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New Day

Kobe Bryant's Last Game; Clinton and Sanders Face Off in New York; Buzzing of U.S. Naval Ship by Russian War Planes "A Provocation"; Trump Against the GOP. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 14, 2016 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:31] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Good to have you back wit us here on NEW DAY. What a way to go out. Kobe Bryant putting on a performance for the ages in his last game ever. Andy Scholes has more in the Bleacher Report. And I know hometown team -- or hometown fans at Staples Center couldn't have cared less about the final score. It was such an epic night.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: I mean, what an epic performance, Michaela. Kobe going out like we all wanted to see Kobe go out, scoring 60 points. And as you can imagine, the atmosphere at the Staples Center last night was absolutely electric.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: For the final time, number 24 off the floor, five-time world champion, Kobe Bryant.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Kobe had his eyes set on going out in style all night. He took a career high 50 shots and it was vintage Kobe late in the fourth, that step-back three right there, pulled the Lakers within one. Jay-Z, Jack, all the celebs in the house going absolutely crazy. And Kobe wasn't done yet. Down one, pulls up, knocked down a game- winning jumper one last time. Lakers win; Kobe finishes an amazing career with an unbelievable 60-point performance.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KOBE BRYANT, LA LAKERS STAR: No words can describe how I feel about you guys. And thank you, thank you, from the bottom of my heart. God, I love you guys. From the bottom of my heart, thank you. And -- what can I say? Mamba out.

(CHEERING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: Now if Steph Curry would have taken 50 shots last night, he might've scored 100. The Warriors easily beating the Grizzlies, 125- 104, breaking Michael Jordan Bulls' all-time record for wins in a season. Now, Curry unreal in this game. He had 10 threes, had 46 points, and he didn't even play in the fourth quarter. Curry, the first player ever in NBA history to hit 400 threes in a season. The Warriors now on top of the NBA mound all alone as the best record ever of 73-9.

And, Michaela, you know, the saying is records are meant to be broken. I don't think 73-9 will ever be broken. I don't know who's going to go 74-8.

PEREIRA: Will this go down as the greatest NBA season ever, who knows? We'll have to see.

Andy, thank you so much. What a night.

All right, Bernie Sanders attracting massive crowds in New York City last night. Can Hillary Clinton match that enthusiasm? We're going to talk to a local Clinton supporter next.

[06:34:58]

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ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Tonight is the night. Democratic rivals Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders set to battle it out here in Brooklyn. A lot on the line with the critical New York primary just five days away.

Joining us now is Bronx borough president, Ruben Diaz, Jr. He's a Hillary Clinton supporter. Mr. Diaz, great to have you here.

RUBEN DIAZ, JR., BRONX BOROUGH PRESIDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. Good to be here.

CAMEROTA: Thank you so much for coming out to this great set with us.

DIAZ: Isn't it amazing? We're in New York, there's going to a big battle tonight. Everyone is excited.

CAMEROTA: There sure is. So what does Hillary Clinton need to do tonight to insure a victory on Tuesday?

DIAZ: Well, what we have been doing and what she has been doing is letting New Yorkers know that she can identify the problems but also come up with real solutions. And she's a great debater; we think she just needs to talk about the issues. You know, we had her last night in the Bronx and everyone is charged and ready to go. And I think on Tuesday I think she's going to do very well in the State of New York.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about what happened last night. Because there was this interesting split screen where Bernie Sanders was at Washington Square Park. He had something like 27,000 supporters there. There was a rock band, there were some celebrities.

[06:40:04] And then Hillary Clinton was at a community center, also a enthusiastic crowd but a fraction of his size; she had about I think 1,300 supporters there. Does that enthusiasm gap worry you about what's going to happen on Tuesday?

DIAZ: Well, Bernie's crowd is impressive, but the reality is is that in the Bronx and Coax (ph) city, what we saw was elected officials, you saw community leaders, you saw district leaders thereand precinct leaders, all ready to go to put out the vote on Tuesday. Bernie had a concert and what we saw -- what we need is, ultimately to have the party to united so we can take that enthusiasm and help Hillary in November to defeat Donald Trump, or whoever the Republicans put up.

CAMEROTA: I'm not sure that Bernie believes his enthusiastic supporters should now pivot Hillary Clinton. You know, he's in it to win it.

DIAZ: Yes, but, in New York, look, we know her. In the Bronx we know her. We know that we've down well in our borough, creating jobs, economic development, health care. We know who's been with us on immigration reform, and it's been Hillary. And so we trust her, and as the commander in chief we know that she's the best person on foreign policy and international affairs. So that's the reason why, whether it's the Bronx, Brooklyn, throughout the city and the state of New York, on Tueday, we're going to give her a resounding victory.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about something that was said last night at Bernie Sanders' rally. It was a by a man that describes himself as a health care activist, Dr. Paul Song. He's the husband of CNN's Lisa Ling, and he used some profane language that some took as a real insult to Hillary Clinton. Sol et me play this for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL SONG, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: I agree with Secretary Clinton that Medicare for all will never happen if we have a president who never aspires for something greater than the status quo. Medicare for all will never happen if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores who are elected to big pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: What do you think of him using that language?

