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Trump & Sanders Win Primary Contests; Trump Changes Tune Ahead of Meeting with Speaker. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 11, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: And so that takes us to tomorrow. He's going to have to sit down with House Speaker Paul Ryan and GOP leaders and see if they can come out together. We have that prospective meeting and the race covered the way only CNN can.

[07:00:18] Let's begin with J.B. breaking down the results. What did you see?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

Well, what I see, this is what it looks like when no one is left running against you. Put up these numbers right here. Donald Trump winning West Virginia. He hit 76 percent of the vote in West Virginia. He hit 61 percent in Nebraska. Of course, Ted Cruz and John Kasich, they dropped out.

Hillary Clinton thinking, "Why can't I have a situation like that?" Because this is what happens when she's still running against Bernie Sanders. She loses West Virginia by 15 percent there.

What does that mean for the delegate race? Not a lot. Look at this. Bernie Sanders nets just 5 delegates, despite his big 15-point win there.

On the Republican side, Donald Trump, he right now will net at least 39 delegates. That number's going to go way up once West Virginia's convoluted system works itself out. You can see Donald Trump getting much, much closer to the 1,237 delegates he needs. He will get there without these two gentlemen left in the race.

On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton about 148 delegates now from the majority she needs to reach the nomination. That does include her big edge among super delegates, but, again, the Sanders team admits now if they are going to get the nomination, they have to flip super delegates. That's what they need to work on between now and July -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN HOST: OK, John.

Donald Trump now uncontested, as you say, in the GOP race, easily winning Nebraska and West Virginia. But the political spotlight is focused on tomorrow's high-stakes meeting between Trump and House Speaker Paul Ryan.

This as two of Trump's rivals jump back into the spotlight to sound off on Trump. CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is live in Washington with more.

Good morning, Sunlen.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning o you, Alisyn. Such an important moment for Donald Trump. He became the presumptive nominee with only a small group of support on Capitol Hill.

So now as he's working to try to unify the party around him, he'll be making his very direct face-to-face pitch tomorrow directly to Republican leaders on the hill for them to come around and support him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY (voice-over): Days before their big meeting, Donald Trump softening his tone and sounding more conciliatory about House Speaker Paul Ryan's role at the Republican National Convention.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He's a very good man. He wants what's good for the party. And I think we're going to have very positive results.

BILL O'REILLY, FOX NEWS: You said...

TRUMP: And I would love, frankly, for him to stay and be chairman.

SERFATY: Responding to Ryan's assurance that he would step down as chairman if Trump wanted him to.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: We shouldn't just pretend that our party is unified when we know it is not.

SERFATY: In an interview with the "Wall Street Journal" Ryan said he hopes they can unite the party after a bruising primary battle.

RYAN: What we want to do is sit down together and talk about how we can unify the Republican Party so that we can be at full strength in the fall.

SERFATY: Trump also in the throes of preparing for the general election, narrowing down his list of potential running mates. One person definitely not interested in the job, former rival Marco Rubio. In his first national interview since dropping out of the race, the senator telling CNN's Jake Tapper...

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLORIDA: My differences with Donald, both my reservations about his campaign and my policy differences with him, are well-documented; and they remain.

SERFATY: Rubio signaling that his support of Trump is a matter of honoring his word.

RUBIO: I've signed a pledge that said I'd support the Republican nominee, and I intend to continue to do that.

SERFATY: And Trump's fiercest formal rival, Senator Ted Cruz, returning to Capitol Hill leaving the window open for possibly jumping back into the race.

CRUZ: We've suspended the campaign, because I can see no viable path to victory. Of course, if that changed, we would reconsider things.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SERFATY: And Donald Trump this morning is reacting to his wins last night, tweeting out just moments ago, quote, "Big wins in West Virginia and Nebraska. Get ready for November. Crooked Hillary, who is looking very bad against Crazy Bernie, will lose."

And then following that tweet up with another, adding this on Bernie Sanders, quote, "I don't want to hit Crazy Bernie Sanders too hard yet, because I love what he is doing to Crooked Hillary," adding, "His time will come" -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Sunlen, thank you very much.

So as for Bernie Sanders, he says, "I'm not going quietly, and I'm not crazy." And to prove it, he scored another big win, his 19th state in his column, West Virginia. That not only prolongs the primary fight with Hillary Clinton; it also raises big questions within that party about when they will unify.

CNN's Chris Frates, live in Washington with more. Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Chris.

