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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Super Tuesday: Clinton Clinches, Sanders Won't Back Down; Trump Stands By Criticism of Judge. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 07, 2016 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:13] JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking overnight: Hillary Clinton's historic moment securing enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic nominee. So, what happens when millions vote across the country today with a primary challenger who won't give up?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump refusing, refusing to back down for saying an American judge can't be fair because of his Mexican heritage. The new growing concern from within the GOP this morning.

Good morning, everyone. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

BERMAN: I'm John Berman. It is Tuesday, June 7th, 4:00 a.m. in the East.

And the breaking news this morning: Hillary Clinton is the presumptive Democratic nominee. This is something that cannot be said yesterday at this time and it was expected to be possible until, maybe, this evening. With a strong showing in the Puerto Rico primary and newly added super delegates from a CNN canvas, Hillary Clinton now has a total of 2,384 delegates. That is one more than needed to clinch the nomination.

This is an historic moment. Hillary Clinton is the first woman to become a major party's presumptive nominee. But she is not celebrating yet. In fact, it clear she did not want this moment to happen yet. Not with voters in six states casting ballots in the final Super Tuesday primary of the season.

CNN's Brianna Keilar with the Clinton campaign in California with more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John and Christine.

Hillary Clinton and her campaign are not saying "mission accomplished" about these reports. They want to make sure that voter turnout in support of Clinton is not dampened in New Jersey and California and other states that are voting today. In fact, she was asked about the reports seven times by CNN's embed reporter Dan Merica. He said she heard but did not response once. And here's what she said before a crowd in Long Beach.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: According to the news, we are on the brink of an historic, unprecedented moment. But we still have work to do, don't we? We have six elections tomorrow. And we're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

KEILAR: But it's also a fine line that Hillary Clinton is walking. Her campaign actually campaigning off this news, saying its all thanks to you, seriously. But this primary isn't quite over. So, she wants to focus on New Jersey where the campaign is feeling good, and on California, where it really is up for grabs and so important for her to win this huge delegate haul of a state with 475 delegates, to show some strength moving into the general election especially as Bernie Sanders is saying that he is taking this fight all the way to the Democratic convention in late July -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Brianna Keilar for us in California, thanks, Brianna.

Yes, Bernie Sanders rejecting the idea that Hillary Clinton is the Democratic presumptive nominee. His campaign releasing this statement, "Secretary Clinton does not have and will not have the requisite number of pledged delegates to secure the nomination. She will be dependent on super delegates who do not vote until July 25th and who can change their minds between now and then. Our job from now until the convention is to convince those super delegates that Bernie is by far the strongest candidate against Donald Trump."

This, as sources tell CNN that President Obama has called Sanders and may endorse Clinton as earlier as this week. More now from Jeff Zeleny with the Sanders campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John and Christine, Bernie Sanders says the voters of California, New Jersey and four other states that vote today should have their say before any declarations are made in this Democratic presidential race. Bernie Sanders is campaigning until the last minute, a full schedule again today. He campaigned Monday aggressively as well, closing with the rally in San Francisco.

This was his message to voters asking them to get out and vote and support his candidacy.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If there is a large voter turnout, if working people and young people come out in big numbers to demand a government that represents all of us and not just the 1 percent, we're going to win big tomorrow. And if we can win here in California, win in South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, New Mexico, do well in New Jersey, we're going to go into that convention with enormous momentum.

[04:05:03] ZELENY: There's no question that Bernie Sanders will have a decision to make after this long Democratic primary road ends. Now, he has won 20 states. Secretary Clinton has won 24. He's earned some 10 million votes. She has earned 13 million. Never in his wildest dreams would he have imagined he would be this successful.

Now, he has to decide what is the next stage for him. Many of his supporters want him to go all the way to the convention. That would require overturning the will of these pledged delegates by super delegates. It is important to know that Bernie Sanders is going to recalibrate, reassess after the vote comes in tonight. He will fly back to Burlington on Thursday, and then he will still fight on for the Washington, D.C. primary next Tuesday.

But, John and Christine, no question, Bernie Sanders, already a major success in this campaign now has to decide how he plans to leave it -- John and Christine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. Some extraordinary developments on the Republican side of the race.

Donald Trump not backing down from the criticism much from within his own party. Trump, of course, has attacked the federal judge in the Trump University lawsuit, who was very much an American. Trump called the judge a hater and questions his fairness because of his Mexican heritage.

Now, sources tell CNN that Donald Trump held a conference call with surrogates and all but ordered them to turn up the attacks on the judge. Two sources were on the call said Trump made it clear he will not apologize. In fact, he lashed out at his campaign for circulating a memo suggesting that supporters refrain from comment on the matter.

Now, overnight, Trump was not apologizing one bit, maybe trying to re- focus the discussion on some other issues. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESUMPTIVE PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: I don't care if the judge is Mexican or not. I'm going to do great with the Mexican people because I'll provide jobs. So, I don't care about Mexican. But we're being treated very unfairly, Bill. Very, very unfairly.

