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New Day Sunday

Fire Sweeps Through Upscale Los Angeles Suburb; Clinton Nears Nomination, Puerto Rico Votes Today; Boston Globe: Male Trump Staffers Paid More; Ex-Staffer: Told To "Sell, Sell, Sell" At Trump University; Funeral For "The Greatest" Planned For Friday; Iran Reacts To Muhammad Ali Death; Hillary Clinton Nears Nomination; Interview With Republican Presumptive Nominee Donald Trump; Senator Bernie Sanders Vows To Keep Campaign Going; Remembering Boxing Legend Muhammad Ali. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired June 05, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have had horrible rulings. I've been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now this judge is a Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall, OK, I'm building a wall.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump's not just wrong about Judge Curio, he's wrong about America. He's wrong about what makes this country great.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Democratic national convention will be a contested convention.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We went up to the Ali Center and I walked through there and I had to grab tissues. I started crying. You can't help it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think he would have been a successful athlete in any sport. He was incredibly gifted as an athlete.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Now we are always so grateful to see you especially early in the morning. I'm Christi Paul with --

JOE JOHNS, CNN GUEST ANCHOR: Joe Johns in for Victor Blackwell. And so what are we calling this is the final Sunday before the final Super Tuesday of the primary season.

PAUL: Yes, pretty much. We're going to get to that obviously because there's so much politics to talk about, but we do want to get to first to the breaking news that we are hearing out of California.

I want to show you this video here. A wall of fire and massive flumes of smoke going through an upscale Los Angeles suburb. This is the Calabasas fire. It is burning fast and furious. It's destroyed 500 acres already and it's just 15 percent contained this morning. JOHNS: At least 5,000 people forced to flee the area which is home to celebrities including the Kardashians, Jessica Simpson and Tony Braxton. Authorities say this fire may have started when a pick-up truck hit a power pole.

Now photojournalist, Steve Gentry, is going to join us on the phone from Los Angeles. Steve, you have recorded video of firefighters battling this fire. How serious is the situation from your perspective?

STEVE GENTRY, PHOTOJOURNALIST (via telephone): The situation was very serious. Things here in California, they're very dry, and it doesn't take a whole lot for a fire to get going and spread really rapidly.

At one point the fire was wrecking right up through to the backyards of a lot of the homes and residents in that area to the point where even sheriff's deputies were grabbing fire hoses and using them to fight the fire.

JOHNS: Any sense of how long it's going to take to get this thing under control? And you know, there are several celebrities tweeting about this fire and the evacuations. Do you know where those evacuees are being taken?

GENTRY: As far as I know the evacuation center was at a high school. As for how long, I'm not really a firefighter so I can't tell you, but I would say probably just taking a guess it will probably end up being sometime later this evening that they'll start letting residents back in.

PAUL: Steve, just real quickly. I mean, you've seen so many of these fires. Help us understand how serious this is compared to what you've seen in the past.

GENTRY: Very -- it's very serious. It's very serious any time that you have a fire in residential areas. The first job of a firefighter is to save lives and to save property and they need to be able to do that in a very safe way. And with the conditions throughout California the way they are, the fires are moving much more rapid than they have in the past.

PAUL: Yes. Steve Gentry, we appreciate you being with us, especially so early in the morning as we know it is out there. Thank you for bringing it to us from your perspective. We appreciate your time.

GENTRY: Thank you.

PAUL: Sure. Take care.

GENTRY: You're welcome.

JOHNS: This morning, Hillary Clinton is inching closer to the Democratic presidential nomination. The former secretary of state notching a win overnight in the U.S. Virgin Islands caucuses soundly defeating Bernie Sanders with 84 percent of the vote. Now if we look at the latest delegate count, Hillary Clinton is now just 63 delegates shy of the magic number of 2,383.

PAUL: Today Puerto Rico hold its Democratic primary, 60 pledge delegates at stake there. This tiny U.S. territory could push her obviously to the brink of that nomination.

[06:05:03]She is expected to cross the delegate threshold Tuesday when California and New Jersey head to polls. There are such a significant number of delegates at stake for the Democrats in California.

JOHNS: And what's I think very interesting is the possibility that she could cross the threshold in New Jersey even before the polls close in California. But all speculation at this point.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump says no one respects women more than he does, but a new report shows a troubling pay gap between the sexes.

According to a "Boston Globe" analysis of April's campaign payrolls, Donald Trump's male staffers are paid nearly 6,100 compared to $4,500 for their female counterparts. A 35 percent difference in pay.

