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Donald Trump Wins South Carolina Primary; Hillary Clinton Wins Nevada Caucus; Alleged Kalamazoo Shooter to be Arraigned; Clinton Shift Tone Ahead of South Carolina and Super Tuesday. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired February 22, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: picking up fares between killings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This man guy was not on anybody's radar. These were very deliberate killings.

(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 Monday, February 22, 8:00 in the east. After conquering South Carolina, Donald Trump is now heading to Nevada hoping for another win in tomorrow's caucuses there. And frankly he has never looked more dominant.

And now is the time to shine. This is a critical phase of the 2016 race. You have all of them heading into the polls in the next two weeks, 16 big states are going to be up for grabs. CNN's super Tuesday just a week away. We will be covering it all. Republicans head from South Carolina to Nevada. Did I take you already?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: No, no. This is still yours. Keep going.

CUOMO: I just got that cold chill feeling that I was saying something that was meant for Alisyn. There is nothing worse that can happen on this show, know that. Tomorrow night we have a big town hall with Hillary and Bernie. My whole day is upside-down.

CAMEROTA: I was going to help you out.

CUOMO: It was a little long. I got that feeling. You never get that feeling. Let me tell you, it is a horrible feeling. Here it comes again. Beat me with a shoe.

CAMEROTA: Republicans are down to the final five candidates. Their last show down before super Tuesday takes place Thursday night in a CNN debate in Houston. So let's begin our coverage with CNN's Chris Frates in Las Vegas. How is it going at the craps table?

(LAUGHTER) CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So far, so good, Alisyn. I'll tell you, Republicans are getting ready for another round in this bruising primary fight with Tuesday's caucuses. Donald Trump trying to cement his lead on top here, Ted Cruz arguing he is the only real true conservative, and Marco Rubio saying he is the only candidate who can unite the party and take on the Democrats in November.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: A reordered Republican field is barn storming across Nevada ahead of the caucuses Tuesday. Trump's sweeping victory in South Carolina over the weekend still sinking in.

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is crunch time. We have to go out and vote.

FRATES: Trump is looking to build on his momentum after back-to-back victories with his sights set on super Tuesday one week after Nevada's showdown.

TRUMP: I'll tell you what, we are just going one after another. Are we going to win Georgia?

(APPLAUSE)

FRATES: Meanwhile the GOP front runner was stirring up controversy over the weekend by re-tweeting this message claiming both Cruz and Rubio are ineligible to be POTUS and defending the re-tweet on ABC's "This Week."

TRUMP: Honestly I've never looked at it. Somebody said he's not and I re-tweeted it. I re-tweet things and we start dialogue and it's very interesting.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to spend zero time on his interpretation of the constitution with regards to eligibility. And I'm going to spend all my time talking about what this campaign should be about.

FRATES: Questioning opponents' eligibility for the presidency is a favorite Trump attack. Texas Senator Ted Cruz, meanwhile, is sharpening his counter attack.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: For folks who are concerned that Donald Trump is not the best candidate to go head to head with Hillary Clinton in November, it is becoming clearer and clearer that we are the one campaign that can beat Donald Trump. Indeed we are the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump.

FRATES: And Marco Rubio is making the case in Las Vegas that he is the new face of the conservative movement.

RUBIO: Of the people left in this race no one can unite this movement or this party faster than I can. We will unite the Republican Party and the conservative movement.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEOTAPE)

FRATES: So one candidate missing in action here in the silver state, Jeb Bush. He dropped out of the race after a very disappointing fourth place finish in South Carolina. And now this field that started as an enormous field last year, Chris, down to just five candidates going in to tomorrow's caucus. Things are starting to get very, very real here in Las Vegas.

CUOMO: All right, Frates, pace yourself. The debate, we have days left. We've got days left. Don't gamble it all away.

Let's discuss some of these issues with a man on the inside. CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord, former Reagan White House political director and supports Donald Trump. Brother Lord, good to have you this morning.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Christopher. How are we?

CUOMO: Jeffrey, what is up with the re-tweets? Why would he re-tweet somebody, Donald Trump, asking as inane a question as whether or not Marco Rubio is eligible to be president? Why do that?

