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Trump: Republicans Need to United Behind Him; BYU Students: We Were Punished for Reporting Rape; From Gold Caddie to Trump's Twitter Chief; Will GOP Women in Indiana Support Trump?; Disabled Doctor Defies Expectations. Aired 4-5p ET
Aired April 30, 2016 - 16:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
PAMELA BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Pamela Brown in for Poppy Harlow.
Well, "Indiana or bust", that might as well be Cruz's mantra this weekend, because Indiana's primary is Tuesday, and now, that Donald Trump has breached 1,000 delegates, Cruz needs a win more than ever before.
[16:00:08] But, first, he's making a stop in California, speaking at day two at the Republican state convention and surprise guest is making an introduction for him, former California Governor Pete Wilson who is now endorsing him.
Let's bring in CNN's Jason Carroll. He joins from that convention -- Jason.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, Pete Wilson, former governor, is now on the stage speaking out why he's endorsing Cruz and how he's most qualified to be the president, saying this is man who is not anti-immigration. He's anti-illegal immigration.
But once again, I have to point out -- I mean, at this point, Cruz has the endorsement of Pete Wilson. He's got the endorsement of Jeb Bush, the governor of Indiana, of Wisconsin. He's got lots of endorsements now behind him.
What he does not have, it seems, is still the will of the people out here, who still continue to support Donald Trump. Remember, this is a campaign that's about being anti-establishment. That's what Trump says. That's what Trump supporters say.
What Cruz has to do going forward is reach some of those people instead of just getting endorsements -- Pamela.
BROWN: As we've seen, these election endorsements they don't carry the weight as they have in past elections.
Jason Carroll, thank you very much for bringing us the latest there in California.
And, meantime, the front runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, are pivoting to the general election now, even though neither one of them locked down the party's nomination just yet. Well, Trump is asking Republicans to get over their differences and rally behind him. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Really, and I speak to the people in the room because there has to be unity in our party. There has to be unity in our party.
(APPLAUSE)
If they are not, it's going to be -- if there's not unity, and I mean, really good solidarity, unity, relationship, friendship, but there should be and there has to be unity.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And Hillary Clinton's husband says Republicans are trying to poke holes in his wife's image because they do not want to face her in the general election.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
WILLIAM J. CLINTON, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Look, I know the Republicans have been really mean to her, and it's been fairly effective. But you ought to see, and you will get a chance to see, that this is what they do. They decide who they don't want to run against, and then they dump on them like crazy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: Let's talk it over with Democratic strategist Maria Cardona, whose firm has done work for a pro-Clinton super PAC, and she's also a Democratic super delegate. And also, Trump supporter, Lou Gargiulo, who is a Republican delegate.
Thank you, both, for coming on.
Lou, I want to -- I want to come to you first because in a "Wall Street Journal" matchup, Clinton trounces both Trump and Cruz in a general election. Trump's unfavorability is high among women. In your view, does he need to scale back some of these controversial comments such as the woman card in order to have a chance of beating Clinton in the general election?
LOU GARGIULO, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think Mr. Trump has done a good job with women thus far. If you go to any of his rallies, you'll see that there's been a tremendous number of women. I think that the rhetoric during the primary season is certainly sometimes less than desirable, and I think if you look at Mr. Trump, he's been attacked by 17 Republicans over the past seven months, and one can only understand why his negatives would be this high.
I think once the primary process is done with in the next few weeks, I think you're going to see that change dramatically, and I think you're going to see a much more even matchup. And one only has to look at Secretary Clinton whose negatives are very high as well.
BROWN: But just focused on Trump really quick and comments about women -- I mean, some women found comments offensive. Are you concerned at all that Trump could be galvanizing women to move over to support Hillary Clinton?
GARGIULO: I'm not. I haven't seen -- I've seen so many women rallying around Mr. Trump. I think that a lot of it is the hype that's being caused, and a lot of it is negativity stirred up right within the Republican Party.
And I think once some one-on-one matchup, I think a lot of that is going to change, and I think Mr. Trump is going to have the opportunity to show himself the person he really is. One only has to look at his business record to see he has supported women in every aspect of his business, and I think that that's clearly what people are going to begin to recognize once the silly season of the primaries are over with.
