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GOP Rivals Gear Up for CNN Town Hall; Scott Walker Endorses Ted Cruz; Man Hijacks EgyptAir Flight; Supreme Court Split Over Public Sector Unions. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired March 29, 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: His lawyer said the jury wasn't allowed access to evidence that would have told the other side of the story.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello, thanks so much for joining me.

The clock is ticking and the stage is set. Hours from now Donald Trump, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich will make their pitches to voters during CNN's town hall in Milwaukee. Ted Cruz already hitting the campaign trail.

These are live pictures out of Brookfield, Wisconsin, where Cruz is getting ready to hold a rally.

Plus at any minute now, the Wisconsin Governor Scott Walker is expected to announce his presidential endorsement. All of this setting the scene for next week's critical primary.

Phil Mattingly has more. Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. 42 delegates at stake. And this is a primary that everybody's eyes are on right now. All three candidates making their way into Wisconsin if they're not already here. You saw Ted Cruz. John Kasich has been in the state for a couple of days. Donald Trump with a couple of rallies and town halls set up. All leading into tonight.

Now there are a couple of big issues that need to be dealt with tonight, whether it's the personal attacks, whether it's Donald Trump's foreign policy, whether it might be delegate lawsuits, but before anybody got to that, Donald Trump got a somewhat rude welcoming from a conservative, very popular radio host in Wisconsin just yesterday. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLIE SYKES, CONSERVATIVE RADIO HOST: Mr. Trump, before you called into my show, did you know that I'm a #neverTrump guy?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That I didn't know.

SYKES: OK. Well, I thought it was interesting and people were wondering, does Donald Trump know what Charlie Sykes has said about him in the past?

TRUMP: No. No, I didn't.

SYKES: And I would give you credit either way but I was wondering.

TRUMP: No, no, I understand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, that was Charlie Sykes who is that popular conservative radio host who actually will be the host of the show where Scott Walker will announce his endorsement. And that's notable for a couple of reasons. One, when you talk to local GOP operatives here they point to talk radio, and they point to Charlie Sykes as really kind of a driving force behind a very real anti-Trump movement in this state.

Now Donald Trump still has very good numbers in the state, is still resonating in certain portions of the state. But when you look at what Ted Cruz and what John Kasich are trying to do here, what you'll hear from them tonight is because they feel like there is an opportunity in Wisconsin to really start to get in the way of that momentum that has been leading Donald Trump up to this point and potentially to the 1,237 delegates he needs to move forward.

Now, Carol, you talk about Scott Walker's endorsement. Obviously a conservative almost icon when it comes to what he's done as governor. Donald Trump, not really that impressed with where Scott Walker is probably going to go today, tweeting out just a little bit ago, "After the way I beat Governor Scott Walker and Jeb, Rand, Marco, and all the others in the presidential primaries, no way he would ever endorse me," and Scott Walker has confirmed that he's not planning on endorsing Donald Trump. But Donald Trump doesn't seem to be too upset by it -- Carol.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: No surprise there. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Wisconsin this morning.

So as Phil said, we don't know exactly who Scott Walker will endorse. But the moment he does make his announcement, we'll go back to -- we'll actually go back to the Charlie Sykes studio. That was the radio host Phil was talking about. That's where Governor Scott Walker is expected to make his endorsement. When that happens of course we'll pass it along to you.

In the meantime, President Obama is blaming the media for enabling Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When our elected officials and our political campaigns become entirely untethered to reason and facts and analysis, when it doesn't matter what's true and what's not, that makes it all but impossible for us to make good decisions on behalf of future generations.

A job well done is about more than just handing some a microphone. It's to probe and question and dig deeper and to demand more. The electorate would be better served if that happened.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Well, that's exactly what's going to happen at CNN's town hall tonight. With me to talk about that and more, CNN political commentator and Trump supporter, Kayleigh McEnany, and CNN political commentator Mary Katherine Ham. She's also a senior writer for the "Federalist."

Welcome to both of you.

