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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Huge Wins in New York For Trump & Clinton; Cruz, Sanders Vow to Keep Fighting; Obama in Saudi Arabia for Gulf Council Summit; King Salman; Sandy Hook Families Win Decision Against Gunmaker. Aired 5:30- 6a ET

Aired April 20, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: 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.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman. Great to see you. It's thirty minutes past the hour. The breaking news this morning with huge wins for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton in the New York primary. Significant wins in their home state. Wins that really change the tenor of this entire race.

For Donald Trump it was really a landslide victory. He beat John Kasich, his closest rival, by 35 points, more than 45 points ahead of Ted Cruz, a distant third. In the end, Donald Trump will walk away with almost of the New York's 95 delegates which significantly improves his chances of getting to 1,237, which would clinch the nomination if he got there before the convention.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton -- she won a decisive victory over Bernie Sanders, beating him by 14 points. She now leads Sanders by about 260 pledged delegates and when you add in the superdelegates, Hillary Clinton's lead even bigger, more than 700. Last night, both Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump held very big rallies celebrating their victories.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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 Sen. Cruz. Millions and millions of more votes than Gov. Kasich. We've won, and now especially after tonight, close to 300 delegates more than Sen. Cruz. We're really, really rocking.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In this campaign we've won in every region of the country from the north, to the south, to the east, to the west, but this one's personal. The race for the Democratic nomination is in the homestretch and victory is in sight.

(END VIDEO CLIP) ROMANS: Helping us break down the front-runners' New York victories this morning, CNN politics reporter Eric Bradner, senior reporter for media politics Dylan Byers, and senior political analyst Ron Brownstein, senior editor at The Atlantic. Good morning, everyone.

Dylan, let me start with you. Let's talk about the anatomy of these wins for the front-runners. You look across the demographics. They did well with where they have done well and they've built on new ground. These were, in a word, dominating wins for both of these front-runners.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER, MEDIA & POLITICS: Yes, absolutely dominating, and I think by doing well where they had done well and then making inroads with others. Certainly in Hillary Clinton's case making inroads with Bernie Sanders' usual contingent, which is white voters. I think they proved, once again, the limitations of their competitors. They proved that both Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders really, like Ron Brownstein said earlier, run up against this problem of demographics.

They love to tell these stories of momentum but when it comes to expanding their base, and certainly when it comes to winning big states, they fail to do so. You look across the map. Hillary Clinton has won all of the big states. Bernie Sanders -- he's reached a point where there aren't really that many more big states for him to win. That's not a convincing case to make to the Democratic Party and to Democratic voters.

So no, these are huge wins for both Trump and for Hillary Clinton. And for Trump, it allows him to tell a story. He spent the last two weeks talking about going to a contested convention. Trump might actually be able to tell a story now that he can pick up the 1,237 delegates needed to just win this thing outright. That's a very good position for him to be in, especially as this race stays in the northeast with all those states voting next Tuesday. That's beneficial for both Trump and Clinton coming out of these big wins in New York.

BERMAN: Ron Brownstein, king of all demographics, the states that vote next not unlike the state that voted yesterday, New York. You have Pennsylvania, you have Maryland, you have Delaware. States that are somewhat similar.

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. What you saw last night, above all, that the biggest wins for Cruz and Sanders look like big exceptions. What we saw -- I think it was an important message out of New York on the Republican side is that Wisconsin looks like a one-off.

Ted Cruz did things in Wisconsin that he had not done before. It was the first state with an exit poll where he won most voters who are not evangelical Christians. It was the fourth time he had beaten Donald Trump among Trump's core group of white voters without a college education. Well, last night those numbers turned around dramatically.

Donald Trump won 65 percent of whites without a college education in New York. His best performance yet in any state. He's now won them in 18 of the 22 states with exit polls. And Ted Cruz plummeted back to 12 percent among voters who are not evangelicals. That is an ominous sign for him in the rest of these northeastern states because as Dylan pointed out, there are not that many of those evangelical voters.

Same thing for Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton has now every big state except Michigan. She won Florida, she won Texas, she won Illinois and Ohio, Georgia, Virginia, North Carolina, now New York. And the common thread is that those are diverse states. The only big state that he won was Michigan, that allowed independents to vote.

[05:35:00] He continues to struggle among African-Americans and Democrats. Over 60 percent of Democrats voted for Hillary Clinton last night. Again, that will be a problem in Pennsylvania. It will be a bigger problem in New Jersey. California is different. He may have a shot there, but if she can continue to win most of these big states the path for him just continues to constrict.

