the hour. Sheriff Joe Arpaio to introduce Donald Trump. What is the crowd saying about this delay? What do they know?

DIAMOND: So far people are just kind of anxiously waiting around. Stephanie pointed out it is 90 degrees here. So the crowd has repeatedly been told to stay hydrated as they continue to wait for Donald Trump but it's not uncommon for Donald Trump to start a little late. Certainly people here hoping he starts soon, though.

But as far as the protests, you can't see any of that standing where we are, but, of course, people would be prepared, the campaign would be prepared to deal with protestors in the event that they break out here in the midst of the rally.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jeremy, thank you so much.

Everyone, stay with me. We're going to take a short break for now and continue to watch the developments there in New York as well as Arizona. And at any moment, Donald Trump event beginning there. Lots of supporters but there's also protests. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:30:43] WHITFIELD: All right, right now live pictures of Fountain Hills, Arizona, and that sea of people right there. What we understand is the majority of them are there in support of Donald Trump as they await his arrival. He's about 30 minutes late for this rally to begin. But when it gets underway, of course, we'll take you there.

But what you don't see right now is there is also a contingent of we're tad about 50 protestors, people who have come out who are against the Donald Trump candidacy for the White House and Donald Trump's messages trying to get him to the White House. Those 50 or so protestors actually blocked major arteries so that many of the people who were going to show up in support of the rally were unable to get there.

We've got reporters all over the map. There is also a contentious rally taking place in midtown Manhattan outside of Trump Tower.

So back with me now my panel, Mike Shields, formerly the chief of staff of the RNC with us from Washington D.C., Chris Frates also in Washington D.C. Stephanie Elam is trying to make her way to the rally. She is on foot because come to find out a lot of people who were trying to get to that rally in support of Donald Trump now have to walk to it. And Jeffrey Lord, who is a Donald Trump supporter also with us now.

All right, so good to see all of you. Now, all of this taking place just ahead of the Arizona primary as well as the Utah caucus. And then Monday night CNN will host all five candidates, the Democrats and Republicans in one big discussion, one big night here on CNN. Chris Frates, to you first. I wonder how much this dynamic, the supporters as well as the protests, will dominate discussions with Donald Trump on Monday evening?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Fred, this dynamic has been the story for the last week or so going all the way back to Chicago where you'll remember protestors essentially forced Donald Trump to shut down a big rally there. There was some violence, and this idea, this -- that has been playing out the last week or so, that there are violent protestors at these Trump rallies and that these protesters are trying to be heard, continues to be the story. In fact, now they're shutting down major arteries to a Trump event, stopping Trump supporters from going to see their candidate.

So I think this will continue to be a huge story particularly because it's not just in Arizona where Trump is. Now you are having it at Trump properties in New York. And that dynamic, I think, continues to play out in the Republican Party while you also have at the same time Democrats who are competing in the same states, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, for instance, reaching out to Hispanics. Bernie Sanders on the border just a few minutes ago making the case that Donald Trump is wrong when he talks about building a wall, that he's xenophobic, that that is not the message we should have, that immigration is actually down from Mexico. That is not the problem that Donald Trump makes it out to be.

And so you have both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton trying to essentially make a play for the big Hispanic populations and the big Hispanic voters that are inside these states. Arizona, for instance, 30 percent of the population is Hispanic. Hillary Clinton also getting into that state saying that, you know, telling a radio host she believes that they have done a good job securing the borders. That when she was in the Senate she voted to secure the borders and that it's not as big of a problem, the exact opposite of what Donald Trump and some of the Republicans are arguing.

So I think that dynamic when it comes to the general election will be a huge one to watch and it's one Republicans, frankly, pointed to as a problem area for them in 2012. They said they need to better reach out to Hispanics. They need to make sure that they are making inroads with that growing voter population. And that's why you hear a lot of GOP establishment figures really concerned about Donald Trump's rhetoric about building a bigger wall, that it does push away Hispanics and Latinos from the party, and that I think is going to continue to be -- these protests and particularly in these western states, that is going to be a big narrative going into the big primaries on Tuesday, Fred.

