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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees

Clinton Becomes Presumptive Nominee, Makes History; GOP Outrage And Support For Trump; Trump Defends Judge Comments Despite GOP Concerns; When Will Pres. Obama Endorses Clinton?; Trump To Give Speech On Clintons Next Week; Sanders Meets With Pres. Obama Thursday; One-On-One With Hillary Clinton After Historic Win. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired June 08, 2016 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:02] RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: In 2016, Carly Fiorina's turn, the former Hewlett-Packard CEO, often sparred with opponent Donald Trump.

CARLY FIORINA, (R) FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You ran up mountains of debt, as well as losses.

KAYE: Then candidate Ted Cruz named Fiorina as his running mate, but vice president wasn't in the cards for her either, nor was it for Geraldine Ferraro back in 1984, even though she stood her ground against then vice president George H.W. Bush.

GERALDINE FERRARO, 1984 VICE PRESIDENT NOMINEE: By almost recent, Vice President Bush, your patronizing attitude.

KAYE: Sarah Palin's vice presidential run was memorable.

SARAH PALIN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: It's nice to meet you.

JOE BIDEN: It's nice to meet you.

PALIN: Hey, can I call you Joe?

KAYE: But in the end, Palin went down in flames. In part because she couldn't answer a question about what newspaper she read.

PALIN: All of them, any of them that have been in front of me over all these years. I have a vast variety of sources where we get an hour or maybe two. Alaska isn't a foreign country.

KAYE: For so many before Hillary Clinton, the Oval Office was out of reach, but as she predicted eight years ago,

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESUMPTIVE DEMOCRATIC NOMINEE: That the path will be a little easier next time.

KAYE: This could be her year.

Randi Kaye, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Much more ahead in the next hour of "360", including more on the split among Republican lawmakers or whether to support their parties presumptive nominee or exactly how far to go in supporting him. Some will bail in him. Others insist he can change his tone and style. The House Speaker Ryan changed any minds today in that closed door meeting. We'll look at that ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:05:16] COOPER: Good evening. Thanks for joining us. We begin the hour with Republican all over the map on supporting Donald Trump. Now some lawmakers using his remarks about a federal judge is their chance as Senator Lindsey Graham put it to take the off ramp. Others citing his speech last night as reasoned to hang on.

And House Speaker Paul Ryan whose had a very at very best mixed feelings about Donald Trump. He's now on board. Speaker Ryan who just recently called what Trump said about Judge Gonzalo Curiel textbook racism. Those were his words. He's trying to build support for the man.

Right now some might say only in Washington which is where CNN's Manu Raju has been following all the twists and the turns. So you've been talking to GOP officials and donors. Did events today change any minds?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Well not quite, but he's on shaky ground, Anderson. There are several GOP camps forming on Capitol Hill. The Republican leaders who say that, you know, the voters have spoken and that Donald Trump would be much better than Hillary Clinton. There are Republicans in that Never Trump Movement by Lindsey Graham who you just mentioned. Ben Sass of Nebraska and a congressman from Wisconsin Reid Ribble who told me today that Trump is likely a racist for questioning whether if Judge Curiel can rule fairly because he's a Mexican descent.

And then there are Republicans who are running for re-election in very tough re-election races. And this is where you're going to find the most distance. Senator Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania told CNN today, you're going to see how this campaign plays out before he can determine whether to support Donald Trump. Both Ron Johnson and Kelly Ayotte two senators is in difficult re-electing races. They said they would support the nominee, but not endorse the nominee an implicit warning that Trump could lose their backing.

And lastly Anderson, I caught up with his biggest rival in the campaign season, Ted Cruz, who told me today, time will tell on whether he would even back Donald Trump this year.

COOPER: What roles did Trump's speech play in anybody's thinking?

RAJU: You know, I can tell you that many ...

COOPER: His speech last night.

RAJU: ... Republicans, you know, that speech went over well actually on Capitol Hill. John Cornyn, the number two Senate Republican told me that he was happy that Trump stayed on script and Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell said something similar to our colleague Aaron Burnett just earlier this evening. And in the closed door meeting this morning that you reference, Paul Ryan who did criticize those comments yesterday very, very strongly, we reiterated his support for Trump and express really the importance of party unity. Really, Anderson, they're just hoping that last night's speech wasn't just an anomaly.

COOPER: And so -- I mean, what are their biggest remaining concerns at this point?

