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Cruz and Sanders Win in Wisconsin; San Francisco Passes Six- Week Paid Family Leave; Trump's Mexico Wall Plan Causing Concern; Missiasippi Passes Religious Freedom Law. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired April 06, 2016 - 03:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:00:00] ISHA SESAY, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Hello. Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Isha Sesay, live from Los Angeles.

JOHN VAUSE, CNN NEWSROOM SHOW HOST: Quick from the rock. I'm John Vause. Great day with us, everybody. Just after midnight here in L.A., and the voters have spoken in Wisconsin.

The U.S. state how presidential primaries for both republicans and democrats. The front-runners from both parties are rattled.

SESAY: Let's start with republicans. And a big night for this candidate. Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump with about 48 percent of the vote to Trump's 35 percent.

VAUSE: For the democrats, the night belonged to Bernie Sanders. The Vermont Senator continues to make slow head way, he won Wisconsin with 56 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton got 23 percent.

SESAY: Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz both thanked their supporters for their wins in Wisconsin.

VAUSE: Cruz who has been trailing republican front-runner Donald Trump since the race began said Wisconsin is now a turning point in his campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TED CRUZ, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a result of tonight, as a result of the people of Wisconsin defying the media, defying the pundits, I am more and more convinced that our campaign is going to earn the 1237 delegates needed to win the republican nomination.

(APPLAUSE)

Either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland. Together we will win a majority of the delegates and together we will beat Hillary Clinton in November.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Bernie Sanders is already looking ahead to the next contest when he found out he had won in Wisconsin.

SESAY: And he gave his victory speech in Wyoming where voters will caucus this Saturday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Momentum is starting this campaign 11 months ago, and the media determining that we were a fringe candidacy.

Momentum is starting a campaign 60 to 70 points behind Secretary Clinton. Momentum is that within the last couple of weeks there have been national polls which have had us one point up or one point down.

(APPLAUSE)

Momentum is that when you look at national polls or you look at statewide polls, we are defeating Donald Trump by very significant numbers.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: All right. So, the evening was full of talk of momentum and pivots.

VAUSE: Yes.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: And enthusiasm and raising money and who's got the mojo.

SESAY: Enthusiasm and raising money and it's a whole new race. But here's the thing, Sanders and Cruz still have an uphill battle to catch the front-runners. Right now, Clinton leads Sanders by nearly 700 delegates on the democratic side, 2383 delegates are needed to win the party's nomination.

VAUSE: On the republican side, let's look at the map. Trump has 743, Cruz 510, john Kasich 145. The magic number for them, 1237.

OK. For a closer look at the Wisconsin primary, we're joined now by republican consultant, John Thomas, democratic strategist, Dave Jacobson.

Let's look at this statement. We didn't hear directly from Donald Trump tonight, but his campaign did put out notable statement in their concession speech.

It read in part, "Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet. He is a Trojan horse being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump." The statement also goes on to allege that there is collusion going on, illegal collusion between Ted Cruz and the super PAC which is illegal under electoral laws.

OK. So, John, first to you, is there anything between indicative that there is something illegal going on with Ted Cruz and his super PACs? And I guess the days of these gracious concession speeches from Donald Trump are long gone.

JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: Let's just remind your viewers that Donald Trump and Ted Cruz hate each other personally.

VAUSE: Recently.

THOMAS: Yes. I mean, recently, yes. They used to be best friends.

SESAY: And there's still an etiquette in these things.

THOMAS: Donald Trump I don't think believes that.

VAUSE: Yes.

THOMAS: But to answer your question, John, no, there's not a shred of evidence that shows Ted Cruz colluded or worked with, coordinated with the super PAC. So, that's just false. It looks like Donald Trump is grasping at straws.

VAUSE: He's just muddying the waters.

THOMAS: Yes. But what we did see in that statement is Trump did he needed to do, and that is accusing Donald -- excuse me, accusing Ted Cruz of being the establishment choice.

[03:05:06] Because this on the republican side there is really an anti-establishment election. And so, if the electoral believes that that reinforces Trump's argument.

SESAY: Dave, to talk about Cruz's win for a second, how much was this a win for Ted Cruz, a vote for Ted Cruz as opposed for, you know, just a never Trump vote?

DAVE JACOBSON, SHALLMAN COMMUNICATIONS CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: I think it was all of the above. It was a vindication for the GOP establishment, for the establishment in Wisconsin and with a land slide victory that Ted Cruz needed to sort of propel his campaign forward with momentum. To create a narrative that he is able to sort of cut into Donald Trump's lead and prevent him from getting to that crucial 1237 number.

And I think it also created a story line that Ted Cruz can broaden his base, he can appeal to a wider set of voters beyond just the hard core, die hard, you know, republican activists, conservative religious Evangelical voters. He can now appeal to moderates, working class folks who are in different parts of the country besides just the south.

THOMAS: I think the question is can he appeal to those voters or do they disdain Donald Trump so much that they're willing to...

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Yes. Just to hold their nose and vote?

SESAY: Yes.

THOMAS: Right. And this was the first shot that we really saw the anti-Trump people have the opportunity to coalesce around one major candidate, and they did. It worked. It really reinvigorated Ted Cruz's narrative that Donald Trump can be stop.

