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Trump Wins Big While Kasich Takes Ohio; Clinton Wins Four States; Rubio Suspends Campaign After Losing Florida; Ted Cruz Pins Hopes On A Two-Man Race; Exit Polls: Voters Worried About Economy; Trump On Attack Ads, "My Numbers Went Up". Aired 5:30-6a ET
Aired March 16, 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]
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Wednesday, March 16th, 5:30 in the East, and we could not wait until 6:00 to tell you all the news that went down. Your headline -- front-runners for real. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton with statement wins.
Trump winning big in three states while Ohio Gov. John Kasich does stay alive with his first win at home in Ohio, a big win for him. Establishment favorite, Sen. Marco Rubio, suffering a humiliating loss in Florida. His campaign now suspended. You keep hearing that word suspended. We're going to tell you why that will matter. It may matter big.
Coming up, Missouri has not yet been called for either party. We're going to tell you why. It's simply too close. You're going to hear from Donald Trump live in our 7:00 hour, so stick around for that.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton taking four states, cementing her path to the nomination. The race in Missouri, though, for the Democrats is still not called. It is razor thin. This, as Bernie Sanders vows to push forward despite the delegate math.
So we have this race covered the way only CNN can.
Let's begin with John Berman on who won where and the latest delegate totals -- John.
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Alisyn let's start with overtime in the state of Missouri right now. Look at this. On the Republican side Donald Trump ahead by only 1,700 votes. We're not going to call this race just yet. We're going to wait for some absentee and provisional ballots. You'd rather be Donald Trump there than Ted Cruz, but right now simply too close to make a projection.
The same is true on the Democratic side. Hillary Clinton leads by about 1, 500 votes there. If you're within one percent you're allowed to ask for a recount. We don't have any indication that either Bernie Sanders or Ted Cruz is going to do that just yet. Let's look back at the Republican race right now. In Ohio, John Kasich finally on the board. He won his home state and the 66 delegates there. Donald Trump in second place. But look at Florida. Hometown boy Marco Rubio -- he lost, and he lost bad. The only county he won -- his home county of Dade. He lost every other county in the state to Donald Trump. Donald Trump picks up all 99 delegates there. A huge win.
Other states for the Republicans. Donald Trump edges out Ted Cruz in North Carolina. Proportional delegate allocation there. They both get some. The state of Illinois -- Donald Trump again edging out Ted Cruz. Donald Trump's going to end up with most of the delegates in Illinois. That is very important.
Look at the delegate math at it stands right now. Donald Trump with 640, pretty far ahead now of Ted Cruz, and this doesn't include Missouri. Donald Trump will end up with more delegates than this. Ted Cruz with a little bit more. Marco Rubio, who has now suspended his campaign, and you can see John Kasich over there.
Let's talk about the Democrats right now. Hillary Clinton with a very big win in the state of Florida by more than 30 points over Bernie Sanders. Look at Ohio. She had a pretty big win there, too, and remember, Bernie Sanders and the Sanders campaign thought they had a chance in Ohio, especially after Michigan. Oh, no -- about a 12-point win for Hillary Clinton right there.
Other states for the Democrats. Illinois -- Hillary Clinton edging out Bernie Sanders there by about 2 points. North Carolina, a 14- point win for here there. Let's look at the delegate math right now. Hillary Clinton with 1,500, Bernie Sanders about 800. This includes super delegates, but even without the super delegates Hillary Clinton expanded her lead last night more than 300 delegates ahead -- Michaela.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, way to break that down for us, John. As you just saw, it was a strong night for Donald Trump with three wins -- maybe a fourth in Missouri. Meanwhile, Ohio Gov. John Kasich keeping hope alive with a win at home. The question now, will Kasich's victory slow Trump's path to the nomination?
