Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Melania Trump Speaks Out; Super Tuesday Battle; Republican Party at War With Trump?. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired February 29, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:20]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: And we continue on. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

Listen, let's talk about tomorrow, the day most critical for this Republican race for president. The Republican Party is really now at war over Donald Trump and the rising likelihood he will become the party's nominee tomorrow.

Look at the map with me. We will show you all these states here in red on this map, Super Tuesday; 11 states hold Republican primaries or caucuses. Mr. Trump already has wins in three states. And a new CNN poll indicates Trump has the support of 49 percent of Republicans nationwide.

That is a huge number, dwarfs his Republican rivals, whose combined percentages still fall short of Trump's lead. But will this new controversy when he failed to fully disavow a former KKK leader right here on CNN Sunday, will that cut into his support at all?

Might it play a part in a major disruption at his rally there in Virginia just this afternoon? A number of these protesters holding hands, chanting, "Black lives matter," interrupting his campaign speech there at Radford University, refusing to leave the venue.

Let's begin with the man who was there, our senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta. He's on the phone with me now.

Jim, please explain to me who these folks are, what happened.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Brooke, yes, without question, as you were just saying, this was definitely the rowdiest Donald Trump rally I have attended in the last couple of months.

And, essentially, what you see in the video is what happened. There was a group of about 20 to 30 protesters, largely African-American, who started chanting "Stop the hate" and "Black lives matter." Donald Trump stopped the rally at that point, and not completely, but that interrupted the rally. The security personnel came over to escort those folks out.

And then you saw sort of this whole thing erupt into a big ruckus. And I don't know if there's a little bit of audio we can play, but just to give you a sense as to how loud it got, if we can play some of that video, you can sort of see and hear what was taking place at that time.

The crowd there started chanting "All lives matter," and then Donald Trump himself said all lives matter. Keep in mind, all of this got started, Brooke, shortly after Donald Trump said to a separate protester in the crowd, are you from Mexico? There were four or five different interruptions during this rally carried out by protesters.

And, typically, these things tend to go fairly smoothly. The protester is escorted out by security personnel. However, when these Black Lives Matter protesters were being led out, there was a still photographer with "TIME" magazine who was trying to get some pictures of what was taking place.

As soon as he stepped out of the media pen, which is a pen they used to keep us corralled at these events, he was immediately taken down by a Secret Service agent. We don't know exactly what led up to that moment. The photographer, Chris Morris, tells us -- he's with "TIME" magazine. He tells us that all he simply tried to do was leave that pen to start taking pictures of what took place.

But it just underlines how very much on edge and how very rowdy this prot -- this rally was. I almost called it a protest. But it was a rally with protests in it. And it really has sort of overshadowed and drowned out Donald Trump's message for the day.

He was going after Marco Rubio. They have been trading insults, going back and forth these last 48 to 72 hours. But almost all of that was overshadowed by what took place here at Radford University. And Donald Trump himself seemed to be thrown by it, I have to say, Brooke, a few times.

He just -- at one point, there was another protest. He just didn't seem to know what to do with this protest at this point. And we should point out the Trump campaign is not commenting beyond just a small statement saying that they're referring questions to local law enforcement about this incident, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I want to stay on this. Jim Acosta, thank you so much for the detail there.

You were there at Radford University. You witnessed this yourself.

Let me bring in our CNN chief political correspondent, Dana Bash, also CNN chief political analyst Gloria Borger, and actor and economist Ben Stein, who used to be a speechwriter for President Richard Nixon.

Welcome to all of you.

Dana, to you first. I mean, listen, you have been on the trail for months and months and months. You have covered a number of these candidates, including Mr. Trump himself. When you see these protesters holding hands on a day that Donald Trump is already taking heat for not disavowing, you know, the controversy involving David Duke and the KKK when he was on with Tapper yesterday, have you seen it this heated?

[15:05:13]

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, not even close.

Look, Donald Trump has made it kind of a part of his act, for lack of a better way to say it, to -- when a protester screams or tries to interrupt during one of his rallies, he will stop and he will say, get them out, get them out. He has said things like, "I want to punch that guy in the face."

But this is a completely different level. And it's not necessarily so much about the way Trump and I guess perhaps in this case the Secret Service is reacting, but in terms of the way the protesters appeared to organize.