WHITFIELD: And then, Jeffrey, Donald Trump seems to relish moments like this. How does he use this to his advantage? Whether he addresses it when he eventually takes to the podium there, or perhaps even takes to the stage on Monday night?

[14:35:07] LORD: Yes. I mean, I'm sure he'll take them on. Well, I'm guessing. I don't know for sure, but I imagine that he would take them on in some fashion verbally. I mean, this is what politicians of all kinds do when they're dealing with political oppositionists. They stand up to the opposition and challenge them.

Ronald Reagan at one point used the words, either bloodbath, either bloodbath or appeasement, I believe when he was governor of California. So, I mean, this is the kind of thing politically speaking just in those terms that only increases the popularity of candidates who are under this kind of assault, no matter whether it's Donald Trump, Reagan, or Hubert Humphrey got a lot of sympathy in 1968 because he was under such virulent attack. He was the nicest of men. He was campaigning on the politics of joy, and these kinds of folks were in his audience going, "sieg heil, sieg heil!" and disrupting it. So he came pretty close.

WHITFIELD: And it would seem, Jeffrey, that few candidates would find it advantageous that a divide or disruption would be able to serve them well, but it doesn't seem to, you know, throw Donald Trump, know, off his footing. If anything it seems to give him new material, and it seems to --

LORD: Yes.

WHITFIELD: -- help his supporters become that much more fervent.

LORD: That's right. That's right. I mean, let's be -- the American people, I mean, no one should be engaging in violence. I mean, that's simply wrong. But the fact of the matter is we're dealing with human nature. We're also dealing with a political philosophy on the left that believes in this, that does this. The subject changes all the time. I mean, these things have been happening long before Donald Trump was on the scene. But they most definitely they help the target, whomever that intended target is. People eventually become very sympathetic for somebody who' under this kind of assault all the time.

That's why I just -- in this day and age of 21st century media, social media and all this kind of thing, I think there's a lack of sophistication on the left. They have no idea how much they're helping Donald Trump, and if they did, they'd stop.

WHITFIELD: OK, we're going to take a pause right there. We're going to take a short break and we'll come right back. The rally that is to begin momentarily, but not without some protests. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:41:26] WHITFIELD: Welcome back. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Live view right now of Fountain Hills, Arizona. The stage is set for Donald Trump's arrival. There are a lot of people who are there, mostly in support of Donald Trump, but there have also been a handful of people who have turned out blocking traffic, very much against Donald Trump and his message.

Our Jeremy Diamond is right there in the thick of it all. Jeremy, there also seems to about great divide structurally when we had a kind of bird's-eye view of the crowd that has gathered. And there it is right there. You see like a pocket right around the stage, and then there's this great space and then a whole other slew of people. Help us understand the differences here.

DIAMOND: That's right, Fredricka. So we have right here hundreds of people right around the stage. These are people who have been swept by the Secret Service, gone through security screenings. And then beyond that you have thousands of more people who are lined up behind barricades. These are people who have not been screened, have not gone through the Secret Service magnetometers. But they can see the stage from where they are and they can certainly hear the very loud speakers that are very large here at the Donald Trump's rally.

WHITFIELD: I see. OK, and so at any moment we understand Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio would actually have the honors of introducing Donald Trump. We spoke with him earlier. He talked about this might be the fifth event that he has appeared with Donald Trump and he wants to make sure that Donald Trump is safe and that everyone who has come out in support of and even those against are also safe. Are you getting any kind of timeline as to when this might happen, if Donald Trump is caught up in some of that traffic, that snarl that had been caused earlier, or what?

DIAMOND: We have not yet heard exactly why Donald Trump is late. But, again, I wouldn't necessarily say it's because of the protests. He certainly has a motorcade that's able to get through whatever it needs to get through. Donald Trump, however, is sometimes late to his events, half hour, even an hour sometimes.

