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Trump, Clinton Gear Up for General Election Fight; Clinton: Trump a 'Loose Canon' & Risky Choice. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 05, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would be interested in vetting John. I like John.

[05:58:31] GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I suspend my campaign.

TRUMP: Vice president or not, I think he will be very, very helpful.

KASICH: We just got up every day and did the best we can.

TRUMP: I went for the knockout. Hillary doesn't have a clue.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He is a loose cannon. And loose cannons tend to misfire.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot sweep the major issues under the rug.

CLINTON: I've seen the presidency up close, and I think I know what it takes.

SANDERS: There is a lot of nervousness that Donald Trump may become president. Ain't going to happen!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He set into motion a life-saving mission to get Prince to a doctor.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Medical at Paisley Park. Person down, not breaking.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: One of the staff members starting screaming and saw that Prince was unconscious.

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

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Thursday, May 5, 6 a.m. in the East. Chris is on assignment. John Berman is here with me, great to have you here in studio.

Up first, Donald Trump getting down to business. The presumptive Republican nominee knocking out the last of his rivals and now vetting a short list of potential running mates. Trump telling CNN that even he is surprised about how quickly he took the ring. This morning, the Republican senator is calling for a third-party candidate instead of Trump. Can Trump unite this divided party?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: So while that is happening, Hillary Clinton is just unloading on Donald Trump. She calls him a risky choice and says the country can't take a chance on a loose cannon.

This as Bernie Sanders vows to stay in the race as long as the last vote is cast. We're just six months shy now of election day in November. The general election fight is now well under way.

Let's begin our coverage with Phil Mattingly, live in Columbus, Ohio.

Good morning, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

As you know well, the Republican Party has really approached Donald Trump's candidacy in stages. There was first mockery, then dismissal, then rising concern. And over the last couple of weeks, general resignation.

We should now be at the accepted stage of things. But as we've seen just in the first day that the presumptive nominee was officially the presumptive nominee, that appears that it's going to take some time.

TRUMP: I'm even surprised by it.

MATTINGLY: Donald Trump's elevation to presumptive nominee of the Republican Party happened suddenly, even for Donald Trump.

TRUMP: I thought that I'd be going longer.

MATTINGLY: His ascent now has conservatives scrambling, deciding whether to back a billionaire unabashedly vocal about his disdain for the party.

TRUMP: The Republican system is rigged, but much more -- in a much more sophisticated way.

MATTINGLY: Both former presidents Bush have made it clear they will not support Trump. According to close aides, Bush 41 is, quote, "retired from politics, and his son does not plan to participate in or comment on the presidential campaign."

In an interview by CNN's Wolf Blitzer, Trump is looking ahead and hitting his clearest target, the likely Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton, falsely accusing her of being the first to speculate on Obama's citizenship.

TRUMP: You know who started it? You know who questioned his birth certificate, one of the first? Hillary Clinton. She's the one that started it. She brought it up years before it was brought up by me. And so she can talk. Here's a person under investigation by the FBI. She's only going to get the nomination because of some rigged deal, and frankly, maybe she won't even be able to run.

MATTINGLY: The new standard bearer of the Republican Party outlining some of his potential policies, taking a cue from Bernie Sanders, and asked if he'll raise the minimum wage.

TRUMP: I'm actually looking at that, because I'm very different from most Republicans. I mean, you have to have something, but what I'm really looking to do is get people great jobs so they make much more money than that. So they make much more money than -- more money than the $15. Now if you start playing around too much with the lower level -- the lower level number, you're not going to be coming...

MATTINGLY: And vowing to implement his ban of all Muslims from entering the U.S.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Sticking with this temporary ban?

TRUMP: Until we figure out what's going on. We have to be very tough. We have to be very vigilant, yes.

MATTINGLY: Trump now focused on potential running mates.

TRUMP: I'm starting to think about it very soon and will be vetting them.

MATTINGLY: In a possible push to unify the GOP, namechecked the previous rivals who have since supported him.

TRUMP: You know, I'm going to set up a committee, and I'll meet with Ben Carson on the committee. I meet with Chris Christie on the committee. I've had a good relationship with John. I've gotten along with him well. But John will -- whether he's vice president or not, I think he'll be very, very helpful with Ohio.

MATTINGLY: John Kasich has always said there is zero chance that he would be Trump's V.P. His future is still left unknown.

