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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Wins NE, WV, Sanders Wins WV; Deadly Stabbing Spree in Massachusetts; Steph Curry Becomes First Unanimous MVP. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired May 11, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight, big wins for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.

Donald Trump the presumptive nominee, he's got no opponents left, but he's cruising toward the general election. Bernie Sanders, he's still got an opponent left, Hillary Clinton.

[05:00:03] That doesn't make Hillary Clinton very happy at all.

We're breaking it all down this morning.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, May 11th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the East. Nice to see you all this morning.

Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders are waking up with big West Virginia wins. Trump, the only Republican still running for president. He easily won West Virginia, also Nebraska. He adds at least 39 delegates to his total, but it'll end up being more than that once West Virginia's convoluted process works itself out. Trump needs 1,237 delegates to win the Republican nomination.

On the Democratic side, it was just West Virginia voting, and that was just fine for Bernie Sanders. He crushed Hillary Clinton there. Even with his win, Sanders barely chips away at Clinton's delegate lead. If you include superdelegates, she's only about 148 short of securing a majority for the nomination. Even so, Sanders told supporters last night he can still win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: With our victory tonight in West Virginia, we have now won primaries and caucuses in 19 states.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

And let me be as clear as I can be. We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: This morning, Donald Trump is looking to unite the Republican Party and to put states in play for November that have gone to the Democrats in recent elections.

CNN politics reporter Sara Murray has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. Donald Trump picked up two more victories last night, winning in West Virginia and Nebraska.

Now, we shouldn't be totally stunned by this since all the rest of the Republicans have now dropped out of the race. But it still brings Trump even closer to officially becoming the Republican nominee.

Now, of course, part of doing this means rallying the Republican Party behind him. Trump has had some hiccups along those lines. House Speaker Paul Ryan said he se Trump. The two are going to be meeting later in the week in Washington to try to hash out those differences.

Trump was talking last night in some interviews, and he was sounding a much more optimistic tone. His aides believe they can reach some common ground on issues like cutting taxes for the middle class, debt reduction, and Trump even said he wants to see Paul Ryan stay on as co-chairman of the Republican convention coming up this summer in Cleveland.

So, this could be a sign they're ready to sweep their differences more fireworks ahead.

Back to you, guys.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: Sara Murray, thanks so much.

Bernie Sanders, he scored a big victory in West Virginia, but it barely moves the needle at all in the delegate race, where Hillary Clinton has a big lead right now and not many states left.

Still, Sanders vowing not to quit. He's continuing to challenge Clinton, did so at a victory rally last night and also went after Donald Trump.

CNN's Brianna Keilar has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, on the evening of the West Virginia primary that Bernie Sanders won, talking to these crowd here in Oregon, he sounded like a candidate who's really pushing through this primary season to win. He took on Hillary Clinton on a number of issues, on the environment, on trade, on campaign finance, including a donation that her Democratic fund received from Alice Walton of the Walmart Walton family.

But he also garnered a lot of energy and excitement from his supporters here when he took on Donald Trump.

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, 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.

KEILAR: Bernie Sanders explaining to his supporters that he has received 45 percent of the pledged delegates. That goes to show you the math and why it is so difficult for him because moving forward, in order to tie Hillary Clinton and just the pledged delegates, he would need to seize 66 percent of the pledged delegates in all of the primary contests ahead.

That is a huge undertaking, nearly impossible -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Brianna Keilar setting it up so nicely for us this morning so we can discuss last night's primary results with CNN political analyst, columnist for "Bloomberg View", Josh Rogin joins us again, and CNN White House producer Kristen Holmes.

Nice to see you guys.

[05:05:00] Let me start with you, Kristen, about what exactly does the win in West Virginia, if anything, mean for Bernie Sanders going forward? West Virginia is West Virginia. It is a very unique situation with some very high unemployment, some comments that Hillary Clinton made about coal miners working against her. It's almost a bull's eye for the Donald Trump world view and message.

So what does Sanders take away from that?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN WHITE HOUSE PRODUCER: Look, at this point for Bernie Sanders, it's all about momentum. It's all about keeping in the race, keeping going, and keeping his supporters energized about him.

That's exactly what this win does. It keeps him going. It keeps his supporters supporting him and showing we're going to stay in this until the convention, which is what he's said for months.

You know, we talked to voters there last night, supporters there last night who said that they weren't sure about the math. They weren't sure that he could get over the hump, but that all they were going to do was buckle down and keep supporting him and make sure that he got on to the next state, to the next state, and made it all the way to the convention.

So, that's basically what this win does. It keeps him in the race, and it keeps him having reason to stay there.

