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Donald Trump Wins Big in Nevada Caucuses; Democrats Appeal to Minority Voters in CNN Town Hall. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired February 24, 2016 - 07:00   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 going to get greedy for the United States. We're going to grab and grab and grab.

[07:00:10] SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nobody has ever won the nomination without winning one of the first three primaries.

TRUMP: Mexico is going to pay for the wall. They know it. I know it. We all know it.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary Clinton does not want to run against me, but I cannot wait to run against her.

TRUMP: You're going to be proud of your president, and you're going to be even prouder of your country.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Why is there one standard for me and not for everybody else?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am happy to release all of my paid speeches to Wall Street. There ain't none.

CLINTON: I've been on record in favor of closing Guantanamo. I think it is a continuing recruitment advertisement for terrorists.

SANDERS: Guess what? Nobody has asked for my birth certificate. Maybe it's the color of my skin.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CAMEROTA: We do have breaking news here. It's a big morning. Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. Chris is in South Carolina. Michaela and I are here in New York.

And Donald Trump hitting the jackpot with an across-the-board win in the Nevada caucuses. The vote tally is not final at this hour, but the message is clear. Trump running away from the rest of the field by a nearly two to one margin. Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz in a tight battle for second.

CUOMO: Boy, look at that. He almost has the same number of total votes as number two and three combined. It's his third straight victory ahead of Super Tuesday. Now with

momentum building, he could be very hard to stop. How will the Democratic hopefuls respond to this?

We have every angle of the race covered only the way CNN can. Let's begin with Sara Murray. She is in Las Vegas.

Sara, good morning.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

There is no question this is what you call a blowout for Donald Trump. He has now proven he can win in a centrist state like New Hampshire. He's proven he can win in a more conservative Southern state like South Carolina. And last night he picked up his first western win in Nevada, even in a state that's known for its tricky caucuses.

Meanwhile, his Republican rivals are still trying to one up each other and convince voters that they are the ones who are best equipped to take on Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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 opponents.

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, we all know what's on the line for Ted Cruz going forward. On March 1, he has got to win his home state of Texas.

But Marco Rubio also has a lot at stake. He did not even speak in Nevada last night. Instead, he said he's focusing on these March 1 states. He's going to face a lot more pressure to articulate where he can win and how he could actually beat Trump in a delegate fight.

Alisyn, back to you.

CAMEROTA: OK, Sara. Thanks so much for that background.

Let's look at where the numbers are right now. Ninety-six percent of the vote in Nevada has been tallied. And you can see Donald Trump has a runaway victory at 45.9 percent right now. Marco Rubio has 23.9 percent. Ted Cruz, 21.4 percent. That's where the votes are right now. We obviously will update it throughout our program.

[07:05:08] But let's bring in Wisconsin Congressman Sean Duffy. He has endorsed Marco Rubio for president.

Good morning, Congressman.

REP. SEAN DUFFY (R), WISCONSIN: Good morning, Alisyn. How are you doing?

CAMEROTA: Doing well. So let's talk about what happened with Marco Rubio last night. You can see this one of two ways. Either, "Hey, he came in second. He beat Ted Cruz." Or you can see it as this is his fourth consecutive loss. I know you prefer the former version. But what about that? What about critics who say, you know, he's got to start winning somewhere?

DUFFY: You're right. He has to start winning somewhere. I think that's going to happen next Tuesday. But you can't deny the fact that the second-place position is going to Marco Rubio. He is going to be the candidate that takes on Donald Trump. I think the line about Ted Cruz and his dishonesty in his campaign tactics has resonated. Even evangelicals don't like a guy that's going to line the campaign trail for his own benefit. Americans is seeing what Ted Cruz was -- we in Congress have seen that

Ted Cruz is. He's not honest. He looks out for himself.

But I think, to your point, Alisyn, we're going to have to transition and start to focus on what's important. If you wrestle with a pig, you're going to get dirty and the pig likes it. We're going to have to wrestle with Donald Trump. And you know, Donald Trump might talk about Marco Rubio drinking water and Marco might have to talk about Donald's hair. If that's here the campaign goes, that's where it's going to have to go.

CAMEROTA: Does that serve the American public, Congressman?

DUFFY: No, it doesn't. But tomorrow night in your debate, what's going to be great is there's less people on the stage. So Donald Trump can say, you know, "I'm going to make America great again, and I'll tell you how when we elected." We as conservatives saw that with Nancy Pelosi when she said, you know, "We have to pass Obamacare to find out what's in it."

