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Anti-Trump Fears Boil Up Inside GOP; Hillary Clinton Looks Ahead to General Election. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 05, 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] JEANNE MOOS, CNN SPECIAL CORRESPONDENT: He accidentally bashed his wife's head in. He didn't notice when another woman fell off the damn stage. That would be his short-lived running mate Carly Fiorina.

CARLY FIORINA, TED CRUZ'S RUNNING MATE: Ted Cruz.

MOOS: It was Ted's wife who did notice and offered a hand. Back to the elbow.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How not to hug.

MOOS: Cruz was aiming to hug his father, and after elbowing his wife, it turned into a group hug. "This is exactly what a real threesome is like," noted a commenter on Gawker.

(On camera): Ted Cruz may have elbowed his way out of the race, but you've got to hand it to the guy, that hurt.

(Voice-over): What Cruz and Fiorina did with their hands was almost painful to watch. From a distance it just looked a little awkward. But close up --

A BuzzFeed editor tweeted, "It will haunt you to the grave." Actually, it was more haunting when Raul Castro tried to raise President Obama's hand and the president resisted. Better a limp wrist than a sharp elbow.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump on the verge of the Republican nomination despite early dismissals that he's grossly unqualified to be the party's standard bearer in November. Some Republicans still hold that view. Senator Ben Sass of Nebraska re-energizing his anti-Trump efforts and standing by his Facebook statement he made back in February, quote, "If Donald Trump ends up as the GOP nominee, conservatives will need to find a third option." And then there's Arizona Senator John McCain, the party's 2008

nominee. He believes Trump endangers his re-election bid. Listen to what he tells supporters at a private fundraiser in this audio recording obtained by Politico.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I have no doubt that if is Donald Trump at the top of the ticket here in Arizona with over 30 percent of the vote being Hispanic votes, no doubt that this may be the race of my life. People are angry. They're upset. They feel that there is this disconnect.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Phil Mattingly live in Columbus, Ohio, with more on this. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Good morning, Carol. John McCain facing a conundrum faced by a number of Senate Republicans who are facing re-election this year.

How do you handle Donald Trump at the top of your ticket? But at least John McCain says he will support the Republican nominee. Not so for George H.W. Bush and his son George W. Bush. Obviously the two last Republican presidents both saying they will stay out of the 2016 race. That means no convention, no public campaigning, and it looks like no endorsement as well. And it's one of the issues that the Trump campaign has been having to deal with, Carol.

How do you get the party to unify behind a candidate? It's something his advisers and Donald Trump himself says will happen over time. Something else that will happen over time according to the Trump campaign, voters. They will come over to the middle where they believe Trump will eventually move. It's something he underscored in his interview yesterday with Wolf Blitzer on the minimum wage. Not an issue Republicans generally win polling wise, but here is Donald Trump straddling the Republican and Democratic positions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Bernie Sanders says he wants $15 an hour minimum wage, and he has really gone after you lately for saying you're happy with $7.25, the current federal minimum wage. You can't live on $7.25 an hour.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No. And I'm actually looking at that because very different from most Republicans. I mean, you have to have something that you can live on, but what I'm really looking to do is get people great jobs so they make much more money than that, so they make much money -- make more money than the $15.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Carol, a prime example right there of how Donald Trump has infuriated conservatives for his willingness to buck the party orthodoxy, but appealed on some level to people perhaps not so tied to it in the past.

One issue that Donald Trump made very clear in the long sit-down with Wolf Blitzer was that his focus has shifted and rightfully so. He is the presumptive nominee, but he has a new target. That's Hillary Clinton and that's the general election. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Do you think the general election campaign has already started, you versus Hillary Clinton, that for all practical purposes Bernie Sanders is out?

TRUMP: Well, I think what has happened, there's been a little flip and I'm even surprised by it. I thought that I'd be going longer and she'd be going shorter. She can't put it away. That's like a football team. They can't get the ball over the line. I put it away. She can't put it away. So I thought that I'd be out there and she'd be campaigning against me. I didn't realize, so, yes, I will be campaigning against her while she's campaigning against --

BLITZER: So the general election campaign from your perspective starts today.

