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Primaries Overshadowed by Mistrust and Anger; CNN Democratic Town Hall in Ohio Tonight; Trump Exploiting Divisions Within the Republican Party: Trump May Pay Legal Fees of Man Who Punched Protester; Rubio Must Win Florida. Aired 4-5p ET

Aired March 13, 2016 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:00]

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think in many cases, I do lower the temperature. I tell the police, please take it easy when people are punching the police and trying to hurt people.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... protestors in Chicago. This is now multiple rallies where people are assaulted and beat up.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Listen to Mr. Trump's words with a grain of salt. I think as everybody knows, this man cannot stop lying.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no question that Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere pitting one group against another.

You can you go into a room and get people depress end down and angry or can walk into that room with the same people and you can lift them and give them hope. I think we need to be hopeful in America, not depressed.

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): All straight ahead, "Newsroom" starts now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(MUSIC PLAYING)

WHITFIELD: We're live from Ohio State University in Columbus, Ohio. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Thanks so much for joining me. We are two days away from super Tuesday round three it's being called and candidates from both sides of the aisle are making their final push across the nation.

On deck this week, Ohio, Florida, Missouri, North Carolina and Illinois. For the GOP, it's winner take all in Ohio and Florida and happening this hour, John Kasich will host a town hall in Akron, Ohio. He is the Ohio governor. He wants to believe he is the favorite here.

Meantime rival Ted Cruz will be stumping at any moment holding a rally in North Carolina. You see right there, Carly Fiorina, who has endorsed Ted Cruz, stumping for him on his behalf from Concorde, North Carolina.

Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are gearing up for CNN's democratic town hall right here in Columbus, Ohio. The scene is set right there in the auditorium. And there, Ohio voters will get the chance it ask face-to-face the questions to Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

So over all, there are 691 delegates at stake in five states for Clinton and Sanders. And Clinton heads into Tuesday's contest with a healthy lead. She has more than double the number of delegates that Sanders has. Let's talk some more about the democratic race and what we can expect at tonight's town hall with CNN's senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar and CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny who is at the Sanders' rally in Columbus, or what will be the rally in Columbus when Sanders arrive.

All right. Good to see both of you.

Brianna, we are seeing Hillary Clinton doesn't appear to be taking this for granted. Even though she came to this race as heavy favorite for democrats. But there are many turning point, haven't there, for Hillary Clinton who is trying to appeal it to a different electorate, with just about every pivotal moment of this primary race.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hillary Clinton is looking at Michigan. Because there are a lot of similarities between Michigan and Ohio and also Missouri and Illinois. These are industrial states and that was a huge upset for her in Michigan that certainly stole some of the wind from her sails even though when you looked at that night as a whole, she netted more delegates than Bernie Sanders.

It gave Bernie Sanders this idea of momentum that he had this big upset, really the biggest upset of the entire primary cycle for democrats. You look at how she is campaigning and this is a point that I heard Jeff make over and over. You can see how much energy she puts in.

In Nevada she campaigned a whole lot. In Michigan, maybe she didn't campaign enough. She didn't kind of put in the shoe leather she needed to. You see here really working it here in Ohio, it is very clear that she is concerned and she is fighting here.

WHITFIELD: And you know, Bernie Sanders telling Jake Tapper this morning on "State of the Union" that he thinks Clinton is getting concerned about the energy of his campaign. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Well, Secretary Clinton is getting a little bit nervous. She lost last week in Michigan. I think she understands that the momentum in this campaign and the energy is with us. And that we have a good chance to win a number of states on Tuesday.

(END VIDEO CLIP) WHITFIELD: And Jeff, you're there at the (INAUDIBLE) center there in Columbus just down the street where there will be a very sizeable rally. I say sizeable because that is a huge arena. What kind of excitement are you feeling there? That is parallel to Bernie Sanders' message right there, he thinks that Hillary Clinton is sweating it.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Fredricka, not coincidentally we are on a college campus just across the campus from the Ohio State University from where you are. This is where Bernie Sanders holds a lot of his rallies. This is where he gets a lot of energy and he holds votes for his campaign on college campuses. We saw that work in Michigan again and again for the last more than a week of the campaign. He held very big size rallies. And then he ended up winning big in those college towns.

