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Rubio & Kasich Fight to Stay Alive on Super Tuesday; Can Bernie Sanders Replicate Michigan Upset?; Florida Polls to Open Soon; Voters Head to Polls in Ohio. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired March 15, 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. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh, look, a Bernie Sanders sign. Don't worry: you're not going to get beat up at my rallies.

[05:59:14] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no violence. There's lovefests. These are lovefests.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am so worried about our country and what could happen if we don't band together.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: A vote for John Kasich or a vote for Marco Rubio is a vote that's thrown away.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't doubt America. It's coming back.

TRUMP: Kasich cannot make America great again.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will not accept their bigotry and xenophobia.

RUBIO: We're going to shock the country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Big day. Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, March 15, 6 a.m. in the East. It is Super Tuesday No. 3. It is also the ides of March, and nobody wants to be Caesar. The question is: Will all survive?

Florida Senator Marco Rubio, Ohio Governor John Kasich both may be in must-win situations in their home states. If they don't get them, who knows what happens?

Voters in five delegate-rich states head to the polls this morning in what could be the most crucial day in the 2016 race. There are 367 Republican delegates up for grabs today. The critical ones are the winner-take-all contests in Ohio and Florida. Donald Trump looking to sideline Rubio and Kasich on their home turf. He thinks that will lock in his path for the nomination.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Now, on the Democratic side, there are 691 delegates at stake today. Hillary Clinton looking to complete her Southern sweep and build on her big delegate lead. But can Bernie Sanders surprise again tonight, as he did in Michigan?

We have Super Tuesday covered from every angle the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Phil Mattingly in Columbus, Ohio.

How's it looking there, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's definitely tight, Alisyn. And that's been kind of the process throughout the last couple days. A furious pitch for all four Republican candidates going into a pivotal day that will really help define this race. You could come out of this day with the possibility of the field winnowing by two or the possibility of a very long slog ahead to see if anybody can get to the necessary delegates to lock up the Republican nomination.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We're going to have a great day. I think we're going to have a phenomenal day.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Donald Trump looking for another Super Tuesday sweep.

TRUMP: Florida's looking fantastic.

MATTINGLY: A big day at the polls for the front-runner could mean the end of presidential bids for Florida Senator Marco Rubio and Ohio Governor John Kasich.

RUBIO: We're going to shock the country, and we're going to do what needs to be done.

MATTINGLY: On this do-or-die day, Rubio and Kasich both fighting for victories, hoping to just stay alive in their home turf.

KASICH: Ohio should send a message to the country. Everybody's watching us now. You know that? And they're not just watching us in the country. They're watching us in the world.

MATTINGLY: As Ted Cruz, a handful of wins, pushes Republicans in Illinois to unify as the only alternative to Trump.

CRUZ: After tomorrow, it will be officially a two-man race, because no other candidate has any plausible path to 1,237.

MATTINGLY: Trump's still dealing with the fallout from days of raucous protests at his events.

TRUMP: You know how many people have been hurt at our rallies? I think, like, basically none, other than, I guess, maybe somebody got hit once or something. But there's no violence.

MATTINGLY: His rivals' response to their own protesters, a blatant jab at the front-runner.

RUBIO: Look, a Bernie Sanders sign. Don't worry: you're not going to get beat up at my rallies.

CRUZ: One difference between this and a Donald Trump rally is I'm not asking anyone to punch you in the face.

MATTINGLY: But Trump supporters New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and Sarah Palin, showing force for Trump in this final push to today's big contests, Palin with choice words for disrupters.

SARAH PALIN (R), FORMER VICE-PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: What we don't have time for is all that petty, punk-ass little thuggery stuff that's been going on.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Now, polls have started to trend away from Marco Rubio in recent days. All eyes really focused here in Ohio on that one-on-one race between John Kasich and Donald Trump. Donald Trump savaging Kasich over the last couple days on Twitter, in rallies and in TV ads. Kasich fighting back, having Mitt Romney, the 2012 nominee, come out and help him yesterday, not an endorsement, just more effort to do anything to stop Donald Trump, Michaela.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Phil. Thanks so much for that.

Meanwhile, a confident Bernie Sanders outspending Hillary Clinton in TV ads in much of the Midwest and Rust Belt, hoping to close that gap. Can he repeat his Michigan stunner? Or will Clinton seal the deal? CNN political correspondent Brianna Keilar is live in Charlottesville, North Carolina, where polls are about to open -- Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Michaela.

