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New Day Saturday

Trump Cancels Rally After Protests, Clashes; Soon: Trump To Rally In Ohio After Clashes; Cruz: In A Campaign, Responsibility Starts At The Top; Five Arrested, Two Officers Injured at Trump Rally; Clinton, Sanders Responds to Trump Rally Chaos; Trump on Torture. Aired 6-7a ET

Aired March 12, 2016 - 06:00   ET

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

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[06:01:03] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: What a night. Good morning, everyone. Thank you so much for being with us. I'm Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Victor Blackwell. Good to be with you this Saturday morning. We're starting with those highly charged moments at the Donald Trump event in Chicago as Illinois gets ready to hold its Republican primary on Tuesday.

Dozens of Trump protesters, look at the crowds outside, who clashed with some of his supporters outside. This was at the University of Illinois.

PAUL: It ended with some protesters being forcefully carried out and the Trump campaign canceled the rally all together. CNN senior White House correspondent, Jim Acosta was there.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Things are finally back to normal in Chicago after a Donald Trump rally was canceled resulting in chaos in a near riot inside this arena on the campus of the University of Illinois at Chicago.

Essentially what happened, it unfolded over the course of a few hours. There were hundreds of protesters gathered inside this rally with the purpose of disrespecting this Donald Trump event. Essentially that's what happened.

Donald Trump organizers came to the podium and announced that this event was being canceled. That's when the crowd inside this arena just exploded into chaos. We saw fights breaking out between Donald Trump supporters.

Donald Trump protesters breaking out throughout the arena. There were not enough police officers and security personnel on scene to get the situation under control. Then we saw Chicago police, dozens of them, filing down to the floor of the arena.

They were starting to escort these protesters outside of the arena. At that point, you did see some scuffles and fist fights breaking of outside of this arena. There were a few arrests made.

Overall, this could have been so much worse. There could have been a full on riot on the streets of Chicago. The event was canceled and these protesters moved on.

Big problems occurred as a result of this rally being canceled in the chaos that followed. Jim Acosta, CNN, Chicago.

BLACKWELL: All right, our thanks to Jim. Let's go down to CNN politics reporter, Jeremy Diamond. Jeremy, good morning to you. And you were there last night, give us an idea of what you saw.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yes, absolutely. Well, one way to describe what happened last night was pure pandemonium, you know, inside the venue. Already an hour before the event was slated to start, you already had protesters protesting and being escorted out of the venue.

And immediately you could tell right away that this was very different from any other Trump rally. You had a lot of protesters already shouting at the beginning as protesters were escorted out saying, let him stay, let him stay.

You knew very much from the start that there were hundreds of protesters in that venue. About five sections in the back of the arena were filled with protesters.

Once the event was announced, the Trump campaign staff announced that, immediately there was pure elation in the room. You had protesters celebrating, shouting, chanting, saying that we stopped Trump and you also had fights break out between Trump supporters and the protesters at the venue.

That's when the pandemonium really starter there. But after that you had protesters go outside as well. They were shouting down Trump supporters who were trying to leave the parking garage right next to the venue.

The Chicago Police Department meanwhile saying meanwhile that it was not consulted in terms of the event being canceled. Listen to what the interim superintendent of the Chicago police had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

INTERIM SUPERINTENDENT JOHN ESCALANTE, CHICAGO POLICE DEPARTMENT: The Chicago Police Department had no role. We were not consulted or provided an opinion as to whether or not the event should have been canceled.

In fact, I can tell you that we did assure the Trump campaign that we had more than adequate resources outside the UIC Pavilion and that we guaranteed them that we could provide safe access and exit for Mr. Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DIAMOND: Now, the superintendent did not say that the Trump campaign, you know, made the situation more dangerous by canceling the event, but he did say that he had to send in additional police officers to make sure that everything would be safe here.

There were initially 200 Chicago police officers stationed outside of the venue to ensure the safety and security of protesters and attendees for the rally.

He sent in an additional 100 police officers. There were a total of five arrests last night. So really a chaotic situation last night.

