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New Day

GOP Rivals Tone Down Insults, Spar on Policy; Trump talks to NEW DAY About Debate; Democrats Make Big Push Before Next Super Tuesday. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 11, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A lot has happened in the last ten months.

[05:59:57] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm a businessman, and I have to do what I have to do.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Presidents can't just say anything they want.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This debate is not about insults. It's not about attacks.

TRUMP: We're all in this together. I cannot believe how civil it's been up here.

CRUZ: I cannot wait to say, "Madam Secretary, you are asking for a third term of a failed administration."

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hopefully, we will all come to our senses.

TRUMP: There's two of us that can, and there are two of us that cannot at this moment.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What's true today is not necessarily true tomorrow.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

Alisyn and I are live at the U, the University of Miami. J.B. is there in New York.

The four Republican candidates toning it way down in their final debate before the crucial winner-take-all primaries here in Florida and also in Ohio. They did turn up the substance and, in some cases, the points of contrast.

So that was what they were doing instead of the personal insults we've become accustomed to, and now a different CNN debate. Trade, Social Security and very importantly, Islam and what it is and what it isn't. Among these very hotly-contested issues featuring Donald Trump's position against the others that were up on the stage. The 11th debate.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. I'm glad somebody has been keeping track. There have been a lot of them. This one was different. Ted Cruz looking to solidify his position as the Trump alternative, and Marco Rubio, many say, had his best debate yet. But will it revive his campaign? We will speak live with Rubio in our next hour. All of this as Trump is set to get the endorsement of his former rival, Ben Carson, this morning.

So let's go first to CNN's Sara Murray. She's in Palm Beach, where Trump and Carson will appear together this morning.

Hi, Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

It's like everyone knew the stakes going into this debate, and it raised the level of discourse. Instead of personal insults and talking about their appearances, candidates actually dug in on policy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I cannot believe how civil it's been up here.

MURRAY (voice-over): A major shift in tone at last night's GOP debate. The rivals moving away from the personal attacks of the past.

RUBIO: Have you seen his hands? They're like this.

TRUMP: Little Marco spews his crap.

I call him Lying Ted.

MURRAY: And toward more civil contrast. And Trump's competitors argue he doesn't have the details to back up his campaign promises. From U.S. trade deals...

TRUMP: Trade deals are absolutely killing our country. And the only way we're going to be able to do it is we're going to have to do taxes unless they behave.

CRUZ: Donald is right. For example, he was just talking about international trade. He's right about the problems. But his solutions don't work.

The effect of a 45-percent tariff would be, when you're going to the store, when you go to Wal-Mart when you're shopping for your kid, the prices you pay go up 45 percent.

TRUMP: The 45 percent tax is a threat. It's not a tax; it was a threat. It will be a tax if they don't behave.

MURRAY: ... to Social Security.

TRUMP: It's my absolute intention to leave Social Security the way it is. Not increase the age. And to leave it as-is. We're going to get rid of waste, fraud, abuse and bring back his...

RUBIO: The numbers don't add up. The bottom line is we can't just continue to tip-toe around this and throw out things like, "I'm going to get rid of fraud and abuse." But you still have hundreds of billions of dollars of deficit that you're going to have to make up.

MURRAY: ... and Mideast peace.

TRUMP: If I go in, I'll say I'm Pro-Israel, and I've told that to everybody, anybody that would listen. But I would like to at least have the other side think I'm somewhat neutral as to them so that we can maybe get a deal done.

RUBIO: The policy Donald has outlined. I don't know if he realizes it's an anti-Israeli policy. Maybe that's not your intent, but here's why it is an anti-Israeli policy. There is no peace deal possible with the Palestinians at this moment. There just isn't. Because there's no one to negotiate with.

MURRAY: The audience chuckling at Trump's seemingly simple response about whether he would close the U.S. embassy in Cuba.

TRUMP: I would probably have the embassy closed until such time as a really good deal was made and struck by the United States.

MURRAY: As Rubio jumped at the chance to weigh in on an issue that might give him a boost here in Florida.

RUBIO: Here's a good deal. Cuba has free elections. stops putting people in jail for speaking out. Cuba has freedom of the press. Cuba kicks out the Russians from Lourdes and kicks out the Chinese listening station in Bebelkan (ph), Cuba stops helping North Korea evade U.N. sanctions.

MURRAY: the Sunshine State senator looking for any opportunity to go after Trump in the do-or-die debate for his campaign.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Last night you told CNN, quote, "Islam hates us." Did you mean all 1.68 billion Muslims?

TRUMP: I mean a lot of them. I mean a lot of them. There's tremendous hatred, and I will stick with exactly what I said to Anderson Cooper.

