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Severe Holiday Storm Slams the East Coast; Computer Server Crash Triggers Chaos at JFK; Trump Rallies Vets in Washington; Sanders Defiantly Remains in Race; Clinton Struggling to Find Strategy to Fight Trump? Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired May 30, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The water level comes up to almost our knees.

[05:59:06] JEFF OWENS, NORTH CAROLINA PARK RANGER: A lot of rip currents. The undertow is pretty strong.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Lightning striking everywhere. It's just really violent, and I don't feel safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The day's been crazy. Water rescues, people in their vehicles.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hillary thinks the V.A. is doing good.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He goes around talking about, he wants to have a great American military. Well, we have the best in the world.

TRUMP: We're going to rebuild our military. We're going to make it bigger and bigger and better and stronger.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to fight until the last vote is cast.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, my God!

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A child has crawled into the gorilla exchange (ph).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He certainly was at risk. It seems very unfortunate a lethal shot was required.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to a special Memorial Day edition of NEW DAY. It's Monday, May 30. It's 6 a.m. in the east. Please, take a moment today to remember all those who sacrificed their freedoms for ours. We begin with severe weather this morning, Tropical Storm Bonnie,

stalling out, soaking the Carolinas. The holiday spoiler now creeping up the East Coast. Heavy rain, gusting winds and dangerous rip currents. We've already seen flash flooding before some dramatic rescues and water levels that got so high some roads, including stretches of Interstate 95, had to be closed.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Now a different violent storm producing torrential rain and flooding in central Texas and parts of Kansas that have killed at least six people. The weather another complication for holiday travelers already worried about long lines at airports after a computer crash at one of the country's busiest airports.

We have all of the angles covered for you. First up, CNN's meteorologist Jennifer Gray. She joins us live from Hilton Head, South Carolina. How's it looking there, Jennifer?

JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Well, Alisyn, a gorgeous morning in Hilton Head, South Carolina, but the past few days have been anything but. We were in Charleston for several days, and the rain came down, beginning late Saturday, and continued all day yesterday and then traveling from Charleston to here yesterday.

People were stuck in their cars for hours on I-95, as it was shut down from the wee hours of the morning, all the way through the afternoon and evening hours as people had to detour around to get around the flood.

So Bonnie was just the beginning. We had wild weather across the country over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GRAY (voice-over): This morning, rescue crews in parts of the South continuing to search for those it swept away by the deadly flash floods over the weekend.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We just hope it doesn't rise anymore.

GRAY: The rushing water enveloping cars and homes in Texas after severe thunder storms drop record-setting rain, rapidly generating dangerous flood waters. The city of Brenham, where at least two people were killed by the flood inundated with more than 19 inches of record-shattering rainfall in 48 hours.

PHILLIP KRAUSS, FIREFIGHTER EMT: When you see flooded waterways, it doesn't take much water to cause injury.

GRAY: The floods in Southeast Texas killing at least six people. One of the victims, 21-year-old Darren Mitchell, posting this haunting picture of water halfway up his truck window. According to CNN affiliate KPRC, the caption, "All I wanted to do was go home."

The National Guardsman swept away not long after.

A few hours northwest of Houston, the search is still ongoing for a 10-year-old boy who slipped and fell into this swollen river. In the East, Tropical Depression Bonnie, dampening holiday plans for millions in the Carolinas. The system stalling near Charleston with 30 mile- per-hour winds and up to four inches of rainfall. Along South Carolina's beaches the storm creating surf and rip current conditions that could be life-threatening. Lifeguards already rescuing at least a dozen over the weekend.

OWENS: There's been a lot of rip currents. The undertow is pretty strong. So we're just keeping people at knee deep. There's no swimming allowed right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

GRAY: So, Alisyn, people will definitely be able to salvage their Memorial Day. The weather definitely improving today. Of course, rip currents will continue to be a problem points north from here, especially as that storm continues to track to the north -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Good reminder, Jennifer, about rip currents, because it does look beautiful, starting to be beautiful where you are. Thanks so much for all of that.

So where is Tropical Depression Bonnie headed next? Let's get to meteorologist Chad Myers for a look at your Memorial Day forecast.