VAUSE: OK. Let's look at, you know, Donald Trump right now because every time he has suffered from one these setbacks he does something within the next 24 hour news cycle to dominate the narrative.

SESAY: Yes.

VAUSE: What does he do now? I mean, what was the betting here. Does he actually have to go to Fifth Avenue and shoot someone like he said he would do? I mean, is this how he sort of regains the news cycle here?

THOMAS: Sure. Well, there are a couple of ways to do that. One is to dig up a piece of dirt on Ted Cruz that we have yet to see. It could be affairs. That's been tried.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: Well, Trump done that one. He's Canadian.

THOMAS: Maybe new...

VAUSE: He's tried that.

THOMAS: Maybe a new revelation. But you're right. All odds are saying that this next two weeks stretch until we get to New York are going to be a bad two weeks for Donald Trump. He's got to hunker down, do the best he can and then win big in New York, carrying all of New York's delegates and then take the fight here to California, win big in California and tell people he's back in this.

JACOBSON: If I could jump in real quick.

SESAY: Yes.

JACOBSON: Every single time there's been a devastating loss for Donald Trump whether it was in Iowa or in Wisconsin, he's had to come up with some sort of justification why it wasn't his fault, there were some other reason.

When it was in Iowa, it was the Ben Carson or the Ted Cruz mailer targeted to Ben Carson voters saying, oh, he's not really candidate. He's dropping out. And now he's coming up with excuses, there's some coordination with the super PAC with Ted Cruz in Wisconsin.

So, he's never willing to sort of take the blame for his losses. And I wonder if we're going to see that moving forward now that Ted Cruz has some momentum in other states that he could potentially win over Trump.

THOMAS: Well, what was remarkable the night was, you know, everybody agrees Donald Trump had a really bad last week, it was bad. Some were unforced errors, others were forced. But we saw tonight from exit polls that Donald Trump's core supporters even among women who liked him did not abandon him.

SESAY: Yes.

THOMAS: They stayed with him. That was remarkable. And the fact is, it's Donald Trump, it's not that he's collapsing, it's that Ted Cruz is growing. And that's the problem we're seeing in that.

SESAY: Can he grow in New York? Can he grow in the northeast where his message of, you know, conservative purity and religious faith doesn't necessarily resonate in the same way as it does in the south and other parts into the Midwest.

THOMAS: It's a great -- it's a great argument, Isha. It's very difficult. So, now we're seeing can the momentum of this win carry Ted Cruz into coalescing this anti-Trump movement? We'll see.

VAUSE: OK. Let's get to the democratic cycle.

THOMAS: Yes.

VAUSE: Bernie Sanders clearly believes he has momentum. He's talking about this all the way to the White House. And he said tonight the key to that will, in fact, be the super delegates.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I think that a lot of these super delegates are going to be looking around them and that are going to be saying which candidate has the momentum, which candidate is bringing out huge numbers of people and creating huge.

(APPLAUSE)

Which candidate can bring out large numbers of people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Their take from the democrats, what are the chances that those super delegates will, in fact, look at who's bringing out huge crowds and switch from Hillary to Bernie?

JACOBSON: I think it's unlikely that most of them will. Some of them may peel away. I mean, look, the reality is Bernie Sanders has the wind at his back. He's won seven of the last eight contests. He's poised to win the Wisconsin -- Wyoming caucus this Saturday.

And so, look, I think he has nothing to lose, right? So might as well do everything you can to peel away some of those super delegates. There's also 200 super delegates who are still yet to make a decision in the race. And so, I think he's got to go after each and every single one of

those. But, look, I mean, the reality is he has a very steep hill to climb. He's got to win more than two thirds of the delegates in every state moving forward just to catch up to Hillary Clinton.

THOMAS: He's meant just to surpass her.

SESAY: The Clinton campaign is taking on this strategy head on. The Clinton campaign manager, Robby Mook put out a statement and he said this. Let's read it for our viewers, in part, "The Sanders campaign path forward relies on overturning the will of the voters. Their latest strategy involves a combination of trying to flip pledged delegates at states and count the conventions while also convincing super delegates that he deserves their support."

[03:10:08] I think the key thing is trying to overturn the will of the people, you know, really taking on this notion that, you know, Bernie Sanders has made himself like the guardian of democracy. And here he is trying to flip what people want.

JACOBSON: I think it's slightly disingenuous for the Clinton campaign to say that. I have a lot of respect for the Clinton campaign and campaign manager Robby Mook.

Look, the reality is this is straight out of the Barack Obama playbook. He was able to peel away a significant chunk of Hillary Clinton's voters on the heels of several consecutive wins making a compelling case that look, I have a pathway to victory, I'm the most electable candidate in the general election up against the republicans.

And so, Bernie Sanders is simply just following the Clinton -- the Obama playbook from 2008.

VAUSE: And so, just with the delegates here with this win, you know, it was a good win for Bernie Sanders, I'm not saying it's not great, 13 points, but it's all proportional. He's going to walk away with a net gain, what, 8 or 9 delegates in this. He needs to break through one of those big states. And until he's going to do that, then nothing is going to change. Yes, I want to change here.

THOMAS: Yes. That's right. And I think it's undeniable that Bernie Sanders has big mo (ph) on his side. He has a bunch of consecutive wins but he has a fundamental problem. And that is he has to shift the demographic arc of this race.