So we'll have to watch on Tuesday when the results here in Ohio come in to see if college students and others help lift him to victory. Now one slight challenge for the Sanders' campaign, it is spring break coming up this week. So that is an issue whether or not all the students may not be around.

[16:05:15]

So Bernie Sanders really hopes to continue what he started in Michigan and he says that you know, the Clinton campaign is feeling the heat and nervous. That's true to some extent. Not just because of here in Ohio but a tight race as well as Illinois. Illinois a race that maybe the tightest of the five of them and also Missouri is voting as well as North Carolina and Florida.

So what Tuesday will tell us is if Bernie Sanders is going to get more of a permission slip and more of a license to keep going on. Mathematically speaking, Hillary Clinton is very much ahead, but there is energy now on the Sanders' campaign side. And certainly if he would have some victories on Tuesday night, that would only continue.

WHITFIELD: All right, Jeff Zeleny, Brianna Keilar, thank you so much.

A lot at stake for Ohio, not just the symbolism of Ohio as it pertains to the race for the White House, but we're talking at least for the democrats, 143 delegates up for grabs to be dispensed proportionately. All right. Thank you so much.

Let's talk about the Republican side now. Donald Trump is continuing to receive backlash over how he has handled violent outbursts at his rallies in recent days. Since Friday, protesters have been involved in fist-fights. You see imagery right there out of Chicago and then police in Kansas City used pepper spray on a crowd and arrested two people.

And in Ohio, a protester rushed the stage. Secret Service surrounded Trump, that was just yesterday. Many feeling like that was a really close call. But this morning, the GOP front-runner told CNN's Jake Tapper that no one has been injured at his rallies. And that the media has been biased when covering these incidents.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: There is a horrible - there is a horrible thing going on in the media. We are treated so unfairly. And I'm treated very unfairly. I mean, you know, this morning you had your political consultant say I had 5,000 people in Dayton, Ohio. Well, I had far more than 5,000 people. You haven't even said anything about danger in our rallies until Friday. And the danger was ended by a very good managerial decision not to have that particular rally to postpone it. So I should get credit, not be scorned on your program by John King all morning long.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: OK. Well, that's not my program.

TRUMP: Jake, can I ask you a question? You made a statement that at my rallies, it is dangerous - how many people have been injured at my rallies? Zero. Zero. There's been nobody injured.

TAPPER: I don't think it's zero.

TRUMP: Broken down and injured - CNN reports very, very unfairly about me.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right. Let's bring in CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta. He is inside the Trump rally in Westchester, Ohio, just outside Cincinnati, and CNN Politics editor, Mark Preston is here with me right here in Columbus.

So Jim, you first, where you are, tensions pretty high. It is indicative when you see so many Secret Service agents surrounding Donald Trump. How does that impact the messaging there? What is the message that is sent?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: I have said Fredricka, this is the kind of rally that Donald Trump needed after what we saw in Chicago, after what we saw in Kansas City last night. There was no unrest here in Westchester, Ohio.

There was no pepper spray used here in Westchester, Ohio. Donald Trump got through a town hall here with only a couple of protesters removed. And you're right, he did have Secret Service agents all around him. When he was doing this town hall rally. And right now I can point out to you, Fredricka, he is working in a rope line. This is something he did not do last night in Kansas City because obviously because of security precautions.

He is working that rope line right now. He is surrounded by Secret Service agents. But things seem to be getting back to normal to some extent, at least at this rally. I will tell you, during the course of this town hall event that he had here in Westchester, he went up to a couple of ladies during his remarks and gave them hugs. So it hasn't interrupted his flow too much in terms of the message he is trying to deliver.

And I should also report in addition to all of the activity surrounding these protests and the security, there is this political contest going on and that's it fight for the Ohio primary that's coming up on Tuesday. Donald Trump is showing some signs he is worried about John Kasich, the Ohio governor here who is starting to inch ahead of him in the polls.

