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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Trump Out Front on Super Tuesday; Journalist: Secret Service Agent Chokes Photographer at Trump Rally; Clinton Leads in Super Tuesday State Polls; Frantic GOP Effort to Stop Trump, Rivals Blast Trump for Failing to Disavow KKK in CNN Interview; Melania Trump Talks to CNN; Final Clinton Emails Released; Russian Warplanes Sit Idle In Syria; Battle to Retake Mosul From ISIS; An Early Start on Your Money. Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired March 01, 2016 - 05:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:30:26] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Today, millions of voters across the country head to the polls to choose who should be their party's nominee in the race for president. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton holding an edge, but the race has only just begun.
Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. Thirty minutes past the hour. Starting in just hours, voters across the country -- they are heading to the polls. Why? Because this is a super day. Not just any day -- it is Super Tuesday. High stakes on the Republican side. The latest CNN-ORC poll shows Donald Trump with by far his highest national number yet -- 49 percent, more than all of the other candidates combined. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz -- they are down in the teens.
This is what's at stake today. Nearly half of the 1,237 delegates required for nomination at the Republican convention. The tension on the campaign trail boiling over in some cases. Check this out. (VIDEO CLIP PLAYING). It's a fight that broke out at a Trump rally in Virginia. That fight was between a Secret Service agent and a Time magazine photographer trying to take pictures of a black lives matter protest. The photographer says the Secret Service agent choked him and threw him to the ground when he tried to leave the press pen the Trump campaign requires media people to stay in.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So you were just trying to go and cover the protest, and --
CHRIS MORRIS, TIME MAGAZINE PHOTOGRAPHER: I just -- I stepped 18 inches out of the pen and he grabbed me by the neck and started choking me, then he slammed me to the ground.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Now, Trump had his own confrontation with protestors, telling them to get out of his event.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All right, get them out of here, please. Get them out. Get them out. Are you from Mexico? Are you from Mexico? Huh? Are you from Mexico?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: CNN's Sara Murray was at this rally and has the very latest.
SAR MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. It is just hours until voters hit the polls in the most pivotal day of this campaign so far, Super Tuesday. And in the run-up to this, Donald Trump was not on the message he hoped to be. He was explaining why it took him so long to disavow white supremacists groups that had endorsed him, as well as the former leader of the KKK. He had an awkward run-in with a protestor at one of his events, and he even had a photojournalist who got into a physical altercation with a Secret Service agent. But last night, here in Georgia, he rallied a crowd of thousands and he sought to look ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are going to win with health. We are going to win with education. We are going to win at the borders. We're going to win with our military. We're going to win, win, win, win. We are going to make America great again -- greater than ever before. I love you. Go out and vote. I love you all. Thank you, Georgia.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: Not only telling them get out and vote today, Super Tuesday, but also looking ahead even with his schedule. He has a jam-packed planned today -- three different stops including a rally in Ohio, and he'll be watching those election results in Florida. Now, you may notice these are two states that don't vote until March 15th. They're also the home of two candidates currently in this race, Ohio Gov. John Kasich, as well as Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. So, it's clear Donald Trump's campaign is not taking anything for granted. They want to compete everywhere. Back to you guys.
ROMANS: All right, Sara. Thanks for that. Turning now to the Democrats, Hillary Clinton is ahead of Bernie Sanders in polls across many Super Tuesday states -- far ahead in many cases. That has her turning her eyes and her message toward a general election battle against Donald Trump. But Sanders is still campaigning hard with his aides expressing confidence about beating Clinton today in several states.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny has the latest from Virginia.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, it's Super Tuesday. That means Democrats are voting in some 11 states. Hillary Clinton is making a last-minute trip to Minnesota. That's one of the states were Bernie Sanders had hoped to plant his flag. Now, the Sanders campaign is feeling is confident about five states -- Minnesota, Colorado, Oklahoma, Massachusetts, and his home state of Vermont.
