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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Donald Trump Meeting with GOP Leaders; Interview with Jeff De Wit; Sanders Makes Superdelegate Argument. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired May 12, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


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[12:34:00] ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to breaking news just to out on your screen for you. On the left, that is the National Republican Senatorial Committee building

It's a lot of words and there are not a lot of people in there but the people who are in there are very important and they're meeting with Donald Trump, the Senate leadership folks. Donald Trump has gone from the House side of things over to meet with the folks in the Senate.

Friendlier territory for sure but there are those who still disagree with some of his poor principles, some of his policy, his demeanor, his tone that's what this discussion is about

Capitol Hill has been electrified today over the Trump meeting. Three of them to be exact. We're keeping an eye on what you saw on your screen. We're going to give you every development just as soon as we learn when they break up. There might actually be another one of those opportunities for a press conference and that's great.

So, great is also what both the Speaker of the House and the RNC chairman are saying about their meeting with Donald Trump today.

Great. Reince Priebus and Paul Ryan both using those words and they're the leaders of the so-called establishment Republicans remember? Who's not exactly watched the rise of Trump with a lot of warm and fuzzy language.

[12:35:08] Remember that Speaker Ryan announced just a few days ago that he is not a Trump guy yet, but who is also watching his party break into pieces starting even before Donald Trump wrapped up that nomination.

Jeff Dewit is Arizona State treasurer, also happens to be an enthusiastic Donald Trump supporter. Jeff Dewit, it's great to have you on. Thank you for taking the time Phoenix to talk to me. I know you're in Phoenix but they have those things called telephones and you were on that telephone to Corey Lewandowski, campaign manager for Donald Trump.

Give me the insight scope, what did Corey say? JEFF DEWIT, ARIZONA STATE TREASURER: Yeah, we spoke right after the meeting when Speaker Ryan ended and we're excited. I know Corey is very excited, it was a great positive step in the first, you know, first step in the right direction towards bringing unity to our campaign and the speaker, you know, with the Republican party desperately needs to all be on the same page this fall to make sure that we don't just win the White House but that we also win the down ballot races.

You know, Donald Trump is already showing in the polls that he is leading now and in the battle ground states like Ohio and Florida and he absolutely has a path to beat Hillary Clinton as suppose are showing, it's already moving that direction big time for Mr. Trump.

And now, one of the things that we as campaign want to do in that Mr. Trump very personally wants to do is to help other republicans get across the finish line this fall because if we can retain, you know, majorities in the House and Senate that's going to help all of us to implement the policies that the speaker and Mr. Trump already agree on in terms of cutting taxes for the middle class duping ...

BANFIELD: OK.

DEWIT: ... a deficit and growing the economy. There are many points of agreement that everyone already has and if we can do this in the fall then it helps us get everybody going that direction right away.

BANFIELD: I'm so glad you went there. I'm so glad you went there. The issues where they agree and the issues where they disagree and I'm not exactly sure where this list is going to play into things, but this is a list that we've compiled just in a week since Indiana, since your candidate Donald Trump effectively clenched that nomination and became the presumptive nominee.

And this is a list of things that he has now changed his mind on, since revving up all those rallies, those thousands and thousands of people at the rallies on these particular issues.

Self-funding his campaign, he is now looking to may be get help from the republican machine and do fundraising, taxing the rich although he did quantify and qualify his comments saying they were taken out of context. Changing his opinion on social security and medicare saying he'd be willing to actually look at them when originally he said he wouldn't and then that all-important Muslim ban which got a lot of cheers.

Jeff you have to agree when he brought up that he want a total and complete ban of Muslims coming into United States until "we figure things out, that was really popular and now he is saying just in the last 24 hours may be it was just a suggestion.

So I'm trying to figure out, was Donald Trump changing and mitigating to make room for the meeting with the republicans or did he do that on his own because he thinks that is where he is going to get the rest of the voters to hell with the guys behind that just got to be the position he is in? DEWIT: He hasn't changed his mind on any of those positions. That's misstating the facts. What he is doing is clarifying and expanding the positions. And so on the Muslim ban he just says look, you know, we've talked about a commission with Rudy Giuliani, I can't just say right now, at the helm.

BANFIELD: Rudy Giuliani I know who you mean.

DEWIT: Giuliani.

BANFIELD: He was up here in New York.

DEWIT: But, yes very, you know, but what we need -- still need to do he still says, we need to take a pause with all immigration until we can vet the people coming in. We can't put bad people and terrorists in our communities next to our families and children.

And so he says, you know, once we figure out how to vet the right people and keep out the bad people then we will (inaudible) the pauses, so he is saying the exact same things as he said before, he is just clarifying now and really putting some more meat behind it, but, you know, taxing the rich. It is been on is Website from day one that he wants to get rid of loopholes that are used and attack system only by the super wealthy.

Some people call it taxing the rich, but I think, you know, he wants to simplify the tax code it's one of his goals and so, you know, he still wants to reduce taxes on the middle class, he wants to grow the economy, he and shrink the deficit and those are things that every republican they get behind and even Speaker Ryan, those are things we have unity on already and so getting closer to unity on the rest of the positions, but making sure we go forward and win in the fall and again this meeting went very well.