BROWN: OK. But looking on the other side of this, Maria, in the same matchup, Clinton loses to John Kasich, who is running the least negative GOP campaign. What does Clinton need to do right now to improve her likability?
MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think once the general election is set, and right now, it seems that it will be Hillary Clinton and it will be Donald Trump as her opponent -- I think that right there makes the matchup so much more favorable to her, without her even doing or saying anything.
[16:05:15] And, you know, this is a woman who has been in the public eye for more than 30 years, and, yes, she has negatives to con tend with, but they are already baked in the cake. People understand what they are, but they also understand her record of accomplishment. They understand her commitment to public service. They understand that she is a candidate that wants to break down barriers and not build walls, which is exactly what Donald Trump wants to do.
And Donald Trump cannot blame his negatives on anybody but himself. And we have seen who he truly is. His true self-has come out many times in the last nine months since this day that he announced his presidency, calling Mexican immigrants rapists.
Those words are not going to be forgotten. The Democratic Party and progressives who will be focused on mobilizing voters to Hillary Clinton are not going to let him forget it. They're not going to let America forget it.
And so, I hope that he and his supporters continue to think he doesn't have a problem among women, because that means that his strategy towards women is not going to change. That's going to mean that the gender gap we see right now that he has with women, which is almost at 30 percent is going to get even larger. And if Mitt Romney lost women by 11 percent, I only see this gender gap is going to be the thing that sinks him in addition to everything else.
BROWN: So, Lou, what does he need to do to bridge that gap in a general election if he's the nominee?
GARGIULO: I think he has to continue to talk about his business acumen and how he's elevated women at every juncture in his business. And I think that speaks to a good part of who Mr. Trump really is. I think the left is certainly trying to create a situation that I don't think truly exists at the level people are trying to say it does.
Mr. Trump is a gentleman. Mr. Trump is a person who has consistently promoted people, and he's given women high level roles in his organization, and I don't think that speaks to someone who has an issue with women.
BROWN: All right.
GARGIULO: I think it's something that is easy to say --
CARDONA: But here's --
GARGIULO: -- but I'm not sure the data supports it.
CARDONA: Here's the problem. I think he should be talking about his record with women in business if it's as great as he says because that's one good thing he has going for him and needs all the help he can get.
But women are looking to their potential president for what policies he's going to pass, he or she is going to pass, and are going to help them. When you hear him talk and denigrate equal pay for equal work, when you hear denigrate, you know, making sure that women can have affordable child care, when you hear him denigrate Affordable Care Act, which has helped single women make sure their children have health care, those are not things that women voters look upon as something that is positive.
When you have -- so then when you have that contrast between Donald Trump and Clinton who is making that the focus of her campaign because unlike what Trump says, women's issues are not just women's issues, women's issues are American family issues. That's a contrast she'll win time and again.
BROWN: Maria Cardona, Lou Gargiulo, thank you very much.
CARDONA: Thank you so much.
GARGIULO: Thank you very much.
BROWN: And coming up on this Saturday, anger and outrage on campus of Brigham Young University. Several women say they were raped, and when they reported the crimes, they were punished.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's just a school's policies, they are very messed up right now, are not in line with what love and mercy is.
(END VIDEO CLIP) BROWN: Also ahead, campaign gender wars. Could Trump comment if Hillary Clinton plays the woman card backfire as we were just talking about? Hear what voters in Indiana told our Randi Kaye.
And comedian-in-chief President Obama polishes jokes for his final White House correspondents' dinner. Will he get the last laugh on Trump? A lot of people are looking for that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Say what you will about Mr. Trump. He certainly would bring some change to the White House. See what we got up there.
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: And Ted Cruz speaking live at the GOP convention in California, looking to unite the anti-Trump forces.
We'll be right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:l2:47] BROWN: To Utah's Brigham Young University where women say they were assaulted and rape and new trauma was inflicted by the college that was to protect them. Female students say the school actually kicked them out for allegedly violating its strict honor code. It forbids drugs, alcohol, and premarital sex.
