Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Frontrunners Win Big in Northeastern States. Aired 2-3a ET

Aired April 27, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:14] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to this very special edition of EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, April 27th. It is 2:00 a.m. in the East.

It was a huge night for the frontrunners in both parties. A wicked huge night for Donald Trump, who swept all five states overnight and did it by huge margins. He got more than 55 percent in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Rhode Island. Results that have Trump ready to crown himself as the Republican nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I consider myself the presumptive nominee, absolutely.

Senator Cruz and Governor Kasich should really get out of the race. They have no path. Honestly, they should get out of the race, and we should heal the Republican Party and bring the Republican Party together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton dominated Super Tuesday but didn't quite sweep the board, losing Rhode Island to Sanders by 12 points.

For the very latest on the overnight vote count, I want to bring in CNN politics reporter MJ Lee.

Good morning. Good night. Good morning.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, guys. You're right, John. This was a very, very big night for Donald Trump. He swept the board, winning all five states that held contests tonight. Those states were Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Rhode Island. And his win was so impressive not only because he won all of the states but because he won so decisively in all of the states. In two of the states, he actually won more than 60 percent or more of the vote.

Let's take a look at his margins. In Connecticut, he won 57 percent of the vote. Delaware, 60 percent. Maryland, 54 percent. Pennsylvania, 56 percent. And Rhode Island, 63 percent. Now all of this means that he's taken a big step towards that magic

number of 1237 delegates. Tonight, Donald Trump picking up 142 delegates, and here is where the delegate race stands now. Trump now has 951 delegates, and Cruz has 566 delegates. And Kasich is way behind at 152 delegates.

Now on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton also had a very good night. She won four of the five Democratic contests that were held tonight. Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, and Pennsylvania, losing just the state of Rhode Island to Bernie Sanders.

Now in three of the states, she won by very healthy margins as well. In Connecticut, you see here, Maryland, 63 percent. Pennsylvania, 56 percent. Connecticut, she won by a 51 percent of the support. And then in Rhode Island, Sanders won with 55 percent of the vote.

Now with these victories, Clinton also grew her delegate pile as well. On Tuesday she picked up 214 delegates, bringing her to a total of 2,168. You can see Sanders is a very far behind.

Now both Trump and Clinton are clearly pivoting to the general election in both of their victory speeches. We heard some of what Trump had to say. Let's take a listen to what Hillary Clinton had to say about Bernie Sanders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Whether you support senator Sanders or you support me, there is much more that unites us than divides us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: So clearly this is a Hillary Clinton that is now starting to reach out to Sanders' supporters and saying, come on board to my train.

ROMANS: Very interesting. All right. MJ Lee, very big night.

Joining us to discuss all of this -- MJ, sticks with us. She's our CNN politics reporter. Ron Brownstein, senior editor for "The Atlantic," Angela Rye, former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Dylan Byers, CNN senior media and politics reporter.

The dream team, you guys, to unpack what happened last night.

BERMAN: We would rather be dreaming and sleeping. That may be more accurate.

ROMANS: Maybe. Maybe. But let's go with it. Let's talk, Ron Brownstein, about Donald Trump and this coalition he has built of support. It was there in full force last night. He now needs 50 percent of the delegates from here on out to clinch the nomination.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: This continued what we saw in New York. It was an absolute breakthrough night for Donald Trump. You know, up until New York, he had not reached 50 percent of the vote in any contest. Now he's reached it in six straight. And not only was there depth of these victories as MJ was talking about, the size of them, it was the breadth of them. He did better than we have seen him do in the exit polls in any state now. In New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Maryland, those are now his four best states among women, among men, among Republicans, among voters without a college degree, and they tie for his best state among voters with a college degree.

[02:05:13] So we saw many of the groups that had been resisting Trump basically break toward Trump. Now was this just a regional phenomenon or was this really the beginning of the end of the resistance? We'll get a better idea in Indiana, but it sure felt like the walls crumbling among the forces in the party resisting Trump tonight.

