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Obama's Last White House Correspondents Dinner As President; Cruz And Fiorina Host Events in Indiana; Donald Trump Makes Immigration A Defining Issue In Election Cycle; Sanders Holds News Conference Year After Campaign Launch; Obama Slays Media, Critics, and Himself; Many Of Wilmore's Jokes Fall Flat With Crowd. Aired 2-3p ET

Aired May 01, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:13] MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everybody. Nice to be with you. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredricka Whitfield.

Well, the drinks and jokes, they were flowing as reporters, Hollywood starts, lawmakers, step down for the annual White House correspondents' dinner. But some called nerd prom. Its Washington's yearly meeting of political insiders and the press and it was President Obama's last chance to skewer the media, his critics and even himself.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But it is not just Congress. Even some foreign leaders they have been looking ahead and anticipating my departure. Last week Prince George showed up to our meeting in his bathrobe. That was a slap in the face.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Very cute. This year's tight presidential race also fueling much of the president's jokes. After taking a few shots at senator Bernie Sanders who attended the dinner and Hillary Clinton, who did not, the commander in-chief turned his attention to the GOP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: GOP chairman Reince Priebus is here as well. Glad to see that you feel you've that you have earned a night off. Congratulations on all of your success. The Republican Party, nomination process, it's all going great. Keep it up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: We'll be digging deep into last night's final correspondents' dinner for President Obama over the next hour. But first we are expecting that Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders will hold a news conference in Washington in the next 30 minutes. Now, this comes one year since the senator launched his campaign.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny is at the site of the news conference. And Jeff, good to see you. Do we have any idea what Sanders is about

to reveal or say?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Martin.

Senator Sanders as you said will be speaking here in 30 minutes or so. I'm told there are no dramatic announcements. I'm told by his campaign that there are no announcements about his future other than the fact to say that he is staying in. He is actually going to Indiana beyond here that Indiana primary is on Tuesday. He knows well that he is behind in delegates, both pledged and superdelegates. He knows that this race is shifted over the last week.

But Senator Sanders has made clear that he is going to stay in the race until the end, until the final voters have had their voices heard in June. So what senator Sanders is going to do today, I'm told, is mark his one year in this race, sort of take stock of the fact that really no one thought that he could be this type of challenger on the Democratic side and really, you know, reiterate his desire to stay in the race.

But Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager was on "STATE OF THE UNION" this morning offering a bit of an argument of why he is staying in this race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, look, this race is not over by any stretch of the imagination. We're going all the way to the end. The senator has said that repeatedly. Obviously, the platform is of a concern whether he wins or loses as is the whole process by which we elect a Democratic nominee. So this campaign is going on. We have got Indiana coming up on Tuesday. And he is going all the way to end.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And in fact both Democrats will be campaigning in Indiana. Hillary Clinton is there today. Bernie Sanders is going there tonight and tomorrow. But Bernie Sanders also just taking stock of his moment, his turn in this democratic race. He was on hand at the White House correspondents' dinner last evening. He was grinning from ear to ear at the new found attention that he is, you know, really embracing and enjoying. And the president has said that he is the youth and vigor and new face of the Democratic Party.

The president also had another compliment for him. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: There he is. We've got the bright new face of the Democratic Party here tonight, Mr. Bernie Sanders! There he is! Bernie, you look like a million bucks or to put in terms you'll understand, you look like 37,000 donations of $27 each. (END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: Of course that is a common reframe Senator Sanders says over and over that his average contribution is $27, of course, to make the point that he is funded by an army of grassroots supporters.

But Martin, really, the question going forward is will that army continue to rise up and stand up for senator Sanders here in the final six weeks or so of this campaign? Questions of party unity going forward, question of what he wants and what he does want obviously is to make sure that the Democratic Party platform, this summer at the convention is progressive. So that's why he is staying in. And we will be on hand for his announcement in 30 minutes and get back to you --Martin.

[14:05:02] SAVIDGE: It has been absolutely amazing year.

Jeff Zeleny, thank you very much.

