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New Day

Democrats Tie Trump to GOP Establishment; Sanders Presses on in Democratic Race; White House Issues Transgender Bathroom Directive to Schools. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 13, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The choice in this campaign could not be clearer.

[07:00:02] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe that Bernie Sanders is the stronger candidate.

CLINTON: We will have a big victory that will take us all the way to the White House!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: George Zimmerman to sell the weapon than he used to kill Trayvon Martin.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I pledge I will not let my son die in vain.

GEORGE ZIMMERMAN, ACQUITTED OF KILLING TRAYVON MARTIN (via phone): I'm a free American. I can do what I'd like.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am Trayvon Martin!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am Trayvon Martin!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am Trayvon Martin!

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Friday the 13th, but only good feelings coming from the GOP after Donald Trump and party leaders celebrate progress and a touch of unity after these high-stakes, high-power summit meetings between Trump, House Speaker Paul Ryan and RNC Chair Reince Priebus.

Trump and Ryan saying they are, quote, "totally committed to working together." No endorsement yet from Ryan, but Trump did pick up a major Republican donor.

KEILAR: Meantime, congressional Democrats are hoping to tie Trump to the Republican establishment, believing that this will help them and likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton in November, but Bernie Sanders insists he would make a stronger nominee.

We have the story covered only the way that CNN can, and we begin with senior political reporter Manu Raju. He is live for us from Washington -- Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

Donald Trump may not be the party establishment's preferred candidate, but party leaders know they full well have to put the backing of the party machinery behind him if they want any chance to defeat Hillary Clinton in the fall.

Yesterday, Donald Trump spent a lot of time listening to GOP concerns over everything from immigration to judges to abortion. And as one senator told me, they actually liked him.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I thought it was a great meeting. We had a -- we discussed a lot of things.

RAJU (voice-over): No endorsement but a more united front in the GOP following Thursday's critical meeting between Republican leaders and their presumptive nominee.

TRUMP: For the most part we agree on a lot of different items, and we're getting there. I don't mind doing through a little bit of a slow process. It's a very big subject. I mean, we have a lot of things.

RAJU: House Speaker Paul Ryan using the meeting as an opportunity to get better acquainted with Trump before giving his full endorsement.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is a first very encouraging meeting. But again, in 45 minutes, you don't litigate all of the processes and all the issues and the principles that we -- that we are talking about.

RAJU: RNC Chairman Reince Priebus confident that the party can present a united front come this fall.

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: Positive first step toward unifying our party. It was a great meeting, and that's the only way it can be described. I think that it had very good chemistry between the two of them.

RAJU: After the meeting, I asked Trump's former rival, Kentucky Senator Rand Paul, about the rest of the party falling in line.

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: Parties usually work things out and get to unity. I think we'll get there.

RAJU: South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham among Trump's most strident critics, saying this back in December.

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: You know how you make America great again? Tell Donald Trump to go to Hell.

RAJU: Changing his tone, Graham said in a statement, "I had a cordial, pleasant phone conversation with Trump. I congratulated him on winning the Republican nomination for president."

Now all eyes will be on the party's next steps and what endorsements, if any, will follow.

RYAN: From here, we're going to go deeper into the policy areas to see where that common ground is and how we can make sure that we are operating off the same core principles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: Now, we're still waiting for that full-throated Paul Ryan endorsement, because House Republicans are crafting an election-year agenda that the House speaker does not want Donald Trump to undermine. So the Trump and Ryan camps will continue to talk about that before Ryan makes his backing official.

And later this morning, Trump campaign officials will meet on Capitol Hill with rank-and-file House Republicans as he's trying to wrangle more endorsements and coordinate messaging.

Also what could help Trump is that big endorsement this morning from Sheldon Adelson, the billionaire casino executive and one of the GOP's most influential donors, a sign that big money could play a big role for Donald Trump this fall -- Chris.

CUOMO: Manu Raju, thank you very much.

Let's talk about the implications of GOP, and what is going on after these meetings. We have chief strategist and communications director for the RNC, Sean Spicer.

Good to see you.

SEAN SPICER, CHIEF STRATEGIST AND COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, RNC: Good morning.

CUOMO: So how big a deal was yesterday?

SPICER: I think it was a great, positive step forward. Look, there's no question that a lot of elbows were thrown during our primary process. This idea of the party coming together and uniting is a crucial piece of us winning back the White House in November, and yesterday was a huge positive step, not just for Paul Ryan. You saw the Lindsey Grahams, the donors, everybody's moving in the right direction. It's happening very, very quickly, which is positive. The quicker that happens, the quicker we pivot to the general election and defeating Hillary Clinton.