The campaign paid staffers on the Clinton side roughly equals amount. Now this latest report coming as the presumptive Republican nominee continues to battle lawsuits claiming his Trump University was nothing more than a scam.

So talk about all of this, we're joined by political editor for rightalerts.com and Donald Trump supporter, Scottie Nell Hughes along with Miami beach mayor and Hillary Clinton campaign surrogate, Philip Levine. Good morning to you both. Thanks for getting up early.

MAYOR PHILIP LEVINE (D), MIAMI BEACH: Good morning.

JOHNS: Scottie, let's start with you. Donald Trump has made his early promotion of women in his construction business a key part of his record. Why let this disparity happen on the campaign? Because it seemingly suggests the way he might compensate employees if he's elected president and he starts staffing the White House.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CHIEF POLITICAL EDITOR FOR RIGHTALERTS.COM: You chose a great word there. It suggests it and that obviously shows that that doesn't mean it's the truth. I think there is a lot of discrepancies within this "Boston Globe" article.

Already even in the numbers that they used (inaudible) have added 60 more staff members since the came out and the data that they analyzed was back in April.

And I think we can all agree that the campaigns, both campaigns have changed since April. But what they did is they compared apples to oranges.

You're sitting here and you are looking at the Clinton campaign that has more than 731 employees at this point compared to Donald Trump who has 113. You have a lot more numbers to work with the average out when we are looking at that. And you have --

JOHNS: Scottie, let me just stop you right there. Right there at the top you said that this was a reflection of April. In other words, the campaign has changed the way it pays women after April?

HUGHES: No, I'm saying that it's added more staff onto it so you can sit there and talk about the averages compared to male compared to women and you can't do that when your numbers are already off.

I mean, 60 more additional staff members on the Clinton campaign obviously changes their numbers as well. Here's what's interesting about this.

Let's talk about Bernie Sanders and this is the real problem. If you look at a gender disparity, it actually sits on the Sanders campaign. The ten highest paid staff members on his campaign are all men.

Women on his campaign even make $1,000 less on average than the men. They're actually in the same kind of numbers and totals than Hillary Clinton.

So you look at Donald Trump, they are looking at his campaign, compared communication versus senior staff which is your campaign manager and your campaign. And you're not comparing the same exact thing.

To sit there and do discrepancy and the reason why this is happening, by the way, is, because Clinton got caught. She got caught when she was paying her Senate staff members, the women, 76 cents to every dollar to men. The Clinton Foundation, the top man makes 218,000 compared to the female, 153,000 today.

JOHNS: OK, let's move on to Trump University. One of that school's top rated instructors, James Harris, told "The Washington Post" I was told to do one thing, to show up to teach, to train, to motivate people, to purchase Trump University products and services.

So "The Daily Beast" has reported that this instructor was a convicted felon. That he never went to college. I think the question arising from that is whether it's sort of plays into the charge that Trump University was shady, the controversy we've been dealing with over the last several days.

HUGHES: Well, it depends if you're looking at it as being shady. I mean, you sit there and you look at the university. Mr. Trump never said that this was an accredited university. This was more like a seminar, a business (inaudible).

And guess what, it was up to these folks. I mean, whoever goes in and blindly trusts a name and puts down a credit card for $35,000 without looking into the instructors themselves? I don't do that when I go into the ballot box and I definitely did not do that with my education.

JOHNS: Wait a minute. You're saying the people who say they were defrauded are, in fact, responsible for whatever it was that happened to them?

HUGHES: You have to sit there and look at responsibility. I mean, it's not like these people immediately went in and put down $35,000. They were up charged. They continued to buy in order to get to these levels.

Now maybe Mr. Trump just hired great salespeople, and you know, that's what it was, it was all about marketing and sales, but the key was we're sitting here showing one side of the story with all of the ones that are part of this lawsuit that are complaining.

[06:10:05]And we're not showing the people that are actually very happy. There's multiples of those. There are numerous ones of those. There's a reason why it has the Better Business Bureau rating. There is a reason why.

Let's talk about those people who are actually happy with their experience at Trump University.

JOHNS: But there are questions. We'll have to debate that another time as to whether these people were sort of under duress when they were filling out their reviews of the course, but let's move on.

Phillip, I want to get to you. Clinton's use of the private e- mail is another continuing controversy we've been dealing with and the server that she used still under investigation.

There is a separate lawsuit, as you know, by Judicial Watch out there, the man who helped set up Clinton's private server, Brian Pagliano just had his deposition delayed so the judge could go over his immunity agreement.

