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Presidential Spoiler?; Trump's General Election Strategy. Aired 15-15:30p ET

Aired May 27, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Happy Friday to you. I'm Brianna Keilar. Brooke Baldwin is off.

Donald Trump has defied the party establishment, primary expectations, and now all thoughts of political convention when it comes to the general election. Trump is going after a state that has not voted for a Republican for president since 1988. I'm 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 his focus today.

And in a couple of hours, Trump will speak at a rally in San Diego. He actually just finished speaking at the Fresno Convention Center, where the situation has gotten pretty tense outside. Police lined up against protesters. We will get to that in just a second.

But while that was happening outside, Trump celebrated his milestone Thursday, clinching the nomination after earning the needed delegates inside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, yesterday was a big day. You know yesterday, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: And CNN's Sara Murray in San Diego, where Trump is supposed to speak coming up here in a couple of hours.

First, though, I want to start with CNN's Dan Simon, who is outside of Trump's event in Fresno that just wrapped up.

Tell us what's going on there, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, hi, Brianna. We are walking along the sidewalk here and the Trump protesters have basically taken over a street and they're blocking traffic.

You can see police, some of whom are in full riot gear. Basically, the problem has been where the Trump supporters have been taunting some of the protesters. And that's where you see -- that's where you have seen some of the problems erupt.

As you can see, police are moving people. They're moving people down the sidewalk to try to clear off some of the traffic. For most of the day, things have been peaceful and we haven't seen too much violence break out, except for the occasional skirmish between some of the protesters and supporters.

But, right now, the tension level has definitely risen, as you had all these people take over the street, blocking traffic. Police are trying to do what they can to get these protesters to back off, if you will. But at this point, they're not having much success, Brianna.

KEILAR: How have they prepared for this? What are the different measures that they have in case this -- obviously it's pretty tense, but what do they do if it gets out of hand?

SIMON: Well, as you can see, police are in full riot gear. So they're ready to engage the crowd if things get out of control.

We know that they have tear gas and pepper spray canisters, and hopefully they won't have to resort to that. We do know from talking to the police chief, one of the things the Fresno Police Department did is, they studied what happened in Albuquerque, New Mexico, a few days to see how police reacted and how they could improve upon that.

One of the things they did originally is they separated the protesters and supporters, in terms of where the protesters were when the supporters were going inside the center. That seemed to quell things a bit at the very beginning.

But now that Donald Trump has left, that's when you have really seen the protesters sort of take aggressive measures and try to get their point across by taking to the streets. And you can hear police now trying to get the streets cleared, but I don't see this breaking up any time soon, Brianna.

KEILAR: From your observation point there, Dan, is there a bigger contingency of anti-Donald Trump protesters or Donald Trump supporters?

SIMON: Well, certainly, when the speech was going on, you had the supporters outnumber the protesters.

But now that the speech is over, we're talking about just protesters in the street, or mainly protesters in the street. I would say at the peak, you had about 500 of them. And I would say, you know, we are talking out 400 or 500 protesters in the street at this very moment.

You can see the Mexican flag off in the distance. You can see all of the signs. We talked about it earlier, but Fresno gets a lot of migrants from Mexico, because they depend on the agriculture industry, and the migrant workers come up here, you know, especially during the grape picking season.

And so one of the things we have seen -- and this is typical for Donald Trump events -- is you have seen them protest Donald Trump's immigration policies. And I would say that's really what they have been talking about all day long, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right, Dan Simon. And we know you are saying that it looks like this is going to continue, so we will be monitoring this along with you. We will come back as needed, though.

[15:05:03]

I want to do head -- I want to head south now in California there to Sara Murray. She is in San Diego inside of this next event where Donald Trump will be speaking.

What do you think we're going to hear from him there at his second stop of the day, Sara?

SARA MURRAY, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brianna, I think we have seen Donald Trump sort of laser-focused on Hillary Clinton.

Even before he officially clinched the GOP nomination, got to 1,237, he has been latching on to her e-mail scandal, essentially saying this disqualifies her for the presidency. He continued to hit that hard earlier today. Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even though Hillary's caught in another scandal -- you know, the inspector general, who's a Democrat, did a big, big number on her. I don't know how she can continue to run. I will be honest with you. How does she continue to run? How does she continue?

It could be I will have to debate, because you know what? You don't want -- if you're in first place, you don't really want to debate a guy who in second place, but it could be I will end up with Bernie.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now, Trump went on earlier today about how much he would love to debate Bernie Sanders.

