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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
GOP Debate: Candidates on the Attack; Sanders' New, Aggressive Strategy; Warriors Tie NBA Home Winning Streak. Aired 5-5:30a ET
Aired March 04, 2016 - 05:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Speaking of baggage, insults and attacks launched in the Republican debate, reaching a new low.
[05:00:02] Was anyone be able to rise above the fray?
Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN ANCHOR: I'm still below the fray. Miguel Marquez here on Friday, March 4th, 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast.
Breaking overnight: Down and dirty to say the least, with Donald Trump, surprise, surprise, at the center of it all.
For the whole two hours, Republican candidates just went after each other. Sometimes in very coarse terms.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In this campaign for the last year, Donald Trump has mocked everybody with personal attacks. He has done so to people sitting on the stage today. He has done so about people that are disabled. He's done it about every candidate in this race. So, if there's anyone who ever deserved to be attacked that way, it's been Donald Trump.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This little guy has lied so much about my record.
RUBIO: Here we go. Here we go.
TRUMP: He has lied so much.
I've won 10. He's won three or four? Last week, in fact on Tuesday, I was 500,000 votes higher than him. I was a million votes higher than Marco, 1 million votes. That's a lot of votes.
RUBIO: Two-thirds of the people who cast a vote in the Republican primary or caucus have voted against you. They do not want you to be our nominee.
CRUZ: If we nominate Donald, we're going to spend the spring -- the fall and the summer with the Republican nominee facing a fraud trial.
TRUMP: Oh, stop it.
CRUZ: With Hillary Clinton telling saying --
TRUMP: It's a minor case. It's a minor case.
CRUZ: -- why did you give my campaign and my foundation $100,000.
TRUMP: It's a minor civil case.
Lying, Ted.
CRUZ: You can breathe. I know it's hard. I know it's hard. But just --
RUBIO: When they are done with the yoga, can I answer a question?
CRUZ: You cannot.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I can get the crossover votes, you see, because throughout this campaign, I've talked about issues. I have never tried to go and get into these kind of scrums that we're seeing here on the stage and people say everywhere I go, you seem to be the adult on the stage.
MODERATOR: I have a policy question for you, sir.
RUBIO: Let's see if he answers.
TRUMP: Don't worry about it, Marco. Don't worry about it. Don't worry about it, Little Marco.
Look at those hands. Are they small hands? And he referred to my hands, if they are small, something else must be small. I guarantee you, there's no problem. I guarantee you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Now, chief political correspondent Dana Bash was in the spin room and talked to candidates after the debate.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, as expected, this debate between the four remaining candidates in the beautiful theater here in Detroit was as raucous as they come, really intense especially when it comes to everybody taking aim at the frontrunner. The man in the center stage, Donald Trump.
Now, he was here. This was the spin room before everybody cleared out and I got a chance to talk to Mr. Trump, asking him about how he felt specifically about the idea that people were questioning whether or not he really is a man who keeps his word and tells it like it is. Take a listen.
TRUMP: No, I think I explained it very well. I thought it was very easy to explain. According to every poll, I won the debate by a lot. I'm in the 70s, which is a lot, when you have four people on the stage.
BASH: Now, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, they were really going after Donald Trump. But there was one man on the debate stage, the fourth, John Kasich, who refused to engage. In fact, he made it clear that was his strategy.
As he has done throughout this campaign, as saying that he doesn't want to get into it, he doesn't want to get into the bickering, he doesn't want to get into the name-calling and he just wants to talk about his record both as governor of Ohio and before that in Congress.
I also got a chance to talk to him after the debate.
You were clearly trying to be the adult in the room.
KASICH: Yes.
BASH: But given where you are and where the -- sort of, the delegates are after all of these contests, do you think Republicans are looking for an adult at this point?
KASICH: No, I do. I'm going to win Ohio. And when I win Ohio, it's a whole new ball game. You know, winning Ohio means I'm going to -- I'm now on home turf.
BASH: Now, for candidates like John Kasich who really thrives on this platform on the debate stage, it could be every beneficial. Even he said so.
But for the other candidates, unclear how much this debate really moved the ball. We're going to see when the next contest starts this Saturday and, of course, right here in Michigan, the reason they have this debate here, this primary is one that John Kasich is really focusing on this Tuesday -- Christine and Miguel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUEZ: Thank you, Dana Bash.
