Return to Transcripts main page

Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Rally Violence Controversy; CNN Ohio Democratic Town Hall; Sanders Outlines His Plan To Beat Trump. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 14, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

(HEADLINES)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm John Berman.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Christine Romans. It is Monday, March 14th. It is 5:00 a.m. in the east. The race for president at a boiling point this morning with the controversy over Donald Trump violence at his rallies overwhelming both sides of the race.

Breaking overnight, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders slammed Donald Trump they accuse him at a CNN town hall of inciting violence on the campaign trail.

Trump now says he would consider footing the legal bill of the supporter who sucker punched a protester and is now explaining why he canceled the Chicago rally amid clashes between pro and anti-Trump groups.

Trump is blaming Bernie Sanders, blaming Sanders' supporters for the chaos in there. Both Hillary Clinton and Sanders are firing back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: All Americans should be concerned. It's clear that Donald Trump is running a very cynical campaign pitting groups of Americans against one another. He is trafficking in hate and fear.

He is playing to our worst instincts rather than our angels of our better nature. He actually incites violence in the way that urges his audience on, you know, talking about punching people, offering to pay legal bills.

BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump is literally inciting violence with his supporters. He's saying if you go out and eat somebody up, that's OK. I'll pay the legal fees. That's an outrage and I would hope that Mr. Trump tones it down, big time, and tells his supporters that violence is not acceptable in the American political process.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Overnight, Trump defended his campaign and defended his rhetoric at a rally in Florida. He now holds a comfortable lead in the state. Look at this, 21 points ahead of Marco Rubio in the latest "Wall Street Journal" poll. CNN's Sara Murray was at Trump's rally late last night. She's got more.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Good morning, John and Christine. Just days before the Florida primary, Donald Trump was here rallying a crowd and taking aim at the home state Senator Marco Rubio calling him an absentee politician.

But even here in Florida, Donald Trump also went after Ohio Governor John Kasich and he overhauled his planned events on Monday to add the event in Ohio, a clear sign that he now thinks that John Kasich is a bigger threat on the 15th than Marco Rubio is here in Florida.

Now, of course, Trump is coming off a newsy weekend. He had to cancel an event in Chicago on Friday after there were so many protesters. The campaign did not feel like they could go forward. He addressed that in Boca last night saying he believes he made the right decision.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We had an interesting week. On Friday, we went to Chicago. We had 25,000 people coming. It's OK. We had 25,000 people coming. We had some, I would say, they protesters, OK? Let's call them protesters. We had a decision to make.

We had to make this decision. We want peace. We want happiness. We want everybody to go home really happy, really peaceful. Said, you know what we'll do? We'll postpone it. It was a very wise decision. We've been given a lot of credit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MURRAY: Now in light of the number of protesters that have been appearing at Trump events, we have seen a strong security presence. But here in Florida last night, there were relatively few interruptions. Back to you, John and Christine.

BERMAN: All right, Sara Murray, thanks so much. Let's talk about this event right now. The violence on the campaign trail and controversy. We are joined now by CNN political analyst, Josh Rogin. He is at our Washington Bureau. Josh is also a columnist for "Bloomberg View."

Josh, you heard Donald Trump say it right there. Given a lot of credit for not holding this event. You know, we just wants calm and peace. Yet, Donald Trump also says he will pay the legal fees for a guy who cold-cocked a protester in North Carolina last week. We have some sound on that. Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I will look at it. I'm going to see, you know, what was behind this because it was a strange event. But from what I heard, there was a lot of taunting and a certain finger was placed in the air. Not nice. Again, I don't condone the violence. I don't condone what he did, but you know what --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It is possible you could help him with legal fees in this man needs it?

TRUMP: I've actually instructed my people to look into it. Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: He's trying to play it both ways here it seems, Josh, isn't he?

[05:05:05]JOSH ROGIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. I've instructed my people to look into it is what I call the three classic Trump dodges. The other two being, I'm going to tell you next, Mr. Trump, who are your foreign advisers? Don't worry I'll tell you next, and of course, he never does.

And the third one is, it's a secret. Mr. Trump, what's your plan to defeat ISIS. Well, it's a secret, I can't tell you. Then ISIS would know about it.

This is a trick that Trump uses over and over again just to sort of not take a side. The bottom line is he is not taking personal responsibility for the violence. He is denying all accusations from everywhere that he is responsible for inciting the violence.

Although his tweaked his language at his rallies, his basic stance is still the same. It's the protesters fault and that his people are defending themselves. Everybody loves Trump. You can't expect a big shift in Trump's strategy.

He is getting what he wants, which is to control the news cycle and box out the chance that any of these other candidates will put forward some sort of alternate message that will break through in this is last day before the crucial Super Tuesday, March 15th primaries.

ROMANS: And Donald Trump blaming Bernie Sanders saying these are Sanders supporters that caused things to be shutdown in Chicago on Friday. Sanders saying, no, they were not on behalf of my campaign.

