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Voters Head to Polls in 15 States on Super Tuesday; Supreme Court Rules Trump Should Stay on Colorado Ballot. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 05, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: It's Super Tuesday, March 5, right now on CNN THIS MORNING.

[06:00:39]

Donald Trump hoping to clinch the nomination with a Super Tuesday sweep after a Supreme Court ruling keeps him on the ballot in all 50 states.

Is Super Tuesday Nikki Haley's last hurrah? Or is there a Plan B if she drops out of the race?

And by the end of the day, that rematch that seven out of 10 Americans say they don't want could be on. The next steps for Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

All right, 6 a.m. here in Washington. This is a live look at Raleigh, North Carolina. Polls are opening there in just half an hour. One of the states we're watching most closely today for clues about what we could learn ahead of the general election.

Good morning to you. I'm Kasie Hunt. It's wonderful to have you with us.

Super Tuesday has arrived. Donald Trump again hoping to pull off a 15- state sweep over Nikki Haley, with more than a third of all the delegates at stake. If that happens, the former president would have more than 90 percent of the delegates needed to clinch the Republican nomination.

That, of course, sets up the rematch that most Americans say they don't want: Trump versus Biden.

On Super Tuesday eve, the former president was praising the Supreme Court for ruling that he can't be kicked off Colorado's ballot, and he urged the justices to also vote in his favor on absolute presidential immunity.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And you don't want to have your opposing party or opponent, or even somebody that just thinks you're wrong, bring a criminal suit against you or any kind of a suit when you leave office. I have that right now at a level that nobody's ever seen before. I have rogue prosecutors, and I have rogue judges.

Historically, a thing like what I've been going through would have hurt a political party or political candidate terrifically. You wouldn't even run. You wouldn't be able to run. You'd get out.

And the polls show that I'm much more popular than I was before.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: So there's that.

Nikki Haley, meanwhile, is not committing to whether she'll stay in the race beyond Super Tuesday. She did make it clear to Texas voters, where she was campaigning, though, that she's not going down without a fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We lost in 2018. We lost in 2020. We lost in 2022. But look, two weeks ago. Republicans lost the vote on Mayorkas. They lost a vote on Israel, the RNC chair lost her job, and Donald Trump's fingerprints were on all of it. How much more losing do we have to do before we realize maybe Donald Trump is the problem?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. CNN's Alayna Treene begins our Super Tuesday coverage. She's live in Richmond, Virginia.

Alayna, good morning. It's wonderful to see you.

What are you hearing from the Trump campaign, especially -- you're in Virginia. There's a lot of interesting dynamics, in particular in that state, where we may learn things about not just the dynamics in the primary, but for the general election. What do you know?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. Well, good morning.

And yes, we are from Richmond, Virginia. The polls just opened here. It's still pretty sleepy. We just saw one car come in, but not many people here yet.

But look, to get into the Trump side of it, they are very confident about how he is going to perform today. But they're also very aware that Nikki Haley has not said what she is going to do beyond Super Tuesday.

We know that she had pledged to stay in the race, at least through today, but it's unclear what will happen after that. And I know from my conversations with Donald Trump's senior advisors, they're really hoping to see her drop out. They are very eager to have him be the presumptive Republican nominee as early as possible.

Of course, as you mentioned, Kasie, he's not -- he's going to be shy of the delegates, regardless of how many states he wins today. That will come in a couple of weeks.

But they want to have the infrastructure behind him, and they also want to convince a lot of the people who are looking for alternative -- an alternative to Donald Trump to come out and support him.

And it's not just voters, but also donors. They need that money and the finances to boost him to a real general election campaign against Joe Biden.

Now, to your second question about Virginia, this is a very important state that Donald Trump had lost it in 2016 and in 2020. But from my conversations with the Trump campaign, they do really see this as a battleground.

And they believe they could make a play for it in a potential rematch against Joe Biden.

And part of that is really trying to target suburban voters, I'm told. And they think the message that really resonates with them here in this state is talking about the economy.

[06:05:03]

They believe that a lot of people in this state are very concerned about the strain on their wallets, about inflation, even as the economy is getting better.