But certainly people have been waiting here in the hot sun for that, but while they've been waiting they've been hearing stories they from one woman whose said that her son was killed by an undocumented immigrant. That's just one of the kinds of stories that we hear at Donald Trump's rallies as he talks about undocumented immigrants and illegal immigration as being a problem. And it's certainly something here in Arizona which is of course a border state, an issue we expect Donald Trump to speak to today as well as Sheriff Joe Arpaio who's planning on introducing him.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jeremy Diamond. We're now looking at what appears to be perhaps that motorcade making its way on that highway. A lot of the other cars pulled to the side. It's difficult for me to know exactly what the proximity of what we're seeing this motorcade is to the rally event, but maybe now they're turning on that Shea Boulevard, that's the big boulevard you have to be on in order to get to the rally where you are. So perhaps they're just minutes away.

We did talk to the sheriff earlier who said, while he wanted protestors to have the right to gather, that he would be asked to get off the major roadway, have their peaceful gathering so that Donald Trump can have his peaceful rally as well. We're going to a short break and perhaps when we come back we'll get closer to that event getting underway. We'll be right back.

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[14:48:05] WHITFIELD: All right, welcome back. Live pictures right now to the left of your screen. Presumably Donald Trump's motorcade making its way through traffic trying to get to what you see on the right of your screen, his scheduled rally taking place there in Fountain Hills, Arizona. It's significant to show his motorcade moving because for a while there were no cars were able to move because of a group of anti-Trump protestors who were blocking the major thoroughfare for anyone to able to arrive there at the rally.

But now it appears as though the sheriff's office there has made sure that there are no obstacles for this motorcade and for Donald Trump to get to his rally. Already hundreds of people if not thousands of people, have, have all converged at that rally location. CNN's Jeremy Diamond is there in the thick of the crowd there, and, Jeremy, while there were demonstrators that were standing in the way of a number of supporters from getting there, now you are starting to see some of the demonstrators who also arrived at that location or near it?

DIAMOND: It's unclear if those are the same demonstrators that were blocking the road. But certainly what we're seeing now is in that second area where you have thousands of people who have been standing behind barricades who haven't been swept by security, you see now a pretty large group of several dozen protestors starting to walk through that area. They're carrying signs. You can't see exactly from where I'm standing what those signs say, but we are certainly seeing some protestors starting to make their way into the crowd of Trump supporters. Unclear exactly what that will mean for the ensuing action that we see. But certainly we have seen in the past sometimes scuffles erupt between protestors and supporters. Hopefully those stay peaceful right now.

WHITFIELD: OK. And, Mike Shields is also still with us. He's a former RNC chief of staff, as well as CNN's Chris Frates joining us from Washington, D.C.

[14:50:00] So I wonder, Mike, I want to ask you, you know, Donald Trump, he's seldom scripted. He usually says exactly what's on his mind. He responds to the current situation. What is your expectation about what he will say, what he needs to say when he takes to the podium there knowing that there are so many protestors who, who tried to stand in the way of Donald Trump supporters getting to the rally?

SHIELDS: You know, previously you had a Trump supporter, Jeffrey Lord, who said no one condones violence. I'm glad to hear that from a Trump supporter. I hope his candidate say that because what we've heard from Donald Trump from the podium at events things like, you know, in the old days guys like that would be carried out on a stretcher, or I'd like to punch that protestors in the face. If I don't get the nomination, there might be a riot at the convention. Those words have meaning.

And I used to work for Newt Gingrich, OK. When Newt was speaker of the House, the same group of protestors, Newt was the cause for the day. Newt would never say something like that from the podium. Newt believed that the power of his ideas would win over voters, who show a difference from those types of protestors and we would win the big public debate over that, and he of course, believes in the First Amendment and free speech as well.

So I hope that what we start to see a lessening of that hot rhetoric and a little bit of that leadership and saying, look, everyone has a right to speak. If they're going to be disorderly, then the law enforcement should take care of it. I hope that my folks leave it alone.

I get that his campaign is about strength, but there has to come a point where if the you're going to be a leader -- and the reason it matters is Donald Trump may get to the convention with less than 50 percent of the delegates, and then the delegates are going to decide who the nominee is, and they're going to be looking for somebody who they think can represent the party, represent our values, can win the general election, and can bring the party together. So how he's acting now and what he sort of says at rallies like this when he knows there is protestors there can have big consequences for him and the party further down the road.