Trump surrogates keep saying again and again that this is the pattern of history of the left. The American left is the one who is inciting all of this.

But you know, John Kasich who faces voters tomorrow in Ohio and would like to do well in Ohio, here is what he said about the tone of the Trump rallies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no question that Donald Trump has created a toxic atmosphere pitting one group against another and name calling and all those kinds of things.

I think there are people that would go to a rally who look to disrupt. The environment is there and he needs to back off of this and start being more aspirational. Telling people we can get it together.

You can go into a room and get people depressed and angry and down or you can walk into that room with the same people and you can lift them and give them hope. And I think we need to be hopeful in America not depressed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: That -- what you are hearing from John Kasich has been basically -- the DNA campaign of his campaign to date.

ROGIN: Sure. That is working for John Kasich. It looks like he may pull out Ohio. The path forward is unclear. But I think what you're seeing from a lot of the candidates including Marco Rubio, especially Marco Rubio actually, is this sort of on the one hand it is the left's fault. On the other hand, it's Trump's fault.

They cannot resist being part of the problem. They need to attack Trump for the short-term goal of bringing down Trump's numbers ahead of Tuesday's primary. Is some of that true? Yes. It is possible there are some Bernie protesters.

It is unlikely they were organized by the Sanders campaign. The Sanders campaign denies that precipitously. But the bottom line is either Trump will take responsibility for what's going on under his roof or he's not.

At this point, he's not. There is no reason for him to because he doesn't seem to be paying a political price. We will find out for sure when the people go to vote in five states tomorrow.

BERMAN: We are looking at a map right now of those states that vote, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and the northern Marianas Islands as well, and winner take all caucuses.

Look, I mean, right now, if you look at the polls, as you said John Kasich seemed to have a little bit of a lead in Ohio. But Marco Rubio has just cratered in Florida. Tomorrow could be the last day in this race for Marco Rubio.

ROGIN: I think what the Rubio campaign would say is the polls vary. Some polls show him 20 points behind and some polls show him within single digits.

Privately, they admit to people that the polls are going in the wrong direction. They think they have some special sauce because think have infrastructure in Florida. That was a long time ago.

When you think about it, it really is his last stand. It doesn't look good for him. If you look at the other states, I think Missouri is the one where the only other one where Donald Trump might lose.

Ted Cruz has some good organization there. It's kind of a high Evangelical population although we found those Evangelicals don't always go for Cruz. Sometimes they go for Trump. Kasich could take Ohio. At the end of the day, Wednesday morning, if Trump is going to be ahead by more delegates than he is now, and that is a believable situation for the other three guys.

BERMAN: But losing Ohio makes it harder for him to get to 1,237 delegates by the end of the primary season. It means this will go on for a lot longer. Josh Rogin, great to have you with us. Thanks so much.

ROMANS: All right, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, tough talk for Donald Trump. That is not all voters want to hear from them one day before crucial state primaries. We are breaking it down live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:14:04]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I am already receiving messages from leaders. I'm having foreign leaders ask if they can endorse me to stop Donald Trump. I think whoever goes up against Donald Trump better be ready. I feel I'm the best prepared and ready candidate to take him on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Hillary Clinton at last night's Democratic town hall explaining why she thinks she is the best positioned to beat Donald Trump in November. CNN Politics reporter, Eric Bradner, was at the town hall. He stayed up all night analyzing the town hall so he could be ready for us.

BERMAN: Stayed up, that is more like two hours.

ROMANS: Exactly. Nice to see you this morning. Good morning. So interesting these candidates are trying to define each other, right? How they differ from each other. You have the Donald Trump campaign chaos overshadowing everything as well here.

[05:15:01]ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Right. Absolutely. So they're trying to define each other in the context of Donald Trump. It is a weird thing. Donald Trump was this massive presence at the town hall.

The two candidates lately have been talking a lot about each other. You know, we just saw Wednesday night that Univision debate where they went hard after each other.

It was striking last night to see them drop attacks on each other. It was all about Trump. Hillary Clinton was playing up her time as secretary of state arguing that she's best prepared to work on the world stage.

And she was doing by talking about former diplomats that she's worked with calling and asking if they could endorse her over Donald Trump. Sanders, meanwhile, was playing up his proposals to raise the minimum wage. Things like that. Arguing that those are popular and Donald Trump opposes them. They give him a leg up in the general election.

It was all through this Trump prism in a way we have known they have been bashing Trump for a long time, but he hasn't been quite that dominant before.

BERMAN: That is what happens when you have what we saw at his event on Friday night with those fights breaking out, the cancelation, and all talks about the violence. It is clear Donald Trump is overshadowing both sides of the race.

You were talking about how Bernie Sanders using Donald Trump as a foil to make a stance on the issues. We have some sound of that. Guys, if we can play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: This is a guy who is a billionaire, but doesn't think we should raise the minimum wage above $7.25 an hour. This is a guy who goes on the Republican TV debate and says wages in America are too low. Tell that to the people in Ohio that wages are too low. This is a guy who believes in defiance of all science that climate change is a hoax.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: I think he misspoke. He said wages are too high.

