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New Day

Donald Trump Campaign Accuses Ted Cruz Campaign of Unethical Tactics in Gathering Delegates; Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton Campaign Release Ads in New York; President Speaks about Biggest Mistake of his Presidency; NFL Mourns Death Of Former Saints Star Will Smith; Sanders Questions Clinton's Judgment. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 11, 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] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We will prosecute Cardell Hayes to the fullest extent of the law.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The family is devastated and shocked.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Major developments here in Belgium.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The terrorist behind the deadly plot planned more attacks in France.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The cell is deeper than previously expected. A couple of dozen or more people who are still out there.

(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 is Monday, April 11the, 8:00 in the east. And up first, Donald Trump is refocused. The Republican frontrunner is back on the trail after four days of near silence, for him, at least, and he and his aides say they retooled the campaign. It seems to be started with a wave of fury over Ted Cruz's sweep of Colorado. He is blasting the state's GOP delegate selection process as totally unfair. Trump's newly minted convention manager is accusing Cruz of Gestapo tactics to win delegates.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All this as Bernie Sanders steps up his attacks on Hillary Clinton, saying something is clearly lacking in her judgment. He also claims she is condescending to young voters. The Democratic rivals set to face off in a CNN debate on Thursday. Can Sanders pull off a win here in New York next week?

Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Phil Mattingly. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. They are arcane, they are complicated, they are different in every single state, and they are being dominated right now by Ted Cruz's campaign. They are the Republican delegate rules, and have Donald Trump and his top advisers crying foul. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got a corrupt system. It's not right. We are supposed to be a democracy.

MATTINGLY: Donald Trump back on the campaign trail in New York after spending four days laying low.

TRUMP: We have got to have a system where voting means something. Doesn't it have to mean something?

MATTINGLY: Criticizing the delegate system after a string of losses in state battles dominated by Ted Cruz's campaign organization, and issuing a warning to the Republican National Committee.

TRUMP: You're going to have a big problem because there are people who don't like what is going on.

MATTINGLY: Trump's top adviser Paul Manafort echoing his boss's concerns, alleging that the Cruz campaign is threatening Trump's delegates.

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CONVENTION MANAGER: You go to these conventions and see the Gestapo tactics, and we are going to be filing several protests because the reality is they are not playing by the rules.

MATTINGLY: The Cruz campaign calls it sour grapes, writing in a statement, quote "It is no surprise that Trump's team will lash out with falsehoods when facing a loss to distract from their failure. Trump taking to social media to express his frustration with the delegate fight, tweeting "The people in Colorado had their vote taken away from them by phony politicians, biggest story in politics. This will not be allowed." This back and forth coming just a day after Cruz went after Trump over electability while courting top donors in Law Vegas.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If Donald is the nominee, poll after poll after poll shows him losing by double digits. We are looking at a bloodbath of Walter Mondale proportions.

MATTINGLY: These attacks coming as Trump tries out a new strategy -- playing it safe. The Republican frontrunner was absent from the Sunday talk shows yesterday for the first time in four months.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Alisyn, I spoke to one top Trump adviser who acknowledged that despite the public protests they have largely been out-organized, outplayed, and outmaneuvered by Ted Cruz's campaign on the ground over the last couple of weeks, and they are going to need a couple weeks more just to try and catch up to them. That said, in that race to that magic 1,237 number, Trump's campaign says, hey, if we just win primaries and caucuses we don't even have to worry about that stuff. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: That would make it simpler. You're right, Phil. Thanks so much.

For that, joining us now is former New Hampshire senator and co-chair of Vets for Ted Cruz, Bob Smith. Good morning, senator.

BOB SMITH, CO-CHAIR, VETS FOR TED CRUZ: Good morning. Good morning, Alisyn, thanks for having me on.

CAMEROTA: When Paul Manafort, Trump's convention manager, says that the Cruz campaign has engaged in, quote, "Gestapo tactics" to get delegates, what is your response?

