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Ben Carson Endorses Donald Trump; Interview with Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted; Democrats Look Ahead to Next Week's Primary; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 11, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:01] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: But we'll talk much more about this big press conference and Dr. Carson's endorsement of Donald Trump, and Donald Trump saying there should be no more debates. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Donald Trump reels in a big endorsement. Just minutes ago right here on CNN, one-time rival, Dr. Ben Carson, officially throwing his support behind Donald Trump. That could give the Republican frontrunner a big boost among the GOP base and among conservative.

It's kind of a surprising choice, though, given Trump's nasty attacks on Carson. You know, he's called him pathological and also because of Carson's shared evangelical roots with Senator Ted Cruz. Let's listen to a bit of the announcement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We buried the hatchet. That was political stuff. And, you know, that happens in American politics. The politics of personal destruction, all that. It's not something that I particularly believe in or anything that I get involved in. But I do recognize it. It is a part of the process. We move on because it's not about me. It's not about Mr. Trump. It's about America.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is politics. It's tough stuff. It's a tough business. I used to think real estate in Manhattan was tough. This is, like, this is a tough business, this politics. A lot of things happen in politics that don't happen anywhere else. So we understand that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: All right. So they're both men saying this is just politics. In fact, Dr. Ben Carson, Sara Murray, said hey, I have to forgive him. That's what a Christian would do. But, Sara, remind us what Donald Trump said of Dr. Carson not so long ago.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, yes, that's right, Carol. I mean, there were some harsher words exchanged between them. At one point Donald Trump compared Ben Carson's sort of persona to that of a child molester. But they were obviously striking an entirely different tone today and in fact Donald Trump talked for a while about how important this endorsement was to him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Because when Ben called he didn't say, would you do this, would you do that? He just wants to help. And he feels strongly about what's happening, and you see the kind of crowds we get. We get crowds that are amazing and record setting. I don't think there's ever been anything like it. Well, I mean, it's on the cover of every magazine. There's never been anything like it. So Ben sees that and Ben is going to have a big, big part. I can tell you Ben -- maybe Ben doesn't even know this yet, but Ben is going to have a big part. He's -- we want to keep that kind of talent.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: So the two of them, they said they buried the hatchet. Ben Carson even told us that he would be interested in a position in a Donald Trump administration, although he said they did not talk specifically about the VP.

But, Carol, the other thing I want to point out today is that Donald Trump came on this stage essentially acting as if he was about to become the nominee and saying, look, I am done with debates. We have answered enough questions. The candidates have appeared on stage enough together.

As of right now the RNC does have a debate scheduled for later in March in Salt Lake City, and based on Trump's comments here on stage tonight, it does not sound like he would be interested in appearing in that debate. So it's possible that last night will be the last time that we saw the Republican candidates on stage together -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Sara, I only find that interesting because he called last night's debate elegant because the candidates talked about policy, right? And he said, you know, he wants to introduce people to a more cerebral, intellectual Donald Trump. So why doesn't he want to participate in a debate that is about issues so people could see that side of him?

MURRAY: Well, Carol, one of the interesting things I think Donald Trump said was that the debate last night was good for the Republican Party. It was something the Republican Party needed. And honestly I think that's what a number of candidates and Republican officials felt like after we saw that debate in Detroit where people were comparing hand sizes, where they were exchanging childish insults.

[10:05:06] I think everyone in the Republican Party sort of wanted a moment to give these candidates a chance to rehabilitate their images, to rise to the challenge and to talk about some of the issues voters care about. Obviously the debate stage is one place to do that and we saw that last night at our CNN debate. But I think from Donald Trump's perspective, he feels like he's already shared enough of that air time with other candidates. He feels like he can go out, he can get his stump speeches and if he wants to talk more about policy on the trail, he can do it there. But it was clear from this press conference today that he doesn't have a lot of interest in returning to the debate stage -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Sara Murray, many thanks to you.

With me now to talk more about all of this, CNN political commentator and Sirius XM host Margaret Hoover. I'm also joined by columnist for the "Boston Herald," and radio host Adriana Cohen, she is also a Trump supporter. Also our CNN chief political correspondent Dana Bash, she'll join us in just a minute. She was seated in that press conference so she's got to get herself to a microphone.

So I'll start with you, Margaret. So there are two Donald Trumps. One is the -- I guess the aggressive guy we see on stage and the aggressive person we see in debates and the other is the intellectual behind the scenes. Did you get that?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Maybe there's more than two Donald Trumps, Carol. At this point, frankly, I don't know. I don't know who Donald Trump is. I'm a Republican, a life-long Republican. I stand for principles of the Republican Party had stood for. And, you know, there's not a lot in Donald Trump that I recognize. So regardless of -- you know, I do think it's fair to say he is somebody on TV and he's probably somebody else not on TV.

