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Clinton & Sanders to Face Off in CNN Debate Tonight; Sanders Gets Endorsement from Fellow Senator; Sources: Trump Campaign Manager Won't Be Prosecuted. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 14, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think that there is any doubt we're going to win here in New York.

[07:00:07] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love my protesters. We have the biggest crowds and the most loyal people.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're not interested in behaving like union thugs, and Donald Trump needs to learn that.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've got to have a good president.

TRUMP: The Republican system is a rigged system.

CRUZ: He's unhappy that he's losing at the polls.

TRUMP: Folks, those days are over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's official. This is 73.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A stunning victory. The Golden State Warriors make NBA history.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Look at that beautiful sunrise. Good morning, everyone. Welcome back to your NEW DAY.

Chris and I are in Brooklyn at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, the site of tonight's CNN Democratic debate. Michaela is in the wind-free studio. Well played, my friend.

CUOMO: Although I would love to see her hair out here.

CAMEROTA: Me, too.

A major break tonight for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. The rivals coming face-to-face for the first time in more than a month, and it will be the last time before Tuesday's primary.

Both candidates drawing big crowds at dueling rallies last night, so will the heated rhetoric that we've seen on the campaign trail be on display tonight?

CUOMO: Meantime, a win of sorts for Donald Trump, not the kind of issue he wanted out there in the first place, but his campaign manager will not be prosecuted after allegedly grabbing a reporter's arm. This as Trump ramps up his attack on the Republican Party.

Now, Texas Senator Ted Cruz making waves as well, accusing Trump's campaign of acting like thugs, while also showing his softer side at a CNN town hall last night.

There are a lot of angles, and guess what? We have them all covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns, inside the debate hall here in Brooklyn, not next to the water with the wind whipping, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, feels pretty good, Chris. Look, this is the big stage where it all happens at a critical time for both of these candidates. Hillary Clinton has been leading in New York by double digits for weeks and weeks.

But if you had any doubt about the support in New York for Bernie Sanders, you could look no further than that enormous rally he held last night in Greenwich Village.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLINTON: I am so glad to be back in the Bronx.

JOHNS (voice-over): Rivals Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders both hosting dueling New York rallies ahead of tonight's CNN Democratic presidential debate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!

JOHNS: Sanders revving up a massive crowd estimated by organizers to be above 27,000 in Washington Square Park. Sanders receiving a rock star welcome with celebrities before he aggressively went after Secretary Clinton.

SANDERS: Our differences with Secretary Clinton go beyond how we raise money. It goes to an issue which the media doesn't cover. That is our disastrous trade policies, which are costing us millions of jobs.

JOHNS: Clinton making the case to voters in the Bronx, urging them to back her over Sanders.

CLINTON: I was honored to be your senator for eight years, and if you will give me the honor of your vote on Tuesday, we will continue to make life better.

JOHNS: And keeping her attacks on the Republican hopefuls. CLINTON: One of them denigrates New York values. Mr. Trump wants to

set Americans against each other. He wants to build walls. I want us to build bridges.

JOHNS: Tonight's high-stakes debate comes as the heated war of words between Sanders and Clinton intensifies.

SANDERS: I have my doubts about what kind of president she would make.

JOHNS: And accusations from the Sanders campaign that the primary process is weighted in favor of Clinton.

JANE SANDERS, BERNIE SANDERS'S WIFE: It's not a democratic way to carry out an election.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: In the closing hours before the debate, the appeal to New York's diverse population of voters continues, Bernie Sanders will be speaking before the National Action Network headed up by reverend Al Sharpton and Hillary Clinton spoke there yesterday, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Joe, thank you very much.

An impressive New York homecoming for Sanders, telling a huge crowd to be bold and, more importantly, to show up at the primary on Tuesday. We got to speak with Sanders just moments before he took the stage at what could have been his most important rally to date. And the question for him was, why is this the time for decisive action?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

B. SANDERS: We, in this critical moment in American history, need a vision to address the many crisis [SIC] that we face. It is time to think big. It is time to think boldly. It is time to make this country to become what I think most of us know it can become.

[07:05:17] CUOMO: In the crowd tonight, the people were saying the status quo is not enough; incremental change is not enough. Why?

B. SANDERS: Because the crises are so severe that just moving along little step by little step is not enough.

Look, we've got a middle class that's been declining for 30 years. We have grotesque levels of income and wealth inequality. We have a campaign finance system which is corrupt. We have a criminal justice system which is broken. We have climate change, which is threatening the existence of the very planet, this very planet if we don't transform our energy system. Those are issues of unbelievable consequence. We need bold action now.

