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Sanders Beats Clinton In West Virginia; Sanders: Trump Is Not Going To Become President; Hillary Clinton Slams Trump's Vision For U.S.; Rubio Speaks Out About Trump. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired May 11, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[01:00:02] DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Our coverage of the West Virginia and Nebraska primaries and the 2016 presidential race continues now with John Vause and Isha Sesay in Los Angeles.
ISHA SESAY, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you, Don.
JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: Don, thank you. And thank you at home for staying with us. Donald Trump marching closer now to the Republican presidential nomination with sweeping victories in West Virginia and Nebraska. Democrat Bernie Sanders also a big winner over Hillary Clinton in West Virginia.
SESAY: Trump already the presumptive Republican nominee is now just over 100 delegates away from clinching the party's nomination. Sanders still facing an uphill battle.
VAUSE: Let's take a closer look at the Democrats in West Virginia. Delegates there are awarded proportionally. So Sanders will add to his total, but so too will Hillary Clinton. And despite the win it's still mathematically impossible for Sanders to win his party nomination outright, but he's not dropping out of the race.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With our victory tonight in West Virginia we have now won primaries and caucuses in 19 state states. And let me be as clear as I can be, we are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Well, on the Republican side Donald Trump wins the West Virginia primary running without opposition. Trump comes out on top in Nebraska as well. He adds to his insurmountable delegate lead as the only Republican left in the race. Trump needs 1,237 delegates to clinch his party's nomination outright.
VAUSE: Let's bring in CNN's politics reporter, Tal Kopan. She joins us now from Washington. Tal, I guess, the headline here, what a difference eight years can make. Hillary Clinton won the state overwhelmingly against Barack Obama, but now she lost decisively to Bernie Sanders. What happened? TAL KOPAN, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: It's easy to point to her coal comments first and foremost. In a CNN town hall back in march, she made some comments about how she wanted to help families who rely on the coal industry who may be put out of business by her climate change plans.
However, those words that came out of her mouth were essentially we are going to put coal miners out of business and of course, those have gotten a lot of play since then and out of context have really damaged in a state that is heavily reliant on the coal industry and impacted by it.
But that's only part of the story. And if you look at exit polls in West Virginia, the voters who really were concerned about the economy, which was the majority of voters, voted overwhelmingly for Bernie Sanders.
He won almost every demographic. He actually beat her among women. It was a resounding victory and it's a bit of a warning shot. Hillary Clinton has run a campaign essentially as President Barack Obama's third term and a plurality of Democratic voters do not want that.
They do not want Barack Obama's policies essentially continued. And the ones that don't want his policies continued went for Bernie Sanders.
SESAY: And Tal, we heard from Bernie Sanders in that victory speech in Oregon, he's in it to win it and quite clearly he's got his eye firmly on Donald Trump.
KOPAN: That's right. And you know, he says he's in it to win it outright. He isn't just talking about making a fight at the convention as he sort of did in the statement a few weeks ago when Hillary Clinton was winning.
You know, it's very difficult for him with the way the math is set and the way that reality really is. It's very difficult for him to claim that he can still win this nomination.
As you mentioned, there are simply not enough 34re7b8gd delegates left to win for him to do so outright. He could theoretically potentially go into the convention with a slim lead in pledged delegates.
But Hillary Clinton is beating him resoundingly with superdelegates, who would put her over the top, and there's really no explanation from the Sanders camp why these people who have been loyal to Hillary Clinton from essentially the beginning would change their minds at this point in the game.
SESAY: Yes, well, Bernie Sanders did acknowledge it's an uphill battle, but he says he's going to keep going.
VAUSE: Uphill battle up the Himalayas by the looks of it.
SESAY: Tal Kopan, always appreciate the insight. Thanks so much.
VAUSE: OK, let's bring in Dave Jacobson, a Democratic strategist, and John Thomas, a Republican consultant. OK, guys --
SESAY: Gentlemen, welcome.
VAUSE: West Virginia huge blowout for Bernie Sanders, yet another loss for Hillary Clinton doesn't mean anything in the delegate math. Listening to Bernie Sanders tonight, he's making that pivot now to the general election. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Donald Trump is not going to become president for a number of reasons and the major reason is that the American people understand that we cannot have a president who has insulted Latinos and Mexicans, who has insulted Muslims.
[01:05:02]Who every day is insulting women in one way or another, who has insulted veterans like John McCain and others, who has insulted African-Americans in a very profound way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. Dave, what is the game plan here for Sanders? Does he believe this? Does he really think he can win? Does he want to be on the ticket? Is he trying to excite the base for Hillary Clinton? What's going on?
DAVE JACOBSON, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Perhaps all of the above. I think, look, this was a validation of his message tonight, and it was a mandate for him to continue moving forward, right.
He's within striking distance of Hillary Clinton, I think behind 10 points in California. He's pouring a lot of resources into the state, was up in Sacramento two days ago. Turned out 14,000 folks, with a tremendous crowd over there.
Look, he's got a message that's clearly resonating with a certain set of voters, working class, white voters and young people. And I think this was sort of emblematic of the fact that his message is carrying on and people want him to stay in the race.