Mr. Trump is a business leader who walks into rooms of high power people and gets billion dollar deals made and that's what we want our country is ready for a CEO at the helm and that's what we are getting with Mr. Trump.

And so, I think it's obviously shows what a great leader that he is that he is making the rounds and he is reaching out and opening these lines of communication and that's going to bode well as we move forward in the campaign.

BANFIELD: I sure appreciate your time Jeff Dewit, I know we're going to have a lot more conversations as the months move towards the all- important November day. Thank you, sir from Phoenix I appreciate it.

[12:40:8] DEWIT: Thank you Ashleigh

BANFIELD: And I wanted to draw our viewers attention to the picture on the right hand side of the screen, you would see half a guy but you see a car and it's the head of the Trump motorcade that's why we're showing you that picture. Anywhere Donald Trump has gone today on Capital Hill there's been a halink(ph) of people whether they be protesters or supporters or media, cameras, reporters, writers I mean it's really been sort of a wild bride all morning long on Capital Hill.

This happens to be the garage where his motorcade is parked. He's been in that republican meeting of the Senate leaders, this is the national republican senatorial committee building where that motorcade is expected to emerge from and that will tell us the meeting is finally over.

45 minutes with all of the House members earlier today after which speaker Paul Ryan gave us the news conference and gave us the skinny on how the meeting went and of course, what we're hoping for as soon as Donald Trump emerges from his Senate leaders meeting that we'll get the same kind of assessment.

Who knows if the language will be the same, who knows if they'll be the joint statement, but let me tell you the joint statement came out so fast after the House meeting that we figured may be a few of them were ready to go. Couple of statements ready to go just pick the one that fit the meeting

We're going to update you just as soon as we can at the Washington D.C. back right after this.

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[12:45:35] BANFIELD: Live pictures on the right hand side of your screen, Donald Trump's motorcade is departing right now from the National Republican Senatorial Committee building. So I think it's safe to say, breaking news, the meeting has officially ended. That would be the triptych of meetings.

The first was with the Speaker of the House and Chairman of the Republican Party, Reince Priebus. The word out of that was all good. The next was House leadership and the word came out all good. Senate leadership just wrapping up.

Our Jim Acosta has ears trained to the walls of that building. And I'm wondering if we're going to get the same assessment of the relationship. There are thick walls and know you are outside. So give us your read.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, that's the problem here in Washington, Ashleigh. All the walls are made out of marble so difficult to listen through.

But they just wrapped up this meeting here. Donald Trump with the Senate republican leadership motorcade departed here a few moments ago. He does have additional meetings this afternoon we understand at a D.C. law firm. And keep in mind, he's got a lot of other things on his plate right now. Probably first among them is vice presidential search. A lot of names floating around. Perhaps names that we saw batted around this morning might be up on Donald Trump's short list or soon to be short list here in Washington.

So some of those conversations maybe taking place. But I can tell you from talking to people inside the Trump campaign today that, you know, they felt like that this was going to go well and it did go well. Paul Ryan did not come out and give an endorsement of Donald Trump. They did not expect that to happen. No expectations at all were the words I got from one Trump aide. They think this was the beginning of a process, it could be long process.

They know that Donald Trump, you know, really rolled over a big chunk of this Republican Party to get to this point where he is the presumptive GOP nominee. There's some healing to do. They feel like this is the beginning of the healing process. But they are looking at what Paul Ryan said a few moments ago during that press conference. They're feeling -- they have to feel very good about what Paul Ryan said a few moments ago, you know, to have the speaker of the House talking about unity when just a week ago he was saying I'm not sure I'm ready to support Donald Trump. That is moving in the right direction in the mindset of this campaign at this point. Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Make no mistake so he was asked is this an endorsement. Is the endorsement coming and he did not answer that. Speaker of the House because I'm not, you know ...

ACOSTA: Not yet.

BANFIELD: I'm not going there. Right. Right. This is the process. This is a process and you don't get there in 45 minutes which might be some wording that we hear. By the way, Jim, you just mentioned, one of those names ...

ACOSTA: Right.

BANFIELD: ... Senator Rob Portman, he's in that meeting and he's been floated as the potential V.P. Ohio critical state. Can you say battle ground? And so that's ...

ACOSTA: Critical state.

BANFIELD: ... be something.

ACOSTA: Absolutely.

BANFIELD: This is -- I know you don't have a monitor in front of you, Jim, but I'm just watching another picture right now as Donald Trump's motorcade. By the way, don't forget, he also has secret service. When you see people popping out the back of an SUV it's usually secret service and you can tell by the pin that's more than likely exactly who they are. They're keeping in eye on Donald Trump. He's also got his own private security he continues to travel with this as well. Everywhere he goes.

And given the ...

ACOSTA: That's right.

BANFIELD: ... tenor of some folks, Jim, that have shown up outside of the RNC building, et cetera, he needs that security.

ACOSTA: Yeah.