Thankfully not too many injuries. Two police officers were injured, one of them suffering a wound to the face as a result of a bottle being thrown at him.

[06:05:04]BLACKWELL: Jeremy, I know that there are two events planned, one at 10:00 this morning, one later today in Ohio and in Missouri respectively. Do we know if the Trump campaign has anything planned, anything different that they are planning on looking ahead?

DIAMOND: Well, you know, what we've seen already in recent weeks, we've seen Donald Trump bring in his campaign, bring in his private security detail. This is the security detail that used to serve as his bodyguards before he got Secret Service protection.

We've seen several of these men at Trump rallies typically dressed in plainclothes and their job has been to point out protesters and eventually when people start protesting to kind of organize private security efforts to take those people and escort them out safely from the venue.

You know, as far as additional security measures, we don't know of anything else. But so far they've taken it pretty seriously and we've seen increasingly more and more protests happened at Trump events.

BLACKWELL: All right, Jeremy Diamond for us this morning in Chicago. Jeremy, thank you so much.

PAUL: In a few hours from now, Donald Trump is schedules to hold a rally there in Ohio. A lot of people are wondering what the atmosphere is going to be like there after what we saw last night in Chicago.

CNN's Phil Mattingly in fact joining us now from Vandalia, Ohio, outside of Dayton. Phil, what are you seeing and hearing about security at this event?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christi, already a line of over a hundred people here. The first person actually arrived at midnight for a 10:00 a.m. event. Talking to these supporters right now, there's a mix of some fear, some anger, but also some comfort. Here's why, Christi.

This venue right here is an airport hangar just off the Dayton International Airport. This is an area in general that knows how to handle big crowds. The Dayton International Airshow happens here every summer. It handles about 80,000 people.

You have the state police, the airport police, and the local police all working with the Secret Service at this event. Local officials right now expecting and planning for as many as 10,000 people that would be here.

But they do feel like this venue is in a much, much different situation than what we had in Chicago last night. They feel more comfortable about it. That's it, Christi. They are prepared. Security is all over the place here.

And between the combination of police departments and the Secret Service, they do believe they'll be ready for whatever happens in just a couple of hours.

PAUL: Phil, you said there are about a hundred people already. Do we know, have you spoken to them, and do we know if these are people who are there to support Trump or if there's a presence of protesters?

MATTINGLY: Well, so far, Christi, everybody that I've seen are Trump supporters adorned with Trump hats, shirts, and buttons. And again, one of the more interesting things was a couple of them actually said last night what they were watching on TV helped clinch their decision to come this morning.

That actually made them want to go to the rally. Local officials do expect protesters at some point. They're not totally sure on numbers or when they'll come or what exactly they'll bring.

But again there's more comfort at this venue than other Trump events that I've been to just because of where it is. It's in a side road. It's next to an airport. It's fenced in.

Security has a much better opportunity to kind of keep an eye things here maybe than some venues elsewhere particularly inside cities -- Christi.

PAUL: All right, Phil Mattingly, thank you so much. We'll be checking in with Phil obviously throughout the morning. We appreciate it. Donald Trump spoke to CNN's Don Lemon last night after the violence, kind of exploded at the Chicago rally.

BLACKWELL: Yes. He talked about his decision to cancel the rally, and he also was asked if he would take back anything he said during the campaign thus far. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Do you regret saying any of those things, especially the things that you have said about punching protesters, sending them out on stretchers?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via telephone): No, I don't regret it at all. Some of these protesters were violent, they were hitting and swinging at people and doing damage and frankly the crowd turned on them. In most cases it was the police. I would absolutely on occasion, I would say, usually, please don't hurt them, take it easy because being elevated looking down at the audience, usually I'm higher than the audience so I can see.

What happens is I'm able to see the protesters and what's going on. Generally speaking it's very mild. But on the occasions you said, I saw very, very strong, very violent protesters hitting people. And, yes, I'm not happy about that and I would always express my feelings about that.

