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Voting Begins in Indiana in Presidential Primaries; Hillary Clinton Campaigns in West Virginia; Donald Trump's Ability to Unite Republican Party Debated; U.S. Official: American Service Member Killed in Firefight; Sanders Maintains He Still Has Path to the Nomination. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired May 03, 2016 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:03] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The Olympic flame reaches Brazil.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: The countdown to the 2016 Olympics begins.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Morning everyone. Welcome to you NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, May 3rd, 8:00 in the east. A moment of truth is here for Senator Ted Cruz in Indiana. Voters in the Hoosier state already heading to the polls this morning. Is this the Texas senator's last chance to stop Donald Trump? And if Trump wins, what does that mean for Cruz and Kasich tomorrow?

CUOMO: The stakes just as high for the Democrats. Hillary Clinton hoping close out Bernie Sanders, needs a decisive win tonight he needs. But the Vermont senator says Indiana could just as much go his way, and he is not going anywhere in anything. We've got the Indiana primary covered the way only CNN can.

Let's begin with Sara Murray live in Indianapolis. How goes it there?

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Chris. It is quite a rainy day here in Indianapolis. But of course that didn't stop the candidates yesterday from barnstorming, sprinting to the finish. Ted Cruz brought out every surrogate he could think of to help make his final push, but Donald Trump is sounding awfully confident heading into today's primary.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

MURRAY: For Donald Trump, today's primary is pivotal for knocking rival Ted Cruz out of the race.

TRUMP: If we win, it's over. And then I can focus -- then I don't have to worry about lyin' Ted Cruz. MURRAY: And redirecting his attacks on his potential general election

opponent, Hillary Clinton.

TRUMP: E-mails, bad judgment. Iraq, voted yes. Bad judgment. Libya, bad judgment.

MURRAY: On the trail Monday, Trump even sat down to lunch with the author of several highly critical and loosely sourced books about the Clintons.

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The entire count is depending on the state of Indiana.

MURRAY: But Cruz is still racing to overtake the frontrunner, knowing if Trump wins here, he is on track to clinch the nomination. Cruz touting his newly appointed running mate, Carly Fiorina.

CRUZ: Carly Fiorina is someone who stands up to bullies whether they are Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

MURRAY: And putting her directly in Trump's line of fire, the billionaire seizing on Fiorina's fall at a campaign event on Sunday.

TRUMP: They showed it to me. And I said, wow, that's really cruel. She went right down, and he kept talking. He didn't even look like -- that was a weird deal.

MURRAY: Cruz spent the day before this crucial contest zigzagging through how the Hoosier state, and even confronting Trump supporters face-to-face.

CRUZ: Most candidates would have just let the protesters do their thing. I made a different decision. I walked across street to engage with them.

Sir, America is a better country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Without you.

MURRAY: The senator sparring with a fired up crowd for over five minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trump, he's the only one that is going to put us where we need to be. What are you going to do about the Second Amendment?

CRUZ: This man is lying to you and he's taking advantage of you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, Ted Cruz has said no matter what happens today in Indiana, he is going to stay in this race until Cleveland. But Donald Trump certainly feels already like he is the presumptive nominee, and you heard him, Alisyn. He said if he wins here, it's over, done. This primary is finished. Back to you.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: We will talk to our pundits about that very thing, Sara. Thank you very much.

Now, the Democratic race in Indiana is expected to be tight tonight. Sanders looking to regain his momentum. Meanwhile, Clinton apologizing for some comments that she made about the coal industry. CNN Chris Frates live in Indianapolis with more. Hi, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Alisyn. As you can see behind me, Indiana voters are starting to go to the polls and the campaigns are starting to manage expectations. A Clinton campaign official telling me they wouldn't be surprised if Clinton loses tonight to Bernie Sanders, and they point out several reasons for that. Number one, money. Bernie Sanders has spent about $2 million in advertising here in Indiana. Hillary Clinton spent virtually nothing. Two, demographics. This is a white state, a majority white state. Bernie Sanders does better with white voters than Hillary Clinton does.

And three, it's an open primary. That allows independents to vote in the Democratic race. That has also helped Bernie Sanders in the past. But the Clinton folks say even if Bernie Sanders were able to pull off an upset, they're not overly concerned about it. He would have to win by wide margins here to cut into her delegate lead, and they don't see that happening.

