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Donald Trump Criticizes Hillary Clinton; Donald Trump Leads Ted Cruz in Recent Indiana Polling; Sanders Makes Push For Clinton's Superdelegates; Kenneth Bae On His Imprisonment In North Korea. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 02, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00] MICHAEL CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: They're not exactly the same thing.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Right.

SMERCONISH: To Trump's credit, he has got experience around the globe, but it's not exactly State Department type.

CUOMO: He was teasing me because he was saying I was creating a pushback when he had only said it 10 seconds ago, but because of what was said on the Sunday shows by Gates and others, him saying that he has experience in the foreign sphere is going to come back at him and come back at him quickly. But we'll see how much that means to the voters in Indiana and beyond. Michael Smerconish, thank you very much for being with us.

SMERCONISH: See you guys.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We're following a lot of news. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we win Indiana, it's over.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm going to do everything I can to get the nomination wrapped up.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That is a tough road, but it is not an impossible road.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Behind the Donald Trump mask is Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This hateful talk -- enough, enough.

TRUMP: Are you listening. She is playing the woman card.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I was the first American prisoner ever sent to the labor camp. I'm working eight hours a day, six days a week, working hard labor. You might know my name but you haven't heard the full story until now. BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The United States has

conducted an operation that killed Usama bin Laden.

The helicopters were about to actually land. One of the helicopters got damaged. This is not an ideal strike.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

CUOMO: Good morning, welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Monday, May 2nd, 8:00 in the east. J.B. is joining Alisyn and me this morning.

And we have big political news happening. Donald Trump making his case right here on NEW DAY ahead of tomorrow's all-important Indiana primary. Trump insisting a lot of things. But the main headline is, hey, what happened in Arizona with these delegates saying that they'll be for Cruz in the second round of a vote at a convention, it's just more proof that this system is rigged. And he says despite that, the Republican frontrunner says this nomination is his if he wins tomorrow. We're going to give you more of the interview that covered a lot of different topics in just a minute.

CAMEROTA: And we'll talk with a panel of Republican and Democratic women about what they heard Donald Trump say and the woman card as well as many other issues. We'll be with you shortly.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders making a push for super delegates in the state where he won, insisting they should back him instead of Hillary Clinton. He is vowing to stay in the race until the July convention when those super delegates formally vote. We have the 2016 race covered only the way CNN can.

Let's begin with Phil Mattingly. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn. For Donald Trump, there is a dual track operation going on right now. First, win the nomination, but at the same exact time figure out how to hone his attacks on Hillary Clinton, his presumed opponent in a general election. It's something we've heard over and over at Trump rallies even as he has tried to lock down that Republican nomination, and something he has continued even this morning, going after Hillary Clinton again on Twitter, something we've started to see very regular, saying "Crooked Hillary Clinton said she is used to, quote, "dealing with men who got off reservation." Actually, she has done poorly with such men." And if you talk to Trump advisers, guys, you can expect this is something that is going to happen regularly going forward.

But first, it's all about Indiana. For Ted Cruz and the Cruz campaign this is an area where Cruz has to win. There's 24 hours left of campaigning. Cruz and his team plan to blitz the state, the latest polling showing Ted Cruz down by double digits, his team pushing back on that, saying they've got closer polling that they're looking at right now. Still, Cruz needs to make up a lot of ground going forward. If he doesn't there's a very real chance Donald Trump secures this nomination sooner rather than later. Chris? CUOMO: All right, so, Phil, to recap what he said in the interview, we're going to show it to you right now. But here are the big ticket items for you to listen for in this upcoming segment, that Cruz has to get out to unify the party if he loses Indiana. That this system is rigged and that's what's going on with this delegate selection. That's his concern about the convention. He also talked about the White House Correspondents dinner and the president, and who is inappropriate, him or Hillary Clinton. Here you go.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I think it's a very harsh statement. It's basically, you know, like, I can handle men. Don't worry about me. I can handle men. If somebody said that -- if I made that statement about women, there would be front page headlines.

CUOMO: You basically did.

TRUMP: She talks about, "I can handle men who get off the reservation."

