Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Clinton Leads Sanders in Puerto Rico; Donald Trump Targets Clintons in New Attack Ad; Clinton Answers Questions in California. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired June 05, 2016 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[19:00:06]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Trump has lowered the bar. And now, is it a surprise that people who don't like him are stepping over that low bar? I don't think it is.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I don't have thin skin. I have a very strong, very thick skin. But I have a strong temperament, and it's a very good temperament, and it's a very in- control temperament.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He does not have the temperament. It's impossible that something would get angry and he may want to go some one on one. Yeah, I think that is a possibility.
TRUMP: We're building a wall. He's a Mexican. This judge is getting us unfair wall. I got to say why. Well, I want to -- I'm building a wall.
H. CLINTON: Donald Trump is, not just wrong about Judge Curiel, he's wrong about America.
(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.
The first results from Puerto Rico's Democratic primary, they are coming in right now. So far, Hillary Clinton has an early lead over Senator Bernie Sanders. You can see it right there, only 3 percent of the vote, and 69.3 percent for Hillary Clinton, 30.2 percent for Bernie Sanders. The frontrunner is campaigning right now through California. Take a look at this live pictures coming in from a community event in the City of Vallejo in California. We're monitoring that. We have live coverage of that coming up.
While Puerto Rico offers far less delegates than California, just 60 delegates at stake in Puerto Rico, become more important than a lot of people could have predicted. That's because those 60 delegates are all Hillary Clinton would be to secure the Democratic nomination mathematically if she were to get all of those delegates. That's not easy. Bernie Sanders is vowing to fight all the way to the convention floor in Philadelphia in July.
Tonight, there could potentially have a major impact on the strategy moving forward if she were to get all 60 of those delegates. Let's go straight to CNN's Dania Alexandrino. She's in San Juan, Puerto Rico watching the election going on. Dania, the term of the Democratic Party there says the turnout was unexpectedly high. You've reported some people stood in line for 1.5 hour, if not longer, just to vote. The results are coming in pretty slowly. The polls have been closed in Puerto Rico now for four hours only but three percent of the vote is in. What did they say -- why are the results coming in as slowly as they are?
DANIA ALEXANDRINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's a very good question, Wolf. The reason why votes are coming in so slowly in the Democratic primaries is because we've had local primaries as well. So obviously, the local state commission -- voting commission is giving priorities to the votes coming in for the local elections because we are waiting to define who the last candidate for governor is. Our Resident Commissioner Pedro Pierluisi was up for that position. So that's probably the main reason why the Democratic primaries have been coming in so slow.
The second reason is today was the first time that Puerto Rico has been counting votes electronically. However, that was only for local primaries, not for Democratic primaries. So Democratic primary votes are still being counted manually. And that's another one of the reasons why votes are coming in so slow. And there are polls and booths all over the island. There are parts of the island in the mountains where getting to them is not that simple. So, those votes have to actually go get picked up. The results have to get picked up by somebody and be driven back to the island into the main part of the island in San Juan. So that's -- those are two main reasons why the votes are coming in so slow.
BLITZER: All right, Dania Alexandrino. Thanks very much. For that, we're going to get back to you, Dania, very soon. Right now, Hillary Clinton has the lead, as I said, in that political primary, the Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico. But only 3 percent of the vote is in. Her rival, Bernie Sanders, is vowing to keep fighting all the way to the Democratic convention in Philadelphia in July. I spoke to Sanders campaign advisor in the last hour. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We started out with more than 400 superdelegates declaring for Hillary Clinton before the Iowa caucuses and that being reported. And so Bernie has had an uphill race the entire time. So, yeah, I mean, I'm a superdelegate. We will -- campaigns will eliminate superdelegates going forward. But this year, we have to play with the rules as they are and that means that we will be asking superdelegates to look at who is the strongest candidate.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Our "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor, John King, our chief national correspondent, is over at the "Magic Wall". John, we're also joined by our senior political reporter, Nia-Malika Henderson, and our political director, David Chalian. John, walk us through the numbers are we're seeing them right now.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENTS: Wolf, you wouldn't normally think the Puerto Rico primary would be important but because Hillary Clinton is knocking the door, it could be very important.
[19:05:02] And it looks like she's unlikely to get to the magic number tonight which is going to get a lot closer if this lead holds up. Let's look at the results. And that's significant for number of reasons. Again, just 3 percent of the vote is counted. You just heard, maybe they're counting local elections first. But 69 percent, that's a 30.4 percent.