Tomorrow night on the stage, Marco will have a chance to call Donald Trump out for just making platitude statements but not having, really, policy prescriptions to fix the country. And I think America wants people with a vision and a set of ideas to accomplish that vision. Marco has that. Donald Trump doesn't.

CAMEROTA: But Congressman, I mean, just to use your own -- your own aphorism there of you wrestle with a pig, you get muddy and the pig likes it. Haven't we seen that tried before? When Jeb Bush tried it, when Lindsey Graham tried it. It doesn't always work to go right after Donald Trump. But you're saying that Marco Rubio plans a more aggressive assault now.

DUFFY: I don't think they did a very good job. I mean, it's pretty easy to beat up on a guy like -- like Jeb Bush. I think when you come into the ring and you have more time, and you're ready to go toe to toe and play with Donald, I think you come out as a winner.

And again, if you can do it in a way that also does bring it back to policy, Republicans, they want to win in November. And the entrance polls show that most voters believe that Marco Rubio has the best chance of actually winning.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

DUFFY: We have an angry component. We also have people that want to win and fix their country. They look for a hopeful message, someone that can bring better wages, more opportunity, upward mobility. And that's Marco.

CAMEROTA: Congressman...

DUFFY: He can do it.

CAMEROTA: ... look at this. I mean, this is a -- we have it right here on our screen. This is the irony, is that Marco Rubio does win in that one key quality of who can win in November? In other words, "Who is most electable?" He gets 51 percent to Trump's 33 percent. But why doesn't that translate to a bigger real win?

DUFFY: Wait until Tuesday, Alisyn. In all seriousness, you have to look. There's been so many folks playing second, third, fourth and fifth place. Truly, as the field narrows, there's a consolidation of votes that I think are opposed to Donald Trump. And those are going to go to Marco Rubio. And we're going to see that consolidation, I think, project itself in wins as we go into next week. I mean...

CAMEROTA: OK.

DUFFY: ... yesterday he was in Minnesota. He had over 1,000 people at his rally. We think he's going to win there. And in other stats, the momentum is on his side. You see energy on his side. And I think, again, the debates matter. You see how many people watch the Republican debates.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

DUFFY: We're going to watch yours tomorrow night. And Marco performs really well. I think he has to go after Donald on the policy issues, because you can't let a guy just get away with saying, "I'm going to make America great. I'm going to seal the border."

CAMEROTA: Usually, Marco -- usually, Marco Rubio does well. You know, he had that one lackluster debate. But let's talk about...

DUFFY: ... Alisyn. That was a one off.

CAMEROTA: OK, but let's -- and he did recover. I mean, to your point, he did recover after that. But to your larger point of, "Hey, wait until Tuesday," let's look at the map of Super Tuesday. OK? Because this is where the big numbers really start rolling in. When you look at this map, Congressman, where does Marco Rubio win?

DUFFY: Listen, I think -- I think he can win in every state. But I just mentioned Minnesota as one of them.

But, again, the conversation continually changes. People haven't made up their mind. We saw last night that 30 to 40 percent of voters were making their mind up at the last moment. That's the same thing in all these states. And that's why the debates are so important. And with less people on stage, you have more opportunities to call the hypocrisy of Donald Trump for not having policy prescriptions to fix the country.

I think it was one of your town halls. We had a millennial asked him, "How do you fix college education? It's too expensive. We can't afford it."

And he said, "Yes, it's a problem. We're going to fix it." And there's no policy prescription. And he gets the question all the time to call him out for lack of ideas on how you fix the problems and just doing the Nancy Pelosi, which is pass it to find out what's in it or elect me to find out what I'm going to do to make America great isn't going to work.

[06:10:21] And I think Marco Rubio has a great opportunity to show the difference between the two on policy. And like I said at the start, you might have to get a little dirty and scrap with them, talk about hair and water. But I think Marco will do well at that.

CAMEROTA: OK. He does have good hair. OK, we are going to look forward to that debate very much.

DUFFY: Trump has good hair?

CAMEROTA: I mean Marco Rubio!

DUFFY: OK.

CAMEROTA: And so do you, Congressman Duffy. Thanks so much for being on NEW DAY. We're looking forward to that debate. The final debate before Super Tuesday takes place tomorrow night, right here on CNN. Wolf Blitzer moderates as the five Republican rivals face off in Houston, 8;30 Eastern tomorrow night, only hereon CNN.

Let's go to Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Here we are in South Carolina. A big night for the Democrats. As you had the caucuses going on in Nevada, you had the Democrats making their case to the voters, as well, right here. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders talking and trying to speak specifically to one group in South Carolina, which is African-American voters. Expected to be 50-plus percent of the turnout here in just a couple of days.

