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Trump & Clinton Win Big on Super Tuesday; Cruz Wins Three States, Rubio Wins First State; Clinton Wins Several States, Sanders Wins Four; Trump Starts to Pivot Focus to General Election. Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired March 02, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

[05:30:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton, widening her delegate lead with wins in seven states. Bernie Sanders holding his own with four wins. The two front-runners, Trump and Clinton, appear to be accelerating towards their party's nominations.

We have this race covered the way only CNN can, so let's begin our coverage with John Berman, who is here to break down who won where and the latest delegate count. Good morning, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Alisyn. As you said, it was a big night for Donald Trump -- right now the clear front-runner on the Republican side. Look at this. Seven states that Donald Trump won. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Massachusetts, Tennessee, Vermont, and Virginia.

Ted Cruz, though, did pick up three states. His home state of Texas, Oklahoma, and also while so many of you were sleeping, Alaska. And Florida Sen. Marco Rubio did something he has not done yet in this race. He actually won a state. He won the state of Minnesota -- the Minnesota caucuses there. His first and only win so far in this election.

So, what does that mean? Let's talk the delegate count right now. Three-hundred and fifteen delegates for Donald Trump, 205 for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio at 106. And I will remind you that's a pretty big distance between Trump and Rubio. He has the states of Ohio and Florida behind Donald Trump right now.

Let's talk about the Democrats. Let's move over and talk about the Democrats from this side shall we? Hillary Clinton picked up seven states, as well. Let's read them off for you right now. Texas, Arkansas, Alabama, Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, and also she won in American Samoa.

Bernie Sanders, though -- he picked up four states. Colorado, Minnesota, Oklahoma, and his home state of Vermont. That brings their totals right now in the delegate count to 1,055 for Hillary Clinton, 418 for Bernie Sanders. There are 2,383 delegates needed to clinch the Democratic nomination -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: John, we're so glad you're doing the math so we don't have to. Thank you for that. Republican front-runner Donald Trump dominating his GOP rivals and accelerating his path towards the nomination, but none of his competitors ready to throw in the towel. So where does the Republican race go from here? CNN's senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is live in Palm Beach with more. Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn, that's right. It was a huge night for Donald Trump. He was sounding like a front-runner well on his way to capturing the Republican nomination, as you guys have been saying. The billionaire businessman racked up some impressive wins in some very delegate-rich states, but Trump could not deliver that knockout blow that he wanted to Ted Cruz, who won his home state of Texas, Oklahoma, and as John said, Alaska overnight.

Cruz argued he's now the best hope for GOP of keeping Trump out of the White House, noting he's the only candidate who's beaten him. But Trump could not help poking some fun at his rival, Marco Rubio, who launched a series of personal attacks in recent days against the real estate tycoon, to no avail. Here's what it sounded like last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They say the loser of the night was Marco Rubio and it's true. He didn't win anything. He hasn't won. I mean, at least you can say that Ted has won something. And, you know, Marco has not won. You've got to be able to win.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to send the message that the party of Lincoln and Reagan and the presidency of the United States will never be held by a con artist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, as John said, Rubio did manage to win his first state, Minnesota. But he is vowing to fight on, saying he can beat Donald Trump in the end. And after stirring up controversy for days on this issue of race, Trump tried to strike a more diplomatic tone last night saying he could unify the country. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am a unifier. I would love to see the Republican Party and everybody get together and unify. And when we unify, there's nobody -- nobody that's going to beat us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: Now, despite that tone, he warned that bad things would happen if Republican leaders don't get behind him. He even said that house speaker Paul Ryan would pay a price if they can't get along. Chris, when is the last time you heard a GOP nominee going after the same member of his party who currently holds the position of Speaker of the House? We are living in an unprecedented time right now, Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: No question about it. The rules are all new. And to be honest, Jim, everybody kind of did what they needed to do last night to stay in the race. Now certainly, Hillary Clinton cementing her status as the Democratic front-runner, but she did leave the door open a little bit for Bernie Sanders. She definitely has the momentum to be the nominee, but they're both going to have to look ahead to Michigan's primary and hope to take on Donald Trump after that.

CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny live in Miami with the Clinton campaign -- Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Chris. There's no question. Hillary Clinton had a super night on Super Tuesday. She won seven states, as you and John said earlier, but this, of course, is a delegate fight. So, on the delegate math she won 492 to 330 for Bernie Sanders -- seven states to four states. But it was clear that she had one person on her mind as night as she addressed her supporters here in Miami.

[05:35:16]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That work is not to make America great again. America never stopped being great. We have to make America whole. We have to fill in. Fill in what's been hollowed out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: So, of course, she was not referring to her rival Bernie Sanders there, but Donald Trump on the mind. Now, of course, she still has some work to do on the Democratic side. Her aides believe that she will be able to reach an insurmountable lead in delegates in two weeks' time after the March 15th series of primaries.

