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Countdown Is On To Wisconsin Primary; Trump Tries To Rebound From Tough Week; Trump Calls For Kasich To Drop Out; Cruz Attack Ad Targets Kasich; Clinton Confident She Will Be Nominee; Manhunt For Paris Terror Suspects In Brussels; Clinton Battles for Wisconsin. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired April 04, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All of the campaigns continue through to Wisconsin tomorrow night. Turning it over to Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's noon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, 8:00 p.m. in Moscow. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

Up first, counting down to a crucial presidential primary and counting the numbers in the race for delegates. This Wisconsin primary is less than a day away. Three of the five presidential candidates, they are now crisscrossing Wisconsin.

Donald Trump, Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders, they've already held events today with more stops this afternoon. Hillary Clinton and John Kasich are campaigning in New York ahead of that state's primary. That's on April 19th.

In Wisconsin, 86 Democratic delegates are up for grabs, 42 Republican delegates are at stake. Hillary Clinton leads the Democrats right now with 1,742, that includes 483 super delegates. Bernie Sanders has 1,051, that includes 31 super delegates. On the Republican side, Donald Trump is ahead with 739 delegates, Cruz

has 466, Kasich has 145. Out there on the campaign trail today, the GOP candidates made their case to voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump said that I need to get out of the race because I'm getting his voters. Well, I -- wait, no, no. I've got news for him. I'm going to get a heck of a lot of his voters. OK? That's what's going to happen.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And the Media was all saying Wisconsin was a perfect state for Donald Trump to win, was not a good state for me to compete in. What we are seeing happening in Wisconsin is the unity of the Republican Party manifested.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really believe tomorrow, we're going to have a very, very big victory. Very, very big.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BLITZER: All right, let's get some more on the delegate math and the race for the Republican presidential nomination. Our Senior White House Correspondent Jim Acosta is joining us live from superior, Wisconsin. That's the next stop for the Trump campaign. And our Correspondent Phil Mattingly, he's been doing the math on the delegate race. He's joining us live from New York.

Jim, Trump spent the weekend trying to repair some of the damage from last week. How would you describe the state of the Trump campaign right now?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, I think it matches the weather up here in Superior, Wisconsin. It's 30 degrees. It is snowing right now. It does not feel like opening day out here on the campaign trail, when comes to baseball season, certainly not opening day up here in northern Wisconsin.

And I think Donald Trump's campaign is staring at a cold reality. And that is if he does not win the Wisconsin primary, it is going to be that much more difficult for him to clinch that magic number of 1,237 delegates to capture the GOP nomination.

And so, that's why he's fighting hard across the state of Wisconsin today. Even though those polls show Ted Cruz has a pretty healthy lead, at this point, you know, Donald Trump is trying to do everything that he can right up to the last minute to see if he can eke out some sort of squeaker here tomorrow. He's even bringing in his wife, Melania Trump, later on tonight in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

And you had mentioned some of these problems that Donald Trump had over the last week. He is certainly in clean-up mode today. You heard Donald Trump talking today about the fact that, you know, over the weekend, he was quoted as saying that the U.S. economy may go into a major recession. Donald Trump said, at an event early this morning in Lacrosse, Wisconsin, that, yes, he did say that.

But he also -- he's saying that he -- if he's elected president, the country won't go into a major recession. He also talked about NATO and some of the comments made about his remarks about NATO over the last week. Donald Trump is saying he doesn't want to get rid of NATO. He wants to retrofit NATO for current threats, such as terrorism.

And so, you're hearing Donald Trump, I think, out on the campaign trail, talk about some of these mistakes and the gas (ph) that he had over the last week, things that he'd like to clean up.

He's also talking about John Kasich. And what we heard last night and then earlier this morning in in Lacrosse, Wolf. He is going after John Kasich. He's calling on the Ohio governor to get out of this race, basically saying he's wasting his time and drawing more votes from him, Donald Trump, versus Ted Cruz, sort of playing the spoiler in this race, pointing out that John Kasich isn't even in the state of Wisconsin today. He is in New York -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Interesting. I want to go to Phil. Phil, how's the Kasich campaign, first of all, responding to Donald Trump's call for him to get on the -- get out of the race and for Ted Cruz's attack ad against him in Wisconsin?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, two very different responses. When it comes to Donald Trump, the campaign is maybe just short of thrilled that this is starting to happen right now. Donald Trump, for the most part, over the course of this entire campaign, has left John Kasich alone. His attacks, right now, elevate John Kasich.