And so, we got right now a healthy Clinton lead. We have to wait. We have to count. But if anything close to this holds up, she'll get 40, maybe 42, somewhere in the ballpark of 40 of the 60 delegates. That won't get her to the finish line, Wolf. But what it will do is, number one, it gives her another win. She would now have 29 wins to 21 for Senator Sanders. Number two, it gets her knocking on the door heading in to the last big Super Tuesday. Puerto Rico is the only contest tonight for the Democrats but we have six big contests on Tuesday, New Jersey, Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, and then the grand daddy of them all,. California. Some 500 delegates at stake there.
Hillary Clinton now can believe with certainty inside her campaign. First, I want to take this away. Let's pull this away for a minute. Here is where she is right now, 1776 to 1501. So 275 pledged delegate lead coming in to tonight. It looks like she's going to have maybe 40 or so. Again, we'll see if the Puerto Rico results change. Very early primarily results, but if she gets a win, she has more there.
And then here is what she's hoping. When you factor this in, 547 superdelegates to 46 for Senator Sanders, Secretary Clinton is going to end the night right up against this line. This is 23 without any delegates from Puerto Rico. If you add 30 or 40 pr more, she's going to be right up against within 20 or so, maybe even under 20 of knocking at that 23, 83, the number you need to clinch. And yes, as the Sanders report say, if these people don't vote for the election just like eight years ago, then Senator Obama has superdelegates on the big final night, they were enough to convince Secretary Clinton, "I can't get there within 48 hours or so in that."
So what does Secretary Clinton hope? To be knocking on the door tonight to send an unmistakable signal tonight out of Puerto Rico that this is soon within her grasps and then to have New Jersey do it on Tuesday night, put her over the top. She's also hoping for wins in New Mexico, in California as well. And California is the biggest price, of course. Can Clinton get the nomination without it? Yes, she can. Would she like to get California to limit Bernie Sanders' leverage going to the momentum, that's part of the big strategy on Tuesday night? But, Wolf, tonight is important because it gives her another win, it gives her another win in a place with a diverse electorate and it's going to hit again right on the threshold of that magic number.
BLITZER: Good analysis. So, John, come over to the table, David Chalian and Nia are still with us as well. David, so if she doesn't go over the top, doesn't clinch it tonight, she's not necessarily going to have to wait for California. Tuesday night, New Jersey on the East Coast, the poll is close there a lot earlier than California. Presumably, she could go over the top after New Jersey closes their polls.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: They do. And the polls that we've seen in New Jersey so far show it to be a contest that she's heavily favored to win and it's one that Sanders really isn't competing in anymore. I mean he really left and just went to California and planted his leg there for the last several weeks. That was the price that they want to leave with, that big, as they call it, the big enchilada of the race.
But, Wolf, you're right. So New Jersey got 126 delegates at stake. If she -- if the polls close and we project a big victory and a slew of delegates can be allocated right and poll close in for her, that couldn't deput (ph) her over before the polls close in California. What they -- what the Clinton campaign -- you know, I talked to people in Brooklyn, the campaign headquarters, about this. What they want to avoid at all cost is having superdelegates be the reason they go over the top.
So if she gets this close as John is talking about tonight, tomorrow, they don't want a bunch of superdelegates coming out saying it's inevitable, here I am, I'm helping to put Hillary Clinton over the top. That is not how they want to do this because they now need to move it to a mode of really trying to woo those Bernie Sanders supporters and they know this is a touchy issue for them and they want to make sure they're doing everything possible to bring them into the fold, A. B, they've set up a really big event on Tuesday night in Brooklyn at the Navy Yard there. And they plan, as you were saying earlier, Nia, to mark this historic moment of the -- you know, if she doesn't dedo (ph) it of becoming the first female presidential nominee of the major party.
BLITZER: Politics, as you know, and all of us know, it sort of like real estate location, location, location. Now, this event that's scheduled for Tuesday night by the Hillary Clinton campaign in Brooklyn outside of her headquarters over there at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, that's going to be an event where she is going to formally say presumably it's over.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. And you know, she could have been in California. That would have been received because it's not clear that she's going to win there. New Jersey, not exactly New York, which of course, is her home state. So she comes to Brooklyn. We expect big speech, big moment to happen on Tuesday. And I think the question is what did Bernie Sanders do? Of course we saw eight years ago, Hillary Clinton to be very magnanimous when she conceded to Barack Obama and she said, "Listen, we have separate path but now we merge." She spoke like a true party person.
[19:10:00] I think the big question about Bernie Sanders is whether or not he has the DNA of the Democratic Party in him. So far, we've seen that he doesn't because he just essentially joined the Democratic Party. I think people are looking to send him signals. But as David said, they have to be careful. They want to alienate Bernie Sanders. They don't want to alienate his supporters. And he's got work to do. I mean Bernie Sanders and his supporters believe this has been a rigged process. That is something that his supporters have said. That is something that his advisors have said. So they got to figure out what is the new narrative of this party to bring it together.
