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New Day

Turmoil in GOP Over Donald Trump; Polls About to Open in West Virginia; Legal Showdown Over Transgender Rights. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 10, 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 thought everything was fine, and I got blindsided.

[05:58:26] REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's the nominee. I'll do what he wants.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His rhetoric is not only reckless. It's dangerous.

TRUMP: She's playing the woman's card to the hilt.

CLINTON: I'm going to let him run his campaign however he chooses.

TRUMP (via phone): You watch the problems she'll have.

(CHANTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They created discrimination against transgender individuals.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Fighting discrimination, which I support wholeheartedly.

LORETTA LYNCH, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: We see you. We stand with you.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Violence still rages in most of the country.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The fire has become intense.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: None of this seems to indicate a full Russian withdrawal from Syria.

(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, it is Tuesday, May 10, 6 a.m. in the east. John Berman is here with us. Good morning to you.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Congratulations. Starting every conversation with that now. It's a good policy. CAMEROTA: I like it.

BERMAN: Yes.

CAMEROTA: Thank you. What you're congratulating us on, that's great.

Up first, voters head to the polls in the morning -- this morning, I should say, in West Virginia and Nebraska. But the primary fight is overshadowed by the turmoil in the Republican Party over their presumptive nominee.

House Speaker Paul Ryan now says if Trump doesn't want him to chair the convention, he won't. So how are these meetings between Trump and Ryan and Trump and GOP senators going to go this week?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Lots of fallout from the Trump interview he had here on NEW DAY just yesterday. He gave us a new businessman's approach to dealing with debt and taxes. Raised a lot of eyebrows.

So this morning we're going to tell you where Mr. Trump is now on all these all-important issues and what experts are saying the implications could be.

On the Democrat side of the ball, you've got Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders battling for a big win in West Virginia.

So we have the 2016 race covered for you the way only CNN can.

Let's begin with Phil Mattingly. Good morning, my friend.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Could we be seeing a de-escalation of sorts in the Republican Party? Maybe. Donald Trump seeming to ratchet back the rhetoric a little bit yesterday, Paul Ryan seeming to offer an olive branch of sorts, and Republican senators willing to meet with Donald Trump in Washington this week. Unity? Not quite yet.

But it is a recognition inside the Republican Party that, while they might not have the nominee that they wanted, it's the nominee that they now have going forward. An offer from House Speaker Paul Ryan, saying he'll step down as chairman of the Republican National Convention if Donald Trump asks him to.

RYAN: He's the nominee. I'll do whatever he wants, with respect to the convention.

MATTINGLY: Ryan, striking a conciliatory tone after a bombshell announcement last week that he wasn't ready to support Trump as the presumptive nominee.

RYAN (via phone): First, I want to get to know him and understand him better, because I really don't know him.

MATTINGLY: The two men still set to meet on Thursday, along with RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. Trump will also meet with Republican Senate leaders on the Hill. Former presidential candidate Dr. Ben Carson reaching out to Ryan for a private meeting to help soothe tensions before Trump meets with him.

RYAN: Basically the kind of conversation I'm hoping we all can have is how we can actually unify our party.

MATTINGLY: Trump also making a big appointments, announcing New Jersey Chris Christie will serve as the chairman for his transition team, should he become the next president. But party leaders, still weary of Trump's conservative principles. Trump fending off backlash over his economic proposals, accusing the media of mischaracterizing him in several interviews on Monday.

TRUMP: So it was totally misrepresented just now by you, and it was misrepresented, frankly, by NBC.

CUOMO: Whoa, whoa, whoa.

TRUMP: They go there to talk about like I'm giving a tax increase for the wealthy. I'm not.

CUOMO: Explaining his proposal with lower taxes for all.

TRUMP: If I increase to the wealthy, that means they're still going to be paying less than they pay now. I'm not talking about increasing from this point. I'm talking about increasing from my tax proposal.

MATTINGLY: Trump also on the defensive over his plan to repay the national debt, insisting he never said the U.S. should default or attempt to renegotiate with creditors as reported.

