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Sanders: 'Clinton Not Qualified to Be President'; Trump Looks to Rebound in New York. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 07, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

CAMEROTA: -- run for president.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In a number of areas he doesn't have a plan at all.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She thinks I am, quote, unquote, "not qualified to be president."

CLINTON: He never ran as a Democrat until he started running for president.

SANDERS: I don't think that you are qualified if you get $15 million from Wall Street.

CLINTON: I think we're at that point. We have to get tough.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are going to win, win, win.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He gets very angry when the voters reject him.

TRUMP: You know, Lyin' Ted Cruz came today. He couldn't draw 100 people.

CRUZ: If you want to know what liberal Democratic values are, follow Donald Trump's schedule.

TRUMP: I love these people. These are my people.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We're in a time of crisis. There are ISIS terrorists flowing around Europe. What's stopping them from making it into the U.S.?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nothing is 100 percent foolproof. Very concerned.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY. Up first, Bernie Sanders claiming that Hillary Clinton is not

qualified to be president because of her record and her vote on the Iraq war. The Clinton campaign firing back, questioning whether Sanders is even a Democrat. All of this just one week before the high-stakes CNN debate right here in New York.

CUOMO: There is drama in the GOP, too. Donald Trump now hoping to redeem himself after his bruising loss in Wisconsin with a win in his home state of New York.

We have this race covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with our senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, live in D.C. with more.

Morning, Brianna.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

This reveals just how high the stakes are leading into the New York primary with so many delegates at stake. And Bernie Sanders is not taking kindly to the Clinton campaign's new strategy to take him on more aggressively.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I don't believe that she is qualified.

KEILAR (voice-over): Bernie Sanders lashing out at Hillary Clinton.

SANDERS: I don't think that you are qualified if you get $15 million from Wall Street through your super PAC. I don't think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq.

KEILAR: The war of words between the two presidential Democratic candidates escalating. Sanders claiming...

SANDERS: She has been saying lately she thinks that I am, quote, unquote, "not qualified to be president."

KEILAR: But Clinton's campaign denies she ever said he wasn't qualified.

CLINTON: The presidents who are successful know what they want too, and they know how to do it.

KEILAR: Clinton is pointing to an interview Sanders did with the "New York Daily News," where he struggled to identify how his administration would break up the big banks, elaborating in an interview with Chris Cuomo.

CLINTON: I was, I think, a little, you know, surprised that there didn't seem to be a lot of substance to what he was saying.

KEILAR: Clinton now taking this line of attack on the campaign trail, that Sanders is unprepared to be president, and even questioning whether he's a Democrat.

CLINTON: He himself has said that he never was. He never ran as a Democrat until he started running for president.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

KEILAR: And a Clinton campaign spokesman, Bryan Fallon, tweeting out, guys, "Bernie Sanders, take back your words about Hillary Clinton." I was at this rally last night in Philadelphia, about 10,000 people inside of this stadium there in Temple University, and this was, like, red meat to his supporters. They were just eating this up, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Brianna. Thanks so much for that background.

Here to discuss it with us, Congressman Adam Schiff, a Democrat from California who has endorsed Hillary Clinton.

Congressman, thanks so much for being with us in the studio.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Bernie Sanders says she is not qualified to be president. What's your response?

SCHIFF: That's a pretty extraordinary claim. She's probably among one of the best qualified candidates to run for this office, and she was just an extraordinary secretary of state. She gets broad experience. I think she'll make a tremendous commander in chief. I don't think people take that very seriously.

CAMEROTA: It's because of her record on, like, her vote for the Iraq war, on her ties to Wall Street, on her trade deals. Let me play you the reasons he says she's not qualified.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I don't think you are qualified if you get $15 million from Wall Street through your super PAC. I don't think you are qualified if you have voted for the disastrous war in Iraq. I don't think you are qualified if you supported virtually every disastrous trade agreement that costs us millions of decent-paying jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: The crowd seems to agree with him.

SCHIFF: Well, that's his crowd of supporters. But I don't think the issue is qualification. It was certainly appropriate for Senator Sanders to raise any particular vote on substantive issues, but I think it was an extraordinary exaggeration to say that those are disqualifying statistics.