JOHN THOMAS, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: But he really had no strategic choice tonight because right now Hillary -- the Democratic base thinks Hillary is walking away with this, she's going to be the nominee, and the weight of Democratic voters in California and other states thinking this process is won and done could sink Sanders just in that weight. So he had no choice but to pretend to pivot to a general election.
SESAY: But as he does so and he continues to stay in this race and fight the kind of battle he is fighting. He is keeping that (inaudible) electability alive.
THOMAS: Yes, the fact that he can't put her away, I mean, that's the real story from tonight. It's not that Sanders won. It's that why can't she put this away. And I think tonight is really more a symbolic micro example of a larger election here. And that is on almost every issue on head to head stack up Hillary Clinton beats Donald Trump except on the economy. That's what people in West Virginia cared about and that's going to be a problem for Hillary going forward.
VAUSE: OK, the canary in the coalmine in West Virginia for Hillary Clinton it seems was that backlash to those comments that she made about the coal industry. It was a few weeks ago. Listen to this. This is what she said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business. Right, Tim, and we're going to make it clear that we don't want to forget those people.
Those people labored in those mines for generations, losing their health, often losing their lives to turn on our lights and power our factories. Now we've got to move away from coal and all the other fossil fuels.
But I don't want to move away from the people who did the best they could to produce the energy that we relied on.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: We ran the whole sound bite there, but all people heard was they're going to get rid of coal jobs, like these protesters who turned out to greet Hillary Clinton when she was in West Virginia saying Hillary, go home.
You know, this was a state which she won overwhelmingly eight years ago. So again, Dave, is this just about coal or is it something else?
JACOBSON: I think it's partially about coal. But remember, eight years ago, she campaigned on a platform of clean coal. That helped her dominate eight years ago against Barack Obama, but I think it's sort of the larger message of -- and it's why so many working people are sort of rallying behind Bernie Sanders.
Because she's sort of part of -- at least the perception is she's part of the Wall Street establishment, free trade, where Bernie Sanders is running on a mandate of anti-trade, bring home American jobs instead of shipping them overseas. And I think that's the challenge for her.
SESAY: Let me ask you this. Can she reverse this? Can she fix this issue?
THOMAS: I think it's going to be remarkably hard to do and I'll tell you why, she's losing the economic vote to a devout socialist. Wait until she goes against Donald Trump, a person who's actually created jobs. We haven't seen that contrast yet. I think this is her Achilles heel and we saw it tonight.
JACOBSON: I think real quick, John is absolutely right, but I do think one thing she's got to do in the general election is she's got to drive home the message that he's exploited workers and took advantage of these free trade agreements shipping jobs to China and Mexico when it comes to manufacturing Trump clothing.
THOMAS: And his retort will be how many jobs did you create --
VAUSE: We will look at the exit polls. They are quite telling out of West Virginia. Bernie Sanders ahead 23 percent with men, 21 percent with white voters. So how do you read those numbers? Does Hillary Clinton have a problem with white men, Dave?
JACOBSON: She absolutely does. It's one of the areas where she's sort of got to pivot away from some of these issues when it comes to coal or whatever. The reality is the Hillary Clinton coalition is essentially made up of women and minorities, Latinos, African- Americans, Asian voters.
And I think one of her biggest challenges in a general election particularly with a candidate like Donald Trump whose base is angry white voters, she's got to figure out a way to appeal to those folks.
SESAY: Her base with women at least in West Virginia that's not secure either because Sanders beat her amongst women as well.
THOMAS: It was not good looking at some of those exit polls. I think the argument the Trump campaign is going to end up making is that's exactly why he's marketable and he can change the map because he can get certain non-traditional groups, particularly white blue-collar Democratic men to cross over for him.
VAUSE: Let's talk about Donald Trump because if the Republican voters, if this is meant to be a protest vote that many people are looking for against Donald Trump, it didn't happen.
[01:10:04]So now isn't it time for the party establishment to say OK, time to fall in line if that's what the voters want?
THOMAS: Yes, Donald Trump is picking up more and more steam as we go through this process. And I don't know if it's because the Republican electorate's just finally accepted it and moved on or if it's the fact that they're embracing his agenda and the Donald Trump he's putting forth now, a little more tame and in control Trump.
I think the party is starting to get in line. What you're seeing is the figures that have endorsed him, the John McCains of the world, Dick Cheneys, those are all people -- Dick Cheney's daughter has a tough election. They need Donald Trump's voters. The party elders who aren't with Trump, they don't need his voters, but they will get in line.
SESAY: How do you read it, Dave?
JACOBSON: Look I think there's still some crippling among Republican Party establishment. You got Mitt Romney, both George Bushes who aren't going to participate in the convention. You got Paul Ryan with his comments where he's not ready to support the nominee, presumptive nominee, pardon me, and you've got Marco Rubio today saying I'm going to support whoever the nominee is, but he's not willing to fully embrace Donald Trump.
I think that's a major issue for Donald Trump it comes to consolidating the GOP base.