SMITH: Of course, it's nonsense. Every time Senator Cruz gets a victory somewhere, wins a delegate somewhere, we have to hear name calling and coming up with this kind of stuff. The truth is that Senator Cruz has a grassroots organization which he has put together and worked personally, talking to delegates in North Dakota, Utah, out in Wisconsin, of course, in the primary and here in Colorado. It's the process, and Senator Cruz has put this team together. And if Donald Trump had spent his time doing that and stopped name calling maybe he would be in better shape.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump says that it's not that Ted Cruz is winning delegates. It's that his campaign is engaged in underhanded tactics in order to get these delegates. Here's Donald Trump just an hour on another morning show. Listen to what he said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:08] TRUMP: Now they are trying to pick off those delegates one by one. That is not the way democracy is supposed to work. They offer them trips. They offer them all sorts of things. And you're allowed to do that. You're allowed to offer trips and you can buy all these votes. What kind of a system is this?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Senator, is the Cruz campaign offering delegates trips and other perks for their votes?

SMITH: Of course not. This is just nonsense. And somebody should challenge him on that. Where are the trips, where are the promises? It is Senator Cruz taking the time to meet personally with delegates as the process provides for and as a grassroots organization which we have spent a tremendous amount of effort and resources on over the past several months. This is the way it is.

Some of these delegates are elected and they are not specifically for any candidate. So it's up to the candidates to go and talk to those delegates. That's the way the process is. It's what you have to do.

And look, I can understand why Trump is angry. He's lost 12 elections in the last few weeks to Senator Cruz. He lost the last four including Colorado now. So instead of being out there and calling names and using all these falsehoods, he ought to be concentrating on doing what you're supposed to do which is to go after delegates and win the nomination. So just in the past few days the Trump campaign has accused the Cruz

campaign of basically buying votes. They have accused the Cruz campaign of intimidating delegates through Gestapo tactics. Is Ted Cruz going to respond to this and shut down some of these accusations?

SMITH: That's up to Senator Cruz to respond. I certainly know it is not true. And Gestapo tactics, Alisyn, is a pretty strong word, and I think you ought to call him on it to prove it. What are the tactics? Talking to delegates and trying to get them to -- asking them if they will support Senator Cruz? That's the process. That is what you have got to do. It takes 1,237 delegates to win. And that is what Senator Cruz is doing. There's absolutely nothing wrong with it. It's sour grapes is what it is.

CAMEROTA: Senator, does Donald Trump have a point? In most Americans minds the way the primary process is supposed to work is that regular Americans go to the polls and vote for the candidate of their choice. And if you just look at it that way and look at the math, let me pull it up for everyone, Donald Trump should be winning. Of course, he is winning in the delegates and the popular vote. But look at this, he has 2 million more votes than Cruz. Does he have a point that the convoluted process that we have seen in Colorado is not what most Americans think of as democracy?

SMITH: This is just Donald Trump doing what he does best which is to make noise and to kind of make it look like we're doing something wrong. The truth is, it's the United States of America, state by state from New Hampshire to California. Over a period of months we elect our president. We do it by having elections and caucuses in state after state. Depending on the state, they have different methods of electing these delegates. Sometimes by the popular vote, sometimes by caucus, sometimes they're elected as non-committed and then candidates have to talk to them. These are the rules. There is nothing wrong with it. It is still a democratic process and it is still the way the process works.

As is said, it's the United States of America. How many you have you can win more popular vote in the general election and still not win the presidency because the electoral college provides for a process where you win state by state. So it's sour grapes. Senator Cruz is doing everything above board, talking to delegates as you are supposed to do, and all Donald Trump does is call names and scream and yell. And it's now catching up with him finally.

CAMEROTA: Former New Hampshire senator Bob Smith, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

SMITH: Thank you Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It's a big week of politics on CNN beginning with a new twist on the presidential town hall, a three night CNN town hall event featuring the Republican candidates and their families onstage answering voters questions. Tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern Ohio Governor John Kasich will be joined by his wife and daughters. Then on Tuesday it is Donald Trump and family. Then on Wednesday Texas Senator Ted Cruz will be joined by his wife. Anderson Cooper will moderate the town hall, so join us tonight, 9:00 p.m. eastern for the very first one. Michaela?

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Big week on CNN.

[08:10:00] All right, Bernie Sanders, meanwhile, laying the groundwork for what promises to be a fiery Democratic debate Thursday night in Brooklyn. He has released a new ad trying to prove who is the real New Yorker.

