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Violent Protests Erupt At Donald Trump Rally; John Boehner Calls Ted Cruz "Lucifer In The Flesh"; At Least 20 Arrested Outside Trump Rally; Biden, Pope Francis To Meet Today; Jane Sanders: Bernie Is Down, But Not Out Of Race; Download The CNN Politics App From The Apple Store. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

[06:00:00] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The protesters come as the Republican Party establishment is actually starting to warm up to the idea of Trump as their nominee. On the campaign trail, a different kind of clash between Ted Cruz and former house speaker, John Boehner, the two trading blows after Boehner called Cruz quote, Lucifer in the flesh.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Wowza. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton returning to the campaign trail and Bernie Sanders seems to shift from rival to influencer. We'll explain that, and we'll look ahead to next Tuesday's high-stakes Indiana primary. We had it covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Phil Mattingly, he is live in Washington. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. Well, Donald Trump's advisers believe California will be the contest that pushes the candidate over the top in the fight for the Republican nomination. The state's won 172 delegates, important enough for Trump to leave the crucial state of Indiana in order to try to lock in that support out west. It's a trip that placed him smack in the middle of thousands of supporters inside his rally and ruckus and violent protests outside.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Chaos breaking out outside of a California Donald Trump rally last night. With hundreds of protestors taking to the streets, clashing with drivers, smashing windows, and attempting to roll over cars, facing off with Trump supporters.

CHANTING: (bleep) Donald Trump!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This fight leaving this Trump fan bloodied and bandaged. Police on horseback, struggling to contain the demonstrators.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to win, win, win!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Inside, Donald Trump riling up a massive crowd.

TRUMP: Look at the size of this place.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Taking aim at rivals.

TRUMP: Lying Ted Cruz. We know lying Ted.

As crooked as you can be. Crooked Hillary.

You ever see a guy eat like him?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And keeping his eye on next Tuesday's high-stakes primary in Indiana.

TRUMP: The big poll is going to be on Tuesday in Indiana, but I was all over the state today with Bobby Knight, and I love Bobby Knight, and they love Bobby Knight, and let's see what happens.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Indiana's biggest paper blasting Trump on Thursday, calling the GOP frontrunner quote, a danger to the United States and to the world. As millions of dollars and dozens of ads continue to flood the state, Ted Cruz mincing no words on his view of the high stakes there.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is the common sense and good judgment of the Hoosier State that is the one thing that stands between us and plunging over the cliff.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Even as top GOP figures start warming to the idea of Trump as the nominee.

SEN. BOB CORKER (R), TENNESSEE: Generally speaking, I like what he had to say.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This, as former house speaker John Boehner condemned Trump's main rival, Ted Cruz, at a college forum with the harshest words yet.

JOHN BOEHNER, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Lucifer in the flesh.

I get along with almost everybody, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a (bleep) in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Cruz firing back, using Boehner's disdain to try and bolster his case.

CRUZ: If you're happy with John Boehner as speaker of the house and you want a president like John Boehner, Donald Trump's your man.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Now, all of this, guys, coming as John Kasich vowed to carry on with his lagging campaign despite admitting yesterday while campaigning in Oregon that he contemplated dropping out, and that is the quote unquote deal we've all been talking about between Cruz and Kasich continues to more or less unravel on all fronts in Indiana. Cruz declaring Thursday, there is no alliance between the two candidates, aides kind of battling back and forth on what that actually means. A lot of questions heading into that crucial Indiana primary. Alisyn and Chris -- CAMEROTA: Absolutely. Phil, you've given us a lot of food for thought. Thanks so much. Let's bring in our panel, CNN political commentator and senior contributer for "The Daily Caller", Matt Lewis; CNN politics editor, Juana Summers; and CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory. Great to have all of you here on this Friday.

Matt, let me start with you. So this violence that we saw outside of the Trump rally -- now, I think that, in listening to the portions of what Trump was saying inside his rally, he wasn't using any sort of violent rhetoric, so this is stuff they took on themselves. These were anti-Trump protestors. You can see it on your screen. They were trying to flip over police cars, they were vandalizing things. What does this mean moving forward towards the general?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It means Donald Trump has a better chance of winning the Republican primary. Anytime something like this happens, if it's a terrorist attack or if it's lawlessness in the streets, it helps Donald Trump. This is a problem that only Donald Trump is strong enough to solve. At least that's what his supporters will think. If I was a leftist agitator, I would be doing this intentionally, because you want Donald Trump to win. You want Donald Trump to win the Republican nomination and there to be chaos in the Republican Party. So I don't know if this is orchestrated or organic, but it helps Donald Trump.

