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Republican Presidential Candidate Clash in Debate; Attacks against Donald Trump in Republican Presidential Debate Examined; Democrat Presidential Candidates Campaign in South Carolina; Rubio Ambushes Trump At CNN GOP Debate. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired February 26, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[08:00:05] DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This guy's a joke artist and this guy's a liar.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) 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 a little with everybody. You get along with nobody.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I was leading the fight against the gang of eight amnesty bill, he was firing Dennis Roman "Celebrity Apprentice."
TRUMP: I know you're embarrassed, I know you're embarrassed, but keep fighting, keep swinging. Swing for the fences.
RUBIO: Selling watches and --
TRUMP: No, no, no.
CRUZ: Donald, you can --
TRUMP: I having a lot of fun up here tonight.
CRUZ: Donald, relax.
TRUMP: Go ahead. I'm relaxed. You're the basket case.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The sun is coming up, but the walls of that hall still reverberating with what happened last night. Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday, February 26th, 8:00 in the east now. We're in Houston. Alisyn is in New York. And the CNN Republican debate really became more than anyone expected. It was an all-out brawl. Sparks flying from jump, feisty Marco Rubio ripping into Donald Trump on foreign policy, health care, and for the workers that he hires. But Trump holding firm with just four days to go before super Tuesday. The race for the Republican nomination starting to resemble a street fight, Alisyn.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Right. Trump had a bull's-eye, basically, on his back from the beginning, Rubio and Ted Cruz hitting the billionaire front-runner with everything in their arsenal. For more on the fireworks and fallout from last night's debate we turn to the best political team on television starting with Sunlen Serfaty in Houston. Sunlen if people didn't get to watch the whole thing, what did they miss?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it certainly at times Alisyn felt more like a cage fight pushed forward by a newly aggressive Marco Rubio going for broke against Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY: An all-out war of insults and putdowns breaking out in the final GOP debate before super Tuesday.
RUBIO: You're the only person on this stage that's ever been fined for hiring people to work on your projects illegally. You hired --
TRUMP: No, no. I'm the only one on the stage that's hired people. You haven't hired anybody.
(APPLAUSE)
SERFATY: Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz worried about Donald Trump's trifecta of wins in the last three Republican contests, unleashing an onslaught of attacks against the frontrunner, 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 Tower he'll be using 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 China. So you're going to be starting a trade war against your own ties and suits.
TRUMP: They devalue their currency to such an extent our businesses cannot compete with them. Our workers lose their jobs.
RUBIO: And that's why you make them in Russia.
TRUMP: But you wouldn't know anything about it because you a lousy --
RUBIO: I don't know anything about bankrupting four companies.
You lied about the polish workers.
TRUMP: Yes, yes, 38 years ago.
RUBIO: You lied 38 years ago. I guess there's a statute of limitations on lies.
SERFATY: To Obama care.
TRUMP: You'll have many different plans. You'll have competition. You'll have so many different plans.
RUBIO: Now he's repeating himself.
TRUMP: No, I'm not repeat -- no, no, no. No.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago.
RUBIO: I heard you repeat yourself five times five seconds ago.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: I watched him melt down on a stage like I've never seen anybody. I thought he came out of a swimming pool.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let talk about your plans --
RUBIO: I see him almost every night. He says five things -- everyone's dumb, he's going to make America great again, we're going to win, win, win, we're winning in the polls, and the lines --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Senator, Rubio, please, please stop.
(APPLAUSE)
SERFATY: And Hillary Clinton.
TRUMP: First of all, talking about the polls, I'm beating him awfully badly in the polls.
CRUZ: But you're not beating Hillary.
TRUMP: I don't know. Then -- if I can't beat her you're really going to get killed, aren't you?
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: So let me ask you this, because you're really getting beaten badly. I know you're embarrassed, I know you're embarrassed, but keep fighting, keep swinging. Swing for the fences.
SERFATY: Trump eventually lashing out at both of the freshman senators at the same time. TRUMP: You are all talk and no action. What I've seen up here,
first of all, this guy's a joke artist are and this guy's a liar.
RUBIO: This guy always goes --
TRUMP: 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 mow how to tell the truth. I know politicians, believe it or not, better than you do, and it's not good.
CRUZ: Oh, I believe it. No, no, I believe you know politicians much better than I do because for 40 years you've been funding liberal democratic politicians.
TRUMP: I funded you. I funded him.
CRUZ: You're welcome to have the check back, because let's get it clear.
[08:05:02] Donald, relax.