Well, the Clinton campaign is worried that Bernie Sanders' message in Michigan, especially his emphasis on Hillary Clinton's support for NAFTA in the '90s, could resonate in Missouri, in Ohio, in Illinois. If Bernie Sanders does well today, this will keep him more viably in the race. If Hillary Clinton does very well in most of these five states, it could cement her status as the presumptive Democratic nominee.

They have something in common in their final stitch into this big day. Both of them positioning themselves as alternatives to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We have to stand up to hateful, divisive rhetoric that is pitting different groups of Americans against each other. I believe that's what Americans will do. I believe we are better than what we are hearing every night on television. SANDERS: This campaign is telling Donald Trump and others that

we will not -- we will not accept for one second their bigotry and xenophobia.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:10] KEILAR (voice-over): Now the Sanders campaign is very hopeful, thinks they will do well in some of these industrial states. The Clinton campaign managing expectations saying, as well, that Bernie Sanders could do well. He is, though, when you look at the map trailing considerably in the delegate count. These are not winner- take-all contests for Democrats like they are on the Republican side, so it's difficult to see how he could really narrow this gap with Hillary Clinton, let alone catch up to her, Chris.

But at the same time, you talk to Sanders aides, and they say he is in this for the long run. He's going to be here in this race, no matter the outcome today, through July when we go to the convention.

CUOMO: There's no question that's what they're saying. Brianna Keilar, thank you so much.

More -- more information to tell you about this morning. The polls are going to open within the hour in the key battleground state of Florida.

Marco Rubio is certainly facing an uphill battle in his home state as he tries to keep his White House hopes alive.

We have CNN's Kyung Lah live in Florida with more now. A big part of the story there are the votes that have already happened, right? The estimates are as many as a million and a half may have already been cast. Trump supposedly doing strong in the analysis of early voting. What's the state of play now?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, you're absolutely right. When you look at those early voting numbers and the absentee ballots, Chris, you certainly get a very strong clue about what today is going to look like.

We actually punched those numbers with Steve Shale (ph). He's a political strategist here, and he says if you look at where the voting is happening, a lot of turnout to the north of Miami-Dade County. Miami-Dade is a must-win for Rubio. But to the north, what we're seeing are counties showing exceptionally high turnout, where people didn't vote in 2012. So the tea leaves there say that, at least in those early voting ballots, we are seeing perhaps, looking towards Trump.

As far as Marco Rubio, he is in the fight of his political career. This is a county, Miami-Dade, where he must win, but we're seeing here just over my shoulder, they're scrambling, making sure that the polls are ready. Polls open in one hour -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Kyung. Thanks so much for that. It is also a make-or-break day for Governor John Kasich. The GOP

candidate has said he would reconsider his entire run if he loses his home state of Ohio.

CNN's Dan Simon is live in North Olmstead, where polls open in just minutes. How is it looking, Dan?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn.

We are just outside of Cleveland at the St. Clarions (ph) Church. You can see the volunteers are in the process of getting things ready. Polls open at 6:30.

The predominant story line here in Ohio is whether voters will give John Kasich a lifeline. And one thing I want to point out to you is that, when voters come here to the desk, they can pull either a Republican ballot or a Democratic ballot, and it's expected that the crossover vote will be significant. So if you're a Democrat and you want to vote for Trump or if you want to vote for Kasich, you are free to do so.

We also want to point out that Ohio is an early voting state, so voters have been able to cast ballots for the past several weeks, and right now a slight edge goes to the Republicans for the amount of ballots cast. It will be interesting to see if that trend continues here at polls when they open, again, at 6:30.

Alisyn, Chris, we'll send it back to you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks, Dan.

CUOMO: Good analysis there. Open primaries always add an "X" factor in there that wind up being relevant beyond the returns of just that one state. So we'll be watching that.

Let's discuss what we're looking at heading into this big day. CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston; CNN political commentator and senior contributor for "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis; and senior politics editor for "The Daily Beast," Jackie Kucinich, who's also a fellow at Georgetown's Institute of Politics and Public Service.

Jackie, you have the most impressive title today, so I begin with you. Today is the ides of March. Nobody wants to play the role of Caesar, but there are some live-or-dies, especially on the GOP side, comma, or is that false urgency? Do you believe it matters that much for Rubio and Kasich?

JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, "THE DAILY BEAST": Well, where else do they go if they don't win their home states? And that's the question. Rubio and Kasich had trouble locking down states. I know you talk to the Rubio people. They talk about some of these smaller contests they've won, such as in the District of Columbia here.

