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Violence Erupts at Trump Rally in California; GOP Women Respond to Trump's Clinton Attacks. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired April 29, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[09:00:28] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, chaos in California. Protesters scream and smash outside a Trump rally, but inside.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look at the size of this. This has to be a record.
COSTELLO: Every vote crucial as Hoosiers get ready to vote. Can Cruz stay viable?
Plus battle of the sexes. Hillary Clinton's camp playing the hand she's dealt. Now issuing woman cards. What do Republican women think?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Trump's assertion that only -- Hillary would only has the support of the 5 percent of the population is ridiculous. Who does he think the rest of her supporter would go for? Him?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I still believe he is still playing the theatrical card.
COSTELLO: Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Donald Trump in California. The primary's battle ground looming on the horizon, but street fights erupt outside one of his grand hog rallies. A standing room only crowd pours out of the event and into the wrath of protesters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED PROTESTERS: Racist go home. Racist go home.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Police on horseback and in riot gear try to break up the scuffles. Violence, vandalism and arrests as emotions boil over.
CNN's Phil Mattingly has more for you from Washington. Good morning.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, good morning, Carol. It's something that's largely dissipated over the last couple of weeks, violence and raucous protests outside of Trump rallies but this is something Republican operatives have been concerned about for the last couple of months.
What happens when you get to California, a very large, very politically complex state, with a lot of focus and emotion on Donald Trump's central element of his campaign -- immigration. Obviously he had a lot of fired up supporters inside his rally last night. But no question, very raucous protesters on the outside.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY (voice-over): Chaos breaking out outside of a California Donald Trump rally last night. With hundreds of protesters taking to the streets, clashing with drivers, smashing windows and attempting to roll over cars. Facing off with Trump supporters.
This fight leaving this Trump fan bloodied and bandaged.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back.
MATTINGLY: Police on horseback, struggling to contain the demonstrators.
TRUMP: We're going to win, win, win.
MATTINGLY: Inside, Donald Trump riling up a massive crowd.
TRUMP: Look at the size of this place.
MATTINGLY: Taking aim at his rivals.
TRUMP: Lyin' Ted Cruz, we know Lyin' Ted, right. She is crooked as you could be. Crooked Hillary. Have you ever seen a guy eat like him?
MATTINGLY: And keeping his eye on next Tuesday's high stakes primary in Indiana.
TRUMP: The big poll is going to be on Tuesday in Indiana. But I was all over the state today with Bobby Knight, and I love Bobby Knight, and they love Bobby Knight, and let's see what happens.
MATTINGLY: Indiana's biggest paper blasting Trump on Thursday, calling the GOP frontrunner, quote, "a danger to the United States and to the world."
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Whatever is necessary.
MATTINGLY: As millions of dollars and dozens of ads continue to flood the state, Ted Cruz mincing no words on his view of the high stakes there.
CRUZ: It is the common sense and good judgment of the Hoosier state that is the one thing that stands between us and plunging over the cliff.
MATTINGLY: Even as top GOP figures start warming to the idea of Trump as the nominee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Generally speaking, I like what he had to say.
MATTINGLY: This, as former House speaker John Boehner condemned Trump's main rival, Ted Cruz, at a college forum with the harshest words yet.
JOHN BOEHNER (R), FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: Lucifer in the flesh. I get along with almost everybody. But I have never worked with a more miserable son of a (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
MATTINGLY: Cruz, firing back, using Boehner's disdain to try and bolster his case.
CRUZ: If you're happy with John Boehner, speaker of the House, and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump is your man.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Carol, for Ted Cruz and his campaign, Indiana really a make-or-break state. They are more or less moving there, camping out over the next couple of days, and attempting to spin John Boehner's worlds to their advantage. Look at this, basically is the Republican establishment attacking Ted Cruz. Something that at least what we've seen in the Republican primary electorate up to this point, should serve as an advantage to use that with Carly Fiorina, the potential running mate Ted Cruz has named.