LORD: Chris, I have to say, I am baffled at the notion of all of the attention re-tweets get. This is like showing somebody in old days of ancient cave-times, showing somebody a newspaper article. I mean, I just don't get the significance of it. So he sends a re-tweet that somebody else wrote. So what? Whatever it is, it's just a re-tweet. We should all relax.

CUOMO: Everybody writes on their accounts "re-tweets do not equal endorsements." You are still giving an audience to something, and there is this illusion that you don't own it because it's somebody else's words.

[08:05:04] LORD: It's not an illusion.

CUOMO: When you put out the message about white supremacist, you put out that message of some fool saying Rubio is not eligible you are echoing it.

LORD: No, no, no, no, no. First of all, obviously Donald Trump is not a white supremacist. He has rejected their support. That is just silly. Particularly, if I may say respectfully, when we are dealing with the Democratic Party that's been on record over century supporting slavery, segregation, lynching, the Ku Klux Klan, racial quotas, and illegal immigration because of skin color -- hello, this is not Donald Trump's problem.

CUOMO: Here is my point. They will all be his problems. If he wants to be the nominee and gets him to the next round, the big race, these are all his problems. He has to speak all people. And wouldn't you think this is a good time to shake away from these kinds of tactics? LORD: All you have to do is look at the exit polls in New Hampshire,

for example. He carried just about every category across the board. He is speaking to all people. It is very interesting in South Carolina, for all criticism that his opponents leveled at him for being anti-veteran, he carried the military areas of South Carolina. He gets into this skirmish with the Pope which was not started by him, and he carries the Catholic areas of South Carolina. So I think he is doing pretty well carrying all areas.

CUOMO: You think going after the Pope was a good thing to do?

LORD: You know, I honestly think -- I listened to Bill Donahue from the Catholic League. I honestly think that was a misunderstanding. I think the Pope was sort of led into saying something. And then I think this was presented to Donald Trump right before he stepped on stage and I think he backed away from it. I think that was overblown and not what it seemed to be at the time.

CUOMO: What do you make of this case that here is what is going to happen had happen -- Cruz is going to drop, his people are going to mostly go to Rubio. Kasich is going to drop, Carson is going to drop, and then when you add all that up Rubio has more than enough to beat Trump. Do you see that happening?

LORD: No, I don't. I don't. I think if Ted Cruz drops I think a lot of people will go to Donald Trump. I have never bought into the establishment theory that if only all these people coalesce they have a magic anti-Trump candidate who will carry the day. I think some of the voters, Carson voters, for example, would go to Donald Trump.

CUOMO: Do you see any good reason that members of the GOP who fall into that moderate, higher educated group of voters don't like Donald Trump? Do you think there is constructive criticism in that for him?

LORD: I notice again in New Hampshire exit polls he carried people who said they were self-described moderate Republicans.

CUOMO: But as much as you move up in education let alone income, but education, he gets weaker and weaker as you go up. What does that mean to you?

LORD: That there is room to grow, and I think they will. In all of these presidential elections you get through these primaries where there are multiples of candidates. By the time the choice becomes, say, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, these people will move to Donald Trump. I don't have any question about that.

CUOMO: Why?

LORD: Why? Because I think they are tired of the Obama years. I think they want change, absolutely. And Hillary Clinton is not it.

CUOMO: But when you talk about some of his signature issues, there is a complete inverse evaluation from them from this current block of supporters to the ones he will be trying to get. People roundly reject the idea of casting out Muslims, of building the wall, and some of the other harsh rhetoric that's resonating right now. How do you switch from one to the other?

LORD: What you don't want is a continuation of the Obama years. That's the deal here. They want change. They want change. And so none of these candidates in any election year are quote/unquote "perfect." Ronald Reagan was not perfect in the day. There were plenty of moderate Republicans that rejected to Ronald Reagan. But when it came down to a choice between Ronald and Reagan and Jimmy Carter they went with Ronald Reagan. That's how it works.

