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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

New iPhone Could be Unveiled Today; Violence Flares At Trump Rallies; Trump Criticizes Delegate Process; Sanders Raised $43 Million In February; Cruz Tops Republicans With $8 Million Cash; President Obama's Historic Trip To Cuba; Paris Terror Suspect Says More Attacks Planned. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 21, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, "EARLY START", ANCHOR: ... telling you watch fans to keep the Apple watch fresh. For all things Apple, check out the CNNMoney. I will have the latest through out the day including news from the event and first impressions of all the new products.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, "EARLY START", ANCHOR: We love an Apple announcement. That's exciting. "Early Start" continues right now.

ROMANS: Can Donald Trump win over the GOP establishment in just hours? The Republican front-runner meets with party leader following the weekend defilement and chaos on his campaign trail.

MARQUEZ: And President Obama now in Cuba. The first U.S. president to visit the country in 88 years. What's on the agenda on this controversial trip?

ROMANS: The captured Paris terror suspect behind bars claiming more attacks were planned. We are live with breaking new detail. Good morning and welcome to "Early Start". I'm Christine Romans.

MARQUEZ: And I am Miguel Marquez, good morning.

ROMANS: Nice to see you.

MARQUEZ: Good to see you. It is March 21st, Monday. Happy spring. Happy snowy spring. Five a.m. here on the east coast.

We begin with more chaos and violence at Donald Trump rallies. The Republican front-runner's campaign staff (ph) vowing to beef up security of future events after two more incidents of violence over the weekend. Trump also hopes to put out a few political fires today. He'll meet with two dozen influential republican leaders in Washington hoping to mend fences with the party establishment. He'll also speak to pro Israel group that's been anything but pro Trump. We get more from CNN's Chris Frates.

CRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Miguel and Christine. Later today, Donald Trump who has been criticized for not being a big enough friend of Israel will give a closely watch speech on his Mideast policy to a pro Israel group APAC. In a number of rabbis and Jewish religious leaders are expected to protest that speech by walking out because they believe Trump is promoting hatred. Of course, Trump has dismissed similar charges in the past and those expected protests later today, they come after a wild weekend that found Trump's campaign manager once again facing charges. He man handled someone at the Trump event. And so another protester's soccer punch. Yesterday Trump seemed to defend his campaign manager and credit his actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because security at the arena, the police were a little bit lax and he had signs. They had signs up in that area that were horrendous. I give him credit for having spirit. He wanted them to take down the horrible profanity- laced signs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: This is not the first time Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski has come under fire. Earlier this month, a reporter accused Lewandowski of grabbing her by the arm and yanking her backwards as she tried to ask Trump a question at a news conference. The reporter has filed a criminal complaint against Lewandowski. He has denied touching her at all and denies any of the charges.

Now, this is all cause Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus to weigh in on Sunday saying he thinks law enforcement professionals, not campaign officials should deal with protesters. And also this weekend, a man that chunks (ph) two son rally sucker punched and kicked a protester being sorted out by security. That man was arrested for misdemeanor assault. Miguel, Christine.

ROMANS: All right Chris Frates, thanks for that. Let's go live to Washington and bring in the "Wall Street Journal". Our White House correspondent Colleen McCain Nelson, nice to see you bright early this Monday morning, first day of spring. And it's snowy here, but it's hot on the campaign trail, Colleen.

No question in Donald Trump today. He is going to have two big meetings. He's going to meet with APAC. He's also going to meet with, you know, Republican officials really. What he took had to do to navigate these two meetings? Does he have to woo these two groups or is this, you know, you get what you get? What's he going to do, you think?

COLLEEN MCCAIN NELSON, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, he definitely has a lot of work to do on both friends in the meetings. You see that the Republican establishment is still very wary of Donald Trump. They're still having closed-door meetings trying to figure out how they might nominate someone not named Donald Trump. How they go to the convention and come up with another candidate and there's still a lot of Republican officials saying that they're hoping that Donald Trump won't get to 1237 delegates. The magic number that would automatically give him the nomination.

And so, they're still talk about running a third party candidate. There still talk about someone maybe who's not running for president emerging as somehow as the Republican nominee.

