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Violence Erupts at Trump Rally in California; Jeb Bush Speaks Out on GOP Race; Trump Targets Sanders Supporters. Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired April 29, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:00] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
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?
MOLLY DEUBERY, REPUBLICAN VOTER: 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?
JANNA URBAHNS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: 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 packs them in and fires them up. The Republican frontrunner unleashing his red hot rhetoric in southern California.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're going to win at the border finally. We're going to have strong borders. People are coming into our country. We're going to have the wall. Mexico is going to pay for the wall 100 percent, and we're going to stop the drugs and everything else from coming in, and people are coming into our country but they're going to come in legally.
(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: But anti-Trump protests turned ugly outside of that rally. A standing room only crowd poured out of the event and turned into -- they went into angry crowds accusing them of hatemongering.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get back. Get back. Get back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Police on horseback and in riot gear tried to break up the scuffles. Violence, vandalism, some 20 arrests. Emotions boiled over, and the California primary is still nearly six weeks away.
CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us now live from Washington. Before we get to California, let's talk about Indiana because that's next up on Tuesday.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, Carol. And really without Indiana, there will be no California, or at least that's the state of play right now for Republicans who are trying to stop Donald Trump. And that puts a whole lot of pressure on Ted Cruz. John Kasich already pulling out of the state of Indiana giving Ted Cruz really a free shot at Donald Trump one-on-one in the state.
But it wasn't necessarily Trump, Cruz, or even Hillary Clinton that was the focus in Indiana yesterday. It was John Boehner, the former House speaker, who at an event at Stanford two nights ago calling Ted Cruz, quote, "Lucifer in the flesh," and as it turns out both Donald Trump and Ted Cruz think they can get some advantage out of those comments.
Donald Trump saying this --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I think it's standard, frankly. Everybody dislikes him. There's something about him nobody likes, and he can't work with anybody. Think of him, he's a United States senator. He's working with all of these senators, and he's got virtually no endorsements, and the one he most respects in the Senate is, as you know, Senator Jeff Sessions and Senator Sessions and endorsed me four weeks ago, and he's got no supporter. He's got -- nobody likes him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, one Cruz supporter, as this was coming out yesterday, texted me, this is a gift. And here is why. It probably doesn't sound like a good thing if your boss is being attacked as being the second coming of Lucifer but for Ted Cruz, this really underscores that the establishment Republicans of which John Boehner was really the epitome of during his time in office, particularly at the end of his time in office, that's who Ted Cruz is fighting against, and those establishment Republicans despise Ted Cruz.
That should line him up very nicely with the GOP primary electorate that has been running anti-establishment all primary season long. Ted Cruz getting a boost from his close friend in the Senate Mike Lee. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. MIKE LEE (R), UTAH: I'm livid because to have him talk in those terms about my friend, Ted Cruz, when he doesn't know Ted Cruz from Adam. Ted Cruz has probably never spoken more than four or five words to John Boehner in his life. And I'm confident that every one of those words was polite. And yet he goes out and calls him the devil. This is wrong. And this should be a wake-up call to everyone in America. In particular, I speak to my friends in Indiana. Anyone who is thinking about how to vote in Indiana on Tuesday, please, please vote for Ted Cruz.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Carol, it's safe to say that's a message that Ted Cruz will be carrying over the next couple of days and obviously these two individuals have a lot of history going back to John Boehner as the speaker, Ted Cruz as the senator who is blocking much of the things John Boehner wants to do. But what you're seeing right now is this is a moment that is crucial in the Republican race.
Donald Trump, if he wins Indiana, really has a very clear path towards the nomination, towards that big California primary where 172 delegates are at stake.
[10:05:08] For Ted Cruz, now trailing by so many delegates, to have an opportunity to block Donald Trump, to even get to the next couple of primaries, he needs to win in Indiana, take a large portion of the 57 delegates that are at stake, and set up the future primary races. If he does not do that, Carol, it doesn't really matter what anybody has to say about him, Donald Trump will be in the clear driver seat for the Republican nomination.
COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Washington. Thank you.
While Donald Trump gets fired up, Jeb Bush gets reflective, speaking out for first time since he dropped out of the race. He sat down with our Jamie Gangel for an exclusive interview.
Hi, Jamie.