Sara Murray is live from Miami with more for us. Hi, there.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Good morning, Michaela, that's right. Donald Trump once again proving he can win all over the place. He notched victories in Florida, in Illinois and North Carolina. And last night in his victory speech he sort of nodded to the anger and frustration that has helped him notch wins in 18 states so far.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We went up in June. Most people said I'll never run. He's just going to have fun. He's having a good time. This isn't necessarily good -- I mean, I'm having a good time. You know, I'm having a very nice time. But you know what? I'm working very hard and there is great anger. Believe me, there is great anger.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MURRAY: Now, one candidate who was not able to harness that anger and frustration was Florida Sen. Marco Rubio. He suffered a humiliating defeat here in his home state and suspended his presidential bid. In that speech, as he was pulling out, he urged voters to steer away from the kind of politics that Donald Trump is espousing. But, it's clear Marco Rubio is not going to be the one stop him.
Instead, it's Sen. Ted Cruz who is trying to turn this into a two-man race with Donald Trump. He's locked in that tight race right now trying to win Missouri. Meanwhile, you've got John Kasich saying hold on, wait a second. He finally picked up his first win of this race, the winner-take-all state of Ohio. It is unclear where else John Kasich is going to be able to win, but as of right now both he and Ted Cruz are vowing to take this all the way to the convention -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: What a night, Sara. Thanks so much for breaking all of that down for us. Now, on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton halting Bernie Sanders' momentum with a sweep in four states and leading a tight race in Missouri at the moment. Clinton setting her sights on Donald Trump and the general election in November.
CNN's senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny is live in Chicago with more. Good morning, Jeff.
[05:35:00]
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn. Last night certainly was one of the biggest, strongest, most successful nights for the Clinton campaign yet, and it turns the corner to the next phase of this campaign, and by that I mean the fall election. She's still not there quite on delegates, but this is exactly where this is heading.
Mathematically, up until now, it's been challenging for Bernie Sanders. Now, politically, it is going to become all but impossible as Democrats begin setting their sights on the fall. That was top of Mrs. Clinton's mind last night in Florida. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When we hear a candidate for president call for rounding up 12 million immigrants, banning all Muslims from entering the United States -- when he embraces torture, that doesn't make him strong, it makes him wrong.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ZELENY: Now, Hillary Clinton is counting on all that applause as she begins to tilt this toward Donald Trump. And she's not calling on Bernie Sanders to get out, but other Democrats will start doing so -- Chris.
CUOMO: All right, Jeff, and obviously the campaign having a big night, but also remembering what happened last time they got ahead of Bernie Sanders too fast, too soon.
So, the voters that headed to the polls broadly expressed concerns about the economy. We see that in the exit polls. So, let's bring in
CNN's chief business correspondent Christine Romans, here to break down the deciding factors. A lot of data to work off this morning, my friend.
CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENCE, HOST: Hi there, Chris. Yes, here's just some of it. Falling gas prices, falling unemployment, home prices are rising, but that's not what voters are telling us they feel. Let's start with the Republicans in Illinois where 65 percent of voters say they are very worried about the economy. Those very worried voters -- they broke for Donald Trump.
We saw the same thing happening in North Carolina. Sixty-five percent of voters say they're very worried about the economy. A lot of that fear there rooted in years of trade deals that those people think kill American jobs. Now, Trump grabbed 45 percent of those very worried voters.
But across the board this is so interesting. When we asked voters about their family's financial situation, they said it was holding steady. Sixty percent of voters in North Carolina say they're holding steady. There's an anxiety in the country that we're not headed in the right direction, but when you ask people about their pocketbook, it's OK.
Turning to the Democrats. Across the board the economy was a top issue in Missouri. Eighty-one percent of voters there say they're either somewhat or very worried about the economy. A similar trend in Ohio. More than seven in 10 voters say they are very or somewhat worried about the economy. A majority of voters there saying that, by the way, trade is taking away U.S. jobs.
Here's is a surprise, you guys. Hillary Clinton beat out Bernie Sanders with those voters. The people who thought trade is taking away jobs, they voted for Hillary Clinton -- more of them. An important win for Clinton there because, of course, she lost Michigan to Bernie Sanders after he attacked her past support of free trade agreements -- Alisyn and Chris.
CAMEROTA: Right, that is significant. Thanks so much for showing us that, Christine.
