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Trump Strategy; Presidential Race; Protest at Trump Rally; Sanders Fuels Prospects of Debate; Hiroshima Survivor Honors Americans. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired May 27, 2016 - 14:00   ET

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


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The news continues right here on CNN.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday. I'm Brianna Keilar, in for Brooke Baldwin.

Donald Trump has defied the party establishment, primary expectations and now all thoughts of political convention when it comes to the general election. One day after clinching his nomination, Trump is going after a state that has not voted for a Republican for president since 1988. I am talking about California.

And it is part of a 15-state strategy that he just touted to his followers as his path to victory. It's not clear what all the 15 states are, but no doubt California is Trump's focus today. In a couple of hours, Trump will be speaking at a rally in San Diego and he said this to a crowd in Fresno just moments ago, addressing a major concern in this state, the historic drought.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, my environmental standard is very simple. And I've said it to everybody. I want clean air and I want clean water. That's what I want. Clean air. Clean water. Very, very simple. So, anyways, so we're going to be back up here. If I win, believe me, we're going to start opening up the water so that you can have your farmers survive, so that your job market will get better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We've got CNN's Dan Simon outside of the Fresno Convention Center, where protesters have been gathering for hours. But first I want to go to CNN's Phil Mattingly, who is inside for Donald Trump's speech.

He has been speaking there, Phil. What is he saying?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, mostly, Brianna, now just a day after he clinching the Republican nomination, surpassing that magic 1,237 delegate number, his target has been on Hillary Clinton. He's been attacking Hillary Clinton repeatedly about her experience, about her e-mails, about the inspector general's report that was critical of her e-mail practices. But he also noted, interestingly, Brianna, that he was taking a close look at Hillary Clinton's interviews that aired last night on CNN and on other channels and he has spent some of his time critiquing those.

But, Brianna, I do think it's an interest point you make. Donald Trump is in California. This is a very unorthodox place for a Republican focused on a general election to be. He's got two stops here today. He's already been in this state this week. And as you said, it's part of his push right now to put new states in play. There are a lot of questions about how he would actually do that, what it would take financially to make that happen. But at this point, Trump not backing off that claim and saying repeatedly here today that he plans to come to California again and again. One of those traditionally blue states that Trump and his team think he might be able to, if not push into the red category, at least force Hillary Clinton to spend money defending, Brianna.

KEILAR: And we saw back in 2008, Phil, that then Senator Barack Obama was able to rework the map a little bit. A lot of folks looking at the map and the pathway to the presidency think that it may favor a Democrat over a Republican. How realistic do many observers think this idea of Donald Trump reworking the map is? Is he a much different candidate that he could do that compared to other Republicans?

MATTINGLY: Look, I think it's great in theory, but, obviously, Hillary Clinton's team rejects that theory. What's more interesting, though, is Republicans also very wary of the deal. Still, when you look at Donald Trump's stronghold, when you look at white voters, middle to lower class voters, places in the rust belt like say Pennsylvania or yesterday he spoke repeatedly about how he plans to win Michigan, Ohio always a crucial swing state there, these are areas where the demographics favor what Donald Trump has won up to this point. He believes he can put those states in play. Now he's going to have to go out and prove it, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Phil Mattingly there. It's always awkward. You're inside of the event using your golf commentator voice. We certainly do appreciate it, Phil.

I want to go to Dan Simon. He is there outside. And I know, Dan, that protesters seem to be designated to one area, right? What are you seeing?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I'm definitely not using my golf commentator voice out here, Brianna. Definitely a few hundred protestors outside. You can see several of them have Mexican flags.

You know, Fresno relies on migrant workers from Mexico to keep the agriculture economy going. And so not surprisingly you're seeing a lot of those folks here at this rally, if you will, and they're talking about Donald Trump's immigration proposals. Obviously, they are no fans of his - of his - in terms of him wanting to build the wall. You're offering - hearing that.

In terms of whether or not we're going to see violence, the police say they're very well prepared for any eventuality. So far things have been peaceful. One thing they say they have going for them is that this is a daytime event. Usually when you have problems, they occur at night. This started at 10:00 a.m. local time so they're optimistic that they're not going to see any problems. That said, they have at least 150 officers here on site, some of whom are prepared to respond in riot gear. But so far, Brianna, no problems.

[14:05:01] KEILAR: All right, Dan Simon, we know you'll keep an eye on that. Thank you.

And, of course, Donald Trump is not the only presidential candidate that is prioritizing California. Ahead of the state's June 7th Democratic primary, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are also stumping there in the golden state. And any moment now, Sanders is actually expected to speak in San Pedro. California has a whopping 548 Democratic delegates at stake. Huge prize.