Bernie Sanders says not so fast. He has some strong suits up ahead on Saturday, actually. He hopes to win in Nebraska, in Kansas, in Maine over the weekend. But as you said, that Michigan primary in one week is the central place where they believe that this race could be decided before it goes into Florida, Illinois, Iowa. A lot of states there here, but Hillary Clinton's still driving this race -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeff, thanks for that. It's always interesting to get some insight into how voters are feeling. Super Tuesday exit polls shed more light on why so many Republicans are drawn to Donald Trump. They're angry at the federal government and they feel betrayed by their own party.

CNN's Christine Romans is here to take us through the deciding factors. Hi, Christine.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, there, and they were big ones. We asked people when they were leaving the polls how do you feel? How did you vote? And they were angry -- angry Republicans turned out to vote, especially in the south. Trump winning those seven states total -- Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Virginia, Massachusetts, and Vermont. I want to look at Georgia first. Almost half of voters there say they are angry. Angry with the federal government. And Trump won 47 percent of those voters. Arkansas -- same question there. Trump winning a commanding lead in Arkansas of those voters -- 42 percent of those voters who say they are angry with the federal government. Tennessee, where almost half of the voters say they're angry. Trump winning decisively there in Tennessee, as well, dominating these southern states.

But also winning in Massachusetts, traditionally a more moderate state when you look at Massachusetts. The common trend -- voters here want a president who is outside the establishment -- not from the establishment. Look at Trump -- 74 percent of those voters. And Alabama, heading south again and outside the establishment. Alabama voters agree. They want an outsider. Trump winning those voters 65 percent, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Christine.

CUOMO: All right, so let's talk about what happened last night and what didn't happen. We have David Gregory, author and journalist. You know him from "MEET THE PRESS". Maeve Reston, CNN national political reporter, and Mark Preston, CNN politics executive editor. So, brother David, do you believe that it is a fair statement to say everybody did what they needed to do to survive last night? Trump didn't slam the door shut. Neither did Clinton, but they both did go very far in the direction of being the nominee.

DAVID GREGORY, FORMER MODERATOR, MEET THE PRESS: Yes, I think that's right. I think with Trump, his support is wide, it is deep, it's Massachusetts to Virginia to the Deep South. He's had a number at 315 which makes him the prohibitive favorite. And yet, because the field is so big that plays to his strength. Nobody's likely to overtake him. But as you say, Cruz wins Texas and Oklahoma. Rubio getting on the board.

They have a reason to keep going. Their strategy now, I think, is more stopping Trump rather than beating Trump. They want to stop him by denying him a chance to go over the top at 1,237 on the first vote at the convention. That's really their hope. I talked to senior GOP officials last night who said, look, this is still possible. It's possible to deny Trump.

What is left of the political establishment is still fighting, and fighting hard to try to do that. Alisyn and I were talking earlier. I think one of the problems is that Cruz is not doing what he should do. He's not really expanding support among very conservative voters. And, likewise, Rubio is not expanding among moderate voters. He's still getting hit by Kasich in that regard. So, it's only Trump who's consolidating the party. That's what makes him in this strong position.

CAMEROTA: And yet, both Rubio and Cruz made their cases last night about why they deserve to stay in the race and they drew a distinction between each other. So listen to why Cruz says he's the one that should beat Trump. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am the only candidate that has beaten Donald three times. Has beaten him in Iowa, has beaten him in Texas, has beaten him in Oklahoma.

RUBIO: I will fight as long and as hard as it takes to save this party and the conservative movement from someone like Donald Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So, Maeve, given how everything played out last night do they both have a case?

MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER: They have some very slender threads that they are hanging onto, as you guys mentioned earlier. The mixed results last night kind of gave everyone an argument for going forward, right? And we're going to have to see. There's this anti-Trump calvary that's coming in to try to rescue Marco Rubio as he heads into Florida. You have Ted Cruz arguing to conservatives that it's time for them to finally consolidate around him.

So far, those things have not worked for those candidates. Obviously, Donald Trump was the dominant winner last night. If you see sort of a shred of hope for Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio, it's that a lot of those late deciders actually went to them rather than to Donald Trump. But that was a smaller share of the vote last night. Then, those people who have been loyal Trump supporters from the very beginning.

[05:40:32] So, it' really -- we keep talking about these make or break moments, but over the next two weeks we're going to see how much money goes into these attacks against Trump and whether they actually make any kind of a difference for these other two candidates and give them a path going forward, but it's a very narrow path.