TRUMP: Go ahead. I'm relaxed. You're the basket case. Go ahead. Go ahead. Don't get nervous.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SERFATY: And the dust still very much settling after all of that action last night. The big question now turns to, how does this change the dynamic of this race going forward? Of course, Chris, as we know, four days before the big day, super Tuesday.
CUOMO: Boy, there's no question that people wanted to have a big night and they came out. You could smell the desperation in the air last night. And part of it was you had senators Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz functioning like an old school wrestling Malachi crunch where they were coming out of opposite corners trying to crush Trump in the middle. But did it work? Let's discuss. CNN political commentator and Republican strategist Kevin Madden is here. CNN political commentator and former communications director for Senator Ted Cruz Amanda Carpenter, and the CNN political commentator and former White House political director for Ronald Reagan, Jeffrey Lord, a Donald Trump supporter.
So Amanda, when you look at last night, first of all, do you accept my premise that it did seem that sometimes it was concerted action from these two senators coming at the man in the middle?
AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SENATOR TED CRUZ: Yes. And as someone who has been waiting for this to happen, I think me and many other people were happy to see it in some respects Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio teaming up on Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Why?
CARPENTER: Listen, the Republican Party has been so fractured for so long, even though I think Donald Trump is the biggest threat to the Republican Party, ironically I think he will unite us against him. People see he is slowly becoming inevitable if something big doesn't happen. You have Ted Cruz teaming up with Marco Rubio to go against him. You have Mitt Romney coming out of the sidelines. We all agree that Donald Trump has to be stopped.
CUOMO: Not all of you. But not all of you, Jeffrey Lord, last primary he got 45 percent of the vote. He's ahead in just about all polls that matter, not here in Texas, by the way, but many of them. So what do you think the state of play is of the party as reflected on the stage last night?
JEFFREY LORD, FORMER REAGAN WHITE HOUSE POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I think that we're on the verge of a Trump sweep, if you will. Look at poll after poll after poll in one state after another here, and he's far ahead. Not just ahead, but far ahead.
CUOMO: You didn't think it changed the game last night?
LORD: I don't think so. I really don't. I'm not really sure we're at a stage -- this is, what, debate number 10? I think we've just about run the debate thread here.
CUOMO: Madden, I could hear you. You sounded like Howard Cosell last night doing call by call on this debate. What do you think all wound up in this fictitious scoreboard we have after all of these, Rubio's points on jabs landed or Trump's ability to take punches?
KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the headline, Rubio got the headlines he wanted out of this. In a debate if you're not on offense you're losing. And Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz really took the fight last night and started, for the first time began to expose a lot of Donald Trump's vulnerabilities. The question is, was it enough?
CUOMO: And who does it help?
MADDEN: I think to what Jeffrey said, momentum is a tremendously valuable commodity, and Donald Trump because of winning three of the last four, has a lot of momentum. For Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, the key is to not let their tactics stop just in that debate. Today, tomorrow, the next day, all the way through these next contests they have to take the same exact approach if they're going to try -- if they're going to be able to reverse Donald Trump's current trajectory.
CUOMO: Now, first, people are asking online, hey, why didn't you have the candidates on? Why did you do Trump last night? We had invitations out to all three of these men all the time, OK? It's about who takes the, not who gets offered them. But this morning we are hearing the continuation of last night. Marco Rubio seems to have found his voice that he wants at least where Donald Trump is involved. Here's what he's saying.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: The truth is that it is possible that no one gains the 1,236, the 1,236 delegates that are necessary to win. If you look at the way it's going now, no one may have that number of delegates, and that in and of itself would trigger a convention in which after the first round delegates are free to vote for whomever they want. I would not prefer that to be the case. I would much rather have someone win the nomination in this process, but not a con artist like Donald Trump.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: To add more math to it, we've counted that Marco Rubio used the word con artist at least eight times in his sound machine this morning.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: And it's interesting. And a little bit of a double entendre. First word, "con," in "conman" stands for confidence, and Donald Trump certainly has that. Look at his tweet this morning in response to what Rubio is putting out. Put it up there so I can read it. "Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. The problem is he's a choker. And once a choker, always a chalker, Mr. Meltdown."
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: Now, Jeffrey, obviously, you know, there's a little typo, no big deal. It's just Twitter, ugliest place in the -- last night in terms of confidence and what he wanted to project, he showed his head was on a swivel. He took shots from both of them at once. In the after-action interview, he then said this tax thing, not an issue, can't release it. Being audited, which is a little bit of a new layer on his story.
[08:10:05] And he thinks he's being audited, wait for it, because of his strong Christian values. You sit there looking at me with a straight face, which is one of the most remarkable qualities I've ever noted in a man before.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: Explain that situation to me.