I want to turn now to CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, and CNN politics editor Juana Summers.

So, Dana, this is coming a day after Donald Trump clinches the nomination. We have them in California there. It's not really a battleground state. It's not Ohio. It's not Florida. What does this tell you about how he might be looking for a different pathway to the presidency?

DANA BASH, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: You know, Republicans, since 1988, the last time a Republican won there, have been kind of flirting a little bit with the idea of California, thinking maybe the demographics are changing or maybe they can find pockets of new voters for Republicans but never really took it seriously. And you know this, you're a Californian, Bri.

But, you know, I think that there's a combination of it being early and Trump being able to kind of just go and do his thing. A combination of that and California also being a place where he can and is raising money for the party, which is a new part of his job as the presumptive frontrunner. So I think that, you know, that it's a little bit of a water's testing, a little bit of a - this is where the money is right now.

KEILAR: Where the money is, which is always important and we know there's a lot of it there in California -

BASH: Yes.

KEILAR: For Democrats and for Republicans.

So, Juana, yesterday we saw Donald Trump. He gave an energy speech. He was in North Dakota. This was a policy speech. Obviously there's some politics to it. But is this part of more details that you think that we'll be seeing from him as he moves forward?

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: Brianna, absolutely. Donald Trump made a lot of big promises in that speech, chief among them is energy independence, which is something he stated over and over and over again. And as we move closer towards the general election, with Trump now having gotten those 1,237 delegates, I think the question will be just how feasible those plans that he's released are. Already, just a day after he's given that energy speech, a number of energy experts have come out and said that particularly this (INAUDIBLE) plan that the United States would have energy independence, would get out of the global oil market could actually be damaging to the United States and potentially could also be very difficult to do in practice. So as Donald Trump does start to fill out more of the details on his plan, I think that he's going to get more and more scrutiny to get more serious, to talk about more detail than we've seen from him in the past when he was running in the Republican primary.

KEILAR: I know you guys have been watching when's happening with Senator Marco Rubio. He's been under actually immense pressure to run for re-election because his - he was up here in 2016, so he decided not to. He has a friend, the lieutenant governor, who's now in and he says, you know, my friend is running. But Donald Trump tweeted this. He said, "poll data shows that Marco Rubio does by far the best in holding on to his Senate seat in Florida. Important to keep the majority. Run, Marco." What's going on here, Dana?

BASH: What's going on is that Donald Trump - I think this particular slice of the story to me is more about Donald Trump behaving like a Republican Party leader more than anything else. And this is an indication of that. I know from my reporting that there is a real - there's a real push - and I should say our Manu Raju has been really out front on this reporting. But the whole idea of getting Marco Rubio to run is a group of Washington lobbyists. Also a group of long-time veteran Republican strategists who are working alongside the strategists inside the Republican Party who are trying very hard to keep Florida's Senate seat in GOP hands. And so they got word to Donald Trump. This is a big deal. And he tweeted it out.

Now, I think that is a fascinating part of this. That is probably a subplot. The bigger question is, will Marco Rubio change course and decide not to go into the private sector and come back to the Senate, a place where he has made clear he does not like. The answer is -

KEILAR: Which he took issue with, right, in his interview of Jake Tapper. He said, you know, I didn't like when people said I didn't like the Senate.

BASH: Well, he kind of said he didn't like it. So - I mean, and maybe not in those specific - he did take issue with it, you're right, but maybe not in that blunt of a way. But he made pretty clear when he was attacked by his old friend Jeb Bush during the Republican primaries that he didn't feel that he needed to go to the Senate because nothing gets done there and so on and so forth.

So, putting that aside, the bottom line is that from people I'm talking to, I was told by one source who kind of has a good sense of what he's going to do, that it was zero percent chance last week. Now it's maybe 35 percent chance, but it's still the betting people are saying it's more likely than not that he stays out of the race.

[14:10:10] KEILAR: Juana, what do you think? I want you to listen to this. This is what Marco Rubio told Jake Tapper about speaking at the RNC. He said he would do it if Donald Trump gave him a role. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: My sense is I'm going to go to the convention.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: You are?

RUBIO: And I'll - I don't know if I'll have a role in the convention, but I have a lot of people going there that were supporters.

TAPPER: But if Donald Trump asked you to speak on his behalf, you would do so?

RUBIO: I mean I'd certainly - yes. I want to be helpful. I don't want to be harmful because I don't want Hillary Clinton to be president.

TAPPER: Are you planning on releasing your delegates?

RUBIO: Yes, in fact - we basically technically have already because Donald's going to have a majority number and the point will be irrelevant. So if we haven't done so already, we will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Wow. So, Juana, is this Marco Rubio finally falling in line behind Donald Trump?