Indiana or bust. That may well be Ted Cruz's mantra until the state's primary on Tuesday. Cruz and his newly running mate Carly Fiorina are hosting pre-camp events. That is in the state today. This is a new NBC/"Wall Street Journal" Marist poll shows that Donald Trump holds a 15-point lead over Cruz in Indiana. And Trump is telling FOX News at least today, after Indiana this race is over and Cruz should give up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If you win Indiana Tuesday, is this race over?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes, it's over. Think it's over now. But it's over. Cruz cannot win. He has no highway. He has got nothing. He is way behind. I'm leading by millions and millions of votes and I'm leading him by 400 or 500 delegates. He can't win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Joining me now to talk about this are CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill and CNN senior political analyst Ron Brownstein.

Hello, Ron, let's start with you. Let's pretend it's Wednesday morning, will we have a nominee?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I think if Donald Trump wins Indiana particularly if he wins Indiana with the kind of breadth of support we are seeing in the polling today that the race is functionally over. Indiana is a legitimate place for Ted Cruz to make a stand. It has a big evangelical Christian population, just under half of (INAUDIBLE) probably. That has been his best constituently throughout the campaign. And it's kind of the reverse of New York, New York. If you can't make it there, you can't make it anywhere. Yes.

So, if Donald Trump does wins Indiana and particularly if he does win with the kind of breadth that we saw in the primary in New York where (INAUDIBLE) earlier but those that have been resisting him, I think the race is functionally over.

SAVIDGE: Yes.

Marc, I have got to ask you about Obama said about the White House correspondents' dinner, no Republican apparently - actually, no one really was safe from the president's final roast. Listen to some of what he had to say about Republicans.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Just look at the confusion over the invitations to tonight's dinner. Guests were asked to check whether she wanted steak or fish, instead a whole bunch of you wrote in Paul Ryan. That's not an option people, steak or fish. You may not like steak or fish, but that's your choice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: Clearly the president enjoying himself.

Marc, you were on that panel last night. You gave Obama a c-plus?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: C-plus --

SAVIDGE: And you got a lot of twitter hate about it. What gives?

HILL: I did. Again, let me be clear. I'm not comparing him to Roosevelt or Jimmy Carter. I'm comparing him to himself. He has done eight of these and his have always been the showstopper. In fact, many comedians have been reluctant to go after President Obama because he has been so great at it. I don't think it was awful. I'm giving him a c-plus based on his own past performances. I think he has done better. I thought he could have gone harder with the Trump stuff. I thought he had some dead air. I though he had a few misses. I thought the John Boehner thing was heartwarming in a brief reach across the aisle, it but wasn't comedic gold. I actually saw some missed opportunities there. I thought the president could have gone harder for his last run.

SAVIDGE: Yes, I got you. I mean, given the fact that it is the last one. He might have gone all out.

Ron, what do you think? What was your take? Did Obama play it too safe?

BROWNSTEIN: Tough grading. Look. I thought it was - you know, the thing about President Obama has been both in public and in private settings and off the record settings, he has always had kind of distance -- the ability to have distance and perspective on being president, kind of meta perspective on the presidency even as he is doing it and commenting on it. I have always found his monologs at the White House correspondents' dinners, very reveal, not only, you know, whether how funny they are now, it could giving you a sense of his sense of what it's like to be president and his kind of poking at the absurdities in many ways of how the media, modern media system has evolved.

And they are very revealing in that way. You kind of get an idea what's on his mind. I thought that the joke about Ted Cruz, you know, what's next, baseball stick, football hat, and (INAUDIBLE), that is actually not only a joke but kind of an insight into something that, you know, kind of gnaws at him or at least he finds to be amusing.

SAVIDGE: Yes. I think, you know, I will point out that obviously many of these jokes are written for the president for the president. But the president is the one who delivers them and his timing, he is a master of timing, I have to say that.

Marc Lamont Hill and Ron Brownstein, thanks very much for joining us today.

BROWNSTEIN: Thanks, Martin.

SAVIDGE: President Obama and his wife Michelle are announcing today that their oldest daughter Malia will attend Harvard University in the fall of 2017. Malia graduate this spring but will take a year off, the gap year before starting school. Something the University encourages admitted students to do. That means that she won't start college until after her father leaves office making her a member of the class of 2021. Congratulations to her.

