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Supreme Battle Emerges Over High Court Nominee; George W. Bush to Campaign in S.C. with Jeb; GOP Candidates Clash Ahead of S.C. Primary. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 15, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Justice Antonin Scalia was a larger than life presence on the bench.

[05:58:54] BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He never pretended to believe something he didn't. He never pretended to be anything he wasn't.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is a potential minefield for everyone.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: President Obama should make that nomination.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The president should not move forward.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's called delay, delay, delay.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For a number of weeks, Ted Cruz has just been telling lies.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you point to his own record, he screams, "Liar, liar, liar."

TRUMP: George Bush made a mistake.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm sick and tired of him going after my family.

TRUMP: The World Trade Center came down during the reign of George Bush.

KASICH: I've got to tell you, this is just crazy. This is just nuts.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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 February 15, 6 a.m. in the east. Alisyn and Michaela are off. Brooke Baldwin and John Berman joining me this morning. BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello.

CUOMO: John Berman is the one on your TV right.

Up first, the death of Justice Antonin Scalia is terrible news on several levels. A proud family mourns. The highest court is frozen. And the loss puts Senate Republicans and President Obama on a collision course. Conservatives calling for Obama to wait until a new president is elected to fill the seat, a notion that would certainly make Nino laugh. Obama making it clear he does intend to nominate a successor.

BALDWIN: With all three branches of government now in play, really, the stakes couldn't be any higher this election. Will vulnerable senators in swing states buck their party leadership if Republicans decide to block this confirmation vote? And another question: how will Antonin Scalia's death alter the major cases currently before the court this term?

Let's begin our coverage this hour with CNN's senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns, live there for us in front of the United States Supreme Court.

Joe, good morning.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brooke.

The flag here at the United States Supreme Court now flying at half- staff. The body of Justice Scalia back in his home state of Virginia.

A few more details trickling out about the death of Justice Scalia over the weekend. A county judge telling "The Washington Post" he died of natural causes and that he was pronounced dead over the phone.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS (voice-over): The body of Justice Antonin Scalia returning home to Virginia this morning. The 79-year-old died here in his sleep at a Texas resort over the weekend. Funeral plans for the Supreme Court's strident conservative voice are under way, and so is the epic political battle for his replacement.

SANDERS: President Obama, in my view, should make that nomination. I hope he does it as soon as possible.

RUBIO: There is no way the Senate should confirm anyone that Barack Obama tries to appoint in his last year in office to a lifetime appointment.

JOHNS: The Republicans fear another liberal nominee would tip the scales on some of the defining debates of our time. In the coming months, the Supreme Court justices are going to take on several hot- button issues, including an Obamacare mandate requiring most employers to pay for birth control, abortion, and the president's actions on immigration.

OBAMA: I plan to fulfill my constitutional responsibilities to nominate a successor. There will be plenty of time for me to do so.

JOHNS: Top Democrat Harry Reid called for the seat to be filled right away. As for a timeline, a senior Obama administration official points to the president's previous Supreme Court nominations, both taking about a month.

BUSH: He has every right to do it, and the Senate has every right to not confirm that person.

JOHNS: But Senate Republicans are pledging to stall, demanding that President Obama allow the next president to make the choice, nearly a year from now, the GOP hoping this could rally conservatives against a potential liberal shift on the high court, driving voters to the polls come November.

The problem with only eight justices: their only options are to leave the lower court's decisions intact if they're divided on a case or to hold the case over until a replacement is confirmed.

SEN. PATRICK LEAHY (D), VERMONT: If the Republican leadership refuses to even hold a hearing, I think that is going to guarantee they lose control of the Senate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: There had been about confusion about whether Scalia died of a heart attack. This morning, officials say no. They say he had been suffering from several health conditions and that his heart simply stopped beating -- John Berman.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Joe Johns, thank you so much.

As Joe sets up, this sets up a situation the likes of which we have never seen, not in our lifetimes, not ever. From nearly the minute the word that Justice Scalia passed away went public, the debate began not over -- not just over who should replace Scalia but whether President Obama should have the right to pick anyone to replace him at all.