LEMON: Our reporters who follow you, Mr. Trump, and who have been very fair with you have said that they have not seen protesters attacking anyone. If anything, it is the other way around, that protesters are being attacked after they start to protest or in any way disagree with you, but they're not -- protesters are not the ones who resort to violence first, it is your supporters who are doing it.

TRUMP: You know it's not true when you say that statement, Don. You know it's not true.

LEMON: I don't know it's not true. That's why I'm asking.

[06:10:00]TRUMP: They'll stand up and start swinging at people. Not in all case. It's very seldom, I mean, 10 percent of the cases. But we have some very tough protesters. We had one with a tough voice like Pavarotti.

He was a tough guy. He was swinging and hitting people, and then people turned on him and started swinging at him. Ultimately we were successful and we got bad publicity for it. It wasn't their fault.

This guy was a tough cookie, a very loud guy. I don't mind the loud, but he was very violent. The next day it's like he was an innocent little lamb. I saw what happened. He was very violent.

We don't do it first. They start. Usually it's not us anyway, Don. Usually it's the police. I mean, we have police forces all over the country, who have done a fantastic job, but usually it's the police.

LEMON: But the protesters will say that's only highlighting why they're there protesting about the police is that police are being heavy-handed in their communities and now are being heavy handed at your rallies. So it seems to be making their case if that is indeed what you're saying right now.

TRUMP: Let me tell you. I'm watching CNN right now and I have seen the same scene on CNN for the last hour and a half. The same -- in other words, you take the worst scene. If you really look at it, if you really want to look at it, most of the people have dispersed.

And we made a great decision not to have the rally, but you continuously shown the same scene of the guy in the green jacket taking a swing at somebody else and -- I've been watching it for the last hour, more than an hour.

LEMON: Of course, we do. TRUMP: Don, you shouldn't be showing the same one scene over and over and over again. You should be showing it live.

LEMON: Well, what we're doing is showing the example of the violence that happens just as when you're on the campaign trail, you use examples of the worst of things in order to make a point.

TRUMP: You don't have anything saying that it's not live. And frankly it's the Donald Trump speech live with Don, but you're showing the scene that took place two hours ago. It's not good reporting. It's not fair. Everyone's dispersed --

LEMON: What you're looking at right now is live, Mr. Trump. This is live. These are the streets of Chicago are live.

TRUMP: If you look at that, that's a very small portion of the people. Most of them have been dispersed.

LEMON: Just to be clear, I want to ask you --

TRUMP: There is very few people hurt and we should be given credit for that. We made a very wise decision as opposed to going forward, you know, leaving it and postponing it for another time was a wise decision.

Now, at the same time, all of the Trump supporters have been really treated unfairly because the first amendment says we have a right to speak.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right. So you're going to hear more of that conversation from Donald Trump in just a few minutes. Also we're going to look ahead and ask the question, should there be consequences for politicians when they use some of the words we've heard from Donald Trump and others, we should say. We'll have that conversation in just a moment.

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[06:16:45]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: And the particular one like I said, that was a very -- you know, here's a guy who was swinging, very loud and started swing at the audience. You know what? The audience swung back, and I thought it was very, very appropriate. He was swinging. He was hitting people and the audience hit back, and that's what we need a little bit more of.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: That was Donald Trump yesterday just hours before clashes erupted between protesters and supporters at his event in Chicago. What I think he's referring to there is the time in Las Vegas on February 22nd, when he said, quote, "I'd like to punch him in the face," talking about a protester at one of his rallies.

Let's talk with our CNN political commentators, Ben Ferguson and Errol Louis. Errol, I want to start with you. And of course, the conversation over the last 12 hours has been about the degree of probability, the degree of responsibility that the Trump campaign and Donald Trump himself, they bear in this situation. How do you gauge that?

ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, the degree in responsibility I think should be obvious to everybody involve. I mean, people are responsible for their own actions and that goes for Mr. McGraw who attacked somebody in Fayetteville.

That goes through the crowd of people who attacked a young woman recently. That goes for Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager, who according to a police report attacked a reporter physically.