Hi, Chad.

CHAD MYERS, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Hi, Alisyn.

It's moving up into North Carolina and eventually even into New York City, now not with the center of circulation, but we will see rainfall into New York all day today.

I know it's not going to be a picnic kind of day, but Bonnie now, now down near Charleston, eventually near Myrtle Beach and eventually up near Raleigh, spreading rainfall and spreading those rip currents that onshore wind pushes water to the shore. And all of a sudden, that water has to go back offshore. That's the weather that can push you offshore, if you're caught in those currents.

Here's what the future radar looks like. Bad news, Philly, D.C., Atlantic City, all the way up to Providence. We will see heavy rainfall today, and I know, maybe you're hoping for better weather for a picnic. But maybe that picnic needs to be under the shelter. See if it's not too late to go reserve that shelter at your local park, because you just might need it.

But for the rest of the country, though, we aren't really looking all that bad. We're going to see temperatures, really, in the 60s, 70s and the 80s. And we will see 85 degrees in some spots across the northeast. We'll even see 86 down in Miami, but 80 in Washington, D.C.

Try to enjoy your day. Run between the rain drops, but it will be wet at times.

Guys, back to you.

CUOMO: All right, Seth, thank you very -- Seth? Chad, thank you very much. I was thinking Seth Myers instead of Chad Myers.

CAMEROTA: He's just at funny.

MYERS: I just want some money.

CUOMO: But you bring -- you bring us something he can't. You bring us the information we need, especially on a day like this. One of the busiest travel days of the year, and a lot of you are watching in airports; and it may not be a great day.

[06:05:03] This is one of the toughest travel days. You've got some long delays coming, because of the weather but also because of a computer crash at JFK Airport in New York. So this might be some nightmare over the next 24 hours.

We've got CNN aviation correspondent Rene Marsh tracking the latest developments live from Washington. What do we know, my friend?

RENE MARSH, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know that the problem started yesterday, Chris. This computer crash is causing significant delays. That's according to the airport.

Passengers have to be manually checked in because of this glitch. The failure, though, is only affecting one terminal, terminal 7, which is operated by British Airways, but delays at such a major hub like JFK can cause those ripple effects at other airports.

We do know, at last check, the issue has not been resolved. At the height of all of this, 1,500 passengers were waiting to be checked in manually. Of course, Chris, this comes at the worst possible time, a busy time of the weekend, heading into the busy travel summer season.

About 231 million passengers are expected to fly over the next few weeks. So when you have a situation like that, a downed computer, checking people in manually, it makes for a very nightmarish situation -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: It sure does, Rene. Thanks so much for that reporting.

Let's talk about politics. A lot happening over the weekend. Donald Trump spending the holiday rallying veterans at a Rolling Thunder biker event in the nation's capital. Trump also taking aim at a new target on Twitter after a cryptic message about a third-party candidate.

Let's go live to Washington and CNN's Sara Murray. It's been an intriguing weekend thus far, Sara.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Alisyn. Donald Trump make the trek to Washington, D.C., to honor our vets, and he's been sort of settling into this role as the presumptive Republican nominee, but all of this comes as he may face a host of new challengers. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: We're going to rebuild our military, and we're going to take care of our veterans.

MURRAY (voice-over): Donald Trump making the case to veterans at the annual Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally, a tribute to the armed forces.

TRUMP: Illegal immigrants are taking much care, really are taking much better care by this country than our veterans, and that's not going to happen.

MURRAY: Trump, insisting the undocumented immigrants he plans to deport are treated better than veteran, and after months of scrutiny, also promising to explain where the $6 million he says he raised for veterans' charities went.

TRUMP: We're announcing on Tuesday all of the groups that we put up this money, and we raised this tremendous amount of money, because we love the vets.

MURRAY: This as the presumptive nominee is battling new efforts to derail his presidential campaign.

"Weekly Standard" editor Bill Kristol teasing a possible independent opponent, in a continued effort to stop Trump, tweeting, "There be will an independent candidate, an impressive one with a strong team and a real chance."

Trump unleashing his anger in a series of tweets, calling Kristol a dummy and an embarrassed loser, warning the Republican Party to unify behind him if it wants to win in November.