Bernie Sanders has a lock on white liberals, no question. He's got it. But until he can start winning African-Americans and Latinos, he cannot overcome this gap. And looking forward to California, that's critical.

SESAY: Dave, Hillary Clinton has kind of made the strategic move of folk's thing on the general, and taking on Donald Trump, the presumptive nominee. Has the time come with Bernie winning six of the last seven, has the time come for her to refocus and basically take the gloves off? JACOBSON: Indeed. I mean, we've seen that pivot. Actually I got an e-

mail from the Clinton campaign taking Bernie Sanders to task for really having a very thin sort of comprehensive foreign policy plan who was asked by the New York Daily News in that editorial interview, what are his plans for some of these key foreign policy issues?

And he really didn't have any specifics. And we saw her take him to task a couple of debates ago, where, you know, he really didn't have anything to say on foreign policy beyond just hitting her for her war on Iraq vote.

And so, I think you're going to see that shift increasingly. We're seeing the polls close narrow a little bit in a state like New York which is a must-win state for her. It will be a devastating blow if she losses her home state.

And so, I think she's going to do anything that she can to sort of increase the intensity of her campaign, take the gloves off and take him to task and prevent a Bernie Sanders victory in New York.

SESAY: And Hillary's got...

THOMAS: That weeks ago, this contest should have been overlooked. Let's look at Michigan, right? That when they should have been. But Bernie Sanders is the ever ready bunny, he just keeps going and going.

VAUSE: And never stops.

THOMAS: And never stop.

VAUSE: Who would have thought that she is still going up against this 74-year-old socialist by April? I mean, this is a spot.

(CROSSTALK)

THOMAS: It is remarkable.

SESAY: So just believe that maybe he'd be raising so much money.

THOMAS: That is really the story of the campaign.

SESAY: That's the story.

VAUSE: And what's going to happen to that cash, which we'll talk about in the night.

SESAY: Gentlemen, always a pleasure.

JACOBSON: Thanks for having me.

SESAY: Thank you.

THOMAS: Thanks for having me. I appreciate it.

SESAY: All right. Time for a quick break now. Bernie Sanders says he has momentum off his big win over Hillary Clinton in Wisconsin. And he said the democratic front-runner is getting nervous.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: If you ignore what you hear on corporate media, the facts are pretty clear. We have a path toward victory, a path toward the White House!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:15:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KATE RILEY, CNN WORLD SPORT ANCHOR: I'm Kate Riley with your CNN World Sport headlines.

We start with the first leg of the UEFA Champions League semifinals. And just this weekend, Barce suffered their first tie loss since October and it wasn't a great start for Barcelona on Tuesday night against Spanish rivals, Atletico.

Fernando Torres set the visitors up by a goal but will get sent off soon after leaving Atletico to play with just 10 men. Suarez equalized in the second half. Then by his second of the night that's now his 45th goal in 46 games. In all counts for Barcelona.

Meanwhile, the 2013 champs Bayern Munich were also in action on Tuesday hosting Benfica in their first leg. The German champions didn't waste any time getting on the board. Just two minutes in, Arturo Vidal headed it home to put Bayern ahead and that's how it would finish, both games perfectly poised heading into next week's second leg.

And finally, Villanova University have claimed the U.S. college basketball championships after Chris Jenkins drained an epic three- pointer to beat the final buzzer culminating the tournament known as March madness. An estimated U.S. TV audience of some 30 million watched the game. If last years' figures are anything to go by.

And that's a look at all your sports headlines. I'm Kate Riley.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Let me take this opportunity to thank the people of Wisconsin for their strong support.

(CROWD CHEERING)

With our victory tonight in Wisconsin, we have now won seven out of eight of the last caucuses in front of us.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: It was a great night for democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders. He won his primary in the State of Wisconsin. It was a great night, too, for Ted Cruz. He won the republican primary there as well.

SESAY: He beat Donald Trump with about 48 percent of the vote to Trump's 35 percent. As for Sanders, he won Wisconsin with 56 percent of the vote. Hillary Clinton got 43 percent.

Meanwhile, it is looking more and more likely the republicans will have contested convention. To win the nomination, the candidate needs 1237 delegate votes. Right now no one has that magic number and mathematically speaking, let's face it, it's getting much more difficult.

Most delegates are bound on the first ballot. After that they can switch candidates and they'll keep voting until one of them wins.

VAUSE: Yes. That's a simple interpretation. It's not that simple. It's a lot more complicated than that. You got Bernie Sanders has already moved on to Wyoming for the next caucuses after his Wisconsin win.

CNN's Briana Keilar was at the Sanders victory rally.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders in Wyoming celebrating his win in the Wisconsin primary. He was here at the University of Wyoming in Laramie riling up supporters, a number of them students who he will be relying on when democrats caucus in Wyoming on Saturday.

He's hoping to add the caucuses on Saturday to a string of recent wins, create some momentum and head into the New York primary on April 19th and give Hillary Clinton a run for his money.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Please, keep this a secret. Do not tell Secretary Clinton she's getting a little nervous and I don't want her to get more nervous, but I believe we've got an excellent chance to win New York and a lot of delegates in that state!

(CROWD CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: His campaign citing their ability to reduce her pledged delegate lead recently by about 80 or so delegates. There's still a considerable spread between the two candidates. More than 200 delegates. But Bernie Sanders and his campaign are insisting there is a path to the White House.

