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Donald Trump Sweeps Nebraska and West Virginia Primaries; Sanders Wins WV Amid Economic Fears. Aired 9-9:30a ET
Aired May 11, 2016 - 09:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:00:03] CAMEROTA: Beautiful. What a great inspirational story.
CUOMO: She warms the heart, but also she put fire in your spirit. You are not your limitations.
CAMEROTA: There you go. Thank you.
All right. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.
Hey, Carol.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. You guys have a great day.
NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, a clean sweep for Donald Trump, but winning over the establishment, not so easy.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: We shouldn't just pretend that our party is unified, when we know it is not.
COSTELLO: And Bernie Sanders keeps the momentum going.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It appears that we've won a big, big victory in West Virginia.
COSTELLO: Can he stop Clinton or will math get in the way?
Plus drug enforcement agents back at Prince's home. A new doctor now under the microscope.
Let's talk, live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Two different states of victory. Donald Trump wins and closes in on the nomination. Bernie Sanders wins and barely moves the needle. Trump, the last Republican still standing, cruises to victory both in the Nebraska and yesterday's vote in West Virginia. His clean sweep means he now only needs just about 100 delegates.
Bernie Sanders also a winner in West Virginia but he rakes in only a handful more than Hillary Clinton, barely denting the huge lead she commands, but the Republican seized on Clinton's stumble. Trump tweeting, quote, "I don't want to hit Crazy Bernie Sanders too hard yet because I love watching what he is doing to Crooked Hillary. His time will come," end quote.
But Trump is taking hits, too, from overseas. Listen to what the mayor of Paris said, when asked about Trump's proposed ban on Muslim immigrants.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. Trump is so stupid. My god. My god.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: We have a lot to cover and our correspondents and guests are here to break it all down. Let's begin with the Republicans, though, with Donald Trump's big win. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live in Washington with more.
Good morning.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, to you, Carol. Well, Donald Trump is really looking now to take those pair of wins last night and bring that to his big day tomorrow on Capitol Hill. He will meet with House and Senate Republican leadership including the much anticipated meeting with speaker of the House, Paul Ryan. Trump will be making these very direct, face-to-face pitch to those still in the party, still reluctant to fully support him.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY (voice-over): Days before their big meeting, Donald Trump softening his tone and sounding more conciliatory about House Speaker Paul Ryan's role at the Republican National Convention.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a very good man. He wants what's good for the party. And I think we're going to have very positive results.
BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: Did you say --
TRUMP: And I would love, frankly, for him to stay and be chairman.
SERFATY: Responding to Ryan's assurance that he would step down as chairman if Trump wanted him to.
RYAN: We shouldn't just pretend that our party is unified when we know it is not.
SERFATY: In an interview with the "Wall Street Journal" Ryan says he hopes they can unite the party after a bruising primary battle. RYAN: What we want to do is sit down together and talk about how we
can unify the Republican Party so that we can be at full strength in the fall.
SERFATY: Trump also in the throes of preparing for the general election, narrowing down his list of potential running mates. One person definitely not interested in the job, former rival Marco Rubio. In his first national interview since dropping out of the race, the senator telling CNN's Jake Tapper --
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: My differences with Donald, both my reservations about his campaign and my policy differences with him, are well-documented and they remain.
SERFATY: Rubio signaling that his support of Trump is a matter of honoring his word.
RUBIO: I've signed a pledge that said I'd support the Republican nominee, and I intend to continue to do that.
SERFATY: And Trump's fiercest formal rival, Senator Ted Cruz, returning to Capitol Hill leaving the window open for possibly jumping back into the race.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've suspended the campaign because I can see no viable path to victory. Of course, if that changed, we would reconsider things.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY: And the Trump campaign seems to be laying some groundwork for tomorrow's meeting with Paul Ryan. They've dispatched one of their top surrogates, Ben Carson, who spoke on the phone last night with Paul Ryan. The goal of that phone call, according to an aide, Carol, was to set a positive tone ahead of tomorrow's big meeting.
(LAUGHTER)
COSTELLO: All right. We'll see if it works. Sunlen Serfaty, thanks so much.
With me now to talk about this and more, CNN political commentator and Republican strategist, Doug Hye, he's also the former RNC communications director, and Republican strategist, Brian Morganstern, he supported Marco Rubio's bid for president.
Welcome.
BRIAN MORGANSTERN. REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thank you.
DOUG HYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Nice to have you both here.
So, Brian, Trump and Sanders win coal country. They win West Virginia. They're both outsiders, Doug, I get that, but does either candidate really have a viable plan to save the coal mines?
