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Hala Gorani Tonight
Trump Reacts To Report Kasich Is Dropping Out; Trump Is Now Presumptive Republican Nominee; Poll: Clinton With Big Advantage Over Trump; Some Republicans Say They Won't Vote For Trump; U.S. And Russia Agree to Ceasefire In Aleppo; Wildfire Destroys Northern Alberta Community; Kasich Expected to Suspend Campaign; Sanders Chances Very Slim; Latest on Prince Death; Chanel Fashion Show in Cuba. Aired 3-4p ET
Aired May 04, 2016 - 15:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(HEADLINES)
HALA GORANI, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Hala Gorani. We are live at CNN London and this is THE WORLD RIGHT NOW.
First, Ted Cruz, now John Kasich. Within just hours Donald Trump could be the only American Republican presidential candidate still standing,
virtually guaranteeing he will become the GOP nominee.
Sources tell CNN Kasich will follow Cruz's lead and drop out of the race when he addresses reporters soon in Ohio scheduled in a couple of hours.
Trump's strong win in Indiana Tuesday was apparently the final straw for both candidates convincing them that they had no path forward. Trump said
he first heard the news about Kasich dropping out on CNN. Listen to this exchange with Wolf Blitzer.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, "THE SITUATION ROOM": As we're speaking, I know you're very happy that Ted Cruz has dropped out. CNN has confirmed that
John Kasich, the Ohio governor, he's dropping out as well. You're the only one left right now.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: That's good. That's good. You're just telling me this for the first time about John. That's good. I
think John's doing the right thing.
BLITZER: Ohio is an important state. No Republican has ever been elected president of the United States without winning Ohio.
TRUMP: I think john will be very -- I've had a good relationship with John.
BLITZER: He's had a lot of government experience with Congress as a governor.
TRUMP: I think John will be very helpful with Ohio even as governor.
BLITZER: He says he doesn't want to be a vice president.
TRUMP: Well, that could be. I mean, he said that --
BLITZER: Would he be someone you would be interested in vetting?
TRUMP: I would be interested in vetting John. I like John. I've had a good relationship with John. I've gotten along with him well. Whether
he's vice president or not, I think he'll be very, very helpful with Ohio.
BLITZER: Do you think the general election campaign has already started, you versus Hillary Clinton, that for all practical purposes Bernie Sanders
is out?
TRUMP: I think what has happened is there's been a little flip and I'm even surprised by it. I thought I'd be going longer and she'd be going
shorter. She can't put it away. It's like a football team, they can't get the ball over the line. I put it away. She can't put it away. I thought
I'd be out there and she'd be campaigning against me. I didn't realize so yes, I'll be campaigning against her while she's campaigning --
BLITZER: So the general election campaign from your perspective starts today?
TRUMP: Essentially it started. I mean, yes.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
GORANI: Well, there you have it, Donald Trump just a few minutes ago reacting to the news that in a couple of hours the expectation is that the
last remaining Republican candidate apart from Donald Trump, John Kasich, is planning on dropping out of the race and suspending his campaign.
What does this do to the Republican Party? Well, it is bitterly divided because it was a bruising nominating fight. Not only have the candidates
slung mud at each other, but Trump has also attacked the party itself saying it rigged the system in a conspiracy against him even though he is
the presumptive nominee.
The head of the Republican National Committee is now urging the party to unite. Reince Priebus talked to CNN's Alisyn Camerota after tweeting his
support for Trump. Listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REINCE PRIEBUS, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRMAN: Look, we're here, we were going to get behind the presumptive nominee. I stated the obvious
in the tweet. Obviously you still have to get to 1,237 delegates that number still stands. But obviously without Ted Cruz in the race, who did
something that I agree was very gracious last night --
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR, "NEW DAY": Did that surprise you?
PRIEBUS: -- and unexpected.
CAMEROTA: So you were surprised when he suspended?
PRIEBUS: Yes, I was. I was surprised and that's a hard thing to do. I mean, he ran a very, very serious operation. Just an incredible ground
game, his delegate operation was unbelievable, and I was surprised. But now I, you know, you'd have to say that it's pretty obvious that Donald
Trump is going to get to 1,237, but he's got to do it, though.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right, Reince Priebus -- OK, it's no secret that the Republican establishment was not 100 percent thrilled with the frontrunner
status of Donald Trump. Reince Priebus perhaps not as excited as he would be if candidate other than Donald Trump were right now in the lead, and it
has been a dramatic turn of events in less than 24 hours.