CUOMO: You basically did. You said all she's got is that she's a woman.

TRUMP: Now, I won't even bring up the fact that the Indians have gone wild on that statement, you know that, right? The Indians have said that statement is a disastrous statement and they want a retraction. I'm not going to get into that.

CUOMO: You just did get into that. I have not really heard that.

TRUMP: I'm not bringing that up.

CUOMO: You did just bring it up.

TRUMP: I think it's a very nasty statement to men. And if I made that statement, it would be a big, big story.

CUOMO: What I'm saying is, maybe it should be, though, right? When you say she's playing the woman card, that's all she's got is being a woman, that doesn't play well. But --

[08:05:03] TRUMP: No, no, no, somebody said I wonder, was that good or bad that Trump said that? Let me tell you something. She's playing the -- are you ready? Are you listening? She is playing the woman card. And if she didn't play the woman card she would have no chance whatsoever of winning. And she would have absolutely no chance of winning.

She is playing the woman card. And I watch her speeches and I watch what she said, and we're right now making a list of many, many times where it's all about her being a woman. And, frankly, she doesn't do very well with women.

And if you look at what happened recently over the weekend and over last week, over the last two weeks, including New York, I won with women by vast, vast majorities. I mean, I was way, way up with women far above anybody else in the exit polls of the recent election. So, you know, I think we're doing fine.

Look, women want strength. They want security. They want to have strong military. They want to know our country is being protected. They want to know about women's issues, women's health issues. I'm going to do a better job for women than Hillary can do.

CUOMO: What do you make of the protests that were in Los Angeles yesterday where you had all these workers there out in the streets and they were carrying this big balloon with you, like a Thanksgiving Day type balloon of you as an effigy holding a KKK mask? Those are workers, a lot of them are Latino. That's in California, which is of course gt. be a really important state. What do you say to those people?

TRUMP: I saw nothing other than what I did see is where I was -- the other day where you had some protests.

CUOMO: It's on your screen right now.

TRUMP: And we had 30 -- I'm in Indiana right now. I was here yesterday, too, where we had -- now I see it now up on your screen. I did not see that. I hope I look better than that. I did not see that yesterday.

CUOMO: What's your message to them?

TRUMP: I did see, Chris, I did see 31,000 people show up to my rally in Costa Mesa. I did see tremendous crowds at every rally I had three days ago or two days ago in California. We had 31,000 people. We broke the record. And we brought out the families of people whose children and wives and, you know, husbands were killed by illegal immigrants, viciously, violently killed by illegal immigrants that came into this country totally illegally without documentation. And we had 31,000 people, and it was a love fest.

CUOMO: What do you say to those people that aren't in the Trump tent, the people who are in the streets who are workers, who are in this country?

TRUMP: I do want to get them in my tent. I will tell you, I'm going to create jobs. I'm going to bring jobs back to this country. Our country does not have jobs. We he a phony unemployment rate of five percent. And it has to do with the fact that they use that statistic in order to make the politicians look good. The rate we really have is close to 20 percent, maybe over 20 percent, or you wouldn't have the kind of crowds I have.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CAMEROTA: OK, let's talk about everything we just heard in the Trump interview and the battle for Indiana tomorrow. We want to bring in Trump supporter and talk radio host for KABC John Phillips, and New Jersey chairman for Ted Cruz, Steve Lonegan. Great to have both of you here. Steve, thanks so much for being in studio. STEVE LONEGAN, NEW JERSEY CHAIRMAN, CRUZ CAMPAIGN: Thanks, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Let me ask you about one of Donald Trump's main points, and that is that this whole primary season is a rigged system and it's rigged by the party bosses.

LONEGAN: Well, Donald Trump has been whining about that for months now, but if you look at the state of New Jersey where I come from, he has about 10 lobbyists on his delegate slate, and it's dominated by party bosses. So he talks out of both sides of his mouth.

But I find what's really stunning to me is the remarkable similarity between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. They both support universal health care funded by taxpayers. They both support taxpayer funding for Planned Parenthood. He supports Obama's individual mandate. He supports more gun control on some very popular firearms. And he supports big government. Him and Hillary have -- I think Hillary is actually probably better on foreign policy than Donald Trump is.