RAJU: Well, they want him to communicate a clear vision for the party and talk about the Republican issues that unite them as a party. And many Republicans like Susan Collins of Maine are just tired of all of the personal insults he has leveled, even at his fellow Republicans. Where Republicans don't want to hear, Anderson, is more controversial comments and they'll force them to clean up after their nominee and really distract from their furious effort to hang on the Congress. Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Manu Raju. Manu thanks.

Just to underscore awhile last night speech might be reassuring some supporters and to give you his little perspective. Here's the contrasting moment that really ignited their concerns.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: This judge is a Mexican heritage. I'm building a wall, OK? I'm building a wall, that he's Mexican heritage and he's very proud of it.

I'm building a wall, OK? I'm building a wall. I'm trying to keep business out of Mexico.

He's proud of his heritage, OK? I'm building a wall. We're building a wall. He's a Mexican. We're building a wall between here and Mexico. This judge is giving us unfair rulings. Now I say why. Well, I want to -- I'm building a wall, OK? And it's a wall between Mexico, not another country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: By the way, that was not us repeating those statements over and over again. That's how many times he actually said that Donald Trump talking with CNN Jake Tapper last Friday.

Now apparently, trying to reboot his campaign. CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us with more on that. So what are you hearing about how yesterday's speech came together with the key players inside Trump's campaign?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well it's really an amazing thing, Anderson. When you look at it, just a little more than 24 hours prior, Donald Trump was on a private conference call with surrogates, urging them to go on offense on this issue. There's a good reason why. He still believes he's in the right here. He believes that the rulings that have come down from the judge have been unfair, that the only rational reason why they would be is because this judge is biased. And he believes he's been right throughout this entire process.

But what we saw last night first in the 700 plus word statement and then in the rather toned down remarks that you and Manu were talking about, is that he at the urging of family members, including his daughter, Ivanka Trump, RNC members, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and probably most importantly Chief Strategist Paul Manafort was willing to if not back down, at least ratchet back the rhetoric.

Now Anderson, it's worth noting here, this isn't some major pivot. If you talk to his advisers, they say major change is not in the offing here, but this was a shift.

[21:10:01] Donald Trump is listening to advisers, telling him to change course is something new. And I think for a lot of Republicans as Manu was just pointing out, this could be an important moment but they want to see what happens next.

COOPER: In term about the process here, I mean was this something that Trump himself wanted to do? Do we know?

MATTINGLY: Yeah. Anderson, I think one of the interesting things throughout his campaign. You learn from Donald Trump's closest advisers is, Donald Trump doesn't do anything that Donald Trump doesn't want to do, but there are a core group of advisers that he is starting to rely on a lot. And throughout this process, Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee Chairman and Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, have been really close sounding boards for him throughout this entire process, obviously Paul Manafort as well.

It's worth noting, Anderson, that while this was a shift, you're not going to see Donald Trump really come off course here. He's going to continue to do what he's been doing in his rallies. And the reason why is this. It's gotten him this far. When you talk to his advisers ...

COOPER: Right.

MATTINGLY: ... when you hear him speak, he doesn't think that the establishment Republicans that have been opposed to what he's been doing up to this point have any grounds to stand on right now. So there's not going to be some major wholesale shift, but it is interesting to note. Chris Christie, Reince Priebus, Paul Manafort, all individuals who have gotten kind of good sway in this entire process, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. Phil Mattingly, I appreciate the reporting.

Back now with the panel this hour, Rick Lazio, Van Jones, David Gergen. Joining us also is Trump supporter Kayleigh McEnany. You know, Kayleigh, it's interesting we talked last night when we're on the air together about Donald Trump putting out a statement, saying look, I'm done talking about this, time to talk about other things. And yet I read an interview with him that I'm pretty sure with Trump today in which he was again talking about the details of this and that he didn't get some good rulings on this, kind of re-litigating again this case.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well I would have to see the details of the interview. I haven't seen that one. I know people have been citing his interview last night which apparently was prerecorded before the statement came out. At least that's what, you know, I've been told.

But, you know, if he's asked about it, I think, you know, he will respond to the question, but I think he's not going to fall for the gotcha questions anymore. He's not going to bring it up outside of an interview. He's probably going to try to move to issues more and more, like jobs, like terrorism. Is it going to come up during the course of this campaign? I'm sure it will.

