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CNN Live Event/Special
Donald Trump Speaks to Supporters; Clinton Maintains Lead in Illinois; Sanders and Clinton Close in Missouri; Trump Wins Big Again . Aired 10-11p ET
Aired March 15, 2016 - 22:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[22:00:00] DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Amazing people in this country. We have so many great people. We will someday in the not-to-distant future if I win, otherwise, it's not going to happen, I have to be honest with you. But Apple and all of these great companies will be making their products in the United States, not in China, Vietnam and all.
(APPLAUSE)
And we're not going to be losing our companies. You know, our companies are leaving our country rapidly, rapidly whether it's Carrier Air Conditioning, whether it's Ford, whether it's Eaton. I was in Cleveland, and Eaton Corp, they're leaving and so many companies are leaving.
And frankly, I'm disgusted with it and I'm tired of seeing it and there's no reason for it. It's just gross incompetence at the highest level. We should not allow it to happen. Pfizer, great company, pharmaceutical company, they're going to Ireland and there are so many more, you have corporate inversions, you have people can't get their money back into the country because the politicians can't get along, they can't make a deal.
Everybody agrees democrat and republican, everybody agrees the money should come back. There's $2.5 trillion outside of this country. Everybody agrees that the money should be here.
(APPLAUSE)
And the politicians for three years haven't been able to make a deal. And we could make a deal. There's an example of something that you could do if I sat down with a few of the senators, a few of the congressmen, you could make a deal on that in 10 minutes if you knew what you're doing because everybody wants to do it.
And companies are actually leaving our country to get their money, not only because our taxes are too high, which we're going to lower, by the way, but companies are leaving our country in order to go and get money, that's their money because there's no way of bringing it in.
So, we've got a -- we've got a long way to go but I think at some point it's going to get done. This has been very exciting, this whole process. We started, I was one of 17 people, senators, governor. I've had such great support, Dr. Ben Carson the other day endorsed us and...
(APPLAUSE)
Great guy. Great man. Wonderful man. And Chris Christie endorsed us. That was so incredible.
(APPLAUSE)
And today Pam Bondi came up and endorsed us. She was great and she is a truly wonderful, a truly wonderful woman and the job she's done in Florida is incredible. You know, so many -- we had such incredible support. paul Ryan called me the other day, tremendous call. I spoke with Mitch McConnell today. We had a great conversation. The fact is we have to bring our party together. We have to bring it together. We have...
(APPLAUSE)
We have something happening that actually makes the Republican Party probably the biggest political story anywhere in the world. Everybody's writing about it, all over Europe, all over the world they're talking about it. Millions of people are coming in to vote. This was an example of it today.
Many, many more people, I'm looking at the polling booths, I'm looking at different polling booths all around the country where it's up, and the lines are four, five, six blocks long. And the woman -- one woman was in there for 40 years she's been working at the polls she said we'd have two people here, we'd have three people, now look at the line. And the line looked like it was, you know, long, it was really long.
Five deep and long. And it's just a different thing. We have a great opportunity. And the people that are voting are democrats are coming in, independents are coming in and very, very importantly, people that never voted before. It's an incredible thing.
(APPLAUSE)
I want to pay my respects, by the way, to Todd Palin, Sarah's husband. Sarah was here. She was incredible. She was making a speech on my behalf. And fantastic, everyone loves her. And what happened is he was in a very bad accident. He's tough as nails, he's going to be fine. But I just want to pay my respects, by the way, to Todd and Sarah.
(APPLAUSE)
So, our theme when we started, and Melania and I came down -- yes, sit down, everybody, please. I mean, this is Mar-a-Lago. We give you seats. You don't have to stand. I'm looking at all these people.
(APPLAUSE)
Corey, good job, Corey. Good job. And hope and our whole squad, right? So, when this began, Melania and I, and I said got to do it. And she was so supportive and she's been so supportive, it's been amazing and we have to do it.
[22:05:01] We came down the escalator and it was about trade and it was about borders and what happened is pretty quickly after that and we were -- we shot right up, I shot right to the top of the polls and I've been leading in the polls almost from the beginning without fail.
We went up in June, most people said I'll never run, he's just going to have fun, he's having a good time. This isn't necessarily -- I am having a good time. You know, having a very nice time. But you know what, I'm working very hard. And there is great anger. Believe me, there is great anger.
(APPLAUSE)
One of the broadcasters was saying is there anger? And I said to him, yes, I'm supposed to say, no, there's not, we love the way things are working, we love the deal you made with Iran, it's wonderful, you give them $150 billion, we get nothing. We love all the deals, a trade deals, a wonderful. You lose $500 billion a year with China, we lose $58 billion a year in terms -- in terms of imbalance. It's a total imbalance.
We don't make good deals anymore. We don't win anymore. As a country we don't win anymore and they asked is there anger from your people? There seems to be and I said there is anger. They're not angry people but they want to see the country properly run.
They want to see borders, they want to see good health care, they want to see things properly taken care of. They want our military rebuilt, our military is in a very bad state. They want it rebuilt.