ROMANS: It was a good, happy night Eric Bradner at the Trump Tower last night for Donald Trump, and he talked about the work he has to do ahead. How he's looking forward. Let's listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I'm flying tomorrow morning to Indiana. I'm going to Pennsylvania. I will be all over. So, we're going to celebrate for about two hours, then early in the morning I get up and we begin working again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: A more disciplined looking candidate with a tweaked team looking to hunt for delegates, and he needs 58 percent of the delegates from here on out to clinch the nomination. Are we going to see a new candidate Trump on the trail, you think, Eric?

ERIC BRADNER, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Well, there are signs that we are and Trump is trying to do something that he failed at several months ago, and that's get Republicans comfortable with the idea of him as the nominee. He's going to need to win all five states coming up next week and he's going to need to win them by fairly significant margins.

And he needs to make it difficult for the Republican Party -- for individual delegates to go against him. He needs to make the case that the Republican Party would be breaking from the Democratic process to deny the nomination at this stage. If he can keep racking up wins and can be a more controlled candidate. He was referring to Sen. Cruz last night, not lyin' Ted last night, for example. More buckled down and more focused on the delegate process, then he will do himself a lot of favors in that regard.

He's going to be going to Indiana today, which is the next battleground. Ted Cruz could win there, Donald Trump could win there. It's going to be an interesting state to watch. But he has taken a day off in the past after big elections. He's not doing that this time. We are seeing a bit of a change from Trump, but the question always is does it last?

BERMAN: Dylan Byers, Hillary Clinton, last night in her victory speech -- first of all, she said victory is within sight, which I think is a message that the Clinton team and Clinton supporters very much -- they want it to be true and after New York it may be more true than it was two days ago. But she also seemed to be reaching out directly to Bernie Sanders supporters. Listen to what she had to say about that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: And to all the people who supported Sen. Sanders, I believe there is much more that unites us than divides us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That's a statement, I think, and also a plea, Dylan, for party unity.

BYERS: Yes, it is a plea. I think Hillary Clinton is trying to achieve two things there. One, I do think she's trying to say to the Sanders supporters, or any Sanders supporters who are sort of on the edge of that core contingent, look, it's OK. It's time to accept that I'm going to be the nominee and it's OK. You can come over here. I stand for many of the fundamental Democratic principles that Bernie Sanders stands for and I actually have a shot at winning this nomination.

But, she's trying to do something else as well, and it's very important. She's trying to take the Democratic primary out of this uncivil period that it's been it. There's been a lot of sniping. Things got sort of nasty. Things got more nasty than I think the Democratic Party thought it would over the last two weeks.

She's trying to elevate the conversation again, and by doing that she's setting up the position where she can potentially make Bernie Sanders look bad if he continues to dismiss her, or attack her, or go negative, and that's a strategically beneficial place for her to be.

ROMANS: We saw, Ron Brownstein, you, king of demographics, that quite frankly she did not do well with millennials and maybe she won't. But as we go forward here will she able to make more inroads with those Bernie Sanders supporters?

BROWNSTEIN: Not in the primary. I think by this point in the primary the grooves are cut pretty deep and you see how persistent they are. The regional amplification of the grooves maybe, but no. He's won a higher share of voters under 30 in this election than Barack Obama did in the 2008 election, which is extraordinary.

He's over 70 percent. Eighty percent of voters under 30 in New York, at the same that the overall electorate is moving through, that's not going to happen. In a general election, totally different ballgame. Donald Trump is looking at unfavorable ratings among millennials if he's the nominee at 75 percent or more.

They are at the other end of the poll with him on issues of inclusion and diversity, and I think he would have enormous challenges there. But look, Bernie Sanders has increased in national polls to the point where he is basically even with Hillary Clinton. That is very, very, very rare for the candidate trailing a delegate at this point.

[05:40:00] He has a lot of money. He has a lot of ability to contest this, but until he gets over these two hills of partisan Democrats and African-Americans, he simply can't win the big states. And until he wins the big states, he can't change the fundamentals of the race.

BERMAN: But the Clinton campaign says how come everyone's talking about our dominance with senior citizens? And by the way, a lot of them in Pennsylvania.

BROWNSTEIN: That's exactly right.

BERMAN: Very big wins for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. The primary opponents Ted Cruz, Bernie Sanders, John Kasich -- the work they have ahead to make themselves viable in this race. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:44:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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)

{05:45:00] ROMANS: Senators Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders clearly determined to fight on despite losing overnight to those front- runners, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. What exactly are the paths forward for Cruz and Sanders?