Briana Keilar, CNN, Laramie, Wyoming.

VAUSE: And the Sanders camp says the democrats might have an open convention this July if their candidate continues to win at this pace.

SESAY: Now John King shows Sanders campaign manager a hypothetical scenario to see just how far apart the candidates really are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[03:20:05] JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: For the sake of argument, sure, I'm going to give them all to you. OK?

JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Right.

KING: This is like the price is right or whatever it is. If we give it all to you at 55, 45...

WEAVER: Right.

KING: ... you almost catch her.

WEAVER: Right.

KING: You come up a little short. So, obviously, especially in some of these big states where there, you know, are a couple of hundred delegates you have to win by bigger than that. You don't dispute that.

WEAVER: Right. In some smaller states as you know we have won a lot of these earlier states in the last couple of weeks by, you know, 60 percent, 70 percent, 80 percent in Alaska. And so, yes, in some of these states we're going to have a much bigger margin.

KING: Just to show what that means when you do that, though. In a state like Alaska, 20 delegates. So, you win huge but you get a net gain of 10.

WEAVER: That's right

KING: You need better than that.

WEAVER: No, no. But looking as we saw in Nevada, in many of these caucus states, actually Senator Sanders is going to end up with more delegates. Because if he got to the inner caucus process he's going to end up netting many more delegates than what he gets initially.

KING: But for now I'm going to go back a few.

WEAVER: Sure.

KING: And I'm just going to play -- since we're playing devil's advocate. Let's assume actually Hillary Clinton was the State of Pennsylvania, and you come in second because she thinks she's going to do that, OK.

I'm going to say just for the sake of argument, if she wins here, maybe she doesn't win it by this margin. This goes back to 55, 45. But if you get -- this is -- this is even -- you know, I'm still giving you a bunch of states. And the Clinton people watching and saying there's no way in New Jersey, there's no way in West Virginia.

But if this happens. So, I guess the question is, in terms of pledge delegates, and I haven't done that where I bring out the super delegates.

WEAVER: Right, right, right.

KING: Because obviously, if you do something like this, some of those super delegates are going to change their mind. Some. The question is how many. But how do you change the map so that you catch her not just get close to her, but catch her?

WEAVER: Right. Well, in some of these states we're going to have bigger margins. Truth is, it's going to be many of the smaller states. I mean, you mentioned West Virginia, there's polls and it showed Senator Sanders 20 points ahead in West Virginia right now. We haven't campaigned a bit.

KING: But it's 37 delegates. I mean, even if you win...

(CROSSTALK)

WEAVER: Well, that's right.

KING: But it's 40. You're not making a big map.

WEAVER: No, it's not. You're never making a big map. It's slow and steady wins the race. And this is the number right here, of course, 2383. None of these scenarios shows either person getting to 2383. So, we're going to an open convention.

Everybody is talking about that republican an open convention. The democrats are going to an open convention.

KING: You sincerely believe that?

WEAVER: Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: All right. Now our own Dylan Byers, CNN's senior reporter for media and politics joins us. Dylan, you just watch that with us. I mean, they are holding on to this belief. And even after seeing the map they're not letting go of this argument.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICS REPORTER: No, they're not letting go. And I will say there's no greater way to galvanize your supporters than by raising the prospect of an open convention.

If you have Sanders supporters where sort of down and out who believe that maybe Hillary Clinton is going to be the nominee as many people do, and you say all of a sudden you might have an open convention. I mean, my God, how many people are booking tickets for Philadelphia right now.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: It's all they've got.

BYERS: When you look at the map and the math it's all they've got. But it's also true as a baseline. Even if you're a losing candidate, even if you're Rick Santorum or Lindsey Graham, it's really hard to step away from a presidential campaign.

It is especially hard to step away from a presidential campaign if you have a ton of money, which Bernie Sanders has, and if you've galvanized this movement. And look, you think about it, they're going up against Hillary Clinton.

I mean, Hillary Clinton has been, you know, the most qualified person to serve in the White House just in terms of her resume. She's been in public life for 25 years. Low and behold they're having these huge victories in all of these states.

(CROSSTALK)

VAUSE: I guess they're going to-- yes.

BYERS: You don't step -- you don't step away from that. You continue to advance your agenda as much as you can and you do it knowing that even if you don't get to the White House, you've created a movement and you're taking the Democratic Party in that direction.

SESAY: But some democratic stalwarts some in the party say the problem is knowing that he's not going to win at least with the maps as it is and him continuing to attack that he is weakening her as a general election candidate, and so for the good of the party he should start to think about pulling back.

BYERS: Right. And what he would say being the sort of, you know, tried and true democratic socialist that he is, is what I'm doing is good for the party. Clearly, the desire for a more progressive socialist agenda exists. I have galvanized that movement.

Four years from now, maybe there be a guy who's not a 74-year-old white, you know, guy from Vermont, maybe a young Latino coming out of the State like Texas, or Arizona, who knows, and he'll galvanize the party. But he's taking in a direction. I don't see him stepping away from that until the convention.