[09:05:11] They believe they have an opportunity right now to close what has become a very small gap in the state. Still, as you look at those delegate totals right there, a lot of ground to make up. Indiana just the first step. If that step isn't taken, though, Donald Trump largely has a clear path to the nomination, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
Jeb Bush breaking his silence for the first time since dropping out of the presidential race, and speaking exclusively to CNN's Jamie Gangel. He's calling for a contested convention with Ted Cruz as the victor and he's warning his fellow Republicans about Donald Trump.
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JEB BUSH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think he is a serious person.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You haven't changed your mind? BUSH: No, I've seen nothing, the speech, you know, recent speech
about foreign policy was -- you can't -- I don't know which Donald Trump to believe, the one that read from a teleprompter, a speech that was inside the lines, or the one that wants to build a wall and make Mexico pay for it, or a 45 percent tariff on China, or abandoning NATO, or saying that it's -- you know, it would be a smart thing to have Japan and Korea kind of go it alone and build their nuclear capability to deal with China.
Which Donald Trump is the one that's expressing these views? There is two of them. And I think we need a president with a steady hand.
GANGEL: It sounds like you wouldn't vote for him.
BUSH: I hope I won't have to be faced with that dilemma. And until I am, I'm not even going to think about it.
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COSTELLO: Bush was also remarkably candid about what went wrong in the 2016 race and whether he'd run again.
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BUSH: Wow, I mean, I don't think about it too much. I've concluded that whatever mistakes I made, and I certainly made them, probably wouldn't have changed the outcome.
GANGEL: Do you think you'll ever run for politics again?
BUSH: Who me? I've learned to never say never, but, you know, this was my chance. This was the chance and I ran into a storm.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So let's talk about all of this with Scottie Nell Hughes. She's the national political commentator for USA Radio Networks and a surrogate for the Trump campaign, along with former Georgia Republican congressman and Ted Cruz supporter, Bob Barr.
Welcome to both of you.
Good morning.
Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning. Scottie, I want to start with you. We'll get to Bush's comments in just a minute. But I want to talk about the violence at that Trump rally. There were police helicopters, cops on horseback. They were trying in vain to keep Trump supporters and protesters separated.
If Trump is elected president, he will have to unite the country. In light of what we saw last night, can he possibly do that?
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Absolutely. And here's the thing. Last night was very disappointing to watch the footage of. And you have to remember, it's not the Trump protesters out there that are jumping on the police cars, that are not showing respect, and starting these fights. Trump supporters are going into these rallies, 30,000 of them in Mesa, California, are going into -- are going into the Trump rally, to hear about somebody that they potentially want to vote for for president. They just want to be a part of the political process.
And in turn, they are getting intimidated, they are getting -- they are getting these threats of violence. They are getting what we saw last night, the chaos come against them. So they are actually the victims in this case, not playing the victim card --
COSTELLO: But Scottie -- But Scottie, you are playing the victim card. And this doesn't happen at other large rallies for other political candidates. Why does it happen at Trump's rallies?
HUGHES: Why are -- why are demonizing the Trump supporters and Mr. Trump? Why were you going --
COSTELLO: I'm not -- I'm just asking. I'm just asking because he's the one that's going to have to unite the country, no matter where the protesters come from. No matter if they disagree with him or not.
HUGHES: And I think -- but you have to remember, for as many protesters as there were violence, disrespectful protesters on the outside, there were 30,000, there were 10 times that number on the inside that were wanting to actually be a part of the process, who are peaceful people, who love freedom, and who love --
COSTELLO: I don't think there was 30,000 inside that room.
HUGHES: According to Mr. Trump, 30,000 people attended the Mesa rally last night. And there are tens of thousands of people -- you have to say that, that have attended the rallies across the United States right now, that are motivated because of the words and the honesty that they expect out of Mr. Trump and a Trump administration.
We should not continue the demonization of them and this assault on them when actually the violence and the crimes that are being committed, or what we saw last night, outside of it, and that's being committed against the Trump supporters, that should not be tolerated in any form by any candidate.
