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Hillary Clinton Wins California, Becomes Presumptive Nominee; Trump Tries to Head off Republican Revolt. Aired 6-6:30a ET

Aired June 08, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will always have your back.

[05:59:45] DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Some people say I'm too much of a fighter. My preference is always peace.

CLINTON: I want to congratulate Senator Sanders.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We continue the fight in the last primary.

CLINTON: Tonight belongs to all of you.

TRUMP: The last thing we need is Hillary Clinton in the White House.

CLINTON: Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president.

TRUMP: All of those Bernie Sanders voters who have been left out in the cold, we welcome you with open arms.

SANDERS: The American people will never support a candidate whose major theme is bigotry.

TRUMP: We're only getting started, and it's going to be beautiful. Remember that.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Wednesday, June 8, 6 a.m. in the east, and we do have breaking news.

CNN now projecting Hillary Clinton the winner of the largest delegate prize, the California primary. And it looks like she's going to clobber Bernie Sanders with 66 percent of the vote, and it will make her the presumptive Democratic nominee, and, also, putting her place in history as the first woman to reach that milestone.

In her victory speech, Clinton appealing to Sanders's supporters. Of course, they're refusing to bow out of backing him, and he is refusing to bow out, as well. ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All of this as Donald Trump attempts to

pivot away from his controversial attacks on that federal judge's Mexican heritage. He says that his words were misconstrued.

Let's begin our election coverage with CNN's John Berman with a look at the results and where they are at this hour -- John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Alisyn.

Something of a wow in the California numbers right now. CNN has declared Hillary Clinton has won the Democratic primary right now. She leads by 13 points. That is much higher than any poll showed going in and higher than any campaign thought the margin would be. This 415,000-vote edge has actually been growing overnight.

So a big win for Hillary Clinton in California. She didn't need it. We already had said she was the presumptive nominee. She didn't need any of the states voting overnight, but she got California and three more: New Mexico, South Dakota and New Jersey, a big win there. Bernie Sanders won in Montana and caucuses in North Dakota.

Hillary Clinton padded her delegate lead. Look at this right now. If you include super delegates, she's at 2,740. She needs the number of 2,383, so she's well over that Mark now with the super delegates. You see Bernie Sanders at 1,824.

How about the overall vote totals? About six months into this primary cycle, Hillary Clinton earned about 15.2 million votes this election season, doesn't include caucuses but you get is sense there of where things stand. Donald Trump, 13.9 million. He would say he would have more if he had not been running against 16 other people for a lot of the race. But you see how they measure up heading into the general election -- Chris.

CUOMO: A very different race from 2008, John. You remember how knotted up Obama and Clinton were in the overall vote. This time a pretty big gap.

Hillary Clinton, the first woman in the U.S. history to be presumptive nominee for a major party, but with Bernie Sanders refusing to bow out, the question now is, now what? What do they do on the Democratic side to unite their party? CNN senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny joins us now with more -- Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, uniting the party is going to much easier, and it really takes away Senator Sanders's argument after that strong win in California. He was holding out hope there for any glimmer of a shot he would really be able to make the case he should go forward.

That now is over. He lost California, lost it big, and the Clinton campaign this morning is talking about the three "M's." They want a majority of the popular vote, a majority of the pledged delegates and a majority of delegates overall. That's why last night victory was so sweet for Secretary Clinton.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY (voice-over): Hillary Clinton's history-making moment.

CLINTON: The first time in our nation's history that a woman will be a major party's nominee.

ZELENY: Savoring a triumph in her long Democratic primary fight, exactly eight years after extinguishing her first trail-blazing campaign.

CLINTON: Tonight's victory is not about one person. It belongs to generations of women and men who struggled and sacrificed and made this moment possible.

ZELENY: Extending her hand to Bernie Sanders after finishing strong in the final round of primaries, with wins in New Jersey and California.

CLINTON: And let there be no mistake: Senator Sanders, his campaign and the vigorous debate that we've had have been very good for the Democratic Party and for America.

ZELENY: Sanders winning in two states and vowing to fight on, but his argument is fading fast.

SANDERS: I know that the fight in front of us is a very, very steep fight, but we will continue to fight for every vote and every delegate we can get.

ZELENY: This as Sanders's campaign tells CNN they plan to cut half their staff.

SANDERS: The struggle continues!

ZELENY: After a bitter primary duel, early signs of peacemaking. CNN has learned campaign managers for Sanders and Clinton, Jeff Weaver and Robby Mook, are talking behind the scenes.

