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President Obama Speaks out Against Donald Trump; Donald Trump's Prospects for Uniting Republican Party Behind His Presidential Candidacy Debated; Talk Continues About Whether or Not Garland will Have a Hearing; Are Trump and Clinton Guaranteed Wins? Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 18, 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] BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- in the American people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The dangerous drive to Aleppo. Four air strikes have hit.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're seeing that the plane is in the sky. We can hear it.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Let's go, let's go!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Friday, March 18th, 8:00 in the east. So from "he can't win," to "how can we stop him?" That's the new narrative in the GOP when it comes to Donald Trump. Fringe voices in that party trying to come to the rescue, considering an open convention. Now talk of a third party candidate, a new ticket looming above it all, Trump with his warning here on NEW DAY that riots may happen if he is denied the nomination.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham desperate to stop Trump now lining up behind his own arch nemesis, Ted Cruz. This as President Obama plans to take to the campaign trail in an effort to stop Trump and protect his own legacy. We've got this race covered the way only CNN can, so let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. Donald Trump wasn't even out on the campaign trail yesterday, but per usual he was just about the only person anyone in the GOP was talking about. Across the party, in public, in private, top officials huddling to try to answer the question that has befuddling them for months -- how on earth do you stop Trump's roll to the nomination?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think it would be -- I think you'd have riots.

MATTINGLY: The GOP upping the pressure on Donald Trump two days after the frontrunner's interview on CNN's NEW DAY where he warned that riots could erupt if he is denied the Republican nomination after securing the delegates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nobody should say such things in my opinion because to even address or hint to violence is unacceptable.

MATTINGLY: Top conservatives meeting privately in Washington on Thursday, plotting any way to block Trump's path to the nomination, raising the possibility of a third party option.

REP. PAUL RYAN, (R) SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: It's not going to be me. It should be somebody running for president.

MATTINGLY: House Speaker Paul Ryan again rejecting talk he could become the Republican nominee through a contested convention. Trump hitting back at opponents in his own way, taking to his free attack ad platforms of choice, social media, with a series of posts aimed at Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton. And Trump's fiercest one-time rival Marco Rubio --

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hopefully there's time to still prevent a Trump nomination.

MATTINGLY: -- speaking out for the first time after his bruising loss in Florida.

RUBIO: I'm not going to be anybody's vice president. I'm just -- I'm not interesting in being vice president.

MATTINGLY: Saying he's done with politics.

RUBIO: I'm going to finish out my term and Senate and then I'll be a private citizen in January.

MATTINGLY: And a surprise endorsement for Ted Cruz from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham after months of colorful digs.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: If you're a Republican and your choice is Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in the general election, it's the difference between poisoned or shot, you're still dead.

MATTINGLY: Now telling CNN's Dana Bash he's raising money for the Cruz campaign.

GRAHAM: I think the best alternative to Donald Trump to stop him from getting 1,237 is Ted Cruz, and I'm going to help Ted in every way I can.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And it's not just Republican groups looking to derail the Trump nomination. Now hacking collective "Anonymous" is targeting the billionaire, posting what they allege to be phone numbers, addresses, even personal information of Trump and people in his orbit. So no shortage of people trying to take on Trump but talk to any Republican operative involved in these efforts and you consistently hear the one big fear -- it's already too late. Michaela?

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

MATTINGLY: President Obama is also ready to take on the Donald. He's ready to hit the campaign trail and try and stop Donald Trump from succeeding him in the White House. Athena Jones is live at the White House for us on this Friday. Hey, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela, good morning. The White House says that he's going to be very, very active on the campaign trail. And it's not just about keeping the White House out of the hands of Donald Trump. It's also about retaking the Senate, making progress in the House. These are goals the president has laid out for himself and his party. And we've already heard him talking about the stakes of this election and talking about the tone of the race so far, especially on the Republican side. Take a listen to what he had to say on Capitol Hill earlier this week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The longer that we allow the political rhetoric of late to continue and the longer that we tacitly accept it, we create a permission structure that allows the animosity in one corner of our politics to infect our broader society. And animosity breeds animosity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, of course, when it comes to presidential politics each party thinks a victory by the other party would spell doom. But the point here is that the president wants to protect his legacy. Everything from the Affordable Care Act to the nuclear deal with Iran to the opening with Cuba, environmental and financial regulations, these are things he wants to make sure a Democrat is in the White House that replaces him so those legacies can be protected.

