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Rubio & Cruz Spar with Trump in Raucous CNN Debate; Democrats Make Final Push Before S.C. Primary. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired February 26, 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: This guy's a joke artist and this guy's a liar.

[05:58:57] SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Tower, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.

TRUMP: I got along with everybody. You get along with nobody.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I was leading the fight against the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, he was firing Dennis Rodman on "Celebrity Apprentice."

TRUMP: I know you're embarrassed. I know you're embarrassed. But keep fighting. Keep swinging. Swing for the fences.

RUBIO: If I hadn't inherited $200 million, you know what Donald Trump would do right now?

TRUMP: No, no, no, no, no.

RUBIO: Selling watches...

CRUZ: Donald, you can get back...

TRUMP: I'm having a lot of fun up here tonight, I have to tell you.

CRUZ: Donald, relax.

TRUMP: I am relaxed. You're the basket case.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.

CUOMO: Good morning and what a night. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

It is Friday, February 26, 6 a.m. in the East. Alisyn is in New York. We're in Houston after a blockbuster GOP debate last night. Just four days before Super Tuesday, everybody came to play. A real fight for the Republican nomination, escalating into an all-out street brawl, basically.

You had feisty Marco Rubio getting high praise for his performance, which was basically about trying to go directly at Donald Trump on foreign policy, health care, hiring practices. The attacks also nasty and more personal, though, surprisingly, Alisyn, not so much from Trump.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, there was a lot of feistiness, Chris. Trump became the main target throughout the night. Rubio and Ted Cruz bashing the millionaire at every turn. Will it make a difference to voters when they head to the polls on Super Tuesday.

We have the raucous debate covered the way only CNN can, starting with Sunlen Serfaty, live in Houston for us. Give us the highs and lows, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Alisyn. Well, this really did devolve into an all-out war pushed forward by a newly-aggressive Marco Rubio going for broke against Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (voice-over): An all-out war of insults and putdowns breaking out in the final GOP debate before Super Tuesday.

RUBIO: But you're the only person on the stage that's ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally. You hired some workers from Poland...

TRUMP: I'm the only one on this stage that's hired people.

SERFATY: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz worried about Donald Trump's trifecta wins in the last three Republican contests, unleashing an onslaught of attacks against the front-runner from illegal immigration...

CRUZ: When I was leading the fight against the Gang of Eight amnesty bill, where was Donald? He was firing Dennis Rodman on "Celebrity Apprentice."

RUBIO: If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.

SERFATY: ... to U.S. trade relations with China and Mexico...

RUBIO: The second thing about the trade war, I don't understand, because your ties and the clothes you make is made in Mexico and in China. So you're going to be starting a trade war against your own ties and clothing.

TRUMP: They devalue their currency to such an extent that our businesses cannot compete with them. Our workers lose their jobs. You don't know anything about it, because you're...

RUBIO: I don't know anything about bankrupting four -- you lied about the Polish workers. TRUMP: Yes, yes, yes. Thirty-eight years ago. Thirty-eight

years ago.

RUBIO: Oh, OK. He lied 38 years ago. I guess there's a statute of limitations on lies.

SERFATY: ... to Obamacare...

TRUMP: You'll have different plans. You'll have competition. I have so many different plans.

RUBIO: Now he's repeating himself.

TRUMP: No, no, no. I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago. And I'm going to tell you...

RUBIO: I heard you repeat yourself five minutes ago.

TRUMP: It was a meltdown. I watched it. I watched him melt down on the stage like I've never seen anybody. I thought he came out of the swimming pool.

RUBIO: I said...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's talk about your plan.

RUBIO: Every night he says five things: everyone's dumb. He's going to make America great again. We're going to win, win, win. He's winning in the polls, and the line's around the street.

SERFATY: ... and Hillary Clinton...

TRUMP: First of all, talking about the polls, I'm beating him awfully badly in the polls.

CRUZ: You're not beating Hillary.

TRUMP: Now, if I can't -- hey, if I can't beat her, you're really going to get killed.