Unclear if it has anything to do with what he said yesterday or just where we are in the calendar and how close we are to Super Tuesday and how close we are to the front-runner being more than the front-runner on the Republican side, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Gloria, I mean, this is an example of how we're hearing from now a number of prominent Republicans the Republican Party's splintered over the possibility of, you know, Donald Trump truly, truly becoming the Republican nominee.

And I'm just wondering your thoughts on that and what any Republicans can do about it.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I have been on the phone all day with Republicans.

And these latest comments seem to have taken them sort of over the edge here. Mitt Romney, as you know, just tweeted out that what Trump said was disqualifying and disgusting. I just spoke with a Republican who said, if he's the nominee, I'm not going to vote for the party. I think we ought to have a third nominee. Even if we lose the race, at least we're going to make sure that the world knows that we're not bigots.

I think what you're going to see after there's a little bit of clarification tomorrow, or maybe not any clarification, if Cruz wins Texas, you're going to see some super PAC money getting involved in this race in a big way against Donald Trump, particularly in the state of Florida, for example, where lots of big funders want to prop up Marco Rubio to make sure he wins that winner-take-all state.

So I think we have kind of reached a point here where all those people in the so-called establishment, whatever that is, who were sitting on their hands, waiting for Donald Trump to implode, finally woke up and realized, you know what, he's actually not going to implode. He's actually got almost half of the Republican vote behind him. And if we want to defeat him, then we actually ought to try and do something about it. BALDWIN: Ben Stein, I go to you for the 35,000-foot view here. A

high-profile conservative this morning was essentially questioning if the party of Abraham Lincoln is dying. Have you ever seen this kind of divide within a party, where someone could indeed be the nominee?

BEN STEIN, FORMER NIXON SPEECHWRITER: I have never seen anything like it. It's the most messed-up, to be polite, political situation I have ever seen.

But I will say, as regards what we're seeing on TV with the Black Lives Matter demonstration at Radford College or Radford University, every single time these guys shout "Black lives matter," that's 1,000 more votes for Donald Trump.

Donald Trump is no racist. It's a ridiculous thing to call him an anti-black racist. Every time they shout and interrupt him, it makes white people want to vote for him, I suspect. I don't know. I haven't polled anyone. But I think George Wallace used to say every time you interrupt me -- and George Wallace was a big segregationist -- he would say, every time you interrupt me, that's 100,000 more votes for him.

At this point, I don't think Donald Trump can be stopped, and I think these demonstrators have pushed him into a commanding front-runner position.

BASH: Brooke, if I think add to that, I think Ben is exactly right in terms of the voters...

BALDWIN: Yes.

BORGER: It's true.

BASH: ... which is all that really matters right now, right, is that the voters are the ones with the voices.

However, as you're seeing these protests, and potentially it is rallying Trump's base even more, maybe broadening his base, you're seeing the tweet that Gloria just showed from Mitt Romney.

And Ken Mehlman, the former RNC chair, just put on his Facebook page, "Leaders don't need research to reject Klan support." And then he went on and on.

So, to Gloria's point, you're going to -- you have -- even more than ever, you kind of have the voters and people who want change in Washington vs. a coalescing Republican establishment saying, OK, maybe you want change, but this guy is not the person to do it, and it is really kind of crystallizing those two camps by the hour.

BORGER: You know, I don't know how you put Humpty Dumpty back together again, right, because these are -- you know, there's such a civil war going on in the Republican Party right now that I think to break it up may be the only way eventually to get it all on the same page.

[15:10:15]

And I think the voters have the ultimate voice here, but now you hear all kinds of talk, whether it's legitimate or not, about a potential brokered convention. You know, there are campaigns that have scenarios about it.

You know, you just don't know how realistic that is, when you're going to held into Super Tuesday tomorrow, and Donald Trump is going to have a very good night.

STEIN: These demonstrators today have confirmed that Trump will win. These demonstrators -- if Trump had paid each of them $1,000, they couldn't have done for more him than what they have done today.

BALDWIN: Wow.

And if he is the nominee, What do you think it means for the Republican Party in, say, four years?

STEIN: Terrifying. Terrifying. Very, very upsetting. But the party has declined culturally. The party has gotten to be not the party that it used to be.

I will still support it, of course. But it will be a disaster. I'm very scared of Mr. Trump. I'm terrified of him.

BALDWIN: He has attracted so many voices. And when you look at voter turnout, it is massive on the Republican side.