CUOMO: Why don't you identify the signature trait of Ronald Reagan that created so-called Reagan Democrats, which was his unfailing optimism, the idea that he projected a sweet strength that saw an inclusiveness to what America was about? That is not what we are hearing from Trump. Are you saying that's not what Reagan was saying?

LORD: Chris, Chris, having been there, Ronald Reagan was attacked as a warmonger, as an extremist, as somebody who was too harsh. He was dangerous, he was a cowboy. We are looking back now through the sort of rose-colored glasses at how Ronald Reagan is perceived today.

[08:10:02] But in the day all kinds of I think terrible things, assessments of his character, et cetera, were said repeatedly. And that is what is happening here to Donald Trump. And by the way, I would point out that they both have the same slogan, "Make America Great Again." And that is pretty upbeat and optimistic.

CUOMO: Jeffrey Lord, appreciate the perspective as always.

LORD: Yes, sir.

CUOMO: All right, you are going to want to stay with CNN all day tomorrow. Why? The Nevada Republican caucus is going to be something to watch. And we are going to cover it all day the way only we can. And then Thursday night you are going to have the remaining five Republican candidates square off in the final debate before super Tuesday. Huge stakes there. Wolf Blitzer will be driving that train. That is Thursday night 8:30 eastern only on CNN. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, the Democratic race is no less intriguing as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders put their focus squarely on South Carolina. A brand new CNN poll of polls shows that Clinton has a commanding lead five day to that primary. What can Bernie Sanders do to rebound? Our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny is looking at that for us in Charleston this morning. Hey, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Michaela. South Carolina is sort of exhaling from the big Republican primary over the weekend. You can see the headlines of the Charleston paper says "Now for the Dems." And this is a picture of Bernie Sanders campaigning in Greenville yesterday. He knows that South Carolina is a key place to start performing slightly better than he did in Nevada. The Clinton campaign coming out of that big win in Nevada, really increasing their confidence that had been shaken a little bit from New Hampshire.

But listen to what Hillary Clinton said as she was campaigning over the weekend, trying to define her rival.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think it is right to look a person in the eye who is hurting and needs help and tell them that if they vote for you, you will get $5,000 of health care but only have to pay $500 for it. You shouldn't say that unless you can really deliver it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So this is exactly what Hillary Clinton is going to do going forward. She is going to be a living fact checker of Bernie Sanders' promises. The campaign believes that this is a moment where they can sort of shape some reality into some of his promises aren't coming true.

Bernie Sanders has a ton of support particularly from younger voters. So South Carolina will be an interesting laboratory of that if he is able to reach out to younger African-American voters. Of course in 2008 the African-American vote in South Carolina some 55 percent of Democratic primary. So that is what Bernie Sanders is trying to do here as he is trying to rebound over the next week or so. That's why that town hall meeting tomorrow in Columbia is so, so important. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: That's interesting to hear her become a real life fact checker. That's an interesting tact. We will talk to David Axelrod about that momentarily. Jeff, thanks so much.

Now to the latest in the Kalamazoo shooting spree that left six people dead. The suspect, Jason Dalton, will be arraigned today. A source close to the investigation saying that the suspect, an Uber driver, picked up fares between the killings. CNN's Ryan Young is live in Michigan with the latest. What have your learned, Ryan?

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Alisyn, just baffling when you hear that fact about picking up fares in between these shootings. We went to the vigil yesterday, the first time the community was able to get together and hold hands and talk out loud about this. A lot of people still have lots of questions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: Kalamazoo is in mourning looking for answers after six people were killed and two others injured in a shooting rampage on Saturday night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is an opportunity that we get to pray for victims.

YOUNG: Authorities say the suspect, 45-year-old Jason Dalton, doesn't appear to be connected to any of the victims.

JEFF GETTING, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY, KALAMAZOO COUNTY: These were very deliberate killings. They were intentional, deliberate, and I don't want to say casually done. Coldly done is what I want to say.

YOUNG: Neighbors who know the alleged shooter say they are in shock.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He just seemed like a normal guy. This is so, so strange. We are wondering what might have caused him to do this.

YOUNG: Dalton worked as an Uber driver. A passenger who rode in his car just before the shooting said he was acting strange.