[07:05:04] Frankly, I am much more concerned this week with what I've heard Senator Sanders say on the gun issue and, I think, caring (ph) for the last three years of legislation to repeal to the unique immunity the gun industry enjoys. And to hear him so flatly say that he would reject the ability to sue gun makers, after saying he would co-sponsor the bill he'd introduced was so astounding. But it is consistent with the vote that he took early on to support the NRA's top priority. That, I think, is a more substantive issue to discuss.

CUOMO: Let's talk about that and but let's do it with one allowance. Senator Sanders was responding to being told that the campaign -- Clinton campaign said he was unqualified. That's why he's holding qualified in quotes. He's taking what they said about him and then returning it on the merits of what he said. I just don't think he deserves that much of a black eye for raising this. Fair point?

SCHIFF: Well, I'm not sure that the Clinton campaign ever said that. I think that...

CUOMO: But that's not what he says. He says, "They're saying that I'm not qualified. Well, I don't think Secretary Clinton is qualified." And that's where that came from. It wasn't like he just initiated this. Fair point?

SCHIFF: Well, it would be fair, I guess, if the Clinton campaign was making that claim about Senator Sanders, and I'm not sure that's correct. But either way, frankly, I don't think this is the issue, that the candidates are debating whether they're qualified. I think it rather ought to be what are their positions on issues?

CUOMO: The gun one is a real one. Why -- make the case. Why should a gun manufacturer be held liable if its product is used illegally? The analogy that they use on people who support Sanders saying this seems unfair. I buy a car. I use it to run into somebody. You don't get to sue Ford. You sue me. You sue maybe somebody who's involved with me who shouldn't have let me drive, but not Ford.

SCHIFF: Well, except for the fact that if you are selling cars and you sell a car to a 16-year-old and you're quite clear that the person is not an eligible driver and let them take the car off the lot. There's no reason you should be immunized from that kind of behavior any more than a liquor (AUDIO GAP). Why should a gun dealer selling to someone that they have good reason to believe -- they're not buying 15 of the same gun for themselves...

CUOMO: Senator Sanders has said in the past, if you provide facts that show that the gun seller, the manufacturer, which is not always the same thing, by the way, which also should be taken into consideration. If the manufacturer knew that its product was being sold to someone that's not supposed to have it, that's different. He said that, but that's also a very specific fact pattern.

SCHIFF: Yesterday he said that he didn't think people should have the right to send their victims -- even get into court. The problem is you can't make those negligent cases. You can't prove your case if you're bored from the courthouse.

And right now so many cases are just barred before becoming before a judge. That isn't right. Why does this industry have this unique liability? Why doesn't any other industry have it? Frankly, none of them need it. The good actors in the industry don't need it; the bad actors don't deserve it, and so we have to repeal it, and I find it bewildering, honestly, for him to say a couple months ago when we reintroduced the bill we'd been preparing for three years, that he would cosponsor it. And then, the other day, was asked about it, say no, he doesn't think people ought to have that right.

It's very confusing, and I think it turned out to be very hurtful to the Sandy Hook victims to have one of the leading presidential candidates basically say they shouldn't have their day in court.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what's happening here in New York. Things are getting feisty. At the moment in terms of the polls, Hillary Clinton has a comfortable lead, about 12 points in the latest Quinnipiac poll ahead of Bernie Sanders. But if that lead narrows, or if somehow she loses New York, this would be a major tide turner. Her adopted home state got close.

SCHIFF: Look, she ought to win New York, and I think she will win New York, but this kind of presidential year, this kind of race, you can't take anything for granted. Obviously, the kind of -- and again, stranger talk about somebody who's been in the Senate as long as Senator Sanders as an outsider. But this year, the outsider is that the message candidates have a great appeal, and you can't take anything for granted. I think she is very well-loved in New York and did a great job as the senator for New York.

CAMEROTA: You have no anxiety that she won't win New York?

SCHIFF: You know, look, I am confident she will win New York, but frankly, this kind of election year I am not comfortable, you know, counting anything in advance. If someone had told me that we would be at this stage in the campaign at the beginning of this cycle where you would have Donald Trump as the frontrunner and Ted Cruz has No. 2.

