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Trump Campaign Chief Charged With Simple Battery; Trump Defends Campaign Chief Over Reporter Incident; Will Arrest Have Impact On Trump's Campaign; Clinton And Sanders' Campaign Respond. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired March 29, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Bob Baer, thank you for that. Spider Marks, thank you as well.

And thank you, everyone. Stay tuned, my colleague, Wolf Blitzer, with some big breaking news right off the top of his program. He starts now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer. It's noon in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, 1:00 p.m. here in Washington, D.C., 7:00 p.m. in Cairo. Wherever you're watching from around the world, thanks very much for joining us.

We begin with breaking news. Legal trouble for Donald Trump's campaign manager. Corey Lewandowski turned himself in this morning in Jupiter, Florida. He's charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, stemming from a March incident involving a reporter. The Trump's campaign says Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of the charge.

And just moments ago, Donald Trump tweeted this, quote, "Wow, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes. Nothing there." End quote. He adds this, why aren't people looking at this reporter's earliest statement as to what happened. This is before she found out the episode was on tape.

That reporter, Michelle Fields, responded on Twitter, quote, "because my story never changed. Seriously, just stop lying." End quote.

Let's bring in CNN's Senior Media Correspondent Brian Stelter, he's the host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES," and our Legal Analyst Danny Cevallos.

All right, Brian, all this started with an incident back in March. The reporter accused Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager, of grabbing her arm as she was trying to ask Donald Trump some questions. Fill us in on the details.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Yes, of course. The Trump campaign has both an advantageous relationship with the press but a contentious relationship with the press. And this was an example, a rather dramatic example, even violent example, of that contentious relationship. In this surveillance video, which comes from one of Trump's buildings, you can see the reporter, Michelle Fields, appearing to be grabbed by Corey Lewandowski, the campaign manager. And she says she was shaken up by this incident.

Right after it happened, she spoke with another reporter, Ben Terris with the "Washington Post," and said she had never been grabbed that way before by any campaign official in her life. And she was disturbed by it. She spoke out publicly. And the campaign denied it at the time very, very strongly. In fact, Trump, at one point, said he thought that she made it up. And Corey Lewandowski called her delusional and said that she's an attention seeker.

Well, a couple of days later, she went to the police there in Florida. She asked for this to be investigated. And a couple of weeks later, we now see this video from the surveillance camera for the first time. And we also know now that he will have to appear in court in early May because the authorities believe there is probable cause for this battery charge.

BLITZER: All right. So, hold on a minute, Brian. Danny Cevallos, our Legal Analyst, is with us as well. We just got the statement in from Mr. Lewandowski. Let me read a couple sentences from it, Danny. Mr. Lewandowski was issued a notice to appear and given a court date. He was not arrested.

Mr. Lewandowski is absolutely innocent of this charge. He will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. He is completely confident that he will be exonerated. The statement goes on to say he's represented by Scott Richardson of West Palm Beach and Kendall Coffey of Miami.

All right. So, let's talk for a second, Danny, about this charge. How serious is it?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: In the world of criminal charges, it is less serious than others. It's misdemeanor battery. And in this case, the maximum penalty, the statutory maximum, is up to a year in jail or up to a year of probation and, of course, fines.

So, in the pantheon of potential criminal charges, it really occupies one of the lower rungs. But for someone in a high-profile position like this individual, any kind of criminal conviction has very serious collateral consequences.

BLITZER: Because in the statement, he says he was not arrested. He was issued a notice to appear and given a court date.

CEVALLOS: Yes.

BLITZER: So, does that mean he was not arrested?

CEVALLOS: Florida rules allow for a criminal case to begin of -- in one of two ways, either by a physical arrest or you can issue a notice to appear which is just a written order to appear in court. You've still been charged but you have not been physically arrested. And if you look at the charging documents, the documents that have been released, you'll see the form says, arrest, slash, notice to appear, which leads me to believe it maybe one of those dual purpose forms.