(APPLAUSE)
Very, very importantly. And they want the Second Amendment, by the way, protected and protected strongly and that's going to happen.
(APPLAUSE)
And you know what they want so badly, they want our veterans taken care of. Our veterans are treated so badly.
(APPLAUSE)
So, we started and something happened called Paris. Paris happened. And Paris was a disaster. That was -- there have been many disasters. But it was Paris and then we had a case in Los Angeles where it was in California where the 14 young people were killed and it just goes on and on and on.
And what happened with me is this whole run took on a whole new meaning. Not just borders, not just good trade deals, we're going to make the best trade deals you've ever seen. We've got such endorsements from Carl Icahn and the smartest people in business. And these people are going to be negotiating our deals and they are best in the world. We have the best business in the world.
They are going to know, we are going to have such great deals. We're going to do so good with trade, we're going to do so good in the border. But it took on a whole new meaning. And the meaning was very simple. We need protection in our country. And that's going to happen.
And all of a sudden the poll numbers shot up. And I'm just very proud to be a part of this. I think we're going to go and we're going to do a lot of trips over the next month. But I think we're going to have a great victory and I think more importantly than anything else, we are going to start winning again. This country is going to start winning again. We don't win anymore.
(APPLAUSE)
We don't win with our military, we can't beat ISISs. We're going to knock the hell out of them.
(APPLAUSE)
We don't win at trade. China, everybody, Japan, Mexico, Vietnam, India, name the country, anybody we deal -- anybody we do business with beats us. We don't win at trade, we're going to win at trade. We're going to make our country rich again, we're going to make our country great again. And we need the rich in order to make the country great, I'm sorry to tell you.
(APPLAUSE)
So, I'm going forward, we had a fantastic evening. I would have never thought this could have happened. I guess we're waiting for one result, which possibly will be very successful also. But to win the states that we won and to win by the margins and especially, look, this is my second home, Florida. To win by that kind of a number is incredible.
(APPLAUSE)
And I have to -- and I have to say it, I have to say is that, number one, I want to congratulate Marco Rubio on having run a really tough campaign. He's tough, he's smart and he's got a great future.
(APPLAUSE)
He's got a great future. But I have to say and nobody has ever, ever in the history of politics received the kind of negative advertising that I have. Record, record, record. By the way, mostly false. I wouldn't say 100 percent but about 90 percent. Mostly false, vicious, horrible.
[22:10:02] They say it was 18 million the first week, meaning last week and 25 million. It added up to over $40 million. And you explain it to me because I can't. My numbers went up. I don't understand it. Nobody understands it. My numbers went up.
(APPLAUSE) I mean, it's been an interesting experience. Last week, Adam Scott won at Trump National Doral, the big tournament, the world championship of golf. And Adam who's a great guy, I guess a lot of you folks saw that. But I'm watching, we have television screens all over and we're down at this gorgeous green at Doral and everything is working beautifully.
Then a commercial comes on, the worst commercial. And I'm with these wonderful people from Cadillac and all these top executives and I'm saying look over there, look, don't watch it, no, you don't want to watch that. I'm saying, don't, isn't that grass beautiful? Look, look, don't watch.
(APPLAUSE)
And they came in waves one after another after another and it was brutal. And then Adam comes and he's a handsome kid from Australia, one of the greatest golfers in the world made an unbelievable shot on the 18th hole to win the tournament, he's a great champion and we're giving him the award.
And just before we break for a commercial, we'll be right back with our great champion from Australia, Adam Scott. And here's the commercial. I said, no! And it was two of them, two of them. Oh, what a day that was. What a disaster. What a disaster.
(APPLAUSE)
Unbelievable.
(CROWD CHEERING)
So again, I just want to congratulate everybody. This is a really interesting process. It's an amazing process. It's very tough but it is a -- by the end, if you get to the end, you can handle a lot of things, including pressure. That I can tell you. Because it's nothing like it lies, deceit, viciousness, disgusting reporters, horrible people. Sure.
(CROWD LAUGHING)
Some are nice. Some are nice. Some really disgusting people back there laughing. And I just want to say we're going to go forward and we're going to win, but more importantly we're going to win for the country. We're going to win, win, win and we're not stopping. We're going to have great victories for our country. Thank you very much, everybody. Thank you, thank you.
(APPLAUSE)
ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 SHOW HOST: Donald Trump speaking tonight to lots of supporters. A small crowd of reporters I think in a couple rows in the back, not take anything questions as he has in the past. But clearly, celebrating what has been overwhelmingly a very important night for Donald Trump, Jeffrey Lord. JEFFREY LORD, FORMER REAGAN WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know,
when you're winning Florida, North Carolina and at this point I think he's ahead by a little bit in Missouri, you know, other than winning Ohio -- I mean, when you look at the map and you see that tiny little purple dot that represents John Kasich, I honestly don't know where he goes from there. I mean, if he's going to come to Pennsylvania as Michael said, he's already got ballot problems there.
COOPER: So, when John Kasich, you know, what he has said all along, and I talked to him yesterday and he said this again is that, winning Ohio will change the media narrative, he'll get more interviews, people will be paying attention, they will look at him differently. He lose for it.