KING: The Clinton people also very much want to use the hours of vote counting Tuesday night to send signals. They want to state, "New Jersey put us over the top. The voters of New Jersey put us over the top." Then as we move west, they will rollout more superdelegates and say, "Look, the party, those who have yet to decide are rallying around Clinton. She's a presumptive nominee." Then they want to win New Mexico and say, "That's usually a swing state of presidential politics. It has a Latino population." She's proven again in the swing states, in the diverse state, she wins. And then what they hope for is the exclamation point. California is a very close race but the Clinton campaign is hoping to win that as well to end the night by saying, "We clinch. We have superdelegates. We won a swing state. We won the biggest state of them all." Kind of a hammer to Senator Sanders to say, "Please, get the message."
BLITZER: And we'll see what happens after that assuming it works out that way. All right, guys, standby, m more coming up. We're continuing to watch the Democratic results from the Democratic presidential primary trickling in from Puerto Rico. They are taking their time counting the ballots right now.
Donald Trump, meanwhile, is trying to unite the Republican Party behind him. He's getting some pushback as we know. Take a closer look at the presumptive Republican nominee's efforts to woo party loyalists plus Donald Trump's fresh new attack ad happen (ph) against the Democratic presidential frontrunner Clinton using her own words against her.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Donald Trump, he's clearly running against Hillary Clinton. Right now, he is presuming she will be the Democratic presidential nominee and is adamant that Senator Bernie Sanders, in the words about Trump's spokesperson, doesn't stand a chance. And watch this, it's the newest television ad produced in support of Donald Trump that puts both Clintons in the crosshairs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[19:15:03] BILL CLINTON, 42ND PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: But, I want to say one thing.
H. CLINTON: We turned over everything.
B. CLINTON: I want you to listen to me.
H. CLINTON: I did not.
B. CLINTON: I did not.
H. CLINTON: I did not send classified materials.
B. CLINTON: Not a single time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: You get the point. Katrina Pierson is the national spokesperson for the Donald Trump campaign. She's joining us now. Katrina, this new add, is this something that the Trump campaign is releasing or is this one of the super PACs supporting him?
KATRINA PIERSON, DONALD TRUMP CAMPAIGN SPOKESWOMAN: No, Wolf, the campaign has not put this out. I do believe this is a pro-Trump super PAC. I'm not even sure which one it is. But I think it is a really goof job at really showing the distinction with Bill and Hillary and the adamant denials and just flat out lying to the face of the American people. And it's just like Hillary Clinton lying to the families of those who have fallen in Benghazi by saying that it started because of some YouTube video. It turns out it was terrorism
BLITZER: I know that during the primary process, Donald Trump railed against the super PACs. But now, he's happy. He's accepting the fact that there are these pro-Trump super PACs out there.
PIERSON: Mr. Trump is still not a big fan of super PACs. However, this is a joint effort with the RNC. Everyone has agreed to get out there and support Mr. Trump because it is going to matter to raise money for down ballot candidates and individuals who want Mr. Trump's support.
BLITZER: I was quoting you earlier when you said that Donald Trump feels strongly obviously that Bernie Sanders right now doesn't stand a chance, in your words, to get the Democratic presidential nomination. So what work is being down inside the Trump campaign, not the super PAC, inside the Trump campaign to try to repair some of the divisions within the Republican Party? It's obviously critical that Donald Trump as the new effective leader of the Republican primary, well, Republican Party assuming he is the Republican nominee. He's got to unite that party.
PIERSON: Yes. So Mr. Trump has committed to do that. And look, Wolf, these divisions in the party did not start when Mr. Trump entered the race back in June. There have been serious divisions in the Republican Party for the last two presidential cycles, mainly because the leadership was not listening to their grassroots. So it's really nice to see a lot of the leadership now embracing Mr. Trump as the nominee to move forward. He's going to continue meeting with leaders. He's going to be addressing the conference at some point and continue to get out there, even campaign for those down the ballot that won his support. I think that's going to go a really long way. BLITZER: In the last hour or so, Donald Trump was very active on Twitter. As you know, he's got 8.5 million followers on Twitter. He tweeted and let me put it up on the screen. He tweeted this, "Hillary Clinton is unfit to be president. She has bad judgment, poor leadership skills and a very bad and destructive track record. Change!" All right, so talk about this tweet, this latest tweet. Who is he appealing to in a tweet like this? Is he trying to expand his base because clearly he's got strong conservative Republican base support? But if he's going to be president of the United States, he's got to really broaden that support.
PIERSON: Well, absolutely. And you know, it was Bernie Sanders at first that Hillary Clinton has bad judgment and Mr. Trump is just reiterating that. And to our earlier discussion today, we talked about Hillary Clinton's temperament and it was actually the National Review and the Washington Post that reported on her violent outburst that she had with stuff at Secret Service. And that was back last October.
