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Primary Voting Underway in Wisconsin; GOP Rivals Vying for Critical Wisconsin Win; Sanders, Clinton Battle for Wisconsin. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 05, 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] ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS: And I'll tell you what, Carol. You know, Kris Jenkins has such a great story. We've been talking about it all week. He was actually playing against his adopted brother in this game, Nate Britt, who plays for the Tar Heels. His family brought in Jenkins back in 2007, legally adopted him. And it was funny, after the game, Britt, he said he congratulated his brother, but he also said, you know, he kind of wishes someone else other than his brother would have hit that shot because now Jenkins has bragging rights over him for the rest of their lives.

(LAUGHTER)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: A true story.

Andy Scholes, thanks so much. It was fun.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening in the NEWSROOM, Wisconsin votes.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You will look back and you will say it was the single greatest vote you've ever cast. That's when our country became great again.

COSTELLO: But the stop Trump machine working overtime.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So if you don't want to see Donald Trump as the nominee, if you don't want to see Hillary Clinton as the next president, vote for me 10 times.

COSTELLO: Trump not Cruz's only target.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you think you can push me around and get away with it, you're wrong.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If there is a record-breaking turnout here in Wisconsin, we are going win.

COSTELLO: Sanders predicting victory tonight but Clinton looking ahead to a home turf battle.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was so proud to be a New Yorker. All those eight years I represented you. But I am even prouder today because this is what makes America great.

COSTELLO: Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

Voters hitting the polls in Wisconsin and today could be a game- changer. The frontrunners on both sides now fighting for a win. Here's what's at stake. On the Democratic side 86 delegates up for grabs, for the Republicans 42 delegates. Victory on both sides gives the winner a major boost of momentum.

Senator Ted Cruz looking to add to his wins over Donald Trump, but the frontrunner is staying confident after what many are calling the worst week of his campaign.

CNN's Jason Carroll is in Brookfield, Wisconsin. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Carol. You know, here in Brookfield, they are expecting record turnout. In fact, expecting record turnout here in the states. Election officials saying some 40 percent of registered voters expected to turn out. If that happens, that means the state is looking at somewhere as 1.75 million to two million showing up to vote in polling places like this one where we've seen a steady stream of people coming in all morning long and when you think of the state and when you think of Republican voters, what you have to do is you have to think of the so-called wow counties.

These are the three counties in and around Milwaukee. You've got Waukesha, Ozaukee and also Washington Counties. This is where Republicans have had their big push. This is where they're expecting a great deal of turnouts. Certainly if Ted Cruz pulls out a win here in the state, that's going to mean a lot for the #neverTrump movement, which has really seemed to take hold, Carol, here in the state. Whenever you turn on talk radio you're always hearing about the #neverTrump people weighing in, saying get out there and vote for anyone whether it'd be Kasich or Cruz but not Trump.

So if Cruz is able to pull out a win here, certainly a feather in the cap of that particular movement. Trump predicting, look, despite what the polls are saying, despite that it shows that Cruz is ahead in the polls, he is going to pull out a win here just like he did in New Hampshire and in South Carolina -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Jason Carroll reporting live from Brookfield, Wisconsin. Thank you.

If Trump plans to win Wisconsin, he needs women voters on his side. That's probably why he brought his wife Melania on the campaign trail for a rare campaign appearance on Monday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: I'm very proud of him. He's a hard worker. He's kind. He has a great heart. He's tough. He's smart. He's a great communicator. He's a great negotiator. He's telling the truth. He's a fighter. And if you elect him to be our president, he will fight for you and for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: After a rocky weekend a series of missteps, it's been a damage control mode for Trump, in addition to firing off insults to Ted Cruz, he's also doubling down on calls for Governor John Kasich to drop out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D. TRUMP: In all fairness to Kasich, you know, Kasich has, what, one in 32? So he's been in 32 -- I think he has 32 losses and one victory that had I spent another day in Ohio, I would have won, but I wanted to make sure I won Florida. So stayed -- no, but we won pretty -- you know, I mean it was pretty close. So he's won 32. I don't think he should be staying.