LORD: Some of that -- some of that's probably true. But I mean, there's something going on here in the country, when you look at this map of all of the places that Donald Trump has carried, how different they are across America. And he's taking places that Ted Cruz should have carried. And he's winning in the northeast, and he's winning out west. I mean, this is amazing.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, listen, the republican establishment has been completely destroyed tonight. I mean, look at this. I mean, you literally have the only establishment candidate left is Kasich with one state, his own state that he camped down in for two months. It doesn't make any sense.
You cannot describe the devastation this guy has wreaked on the Republican Party. The republican establishment has been destroyed tonight and you now have Ted Cruz, the ultimate outsider, against Trump. And those are the only options left that are viable.
COOPER: S.E., do you want to attempt to describe the devastation or?
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. I think it's written on my face. Yes. No question I've been saying for months now that the damage that Trump has done to the Republican Party and conservative movement is already done, whether he wins the nomination or not, and it's only going to get worse the farther he goes.
But what's fascinating about tonight, again, like Michigan, he's winning in places that I think a lot of establishment republicans and election watchers never thought he could.
[22:15:05] Lake County, Illinois, where, you know, those very affluent suburbs of Chicago are very well educated, very affluent, not supposed to win there and he is so far. So, that's a model that if he repeats it in places like say, Orange County, California, Westchester County, New York, I mean, it's over. Where can't he win?
COOPER: Paul, you know about super PACS...
(CROSSTALK)
PAUL BEGALA, DEOMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: I advise there. COOPER: You associate it with a Hillary Clinton, pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC. The whole net, you know, nobody, never Trump movement, the super PACS that have been raising money running commercials, does that go away? Does that continue, do they try to coalesce running Kasich.
BEGALA: No. It continues because of John Kasich. It continues because Kasich win -- it doesn't give Kasich a path to the nomination at all, but it makes Trump's path so very difficult. Donald Trump from here on needs to win 59 percent of all the delegates remaining in order to the win the nomination on the first ballot in Cleveland. Very, very difficult to do. Nobody else can catch him. But you know, I'm from Texas and he's double condition, it could be.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Gloria talked earlier about this rule of the Republican Party that says you have to win at least eight states to be the nominee and now these folks who are plotting say, well, we may waive that rule.
Donald Trump, if he -- if, you know, he could end tonight having won his 20th state.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
AXELROD: At some point how do you deny someone the nomination who has come close to getting 1,237 and has won all over the country exponentially more than anybody else?
BORGER: That's the discussion every republican member of the establishment is having tonight. They are having this sort of existential crisis, what do we do? What's the best way to do it? Do we put all our eggs in Ted Cruz's basket here because we think that he's the one we can be with?
And again, I have such a difficult time imagining the establishment rallying around the man that they have hated for the last few years. Or do you just encourage Kasich to stay in or do you -- and encourage Cruz to stay in and that way they each get some delegates and by the time you go to the convention, it doesn't look lopsided. I mean, yes.
COOPER: Let's hold that thought and that question and let's go to another key race alert with Wolf. Wolf?
WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM SHOW HOST: Anderson, thank you. Let's do it the key race alert right now. Three outstanding races, -- they're all pretty tight right now.
Let's start off in Missouri. Forty percent of the vote is in. Donald Trump has a slight lead, just change, 42.1 percent, 40.6 percent to Ted Cruz. He's only about 6,000 votes ahead of Ted Cruz right now with little more than half of the vote in Missouri, 52 delegates at stake.
On the democratic side, two outstanding contest. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, they're in a very, very tight battle in Missouri right now. Thirty one percent of the vote is in. Bernie Sanders has 52 -- 50.2 percent, Hillary Clinton 48.4 percent. He's ahead by about 3,700 votes. Nearly a third of the vote is in Missouri, with 71 delegates there.
In Illinois, more of the votes is already been counted. Hilary Clinton has a slight advantage, 62 percent of the vote is in. She has 51.8 percent. Bernie Sanders 47.3 percent. She's ahead now little bit more than 54,000 votes. We have not made projections in those three states yet.
Let's go over to John King at the magic wall. You're taking a much closer look at all of these contests right now. Missouri, Illinois -- or Missouri on both sides, I should say.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Missouri on both sides and it will start -- I was just looking at some counties in the republican race, so let's start there.
This is a great tug of war between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Trump with the lead at the moment, Cruz scores far behind. Jackson County, which is Kansas City, the western part of the state just switched, but as you can see it's essentially a tie.
Two votes. To votes right now with 29 percent of the vote in. It's significant because Ted Cruz is doing something tonight in Missouri he has not had success doing in other states, which is contesting and in some cases at least running even in the suburbs.
Outside of Kansas City, Ted Cruz tied right now. It you come over to St. Louis, this is where Donald Trump has to win to win to win this state and look at how close it is right now. This is St. Louis County, the immediate suburbs just outside of the city. Donald Trump up just a little bit.
If you move up more to St. Charles county, a swing county for republican, a very important county in statewide elections in November. But a very important county tonight, Donald Trump with just a very narrow lead. Only 18 percent of the vote in.