TRUMP: This is the United States government. First of all, you never have to default, because you print the money. I said, if we can buy back government debt at a discount. In other words, if interest rates go up and we can buy bonds back at a discount...

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MATTINGLY: And for Donald Trump spending the entire day defending, clarifying, almost seeming to revise on some of his economic proposals not ideal, but for Hillary Clinton's campaign, it is exactly what they want.

Now, according to advisers I've spoken to, tying Donald Trump up for an entire day just on his positions related to policy is a perfect scenario for that campaign. Now, it's a strategy that hasn't necessarily worked throughout the primary. But if yesterday is any indication, it's one they think they can pursue going forward.

And guys, one other thing they're keeping a close eye on, Marco Rubio. Already pulling himself out of consideration for the vice-presidential candidate. Not the first Republican to do that, and likely not the last, as well.

BERMAN: We're going to hear from Marco Rubio on "THE LEAD" later on today, Phil. So that should be very, very interesting. In the meantime, on the Democratic side, the sole focus today will be

on West Virginia. Mountain Mama take me home. Eight years ago Hillary Clinton dominated there against then-challenger Barack Obama. This time around she may be the underdog. Will coal country turn on Hillary Clinton, giving Bernie Sanders another win?

CNN's Jean Casarez is live in Charleston, in West Virginia, polls open in, what, just a few minutes?

JEAN CASAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right. It's 6:30, and the poll workers are inside. They're getting everything set up.

Now, if early voting is any indication, there may be record-setting votes cast in today's primary. The question is on the Democratic side, who will they vote for? Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton?

This state, you're right. It's coal country. And they still have not forgotten what Hillary Clinton said during the town hall meeting, CNN's meeting in March, where she said coal mines will be shut down and coal miners will lose their jobs.

Now, she has said that she misspoke there. That what she actually meant was that she is encouraging other industries to come to West Virginia, but Bernie Sanders said last night in Sacramento that he is going to win West Virginia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I'm not going to get into Plan B, because we have five weeks, and believe me, we'll be working very hard in these next five weeks on Plan A. Plan A is winning California. It's winning West Virginia, Kentucky, Oregon and the remaining states.

After that, then we will look at where we are at, but my goal right now is to get more pledged delegates than Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[06:05:04] CASAREZ: Now, we want to look at some of these early voting totals. You will see, it's truly record-setting here in West Virginia.

2016, this year, early votes, almost 101,000. In 2012, it's a little over 57,000. And in 2008, about 69,000 votes cast. So you can see, record number.

But the GOP is saying that they believe they will be the winners today, because of coal country's alliance to Donald Trump. They say the early voting has been in record-setting numbers and they think they will continue today -- Alisyn, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Jean. Thank you very much. Appreciate the reporting. We'll check back with you when the polls actually open. Let's discuss the implications of what's on the table this morning. CNN political correspondent Phil Mattingly back with us; CNN political commentator, political anchor at Time Warner Cable News, Mr. Errol Louis with us, as well; and CNN political analyst and host of the redoubtable "David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory...

CAMEROTA: The ridonculous.

CUOMO: ... himself. So good to you have all three of you here. David, we'll start with you.

What do you believe the major implication is of what Trump did yesterday on tax policy a little bit, but more on debt understanding. Two ways to look at it. This is a businessman. He's looking at it differently. More efficiently, more effectively, or this doesn't work in government.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Well, I think there's a lot of concern about the latter. And I think the larger frame for this is how he unites the Republican Party, and that is his first priority right now.

This meeting with Ryan looms large, because he's got to unite all the wings of the party if he's going to get out the vote this November and get it out strong and he's going to raise all the money that he wants to raise and needs to raise, and he's got to rely on the party to raise.

So policy positions like this that are flexible, that maybe are not well-thought-out, that are non-traditional. All of that sends signals to the broader electorate at large, yes, that he can tack back and forth and refine these positions. Even though it's unusual that he doesn't have these fixed economic positions, he appears to be a bit of a moving target on some of these policies.