COSTELLO: OK. So -- well, that's a sure thing. Bob, what are your feelings about this?
BOB BARR, TED CRUZ SUPPORTER: It's a real shame when we see violence erupting at a political rally in America for whatever candidate. But the fact of the matter is that Mr. Trump is anything about a uniter. Even last night, he simply cannot behave magnanimously. He has to insult other candidates, call other candidates names.
[09:10:02] He's operating in this fantasy world, and his supporters -- you just heard one -- are also -- he's going to unite the country. Obviously, he is not. Now Mr. Trump can go around and dance around and say, you know, I'm
the presumptive nominee or I'm the king of Switzerland, but saying it so doesn't make it. There are a lot of voters out there, a lot of delegates who will be attending the voting booth and the conventions in California and Indiana who don't subscribe to this sort of shoot from the hip procedure that Mr. Trump portrays. They want somebody who is actually -- who actually understands international affairs, who understands the economic issues this country is facing, who doesn't insult people, and who comes up with constructive solutions, which is exactly what Senator Cruz and Carly Fiorina are bringing to the people.
COSTELLO: Well, along those lines, Bob, and I want to pose this next question to you a well. Winning Indiana is crucial to Ted Cruz, but sources are telling us internal polling shows Cruz now trailing in Indiana by eight to 10 points. Some say John Boehner put his finger on why when he called Ted Cruz Lucifer. Why is Ted Cruz losing ground in Indiana, Bob?
BARR: We don't think that he is. These polls in every state leading up to and sometimes the very day of the primary are way off. What Ted Cruz is doing with now Carly Fiorina as part of the team is working the ground game. The grassroots. Not worrying about, you know, huge rallies, but going before the actual people who will be voting, and the internal polling that I've been privy to is very different.
Is it going to be close? Yes, it's going to be close. But we believe very strongly based on the real numbers that Senator Cruz and Carly Fiorina will win in Indiana. And then move on to California, where there are dozens and dozens of delegates very much up for grabs.
COSTELLO: Scottie, how do you see it?
HUGHES: Well, it's funny that he talks about delegates because it's a corrupt system, I think a rigged system.
I mean, Congressman Barr, aren't you a delegate as well to the convention this year?
BARR: Yes, and I've already getting nasty calls from your Trump supporters because of that.
HUGHES: Are you going as a Cruz delegate?
BARR: Sure I am, I am a very strong supporter of Senator Cruz.
HUGHES: And that's the thing. And who won the state of Georgia overwhelmingly? Mr. Trump in the popular vote.
BARR: And the fact of the matter is that the Georgia delegation will vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot, which is according to the law. Now you all may --
HUGHES: And that's includes you, correct?
BARR: You all may want to operate outside of the law -- HUGHES: Does that include you as well?
BARR: But the fact of the matter is, that the laws in each state provide for delegates to vote on the first ballot at least for the winner of the primary. That will happen.
HUGHES: So that means you're actually going to vote for Mr. Trump on the first ballot because that's what the --
BARR : No. You don't -- you don't understand the process. This is part of the problem with Mr. Trump.
HUGHES: No, I do understand the process. I know.
BARR: You don't vote --
HUGHES: I do understand the process.
BARR: You don't vote per se personally for a delegate. It's the state delegation at large that does. But after the first ballot, I intend to vote for Senator Cruz as do a lot of my colleagues.
HUGHES: After the --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: All right. Guys, I got to leave it there. But thanks for doing the work for me. I appreciate that. Scottie Nell Hughes, Bob Barr, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, you've heard him say it before. Donald Trump loves and cherishes women, but do they love him back?
Up next, CNN sits down with a group of Republican women voters to find out.
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RANDI KAYE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: When I say Donald Trump, what's the first word that comes to mind?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Powerful.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scary.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Surprising.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dangerous.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Divisive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [09:17:47] COSTELLO: All right. Welcome back. Any minute now, we're expecting Hillary Clinton to take the stage in New York City. Clinton gearing up to deliver the keynote address at an awards breakfast for inner city kids after a two-day break from the campaign trail. One of the big questions whether she will take aim at Mr. Trump after his repeated attacks that she is playing the, quote, "woman card."