I want to talk about how lousy the economy is. I want to talk about how badly we're doing against ISIS, how badly we're going on the border. But every time I go and do the show, all they want to do is talk about Trump University.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: Let's break down the new development for Trump, Sanders and Clinton this morning. CNN politics reporter Eugene Scott is in our Washington bureau. Good morning, Eugene.

Let's talk about the drama on this conference call with the surrogates. I mean, really remarkable. We were getting details yesterday late into the evening about just who was on the call and the tone. Walk me through what happened on that call and how Donald Trump in the end sticking to his guns about the judge in this Trump University case.

EUGENE SCOTT, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, we saw people on the call with e-mails circulating about how best surrogates could respond to the media regarding this issue. And that's after we saw yesterday quite a few Republican leaders push back on Donald Trump's statement. So, they wanted to see, I'm sure, how people closer to the Trump campaign were responding to this situation.

And Donald Trump being consistent, being consistent with who he has shown himself to be as far as doubling down on his words, which is not very supportive in terms of the idea of pushing back or walking away, at least I should say, from those words, but instead, doubling down as well.

ROMANS: John, do you think it shows that Donald Trump is not being managed by the people around him? That he is completely in charge of the tone and tenor of his campaign?

BERMAN: These are the types of calls that go on with campaign surrogates and supporters always. I have never heard of a candidate being on that call him or herself and that candidate overruling the message that the campaign is sending out to the people. It is not something that happens typically in campaigns.

ROMANS: Welcome to 2016.

BERMAN: You know, why Donald Trump is doing this, Donald Trump is doing this is because he is getting near universal criticism from within his own party, particularly among the establishment. You heard from Newt Gingrich. You heard from Mitch McConnell.

And now, you are hear it from the guys who are running against Donald Trump in the primary, people who are Marco Rubio who had been moving toward Donald Trump more. It didn't sound like that yesterday. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: I made a commitment during the race I would support the nominee of my party. This is not the choice I wanted us to have, obviously. I ran myself. And, look, I continue to have strong disagrees on him with a bunch of issues that I do not agree with and, in fact, quite frankly, I'm disturbed by the way he keeps referring to this judge, an American born in Indiana, who he continues to raise issues about. I hope he'll stop doing that. But that's what the voters -- this is the choice the voters have given us to this primary. And we'll see what happens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: How do you describe that face? It looks like he just drank sour milk or something right there? He is still saying he is supporting. He will vote for Donald Trump. He is not happy about it one bit.

SCOTT: Yes, it makes you wonder what would it take for someone like Marco Rubio who has been very vocal about principle. I mean, he said he will support the nominee based on principle. What would it take for him to say, you know what, I actually cannot support Donald Trump?

[04:10:03] He has said too much, his policies are too different from what I believe is the best for America and I'm going to choose a different approach to this election in November. You just wonder what it would take.

ROMANS: Real quickly, I want to show you a tweet that Arnold Schwarzenegger put out yesterday about -- he was the one who originally appointed that judge. "Judge Curiel is the American hero who stood up to the Mexican cartels. I was proud to appoint him when I was governor."

You know, a lot was made in the statements yesterday about the track record of this judge. Anything but what Donald Trump has been sort of portraying out there. You know, in fact, do you think Donald Trump -- I don't know, overlook what's happening in the Trump University case by attacking the judge? You know what I mean? Take away the sting of what's happening in the Trump University case, what it says about him as a businessman and instead focusing on the judge?

SCOTT: Well, that is what Clinton believes. She made a statement yesterday. The real issue is not just his words about this judge and judges in general, in addition to his comments about Muslim judges. The case, this Trump University case Hillary was bringing up is definitely deeply problematic and it's something that needs to be looked. You know, before even this case came to this level.

Hillary Clinton was commenting on how bad Donald Trump would be for the economy, which is very important as that is one of the key areas of interest for many voters and it's also one of the areas that Donald Trump banks on most, given his professional business experience. So, it's not surprising that his strategy could possibly be let's distract people's eyes to this section over here. But Hillary Clinton seems to be on to it.

BERMAN: Let's talk about what happened overnight. The breaking news: Hillary Clinton is the presumptive nominee for the Democratic Party. That's huge development in and of itself.

Another development we heard over the last 24 hours is that Barack Obama, the president of the United States, will endorse the presumptive nominee perhaps as soon as this week. We can expect this maybe even tomorrow at this point, Eugene.

SCOTT: Yes, that is significant news considering how this election has gone so far. I think, you know, President Obama would want to make an endorsement before now, but things remain tight, as you see. The Bernie Sanders campaign believes that things are actually not as wrapped up as many people believe.

And so, I think the president was just being cautious and respectful as possible. He has been clear about how important it is that his legacy not only be continued from a personal perspective, but the ideas and agenda that he believes is best for America move forward. And I think l signs clearly point to him believing that Hillary Clinton is the best person to do that.

BERMAN: Yes, when President Obama says, or if and when he says, you know, Hillary Clinton is the presumptive nominee, that will make it very hard for Bernie Sanders, I think, to continue on. But we shall see.

Eugene Scott, thanks very much.

SCOTT: Thank you.

ROMANS: All right. Thanks for that.