SUMMERS: This is quite a reversal from the Marco Rubio we saw tweeting #nevertrump, who's critiqued Donald Trump on his tone, who's critiqued Donald Trump on his policies. Much like any number of other Republicans, we've seen perhaps Senator Lindsey Graham, his colleague in the Senate, talking to Trump a little bit more friendly. They've had some nice phone calls. We've seen Rick Perry come behind Donald Trump. We've seen Rick Santorum say that he'd come behind Donald Trump. A lot of Republicans from different lanes of the party, as well as many of Donald Trump's former rivals in the race, are now starting to come around to the new normal and that is whether they love him or hate him, Donald Trump has gotten to that magic number. He is the presumptive Republican nominee and will very likely face off against Hillary Clinton in the general election, provided that she clinches her party's nomination.

And I think as Marco Rubio said, that's a lot of the calculus that we're hearing from that group of Republicans is that they might not love everything he says, perhaps they can counsel him and bring him along on the lines of more party orthodoxy, but he's who they've most likely got. There doesn't seem to be that third candidate that everyone was whispering about, that new person to come out as an insurgent just doesn't seem to be there.

KEILAR: Yes, we know that phrase, fair weather friends. Maybe these are fair weather enemies. We shall see. All right, Dana Bash, Juana Summers, thanks so much to both of you.

And moments from now, Bernie Sanders will be speaking live in San Pedro, California. This is happening amid growing buzz about a hypothetical prize fight. Sanders versus Trump. A one on one debate. Sanders says he's ready. But some Democratic Party leaders are having none of it. They're now openly criticizing Sanders for the move. We'll discuss that, next.

Also, Hillary Clinton is facing tough questions after a highly critical report on her use of private e-mail while secretary of state. Is this going to have lasting implications? We'll talk about that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:16:35] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He tried to -

KEILAR: All right, actually, some of the tensions there if Fresno, where our Dan Simon is outside of the Donald Trump rally, seem to be heightened a little bit with - he's there behind the security line.

What are you seeing, Dan?

All right, I think we're having a little technical difficulty with Dan's shot there, but if we can just take a look, we're seeing that security line behind Dan where police are.

OK, let's listen in.

SIMON: Outside of the venue. You can see the supporters are right up against police. Basically what happened is the Trump protesters came to this area where they knew they were going to see some Trump supporters and a fight broke out between some of the protesters and the supporters. And then the police have rushed in and they're basically set up a line right in front of all of these protesters.

So you can see that things have definitely heated up. It just goes to show you how things can instantly turn here. We've been out here all morning and things were very calm and then all of a sudden the group started marching. They came to an area where they knew they were going to be able to confront some Trump supporters. Things started to clash a bit. And here we are. You can see the police are lined up in riot gear. They do have pepper spray canisters. They are ready to jump in, if they have to.

As you can see, things looking a little tense at the moment, Brianna. I can't hear you, so I'm going to toss back to you.

KEILAR: OK, Dan. We know that you'll be keeping an eye on this. We'll come back to Dan there in Fresno if it's warranted.

There are frustrations as well boiling over inside the Democratic Party as Bernie Sanders rallies right now. He rallies right now in California, San Pedro. He is doubling down on his proposal for a debate to end all debates. We're talking Sanders versus Trump. Well, Trump says he is into it. He put a $10 million charity price tag on it. And now thanks in part to Jimmy Kimmel, Sanders is getting awfully specifically about this still imaginary prize fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You made it possible for us to have a very interesting debate.

JIMMY KIMMEL, LATE NIGHT TALK SHOW HOST: That's right.

SANDERS: About two guys who look at the world very, very differently.

KIMMEL: Oh boy, do you guys look at it differently. That would be some debate. I mean I really think it might be one of the highest rated events in television history.

SANDERS: Well, I -I think it - you know, the goal would be to have it in some big stadium here in California.

KIMMEL: Yes. Well, this state. They would be great.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: But some Democrats have had it with Sanders' unwillingness to admit that Hillary Clinton is on track for the nomination. Anger now seeping into the entire Senate Democratic Caucus. For instance, Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia, he even called it b.s. He didn't not abbreviate, as I did right there.

Joining me now, we have Joe Johns. He's our CNN senior Washington correspondent. We also have MJ Lee, CNN politics reporter.

Joe, what is the calculus here on the part of Sanders and his campaign? What does he stand to gain?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, by the way, Brianna, I just heard from a Sanders aide who tells me they're still trying to nail all this down. I haven't heard back from the Trump camp yet.

Now, Sanders, even though he's running second in the race, Hillary Clinton would get equal footing on a stage against the presumptive Republican nominee. And for Sanders, it would be political payback of a sort against Hillary Clinton, who backed out of a debate with Sanders in advance of the California primary. And all of this coming at a time when polls show the two Democrats running neck and neck. So potential for a public relations boost in there.

