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Trump Wins Big in Nevada; Democrats Appeal to Minority Voters in CNN Town Hall. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now we're winning, winning, winning.

[05:58:17] SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE; I didn't just become a conservative when I thought about running for president.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only a campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign.

TRUMP: We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will support the young people of this country.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We look like hypocrites and fools to the entire world.

CLINTON: Every single time somebody has hurled these charges against me, it's proved to be nothing.

SANDERS: A psychoanalyst would have an interesting time with Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you see that? I can see the top of the tornado. The doors started sucking in.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The whole entire house started shaking. I was so scared.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Chris is in South Carolina. Michaela and I are here in New York. And we do begin with breaking news, because Donald Trump winning big in Nevada. This is his third consecutive victory heading into Super Tuesday. The final votes still being counted, but we already have a clear picture of what happened. Trump blowing away his closest competitors by a nearly 2-1 margin. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in a tight fight for second. No signs of anyone coalescing around an alternative to Trump. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Too true. The big question this

morning is, can anyone stop the billionaire's accelerating march to the Republican nomination?

Democrats also in the game, hitting the final stretch here in South Carolina. We have a 2016 race covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Sara Murray live in Vegas -- Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, this is what you call a blowout for Donald Trump. He has now proven he can win in a centrist state in New Hampshire. He can win in a conservative south in South Carolina. And last night, he proved he can win in a western state, even in a state that has a tricky caucus system.

Meanwhile, his rivals are still squabbling about who is best equipped to take on Trump.

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MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump emerging victorious for the third contest in a row.

TRUMP: We love Nevada. We love Nevada.

MURRAY: Dominating the Nevada caucuses and steamrolling his opponent.

TRUMP: Forty-six percent with the Hispanics, 46 percent. No. 1 with Hispanics.

We won with evangelicals. We won with young; we won with old. We won with highly educated. We won with poorly educated. I love the poorly educated.

MURRAY: For both senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, a disappointing loss.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to congratulate Donald Trump on a strong evening tonight.

MURRAY: In his concession speech, Cruz pointing to his early Iowa caucus win and arguing he's the strongest alternative to Trump.

CRUZ: The first four states have shown is that the only campaign that has beaten Donald Trump and the only campaign that can beat Donald Trump is this campaign.

MURRAY: While Cruz advisors tell CNN the candidate has reached his boiling point with Trump and to expect a more aggressive Cruz in the coming days.

Meanwhile, the pressure is mounting on Dr. Ben Carson and John Kasich to drop out after their dismal results. Kasich's camp quick to rub salt in Rubio's wound in a biting

press release, saying, "Senator Rubio just endured another disappointing performance despite being the highest spending candidate in Nevada."

Last night, larger voter turnout caused some problems at the polls, like ballot shortages and incidents of volunteers checking in caucus goers without verifying I.D. Voters even took to Twitter to complain of poll workers openly showing support for Trump.

Nevada GOP officials say, "There have been no official reports of voter irregularities or violations." And "It's not against the rules for volunteers to wear candidate gear."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now one of the candidates we didn't even hear from last night is Florida Senator Marco Rubio, who is vying for second place with Ted Cruz. His campaign says he's looking ahead to the Super Tuesday states. But after Trump's third in a row victory, no doubt there will be more pressure on Rubio to prove where he can actually beat Trump -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sara. Let's talk about all of this. Helping us analyze it this morning is the former "Meet the Press" moderator, David Gregory; CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston; and senior politics editor for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich. Great to have all of you this morning.

David, let's just pull up the numbers again and see where we are. I mean, I think we're at about 96 percent of the votes come -- having come in. Donald Trump got 45.9 percent. Marco Rubio, his closest competitor there, 23.9. Ted Cruz, 21.4. And then it goes down to Carson and Kasich at four percentage and under. What do you see?

DAVID GREGORY, FORMER MODERATOR, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": You know, we keep talking about whether Donald Trump has a ceiling. Well, he blew it off last night. I mean, at 45 percent, he showed that he can win across the board with Hispanics, with evangelicals. He did the litany. Right? Well-educated, the poorly educated. He's in a very commanding position. He had high name recognition out there. It's a strange state in terms of what the polling shows us. Even the caucus system, there were some irregularities. He did extremely well.