COREY LEWANDOWSKI, TRUMP CAMPAIGN MANAGER: A third party run by any candidate is a complete disaster, and you're handing over the White House to the Democrats.

MURRAY: The Libertarian Party also locking down their ticket, selecting two former Republican governors, New Mexico's Gary Johnson and Massachusetts' Bill Weld, to challenge both parties' candidates, especially Trump.

GARY JOHNSON, LIBERTARIAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Taking him on when he says that Mexicans are murderers and rapists, when -- I mean, it's incendiary. Call him out on what is really racist. It's just racist.

MURRAY: But for now, the Trump campaign is staying laser-focused on the Clintons.

PAUL MANAFORT, TRUMP CAMPAIGN CHAIRMAN AND CHIEF STRATEGIST: Trouble follows the Clintons everywhere. People are frustrated with all the drama around the Clinton family.

If they're going to be back in the political milieu, then their history is relevant to what the American people can expect. (END VIDEOTAPE)

MURRAY: Now, that Rolling Thunder motorcycle rally over the weekend is specifically designed to remember people who are taken as prisoners of war or listed as missing in action.

Of course, Donald Trump has a rather interesting record on this after last year criticizing John McCain, who was a POW, saying, "I prefer people who weren't captured." Despite all that, he still seemed to get a pretty warm reception here in Washington.

Back to you, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, Sara. Do me a favor, stay with us.

Let's bringing in CNN political commentator and senior contributor for "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis. And we have CNN senior political analyst and senior editor of "The Atlantic," Professor Ron Brownstein.

It's great to have you all here with us on Memorial Day.

Matt, let me ask you something, as the resident partisan. The idea of veterans getting better [SIC] treatment than undocumented immigrants here does make you angry, frustrating to hear. True?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know if it's true or not, but clearly, if you look at the V.A. scandal, the way that we've treated our veterans, and the lack of attention that they've gotten, there's a huge problem. And you know, I think that we would probably all, especially on this day, agree with Donald Trump on something, and that is that we need to take better care of the men and women who serve this country.

[06:10:07] CUOMO: Right, but that's not what he's saying. He's saying they get treated better than the veterans.

LEWIS: Yes.

CUOMO: How?

LEWIS: I think -- I just think the two things are -- I mean, this is -- the two things are not, I don't think, should be really conflated. I mean, this is an attempt for him...

CUOMO: I know. That's what I'm asking you.

LEWIS: ... to kind of score political points. Right. Look, I think, you know, if I were Donald Trump, I would stick to the message of taking better care of our veterans and point to the failures of the Obama administration, which are pretty easy to point out in terms of the V.A. scandal.

I don't think you need to talk about immigrants and illegal immigrants to make that point.

CAMEROTA: Ron, let's talk about this third-party run and the intriguing tweet that Bill Kristol sent out over the weekend. Let's just put it up again in case people missed it there in the package. It says...

CUOMO: I love when you put on the glasses.

CAMEROTA: They're just for attitude. Just a heads up over this holiday weekend. There will be an independent candidate, an impressive one, with a strong team and a real chance.

Ron, help us parse this. Who's he talking about?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, we don't know. I mean, look, an impressive team and an impressive candidate, you know, it will be in the eye of the beholder.

I mean, the problem for the third-party candidacy is really twofold. One is that you have very few true swing states. There are only five states decided by five points or more. Most states lean decisive -- pretty decisively one way or the other at this point. And if you run as a third party, you have the risk, even if you do well, that you would finish second to the Democrats and all the blue states and second to the Republicans and all the red states. You can win votes. It's much harder to win states.

And then the other problem is that the Republican base largely is accepting the argument that, in a binary system, you have no choice but to consolidate around your party's nominee. You still have this incredible dissidence at the elite level. The Republican mayor of Miami in "The New York Times" this morning described Donald Trump as a bully who despises people who don't look like him. That is unprecedented that you continue to hear that kind of language for the party's presumptive nominee from leaders in the party.

But for rank-and-file voters, the -- you know, the train may have already left the station in terms of an audience for this third party.

CUOMO: Well, it's unprecedented level of rhetoric we're hearing also.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CUOMO: So everything is kind of new here.