So Bernie Sanders having a very good primary night last night, winning a majority of those 29 delegates that were up for grabs in West Virginia. But Sanders is still facing long odds in this campaign to upset Hillary Clinton, who leads him by about 300 pledged delegates.

[07:05:04] Now, a campaign aide tells me they think Sanders can beat the odds by racking up more big victories and convincing the party's super delegates that he has the best chance of defeating Donald Trump in the fall.

And a recent poll shows Sanders fares better than Clinton in a general election matchup against Trump in three battleground states, but that didn't stop Vice President Joe Biden from putting his finger on the scale yesterday for Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I feel confident that Hillary will be the nominee, and I feel confident she'll be the next president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, Clinton plans to campaign hard against Sanders in upcoming contests. She's going to focus on New Jersey and California. But she will also continue looking toward November, and taking on Donald Trump. And Sanders, he also hit Trump in his victory speech last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We cannot have a president who has insulted Latinos and Mexicans, who has insulted Muslims, who every day is insulting women in one way or another.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: So even as Clinton and Sanders continue to run against each other, they're increasingly taking on Donald Trump -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Chris. Thanks so much for all of that background.

Let's talk more about how high-level Republicans, including his formal rivals, are reacting to Donald Trump's victory and to the future. We have former communications director for Jeb Bush and the "never Trump" Republican, Tim Miller; CNN political commentator and Trump supporter Kaleigh McEnany; and Republican pollster, former Cruz supporter and president and CEO of The Polling Company, Kellyanne Conway. Great to have all of you here this morning.

So let's talk about how Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Paul Ryan, seem to be trying to get their arms around this.

Let me show you what Marco Rubio said to Jake Tapper in terms of whether he would vote and support Donald Trump. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RUBIO: I've signed a pledge that said I'd support the Republican nominee, and I intend to continue to do that, but we're -- look, here's a situation we're in. On the one hand, I don't want Hillary Clinton to be the president of the United States. I don't want her to win this election.

On the other hand, as I've said, I have well-defined differences with the current, the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. Seems like he's still struggling with what he's going to do, but he feels that he signed that pledge. Does that go far enough, Kaleigh?

KALEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It goes far enough for me. I have immense support for Marco Rubio for swallowing his pride. There were some harsh attacks between the two of them. So for him to say, "I'm a man of my word. I'm abiding by this pledge. I don't want to see Hillary Clinton in the White House. He is a courageous leader in our party, as is Mitch McConnell. So I put him in a different category, really, than Jeb Bush.

And I understand, you know, Jeb's reticence to come onboard, maybe Ted Cruz's at the time. It was a harsh primary. But I have immense respect for Marco Rubio for saying, "You know what? I'm coming out now. It may not be full-throttle support. He may not be on the campaign trail, but he's coming onboard and going to vote for the nominee.

CAMEROTA: Ted Cruz does seem reluctant to jump onboard the Trump train. He said, basically, that he seems to be waiting for something to change.

Let me play for you what he said about this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: We've withdrawn from the campaign, and it's in the hands of the voters. If circumstances change, we will always assess changed circumstances.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KELLYANNE CONWAY, THE POLLING COMPANY: I don't know, but I respect Senator Cruz's timeline and his ultimate decision, Alisyn. This was a bruising primary, particularly the last few weeks between Trump and Cruz, but I know Ted Cruz is very loyal to the Constitution, very loyal to his voters and has a very bright political future.

CAMEROTA: Will he get onboard at some point?

CONWAY: Perhaps, but that is his decision, and I think he's left that open. I want to go back to Marco Rubio, thou. I think he said the most important thing for Republicans and conservatives to realize, which is there will be two people on the ballot this time. Donald Trump and probably Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. But either way that should clarify the choice. Why? Hillary Clinton is struggling yet again against one opponent.

I believe, had they not cleared the field for her, this time she'd already be the nominee. She can't get it done when she has one opponent. Senator Obama in 2008. Bernie Sanders now. And I think in the fall it's going to be a much closer race.

In fact, Donald Trump can now pivot to the general election while she's struggling to not distance herself from Bernie Sanders voters. You know what her surrogates do? They go on TV and they say, "Oh." They literally flick their wrists. The wrist flickers. "Oh, Bernie won the primary, but she'll be the nominee." Thereby...

CAMEROTA: What's the math? I mean...

CONWAY: Yes, but thereby, abandoning thousands of voters who just cast their ballot. I think Donald Trump could put her away in the next 90 days. He should pivot to the general election.

