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Puerto Rico Democratic Primaries; Outrage Over Donald Trump's Comments Against Federal Judge; Protests at Trump Rally in California; Interview with Robert Reich; Donald Trump's Shifting Foreign Policy Positions; Hillary Clinton Campaigning Hard Ahead of Next Super Tuesday. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired June 05, 2016 - 17:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[17:00:07] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. The judge who happens to be, we believe, Mexican.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's ideas aren't just different. They are dangerously incoherent.

TRUMP: She's guilty of the servers. She is guilty of -- you look at confidential information. I mean, all of the information that probably has gotten out all over the world. And then, you know what? She's also guilty of stupidity.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am going to do and have done and will do everything I can to combat the bigotry and the ignorance of Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to election night in America. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center. Thanks very much for joining us.

We're standing by for the first results from Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary. The final ballots are being counted right now. And while Hillary Clinton would need to win a very lopsided -- win by a very lopsided margin, there is a chance she could potentially clinch the needed number of delegates to win the Democratic nomination tonight. All before the biggest prize of California -- the California vote even comes in.

While Puerto Rico offers just 60 delegates, that happens to be exactly the number that Hillary Clinton needs to clinch the nomination. Right now she's sitting by our estimate at a comfortable 2,323 delegates. That includes the super delegates there factored in. Her only competitor, Senator Bernie Sanders, he has 1,547. That's with his super delegates factored in as well.

And while he's vowed to fight all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia, what happens in the next few minutes potentially could change the race rather dramatically. Let's go straight to CNN's Dania Alexandrino. She's in San Juan,

Puerto Rico, for us right now.

Dania, do the people there, are they talking as they left the polls? Are they able to give us a sense of how this vote might turn out?

DANIA ALEXANDRINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good afternoon, Wolf. Well, we still have not heard anything from the State Electoral Commission. That means that we still do not have a preliminary count. What we do know is obviously because of, you know, the visits we've done to some of the voting centers, we were inquiring and asking people who they voted for, if they wanted to share with us.

And I want to tell you that demographically speaking, most of the older people, the people who were actually working during Bill Clinton's administration here on the island, are more inclined to voting towards ex-Secretary Hillary Clinton.

The newer generation, the younger generation were more inclined to voting toward Senator Sanders. So it was pretty divided. But I do have to tell you, comparing it to other elections, other primaries, other presidential primaries, it has been quite an astounding result. I mean, a lot of people have actually gone out to vote on these Democratic primaries. People were in line for up to an hour and a half waiting and they were patiently waiting. So it was quite -- quite a good turnout I would say.

BLITZER: Very impressive. That's -- as you know, Dania, Puerto Ricans can't vote in the general election in November. They can vote in these primaries leading up to the nominations. But you -- I'm assuming you've seen a lot of enthusiasm from voters there today.

ALEXANDRINO: Absolutely, Wolf. And that was one of the many questions I asked voters, what motivated you to come out and vote on primaries despite the fact that Puerto Ricans can't vote in general elections. Some actually said, well, you know, we have to take advantage, every little bit count. You know, this is all we can and we have to take advantage of it. And those who had never voted before said that they were motivated precisely by Senator Sanders.

So it was a little bit of both. You know, those who wanted to vote because it's our only chance to let our voices be heard because Puerto Ricans residing on the island can't vote in November. And others who simply had never voted before and after hearing Senator Sanders when he was on the island during his visit were inspired to actually go and register to vote. So it was a little bit of both, Wolf.

BLITZER: Dania, thanks very much. We'll get back to you.

Right now we're standing by to get the first results of the Puerto Rico Democratic primary. Remember, 60 delegates are at stake. 60 delegates are also what Hillary Clinton would need to push herself to the brink of clinching the Democratic Party nomination. She would be relying also of course on the support of a huge number of super delegates. And remember, super delegates can change their minds about which candidate to support all the way until the convention in Philadelphia in July.

Let's bring in our "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor John King. He's our chief national correspondent.

[17:05:03] Also our senior reporter Nia-Malika Henderson and our political director David Chalian is with us as well.

First of all, John, break down what we're anticipating tonight because the 60-delegate number is really potentially critical.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Sixty delegates Hillary Clinton needs to get. Again, as you noted, and it's very important to note again, with the support of her currently declared super delegates, Hillary Clinton can get to the magic number tonight if she gets all 60 delegates out of Puerto Rico.