[08:05:02] He also has talked about the fight over the Supreme Court, highlighting the importance of having a Democratic Senate. The hope here is that the president can help drive Democratic turnout to the polls. Some of the early data we've seen from states that have already voted showed that the enthusiasm seems to be on the Republican side with turnout on the Democratic side quite low in some states. The hope is that a popular president, he's popular with his party. Recent polling shows his approval rating has ticked up nationwide as well, they're hoping he can drive that enthusiasm and help make sure that there are Democratic victories in November. Chris?

CUOMO: Even the Democrats are hoping on Trump to raise their voter participation numbers. That's how much pull he has.

All right, so let's talk about this simmering anger over potentially using the convention to keep Trump from being the nominee. Trump's own adviser Sam Clovis, came on NEW DAY and said this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SAM CLOVIS, TRUMP ADVISER: I will take off my credentials, I will leave the floor of that convention, and I will leave the Republican Party forever.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Will that threat be enough to it stave off an open convention? Let's discuss. CNN political commentator Kayleigh McEnany and Margaret Hoover, CNN political commentator, former George W. Bush White House staff member, and veteran of two GOP presidential campaigning.

Margaret Hoover, you guys are talking about Trump like he was a natural disaster. Is it too late to avoid him? He is already upon us. Where is this new found anxiety and fear from? You're only halfway through the race. He's got to win 50 plus percent of delegates. Why so afraid now?

MARGARET HOOVER, REPUBLICAN CONSULTANT: I'm not afraid. I've been afraid since Iowa. Let's be very clear. I've moved on from anger and sort of remorse to just acceptance. I mean, I'm one of these people who actually does think that because there is an increasing level of acceptance and, frankly, a lack of desire and hunger to continue to pour millions of dollars into attack ads that frankly haven't worked that it's quite likely that Trump will get 50 percent of the remaining delegates. You know, the panic was too little, too late.

The question I have for Donald Trump supporters, for Sam who was just there, is, isn't it time to unite the party? By threatening to just get up and leave if your guy doesn't win, that's not how we win. A fractured Republican Party does not win in November. And so now is the time for the Republican Party to think, how do you all get on the same page?

And the problem is that a good 30 percent at least right now of Republicans will never vote for Donald Trump. And so Donald Trump, if he's the dealmaker, and if he's the unifier and he's the one to lead the free world is going to have to start looking at the Republican Party and figure out how do to that.

CUOMO: Well, the flipside, Kayleigh, is never say never, especially if you decide you are going to vote. And if you're really not going to vote for Trump, would they even consider Hillary Clinton? How does that number break?

But there is a bigger concern Margaret just pointed out. Donald Trump himself said, look, it's time to unify the party. But since then hasn't done anything but further polarize, and this riots comment didn't help him no matter what his intention was. Is it time for him to change his game, to try to draw in some of this energy that's working against him? KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he's doing that.

He's made overtures to many people on the Hill. We hear all these stories of him making calls to establishment people to try and unite the party. But the fact is the establishment is not willing to accept him and they are doing it at their own peril.

And I completely agree with Sam and in fact I think a lot of Republican voters, too. I had a Ted Cruz voter say to me yesterday if Ted Cruz does win the most and it's taken from him, I will not vote. I will sit out. I will maybe write Donald Trump's name in because it will be such an offense to those enfranchised Americans who went out and voted for Donald Trump, it would be such an offense to them to take something from them that they voted on. This is the problem Republicans, voters, have had with the establishment. The establishment likes coronations, but we live in the United States of America. It's a democracy.

CUOMO: It's not just the establishment, though. Names that I'm sure are very familiar to you, Erick Erickson, Mark Levin, this is not the establishment, OK? You've got a lot of energy coming, and it seems that right now the plan is to match hostility with hostility. But if you're going to reach out do you have to open the fist and offer the hand.

MCENANY: He's done so. He's opened the fist.

CUOMO: How? There may be riots if you don't give it to me. That's not -- that's not conciliatory.

MCENANY: If the establishment takes it from him, yes, there will probably be not riots, but there will be protests. There will be mass protests because that would be the greatest offense to the voters. But he has opened his hand. He's reached out to Paul Ryan, he's reaching out to leaders. It's their turn to take a step forward. He's taken a step forward. They have to take a step forward as well.

HOOVER: Paul Ryan, he put, Paul Ryan called him.

CUOMO: Actually, I think Kayleigh nailed it. Trump was saying he called me. He gave me a great call. Ryan then said I called because he asked me to. That would qualify as Trump reaching out. So, you know, I think she's got it on that one.