He probably is a caricature and I think he is representing significant gripes and significant, I think, grievances that Republican voters have. I think they see him as a vehicle for that voice and those grievances. But do I think he actually is that person? No, I don't. I think he's a phony who's gotten in the chair. We've been asleep at the wheel in the Republican Party and he's driving the train.

So, look, maybe he is more calculated, methodical behind the scenes. I wish that in those private moments he would think about what he's saying publicly because there are grave consequences to his words. Words mean something, last I checked, and, you know, if you're going to be the leader of the free world, you have to think deeply and carefully about what you're saying and what you're communicating. Everybody is listening and you can't just walk back everything you say. You can't twist and spin it. I am concerned.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, Adriana, let's talk about words and how they matter because Donald Trump says, you know, calling Ben Carson a child molester that was just politics. Ben Carson actually forgave him for that. He said that he was impressed when he -- after he called Ben Carson pathological and a child molester, that Ben fought back with a silence and strength that he greatly admired and that's why he wanted his endorsement today.

That kind of doesn't make much sense because if he admired Ben's silence and strength, why does he go on insulting people? ADRIANA COHEN, COLUMNIST, BOSTON HERALD: Well, I think Donald Trump

was trying to make the point that in politics , you know, there's a lot of mudslinging that goes on intra-party. We see that with the Democrats right now. it with Republicans and Democrats. Politics can get down and dirty. But behind the scenes, I think that most Republicans, including Donald Trump, really respect and admire Dr. Ben Carson.

And that's why I think his endorsement today is going to be pivotal in this race because by Ben Carson getting on the Trump train, that's going to unite the party. That's going to send a signal out to all the evangelicals, take a look at this guy, come join us, as well as all the undecideds. And so the timing of this was really critical leading into Tuesday with all the big delegates that are at stake.

COSTELLO: OK. So Dana Bash is now in place. And I kind of throw this question, so Mr. Trump wants to introduce the other Donald Trump, and he doesn't want to do that by partaking in any more debates. Right? And this is how -- but you know, if you listen to his policies last night, Dana, when he was talking about them at the debate, he didn't really sound like a Republican.

I mean, he assailed free trade agreements, he pledged not to cut things like Social Security. He wanted to take a neutral stance in negotiations with Israel and the Palestinian Authority. Those aren't Republican talking points surely.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, a lot of them aren't. I think that it's more proof that he is -- if you look at the Republican spectrum, he is definitely more on the populous side of the Republican spectrum. His opponents would argue -- they do argue that he showed some of his colors of kind of his former self, his former political self, that, you know, it wasn't that long ago that he had been advocating more traditional, even liberal ideas on health care and across the board. But, you know, look, I think at the end of the day, the big question is -- well, let me say this.

[10:10:03] We know that the people who are his rock solid supporters in the Republican electorate, it doesn't seem to matter to them. It's hard to believe that there's anything that any of Donald Trump's opponents can say and beyond to change their minds. You know, you've had Marco Rubio calling him a con man. You've had Jeb Bush calling him a fake conservative, and on down.

Certainly the donor class of the Republican Party, they are spending money, finally, to try to put more meat on that bone and explain why he's, from their perspective, a fraud. But at this point in time where he is right now which is trying to gobble up as many Republican delegates as he can, the answers to those questions, Carol, it doesn't seem to really matter very much to the people who are going out and voting for him in droves, and that's just the bottom line which is so frustrating to the traditional Republicans who are used to having to be pure on all of those issues, but it's just not the same in this year and with Donald Trump as the candidate.

COSTELLO: OK. Just going back for just a second to Dr. Ben Carson because, Margaret, Mr. Trump says he wants to involve Dr. Ben Carson heavily in his education policies, but as far as I know, Ben Carson isn't an expert in educational policies. He's a neurosurgeon. Does that make sense to you?

HOOVER: No. I mean, it would make a lot of sense for Ben Carson to be a -- you know, the surgeon general of a Trump administration or to advise on Obamacare or how to revise Obamacare, make it better, transcend it, repeal it. But, no, education makes no sense. Of course it's a passion interest. He cares about education. That's great. We all care about a lot of issues. But, you know, if you're putting together a team to run the United States of America, you want the best and the brightest in every field to advise you.