As you can it's still gray. That means we have no votes coming in yet. We expect some votes to come in any minute now. We expected them actually a little while ago. So we're waiting to see, once you see your first colors here. The early results. See the dark blue for Clinton, light blue for Sanders. Once we start getting the votes we'll be counting them.

And so significantly, Wolf, this is the math we'll be looking at tonight on the delegate map here. If you look at the Democratic race in terms of pledged delegates where we stand right now. Eight contests left in the Democratic side including Puerto Rico. After tonight it will be seven contests. 1776 to 1501. So 275 difference in pledged delegates. Hillary Clinton saying that's a bigger lead than Barack Obama ever had over me, and especially late in the race in 2008. She believes she will get to the finish line with a majority of the pledged delegates.

Bernie Sanders needs 68 percent of the remaining pledged delegates including tonight in Puerto Rico to catch Hillary Clinton with pledged delegates. Now that's tough math. 68 percent of the remaining pledged delegates.

So what happens in Puerto Rico? Even if, let's say for example, again if she gets 60, if she gets 60, she gets to the finish line. Let me explain why before I show you Puerto Rico. With the current allocation of super delegates, and yes, Sanders supporters like to say these people can change their mind. Why do you count them? Well, we count them because they get votes. Their votes count. This is what made Barack Obama the Democratic nominee before the convention in 2008. He had the pledged support of super delegates.

So now just like then, we call these people. We ask them who they're going to vote for. And we keep of it. 547 for Clinton, 46 for Senator Sanders, 119 super delegates who have yet to tell us if they've decided to vote for either of these candidates. These people matter which is why we count them. We know sometimes it gets the Sanders supporters mad.

We also check with them to see if they're going to change their minds. Like Senator Sanders says, Wolf, if he can run the board, if he can start winning at the end, will some of these people panic, think Senator Sanders is more electable, and switch sides? We will keep an eye on that. And if this number changes, we'll report the changes just as rightly so as we report it now.

But 547, plus our 776. Look where it gets here. 23 -- I just knocked that off by touching the board, 23, 23, she is right there at the finish line. And so what could happen tonight? If she were to get -- if she were to get all 60 out of Puerto Rico, that would push her to the end.

Now is that likely? No. Bernie Sanders does expect to cross the 15 percent threshold. He expects actually to do much better than that. But that is why we're going to watch tonight. If Hillary Clinton can sweep all 60 in Puerto Rico tonight, she did sweep all seven last night in the Virgin Islands. But it's a bigger contest. The Sanders campaign has put more resources into there. They expect to come out of Puerto Rico with some delegates tonight. But there is no doubt, no doubt, that when we end tonight and we start looking forward to New Jersey, Montana and the Dakotas, New Mexico and California on the final big Super Tuesday, only the District of Columbia will be left after Tuesday night.

There is simply no doubt that unless there's a panic among these people from now until Tuesday night when we start counting votes in New Jersey, that will put Hillary Clinton over the top. Could that number change? Yes, it could. Again because of super delegates. But she is prepared, her campaign is prepared. They don't think it will happen tonight, Wolf. They think there's a very slight possibility it could happen tonight. But they expect to be knocking on the door by the end of tonight. And they believe the state of New Jersey pretty early on, Tuesday night, will put her over the top.

BLITZER: All right. John, come on over here. I want to bring in David Chalian. Nia is with us still as well.

David, they close the polls in Puerto Rico, what, two hours ago. We're still waiting for those fist results. Is it taking them longer than anticipated? I had assumed an hour ago we'd start getting some results.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: No. I think we're expecting to see results probably a little bit by now, just start trickling in and looking on a Web site in Puerto Rico right now, perhaps the AP just might be a touch behind. But it looks like maybe we will start seeing some vote trickling in sooner rather than later. But it's not -- I wouldn't say this is much later than expected right now.