HOOVER: Do you know why he called him? Because after he had won he said I'm going to get along great with Paul Ryan. And if I don't, well, let's just see what happens. So there was a threat that he had to make good on. And he had to paper over something --

CUOMO: Let's not read into Mr. Trump's motivations.

HOOVER: OK, let's not.

[08:10:04] CUOMO: Why aren't we looking at what is before us on the field of play? He would have to win more delegates by percentage than he has in most of his races so far.

HOOVER: That's right.

CUOMO: It's 50-plus percent, and you're only half way there in terms of what he needs. Why the panic?

HOOVER: Right. Well, look, Trump has consistently up until the Super Tuesday three won 33, 35 percent. Super Tuesday three he wins about 40 percent. What happened in the last week leading into Florida, the negative attacks against him really slowed down, and then the riots in Chicago happened. And these things seem to have helped him get that 40 percent. Now you're going into Arizona on Tuesday, and you're going to into these other states later in April. You simply won't have the opportunity to have the intensity of fire on him, and that's the only thing that really keeps the lid on his support.

CUOMO: Who says? Who says? Why don't you look at it the other way?

HOOVER: I'll tell you why.

CUOMO: Instead of negative, which is his strength and galvanizes his base, which you know has 70-plus percent support him no matter what, they won't change their mind, why don't you starting offering a better message?

HOOVER: Chris, I think Republicans offered fabulous messages about his integrity as business person.

CUOMO: That's negative. That's negative.

HOOVER: We have been offering --

CUOMO: Why are you better? Don't say why I stink. Why are you better than me, Kayleigh?

HOOVER: I think the entire campaign has been premised on why Republicans are better than Donald Trump because we're a party of free trade, because we're a party of accepting individuals for who they are and not in these bizarre ethnic groups.

MCENANY: There's 35 million --

HOOVER: We have a positive message. But this is, as you and I know, not an election where people are open to positive messages. There is a -- and let's be clear about what this is. It is a third of half of a political establishment, a third of the Republican Party that is angry and likes Donald Trump. It is not the swath of America.

CUOMO: A third of a half also known as about what, 22 percent? What do you think?

MCENANY: There has been $35 million in attack ads against Donald Trump. He has weathered all of them and done so in a very strong way. And here's the thing. There's a small grouper leaders who want to topple him, 30 leaders met behind closed doors. This is reminiscent of an agency of the past plotting every path to stop Donald Trump.

Let's make no mistake. This is not the American voters rejecting Trump. In fact, he's winning in high, high numbers. This is a small group of people who are uncomfortable with him, who don't like the fact he's a threat to their interest, he's a threat to this pork spending on the hill. He's going to roll that in. He's not beholden to lobbyists. He's not beholden to money. He's a threat to their interest. That's why they're having closed doors meetings to try to take him down. He's weathered $35 million in attack ads and he will continue to do so.

HOOVER: I would suggest that it's more than just personal interests of those in Washington who dislike Donald Trump. I would suggest that he doesn't stand for the ideals and principles that the Republican Party has long stood for.

MCENANY: He's broadened the Republican Party.

HOOVER: Let's put an end to this myth, though, that all of these new white voters who are coming into the Republican Party are going to make a difference in November.

MCENANY: They are. He got 50,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton in Ohio. That's huge. And he got second place.

HOOVER: You got to win more -- if you look at all the white people that you can bring out, it would be two to three million more white male voters, that simply isn't enough if you're disenfranchising the Republican coalition that voted for Mitt Romney in 2012.

MCENANY: What evidence do you have for that?

HOOVER: It's the math, Kayleigh.

MCENANY: What evidence do you have? Where are the numbers that say women and minorities say --

HOOVER: And 41 percent of Republican women say they're not going to vote for Donald Trump right now, and that's a problem, Kayleigh. And you have a huge number, 76 percent negative favorability rating amongst African-Americans, 41 percent negative favorability rating amongst Latinos.

MCENANY: Other polls show him doing exceedingly among those same groups.

(CROSSTALK)

MCENANY: The establishment was saying the same thing when he got in the race in June. He had the lowest favorability numbers of any of 106 presidential candidates that have been in the race since 1980. He has changed those numbers. He now has positive ratings among Republicans and will do the same.

HOOVER: I look forward to see how he turns around those Democrats. I really do.

CUOMO: Are you done? Are you done?

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: It's like Thanksgiving at my house, except there's no cursing. Kayleigh McEnany, thank you very much, Margaret Hoover, you guys did a beautiful job of depicting exactly what's going on in the party right now. Appreciate it.