But take a look at Bernie Sanders. They say they're feeling good today. They feel like the steelworkers endorsement that they got is very big here in this manufacturing state. In fact, Bernie Sanders is going to sit down with the head of the local union at Carrier for breakfast today. Carrier, of course, making headlines because they are sending a lot of its jobs to Mexico. But Hillary Clinton hasn't even been campaigning here for the past few days in Indiana. In fact, she was in West Virginia yesterday where she apologized for something she said during a CNN town hall back in March. She said that she would put coal workers and coal companies out of business, and she since said that remark was taken out of context.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[08:05:10] HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It was a misstatement, because what I was saying is that the way things are going now, we will continue to lose jobs. I do feel a little bit sad and sorry that I gave folks the reason or the excuse to be so upset with me, because that is not what I intended at all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So a big apology there in coal country ahead of the big primary in West Virginia next week. We'll continue to watch that and we'll continue to see what happens in this very close race between Clinton and Sanders. Chris, we've got our eyes all over it all day today, Chris.

CUOMO: Frates, are you eyeing the donuts in that place as well? What do they have for you to eat?

FRATES: They do have donuts, and the wonderful poll volunteers offered them and already offered them to us. So we are dry, we are warm, and there are donuts.

CUOMO: I was going to ask, you got a little powdered sugar right here, right on the other side from where the mike is. You're going to want to address that at some point.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: I'm just kidding. I'll talk to you in a little bit.

Indiana votes are heading to the polls and turnout is going to be a big deal, especially for the hopeful underdogs. CNN's Jason Carroll live at a polling site in Terra Haute, Indiana, with more. Jason?

JASON CARROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you, Chris. Welcome to a county with a healthy history of voting and voters as well. They've been lining up ever since the polls opened at about 6:00 a.m., a steady stream of them coming through.

Let me throw some numbers at you, Chris -- 78,000 about registered voters here in the county, 16 percent voted early, voting actually starting on April 5th. So far there has been about twice as many Republicans versus Democrats who have come out to vote. We've talked so much about bellwether states, bellwether counties. This is definitely one of them. They have picked the winning presidential candidate here in the general election nearly every single time since 1888. Think about that, 30 out of the past 32 presidential elections, this county has gotten it right. Two exceptions. Once was in 1902, the other in 1952, so two exceptions there. But every other time they've picked the winning presidential candidate. Obviously this is a primary, not the general election. But when you talk to these folks over here and ask them why in particular place are you guys so good at picking the winning candidate, they said common sense. We'll see what common sense tells us when the polls close later on today. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: We sure will, Jason. Thank you so much for that.

So how long can Ted Cruz hang on if he loses to Trump tonight? Let's discuss this and much more with former communications director for Jeb Bush and communications advisor for the anti-Trump "Our Principles" PAC, Tim Miller, and CNN political commentator and former Reagan White House Reagan political director, Jeffrey Lord. Gentlemen, great to see you. Thanks for being here.

TIM MILLER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, JEB BUSH CAMPAIGN: Good morning, Alisyn.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Indiana wants us.

CAMEROTA: Indiana what?

LORD: Indiana wants us.

CAMEROTA: We shall see about that, Jeffrey. But, Tim, I want to start with you. You've made it your mission since Jeb Bush got out of the race to stop Trump. Is tonight, is Indiana the last chance to stop Trump? MILLER: Look, Indiana is important, but, no, the last chance to stop

Trump is the last moment before he gets 1,237 delegates. We said this -- I said this when I started this effort after leaving the Jeb Bush campaign, that at least, as far as I'm concerned, this a fight worth having all the way up to 1,237 delegates. Obviously the campaigns are going to have to make decisions for themselves, but as far as the anti-Trump movement is concerned, that will continue.

CAMEROTA: OK, Jeffrey, Ted Cruz has a plan to prevent Donald Trump from getting to the 1,237. He has his own math. Let me play that logic for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Will you support his candidacy if he, Donald Trump, gets the delegates before Cleveland?

CRUZ: Dana, nobody is going to get to 1,237. I'm not going get to it, but neither is Donald Trump.

BASH: What makes you so sure he won't get the delegates? I mean getting 47 percent of the remaining delegates isn't inconceivable at all.