Needless to say, this has huge implications in this election year. And not just a presidential election. CNN political reporter Manu Raju live in Washington this morning.

Manu, you've been taking the temperature up on Capitol Hill.

MANU RAJU, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. Indeed, the battle lines are already being drawn for what could be President Obama avenues last big fight in Washington.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell was first out of the gate Saturday, saying the president should not nominate anyone. And the fight should wait for the next occupant of the White House, something that outraged Senate Democrats.

In a statement, the Senate -- Senator Harry Reid, who's the minority leader and Nevada Democrat, didn't hold back, saying, "The president can and should send the Senate a nominee right away. With so many important issues pending before the Supreme Court, the Senate has a responsibility to fill vacancies as soon as possible."

Now one big fact will be how a group of vulnerable -- vulnerable Republicans who are up for reelection in states like New Hampshire, Illinois, Wisconsin, Ohio, Pennsylvania, how will they respond to political pressure?

Now, I'm told Democrats plan to intensely target these Republicans, hoping that they will ultimately revolt and push their party leadership to schedule a vote.

But some of those Republicans are holding firm. They say the next president can and should be responsible for Justice Scalia's replacement. And that's a sign that the GOP believes they can make the case to voters that they should reelect a GOP Senate to serve as a firewall to a liberal justice.

[06:05:08] CUOMO: All right, Manu, thank you very much. Let's discuss. Bring in the brig -- bring in the big brains. That's why I need them. I can't even speak.

David Gregory, we know him from "Meet the Press" fame. Douglas Brinkley, CNN presidential historian and history professor at Rice University.

Gentlemen, thank you very much.

DAVID GREGORY, FORMER HOST, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": Thank you.

Professor, let me start with you. The idea of should or should not, can and cannot. Let's start with can and cannot. Is there any precedent, rule, or jurisdiction-based issue to make that President Obama should not be able to nominate in this, his last year as president?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: No, there isn't. Barack Obama will nominate somebody. He's made it very clear that he's going to.

Now, there have been strange moments in the past. I recall when Franklin Roosevelt, after winning a landslide election in 1936, in early '37 started packing the Supreme Court. And the entire year of 1937, particularly the first half, the national debate was is FDR trying to kill the Supreme Court? And FDR lost that.

But in this case, Barack Obama certainly is going to be able to nominate somebody, get the Democratic Party behind him. And I have a feeling that the GOP will not allow a vote on the Senate, so it's just going to become the principle issue, or one of the two or three principle issues of campaign 2016.

CUOMO: Professor, you know well. But, boy, imagine if President Obama were trying to do what FDR was trying to do today: pack the court with more judges to have it go his way. Who know what would happen? All right. So David Gregory, then we start looking at the issue of who will it be? How do you think it will go? What are the general notions at this point?

GREGORY: Well, I think it's absolutely clear that he'll nominate. He's said that. And of course, why wouldn't you? If you're president of the United States, you know, the Republicans are saying, well, voters ought to deal with the -- essentially vote on who the next Supreme Court justice is. Well, they did.

When Barack Obama got his second term, it was a second term for four years. And the argument against that is like saying, "Well, if there's a national security emergency that requires presidential action using the military, should he wait in his final year so that a new president can make that decision?" We wouldn't use that standard at all.

The question I have, because I think what Doug says is absolutely right. I mean, we're about to set off a huge political fight, an ideological fight that will drive deep into the presidential campaign, however this goes.

Remember: this is an important -- not just important, a crucially important choice. Because you're talking about tilting the balance of the court: 5-4 conservative at the moment to 5-4 liberal, as a result of this choice, if Obama were to get that choice through.

The consideration, I think, is does Obama try to basically pick the fight, go with whoever he wants to and knowing that it's going to be a fight, and the nomination, in fact, will likely go down? Or does he try a more centrist choice, a more consensus choice and to try to negotiate his way through, getting a pick in and on the court this year.