CUOMO: All right, so Mark Preston, let's look at it in reverse. Last night you did have the case for Rubio, let's say, in Virginia where -- but for John Kasich he says he would have beaten Donald Trump. Are you seeing a theory of the case after last night that as you move into winner-take-all states that if they can consolidate -- which really just means Kasich at this point -- could Rubio then pull even and nudge ahead in big states?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, look -- I mean, certainly going into winner-take-all, the first thing is is if Marco Rubio can't win Florida, then he's gone. He's out, game over. Donald Trump becomes the Republican nominee. But, listen, David and Maeve are right. There's a very, very narrow path for either Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio right now to move forward and I really think that the narrative over the next 24 hours, if not over the next two or three days, is going to be whether it should be Ted Cruz as opposed to Marco Rubio that the establishment has to get behind.

Now, the establishment here in Washington does not like Ted Cruz, and we've heard that over and over and over again. But, he's a known quantity and there is great fear in the Republican establishment right now that Trump is unpredictable. He's not a known quantity and he's certainly not willing to work with the Republican establishment, at least from what we have seen.

At least with someone like Ted Cruz, the Republican establishment feels like they at least know a little bit about him. So, expect Rubio -- Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz to fight for the consolidation of any kind of establishment to try to take down Trump.

GREGORY: But the problem is they know Cruz and they really don't want Cruz.

PRESTON: What's left of the political establishment.

CUOMO: The bigger problem is that their party has completely changed right before their eyes.

GREGORY: Completely changed, yes.

CUOMO: I mean, Trump has done more to the party than he has to the people so far. This is, you know, the right term. It is a hostile takeover of the GOP.

PRESTON: Darden (ph) wrote in place last night, he is the man to beat.

GREGORY: No, I think that's absolutely right. And the reason why, again, what's left of the political establishment that's trying to cobble together Super PAC money to take down Trump. They're so angry at Kasich because Kasich has really drawn from Rubio, who has very slender support. He's not really showing much but he keeps getting a push. And if you look at March 15th -- John Berman was saying that he's -- Ohio and Florida behind Trump right now. Well, if Kasich is still in and he can win Ohio and still doesn't have much of a path -- it just continues to splinter -- big field. Big for Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: Maeve, Donald Trump made also a different argument last night than we had heard previously. Basically, that he's a uniter. He is the person that the party can unite behind because he brings so many different factions together. Listen to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I am a unifier. I would love to see the Republican Party and everybody get together and unify. And when we unify, there's nobody -- nobody -- that's going to beat us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Maeve, does he have a point that he will pivot, he's saying? And he will begin using different language and unifying people.

RESTON: Yes, I don't know how much different language he could use, given what he's done on the campaign trail so far. I mean, the idea that Donald Trump is a uniter -- all of the results that we looked at from last night show quite the opposite. He was obviously trying to look more presidential last night doing this very unusual move of having a press conference with Chris Christie over his shoulder.

But, we have seen some of the most divisiverhetoric that we've seen in a long time from Donald Trump. You see in the numbers from last night just the Democrats consolidating against Trump. And so, if he unites anyone, it's probably the Democrats.

CAMEROTA: OK, we do want to talk about the Democrats, so panel, stick around. We have a lot more to talk about. Hillary Clinton piling up primary victories yesterday on Super Tuesday. She's zeroing in on battling Donald Trump now, but could Bernie Sanders stage a comeback? We'll look at those numbers and discuss all of that next.

[05:45:02]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:48:58]

CUOMO: All right, we told you about the GOP and we'll continue to all morning. The story now for Democrats on Super Tuesday. The headline -- Clinton wins big, but Sanders is still alive. Clinton is almost now halfway to the magic number needed to clinch the Democratic nomination. Can she seal the deal in the next few weeks or will Sanders stage a comeback? Legit question.

Let's bring back David Gregory, along with Jackie Kucinich, senior politics editor at The Daily Beast, and Professor Ron Brownstein, CNN senior political analyst and senior editor at The Atlantic.

So, on the GOP side we hear Trump coming out of the night saying I'm a big uniter. If that's his because of the results, what should Hillary Clinton's headline be today, David?

GREGORY: Well, that's she really on her way to wrapping this thing up. I mean, she is actually uniting the party. She has some more work to do.

CUOMO: Actually uniting -- that's the competitive phrase here.

GREGORY: Right, because what's happening on the Republican side is something of a crackup, and that is not happening on the Democratic side. It is much smoother. She's got work to do, but she's consolidating a lot of the party. She has work to do among younger voters, in particular.

And there's no question that Bernie Sanders, who still has plenty of money and still has a very strong argument, is going to continue to play a role in the Democratic platform, in the Democratic story for the rest of this nominating season. But I think she's in a really commanding position at this point, winning all the necessary parts of the electorate while still have some real vulnerability among younger voters.

[05:51:34] CAMEROTA: But, Jackie, Sanders won four states. That's notable. You know, people didn't know if he was even going to win any. At least that's what her people were saying yesterday.

JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, DAILY BEAST: Well, it's a lot of the same voters, though. It's young, it's male -- she hasn't really fixed anything with those voters. David mentioned the young people --

GREGORY: And whites.

KUCINICH: -- and white. Young, white males. So, in that way the math's just getting better for her and her campaign knew that would happen. And he hasn't been able to appeal to any minority voters. In some places she was winning by 80 percent, 70 percent. He hasn't been able to do that. Go ahead, yes.

CAMEROTA: We have some of those exit polls just to illustrate them. Let's look at how black voters voted in Texas. You can see, and it's to your point, Clinton got 83 percent to his 15 percent. In Alabama, Clinton got 93 percent to his 5 percent. In Arkansas, she got 91 percent of black voters to his 9 percent.

CUOMO: So, Ron, why? That becomes the question, right? When we look at Sander's message, certainly it should appeal to every socioeconomic strata, every race. Why do you think we're seeing this division? Is it just organization of history?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's history in part, but I think it's also kind of a tangible versus kind of a theoretical. You know, look, if you look at black voters in this race so far, every state except Oklahoma she's won at least 78 percent of African-American voters. And, of course, got to over 70 percent among Latinos in Texas, ending that mini-debate after Nevada about whether she could appeal to Hispanics.

I think Bernie Sanders feels a little theoretical to minority voters. Minority voters have very -- many of them have very pressing concerns. They have pressing concerns about health care, about safety in communities, about economic opportunity. And I think Clinton's promise of incremental progress simply feels more realistic, more relatable, more connected to their lives. And there's also, of course, the history of the Clinton name. So, I think both of those things create a big challenge for Sanders.

And Chris, the point really is -- the map -- you just run out of places to win as Democrat if you can't win diverse voters. Just think of the states that are coming up. Illinois, Ohio, Florida, North Carolina Missouri -- all of them are states with significant diverse populations, and if you can't break into that you just run out states very fast.

CAMEROTA: David, I want to play for you how Bernie Sanders sees the math. What he explained last night about his path. So, listen to Bernie Sanders last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight, you're going to see a lot of election results come and, and let me remind you of what the media often forgets about. These are not -- this is not a general election. It's not winner-take-all. If you get 52 percent, you get 48 percent, you roughly end up with the same amount of delegates in a state. By the end of tonight we are going to win many hundreds of delegates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: So it's proportional, he's saying.

GREGORY: Right, but as Ron just pointed out, the map gets very small. And what we know about the Democratic contest, as well, because of the super delegates who are elected officials and other party elders who have already pledged to Hillary Clinton, it's very hard to overcome the lead, even if it's a narrow lead, in the Democratic race, and that's what he faces.

Look, I think what's clear this morning is that he's not going anywhere. He's got a lot of money. He's got some major arguments. He's going to affect Hillary Clinton as a nominee. He's going to affect this race, but it's very difficult to see him making any kind of a comeback.

CUOMO: So let's button a true-false, though. Because these states are a little frontloaded in favor of Clinton and it is proportional representation -- Sanders does have a lot of money. Do you think he could make it all the way to a convention if he wants before this is over?

KUCINICH: I think he'll be at the convention and he looks to have a really good speaking spot because right now it's about a movement for him. It's about his message. It's no longer about winning. And as long he has the money to keep spreading that message why would he step aside?

GREGORY: And by the way, he hasn't been as nasty toward Clinton at all. He's dialed that back. There is some consolidation already happening. They want to be a real contrast to what we're seeing on the Republican side.

CUOMO: Everything looks nice compared to what's going on in the GOP. If you punch me in the face right now it would be a step up.

CAMEROTA: That'd be a compliment. Panel, stick around. We're going to call upon you all morning. Thanks so much. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off in the next Democratic debate on Sunday. Anderson Cooper will moderate. It is live from Flint, Michigan. That's Sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern right here on CNN.

CUOMO: We have continuing Super Tuesday coverage ahead. It is a big picture to make sense of. Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz clinching wins in several states -- several of them key, as well. How are they going to remain viable? What is their path? We'll take a closer look at where the races go from here. Stay with us.

[05:56:34]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: What a Super Tuesday.

TRUMP: Our country is going to hell and Hillary Clinton doesn't have a clue.

CRUZ: America shouldn't have a president whose words would make you embarrassed if your children repeated them.

TRUMP: You can call it what you want, but I am a truth teller.

SANDERS: This is not just about electing a president. It is about transforming America.

TRUMP: It was a very tough night for Marco Rubio. He is a lightweight.

RUBIO: What you have here is a world-class con artist. Maybe you should call him Conald Trump.

TRUMP: I am a unifier. Once we get all of this finishedI'm going to go after one person. That's Hillary Clinton.

CLINTON: We've come too far in this country to let us turn back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)