Let's put the questions to our panel. Let me start with you, Dylan Byers. You just heard Bernie Sanders talk about the next five contests. I think four of those contests are closed primaries, meaning those independent voters that Bernie Sanders has done so well with might not be there to support him.

BYERS: Yes. No, it's interesting to hear him talk about the states that are coming up next Tuesday because his shot there is no better, necessarily, than it was in New York. And, of course, he failed to perform or meet expectations in New York. I think for what the Sanders campaign has to do -- look, they have to compete in all of these states, but really what they have to start thinking about is the state of Indiana. That's a state where they can put up a stronger fight and then, in the

long-term, they of course have to think about what they're California strategy is. California, of course, is sort of the last stand. It's a place where they can A, pick up a lot of delegates, B, if they make the right moves it's actually a place where they could sort of have one last major win over Hillary Clinton.

Of course, at that point, if Hillary Clinton wins big next Tuesday -- if Sanders can't win anything much bigger than Indiana, it sort of -- Ron Brownstein hates to talk about momentum but that gives Hillary Clinton a lot of momentum going into California. So again, it's always been hard to see what Sanders' path is towards the nomination, or at least it has been hard for the last three or four weeks. But it's becoming especially hard now in the wake of New York.

And, of course, we know that Sanders will stay in. He's got the money. He's got the support to stay in until the convention and be a loud voice at the convention. But it is hard to see his path toward the nomination.

BERMAN: Ron Brownstein doesn't like the word momentum. How does he feel about the word delegate, because right now gathering delegates is what Ted Cruz has to do? It's that strategy of wooing delegates, winning delegates, cajoling delegates. The campaigns are very good at it.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes.

BERMAN: But good enough?

BROWNSTEIN: No, look, the only issue on the Republican side, and it has been the only issue for weeks, is not whether anyone is going to overtake Donald Trump. That is not going to happen. The only issue is whether you can deny him the 1,237 he needs to win on the first ballot on the theory that that will be his high point.

And it looks -- whether it's the back of the envelope that you're doing or that my colleagues, David Wasserman and Charlie Cook is doing, it looks like it's going to be on the nice edge. He's probably going to be close but he could be short, and then the question will be can he find a way to bring those last delegates over to him.

Ted Cruz's problem, like John Kasich's problem, is that he is operating on too narrow a bandwidth, ultimately to overtake Donald Trump. The opening is there because Donald Trump is not a majority front-runner. New York, last night, was the first state where he has won half of the vote or more. He's at about 37 percent of the total, so he has not consolidated this in the way that we've seen front- runners like Mitt Romney, or particularly, John McCain do in 2008.

The problem is even though you still have a lot of the party that is hesitant about Trump, that part of the party has remained fractured from day one and it still is fractured today, leaving Trump in the driver's seat if, not quite, in full control.

ROMANS: Eric, let's talk about that fractured party because you can see a party divided in some of these exit polling -- really interesting. If Ted Cruz wins the nomination, 41 percent, in the exit polls last night, say they would not vote for him. If Kasich wins the GOP nomination, 27 percent say they would not vote for him. If Trump wins the GOP nomination, a quarter say they would not vote for him. What is that telling us?

BRADNER: Well, it shows that the Democratic contest is actually better for the Democratic Party than the Republican race is for the GOP at this point. Democrats said they were energized by the continuing primary, but Republicans are worried about it. All of these candidates have fairly significant flaws and this campaign has been bitter and personal for quite some time.

A lot of the candidates who are involved in those personal attacks are now out of the race, but this has been divisive. So the question is whether any of these candidates can consolidate the entire Republican Party or their nomination would lead to a result where a lot of people either stay home or support some sort of third party candidate, or something else.

And that's what worries Republicans who are looking to keep control of the Senate, for example. Keep from losing a lot of House seats at this stage, especially with Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. They have worrisome poll numbers nationally and that's something that they're going to have work on if they are to win the nomination and seriously compete in November.

BERMAN: Eric Bradner, Ron Brownstein, Dylan Byers, thank you, gentlemen, so much for being with us this morning. Big morning in the election.

[05:50:00] ROMANS: A really big morning. And the big issue, almost a top issue in almost every primary state so far, the economy and jobs. New York, no different there. Thirty-six percent of Republican voters say the economy and jobs is a top issue, followed by government spending, terrorism, and immigration. Of that group who think the economy is the big issue, Trump breaks 54 percent. John Kasich behind him at 32 percent.