So Mr. Trump is right. He's letting everyone know and he aggress with Bernie Sanders when it comes to Hillary Clinton's judgment, whether it's going into to sovereign nations, overthrowing governments, creating vacuums or being a part of the Wall Street corruption. While she's out there talking about education, she was partnering with Wall Street and being a part of a money laundering firm with $55 million going into the organization that was headed by Bill Clinton. Not even that, it's also the prison lobby money that Hillary Clinton has been receiving when we have generations now of minority youth in these private prisons. Hillary Clinton has a lot to answer for. After the conventions, we're going to hold her accountable.
BLITZER: I can see this campaign, if everybody thought it was tough, so far, just wait, it's only about to get tougher on both sides. All right, Katrina, standby, we'll get back to you as well. Coming up, the votes in Puerto Rico, they're being counted as we speak. So far, still only 3 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton has a lead of almost 70 percent to Bernie Sanders' 30 percent. We'll update you on that. Much more right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:23:14]
BLITZER: You know, Hillary Clinton is speaking in event, a community event, taking questions from residents in Vallejo California. What I want to do is listen in a little bit to hear what she's saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
H. CLINTON: We have kind of medicalized all these problems but then we don't have enough medical care. So it's like a catch-22. It's like we can't fund you. You've been in the community. We're very grateful. Thank you very much. We need to fund medical professionals but we don't have enough medical professionals, so people fall between the cracks, right?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Absolutely.
H. CLINTON: Yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The criteria for reimbursement for medical is so strictly with certain requirements and nonprofits struggle in this community because it's so hard to get funding whether it's medical or from foundation. So is there to change the criteria, so what we mean is more into with what they need in the community, then we can serve more people because there's a lot of nonprofits providers in this community. So staying alive, meaning financially, you know, sustainable is such a challenge.
H. CLINTON: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So that's one thing. And then the medical substance abuse and mental health still, you know, have reimbursement rates but we have a lot of people who are what we call carrying dual diagnosis conditions. And sometimes, substance abusers, it's an instant illness and they don't get funding or they don't treatment because they don't have a mental illness attach to it. So if that can be really blended together so that mental health, substance abuse addiction or illness is part of health, it should not be separated.
H. CLINTON: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's all the discussion effectively later. But because we always see mental health as, oh, that's mental health, physical health is a separate entity, a separate funding. The mental illness and mental health ...
[19:25:00] H. CLINTON: It's the body.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's the body.
H. CLINTON: It's the body, above your neck and below your neck. It doesn't really ...
(CROSSTALK)
H. CLINTON: Yeah, absolutely.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I have been an advocate of that because I'm in the mental health.
H. CLINTON: Yeah, yeah.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's the struggle. But things are changing but you're president, it will really change.
H. CLINTON: We're still going to try. We're still going to try.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know you will.
H. CLINTON: And you know, but there is still such a stigma in many of the communities that you've mentioned. If you would tell your friends and your neighbors and your family if you have diabetes but you might not tell if you have depression.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Or bipolar.
H. CLINTON: Or anything else.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
H. CLINTON: And so, we still have not cracked that code about saying, you know, the more we learn about our genetic system, and about environment influences, the more we know that there's all kinds of reasons why people develop certain illnesses or susceptibilities to illness and we've got to end this stigma. And so everybody has to be part of that too.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, we're going to continue to listen to Hillary Clinton. She's taking questions from resident of Vallejo, California, the California primary this Super Tuesday, this coming Tuesday, obviously the last big state with the primary.
We're watching the results coming in right now from the Democratic presidential primary in Puerto Rico. We just heard from the Democratic Party Chairman in Puerto Rico tells us that voter turnouto across the island was higher than expected. The votes from the metropolitan areas including the capital of San Juan, those votes are beginning to be counted right now, 4.5 hours after the polls closed. Only a small trickle of the vote, it's only about 3 percent. You can see the numbers there, 69.3 percent for Hillary Clinton, 30.2 percent for Bernie Sanders.
Meanwhile, I want to hear from Democratic candidate, Senator Bernie Sanders. He's confident that no matter what happens in Puerto Rico, the convention in Philadelphia in July will be, in his word, contested. This is from his speech in Los Angeles yesterday. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: At the end of the nominating process, no candidate will have enough pledged delegates to call the campaign a victory. They will be dependent on superdelegates. In other words, the Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, Bill Press is joining us right now. Hilary Rosen is with us. Scottie Nell Hughes is with us as well. So when he said that -- Donna Brazile is with us, of course, as well. All right, so Bill Press, when he says flatly the Democratic convention in Philadelphia will be a contested convention, will it be a contested convention if after California, after Tuesday night, Hillary Clinton really has the most pledged delegates, the most superdelegates and the most votes by 3 million, at least, going into Philadelphia. Will he still contest the nomination? BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Wolf, I hate to give you a political answer but I think it depends on what your definition of contested is. Let me put it this way, I think what happens -- first of all, the Democratic Party is united. It's going to be more united after the convention. And I think what's going to determine how soon it gets united behind one person, we're going to know on Tuesday. If Bernie Sanders losses in California, I should say, if Bernie Sanders losses California, I think practically, it's all over. If he wins California, I think it's going to take a real shot at those superdelegates.