BERMAN: Angela Rye, does it feel like that on the Democratic side of the race? Hillary Clinton, she took four out of five. Pennsylvania being the biggest. Maryland, also impressive margins. You know, we saw a concession statement, an e-mail from Bernie Sanders which was more conciliatory than we've seen before. He talked about running an issues-based campaign from here on out, amassing enough delegates to influence the platform but didn't really talking about beating her anymore.

ANGELA RYE, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS: Well, yes, I think part of what you're seeing, John, is a Bernie Sanders that we saw at the beginning. Bernie Sanders, the initial candidate, was one who was running an issues-based platform, one that would strive to take the Democrats a little bit further left from the outside in, no pun intended, as the independent there. But I also think it's really, really interesting that for a long time and given all of the rhetoric from Bernie Sanders' supporters on Twitter, some of his surrogates, it was sounding like Bernie Sanders was in it for the real win.

He won eight out of the last nine contests before tonight, and so it seemed like there was momentum on his side. The problem was the math never supported that momentum, math being the number of people who were voting for him. So tonight the reality set in that, yes, it looks like Hillary Clinton was the frontrunner that she'd always been touted to be. And this is going to make a Bernie Sanders victory and nominee -- Bernie Sanders as the nominee very, very challenging.

And I think that he is back to what he initially was striving for, and that is to influence the Democratic platform at the convention and beyond.

ROMANS: Dylan Byers, clearly a lot for these frontrunners to celebrate last night. Your headline from the action last night?

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR MEDIA AND POLITICAL REPORTER: My headline would be that this race is over, and the only reason that we're not calling it over is the fact that, you know, the conventional wisdom has been upended so many times in this race, I think we have a lot of caution about declaring this thing over before it's over. But look, Hillary Clinton now is effectively the Democratic nominee. It's nearly impossible to see a Bernie Sanders -- of course even Sanders is acknowledging that, you know, he wants to run an issues-focused campaign.

He's really looking to advance his agenda at the convention, and I think even beyond. I think during the tenure of a Hillary Clinton presidency. And then on the Republican side, you know, I think it's exactly the same thing. Ted Cruz obviously needs to win Illinois. It's OK --

BERMAN: Indiana. Right.

BYERS: Sorry, Indiana. It's OK for him to lose the northeast if he had won the south, and he didn't win the south. So it's very hard to see now, short of, you know, a huge surge in both Indiana and then California, how he can win this.

BERMAN: You know, Ron Brownstein, what you hear from Ted Cruz supporters, and we hear it all night, is that, you know, the northeast and the Eastern Seaboard was always going to be fertile territory for Donald Trump.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BERMAN: But it's not just that he won. It's the margins in which he did.

BROWNSTEIN: Right.

ROMANS: Yes.

BERMAN: He didn't lose a congressional district. He didn't lose a county.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BERMAN: He lot merely a handful of towns. A few towns in five states, Ron.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes, it was overwhelming. I mean, you know, as we said, I mean, if you look at it, you look at it geographically, it was overwhelming. If you look at it demographically, it was overwhelming. I mean, women, college-educated Republicans, they have been the most resistant to Donald Trump, and he put up his best numbers anywhere among them.

Just as importantly, John, we saw the limits of the Ted Cruz campaign, you know, reaffirmed here. I mean Ted Cruz, the initial promise of his campaign was that he was not going to be Rick Santorum. He was not going to be Mike Huckabee. He was not going to be just a creature of evangelical Christians. He was going to bring together those evangelical social conservatives with economic conservatives.

Well, tonight, among voters who are not evangelicals, it's showing in all three states with exit polls, was 16 points or less. 60 percent or less. He has now through all of the contests won voters who are not evangelicals in just one, Wisconsin. And that is, you know, a challenge. I mean, you simply -- it's simply too narrow a base ultimately on which to an Indiana now, a do or die state for him, and it is similar to Missouri but tougher in that evangelicals will probably be an even smaller share of the electorate than they were in Missouri whereas you remember Donald Trump won by 2,000 votes in the end.

So he's got to make a stand on terrain that is not ideal for him. But, again, it is because his coalition is ultimately been too narrow to truly challenge for the nomination at this point.