[10:05:03] TRUMP: Essentially it started. I mean., yes, it started today. It started actually three months ago when I hit her pretty hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: And, Carol, reuniting a fractured party, preparing for a convention, trying to really bring everybody back into the fold. No shortage of challenges for Donald Trump, not to mention a potential running mate pick that has to come in the near future but as he said his focus now has shifted entirely. Hillary Clinton and the Democrats, he is on to the general election campaign -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly, reporting live from Columbus, Ohio, thanks.

Mister Trump needs to unify his party and convince Americans he is a uniter because he can't win a general election without support from women, Hispanics, and African-Americans. Perhaps Mr. Trump's choice of running mate could bridge that divide, but at least for now Trump says he needs a running mate to balance his skill set. Listen to what he told Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would want somebody that would help me from a legislative standpoint, getting things passed through Senate, through Congress, and to me that's why I think probably in terms of a vice president I'm going to go the political route. I don't need the business route. I have got that covered.

BLITZER: Somebody who's been a governor or a senator? TRUMP: Somebody that --well, somebody maybe that's even been a

senator. I like that because they're dealing -- look, we want to get legislation passed. We're in total gridlock in Washington.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Let's talk about Mr. Trump's possible VP pick with me -- with me now CNN political commentator SE Cupp and CNN political commentator and Donald Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord.

Welcome to both of you.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

SE CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, SE, a number of people have already turned down the prospect of being vetted by the Trump camp. Senator Rob Portman says he's not interested. Governor Nikki Haley said she's already got a full plate. Governor Susana Martinez says she isn't interested and Governor Rick Scott is going to pass. Oklahoma Governor Mary Fallon, though, says she would be honored.

So do you think Mr. Trump will have a hard time?

CUPP: Yes, I think there's going to be a lot of people who won't take that job. But that said, this is politics. There are always going to be partisans and there are always going to be big egos who see stars when a veep pick is offered to them and who will, of course, take it. And there are some people for whom it would actually be, you know, a good opportunity.

Trump is interesting in that, you know, because of his lack of popularity in a general and Hillary has the same problem, the veep pick is actually incredibly important, I believe. He really has to shore up some of the deficiencies. You know, the fact that he has no political experience. The fact that he's hurting with women and minorities. He needs to address all of that with a veep pick, but because he's Donald Trump, he also, I think, really cares about his brand, and so the pick has to be on brand.

I think maybe someone like Chris Christie, who I think for many of us showed he's a little less politically convicted than we might have thought in the past. His tough talk I think would be a good match for Donald Trump and he has that political experience that Donald Trump would be looking for.

COSTELLO: So -- but, Jeffrey, some people might say, well, if he chose a Hispanic woman, that might help him with two communities, women and Hispanics. Would that be a smart pick for Donald Trump?

LORD: It might. I notice that one of the things he said in the interview with Wolf, you talked about personal chemistry, and that is important. Clearly and he mentioned President Obama -- then Senator Obama selecting Joe Biden, and he said, well, it might not have made sense but it made sense to Senator Obama, and as we've now seen after eight years, indeed, it did. The two of them work very well together as a team as did, frankly, Ronald Reagan and George Bush and Bill Clinton and Al Gore. So there is some importance to that, but --

COSTELLO: Well, let's talk about this personal chemistry thing because that intrigues me because SE brought up Chris Christie. But if you -- I mean, if you look at Chris Christie just standing behind Donald Trump, he never looks very comfortable, right? Ben Carson, right? Possibly another pick? But he doesn't really say many flattering -- or he says some unflattering things about Donald Trump. So chemistry. Won't that be difficult to find for Mr. Trump?

CUPP: Look, I mean, these are all people who have been on the receiving end of Donald Trump blows, and so I'm sure it's a little uncomfortable to now be out there cheerleading for him, but you have the choice not to. So if you're going to, I have to believe that you are, like Chris Christie or Ben Carson, willing in some way to support his policies and his rhetoric and if you're willing to be a surrogate, I assume you'd be willing to be vice president.

You know, interestingly, a couple of months ago I talked to a member of the Trump campaign about the veep pick, and I said, you know, where are you thinking? And at the time they were looking at -- he said a diversity pick and I floated the name of Susana Martinez and he said that's interesting. I think that would be a great -- that would be a great match and a great opportunity for her, but as you pointed out in the beginning, she said she's not interested.

[10:10:08] That can change. We have heard people say not interested for months and months and months, and then suddenly it comes down to it. They're presented with the opportunity, and everything that comes with it, and suddenly they've been convinced to do it.