So, this is where we're going to watch, in the St. Louis area, still a lot of votes out. Donald Trump leading at the moment but the margins are pretty close. And if Ted Cruz can keep the margins very close, probably he needs to get even a little closer than that.
If he can keep it close, then when the rural areas fill in and you see down here, if he continues to fill in the rural areas, it will be good for him. Here's the one caveat to that, you look in the center of the state where Trump is -- where Cruz -- excuse me, is winning, there's a lot of vote here out in Boone County but you move down here you've got 100 percent of the vote in here. You've got a 100 percent of the vote in here.
[22:20:00] So, in some of these more conservative counties where Cruz is winning, the votes are counted. Down here in Springfield, for example, 89 percent including county. This is a very Christian conservative area, Cruz winning big. But most of the votes are in. So, as we watch this right now we're going to go down to the wire here
in how Cruz does, how close he can stay in the St. Louis area. And if you can lead this lead out here is the key. And you see up here, I made this point earlier, Trump is winning up here.
This is a bad sign for Cruz in the sense that if you go back in time, this is where Mike Huckabee won in a very close race back in 2008. McCain eked out a victory, splitting the vote with Romney as we watched the two man race essentially today. The other candidates aren't that close here at all. Cruz needs to fill in these rural counties up here to help him because it looks like Trump is winning here.
BLITZER: If he could do that, that would be his only win on this night. Trump has won three states. So far Kasich won Ohio. Let's take a look at Missouri on the democratic side.
KING: To that point, psychologically it's very important. These are proportional states. This one is statewide winner gets 12, and 5 delegates for each congressional district. Cruz is likely to get some delegates here. He's getting some delegates in North Carolina but they would sure like a win tonight for morale purposes.
Look at the democratic race, 31 of the vote in. Bernie Sanders, with a 2-point lead, just shy of a two-point lead right now. And if you look at the map filling in, it's filling in like a competitive primary would.
For Secretary Clinton, you're happy. Same point we just made, Jackson County and the suburbs here of Kansas City, she needs to win out here. She's leading by a pretty healthy margin at the moment with a lot of the votes still out. Only 30 percent of the votes counted, 29 percent.
Then you come over here again in St. Louis County and St. Louis proper. This is where you have the African-American vote right in downtown of St. Louis area there. Not counted yet.
So, if you're Secretary Clinton, you're going to get -- you're going to get a boost out of here. But when you move out into the suburbs, Senator Sanders running pretty competitive early on in the close end suburbs here. And this is very significant.
You move out to the more affluent suburbs of St. Charles County, Senator Sanders is ahead at the moment. So, this is again, much like a republican race. This is a good tug of war. And you look at some of the college towns, Senator Sanders is running ahead of the college towns, trademark of other past states as well. This one, 32 percent in, Wolf, 50 to 48. Let's count them.
BLITZER: Let's count. Illinois as well. Illinois on the democratic side, still outstanding right now with 64 percent of the vote is in. She's got a slight lead over Bernie Sanders.
KING: Slight led. But when you get to this point in a race you're up almost two-thirds of the voice counted, you're saying what's out? You're looking in the middle of the state here, Springfield, expect this one to go Bernie Sanders's way. But none of the votes are in right now. We'll see if that holds up.
And then you want to come up here into the Chicago area. Again, and you come in Chicago City, 82 percent of the vote is in. Secretary Clinton winning by 8 points there. But most of that votes in but still a decent chunk. It's obviously a large population center. So, she's got some more votes to come in here.
And then you go out and look at Cook County and she's winning for 87 percent of the vote is counted here. So she's got come votes to pick up in this area here as we count them late. But at 64 percent you can assume just looking at the map, these are very small counties. They're tiny counties. So, you see .2 percent of the population.
So, let's go to the neighboring one and you see Sanders is winning, you get about a 100-vote margin if you continue at this rate. But if he continues to fill in the rural areas like that, you know, a couple for Senator Sanders to pick up here.
The major contest here since he's going to be when we get to Chicago and west, out in DuPage County. You see zero percent of the vote in, can Hillary Clinton win out here in the suburbs?
And S.E. was talking about this earlier in the republican side you move up to lake county, 9 percent of the vote in. That's an arm wrestle.
BLITZER: Yes. Very, very tight. So, we are just going to have to do this the old fashioned way, wait for the votes to come in. Three very competitive contests, nail biters, you could say Missouri on the democratic and republican side, Illinois on the democratic side.
We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.
[22:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: All right. Let's get a key race alert right now in the three outstanding contests. We're still awaiting the results. In Missouri on the republican side, 62 percent of the vote is in. And look at how close it is right now between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz, 41.8 percent for Trump, 41 percent for Cruz.
Trump is ahead right now by 3,677 votes. Plenty of outstanding votes remaining in Missouri, 52 delegates are at stake. We're watching Missouri very closely. A nail bite are over there in Missouri.
On the democratic side, more than a third of the votes is now in, Bernie Sanders has a lead over Hillary Clinton with 50.8 to 47.8 percent. He's ahead now by 7,171 votes. But 37 percent of the vote is in. Still plenty of votes outstanding.