VAUSE: One of the other problems for Hillary Clinton is that, you know, she's still running two campaigns right now. And she's been focusing on taking on Donald Trump instead of maybe in a general election match-up. We didn't hear from her tonight. But we did hear from her earlier on Tuesday. And again, she was going after Donald Trump and his campaign event in New York.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: How do we unify our country? Too many voices out there, too many people are trying to divide Americans against Americans. I wish they'd all come to New York and spend time and the fellow who's from New York, I wish he'd get out of one of his towers and actually walk the streets and spend time with the people of this city.

(CROWD CHEERING)

[03:25:03] Because peddling, peddling prejudice and paranoia is not the New York way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Given the results in Wisconsin and the, you know, the wins that Bernie Sanders is racking up, even though it's still impossible for him to get the nomination, does she need to put that on hold for a bit and really go after Sanders and try and put this away once and for all in New York?

BYERS: I think she needs to do two things. On this sort of public level in terms of her public remarks, the fact that she didn't give a concession speech tonight, she needs to be the general election candidate.

She has cast herself as that, I mean, she really does have the delegate map working in her favor. And look, it's going to be -- it's going to be like many of our recent general elections, it's going to be a contentious one. So, she needs to get ready for that.

Privately, yes, her campaign is working to shore up support in New York. They need to win New York by a big margin. I would say that -- I would say that behind the scenes the campaign is still focused very much on Sanders. But in terms of her public persona, she's totally on Trump with the republicans.

SESAY: I want to ask you about Trump and the republicans for a second and how this played out in Wisconsin. Because the win for Cruz's remarkable on many fronts.

One front that's worth noting is the fact that we saw talk radio, we saw these right wing radios host coalesce among Cruz and really go to battle for him. Talk to us about the moment we just witnessed and its significance going forward.

BYERS: Yes. Well, it's a big moment because for so many conservative republicans, they really are the ones who feel like they don't have a voice, not just with the political establishment, but with the media, with the national media.

They look to talk radio as their sort of voices. And guys on right wing talk radio care about the fundamentals of conservatism. They really do. They look at Donald Trump. They see him as the sort of coastal formerly liberal elite guy. He's not their guy. Ted Cruz is their guy.

And we saw -- we saw radio hosts doing it in Iowa, in Florida even and now we're seeing them do it in Wisconsin and in a really big way. And we're seeing is that sort of momentum. You're not just seeing the establishment gravitate towards Cruz, you're seeing talk radio come to Cruz. And those make for strange bedfellows but it could prove to be very effective.

VAUSE: Yes. It's interesting to see how talk radio is evolving.

SESAY: Yes. VAUSE: Initially there was some support for Trump. They say comments about abortion and a few other things that have said and lost him support in that sort of that fear of right wing conservative talk radio. Dylan Byers, thank you.

SESAY: Thank you for hanging out with us.

BYERS: Thank you so much.

SESAY: Thank you. All right. Well, a defeat for Trump, a win for Cruz. Ahead, more on the changing landscape in the race for the White House.

[03:30:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Tonight is a turning point. It is a rallying cry. It is a call from the hardworking men and women of Wisconsin to the people of America. We have a choice, a real choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: Big, big night for Ted Cruz emerges in Wisconsin's republican primary have given him a major boost.

CNN projected the presidential candidate won his party's primary there with more than 48 percent of the vote. Cruz's victory moves the Republican Party closer to a historic contested convention.

CNN also projects that Bernie Sanders has won Wisconsin's democratic presidential primary with about 56 percent of the vote.

VAUSE: This is Senator Sanders' sixth straight win over Hillary Clinton. Now the Wisconsin win is big for Cruz and tough news for Trump.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty looks at how the two campaigns are reacting.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Senator Cruz in celebrating his big win in Wisconsin is making clear that he's already looking forward and making something of a rhetorical pivot towards the general election not mentioning his rivals Donald Trump or John Kasich much during his speech here, rather going after Hillary Clinton ending his speech with the words point blank, Hillary Clinton, we are coming for you.

Now Cruz is still behind in the delegate count and the results have pushed this potentially more towards a contested convention, but Cruz said that this is a path that he is confident of.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

CRUZ: Either before Cleveland or at the convention in Cleveland, together we will win a majority of the delegates and together we will beat Hillary Clinton in November.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: And Donald Trump did not have an election night event, but his campaign has issued a response to the result in Wisconsin which in part say, quote, "Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet. He is a Trojan horse being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump."

And the Cruz campaign is responding to that Trump campaign statement already basically casting Donald Trump as being a sore loser. A top Cruz aide telling me that they believe that Donald Trump is now in full meltdown mode.

Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

SESAY: Now let's dig a little deeper on what these results mean for the race going forward.

VAUSE: CNN's politics reporter, Tal Kopan, and she joined now from washington. Tal, thanks for being with us. Thank you for staying up so late. What is that 3, you know, 3.15, 3.30 in Washington. I'm totally gone

Welcome to the late, late show. Hey, listen to that statement. I want to read that statement out from the Trump campaign a little longer. "Donald J. Trump withstand the onslaught of the establishment yet again, lying Ted Cruz had the Governor of Wisconsin. Many conservative talk radio show host and the entire party apparatus behind him. Not only was he propelled by the anti-Trump super PAC's spending countless millions of dollars on false advertising against Mr. Trump. But he was coordinating with his own super PACs, which is illegal who totally controls him. Ted Cruz is worse than a puppet. He's a Trojan horse being used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from Mr. Trump."