I would have never believed it. And I think if you asked anyone in the Senate where Bernie Sanders would get a cult-like following among young people, I would not have believed that.

CUOMO: If you'd asked Senator Sanders, he would have bet against it, as well. But times have changed. Do you think "win" is a defined term here for Hillary Clinton in New York? Do you think she has to win by at least 10 for this to be seen as a mandate victory?

[07:10:04] SCHIFF: I don't -- I don't know, you know, what the margin would need to be. Frankly, I think that she is well on track for the nomination. I think she will be -- she is before New York. I think she will be after New York.

I think it's in the Clinton's campaign interests to, frankly, keep the race with Senator Sanders on a calm and even footing and not let it descend into hyperbole. I don't think she needs to go there. So if I were counseling the campaign, I would say do what they're doing and keep it focused on issues. Don't take the bait from the Sanders campaign. Don't let it get messy, because you know, I think they're very much on track.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Adam Schiff, thanks so much for being here. SCHIFF: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: One week from tonight, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off in a CNN Democratic presidential debate in Brooklyn. That is next Thursday night, April 14 at 9 Eastern, just five days before the New York primary -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right. After a rough road for Donald Trump -- a rough road trip, Donald Trump says it is great to be home. The Republican frontrunner delivering a fiery speech last night to thousands of his supporters, didn't take long for him to blast Ted Cruz, doubling down on his New York values comments.

Phil Mattingly joins us now with a recap of that.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela.

A crushing defeat, dissension within his own campaign. Questions about his pathway to the nomination all in the past, at least publicly. Donald Trump is back in New York. He's on the attack.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: I love these people. These are my people.

MATTINGLY (voice-over): Less than 24 hours after a devastating Wisconsin defeat, Donald Trump looking to regain his footing in familiar territory, his home state of New York.

TRUMP: You know, Lyin' Ted Cruz came today. He couldn't draw 100 people. A hundred people.

MATTINGLY: Trump making no mention of his bruising Wisconsin loss at a rally in Long Island, wasting little time criticizing Ted Cruz, the Texas senator.

TRUMP: I've got this guy standing over there looking at me, talking about New York values with scorn in his face, with hatred -- with hatred of New York. I think you can forget about him.

MATTINGLY: The rally coming just hours after Trump huddled behind closed doors with one of his top advisers, frustrated over strategy, direction and staffing, according to sources, all roiling the campaign. Ted Cruz also campaigning in the Big Apple, doubling down on his past criticism of, quote, "New York values."

CRUZ: Let's be clear: the people of New York know exactly what their values are.

If you want to know what liberal Democratic values are, follow Donald Trump's checkbook.

MATTINGLY: Cruz trailing badly in early New York polls, predicting a big move in the state, much like in Wisconsin.

CRUZ: Well, you know, the interesting thing about polling is it can change and it can change quickly. We just won a landslide victory, winning by 13 points, sweeping the state.

MATTINGLY: John Kasich hoping to stay alive, coming in second in the latest poll, continuing to fight off calls for him to drop out of the race.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Now, 95 delegates at stake here in New York on April 19, and no shortage of attention will be paid to the public portion of this race.

Guys, one thing to keep a very close eye on. There's a delegate battle going on behind the scenes. Sources tell me all three campaigns have ramped up their delegate teams.

Now, what that means is they're going state by state, trying to lock up commitments from delegates, even those that might be committed on the first ballot to another candidate. Because it looks like it's a real thing. Guys, Cleveland, it will be one heck of a story -- Chris.

CUOMO: Absolutely. Appreciate it.

So President Obama diverting Ebola funds to fight the Zika virus here in the U.S. Is it time to sound the alarm? Nearly $2 million going to be used to help with extreme preventative measures, including vaccines and mosquito control.

This actually comes after Republican leaders in Congress shifted more than half a billion into a fund to combat Ebola in West Africa. The White House slamming the lawmakers for not fulfilling their duty to the American people. All this said, though, there is no reason for people to be up in arms and worried about Zika here in the U.S. That's what we get from the government.