But, you know, at the end of the day, it's the delegate count, and if Rubio can't win his home state, he really has put all of his eggs in that basket. And he's talking about how important that is.

Now he does -- he is scheduled to be in other states like Utah after whatever we're calling this Tuesday, Superb Tuesday maybe? But -- but the -- but the math does get very difficult for two candidates that really need to rack up some points at this point.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the math, Mark. Because I know that we look at states. You look at things on a more granular level. So what areas are you keeping your eyes on today?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: A couple things. One is, you know, Marco Rubio clearly has an uphill battle, if anything, to win Florida, and it would be devastating for him if he were to lose Florida, and the polls seem to be pushing us that way.

John Kasich, though, could pull out a big surprise up in Ohio. If he wins Ohio, that will put a little bit of a roadblock in Donald Trump's roll across the country and the support that he's receiving.

[06:10:13] I think we've got to look at Ted Cruz in Missouri, as well. Could Cruz pull out Missouri? There's a lot of evangelical voters there, which Donald Trump has done better with, but yet, Ted Cruz could do well there.

And I really do think that Illinois could be an X-factor in this, as well. It's a state we haven't talked about a whole lot, but certainly a state that Donald Trump has made some inroads. But could they stop Trump in Illinois, as well?

So look, there's a lot on the line today. We'll know a lot more later this evening. So will it be Donald Trump heading onto the Republican nomination, or even if that's the case, will there be some kind of effort by the Republican establishment to try to keep Marco Rubio in the race, to try to keep John Kasich in the race, and try to deny him the 1,237 votes he needs.

CUOMO: Matt, where is Ted Cruz's confidence coming from? He's saying after today, it will clearly be a race that's just him and Trump. What is he expecting today, other than losses for Kasich and Rubio in their home states?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think that, you know, Ted Cruz has confidence. This is part of his persona. So I don't know that it's based on any sort of empirical data or if he even needs anything to justify the confidence.

But, you know, look, Ted Cruz might do very well in Missouri today. He could -- he could do well in North Carolina. And he could end up getting rid of Kasich and Marco Rubio. And I think it might be wishful thinking, but Cruz has long argued that he needs a one-on-one faceoff with Donald Trump, and that's when he wins. So you know, if that's the calculus, then -- then Ted Cruz could have a good day today.

CAMEROTA: So, Jackie, today also seems like it will determine the fate of the "stop Trump" movement. You know, there's been a lot of money poured into various groups, super PACs that are trying to sort of pull out all the stops to stop him. And one of the things that they've done is they have this anti-Trump ad in which they use his own words about women against him. And they have women do it.

So let me play a portion of this that will be airing in vital states.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You know, it really doesn't matter what they write, as long as you've got a young and beautiful piece of (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her -- wherever.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Women, you have to treat them like (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is how Donald Trump talks about our mothers...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... our sisters...

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: ... our daughters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Jackie, how effective is that?

KUCINICH: You know, it's hard to say. I don't think it's going to change the minds of Trump supporters. I mean, look at the violence at his rallies. That's just sort of emboldened people to hug him even closer.

But perhaps with some of those undecideds, places like Ohio, Illinois who haven't done any kind of early voting, this could change their minds. That's a powerful ad. But again, it's Donald Trump, so all of the things that have worked -- may have worked with another politician might just not work with him.

CUOMO: Yes. It's also who they're targeting. I don't know that they're going after his loyalists...

KUCINICH: Of course not.

CUOMO: ... as much as they're trying to awaken other aspects of their party and maybe beyond.

Matt Lewis, let's give him his due, though. Everybody keeps saying Trump won't come out with any policy. He came out with a policy-heavy op-ed for "The USA Today." And he comes out -- he's talked about the TPP, but not just saying TPP stinks and so do all of you for supporting it.

Yes, he's going after Kasich specifically, but if we pop up some of the quote here, "One of the casualties of the TPP, the Trans- Pacific Partnership, will be America's auto industry. Among the worse victims will be the people of Ohio. The TPP will send the remaining of America's auto jobs to Japan. Kasich, Cruz, Rubio have all promoted the TPP, a mortal threat to American manufacturing."

He goes on and he uses a lot of numbers and analogies for why he thinks this is a problem. How does this make -- how does this work for someone like you? You care about the policy on the conservative side.