OK, helping us make sense of this all, if they can, all this riled up Republican rhetoric. Senior media correspondent Brian Stelter is here, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", and CNN political analyst and "Bloomberg View" columnist, Josh Rogin, live in our Washington bureau.
Good morning to you both for being up.
JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.
[05:05:01] MARQUEZ: Brian, I have to start. To me, it looked like a horrible day for Donald Trump from Romney to the debate. Then little Donald Trump. When he talked about his endowment. Was that just madness or was there method?
(CROSSTALK)
STELTER: Well, it's the most sensitive part of the male anatomy, now suddenly a part of the presidential race. Sometimes this is insinuated in elections. Certainly the smack talk you see online. To see it on a presidential stage is something else. I'm sure a lot of people are waking up this morning grossed out by it or little disturbed by it. On the other hand, a lot of election is about strength, is about who is the toughest guy. Who is the tallest guy on the stage?
The fact that Trump went out of his way to bring this up reveals a lot about his strategy. Maybe he was trying to get Romney and Romney's attacks off of front page.
ROMANS: That's a very good point, because if you look at the front page today, some of them have the debate and some have Mitt Romney.
Let's show you what happened earlier in the day. Mitt Romney, the most recent GOP nominee got up and slammed Donald Trump. Listen to what Romney said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MITT ROMNEY (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Here's what I know. Donald Trump is a phony. A fraud. His promises are as worthless as a degree from Trump University.
(APPLAUSE)
He's playing the members of the American public for suckers. He gets a free ride to the White House and all we get is a lousy hat.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: Brian and Josh, I want you both to react to this, because, Brian, what is interesting to me is that Donald Trump, by talking about the size of as you say the most sensitive part of a man's body, in the first ten minutes of the debate, he knocked that off the front page of the newspaper.
STELTER: Yes, "The New York Times" called this open and bitter warfare in the Republican Party. This is the ghost of Mitt Romney taking the place of Megyn Kelly. The first debate, Megyn Kelly was his challenger. In this case, it's now Mitt Romney. But Trump changed the conversation.
I do think what happened with Romney is more significant than the debate stage. Romney was setting up talking points for Rubio and Cruz. It will be important for the narrative in the weeks to come. Romney is trying to set a tone here.
But I say ghost of Mitt Romney for a reason. He is someone who seems like the past. Not the future of the Republican Party in many ways. You have to wonder if Trump supporters are swayed by Romney said.
ROMANS: Josh, we watched political history.
MARQUEZ: The heart of the Republican Party.
ROGIN: I have to say I have a slightly different take on the Romney speech. I'm not sure there are a lot of Trump supporters waiting for Mitt Romney to weight in on Trump's popularity. I don't think they care of what Romney says.
And I think when Trump says that Mitt Romney is a failed candidate, you know he is making a good point there. What Romney and the rest of the establishment is trying to do is trying to reach all of the people who are non-Trump supporters. You saw Marco Rubio talking about 75 percent who did not vote for Trump. And their theory is if they can raise Trump's negatives high enough, then that will lead the way for another candidate to become the anti-Trump candidate.
The problem with that is that the voter don't seem to be going along with that strategy. There is no evidence that if Trump loses votes, that they will go to Rubio or Cruz or if Kasich drops out that Trump won't get those votes. The bottom line is Trump has the argument which is he is winning and his poll numbers keep going up. Despite Mitt Romney's finger wagging, I don't think that's going to tip the balance here.
STELTER: And these candidates didn't have a strong enough night and it keeps everything fractured, and nobody had a disqualifying night, and none of the candidates stood out either. We are back where we were 12 hours ago.
MARQUEZ: But they are going after him on the specifics and on his plan. He always moves the ball. Last night there was an exchange. Trump moves it to the poll numbers and whether he's amazingly enough, CNN was at the center of the debate.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I don't believe these politicians. All talk. No action. Lm standing here listening to him say about a percentage. CNN, he gets 15. That means 85 percent based on what you are saying of the people don't dig you, number one.
CRUZ: Well, Donald lives by the polls every day. He tweets the polls.
TRUMP: No, I don't. I don't.