I'm sure it will in some form probably be a part of the debate question. I hope it's not. I hope moderators choose to stick to what the American people care about. But it's probably going to come up. He's just not going to make this a central issue.

COOPER: David I mean, Kayleigh McEnany called a gotcha questions. I mean it does seem Donald Trump answers questions. You ask him a question and he answers and you can disagree with the answer or like it or not like it. But I'm not sure that assuming Jake's questions were gotcha questions, getting him to repeat over and over again, you know, "I'm building a wall, he's Mexican."

DAVID GERGEN, FORMER PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER TO REAGAN, FORD, CLINTON AND NIXON: When a candidate says something that causes a huge controversy, questions are going to come from the press right and left and repeatedly to try to get the candidate to clarify or take a stand or one thing or another. He is just has been going through what lots and lots of professional political leaders have gone through over the years. There's nothing new about that.

I don't think he has been treated anymore on unfairly than other leaders about a parties. I can just tell you going back to the Clinton years, this night they thought they were hammered by the mainstream press. I know he didn't come from the right to came from the left. I thought the New York Times was after them right from the beginning.

So, I don't think -- I think he has had a baptism by fire over this. I don't think he handled it particularly well. What I do think is important did last night represent a turn in the tone he brings to the campaign. Of course he's going to have rallies, but is he going to change his tone in the way that Paul Ryan and others have been urging him to do and they're not convinced of that yet, you know, because they have been told on more than one occasion by him and by others around him. Oh he gets it, he'll pay. He's going to change. He's going to do it.

And then even his advisers say he's about -- he going to change tonight, and then boom, he goes off where (inaudible) than his old self. And so there's this skepticism among other Republicans who came out today in a big piece with according to Ben Webber who is a major, you know, long time Republican leader in Washington who said flat out. I don't believe it. I don't think he'll change. I think he's incapable to change.

I think what we're going to do is wait and see now. I think if he does change, he keeps his rallies, you know, I think he's got a real chance to regain his footing. I would say parenthetically, Anderson, he warned, you know, that if he change, he's going be boring. And I must say, I think last night for the first time, he was a little boring. So it is a ...

COOPER: Well, you know, and Rick ...

GERGEN: ... there's retention for him.

COOPER: It's double into her. No and Rick I mean that's an important point because, look, this -- there are a lot of other candidates who read off TelePrompTers. There are a lot of other candidates on the GOP side who, you know, had professional campaigns. There are a lot of the candidates who knew his policy papers and the issues, you know, left, right, and center. And they're gone and Donald Trump beat them all. So, if you were Donald Trump, why wouldn't you stick with what brought you here?

[21:15:04] RICK LAZIO, FORMER NEW YORK CONGRESSMAN: I'll say Donald Trump relishes controversy because it commands the attention of the media. He wants to control the attention of the media desperately.

The problem is, that wouldn't be bad if he was talking about the bad job support and the contrast between a program that would lift jobs, lift incomes and grow the economy.

And what we've been seeing for the last seven years under Barack Obama, he is driving controversy around religious litmus test for immigration, barring Muslims into the country, saying that a U.S. born Indiana Bred Judge who happens to be from Mexican descent is a Mexican and therefore he's not qualified to be able to preside over trial, and then said, well maybe if there are Muslims or maybe if they're a woman that he would feel the same way. Well, he's had a problem with the Pope, does that mean every Catholic judge also would have -- wouldn't be qualified to hear the case?

I mean, this is what makes I think elected Republicans uneasy. It's what makes a lot of traditional long time lifelong Republicans uneasy. This is not the kind of statement, this is not the kind of statements that you would associate with the party of Lincoln, Theodore Roosevelt or Ronald Reagan. This is a different party that Donald Trump seems to be wanted to preside over and it's not one that is embraced by many people like me.

COOPER: Van, I mean Newt Gingrich talked to CNN today saying that these missteps from Trump, are "the kinds of mistakes that amateurs make" and yet he still, you know, Newt Gingrich wanted to stress that he's, you know, supporting Donald Trump. What about that? I mean the fact of the matter is Trump has only been a politician for a year now. Are they simply crooked mistakes he is making?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, a year is a long time in politics. And a lot of mistakes he's making are mistakes that if you're a kinder gardener, maybe his mistakes over and over again you'd be worried. This means really acting like a really bad boyfriend.