VAUSE: This was the week when the Clinton campaign started to really go after Donald Trump and his problem with women. They started running this ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): Because nobody respects women more than Donald Trump.
(on camera): She came to my wedding. She ate like a pig. Seriously, the wedding cake was -- it was like missing in action.
Obviously, it's great outer beauty. We could say politically correct that look doesn't matter, but the look obviously matters. Like you wouldn't have your job if you weren't beautiful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: But again, look at the exit polls here especially when it comes to the gender split. It breaks even between men and women, you know, 86 percent breakdown. Both went for Trump. It does not look like Donald Trump has a woman problem at least in West Virginia -- John.
THOMAS: He has a woman problem maybe not in West Virginia.
VAUSE: What's the difference, though?
THOMAS: Well, those were devastating quotes. I think he's going to exploit that. On Republican women, he doesn't have as much of a problem. He does with Democratic women. He's going to have to turn that around.
He's going to have to tell positive stories of females' lives that he's empowered or changed through business. He's got to stop hemorrhaging women and quotes like that certainly aren't helping.
SESAY: But surely those numbers, Dave, are a warning shot to Democrats to show how at least in certain spaces he can still win women overwhelmingly.
JACOBSON: Look, I think in a state like West Virginia, though, let's remember that it has been red since 1996 or 2000. So I think the reality is look, 75 percent overall of women across the country have an unfavorable view of Donald Trump, 53 percent of the electorate in 2012 was women.
So women hold the keys essentially whoever is going to win the White House in 2016. He's got to fix this women probably or else he's not going to be in the White House come 2017.
VAUSE: He'll be beaten by a woman.
JACOBSON: Right, exactly.
VAUSE: That will be the big woman problem. Dave Jacobson, John Thomas, thanks.
SESAY: Always a pleasure. Thank you.
VAUSE: We'll take a short break. Coming up, Trump is doubling down on his attacks on Clinton over husband's infidelities. And he's wading deeper into his Twitter war with Senator Elizabeth Warren.
SESAY: And later, in his first national interview since dropping out of the race, Marco Rubio weighs in on the rumor that his name was floated as a possible vice presidential pick for Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR MARCO RUBIO (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That would be impossible because I don't really have very many advisers around. Our campaign is no longer running. Unless they've been talking to my wife, which is my critical adviser knees these days.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST, "THE LEAD": Does she want you to be --
RUBIO: No.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
DON RIDDELL, CNN WORLD SPORT: I'm Don Riddell with your CNN World Sport headlines. It has been an emotional day in east London where the Hammers have played their last ever game at their stadium home for more than a century. But the narrative wasn't quite what we are expecting.
United were late to the bowling ground causing a delay to kick off. Extraordinary scenes as Manchester United burst near the stadium a crush of fans outside some of whom attacked the bus with bottles.
It's a shame it all happened for the Hammers because otherwise it was a special night for the team. They came from behind to win 3-2.
There's not much doubt that Stephen Curry has been the best player in the NBA this season, but now it's official, he is the Most Valuable Player for the second consecutive year. But just how good he is was reflected in the voting. It was unanimous. Of the 131 votes cast, everyone went to Curry's favor and that has never happened before in the 61-year history of the award.
One of Brazil's most successful football players, the 2002 World Cup winner Rivaldo, would prefer for you not to come to Rio for the Olympics this summer. Brazil is suffering from a number of ailments right now, economic collapse, government instability, the Zika virus, but Rivaldo is worried about the threat of violence.
He posted a warning to his Instagram account mentioning a 17-year-old girl who was killed at the weekend in a shooting. That is a quick look at your sports headlines. I'm Don Riddell.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Last week we won a really great victory in Indiana and tonight it appears that we've won a big, big victory in West Virginia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: Democrat Bernie Sanders there celebrating his win in the West Virginia primary. Republican Donald Trump is also riding high after victories in West Virginia and Nebraska.
Let's take a look at the numbers. Trump running unopposed in West Virginia comes away with 76 percent of the vote. Ted Cruz, as you see there, with 9 percent. John Kasich with 7 percent.
VAUSE: In Nebraska, Trump winner again, 61 percent of the vote. Cruz was hoping for a surge, didn't get it, 18 percent. Kasich with 11 percent.
SESAY: CNN projected Bernie Sanders will win the Democratic primary in West Virginia. He leads Hillary Clinton in the mountain state 51 percent to 36 percent. Sanders was expected to win after Clinton said back in March that her plans for clean energy would put a lot of coal miners out of business.
Well, joining us now, former L.A. councilwoman and Hillary Clinton supporter, Wendy Greuel.
VAUSE: And Democratic strategist, Kevin Chavous, is live in Washington this hour. Kevin, thanks for staying with us. We've got a statement which came from the Republican National Committee hammering Hillary Clinton for her loss. Let me read part of it to you.
It says, "It is nothing short of embarrassing that Hillary Clinton has now been defeated 20 times by a 74-year-old socialist from Vermont."
OK, Wendy, the RNC knows a few things about embarrassment at the moment. But do they have a point here right now? At this point of the campaign, everyone thought she'd have it wrapped up.