This is a blistering statement. And clearly, you know, whatever truce there was between Donald Trump and the republican establishment, that's over. but how long, you know, will this go on? Where does this all lead to?

KOPAN: Yes. And I'm not even sure that truce was ever really there. I mean, we could probably spend an hour dissecting the statement. It is classic Trump and quite a bit ways. It is sort of double barreled here.

In one sense he's speaking to his base and really riling up his base. Throughout this campaign we've seen him really bring out new voters to the Republican Party. People really respond to his outsider status. He's very much supported by voters who think that the GOP establishment and the politicians in Washington are totally corrupt; they're not speaking for them.

So, in one way it's speaking directly to that base and riling them up and the other way it's a bit of a warning shot across the bow.

[03:35:04] You know, he's shown a tendency to play the rest. He really likes to intimidate the media if he can to get his way. And he's intimidated the Republican Party every turn of this campaign as much as he can to try to get the field to line up in his favor.

So, this is sort of a classic Trump move of trying to look to the next primary that's going to be coming up and then rile up his base to come out for them and try to get the Republican Party to back off him a little bit.

SESAY: Another classic move, Tal, is him trying to have it both ways, if you will. On the one hand when he met with party leaders in D.C. a couple of days ago and he put out that tweet afterwards saying I will unite the party.

So, on the one hand he's a uniter, and on the other hand he's a disrupter, you know, trying to do it both ways.

KOPAN: Absolutely. It's something we've seen the whole time. You know, the only one who can speak for Donald Trump is Donald Trump. And you kind of can sometimes get a different Donald Trump depending on the hour he's tweeting or the day.

He's shown a remarkable Teflon ability to say things that in any other campaign would totally doom a candidate and then comeback in an hour or the next day and say, no, that was misinterpreted, that's not what I meant, let me correct the record. And his supporters accept it.

And we have not seen his support flag at all in light of these issues. Now he's had a really rough week. We had misstatements on abortion that he has sort of gone back and forth on. He's been slammed by anti- abortion groups and pro-choice groups alike.

So, it's been a little bit difficult for him in that regard. And that's just one element of a rough week. There was the spat over the wives that he admitted a tweet was a mistake which we don't see a lot from him.

So, we'll see moving forward if there's finally a bit of a chink in the armor. But so far we haven't seen one even on bad weeks.

VAUSE: One thing which that statement by the Trump campaign is clearly trying to do is painting Ted Cruz as the establishment candidate. I think it's not paying much that he is. But it's by a great deal of reluctance.

How difficult has it been, you know, for the Republican Party hierarchy to the senior elders, if you like, within the Republican Party, so sort of their nose and reluctantly endorse Ted Cruz? I mean, how much do they dislike this guy? How difficult is this for him, for them?

KOPAN: It's truly remarkable for those of us in Washington. You know, I was struck watching Ted Cruz's victory speech tonight. He listed off his establishment endorsements. He thanked Jeb Bush, an Scott Walker, and Mike Lee, and Mark Levine, all of these people who have sort of lined up behind him.

And I was just struck by how far we've come. I mean, he was trailing in the endorsement race for weeks and weeks and months, couldn't get a single Senate colleague to support him. They all lined up behind Marco Rubio or Jeb Bush before that.

You know, Lindsey Graham joked earlier in this campaign that choosing between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump was like choosing between being shot and being poisoned. And now he's out there.

He tweeted tonight how wonderful it was that Ted Cruz won and the stop Trump forces were reinvigorated. So, it's absolutely remarkable. There is a -- certainly a great amount of nose holding as you put it.

But clearly people view Ted Cruz as the only way to stop Donald Trump and most of their interest is in protecting the party. And if they believe that Ted Cruz is the best candidate to protect the party, you're going to see them line up behind him.

VAUSE: It's also, Lindsey Graham is also the guy that joked about murdering Ted Cruz on the floor of the Senate as well. That wasn't too long ago.

SESAY: Strange campaign.

VAUSE: But now we're all friends.

SESAY: Very, very strange.

VAUSE: Donald Trump bringing people together.

KOPAN: There you go.

SESAY: I appreciate it.

VAUSE: Tal, thank you.

KOPAN: Thank you, guys.

SESAY: Thank you.

All right. Now, the Governor of Mississippi has signed a controversial bill that gay rights advocates rather.

VAUSE: Yes.

SESAY: Say makes discrimination a part of state law.

CNN's Polo Sandoval tells us supporters of the bill say it actually protects rights.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In the U.S. State of Mississippi, now the latest to consider and pass controversial legislation is so- called Religious Freedom bill. Despite pressure from opponents and also of course big businesses, Governor Phil Bryant signed the legislation into law yesterday. Unlike bills or laws in other states, this one establishes three

religious beliefs now protected by the State of Mississippi. Marriage is recognized only as being between a man and woman, sexual relations are reserved only to heterosexual marriages and also an individual sex is determined at birth.

The law that kicks in to affect your life first will give businesses or organizations in Mississippi the right to refuse service to anyone outside of those three different believes that have been established this week.

Supporters like Mississippi Governor, Phil Bryant says the law is simply meant to protect the religious rights of people.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL BRYANT, MISSISSIPPI GOVERNOR: It basically said the state or its political subdivisions cannot discriminate against someone because of their deeply held religious views.

