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Clinton Wins Kentucky, Sanders Takes Oregon; Trump Willing to Meet with North Korean Leader. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired May 18, 2016 - 07:00   ET

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

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So, you know, Hillary and Bernie, they can promise all the free college that they want, but we need somebody with real world business experience who understands the nuts and bolts of how those people are going to have jobs once they get out of college.

[07:00:13] CAMEROTA: Panel, go get some more bagels. We have many more questions for you. Thanks so much for all of that.

CUOMO: There's also fruit.

There's a lot of news this morning that we're following, including this increasing anxiety inside the Democratic Party. Let's get to it.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D-FL), DNC CHAIR: No one should be subjected to death threats.

JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN: It was a pretty unfair spectacle.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE; There's no end to the threats and the vile comments.

WEAVER: We are not going to allow the millions of people who supported Bernie Sanders to be sort of rolled over.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I say to the leadership of the Democratic Party, open the doors! Let the people in!

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We may not always agree, but that doesn't mean we can't work together.

SANDERS: We are going to continue to fight for every last vote.

SEN. JEFF SESSIONS (R), ALABAMA: There's nobody who understands how to negotiate more effectively than Donald Trump.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I would -- I would speak to him. I have no problem in speaking to him.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To attempt that may be worth the effort.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Trump and the RNC announced joint fundraising agreements last night.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: What we want is real unification.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CAMEROTA: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY.

It was razor-thin, but Hillary Clinton takes the Kentucky primary by a nose. The Democratic front-runner could not hold off Bernie Sanders, though, in Oregon, and as the primary fight continues, a battle brewing between Sanders supporters and the party establishment now has Democrats concerned about chaos at their convention.

CUOMO: How well do I know Camerota? You wanted to make a horse racing joke with the Kentucky won by a nose. True or false?

CAMEROTA: Completely.

CUOMO: I heard the pause. It's just too early. Next hour, you would have nailed it.

All right. So for the Republicans, presumptive GOP nominee Donald Trump with another win in Oregon. Trump making news, saying he'd be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un, and he also closed the deal with the RNC to accept campaign donations for the general election. These are going to have big implications, and we have it covered all the way only CNN can.

Let's begin with Christine Romans with a look at the results in the delegate race. Maybe you can make the horse racing joke.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: No. No cliches, no puns here.

Hillary Clinton got the wins she needed but barely. The margin, razor-thin. Narrowly winning in Kentucky. Fewer than 2,000 votes. In Oregon, Senator Bernie Sanders with a more decisive win there, taking 54 percent of vote to Clinton's 45 percent. That's his 20th state victory.

Now, despite winning fewer delegates than Sanders last night, Clinton is now just 89 delegates shy of clinching the nomination, if we include the super delegates. It remains mathematically impossible for Sanders to win with pledged delegates here.

On the Republican side, the last man standing, Donald Trump, took just about 67 percent of the vote in Oregon. That victory awards Trump 18 delegates. The presumptive GOP nominee, just 62 delegates shy of making it official. That margin, however, is greater than the margin of -- the number of delegates at stake in the next Republican contest, meaning it will take until June 7 to reach the magic number, Chris.

CUOMO: All right. So we had Hillary Clinton's razor-thin win in Kentucky, Bernie Sanders's decisive win in Oregon. Both are looking ahead now to delegate-rich California, and both think they can win that state. CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns live in Washington with more -- Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Chris, it was a narrow victory for Hillary Clinton in Kentucky, but all she needed to be able to claim that she's broken the string of victories by Bernie Sanders in multiple primaries and caucuses, and the Clinton win in the Bluegrass State makes a statement about her ability to attract votes in Appalachia. She's now within fewer than 100 delegates of what she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination.

But Bernie Sanders for his part picking up a win in progressive- leaning Oregon, making it clear he has no intention of dropping out of the race, even though there are increasing concerns in the party that his staying the course all the way through the June 7 California primary is creating chaos and anger in the run-up to the Democratic convention.

Listen to Sanders last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: Many of the pundits and politicians, they say, "Bernie Sanders should drop out. The people of California should not have the right to determine who the next president will be."

We are in until the last ballot is cast.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Also breaking overnight, Hillary Clinton releasing her personal financial disclosure statement, which shows that she made about $5 million in royalties for a book and about $1.5 million in speeches in 2015.

That release appeared timed to ping Donald Trump, who also released a disclosure statement yesterday. The Clinton campaign once again trying to draw attention to the fact that Trump has refused to release his income tax returns, because he says he's undergoing a routine audit -- Alisyn.