Still ahead, President Obama speaks to CNN exclusively on the hunt for Osama bin Laden.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: 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.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: We are going to have a whole lot more from our Peter Bergen's exclusive conversation with the president in just a minute.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:14:02] SAVIDGE: Tomorrow marks a crucial moment on the war in terror. It was five years ago, U.S. special operation forces raided Osama bin Laden's compound and killed the al-Qaeda leader. In an exclusive CNN report airing tomorrow night on "AC 360," President Obama talks about the planning and preparation and ultimately the pay back for the 9/11 attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PETER BERGEN, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: The last person that bin Laden saw on earth was an American. So --

OBAMA: And hopefully at that moment he understood that the American people hadn't forgotten some 3,000 people who he had killed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: CNN national security analyst Peter Bergen joins us from Washington.

That's quite of amazing moment you captured there. Don't you think that most Americans I suppose had the same reaction as you did or no?

BERGEN: In what sense?

SAVIDGE: Well, just that I guess you're essentially saying this is an American looking into the eyes of a dying man and saying gotcha?

[14:15:07] BERGEN: Yes. I mean, the overwhelming kind of if you take the totality of what President Obama said and also his national security advisers who we also interviewed, there was no high fiving about this when this happened. There was a feeling that justice had been done, not revenge but justice. And that you know, America doesn't forget.

And if you attack United States, you know, you're going to pay a price at some point. It may take a while and it took almost ten years in this case, but certainly Osama bin Laden must have known the Americans were coming, after all, a helicopter crash happened in his compound, there was a fire fig. He had probably about 15 minutes to think about all of this. And the last thing he did see was an American, the person who killed him.

SAVIDGE: This was the first Obama interview ever given in a situation roomy understand. So what was that like and did it give you a sense of what the tension must have been like inside of the room, what the feeling was when this raid was pulled off?

BERGEN: Just to clarify it was his first sit down interview in the situation room and the situation room actually refers to a complex of rooms. There's the well-known situation room that is reconstructed in movies. We sat down with him and talked about that moment where he made the -- he was the -- the final meeting where the various courses of action were discussed. And then, of course, this iconic photograph at also in the situation room complex but it is a much smaller room. It is not much larger than a very small office. And we also talked to the president in there. That, of course, where everybody went in because it was a video feed of the raid as it went down.

It wasn't a video feed from on the ground but it was from an overhead drone. And back in the main situation room they could only hear audio. So everybody crowded in there to see what the video was and they could see that a helicopter had gone down. The president said to us when we interviewed him, you know, that wasn't an ideal start, which is a nice understatement given the fact that, you know, this -- it looked like things were not going well. But of course, Admiral McCraven (ph) who we spoke to at great length for this special, you know, there had been a lot of planning about, you know, the very soon as it could go wrong and there was a back-up plan to the back-up plan to the back-up plan to the back-up plan. And so, you know, everybody had a lot of confidence in the SEALs and Admiral McCraven himself, and even with the helicopter going down taking a hard landing, the operation still was able to proceed pretty well flawlessly.

SAVIDGE: I believe the president told you that this raid was the best chance to get bin Laden. Let's listen to that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: After the discussions with the principals 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 resurfaced, I had confidence that we could get our guys back. We knew that it was going to cause some significant blowback within Pakistan. And that if it wasn't bin Laden, probably the cost would outweigh the benefits. And we would lose face internationally because there was probably going to be a lot of difficulty keeping it secret once the operation started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: He sort of downplays it here but the repercussions if this had failed could have been huge particularly, you know, that you launched a mission against the sovereign nation of Pakistan. Did he or anyone else have second thoughts at the moment that the president sort of said, go?

BERGEN: Well, no. I mean, his senior advisers were giving him -- some of them said do not do the raid. I mean, urge caution, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, vice Biden both against the raid. But others like Hillary Clinton urged for it. And yes, if things -- we know how this turned out but for people making decisions it wasn't clear there would have been a lot of things that could have gone wrong. There could have been a firefight with the Pakistani military. It could have been, you know, SEALs down and SEALs taken hostage.