MATT MELLEN, PASSENGER IN ALLEGED SHOOTER'S CAR: We were driving through medians, driving through the lawn, speeding along, and then finally once he came to a stop I jumped out of the car and ran away.

YOUNG: Shortly after that authorities say the nearly seven hour shooting spree started. At 5:42 p.m. a woman shot several in a parking lot at an apartment complex. She survived but is in serious condition. At 10:08 p.m. Richard Smith and his 17-year-old son Tyler are shot and killed at a car dealership. At 10:24 p.m. Dalton pulls into a parking lot at Cracker Barrel where he allegedly kills four women in their cars, all over the age of 60.

[08:15:00] A 14-year-old girl was also shot but survived. Finally after midnight police locate Dalton's car.

PAUL MATYAS, UNDERSHERIFF, KALAMAZOO COUNTY: We determined this was indeed our suspect. He was taken into custody.

YOUNG: Investigators believe Dalton was looking to pick up passengers even after the final shooting. Uber said in a statement, "We are horrified and heartbroken at the senseless violence. We have reached out to the police to help with their investigation in any way that we can."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

YOUNG: That first woman who was shot was actually shot in front of several children and they were all scrambling to try to help her. And then that last victim, the 14 year old shot at first they thought she was dead. She is in critical condition. She is still alive.

A lot of people was baffled by what is going on here. They want to know more and they are hoping that today during this arraignment more answers will come out, maybe something about the motive, something that set him off. People would love to know what happened.

CUOMO: Keep track of the victims who are still struggling especially that young girl and we will fill in information as we get it. Ryan, thank you very much.

So today is a sad yet very important day. The Supreme Court reconvenes for the first time since Justice Antonin Scalia's death. The eight remaining justices are expected to hear oral arguments in two cases.

The high court now has four conservatives, four liberals. Cases ending in a split that means that the circuit court, the high appellate court, their ruling stands. That means it is the rule but only for that circuit. This will continue to happen whenever there is a split until there is a replacement.

PEREIRA: Bill Cosby's wife, Camille is expected to be deposed this morning in connection with the defamation suit against her husband. Cosby's legal team lost a last minute challenge to stop those proceedings.

Camille Cosby can claim marital privilege to avoid questions about private conversations, however, she must answer questions about her husband's alleged sexual assaults.

CAMEROTA: Here's an interesting story, new audio tapes from the Apollo 10 mission reveal an eerie experience on the dark side of the moon. Nearly 50 years after the mission the audio captures when astronauts reported hearing space music. Listen.

(VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: But a NASA technician believes the noise came from interference between radios in two separate parts of the spacecraft.

CUOMO: Or something else.

PEREIRA: Can we hear it again? I don't hear music.

CUOMO: That's what we are talking about, the screams from some alien.

PEREIRA: Why can't it just be space wind?

CUOMO: No wind in space.

CAMEROTA: We welcome your comments as to what you have heard.

CUOMO: So voters are witnessing the evolution of Hillary Clinton as a candidate. What subtle changes are making an impact? We will dive into that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:45]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Americans are right to be angry, but we are also hungry for real solutions. We need jobs that pay well and can't be outsourced. We are all in this together. We have to do our part. With your help that is the tomorrow we will build for our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was Hillary Clinton in Nevada over the weekend. Listen closely and you will hear a shift in Hillary's tone and message. For starters she is using words like we and us more than I. Our next guest says this is significant. Let's see if he thinks it is a good move. David Axelrod is a CNN senior political commentator and former senior adviser to the Obama administration. Hi, David.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Alisyn. How are you doing?

CAMEROTA: Doing well. What are you hearing differently in the past week?

AXELROD: My goodness, listen to the speech after New Hampshire. Admittedly that wasn't a very good night for her and the speech after Nevada and you see the difference at start you can't miss it.

The whole run up to New Hampshire in that speech that night was about her and her biography and the obligation of young women to support her. It was basically a message that was rooted in entitlement and about her own advancement.

This whole speech, this tone was completely different. It was about we. It was about what we can do together to help this country move forward, to enrich the lives of people and so on.