BERMAN: And the next state and the next state and the next state all look good for Bernie Sanders. Look, that rally that we saw him, that was in Oregon last night, which votes next week. He's got the support of Jeff Merkley, one of the senators there in Oregon and Kentucky, which votes next. Bernie Sanders could win both those states, Josh Rogin. This has forced Hillary Clinton to do some things in this primary she might not have otherwise.

What?

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. So we see Hillary Clinton trying to balance between fighting Bernie Sanders on her left and Donald Trump on her right. And the way she's done that is by rolling out a number of specific policy proposals that she thinks address the concerns of the Bernie Sanders voters in an effort to keep them in her camp if and when she does get the nomination.

Now, what we see from the exit polls in West Virginia is that she's failed to really move the needle on a lot of these voter polls. We're talking about working-class white voters, independents who interestingly in West Virginia, a big portion said they would vote for Trump possibly. We're talking about, you know, people who feel disadvantaged by trade, disadvantaged by globalization.

So, the Clinton campaign strategy those voters specifically without doing things that would take her too far away from the mainstream. It's kind of threading the needle. It's a tough maneuver to pull off.

In the end, the Donald Trump theory of the case is specific policy proposals don't matter. What voters want is change. They want to run against the establishment.

ROMANS: We heard from Hillary Clinton. She's going to propose this plan to cap childcare at 10 percent of a family's income. We heard from Team Clinton she's going to start talking about the policies that a President Clinton would push for, policies that help women and help families, help working families. So you're already seeing some of those start to come out. That's the big story line this morning.

Let's talk about the Republicans now. Marco Rubio with this fascinating sit down with Jake Tapper. He must have known he was going to be asked, are you going to go into that voting booth and vote for the nominee Donald Trump. Listen to that exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Are you going to vote for him?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: 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 the voting booth --

RUBIO: I intend to support the Republican nominee and I think that, you know --

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Including --

RUBIO: Oh, I'm not voting for Hillary Clinton.

TAPPER: OK.

RUBIO: I'm not throwing away my vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: I have seen, Kristen, that exchange five or six times now. Fascinating to watch his body language and his eyes -- he can't look Jake Tapper in the eye. It's almost, he doesn't say Donald Trump's name at all.

HOLMES: I think this is to be expected. One of the things that Speaker Ryan said recently was that -- and this was earlier in the week when he told Jake that he couldn't stand behind the candidate, he couldn't stand behind Donald Trump just yet.

Now, one of the things he said was that the party was still divided. It was a very divisive primary season, even though it's over, it's very hard to come together. I think that's what we're seeing now.

This is a tepid answer on Marco Rubio's part, saying, yes, I'm going to vote for him. He's saying, I'm still not for Hillary Clinton. He's not quite over the hump. He's not quite saying I endorse Donald Trump fully. I'm going to campaign for him.

And, you know, there were also rumors about senator Rubio being vice president, which he quickly shot down.

So, it's kind of back and forthright now. I think because of the divisive nature of the primary, it is going to take a little bit of time to have people come together around Donald Trump.

BERMAN: Josh, is it just me, or is it a little too coincidental that Paul Ryan, Marco Rubio, and Ted Cruz are all dancing around within the period of about 72 hours how they feel about Donald Trump? Those three gentlemen all may be posturing for a possible election, say, in 2020.

ROGIN: Right. Well, I think Ted Cruz will definitely run in 2020.

[05:10:01] My Republican insiders tell me Ted Cruz will be running for president for the next 30 years. Marco Rubio may be in a different position after he leaves the Senate.

Paul Ryan is not only looking towards 2020, he's looking towards the future of his party and the ideals he thinks it represents. This is a guy who told his caucus privately that some of Donald Trump's ideas, especially his ban on Muslims, could doom the Republican Party for a generation. That's what he believes. So what you see all of these guys doing is sort of refusing to concede

the point that Donald Trump's vision for the Republican Party and vision for how it should be situated, especially when it comes to foreign policy, should become the GOP standard.

At the same time, the common ground is more on the economic stuff, the taxes. So they're trying to find areas of overlap without yielding the party's soul.

BERMAN: Paul Ryan now says he's okay with Donald Trump's tax plan or tax statements, whatever they may be today. That's interesting to hear.

ROMANS: All right. Josh Rogin, Kristen Holmes, so nice to see both of you. Have a wonderful Wednesday, post-primary. Lots to talk about.

West Virginia has the second highest unemployment in the nation, 6.5 percent. The second lowest median household income. Of those struggles reflected there in the exit polling, 92 percent of Democratic voters say they're worried about the economy, one of the highest totals we've seen this primary season. More than half of those sided with Bernie Sanders.

His populist message on trade also resonating in West Virginia. Fifty-three percent say trade with other countries takes away U.S. jobs. That group of Democratic voters breaking for Sanders. Thirty- five percent say trade creates jobs evenly split between Clinton and Sanders.