CUOMO: The pushback is that progress is incremental, and perfection can be the enemy of progress.

B. SANDERS: That's not what the debate is about, Chris. The debate is about whether we're going to have millions of people starting to exercise their democratic power, stand up and fight back to a political system, which is now controlled by a small number of wealthy campaign contributors.

That's really what it's about. Do we go along with the same old, same old establishment politics and establishment economics? Or do we revitalize American democracy, bring millions of people into the process, and start doing what the American people want and not what big money interests want?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: With Bernie Sanders vying for an upset in New York, he just received his first endorsement from a U.S. senator. Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley, he joins us now from Washington.

Good morning, Senator.

SEN. JEFF MERKLEY (D), OREGON: Good morning, and it's great to be with you.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you with us. So you are the first senator to endorse Bernie Sanders. Why did you wait until now to do so?

MERKLEY: Well, certainly, the timing is just right for Oregon. The ballots go out in about two weeks. We vote by mail, so the ballots will be on peoples' counters for -- kitchen counters for about three weeks, and then we'll get to weigh in on the national debate.

CAMEROTA: Senator Sanders, as you know, was in the house for 16 years. He has been in the Senate for about nine years. So why do so many of your Senate colleagues -- why are they endorsing Hillary Clinton rather than Senator Sanders?

MERKLEY: Well, certainly, when -- when most of them made their endorsements early in the campaign, they didn't anticipate that we would have a viable competition. So I have a little bit of an advantage in that sense of having planned to make my endorsement at the point that it was relevant for my -- for my home state.

And I'll tell you, the way that his message, his bold, strong call for action to restore a healthy political system and an economy that works for middle-class America has gained traction and the hearts and grassroots across America in a very powerful and sweeping way.

CAMEROTA: So Senator, yesterday we saw these dueling rallies here in New York. Senator Sanders had one with about 27,000 people in Washington Square Park. You just saw a piece of it in our reporter's package there. But many of those people, it's been argued, are independents or they are young, maybe first-time voters. So how does he translate that enthusiasm into a win on Tuesday?

MERKLEY: Well, certainly, those folks are the ones who are going to talk to their friends. They're going to be knocking on doors. They're going to be calling on others to act. And here's the thing. These big issues facing our nation, whether it

is the ability to have a living wage job or is taking on climate change, young Americans are very cynical about where we've headed, and they want to see us change directions.

It's Sanders who was out there early and forcefully, calling for us not to build a pipeline for tar sands in Canada. He was there forcefully, saying, "Let's not drill in the Arctic." Forcefully saying that, if we're going to save the planet from global warming, we have to leave 80 percent of the fossil fuels in the ground.

And he did the same on trade, that if we're competing with folks directly, who are earning less than a dollar an hour, of course the factories are going to move overseas.

And more than that, it undermines the leverage of the rest of workers in America, because when you go to your boss and say, "We need a little more on our benefits or a little more pay to get by," they will say, "Well, too bad, because we might follow the other companies to go to Malaysia or Vietnam," as anticipated in the TPP.

And so these bread-and-butter and big moral issues facing us, saving the planet, it's Sanders who has forcefully articulated a vision.

Now, I've got to say, we are fortunate to have two very serious, very capable candidates with great minds and great hearts. Either one of them is going to be 100 times better than the candidate coming out of the Republican circus.

[07:10:13] CAMEROTA: Senator, I want to ask you about something that one of the speakers said at Bernie Sanders's rally last night. His name is Dr. Paul Song. He is a health care activist. He's also the husband of CNN's Lisa Ling. And he used profane language in describing Medicare that some thought was aimed at Hillary Clinton. So let me play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. PAUL SONG, HEALTH CARE ACTIVIST: 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 beholden to big pharma and the private insurance industry instead of us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: In case you couldn't hear that well, he said, "if we continue to elect corporate Democratic whores." Dr. Song then did apologize for that language afterwards. 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."

But I think the point is that is it up to Bernie Sanders obligation to shut down some of that overheated language when it happens at his rallies?

MERKLEY: You know, it's completely inappropriate, and I hope that both candidates, when their supporters go over the edge, really into the realm of insult rather than analysis and dialogue and policy, that they will pull people back.