So let me ask you this, because you're really getting beaten badly. I know you're embarrassed; I know you're embarrassed. Keep fighting, keep swinging. Swing for the fences.

SERFATY: Trump eventually lashing out at both of the freshmen senators at the same time.

TRUMP: You are all talk and no action. What I see up here -- I mean, first of all, this guy's a joke artist and this guy's a liar. You have a combination of factors. He can't do it for the obvious reason, and he can't do it, because he doesn't know how to tell the truth. I know politicians, believe it or not, better than you do, and it's not good.

CRUZ: I believe it. I believe you know politicians much better than I do because for 40 years you've been funding liberal Democratic politicians. And by the way...

TRUMP: I funded you, too. Gave you a check.

CRUZ: Donald, relax.

TRUMP: I'm relaxed. You're the basket case. Go ahead, go ahead. Don't get nervous.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: Now, with the dust on all of that still very much settling this morning, the big question going forward is how will this change the dynamic of the race going forward? Of course, Chris, this is only four days before Super Tuesday.

CUOMO: And so much that we expected. We got even more last night. Someone, thank you very much for trying to capture some of what happened last night. The piece would have to be two hours to get it all.

CNN political commentator and senior contributor to "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis, joins us now, along with CNN national political reporter Maeve Reston and CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston.

Mark, we've been looking at these things for a long time. I have never seen anything like last night. What do you think the big surprise was in the main dynamic?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Look, I have to go back to the idea that Marco Rubio came out swinging against Donald Trump. And, as Maeve and Matt said earlier, the bottom line is that he did telegraph it a little bit, but not everybody picked up on it. Certainly, Donald Trump didn't pick up on it.

I mean, you know, Rubio said he was going go after Ted Cruz, and he was going to try to take him out and I think he was successful in trying to build up his own status by going after Donald Trump. And I have to tell you, I asked the Rubio guys last night after the debate, I said, you know, "When did you make this decision to go after Trump," and they said within the last 48 hours. They decided, in order, that they had to tell -- they had to tell the donors and the GOP establishment class that they could do it and they could go after Trump.

[06:05:24] So, Maeve, what was your take on what worked best, and let's not say worst but least last night onstage?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, the thing that Marco Rubio did so well was to never let up on Donald Trump. And we've seen all these other candidates just wither and flame out, you know, under Donald Trump's attack. And Marco Rubio just kept bringing it back, bring it back at him.

It was like, in the first moment, it was like he hit him with, like, the entire oppo book, like dropping, you know, four different things that were going to be a problem for Donald Trump right off the top and then continually coming back to those attacks.

And Donald Trump did fine holding -- holding up to it, but Rubio, I think, really demonstrated what he needed to demonstrate to donors at this critical moment right before Super Tuesday when he's going to need a lot -- a huge cash infusion to his campaign, that he can make this a two-man race.

CUOMO: It's an interesting case, the two-man race case. That yes, it wasn't about taking people from Trump but keeping his own people solid.

RESTON: Right, right.

CUOMO: Let's play you a little mashup of what Maeve is talking about, about Rubio's relentlessness last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: He has supported you, given hundreds of thousands of dollars to Democrats. Anybody who really cared about illegal immigration wouldn't be hiring illegal immigrants.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Tell me about your plan.

RUBIO: He says five things. Everyone's dumb. He's going to make America great again. He's win, win, win. He's winning in the polls. The line's around the state. Every night, same thing.

CRUZ: I believe you know politicians much better than I do, because for 40 years, you've been funding liberal Democratic politicians.

RUBIO: You lied about the Polish workers.

TRUMP: Yes, yes, yes. Thirty-eight years ago. Thirty-eight years ago.

RUBIO: You lied 38 years ago. All right. I guess there's a statute of limitations on lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: You know, good. I called for Rubio's sound, but we got Rubio and Cruz. And that's good, because it leads us to the next...

RESTON: And Polish workers.

CUOMO: You had these two points of contact coming at the man in the middle last night. What did you make of it, and who did it play to best?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First, I think, what if they had been doing this all along? It took them this long to figure out how to go up to Donald Trump.

