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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Wins New York Primary in Landslide; Clinton's Decisive Victory Over Sanders in New York; Obama in Saudi Arabia for Gulf Council Summit. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired April 20, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

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[05:00:08] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, New York. We love New York.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You proved once again, there's no place like home.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The breaking news this morning, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, they win big at home. New York state is home to both of them. They both picked up blowout victories, changing the race yet again for the White House.

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

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Great to see you this morning. I'm Christine Romans. It is Wednesday, April 20th, it is 5:00 a.m. in the East.

And the breaking news this morning: huge wins for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the New York primary. Both the front runners take their home state.

For Trump, a landslide victory, beating John Kasich, his closest rival, by 35 points, beating Ted Cruz -- pummeling Ted Cruz by 45 points. In the end, Trump may walk away with almost all -- all of the New York's 95 delegates, which significantly improves his chances of reaching the 1,237 he needs to clinch the Republican nomination before the convention.

On the Democratic side, Clinton wins with a decisive victory over Bernie Sanders, beating him by 15 points. She now leads Sanders by about 260 pledged delegates. And when you add in those super delegates, Clinton's total delegate lead skyrockets to more than 700.

Last night, Clinton and Trump both held huge rallies celebrating those wins.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TRUMP: We don't have much of a race anymore. Based on what I'm seeing on television, Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated. As you know, we have won millions of more votes than Senator Cruz, millions and millions of more votes than Governor Kasich. We've won and now especially after tonight, close to 300 delegates more than Senator Cruz. We're really, really rocking.

CLINTON: In this campaign, we've won in every region of the country.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

From the North to the South to the East to the West, but this one's personal.

(CHEERS)

The race for the Democratic nomination is the home stretch, and victory is in sight.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Victory in sight. Important words for the Clinton campaign.

Joining us now, CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner, senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers, and senior political analyst, Ron Brownstein, also a senior editor at "The Atlantic".

Good morning, gentlemen.

Ron Brownstein, you're fresh meat here with us this morning. Let's talk about this --

ROMANS: A new star in our constellation.

BERMAN: That's another way -- that's another way of saying it.

Look, Trump won big here in New York. He needed this win. He got it and then some.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Absolutely. Donald Trump had come off of a weak performance in Wisconsin, just as Hillary Clinton came up with a weak performance in Wisconsin. And what New York told us is that in modern presidential politics, there's demography, and it trumps mentum.

I mean, Donald Trump put together his best showing -- really, it's the first state where he's hit 50 percent of the vote. He's been a front runner but a plurality front runner. He reached his highest vote among both college educated voters and non-college voters. The best showing he's had on either front. Just as importantly for Trump, what this showed was the limits Ted Cruz had been facing before Wisconsin reasserted themselves.

Wisconsin was the first state where Cruz won voters who are not evangelicals. Last night, he was back to 12 percent among voters who are not evangelicals. That is a very ominous showing as the rest of these Northeastern states come up with very small evangelical populations.

ROMANS: Dylan Byers, talking about the demographics and how they matter. All this talk about a ceiling for Donald Trump. He didn't have a ceiling last night. He did well last night across the board, as Ron points out, and he got past that 62 percent. He has to get 62 percent of all the remaining delegates to win the nomination.

This momentum change for him last night, how does it help him going forward?

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER, MEDIA & POLITICS: Well, it's really significant. What's important as much as what happened on stage last night and what happened with the results in New York state is what's happening behind the scenes. You know, Trump has really hit the reset button on his campaign in a manner of speaking. He sort of graduated from what we call Trump 1.0 where he's, you know, making controversial statements, garnering free media coverage, getting into fights with Ted Cruz.

He's moved on to a very serious concerted effort to try and pick up every single delegate he can. He's done that by hiring new people, bringing in Paul Manafort, getting rid of some other people on his campaign.

What we're going to see now going forward is sort of an older, more traditional playbook from Donald Trump. I don't think we're going to lose the controversial statements. I don't think we're going to lose the bravado, but we are going to see a really concerted effort.

[05:05:03] And you can see that reflected in some of the remarks he made last night. And by having such a decisive win in New York, with so much attention paid to that state -- you know, the entire nation was watching that state for two weeks. That is really going to give him the momentum he needs to try and barnstorm across the rest of the country and really pick up support from Senator Ted Cruz.

BERMAN: And next week, you know, using the Ron Brownstein formulation, he has momentum and demography, which is a good political combination to have.

Eric Bradner, let's shift to the Democratic side right now. Hillary Clinton with a 15-point win, which is more than the Clinton camp thought they were going to get, frankly, going into today. You heard Hillary Clinton say "victory is within our sights". That's a big statement for that campaign.

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: That's right. It's not just a big win because Bernie Sanders had reeled off several small Western state victories or because she's now sort of moving Bernie Sanders into the rearview mirror.