[03:39:59] If a baker or photographer says my deeply held religious view is that I cannot participate in a religious ceremony like a wedding, the state cannot fine you. We cannot take your license away from you.

We couldn't end any contracts. So, there's other provisions within that law. But that's the basis of it. The state cannot discriminate against someone because of their religious views. That's what the intent of the law is. It doesn't create a discriminatory act or power on anyone's part. It simply protects someone's religious views against the state's interference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And then you talk to opponents who disagree. They say that this is simply discrimination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROB HILL, HUMAN RIGHTS CAMPAIGN STATE DIRECTOR: Yes. The LGBT people in Mississippi who have heard throughout the years, maybe at a church, or at school, or even in their home unfortunately that they are not of value, and that they're second class and here's our state leader saying exactly that same thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: And there is a similar debate that played out in North Carolina. Lawmakers they're face pressure to repeal a new law mandating which public restrooms and locker rooms can and can't be used by transgender individuals.

In Georgia, Governor Nathan Deal vetoed a more broadly written bill under pressure from large companies including Disney and also the National Football League. And then you look ahead. There's a bill that will allow therapist and

marriage counselors in Tennessee the right to essentially turn away people based on their religious beliefs. So, clearly, indication that that conversation continues in several portions of the United States.

Polo Sandoval, CNN, Atlanta.

SESAY: Well, San Francisco will become the first U.S. city to require six weeks of fully paid parental leave at many of its businesses. The city's board of supervisors approved the law. It targets companies with 20 or more employees. San Francisco already offers 12 weeks of fully paid leave for its 30,000 city employees.

VAUSE: Supporters applaud the move which are going into effect next year. Opponents say it will hurt businesses and it will cost jobs.

Well, Donald Trump's plan for a wall along the border of Mexico is causing some concern among immigrants especially now. But he's explaining how he'll pay for it. More on that in just a moment.

[03:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SESAY: Welcome back, everyone. Wisconsin voters gave Ted Cruz a victory over Donald Trump and moved the Republican Party closer to a contested convention. Cruz is the projected winner of Wisconsin's republican primary beating Trump by 13 percentage points.

VAUSE: Meantime, Wisconsin is the latest in a string of victories for democrat Bernie Sanders. He's projected to win the state for democratic contest with about 56 percent of the vote.

Donald Trump makes headlines earlier in the other day by announcing details of his plan to make Mexico pay for that wall on the border.

SESAY: Well, the main plan get threats to block currency transfers to Mexico. Trump says he would use an antiterrorism law to force money transfer companies such a Western Union to verify customer's identity and legal status before allowing them to make a transaction.

VAUSE: Undocumented immigrants would then be barred from wiring funds. Trump says the ban would be lifted once Mexico pays the United States 5 to $10 billion to build the wall, but instead he would also consider importing tariff on Mexican imports, cancelling travel visas and raising visa fees if Mexico does not comply.

SESAY: Well, U.S. President Barack Obama says Trump's plan wouldn't work and would have wider consequences overall.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA PRESIDENT: The notion that we're going to track every Western Union, you know, bit of money that's being sent to Mexico, you know, good luck with that. Then we've got the issues of the implications for the Mexican economy, which in turn, if it's collapsing, actually it sends more immigrants north because they can't find jobs back in Mexico. But this is just one more example of something that is not thought

through and is primarily put forward for political consumption.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: CNN's Rafael Romo spoke with some Mexican immigrants about Trump's plans. They say they'll keep supporting their families back home no matter what.

RAFAEL ROMO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If you go to communities across the United States with high concentration of immigrants from Latin America, you're going to find places like this.

Here in Atlanta, Fiesta Plaza not only shopping center but also a place where immigrants, mainly Mexicans, get together. They shop, they dine in little restaurants like this one and they do one more thing that is crucial for their families back home, they send money to Mexico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's very important to send money because they are working really hard here and they have most -- most of them, they have families over there and it's very hard to find jobs in Mexico.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: Donald Trump's reported plan to force the Mexican government to pay for a border wall by stopping undocumented immigrants from transferring money to Mexico as you can imagine is cause for great concern for Mexican immigrants, documented or not.

"This is complete foolishness," she says. "He can do it and we will let him. We're going to keep on sending money to our people as we always have."

According to Mexico Central bank, Mexicans abroad sent nearly $24.8 billion to their country last year, mainly from the United States. This is more money than Mexico's total oil revenues for 2015, estimated at 23.4 billion.

This is the first time that incoming money transfers are higher than oil revenues since they started taking records in 1995. So, Donald Trump wants to block money transfers to Mexico to build a wall. What do you think about that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROMO: "He only makes me laugh," she says. "I don't agree. I'm proudly Mexicans and don't agree with what this gentlemen wants to do."

"He's crazy," she says. "They should take him to see a psychiatrist. I hope all Hispanics, those who are citizens, go out and vote against him."

(END VIDEO CLIP) These immigrants say no matter what, Mexicans will always find a way

to help their families back home.

Rafael Romo, CNN, Atlanta.

VAUSE: Yes. We should note though all of Donald Trump's campaign rallies he always gets a really big applause whenever he brings up he's going to build a wall and make Mexico to pay for it.

SESAY: Yes. Lots and lots of cheers. All right. We're going to take a quick break. You're watching CNN. Do stay with us.