CRUZ: The problem is presidents can't say anything they want. It has consequences here and around the world.

TRUMP: You can be politically correct if you want. I don't want to be so politically correct. I like to solve problems. We have a serious, serious problem.

CRUZ: I'm not interested in being political correct. I'm interested in being correct. We are going to have to work with the people in the Muslim faith, even as Islam itself faces a serious crisis within it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[06:05:12] CUOMO: So there were big moments of contrast.

MURRAY: Donald Trump went into last night's debate -- yes, Donald Trump -- Donald Trump went into last night debate wanting to appear more presidential, wanting to appear above the fray. And I think he's going to try to continue to do that today, Chris, with this endorsement from Ben Carson, making it look like the party is, in fact, rallying behind him.

CUOMO: Yes. That's exactly where it seems to be headed.

Sara Murray, thank you very much. So right after the debate ended, we immediately rushed out there to get Donald Trump to see if he was going to hold fast to a couple of very controversial positions last night. Yes, overall, it was a kinder, gentler tone. He wanted to talk about that. But he was not kinder and gentler when it came to his ideas about Islam and his ideas about violence at his own events.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I thought it was a very elegant debate. I thought it was very substantive. And I thought it was a really -- I think your folks did a great job. I thought it was very fair. And we needed this kind of a debate. We needed this kind of a tone. And I'm glad it took place tonight.

CUOMO: Do you think it played to your advantage?

TRUMP: I think so. Look, the other is the other. If somebody hits, we hit back. And I think that's true in life. That's true in running countries. It's true in running businesses. But I just found this to be a very elegant evening. And everybody did a very good job.

CUOMO: One of the questions is what would happen if it were you versus Ted Cruz one on one. When you're up there on the debate stage, listening to him make the case, you making your own, how was your confidence level in terms of how that would go, you versus him?

TRUMP: Well, I think it would go very well. I mean, we're doing very well against Ted right now, as you know. We're leading. And we have a lot more people voting for Trump than voting for Ted.

But I like Ted. And we -- I think we all did a very good job tonight. I thought it was -- I thought it was actually terrific and very different. Because it has really been harsh. And I like that also. But I think there was something -- we were ready for this kind of an evening.

CUOMO: There are a couple points of contrast up there on the stage tonight. One was what -- I guess you could basically call it the all versus some argument about Islam. You, as you'll remember, spoke to Anderson; and you had there's a hatred coming from Islam towards the United States.

TRUMP: No doubt about it.

CUOMO: The criticism is but not from all Muslims. You understand the sensitivity to it. You call it political correctness. The counter is that it's just correctness. What do you want to say now?

TRUMP: I don't want to say anything. I've answered the question. I've answered it many times. There's a great hatred, and we have to get to the bottom of it.

CUOMO: The concern is that you wind up painting with too broad a brush. You said in the past you hire Muslims, you have Muslim friends. You're not saying they're part of the hatred, right?

TRUMP: I do, but there's a lot of -- you look at the mosques and you go to various places and you look at what's going on there. And it's very truly 100 percent. And certainly, you can say radical Islam is a disaster right now. It's causing tremendous problems worldwide, not just here. But the question was asked about Islam, and there is a great hatred. There is no question about it.

CUOMO: One of the people up on the stage with you tonight said it makes an environment around the world where Muslims feel that the United States has antipathy towards them, negativity towards them.

TRUMP: We're just going to have to run our own place. We have a country. We have a country with a lot of problems, a lot of debt, a lot of, you know, weakened the military. We have so many different problems right now.

We're just going to have to do our thing. But the question was asked of me. And I'll tell you what, you probably heard the audience. The audience was -- and I don't do it for the audience. I don't care in terms of doing it for the audience. And I'm not doing it to be incorrect politically.

But there is animosity like I've never seen before. And hopefully, we can straighten it out.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: OK. So much to talk about now. So let's discuss the big moment of the night with journalist and former moderator of "Meet the Press", David Gregory; CNN political commentator and senior contributor to "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis; and CNN national political reporter, Maeve Reston.

Panel, great to have you.

CUOMO: In height order.

CAMEROTA: That's right. Let's talk about our big takeaways from last night. Maeve, what jumped out? MAEVE RESTON, CNN NATIONAL POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I

thought that the -- there was some very striking policy contrasts on entitlement reform, actually. You know, Donald Trump has taken such an interesting position in that he said last night in Florida, where we are, that he doesn't want to touch Social Security.