So, he has lot of work to do to win over the so-called Republican establishment. And then heading into APAC today. He also is going to face protests there as you noted. A lot of people are planning to walk out of his speech.

ROMANS: Right.

NELSON: And he's drawn a lot of fire for saying that he would be neutral in trying to negotiating a mid-east peace deal. And so, question is, is he going to stand by that pledge when he speaks to APAC today? And he said he's not going to preview his speech. He'll just have to tune in and see what he says.

MARQUEZ: I want to be a fly on the wall in that Republican meeting before APAC.

ROMANS: Yeah.

[05:05:02] MARQUEZ: That will be fascinating. Now for the first time on the campaign trail, Donald Trump always so full of bluster is actually holding out the possibility that he might not come up with the 1237 needed to clinch the nomination. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm a little bit short and one of the reasons was we have so many candidates. I mean we started off with 17 candidates and it came down to, you know, it's finally it's down to three, frankly. But, you know, there's so many candidates. Sounds very hard to get over that number. It's very unfair in a way. But because of the fact that there's so many candidates and so many candidates are grabbing delegates.

Now, here's what I say, because and now they're out and now they're out. So, I think I will get over that number. I think I may get over that number fairly easily. Arizona was unbelievable yesterday. Utah, frankly, was unbelievable the day before. I think we will get over that number. It is tremendous spirit about make America great again. I mean that's the whole thing. We're going to make America great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: I will get over that number. I may get over that number. I may fall a little short of that number. I mean, what's going on here? It doesn't sound like he's going to make it or at least his internal polling. What are you hearing from his inside this campaign?

NELSON: Well, it's interesting. I mean he's right on the bubble here. He needs 1,237 delegates. He's only about halfway there. At the halfway mark. And so certainly there are fewer candidates now. So, the question is now whether Donald Trump has a ceiling. Can he get more than 50% of the delegates in the remaining contest with only a couple other candidates left in the race. And it's not clear whether he can. And so, it was interesting to hear him hedge and all of a sudden suggest that's it's unfair that he needs to win 1,237 delegates to secure the nomination. And what was notable with that, Reince Priebus, the Republican National Committee chairman then came on just a few minutes later, and said that it is not unfair to require you get the majority of the delegates.

MARQUEZ: Yeah.

ROMANZ: Yeah:

NELSON: He said, these have always been the rule of the minority of delegates will not speak for the majority of the party. And so he made it very clear that just because you get close, that close isn't good enough. And not ultimately, someone will need to secure at the majority of the delegates to get the nomination.

ROMANS: It's so interesting. I -- you know, let's talk a little bit about the Democrats here because in speaking with you, you know, new sound -- it's new sound from Bernie Sanders saying something he has said many, many times about how this should not be a coronation. It won't be a coronation because of him Hillary Clinton. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERNIE SANDERS, (D), U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When we began this campaign about 10 months ago, the general feeling of the media and pundits is that we were looking at a coronation. That there was an anointed candidate who is simply and quietly get the Democratic nomination 10 months. Ten months have come and gone. Doesn't look to me like that's the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: It doesn't -- it looks like a really wild and exciting election on both sides an election. And he's in it. He's raised a lot of money. He spends a lot of money. Where does he go from here?

NELSON: Well, lucky for him, he heads west. And so all of a sudden he will be in contests that are favorable terrain to him. You see Utah coming up. Arizona, Washington a little further down the road. And so there are lots of states coming up that Bernie Sanders may do well in.

And so right now, he has about 300 delegates behind Hillary Clinton. She has a commanding lead in this race, but he's going to probably make up some ground in the west. The question is will it be enough ground and her lead at this point looks like it may be insurmountable. But he could certainly stay in this race for quite a long time. He has a lot of money and he could start to build to momentum and kind of chip away at her lead. And he's making the argument that, you know, he's going to come into the convention with the momentum having won more the recent states.

And so, with money, he can fight this as all the way to the convention, perhaps, and make the argument that he's the guy with momentum. He's the guy who is winning states. And it's worth noting that both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will be campaigning in California later this week.

ROMANS: Oh yeah.

NESSON: California's primary ...

MARQUEZ: California.

NELSON: ... not until June 7th. And so, everyone is preparing to fight this for quite some time.

ROMANS: Keep a couple of delegates in California.