[06:05:06] CUOMO: Juana -- now, Matt is using the term, leftist agitator, to keep it in the political sphere. But as we all know, a lot of those people in the street were just dissatisfied citizens who were taking out their dissatisfaction the wrong way, in anger and destroying a lot of property there. But what does it speak to in terms of the climate in which this general election will take place?

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: I think we've seen this on both sides of the aisle. People in the American electorate are angry and I don't think it's something many of us in Washington really got tuned into for quite some time. When I go out to these communities and I talk to voters, they're people who are angry about the status quo, they're people who are upset about the fact that they're economically disenfranchised. They don't like their choices. We see it in the rise of supporters of Donald Trump. We also see it on the Democratic side of the aisle, for the Democrats who have risen up and supported Bernie Sanders' form of progressive politics and the kind of issues he brings to the table. People are angry, they're dissatisfied, and obviously, we prefer not to see that show up in violence but it seems like that's what we're seeing here in California at so many of these other rallies where people are literally taking to the streets to voice their political opinions.

CAMEROTA: And David, is that how you see it? Is this the outpouring of angry voters or are these opportunistic teenagers and people who are just spoiling for a fight?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Look, there's a real hard edge to the Trump campaign to his supporters, and to his opponents, and to those who are willing to come out and protest him. This is not painting neatly between the lines of political discourse and even protest. There's anxiety, there's anger, but you know, this was also Southern California, this was Orange County. You're closer to the border there, and so what he's saying about illegal immigrants and returning them is going to turn out people who are going to protest him, and whether they are supporters of Trump's or opponents of Trump, this is not a cerebral kind of distant argument. This is a pretty raw argument about what he represents and where he wants to take the country, and I think you're going to see more of this on the fringes of some of these rallies, and the question for him will be how he wants to try to handle that and direct that when he knows this kind of stuff is going to go on.

CUOMO: Matt Lewis, then, is it your theory that that huge crowd did less to Donald Trump's favor than John Boehner did with one line about Ted Cruz where he called him, Lucifer in the flesh?

LEWIS: Yes, look, I -- Donald Trump is basically George Wallace, he's Richard Nixon, he is the strong, law and order candidate, and when they have these protests, this lawlessness in the streets, all it does is help Donald Trump. I don't know if they're trying to help Donald Trump or if this is like an unintended consequence --

CUOMO: And what about with Cruz?

LEWIS: With Ted Cruz, I don't think John Boehner matters all that much. I think he was playing to the audience, using some hyperbole there to get some laughter and some applause, but it doesn't hurt Ted Cruz. He's an outsider, Boehner's an insider -- I think that Ted Cruz is just fine. He probably wants John Boehner attacking him.

CAMEROTA: I mean, hyperbole? Juana, he went full, like, Dante. I mean, listen to -- let me just play for you to remind everyone what John Boehner said.

CUOMO: He went Dante.

CAMEROTA: Right.

CUOMO: Who's Virgil?

CAMEROTA: Oh, I'll let you know.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BOEHNER: How about Ted Cruz? (laughter) Lucifer in the flesh. I have as many Democrat friends as I have Republican friends, and I get along with almost everybody, but I have never worked with a more miserable son of a (bleep) in my life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Look, pretty damning to use the metaphor. He says he's never worked with a more miserable blank, Juana, so what does this mean that John Boehner's now unplugged in talking like this?

SUMMERS: Right, John Boehner, tell us how you really feel. I covered John Boehner and Ted Cruz both in congress when John Boehner was house speaker, and if you know Washington at all, it is no surprise that these two do not exactly represent the same strains of the Republican Party. And to that end, I think Matt is absolutely right. This is not going to hurt Ted Cruz. If anything, it's going to help him with a so-called establishment, mainstream Republican lashing out at him, saying he doesn't like his ideas, he didn't like working with him. John Boehner is not exactly the type of character who you're going to see fire up the Republican base, the type of people Ted Cruz needs, if he has any chance of stopping Donald Trump from reaching those 1,237 delegates ahead of the July convention.

