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Deadly Tornado Outbreak Kills 4; Can Trump Keep Momentum to Super Tuesday?; Is Sanders Surrendering South Carolina? Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 25, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's just demolished, everything. A couple houses that are gone, the church is gone.

[05:58:43] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was scary. My truck went up in the air. I said, "I hope this isn't it."

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All I can do is hold on tight.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Initially, the debates look like the phone book.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): People have not done very well against me.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We certainly need to elect someone who's prepared to be president.

TRUMP: You know, they're all coping me. He's getting very nervous. He's a nervous wreck.

CRUZ: The time for the clowns and the acrobats and the dancing bears has passed.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's a lot at stake in the election. All you have to do is listen to the other side.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What this campaign is about is telling you the truth.

CLINTON: We've to tackle systemic racism.

SANDERS: We will not tolerate racism and bigotry.

CLINTON: I'm going to do everything I can to end this once and for all.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY, with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira. CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning and welcome to your NEW

DAY. It's Thursday, February 25, 6 a.m. in the east. We are in Houston, where it is cold, but tonight it will be hot at the CNN Republican debate, the final chance for the men chasing Trump to make a play to break out ahead of Super Tuesday, but there is something much more important than politics going on, so let's get to Alisyn in New York with breaking news.

Good morning, my friend.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Chris. We do have some breaking news.

More deadly tornados carving the path of destruction along the East Coast. At least 16 tornadoes reported overnight from Florida to Pennsylvania, leaving dozens of homes damaged or destroyed; and four people, including a 2-year-old boy, were killed in Virginia. And this morning, more than 100,000 homes are without power.

So let's get right to CNN meteorologist, Chad Myers, with all of the breaking details. What are you seeing, Chad?

CHAD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Alisyn, it's better today and this afternoon than it was yesterday. The storms will have moved offshore. Of yesterday and the day before, a lot like April and May, certainly not February.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS (voice-over): Another deadly round of storms pummeling states up and down the East Coast.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He opened the front door, and when he did, he says, Mama, tornado, tornado. And he ran, and I ran.

MYERS: Two days of storms, over 50 tornadoes reported, seven killed and hundreds of thousands now without power in the last 48 hours. In Virginia, a state of emergency declared. Tornadoes leaving dozens injured, several critically, and four dead.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is tragic, man. I've never seen nothing like this before.

MYERS: Three people in a mobile home were killed, including a 2- year-old boy, powerful winds lifting their trailer almost 300 yards and slamming it into a church.

PASTOR TERRENCE L. GREEN, EMPOWERMENT TEMPLE MINISTRIES: Our prayers goes out to the three people that lost their life. And we just thank God that -- you know, we went through a lot of damage but the church is still standing, and we're going to recover.

MYERS: Cars crumpled like aluminum cans on the highway.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The cars were tossed about. You know, I'm just so sorry that people were killed. MYERS: The tornado tearing down power lines and splintering

trees, trapping some residents in the wreckage.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Glass started coming in on me. I didn't know what to do. I just -- it was scary.

MYERS: Three more tornadoes touching down in the Sunshine State, packing ferocious winds.

In North Carolina, five tornadoes causing a path of mass destruction. Four people were inside this home when heavy rains and winds sent a massive tree toppling onto the roof. The residents miraculously emerging safely.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Our hearts just goes out to anybody that's lost their homes or, you know, their loved ones or anything in this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MYERS: Rhode Island and Boston, you can go back to sleep for a little while, because the round of storms that woke you up around 4 a.m. was very loud. I'm sure my dog would have been under the bed.

Snow across parts of Michigan and across parts of Ohio and West Virginia, that's all part of the same system, the same system, Chris, that's making 41 degrees for you -- sunshine today -- we go to 70, but it's the same cold air that pushed all this warm air up. You're seeing it in Houston all the way down to the Gulf Coast.

CUOMO: Boy, you know, I'll take low temperatures anytime over what those poor people are dealing with in those communities all over that area of the country. And it's good to know that you're going to stay on this story, because they need help there, and we want to help mobilize those communities on that effort.

Chad Everett, thank you very much.

Now, let's talk about what's going on here in Houston. Big debate tonight, Donald Trump setting his sights on Super Tuesday. He's talking about wrapping this race up.

The front-runner just got two big endorsements, big for him, because they're his first two of the congressional variety. He's now dropping hints that he needs a running mate and what he may be looking for.

Trump's rivals intensifying attacks, as we've seen but is it working? And then, a little bit of a shocker here. The GOP's last nominee, Mitt Romney, comes out suggesting a bombshell lurks in the billionaire's tax returns. What is he talking about?