BLITZER: So this is anticipated. You know, it's interesting because Puerto Rico, the people of Puerto Rico, they can vote in the primaries on the Democratic side, the Republican side, John, I want you to weigh in on this. They can't vote in the November general election. If all of these 60 delegates tonight in Puerto Rico were to go to Hillary Clinton, is this -- what are you hearing from her campaign? Is this what they would want for the Puerto Rican vote to bring her over the top? Would that at all be an issue? KING: They want to get over the top. And these are key -- these are

key voters in the Democratic primaries. Look, we have seen this play out throughout the campaign. The Sanders campaign at times says, you know, we win when there's a higher turnout. The Clinton campaign says, no, no, you actually don't. If you look at through the states, you actually don't win in states with higher turnout. The Sanders campaign has said early on well, she was winning in South Carolina, and in Georgia, and Alabama. Those states are going to be red in the general election. Who cares?

[17:10:04] I would say if you ask that question "who cares," I would refer you to the person who lives in 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. The president of the United States Barack Obama won those states with the African-American vote. Yes, they voted red in November, but that's how he became the Democratic nominee president. Primary electorates are very different from general electorates. This is a lesson the Democrats are going through now and it's a question for Donald Trump. As we know he's the presumptive Republican nominee, can the tactics that work so successfully for Donald Trump in the primary electorate, mostly white in the Republican race, mostly men in the Republican race, do they work in a general electorate?

We're going to find that out. But look, inside the primary campaign, especially in a heated contested election, you know, would Hillary Clinton for November momentum purposes like to be able to say the great state of New Jersey put me over the top or the great -- the swing state of New Mexico put over the top? Sure, there are scenarios they would like to draw up for how they communicate, and that you would say, oh well, we'd perhaps rather it not be Puerto Rico. But that's like down here in chapter two, three, or four.

They want to win. They want to get this over with. They want to send -- they want, whether it's tonight or early Tuesday, for the message to start to sink in to Senator Sanders, I have the votes, the super delegates are not going to change. You need to start thinking about your next move.

(CROSSTALK)

CHALIAN: And we're expecting whoever -- sorry. The other thing the Clinton campaign really wants to do is win California.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

KING: Right. Absolutely.

CHALIAN: At the end of this. So yes, they want to win and they want to go over the top. And irrespective of whether New Jersey or Puerto Rico put them there, but they also really want to win that big contests on Tuesday night.

BLITZER: Because the longer it takes her to win, the more difficult potentially they fear it could be.

HENDERSON: And they don't want to see an emboldened Bernie Sanders. And we would see an emboldened Bernie Sanders if he wins California. It's a big state, it's a diverse state. The knock on him has been that he hasn't been able to win big states or diverse states. This is a state that has seen an explosion in terms of new voters registering. A lot of those have been young, a lot of those have been Latino.

So he will go into that convention, he hopes, with a California win and a new argument to those super delegates and saying listen, I am strong with this constituency and I got some have momentum with this big California win.

KING: Yes. The math, the math most likely will be settled by New Jersey. But for this momentum argument, the political argument, the moral argument, if you want to call it now, what the Clinton campaign very much wants and they believe this would finally sink in with Senator Sanders is New Jersey game, New Mexico set, California match.

HENDERSON: Yes.

KING: They want to win a big state in the East Coast. They want to win the Latino state of New Mexico. They want to win the big giant basket of delegates, even if it's by one vote, a diverse state in California to say, what's your argument now? I've won more contests, I have more pledged delegates. Yes, I also have way more for super delegates, what is it again -- what else do I need to do? Again, she's 28-21 entering tonight. She wants to end the primaries with more pledged delegates, more super delegates and more wins.

BLITZER: That's why we call it Super Tuesday. The final Super Tuesday this coming Tuesday.

Stand by. We're waiting for the first results to come out of Puerto Rico. We're going to bring you those results as soon as we get them. We're live here in the CNN Election Center. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:16:04] BLITZER: We're awaiting the first results out of the Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary. We'll get those momentarily.

Hillary Clinton potentially could be moments away from a major milestone if, if she can get enough delegates to secure the nomination. Her opponent would be the presumptive nominee for the Republican nomination. We're talking about Donald Trump right now.

Right now Trump has other problems seeing some only thumbs down coming from some top Republicans in Washington. That after he shocked the political world last week by unleashing the full Trump treatment against a federal judge, the same federal judge who's presiding other lawsuits in which Trump has a personal and financial interest.

It's not the first time he has singled out an ethnic group or an entire gender. Listen to just a few of the times Donald Trump has raised eyebrows.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: They're bringing drugs, they're bringing crime, they're rapists and some, I assume, are good people. Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on. I view a person who's flat-chested, it's very hard to be a 10. OK.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.