And it just really cements the fact that he is the prohibitive front-runner at this point. There is no other way to look at this reality other than he has something close to a lock on this nomination.

CAMEROTA: Jackie, let's look at some of those demographics that David was just talking about. Let's start with Latino voters. As you'll recall, the first thing that he did upon announcing that he was going to be running for president was offend Mexicans, or so people thought.

Well, last night he won with Latino voters. He got 45 percent of them, Jackie.

JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Yes, you never would have guessed that. What this also means is that Ted Cruz has consistently, during this entire campaign, said that he's the alternative to Donald Trump. Well, they all are at this point. I mean, when you look at how all of the groups that he won, between moderates, conservatives, evangelicals, Latinos, any one of those -- of those other competitors could be the alternative. So I think it's going to be an increasingly harder argument for Ted Cruz to make.

CAMEROTA: Let's look at those, Maeve. Let's look at how people who identified themselves as very conservative voted, versus somewhat conservative versus moderate. The point being here Donald Trump won in all of those categories. So I mean, even moderates who, I guess, may be synonymous with establishment Republicans, they are going for him. Very conservative, who Ted Cruz thought that he had a lock on. They're going for Trump. What do you see here, Maeve?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I mean, absolutely. It's exactly like David said. This is just an across- the-board blowout for Donald Trump, really showing the breadth and depth of his support. And the enthusiasm for his campaign, particularly in a state that has really quirky caucus rules.

[06:05:11] I will say that a lot of people are seizing on this -- this Latino number. And what's really important to remember here in Nevada is that that is a very small sample size in the entrance polls that we saw from last night. There aren't that many GOP Latinos who turned out to vote. So I think a lot of people should take a deep breath before reading too much into those numbers.

But that doesn't, you know, underestimate that the breadth of his victory across the board in all of those groups that you were just talking about. He has so much momentum going into these Super Tuesday contests now. And really, it is difficult to see Marco Rubio or Ted Cruz doing anything to block his path.

CAMEROTA: I should clarify that. These are entrance polls. This is how people claim they were going to vote before they got in there to the caucus.

So two more demos, just to put it up. So this is about the education. You heard him say, "We love low-educated people."

GREGORY: The poorly educated.

CAMEROTA: Poorly-educated people. So here's what he -- here's how it broke down. High school or less. Those are the less educated. Fifty-seven percent went for Trump. Never -- those who never attended college. But then, some college, he also got 49 percent. College graduate, he got 43 percent. Postgraduate, he got 37 percent -- David.

GREGORY: I think Maeve makes an important point, which is smaller sample. All these numbers are big, especially when you get 45 percent. So he won big. All these numbers are going to come up. But you have to give him his due. Again, we talk about -- we

talk about ceilings; we talk about lanes. You know, Trump is like the guy on the highway who is just weaving all over the place. I mean, he's going into the higher educated, the lower educated. He's got all of this going for him.

And I think the other thing that we said, I think, is important. Momentum creates more momentum. A lot of voters are out there. They want to be part of a juggernaut. They see him as winning. And unless and until there's someone else who demonstrates a viable path. Because we're getting into the point now where it's not just momentum that comes out of Iowa or New Hampshire. We're actually starting to count delegates.

And he's going to start to roll those up pretty fast. You heard him say this morning he may not need two months to get over the top and to get this nomination. That's the reality that Cruz and Rubio and even Kasich are looking at and saying, "Well, what is the game plan here?"

CAMEROTA: So let's talk about that. Second place went to Rubio, Jackie. But it was close. Ted Cruz came in third. And it sounds as though Ted Cruz's plan, at least based on -- let's look at the numbers. Rubio got 23.9. Cruz got 21.4. And according to Sunlen Serfaty, our reporter, Ted Cruz is about to get more aggressive against Donald Trump.

Let's listen to what he said about his future. This is a full- screen about what he said to one of our reporters, what one of his advisers said about his future strategy. I'll read it to you. "It's only so long that you can take someone calling you a liar when not lying. It's gotten to a point of absurdity. Just because Trump says it doesn't make it so. We've got to put a stop to this."

What do you think we're about to see next, Jackie?

KUCINICH: You know, you almost wonder if it's getting a little late for that. Because a lot of them held their fire on Trump. Because, I mean, it hasn't worked. What -- what is the alchemy to defeating Trump? They haven't really figured that out yet.