CRUZ: He hasn't gotten 47 percent to date. And I'll tell you --

BASH: He sure did well last week.

CRUZ: You're right. He did well in his home state and he did well in the adjoining states. He won five states last week. But I'll tell you, in the three weeks preceding that, I won five states in a row staring with Utah, then North Dakota, then Wisconsin, then Colorado, then Wyoming. And 1.3 million people voted in those states. And by the way, I earned more votes in Wisconsin than Donald Trump did in New York.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK, so Jeffrey, let's talk about this. Last, in the most recent primaries, Donald Trump got more than 47 percent of the delegates, but not in all of the primaries. Does Ted Cruz have a point?

LORD: No, he doesn't have a point. I mean, what is happening here is that millions of people are voting for Donald Trump.

[08:10:00] He is piling up not only popular votes, but delegates. And this is ongoing. We're going to go on after today to New Jersey, eventually to California, and we have all these uncommitted delegates, and I have to say, Alyson, that plain, old fashioned human nature kicks in. When a candidate, any candidate, gets this close to a nomination, then basically you have lot of people that break because they want to be with the winner. That would apply if all of this were reversed and if were Ted Cruz ahead.

So no, I don't think he is right. I am a little astonished that he doesn't say what is easy to say and what I'm happy to say is I'm supporting the Republican nominee, whether it's Ted Cruz, Donald Trump, or anyone else. And Senator Cruz can't bring himself to say that. I find that astonishing.

CAMEROTA: Tim, if Ted Cruz loses Indiana, then what for him?

MILLER: Look, I see all the Reagan paraphernalia behind Jeffrey there, and Reagan's home state of California is a month away. That is an eternity in politics. And I think Ted Cruz can make the case, can continue to make the case that he is the heir to a conservative Reagan legacy, that Donald Trump isn't. He's a big government conservative. And might I add, Alisyn, just on a competitor network this morning, Donald Trump broke Reagan's 11th commandment in the grossest way possible when he accused Ted Cruz's father, Rafael Cruz, of being involved in the JFK assassination. This is false tabloid trash that Donald Trump is spreading, and this a guy that says he wants to unite the party. This is ridiculous. It is all ridiculous.

CAMEROTA: In case people missed it and were watching NEW DAY as they should be.

MILLER: I saw it on twitter, Alisyn. I was watching NEW DAY.

CAMEROTA: Thank you, very well played. What Donald Trump said on a morning show is that, I'll just read it to you, the story comes courtesy of "National Enquirer." He said that Cruz's father was with Lee Harvey Oswald prior to Oswald's being shot.

LORD: Come on. I saw it in the grocery store. I have no knowledge beyond that. I'll check the Warren report here on the bookshelf.

CAMEROTA: Look, Jeffrey, you're laughing, and you're taking it stride, but Donald Trump is using "The National Enquirer" as a source for what he is then saying on national TV. Is that a good idea?

LORD: I think this is why people love him. There are some things that are not worth taking seriously. This is probably one of them.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, I want to stick with you for one second because people have been talking about party unity lately and the Republican Party needs it. In the latest CNN/ORC poll just out, of Republican voters, only seven percent believe that the Republican party is united. Donald Trump has been talking a lot about party unity. What's his plan?

LORD: Well, he is very good at this kind of thing. I mean, again, Alisyn, you can't do the kind of things he has accomplished in business without bringing people together to accomplish a project. So I expect that he will be reaching out, and, frankly, that's already started.

I mean, I know he has had these meetings with different people of different stripe whose are either skeptical of him or have not endorsed him, who are willing to get together with him. I think he will have a very serious effort to do this and I'm sure he will succeed. The ultimate choice here is between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. And --

MILLER: He's going to divide the whole campaign, though Jeffrey. He is not going to unite the party. All he has done the whole campaign is demean his opponents, demean Hispanics, demean women. This is not a man that is capable of uniting the party. And I think for good reason, honest conservatives will stand up to him because, you know, he is not qualified and he is not capable to be the president of the United States.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, you can respond. Last word. Go ahead.

LORD: Tim, you're being overruled by the voters of the Republican Party.

MILLER: Over half the voters have gone against him, Jeffrey.

LORD: He's carried 67 counties here in Pennsylvania. That means all of them, the only Republican to ever do so. All I can tell you, Tim, you're not getting the votes. You go to get the votes. Go out there today and get the votes.