ROMANS: You know, Angela, it was interesting last night, Hillary Clinton talking about how we have to be dreamers and doers. You can hear her taking some of the progressive aspiration from Bernie Sanders and talking about how she can get things -- she can get things done. Do you think that she will start to continue to tweak her language? Does she need to continue to reach out to those Bernie supporters as she pivots to the general?

[02:10:03] RYE: She absolutely has to reach out to Bernie supporters, and I would honestly say she's got to do a whole lot more than reaching out. Hillary Clinton earlier on in this primary --

(VIDEO PROBLEM)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:16:19] BERMAN: Donald Trump loves to tell the country that we're going to start winning again. Last night, he did that. He swept all five, you know, northeastern and mid-Atlantic states, and that could explain the smile on our next guest's face. We'll get to him in a moment.

Let's talk about the delegates right now. CNN estimates that Donald Trump picked up 142 delegates last night. 142. Ted Cruz and John Kasich picked up five each. Now this does include unbound delegates from Pennsylvania who tell CNN how they're going to vote. So an impressive vote haul for Donald Trump. It puts him at 988. That is his biggest lead to date over Ted Cruz. More than 400 delegates ahead of Ted Cruz and really just a little more than 250 or about 250 away from securing the nomination.

Joining us now is Andy Dean, a Donald Trump supporter, former president of Trump Productions. And as we predicted, he would be smiling.

Andy Dean, your thoughts on last night's big wins for Donald Trump?

ANDY DEAN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: This is very exciting. It seems like the dream has now become a reality. The American people over the past couple of months have decided that Donald Trump is the candidate. He is the guy. And I think tonight we won over not only the American people, but the TV pundit class who has been doubting Donald Trump. And whether you were talking to a liberal pundit or a conservative pundit on TV tonight, they all realize that Donald Trump is going to be the nominee. And then one thing on Cruz and Kasich, they have this alliance

supposedly, kind of this sad, last-ditch, pathetic alliance. And if you add up Cruz's vote total plus Kasich's vote total in every single state tonight, when you add them together, they don't even come close to Donald Trump. So you can have an alliance of these two weaker candidates, but together they're no match for Donald Trump. So it's exciting.

ROMANS: So last night you think was the death knell of any kind of stop Trump at a contested convention. You think that last night solidified your guy's role as the nominee?

DEAN: Yes. I think that this Cruz-Kasich alliance was kind of a last-ditch effort. It speaks of desperation and when the American people found out about it, they thought it smelled funny. It just -- it didn't feel quite right. And then with the momentum coming out of winning five states with a 55 percent margin or better across the board, it's Trump's. I think he's either going to get above 1237 or be so darn close that the Pennsylvania unbound delegates will bring him over the hump. So this is an exciting night. It's a big night.

BERMAN: Andy, I want to ask you something about what Donald Trump said last night. Part of his speech. He was talking about Hillary Clinton. He went after Hillary Clinton pretty hard. He said that if she were not a woman, if she were a man, she wouldn't even be getting 5 percent in the polls. Why do you think he said that, and do you think that's an effective message for Donald Trump?

Look, he lost Wisconsin, and he had all kinds of problems with statements and tweets, and things he had said about women. Do you think that was wise for him to stay on stage last night?

DEAN: Sure. So, John, when Trump said that it's important to, you know, give the context, which I'll do. Trump came out to give his victory speech. It lasted, you know, 10, 15 minutes. And then he asked for any questions from reporters. And he sat there for almost half an hour answering questions from reporters after an election win, which you never see any other candidate have the courage or the boldness to do that.

And the question that was asked was Hillary Clinton playing the gender card and calling Donald Trump sexist, and his response was to Hillary Clinton calling Donald Trump sexist or whatever, maybe, you know, one day Donald Trump is sexist, the next day he's racist. But the American people are too smart for that. They read through it. They realize that Donald Trump is not a sexist or a racist. He's got a good heart and at the end of the day, the people are going to see that.

And so this micro-aggression politics that liberals try to play that we all need to be in a safe space, and we can't say anything that's out of political correctness bounds.

[02:20:09] That's not what Donald Trump is. He never will be. And I think that's why the American people like him for that. ROMANS: Andy, what kind of candidate are we going to see going

forward? Are we going to see what this sort of tweaked team and now these big decisive victories, you know, that wind in his sails? What kind of different candidate Trump are we going to see in the days ahead, do you think, or we won't?