Donald Trump went after John Kasich pretty hard during this event here, referring to him as an absentee governor, talking about his vote in favor of NAFTA when he was a member of Congress. And you know, just to go to show you that scheduling sometimes tells you part of the story. Donald Trump's campaign has cancelled an event that was supposed to take place down in South Florida tomorrow.

[16:10:00]

They added an event in Youngstown, Ohio, near the border with Pennsylvania. A lot of rust belt workers there. A lot of economic, disenfranchised workers in that area. Those folks are ripe for the picking for Donald Trump. He wants it make sure that those folks don't drift over to John Kasich's camp here in this very important state.

So while we are talking about the security posture when it comes to protecting Donald Trump, the candidate, he is worried about securing what he might be able to do on Tuesday. That is sweep all of these states that are up for grabs. It doesn't look like he's going to do it here in Ohio or at least it is very, very close here. So Donald Trump making moves potentially to make that happen if he can here in the state of Ohio, Fredricka.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Jim.

So Mark, you know, we have heard Donald Trump who said, nobody's been injured at any of these events. He's got security in place. Is he downplaying the severity of the incidents?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: I think so. The pictures tell a thousand words. What we saw in Chicago the other night, the clash between the protesters, the fighting, the police officer being bloodied, the pepper spray last night in Kansas City, Missouri.

Earlier this week, you saw that gentleman sucker punch the other gentleman walking up and knocking him down. Clearly there is violence. And clearly, the rhetoric has been jacked up. It is nice to see today though that things seem to be a little bit more mellow.

I was that Dayton rally yesterday. Donald Trump is correct, there were more than 5,000 people. Maybe 5,500, 5,800. There were protesters. I got to tell you, Fred, the folks that were at the rally walked out and they were even more energized after they heard Donald Trump speak for his vision for the country.

WHITFIELD: At the same time, is there some disconnect though between Donald Trump, the candidate, what he is experiencing and his supporters who are coming out, whether they are witness to or party to, you know, throwing fists or you know taking on demonstrators who arrive? PRESTON: I think there is a level of frustration from the supporters. Who many of them said to me yesterday, listen, protesters have a right to come out and protest but they don't have the right to do is to sit there and continuously disrupt this presidential candidate. We have come out to hear him speak, if he comes and to try to disrupt it is not fair and it's not appropriate.

I got to tell you, some folks, although this wasn't (INAUDIBLE) sentiments that if you get into my face, I'm going to get into your face. Which is where you see that level of aggression we have seen over the past few nights.

WHITFIELD: All right. Mark Preston, thank you so much. And Jim Acosta there in Westchester. Appreciate it, gentlemen.

All right. After the break, a nation divided?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do we really want to live in a country where everybody hates each other? Where everybody is at each other's throat?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: After all of the insults and jabs, is a unified country a reality this election cycle? We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:15:58]

WHITFIELD: Two days away from Super Tuesday, number three, on the democratic side. Five states will vote for either Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. In Ohio, where 143 delegates are up for grabs, Clinton is favored heavily. But this election season has been full of surprises.

Joining me right now is Louisiana representative Cedric Richmond. He is a Clinton supporter. Here in Ohio helping to stump for your choice candidate, Hillary Clinton. How does the field look from your purview when you talk to voters, when you try to impress on them that it is Hillary Clinton in you view who needs to win this state?

REP. CEDRIC RICHMOND (D), LOUISIANA: Well, today, I have talked to a number of young democrats and I talked to - spoke at several churches democrats and churches and I think the excitement for Hillary is phenomenal and I think it is several reasons.

One, her ideas. Two, her experience. Three, her track record. And what she is talking about. And I think that on the democratic side, you really have a debate of policy going on and people are really paying - taking time to look at it but what she distinguishes herself is experience and track record. So I think people are relating to it and people are starting to get energized in terms of election day being Tuesday. WHITFIELD: A big message we are hearing from voters here. There are concerns about factories that have dried up years ago. A possible resurgence or hope that American industries can return here. We heard Hillary Clinton in the past 48 hours, stumping, talking about her vision of seeing some of that coming back. Bernie Sanders who has been talking about that as well, being against TPP< being against NAFTA trade. So how does Hillary Clinton, you know, try to narrow that gap as it pertains to that electorate when up against Bernie Sanders?