TRUMP: I mean, they have to be extraordinary. You have to have the face of Vivian Lee to be a 10.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Exactly.

TRUMP: If you're flat-chested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's bring in our CNN political commentators Bill Press and Donna Brazile are with us. Also Donald Trump supporter Scottie Nell Hughes and Hillary Clinton supporter Hilary Rosen.

Bill, Donald Trump catching, as you know, lots of criticism right now for his comments about this federal judge's Hispanic, Mexican heritage. Called him a Mexican saying that he would not be fairly treated. Also, he suggested today by Muslim judge here in the United States. Both the House speaker and the Senate majority leader, they're all scolding Donald Trump for saying that. How much of a damage has Trump caused himself because of those comments?

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't think you could start off a presidential campaign in worse -- in a worse way or in worse shape than Donald Trump has since he secured the -- became the presumed nominee just about a week ago. And you know, on the judge, I think it's very important to remember that he's attacking this judge. And this is not the judge's political views or this is not anything to do with presidential politics.

This has to do with a lawsuit against him for defrauding people. This is his -- his money on the line, right? This is his reputation on the line. Nothing to do with the presidential campaign, which makes it all the more disgusting. But I think what we're seeing is, the last few days, Paul Ryan, Mitch McConnell, Bob Corker, all these leading Republicans now, the most they're willing to say is all right, I'll vote for the nominee of the party, but they're running away from Donald Trump as fast as they can because of those racist remarks.

BLITZER: Donna, the word racist is being used a lot involved what Donald Trump has said about this federal judge. People are accusing Donald Trump of being a racist. What do you think he is trying to achieve here?

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, back in February when we had this conversation about Mr. Trump's statement about David Duke and the KKK, I thought we at the time least those of us in the media and those of us out there in the public, we were very clear that Donald Trump need to stay away from the kind of dog whistle politics that often lead some to call you racist.

And I know, as a black person, whenever we use that word, people are saying, you're just doing that because he's white. No. Donald Trump is now the leader of the Republican Party. He is the nominee. And I think it's very important that the words that come out of his mouth, the thoughts that he echo or the tweets whatever, he needs to be very clear that he has no intentions of bringing this country back and bringing many of us back to an era where we were simply judged by the color of our skin and not the content, as Dr. King say, of our character.

[17:20:05] So I do believe that he has to be very careful. And I heard early this morning from former speaker Newt Gingrich who also clearly denounced the words, the bigotry, that's coming forth at this time. And we don't need it. It's just wrong and it should be denounced. And I don't know this judge. But what I do know is that to become a federal judge, you have to meet some high standards, not just from the American Bar Association, but from those who nominate you and from the president of the United States who send your name forward to the United States Senate.

There's nothing in this judge's background that would lend itself to anyone, including the Republican nominee, to criticize him in such a harsh terms.

BLITZER: Yes.

BRAZILE: His ethnic background, his heritage has nothing to do with what he's doing today and looking at these allegations against Trump University and that should be denounced.

BLITZER: And Judge Curiel was nominated for the federal judge position by President Obama, but he was confirmed by the U.S. Senate without any opposition.

Scottie, as you just heard, the top Republicans, whether Mitch McConnell, Paul Ryan, the speaker of the House, Senator Corker, Newt Gingrich, they're all distancing themselves from Donald Trump's remarks on Judge Curiel. What possible good could it be for Donald Trump doubling down, even tripling down on these remarks?

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, and they can do that. That's the great thing about the Republican Party. We can have the diversity where we don't have to 100 percent agree with each other. But at the same time as they're doing that they're also going online with Mr. Trump on other issues whether it's foreign policy, economics, those sorts of things.

I find it funny. Yesterday, you had a former attorney general, Anthony -- Alberto Gonzalez, actually wrote a great article in the "Washington Post" defending Mr. Trump saying, you know, you're right, ethnicity alone cannot pose a conflict of interest and get the case dismissed. However activism does. And right now this judge does have an ethical standard that he has to uphold that he is going to sit there, and after all the attention that's been given to this case at this point, I think it's up to this judge right now to recuse himself because it's going to look like there's no way he's going to be able to get a fair trial at this point.

