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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Key New York Primary Tonight; Trump's New York Race. Aired 12- 12:30p ET

Aired April 19, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:15] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Ashleigh Banfield. And welcome to LEGAL VIEW. And happy New York primary day, whew, because, for the first time in decades, the vote here actually matters. I just want to put this in perspective. It was 1988 when I started in this business. God, that's embarrassing. But that was the last time that this state of New York had a meaningful primary considering its place on the election calendar. Ninety-five delegates at stake for the Republicans here, 247 at stake for the Democrats. The Republican frontrunner, Donald Trump, of course, voted for himself this morning, as candidates do. And listen to his reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a great honor, really, who will have thought? This was just a great honor and I think it's a great honor for New York. New York is a special place. So, we're going to have -

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're going to have a press (INAUDIBLE) outside.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Outside, boss. Outside.

TRUMP: We're going to make America great again.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (INAUDIBLE) outside the polling (INAUDIBLE).

TRUMP: Thank you very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: There you have it, Donald Trump poised for a very big win. Ted Cruz, John Kasich already looking ahead, beyond New York, because this place ain't going to turn out so well for them. Instead, the campaign stops are in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Still a big day for them, though. This morning, Governor Kasich tweeted this. "New York, we are facing some big challenges. We need a president who is ready on day one." And on the Democrat's side, the Clintons both casting their ballots this morning. And afterwards, Hillary Clinton asking voters to do the same.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I had a great time going around the city in the last couple of days just seeing a lot of old friends, meeting new people, and I just urge everybody, please come out and vote before 9:00 p.m. tonight. That would be terrific. Thank you all very much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Ah-hah, Bernie Sanders also making a stop in New York today, calling on people there to grab their friends, grab their family members and vote for a political revolution. Even folks on the street getting their last chance to have a wave and a handshake. I love New York.

Jason Carroll also loves New York. He's on Staten Island today. Miguel Marquez is in Lancaster in upstate New York.

By the way, guys, they could not be more different. The big old islands of Manhattan and then upstate. So, Jason, I want to begin with you, if I can. Trump expected to win big in this state. How big?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's hoping for a huge victory and he certainly needs one if he wants to capture all of those 95 delegates up for grabs. You know, Trump is way ahead in the polls, as you know, way ahead of Ted Cruz, hoping to stop Ted Cruz's winning streak. You know, Trump feeling confident this morning but his campaign, Ashleigh, as you know, has definitely hit a few rocky points. He's had several changes in the campaign structure. He has a new field director, national field director, after his field director had to resign. He says he wasn't forced out. He said he did it on his own. As you know, he also has a new political director in power. So, definitely some changes along with his campaign.

He's doing that simply because a lot of folks are saying this is a man who did not have a healthy ground game, did not have a strong ground game. That's why he saw losses in Colorado and in places like - in places like Wyoming. But in terms of New York, expecting a big win here in the state. As you heard him here a little earlier talking about going out and voting, Trump feeling very confident about tonight's outcome.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think I'm going to do well. I mean, we'll see. Who knows? It's politics, right? You know that better than I do. But I think we'll do really well. It feels really good. Great support. You see all the people over there, all positive. No hecklers. No nothing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Trump.

TRUMP: So I think we're going to do really well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Again, Trump sounding positive, sounding confident this morning. Again, Ashleigh, he's wanting to capture and sweep all of the 90 vote - 95 delegates that are up for grabs here in the state. If he's able to do that, what that does is it gives him the momentum, the much-needed momentum going forward when he's looking at places like Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island, and Maryland.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: A lot of contests ahead and they don't all think the same without question.

All right, Mr. City Slicker, I'm going to leave you there in Staten Island. I'm going to go upstate where Miguel Marquez is standing by in Lancaster. And they do call us city slickers when you're upstate. It's a very different dynamic up there. So walk me through what things look like where you are, Miguel.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, they say that upstate is the center of the state. So they believe that they're the ones - and, you know, we're right outside Buffalo. It's the second largest city in the state. It does break down mainly along, you know, Democratic/Republicans. They're fairly even throughout the city and around the surrounding suburbs.

[12:05:05] In this race, I can tell you, it is different already. In previous primaries, they had about 35 percent of the total vote turning out. They already have up around 15 percent of the total vote turning out. This is also the only upstate county that votes from 6:00 a.m. to 9:00 p.m., like they do in the city. And they expect by 9:00 p.m. to have a very, very big turnout.

