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Donald Trump Doubles Down on Clinton's "Woman Card"; Hillary Clinton Offers Olive Branch to Sanders' Voters. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 27, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:01] SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people of Indiana, I don't believe, are simply going to say, Manhattan has spoken. Therefore we must get behind a New York liberal. I don't believe the people of Indiana want to do that. And I think anyone who wants to be elected president owes it to the voters. To do what I'm doing here.

Heidi and I, we are barn storming the state, we are on a bus tour traveling throughout the state to look voters in the eyes, to answer their questions, to show the humility to subject yourself to the scrutiny of Hoosiers. Donald Trump doesn't like to do that. Donald Trump likes to parachute in like Mick Jagger, show up in a football stadium, give some performance and then leave.

Well, this country isn't a reality show. And if Donald Trump thinks he's too good to answer questions from the men and women of Indiana, that conveys something. It's now been 48 days since the last Republican debate. 48 days. The Democrats have debated. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have both demonstrated more humility than Donald Trump, and that they have subjected themselves to the scrutiny of the voters.

I believe the people of Indiana deserve a debate. I've accepted two debate invitations here in Indiana, to be hosted here in Indiana, to give Hoosiers the chance to compare, to make this choice. I think that is a simple act of respect to the voters. But it's been 48 days and I would note by the way that every time there's been a debate, whichever network has hosted it, has made millions of dollars.

Has anyone noticed that even though the networks stand to lose millions of dollars by not having a debate, that the news is utterly silent on there being no debates? Have you noticed that, that FOX News, CNN, NBC, ABC, CBS, they would stand to make millions and yet they do not say a word about the absence of debates. It almost makes you think the network executives are happy with Donald Trump being the frontrunner and they know that in a debate, he doesn't have any answers to how you bring jobs back to America.

He doesn't have any answers to how you keep this country safe and since the network execs want Hillary Clinton to be the president, they are perfectly happy not to have a debate which would generate enormous revenue to them. At the end of the day, this is about the people of Indiana. And let me say this afternoon at 4:00 p.m. at Pan-Am at the Pavilion -- the Pavilion at Pan-Am, I would ask folks to come out. We're going to have a major announcement, a rally, and I could not be more encouraged that the people of Indiana will be making this decision.

(CROSSTALK)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, you heard Senator Ted Cruz, he's ripping the media, ripping Donald Trump, saying that he wants to debate and Donald Trump and the media are thwarting him because somehow the media wants Hillary Clinton to win. So let's dissect that.

And good morning to those viewers just joining me. I'm Carol Costello. Welcome to NEWSROOM.

That was Senator Ted Cruz. He gave an impromptu stump speech in the parking lot of a pancake house in Indianapolis. I want to bring in Errol Louis, our political analyst and Sunlen Serfaty is on the scene but she's still miking up and getting ready so I'll go to her in just a second.

So, Errol, let's just start with this. Senator Cruz repeatedly called Donald Trump Mr. New York values, right?

ERROR LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes.

COSTELLO: But there's this -- right? But there's this. In Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut, Donald Trump won college educated white voters and white evangelical voters, those are blocs of voters that Senator Cruz was supposed to win and did not. So what exactly is he talking about?

LOUIS: It's a good question. You could ask the same question in Alabama and South Carolina and some of these other states where there was supposed to be an electorate that was favorable to Ted Cruz. He has underperformed, frankly, in some -- amongst some of the key groups that were supposed to be his base of support. And there's just no getting around that. And you can blame media executives in New York and you can blame Donald Trump and he can blame the weather or anything else, but the reality is, he has been selling something that works with some conservative evangelical Republican voters and has not worked with others.

And until he can fix that problem, I think he's going to continue to have -- he's going to continue to struggle frankly against Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen Serfaty is now ready. She's live in Indiana.

So, Sunlen, Senator Cruz called this press conference to announce an announcement that's going to happen at 4:00 this afternoon. That's kind of strange.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Carol. Senator Cruz clearly wanting to try to give some momentum to his campaign after that bruising night last night, so making as you say so correctly this announcement of announcements to come later today. [10:05:12] I should note that rally that's taking place later today in

Indianapolis will be happening around the same time that Donald Trump will only be six miles away in the same town. So Senator Cruz and his campaign clearly wanting to inject a little energy, a focus, a momentum going forward. Of course lots of speculation about what that announcement is. You know, but Senator Cruz coming out and saying, look, yesterday was Donald Trump's day. Today in Indiana it will be Indiana's day.