He's expected to invoke his Fifth Amendment right not to testify. It could all end up on video. Potentially yet another problem for Hillary Clinton should that video be made public?

LEVINE: Thank you. Let me address both these points. First of all, you know, regarding Trump University, I'm going to get right into the e-mails. I'm not a supporter of Donald Trump. I have to say this maybe in defense of Donald Trump.

You know, the students that enrolled in Trump University, they really did learn Trump's secrets to success. I mean, think of the courses they took, 101, fraud, 102, misrepresentation. Course number 103, as we know deception, over promising, under delivering.

So the reality is at Trump University, they got his business secrets to success. I just think it's important that we bring that out because that's exactly what they were.

JOHNS: Just to be clear, alleged fraud, alleged misrepresentation --

LEVINE: Alleged fraud. I even heard that Bernie Madoff was one of the visiting professors at Trump University. You have to love those fighting proctors. Getting to the e-mail situation, oh, my God, she used the wrong server. I mean, come on, is that something, which is so horrible and

terrible? Nothing was confidential. We realize that. Everyone was doing the same thing. And of course --

JOHNS: Well, not everybody. Not everybody.

(CROSSTALK)

LEVINE: They all did and everyone used the same service and Colin Powell did, and Condi Rice did, and everyone has --

HUGHES: No.

LEVINE: -- the fact of the matter is that he was granted immunity, it was wonderful. The Clinton campaign is happy that he's testifying. It's important the same thing again, nothing happened. There's nothing there. This is old news we're bringing back again that means nothing.

JOHNS: All right, well, thanks so much. Good to see you all on this early morning and we'll be checking back in with you again. Scottie Nell Hughes and Philip Levine, thank you very much.

HUGHES: Thank you.

JOHNS: And a programming reminder, stay with CNN for Super Tuesday election coverage. That's all day Tuesday right here on CNN.

PAUL: Big public memorial now planned for legendary Muhammad Ali. Our Ryan Young is in his hometown. We're going to see when that's happening. Hi, Ryan.

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. You can see behind me the growing memorial. Ali once said, I wish people would love everybody else the way they love me. It would be a better world. We're seeing how much people love the great superstar. We'll have more coming up on a live report.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAHAMAN ALI, MUHAMMAD ALI'S YOUNGER BROTHER: I'm holding back tears right now. I could cry easily because I have a big heart. I'm a very sensitive man. I've always cried easy and my brother is -- has just passed and I'll never be able to see him in the flesh anymore. So it hurts me bad that I know I can't see my brother.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Thoughts and prayers going out to Muhammad Ali's family as they get ready to say their final goodbyes to the greatest of all time. They're holding a public funeral this Friday in his hometown of Louisville, Kentucky.

The iconic three-time champion died Friday night of septic shock after suffering a respiratory issue earlier in the week. This came after decades of battling Parkinson's disease, of course.

In his final moments, he was surrounded by his wife, by his children, some whispering the last words he'd ever hear in his ear. His daughter Hannah Ali sharing an emotional tweet, "We love you. You can go back to God now."

Ryan Smith is with us live in Louisville with more information on Ali's funeral. You hear that and you just feel for this family.

And people can relate to it because people have had to do it before, but this funeral for him is going to be so profound, is it not, based on even just what we're seeing behind you and the way that it's affected that community you're in.

YOUNG: Well, it really has affected the community. Really it affected the world. You look at the sports world and how they reacted to this. Outside of that, all of the people who dealt with humanitarians for years have talked about what this man meant in terms of how he stood up against injustice.

Look behind me, you see all of these flowers that have been brought out here. In the end, it was raining yesterday. I can tell you people were stopping by. A lot of them wanting to pay their respects to the man they knew so well as someone who stood up not only for this area, but for people all across the world who didn't have a voice that he had.

In fact, Muhammad Ali said at one point, the will must be stronger than the skill and he proved that over and over again. The mayor talking about Ali's life and what it meant to the city.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR GREG FISCHER (D), LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Well, we're a grateful city here and grounded in the value of compassion and this is what we're about, certainly it's what the champ was about as well. He leaves a legacy in the ring, there is no question about that.

But the real legacy is the values that he represented and how he wants us to live going forward. I think, you know, his passing right now, we hate it.

We knew this day was going to come, but for us here in our city of Louisville and around the world, I think the question is what do we do? How do we take up his values?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: We saw hundreds of people showing up yesterday. This funeral on Friday, a lot of people planning to attend. So Christi and Joe, you know the remembrances will not stop for quite some time for Muhammad Ali.