BERMAN: The issue, David, there is no sign at all that even a consensus pick or a middle-of-the-road pick could get through in this environment.

And Douglas, this gets to what kind of a fight the president wants and what kind of a fighter he has proven to be over the last several years. This is the last year of his administration. Has he given any signs about what kind of political legacy he wants to leave and whether he wants the last 11 months of his presidency to be a pitched battle over the Supreme Court?

BRINKLEY: Well, he wouldn't want it as a pitched battle. But he certainly would love to get a third Supreme Court nominee in. If he did that, it would be -- it means we'd be living in the age of Obama for decades to come. That that court, as David said, would tilt towards a more liberal persuasion of justices. And it would be a big boon for Barack Obama's legacy.

What's more likely to happen is that he's going to pick it. And Hillary Clinton is going to have to be the one, if she's the nominee, or Bernie Sanders. They're going to have to fight for this. They're going to have to fight for Obama's nominee. And if Hillary Clinton, let's say, won in November, then you would probably get the movement going after the election to put the person Obama picked into the Supreme Court.

BERMAN: He wants a third Supreme Court justice. But there's no sign this morning that he can get that. In fact, there's every sign that he can't get that, David.

So the type of picks he makes will determine the politics, not just for him for the rest of the year, but for the presidential election for the rest of the year, for the politics inside the Senate for the rest of the year, not to mention the makeup of the Supreme Court for the rest of the year.

GREGORY: By the way, this is a fight worth having. I mean, this is an ideological fight that matters. We speak about these ideological fights like it's dirty, nasty Washington politics. This is a major contest of ideas. And there are few places where it matters more than the Supreme Court of the United States, where you have an ideological view, a philosophical view of how to interpret the nation's laws, how to interpret the Constitution. So there's a reason why this becomes such high drama.

[06:10:07] So yes, I do think the president wants this fight, because he -- not only his constitutional responsibility, but it is an opportunity to win on ideological grounds, which is the point of campaigns and the point of a contest of ideas.

And look, if there's obstruction in the Senate, Democrats are going to run on that. Democrats are going to be energized, then, in the fall, for sure. And Republicans are going to be, as well, no matter what happens. Both sides have now seen full well. We know that the Supreme Court justices -- and the Supreme Court is a major issue in any campaign -- this has put an exclamation mark on this.

And I think it's also going to be interesting in the Republican primary fight the extent to which electability becomes an issue. Because you're going to be out there. You're going to hear candidates say, "Do you want to lose to Hillary Clinton and face the prospect of Democratic rule and the impact of that on the Supreme Court for potentially 16 years, two Obama terms and perhaps two other terms of Hillary Clinton?" That will be an argument that I think is made very strongly.

CUOMO: You know, very interesting that we keep hearing from conservatives how notably, in my mind, former Governor Huckabee saying, "You know, the Supreme Court doesn't make law. You need legislation. These guys and women, they're not even elected." And now look at the emphasis they're putting on this, Doug Brinkley, because that's always been a farce.

And do you think that this will be one of the first modern selections of a justice that goes past this pretense of there being nothing political about it, about this man or woman who's nominated? We're hearing it, certainly, on a political side.

Listen to Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders when it comes to Citizens United. It's a bad decision. We need a justice who will overturn that decision.

You know, we're more naked in this kind of assumption of what this justice is going to be than usual. How does that play into all this?

BRINKLEY: Well, that's very well said. We are more naked. It's the end of the -- the -- you know, facade that -- where the justices aren't, you know, somehow a highly partisan event, picking one. I mean, Justice Scalia got voted in by all the Democrats. Well, those days are over. We are a deeply divided country. As David accurately said, I mean, this is going to be king hill daddy fight in 2016.

I predict because of this we'll have higher voter turnout in the presidential election than ever before. Because what's at stake is the entire direction that the United States is going to go. Is it going the Scalia road of being a strict constitutionalist, or is it more of a living organ -- you know, organism Constitution that the Democrats prefer? It's all at stake now.

So the temperatures are rising. And all sides are going to fight this one to the bitter, bitter climax.