CUOMO: How much of what you're dealing with in unifying is about what and how much is about how? By what, I mean positions. Where are you on this trade? How do you really feel about TPP versus how you talk? How you talk about these issues, how Trump uses the pulpit? How much is that?

SPICER: It's a balance. For some people, it's about policy. And for some people, it's about tone. But in both cases, the problem's being solved. And I think you saw Mr. Trump address, frankly, both issues, specifically with Paul Ryan and some with the Senate leadership. So it doesn't matter which area you're looking for agreement on. Both are being solved as we head towards unification.

[07:05:16] I remember when Trump first started talking about the Muslims, OK? And many in the party were still dealing with him on an individual basis. You know, because there was a field of, like, 150 people in there still. So they were like, "Oh, this guy."

Not Paul Ryan. Paul Ryan was very specific. I'm not going to play the sound. But his point was, he so determined and serious that people not see the Republican Party as being a reflection of those comments. How important was that in that meeting yesterday?

SPICER: Well, again, I think it was very important for both reasons.

Speaker Ryan is somebody who, like, cares to his core about the Republican Party. He wants it to be welcoming. He believes in solutions and policy ideas that are going to move America forward. And that's just not talk to him. You spend two minutes with Paul Ryan, and you realize how much he cares about the direction of this country and solving America's problems.

They talk about him being a policy wonk. He is. He really wants solutions that are going to take American families and businesses and individuals and make them better.

And so he wanted to talk to Donald Trump man to man for some -- for a period of time that was beyond a quick, you know, five-minute phone call and get to know him, talk about where he stood on those issues. And I think, as you heard from him, he came away very satisfied with what he heard.

CUOMO: Now, they are said to be very different men. You said they had good chemistry. Explain that to me in man terms, Spicer.

SPICER: Well, I think what it means is that, for a long time, the only communication that you have is one person talking back through an interview to another. And "I heard you say this and I heard you say that."

Sitting down and actually looking at someone across the table, eye to eye, having a conversation saying, "I believe in this. What do you think about it? I heard you say that. Can you explain this?" is something that's crucial, frankly, to any relationship.

And for them to sit down for an extended period of time with Chairman Priebus brokering this and saying, you know, "Speaker Ryan has -- wanted to know what you thought about this. What do you feel our -- do you share the commitment to this following policy?" is, I think, important not just to that relationship but, as you know, I mean, whether you're a married couple or a business partnership, having that person-to-person contact, I think, is crucial to developing the level of trust to go forward in a relationship.

CUOMO: So you've got the men, and then you have the message. I am going to go back to the Muslim thing, because I think that we've seen a shift in Trump on it, and by think, I mean I know. He's saying different things. Let's play before and now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Donald J. Trump is calling for a total and complete shutdown of Muslims entering the United States until our country's representatives can figure out what the hell is going on.

(via phone) We have a serious problem. It's a temporary ban. It hasn't been called for yet. Nobody's done it. This is just a suggestion, until we find out what's going on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Now, the temporary part obviously is a change. The only point is, why is he changing? Do you see this as a move by Donald Trump to try to accommodate the voices in the Republican Party who are saying, "We don't ban religions here"?

SPICER: All I'll say is, because I haven't spoken to Mr. Trump about this, I don't know. But no one -- I mean, look, I think that this is a guy who speaks from the heart. He knows what he wants to say. And right now he's under a microscope, and every word that he uses or doesn't word (ph), people are dissecting, trying to say, "This is a shift, this is that."

Look, he understands that we've now shifted into a general election -- to -- audience, and that what had previously been just the Republican primary base was a -- was a specific group. And now we've got to reach out, be more welcoming, talk to a more diverse group of people, not just people but states as there are more people playing in the general election than ever before.

CUOMO: If I said this to you about Hillary Clinton, "Well, that's where she was when developing her base, but now she just moved off how she feels about an entire faith because she's pivoting into the general," you would beat me over the head with every verbal assault.

SPICER: Well, we do. The difference is that Hillary Clinton has been doing this 20 years. She'll say whatever it takes, and she shifts because she has a set of rules for herself and a set of rules for everybody else.

There's a reason that not just Republicans but independents and Democrats don't trust Hillary Clinton. That they believe that she's -- that she's not someone that shares their values. It's because Hillary Clinton has spent 20 years being a chameleon, shifting to whatever...