Especially when you look at there are so many different things. And yes, he does have a history of activism, of sitting there and campaigning for Hispanics, for illegals coming across, giving them scholarships, teaching other attorneys how to be able to keep them above the law. And I think that right there does show that he is not an impartial case. And I think that's why Mr. Trump has this feeling.

BLITZER: Everyone, stand by, because clearly there's a lot more to assess. We got to take a quick break.

Upcoming, flaring tempers becoming a common sight at Donald Trump rallies. We're going to talk about the impact that's having on this presidential race.

Also, we'll bring you the results from Puerto Rico. We're about to get some numbers. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:26:31] BLITZER: In only moments, we hope to have the first results coming out of Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary. Results that may potentially maybe enough to give Hillary Clinton the delegates necessary to declare a victory in the battle for her party's presidential nomination.

This election season has certainly been unprecedented in a number of ways. One of the most notable, the amount of violence at Donald Trump campaign rallies. And moving toward the convention, it only continues to build, at least for now. Protests at a Trump rally in San Jose Thursday they clearly turned ugly. Fistfights broke out after some anti-Donald Trump demonstrators threw punches and eggs at Donald Trump supporters. All three candidates have criticized the violence. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The people that are causing that problem, they're not my people. They're people that are outside, they're thugs and they're agitators. They're bad people. I think they're sent by the Democrats.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Do you have evidence of that?

TRUMP: Well, they have the Bernie signs.

SANDERS: I want to make it clear that any person who is a Bernie Sanders supporter, please, do not in any way, shape, or form engage in violence. That is absolutely not what this campaign is about. But you know, you've got some people out there who are not really Sanders supporters, you know, people who just -- they think it's cool to create violence and create havoc and get their picture in the newspaper.

CLINTON: I condemned it when Donald Trump was inciting it. And congratulating people who are were engaging in it. I condemn it by those who are taking violent protest to physical assault against Donald Trump. This has to end. He set a very bad example. He created an environment in which it seemed to be acceptable for someone running for president to be inciting violence, to be encouraging his supporters. Now we're seeing people who were against him responding in kind. It should all stop. It is not acceptable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Get back to the political panel. We'll discuss this in a moment but we have our first key race alert of the night so far.

The first numbers, very, very early coming in right now. Clearly no projection in Puerto Rico. But take a look at Hillary Clinton, she has 473 votes so far. Bernie Sanders 201. Very early. She has 70.2 percent to his 29.8 percent. She's up by 270 votes. You can see right there. Still very, very, very early. We're about to get a whole lot more numbers. We'll update you on that.

But I want to bring back Bill Press and Donna Brazile, Scottie Nell Hughes, Hilary Rosen is joining us, as well, one of our contributors.

Scottie, let me start with you because, as you know, Donald Trump criticized these protestors, you just heard them, saying they were thugs, planted by Democrats. He blames Bernie Sanders. He offered no evidence. What's your response to that?

HUGHES: Well, because you can't -- all we're seeing right now is floating amongst the Internet. Just flyers and rumors. You can't -- it's very hard to sit there and back that up. We did find that originally a lot of the rallies especially in the very beginning in California, the initial idea was organized by some of those within the unions. But they obviously did not encourage the violence that happened.

We also saw that post-Chicago and the rally that happened in Chicago, you had an e-mail that went out from MoveOn.org claiming that they were successful in shutting down the Trump rally that night. So you have had very liberal progressive groups that have in the past claimed victory when some of these big riots have happened.

But I think here's what we need to talk about, though. Well, yes, you're looking at the numbers right now. You look at California. While outside of California, I think this helps Republicans.

[17:30:03] Inside California, voter registration numbers, you have had the highest voter registration near 18 million, 650,000 in the last 45 days. 76 percent of those folks are registering as Democrats. So this is actually possibly helping the Democrat Party and turning out votes when it comes to Tuesday.

BLITZER: Hilary, what's the political fallout from the violence we've seen by these anti-Donald Trump protesters? What's the political fallout for Democrats?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I do think that there's an enormous amount of passion that we haven't seen, you know, really almost since, you know, the George Wallace days of campaigns.

I want to bring this to a bigger level, which is we are seeing -- you know, my kids are seeing fights in their high school, you know, with people saying, you can't trust federal judges to do things fairly. I do worry that what Donald Trump is doing is lowering the level of political discourse in a way that's infecting so many different places in society.