We've got it all covered. Let's begin with Sunlen Serfaty. She joins me here in chilly Houston.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Chris. Well, this debate comes at such a pivotal time in this race, and

already there are some big indications that this could get very heated very fast. Both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio dropping big hints that they are prepared to bring the fight against each other tonight. Donald Trump telling CNN he's been saving his fire for Marco Rubio for tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP (via phone): I will be totally prepared. You know, people have not done very well against me.

SERFATY (voice-over): The GOP frontrunner is set to face off with his four remaining rivals tonight in the last debate before Super Tuesday.

TRUMP: So far everybody that's attacked me has gone down.

SERFATY: Donald Trump already has more than doubled the number of delegates than his closest competitors, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz combined.

CRUZ: There has never been a candidate like Donald Trump, in a whole lot of ways.

SERFATY: Trump notably absent from last night's FOX News town hall hosted by Megyn Kelly, where the freshman senators continued to argue that it's only a matter of time before his ballooning lead pops.

CRUZ: We're the only campaign in a position to beat him on Super Tuesday, to win the nomination.

RUBIO: A majority of Republican voters are now supporting Donald Trump, and obviously, once this race begins to narrow a little bit, you'll -- you'll see more of that support consolidating.

SERFATY: This as 2012 GOP nominee Mitt Romney warns about a bombshell to come in Trump's tax records, asking all of the candidates to release them.

[06:05:07] TRUMP: Tax returns are very complicated. I have many, many companies. I have, you know, tremendously -- I have a very complex system of taxes. But we'll make a determination over the next couple of months.

CRUZ: I'll release the remainder of what we have this week. I've released already, I think, five years' worth, but the nice thing is that I haven't made enough money that my tax returns are not that interesting..

RUBIO: I'll release them. They're not very complicated.

SERFATY: Up for grabs on Super Tuesday, Cruz's home state of Texas, the senator of the delegate-rich state securing the endorsement of its governor.

CRUZ: We can't be fooled by P.T. Barnum. The time for the clowns and the acrobats or the dancing bears has passed.

SERFATY: Meanwhile, at a rally in Houston, Marco Rubio is now targeting Trump by name.

RUBIO: Donald Trump has actually alluded to the fact that he thinks parts of Obamacare are pretty good.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: A big preview there from Marco Rubio, potentially previewing a big fight for tonight, and this is so important for so many of the candidates, because this is the last chance before the big day, Super Tuesday -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Sunlen. Thank you very much.

Let's discuss. With us this morning, we have CNN political commentator and senior contributor for "The Daily Caller," brother Matt Lewis, and CNN national political reporter, the one and only Maeve Reston. Thank you for joining us here in this icy set that we've got working.

All right. So let's look. We have the state of play tonight, and then we have this intrigue that just came up with Mitt Romney. A little bit more of a headline, so let's deal with it.

Matt, what do you think is going on here, the obvious irony -- and Trump quick to catch it -- was Mitt Romney talking about taxes?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

CUOMO: Obviously, a reminder that his tax return showed that he was really benefiting from the ability of an investor to move income into investment gains and, therefore, pay a very low tax rate. What do you think is going on now?

LEWIS: Right, and that -- so that did hurt Mitt Romney, because Mitt Romney went through the campaign sort of apologizing for being rich.

Donald Trump is a completely different phenomenon. He boasts about being rich. If he was using carried interest or sheltering income, he would say, "That proves I'm a good businessman."

So I don't know what this, quote unquote, "bombshell" is. But I would be really surprised if anything we learn would actually hurt Trump. So far nothing has. He seems to be Teflon. And so building this up as some bombshell, I don't know what the end game here us. It's unclear to me.

CUOMO: Does it smell a little bit to you like, Maeve, like maybe the elders have gotten together? Because he's not the only one talking about Trump's taxes. He's not the only one talking in the GOP about what else may be there.

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: For sure they're all talking about, you know, what the end game is to take down Donald Trump.

But I will say, also, having covered Mitt Romney in 2012, it's very unusual for him to throw this kind of punch out there without having something behind it. I don't know what it is or if there's anything there, but it's -- most of his moves are calculated, and I think that, in this case, it's to point out the fact that we really do know very little about Donald Trump's business background. There's not a lot of transparency around his business dealings.

CUOMO: Right.

RESTON: Around what he's making, around what he's giving to charity, and tax returns really can tell you a lot about a candidate.

To Matt's point, I don't know how much that will matter to the voters that are for Trump, but to all those other independents and Republicans who are not for Trump, it could make a big difference in this race.

CUOMO: (AUDIO GAP) are in private entities.

RESTON: Right.

