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Violent Protests Erupt At Donald Trump Rally; America's Opioid Epidemic; Trump Spars With Clinton Over "Woman Card" Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired April 29, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:00] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Overnight, hundreds of anti- Trump protestors taking to the streets, blocking traffic, stomping on cars, throwing rocks. One Trump supporter left bloodied. Many more arrested.

And one high-profile establishment Republican lobbying a verbal grenade at Ted Cruz. Former House Speaker John Boehner calling Cruz, "Lucifer in the flesh."

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton back on the campaign trail. Bernie Sanders shifting from rival to party influencer or not. All of this unfolding ahead of next Tuesday's high-stakes Indiana primary.

There is a lot to cover and we have it the way only CNN can. Let's begin with Phil Mattingly, live in Washington. What's the latest?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, look, Chris when it comes to California, the state where Donald Trump was last night, where those riots or at least protests started to break out, it's very clear.

Trump's advisers believe it will be the state that actually pushes the candidate over the top for the Republican nomination. The state's 172 delegates, Chris, important enough for Trump to leave Indiana.

The crucial state right now, but it's a state that's large and politically very complicated especially when it comes to Trump's central campaign issue, immigration.

That meant thousands of supporters last night accompanied by hundreds protesting, and it turned violent.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY (voice-over): 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.

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! MATTINGLY: Inside, Donald Trump riling up a massive crowd.

TRUMP: Look at the size of this place.

MATTINGLY: Taking aim at his rivals.

TRUMP: Lyin' Ted Cruz. We know Lyin' Ted. He's crooked as you can be. Crooked Hillary. You ever see a guy eat like him?

MATTINGLY: 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.

MATTINGLY: 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.

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), 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.

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

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

MATTINGLY: 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 HOUSE SPEAKER: Lucifer in the flesh. I get along with almost everybody, but I've never worked with a more miserable son of a (inaudible) --

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

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

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: Now, all of this, comes as John Kasich, the third candidate in the race has vowed to carry on with his campaign. Despite admitting yesterday out in Oregon that he's actually contemplated dropping out, that as the deal between Cruz and Kasich appears to be unraveling on all fronts.

That deal, obviously, that Kasich would pull out of Indiana and Cruz would pull out of Oregon and New Mexico. Cruz declared Thursday that there is no alliance between the two candidates. So that alliance, not really working out that well so far -- Chris.

CUOMO: Going to have to find a new word for it, then, Phil. All right, let's bring in Ohio Republican Senator Rob Portman. He's endorsed Governor John Kasich for president. We are here to talk some politics, but we have something much bigger at hand also.

You're trying to do something about this opioid, this pill-popping phenomenon that's going on in the country right now. We're going to discuss that.

But first, let's discuss another phenomenon. What's going on in your party right now? We saw these angry protests turned into riots, really, outside this Trump rally. How concerned are you about Donald Trump as GOP nominee dividing the party in a way that really injures it going forward?

SENATOR ROB PORTMAN (R), OHIO: Well, you mentioned I was supporting John Kasich. I'm strongly supporting John, and he's a guy who brings the party together. You look at polling data. He not only unifies the party, he actually wins in November.

[07:05:02]So it's a good combination for the Republican Party. So John's my governor. He's my friend. He's done a great job here in Ohio turning things around, and he's also got experience in Washington to be able to solve some of the big problems we face in terms of our global challenges, but also this weak economy, Chris.

We just got numbers for the first quarter and 0.5 percent growth, very disappointing. So I'm a Kasich guy and hope John will do well not just in Indiana but also in these other states out west.

CUOMO: You can be hopeful, Senator, but he has not done well. He is mathematically excluded from getting the 1,237 delegate number he needs. The last hope is what happens at the convention, and it is exactly your perspective.

That, hey, I don't care about who the frontrunner is going into it, I don't care if he gets the magic number, Trump's not going to be the guy. What will that do to your party at the convention?

PORTMAN: Well, the party tends to come together. You know, we've had this before with Gerald Ford and Ronald Reagan. Democrats have it before with Ted Kennedy and Jimmy Carter.

As it goes up to the convention, at the convention people feel like the party is going to be divided, but eventually people tend to unify and come together, but it also depends on what kind of campaign the candidates run.

My sense at least in Ohio, Hillary Clinton is not very popular. There's an opportunity for us if we can come together as Republicans to be successful, and they say so goes Ohio, so goes the nation.

So we're hopeful that we'll be able to pull together regardless who the candidate is, but I do hope it's Kasich and I think John has an opportunity you say in the second, third, fourth ballot, however long it takes.