MARQUEZ: They -- California's have been interesting fight on the Republican side because of the way they break them down. But Bernie Sanders would have to win by a huge margin going forward in order to make up that difference.

ROMANS: All right, Colleen...

NELSON: Absolutely.

ROMANS: ... thank you so much.

MARQUEZ: All right, thank you.

ROMANS: Well, be back again a few minutes. Thank you so much. Let's talk about the money behind this race. New this morning, campaign finance numbers, Hillary Clinton is raking in the delegates but Bernie Sanders is ranking in more cash.

[05:10:00] Sanders received $43 million in campaign contributions in February much more than Clinton's totals for the month. But Clinton has now a $31 million in so-called cash on hand. Sanders had $17 million in three super Tuesday primaries work expensive for both candidates. Sanders out spent Clinton by more than 10 million, but both Trump tens of million of dollars trying to get those primary vote.

On the Republican side, Ted Cruz has $8 million cash on hand. Nearly half of that can only be spent on the general election. Donald Trump, John Kasich, have a little more than $1 million each. Trump has been funding his own campaign. He has loaned himself $24.3 million so far. But he also has received contributions, $9.8 million in contributions.

I mean, even tomorrow's western Tuesday race, this is pretty big. All five presidential hopefuls are going to sit down at CNN's Anderson Cooper and Wolf Blister. This are going to be interviewed back to back interview tonight, 8:00 Eastern right here on CNN.

MARQUEZ: It's a logistical nightmare but it's going to be so called to watch that unfold.

ROMANS: Awesome. Yeah. MARQUEZ: Absolutely cool. Now, history unfolding this morning in Havana, Cuba. President Obama going where no U.S. president has gone for 88 years arriving in Cuba's capital on Sunday. The president's historic trip is the latest in those prominent sign of the new normal in relations between the two the countries. He'll meet with Cuba's president and is expected to raise concerns about human rights and speech to the Cuban people. We get more from about the president's trip from CNN's Jim Acosta in Cuba.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Christine and Miguel, changes in the air here in Cuba as President Obama prepare to spend the first full day here on the island. Later today he will lay a wreath at the memorial remembering the Cuban revolutionary Jose Marti. And then later on day, he'll hold a former bilateral meeting with Cuban President Raul Castro.

As for last night, the president toured old Havana with the first family and also stopped by the old cathedral in this city. That was after he talked to the embassy staff for the United States here in Cuba where he talked about the significance of this trip. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, U.S. PRESIDENT: It's been nearly 90 years since a U.S. president has stepped foot in Cuba. It is wonderful to be here. Back in 1928, President Coolidge came on a battleship. It took him three days to get here. It only took me three hours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Tomorrow, the president will give a speech to the Cuban people. The White House says the president will be talking about expanding human rights for Cuban people. Talking about freedom of press, freedom of speech, freedom of assembly. And then the president will wind down his trip with a baseball game between with the Cuban national team and Tampa Bay Rays. Christine and Miguel.

ROMANS: All right, thanks Jim.

MARQUEZ: Great that he is there. The captured Paris terror suspect revealing new information to investigators where more attacks about to be launched. We're live with that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:16:55] ROMANS: Authorities in Belgium say Salah Abdeslam, the lone surviving suspect in the Paris massacre, is now talking to investigators and was apparently planning a new attack before he was captured last week.

Now officials are taking the claim of a new attack very seriously. They say a cache of heavy weapons was found leading up to his arrest. CNN's Nima Elbagir following development for it. She is live in Belgium. And Nima, they must be trying to figure out who hid him, who helped him, what was the friends and family, and how was he able to build a new network around him right there in his old neighborhood where they clearly authorities are watching?

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. That really is at the heart of there concerns. This ability for him to hide out at what emerged as the nexus of the investigation into the Paris attack. Here's what the Belgian interior minister had to says -- talk about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAN JAMBON, BELGIAN INTERIOR MINISTER: To be very honest, yes I was surprised because I'll still search moment we thought as we get didn't got any signal about his presence in Brussels. We thought he was abroad. We had didn't have proof, but that was the thoughts. And then when you see he was here, but again, I say, we don't know what he did in these four months. Did he stay in Brussels all this time? Did he travel around?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ELBAGIR: It highlighted really worrying gaps in terms of penetration into not only these communities, but into these networks. And given that they now believe Salah Abdeslam was able to only communicate and meet with the network that was part of the conspiracy with the Paris attack but also to rebuild an entirely new one around him.