[09:05:02] MORGANSTERN: Well, that's obviously a hot topic now. And Hillary Clinton really stepped in it and gave the other candidates a chance to really exploit that weakness. And look, it's not just about West Virginia. This is the year of the disaffected, ignored voter who is, you know, being appealed to by the populist candidate. They feel left behind not just by the Republican Party also the Democratic Party.
They feel like, you know, the politicians in Washington have not been looking out for them and so -- and both Sanders and Trump have been railing on these trade deals, and sort of using them as a scapegoat or, you know, the reason for their plight, and so that's why these people are so energized and really giving it to both of the establishment side of the party.
COSTELLO: As far as a plan goes, neither candidate seems to have much of a plan, but they did have a villain. Is that the secret, Doug? They have a villain. China is the villain. Like the EPA is the villain, Obama is the villain. But what's the solution?
HYE: Well, I think that's one of the things that troubles so many people on the Republican side about Donald Trump. There are no policy specifics. There are no real solutions. As you mentioned, there are tons of villains, you can pick a different villain of the day. But there aren't serious policy solutions. And that's why I think you've seen somebody who is so policy and results or oriented like Paul Ryan, he is so nervous and tepid about Donald Trump so far. Obviously he's going to meet with him tomorrow.
But if you're Paul Ryan and you want a positive agenda for America, you put out a positive agenda for America, having a Republican frontrunner or presumptive nominee who doesn't have a real agenda, hasn't put out specific policy proposals, can be troubling.
COSTELLO: I want to go back to Ryan in just a moment. And I want to ask you this question, Brian, because Sanders, Bernie Sanders of course won West Virginia over Hillary Clinton. He hit Donald Trump in his victory speech. Trump hit crazy Bernie and what he is doing to crooked Hillary in a tweet this morning, here is what Mr. Trump tweeted exactly.
Quote, "I don't want to hit crazy Bernie Sanders too hard yet because I love watching what he is doing to crooked Hillary. His time will come."
So, Brian, is that true? Or is Trump just trying to focus on the game and not on actual policy?
MORGANSTERN: Isn't it always about the game? It's always about branding his opponents, and you know, to lift himself up. He is going after crazy Bernie, for the first time. This a change in tone actually because he's been praising Bernie for what he's been doing and bringing in new voters. And he intends to reach out to those Bernie supporters, by the way, in the general, and that's not a dumb strategy, frankly. There are -- there is much more than a non-zero number, probably.
Let's say 10 percent of Bernie's voters, you know, actually go with Trump because they just feel the system is rigged and he is more equipped to deal with it than Hillary. Well, that's a million voters. And Obama I think only won the last election by about three million votes. So, you know, Trump sort of waffling and playing this game to appeal -- to eventually appeal to Bernie's voters is not the dumbest thing he could do.
COSTELLO: It's fascinating. So, Doug, I know you're a Republican strategist, but I did want to ask you this. Is Bernie Sanders hurting Hillary Clinton?
HYE: I think there is no question about it. Having win after win, it's been really impressive what Bernie Sanders has done. Win after win is just another chink in the armor for the Hillary Clinton campaign that can't afford or absorb too many losses. She's obviously the presumptive nominee. She's got the most delegates, she'll get to the numbers she needs on the Democratic side.
But she continues to lose and it shows that Democratic voters aren't enthusiastic about Hillary Clinton even if they nominate here, just as Republican voters aren't enthusiastic about Donald Trump if they nominate him. They're both the two least popular nominees that we've seen in recent presidential history.
COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about a non-enthusiastic kind of, sort of, I don't know, I don't know. Marco Rubio. I don't know if he supports Donald Trump or not, Brian. Marco Rubio, though, he was your candidate. He won't say if he'll vote for Trump. He will say he has no interest in becoming Trump's vice-president and more. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: Here's what I'm not going to do over the next six months, sit there and just be taking shots at him. He obviously wasn't my first choice because I was running for president. He has won the nomination. And now he deserves the opportunity to go out and make his case to the American people and that's what he's going to do. I don't view my role over the next six months to just sit here and level charges against him.
I know what I said during the campaign. I enunciated those things repeatedly and the voters chose a different direction. I stand by what -- the things that I said. But I'm not going to sit here now and become his chief critic over the next six months because he deserves the opportunity to go forward and make his argument and try to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So basically he is saying, nah, so, Brian, my question is why not get on board the Trump train, grab a spot to speak at the convention, and call it a day?
MORGANSTERN: Because he has obviously very real concerns about this candidacy. He has articulated them, you know, over and over throughout this primary process.