PAUL: Yes, it's going to be I'm sure very comforting for that community, but a huge influx of people I'm sure as well for that memorial. Ryan Young, we appreciate it. Thank you. JOHNS: Coming up, we're going to talk about an American hostage who was held in Iran who was crediting Muhammad Ali with helping to save his life. It's a CNN exclusive.

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[06:23:35]

PAUL: New this morning Iran is reacting to the death of Muhammad Ali calling the world champion a pioneer in racial equality. A spokesman released this statement saying he was not only a famous champion in the area of boxing but also a hero.

JOHNS: That statement comes after the boxer was a dominating voice in the fight to free an American journalist from an Iranian prison. CNN's Jim Sciutto talked exclusively to the now freed "Washington Post" journalist, Jason Rezaian about the moment Ali changed his life.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: We know Muhammad Ali's passion for humanitarian issues span decades and crossed international borders, but here's something you might not know.

In the final months of his life, Ali tried to help free an American journalist imprisoned in Iran. I'm talking about this man, Jason Rezaian. The "Washington Post" Tehran bureau chief who was convicted of espionage in an Iranian court last year in a closed door trial.

It was after his conviction while Jason was holdup in an Iranian prison cell, Muhammad Ali issued a statement directly to Iran, the bottom line message, release Jason.

In it Ali wrote, quote, "To my knowledge Jason is a man of peace and great faith, a man whose dedication and respect for the Iranian people is evident in his work. I support his family, friends and colleagues in their efforts to obtain his release."

Well, Jason Rezaian joins me now for his very first interview since his release. Jason, thank you for taking the time today.

JASON REZAIAN, "WASHINGTON POST": Thanks for having me on, Jim. I really appreciate it.

SCIUTTO: I want to ask you first just how much this statement meant for you, this statement of support, this call for your release from Muhammad Ali.

REZAIAN: I'm just getting chills as I read that again. It meant so much to me at the time. My wife came to visit me, which she was allowed to do fairly rarely, and she told me this, that Muhammad Ali had made this statement.

And I can't tell you, I can't express in words how much it meant to me, continues to mean to me. There were so many calls for my release, so much support, but getting the support of the champ touched me in ways that just still ripple through my life.

SCIUTTO: So, Jason, you say that the prison guards actually found be out about Ali's statement of support and they started treating you differently?

REZAIAN: Yes. I mean, the statement was covered in the Iranian press, as so many things about my imprisonment were, and they started treating me in a better way. I think it brought some doubt to them about the charges against me. Along with that my spirits were lifted and I felt empowered in a way that nothing else -- nothing else lifted me throughout that time.

SCIUTTO: It's incredible that that statement from so far away could reach you inside that prison cell so many thousands of miles away. I wonder if you could describe, you spent a lot of years living in Iran.

Just how important Muhammad Ali was as an American Muslim, an American-Muslim leader, how important that was in bridging our world with a Muslim country like Iran.

REZAIAN: I think as he was in so many countries, Muhammad Ali was somebody that the Iranian people were really drawn to, had been for many years as a sportsman, but also as a Muslim and somebody who was doing great charitable throughout his life. He was everybody's champion just like he was here in America and around the world.

SCIUTTO: So, Jason, you were in that Iranian prison cell until your release for some 545 days. This is the first chance get to talk to you. I know a lot of folks back home just would like to know simply, how are you doing?

REZAIAN: Better and better every day. Appreciate the support of everybody throughout the world and back here in the United States. It's just great to be home and I'm in the process of readjustment. It will still take some time, but by and large I'm feeling really good.

SCIUTTO: We know you're a Warriors fan. We'll root for them as well to help you along the way. Most importantly, thanks for taking the time and we're glad to have you home.

REZAIAN: Thanks so much for having me on, Jim.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: Donald Trump says a judge overseeing a lawsuit against his university is biased because of his Mexican heritage. It's a CNN exclusive you'll hear in his own words.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have had horrible rulings. I've been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall, OK? I'm building a wall.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:06]

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Thirty-two minutes past the hour on this Sunday. I'm Christi Paul.

JOE JOHNS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Joe Johns in for Victor Blackwell.

Hillary Clinton one step closer to clinching the Republican nomination. Overnight she notched a win in the U.S. Virgin Island caucuses. She's now 63 delegates shy of the magic number of 2383.

PAUL: In a few hours polls open in Puerto Rico for its Democratic primary, 60 pledge delegates at stake in the tiny U.S. territory there.