CUOMO: So you don't have these reporting requirements that you do with everybody else.

Is there a chance that his tax returns show that he's worth less than he says he is? Absolutely there is that chance, and it's a very good one. Will it matter? No, because he's still going to be worth a hell of a lot of money.

So let's talk about tonight. The idea that Marco Rubio is going to come out guns blazing and take it to Donald Trump. Do you buy that?

LEWIS: I don't, because I think that the candidates, there's this sort of tragedy of the commons or prisoners -- there's weird game theory happening with the candidates.

Now, those of us who want to -- who believe the Republican Party needs to stop Donald Trump, or the conservative movement needs to stop Donald Trump, we have a different incentive. We think, yes, Rubio should go after Donald Trump. I think if you're Marco Rubio, I still think it's Rubio's thinking, "I have to take down Ted Cruz." So my guess is that Rubio will counter punch if Trump comes after him, but he will not go -- he'll go in the debate, hoping to avoid that punch.

CUOMO: So let's talk about how. My theory has been all along you do not beat Donald Trump by playing his game and going after him. You have to offer a better alternative. We don't know that that's happened yet looking at the polls.

So if you're going to go at him, what are you going to do tonight? I understand why they'd want to go at each other. Rubio and Cruz are knotted up at the same number two results in a row, which is unusual. But what do they have any reason to bank on working tonight? RESTON: Well, you know what we haven't seen yet? Because the

stage has been so large, and there's so many candidates, is anyone really trip up Trump on -- on foreign policy. Journalists have, but the other candidates haven't done a good job yet of really, you know, demonstrating, as Marco Rubio would like to do, that he's much more knowledgeable, for example, on foreign policy than Donald Trump is, which is what his argument would be.

[06:10:13] And I think that, you know, we're probably not going to see Marco Rubio go after Donald Trump tonight, because he's seen so many other candidates fall with that strategy. But we could see...

CUOMO: But he's had his own problems.

RESTON: Right. Right.

CUOMO: Chris Christie is like Santa Claus compared to Donald Trump, going after him on the debate.

RESTON: ... bursting at the debate stage. So he probably learned his lesson from that confrontation.

But -- but we could see, you know, more pressure on Trump to really explain what he's going to do, whether the depth of his foreign policy knowledge is as it should be to be president.

CUOMO: Now, we're playing it as if Trump will be on the defensive. That's something we've also never seen. He has been talking about what he's going to say, that there's been a little bit of a suggestion back and forth. Let's play some of that sound for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: The frontrunner in this case, Donald Trump, has actually alluded to the fact that he thinks parts of Obamacare...

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: What do you see as Senator Rubio's biggest vulnerability?

TRUMP (via phone): We'll be -- you know, we'll be totally prepared. You know, people have not done very well against me. So far everybody that's attacked me has gone down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: True, going head to head with him hasn't been easy, to my point, that I think you have to show that you're something better. At the end of the day, the people aren't just going to buy off on who is the harshest person. It's going to be the best person.

RESTON: And it feels like Donald Trump is on a glad path at this point. Every single debate, almost, he has shown that he has command of the stage and that these other guys just haven't figured out how to take him on. So we really are going to have to see some serious fireworks from Cruz or Rubio. CUOMO: He's seen as the antidote.

RESTON: Yes.

CUOMO: This idea that he's just a reflection of people's anger, I think that's overly simplistic. He's seen as the remedy to what they don't like.

LEWIS: And he's almost unstoppable. And that's why I think -- I don't think Rubio or Cruz have the sense of urgency that everyone else has. You know, and maybe Mitt Romney as a party elder see. I think that -- I think that they're -- you know, Rubio is hoping to win Florida, win Virginia. Cruz is looking at Texas. But it's not strategic. I mean, I've basically made the argument it's time to hit the panic button and...

CUOMO: What would that mean? So you hit it?

LEWIS: Yes.

CUOMO: Now what happens? Is it like that button we all have on our desk that says "Easy"?

LEWIS: Well, one really crazy theory that I propose is to look at the presidential election, what the Whigs did in 1836.

CUOMO: The Whigs?

LEWIS: Yes.

CUOMO: In 1836?

LEWIS: This is desperate -- this is desperation, but basically, what the plan would be is you cede Texas to Cruz. Let Cruz win Texas, unopposed. Let Rubio win Florida unopposed. Let Kasich win Ohio unopposed if

you're the -- if they're the non-Trump candidates and deprive Trump of the 1,237 delegates he needs to clinch the nomination.

The premise here would be force a contested convention, because that's as good as it gets; because there's no way Rubio or Cruz could actually win the nominee.

RESTON: That sounds crazy.

