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Trump Wins Big in Indiana, Cruz Drops Out; Sanders Wins Indiana. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 04, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We gave it everything we've got. The voters chose another path.

[07:00:09] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Ted did is really a very brave thing to do. And a great thing to do.

CRUZ: Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton, either one of which is a horrific choice.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton, she will be a poor president.

CRUZ: This country could well plunge into the abyss.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We started this campaign way behind. Nobody would have dreamed we would be winning elections.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm really focused on moving into the general election.

SANDERS (via phone): This is an uphill battle. We are in this race to win.

CLINTON: We cannot allow ourselves to be divided against one another.

SANDERS (on camera): The objective evidence is that I am the strongest candidate.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY, and what a day it is.

Donald Trump scoring a game-changing historic win in Indiana. The chairman of the Republican National Committee declaring Trump will be the party's presumptive nominee after Ted Cruz dropped out of the race. We will speak to the head of the Republican National Committee in just moments.

Over on the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders upsetting Hillary Clinton in the Hoosier State. The delegate math is in Clinton's favor. Trump and Clinton all but certain to face off in November.

We have the race covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin with John Berman with last night's results and these delegate score cards -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes. Good morning, Alisyn. What a night for Donald Trump, delivering a knockout blow to Ted Cruz in Indiana. Look at this. Nearly a 17-point margin in a state that Ted Cruz felt he had to win. He didn't. He's gone.

On the Democratic side, let's look at this. Bernie Sanders pulled off a five-point win over Hillary Clinton in that state. The Clinton campaign eager to point out she didn't spend any money there; she only campaigned one day there in the last week. Nevertheless, a win is a win. Bernie Sanders got it by five points.

What does that mean for delegates? That's a different story. Bernie Sanders edging out Hillary Clinton 43-38. He nets just five delegates, not enough to make a serious dent in Hillary Clinton's very large delegate lead.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump with what looks like a clean sweep, 51 delegates for him so far. Ted Cruz with zero. John Kasich with zero. Do not be surprised if Donald Trump ends up with all 57 delegates in the state. That brings Donald Trump's total number to 1,053, getting ever closer to the 1,237 he needs. You see how far Ted Cruz is back of him right now. He's out of the race. John Kasich's the only guy left, with 156. But, you know, right here, you can't see it, is Marco Rubio. He dropped out, and John Kasich is still trailing him.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton with a very, very big delegate lead. She's got more than 2,200. Bernie Sanders with less than 1,500 right now. She only needs 184 to get over the top of that majority she needs.

What about the raw votes so far? Look at this. On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is at more than 12 million votes, 3 million more than Bernie Sanders. You hear that a lot from the Clinton campaign.

Donald Trump, he's moving up in the total numbers, as well. He's got 10,600,000 votes, well more than Ted Cruz. This is more than Mitt Romney won the entire election in 2012. And if Donald Trump keeps up this pace, he could end up with more Republican votes than any primary candidate has in decades -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: John, it really helps to see the exact numbers there. Thank you for walking us through that.

Donald Trump will become the Republican Party's presumptive nominee. His blowout win in Indiana knocking Ted Cruz out of the race. CNN's political reporter, Sara Murray joins us now with more on how the race has changed this morning.

Hi, Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn.

Well, last night Donald Trump called it unbelievable, an unbelievable win, and in many ways, it really is. Nearly a year after jumping in the race, a billionaire businessman with nearly no political experience has knocked aside Ted Cruz, and now he's the presumptive Republican nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CRUZ: The voters chose another path.

MURRAY (voice-over): Indiana marks the end of the road for Ted Cruz.

CRUZ: We are suspending our campaign.

MURRAY: And a major victory for Donald Trump, as he becomes the Republican Party's presumptive nominee.

TRUMP: What Ted did is a -- really, a very brave thing to do. We want to bring unity to the Republican Party.

MURRAY: After months of battling it out with the RNC...

TRUMP: It's all a rigged system.

It's really a disgusting system.

MURRAY: ... the billionaire finally getting a message of support from the very top, party chairman Reince Priebus tweeting, "Trump will be the presumptive nominee. We all need to unite and focus on defeating Hillary Clinton."

Now there's only one other candidate refusing to leave the race.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love California.