You know, if you think of it, Jeb did better than him, right? Marco did much better than him. Many people did much better than him and they got out. He's just a stubborn guy, so let him -- let him play the game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:05:06] COSTELLO: Let's bring in CNN's Phil Mattingly with more on this. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Now not only did John Kasich win Ohio by 11 points and more than 230,000 votes, so saying that it was very close there is a bit of a jab by Donald Trump there that might not be totally based on reality.

Donald Trump also refuses to pronounce Kasich's name correctly. He continues to say Kasich.

COSTELLO: I think he says Kasich.

MATTINGLY: But he's not alone in this. Ted Cruz and Donald Trump don't agree on much at all right now. But on trying to push John Kasich out of the race, they're actually in line. Take a listen to what Ted Cruz had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: John Kasich has lost 30 states. He's lost every state other than his home state and he's mathematically eliminated from the race. He cannot be the Republican nominee. He can't beat Donald Trump. If you lose 49 states, you ain't going to be the Republican nominee.

(END VIDEO CLIP) MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, here's what's happening from the Cruz campaign. Ted Cruz and his team believe that John Kasich staying in the race is splitting their kind of non-Trump vote. It cost them potentially Illinois. It may cost them going forward and two specific congressional districts in Wisconsin is a chance that John Kasich could cost them those districts. That's why they want him out. And he's -- the Cruz campaign is very dangerous for John Kasich because they have money, they have ads that are targeted specifically for him.

And any time Ted Cruz attacks it resonates. Donald Trump's attacks are exactly what the Kasich campaign wants. They're fundraising off them. They want to engage on him. John Kasich, for the vast majority of his campaign, has tried to stay above the attacks. He's more than willing to have the fight with Donald Trump here. So I think this is an interesting kind of side story.

Wisconsin, obviously, an extremely important day-to-day but how the Kasich effort goes on coming forward is very important to watch. John Kasich's adviser saying very clearly, John Kasich is not getting out of the race.

COSTELLO: Is it at all possible that John Kasich can do better in Wisconsin than the polls are saying?

MATTINGLY: It is -- look. Right now John Kasich is 10, 15, 20 points behind on the top line. But it's not the top line that Kasich's campaign actually cares about. When you talk to his advisers, how delegates are allocated in the state of Wisconsin. 18 go to the winner of the state. The rest are allocated by congressional districts. There are two very specific congressional districts that John Kasich has been targeting outside of Milwaukee. One of which if he wins both of them, that's six delegates right there. The three delegates a piece.

So that would be conserved a victory for them. Pulling any delegates out of Wisconsin would be a victory for John Kasich. Next stop New York where John Kasich is already campaigning. After that, Pennsylvania, where he's tied with Donald Trump in polling.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: He's from Pennsylvania. Where he's born in Pennsylvania.

MATTINGLY: He's from -- from McKees Rocks, born in Pennsylvania. So the Kasich campaign looks at the map ahead and says, hey if we can pull a couple of delegates out in Wisconsin and then head into the northeast in Pennsylvania, we could be all right.

COSTELLO: Such a strange election.

(LAUGHTER)

MATTINGLY: Never stops.

COSTELLO: And not going boring.

MATTINGLY: Always entertaining.

COSTELLO: Yes. Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

So we'll ask the question, why doesn't Governor John Kasich just exit gracefully like Cruz and Trump want? As Mr. Trump said, he's won one state, Ohio, and he hasn't exactly slate any contest outside of his home turf. Yet he persists to the frustration of candidates Trump and Cruz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KASICH: Both of them said that I'm taking their votes from their voters. I'm taking both because as people get to know me and understand my record and my positive vision and all these things, of course, I can get votes from both of them. So, you know, I think I heard today that Senator Cruz has to get, like, 102 percent of the remaining delegates, that's kind of arithmetically impossible. That's what he's been saying about me.