And then he's going to have to decide, if he sees that the superdelegates are not going to move or not enough of them are going to move, he's going to have to decide whether he endorses Hillary at that point or he wasted a convention and let's them -- he's nominated and then makes it official at the convention. I can tell you, what I recommended, I'm not going to -- I won't tell you what I recommended. I made my recommendation. I think that's up to Senator Sanders. But I do know this. Again, this party is united, united to take back the House, to take back the Senate, to hold on to the White House, and to beat Donald Trump. It's going to -- the only question is who is going to leave that charge. And we'll know it Tuesday or Wednesday or shortly thereafter.
BLITZER: Bill Press is a Bernie Sanders supporter. Hilary Rosen, you are a Hillary Clinton supporter. What do you say?
HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think we need to really focus on the irony here which is that for the last six months, Bernie Sanders has deprived the Democratic establishment. Now, what he is going to be saying and what he said in this interview yesterday is, Forget how the people voted, I want the Democratic establishment, the superdelegates to overturn the wheel of the people and make me the nominee"
[19:30:11] That's just crazy. And anyway you cut it, even if Bernie Sanders wins California, anyway you cut it, if you give all of the superdelegates in those states the Bernie Sanders won to Bernie Sanders, all of superdelegates in the states that Hillary Clinton will have won to Hillary Clinton. She's still the nominee. So, superdelegates are not going to be creating this nominee. So, there's just no rational reason why Bernie Sanders should be out there.
And I just have to respond to one quick thing that he said, which is, "Not up to me, it's up to Hillary Clinton to figure out what to do with my supporters." But he spent the last three months trying to delegitimatize (ph) this exact win by Hillary Clinton. His obligation is going to be to say to his supporters, "Yes, hold her accountable on the issues, but she won fair and square. This was not taken from us. This was one fair and square." That's going to be his obligation.
BLITZER: All right, Donna, on the action to get you to weigh in, you're a superdelegate, you're also the Vice Chair of the Democratic National Committee. You've been neutral in this contest between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. Where do you stand as far as what happens after Tuesday night? DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First of all, for those us who live in the District of Columbia, we're also looking for our day in the sunshine. So Bill Press ...
BLITZER: All right. That's a week from Tuesday.
(CROSSTALK)
BRAZILE: Hillary Rosen, we're all D.C. voters, so let us give out our opportunity. There are 20 delegates stake stick on June 14th.
With that said the last big crop, 82 percent of the delegates have been selected as of today. Next -- in two days, it's very, very important that we have a good voter turnout in New Jersey, New Mexico, California, and in North and South Dakota. It's very, very important. I believe every Americans should have an opportunity to cache his or her ballot and let those votes count.
But at the end of the day, once one of the candidates hit 2383, that's the number, that super -- as well as unpledged, as well pledged delegates were also known as superdelegates but were unpledged. We can make up our minds at any point. We're governors, we're elected officials, we're members of congress, Bernie Sanders is a superdelegate.
Hillary Clinton is not a superdelegate this time because she's not a member of the United State Senate. So, I think it's very important that whenever that member is rich, we will have a nominee, a presumptive nominee of the Democratic Party. That's the way the process work. And as I said before, well, superdelegates, unpledged delegates, we have never overturned the wheel of the voters. And I don't believe will do it this coming week.
BLITZER: Scottie, as you know, if the Democrats can unite, let's say, Hillary Clinton gets the nomination, she gets the Bernie Sanders team on board, she recreates, get very successful Barack Obama coalition. They got to a place-elected president of the United States. That represents a formidable challenge for demand. You want to see as president of United State Donald Trump. How does he deal with that?
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, I think he deals with it because what the keys here is Bernie Sanders' supporters. This now has gotten longer than anybody expected. And I think most spokes new from the very beginning. Bernie had an uphill battle just because Senator Sanders decides to get out the race doesn't mean that his followers were just his passion, I think it a lot of ways, like the Trump supporters who believe that the reason why Bernie has been able to give a challenge is because he's empowered by the people.
So I think right now what you're going to see is you're going to see those folks either deciding as these polls are showing, it's 20 percent of them are either going to support Mr. Trump or going to stay home. Either way that helps the Republican
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: He's going to continue to capitalize on that.