[07:05:08] CAMEROTA: OK, Joe, thanks so much for all of that.

Bitter in-fighting erupting in the Democratic Party. Bernie Sanders and his supporters frustrated with the primary process they consider unfair. Now some party officials fear that they could have a revolt on their hands at their summer convention.

CNN senior political reporter, Manu Raju, is live in Washington with the latest. Hi, Manu.

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn.

Now, last night Bernie Sanders was in prime form, riling up some 11,000 supporters in Carson, California, with his theory stump speech and promising the battle until the bitter end. So the Democratic establishment knows it's in a pickle. The party

needs Sanders's passionate supporters to come out in November, but many leading Hillary Clinton supporters say the longer Sanders stays in the race, the harder it will be to unite their party.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: The senator's response was anything but acceptable.

RAJU (voice-over): Overnight, Bernie Sanders getting slammed by Democratic leaders, calling for Sanders to rein in his supporters after this weekend's chaotic state convention in Nevada, telling Chris Cuomo...

WASSERMAN SCHULTZ: After the word "but," you go on to seemingly justify the reason that -- that the violence and intimidation occurs, then that falls short of -- of making sure that, going forward, this kind of conduct doesn't occur in the future.

SANDERS: I say to the leadership of the Democratic Party, open the doors. Let the people in!

RAJU: But Sanders is claiming Democratic leaders used their power during the convention to, quote, "prevent a fair and transparent process from taking place."

JEFF WEAVER, SANDERS CAMPAIGN MANAGER: The leadership there that was running it was not following the rules. They were overruling voice votes on the floor to get the result they wanted.

RAJU: Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid, who spoke to Sanders yesterday, is angrily dismissing Sanders's claim of a rigged system, telling CNN, "It's a silly statement."

SEN. BARBARA BOXER (D), CALIFORNIA: When you boo me, you're booing Bernie Sanders. Go ahead.

RAJU: And Senator Barbara Boxer, a Clinton supporter, seen here trying to calm the convention's raging crowd, tells CNN that Sanders has to, quote, "get things under control."

WEAVER: We do not condone any kind of violence or threats. That's unacceptable. Bad language. We don't -- that's unacceptable.

RAJU: The anger didn't stop Saturday. The chairwoman of the Nevada Democratic Party receiving over 1,000 angry calls. Even death threats.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People like you should be hung in a public execution to show this world that we won't stand for this sort of corruption.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

RAJU: In the aftermath of the Nevada episode, patience is wearing thin on Capitol Hill. Dianne Feinstein, a veteran Democrat who backs Hillary Clinton, told me yesterday that Bernie Sanders should drop out in June after voting concludes to avoid a messy convention. Jeff Merkley, Bernie Sanders's lone Senate supporter, has said the same thing to me.

The question is whether party leaders will start to make similar pleas. Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Senate Democrat, would not call on Sanders to quit when I asked about it yesterday, and neither would Harry Reid.

But both men, Chris, want Bernie Sanders to help unify the party, assuming Hillary Clinton wins the nomination.

CUOMO: Manu, very interesting intrigue afoot.

Let's discuss. We have Senator Debbie Stabenow now. She's a Democrat from Michigan who supports Hillary Clinton. Very good to have you with us, Senator, as always. What do you make of the state of play within the Democratic Party?

SEN. DEBBIE STABENOW (D), MICHIGAN: Well, Chris, first of all, I want to congratulate Bernie for his win in Oregon last night and glad to see my friend Hillary was successful in a tight race in Kentucky.

But I was on the other side of this eight years ago, supporting Hillary, and she won seven of the last ten races in the states, and came up short on the numbers, and that's what's happening for Bernie.

We have two great people in the race: passionate, actually people who are contrary to Donald Trump, who wants to repeal health care for 20 million people. We're just debating how to get to universal health care. That's what we've shared in terms of our focus and debating about those kinds of things.

But the reality is that Hillary has the votes to be our nominee. I'm very excited about that. And what we're going to need is to have everybody come together. And I understand when emotions are high and there's a lot of passion around it, but I also would remind folks that Bernie has an incredibly important role to play in the United States Senate.

We sit on two committees together. One's the budget committee. He comes back, we get the majority, and he will be chairman of the Senate Budget Committee, no small thing. And he'll be able to continue to focus and fight for the things he cares about.