The Clinton campaign is feeling very confident in about seven or eight states, so we some overlap there. But what happens tonight in these contests is going to give us a big clue into how long this Democratic nominating fight goes one. Already, as Hillary Clinton was campaigning on Monday, she's turning one eye on the general election and one eye toward the Republican candidates, specifically.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because at some point you can't just say whatever pops into your head if you want to be the president of the United States of America. People around the world actually listen to what people running for president say.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[05:35:16] ZELENY: Now, Hillary Clinton did not mention Donald Trump by name. She didn't have to. That was clear in her remarks as she campaigned here in Virginia on Monday. Now, going forward, the Clinton campaign believes the next two weeks are a critical period. They believe that they can have an insurmountable lead by March 15th. That's when Florida, Ohio, and Illinois go.But, Bernie Sanders raised nearly $40 million in the month of February. That means he has plenty of fuel in the tank to keep this race going as long as he would like -- John & Christine.
BERMAN: All right, Jeff. Thanks so much.
Let's talk more about Super Tuesday, looking ahead to what's going to happen. CNN politics reporter Tom LoBianco joins us live from our Washington bureau. Tom, good morning to you.
TOM LOBIANCO, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Thanks.
BERMAN: Donald Trump ahead in the polls almost across the board, except in Texas. What are the expectations going into tonight, Tom?
LOBIANCO: Well, this is where the Republican Party really starts to have to come to grips with Trump as the likely nominee. Even if Cruz -- let's say Cruz pulls this out in Texas, all right? That keeps him around longer fighting with Rubio to be the anti-Trump candidate. It's clear that neither one of them wants to get out. And then add in John Kasich and Ben Carson to the mix, and it's very clear that you don't -- there is no one anti-Trump candidate left for the Republicans anymore. The longer they stick around, the more likely it is that Trump is the nominee.
ROMANS: We're showing the delegate map -- 155 delegates at stake in Texas, Ted Cruz's home state. He's been spending time there trying to secure his own home state. The funny thing the way this goes though -- you've got 125 delegates already awarded. Donald Trump has 82 of those. Even if Ted Cruz pulls out a slim victory, Donald Trump still gets a bunch of delegates anyway. LOBIANCO: Right.
ROMANS: The delegate math here is looking all in Trump's favor.
LOBIANCO: Right. And again, what's interesting about this is that early on in the campaign a lot of the candidates will say that primary election or primary battle is not a national contest. But here we are on Super Tuesday, which, I mean -- you look at that map, it's clear that it is a national contest, and Donald Trump the national candidate looks the best position to walk away with this nomination. After today,I think things will become much clearer -- after tonight.
BERMAN: What about this new #NeverTrump movement started by people supportive of Marco Rubio. But now you have senators like Ben Sasse. You know, he won't vote for Donald Trump under any circumstances, even if he gets the nomination. Mel Martinez, former RNC chair, saying the same thing. Ken Mehlman, who ran George W. Bush's campaign in 2004 saying that. What kind of bind does this put the party in right now?
LOBIANCO: Well, it's -- Sasse -- a freshman senator from Nebraska, Ben Sasse, said that not only would he not vote for Trump, but that he would like to see a third candidate -- a true conservative as he puts it -- run for president if Trump gets the nomination. A few of us were up there at Capitol Hill yesterday talking with some of the other senators about this -- some of the other Republican senators -- what they thought.
What was interesting to me was the apprehension to go along with Sasse. No one was quite ready to say yet, OK, yes, I'm not going to vote for Trump. Sen. Jim Inhofe, Oklahoma -- you know, I talked with Sen. Susan Collins of Maine. A moderate -- one of the last clear moderates left on the senate Republican side -- and she said that -- she called it one of the strangest years she's seen in politics, but she wasn't ready to say that she would not vote for Trump if he was the nominee. She wouldn't go that far. It's very fascinating. It's almost like it hasn't set in yet.