LORD: Christopher, two words -- Lois Lerner. The credibility --
CUOMO: Is that me?
LORD: The credibility of the IRS is less than zero. Do you know how many people -- I don't know the answer to this.
CUOMO: Because of his Christian faith?
LORD: People of this country do not trust the IRS plain and simple. How many congressional investigations have we had? How many problems do we have? How often do we know that they deliberately targeted people for their political beliefs? Anything is believable, and you've got people all over this country that are looking, well, if they can go after Donald Trump they're sure coming after me. They may not have to sign a whole stack of tax returns like think, but it's equally complicated.
CUOMO: Does that work on this disclosure issue, Kevin Madden? Because it does smell a little odd, not just the auditing part, but telling Hillary Clinton, show me the e-mails, show me the speeches. Don't keep things from people? How does this play?
MADDEN: He sounds like he's trying to run out the clock on this. And I think every day that he goes without a level of disclosure on the taxes, particularly while Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz released their tax returns, becomes another day where potentially, voters begin to think he's hiding something. And that is a problem.
I can tell you from experience during the 2012 campaign when this was used against Mitt Romney, it did make people start to question whether or not they could trust him. So again, this is a potential vulnerability for Donald Trump and it could get worse every single day that he doesn't disclose.
CUOMO: You're shaking your head, yes? You think it's a big deal? Because I don't know what they would show.
CARPENTER: It sort of adds up. Thinking about Marco Rubio going really hard, he's a con artist. I'm also thinking about Ted Cruz saying again and again essentially he's a Washington dealmaker that is going to sell out Republicans. They're both getting at the idea that you can't trust this guy.
CUOMO: But what do you see in his taxes? The idea he's not worth as much as he says? That's not what taxes show. It's not a net assets thing. It's just earnings for one year.
CARPENTER: He's made a big part of the reason that he should be president is because he's been successful and wealthy.
CUOMO: He's wealthy.
CARPENTER: I also think the interesting thing about the tax is that it's been a big issue that Donald Trump has donated to liberal organizations like Planned Parenthood in the past.
CUOMO: Even that --
CARPENTER: In the past. But we don't know how much.
CUOMO: We dealt with all of this stuff before. Big shots like him, they don't donate very often personally. They do it through a foundation. They do it through a corporation. I don't get the bombshell aspect of this.
MADDEN: Yes. And --
CUOMO: Look, there may be one. Anything's possible. Why won't he put them out?
MADDEN: This is one of those things, though, where Donald Trump has shown that he sort of defies gravity than a traditional candidate would. The voters that support him right now seem to rationalize away even some of the things they don't like about him. So if he didn't make as much money as he said he did and maybe he paid a much lower rate than them, they may find a way to explain that away. So the idea that this is a bombshell, we'll have to wait and see.
LORD: Again, Chris, Donald Trump is an established personality, cultural figure good for what, 30, 40 years, whatever it is? The American people think they know him. I just the don't see -- if this kind of allegation were out there about Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio, I think that could hurt because they're not established --
CARPENTER: The thing that's ironic is that Donald Trump went around calling Ted Cruz a liar because of a loan he got from Goldman Sachs. He said it didn't add up. The only reason anybody knows about that loan is because it was disclosed on a Senate financial disclosure form. Others people have gone through this vetting. It's standard operating procedure. And the fact that Donald Trump won't subject himself to it raises a lot of questions.
CUOMO: He's saying he will. The question is, when?
CARPENTER: When it's too late. September, against Hillary.
CUOMO: That's your opinion. Don't dominate my discussion.
(LAUGHTER)
CUOMO: Great to have you all here as always, Jeffrey as well. Kevin, thank you very much.
Alisyn, back to you.
CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Let's talk about the Democratic side of the race. The candidates making their final pitch to voters in South Carolina ahead of tomorrow's primary. Hillary Clinton leading Bernie Sanders by a wide margin goal into that state, but Sanders is undeterred. CNN's Joe Johns is live in Columbia, South Carolina, with the latest. Hi, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. The Hillary Clinton messaging team over the last 24 hours or so has really been putting out a lot of stuff about the Republicans, trying to position their candidate as a general election candidate. But here on the ground in South Carolina it's been all about getting out the vote. The former secretary of state and her husband Bill Clinton traversing South Carolina, trying to do all they can to get the numbers up on Saturday, and then move into Super Tuesday. They'll be joined today here in South Carolina by their daughter Chelsea.
[08:15:00] Meanwhile, for Bernie Sanders, he was out in the Midwest over the last 24 hours, going to Ohio, going to Illinois, and also Flint, Michigan, his first appearance there, the scene of that water crisis that has created headlines over the last several weeks.