The real issue is what signal it sends within the party at a time when he wants to get the conservative wing of the party in the fold, to get them united before a convention to get the vote up.

CAMEROTA: So Errol, how nervous are party leaders about, "I can renegotiate the debt, I can print money." The things that he said yesterday?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's an interesting question. I mean, I would love to hear what kind of phone calls party leaders are getting from the business leaders that they respond to. The big donors that they rely upon, because, you know, when Donald Trump does business, I think we've gotten a sense of this over the last few months, is that it's flexible, it's negotiated.

And it's chaotic at times. You know, sort of throw something out there just to kind of see what works and so forth. On the other hand, when you're doing that with U.S. currency, when you're doing that with the bond market, you can cause a level of disruption that, you know, maybe works for him as a private businessman, may not work for everybody else when you're talking about leadership of the global economy.

So, you know, if party leaders are willing to live with this, if they're hearing from their donors, if they're hearing from corporate leaders, well, yes, it might be a little turbulent, but we can live with it, then you get one outcome.

More likely, I think, they are craving stability. You now, and it's in the Constitution for a reason, that U.S. debt shall not be questioned. It is the bedrock of the modern economy.

If Donald Trump is fully aware of that, and I think he probably got a little bit of pushback in the last couple of days. I think he's going to probably modulate this a little bit. And again, he's got something most politicians never have, which is the ability to do a 180 day after day after day after day, and not suffer in the polls for it.

CUOMO: He doesn't say flip-flop. He says flexible. So far, it's worked for him, when he says, "You know, you've got to be able to find ways to make it work." That's salable with what he's doing with policy.

How is it working inside the party? One guy called me yesterday, said of course he wanted you to congratulate him when you talked to him. That's what he's saying to all of us, is that the Republican people need to stand up within the party, come to him now and say, "You're the man." Congratulate him, fall in line. Is that happening?

MATTINGLY: If you think from a Republican perspective that their candidate, that their presumptive nominee, that their standard bearer would be giving interviews where he would talk purely about his flexibility on policy, his willing to negotiate, that his original proposal is a floor not a ceiling; and he would be willing to give in negotiations you would think they would be horrified.

And on some level when you talk to Republican leaders and you talk to Republican staff on Capitol Hill, they're just kind of scratching their head right now. When you talk to people who have met with Donald behind the scenes, whether it's on politics or on policy, they will all tell you he's a different person than you see out on the stump.

But when it comes to policy issues specifically, take the debt issue, he's taken four bites at this apple over the course of the last five days. All four he's revised his position in some way. Now, the position he ended up with you yesterday morning and with the "Wall Street Journal" yesterday and with an interview with afternoon is essentially a nation can work for the Republican Party. At least it wouldn't lead to default.

[06:10:09] But the idea that it will take him four times to get to that position, and a position that doesn't necessarily track with Republican orthodoxy still, is very concerning inside the Republican Party.

CAMEROTA: David, speaking of money, Donald Trump has estimated that it will cost maybe $1.5 billion to run in the general, and so now he is beginning to sort of put into motion the wheels of fund-raising and finding donors. What happened to the self-funding his campaign? GREGORY: Well, I don't think he ever intended to self-fund to the

tune of hundreds of millions of dollars or more. Certainly, to get a billion-dollar campaign up and going. I don't know anybody who would want to do that. Yes, he has to rely on the party and big donors within the party and this gets to the other large point which is, is everybody behind it? The primary for the Republicans is over. So a lot of the lashing out he did at the party elites and the establishment, to win the day, he now has to transition into a new phase where he's got to get the party apparatus behind him; he's got to get big donors behind him. And I think he is uncomfortable with this transition.

Because he's in a position where he is saying, as Phil said, "Look, come to me. I did something historic here. I'm the nominee. I represent a new brand of conservatism. You all have to kind of get over yourselves." And that's not happening yet.

CUOMO: But this is a very different dynamic, David. That's really interesting. It's one thing when you're asking for support in politics, as we all know. But Errol, now, he's asking for money. And when you go and ask people for money, all the leverage shifts in the conversation. Do you think this is something where his famed negotiating skills may come in handy?