All right, after the fourth date, the fifth date, the sixth date, you're still having these kind of problems, you got to start being worried. Now obviously Speaker Gingrich is someone who is been trying very hard to help him and I applaud Speaker Gingrich for doing that. But the reality is at this late date, imagine if you're one year into the presidency and you're having these kinds of problems that will come over.

Well, guess what, here comes this press conference tomorrow, the president's going to stop insulting the prime minister and stop insulting, and don't worry, he's going to get better. You can't do this. And I think that's where we are.

MCENANY: One thing that ...

JONES: I think for most people, we have already seen enough to know that there's something desperately wrong with this candidacy and with this candidate.

COOPER: Kayleigh go ahead.

MCENANY: One thing, Van you point to his Achilles heel which is definitely being unscripted. Sometimes that comes back to hurt him. But it's also his greatest attribute because I think there's such a contrast when you watch Donald Trump handle press questions where he -- most of the time just answers directly for better or worse. Versus Secretary Clinton who is a professional dodger.

I just watched her interview with Anderson Cooper. Anderson you asked really great questions but you did have to ask her twice whether her husband would remove himself from the Clinton Foundation hours early, she's reproductive.

COOPER: Right, she didn't answer.

MCENANY: She didn't. And hours earlier, she was a part of another interview where she was asked twice why she said she give an interview to anyone to who that wanted to ask about the e-mails, but then refused to speak with the inspector general. She was asked twice, she didn't answer. I think there are the contrast people see. They see authenticity from Trump and they see dodging from Hillary Clinton.

COOPER: I mean look, I said that from the beginning about Donald Trump, Van, which is that, you know, you can actually see him in an interview, and when John Dickerson asked him over the weekend, what would a Muslim judge be unable to, and I don't want to misquote, John Dickerson but be unable to judge you. Clearly Trump hadn't thought about it. And you saw him for I think go like hmm, yeah, I guess so. And think about it and answer.

Now, a practiced politician would not have answered that question, you know or would have got another away. And to Kayleigh's point, that's his Achilles heel but also part of what attracted people in the first place.

JONES: Listen, is that somewhat in some context endearing, captivating, that make for interesting television, yes. But here's the reality, it does not make a great president of the United States whose very word could crash a start marker to start a war. So yes, it's refreshing but that doesn't mean that it's actually what you need to get a country through where we are.

COOPER: OK. Let's take a quick break. We're going to dig deeper with this panel to the notion of Trump 2.0. When we come back, is there a reset, and what he is promising when he makes his next big formal speech on Monday? We'll have all that later.

President Obama's endorsement of Hillary Clinton, when it could happen, how it might happen, whether it could persuade Bernie Sanders supporters to stay in the Democratic camp next fall.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:23:31] COOPER: We're talking about Donald Trump, preparing to do what some of his re-electing supporters have been asking him to do, namely stop with the name calling and the judge blaming and the agreement says and to use that Washington word pivot toward the general election. Now as you know speech last night differed sharply from his usual off the cap appearances.

Here's another sample in which he preview the line of attacking tends to used in the coming campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am going to give a major speech on probably Monday of next week and we're going to be discussing all of the things that have taken place with the Clintons. I think you're going to find it very informative and very, very interesting.

Hillary Clinton turned the state department into her private hedge fund. The Russians, the Saudis, the Chinese, all gave money to Bill and Hillary and got favorable treatment in return. It is a sad day in America when foreign governments with deep pockets have more influence in our own country than our great citizens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: And back with the panel. David, the speech that Trump is going to give next week, I mean it seems like his argument is going to be that the Clintons see government service as a means to an end for their own gains, he's going to raise up all these questions, some of which I asked Secretary Clinton about, about the Clinton foundation and other issues.

I mean Secretary Clinton says look, this has all been gone over already, let him bring this on, there's nothing new here. Shouldn't she be concerned though? Is she vulnerable on this?

GERGEN: I think that her speech against him, you know, her, quote, foreign policy speech in which she assembled, you know, everything in that speech was known before, but still it had a powerful effect, it was the cumulative quality of the speech that really was very, very effective, and his answer frankly was just you know with minimal.

[21:25:20] And I think he didn't rebut it effectively at al. But now I think his got the opportunity to return the favor and go and bring all of this stuff together and go slug her. That's going to be the nature of this campaign unfortunately. But, you know, it seems to me fair is fair, she went after him in that way, I think he's got every right to go after her and see where the chips fall.