We saw early on where Bernie Sanders said, you know, all of these attacks on Hillary Clinton that are based on e-mails, totally inappropriate, not relevant. He really took the higher road there. Hillary at various moments has taken the higher road. We want to see our candidates really present their visions in a clean way. Both of them are incredibly capable and very shortly, whoever wins, they're going to have to go arm in arm. And I think that they will, but they must do that, go arm in arm into the battle in November.

CAMEROTA: Senator, as you know, Donald Trump has been railing against the system, the system of delegates. And he says that the system is rigged; it's not democratic. Well, interestingly, Jane Sanders, Bernie Sanders's wife, was on with our Brooke Baldwin yesterday, and she echoed that sentiment a bit. Let me play you what she says about the system.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

J. SANDERS: You have to admit the way that they're doing things in terms of super delegates, in terms of how delegates are put out there, it doesn't make a lot of sense to the average person.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You're not saying, yes, it's rigged?

J. SANDERS: No, we're saying it's wrong.

BALDWIN: Wrong?

J. SANDERS: We're saying it's not a democratic way to carry out an election.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I'm sure that Jane Sanders would not appreciate being compared to Donald Trump. She'll be on our program coming up a little later on, but is she right? Is there something terribly wrong with this system?

MERKLEY: Well, it's very ironic, isn't it, that the Democrats have super delegates and wish they didn't; and the Republicans don't and wish they did have them to straighten things there out.

The rules are reshaped after each election to create a better system for the future and the circumstances of the races change and it seems out of sync.

I must say that I've had 20 town halls since January. People come out and are saying, "Really, all these super delegates? I mean, that much concentration at the top, does that really fit the profile of the Democratic Party?" And I've got to say, they have a great point. CAMEROTA: Senator Jeff Merkley, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.

Great to have you.

MERKLEY: You're very welcome.

CAMEROTA: Coming up on NEW DAY, as I said, Bernie Sanders' wife, Jane, will join us live in our next hour, so stick around for that.

All right. We are just hours away from the main event. Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton face-to-face in a CNN Democratic presidential debate right here in Brooklyn. Tune in tonight at 9 p.m. Eastern only on CNN.

Take it away, Chris.

CUOMO: I will. Let's turn to the Republicans now. Senator Ted Cruz showing a softer side at the CNN town hall last night but also going after Donald Trump's team, calling them thugs in the war for delegates.

Meantime, it appears the legal trouble involving Trump's campaign manager is going away. CNN's Sara Murray live in Pittsburgh with more. What do you have?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

That's right. The Trump campaign is sort of going through a pivotal moment where they're transitioning to a more traditional campaign. They're staffing up. They're doing more D.C. outreach. And now they have another distraction off their plate, a victory of kinds as they find out that their campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, will no longer face charges for battery.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY (voice-over): Sources confirm to CNN Trump's campaign manager will not be prosecuted for battery, following this altercation with former Breitbart reporter Michelle Fields back in March. Fields, who could seek defamation charges against Corey Lewandowski, tweeting, "Office of prosecutor asked two weeks ago if I'd be OK with an apology from Corey. I said yes, but haven't heard back about it."

[07:15:24] On the campaign trail, tense moments outside a Trump rally in Pittsburgh, as hundreds of angry protestors clashed with Trump supporters. Police in riot gear tried to keep the peace.

Inside, the frontrunner intensifying his war with the GOP.

TRUMP: It's a rigged system, folks. The Republican system is a rigged system.

MURRAY: And doubling down on claims his party is conspiring to block him from the nomination.

TRUMP: The bosses and the establishment and the people that shouldn't have this power took all of the power away from the voters. MURRAY: Republican Party Chairman Reince Priebus firing back.

REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: The rules are not being changed in order to injure or benefit anybody. They are what they are.

MURRAY: At CNN's town hall, Trump's main rival, Ted Cruz, railing against Trump's tactics and accusing his supporters of threatening delegates.

CRUZ: They're acting like union boss thugs.

Well, I spoke yesterday to the chairman of the Republican Party in Colorado. Trump supporters put out his home address, put out his phone numbers. He got thousands of phone calls. He got death threats. Trump supporters were telling his supporters to go to his house and bring their guns.

Look, violence doesn't belong in democracy, and the Trump campaign encourages it over and over again.

MURRAY: And on a lighter note, Cruz's wife shared how the couple met.

HEIDI CRUZ, WIFE OF TED CRUZ: It really was love at first sight.

