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New Day
Donald Trump Wins Republican Indiana Primary; Ted Cruz Drops Out of GOP Race; Bernie Sanders Wins Democratic Indiana Primary; Slain Navy SEAL Identified as Charlie Keating IV. Aired 8-8:30a ET
Aired May 04, 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] ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: The chairman of the RNC calling on the party to unite now behind Trump to defeat Hillary Clinton. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders upsetting Clinton in Indiana to keep his White House hopes alive, barely. Trump and Clinton now all be certain to face off this November. We have the 2016 race covered the way only CNN can. So let's begin with John Berman with last night's results and the delegate scorecard. How does it look, John?
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It looks bad for anyone not named Donald Trump on the Republican side. It looks over, in fact, for most of them, Alisyn. Look at Indiana, Donald Trump 53 percent, Ted Cruz 36 percent, a nearly 17 percent win. John Kasich, way down below, eight percent.
Let's look at the Democratic side of the race right now. Bernie Sanders edged out by five points. The Clinton campaign was saying Hillary Clinton was only there one day last week, didn't spend any money, yet she did lose.
What does it mean for delegates. Bernie Sanders picked up more, 43 to Hillary Clinton 38. He nets only five delegates, not nearly enough to cut in into a very, very big delegate lead right now.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump very different story. We say he wins at least 51 out of the 57 delegates. Do not be surprised when later in the day we tell you he swept, winning all 57 delegates. Ted Cruz and John Kasich with zero. This puts Donald Trump very much closer to the 1,237 he needs. You can see the only remaining candidate in the race right now facing Donald Trump, John Kasich, has 156. He trails this guy, Marco Rubio, who dropped out more than a month ago. He's running fourth in a two-person race right now.
As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton has more than 2,200 delegates, well ahead of Bernie Sanders. You can see how he needs to do even better than he did last night to cut into her lead. She just needs 184 to clinch the nomination with 2,383.
Let's look at the overall raw vote totals right now. For the Democrats right now, Hillary Clinton has more than 12 million votes, more than 3 million ahead of Bernie Sanders. That's a number you hear a lot from the Clinton campaign. And on the Republican side, Donald Trump in a packed field, he has more than 10 million votes right now. This is more than Mitt Romney won the entire primary election season four years ago. If Donald Trump keep this pace up he will win more Republican votes than any Republican ever has during the primary process. Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: John, thanks so much for all of that.
Donald Trump closer to the general election this morning. After months of sparring with Ted Cruz, Trump delivering a knock-out blow in the Indiana GOP primary yesterday. So we will get more now from CNN's political reporter Sara Murray. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The voters chose another path.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: 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.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What Ted did is 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 is really a disgusting system.
MURRAY: The billionaire finally getting a message of support from the very top. Party Chairman Reince Prebus tweeting "Trump will answer 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) 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.
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 he doesn't like me, but he is one hell of a competitor. He is a tough, smart guy.
(APPLAUSE)
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)
BERMAN: All right, our thanks to Sara Murray for that.
Let's turn to the Democratic side of the race right now. Bernie Sanders, he won in Indiana, a win he needed there in that state. Questions now, though, he may get money out of it, may get some momentum, but what about the math? Hillary Clinton's delegate leads appears all but insurmountable. CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns live in Washington with the latest. Joe?
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely right there, John. The math is the problem, the buzz almost unavoidable around Hillary Clinton. The headline is, it was a big night for Bernie Sanders that keeps his campaign on the track. But the numbers in the race for the nomination continue to work against him.
[08:05:00] 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 VIDEO CLIP)
BERNIE SANDERS, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand that Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over. I've got some bad news for her.
(APPLAUSE)
JOHNS: Bernie Sanders pulling up a stunning upset victory in Indiana over Democratic frontrunner 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: 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. HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: 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: Fundraising on the back of Trump's triumphant night, tweeting "Donald Trump is the presumptive night. 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 CORRESPONDENT: By staying in this race, aren't you effectively making it harder for the Democrats?
SANDERS: 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: Now, 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 American Heritage month. Also she has a fundraiser today. Bernie Sanders continuing a campaign swing through the state of Kentucky, an event this evening in Lexington. Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Joe, thanks so much.
Over on the Republican side, the path does seem clear for Donald Trump to be the presumptive Republican nominee. Joining us to talk more about what lies ahead is Trump's New York co-chair, Congressman Chris Collins. Good morning, congressman.
REP. CHRIS COLLINS, (R) NEW YORK: Good to be with you, Alisyn. Good morning. Great morning, great morning.
CAMEROTA: Congratulations on your candidate. I knew you would be happy this morning.