In Illinois right now, more of the vote is already been counted. Hillary Clinton maintains a slight lead, 64 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton has 51.7 percent, Bernie Sanders 47.4 percent. Her lead is close to 55,000 right now. But there are still plenty of vote outstanding in Illinois right now. So, those are the outstanding contests we're watching. Let's go to Jake. JAKE TAPPER, THE LEAD SHOW HOST: Thanks, Wolf. So, let's take a step
back and, Dana, and talk about the big news from tonight and then also just look at where the candidates are in terms of states.
First of all, we have these two outstanding states for the democrats, Missouri and Illinois. We don't know where they're going to end up. But in terms of the republican race, let's look at the states that have been won.
So, far they've had 27 contests, 27 contests. We're still waiting for the results in Missouri. Of those 27, Donald Trump has won 18. That's Donald Trump in the maroon. Ted Cruz has won 7, John Kasich has won 1. And then you can give Minnesota to Marco Rubio, although he dropped out of the race.
We're not counting territories or the District of Columbia. So, that is dominant. Twenty seven states Donald Trump has won 18.
Let's go to the democratic side, of the 24 states that have had contests, that's Hillary Clinton in the dark blue. Hillary Clinton has won 15, Bernie Sanders has won nine. We're still waiting for the results from Missouri and Illinois.
Now obviously, there are some stories that have emerged from this evening, not a great night for Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio drops out, John Kasich lives to fight another day but have I to say the big story is the complete and total dominance of Donald Trump.
[22:30:04] DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. You know, unfortunately, for him there is -- there are still other people in the race who is going to give a run for his money and continue to do so and make it very hard for him to win the delegates before the convention. It's not impossible but it's going to be hard.
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: And on the democratic side, you're right. It has been a mixed bag so far. Hillary Clinton so far has had a really, really good night. And looking at the outstanding race on the democratic side in Illinois especially -- Missouri, you know, maybe it expected to be this close but Illinois, it was the state that she grew up in and it was the state that understandably she got beaten pretty handily by the then home State Senator Barack Obama last time around, but they were getting a little nervous.
I think genuinely so inside the Clinton campaign that Illinois was going to be a bit of a blowout and she's holding her own so far.
TAPPER: That's right. And Clinton people were very worried when I saw them in Ohio. On Sunday at the town hall, Clinton people expressed concern that this would be a bad night for them, I think no matter how Illinois and Missouri fall. It ends up being a good night. She's won three contests including Ohio.
But Donald Trump, let's just talk about him for a second. Because there were six contests today on the republican side. We're still waiting for the sixth one, Missouri. So, of the five called that have been called, Donald Trump has won four.
He won Florida, he won North Carolina, he won Illinois and he won the Northern Mariana Islands this morning. The significance to that is that was, as our panel has been discussing...
BASH: Right.
TAPPER: ... the eighth contest where Donald Trump won not just a plurality but a majority of the delegates, thus, he is the only republican running who is now eligible, according to the republican rules to have his name thrown in contention to be the nominee.
BASH: That's exactly right. And the other interesting point about Donald Trump's wins tonight is that this is after the first real significant attempt with real dollars to try to tear him down.
You know, we saw it in the past few contests, the past few weeks, but nothing like the money that was spent in Florida and then in recent days more in Missouri and Illinois. With real substantive ads going after him with the ad now I guess the instantly infamous ad with female actors reading the words of Donald Trump about women.
TAPPER: Crude, crude words.
BASH: Exactly. And on and on and on. And it didn't seem to work.
TAPPER: Not to mention, his campaign manager there's a police report against his from a reporter who alleges and he denies that he manhandled her, assaulted her. And everything from the assaults at his rallies but it does seem to have an effect. As of now, he is four for five, Wolf Blitzer.
BASH: His campaign manager, we should say who was standing next to Donald Trump.
TAPPER: Yes. He said, "good job, Corey," a show of support. Wolf Blitzer.
BLITZER: All right, guys. We're going to take a quick break. We're watching three nail biters right now. The democratic and republican contest. Republican contest in Missouri, democratic contest in Missouri and Illinois. We're waiting for the results. We'll take a quick break.
[22:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: Let's get a key race alert. Three outstanding contests remaining. Nail biter in the way in Missouri right now on the republican side. Look at this, Donald Trump 41.8 percent, Ted Cruz 41.2 percent. Donald Trump is ahead by only 3,141 votes, 71 percent of the vote is in.
We still not have been able to make a projection there. Look how close it is in Missouri on the republican side. Staying in Missouri now on the democratic side, it's close. Forty one of vote is in. Bernie Sanders does have a lead of about 10,038 votes. He's at 51.2 percent, 47.4 percent for Hillary Clinton. Bernie Sanders is looking his first win of the night maybe in Missouri. We'll see what happens there.
In Illinois, Hillary Clinton has a slight lead, 51.7 over Bernie Sanders's 47.5 percent. She's up by 54,000 votes, 66 percent is in. In Illinois it's close there in Illinois for the democrats in Illinois and Missouri. Very close on the republican side in Missouri as well.