CAMEROTA: Ninety days you think his poll numbers will spike?

CONWAY: He vanquished 16 opponents. Now the nominee. She can't get rid of one. He should -- he should go at her one on one now. CAMEROTA: Let me get to Tim, because I want to ask you where Jeb Bush

is with the pledge. You tweeted something yesterday, Tim, that seemed to be making light of the pledge. Let me put it up.

This was Jeb Bush's -- down there, if you can see it in the little box, Jeb Bush's pledge, which you say was written on a Dunkin' Donuts napkin. So what does this mean about whether he'll get behind the nominee?

TIM MILLER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR JEB BUSH: I think the thing I said following that, which was on a more serious note, the fact that the pledge that matters here is the next president of the United States is going to have to put their hand on the Bible and pledge to uphold the Constitution.

And when it comes to choosing the president of the United States, there's some things that supersede this kind of political rhetoric that you get in a campaign. And Donald Trump over the course of this campaign and over the course of his life has not demonstrated that he has the temperament or the respect for the Constitution to be the president of the United States. And that's what this comes down to.

I respect Marco and others, Kellyanne, who have a different view, but there's a clear dividing line when it comes to that. And I think Jeb last week posted on Facebook that, as for him, he can't support Hillary for the myriad issues that he laid out during the campaign.

But he also can't support something like Donald Trump who doesn't respect America's role in the world, who doesn't respect freedom of speech, freedom of religion to be the next president.

CONWAY: But if the entire point is that Donald Trump, that Donald Trump does not keep his word, he changes his positions and then people aren't keeping their word in a signed pledge, the pledge was made, Alisyn, to force Donald Trump to support the eventual nominee, because they all thought they would be it.

CAMEROTA: And there's a lot of irony here, but they say that now, they're standing on their positions. You hear Time. I mean, he doesn't think that Donald Trump personifies what he believes are conservative values?

CONWAY: His opinion, but where were they supporting -- never Trump, but not pro-Cruz or even not pro-Kasich. In other words, you know, he could have helped.

MCENANY: You know, if Donald Trump doesn't embody the values that you like or that you want to see, or conservative values, what about Hillary Clinton? Because essentially, by sitting on the sidelines you are sealing the path for her. So Obama values are more palatable to you than Trump values, than conservatism.

MILLER: I don't -- I don't support Hillary Clinton. Before we -- I started an anti-Trump PAC I started an anti-Hillary PAC. And I think it's unfortunate that this is where we are.

MCENANY: Get back to the issues.

MILLER: You have to assess -- you have to assess the candidates and their fitness for the presidency. Donald Trump, just in the past week after he'd already said he was pivoting and uniting to the general, had said he was going to print unlimited money to deal with the debt. That would bankrupt our country.

And No. 2, he accused Ted Cruz, his father, of being involved in the JFK assassination. He accused George W. Bush of being responsible for 9/11. I mean, words matter. You can't just all of a sudden flick a switch and say, "OK, all of a sudden we trust this guy to be president who thinks that 9/11 was an inside job and that we can just print unlimited money."

CAMEROTA: No, Kaleigh, Tim Miller is not the only person who feels this way. There are a lot of Republicans who feel this way. So what does this mean for tomorrow, for party unity and for the meeting with Paul Ryan?

MCENANY: Well, they're going to come together. I believe tomorrow they're going to come out of this meeting, and they're going to emerge unified. And for everything that Tim said, you know, it's a mystery to me, if Donald Trump is such a conspiracy theorist and this and that and all...

CAMEROTA: But he is. He does believe in the birther thing. He did posit that.

MCENANY: He wasn't brought that up in many, many years.

CAMEROTA: But hasn't apologized for it.

MCENANY: He hasn't apologized for it, but he hasn't brought that up in a very long time. And there's a reason Mitch McConnell and Dick Cheney and Rick Perry, and the list goes on and on, all of these dignified figures within our party feel comfortable getting behind Donald Trump, because they understand the stakes and the liberal values that will be in the White House if you do not get behind him.

So you know, Tim, for all of the caricatures you're putting out there, just many people in the party don't agree.

MILLER: I'm not putting out caricatures. I'm repeating what he said. Donald Trump has been a liberal for most of his life.

(CROSSTALK)

CONWAY: We've heard that.

CAMEROTA: Go ahead, last word, Kellyanne. Last word, Kellyanne.