WENDY GREUEL, CLINTON SUPPORTER: Well, you took the words right out of my mouth. I mean, they have a lot of their own problems in the RNC.
VAUSE: A little chutzpah on that.
GREUEL: But I think what we're finding is there's an opportunity where Democrats are talking about issues and Hillary Clinton has never taken that for granted. She's been working hard throughout. She still has 3 million more votes than Bernie Sanders.
And you know, every one that we have spoken to shows that -- and talks about the math, that it's impossible for him to overcome that. So I think, you know, we're focused on the election. We're focused on November and the importance of making sure we don't have a Trump president.
SESAY: So Kevin, to you, as you her Wendy say that and make the point that is often repeated that Hillary Clinton has millions more votes than Bernie Sanders yet Bernie Sanders today putting the marker down once again, he's going to stay in this race, he's in it to win it, but there's no path forward. So people ask what's the real motivation here, how do you see it?
KEVIN CHAVOUS, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: That may be true but the fact of the matter remains that Hillary's biggest problem is she's viewed as part of the political establishment in a year when the political establishment is not really being accepted by the voters.
[01:20:11]Look, I'm not knocking her. I'm a Democrat. I want to find a reason to vote for her. But the reason people feel the Bern is they feel like he's been authentic, he's been bold, and Hillary's part of the establishment.
And I think that's part of her big challenge. We've seen that on the other side with the Republicans and Donald Trump, is the status quo just is not resonating with real voters this year.
SESAY: But Kevin, outside of those states that aren't largely white and rural she's beating Bernie Sanders.
CHAVOUS: Well, yes. And that's because the Clinton family as a whole has a historic relationship with African-American voters. But across the board there's some real concern about the authenticity, the genuiness of Hillary and people want to know what Hillary Clinton stands for.
And when Bernie -- you know what he stands for. We're going to get rid of the corporate barons, we're going to make sure we get their hands out of your pocket. The same with Donald Trump. We're going to build a wall, like it or not.
But when people ask, what does Hillary Clinton stand for, particularly the Democratic leadership out there, they're really not sure. And I think that's why Bernie is still hanging around.
What I think she should do, she should really grab hold of some bold issues and take on the status quo and not necessarily tied to the Democratic Party platform. I know that we're used to that.
One thing we've seen with Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders that those labels don't identify who they are. And they aren't afraid to extend beyond those labels so the people feel what they want.
VAUSE: I want to give Wendy a chance because she's eager to jump in. GREUEL: I think particularly when you talk about issues, today Hillary Clinton talked about the importance of child care and equal pay and all the issues that working families are struggling with.
She's showing the compassion and the understanding about what middle America really is interested in, is good jobs, making sure they can afford that child care and making sure that there are jobs for them.
VAUSE: The problem is talking about policy and limiting the cost of child care to 10 percent of the family income, which is what they talked about today, doesn't get the big crowds. It doesn't get the cheers. Bernie Sanders talked about that today, and he talked about the fact that he is more electable than Clinton because of that enthusiasm. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: If you look over the last month or six weeks, in every national poll Bernie Sanders defeats Donald Trump by big numbers. The reason that our campaign is the strongest campaign against Trump is not just the polls. It is that our campaign is generating the energy and the enthusiasm that we need to have a large voter turnout in November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: So Wendy, what about that point? I mean, Clinton supporters are keen to point out the data that stands against Sanders. He's pointing to data that says he beats Hillary -- he beats Trump in head- to-heads, he's got the enthusiasm.
GREUEL: There were several positive polls that showed that Romney was going to beat Obama. That same Quinnipiac poll that came out and that was not true. And I think the important part of this is, I was there in East L.A. last week with Hillary Clinton.
The excitement in that room of young and old and Latinos and African- Americans and the diversity of this country were represented there, that excitement is there. She is getting people who are out there making phone calls, doing everything they need to get elected. And in California, she's going to do a great job.
VAUSE: OK, this is the week that Donald Trump decided to bring out the ghosts of the past. He went all the way back to the 1990s. He talked about Hillary Clinton's and Bill Clinton's affairs and her role in all of that while Bill Clinton was president. He called her the enabler.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: And Hillary was an enabler and she treated these women horribly. Just remember this. And some of those women were destroyed not by him but by the way that Hillary Clinton treated them after everything went down.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: Kevin, I'm just wondering, does bringing that up, does that sort of remind voters of all the scandals and all the problems with the Clinton administration during the '90s? Does that mean some people just will stay home, not vote or maybe even vote for Donald Trump?
CHAVOUS: Well, the first thing I would say to the Clinton campaign is don't take the bait. It didn't work when Rubio got in the gutter. Jeb Bush, who's a decent human being, didn't work when he got in the gutter. Didn't help Cruz when he did it.
So Hillary should not play on the same battlefield as Trump. She needs to talk to people. And yes, she's talked about childcare. But what about education? I mean, I'm really into education. I know Americans are.
And I really get tired of people talking about education in just platitudes and sound bites. Why can't she say similar to what Sanders say free college for everyone. You know what, if your kid's in a bad school I'm going to make sure they get in a good school.