So, we're in a position now where Hillary Clinton is also fending off some criticism about her refusal to release transcripts of her speeches to Wall Street banks. Bernie Sanders has been hitting her on that. "The New York Times" has also called on her to release those transcripts. She said this morning on another network that she did not feel it was necessary at this time.
So, we continue to follow this, and looking forward to the primary tomorrow -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Yes, Joe. She is not seemed inclined to release those transcripts until her competitors, her rivals do the same. She said.
But, Joe, bring us all the latest whenever you have it. Thank you so much for that update.
Stay with CNN all day tomorrow for complete coverage of the South Carolina Democratic debate.
Well, Marco Rubio relentlessly attacking Donald Trump on the CNN debate stage last night. What was behind the change in strategy for Rubio? We'll ask his communications director, live on NEW DAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DANA BASH, CNN MODERATOR: Talk about your plan.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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.
BASH: Senator Rubio, please.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's all true.
RUBIO: And the lines around the states.
BASH: Please.
RUBIO: Every night. Same thing.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: I don't know about you, but when I was raised learning how to fight, that's called jab, jab, cross. And that was just one of the many ones that Senator Marco Rubio threw, and potentially landed, in a fiery CNN Republican debate.
[08:20:04] The first time Rubio has looked at Trump and taken him on directly.
So, what was the plus/minus?
Let's hear from team Rubio. Alex Conant, communications director for Marco Rubio's campaign.
And it is good to have you, as always, sir.
ALEX CONANT, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, MARCO RUBIO FOR PRESIDENT: Thank you. Thank you.
CUOMO: So, hiding the ball a little Conan. You know, when you were talking to you, we don't know what we're going to do. I don't know we're not going right at him. You went right at him. What was the strategy and how do you feel it worked?
CONANT: Well, this is an important moment for the Republican Party, right? I mean, now, there are two people with a viable pathway to the nomination, Marco Rubio and Donald Trump. And Republican voters have to decide who's going to be the face of the conservative movement in the 21st century? Who's going to lead our party into the future? Is it going to be Donald Trump or Marco Rubio?
The time for deciding is now. There's a lot at stake. We wanted to put all cards on the table last night and let voters make that decision.
CUOMO: Well, why did you wait so long?
CONANT: We waited so -- I don't know we waited so long. The time to do it is now. I mean, now is when people are voting. Earlier we had --
CUOMO: Now, you got momentum, you got votes, he's got a lead.
CONANT: We had a divided field earlier. Not only are we fighting with Donald Trump, we're fighting with Ted Cruz, and Jeb Bush, and, you know, there's been other 15 candidates on the stage, all competing to be the alternative to Donald Trump.
Last night, it was clear. There is one alternative to Donald Trump. It's Marco Rubio. Anyone who doesn't want Donald Trump to be the nominee needs to support Marco Rubio and needs to rally around Marco Rubio now. Go to our website, MarcoRubio.com now to join our team, because now is the time to defeat Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Rubio, defensive back in college, athlete, contact athlete. Did the Chris Christie knockdown, and you can argue about how many minutes in the whole debate, he got knocked down in that debate. Did that give him a second wind? Did he get up and say, like, I got to make sure this never happens again?
CONANT: Well, he owned it. I mean, he said that was a bad moment. That was on him. He didn't blame anybody else and said it's never going to happen again and obviously it didn't happen again last night. He took the fight to Donald Trump.
CUOMO: He used it on Trump. He said, you're repeating yourself --
CONANT: Yes. Well, right, because Donald Trump is an inch deep. Donald Trump doesn't know what he's going to do if he's president of the United States. He hasn't laid down any specific plans. And that was Marco Rubio exposed last night.
We don't know what sort of President Donald Trump would be. He's been a liberal most of his life. Now, he's a conservative because he's trying to con Republican primary voters into nominating him. But we don't know what kind of president he would be and Marco Rubio exposed that last night.
CUOMO: Now, what do you think in the plus/minus side? On the plus, OK, Rubio showed that he could stand up to Trump, throw some blows, took blows back from Trump but he wasn't being who he usually is in these debates, which is I'm not getting into the mud and fight with you.
By changing his game, did he help Ted Cruz doing the heavy hammering work that usually expect --
CONANT: No, I don't think so. Right now the Republican Party, Republican voters are looking at who can stand up to Donald Trump, who can beat Donald Trump? I think Ted Cruz tried to do that last night, not nearly as effectively as Marco Rubio did. Plus, if you look at the delegate map moving forward, really only Marco has a pathway to the nomination.