It was a seat change. I think much more effective. This tone, this approach, is much more effective than the one we saw leading up to the New Hampshire primary.

CUOMO: Explain why in the context of what Clinton herself identified recently which is to answer this question of whether or not she is in it for her or for us. That was what Clinton said that she believes is a question in many voters' minds. How does this help answer that?

AXELROD: It is a complete reaction to that question because the problem she has been having is people don't have a stake, they don't feel a stake in her campaign. They don't feel the cause behind her campaign.

That is not true for Bernie Sanders. Bernie has been clear about what he is fighting for. He rarely talks about himself. He talks about these issues of income inequality and you see it showing up in the polls.

Every time -- in the three contests that we have had each time Bernie Sanders wins overwhelmingly among people who say the most important quality they want in a candidate is that they care about people like me.

That is a warning sign for Hillary Clinton. That is something she needs to work on. Clearly the new approach she is taking is a reaction to that. She wants people to understand that her advancement is important to them in their own lives and she is fighting for them and not just herself.

CAMEROTA: David, it is not only Hillary Clinton that's using different terms and pronouns, it is also Bill Clinton. He is describes his wife in a different way than we have heard before. Here is a new ad that just went up on YouTube this morning. Listen to Bill Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: She said when I heard about it I was sick. I contacted the mayor and says what do you want me to do? Her immediate instinct is what can I do to make it better?

[08:25:10]And she said, the mayor did, I want Hillary to go on national television and don't do an interview about politics or anything else. Just talk about why we need all this money. She did. They got the money.

She is what can I do candidate? She is a walking change maker. You hire a president to make something happen for you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: She is a walking change maker, David. She is the "what can I do" candidate. What do you think of that message?

AXELROD: I think it is a good message. You know, Bill Clinton, I have said before is an incomparable political genius on behalf of almost every candidate but his wife where he gets emotionally invested.

He has had some harsh words for Bernie Sanders. They should set all of that aside and concentrate on this message. What is it in for people? What are they fighting for that will make a difference for people. What about her will make a difference for people?

I think this has the value of being a genuine message. Hillary Clinton is someone who plunges into problems and kind of works her way through it. She is not a very poetic campaigner.

She is not this great inspiring figure, but she is a problem solver and she works on problems that people care about. This is a good message for them and he is much better delivering that message than harsh attacks on Senator Sanders.

CAMEROTA: But David, I mean, what took them so long? If this is her true self, if she is a problem solver, what took them so long to facet on this message?

AXELROD: What are people supposed to facet on?

CAMEROTA: What took her campaign so long? If you think that this is really an effective one --

AXELROD: I think that is a very, very good question. Sometimes you need to see your life flash before your eyes in order to arrive at the right message. I saw in 2008 that Hillary Clinton became a much improved candidate after she lost the Iowa caucuses.

And then she became much more connected with people. We have seen sort of a replay of this where you have to get knocked around a little to get off of your pedestal and deliver a truer and more connecting message.

I think we saw that leading into Nevada where she was in the kitchens at Caesar's Palace at 1:30 in the morning meeting with kitchen workers and where her tone and approach was much different than we had seen before.

If she sticks with this, if this is where she landed, if this is the message she will deliver, she will have much more success in this campaign.

CUOMO: Campaigns are adjustments, no question about that. That's why you need big brains like Ax around you to help make them. David, thank you very much for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

AXELROD: All right, chief, good to be with you.

CUOMO: All right, now it's one thing to make an ad. It's another thing to ask and answer questions from people like us, but when you deal with voters that is the highest level of the game.

It's where authenticity and everything comes to play. That is why we will bring you another town hall in South Carolina with the voters. I'll be along for the ride tomorrow night --

CAMEROTA: You will be the ring leader.

CUOMO: I will sit there and listen to these people who are living situations that need to be addressed. Let's see how Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton handles it in South Carolina.

PEREIRA: Are we picking the suit?

CUOMO: Wearing the same thing I wore last time.

CAMEROTA: We need a style consultation.

PEREIRA: All right, meanwhile, it's the question that divides voters and political observers alike. Why is Donald Trump's message appealing to voters despite all of the controversy that he generates? We'll discuss it ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)