[15:05:03]That's because a Washington outsider with no political background, the reality show star essentially sews up the Republican
nomination.
Let's bring in Chris Moody, a senior correspondent for CNN Politics with more. So first of all, Chris, I want to ask you about what Donald Trump
told Wolf Blitzer, when he asked him about John Kasich, that he'd be open to vetting him for the VP -- for him to appear on the ticket as VP
candidate. Is that likely?
CHRIS MOODY, CNN POLITICS SENIOR CORRESPONDENT: Well, he's going to be putting together a commission right now to look at a range of candidates.
I think Donald Trump may have been just speaking off the top of his head there.
I would imagine that Donald Trump like the rest of us including Reince Priebus and others on the left and right were surprised to see all these
dominos fall so quickly, Ted Cruz and John Kasich.
But yes, I think it's possible he would take a look at him. John Kasich is the governor of Ohio, a key swing state. It's the state where the
Republicans will be holding their national convention this summer.
There's a reason they're doing it there because they know that to win that state makes it a lot easier to win the rest of the country. But whether
John Kasich is interested in the job he has repeatedly said, he has absolutely no interest in being anyone's vice president.
He said it wouldn't fit into his personality but as you know and I know, in politics people change very quickly. We'll just have to wait and see if
that is the case for John Kasich here.
GORANI: So Donald Trump hasn't reached 1,237, but if we look at the delegate count and since he's the only candidate remaining, that's the
expectation, of course, because we haven't officially heard from John Kasich, but two sources have told CNN he will announce he's suspending his
campaign in about a couple of hours' time. He's at 1,056. He needs 1,237. What is next for Donald Trump now?
MOODY: Donald Trump has to heal the gaping wound in the Republican Party and bring people together. It's going to be a steep uphill climb. Look,
in any Republican or any Democratic primary process, it takes some time for people to come together and get over the pain they felt in the primary, but
this is a different story.
Donald Trump took on some positions that were very let's say not orthodox, not conservative. You're going to have to bring in the people on the
right. He also attacked the families of his competitors in a very brutal, personal way, and to be able to come back from that and say, OK --
GORANI: But it never hurt him politically, which was interesting.
MOODY: Well, when he's talking about their personal family, with their past, that's something we don't see very often, at least to the extent that
Donald Trump did it to Ted Cruz or Jeb Bush.
Looking ahead to the convention, there's a number of high-profile Republicans, including the Bush family, who are not even going to attend.
We'll see if they hold to that promise. But there still is a lot of divide.
There are people within the Republican Party that I've spoken to that we've had on air here who are saying they're going to campaign for Hillary
Clinton or they're just going to stay home. That's a lot of work that Donald Trump has to overcome in the next few weeks and month.
GORANI: Absolutely. We're going to be discussing that very point. Chris Moody, our senior politics reporter in Washington, thanks very much.
With Cruz and Kasich apparently out of the way and now looks very likely it will be Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton come the election.
According to a new nationwide poll, we're talking about the whole country, a nationwide poll by CNN and ORC, Clinton would win 54 percent of the
popular vote. Trump would only get 41 percent.
The Democratic frontrunner told CNN's Anderson Cooper in an exclusive interview, she knows how to beat Trump. Listen to Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think we can take a risk on a loose cannon like Donald Trump running our country. Donald Trump
has said it's OK for other countries to get nuclear weapons. I think that's just downright dangerous.
He has said wages are too high. I think we need to have a raise for the American people, raise the minimum wage, get wages back going up.
I think when he says women should be punished for having abortions, that is, you know, just beyond anything that I could imagine. I think most
women can imagine --
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, "AC 360": He did walk that back.