Now, to be fair, we all know how these campaigns work. As soon as somebody comes in and says they're endorsing, Mr. Trump is grateful for Dr. Carson's endorsement. So of course he's going to say how would you like to help, and if Dr. Carson says I want to help in education, great, I mean, what's Donald Trump going to say? Nope. Can't have you there. I mean, they're beginning to work together. It's unclear that Ben Carson would be the secretary of education in a Trump administration, although as we get further down the line, we'll get to know.

What Dana said is right, though. It doesn't matter what we talk about on these policies. It doesn't matter that Donald Trump probably learns everything he knows about Cuba when Marco Rubio answered the question in the debate last night, and on issue after issue after issue he has frankly demonstrated that he is ill informed on policy. Just doesn't matter. He only needs to win 54 percent of the remaining delegates in the remaining states even if he loses Florida and Ohio.

So, you know, and Ted Cruz on the flip side would have to win 70 percent of the remaining delegates if he loses Ohio and Florida. So this train is going in one direction, and what Republicans need to think really seriously about is, does Donald Trump represent the Republican Party that they think they're part of and that can be a competitive party in the future? And if not, what do we do?

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

COHEN: I think they do. I think they do.

COSTELLO: OK. I have to leave it there. Thanks to all of you.

Dana Bash, Margaret Hoover, Adriana Cohen, thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a Democratic blitz ahead of Tuesday's primary. So who's making all the right moves? We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:17:14] COSTELLO: Ohio once again looms large in presidential politics, not just for the critical primary there four days from now, but also over a legal fight over who should be allowed to vote in the state of Ohio. The campaign for Democrat, Bernie Sanders, who is wildly popular among

young voters has filed a federal lawsuit against Ohio's secretary of state. It accuses the Republican of changing a law that allows 17- year-olds to vote if they turn 18 years of age before the general election in November. Ohio Secretary of State Jon Husted joins me now live from Columbus.

Welcome, sir.

JON HUSTED, OHIO SECRETARY OF STATE: Great to be with you, thanks.

COSTELLO: Thanks for being here. Mr. Secretary, you say you're very happy to be sued. Why?

HUSTED: Well, because it's important that we clear these issues up. 17-year-olds can vote in Ohio, but they're just limited on the issues that they can vote on. They can vote in nominating processes but they can't vote in final elections. Any time you're electing a person. In a presidential primary process, the law says and tradition has been this way in Ohio, that you can't vote if you're 17 because you're actually electing a delegate. You're not nominating a candidate. And because of that the law has been very clear, Democrats and Republicans have enforced it the same way, but the Sanders' campaign filed a lawsuit seven days before the election. When you do something like that, to me, it's just a pure political act, and --

COSTELLO: Right. So --

HUSTED: But I'm happy to clear this up.

COSTELLO: Let me ask you this question. Has 17-year-olds in Ohio voted the way Bernie Sanders says they should vote in the past?

HUSTED: No, they have not. And we have Democrats and Republicans who have run elections a lot longer than I have coming out, speaking up and saying, look, what's happening in Ohio now is the same way it's always happened. This is my sixth year as secretary of state. I ran the last presidential primary process. This is exactly the way we did it then.

COSTELLO: So this law in Ohio, you know, that regulates 17-year-olds voting -- that regulates how 17-year-olds, so it's been on the books for 35 years. So why hasn't it been clarified before this point?

HUSTED: Because there's never been a controversy. When something has been done for that long in the same manner, it's really not a controversy. We've been voting -- we voted for 21 days before the Sanders' campaign raised even an eyebrow about it. And so this is just a last-minute kind of political act to try to draw attention to his campaign, I assume.

COSTELLO: So you think that Bernie Sanders campaign is just playing politics with this because he wants to win the state of Ohio.

HUSTED: Well, in -- when you're the secretary of state in Ohio or when you're focused on Ohio elections, these kinds of things happened. [10:20:04] 11th hour lawsuits are something that we've come to expect,

come to -- it's just the way that it works, but it's a tragedy that that's happening because what I'm worried about, I don't want 17-year- olds to be confused. They can vote, but they just can't vote on every issue.

COSTELLO: That is confusing, though. Don't you think that's confusing? Because I'm confused by it.

HUSTED: Well, you want to know something? As secretary of state, I was confused by it as well. This is why -- but we have to follow the law to the letter because let's see this through. We've had --

COSTELLO: But it's weird because other issues are very important, so why allow -- if 17-year-olds can't vote for a presidential candidate or for a nominee, then why can they vote for other issues in the state of Ohio? Because aren't they just as important on a local level?

HUSTED: Well, that's exactly right. But 17-year-olds should they be able to vote on a school levy? Of course not. No one disputes that fact and -- because they're not 18. The Constitution clearly says you have to be 18 to be an elector in our state. This is the way it's been done for 35 years. It hasn't been confusing up until the last three days, frankly. This is the way that we've always done it in Ohio. It's a long-standing tradition in law about how we do this. It's just -- now it's election season. People want to file lawsuits and create controversy to try to create a perceived advantage for themselves using the process.