So, Lewandowski maybe correct, at least according to Florida rules which allow for this alternative to a physical arrest.

STELTER: And yet, the police in Jupiter, Florida, are calling this an arrest. So, there's a dispute in the language here about exactly what it is. No matter what you call it, it's not good news for the Trump campaign. What campaign wants to be talking about its campaign manager of being accused of this? And, of course, Michelle Fields, as we saw on Twitter there a couple minutes ago, Wolf, standing by her story and accusing Donald Trump of lying.

[13:05:00] BLITZER: I want to bring Jim Acosta, our Correspondent who's been covering the Trump campaign. You've been at a lot of these events where there are restrictions on what the press can do, what they can't do. When you heard about this notice to appear and given a court date, what went through your mind, given all the times you've seen the relationship between the media covering Donald Trump and those who are trying to protect Mr. Trump, shall we say, from the media and from people out there who attend these rallies?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, you're right. I've been to a lot of rallies. I've seen all of that up close. I should point out, just to jump off of that conversation you were having with Danny there about was it an arrest? Was it a notice to appear?

I can also add to that that the Jupiter Police Department public information officer said there is not going to be a mug shot released, as a result of Corey Lewandowski turning himself in. Apparently, when you turn yourself in and you're issued a notice to appear, there is no mug shot taken. So, we should throw that out there as well.

But I can tell you, Wolf, you know, covering all of these events, along with my colleague, Sara Murray, there is a very heavy security presence. And for good reason. You saw what happened in Chicago. That near riot that broke out there. You saw what happened in Fayetteville, North Carolina where a protester was sucker punched by a Donald Trump supporter. You saw what happened in Bradford, Virginia where a photographer with "Time" magazine was trying to cover a protest and was choke slammed by a secret service agent.

So, there is a very tight security perimeter around reporters, we call it the pen, covering these Trump campaign rallies. And, you know, quite often, you know, there is a need to go out of that pen and cover the candidate, cover what's happening at these rallies. And what happened on March 8th, from what I can understand, is that Michelle Fields was attempting to ask Donald Trump a question.

And as you see in that security camera footage and as -- and as Danny was saying and as Brian were saying, this appears to be why this charge came forward and why we're at the stage now with this case. He clearly -- Corey Lewandowski clearly grabs the arm of Michelle Fields and perhaps it's because Michelle, as she said in that comment, that she's never been grabbed like that before.

Wolf, you and I have been in many situations covering campaigns where you do get jostled by secret service, jostled by security, sometimes jostled by the campaign staff. But I think what is interesting about this footage and why it's very illuminating is that up until this point, Corey Lewandowski had tweeted, Michelle Fields, you are totally delusional. Donald Trump said at a -- after one of the debates to our -- to one of our reporters that he thinks this was all made up.

Clearly, when you look at this footage, Wolf, this wasn't made up. This isn't being delusional. Something clearly happened here.

BLITZER: All right, everybody stand by. I want to get some official reaction now from the Donald Trump campaign. Joining us, his national spokesperson, Katrina Pierson. She's joining us now live from Dallas. Katrina, thanks very much for joining us. We've seen the --

KATRINA PIERSON, NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: Hi, Wolf.

BLITZER: -- response from Donald Trump on Twitter in which he says, specifically, and I'll read it again to our viewers, Corey Lewandowski, my campaign manager and a very decent man, was just charged with assaulting a reporter. Look at tapes, nothing there. So, what's the official word now? Is he going to keep his job? Is he going to take a leave of absence? Does Donald Trump have total confidence in his campaign manager?

PIERSON: Yes, we, actually, have total confidence in our campaign manager and we feel that he's going to be exonerated. You know, Wolf, this is no different, for example, when I am in the middle of the scrum and get smacked around by television networks. I don't go and sue the television network because I have a cut on my arm from a camera.

