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Clinton & Sanders To Face Off In CNN Debate Tonight; NYC's First Lady On Cruz's New York Values Comments; What Can We Expect In Democratic Debate?; Sanders Speaker Under Fire For Inflammatory Language; Sanders Supporters Accused Of Harassing Superdelegates; Proof Of Life For 15 Boko Haram Kidnapped Schoolgirls Boko Haram. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired April 14, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00] MICHAEL COHEN, SPECIAL COUNSEL TO DONALD TRUMP: He'll get to the 1,237.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: 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 are having their own tension and guess what? It all comes to a head right where we are. You've got the high-stakes New York primary, but tonight the big CNN debate. The talk has never been hotter, so we're going to talk about it with somebody who is going to give a unique perspective on New York, the first lady of the city of New York. Chirlane McCray joins us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:34:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The rough and tumble Democratic campaign could make for some debate fireworks tonight between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. Sanders has won eight of the last nine contests and he drew 27,000 supporters to his rally last night. So can Clinton close the enthusiasm gap?

Joining us now is New York City's first lady, Chirlane McCray. She has endorsed Hillary Clinton. Ms. McCray, great to have you here.

CHIRLANE MCCRAY, FIRST LADY OF NEW YORK CITY: Thank you, it's great to be here.

CAMEROTA: Thanks for being here. OK, so tonight -- after these past couple of weeks on the campaign trail where the rhetoric has gotten more heated, what do you expect the tone will be?

MCCRAY: I think the tone will be respectful but I think that Bernie's getting a little desperate, so I expect that we'll hear the volume be pumped up a little bit. Now, Hillary is a great candidate. She's battle-tested and I expect that they're really going to be addressing some serious issues tonight. CAMEROTA: It's interesting to hear you say that Bernie is getting desperate. We hear that from Hillary Clinton supporters because he has won eight of the last nine battles. Last night he had this incredibly passionate, enthusiastic crowd of 27,000 in Washington Square Park. Do you worry that that enthusiasm gap that we have seen on the campaign trail will translate into some sort of upset on Tuesday in the primary?

MCCRAY: No, I don't think there's an enthusiasm gap. I'm really happy to see this enthusiasm and all the support from all those people. It just shows that people are engaged, they're involved. Hillary has a commanding lead. She's got more states, more votes, and she's doing very well. I have no doubt that -- you know, you may not have seen those people out there last night but she's got a bold vision and people are really ready to support her.

CAMEROTA: There is a poll that suggests that she is struggling still with some demographics and that is, namely, young women. There's this new Marist national poll on the Democratic women's choice and it shows that for women under the age of 45, 65 percent of them go to Sanders, whereas only 31 percent go to Hillary Clinton. How do you explain that?

MCCRAY: Well, that's just one poll. Polls go up and down, they change, and I haven't seen that. I think that Hillary has so many young women supporting her. I was at Medgar Evers just last week where the room was filled with young women. I was in Iowa.

So many young women are supporting her as her message breaks through and people understand that Hillary is the candidate who has actually lived her life as a daughter, as a mother, as a grandmother who is really fighting for social justice issues and gender equity issues like pay equity, right? Family leave, domestic violence, safe streets and a safe workplace. They understand that she's the candidate that they need to vote for.

CAMEROTA: Senator Ted Cruz was part of a CNN town hall last night with his wife and his two young daughters, and during it he took a swipe at your husband, Mayor Bill de Blasio. So let me play that for you and get your response. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When I talk about New York values, what I'm talking about are the liberal Democrats who have been, frankly, hurting the people of New York over and over again. I'm talking about people like Bill de Blasio. One of the first acts he did when he was elected mayor was going up to Harlem and try to shut down charter schools that were educating low-income African- Americans and Hispanics because he was, essentially, in hock to the union bosses of the teachers' unions.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: You want to respond to that? MCCRAY: Well, I just think Ted Cruz is just awfully confused. He thinks he's running against Bill de Blasio, which is the mayor of New York City. He doesn't even know who he's running against.

CAMEROTA: And so you don't -- the idea that he has talked about New York values and your husband personifies them, what do you make of that?

MCCRAY: Well, New Yorkers have already told Ted Cruz to go home.

CAMEROTA: Enough said.

MCCRAY: Enough said.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask about what's going on in your household. You have two teenage -- or older children, 18 and 21, and I'm curious about the conversations that you're having with them about this whole election season and campaign. It seemed as though in an interview with a blog that you had done that they might have been leaning towards Bernie Sanders. What are those conversations you're having with your kids?

MCCRAY: Those conversations are quite lively. We've raised them to have a lot of opinions and they do. So many opinions about all of the issues. And I'm really happy that they're so engaged and other young people, like them, are engaged. I don't speak for them but I know that they will be voting and making their decision, and it will be the right one for them.

CAMEROTA: Do you think they're Sanders supporters?

MCCRAY: I'm not speaking for them.

CAMEROTA: I see, no comment on what's going on.

MCCRAY: No comment, yes.