COSTELLO: OK. I grew up in Ohio, but I -- and I learned something new today.

Secretary Jon Husted --

HUSTED: And you know what, I learn something new every day, too, running elections in Ohio.

COSTELLO: All right. Secretary Husted, thanks for joining me this morning.

HUSTED: You're welcome.

COSTELLO: All right. I want to bring in CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston and Larry Sabato, the director of the Center of Politics at the University of Virginia.

I want to start with you, Mark, because I understand you've spoken to both the Clinton and the Sanders campaign this morning. What have you found out?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, you know, Carol, the focus has been on Florida the past few days. We saw Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton both campaigning here yesterday. But now the shift is up north of Florida, and quite frankly, out to the Midwest right now. There's a lot of focus by the Sanders campaign, not only on Ohio and as we just saw the secretary of state there talk about the lawsuit with Bernie Sanders.

Well, Bernie Sanders is trying to get out the young vote that is critical to Bernie Sanders' success in Ohio and other states moving forward. But he's also expecting to spend a lot of time in Missouri and in Illinois. These are the industrial rustbelt states that we've heard over and over again, the Sanders' campaign say that they're going to do well in.

Let's just go back to Michigan on Tuesday where Bernie Sanders pulled out a surprise win in some ways, but the Sanders campaign will say over and over again, that's always been their strategy. This is where they think they can do well. At the same time, we have Hillary Clinton who is down today. She's taking a personal day out, attending the funeral of Nancy Reagan, but expect her in the Midwest as well.

So while we are here in Florida right now, it is extremely important, and there are TV ads running in all the markets right now, things are moving up to North Carolina and they're moving, quite frankly, out into the Midwest -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. So, Larry, I want to center on the Midwest for just a bit more. Did you hear Secretary Husted from the state of Ohio explain voter laws and how they apply to 17-year-olds? And did you get that?

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Well, I got it as he explained it. I have to admit, like everybody else, I was confused about the distinction for 17-year-olds. And look, Bernie Sanders is doing that, Carol, if he could -- because it benefits him. But if he can do it, I suspect he would have 15- and 16-year-olds voting, too, because they would probably be pro-Sanders.

This has become a thing to do among young people. I saw it in 2008 with Barack Obama. I'm seeing it again being on a college campus with Bernie Sanders in 2016. And, look, as Mark just outlined well, the truth is we've seen a pattern, and we can almost analyze the states by their demographics. Clinton is very likely to win easily in Florida. She's very likely to win North Carolina handily. But Sanders has a real shot in Ohio, in Missouri, and to a lesser degree, in Illinois. That's where he could score on Tuesday.

COSTELLO: And, Mark, I would suppose that the people of Ohio are attracted to Bernie Sanders' economic issues, especially when it comes to trade.

PRESTON: Yes. No question. And what we saw happened in Michigan was Hillary Clinton tried to go after what she thought was an Achilles heel saying that Bernie Sanders was not for the auto bailout and that he was more concerned about ideology than actually trying to save the auto industry. Not only was that argument the Clinton campaign was hoping would stick in Michigan, but there's a lot of ancillary business in the auto industry out into Ohio and also a little bit in Illinois and certainly in Missouri, hoping to try to take a chink out of what Bernie Sanders has been selling, his economic trade policies.

[10:25:07] And really no part of the country has been harder hit than what we're seeing right now in the Midwest. So that is the economic message he's trying to sell in addition to try to bring in these younger voters -- Carol.

COSTELLO: OK. And, Larry, before you go, I must ask you about Dr. Ben Carson's endorsement of Donald Trump and what you thought of Donald Trump's news conference this morning.

SABATO: Well, it was fascinating as these things involving Donald Trump always are.

Look, it was -- the endorsement by Ben Carson was not as shocking as the Chris Christie endorsement of Donald Trump. And, yet, I have to say in watching it, this will be very helpful to Trump. He's trying to project the image of the frontrunner who is bringing the party together and gradually, slowly but surely reuniting Republicans around him. So it helps.

Is it a finality? Of course not. There are many, many steps to go, and he's got to win a lot more victories but it's helpful to him.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Larry Sabato, Mark Preston, thanks so much to both of you.

You can watch the CNN Ohio Democratic presidential town hall with TV One on Sunday night 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, a protester is attacked at a Trump rally and it's not the first -- and it's not the first time a protester has been attacked.

Coming up we'll take a closer look.

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