CUOMO: How so? Because you know they're beating you over the head with a poll right now in Florida that has you down and Trump and Cruz up?
CONANT: I think there one poll that we don't believe. We've seen other polls that have as much --
CUOMO: You think that's an outlier?
CONANT: Absolutely it's an outlier. I mean, nobody knows Florida better than Marco and our campaign and our team. Nobody sees more data, we feel very good about the Florida primary, it's not for another 19 days, we've got two debates, we've got about 15 elections before then.
We're going to win Florida. We're also going to do very well on Tuesday. States that -- we're going to pick up delegates across the --
CUOMO: Where do you think you think?
CONANT: We're going to pick up delegates across the map on Tuesday.
CUOMO: You got to win. You have to win. Sounds simple, tried but true.
CONANT: No, to win, you have to get 50 plus percent of delegates going into Cleveland. We are confident we will do that, and it starts by gaining delegates on Tuesday and then winning winner- take-all states like Florida on March 15th and beyond.
CUOMO: So, you think it starts March 15th? Look, I know you're getting tired of this question, but you also know where it's coming from, is that seconds don't get you to first. Even though you wind up amassing delegates, you still a guy necessarily a mathematically in front of you? Do you think Florida is the pivot --
CONANT: Absolutely. States like Florida, winner take all states, a lot of delegates at stake, a big deal for all campaigns. We feel very good we're going to win Florida and winner-take-all states beyond that.
But you know what, I'll tell you, Marco Rubio is an underdog. I'll concede. Marco is the underdog now but he's been an underdog his entire life.
He wasn't born into a billionaire's family. He didn't inherit millions of dollars like Donald Trump did. His mom was a maid. His dad is a bartender. He's earned everything he's achieved in his life on his own.
And you know what? That's the American story. Voters can relate to that, that's who we want leading the conservative movement in 21st century. Not Donald Trump and that's what voters are going to decide here in the next couple of days.
CUOMO: Who came up with the watch line? Marco Rubio said last night, if you weren't watching, one of the three in the country who didn't, that if Donald Trump didn't inherent $200 million from his father, and that question is certainly controversial, that amount, let's play it. I'm not Marco Rubio. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: If he builds the wall the way he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it. The second --
(CHEERS)
TRUMP: So cute. Such a cute sound bite.
RUBIO: Not a sound bite. It's a fact. I don't understand, because your ties and the clothes you make is made in Mexico and China.
[08:25:01] So, you're going to be starting a trade war against your own ties and your own suits.
(CHEERS)
RUBIO: If he hadn't inherited $200 million, you know where Donald Trump would be right now?
TRUMP: No, no, no. No, no, no.
RUBIO: Selling watches in Manhattan.
(CHEERS)
(CROSSTALK)
TRUMP: I have to say he lied this time. He lied, 100 percent.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: All right, now. The $200 million would be certainly disputed by Trump but that's not the point. The watch line where did it come from?
CONANT: I mean, it came up on the spot. I mean, that was spontaneous.
CUOMO: Really?
CONANT: And I'll give big props to our digital team. Our --
CUOMO: Yes, started pretending with a fake watch ad.
CONANT: They're up on the website within minutes, clever digital team within minutes, n MarcoRubio.com, selling fake Donald Trump watches. People can go on the website right now.
CUOMO: Cracked Rolexes.
CONANT: You got a cracked Rolex. And that's the point.
Donald Trump inherited millions from his family, why he has so much money today. Marco Rubio didn't inherent anything.
The only Marco Rubio ever inherited was the belief that he could achieve anything in America, and I think it says a lot that on the stage last night, you had Donald Trump, inherited millions, the other four candidates, none of them inherited everything -- anything. The other four candidates on the stage, they all -- they all achieved everything that they've gotten in life on their own. They are the American story, and it says a lot about our country they can stand on the stage with somebody like Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Well, here's what we know for sure -- often people say we're hyping these events, just another debate. This is a big moment. Things needed to happen and they did. We'll see how they sash out very, very soon.
Alex Conant --
CONANT: We feel very good about it going forward. So --
CUOMO: Understandably.
Always good to have team Rubio on NEW DAY.
CONANT: Thanks, Chris.
CUOMO: Absolutely, absolutely.
So, Senate Republicans were sticking to their plan not to consider anyone that President Obama might nominate for the Supreme Court. They are holding firm.
Here's the question, can Democrats anything -- can the White House do anything to change that? Should they?
We're going to ask Senator Al Franken. He sits on the Senate Judiciary Committee. That is coming up next, my friends.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