You know, it could have been -- there were a lot of negatives. And of course, the other big thing was they didn't know if bin Laden was definitely there. Some people felt the likelihood was 40 percent, others people thought 60 percent, other people thought 80 percent. But at the end of the say, these percentages were sort of misleading because he was either there or he wasn't. And if you went in and he wasn't there and Pakistani military after all had a pretty big facility not far from where bin Laden was living, you know, and there was some kind of exchange of fire. As you say, it's a sovereign nation. It is nominal ally of the United States where breaching that sovereignty. There were a lot of things that could have gone wrong.

[14:20:05] SAVIDGE: Right. Yes. Well, I find it fascinating and I'm really looking forward to your special. Thank you very much.

BERGEN: Thank you, sir.

ZELENY: Peter Bergen.

And make sure to watch, CNN's "AC 360" special, we got him. President Obama, bin Laden and war on terror. That will be tomorrow night 8:00 eastern only on CNN. DVR if you can't watch it when it's on.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:24:06] SAVIDGE: You probably remember Donald Trump launched his presidential campaign nearly a year ago with an anti-immigration salvo, that inspired a wave of protests that continues to this day. His campaign also gave rise to something unexpected, Latino activists supporting Trump. Yes, it's complicated and it involves not just the protests and the political rhetoric but actual Latinos on both sides of the issue for whom the stakes are very real and very high.

CNN's Nick Valencia has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We went under a fence and through a fence. And oh, boy, I felt like I was crossing the border actually.

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You've heard it before, a controversial comment on immigration by a Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.

TRUMP: They are bringing drugs, they bringing crimes, they are rapists and some I assume are good people.

[14:25:00] VALENCIA: Its remarks like this about Mexico that's inspired a new wave of Latino activism, both for and against the candidate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. Yes.

VALENCIA: Trump event in Janesville, Wisconsin in March we meet Miguel Fajardo, an adamant Trump supporter.

What do you say to those, Miguel, who are going to watch this and say I cannot believe that he is supporting Donald Trump? What do you say to those people?

MIGUEL FAJARDO, TRUMP SUPPORTER: All those people because those people around them, that is illegal immigrants in United States. So illegal that both --

VALENCIA: Fajardo says he emigrated from Mexico to the U.S. quote "the right way," legally. Now a U.S. citizen, he says Trump has empowered him, embolden him, even to speak up and speak out against illegal immigration.

FAJARDO: Yes, go build the walls. I have key to come in the right way. You have to come in the right way.

JORGE FLORES, ACTIVIST: I can't believe those Latino people support Donald Trump because those people, they forgot what they come from, you know.

VALENCIA: For the Flores family with Donald Trump surging they say it is a battle of survival. While four children were born in the U.S., parents Jose and Maria entered the country illegally. Under a Trump presidency, they fear their family will be broken up.

Because of Trump, the Flores family and many others like them have stepped up their activism for undocumented immigrants in an act of symbolism and pride, they say. At rallies they wave both the Mexican and American flags.

JESSIE FLORES, ACTIVIST: I think that everyone just wants to be proud where they came from but also wants to be part of the United States.

J. FLORES: And I would represent we are united.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The next president of the United States, Mr. Donald J. Trump.

VALENCIA: Should Trump actually become the next president, he will likely do so with the help of Latinos, something Mexican supporter Miguel Fajardo says won't be a problem.

FAJARDO: He is the only one who can open the door and take it out all of the bad stuff for the White House.

VALENCIA: The Flores family couldn't disagree more.

J. FLORES: I want to send a message to Donald Trump, my children make America great.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not Donald Trump.

J. FLORES: Not Donald Trump.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: Without question in 2016, Donald Trump has inserted immigration as a defining issue in the presidential cycle. Of the 11 million undocumented immigrants in this country, Latinos make up more than half. And at 17 percent of the overall U.S. population, Latinos are now present at every state near the largest majority group in half of those states. Latinos have the capacity, of course, to reshape the American political system and they are certainly using their voices to be more vocal before for and against Donald Trump - Martin.

SAVIDGE: Yes. What is interesting I think is that to some people might suspect that Latinos either vote democratic, all monolithically and they don't. They are divided just as we are.