JAMIE GANGEL, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Carol. You know, considering what Phil just said, this is the other side of the coin. Jeb Bush has kept his own counsel for the last two months but he broke his silence now because he would like to help Ted Cruz get to the contested convention, and Indiana is the firewall, and Jeb Bush has one motive. He wants to stop Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
GANGEL: Donald Trump appears to be getting closer to the magic number. Do you think the race is over? Is he the presumptive nominee?
JEB BUSH (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, not yet. He's close. He's got to win Indiana, and there are four or five other states. If he doesn't get to 50 percent, he might have problems garnering the delegates.
GANGEL: Do you think there's still a viable stop Trump movement?
BUSH: Yes, I think there's a possibility that he won't get 50 percent on the first ballot, and if he doesn't do that, there are a whole lot of people that don't believe he's the proper guy.
GANGEL: Do you think the Republican Party should get around him if he's --
BUSH: I think they should support Ted Cruz.
GANGEL: So yesterday Ted Cruz announced that his vice presidential pick would be Carly Fiorina. Was that a hail Mary pass?
BUSH: He's behind, but after the first ballot, anything could happen, and I believe that the likely occurrence if Donald Trump doesn't win the nomination on the first ballot is that Ted Cruz is the only other candidate that is likely to win the nomination. So picking a candidate that is talented, tough, you know, she takes on Trump really well I think and she takes on Hillary Clinton very well as well, someone who's got a proven record and who's been vetted as a candidate I thought was a smart move by Ted Cruz.
GANGEL: Do you think it was the right pick?
BUSH: Yes. Yes, I do. I think -- I'm impressed with her.
GANGEL: You've said in the past that you didn't think that Donald Trump was ready to be president, but if he is the nominee, apart from whatever else you think might happen, whether he would beat Hillary or not, will you support him?
BUSH: I don't think he's a serious person.
GANGEL: 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.
GANGEL: Do you think there's a case to be made for Republicans voting for Hillary Clinton if he is the nominee?
BUSH: No, no. I mean, a third term of Barack Obama's hyper- aggressive use of executive power to create massive uncertainty for our economy, really restricting the ability for people to have growing income, more control and power in Washington, D.C., would be a disaster.
GANGEL: Looking back at the campaign, how do you feel about how you did, what you did --
BUSH: Yes.
GANGEL: And?
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: What do you think happened?
BUSH: It was definitely a crazy year. Look, Donald Trump was a -- still is a phenomena.
GANGEL: And if Donald Trump is the nominee, should the Republican Party -- will you rally around him?
[10:10:06] BUSH: I am hopeful that he won't be the nominee.
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.
GANGEL: No regrets though.
BUSH: No. None at all.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GANGEL: He really seems to be at peace, Carol. That said, guess what? He still does not like Donald Trump. I think I asked him three or four times during the interview about whether he would support him. I asked him off camera. I did not succeed in either place in getting the answer.
I think that if Donald Trump is the nominee, you may see Jeb Bush join the group of Republicans who may simply not vote. I mean, he said he wasn't going vote for Hillary Clinton, but he said he hadn't changed his mind about Trump, Carol.
COSTELLO: What about Marco Rubio? Are they -- are they still friends? Have they talked? GANGEL: You know, they've spoken. They spoke twice on the phone.
They had a meeting. I think this was in the lead-up to when Jeb decided to make an endorsement and then Jeb endorsed Cruz, but I think everyone has sort of taken a break. It's -- Jeb is getting life back to normal. He's going to go back to his education policy issues. I'm sure he would say they're still friends, but I'm not sure how often they see each other.
COSTELLO: Understood. Jamie Gangel, thanks so much.
Turning now to the Democrats. Frontrunner Hillary Clinton starts her day in the big apple. She just wrapped up a keynote speech at an awards breakfast for the Eagle Academy Foundation. That's a group that helps at-risk boys.
Clinton played a big role in launching the program when she served as New York senator. Of course we're keeping an eye on it.