BLITZER: Well, Bill Press, so you're a Bernie Supporter, is that right?
PRESS: No.
BLITZER: The numbers you've seen in 20 percent-- wait a minute. That 20 percent of the Bernie Sanders' supporters will either stay home and not vote or will go to Donald Trump?
PRESS: No, no, no. She's totally wrong. She's got it totally wrong. This attempt for this moral equivalency between the Trump candidacy and the Bernie Sanders' candidacy is going to stop. They are two totally different people and that Bernie Sanders, of course, are passionate about all the things that Donald Trump does not believe him. You know, look, once this is over, Bernie Sanders is going to be taking the lead. He'll be the chief person out there if he's not the nominee against Donald Trump. And so at least at that time, this idea that the Bernie people that are going to flock to Donald Trump is going to fade. They are not because Donald Trump is against everything that Democratic Party has ever stood for and Bernie Sanders is going to take the lead at this time (ph).
HUGHES: I'm sorry, Bill, but the numbers don't lie. That's the exit polls continuously set on--.
PRESS: Oh, goodness.
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: It's already upstage 20 percent and other polls --.
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: Bill, you have -- don't underestimate your own --.
(CROSSTALK)
BLITZER: Hold on, Bill. Hold on.
(CROSSTALK)
BRAZILE: Let the voters decide.
[19:35:00]And let me just say this. I'm the admin of the primary campaign to know that as we begin to close down the Democratic race, we have proportional representation. Everyone deserves an opportunity to have his or her votes counted. That into the day, Democrats will come home, they will come back together.
PRESS: Sure.
BRAZILE: And then we will begin to pivot to reach those independents and those disaffected Republicans because there's so many stakes at this fall. We will have two different victims, tow different candidates. And I'm sure, at the end of the day, the Democratic nominee will win.
BLITZER: Hillary, I want to -- hold on a second. Hillary, I want to play for you a clip. This is Bernie Sanders criticizing the Clinton Foundation. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: Do I have any problem when a sitting secretary of state and the foundation run by her husband collects many millions of dollars from foreign governments, governments which are dictatorships? You don't have a lot of civil liberties or democratic rights in Saudi Arabia. You don't have a lot of respect there for opposition points of view, for gay rights, for women's rights. Yes. Do I have a problem with that? Yes, I do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Speaking with Jake Tapper. So, what's your response as the Hillary Clinton supporter when he has problem that Clinton Foundation was taking money, let's say from Saudi Arabia.
ROSEN: Shame on Bernie Sanders for throwing mud where no facts exist. Here's the issue. The Clinton Foundation, we know about contribution to the Clinton Foundation because they voluntarily disclose every dime they got. When Hillary Clinton was Secretary of State, she held foreign governments accountable on women's rights, on gay rights, on human rights more than any other Secretary of State has ever done.
So, for Bernie Sanders to take those silly Republican talking points and somehow suggests that she was bought off from foreign governments by virtue of Clinton Foundation Support, not true. Those moneys went to poverty programs in certain countries. Period, Hillary separated her Secretary of State duties from that. Shame on Bernie Sanders for throwing us mud the last week of the campaign that he's unfortunately, for him, loosing.
BLITZER: All right. Everybody, hold up. Bill, give me a quick response, so go ahead.
PRESS: I just want to say I'm not tarnishing about Hillary Clinton's reputation here. But I think the question of contributions to American institutions from foreign governments is a legitimate issue and we're all to take a look at.
BLITZER: All right. Everybody, standby, we'll continue our analysis.
Lots of going on. Hillary Clinton, right now, potentially on the brink of mathematically clinching the Democratic nomination. Right now, she has an early lead in Puerto Rico. The votes are coming in but it's still very early. As you can see, only 3 percent of the vote has been counted. Bernie Sanders is valuing the fight on no matter what happens with Puerto Rico. What happens Tuesday in the primaries including in California? More live coverage coming up right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:40:00]
BLITZER: We're continuing to watch results coming in from Puerto Rico's Democratic Presidential Primary. So far, Hillary Clinton has an early lead over Bernie Sanders but it's very clear, still only 3 percent of the vote is in as you can see right there at 69.3 percent for Hillary Clinton, 30.2 percent for Bernie Sanders. Still very, very early.
Meanwhile, we're less than 48 hours away from the last big Primary Day, where it's sagged onto the wire in California. That's the biggest in the Super Tuesday prizes. That's coming up.
Let's turn to our Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny. He's out on the campaign trail right now covering the Clinton campaign. And our CNN Correspondent Chris Frates, he's with the Bernie Sanders campaign.
Jeff, if Hillary Clinton wins at California, how does that change the equation?