Here, you can see that in Lancaster, they've had several hundred voters come through here today. They check in here, then they go to various voting districts here and then they vote here at these privacy screens and then they actually run their own votes through a machine here. They expect very high turnout here because you have three New Yorkers in this race and it is the first time that New York, for both Democrats and Republicans in the primary, has mattered in about 40 years. So it is a huge, huge race here. They - they've printed out far more ballots than they think that they will need, but they are ready to go if they are needed.

Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Well, if you're close to Buffalo, that's Wolf Blitzer territory. That's where he's from and they like their man.

MARQUEZ: That's right.

BANFIELD: All right, Miguel, thank you. We'll check in with you throughout the day. And thank you, Jason, as well, on Staten Island. Say hi to the good folks there for us, if you would.

All right, gentlemen, I'm going to move on because when Donald Trump is poised to win the primary today in New York, a lot happens. He's already got his sights set on the high - on the other big contests. Going high. That's what he wants. It's all about the winning, right? And he's bringing in some very high level people to help him close that deal. He's the guy who wrote the book. "Art of the Deal." You've got to have the guys to work with you. And there's one of them right there, Katrina Pierson joining me now. She's the national spokeswoman for the Trump campaign.

Katrina P., how are you?

KATRINA PIERSON, NATIONAL SPOKESWOMAN, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Hi, Ashleigh. Great to be here.

BANFIELD: Big, big day for you. I do not need to tell you about all 95 of those very important delegates that your guy hopes to sweep. First question out of the gate, is he going to sweep all 95 today?

PIERSON: You know, I think we will. We're very confident. The state of New York and Donald Trump go hand in hand. He absolutely loves this state. And I do, I think we're going to have a clean sweep today.

BANFIELD: So with that said, it has not been a great 24 hours just in terms of your staffing in the campaign. Stuart Jolly, big field guy, off the campaign. This is following a couple of weeks of bad headlines and some rejigging of how Donald Trump runs things when it comes to trying to win this contest. Don't you think that can be damaging 24 hours before people are going to vote to see someone jump a ship?

PIERSON: No, not at all. I think what we're seeing here is Mr. Trump engaging to move forward, not just to lock up the nomination, but preparing for a general election. I think a lot of people are happy to see some of the individuals that were brought on to the campaign and, you know, expanding the communications team, spending more money. That's always a wonderful sign in politics. And so I think a lot of people are actually happy to see some of these changes. And - and people leave campaigns all the time for their own reasons that has really nothing to do with the election in New York and moving forward.

BANFIELD: They do. You always get the headline though when someone leaves a campaign.

PIERSON: Always.

BANFIELD: It always makes a biggie and you're the one that has to do the mop-up. OK, so you -

PIERSON: It's always a big conspiracy.

BANFIELD: You - you mentioned the big money. I'm going to get there in a minute. I still don't want to leave this whole rejigging of who's running what. Up until now, Corey Lewandowski's been your guy. He's been running the campaign. And then in comes Paul Manafort. And then in comes Mr. Wiley and all of a sudden there are other people running the show. But there's still all those loyalists, right? Rick Wiley was going to have, you know, the last guy to jump out report to him, and instead that's not going to happen. And there are a lot of people, by the way, who are very loyal to those leaving. I need to ask you a very serious question. Do you expect anybody else to jump ship because they don't want to report to the new guys? PIERSON: No, I don't see that at all. Here's the misunderstanding in

the media and - and we talk about campaign loyalty all the time. But the individuals on this campaign, not only are they loyal to each other, but their first and foremost loyal to Mr. Trump. At the end of the day, everyone a part of this team is committed to helping Mr. Trump be successful. And a lot of these campaign shifts are due to people being moved around. Michael Glassner used to be the political director and now he's the deputy campaign manager. Corey Lewandowski is still the campaign manager. So we're really just filling in gaps in a lot of these areas. But I understand the media likes to make a story out of everything and really this was just the campaign expanding, preparing for a general election.

BANFIELD: Well, we don't like to make a story. We do like to find them and follow them though. And this is a big one. And especially the notion that Donald Trump is hiring, you know, guys who have been around for 40 years. And Paul Manafort is a vet. He was on the Ford, you know, delegate effort when Ford was trying to win delegates against Reagan. So these are old guys coming in with the old ways. And Roger Stone was considered to be one of them. So here's the big question about Paul Manafort's old partner, Roger Stone, who used to work for Donald Trump but left the campaign on good terms.

[12:10:03] Behind the scenes, sources in the campaign are saying that Roger Stone is over Donald Trump's shoulder all the time. He is advising all the time. He is on the phone with Donald Trump all the time. But he doesn't work for the campaign. He's known for dirty tricks. He's got Nixon tattooed on his back. Is that so that he could do the dirty work and leave Donald Trump to be clean?