And there may be a softening of tone from the Sanders camp after recent losses and staff layoffs underscore the campaign's fading hopes. This morning Sanders' wife scoffed at Trump's claim that Hillary Clinton is playing the woman card.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JANE SANDERS, WIFE OF SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS: I think it's ridiculous. Is he playing the man card? He certainly seems to be in the attitude of men are gruff -- you know what I mean? He's being so sexist. He does attack powerful women, intelligent women, and it's not going to get him anywhere. He's already got that base.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: As Trump takes increasing aim at Clinton, he's also reaching out to Sanders supporters saying he is the outsider they should get behind now.
All right. We are getting word that Indiana's Republican governor Mike Pence will be making a big announcement at noon Eastern. What could it be? I bet you can guess. We'll talk about that next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:17:22] COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton back on the campaign trail today after a two-day hiatus. It's expected she will focus on the general election and a potential match-up with Donald Trump. But here's the thing. A sizable number of Sanders supporters say they will never support Hillary Clinton, but what about Donald Trump? Might they support him?
His campaign manager Corey Lewandowski told us Trump will actively court Sanders supporters once Bernie drops out of the race and there is no doubt Trump is working up to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: The Democrats have treated Bernie very badly and, frankly, I think he should run as an independent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Trump's strategy, well, it could work. Listen to what a Sanders supporter told me in Miami. Even he said Trump is appealing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARKO CIKLOVAN, SANDERS SUPPORTER: His attitude of I don't care what anyone says about me, I will still do it. Bernie has that. That's where these extreme ideas come from. The thing is with Donald Trump is that instead of thinking of I don't care about anyone else, I'm caring about we, he's thinking I don't care about anyone else, I care about me. And that to me is extremely selfish. That is not something I would look forward to as a president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: With me now to talk about this and more CNN senior political analyst and senior editor for the "Atlantic" Ron Brownstein.
Hi, Ron.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: OK. So before we dive into that topic, I'd like to ask you about the Indiana governor, Mike Pence. He's supposed to make this big announcement on a radio station in Indianapolis. What do you think it might be?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, you don't know. I mean, obviously, you know, you've seen a number of governors along the way try to weigh in to stop Trump, most notably Scott Walker. I find it hard to imagine Mike Pence who is a staunch social conservative, who had the original bill, you know, that kind of has caught North Carolina in controversy that Donald Trump has criticized, I have trouble imagining him ending up with Donald Trump. Maybe he joins the last-ditch Ted Cruz effort here in Indiana, but I guess we're just going to have to wait and see. It's awful late either way obviously.
COSTELLO: It is awful late. And you know, I was -- we checked out Ted Cruz's Twitter feed and also Donald Trump's, and no mention of any big announcement coming so who knows it might be nothing.
BROWNSTEIN: Right. It might be something completely -- might be something completely separate. But, look, Indiana really is that kind of make-or-break moment. I mean, you kind of get the feeling that looking at this Tuesday in New York the week before that that the resistance to Trump has fundamentally splintered in the Republican Party. I mean, he did get over a hump that he had not before.
Up until New York he had never reached 50 percent of the vote in any state which is a remarkable failure for a frontrunner but now he's reached 50 percent in six straight states. He's done better than he's done anywhere else among men, among women, among so much conservative voters, college graduates. Better than almost anywhere else. [10:20:06] The groups that were resisting him seem to break toward him
in these last eight days of contests and you have the sense that many Republicans feel that the dye is essentially cast at this point for better or worse looking out at the general election numbers.
COSTELLO: OK. So let's get back to the topic at hand because Corey Lewandowski said it is possible --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: -- that Donald Trump could persuade Bernie Sanders supporters to support Trump. In your mind is that possible?
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, if you look at it from an agenda point of view or an audience point of view, yes, there is some limited overlap. But I think the differences significantly outweigh the similarities. From an agenda point of view, you've got both of them particularly with their protectionist skepticism of free trade and also their condemnation of the role of money in politics, but when you get beyond that, I mean, they diverge enormously.
I mean, Bernie Sanders wants to increase federal spending, by his own account, by 40 percent for ideas like universal free public college, singer-payer health care, massive debt forgiveness. That is very far from Donald Trump. He's further from Donald Trump on kind of the broader social issues, and particularly relating to immigration and kind of adapting to this new changing America.
