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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Obama in Cuba; Arizona Primary Preview; Examining Hillary Clinton Campaign. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 21, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


[12:30:01] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Unfortunate those lovely ladies in white, who were out marching saying they just oppose politically what this president is about. Do you understand where they are coming from?

I bet he does. Unfortunately for us we lost Jose Miguel Vivanco. Sometimes that happens. We call it the bug-a-boos of live television. My apologies everybody.

But we're continuing our live coverage throughout the day on CNN and you're going to hear a lot of different voices about the Cuba visit.

And coming up next, we're going to switch back to the America visit. And that is all of the voters going to the polls. While America's toughest sheriff, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Arizona tells us why Donald Trump should be president and the voters in his state are going to the polls tomorrow. He's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:35:06] BANFIELD: Tomorrow the state of Arizona will give the winner of its Republican primary all of its 58 GOP delegates, winner take all. And Donald Trump is the GOP candidate to beat at this point. It does not hurt that Donald Trump enjoys the strong backing of my next guest, America's best-known sheriff, Sheriff Joe Arpaio of Maricopa County and he joins me live this our from CNN.

Sheriff Joe, good to have on again. Thank you for doing this. I appreciate it.

SHERIFF JOE ARPAIO, MARICOPA COUNTRY ARIZONA: My please Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: So we're heading into the big vote tomorrow, the pre polling has shown that your candidate is doing very well, many say it's all because there are so many in Arizona that support his immigration, very tough immigration policy in the concept of that big old wall. Is that really he finds most of his support in your state?

ARPAIO: Oh, I think it is more than that. He's different. Outspoken, tells it like it is. Doesn't back down, has courage to fight everybody picking on him. So I think that's important. Plus, he has great experience around the world running business and successful. So I'm for him. I first introduced him in July in phoenix before thousands of people. Something in my gut told me he is different and he will make a great president. BANFIELD: I think you nailed it with the part of him being different, without question. I do have this question though about his immigration policy in your state. Your state was known for that very, very tough law SB 1070 that ultimately the feds turned around and said you can't have a law where you use your police to stop people and check their papers. There was a real backlash. There were people who refused to do business in Arizona. There were million s of dollars lost. A lot of Republican business people said, we can't have that kind of immigration policy. It's bad for business. Do you see where they are coming from? And might that dip in to Trump's numbers tomorrow?

ARPAIO: No. Well, I'm sure the chamber of commerce doesn't like him for many reasons. That law was state local law. Federal can still enforce the illegal immigration laws, but, you know, we have 8,000 people in our jail for all different kinds of crime. Turn them over to ICE and 3,000 keep come back to the jails I run.

So, you know, we got a big problem here with illegal immigration today, too. They keep coming across the border. We have to do something in Mexico, at the border. And he's the only one that has the guts to not say let's secure the border first and then look in to the interior problem that we have. He's looking in to the interior problem, all of the illegals that we have in to our county, our state, and our country. So he has a lot of fortitude to say something. I know he will do it. That's what scares everybody. Not everybody, some people.

BANFIELD: So I'm still trying to sort of get my head around where you and he both fall on rounding up of illegal immigrants and deporting them. Scott Pelley in conducted a 60 minutes with Donald Trump and asked him, 11, 12 million illegal immigrants still in the country. What do you do? And he answered, well, if they have done well, they are going out and coming back legally. You are rounding them all up. Scott said and he said we are rounding them up in a very humane way, in a very nice way.

And by the way I know it doesn't sound nice. But not everything is nice. He advocates rounding up every illegal immigrants in this country and sending them out the boarder. But when I talked with you earlier, I felt that is not how you saw things. You said to me look, we're not going in to every home unless they have committed a crime. You said to Jorge Ramos if the illegals don't get caught or don't do anything wrong they are not going to get deported. They got a passed. You are not going to go to their house for no reason other than you thing that here illegally. I'm not for that.

So do you defer with Donald Trump in rounding up everybody or do you personally think you should only round up those that committed a crime?

ARPAIO: First of all, I don't have the authority to do what you just said. But the Feds still do. And he can carry out his mission, if he's the president and utilize federal resources. I'm talking about me.

Now, when we come across someone that violates the law, yes, yes, we do arrest them and they are then deported or suppose should be deported but they are not. They are let out on the street. I just gave you the figures. 3,000 keep coming back. No. So there's a little difference there. But I don't believe he's going to knock doors down and drag people out. I don't believe that's what he meant.

BANFIELD: I'm still trying to figure it out because he was real, you know, strong on all of them. All of them they got to go and then they can come back legally.

ARPAIO: OK.

[12:40:02] BANFIELD: Let's move on to the -- something that happened this weekend, there was a fair bit of violence at a Trump rally this weekend. Donald Trump was asked about it. One of the protesters was hit, arrested. I'm going to get to that in a moment, but he says something about the police having been lax. He said the security at the arena, the police were a bit lax.

ARPAIO: well, they were.

BANFIELD: And just wondering if he thrown the police under the bus here.