PIERSON: No, I don't think so. And, in fact, Roger Stone hasn't been a part of this campaign since early on.

BANFIELD: Officially.

PIERSON: He has no affiliation - no affiliation with the campaign and -

BANFIELD: Officially.

PIERSON: Well, absolutely. And I think I would probably know if that were the case. But, no, not at all. Mr. Trump is very serious about this campaign. He's very serious about winning and locking up the nomination. He's very serious about going after Hillary Clinton in the general election so that he can implement his policies to make America great again.

There's all kinds of people out there who claim to have some connection to Mr. Trump or who want to stay relevant by saying so and I just don't think this is the case here. Yes, there are a lot of veterans who are out there that are now talking to the campaign and working for the campaign, but that doesn't necessarily mean somebody like a Roger Stone is still in the mix.

BANFIELD: So - but when he tells CNN that he is still in contact regularly with Donald Trump, is he lying? PIERSON: You know, that's a question you're going to have to ask Mr.

Stone. He may send over messages, but that doesn't mean that Mr. Trumps is talking on the phone with him every day.

BANFIELD: OK.

PIERSON: I think we can all agree that Mr. Trump is extremely busy and doesn't get to sit around and just talk on the phone all day. But again, I'll also say that it's very important to understand that the campaign is transitioning now to grow, to be successful in locking up the nomination and really preparing for a general election. And I think that's the most important part here.

BANFIELD: The growing, yes. And I want to just loop that back to the other stuff you said, the money. It does look as though this campaign is growing. $20 million according to Politico to come out of a meeting that is being shifted off to Paul Manafort and his deputies to start looking at these upcoming contests and the delegate work, the stuff that Ted Cruz has been doing for months and months. This is Paul Manafort's specialty, how to woo these delegates. And $20 million is not an easy ticket that your boss likes to write.

Insiders in the campaign have told me personally, this is a cheap guy. He is not one to part with cash. And up until now he's been depending entirely on all this free media and then sort of his own concepts of how the campaign should work, but that's changing. So tell me a little bit about that money and what's going to be the focus of that money in the next upcoming contests.

PIERSON: Well, we have - we do have states that are coming up that are quite big. I mean look at California, for example. It's going to cost money to compete there and Mr. Trump wants to be successful in California as well. When you're spending your own money -

BANFIELD: Ads? With or something else?

PIERSON: Definitely ads.

BANFIELD: Delegates?

PIERSON: Definitely ads. Definitely ads.

BANFIELD: But how do you advertise to delegates? You don't advertise to delegates.

PIERSON: Well, we have an election that's coming up. And one of the things that we haven't done a lot of are advertising.

BANFIELD: Yes, but these guys are the delegates (INAUDIBLE). Katrina, this is the key. This is the key. Paul Manafort and his deputies are critical in delegate scouring. So where do you spend money to scour delegates?

PIERSON: Well, no, they're going to have to get out there. They're going to have to have more people out there on the ground to continue the effort. But, of course, we have to do ads in California because we do want to do well in the election. Again, Ashleigh, this is about margins. We're in a game of margins now. We're doing really well in the upcoming contests, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland. We want to do really well moving forward. So this money is allocated to continue to get Mr. Trump's message out there, bypass the media filter, to be successful even within the margins. And that's very important.

And, yes, the delegate system is very important, which we've seen in the past in states like Colorado -

BANFIELD: Yes.

PIERSON: Where you have the state party systems that's actually been punishing through the delegate system a leaving Trump delegates off. But we don't want to see that happen anymore. That's the purpose that Paul Manafort brings is to watch that system intricately, to make sure that we have what it takes to be successful and we are very confident we are going to receive 1,237 before the convention.

BANFIELD: All right, so last, quick question is just really a one line answer here. He said 7/11 instead of 9/11. That is a critical faux pas in this state, in this city, and it's his city. You want to respond to that?

PIERSON: Well, I think after you've done several events over a short time period, people misspeak all the time. Slip of the tongue. (INAUDIBLE) -

BANFIELD: Well, you know what, I've done it a million times. It happens to me all the time. Thanks so much for being with me today.

PIERSON: Thanks, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: We'll look forward to talking to you again, especially after today's results.

PIERSON: Sure. Great to be here. Thank you.

BANFIELD: Katrina Pierson joining us live from Dallas. One of my old, favorite towns, Dallas, Texas.