MURRAY: John Kasich's chief strategist tweeting, "Until someone has 1,237 bound delegates, there is no presumptive nominee. California, here we come."

But Trump is largely ignoring the Ohio governor and now focusing squarely on the general election.

TRUMP: We're going after Hillary Clinton. She will not be a great president. She will not be a good president. She will be a poor president.

[07:05:06] MURRAY: Trump solidifying his position at the top just hours after this litany of attacks from Cruz.

CRUZ: This man is a pathological liar. Donald Trump is a serial philanderer. The man is utterly amoral. Donald is a bully.

MURRAY: After a rough and tumble day on the trail, Trump adopted a friendlier tone in his victory speech.

TRUMP: I don't know if he likes me or if he doesn't like me, but he is one hell of a competitor. He is a tough, smart guy.

MURRAY: But if Trump was hoping for an endorsement, he may have a long wait.

CRUZ: I am not suspending our fight for liberty. Our movement will continue.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, it may be a little tough for Donald Trump to mend fences with Ted Cruz, especially after attacking the candidate's wife as well as his father. But for now, Trump has an even taller order, which is uniting the Republican Party -- guys.

BERMAN: Good luck with that. Sara Murray, thanks so much.

On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders notches the win in Indiana, but Hillary Clinton still holds a commanding delegate lead. So what's next in this fight?

CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns live in Washington with the latest. Good morning, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Commanding is the word, John. The buzz almost unavoidable right now, but the headline is that it was a big night for Bernie Sanders, and keeps his campaign on the trail, though the numbers in the race for the nomination continue to work against him.

And for her part, Hillary Clinton's campaign was pledging to stump for votes in every state left on the primary calendar, though they're also gaming out her message for a general election campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SANDERS: I understand that Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over. I've got some bad news for her.

JOHNS (voice-over): Bernie Sanders pulling off a stunning upset victory in Indiana over Democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.

SANDERS: We understand -- and I do not deny it for one second -- that we have an uphill battle in front of us, but I think we have a path to a victory, although it is a narrow path.

JOHNS: That path mathematically impossible without swaying some of Clinton's 513 super delegates to his side.

SANDERS (via phone): Super delegates are supporting Clinton in states that we have won landslide victories. I think that's wrong.

JOHNS: But Clinton is looking past Indiana.

CLINTON: I'm really focused on moving into the general election, and I think that's where we have to be, because we're going to have a tough campaign against a candidate who will literally say or do anything.

JOHNS: Fund-raising on the back of Donald Trump's triumphant night, tweeting "Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee. Chip in now if you agree we can't let him become president."

As some Democrats criticize Sanders, saying he is impeding the Democratic path to the White House by prolonging the Democratic primary, the senator making his case to CNN's Dana Bash last night.

DANA BASH, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Staying in this race, aren't you effectively making it harder for the Democrats?

SANDERS: Well, you've already conceded the race for me, and I don't accept that concession. We are in this race to win.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JOHNS: After the big night in Indiana, both campaigns have events that are scheduled later in the day. Hillary Clinton expected to speak here in Washington, D.C., at a reception marking Asian-Pacific Heritage Month, also a fundraiser today. Bernie Sanders continues to campaign through the state of Kentucky, with an event this evening in Lexington.

BERMAN: All right. Joe Johns, thank you so much.

Let's talk about the other side of Indiana right now. Donald Trump's knockout blow over Ted Cruz right there. The Republican Party now saying he will be the presumptive nominee.

Joining us now, Trump national campaign co-chairman and policy adviser Sam Clovis.

Professor, first off, congratulations. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

SAM CLOVIS, TRUMP NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRMAN AND POLICY ADVISOR: Thanks for having me on, John. Appreciate it.

BERMAN: Sam, do you know, has -- has Donald Trump spoken with Senator Cruz since the results came in last night?

CLOVIS: I have no idea. I was at an event last night. And when we got the news. Frankly, I had to get up and leave, because my job jar got filled up again last night. I was working late into the night, and I didn't have a chance to communicate with anybody in New York about what calls were made or not made. I had my own things to do.

BERMAN: The reason I'm asking is because Ted Cruz last night in his speech where he all but dropped out of the race, he didn't mention Donald Trump by name. Conspicuously didn't mention him. So the last thing we heard Ted Cruz say about Donald Trump was this.

Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CRUZ: This man is a pathological liar. He doesn't know the difference between truth and lies. He lies practically every word that comes out of his mouth, but he combines it with being a narcissist. A narcissist at a level I don't think this country's ever seen. The man is utterly amoral. Morality does not exist for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Sam, how do you heal that?

CLOVIS: Well, I think it's really interesting. I think the move has to be on the part of both sides. I do think that this is what happens in politics.

[06:10:09] John, you're not very old, but you've been around a long time. You've seen this in action in a lot of ways. We see particularly, among the bare-knuckle fighting that takes place in a lot of primaries, that eventually, the candidates do come together and unite, because the goal is really to defeat the other party. And I think this will happen.

We're already seeing it happen in the Republican -- I was at a table last night with people who were prominent Cruz supporters, you, these are -- these are people you would know, and as soon as it was -- people became aware of what had happened in the primary, it was interesting the conversation, how it shifted to where people were starting to say that, hey, we need to focus on getting on after Hillary Clinton, and the Democrats.

So it was pretty interesting to see the dynamic just at the dinner table over the -- when the results became aware of everybody at the table became aware of the results.

BERMAN: Sam, thank you for calling me young. I'm old enough to remember that I don't think I've ever heard one candidate call another a pathological liar and utterly amoral and then endorse him anytime soon.

And though you said you saw some support from Cruz people, let me read you some tweets from some other Republicans, including Cruz supporter Steve Dais, who tweeted last night, "There goes my time as Republican. Will be changing our party affiliations tomorrow. Frankly, I feel relieved to do it, free, even."

Mark Salter, who was a speechwriter for John McCain. He says, "The GOP's going to nominate for president a guy who reads 'The National Enquirer' and thinks it's on the level? I'm with her." He says he's voting for Hillary Clinton. These are prominent Republicans, Sam.

CLOVIS: Well, that's their choice, and Steve Dais (ph) is a friend of mine. In fact, he endorsed me in my Senate race when I ran for Senate in 2014. And so, you know, I know Steve well, and Steve is certainly entitled to that.

I think they're going to see also, on the other side of it, they're going to see a lot of Democrats will cross over and vote for Donald J. Trump. And I think that this is a phenomenon that nobody -- and I mean, nobody in this country has come to grips with is what's happening with the people in this country. We see it every day.

People are shocked and surprised that we have been successful in getting Donald Trump to the head of -- to the head of the list, and getting him now the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Nobody thought that was possible. Nobody thought we were serious.

BERMAN: I think you're on to something there.

CLOVIS: This includes almost everybody that is sitting in the studio with you or anywhere else that are watching this. Nobody thought we'd be able to pull this off.

BERMAN: Certainly, if you look back a year, Sam, no argument from me on that. You said that you think when it comes to healing the rift in the Republican Party between Trump and Cruz, it needs to happen on both sides.

What does Donald Trump need to do to heal the rift? Does he need to apologize for suggesting without any evidence whatsoever that Ted Cruz's father was in a picture with Lee Harvey Oswald? Do you think there will be apologies coming?

CLOVIS: Well, I think that what we saw was the first steps last night, certainly, in the conciliatory tone of I thought Mr. Trump's speech was fantastic last night. I thought it was great. It was so typical of him.

I think a lot of people don't see the gracious side of him, and a lot of times because those of us that have been around him do. He is a wonderful, warm human being in a lot of ways, because it's not depicted in the media, and it's certainly not what we see.

BERMAN: But does it -- if he's warm to you, does it justify conspiracy theories? Like quoting "The National Enquirer," you know, without any proof?

CLOVIS: Well, you know, it's politics. And I think that we've seen a lot of things. And I'm not surprised. You know, I've been following politics since I was 7 years old, and I'm frankly not surprised by anything anymore.

So I think that this is the -- the kind of thing that happens when the elbows come up under the basket, and I think this is -- we're going to get through this. And I think you're going to have Chairman Priebus on here in just a moment, and I think he'll tell you the same thing.

Things will happen. We've already seen this happen. We've already -- I can't tell you the number of e-mails and texts and phone calls that have come in, and I'm only a small part of this whole operation. Imagine what's come in to Mr. Trump. Hundreds and hundreds, perhaps thousands of people already, that are starting to rally behind Mr. Trump as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

BERMAN: Sam Clovis, great to have you with us. Again, congratulations on the very, very big win in Indiana.

