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New Day

Trump and the GOP; Supreme Court Nominee. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 07, 2016 - 08:30   ET

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

[08:30:00] JOHN SUNUNU, FORMER ROMNEY ADVISER: Rhetoric in the Republican primary to - to go to.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: You're right, Ronald Reagan is a perennial favorite of candidates and beyond. Governor, thanks so much for walking us through all of that. It does seem chaotic, but you understand it. We appreciate you sharing all of that with us.

And speaking of Ronald Reagan, don't miss tonight's episode "The Eighties." This is a look back at the highs and lows of the Reagan administration. This is tonight, 9:00 p.m. eastern, right here on CNN. It will jog your memory about what happened during that decade.

Also, Ted Cruz talks to our Dana Bash tonight. You can see her interview on "Erin Burnett OutFront." That's 7:00 p.m., right here on CNN.

Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland courting senators on both sides of the aisle. Ahead, we're going to talk to one Republican who says she was impressed. Is she going to go against her leadership and say that Garland should get a confirmation hearing? Wait for it.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, here's your Thursday edition of the five things to know.

The Democrat duel taking an ugly turn. Bernie Sanders calling Clinton's qualifications to be president into question, while Clinton questions Sanders' party loyalty.

[08:35:07] Meanwhile, Donald Trump attacking Ted Cruz for doubling down on his New York values comments. Both of those candidates campaigning in New York ahead of the state's critical April 19th primary.

Authorities are confirming one of the two Brussels suicide bombers caught on airport surveillance worked at the European Parliament. They say the unidentified man worked as a cleaner back in 2009 and in 2010.

President Obama is going back to the University of Chicago, where he once taught constitutional law. He's going to push for Supreme Court Nominee Merrick Garland. In the meantime, Garland will be back on Capitol Hill to meet with four more Democratic senators.

Jordan Spieth looking for back to back titles at the Masters, but he'll have to win another green jacket with a brand new driver. The one he's been using for the past two years, it cracked yesterday. Oh!

All right, for more on the five things to know, be sure to visit newdaycnn.com.

Not a cracked driver, that's not good.

CUOMO: Nope. Never good. Never good. Always carry two. Can't, bag rules.

OK, so Trump has been talking a lot about the establishment coming after him. But now it does seem to be on, and effective based on what happened in Wisconsin. But guess what, there is a counterattack from Trump to come. Insight, ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:40:22] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is lyin' Ted. You know, I came up with the idea, but you have to spell it right. It's l-y-i-n apostrophe. Lyin' Ted. The Bible held high. He puts it down, and then he lies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump banking on a big rebound in New York after that dismal showing in Wisconsin that effectively reset the Republican race. Can Trump still unite the GOP or is it too late?

Joining us now is Jan Brewer. She's the former governor of Arizona and a Donald Trump supporter.

Good morning, governor.

JAN BREWER (R), FORMER GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what happened in Wisconsin and how it exposed some say the vulnerabilities in the Trump campaign, particularly in exit polling. Let me point out to you a couple of telling exit polls and get your response to them. One of them asked how the voters in Wisconsin would feel if Donald Trump were to be elected. And they described themselves as concerned, all the way up to scared, 58 percent of them. Does that tell you, governor, that it's time for Donald Trump to change something or to tone down some rhetoric?

BREWER: Well, I look at that and I've heard that, of course, like many people have. I believe that, you know, the Cruz campaign, the establishment, they did their job up there. They spent a fortune on commercials and robo calls indicating that Donald Trump was this or he was that. So it was, you know, they did a good job of what they intended to do. But I know Donald Trump and I know that he's qualified and he'll serve us well.

CAMEROTA: I also want to ask you about Donald Trump, who has now spelled out how he would pay for the wall that he has so famously talked about between the U.S. and Mexico. You, of course, famously being the governor from a border state of Arizona, what did you think of his plan, whereby basically he said he would dry up the remittances, he would threaten to, that go back from immigrants, some of them legal, here in the U.S., back home to Mexico, and that's how he would get Mexico to pay for the wall.

BREWER: Well, I was real pleased to see that he put something on paper and that he presented it to the United States of America. Certainly we know the wall needs to be built. And in regards to the money transfers, I believe it's one of the solutions that we can use. Basically, we know that a lot of money is being wired back across the border, some from people that have come up here to work to send money to their family members. But a lot of the drug cartels also have their drug mules in the United States and that's how they transfer their drug money back again across the border.