HOOVER: Happy to do that for you.

CUOMO: Anytime. Good weekend to both of you. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: I've never seen you look quite so dumbfounded before.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Look at me more often.

(LAUGHTER)

CAMEROTA: Good point.

President Obama, hitting back this morning at Republican leaders for snubbing Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland. The president telling NPR the Republicans refusal to consider his pick further erodes American faith in government. CNN's senior political reporter Manu Raju is live in Washington with more. What else is he saying, Manu?

MANU RAJU: Hey, Alisyn. President Obama and Democrats are kicking off a full-on public relations effort to demand the confirmation of Judge Garland and to shame the GOP-led Senate into at least holding confirmation hearings. And part of that effort involves defending their actions from the past.

[08:15:02] Obama and Joe Biden when they both were senators tried to filibuster the nomination of Samuel Alito in 2006 from the Supreme Court, something that was unprecedented at the time.

And earlier this month, actually, I'm told, Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell actually called out Biden and Obama in the Oval Office, saying, quote, "You reap what you sow." Now, Obama in the NPR interview acknowledged democratic hard ball tactics of the past, but he said it's been nothing like this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let's end this process. You cannot point to me a circumstance in which Democrats have left a seat open when a Republican president was in office simply because they didn't like the possibility that it would change the make up of the court.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: Now, if the GOP doesn't give Garland a hearing, it will be the first time since such proceedings became the norm 60 years ago that a nominee has been denied a hearing. Republican senators up for re- election can expect to hear a lot of noise back home about this when they return home for recess, Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, they'll have that waiting for them when they get back. Thanks, Manu.

Some other news for you now, North Korea launching a pair of ballistic missiles, ignoring U.N. resolutions, their second launch in just a week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA (voice-over): The Pentagon confirming today's round was off the eastern Korean Peninsula. One of those missiles flew about 500 miles into the sea. It all comes as the U.S. and South Korea continue one of their largest joint military exercises.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The stock market, back in the black, which is actually a good thing when it comes to finance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO (voice-over): That means it's finally positive. The NASDAQ isn't, but when the market opens just in an hour from now, the Dow will be having erased all its losses from what's been a miserable start to the year. At one point, the Dow plunged almost 2,000 points in just three weeks. The question is, why the comeback? Well, you can look at the spike in oil prices, and also fading fears of a possible U.S. recession.

CAMEROTA (voice-over): Republican party drama making for some sharp comedy.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA (on camera): In case you missed it, or were sleeping, here are the best late-night laughs.

(BEGIN VIDECLIP)

JIMMY FALLON, COMEDIAN: The hacking group Anonymous has apparently declared war against Donald Trump. Of course, hacking him shouldn't be hard, because if there's anyone who just uses their name as their password, it's Donald Trump. Trump.

STEPHEN COLBERT, COMEDIAN: It looks like the GOP is headed toward a brokered convention, where the party bosses pick somebody other than Trump or Cruz. Who could it be? I mean, Jeb Bush's name has been mentioned, followed by loud sobbing and the words, "leave me alone," coming from the vicinity of Florida.

SETH MYERS, COMMEDIAN: It was reported yesterday than an op-ed written by Donald Trump seems to have been blatantly plagiarized from an article written by Dr. Ben Carson days before. People first became suspicious when Trump's op-ed began, as a black doctor...

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA (on camera): That's fantastic.

PEREIRA (on camera): Wait, you guys missed what we saw here in studio. Play that late-night laugh little theme song you have again.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA (voice-over): See what happens when -- go ahead. Show them what you got.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA (on camera): You have a little wiggle when you do it.

CUOMO (on camera): Oh, yes.

PEREIRA: This is what you're missing, America.

CUOMO: I'm very good at Trump dancing.

CAMEROTA (on camera): But is it involuntary, just when you hear the music?

CUOMO: You mean a spasm, you mean?

CAMEROTA: Yes, it might be.

CUOMO: Something I should control with medication? No on both counts, Camerota. No on both counts.

PEREIRA: All right, Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump both with commanding delegate leads in their respective parties. Can anyone or anything slow them down? We're going to give you an update on the delegate race ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:22:06] CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. The too close to call race for Democrats in Missouri has now been declared a win for Hillary Clinton, a clean sweep adding to her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders. Donald Trump hoping to win the Missouri's GOP delegates, but that race has yet to be called. Trump still well out in front of Ted Cruz and John Kasich in that delegate race.