[06:05:09] The beginning of the end could be near, with Sanders heading to the White House tomorrow to meet with President Obama in hopes of bringing the party together, which Clinton says she knows can be difficult.

CLINTON: Now, I know it never feels good to put your heart into a cause or a candidate you believe in and to come up short. I know that feeling well.

As we look ahead to the battle that awaits, let's remember all that unites us.

ZELENY: The biggest point of unity for Democrats may well be defeating Donald Trump.

CLINTON: We believe that we are stronger together. And the stakes in this election are high, and the choice is clear. Donald Trump is temperamentally unfit to be president and commander in chief. ZELENY: She's making a full pivot to Trump, inviting voters who are

skeptical to him to rally behind her.

CLINTON: We won't let this happen in America. And if you agree, whether you're a Democrat, Republican or independent, I hope you will join us.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: And President Obama, the biggest super delegate of all, is poised to weigh in on this race soon. He talked to both of these candidates last night. He is going to put his support behind the winner here.

And this unifying party is slowly coming together, at least in terms of the candidates. By the end of the week, Bernie Sanders is likely to not be in this campaign at all. His argument is all over, particularly with California here.

The question: will his supporters come along as quickly as he does -- Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Let's see if everyone's agrees with Jeff's assessment that Bernie Sanders will be gone by the end of this week. Jeff, thank you.

Let's bring in our panel: CNN Politics editor, Juana Summers. CNN political analyst and host of "The David Gregory Show" podcast, David Gregory, and CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston.

Before we get to Sanders, Juana, I just want to say one more note on the historic moment, because whether or not you love Hillary or you hate Hillary, whether or not you support her, for the country, this is a milestone. And she got close in 2008, and she said that she was, you know, reaching for that glass ceiling, and last night she burst through it.

So let's just remind people briefly of that moment back then in 2008 and then last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it.

We are all standing under a glass ceiling right now. But don't worry. We're not smashing this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: She did seem to be basking in that moment last night.

JUANA SUMMERS, CNN POLITICS EDITOR: She did, as Jeff said earlier in the show. This is just a very elevated speech from Hillary Clinton. It's clear that she and her campaign recognize the significance of the moment. And I was really struck by not just the language she used about the glass ceiling but the fact that it was a very encompassing message. That it's not just Hillary Clinton breaking and smashing this glass ceiling; it's a group effort.

So I think that's just another line of that stronger than ever message that looks back to talk about more during the general election as she paints a contrast between herself and the presumptive Republican nominee in Donald Trump.

CUOMO: We heard a lot of that last night. Sweet strength, we're stronger together, versus the divisiveness and really, Donald Trump, what we're talking about this morning in his speech last night. He helped her in that way.

CAMEROTA: I mean, Juana says elevated, yet her volume was lower. It was an interesting juxtaposition. Instead of how we've heard her shouting on the campaign trail, she was very sort of measured and calm, and there was, you know, power in that.

CUOMO: Well, she's got a balance, right? Because she's got some conciliating to do. She's still got to bring her party together. You know, Sanders's supporters are really passionate. So she had to handle that, as well as having the hoopla of the big events.

To Mark Preston: what did we see last night? California, 66 percent of the vote reporting, not close. Not close. Bernie Sanders, this was his entire case, that his supporters aren't going to like to hear this. They're going to say this isn't fair to him. It is not close. It's not close. New Jersey, not close. So how does that change the dynamic going into what Sanders does now?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS DIRECTOR: Well, I'll say a couple things. One is you will hear from some of the Sanders supporters that, in fact, because the Associated Press and CNN and other news organizations had declared her the presumptive nominee on Monday, that it could have suppressed the vote in states, particularly in California.

But I've got to tell you, Chris, to your point, what happens to bring the party together? And we will see, really, the first signs of that in the next couple of hours. The Democratic National Committee will start holding hearings. First one begins here in Washington, D.C., at around noontime, around 11 or 12 a.m., and they're going to start talking about the DNC platform.

Now, we heard Senator Sanders last night say in his speech that he's going to continue to take the fight on into D.C. And then he told his supporters we're also going to go on to Philadelphia to the Democratic convention to fight for racial justice, environmental justice and social justice.

[06:10:15] All along, we have heard from the Sanders supporters that he wants to have an imprint on the platform. We will see what happens in the next few hours when the Sanders and the Clinton people get together to see if they can start hammering out a deal.

CAMEROTA: So David Gregory, what do you think is going to happen? Will he be -- still fight for every vote, as he's saying -- and will he continue to the convention, or is something going to happen this week?

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't think so. I'll be interested to see in California whether that vote was suppressed at all or whether you had a kind of Obama effect.