LOUIS: I think what will come in handy is that he's been on the other side of those transactions. He's been the one to write checks and then, you know, sort of pester candidates if he feels like it or, you know, give them some strategic advice that they're going to probably disregard.

So, you know, he knows what it's like to have rich donors come in and sort of muscle their way around your campaign. He's going to have to decide how much of that he's going to put up with and how much of that he's going to do.

I think also he's got to -- you know, he's got to figure out what kind of a campaign he really wants to run. He's done everything on a shoestring now. If he think that that's what he wants to do going into November, he may not need to raise quite as much money we've been talking about.

CAMEROTA: OK, panel, stick around. We have a lot to talk about with Hillary Clinton's campaign, J.B., as well.

CUOMO: In terms of players and wanting to hear from them, you will get that right here on CNN. The man on your screen, Marco Rubio, talking to the one and only Jake Tapper this afternoon on his show. It's the first interview since dropping out of the race. What's he going to say? What's he not going to say? 4 p.m. Eastern right on "THE LEAD" -- J.B.

BERMAN: All right. The battle over North Carolina's transgender bathroom law, an all-out legal war. Both sides, the Justice Department and the state of North Carolina now suing each other. CNN correspondent Martin Savidge live with the latest.

Good morning, Martin.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

You know there were clear indications that the state of North Carolina did not intend to back down on its bathroom law, and instead, it doubled down and filed a suit against the federal government.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE (voice-over): An escalating legal battle in North Carolina over the state's controversial so-called bathroom law. North Carolina and the Justice Department filing dueling lawsuits within an hour of each other. Trading accusations of civil rights violations and government overreach.

LYNCH: The legislature and the governor placed North Carolina in direct opposition to federal laws prohibiting discrimination on the basis of sex and gender identity. They created state-sponsored discrimination against transgender individuals.

SAVIDGE: The state's governor responding to a Justice Department demand to drop the law or amend it with a lawsuit of his own.

GOV. PAT MCCRORY (R), NORTH CAROLINA: We believe a court rather than a federal agency should tell our state, our nation and employers across the country what the law requires.

SAVIDGE: The most controversial provision bans transgender people from using public bathrooms that do not correspond with the sex listed on their birth certificate. Attorney General Loretta Lynch, a North Carolina native, comparing the law to segregation.

LYNCH: What this law does is inflict further indignity on a population that has already suffered far more than its fair share. It was not so very long ago that states including North Carolina had other signs above restrooms, water fountains and on public accommodations, keeping people out based on a distinction without a difference.

SAVIDGE: North Carolina countering saying the Obama administration is attempting to rewrite the law for public and private employers across the country.

MCCRORY: This is not just a North Carolina issue. This is now a national issue. I think it's time for the U.S. Congress to bring clarity to our national anti-discrimination provisions under Title VII and Title IX.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SAVIDGE: One of the institutions caught potentially in the middle here is the public university system of North Carolina, and the storied university of North Carolina itself. It put out a statement late in the day, saying that it would comply with federal law, which sounds good, except right now the governor of that state is challenging just what is federal law -- Alisyn. CAMEROTA: OK, Martin. Thanks so much for all of that background.

We'll talk about it more during the program.

We have some breaking news for you, though. This morning a deadly knife attack at a train station near Munich in Germany. One man dead, three other people injured. Police are questioning witnesses about what happened, including whether the suspect shouted, "Allah Akbar," meaning "God is great" in Arabic. The suspect is a young German man now in custody.

CUOMO: At least two people are dead after several tornadoes ripped through Oklahoma. Take a look at this. It really is out of a movie. Just carving its way through Elmore City. People trying to get out of the way. You don't know what to do. We've all been on the ground if you're in this business. When you see tornadoes you don't know which way to go.

And sure enough, it has been devastating. The question is, is the threat over now? So many neighborhoods destroyed. Let's bring in CNN meteorologist Chad Myers with what you need to know. As we're saying here, Chad, you know, it's hard to prepare once it's on the ground, but what's the best course force for people in these areas?