CNN's Ana Cabrera sat down with the women and school officials.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARGOT CRANDALL, RAPE VICTIM: They had taken photos and videos during the rape, and he threatened me to expose those.
BROOKE, ALLEGED RAPE VICTIM: And he started like touching me and stuff, so I tried to get up and leave.
MADELINE MACDONALD, ALLEGED SEXUAL ASSAULT VICTIM: I've got boundaries. I've got these, you know, like strict lines you're not crossing and he didn't care about those.
MADI BARNEY, ALLEGED RAPE VICTIM: I was just sitting there crying say, I don't want to report. I can't do this. What if BYU finds out?
ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Their stories of rape and sexual assault, traumatic and horrifying.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What does it take for us to change the way we address sexual assault?
CABRERA: But it's what happened after their school found out that's sparking outrage. BROOKE: It was just really scary.
CABRERA: Brooke's nightmare began in February of 2014. She says she had taken hallucinogenic drugs just before being assaulted.
BROOKE: Over the course of the next 45 minutes, in like different ways, he raped me.
CABRERA: She reported it to police, but too afraid to face her alleged attacker in court, decided not to press charges. Three months later, she told her school, Brigham Young University.
BROOKE: I thought it would be a simple process to report him and have him be kicked out, you know?
CABRERA (on camera): Because he was a student?
BROOKE: Yes. He was a student there.
CABRERA (voice-over): But instead of getting support, Brooke was suspended.
BYU, a private university run by the Mormon Church, determined Brooke had violated its honor code, a student code of conduct that prohibits the use of illegal drugs and alcohol, as well as premarital sex.
BARNEY: And I waited about four days to report, because I was scared of my standing at BYU.
CABRERA: Madi Barney only reported her alleged rape to police. It happened off campus. So, she was shocked when she got a call from BYU's Title 9 Office, which investigates sexual harassment and sexual violence.
BARNEY: What she eventually said on that phone call was, we received a police report and in it, A, we think you may have been raped, and, B, it looks like you probably violated the honor code as well.
[16:15:02] I felt so betrayed because they read every single thing that happened to me and they just kind of didn't care.
CABRERA: In fact, she says, now she's facing backlash from BYU for not answering all their questions. Her attorney told her not to until after her criminal trial this fall. The school won't let her register for future classes until she cooperates with the honor code office.
CARRI JENKINS, BYU SPOKESWOMAN: There would never be an honor code review for reporting sexual assault, for being a victim of sexual assault.
CABRERA (on camera): How does that victim then end up being disciplined by the honor code office?
JENKINS: I wouldn't know. I wouldn't be able to speculate on any one situation. CABRERA (voice-over): While the school can't talk about specific cases, it did issue this addition statement, saying in part, "Sometimes in the course of an investigation, facts come to light that a victim has engaged in prior honor code violations. In all honor code proceedings, the university strives for fairness, sensitivity, and compassion. The university's overriding concern is always the safety and well-being of its students."
BARNEY: I think their first and foremost protecting is protecting the university. It's not protecting the students.
CABRERA (on camera): And I see you shaking your heads. You guys agree?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes, they've made that very clear.
CABRERA (voice-over): Since Barney went public with her story, other victims have felt empowered to share theirs.
MACDONALD: You're not reporting someone else. You're reporting yourself when you go in. Like, that's at least my perception of the Title 9 Office, like you are presumed to be guilty.
CRANDALL: As soon as they got the legal document say that my rapist had been convicted, that's when they gave me accommodations and helped me withdraw from classes, and they didn't offer any of that until they had the court documentation.
CABRERA: Anger is growing.
KELSEY BOURGEOIS, RALLY ORGANIZER: I'm a sexual assault survivor. I was raped here in this community while I was attending BYU.
CABRERA (on camera): Did you report it?
BOURGEOIS: No, I did not, for this exact reason.
CABRERA: You were too afraid?
BOURGEOIS: Yes.
CABRERA (voice-over): Kelsey Bourgeois recently led a protest march through campus with a petition signed by more than 100,000 calling on the university to give immunity to those who report rape or sexual assault.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'll be happy to take these and we'll personally deliver them to President Worthen.