CUOMO: What's to figure out? I mean, all of these things existed. They didn't come up with anything new.

LEWIS: I don't think it was a matter -- I don't think it was a matter that it took them this long to decide what to do. I think it's a matter of it took them this long to figure out how to go toe to toe with Donald Trump, I really do.

But I will say this. Rubio really reminded me of, like, a Sugar Ray Leonard, a Muhammad Ali, a boxer, someone who was fighting a bigger opponent but who just had this flury of punches and then counterpunches.

And that's the thing, as Maeve was saying about Rubio last night. A lot of times somebody will have a rehearsed line. They'll throw it at Trump; it's a good zinger. And then he just comes back and destroys them. Rubio had counter-punch after counter-punch, and just this flurry of activity that, really, Trump was on the defensive almost all night.

CUOMO: And but you still feel that Cruz found time to shine within that dynamic?

LEWIS: I have this counter-intuitive theory, which is, you know, Rubio did prove to donors last night that he's tough and he can stand up to Trump. What he didn't do is do what Rubio does best. Rubio at his best is inspirational, and optimistic and eloquent. He wasn't that guy last night.

Ted Cruz, I think, is much more in his element being a lawyer, attacking somebody. So I think in a way, the environment benefit Ted Cruz.

RESTON: I think that was why we all have the perception that Ted Cruz did not do as well as Marco Rubio. It took him a long time, like kind of on the windup of the answers. It was very prosecutorial with Trump. It worked certainly in some moments, but other moments it seemed like Trump got the best of him. And I think that, you know, it's so interesting, because the electorate is really looking at three very different candidates; and you saw those sides of them last night.

PRESTON: Look, this campaign is all about moments in time. Right? That's my theme. It's all about moments in time. And last night, the moment for Marco Rubio was to try to convince the establishment that he had the wherewithal to go toe to toe with Donald Trump. And why I think that Marco Rubio bested Cruz last night, although again, Cruz didn't have a bad debate. Is that Marco Rubio did it in the first 90 minutes of the debate. Did it the first hour of the debate, which is critical because...

RESTON: The first five minutes.

PRESTON: Yes. You're right. Because that way he came out of the gate strong.

And if you noticed during the debate, Rubio kind of faded away a little bit, but he didn't fade away in a bad way. He just kind of faded away, and then he let Trump and Cruz. LEWIS: Some of it was just a sort of a machismo. You have to

show toughness, that you can go up against Trump, but I also thought there were some substantive things that, if repeated over time, I think could potentially actually hurt Trump.

CUOMO: One of the ironies of this macho metric that's going on on the GOP side, things is that John Kasich probably offered the most substance that's high on the electability executive scale last night.

[06:10:07] RESTON: Right.

CUOMO: But do you think it broke through?

RESTON: I mean, I think there will be some Republican voters who are watching the debate who looked at the way that Kasich was talking in a substantive way talking about policy, and said, "Hey, I really love that guy," but sometimes it just felt like he was in a debate at a different state. I mean, that he wasn't even on the same stage. And I think that makes it a very difficult dynamic for him to break through.

CUOMO: Although Carson had the victim line of the night, saying, "Well, someone attacked me." Although I still think maybe the line of the night came after...

RESTON: Fruit salad.

CUOMO: Fruit salad was OK. That was weird. That was the line that makes you hungry. That's right.

Trump after the debate, I come at him again about the taxes. Right? Because it really does seem like an issue he could dispose of just by doing the kind of disclosure he's pushing Hillary Clinton to do all the time.

And he says, "I'm being audited. I can't do it. I would be stupid to do it. And I think I may get audited a lot" -- pause -- "because I'm a Christian."

RESTON: Right. The best line of the night.

LEWIS: He's such a martyr for religious liberty.

CUOMO: He loves the Christians. He loves the Christians.

RESTON: The people that are going to buy that line are the people who are already with Trump.

PRESTON: Who look at the IRS and the government as -- as big government.

RESTON: As the enemy.

PRESTON: As the enemy, exactly.