CRUZ: He told us to look at the CNN poll. That's a very good poll to look to. That CNN poll showed that head-to-head, Donald Trump loses to Hillary Clinton by eight points.
He doesn't just lose close, he loses by eight points. The same poll he told you to look at shows me beating Hillary Clinton.
[05:10:00] We cannot mess this up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ: The level of discourse, Brian and Josh, is completely sophomoric. And then at the same time, all they care about, or all Trump does is talk about the numbers.
ROMANS: I'm winning, I'm winning, I'm winning.
STELTER: I'm going to say, in some ways, sort of waste time on the debate stage to talk about poll numbers. Fox moderators kept trying to talk about policy and substance. And there was some in the debate last night. We heard some of it, but the attempt to pivot back to poll numbers is a waste of time on a debate stage.
MARQUEZ: Josh, yes, go ahead.
ROGIN: I agree with Brian.
I would say this, there have been a lot of debate where is Trump has been vested on policy and hasn't worked and driving down his support. What the cold reality is here for the other candidates is that they have to do something game changing. There is something drastic. One has to step up in a dramatic way or they have to make Trump stumble, like Marco Rubio stumbled in New Hampshire before the debate for the debate to change the trajectory of the race.
So, I think what you're hearing from Dana and her piece, what you're hearing from Brian, and what I totally agree with, is that nothing that happened last night is fundamentally changing the trajectory of the race. That trajectory has Donald Trump winning.
Yes, they scored points here and there. It seemed like a bad nice for Trump on policy. I don't see that making the difference. They have to do something.
ROMANS: We're all looking for that game changer.
STELTER: We get to do it next week.
MARQUEZ: We all have next week.
ROMANS: The theory of keep going like this, but deprive Donald Trump of the delegates or the number he needs to get to the convention. There's still just the outside hope among some of the establishment.
Thanks, guys. We'll talk to you again soon. Great to see you.
MARQUEZ: Next week is march madness here on CNN. A different sort. It begins Sunday with the next Democratic debate in Flint, Michigan, followed by the premiere "RACE TO THE WHITE HOUSE", which looks absolutely fabulous. Next Tuesday is the next Super Tuesday night. Wednesday brings another Democratic debate in Miami and Thursday with a Republican debate in Miami.
Are you keeping up? A week of political events here on CNN.
MARQUEZ: Big states with a lot of delegates are on the board. The next couple of weeks is going to be incredibly important.
Bernie Sanders shifting strategy in the race for president. On his side, the new attacks against Hillary Clinton. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:16:28] MARQUEZ: Bernie Sanders on the campaign trai1 in Michigan today where that state's primary looming next Tuesday. Sanders stepping up his attacks on Hillary Clinton, hitting her hard on trade. He's also accepted an invitation to a town hall on Monday organized by a media organization not associated with Democrats. FOX News. Hillary Clinton won't appear at the town hall citing a scheduling conflict.
CNN's Jeff Zeleny has more on Sanders new aggressive strategy.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, we are one day away from another set of Democratic caucuses and primaries. Nebraska and Kansas on Saturday. Louisiana as well. And Maine on Sunday.
Now, Bernie Sanders believes he can win three of those. On that, the Clinton campaign does not disagree.
This is becoming a race of delegates. Clinton had a big lead in the delegate hunt, but Senator Sanders could make up ground this weekend. It's one of the reasons he is going to college campuses in Lincoln, Nebraska, to Lawrence, Kansas, unto campuses in Michigan. He is focusing on working class voters, others who are fed up with Washington.
He visited Lincoln Nebraska and got loud cheers from an otherwise conservative state. Of course, many Democrats here are happy to have a candidate show up at all and they certainly turned out to see Bernie Sanders.
Some Democrats are wondering about the tone of his campaign. I asked him if he should tone down his rhetoric against Secretary Clinton.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In many ways, Democrats can say what they want. We are in this race to win it. I don't run negative campaign ads, but I do think it is appropriate that in a campaign, you distinguish your differences with your opponents. Otherwise, why run.
ZELENY: So, you can see Senator Sanders has no plans of changing his approach. They are working toward Sunday, the next presidential debate in Flint, Michigan. Of course, that is leading into the key states primary on Tuesday in Michigan. That state will determine how the delegate fight goes on -- Christine and Miguel.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROMANS: All right. Thanks, Jeff.