I still think that's pretty unlikely, Brianna, but it gives you an idea of just how hard he has been going after Hillary Clinton, while saying relatively complimentary things about Bernie Sanders, another indication that Trump and his campaign believe there's overlap between people who formally supported Bernie and people who might support Donald Trump in a general election.

KEILAR: All right, Sara Murray there in San Diego, thank you so much.

I do want to bring now in our panel to discuss this.

We have Van Jones, CNN political commentator. And we have Ryan Williams. He's the former spokesman for Governors Romney and Sununu. And Ned Ryun, he's the American Majority president, Trump supporter and columnist for "The American Spectator. So, Ned, to you first there. I want to get your reaction to something that Donald Trump said in his speech at this rally in Fresno. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When I watched her speech last night, it was so sad, because everything she said was like a lie. I wonder, I wonder if I could start, instead of saying crooked Hillary, which is a very accurate description, I wonder if I could say, you know, remember, lying, lying -- I won't say lying Ted. I refuse to say it. Lying Ted.

Hold that Bible high. Puts it down and then he lies. Lying Ted. Well, I'm going to retire that from Ted. I'm not going to call Ted that anymore. Not going to call him. But I wonder if I could redo it, because after watching her last night with the lies...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So, Ned, he clearly felt that lying Ted strategy worked so well. It looks like he wants to put this on to Hillary Clinton. Is that what you think he's going to be doing? Is that the main push of his strategy against her?

NED RYUN, PRESIDENT, AMERICAN MAJORITY: Oh, I think he is going to be pushing that narrative that she is not honest, she is not trustworthy, again with the inspector general's report that just came out recently basically undermining all of her claims about the e-mails and the server.

It's one of those things that I think Donald going to keep hammering on this theme of dishonesty, lying Hillary, crooked Hillary. And if you start to see more and more stories like the inspector general report coming out, again, it is one of those narratives that could gain traction, I think will gain traction at some level, with the American electorate.

So, I think it's something you're going to be seeing for the next five, six months.

KEILAR: And, Van, one of the things we also heard Donald Trump say was, look, she's skirting everything, she's always on the edge. Has Hillary Clinton left her open to some of that?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, she herself has said that she wishes she had done it differently. It is a self- inflicted wound.

But when you look at the I.G. report, it definitely is not good for her, but, also, there's stuff in there that is to her favor. For instance, you know, she said before, others had done it. Colin Powell is referenced as somebody who had done the same thing. That's to her favor.

You can't find any evidence of the criminal wrongdoing I think that the right wing is hoping you're going to see. There's no evidence that she was intentionally the mishandling information, that she was aware that there was classified information on her server.

In some ways, she is going to be exonerated on the criminal stuff, but from the P.R. and the optics side, this is very bad for her.

RYUN: Exactly. Forget some of the other issues that are at stake.

It is the perception. It's the narrative. It's the stories that keep coming out that undermine her credibility, honesty, trustworthiness. And Trump is going to keep hitting on that. We will see where the e- mail server situation ends up for Hillary, but again in this situation with people having very short attention spans and five- or six-second little sound bites, all they're hearing right now is the inspector general basically undermined every claim for the most part that Hillary made about the e-mails and the servers.

That's the story that they're hearing. They're not going to be going and reading the entire report of the inspector general.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Well, Ryan, I want you to look at this. I want you to listen to this. This is what Hillary Clinton said when she was responding to this independent inspector general's report about her e-mail practices to CNN's Wolf Blitzer.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I thought it was allowed. I knew past secretaries of state used personal e- mail. Secretary Kerry did for a period of time until the rules were clarified.

[15:10:05]

They were not a model of clarity. And it seems like there's still more work to do on that. So, yes, I believed it was allowed. But that's not the point. I have said it was a mistake.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

KEILAR: I wonder what you think, Ryan, because this is something that she has been saying for sometime, this explanation. But now there's this independent report out. Does this explanation fly anymore or does this give Donald Trump a real area where he can -- a real vulnerability, an increased vulnerability on this issue to hit?

RYAN WILLIAMS, REPUBLICAN CAMPAIGN CONSULTANT: Well, it doesn't work. And nobody believes Hillary Clinton at this point. The I.G. report was very clear that this was not casual oversight by Secretary Clinton.