CUOMO: After two hours of slogging it out, he was still nimble enough to make his case.

RESTON: I mean, that's really...

CUOMO: Matt, Maeve, Mark, thank you very much for really helping us understand what was just a titanic night within the GOP race, to be sure, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. We do have to talk about the other side. The Democrats are just one day away from their first southern primary in South Carolina. Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by double digits in that state in the polls. So how important is South Carolina?

CNN's Joe Johns is live in the capital of Columbia for us. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

Hillary Clinton's campaign really focused on two tracks over the last 24 hours. The communications team sending out message after message, attacking Republicans on everything from tax cuts to immigration to the Supreme Court, while here on the ground in South Carolina, it was all about getting out the vote.

The former secretary of state herself, along with her husband, the former president, and they will be joined today by their daughter, Chelsea, traversing South Carolina. The whole point of this is to try to run up the vote on Saturday to increase momentum going into Super Tuesday.

Bernie Sanders, for his part, was out west going to Illinois, Ohio, and also Michigan, visiting Flint, Michigan, in fact, for the first time, the scene of that water crisis that has dominated the headlines for weeks.

Now, the one thing that has been a common theme running here in South Carolina and other places is the issue that has been dogging Hillary Clinton of late, and that has to do with Bernie Sanders' call for her to release transcripts of her speeches to Wall Street banks, "The New York Times" in an editorial calling for her to do that.

Back to you.

CAMEROTA: Of course, Joe, she has said that, "When everyone else does it, I'll be happy to do it." We'll see if that gains any steam over the next two days.

Thanks so much for that.

Stay with CNN all day tomorrow for complete coverage of the South Carolina Democratic primary.

Well, Donald Trump on the defensive at last night's CNN debate. The Republican front-runner taking heavy fire from Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz. Did it make a dent in Trump's momentum going into Super Tuesday? We'll hear from Donald Trump next. (COMMERCIAL BREAK

[06:17:45] CUOMO: Welcome back. Donald Trump was the man in the middle for better and worse last night at the CNN Republican debate. He was attacked relentlessly by Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, reminiscent of the old wrestling Malachi Crunch in a bill of firing exchanges and even shouting matches.

So the best time to talk to these guys is right after the debate before they've had time to be polished up by their teams. And that's when we got Donald Trump to talk about what happened on that stage and what going on with his taxes.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: They're politicians. They want to get elected, but they're doing badly. I think CNN did a very good job, but I think they had a lot of focus on the three in the middle. Maybe that's the way it should have been. I don't know. But I was very happy. I thought it was a great. I thought it was exciting, and I thought it was a great.

CUOMO: What did you feel about the dynamic of having to take both of them on?

TRUMP: I felt it was fine. I've dealt with the toughest people over my lifetime and I've dealt with much tougher. I think it was fine. I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the debating process.

CUOMO: During that debate as it was going on, Marco Rubio started on his website selling watches, as a pretend gimmick to say that they were watches that, you know, would have been yours if you would have been selling, but they're just donations for him. It was a quick response during the actual debate. What do you make of the move?

TRUMP: The problem with Marco is he's a choke artist. He chokes. And he did it in front of Chris Christie. I've never seen anything like that. I was standing right next to him. I looked over and said, "Are you OK?" He looked like he came out of the swimming pool. He was soaking wet. And he kept repeating himself, repeating himself.

CUOMO: He tried to use that on you tonight.

TRUMP: No, no, but I didn't do it. Repeating. I just say, "Hey." I just say what's needed. I didn't do that.

But he -- he really -- we can't have a choke artist. One thing I've learned from sports, I was actually a very good athlete. When you're a choker, you're always a choker. We can't have that. We can't take any chances in this country.

CUOMO: How long, now that you're starting to get the votes in, and you're at the top, do you think people should start thinking about leaving this race? TRUMP: I think so. But, you know, it's not for me to say. I

would say that a few of them maybe should. And you know, Marco, I'm 20 points up on him in Florida. And with Cruz, I'm even. It seems the last polls I'm even in Texas and winning every other state.