GREGORY: And Chris, can I just add, I mean, you think about how polarized, as Doug says -- how polarized the court has become. Justice Scalia was approved unanimously back in 1986. Chief Justice Roberts approved 77-22. Twenty-two votes against him. And then, of course, there have been closer ones even after that, if you think of Justice Alito.

And you've heard the chief justice saying more recently, Chief Justice Roberts, of course, is used in the campaign, in the Republican debates, quite often as a punching bag, frankly, with Ted Cruz, and Donald Trump and others, saying he should never have been nominated. He should not be the chief justice because of his ruling on Obamacare.

So this view that Scalia had, that the court should play a more low- key, humble role in American society has been overtaken by a degree of activism by the court. And now you have chief Justice Roberts saying, "We're too political. We're too politically polarizing." Well, unfortunately for him, it's only going to accelerate here with this debate.

CUOMO: You know, people always believe that the court is activist when they don't like the decisions.

David, Douglas, good to have your perspective and political knowledge on both of these. Thank you very much.

BRINKLEY: OK.

GREGORY: Thanks.

BALDWIN: To our other political story this Monday morning, former President George W. Bush just hours away from stepping back into the national spotlight to campaign with his brother Jeb in South Carolina.

After Donald Trump's blistering attacks over the weekend on the former president in the debate and also in the Sunday shows, how will his return really change this race?

Let's go to Athena Jones, live in North Charleston, South Carolina.

Athena, good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brooke.

The Bush team is making a big play for South Carolina. And so they're bringing out perhaps their biggest gun, George W. Bush. It's a whole new stage in the race for Jeb.

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JONES: George W. Bush hitting the campaign trail tonight for the first time since leaving office.

J. BUSH: Is he a popular Republican? You bet he is.

JONES: The former resident giving his younger brother a helping hand as the battle for South Carolina heats up.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I know Jeb.

JONES: "W" has already lent his famous face to an ad for Jeb's campaign.

G. BUSH: Experience and judgement count in the Oval Office.

[06:15:01] JONES: His guest-starring role on stage tonight is part of the Bush camp's effort to pull out all the stops after a dismal sixth- place finish in Iowa, where his brother won...

G. BUSH: And you thank you, Iowa.

JONES: ... and a better-than-expected fourth place in New Hampshire, where his father won...

GEORGE H.W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to thank the wonderful people of New Hampshire.

JONES: ... Jeb is hoping for a strong showing in South Carolina, which handed primary victories to both presidents Bush.

J. BUSH: I think there's a lot of interest in my brother coming. This is the right time. Right when the interest is -- when it's important and when -- when people are watching.

JONES: Bush, whose campaign logo doesn't even include his famous last name, and who began his run stressing he would be, quote, "his own man," is now embracing his name.

J. BUSH: I'm proud of my Dad. I'm proud of my brother. I'm proud of being a Bush.

JONES: But that extra dose of brotherly love this election year is already bringing in an extra dose of scrutiny. TRUMP: Obviously, the war in Iraq was a big, fat mistake.

JONES: Especially from GOP front-runner Donald Trump, who continues to bash the 43rd president's decision to go to war in Iraq. And his brother's initial response to questions about that decision.

TRUMP: And then he admitted that it was a mistake, finally, after five days. I mean, it almost -- look, he's got no chance anyway. But it almost cost him the election before he even started.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: And if we know Donald Trump, we know there's more where that came from. Meanwhile, the Bush campaign has sent out a fundraising appeal to supporters, saying that Trump went too far in attacking his brother at the debate the other night.

And of course, the question here is whether or not "W" will give Jeb Bush the much-needed boost he needs. Bush would say only on "STATE OF THE UNION" yesterday that he expects to do better than expectations.

But Bush aides tell me the goal is to be the, quote -- be the best among the, quote, "electable candidates." To their mind, that doesn't include Donald Trump and Ted Cruz -- Chris.

CUOMO: An important definition there, Athena. Remember, a Bush has never lost in South Carolina when on the ballot. What will happen this time? That's why we're following it.

All right. Some headlines for you.