Hillary Clinton speaking live right now at a trade union conference in Washington. She's fired up. Let's have a listen.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Schools in too many cities have leaking ceilings and mold and rodents in the classrooms. Our electric grid is a mess. Our ports need improvements. And all of that comes at a cost.

[12:15:02] It can take nearly as long - and I want you to hear this because I was shocked when I learned it. It can take nearly as long for a freight train to cross the city of Chicago as it takes to get to Chicago from a factory on the West Coast. These delays raise the price of everything from food to furniture. Potholes and traffic jams cost commuters an average of $1,500 a year in maintenance and fuel. To say nothing of the hours lost on the road. And then there are tragedies, like Flint, Michigan, a city poisoned because the governor wanted to save a little money.

So all these problems need fixing, but we've gone for years without a long term highway bill because Congress refused to put partisan squabbling aside and do their jobs. And, meanwhile, there are a lot of trained, skilled union workers out there waiting and hoping for good work that will last a long time. So this makes no sense. We've got to do something about it, not just yell about it. Not just assign blame, but actually roll up our sleeves and make a plan. See it through and put people back to work rebuilding America.

BANFIELD: So there's Hillary Clinton in Washington speaking live right now with North America's Building Trade Unions. It's the 2016 legislative conference she calls it. Other congressional members and industry leaders there as well. But, again, I think her mind is also on what's going to happen in New York. It's all about the margins for Hillary Clinton. We're going to talk about that in a minute.

Also up next, no doubt today's new York's primary critical for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, but will the wins they're expecting really seal the nomination for these frontrunners? They're hometown heroes here, but so is Bernie. We're going to break it all down for you in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:21:05] BANFIELD: Whoo, a nice live look at Brooklyn. I love seeing democracy at work, even if there's just two guys there, but it's a very broad, broad view here in New York, guys. Hundreds of delegates at stake when you think about Dems and Republicans. It's poised to be the key player in primaries for the first time in decades, 2008 for the Dems and '88 for the Republicans.

No candidate reaching the number of delegates needed to lock up the nomination yet. So New York's 95 Republican delegates and 247 Dem delegates and critical, huge, must wins for both sides.

And to help put the New York factor into perspective, I'm joined by CNN's senior political analyst David Gergen, and CNN political commentator Errol Louis, who knows a thing or two about New York because he works for a place called New York One.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. Time Warner Cable News.

BANFIELD: And you've done - yes. And you're - you're like - you're the - you're the mayor of, you know, all New York politics commentary. So when we talk about the hometown heroes, there's three of them here. There's Bernie, there's Hillary, and there's Trump. But it's really only Hillary and Trump at this point who are looking, according to the polls, as poised to win here.

LOUIS: I haven't seen any exit polls, so I don't know anything about any of that.

BANFIELD: Nothing yet. What time is it? People wake up at 10:00 and they think - LOUIS: You know, maybe it's the Bernie Sanders I keep running into in your green room, but they are convinced that they're going to have a very good night.

BANFIELD: They're 17 points away from a very good night in the most recent poll.

LOUIS: Oh, but they were down by 22 in Michigan and they won that state.

BANFIELD: But the day before they were down by five, I think, if I remember correctly. Am I crazy? Am I crazy?

LOUIS: They are - they are closing the gap.

BANFIELD: Don't answer that.

LOUIS: They are closing the gap and it's still a competitive race.

BANFIELD: Yes. Margin is what it's all about, though. I want you both to weigh in on this. It's not just about necessarily winning. Doesn't Hillary have to knock it out of the - out of the park? Doesn't Donald Trump have to sweep the whole damn state in order to really cling and move forward towards a real nomination as opposed to more tit for tat, state for state? Both weigh in. Errol, first.

LOUIS: I think Trump has more of a pivot and sort of more at stake. They want to get all 95 delegates, but they just had a string of losses and they want to sort of reset it, go into a series of states where they think they can do a lot better and get toward that all- important majority that would enable - would enable him to claim the nomination without a messy fight at the convention.

But Hillary Clinton, yes, she needs to win because it's her home state.

BANFIELD: And a string of losses in eight out of nine so far. Yes.

LOUIS: And a string of losses. Same - same - same idea, although she's got a different kind of comfortable lead because of the way that Democrats allocate their delegates. But she also needs a win and either a loss or a barely squeaking out kind of win would be a real problem for her campaign.