LEWIS: We're at -- we're at that point.

CUOMO: Is there any suggestion of any type of concerted action along those lines? You'd think that -- they can't even get the party to come out and have Mitt Romney talk about, you know, fiscal issues, you know, suggesting bombshells.

So we don't know that that is going to happen, the 1836...

LEWIS: No. It's not going to happen.

CUOMO: But we do know that there's going to be a lot of gaming going out tonight on the stage. Final point, Maeve.

RESTON: I do think that we are once again going to see Cruz and Rubio just take each other on really hard. They did -- you know, that's what Cruz did immediately after the Nevada results were announced. He didn't go after Donald Trump. He went after Marco Rubio. And they are going to continue to try to knock each other out to emerge as the alternative.

CUOMO: So the big -- that's the big question tonight. Of course, we'll all be watching. Maeve, Matt, thank you very much.

And as you all know, tonight will be the big night where all of this gets proven for you. And you're going to join our esteemed colleague, Wolf Blitzer, as he guides these candidates in their discussion tonight. A really big moment, the last one before Super Tuesday. That will be tonight, 8:30 Eastern, and of course, only on CNN.

Alisyn, back to you in New York.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Thanks so much.

Two days out now from the South Carolina Democratic primary. And there may be signs that Bernie Sanders, who's well behind in the polls there, is writing off the state.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton getting a major endorsement from Sanders' top senior Senate colleague.

CNN's Chris Frates is live in Ohio with more. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

So you might be wondering why, with just two days left in the South Carolina primary, is Bernie Sanders campaigning here in Ohio and places like Illinois and Michigan. And to answer that question, you have to look at the calendar and do a little math.

The Sanders campaign is looking ahead to the more than two dozen contests over the next few weeks that will award the bulk of the delegates a candidate needs to win the nomination.

So here's where the math comes in. Because those delegates are awarded proportionately, Sanders can essentially fight Clinton to a draw. So in a place like Ohio, where the Sanders campaign doesn't talk a lot about winning the nomination, they can put points on the board.

And that's going to be huge, because in South Carolina, Sanders, despite putting a lot of time and money into that state, still lags behind Clinton by double digits. And that's largely because she has such huge support among the African-American community. In fact, take a listen to what she told a town hall just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) [06:15:15] CLINTON: There's something wrong when African-

American families are denied three times more often trying to get a mortgage than white families with the same financial background.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So Hillary Clinton also got a big endorsement yesterday. Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid telling our own Manu Raju that he supports Clinton, so she is coalescing that establishment support. She has support among these so-called super delegates. Those are your establishment delegates. They're behind Clinton.

But she's still campaigning very hard in South Carolina. She'll be there all day today, talking about breaking down barriers. That's a theme aimed directly at black voters.

But Sanders for his part, the campaign points out that he's been campaigning there for months and that he will be back there tomorrow so they're not writing off the state, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK. Good to know, Chris. Thanks so much for that update.

Well, Donald Trump hoping for a Super Tuesday sweep, and in the process, pundits say he's changing the face of the Republican Party. We'll discuss that, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:20:19] CAMEROTA: Donald Trump heading into Super Tuesday states with three straight wins under his belt, and he's done it by defying conventional wisdom and definition. Has he changed the very face of the Republican Party?

Let's turn to Maggie Haberman, a CNN political analyst and presidential campaign correspondent for "The New York Times." And Errol Louis, CNN political commentator and a political anchor for Time Warner Cable News.

Maggie, he's changing the definition of the Republican Party. He does -- you can't fit him into a box. I mean, look at some of the things on the campaign trail that he has stood for. He's pro- business. OK, check. That's Republican. He's anti-illegal immigrant. OK, that fits. He's pro military. Here's where it gets interesting. He supports eminent domain. He had been vocally pro- choice up until recently. He's anti-establishment. What does this mean for the Republican Party?

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I'm not clear that this is a candidacy that anybody else could do, but we are certainly living in an election cycle where ideology is not breaking down along the lines we are used to.

In fact, the candidate who made the hardest ideological bet, Senator Ted Cruz, is struggling in the face of that bet, right? He bet that what people wanted was ideological purity. But in fact, what people want is somebody who's going to seem tough and take on the government.

And so what you're seeing is that is where Trump is doing very well.

Where I have been struck by what Trump does, is Trump stands on a FOX News debate stage and defend -- and defends Planned Parenthood. Like, that is very unusual to hear. I don't know that anybody else, again, would be able to do that.

CAMEROTA: Right.

