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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Cruz-Kasich Alliance Against Trump; The Race for President: Sanders' Last Stand?; Ohio A.G. Confirms Victim Received Facebook Threat; Tom Brady's Four-Game Suspension Reinstated. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 26, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: It is voting day. And this morning, Ted Cruz and John Kasich alliance aimed at stopping Donald Trump may be falling apart before it even gets started.

[05:00:01] In just hours, voters head to the polls in those five Eastern states. Donald Trump is expecting a clean sweep in the so- called Acela primary, leaving Indiana as the next huge battle ground one week from now.

Cruz is boasting about Kasich pulling out of Indiana as part of a deal where Cruz is supposed to give Kasich a clear path in New Mexico and Oregon. This is all in order to block Trump from winning enough delegates to clinch enough votes.

But Kasich has already been pouring cold water on the plan. He will be in Indiana today for a fund-raiser and meeting with the state's Republican governor. And he is telling Indiana voters that if they want to vote for him, they should.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't see this as a big deal, other than the fact I'm not going to spend resources in Indiana and he's not going to spend them in other places? So what? What's the big deal? I've never told them not to vote for me. They ought to vote for me.

I'm not over there campaigning and spending resources. We have limited resources. You know, you ought to feel good about it. Mine's like the people's campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Trump is blasting what he calls collusion.

CNN's Jim Acosta is with the Trump campaign in Pennsylvania.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, this alliance between Ted Cruz and John Kasich has not gone unnoticed inside the Trump campaign. Donald Trump opened the flood gates on Kasich, hurling insults at the Ohio governor like never before.

But could the Cruz/Kasich deal actually work? That's another issue.

I talked to a Trump campaign adviser who said Kasich pulling out of Indiana could help Cruz and hurt the GOP frontrunner in that critical state.

All day long on Monday, Trump has been making the case that this political marriage of sorts just proves that Cruz and Kasich simply aren't the best suitors for the GOP. Here's more of what he had to say.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Kasich is doing worse than many of the people that left months ago. I mean, if you look at Marco Rubio, he did much better than Kasich. He had more -- to this day, has more delegates. This is just a guy who is a stubborn guy, who eats like a slob, and shouldn't have press conferences while he is stuffing stuff down his throat. I've never seen anything like this.

But this is a guy who's stubborn guy, "I'm not leaving. I'm not leaving." He is one for 42. I would have won the one, but I was given a dirty poll by NBC where they came up with a poll --

(BOOS)

It's true.

ACOSTA: Now, the Trump campaign is still confident that the real estate tycoon can reach that magic number of 1,237 delegates. But the top official within the Never Trump movement told me, don't be sure. Trump needs Indiana, this official argued, even as he added that he wished Cruz and Kasich had joined forces weeks ago.

And it's not clear how long the Cruz-Kasich alliance will last. Kasich is still scheduled to attend a fundraiser in Indiana later on today -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Our thanks to Jim for that.

On the Democratic side, today could be a chance for Hillary Clinton to put more distance between herself and Bernie Sanders. Right now, Clinton is about 250 pledged delegates ahead, add in superdelegates and her lead grows to more than 700. Late last night, Clinton and Sanders spoke in dueling television town halls, each predicting a clear path to victory, and arguing over whose job it will be to unite the Democratic Party if Clinton wins the nomination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is incumbent upon Clinton to reach out not only to my supporters but all of the American people with an agenda that they believe will represent the interests of working families, lower income, the middle class, those of us who are concerned about the environment and not just big money interests.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not put down conditions. I did not say, you know what, if Senator Obama does X, Y, and Z, maybe I'll support him. I said, I am supporting Senator Obama.

At that time, 40 percent of my supporters said they would not support him.

I spent an enormous amount of time convincing my supporters to support him. And I'm happy to say the vast majority did. That is what I think one does.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: CNN's Brianna Keilar is with the Clinton campaign in Pennsylvania. She has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): John and Christine, the Clinton campaign feeling pretty good about this primary day. They feel good about Pennsylvania. They think they have Maryland all but locked up. And because of that, Secretary Clinton is channeling some of this confidence into -- focused on the general election, unveiling a new attack line on Donald Trump in Wilmington, Delaware.

CLINTON: Donald Trump says wages are too high in America and doesn't support raising the minimum wage. And I have said, come out of those towers named for yourself and actually talk and listen to people.

Don't just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of and go back and get on that big jet and go back to -- you know, your country clubhouse in Florida or your penthouse in New York.

KEILAR: Looking at the math, you can see how it is so difficult for Bernie Sanders coming out of his loss last week in New York.

[05:05:04] To deny Hillary Clinton the nomination, he would have to win six out of 10 delegates. That's just looking at pledged delegates. You factor in superdelegates and he would have to win three out of four.

And what you also have going forward is a number of states that are racially diverse. That is terrain that is much more advantageous towards Hillary Clinton -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Brianna, thanks for that.

Joining to us break down today's Acela primary, CNN politics reporter Tom Lobianco. He's live in our Washington bureau.