COOPER: And Kayleigh, are you brought up a number of issues you know and -- over the last several weeks about the Clintons and I'm sure we're going to hear those echoed from Donald Trump. Were you surprised that he didn't respond or that the campaign didn't seem to respond more aggressively to the speech that Hillary Clinton gave in which, you know, is sort of litany of using his words against him?

MCENANY: I wasn't really surprised because I think there are so many months going forward that he does have a chance to respond. He had just laid out his positive foreign policy vision which was rebutted a few weeks later within an attack from Hillary Clinton. I think that he has a lot of months to draw a stark contrast, and I think that starts Monday with this attack. And, you know, contrary to what some say, this is digging up old Clinton past, it's not going to have an impact, I think it will. We get new, news everyday the Associated Press just broke news hours ago that there's a chance that Hillary Clinton e-mails could have exposed the identities of CIA operatives, there's a chance that's could have happened.

They also mentioned aides having to unplug the server when there was potentially hackers going into the State Department. There's a lot of new details breaking day to day. And I think it's worth his time to tie it all together.

COOPER: Van, I mean what does it say about this election cycle that both candidates at times seem far more comfortable making the case against the rival on the other side of the aisle than they do actually making the case for themselves, or it perhaps it just we pay more attention when is they make that case against the rival.

JONES: Well, as depressing and distressing I think for most people because obviously most people can't follow all of these twists and turns and those allegations. But what I will say is this, which I don't think people say enough, they are trying to make the Clinton Foundation seem to be some big, terrible thing. Frankly the Clinton Foundation is probably, because honest about it, what a best things any ex-presidents ever done. Look, a lot of presidents have really good post presidencies, no Jimmy Carter was probably a better ex-president than president, and he has done and continues to do a ton of great work around the world. But nobody has done as much as much as the Clintons have through their foundation.

I mean you got people who are walking around breathing with HIV medicine and water and stuff on planet earth cause of foundation. So and to me it's just weird that your going to go and take the one great thing that nobody ordinarily would argue about, and try to make that this nasty thing. So at some point it maybe kind a (inaudible) let's talk about the foundation, and you could bring out literary thousands and thousands of people who benefitted. I don't know if that's going to be as bad a thing for the Clintons to be talk about this foundation.

COOPER: Rick, what do you think?

LAZIO: Well, I think number one that, you know, Donald Trump is not going to have a hard sell to explain or to persuade the American public that Hillary Clinton is not particularly trustworthy, that she's got ethical issues I mean you got, all of the polling the consensus polling that shows that a majority of Americans don't really trust Hillary Clinton. That's really her Achilles heel and that's the shame of where Republicans find themselves with Donald Trump, that they have a generic Republican, they probably would be ahead by five, six points right now on their way to a win, and solidifying majorities in the House and Senate.

I hope that Donald Trump will focus on some things that are very real for American people like the fact that they have stagnant wages for almost 15 years. This last jobs report on Friday where you had almost 500,000 workers dropping out of the work force, another 500,000 Americans in part-time jobs that want full-time jobs. I mean that's where the real rubber hits the road. And it's where Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama have vulnerability, they have seven years to try in build a stronger economy, it's the worst recovery since World War II, post recession recovery and Donald Trumps all it have a lot of ammunition and you only have great plan to address it. He says he's the economy guy in fact polling says Americans want to believe that he'll do a better job fixing the economy.

COOPER: Right.

LAZIO: Then get on it.

COOPER: I want to thank all the panel. Just ahead, we're going to dig into a claim that many of Trumps surrogates keep making about Judge Curiel, he probably heard them making involves a scholarship they say was given to undocumented immigrants. Is that what really happened? What role did the judge actually play? We'll take a look at that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:33:47] COOPER: Donald Trump may have softened his tone in the last night's speech, but he has certainly, he's not back away from the comments that's spark the fire storm within his party.

In the statement yesterday, Trump said in his remarks about Federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel had been misconstrued. He also said his concerns about Judge Curiel go beyond his ethnicity and include his reported associations with certain professional organizations.

Now, a number of Trump surrogates have repeatedly cited Curiel's membership in the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association as the evidence that he maybe buy it, because of a scholarship that that organization gave out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCENANY: This judge part of La Raza San Diego Lawyers did oversee to giving of the scholarship to an illegal immigrant.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That group of La Raza Lawyers of San Diego gave a scholarship to an illegal immigrant.

JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: He gave a scholarship to somebody who broke American Law.

MCENANY: He gave his scholarship to an illegal immigrant.

LORD: That gave scholarship to an illegal immigrant. He gave a scholarship from this group to an undocumented immigrant.

MCENANY: It does say something about what the judge thinks of illegal immigrants that they should be in this country. And not only that, he rewarded with a scholarship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Well, they're been making this claim a lot often on this program as you saw. So, we ask our Gary Tuchman to look into it. Here's what he found.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Judge Gonzalo Curiel works out of this federal courthouse in San Diego. Right across the street is where the president of the San Diego La Raza Lawyers Association works.

[21:35:03] LUIS OSUNA, PRESIDENT, SAN DIEGO LA RAZA LAWYERS ASSOCIATION: We're a diversity bar association here in San Diego that focuses on increasing diversity and equality among Latinos in the legal community.

TUCHMAN: Jude Curiel is a member. And he's being accused by some critics of awarding scholarships to undocumented immigrants. Indeed, the lawyer's association does offer small student scholarships ranging from $1,000 to $2,500.

Do you have to be in law school or one of the law school ? OSUNA: Sure. You have to be in law school. We look at GPA, we look at community service, and we look at your commitment to the Latino community.

TUCHMAN: And Judge Curiel was on an 11 member committee that selected which students got those scholarships in 2014. The lawyer association said all decisions were group decisions.

Was there ever a time where the Judge Curiel or any individual on the selection committee would buy themselves decide on someone getting a scholarship?

OSUNA: No, absolutely not.

TUCHMAN: These are names of people who got them two years ago, and it does appear that one wasn't documented when he was brought here as an 11-year-old. We know it because Ricardo Elorza disclosed it himself on this La Raza Lawyers Association news release.

Look, he wrote, a boy from Oaxaca, who did not know English and is undocumented has now graduated from law school and is an attorney.

RICARDO ELORZA, FOURTH YEAR STUDENT: I would tell prospective students to come at Thomas Jefferson.

TUCHMAN: And this is Ricardo Elorza in a promotional video for Thomas Jefferson School of Law in San Diego, the school he attended.

ELORZA: Here you will be helped, you will be guided, you will be nurtured, and if you're put into work, you will succeed in whatever you want to do within school and outside.

TUCHMAN: It's not clear if any on the application committee knew about his status. But California law does permit undocumented children brought to the U.S. opportunities such as being admitted to the bar and practicing law.

OSUNA: Whether one is undocumented or not it's not a question that we have asked of our applicants.

TUCHMAN: So, if anyone thought Judge Curiel sorted out an undocumented immigrant to be give a scholarship, that is not the case?

OSUNA: I think it's just that misinformation being used for political expediency.

TUCHMAN: Initially some Trump surrogates and supporters were saying this lawyer's group was part of Latino civil rights group known as the National Council of La Raza, which is disliked by some conservatives but that is not true.

OSUNA: It's a policy driven advocacy group that we have no affiliation with.

TUCHMAN: That difference is now recognized by some of the critics.

TRUMP: This judges of Mexican heritage, I'm building a wall, OK? I'm building a wall. I am going to do very well with the Hispanic.

TUCHMAN: So, Donald Trump was now saying he was quote, "misconstrued", but he still saying this judge has treated him unfairly, which makes him no different from countless other defendants in American courtrooms, complaining sometimes rightly and often quite wrongly that a judge has it out for them.

OSUNA: As a judge, he has handled himself with integrity and I think he will continue to do so moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Gary, do you know if any of the members of this lawyers association are in fact Trump supporters?

TUCHMAN: Well, first I should mention to you, Anderson, that the members of the organization came out with a press release today supporting Judge Curiel, but the president of the organization stressed to me that this is not an anti-Trump organization. I asked them of their 300 members how many are supporting Donald Trump, he says he doesn't know. He also doesn't know how many are supporting Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders he but does say that some members are liberal, some are conservative, some are Democrats, some are Republicans. Anderson?

COOPER: All right, Gary Tuchman, Gary, thanks.