So let's bring in CNN's Joe Johns. Give us the highlights of the night -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you saw it better than anybody, Chris, I think. This town hall last night sort of showed where these candidates had been, at least over the last 24 hours and how they've been positioning themselves.

For one thing, they were toning down the rhetoric directed at each other. A little bit more reflective. And they were sharpening the attacks in general on the Republican Party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

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: This 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. I don't know.

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: But 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)

[07:15:02] JOHNS: So watching these candidates today, Hillary Clinton is going to be focusing on getting out the vote in South Carolina. Bernie Sanders holding a news conference this morning to talk about his economic agenda for South Carolina, Chris.

CUOMO: It was an interesting night, to see what choices were made and how the impact was felt there in the audience. You can see how it was felt beyond when they started counting the votes. Joe Johns, thank you.

All right. Let's take a quick break. When we come back, we're going to have more on the big pitch from both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Minority voters are definitely a big focus in South Carolina. Think about it. They're expected to be 50 percent plus of the overall turnout. So we're going to talk to supporters about who did better, who makes the better case, and why? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: The votes are still being counted in Nevada. But it's only to figure out who came in second, third, and last. Up at the top of the leaderboard, a familiar name, Donald Trump. Forty-six percent. Almost twice the number of votes of the two men who are battling for second right now.

What does this mean? It means that Trump is not about being given his due. He is the presumptive favorite. Can Super Tuesday change it? Maybe. But we're looking at more of the possible than the probable right now with the state of play on the GOP side.

[07:20:14] So then how do the Democrats react to what they saw last night? They are making the case in a tailor-made way to combat Donald Trump here in South Carolina. We had the town hall. And now we have two men to discuss the impact on the electorate. You have the Democratic Party chairman Jamie Harrison. And he is a Sanders supporter, by the way. And CNN commentator...

JAMIE HARRISON, DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN: I'm neutral.

CUOMO: You're at the party. You're with the party. Although I did see you loving up James last night.

HARRISON: I loved up everybody.

CUOMO: So he is representing the party. That's fair. You've got to stay in the middle. That's true.

And we have former state representative, Bakari Sellers, a Clinton reporter [SIC]. So -- supporter. you can't deny that. BAKARI SELLERS, FORMER STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I can't deny that.

CUOMO: He gets away with it. He's a party official.

Now, you felt...

HARRISON: I would be surprised by that.

CUOMO: I was watching you move around the room last night. You felt that this was a good night for your party. Why? What did you see on that stage that made you feel like you have a future president?

HARRISON: Well, listen, as I said last night, it's about contrast. And last night, if you take a look at the forum that we had last night -- and you did a wonderful job, by the way -- you take a look at that and you compare that to the debate that was in Greenville just a week ago. And you had two people who were presidential. They didn't talk about each other's moms. They didn't talk about mooning. They talked about all of the stuff that doesn't really matter. They talked about issues important to people in South Carolina and people important -- important issues across the nation.

CUOMO: Or are you getting the mood wrong and that this is an angry time, and people want people who feel what they feel and who are outside this process, not a senator forever, not someone who, it took me 15 seconds to explain her pedigree because she's had so many different offices. They want different, and they want someone to feel their anger. And if so Bakari, do they make the choice to go with the Democrats?

SELLERS: I think -- I think that we hit that note last night. In fact, you helped us get there. I actually had a tweet last night that said what a time to be alive. Because we had a question last night from a young African-American female who felt as if she was being treated differently.

CUOMO: Great young lady.

SELLERS: Because of the contour of her hair. And you followed that question up with the question about the formation video and Beyonce.

So yes, I mean, we didn't hit the normal talking points. But we did talk about issues last night that drive voters that are central to the way people feel. I mean, we struck that emotional chord last night. And a lot of it had to do with the questioning. A lot of it had to do with the venue and the South Carolina Democratic Party.

But most importantly, it had to do with the two candidates and the language they used. Hillary Clinton literally last night said it's incumbent upon white people to begin to look at this issue and understand that racism is prevalent in this country.

I mean, the phraseology, the verbiage, it doesn't necessarily speak to the traditional vane, as you were saying, but it speaks to those people who are outside of the process who were going to be successful in November have to be part of the process. CUOMO: All right. So what about the tacks that were taken. Bakari

is laying out what Hillary Clinton did last night.

Bernie Sanders did something unexpected. His policies, you could suggest, apply as much to the socioeconomic strata and the race designations of African-Americans and Latinos as they do to anybody. You heard populist. And he went right to race. He brought up the birther thing, Jamie. We haven't heard about that in this race at all to this point. Why? And do you think it was effective?

