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Donald Trump Comments Regarding Riots at Brokered Republican Convention Examined; Interview with Congressman Jason Chaffetz; President Obama Nominates Justice for Supreme Court; Kerry to Declare ISIS Committing Genocide; Likability Struggles of Clinton and Trump. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired March 17, 2016 - 08:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:00:00] MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: -- filling this vacancy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The moments after an air strike, dazed survivors stagger from the rubble, the backdrop of this vicious war.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela Pereira.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to you NEW DAY. It's Thursday, Marcy 17th, 8:00 in the east. Happy St. Patrick's Day to you all. So Donald Trump in the crosshairs of people in the media once again for what he said right here on NEW DAY. He said that if I go into the convention with all of these delegates and I don't get the nomination there could be riots.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Trump now turning his focus to November and Hillary Clinton. He just released a new video questioning her toughness and mocking her for barking like a dog. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Phil Mattingly. He's live in Philadelphia with more. Hi, Phil.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. Well, the day of the third Super Tuesday was supposed to be one where the dust was supposed to settle, everybody kind of get a measure for what the Republican race looked like going forward. Instead it was all about the frontrunner once again dominating the conversation, putting an end to one debate and putting a start to a lot of real concerns about what could happen in the convention in just a couple months.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think he would have problems like you have never soon before.
MATTINGLY: Donald Trump warning his supporters could riot if he's denied the Republican nomination at a live interview on NEW DAY, Wednesday.
TRUMP: We're way ahead of everybody. I don't think you could say that we don't get it automatically. I think you'd have riots.
MATTINGLY: The GOP facing the very real possibility of a contested convention if no candidate meets the delegate threshold for the nomination.
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That would be an absolute disaster. I think the people would quite rightly revolt.
MATTINGLY: Former presidential candidate Ben Carson, who has endorsed Trump, reiterating that sentiment.
BEN CARSON, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is no question that there would be a lot of turmoil if the establishment tries to thwart the will of the people.
MATTINGLY: But party leaders are downplaying that possibility.
REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: All of these stories are going to continue. And everyone is going to have opinions and they are going the get people stirred up. But those delegates will vote on the first ballot as they are bound to vote under the law.
MATTINGLY: And dismissing Trump's warning if supporters are ignored.
SEAN SPICER, RNC CHIEF STRATEGIST AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: I assume he is speaking figuratively. I think if we go into a convention whoever gets 1,237 delegates becomes the nominee. It's plain and simple.
MATTINGLY: With the Republican field winnowing, Trump now attempting to look more like a general election candidate, dropping his first attack ad aimed at the Democratic frontrunner Hillary Clinton, painting her as too weak to go up against opponents of the U.S. Trump foreshadowing his plans to go after Secretary Clinton earlier this month during FOX's last GOP debate.
TRUMP: I have not started on Hillary yet. Believe me I will start soon.
(APPLAUSE)
MATTINGLY: This week he's pledging to skip their next debate, forcing FOX to pull the plug.
TRUMP: How many times can the same people ask you the same question? I won't be there in, no.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MATTINGLY: Party officials have obviously had security concerns about the convention in Cleveland for months. They always prepare for that. Protesters, it's kind of a magnet for them generally every four years. But what happened yesterday with Donald Trump really kind of ratcheted up the pressure a little bit. There's been concern behind the scenes about the tone and tenor of this race obviously increasing with what we saw in Cleveland and some of the violence at some of the rallies that we've seen. What Donald Trump said yesterday really underscoring that there are a lot of potential problems ahead. Republican officials not totally sure how to handle those problems yet, Michaela.
MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: A lot of emotion in this race for sure. All right, Phil, thank you.
Meanwhile on the Democratic side Hillary Clinton is also pivoting to the general election. Underdog Bernie Sanders, though, not giving up. He's marching onto the next contest out west, insisting he can still win. Senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is out west in Phoenix. Hey, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. In fundraising e-mails the Hillary Clinton campaign essentially suggesting with stronger language that we've seen before that Donald Trump would be dangerous as president, and now Democrats in Congress chiming in. One top Democrat expanding on the argument we've heard before that a Donald Trump candidacy in the general election would effectively help Democrats pick up seats on Capitol Hill. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BEN RAY LUJAN, (D) NEW MEXICO: Donald Trump has created a lot of optimism for me as a Democrat as well as Democrats across the country with opportunities. What we know as Democrats is what Paul Ryan knows as speaker of the House and as a Republican. Donald Trump is bad for the GOP down ballot.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: The Democrats ru`nning for the now expanding to the west here in Arizona and other places. Hillary Clinton just put out three new television ads including one featuring former Arizona congresswoman Gabby Giffords talking about gun control. Bernie Sanders traveling here in the west, Arizona, including Arizona, also Idaho and Utah. So the race continues. Back to you.