CUOMO: One of the concerns that I hear from members of your party about what's going on is that what happened in 2008? You had Hillary Clinton with her pedigree then, wasn't secretary of state, but still had quite the portfolio compared to then-Senator Obama. But it was the hope and change, the momentum, the energy that carried him through.

[07:10:17] Many people see that in Bernie Sanders right now. While you're correct, Senator, that the math is different, you know, for Sanders than for Clinton. STABENOW: Right.

CUOMO: And is similar to the position that Clinton was in, in 2008, once again, Clinton is confronted by somebody who has a lot of momentum, arguably more than she, based on hope and change. And that that's what you would face in a general election with Donald Trump, while Democrats might criticize his type of hope and change.

Is there concern for you that Clinton is against something that she has trouble dealing with in an election?

STABENOW: Well, first of all, Chris, let me remind everybody that Hillary Clinton has won more than 3 million -- 3 million more votes than Bernie Sanders, and so she has people coming out to actually vote for her, in larger numbers.

Do we need to bring everybody together? Do we need to have young people with us and high energy with us? Of course we do, and, again, we're talking about how do you get to free college, where there's debt-free versus free? They're talking about doing away -- the other side, the Republicans, doing away with the Department of Education completely. Stopping Pell grants, student loans, all of these things.

So the differences between what we care about are so small, we're debating how to get to where we all want to go.

And you're talking about, a little earlier on your show, talking about Donald Trump wanting to meet with the dictator of North Korea, while he is offending all of our allies? I mean, this is a guy who really does think that running the Miss Universe contest is foreign policy experience. It's unbelievable.

So once we get to the general, and it's clear what we're talking about here, a bully on one side who has absolutely no experience or business representing the president of the United States on a world stage, versus two people who want to get to the same place that have different ideas on how to get there, I think that it's going to be clear and people are going to come together.

CUOMO: I think that's a better problem for you to have, as well, because what you have right now is people in Nevada, Senator, throwing chairs at the stage where, you know, you have Senator Barbara Boxer on there, shouting back at the crowd. Those are Democrats in there, yelling at other Democrats. They're not talking about Donald Trump. They're talking about whether or not the party is being open and fair to what is certainly a significant movement.

And again, your point is well taken. Clinton has gotten 3 million more votes, approximately.

However, the momentum and the energy is what is fueling Sanders. What does the party need to do to come together? Should Debbie Wasserman Schultz have reached out to Bernie Sanders instead of Harry Reid?

STABENOW: Well, first of all, it's appropriate for Senator Reid, who's someone who has worked with Bernie Sanders for years, to reach out. Bernie's a member of our caucus, and we care deeply and are looking forward to working with him when he comes back...

CUOMO: It's not a snub?

STABENOW: ... to be an important leader.

CUOMO: It's not a snub that it wasn't the head of the party?

STABENOW: I don't think so.

I -- also I have to say, look, what happened in Nevada, Chris, was terrible. There's no question about it, and we can debate who was there and, you know, there was reports folks that weren't even from Nevada, weren't registered voters that were trying to get in, and to do things, and when they were told no, folks got angry.

And so I understand all of the emotions, and I don't know all the details. I do know death threats, throwing chairs, not OK. And I know that -- I know that Bernie doesn't think that's OK.

So somehow, deep breath. We need to get back to focusing on the real, the real fight here in terms of what's going to happen in the future of the country. And I don't want somebody who's making his products in China and then pretends to be for the middle class having an opportunity to be president of the United States without all of us being unified.

CUOMO: Senator calling for cooler heads within the party and focusing on Trump. Thank you for coming on NEW DAY to make the case, as always -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump putting forward a controversial foreign policy idea, the presumptive Republican nominee says he would be willing to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un for nuclear talks. This comes as Trump hands out a plan with the GOP, ending the days of self- financing his campaign.

CNN's Phil Mattingly has been following all of this and joins us now.

Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Alisyn.

Well, Donald Trump is scheduled to meet today with former secretary of state Henry Kissinger. The presumptive GOP nominee and the Republican Party's preeminent foreign policy elder statesman, well, they've got something new to talk about: North Korea. Trump telling Reuters in an interview Tuesday that he would be willing to sit down and speak directly with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un. A significant shift in U.S. policy toward the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I would speak to him. I would have no problem speaking to him. At the same time, I would put a lot of pressure on China, because economically, we have tremendous power over China. China can solve that problem with one meeting or one phone call. (END VIDEO CLIP)

[07:15:10] MATTINGLY: Now guys, as it currently stands, senior U.S. officials do engage with North Korean counterparts, but direct talks between the two country's leaders not on the table, not really under consideration at all.