LEWIS: Well, I think this highlights a real schism happening on the right, right now. You know, the Republican Party was once a protectionist party. It was once a party even Calvin Coolidge, you know, and in recent years, in recent decades, conservatives have embraced free markets, the belief that, you know, Dave Ricardo, sort of the belief that trade makes us more prosperous. And that -- so this is a -- this is actually a clash of vision.

And Donald Trump is sort of hearkening back to a paleo- conservative, protectionist, policies that I think probably resonate pretty darn well amongst the working class, white voters that do feel like the American dream has left them behind. Obviously, he thinks it's going to resonate in Ohio.

CAMEROTA: So Mark, we've reached the part of the segment now where we press our guests to make predictions. We know how much you love this part of the segment. What do you think's going to happen today?

PRESTON: Listen, I think in the end, Donald Trump is going to come out on top as the overall winner. Marco Rubio, I think, you know, has a very tough hill, as they said earlier, to climb in Florida. It will be interesting to see what he does if he does lose that.

I think Matt was right adding in North Carolina for Ted Cruz. Cruz could come out with two wins tonight. And John Kasich could surprise us all in Ohio. I was just in Ohio for the last three or four days, and I've got to tell you, he has come on very strong up there.

But I really do think one state to watch tonight to really see where this is all going, you have to focus in on Ohio.

CAMEROTA: All right. Thank you, panel. Stick around. We have much more to talk about, including what happened yesterday on the campaign trail. So we'll be right back with that.

CUOMO: The coverage really is moment by moment. So please, stay with CNN all day. We're going to be all over this reckoning of Super -- maybe Superb, as Jackie said, Tuesday. And of course, tomorrow morning we'll give you all the returns and why it happened.

CAMEROTA: Superb Tuesday. It adds a "B" to it. See how that's going?

CUOMO: It was Jackie Kucinich.

PEREIRA: I give Jackie all the credit.

Well, we're going to take a look also at this fallout, more of it coming from the violence at Donald Trump's rallies. The GOP front- runner says he does not condone such violence, but will he pay a price for it on primary day?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[06:20:12] PALIN: What we don't have time for is all that petty punk-ass little thuggery stuff that's been going on with these, quote- unquote, "protesters." And the media being on the thugs' side, what the heck are you guys thinking, media? It doesn't make sense!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: That was former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin at a Trump rally, blaming protestors and the media for the violence at Donald Trump's rallies.

Joining us again to discuss this, Mark Preston, Matt Lewis and Jackie Kucinich.

Jackie, how is it the media -- how is it the media's fault people are getting punched in the face?

KUCINICH: Alisyn, I don't know. No, I really don't know how that works, what Sarah Palin's logic is there, but the bottom line is it doesn't seem to be hurting Donald Trump. I mean, I think he said somewhere else there isn't any violence at his rallies, and you know, I guess he's...

CAMEROTA: We have that. Jackie, sorry to interrupt you, but let me just play that. Because it is striking how unequivocal he is about there being no violence in the face of the evidence to the contrary. So just listen to how he has described his rallies.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: The press is now calling. They're saying, "Oh, but there's so much violence, no violence. You know how many people have been hurt in our rallies? I think, like basically none other, then I guess maybe someone got hit once, but there's no violence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. He says basically none. Maybe once. That is demonstrably false. Let me just put up just the ones that we know about. I mean, these are just the high-profile people being hurt at his rallies. On March 9, you know that this was the one where the -- the young

man, the 20-something-year-old man was sucker-punched by the 78-year- old man. He, of course, was hurt. February 29, the "TIME" magazine photographer was slammed to the ground. November 21, a protester was punched, kicked, briefly choked. October 23, a protester as kicked. October 14, an immigration activist shoved and spit on. There's also the high-profile case of Michelle Fields, the former Breitbart reporter who has -- we showed the picture of bruises on her arm after having been grabbed.

CUOMO: He's going to say nobody's been really hurt and that it's being exaggerated in terms of the level of violence.

CAMEROTA: How is that not hurt? When you're shoved to the ground and kicked, that's hurt.

CUOMO: It is. I would argue it's hurt. I don't know how badly these people are hurt. And that's the point that he's making, and it's echoed in all of his rallies.

CAMEROTA: OK. They're not in intensive care. I mean...

CUOMO: There's a little bit of a gradient. But...

KUCINICH: On a stretcher really shouldn't be a metric.

CUOMO: I get -- I get why his supporters defend the way they do. They believe these people are sent in there, Mark Preston, that these are agitators, that they're looking for a fight and that the media that loves to cover it so we can say what we're saying right now.