KASICH: I have always said that the Lord has a purpose for me as he has for everyone. And as I suspend my campaign today, I have renewed faith that the Lord will show me the way forward.

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MATTINGLY: And John, Governor Kasich's advisors not willing to speculate what he'll do next regarding the presidential campaign. But they do reiterate over and over again that he has said very steadfastly he does not want to be Donald Trump's vice president.

One thing to note: yesterday, as he announced his suspension of his campaign here in Columbus, he decided not to take questions from the press. One of the primary reasons: he did not want it to turn into a Q and A about Donald Trump.

John Kasich just another top Republican official still somewhat wary of a candidacy that he's attacked over the last couple months, unsure of what the steps forward will be as Trump moves closer to being the full nominee for the Republican Party.

BERMAN: Phil Mattingly, thanks so much. John Kasich joins a list of people who say they don't want to be Donald Trump's vice president. We'll talk about that in a little bit.

Meanwhile, Hillary Clinton unleashing a new line of attacks on Donald Trump, branding him as a loose cannon and a risky choice. That's not all she told our Anderson Cooper. CNN's Chris Frates live in Washington with more of this really interesting interview -- Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, John. Yes, Hillary Clinton wasted no time hitting the freshly-minted presumptive GOP presidential nominee, slamming Donald Trump in an exclusive interview with our own Anderson Cooper.

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CLINTON: I think he is a loose cannon. And loose cannons tend to misfire.

FRATES (voice-over): Hillary Clinton says she's ready to take on Donald Trump in the general election, brushing off his "Crooked Hillary" moniker and repeatedly calling him a loose cannon.

CLINTON: I've seen the presidency up close. From two different perspectives. I think I know what it takes. And I don't think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running the country.

[06:05:06] You know, Donald Trump has said that it's OK for other countries to get nuclear weapons. I think that's just downright dangerous.

FRATES: But elsewhere, Clinton is treading more lightly, declining to say whether she agrees with this tweet from Senator Elizabeth Warren, saying Trump, quote, "built his campaign on racism, sexism and xenophobia."

CLINTON: I think Elizabeth Warren is really smart.

COOPER: You agree with all that?

CLINTON: I think that anybody who's listened to him and how he's talked, certainly can draw that.

COOPER: Do you think he's a racist?

CLINTON: I'm going to let people judge for themselves.

FRATES: Clinton also seems unfazed by Trump's more personal barbs.

COOPER: He's made references to your -- to your marriage, to your husband. Are you prepared?

CLINTON: He's not the first one, Anderson. This can't -- I can't say this often enough. He wants to go back to the playbook of the 1990s, if he wants to follow in the footsteps of those who have tried to knock me down and take me out of the political arena, I'm more than happy to have him do that.

COOPER: You're ready for that?

CLINTON: Oh, please. I mean, look, this is -- this is to me a classic case of a blustering, bullying guy who -- who has knocked out of the way all of the Republicans, because they were just dumbfounded.

FRATES: And fresh off his primary victory over Clinton, Bernie Sanders is also criticizing Trump's abrasive campaign tactics at his rally last night.

SANDERS: I know that there is a lot of nervousness around this country that Donald Trump may become president. Ain't going to happen!

The American people will never elect a candidate who insults people every single day in incredibly ugly ways.

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FRATES: Now Sanders didn't mention Clinton at all in his speech last night, but it remains to be seen if his kinder, gentler approach will continue. Remember, it's mathematically impossible for Sanders to win enough delegates in these remaining contests to clinch that nomination, but the Vermont senator has vowed to take his fight all the way to the convention, hoping to convince enough super delegates to switch sides and hand him the nomination. Alisyn, John, back to you guys.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Thanks so much.

We have a lot to discuss, so let's bring in our panel. We have CNN political commentator and political anchor of Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; CNN politics reporter M.J. Lee; and CNN political analyst, host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory. Great to have you all here.

Errol, what a difference a day makes. I mean, just 24 hours ago, what was supposed to be John Kasich's dream scenario, just Donald Trump and him. A wide open field, and we're going to have a contested convention. And it all just fell apart in 24 hours.

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely. I'm assuming that these campaigns and candidates have seen or intimated something that we don't know. That they see a train wreck coming at the convention that they don't want to be a part of.

CAMEROTA: That's what you think it was or that he ran out of money? I mean, was it just that he ran out of money?

LOUIS: John Kasich never had that much to begin with. Right? So I think they were both physically exhausted. Logistically, nobody thought it was going to go this far. Running out of money, as well.