Matt Barretto (ph) wrote a great book on Latinos in America. And he said, of the elections that Latinos vote in, half have voted at least once for a GOP candidate. But we hear from Latino activists in the field is that they are speaking of -- Donald Trump is speaking for them, things that they have been thinking for years. And a lot of those centers around those who immigrated to this country legally. Those tend to be the most adamant supporters of Donald Trump. They feel like they did it the right way, so to speak, and everyone else should as well.

SAVIDGE: Nick Valencia, thanks very much. Good to see you. VALENCIA: Thank you, Martin.

SAVIDGE: And don't miss Donald Trump tomorrow morning, he is on CNN. He joins "NEW DAY." That will at 7:00:00 eastern, one day ahead of that all-important Indiana primary.

Bernie Sanders expected to hold a press conference shortly in Washington. We're going to take you there as soon as it begins. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: Any minute now, Senator Bernie Sanders will hold a press conference in Washington, D.C. CNN senior Washington correspondent, Jeff Zeleny is in the room. Jeff, any sign this is imminent?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good afternoon, Martin. Senator Sanders is going to be taking the podium in just a few moments here and we're getting a sense of what he's going to be talking about.

We've been given a copy of a handout listing the states that he won, New Hampshire, Washington State, Vermont, Utah and Minnesota, et cetera, and showing percentage of wins and the percentage of superdelegates he's getting from those.

Of course, the superdelegates are the elected officials, those Democratic officials, who also have a say in this. Clearly Senator Sanders will be making the argument that he's staying in the race and he's going to be trying to persuade some of these superdelegates to look twice at him.

At least in the states where he won and now Senator Sanders is taking the stage right now, Martin. So let's take a listen.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: OK, thanks very much for being here on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. We announced the beginning of our campaign a year ago and before I talk about the delegate math and our path to a victory, I want to say a few words about how far we have come in the last year.

I just want to thank the millions and millions of people who have supported us in every way. When we started this campaign as most of you know we were considered to be a fringe candidacy. We started with no campaign organization and we started with no money.

We started very little name recognition outside of my own state of Vermont. In national polls, we were trailing Secretary Clinton by at least 60 points and in some cases a little bit more.

In this campaign, we have taken on the entire Democratic establishment in state after state. We have taken on the senators and members of the Congress, the governors and mayors and we have taken them all on.

And in the Clinton organization, obviously we are taking on the most powerful political organization in this country, an organization that has won two presidential elections with Bill Clinton, who ran a very strong campaign with Hillary Clinton in 2008.

That was what we were up against. That was then and today is today, as of today, we have now won 17 primaries and caucuses in every part of the country. And by the way, we hope to make Indiana our 18th victory on Tuesday and we have received some 9 million votes.

[14:35:02]In recent national polls we're not behind Secretary Clinton by 60 points anymore. In the last few weeks actually there have been a couple of polls that have us in the lead, other polls have us single digits behind.

In terms of fundraising, we have received more individual campaign contributions, 7.4 million, than any candidate in presidential history at this point in a campaign.

We do not have a super PAC. We do not get our money from Wall Street or drug companies or powerful corporations. Our money is coming from the middle class and working class of this country, averaging $27 a campaign contribution.

I'm very proud of the fact we have just raised in the last month, had a phenomenally good month. We've raised over $25 million, despite the fact that 80 percent of the primary and caucuses are behind us.

What the political revolution has shown is that we can run a strong winning campaign without a super PAC and without being dependent on big money interests.

As of today and I don't know if anybody else has done it, I don't know that, we have brought out over 1.1 million people to our rallies from Maine to California.

That number will go up very significantly because we intend to have a number of major rallies in the state of California. Very importantly, we have won in state after state, a strong majority of votes of younger people, voters under 45 years of age.

In other words, the ideas that we are fighting for are the future of the Democratic Party and in fact the future of this country. I'm not just talking about 23 years of age and younger, we're talking about people 45 years of age or younger.

The reason for that, I believe, is that the issues that we are talking about are the issues that are on the minds of the American people, people know whether you're conservative or progressive.

That a corrupt campaign finance system with super PACs is undermining American democracy. They understand there is something fundamentally wrong where the average American is working longer hours for lower wages and almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent.