DEAN: Sure. Great question. So, Christine, I think Trump has been running this campaign like he runs his business, and he's been doing it in a smart fashion. He spent a lot less than all of his opponents. You look at Jeb Bush, who spent over $100 million down the drain. I feel terrible for his donors. I mean Donald Trump ran a very thrifty campaign, and now we're at the stage where he's the presumptive nominee. He's got to expand the tank. He's hiring more people. Like Paul Manafort, he's getting us ready for a general election campaign.

So like any smart business person, when circumstances change, the team around you needs to evolve. And that's a good thing, and I think the media thinks that that is a sign of infighting. It's not. It's a business person preparing for the next step to win the general election. So the team is growing, the team is evolving.

And as far as Donald Trump the person, I think you're going to see the exact same person, somebody who is not going to, you know, back down from a fight and somebody who is going to stand up but more importantly talk about jobs because when it's Trump versus Clinton, Trump is the only one who has run businesses. He's the only one who knows how to deal with China. Hillary Clinton hasn't run a business before. I mean, she's been in politics before --

BERMAN: She was secretary of state. I mean, she dealt with China directly as secretary of state, though, Andy.

ROMANS: Right .

BERMAN: But --

DEAN: Yes. Politically, politically but not business-wise. That's correct.

ROMANS: All right. Andy, stick with us here for a minute. I want to bring back our panel. We're just joined now by CNN Politics reporter Tal Kopan.

Good morning, Tal. Welcome to our big bunch of awesome analysis the morning after, the night of. What's your headline from last night, Tal?

TAL KOPAN, CNN DIGITAL POLITICS REPORTER: Well, it looks like a contested convention might be a little less likely.

DEAN: That's all you need from me?

BERMAN: No, Andy, stick around.

ROMANS: Stick around, Andy. We want to keep you there. We're going to get some analysis from Tal. She was watching the race last night, too. Go ahead, Tal.

DEAN: Sorry. I can't hear in my ears. So we're on TV right now? OK. Yes.

ROMANS: You're on TV. Big smile on your face.

DEAN: I love it.

ROMANS: Go for it, Tal.

DEAN: OK. Good.

ROMANS: Pick it up from there.

DEAN: My apologies. Go ahead. You got it.

KOPAN: Well, the conversation going into last night was sort of how close we would get to the finish lines. And I think coming out of last night, we saw we are getting close to the finish lines. And for all the talk of a contested convention and what delegates might do on a second ballot, it's looking like the first ballot might be more important.

Donald Trump, no matter what he says, is not quite the presumptive nominee yet but he's gone a long way tonight to make that a much more likely scenario. And Hillary Clinton really has made the Bernie Sanders candidacy very difficult to sort of just -- not justify in the sense of continuing but justify in the sense of claiming a path to the nomination. So we really saw the frontrunners make a big, big push towards the finish line in their respective primaries last night.

BERMAN: So, Ron Brownstein, with Andy Dean looking on, smiling. I want you, Ron, to explain to me what has changed for Donald Trump over the last two weeks? What changed after Wisconsin? Yes, I know different states here in the east, you know, in the mid-Atlantic, but it can't just be that. So why is he successful now where he wasn't before? Have you noticed something different from him or his team?

BROWNSTEIN: It's a great question. I think the geography is part of it. Clearly the northeast is more favorable terrain in terms of the underlying demographics. But as we said, he performed much better in these states among the same groups. I mean he performed better among college graduates than he has anywhere else. He performed better among women than he has anywhere else.

And I don't know if there is a simple answer. I think it is a sense that the race is fading may be part of it. Cruz has had -- Ted Cruz has had very limited appeal in the northeast. He's been a very weak candidate there. And this is where John Kasich should have been a more effective competitor if he was going to be one. I mean, you know, you have many of those white-collar suburban voters in -- across many of these states, and he simply did not step up to fill the space. So I think it is more a matter of Trump expanding into the space, kind of that Cruz and Kasich were retreating out of than him dramatically changing his presentation. And, look, I mean that is an important dimension because if he does

fall short, I think, of the 1237, it's harder and harder given the weakness of this performance for Cruz, much less Kasich, to say, look, you should be turning to us.