JEFF ZELENY, SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, if the Hillary Clinton wins California, that really pours cold water on Bernie Sanders's argument that he should take this all the way to the convention but he can try and convince superdelegates to come over to his side. That really, you know, it weakens that argument. That's one of the reasons that they are trying so hard to, in fact, win California.
Wolf, today, it is a frenzied campaign day. She is making several stops including at coffee shop behind me, I just stepped outside here from inside there. And she's answering questions from voters here, from residence here. But Bill Clinton also is campaigning across the state and so many surrogates from celebrities and others.
So, Wolf, they're trying too close strong and win here in California. And if they would, that certainly answers at least in some respects that Bernie Sanders' argument that he can take this to the convention. Wolf.
BLITZER: Good point. Chris, Bernie Sanders is insisting he's going to keep on fighting until the convention in Philadelphia in July. How, realistic is that?
CHRIS FRATES, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, of course, anything is possible. But at this point, it's really, really unlikely. In fact, even Bernie Sanders can see that he's got an uphill battle here and that's because numbers don't lie. And Hillary has about 500 more superdelegates than Bernie Sanders. Now, Senator Sanders look about 400 of those superdelegates got behind Hillary Clinton before I even got in the race. So, no matter what happens in Tuesday, win or lose, Bernie Sanders is saying he wants the five or six weeks between Tuesday and the convention to change those superdelegates' minds before they vote on the convention in Philadelphia. And the argument he's going to make is that he's a better general election candidate than Hillary Clinton. Here's what he's going to tell the superdelegates.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: It is very clear that Donald Trump's negative ratings are enormously high unprecedented for a major party presidential candidate. And Secretary Clinton's negative ratings are also very, very high.
I think it is important to give the American people a choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
FRATES: Now, before he can make that argument, he really needs to win here in California because it's -- Hillary Clinton has a big night on Tuesday night, which is very possible. It's going to make it difficult for Bernie Sanders. She could come away Tuesday night, the presumptive Democratic nominee. She could win the majority of pledged delegates and she can have more votes than Bernie Sanders.
[19:45:00] And that could put him in the very awkward position of essentially having to make the argument to superdelegates to overturn the wheel of the voters, and that's going to be a really tough argument for him to make.
Now, just this afternoon, he was asked again does he think there's going to be a contested convention and he said absolutely, well, Wolf, as you and I both know after election night, things can change very, very quickly. So, we're going to have to see what happens on Tuesday night and where everything stands on Wednesday, Wolf.
BLITZER: It will be a big day on Tuesday. No doubt about that.
All right, guys, thanks very much.
Earlier results from Puerto Rico as Hillary Clinton up in front right now with the presidential primary but it's still very early, only 3 percent of the vote is in.
Will it come down to Super Tuesday before she can clinch the delegate she needs to get the Democratic nomination for president?
More with our panel right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Former President Bill Clinton is out campaigning for his wife in California ahead of Super Tuesday and he stop at Los Angeles. All right. That was caught a rather testing exchange he had with the Bernie Sanders' supporter. Well, let's look at this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLOP)
B. CLINTON: I don't want to pick a fight but if I were them I'd be screaming too, because if you figured this out, they're toast for Election Day. So have a good time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[19:50:00]
BLITZER: So (inaudible) of that exchange is highlighting just how tense the race is becoming at this critical stage just before the California Democratic Presidential Primary on Tuesday.
Hillary Clinton as of right now, she holds an early lead, very early lead over Bernie Sanders as the votes are being counted in Puerto Rico but still very early. We haven't gotten a new update. Lately, they're taking their time in Puerto Rico.
Right now, if Hillary Clinton does not lock up the nomination tonight, you would have to get all 60 of those Puerto Rico delegates. So, we'll have to wait until Tuesday, Oxnard, California, New Jersey and four other states. Three other states have their contest.
With us now, our panel, once again, David Chalian, Nia-Malika Henderson and John King.
They're taking their time with California and Puerto Rico right now, David Chalian. We've been waiting and waiting and waiting.
CHALIAN: We have been, Wolf. And we continue to wait. We're really waiting for San Juan, a big population center, which is we can get some out of there. We can have a much better sense of whether or not this margin with only 3 percent in is likely to hold or not.
KING: You're maybe right. The Southern California might beat them. That's the race you are going right now. You know, I was going to go back to that Bill Clinton comment you just played. We covered Bill Clinton together, Wolf, a long time ago. And as you know, he likes to speak his mind. As you know, he gets prettify when he's challenged. And, yes, you also very well know, when he gets tired, he tends to be more really to just speak his mind. That's what he thinks about those Sanders supporters.
That is not helpful to his wife, the candidate though, at a time when both Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton are going to have to do some diplomacy. Both Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton are going to have to know and talk to each other and talk to each other's supporter if there's going to be peace and unity in the Democratic Party.