Yes, I think so. I think it's going to be over fairly quickly, and I don't think there's going to be a convention.

[06:20:01] CUOMO: It seemed like Senator Rubio was more intent on going after you directly tonight than even Senator Cruz. Why do you think that was?

TRUMP: I was a little surprised by it, but I liked it. I thought it was fine.

CUOMO: Did he show you a toughness that you didn't see against Christie?

TRUMP: No, I think it was the same basic person. But he -- he's a meltdown guy. I mean, I'm looking at him, he's pouring sweat. I've never seen anything like it. I don't know what the problem is. But he's just pouring down sweat. We have to have somebody that doesn't sweat. We need somebody that, when they walk into Putin's office or Putin walks into our office or the Chinese come to deal with us, we know what they're doing.

CUOMO: They came after you tonight on something that's in the news right now that really is at your control. Mitt Romney during the debate was bringing it up again. You can show him in a second if you want to. Why is Trump delaying releasing?

TRUMP: Let me explain about Mitt. Mitt is a guy who was a horrible candidate. He lost a race that should have been won, and it should have been won easily. And I don't know what happened. He, like, disappeared the last two months.

But when Mitt gave his tax returns, just so you understand, it was about six months from now in 2012. It was exactly September 21. And t hat's when he gave his tax return. We're in a different world.

So, you know, Mitt is just trying to remain relevant. Nobody's talking to him much anymore. He got some publicity today. But the one problem I have is that I'm always audited by the IRS, which I think is very unfair. I don't know, maybe because of religion, maybe because of something else, maybe because I'm doing this, although this is just recently.

CUOMO: What do you mean religion?

TRUMP: Well, because of the fact that I'm a strong Christian, and I feel strongly about it. And maybe there's a bias.

CUOMO: Do you think you're being audited for being a strong Christian? TRUMP: You see what's happened. I mean, you have many groups

that are complaining about that. They've been complaining about it for a long time.

CUOMO: What about the ones that aren't audited. This seems like an easy answer for you.

TRUMP: No, I can't do that. We can't do that. We have to put it out there in a very unified way. They all relate to each other. I don't know if you saw the picture where I have, where I have almost a thousand.

CUOMO: Big stacks of paper.

TRUMP: The ones from previous relate to the ones later, and it doesn't make sense, unless they're already...

CUOMO: You know what you would do with this issue if somebody else had it. You'd say, "What are you talking about? Tax returns, just put them out. Doesn't want to put them out."

TRUMP: Nobody that's under a regular audit -- I mean, it's just a regular audit. Almost every year, I think for 12 years, 10 years, 12 years, I get audited. Nobody would ever put out their returns that's under an audit.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: All right. Let's discuss Chris's great interview with Donald Trump and so much more. Back with our panel, CNN political commentator and senior contributor to "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis; CNN national political reporter, Maeve Reston; and CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston.

OK, guys. One of -- let's talk about this, because one of the driving issues in this race since the day Donald Trump got in has been his plan to build a wall along the Mexican border, and he's always said he's going to make Mexico pay for it.

Well, yesterday the former president of Mexico, Vicente Fox, was asked for the first time about it. He gave a somewhat salty response, and then during the debate last night Donald Trump responded to him. So watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VICENTE FOX, FORMER PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: I declare I'm not going to pay for that (EXPLETIVE DELETED) wall. He should pay for it. He's got the money.

TRUMP: The wall just gotten feet taller. I can only tell you if I would have used even half of that word, it would have been a national scandal. This guy used a filthy, disgusting word on television, and he should be ashamed of himself and he should apologize, OK?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Hey, Mark Preston. Interesting to hear Donald Trump offended by someone's filthy language.

RESTON: Can we stop a second? Are we watching CNN or we watching "Saturday Night Live"? "Saturday Night Live" could just clip that and just run it at the top on Saturday. My gosh. I mean, that was amazing. And the fact that Donald Trump is talking down about somebody using vulgar language is just -- I have nothing else to say. Mike dropped. I'm done.