MARY KATHERINE HAM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: So, Kayleigh -- Kayleigh, Scott Walker is not expected to endorse Donald Trump. Will it matter?

MCENANY: I don't think so because look, Scott Walker, he's a great governor but he does have a 40 percent approval rating in his state. What Ted Cruz needs to do is expand his base. This is not going to do that. Ted Cruz is popular among Tea Party people, among very conservative people. But here's the thing. Donald Trump is exceedingly popular among blue-collar workers, among union members.

[10:05:01] And it's no secret that Scott Walker is very much averse to those factions in his own state. Those factions are not very happy with him. So this does nothing in the way of expanding Ted Cruz's base. And I would argue that governor endorsements haven't done much in this election. Look at Nikki Haley down in South Carolina. Trump won resoundingly despite Marco Rubio being endorsed by the governor. So as much as I admire Scott Walker, I don't think this is really going to matter.

COSTELLO: Mary Katherine, do you think that John Kasich will have any effect on who wins Wisconsin whether it's Ted Cruz or Donald Trump?

HAM: Well, yes, and actually Governor Walker has talked a bit about Kasich as if he's a spoiler which gives you a clue as to where he might go today. We're not sure but he's talked about it in that way. I do think it makes a difference. And I think Kayleigh is mostly right about Governor Walker. He is a good governor but his numbers are not great.

Here's the part where I think -- where I differ from Kayleigh, it is that Scott Walker is a symbol of actually having been on the ground and done battle with the left and come out on the other side. He's done it many times in Wisconsin. His people have tons of contacts on the ground. That state because of the many elections and recalls and what have you has been dissected within an inch of his life. So everybody knows where their people are. Having that apparatus available to somebody and having those contacts with them I think is important.

COSTELLO: And I think, Kayleigh, that civility is very important to the voters of Wisconsin, and many say Donald Trump isn't so civil, but John Kasich is.

MCENANY: Yes, but here's the thing. Donald Trump is right on policy, and I think at the end of the day when voters go to the polls, they are thinking what -- how can I make sure my husband has a job or I have a job if I'm a woman, or how can I make sure my kids are safe when they go to school and aren't going to be the next victim of a Brussels style attack? That is what voters care about.

You know, the tone is one thing. But I don't think when most voters go to the poll, they sit there and think who's been the most civil, who has the best tone. No, they think who is going to protect my family and who's going to ensure economic success for my future. So I think at the end of the day the issues will win out.

COSTELLO: So, Mary Katherine, it doesn't matter to voters how a president speaks to his country or to his constituents?

HAM: I think in some -- sometimes it does and others it doesn't as we've seen through this primary. I think in Wisconsin it can be more important. There's, you know, sort of a Midwestern-ize sensibility there.

And here's the thing. I think Trump is often all about tone. Like that's much of his appeal. He's very proud of it. So I don't think that it's more about policy than tone all the time with him. And here's the other thing, is when you have Ted Cruz in the race, he can easily make the argument as well that he is doing all the things that Kayleigh just listed and actually has experience coming up with plans to do those things. So there is a difference here.

COSTELLO: So, Kayleigh, Donald Trump -- I mean, there's going to be a question about the wives things, right? There's just going to be questions about that in tonight's town hall. How do you wish that Donald Trump would answer those questions?

MCENANY: I wish he'd say, you know, let's move on. And I think that is what he'll say. You know, we've been through this for a few days. And I think he's going to say, look, let's talk about "New York Times" interview where I laid out the Trump doctrine and my foreign policy and let's talk about my AIPAC speech, and let's talk about my interview with the "Washington Post."

I think he's going to say let's move on. And I am a candidate for women, I'm a candidate -- the only candidate on the stage, in fact, who's willing to say Planned Parenthood saves women's lives by doing pre-cancer screenings. I'm the only candidate who recognizes the good that this entity does, rather than just acknowledging the horrific things they do that need to be stopped. So I think he's going to pivot back to the issues and I think he'll have a very successful night in this town hall.