Those comments sparking a fierce backlash, not only among Democratic women but Republican women as well.
CNN's Randi Kaye sat down with a group of conservative women in Indiana.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOLLY DEUBERY, REPUBLICAN VOTER: That's insulting regardless of how you feel about Hillary to imply that her background as a U.S. senator and secretary of state give her zero qualifications. And Trump's assertion that only Hillary would only have the support of 5 percent of the population is ridiculous. Who does he think the rest of her supporters would go for? Him?
JANNA URBAHNS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I don't think these comments are helpful to him or his campaign. However, I still believe he is still playing the theatrical card.
ADRIANNE SLASH, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I'm scared to death of a person who's setting that sort of a tone.
KAYE: Some in our group said they'd still support Trump, even after comments he made to Howard Stern years ago. The men were talking about women in the beauty pageant Trump once owned.
TRUMP: First of all, she's unbelievably short and I'm a little bit surprised. I think that the boob job is terrible. You know, they look like two light bulbs coming out of a body.
JUDY SINGLETON, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I call this cocktail talk, and he just doesn't know any better.
URBAHNS: So he's talking about contestants in the pageant, it's another way to get people to watch the pageant.
DEUBERY: Ladies, I can't believe you're excusing his behavior as the world of business or as good old boys' network. I mean, those are the exact justifications used for sexual harassment for years. To use the word boobs several times, that's not promoting the pageant.
KAYE (on camera): These comments would not prevent you from voting for Donald Trump.
URBAHNS: No, they will not.
KAYE (voice-over): Brenda Gerber Vincent is disgusted by all of Trump's comments about women but is still considering him for president. (On camera): Is there anything he could do to win your vote?
BRENDA GERBER VINCENT, REPUBLICAN VOTER: We're smart. I mean, we're really smart.
[09:20:02] We understand policy. We understand what's necessary for the country to move forward. We understand economic development. Start speaking to us as partners.
TRUMP: Thank you, everybody.
KAYE (voice-over): In the end, though, Trump may drive some of these Republican women to vote Democratic.
(On camera): If Donald Trump is the nominee, would any of you consider voting for Hillary Clinton, voting Democratic?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
KAYE: Molly says yes.
DEUBERY: Yes. I am undecided of what I will do in the fall, if Trump is the nominee.
KAYE: So you may actually vote for the other party.
DEUBERY: I may.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Randi Kaye reporting there.
Clinton's campaign already cashing in on what Trump calls the woman card. Her campaign now offering these cards to supporters who donate to her campaign, a real live pink woman card. Twitter already having a field day with Trump's comments. One user tweeting out this, quote, "A so-called woman card that reaps 20 percent off your income and the government makes all your health decisions for you."
So let's talk about this. I want to bring in CNN political analyst and editor in chief of the "Daily Beast," John Avlon. I'm also joined by CNN Politics editor Juana Summers.
Welcome to both of you.
JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Juana, you heard the women in Randi's piece. Will Trump's strategy backfire?
JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: So this is a big risk for Donald Trump and the Republican nominating contest. It's a bigger problem in the general. If you look at the map both he and Hillary Clinton could well clinch their party's nominations and that would set up a situation where you have the woman who could be the first female president of the United States on one hand, and on the other hand, a man who many believe has said eyebrow-raising or outwardly sexist things about women.
Women obviously are a huge driving point. They could really decide this general election. So I wonder if we'll see Donald Trump and his surrogates and his staff have talked about he might change his tone, he might, you know, play a different part during the general election. I wonder will that entail perhaps naming a woman as his running mate as Ted Cruz has done with Carly Fiorina.