CABRERA: The university says it is now studying current practices and procedures.
JENKINS: We want to look at the relationship between the Title 9 office and the honor code office. We want to look at whether and how information is shared. We want to look at the perception that students have. BARNEY: It's not a perception. It's something that's actually
happening. And that's them again not believing us.
MACDONALD: I don't know why they even feel the need to do a study. Like there's overwhelming evidence. So many people have come forward.
BROOKE: It's just a school whose policies are very messed up right now and aren't in line with what love and mercy is.
CABRERA: Ana Cabrera, CNN, Provo, Utah.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And our thanks to CNN for the powerful report there.
I want to talk this over with an advocate for sexual assault survivors, Liz Seccuro. She's author of the book "Crash Into Me", about surviving her own rape in college, back in the 1980s.
Liz, thank you for coming on with your experiences. I want your personal reaction to what you heard from those rape survivors and how the university responded to them.
LIZ SECCRUO, ADVOCATE FOR SEXUAL ASSAULT SURVIVORS: Well, my reaction is two-fold. I mean, normally -- thanks for having me, by the way, when I come on I'm pc., and I feel so much anger because Title 9 is a law, nothing to do with the link between BYU's honor office, and I understand that Brigham Young has special codes of honor, but it doesn't belong here.
These women, who I'm very proud of them, very excited to see the momentum, are being victimized twice, three times. They are being kicked out of school. They are shamed by their families. They have to go back to class with their own rapists, and it is enough.
I hear someone say, oh, we have to review the policies and practices -- enough. Enough is enough. This is not the time for reviewing. Put a stop to it.
There are women and young men whose lives are now going to be ruined, and I understand the pull that LDS has and prestige of going to such a school, but this is why Title 9 exists. And if Title 9 operators don't know how to enforce the law and help those victims, then why are they there?
BROWN: So what is the root of the problem here in your view? That the universities don't understand title 9? Is it that they just want to cover up what is going on in their campuses? I mean, what is the problem and how do you fix it?
SECCURO: Sure. It's a little bit of both of that, and add to it a faith-based university. I think there's a hidden shame and stigma to sex, and until schools like this understand that sexual assault has nothing to do with sex, then that's the part of the problem.
I speak at universities all over the country, and I train Title 9 administrators, and a lot of the Title 9 people take on the extra work and don't fully understand the nuances of Title 9.
[16:20:05] And so, that's a issue. It's not that they are not willing to learn, but I think that everyone's sort of running around with, you know, like deers in the headlight. I also think that the students really know what's what. They know this is an egregious injury. It's a crime. It is a crime everywhere in every city.
So if Provo police need to work with BYU- to help train, that's something as well. You know, it's been an age-old argument. I've been doing it for eight years, and it's exactly the same place that we started, and that has to mean something, there's an extra twist here with the idea of, you know, I don't care if you worship Jesus, Allah or the big spaghetti monster in the sky, this has nothing to do with that.
Are they going to shame a young woman or a young man who drank decaffeinated coffee with four grams in it and expel them because of the honor code? This is where it crosses the line. If you murdered somebody, but you had a drink before the murder, I mean, you're going down a slippery slope here.
I don't mean to sound angry, but when I look at these young women and getting 100,000 signatures, and I see the president sitting -- you know, sitting there saying, own, we're going to think about it, we're going to review it, that should be now over this weekend. I think the time has come. And I'm very proud of these young women.
BROWN: Clearly, you're so passionate about this, and emotional, and I'm sure some of that stemmed from the fact that you survived a brutal rape yourself in your college years. Tell us about that, and what do you wish your school could have done differently? I imagine you sort of saw yourself in some ways with other women who are coming out and, you know, being courageous to share their stories.
SECURRO: Sure. I see them every day, but this, you know, in particular, when I woke up and looked at the news this morning, I think there is a desire to cover up, and to shuttle and to quiet victims, and, you know, what I say right now is there's no shame in admitting that your school has a problem with sexual assault. You know why? Because over 200 schools have, quote/unquote, " problems" according to the office of education.