So they are pulling all those dollars from our American economy and putting it into the Mexican economy. So if that can stop that, then I'm all for it and I think it's a solution that should be investigated and pursued.

CAMEROTA: And what about that. I mean you know this terrain better than anybody, being there on the front lines as you were. Do you think that his policies and his numbers and how much he's said the wall would cost and all of these plans, do you think these are realistic?

BREWER: I - no. In the ballpark, certainly. He's been in the development business all of his life and, let me say, successfully so. So he knows what it costs to build walls. He knows how to negotiate and get a good deal. And I think that he's probably in the ballpark.

We know it's going to be expensive, but, you know, what it's costing us by not having the wall and not having our border secured, it's costing us a fortune in healthcare, education, incarceration. The federal government has not done their job. And I will repeat again, like I've said in the past, if the federal government, if our president would have done his job to begin with and secured our border, that we wouldn't be faced with a lot of these other issues that we're facing with - that we're facing today.

So I'm all on board with Mr. Trump and his proposals regarding securing the border and I think the American people are. They're fed up and they're tired.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about the game that Ted Cruz is playing more behind the scenes. And it is the process of, sort of, courting delegates. Even delegates who may, at first, be bound to Donald Trump. But Ted Cruz is sort of romancing them, we understand. And this is a chess game that's going on behind the scenes. It's been pointed out that while Donald Trump had big rallies, big public events, Ted Cruz is quietly going around and getting people to promise that at the convention they would actually support him once they were free do so. Do you think Donald Trump is being - is that fair, number one, first of all, what Ted Cruz is doing? And do you think Donald Trump is being savvy enough about how to do that very thing?

[08:45:18] BREWER: Oh, I - I think it - certainly I think it's fair. And it's something that's been done for years to romance, if you will, the delegates. To encourage them to stay strong and to support the candidate that they were elected to support. We know the rules can be changed. And the idea is, is that the rules committee meets a week before the national convention and that's when the rules are established. And then on the first day of the convention, all of the delegates go in and vote and adopt those rules. So, you know, in the meantime, everybody is after the delegates to get them secured.

And at any time they can change. I mean it's a - it's just their word saying they're going to do this.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

BREWER: But they try to categorize the candidates. It's probably - it's really, truly grassroots politics. And we know that Mr. Cruz has had a good ground game in that respect, but Mr. Trump's ground game is out there, too. Maybe a little bit more secretively. But what's going on in Arizona right now. We choose our delegates April 30th. So we'll have them - we'll have them all here soon.

CAMEROTA: Ah-ha. Interesting.

BREWER: But we'll hold strong for Donald Trump.

CAMEROTA: All right, Governor Jan Brewer, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

Let's get over to Michaela.

BREWER: Thank you so much.

PEREIRA: All right, Alisyn.

More Senate bonding today for the president's Supreme Court nominee. Republican Susan Collins breaking with party leaders, saying Merrick Garland should get a hearing. She joins us on NEW DAY, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:50:21] CUOMO: What's going on with President Obama's nominee for the Supreme Court, Judge Merrick Garland? Well, guess what, Maine Senator Susan Collins emerged from her meeting and said she found him impressive. Let's discuss what could happen next. We have Susan Collins, the senator, with us, from Maine, right now.

It's great to see you, senator.

SEN. SUSAN COLLINS (R), MAINE: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: So, what do you think of Judge Garland and what do you think should happen? COLLINS: I had a really good meeting with Judge Garland. It lasted for

a little over an hour. We covered a lot of serious issues. I found him to be very thoughtful in his approach to the issues confronting the courts. We had a good discussion over separation of powers issues, which are particularly of interest to me. And he's clearly highly intelligent.

What I think should happen next is the customary step, which would be, after the courtesy meetings are completed, there should be hearings before the Judiciary Committee to allow for a fuller vetting of his views.

CUOMO: Senator, do you hear those footsteps running down the hall right now? Those are Senator Mitch McConnell's saying to you, what are you talking about? We said we're not going to do it. We have to wait for the next president. How - why are you getting outlet of line like this, senator?