CLOVIS: Thanks so much, John, and thanks for having me on.

BERMAN: All right, Sam.

Our Wolf Blitzer will speak to the man that Reince Priebus now says will now be the presumptive nominee. Donald Trump will be in "THE SITUATION ROOM." The interview airs at 5 p.m. Eastern right here on CNN.

CAMEROTA: Well, he's calling on the GOP to unite behind Donald Trump who he says will be the party's presumptive -- is now the presumptive nominee. So what kind of challenge will that be? Well, RNC Chairman Reince Priebus will join us live, next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[07:18:57] TRUMP: This has been an amazing evening. I didn't expect this. I didn't expect it. And what Ted did is really a very brave thing to do, and a great thing to do, because we want to bring unity to the Republican Party. We have to bring unity. It's so much easier if we have it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump had a huge night. His big win in Indiana prompting rival Ted Cruz to drop out of the race. Republican National Committee chairman Reince Priebus tweeted that Trump will be the, quote, "presumptive GOP nominee," and he's calling on fellow Republicans to unite behind Trump. But will they? Reince Priebus joins us now.

Good morning, Reince.

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: Hey, good morning, Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: So a year a when this race started in earnest, did you ever think this is where you would be this morning?

PRIEBUS: You know, I didn't, but I don't think that necessarily it's bad. You know what? I think something different, something new is probably good for our party. And, look, I don't think anyone predicted what happened.

[07:20:04] So, look, we're here. We were going to get behind the presumptive nominee. I stated the obvious in the tweet. Obviously, you still have to get to 1,237 delegates. That number still stands.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

PRIEBUS: But -- obviously, without Ted Cruz in the race, who did something that I agree was very gracious last night.

CAMEROTA: Did that surprise you?

PRIEBUS: And unexpected.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Unexpected.

PRIEBUS: Yes.

CAMEROTA: So you were surprised when he suspended?

PRIEBUS: Yes. I was -- I was surprised, and it's a hard thing to do. He ran a very, very serious operation. Just an incredible ground game. His delegate operation was unbelievable. And I was surprised.

But now, you know, you'd have to say that it's pretty obvious that Donald Trump is going to get to 1,237. He's got to do it, though.

CAMEROTA: Well, I mean, right. You say that it's obvious that he's going to get there. It's not obvious to John Kasich's campaign. His adviser basically tweeting out that it was premature of you to say that.

Is there any way that John Kasich can stop Donald Trump from getting to 1,237?

PRIEBUS: Look, that's going to be up to John Kasich. You know? And obviously, we have to have a nominee at 1,237, and the delegates on the floor have to vote.

But, look, I think the momentum is there. We've got a candidate that is winning, in every single state. I mean, a week earlier, I don't think he lost a county in six states.

So I mean, look, it's time to unite. It's time to come together, and I said, you may recall, months ago, I thought we would have more clarity in our party before the Democrats do. And look where they're at. I mean, Hillary Clinton, she can't win a state. She's going to have to win somewhere if she's going to be the nominee of the Democrat Party.

CAMEROTA: I think she won the last five out of seven states. I mean, she has won states.

PRIEBUS: I don't know. Well, listen, she's going to have to win more than she is in order to put this away. And she's spending money on primaries when she should be having to spend money on ground game in battleground states.

CAMEROTA: You're talking about party unity, and you're calling for it. Would it help if John Kasich got out of the race?

PRIEBUS: Look, I'm not going to -- I'm not going to get into that, Alisyn. You know, obviously, that's up to John Kasich. He's got his own, his own platform and his own agenda that he's running. And I'm going to leave that up to him.

CAMEROTA: OK. In terms of party I not, there seems to be something of a mutiny among high-profile conservatives who are basically jumping ship this morning.

Let me read a couple of the tweets to you. Here's John McCain's former adviser, Mark Salter, says, "The GOP is going to nominate for president a guy who reads 'The National Enquirer' and thinks it's on the level. I'm with her," meaning he will vote for Hillary Clinton.

Steve Dietz (ph), a conservative talk radio host says, "Well, there goes my time as a Republican. We'll be changing our party affiliation tomorrow. Frankly, I feel relieved to do it. I feel free, even."

What do you say to those guys?