Arizona Senator John McCain calling on the Obama administration to share what it knows about the detention of those U.S. sailors in Iran, or he will force the service members to testify. Angered by a video showing one of the 10 soldiers in tears, McCain is giving the White House a March 1 deadline to disclose its findings before he starts handing out subpoenas. The soldiers were briefly detained last month when their patrol boats strayed into Iranian waters.

BERMAN: New calls for a Medicaid expansion in the wake of the lead- tainted water crisis in Flint. Governor Rick Snyder is asking the federal government for additional coverage, particularly for pregnant women and those that under 21. If the request is approved as expected, the governor says about 15,000 more residents in Flint would be eligible for health services.

BALDWIN: New York City police are investigating this morning former New York government Eliot Spitzer for alleged assault after sources say a woman claims he choked her inside of a hotel room over the weekend. Sources say the woman was taken to the hospital with self- inflicted cuts to her wrists. Police have yet to interview Spitzer, who once hosted a show here on CNN. His spokeswoman denies the allegations.

CUOMO: Tough thing to have in the news. All right. So what have we learned on Saturday at the debate? Did you watch? I hope you did. If not, we'll have all the highlights for you.

Personal attacks are now at a premium. We haven't seen it like this maybe ever in our lifetime. So is this what it's going to be from here on out?

George W. Bush now coming onto the trail. What is he going to say when he first comes out? We've got some info and insight ahead.

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[06:22:49] TRUMP: This is the same thing he did to Ben Carson. This guy will say anything. Nasty guy. Now I know why he doesn't have one endorsement from any of his colleagues.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: And that wasn't even the worst of it. Saturday night's debate was a dream for pundits and a nightmare for the people. Negative, nasty, and noisy. What worked, what didn't, and why? Let's discuss.

Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and political anchor at Time Warner Cable news; and Professor Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and editorial director at "The National Journal."

You know, Errol, we start off with this pretext about South Carolina. You know, they get knuckled up down there. But that's really just kind of like a mythology. You know, there are tough races everywhere. This debate was different in tone and intensity. Why? What did you see?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the reason, of course, is that the stakes are a lot higher. You have candidates dropping out left and right.

You've also got sort of the two-lane race that we've been talking about for so long, which is Trump versus Cruz, and then you've got, you know, sort of Rubio, Kasich and Bush all going at it. And -- Ben Carson is very much still in the running with about 10 percent support in some of the polls.

So everybody is everybody else's enemy here. You know, you can't really expect Cruz and Trump not to go at each other, because a first- or second-place finish makes a great difference to both of them, especially to Cruz.

So I think what we saw was the -- the natural outcome of all of that, which is that these guys, frankly, are getting a little bit sick of each other. And each of them sees the other as getting in their way.

BALDWIN: Listen, all this talk about losers and idiots. And to your point, you know, getting into the debate, we kept talking about that would be this, you know, Rubio/Bush fight, and then it would be the Cruz/Trump.

But then you have this back and forth. Whatever this is truly over deep down, this, you know, Trump v. Bush. And Trump went there over and over again when Jeb Bush was, you know, speaking about his big brother, Bush 43, and Trump doubled down on the Sunday shows just yesterday morning.

Ron, I want you to hear this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: When Jeb gets up and says we were safe under his brother, we weren't safe. First of all, his brother got us into the war in Iraq, which is one of the worst catastrophes ever. There were no weapons of mass destruction.

[06:25:15] The World Trade Center came down during his reign. So you can't say that we were safe under his reign when the World Trade Center comes down, and the CIA said something like that was going to happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: I want your thoughts, Ron, on the attack there, which is we've heard it before in a debate. But also, we also know that President George W. Bush will be out in South Carolina. Do you think he defends his legacy, faces that today?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I think he does. Look, I mean, I agree with Errol. Part of this is that these guys have been debating for a long time. There's a lot of personal animosity here.

Beyond that, Donald Trump has effectively used Jeb Bush as his foil, as kind of the embodiment of the establishment that he claims to be overthrowing.