And that's where the real difference comes. I mean, Bernie Sanders does have a blue-collar working class white audience which has been surprising and you can imagine voters in that camp perhaps listening to some of the similar arguments from Donald Trump on the economy, but the heart of Bernie Sanders' audience has been the millennial generation. He won over 70 percent of voters under 30 and among those voters Donald Trump's view of kind of what America is, who qualifies as a legitimate Americans, what he said about immigrants, what he said about Muslims, that is an anathema. And I think Donald Trump would struggle enormously with the millennial core of the Sanders audience.
COSTELLO: Yes. And there is a "Washington Post"-ABC News poll out that shows that among Democratic leaning voters who want Sanders to be the party's nominee, only 13 percent of them view Trump favorably.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: While 86 percent view him as unfavorably.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about another voting bloc that Mr. Trump needs to appeal to and that would be women. Right? Because he's doing poorly among women. And now he's on this woman card thing because he thinks that will hurt Hillary Clinton.
Do you think that's a good strategy? BROWNSTEIN: Look, I mean, Republicans are operating with very little
margin for error among women. You know, you look at 2012, people talk about the gender gap all the time. That's true. Women tend to vote more Democratic than men. But the fact is among white women President Obama only won 42 percent. He had the weakest performance in terms of margin of any Democrat since Walter Mondale against Ronald Reagan and guess what? He still won. He won by five million votes.
And that means Republicans have very little room to let the Democrats improve on that number, and you would think given the problems that Trump faces among women, particularly college educated white women, there's a lot of upside running room for Hillary Clinton there to improve on that relatively weak 42 percent. So I think, you know, look, Trump is trying to turn a -- a strength into a weakness, basically arguing that Hillary Clinton is a candidate of symbolism only. She hasn't really delivered for women.
I think that is a tough argument. She is focusing much more than she did in 2008 on issues of direct importance, particularly balancing family and home, and he has his own, shall we say, limitations as a messenger on that.
COSTELLO: Well, let me run this by you because Trump just tweeted out this morning. Quote, "Crooked Hillary Clinton, perhaps the most dishonest person to have ever run for the presidency, is also one of the great enablers."
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
COSTELLO: And I can only assume he's talking about Hillary Clinton enabling Bill Clinton's naughtiness for lack of a better term.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
COSTELLO: Will that work? Will that make women look at Hillary Clinton in a negative light?
BROWNSTEIN: There will be some I think. Look, I mean, you know, as I said, I mean, you know, despite all the talk about the gender gap, the fact is Republicans win most white women, particularly married white women, and I think Donald Trump will be competitive in that circumstance. But -- in that group. But the problem as I said they've got is from a low point in 2012, that was enough for President Obama to win, and if you look particularly at Donald Trump's numbers among suburban white collar women, he faces the prospect of significant deterioration from where Mitt Romney was.
I think that is where the biggest decline would be for him. He could also face some losses among those white working class women who in focus groups says he simply does not understand their lives in some of the focus groups. So he's got a challenge there. You know, because women are a majority of the electorate.
It's one thing to say he has deeply unfavorable numbers among African- Americans or Hispanics. Those are groups that are 10 percent to 15 percent of the electorate. Critical and growing, but 10 percent to 15 percent. Women are a majority of the voters. And you're talking about 70 percent or 75 percent unfavorables among those, that is a big ditch to dig out of.
COSTELLO: And I want to correct my word, naughtiness was not the right word. What Bill Clinton did was way more than that, and I apologize for using that term.
Ron Brownstein, many thanks to you.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Carol.
COSTELLO: Still to come in the NEWSROOM, cops in riot gear, protesters under arrest as Donald Trump proclaims his rallies the safest place you can be.
Is this an early look at what could happen in Cleveland?
[10:24:56]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: Good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Out to Indianapolis now. You see Senator Ted Cruz talking with reporters. He's talking about the governor, Mike Pence, and his big announcement at noon.
Let's listen.
CRUZ: Well, as I said, I respect Governor Pence a great deal. I would enthusiastically welcome his support, and I will say that what we are seeing happening across the country is we're seeing Republicans unifying. You know, of the 17 Republicans who started this campaign, five have endorsed our campaign. Obviously Carly is my running mate but we also have the support of Rick Perry, of Lindsey Graham, of Jeb Bush, and Governor Scott Walker.
I mean, that is a wonderfully diverse array of the entire Republican Party, of principled conservatives, of people who love this nation. And we have got to unite. Listen, our party is divided right now.