BANFIELD: He does because he brings a crowd and an energy wherever he goes and even maybe to a law firm.

ACOSTA: That's right. And keep in mind, Donald Trump also has a very important piece of real estate here in Washington and that is the new Trump Hotel that is being build inside the old post office pavilion. Just a couple of blocks from the White House, Donald Trump said on the campaign trail if he doesn't win the White House he's just going to go and live in the Trump Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue between White House and Capitol.

You know, so Donald Trump has interest here in Washington beyond just this stops that he's making today. And he has made a pit stops to that hotel. In the past he held meetings there. But from what we understand that's not on the agenda today, but Donald Trump being Donald Trump. Expect the unexpected, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: It's a very, very nice property, I'm sure. But Melania Trump and Barron Trump probably have something to say about that. I think they like this avenue very much.

Thank you, Jim Acosta. Keep on eye on things (inaudible) he was in Washington. There's still so much news to come out of this because we only have reports from two meetings. The third one we don't have anything and we still have nothing from Donald Trump himself. No tweets, no comments yet. Just the joint statement that came out lickity split. But that's not how Donald rolls. So we're watching every word of that Twitter account. We'll back in a moment.

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[12:54:09] BANFIELD: While Donald Trump and the GOP are really just dominating the headlines today with the focus on unity of the Republican Party the Democrats could be heading towards raucous convention themselves. Bernie Sanders keeps on winning. The shock Bernie is going to hold a community meeting in South Dakota.

And earlier, he stopped by to visit George Washington and Thomas Jefferson, and Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln at Mount Rushmore. I'm not sure if the photo-op is try to to position him. I cannot look that actually for a minute.

But also this morning his campaign manager Jeff Weaver joined us on CNN and he pointed out that Bernie is polling better than Donald Trump is in a general election match up. Much better than Hillary Clinton would.

So I want to bring in attorney, Raul Reyes, CNN Opinion writer and uncommitted supporter (inaudible) Democrat for sure. And CNN political commentator, Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist, Hillary Clinton supporter and maybe most importantly for this discussion is superdelegate.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENATOR: Superdelegate.

BANFIELD: I'm going to get to that in a minute.

CARDONA: Absolutely. [12:55:05] BANFIELD: But, Raul, I first want to go to you because one of the things that Bernie's campaign put out there in an e-mail to supports was that Democratic Party is courting disaster. That is strong language when you're talking about the support behind Hillary Clinton and being misquoted ...

RAUL REYES, CNN OPINION WRITER: Right.

BANFIELD: ... as if Hillary is quoting disaster. With this intentional, active (ph) insult, damaging?

REYES: I'm going to give him the benefit of the doubt and say it was accidental. You know, the fact is, of course, they have to put that out there because of where the race is right now. You know, Sanders is likely to win several more primaries going ahead. But the fact is there's historically there's no correlation between success in the final (ph) primaries and momentum that you have in the general election.

BARACK OBAMA lost several late primaries in 2008. You can go to Jimmy Carter in 1976. There is turmoil within the Democratic Party but it's not to be compared what's going on to the GOP side. What is going on to Democratic Party is making Hillary a stronger candidate, a better candidate. She is supporting some of Bernie Sanders ideas which have resonated particularly with white men and young people. And those are two groups that Hillary will need in the general election and just keep in mind this one fact that right now the Democratic voters for the first time are more liberal than moderate. 42 percent are liberal. 38 percent are moderate.

BANFIELD: There is one similarity between the Republican race and the Democratic race and that is that the candidates at least two of them from either side have been not too impressed with superdelegate process. Bernie Sanders does not like you or at least Bernie Sanders ...

CARDONA: That's what I hear (inaudible) for him.

BANFIELD: So my question is serious.

CARDONA: Sure.

BANFIELD: Does he have a chance of winning over people like you? Is he making strides in getting you to change your mind? Because right now ...

CARDONA: Yeah.

BANFIELD: ... there's a really huge number in Hillary's column.

CARDONA: Let's just get a couple of things clear here. First of all, superdelegates are not the reason that any nominee has even won the nomination. Barack Obama got to the number that he needed with additional superdelegates but why? Because he actually won pledge delegates. The pledge delegate count here Ashleigh is what matters. And the vote, as well. This is why Hillary Clinton is ahead and this is why at the end of the day if she ends up with the majority of pledge delegates -- with the majority of pledge delegate, not superdelegates, and votes ...

BANFIELD: Yeah.

CARDONA: ... superdelegates will continue to support her.

BANFIELD: And as we talk about the Democrats which is getting the headlines, Donald Trump there is that picture that just keeps coming at you on the right hand side of your screen. We're expecting Donald Trump's motorcade at any moment. We're expecting him to walk out perhaps we'll have a chance to take a look at the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party.

Raul Reyes, thank you. Maria Cardona ...

REYES: Thank you.

CARDONA: Thank you, Ashleigh.

BANFIELD: Happy both of you. Stay watching because I can't take my eyes off this. Because I know you can either. This is Legal View and it is time for Wolf after this quick break.

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