Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Super Tuesday Coverage; CNN Projection: Ted Cruz Wins Alaska. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 02, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:05] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. The breaking news this morning. It is the morning after Super Tuesday. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they won big in the elections yesterday, but the race for president, a long way to go. We're going to break down who won what, when, where, and how and what it means going forward.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Nice to see you bright and early. I'm Chris Romans. It is Wednesday, March 2nd, it is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

That right. Last night is now this morning and the breaking news this morning, Super Tuesday, a night of big wins. Trump won seven states, some narrowly, but some by a pretty wide margin. His rivals picking up four states between them.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton, she also added seven states to her win column overnight, while Bernie Sanders picked up four. Both candidates giving fiery victory speeches last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's clear tonight that the stakes in this election have never been higher, and the rhetoric we're hearing on the other side has never been lower.

(BOOS)

Trying to divide America between us and them is wrong, and we're not going to let it work.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a unifier. I know people are going to find that a little hard to believe, but believe me, I am a unifier.

Once we get all this finished, I'm going to go after one person, that's Hillary Clinton, on the assumption she's allowed to run, which is a big assumption. I don't know that she's going to be allowed to run. And I think that's frankly going to be an easy race.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: The nomination contest is far from over. Of course, Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and Marco Rubio, they all won states, they all collected delegates, they all vowed to stay in this race.

Joining us live from Washington to break it all down, CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner.

Good morning, Eric.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Christine.

So, it was definitely a night for the frontrunners, both Donald Trump and Hillary winning seven of 11 states. But they probably didn't knock out any of their top opponents.

So, Trump showed that he's starting to put together a coalition. In Massachusetts he won working-class Reagan Democrats. In the Bible Belt, he won social conservatives, picking up states like Alabama, Georgia, Tennessee. He won in Arkansas and Vermont. And in Virginia, he shattered turnout records.

So it was a big night for Trump, but it was also a decent night for Ted Cruz who had been sort of losing a little bit of steam, losing a little bit of attention to Marco Rubio and Rubio had attacked Donald Trump. Cruz won three states. He won Alaska, which we just found out. He won his home state of Texas and he won Oklahoma.

Rubio, meanwhile, is still waiting for this anti-Trump cavalry to come. He won one state, Minnesota, which was important because that's the first state he's won in the contest.

So these three candidates are going to continue on. None of them is going to drop out, especially before march 15th when the winner-take- all states start to vote.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton continues to show that she's strong among minority voters. She won a swath of six southern states all with a lot of delegates. We're talking about Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, and Virginia.

But perhaps the most important win of the night came in Massachusetts. That was a narrow win but it's a bit of a bellwether. It was a state that was hotly contested, that Bernie Sanders was really targeting, thinking that he could win.

By picking up that one, Clinton shows she can expand her appeal within the Democratic electorate, beyond those southern states with heavy minority populations. But Sanders won a few states. He won Colorado, Minnesota, and Oklahoma, and, of course, his home state of Vermont.

Now, if you combine that with the $42 million that he raised in February alone and the fact that there are more Democratic debates coming up, including one on Sunday night, there's no reason to expect that Bernie Sanders is going to drop out of the race any time soon, even as Hillary Clinton starts to dial back her attacks on him and focus, instead, on the Republicans -- John and Christine. BERMAN: All right. Eric Bradner for us in Washington.

Joining us to discuss it further, CNN political analyst and "Bloomberg View" columnist, Josh Rogin, CNN senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Myers, CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston, and CNN political analyst and senior editor for "The Atlantic", Ron Brownstein.

Maeve, let's start with you. Donald Trump, a big win, a convincing win, seven states, some by large margins, some not as much and you now have the other candidates once again calling on everyone else to drop out of the race to take on Trump one on one, but that's not going to happen.

So, Trump not only wins the most states but he wins by keeping everyone in for time being.

[05:05:00] MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. I mean, these two weeks are really going to be incredibly important. We talk about make-or-break moments all the time, but this is the last shot that the cavalry that Eric was just talking about has to come to the rescue of Marco Rubio here.

It was not a good night for Marco Rubio. His donors were hoping with that debate performance really going after Trump that he would put some bigger numbers on the board but really trailing in the delegate count.

Ted Cruz had more wins tonight but this was supposed to be his southern firewall. This Super Tuesday was supposed to be built for Ted Cruz and he had picked up wins in some states but not states necessarily that people were expecting and that gives Donald Trump a strong argument going forward that he is the guy who is bringing the party together, turning out first-time voters.

So, it's going to be a really crazy two weeks where we basically see all of the Cruz and Rubio allies dumping every piece of oppo that they have on Donald Trump, and in the end, that really just may help Hillary Clinton.