COSTELLO: Mary Katherine, do you agree? HAM: No, I think the other candidates on the stage would be more than

happy for him to talk about his "New York Times" interview in which he revealed that he doesn't really know that much about foreign policy and they'd like to talk about that. Whether that makes a difference in the primaries is another issue.

Here's one indicator I think you see that Wisconsin might be different from other primary states. It is that when you saw that Charlie Sykes interview with Trump, you have this contingent in conservative media that is --

COSTELLO: I have to stop you guys now. We got to go to the Charlie Sykes studio because Scott Walker is giving out his endorsement. Let's listen.

GOV. SCOT WALKER (R), WISCONSIN: After all these years of the Obama- Clinton failures, that it's time that we elect a strong new leader, and I've chosen to endorse Ted Cruz to be the next president of the United States for three simple reasons.

One, I just fundamentally believe that he is a constitutional conservative. Why that's important to me is I know as a governor, and talking to over governors across the country, we need a leader in Washington who understands that our founders intended for the power really to be in the states and most importantly in the hands of the people, not concentrated in Washington. And Ted Cruz not only believes that, he's shown he's willing to act on that.

Secondly, I think some really important in Wisconsin, and that is that we've shown, as you well know, Charlie, that we know how to take on the big government special interests and really put the power back in the hands of the hard-working taxpayers. That's something, again, that Ted Cruz has not only talked about in this campaign, I think probably more than just about anybody out there in Washington, he has shown he is not afraid to take on the big government special interests even sometimes when they're aligned with our own party.

[10:10:11] He's not afraid to take on those interests. And that's exactly what we need for president as well.

And then third, a very practical point, and that is I just fundamentally believe if you look at the facts, if you look at the numbers, that Ted Cruz is the best position by far to both win the nomination of the Republican Party and to then go on and defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall this year, and that's the key, is we want people who are principled, commonsense conservatives, who are people who do what they say, who stick to their guns but also people who can both win the nomination and go on to defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall.

And for that reason I am proud to endorse Ted Cruz, and I just want to add one other quick thing. And I'm sure you have plenty of questions, but I want to make sure that I was supporting someone, I wasn't against something or against someone but rather being for something. Just as I've said many times in campaigns for governor, I want to be for something, and after a lot of time looking at the speeches, looking at the records, looking at what the candidates not only say but what they have done in the past, it was an easy call for me to support Ted Cruz.

SYKES: OK. I'm really struck by the -- your endorsement in the sense that I expected that you were going to make an endorsement in order to block Donald Trump from winning in Wisconsin. But you sound like you're all in on Ted Cruz?

WALKER: Absolutely. To me, I've said it on the campaign trail for governor. I've said it last July when I threw my hat in there for a while for president, and I said I think Americans want to know what you're for, not just what you're against, and for me, I spent a lot of time and a lot of prayer, a lot of thought about this, and really just fundamentally looked at this.

I had to make a decision first whether I wanted to endorse or not, having been in this fight before, and secondly, whether or not, if I did, who that would be, and for me just looking at all these facts. But just on a personal level, I got to tell you, in a way that I don't think a lot of Americans have seen, I got a chance. I didn't know Ted Cruz well before the campaign this past year. I got to see him and know him at a lot of events not just at debates but we'd bump into each other at campaign stops and events across the country.

And I think the media doesn't give him all the benefit of what I found personally interacting with him, and that is he is a decent man. He loves his family. He loves his wife. He adores his children. He loves his country. You know, he and I are both preacher's kids, so I certainly can appreciate and feel strongly about the impact that his father had on him as a minister. I think for the two of us having grown up -- we're both in our 40s. He's a couple of years younger than I am, but we're both in our 40s, in just the sense that as I did and others did like Paul Ryan, we all came of age.

We weren't political forces. We actually literally came of age under President Ronald Reagan, and that I just see someone who is willing to uphold those same principles. And that's why I'm proud to endorse him.

SYKES: Do you anticipate campaigning with Senator Cruz?

