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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Trump Wins Indiana as Cruz Suspends Campaign; Kasich Praises Cruz & Vows To Stay In; Sanders Wins Indiana Democratic Primary; U.S. Forces Targeting ISIS In Iraq; U.S. Navy Seal Killed In Firefight With ISIS. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired May 04, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:31:00] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump knocks Ted Cruz out the race for president. Trump wins Indiana big, and now even the Republican National Committee chair says that Donald Trump will be the presumptive nominee.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: And Bernie Sanders wins Indiana. His campaign stays alive but the delegate advantage is still Hillary Clinton. Welcome back to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. Great to see you this morning, this historic morning.

Thirty-one minutes past the hour. The breaking news, Donald Trump has knocked Ted Cruz out of the race. Donald Trump won the Indiana primary and perhaps much, much more. According to the chair of theRepublican Party, Donald Trump will be the presumptive Republican nominee.

Trump beat Cruz by 16 points in Indiana, by more than 180,000 votes. He picked up at least 51 delegates. Do not be surprised if that ends up being 57, all the delegates in Indiana. Cruz delivered the hard news to his crushed supporters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), TEXAS: And so, with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Late last night Donald Trump praised Cruz. What a reversal that is. He called his withdrawal a brave thing to do.

CNN's Jim Acosta, with the Trump campaign, has the latest.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Donald Trump and his entire family were caught completely by surprise by Ted Cruz's announcement that he was dropping out of the GOP race. Trump trounced Cruz in the Indiana primary, a contest that the Texas senator had basically described as a must-win. Trump's son, Donald Trump, Jr., told CNN that his father and the entire family were shocked as they watched Cruz make his announcement. And Trump sounded very gracious as he praised Cruz for getting out the race, a big contrast compared to what he was saying about Cruz earlier in the day. Here's what he had to say.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Ted Cruz -- I don't know if he likes me or if he doesn't like me, but he is one hell of a competitor. (APPLAUSE) He is a tough, smart guy and he has got an amazing future. He's got an amazing future, so I want to congratulate Ted.

ACOSTA: Trump also made the pivot to the general election campaign saying he was ready to take on Hillary Clinton, and he even reached out to African-American and Hispanic voters in his remarks. But Trump still plans to keep on campaigning, saying he will continue on with stops in West Virginia and Nebraska set for later this week. John and Christine --

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: Thanks, Jim. A remarkably different tone than the lyin' Ted Cruz -- every time he opens his mouth he lies.

BERMAN: He's got a bright future.

ROMANS: A bright future, a heck of a guy. Joining us to discuss all this from last night, CNN senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers. Senior media correspondent Brian Stelter. He's the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES". And, political economist Greg Valliere. He's the chief strategist at Horizon Investments.

You know, it's interesting that Donald Trump also changed his tone on Reince Priebus. Reince Priebus tweeting last night "Trump will be the presumptive GOP nominee. We all need to unite and focus on defeating Hillary Clinton. #NeverClinton."

And Trump actually praising the RNC after all these months of saying it was corrupt. Listen to what Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I want to thank and congratulate the Republican National Committee and Reince Priebus, who I just spoke to. He's doing a tremendous job. It's not an easy job when he had 17 egos and now I guess he's down to one, I don't know. Is there a second? I mean, is there second? I don't know.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: One very big ego, Dylan Byers, you might be able to argue with. Was he struck by lightning? What happened there? He's got a completely different tone.

DYLAN BYERS, CNN SENIOR REPORTER, MEDIA & POLITICS: I think Donald Trump is very familiar with the history of American boxing, and what you have there is you spend the run-up to the fight trash-talking and bashing your competitor. You get in the ring with the guy, you beat him to a bloody pulp, and then when you get out of the ring you praise him and basically say he's the best fighter you've ever seen.

That's exactly what Donald Trump is doing here and it's very convenient and it certainly gets a lot of people talking about is Donald Trump pivoting? Are we seeing a kinder, gentler, more civil side of Donald Trump?

[05:35:00] I think what we've done is we've been through nine to 10 months of Donald Trump behind extremely uncivil and sort of issuing harsh attacks on his competitors that have totally upended what we thought was acceptable in American political discourse.

I don't think a few kind words about Reince Priebus or Ted Cruz are going to be able to make the American public forget that. Now, of course, Donald Trump has succeeded in those nine of 10 months in upending all of our expectations so, perhaps, I'm wrong.

BERMAN: You know, in the short-term, maybe if people in the Republican Party and Republican voters can forget it because Mark Salter, the speechwriter for John McCain, says I'm with her. That he's going to vote for Hillary Clinton. Ben Howe of Red State says the same. Ben Sasse, senator from Nebraska, he's not backing off his "Never Trump" stance.