CAMEROTA: Well, it's certainly an exciting race. Thanks so much for being here and sharing all of this with us. Chirlane McCray, great to see you.

MCCRAY: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: All right. The tone, as we've talked about, getting nastier on the Democratic side. Will tonight's debate be civil and can the party unite behind the eventual nominee? We'll speak with the head of the Democratic Party next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:00] CUOMO: Things tend to get more heated -- they tend to get nasty as you get closer to the end, and that is happening on both sides of this race. So what does it mean to tonight's flashpoint, the big CNN presidential debate between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders? Surely, one of the most interested observers will be DNC chair Debbie

Wasserman Schultz. She joins us now. It's good to have you with us this morning.

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL), CHAIR, DEMOCRATIC NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Thanks, Chris. Great to be with you, as always.

CUOMO: So, what is your edict about tone tonight? It has gone from just straight policy to somebody -- to Bernie's lost his compass, to Hillary has too much money to play it straight if she gets in there. What are you hoping for tonight?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, while certainly it's understandable that as you get closer to a significant primary contest that it's going to get a little bit more edgy, so to speak. But, my guidance -- my caution to not only the candidates but their supporters, is to really make sure that we continue to have the robust and substantive discussion on that debate stage that I'm so proud of both of them that we've had through the previous eight debates. A discussion about the ideas they both have to move our country forward to help people reach the middle- class.

And on the other side I really want to run down to the drugstore and get Donald Trump a pacifier because all we hear on the other side is whining about the rules and process, and they're going to take something away from me. I mean, really?

The American people -- the people who are going to go cast their vote for who they want to be the 45th president -- they want to hear about the ideas that each candidate has to help make sure that we can help them succeed. And that's what I'm confident we'll continue to hear from our candidates tonight.

CUOMO: But one of the big issues and ideas on both sides of this race is that the system stinks. That it's rigged, whether you're talking about rich and poor, whether you're talking about the delegate system, the electoral system, how the parties function -- that it all needs to change. You're hearing that from the Sanders camp, as well.

[07:45:00] Now, somethingelse you heard, not from Sanders but from somebody who was speaking before him at his big rally last night, the phrase Democratic whores. We have to stop electing Democratic whores. That raised a lot of eyebrows.

The speaker -- this Dr. Song -- later on Twitter said I was talking about different Democrats in Congress. No reference to Hillary Clinton. And he said -- apologized for this being insensitive. The tweet is up on the screen for those at home now. Do you believe this was directed at Hillary Clinton? What's your take on this tone?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Well, Icertainly don't know the person who made that outrageous and inappropriate comments, but it's good that he recognized that it was outrageous and inappropriate and that he reined it in and apologized. But, that's what I mean. We need to make sure that on our side of the aisle -- that's the side of the aisle that I care about the most -- that we are sticking to the ideas that our candidates have.

Because when we get to the general election in November, as we go through that general election campaign, we are going to win this election because like in the last five out of six presidential elections the American people stand with us.

They know they want someone to be president who cares about them having a good job that pays them well. That they can get a good education that they're not going to be paying off until they're in their 50's. That they have a strong retirement system. All of those things.

You want to talk about a system that's rigged, our candidates are talking about the economic ideas that they have to continue to help make more people reach the middle-class, while the Republicans are trying to go back to the rigged system that crashed the economy under the last Republican administration.

CUOMO: The integrity of the process matters, whether it's tone on the campaign trail or what's going on with the convention structure. There are allegations that delegates, specifically superdelegates, are getting messed with on your side, as well. And, supposedly, there's a Website that's connected to supporters of Bernie Sanders supposedly putting out names, addresses, and the concern is that is this a harassment dynamic going on. What is your take?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: You know, it's certainly completely fine because superdelegates are for grabs, so to speak, all the way until we get to the convention. And there is going to be a -- there is always a fierce effort to make sure that they can win -- that candidate supporters can win over those unpledged delegates because they can decide all the way up until they get to the convention.

But using tactics that border on harassment, that feel like stalking, is really something that I hope our campaigns really condemn and that we make sure that their supporters' enthusiasm is fantastic. Making sure that we have appropriate contact and outreach is just great, but intimidation is not OK and I'm not suggesting that that's occurring right now, but I think we need to make sure that we are careful about how we persuade, so to speak.

CUOMO: Quickly, do you think there's now a better chance that you're going to wind up with a contested convention?

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: I don't. I still think that we are likely on track as we go through the rest of the primary and caucus season to result in an election at the end that will have a presumptive nominee that becomes the presumptive nominee prior to the convention without the need for superdelegates and that will have the majority of unpledged delegates going into the convention. So I do not think we're going to have a contested convention.

CUOMO: So you think you have one before the convention and without the superdelegates. Interesting.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Yes. CUOMO: Thank you very much. It's good to have you with us on NEW DAY, as always.

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: Great.

CUOMO: All right. Yes, you will.