This was a willingness on her part to ignore the rules. She was repeatedly warned in e-mails over the course of her tenure as secretary of state that personal e-mails were not to be used in the way that she was doing it. She ignored it and she did it because she wanted to keep her e-mail secret. This is a trend we have seen with Hillary and Bill Clinton for decades

now. This scandal is a problem that also dredges up bad memories of the Clinton scandals in the past. And I think it's a really devastating report for her campaign. It gives Trump quite a bit of ammunition to drive this crooked Hillary, lying Hillary narrative that seems to be catching on and I think it's a very good angle of attack for him.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Van, what do you think? This is the difference. This is an independent report.

JONES: Sure.

KEILAR: I know that we have all been talking so much about her e-mail practices for so long now. But I wonder if outside of the Beltway, for instance, regular voters, even Democrats say, OK, this is maybe different. This is not just Hillary Clinton being hit by Republicans. This is an independent report.

JONES: Well, you know, there's -- first of all, things are so polarized I think that there's tendency for the partisans on either side to just kind of stick their fingers in their ears on bad news for either candidate.

You're going to have some people that just sort of want to be able to move past it. I do think that we shouldn't let it go without commenting that we're now normalizing the idea that just blatant name- calling is a strategy that we all think is perfectly fine.

I refuse to adapt to the absurdity that we're sitting here saying, well, you know, he is going to be calling her lying. What is it, crooked and lying and all these different names. He still has not put forward basic, solid answers on policy and on things that actually matter to the American people.

At some point, these kinds of attacks, they do wear down Hillary. They also begin to wear down the public. We have got a Zika epidemic about to spread through the country. We have got a superbug thing that is about to hit. And we are talking about whether to call somebody lying or crooked.

I think at certain point, there's a danger that the political class gets so excited about all of these little back and forth things between the candidates and we forget the issues that people really care about.

RYUN: But this isn't about the partisan voters who are going to vote regardless, either Democrat or Republican.

This is about the growing number of independent voters that are open to this narrative of driving -- that Donald's driving that Hillary is maybe not honest, not trustworthy, the lying, crooked Hillary line.

So, this has nothing to do. Van's right. There are a certain amount of voters that are going to vote Democrat no matter what. There are a certain amount of voters that are going to vote Republican no matter what.

This isn't about them. This is about the middle, the independents who are in the middle who are still undecided at this point and deciding which way to go. And if he can start driving this wedge and at least creating doubts in their back of their mind about Hillary's credibility, I think it's a strategy that can and probably will work coming towards the general.

KEILAR: And, Van, you brought up name-calling.

So, I want to ask you, Ryan, about something that Donald Trump has called your former boss, Mitt Romney. He called him a choking dog. And he's been very critical, obviously, of Donald Trump. He just did an interview with "The Wall Street Journal" and he said he didn't expect to criticize Trump further. He wouldn't rule it out, though.

Here's what he said: "I know that some people are offended that someone who lost and is the former nominee continues to speak. But that's how I can sleep at night. And there are some people, though it's a small number, who still value my opinion."

There were some advisers -- you were not among them -- urging Donald Trump -- in this article to back off of his attempts to take down Donald Trump.

But just give us a little context here perhaps to what happened behind the scenes on team Romney with this.

WILLIAMS: Well, I haven't talked to the governor about this recently, but, you know, he's made it very clear he is not going to support Donald Trump. That's his decision.

I think that he realizes now that Trump's the nominee. The people have spoken. There was a process in our nomination for our party. Trump got it. And while Governor Romney disagrees with the outcome, I think he is going to divert his time and efforts elsewhere. He is still a very respected member of the party, a statesman.

I think he could serve a great role helping our down-ballot races for governor, for Senate, for Congress, retain our majorities in both houses and elect conservative governors. So, I think the governor realizes the reality of what's happening.

[15:15:05]

While he may not agree with it, I think he's going to divert his time and efforts elsewhere to help the Republican Party.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: All right, Ryan Williams, thanks so much.

Van -- I'm sorry, guys. I have got to wrap it up there. Van, thanks so much. We will talk again very soon. Ned Ryan, appreciate you guys being with us.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: Coming up, the Libertarian Party kicked off its national convention today. Could its candidate, Gary Johnson, play spoiler to the 2016 race?

Also ahead, are Donald Trump and Marco Rubio calling a truce? Donald Trump encouraging Rubio to run for Senate. Will Rubio officially endorse Trump? We will be discussing that.

And later, with Hillary Clinton turning her focus to the general election, what is her media strategy? Perhaps she's taking a page from the Donald Trump playbook. We will tell you how. We have a lot going on in the NEWSROOM and we will be back after a quick break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: The Libertarian Party kicks off its national convention today in Orlando.