And on Twitter overnight we saw a lot of really interesting stuff. We saw Republicans saying -- you know, burning their registration cards --

ROMANS: Right.

BERMAN: -- like this. I think we even heard from one Cruz supporter from Iowa who had some interesting sound.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Goodbye, GOP Republican Party. Adios.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Wow, she was burning what looks like a Republican Party in a registration card there, Brian Stelter. Did Donald Trump burn bridges? I mean, will he be able to win back those Republicans who he alienated?

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: To some degree, yes. Consider our reporting from Dana Bash, our colleague last night, saying that the Trump campaign is hearing from lots of seasoned veteran operatives of the Republican Party who are now calling offering their help, offering their assistance.

BERMAN: Well, but these are people who want to make money, not necessarily people who want to vote.

STELTER: That's a good point. That's a good point. BERMAN: I mean, there is a difference.

STELTER: There is an important distinction here. Let's step back and consider how incredible this moment is. Donald Trump, for so many years, said he'd run for president, talked about running for president. You could say threatened to run for president of flirted with running for president. He never did it, all right? He always back away, so much so that by 2015 almost none of us believed him, right?

Almost none of us believed him when he said he was considering it again when he was going to step on that stage and announce in June. Well, he actually did do it. He had the sense of America, maybe better than anybody else, about why he was going to get into the race right now and it paid off in such an incredible way.

And consider all the candidates like Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush who were supposed to be the nominee right now, who are not. It is one of the most incredible things I think we've seen, either as viewers or as political analysts, in this country.

ROMANS: Greg, for a really long time you've lived in the world of Washington and Wall Street. And for a very long time, as many of are sitting here again in 2015, as we were saying, not really believing that Donald Trump could get the nomination.

Wall Street just didn't believe it was even possible. Didn't worry about trade wars. Didn't worry about what he would mean for the deficit or how he could maybe hurt the American economy with some of his policies because it just didn't seem possible. It seems more possible now.

GREG VALLIERE, POLITICAL ECONOMIST: It does, you can't rule it out. He's succeeded all expectations, Christine. I think for Wall Street, in the next several weeks, there's going to be a real focus on issues.

Not whether he's bombastic or not but would he really get in a big fight with Janet Yellen? He's indicated he wouldn't reappoint her. Would he really get in a trade war with China? There are a lot of big issues that I think Wall Street is quite nervous about with Trump now as the nominee.

BERMAN: All right, Dylan Byers, one name we have not mentioned yet this morning. We've been on T.V. for nearly two hours. John Kasich -- discuss.

BYERS: What is there to discuss? You know, it's interesting. John Kasich says, unlike Ted Cruz, he's actually going to stay in this thing until the bitter end. And you have to imagine that what he's hoping on here is something is going to happen, between either now and the last super primary on June 7th or between now and the convention, that is totally going to throw this whole thing asunder.

He's going to be left standing as the one plausible alternative to Donald Trump. The problem with that, of course, is that he's not even a plausible alternative to Donald Trump. He has not demonstrated that he has any support, true support, outside of his home state.

He's not demonstrated that he would be viable general election candidate. He, more than anyone, has sort of failed to see the writing on the wall and look,I don't fault him. It's hard to give up the presidential campaign. I can only imagine.

But, when Donald Trump said that we started out with 17 and now we're down to one -- I think we're down to one, he might know that Kasich is in the race but effectively he's not. I mean, this thing is really over. We're heading to Cleveland and it's full steam ahead on Donald Trump.

STELTER: It's interesting that Trump barely even attacked or insulted Kasich last night.

BYERS: Right.

STELTER: And this morning he's already awake. He's up on Twitter saying what a great evening we had. And instead of talking about Kasich or Cruz, he's talking about how Bernie beat Clinton. Talking about how the Democratic system is rigged and crooked. But he's focusing already on the Democratic race.

BERMAN: Good segue to our next segment. Can Bernie Sanders build off of his big win in Indiana? Maybe not a big win, his win in Indiana. Can he build off that? He may get money, he may get momentum, but what does it mean for the math? That's next.

[05:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:44:00] ROMANS: Breaking overnight, Bernie Sanders beat Hillary Clinton in the Indiana Democratic primary. He beat her by five points. Now, since the Democrats award delegates proportionately, that means Sanders picks up 43 pledged delegates to Clinton's 38.