But no, I think if they saw any kind of a path to some kind of a contested convention scenario, I think they would have stuck with that. But I guess they -- what they have done is reached out, looked around, and said you know what? It's not going to happen. That if he comes in there and you can get it on the first ballot -- you know, look, there were some extreme tactics being discussed, including kicking Donald Trump out of the Republican Party here in New York state, which they do have the power to do. And some of those discussions were fairly recent.

And people said, "You know what? We're just not going to do it." And once you decide that, party leaders are not going to take extreme measures to try to stop Trump. The -- sort of the tide and the votes and the delegate count just works against you.

And I think both Cruz and Kasich said, "You know what? It's not going to happen. We're going to get out of the way."

BERMAN: It's a really interesting thing happening right now within the Republican Party, where you have some people falling in line behind Donald Trump, saying, "Yes, you know, we'll support him, I guess." That's Mitch McConnell, essentially, and sort of the RNC.

Then you have Ben Sasse, Republican senator from Nebraska, who's sort of a darling in the conservative movement. He put out a statement last night on Facebook, wrote this extensive letter on Facebook. I want to read you sort of a preamble here: "I've ignored my phone most of today, but the voicemail is overflowing with party bosses and politicos telling me that, although Trump is terrible, we 'have to support him, because the only choice is Trump or Hillary.' This open letter aims to ask why is that the only choice? I believe most Americans can still be for limited government again if they were given a winsome candidate who wanted Washington to focus on urgent things. I think there is room, an appetite, for such a candidate."

He wants, David Gregory, a third-party candidate. A sitting Republican senator in a state, by the way, that votes next week, who is very popular among the grassroots movement, says not Donald Trump, not Hillary Clinton; go third party. That's pretty significant.

[06:10:11] GREGORY: It is significant, and I think there will be others -- there are others who are calling for that. And that sentiment will grow.

I still think it's implausible, frankly, because you have deadlines to get third-party candidate on a ballot that are passing in a lot of states, so that would have to mobilize very quickly, and in essence that would help Hillary Clinton, I believe.

So I don't see that happening, but I do think what's interesting is there's a real target of opportunity here for Hillary Clinton, and she spoke about it during the interview with Anderson Cooper yesterday. Whether she's reaching out to a little bit more independent-minded Republicans or even more national security Republicans, she's going to spend her time trying to bring those people over to her side, and she is a candidate with very high negatives herself. She seems an improbable candidate to try to lure over Republicans, but in this case, I think she's got an opportunity to do it. CAMEROTA: And M.J., we heard in the interview, Anderson, Hillary

Clinton used the term "loose cannon," but we also heard Elizabeth Warren use much stronger terms: racism, xenophobia. And you heard Hillary Clinton not to want go there. I mean, why not? Why not just go for the jugular? That's what Donald Trump does.

M.J. LEE, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Right, I mean, I think for Hillary Clinton, the big thing to do now is to figure out how she can capitalize on the fact that a lot of Americans have fears and concerns about the kind of president that Donald Trump would be.

We know that people are concerned about his temperament and just the fact that he doesn't have certain experience, obviously. This would be the first time that he has ever held public office.

So I think at the same time, she has to walk this fine line, because she also understands that the Trump movement and this phenomenon is really driven by a lot of passion among voters. Whether it's anger or frustration...

CAMEROTA: She doesn't want to alienate them, supporters.

LEE: Those supporters and, remember, those supporters feel a lot of the same things that, actually, Bernie Sanders supporters feel. So she wouldn't want to say anything that makes it seem as though she doesn't get that there are a lot of people who are feeling disenfranchised, feeling like the political system and Washington, frankly, that they have not been really working for them.

GREGORY: I have a slightly different view on that, which is that I think she recognizes -- look, she's just watched a bunch of these Republicans, at least a couple of them -- Marco Rubio comes to mind, who tried to go toe to toe and going for the jugular with -- with Donald Trump, and it didn't work.

She doesn't want to call Donald Trump a racist. She wants to let the Elizabeth Warrens in the party do that. And then she can smile and say that she's really smart.

She wants to focus on the line that he's risky, he's a loose cannon, it's unhinged. She doesn't really want to get down the gutter. At the same time that she's saying that she's willing to have this fight over the '90s fights over the Clintons, I don't think she wants to use that language. I'd be surprised if he starts.

BERMAN: She distinctly did not answer the question is Donald Trump a racist. She wouldn't say yes or no. By not answering, that says a whole lot, in and of itself.