And you had some of the other -- some of his opponents come in and say, "Well, we have to do something to change the system." I just think that that is such an interesting position for him to have taken going forward. It obviously has helped him, among a lot of moderate blue-collar voters. And I think that -- you know, that it will be fascinating to see how that debate plays out over the next couple of days here.

CUOMO: Also, you have older voters like when they hear you're not going to mess with their check. And you have there million of them here in Florida. So we know where he was going with that.

[06:10:05] Where was he going, Matt, with all Islam has a hatred problem? And he was given many, many chances to qualify that statement. Rubio qualified. Kasich qualified it. Cruz qualified it. Where is he going with that, and is that where you party is?

MATT LEWIS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, first, I would say let's -- you know, we talk about the civility of last night. But as you noted earlier, let's not give Trump too much credit for civility. Because his tone, it might not be ad hominum attacks, but the tone really hasn't changed in his positions.

My book is called "Too Dumb to Fail," and I think that some of Donald Trump's policies that he's laying out are too dumb to fail. Marco Rubio points out, for example, that you can't fix Social Security by just ending waste, fraud, and abuse. But I think Donald Trump wins with the voters..

Marco Rubio points out that we need some Islam countries to support us if we're going to win the global war on terror. Donald Trump paints with a broad brush. But guess what? I think the voters, the primary voters probably will reward Donald Trump for being wrong on all those issues.

CAMEROTA: On that same topic, David, Marco Rubio tried to counter what Trump said. He said no, Muslim-Americans love this country. But he never said, "Donald Trump is flat wrong." He didn't use his name, and he never went after him. He tried to just talk about the difference in opinion. Was that effective?

DAVID GREGORY, JOURNALIST: I think Marco Rubio was trying to do something different. Whether he feels that the end is near for his campaign, obviously, unless he does well here, I think -- I think he was trying to say, "Look, let me be bigger. Let me be more positive about understanding that there are millions of Muslims in America, many of whom have fought and died for our country."

And I thought he made that without trying to disqualify Trump in particular. I though was so true, what Rubio was trying to do throughout the night, which is trying to position himself as a future of the Republican Party. And to be a bigger contrast.

Let's not remember that -- that Trump is understanding the moment that he's in. He realizes he is on the verge of winning this nomination if he has a big week next week. Wanted to calm down the tone, wanted to call for unity, but still wanted to stick to those things that are rallying his core supporters, whether it's having a sloppy, xenophobic, you know, really hateful view of Islam or things like not touching Social Security in a state where a lot of people don't want you to mess with Social Security. He's sticking to his knitting in that regard.

RESTON: And voters loved that about him. I mean, you know, the fact that he did not -- he did not apologize last night for making that comment, Anderson, about Muslims, even though that it offended a lot of people across the country.

And -- and we just remember his core supporters love that about him. Even if they don't agree on certain policy aspects, that they love that about him.

CUOMO: I wonder about that issue, though. I wonder. David, explain it on this issue. I get what Maeve is saying on other issues. But when it comes to this one, I think that this is going to be a very big deal in the general election about who we are and how we include it.

GREGORY: I completely agree. And I think you have to remember that Trump has real limitations and vulnerabilities as a general election candidate. You see big numbers. Forty plus percent of Republicans' primary voters who are opposed him. Extremely high negatives you see in recent polling.

And let's be clear on what the facts are. There's a lot of conservative Christians, for example. Evangelicals who looked to some of the core tenets of Islam to kill apostates, to kill the infidel, as being violent tenets that are core to Islam.

And there are radical Islamists like those who are ahead who are leading ISIS who believe in a theocracy and in creating a caliphate that would take on western civilization. That is who Trump is talking about.

But how about all the million -- Indonesian is the most populous Muslim country in the world. Do you think the majority of Muslims in Indonesia are walking around talking about killing the west? No. They're living their lives. And just like the peace-loving Muslims in America.

So it's sloppiness. And I think somebody who is really willing to take him on, like a Democratic, you know, nominee is going to do that and do it on a sustained basis.

RESTON: To your point quickly. I mean, I think that -- I think that's where the anti-Trump debate is going, is on -- is to the electability argument. We're going to see them dropping all of this money in these states coming up as they try to take Donald Trump out and allow other Republicans to rise. And they are going to go very hard after that electability issue because of comments like that, pointing out to the Trump voters who are kind of on the bubble, not sure about him, that these comments really will be damaging to the Republican Party in the general election

LEWIS: That's part of the big problem. I've spent most of my adult life trying to tell people that what they think the negative stereotypes they have about conservatives are wrong. Like I really believe that conservatism is the best philosophy to bring about human flourishing, to bring about everybody to help them rise, as...

CAMEROTA: How are you feeling about Trump?