Let's go over to John King at the magic wall. You're looking at this three contest, to get a better sense of where it's moving right now. It's very close in all three of them.
KING: Yes. And I'm just trying to look at some of the delegate math. And I've been very generous here, if Donald Trump holds out in Missouri and he's won Illinois, this gives him more delegates than he's going to get from those states because we don't know the break down by congressional district yet but you have to do in Missouri, but we don't know the breakdown in Illinois just yet.
But even if he do this, if Donald Trump, and again, that's an overly generous number. Donald Trump is going to end the night needing to win 60 percent, probably a little higher than 60 percent of the remaining republican delegates.
So, just in ballpark 60 percent is 1,006 republican delegates left to be won in the remaining contest. Donald Trump is going to have to win in ballpark 60 percent of those delegates. Not impossible but it's difficult. Because not all of those states, any of those states are now winner-take-all.
So, it's a very interesting dynamic. Everyone I know is saying where does Kasich go from there? But that win in Ohio tonight substantially increases the odds that Donald Trump gets to the end in the lead, yes, but shy of 1237. It doesn't mean he can't get there but he will have to win 60 percent of the delegates to do it from here on out and that's a high test.
Now let's look at the democratic race. If you look right now without dealing with Illinois or Missouri yet, Hillary Clinton this is quite substantial. She now has a 300 delegate lead just pledge delegates. Forget the super delegates she has in her back pocket. The Sanders campaign doesn't even like to talk about those, so for now, we won't.
But it doesn't matter. Because she has a 300 delegate lead right now. Even if, even if these are very close contest. But even if Bernie Sanders, let's say he wins Missouri, it's very close right now and gets slightly more than Hillary Clinton, they're running, it's a 50 -- both races Illinois and Missouri are 50/50.
So, they are going to essentially evenly split the delegates. Even if we're overly generous and give Senator Sanders this, Secretary Clinton is going to end the night in the area of 300. This has just under 300. But I just gave those delegates probably overly generous to Senator Sanders.
So, the Clinton campaign they don't think tonight is going to end like this. They think they can still win both Illinois and Missouri and right now they're in position to possibly do that. [22:40:02] But even if they don't, they're going to end in the
ballpark of a 300 delegate lead, which they will make the case -- 72 percent, if that's the case, Senator Sanders would have to win 72 percent of the remaining delegates from here on out.
Although Hillary Clinton would have to do to clinch her keep her current percentage which is winning about 58, 59 percent of the delegates. So, the Clinton campaign will say mathematically it's impossible.
The Sanders campaign will say there's some nice states to come but the math at the end of the night especially on the democratic side, pretty overwhelmingly on Hillary Clinton's favor. As we wait to sort Illinois and Missouri.
Now on the republican side the Stop Trump movement will say he's not going to get there by the convention. And Trump supporters I know Jeff has been quite adamant about this but having to say even if he doesn't, he still have a lopsided lead. But that fight continues.
BLITZER: Yes, you need a majority, you need that 1,237 to get the nomination that close but you need 1,237 according to the current rules of the RNC. All right. Let's go to Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, AC360 SHOW HOST: Yes, Wolf, thanks very much. Let's try to play out what happens, assuming Trump doesn't get the complete number of delegates he needs, comes close to John's point but doesn't get it. Nia, what happens in Cleveland?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, it's anybody's guess. I mean, it's going to be Helter Skelter there in terms of trying to figure out a way to stop Trump. The establishment trying to stop him but also this idea -- Gloria laid out two scenarios, sort of going around Cruz are finding someone else.
But the other thing is can they find a way to sort of rehabilitate Trump in some ways? I mean, can be become a better candidate, can he move away from a lot of the harsh talk that has alienated a lot of voters in the primary, and can they kind of clean him up...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: And the other option is that by that point many in the establishment will sort of given up to stop Trump and sort of tried to make their peace with him.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, THE SMERCONISH SHOW HOST: I'm not sure they're ever going to give up in trying to stop Donald Trump in this process. I see signs that they're going to want to fight this thing all the way through Cleveland.
To Nia's point, Donald Trump tonight was a more conciliatory Donald Trump, apart from regarding the media as quote, "disgusting." I didn't hear any of...
(CROSSTALK) AXELROD: He meant that in nice way.
SMERCONISH: I didn't hear him say anything about Governor Kasich, which I found very interesting. Maybe I missed it but I don't think so. But he again made reference to having spoken with Paul Ryan to having spoken with Mitch McConnell I think this is and he didn't take questions from the media perhaps wanting to make sure that the evening ended on that relatively high note.
One other item, if I can point this out, Anderson, about the night that he had. Earlier, David Chalian noted that 36 percent of those in Florida who wished to give a path to illegals nevertheless voted for Donald Trump.
I went back and I looked at the Florida internals and I that see Trump won 38 percent of non-Cuban Hispanics. You know he loves to say the Hispanics, they love me, tonight, to an extent, they did.
AXELROD: You know. I think that the -- it actually -- I disagree with you that the establishment will never give up. I think if Donald Trump is close, if he's in the sort of 45 to 50 range, I think it's going to -- I think they're going to be resigned to the reality of this thing...