And the kind of guided principle behind the Kasich campaign, throughout these last few months, has been if John Kasich gets attention, gets a chance to get his message out, that's when John Kasich rises. That's what happened in New Hampshire. That's what happens in Ohio. The state he came in second and then first in Ohio.

[13:05:04] And the campaign is also wasting no time raising money off this. They sent out an e-mail to supporters less than 24 hours after Trump's comments came out saying that this is an opportunity to block Donald Trump. And Donald Trump is saying it himself.

So, when it comes to Donald Trump, the Kasich campaign is more than happy to have this fight. The Ted Cruz attacks are slightly different. They recognize the danger in this. Ted Cruz going after John Kasich hard on T.V. in Wisconsin, an area where John Kasich is hoping to pick up maybe three or even six delegates. And these are very sharp attack, record-based attacks and attacks that the campaign -- the Kasich campaign recognizes they need to push back very hard on. There's a lot of concern about what Ted Cruz's campaign and his affiliated Super Pacs can do to John Kasich's campaign -- Wolf.

BLITZER: What is the -- Cruz saying about a possible path to the nomination for himself? Listen -- I know you've got some sound from him.

MATTINGLY: Yes, the interesting element is Ted Cruz, for a long time, said don't talk about an open convention. Don't talk about a contested convention. He's now getting to the point where we all are that that's a very real possibility. But he still thinks he has the advantage. And here's why. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: There are only two candidates whose names will appear on the ballot. Donald Trump and myself, under the rules, you have to have won eight states. There are only two candidates who will have met that threshold. The choice will be between me and Donald Trump. And I believe we will win that election.

If there is a contested convention, you know, one of the easiest ways to understand that is simply ask the question. Where does the Rubio delegates and where do the Kasich delegates go? And I think they naturally come to us. And that puts us over the majority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Wolf, obviously, one key component that Ted Cruz is leaving out, John Kasich. But there's a reason for that. And what his citing in that is a specific rule from the 2012 convention that said, basically, a candidate has to have won a majority in eight states in order to qualify for the ballot.

Now, the rules change every four years, so that rule, technically, doesn't exist going into 2016. But what Ted Cruz and Donald Trump working on behind the scenes right now is the recognition that they will likely control a vast majority of the rules committee that decides those rules. That means they can put that rule back into place, keep John Kasich off the ballot. That is side, behind-the- scenes battle that is happening, Wolf, right now that is very important and very dangerous for the Kasich campaign.

BLITZER: Yes, a lot of behind-the-scenes battles underway right now.

Phil Mattingly, thanks very much. Jim Acosta, thanks to you as well.

Let's get some more perspective right now from the three Republican presidential campaigns. Ron Nehring is a national spokesman for the Cruz campaign. Trent Duffy is national communications advisor spokesman for Kasich for America, that's the Kasich campaign. Barry Bennett is senior adviser to the Trump campaign.

Barry, let me start with you. As you know, the "Washington Post" published a letter you wrote to the campaign staff over the weekend after Trump appeared to struggle with his comments on abortion, NATO, nuclear weapons. You blasted the news media and the Republican establishment writing this. Quote, "America is sick of them. Their idiotic attacks just remind voters why they hate the Washington establishment." Was that an acknowledgeable that the campaign was having some difficult days over the past week?

BARRY BENNETT, SENIOR ADVISOR, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Well, I guess it depends where you sit. I mean, from where I sit, we went from leading 39-33 at the beginning of the week to leading 45-31. So, what Washington describes as a very bad week turned out to be a pretty good week in my shoes.

BLITZER: You're talking about national polls. You're talking about the Reuters --

BENNETT: Yes.

BLITZER: -- national poll. But in Wisconsin, the polls show that you're behind maybe by six points, seven points. Some of the polls suggest 10 points.