[01:25:03]That's the kind of responsiveness that people want to hear from these presidential candidates this year. They don't want to hear folks talk about the long-range plan. They want something they can grab hold of today.
SESAY: Kevin, Wendy, while they're saying -- Kevin's saying Hillary Clinton shouldn't take the bait. There are other Democrats taking the fight to Donald Trump like Senator Elizabeth Warren. She went after Trump on Twitter.
This is what Trump had written. This all started as a back and forth after he locked up the nomination. As you guys know, Elizabeth Warren sent out a tweet saying his campaign was based on racism and xenophobia and whatnot.
And Trump has written, "I hope corrupt Hillary Clinton chooses goofy Elizabeth warren as her running mate. I will defeat them both." That was in response to Warren's initial tweet.
Warren tweeted a flurry of responses. Goofy Donald Trump? For a guy with the best that's a pretty lame nickname weak. Donald Trump spews insults and lies because he can't have an honest conversation about his dangerous vision for America.
A lot of people applauding Elizabeth Warren for taking a page out of the Trump playbook and taking the fight to him. Wendy, are you one of those people?
GREUEL: Look, I agree with Kevin that Hillary Clinton -- and she has taken the high road. Donald Trump is a bully. I have a 12-year-old son and he said to me a few weeks ago, you know, mom, Donald Trump acts like a 12-year-old. And I should know. I'm 12.
And I want to tell you that that's the way people are responding. This is not presidential. This is not talking about the issues that matter most to the people of this country.
And so you know, I think there's going to be a lot of Democrats who are going to take Donald Trump on, and I think Elizabeth Warren is someone who has always been up for a fight. Hillary Clinton's going to talk about the issues that matter most.
VAUSE: Leave it to the surrogates I guess. Wendy Greuel, thank you for coming in, and Kevin Chavous there in Washington, thank you for staying up late. We know its past --
CHAVOUS: It's been a blast. Thank you.
VAUSE: Hope you come back.
SESAY: Yes. Thank you. Time for a quick break now. Coming up, with a party divided, Donald Trump is heading to Capitol Hill. Will the visit be enough to win over House Speaker Paul Ryan? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:44]
VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN's special coverage of the presidential primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska. Republican Donald Trump with commanding wins in both states. In West Virginia he comes away with 76 percent of the vote. Ted Cruz with 9 percent. John Kasich 6 percent.
SESAY: In Nebraska, Trump is the winner with 61 percent of the vote. Cruz with 18 percent. Kasich with 11 percent. Trump now has 1,119 delegates. He needs 1,237 to clinch the nomination.
VAUSE: A decisive win for Democrat Bernie Sanders in West Virginia, beating Hillary Clinton 51 percent to 36 percent. But that win does very little to help Sanders since both candidates add to their delegate totals. Clinton is now less than 150 shy of clinching her party's nomination.
SESAY: Joining us here in L.A., James Lacy, the author of "Taxifornia" and a Trump supporter.
VAUSE: And in San Diego, Mike Slater, a conservative radio talk show host. Last time we spoke, Mike, you were a Trump guy. That's what we're going to talk about or not a Trump guy, a Cruz guy. My bad.
Donald Trump seems to be trying to make nice with Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, the highest elected official. They got this big meeting on Wednesday. This was Donald Trump earlier on Fox News.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: He's a very good man. He wants what's good for the party and I think we're going to have a very positive result. I look frankly for him to stay and be chairman.
(END VIDEO CLIP) VAUSE: James, very quickly, did Donald Trump blink?
JAMES LACY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No, absolutely he didn't blink. And as a matter of fact, the number 2 man in the Congress to Ryan, Kevin McCarthy, has not only endorsed Donald Trump, he's a member of his delegation to California. So I think that Trump is making the right move and I think you'll see a consolidation falling in place.
SESAY: Mike, let's take a listen to Paul Ryan, House speaker. He spoke to WBEL Radio and this is what he had to say ahead of the meeting.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PAUL RYAN, U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: So I think 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 because if we just pretend we're unified without actually unifying then we'll be at half strength in the fall and that won't go well for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SESAY: All right. Paul Ryan speaking to the "Wall Street Journal" there. What do you make of Paul Ryan's approach to this meeting? Given the huge divide between these two men. This is a long walk to unity.
MIKE SLATER, CONSERVATIVE RADIO TALK SHOW HOST: Yes. I think one thing we have to keep in mind whenever we're dealing with Donald Trump is he is a master negotiator. His entire skill set, his entire life is to be a strong man at the negotiation table.
And he always gets his way. So this whole back and forth with Paul Ryan has been about who gets the upper hand. You'll notice Paul Ryan first came out and said I'm not sure if I'm ready to accept the Donald Trump platform or whatever.
And Trump comes right back and says I'm not sure I'm r5edy to accept the Paul Ryan platform. So he always has to have the upper hand. And I'm pretty sure Trump will end up getting it by the end of this meeting.