PRESTON: Right, Chris. And so I was at the Dayton rally on Saturday morning, which is just a few hours after he had to cancel the Chicago rally.

You know, to the point, I mean, people are getting hurt at these rallies. We have pictures of the police officer, you know, with blood running down his face. If you looked outside and the police just trying to quell the protestors outside, there was pepper spray that was being shot all over.

But just talking to his supporters in Ohio that morning, they were emboldened to show up that morning because they said that they were frustrated, and they had enough of enough of these folks showing up at their rallies and interrupting Donald Trump.

One of the gentleman said to me, a retired police officer, said, "Listen, if you're going to get in my face, I'm going to get in your face." Now everyone did say that they did have a right to their First Amendment speech rights to go out and protest, but what they didn't have a right to do was to go out and to continually disrupt Donald Trump when he was speaking.

So he does have -- Donald Trump does have his supporters on his side, and I don't see him leading anyone away from that. I think it's only emboldened his hardcore supporters. CAMEROTA: Now, these are two different things that we're talking

about. These are two different separate arguments. If professional protesters are set to disrupt a rally, yes, they are infringing on freedom of speech, and of course, Donald Trump should be angry about that. But to say that no one has ever been hurt at his rallies by his supporters is not true.

LEWIS: No. I think there's plenty of blame to go around. The protesters who are attempting to shout him down, to you know, infiltrate his speech and sort of prevent people who were going there to a rally, who wanted to hear a candidate, to disrupt that, that's not a good thing. Obviously, I don't think we should support that.

I also think it's very true, simultaneously, that Donald Trump is creating a toxic environment, that he's stoking some of this. He's certainly not discouraging it. And I think he's also creating a hostile work environment for media.

LEWIS: Matt -- Matt, you don't have to be speculative about it. This bite is too long to play, because there are so many examples of it, but these are the things that he says, and this is what's be being criticized. Hurt, not hurt, who's professional, who's not, whose First Amendment rights. Those are all distractions on some level.

[06:25:05] "I love the old days. You know what they used to do to a guy like that?" A guy was protesting, making noise. "They'd carry him out on a stretcher."

"We had a guy in New Hampshire. He was a rough guy. He was swinging. Some of ours start swinging back. They took him out. It was amazing to watch."

"If you see someone getting ready to throw a tomato, knock the crap out of them." That is where the criticism comes, Jackie Kucinich.

LEWIS (?): Look, I grew up with Donald Trump.

CUOMO: Of course. That's how I feel. You know, Donald Trump says these things. I grew up at these rallies. We've all covered them for years and years. The role of the leader is not to incite the worst of what's in the crowd. Is that a legitimate basis for criticism?

KUCINICH: That's what they were looking into in North Carolina. They decided not to press charges or whatever...

CUOMO: But it's not about being criminal. This would be a moral instruction. This would be an ethical instruction, not a legal one.

KUCINICH: Sure, protesters are nothing new. We've all been to rallies that have been interrupted by protesters. The difference here is, is the vitriol and the kind of encouraging people that are there to support him to backlash against these, against these protesters.

And, you know, it's just -- it's not a way to conduct political discourse. It's just not. And you know, when you're in a crowd situation, it just -- it just creates a more dangerous situation, not only for the protesters but for Trump supporters.

CAMEROTA: And Mark, I mean, there's no sense that Donald Trump is going to change his rhetoric, given that he is denying that there is even a problem of violence at his rallies.

LEWIS: Right, Alisyn. And look, I mean, to Matt's point, as well, there is a lot of blame to go around in this. It begins with Donald Trump, because he is inciting it. He is not backing down off of anything that has been done or that he has said. He's not accepting any blame.

At the same time, what you're having is you're creating a situation where you have these protesters now who are now being, who are now flocking. They're like moths flocking to the right, right now to try to get in the middle of it.

So what you're going to do is you have this very combustible situation, which I guarantee you will go on for months. And as we head into Cleveland. If you can imagine that Donald Trump is the nominee in Cleveland, OK. If you can imagine the protests that are going to take place outside and the violence that's going to happen out there, it's just -- it's unfathomable what we could be leading ourselves into.

CAMEROTA: Something has got to change before then.

Panel, thank you very much for all of the insight. We'll been checking with you all throughout the day -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. We have breaking news. An explosion has occurred on the streets of Berlin. We have a live report on this developing story when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)