Will it mean changing some of the language and the rhetoric he's used around women or to capture the all-important female vote in the general election. And I think that he is running a risk here. This is certainly not the kind of thing he -- that he probably wants to be talking about or that his campaign advisers and strategists want to be talking about, rather than locking up the nomination and moving ahead to the party's convention in Ohio in July.
COSTELLO: But, John, let's not pretend, Mr. Trump has been masterful at reading the public. He's made pundits look silly. So this strategy could work, right?
AVLON: What strategy are we talking about here? Insulting the majority of the American voting public? I mean, the strategy that the --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: Well, let me put it to you to this way, John. No, no, let me put it to you this -- some have suggested that Trump has to go attack Clinton's gender because he can't allow her to be perceived as a statesman or a U.S. senator, he has to strip her of credibility. That's what I'm talking about, John.
AVLON: I mean, whoever is suggesting that should be fired and not just for ethical reasons. Look, you know, the election is going to come down to demographic math. And you need to build broad coalitions beyond your base. Right? That's basic. So any strategy, quote- unquote, that would compel taking someone with already underwater negatives with huge growing demographics of America not named white men, and decide to double down on that doesn't understand math let alone demographics.
I mean, you thought binders full of women was bad in 2012? This is worse. And already -- I mean, already, Republican women were going to -- you know, have an interesting decision based on Hillary Clinton and the historic nature of potentially the first woman president. But you add that with a candidate who seems to have hard-boiled in him, comments and a history of comments, and seemed dismissive, calling a secretary of state essentially an affirmative action candidate? No, no, no. Those numbers will get even worse. That's not strategy. That's incompetence.
COSTELLO: But, Juana, you heard those Republican women in Randi's piece, I mean, that's not changing their minds -- some of their minds about Donald Trump.
AVLON: All of them. COSTELLO: And let's face it, some Republican women really don't like
Hillary Clinton.
SUMMERS: That's very true. But if you look at the most recent CNN- ORC poll, when you put head-to-head Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, there is a 30-point deficit between the two. We're looking at these polling numbers earlier this morning and even morning Republican women who tend to favor Trump a little bit more than the general population women Democrats or independents, their unfavorables are trying to slip there, too. So it is showing there is some erosion there since Donald Trump got into the race last June.
If that keeps going and going, to John's very great point, the numbers just aren't going to bear out for him in the general election.
COSTELLO: So if this is a misfire by Donald Trump, what can he say, John, to, I don't know, make women believe that he really does cherish them?
AVLON: I mean, you know, from the verb cherish on down, my advice would probably be stop digging, but you know, one of his favorite campaign tactics is that surreal poetry slammed recitation of the 1970s solo hit "The Snake," which essentially is an Aesop's fable about how people don't change. I think you're looking at a hard- boiled characteristic of this cat.
[09:25:03] I don't think he's going to be able to change. He may try to nominate a female VP, as was suggested earlier, maybe that would help a bit. But this is hard-boiled. And that means that, you know, the allegedly authentic candidate is not going to be able to spin his way out of this one.
COSTELLO: What woman would agree to do that? I'm just curious, Juana. Who do you think would agree to be his running mate as I mean --
SUMMERS: Oh, my goodness. I don't even want to --
COSTELLO: It's not Nikki Haley, right? She would be fantastic for any candidate, but I can't see her saying yes.
SUMMERS: I think Nikki Haley would probably say bless his heart and no, thank you. I'm not really sure what kind of a vice president --
COSTELLO: I love when she does that. I agree.
SUMMERS: It's so great. I'm not sure what kind of a vice presidential pick we'll see out of him. Donald Trump has not been subject to the laws of political gravity. He is playing by his own rules. Who knows. Maybe we'll see Omarosa on the ticket with him next.
COSTELLO: Maybe Sarah Palin.
AVLON: What about Palin, guys?
COSTELLO: Yes.
AVLON: Sarah Palin would do it. You can see a Palin redux. Come on. Sounds like a great idea.
COSTELLO: That would be fascinating. John Avlon, Juana Summers, thank you so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, where did Prince get the painkillers found on him after his death? Doesn't look like he had a prescription.
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