VAUSE: OK, Donald Trump made one trip to West Virginia. He made it last week. It was interesting. He told the voters there don't bother voting in this primary. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: What I want you to do is save your vote. You know, you don't have to vote anymore. Save your vote for the general election. Forget this one. The primary's gone. Save your vote for the general election in November.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: You know, James, a lot of people were look at this primary in West Virginia to see if there would be a protest vote or if the party would rally around Donald Trump as a sign of what's to come in the general election. It looks like the latter has happened. Is it now time for everybody to get on board?
LACY: Yes. And we have a phenomenon happening. You know, in the Democrat Party it happened in '76, it happened in '80 and it happened in '84. When the Democrat presidential candidates were confirmed. When they were running and they were the presumed candidates there were protest votes.
Their margins got smaller and smaller and they went on to become their party's nominee. With Trump it's exactly the opposite, 76 percent? When you see these percentages getting bigger and bigger, it's not about Paul Ryan. It's not about Donald Trump. It's about these angry voters that want to see change.
SESAY: That being said, who is the onus on here to bring about unity? Is it on Paul Ryan or Donald Trump?
LACY: I think it's on Republicans in general who want to defeat Hillary Clinton. And we have to ask ourselves the question, can she be defeated? The mainstream media might not want to us believe it, but look, Hillary Clinton's lost 20 primaries.
[01:35:04]How do you get to be the nominee of the Democratic Party when you've lost 20 primaries? And Donald Trump is very strong in these key swing states of Pennsylvania and West Virginia. And I think that he's got a very, very good chance going forward because voters want a change.
VAUSE: Mike Slater, Marco Rubio has given his first interview since he dropped out of the race. He's spoken to CNN. He can't yet give his full support to Donald Trump. Can't even mention his name. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: Are you going to vote for him?
RUBIO: Well, as I said, I'm going to support the Republican nominee.
TAPPER: No, you're going to abide by your pledge. But when you go into the privacy of voting booth --
RUBIO: I intend to support the Republican nominee. I'm not voting for Hillary Clinton. I'm not throwing away my vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Also today we had Ted Cruz holding out hope for a miracle. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have suspended the campaign. We've suspended the campaign because I can see no viable path to victory. Of course, if that changed, we would reconsider things. But let's be clear, we're not going to win Nebraska today. There should be no mystery, no excitement in that. We've withdrawn from the campaign and it's in the hands of the voters. If circumstances change, we will always assess changed circumstances.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: Mike, is everyone still holding out hope at least from the establishment, from these presidential candidates, that maybe somehow there will be this magical third person that comes in?
SLATER: I don't think that's happening. I think that ship has sailed, unfortunately for a lot of people who don't like Trump. I love Rubio's tortured approval of Trump. I think what's going to happen is eventually we'll turn the corner and then the "real enemy," quote/unquote, we'll see Hillary Clinton and I think there will be unity in the party against her.
I think everyone's just got to relax. About a month or so there will be more unity. About Ted Cruz maybe doing well in Nebraska, I thought he would do a lot better in Nebraska to be honest. He won all the states to the north and south along the 35 corridor.
I thought there may be a little glimmer of hope for him if he did well in Nebraska, but he didn't and I think he knows he's done too. If you want to talk about unifying the party, how about a Ted Cruz Supreme Court nod from Donald Trump? That's one way to get Cruz supporters --
VAUSE: Wow, that's out of left field.
SLATER: Cruz supporters would jump on the Trump train if he promises a Supreme Court nod. I guarantee it.
SESAY: So James, Cruz floating the possibility. He's down but he's not holding hope. What went through your mind when you heard that quickly?
LACY: Well, you know, I'm almost speechless about it.
VAUSE: My God, that's never happened.
LACY: At some point it gets to the point where it could be like bribery, you know, to try -- Cruz needs to come in and not come in with some sort of a carrot dangled in front of him. He's got to do the right thing.
Remember, Cruz signed a pledge that he was going to support the Republican nominee. And now he's been up until this point Lyin' Ted. He's got to stand by that pledge and get rid of that moniker and we've do to beat Hillary Clinton with his help.
VAUSE: He's got to be honorable Ted.
LACY: That's right.
SESAY: Speechless. VAUSE: Mike Slater, we're going to talk to you again next hour, so don't go away. Thanks for being with us. OK.
SESAY: Thanks, gentlemen. Coming up, the race is winnowed to just three candidates, but in the all-important swing states it seems some voters don't like any of the choices.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:41:40]
SESAY: Hello, everyone. Commanding wins for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the latest round of presidential primaries. Let's take a look at the numbers now. Trump running unopposed in West Virginia comes away with 76 percent of the vote. Ted Cruz with 9 percent. John Kasich with 6 percent.
VAUSE: And in Nebraska Trump is the winner, 61 percent of the vote. Cruz is hoping for some kind of turnout there even though he wasn't running, 18 percent. Kasich with 11 percent.
CNN projects Bernie Sanders will win the Democratic primary in West Virginia. He leads Hillary Clinton in the mountain state, 51 percent to 36 percent. Sanders was expected to win after Clinton said back in March that her plans for clean energy would put a lot of coal miners out of business.
VAUSE: Wendy Greuel is back with us alongside radio talk show host, Larry Elder. We want to talk now about this general election match- up, which is looking obviously between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.