And that especially goes for Donald Trump, who won't take any responsibility whatsoever for the words that have come out of his mouth, the incitement that he has offered to angry crowds, and who I think it should be obvious to everyone watching this exactly what is going on.

BLACKWELL: Ben, let me come to you and Trump's claim that these are bad dudes. The only time we hear him use the word dude is with protesters. Back to the central point, he says they're swinging and attacking his supporters.

CNN has no evidence of that. The reporters who go to these rallies don't see that. What do you believe is his degree of responsibility in this case?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look. I think Donald Trump -- there's two things here. You have these protesters that obviously wanted something like this to happen. They wanted to cancel event. They were successful.

They should be condemned for doing this because in America you should be able to have a rally and free speech. But let me make this very clear. Donald Trump should not be shocked that this is happening.

Donald Trump is a guy that has been looking at his own party and saying that people are idiots and stupid and losers and dumb, that's to the people he's usually on stage with that he's saying about.

The other campaigns that he is running against. When you see him go out there on stage and talk about hitting somebody in the face and I wish we had the old days where we could put a guy on the stretcher.

When he talks about how he wishes somebody would hit somebody in the face and he would pay for the legal fees. When you have campaign staffers that manhandle reporters that we now know about, this was a fire that was created by Donald Trump.

Now, the protesters last night, yes, they lit the match, and that is not what's supposed to happen in American discourse, in politics. You should have the freedom have rallies and not have them canceled because of people that show up like this.

But for Donald Trump to act like he has not been advocating for some violence with his protesters, this is what a bully does.

[06:20:07]Donald Trump has been a bully in all facets of this campaign. He's been a bully to the other people on stage. His supporters had been and anyone that questions Donald Trump on any issue.

They come out on Twitter and Facebook and say they're going to do x, y, and z to you. That's to conservatives, OK? That's to Cruz supporters and Rubio supporters, and Carly Fiorina supporters.

When you have the rhetoric of his campaign that's been a really TV show, Donald Trump is responsible for a large part of this.

BLACKWELL: All right. Let's listen to what Ted Cruz said last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SENATOR TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think a campaign bears responsibility for creating an environmental when the candidate urge supporters to engage in physical violence to punch people in the face. The predictable consequence of that is it escalates. Today is unlikely to be the last such instance. We saw earlier today in St. Louis over 30 arrested. That's not how our politics should occur.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: So, Errol, Ted Cruz is outraged now, but for months Cruz would not -- not only not criticize Trump, but he commended him on several occasions for the rhetoric that he used on the trail. How does Ted Cruz reconcile his silence in the early portion, the summer and fall of 2015 with his dismay now?

LOUIS: Well, I mean, obviously you'd have to ask him. I think what's going on here is Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio issued a similar kind of a statement. They're going to try to take full advantage of it because it underscores one of the many points that they've made about criticizing Donald Trump.

Which is that he's setting forces in motion that the GOP doesn't want to be associate with. That he is openly encouraging -- you know, Trump says often, I'm bringing lots of the people into the party.

The question is who are those people, why are you bringing them in, what are you saying to them as you bring them in, and what is the party going to do with them. I think that's kind of where Ted Cruz is coming from.

And at a minimum, you can claim to having tried to talk to the same conservative elements, ultra conservative elements, and bring in people who maybe haven't participated before but without the incitement.

If this is the only way that Trump can get thousands to his rallies, this is the only way you can get thousands to the polls to support him, this is the question that's been facing the Republican Party for months now, which is do we really want to go down this road?

BLACKWELL: We've got two rallies today, one in Ohio, one in Missouri. Ben, Errol, we'll have to leave this segment. You two are with us throughout the morning. Thank you so much. We'll continue the conversation shortly.

PAUL: There are some other things to talk about particularly some new flooding fears across parts of the south this morning. Water is at record levels in many parts of Louisiana. The torrential rains are still falling and we have an update on what has now become a deadly flood.