You know, the White House really got involved here with selective leaks a couple of days ago, saying the president was getting ready to come out as early as this week. The fact that the president called Sanders made it very clear, I think, to California Democrats that it was time to start thinking about the end game.

And so I just wonder if there was an Obama effect in the voting in California.

So the race is over on the Democratic side, but Bernie Sanders deserves some room to let this sink in and to think about what he wants, and what impact he wants to have going forward, because he's had a huge impact on the party. As Mark says will have an impact on the platform moving forward.

And this is going to be a very delicate negotiation between the Clinton team and the Sanders team, because I think Bernie Sanders is in a different position than Hillary Clinton was in, in 2008. His political future is much different. He's unlikely to run for office again. He's likely to go back to the Senate, unless he wants to start some kind of progressive movement outside of the institutions of politics. So he's got to think carefully about that.

But I think that Donald Trump is a unique force in all of this for the Democratic Party. In 2008, I don't think there was a view of Senator McCain representing a kind of danger to America that Democrats believe Donald Trump represents.

And if I could just add a coda on this, and I think for any of us with daughters, this is -- for any of us as Americans, period, but particularly those of us with daughters -- this is quite a moment that I think Hillary Clinton was really able to absorb last night and to -- to really project. Because you can have a daughter as young as 10 who could express outrage over the fact that there hasn't been a woman who's been president of the United States.

And so Hillary Clinton was finally able to give some voice to the idea that you can say to your daughters, "Hey, this is now possible." I think that she's going to be able to really bask in that moment for a while.

CAMEROTA: Such a great point. I mean, we have daughters. My two 11- year-olds have been following this race very closely. My -- one of my daughters wanted to know if she could be the first female president. So she's a little disappointed, actually.

CUOMO: My 6-year-old thinks she's president right now. Right now she thinks she's president. Juana, what a difference a week makes. OK? If we go back a week from

today, we'd had that poll came out. They're knotted up. Trump is neck-and-neck with Clinton. He's even, you know, getting some edge in some key states.

A week later, she gives the big speech and she has these results, which you could argue were the best cumulative effect she's had, was this four out of six she won last night. Do you think this was the best week of her campaign?

SUMMERS: I think it absolutely was. And to your point about the polls, I think we're also likely to see some of those polls that showed a razor-thin neck-and-neck race, start to favor Hillary Clinton a bit more. If you look at just the dynamics of the race, the time that those were taken, Donald Trump had cleared the field. Indiana had knocked out John Kasich and Ted Cruz. It was just him. Republicans were beginning to coalesce.

As Jeff has pointed out, it's pretty much over for Bernie Sanders at this point. You know, there is no path whether or not he stays in until Philadelphia. So we're likely to see some of that polling numbers rise. We're likely to see Democrats start to coalesce around Hillary Clinton much in the same way. And I think we're likely to see what's going to be our first really accurate polling of what kind of a nail-biter that we could have in November, given of course, the fact that you can't really predict what the realities will be then.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much for being here with us early on this special edition of NEW DAY. Great to get your insights.

Well, Donald Trump trying desperately to prevent a Republican revolt. In a scripted teleprompter speech last night, he told supporters that he understands the responsibility of carrying the mantle, and he will never let them down. And he had a blunt message for Republicans who are pulling their endorsement.

CNN senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is live in Trump Tower in New York with more.

Hi, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn.

I talked to a top Trump adviser last night, who said that this speech was very important that Donald Trump delivered to recovering after five very bad days. Of course, Donald Trump is trying to get his campaign back on the rails in the middle of a Republican revolt. There were no apologies loaded into that teleprompter, but he did tone down his rhetoric.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: To those who voted for someone else in either party, I will work hard to earn your support. ACOSTA (voice-over): Donald Trump tried to change the subject and his

delivery, using a teleprompter in his victory lap speech at the official end of the Republican primary season.

[06:15:02] TRUMP: And if I'm forced to fight for something I really care about, I will never, ever back down, and our country will never, ever back down.

ACOSTA: The speech, with only a couple of Trump ad-libs, had some Republicans cheering, the chairman of the RNC tweeting, "Exactly the right approach and perfectly delivered."

NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: If he can stay on this path, and stay this disciplined, he's going to be very formidable.

ACOSTA: Trump did respond to the growing outcry over his attacks on federal Judge Gonzalo Curiel's Mexican-American heritage.

TRUMP: I will tell you, it's a little disappointing, some of the Republicans.

ACOSTA: He told his Republican critics to move on.