[08:05:12] CAMEROTA: OK, Joe, thanks so much for all of that.
Here now to discuss Trump's warnings about potential riot, Utah Republican Congressman Jason Chaffetz. He's the chairman of the House oversight committee which will question Michigan's governor today on the Flint water crisis. We'll have more on that in a moment. Good morning, Congressman.
REP. JASON CHAFFETZ, (R) UTAH: Good morning. Top of the morning to you.
CAMEROTA: I see your handsome green tie. Everybody in Congress seems to be celebrating today.
CHAFFETZ: Yes, yes. It's a fun day. CAMEROTA: That's great. Congressman, I want to ask about
something Donald Trump said on our air here on NEW DAY yesterday in which me made a troubling prediction about what would happen at the convention if he did not get somehow to the 1,237 delegates needed. Let me play this for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: If we didn't and if we're 20 votes short or if we're a 100 short and we're at 1,100 and someone else is at 500 or 400 because we're way ahead of everybody, I don't think you could say that we don't get it automatically. I think you would have riots. I think you would have problems like you have never seen before. I think bad things would happen. I really do. I believe that. I wouldn't lead it, but I think bad things would happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Congressman, how do you interpret that statement?
CHAFFETZ: It's a bit sensational. But, look, if he's that far ahead, obviously that is going to be taken into deep consideration. But you have to go all the way to the finish line. It's like a horse race. He's just past the halfway part and you have got to get all the way to the finish line. So this is not yet over. And you actually have got to win the race. You can't just say, well, I got close.
CAMEROTA: Well, sort of. Do you have to get to the 1237? Or if he gets close then is it given to him because he's still the frontrunner?
CHAFFETZ: Well, again, they gather, and if you have to go to a second ballot you have to go to a second ballot. So he would have a very strong case if he has a wide margin. But there is still a lot of game to be played. You've got the vote in Utah coming up and a lot of other states that haven't weighed in yet and California and other big places. So let's see where this thing goes.
CAMEROTA: I guess the larger issue here is that he seemed to be telegraphing possibly a suggestion or a prediction that his supporters will not go lightly and that they would riot if he weren't the nominee. Does that trouble you?
CHAFFETZ: I don't know that there would be riots. But, look, on the positive side, Donald Trump has actually brought a lot of new people to the race. If you look at Nevada compared to when Mitt Romney won, that caucus four years ago, in this race where Donald Trump participated, more than twice the number of people showed up to vote. So the enthusiasm gap, the story that you ran prior, Hillary Clinton's got a big problem because I went to some of those caucus meetings in Nevada. And they had very few, very light turn out with the Democrats. Donald Trump legitimately is bringing a lot of new people to the process, and that is a good thing or Republicans.
CAMEROTA: OK, Congressman. So why not endorse him? CHAFFETZ: You know what, the voters are smart enough to figure
this out all by themselves. I did endorse Marco Rubio before the first vote was out there, but I'll support the Republican ticket and the voters will figure this out. They don't need me to help them along.
CAMEROTA: Like you, Governor Nikki Haley had supported Marco Rubio and she just came out and has chosen to endorse Ted Cruz. Let my play this for you.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. NIKKI HALEY, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: My hope and my prayer is that Senator Cruz can come through this and that he can push through and really get to where he needs to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: OK, so now that Marco Rubio is out, why don't you endorse someone?
CHAFFETZ: I'm going to endorse the nominee. That is my intention. That's what I intend to do. And we have the vote there Tuesday. I think Ted Cruz is going to do exceptionally well. He's a rock solid conservative. He's got a lot to offer. And it is a different dynamic with Marco out of the race and now you have Ted Cruz that really can garden they are conservative viewpoint. So, again, this is why CNN and so many people are going to keep watching CNN because we really do have a horse race.
CAMEROTA: We sure do. Let's talk about what's going to happen there in Congress today. You're leading this hearing where you are calling Governor Rick Snyder of Michigan to testify about the Flint water crisis. What questions do you have for him?