CLINTON: Well, he's a loose cannon. He's somebody who has said so many things. I'm sure he'll be scrambling. He says climate change is a Chinese
hoax and I think it's real and we've got to pull the world together deal with it. You can go down a long list, but I think it's a risk and I think
he is a loose canon and loose cannons tend to misfire.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: You heard from Donald Trump. You're now hearing from Hillary Clinton. Both speaking to CNN minutes ago. Well, we talked about the
divide in the Republican Party. We're now joined by Matt Schlapp, the chairman of the American Conservative Union, the country's oldest
conservative lobbying group.
He also served as the political director for George W. Bush. Matt, thanks for being with us. Leon Wolf is also with us. He is the managing editor
of the conservative web site "Red State."
[15:10:07]Leon, I want to start with you. You voted Republican your whole life, correct?
LEON WOLF, MANAGING EDITOR, REDSTATE.COM: That's correct. As a matter of fact, I grew up in Alaska and I was riding on a Don Young for Congress
float when I was 3 years old in 1980. So I haven't voted for a Democrat since that time or worked for or helped a Democrat.
GORANI: All right. So it goes way back. If Donald Trump is the Republican nominee, will you vote for him?
WOLF: Absolutely not. I think, you know, he is going to be the nominee at this point and there's just no way. For me it's not an ideological thing,
at least not primarily, even though I do have ideological differences with Donald.
The problem is I think that he's really unfit for the office as a human being. I think the only thing that you need to know about Donald Trump is
that as we woke up yesterday, I think the whole country knew -- everybody knew he was going to win Indiana, more or less sew up the nomination.
Everybody knew that.
So he goes on TV and says that Ted Cruz's father was involved in JFK's assassination because of something he read in the "National Enquirer."
That's not behavior that you expect from a person who is frankly mentally balanced.
You know, when he mocks a disabled reporter for his disability, I would be ashamed of that behavior coming from my 15-year-old son. So it really is
the sort of thing that I would just be terrified of what would happen to the country and to the world at large if he was the president.
GORANI: Matt Schlapp, you have said that you will vote for the Republican nominee, even if it is Donald Trump. Why? And how do you react to what
Leon has said?
MATT SCHLAPP, FORMER POLITICAL DIRECTOR FOR GEORGE W. BUSH: Well, look, it's very simple in America. We have what has developed to be a two-party
system. We have one party, the Republicans who are on the center right and we have another party, the Democratic Party that's on the center left and
independents who run separate aside from the party don't win in America.
So one of these two, Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump, is going to be the president. To me it's very clear. Even if I only think Donald Trump will
be a reliable conservative on about half the issues I care about and I don't even know -- you know, I don't know what he's going to do.
But let's just say it's 50 percent, he'll be so much better than Hillary Clinton who will be wrong on every single issue 100 percent of the time.
She will pick bad people for the Supreme Court. She will not uphold life in the womb.
She will not be for lowering our rates of taxation in this country, which are the highest in the world. She will not be able to add jobs and turn
our economy around and we've seen her foreign policy disaster which resulted in deaths in Benghazi --
GORANI: But Matt, I don't think Leon was talking ideologically here. He was making the point that in terms of his character, making fun of a
disabled reporter, sexist remarks, saying many Mexicans are rapists, saying America should close borders to Muslims for a certain period of time. That
this is problematic.
SCHLAPP: If we're talking about somebody's moral authority, Hillary Clinton was part of an administration and her husband was impeached. How
many presidents in America have been impeached and that was because of moral turpitude. So I don't exactly think the Clintons are going to be to
run out there and make the moral cases to why Hillary Clinton should be president. I think that's absurd.
GORANI: But I think Matt, this is about what some Republicans are saying, including Leon are saying, and Leon, can I take it a step further with you.
You say you won't vote for Donald Trump because of some of the things he said and done that sort of make you question some aspects of his character.
Will you go one step further and vote for Hillary Clinton?
WOLF: No, I mean, look, the ideal situation for me would be to vote for somebody who is a third-party candidate or not vote at all at the top of
the ticket. It's not really a moral issue. There have been plenty of good politicians and presidents who have not been especially moral people.
It's a question of character, of judgment. It's a question, what am I going to wake up and find that Donald Trump has done to the world tomorrow
if he's put in the office?
You know, he responded to Marco Rubio making a crank about his hand size by defending the size of his manhood in a debate on live television. What has
that kind of person going to do when somebody like Hugo Chavez comes to the U.N. and make some inflammatory speech?