So, look, Anderson, everybody needs to chill out. I'm in New York. We're going to do well here. I'm going to Pennsylvania. We're excited about that. And we're going to go to an open convention where kids are going to learn a lot more about picking presidents that they do about, you know, spending time just on SnapChat.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Won't that be fun? And you thought your vote actually mattered.

With me now Newsmax TV host and Trump supporter Steve Malzberg. I'm also joined by Judson Phillips, the founder and president of Tea Party Nation. He is also a Ted Cruz supporter.

Thanks to both of you for being -- thanks to both of you for being with me. I appreciate it.

Can you hear me?

STEVE MALZBERG, HOST, NEWSMAX TV: Are you talking to me --

COSTELLO: Good.

JUDSON PHILLIPS, FOUNDER AND PRESIDENT, TEA PARTY NATION: I can hear you.

MALZBERG: Yes.

COSTELLO: I was getting a little nervous. So I'm going to start with you, Steve. Mr. Trump says John Kasich should not be allowed to run. Why?

MALZBERG: Well, I really don't understand why Donald Trump doesn't want to keep Kasich in the race. As a matter of fact I had Roger Stone on my show yesterday and he really didn't understand it either. But look, here's the thing. You heard what Kasich said in that sound bite you just played. He said it's going to be an open convention. That's the one reason he's running to make sure that Donald Trump doesn't get one, two, three, seven. And he hopes or maybe he's been told by the establishment that he'll have a great shot of being, you know, paraded in there and he'll get the nomination after losing 49 states most likely.

But the interesting thing here, Carol, is Ted Cruz is doing the same thing. Because you also heard Kasich say that mathematically Cruz would have to win 101 percent of the remaining delegates to get in.

[10:10:08] Cruz cannot win 1237, so where Cruz wants Kasich out because he says it's between me and Trump, because that's what the people want, Cruz is playing a duplicitous game here because he knows the only way he gets the nomination is if he keeps Trump from getting in the first ballot, and then the delegates who were elected to serve Trump go to him.

COSTELLO: It's complicated, right? So, Judson, just a simple question. I'm going to simplify things for just a second. Does it really matter who Kasich is hurting? I mean, isn't it up to Ted Cruz to beat whoever's running against him?

PHILLIPS: It is. And you know, I don't like the idea of saying to somebody you can't run. I mean, this is America. Everybody has the right to run. And clearly somebody's bank rolling John Kasich because it takes money to run and somebody is providing him that money. But look, at the end of the day John Kasich is a bit of a joke candidate. I mean, honestly, the guy would fit more comfortably on a Democrat stage with Hillary Clinton and Bolshevik Bernie than he would on a Republican stage. So I don't even know why he runs as a Republican.

COSTELLO: I want -- I want to just interrupt you, Judson. So tell me how John Kasich is like Hillary Clinton.

PHILLIPS: He supports amnesty, he supports expanding Obamacare, he supports growing government, which is the opposite of what Ted Cruz stands for, it's the opposite of what Tea Party movement stands for. It's the opposite of what conservative Republicans stand for. Conservative Republicans stand for less government. John Kasich wants more government.

COSTELLO: Steve, do you agree with that? I'm just curious.

MALZBERG: Yes.

COSTELLO: Because I talked to a Wisconsin radio host who supports Ted Cruz but it doesn't seem to me that he enthusiastically supports Ted Cruz.

MALZBERG: Yes.

COSTELLO: I asked why he didn't support John Kasich because Kasich does better when it comes to polling if he's running against Hillary Clinton, and he said the same thing that John Kasich is moderate. So in your words, how is John Kasich moderate? MALZBERG: I think John Kasich is a liberal. And that host could name

any specific issue in your last hour and, you know, that's unfortunate.