LEWIS: And Donald Trump, he reinforces those negative stereotypes that Republicans are racist, authoritarian, all of the bad things that we've been arguing. No, that's just what they say about us. Trump, the danger is that he reinforces, that he kind of proves him right.

[06:15:14] GREGORY: We also invaded two countries, two primarily Muslim countries. That was a big projection of strength. That was, in many ways, the Trump model of going there and crack down, and beat them to hell. And now we have ISIS.

So I mean, if you're going to start arguing on the merits, that's where he gets weaker and shallower is on the idea of how you actually do what he's proposing?

RESTON: Now he's talking about troops? I mean, all of a sudden...

CUOMO: I have to tell you something that was said last night. Marco Rubio touched on it, and I would be surprised if he doesn't develop it more. Last night, he talked about the military men and women and their families who are Muslim and serve this country.

RESTON: Right.

CUOMO: Another take on that that we may hear from him this morning. Marco's coming on the show, Senator Rubio. They do ask you, "Why do you hate us?" We here in this country say, "Why do they hate us?" I've been in these countries where these wars are going on. You know, we get the opportunity to travel around the world. They look at you and say, "Why do you hate us? Why?"

And I think it's a real issue, something the Republican primary voters care, or do they like Donald Trump?

Which game are you playing? Are you playing for right now or are you playing for the long game?

All right. These guys have been very good, as always. Don't you agree?

CAMEROTA: Oh, I agree. They were excellent.

CUOMO: Sometimes, Alisyn could go either way. She's done it before. She does...

CAMEROTA: Oh, I'll let you know.

CUOMO: She does not keep close council on these things.

Coming up, we will talk on NEW DAY to Florida Senator Marco Rubio. He had a very, very important night. So stick for that in the next hour.

CAMEROTA: And on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders seriously campaigning ahead of next Super Tuesday. Both of them hoping to shore up support in the key battleground states with hundreds of delegates at stake. CNN's Jeff Zeleny is live in Chicago with more.

Good morning, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

The focus of the Democratic race shifts from Florida into the Midwest. That's where these key three states are that these candidates will be campaigning for, in Illinois, in Ohio, in Missouri.

But Bernie Sanders's crowd yesterday told the story. Some 9,000 people in Tampa, some 5,000 people in Orlando. Five thousand people in Gainesville, as well. Clearly, so many Democrats out there wanting to see this race go on and wanting to see him succeed here. We caught up yesterday with Hillary Clinton to ask her about this long race.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I'm just going to keep going until I hope to have the number of delegates to secure the nomination. But it is up to everyone to decide how long they stay in and if we go to the end, we go to the end, just as I did in '08.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And that's key right there, "If we go to the end, we go to the end, just like I did in '08." That's why you're not going to hear Hillary Clinton or her top supporters calling for Bernie Sanders to get out of this race. Because she didn't enforce it, and he still has so much support out there.

He is going to be campaigning here in Chicago later today. She'll be attending the funeral, actually, today for Nancy Reagan. But now the focus of this race is going to be on the industrial Midwest, here in Illinois as well as Ohio, Missouri. Those are the places Bernie Sanders believes he can win to extend that Michigan win. And that will determine how long this contest goes on -- Chris.

CUOMO: For all the early talk, Jeff Zeleny, no one knows better than you. That race is far from over.

So the big theme last night at the GOP debate was issues not insults. That seemed to be what it was about. The CNN Republican debate gave a lot of straight talk and revealed a lot of stark differences between the candidates. We have a top-notch town that will tell you everything you need to know. Stay with us.

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[06:22:35] CUOMO: "I'm sick of the insults," you say. "Oh, it's too much of a cheap dialogue. I want to hear about the policy," you say. Well, I hope you watched last night. That's exactly you, Alisyn. That's exactly what the GOP debate was last night, led by Jake Tapper. They weren't talking all over each other. It wasn't a bunch of cheap shots. You got to see exactly where they are on what matters to you.

So let's discuss the impact. Let's bring back, of "Meet the Press" fame, David Gregory; Maeve Reston, CNN top political reporter; and CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic," Professor Ron Brownstein.

Professor, we watched the debate together. I saw you, a furrowed brow watching. What was your takeaway?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I was struck by -- they really encapsulated how much Donald Trump represents a change in direction for the Republican Party, towards this blue-collar or insular nationalism. You saw someone who was critical of free trade, which most of the congressional Republicans support, and opposed to retrenching entitlement programs for the elderly, which also most of congressional Republicans support.

In addition, you have this kind of very harsh language on Islam last night. You have a proposal to, you know, deport 12 million people. I mean, he -- he is redefined. If he is the nominee, he is a significant redefinition of the party and one in which I think a lot of Republicans are going to question exactly where they fit into.