BERMAN: Donald Trump does say wages are too high. We look at that, Eric, he's in Ohio. Ohio votes on Tuesday. What is the political landscape for the Democrats heading into tomorrow's votes?

BRADNER: So we have five states voting obviously, Florida, North Carolina, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri. The three to watch are the Midwestern states, Ohio, Illinois and Missouri. Bernie Sanders can compete in those.

Hillary Clinton will probably finish up her sweep of the south in the other two. The candidates will spend a lot of time in particularly Illinois and Ohio because those are sort of up for grabs.

A poll out Sunday from NBC/"Wall Street Journal"/Marist showed Sanders actually closer to Clinton in Illinois. The candidates are talking about trade. Sanders hammered Clinton on in Michigan. It proved to be especially effective.

In other rust belt states that have seen manufacturing jobs slipped away, the steel industry in Ohio sort of crumbled. He is really focusing on that again. Hillary Clinton is focusing on trade more too now she has seen what a problem it can be.

That's where they stand right now. Both candidates spend a lot of time in those states headed through Tuesday. ROMANS: When we hear the talk about trade, you know, that can be a wonky thing. International trade is wonky and not exactly the best to cover. They boiled it down to what Bernie Sanders did last night. How many thousands of factories have closed?

That's something that really resonates with people. Whether you call it free trade or globalization. What happened with or without free trade agreements? Do you think that help Bernie Sanders more than Clinton?

Remember, Hillary Clinton's world view is created during the time when banks got bigger and free trade, free trade was the mantra of Washington.

BRADNER: Yes, I think you hit a really interesting point. Sanders talks in terms of values, 60,000 manufacturing plants have closed in the United States. Clinton does detail. She goes way in the weeds.

So it makes it a bit easier for Bernie Sanders to make his case. People are hurting economically. He has a simple problem to diagnose and simple solution. Stop making the trade deals.

What Clinton is talking about may have more effect immediately. She's talking about -- I used to cover trade. Anti-dumping cases are something I spent a lot of time on. No one really knows what that means.

[05:20:08]And yet, she's talking about ramping up the United States anti-dumping duties and hiring a trade prosecutor who would challenge foreign countries when they are selling goods in the United States at unfairly low prices rather than forcing companies to be the ones that actually launch those challenges.

So it is really in the weeds. I suspect that's something that is appealing to Clinton donors and getting her foot in the door on trade. She is not talking in the broad value terms that Sanders is.

ROMANS: It is passion versus policy from the very beginning. The passion is resonating especially in the rust belt states. Eric, thanks for joining us. Get some sleep.

BERMAN: I think you also have mail alerts. The field for the NCAA men's basketball tournament is set. March Madness set to begin. Coy Wire in "The Bleacher Report" will tell us who we should pick because I have no freaking idea.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:25:00]

BERMAN: All right. The field for the NCAA men's basketball tournament is set. As far as I can tell, anyone of the 64 teams could win.

ROMANS: And now you can spend valuable company time filling them out today. Coy Wire has more in this morning's "Bleacher Report." Hey, there.

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Christine and John. It is bracket Monday and get this, there is a study that estimated $1.3 billion of company money are wasted each hour of the work day on building brackets and watching games during March Madness.

Now probably the most controversial selection yesterday was Michigan State not getting a one seed after winning the big ten tournament. They are the number two seed in the Midwest. Here is a look at the top seeds.

Kansas in the south region, they are the number one seed overall. North Carolina in the east. Virginia in the Midwest, and Oregon ducks in the west region, quack, quack.

Now there was some drama about midway through yesterday's selection show on CBS, someone leaked the actual bracket on Twitter before all the selections were announced.

The NCAA weren't happy about it. They are looking into it. Companies who paid for commercials during that two-hour show cannot be happy either.

Now time for you to earn some bragging rights. The keen Christine Romans and John "come get some" Berman, and the rest of the CNN anchors and I want to see you can pick a bracket better than we can. Go to cnn.com/brackets and join the CNN group if you're feeling lucky.

To the NBA, the Cavaliers behind the three-point line against the Clippers. A season high 18 threes on the way to a 114-90 victory. Perhaps worse for Clippers fans, before the game, Kanye West was talking trash about their new mascot, Chuck the Condor.

He tweeted to Steve Ballmer, can I please redesign the Clippers mascot. Chuck was not having any of it. He jabbed. He said I miss the old Kanye. Good stuff for you.

BERMAN: I like that. I'm sure Kanye West will respond.

ROMANS: Nice to see you. I'll be in touch about my bracketology today.

Breaking overnight, Donald Trump hit hard by Democrats on the CNN stage last night. He's accused of inciting violence at his rallies. He says it is not my problem. It is my opponents.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)