RICHMOND: Well, the views are similar. I think Bernie opposes TPP. Hillary opposes TPP.

WHITFIELD: First she did support it then dialed back on it. There are some voters who can't forget that.

RICHMOND: Well, I mean I think that she expressed just like I did that I was open to looking at it. Then when the document came out, you review it. I don't think it is fair to President Obama or anybody else who is negotiating a trade deal to say I'm against it before you see it.

I think the prudent thing is to look at four corners of the document. Unfortunately when he looked at the four corners of this document, it wasn't something that my people were willing to support and Hillary did her homework and she did it. She was not playing politics, she was just doing her homework.

I think that people actually respect the fact that it is not politics for her. She goes where her heart tells her to go. Now, I do believe that Ohio can have a resurgence in manufacturing and we are experiencing that in Louisiana in my congressional district. I think Hillary's plan and vision will help us get there in terms of manufacturing because all of it starts with a sense of corporate responsibility to America.

WHITFIELD: While in the delegate count Hillary Clinton is leading with more than 1200. Bernie Sanders has just over 500. Is it a feeling that Hillary Clinton is running not as a presumed, you know, nominee, but that she really is working hard or at least she is conveying the message that she's got to work hard for every vote?

RICHMOND: She is working hard for every delegate and she is reaching out. She is taking time to personally call them and to answer their questions and to see how she can get them on board. I think that if you look at the super delegate count, that difference is because of not only her track record and relationships, but the fact that she is spending a lot of energy talking and answering questions to super delegates.

WHITFIELD: Is she nervous because you hear Bernie Sanders and he says, she is feeling the Bern. She's worried.

RICHMOND: Well, I think everybody is worried until it's over. But do I think she is confident that she is going to be the nominee for the democratic party? Absolutely, she is confident and I am also that she is going to be the nominee. I wish it was over tomorrow but it's not going to be over tomorrow.

WHITFIELD: OK. All right. Thank you so much. Good to see you, Representative Cedric Richmond from Louisiana here campaigning for Hillary Clinton.

RICHMOND: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: Meantime, Republicans also crisscrossing the state early, they have hopes on Ohio, North Carolina and Florida and Missouri among the five primary states right there. Ted Cruz in Concorde, North Carolina, stumping for support. Let's listen in.

[16:20:14]

CRUZ: Now let me talk for a minute to the 65 to 70 percent of Republicans here and at home, who recognize that Donald Trump is not the best candidate for us to nominate against Hillary Clinton. That Donald loses to Hillary Clinton. If we nominate Donald, Hillary becomes president and we lose the Supreme Court for a generation. We lose the bill of rights. Our kids are buried in debt and their future is taken away.

To those 65 to 70 percent of Republicans who recognize that, I want to tell you that all across North Carolina and all across this country what we're seeing is Republicans coming together and uniting behind our campaign because our campaign is the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump over and over and over again and that can and will beat Donald Trump and win this nomination.

You know, this race started with 17 Republican candidates. Fantastic diverse, dynamic, talented field and yet in the course of the race, it has narrowed. At this point, there are only two candidates who have any plausible path to the 1,237 delegates it takes to become the Republican nominee, Donald Trump and me.

So now maybe, maybe some of you all here or maybe some of you all at home, started out supporting somebody else. Maybe you started out supporting Jeb Bush or Chris Christie. Maybe you started out supporting Mike Huckabee or Rand Paul or Carly Fiorina or Ben Carson. Maybe you're thinking now of supporting Marco Rubio or John Kasich.

Let me say, every one of those are good honorable decent people. They are people I like. They are people I respect. And yet none of them has any plausible path to beating Donald Trump and becoming the Republican nominee. And so if you have been supporting somebody else, let me tell you, we welcome you to our team. Come join us. Come on in. The water's fine.