CUOMO: David Gregory, tell me two things. Let me stop you, because usually you're making a better point than I want to, so let's start here. One, when are you and/or I going to hear from Marco Rubio here on NEW DAY talking about what he wants for his delegates, and is this something we're going to hear about on your podcast this week?

[06:09:59] GREGORY: I'm talking to Kara Swisher, the (ph) tech director on my podcast.

CUOMO: Oh! No wonder she wouldn't come on. You locked her up for yourself you selfish --

GREGORY: She's taking on Silicon Valley, talking about faith and other things and politics and Trump, she's terrific, so you can look for that. Look, I think that Rubio will probably wait a little bit. I think it's interesting that if Cruz wanted to make this move about bringing on a running mate, whatever conversations might have gone on between him and Rubio, that didn't come to pass. I think Rubio probably wants to sit this one out and probably wait to see whether Trump gets this on a first ballot. I have a slightly different view about Boehner, and it's this -- look, Cruz represents a pretty hard- edged brand of conservatism that a lot of conservatives, and certainly establishment Republicans, don't like, and Boehner would be one of those. Yes, I agree with Matt, it certainly helps him in parts of Indiana, but I mean, him as an alternative, I think is scary to a lot of Republicans, as an alternative to Trump, which is why I think you see some movement towards Trump on the part of other establishment Republicans.

CAMEROTA: OK, panel. Stick around. We have a lot to talk to you about with Hillary and Bernie as well. We'll be back with you in a second. Michaela --

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: Let's talk about those Democrats right now --Hillary Clinton back on the stump today, her main focus now on the general election. Meanwhile, Bernie Sanders shifting tone, softening attacks on her. The senator's lone supporter in the senate now suggesting an exit strategy for the Vermont senator. A lot to get to. Athena Jones has it live from Washington for us this morning. Good morning.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela, and not an exit strategy Sanders wants to hear. This is not good news for him. Not something you want to hear from a supporter like Oregon senator Jeff Merkley who said yesterday that Sanders should end his campaign if he's behind Hillary Clinton in the delegate count after the last states vote in June. Merkley said Sanders should follow the example that Clinton herself set back in 2008 when, you'll remember, she bowed out in June and pledged her support to then Senator Obama in the interest of uniting the party and working together to win. Sanders has vowed to take this fight all the way to the convention. Last night in Oregon he pushed the electability argument saying he's a better choice to defeat Trump. Here's what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I hope that delegates going to the Democratic Convention pay heed to this -- in every national poll done in the last month, we are defeating Donald Trump by much greater margins than Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JONES: Now, that's not a new argument for Sanders, so it's not clear how effective this message is going to be in the coming primaries. What we have seen in the recent days that is new from Sanders is that he's spending a bit more time talking about pushing for a progressive agenda at the convention in Philadelphia and less time focused on attacking Clinton. Sanders continues to say he's in this race to win, but if he doesn't win outright, he wants to win enough delegates to have influence on the party's platform and to make sure it works for working people and not big money interests. So that's what we're hearing from Sanders, meanwhile Clinton, as you mentioned, back on the campaign trail today. Michaela --

PEREIRA: All right, thanks so much for that, Athena. Coming up in our 8:00 hour here on NEW DAY, Bernie Sanders' wife Jane will join us live. Chris --

CUOMO: All right. Breaking overnight -- North Korea sentencing a South Korean-born American citizen to ten years hard labor for spying. The man's name is Kim Dong Chul and he had been detained since his arrest last October. He told CNN's Will Ripley back in January that he quote, spied on behalf of South Korean conservative elements. Now, CNN was not able to determine if these comments were made under duress or not. No immediate comment from the state department.

CAMEROTA: Vice President Joe Biden meeting with Pope Francis today. Biden is in Rome for a second day, and he's there for a medical conference on regenerative medicine. He arrived yesterday after an unannounced visit to Iraq. Biden urged Iraqi leaders not to let their political problems hurt the country's fight against ISIS.