WALKER: Absolutely. We reached out yesterday. In fact, one of the folks we were happy to work with someone who has worked with us in the past, and we'll be campaign with him on a number of stops. We haven't finalized all the schedule, but I'll be out all throughout the weekend, all the way up to early next week on Monday right up until Tuesday's election, so to me I'm all in. This is not a default. This is something I'm only going to do this if I feel strongly. I feel strongly for the reasons he laid out.

Not to mention, if you look at the facts, he's got an excellent tax plan. He's -- in fact the number of the people who worked with me in the past on defense and military issues have been working with him. He's got a strong, strong record like Reagan did in terms of a plan to rebuild our military at a time when we desperately need to show power in the world again. This is someone who's got a well-thought out plan. Not only to win

the party's nomination but I think when you pair him up with Hillary Clinton who has been fortunate that most of the national media's attention has been on the Republican presidential contest --

COSTELLO: All right. We're going to step away but you get the gist of this, right?

Governor Scott Walker of Wisconsin has endorsed Senator Ted Cruz for the president of the United States. We thought there was slim chance that he would go John Kasich's way but he did now. Scott Walker does call John Kasich a friend but he went with Ted Cruz because Ted Cruz is a constitutional conservative, he says. He can take on big government and special interests and Ted Cruz, he says, can beat Hillary Clinton in a general election.

Shall we go back to our panel just for a minute? OK. Let's go back to our panel.

Mary Katherine, I know what Kayleigh thinks about this, but do you think a Scott Walker endorsement matters?

[10:15:06] HAM: Well, a couple of things, as I was saying, you see this divide on the national level. You had a lot of conservative media be Trump curious or Trump positive even if they weren't totally for Trump. In Wisconsin you see a different thing where folks like Charlie Sykes are very against him. And I think you see in Scott Walker's tone, which is very different than Donald Trump's, the style of Wisconsin voters. He said that people want to know what you're for, not what you're against. He's got a more positive vibe going on there. And I think that is what matters in Wisconsin.

I do think there's a possibility that Scott Walker support opens up some wisdom and some avenues to actual apparatus on the ground from all of these elections that he's been through in that state. They know their stuff there.

COSTELLO: Yes. And the Cruz campaign is playing this up, Kayleigh. In fact, Charlie's radio show is being broadcast to a Cruz rally that's just about to take place in the state of Wisconsin. So I'll ask you again, even though I know the answer. Did Donald Trump in any way want Scott Walker's endorsement?

MCENANY: Look, I think you always want any endorsement you can get, but I think voters can see through this. I think when Scott Walker just talked about commonsense conservatism, I think he made the case for Donald Trump, not Ted Cruz, because commonsense conservatism means recognizing conservative shortcomings, recognizing when free trade deals, which is a conservative principle, hurts the American worker, makes them lose jobs.

It means recognizing when hawkish Republican foreign policy costs our men and women abroad their lives. And you have to ask, you know, why did they die abroad when now ISIS is taking over. Maybe that wasn't the best move. So I think commonsense conservatism is what Donald Trump stands for,

not what Ted Cruz stands for. Ted Cruz stands for litmus test conservatism where the only people welcome to our party are the people who are far-right voters. Those are the only people allowed to vote for us. I think that's what he represents. So I think the case he made was just a case for Donald Trump.

COSTELLO: All right --

HAM: There are many conservative leaders in Wisconsin --

COSTELLO: Go ahead, Mary Katherine.

HAM: There are many conservative leaders in Wisconsin who do not agree that Trump is commonsense conservative at all. So that's the difference.

COSTELLO: All right. I got to leave it there. We're keeping an eye on this Cruz event because, you know, something surprising may happen and you probably can guess what that is. But if that does happen, we'll bring you back to Brookeville, Wisconsin.

The CNN town hall, by the way, is live from Milwaukee tonight. It will be moderated by Anderson Cooper 8:00 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:21:34] COSTELLO: This morning Americans awoke to the news of a hijacked airliner and wondered if it was related to an act of terrorism. Well, it was not. This is one of the last hostages escaping through a cockpit window and scaling down the side of the plane.