WHITFIELD: All right. Ted Cruz there stumping in Concorde, North Carolina, among the five states with primaries on Tuesday. Also speaking this hour in a very important state with 99 winner take all Republican delegates at stake, Marco Rubio, who is desperately fighting for votes in his home state. We're back live, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:26:43]

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to Columbus, Ohio. Violence in the threat of bloodshed at political rallies is setting off alarms across the political spectrum. Earlier today, on CNN's "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio of Florida issued one of these strongest warnings yet.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: Would I be overstating matters if I said you sound like you are actually concerned that somebody before this is all over, somebody might lose their life?

RUBIO: I'm very concerned about that. I'm very - we don't know what's going to happen next here. I know that we have reached the point now where people in American politics have decided that if they don't agree with you that they get angry with you, that you're a bad and evil person, that they can say anything bad about you. I think the gates of civility have been blown apart and we have now reached a point where on both sides everyone is just staying or doing just whatever you want. You can't just say or do whatever you want. This is not about political correctness.

This is about rules of civility in a way of society talk to each other. let me ask everybody this, do we really want to live in a country where everybody hates each other? Where everybody is at each other's throat? Where because we disagree on the role of government or the tax rate or Obamacare or foreign policy we now in this nation cannot have a discourse or agree on any other issue and end up hating each other? Because that's what it feels like.

It feels like we're reaching a point now where in America everyone hates each other. I'm so tired of arguing and fighting with other Americans. Yes, we have serious disagreements. Let's debate those through our Republic. But we have reached a point that if I don't agree with you on something, it is not just that you're wrong, but you are a bad person, you are an evil person, you deserve nothing.

I mean all of the rules that once governed our discourse have blown away and we are headed in a very dangerous direction. And yes, there are people out there that are unbalanced. There are people that don't have control of themselves. We don't know what they will do. And this applies to both sides of this debate, by the way.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: Rubio facing an uphill battle against Donald Trump. In Florida, his home state, on Tuesday, a new polls showing Rubio a distant second by nearly 2-1.

All right. So this political race is underscoring a lot of questions. Are there great divides within the parties? Are there great divides within this country? Let's talk more about this right now with Alan Abramowitz, a political science professor at Emory University who has written extensively about this kind of polarization. Good to see you, professor. You say these divisions have been with us as a nation for a while. And if your words, is it true, that you believe that Trump is now exploiting them? To what degree?

ALAN ABRAMOWITZ, POLITICAL SCIENCE PROFESSOR, EMORY UNIVERSITY: Absolutely. I mean, I think what we're seeing with the Trump campaign is a candidate who is exploiting divisions within the country between the democratic and Republican parties but also now within the Republican party. But these are divisions that have been developing for many years and in response to changes that have take taken place in the country and in response, frankly, to the growing divide between the leaders of the two parties that we have seen in the Congress, that we have seen on the campaign trail. It is not at all surprising we are seeing this kind of division in the campaign right now.

WHITFIELD: You know, much has been written about how some people view Donald Trump as making a concerted effort to target certain audiences or the electorate.

[16:30:03] But is it your feeling that Donald Trump, as the example here among the candidates, did seek out to try to divide or disrupt the Republican Party?

ABRAMOWITZ: Well, Trump is exploiting the divisions that have long exists within the Republican Party. A divide between on the one hand to serve the more working class down scale -- working class as I said republican voters, who are angry at the failure of their party leaders and their view to fulfill the promises they've made to them, to reverse the direction of Obama and reverse Obama's policies and turn the clock back. And they're angry about the changes in the country, the demographic changes.

And there's divide between that segment of the Republican Party and republican establishment and the more upscale, kind of more traditional business oriented conservatives. The republican voters that Trump appeals to are not your traditional small government low tax conservatives. They are a different kind of republican voter. They've been voting republican. They are not new to the Republican Party but for the first time, now they are supporting a candidate who is challenging the party's establishment.