CONWAY: I've been in the conservative venues for decades. And I just want to say this -- that this whole -- there's a touch of irony if not high-horse sanctimony embedded in this whole charge that it's Donald Trump's responsibility to, quote, "unify the party." if the Republican Party had been unified Donald Trump would not be the nominee. CAMEROTA: There you go. Panel, thank you for all of your insights.

Great to talk to you.

Let's get over to John.

BERMAN: All right. Thanks, Alisyn.

We have breaking news out of Iraq. ISIS is claiming responsibility for a deadly car bombing outside a market in Baghdad. At least 64 people have been killed, another 87 injured. Iraqi authorities say the blast happened in the Shiite neighborhood of Sadr City. A statement from ISIS on social media says the target was the Shiite militias.

CUOMO: A terrifying stabbing spree 40 miles south of Boston leaves two people dead. Police say 28-year-old Arthur DeRosa of Taunton, Massachusetts, stabbed an 80-year-old woman to death and severely wounded her daughter inside their home after getting into a car accident of some type. He then stabbed four more people inside a nearby mall restaurant, killing a 56-year-old man there.

An off-duty sheriff happened to be at the scene and wound up ending all of this by shooting and killing the suspect.

CAMEROTA: Tornadoes wreaking havoc again. Ten people hurt after at least three tornadoes tore through western Kentucky on Tuesday. They destroyed homes and businesses, flipped cars and trailers, as you can see. These storms were part of the same system that struck Oklahoma and spawned eight tornadoes, killing two people there.

[17:15:09] BERMAN: All right. Back to the 2016 race. West Virginia, a setback for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Bernie Sanders won big there. He is going to stay in the race. You know who just sent out a tweet saying he loves this?

CUOMO: Who?

BERMAN: Donald J. Trump.

CAMEROTA: Get out of here.

BERMAN: We'll discuss, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And let me be as clear as I can be. We are in this campaign to win the Democratic nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So if there is one thing that complicates winning, it is losing. And that is just what Hillary Clinton did. She lost West Virginia big to Bernie Sanders, but if there's one thing that complicates winning for Bernie Sanders, it is math. That -- this is all the reality of the Democratic primary race. So what does it all mean right now? There are two people who know: CNN political commentator Bill Press and Bernie Sanders supporter; and CNN political contributor Hilary Rosen, a Hillary Clinton supporter.

[07:20:03] Guys, you'll be shocked to know that Donald Trump has been on Twitter this morning. I want to read it, because it is interesting. It does get to what's going on in the race right now.

Trump just said, "I don't want to hit Crazy Bernie Sanders too hard yet, because I love watching what he is doing to Crooked Hillary. His time will come." Leave aside the fact that he already gave the "crazy" moniker to somebody else and he's double dipping. That aside right now, Donald Trump saying out loud he likes what's happening in the Democratic primary race right now. Is he right? Should he like what's going on with Hillary?

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: No. Because he wasn't listening to one important thing Bernie Sanders said last night, which is at all costs, we have to defeat Donald Trump.

Bernie Sanders did two things in that speech last night. He -- he gave his supporters his continued determination, but he also gave all Democrats and independents and a message to Republicans that the most important thing here in this election is defeating Donald Trump. That was a big, big moment last night.

BERMAN: He did go after Trump pretty hard in that speech.

ROSEN: Very hard.

BERMAN: Still, you know, Hillary Clinton lost in Indiana. Hillary Clinton lost in West Virginia. Bill, you know, you know, you're hoping, that Bernie Sanders beats her in Oregon and Kentucky next week. You don't think that's going to bruise?

BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look, this is a very exciting and a very healthy primary. I think we've come to that -- I thought all of us had come to that conclusion. Hillary Clinton's not pushing for Bernie Sanders to get out of the race. Following her lead, he's going to continue in West -- I mean in Oregon, in Kentucky and in my state of California.

And then finally, where I live now in Washington, D.C. And that's -- look, Donald Trump, forget Donald Trump. OK? You know what he's trying to do. He's just trying to stir it up so we'll talk about it. What -- his comments are totally meaningless, because the unity in this Democratic Party is going to be such a contrast, Donald Trump can't even get the leaders of his own party to support him. That's what he ought to be worried about.

You know what Donald Trump already did do? He already locked up his nomination, which is something that no one has done on the Democratic side. Kellyanne Conway, we just heard her say that Donald Trump, if he attacks Hillary Clinton for 90 straight days right now, can lock up the nomination. I know you probably disagree, but Donald Trump has a clear field now. He can talk exclusively about Hillary Clinton.