So can any upcoming state stop either front-runner? Joining us now to discuss is our CNN political director, David Chalian. Hi, David.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Hi, Alisyn, how are you?

CAMEROTA: I'm doing well. So David, I'm so glad that you're here to walk us through this, because half of the guests that we've had on NEW DAY this morning say, that's it, race over. You know, you might as well stick a fork in it because there's no way to catch them in the delegate race. And the other half say, whoa, whoa, whoa, we still have a long way to go. So, which one is it? CHALIAN: It's a little of both. I'm sorry, I wish I could give a

more definitive answer than that. Listen, Donald Trump needs about 54 percent or 55 percent of the remaining delegates to get to that magic number of 1,237 before getting to the convention in Cleveland. That is a doable task. It is not impossible. It is a tough task with three people still in this race.

Listen, you see right there, he has a 260 delegate lead right now. That is significant. I mean, Ted Cruz needs roughly, like, 80 percent of the remaining delegates to get to the magic number and John Kasich needs more than 100 percent. It's mathematically impossible. So, Cruz and Kasich are really now fully banking on an open convention in Cleveland. Donald Trump actually still has a path. Remember, he's won about 47 percent of the delegates to date. So, if he can up his victories a little, up his margins a little bit, winning the 54 percent he needs left is doable.

CAMEROTA: Okay. So, David, show us what's about to happen next week and which states you're watching most closely in the math there.

CHALIAN: So the race heads west, right? And so we have an Arizona primary. You have the Utah caucuses. And -- and what you see there is that the 58 delegates at stake in Arizona on Tuesday, that is a winner take all state. So if you win by one vote, Alisyn, you get all 58 of those delegates and that's pretty good turf for Donald Trump.

He has the endorsement of the former governor, Jan Brewer, he often touts his endorsement of Sheriff Joe Arpaio, immigration hard-liner down there, and that's been an issue down there that has galvanized the Republican base.

CAMEROTA: Okay.

CHALIAN: Utah is a little bit different, and it might be a state where Ted Cruz certainly sees some opportunity there, like when he won Idaho. It's a caucus state, it's out west, there's a big Mormon population so he feels that he can sort of play to religious conservatives. But here's the deal there, it's somebody - it's not winner take all, unless somebody gets 50 percent of the vote. If somebody gets 50 percent of the vote, they win all the delegates in the state.

[08:25:00] CAMEROTA: I'm so glad you're doing the math so we don't have to. Let's move to the Democratic side, that's interesting because there's a higher number of delegates needed, 2,383. So, talk about whether or not there still is a path for Bernie Sanders and what that would look like.

CHALIAN: So, I think it is fair to say that Hillary Clinton is a lot closer to locking down her nomination than Donald Trump is to locking down his. This is -- if Ted Cruz and John Kasich have a very difficult path, Bernie Sanders has a near impossible task in front of him.

Look at that lead right there. 1,628 to 850. And you just split the math between super delegates and pledge delegates, just look at pledge delegates. 1,156 for Hillary Clinton to 827 for Bernie Sanders. Just the other night, Alisyn, if you just look at that five-state sweep that Hillary Clinton had on Tuesday night, she netted about 100 delegates. She walked away with 100 pledge delegate lead from that night, and not all the delegates have been allocated yet.

Now, just under half the total number of delegates have been allocated on the Democratic side. There are many more contests to go. Nobody knows better than Hillary Clinton, who did this in 200,8 that you can ride this out all the way until June because of the way that the delegates are portioned. But Alisyn, Bernie Sanders folks are now talking about how important super delegates may be here, because they're starting to see that winning the pledge delegate battle is probably too tall a task.

CAMEROTA: Okay, so just show us March 22nd, next week, and what that map is going to look like on the Democratic side.

CHALIAN: So, yes, they have one additional state, so they have the Arizona primary as well. They have the Utah caucuses and they have the Idaho caucuses. The Republicans have already voted there. So, you see that Arizona is the big prize with the 75 delegates. But again, remember on the Democratic side, there is no such thing as winner take all. Every single state is proportional allocation. So yes, Bernie Sanders can always collect some delegates, he just can't seem to dig into Hillary Clinton's lead among the delegates.

CAMEROTA: Okay. David Chalian, thanks so much for explaining all of that to us. We understand it better now.

CHALIAN: My pleasure.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, have a great weekend.

Let's get over to Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn. Next you're going to meet the aid workers that are risking it all to help those that are stuck in a war zone. Clarissa Ward takes us into rebel-held Syria for another CNN exclusive, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)