CAMEROTA: John, this is a line of attack we have been hearing from lots of Cruz supporters, including Cruz and his running mate, Carly Fiorina, that Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are basically two sides of the same coin. In fact, they have a new ad about it. Let me play a portion of that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are two sides of the same coin. Both support raising taxes. Both supported Bill Clinton's nationwide ban on popular firearms. And both support letting transgender men go in little girls' bathrooms.

TRUMP: They use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump and Hillary -- do we really want two big government liberals on the ballot in November?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: John, how effective do you think that is?

[08:10:00] JOHN PHILLIPS, TALK RADIO, KABC: Well, not at all. I mean, the only people that seem to hate Ted Cruz more than his colleague in the Senate are the voters. He has lost six elections in a row. He's losing in Indiana. He's losing in all the polls in the states that are voting in the upcoming primaries. So I don't think this is going to be an effective line of attack.

And I think also, in a strange turn of events, it also helps Donald Trump because it shows him as the person that's most in Hillary's head. It shows you the person that Hillary thinks that she's going to run against. And this is a match-up that's very dangerous for Hillary Clinton. You were just showing those videos of the protests out in the street where people were having these caricatures of Donald Trump where he's a Klansman or Nazi or whatever. If Donald Trump is going to win the general election he is going to prove to the public that he's not Adolf Hitler, which is going to be easy for him to do. If Hillary Clinton is going to win the nomination, she is going to have to prove she's not Hillary Clinton. That's going to much harder to do.

CAMEROTA: Steve, I hear you as John is talking. He makes the point that Ted Cruz is not the most popular guy among his colleagues in the Senate. Isn't that true?

LONEGAN: It's peculiar that he says that Donald Trump is out to prove he's not Adolf Hitler. If I said something like that, I would have been attacked. But it's interesting that Ted Cruz, endorsed by Mike Pence in in Indiana, he's endorsed by Pete Wilson in California. He's attacked by the poster boy of the establishment John Boehner, which tells you right now that Ted Cruz is up against Boehner and the failed Republican establishment in Washington, D.C.

So now we go back to the original premise. On the key issues, Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are on two -- as you said, two sides of the same coin. They both come out of New York state. They both come out of the northeast. And you know what, Mr. Phillips just said the last six primaries. Well, the northeast is not going to anoint the next Republican nominee. Now the west is going to have their say.

CAMEROTA: And Indiana is tomorrow. I want to stick with you one more second, Steve, because Indiana should be Cruz country. It has a strong base of Christian conservatives that he should be playing well with. But in terms of polls he's not doing as well as Donald Trump. Why do you think Cruz is not catching fire there?

LONEGAN: They're campaigning very hard across Indiana right now, Ted and Heidi and my good friend Glenn Beck, and Mike Pence, who actually made a commercial for Senator Cruz. And Ted Cruz will outperform all expectations. He normally does. But Indiana is not the only stepping stone on the way to California. Donald Trump will not get to 1,237. And between now and California Republican delegates and voters are going to have to look at what the real Donald Trump is. And again, him and Hillary Clinton are identical on all the key issue.

CAMEROTA: John, your response?

PHILLIPS: Everything that the Cruz people have predicted has turned out not to be true. They said Donald Trump had a ceiling of 40 percent. He came in north of 60 percent in the state of New York, north of 50 percent in the states of mid-Atlantic Tuesday. They said that when we got to closed primaries Ted Cruz was going to clean up. They said that as the field consolidated, Ted Cruz was going to leapfrog Donald Trump. None of it happened. All indications are that Donald Trump is going to beat Ted Cruz in Indiana.

And let's face it. When you're Ted Cruz and you're behind, you're an underdog, you not only have to win in the states you're supposed to win in. You have to win in states you're not supposed to win in. He's supposed to win in Indiana. And he's down there. He's down in West Virginia which votes the week after that. He's down in Oregon, he's down in California. This thing is over. It's just Ted Cruz and his supporters are the only ones who don't know it yet. CAMEROTA: Of course polls have been wrong as we've seen during this

primary. So we will be watching very closely to see what happens tomorrow. John Phillips, Steve Lonegan, thanks so much. Great to have you. Let's go to John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks, Alisyn.