Because I do believe a lot of delegates are people like me, focused on how do we actually win this election and begin to get the country moving in the right direction.

CUOMO: OK, let's talk about what arguably matters more in terms of threats facing the American people and that is what we are seeing as a headline with the suggestion of what happened with obviously the loss of this genius and artist, Prince.

We don't know a lot of the information yet, but there is a headline, a detail, that really strikes home for you, and for many people who are concerned about American's health, opioids, pills.

Not the stuff they sell in the back alley. The stuff that's found in a medicine cabinet. Many rehabs around the country are now calling the medicine cabinet the new drug dealer.

Pills that you get from friends as pain pills leading to heroin addictions, opiates. They are a scourge across the country. The numbers are skyrocketing. The rehabs are filled with pill poppers. What can we do about it?

PORTMAN: Chris, you're absolutely right, and this is an epidemic now in my state of Ohio and around the country. The United States Congress doesn't usually move quickly, but on this legislation we moved to produce what's called the Comprehensive Addiction and Recovery Act in the Senate and we had a 94-1 vote back on March 10th so just over 40 days ago.

That never happens in the United States Senate, as you know, and it's bipartisan, even non-partisan because it's affecting every state and every congressional district. We're now urging the House to move quickly. They are having some hearings and markups this week.

I hope they'll vote on it week after next and actually do something to help in these communities. The federal government needs to be a better partner.

You're absolutely right. A 120 Americans are dying every day. It is a heroin epidemic, but four out of five of these heroin addicts they started on prescription drugs.

CUOMO: A lot of them stay on it.

PORTMAN: Part of it raising awareness. You're doing it. I commend you for that.

CUOMO: Saying there's 7,000 emergency visits a day because of these types of pills. Now, the delay in the House is that just about constipated process or is this about big pharma getting its head in the game?

PORTMAN: No. I think it's honestly about people with good intentions who are trying to work through the process themselves. You know, they wanted to have hearings when Paul Ryan became speaker, he said had would go by regular order.

That means allowing the committee chairs and subcommittees and committees to do their work, I understand that, but this is a crisis and it needs immediate action. I have called on the House to move and move more quickly.

I will say, too, that this legislation, the comprehensive legislation we passed in the Senate was bicameral meaning that we worked with the House on it for the last three years.

We had hearings in Washington where we brought in House and Senate members. It's something that has 120 co-sponsors in the House and it is what the groups around the country are supporting including these folks who, the concern I heard on your program earlier, nine out of ten people are not able to get into treatment right now.

Sometimes it's because of the stigma associated with addiction, which we need to break down. Sometimes because there simply is not adequate access, particularly in rural areas.

This is something we can address in Washington to help, to provide resources for what we know works, for evidence-based programs, treatment and recovery and put more funds on awareness and education. We can divert people from getting into the addiction in the first place that's incredibly important.

CUOMO: Just an added element here, though.

PORTMAN: What happened with Prince, the reports are still coming in, but --

[07:10:03]CUOMO: We don't know about Prince yet. Let's reserve judgment, but it's brought something into the conversation that is worthwhile especially because there's a nefarious aspect to this that you don't deal with, with any other drug.

This isn't sneaking across the Mexican border or from Canada. It isn't bought in a back alley. Doctors are often involved in this. These pain clinics that have popped up all over the country with variable degrees of regulation. The CARA, the bill that you passed in the Senate will it address that?

PORTMAN: Yes. It addresses it in a couple different ways. One setting up a national drug monitoring program because you're right. Prescription drugs that are legally prescribed is a huge part of the problem.

Heartbreaking stories that I hear. We have someone testified last week whose son went in to have his wisdom teeth taken out and ended up getting addicted to the painkillers and turned to heroin as a less expensive alternative.

And he was one of those tragic 120 Americans a day who lose their lives from an overdose so it's happening. Second, we have a program (inaudible) increase this drug takeback because you're right. We got to get these drugs off the bathroom shelves and get everyone engaged in this process.

For those listening today, watching this program, go into your medicine cabinet, get rid of the stuff. Every police station in America is happy to take it. Also communities have national drug take-back days.

Most have it two or three times a year. This is incredibly important because you're right. Most of this addiction starts with prescription drugs. We have to get it, stop the over-prescribing.

And this is a -- this is a longer-term challenge that we have with the medical profession to ensure that people are getting the pain medication they need, but they aren't being over-prescribed. It's just one of the huge problems.

CUOMO: Right. Senator, it matters to you and the country and matters to us. Please, keep us in the loop so we can keep people aware of the situation. Thank you for being on NEW DAY today -- Mich.

MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, let's turn to the Democratic race for president, Hillary Clinton back on the stump with her main focus now on the general election. Meantime, Bernie Sanders down playing his attacks on her as his only supporter in the Senate has some advice the candidate might not want to hear.

Athena Jones has a lot to cover this morning. She is live in Washington. Good morning, Athena.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. You're right. This is probably not what Sanders wants to hear from Oregon Senator Jeff Merkley. Merkley said yesterday Sanders should end his campaign if he is still losing to Hillary Clinton in June.

He said Sanders should follow the example that Clinton set herself back in 2008 when you'll remember she bowed out in June and pledged her support to then Senator Obama in the interests of uniting the party.

Sanders has vowed to take this fight all the way to the convention and 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)

BERNIE SANDERS (D), 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 we'll see how effective it is going forward. What we have seen in recent days, it is new from Sanders is that he is spending more time talking about pushing a progressive agenda at the convention in Philadelphia and he's spending less time therefore attacking Clinton. Sanders continues to say he's in the race to win, but if he doesn't win outright he wants to win enough delegates to have an influence on the Democratic Party's platform to make it in his words, the strongest, most progressive agenda any political party has ever seen.

Meanwhile, as you mentioned, Clinton is back on the trail today delivering a speech to at-risk youth in New York -- Michaela.

PEREIRA: All right, Athena, somebody who knows the Sanders campaign very, very well, his wife. Jane Sanders join us live on NEW DAY next hour.

CAMEROTA: OK, Michaela, the Pentagon set to unveil its findings today into that deadly hit on a Doctors Without Borders hospital in Afghanistan last fall. No one will face criminal charges, but 16 service members are expected to be disciplined for the airstrikes that killed 42 people.

CNN has learned a top special operations commander is likely to be fired. Officials say a number of fatal mistakes made, but there was no intent to strike that safe haven.

CUOMO: The NCAA ruling that cities with anti-LGBT laws will not be allowed to host any college sports events including the final four. The NCAA Board of Governors said it is a response to the recent state laws that allow discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

PEREIRA: A new twist on road rage unfolding in Miami. Witnesses say an argument between two drivers led one man to exit his vehicle, stand in front of the other. Only he wasn't banking on literally being taken for a ride. Look at this.

(VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: The driver hit the gas forcing the man to cling to the hood. Authorities say a police report was never filed. Leaving police unable to say exactly how that confrontation ended nor how it even started.

[07:15:09]But this video tells quite a compelling story, I would say.

CUOMO: Assuming it's not a gag -- who do you think -- the crazy person here is the person driving the car. Right? You do understand that you could kill this person by continuing to drive?

CAMEROTA: Yes, I agree with you.

PEREIRA: But I would also argue, if somebody with road rage standing in front of their car is probably not well thought out.

CUOMO: What would you do if somebody jump on the hood of your car like that?

PEREIRA: I wouldn't drive away. Well, it would depend on the situation. CUOMO: Hold on. If I were to jump on the hood of the car while you're driving away, would you try to toss me like a bag of limp like that guy or you actually consider staying?

CAMEROTA: I knew there was a segue way there.

CUOMO: This is not one of my favorite suits, by the way. I would take one for the team.

CAMEROTA: Because Chris is close to attempting that to get Michaela to stay. This is her last day.

PEREIRA: Run through some of the litany of things he's done.

CAMEROTA: He's had the five stages of grief. We've seen that denial, anger, bargaining, in last week giving you presents.

PEREIRA: Bottles of tequila.

CUOMO: She sure drank them fast enough.

PEREIRA: I sure did not. And this week, I don't know what this is. I don't know what it is.

CUOMO: I have never seen anybody more happy to do something that is bad for you and for you by the way. I don't know why we're laughing so much.

CAMEROTA: I'm sad, too. Don't lump me into this.

PEREIRA: With a smile on her face.

CUOMO: Remorse, fake something.

CAMEROTA: I'm going to miss you. I get that. I understand that.

Stay tuned in our 8:00 hour. We have a very big sendoff planned that even she doesn't know about.

PEREIRA: See? He's pushing me off the set already.

CAMEROTA: All right, meanwhile, Donald Trump's foreign policy speech setting off alarms with U.S. allies. We are exploring what they are saying, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:42]

CUOMO: A mix of praise and a lot of criticism for the foreign policy agenda Donald Trump laid out this week. His message was pretty simple, America first. So how's that playing overseas with America's allies? What does it mean? Does it just sound good? Is it presidential?