ROSEN: Here's one of the things that I think will matter to Democrats over the next month and a half, which is that to date, really Bernie Sanders has not been attacked by anyone.

You know, Hillary's gone after him a little in terms of sort of how, you know, we need, you know -- on what he said about President Obama, not supportive enough. Maybe not -- you know, too much of a dreamer, not enough of a legislator, but really, he's had a little bit of a free ride, because he's got a big picture message.

If Democrats start to see Bernie Sanders getting attacked, if Bernie Sanders has to start to defend himself against Donald Trump attacks, all of a sudden, I think you're going to see, actually, greater Democratic unity than in the past, because it means that Bernie Sanders is no longer a pure alternative to Hillary Clinton.

BERMAN: But Donald Trump said he's not going to do that.

Yes, but by saying he's not going to do it. He's saying there's a lot to attack there.

PRESS: You know they're just holding back if it were Bernie the nominee. They've got all the socialist stuff, the communist stuff. They're ready to go after Bernie. But I think what you're -- first of all, look, I want to make it very clear, as Bernie said, last night. He is in it -- yes, confirmed. Is in it to win the nomination. In it to shape the platform and shake up the Democratic Party. If Hillary Clinton is the nominee, you're going to have a team of Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Barack Obama, Elizabeth Warren, you name it, going after Donald Trump.

And I thought that Bernie Sanders did a great job of it last night, even more than Hillary has done in terms of direct frontal attacks on Donald Trump and saying he will never be the president. So any talk that Bernie is going to be a spoiler or Ralph Nader, forget about it.

BERMAN: Can I talk about something that's pretty weird that happened in West Virginia last night? You know, Bernie Sanders won big. We have the exit polls last night. Everyone's talking about how a number of people who supported Bernie Sanders said they support Trump over Hillary Clinton in a general election.

But the exit polls also asked Bernie Sanders supporters if they would support Trump over Bernie Sanders. And this is Sanders supporters. If we can throw that up.

People who said they voted for Bernie Sanders in West Virginia last night, 34 percent -- 34 percent of people that supported Bernie Sanders in West Virginia say they're going to vote for Donald Trump in the general election.

PRESS: This is troubling. I find it very troubling. I've talked to some labor leaders who are very worried about their members, because when they poll the numbers on the assembly floor, we're all for Bernie. Right? But if it's not Bernie, we're going to vote for Trump. So there's a lot of work to be done with working-class Americans.

BERMAN: But who said even if it is Bernie, I'm going to vote for Trump.

PRESS: Well, that's what they're saying now, but in the end, he got to be talked to and told. Look, Donald Trump would shut down these unions. He's not -- he's right to work in every state. He's bad for working-class Americans. They've got to get that message, and they will.

BERMAN: But Bill, he does speak to this economic concern out there among a group of voters there in West Virginia. They're in parts of Ohio; they're in parts of Pennsylvania. These are people who are going to need Hillary.

ROSEN: Yes. And you know, as this thing gets narrowed down to the Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump, there's going to be much more clarity over the differences here.

BERMAN: Right.

[07:25:09] ROSEN: And more people, including us, in the media, have to hold Trump accountable to, well, is he for the minimum wage increase or not for the minimum wage increase? Is he, you know, going to raise taxes and support working people, or is he not going to? And, you know, those lines are going to be much brighter and Hillary Clinton is going to be the clear winner for working people.

BERMAN: That's exactly the conversation we've been having the last five days, you know, since Donald Trump wrapped up the nomination. How many more times do you think we'll have this conversation, though? Where you see a Sanders win and it doesn't change anything before the convention?

PRESS: At least we're going to have...

ROSEN: He's going to win in Oregon.

PRESS: An argument we're going to have in Kentucky. We'll have it, I believe, after California. Maybe the District of Columbia will let Hillary win another one.

ROSEN: California, I think, is going to be close. I think Hillary Clinton's going to win California.

BERMAN: California's going to be expensive, which is a whole other issue, which I know...

ROSEN: Those people are concerned about it.

BERMAN: You can't sugar coat that with the Clinton campaign. Hilary and Bill, thank you. Really appreciate it -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. Another dynamic in this is what happens online. A GQ reporter just profiled Melania Trump and is now filing a police report after receiving anti-Semitic threats, apparently from Trump supporters. Now Trump himself did blast her article. Is there any connection? We have a closer look at Trump's testy relationship with the media, next.

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