Trump also took a key step yesterday toward unifying his own party. Trump's campaign and the Republican National Committee reaching a joint fund-raising agreement, a crucial deal that aids -- sorry, that aids GOP candidates up and down the ballot as well as the Republican Party on the whole.

Now, that deal allows top GOP donors to write checks for up to $449,400. A pot of money that would be split between Trump's campaign, the party, and 11 different state parties.

Now, this is something Trump advisers and top RNC officials have been working to put together, really, since Trump became the presumptive nominee. And it's another example of Trump's shift away way from his self-funding stance, one that also makes clear he's willing to make deals with a party that, for really, much of the last year, Chris, he has trashed.

CUOMO: Point well made. Thank you very much. Phil Mattingly, as always.

The U.S. and Russia announcing that they're prepared to air drop emergency aid to war-torn towns in Syria. This is good news. However, if President Bashar al-Assad continues blocking humanitarian supplies to his own people, then what?

That announcement coming from Secretary of State John Kerry and his Russian counterpart, Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, after the latest round of sputtering progress in Syrian peace talks.

CAMEROTA: Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto wants to legalize same-sex marriage across the country. Right now only Mexico City and a few states have marriage equality laws. Mexico's congress would need to approve a nationwide change, and that is expected to happen later this year.

CUOMO: A dramatic roadside rescue in Alaska. Anchorage, specifically. Captured by a police dashboard camera. The officer, three bystanders working to get this driver out of a car that flipped over and caught fire. They rocked the vehicle. That's how they freed the man's arm, which had been trapped, and they got him out through the sunroof. Police say about a minute later, the car engulfed in flames. Literally, in the nick of time. That cop, those people, doing the right thing. Otherwise, who knows?

CAMEROTA: Oh, my gosh. Thank goodness for good Samaritans. We see examples of this all the time. Just angels.

OK. On that note, we'll move on. Donald Trump planning to raise money now jointly with the RNC. Will the big donors start opening their wallets for him? We will talk to two-time presidential candidate Steve Forbes about all of this, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:44] CAMEROTA: All right. After boasting for months about self-funding his campaign, Donald Trump's campaign officially announcing that he is teaming up with the RNC to set up two committees to now accept donations. Donors can cut a check for almost half a million dollars each to fund Trump's general-election fight.

Let's talk about this and so much more with Steve Forbes, chairman and editor-in-chief of Forbes Media, who ran for president as a Republican in 1996 and 2000.

Mr. Forbes, thanks for being here.

STEVE FORBES, CHAIRMAN/EDITOR IN CHIEF, FORBES MEDIA: Good to be here. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: OK, so let's talk about this news. Donald Trump has made it a badge of honor, that he's going to be self-funding his campaign. Last night, he's announced that he will be accepting donations. Is this a flip-flop? A significant flip-flop or no?

FORBES: Well, it's no surprise. Because it's one thing to have real- estate assets, quite another to have the cash. And the cash, you're going to need hundreds of millions of dollars. Clearly, he did not have that at hand.

So the thing is, I don't think coming now, nobody is going to think Donald Trump is in throes or owes anything to anybody. He's clearly, as the statements almost each day made clear, he says what he wants to say and is not going to be beholden to anybody or anything. And so I think he can get away with it.

CAMEROTA: Donald Trump has not released his taxes, his tax returns yet. Should he?

FORBES: I would have advocated doing it months ago, just get the thing out of the way.

CAMEROTA: He says he's being audited so he can't.

FORBES: Well, he's got the returns from previous years that he could have released, as well, or he could have had it audited from a reputable financial firm, saying here's what his income was, blah, blah, blah, to just put it out there.

But again, I don't think it's going to hurt him the way it would hurt another candidate.

CAMEROTA: Why not?

FORBES: Because for -- when he entered this race, keep in mind, he had the highest name recognition of any candidate out there. Higher than Jeb Bush, 93 percent. He was already a rock star, so to speak. Being on TV for year after year after year as the authoritative figure on business, you wanted to get his approval.

CAMEROTA: On a hit show, "The Apprentice."

FORBES: A huge, huge hit. And so he had that reputation. So in terms of success, he's seen as successful. And in terms of taxes, people figuring, yes, used the tax code. He knows what's bad in it. Therefore, he's in a better position to cure it, because he knows how bad it is.