They understand that we have a broken criminal justice system with more people in jail than any other country on earth. They understand that we have got to deal with the planetary crisis of climate change and among other things impose a tax on carbon. They understand that at a time we have a major growing crisis with regard to clean water. We need to end fracking. They understand that in a competitive global economy, we need to make public colleges and universities tuition free.

And they understand that when you have a grotesque level of income and wealth inequality, yes, large profitable corporations in the top 1 percent are going to have to pay more in taxes.

SAVIDGE: You're listening to Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders as he summarizes where his campaign is one year after it began. We're going to continue to monitor this. There's going to be a section of Q and A so we'll be going back for that as well.

But in the meantime, we want to bring in CNN political commentator, Marc Lamont Hill and Nomiki Konst. She is a Democratic strategist and Bernie Sanders supporter.

Nomiki, what are we making of this? Is it really just to sort of bring us up to date where they are one year later or are we expecting there's a point?

NOMIKI KONST, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I think the point that Senator Sanders is trying to make is that we're missing the point about this campaign. We've been distracted by the Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, you know, Kasich dilemma, where really none of them have a path to victory.

We've been ignoring the fact that Bernie Sanders has a path to victory. Hillary Clinton will not reach the magic number and he is doing something incredible. He is leading something incredible that is taking place within the Democratic Party.

You know, the Republican Party might be burning down, but the Democratic Party is in crisis right now. When 80 percent of those under the age of 50 that are newly registered independents and progressive leaning.

And Democrats are siding with this revolution and the rest really the establishment, I mean, when you look at Hillary Clinton's wins she's winning in closed primary states with two demographics alone.

Those are for the most part when you look at it nationally, women over the age of 50 and African-Americans over the age of 55.

[14:40:08]SAVIDGE: All right, Nomiki, I get this but what is the point he's making today? Why now and what is this as we go forward to the next series of primaries?

KONST: Well, we have 14 states to go. OK, and we're writing his obituary, when neither candidate right now based on the margins of victory including Hillary Clinton, will reach the pledged delegate, 2,383 pledge delegate count, which is what determines who is the nominee of the Democratic Party.

And what the media has done and not all media, let me be fair, because it's an establishment run campaign, Hillary Clinton's, is they've written his obituary when there's a very clear path to victory.

I mean, listen, Tad Divine was the architect behind superdelegates and he is a strategist for Bernie Sanders campaign. There is no better expert on this topic of how to get to a win than Tad Divine --

SAVIDGE: OK, hold on. Let me bring in Marc because otherwise we are going to run out of time. Every day we see more Sanders supporters saying they are not going to vote for Clinton if she becomes the nominee. Should the Clinton campaign take that threat seriously do you think, Marc? Are we seeing really the Democratic Party threatening to split much as many have said the Republican Party will do?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, let me quickly answer the previous part of this because I agree that Bernie Sanders has a path to victory, but it is a very, very tight narrow path to victory and Hillary Clinton won't reach the magic number based on pledge delegates but when we factor in superdelegates, which are in the fact the factor whether we like them or not --

KONST: They don't come until the end. We have to make that clear. The DNC rules --

HILL: Let me finish.

SAVIDGE: Let's let him finish.

HILL: I agree. We're not on different pages here. But what I'm saying is the reason why people say that Bernie Sanders doesn't have a very easy path because those superdelegates have in effect declared where they are going.

Unless they change their mind at the convention, there will be a Hillary Clinton victory. I agree with all critiques of the electoral process and the unfairness of it, closed elections, people being blocked off at the polls.

Bernie Sanders is 100 percent right, but the path is somewhat narrow. We have to be honest about that even if it's unfair. To the other point here, I think Hillary Clinton absolutely needs to worry about Bernie Sanders supporters.

Because if they stay home, we'll look at a Trump inauguration, but the way for Hillary Clinton to appeal to Bernie Sanders supporters, if she wins and again, Bernie could mathematically win.

But if Hillary Clinton does win, what we have to do is not simply find a way to get them to the polls, it's to create policy that actually appeals to those on the underside of American democracy, to repair this broken economy.