MURRAY: But it was their 5 and 8-year-old daughters that stole the show.

T. CRUZ: Caroline's Daddy-daughter picnic at school, which featured all the dads running and playing games, and...

CAROLINE CRUZ, TED CRUZ'S DAUGHTER: My favorite.

T. CRUZ: ... your favorite was that she got to dress up Daddy in, like, this pink boa and these, like, big goofy-looking underwear and...

C. CRUZ: And that's why -- that was on the videotape the whole time.

T. CRUZ: Uh-oh.

C. CRUZ: And now -- and now it's a class video that they're sending out to all the parents.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Oh really?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, Donald Trump is back to his late-night Twitter habits. He took to Twitter last night to say that Colorado did change their rules. Remember, this is a state where Ted Cruz spoke at the convention and he swooped up all of the delegates there. It's pretty clear Trump is not letting go of this idea that the system is stacked against him -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. We're going to be dealing with the state of play on the Republican side and the Democratic side, but this another big story this morning, actually two of them. You're going to love this.

Mick, let's get back to you in the studio to deliver us some history.

PEREIRA: You're going to love this, because you probably felt some vibes coming from the left coast of this country. The West Coast was popping. This is what people are buzzing about, the other big story. A Hollywood ending.

The Lakers' Kobe Bryant's final game after an illustrious 20-year NBA career, and not only that, he gets 60 points, taking a career high 50 shots in last night's game. Topped it off by hitting that game- winning shot.

Now, he had to share the glory with the now winningest team in NBA history, the Golden State Warriors winning their 73rd game of the season. Steph Curry didn't even play in the last quarter, and they still were able to rule like that. That was incredible. Some are saying this could be the greatest season the NBA has ever had.

Alisyn, I know you have commentary.

CAMEROTA: You know, I do. I have so much to say about it, so I'm just not going to say anything. Yes. We don't have time. We're going to get back to politics now, Michaela, but thank you for that, those great highlights.

CUOMO: Highlights? It's history!

CAMEROTA: History in the making.

So Ted Cruz accusing Donald Trump's team of threatening delegates. How is the Trump camp responding? We'll ask one of his closest advisers. That's coming up. More history.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:14] CUOMO: Good news for the Donald Trump campaign. Of course, it's a story that they never wanted out there in the first place. Sources tell CNN Trump campaign manager Corey Lewandowski will not face any prosecution for an incident with a reporter at a campaign rally last month. That's just one issue that's swirling around the campaign.

So let's gets some reaction from executive vice president for the Trump Organization and special counsel to Donald J. Trump, Michael Cohen.

Counsel, good to have you, as always.

Corey Lewandowski said the allegations were never true. He did not grab or manhandle the reporter, Michelle Fields. Not being prosecuted. Reaction of the campaign.

MICHAEL COHEN, EVP, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: The right decision was made, and he's clearly not going to be prosecuted. End of story.

CUOMO: End of story, but the campaign shake-up...

COHEN: Before we go there, what's interesting is, if you look to see how the media played the Corey Lewandowski matter, all it really was designed to do was to stop talking about what Mr. Trump really wants to talk about, which is the important issues, the economy, jobs.

And that's exactly what they are doing also with this whole rigging nonsense. Mr. Trump made his statement. That's what he believes. Many people believe it. The will of the people aren't being meant, and what are they looking to do?

They're just looking to turn around and to take away from Trump his mantra, make America great again -- jobs, economy, national security. And the Lewandowski matter was exactly the same thing.

CUOMO: Counsel, Ted Cruz campaign manager is accused of grabbing a woman and throwing her on the ground, and it's not the first time he's been accused of it. Are you saying you wouldn't say anything about it?

COHEN: Would not say anything about it.

CUOMO: You would not say a word?

COHEN: Would not say a word. We're above that.

CUOMO: With a straight face...

COHEN: With a really straight face.

CUOMO: There's a little bit of a smile. I'll take that.

The changes at the campaign that we saw, the mantra of the Trump campaign is this system stinks. You're hearing it now in a new way. But you've always said this: "We're going to change this. We won't be part of this. This is terrible."

[07:25:12] You bring in Manafort. He's as much of an insider as you can find. You bring in the Walker campaign manager. He's as much of an insider as you can find. Hypocritical?

COHEN: No, Donald Trump wants to win. Donald Trump wants to be the president of the United States of America. Right now, what he sees is he sees forces coming against him.