Up next, a question many are asking, when will President Obama actually endorse Hillary Clinton? Some insight when we continue.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:42:36] COOPER: Unity, that is what Hillary Clinton is calling for now that she's the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. But Bernie Sanders isn't bowing out of the race just yet. Still Secretary Clinton predicts that day is nearing. Here's what she told me earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I'm looking forward to working with him to achieve our common goal which is to defeat Donald Trump. And Senator Sanders has said he will work every day, every week to see that happen, so we're going to be working to make sure that we have a unified party going into our convention and coming out. I know Senator Sanders will be meeting with President Obama tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Let's get some details on that meeting whether the president will endorsing Hillary Clinton soon. Joining me now is White House Correspondent Michelle Kosinski.

So this meeting tomorrow between the president and Sanders, do we know what they're going to discuss in specifics? MICHELLE KOSINSKI, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. The White House is being so careful about all this, almost to the point it makes you say come on. I mean at this point they're not even saying that Hillary Clinton is the presumptive nominee, because for them it is all about respecting the process, respecting Bernie Sanders and his supporters who they ultimately want to see support Hillary Clinton.

So publicly the White House is saying the president tomorrow will congratulate Sanders, it will talk about building on progress his already made on the issues and how he can play some important role continuing to engage in the debate. Behind the scenes, we know that the president wants to hear Sanders out, that this is likely to be a long discussion, at least an hour, and they're really going to hash out a plan moving forward. Because still, you know, the White House wants to keep it as inclusive and as positive as possible, Anderson.

COOPER: And any idea when an endorsement of Secretary Clinton by the president might occur?

KOSINSKI: You know, this is one of the cases where you can actually feel the delicate dance around this. You can feel that this is a work in progress for the White House and very much dependent on how this discussion goes tomorrow. But keep in mind, even if Sanders wants to stay in the race a little while longer, the White House doesn't necessarily see him staying in up to the convention. They've had three conversations with them already.

So don't expect the president to necessarily wait for him to fully leave the race. Because they are so concerned about being careful, we could see the White House do a sort of roll out of an endorsement.

[21:45:01] Maybe something a little softer, maybe something on social media before the president does one of those big events where he's going to be standing side by side with Hillary Clinton. The best we can say at this point, is they're working on it, but, you know, nothing before tomorrow. I mean we're almost at that point already.

COOPER: Right.

KOSINSKI: But this is going to be in the morning tomorrow. But it could be very soon after that meeting, Anderson.

COOPER: All right. We'll be covering it. Michelle thanks so much, Michelle Kosinski.

Let's go back to the panel. Joining us Jonathan Tasini is back with Bernie Sanders surrogate and political strategist. Also Christine Quinn, Hillary Clinton supporter, former New York City Council Speaker.

David let start with you, as we just heard President Obama expected to endorse Hillary Clinton, exactly when we don't know. How pivotal do you think that endorsement is going to be to her candidacy?

GERGEN: Well, I think his enthusiastic support, not only in the endorsement but in the campaign, along with very importantly Bernie Sanders' enthusiastic support if that were to come would be very, very helpful for Mrs. Clinton. What they need to do obviously is to rally young people in ways they haven't been rallied so far, President Obama did that two elections in a row, he did remarkably well with young people.

I think he can bring them back to the polls, to get the minorities back, it's going to be very, very tough for Trump to win. On the other if they sit home, anything could be possible. So I think this is, I must tell you, I think the White House is playing this extremely well.

You know, Joe Biden coming out today and say let's not rush in, let's be -- give them a grace period here and I think the president is going to play peace maker. And on the other side as remarkable to figure as Bernie Sanders is, you have to give him credit for what he's done. I thought last night he was ungenerous in his response. I mean he was well past 10 minutes into his speech before he took note of the fact that last night was historic, that a woman had nearly wrapped up the nomination of a party. It seems to me generosity would have been suggested to him to be kinder, to start building bridges to Mrs. Clinton as well as to the White House. I think that's going to answer his movement better than anything else.

COOPER: Jonathan, I mean is there anything specific or what specifics could Hillary Clinton do to help, you know, Bernie Sanders come on board and Sanders supporters? I mean, you know, there's a lot of reporting that Bernie Sanders doesn't like Debbie Wasserman Schultz, is, you know, her removal as DNC chair, people on the platform committee who the Sanders committee clearly don't like. I mean what specifically?

JONATHAN TASINI, BERNIE SANDERS' SURROGATE: Well, I have to say there are a lot of people who don't like Debbie Wasserman Schultz and not confined just to the Sanders' sources, I've talked to a lot of Democrats outside the Sanders' camp and they would like to see her gone for lots of business. But I think that the one thing that we are mistaking and maybe getting too bound up about is the idea of unity, as if there's going to be a kumbaya moment we're all going to be on the convention for singing "We are the World" and embracing and loving each other, and I don't think that's going to happen and I don't think that's necessarily an awful thing.