So let's break it all down. We want to bring back in CNN political reporter Sara Murray. Also joining us, CNN political commentator and senior contributor to The Daily Caller, Matt Lewis. And former moderator of "MEET THE PRESS", David Gregory. Great to have all of you here. David, what's your biggest takeaway from last night?
DAVID GREGORY, JOURNALIST, FORMER MODERATOR, MEET THE PRESS: Well, Trump is really marching now on the Republican side. It was Marco Rubio who said whoever wins the Florida primary is going to be the nominee. And later in the night Trump on Twitter said yes, we agree with that. And he knocks out Marco Rubio. So he continues to be in this commanding position. He's really
consolidating the non-college educated, blue-collar wing of the Republican Party. No one else is really consolidating anywhere else, so he's in a very strong position.
But it's not done yet. Kasich is still fighting. And the fact that Kasich has a new day means that that anti-Trump vote is still divided between him and Cruz. I think that's ultimately to Trump's benefit and so do a lot of conservatives who worry about Kasich's mini-surge there in his home state.
CUOMO: You're hearing a lot of talk about unity, though, from different corners of the party. We haven't really seen it reflected that quickly after a set of elections. Matt, let's take a listen to what we heard from Trump last night about his recent calls with party leadership Ryan and McConnell, and what the theme is now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Paul Ryan called me the other day. Tremendous call. I spoke with Mitch McConnell today. We had a great conversation. The fact is we have to bring our party together. We have to bring it together.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CUOMO: The unity guy. Matt Lewis, do you believe that there is now a coalescing around Trump? Are you seeing indications of that?
MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, not really. I think that when Donald Trump describes so and so called me and they were great, and they said this -- let's wait and see how that plays out. I have no doubt that maybe they spoke, but did it go down exactly the way he said it? That's unclear.
[05:40:00] I think it's going to be a tough pill for Republicans to swallow. I would not be surprised, still, if there's a contested convention. And I would not be surprised if you have a lot of Republicans distance themselves from Donald Trump. Think of the baggage that comes -- all of the things that Donald Trump has said or done, not just in his career, but just in this campaign.
CUOMO: Just to us.
GREGORY: Don't forget the impact on Congress, right? All those down- ballot races -- you've got members in Congress who are starting to think about their leadership position, certainly in the House and even in the Senate.
CAMEROTA: So, last night, Sara, Donald Trump talked about the negativity in the race, but he talked about it as the negativity that's been hurled his way. Not that he's responsible for any of it, but that what has been leveled against him. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Nobody has ever, ever, in the history of politics, received the kind of negative advertising that I have. Record, record, record -- by the way, mostly false. It added up to over $40 million, and you explain it to me because I can't. My numbers went up. I don't understand it. Nobody understands it. My numbers went up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: So, Sara, what about those Super PACs and the effort to stop Trump? Does that go into overdrive now or do they ratchet about.
MURRAY: Well, first Alisyn, of course it's not true that Donald Trump is the only one to face negative advertising. If you're the front- runner and it's still a contested race, of course you're facing negative advertising. That's what a normal presidential race looks like.
But I think right now we're going to see a moment of reckoning with the anti-Trump forces and they're going to have to figure out how to go forward and what that path does look like if they continue to spend a lot of money in states. If they decide to go directly after delegates and begin wooing delegates if there is a contested convention.
But I think it's going to be a harder sell for them to make with donors. They did spend a lot of money in Florida. They ultimately did not get the return on investment they wanted. And I'm hearing more establishment Republicans, more donors question what does happen if we take this to a contested convention?
If Donald Trump is far ahead in the delegatelead and we try to snatch this nomination out from under him, what kind of backlash are we going to see across the country? And I think that was something that felt all the more real after people were watching what was going on in Chicago and watching these battles between Trump supporters and protesters there, Alisyn.
CUOMO: Sara Murray, very dignified by calling it return on investment. That's not what's going on there. You have a huge group of people coming after Trump.
GREGORY: Yes.