CAMEROTA: Maeve, let's look at some of those moments. Let's start with an issue that is so important here in Florida, and that's Social Security.

Let's see how Marco Rubio and Donald Trump contrast it. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would do everything within my power not to touch Social Security, to leave it the way it is. To make this country rich again, to bring back our jobs, to get rid of deficits, to get rid of waste, fraud, and abuse, which is rampant in this country. Rampant. Totally rampant.

RUBIO: The numbers don't add up. The bottom line is we can't just continue to tip-toe around this and throw out things like, "I'm going to get rid of fraud and abuse. Let's get rid of fraud. Let's get rid of abuse."

My generation, someone my age would retire at 68. We would continue to allow it to increase, the retirement age, for future generations until it hits 70. And so my children would retire at 70.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So, Maeve, on this topic and others, did Marco Rubio do enough last night in what he had to do to win Florida?

RESTON: I don't -- that is going to be such a tough climb for him. I think that he clearly was the Marco Rubio that everyone wanted to see last night. He was, you know, talking about the future, talking in specifics, for example, on Social Security, giving much more substantive policy prescriptions than Donald Trump has. But, you know, that will be to his peril here in Florida, where you have a huge population of seniors. And in some ways...

[06:25:24] CAMEROTA: The highest number of seniors in the country.

RESTON: The vapid answer that Donald Trump gave about waste, fraud, and abuse, but giving us absolutely no idea what he would actually do other than to not touch Social Security, you know, may -- he may end up being rewarded for that here in Florida.

CUOMO: You have more seniors, 3 million, as you just said, Alisyn, in Florida. You also have a higher participation rate than you do seniors in general. That leads you to look at this number in a very specific way. Let's look at the poll in Florida, the most recent one.

CAMEROTA: I think that they crunched the latest past six polls. So the average of past six polls.

CUOMO: And we do this, as you had, and everyone claimed this particular poll. This is the average of all of them. OK, so this is the truest picture. However, David Gregory, this does not show us those who have voted already. As many as 1.5 million Floridians. The Rubio camp says most of them are for us, because they came in early. Rubio was surging. How big a deal do you think that could be?

GREGORY: It could be quite significant. Look, if there's any place Rubio can show all kinds of grassroots strength in support that predates even his primary season. It's going to be his home state of Florida. So we have to wait and see, because really, all the chips are down here in Florida for Marco Rubio.

And I thought he did acquit himself well last night on substance, on being forward looking, drawing contrasts with Trump in a way that was not a schoolyard taunt. I mean, he held himself well.

But he's been quite inconsistent in this, on a debate stage in this primary season and, generally speaking, in the campaign. So we're going to have to see whose was more effective in drawing a contrast with Trump, speaking to his overall electability.

And Trump, for all we can break him down on issues, he understood the moment, which is to say that he wants to be subtler, less cutting. He wants to speak less about himself and say, "There are millions of people behind me. It's tie for the party, this different view of what the party should be, to rally behind me and focus on a general election." He understood that if he has a big night on Tuesday, that he's really on the precipice...

BROWNSTEIN: And to what David's saying, I think Trump was about reassurance, not persuasion. He did not seem like someone who felt like he had to peel away voters from the other candidate in the way he did earlier today. He looked like someone who felt that he's on the path toward the nomination, and he wants to reassure Republicans that "It's OK. I'm not a crazy person. You can hand the party over to me."

And Rubio, while he was effective, it felt a little bit to me like a farewell address.

RESTON: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: It felt more like someone who is trying to remind people of why they liked him, to kind of leave on a positive note, that someone who is doing every -- you know, scratching, kicking, and doing every last thing to rage against, you know, that good night. And Cruz, of everybody on the stage, Cruz seemed to be the one person who still thought he might beat Donald Trump.

GREGORY: Remember that Trump has huge vulnerabilities, huge negatives. You saw it on the shallowness on policy: trade, Social Security, speaking admiringly of Vladimir Putin, Islam. All these issues really become big vulnerabilities. He tries to build a coalition in the general election.

RESTON: And I think that, you know, those older voters here in Florida will pay more attention to the substantive issues. I think all of us have been hearing from not just Rubio strategists here but other strategists that the polls are a lot tighter in Florida than they look. A very hard state to pull. And this may end up being a lot closer but maybe not as close as Marco Rubio would like.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much. Great to have you here.

All right. Dignitaries and celebrities gathering today for the former first lady, Nancy Reagan's, funeral in California. So we'll preview the final farewell. That's next.

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