ROMANS: Yes. No, clearly. Let's listen to something that Ted Cruz said yesterday about how --he said how today will make it a two-man race. Let's listen to what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Super Tuesday is going to be the most important day of the entire primary. We are doing very well in Texas, and I'll tell you -- we're running neck-in-neck in states all across Super Tuesday. We've been traveling all across. We were in Oklahoma, we were in Arkansas, we were in Georgia, we were in Alabama. We're seeing very competitive races for Super Tuesday and I think the likely outcome on Wednesday morning is that Donald Trump is going to have a big chunk of delegates, we're going to have a big chunk of delegates, and there's going to be a huge drop-off for everybody else. So, what we're seeing is conservatives consolidating and uniting behind our campaign.
(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: I don't know. I mean everyone seems to say he's going to have a big chunk of delegates. Is Ted Cruz really neck-in-neck in all those other states? The polls aren't showing it.
LOBIANCO: Well, no. He looks great in his home state of Texas. Not so much in the other states right now. You know, again, we don't have the depth of polling that we had in New Hampshire and Iowa where reams upon reams of polls have been put out. But from what we have seen it doesn't like he's close in Georgia and Alabama and these other southern states.
[05:40:32] You know, that could change. Right? Momentum works in your favor in some of these contests, but it's too hard to say at this point. It lookslike it's Trump's to lose, basically.
BERMAN: Quickly, let's talk about the Democrats, Tom. Hillary Clinton with a lead in most of the Super Tuesday states, though Bernie Sanders hopes to pick up wins in Oklahoma, Vermont, his home state obviously. Looking at Minnesota and maybe Massachusetts, as well.
LOBIANCO: Sure. He needs to make a strong showing and put some points up on the board here. The Democratic delegate math is pretty interesting because it's almost designed to keep someone like him around longer than it would if he were in the Republican race. As Judge Donnelly pointed out earlier, the money is there.
ROMANS: Yes.
LOBIANCO: They've raised -- I think was like $41.5 million or something like that in February. Just an astounding number. That fundraising machine they've got going is just humming. Win, lose, it doesn't change things, so he's got the fuel to keep going. He might not win the nomination but it's clear they want to battle this out. They might take it all the way to July.
ROMANS: All right, Tom LoBianco, it has been fascinating. Continues to be fascinating. Today will be fascinating. Stay with CNN for our complete coverage of everything that's happening today, Super Tuesday. We're going to keep you up-to-date all day long and then late into the night, and then well into tomorrow morning as these results come in from across the country. Alaska -- those polls don't close until midnight eastern time, so we're going to be getting the next 24 hours, folks -- we're going to be getting an awful lot of information that will shape this race.
Donald Trump's wife speaking to CNN. What she says bothers here about her husband's campaign for president.
[05:42:22]
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[05:46:06] BERMAN: So, with Donald Trump poised to take his Republican front-runner status to a new level on Super Tuesday, today, his wife Melania sat down with CNN's Anderson Cooper. We've not heard much from her during the campaign, a former fashion model who could be America's next first lady. She talks about her reaction to his often brash behavior on the trail.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: We are both very independent and let him be who he is and he lets me be who I am.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: You don't try to change him?
M. TRUMP: I don't try to change him. He's an adult. He knows the consequences, and so I let him be who he is. I give him my opinions many, many times.
COOPER: You do?
M. TRUMP: Yes, and I don't agree with everything what he says. But, you know, that is normal. I'm my own person. I tell him what I think, standing very strong on the ground on my two feet and I'm my own person and I think that's very important in the relationship.
COOPER: Do you know -- can you say something where you disagreed with him on?
M. TRUMP: Oh, many things. Some language, of course.
COOPER: Language?
M. TRUMP: Yes, some language I didn't approve.
COOPER: Language you hear him using on the campaign trail.
M. TRUMP: Especially, I was in New Hampshire when the woman was shouting out the inappropriate word.
COOPER: Right.