CAMEROTA: So given that, what do you think is in the taxes? Do you think that there's some sort of smoking gun that he doesn't want people to see?

FORBES: I don't think there's -- if there was fraud, the IRS would have been on him already. There would have been a criminal investigation. But in terms of how he used depreciation and the like, who knows? And I think what you're going to -- could find is, in the next few months, the equivalent of a WikiLeaks. A lot of this stuff is going to be out there anyway, in a very selective way.

CAMEROTA: Is that right? You think that something is going to be leaked?

FORBES: I -- I just don't trust the federal government. I don't trust keeping that information secret.

CAMEROTA: OK. You heard it here first, folks.

He did, however, release his financial disclosure form. He said that his net worth is $10 billion. His income in 2015, was $557 million, he says.

You at "Forbes" magazine look into people's net worth all the time. What do you -- do you think he's worth $10 billion?

FORBES: We came out with the number $4.5 billion, and to most people, $4.5, 10, 20, what's the difference?

CAMEROTA: What is the difference? Do you think there's a difference?

FORBES: The big difference is how you value his brand. We take the position with him and anyone else that your name may have value, but the key thing is how do you monetize it? When you monetize it, we count it. Oprah, same thing. Her name has a real brand value. But until you monetize it, we don't count it. So that's our criteria. That's the biggest difference.

CAMEROTA: Have you endorsed Donald Trump yet?

FORBES: I said I'll support the Republican nominee, and unless something, the meteor hits the earth, he's going to be the Republican nominee.

CAMEROTA: That's a little different than a full-throated endorsement. What's -- what's your reservation? FORBES: With all the candidates, the reason I didn't endorse any of

the candidates, none of them pulled together what I thought would be a real Reagan-esque pro-growth platform to get the party moving again.

Ted Cruz came out with a flat tax, but he didn't lead with it. Others had some good ideas on health care, didn't lead with it. They didn't put it out front.

Give Trump credit, whether you agree on immigration or China or anything else, he put it out front. This is the way we're going to turn things around. The other 16, bland. And so they just...

CAMEROTA: You wanted bold -- you like bold proclamations?

FORBES: I like what Ronald Reagan did in 1980, when he said he was going to cut income taxes across the board 30 percent. I like what Kemp did and others have done, putting it out there. Paul Ryan, putting it out there.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

FORBES: Something positive that will get this economy moving again.

CAMEROTA: So what gives you pause about Trump's candidacy?

FORBES: Well, in terms of, he's got spell out -- and I will support him -- what is he going to do about taxes? He came up with a proposal a few weeks, a few months ago, but then he said, "Well, maybe we're going to tweak it. Maybe not." He's got to spell it out and show that this is a coherent thing. I think he will, and this is where I think the Democrats underestimate him.

Because he's the outsider, because he's always talking about getting -- making America great again, he's seen as a break with the present and the past, and Hillary Clinton's real challenge is, she's seen as part of the status quo, part of the past. And Democrats think they're going to have a romp -- a romp against Donald Trump. I think they're underestimating the mood of the electorate today.

CAMEROTA: You want more specifics on his economic policy. Do you think he's been specific in other things? Foreign policy, taxes? I mean, everything?

FORBES: Again, on foreign policy, maybe we should talk to North Korea, but he's got to do it in a context where the thing has been thought out, what the impact is going to be on South Korea, what the impact on Japan is going to be. You just can't toss the -- now that he's presumptive nominee, he's got to understand, now that he's presumptive nominee, everything he says now takes on a greater weight and gravity ever it did when on the campaign trail.

So he's got to flush these things out before he puts them out there. And that, I think, if he does that, then I think he'll be a very formidable candidate.

CAMEROTA: Who should he pick as his V.P.? FORBES: I don't think even he knows. You know, he can't pick

himself, and so...

CAMEROTA: That would be his first choice.

FORBES: But -- but you could -- you could make a case for Rob Portman in Ohio. You could make a case for Nikki Haley and for others. So I think he's churning that over now, and when they say he's got a list of five or ten, he's got a list of infinity, and they -- he hasn't made a determination yet.

CAMEROTA: Steve Forbes, thanks so much for being here on NEW DAY. Great to have you in-studio.

FORBES: Good to be with you. Thank you.

CAMEROTA: Let's get to Chris.

CUOMO: From one side of the ball to the other, Bernie Sanders once again promising to keep his campaign going despite long odds. Is that hurting the party, and could the actions of some of his supporters upend the convention? Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)