TRUMP: There's a lot of anger, I guess. Anger. They just can't come back; they can't get over it. So they have to get over it, ideally. As to whether or not they endorse me, it's OK if they don't. But they have to get over it. They shouldn't be so angry for so long.

ACOSTA: Too late, say Illinois Republican Senator Mark Kirk, who's in a tough re-election battle and rescinded his endorsement of Trump.

SEN. MARK KIRK (R), ILLINOIS: I cannot endorse him because of what he said about the judge. That was too racist and bigoted for me.

ACOSTA: That coming just hours after stinging comments from the nation's two top Republicans.

REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Claiming a person can't do their job because of their race is sort of like textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY), MAJORITY LEADER: It's time to quit attacking various people that you competed with or various minority groups in the country.

ACOSTA: Trump attempted to put the controversy to rest with a statement that said his comments about Judge Curiel were misconstrued. He did have a few supporters coming to his defense.

GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), NEW JERSEY: I've known him for 14 years, and Donald Trump is not a racist.

ACOSTA: Trump is hearing warnings from top Republicans, who are demanding their presumptive nominee start acting presidential before the GOP mutiny gets any worse.

SEN. BOB CORKER (R), ILLINOIS: He's got to demonstrate a different level of professionalism.

ACOSTA: The real-estate tycoon insists he got the message and is ready to turn his attention to Hillary Clinton.

TRUMP: The Clintons have turned the politics of personal enrichment into an art form for themselves.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ACOSTA: Now, of course, we heard Donald Trump last night preview a speech he plans to deliver he said probably Monday on what he considers to be the Clintons practice of enriching themselves through their public work.

At the same time we should point out, Chris, we have heard talk before of Donald Trump trying to sound more presidential, pivoting to the general election campaign, but, of course, he cannot take a teleprompter everywhere he goes -- Chris.

CUOMO: True enough, Jim. True enough.

So for millions of American women, this is a dream realized. A female candidate from a major party emerging as the presumptive nominee. So what does this milestone mean for women in a real way? For the nation? Moving forward? We'll have a panel of experts reflecting, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you, it's got about 18 million cracks in it.

We are all standing under a glass ceiling right now. But don't worry. We're not smashing this one.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: I think there was another thought there in that sentence. That she was going to make.

CUOMO: Yes, yes. Like maybe, they smashed the glass ceiling and we're now all now standing on top of it, because you've made history.

CAMEROTA: And if you stay tuned, we will play you the rest of that sentence later in the program.

CUOMO: What a difference eight years makes for Hillary Clinton. She was knotted up with Obama in the popular vote, didn't get it in 2008. This time, won by millions against Sanders. More votes than Trump, and now history, as well.

Let's discuss the implications of being the first woman nominee presumptive from a major party. We have Jennifer Granholm, former governor of Michigan and senior advisor, pro-Clinton super PAC Correct the Record; Douglas Brinkley, presidential historian and a history professor at Rice University; and Margaret Hoover, CNN political commentator and a Republican consultant.

All right, Gov. History-maker yourself, what does this mean to women in general, partisanship aside?

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, SENOR ADVISOR, CORRECT THE RECORD: Oh, my God. And I can speak just personally, Chris. I was watching this speech last night, and I was so -- like so many women, I was on my Twitter feed, probably like you were, too. And I was, like, just verklempt.

I -- I -- the uplifting nature of that speech. The notion of having met this moment. You know, the thing that the arc of justice bends slowly? Well, it took a very dramatic curve towards justice last night. The arc of history took a very dramatic curve towards justice last night.

It means so much. And it means so much, Chris, not just symbolically, but if she were able to take the presidency, it would mean a difference for policy, as well. So -- and we can get to that, but last night was really -- was -- I hope people will remember it for the rest of their lives. My mother will remember this for the rest of her life. All of the mothers who have uplifted women like me, who have tried to open doors, will remember this forever, and it was a big moment.

CAMEROTA: Ah, that's so nice, Governor, to hear -- we can hear how emotional you still are, and obviously, many people around the country felt that way.

Margaret, as a Republican woman of a generation different than the governor's mother and mine, how -- how do you mark this?

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR; Look, I -- as a Republican woman, I feel very strongly that this is a moment in history that is worthy of our acknowledgement and honoring it. I mean, we're that much closer to a -- we are, today, a step closer to a more perfect union than we were yesterday.

And I, as a Republican woman, can acknowledge and honor that history, without liking Hillary Clinton as a presidential candidate. You know? You can hold two competing thoughts in your head at the same time and honor and acknowledge that. And I think that's -- it's a moment for Republicans to do that.