CAMEROTA: Conventional wisdom is not applying at the moment.

CUOMO: Exactly right. So Sara, we have Trump's response to Kristol, right? He went, of course, right to social media, did what he does best, which is come at somebody who's coming at him. And here's what he had to say.

CAMEROTA: I'll read it.

CUOMO: Please.

CAMEROTA: "If dummy Bill Kristol actually does get a spoiler to run as an independent, say good-bye to the Supreme Court." CUOMO: So the obvious threat there from him, that's how he plays

politics in these situations. But does it matter to this calculus that we do have the Libertarian Party that put someone on the ballot? We know that the numbers say over half the electorate, when polled, says they're open to a third choice.

Now you have Gary Johnson, former New Mexico governor; got Bill Weld, former Massachusetts governor. Had to go two ballots there to get it done, but they only register at, like, 10 percent. And they make the argument, "Well, we don't do well because we don't get into the polls, because we're not at 15 percent and it's a circular problem." What is the potential impact?

MURRAY: Well, it's hard to say that they're going to have a big impact. And Chris, I think one of the lessons that we learned from the primaries is that Republican voters, who -- even the ones who didn't like Trump, if they looked at alternatives and didn't feel like these alternatives have an actual path to victory, could actually win, they didn't vote for those candidates.

We had a number of candidates who stayed in the primaries, even though they had no direct path to the nomination, and those folks never really got any traction. Because people didn't want to feel like they were wasting their votes on a spoiler candidate.

They wanted to feel like they were backing someone who could actually win, that their vote actually meant something. And I don't think that that sentiment is going to change overnight just because we're shifting into a general election. I think people are still going to evaluate these candidates and say, "OK, can one of these people actually win?" And it's hard to say that a Libertarian candidate is all of a sudden going to be able to pull something like that off.

CAMEROTA: Matt, let's talk about how "The Washington Post" has been looking for some documents related to Trump University for an investigation they're doing. And a judge has now said that they -- he will allow these documents to be released to "The Washington Post."

Donald Trump is not happy about that, and he has gone after that judge. So listen to what he said over the weekend.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: They have a judge who is a hater of Donald Trump. A hater. He's a hater. His name is Gonzalo Curiel. The judge, who happens to be, we believe, Mexican, which is great. I think that's fine. You know what? I think the Mexicans are going to end up loving Donald Trump when I give all these jobs.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So that judge is American, was born in the United States, and, you know, has a long sort of impressive history. So what's Donald Trump doing there, Matt?

LEWIS: Well, look, I think this is a mistake that he's doing. I mean, it's one thing to say, "We have a judge. We think he's biased against us. We think that, you know, the fix is in." But to bring -- to bring his background, "and we think he's Mexican." Haven't even done the due diligence to make sure that he is. To bring that up is utterly irrelevant, especially you know, in our system where a judge, obviously, should be impartial.

[06:15:15] And so I think it's a mistake to invoke that, to bring that up, and we all -- look, we know that Donald Trump scored points early on by saying these kind of things. But I think we've obviously reached a point of diminishing returns. And, you know, the hope that he's going to pivot at some point rhetorically, I think, has passed us.

But this is just more of the same. And it's -- it's divisive. And really, if you look at the -- sort of the underpinnings of what this does is, it delegitimizes our entire process.

I think it's irresponsible rhetoric for him.

Now, having said that, I don't think the public is ultimately going to care about whether or not Trump University turned out to have been a sham. I think that's one of the things that we talk about that nobody really cares about.

CAMEROTA: All right. Panel, hold on.

BROWNSTEIN: Real quick -- I mean, just real quick, to use the president -- use the nomination of one of the major parties to kind of advance personal vendettas is just extraordinary.

And to describe the judge as a Mexican, born in Indiana, as you say, to point to his race is also -- I mean, this is way beyond the boundaries of what, you know, is normal political discourse in the U.S. And to kind of treat it as though it is normal, I think, would be a tremendous error.

CAMEROTA: OK. Panel, please stick around. We have more to talk to you about.