Good morning, early bird. I want to listen first to what John Kasich said last night on "Anderson Cooper AC360" about this whole stop Trump strategy or collusion, if you're Donald Trump. Their strategy Donald calls a collusion. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASICH: You know, I don't tell voters what to do. It's up to them. But, look, you always husband your resources in your campaign. And, you know, they want to husband their resources in certain places and we want to husband ours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Is this strategy working or are they backpedaling from this?

TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I guess we're going to find out in a few weeks whether it's actually worked. You know, some of the critique of this is they came too late. You know, voters are starting to pay attention. Especially in Indiana, there's some question of what would happen with the Kasich voters whether they would stick with him, where they would go.

You know, a lot of moderate to almost centrist Republicans, more business type Republicans, they're not necessarily going to go with Cruz. They could very easily go with Trump. I mean, that could inflate his margin there.

So, you know, there's no clear victory there. But, you know, Trump, of course, calls this an act of desperation. You know, unclear that's actually what this is.

ROMANS: Right.

LOBIANCO: But they got to do something.

BERMAN: Well, the issue is how they talk about it, right? Because when Marco Rubio tried to forge his alliance with John Kasich still in the race, Marco Rubio's staff flat-out said, if you are a Rubio supporter, vote for John Kasich in Ohio. These guys can't make themselves do that in this alliance. John Kasich says, you know, if you want to vote for me, still vote for me. It might not work like that and it doesn't appear to be the way that Ted Cruz and his supporters are viewing this deal.

Listen to what Ted Cruz had to say about their maybe alliance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: The fact that John Kasich has pulled out of Indiana gives us a straight forward head-to-head contest between me and Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's Cruz talking to our Sunlen Serfaty.

You know, if you pull out of Indiana, why is John Kasich going to Indiana today to fund raise? Why is he going to meet with the Republican governor? Why won't he say vote for Ted Cruz in Indiana?

LOBIANCO: I mean, you want to talk about a tenuous alliance, right? I mean, this is the type of thing where if it is successful, it breaks down in July, right at the convention. This thing has a time stamp on it from the start.

You know, if they are successful at this, they basically, they're back to fighting each other. They need to get into it, the convention, create a contested convention, deny Trump the 1,237 delegates and then, from there, they are right back at each other's throats.

ROMANS: Let me ask you about the VP speculation because there's some talk yesterday that Carly Fiorina was on the short list for a Ted Cruz candidacy. How serious is the discussion right now of vice presidential candidates, the number on a ticket that doesn't exist yet? Is this trying to look like, I don't know, maybe he's in the big leagues? Is it positioning?

LOBIANCO: Well, you've got to do something. Look at Fiorina. You know, she's been one of the strongest surrogates. She is out working the conventions, really helping his team sweep these delegates battles. They're kind of going on just below the surface and it's incredibly effective.

It's a different dynamic. You know, in the previous cycles, most previous cycles, what we see is we have a presumptive nominee at this point. Of course, the Trump people want to present him as that way, although there is no clear presumptive nominee just yet.

So, what you have to kind of look back to is 1976, previous contests, and bringing somebody on to the ticket heading into a convention before then gives a little oomph, gives a little bit of a boost. It rounds them out.

ROMANS: OK.

BERMAN: All right. Tom LoBianco for us in Washington, thanks so much.

Of course, five states up for grabs today. For the Democrats, as we said, a chance for Hillary Clinton maybe to some put distance between herself and Sanders, questions about Sanders, the tone of his campaign.

He will appear live here this morning on "NEW DAY" in the 7:00 hour.

[05:10:00] You've got to watch CNN all day and most importantly, all night for our special coverage of the crucial Acela primary elections. Voter goes to the polls in five states -- Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island. Don't miss Wolf Blitzer's pregame show, which will be all afternoon and evening.

The main event is 2:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. And Romans and I, she'll back up and go to work.

ROMANS: That's right. The bar car opens at 2:00 a.m. on the Acela. All right. The five states voting today have unique economic

characteristics, a mix the candidates have not seen before.

Take a look at incomes. Maryland, did you know Maryland has the highest median household income in the country at more than $76,000. Connecticut has the fourth highest at $70,000.

You can thank Wall Street -- something John Berman did not know. You can thank Wall Street and you can thank Washington for those high numbers. Southern Connecticut and parts of Maryland have a handful of the wealthiest counties in the country.

Rhode Island, Delaware, Pennsylvania, all above the national average. There are a lot of office jobs in the cities in these states. That helps boost those numbers.

But our theme of one America and two economies holds true in the states voting today as well. The jobless rate in Connecticut, 5.7 percent, well above the national average of 5 percent. It's the highest of the states voting today. Rhode Island also higher than the national average, 5.4 percent. The rest of them, look at Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, those are all relatively low unemployment rates.

But that ring of suburbs in Washington, D.C., there is money in politics.

BERMAN: I had no idea Maryland is number one in median income.

All right. New information this morning. New clues in the murder mystery in Ohio. Eight family members killed. What investigators are now revealing, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:48] BERMAN: This morning, investigators in rural Ohio are following a possible lead in the execution-style murders of eight members of one family. The attorney general there confirms that the youngest victim had received a Facebook threat. This is as authorities work to determine if the deaths are linked to drugs.