ROMANS: Andy, before we let you go, your reaction to Ron's analysis there.

DEAN: Well, I think Ron is spot on there, and although this is like Hollywood squares. This is great. So the thing --

ROMANS: We think the Brady Bunch, kind of.

DEAN: Yes. This is nice. I feel like Shadow Stevens. The thing I'd like to point out, though, about Ted Cruz is that Ted Cruz came in last place, in third place, in four out of the five votes tonight. So this idea that Ted Cruz can play a national candidacy is just turning out to be quite false.

[02:25:04] So I think that the fact that Cruz came in third means that if we go to the convention with Trump below 1237, Cruz, to me, just doesn't have the mojo or the momentum to try to convince people on the second or third ballot. So I think this was a huge night for Trump in many different ways. He's got the momentum, and I think if you look at the pure numbers, he only needs 50 percent of the delegates left.

ROMANS: Right.

DEAN: And he's going to get to 1237.

BERMAN: All right. Andy Dean, thank you very much. Now you can go. The rest of you, you need to stick around with us.

DEAN: Great. I'll stay here all night.

BERMAN: We'll take you, man. Andy, stick around if you want. We have a lot more to discuss.

ROMANS: All right. Coming up, the other big winner tonight, Hillary Clinton, who had a message for Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Now, the other day, Mr. Trump accused me of playing the, quote, "woman card."

(CROWD BOOING)

CLINTON: Well, if fighting for women's health care and paid family leave and equal pay is playing the woman card, then deal me in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:30:43] BERMAN: All right. Hillary Clinton, she won four out of five states overnight. Now a little bit earlier, MJ Lee, with her immense control over the powers of television, she played part of Hillary Clinton's victory speech. But we want to play a little bit more right now and try to see how and where Hillary Clinton is shifting her focus to the general election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: And I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of our politics and giving greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality. And I know together we will get that done.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: Because whether you support Senator Sanders or you support me, there's much more that unites us than divides us.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: We all agree that wages are too low and inequality is too high, that Wall Street can never again be allowed to threaten main street. And we should expand Social Security, not cut or privatize it.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: We Democrats agree that college should be affordable to all and student debt shouldn't hold anyone back.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: We Democrats agree that every single American should and must have quality affordable health care. We agree that our next president must keep our country safe, keep our troops out of another costly ground war in the Middle East. And we Democrats agree that climate change is an urgent threat. And it requires an aggressive response that can make America the clean energy super power of the 21st century.

And we Democrats agree on defending all of our rights, civil rights and voting rights, workers' rights and women's rights, LGBT rights and rights for people with disabilities.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: So in this election, we will have to stand together and work hard to prevail against candidates on the other side who would threaten all those rights other. They would take it harder to vote, not easier. They would deny women the right to make our own reproductive health care decisions. They would round up --

(CROWD BOOING)

CLINTON: They would round up millions of hard-working immigrants and deport them. They would demonize and discriminate against hard- working, terror-hating Muslim-Americans, who we need in the fight against radicalization. And both of the top candidates in the Republican Party deny climate change even exists.

(CROWD BOOING)

CLINTON: Now, the other day, Mr. Trump accused me of playing the, quote, "woman card."

(CROWD BOOING)

CLINTON: Well, if fighting for women's health care and paid family leave is the woman card, then deal me in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Back now with our panel, MJ Lee, Dylan Byers, Andy Dean, Ron Brownstein, Tal Kopan, and Angela Rye.

So, Angela, you just heard, that was a good three-minute chunk from her speech last night. "Deal me in." Is that going to be an effective strategy for her as she faces the general election?

RYE: If it's nothing else, it is an effective T-shirt line. I'm sure they're going to be selling T-shirts and bumper stickers, maybe even pins, old school pins that say "Deal me in." Maybe they'll throw a hashtag on it to get some of those young voters we talked about earlier. But I thought it was a very effective line particularly given the line of attack that of course Donald Trump has been going down.