It's not enough to make a real dent in Sanders' huge delegate deficit, but the win could give him a moral and fundraising boost. It could maximize his influence at the Democratic convention in July, which Sanders said would be good for the party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Any concern that by extending the Democratic primary that it's going to set Democrats at a disadvantage in July?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Not at all, not at all. So I have no doubt, zero doubt, that what we have done in this campaign, what we are doing now, and what we will do in the next six weeks is good for the Democratic Party and it will result in a higher voter turnout.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[05:45:00] ROMANS: So, let's sort through Indiana's Democratic primary with Dylan Byers, Greg Valliere, and Brian Stelter. Guys, I want to listen quickly to some sound from Bernie Sanders last night. We caught him on tape as he was calling into CNN and he's sort of laying out his path to victory. Even with that huge delegate deficit, this win last night still giving him hope for a path to victory. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: We understand this is an uphill battle but I think that you're going to see some sensible superdelegates. Look at the objective facts. Bernie Sanders will not only win virtually all of the Democratic votes, he is much stronger among independents than Hillary. We win independent votes over her by about a two to one margin. You know what? You cannot become president of the United States without winning independent votes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Dylan Byers, does he really believe that there is a narrow path to victory for him for the nomination here?

BYERS: Well look, you certainly have to say that Bernie Sanders is a fighter and that he'll fight to the bitter end. There he is live on television on a phone call. He's really putting his all into it and leaving it all on the field.

I don't. I don't believe that he actually believes that he can be the nominee of the Democratic Party. What I do think he believes is that he has a lot of leverage heading into the convention in Philadelphia at the end of July. I think he has an incredible movement. I think he's proven that he's a thorn in the side of Hillary Clinton, and one that she can't rid of.

And I think he's demonstrated that if she wants to really win the general election and win it confidently, she's going to need a lot of the supporters that he had. That includes a lot of young supporters, it includes a lot of white, middle-class supporters who are more liberal than they are conservative, who she fears just maybe might be more sympathetic to Donald Trump's message.

She needs to court those people, and in order to court those people she's going to need to listen to what Bernie Sanders has to say and she's going to have to commit to certain things that are in Bernie Sanders' platform.

So look, he has a ton of leverage and I think from a macro perspectiveI think he's achieved a lot in this campaign. But no, I don't think he realistically believes that he can be the nominee.

ROMANS: Well, Greg -- Greg Valliere, if he had lost last night everyone would be saying is it time for him to pull out? Is it time for him to finally pull out?

VALLIERE: Right.

ROMANS: But he didn't lose, he won. Now, he only picks up a few delegates. He does almost nothing to eat into her big delegate advantage.

VALLIERE: Right.

ROMANS: But when you look at the calendar, Greg -- when you look at the calendar there is some favorable territory in the next few weeks for Bernie Sanders where he can continue to sort of beat this drum.

VALLIERE: Well, you know, he could win on June 7th in California. You can't rule that out at all. So, I would think -- I fully agree that he -- Bernie Sanders now has leverage and there's an implicit threat. If he doesn't get what he wants his endorsement of Hillary will be pretty lame.

I think Hillary needs an enthusiastic endorsement from him and Elizabeth Warren. So what they want is something from her on income and equality, the regulation of Wall Street, trade. On a lot of key issues I think he'll push her further to the left.

ROMANS: Brian Stelter, you agree?

STELTER: Yes, that makes a lot of sense. I thought what happened last night spoke volumes -- the Clinton silence, because in the campaign silence spoke volumes.

ROMANS: Yes.

STELTER: She did not congratulate Bernie Sanders on Twitter, for example. Instead, she tweeted out Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee, and then asked people to donate money to her campaign to stop him. Whereas, if she was much more focused on the fall.

We aren't hearing, publicly from the campaign, calls for Sanders to drop out or to end the race but it's going to be really, really curious to see what the next few weeks hold with regard to these primaries, which will be favorable to Bernie.

Bottom line, the electoral map for the fall is now the priority. That's now the focus. That's now what we're going to see on T.V. screens every single day. That's map is favorable to Hillary Clinton and we'll see what Trump starts to do to change that.

ROMANS: All right, Elizabeth Warren --

BYERS: Christine?

ROMANS: Yes, go ahead.

BYERS: Yes, I just want to jump on Greg's point. He's absolutely right. You can't discount Bernie Sanders having a lot of potential in these upcoming states, and even in California. But again, we go back to the difference between the Republican primary and the Democratic primary.

Even in the states that Hillary Clinton loses she's still going to pick up delegates and it's not winner-take-all. And she doesn't need that many more to cross the finish line. STELTER: Right.

ROMANS: Guys, fantastic analysis this morning. Nice to see all of you bright and early. We love the early bird segments. Thanks, guys. Talk to you soon. Let's get a look at what's coming up on "NEW DAY". Alisyn Camerota joins me right now. Hi, Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Christine, I don't have to tell you it's been quite a night.

ROMANS: It sure has.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump is the presumptive GOP nominee. Ted Cruz suspends his campaign. Bernie Sanders beats Hillary in Indiana. It's a topsy-turvy morning here on "NEW DAY" and thank goodness we have all of your favorite big-brained pundits and reporters to help us make sense of it, including Anna Navarro, who says she's in the fetal position sucking her thumb. She'll explain why.