And let's talk about the presidential campaign in general. We have someone who can inform you on all of these issues, former California Congresswoman Jane Harman. She is now the director, president and CEO of the Woodrow Wilson Center. Great to you have with us.

JANE HARMAN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, WOODROW WILSON CENTER: Thank you, Chris.

CUOMO: So what do you think of the idea of Donald Trump saying all Clinton has is the woman card? If she wasn't a woman, she wouldn't even get 5 percent, and she's playing that card?

HARMAN: It's a massive strategic and political miscalculation. What does is it drives all the women away from Trump. Not that he had many. There's a huge gender gap in voting, and what I actually think it will do is help the Sanders' voters should he drop out move to Clinton because many of them will be absolutely outraged by this.

CUOMO: If I am an anti-p.c., anti-establishment person, who's from the center to the right, and I say, well, you know, this pc stuff has gone crazy. Just because Hillary Clinton is a woman that means she gets to be president? What's the response?

HARMAN: The response is just because she was a woman, an accomplished first lady, just because she was a very good senator of New York, just because she was a secretary of state who made women and girls issues at the top of her agenda, and was an accomplished diplomat, then she gets to run for president, and if enough people support her, she gets to be president. What does that have to do with the woman card?

CUOMO: Did you think that being the first woman would have resonated more with women than it has to this point?

HARMAN: Well, That's interesting. There is a huge split between millennials and everybody else. Not just women. Young women and young men want something else, and the Sanders pitch, which is populist and anti-trade is resonating with them, and their lives in fairness are not as good as ours were.

They don't have the same. At least they don't perceive having the same the opportunities as we did and our kids do. That's true on the Republican side too. So she has to pitch to millennials, not just to younger women.

CUOMO: Now you understand the foreign policy game very well. Let's go proposition by proposition and you rebut it. I'll give you what Donald Trump laid out.

America first, enough of this, we have problems at home, nothing gets better with all of these crazy plans the Democrats put in place over the last eight years. Let's back off.

HARMAN: Disagree totally. First of all, America first, the term has a horrible image, certainly to somebody like me, a daughter of a refugee from Nazi Germany that meant America staying out of the war, Hitler getting his hooks into Europe and the holocaust beginnings.

So America first couldn't be a worst phrase for Donald Trump to use. Focusing at home. Yes. Get that. We need to be economically more secure and cure this income inequality problem or at least work on to be stronger abroad.

But being stronger abroad, being the indispensable partner in the world is what we need to do. Otherwise, we create vacuums which Russia and China are happy to fill and adventurism in the Middle East, which has continued despite the nuclear deal, et cetera.

CUOMO: ISIS, you lefties have made us soft. They fight under different rules than we do now. It is not a nice-guy business. The worst of the worst. You have to treat them that way. I'll do that as president, says Donald Trump.

HARMAN: I love being called a lefty. No one's ever called me that before, but they are not nice guys.

CUOMO: Because you're not, but I'm saying, that's the point of view that is going to be combating this one.

HARMAN: They are not nice guys. They cannot be treated with kid gloves, but we cannot do to them things that are contrary to our values. If we torture them, waterboard them, or worst, to quote Donald Trump, and if we become them, then we don't have an argument that they're wrong and we're right.

CUOMO: China, Russia, the reason that they are on the come is because we are weak. I am strong, Donald Trump says. I will sit down with Putin. I will negotiate with him as I have all over the world to my benefit, and if he doesn't like the deal I'll get up and walk away, and he knows that Trump will do that where the rest of you were too weak to do it.

[07:25:06]HARMAN: Well, don't do stupid stuff is not a foreign policy. We actually need a narrative of how America is strong and what we are trying to accomplish around the world, and I do think that Putin has taken advantage where we haven't been clear.

Advantage in Ukraine, in Syria. Geopolitics is back with a vengeance and China's playing it too. Think about the South China Sea and we do need to be strong. Ronald Reagan was strong. Mr. Gorbachev, tear down that wall was a good statement to make.

And I think a lot of people want our next president to do things in that mode. Not to have Reagan's positions exactly, but to be a very strong leader against very tough adversaries in Russia and China.

CUOMO: Jane Harman, thank you for making rebuttal points on what we heard from Donald Trump and his foreign policy assessment and congratulations on the new grandchild.

HARMAN: Go, Charlie.

CUOMO: It's good to have you with us -- Mich.

PEREIRA: There is nothing more beautiful than a grandparent's love. That's really wonderful. All right, with Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton closing in on their respective party nominations, starting to get a clearer sense what the general election might look like. How are the party brass preparing? We'll ask them next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)