JOHNS: Donald Trump continues to fight off accusations that his attacks on the judge overseeing one of the three Trump University lawsuits are racist.

PAUL: Yes. The presumptive nominee sat down with the "STATE OF THE UNION" host Jake Tapper to talk about those allegations as well as some new attacks by Hillary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Hillary Clinton was giving a speech. She had some very tough things to say about you.

One of the things she said --

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE NOMINEE: She wasn't giving. She was reading a speech that was written by other people. OK? But go ahead.

TAPPER: OK.

TRUMP: Sound bites.

TAPPER: One of the things she said was, this is not someone who should have the nuclear codes. It's not hard to imagine Donald Trump leading us into war because someone got under his very thin skin.

What's your response to that?

TRUMP: Well, first of all, I don't have thin skin. I have very strong and very thick skin.

And when somebody writes about me I always, you know, if you do a report and it's not necessarily positive -- but you're right, I never complain. I do complain when it's a lie or when it's wrong, but I have a strong temperament and it's a very good in-control temperament. Or I wouldn't have built this unbelievable company or I wouldn't have done all of the things I was able to do in life. I mean, number one bestsellers -- one of the bestselling books of all time, tremendous television success.

TAPPER: I don't think anyone --

TRUMP: I've been success -- wait a minute, Jake. I've been successful in every business I've been in if you think, real estate, one of the most successful. Television, "The Apprentice" which is -- forget it. I mean, NBC came to me they wanted to renew so badly you have no idea.

TAPPER: What does that have to do with temperament? You're very successful. There's no question.

TRUMP: You can't have that success without good temperament.

And I will say this. I was thinking about the word temperament and we need a strong temperament in this country. We have been led by weak people, weak ineffective people. Countries have taken advantage of us, whether it's militarily or otherwise. We have been taken advantage of by everybody. We have people with weak temperaments.

I have a very strong temperament but I have a temperament that's totally under control. And you know, she mentions that I'll bring us into war. She's the one that wanted to go into Iraq. I mean, she raised her hand. She didn't know what the hell she was doing. She raised her hand. I said, I don't want to go into Iraq. Iraq is going to destabilize the Middle East and I was 100 percent right.

TAPPER: I want to ask you about comments you made about the judge in the Trump University case.

TRUMP: Sure.

TAPPER: You said that you thought it was a conflict of interest that he was the judge because he's of Mexican heritage, even though he's from Indiana.

TRUMP: (INAUDIBLE).

TAPPER: Hillary Clinton said that that is a racist attack on a federal judge.

[06:35:00]

TRUMP: Oh, you know, she's so wonderful. You know, I mean, here's a woman that should be put in jail for what she did with her emails and she's commenting on this.

TAPPER: But what about --

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Let me just tell you -- let me tell you (INAUDIBLE). I have a case where thousands of people have taken this course and thousands and thousands of people have said great reviews, great reviews. Fortunately, just about everybody that took the courses have signed a review, an evaluation, they call it. And it has gotten tremendous marks. Thousands -- I don't mean like two people, I mean, thousands of people.

TAPPER: Right.

TRUMP: OK. I have a situation where the woman that brought the case brought the case. She was the plaintiff. She was deposed. She was found to be a disaster for them as a witness, because she gave an evaluation that was like the best evaluation you've ever heard -- wait just a second.

TAPPER: OK.

TRUMP: And she did a tape like from your camera saying that this school was fantastic. It was fantastic.

They went to the judge and they said, your honor, we don't want her anymore to be our plaintiff. So we said, let's dismiss the case. That's OK. Let's dismiss the case. And he said, no, I won't dismiss the case and she doesn't have to be the plaintiff.

TAPPER: But what does that have to do with his heritage?

TRUMP: I'll tell you what it has to do. I have had ruling after ruling after ruling that's been bad rulings, OK?

I've been treated very unfairly. Before him we had another judge. If that judge was still there, this case would have been over two years ago.

Let me just tell you, I have had horrible rulings. I've been treated very unfairly by this judge. Now this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall. OK? I'm building a wall.

I am going to do very well with the Hispanics, the Mexicans (INAUDIBLE) --

TAPPER: So no Mexican judge could ever be involved in a case that involves you?

TRUMP: No, he's a member of a society where, you know, very pro- Mexico and that's fine. It's all fine. But I think --

TAPPER: Except that you're calling into question his heritage.

TRUMP: I think he should recuse himself.

TAPPER: Because he's a Latino?

TRUMP: Then you also say does he know the lawyer on the other side? I mean, does he know the lawyer, the -- you know, a lot of people say yes. I don't know.