[06:25:07] CUOMO: Well, that's the beauty of it, that you don't have to think about it as a woman. You can just focus on her ideas, that standard isn't met.

So let's put some meat on the bones of history on this. How impressive is this to you and why?

DAVID BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Major milestone. I mean, I teach U.S. history. We're always waiting for the big woman moment, you know, when finally they get the nomination of a party. Last night Hillary Clinton talked about Seneca Falls and, in a way,

invoked Susan B. Anthony and Lucretia Mott and that whole generation. And in a recent "New York" magazine interview, she was commenting -- or they were commenting on Shirley Chisholm and Margaret Chase Smith, on Geraldine Ferraro, all these women that tried to kind of get in the game, and particularly since 1920 when women got the right to vote.

So to become the presumptive nominee last night is a very major moment in American history, but we're going to have a bigger one coming in Philadelphia, when she delivers that speech and she's the actual nominee for the Democratic Party.

CAMEROTA: Hold on. Because we do have that moment last night where she talked about Seneca Falls. So let's just listen to that for a second, and then you can make your point. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: In our country, it started right here in New York, a place called Seneca Falls, in 1841, when a small but determined group of women and men came together with the idea that women deserved equal rights, and they set it forth in something called the Declaration of Sentiments, and it was the first time in human history that that kind of declaration occurred.

So we all owe so much to those who came before, and tonight belongs to all of you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOOVER: That's true. I think -- I'm so glad Doug mentioned Margaret Chase Smith, who was the first woman to be elected to the United States Senate. She was a Republican from Maine.

You know, Seneca Falls, the abolition movement and the suffrage movement, rose rooted in the Republican Party, in the Republican tradition. So it's also worthy of Republicans to sit back and think about how -- how this tradition has really evolved. It starting in the Republican Party, and it's worth noticing.

You know, one thing: the fact that Hillary Clinton is a woman and her gender may end up being the least significant part of her nomination and her -- in this election. You know, millennial women, especially in the Democratic Party, favored Bernie Sanders by some 29 percent, which is frankly a sign that we've actually achieved that more perfect union, that gender now is the least significant thing about her as a candidate. And that is -- that's part of this historic candidacy.

GRANHOLM: Can I just jump in on that?

CAMEROTA: Yes.

GRANHOLM: If I could? I mean, I think that the gender issue is hugely important. I mean, the fact that only 2 percent of women are CEOs of Fortune 500 companies; the fact that there's only six women governors to this day. But there is something else that's really important here, and I know

people have said, if you have daughters, this is really important, and that is so true. But if you have sons, this is really important, for the men who have fought, for the allies in our -- in this fight who have fought for women to have equality, for all people to have equality. This is a fantastic symbol.

Jessie Jackson once said that, if the door opens for one, it opens wider for others. Women of color, they absolutely need to break through that glass ceiling; and this is one step for them, as well. So it's more than just about women.

CUOMO: Go ahead, Douglas.

BRINKLEY: I noticed that Bill Clinton came onstage last evening, and I realized I didn't see him onstage a whole lot with her this campaign. She did this on her own. They made clear that this wasn't riding on the coattails of Bill Clinton, that it was going to be Hillary Clinton going all the way herself.

And then I also reflected last evening on Hillary Clinton's great love of Eleanor Roosevelt, who she always talks about. And Eleanor Roosevelt's "My Day" columns and all those years living with FDR in the White House. And the fact of the matter is, you can almost feel Eleanor Roosevelt smiling last night that this moment finally occurred.

CUOMO: Governor, you make a good point about this being good if you have daughters, good if you have sons. I've got little Mario Cuomo at home. He was surprised that there's never been a woman president before, which says something about how much he's studied in history class, but that's for another day.

So what do you think of what's going to happen with the V.P., Granholm? And don't tell me you have no insight. I know you have insight.

GRANHOLM: No, I mean, I have my own insights.

CUOMO: What do you think?

GRANHOLM: But I can't give you a peek behind the curtain, but I -- you know, I mean, it would be -- ah! Awesome to see two women. I love that idea. There have been two -- two men to for 240 years.

CAMEROTA: Do you think that's a real personality [SIC]? I mean...

GRANHOLM: So it would be great to see that.

CAMEROTA: ... rather than, not just, you know, your dream? Is that a real personality [SIC], a Warren/Clinton ticket? A Clinton/Warren ticket?

GRANHOLM: I love it, personally! But I know that there are a lot of great candidates out there who, you know, who may feel other needs, as well. But the bottom line is, I mean, this is going to be her call.