Minutes later the hijacker surrenders without a fight. That's the hijacker, the man in the white shirt. Officials now say the man was psychologically unstable. He was actually upset over his ex-wife.

The flight from Alexandria, Egypt was supposed to be a short hop to Cairo. Instead the hijacker said he had an explosive belt on and ordered the flight to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus.

CNN's Ian Lee is in Cairo with more on this. Good morning.

IAN LEE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This is what we know as of now. This flight taking off from Alexandria at 6:30 local time. It was bound for Cairo. About an hour into flight that's when passengers started to suspect something wasn't right, especially because they were not over land. They were over the Mediterranean which isn't on the flight path. There was a concern also because this flight is normally 45 minutes. It was only then that the flight crew told the passengers that a hijacking had taken place.

I was able to talk to one of the passengers who is now Larnaca. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FARAH EL DIBANY, PASSENGER ON HIJACKED FLIGHT: The cabin crew also told us that we are hijacked. We are being hijacked, so, yes, and that was it. And then there was a lot of panic in the plane, and yes. They didn't tell us anything more. Didn't say what they want or where we are heading, nothing. We were just kidnapped. That's it.

LEE: So --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He didn't say if he has any bombs or anything with him, nothing. Didn't say anything about that.

LEE: Did you see him?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I saw him from very far because I was sitting in the front of the plane, and he was in the very back. And most of the time he was behind the curtain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: Carol, as you can imagine, this is a very terrifying moment. The passenger told me that when the people found out that the plane had been hijacked that a lot of people burst into tears. There was a bit of chaos but that the flight crew very professionally kept order, kept everyone calm for the most part, were able to deal with this hijacker.

He was in the back of the plane as we heard. They were able to get this plane on the ground in Larnaca. Initially the hijacker wanted to go some place in Europe, but that's when once on the ground they were able to get some of these hostages off the plane. At first it was all the Egyptians. Then they were getting more. It really whittled it down to seven people with the remaining hostages, and then as we saw in that very dramatic video where you have one of the people on the plane escaping out of the window of the cockpit before security forces were able to move in and arrest him.

And we're also learning about this bomb that the hijacker said that he had on the plane. Officials -- Cyprus and Egyptian officials are now saying that that bomb was fake saying that this man was mentally disturbed, not only demanding relations to his ex-wife but also we're hearing that he wanted to have possibly female prisoners here in Egypt released.

[10:25:05] We're also hearing that he did, in fact, talk to his wife during the negotiation process, but everyone is just happy that this is over and everyone is safe.

COSTELLO: All right. Ian Lee reporting live from Cairo, Egypt this morning. Thank you.

A bit of breaking news to pass along to you now from the U.S. Supreme Court. It is a victory for public unions.

Ariane De Vogue joins us now to explain it all, and the unions, they thought they were going to lose this case. ARIANE DE VOGUE, CNN SUPREME COURT CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is an

unexpected victory for the public sector unions. The Supreme Court has just announced that it's gone 4-4 in this case, which means that it's evenly divided and the lower court opinion that went in favor of the unions is affirmed.

This case was about public sector unions and whether nonmembers had to pay collective bargaining fees. A group of teachers backed by a conservative group said they brought a First Amendment challenge here and said they didn't want to have to pay for speech that they didn't approve of.

And here's what's interesting. This is the impact of Scalia on the court because during oral arguments, the court seemed poised to overturn precedent. It looked like there were five votes that would have been a severe blow to the public sector unions. Instead, Scalia is obviously no longer on the bench, and now the court is 4-4, and the unions find themselves in the winning position. It really is one of the first big indicators of the effect of Scalia's death on this court.

COSTELLO: All right, Ariane de Vogue reporting live from the Supreme Court this morning.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton heads to Wisconsin to get out the vote before next week's key primary. We'll be live in Milwaukee, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)