CUOMO: Well, why doesn't this fall into exactly that category? How do you change your feelings about a whole faith in a week?

SPICER: Because I think, frankly -- because when you -- because again, getting back to that when you look at somebody and you can tell what they are. Hillary Clinton has been calculating and manipulative and changing

from day one. I think people look at Donald Trump is that he's new to this process. This isn't a politician who has gone from election to election trying to figure out what he has to say to a different election. He speaks from the heart. He talks about what he believes. I think here's a big difference.

And it's like any individual. You can tell what they mean by how they say it. Hillary Clinton has never meant anything at her core. She says whatever has to get said at the time for the room that she's in, and she will shift depending on what needs -- what the next poll says.

[07:10:03] CUOMO: So you don't think that, seeing this shift here, that this is going to play writ large as you go forward?

SPICER: I think -- look, I think everybody is reading, like I said, looking at Donald Trump...

CUOMO: I'm not saying it's a bad thing that he shifted, by the way. I'm just saying...

SPICER: No, no, no, but what I'm saying -- I get that.

CUOMO: It's a big -- it's bigger than tax policies.

SPICER: And I think that that is an area that Chairman Priebus and chairman -- and Speaker Ryan have all -- and several others have talked to him about.

But I think that what's going on right now with Mr. Trump is that people looking at him and saying, "Ah, you took two steps before. Now you're taking three steps." And they're looking at him in a microscope and trying to figure what every shift means.

The difference is that he is new to politics. He's never run for office before. Here's an individual who's been a successful businessman, that's talking about what he believes on an issue, and everybody is trying to dissect everything.

Hillary Clinton for 20 years has said whatever she needs to say to the room that she has to be in at the time. That's very different. And there is a reason that people have built up that lack of trust with her and that perception that she doesn't believe that she cares about them. It's because she has had a pattern of activity.

I mean, the server herself, right now you've seen this in the last week, where they have continued to evade federal prosecutors. She talks about not being under investigation and they see the head of the FBI coming out and saying she is under investigation. She, despite every fact that's in front of her, will say whatever she needs to say.

CUOMO: You know what you sound, Sean Spicer?

SPICER: Good.

CUOMO: Unified. SPICER: That's right. Thank you, sir.

CUOMO: Thank you for being with us, as always. J.B.

BERMAN: Positive, unified and totally committed. You left out some words there.

All right. Turning now to the Democrats. Unity an issue for that party. Bernie Sanders not going down without a fight. He says he is fighting for the soul of his party, and his campaign manager is warning a Clinton coronation could now spell a Trump triumph in November.

CNN's Chris Frates has the latest from Washington.

Good morning, Chris.

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Mr. Berman. I'll tell you, Bernie Sanders took his long-shot campaign to South Dakota, even stopping at Mount Rushmore yesterday, firing up the faithful with reasons to believe that he can still beat Hillary Clinton.

Now, it's mathematically impossible for Sanders to win enough delegates in the remaining contests to clinch that nomination. So Sanders is now arguing that he could still win more pledged delegates than Clinton when the primaries end next month. But even that's a pretty high bar. Sanders would need to win 67 percent of the remaining pledged delegates to beat Clinton by just one delegate, and even then, Sanders would need the super delegates. Those are the big shots who also get a vote at the convention. He would need them to flip their support from Clinton to Sanders in order to win, and that is very, very unlikely.

Now, Sanders says he's still the candidate best positioned to take on and beat Donald Trump, but when pressed yesterday, he acknowledged that Clinton also could defeat the presumptive GOP nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: I am not here to say that Hillary Clinton can't defeat Donald Trump. I absolutely believe that she can, but I believe quite honestly that Bernie Sanders is the stronger candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

FRATES: Now, Clinton has maintained a lower profile than Sanders the last few days. Her only event yesterday was a meeting with AIDS activists at her Brooklyn headquarters. And she has no scheduled events today.

Sanders, meanwhile, he's going to be in Bismarck and Fargo, North Dakota, today, Brianna.

KEILAR: That's right. He's been going very remote the last couple days.

FRATES: Very remote.

KEILAR: All right. Chris Frates, thank you so much.

FRATES: You betcha.

KEILAR: Breaking news overnight. The Obama administration telling each and every public school district in America what to do concerning transgender students and access to school bathrooms. CNN's senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns with more on this -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Brianna.

The Justice Department and Education Department coming together to give some guidance in the form of letters to schools on how to apply Title IX, the federal law that protects equal rights and education to transgender students, including how it applies to bathrooms and locker rooms. These letters are going out to schools that receive federal funding.