CHD MYERS, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Well, just understand, it's still spring, Chris. This isn't going to be over. We're not going to get 21 tornadoes today like yesterday, but we'll get some on the ground, especially North Texas, probably -- maybe even towards the Evansville area, maybe 100 miles plus or minus 100 miles from there.

But still, the storms continue this morning. They're still on the ground in some spots. Dallas, you'll see more weather pop up to your west and it will move toward Tyler and Longview and also back to Texarkana. There's the storm set up. It will move farther to the east tomorrow. Maybe a couple, maybe a dozen, maybe half a dozen tornadoes today.

But it doesn't matter. All you need in your neighborhood is one to really ruin your day. Let's go back to the video here, because I want to point out just a couple of things what we call maybe a stovepipe tornado. Straight up and down, likely somewhere in the neighborhood of 130 to maybe 150 miles per hour inside that vortex.

The weather service will be back out there, looking at that today to see how much damage was done to substantial buildings. That's how they figure out how high the winds were to knock down a brick structure, and you throw those bricks so many feet or yards or in cases miles, then they know how big the storm is.

Now I'm going to take you back to my map and show you how this storm look and radar, because this is such a classic setup I think you should see it. Here's what it looks like on radar. This is the hail core of the storm. There's Elmore City right there as the storm tracked all the way across towards Roth. But what you always want to look for, if you're looking at your local radar at home or something maybe on the Internet is this hook down here at the bottom. That hook and that ball is a debris ball. That is insulation and

shingles and trees and branches in the air from this storm as that storm continued to move. This was a big tornado. We're lucky that it didn't move through a more populated area or we would have lost more than two -- guys.

CAMEROTA: Shouldn't you drive in the opposite direction when you see these? I mean, I know that's a storm chaser, I guess, that's taping it, maybe. But shouldn't you be doing the other way?

BERMAN: That other video, I had the same reaction when you see those cars apparently driving toward -- he appears to be a storm chaser, this other video it did look like cars were driving towards it. The problem is, as Chris points out, a lot of confusion when these things are going on, and you get a lot of -- to their credit, I'm still on the weather alerts from over in Moore a couple of years ago. So late yesterday, you know, my phone was going bonkers, because people were being told, get home, get home, you know, take shelter right away. And you try to react.

CUOMO: This is a unique act of nature, this thing. Disorienting when you're on the ground. It freezes you in place. You feel things that you have never felt before coming from nature, and you know that there's going to be a randomness of destruction unlike anything else. At least nothing like a tornado.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Absolutely. All right. We'll follow all of that for you today.

We also have some brand-new poll numbers from some key battleground states that show something very interesting happening in the matchup between Trump and Clinton. Who fares better? We'll give you the latest numbers, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:23:23] CAMEROTA: All right. We are tracking some new polls in battleground states. Look at this. This is Ohio. OK? Where Donald Trump is beating Hillary Clinton in a hypothetical general election matchup as of today.

Things are razor-tight in other key states, as well. Look at Florida and Pennsylvania. We're going to break down all these new numbers that are hot off the press with our panel. Phil Mattingly, David Gregory and Errol Louis.

Errol, what is going on? This isn't something that the Clinton campaign suspected might be happening.

LOUIS: Well, no, absolutely not. And the reality is, they can't lose all of those things, you know? There's quite a lot of room. The map is very favorable to Democrats. Look at the 2012 map, start with where Donald Trump won. You can give Donald Trump Florida. You can give him Ohio. You can even give him Virginia. And he still wouldn't have enough to win. On the other hand, if he can run the table and expand the map, that

Pennsylvania one is the one the Democrats have to really look at very closely.

CAMEROTA: Right now Clinton is at 43 in Pennsylvania. Trump is at 42. I mean, that's -- you know.

LOUIS: It's not supposed to be that close. I mean, you know, Pennsylvania has been a Democratic -- I mean, since 1988 I think was the last time they voted for a Republican.