DIAZ: It's disgusting. And it's unfortunate. When you think of health care, Hillary Clinton has been there, the champion of health care as the First Lady when it wasn't popular. She's the person who's going to continue with Barack Obama's health care and is not one to say that we should start over. She wants to build on it.

But to use that type of language is sexist, is disgusting, and has no place, certainly not in our Democratic primaries. We need to keep it about the issues the way we've been doing it, and then we need to unite as a party and win because there's so much at stake in November.

CAMEROTA: He did apologize. I want to say, he said, "I'm very sorry for using the term 'whore' to refer to some in Congress who are beholden to corporations and not us. It was insensitive." So he says there he was not referring to Hillary Clinton. DIAZ: Well, I'm glad that he backtracked and he dialed it back. But

again, the level of discourse and debate that we've been having in our Democratic primary has been one of substance, not like the Republicans. And wee need to keep it that way and that's what we expect here tonight in this debate.

CAMEROTA: Very quickly, you were on the famous subway ride with Hillary Clinton where she had a few swiping errors. Do you think it's funny how -- the legs that this subway ride has had?

DIAZ: It's much to do about nothing. And if you're a real New Yorker, you know that those turnstiles need a little bit help here, and that happens everyone on a daily basis.

CAMEROTA: I agree. It happens to me constantly. She handled it with grace.

Ruben Diaz, thanks so much for being here.

DIAZ: Thank you. It's good to be on.

CAMEROTA: Pleasure to talk to you.

All right, coming up, Russian fighter jets buzzing a U.S. Navy destroyer in the Baltic Sea. What's behind Russia's provocation? And how is the U.S. responding? All that, next.

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[06:47:43] PEREIRA: The White House is calling the buzzing of a U.S. naval ship by Russian war planes a provocation. Those planes getting too close to the Navy destroyer USS Donald Cook multiple times this week in the Baltic Sea. U.S. officials say it mirrored the posture of an attack.

Our chief national security correspondent Jim Sciutto is in Washington with more on this and the reaction to it.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Michaela, this morning Russia defending the flybys, claiming that the pilots observed, quote, all safety measures. But really, you look at these pictures and you see why the crew of the USS Donald Cook and really the U.S. military as a whole is expressing alarm. The Russian fighter jets swooping within 75 feet of the guided missile destroyer. A U.S. official described the fights as strathing (ph) runs without firing weapons, saying the pilots took the same path they would have had they actually been attacking the ship.

To be clear, Russia has been conducting flights like this close to U.S. warships and aircraft with increasing frequency, but here in closer proximity than ever before. Russian subs also sailing close to U.S. and NATO ships and ports, clearly intended as a warning, a message to the U.S. But the very real concern of U.S. officials I speak with is that these flights are so close, the margin of error is literally zero. They fear a mistake in one of these flights could lead to something dangerous, potentially deadly, Michaela. They're taking this very seriously.

PEREIRA: As they should, absolutely. Jim, very concerning. Thank you so much for that. We'll stay on that.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump not backing off his claims the Republican Party's rules are stacked against him. Will this blame game tactic help him? Is it going to hurt him on primary day next week?

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[06:53:15] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: It's getting worse. Donald Trump's war with the GOP, that is. It's intensifying. Both sides now digging in their heels, Trump claiming that the party's rules are going to keep him from winning. The RNC not having it.

Let's discuss with our CNN political commentators. We have Margaret Hoover, former George W. Bush White House staff member, and Jeffrey Lord, former Reagan White House political director. He supports Donald Trump. Apparently, Hoover, you support no one.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I support a revised and remodernized GOP.

CUOMO: Wow, that was too long for the teleprompter. That's why we don't have it in there.

So let's discuss the state of play. Haley Barbour said something --

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: My friend Haley.

CUOMO: I'd like to put it up on the -- I believe he incapsulates it well. It's not Haley Barbour. Who is it? Oh, OK. "I didn't hear Donald Trump complaining when he got 100 percent." This is what Henry Barbour said.

LORD: Oh, Henry Barbour.

CUOMO: "I didn't hear Donald Trump complaining when he got 100 percent of the delegates in Florida but only about 40 percent of the vote. So when the system works to his advantage, he's a winner. When he loses, it's a rigged system. The party's corrupt. This is not how to unite a party."

LORD: Well, look, first of all, I think what Donald Trump is doing, there are some real problems here organizationally within the Republican Party. In my state of Pennsylvania, when you run for a delegate, it just has your name on there; it doesn't say who you're for, so everybody sort of has to guess. When you've got situations that are as now happening where people are -- the district goes for Trump but the delegates themselves are loyal to somebody else, that's a problem here. And I think that Donald Trump is bringing a lot of attention to this. This is a good thing.

CUOMO: He's making it sound like it was done to him on purpose.

LORD: Well, it is being done -- certainly when you saw that tweet from the Colorado Republican Party that said, you know, #NeverTrump, we won.

[06:55:04] CUOMO: Do you think Colorado changed its rules to stop Trump?

LORD: I think that there is a lot of establishment bias against Donald Trump, I do think that, yes.