Senator Cruz will be all exclusively here in the state except for a brief trip to California this weekend. His campaign now really making it all about Indiana. Clearly there is an understanding of the campaign that last night was not a good night for him. Emerging with just a few delegates and certainly the boost of momentum that Donald Trump will see coming from last night will take -- suck a lot of the energy out of the room. So the Cruz campaign very clearly marching forward, trying to re-grab the momentum and re-grab the narrative. We'll see what that announcement is later today -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen Serfaty reporting live. Errol Louis, my thanks to you.

And you heard it here moments ago live on CNN. Senator Ted Cruz promising a major announcement six hours from now. He won't give us any clues but it comes hours after his Republican rival, Donald Trump, wins big in the northeast. He and Hillary Clinton breaking a big haul of votes and delegates and appear closer to a November showdown.

The Republican frontrunner swept all five northeastern states and declared the primary season over. Mr. Trump gathers more votes than Ted Cruz and John Kasich combined and declares himself the presumptive nominee.

Hillary Clinton even closer to clinching her party's nod, racking up wins in four states. She now has 90 percent of the delegates needed to go on the November ballot. Bernie Sanders scoops up Rhode Island and signals a huge shift in focus. Is he now fighting for his ideas and not his candidacy?

And in just a couple of hours, Donald Trump is set to deliver a major speech on foreign policy. Earlier this morning Trump spoke on CNN about looking ahead to the general election and facing off against Hillary Clinton.

Here's what he told Chris Cuomo.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Can you bring people together? Last night, talking about Hillary Clinton, whom you call crooked Hillary, you said the only thing she has is the woman card. Now even Chris Christie's wife standing behind you made a face when you said that. Do you think that's a winning formula to say the woman card is all that Hillary Clinton has?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. It's part of -- it is certainly part. She is a woman, she is playing the woman card, left and right. She did play it last time with Obama, but she's playing it much harder this time. And she will be called on it. She'll absolutely be called.

CUOMO: How do you call someone on being a woman?

TRUMP: Just tell them they're playing the woman's card. And frankly --

CUOMO: But what does that mean exactly?

TRUMP: Frankly if she didn't, she would do very poorly.

CUOMO: How do you know that?

TRUMP: I know it because I think if she were a man and she was the way she is, she would get virtually no votes.

CUOMO: I know, I hear what you're saying. I'm just trying to figure out what your basis is for it. You know, most of the measurements of a prospective matchup, not only is Clinton beating with you women, she's beating with you white women.

Do you think that this a good message for them to hear, that all she's got is a woman? It sounds dismissive of her gender.

TRUMP: When I came out, I was competing against 17 very capable people. Right? You've heard it. I'm sure you heard it last night ad nauseum. I was competing against 17 very, very capable people. And a woman. And what happened was one by one they disappeared. And everyone said what's going on? What's happening. A governor, a senator, a governor, a senator. But one by one, they disappeared. And they thought Trump was going to be there for a couple of weeks, he was going to have some fun, then he was going to go to Monte Carlo and have a good time. OK.

And It didn't work out that way. It worked out that I knocked everyone of them off. And for the most part, you would say I knocked them off. They weren't knocked off, I knocked them off. OK. I think you would admit that. They were taken out. And same thing going to happen to Hillary.

CUOMO: Do you believe then that what got you here will take you all the way to the White House?

TRUMP: I think so. Now, you know, I may tone it down or I may tone it up. I can't tell you what I'm going to do. I don't know. Depends, you know, I use the word flexibility. I have to be flexible. And you do. You have to be flexible. Somebody said well, will you go this way or that way. I don't know. I will determine when I see how the other people punch back. But Hillary has a lot of flaws. She has a lot of problems. And she does have the woman card. That's a big thing. But a lot of women, as you know, don't like Hillary. Despite the card.

[10:10:05] CUOMO: Well -- TRUMP: And you know, we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Perhaps Mr. Trump's foreign policy speech will overshadow his fighting words over the so-called gender card. But until then, let the battle of the sexes begin.