And part of the reason we actually saw Donald Trump here over the weekend is because they believe the state is in play so much. It was one of two visits he made over the weekend. The only two states he visited, really, in the leadup to Super Tuesday today.

So I think that just gives you a little insight into how they're viewing this.

HUNT: Fair enough. All right. Alayna Treene for us in Richmond. You've got a long day ahead of you. Thank you very much for starting us off today. I really appreciate it.

All right. Our panel joins us now: Republican strategist and pollster, Kristen Soltis Anderson. Zolan Kanno-Youngs. He's White House correspondent for "The New York Times." Former South Carolina state representative Bakari Sellers is back with us. Matt Gorman, former Tim Scott presidential campaign senior adviser also back with us this morning.

Thank you, guys, for starting us off on a really big election day.

Kristen, let me -- let me start with you in terms of, you know, what we heard from Trump there. That, of course, was his speech yesterday after the Supreme Court decided that he was going to stay on the ballots.

But he's talking all about how well these cases, these legal cases would get -- anyone else wouldn't be able to win. I can win. I -- I've heard you talk about this in the past. Like, sure, it seems

to have worked well. I mean, Ron DeSantis would say it worked well for Trump in the primary election. But this is really -- today is really about the start of the general. And it seems like it would cut very differently.

What -- you talk to voters all the time. How do you understand this?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST AND POLLSTER: So I think in some ways, Donald Trump is right that, if anybody else was facing the kind of legal pressure that he was, he would not be consistently running even or slightly ahead of the incumbent president in polls.

So there is some element of truth that he is uniquely immune to being punished by voters for things that would drive other candidates completely out of the race.

So today, as we are looking at Super Tuesday, he's likely to have a very good night. He's likely to really cement himself as the presumptive Republican nominee with these wins.

And in all of this, even as somebody like Nikki Haley has tried to make the case over and over, as you saw in that clip, he's a loser. He's got all this baggage. What are we doing? Republican voters have thus far been pretty immune to hearing that argument.

HUNT: Yes. I mean, Bakari, why is that? I mean --

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know why, actually.

HUNT: Matt, why is that? We can ask both of you.

MATT GORMAN, FORMER TIM SCOTT PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN SENIOR ADVISOR: I will say this. In the fall, once you started seeing these head-to-head polls, Trump versus Biden, Trump pulled even or ahead.

You saw tone change among the Republican primary voters. I saw this myself in Iowa and New Hampshire. People would say before that, you know, I like Trump. I just don't think he can win.

Now, their head and their heart didn't have to be bifurcated. It gave them license to go with what their heart was saying all the time. And it took away massive talking point for Nikki, DeSantis, my old boss, Tim Scott, everybody else in the race where, if he was consistently -- Trump has consistently down 5, 10 points to Biden, it is a different primary. Maybe he still wins, but it's very different.

SELLERS: I don't -- I don't necessarily agree with that. I mean, you -- what you're saying from Republican voters is -- is somewhat of an abandoning of truly conservative values. This isn't the party of Reagan. This isn't the party of either Bush. This isn't the party of even Mitt Romney. This is Donald Trump's party.

HUNT: Oh, yes. They hate Mitt Romney. SELLERS: This is Donald Trump's party, right? And so you have voters,

and you go out there, and you hear -- you hear voters talking about the fact that Republicans are parties of law and order, where here you have somebody who has -- I don't know -- 90-some indictments. You know?

It's the party of family first values. You have somebody who has five kids by three baby mamas.

You have some -- you have somebody who -- it's a party of fiscal responsibility. And you have a candidate who's abandoned those fiscal values and run up the deficit. That's a talking point from Nikki Haley.

And so when you have an individual like this who's the antithesis to what we believe to be true conservatism, you have a party that has become a cult of personality.

Democrats used to be the same way. Kennedy, Obama, Clinton, cult of personality. Not to this extent. But you're seeing Republicans now. They're voting for personality. They're not voting for values or policy. They're voting for personality.

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": I'm not saying that this will necessarily change the sentiment among Republican voters, but I do think it's interesting to watch after this Supreme Court decision.