M. TRUMP: And I was there, and I'm thinking like don't repeat it in my head, just for him. Don't repeat it. Just don't say it because the next day media -- all they will talk is about that. But he repeated. He's with the momentum. He goes with the flow. He goes with the people. They're having fun. Everybody was cheering. And, you know, he said it, and the next day -- but, he repeated the word. That was not his words.
COOPER: Right.
M. TRUMP: So --
COOPER: So, he heard from you about that?
M. TRUMP: Yes, I told him that. Yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BERMAN: Melania Trump says she may start taking a larger role, but her focus right now is caring for their son. She is not thinking about making any more speeches just yet. ROMANS: The final batch of emails from Hillary Clinton's tenure as Secretary of State has now been released. That makes more than 30,000 work e-mails and attachments that have been made public. Nearly 2,100 of those containing information that is now classified according to the State Department. The FBI and the Justice Department still investigating whether Clinton broke any laws by using a private server. They are offering no timetable for a decision.
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BRET BAIER, FOX NEWS HOST: But shouldn't American voters know Hillary Clinton's legal status as they get prepared to head to the polls?
LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, what they should know, and what I hope that they do know, is that any case that the Department of Justice looks at is going to be handled efficiently, fairly, thoroughly, without any kind of artificial deadline on it because what's most important is to follow the facts, follow the law, and come to an independent conclusion as to what may or may not have happened.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: The State Department's inspector general and at least two Republican-led congressional committees are also investigating Clinton's e-mails.
BERMAN: All right, let's take a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Chris Cuomo back and joins us now. Hey, Chris.
ROMANS: Hey, Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Hello, my friends. This is a big day by any definition -- Super Tuesday. They call it that for a reason. Twelve states are voting. So, you go from a race that's all about approximations to now you'll have hard proof of delegates that shows who really is getting close to this nomination.
Donald Trump is poised for a very, very big day, some speculating he could win all but maybe one or two of the states. We'll have to see how the votes actually go, but that's the way the polls are indicating. We'll take you through why.
Hillary Clinton also looking to put some considerable distance between herself and Bernie Sanders. We will have A to Z coverage. We are live at the polling locations. We're going to hear from the campaigns, and we have the best analysis in the business as we get closer to deciding. And, then you start looking from parties to intraparty in the general. What are the best matchups? We'll show you all if it coming straight ahead, my friends.
ROMANS: Brand new poll.
BERMAN: Yes, we have a new poll out here coming out in 11 minutes. That should be interesting on that front.
CUOMO: Yes.
ROMANS: All right, Chris Cuomo. Thank you for that, Chris. We can't wait. Super Tuesday -- Superman Cuomo.
Investors are starting to look to the month of March with gains after a brutal three-month losing streak. The only thing standing in the way of a rally -- oil prices. We're going to get an early start on your money next.
[05:48:22]
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[05:52:44] BERMAN: Syria seeing a sharp decline in airstrikes as Russian warplanes sit idle. The tenuous ceasefire right now between Syrian Rebels and the government held for a fourth day. A CNN crew got rare access on the ground there over the past week. The drop in violence, though, is actually making people who live there tense and suspicious.
CNN international correspondent Matthew Chance live in Moscow for us. Good morning, Matthew.
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John, that's right. There's been a sharp fall-off, as you mentioned, in the level -- the frequency of airstrikes being carried out by the Russians, at least. That's the word from Moscow on various targets across Syria.
[05:55:24]The Russians say they are continuing to strike Islamic state on the al-Nusra front, particularly around the city of Aleppo where there's been ferocious fighting over the course of the past several weeks as Syria's most important city -- its biggest city is battled for between government troops backed by the Russians and Rebels, as well.
But, for the most part, across the rest of the country the cessation of hostilities appears to be holding. There have been violations, according to both the Russians and the Rebels. The Russians say in their latest statement -- I've got it right here -- that in the course of the past 24 hours there have been just seven ceasefire violations, obviously serious if you're on the ground.