(CROSSTALK)
SMERCONISH: Can't deny it.
AXELROD: It's just simply too messy to deny a guy who is right on the doorstep of claiming the nomination. I mean, you'd rip your party apart. Can you imagine that convention where virtually half of the delegates are there?
COOPER: Today, I think Rush Limbaugh was saying that Jeb Bush is going to come back that he's going to be the one that doesn't seem to...
BEGALA: Many republicans believe if they nominate Donald Trump it will destroy the Republican Party. Others believe that if they fight the nomination on the floor, it will destroy the Republican Party. Either way, I'll be watching it from my classy estate from Mar-A-Lago, you know, my super model wife.
CUPP: If Donald Trump only goes into convention say 50 percent, maybe 60 percent of the republican votes, i.e. delegates, how do you as party elder or as a king maker say, well, to 60 percent of the party voters, we know better than you.
I think that's a huge mistake and it's right in the face of democracy. I am the first person to say I do not want Donald Trump to be our nominee or the president. But I think that would be a huge mistake for the party and for the whole process.
BORGER: But they're going to try to fight it before, before you get to that point.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER:
CUPP: It is still going to resonate badly with his supporters.
COOPER: So, we have a key race alert and we'll come, Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Anderson. We got a key race alert in Missouri. All of a sudden Ted Cruz has taken a very slight lead over Donald Trump in Missouri, 77 percent of the vote is in. Ted Cruz now at 41.7 percent. Look at how close it is with Donald Trump, 41.6 percent, 892 votes separate these two.
Ted Cruz is speaking right now. I think I want to go listen to Ted Cruz. Let's listen in. He's in Houston.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you so very much. God bless each and every one of you.
(APPLAUSE)
[22:45:02] Thank you, Dan Patrick, for leading our team here in the State of Texas.
(APPLAUSE)
And isn't
(APPLAUSE)
... and isn't Carly extraordinary?
(APPLAUSE)
Such a tremendous leader. And I got to tell you, she terrifies Hillary Clinton. Hillary tosses and turns in her jail cell thinking about her. Tonight was a good night...
(APPLAUSE)
Tonight, we continued to gain delegates and continue our march to 1,237.
(APPLAUSE)
And after tonight, America now has a clear choice going forward. Let me say a word about Marco Rubio. Marco is a friend. He's a colleague. He ran a strong, optimistic, positive campaign. His story, the son of a bartender, the son of a maid who fled Cuba seeking freedom.
It's powerful, it's been inspirational, Marco's story is passion, inspires me. Marco can paint a picture; can weave a tapestry of the promise of America like nobody else. And his presidential campaign inspired millions across the nation.
I congratulate Marco and Jeanette on the tremendous campaign they ran together.
(APPLAUSE)
To those who supported Marco, who worked so hard, we welcome you with open arms.
(APPLAUSE)
With gratitude and with hope and with a positive vision together for our great nation, we welcome you to join us along with remarkable leaders like Carly Fiorina, like Governor Rick Perry, and like all of the republicans who are uniting behind our campaign, from Mike Lee to Mark Levine, to National Review.
Starting tomorrow morning, every republican has a clear choice. Only two campaigns have a plausible path to the nomination, ours and Donald Trump's. Nobody else has any mathematical possibility whatsoever. Only one campaign has beaten Donald Trump over and over and over again.
(APPLAUSE)
Once, not twice, not three times, but nine times all across the country from Alaska to Maine. And going forward the choice is straight forward. Do you want a candidate who shares your values, or a candidate who has spent decades opposing your values?
The mainstream media, the network suits who make the decisions want Donald Trump as the republican nominee. That's why they've given him hundreds and millions in free advertising because they are partisan democrats ready for Hillary.
And they know that Donald may be the one person on the face of the earth that Hillary Clinton can beat in the general election. But the media aren't going to decide this election. The voters will.
(APPLAUSE)
And here's our vision for America. It's an America with a brighter future. It's an America with greater opportunity for our kids and grandkids. It's an America with more liberty and more safety and more security.
It is America that is greater tomorrow than it is today and then it was yesterday. This election will focus on three critical issues -- jobs, freedom and security. As president, my number one priority will be jobs, turning around the stagnation, the misery of the Obama/Clinton economy.
[22:50:04] You know, it's easy to talk about making America great again. You can even print that on a baseball cap. But the critical question is whether you understand the principles and values that made America great in the first place.
(APPLAUSE)
The heart of our economy isn't in Washington, D.C. The heart of our economy is small businesses all across the United States of America.
(APPLAUSE)
If I'm elected president, we will repeal every word of Obamacare.
(APPLAUSE)
We will pass a simple flat tax and abolish the IRS.
(APPLAUSE)
We will reign in the EPA and the government regulators that are killing small businesses.
(APPLAUSE)
And we'll stop amnesty, secure the borders, end sanctuary cities and end welfare benefits for those here illegally.
(APPLAUSE)
And the result will be millions upon millions of high paying jobs. It will be wages rising for people all across America, it will be young people coming out of school with two three, four, five job opportunities.