It does sort -- it does undermine Trump's argument, as well, that there's a witch hunt against him, that every single aspect of the judicial system is out to get him. Now, you have a Supreme Court that pretty much gave him a win here, as well.

Also, we've been talking about how immune from --

HUNT: A Supreme Court that he put a bunch of justices on.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Correct, right.

HUNT: But it was a unanimous ruling so yes.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Correct.

HUNT: We absolutely take your point.

KANNO-YOUNGS: With also -- with also some debate, as well, about some of the details around that decision.

HUNT: Right.

KANNO-YOUNG: Particularly around the argument that Congress now is really the only body that would have the ability to actually make a decision on this issue, as well.

I also -- yes, we've talked about how immune he is thus far. I'm interested to see, as you noted, now that we are enduring the heat of the general election, whether that remains to be true.

SELLERS: Also, just -- we keep tossing around this word immune. He has been immune to voters. The question is, has -- is he going to be immune to jurors? I mean, that is a question.

[06:10:06]

HUNT: If we get there.

SELLERS: We'll get there. We're going to get there somewhere. I mean, there are just too many for us not to get there.

And then the question becomes, what impact do those jurors have on the general election? I think it's a different race when you have a convicted felon running for president of the United States.

KANNO-YOUNGS: Delaying these cases as a part of the strategy, though, too. And it has been -- going back to impeachment proceedings, as well. Delaying it past the election, which seems likely from any of these cases, too.

HUNT: Yes, I mean, Kristen, what do you hear from -- we heard it in the exit polls in terms of this distinction between someone who's accused of a crime -- innocent before proven guilty -- and someone who's convicted of one.

Do you think that that's a number that holds? And do you think -- I mean, the general election polling for Joe Biden has been really tough over the course of the last couple of weeks.

There does seem to be this kind of sense that -- that it might not just be Republican primary voters who don't care about this. If -- you know, I mean, Alayna will give the Trump campaign, OK. They think Virginia is going to be a battleground. I don't know if, like, the Northern Virginia suburbs.

But if they really think they can get voters there, I mean, that also makes a statement.

ANDERSON: Well, there are a lot of voters that, they don't like Donald Trump or Joe Biden. They're not part of a cult of personality, but they are telling pollsters like me that they think they have not been better off under Joe Biden's policies. And at least under Trump, they were maybe OK. Or maybe even better off.

I mean, there's a big distinction in polls on that question. And maybe for some of it, it's voters looking through rose-colored glasses. I'm sure the Biden campaign will be very eager to say it was not as good as you think it is. I'm sure we'll see a lot of that on the airwaves.

But this isn't just about people liking Donald Trump. And for many of them, let's say it's the New York case, the one about the campaign finance stuff with Michael Cohen.

HUNT: Which is the one we're going to actually see go to trial. ANDERSON: That may be something where voters go, this feels a little

ticky-tack to me. I want my -- my wallet is the thing that matters more. That to me is not a problem.

GORMAN: That's the case that Republicans as a party feel strongest defending on its merits.

And also say this, to kind of go back to the hypothetical. It's -- I mean, I'm not a pollster, but I'll play one on TV. Like, it is extremely hard to pull a hypothetical.

For example, if the week before the "Access Hollywood" tape came out, pretend you are telling a voter what was on that tape and describing it as a hypothetical.

HUNT: Yes.

GORMAN: You would see the poll numbers go down.

When it actually happened in real life, the poll numbers went down for the weekend and then by three, four days out, they leveled off.

SELLERS: It's the most fascinating thing in American politics when we -- when we are ten years, 20 years from now, I have to literally sit and look at my friends like mad and be like, can you believe you voted for somebody who literally on an "Access Hollywood" tape -- I'm not going to repeat it, because its 6:12 in the morning. It's a little early while people are getting kids out the school.

But can you believe you voted for somebody who said that?

GORMAN: He might win the presidency twice. Right now, he stands --

HUNT: There are a hell of a lot of people who voted for him.

SELLERS: I know.

GORMAN: He stands, the general election, two to four points consistently, most polls right now. Just a fact.