I think that Democrats are united. That this is not the American that we want to live in. And I think that it's not going to help Donald Trump going forward. Does it energize a certain group of his supporters and folks on the left to be more aggressive? Maybe it does. But that's not the politics that I have passion about.

BLITZER: Everyone, stand by because we're getting the first trickle of votes coming in from Puerto Rico from the Democratic presidential primary. You can see on the screen right now, very, very early. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they're watching the results as they come in from Puerto Rico.

Up next, we're going to talk about Bernie Sanders' strategy with one of his supporters, a former member of Bill Clinton's Cabinet. So why is he not supporting Hillary Clinton this time around?

Also, standing by for more results from Puerto Rico. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:35:01] BLITZER: Once again, we're getting first results from the Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary. You can see the results very, very early right now. 65.7 percent for Hillary Clinton, 34.3 percent for Bernie Sanders. But very, very early in this contest. The initial trickle of votes coming in.

We're also waiting for Hillary Clinton to speak in California. That's the state that's the big prize of the day after tomorrow. That would be Tuesday, the final Super Tuesday of this campaign season. The states are voting on Tuesday. Mostly out west, with only New Jersey voting here on the East Coast.

Let's talk about all of this and a lot more, the Puerto Rico results, what that could mean for Bernie Sanders as we move towards Tuesday's California contest. I want to bring in Robert Reich, he's a Bernie Sanders supporter. Previously worked for President Bill Clinton as the secretary of labor.

Mr. Secretary, thanks very much for joining us.

ROBERT REICH, PROFESSOR OF PUBLIC POLICY, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA BERKELEY: Hi, Wolf.

BLITZER: And you're also the author, I want to point out, of an important book entitled "Saving Capitalism" as well. Good to have you here on CNN. You previously served, as I pointed out, as President Clinton's labor secretary. Why aren't you supporting his wife right now to be the next president of the United States?

REICH: Look, I have enormous respect for Hillary Clinton. I've worked with her very closely. In fact, I've known her since she was 19 years old. She'll make an excellent president for the system we now have, Wolf. But I think the system we now have has enormous flaws and I'm supporting Bernie Sanders because he, I believe, is the person we need to create a system of politics that is not dependent on big money. A system that actually works for the many rather than the few.

BLITZER: If she does get the Democratic nomination, though, I assume Mr. Secretary, you will support her, you'll work for her, is that right?

REICH: Absolutely. I'll work my heart out for her if she gets the nomination not only because I think she'll do a great job but because Donald Trump, I believe, is a true menace.

BLITZER: Well, what -- we'll get to Donald Trump in a moment. But what do you think is the biggest difference on domestic economic issues, and you were the secretary labor, between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton?

REICH: Well, there are a lot of additions in terms -- I mean, Bernie Sanders wants a $15 minimum wage and she wants a $12 minimum wage. And Bernie Sanders wants a Medicare for all, and she doesn't want to go that far. But the big issue has to do with money and politics. And again, I was there in the Clinton administration. I understand the pressures on anybody running for office or contemplating a reelection to attract a lot of big money, but it's out of control, Wolf.

You were in Washington. You know it, you see it. And anybody who cares about this country must dedicate themselves to getting big money and the moneyed interests out of our politics and out of our political system. And I think Bernie Sanders has built his entire campaign around that. He hasn't taken any super PAC money at all. It's kind of an amazing feat when you think of how far Bernie Sanders has come. 20 states he has won.

A majority of people under the age of 45, in fact, overwhelmingly people under the age of 30 without any super PAC money at all. Average contributions of $27.

BLITZER: Well, I totally agree. It's amazing how far he's come. If somebody would have said a year ago he would have achieved what he has achieved, it would have been seen as unrealistic. But still at this point she has, what, three million more popular votes, she has a lot more pledged votes, certainly a lot more super delegates votes. How does he get the Democratic nomination realistically?

REICH: Well, it's going to be an uphill fight. But it's been an uphill fight for Bernie Sanders right from the start as you just said. I think that if he does very well in California, if he wins California, if he does well in Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, New Jersey, New Mexico, I think that he not only has momentum, but he has a lot of people behind him and those -- super delegates, you're absolutely right, most of them have told Hillary Clinton they'll support her, but they don't actually vote until the Democratic convention in late July. So it's not over until it's over.