The bottom line is that schools can't discriminate against transgender students, but they can do additional measures to protect them. The letter says schools are supposed to respond to harassment and treat the students according to their chosen gender identity. It allows -- doesn't mandate, but allows -- schools to provide additional privacy options for students according to the guidelines. Though students are not required to use shared bathrooms or changing rooms if other options are available.

It also allows these students to participate in so-called gender- segregated activities and facilities. And, again, the schools can take steps to protect privacy.

This letter is not supposed to have the force of law. It's more of an interpretation of law but at a time when the federal government and the state of North Carolina have filed dueling lawsuits over related matters. One more sign the administration is hitting this hard as a civil rights issue.

Back to you.

CUOMO: Far from over, though. Joe Johns, thank you very much.

An Alabama Death Row inmate is not going to be executed. A divided Supreme Court maintaining a stay that was ordered for Vernon Madison by an appellate court. The 65-year-old inmate was slated to be put to death for gunning down an officer in 1985. But court officials halted the action, saying it wanted to review claims that Madison is mentally incompetent because of strokes and dementia.

[07:15:07] BERMAN: The Navy commander of ten American soldiers who wandered into Iran's territorial waters back in January has now been relieved of his duties and reassigned. A Navy official tells the Associated Press the commander, Eric Rasch, failed to provide effective leadership. The U.S. sailors were detained by Iran about 15 hours. This diplomatic mess almost caused a last-minute snag in securing the Iran nuclear deal.

KEILAR: Pope Francis signaling women could one day be ordained as deacons. In a meeting with heads of women's religious groups, the pope said the Vatican should look into the role of women, though it wasn't clear whether he meant roles in the past or in the future. Women, especially in the U.S., have been asking the church for decades to consider a larger role for them in the church.

CUOMO: The big sticking point there, obviously, is will you be clergy or not? The pope has been very open in saying women have always been key in the church; they do so much. He's trying to get away from some of the sticky points of what you actually call it. But that's exactly what women are pushing for.

All right. Bernie Sanders promises to push on in the Democratic race, but that is pulling Hillary Clinton to the left -- or not. Is that what's going on right now in this primary? And is it going to affect her adversely in the general? The plus/minus, when we come back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:20:23] KEILAR: Well, Hillary Clinton is so close to the Democratic nomination, she can practically taste it, but Bernie Sanders refusing to give in, telling supporters that a Clinton nomination would be a disaster, would court disaster and saying that he's fighting for the soul of the Democratic Party.

Let's discuss now with Brad Woodhouse. He is a Hillary Clinton supporter, and he's also former communications director for the DNC.

OK. So, Brad, as you see this, what do you think the dangers are of Bernie Sanders staying in this race or continuing to hit Hillary Clinton in the way that we've been seeing him criticize her at this point?

BRAD WOODHOUSE, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, DNC: Well, look, Brianna, I think Bernie Sanders, and I think we've always said, Bernie Sanders should stay in this race. He should stay in it, through the -- if that's what he wants to do. No one's asked him to get out. He should stay in it through the remaining caucuses and primaries.

On the other side, I think the type of rhetoric we saw yesterday out of his campaign and -- and what he said and what his campaign said about her nomination being a disaster is really beyond the pale.

I mean, what we've seen is that Donald Trump is taking Bernie Sanders' words. He's literally quoting him on the campaign trail. He's saying, "Bernie Sanders said, 'X.' Bernie Sanders said, 'Y.'"

And, you know, I don't think Bernie Sanders wants to be the subject of Republican attacks against Hillary Clinton. I don't think he wants to be used in television ads in the fall against Hillary Clinton.

So I think he should do what Hillary Clinton is doing. For the last several weeks, Hillary Clinton hasn't engaged with Bernie Sanders or attacked Bernie Sanders. She's turned her attention to contrasting her view of America with Donald Trump's view of America, and that -- that's exactly what we would hope Bernie Sanders would do, rather than attacking Hillary Clinton.

Now, the Sanders campaign would say that is not exactly a representation of what Jeff Weaver's fund-raising would say. Bernie Sanders was asked about this. He that, you know, he thinks that Hillary -- he's not saying that Hillary Clinton cannot beat Donald Trump, but he thinks that he is a stronger candidate.