But first, the newly-minted Libertarian presidential candidate, Gary Johnson, will be live here on NEW DAY tomorrow, and next hour, today, we will be speaking with his running mate, William Weld, about their bid for the presidency.

CUOMO: All right. So Memorial Day is not going to turn out to be a holiday for Bernie Sanders. He's hitting the campaign trail hard in California today, not giving up on winning the nomination but not saying no to being Hillary Clinton's running mate. Now that's interesting.

CNN Washington correspondent Joe Johns live in Washington with more. They had danced around this in several of our interviews, that they were going for the big seat, the brass ring. They're not talking about V.P., but now, a little bit of a shift?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, yes. Non- committal, but still says he's knocking his brains out to win the nomination, and after that we'll see. So to be continued.

But as the race for the California primary continues, Bernie Sanders also tweaking his message this Memorial Day weekend. On the one hand, repeating his mantra that he is firmly against a Donald Trump presidency, but also suggesting that, if frontrunner Hillary Clinton wants party unity and if she wants the support of Sanders supporters, he's said it's her duty to make that happen. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: My job is to make sure that Trump does not become president, and I will do that. But if Secretary Clinton is the nominee, it is her job to reach out to millions of people and make the case as to why she is going to defend working families and the middle class, provide health care to all people, take on Wall Street, deal aggressively with climate change. That is the candidate's job to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: Also Sanders tweaked the language just a bit that he used over the weekend on the controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton's use of a private server for e-mails while she was secretary of state. In the past, he stayed away from weighing in on the issue, but on "Face the Nation" on CBS, he talked a little bit about the recent State Department inspector general report about the matter that was highly critical of Hillary Clinton. He said it wasn't a good report for the secretary and said the American people and delegates to the Democratic National Convention are going to have to take a hard look at it -- Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: OK, Joe, thanks so much for all of that.

So with the final critical primaries just eight days away, is Hillary Clinton struggling to find her footing? What's her new plan to defeat Donald Trump?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:22:45] CAMEROTA: The last batch of primaries just eight days away, with California, of course, being the biggest prize for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders.

Sanders is defiantly staying in the race, and there are concerns now about whether Clinton is taking the right approach for a matchup with Donald Trump.

So let's discuss all of this with our panel: Matt Lewis, Ron Brownstein and Sara Murray.

Sara, you know, pundits think that Hillary Clinton has sort of -- is struggling with her footing and to find a voice in this strange election against Donald Trump, and that she's using an old playbook. It may have worked very well for Bill Clinton, but Donald Trump is playing this sort of asymmetrical warfare never before seen.

MURRAY: Yes. CAMEROTA: Is that how -- is that what it feels like in Washington?

MURRAY: I think it feels like that out on the campaign trail. It feels like that in Washington.

You know, the Clintons have run a pretty traditional playbook so far. And you can -- you can tell that. You know, when Donald Trump throws out a remark like "Crooked Hillary" or throws out, you know, a foreign policy proposal or an economic suggestion that just don't make any sense, the Clinton campaign will respond with a five-paragraph-long e- mail detailing why this doesn't make any sense and why they don't believe that Donald Trump is qualified to be president.

And we're sort of living in a different media cycle right now. We're living in, you know, a very sound bite-driven media cycle and where the story -- Donald Trump can change the story not just every day but every couple of hours. And so I think we're still seeing the Clintons try to adjust to that and figure out how to -- how they can navigate it.

CUOMO: Well, look, the voters take the bait. We take the bait, and it's a beautiful distraction for him from not having to fill out plans the people are pushing him for, the "how" questions. And Ron Brownstein, he's doing something that works well. The stink around the Clintons, as he calls it, is resonating once again.

So the question becomes, do you just ignore it or do you ignore it at your own peril?

Now, when I asked this to Secretary Clinton, she gave an answer that is like what we have heard her say consistently, which is basically, "I don't know what to do." That's what it is. She says, "We're not going to go there. I'm going to run a positive campaign." But they don't seem to have a direct answer.

CAMEROTA: But she wasn't saying, "I don't know what to do." She said, "I'm not going to dignify it."

CUOMO: I know. But that's a -- you know, in politics, it's not usually dignity that wins, you know, in the election. It's what's going to be most effective.