CHAFFETZ: Not only do we have the governor of Michigan but we also have the EPA administer because this is a catastrophic failure at every level. The local level, the county, certainly the state level, the Michigan department of environmental quality, and then the EPA, who knew about this for a long, long period of time and didn't do anything. So this is the third in a series of hearings. It is a really tragic event.
[08:10:00] I was there in Flint, Michigan, back on Saturday. I just can't even imagine having to for more than a year now take showers with bottles of water and not be able to drink the water. And they're paying the highest water rates in the country. There is some supplemental help there, but this is a real tragedy and we want to get to the bottom of it.
So the EPA says that they were lied to by Michigan officials. Do you believe Governor Rick Snyder new about the scope of this problem more and earlier than he's let on?
CHAFFETZ: I see no evidence in that. What I do see in Governor Snyder at least is when he does know about this in September or so that he does start to take action.
Now, I do think there were people at the Michigan people department of environmental quality that were not as candid with the governor as possible. But he has actually dismissed and fired some of those people. But the EPA started to investigate this in February of last year, and it wasn't until January of this year that they actually did something about it.
We are talking about 100,000 people who are drinking lead laced water, nearly 10,000 kids that are six-years-old and younger. You had Congressman Dan Kildee, a Democrat, who was jumping up and down about this with the EPA. They knew about it but they kind of suppressed it. They even told the local mayor don't worry about this report. We haven't finalized it yet. And so for about seven months later people continued to drink the water.
CAMEROTA: Congressman, what do you think of Judge Garland, President Obama's pick for Supreme Court?
CHAFFETZ: Well, he's obviously a very talented person but I don't know. I don't think the Senate is going to bring it up. Look, I'm in the House of Representatives. But when Joe Biden was the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee and made the case that it was too close to the election to actually confirm somebody, Democrats are going to have a really hard time taking the moral high ground trying to demand a vote. So I don't get a say in this being in the House, but I think the majority leader Mitch McConnell has made it pretty clear they are not going to vote on this until after the election.
CAMEROTA: Congressman Jason Chaffetz, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.
CHAFFETZ: Thank you.
CAMEROTA: Let's get over to Chris.
CUOMO: All right, a political throw down is breaking out on Capitol Hill over President Obama's pick for the Supreme Court. It's not so much who he picked but that he picked anyone at all. Republican lawmakers are doubling down on promises to not hold hears for now Merrick Garland's nomination process as he head to Capitol Hill to try to meet with at least Democratic lawmakers. CNN senior political reporter Manu Raju is live in Washington with the very latest. What is the chance of progress, my friend?
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey Chris. It looks pretty slim at this point. Judge Garland does meet with senior Senate Democrats Harry Reid and Patrick Leahy this afternoon. But only a handful of Republicans are even willing to meet with the nominee. That hard line has major ramifications in an election year where Republicans are at risk of losing power in the chamber. But the GOP is promising that a firewall against the Supreme Court nominee will rally the base in November.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Give the people
a voice in filling this vacancy.
RAJU: Senate Republicans declaring President Obama's choice for Supreme Court dead on arrival.
BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Widely recognized not only as one of America's sharpest legal minds but someone who brings to his work a spirit of decency, modesty, integrity, even-handedness, and excellence.
RAJU: The president touting 63-year-old Merrick Garland as a consensus nominee with more federal judicial experience than any other nominee in history, who worked on high profile cases like the Oklahoma City bombing and the Unabomber as a long time Justice Department lawyer and federal prosecutor.
SEN. ORRIN HATCH, (R) JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: Put this off until after the next president is elected.
RAJU: But Republicans argue it is about principle, saying American voters should first elect a new president before confirming a nominee.
MCCONNELL: It seems clear that President Obama made this nominee not with the intent of seeing the nominee affirmed but in order to politicize it for purposes of the election.
RAJU: Majority Leader Mitch McConnell even calling Garland to say that he will not meet with him or get a confirmation hearing.
SEN. DICK DURBIN, (D) ILLINOIS: That principle has no history, no precedent, and is virtually impossible to defend.
RAJU: Senate Democrats urging their counterparts to do their job, warning more obstructionism could clip control of the GOP led chamber in November.
HARRY REID, (D-NV) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Give President Obama's nominee a meeting, a hearing, and a vote.
SEN. CHARLES SCHUMER, (D) NEW YORK: We hope the saner heads in the Republican Party will prevail.