On the Democratic side Senator Bernie Sanders making a major push for Hillary Clinton's super delegates, insisting they should back him in states that he won. CNN's Chris Frates live for us in Indianapolis this morning. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. You're right, Bernie Sanders continues to campaign very hard here in Indiana, trying to close that gap with Hillary Clinton and win this nomination. But even he is acknowledging that's a long shot. If you take a look at the math, you can start to understand why. Bernie Sanders needs almost all the delegates left at stake in this election to win that nomination. Here is what he said about it just yesterday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: That is admittedly, and I do not deny it for a second, a tough road to climb, but it is not an impossible road to climb. And we intend to fight for every vote in front of us and for every delegate remaining.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Bernie Sanders also saying that the super delegates in the states that he won should support him. But even if those Democratic power brokers flip sides then that still doesn't work out for Bernie Sanders, and the polls also not very good for the Vermont Senator. If you look at the latest poll here in Indiana, he's trailing Clinton 50 to 46 percent. That could be part of the reason why Hillary Clinton is not even campaigning here in Indiana today. In fact she is turning her fire on to Donald Trump, taking shots at him for inciting violence at his rallies. And Trump responding in kind, saying that Hillary Clinton is crooked, , and saying he's going to take a lot of the lines of argument that Bernie Sanders used against Hillary Clinton in this primary season against Hillary Clinton.

[08:15:17] Now the one thing Bernie Sanders says is that, you know, he will do everything he can to defeat Donald Trump or whomever the GOP nominee is. Everything it seems, other than get out of this race early to clear the field for Hillary Clinton, he says he's taking this all the way to the conventions, guys?

CUOMO: Chris, as you know, that Sanders belief by taking it all the way he makes the party as strong as it can be for the general election. Appreciate the coverage, as always, my friend.

Here are some of the facts of the situation surrounding this election. At least five police officers are recovering from injuries at a Mayday protest that turned violent in Seattle. Other people were injured as well. The numbers are still coming in. There were fireworks lit. Windows smashed and that forced police to fire off tear gas and to do all this crowd control. Nine protesters were arrested after rocks, cans of spray paint and even Molotov cocktails were lodged at police. The mayor and police chief are condemning the violence, of course.

BERMAN: All right, cruising into history. In just minutes, you can see it right there. That's the Carnival cruise ship, Adonia (ph), it will become the first U.S. ship to dock in Cuba in decades. So beautiful.

You can see it just there on the horizon. Some 700 passengers are on board there. Before it left, protesters in Miami tried to stop the ship from sailing. That did not happen. The historic ship is the latest milestone in the restoration of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

CUOMO: Got to tell you they do not have the capability to take in those super ships yet in that port. We were right there in front of it. They have a long way to go in terms of making that place a huge tourist destination, that's for sure.

All right, so on the heels of another American sentenced to hard labor in North Korea, we'll check in with the longest-held American detainee in Pyongyang since the Korean War. Kenneth Bae joins us live next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:20:50]

CUOMO: Just to remind you, to this day, Kenneth Bae remains the longest-held American prisoner in North Korea since the Korean War, nobody has been held there longer than Kenneth Bae. He was sentenced to 15 years of hard labor, accused of trying to take down the government.

Now he's talking about this experience in a new book "Not Forgotten: The True Story Of My Imprisonment In North Korea." Kenneth Bae joins us now, his first live interview on TV.

This is the easy part. I can't believe how long it's been since you got home. You said about a year and a half. Is that right?

KENNETH BAE: That's right.

CUOMO: Did you think this day would ever come?

KENNETH BAE, FORMER NORTH KOREAN POLITICAL PRISONER: I certainly hoped so when I was in North Korea, that someday I would be able to come home and celebrate with friends and family that had been praying and (inaudible) for my release.

CUOMO: Your family was so nervous. The State Department was so frozen at times in terms of what it could do. How much of that were you aware of? BAE: Time to time I was able to be -- I was informed by Swedish Embassy that my family is working behind the scenes tirelessly, but there comes a time that I didn't hear anything for months at a time. It was wait and see what happened.