TAPPER: But I'm not talking about that. I'm talking about the --

TRUMP: Well, no, that's another -- that's another problem.

TAPPER: But you're invoking his race when talking about whether or not...

TRUMP: Here's what I'm (INAUDIBLE) --

TAPPER: ... he can do his job.

TRUMP: Jake, I'm building a wall. OK?

I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico. Mexico is fine. There's nothing --

TAPPER: But he's American. He's an American.

TRUMP: The Mexican -- he's of Mexican heritage and he's very proud of it, as I am where I come from, my parents.

TAPPER: But he's American. You keep talking about...

TRUMP: Jake -- Jake -- Jake --

TAPPER: ... it's a conflict of interest because of Mexico.

TRUMP: Are you ready?

I have a case that should have been dismissed already. I have thousands of people saying Trump University is fantastic. OK? I have a case that should have been dismissed. I have a judge that never ever gives a (INAUDIBLE). Now, we lose the plaintiff -- he lets the plaintiff of the case out. So why isn't he canceling the case? So we thought we won the case.

TAPPER: So you disagree with his rulings.

TRUMP: No, no.

TAPPER: I totally understand that. But you're --

TRUMP: No. Not me. I've had lawyers come up to me and say, you are being treated so unfairly. It's unbelievable.

TAPPER: Isn't --

TRUMP: You know the plaintiffs in the case have all said wonderful things about the school and they're suing.

You know why they're suing? Because they want to get their money back.

TAPPER: I don't really want to litigate the case of Trump University. What --

TRUMP: You have to because if he was giving me fair rulings, I wouldn't say that.

TAPPER: My question is --

TRUMP: But, Jake... TAPPER: Yes?

TRUMP: ... if you were giving me fair rulings, I wouldn't be talking to you this way. He's giving me horrible rulings --

TAPPER: But I don't care if you criticize him. That's fine. You can criticize every decision. What I'm saying is if you invoke his race as a reason why he can't do his job --

TRUMP: I think that's why he's doing it.

TAPPER: But --

TRUMP: I think that's why he's doing it.

TAPPER: When Hillary Clinton says it's a racist attack --

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton is a stiff. If Hillary Clinton becomes president -- I mean --

TAPPER: But Paul Ryan today said he didn't care for the way that you were attacking this judge.

TRUMP: Look, I'm just telling you, Paul Ryan doesn't know the case. Here's the story.

TAPPER: Isn't it the definite --

TRUMP: I should have won this case on summary judgment. This is not a case -- this is a case I should have won on summary judgment. You know the law firm paid Hillary Clinton hundreds of thousands of dollars to make speeches. Do you know the law firm --

TAPPER: I do. And we've reported it.

TRUMP: Oh, you do?

TAPPER: We've reported it on my show in fact.

TRUMP: OK. I'm glad. You're the only one.

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: Wait a minute. The law firm paid hundreds of thousands of dollars to Hillary Clinton for speeches.

TAPPER: Before either of you were running for president.

TRUMP: She wasn't working. Everybody fell asleep during the speech.

TAPPER: Before either of you were running for president they did. But here's the -- just the fundamental question.

TRUMP: Do you know that they've contributed tremendous amounts of money to her campaign?

TAPPER: Yes.

TRUMP: Do you know they've contributed a lot of money to Eric Schneiderman, the New York attorney general?

TAPPER: Here is my question.

TRUMP: No, no. Do you know that?

TAPPER: I did not know that.

TRUMP: Do you know that these people went to every attorney general practically in the country that they could? And do you know this case was turned down by almost every attorney general, from Texas to Florida to many of these states?

TAPPER: Is it not, when Hillary Clinton says this is a racist attack and you reject that, if you are saying he can't do his job because of his race, is that not the definition of racism?

TRUMP: No, I don't think so at all.

TAPPER: No?

TRUMP: No. He's proud of his heritage. I respect him for that.

TAPPER: But you're saying he can't do his job because of that.

TRUMP: Look, he's proud of his heritage, OK. I'm building a wall. Now, I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics.

TAPPER: He's a legal citizen --

TRUMP: You know why I'm going to do well with Hispanics? Because I'm going to bring back jobs and they're going to get jobs right now. They're going to get jobs. I think I'm going to do very well with Hispanics.

But we're building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico. The answer is, he is giving us very unfair rulings, rulings that people can't even believe. This case should have ended years ago on summary judgment. The best lawyers -- I have spoken to so many lawyers, they said this is not a case, this is a case that should have ended.