It's a three-day event that will culminate with the election of the party's presidential ticket. And the presumptive nominee is former New Mexico Governor Gary Johnson. He will probably make the ballot in all 50 states. That's important to note.

[15:20:08]

And he's also polling nationally at 11 percent, despite being usually left of the surveys.

Well, CNN's Victor Blackwell is in Orlando for this convention. He spoke with the candidate, as well as his presumed running mate, the former governor of Massachusetts, Bill Weld.

So, Victor, tell us about what Trump -- what Johnson told you. Does he sort of see himself as the alternative to Donald Trump or the alternative to Hillary Clinton or both?

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, first, that depends upon how well each nominee does coalescing their party respectively around them.

But they see themselves as this viable middle, where they have -- they have positions that appeal to each nominees' supporters. One hand, Gary Johnson is against stricter gun laws and gun controls. On the other hand, he's pro-marriage equality, pro-abortion rights.

And it's those last two attributes that, of course, are anathema to Republican orthodoxy. But he says there's a large number of Republicans who are not focused specifically on the social issues. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You know, I leave this to others completely.

I know that these questions exist. It's not something that I dwell on at all or will dwell on at all. Like I say, there are plenty of others that are involved this. And at the end of the day, I don't think that she will be indicted.

I don't see that happening. But like I say, just speaking politically, that's not something I'm going to ever engage in is -- look, I'm going to certainly talk about issue differences with Secretary Clinton, but I'm not -- nothing's going to come out of my mouth regarding her e-mail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Well, that's really interesting, Victor, that he told you that.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: But I wonder if -- has he spoken to any of the anti-Trump operatives for any help, by chance?

BLACKWELL: Well, first, let me say that sound bite was in reference to a question about Hillary Clinton and her e-mail server, so you heard his answer there.

But, no, he hasn't. I mean, his headquarters is in Salt Lake City, Utah, the home of former Governor Mitt Romney, one of the leaders of the never Trump movement. But Governor Johnson says he has not spoken with Governor Romney since the second Republican primary debate back in 2012.

In fact, Governor Weld, after comparing Trump's plan to deport 11 million people in the country illegally to Kristallnacht, the night in the 1940s, when homes and synagogues were burned in Germany, he says that he has actually respect for Donald Trump, and had some positive things to say. Let's listen to Governor Weld.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL WELD, LIBERTARIAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, there's the Donald Trump that you meet socially, and he's a warm person, not an ungenerous person. Some of the stuff that he's running on, I think, is absolutely chaotic.

I'm going to do this to Mexico. OK, that's a violation of the North American Free Trade Agreement, which is the supreme law of the land. It is a treaty. We signed it. I'm going to do this to China, no questions asked. OK. That's a violation of the World Trade organization rules, exposing us, the United States, to sanctions there.

So, we would be the rogue nation. I don't think we want to be the rogue nation. You know, let's let North Korea be the rogue nation, not us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Well, he also, as the -- during that interview said that he has never been a member of the never Trump group. She said that he should be congratulating for bringing Republicans to the party, although they have said that they will aggressively go after these two candidates as they move toward the general election, but, first, they have got to get the nomination here on Sunday, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Victor Blackwell in Orlando, thank you so much for that.

Now, next, he has said from the beginning he'd get behind the nominee, but even now that it's Donald Trump?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: You all have friends that are thinking about voting for Donald Trump. Friends do not let friends vote for con artists.

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

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

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: What a difference a few months can make -- how Trump's former rival plans to help and what Trump's encouraging Rubio to do.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:53]

KEILAR: After months of one of the more brutal rivalries in presidential primary history, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump seem to be calling a truce. Now that Trump has the number of delegates, CNN's Jake Tapper asked Rubio if he would speak at the Republican Convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: My sense is, I'm going to go to the convention.

TAPPER: You are?

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

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

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

If there's something I can do to help that from happening and it's helpful to the cause, I would most certainly be honored to be considered for that.

TAPPER: Are you planning on releasing your delegates?

RUBIO: Yes, in fact, basically, technically, have already, because Donald is going to have the majority number. And at that point, it will be irrelevant. So, if we haven't done so already, we will.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: It's all very kumbaya, but we can't just ignore those enraged Rubio rants from just a few months ago. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: We have a con artist as the front-runner in the Republican Party.

He runs on this idea that he is fighting for the little guy. But he has spent his entire career sticking it to the little guy. Every business that he's ever run that's gone bankrupt, I mean, this guy bankrupted a casino. How do you bankrupt a casino?

And the commander in chief cannot be someone who thinks that nuclear triad is a rock band.