ROMANS: Ted Cruz last night calling on supporters, calling everyone to unite, to defeat Donald Trump. Let's listen to that sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Together, we have a choice. We are blessed with a deep, talented, honorable field. For the candidates who have not yet won a state, who have not racked up significant delegates, I ask you to prayerfully consider our coming together, uniting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: This is before he won Minnesota.

Josh Rogin, so interesting here. The front runners, it was the night of the front-runners. But there was a string for every other candidate to hold on to, whether it's Bernie Sanders, Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz.

JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Exactly. Every candidate -- well, not every candidate, but Cruz and Rubio at least still have an argument on how they can win, a path to victory, not a strong argument, the odds aren't in their favor, but here's the argument. Seventy-one percent of the delegates in the Republican side have yet to be awarded, right? If you look at all the states so far, it's proportional, Trump only gained about 50 delegates tonight over Ted Cruz, maybe 120 or 130 or so were Marco Rubio. They can make that back up.

There's no argument for them after March 15th. That's when the winner-take-all states. It's the big states of Florida, Illinois, and Ohio. It's the home states for John Kasich and Marco Rubio.

If you lose your home state, you're out. If you don't win any state in the March 15th contest, you're out. So for right now, everybody lives to fight another day. In two weeks from now, it's a totally different story.

BERMAN: Ron Brownstein, lived to fight another day. Bernie Sanders isn't going anywhere, but Hillary Clinton did have a convincing night. She won the southern sate, she won by a large margin and she was able to win in Massachusetts, which was a state where they did go head to head.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, John, we're seeing it on both sides, patterns coming into place in Nevada and South Carolina hardening. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton has established and consolidated an enormous advantage among African- American voters. She's above 71 percent of them with in every state with an exit poll above 80 percent in almost every state. And Bernie Sanders simply can't win enough white voters to overcome that in the diverse states which unfortunately for him happen to be all of the large states.

On the Republican side, we're also seeing the patterns confirming. You have Donald Trump did tonight something that Mitt Romney couldn't do, that John McCain couldn't do. He crossed that geographic divide winning Arkansas and Vermont, Alabama, and Massachusetts. On the other hand, there were only two states where he got above 40 percent of the vote, which suggests there's still some resistance to him.

The problem for the rest of the candidates is you have Ted Cruz with a coalition that's too narrow. Marco Rubio with a coalition that's too shallow. Ted Cruz has not won non-evangelical voters in any state, including his own of Texas. Rubio is winning a little bit of everything but not enough of anything. Only two states that he carried college graduates -- he carried non-college graduates in no states.

So, you know, at the moment, there's still theoretical vulnerability for Trump. No one in position fully to take advantage of it and both Trump and Clinton having a clear pathway toward these nominations. ROMANS: And, Maeve, there's going to be an awful lot of money and an

awful lot of effort from a couple of different PACs to go after Donald Trump to the benefit of Marco Rubio?

RESTON: To the benefit of Marco Rubio potentially, but what we're going to see over the next couple of weeks is a lot of the groups trying out the same attacks that many of the candidates have been using on the campaign trail against Donald Trump for a number of months now -- you know, that he has several failed business ventures and Trump University, making a sustain argument that he's not the most electable candidate because of his very divisive rhetoric that he's had.

The question is there going to be enough money behind these attacks and enough ads to really move the numbers, to make enough Republican voters question their choice, to really turn into this a contest, because so far up in of these attacks have stock on Donald Trump and his supporters who have chosen him have stayed with him, have been incredibly loyal.

[05:10:15] We're seeing late deciders move over to Marco Rubio and Cruz tonight. Maybe that's a good sign for them. But it's unclear exactly where this fight is going to go in the next two weeks.

ROMANS: And they'll try to really show that every day guy is exactly the kind of person who supports Donald Trump who has been hurt by Donald Trump's failed business ventures in the past, that's what they'll try to go after.

BERMAN: They have two weeks. They've had eight months to do this. They're going try to do it in two weeks.

Guys, stick around.

As we've been saying, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they won the biggest tonight. But there are some big contests coming up. We'll break it down, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:15:03] BERMAN: All right. Super Tuesday is over but March Madness just beginning, political March Madness in this case.

Joining us now to take -- well, take a look at what's ahead on the map right now. Our political panel is here to talk about this. Let's put up the Republican map if we can right now with races that are coming up very shortly.

You see it right here. This weekend it's Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maine. And after that, you have the winner-take-all states, Florida. And then you have Ohio, Illinois.

Ron Brownstein, just big, big states here.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BERMAN: Any sense on who has the edge?

BROWNSTEIN: Well, you know, those Midwestern battlegrounds really decided the 2012 race between Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum and they're looming as critical again. The reason they are is because they kind of balance the different polarities of the party, right?

So, you have the states of Michigan and Illinois that are closely divided between college and non-college where evangelicals are about 40 percent. Ohio tilts. Ohio and Missouri tilt slightly more blue collar, more evangelical.