Look. He believes in manmade climate change. He believes in accepting the gay marriage issue. The court decided, let's move on. That's not a conservative point of view. He's against the scrutinization of ban on Muslims that Donald Trump has presented. He's weak on immigration.

Socially he is a liberal. Fiscally he is conservative. But fiscally I think Donald Trump brings something to the table that nobody else does and that's the experience of having run a successful -- a wildly successful business.

COSTELLO: But, Judson, when you're running in a general election, aren't most people socially liberal or at least socially moderate and fiscally conservative?

MALZBERG: Well, let's take abortion, for instance. Most people are on side of what the Republicans stand for as opposed to Abortion on demand, which is what the Democratic plan. Republicans have run from abortion, election after election, presidential election after presidential election. If they fight on that issue and say, do you favor it, I mean, look at the polls. As we get more technology, people want more and more restrictions on abortion.

So, no, I think if you fight for your issues, you could convince the public. But you're talking about what Kasich -- why he's not considered a conservative, he's not a conservative. He's just not. He would be more comfortable running in the primaries against Hillary.

COSTELLO: So, Judson, would you like to add to that?

PHILLIPS: Yes, absolutely. Kasich is a liberal. And here's the problem Republicans have had since the days after Ronald Reagan's election. They have not run any solid conservatives. Bob Dole won the conservative and look at what happened to him. John McCain won the conservative, look what happened to him. Mitt Romney won the conservative. And that's the problem. People keep saying, well, you've got to run these socially liberal people to get election, well, guess what happened, you run them and they don't go get elected. It's time to put a conservative in there and the only conservative in the race is Ted Cruz.

MALZBERG: Well --

PHILLIPS: He is --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: But, Steve, both Ted Cruz and Donald Trump have these high unfavorability ratings.

MALZBERG: Yes, but you know what -- COSTELLO: And in a head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton, Trump

loses. Ted Cruz ties and then in some polls he loses. So they're not particular strong candidates in a general election.

(CROSSTALK)

MALZBERG: I understand that.

PHILLIPS: I disagree. They are strong candidates. And here's the other thing. Trump loses in a poll to Bolshevik Bernie. By 20 points.

MALZBERG: OK. All right. All right.

PHILLIPS: That is an unbelievable poll right there. He's going to lose to Bernie Sanders?

MALZBERG: All right. Look. Those polls mean nothing now. But by the way, the only true anti-establishment candidate left in this election on the Republican side is Donald Trump. How could you be anti-establishment when Ted -- when Lindsey Graham and Jeb Bush and Mitt Romney have endorsed you? So -- Cruz running as the anti- establishment is a joke. But those polls, Carol, when you get one-on- one, especially if it's Hillary, OK, Donald Trump will go places nobody is willing to go, where the media at this point isn't willing to go.

[10:15:01] Bringing up Clinton's women who say they were intimidated by Hillary, having them come forward and speak. A litany of issues that you can't even imagine.

COSTELLO: I'm thinking that might not be a winning argument for Donald Trump right at this moment.

PHILLIPS: That isn't going to be a winning argument.

MALZBERG: Sure it will.

PHILLIPS: How many derogatory things has he said about women?

(CROSSTALK)

MALZBERG: You know, how many young women --

PHILLIPS: His negatives among women are 75 percent right now.

MALZBERG: Do you know how many young women --

PHILLIPS: He's not going to make that up.

(CROSSTALK)

MALZBERG: OK. Do you know how many young women in this country don't even know that Bill Clinton was impeached? Maybe they heard Monica Lewinsky. They don't know the women that have accused Bill Clinton of sexual improprieties and that -- say they've been threatened and intimidated by Hillary Clinton. A girl who was raped by a pedophile that Hillary Clinton bragged about getting --

COSTELLO: Oh come on.

MALZBERG: Wait, let me finish.

COSTELLO: No, no, no.

MALZBERG: What do you mean? You don't even want to hear it? That Hillary Clinton is on tape bragging about, as a lawyer, getting off on a technicality. That woman now says, Hillary ruined my life.