The threat level here standably (ph) remains at three, Christine. It's second highest in Interpol is warning European countries to remain hyper vigilant at the borders. They believed that this new network is linked to the potential threat of jihadist who could possibly be making their way from Syria into Europe as part of the broader threat that ISIS is attempting to launch as they are coming under greater pressure in Syria around, Christine.

ROMANS: All right, Nima Elbagir for us in (inaudible) in Belgium. Thank you for that Nima.

MARQUEZ: Now a comeback for the ages or was it worst collapse of all time. The sweet 16 coming into focus in the NCAA men's basketball tournament.

[05:19:15] Coy Wire, there he is. Now this meets morning's Bleacher Report coming up next. Hello Coy.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ROMANS: OK. So, March madness has been maddening for me. Is your March madness bracket completely busted yet? If not, you are in the minority.

MARQUEZ: Coy Wire, he has more with this morning Bleacher Report. I'm sure Coy, your bracket is in perfect shape, yes?

COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I think the last time I checked which isn't very often I was still number one in the CNN bracket.

MARQUEZ: Come on.

WIRE: The hunt for perfect NCAA tournament bracket is going to have to wait for another year for a perfect one because according to NCAA.com, there are no more unblemished bracket. What a crazy first weekend of games got.

The craziest one of the tournament does for -- it's not old time Texas A&M and Northern Iowa last night. A&M are raise the 12 point devastating the 44 seconds of regulation cut shot after cut shot and then a comedy of errors by Northern Iowa. It's the biggest last minute comeback in NCAA division one history. It went into this double overtime. The Aggies got the win though 90-88. Next up for them, Oklahoma Sooners on Thursday.

Wisconsin versus choosy (ph) Xavier. And Wisconsin's Bronson Koenig the new honey butter because this kid is sweet. A trey from deep and tied the game with under 12 seconds to go and then with two seconds left, Koenig from the corner another three counted. The buzzer sounds. Badgers win, 66-63 headed to the sweet 16. Bill Murray looks like he just a ghost after the game. Koenig said he was just trying to channel his inner Steph Curry.

[05:25:15] 14, Stephen F. Austin up one with 17 seconds to go against Notre Dame trying to do the unthinkable Irish -- missed again but then Rex Flueger with that tap in and 1.5 seconds remaining a gutsy performance by the Lumberjacks, but the Irish of Notre Dame gets the win 76-75, they get Wisconsin on Friday.

Now guys, Victoria Azerenka upset Serena Williams in the finals of the BMP Paribas Opens yesterday. But the biggest upset was before the match when the CEO of Indian Wells Raymond Moore said this disparaging comment about women.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYMOND MOORE, INDIAN WELLS, CEO: They ride on the coat tails of the men. They don't make any decision that they are lucky, they're very, very lucky. If I was a lady player, I would go down every night on my knees and thank God that Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal was born.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: Now, Raymond Moore has since apologized, but what he said cannot be unheard. In a press -- post game press conference, Serena Williams said the comments were offensive and inaccurate. Noting the women's final last year at the U.S. Open sold out before the men. So, we will see how Indian Wells plans to move forward dealing with Moore.

But guys looking at this brackets, Christine, you're in my place right now you do have Wisconsin making it to the finals and...

ROMANS: Yeah.

WIRE: ... you know, Miguel, I don't know where you are on this bracket...

MARQUEZ: I didn't even get in on the action. I had no idea what's happening. You have some of us work for a living, Coy, OK.

ROMANS: This is true.

MARQUEZ: Thank you very much. I'm like Bill Murray out there.

ROMANS: I'm glad you are in first place because you are you are beating John Berman he is the second place...

WIRE: Yeah.

(Crosstalk)

ROMANS: Your supremacy.

WIRE: Don't let him forget it for me, OK Christine?

ROMANS: I won't. I won't. All right, thanks, Coy, nice to see you.

In this hour, Donald Trump meets with the Republican elites. Can he convince them? He is the best hope in the race for president as violence and chaos erupts on the campaign trail. That's next.

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