[02:35:02] If Hillary Clinton were a man, she probably wouldn't even get 5 percent of the vote. It's ridiculous. If Hillary Clinton were a man she probably -- there's probably would be no contest right now. Her record of experience is very clear whether you agree with her decisions or not. We know that we went down this whole rabbit hole really on qualifications earlier on with Bernie Sanders during this primary season.

But her resume is just unprecedented. By far, she's the most qualified candidate in this race on either side. And so for him to go down that line of attack is just really preposterous. I thought her response was very, very effective.

BERMAN: You know, Dylan, without getting into the content of what she said there, I think the fact that she was saying it quite as strenuously as she was is interesting. Because, Dylan, both you and MJ have been with us here a lot on these election nights and we've been talking about how many times Hillary Clinton has tried to pivot to the general election. It's almost like a broken record.

Again, and again, and again, and every time she's tried to do it, Bernie Sanders has come back and it sort of hurt the Clinton campaign. But now, this time, does it feel different?

BYERS: Yes, it feels different. It feels different because I mean she's so close to the finish line here. I think that she can finally successfully pivot. Look, she still has to worry about Bernie Sanders. He's obviously

going to go through June 7th. He's announced that he's going to go until the convention. So, you know, the campaign is going to have to continue to spend money and continue to be a concern for them. But, yes, she's pivoting to the general election.

And I know you don't want to get into the substance of what she said here, but, you know, it's -- for Donald Trump to say what he said, when he's dealing with a negative rating among women in a general election contest that some polls have as high as 70 percent, you're talking about seven out of 10 women in this country who don't want to see Donald Trump as president. I mean, you know, Andy can talk all that he wants about micro aggression and political correctness.

Donald Trump was the one who -- who brought up this issue of gender and it's going to be a real issue for him in a Trump v. Clinton general election.

BERMAN: What about that, Andy? Because, you know, Dylan brings up that 70 percent number. That doesn't seem like micro aggression. That seems like macroaggression. That seems like a real problem with women.

DEAN: Well, I'll say a couple of things about that. First, remember Hillary Clinton also has a gender gap, but it's not politically correct to talk about her gender gap. She has a major gender gap with men and we're not on the air saying well, why does Hillary Clinton have a problem with men. Well, if you just look at the pure numbers, she actually does. But I think Donald Trump when it comes to women, we're going to realize these are not one-issue voters.

Women, I think, are smarter than men and they care about the same things. Jobs, national security, and I think if Donald Trump has the women around him in his company and also in his family like Ivanka Trump and Melania Trump out on the campaign trail, it's going to soften Donald Trump and show that he's a family man. I think women will like that.

(CROSSTALK)

BYERS: Sorry. If I may, Andy, I'm not making a moral point. I'm trying to make a practical point here. And the practical point is with the negative ratings Trump has among women to say nothing of minority groups, at a certain point it doesn't matter, you know, where Hillary Clinton's support is among men as long as she has Democrats because how does Trump run a general election campaign if he can't appeal to any of these minority groups and especially if he can't appeal to women?

BERMAN: And, Angela, Angela, I mean -- you get your point in, Angela.

RYE: So a couple of things.

DEAN: OK. Sure, I'll make this quick.

BERMAN: Andy, wait. Let's -- RYE: Hold on.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: OK, I want to be very sensitive.

RYE: You don't need to be sensitive. I'm fine. I'm not crying here. Just a quick point for you. So OK. You mentioned minority groups, Dylan, and you said women. So women are the majority in this country actually. It's not a minority group. I think the other part of this more directly to Andy is the fact, plain and simple, you asked if Hillary Clinton had a man problem. She does, and part of the issue is one that we could actually just look at from a pure data standpoint.

In 2008, Hillary Clinton was winning white men. She was doing very well amongst the same groups that now she can't win because there is a white male in the race running against her in this primary season. Bernie Sanders is now picking up those voters. Hillary Clinton is getting the voters that Barack Obama once had. So you're seeing these types of shifts. They're pure data, so it's not anything about political correctness or anything like that. It's not a man problem.

I think, in fact, Hillary Clinton isn't the one that has the man problem. It's the men that have the problem supporting this potential woman candidate. That's the real issue, and those are the numbers. That's what the data says.