HOOVER: I mean, the argument that the Trump people are making is that the population of voters should correlate to the proportion of delegates that they're earning. And so if we are getting all of these popular votes, we should have all of these delegates. Well, let me just tell you something. NBC did a report, and what they analyzed is all the population vote and all the delegates. As it turns out, Trump has won 45 percent of the votes, of all the popular vote, and gotten 40 (ph) percent of the delegates, right?

CUOMO: Hold on, hold on. It's not NBC, it's called math. He's gotten 37 percent of the popular vote, 43 percent of the delegates. So he's doing better.

HOOVER: Which is to say he's doing better.

CUOMO: NBC. Where are you sitting right now? It's called math. Don't say it's NBC.

(LAUGHTER)

HOOVER: All right. But you have to cite the statistics. You know that.

CUOMO: They don't own the statistics.

HOOVER: But they did the analysis; it's fair to give them credit. But the point is Trump is benefiting from these -- from this system, actually, even as he decries it's unfair.

LORD: I like that there was an ex-Colorado GOP chair that was on your air the other day. And he said you can't complain about these rules; these rules haven't been manipulated. They've been here since 1912. 1912, news flash, was the year that Teddy Roosevelt said the rules had been changed to steal the nomination from him. So I don't think that's a particularly good example.

CUOMO: The system needs to change. That seems to be a consensus within the party right now.

LORD: Yes.

CUOMO: Fine. But what I'm saying is the victimization of Donald Trump, is that helping him if it does go to a convention? Poking the eye in a lot of these delegates. You know, a lot of them are going to feel like, wow, I have been rejected by him. Is it the best move right now?

LORD: I think he -- once again, he is calling attention to a problem. I mean, he's been doing this in other areas that a lot of people never thought of or don't pay attention to, and he's getting a lot of response from that, from people who feel -- you know, the guy in Colorado who burned his registration on YouTube. He's getting a lot of response, positive response.

CUOMO: All right.

HOOVER: I don't think it helps him, by the way. I mean, he's the outsider candidate who's saying I'm an outsider, all the guys in Washington are corrupt, and then what he does he do when he starts losing? He just points to the point that -- the part that has motivated his candidacy from the beginning.

CUOMO: All right, another major optics issue. Corey Lewandowski not going to be prosecuted. He says the allegations were always false. He didn't grab her by the arm. It's over. Michelle Fields says otherwise, but that for now to the side.

However, other big changes in there, Margaret. What's your read on Trump saying I'm not going to go into the system anymore, it's a bad system. I'm going to change the system. He then hires two guys who are all about working the system, no matter how dirty it gets. Now he just hired a second one. Is that campaign changing and if so the right way?

HOOVER: The campaign is absolutely changing along the lines of becoming more of a mainstream Republican consulting class operation. I mean, Rick Wiley is absolutely part of the sort of elite Republican consulting class in Washington. And so for being an outsider, on the one hand Donald Trump is demonstrating maturity as a candidate, that he's actually realizing that if he needs to win, he actually has to know somebody who understands the mechanics of the system. Now, who knows what he does after that. But that's what it demonstrates to me, is maturity as a candidate who's actually serious about winning.

CUOMO: Do you get why I'm asking about it, Jeff?

LORD: I do. I tried to say from the get-go, when people would say, well, he doesn't have a position paper on this or he doesn't have these kind of people, that evolves. And Paul Manafort, I mean, I know Paul Manafort. This is the exactly kind of person you have to have in a winning campaign, somebody who's going to be your convention manager, who will know all of these delegates by first name, who know the name of the first, second and third wife, and everything about them. That's exactly what you've got to have. This is a good thing.

CUOMO: If you don't get to 1,237, right, which we keep calling the magic number, but it is. It's -- that's the majority you need, 50 percent of the delegates --

LORD: Plus the guy the other day, the RNC member said if he gets to 1,100, that he can pull it out. I think what he's saying there is not that the rules have changed on that, but that momentum builds and when you get that close --

CUOMO: Right, but that's the question, is he compromising his own momentum by attacking the party that is going to be instrumental in delivering what happens at the convention?

LORD: No, I don't think so.

HOOVER: I'm not buying it.

LORD: I don't think so.

CUOMO: Really?

HOOVER: Look, I think he (INAUDIBLE). But the question is too if Cruz can't put it together on a second ballot, that's when you really get the chaos. Because if it's unclear that if neither can do it first, who emerges as a third choice?

LORD: Then they should combine, as unlikely as that may seem at the moment.

CUOMO: Well, everything seems unlikely (INAUDIBLE) mystery. Jeffrey Lord, Margaret Hoover, thank you very much. Anything else you want to give NBC credit for before we leave?

HOOVER: CNN, CNN, CNN.

CUOMO: We are following a lot of news here. We have a great preview of tonight's Democratic debate. We have inside scoop on what you will hear, so let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: The Bernie I am endorsing, he has been in the battlefield.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our differences go beyond how we raise money.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't start building relationships a few weeks before a vote.

SANDERS: I don't think that there is any doubt we're going to win here in New York.

[07:00:06] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love my protesters.