RAJU: But several in tough reelection races standing firm with Republican leadership.
SEN. ROB PORTMAN, (R) OHIO: If I do meet with him, it may not be a good use of him time because I'm not going to change my position.
RAJU: For his part, Garland got emotional at yesterday's announcement, having been passed over twice for a seat on the high court.
JUDGE MERRICK GARLAND, SUPREME COURT NOMINEE: This is the greatest honor of my life, other than Lana agreeing to marry my 28 years ago.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
RAJU: Now, it is unprecedented to deny a Supreme Court hearing to a nominee since such proceedings have become common practice more than 60 years ago.
[08:15:05] But just two Senate Republicans have been open to hearing so far. That includes Mark Kirk of Illinois, who has perhaps toughest race in the country. Democrats believe they need to force other GOP defections before the party convention in July, or they may have to wait until next year, or perhaps in a lame duck session, after the elections -- Michaela.
PEREIRA: All right. Manu, thank you for that.
Some breaking news out of the State Department. The United States will classify ISIS atrocities against the Yazidis and other minority groups in Iraq and Syria a genocide. Secretary of State Kerry will make this announcement this morning. It is the first time the United States is declaring a genocide since Darfur back in 2004.
CUOMO: Donald Trump's primary wins getting him lots of attention, not always the kind he likes. Late night comics taking their pot shots. Here is our look at the late night laughs.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN/HOST: Donald Trump won every Republican state primary last night except for Ohio, which went to John Kasich. And Donald Trump didn't seem to mind because he said as he put it, the word Ohio is filled with zeros.
And looks like he hit a really significant number. Take a look at the number. Yes. When Trump said he was good at making deals, I didn't know he was that good.
SETH MEYERS, COMEDIAN/HOST: Donald Trump won yesterday's Republican primaries in Florida, Illinois and North Carolina. Trump did especially well with white males, Caucasian men, and non women of no color.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
PEREIRA: That's a specific group.
(LAUGHTER)
CAMEROTA: I like the reference to the Faustian deal, made there with the 666.
PEREIRA: Fantastic, they're having fun with it.
CUOMO: OK.
PEREIRA: And there's much time to go.
CAMEROTA: All right. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump don't agree on much but they are both getting knocked around on one mutual weak spot: likability. We'll ask our political experts which candidate is more likely to overcome that problem?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:20:43] CUOMO: Hillary Clinton, Donald Trump both in solid position atop the runner board in both parties. So, they are not alike in most ways and they are certainly going to be a study in contrast if they wind up facing each other in the general.
However they do share something that neither will be happy about: high negatives.
Let's discuss with CNN political commentator, Margaret Hoover. She's a former George W. Bush White House staffer and veteran of two GOP presidential campaigns.
And CNN political analyst John Avalon. He's editor in chief of "The Daily Beast".
Very nice accents of green.
JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you very much.
CUOMO: You are laughing at me. Did I say something wrong in the intro? What did I say?
MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Judge --
CUOMO: I corrected it. Mock me not, Hovalon. So, it is good to see you both.
This is going to be a potentially historic general election on many fronts.
AVLON: Yes.
CUOMO: One of them maybe that this may be the first time that each party picks its least-liked candidate. What we call plus/minus very often. We have up here to show from a couple of weeks ago. It's the most recent numbers we have here at CNN that measure straight likability. Favorable, unfavorable. Donald Trump, Hillary Clinton's numbers. Also, similarly, what we call in the business, upside down. Higher negatives than positives.
Have you ever seen that before where the two choices in the parties come up upside down?
AVLON: Not two choices, and not where they're only underwater, but deep underwater in the case of Donald Trump.
Usually, the question is who do you want to get a beer with? This election is going to be who would you least like to not get a beer with? We're deep in double negative territory.
(CROSSTALK)
AVLON: I get a little wacky sometimes in St. Patrick's Day.
This is unprecedented to that extent, that you are dealing with candidates who are being elevated in part because of their unlikability in the case of Donald Trump. Or in the case of Hillary Clinton, she said, look, I may not be likable but I'm confident and that's enough in this election.
CUOMO: But aren't you supposed to be liked over anything else when it comes to politics?
HOOVER: Yes, except in the twilight zone in 2016. This is the year -- especially on the Republican side. We've seen this in the Republican primary. Donald Trump is reflecting the anger. We hear it over and over and over again.
It's not about who you're going to get, it's who's going to be outside? Who's going to change the systems, who's going to represent the people.