It's big because Sanders really attacked Clinton hard in New York. This is a state she wanted. He had begun talking about her not being qualified for the presidency. This is -- could sort of be a key moment because it shows that the Sanders attacks didn't quite work. So, going forward now, Hillary Clinton is watching Bernie Sanders sort

of gain on her in the national polls, but he's also running out of real estate. And she's maintaining her leads among minority voters, with women. She's closing the gap with white voters.

And if Bernie Sanders can't shake up some of those factors in a big way, in a very short order, then there's no real way for him to catch her in terms of pledge delegates at this point. So, a big win for Hillary Clinton.

ROMANS: Ron Brownstein, when you look at women voters, 61 percent, black voters, 75 percent, Latino voters, she did very well. As we've been pointing out, you know, even with white voters, she's closing some of the gap. Young people, the millennials, they didn't come for her in New York.

BROWNSTEIN: And she won Democrats, that's really big. She won over 60 percent of self-identified Democrats.

The big challenge -- Bernie Sanders has done better in this campaign than anyone, including his own staff probably expected. They tied among white voters last night. He has won white voters in every state outside of the South, except for Iowa and Ohio in the exit polls.

But what he has not done, what he has not done is breakthrough among African-American voters who again stuck with her at 75 percent, and he's not won partisan Democrats. She won over 60 percent of self- identified Democrats. Sanders has needed independent voters to be participating, usually to do his best.

And his challenges, as we talked about before, is the immediate calendar coming up. I really don't believe in momentum. I believe in demography and kind of the makeup of the electorate.

BERMAN: But what about the --

BROWNSTEIN: The problem is -- the problem is -- well, you know, Wisconsin was momentum. Then it hit demography in New York and then it hit the wall very quickly.

But if you look at what's coming up, you have all of the states that are coming next Tuesday are closed to independents -- Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Delaware, except for Rhode Island and Maryland. And you have large African-American populations in several of them. Again, it's tough for Bernie Sanders.

Now, it could get better for him in may, as it could get better again for Ted Cruz in May when the calendar turns towards states that have more of the voters they've done well with. The question is whether, particularly on the Democratic side, it will be out of reach functionally for Sanders as you get down that road.

BERMAN: All right. We're going to talk about that in a moment. The dreaded "P" word for the Democrats, proportional delegate allocation makes it difficult for Bernie Sanders to gain any ground going forward. We'll talk about what Bernie Sanders and Ted Cruz, maybe John Kasich

need to do to turn around their path to the presidency. That's next.

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[05:13:01] SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm so excited to share with you what America has learned over the past few months, and it has nothing to do with a politician winning his home state tonight.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We lost tonight. There are five primaries next week. We think we're going to do well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders determined to fight on despite being losses to Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton here in New York. What are their paths forward? What do they need to do to try to pick up their momentum -- even though Ron Brownstein doesn't believe it -- in these primary contests?

So, Ron, I'm going to put this question to you. Let's talk about demography. I'm not going to make you talk about momentum, because the demography -- the demographics in the next states next Tuesday, not at all unlike New York here. Ted Cruz has got a tough week ahead.

BROWNSTEIN: Donald Trump said that Ted Cruz hates New York. By the end of next week, Ted Cruz is going to hate the whole Atlantic Seaboard, because basically, the fundamental promise of Ted Cruz's campaign has not been realized.

He's run a brilliant, organizational campaign. But when he started running, his concept was that he was going to go beyond what Mike Huckabee did, beyond what Rick Santorum did. He was going to knit together economic conservatives with religious conservatives.

It simply has not happened. As I said, Wisconsin was the first state in all of the 22 states with exit polls where he won most voters who are not evangelical Christians. That's what you have to do to compete in the Northeast, and again, in -- you know, particularly in the Northeast where there are not that many of those voters. In New York, he was back to 12 percent of those voters, that says to me he's going to of have a very rough week next week in these Northeastern states.

John Kasich, on the other hand, does better with those more secular, moderate, white-collar suburban voters, but he doesn't win anyone else. They're both too narrow at this point to challenge Trump in these states. Cruz needs to get back to those heartland states like Nebraska and Indiana, where there are a lot more evangelical Christians where it is likely that momentum or not, he will be competitive again.

ROMANS: Dylan Byers, let's talk about Bernie Sanders quickly because he was -- you just heard him in that sound bite talking about the next five states, looking ahead.

[05:15:03] New York is a closed primary for the Democrats. Four of the next five states, I believe, are the same kind of situation.

What does that mean for Bernie Sanders?

BYERS: Well, it's interesting to hear that sort of expectation- setting from him. I guess, of course, you have to say you're going to do well, but as Ron just pointed out, you know, those states are not favorable to Ted Cruz, those states are unfavorable to Bernie Sanders.

And, you know, what we're seeing here to go back to this momentum versus demographics, guys like Bernie Sanders, like Ted Cruz love to tell the story of momentum after they come out of states in which they win because of big turnout from their base. But they run up against problems in the big states, key states that matter. And they demonstrate their sort of inability to transcend that core group of supporters.