BENNETT: Yes. I think 10 days ago, we would have acknowledged that we were down more than 10 points. And it's been tightening every day, and that's why we are campaigning so hard. You know, our projections for delegates have never included any delegates from Wisconsin but I think we will win some.

BLITZER: You think you're going to win some tomorrow in Wisconsin, is that what you're saying?

BENNETT: Yes.

BLITZER: But do you think you're going to win the state? BENNETT: I don't know about the state but we'll win some C.D.s.

BLITZER: All right, Trent, Donald Trump also says Governor Kasich should not be allowed to run because he can't mathematically win enough delegates, 1,237, to secure the nomination. Listen to what he said on the campaign trail. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Kasich is now one for 30. Is it one for 30 or one for 29? He's one for 30. It's good if he gets out. I don't want him in. I don't want him in. Why are you in? Everyone says, he's such a nice guy. He's not a nice guy. Do you remember the first debates? He came at me so strong.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. So, what's the Kasich campaign's response to Trump? Explain why he's still in the race.

TRENT DUFFY, SPOKESMAN, KASICH FOR AMERICA: Well, because he cares about the country and he does not want Donald Trump to be the nominee of the Republican Party which would be a disaster not just for this cycle, in terms of losing the Senate and Supreme Court, but in generations to come.

In fact, Kasich's in this race because he's the best prepared, the best fit to be the commander in chief. And the path and the math starts to weigh more in our favor as this race shifts more to the northeast.

[13:10:05] There's 17 states left to go. I think it's interesting that Donald Trump is concerned that John Kasich is now taking his votes. And I think that's exactly what's happening. You look where John Kasich is competing. He's competing in those suburban swing states that decide general elections and that's why the national elections continue to show that Kasich is the only one that can beat Hillary Clinton in November and more people are starting to see that.

BLITZER: But you can see, mathematically, he can't get to 1,237 on the first round.

DUFFY: Nor --

BLITZER: The only -- the only hope he has, if it's a contested convention, an open convention as it's called, and then on the second or third or fourth round, people come to him. Is that -- is that right?

DUFFY: No, that's right. No candidate -- none of the three candidates is going to reach that 1,237. That's become -- that's become very clear.

BLITZER: Well, let me ask Ron. First of all, Ron, do you think your candidate, Senator Cruz, could reach that magic number? RON NEHRING, NATIONAL SPOKESMAN, TED CRUZ: Sure. I think that there

are two candidates who could reach that number, Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Overall, the trend is not favoring Donald Trump at all.

I mean, look, even today, Donald Trump is predicting a victory in the state of Wisconsin tomorrow. He's upped the ante in Wisconsin. He's increased his media buys there. He's added three different events to the schedule. He's bringing his wife in to campaign along with him. Clearly, the Trump campaign is putting everything on the line in Wisconsin and we'll see.

You know, the voters in the state of Wisconsin are the people in the country who are paying the most attention to this race right now. Right now, they're favoring -- they're favoring Ted Cruz and he's one of the only two candidates who can actually reach the majority of the delegates. John Kasich continuing to run is running as a spoiler. He's a distraction. And he has no shot of being the nominee on the first, second, third, fourth, fifth or 10th ballot. That's simply not going to happen.

We are going to go into this convention with a sizable number of deletes. We're working hard to reach 1,237, to reach that majority, and prevent Donald Trump from becoming the Republican nominee and handing the election to Hillary Clinton, handing Congress to the Democrats and handing the Supreme Court to the radical left for the next 25 years. That's --

BLITZER: But, Ron, --

NEHRING: -- what happens if Donald Trump is the nominee and it's more likely for every day that John Kasich chooses to remain in this race.

BLITZER: Kasich may be mathematically out of it reaching that magic number but you need -- the Cruz campaign needs about 80 percent of the remaining delegates out there in order to get to that magic number. The Trump campaign maybe needs 55 or 60 percent. Can you reach that 80 percent?