Everyone knows at these type of scrum events there is some jostling around and some pushing. And the second you cross that secret service threshold, you will be moved away from the candidate. This is not new. Corey Lewandowski is going to beat this. He will plead not guilty. And we'll just have to let this process play out.

BLITZER: Is it -- is it -- so, in other words, until all this is resolved, legally, he stays on the job as the campaign --

PIERSON: Absolutely.

BLITZER: -- manager? He's not going anywhere, is that what you're saying?

PIERSON: Absolutely, that's exactly what I'm saying. Again, you know, these charges here -- we keep forgetting the initial charges that she made, that the reporter made, in her own words, and they are out there. She specifically said that he aggressively grabbed her and nearly threw her to the ground. It is very obvious that is not what happened in this case. And Mr. Lewandowski is definitely going to fight it.

BLITZER: Because you can see that he did grab her arm over there, as he was trying to interfere -- stop her from asking questions to Donald Trump. And there was a reporter from the "Washington Post" who backs up her version. And so, clearly, there was some sort of contact between Lewandowski and this reporter, Michelle Fields, right?

[13:10:00] PIERSON: Well, it's actually the reporter at the "Washington Post" that created them the narrative. I mean, what we've seen over time is the story did change a little bit. And she didn't even go to the authorities for a couple of days after the attention started to rev (ph) up.

And I think we're also going to see, moving forward, that she wasn't too concerned about the reaction initially. She didn't can contact the campaign. She didn't contact the authorities. She didn't contact anyone other than Twitter when the alleged incident occurred.

BLITZER: Well, let me ask Danny Cevallos, our Legal Analyst, if he's still there. Danny, are you still with us? He's not there. I wanted to ask because the point is that she waited three days before she contacted police, if that was a legal issue as far as his defense is concerned. The whole notion, though, that he didn't know who she was. He claimed he never -- he didn't know who she was. He had no contact with her.

There are a lot of people now, as you know, Katrina, who are accusing him of lying. That he knew she was with Breitbart. He knew she was -- he wanted to deliberately stop her from asking questions. That's why he grabbed her arm and stopped her from effectively asking questions.

PIERSON: Well, I think that's absurd. I know a lot of these reporters and bloggers think that they're known and they're really not. You can tell by looking at another angle of the video. He's just walking through the crowd accordingly. I mean, this is what the campaigns do. It's particularly when you cross the threshold of the secret service. He barely even looked at her more or less. You can't even tell that he made eye contact with her. How's he supposed to know who every single writer is? It's just -- it's insane to assume, particularly with the number of reporters that are always trying to talk to Mr. Trump, immediately after they walked into a brick wall of reporters.

So, of course these things kind of happen in the scrum. If anything, perhaps campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns, should begin to change the rule with the type of access the press gets from here on.

BLITZER: Why was he even there, blocking, in effect, for Donald Trump? I've covered a lot of campaigns. Campaign managers, they usually have a different role than somebody walking behind the candidate preventing journalists from asking questions.

PIERSON: Well, they do. And in this case, Corey was one of those people. But there are many campaigns, particularly when you have a smaller staff, who take on multiple roles and this is one of them. And this is what I find is so interesting is that I, myself, have been moved around by staff members of campaigns, even lower level staff members who are helping at a particular event. So, again, this is nothing new.

At the same time, the allegation is that he grabbed her aggressively, nearly throwing her to the ground. That did not happen. It's not on the video and Mr. Lewandowski will be cleared of all charges.

BLITZER: One final question. We do remember after this incident, at one of the election nights, at an event, a news conference plus a statement delivering in Mar-a-Lago, his club in Palm Beach. And deliberately, it looked like, Corey Lewandowski was standing right behind him as a vote of confidence, if you will, by Donald Trump, in a vote of confidence for Corey Lewandowski. Was that staged deliberately to show he had confidence in his campaign manager?