[05:50:00] RNC chair Reince Priebus will also join us live in the 7:00 hour. We will also hear from both the Trump and Clinton campaigns and analysis after this very big primary night, so stick around for all of that in 10 minutes.

ROMANS: And you get the pleasure of John Berman for the next three hours.

CAMEROTA: I'm so lucky.

ROMANS: I wish you well. All right, thanks so much Alisyn. Nice to see you. Are Americans on the frontlines fighting ISIS? New information this morning about that Navy Seal killed in combat in Iraq. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:54:00] ROMANS: U.S. forces are moving dangerously close to the frontlines in the fight against ISIS in Iraq. More than 4,000 American troops are in the region right now and some of them are supporting the Iraqi army as it prepares to retake Mosul.

The U.S. suffering its third combat death in Iraq directly linked to ISIS. U.S. Navy Seal Charles Keating IV, of Arizona, killed in a firefight with ISIS forces earlier this week.

Let's get the very latest from CNN's Jomana Karadsheh. She joins us live from Amman, Jordan this morning. And I think for some Americans, Jomana, they know that the United States has a presence in the region but so close to the frontlines for these special operators. It comes as a shock to some Americans that they're fighting so close to ISIS here.

JOMANA KARADSHEH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, and in this case, Christine, this -- according to U.S. and Kurdish officials this was a complex and coordinated attack by ISIS militants. They were using suicide car bombs and bulldozers and they attacked Peshmerga positions about 20 miles north of Mosul, the main stronghold of ISIS. Iraq's second largest city in northern Iraq.

And this was an early morning attack on Tuesday with about 100 ISIS militants attacking these positions. Now, U.S. officials say, Christine, that the Navy Seals were not on the frontline, as is standard practice. They were a bit back, about two to three miles.

They were visiting,temporarily, a Kurdish Peshmerga based there but the ISIS militants managed to break through the defense lines of the Peshmerga and a firefight ensued, and that is how U.S. Navy Seal Charlie Keating IV was killed in that firefight.

We're also hearing from the Peshmerga that also a number of casualties that they suffered in this attack, the U.S. responded with F-15 drones and dropped more than 20 bombs. And we're also hearing, Christine, from the Peshmerga commanders in the area that this was not the only attack that ISIS launched on Tuesday.

It was one of several similar coordinated attacks on different Peshmerga frontlines in northern Iraq, really highlighting ISIS' ability to still carry out major attacks like this. And, of course, the dangers facing U.S. forces even in that advisory role.

ROMANS: Even in an advisory role, absolutely. Thirty-one years old from a long linemilitary family, Arizona native. We wish his family the best and our condolences. Thank you so much for that, Jomana Karadsheh.

Fifty-seven minutes past the hour. Time for an early start on your money this morning. Four influential state governors say they know what's keeping Americans out of good paying jobs, their skillsets, and that opinion crosses party lines.

At a financial conference yesterday, Republican governors Scott Walker of Wisconsin and Rick Scott of Florida were joined by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper and Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe. All of them agree. All of them saying there are open positions -- open jobs in their states that employers cannot fill because they cannot find skilled workers.

Their solution? Job training, apprenticeships, and changes in the public schools, all of which they say are needed to combat the job skills gap. Right now there are 5.4 million jobs open in the United States. That's near a record high -- 5.4 million open jobs right now. It's a sign that employers are hiring but it also indicates that employers can't find people with the right skills.

Donald Trump now the presumptive Republican nominee in the race for president. "NEW DAY" picks up the story from us right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We had a tremendous victory.

CRUZ: We are suspending our campaign.

TRUMP: I guess he's down to one. I don't know. Is there a second? CRUZ: Donald will betray his supporters. I don't think we deserve that.

TRUMP: Ted Cruz -- I don't know if he likes me, but he is one hell of a competitor.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have got to stay focused. We know how to do this, my friends.

SANDERS: Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over. I've got some bad news for her.

CLINTON: A lot of politicians make a lot of promises to you that they couldn't keep. I'm not going to do that.

SANDERS: I think we can pull off one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone, and what a morning it is. Welcome to your new day. It's Wednesday, May 4th, 6:00 in the east. Chris is on assignment. John Berman joins me here.

Up first, a historic and game-changing night in the 2016 race. Donald Trump wins big in Indiana forcing Sen. Ted Cruz to abruptly drop out of the race. The Republican Party chairman now declaring Trump will be the presumptive nominee. Trump and Hillary Clinton now all but certain to face off this November.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders keeps his momentum alive with an upset in Indiana. Sanders declaring the primary fight is far from over. Clinton's delegate lead remains insurmountable. We have the 2015 race covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with John Berman with last night's results and the delegate scorecard. Explain it all to us, John.

BERMAN: Yes, good morning, Alisyn.