ARPAIO: No, they weren't lax. I run the Fountain Hills, Arizona, where they held up thousands of people with vehicles chained to vehicles. You know what I locked them all up.

BANFIELD: Yeah.

ARPAIO: Now go back to Tucson, I'm glad you asked that. Because by the way, I introduced him in Tucson and I was there when his campaign manager, I walked down the stair in front of all of the protesters to try to reason with them because I have been protest many times down there. In that campaign manager did nothing wrong. He was just taken vicious sign.

BANFIELD: Though I think Sheriff. I hear your point. I was actually just asking about Donald Trump's words. He says these words because the security at the arena, the police were a bit lax. Did you agree with Donald Trump that the police were being lax and the security was lax?

ARPAIO: Well, I didn't see many arrests made with all of the people in front of that building. I've been -- the people have demonstrated against me many, many, many times but police did take action at certain times.

So I don't know. But I know he is frustrated. They tried to block 2,500 people to get in to his forum that - so of course you would be frustrated, but I was with his campaign manager. He did nothing wrong. Just the media likes to keep picking on him. At least he had the guts to go downstairs and try to protect his venue.

BANFIELD: I understand. I wasn't asking about bad incident. I was more curious, sir, because a lot of Donald Trump supporters are frustrated between Black Lives Matter and the police and the battle between the two. They are supportive of the police and Donald Trump has been supportive of police. So when I saw that comment, that the police were a little lax, it stood out to me. And I just wondered if you agree with Donald Trump when he said the police were lax?

ARPAIO: Well, I don't know. I wasn't outside where the cops were. I don't know what action they took. But he's frustrated. He's a big supporter of the cops. But, you know, I took care of business in my town, in Fountain Hills. I locked them up for disturbing that area. I'm not going to talk about the Tucson police or the sheriff or that -- you know, the liberal areas down there. So that's another problem. But, no, no, he's a big supporter of the cops. But he still doesn't want demonstrators blocking people from coming to see him.

BANFIELD: Understandable. We have been able to confirm that the man who was arrested for the punch and the kicking at that rally is from 355th fighter wing at Davis Monahan air force base in Tucson. And there's a base spokesperson who've actually put out a statement about this arrest. And it says "We believe wholeheartedly in our fellow Americans' rights to express their views on political issues and we strongly condemn in any -- we strongly condemn any attempt to silence those views through force or violence." Do you agree with that statement?

ARPAIO: Well, everybody has a right to the first amendment, but they ought to stop going after Trump every time he has a rally.

BANFIELD: Even with violence?

ARPAIO: People are demonstrating.

BANFIELD: Even with violence.

ARPAIO: No, he doesn't condone violence. I don't condone violence. If someone breaks a law you have to bring them to justice. That's the way it is, and he believes in that, too.

BANFIELD: Just curious, how did you fell about those images that you saw when that protester was blind sided and punched and kicked?

ARPAIO: Well, I didn't like it because you have all of these demonstrators trying to block, block people from coming in to that forum. And that's not right. People have a right to come in and listen to Trump. And not have all these demonstrators. They were vicious demonstrators, because I'm used to all these demonstrators going after me and I happened to be there. I walked downstairs next to the campaign manager. He was just doing his job. He had the right to do it. To remove the sign. This is property they paid for this rally.

BANFIELD: Sheriff Joe Arpaio, I hope we get a chance to talk to you again. Maybe after the results come in after tomorrow night. Thank you so much for today.

ARPAIO: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Sheriff Joe Arpaio joining us from the great State of Arizona a arizona.

And coming up next another huge day in the for the White House at the campaign heads west.

[12:45:04] What does Hillary Clinton need to do to head off Bernie Sanders tomorrow in the states where he is counting on big showings? I'm going to talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BANFIELD: Tomorrow against (ph) Hillary Clinton a chance to build on her five-state sweep of a week ago and Bernie Sanders a chance to try to regain his groove. Arizona, Utah and Idaho offer a total of 131 Democratic delegates.

Sanders says that Clinton is ahead in the delegate count but he is fighting for votes and delegates, too.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When we began this campaign about ten months ago, the general feeling of the media and the pundits is we were looking at a coronation, that there was an anointed candidate who would simply and quietly kept the Democratic nomination. Ten months. Ten months have come and gone, doesn't look to me like that's the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:50:03] BANFIELD: Doesn't it? Peter is joining me to talk about Hillary Clinton's chances. He's a Clinton supporter and the former adviser to both Hillary Clinton and John Kerry. Peter, thanks for being here.

PETER DAOU, FORMER ADVISER TO HILLARY CLINTON: Pleasure.

BANFIELD: So the last time I asked a Clinton supporter whether it was a good idea to shift the focus off of trying to beat Bernie Sanders and instead go right for the general election approach and start fighting Donald Trump it didn't work out well. Then Michigan had to change the metric a little bit.

Well, Michigan has come and gone.

DAOU: Yes.

BANFIELD: Five-state sweep. Are we changing back? What is mrs. Clinton doing right now? What's the strategy? Is it still Bernie or is it move head to the general?