It's to think you about how we can get cause access to everybody and talk about racial disparity in the criminal justice system and to try to get rid of this liberal logic we have in every aspect of our public and private lives. SAVIDGE: All right, I was really looking for a shorter answer but Marc Lamont Hill and Nomiki Konst, thank you very much. We'll keep listening to Bernie Sanders here and we'll be back to you after we get into the Q and A session. Thank you.

Up next, nobody was spared at last night's correspondents' dinner, even Sanders rival, Hillary Clinton. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Got to admit it though, Hillary trying to appeal to young voters is a little bit like your relative who just signed up for Facebook. Dear America, did you get my poke? Is it appearing on your wall? I'm not sure I'm using this right. Love, Aunt Hillary.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:47:17]

SAVIDGE: I don't know if you watched the correspondents' dinner last night. President Obama took plenty of shots at the media and also took quite a few at himself during last night's White House Correspondents' Dinner. And he contemplated how he would spend his days after leaving office and he got some advice from someone who knows a thing or two about stepping out of the spotlight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: So getting advice --

JOHN BOEHNER, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: So now you want my advice? First, stop sending me these LinkedIn requests and second, here's a video of this whole thing. You have all of the time in the world to figure this out. You can just be you for a while. If you know how to do that again.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: So I can just be me? I can wear my mom jeans. I hate these tight jeans.

BOEHNER: Good. Yesterday, I had a beer at 11:30 in the morning and you know, McDonald's now serves breakfast all day long.

PRESIDENT OBAMA: Michelle is going to be at spin class so she'll never know.

BOEHNER: Right, let it go. Won't long and you'll be able to walk right out of the oval office singing zipty do da, zipty --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAVIDGE: CNN entertainment analyst, Chris Witherspoon, joins me now live from New York. Chris, this was the president's last correspondents' dinner and looked to go out with a bang. So did he? CHRIS WITHERSPOON, CNN ENTERTAINMENT ANALYST: He went out with a bang, no holds barred. I think President Obama showed he's the ultimate performer. He can really go anywhere. That clip you just played of him leaving in not knowing where he is going to go, I think he could probably pull a reverse Reagan and go from the White House to entertainment, Hollywood. He's that brilliant.

His jokes were amazing. I think he actually did better than Larry Wilmore, who came after him and followed up. This shows Obama is a guy next door. He actually has some of the most brilliant writers writing for him.

That clip you guys played on Facebook was hilarious and also him talking about going from the White House to Goldman Sachs to get some tub mans, another big hit. This is a president that we're all going to miss very much.

SAVIDGE: I know he has professional writers, but it's also in the delivery and he does a great job with delivery and I'm sure in there as well he adlibs a punch line or two.

You mentioned Wilmore and you posted on Twitter, quote "If I were Larry Wilmore, I would grab a bottle of red and sit in the back table in the crowd."

How do you follow up on Obama's jokes? It's true. I mean, let's face it the president of the United States is a tough act and he fell kind of flat.

WITHERSPOON: I mean again, Obama is an ultimate performer, we've seen him on comedians with cars with Jerry Seinfeld and Larry Wilmore, the spotlight was on him. He was the big act last night, but Obama, after that act, how do you even follow that?

[14:50:01]And I think being on the same age, Obama came across fresher, more in tuned with what folks wanted to hear and you can see reactions on Twitter. Not just me. Everyone said, more Obama please and Larry Wilmore just kind of fell flat in a lot of ways.

SAVIDGE: What do you know, a star is born, president of the United States, I think he's going to be all right after this. CNN entertainment analyst, Chris Witherspoon, thanks very much for joining us.

WITHERSPOON: Thank you.

SAVIDGE: Up next, we'll go inside California's San Quinton Prison and have a rare look at the lives of the inmates and the culture behind the bars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SAVIDGE: America has the highest number of people in jail in the world and 60 percent of people who go to prison wind up going back. One of the country's most famous prisons is located in San Quentin, California. In CNN's new series, "United Shades of America," Kamau Bell takes a rare look inside San Quentin to find out more the inmates, the prison and the culture.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST, "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA": I'm looking around I see sort of different groups of people in different areas. Are the areas broken up in any way?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The areas are broken up in a way. Beyond the tennis court where the white guys are. There are a couple of different areas for those guys and basketball court, that's primarily where all of the African-Americans are.