HABERMAN: But he has support from across demographic groups. He has basically very broad support within the existing GOP. What he has done is in these open primaries, New Hampshire, South Carolina, you have had independents and even, I think, some Democrats vote for him. That's not changing the GOP. That is just taking advantage of an open primary and bringing out people who have never voted before. Whether these are people who would remain within the GOP coalition, I think is very much the open question.

CAMEROTA: OK. So Maggie doesn't see this as a permanent change. But he's clearly mixing it up and pulling from all sorts of, you know, quadrants that previously had not happened.

LOUIS: Well, that's right. And look, it's more like a hostile takeover, right? At least one article I read compared it to sort of a pirate taking over a ship, you know.

CAMEROTA: I like that imagery.

LOUIS: and where is he going to take the ship? I mean, where is he going to take the ship? That is an open question and a very important one. There are a lot of people -- Paul Ryan comes to mind, the speaker of the House, who are really committed ideologically, who go around giving seminars, you know, sort of trying to talk to people, trying to persuade people.

Right now, you raised a very good question. You know, what's a Trump Republican look like? I only know of one. His name is Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: But you know, you can't argue with the enthusiasm or engagement that he has infused into this race. Look at the voter turnout numbers. Let me pull this up for you, because it's really striking.

In 2016, in Nevada, South Carolina, New Hampshire and Iowa, look at the numbers versus 2012. How much more -- how many more people are turning out -- Republicans, to vote. Maggie, is this the Trump factor?

HABERMAN: I think almost no question. And I don't think it's the only factor. I do think that the Republicans are the party out of power from the White House. They very much want to recapture it, and you have a very engaged Republican electorate in a way that's less so on the Democratic side. But I do think that you have seen all of these new people come

in. Corey Lewandowsky, Trump's campaign manager, said to us a couple of weeks ago before New Hampshire that they were targeting voters who either hadn't voted before or had barely voted in recent cycles. That's not low-propensity voters. That's basically no-propensity voters. So this is a very unusual thing to see.

But it is driven -- it's not driven by targeting by the Trump campaign, as best as I can tell, although I know they say that. It seems to be driven by this sort of force of personality that Trump presents and this promise of "I'm going to make things better." That seems to be enough of a sell for a lot of people to hear.

I would caution this is not necessarily going to hold in a general election. The general election -- electorate.

CAMEROTA: Why not?

HABERMAN: Because it doesn't look the same as the Republican primary electorate. The Republican primary base is very different, has a different set of concerns than the electorate at large. I mean, look, the idea that Trump has a low ceiling that we've all said, and I was guilty of that, too, and that that's going to be...

CAMEROTA: That he's busted through time and again.

HABERMAN: He had 46 percent in Nevada the other night, and so granted, it was a very small number of votes, but that's a lot. And Rubio got no bounce out of all of his support.

CAMEROTA: We say that he's anti -- he says he's anti- establishment. But he is getting a little bit more establishment now endorsements or support? What's happening?

LOUIS: Well, he's gotten a couple of congressional members of Congress, really, the first to come over. And so that plus the lieutenant governor of South Carolina, that's sort of showing that a little bit of cracks in the wall there, and that there is going to be a period in which county chairmen, state chairs, members of Congress, governors here and there are going to say, "Well, look, if this guy's going to be the nominee, I don't want to be the last guy to sign up."

[06:25:15] And that's where it starts to get more interesting about what does this means for the party, and what changes in the party? You know, it's hard to believe that people -- especially those who are running this year, or the county chairs, who have to sort of mount some campaigns this year, that they're going to just sort of step aside and say, "We're going to ignore the will of the people." If the party wants Trump, the party organization will have to follow the people.

HABERMAN: I agree. I mean, I just think that it's going to be -- for House members, where their districts are carved specifically, I think it's a lot easier to establish sort of a connection to Trump without risks. I think where you're going to start to see it get interesting is where it becomes statewide races, gubernatorial races, Senate races.

I'm not sure how those folks are going to handle the Trump factor. And to Errol's point about, you know, Paul Ryan, a colleague of mine wrote a piece about he's on a collision course with Trump right now. Trump just a couple of days ago blamed Paul Ryan for the party's loss in 2012, which is not supported by data, just based on his -- on his argument. But you are going to start seeing in -- in purple districts, in purple states, it's going to be interesting to see how people handle having Trump at the top of their ticket. It's also going to be interesting to see whether Trump maintains a lot of this language, or does he sprint to the center.

CAMEROTA: It already has been interesting. Maggie, Errol, thanks so much for the analysis. Great to talk to both of you.

JOHNS: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: What happens if President Obama nominates a Republican to the Supreme Court? The White House is already vetting one GOP governor. Would the Senate dial back the rhetoric? Would they consider him? We'll let you know who it is and how it might all play out, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)