(LAUGHTER)
COLLINS: Yes, I mean, we've got momentum. We've got enthusiasm behind Donald now. We are uniting. As Reince Priebus said, he is going to be our nominee. We're going to focus our attention on defeating Hillary. We're going to make America great again.
And look at Hillary now. She is stumbling. She has no enthusiasm. Bernie continues to win. So you know, when you contrast the enthusiasm and momentum for Donald Trump with the lack of enthusiasm and in fact the momentum behind Bernie Sanders, boy, what a stark contrast.
CAMEROTA: Well, congressman, it is not exactly a rose garden for Donald Trump. You're happy this morning, but there is a whole chorus of other high profile Republicans who seem somewhat despondent. In fact there was a bit of a mutiny last night once it became clear that Donald Trump was going to be the presumptive nominee and win in Indiana, all sorts of people started tweeting things.
So let me read to you, this is the former McCain advisor Mark Salter, who tweeted "The GOP is going to nominate for president a guy who reads "The National Enquirer" and thinks it is on the level. I'm with her," meaning he is willing to vote for Hillary. Steve Deace, conservative talk radio host, says "Well, there goes my time as Republican. Will be changing our party affiliations tomorrow. Frankly, I field relieved to do it, free, even.: And then, the editor of the "National Review" Rich Lowry had this to say. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RICH LOWRY, EDITOR, "NATIONAL REVIEW": We do think this a mistake for the party. We do think Reagan style conservatism is basically going to be in exile now in the Republican Party at least for some period of time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: Reagan style conservatism in exile. This doesn't seem like a party ready to unite, congressman.
COLLINS: Well, you're hearing the establishment figures, those aren't the voters, that's not the enthusiasm behind Donald. They woke up this morning and there is an "oh, my God" moment. But as I've said, they're going to make lemonade out of what they consider lemons. They're not going to allow Hillary Clinton to be president. That will frame the Supreme Court for the next two or three decades. This president, next president, will be appointing two or three Supreme Court nominees.
So when it comes down to November, they're going to vote for Donald Trump. We're going to unite behind him. We have 10 weeks before our convention. That's a long time to be united before we really go on the full attack.
So there is a difference with the enthusiasm behind Donald. In fact his independence is speaking to Democrats, certainly up in my part of the world and western New York. The working class Democrats are solidly behind Donald.
[08:10:02] I've met with a number of union folks this past weekend, and they were telling me while they usually support Democrats, their membership is behind Donald Trump with enthusiasm, bringing our jobs back from China and Mexico, securing the borders. That is a message that resonates with the union workers around America, normally supporting the Democratic.
CAMEROTA: And yet, congressman, when you look at the head to head matchups of what's going to happen in November, both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton beat Donald Trump by double digits. So what is his plan? Will we see, I should ask, a different Donald Trump, a different tactic than he has used to get to this point moving forward? COLLINS: Well, first of all, if you remember three weeks ago, Alisyn,
Ted Cruz was beating Donald Trump by double digits in Indiana, and last night Donald Trump won by almost 17 points. So these polls really don't make a lot of sense today. We haven't taken the fight to Hillary.
The unique thing about Donald Trump, his message hasn't changed. It's secures the borders, brings the jobs back from Mexico and China that have been stolen, and on the foreign policy front, stand up to Vladimir Putin, the Ayatollah, North Korea, and defeat ISIS. So Donald Trump's message has not budged one iota in the last year and it won't. He's going to remind all the soccer moms in America, they want their children to grow up in a safe world that is defeating ISIS, that is Donald Trump.
And they need jobs. We need jobs in a growing economy to deal with many of the problems that a lot of middle class Americans face. That is Donald Trump's message. And the soccer moms want a safe world, a world with an economic bright future for their children to live the American dream. So that's the message. It's really not any different than what it has been that has created the momentum where Donald Trump is now as our presumptive nominee.
CAMEROTA: We just had Reince Priebus, the head of the RNC on NEW DAY, to talk about how he was feeling this morning and terms of enthusiasm. Let me play for you what he said about Donald Trump's win last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: I don't think that's necessarily bad. You know what, I think something different and something new is probably good for our party.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: "Not necessarily bad, maybe we need something new." Is that the kind of enthusiasm that you're looking for from the head of the RNC?
COLLINS: Well, I am glad he is calling for unity. You would not expect Reince Priebus to be enthusiastic about Donald Trump. He never has been. But the voters have spoken very loudly. I mean, over 10 million votes for Donald Trump, more than Mitt Romney had four years ago. So no, the establishment woke up this morning, and as I've said, they have to make lemonade out of lemons. They're going do that. We've got 10 weeks until the convention. I know many of my fellow members in Congress will unite behind Donald Trump. They're going to be running this fall. They have got Donald Trump now at the top of the ticket.