All right, so let's get back to Mic in the studio.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Chris, thanks so much. It has been two years of turmoil and angst for hundreds of mothers in Nigeria. Their daughters kidnapped from school by the terror group Boko Haram. In a CNN exclusive, our cameras are there as those mothers learn that their daughters are still alive.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:00] PEREIRA: Now to a CNN exclusive. It has been nearly two years since Boko Haram kidnapped more than 200 schoolgirls from their school in the Nigerian town of Chibok. Now, the terror group has released video showing 15 of them alive.

Our senior international correspondent, Nima Elbagir, live in Abuja, Nigeria. She, producer Stephanie Busari, and videographer Sebastiaan Knoops were there. And I understand you showed these mothers -- these anguished mothers -- their girls on the video for the first time, Nima.

NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Michaela, it was just so overwhelming for them. This video, as we understand it, was filmed as proof of life by Boko Haram as part of ongoing negotiations between them and the Nigerian government. Once we had it, we knew we needed to go out to the northeast of Nigeria, back to Chibok, or as close as could get to bring the Chibok families to us to show them that finally there was a glimmer of hope. Take a look at this, Michaela.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ELBAGIR: Lined up against a yellow wall, 15 girls, only their faces showing. An off-camera voice asks each girl what's your name.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (through Elbagir): Is that the name your parents recognize?

ELBAGIR: Where were you taken from, the voice asks?Chibok school, and the date, they say, is the 25th of December, 2015. This video was obtained by CNN from a person close to the negotiations to get these girls released. For the parents it's finally a glimmer of hope these girls are still alive.

Two years ago we met Mary Ashia (ph), Rifkatu Ayubsa, and Yala Galang (ph) on our visit to Chibok after the abduction of their daughters and more than 200 other girls. We asked them if they recognize any of the girls in the video. They lean closer. Another girl is identified, Howa (ph). One by one they name all 15 girls. But one mother, Yala (ph), realizes her daughter isn't there.

The off-camera voice asking the questions is familiar to CNN as that of Boko Haram spokesman, Abu Zinnira. A source close to negotiations between Boko Haram and the Nigerian government said the video was provided by the terror group as an ask for show of good faith. Nigeria's information minister told CNN they have received the video but are still reviewing it.

LAI MOHAMMED, NIGERIAN INFORMATION MINISTER: You study the video. You follow the questions who are asked in a rather very controlled environment. That were difficult (INAUDIBLE) that after two years in captivity the girls in the video were under no stress whatsoever. There has been little transformation to their physical appearance.

ELBAGIR: Is your government negotiating with Boko Haram for the release of these girls?

MOHAMMED: There are ongoing talks. We cannot ignore leads. But, of course, many of these investigations are, you know -- cannot be disclosed openly because it would also endanger the negotiations.

ELBAGIR: We took the video to a classmate of the Chibok girls. She'd been at home with family the day the other girls were kidnapped. For her safety we're not showing her face and not using her name. She told us there's no doubt these are some of her kidnapped classmates.

CLASSMATE (through translator): These two were prefects (ph). Watching the video I'm reminded of how we used to play together, how we used to do chores, do our homework.

ELBAGIR: She says seeing her friends again will likely give her nightmares.

CLASSMATE (through translator): Sometimes still, if I hear news about them I have bad dreams and I wake up crying.

ELBAGIR: The video ends with a girl addressing the camera with a message to the Nigerian government. We are all well, she says pointedly, perhaps suggesting girls not seen in this video. She then delivers what sounds like a scripted plea urging the Nigerian government to fulfill unspecified promises.

For the mothers of these girls rapidly becoming women far from home the video is overwhelming. They say they just want someone to bring their daughters home.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

PEREIRA: Nima, that anguish is palpable. You can feel it. There has been so much speculation. There's been so much rumor surrounding the location of those girls. Is there any indication they're getting any closer to figuring out exactly where they are?

ELBAGIR: That's the heartbreak of this, Michaela. Most of those sources we're speaking to in the Nigerian military and security services say they have a pretty good idea of where they are. Given how much territory they've taken back from Boko Haram, it really is the Sambisa Forest fortress that's one of the only locations that they believe those girls can still be. And it has become the center of much of the military activity being carried out.

But they can only go so far and so slowly because even though these girls are such a huge bargaining chip for Boko Haram, the worry is that at any point it might trigger some kind of retribution. So, for the families it's the horror of knowing that we want you to go in, we want you to try and get these girls, but at the same time what can happen if you take this too fast -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: Such a precarious situation with such deep ramifications. Thank you so much. Excellent reporting, Nima. Thank you for that. Back here at home we're following a lot of news including a preview of tonight's Democratic debate on CNN. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The crises are so severe, little step by little step is not enough.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't just show up at election time and think that's enough.

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

CLINTON: Our diversity is a strength, not a weakness.

SANDERS: It is time to think boldly. It is time to think big.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Who's the most popular? Donald Trump.

CRUZ: The last three weeks he's lost over and over again.

TRUMP: It's a rigged system, folks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The rules are not being changed in order to benefit anybody.

CRUZ: The odds are looking more and more likely that he can't get a majority.

TRUMP: These are the most dishonest people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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