BLITZER: Robert Reich, the former labor secretary, thanks very much for joining us.

REICH: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: We're watching the first results coming in from Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary. You see them up on the screen right now. The initial numbers coming in right now. Once again, Hillary Clinton with 65.1 percent. Bernie Sanders 34 percent. But still very, very early. We're getting more numbers. We'll up date you in a moment on those.

Also just ahead, Donald Trump's shifting positions on various foreign policy issues could cause some serious global problems for the United States. We're going to discuss his latest reversal on Libya with military experts. That and a lot more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:43:29] BLITZER: Welcome back. We're getting the first results of the Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary. Results that potentially could be enough to give Hillary Clinton the delegates necessary to declare victory in the race for her party's presidential nomination. Meanwhile, Donald Trump has a lot to say when it comes to national security and foreign policy. But the problem for U.S. allies, diplomats, generals is he sometimes says different things, occasionally contradicts himself.

Just a few days ago he adamantly denied, for example, saying that Japan should have nuclear weapons to defend itself, even though he was on record as making that case. Now he seems to be changing his course somewhat when it comes to Libya, saying he earlier supported the U.S. air strikes that helped lead to the overthrow of the leader Muammar Gadhafi back in 2011.

Here's what he said today on CBS' "Face the Nation."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I didn't mind surgical, and I said surgical. You do a surgical shot and you take him out. But I wasn't for what happened. Look at the way -- I mean, look at with Benghazi and with all of the problems that you've had. It was handled horribly.

I was never for a strong intervention. I could have seen surgical, where you take out Gadhafi and his group.

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BLITZER: Listen to what he said last February at the CNN Republican presidential debate.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We would be so much better off if Gadhafi were in charge right now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's get a better sense of how the U.S. military views Donald Trump's apparently shifting positions. Let's bring in military history professor Peter Mansoor.

[17:45:03] He was a top aide to General David Petraeus. Also joining us, CNN military analyst, retired Army general, Mark Hertling.

Gentlemen, thanks very much for joining us.

Peter, do you have an overarching vision of Donald Trump's opinions on national security, foreign policy? What do you see?

PETER MANSOOR, MILITARY HISTORY PROFESSOR, OHIO STATE UNIVERSITY: They are all over the map, Wolf. At best I can tell he's a neo- isolationist but he has no consistency on his policies. It's going to be very confusing to U.S. allies if he were president of United States because what he says today, he contradicts tomorrow.

On Libya, for instance, you know, he says he -- we'd be better off with Gadhafi in power. And then he says today that well, no, surgical strikes to eliminate Gadhafi would have been OK. Well, surgical strikes to take out Gadhafi, had they been successful get us to the same place we are today. So I just don't see his consistency in foreign policy, has no core philosophy and -- in every way I think is completely unqualified to be president.

BLITZER: General Hertling, what do you see?

LT. GEN. MARK HERTLING, CNN MILITARY ANALYST: I see the same thing, Wolf. And Pete and I agree completely on this. The lack of a national security strategy by Mr. Trump is confusing. He's living a revisionist history. Remind, when people talk about Libya, all they think about is Benghazi. That was a civil war that lasted several months. And in fact, there were multiple surgical strikes. It was led by a NATO alliance under a U.N. mandate. This was not United States going at it alone with one surgical missile.

And it just shows a lack of understanding of the military element of power which is part of the security power of the United States. So yes, I agree with Pete. It's revisionist history and a lack of an understanding of both the culture and the dynamics of diplomacy and conflict.

BLITZER: Let's bring in a Donald Trump supporter to weigh in as well.

Scottie, what do you see?

HUGHES: Well, I see that the latest poll says that the military -- the United States military, 51 percent of them support Mr. Trump as compared to Hillary Clinton at 36 percent. So obviously those within the active duty have not really been too confident necessarily on what's going on with the current administration. You've seen cuts and sequestration, you've seen cuts in their pay, you've seen cuts in trying to recruit new.

You see all these budget and defense cuts that have been happening. And so I think a lot of the military is very apprehensive in fears that a Clinton administration would continue and continue those cuts even more.

BLITZER: Well, Peter Mansoor, you still have a lot of good contacts inside the U.S. military, active duty military personnel. When they see what's going on and they speak to you privately, what do they say?