So we're going to stress securing the borders, bringing our jobs back, and standing tall against our enemies. That's an easy message to deliver, and that will be our message right now, straight through November.
CAMEROTA: Congressman Chris Collins, thanks so much for being on NEW DAY.
COLLINS: Always good to be you with, Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Thank you. Our Wolf Blitzer will talk to the presumptive Republican nominee Donald Trump today on "The Situation Room." The interview airs at 5:00 p.m. eastern, right here on CNN. Also coming up on NEW DAY we'll talk to Trump's most prominent Indiana supporter, legendary basketball coach Bobby Knight. Stick around for that. John?
BERMAN: All right, Alisyn, thanks so much. New details this morning about the coordinated ISIS attack in Iraq that killed a U.S. Navy Seal yesterday. Defense Secretary Ash Carter spoke about the attack just moments ago. Let's get right to CNN's Barbara Starr live at the Pentagon with more. Barbara?
BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. And 31-year-old Charles Keating, U.S. Navy Seal being mourned by of course his family and friends, killed yesterday in what the Pentagon is calling a complicated ISIS attack. As you just mentioned, Defense Secretary Ash Carter speaking about this just a short time ago.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ASH CARTER, DEFENSE SECRETARY: This fight is far from over. And there are great risks. We were reminded of this yesterday when an American service member, Petty Officer First Class Charles Keating, a Navy Seal, was killed. These risks will continue. And we greatly regret his loss.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
STARR: This happened in northern Iraq. The Navy seals were working as military advisors to Peshmerga Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq in a village north of Mosul. This is where the emphasis is right now, trying to isolate those villages with U.S. military radio help, so that the Kurds and Iraqi fighters conventionally get their frontlines to Mosul and try to take that city back from ISIS.
[08:15:07] This attack, though, very neutral. About 100 ISIS fighters rolling in, literally, with bulldozers, trucks, suicide car bombs, rolling past the Peshmerga checkpoints to where these Navy SEALs were. The firefight breaks out.
Keating was rapidly medevaced we were told, but died of his injuries at a hospital. Additional Navy SEALs also rolled in to try provide back up. This is a very difficult situation.
The Pentagon making no promises that sadly it may not -- it may happen again -- Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: All right, Barbara. Thanks for that update.
We also have an update for you on the investigation into the death of Prince. There are bombshell developments, revealing that prince died in the midst of frantic efforts to get him treatment for a drug addiction. Minneapolis start tribune reporting this morning that the music icon died one day before he was supposed to meet with a California doctor specialize an opioid addiction to get treatment for abusing painkillers.
The newspaper reporting Prince's reps called Dr. Howard Kornfeld because Prince was dealing with a grave emergency.
Oh gosh.
BERMAN: These things are so addictive, so addictive, and more prevalent in the United States than anywhere in the world.
CAMEROTA: So troubling on so many levels about this Prince thing is that it sounds like he came -- if this is true, if he was addicted to painkillers -- he came to it the old fashion way through pain, being actually prescribed pain medicine.
BERMAN: And he knew. He identified the problem as well, and clearly was seeking to get help. This shows how difficult it is.
All right. Bernie Sanders returning to the winner's circle with a big win in Indiana. Bernie Sanders says he is staying in the race until the end.
But what exactly is the path to victory? We're going to ask the campaign manager, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[08:20:31] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: So, we feel great about the night not only in winning here in Indiana and accumulating some more delegates, but also gaining the momentum we need to take us to the finish line.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Bernie Sanders, after beating Hillary Clinton in Indiana, Bernie Sanders said if the Clinton campaign thinks the Democratic race is over, they're wrong. Of course, Bernie Sanders still faces an uphill delegate battle. Some may call it an insurmountable battle.
What's that strategy going forward to climb that hill?
Joining us now, Bernie Sanders campaign manager Jeff Weaver. That's a smile I detect on your face, Mr. Weaver.
JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS' CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Hey, John. How are you?
BERMAN: Got to feel good this morning, yes?
WEAVER: Yes, good morning. Yes, a great night last night for the senator. Obviously, all the polls had him down in Indiana. We had come off some losses in the closed primaries in the northeast, and this was a tremendous vote from people who said, look, the pundits and the news people want to say the campaign is over, but the voters aren't quite sure yet, John.
BERMAN: Do you know if he spoke to Secretary Clinton last night?
WEAVER: I don't know. I'm in Vermont. So, I was not with him last night.
BERMAN: You win outright by being in Vermont. Let's leave it at that.
So, the good news for you is you win Indiana. The bad news is math, right, and I know this is something you deal with everyday. I think it's frustrating for the Sanders campaign to have to deal with this everyday.