[09:10:04] To come out with a full throated endorsement now frankly would be phony. And it wouldn't really have the effect of rallying people around Trump because people would know that it's -- that it's fake. That it's in the interest of Marco's own future. And that's not who he is. He is a genuine guy.
Now what's happening here is that in every election, there are voter who really connect with the candidate and they want to raise money and they want to knock on doors, and they want to do everything they can to help them and then there are others who don't, who just kind of shrug and hold their nose and say, well, it's better than the alternative. What's weird about this situation is that leaders in the Republican Party, like Marco Rubio, are the ones kind of shrugging and holding their noses as opposed to some of the grassroots folks who tend to do that, you know, in every election.
COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Doug Hye, Brian Morganstern, thanks to both of you.
HYE: Thank you.
COSTELLO: OK, let's talk about the Democrats. Hillary Clinton Berned again. The Democrats' long time shoo-in unable to clinch the nomination or even inched closer. Clinton loses the West Virginia primary to Bernie Sanders, but barely loses any ground in the all important delegate race.
CNN's Chris Frates in Washington with more. Hi.
CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. You're right. Bernie Sanders had another good primary night last night. He won the majority of the 29 delegates up for grabs in West Virginia. But as you point out, Sanders still faces long odds in his campaign to upset Hillary Clinton, who leads him by about 300 pledged delegates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Now we fully acknowledge that we are good in arithmetic, that we have an uphill climb ahead of us, but we are used to fighting uphill climbs. Our message to the Democratic delegates, who will be assembling in Philadelphia, while we may have many disagreements with Secretary Clinton, there is one area we agree, and that is we must defeat Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRATES: Now a campaign aide tells me they think Sanders can beat the odds by racking up more big victories like he did last night and convincing the party's super delegates that he has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump in the fall, as he just made that case there. In fact, a recent poll shows Sanders fares better than Clinton in a general election matchup against Trump in three different battle ground states.
But that didn't stop Vice President Joe Biden from putting his finger on the scale yesterday for Secretary Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee and I feel confident she'll be the next president.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRATES: Now Clinton plans to campaign hard against Sanders in upcoming contests. She's going to focus on New Jersey and California, but she's also going to continue looking forward to November, and she is taking on Donald Trump to do that.
And Sanders, well, he also slammed Trump in his victory speech, so even as Clinton and Sanders continue to battle it out and running against each other, they're increasingly targeting Trump as well, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Chris Frates, reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Bernie Sanders routes Hillary Clinton in West Virginia, we just heard that. So what was the deciding factor for voters? We'll break down the exit polls next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:17:28] COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders keeps his White House hopes alive, after a notching 15-point win over Hillary Clinton in West Virginia. Yes, it didn't move the needle much, but it did expose a major weakness in Hillary Clinton's campaign.
Christine Romans has looked at the exit polls.
And it's interesting, right?
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: It really is.
I've got to tell you, West Virginia reflects the primary season economic anxiety on steroids. Second jobless rates, second lowest household income in the country. Ninety-two percent of Democratic primary voters say they're worried about the economy, and the economy not friendly territory for Hillary Clinton.
Bernie Sanders carrying all categories concerned about jobs, income, healthcare. His populous message really resonating there, 53 percent of Democrats called international trade a job killer. Only 35 percent say trade creates American jobs. Clinton and Sanders split that group.
Carol, about one-third of Democratic voters coal industry household. Of those, Clinton registered just 29 percent of the vote. Hardly a surprise, really, after seeing her policies on the environment and clean energy would put coal miners and coal companies out of business. West Virginia voters unmoved about her attempt to walk that back. But West Virginia is also the bull's eye for Trump's time machine
economics, bringing back good jobs of the past. Even some Democrats are on board, Carol.
Check this out. Among Democrats who voted for Bernie Sanders, 43 percent would pick Donald Trump in a general election against Hillary Clinton. And even if Sanders himself were running against Trump, 34 percent of Democratic voters would pick the Republican front-runner, not Bernie Sanders.
A GOP voter's enthusiastic for Trump's prospect in November, 74 percent would be excited or optimistic, if he's like the president, just 23 percent concerned or scared. That's an improvement. That's a difference, where you didn't see the primary voters warming to Trump like you do right now.
After a bruising primary season, we asked what voters think of the Republican Party. The majority say, Carol, it's divided now, but we'll unite. One-third say it will remain divided.
Some interesting nuggets in exit polling for the general election here.
CAMEROTA: All right. Christine Romans, thanks so much.
So you can see it. West Virginia does not like Hillary Clinton. But it does feel the Bern, and Senator Sanders used the love to bolster his assertion that he is the Democrat that can beat Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot have a president who has insulted Latinos and Mexicans.