COLLINS: Well, I certainly respect Leader McConnell's views and I know that he sincerely believes that this appointment should await the election of the next president. That's now how I think the system should work and I think we should follow the customary order. The first thing I did when Justice Scalia died is I read the Constitution. It doesn't put a time limit on the president's ability to nominate someone for the highest court of the land, or indeed any of the courts. And I believe that Judge Garland deserves consideration. Now, I'm not saying that I would necessarily vote for him. That's why we need hearings.

CUOMO: Do you have any friends on this?

COLLINS: Yes. Do I have any fiends on this? Sure, I do. I'll tell you something that I think is significant. Two weeks ago when we left Washington to go back to our home states, there were only two of us who had announced that we were willing to meet with Judge Garland. Now there's some 14 Republican senators who are willing to sit down with him. My hope is that those one-on-one exchanges will lead to a change in attitudes. I may be wrong about that. Let's see. But it is encouraging that so many more Republicans have agreed to sit down with him.

CUOMO: And just to be clear, I know you well, senator, and I know you're very popular. You have lots of friend. But on this, I wasn't so sure and that's why I asked.

Let me ask you something else. You had originally said that you were for Jeb Bush. You endorsed him. Now you're saying I'm going to wait until the convention. Again, an unusual move. Why?

COLLINS: Jeb Bush was my candidate. And I endorsed him very early on last summer. I campaigned hard for him in New Hampshire. And I'm crestfallen that he's out of the race so early.

I really don't have a second choice at this point. And I'm going to wait to see how the process plays out. I predict that there will be many more turns and twists along the road to the convention. And I want to see and listen to the voters.

CUOMO: Do either of the men who are frontrunners right now worry you about what it will mean for your party?

COLLINS: Well, clearly, neither Donald Trump nor Ted Cruz was my choice. Jeb was my choice. But each of them has shown an ability to gather votes. And what will be interesting is to see if either of them can meet that - can reach that magic number of delegates that would make them the nominee on the first ballot. Right now I think that's in doubt. So I'm just going to see how this plays out. We have a lot more primaries to go in big states like New York and New Jersey and Pennsylvania. And it's going to be very interesting.

CUOMO: We have some time to go, but something tells me, senator, I'll be seeing you in Cleveland.

[08:55:00] COLLINS: You will.

CUOMO: Senator, thank you for being on NEW DAY. Take care.

COLLINS: Thank you.

CUOMO: All right, coming up next, "The Good Stuff."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Kangaroo, I say it's the weirdest animal. Other people say giraffe. What do you think? Here's "The Good Stuff."

Nine-year-old Brianna has a medical condition -

PEREIRA: Random.

CUOMO: That doesn't allow her hair to go.

PEREIRA: Hi, Brianna.

CAMEROTA: Oh.

CUOMO: So, stupid kids at school bully her.

PEREIRA: No.

CUOMO: Around Christmastime, Brianna sold candy to raise money for a wig, you know, so she could not have to deal with that as much. So that's when she meets Officer Ramon Lomeli. He gave her a hundred bucks and bought her Christmas gifts. But "The Good Stuff" doesn't stop there, my friends.

PEREIRA: OK.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFFICER RAMON LOMELI, LAPD: I went home and I still - it was Brianna, Brianna, Brianna in the back of my head and you've got to do something about it, right? (END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Lomeli wanted to do more. So he spread the word about Brianna at work and a friend of Lomeli's supervisor donated a wig to Briana.

PEREIRA: Get out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JUSTINE MAKEOFF, SUPPORTER: It's really important for people to know that there is a human on the other side of the badge.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: Yes, absolutely.

CAMEROTA: For sure.

CUOMO: Thanks to Lomeli, Brianna is now getting measured and will get her wig.

PEREIRA: I just got a little goose bumps.

CUOMO: And let me tell you something, to pick up on that lady's point -

PEREIRA: Yes.

CUOMO: You know what's also important for people to remember?

[09:00:00] PEREIRA: What's that?

CUOMO: That there is a person that you are talking to who may or may not have hair.

PEREIRA: Absolutely.

CUOMO: Who are these kids? Who are these parents?

PEREIRA: I know. I know.

CUOMO: I hope that kid's school - I hope that community is watching this piece.

PEREIRA: That's right, Uncle Mo.

CAMEROTA: There you go. Keep us posted. When we get a picture of her with the wig.

PEREIRA: Yes, wouldn't that be a nice