STEIN: I know. I know. I know it's massive, and he is a real cult figure. He is the George Wallace of our era, without being a racist. he's the voice of the ordinary citizen standing in line at the Wal- Mart.

And he is going to be a figure to be reckoned with. I'm not even sure Hillary can beat him. He is the voice of the unspoken, unwashed people coming down from the hills and hollows. And they are very angry.

BALDWIN: Ben Stein, Gloria, Dana Bash, thank you.

BORGER: Sure.

STEIN: Sure.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much. Tomorrow is indeed huge, Super Tuesday hours away.

Of course, stay with us here on CNN. As these states are preparing to go to the polls, we will have special live coverage all day tomorrow right here on CNN.

Coming up next, this is not the first time race has played a role in Donald Trump's campaign. Hear what white supremacists have actually done in support of Trump. And moments ago, Donald Trump's wife, Melania, sat down with Anderson

Cooper. We have a clip for you, pretty interesting clip of her reacting to her husband's controversial remarks.

And the moment that brought many in the Oscars audience to tears, the inside story behind Lady Gaga's emotional performance.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:16:22]

BALDWIN: Welcome back. You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Robo-calls, robo-calls are flooding voters' phone lines across the country, and the message is clear. They are white supremacists and Donald Trump is their man.

(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The American National Super PAC makes this call to support Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We don't need Muslims. We need smart, well- educated white people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm a farmer and white nationalist. Support Donald Trump. This call is not authorized by Donald Trump.

(END AUDIO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Joining me now, our CNN investigative correspondent Drew Griffin.

And as the ad said, Trump doesn't know anything about this super PAC. Well, what do you know?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that this group began organizing and sending out these robo-calls in Iowa.

They worked so well, they think, that they expanded to the New Hampshire caucuses, the primary. And now they are flooding Super Tuesday states. We believe they're in Vermont and other states and are really, some would say, giving out these offensive type of robo- calls, Brooke, saying, you know, basically we want Donald Trump because he's a guy who believes in a white America.

I'm paraphrasing here, but it's pretty close. They definitely are a group that believes the country has gone to hell, in their words, that the Judeo-Christian belief system that this country has is threatened, and that white America is under attack, and they believe Donald Trump is their man, which is why they're getting behind these robo-calls.

BALDWIN: Has Donald Trump said anything? Has he addressed the robo- calls, the group whatsoever?

GRIFFIN: No. No. And we should keep in mind that this is a collection of groups, like- minded groups. There are various factions of these white supremacist- type white nationalist groups across the country. This particular super PAC is organized by an attorney out in Los Angeles.

We did ask the Trump campaign about this. We got a blanket response saying that Donald Trump doesn't seek the support of any super PACs. The campaign did not specifically mention this. We gave them the opportunity to. They did not disavow them, I guess, is the big word we're using today.

But I also don't get the impression that the Trump campaign knows much about these people at all.

BALDWIN: OK. Drew Griffin, thank you very much.

And now to a voice we really haven't heard so much from thus far. She could be the next first lady of the United States, but so far Melania Trump, she has kept a pretty low profile, but now CNN is getting a glimpse into her life, into her relationship with her husband in a rare sit-down interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MELANIA TRUMP, WIFE OF DONALD TRUMP: We are both very independent. I let him be who he is, and he lets me be who I am.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You don't try to change him?

TRUMP: I don't try to change him. He's an adult. He knows the consequences. And so I let him be who he is. I give him my opinions, many, many times.

COOPER: You do?

TRUMP: Yes. And I don't agree with everything that he says. But, you know, that is normal.

I'm my own person. I tell him what I think. I'm standing very strong on the ground, on my two feet. And I'm my own person, and I think that's very important in the relationship.

COOPER: Do you -- can you say something where you have disagreed with him on?

TRUMP: Oh, many things, some language, of course.

COOPER: Language?

TRUMP: Yes, some language.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Language you hear him using on the campaign trail?

TRUMP: Especially, I was in New Hampshire when the woman was shouting out the inappropriate word.

COOPER: Right.

TRUMP: And I was there, and I'm thinking, like, don't repeat it in my head, just for him, don't repeat it, just don't say it, because, the next day, media, all they will talk is about that. But he repeat it.

[15:20:10]

He is the momentum. He goes with the flow. He goes with the people. They are having fun. Everybody was cheering. And, you know, he said it and -- the next day -- but he repeated the word. That was not his word.