PHILLIPS: What's --

COSTELLO: I'm going to leave it there.

MALZBERG: That's not fair?

COSTELLO: No. No. Thank you, guys.

PHILLIPS: God forbid that I should --

COSTELLO: I'm going to leave it there.

PHILLIPS: God forbid that I should defend Hillary --

COSTELLO: Steve Malzberg, Judson Phillips.

PHILLIPS: She was appointed to represent somebody. So she's got to do her job.

COSTELLO: All right. I'm going to leave it there. Good-bye. Thanks for joining me.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Clinton's camp says the domination is in the bag. So why is Bernie Sanders warning her to look over her shoulder.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:25] COSTELLO: As Wisconsin voters head to the polls Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton is focusing on New York more than ever. The dust now settling her debate dispute with Bernie Sanders as the rivals agree to face off this week on Sanders' home turf, Brooklyn. And if you ask Clinton -- if you ask Sanders, rather, Clinton is shaking in her boots.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I don't want to get Hillary Clinton more nervous than she already is. She's already under a lot of pressure. So don't tell her this. I think if we win here, we win in New York state, we're on our way to the White House.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Chris Frates is live in Green Bay, Wisconsin, with more on this. Good morning.

SANDERS: Hey, good morning, Carol. So both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton have said that if turnout is big today, that will bode well for them and they'll be happy to hear that there is above average turnout here in Green Bay at this polling location where I'm at.

As you can see behind me, people continue to stream in at a pretty constant rate to vote. We've seen about 200 people come through the doors already today. That's above average. The officials here tell me this place usually get about 1600. We expect we'll see that lunchtime spike and of course that after-work spike. And you know, Bernie Sanders is really trying to make a run and run-up the score on Hillary Clinton here. He leads in the polls and, you know, he's trying to get as many of those 86 delegates as she can.

Hillary Clinton, of course, has lowered expectations in Wisconsin saying, you know, a number of things included that because this is a majority white state, that they'll support Bernie Sanders. Also pointing out that she did in fact lose this state to Barack Obama back in 2008 by double digits. But she's campaigning hard in New York. She's there yesterday, skipping last-minute push here in Wisconsin, moving on to New York. There's a reason for that. 250 delegates at play in New York. That's second only to California. And that big primary is on April 19th.

Now Bernie Sanders, he wants to try to win here today, get as many delegates as he can, and then try to upset Hillary Clinton in New York, cutting into her delegate lead. She's leading him by about 240 delegates and he needs about 75 percent of the pledged delegates left to get that nomination. Hillary Clinton only needs about 35 percent. So it's going to a huge important race. And one of the things we're of course going to be watching April 14th. Five days before that crucial New York election. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton coming on CNN to debate. That's the first time they're going to go head-to- head in nearly eight months -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Chris Frates, reporting live from Green Bay this morning. Thank you. Thank you.

So Bernie Sanders has momentum, but Hillary Clinton still has the numbers. Right now when you combine delegates and super delegates, she's got 700 more votes than Sanders. Still, after losing to Sanders in five contests in the last two weeks, well, that's a fact not lost on our popular culture.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, HOST, "TONIGHT SHOW WITH JIMMY FALLON": The video is making its rounds on the Internet of Hillary Clinton losing her temper when confronted by an environmental activist about taking money from the fossil fuel industry.

Hillary said the only fossil I'm worried about is the one from Vermont that I'm running against.

(LAUGHTER) (END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: A different message from Hillary Clinton's campaign manager who wrote a memo saying she has a near insurmountable lead in delegates and that the only way for Sanders to grab the nomination would be to reverse the will of the voters.