And he's specifically looking at some poll numbers where you match up Hillary Clinton against Donald Trump in some key states, like Florida, like Ohio, like Pennsylvania, where it shows that if you look at Clinton, it's pretty narrow, for instance, in Florida, very narrow in Pennsylvania, and then when you go ahead and look how Bernie Sanders is doing versus Trump, it's still narrow in Florida, but he's doing better and he's doing much better in Pennsylvania.

You're looking at those numbers, as well. How do you respond to that, when Bernie Sanders at every stump speech is saying, "Look, I do better against Donald Trump than Hillary Clinton does"?

WOODHOUSE: Brianna, I think it's ridiculous. I think it's a joke. I think it makes no sense whatsoever. There has not been one penny of negative advertising run against Bernie Sanders. I don't think in the history of modern presidential politics anyone has had it easier in a presidential primary than Bernie Sanders has.

Hillary Clinton hasn't run a negative ad against him. He hasn't been the subject of negative ads on the Republican side. She's been getting it from -- getting it from all sides. I think if his entire record and all those positions he's ever taken in his entire life were subject to the type of attacks that Hillary Clinton has been under, I don't think he could ever sustain those numbers. I don't -- you know, so he's not been vetted in the same way that Hillary Clinton has been vetted. He has not been attacked or the subject of scrutiny...

KEILAR: Wait, wait. He's been criticized by the candidate herself, a one-message candidate, she called him. She said he was unprepared. So it's not as if her campaign hasn't taken shots at Bernie Sanders in this case. Do you think...

WOODHOUSE: Well...

KEILAR: Sorry. Go on?

WOODHOUSE: Go ahead.

KEILAR: I was going to say...

WOODHOUSE: Go ahead.

KEILAR: Do you think that there is, perhaps, a positive of him being in this and that he can illuminate some of her faults that maybe she needs to deal with going into the general election?

WOODHOUSE: Well, look, I think there's a positive in terms of he's brought an important voice. He's brought up important issues, he's obviously brought a lot of energy to this race, and I think what now we need to do is what the Republicans are so far failing to do on their side is, we need to unify our party.

The most dangerous threat to America right now is the prospect that Donald Trump could be the next commander in chief. That he could appoint a Supreme Court justice that would agree that we should ban all Muslims, that we should criminalize abortion, we should throw women in jail for having reproductive rights.

And so, you know, what I think we need to do is unify on the Democratic side. He should stay in the race. He should talk about the issues that he -- that he cares about. But right now his criticisms of Hillary Clinton, given the fact that he's mathematically eliminated from capturing the nomination in the remaining contests, are just playing into the hands of Donald Trump.

[07:25:08] KEILAR: And let's look at -- let's look at the math for the pledged delegates, because we have it here, and what it would show is that it's not just pledged delegates, but all of the delegates and the super delegates. You see Hillary Clinton is leading there.

And in the percentages, she needs 16 percent of the remaining delegates at stake to win the nomination. He needs 102 percent. Now, that's overall. He would need about 67 percent of remaining pledged delegates to catch up to her pledged delegates count, but how do you make the case that he just kind of needs to lay back and not be in it to win it when Hillary Clinton had the math against her eight years ago, and she was leveling serious critiques against then-Senator Obama? It wasn't like she was tapping the brakes.

WOODHOUSE: Well, Look at 2008, the math was far different.

KEILAR: It was still -- it was still -- she was basically eliminated at a certain point, and she still was continuing her attacks.

WOODHOUSE: Well, the race was -- the race was much, was much closer. I mean, he is, as you said, mathematically eliminated from capturing -- capturing the nomination.

Look, there's also a difference here, Brianna, in going out and talking about -- talk about policy differences. His campaign sent an e-mail out yesterday saying her nomination would be -- would be a disaster. I mean, that is -- that is playing into Donald Trump's hands. That is beyond just, you know, contrasting their plans for college or their plans for health care. And I don't think it's productive as we go forward.

But by all means, Bernie Sanders should stay in the race. He should talk about -- talk about issues, but she's turned her attention on Donald Trump. I think Bernie Sanders recognizes that Donald Trump is a threat to the future of the United States if he became commander in chief. He should spend at least some of his time talking about that threat and not just playing into Donald Trump's hands by attacking Hillary Clinton.

KEILAR: And we will be talking to Bernie Sanders's campaign manager ahead, Jeff Weaver, as well.

Brad Woodhouse, thank you so much. We appreciate you being with us.

WOODHOUSE: Thank you.

KEILAR: Chris.

CUOMO: All right. The GOP may have a brand-new leader, but where does the Republican platform go with Donald Trump in the driver's seat? That's the question. Answers ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)