But Ted Cruz is right. This "liar, liar" thing is sticking. But it's not just Donald Trump who's saying it. It's Marco Rubio. It's Ben Carson. And it's going to be a tough thing for Ted Cruz to get out from under it at this point, because it has become sort of part of his narrative.

CAMEROTA: Maeve, is it too late for Ted Cruz to turn this around?

RESTON: It's never too late for anyone to pull off some kind of big surprise, right? That's what American politics is all about.

I do think that what's true, what we've been saying all morning, though, that you just see a narrower and narrower path for these guys. You know, if the establishment really were to coalesce around one of these candidates, or if one of them were to drop out, then that could be a different ball game that we're talking about here. But neither Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio is contemplating that right now.

You know, I mean, you think that -- looking at the results last night, you think about someone like Ted Cruz. He's been trying to argue that he is consolidating the libertarian and the evangelical vote and that he's the most electable candidate. Marco Rubio making that same argument.

And yet, neither of them has been able to demonstrate that so far, when you have Trump leading across all of these demographic groups.

GREGORY: I think there is ideology. There's temperament. There's knowledge. Those are the areas that you want to attract -- rather attack Donald Trump; where he has been attacked, it hasn't worked. So what we're waiting to see is whether either of these three can mount some sort of assault that actually makes a difference.

So much of this campaign has been about conservatism as a feeling. An anti-establishment, an anti-government, an anti- Republican Party point of view. People who are voting in these caucuses and primaries are angry -- these are Republicans, angry at establishment Republicans, angry at the federal government. They really want somebody from way outside the system.

CAMEROTA: But some of the people, some of the conventional wisdom has been that the math eventually will work for one of these other candidates. As we just heard Maeve say, that the coalescing around somebody else would give them more numbers than Donald Trump has. No, not in Nevada. It would be even. If one other candidate actually got every other vote, he would tie with Donald Trump.

[06:10:19] GREGORY: I mean, I'm not great at math. But I do know that what helps is if you actually win somewhere to start. That helps your math. And that hasn't happened yet.

And so they're -- and I can tell you that party officials are doing a lot of analysis on how somebody like Rubio, particularly Rubio, could get the math right and actually mount a real challenge to Trump. But he's got to start winning someplace. And that's why Super Tuesday, March 15, is really the big proving ground.

CAMEROTA: Panel, stick around, because we, of course, want to talk about the Democratic side as well. But first the final debate before Super Tuesday take place tomorrow night right here on CNN. Wolf Blitzer moderates as the five Republican rivals face off 8:30 Eastern p.m. tomorrow night on CNN.

Now let's get over to Chris in Columbia, South Carolina. And he had another big night down there. Hey, Chris.

CUOMO: Hey, how are you doing, Alisyn?

There's no question on the Democratic side they have intrigue, as well. You have Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders making their closing arguments to South Carolina voters last night in a CNN town hall. Just three days now until the primary here. Which candidate appealed most to minority voters? Remember, 15 plus percent in South Carolina is expected to be the African-American vote. CNN's Joe Johns has the highlight. Everything, remind me. I'm so tired, Joe, I forget what happened.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I know. You've been up a long time. So it's really interesting to see how the Democratic race is evolving here in South Carolina. They did trade jabs. For the most part, they kept it civil and even in some parts reflective.

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JOHNS (voice-over): After a loss in Nevada and trailing in the polls ahead of the South Carolina primary, Bernie Sanders ramping up his attacks on front-runner Hillary Clinton, repeating calls for her to release transcripts of paid speeches she made to Wall Street banks.

SANDERS: I am very happy to release all of my paid speeches to Wall Street. Here it is, Chris -- there ain't none. I don't do that.

JOHNS: Clinton instead calling on the Vermont senator and their Republican rivals to do the same.

CLINTON: Why is there one standard for me and not for everybody else?

I mean, I have been up front and strong on this issue for a long time. As strong, I would argue, as my esteemed opponent. So you know what? If people are going to ask for things, everybody should be on a level playing field.

JOHNS: Clinton counter-attacked in labeling Sanders a single- issue candidate.

SANDERS: Disastrous illegal behavior on Wall Street.

JOHNS: But Sanders dismissed the one-note characterization.

SANDERS: What I am fighting for right now is a political revolution in which government starts working for working people and for the middle class.