It might be a very vocal group of supporters. They might have big turnout in some of those smaller states, but it's not enough to win the big states you need to win in order to win your party's nomination process.

So, look, I don't think Bernie Sanders has much hope in any of the states. I think Ron is absolutely right he's not going to do well on the Atlantic Seaboard. And he's looking forward to states in May.

But, you know, I think really for Sanders, he's got to start thinking about even June and thinking about what he's going to do out here in California, which, of course, has more delegates than any of the remaining states.

BERMAN: They'll have the money, they'll have the money. California takes money, and Bernie Sanders has that, so he'll stay in until the end.

I want to talk, Eric, though about another state that's voting before California and I think is absolutely fascinating. Pennsylvania votes next Tuesday. Pennsylvania has the wackiest delegation procedure in the country.

There are 17 delegates that will go, you know, be bound to the winner of the state. But then there are 54 delegates that unbound. There will be all kinds of campaigning for them this week and beyond this week. A good many of them, Eric, say they're going to go with whichever way the state or their congressional districts vote. But it may come down to those 54 if Donald Trump gets close but not over 1,237.

BRADNER: Right. So, Pennsylvania is fascinating. It's a great test of Donald Trump's ability to sort of turn this talk about more focus on the details of campaigning, bringing in Paul Manafort to run his delegate strategy, to see if he can actually put that into practice and sort of guide his voters in the direction of actually giving him loyal delegates at the Republican national convention. It's also fascinating in terms of the psychology of these delegates.

It gives us a real glimpse into this one by one by one sort of battle going on right now with Ted Cruz and John Kasich, hoping that Trump is a little short of 1,237 when this all wraps.

But this is just sort of one example of what's going on in tons of states right now. In Kentucky, Utah, Maine, Minnesota, this weekend, congressional districts and states will be selecting delegates themselves. And the campaigns are paying attention not just to Pennsylvania where there's a big pool of these delegates, but to every state trying to pick up people who they know they could convince to support their - candidate on the second ballot or the third ballot. Or if, say, Marco Rubio, you know, isn't a candidate that could win his former supporters, that sort of thing.

So, this is playing out everywhere, but especially in Pennsylvania will be fascinating.

ROMANS: All right, guys. Thanks, really fascinating. Don't go away because we're going to continue talking about this as the hour goes down.

In just over an hour, President Obama in Saudi Arabia on how to fight ISIS. But a straining relationship and new controversies is complicating that trip, next.

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[05:23:16] BERMAN: In just over an hour, President Obama arrives in Saudi Arabia, trying to rally U.S. Gulf and European allies to step against ISIS. This comes at a time when relationships between the U.S. and the Saudis are badly frayed. King Salman of Saudi Arabia not happy about the U.S. nuclear deal with Iran and a bill before Congress that would allow families of 9/11 victims to sue the Saudis for damages. That is not setting well with the kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

Defense Secretary Ash Carter arrived in that nation earlier this morning. He met with Saudi defense officials to reaffirm the long time security partnership between the two countries.

Some breaking news this morning, the first criminal charges expected to be filed today in connection with the Flint water contamination crisis. Local, state, and federal officials have been pointing fingers at each other since the discovery that a decision to switch the city's water supply to the Flint river caused contamination, including dangerous levels of lead. No word yet on who is being charged or with what. An announcement is expected later this morning.

ROMANS: A court victory for Sandy Hook families. Superior court judge allowing their lawsuits against the gun maker Remington Arms to move forward. A trial date is set for April 2018. Families who lost loved ones in the school massacre can now begin the discovery process, paving the way for deposition and access to Remington's internal records. Remington manufactured the AR-15, the weapon used by the Sandy Hook gunman. Their attorneys have already filed a motion to delay the discovery phase. Time for an early start on your money. Dow futures lower. Oil is down around $40 a barrel. European stock markets slipping. Asia finishing mixed overnight.

The Dow was up five of the past six trading days. Even more impressive, look at this -- from its bottom in February, the Dow is up more than 16 percent. Folks, that's 2,500 points since February.

[05:25:02] For the year, the Dow is now 3.6 percent higher. The NASDAQ still down. The S&P 500, you can see it there.

One stock we're watching today, Intel, those shares down 2 percent in premarket trading. Intel laying off a stunning 12,000 workers around the world. Most of those cuts will take place over the next couple months. Stock is one of the worst performers on the Dow this year. Intel is the largest chip maker in the world. It's been struggling to break into mobile devices as PC sales slide. So watch that one this morning.

BERMAN: Very big victories for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in their home state of New York. What does it mean? That's next.

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CLINTON: New Yorkers, you've always -- you've always had my back.

TRUMP: I can think of nowhere that I would rather have this victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Victory.

Breaking news this morning: big victories for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in New York, shifting momentum and shaking up the race for president.

Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.