HARRISON: I think it was one of Senator Sanders's stronger moments. But he still has a challenge, Chris. And the challenge is to make it real for working-class men and women, particularly here in South Carolina, African-American men and women.

You know, there's something, a concept that I used to teach my students. You have to show and not tell. Senator Sanders does a good job of telling us about why Wall Street is so bad, why we need to address all these inequalities. But he hasn't turned a corner yet to show that and demonstrate that.

CUOMO: Why do you say that? Why do you say that?

Because his supporters are so passionate, OK?

SELLERS: Oh, they are.

CUOMO: That when I say something like have some water -- I'm telling you.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: This is the difference between a Clinton supporter and a Sanders supporter. They're both toxic online. It's amazing what online does to temperament.

When I say, have some water. It's free. Sanders people take it as an insult. You're either an anti-Semite, anti-age or just anti-Bernie, even though everybody who's ever watched the show should know we have Sanders on more often and obviously have a good relationship. So what it goes to is, OK, maybe he's new to African-Americans in this part of the country. But the passion behind Bernie Sanders has to count for something.

SELLERS: It does. And I thought his best answer last night was his shortest answer. I mean, it was a long question from my friend, Ron Jernigan (Ph). But you finally got there. His best answer was Thurgood Marshall was a damn good justice. That was a damn good answer. You know?

But to Jamie's point, the fact of the matter is, if we break up the big banks, African-Americans are still going to make 60 cents on every dollar that white people make. If we break up the big banks, we're still going to have Sandra Bland. You're still going to have Walter Scott. You're still going to have these issues of systemic racism in our criminal justice system. [07:25:06] And so yes, you have to take that message, and you have to

pivot and you have to talk about these issues that are not on Wall Street, per se, but are on Main Street in every city in America.

CUOMO: And so how did Hillary Clinton do with her challenges? She was clearly showing her expertise once again. She spoke to a range of issues. She took on the young woman who said, "I'm not for you. I'm for Sanders. And my mom and I are split on it." How did she deal with what her challenges are?

SELLERS: Well, Hillary Clinton does something, and I have to admit. And I'll hear about this later, I'm sure. But it kind of drives me crazy. She is such a smart lady, that sometimes on her answer about Syria.

By the way, a young man asked a foreign policy question about deposing dictators. It was probably the best foreign policy question, no offense, Chris, that anybody has asked of a presidential candidate that we've heard.

But sometimes she just talks about us. And sometimes it's very difficult to comprehend her intellect on these issues, because it's so vast. But after that question she came back to the Black Lives Matter question, to the Beyonce question. And she was so at home, and so comfortable, and so free.

CUOMO: The challenge, though, is the trust factor. Right?

SELLERS: That's right.

CUOMO: Democrats don't like to hear it, but it shows up in your own party's polling on her, not just...

SELLERS: She admitted that. She admitted that.

CUOMO: Colbert moment last night, funny. But it had that funny/"is this true" feeling to it. What's your reaction as a Clinton supporter?

SELLERS: Well, I thought she answered the question as best as she possibly could. But we have to get a better answer.

I mean, I think that Hillary Clinton, I saw her on our network recently say that many people question or have a question that they're wrangling with of why I'm in this. And that is the standard...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: I interviewed them (ph). She identified that.

SELLERS: She identified that, and that is the central question. And while many of us who support her understand, we've already -- we've already juxtaposed and figured out what the answer is. A lot of young people in this country have to figure out what the answer to the question is. Because the fact of the matter is, there are a lot of people who are

18 to 35, Chris, and all we know is presidents of the United States, George W. Bush and Barack Obama. You know, we have no frame, other than what we read about the Clintons.

And so yes, I know that's unfair to the candidate who has this long history. But there's a lot of learning about Hillary Clinton still left to be done. And she has to address that issue as we move forward. Because that trust factor, these e-mails and things like that are lingering out there.

But every -- I do have to give her credit. Every -- every step of the way, Hillary Clinton goes back to what she does best, which is a fighter. And she is a fighter, a fighter, a fighter. And we saw that last night again.

CUOMO: Bakari Sellers, Jamie Harrison. And to be very clear once again, a party official, not a Sanders supporter.

HARRISON: You tell the truth.

CUOMO: That was a typo.

SELLERS: Breaking news.

CUOMO: Good to have you both.

Alisyn, back to you in New York.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris, heading towards Super Tuesday, the delegate race heating up, with Trump and Clinton way out in front today. But it is early days. And the others can still wrap up lots of delegates. So get out your calculators, because we're crunching the numbers next.

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