West Virginia, of course, coal country. About a third of Democratic voters say they are coal industry household. Fifty-five percent of those favor Sanders. That follows Hillary's Clinton's attempt to walk back comments about putting coal miners and companies out of business if she is elected.

But it's a great point about what does the DNA of West Virginia say about some of these states ahead and the race toward a general election for the Democrats in particular.

BERMAN: All right. Eleven minutes after the hour.

A deadly knife attack starting inside a home and ended in a Boston area mall. Six people slashed, two killed. We have new information this morning. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:27] ROMANS: An attacker and two victims are dead following a stabbing spree in Taunton, Massachusetts. Police say 28-year-old Arthur de Rosa stabbed a mother and daughter inside their home after crashing his car. The mother later died. He then drove into the front of a Macy's Department Store. He stabbed four more people inside a mall restaurant, killing a 56-year-old man.

Listen to witnesses who watched it all unfold. (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.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We were sitting in the car right in front of the main entrance, and we saw a pregnant lady being pulled out and she was holding on to her stomach screaming and crying for her baby. Please help my baby.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We pulled up, and there's people on the stretchers getting taken out and everything. One girl was crying for her baby.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: An off-duty sheriff's deputy who happened to be on the seen fatally shot the attacker. Police say if the officer had not been there, more people could have been killed.

BERMAN: The Justice Department will not pursue the death penalty against Benghazi suspect, Ahmed Abu Khattala. Attorney General Loretta Lynch made the decision without explanation, insisting she remains committed to holding the suspect accountable for the deadly 2012 attack. Khattala is considered one of the ring leaders of the terror attack that took four American lives. His lawyers called Lynch's decision courageous.

ROMANS: This afternoon, a judge will rule on the mental competency of the suspect accused of killing three people last year at a Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood. Robert Lewis Dear was in court Tuesday at a hearing determined whether he's fit to stand trial. Police say when Deer was captured, he told them he anticipated being thanked by aborted fetuses at heaven's gate.

BERMAN: One of six Baltimore police officers facing charges in the death of Freddie Gray has decided to pass on a jury trial. Officer Edward Nero has opted for a bench trial, putting his fate in the hands of a judge. Nero is charged with second degree assault and misconduct in office. His trial is now set to begin on Thursday.

So the Minnesota Twins have been having a pretty bad year, but their ball boy is a superstar. He made a catch last night that probably saved a fan's life.

Coy Wire with more in the bleacher report next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:12] BERMAN: All right. The Warriors' Steph Curry continues to break NBA records, becoming the first unanimous MVP in league history, which I cannot believe how that can be the case, but it is. ROMANS: Coy Wire has more in this morning's bleacher report.

Hey, Coy.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys.

Shaq and LeBron came close, but, yes, first ever. Seemed like every other day this NBA season, Curry and his Warriors were breaking some sort of NBA record, whether it was Curry leading Golden State to the best regular season home record in history or him setting an all-time three pointers record.

Curry is a paradigm shift. He's making us rethink what is and is not possible on the court. The NBA has never seen a player like Steph Curry, and now he's back-to-back MVP.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPH CURRY, 2-TIME NBA MVP: I never really set out to change the game. I never, you know, thought that, that would kind of happen in my career. I don't even know how to describe that. But what I want to do is just be myself. How I play the game is how I know how to play the game. It's what I work on every single day.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, reporters flocked to the press conference, and Curry's 3- year-old daughter Riley had respect for him. I see you. No, we see you, Riley.

Three-year-old Riley always stealing the show. Looks like stealing the show may run in the family.

Thunder and Spurs last night in San Antonio. Russell Westbrook playing like a man possessed. Watch this. Crosses on the fast break. Westbrook with 35 in the game, including this clutch and one in the fourth quarter. Thunder wins 95-91, taking a 3-2 series lead.

The Spurs are on the ropes, guys. OKC can close out the series at home tomorrow.

Two more games tonight on TBS.

[05:25:01] The Heat and Raptors tip off at 8:00 Eastern. The Warriors can clinch their series against the Blazers. That's tonight. They get going at 10:30.

Finally, to the MLB, where a ball boy became ball boy. He spreads his wings like a superhero and saves a young fan from near disaster.

Watch this again. Ball boy, quick as a cat. Watch this go-go gadget arm. It was heading straight for that youngster sitting in the front row. The twins lost this game to the orioles. They now lost six straight, making them 8-24 on the season. So sign him up.

Ball boy to the rescue. He's come to save the day. Nice catch, huh, guys?

ROMANS: All right. Thank you so much.

BERMAN: Good for him.

ROMANS: Nice to see. That's a great shot.

BERMAN: Thanks, Coy.

WIRE: You're welcome.

ROMANS: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders winning big overnight. Trump working on his general election strategy as Sanders tells supporters he can beat Hillary Clinton to the Democratic nomination.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)