MILLER: He won't get them in the general.

CAMEROTA: We'll see what happens today. Tim Miller, Jeffrey Lord, thank you.

MILLER: Thanks, Alisyn.

LORD: Thanks.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: All right, we're going from the politics to the reality. We're following breaking news, a U.S. service member killed in northern Iraq by enemy fire. CNN Pentagon correspondent Barbara Starr is live with breaking details. This is the big fear, Barbara Starr. We're told they're advisors, we're told that they're not really in harm's way, and then Mosul, a hot zone, back from the lines, and yet another service member gone.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Indeed, Chris, a very difficult morning here at the Pentagon.

This U.S. service member killed about out 30 kilometers north of Mosul in northern Iraq, working as a military adviser, but combat come serious in a very serious fashion to those who are advisers.

[08:15:04] He was working with Peshmerga forces. They were about a mile and a half, two miles behind enemy lines, when ISIS broke through the frontline, a fire fight ensued and we're told the service member was killed in action at that point. U.S. F-15s, drones, rolled in very quickly we are told, dropping more than 20 bombs on the location, trying to get control back into Peshmerga hands.

Military advisers, U.S. military advisers are under the rules of engagement, where they must stay behind the front line. But when the enemy forces break through, it is combat indeed. This is now the third time we have seen this. We had a marine killed at a fire base. We had another army soldier killed in a hostage raid. Combat, indeed, comes to Iraq and Syria -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Absolutely, Barbara. Thank you for that update.

We do have some more breaking news to tell you about. A six month old baby girl and a toddler have been pulled alive from the rubble of that deadly building collapse in Nairobi, Kenya. Their rescue comes three after the seven-story building fell apart during heavy rains in the Kenyan capital. Rescue teams say they have brought 135 people to safety. But they say nearly 100 others remain missing. The death toll there, up to 21.

CUOMO: Here is an interesting one for you. The Marine Corps is investigating whether it misidentified one of the men raising the American flag in that iconic World War II photo taken at Iwo Jima. The picture was snapped in 1945 by an "A.P." photographer. Now two amateur history buffs who claim that the man in the photo identified as John Bradley of the marines is actually Harold Henry Schultz, a private first class naval corpsman from Detroit.

The marines confirmed that they are, quote, "looking into the matter".

CAMEROTA: Whoa. That would be earth shattering.

CUOMO: It would be. Would it mean what the picture means? Certainly, it would to the families involved, if there's a discrepancy, but does it change what makes it iconic?

CAMEROTA: I don't think so. But I just think that that's one of the illustrations of sort of the difference of social media and modern times. It could never happen today. Oh, that isn't that guy today. See, this one, that's the wrong guy.

Like things have changed. It's funny it would be so many decades later if they had to correct it.

CUOMO: Is your thumb a phone or a photo in that little demonstration.

CAMEROTA: That was a phone. I was showing you a photo on my phone.

CUOMO: I got it.

CAMEROTA: Yes, that was what my thumb was.

CUOMO: Sometimes I don't know what the thumb actually is.

CAMEROTA: That's strange.

CUOMO: So, this manhas a delegate mountain to climb, but Bernie Sanders, senator from Vermont, says he is in the race, period. He believes he will beat Hillary Clinton. So, what is his plan to win in delegates, and to win at the convention in the alternative?

His campaign manager, Jeff Weaver, is here to make the case. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:21:45] CUOMO: The math, it ain't so good for Bernie Sanders right now. Simple math would tell you that he needs to win about 95-plus percent of the remaining delegates, but there is a change, and there's certainly a strategy in Indiana and beyond.

So, let's discuss with the Sanders campaign manager, Jeff Weaver.

Jeff, always a pleasure to have you. Good luck in the primary today, as we wish all the campaigns.

So, just give me --

JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thanks Chris.

CUOMO: Give me the theory upon which you win Indiana and the theory upon which even if you don't, there is still a path.

WEAVER: Well, Chris, look, this 95 percent of delegate math you laid out is not the math, because what we're talking about now is earning pledged delegates in the primary and caucuses, and there's a whole set of super legates, as you know is separate and don't really vote until the convention. They're made up of party leaders and elected officials.

So, in fact, the number to win is much larger, much smaller than what you laid out. The truth of the matter is, is that neither candidate will get to the convention with the number of pledged delegates needed to win. So, we're going to have an open convention, a contested convention.