TAPPER: I have --

TRUMP: This judge is giving us unfair rulings.

Now I say why?

[06:40:01]

Well, I want to -- I'm building a wall. OK? And it's a wall between Mexico, not another country --

TAPPER: But he's not -- he's not from Mexico. TRUMP: In my opinion...

TAPPER: He's from Indiana.

TRUMP: ... he is -- his Mexican heritage. And he's very proud of it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL: And programming reminder for you reminder for you, Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will all be guests on "STATE OF THE UNION" with Jake Tapper this morning at 9:00 a.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

JOHNS: And speaking of Bernie Sanders, why he insists he still has a shot at beating Hillary Clinton for the nomination.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

PAUL: Hillary Clinton is on the brink of clinching the Democratic nomination. But Senator Bernie Sanders is vowing to keep his campaign going all the way to the party convention.

Sanders is barn storming the Golden State this weekend ahead of Tuesday's primary. Yesterday he rallied with thousands of supporters in front of the Los Angeles Coliseum. You see him here. Earlier he insisted to reporters that neither candidate would reach the magic number of delegates after the primary has ended.

(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 upon super delegates. In other words, the Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: All right. He explained it there that pledged delegates was the key word.

[06:45:02]

CNN political commentator Marc Lamont Hill is here with us. Good morning. Marc is also a professor at Morehouse College I should point out.

So, let me ask you a question because this whole thing about pledged and superdelegates that come into play we know that he's right in a sense. If you take the superdelegates out of it, Hillary Clinton would not reach that magic number.

Why is it that we include superdelegates when essentially they haven't officially voted yet?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there are two different readings of that question. The -- one answer, the most optimistic and fair-minded interpretation is that these superdelegates have, in fact, said unofficially who they're leaning towards or who they're going to choose. And because they've done that we can quite reasonably say, hey, therefore, Hillary Clinton or therefore Bernie Sanders.

And so we want to get a sense of where we are overall so that we don't walk into a convention thinking that it's far closer than it is. So if 500 superdelegates say, we want Hillary Clinton and they've indicated that early on, even though they can change their minds, it makes sense.

The more critical or cynical analysis would be that it's our way of making people feel as if the race is over when it's not. And when we say Bernie Sanders is down by, you know, 800 delegates or 600 delegates, whatever the number might be on a given day what we're actually doing is making voters think that the race is over and they stay home or they choose Hillary Clinton because they think it is a done deal.

And what we actually do is undermine the Democratic process. That's what Bernie would likely say. So there's two ways of reading this but either way the race is much closer than people want to suggest.

PAUL: So, how probable is it, do you think, that any of the superdelegates or enough of them could throw this whole nomination process up in the air and switch to Bernie?

HILL: It's plausible but only under very particular circumstances. It would take a huge gaffe. It would take a scandal. It would take an unfortunate illness. It would take something that would force superdelegates to radically reassess the situation. (INAUDIBLE).

PAUL: Let me ask you this. What if something happens with the email controversy? Is that enough to make people change their minds?

HILL: I mean, I think those -- absolutely. It could be depending on what we know. But we know a great deal about Hillary Clinton's emails and superdelegates had to make a different choice. I think it would take something extraordinary. Because remember the superdelegates aren't (ph) every day voters.

These are party (INAUDIBLE). These are insiders. These are members of congress. These are people who have been appointed off to (INAUDIBLE) back Clinton or Obama presidencies. And as a result they're very much weighted (ph) to the person they've chosen. There are essentially --

(CROSSTALK) PAUL: Is that a problem the fact that they are officials who are elected, people who are considered to be inside the beltway and in the system? Is it a problem -- enough of a problem, I should say, because essentially when you think about it, Marc, you have the Republicans or many Republicans criticizing the protocol for the elections. You have got the Democrats now doing the same thing, is it possible that there could be a modification to the protocol from which we work from for the next election? Not this one obviously.

HILL: Obviously. Obviously. Yes. I would say it's unlikely.

And the reason I say that is there are -- there are Democrats who point to the Republican nominating process right now and say if they had superdelegates, Donald Trump wouldn't be the nominee. Because the race was just close enough that if 600 of those people were superdelegates, party insiders, they wouldn't have selected Donald Trump. They would have selected someone else to be the party nominee.

So, in many ways the Republican process sort of confirms the legitimacy of the superdelegate process. Now, I would argue that the superdelegate process is troublesome. It began a few decades ago. The premise was that voters make the wrong choices. That voters keep choosing nominees that can't win general elections.