NEHRING: Well, let's take a look at what happened in the state of Utah where our goal was make it to 50 percent and we hit 69 percent. But with 69 percent of the vote, we got 100 percent of the delegates. So, you don't have to win 80 percent of the vote in order to get 80 percent of the delegates going forward just because of how the rules are structured.

Also, we've seen that where we engage in a state, our numbers go up and Donald Trump's numbers go down and Kasich's numbers remain down. And we've built out a campaign that goes all the way through June 7th. All the states that vote on June 7th, we'll will be competing in just like we're competing hard in Wisconsin. And look how we've turned the numbers around in Wisconsin. A couple weeks ago, you know, Donald Trump was leading in Wisconsin. Now, we're in the lead. So, where we engage with our superior organization and message, we do very well and we come out on top.

BLITZER: Let me let Barry respond. Go ahead, Barry. BENNETT: I mean, Wisconsin is tight, everyone will agree to that.

New York, we're up by 36 points. Pennsylvania up 18 points. I mean, you know, you can disbelieve a lot of things but you can't disbelieve in the laws of mathematics. There is no way that Ted Cruz is going to win 80 percent of the remaining delegates. Not possible.

BLITZER: All right, well, we'll see what happens. First of all, we'll see what happens tomorrow, then two weeks later in New York. Then after that, a week later in Pennsylvania and a whole bunch of other states. Lots to assess.

Trent Duffy, Ron Nehring, Barry Bennett, guys, thanks very much.

Coming up, Hillary Clinton says she's confident she'll be the Democratic presidential nominee. But is she confident she can win New York, the state she served as a U.S. senator? The Clinton and Sanders' campaign, they have representatives who will be joining us live.

Plus, how many suspected terrorists connected to the attack in Brussels and Paris are European authorities still looking for? We have an update. Stay with us.

[13:14:05]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:14] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was so proud to be a New Yorker all those eight years I represented you. I have always been proud. But I'm even prouder today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton highlighting her New York times at a campaign stop in New York City last hour. The big New York primary is still two weeks away, two weeks from tomorrow. Tomorrow, by the way, it's a Wisconsin day, the Wisconsin primary, and she's in a major battle right now with Senator Bernie Sanders over that state's 86 Democratic convention delegates. Sanders has won five of the last six contests between the two, leads in the polls in Wisconsin, at least for now. Hillary Clinton, however, continues to hang on to her overall delegate lead, as you can see right there, especially when you include the so- called super delegates.

With us now is chief strategist for Hillary Clinton -- the Hillary Clinton campaign, Joel Benenson is joining us.

Joel, thanks very much for joining us.

As we just saw Bernie Sanders campaigning in Wisconsin today, Hillary Clinton campaigning today in New York, this the day before that critically important primary in Wisconsin. Why has she moved on past Wisconsin? JOEL BENENSON, CHIEF STRATEGIST, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Well, she was

just in Wisconsin three days last week. She gave major speeches there, held major events there, one on the Supreme Court, one with the mothers of the movement on gun violence, another on education. We've been competing very hard in Wisconsin. We know it's close. We know it's competitive.

Our goal is to, you know, maintain our sizable advantage in pledged delegates, which as you just showed on the screen is roughly 240 right now. But we've got a lot of delegates this month, you know, between Tuesday the 19th and April 26th, Wolf, there are going to be some 700 delegates decided. So I've always said, April 26th is the goal line here. We're going to know at that point who's got an insurmountable lead in pledge delegates and who doesn't.

[13:20:10] BLITZER: As you know, Bernie Sanders, he's won five of the last six contests. Presumably, I guess, you're conceding they might win -- the Bernie Sanders campaign -- in Wisconsin tomorrow. That makes New York a must-win state, right? You have to win Hillary Clinton's adopted home state.

BENENSON: Well, look, he's won five out of the last six contests, Wolf, but you have to remember the total number of net delegates he won in all those contests doesn't add up to the number of net delegates we won advantage -- we won just from winning Florida and Texas, for example, or Florida and North Carolina. You know, delegates are what matters here. And I think what's different in Wisconsin for Senator Sanders, it's a state -- the kind of state he typically does well in. It's less diverse than some of the other big primaries we're going into, in the states we're going into. You know, Hillary Clinton's got a 2.5 million vote advantage over Senator Sanders because she's put together the most diverse coalition of any candidate on either side here. And by that I mean she's winning by almost two to one with voters over the age of 30, she's winning with women by 30 points and with African-Americans and Latinos by three to one across all these exit polls. So as we look ahead, we're looking at the whole map, we're looking at coming out of the month of April, on April 26th, with our commanding net delegate lead largely in place or bigger.