PRIEBUS: Well, look, I mean, there's going to be time here in the next few months to heal and come together. And that's what today is all about. It's just starting that process. It's not easy.

I mean, it's not -- we had two candidates that had very serious operations with deep support, both on the ground and on the air, everywhere for 24 hours a day, seven days a week, every six minutes on cable. Everybody fighting about this.

And it's going to take some time, but we're going to get there, because Hillary Clinton and the Supreme Court. And getting our debt under control and signing a budget bill that Paul Ryan drafts up is going to be important to the future of our country, and I think people are going to understand that the words "President Hillary Clinton" is something that we can't stand for.

CAMEROTA: Yesterday was a particularly crazy day on the campaign trail. Donald Trump was talking about Ted Cruz' father, implicating him somehow in JFK assassination. Now that it's all over, but for the shouting, as they say, is it time for Donald Trump to apologize to Ted Cruz or his father?

PRIEBUS: Look, I don't know about all of the apologies, but I do think that it's time to come together. And I think you saw the beginning of that last night. I thought that Donald Trump was very gracious. I thought his tone was spot-on. I think that is the Donald Trump that people are going to see a lot more of.

And I think he was right to compliment Ted Cruz. I think that he was right to call what he did brave and gracious. I agree with that. And I think you're going to see more of that. You're certainly going to see a lot more of that from me, and I think you're going to see a lot of that from Donald Trump moving forward.

CAMEROTA: We know you had a conversation with Donald Trump last night. What did you promise him the party would do for him?

[07:25:04] PRIEBUS: I didn't make any promises. I mean, this is the party. The candidates -- if Donald Trump ultimately becomes the nominee, which I think he will be, he's going to be joining the Republican Party. We're not, you know -- as I've said before, the candidates join us. We don't join the candidates.

And so our party platform is clear. The things we believe in are clear. We don't change what we believe in as a party. We have a nomination process, and someone is going to get chosen. I believe Donald Trump will ultimately get chosen, and he's going to join the party.

CAMEROTA: Did Trump tell you that he's changing his tone?

PRIEBUS: No, but we did talk about, you know, speaking at 30,000 feet, and we talked about bringing the party together, and unifying, and I think that's very important to him. Very important to me in order to win. We can't win with one arm tied behind our backs. We've got to have everything at the ready, and I think we will.

But, listen, Alisyn, I'm not naive. It will take some time. This was a very contentious battle. Donald Trump still has to get to 1,237. And it's up to John Kasich as to what he wants to do. I'm not going to tell him to get out or to stay in. It's up to him.

But we in the meantime are going to come together. We need to start doing some things to start getting ready. Like we need to raise more money. We need to get more boots on the ground. And we need to continue to do the things that I've done at the RNC for the last five years.

CAMEROTA: Yes. I mean, that contentious battle has left the party wounded, or at least behind the eight ball. The latest polling shows in terms, if you consider the Republican Party united, only 7 percent of Republicans today consider the party united.

So Donald Trump is going to have some work to do. What's his first olive branch?

PRIEBUS: Well, I think you saw some of that last night, Alisyn. I don't -- I don't disagree with what you're saying, or the fact that people say, hey, the party needs to come together. We do.

And that's why I'm here, you know, at 6:30 here in Racine, Wisconsin, talking to you and talking about unity and bringing the party together, and it's not easy when, you know, you have 17 candidates. In many cases, you know, people's second and third choices didn't win. And so that's not easy.

But ultimately, Hillary Clinton, the Supreme Court, actually getting something done about our debt and spending in this country, it's not going to happen with Hillary Clinton as president. She's not going to sign a Paul Ryan budget. She's not going to appoint conservatives to the Supreme Court.

If we care about those things, then we need to get behind the nominee, and that's what I'm going to try to do for the next several months.

CAMEROTA: Are you pouring Baileys on your breakfast cereal yet?

PRIEBUS: No. I didn't have to. I had plenty of coffee already this morning. No need. No need. No Baileys yet.

CAMEROTA: Pretty tasty. Reince Priebus, thanks so much. Great to talk to you.

PRIEBUS: All right. All right.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to John.

BERMAN: All right. It does sound like he has the Baileys handy, though, in case he feels like he needs it at any moment.

Ted Cruz, he's out. John Kasich, not yet. Even though he's a long- long way from the Republican nomination, he's staying in the race. Why? That's next.

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