CUOMO: Months at a time --

BAE: Months at a time.

CUOMO: Nothing.

BAE: Nothing.

CUOMO: So I don't want to give away the book. There's so much detail in there about what hard labor meant, what your life meant, but give us a sense of what life was like there every day, what was hard on your body, what was hard on your mind and your heart?

BAE: Well, I was the first American ever sent to hard labor camp in North Korea. I had to work from 8:00 in the morning until 6:00 at night six days a week.

We are working on the field, doing farming labor, carrying rock and shoveling coal and all those things that was physically very demanding and very difficult, especially because I had back problems and different issues that I had before even imprisonment.

But along the way that I found myself adjusting life in North Korea prison, depending upon God and just solely pretty much living one day at a time.

CUOMO: Did they tell you you're never going home? You're going to be here forever? What kind of things would they say to you in prison?

BAE: There is one prosecutor assigned to my case for the latter year of my imprisonment, who came to me almost every week and say no one remembers you. You have been forgotten by people, your government. You are not going home any time soon. You'll be here for 15 years. You'll be 60 before you go home.

BLACKWELL: What would that do to your head?

BAE: Obviously it was very difficult to take it in. I was still holding on to the promise that it was from when I was praying to God that he would be my rescuer and the U.S. government would do everything possible to bring me home. I was holding on to the promise.

CUOMO: So, there was all of this movement going on from your family. They were tireless. I mean, you know this, but just to hear this. But there is one controversy, Dennis Rodman got into the mix. How much are you aware of what happened with him, what he said, and what he did?

BAE: Well, not until a couple of weeks later when I saw your show in 2014, I believe. And I was told by the prosecutor that Dennis Rodman made a comment and made national "headline news" and that I was given papers to show what happened with the interview.

CUOMO: We'll play people that remember this, something I've been trying to forget for two years. Here is a portion of what Dennis Rodman was saying about Kenneth Bae back then, and his controversial trip to North Korea at the time.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DENNIS RODMAN, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Do you understand that Kenneth Bae did?

CUOMO: You tell me. What he do?

[08:25:05]RODMAN: No, no, no. You tell me. Why is he held captive?

CUOMO: They haven't released any charges.

RODMAN: I don't give a rat's ass what the hell you think. I'm saying to you, look at this guy there. Look at him.

CUOMO: Don't use it as an excuse for the behavior that you're putting on yourself.

RODMAN: They came here --

CUOMO: You were basically saying that Kenneth Bae did something wrong. We don't even know what the charges are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What sense did you make of that situation? What did you think that he was suggesting that you had done?

BAE: Well, I believe that, you know -- I believe that he was -- maybe he was upset for something else. He did apologize to our family afterwards.

CUOMO: Do you think he was convince by things from his friends in North Korea that maybe he didn't understand himself?

BAE: There's no way knowing that. I want to thank Dennis Rodman for being a catalyst for my release because of his rant, the media attention on my plight was increased. If I meet him some day, I want to say thank you for what he has done that really brought attention, international attention for my plight.

CUOMO: So, Kenneth Bae thanks Dennis Rodman, even though he was making these dangerous allegations because at least it brought attention to the situation?

BAE: All together it worked out for my release. I'm grateful for him for trying out for my release.

CUOMO: We know you have a lot of dreams for your life and what you want to do. How often in the night and when you wake up in the morning do you still need to check and realize where you are? BAE: I'm thankful every day. I'm grateful for so many people that was involved in trying to get me home. It was unreal just to see that I'm actually sitting in the studio, talking to you. Just 735 days in North Korea was long enough but I'm thankful.

CUOMO: Kenneth Bae, this is a day that many people thought would never come. I'm happy that it did.

BAE: All right. Thank you.

CUOMO: Good luck going forward and the best to your family.

BAE: Thank you very much for all the coverage that you have done for our family. I really appreciate it everyone and CNN.

CUOMO: Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Chris, great interview.

Here is a story that you want to stick around for. Punished for reporting rape. How one university responded to two female students after they reported being victims of sexual assault? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)