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[06:26:31]

PAUL: All right, I want to get to some of the other stories that we're following this morning. The record floods that have killed at least three people in Louisiana are not letting up as torrential rains continue into a sixth day.

BLACKWELL: Meteorologists say parts of the state could see ten additional inches. Officials issued a mandatory evacuation for any of 3,500 homes that could be at risk for floodwaters there if they keep rising.

U.S. officials say North Korea has lost contact with one of its submarines. They think it may have happened off the North Korean coast during a military exercise this week. They say the U.S. military was monitoring the sub when it stopped and they think it might have been adrift at sea or already sunk at this point.

PAUL: A South African teen vacationing with his family in Mozambique found a piece of the plane debris that could belong to Malaysia Airlines Flight 370. He found it back in December. His family only contacted officials after a different piece of debris was found last week also in Mozambique.

Experts are now investigating as to whether it is from MH370. That flight disappeared, remember, two years ago with 239 people on board.

Donald Trump canceled his campaign rally over the protest we've been showing you this morning in Chicago. Here are more of the pictures. Trump, though, not backing away from his fiery rhetoric. How other candidates are responding to his claims that the violence is not his fault.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I don't take responsibility. Nobody has been hurt at our rallies, and we have had -- I've had 25,000, 35,000 people, more than that. We had one the other day, 25,000 in Florida and we've never had anybody hurt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:32:00] PAUL: What you're looking at there is chaos last night in Chicago at a Donald Trump rally. Violence broke out. Trump himself decided to cancel the event. He said it was unsafe to everyone there. But that violence continued. There were five people arrested, two police officers injured, and now Trump's rivals certainly have something to say about all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When you have a campaign that is facing allegations of physical violence against members of the press, you create an environment that only encourages this sort of nasty discourse.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R-FL) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There are consequences to words. I do think that Mr. Trump needs to own up to the fact that the rhetoric he has used from this event have also contributed to the climate that you have seen in other parts of -- other rallies that he's had. There are consequences to the things people say in politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: But President Obama says Republicans should have seen Donald Trump coming. Listen to what he told a group of Democratic donors about the G.O.P. front-runner's rise. And to be clear here, these comments were made prior to what we saw happened last night in Chicago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And then you've got the Republican establishment, they're very exercised. We're shocked that somebody would be saying these things. We're shocked that somebody's fanning anti-immigrant sentiment or anti-Muslim sentiment. We're shocked that somebody could be loose with the facts or distort someone's record. Shocked.

(LAUGHTER)

You know, how can you be shocked? This is the guy, remember, who was sure that I was born in Kenya. Who just wouldn't let it go. And all this same Republican establishment, they weren't saying nothing. As long as it was directed at me, they were fine with it. They thought it was a hoot, wanting to get his endorsement. And then now suddenly we're shocked.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: So, again, a little bit of laughter there. Hillary Clinton released a statement, though, after last night's violence in Chicago and it read, in part, "The divisive rhetoric that we are seeing should be of grave concern to us all. We all have our differences and we know many people across the country feel angry. We need to address that anger together.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Let's discuss now and bring in two of our CNN political commentators, bringing back the host of "The Ben Ferguson Show", Ben Ferguson. Also, bringing in Democratic strategist, Maria Cardona who is a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Maria, in the statement, the Hillary Clinton released last night, she referenced the Charleston church shooting, writing that, "Last year, an evil man walked into a church and murdered 9 people. The families of those victims came together and melted hearts in the state house and the confederate flag came down."

[06:35:22] Now when I read that, and frankly, members of the team here read that, that reference to the Mother Emanuel shooting jumped off the page. These are very different scenarios. Was that an appropriate reference?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think what she was trying to underscore and she -- this was part of her statement as well is that when we come together to address the very difficult problems that are facing our country no matter which side we are on, no matter how angry we are, we can actually get to the solutions that both sides want.

I think that's the point that she was trying to make. And I think the example of the people -- the victims, the families of the victims of the Charleston shooting coming together in forgiveness and addressing the hatred that, again, both sides, I think, wanted to address and want to solve is actually a really good example of the light and the hope and the optimism that is in all of us, that is incumbent on our leaders to actually speak to as opposed to speaking to and trying to rile up the anger that is also in all of us here.