And so if the race is close, that 15 percent or so should be decided by people inside the party who ostensibly know better. I don't agree with that. I think it undermines democracy. But the fact that Hillary Clinton is Bernie Sanders in their mind is likely evidence that it works because they think Hillary has better chance of winning than Bernie Sanders. I think they're wrong. But that is the argument.

PAUL: But that is the argument. You're right. And a lot of people are making it.

I want to real quickly -- (INAUDIBLE) have about a minute left. A new USC LA Times poll shows Clinton and Sanders in a dead heat among all eligible voters in the California Democratic Primary

Now she is expected to take New Jersey and, therefore, hit that number. If she takes New Jersey, does California -- how much does California matter at that point?

HILL: Well, again, if we're talking -- if we're talking, you know, superdelegates who have already committed, it doesn't matter. Hillary Clinton crosses the threshold in New Jersey so we know superdelegates stay where they are. But it doesn't look good to lose California particularly when you had such a (INAUDIBLE) -- at one point a 16 or 18-point lead. If you lose California it looks like she's on a dog fight in her own primary which is not a look -- looking towards the general. It only emboldens Donald Trump. It undermines her ability to pivot to the general and it doesn't do much for party solidarity.

Bernie is going to take this to the convention because he believes in it and it's going to be trouble for Hillary Clinton. [06:50:02]

PAUL: All right. Marc Lamont Hill, always appreciate your thoughts. Thank you for being here.

HILL: Pleasure.

JOHNS: A lot of politics today but we continue to keep our eye on the memorials that pour in over the passing of Muhammad Ali and the reactions, including from his son-in-law who fought in the UFC bout last night, Coy Wire has the details. Coy?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Joe, less than 24 hours after the family lost the great Muhammad Ali, he walks into the arena where his father-in-law once fought to try to represent the family well. We'll talk about it coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHNS: Game two of the NBA finals tonight and the NBA plans to honor Muhammad Ali with a moment of silence.

Coy wire is here talking about that. They almost -- they can't. They cannot --

(CROSSTALK)

WIRE: Yes, you have to, right? It will be a special moment for sure.

And yesterday we had two of the greatest basketball players on the planet have some strong words about the greatest Muhammad Ali. Here they are.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEBRON JAMES, CAVALIERS FORWARD: For an athlete like myself today, without Muhammad Ali I wouldn't be sitting up here and talking in front of you guys. I wouldn't be able to walk in restaurants. I wouldn't be able to go anywhere where blacks weren't allowed back in those days because of guys like Muhammad Ali.

STEPHEN CURRY, WARRIORS GUARD: Ali was the example of how you use you platform and speak what you believe no matter what people say. He gives, you know -- look at him as a sense of confidence in that regard for sure.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:55:00]

WIRE: Two of the greatest with strong words about the greatest. Curry's Warriors have a 1-0 lead over Lebron's Cavs. They host game two tonight back at Golden State there at 8:00 Eastern. We'll see how this plays out. Tweet us @NewDay let us know if (ph) you think the cast can get it done. Now check out this story. Less than a day after Muhammad Ali's death, his son-in-law steps inside the Octagon at UFC 199 last night and he (ph) fight (ph) -- Kevin Casey married to Ali's daughter, Hannah. You can't imagine what this must be like, guys, to have -- what's going through your mind. You have your wife's father who's not just your average ordinary father pass away and you try to get your mind right to fight less than 24 hours later.

To make it even more emotional though this UFC event was in Casey's hometown of Inglewood, California. And he just happens to be fighting there for the first time ever in front of a hometown crowd and this is in the Forum where Ali had fought in 1973 beating Ken Norton to regain his heavy weight title championship. So imagine that.

His daughter Hannah tweeted that I know my father's spirit is with you. She didn't make it to the fight, but afterwards Kevin Casey said it's nice, that he's going to be in the hospital for two days for dehydration but kudos to him to show that fighting spirit that his father-in-law showed for so many years and went out there and continued to fight.

PAUL: That is strength.

JOHNS: Yes. I would imagine Ali would have told him to go to the fight.

WIRE: That's exactly right.

JOHNS: You bet.

PAUL: Coy, thank you.

WIRE: You're welcome.

PAUL: Appreciate it.

Well this morning, Hillary Clinton, she almost had Democratic nomination locked up, some would say. Bernie Sanders would say, not so fast. He is vowing to take his fight all the way to, as he calls it, a contested convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I have had horrible rulings. I've been treated very unfairly by this judge.

Now, this judge is of Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall. OK? I'm building a wall.