There's an area of land behind us near the shack where the Pizas, those individuals who are from Mexico south, the Hispanic inmates, who are not Californian, so to speak.

[14:55:08]And northern Hispanic, there's an area where they are at. The yard is segregated based upon some of those underground rules.

BELL: OK. So it seems like the black guys got the basketball court, no surprise there. If you're a white guy who wants to play basketball, is it not recommended that you go over there? I mean, do the white guys got a good jump shot?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You may feel that way and it may not feel these guys have an issue with you, is that the guys who look like you may have an issue with you coming over here.

BELL: Is there any sort of effort to create that cross pollination?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There are many efforts we have, education opportunities, some of the other programs we have, work assignments, we do try to bring the population together and successfully put people next to each other who traditionally will not be next to each other.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: Kamau Bell joins us now live from San Quentin where last night -- we talked to you yesterday and last night, I guess, the prisoners were getting an early screening of the episode that the rest of us will see tonight. You were there. What was their reaction?

BELL: I was really blown away by their reaction. They were excited to see themselves on screen and also they were excited to know that we let them tell their own stories. We didn't chop it up or we didn't judge them. We let them tell their own story.

They told their full story from the guilt about what they did all the way through the fact that they have reformed themselves. It went over really well. I'm excited about that. I hope the show does well tonight in the ratings but that means more than anything.

SAVIDGE: When you went in, we all go with an idea what prison might be like. But we have these ideas, did you go in with misconceptions where things changed when you came out?

BELL: Absolutely. I think I have the same misconceptions that everybody has who doesn't spend time in prison in any way. Media and TV and movies and the prison documentaries make you think prison is gross and scary and only focus on that of the inmates.

There's a large percentage of plurality of people who are just doing their time and trying to find ways to better themselves. We don't focus on those people enough.

And so within about 5 minutes I walked in and guy recognized me from television, I thought this is going to be fun. Then after that I hung out and talked to people and sometimes I would forget I was in prison with these guys, just a bunch of guys talking to each other.

SAVIDGE: I get what you're saying.

BELL: I mean, I know I had fun because I got to leave, but did have a good time in prison.

SAVIDGE: We started off saying that, you know, no country I believe in the world beyond the U.S. puts as many people in prison as we do. What did you learn about who is in prison and how many and just this kind of population that sits behind bars?

BELL: Well, I mean, a lot of the inmates talk about the prison industrial complex, the fact there's prison as a business in this country and for the business to do well we have to arrest people.

So a lot of that is through over sentencing and unequal application of the law and then the America's 13 percent black but 40 percent of America's prisoners are black.

There's a whole mess of issues that roll into the American prison system that the inmates are all very conversant with and we talked about it a lot.

We really have to look at the whole industry as a whole and start over I think. Look at Norway, the way they are doing it. You know, they have a 20 percent recidivism rate whereas we have a 60 percent recidivism rate.

SAVIDGE: Yes, there are definitely lessons to be learned and starting tonight. We can see them and watch them. Kamau Bell, thank you very much for joining us. Watch "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA BEHIND THE WALLS" that will be tonight right here on CNN.

And we have a whole lot more just ahead in the NEWSROOM. It all starts right now.

Thanks for joining me. I'm Martin Savidge in for Fredricka Whitfield. Bernie Sanders is still speaking at a news conference in Washington.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny just asked him a question about Trump's claims that he will soon be attracting Sanders supporters. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: On "Fox News Sunday" that he's intrigued by some of your message that you have used to take on Secretary Clinton, any plans to use that message as sound bite and as arguments. Going forward as you continue through the rest of this, do you plan to change any of your tone? Do you believe that you are contributing to his campaign by helping him advance?

SANDERS: I want to congratulate Donald Trump who has managed to manipulate the media in an unprecedented way. Every word he says is three hours on CNN or some other station. No, the Republican Party and Trump have the resources to do all of the opposition research they want on Secretary Clinton.

They don't need Bernie Sanders' as critiques of the secretary. And as I've said before, when you look at a Donald Trump who wants to give hundreds of billions of dollars in tax breaks to the top two-tenths of one percent, a man who despite all of the scientific evidence thinks that climate change is a hoax.