Let's get the latest from CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns. Hey, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. The latest salvo this morning in the home state battle between the Democrats, while Hillary Clinton is seen as having the edge in the polls as former U.S. senator from New York, Bernie Sanders is seeking to bolster his own street cred with a new television ad running in the empire state that plays on the fact that he grew up there. Check it out,

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: New York, what makes a thing bigger, go bolder, push for a living wage that is higher, for tuition free public college, justice that works for all, for a middle class that must be saved? You do. Values forged in New York. Brooklyn born native son knows what we know -- we are all in this together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Not to be outdone, frontrunner Hillary Clinton appearing at the greater Allen AME Church in New York on Sunday, was emphasizing her years representing the state on Capitol Hill, speaking about how much she loved being a senator from New York and telling the congregation and voters she wants to serve them again. Both candidates, by the way, continue campaigning in New York today, Chris.

CUOMO: Boy, when is the last time you talked about New York this way in a presidential race? Who would have guessed that it would become such a flash point for this election? Joe Johns, thank you very much.

So the current president, President Obama, he doesn't talk a lot about the campaign let alone the scandals dogging Hillary Clinton, but he did just that. The president says his administration is playing no role whatsoever in the Justice Department investigation into her e- mails. But then the president went even further. CNN's Athena Jones live at the White House with more. Athena, what did the president say about what he thinks of the scandal?

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris. The president defended Hillary Clinton on this e-mail issue and also seemed to downplay the issue as a while. He said even though she may have been careless he doesn't believe that she put national security at risk when it comes to management of the e-mails. Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) BARACK OBAMA, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I continue to believe that she has not jeopardized America's national security. What I have also said is that, and she has acknowledged, that there is a carelessness in terms of managing e-mails that she has owned and she recognizes. But I also think it is important to keep this in perspective. This is somebody who served her country for four years as secretary of state and did an outstanding job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So the president saying she did an outstanding job, not a full-throated endorsement. But another thing that is interesting, another point he brought up when it comes to this email is that he talked about the classification system, echoing some of the words we've heard from the Clinton team who have argued all along that this is a case of classification run amuck. But the president saying that sometimes something that's labeled top secret really, truly is sensitive, other times not so much.

We've also heard from the president talking about his hopes for Merrick Garland, the judge he picked to fill Justice Scalia's seat on the Supreme Court. He hopes that the Senate will give Judge Garland a fair hearing and a vote. It doesn't look like that's happening right now. It looks like there is a wall of Republican opposition in the Senate. But the president said that some Republicans said at the beginning they wouldn't even sit down and meet with Judge Garland. Already we are seeing Republicans meet with Judge Garland, including a breakfast meeting tomorrow with Senator Grassley who heads the judiciary committee. So he is hoping there will be some movement on that.

And then finally the president was asked, what is his biggest mistake as president? Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Probably failing to plan for the day after what I think was the right thing to do in intervening in Libya.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: So naming Libya as his biggest mistake. This is of course an area where the White House has come under a lot of criticism. The president himself has called Libya a mess and even used harsher terms simply because it has now become basically a haven for ISIS. Michaela?

PEREIRA: All right, Athena, thank you so much for all of that.

Second degree murder charges are filed against the suspect who allegedly shot and killed former New Orleans Saints star Will Smith in an apparent case of road rage. Cardell Hayes is now being held on $1 million bond. Coy Wire joins us now with the latest on the tragedy live from the CNN center in Atlanta. So many heavy hearts in the sporting world today. COY WIRE, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Michaela, one of Will

Smith's former teammates to whom I spoke to told me that Will was just getting excited about his life after football. He was completing an executive MBA degree and was scheduled to walk in his graduation in less than a month from now.

[08:15:00] Another told me that as big of a difference maker as Will Smith was on the field, Super Bowl champ, team captain, he had an even greater impact in the New Orleans community.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One life is over and another life is ruined.

WIRE (voice-over): New details are emerging over apparent road rage killing of beloved New Orleans Saints defensive end, Will Smith. Police say this man, 30-year-old Cardell Hayes, quote, "exchanged words" with Smith after rear-ending the former NFL player's car at a rural New Orleans intersection late Saturday night.