And Errol, in the subject of inaction, there are two former presidents named Bush, who now say they're not going to get involved at all in this race. President George W. Bush and George H.W. Bush, we got statements from them saying last night, essentially saying, "We're sitting out. We're not participating at all." Which sounds like no endorsement, no nothing. This is again, it's just something we haven't seen before. LOUIS: That's right. I mean, look, those who thought that this might

be sort of severe stress and possibly even sort of a crack within the Republican Party, we don't know what that looks like. We haven't seen that in America in quite a long time.

Does it look like something cataclysmic, you know, violence and so forth? Or does it look like party elders saying, "You know what? We're going to just -- we're going to sit this one out. We're going to let this go.

And you wouldn't have expected this. But there's a lot about this cycle we wouldn't have expected.

I also want to just mention, I mean, when -- when you hear Hillary Clinton declining to sort of go toe to toe, I think David's right. She doesn't necessarily want to get into a big, ugly scrum, but I think she's also tailoring a message toward some of these undecided and some of these people who will otherwise sit out the election, including some elected officials and party elders.

So there's -- there's a big field of emerging political energy and people in play. And you can see Hillary Clinton already trying to angle towards them, and that includes, of course, you know, the signals that are being sent by the party staff and people like the Bushes.

LEE: David was saying, you know, Clinton clearly does not want to get into the gutter with Trump yet. However, I think you need to keep in line that that was a line of thinking that Ted Cruz held for a very long time, until literally a couple days ago when he started calling him a pathological liar.

CAMEROTA: So when is the right time to get in the gutter is the question.

BERMAN: Right.

CAMEROTA: Well, I have no answer. Guys, thank you. Panel stick around. We have a lot more questions for you, because now that Donald Trump is the last Republican standing, if he's elected, what would the first 100 days of the Trump presidency look like? Building walls, banning immigrants? Will he go in a different direction? He has given us some answers now. We'll discuss that.

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BERMAN: Now that he's clear one giant hurdle with, that being the entire Republican field, Donald Trump is looking towards the general election now. The presumptive Republican nominee outlining what his first 100 days in office would look like.

Let's discuss with our panel. Joining us again, Errol Louis, M.J. Lee, David Gregory. A busy first 100 days in office. I want to show you on the screen here some of the things Trump has told us he wants to do in the first 100 days: enact immigration ban on Muslims; complete design of the wall on U.S.-Mexico border; choose Supreme Court nominee to fill a vacant seat; establish relationships with Republican leadership in Washington; overturn the president's executive orders and key policies.

CAMEROTA: This all comes from recent interviews that he's done with the "New York Times."

BERMAN: That's a lot. That is very busy for the first 100 days, David. And some of those issues, if you want to establish good relations on the Hill, some of those policies might make that difficult.

GREGORY: Might make it difficult. If you look at some of the policies that he's sticking to: the temporary ban, we heard in that interview that Wolf Blitzer did -- the designing the wall. These are very popular with Republican voters who have supported him in these primaries.

[06:20:13] Interestingly, even more popular than the wall is the temporary ban of Muslims within the Republican Party based on exit polls. So of course, Trump is going to stick with those things.

Now we'll see what happens if he were to be elected president and he's in the Oval Office where things can change, and he starts meeting with advisors about what's practical and what's achievable and what Congress would go along with, as well. It might be a very different proposition.

What he's really talking about, though, is trying to send a different tone about how he'd establish relationships with official Washington. The kinds of people that he would put into his cabinet and into agencies, a lot of military folks as well as business leaders.

And again, overall trying to allow people to imagine him as president. He said something that he doesn't want to create instability in the country, that's not why he's running. He knows he has a lot of work to do. Particularly within the Republican Party, to try to unite people, to try to bring people in. And that's going to be...

BERMAN: Not instability in the country, is a pretty low bar.

CAMEROTA: That's right. But what's so interesting about it, everyone, is that he -- he has been disruptive. He was the disrupter in this race. He did do something completely different that we relied on instability.

So I thought it was interesting to hear him say that was then, and that's not what I'm going to do now as president. Another interesting thing. Wolf sat down with him and asked him if he does stand by the ban, temporary ban on Muslims. So listen to his response yesterday.