Here's what campaign manager Robby Mook said on CNN's "NEW DAY."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROBBY MOOK, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: There's some simple mathematical facts here. And the Sanders campaign can't explain how they will get the delegates to win. And so now what they're saying is well, we'll go into states like Nevada or these other caucuses and try to steal some delegates away in the process or we'll steal away super delegates. That's not fighting for votes. That's not getting the majority of the voters. That's just trying to work the math and it doesn't -- and it doesn't work. They haven't been able to prove a path.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So let's talk about that with Larry Sabato. He's the director for the Center for Politics at the University of Virginia.

Welcome, Larry.

LARRY SABATO, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR POLITICS, UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: So the delegates are sounding a lot like the Republicans these days with the super delegates talk.

SABATO: Well, they are, and, of course, super delegates in the Democratic Party have always been controversial starting with their origin in the 1984 contest that Walter Mondale won. They've been seen as too establishment, they're too resistant to change, too unfriendly to the insurgents, whether they're Gary Hart or whether it's Bernie Sanders.

COSTELLO: Well, let me read another excerpt from that memo sent by Robby Mook, quote, "For most of the campaign Senator Sanders has criticized the role that super delegates play in the nominating process.

[10:25:05] But as he now campaigns without a clear path to the nomination that relies on the voters, he's aggressively courting their support."

So it's that disingenuous on Sanders' part?

SABATO: Well, yes. Being disingenuous is one of the birthrights on any presidential campaign, on either side. It's disingenuous because they are 15 percent of the delegate votes at the Democratic convention and you simply have to win a goodly share of them if you're going to be the nominee.

Now, you know, the truth is, Carol, Robby Mook is right on the math, it's difficult to find a path for Bernie Sanders to win this nomination. On the other hand what Mook has to do and what most importantly Hillary Clinton has to do is to generate more enthusiasm for her candidacy. She needs to leave that Philadelphia convention as the nominee of the united party and I don't think the Democrats are there yet.

COSTELLO: So let's talk about Wisconsin and enthusiasm because right now it seems like Bernie Sanders is going to win the state of Wisconsin, so why hasn't Hillary Clinton figured out how to do better in states like Wisconsin, especially after Michigan?

SABATO: Because it's difficult. You know, so much of this breaks down on predictable demographic lines. When you see a state that is disproportionately white, that has loads and loads of students and college towns, and even in Wisconsin's case, a socialist tradition in some of the cities, it really is very difficult for Bernie Sanders to lose. One would expect him to win handily, and sure enough it's turning out the way the projections all along have suggested that it would.

COSTELLO: So I know you said the math is not in Bernie Sanders' favor, but if he wins Wisconsin and does really well in New York and maybe he'll win New York, who knows, then it's on to Pennsylvania, why isn't there a path to the nomination for Bernie Sanders?

SABATO: Well, because the delegate numbers aren't there. Now look, if he wins New York, it will be an earthquake for the Democratic side, even if Hillary Clinton ends up keeping the nomination. She ought to win New York. It's a closed primary. So strictly to Democrats. It's a much more diverse state in terms of minorities. She ought to win it. She represented it for eight years in the U.S. Senate. So, you know, we'll all re-evaluate if she loses New York but I see no indication so far that she is going to lose New York.

COSTELLO: Yes. She's ahead in all the polls. Well, we'll see how she does in Wisconsin because she needs at least a goodly number of delegates from the state of Wisconsin. She doesn't really need a win, right?

SABATO: Yes. And Carol, that's really the key. The big difference between the Democratic contest and the Republican contest is that the Democrats have proportional representation everywhere. Even when you win big you don't really gain that many additional delegates on your opponent. You know, on the Republican side you have winner-take-all in some states and you can make a great leap forward pretty quickly.

COSTELLO: Got you. Larry Sabato, thanks for your insight.

SABATO: Thank you, Carol.

COSTELLO: You're welcome.

The next debate between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton takes place next Thursday night in Brooklyn, hosted by Wolf Blitzer, 9:00 p.m. Eastern on CNN.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, he's covered Wisconsin primaries for 28 years but one journalist says today's race is in a league of its own.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)