The big news of the day was this Quinnipiac poll, which came out showing Clinton up against Trump. It's a virtual dead heat in three crucial swing states. On the other side of this Bernie Sanders does a little better especially in Ohio. But Wendy, when you look at these worries, these numbers, rather, what do you worry about?
GREUEL: Well, I think I worry about that people will come out to vote. Make sure they come out. But I think they will come out, one, because they believe that Hillary Clinton and going to be the kind of president we need to lead this country. But also they're scared of Donald Trump and the women's vote. When you look at --
VAUSE: They're not scared in those swing states. It's evenly divided. That's not exactly a fair call.
GREUEL: Well, I think they are when you look against, again, across the country. Those are just three states.
VAUSE: But you've got to win two of those swing states to win the presidency.
GREUEL: Absolutely. And I think that this is now May. We're talking about November. A lot's going to happen between now and then. There's going to be two nominees. People will get behind the candidate. I think some reluctantly on the Trump side. But you know, I think on the Hillary Clinton side we're going to be able to see the party come together and be able to win the election in November.
SESAY: Larry, your takeaway.
LARRY ELDER, HOST, "THE LARRY ELDER SHOW": I think that's one way to look at it, but if I were Hillary I'd be scared to death. You're talking about a guy who survived all these other 16 people, dumping opposition ads on him, opposition research on him, and still he is now neck and neck with Hillary in these battleground states and he hasn't even gotten warmed up yet.
I would be very, very nervous. You can't call this an outlier poll anymore. The other poll that came out last week was a George Washington University, one that had him within fighting distance. That was an outlier.
Rasmussen had him ahead two points. This was an outlier. This is not an outlier. These are respected Quinnipiac polls that shows her in trouble already.
SESAY: Hillary's not expressing any concern about the battle with Trump. I want you to take a listen to what she had to say while campaigning earlier today about how she's relishing this fight. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: You could not imagine a more different vision for our country than the one between our side of Democrats for progress, for prosperity, for fairness and opportunity, than the presumptive nominee on the Republican side and that's why it's important we have a big vote on next Tuesday, because we've got to get ready to go all the way to November to win the general election.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:45:03]SESAY: Doesn't sound like a woman who's got any concerns, not in that little clip there, Larry.
ELDER: Well, she's got to sound confident, of course. But here's the problem with that argument. She has made no criticism about Obama whatsoever, 2/3 of the American people believe we're on the wrong track economically.
Now, if you are running for the third term of Obama, what's my argument? Why would I want to vote for you? She's offered no prescription that's different from his and if I'm economically anxious she's not solved my problem.
SESAY: The counter to that people would say is Donald Trump hasn't given any detail beyond, you know, broad statements.
ELDER: Well, look at the exit polling. The people in West Virginia and Nebraska who are concerned about the economy overwhelmingly supported him. The people on the other side that were concerned about the economy overwhelmingly supported Bernie Sanders.
Both Bernie Sanders and Trump people have overlapping concerns, and that is the economy. And I believe, Wendy, that a number of the Bernie Sanders supporters are not going to just stay home if their guy doesn't get the nomination, they're going to vote for Donald Trump. And I'd be nervous about that.
GREUEL: Well, I disagree. They've showed polls --
ELDER: Shockingly.
GREUEL: I know. They showed polls that show that a majority of those Bernie Sanders people are going to vote for Hillary Clinton. And I think she is showing that there is a deep difference, a big contrast, stark contrast between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. And that's going to be what is going to bring out I think the people in November to vote for Hillary Clinton, because there is a big difference.
VAUSE: OK, very quickly, Donald Trump is now talking about his VP choice. This is the interesting stuff. Marco Rubio ruling stuff out like so many other people, but Trump says he's narrowed it down.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I would say that I have in mind five different people. I think they're excellent. I'll announce whoever it will be at the convention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
VAUSE: OK. They're going to be excellent, but so many people have said no, Larry. Why don't people want to run with Donald Trump?
ELDER: I'm not sure people have said no. I don't know anyone to whom the offer's been made where he or she has said no. I have a feeling if the offer's made to John Kasich or even to Marco Rubio despite what he says he's going to say yes to it.
VAUSE: One last thing, this is the fun part.
ELDER: The other part was the --
VAUSE: That was meat and potatoes. Probably one of the most insightful yard placards we've seen this season. Take a look at this. "Everyone sucks 2016. The U.S. is doomed." T-shirts, bumper stickers. They're making a fortune out of this. To both of you this does seem to capture a mood in the country right now.
ELDER: It does.
VAUSE: No one likes these candidates.
SESAY: With very high negatives.
VAUSE: You get to a point where they're not going to vote for a candidate, they're going to vote against the other candidate. Yes? GREUEL: Well, again, I'm sure there are some of those people who are going to hold their nose. A lot of Republicans who say we can't vote for Trump. Even look at some of those candidates who ran against him. All you have to do is look at them and their criticism. Those presidential candidates against Donald Trump. Those are pretty nasty comments.
VAUSE: Ten seconds, Larry.