BLACKWELL: So, Ben, let me come to you. And I think about the Trump endorsers. And just hours before this happened, Dr. Ben Carson endorsed Donald Trump.

And, you know, the hallmark of his campaign was healing. He placed the premium on decorum and decency and now this happens.

Is there some residual effect on those who stand behind and stand next to Donald Trump when these types of things happen at his events?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: There certainly is. I mean, guilty by association happens on both sides of the aisle. I think Ben Carson coming out and supporting Donald Trump after he says he's the completely opposite of what Donald Trump stands for with rhetoric. It's something now that while you took this chance, for whatever reason, you decide to endorse Donald Trump and now you've got to stand beside him. But let's get back to the Hillary Clinton thing for a second. That's absurd and vial for her to come out and say and somehow try to compare a canceled rally where there was, you know, some fights that broke out, nothing close to what happened with this tragedy and try to score political points is disgusting.

These two incidents have nothing to do with one another. The idea that somehow you can equate these two is beyond reaching. It is a disgusting comment where people died in a tragedy that has nothing to do with a Donald Trump rally. She should know better than to say this (INAUDIBLE).

And if you want to be the president, then you need to know when to shut up and when to leave. And this is trying to take advantage of the situation for your own personal gain and Hillary Clinton should be, I think, apologized to the victims, first off, because their name should not be invoked here where the Donald Trump political rally, when what happened to them was just horrible racism and people's lives were lost.

They are completely different scenarios. And this is -- I can't honestly believe that Hillary Clinton would want to get in to this conversation, first off with Donald Trump. But, two, to use other people's deaths to try to score political points against Donald Trump is just pretty disgusting.

BLACKWELL: Let me get Maria back here. I expect you want to respond to that and then I want to move on to another topic.

CARDONA: That's certainly not what she was doing. And, of course, Ben, and everybody else who's --

FERGUSON: That's exactly what she was doing.

CARDONA: That's exactly not what she was doing. And, of course, you have the right to your opinion. That's what makes this country so great.

What she was doing was pointing to the fact that there is a lot of anger here and that if leaders don't stand up to that anger and try to channel it in a very positive manner, it can lead to violence.

And what she was focusing on is that when we focus on the positive, on the optimism, on the love and the hope that we can actually come together and solve our problems no matter what side of the aisle we're on. No matter what our ideology is. She was trying to rise above all of the violence and hatred that is being demonstrated either at these rallies or at other events that we're seeing around the country.

BLACKWELL: Maria, there's something else I want to get in here. And let's put up the Sanders video if we can of those signs.

We saw that after this event was canceled, there were some people who were in the audience there who pulled out Bernie Sanders signs and started chanting "Bernie, Bernie."

What is now the responsibility of the Sanders campaign to react to what they saw inside this arena from some of their supporters?

CARDONA: Well, if I'm not mistaken, they have already come out as most leaders have to say that, you know, violence is in no way appropriate at any one of these rallies from anybody, no matter who supporters they are.

And I think Bernie Sanders has been very good at standing up against this kind of violence and this kind of hatred. And he has said before, when there has been accusations from some of Bernie's supporters about going overboard and either engaging in any kind of violence or any kind of hatred, he has spoken out against it as he should.

[06:40:25] So I am confident, I am confident that Bernie Sanders will do that whenever it is shown that it was his supporters, either engaged in that violence or in any way pushing that violence.

FERGUSON: Bernie had no problem last night coming out and saying we don't campaign this way. This is -- you know, we are a little bit classier than what happened in this rally.

He did not condemn his supporters who were chanting Bernie, Bernie, Bernie. And he should have done that last night. He should do it today and make it clear that you have the right to protest. You do not have the right to have violence at this protest. And you do not have the right to go and shut down a political campaign rally. He wouldn't want that happening to him. He should condemn his supporters for doing the same thing last night.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: He has said that in the past.