PIERSON: Well, I think you can look back at other election nights. Many of the staff, including myself, have shared the stage with Mr. Trump on victory night. So, that's nothing new. But it does fit into the narrative that the media has been trying to create, around the campaign even. Everyone's been attacked on this campaign.

So, you know, I do think that is -- it's worth pointing out simply that these types of things are not uncommon to be jostled or moved or hit, whether it is by a campaign person, even a media person. Again, like I said, you can start to suing networks now for slashing your arm with a camera which happened in my case. This is absurd. It's ridiculous and it will be beat.

BLITZER: If it's not beat in early May when he appears in court, simple battery, misdemeanor charge, does he stay in the campaign or is he forced --

PIERSON: Yes.

BLITZER: -- out?

PIERSON: Absolutely, Mr. Lewandowski is an integral part of this team. The camp wholeheartedly supports him and will see him through the entire ordeal.

BLITZER: All right, Katrina, I'm going to ask you to stand by. We have more to discuss this hour. We're going to bring in representatives from the Cruz campaign and also from the Kasich campaign. Much more coming up.

PIERSON: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Will this charge against Donald Trump's campaign manager have any real impact on Trump supporters? A week from today, a huge election. A primary in Wisconsin. We're going to get assessments from that.

Also later this hour, the Clinton and Sand -- Bernie Sanders campaigns, they're join us live. We'll get their reaction to this news, plus much more. Stay with us.

[13:14:29]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:18:16] BLITZER: Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz now responding to the news we've been following, the charge being levelled, simple battery, against Corey Lewandowski, the Donald Trump campaign manager, for grabbing the arm of a reporter. Listen to Cruz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

QUESTION: Is there consequences at a campaign level that should be undertaken?

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, it's a very sad development. And this is the consequence of the culture of the Trump campaign. The abusive culture. When you have a campaign that is built on personal insults, on attacks and now physical violence, that has no place in a political campaign and it has no place in our democracy.

And I think it is a really unfortunate development. But I do think it helps clarify for the voters what the Trump campaign is all about. And my focus is not going to be on the personal insults. It's not on the attacks. My focus is on a positive, optimistic, conservative agenda for this country. How we turn the country around. How we bring jobs back to America. How we bring manufacturing jobs back to Wisconsin. How we see wages rising again. How we expand opportunity for young people. That's my focus and it's why we're seeing such incredible energy and enthusiasm here in Wisconsin. It's why today we were very honored to earn the support of Governor Scott Walker, one of the strongest conservatives in the country, a strong principled governor here in the state of Wisconsin, and it's the latest development in Republicans continuing to unify behind our campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Ted Cruz reacting to the news. Once again, Donald Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, has been charged with simple battery. That's a misdemeanor in Florida. Lewandowski showed up in a police station today in Jupiter, Florida. The charges stem from an incident on March 8th involving a reporter for Breitbart, Michelle Fields.

[13:20:12] I want to bring in our political panel. Gloria Borger is CNN's chief political analyst. Nia Malika Henderson is our senior political reporter.

Gloria, I - this is the last thing a campaign really wants to see exactly a week before a crucial primary in Wisconsin.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It is. And you see the way Ted Cruz was handling this, because Cruz understands that he's got to win Wisconsin. He's just been through this Heidi Cruz-Melania Trump controversy with each other's wives and he clearly calling the Trump campaign saying that it has an abusive culture are not soft words here and it's very clear to me, and Cruz is a smart candidate, that what he's playing for are women voters. And the question is, you know, Trump has done very well with Republican women so far. Overall with women he has a 74 percent unfavorable rating. But with Republican women, he beats Ted Cruz. And it seems to me that Cruz is trying to take advantage of this and tarring the candidate with Corey Lewandowski, wrapping them all together in one big bow to play for women.

BLITZER: A very strong statement of support for Corey Lewandowski from Donald Trump. And you just heard the national press spokeswoman for the Trump campaign. He is with him 100 percent. Even if he's convicted, he stays on as campaign manager, Katrina Pierson said.

NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: And this seems to be the Donald Trump playbook, which is that he is loyal to his people. He doesn't back down. He doesn't apologize. He doesn't retreat. He basically comes out swinging. So that's what we have had from him on this incident so far. He's known Corey Lewandowski since about April 2014. They met in New Hampshire. He came on board in January 2015 in this present capacity.

And we saw him, during that - during that - the 15th, the super primary night, there was Corey Lewandowski next to him on stage and he said, "good job, good job, good job, Corey." And I do think one of the things that we see happening is, even as Donald Trump wins many, many contests in this Republican Party primary capturing something like 35, 38 percent of the vote, as Gloria said, his unfavorable rating is not just among women, but among all voters, seems to be going up. In January it was something like 55 percent. Now it's 67 percent. So even as he wins, I think those unfavorable numbers are ticking up.

BLITZER: By all accounts in Wisconsin a week from today, it could be a close race there.

BORGER: It is. It is going to be a close race and Cruz is all in on the fact that he's got to win this, I believe.

HENDERSON: Yes.

BORGER: And is not cutting any deals with John Kasich. Is not - you know, he just - he just wants to win this.

The thing that's kind of astonishing to me as a political journalist, and I don't know if you agree with me, Nia and Wolf, but normally in a campaign, if something like this happened and there was a, quote/unquote "misunderstanding," somebody like Corey might come out, instead of saying, she was delusional, might come out and say, you know, there was a misunderstanding here. I'm sorry if anybody got hurt. And the candidate would then say, you know, we've got to figure out a way to get around this and - and I'm sorry if anybody got hurt. But the Trump campaign does not back down, does not apologize, does not recognize even any kind of misunderstanding here. And that's what's kind of puzzling to me.

HENDERSON: (INAUDIBLE).

BLITZER: Yes, and the story, obviously, is not going go away.

Guys, I want you to stand by.

It's - there's other news that's developing as well. It's been bitter, as we all know. It's been personal. Tonight, by the way, an very important event, the feud between Ted Cruz and Donald Trump will play out live right here on CNN. We'll have the details of that, and whole lot more. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:28:22] BLITZER: The legal trouble facing Donald Trump's campaign manager is almost certain to come up during tonight's CNN Republican town hall. Corey Lewandowski is charged with simple battery, a misdemeanor, stemming from a March incident involving a reporter. Michelle Fields accuses Lewandowski of grabbing her by the arm.

For more on what to expect tonight, let's bring in our panel. Katrina Pierson is still with us. She is the national spokesperson for the Donald Trump campaign. Also joining us, Chad Sweet. He's the national chairman for the Cruz campaign. And Trent Duffy is a national communication adviser spokesman for Kasich for America.

Thanks, all of you, once again, for joining us.

How's this going to play out, Chad, tonight, as far as the town hall is concerned, from the perspective of your candidate?

CHAD SWEET, CRUZ CAMPAIGN NATIONAL CHAIRMAN: Well, unfortunately, Wolf, this culture of physical abuse has become part of the Trump campaign and it's set from the top of the candidate - by the candidate. We've seen personal attacks, verbal attacks and now physical attacks, which really have no place in the selection of the next president of the United States.

So it's the hope of the Cruz campaign that this is not part of the discussion and that we can focus on the issues. Every time we spend time on these distractions, it's not helping us to secure the border or helping Americans get jobs. And so we hope, again, CNN has done a good job in the past in helping staying focused on the issues. That's where we want to be.

BLITZER: You want him out, Corey Lewandowski? You think Trump should fire him?

SWEET: No, I'm saying we - we're trying to say that we need to stay focused on the issues. That, again, every time we're spending a minute discussing these types of distractions, unfortunately, it is not helping us to secure the border, helping another American get a job or increase their take home pay.

[13:30:03] BLITZER: Clearly you want to move on.