Back in 2004, George W. Bush understood you have to let the little man rant and have his saying, but as the leader of the free world, you have to be
the bigger man sometimes.
Donald Trump is constitutionally incapable of doing that. It terrifies me as somebody who has to raise a daughter and a son in this country of what
will happen.
SCHLAPP: I'm raising five young daughters. I understand we want our president to also lead in a moral sense. Let me tell you, I think some of
the objections both of you have raised are completely legitimate.
It's why Donald Trump has to reach out to people and demonstrate that he has the moral authority to be our president. I think that's a very fair
standard. I think the American people are fair and they're going to have to make a judgment.
But the one thing that's clear about presidential races in America, Donald Trump is not on trial. What a presidential race is in America, it is one
person against another person. You have to consider them together.
If Leon doesn't vote or if Leon votes for a third person, a third party, he's essentially saying he's fine with Hillary Clinton being president.
[15:15:07]As a conservative, I will never until the last breath is out of my body stop fighting to prevent somebody like Hillary Clinton from
becoming president.
She and I have nothing in common politically. I don't agree with anything she stands for and it would be a terrible thing to continue these Obama
policies for another four or eight years.
GORANI: But Matt, let me put you -- I'm sure you've seen Senator Graham's, a veteran senator, Republican senator's tweet, if we nominate Trump, we, he
means the Republicans, we will get destroyed and he adds, "We will deserve it." Do you think this is -- the man to represent the Republican Party in
this new era, this new chapter for the GOP?
SCHLAPP: Look, I have respect for Lindsey Graham, but I voted for John McCain and Mitt Romney, the last two Republican nominees, who were both
moderate to liberal Republicans. I held my nose and I voted for them because I thought both of them would be better than Barack Obama.
Many times conservatives have had to swallow a choice that wasn't exactly their ideal choice. For Lindsay Graham to say Donald Trump is going to get
destroyed when he as a presidential candidate got destroyed in every conceivable way including in polls in his home state is no person to judge
about someone's political viability.
In fact, I think all of these people who are saying Trump doesn't stand a chance in the general election, I think that we have to sit back and see
what happens. Because what's happening on the Democratic side is 30 percent of Bernie Sanders' people saying they won't vote for Hillary.
We're having a realignment of parties in America.
GORANI: All right, we've got to leave it there -- go ahead, last word, Leon and we'll have to leave it there. Go ahead, Leon.
WOLF: I also voted for McCain and Romney without compunction, but Trump is completely different issue, and again, I don't believe that his ideological
court is substantially different from Hillary. I think they are both congenital liars, but at least Hillary is rational. So I don't know that
Hillary would actually be a worst president than Donald Trump. That's the fact.
GORANI: All right, Leon Wolf, the editor for redstate.com, Matt Schlapp, thanks to both of you for joining us. We really appreciate it. A very
good and interesting debate there, just on the day that Donald Trump appears to be the presumptive nominee for the Republican Party. Thanks to
both of you.
A lot more to come this evening, a war-torn city, potentially another glimmer of hope and potentially another set of empty promises. Leaders
have agreed to a ceasefire in Aleppo. We will take you live inside Syria for the latest development.
Plus, the latest on a mammoth inferno incinerating parts of a Canadian town. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
GORANI: Another promise of peace for Aleppo, but will it hold? The U.S. and Russia have agreed to extend the so-called cessation of hostilities
there. Hundreds have been killed in Aleppo in recent days despite the fact that a truce was technically in place.
[15:20:05]U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry met with European Union High Representative Federicka Mogerini (ph). They spoke about Aleppo a few
minutes ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KERRY, U.S. SECRETARY OF STATE: This went into effect at midnight today, earlier today, midnight of this morning and local time in Syria.
And since then we've seen an overall decrease in the violence in those areas, even though there are some reports of continued fighting in some
locations, which does not surprise us because it only went into effect one minute after midnight and we have to communicate and we are working at that
process.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, right now the U.N. Security Council is holding an urgent meeting on Syria, urging that the ceasefire be followed immediately and
comprehensively.