BROWNSTEIN: I think they are struggling how to deal with Donald Trump just like they struggled how to deal with Bernie Sanders. I mean, the fact is, Hillary Clinton has beaten Bernie Sanders by over 3 million votes, by about 3 million votes. She's won 55 percent of the total vote, if you add up all the primaries and caucuses.

[06:25:11] And yet he has seemed to drive the debate, particularly in the last several months.

She has been almost -- if you turn on the television, she has been almost completely overshadowed by Bernie Sanders on the one hand, Donald Trump on the other. One of the senior Democratic advisors said to me the other day there is no aspect of her public image that is in better shape at the end of this primary than it was at the beginning. On the other hand, I think their view are -- is that, as the song

says, the fundamental things still apply. And that Donald Trump essentially has alienated and antagonized what amounts to a majority of the country.

I mean, the Democratic coalition, don't forget, Chris, as you probably remember, Democrats have won the popular vote in five of the past six presidential elections. Trump is the one who ultimately has to change the dynamic. And their view, I think, in the end is that both Sanders and Trump will seem like too severe a change for a majority of the American public. That is not an approach without risk, because she has been very much overshadowed.

It almost feels as though where is she in this race in this point? But they believe the fundamentals will ultimately point people back toward her as the most acceptable choice in a very fractious moment.

CAMEROTA: Matt, you know, Bernie Sanders keeps reminding voters in polls he is the person that beats Donald Trump resoundingly. And, you know, he has taken a hands off, somewhat, approach to Hillary Clinton's e-mails.

He said something a little bit different this weekend. So let me play that for you.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANDERS: What I think is that people in the democratic process want a real debate about the real issues.

Now, you're right. The inspector general just came out with a report. It was not a good report for Secretary Clinton. That is something that the American people, Democrats, and delegates, are going to have to take a hard look at.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. So, Matt, there's some thinking that he is going to become more aggressive about the e-mails and then at the convention, pounce on them, if it comes down to that.

LEWIS: Well, that may happen, and I have to say, you know, months ago when Bernie Sanders said, "I -- nobody cares about your damn e-mails," I thought it was a mistake. You know, it's like this is a guy who's running to try to, you know, basically beat what is tantamount to an incumbent. You have to use everything at your disposal to make that happen. And he was sort of letting this, you know, this huge scandal go without calling her out on it.

Now I think it looks brilliant. He didn't exploit it early on. He's let other people, you know, whether it's the Department of Justice, or Republicans or the media, make this into -- I think it is a big deal, not make it into a big deal -- but talk about it.

Bernie was able to sort of, you know, stay on the high ground, not really go there. But I think now, as you near the convention, he really has the moral authority now to say, "Hey, look, I didn't make this into a big deal, but now we're talking about electability. Now we're talking about who can actually beat Donald Trump. And I think these e-mails are now relevant."

So I think Bernie Sanders ended up playing this exactly right.

CAMEROTA: There you go.

BROWNSTEIN: Except that you have a majority of the delegates at the end of June 7 and you count super delegates and pledged delegates. Right? I mean, that's -- that's the problem in this strategy. If she's already over the line, raising an argument at that point is like what? It's kind of, you know, arguing while the other team is in the poster (ph).

LEWIS: Bernie -- but it was always going to be a long shot for Bernie. I mean, this is about as good as Bernie could have expected to do, to still be in the race. And for the Democrats, they're still fighting it out long after Donald Trump locked it up.

BROWNSTEIN: Yes. Yes.

CAMEROTA: All right. Panel, thank you very much for being here with us on this Memorial Day.

And you can keep up with the latest political news. The new CNN politics app. This offers details on Senator Marco Rubio's about-face on supporting Donald Trump and also the latest on the presumptive Republican nominee's plans for a convention acceptance speech. You can download the CNN Politics app for free in the app store.

CUOMO: All right. So we've been following this story. You probably heard about it. The Cincinnati Zoo. This little kid finds his way, or whatever, slipped into its habitat. The gorilla grabs him, is dragging him around, winds up being killed to save the boy.

Now there's controversy. Was there another way to save this kid? We take a look. We have video that shows the entire incident. You decide.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)