WHITFIELD: And then of course there we're seeing on the left side of the screen, the motorcade has made its way into that large crowd of supporters at the main stage. You perhaps heard our Jeremy Diamond describe earlier, there are kind of two central locations for the rally. Those who are in this location, right here, where the motorcade has just pulled in, they have gone up through the security sweep, and they have all gone through magnetometers, et cetera. Yet on sort of what would be to the left of that motorcade from this point of view right here is a whole other large group of people. While they're there at the rally they have not gone through security and we understand that there are a number protestors who have also kind of arrived sharing some of the same space as the supporters.

And we also understand that there have been some protestors arrested right at that location. Maybe as many as three protestors, according to information that CNN is learning. And there have been some vehicles that have been towed from that Shea Boulevard, which is the main boulevard that many people have to -- to travel in order to get to this big rally site.

Donald Trump and his motorcade there arriving. Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio, we understand, will actually do the introductions. Not sure if that's still the plan, but earlier when I spoke with the sheriff he said that was the plan. He would introduce. He didn't know what he was going to say. He said it was just kind of off the cuff. And the expectation is Donald Trump just might have the same approach as he usually does, usually unscripted, and it will be interesting to hear what he to say, if anything, about the protestors that try to disrupt or stop supporters from arriving here.

So Jeremy Diamond, hopefully you can hear me. You're there in the crowd. What are people thinking, feeling, saying right now?

DIAMOND: Sorry. I can't hear you very well. There's -- the introductions have started to begin here at Donald Trump's rally. We've just been told he's arrived. So we have the Arizona state treasurer right now speaking to the crowd, and we're expecting Sheriff Arpaio to follow, and then followed by Donald Trump, of course.

WHITFIELD: OK. Chris Frates in Washington, big CNN interviews of five candidates, Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, talking to Republicans, Democrats, all those who remain in the fight for the White House. What Donald Trump says today may very well you know, be part of the follow-up questions, help shape the conversation come Monday night. What's the expectation of significant this moment or how pivotal this moment might be on Monday night?

FRATES: I think it's a very interesting moment to watch and a very interesting to see how does Donald Trump talk about these protestors? Because, remember, when our Anderson Cooper sat down with Donald Trump just a week ago --

WHITFIELD: And there's former governor Jan Brewer there at the podium there, by the way, as you continue to speak.

FRATES: That's exactly right.

WHITFIELD: Go ahead. Go ahead, Chris. Sorry.

[14:55:06] FRATES: Yes. No, we have Jan Brewer, we have Sheriff Joe Arpaio, a lot of anti-immigration, hardline immigration guest speakers who are going to talk and introduce Donald Trump in Arizona, a place where he believes there should be this bigger wall.

But getting back to this idea of, how does Donald Trump treat this protest? Because we have protestors here in Arizona where Trump will be. There are some in New York outside of Trump Tower there, and he has taken a lot of grief, both from Republican candidates and from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders about how he has treated protestors who have disrupted his rallies. He likes to say, you know, get them out of here. He mocks them a little bit. Go home to mommy. Get a job. He always likes to kind of work the crowd a little bit. He is a showman, of course, and he understands always saying, wasn't this more fun than usual political rally? Isn't this a better experience instead of coming to hear a boring politician talk to have these interruptions, to have this excitement?

But also those things have turned violent in the past. We had the sucker punch that happened in North Carolina just a few weeks ago with the protestors being escorted out by police. Somebody was sucker punched. He had to answer for that as well. And this idea of is Donald Trump inciting violence I think is one we're going to have to watch, Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right, Chris Frates, thank you so much. Thanks to all of my guests who are with me as we watched all of this playing out, large crowds there. Donald Trump rally there in Fountain Hills. Donald Trump to take to the stage momentarily, and we all look forward to hearing what he has to say about the turnout and the protests that also stood in the way of some supporters arriving there.

I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much. Our continuing coverage in the newsroom with Poppy Harlow picks up right after this.

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