HUNT: I just go back. I mean, honestly, I shouldn't -- I should have the producers cut the bite of him saying, I could shoot people on Fifth Avenue. It would be fine.

And we could just be like play it again, play it again, because it happens over and over and over. I mean, Trump for all of his flaws, I mean, this is a thing that he repeatedly shows, is that he has an ability to put kind of a finger on the pulse of where his people are and understand what they'll -- what they'll handle from him.

It is -- I mean, it is remarkable.

All right. Kristen, Zolan, Bakari, Matt are all going to stay with us, because ahead on CNN THIS MORNING is President Biden ready for this possible rematch with Donald Trump? Likely rematch, let's call it.

Plus, a deadly crash. Small planes slamming into the shoulder of an interstate in Nashville. Yikes.

And Bezos or Musk? The richest person on earth is --?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:02]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: This is a unifying factor. Everybody now is together, and they can go after me as a politician. They can go after me with votes. But they're not going to go after me with that kind of lawsuit that takes somebody out of a race who's leading in this case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: All right. That was former President Trump speaking from Mar-a- Lago after the Supreme Court ruled that he should remain on the ballot in Colorado, rejecting that state's reading of the 14th Amendment.

The panel is back with us -- excuse me.

Bakari, we showed Trump making this argument like, OK, here I am on the ballot. That's where I should be. The voters should get to decide this.

I got to say, like, when I talk to Democrats that I would consider some of the better ones at figuring out how to win elections, like they say the same thing, actually, that this ruling works.

SELLERS: Certainly. I think -- I actually think this -- this ruling is not as big as people have made it out to be over the past 24 hours. This is actually a blip.

I think the unanimity of the court is something that is good for John Roberts's court. He had to have a unanimous ruling. It's as if John Roberts went out and said, OK, it's going to be unanimous. And how do we back into that ruling?

Because he is someone who actually recently has taken a keen eye to the way that the court is viewed and will be viewed, and his tenure will be viewed throughout history.

The ruling that is going to be the most interesting -- and you stated it earlier -- is the ruling on immunity and presidential immunity. And the fact that they're actually going to hear this and the fact that they didn't allow just the D.C. Court of Appeals ruling to take effect.

And so we'll see what happens. And I anticipate some -- some healthy arguments over the next, you know, 30-40 days when this hearing happens.

HUNT: Yes. So we can just kind of remind everyone of what these -- these trial dates look like. Because the first one is going to be -- I think we can throw it up on the screen. The hush money case, which is going to start on March 25. That's when jury selection starts in that one.

Then of course, there's the election subversion trial. That's this question of immunity that the Supreme Court is currently decision -- deciding.

So on April 22, the Supreme Court is going to hear oral arguments as to whether or not Trump is immune from prosecution in that particular case.

[06:20:03]

Then we have the classified documents case. Then we have the Georgia election subversion case, which of course, has been kind of derailed by this push to try to disqualify Fani Willis from it all here.

Zolan, when you kind of look at all of this, how do you see this playing out? As -- and again, I'm focusing on this, because this really does feel like today is going to be the first day of the general election, with Trump kind of set to sweep in all of these states and be set on a glide path to be the nominee.

I mean, that's -- that's what Republican voters are choosing.

KANNO-YOUNGS: No, 100 percent. You have the convergence of sort of our judiciary, our justice system, and politics right now.

I think one of the more consequential sort of important moments last year in terms of politics was not even necessarily the indictments of President Trump, but how his base reacted to the indictments, each and every time. How it galvanized them, how it only built support, both amongst seemingly primary voters, but also amongst the Republican Party in general, at least when it comes to the House.

So now, as we turn to the general election, as you have more updates to these court cases, it will be interesting to see, as he starts to want to win over more independent voters, as well, just how -- how much impact these cases have, whether it continues to be a boon for him.

HUNT: Kristen, what do you hear from voters about kind of which of these is the most important kind of thing to focus on?

I mean, I was talking to one smart Republican strategist in New Hampshire when I was up there around the primary. And he had actually pointed to the classified documents case as being a big problem with voters. Do you think that that's the case?