ROMANS: We can't talk numbers and data without bringing in the demographic guru, Ron Brownstein.

Ron, your thoughts on this discussion.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, well, look, I mean if you look forward to a general election, it's possible to see some contrast that would work for Donald Trump against Hillary Clinton. It's possible to see him portraying himself as an outsider to her insider at a time when the political system, you know, is widely held in disrepute by many Americans. It's also possible to see him positioning himself as kind of the tribune, the economic tribune of forgotten working class white America in small towns in Pennsylvania and southern Ohio and places like that.

The problem he's got, though, is that that is not the way he is defined to much of the electorate. Much of the electorate now sees him fundamentally as a candidate of cultural backlash, of white racial backlash against minorities, against immigrants, against Muslims and also the problems he's got with women.

[02:40:14] One important statistic to think about it's possible that in 2016, I think it's likely that minorities on the one hand and college-educated white women on the other will be exactly half of all the voters. 50 percent of all the voters will come from those two groups. And in the last CNN poll, Donald Trump's unfavorable rating among both of those groups was exactly the same. 82 percent.

Now he is an agile political operator. He can -- you know, he can be a disrupter, but that is a big hole to climb out of because the way he has been defined to those voters, I think, primarily is as someone resisting the cultural and demographic changes that America is living through. And as long as that is his primary definition, it is very hard to see how he can get to a majority of the electorate.

BERMAN: Andy, can you sum up in 15 seconds?

DEAN: Sure. A quick response. Right. I would say, you know, they point out all these negatives. Donald Trump has high negatives with this group or that group. I remember being on CNN back in the summer of last year when Donald Trump was announcing his candidacy, and they quoted all these same numbers. He has 75 percent unfavorables. All these negatives. And over time, with the consistent message of job creation and business leadership, he won, and I think he'll do the same thing in the fall.

BERMAN: All right, guys.

DEAN: Is that 15 seconds?

BERMAN: It was a little bit more.

ROMANS: Well done.

BERMAN: But we'll take it back to Dylan and MJ right after the break.

Coming up, for the candidates who came up short tonight, all they have left to do is look ahead to Indiana. We will do the same.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[02:45:45] ROMANS: Ted Cruz was not doing much celebrating last night. In fact, pretty much all he could do was look ahead to May 3rd and the Indiana primary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The eyes of the nation are looking at this state at the cross roads of America. To make a decision for our country. Do we want to support a campaign that is based on yelling and screaming and cursing and insults, or do we want to unite behind a positive, optimistic, forward-looking, conservative campaign based on real policy solutions to the problems facing America?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That by the way was in the Hoosiers Gym in Knightstown, Indiana, where Jimmy Chitwood scored so many points so long ago.

Bernie Sanders looking even further down the line, releasing this statement. "The people in every state in this country," don't roll your eyes at me, Barry (INAUDIBLE).

"Every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That's why we're in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible."

Now the next big step for both campaigns, Indiana next Tuesday, May 3rd. Back with us, our panel, MJ Lee. You know, May 3rd is huge. Indiana is simply huge, especially for the Republicans. Set the stage for us.

LEE: That's right. Indiana is a huge state. We've known that for a while, but I think especially after tonight because Trump did so much better than we even expected, there's so much at stake in Indiana. And remember, the delegates there are allocated similar to the way that they are allocated here in New York. It is not winner-take-all across the state, but it is winner-take-all by congressional district and then across the state as well.

So this is a state where Trump could win some delegates and Cruz could win some delegates. And this is why we saw Kasich and Cruz announced this alliance earlier this week, right? They determined that Cruz has a better chance of doing better than Kasich in the state of Indiana, which is obvious. And so they had put out the statement, you know, joint statement, saying, look, Kasich is going to stay out, and Cruz is going to go all in.

But I think the question is, is that even enough to peel away enough delegates from Trump, especially after tonight when he did so well? And I thought there was a really interesting question in the exit polls tonight or last night, rather. We asked whether the voters voted for their candidate or voted for someone to choose their opponent. And in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Maryland, overwhelmingly Republican voters said that they chose for the candidate that they wanted.