CUOMO: What about an the Democratic side? How is that the candidate with the higher negative is winning right now?
HOOVER: Well, what's key is not her general favorability/unfavorability numbers. As much as who they are unfavorable with, and which constituencies they need to win in the general election. $ Hillary Clinton has to put together the Obama group. And the key for her women and minorities.
And even though she's not demonstrating as much enthusiasm in the primary with those groups of people, nobody could probably turn as enthusiasm in the general as much as Donald Trump. I mean, Donald Trump in terms of people disliking him and coming out to vote for Hillary because they dislike Donald Trump, his upside down numbers with African-Americans, 76 percent unfavorable.
CUOMO: Hold. Let's take another step of the numbers, so you can give me some context of this. With Hillary Clinton t suggestion is that the likability may be closely tied to long familiarity with neutral and negative situations and honesty.
Look at honesty. Top candidate quality. If it is honesty for you, Sanders beats Clinton like an egg on all the states, Florida, Illinois, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio. He's often doubling her or tripling her if not even more of a multiple. Explain.
AVLON: Well, look, I mean, Bernie Sanders, whether you agree with his policies or not, his core asset is authenticity. You know he believes what he says and that is part of Donald Trump's appeal too. It's a brashness that is read as authenticity.
Hillary Clinton, her husband was called the natural in politics. She's the professional. She's all about the prose of governing rather than the poetry of campaigning, she's up front at this point, because she's not a naturally campaigner. So, Bernie is going to win the likability but he wins the electability and that is the calculation most Democrats are making.
CUOMO: For Trump, it's shares our values, if you can put up those numbers, I guess there is going to be a little bit of a synergy there to shares our values, what does that wind up meaning, it often means to the respondents, honest, moral how you speak.
[08:25:00] HOOVER: Well, that's really interesting because shares our values for the Republican primary numbers. And, you know, one would think -- a huge bloc as we know of Republican primary voters are evangelical voters, values voters, as we call them, but they have not voted for Ted Cruz who would be their natural candidate.
They voted for Donald Trump, the thrice married, four times bankruptcy -- the guy who's encouraging his constituents at the rallies to slog each other and find the guy with the tomato and beat them up. You know, clearly, he doesn't share our values but that's what's so incongruous about this election cycle. It's not about the guy who shares our values.
CUOMO: What about when you have these two forces of nature collide in a general election if that is what happens?
HOOVER: It is whoever is liked least is the one that wins.
AVLON: But the larger implication is actually going to be the tone of this entire election. I mean, when you have these two negative fronts hit each other, A, you are going to have a massive eruption in American politics. You are also going to see a relentlessly negative campaign, because all the energy isn't going to be about who people want to support. The vision of hope they want to see. It is about who they hate least, as Margaret just said.
And the enthusiasm to get to the voting polls is going to be to stop the other person. That is a double negative campaign cycle. That is where we are headed. It is going to be ugly. It sis going to be relentless, and it will lead to very high turnout for the worst reasons possible.
CUOMO: Margaret, can you give me any hope after what your husband just spat at me for the last 25 seconds?
HOOVER: Just to give you a proof point for what he just said. I mean, one of the key constituency is that every Democrat has tried to win is, can they break into independent voters and maybe even some Republican women?
Look, Republican women really don't like Hillary Clinton. Really don't like her. But do you know who they like less? Donald Trump.
CUOMO: Do we know that for a fact, the general?
HOOVER: ABC/"Washington Post" poll, even as recently as a couple of weeks ago shows Republican women, 21 percent --
CUOMO: But things can change when the choice is truly binary. I know what I've said about John. But now it is John or Margaret. I have to make a choice. Sometimes people change.
AVLON: It can. Look, clearly both campaigns, particularly Trump is planning on the world's biggest etch-a-sketch. It's going to be huge.
And I think you are going to see significant policy changes significantly on the Trump side. But Hillary Clinton has a record to run on that it is tougher for her to run away from. There are places like TPP she's tried to float.
But this is going to be a fascinating campaign unfortunately because it is against two folks who are under water, it is going to be relentlessly negative.
CUOMO: TPP, Transpacific Partnership?
AVLON: Yes.
CUOMO: Thank you very much.
John Avlon, Margaret Hoover, thank you very much, as always.
Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: OK. A contested convention, Chris. What does that even mean? And how could it change who the GOP choices as their nominee? We have the answers, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