WHITFIELD: Are you finding that people have less after concern about being devoted to a party or are willing to set aside their commitments to a party so that they can instead choose the candidate that they like.

ABRAMOWITZ: Well, I think what you are seeing is in both parties. There are divisions right now but especially on the republican side. I think that many of the Trump supporters are so angry at their party's established leadership that there's a real threat that if Trump is not the nominee that they would ultimately not support a nominee. If there's an effort to stop Donald Trump at the republican convention and if that effort is successful I think you will see a lot of the supporters, either voting for a third party or independent candidate or just sitting out the election. So, there's a real threat to the Republican Party, I think, from the

Trump candidacy. You can see a lot of these voters walk away from the party and if Trump is the nominee, you can see a lot of the more traditional business oriented conservatives walk away from the party or sit out the election.

WHITFIELD: Professor Alana Abramowitz, thank you so much, of Emory University in Atlanta. Thank you.

ABRAMOWITZ: Sure, glad to be with you.

WHITFIELD: And so much more straight ahead. The hours, the minutes are ticking. Tonight 8:00 p.m. eastern time, a CNN Democratic Presidential Town Hall taking place just blocks away from where I am here at the Ohio State University Student Union. The town hall taking place at Mershawn Auditorium. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders taking questions answering them directly from Ohio voters. We'll have much more of our coverage straight ahead.

[16:35:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back to Columbus, Ohio. I'm Fredricka Whitfield at Ohio State University. All right, Donald Trump is now saying he may pay the legal fees of a man accused of sucker punching, a protestor, at one of his campaign rallies. It happened in Wednesday at a Trump campaign event in Fayetteville, North Carolina. You saw right there the punch was captured from several angles, 78-year-old John McGraw, a Trump supporter was later and arrested with a charged with assault disorderly conduct. Well here's what Trump had to say about it today on Meet the Press.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm just curious, do you plan on paying for the legal fees of this older gentleman in North Carolina who suckered punch the protester?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'm not aware. I will say this, I do want to see what that young man was doing because he was very taunting. He was very loud, very disruptive. And from what I understand he was sticking a certain finger up in the air and that is a terrible thing to do in front of somebody that frankly wants to see America made great again. And so we'll see, I'm going to take a look at it, but I want to see what that man was doing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And that condones a sucker punch though?

TRUMP: No, as I told you before nothing condones. But I want to see. The man got carried away, who was 78 years old. He obviously loves this country and maybe he doesn't like seeing what's happening to the country. I want to see the full tape ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you might pay for his legal fess?

TRUMP: ... but I don't condone violence. I don't want -- I mean, look at it, I'm going to see, you know, what was behind this because it was a strange event. But from what I heard, there was a, you know, there was a lot of taunting and a certain finger was placed in the air, not nice. Again, I don't condone the violence. I don't condone what he did, but you know what ...

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... so, it's possible you could ...

TRUMP: ... not nice to the other side either.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: ... it's possible you could help him with legal fees if this man needs it..

TRUMP: I've actually instructed my people to look into it, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, let's talk about this with our political panel, Brian Morgenstern, republican strategist and Marco Rubio supporter, Ellis Henican is a columnist and political commentator. Good to see both of you. Boy, do I wish you were right here in the room with me, because I have feeling I know where this is going to.

All right gentlemen, so Ellis you first. I mean, a few different messages coming from Donald Trump there, you know, he was loud, he was taunting, a certain finger was in the air, but he'll look at it, but at the same time nothing condone here. So, what is the message really being sent by Donald Trump as it pertains to all of this.

ELLIS HENICAN, COLUMNIST: Well, he certainly seemed more passionate about the first part, didn't he? It is understandable, the terrible thing that happened. Maybe we got to help him with legal fees. Fred, it is terrible. It's exactly the kind message a political leader should never give at a case like this. I mean it's just -- you've got denounce him. You got to say stop, Donald, stop.

WHITFIELD: So Brian, I mean, this kind of hesitation, I mean, have we seen this pattern before where he is not really willing to commit to something and then waffles on it and later he might? What's going on here? Why wouldn't he just be emphatic about doing -- are you supporting or you're not supporting? What are you seeing here?