JOHNS: One common theme between the candidates: courting South Carolina's African-American voters, who strongly support the president.

SANDERS: On the day that Obama was inaugurated, Republicans came together and said, "What are we going to do?" And what they concluded is "We're going to obstruct, obstruct, obstruct."

What you are seeing today in this Supreme Court situation is nothing more than the continuous and unprecedented obstructionism that President Obama has gone through.

JOHNS: Even calling questions about the president's birth certificate racially motivated.

SANDERS: The birther issue which we heard from Donald Trump and others a racist effort to try to try to delegitimize the president of the United States. My dad, as I mentioned, came from Poland. I'm running for president. Guess what? Nobody has asked for my birth certificate. Maybe it's the color of my skin.

JOHNS: Clinton's strategy: appealing to voters with a personal touch.

CLINTON: I think it's important for people, and particularly for white people, to be honest about this and to recognize that our experiences may not equip us to understand what a lot of our African- American fellow citizens go through every single day.

JOHNS: Once again facing questions about her e-mails as a federal judge Tuesday paved the way for possible future subpoenas against Clinton and her aides.

CLINTON: Every single time somebody has hurled these charges against me, which they have done, it's proved to be nothing. And this is no different than that. I have turned over 55,000 pages of e- mails. Nobody in any cabinet position has ever been as transparent or open.

JOHNS: Sanders also opening up in a reflective moment.

SANDERS: If I let those people down. That's a scary thing when so many people have faith in you and believe you can do something. So it scares me if I ever let those people down. It would be a terrible, terrible thing.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: We'll be watching Bernie Sanders today. He is holding a news conference here in South Carolina to talk more about his economic agenda.

[06:15:08] CUOMO: You know, Joe, it's always interesting to have them there, talking to real people, see how they connect as humans while making the case.

JOHNS: Yes. That's why we do them. You did a great job, too.

CUOMO: Thank you. Well, you have to sit next to me. What are you going to say?

So you got a little taste of last night's Democratic town hall in South Carolina. So now it becomes the question what is the outcome of it. Did Bernie Sanders make ground on Hillary Clinton? Did he break into this presumption of dominance with African-American voters? We're going to take a look at it. Answers ahead.

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CUOMO: All right. A big night in the election. The GOP in Nevada. Ninety-six percent of the votes counted now. Obviously, that means some still to go. But let's show you what the results are.

At the top, there is no question. It's no longer about giving Donald Trump his due. He gets a presumption now: 45.9 percent, 46 percent. It is a battle for second. And you have the same two names, literally a razor-thin margin separating the two. We will continue to get the vote count, and we'll give the information to you, but the picture pretty clear on the GOP side.

[06:20:21] Now, on the Democratic side we had a big night last night. A town hall. You had Clinton and Sanders trying to show why each is better to this audience in South Carolina.

Let's bring in David Gregory, Maeve Reston and Jackie Kucinich and take a look at the big moments from last night. Let's start off with what each wanted to achieve last night. They obviously came in with agendas that were a little different. Hillary Clinton wanted to talk about these connections to Wall Street, specifically the speeches, David Gregory. Let's play the exchange of how she dealt with that last night and then discuss the impact. Here it is.

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CLINTON: If everybody does it, and that includes Republicans, because we know they have made a lot of speeches.

CUOMO: You know everybody is not going to bring up their transcripts. There are 100 reasons why.

CLINTON: Why is there one standard for me and not for everybody else? I mean...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now, played well in the room, David. A lot of applause for Hillary Clinton on that. The reflection of her being victimized is how that room felt about it.

But the answer is, well, one, the GOP is not going to bring out their transcripts, because this isn't about them. This is Bernie Sanders who's asking for them. And last night, he threw imaginary papers at me and said, "Here are my ties to Wall Street speeches. I don't have any." How do you think that plays for both?

GREGORY: Well, I really do think it depends where you sit and how you view these candidates and how, specifically, you view Hillary Clinton.

You know, for those who are loyal to her, supporters of her, her argument really resonates. The idea that she's held to a different standard, that she's scrutinized at a level that other politicians simply aren't. And I think she plays into that and I think came off sympathetically.

If you don't like her, if you doubt her, if you're among those who say, "Wait a minute. What is she doing, taking all this money from Wall Street? Can she be an effective advocate to get them to change their ways? Can she be an enforcer, a regulator, a governor on how they do their business? Doesn't she seem woefully compromised?" I think they're going to still look at that and say, you know, "What is she hiding here and extending this to Republicans for whom it doesn't apply in this context?"