And so, Bill Clinton (inaudible) a few times in 2008, more than a few times in 2008. That became complicated factor in the relationship between Senators Clinton and Senator Obama and -- there he goes again.
BLITZER: You remember South Carolina --.
(CROSSTALK)
HENDERSON: That's right, South Carolina is not helpful at all. That was a real low point in that campaign and, you know, they have to do a lot of repair work after everything was done. Yes, I think Bill Clinton has gone after Sanders' supporters before he's had these sorts of exchanges, where he gets -- yes, where he gets safety (ph). I think we can, you know, believe and know what this one. He will be the peacemaker here. He's not going to be the go between these two campaigns. They got other people to do that, maybe somebody like our President Obama or maybe somebody like Alice Gaffer (ph), but certainly not helpful at this point in terms of bringing these two sides together.
BLITZER: He has been very active about the campaign trail, almost everyday, David. We see Bill Clinton, the Former President, out there campaigning for his wife.
CHALIAN: Yes, when the campaign canceled the New Jersey event for Hillary Clinton last Thursday and had to go back out Western California for five-day swing then they put right after that, Bill Clinton is also going to be in California for five days, not together but sort of they can crisscross the state. You see she's up in Northern California. He's down in Los Angeles today. They position them all over the state for five straight days. You know, we've seen tenser moments than that with Bill Clinton in this cycle with some criminal justice reform reckless matters (ph) folks. So, he is -- that is not the most tense I've seen him throughout but, John, you are right, it is a dismissive missed that at this stage of the game, you want to avoid if you're in the Clinton side (ph).
BLITZER: Let me play a couple of clips, some new ads that have just been released. Pro-Hillary Clinton, pro-Donald Trump. Let's watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
B. CLINTON: But I want to say one thing.
H. CLINTON: We turned over everything.
B. CLINTON: I want you to listen to me.
H. CLINTON: I did not.
B. CLINTON: I did not.
H. CLINTON: I did not send classified materials.
B. CLINTON: Not a single time.
TRUMP: How stupid are the people of Iowa.
This time the Republican frontrunner is accused of mocking a reporter who has a physical disability.
This country is a hell hole.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: It's going to get pretty ugly. Isn't it? HENDERSON: My goodness, I'm glad I don't live in any of the swing's age, because you're right. I mean, these places are going to be flooded with ads.
And I think one of the things we found in the Primary Election was that sometimes these ads didn't really matter, right? I mean, you had all the Super PACs, that's been millions and millions of dollars on ads, pro-Jeb Bush, anti-Donald Trump and it really didn't work. But you do see, I think, these individual campaigns and their Super PACs sharpening the messages. Hillary Clinton is essentially saying Donald Trump is unfit to be president and then Donald Trump is saying, "Listen, we had enough of the Clinton's controversy, surround them everywhere and we don't want more the same."
BLITZER: Yes. He basically says, he says as you've heard lately she should be in jail right now. That's what Donald Trump says about Hillary Clinton.
CHALIAN: He does say that, "You know, it's sort of you're too crazy to hold the office, you're a criminal and shouldn't be there." That's sort of where we are in this election back and forth. But just take note of that that Bill Clinton, Hillary Clinton that this Super PAC is just formed last week $32 million, a seed money, if you will, like out-of-the-gate with the --.
[19:55:00]
BLITZER: The pro-Donald Trump
HENDERSON: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
CHALIAN: Pro-Donald Trump Super PAC that sort of has that asset, blessing of the campaign as a vehicle for people who want to spend big that is a blessed vehicle for the Trump campaign.
And their out-of-the-gate message is this attempt to the character take out on the Clinton's, which is not unlike what we saw the out-of- the-gate message from the pro-Clinton Super PAC. These Super PACs are going to contribute to the high negatives that these two candidates have.
KING: Look, this is not going to be an election about who's got the best social security plan or compare my education program to your education program. These are two campaigns and their friends in the Super PAC community. You understand each is viewed negatively by more than 6 in 10 American voters.
And so the strategy of these campaigns is, you don't like me or you don't like the other one more. And so it's going to be about character and temperament and trustworthiness, much more that it's going to be about policy, sadly.
BLITZER: Yes, it's going to be a tough race going forward, let see what happens tonight. We'll see what happens Tuesday going forward. I think the fighting is going to just get started.
All right, guys, thanks very much, and to our viewers, thanks for joining us for tonight's special election coverage.
Please stay with CNN and CNN.com throughout the night for the latest results from the Puerto Rico Democratic Presidential Primary and it will put you in the CNN Election Center.
"PARTS UNKNOWN" with Anthony Bourdain starts right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:00:00]