(CHEERS)
[09:20:12] Who has insulted Muslims.
(CHEERS)
Who everyday is insulting women in one way or another.
The American people understand that bringing us together always trumps dividing us up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Ah, but the bath is not on Sanders side. Hillary Clinton still leads by 700 delegates. But make no mistake, Sanders is exposing Clinton's big weakness. You heard Christine allude to that. Clinton's big weakness: white, working class workers.
With me to talk about this more, Larry Sabato, director of the University of Virginia Center for Politics.
Hi, Larry. LARRY SABATO, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA CENTER FOR POLITICS: Good
morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
So, Sanders won handedly with nearly every demographic group in West Virginia. Clinton won West Virginia back in 2008. Should Clinton worry?
SABATO: Not at all, because of that result. She has other worries. But look, West Virginia gave 35 percent of its vote to Barack Obama in 2012. No Democratic is going to win West Virginia at the presidential level. In fact, if Bernie Sanders were the nominee, the numbers last night clearly show he would lose in a landslide to Donald Trump.
So, you know, it doesn't mean anything in terms of the general election. It is so difficult to get that cross to people. The primary results have very little connection to the general election outcome.
COSTELLO: OK, well, there is still this strange quirk I wanted to ask you about. Nearly 40 percent of Democratic voters in West Virginia want the next president to be less liberal than President Obama, yet they voted for a Democratic socialist. I know we shouldn't pay attention, but that's weird.
SABATO: Well, it's weird in a way, and yet it's also rationale and logical.
The voters of West Virginia are basically strongly anti-Obama. They were strongly anti-Obama in 2008, when they supported Hillary Clinton overwhelmingly in the Democratic primary against Obama. Then they voted for McCain overwhelmingly in the fall. And then they voted for Romney overwhelmingly in 2012, running against Barack Obama.
And who is the most likely Obama choice, and it's obvious to everybody, Hillary Clinton. So, she becomes the substitute Obama. And they vote against the Obama substitute on the ballot.
Does that make any sense? It all connects.
COSTELLO: It does. It all connects, I got that. That was excellently described, Larry. I admire for doing that.
But let's talk about Hillary Clinton. She is running for Obama's third term, right. She wants his mojo. It's obvious white blue collar workers, as you say, do not like Obama.
So, is that really a winning strategy for Clinton?
SABATO: Well, it can be. Assuming she gets the kind of majorities that Obama got among African-Americans, Hispanic Americans, Asian Americans and so on and young people and women, because after all, you can construct a pretty substantial majority as Obama did twice without white working class voters. Overwhelmingly, they voted against him in both of the presidential elections, he won. So, they're going to vote overwhelmingly against Hillary Clinton in
November. She could win, just like Obama did.
COSTELLO: But she still needs some, right? I say that because Clinton's advisors are carefully studying the opinions of white working class voters like those in West Virginia, to see, you know, how Clinton can better relate to them, or talk to them. But isn't that simple?
They want their jobs back. Why not enlist Joe Biden? They like him.
SABATO: Well, that's true. I think Joe Biden would have done a few points better with white working class. He was not going to win them. He might have done better particularly with white working class men.
Now, Hillary Clinton is hoping to do a bit better with white working class women. You are know, it's different for every candidate. The combination, the calculus is different. The goal is get 270 electoral votes and there are loads of ways and indefinite number of ways to get there.
COSTELLO: All right. Larry Sabato, thanks for your insight. I appreciate it.
Still to come, Donald Trump keeps winning, and international leaders keep worrying. Christiana Amanpour just sat down with London's brand new mayor, and let's just say he is not a Trump fan.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:29:06] COSTELLO: Checking some top stories at 29 minutes past.
Police are still searching for a motive in stabbing spree south of Boston that left two people dead and wounded four others. Police say the 28-year-old man stabbed two women in their home, killing one of them. And then he attacked diners in a mall restaurant.
BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: All of the sudden people were hollering, there's a killer, there's a killer!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He came from the back of the restaurant, and he was walking towards the front. As he was coming, he was slashing people, and people were throwing chairs at him and stuff.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: An off duty sheriff's deputy shot and killed the attacker.
ISIS claiming responsibility for a car bombing in Baghdad today, that killed more than 60 people. The tack at a market in a Shiite neighborhood, injuring 80 others. Deadly attacks by ISIS against Shiites in Iraq.
The Libyan militia leader accused of helping carry out the deadly attack in Benghazi will not face the death penalty. The Justice Department did give a reason. Ahmed Abu Khattala was captured in 2014, for his alleged role in the attack that killed U.S. Ambassador Christopher Stevens and three other Americans.