COSTELLO: Yes, he's sort of become a national name, right, Jeffrey?

CUPP: Yes, for sure.

LORD: Yes. One of the things you want to -- for instance, Governor Christie, aside from personality and meshing with his personal chemistry, Governor Christie is the governor of New Jersey. New Jersey would be an important state for Donald Trump to carry, so that might help. But you also want to make sure here that you've got somebody that's not going to be -- turn in to be a liability.

COSTELLO: Yes.

LORD: President Bush or then Vice President Bush selected -- you know, passed over Jack Kemp and Dan -- or I'm sorry, Bob Dole and some other rivals and selected the then-unknown Senator Dan Quayle and he was immediately pounced on. It turned out he was not an asset on the campaign trail. It didn't matter in the long run. Bush got elected anyway. But you do want to have somebody that's not going to be exposed to the national klieg lights for the first time and have a problem.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. I have to leave it there. SE Cupp, Jeffrey Lord, thanks to both of you. CUPP: Sure.

LORD: Thanks.

COSTELLO: Still to come -- you're welcome.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, the race that was supposed to be finished early marches on. Can Hillary Clinton afford to shift her focus and campaign away from Bernie Sanders?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:15:55] COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton has not locked up her party's nomination but her focus still drifts to the Republicans. Clinton is seizing on the GOP squeamishness with nominee Trump. Listen to part of a new attack ad that she's rolled out on her Twitter account.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am a unifier. We're going to be a unified party.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: He is a con artist.

MITT ROMNEY, FORMER REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: A phony.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is the know-nothing candidate.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald is a bully.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: And the ad goes on from there. Clinton is not just letting the ads doing all -- Clinton's not just letting the ads do all the talking. She's talking, too.

CNN's Chris Frates has more on that. Good morning.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. She is talking indeed. In fact only hours after Donald Trump became the presumptive GOP nominee, Hillary Clinton, she was already labeling Trump a risky choice.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I've seen the presidency up close from two different perspectives. And I think know what it takes. And I don't think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running our country.

You can go down a long list, some of which he's tried to bob and weave a little bit, but I think it's a risk. I think he is a loose cannon and loose cannons tend to misfire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: And when our own Anderson Cooper asked if she was worried about Trump attacking her husband, Clinton laughed. Remember the billionaire has called former President Clinton one of the great women abusers of all time. That was a line he used last year after Hillary Clinton called Trump sexist.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: If he wants to go back to the playbook of the 1990s, if he wants to follow in the footsteps of those who have tried to knock me down and take me out of the political arena, I'm more than happy to have him do that.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You're ready for that?

CLINTON: Oh, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: And while Clinton called Trump a bully, she wouldn't call him racist, sexist, or xenophobic, refusing to endorse Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren's tweet which called Trump's campaign all three things, and Bernie Sanders, he also took some shots at Trump last night arguing that the presumptive GOP nominee insults people in very ugly ways, but he did refrain from insulting Clinton on the stump. He didn't even mention the Democratic frontrunner last night.

But, Carol, I'll tell you it remains to be seen if that kinder, gentler Bernie Sanders will continue. You know, because, remember, it's mathematically impossible for Sanders to win enough delegates in these remaining contests to clinch that nomination, so the Vermont senator has vowed to take his fight all the way to Philadelphia to the convention, hoping to give in to enough superdelegates to switch sides and hand him the nomination, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chris Frates, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

So Donald Trump stands alone in the GOP race and Clinton is itching to take him on one-on-one, but she's not pushing Sanders to exit the race, at least not yet. Why? Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Senator Sanders is obviously taking issue with people calling you the presumptive nominee on the Democratic side. What do you say to his supporters? Should you be considered the presumptive nominee at this point?

CLINTON: Well, I'm not calling myself that. I know there are still some contests ahead, and I respect Senator Sanders and whatever choices he makes, and I really -- I have a lot of empathy about this, Anderson. You know, I ran to the very end in 2008.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now to talk about this is journalist and Hillary Clinton supporter Anushay Hossain and Democratic strategist and Bernie Sanders supporter Nomiki Konst.

Welcome to both of you.

ANUSHAY HOSSAIN, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thank you so much, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thanks. So, Nomiki, what do you make of what Clinton said about Bernie Sanders?