CUOMO: We're probably seeing a reflection of momentum here to a certain extent, as John Berman was saying when these numbers first came out. Sanders has to get his due, also.

You can explain it away if you want, Phil, but he's doing better in every one of these matchups as calculated than Hillary Clinton is and better than Donald Trump.

So let's start with this idea of momentum. That Clinton has had a spate of bad states here. Trump has had good states in this route. How much could that project out onto states that aren't primaries right now? Ohio, Pennsylvania, Florida?

MATTINGLY: I don't think it matters. I think people recognize when this poll was in the field. Donald Trump was wrapping up the Republican nomination, or at least becoming the presumptive nominee.

[06:25:13] Bernie Sanders now, as you noted, going through a string of states in May, where he's going to not only do well, he's going to win the states, win a number of delegates from those states.

Still, the math doesn't work for Bernie Sanders going forward, but this is a month where Hillary Clinton is going to have a lot of bad headlines.

I do think one of the interesting things in just kind of taking a cursory glance, looking at the cross-tabs and the numbers here, Hillary Clinton kind of across the board in all three states leads Donald Trump on just about every issue they poll on except for the economy. With the exception of Pennsylvania, Donald Trump has a double-digit lead on the economy. Who would best handle the economy in Pennsylvania, in Florida, a nine-point lead in Ohio, I believe.

You want to know why Clinton's team jumped on Donald Trump's economic comments yesterday and tried to make such hay with him on tax policy, with him on his debt comments, it's because they recognize a weakness there, and that weakness in states, swing states like Ohio and Pennsylvania, could become damaging going forward.

Expect the attacks we saw yesterday on Donald Trump related to economic policy, calling him a loose cannon, saying he doesn't have a coherent policy to continue and even increase. When they look at those numbers, that's exactly why that's happening.

CAMEROTA: David Gregory, what do you think about these new Quinnipiac numbers?

GREGORY: I want to pick up on what Phil's saying. This is not a contest over issues. I mean, I agree that they jumped on the economic comments for a different reason.

They're trying to really get across to voters in the Clinton campaign is that Trump is unstable, that he's unpredictable, that he's risky. That counters his biggest strength, which is strength as a personal characteristic that is winning the day.

And so you're going to continue to see her work on that. There's another piece of this, too. A big part of Trump's strategy, of course, getting new voters into the fold and the politics.

But it's also trying to destroy Clinton and her positives so that it can depress Democratic turnout. Now that may be a fantasy, because there may be enough fear in rallying about Clinton, not so much about her but about him. But I think the feeling is if they can suppress Democratic turnout, that helps Trump.

CUOMO: Big gender roles being played here also. Clinton is showing strength with women above Trump but not enough to match it with men. What do you think of that, Errol?

LOUIS: That's right. In some ways, laying out what the general election is going to look like, which is that they're not competing for the same people. Right? So it will be a competition to see who can get their base out.

The most startling numbers that I saw there were the very, very low numbers among men that you see Hillary Clinton getting. I mean, she can't survive with, you know, 25 percent of the male vote. I mean, she can get all the women she wants. She can push it as far as she can. She can try and take advantage of Trump's negatives with women.

But she's got to do much better than that. So she's got to sort of build her own base. Trump clearly has written off to a certain extent, Latino voters. You know, he doesn't even seem concerned, frankly, about a lot of independents. He's going to try and pump up his base: the conservative base, the white men. He's going to try and sort of push it as far as he possibly can, including in states like Pennsylvania, expand the map a little bit.

So we're going to see, you know -- what that all points to, by the way, is a very nasty race. You know, try to sort of get your base and disregard the other. Meaning you get less -- you get sharper-edged arguments; you get sharper-edged attacks. You get much less of the sort of attempt to find common ground. And I think we kind of already knew that's where this race is going to end up.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you so much. Great to have you on hand as you walk through all these new numbers. Great to see you. Let's get over to John.

BERMAN: All right. Straight ahead for us, inside the Syrian civil war. The Russians promised to pull out weeks ago, but wait until you see what CNN found on the front lines. This is a CNN exclusive, next.

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