And the candidates are going to have to make the case to the superdelegates who are going to ultimately choose the nominee in this case, which candidate is better able to take on the Republicans in the fall.

And the truth of the matter is, is that polls from months now have been consistent. In fact, there was a poll yesterday showing Donald Trump beating Hillary Clinton, but the polls have been consistent that Senator Sanders is a much, much stronger candidate against the Republicans than Secretary Clinton is.

For good reason, Chris. He is very strong with independents, he's very strong with young people, who don't traditionally come out and vote in large numbers, but have for him.

CUOMO: Let's unpack that a little bit. There's no question that the polls do show that he does better on the national mash ups than the Clinton does. The Clinton people and others will push back and say that's because Sanders hasn't been vetted the same way.

But there is a secondary rationale, which you also outlined, which is independents and young voters. You consistently say, they haven't been captured in these primaries, because many are closed. Make the case as to why you believed independents and young voters make Bernie Sanders more formidable.

WEAVER: Well, look, when you look at the national head to head polls or actual outcomes in the primary and caucus states, Bernie Sanders wins independents over Secretary Clinton, often 70/30, 70 percent to 30 percent. Young people come out for him overwhelmingly, I think that's been documented. I mean, in some cases, he gets 70, 80 percent of those voters. Those voters were key to Barack Obama's rise in 2008, his successful run for the presidency.

You remember, he won in the general election, when Indiana and North Carolina, both states that have long been out of the reach of Democrats, and President Obama did that by winning young people. That was the only age cohort he won was 18 to 29 in those states.

So, being able to bring out young people, to energize young people, to bring independents to vote for the Democratic ticket, not just president but up and down the ballot, critical to success in November. Bernie Sanders has demonstrated --

CUOMO: But Obama, then-senator, also beat Clinton with Democratic voters, and that's how he got the nomination. And right now, your guy is down 2.5 million votes in terms of Democrats who have come out and voted, 2.5 million more voted for Clinton, 86 percent of those polled believe she'll be the nominee.

[08:25:05] WEAVER: Well, look, in terms of this, how many people have voted for whom, you know, the truth is that Bernie Sanders has won a lot -- as you know, a lot of caucuses states. He won 70 percent of the vote.

And in caucuses, you have much lower turnout. So, you know, Washington state and Georgia are about the same size, but Georgia had far more people, that's not really a good reflection of strength when in fact Bernie Sanders has been so strong in these caucus which under- count the number of voters. If Washington state had a primary, and some of these other states had primaries where he has won overwhelmingly with 60, 70 percent of the vote, he would have a much higher, quote/unquote, "vote total".

So, I don't think that's a good reflection of the overall strength of the candidate in this case.

CUOMO: All right, Weaver, you want to keep beating back my testing of your propositions, I'm going to use your own words against you.

WEAVER: Please. Go ahead.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: About super delegates, stop mentioning them, they only vote at the convention, they're completely irrelevant, they shouldn't have been put in in '84, they were point specific and times have changed. And now, you guys can't stop talking about super delegates. You're working super delegates, going back to them in states you did well, change the propositions. It's big part of your strategy at the convention. Now, you're all about the super delegates. What is it, Weaver?

WEAVER: Well, look, Chris, you know, we didn't create the super system, but that's a system in place right now. The truth of the matter is, whoever becomes the nominee of the Democratic Party is ultimately going to be chosen by the super delegates. They are the people who will put the winner over the top. So you can't just ignore super delegates. They're out there. They're a huge percentage of the delegate pool.

And we are talking to super delegates, and we hope that, you know, at the end of the process, I'm talking about now, but at the end of the process, when all is said and done, that they take a look at the race and they decide who is the strongest candidate in the fall. They look, you know, take into consideration how the candidates did in their state and then we move forward.

But you can't ignore the superdelegates. They exist.

CUOMO: Jeff Weaver, thank you for being on NEW DAY as always. I wish you good luck in the primary today, as we wish all the campaigns. Take care.

WEAVER: Thanks, Chris. Appreciate it.

CUOMO: All right. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris.

Can Donald Trump a knock-out punch in today's crucial primary? Former Governor John Sununu never pulls punches on NEW DAY and he often surprises us. He is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)