ELDER: And Bernie Sanders said Hillary was running a criminal enterprise. There's been nastiness on both sides. I believe a lot of Trump supporters are going to be people he steals from Bernie Sanders.
VAUSE: We've got to leave it there. Thank you both. See you next hour. OK. He is out of the presidential race, but he's still talking about it. What Marco Rubio said about supporting Donald Trump that's coming up next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PEDRAM JAVAHERI, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Thanks for staying with CNN. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri with you on weather watch right now. The big story, on Monday across the U.S. was an active weather pattern that spawned upwards of 20 tornadoes. On Tuesday, 16 more tornadoes to add to the list there across the central portion of the U.S.
Also a significant number of severe hail and severe wind reports that came down across the area as well. So here's what we have in store going in toward Wednesday. Believe it or not, the forecast indication for Wednesday is also another active day.
[01:50:10]So we're talking about a multiday event here. Day 3 really culminating the activity across portions of the Midwestern U.S. out toward the south central states in places like Springfield, Kansas City, Oklahoma City, even Dallas will be in line for some severe weather.
The main threats, as always, more in line with hail and winds. But of course after what we've seen with recent storms not going to be a surprise here to see more tornadoes across some of these areas.
Here's the forecast for Friday, the bull's-eye across the northern portion of the state of Tennessee in and around Nashville northbound. To the western U.S. we go where the trend is going to be extreme warmth.
We are talking July-like temperatures for portions of California the next couple of days. Start you off in Los Angeles around 20. Dallas into the 30s and notice Atlanta among the hottest temps of 2016 at 31 degrees.
And the trend out toward the Caribbean here looks as such with the 20s and 30s as well.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) VAUSE: Welcome back, everybody. You're watching CNN's special live coverage of the presidential primaries in West Virginia and Nebraska. Republican Donald Trump big wins in both states. West Virginia coming away with 76 percent of the vote. Ted Cruz's name was still on the ballot with 9 percent there. John Kasich 6 percent.
SESAY: In Nebraska, Trump is the winner with 61 percent of the vote. Cruz with 18 percent. Kasich with 11 percent. Trump now has 1,119 delegates. He needs 1,237 to clinch the nomination.
VAUSE: For the Democrats, Bernie Sanders scored a decisive win in West Virginia beating Hillary Clinton 51 percent to 36 percent. But that victory does very little to help Sanders since both candidates add to their delegate totals. Clinton is now about 150 away from clinching her party's nomination.
SESAY: Well, former Republican presidential candidate, Senator Marco Rubio sat down with our own Jake Tapper for his first national interview since he dropped out of the race.
VAUSE: Marco Rubio says he has no interest in being Donald Trump's vice president, but he is prepared to support the party's nominee.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: You have raised concerns throughout the campaign, ones that you're standing by, about his temperament and about his views on foreign policy, on trade policy and other things. Would those reservations keep you, do they right now preclude you from endorsing him?
RUBIO: Well, I've signed a pledge that said I'd support the Republican nominee and I intend to continue to do that. But we're -- look, here's the situation that we're in. On the one hand, I don't want Hillary Clinton to be the president of the United States. I don't want her to win this election.
On the other hand, as I said, I have well-defined differences with the current -- the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party and like millions of Republicans, they try to reconcile those two things.
I intend to live up to the pledge that we made, but that said, these concerns that I have about policy they remain and they're there. But you know, that doesn't mean that Donald needs to change his positions in order to get my support or what have you.
As I said earlier today, I think he should be true to what he believes and continue to campaign on those things and make his case to the American people.
TAPPER: But it's not just concerns. You once said that I didn't think -- that you had concerns about the fact -- about the nuclear codes being in the hands of an erratic con man. That was what you said.
RUBIO: So I'm not going to -- here's what I'm not going to do over the next six months is 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 voters chose a different direction.
I stand by 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.
[01:55:06]TAPPER: But do you understand why millions of people who voted for you and who still see you as the future of the Republican Party wonder, well, if you're standing by, saying you have concern about putting the nuclear codes in the hands of an erratic con man, how do you reconcile that with --
RUBIO: Because we ultimately live in a republic and so in a republic these voters went out and voted. And through the process set up by the Republican Party he became our nominee. That's just the fact. He is now the presumptive nominee.
That said, it doesn't change what I've said in the past. I stand by those things. But now he is the presumptive nominee. I don't want Hillary Clinton to win. And I just don't view now the most productive role for me to be sitting here and be someone who is taking shots at him.
TAPPER: Do you want either one of them to win?
RUBIO: Well, I don't want Hillary Clinton to win and I want to be supportive of the Republican nominee. I signed a pledge saying I would do so. I think one of the best ways I can be supportive of the conservative cause is to go out there and work for those for example running to hold the Republican majority in the United States Senate or candidates across the country that share my views on national security, on some of these other issues. And that's where I intend to focus my time.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SESAY: Marco Rubio there.
VAUSE: It was a great interview. We'll have more of that interview next hour.
SESAY: We will indeed. Our special coverage of the West Virginia and Nebraska presidential primaries continues after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