Now, on the very first show that I ever did with you, all that Mr. Trump had said -- and I repeated his words -- he wants to be treated fairly. He doesn't believe he's being treated fairly, so what is he doing? He does what any great executive would do. You bring in people that can help the cause.

And he wants to be the president, so he's bringing in individuals who have real history and understand the process and how to deal with it.

CUOMO: But you said you want to clean up the game. Why show that you can play the wrong way, arguably?

COHEN: Chris, the only way you can clean up the game, you have to actually have the right to clean up the game. He needs to be the president of the United States of America in order to clean up.

Now, it's interesting, too. Reince Priebus, as the head of the RNC, should do what? He should turn around and he should reach out to the other party leaders and say this is not good for the party. Right? Donald Trump is, by far, the most relatable candidate to the American people. It's shown with his millions of votes, the number of people who come to his rallies, the number of votes that he has, greater than anybody else.

Why would he not come in and say, guys, this is enough. He's spending $70-plus million in attack ads against one person. You're not helping to unify the party. What you're doing is you're fracturing it.

CUOMO: You really believe that there is this concerted an effort to rig the system against Donald Trump?

COHEN: I think you believe it also.

CUOMO: No. I believe that there is a lot of money that goes into attack ads. A lot of it is directed at Trump because, one, he brings a lot of heat and, two, he is the frontrunner. I don't see the system being rigged against him. The rules are what they are. None of them would change the rules...

COHEN: Well, the rules are recently changed, weren't they?

CUOMO: ... before he got in, except for Colorado, which was done at about the same time that he got in. So where's any proof that anybody rigged it specifically against Trump?

COHEN: Look at what they're doing. You're talking about secret meetings between party members, between these super PACs. And anybody that claims that these super PACs are not in the hands of the candidates is clearly -- they're just lying to the people, and they're lying to themselves. It is. Usually, what you tend to find is the person who's running the super PAC happens to be the candidate's best friend since the age of 5. All right, like what it was with George Bush.

Donald Trump's the only guy that's self-funding. He doesn't have a super PAC. He doesn't want a super PAC. He's not taking money, because he wants to avoid the appearance that the other ones clearly don't care about.

CUOMO: You don't have a super PAC, per se, but you are taking money now. You are raising money.

COHEN: You're talking about with the sale of the hats?

CUOMO: Well, no, but -- OK, the sale of the hats, but there are contributing contributions that are coming into the campaign. COHEN: You're not talking about $70 million from everybody across the board that wants to turn around and attack one individual. That's an enormous amount. And when they say, "Oh, Donald Trump." What, Ted Cruz with his nonsense: "Donald Trump is -- you know, he's nervous." Donald Trump doesn't get nervous. Donald Trump has been down this road before. As I said, Ted Cruz doesn't understand what it means to be a New York City real-estate developer, to be the head of an executive company, a $10 billion company that the man has built over the years.

CUOMO: Ted Cruz says, actually, he does get it, and he believes that Donald Trump deserves more credit for being someone who can play dirty. He says that you guys are trying to intimidate delegates, that you encourage violence at your rallies.

COHEN: Absolutely not. Again, rhetoric by Ted Cruz and others in order to digress against Mr. Trump's mantra. Again, Donald Trump's the only one who mathematically, after New York, is going to be able to win. So why is the party not unifying around a winner? Right?

What they're doing is they're just turning around, and they're just trying to get to this brokered convention. "Stop Trump," "Never Trump," all these various different groups, what's the point? The point is just to keep Donald Trump away, right, not to get to the 1,237, brokered convention so that the party can bring somebody else in.

CUOMO: So what does he do to unify?

COHEN: What he does, he brings in guys like Manafort, Wiley...

CUOMO: These guys are unifiers?

COHEN: No, but what they're going to do is they're going to help him get to the 1,237, and we'll never get to a brokered convention.

CUOMO: Is that what you think happens?

COHEN: That's what I hope happens.

CUOMO: You hope or you think?

COHEN: I believe Mr. Trump will either get to 1,237 or extremely close. If he wins New York, he's got 399 delegates short of the 1,237. Now, this is his home town, right, the Northeast, Florida. This is -- this is home town advantage. If he does well in the next five states and in California, he'll get to the 1,237.

CUOMO: Michael Cohen, good to have you back on the show.

COHEN: Always. Good to see you, Chris.

CUOMO: So Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, on the other side of the ball. They're having their own tension. And guess what? It all comes to a head right where we...