ANDERSON: To me, that's one that is kind of the sleeper issue, right? There's a lot of heat around the election subversion case. That's the one where he's been the most vocally angry about, whether it's the prosecution down in Georgia, the judge, Tanya Chutkan here in D.C. in the D.C. case.

But I think it's the classified documents one that, to me, there are implications for your average voter there that are -- this is how we're storing our documents? Now, this makes me feel very unsafe. This feels like it was very avoidable if the documents had just been given back. He made this mess himself.

And because it is, I think, tied to national security, I think that's why, if you are an independent voter, it makes Trump seem reckless, potentially. Oh, my gosh, we're going to put this guy back in charge of our national security again.

Now, because there's so much around this case that's classified that -- I'm unsure exactly how much the public will see about it. But I somewhat agree with that assessment that that could wind up being the one that has the biggest impact.

HUNT: What do you think?

GORMAN: A couple things. She has a point. That was one when you remember, when it first broke, that was the case where the most Republicans had -- I'd say veiled, but still critiques more than the other ones.

I think in a strategic level, if you're the Trump campaign, you want to, again, smash all of these court cases together as much as possible, because like let's -- let's face it, I get paid to do this. I still can't keep all of the facts in every case straight, let alone the average voter who is not paying attention as closely as we are to this. You have to remember --

HUNT: That they have other jobs

GORMAN: Real lives. Real lives. Right, yes. Exactly.

But also in a tactical level, I -- from what I've heard, I would look at, again, he'll be in the courtroom all day when any of these cases -- he'll come out. Does he do kind of a COVID-style press conference, right? They were very popular at the beginning, but then he just started making stuff up and just saying stuff to get on camera. That's when they went off the rails real quick.

Does that sort of thing happen here? Because again, the campaign, the courtroom for the next six months will be very close to one and the same.

SELLERS: You also -- I mean, I hear the points about New York being the weakest case. However, and maybe we're just desensitized to this. But however, how many times can you hear in open court throughout the airwaves that somebody cheated on their pregnant wife with a porn star? And this is the reason that the money was paid from Michael Cohen, et cetera. And this is how it was done, and these are how the finances were done.

And that's going to be drilled over and over and over and over by the prosecution in New York.

I do think that eventually, there are some voters -- and we're not talking about Republican base voters. Because I don't think that's where this election is won. And you're the pollster. You would have to tell me whether or not I'm right or wrong. But I think this election is won in suburbs. And I think it's really won with college-educated white women, in particular, those individuals who came home with Joe Biden, who may -- may or may not leave Joe Biden. I can't imagine that they appreciate this.

ANDERSON: I think -- I think Donald Trump is not a good guy. It's kind of already priced in for a lot of those voters.

I think they've already -- you see it in the question. Are you favorable or unfavorable to X, Y, and Z? And the bargain that a lot of these voters have made is, I don't think he's a good guy. I don't expect him to be an angel. I do expect him to make my 401(k) look better. I do expect him to make --

SELLERS: Well, if that's the case, then maybe they vote for Joe Biden, because I mean, people's 401(k)s, when you wake up this morning, I mean, it's like thank you, Joe.

(CROSSTALK)

GORMAN: Bakari, if you're talking about those exact types of voters, far more impactful an argument than Donald Trump's a bad guy, is the abortion decision. That is one, I think, that will be far more impactful for those suburban, especially college-educated women.

[06:25:05]

SELLERS: Get it to them all. I don't just -- add the whole plethora of information.

HUNT: All right. Our panel is going to stay with us, but up next here, the Supreme Court temporarily froze a controversial Texas immigration law. Well talk about that.

Plus Nikki Haley hears boos while campaigning in Texas.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: The Supreme Court ruled today that Donald Trump could stay on the ballot. No, I think -- I think that was important. We don't ever want some --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HUNT: All right. A live look at Raleigh, North Carolina, on this Super Tuesday. The sun's up. It's almost 6:30 right here on the East Coast. Polls are opening there.

We also have a look at Richmond, Virginia. They've been able to vote for about half an hour.

[06:30:00]