Donald Trump last night as you heard said the economy is terrible. He wants to focus on that. If Donald Trump becomes president, the economy will tank, that's according to former Treasure Secretary Larry Summers.

In an op-ed in "The Financial Times", the 61-year-old calls Trump the most dangerous candidate for the economy in his lifetime. He writes, quote, "If Trump is elected, I would expect a protracted recession to begin within 18 months. The damage would be fell far beyond the United States."

He thinks global stock markets should be more worried about Trump. Summers is a Democrat. He was treasury secretary under President Clinton and he served as a high ranking official in the Obama administration, advising on money policy.

Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen was asked yesterday about the potential economic consequences of a Trump presidency, she politely deflected that question. But the question is being asked, despite what experts are or are not saying about Trump, voters tend to side with him in polls when asked who could best handle the economy.

I tell you, a lot of the big money movers on Wall Street are trying to wager and prepare for what the world if it had President Trump in it.

BERMAN: Interesting from Janet Yellen, the Fed chair, and Larry Summers, who was going to be the Fed chair at one point all on the same day.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: In just hours, new protections added at the Cincinnati Zoo where a 3-year-old fell in the gorilla closure. Also, what the prosecutors had to say about the child's mother. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:18:35] ROMANS: Happening today: the Gorilla World exhibit at the Cincinnati Zoo is set to reopen with a new, more secure barrier to keep visitors out. It comes after the zoo killed Harambe the gorilla to protect a 3-year-old boy who fell into the enclosure.

After investigating, prosecutors have now determined the mother was not at fault. We get more from CNN's Brynn Gingras.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hamilton County Prosecuting Attorney Joseph Deters said his office interviewed four different witnesses. Investigators went to the zoo on four separate occasions and took photos and collected video and, ultimately, they decided no charges were going to be placed against this mother. He said basically what they saw was this mother turned her back for merely seconds to tend to one of her other three children at the zoo and that is when that 3-year-old boy crawled underneath the fence and into the gorilla enclosure. Deters said that any parent who has a child that age can understand how this happened. It was certainly tragic. As for the family, they released a statement saying they thought this would happen and no charges would be filed and this is soot step forward to getting past this tragedy and they hope to get back to a normal life.

As for the zoo, well, it's going to reopen later today. And there's going to be a higher fence at exhibit. It raised six inches to 42 inches high, and also, there's also going to be a knotted netting underneath it.

[04:20:05] So, hopefully, no other child or no one can crawl under again and prevent a tragedy like this from happening again. Back to you, Christine and John.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: All right. The Gulf Coast is taking a pounding from Tropical Storm Colin. St. Pete Beach got the worst of it with homes and streets under water. Locals say they haven't seen flooding like this in decades. The winds so fierce, the skyway bridge had to be shutdown. Nearly 10,000 homes without power, 6,000 National Guard members on stand by in case evacuations are needed.

ROMANS: All right. Twenty minutes past the hour.

The one ISIS raging in Iraq and Syria, U.S.-backed forces trying to liberate cities from the terrorists. We go there live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[04:25:14] ROMANS: Fierce fighting on two fronts in the battle against ISIS. U.S.-backed forces in northern Syria have terrorists surrounded on three sides in the city of Manbj, and nearly a quarter of a million people are in harms way there. And in Iraq, civilians trying to flee the fighting in Fallujah are being shot on the spot by ISIS.

Now, the U.S. is playing a role on both of those battles, from air and by sea. The USS Harry Truman dropping more bombs on terrorist targets than any in the American fleet.

CNN senior international correspondent Frederik Pleitgen had the chance to spend some time onboard on the Harry Truman. He joins us live this morning from the island of Crete.

Hi there. What did you see?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Christine.

Yes. What we saw, the Harry Truman really expanding its role in the fight against ISIS. What the U.S. has done is it's moved the carrier from the Persian Gulf to here in the Mediterranean Sea where it is a few flying minutes to get over those areas, especially of northern Syria.

Now, you mentioned it. The Harry Truman dropped more ordnance on ISIS than any other ship on the U.S. fleet. We're talking about more than 1.5 million pounds of bombs that have hit ISIS targets. In fact, while we were on the ship, we talked to some of the pilots who flew the strike missions from here in the Mediterranean on targets in Syria.

At the same time, the pilots and the crew of the ship very much aware that additional bombings also could put civilians in harm's way. They say they are tying to use smaller, accurate bombs, to pinpoint targets, those ISIS positions.

But, of course, that's going to become more difficult, Christine, as the fighting gets more urban, as it gets more into the urban centers like in Fallujah right now, where as you mentioned, the situation of the civilians there very dire to begin with, people trying to flee. People getting executed by ISIS. Others being used as human shields, certainly a delicate operation by those U.S. forces.

ROMANS: Yes, families hiding trying to get out. And some families, you know, losing the young men in their families because ISIS is trying to take them, to use them as soldiers or killing them if they don't.

All right. Frederik Pleitgen, thank you so much for that, Fred.

BERMAN: We have breaking news overnight: Hillary Clinton making history. She is now the presumptive Democratic nominee. The super delegates put her over the top while you were sleeping. What this means for the election contest today and for her primary opponent who is not giving up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)