BRIAN MORGENSTERN: Well, this is the m.o. of the Trump campaign. He built his support beginning in 2011 with the Birther movement in questioning. Just asking questions, and then earlier this year, we saw him do the same thing with Ted Cruz's eligibility and Marco Rubio's eligibility. And then with the KKK incident talking about David Duke saying, "I need to learn more about white supremacy." He doesn't know what white supremacy is, give me a break. Now, this again, I have to look into it.

This is classic Trump. He is conning everybody but people are falling for it and his supporters, some of them, you know, who are extremely angry and in this case violent, will probably eat it up. And it's driving people like Ellis and I, who are in favor of peaceful political discourse, pretty crazy at this point. But maybe that's just what Trump wants.

[16:40:00] WHITFIELD: So Ellis, do you think this kind of lays the ground work that there will be more of the same?

HENICAN: Why not? I mean the message is very clear from the top, go get him, go get him. You get mad at him. I mean, it's not by accident, Fred, that this is only happening at Trump rallies. It's not happening at anybody else's rally in either party. That's not just a coincidence.

WHITFIELD: Do you think he welcomes this? He wants this?

HENICAN: I think he has found that it's effective to promote the message that he wants to -- so very dramatic way of showing the anger and frustration. I think there's clearly an audience for it. He feeds that audience and yeah, I don't think you can remotely say that's just a surprise to him or to anybody.

WHITFIELD: Well Brian, at the same time, could it be that moment? Could this be the thing where some voters say, "wait a minute now, if you're going to condone this, then I don't know if I'm backing you after all?

MORGENSTERN: It could be, but then again we've thought that moment was happening, you know, all throughout this campaign when he questioned John McCain's heroism, we thought that was the moment. When he hesitated on denouncing white supremacy, we thought that was the moment. When he started questioning everybody's birth certificates, we thought that was the moment. So, while, you know, we can hope against hope, who knows.

The fact of the matter is, he does this and then we cover it and we talk about it nonstop and his opponents are buried below the fold. And that plays into, you know, a Trump friendly narrative as well. So, maybe there will be a straw that breaks the camel's bac because we've seen this m.o., this pattern of behaviour play out so many times it's actually getting old. But his supporters seem to keep gobbling it up.

WHITFIELD: Now, two days before, right. Two days now before five big races. All right, Brian Morgenstern, Ellis Henican, thank you so much. Appreciate it. And we'll have much more after a quick break. But first, the brutal winters in Detroit inspired today's CNN Hero to try to solve a serious problem.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The jacket itself was meant to offer people warmth and a little bit of pride because we see so many people on the streets that are wearing somebody else's trash -- somebody else's throw-away. So it's about creating something that was made specifically for them.

WHITFIELD: So inspirational. You can learn more about her story at cnnheroes.com and we'll be right back.

[16:45:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WHITFIELD: Welcome back, I'm Fredricka Whitfield in Columbus, Ohio, the site of the CNN Democratic Town Hall this evening. Meantime, attention is also being paid to Florida where Marco Rubio says he intends to win it. It's crucial the junior senator gets all 99 delegates from his home state, but Donald Trump is closing in on his lead there. Moments ago Rubio used the violence happening in Donald Trump's rallies as reason why they should not vote for Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: Some of these people are professional disrupters, okay. They get hired, they get paid to be rude and nasty. I'm not excusing that. But I'm also not excusing the fact that you have a leading contender for president telling people in his audience, "go ahead and punch someone in the face, I'll pay your legal bills." That's not excusable attitude because, let me tell you, that is wrong if our kids did it. That is disastrous if a president does it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WHITFIELD: All right, joining me right now is national correspondent Jason Carroll. He is live from Rubio's rally in The Vllages, but what was the reception like for Marco Rubio there?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he really had the crowd behind him here. I have to say it was an overflow crowd here, very excited crowd despite some of those polls showing that Rubio is trailing Trump here in the state. Let me get to those polls first very quickly just so you can see what the Rubio campaign is up against. That poll released today showing Trump at 43 percent, Rubio at 22. Cruz right behind him at 21 followed by Kasich at 9 percent.