But I think the underlying argument is, "Look, I can get scrutinized more than anybody else. Everybody wants to look through everything I said. It's more innuendo than real fact, and I should not have to accede to that." I think that's an argument that her supporters are going to rally to.

CUOMO: "Accede," good word. Works with the base. The question is, does it help her with that next step of independence. You know, will they see her creation of the unknown as part of what fuels the speculation?

Jackie Kucinich, Bernie Sanders had a different take last night than we've seen in the past? He wanted to court African-Americans, and he did so not by any of the reasonable extensions of his policy to that community. But he went right at race with respect to President Obama. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Do you believe that Trump was motivated by racism as you suggest the movement was about?

SANDERS: I don't want to -- I'm not a psychoanalyst. And boy, would a psychoanalyst have an interesting time with Donald Trump.

Look, you can disagree with Obama all you want. But to say that the president of the United States, who won an election fair and square, was not a legitimate president really undermines what we are as a nation. Do I think that, at least in some parts of that Republican base, there is race involved? Absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Jackie Kucinich, I was asking a follow-up to what he had introduced, Senator Sanders, as a potential rationale for the birther movement, that it may have been race motivated. That's why I went back to him to make sure that was his point; he doubled down. What's the play?

KUCINICH: He really needs to appeal to African-American voters, not only in South Carolina but going down the line. And President Obama is very popular with African-American voters.

And Hillary Clinton has really spent a lot of time saying, "Look at Bernie Sanders. He's not with the president. I worked for the guy. I agree with his policies. I supported him. And maybe Senator Sanders hasn't done that." It seems like he is still trying to build back whatever damage has been done by that line of attack by Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: Maeve Reston, the moment of the night in terms of that test of, "Ooh, what will they do with this," that was when we played the Colbert skit about how Hillary Clinton should have dealt with the question about whether or not she would lie to the American people from Scott Pelley in a CBS interview. Here's the clip and her reaction.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: You know, you're asking me to say have I ever? I don't believe I ever have. I don't believe I ever have. I don't believe I ever will.

[06:25:06] STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, CBS'S "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": How can you be this bad at it? Just say no! Just say no! You're running for president of the United States.

CUOMO: Funny guy. Serious topic. Is that a question that you'd like another shot at answering?

CLINTON: I'll just say no.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: "I'll just say no," she said. Obviously, her detractors will say, "Well, why didn't you say it the first time?" How do you think she dealt with that, which is always an interesting test for politicians, and what's the impact?

RESTON: I think what she's trying to do is...

CUOMO: Maeve.

RESTON: ... reach out to a lot of these -- is to reach out to a lot of these voters who have, you know, trust issues with Hillary Clinton, who don't really understand, you know, a lot of what she's talking about in terms of her authenticity and don't really feel that they can relate to her.

And last night, she just kind of took a whiff on that one, right, and didn't want to go back into it again. She really does have a big task ahead of her here over the next couple of months, you know, to try to reassure voters who are not as comfortable with her. That she can, you know, come off as more relatable and more trustworthy.

GREGORY: You know, Chris, I just thought that was just another awkward moment for her. I mean, I think what was effective about what you showed is that you used humor through Stephen Colbert to make a devastating point about how she came off in that interview. And even then, she says, "Well, I'll just say no," because that's seemingly what everybody wants, and that's what Stephen Colbert was really after. Instead of just saying, "Let me be very clear. No, I'll always tell the truth. I mean, I will never lie." I mean, that is kind of -- and that was Colbert's point, which is that's an obvious question to take when you are a politician.

Whatever difficulty she faces, the challenges of whether people think she's trustworthy, whether she can be believed, she may not completely overcome this. She demonstrated some ability to laugh at herself last night. And there is an awkwardness to her in some of these moments, which I don't think she is going to overcome.

But in the end, for her supporters, I think they're still going to be with her.

CUOMO: David, Jackie, Maeve, thank you very much.

We're going to take a quick break. We have other news. Very extreme weather causing a deadly night in the South. Tornadoes just tearing apart homes and, of course, lives. At least three people killed in the severe weather outbreak. We have the latest on the damage. The fresh picture and video and the stories ahead.

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