And these are places where all three of the major candidates, plus Kasich, they can all have a claim. There's all a piece for them. For Ted Cruz who has been overly dependent on evangelicals, Louisiana, Kansas are probably the best bets.

But you've got to look historically, you know, certainly in the general election but primary as well, Illinois, Ohio, Michigan, and Missouri, I think, will be the ones to watch. And right now, Donald Trump's dominance among blue collar voters probably gives him the edge in all four. It will be critical to deny him that. And, of course, Marco Rubio has to hold his home state of Florida.

ROMANS: Dylan, let's put up the blue map and look at what's in store for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER FOR MEDIA AND POLITICS: Yes. Well, I mean, look, Hillary Clinton has wide margins of support in most of those states, key of course, in states like Florida and some of the big delegate states.

I mean, the issue here for Sanders right now is what it's been all along, is can he expand his base of support beyond white voters, can he expand it to some of the groups like African-Americans and Hispanics. There's really been no evidence so far that he can do that and there certainly wasn't enough evidence of that tonight.

And if you just -- if you just look at the polls and if you look at those demographic groups, it's very hard to see how Sanders continues. Now that said, he will stay in the race for a while longer and he will be able to sort of advance his talking points and his agenda, keep Hillary Clinton tacking more to the left and maybe he'll consider that a victory.

But really it's hard to see him picking up big wins outside the states where they're predominantly white voters.

BERMAN: Maeve, I want to ask one more time about this wacky weekend we have ahead, because there are states we don't normally think about in the primary season, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana and Maine that all vote on Saturday.

Any sense how the candidates are going to approach them in the next few days?

RESTON: Well, we know that Ted Cruz is already headed to Kansas if not there already. He's going to be trying to keep cobbling together that coalition that he's been trying to put together of conservatives and libertarians.

You know, he did better in some states tonight than expected and worse in others. So, he's got an argument that he bested Marco Rubio tonight. But I think that he has a very difficult map ahead of him where it's difficult to see where he can land some real victories.

He's obviously going to hope for some victories in upcoming Mississippi, in Louisiana. And the big test for Marco Rubio obviously is Florida, which is one of the most expensive contests out there.

So, it's going to be really interesting to see whether or not Marco Rubio's allies put enough money behind him to really help him do something there.

BERMAN: Or if the money works.

RESTON: Right.

BERMAN: All right, guys. Maeve, Ron, Josh, Dylan, thanks so much for being with us. Appreciate it.

ROMANS: We're following all these breaking news for you in the race for president all morning. But, first, the Supreme Court taking on a high-profile abortion case. We've got that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:23:20] BERMAN: The Supreme Court takes on a high stakes abortion case today. The justices will hear oral arguments about a new Texas court law that could shut down three-quarters of the abortion clinics in the state. Opponents claimed the measure violates Roe versus Wade. Twenty-four other states with similar laws will be watching the outcome very closely.

While that was going, the White House and top Senate Republicans, they remain in a standoff over filling the vacancy in the nation's highest court. The president met with four top senators yesterday. No progress reported.

ROMANS: South Dakota's Republican governor vetoing a bill that would have restricted bathroom access for transgender students. The measure was backed by conservative lawmakers. Governor Dennis Daugaard deciding the law would have invited federal lawsuits if he approved it. He says local schools, they're best equipped to address this issue when it arises.

BERMAN: Six New Jersey newspapers calling on Governor Chris Christie to resign, that in the wake of his endorsing Donald Trump. Each newspaper published a joint editorial saying they are fed up with what they called Christie's arrogance, opportunism and hypocrisy. The editorial points out the governor spent all or part of 261 days out of the state last year and calls for a recall if he does not step down.

ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money this morning. Wall Street also had a Super Tuesday. Gains for the three major averages.

The Dow soaring 348 points. That's more than 2 percent. That's the second best gain of the year. NASDAQ jumping 3 percent. The S&P500 is also higher.

A big jump in oil prices is one reason. But investors were also encouraged by solid auto sales and a positive reading on manufacturing. Dow futures right now point slightly higher. Oil is falling, so we'll see if stocks can open higher with this recent high to oil prices.

[05:25:01] Stock markets in Europe are rising, and a big rally in Asian stocks overnight.

BERMAN: All right. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton big wins on Super Tuesday. CNN breaks down what you need to know in the latest news, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to our special post-Super Tuesday edition of NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, March 2nd, 5:30 in the East.

Now, we do begin with breaking news. A big night for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, both dominating their fields and piling up their wins this morning.

On the GOP side, Trump sweeping seven states. Marco Rubio victorious in three states and Marco Rubio capturing his first win.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton widening her delegate let with wins in seven states. Bernie Sanders holding his own with four wins.