CNN's Fred Pleitgen is traveling with Russian troops inside Syria. He is in Latakia as a staging ground for Russia's air war in Syria and he's with
Russian troops. Fred, tell us first of all what you've been seeing today?
Have we lost Fred? OK, apologies, we've actually lost our connection with Fred Pleitgen. We'll get to him as soon as we are able to reconnect.
He is in Latakia as mentioned there with Russian troops after the announcement just about an hour ago or so by the State Department that the
truce deal was extended to Aleppo.
Initially a period of calm deal that was announced for Latakia and parts of Damascus. Authorities now saying it has extended to Aleppo.
All right, I was just buying time to be quite honest with you to see if we can get Fred back and we do. Fred Pleitgen, where are you and what are you
seeing?
FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Hi, Hala. Yes, I'm in Latakia and I'm embedded with the Russian forces at
the air base. We've gone through a good part of Syria today. We went from Latakia all the way to Hama, where the Russians say is one of their
regional reconciliation efforts.
What we're seeing in many cities is the U.N.-brokered so-called peace process or the peace process they are trying to enforce, but then also
bilateral efforts by the U.S. and Russia and also unilateral efforts by some of these players as well.
It's a confusing mix sometimes. We've been speaking to Russians specifically about Aleppo as well and one of the things that I've been
(inaudible) is whether or not they have any and how much influence they have on Bashar al-Assad and his government (inaudible) some of those
airstrikes that have been going on in the Aleppo region.
They've been telling us they have absolutely no influence over that and there's very little coordination between themselves and the Bashar al-Assad
air force.
However, they do say they're very much part of the process to get that cessation of hostilities in Aleppo to last. They not surprisingly blame
Al-Nusra, which is the offshoot of al Qaeda.
They're in Syria for the ceasefire transgressions that have been going on over the past couple of days. Of course the story for the U.S. is very
different for that area.
But certainly when you look at the Russians, you can see that they're very confident in what they're doing in Syria right now and if you look at the
air base here in Latakia, it really is a very, very big operation that still is in place.
And the Russians were talking about pulling out a lot of their assets here from Syria. Being on that air base today, we could see a lot of strike
fighters and jet fighters are actually still there.
GORANI: All right, Fred Pleitgen is inside Syria there with Russian troops, Russia saying to our correspondent, Fred, that they have no
influence over the Assad regime and it's military operations, despite that they are very closely allied.
The regime has this big base there. Those word coming from Russian authorities to Fred Pleitgen. This cessation of hostilities over Aleppo,
will it hold, even though military operations very much continue in other parts of the country. We will continue to keep our eye on that.
It is a worst case scenario for security officials in virtually every country in the world and I'm talking about a potential chemical attack.
Police in Kenya, though, are saying they foiled they very plot.
They say an ISIS cell was intent on targeting innocent civilians much like the West Gate Mall attack in 2013. The country's police chief says the
attackers were going to use anthrax. Police say they've arrested three people so far and are searching for two more suspects.
And we have some incredible images to show you from northern Alberta as firefighters on the ground and in the air are fighting a huge inferno. The
wildfires there have already destroyed close to 3,000 hectares, 80 percent of one community, has been destroyed along with at least a dozen homes.
[15:25:03]Take a look at some of these images. Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tweeted his support saying, "We stand ready to help."
Authorities ordered the evacuation of more than 80,000 people from their homes in that part of Canada, Northern Alberta, including the entire city
of Fort McMurray.
Let's bring in Jennifer Gray with the latest details on the wildfire. How contained is it right now, Jennifer?
JENNIFER GRAY, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Not very contained right now. It keeps on spreading. If you see this very rural area, you can see how much around
this town there is to burn. This is Edmonton. This is Fort McMurray up to the north.
This has gotten so bad that the one road that leads north and south has been completely cut off. So everyone that's evacuating is being forced to
head north and there's not much north at all. There are some oil sands.
People are basically hunkering down in these barracks right around these oil sands. Fort McMurray, all of the flames just engulfing it. We have
1,600 structures been burned. We expect that number to go up.
As you mentioned, 80,000 people evacuated. There's Beacon Hill. We've heard that 80 percent of all the structures in that community have been
burned and so the news just continues to get worse.