BLACKWELL: We've got to wrap it right there.

Ben, Maria, we'll continue the conversation throughout the morning. Thanks so much.

CARDONA: Thanks, Victor.

FERGUSON: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: Yep.

PAUL: Listen. We do want to play for you more of Donald Trump's interview. What he talked to Don Lemon about after that rally was cancelled in Chicago yesterday and his defense for calling it off.

And I think a lot of people are wondering now, will it be rescheduled? We don't know. We're going to talk about that.

Plus, Trump, also, as you remember, under fire for some of the comments that he made about expanding torture laws. Some military analyst referred differently about that. And we're talking to one who has a lot to say about it. Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:45:05] BLACKWELL: It is now 15 minutes to the top of the hour. And we're just about a few hours away, a little more than 3 hours away from Donald Trump's next rally. That was in Dayton, Ohio.

And, of course, it's coming after the rally in Chicago turned violent. It was actually canceled before it get started.

PAUL: Yes, yes, he did cancel that. He cancelled it last night, in fact, because he said that it was unsafe for everybody there. I want to show you some of the video that we had then. There were clashes between protesters and Trump supporters, not just in the arena itself, but also out on the street outside the arena.

Donald Trump spoke to CNN's Don Lemon once that rally was canceled. And he asked him if he was going to postpone all of these rallies because of the threat of protestors. Here's what Donald Trump said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Would you like me to have them, Don, and you'd like to see people killed?

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: I'm just asking you the question. Are you going to do it?

TRUMP: I don't know. It depends on it, case by case. But, I mean, if you'd like me to have them and people would have been hurt very badly tonight. I mean, again, I'm looking at scenes that, you know, just a little while ago --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: This is live. Mr. Trump, you're looking at -- these are live scenes.

TRUMP: No, no. I'm talking about -- I've been watching all these scenes so many times ago and they're two hours old.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Mr. Trump, I have to ask you, just for clarification.

TRUMP: Most of the people have been dispersed and we've been giving great credit and law enforcement gave us great credit for making the right decision.

LEMON: Mr. Trump, I have to ask you, just for clarification. You have no regrets about anything that you have said?

TRUMP: We have had great success. We have had -- we have fantastic support and we have fantastic supporters. We have said strong things when people were wrong. When people were wrong, we have said some very, very strong things.

Now, getting back to before tonight, when I talked about illegal immigration, I have no regret whatsoever. If I didn't bring up illegal immigration, it wouldn't be the subject of the campaign, Don. It's become a very, very important subject and if I didn't bring it up, people wouldn't even be talking about it. And, frankly, it's really hurting our country badly in a lot of ways, from a crime standpoint and from an economic standpoint and from a drug standpoint.

Drugs are pouring into our country through the southern border. It's hurting our country very, very badly. So if you think, I should say, oh, gee, it's too bad I brought up the problem of illegal immigration at our southern border in particular, I am not at all. I am very proud.

LEMON: What about in particular the things that you have said in rallies about this -- taking them out on stretchers and that sort of thing.

Do you have any regrets about what you have said about this?

(CROSSTALK)

TRUMP: These were dead -- no, I don't have regrets because these were very, very bad protestors. These were bad dudes. They were very rough, tough guys, and they did a lot of damage before they were taken out. And they weren't taken out on stretchers, frankly. They weren't. They ended up doing damage.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: All right, in the next hour, we'll talk with an eyewitness who was there in Chicago, in the middle of all of that last night. Stay with us. We'll be right back.

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[06:51:33] PAUL: 51 minutes past the hour. Donald Trump's rivals are saying his divisive comments are the cause of last night's clashes in Chicago we've been showing you.

But this week, he's also come under fire for his comments on Islam, water boarding and expanding torture laws. He's not backing down, though.

CNN military analyst Lt. General Mark Hertling with us now.

Lieutenant General, thank you so much for being with us. He said he wants to bring waterboarding back into play and contends, quote, "That the U.S. should go a lot farther -- or further than waterboarding." And then he said he'd work on it with the generals.