NOMIKI KONST, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: She's right. I mean, she wanted to stay in the race until June 7th. Her husband stayed in the race until the end. We have a long history of having competitive primary in the Democratic race where they stay until the end and they let all of the primaries play out. And look, California is coming up. They're tied in California. The next several races are very strong for Bernie Sanders and let's remember, neither candidate based on the margins and the rules of the DNC that were set way in the '80s say that either candidate will have that 2383 pledged delegate.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But, Nomiki --

HOSSAIN: You know, Nomiki --

[10:20:02] COSTELLO: Nomiki, I just want to -- yes, it's mathematically impossible for Bernie Sanders to win.

KONST: Well, what is the convention for? Superdelegates were set as an insurance policy from the Hunt -- after the Hunt Commission to create -- to basically block a Donald Trump from entering the party. None of those superdelegates are bound. So all this fuss we've had on the Republican side --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But look at the numbers. Hillary Clinton has 513 and Bernie Sanders has 41. That's a lot of convincing.

KONST: So we're getting distracted. They are not bound. None of them are bound. And a lot of them are obligated to their voters. You know, 200 of them haven't announced who they're supporting. She's had 500 since August. Why have a primary if she's going to have 500 pledged superdelegates in August of last year? That's just not Democratic and it's disrespectful to the voters. Disrespectful to the voters, it's disrespectful to the party's rules.

(CROSSTALK)

KONST: And I think --

COSTELLO: So, Anushay, is it disrespectful to the voters?

HOSSAIN: I don't think it's disrespectful to the voters and, Carol, I agree with you. At this point it is mathematically impossible for Sanders but the real question for Hillary Clinton's camp is -- the millennial voters that Sanders has. Will they switch over to the Clinton camp?

And I think she's being very smart right now. And this is what she needs to do. We have to remember at the end of the day, Clinton and Sanders overlap a lot when it comes to their policy goals, when it comes to their goals in general. So I think it's important for her to, you know, remind his voters that she's on the same team as them and they have a shared goal of keeping a Democrat in the White House, and we're talking about the millennials.

You know, when we talk about them, they are a very important voting bloc, yes, but let's not lose sight of the fact that they are one of the most educated voting generations in U.S. history. They're smart, they're informed, and ultimately they're going to be voting on policy, not gender, and Hillary Clinton is smart to remind them when it comes to policy.

COSTELLO: That is true, Anushay, but Nomiki, I'll ask you this question. Emotion also plays a big part in how voters feel about Bernie Sanders, especially Bernie Sanders, because it's more than just supporting a candidate, right? So it will be difficult for them to disassociate themselves emotionally from Bernie Sanders, right?

KONST: I don't know. Again, we're going to go to a convention. There's no doubt. The rules are no one is going to hit the 2383 pledged delegate mark and no superdelegates are going to have to declare on the floor and Hillary Clinton doesn't want to win by superdelegates. So they're going to go to the convention as well.

This is a movement driven. And, you know, you're right, millennials are the most educated generation and that's why they understand the policies of the '90s, the Clinton era policies are what got us here today. What hit this generation the hardest. So I think what Hillary Clinton has to be concerned about is not disrespecting these voters by saying she's the presumed nominee when the math actually isn't true based on the DNC rules. When the rules basically say the security -- the insurance policy for the Democratic Party is superdelegates.

So when you have to win your nomination based on superdelegates, many of which have obligations and patronage to the Clinton campaign, that's not good for the next generation of the DNC.

COSTELLO: OK.

KONST: The DNC has --

COSTELLO: OK. So, Anushay -- so, Anushay, you're listening to what Nomiki says. She's a very -- she's a very passionate, ardent supporter of Bernie Sanders. So how can Hillary Clinton possible convince somebody like Nomiki to say, you know what, they've got similar goals, they have similar policies, jump on board?

HOSSAIN: Well, I think that's what we're going to have to see because at the end of the day I mean it's very -- I mean, it's election season. We are getting -- we are getting so close. The million- dollar question is, is Clinton going to be able to get Sanders' voters and are Republican women going to -- you know, who are they going to vote for if it comes down to Clinton and Trump, and Hillary is not assuming that she is -- she's going to be the nominee. She just said that she's not assuming that at all, but I think it's really important for people to remember the Sanders voters and the Clinton voters, how much we have in common and that we must be united in making sure it's a Democrat in the White House.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Nomiki Konst, Anushay Hossain, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, some Republicans are leaving the party now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee, but he doesn't care. But can he win without them?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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