[03:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Thanks for staying with CNN. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri on weather watch right now.

Storm system that is pushing across the eastern part of the U.S. It should bring in some rain around Chicago down towards Birmingham, Alabama, into Atlanta, Georgia. This front here makes it a blustery pattern over the next couple of days.

And also, a little unsettled across southern Canada. Cold enough to support another round of snow showers. In Chicago, certainly not cold enough there. But look at windy conditions with the rain in the forecast.

Montreal should see some evening snow showers mixed in. Winnipeg, same story around 4 degrees for the high temperature. And then look what happened Friday into Saturday this almost resembles a January, maybe February pattern. We get a blast of cold air, yet again, from parts of Southern Canada into the northeast.

Washington goes on a roller coaster ride. And the next it comes back down to about 7 degrees. New York City, at 9 degrees after being up into the teens over the couple of days. And notice around the western U.S., very dry pattern initially.

And then Friday into Saturday we do tap into some subtropical moisture. Southern California really much of the Sierra as well. Will get some beautiful wet weather we need across the region this time of year and they take it there.

And notice in Chihuahua should be on the dry side there, 29 degrees. Havana, Cuba, also a dry forecast. Partly cloudy skies. Looking at 30 degrees. But thunderstorms scattered about el Salvador. One of those areas we're watching for light rain showers forecast around 30.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. Wisconsin is the latest battleground of the U.S. presidential race. Here's a quick recap of Tuesday's results.

SESAY: Republican Ted Cruz beat Donald Trump with about 48 percent of the vote. Trump got 35 percent. And democrat Bernie Sanders won Wisconsin with 56 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton's 43 percent.

VAUSE: Coincidence but up by 13 percent, how about that. Right now the number -- numbers for the republican nomination are not heading towards a slam dunk for any candidate.

SESAY: Now John King plays around with likely scenarios. And they all seem to point to contested, open convention where no candidate wins on the first ballot.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Let's look at the math. And I give Donald Trump a few more delegates than our official count to begin the scenario. And I'll be generous to Mr. Trump as we go forward. Just to show you the difficulty of his math and the likelihood of that open convention.

I give him that because there's some Missouri delegates we haven't awarded yet. I give them to Mr. Trump. So, let's just say going forward here that we start with Mr. Trump. Now we're coming now into what should be his neighborhood.

I'm going to giving him states, wolf, I'm going to give him New York, I'm going to give him Connecticut. I'm going to stretch this out a little bit and give him Rhode Island. And I'm still -- I'm going to go through out and says that Mr. Trump wins New Jersey.

I'll say Mr. Trump wins Pennsylvania, I'll give him Maryland. We can give him Delaware, now we can West Virginia as well. As we do this now I'm going to leave Indiana for a minute. Let's debate about that. Now let's come out to the west.

Ted Cruz has done well out in the west. You can see that up here as he's filled in. So, let's just say as we go forward this could change but just to give you a sense of the difficulty of the math. Let's say Cruz is winning out in these states out here. We'll come down here and we'll go up here and we'll go up here. I'm going to leave California.

[03:55:02] At this point I've left California and Indiana. Let us just tap this to keep that up. Thank you very much. Look where Trump is there, 993. Assuming he does very well here and we gave him generous delegate allocations there. That could do a little better, it could a little worse.

But just for the sake of the hypothetical. Now I have him to 993. So, who wins Indiana? Ted Cruz takes to win it, let's say for the hypothetical. Cruz gets it. And we give him all into this scenario in Indiana if he got that. But even if he gave it to Donald Trump. Go back here if Donald Trump gets and he gets a little bit closer.

The big prize, obviously, California on June 7th. If this one goes to Donald Trump, even if we give him all the delegates and I give him Indiana, and I was very generous to him here, he's just shy.

WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM SHOW HOST: One thousand two hundred twenty two.

KING: Yes.

BLITZER: You need 1237.

KING: He's just shy. This would be difficult for republicans to say, sorry, Mr. Trump, if he got that close. But remember, I just did this in an incredibly generous way. People anybody that is watching as a Ted Cruz supporter probably thinks this one is going to go that way instead and most of them a little bit.

But under a very generous scenario, Trump comes up just short. If he doesn't perform quite as well as I just did being generous to him. He's, you know, could be high 1100, he could be right around 12.

Republican -- big interesting thing this week, is more and more republicans say that even if he's close, even if he's above 12 they will try to stop him at the convention. So, we got a ways to go. A kind of both, but I do think we will end tonight saying that an open or contested convention is much more likely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SESAY: John King and his awesome magic wall.

VAUSE: Very magical.

SESAY: Very magical. Well, here's one thing that's definitely not contested.

VAUSE: Nice segue.

SESAY: Yes, like that. Connecticut has won an unprecedented fourth straight women's college basketball title.

VAUSE: Syracuse to won on Tuesday night. It's the Huskies 11th championship overall.

SESAY: Certain way (ph) didn't like that. That was awesome.

VAUSE: OK.

SESAY: Congrats to them. And thank you for watching. I'm Isha Sesay.

VAUSE: And I'm John Vause. For our viewers in North America Early Start with Victor Blackwell (ph) and Christine Romans is up next. For viewers everywhere else, stay with us for CNN Newsroom.

[04:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)