If he came to you and asked for advice, what would you tell him?

LT. GENERAL MARK HERTLING (RET.), CNN MILITARY ANALYST: Good morning. It doesn't work. Waterboarding has not been proven to be effective and neither have other forms of enhanced interrogation techniques.

There are very good ways to interrogate. It's designed so that you can build trust between the interrogator and the person that's being interrogated to get the right information. Waterboarding does not get that kind of information. There's no evidence that it works.

So the first thing I would tell him is let's stick with the tried and true methods of getting information from our prisoners and that doesn't mean violating the laws. Not only U.S. laws, military laws but also U.N. mandates and the Geneva protocols.

PAUL: He also said that we have to play the game at a much tougher level than we're playing it now.

Do you think the U.S. is losing this fight on national security?

HERTLING: I'm not sure what playing at a much tougher level means. And immediately there's going to be reaction to that because we are doing significant damage to ISIS in Iraq. I think what General Austin has said, the commander of Central Command this week in testimony before Congress was that he may soon be asking for more soldiers in order to support Iraq's attack into Mosul and potentially the Syrian pre-rebels attack into Raqqah.

So, yes, we are trying to do the best we can without getting involved with large formations in the Middle East. Large formations being U.S. battalions, divisions, brigades.

You know, Christi, I've spent three years in that country. I can tell you what works and what doesn't work. And it isn't just large amount of forces. It's the right kind of forces and it's the right kind of government, the Iraqi and Syrian government, that needs to be enhanced and work.

So any time you hear any candidates say we need more forces and putting an arbitrary number on it that none of the generals have suggested to them. Mr. Trump said 30,000 and the other candidates said a lesser number. But they were all focused primarily on troop numbers. It doesn't relate to what's called a troop-to-task analysis. What needs to be done, how many forces do you need to do it. That's what we need to concentrate on and that's what the candidates, all the candidates need to be asking the military and national security professionals.

PAUL: All right. Lt. General Mark Hertling, it's always so good to have you here. Thank you for taking the time.

HERTLING: Thank you, Christi.

PAUL: Absolutely, sir. Thank you.

So we talk about how Donald Trump cancelled this campaign event over protest inciting last night in Chicago.

Take a look at the people here. This is a live picture from Dayton, Ohio, of the people who are already lining up nearly 3-1/2 hours before his event and rally there in Dayton. We're going to take you there live in a moment. Stay close. [06:55:10] Well, a Los Angeles start-up is being called the Uber for kids. It's helping busy parents shuttle their kids to and from activities, when they can't be at two places at once.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PAUL (voice-over): 9-year-old Celia loves to dance, but getting her to the studio after school was a struggle for Frances Mendez, a working mom of three.

FRANCES MENDEZ, MOTHER: I can't just live at 3'oclock to go pick up Celia to go send her to dance. You know, I want to be able to continue to work, but have -- give her all the opportunities that she can.

PAUL: Then Mendez found HopSkipDrive, a ride sharing service for kids founded by three working moms in Los Angeles.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We have eight kids between us so hop, skip, drive is really born out of our own need of getting our busy kids to all of their activities.

PAUL: Unlike Uber and Lyft that don't offer rides to unaccompanied minors, this service is designed for kids ages 7 and up.

JOANNA MCFARLAND, CO-FOUNDER, HOPSKIPDRIVE: We really think of ourselves, not as a transportation service but as caregivers on wheels.

PAUL: And safety is a number one priority.

MCFARLAND: It starts with our drivers' certification process. How we've vet the drivers. The fact that they're fully background checked, fingerprinted and they have that 5 years of minimum childcare experience.

PAUL: Drivers wear bright orange T-shirts, have flags on their cars and must know the child secret code.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In addition to the parents being able to track the ride in the app, we have a team that monitors every ride in real time.

PAUL: The founders started the company in 2014 and they have plans to expand to other cities.

MCFARLAND: We always like to say that it takes a village and what we think we're providing is an extended village.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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