It's not shameful to want to learn and want to better yourselves, and, you know, in my case, I was told -- I was gang raped at a fraternity house at the University of Virginia -- I was told by the dean of students I was mentally unstable, a liar, and should transfer, and basically I was not a good girl basically, and, you know, I didn't want my parents to know I had sex with a young man.
No, that's not what happened at all. I sat there across from him, you know, with blood on my face, and, you know, my bones broken. You know, when you look into at human being's face and honestly say that -- I mean, you got to look at yourself in the mirror and say, you know, where is basic empathy for a fellow human?
This is not a feminist issue. It's not a school issue. This is something we are all looking at. Rape is devastating second only to murder.
I don't understand how we got to this place in 2016 in the United States. I just don't.
BROWN: Liz Seccuro, thank you for coming on, sharing your thoughts, and your experiences. We do appreciate it.
SECCURO: Thanks. Thanks for having me.
BROWN: And coming up on this Saturday afternoon, meet the man who went from Donald Trump's golf caddy to running the Republican front runner's Twitter operation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRIS MOODY, CNN SENIOR DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT: Is there anything he could say or do that would lead you to abandon him?
DANIAL SCAVINO, TRUMP SOCIAL MEDIA DIRECTOR: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:27:11] BROWN: Well, Donald Trump's former golf caddy is the man Trump trusts with his Twitter password. Trump is praised by political historians and voters for his effective use of social media. But at the end of the day, the man only has two thumbs.
CNN's Chris Moody sits down with the former caddy-turned-social-media- director for the GOP frontrunner.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MOODY (voice-over): Trump's social media accounts break every rule in the book. He uses Twitter like a weapon, tearing down competitors, posting messages from supporters, and sharing random, unfiltered musings.
TRUMP: What I have, 16 million or 17 million when you add it, it gives me a big advantage of these people --
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you write all your own tweets and when somebody's retweeted from your account, you've retweeted it?
TRUMP: I would say yes. Other than if we release some information, I have some people, Dan, and some other people that will do it.
MOODY: So, who's Dan? He's this guy, Daniel Scavino, Trump's social media director.
SCAVINO: Unbelievable. My name is Dan Scavino. I'm with the Trump campaign, a resident here in Duchess County.
MOODY: Scavino is a political novice, who got his start with Trump as a teenager when he was the mogul's golf caddy. SCAVINO: I think I was 16 years old working in the bag room, cleaning
golf clubs, working in the restaurant. You know, just your ordinary high school kid.
MOODY: Scavino sat down with CNN for exclusive on-camera interview to talk about his loyalty to Trump. Is there anything he could say or do that would lead you to abandon him?
SCAVINO: No, no.
MOODY: How he feels when Trump is attacked?
SCAVINO: It fires me up. It pisses me off.
MOODY: How the Trump campaign sees the war of words this election cycle.
SCAVINO: Note in the campaign, during the whole cycle, he never attacked anybody. He never --
MOODY: What?
SCAVINO: Well, he --
MOODY: Come on, Dan.
SCAVINO: He never attacked anybody in the sense of where he started. It was always the opposing campaign throwing punches at Donald Trump.
MOODY: And he gave CNN a behind-the-scenes look at Trump social media operation, one of the most successful, polarizing and controversial in campaign history.
SCAVINO: Any of the messages and anything that's put out on his Twitter account is 100 percent him. I -- he doesn't run anything by me. You know, I get the alert that a tweet went out no matter what time of day or night.
MOODY: You know that's unheard of in a presidential campaign.
SCAVINO: It is. It's a different campaign. We're a different campaign.
In the evenings, after I would say 6:00 or 7:00 p.m., when he goes back up to his room or hotel, wherever we are across the country, it's on the phone, he reads, and replies, tweets. He tweets himself. Mostly -- the only time anybody's tweeting for him is when he's in the office or he's on the phone and he wants something out or I'm with him. He's dictating exactly what he wants on the campaign trail.
So, that is me, but it's generally Mr. Trump.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[16:30:00] BROWN: Chris Moody, thank you so much for that report.