CUOMO: That is not what we usually see. It's funny that he's even selling his negatives as bigger and better than anything.
GREGORY: But they are bigger, but that's the point. And we see all that in the exit polls last night.
CUOMO: They are big and they're still making a fundamental mistake. We've seen it from the beginning of this new wave of attacking Trump. You go at the man personally, you attack his character, his supporters feel insulted. Seventy-five percent of his supporters, in recent polls, say they will not change their mind, so what does that tell you? You have to do better.
How does this play into this new word that we keeping with these campaigns when they end -- suspended? Nobody's ending their campaigns. That means they get to keep their delegates, and we hear that they don't want to go to a convention. How could this play out?
GREGORY: If you have a contested convention, not only do you have an opportunity to speak at the convention if you've held onto your delegates, but then it becomes part of a negotiation. So if you're Marco Rubio and you haven't done well, you lost miserably in your state -- he's still got about 160 delegates. And it could be increasingly important if we get into a situation where nobody's at 1,237.
The other piece of this is that Trump's -- I agree with you. You don't want to go after Trump personally and we've seen that. But, whether voters think he's honest or trustworthy -- that's where some damage has been done, and I think that's why --
CUOMO: Not with his supporters, though --
GREGORY: Right.
CUOMO: -- and that's what we're looking at in this micro-election right now with the pie sliced as many ways as it is.
GREGORY: Yes, and that's really the point, which is as you move forward is there enough opportunity for Cruz to really consolidate where -- as Kasich still seems like a longshot at this point.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you. We should let everyone know that coming up in our 7:00 hour we will be speaking to the Republican front- runner, Donald Trump about his big night and the road ahead for him. We'll also hear from Sen. Ted Cruz in just minutes -- Michaela.
PEREIRA: All right. Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton rebounding from her loss last week in Michigan with four big wins last night. Can Sanders still derail her path to the nomination? We'll discuss that ahead here on NEW DAY.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[05:48:38]
CUOMO: A statement night for Hillary Clinton. The Democratic front- runner winning at least four states. She may have run the table but this isn't about states, it's about delegate count, and she took a big chunk of what's needed, even with Missouri too close to call. So, now what?
Let's welcome back David Gregory and bring in CNN politics executive editor Mark Preston, and senior politics editor for The Daily Beast, Jackie Kucinich.
So, Preston, when you look at it last night, the victory impressive if for no other reason because of all the different boxes Clinton checked with different demographics. What did you see?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Yes, no doubt. Very surprising wins for Hillary Clinton last night, and it just showed that the trade argument that Bernie Sanders was using against her successfully in Michigan did not work in the states of Ohio, in Illinois -- and we'll see what happens in Missouri.
Look, Hillary Clinton had a great night last night. Bernie Sanders said he's going to go on. I spoke to one adviser, Chris, just a few hours ago and said that they think that the map still looks good for them going ahead. But the fact of the matter is -- the bottom line is that Hillary Clinton had a great night and she is looking towards November.
CAMEROTA: Jackie, let's illustrate that with some exit polling. One of the questions in Ohio was to voters, do you believe that trade with other countries takes away U.S. jobs? Now, that's something that Sanders won on in Michigan -- allowed him to win on in Michigan. But in Ohio it went differently. The people who believe that voted more often for Clinton than Sanders. How do we explain this shift?
[05:50:00] JACKIE KUCINICH, SENIOR POLITICS EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST: It is a hard thing to explain, but I have to say there's other things I notice in these exit polls. Clinton really isn't improving with the demographics, she's losing. The map is just getting better for her. She still lost the youth vote in every single one of these races at this point. So, you were talking about the map is getting better for Sanders. The delegate map is not doing better for Sanders, so it's hard to see where he gains delegates going forward.
CUOMO: Well, the ambition was that Sanders would invigorate young voters in a way to change the math of the map as it would usually lie with typical turnout. So, David was just pointing out what does seem to be the new theme based on last night, which is Clinton and Trump exciting each other's bases. We see last night with Latino voters, with Democratic black voters -- big turnouts and big leads for Hillary Clinton. That's going to be key for her.