But despite all that, Rubio had a lot of energy when he went into the room. I don't know if you could hear some of that in the background there. He's still pressing the flesh outside of the room at this point, meaning some of those who came out to listen to him basically telling the crowd, Fredricka, not to give into fear. Not to give into anger. He said he was noticing a troubling trend and I'll tell what you he said here.

Let me read part of it to you. He said, "A troubling trend that seems to dominate about how angry people can get, how offensive they can get, and how loud they can speak." He says that's not what it is like and is not what it is meant to be a conservative. That's what he's reminding the crowd of but also reminding the crowd that he is the true conservative. He is the alternative to Donald Trump. Again, though, he is trailing Trump in the polls here in Florida.

They are not buying into those polls saying it doesn't reflect what happened there in Chicago. They think that's going to have a negative impact on Trump and his supporters. They say it also doesn't feed into or reflect the early voters here in the state which they say seem to show early voters leading towards Rubio as opposed to Trump. Fredricka?

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much, Jason Carroll in The Villages, Florida. Appreciate that. All right, coming up in the next hour, Bernie Sanders will be making his final pitch to Ohio voters ahead of Super Tuesday. It's happening here in Columbus, Ohio just down the street. We'll take you there, live. Stay with us.

[16:50:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WITHFIELD: All right, welcome back. The 2016 race isn't the only dramatic presidential campaign that's gotten voters fired up. It's a nice episode of the CNN series "Race for the White House." We revisit the election of 1860 where Abraham Lincoln enters the political stage and battles to end slavery.

(BEGN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Lincoln had always said that if slavery isn't wrong then nothing is wrong. But slavery was horrendous.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I think it was because he hated the way his father had treated him, which was like a slave. Because his father would yank him out of school. Force him to go work on the neighbor's farms, performing all kind of back-breaking labor.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no reason why the Negro is not entitled to all the rights enumerated in the declaration of independence.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When Lincoln invokes the Declaration of Independence here, there is no quarrelling, there's no quibbling with it. That is the authority.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is as much entitled to these rights as the white man.

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Winding the Declaration of Independence up on his side provides a formidable obstacle for Steven Douglas to scramble over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He is my equal. And the equal of Judge Douglas.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lincoln argues that if slavery is allowed to spread into the new territories, it will lead to war.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[16:55:00] WHITFIELD: All right, don't miss "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE." That's tonight at 10:00 eastern right here on CNN. All right, so Ohio State University, home to presidential politics, tonight. The stages are set for CNN's democratic town hall at Mershawn auditorium, roughly two blocks from where I am right now in the Ohio Student Union. And just a few more blocks away that's very impressive Schottenstein Arena will fill, and is already filling with supporters of democrat Bernie Sanders, who holds a rally there about to begin just minutes from now. And yes, politics is center stage right now here on OSU, but it doesn't take long to be reminded of the incredible athletic legacy of the Buckeyes.

I found out as I -- as soon as I entered the Schottenstein Ccenter, I was greeted by the wall of Hall of Famers and among them, my dad, track and field Olympic gold medalist Mal Whitfield. They were nice enough here to give me paper and pencil to rub an etching and then see the gorgeous mural of Mal Whitfield among other great OSU athletes celebrated at the Schottenstein center.

That mural right there, really cool, very nice treat for me ahead of the Bernie Sanders rally about to begin right there at that arena. It was quite a surprise for all os us and now, just three hours before the CNN Democratic Town Hall right here on the Ohio State University campus. Thank you so much OSU for rolling out the red carpet for all of us here at CNN. And thanks for allowing me to see that privilege to get a chance to see that beautiful tribute to my dad and many other great Buckeye athletes.

All right, just a reminder, don't miss tonight's CNN TV One Democratic Presidential Town Hall. It all starts right here at 8:00 p.m. Eastern tight here non CNN. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. We'll see you again. Much more on the newsroom, straight ahead.

[17:00:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)