But when we look at the delegate numbers right now, by our calculations, you need to win 101 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to get over the majority threshold. You need to win 101 percent of pledged delegates.
What that essentially means is you need to flip super delegates now to win. It's all about flipping super delegates. And without that, you can't win the nomination.
Is that how you see it?
WEAVER: Well, how we see, John, is we're going to go through the rest of the process. We're going to let everybody vote. So, we're going to let the voters, first of all, have a say on all this whole process from all the way to California, District of Columbia.
So, we're going to see what voters come down, we see who has -- how many pledged delegates. And the truth is, no one is going to the convention with the requisite number of pledged delegates to win. So, the superdelegates are going to decide this race. And the question for the super delegates is going to be, which candidate can best defeat Donald Trump in the fall, help Democrats up and down the ballot. That's going to be the question that they're going to have to confront.
And, look, the polls have been consistent now and continue to be consistent. New poll out today. Bernie Sanders does better against Donald Trump than Hillary does. So, if people want to stop Donald Trump, then they should vote for Bernie Sanders.
BERMAN: That is our new poll, a new CNN/ORC poll. And yes, Bernie Sanders does do better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton, although with Hillary Clinton, I think it's a 13-point lead. You're both doing pretty well against Donald Trump right now.
So, you say it does come down to super delegates. The last time we spoke, you told me you were not making phone calls, your campaign not making phone calls to flip Clinton superdelegates. Is that still the case? WEAVER: Well, what we're doing is talking to a lot of undecided super
delegates. As you know, there is 150 some odd uncommitted superdelegates.
The truth of the matter is some Clinton super delegates call us. We do have conversations with people. We are not actively engaged in trying to take people who have committed to Secretary Clinton to be committed to the senator at this point. Because we want to let the voters first have a say.
BERMAN: I appreciate that.
WEAVER: I think that will be very instructive for the super delegates.
BERMAN: I do appreciate that. But at the same time, if it's going to require superdelegates to flip and you're not, you know, doing outreach to them, couldn't you make the case you're not trying to win?
WEAVER: Well, as I said to you last time, you said phone calls. We do do outreach to people. We have ongoing communication and messaging to all of the superdelegates. We provide them with information and updates on a regular basis.
So, in fact, we are in touch with them. The question you had for me was, are we actively calling them and trying to flip them? That's a different question than what you just --
BERMAN: OK, if you're not trying to flip them, then leave it at that.
WEAVER: I'm not trying to be cagey. I'm not trying to be cagey, John.
BERMAN: No, no, I know. If you're not trying to flip them, you're not trying to win. People can make that case. If you need to flip them to win, and you're not trying to flip them, ergo, you're not trying to win.
WEAVER: Well, we are in communication with them. I think they are watching closely to see how the final contests go, including California, which as you know, the largest state in the country, with the most delegates in the Democratic process. I think people will be watching it with interest.
I think the senator is in a position now to have a considerable number of victories between now and the end, obviously, last night, and West Virginia is next week. That's looking good for senator Sanders.
[08:25:00] And then going forward, you know, there's a lot of opportunities for him to win and win big. And I think the super delegates are going to take note of that. And I think there's continued consistent polling showing him as the strongest nominee against Donald Trump. I think it's going to be very persuasive.
BERMAN: One of the things you began to hear, he will become the presumptive nominee, is what the Republican chair said, is now that he is alone, that Hillary Clinton needs to be alone. The fact that Bernie Sanders is still running against him, some people argue, only hurts her with Donald Trump now in a clear field.
What do you say to that argument?
WEAVER: Look, the Democratic primary process this year has been a process that has been largely focused around differences on issues. Exit polls show the voters think it has been constructive for the party, that is helping the party get better, helping the nominee get better. So this has not been what we seen on the Republican fight, which is a food fight. This has been a debate about the issues.
And the truth of the matter is, as long as we can have this process go forward, we'll be on TV with you, and so will the Hillary Clinton people, talking about the issues that are important to Democrats. As soon as either Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton is the sole person on the Democratic side, believe me, the Republican onslaught will begin.
I think this is a much healthier discussion to have about priorities for the country on the Democratic side than just having Donald Trump attacks all the time.
BERMAN: All right. Jeff Weaver for us from Vermont this morning -- thanks so much. Great to have you with us.
WEAVER: Thanks, John.
BERMAN: Alisyn?
CAMEROTA: Well, Republicans believe they have a presumptive nominee in Donald Trump. They're setting up half the stage for the race for the White House.
What would a Trump/Clinton general election look like? Can they unify their parties? We'll discuss all of that next, with our very funny panel.
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