So this effort for, you know, by Kasich and Cruz to try to get voters to vote for someone that they don't want to vote for just to stop Trump, I just don't know that the polls bear out that that is working.

ROMANS: Tal, bring you into here for a second because when you heard Donald Trump last night say it's over. It's over. It's probably better to say it's almost over, right?

KOPAN: Yes, definitely. And to MJ's point, that statistic absolutely, to me, was the statistic out of the exit polling that we saw last night. The idea that, you know, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, after tonight, are both mathematically eliminated from being able to clinch this nomination just by winning states. You've seen Bernie Sanders for a while now be pretty much out of it, but he stuck to the issues. He's continued with his message. He's continued to have sort of a clear statement for his candidacy.

Ted Cruz and John Kasich have kind of fallen into a trap where they're making a pitch to the voters completely based on process. It's been amazing to me how much we've heard candidates themselves talk about, you know, picking up delegates and hanging in there until a contested convention.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: Right.

KOPAN: That is not compelling to voters. And here's a very clear statistic. Three-quarters of the Republican voters tonight or last night said we didn't want to vote against someone. We want to vote for someone.

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: Yes.

KOPAN: And Ted Cruz and John Kasich have run away from that.

ROMANS: Tonight, last night, it's all one big primary palooza. A primary palooza, guys. Stick with us for just a few hours. Donald Trump is going to appear on "NEW DAY." He will discuss his super Tuesday triumph. That's at 6:00 a.m. Don't miss it.

[02:50:01] BERMAN: Also on "NEW DAY," Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who says he wants the Republican candidates to get their act together before the convention. You know, Paul Ryan, for a guy who's not running has been deeply, deeply involved with denying that he's running. And also with this campaign in general. That would be very interesting to see.

ROMANS: But first, despite Trump's super Tuesday sweep, the GOP may still be heading to the convention without a candidate, maybe holding that magic number of 1237. What do voters think the solution should be? We've got exit polling answers. It is so fun to look at exit polls. We've got them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Republican primary voters in three of the states that just voted overnight, they were asked a simple question. If no Republican candidate reaches the magic number of 1237 delegates, how should the party pick a nominee? Look at the results. Essentially they all said give it to the person who wins the most votes.

[02:55:03] We're back with our panel right now.

Ron Brownstein, let's start with you because I know you're actually anxious to go to bed very soon.

Ron, this is a --

BROWNSTEIN: Strange concept.

BERMAN: This will be an argument for Donald Trump if he doesn't get there. It's one of the reasons running up the margins in these states where he can is so important right now.

BROWNSTEIN: Right. Strangely voters think that voters should be empowered to pick the nominee, right? I mean, that's kind of, you know, not a surprising result. But one important to remember. And I think, you know, what we saw -- I think the big headline from tonight was that Donald Trump for the first time began to do what we have seen previous frontrunners do. Until now he has largely been a plurality frontrunner. He won 38 percent of the total vote through New York. New York was the only state where he had won a majority of the vote.

Tonight he won a majority of the vote in every state that took part. And not only did he put up absolutely crushing numbers among his good groups like non-college whites where he had about two-thirds of the vote in all the state with exit polls, we also saw him put up his best numbers to date among the groups that have been the most resistant to him like women and college-educated Republicans.

So, you know, yes, it could -- the calendar could turn in a more favorable way toward Ted Cruz in parts of May. This may be a regional effect, but it sure felt like the barriers of resistance falling down. And on the other side with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, it wasn't so much that she put up with new numbers, but she defended her advantage that she's had all along among African-American voters and self-identified Democrats in particular.

And he has just simply run out of places that he can win with his coalition focused primarily on young people, independents, and to some extent those non-college whites. So both races had a lot more clarity and now we get, what, six months of Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump banging on each other, which is something I'm sure every American is looking forward to at this moment.

ROMANS: And we know you're going to be with us, Ron Brownstein, to look at all of the ins and outs. Thank you so much for that.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

ROMANS: I know you're going to go to bed. Thank you for all of your help tonight.

Everyone else, stay with us. We have so much more to get to at the top of the hour as we break down these super Tuesday results and the new look of election 2016.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)