A stunning figure from the exit polls last night. Ninety-two percent of Republican voters worried about the economy, only 8 percent are not. Of the voters worried, Donald Trump an overwhelming victory at 60 percent.

Turning to the Democrats top issue there, for 38 percent of the voters the economy and jobs. Broken record, folks. Income inequality, number two. That was the only issue of these four that Bernie Sanders. Health care, terrorism following up there. Of the voters who said the economy is their top problems, 61 percent broke for Hillary Clinton. Sanders was just 39 percent.

In less than an hour, President Obama arrives in Saudi Arabia. The war on ISIS the top priority, but there's new controversy that could stand in the way of real progress. We've got that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [05:55:00] ROMANS: This morning, President Obama arrives in Saudi Arabia, trying to step up the fight against ISIS. The visit comes at a time when relations between the U.S. and the Saudis badly frayed. King Salman unhappy about the Iran nuclear deal and a bill in Congress that would allow families of 911 victims to sue the Saudis for damages.

I want to bring in CNN's Nic Robertson. He is live for us this morning from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. Nic, I guess, in your own words, characterize for me how frayed this relationship is.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: It's been getting worse during President Obama's presidency, really one of the turning points. It began even before then when he gave a speech in Chicago calling Saudi Arabia our so-called ally. So when he came to office the Saudis weren't very well disposed to him.

Then you have the Arab Spring. The Saudis feel he let down their allies in the region. Then you have the nuclear deal with Iran. That's another negative step for the Saudis and for their Gulf allies. They don't trust Iran. They see it as being the sponsor for terrorism and trouble in the region. So,President Obama comes in here at a time when he needs and wants Saudi and Gulf support to defeat ISIS, to defeat al Qaeda, to help bring peace for Syria.

At the same time, what the Saudis and their Gulf allies here want is a ballistic missile defense shield to defend against any aggression in the region by Iran. So, both sides wanting something. To add on top of that those 28 pages, the 911 commission report, the bill before Congress. Add in that -- no surprise, perhaps, the Saudis response has been visceral. We'll pull out hundreds of billions of dollars' worth of funding in the United States.

So, in that kind of tense relationship, when President Obama meets with King Salman this afternoon, it's hard to see the pair of them really looking at each other and getting behind this tension that has been building now for the past number of years. But I think we can expect them to come out at the end of this visit here to have at least something positive to say. But behind the scenes we do know it's going to be tense, and those 28 pages making it more so -- Christine.

ROMANS: Tense, indeed. All right, Nic Robertson for us this morning in Riyadh. Thanks, Nic.

BERMAN: Breaking news. The first criminal charge is expected to be filed today in 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.

ROMANS: A court victory for Sandy Hook families. A superior court judge allowing their lawsuit against gunmaker Remington Arms to move forward. A trial set for 2018. Families who lost loved ones in the school massacre can now begin depositions to get access to Remington's internal records. Remington manufactured the AR-15 used by the Sandy Hook gunman. BERMAN: All right, back to the breaking news this morning. Big wins for Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton, really reshaping the race for president again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: There's no place like home.

TRUMP: We don't have much of a race anymore.

CRUZ: People in state after state cry out for a new path.

SANDERS: We believe we have a path toward victory.

TRUMP: We're going to go back to the old way. It's called you vote and you win.

SANDERS: I am really concerned. Three million New Yorkers were unable to vote.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some politicians say that America's losing on everything. What, are you kidding me?

CRUZ: America has always been best when she is lying down with her back on the mat.

CLINTON: It's about lifting each other up, not tearing each other down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your new day. It is Wednesday, April 20th, 6:00 in the east. Alisyn is off. Brooke Baldwin is here.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello.

CUOMO: Mic is here. And we are ready to give you the headline of the morning. They delivered. Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump crushing their rivals. Huge victories in their home state of New York. Clinton now on the brink of clinching the Democratic nomination. Trump cementing his path, still facing a battle to reach the party's delegate threshold, but much closer now.

BALDWIN: So much to talk about this morning. All eyes now on the five northeast primaries for next Tuesday. Will it mean the end of the road for Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, possibly even John Kasich, or will the battle rage on? We have the 2016 election covered for you this morning the only way CNN can. Let's begin with John Berman here to break down the numbers and the delegate scorecard. Mr. Berman, good morning.

BERMAN: Ms. Baldwin, decisive wins for Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump here in the big apple. On the Republican side, Donald Trump -- he got more than 60 percent of the vote. That is his high water mark in this campaign. John Kasich in second. Ted Cruz way down in third at 14 percent.

Let's look at the Democrats right now. Hillary Clinton at 57 percent.