But overall, in this debate, Trump was as kind of unbound as we have seen him in any debate. And in that sense, he gave more ammunition to people who don't like him, I think, than any other point. He was as intemperate, unpresidential, belligerent and kind of iconoclastic in denouncing Bush in language usually heard from Democrats, as we've seen.

And I think that makes this a very revealing moment. Because if he can hold his piece of the coalition, you know, other Republican electoral coalition after this, it is really an indication of how deep that connection is, how difficult it is to shake. It still has the issue of whether he can grow as the race continues to narrow.

But he really pushed, I think, kind of the boundaries of acceptability for a Republican. If he holds it after this, I think that's going to be a big statement.

CUOMO: Errol, what about his statements about the war? I'm -- I'm confused on that one. I mean, it is not a popular thing. People don't buy the rationale on -- in either party. But Republicans don't usually go after their own that way. Does it play as candor what he was saying about the Iraq War and the eventuality of 9/11?

LOUIS: I think -- I think the only thing that was unusual was that it was coming out of the mouths -- mouth of a Republican candidate. The reality is, there is a left liberal core on the Democratic side that has believed this all along. I mean, you get a rise out of him all the time.

To this day I get letters, I see tweets of people who -- for whom the fundamental truth of the Bush presidency was that the mistake in Iraq was not just a mistake but that was -- something -- incompetence almost approaching deliberate, willful -- willfully going in, knowing that there were no weapons of mass destruction. You can't get that out of people's minds. It doesn't matter what facts you put in front of them.

I was very, very surprised to see Donald Trump sort of pick that up, because that's what this group Code Pink, this far-left group, has been saying for many, many years.

And I think Ron is right. If -- if Donald Trump's supporters will forgive him that, and they will say that a Republican can launch that intemperate of an attack, and they'll still support him, we're in a whole different place now.

BALDWIN: Do you think it ends up hurting Trump, especially South Carolina, where the Bush family has done so well in years past, Ron?

BROWNSTEIN: You know, I covered that 2000 race that George Bush won. It was probably the single most compelling primary I have ever covered.

John McCain, in losing, won more votes than Bob Dole did four years earlier, when he won the state. It was an indicator. But Bush just blew the doors off. I mean, people just came out; he inspired enormous turnout. He was -- it really was the state that -- that put him on the pathway to the White House. And he's very popular there. So I think this is a challenge.

But I think the real question -- I mean, you know, I think we've reached a point where it's pretty clear that Donald Trump's piece of the party is not going to melt away from him.

And the question really becomes whether anyone can consolidate the remainder of the party that remains resistant to him. And in some ways, the most important fact of the debate was that John Kasich, Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush all had pretty good nights. And it's kind of hard to see any of them separating from each other in South Carolina to a large extent. And as long as that's true, Donald Trump's third of the party is going to be enough to win, unless Ted Cruz can overcome him among evangelicals, which he couldn't do in New Hampshire.

So in some ways, the divide and conquer that's been true from the beginning, Donald Trump consolidating the blue-collar part of the party, the white-collar partremaining divided, that is still the governing dynamic in the Republican race.

CUOMO: We'll have to wait and see. Did Donald Trump finally come up with a thing that will expand the house the way he needs to, or is he burning it down by going against, you know, really hard, bedrock Republican ideology when it comes to the war?

All right. Thank you very much, Ron, Errol. Appreciate it.

BROWNSTEIN: Thank you.

CUOMO: Quick programming note.

BALDWIN: Yes.

CUOMO: All right? A unique two-night event on CNN this week. Two- night. All six Republican presidential candidates answering questions, not from people like us, from you, South Carolina voters. This is a first in the campaign. It's going to be a live town hall Wednesday and Thursday nights hosted by our man, Anderson Cooper. You'll have Carson, Rubio, Cruz. They'll be kicking it off Wednesday night. Then Kasich, Bush and Trump on Thursday night. Tune in to both, 8 p.m.That's when Coop's show is usually on, each night. Never seen anything like this before. Best way to divide the field and give you the real deal from real voters.