With me now, Jeff DeWit and Arizona state treasurer, Ryan Lizza, Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker" and Ana Navarro, a Republican strategist and CNN analyst.

Welcome to all of you.

All right. Jeff, I'm going to start with you. Mr. Trump says a lot of women do not like Hillary Clinton. I'm sure he's right. Some women do not like Hillary Clinton but here's what the latest CNN-ORC polls say. When Mrs. Clinton is matched in a general election against Mr. Trump, 60 percent of women back Clinton, 33 percent back Trump.

So are all those women voting with their gender?

JEFF DEWIT, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No, obviously, I don't think they are at all. But I think one of the problems that we've had on the Republican side is there's been a lot of money spent to try to take Mr. Trump down and Hillary has not had to deal with these super PACs saying these awful things about her like Mr. Trump has. And one we get into a general and that money flips around and is helping Mr. Trump because a lot of that has been Republican money that's hurting Mr. Trump. It's the trying -- you know, the whole never Trump movement and all of that stuff, I think we're going to see him change those numbers drastically. And I think --

COSTELLO: So it's not -- so, Jeff, in other words, it's not Mr. Trump's fault with the words that he says, it's these attack ads that are supposedly attacking Trump and making him look bad in women's eyes?

DEWIT: Yes, exactly.

COSTELLO: Ana?

DEWIT: He's had to deal with so many false attack ads that won't be there come a month from now and his numbers will change drastically. So this is just -- it's too early --

COSTELLO: So --

DEWIT: -- to say that --

COSTELLO: OK. So I get it. I just wanted to clarify so I understood what you were talking about.

So, Ana, I will just pose this question to you. Mr. Trump also said if Hillary Clinton were a man, no one would vote for her. I would posture that comments like these from Mr. Trump are not helpful, whether attack ads are directed against him or not, that depict him as anti-woman.

ANA NAVARRO, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Well, I think he -- first of all, you know, Donald Trump knows what he's doing. In the sense that he knows that when he says something controversial, we start talking about it and it is very discussed in the media. He knows how to manipulate the media. He is media savvy, how to earn free media attention. And it's what he's doing with statements like this. He's done it consistently.

Now that being said, and that being put apart, you know, I'm not a fan of Hillary Clinton. And I recognize that she is pushing the historical gender factor much harder this time than she did in 2008. But, but it makes even women like me who may not be prone to vote for Hillary Clinton bristle and recoil when you hear a Donald Trump, somebody who's got a history of sexist, misogynist remarks against women, say she's playing the woman card and that she's gotten where she's gotten because she's a woman.

I think that for most of us playing the woman card means having to balance work and family. So, you know, she -- all of a sudden she becomes sympathetic to women like me who may not be sympathetic to her naturally.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So, Ryan, you know, I was struck when Mr. Trump was talking about how Hillary Clinton played the gender card harder in 2008 and I remembered what Sarah Palin said in 2008 when John McCain announced her as his running mate. And I just like to remind our viewers what that was. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR: It was rightly noted in Denver this week that Hillary left 18 million cracks in the highest, hardest blasting in America. But it turns out the women of America aren't finished yet, and we can shatter that glass ceiling once and for all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So, Ryan, does -- I mean, would it be effective for him to put Sarah Palin front and center in light of this big huge gender gap that Mr. Trump has?

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm not sure that Palin is female surrogate that's going to turn around Trump's numbers with women in the general election. If you look at Palin's numbers, they are upside down. She's not a popular politician with the general electorate. Frankly none of the leading politicians are all that popular with the general electorate these days. Donald Trump is extremely unpopular. Two-thirds of the general electorate have a negative view of him.

Hillary Clinton is, you know, over 50 percent of the general electorate has a negative view of her. So we may be entering a general election where it's a race between two people that have a majority of the country -- more than a majority of the country disapproving of them.

[10:15:07] But just to go back to the original part of this conversation, I mean, Trump has a lot of political work to do if he's not going to lose a general election to Hillary Clinton in a landslide. I mean, the numbers with women, with nonwhite voters, especially Hispanics, are just atrocious as a lot of people have pointed out already. He would be the weakest general election nominee in the history of polling.