PEREIRA: There have been three new arrests in connection with the San Bernardino terror attacks. The brother of gunman Syed Farook, along with his Russian wife and her sister, all pleading not guilty to a marriage scam. Police say Syed Raheel Farook and his wife Tatiana were witnesses when the sister married family friend Enrique Marquez to become a U.S. citizen. Marquez was later charged with buying guns used in that December attack that killed 14 people.

CUOMO: No matter what the charges, that picture of that guy, it's going to work against him no matter what it is.

PEREIRA: It does not help.

CUOMO: Speaking of working against --

CAMEROTA: It's a sad day here at NEW DAY.

CUOMO: I've never seen anybody take joy in misery the way that you are.

PEREIRA: It's no misery. It's all joy and love.

CAMEROTA: Michaela is leaving us and this is her last day.

PEREIRA: I'm not leaving you.

CAMEROTA: Oh, she's not leaving us, she's just going some place far, far away.

PEREIRA: I'm transitioning.

CAMEROTA: Away from us.

PEREIRA: On the other side of the coast.

CAMEROTA: Look, I'm so hope that you're so excited, but I'm in denial and I don't think this is going to hit for about a few months.

[06:14:57] PEREIRA: Next week's going to be rough on NEW DAY. I think I might just have to send a case of something to get you guys through it.

CAMEROTA: Empanadas.

PEREIRA: Look at this. I mean, this is just -- you're at least using your words --

CAMEROTA: I'm verbalizing it. He's despondent.

PEREIRA: I wrote a nice little message that said, forever love, and he wrote, poofed, on the bottom of it.

CUOMO: When I hurt, I hurt deeply. We are going to reserve judgment on this entire situation until the 8:00 hour of the show, where we will make the case against exactly what is going on here with Michaela Pereira.

CAMEROTA: Stick around for that. It's going to be a great. It's a tough road ahead here, and for Bernie Sanders. Can he make a comeback --

CUOMO: Good segue.

CAMEROTA: Yes, thank you. His wife Jane says, yes, he can make a comeback. We'll ask her how, live on NEW DAY.

(COMMERICAL BREAK)

CUOMO: A shift in the Bernie Sanders campaign. It's more apparent now, anyway. There's a focus, less on winning primaries and more on influencing delegates. Still, the person closest to Sanders believes a comeback against Hillary Clinton could be in the cards. All right. Let's discuss the path forward and what that's going to mean for the party.

[06:19:57] Let's bring back the panel. Matt Lewis, Juana Summers, David Gregory. David Gregory, this seems to be the confusion. There's one argument, I want as many delegates as possible, I want to make my case to the convention, I want to make the party stronger. Versus, I'm better than Hillary Clinton, I can beat Donald Trump, I'm going to make a comeback in this. Which one is it for Sanders?

GREGORY: Well, I think this notion that he could beat Trump is really pretty thin. I mean, Bernie Sanders has not gotten roughed up in this campaign. He's certainly gone toe to toe with Hillary Clinton and taken some incoming fire from her and her campaign, but the notion of trying to put him into a general election where he hasn't gotten that intense press scrutiny or Republican scrutiny and think that his negatives wouldn't be driven up, I think is shortsighted. Look, delegates are power at this point, even if you fall short. He has got a movement, he's got a lot of passion behind him, and he's got a lot of money, so he's here to stay, even if the path is virtually impossible for him in terms of the delegates. I do think it's the influence now. The influence on the Democratic Party platform, the convention itself, and who knows what role he plays either if Clinton were to become president, in an administration, or in the Democratic Party as a kind of grassroots movement organizer where he could still have a very powerful voice.

CAMEROTA: I don't know, Juana, because the people who are expecting him to exit stage left and just sort of be an influencer, it doesn't sound like he is onboard with that. In reference to what David was just talking about, he continues to say that because of the polls, he's the only person who can beat Donald Trump. Let me play for you what he said yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Maybe most importantly, and I hope that delegates going to the Democratic Convention pay heed to this -- in every national poll done in the last month, we are defeating Donald Trump by much greater margins than Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And Juana, I can do one better. Jane Sanders, his wife, biggest supporter, surrogate, said this yesterday. You remember in mid-March after a string of losses, the media wrote his political obituary and we came back to win eight in a row, so we're expecting to do the same here. This doesn't sound like somebody who's just trying to be a party influencer.