CAMEROTA: Well, a wildfire out west gaining ground. The fire fueled by winds in western Arizona on Wednesday, then jumped the Colorado River into California, scorching more than 1,400 acres there, and a resort and a pair of RV parks forced to evacuate. No word on what started the fire.

PEREIRA: A school resource officer in San Antonio on paid leave this morning after this video emerged, body slamming a 12-year-old female student to the ground. Sixth grader Janissa Valdez claims she was trying to defuse a conflict with another female student when Officer Joshua Kehm intervened. She says she was knocked out when the officer threw her down, does not remember the incident. San Antonio Police and the school district are investigating.

Really hard to watch.

CAMEROTA: Terrible. Just terrible.

The advent of all these videos does tell...

[07:15:11] CUOMO: Video is good and always leads you in one specific direction, no matter who's right and who's wrong, it's always training, training, training, especially where these guys are dealing with kids.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: All right. So after a rocky road trip, Donald Trump is back in the NYC. A heavy favorite to win his home state primary, but he seems to be wanting to do more than just win. He seems to be wanting to change the state of play. How? One of his campaign chairman here next.

CAMEROTA: Did somebody say rocky road?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Donald Trump certainly enjoying the home-field advantage this morning after a bruising road outing in Wisconsin. How will Trump regain his momentum, and will he overhaul his campaign?

Let's hear from somebody on the inside, Jeff DeWitt, Arizona campaign manager for Donald Trump; also, Arizona state treasurer. It's good to have you with us. Let's start inside, and then we'll go outside.

There's intrigue after Wisconsin. Things are going to change. Paul Manafort, the big GOP big shot, is going to make changes. Maybe the campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, is out.

[07:25:09] Do you believe any of that should be substantiated?

JEFF DEWITT, ARIZONA CAMPAIGN MANAGER: No, no, Corey is one of the most senior and key members of the team, if not the most important. He is indispensable.

So no, Paul was brought in to help with the delegates. Obviously, the Cruz campaign is putting in a lot of resources, money and people on the ground to steal Mr. Trump's delegates and, in some states, they've had some success with that.

So Paul Manafort was brought in to help with that. He knows the delegate game very well. You know, he's famous back in the Gerald Ford days, with the delegate battles, and he's helping with that. But as far as the rest of the campaign, no, that's still full-speed ahead with the same people we have.

CUOMO: I get why you say steal, but it's fair play, right? I mean, you know in Arizona. Yes, Donald Trump won with 47 percent or something percent, and he got all of them but only for one vote. So trying to get people to change their minds is fair play, especially if you're going to go into a contested convention. Are you guys up for the challenge?

DEWITT: Yes, I think when we say steal, it's because the voters out there, for every -- like in Arizona, for every one Cruz vote, there were two Trump votes. And the voters then expect that they'll have the delegates at the convention.

So when Cruz comes in and tries to stack the deck, and some of the things they do can be considered kind of dirty.

CUOMO: That's different. Do you have proof that they're doing anything that they're not supposed to do?

DEWITT: Yes, we're talking to the state party about it. You know, they submit names when they see a bunch of Trump people show up at these meetings to get in, we've seen them submit names of people that aren't even there and have not filled out the paperwork to be considered and so we shouldn't have to put on the list. We see them elect them to choose state delegates, national delegates. So yes, we've seen things at the state party to get some people eliminated from the process that should not be there.

CUOMO: All right. So now we get to the outside. Here in New York. If we have a poll number, we can put it up. Trump is up here. Kasich doing better than Cruz, and obviously, we want to talk about why the campaign wants to point to what Cruz said about New York values.

Now, to be fair to Senator Ted Cruz -- he's (UNINTELLIGIBLE) -- this wasn't about the New York people. The New York people are great, 9/11 showed their resolve, no question about it. We were all New Yorkers then. I'm talking about the bad liberal Democrats there that Donald Trump has been paying for, like Cuomo's brother, Andrew, who's the brother. He said, "That's what I'm talking about, not the New York people." Do you accept that?