And coming up, you 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 female voters to find out.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: When I say Donald Trump, what's the first word that comes to mind?
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Powerful.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scary.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Surprising.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dangerous.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Divisive.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BROWN: Well, some say Tuesday's Indiana primary could be the last stand for those looking to stop Trump's momentum. A wild card for him? Republican women.
At least with his own party appears Trump is not terribly damaged by strong statements made that many say are degrading to women. Here you can see how exit polls show he took more than half of the female vote in New York, in Pennsylvania, but will Republican women in Indiana be different?
CNN's Randi Kaye sat down with a small group of them to see what they're thinking.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
KAYE: When I say Donald Trump, what's the first word that comes to mind?
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Powerful.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Scary.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Surprising.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Dangerous.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: No way.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: Divisive.
KAYE (voice-over): Six Republican women from Indiana weighing in on Donald Trump's comments about women and his suggestion that Hillary Clinton is playing the women's card.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Frankly, if Hillary Clinton were a man, I don't think she'd get 5 percent of the vote. The only thing she's got going is the woman's card.
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's insulting regardless of how you feel about Hillary Clinton 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?
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think these comments are helpful to him or to his campaign. However, I still believe he is still playing the theatrical card.
[16:35:02] UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm scared to death of a person who's setting that sort of a tone.
KAYE: Some of these women are willing to overlook Trump's comments because they think he is strong on the economy and jobs. Though after calling Megyn Kelly crazy and making fun of Carly Fiorina's face, some here are surprised Trump is still on top.
JUDY SINGLETON, REPUBLICAN VOTER: I thought when he made those derogatory remarks about Carly Fiorina's personal stature and her beauty, that would sink him.
KAYE: In fact, 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 the boob job is terrible. They look like two blight bulbs coming out of a body.
SINGLETON: I call this cocktail talk and he just doesn't know any better.
JANNA URBAHNS, REPUBLICAN VOTER: Though is he talking about contestants in the pageant. It is another way to get people to watch the pageant.
MOLLY DEUBERY, REPUBLICAN VOTER: 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 same justifications used for sexual harassment for years. To use the word "boobs" several times, that's not promoting the paneling intelligent.
KAYE (on camera): These comments would not prevent you from voting for Donald Trump?
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: 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. 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?
UNDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
KAYE: Molly says yes.
DEUBERY: Yes.
[07:35:01] 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.
KAYE (voice-over): Randi Kaye, CNN, Indianapolis.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: And that last question, you heard right there, looms over all of this. Will Republican women break for Hillary Clinton in it's between her and Donald Trump?
Jay Newton-Small joins me now. She's "TIME" magazine's Washington correspondent and she's also the author of "Broad Influence: How Women are Changing the Way America Works."
Thank you so much for coming on.
This week brought really a compelling preview of the battle for women voters we could see in the general election. You heard that clip of Trump accusing Clinton of playing the women's card. Her campaign saw opportunity in that statement right here. It's now offering donors their very own woman card as we see.
And the Internet is also striking back at Trump, using that #womencard. In fact, one woman tweeted, "tried to use my woman card at an ATM to pull out a $20 and got $15.50 instead." Another woman writes, "love to buy some paid maternity leave with my woman card."
So, Jay, you see that. How big is the gap between Clinton and Trump when it comes to women voters? JAY NEWTON-SMALL, TIME MAGAZINE: Hi, Pamela.
The gap is actually huge. And so, to give you an idea -- women voters are incredibly important. You can say they are very much Trump card of any election, swung every election since Reagan. They vote 10 percent more on average in presidential elections than men do, and they already make up 53 percent of the electorates. So, convincing women is very important in a general election.
It's less important in the Republican primaries, which is why you see Trump is doing well. He doesn't need to pull as many women because he wins off male votes and wins the primaries given the divided Republican field that you have, not just facing one establishment candidate, but two.
But in order to win general election, Donald Trump would have to mitigate the loss of women to less than 10 percentage points, so that's what George W. Bush did in 2000 and in 2004 with his appeals to security moms and to soccer moms. And in that instance, I mean, considering that CNN poll recently, 73 percent of women disapproved Donald Trump. It's really hard to -- I mean, it's a huge distance he has to make up in the general election.