BLITZER: But -- so you're saying, New York, you've got -- but you've got to win New York, right?

BENENSON: Well, look, she's a senator from New York. She's won in New York before. She was elected and re-elected and re-elected with a bigger margin after she served the people in the state for six years. I think people in New York know that Hillary Clinton is somebody who is a progressive, who gets things done, that make a difference in their lives and that has a real impact on their communities.

You know, fighting to clean up the Hudson River, fighting to help farmers in upstate New York get their goods to restaurants in New York City and working with communities upstate to bring, you know, things like the Internet more broadly to schools. So, you know, she's got a record here of getting things done that makes a difference in people's lives and we're going to keep drawing that contrast as we talk through the New York primary. BLITZER: Both Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton and

Bernie Sanders, they say they're willing to debate ahead of the New York primary, but they haven't yet agreed on the terms. Listen to what they've been saying.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm confident that there will be, but I'm not -- I'm not the one negotiating it. That's going on between our campaigns. And I do know my campaign has been really trying to get a time that Senator Sanders campaign would agree with.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think what we want is to look at the maximum viewing audience. And any time and any venue that works -- that has that viewing audience will be good.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, so how close are you to working out a deal?

BENENSON: Well, I -- you know, I'm not negotiating either. I think it's probably getting closer. I think, you know, Secretary Clinton wants more debates. She likes debating. She does well in them. I think maybe there's a potential for a breakthrough today. I understand Mayor de Blasio said he might be able to get a permit for a rally at a different time than the debate that is important to the Sanders campaign. I think if you take both camps at their word, they want to have a debate here and we'll see if we can work it out.

And the sooner it's worked out, the better for everyone so they can go about campaigning, meeting with voters, talking to them every day, getting all over this state. That's what Hillary Clinton wants to do. I think she feels really great campaigning in all parts of this state. She's been up in Syracuse, in Harlem and, you know, she really loves it here and we're going to keep campaigning and we'll work out a debate hopefully if we can in the next day or so.

BLITZER: Well, that date that Mayor de Blasio is trying to change for a Bernie Sanders event in New York, what is the date you're talking about for that event, assuming he can change the venue of that -- change the date of that venue, that location in New York City?

BENENSON: I'm not sure right now exactly what date is and what he offered specifically. I know that there are a few offers of debates on the table. One of the obstacles we're told was this rally that the Sanders campaign wanted to move. I assume the mayor knows what dates are available that could free up that time for that debate.

As I said, I think both camps want to work this out and, you know, I think it's interesting, we spend a lot of time having debates about debates. I think voters in New York really want to hear what separates these candidates. Who will really be able to make a difference in their lives. Who will really be able to take the case to Donald Trump and the Republicans and stand up for the working people in this country against the policies and the Republicans that are holding them back and stopping them from getting ahead. And that candidate is Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: Joel Benenson, a lot of voters probably still undecided right now, leaning one way, leaning another way. Debates are very important in helping them make up their minds, as you well know.

[13:25:02] BENENSON: Absolutely.

BLITZER: All right, thank you very much, Joel, for that.

Up next, we're going to hear from the Bernie Sanders campaign. We're going to get its take on the fight for Wisconsin, for New York, the debate stage. Tad Divine, standing by, live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you want to think about the kind of administration a Bernie Sanders would have, kind of think about Scott Walker in reverse.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[13:29:57] BLITZER: Senator Bernie Sanders on making a last-minute campaign stop today in Wisconsin, speaking about the Republican governor of Wisconsin. Sanders just wrapped up a rally in Janesville. He heads to Green Bay, Milwaukee for events later today. Sanders also looking to take as many of the 86 delegates that are up for grabs as he can.