MANSOOR: You know, Wolf, they're very concerned about the future of the military under either administration that might be forthcoming after November. They have seen huge budget cuts, but those budget cuts sequestration were enacted by a Republican Congress. And so they are fearful for the military, for readiness, for, you know, the cuts that are being made in end strength. And they want to see a candidate who's going to address those issues.

I'm not sure that's Donald Trump and he really hasn't laid out exactly what he would do with the military in terms of end strength, in terms of force sizing, and other than the sort of sound bites we get, it's unclear what he would do.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Everybody, stand by. There's more to discuss, more to assess.

And once again, the votes, they are coming in right now from Puerto Rico. We'll update you on that. Meanwhile, we're also waiting to hear from Hillary Clinton. She potentially, potentially, could get the Democratic presidential nomination. Could clinch enough votes if she were to get all 60 delegates at stake in Puerto Rico tonight.

In a moment, I'll speak with a Donald Trump campaign spokesman. Much more coming up.

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[17:52:40] BLITZER: Pretty soon we'll know whether or not Hillary Clinton has enough delegates to lock up her party's nomination for president. Results are trickling in from the Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary. And if she wins by a very, very wide margin tonight, potentially, potentially she could secure enough delegates to clinch the nomination when you factor in the super delegates.

We're also waiting for Hillary Clinton to speak at an event in Vallejo, California. When she does, we're going to bring you her remarks live. Stand by.

Hillary Clinton says after Tuesday's big round of primaries she's going to do everything she possibly can to try to reach out and unify the Democratic Party. Right now polls in California show the contests, the Democratic contests there neck and neck, and even though Hillary Clinton may be on the brink of clinching the Democratic nomination, a loss in delegate-rich California could slow down her momentum, hurt her actually going into the convention.

Let's bring in our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny covering the Clinton campaign, out on the campaign trail right now.

Jeff, California, obviously, very, very important but I know you've been doing some reporting on Elizabeth Warren right now and what she's up to in this debate over the super delegate issue. What are you hearing?

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, this conversation is about to shift to the role of super delegates. As we've been talking about all afternoon lone. And a key point here, I'm being told that Elizabeth Warren, she made a comment over the weekend at the Democratic convention in Massachusetts. She said, look, I don't like super delegates that they should not sway the election here. And what she means by that is this, after all the votes are done, really next week with the District of Columbia, but certainly this week with a key primary here in California and other states, that the majority of voters will have weighed in here and super delegates should not sway this.

So Elizabeth Warren and other Democrats throughout the party and the Clinton campaign is organizing this as well, they're going to make the argument that super delegates should not step in and overrule the pledged delegates here. Like super delegates, or not, they can have that conversation at a separate time, but they should not be over ruling the rule of the people here.

And that's a powerful argument that Elizabeth Warren is making and she will begin to make more, I'm told, this week. It's a very counter -- you know, it's a counter, it's a pushback to what Bernie Sanders is going to be saying. He's going to be saying look, super delegates should actually come in and overturn this here.

[17:55:04] So watch for that this coming week, Wolf. But on top of all that, what happens here in California, so important. If Hillary Clinton wins California, as she's campaigning so aggressively to do, as Bill Clinton is campaigning today so aggressively to do, it makes Senator Sanders' argument much more of a moot point here. If she wins this big primary as well as New Jersey and the four other states voting on Tuesday, it takes wind out of the Sanders' argument. And that is one thing the Clinton campaign is trying to do here.

That's why she's here. She'll be speaking behind me here in just a short period of time, Wolf. Campaigning very hard until the end here on Tuesday.

BLITZER: We will stay in close touch with you. Once again we're going to have live coverage of Hillary Clinton's comments, that's coming up.

Jeff Zeleny, thanks very much for that. We'll get back to you shortly as well.

Once again, we're starting to get the first results coming in from Puerto Rico. 60 delegates at stake. You can see right now 2 percent, about 2 percent. Very early in the contest coming in. So far Hillary Clinton is ahead with 65.1 percent. 33.9 percent for Bernie Sanders. But once again very early in this contest.

We're watching this very closely, much more of our special election coverage coming up right after this.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Show the world that California is going forward with the political revolution.

CLINTON: I believe on Tuesday I will have decisively won the popular vote and I will have decisively won the pledge delegate majority.