(APPLAUSE)
Far too many politicians focus on Washington, D.C. To the lobbyists, to those like Donald Trump who buy influence and to those like Hillary Clinton who sell influence, Washington is the center of the universe. But we understand that isn't right. Together we will make Washington less relevant in all of our lives.
(APPLAUSE)
We'll fire government regulators and repeal job killing regulations. And together we will take the boot of the federal government off the backs of the necks of small businesses all across this country.
(APPLAUSE)
It's not about the cronyism and the bailout that's far too many republicans and democrats have done over and over again to benefit the rich and powerful. Instead less government is more freedom.
(APPLAUSE)
Higher wages and a better standard of life for all of us. The second critical issue in this election is freedom. Two debates ago, Donald Trump promised all of us that he would compromise with Harry Reid and Chuck Schumer on replacing Antonin Scalia to the United States Supreme Court.
Our rights hanging in the balance and let me be very, very clear to the people of America I will not compromise away your religious liberty. And I will not compromise away your religious liberty.
(APPLAUSE)
And I will not compromise away your Second Amendment right to keep and bear arms.
(APPLAUSE)
And every justice I appoint to the court will be faithful to the law and will ferociously protect the Bill of Rights for your children and for mine.
(APPLAUSE)
The third critical issue in this election is security. For seven years, we've abandoned our friends and allies and we've shown weakness and appeasement to our enemies.
Two debates ago, Donald Trump promised as president to be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians. Well, let me be clear. As president, I will not be neutral.
(APPLAUSE)
[22:55:03] America will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel.
(APPLAUSE)
And anyone who cannot tell the difference between our friends and our enemies, who cannot tell the difference between Israel and Islamic terrorists who seek to murder us, that raises real questions about their fitness and judgment to be commander-in-chief.
(APPLAUSE)
Donald Trump says he will keep in place this Iranian nuclear deal and try to renegotiate it. I will rip to shreds this Iranian nuclear deal on the very first day in office.
(APPLAUSE)
Over seven years, President Obama has weakened and undermined the military. We've seen this before with another weak democratic president, Jimmy Carter, who did the same thing. And in January 1981, Ronald Reagan came into office.
(APPLAUSE)
And what did Reagan do? He cut taxes, he lifted regulation, he pulled government off the backs of the necks of small businesses. We saw millions of high paying jobs, it generated trillions in new government revenue and he used that money to rebuild the military, to bankrupt the Soviet Union and to win the Cold War.
(APPLAUSE) I intend to do the exact same thing with radical Islamic terrorism. We are going to repeal Obamacare, we are going to pass a flat tax, lift the regulations, stop the amnesty and will see millions upon millions of high paying jobs, trillions in new government revenue and we will use that revenue to rebuild this military so that it remains the mightiest fighting force on the face of the planet.
(APPLAUSE)
Tomorrow we have a choice, a clear and simple choice. Enough with the Washington corruption. Enough with the deception, with using government to benefit the rich and powerful at the expense of hard working taxpayers. Together we can turn things around.
If we stand together, if we remember the common sense free market principles that built America, the constitutional liberties that built America, once again standing together, we can have morning in America.
(APPLAUSE)
Now is the time for republicans to unite, for independents to unite, for libertarians to unite, for all of us who want a brighter future for our nation to come together and stand as one. Starting tomorrow morning there is a clear choice, a clear and direct choice. And for everyone who wants to see a brighter tomorrow, we welcome you to our teams, we welcome you with open and welcoming arms. Thank you and God bless you.
(APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Ted Cruz delivering a very, very tough speech largely designed to go against Donald Trump. Donald Trump so far has won three states, Ted Cruz so far has not won any states.
Let's give you a key race alert right now at what's going on. There are three outstanding contest on the republican side. One outstanding contest, Donald Trump, he's at 41.5 percent, Ted Cruz, 41.2 percent.
In Missouri, 99 percent of the vote is in. In Missouri, Donald Trump is ahead by 2,315. Fifty two delegates at stake in Missouri, it's very, very close. Once again, 99 percent of the vote has been counted. Donald Trump has a very, very slight lead right now, 2,300 votes over Ted Cruz.
On the democratic side, take a look at this. In Missouri at the same time, very close, Bernie Sanders has 50.8 percent, Hillary Clinton 48 percent, 62 percent of the vote is in.
Nearly 12,000 vote advantage for Bernie Sanders right now in Missouri. He has not won a state yet tonight. This would be his first win if he holds on.
In Illinois she has a lead, 76 percent of the vote is in, Hillary Clinton with 51.1 percent, Bernie Sanders 48 percent. She's got a lead of almost 46,000 in Illinois right now. She's already won three states, North Carolina, Ohio, and Florida. Illinois still outstanding. Missouri is still outstanding on the democratic side.
[22:59:59] The only outstanding vote on the republican side, Missouri. Here are the states won so far. Let's update you. Donald Trump, he has won tonight in Florida, Illinois, and North Carolina.
Remember, Florida is winner-take-all 99 delegates there.