SUMMERS: No, it doesn't. And when you listen to the statements from Senator Sanders, from his wife, from those who are running his campaign, you get a little bit of mixed messaging. You have the senator and his wife there saying, we're in it to win it, we're going all the way, we think we have a path, and at the same time, there have been some statements coming out of the Sanders camp that have sounded more like, oh, we want to be influences. But the math is really, really tough for Bernie Sanders to clinch the nomination ahead of the July convention. Hillary Clinton only needs about 1/5 of the remaining delegates in order to go ahead and seal the deal to get that nomination outright, and for Bernie Sanders to be able to make that up, he would need to have a string of really, really big victories or perhaps flip those so-called super delegates ahead of the convention, something that historically we haven't seen a lot. So certainly there is a path there, but at the senator himself has said in interviews, it is very, very, very narrow and we would need to see some big wins from him very quickly if he was able to do that.

CUOMO: Matt Lewis, what do you think it means to Bernie Sanders that his lone senate supporter, Jeff Merkley, ourt of Oregon says, look, it's time to adopt the Secretary Clinton model, or the Clinton model. Then Senator Clinton said, OK, I had the discussion across America. I'm ready to pivot and work together. Obama reached out, she reached out -- that should be a model for us to follow. I think after California, June 7, that would be appropriate. What do you think?

LEWIS: Certainly not helpful to Bernie Sanders.

CUOMO: No, but do you think Bernie Sanders, that's going to resonate with him?

LEWIS: No, I don't think so. I think that Bernie Sanders, we have to give him credit. He's run a great campaign, surprised everybody by doing so well, and I think it's sort of presumptuous to suggest what his exit strategy should be and what the timeline should be, but clearly at some point he risks becoming a spoiler, and being a gadfly versus being the leader of a progressive movement that could impact the Democratic Party.

CUOMO: Now, if you're wondering, why is it that I seem to dominate this conversation with such piffy insights, I have a new reason for that.

CAMEROTA: Were we wandering on that?

CUOMO: I was. On the app store, there is a new offering called CNN politics, which I have on my phone right now. Can you see it? Come on in. This is the homepage.

CAMEROTA: Not really.

CUOMO: Ha-ha! Had it prepared in advance. So CNN has this new app that is called Politics, simple enough, and what it does is, it doesn't just give headlines of the day, but if you swipe through it, it goes deeper. So here's your headline about Trump closing in. He's getting close. The next one is --

CAMEROTA: Then you swipe? CUOMO: -- it shows why he's closing in.

CAMEROTA: What? Juana, how much are you -- you're running this app. How great is it?

SUMMERS: It is pretty awesome. It just came out and we're really using it to take you into the ticks and turns of what has been a crazy race and to show you who's winning at any given point, so any day, you'll get an alert when we have a new addition of the app and we'll take you through stats like this that show Trump's target to clinch over time, so data showing just what percentage of the remaining delegates that Trump needs to clear the race. I think the image on your screen now shows the five states voting in May.

[06:25:09] Interesting fact that the CNN Politics team came up with -- even if Trump ran the table, got every single delegate available in May, he still couldn't clinch nomination by that point. This is a race that is going until June. The graphic that you see now with the 172 delegates at stake in California, the big prize on June 7, so we're really looking at the numbers here, getting you into the nitty- gritty weeds of politics. I think this will be a really great resource for people who are looking to get into the race, if you're a political insider, or if you're someone who's just interested in a light touch.

CUOMO: You know what it does for you? It answers the question, but what about this? You know, like when somebody tells you something in politics, you're like, yes, but what about -- as you swipe, you get the answers to your questions.

CAMEROTA: And lots of pictures, which we also appreciate. Juana, thanks for selling it so beautifully. Panel, thank you, have a great weekend.

Keep up with the latest political news and the state of the race. You can download the new CNN Politics app. It's available now on the app store for free. Michaela --

PEREIRA: All right. Another story dominating the headlines. Did Prince have a prescription for the painkillers that were found on him and inside his home? The probe into his death taking a new turn. We'll have the latest details for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)