BROWN: So you make the point that right now it doesn't matter because he can win the primary without support from women, but the general election, it's another story, some of his supporters say he's going to change his tone, scale back some of these controversial remarks.
But how much is he saying now going to have an impact on women voters come general election time if he's the nominee and does change his tone?
NEWTON: Well, I mean, there's tapes about everything he said and it's going to come back to haunt him. You're going to see them playing tapes over and over and over again, saying he's questioning where Megyn Kelly was bleeding from, calling women fat pigs, you know, saying Hillary Clinton woman card or saying that she wasn't qualified to be the president.
[16:40:07] I mean, these are all things that make it hard for women to turn around and vote for him, especially when you run against potentially a first female candidate for president of a major party on the other side of the aisle where she draws a lot of female support. Most of the support, in fact, is our female voters.
And Donald Trump argues back and says, well, some women don't like her. That's true. There are young female voters who do not like Hillary Clinton very much.
But in a recent poll, for example, of Harvard, Harvard did of millennial voters, if you do a matchup between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, the one person that millennials voters disliked more than Hillary Clinton is actually Donald Trump. She would win in a hypothetical matchup, 61 percent to 25 percent.
Again, he still has work cut out for him, especially with female voters.
BROWN: And Ted Cruz just spoke moments ago at California's GOP convention. He shared with the crowd how he thinks Hillary Clinton is taking the news that Carly Fiorina is now his running mate. Let's take a listen to that.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Carly terrifies Hillary Clinton. You know, I can just picture Hillary thinking about Carly, tossing and turning, and tossing and turning, in her jail cell.
(LAUGHTER)
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: So, Jay, what's your take on that?
NEWTON-SMALL: Well, certainly, Ted Cruz picked Carly Fiorina as a running mate in large part because she does represent Donald Trump's biggest weakness, women, right? She can criticize Hillary Clinton as a woman in ways Republican men cannot. So, she can say a lot of things that Donald Trump or Cruz would get in trouble for saying because she is a woman.
That said, you know, odds of him actually being on the ticket and her, frankly, on the ticket are very, very narrow. I mean, mathematically he's going to be eliminated from getting the nomination. He won't -- it's not possible for him to win outright the 1,237 delegates need. He's relying on a contested convention in order to get there.
And then the first thing that happens in a contested convention is your vice presidential seat is the biggest chip you have to play, and there's really a big incentive for him to, perhaps dump Carly Fiorina in exchange for somebody else if that comes into play, which increasingly in the Republican Party, looks like they go with the idea of Trump nomination because Trump is winning so largely, in so many of the states we've seen, winning the last six states, sweeping through in the last six states.
And, so, I mean, Ted Cruz, a weakness. He picked Carly Fiorina because Trump has that weakness, but it is one that I don't know he's going to be able to leverage outside the next week or two.
BROWN: Yes, he picked her I think the day after Trump made the woman card comment.
Jay Newton-Small, thank you very much for that perspective and analysis. We appreciate it.
NEWTON-SMALL: Thanks, Pamela.
BROWN: By the way, Monday marks five years since President Obama gave order to kill the most wanted man in the world, and for the first time an exclusive interview with CNN's national security analyst Peter Bergen, the president speaks from the Situation Room about the operation that led to the death of Osama bin Laden, the mastermind behind the September 11th attacks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After the discussions with the principles, it was clear to me that this was going to be our best chance to get bin Laden, that if, in fact, we did not take the action that he might slip away, and might be years before he would resurface.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: You do not want to miss the "ANDERSON COOPER 360" special, "We Got Him: President Obama, Bin Laden, and the Future of the War on Terror." It airs right here on CNN Monday night at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.
We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:47:43] BROWN: Well, a pediatric neurosurgeon didn't let her gender or disability stand in her way of becoming a doctor. Her work ethic and positive attitude inspired many of her students, including our very own Dr. Sanjay Gupta. Here's a very personal "Turning Points".