They set a record high yesterday at 31 degrees. They've already set the record today. They set it before noon at 30 degrees. Winds out of the
west at about 12 kilometers per hour and those winds are expected to increase.
We need the winds to die down and we need a little bit of rain but we're not going to get either one of those. This ridge of high pressure is
keeping the area completely dry, keeping it very hot and we're also keeping the winds around.
Temperatures are going to decrease a little bit over the next couple of days, which will help the firefighters, but the winds will stay up and we
will stay dry. And so that is going to keep the fire danger extremely high, at least until the end of the weekend.
GORANI: All right, Jennifer Gray, thanks very much. If you have a fear of flying or you're uneasy during turbulence, you might want to look away.
Nine people have been hospitalized after turbulence so severe that they were injured in a jetliner flight. The incident happened earlier today on
an Etihad Airways flight from Abu Dhabi to Jakarta, Indonesia. Here is reaction from inside the cabin.
(VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, lots of loud prayer there is inside the cabin. Can't really blame them. The turbulence lasted about 45 minutes before the flight
safely landed. In addition to the nine people hospitalized, 22 more passengers were treated for minor injuries and released. Yikes.
Trump versus Clinton. This is what it could boil down to. We'll take a look at Trump's potential path to victory coming up.
And an addiction specialist was called in. Aides were worried. Any efforts made during Prince's last days clearly came too late.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:30:45]
GORANI: A look at our top stories. Donald Trump will soon have a completely clear path to the American Republican presidential nomination.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Sources say candidate John Kasich will follow Ted Cruz's lead and will drop out of the race. We're expecting an announcement from John Kasich
in an hour and a half, and we will take that live on CNN.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Also among our top stories, the U.S. and Russia are agreeing to extend a Syrian cease-fire to Aleppo.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: It came into effect today. The U.N. is urging the cease-fire be followed immediately and comprehensively.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: And we are following the latest out of Minnesota. A lawyer for an opioid addiction specialist claims that the team of pop superstar Prince
contacted his client one day before his death.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: The next day as we now know Prince was found unresponsive in his home and later pronounced dead before receiving any treatment at all. We
will have a live report on developments related to Prince coming up.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: All right. Back now to the race for the White House. Democrat Bernie Sanders says he thinks he can pull off, "one of the great political
upsets in the history of the United States."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: He's sounding more confident about his chances against Hillary Clinton after defeating her in Indiana. But as Joe Johns reports, Sanders
is still facing incredibly tough odds.
BERNIE SANDERS, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand that Secretary Clinton thinks that this campaign is over. I've got some bad news
for her.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders pulling off a stunning upset victory in Indiana over democratic front-runner Hillary Clinton.
SANDERS: We understand, and I do not deny it for one second, that we have an uphill battle in front of us. But I think we have a path toward victory,
although it is a narrow path.
JOHNS: That path mathematically impossible without swaying some of Clinton's 513 super delegates to his side.
SANDERS: Super delegates are supporting Clinton in states where we have had landslide victories. I think that's wrong.
JOHNS: But Clinton is looking past Indiana.
HILLARY CLINTON, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm really focused into moving into the general election and I think that's where we have to
be. Because we're going to have a tough campaign against a candidate who will literally say or do anything.
JOHNS: Fundraising on the back of Trump's triumphant night. Tweeting Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee, chip in now if you agree we can't let him
become President.
As some Democrats criticize Sanders saying he is impeding the Democratic path to the White House by prolonging the democratic primary. The Senator
making his case to CNN's Dana Bash last night.
DANA BASH, CNN ANCHOR: Staying in this race, aren't you effectively making it harder for the Democrats --
SANDERS: Well, you've already conceded the race for me and I don't accept that concession. We are in this race to win.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well that was Joe Johns reporting. Hillary Clinton told CNN about an hour ago she is not the presumptive democratic nominee yet but her
matchup against Donald Trump looks increasingly likely. John King takes a look at which states could change hands during the election and potentially
hand Trump the presidency.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF U.S. CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump thinks he can appeal to blue collar working class voters, especially with his trade message, his
immigration message and change Pennsylvania. Can he? We'll see. But let's just say hypothetically that one's in play, what does it do to the math?