But when you consider the level of military activity that's been taking place across Syria for the past several months this is a sharp fall off and it's, of course, the most successful cessation of hostilities in the conflict for the past five years. And it's giving, of course, the people on the ground a respite from the fighting and it's also opening the opportunity for aid agencies to deliver much- needed aid to some of those besieged areas of Syria.
BERMAN: There is so much need right now on the ground there. Matthew Chance for us. Thanks so much. New developments this morning in the fight against ISIS. The Pentagon preparing for the biggest battle -- what could be the biggest battle in Iraq yet, turning its focus to Iraq's second largest city, Mosul. U.S.-backed forces laying the groundwork now by isolating the city -- isolating Mosul -- trying to cut it off from the ISIS stronghold, the self-proclaimed capital of ISIS in Raqqa in Syria.
The United States also now carrying out cyberattacks. The Iraqi prime minister has said a full military operation could begin as early as this month, although it should be noted that the Iraqi government has often said that it's on the verge of an offensive operation there.
ROMANS: All right, 57 minutes past the hour. Time for an EARLY START on your money this morning. It could be a nice start. To March for the stock market Dow futures are higher, oil prices rising, crude is back above $34 a barrel. We're seeing slight gains in European stock markets at this hour and Asian stocks overnight rose.
The key to winning the presidential election -- gas prices. Moody's Analytics says low gas prices have the Democrats favored right now. So what in the world is that connection? Well, according to Moody's, Americans have been saving, of course, hundreds of dollars over the past year. Many drivers fill up once a week and they pay attention to gas prices. That has drivers feeling good about their personal economy and helps them feel confident about the broader economy. Now, the report -- this report says prices in swing states are crucial. Ohio, Florida, New Hampshire, Colorado all have prices close to the national average of $1.75 a gallon.
The Bernie Sanders campaign is well-funded heading into Super Tuesday, folks, as Sanders banked $42 million in February. Six million of that was raised yesterday. His campaign says that is the most raised in one month by any candidate in this election cycle. That cash came from 1.4 million individual contributions. The average donation, $30. Before February, his total contributions were just shy of $100 million, so last month's haul is pretty impressive.
BERMAN: Pretty impressive.
ROMANS: He's got the money --
BERMAN: Very impressive.
ROMANS: -- but to tie the two stories together, he's got money to put gas in his tank.
BERMAN: He's got money, he just needs wins. That's the only thing.
ROMANS: That's right.
BERMAN: All right. Millions of people across the country set to cast their votes. Why? It's Tuesday. Not just any Tuesday -- it is Super Tuesday. "NEW DAY" picks it up right now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will never allow a con artist to take control of the party of Lincoln and Reagan.
TRUMP: This guy couldn't be elected dog catcher right now. SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You cannot be a president of the United States insulting all of our neighbors.
TRUMP: Are you from Mexico?
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're not electing class president or class clown.
CLINTON: They've been after me for 25 years and I'm still standing.
CRUZ: We don't want the general election to be two rich New York liberals.
TRUMP: Ted Cruz has never done anything for the people of Texas.
RUBIO: What he's trying to carry out is a scam to take control for the presidency of the United States.
TRUMP: They're never going to get you to the Promised Land, folks.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your new day. It is Tuesday, March 1st, 6:00 in the east. Enough talk. It is time to vote in a big way. Super Tuesday is here my friends. Voters in a dozen states heading to the polls this morning. So much at stake. Take a look at the map. Republicans awarding 595 delegates today, nearly half what you need to be the nominee. Democrats awarding 1,015. Why the difference? Well, that number includes super delegates, where Clinton has a big advantage. That's more than one-third, however, needed to clinch the nomination.
Meantime, a new CNN-ORC poll shows both Democratic rivals beating the GOP front-runner Donald Trump in head-to-head matchups in November. Hillary Clinton tops Trump 52-44. Bernie Sanders beats Trump even wider, 55-43.