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twenty-five years after I first met her during my residency at the University of Michigan, Dr. Karin Muraszko is still teaching me about the wonders of the brain.
DR. KARIN MURASZKO, UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, PROFESSOR, NEUROSURGERY: Our job is to kind of recapitulate what should have happened in nature.
GUPTA: Right now, Karin is operating on the brain of this two-year- old boy. She's training the next generation of neurosurgeons. And if that weren't impressive enough, she's doing it all from a wheelchair.
Born with spina bifida, expectations for Karin were set low, to put it gently.
MURASZKO: My grandmother would say to my mother, oh, don't push her so much. A handicapped girl, the most she'll do is sell pencils on a corner. And my mom would say, no, no, you never know what kids can do.
GUPTA: But even her own mother couldn't predict just how high Karin would set the bar.
MURASZKO: Often I think people choose careers and jobs because they want to pattern themselves after someone. I didn't know anybody that was quite like me. And as a result, I kind of chose my own path and in some ways, that's extremely liberating.
GUPTA: Karin didn't just break the mold, she shattered it. And in 2005, became the first woman chair of neurosurgery in the country.
MURASZKO: Next time you see someone who doesn't fit the mold of what you think someone should be, think outside the box.
GUPTA: Dr. Sanjay Gupta, CNN, reporting.
(on camera): I love you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BROWN: Really heart warming there.
Coming up on this Saturday, President Obama gets ready to preside over his final White House Correspondents' Dinner tonight, and everyone wants to know, will he roast Trump like he did years ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breath of experience --
(LAUGHTER)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BROWN: More of those presidential jokes, up next.
(COMMERIAL BREAK)
[16:53:38] BROWN: We are just a few hours away from the annual White House Correspondents' Dinner. A time when politicians and the press kick back, relax, and poke fun of each other, and we can't help but wonder if President Obama has any jokes up his sleeve for Republican frontrunner Donald Trump. Pretty sure bet that he does.
Trump won't be attending the dinner this year, even though he says he was invited. And maybe this clip from 2011 explains why.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
OBAMA: Donald Trump is here tonight.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN: Donald Trump has been saying he'll run for president as a Republican, which is surprising since I just assumed he was running as a joke.
OBAMA: No one is happier, no one is prouder to put this birth certificate matter to rest than the Donald. That's because he finally gets back to focusing on the issues that matter like, did we fake the moon landing? MEYERS: I like the Trump as filthy rich, but nobody told his accent.
His whole life is models and gold leaf and marble columns, but he still sounds like a know-it-all down at the OTB.
OBAMA: Recently in an episode of "Celebrity Apprentice" at the steak house, the men's cooking team did not impress the judges from Omaha Steaks, and there was a lot of blame to go around. But you, Mr. Trump, recognized that the real problem was the lack of leadership, and so, ultimately, you did not blame Lil' John or Meatloaf, you fired Gary Busey.
[16:55:13] And these are the decisions that would keep me up at night.
MEYERS: Gary Busey said recently that Trump would make a great president. Of course he said the same thing about an old rusty bird cage.
OBAMA: Kidding aside, obviously, we all know about your credentials and breath of experience.
MEYERS: Donald Trump opens the Miss USA pageant, which is great for Republicans because it will streamline their search for a vice president.
Donald Trump said recently has a great relationship with the blacks, though, unless the blacks are a family of white people, I bet he's mistaken.
OBAMA: Say what you will about Mr. Trump, he certainly would bring change to the White House. See what we got up there.
(LAUGHTER)
MEYERS: Mr. Trump may not be a good choice for president, but he would make a great press secretary. How much fun would that be?
Kim Jong-il is a loser, his latest rally was a fluff, I feel bad for Ahmadinejad, the man wears a windbreaker, he has no class. I, on the other hand, sell my own line of ties.
(END VIDEO CLIPS)
BROWN: So, even though Trump as you saw there stayed pretty stone face throughout, he says he enjoyed that roast and was honored by the attention.
And CNN will have complete coverage of tonight's White House Correspondents Dinner. Look for that beginning at 7:00 p.m.
We'll be right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