CNN's Nick Valencia with the very latest from Pike County, Ohio.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, the autopsies for the eight victims killed on Friday morning in Pike County have been completed, but there is no indication from local officials that they are any closer to finding who is responsible for the gruesome massacre here in southern Ohio.

The attorney general tells me that they are being tight-lipped about their investigation and that is for a good reason. They don't want whoever is responsible for these killings to be tipped off to what investigators know about them. Now, many locals here speculate drugs played a problem. In fact, the

local sheriff told me at a press conference that drugs are a big problem here in the county, especially methamphetamine and heroin. It wasn't too long ago that back in 2012, a major marijuana grow operation was discovered here in this county with ties to the Mexican drug cartels.

Officials here won't make the jump to say that these murders were related to drugs, but people here are widely speculating they were -- John, Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: That's just fascinating. All right. Nick, thanks for that.

New information expected today in a string of seemingly random shootings that begin a year ago in Colorado. Northern Colorado shooting task force is slated hold a conference this afternoon. A spokesperson says they have not made any arrests but will reveal some findings and answers they have found during the seven-month probe. The announcement will be the first since last summer about the spate of these shootings and unsolved deaths of two men.

BERMAN: More than 50 people arrested at the North Carolina statehouse protesting the state law they call anti-LGBT. The demonstrators are speaking out against the new law limiting bathroom access for transgender people. Some entered the House speaker's office and refuse to leave. The action came hours after thousands of supporters of the law showed up at the legislatively building, praising lawmakers for passing those restrictions last month.

ROMANS: Former speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, is being sued for breach of contract by a former student he allegedly molested. The unidentified man filed the lawsuit in Illinois, claiming that Hastert still owes him $1.8 million on the settlement they reached. The plaintiff says Hastert molested him when he was 14 years old. Hastert is expected to be sentenced Wednesday for violating banking laws to secretly pay off the former student.

BERMAN: Super Tuesday. Clearly, the big story involves Patriots quarterback Tom Brady. The four-game suspension is back on! Coy Wire with the grim details of the bleacher report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:22:54] BERMAN: New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's four- game suspension is back on the table.

ROMANS: Coy Wire, he needs some therapy here. He's got more in this morning's bleacher report. Hey there.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: He's not even wearing his handkerchief today, Christine.

The Second Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of the NFL, saying Commissioner Roger Goodell had the authority to hand out the punishment that Brady received. He was given that power, Goodell, was, back in 2011 when the league and the NFLPA signed the collective bargaining agreement. I was there as a player rep. And I can tell you, a lot of players were wondering, should Goodell be given judge and jury powers? Well, he was. Now, the courts say the NFLPA has to live with it.

The punishment to Brady was initially handed down by Goodell, then thrown out by a district court judge. No word yet if the league will actually enforce the four-game ban, which is back in place. Brady and the NFLPA, they're weighing their options.

Huge injury news for the NBA biggest stars yesterday. Chris Paul breaking his hand while playing defense in L.A.'s game four loss to the Trailblazers. Watch as he swipes at the ball. You see in there in the left, pulling back his hand in pain. He is done for the game.

Watch this now, clearly frustrated. He knows this is not good. He was seen wearing a cast and a sling after the game. He'll be reevaluated today, but his playoff hopes in doubt.

Steph Curry, he's going to miss at least two weeks with a grade one MCL sprain in his right knee according to the Warriors. There he was spraining that knee during Sunday's win against the Houston Rockets. The warriors lead that series 3-1. Game five is Wednesday night.

Two more NBA playoff games tonight on TNT, the Pacers and Raptors. John, Celtics and Hawks, both series tied at two games apiece.

Not the proudest moment here for Tigers' center fielder Tyler Collins. First, he misses the easy pop up. It gets lost in the stadium lights. Then he gets a chorus of boos from the hometown fans. So, he has something to say and do about it, some expletives. Then he decided to flip them the bird. These are hometown fans.

[05:25:01] Now, Collins did apologize after the game for his reaction, saying he embarrassed himself and his teammates and family as well.

(MUSIC)

WIRE: Awesome tribute in Minnesota last night at Target Field. The Twins playing hometown boy Prince. That's "Little Red Corvette" during the seventh inning stretch. They will play this for the rest of the season. The players and fans wearing purple last night. The players walk-up songs to the plate, Prince songs, of course, and doves were released before the game, guys.

BERMAN: That is awesome.

I have to talk to the NBA playoffs, though. It stinks. Like Chris Paul and Steph Curry got hurt, like two of the top four players you want to see in the playoffs all down with injuries right now. It's just bad luck.

WIRE: I'm with you, John. But seeing those Warriors, if they could pull it off without Curry, could you imagine? BERMAN: It would be great. It would be great. You know, look, if

it's only two weeks, he could be back. Maybe a two-week rest ain't the worst thing either.

ROMANS: Yes, I'm glad it wasn't worse, glad it wasn't worse. Not as bad.

All right. Thanks, Coy.

WIRE: You're welcome.

ROMANS: In just hours, voters in five states cast their ballots in the race for president. Will frontrunners Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton increase their leads or could a surprise upset blunt their momentum?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)