DEWITT: No, I don't accept that, because if you watch the comments, he basically blanket-statemented everybody here. And it's surprising that anybody in New York would vote for Ted Cruz. And so I think the 17 percent that are voting for him should watch the statements, and I think that percent will go down to zero for him if they watch it.

CUOMO: Here's the trick for you. On the outside, people, they'll say, "Oh, New York, well, Trump is from there. You know, he's doing well and the frontrunner. He'll be fine. Look at that, he's over 50 percent in the polls. Wow. He may get all of them, because that triggers the winner-take-all provision." But that's deceptive.

You've got to win 50 percent in each of the districts. And in some of those districts you have very small populations of GOP voters, right? I mean, New York is a largely Democratic by registration state. So you have to have ground game, more than just representation. Are you set up for it?

DEWITT: Yes, absolutely.

But you know Cruz is...

CUOMO: You know that's his strategy here, right? He says, "We're smart. We're going in there. We're targeting districts and break down the lead."

DEWITT: Well, look at the rally last night. Mr. Trump had a rally with 18,000 people there, and from what I heard, Cruz was lucky to have 100 people show up to any event that he had. And I think that is indicative of not only ground game but reception by New York voters. CUOMO: The perception is -- I don't think it's indicative of the

ground game, because you've got to see that you have the infrastructure and you have those phone calls and target those people. I mean, that's part of the mechanics, the boring party politics that often makes a difference. It's been a criticism of the Trump campaign. Bringing Manafort in was a way of fixing that. Is the campaign retooled?

DEWITT: Yes, you know, look at this like this, too. When you have a guy like Ted Cruz, here's a guy that has run races before. Even before he ran himself, he worked on other campaigns. He's very familiar with the process.

When you have a businessman, you know, get in the race who's never has run for anything, there's a learning period. I myself am a businessman turned politician in my race. And so I know what you go through to learn and adjust and realize that there's more to it than just getting the votes.

And so, you know, our campaigns had a natural progression as well as you would expect, but we tooled up and absolutely, we have a ground game. And I think if you look back three or four months ago to what we had, versus what we have now, we -- we have a much bigger and more focused game now than we did then.

CUOMO: For Team Trump, is this just about winning New York, or is this about changing the state of play after what happened in Wisconsin and some of the recent results?

DEWITT: Well, the state of play is going to change no matter what, because we're heading to not just New York but throughout the whole northeast here, where Mr. Trump's going to do very well. And that's where, really, Ted Cruz doesn't play well. He could come in third in multiple states, in half a dozen states right now.

So -- and I think that's going to change the narrative right there: not just coming in second but coming in third place state after state will have a natural tendency to change -- change what gets talked about in the press.

[07:25:10] CUOMO: Manafort hearing what Trump's daughter was saying to him about how he should come across, how he should present himself. Trump then seemed to play with that idea, being presidential is boring. Let me be unpresidential so I can win.

Is there any real thought being put into look at what happened last week. We don't want a repeat of that. Let's change how we say what we say? Any chance of that?

DEWITT: No. I mean, again, he's adjusting as we go along. You know, a lot of people don't realize, Mr. Trump is a very, very smart man. And that's what we all know who deal with him inside, is he's extremely bright and extremely sharp. And any time you do that, you know, you'll adjust and you look at how -- you know, how you come across. And I think that's -- this is a little different, business versus politics. There's always an adjustment period that goes through that. But, you know, Mr. Trump is -- I think he's presidential, really, all the time. And that's what we need. We need someone that speaks their mind. And I think that's the other thing to not forget, is voters across America appreciate the fact that he says it like it is, so we don't want to take away that. Mr. Trump has to be Mr. Trump, and people except that, as well.

CUOMO: Jeff DeWitt has to be Jeff DeWitt. Thank you for joining us.

DEWITT: Thank you.

CUOMO: Appreciate it. Good luck as we wish all the campaigns.

DEWITT: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right. So who is Donald Trump really focused on here in New York? Well, that's got to be Ted Cruz. Guess what? The senator is going to speak live with Erin Burnett tonight at 7, of course, right here on CNN -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Well, Bernie Sanders is proving tough for Hillary Clinton to shake, raising the prospect that the Democratic convention might also be contested. We'll discuss the possibilities and how that would work, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)