Soon after Hayes now charged with second degree murder pulled out a hand gun, gunning down the 2010 Super Bowl champion and shooting his wife in the leg. Just hours earlier the couple posting this selfie together. Smith writing having a blast.

LAUREN RENSCHLER, SMITH FAMILY SPOKESPERSON: Rocquel is at the hospital recovering and she's surrounded by her family and we are just praying that she has the strength to get through this.

WIRE: Police are now investigating whether the relationship between Smith and a former police officer who posted this photo on Facebook dining with Smith an hour before his murder had anything to do with the shooting.

The reason, the former officer was involved in the 2005 killing of the gunman's father. In a decade old federal lawsuit filed by the gunman, Hayes claims he and five other officers used excessive force when they shot and killed his father after he allegedly lunged at them with a small pocket knife.

MICHAEL C. HARRISON, NEW ORLEANS POLICE DEPARTMENT SUPERINTENDENT: We do not have information to suggest that they knew anything or that this was anything other than an accident that turned into a dispute.

WIRE: Over the weekend, an outpouring of grief over the loss of one of the New Orleans Saints' most famous players flooded social media. Smith's former teammate, Reggie Bush writing, "You were a great man and did so much good for so many people in New Orleans. You will be greatly missed."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WIRE: As a former player, I remember getting emotional just when a teammate was cut. It is unfathomable to think what the teammates are going through with Will Smith. I asked one of his teammates, fellow captain of the New Orleans Saints, Curtis Loften if he had gotten emotional yet. He said not yet. It is still surreal. I have a knot in my stomach because that could have been me with him. I can't imagine how his wife and three children are feeling -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, to think these things happen in a flash and then lives are ruined and changed forever. It is so tragic. Coy, thank you for all of that.

Well, a controversial prison release in California, the son of a former state House speaker now out on parole. Esteban Nunez (ph) went to prison in 2010 for stabbing death of a college student.

On his last day of office then governor, Arnold Schwarzenegger, reduced Nunez' 16-year sentence. The governor and Nunez' father were friends and political allies. An appeals court said back room dealings were, quote, "apparent," but they did not overturn Schwarzenegger's decision.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Gay rights advocates are calling on national's country music industry to speak out against two bills making their way through the pipeline in Tennessee, one forces transgender people to use public bathrooms according to the sex in their birth certificates.

The other allows therapists to turn away LGBT patients. Bruce Springsteen and Brian Adams have both cancelled tour stops in the south in response to this wave of legislations citing religious freedoms.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, time for late night laughs. "SNL" kicking off Saturday's show by poking fun at Hillary Clinton's losing streak and then Kate McKinnon took swipes pun intended at Clinton's subway swipe fail. Check it out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I better put on my favorite hat that I have worn so many times over the years. That will keep me warm while I eat my favorite dinner, a classic New York City street hotdog. You know what my favorite part about New York is, the subway. I love to ride it and I am comfortable riding it here is me using it earlier today.

The New York City subway is the best way to get around. It's been a while. Is this a working card I will just go in the odd fashioned way. I'll take a cab. The cab is the best way to get around.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: My first time on the subway I may have opted for a cab.

CAMEROTA: You didn't try to straddle --

PEREIRA: I did not.

CUOMO: Nobody can use the Metro cards.

PEREIRA: She is really, really good.

CUOMO: So here is the hard question. Who is better, McKinnon or Fay?

CAMEROTA: You mean Tina Fey as Sarah Palin.

[08:20:03]CUOMO: Yes, of course, who is better?

PEREIRA: Apples and oranges.

CUOMO: Weak. What do you think?

CAMEROTA: I like them both.

CUOMO: No spine. I put the question to you, brave Americans.

CAMEROTA: Bernie Sanders walking back comments that Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president. Now he is questioning her judgment. We'll speak to the Sanders campaign manager next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CUOMO: Senator Bernie Sanders intensifying his attacks on Hillary Clinton questioning her judgment this after clenching his eighth victory in the last nine contests over Hillary Clinton this weekend in Wyoming. Will this war of words get before Thursday night's CNN debate?

Who better to discuss this with than team Sanders coach, campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, joining us now.

JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS' CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Chris, good to see you.