That's just looking at the numbers, not talking about any of his positions, anything personal about Donald Trump. Just the polls, he would be the lowest rated general election nominee since polling started. So to turn that around, Carol, that's quite a lot of political work he'd have to do. And look, the point was made about how negative ads have been run against him in the primaries. That is nothing compared to what the Democratic super PACs and the Hillary Clinton campaign is going to do to Donald Trump in the general election. So he's got a big repair jobs to do and I think it's going to start today with the foreign policy speech.

COSTELLO: OK, so let's -- OK. It may start today with his foreign policy speech and he's going to soon sit down with Megyn Kelly of FOX News. We all know about the rift between those two.

So, Jeff, is that of added importance now in light of the fact that it's probably going to be Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton and he said what he said today?

DEWIT: Well, if -- yes, I mean, it's -- for him to come out now with a foreign policy speech and show that he has very good -- obviously very good knowledge of not only foreign policy, but a great analysis of what we need to do internationally, so he's going to show that today. I think it's great. We're obviously moving into general campaign mode. And that's the whole point of it today.

You know, Ted Cruz also has a big announcement later. You know, if you saw him screw up his basketball analogy yesterday and call it basketball ring, I have heard that his big announcement, the same time that we're going to be doing a foreign policy speech is that he's going to wish the Indiana Pacers good look in their Orange Bowl game scoring touchdowns to try to make up for his previous sports analogy.

COSTELLO: Well, let's give him a pass and say he just misspoke.

Look at you, Ana. What are you doing? So, Ana, I want to go back --

(CROSSTALK)

NAVARRO: There's such a thing as a lame attempt at humor. I think we just heard it. But OK. Go ahead.

COSTELLO: OK. No, I just want to ask you the Megyn Kelly question, as Jeff skirted that question. Is it more important than ever for Mr. Trump to make amends with Megyn Kelly in light of what he said today. You know, he set it up to be this big battle of the sexes and Hillary Clinton will play that card. NAVARRO: You know, I don't know what to tell you about this rift

between Megyn Kelly and Donald Trump or Donald Trump versus Megyn Kelly because to me it's cyclical. It kind of goes along with the stages of the moon. Every so many weeks Donald Trump gets into a feud with FOX News, gets into a feud with Megyn Kelly, then they make up, then they get into a feud again and the entire time he gets news.

It goes back to my point where the guy is just brilliant at getting earned media, even if he's replaying the same record over and over again.

COSTELLO: All right, we'll have to leave it there. Jeff DeWit, Ryan Lizza, Ana Navarro, thanks to all of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, they are feeling the Bern but will Sanders backers be convinced to say I'm with her? Clinton's big pitch next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:22:35] COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders says he's in the Democratic race for president until the last vote is cast but with just one win, compared to Hillary Clinton's four in last night's primary, Sanders' case to be the Democratic nominee just got a little more difficult.

Clinton sensing that the end is in sight, she made an appeal to her rival supporters at her victory party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of our politics and giving --

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality. And I know together we will get that done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: But convincing some Sanders supporters to vote for Hillary Clinton if Bernie drops out will be difficult to say the least.

With me now, Yahne Ndgo, it's Bernie or bust for her, and Emily Tisch Sussman, she's with Hillary -- she's a campaign director for the Center for American Progress Action Fund.

Sorry about that, Emily. I just wanted to get your title right.

Welcome to both of you.

So, Yahne, I want to start with you. It's virtually impossible for Senator Sanders to win the nomination. So why is it Bernie or bust for you? YAHNE NDGO, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: You know, a lot of people they

perceive the Bernie or bust movement as being something as almost like a temper tantrum for people who support Bernie and I think it's really important for people to understand that Bernie or bust is a really a representation of how we feel about Hillary Clinton. We don't like Hillary Clinton and we can't support her.

COSTELLO: So, Yahne, under no circumstances would you vote for Hillary Clinton?

NDGO: I'm definitely not going to vote for her.

COSTELLO: So, Emily, you're a Democratic strategist, you're a Clinton supporter, so convince Yahne she's wrong.

EMILY TISCH SUSSMAN, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Yes, well, I'm sorry to hear that. And I do think there are a lot of people that are open to supporting Hillary. Really the difference between the candidates has always really been in degree and not in kind. Look, there's no question that Sanders brought forward a lot of issues that really tapped into what a lot of people are feeling in the country right now and want to be talking about, income inequality, affordable college, you talked about free college, talks about affordable college, money in politics.