BANFIELD: Yes, and that's the question for you, David. A big margin, a win for Hillary Clinton with a big margin, doesn't that give her some cashe (ph) to say, Bernie, come on, you're damaging the brand going forward?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. Yes. Ashleigh, on the surface, this looks like a so-so, like who cares, they're both ahead by a substantial amount of votes (ph). But underneath there's a lot of excitement because, in fact, Bernie has been closing. He's not as close as he was in other states. But if he finishes within five or six points of her tonight, that will give him momentum in places like Pennsylvania where he's doing well. It really matters in these other state. Whereas, if she rolls up that margin, then it puts the brakes on his train. So it matters a lot.

But on the Trump side, I must tell you, you know, there is a view among Republicans that the person with the most votes at the end of the day going into the convention should get the nomination. Sixty-two percent say that in the new poll in "The Wall Street Journal"/NBC. So Trump now, if he rolls up the score here in New York, he's going to have well over 2 million votes ahead of Cruz coming out of Now York, and that says a lot to other Republican voters. It's not just the delegates in voters' minds. It's also, what's the score? What's the raw vote look like?

BANFIELD: OK, I've got to ask you a little bit about the mechanics of electionerring (ph) that we don't usually talk about.

GERGEN: Thank God.

BANFIELD: This is fun too. Wait until you hear the stuff I'm about to tell you. I think up until now we haven't talked about, you know, contested conventions since - since the one that you were in on. Honestly, I was pretty young. I think I was in first grade. I hate to say it. But the '76 convention, there's some amazing reporting that's coming out from "The New York Times" about some of the things that were done to woo delegates. Because there's very few rules as to what you can do to get a delegate on side.

[12:25:12] I just want to read this list here of past things that were done in the Ford/Reagan primary of '76. A state dinner with Queen Elizabeth was offered.

GERGEN: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: Cocktails in the East Room of the White House for delegates who would maybe be friendly to a candidate. Personal visit from the vice president, Nelson Rockefeller. And this is my favorite one. This one would obviously be Reagan, right? A dinner with John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart. Honestly, look, this is decades ago, but is this the same crap that would happen today?

GERGEN: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: Absolutely.

GERGEN: Are you kidding? What about - what was the -

BANFIELD: Because who cares if you get to have dinner with Jimmy Stewart, (INAUDIBLE).

GERGEN: What about - what about - look at Clinton - look at the - look at the Clintons with the Lincoln bedroom. All presidents do this. You don't have many perks to give out in the presidency anymore, so you do that. And, you know, hey, look, Ashleigh, you didn't see any sex in there, did you? You know, I'll say it.

BANFIELD: Yes.

GERGEN: Did you? BANFIELD: Yes.

GERGEN: I didn't see it.

BANFIELD: There's a lot we don't see. There's a lot we don't know.

GERGEN: Well, there's a lot we don't see but I - it - there is - I remember in '76, we also went for the media. We had Reagan. I was in the Ford team. And we had Reagan at 6:00 before the convention started on Sunday night, he had a great - he had a great big rally and they put - it went live on all the networks. We had Air Force One circling. So as soon as he started speaking, we brought in Air Force One and, boom, whipped him out on TV (ph).

LOUIS: Oh, that's cool stuff.

GERGEN: We wiped him out on the - on the network.

BANFIELD: (INAUDIBLE)

GERGEN: And won. And won. That was very important. So that goes back - there was a lot of horse trading back then.

LOUIS: But, you know, it - more important than offering dinner with Jimmy Stewart -

GERGEN: Yes.

LOUIS: Ronald Reagan actually offered the Pennsylvania delegation, right, we'll make your guy, Richard Swaker (ph), my vice presidential pick. That's a little more in line with what you might expect, but that's serious horse trading that's going on. So it's really, you know, everything gets thrown into the mix.

GERGEN: It was a terrible idea, but (INAUDIBLE).

LOUIS: Well, and it didn't work. It was a bad idea that didn't work.

BANFIELD: I was doing some math as you guys were talking as well and I think I was in fourth grade during that convention, so I might have saw -

GERGEN: Oh, you weren't even born, I'm sure.

BANFIELD: Oh, you're adorable. You're adorable. You're welcome back any day.

GERGEN: Yes.

BANFIELD: David Gergen, you're always welcome back whether you say those lovely things or not.

GERGEN: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Errol Louis, I'm not so sure about you. I haven't heard any (INAUDIBLE). Thanks, guys. Appreciate it. GERGEN: Thanks.

BANFIELD: Coming up next, Clinton hoping to wrap up this nomination today. So is this Bernie Sanders' last stand? Well, you say that to a Bernie supporter, they'll clock you. Look, he's got momentum, right? He's got money. He's got a message. And his message, he says, is more important than delegate math. We're going to ask both campaigns about the path forward for both of these hometown heroes.

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