COOPER: Right.

TRUMP: So...

COOPER: He heard from you out that?

TRUMP: Yes. I told him that, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Please watch Melania Trump's full interview with Anderson Cooper 8:00 Eastern tonight right here on CNN.

Still ahead, show you some live pictures, Rick Perry, Ted Cruz there in San Antonio, Texas. He will be holding -- he being the Texas senator, holding a rally any moment now in his home state, a state critical to his campaign come tomorrow, Super Tuesday. Does he still have the home field advantage, given how well Donald Trump has been doing?

And on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders dealing with their own Super Tuesday showdown. There are growing concerns, though, about the enthusiasm gap among Democrats compared to the record crowds that are being set in terms of turnout on the Republican side. We will chat about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:26:45]

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE) two-man race. After tomorrow, do you think if -- any candidate who isn't able to win a state tomorrow, do you think they should be reassessing their campaign?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, that's a decision every candidate is going to have to make.

It is clear, if you cannot win a state and if you cannot amass delegates, you're not going to be the Republican nominee for president. And I do think the entire primary process is a winnowing process. We started with 17 candidates.

We're now down to just a handful. You know, nationally, 65 percent of Republicans recognize that Donald Trump is not the best candidate for us to nominate against Hillary Clinton, that if Donald Trump is the nominee, Hillary in all likelihood wins, that Donald agrees with Hillary on far too many issues.

If you're a social conservative, Donald Trump agrees with Hillary in support of Planned Parenthood and, for most of his life, has supported partial-birth abortion. If you're a fiscal conservative, Donald Trump agrees with Hillary and Barack Obama in support of the Wall Street bailout, the TARP bailouts.

And Donald Trump agrees with Bernie Sanders that Obamacare should be expanded to make it socialized medicine to put the federal government in charge of your and my health care. And every place on earth we have socialized medicine, the result is rationing, it is the government deciding whether you get that hip replacement, whether you get that knee replacement.

And if you are a national security concern, Donald Trump agrees with Hillary Clinton in support of John Kerry. In fact, Donald Trump supported John Kerry against George W. Bush. And Donald Trump agrees with Hillary Clinton that America should be neutral between Israel and the Palestinians.

I disagree with that. If I am president, America will not be neutral. We will stand unapologetically with the nation of Israel. And if you are one of those 65 percent of Republicans who recognizes that Donald Trump is not the best candidate to run against Hillary, then there is only one campaign that has beaten and that can beat Donald Trump, and that is us.

On Super Tuesday, we are running in and neck with Donald in Super Tuesday states all across the country. So, I want to say, if you're someone who's thinking about supporting another candidate, listen,there are a lot of good people in this race, people who are friends of mine, people who I like, people who I respect, but we're the only campaign that has a shot at beating Donald Trump on Super Tuesday.

And if you don't want to see Donald Trump as the nominee, then I ask you to stand with us. And if that happens, if conservatives stand together, we're going to have a very good day.

QUESTION: (OFF-MIKE)

CRUZ: Well, I do not know if they have said that or not.

But I'll tell you, a campaign sticking around when you can't win a state and you're not amassing delegates, that doesn't stop Donald Trump. We need to come together. And I believe after Super Tuesday, we will see this race become more and more a two-man race.

I think the likely outcome of tomorrow, Donald is going to come out with a whole bunch of delegates. I believe we're going to come out with a whole bunch of delegates. And I think everyone else will be way, way behind.

If that's the case, then it is the time for the party to unify. Head to head, I beat Donald Trump and I beat him resoundingly, by 16 points, 56-40. Donald has a hard ceiling. Sixty percent of Americans have a negative view of Donald Trump. It's why the Democrats are so thrilled for our country to nominate him.

And I will say, there was a very disturbing story that broke today that apparently there is a secret tape that "The New York Times" editorial board has of Donald Trump saying that he doesn't believe what he's saying on immigration, that all of his promises to secure the border are not real and if he's president he doesn't intend to do what he says.

Now, that's been reported. "The New York Times" apparently has this on tape. But it was an off-the-record tape. And so "The New York Times" has said they will not release the tape unless Donald gives them permission to do so.

I call on Donald, ask "The New York Times" to release the tape. And do so today, before the Super Tuesday primary. There are one of two instances. It is either false. And if Donald didn't say that to "The New York Times," then he deserves to have this cleared up. And releasing the tape can clear it up.