But the reality is that these are issues that she actually had in her platform, have always been a part of her platform, and she talks about increasingly more.

[10:25:02] He did put a real spotlight on them, he talks about them in very simplistic terms and so I think it has forced her and her campaign to talk about them much more broadly and put them more front and center. This campaign is going to -- this general election is going to be about --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: So let's just pause for a second, Emily. Because I want to see if any of that makes sense to Yahne.

So when you hear Emily say those things, what do you think, Yahne?

NDGO: Well, there are a few things I think. I think, first of all, that Hillary Clinton says things that aren't always what she means, and aren't what she believe in. And she's demonstrated that in -- one of the clearest ways that she's demonstrated that was in 2008 when she was running against then Senator Obama for president and she claimed that she was going to -- that she was against the Columbian free trade agreement, and that she was going to be basically lobbying against that.

And that's what she said publicly during her campaigning. But when her e-mail came out, we saw that what she was actually doing behind the scenes out in the public eye was actually lobbying for that exact agreement. So that's evidence for us that what Hillary Clinton says in order to win the election doesn't really have anything to do with what it is that she's going to actually do if she becomes the president. And so whatever she's talking about in her platform, I just don't trust her. And so while I do agree --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: And I think you -- Yahne, I think you hit the nail on the head. You just don't trust her.

And, Emily, Mrs. Clinton does have a trust issue. So what can you say to voters like Yahne to say, yes, you can now trust Hillary Clinton, she means what she says?

TISCH SUSSMAN: Yes, that is clearly her highest vulnerability, that is something that we do see -- that we do see pervasive and this has been a theme of media attacks on her for the last 20 years. Look, we forget the fact that most politicians come into the main stage at the same time to America, maybe their state knows them, maybe their district knows them but people generally get to know them all at the same time.

That is not the case with Clinton and there have always been these attacks on her for whatever reason. But I think that as we get more into, you know, her history, her commitment, that we see that she actually always has been committed to fighting for people that don't have a voice. It's always been there in her public service.

COSTELLO: Yahne, go ahead.

NDGO: It's her history that actually it's not simply -- it's not just the Columbian free trade agreement. It's the -- it's what the State Department did under her leadership, going into Haiti and -- when they went to raise the minimum wage for the Haitians with 24 cents an hour to 61 cents an hour. They negotiated it down to 31 cents an hour. It's the regime change in Honduras and all of the people dying as a result of Clinton's influence in Honduras after they had their first Democratic election.

It's the mistake of the Iraq war. It's the mistake of Libya. It's her history that causes us questions and so now she's saying new things and that she's saying new things that are popular, suddenly she realizes that the importance of Black Lives Matter, because of Black Lives Matter movement, and these things don't seem genuine. It seems like what she needs to say in order to get elected. We don't trust what she says and we don't like what she's done.

COSTELLO: OK.

NDGO: And so for those combined reasons we won't vote for Hillary Clinton.

COSTELLO: OK. Last word, Emily.

TISCH SUSSMAN: Look, I think that people read into what -- they believe what they want to believe. Right? Like you can discount pieces of past if you don't think they fit with the current narrative. I think there is a lot to be said for somebody who can learn from their past mistakes and say look, we tried it, it didn't work, we're moving forward with something that does work. That is what we want in a leader, that is what we wants with a president of the United States. And I don't think that we're seeing that largely across the board in any other of the candidates.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there --

NDGO: What I want as leader is a person who has foresight. I want a leader who has foresight.

COSTELLO: Thank you.

NDGO: Who has the ability to know in 1994 that there are issues with the Crime Bill and not to look back after thousands of lives have been destroyed and families have been destroyed, and say, oh, I made a mistake. I want somebody --

COSTELLO: OK. I have to --

NDGO: -- who has the foresight to say, no, I'm not going to vote for the Iraq war because that's wrong, not somebody who's going to later on say oops, that was a mistake. I don't think our country can afford the mistakes that come with hindsight. We want somebody who has the foresight to make the right decisions.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to leave it there, Yahne, I appreciate your passion. Yahne Ndgo, Emily Tisch Sussman, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, banning Muslims, bombing ISIS, Donald Trump's foreign policy has been more about applause lines than diplomacy. What do world leaders think about what they've heard so far?

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