CUOMO: Good to see you, sir. So one specific issue for the state of play. I want to play for you what former President Bill Clinton said in defense of Hillary Clinton's use of the word predator or super predator in the context of the crime bill. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:25:01]FORMER PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: I don't know how you would characterize the gang leaders who got 13-year-old kids hopped up on crack and sent them out on the street to murder other African-American children. Maybe you thought they were good citizens. She didn't. She didn't. You are defending the people who killed the lives you say matter. Tell the truth.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Is former President Clinton wrong?

WEAVER: He is absolutely wrong. That term super predator is a racially coded term that was being used by conservative and right wing social scientists to describe a whole generation of young minority kids who were supposedly without conscience, un-savable, just criminals.

This was not a term used in isolation. This was a term that was being used by the right wing and conservatives to slur a whole generation of African-Americans primarily.

CUOMO: So you say the president is changing the context and definition of what Hillary Clinton was referring to back then?

WEAVER: What I'm saying is that when it was used in 1996 there was a social context. For him to defend it now as Bernie Sanders said is unacceptable.

CUOMO: But where does Bernie Sanders want to take this? It goes down the road of Bernie Sanders saying that Hillary Clinton/Bill Clinton are bigots. Is that where he wants to go?

WEAVER: No, I don't think that's what he is saying. But I will say that there is a history of what used to be triangulation on the part of the Clintons whether the crime bill or welfare reform bill in 1996, which has increased the number of kids living in desperate poverty in this country.

Whether it was voting for DOMA in that same time period and running ads on Christian radio in the 1996 presidential campaign in the south, touting the fact that they supported DOMA or 2008 when they contacted Eliot Spitzer to try to get him not to give drivers licenses to undocumented people here in New York State.

Because it was going to interfere with the sort of the messaging in the political campaign at that time so there is a history of triangulation and it is a troubling history and it needs to be talked about.

CUOMO: The senator voted for the same crime bill that the senator did. What is the ultimate point of this? They are in the same place on the same bill that the African-American community and other minor minorities hate and think was directed to hurt them. Why isn't the senator able to be painted with the same stink?

WEAVER: Well, two things. First of all, they weren't in the same place. When Bernie Sanders voted for the bill he went to the floor of the House and said this bill has a lot of terrible death penalty prohibitions in it, which he voted to try to strip out.

Mandatory minimum which he voted to strip out. He voted for it because there's an assault weapons ban in it and because the violence against women act was in it. He voted against it, of course, we would be having a conversation about how Bernie Sanders is in the pocket of the NRA, right.

The other thing is Bernie Sanders didn't go around talking about people being super predators to justify voting for that. He voted for it for two reasons, the violence against women act and the assault weapons ban.

CUOMO: That you voted for -- you can make that same defense for Clinton on a lot of different bills and legislative actions you just detailed showing triangulation --

WEAVER: I don't think that is true. The welfare reform bill --

CUOMO: There is a lot of good things in there also.

WEAVER: I don't think there is anything good in DOMA. This crime bill they supported this crime bill lock stock a barrel at the time. Let's be clear about that.

CUOMO: Is it a fair comparison to say where Secretary Clinton was on DOMA, which was there is a personal evolution. She now feels differently about gay marriage. Is that the functional equivalent of where Sanders is now with gun manufacturers? That he had voted for a bill to give them protection that no other manufacturer of anything gets in this country.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: But not like gun manufacturers did and those six that were put in the bill were almost impossible to pigeon hole. You see that resulting efforts to go after them. You basically can't go after gun manufacturers.

Now Senator Sanders says I have to know more about the situation. He will be hand cuffed by his own law. Is that a functional equivalent? He's evolved on the issue and now wants to look at gun manufacturers most. Is that being convenient to court the left?

WEAVER: No, not at all. There is a difference between having a position and then getting new information to change. Secretary and President Clinton on DOMA did it for the purpose of winning an election to triangulate against the gay community.

They ran ads in Southern Christian radio in the '90s touting their support for this. Today they say they voted for it because it was defensive measure against something worse, which everybody -- it was a huge outcry even among Clinton supporters who said come on, that is not the case.

In 2008 here in New York State trying to make sure undocumented workers didn't get driver's licenses. It is a history of convenient triangulation against vulnerable people throughout her career.