CAMEROTA: So, Maeve -- Maeve, to the larger issue, did that -- did you think that that was a chink in the plan for the wall to hear the actual former president saying never going to happen?

RESTON: Well, that issue matters the most to Donald Trump's people, and they -- he's been actually using this line out on the trail a fair amount that the wall just got 10, 15 feet higher, and that people just love it in the crowd. So I think that was a moment where he was sort of playing to his own audience.

Other Republicans who don't necessarily support him would maybe look at Fox's comments and they a lot about that issue. But I think in the moment, Trump got what he wanted out of it.

CUOMO: Now, let's take a look at what we saw happen here in terms of what its net effect will be, was the beauty of last night, is that it mattered. It wasn't just quick one-liners that will go away. This will be the ball is now rolling around, and the momentum is going to go in a direction because of what happened last night. So let's figure out what it is.

Matt Lewis, everyone is making it about now, it's a two-man race. That's what the headlines dominate on. And then they diverge from there. You say, hold on. It's two men, but I think it's Trump and Cruz and not Rubio. Why?

[06:25:03] LEWIS: No. I think it's a three-man race. And if you watched the debate last night, very clearly, it was a three-man debate. John Kasich had some good moments, but he's sort of out over here, and Ben Carson, I think, superfluous.

CUOMO: It's then reasonable to offer solutions and not figure ways to destroy each other?

LEWIS: Yes, John Kasich is appealing to people who are not Republican primary voters, in my opinion.

But look, I think it was a three-man race. I think that Ted Cruz probably -- we're underestimating how well he did last night. I think Cruz performed very well. I think he did what he had to do. And remember, we're going into Texas where I think Cruz now probably helped himself in Texas. He was already up in recent polling.

CUOMO: Hold on. Answer this question for me, though. Because it's the Cruz question, which is yes, OK, maybe he helped himself, but is it the "nose to spite the face" move by saying compromise? He really doubled and tripled down on that last night. And does that give him electability going forward. People know with this guy, he will never work with anyone else.

RESTON: I think that is Ted Cruz's biggest problem, you hit the nail on the head with that. But I do think that last night what he was successful in doing in some of those longer exchanges was to really raise questions about Donald Trump's conservative credentials. And I think that he achieved that goal last night, and that's going to be really important in some of those southern states on Tuesday.

So in some ways, we're paying a lot of attention to the Rubio/Trump dynamic. But I think that Matt is right, that a lot of Cruz voters probably watched that and will turn out for him on Tuesday.

CUOMO: He served up a lot of possibilities of what would happen with Donald Trump in the national election. We've never heard them talk about Trump University. It's there. It existed. They brought up the...

RESTON: Yes. There was a huge surge in searches for that at the moment that Rubio brought that up.

LEWIS: Rubio said "Google that." I loved that, too.

PRESTON: So, look, we talked a lot about Donald Trump and the one-liners he's had and the dynamics on the stage. A couple things we need to put out there.

It was all substance last night. The questions were substance. They were not political questions. The fighting just occurred between the candidates. There was so much heat on that stage last night over issues such as the economy, over ISIS, over taxes. I mean, it was just -- over the budget.

And it was interesting that the heat got -- it wasn't so -- the personal name calling was really originating off of the differences over policy or lack thereof of details over policy. So that's what I thought was interesting.

CUOMO: Mark, Maeve, Matt, thank you very much.

You know, Alisyn, my father-in-law is of German descent. He tells me that Wolf Blitzer, that Blitzer in the vernacular means a man who makes lightning. He did it last night. Wolf's steady hand was the reason that these guys were able to go at it on that stage and on so many different topics. It was really interesting to watch how well he did and brought all that excitement to bear.

CAMEROTA: He was excellent, and that's also fascinating origin of his name. I want to be called Alisyn Blitzer. That's right. From now on. I knew you'd comply.

All right, Chris. Thanks so much. We'll get back to you in a moment. But there is other, very disturbing news to get to. There was another mass shooting last night. Three people killed, 14 injured when a gunman opened fire in a Kansas factory. We'll go live to the scene next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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