[14:20:08] The last word from the Sanders camp was that Trump may be chickening out. Those are the words of the campaign manager. But when you look at this carefully, the political advantage here is more certain for Bernie Sanders than it is for Trump, Brianna.

KEILAR: Yes, and that's a - that's a very important point. So, M.J., I mentioned Joe Manchin, he's a West Virginia senator, a Democrat. And he called this b.s. He said this to Politico. He said, "why would you expect Bernie should be considerate or be nice or be working to bring everyone together? Why? He's not a Democrat."

Obviously, Joe Manchin is very - he's in a very different place on the Democratic spectrum than Bernie Sanders for sure. There probably wouldn't be a lot, I think, MJ, that they would agree on. But does Joe Manchin have a point that this could hurt the Democratic Party?

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, I think what this underscores, Brianna, is the fact that the goodwill that a lot of Democrats have had for Bernie Sanders throughout the last couple of months, that that is starting to wear thin. I think for the duration of the Democratic primary, a lot of Democrats recognize, including party leaders and rank and file members, they recognize the value of Sanders challenging Clinton and the value of him being a part of the conversation. Obviously, he has shown that he has amassed a following and I think when he talks about issues that are important to progressives, whether it's Wall Street reform or student loans or campaign finance reform, many people in the party believe that he was sort of turning the conversation in a good direction and in turn bringing Clinton a little more to the left and to acknowledge more progressive positions.

But n ow that we are in the month of May, and, in fact, we are about to head into the month of June, and Donald Trump has really nailed down his nomination on the Republican side, this sort of anger and frustration that Sanders is keeping Clinton back from being able to focusing entirely on Donald Trump. That frustration, as you said, is really starting to boil over.

KEILAR: And you hear Donald Trump saying, she can't close the deal. I mean he's using it against her. We can see that.

Joe, listen to what Bernie said last night on Kimmel. This is in reaction to something Hillary Clinton told CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIMMEL: I have a clip I'd like to play for you just to get your reaction to it. Here we go.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": You're getting to the general election if you're the nominee for your party.

HILLARY CLINTON (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will be the nominee for my party, Chris. That is - that is already done in effect. There is no way that I won't be.

SANDERS: Whoa.

KIMMEL: Does that make you mad seeing that?

SANDERS: Just a tinge of arrogance there I think. I kind of think that on June 7th people of California will have a message for Secretary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: OK, so, Joe, he's calling Hillary Clinton arrogant. On the flip side, Hillary Clinton supporters would say that Sanders is delusional that he thinks that he can still win.

JOHNS: I - that's absolutely right. And I mean, look, that statement by Hillary Clinton in response to a question from Chris Cuomo is not going to win her any Sanders supporters, if you will. But I don't think anybody really expected that. And the fact of the matter is, the bottom line is, if you look at the delegate math, it's very difficult for Sanders to get there because Hillary Clinton is fewer than 100 delegates away from clinching the nomination. That said, the Sanders argument has always been that the polls show he stands a better chance to beat Trump than Hillary Clinton for a variety of reasons. And if there were a debate with Trump, though, he'd have that opportunity to show what he can do head to head and I think the campaign sees this as an opportunity to push those poll numbers higher.

KEILAR: All right, Joe Johns, MJ Lee, thanks to both of you.

And next, President Obama makes history in Hiroshima. His message to end the use of nuclear weapons for good. And hear from a man who lived through the bombing there. Don't miss this story.

And we are continuing to watch protests outside of a Donald Trump rally in Fresno, California. We will go there live. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:28:42] KEILAR: The president making history today. Obama now the first ever sitting American president to visit Hiroshima, laying a wreath near where the U.S. dropped the first atomic bomb right before the end of World War II.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Seventy-one years ago, on a bright, cloudless morning, death fell from the sky and the world was changed. A flash of light and a wall of fire destroyed a city. And demonstrated that mankind possessed the means to destroy itself.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, the president also shared an emotional moment and a hug with a 79-year-old survivor. The Japanese man spent 40 years trying to get official recognition for the 12 American prisoners of war who were also killed by that powerful bomb on August 6, 1945. CNN's Will Ripley has his story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WILL RIPLEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Survivors of Hiroshima have few physical moments of life before the fireball.

RIPLEY (on camera): This is the only picture that survived the blast.

RIPLEY (voice-over): Memories, they have many.

[14:30:00] "When the a-bomb fell, I was on my way to school," says Shigeaki Mori, who was eight. He remembers red flames, black rain, mountains of bodies, including American POWs in this survivor's sketch, detained --