DAOU: I think her approach is to win every vote. Not to take a single vote for granted. So I think she will work hard. At the same time its looking like she's on track to gain the nomination, as it is for Donald Trump on the Republican side.

BANFIELD: So stay on the (inaudible)?

DAOU: I think her approach is just to each everybody vote, to speak on the issues that working Americans care about and focus on that one voter and one state at a time. I don't think she takes anything for granted.

BANFIELD: That's what I thought the message was then I heard when that the super pacs are pulling all their money away from primary speding like we have this. We have to save the money for down the road, save the money for where the contest is going to get real tough against the Republicans.

DAOU: The way I see it and having worked for her in 2008, and watched how she campaigns, she really does work one vote at a time. So i can't speak for what other organizations are doing. But I think she's focused on delivering her message. It's energizing people. She's got 8.6 million votes. So, clearly people are motivated by what she is saying. And that pertains to both primary and the general election if she so fortunate to be a nominee.

BANFIELD: I feel half of the time when I am going live on television covering politics these days and doing it in a looking glass and that everything is upside down. But there is now this reporting today that file today that (inaudible) principle super PAC is getting a tracker, a tracker to watch Donald Trump's every move, who he meets with. So they can keep track, videotape that meeting, videotape him going and going to use it against those candidates and publicly shame them. Hopefully to try that stop any coalescing around Donald Trump.

That sounds like Hillary Clinton is getting free work done for her.

DAOU: Well, look, politics is a tough business. And the people from all sides have different interests and attack different candidates. But if you look at the general contours of the race, my belief is the Republican Party will coalesce around Donald Trump. They want to win. That's what they try to do.

And so you see a lot of this hand wringing, I'm not sure it's not going to stay that way to two or three from now.

BANFIELD: By the way, this is presuming she ends up the nominee. And then there's this whole other approach to that question which is I'm not sure if you are thrilled that the Our principal super PAC, the anti-Trump super PAC, Republicans who have gotten together to stop his momentum, I'm not sure that's a such good idea because the polls show head to head, she could beat Donald Trump. But she does not show the same in the polls head to head with Ted Cruz or John Kasich.

DAOU: I have been doing presidential campaigns since 2003, 2004 where I have had the good fortune work with John Kerry's campaign. I learned not to trust polls. But, you know, what we learned from whether its Michigan or Ohio.

BANFIELD: Unless they are your way.

DAOU: Well, I know, well, no. It's is actually true. I mean one truism that I learned is true in politics is it always expect the unexpected. It's just the way it has always been. I remember election night 2004 when I thought it was President Kerry and then Ohio started to come in.

So, I mean, I've learned the lesson the hard way.

BANFIELD: A couple of weeks ago, the mission, the strategy, the three- prong strategy of Hillary Rodham Clinton's campaign emerged and that is go after Donald Trump, heartless businessman, show all the people taken from Trump University or the businesses who went bankrupt weren't paid, the dishwashers and people at the hotels who didn't get paid. Show him as a heartless businessman.

Number two, show him with his degrading comments about women to try to shore up that women's vote away from him. And then the third was to show his rash explosive temper as guy who has his finger on the trigger of a very important button but yet is very volatile.

What a difference a day or two days or few days can make in a campaign. I'm wondering if that is still the strategy? All three of those prongs.

DAOU: I think there's a larger strategy as I see it playing. I don't speak for the campaign, but I think the contrast...

BANFIELD: You are speaking for the campaign.

DAOU: Well, I don't work for the campaign. I speak as a Hillary supporter and former adviser but I don't speak -- officially on behalf of the campaign. But the fact is the contrast between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump is probably the most stark contrast we seen in generations. You know, she spoke at APAC today and delivered what I thought was a powerful speech. And talking about somebody who was former secretary of state, she has an insatiable intellectual curiosity having work for -- I know that. She just knows issues in a deep way. Deep experience and deep knowledge.

Then you had Donald Trump who was asked who he will consult on foreign policy and he's answer was, I'll speak to myself.

[12:55:05] That's a pretty start contrast. I think Hillary going to the American people and presenting herself as experienced, knowledgeable with the path to get us to the better place versus Donald Trump who's, you know, a lot of hot air, and a lot of yelling and a lot of talking. And I think that contrast will be very compelling.

BANFIELD: What will be interesting to see how things play out. Peter Daou, thank you. Appreciate being here.

DAOU: Thank you so much.

BANFIELD: I look forward to seeing you again.

DAOU: Thank you.

BANFIELD: And by the way, just as a reminder, we got a programming note for you. A huge night tonight for presidential politics. All five candidates ahead to western Tuesday are going to join CNN for a special prime time forum. The three-hour event starts at 8:00 tonight right here only on CNN. And then a reminder, as well, that our continuing live coverage of the presidential visit to Cuba has been pretty fascinating stuff. Images that many people in their lifetime thought they would never see. And yet, we are streaming them live to you. Just the beginning with a lot more that's been streamline to that country.

Thank you for watching everybody. Wolf starts after this quick break.

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