And part of the reason that's not going to happen, is a very different ideological view about the future of the country and the future of the party and what we should stand for. And to the point about the president's endorsement, let's face it; the issue of trade was brought up before. That is going to be a very intense debate at the convention, and in some way is going to put our delegates, the Sanders delegates in contradiction to where the president stands. And those thing going to happen but we -- I do believe we will be able to come out of the convention with one point and unifying idea which is to defeat Donald Trump.

COOPER: So Christine, I mean does that hearten you or does that make you a little concerned in here Jonathan saying no kumbaya. CHRISTINE QUINN, CLINTON SUPPORTER & FOMER NYC CITY COUNCIL SPEAKER: Well look, nobody thought, you know, Bernie and Hillary were going to kind of hug it out on the stage. I mean and we don't need them to do that, we don't need to be going to the movies together. What we need is for Senator Sanders to support which I have no doubt he will Secretary Clinton enthusiastically, to urge his supporters to support her for him hopefully the campaign with her as she did for President Obama but they need to talk policy and issues and that's a good thing in our party.

COOPER: So Van, I mean there's support and there is, you know, active support campaigning for it.

JONES: Yeah. Well, first of all a couple of things that we talked about Obama earlier. In 2008, the idea was that you would get McCain as far away from George W. Bush as possible, I'm not running for a third Bush term. In this -- in this case Republicans say Hillary Clinton is running for a third Obama term, if she goes yes, I am. That's an extraordinary statement about how popular this president is, at least with Democrats and certainly I think that's remarkable.

I think that the Clinton people are in where a rude awakening though as they try to interact with the Sanders forces. It is not just about policies. It's not just about this plank or that plank. There are some deep processes concerns that the Sanders' people have about big money and politics and also that one of the umpires were fair this last round, whether the DNC chair was in fact fair and neutral. And so, it's harder to get people together when it's not just about policy, but also about process.

[21:50:26] COOPER: I've got to take a break. Thanks everybody on the panel. One-on-one with Hillary Clinton after her historic wins. Some of the highlights from my interview with her today, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We began tonight's program with my interview with Hillary Clinton. There is still the convention ahead in July of course and as we've been discussing fences to matter with the Sanders campaign, then what could be a general election like none we have seen before.

In the meantime, Secretary Clinton has made history. Here are some of the highlights of our conversation.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Today, Trump's campaign is saying they'll make you concerted effort to attract Sanders supporters. I know you spoke to Senator Sanders last night.

According to a Politico article, he feels, "rage against you", to say he's quote, "Filled with resentment", because that's according to their people in this campaigning. How do you overcome that and overcome that in his supporters?

CLINTON: Well, Anderson, I know how it feels to have waged a hard- fought campaign and to fall short.

As I said last night, my supporters were passionate. Senator Sanders' supporters were passionate. I really totally respect their feelings. I called Senator Sanders last night to congratulate him on the really extraordinarily campaign that he has run.

[21:55:08] And I'm looking forward to working with him to achieve our common goal, which is to defeat Donald Trump. And, Senator Sanders has said he'll work everyday, every week to see that happen. So we're going to be working to make sure that we have a unified party going into our convention and coming out.

COOPER: Do you have specifics of how to do that?

CLINTON: Well, I do intend to reach out to his supporters and a lot his supporters and our supporters share the same goals. We want to raise the national minimum wage. We want to have universal health care coverage. We want to fight inequality and create more economic opportunity for hardworking people. We want to make college affordable so it doesn't bankrupt kids and their families. We have a lot of the same goals.

COOPER: Yesterday, House minority leader, Nancy Pelosi said it would be fabulous for two women to be on the ticket. Do you think the country is ready for that, an all-female ticket and obviously, you can't give out any names or anything, but can you tell me a timetable for picking a V.P.?

CLINTON: Well, look, I'm looking a the most qualified people, and that includes women, of course, because I want to be sure that whoever I pick could be president immediately if something were to happen. That's the most important qualification.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Hillary Clinton earlier today. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[22:00:12] COOPER: That does it for us. Thanks for watching. "CNN TONIGHT" with Don Lemon starts now.