MARQUEZ: Thank you, Jeff.
Hillary Clinton not on the campaign trail last night, but tweeting during the debate. "This one reading marriage equality is the law of the land. Deal with it. #gopdebate." She is getting very gif'y out there.
With the Democratic contest shifting to the Midwest, CNN hosts the next debate live from Flint, Michigan, this Sunday. That's the CNN Democratic presidential debate Sunday night at 8:00 p.m., here on CNN.
ROMANS: All right. Time for an early start on your money, Friday edition.
Dow futures inching lower this morning. Wall Street awaiting the jobs report. Oil prices are flat. Stocks in Europe are higher. Shares in Asia closing with gains.
The Dow riding a three-day win streaks. Now up five of the past seven trading days, up 512 points during that span.
MARQUEZ: That is amazing.
(CROSSTALK)
ROMANS: Besides oil prices, the only thing standing in the way is the job reports released at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. Here is the CNNMoney forecast, 190,000 net new positions created in February, the unemployment at 4.9 percent. Wages are expected to tick up 2.5 percent. Wages have been moving higher since October after being dormant for a year.
BERMAN: How many of those jobs are good jobs?
ROMANS: We would like to see a good mix of jobs. Costco said they were raising minimum wages. So, there's been creation of good jobs, but even at the lower end, those jobs are paying more now.
[05:20:01] MARQUEZ: All right. Thank you very much.
ROMANS: You're welcome.
MARQUEZ: The NFL's deflate-gate scandal back in the headlines. Tom Brady won his first court battle against the NFL. But is that decision about to be overturned?
Andy Scholes, there he is, we will see him in a moment with this morning's bleacher report and all the meaning to it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
MARQUEZ: The Golden State Warriors etching their name in the record books. This time tying the longest home winning streak in the league history.
ROMANS: Andy Scholes has more in this morning's bleacher report.
Hey, Andy.
ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, guys.
The Warriors are on the way to becoming the greatest team in NBA history.
[05:25:03] Last night, they won their 44th straight game at home, tying the all-time record set by Michael Jordan's Bulls. After sitting out a game with an injured ankle, Steph Curry was back and hey, the ankle just fine.
Putting the moves on Kevin Durant. Curry, the step-back three from way downtown. Warriors win, 121-106. They are now 55-5 on the season.
All right. Good news for Yankees fans. It only took one swing for Alex Rodriguez to hit his first home run in spring training. That's right, a homer on his very first swing. A-Rod hit 33 dingers last season. He entered this year 21 shy on the all time list.
The NFL and Tom Brady's lawyers back in court. A panel of three federal judges listened to the appeal of Judge Richard Berman's ruling to nullify Commissioner Roger Goodell's four-game suspension of Brady. During the proceedings, the judges grilled Brady's lawyer about the quarterback's destroyed cell phone. The decision from the three judges hearing the appeal is not expected for months.
All right. Look, we have exclusive video from the GOP debate. Just kidding. This is yesterday's UFC pre-fight pressor which was way more civil. That's the UFC's Golden Body, Conor McGregor, and Nate Diaz, nearly coming to blows ahead of their big fight on Saturday.
Also on that card is Holly Holm who is defending her title, first fight for her since upsetting Rhonda Rousey back in November. So, it should be an exciting night fight here comes Saturday for UFC, guys.
ROMANS: Much more tasteful than politics --
MARQUEZ: Well done, getting that little political in this. Very --
SCHOLES: I try.
MARQUEZ: Good job, Andy Scholes.
ROMANS: Golden State Warriors, best team ever, most fun to watch ever, better than the Bulls? Are we watching history here?
SCHOLES: I mean, Christine, if they win the NBA championship this year, yes for all of the above. Most fun to watch, best team ever, in my opinion.
MARQUEZ: California, can't get any better.
ROMANS: Wow. Awesome, Steph Curry, what a guy.
All right. Thanks so much. Nice to see you.
MARQUEZ: Thanks, Andy.
SCHOLES: All right.
ROMANS: Republican candidates attack each other for two hours on the debate stage. Who came out on top? How low did it go? Our panel breaking down the biggest moments.
MARQUEZ: Pretty low I'd say.
ROMANS: I'd say low.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