GREGORY: Huge, huge. First of all, Clinton is doing really well for you know who? Democrats who show up.
CUOMO: Right.
GREGORY: Which it happens to be really importantgetting the Democratic nomination. She isnot doing as well with younger voters. That's an area of weakness. And with independent voters who are allowed in some of these open contests, who are voting for Sanders. And, by the way --
CAMEROTA: So, that's a problem, right?
GREGORY: That's a problem in a general election because it was David Plouffe who ran Barack Obama's campaign in 2008 who said that there's still a lot of elasticity with Trump with independent voters. Some of his more moderate positions could be really winning among independent voters.
But look, I believe if you look at the Obama coalition -- young people, women, minorities -- they are going to turn out in big numbers, arguably as big as '08 and '12, as they did for Obama. Now, it may not be as much about enthusiasm for her as much as it is fear of Donald Trump. By the same token, she is also going to really turn out a lot of the core supporters for him in what promises to be a high negative, pretty nasty fall campaign if they, in fact, are the nominees.
CAMEROTA: Mark, I do want to ask you about that conversation that you had last night with the Sanders folks because we always talk about the math, we talk about the momentum, and we talk about the map. And they say they're not going anywhere because it sounds like they think Wisconsin, California, New York -- there are some states coming up where they think that they'll still be able to make inroads and get the math to work?
PRESTON: They do. In some ways I do think it's wishful thinking on their part, but at this point they're looking ahead to Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Alaska, Hawaii, Washington state. Now, all those states with the exception of Arizona -- they're all caucus states so that means that Bernie Sanders would have a better time organizing around the real liberal part of the Democratic Party to try to get them out to support him.
But the fact is the math still doesn't add up for him because even if he wins those caucus states or even if he were to win Arizona -- although I think that's in Hillary Clinton's column in many ways because of the Hispanic vote -- he would have to win by such a decisive margin in order to try to overcome her lead right now, which is enormous at this point.
CUOMO: So Jackie, let's talk about one of these basic suppositions, which is what David was just talking about turnout. What's the opposite side of that argument? What are the Democrat concerns with turnout? Certainly, the GOP party -- they've got more people to vote for but they've been generating bigger numbers. Look at the screen right in front of all our faces. What does this mean to you going forward?
KUCINICH: Trump has turned all the turnout models on their heads, so a lot of Democrats -- Democrats don't have anything that matches who Trump is bringing out. They're first-time voters. They're people who may have never voted before and it's hard to account for that in each of these states. They're going to have turn out minorities because minorities at this point aren't really looking to Trump for leadership. You have to imagine that part of the Democratic base is going to stay put. But it's about getting those people out there.
GREGORY: I think it's just so important to emphasize that Trump has completely defied expectations. He keeps showing elasticity. We talked about a ceiling -- he got higher than the ceiling. He's winning all over the place. He's got a lot of moderate positions that could attract independent voters, and this is still an anti- establishment hear that Hillary Clinton is running in.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you, stick around. We'll talk to you again in the program.
CUOMO: GOP voters in multiple states last night listing disappointment with their party as their second biggest motivation. We're going to have a lot more coverage for you this morning, including a look at where the races go from here. You're going to hear from Sen. Ted Cruz, now saying it's just him and Trump. He's coming up on the show. Donald Trump will respond to him and say why he is the unifier, coming up. Stay with us.
[05:55:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is not God's plan that I be president in 2016. Today, my campaign is suspended.
TRUMP: We're going to make our country rich again. We're going to make our country great again.
CLINTON: We are moving closer to securing the Democratic Party nomination.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will not take the low road to the highest office in the land.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Don't let people tell you that you can't think big.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now is the time for Republicans to unite.
RUBIO: Do not give into the fear.
TRUMP: We're going to win, win, win, and we're not stopping.
CLINTON: Our commander in chief has to be able to defend our country, not embarrass it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.
CUOMO: Good morning, and what a morning it is. Welcome to your new day. It's Wednesday, March 16th, 6:00 in the east.