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TRUMP: We have a problem. We have a really big problem where we're letting in thousands and thousands of people supposedly from Syria, but we have no idea where they're coming from. The migration is a disaster. We're letting in thousands of people. They don't have documentation. They don't have paperwork. Nobody knows who they are, where they come from, and they're coming into this country.

BLITZER: Are you sticking with this temporary ban?

TRUMP: Until we figure out what's going on. We have to be very tough, yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: Errol, sticking with the temporary ban on Muslims, one of the more controversial suggestions.

LOUIS: Yes. Well, I mean, one of the things, I mean, you can just imagine the order coming down, right, some version of we're going to ban Muslim immigration.

We all know that there will be a literal army of civil rights attorneys who will rush into court that very afternoon and seek and possibly get some kind of an injunction to stop all of that stuff from happening.

And there you will start to see what the presidency is actually about. That you've got some things that you can do. It's actually interesting, looking at the checklist, there's some things he can clearly do and actually accomplish on day one or day 100, things like reversing the executive orders or issuing new ones. There are other things like this, like this ban, where the other co-equal branches of government will step in. And we'll see what happens with that.

And then he's got to make some political calculations, does he want to see one of his most important promises that he made during the campaign, suddenly get checked at the courthouse door by some federal judge? Or does he want to sort of maybe try to build up some momentum with things that are clearly only within his power. Things like his Supreme Court nominee.

BERMAN: Look, Muslim ban is also interesting because it will play well in Republican primary; will not play as well among moderate voters or a Democratic electorate. We'll see how much he harps on that coming forward in the coming months.

M.J., you know, it's interesting. Donald Trump also talking about foreign policy with Wolf. Wolf asked him about issues of dealing with Russia, these Russian fighter jets that keep on buzzing U.S. ships. Listen to this exchange.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: On two occasions, Russian fighter jets barrel rolled U.S. military facilities.

TRUMP: Lack of respect. Lack of respect toward the United States...

BLITZER: What would you tell Putin?

TRUMP: I would call him, and I'd say, "Don't do it again." I would say, "Don't do it again." And I think I'll have a good relationship with him.

BLITZER: Have you ever spoken with him?

TRUMP: I don't want to the say, but I think I'll have a good relationship with him. Now I may not. We'll know pretty quickly, but I would call him, and I say don't do it again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Two things that are interesting. First off, he wouldn't tell us if he'd ever spoken to Vladimir Putin. "I don't want to say." It's always interesting when he just says, "I don't want to say." The second thing is to deal with Russia, he's just going to call him, and you know, or write a strongly worded letter. I mean, is that foreign policy?

LEE: I mean, this is pretty cocky of Donald Trump. He has said that kind of thing for months and months, you know, when asked a question, well, how are you going to accomplish that? "Because I'll do it. I know how to do it. I'll just make the calls. I'll just know how to accomplish this."

I do think that, with certain rhetoric and certain messages and certain promises, Donald Trump is going to have a very hard time walking some of those things back. Even as he is recalibrating his message for the general election.

Something like the Muslim ban or building the wall, I mean, Donald Trump's unofficial slogans may as well be "I'm going to build a beautiful wall" after "Make America great again." I think some of those promises have really been at the core of his campaign and happen to be popular with his supporters. So that is going to be very difficult.

[06:25:04] However, I thought it was interesting that he mentioned to Wolf Blitzer that he would be open to raising the minimum wage.

BERMAN: Fascinating.

LEE: And this is -- this is coming months after he said wages are almost too high. So, you know, when we're talking about recalibrating that message, there are certain areas where he clearly thinks that a little bit of wiggle room is possible, and he has signaled that for a while, too.

CAMEROTA: David.

GREGORY: Just a quick vote here, which is on the Muslim ban, listen to how opaque Donald Trump is about there's thousands of people coming in. There's a whole security apparatus about letting migrants into the country that he glosses over. So it's that kind of -- being that vague, I think, says something.

And with Trump -- with Putin of course, he's not the first president who's wanted to keep foreign leaders off-bounds. Richard Nixon was famous for this, as well. So you see how that relationship unfolds. CAMEROTA: Look, I mean he thinks that everything is a negotiation,

even foreign policy, and maybe he's right. I mean, you know, that -- the other people haven't taken that tactic. He said, I'm just going to pick up the phone, and I'm going to call him and they're going to stop. And people find that message really appealing.

Panel, thank you very much.

BERMAN: We have new details about the final moments in Prince's life. The late singer may have just been hours away from some of the help he needed to save his life. The frantic behind the scenes, that's coming up next.

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