Makes it a little closer.
Donald Trump takes Ohio, always the biggest battle down state, no Republican has won the Presidency in the modern era without Ohio. Let's say
Donald Trump, if he can compete there, what does that do? Well that's still a Democratic victory and Donald Trump wants to go here and recreate
what we used to call Reagan Democrats, blue collar workers up in Michigan and do it.
At that point even if Donald Trump - even if remember, Obama won all of these states twice. Ohio went for Bush once but most of these states - Bush
twice, excuse me, but most of these states -- Michigan and Pennsylvania have been reliably Democratic since the late 80s. But if he won all three
of those, even that's not enough. So where would he go?
Wisconsin? That would give Donald Trump - Donald Trump could win four states across the rust belt if you will and win the Presidency based on
this map assuming Hillary Clinton took away none of the red states. This is where the campaign calculations will start.
[15:35:10]
KING: If you're the Trump campaign, you use this as your wheelhouse, use your economic message to a degree, your immigration message, your strength
message, try to turn blue collar white voters, especially blue collar white men which is a deficit, a problem for Hillary Clinton. Now is that
realistic? Any Democrat will tell you no but this is what Democrats worry about. They say Hillary Clinton would have some work to do here.
Now if you look at the map and you say let's assume for a hypothetical Donald Trump could actually pull that off. If you're Hillary Clinton, now
you're losing 270, 268, if this is happening, where do you get it back? Where do you get it back? Well one thing the Democrats will look at,
they've been talking about this for some time. Nevada and New Mexico used to be swing states. Now some people still think Nevada but most Democrats
think because of demographics, the Latino vote, these are pretty solidly Democratic states now, especially New Mexico and more and more Nevada. So
what would Hillary Clinton try? Maybe Arizona, right? Maybe Arizona, it has a Latino population.
Now a Republican will say no way, I can tell you the John McCain campaign is nervous with Donald Trump as the nominee.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And he's up for re-election.
KING: He's up for re-election by the state. So could the Democrats turn Arizona? If so, even if Donald Trump had the success changing the map here,
Hillary Clinton, if she could do find a place to change the map that one takes it back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well there you have it, the somewhat complex and exotic for European voters map there involved in the U.S. Presidential election state
by state. Donald Trump supporters are happy that he's shaking up the Republican establishment but critics say it's more like a hostile takeover,
warning that Trump could do permanent damage to the party.
We're joined now by Mollie Ball, a political writer for "The Atlantic." Her new piece is called "The Day The Republican Party Died." Mollie Ball,
thanks for being with us.
MOLLIE BALL, POLITICAL WRITER FOR THE ATLANTIC: Thanks for having me.
GORANI: So you write in your piece, you start off by writing 16 of the GOPs "best and brightest couldn't stop Trump." Why couldn't they?
BALL: Well, they misunderstood the electorate and Trump was selling something that nobody else was selling. You can say what he was selling was
division and hatred and lies and things that other people were too polite to say but it ended up being effective because it was completely different
than what the rest of the field was offering.
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BALL: And it really in a lot of ways went against what the Republican Party has always stood for, the positions he took coming out against the Iraq war
and the Bush administration's conduct of it and his positions on things like trade and even taxes and entitlements, pensions. These are not
traditional positions for a Republican nominee. The whole point of the Republican Party according to what it's sort of intellectuals thought was
not be for those things. And so it's a real crisis for a party to figure out what it stands for in an age where Trump is its leader.
GORANI: Why is the headline of your article "The Day The Republican Party Died"?
BALL: Well, for two reasons. First of all I'm not saying that this thing called the Republican Party will cease to exist. But the Republican Party
as we knew it, as a vehicle for conservative ideas, is no longer operative.
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BALL: And that has left a large faction of Republicans politically homeless and they are going to have to figure out what to do with their lives,
whether that's a new movement that comes out of this or something else. So it's not that the Republican Party ceases to exist but the Republican Party
as we knew it. And I think that fracture has already happened. It's not a prediction anymore.
GORANI: Yes, absolutely. So let's talk a little bit about Ted Cruz. Because technically speaking he should have been seen as the anti-establishment
candidate. He only made it to congress a few years ago as the guy who was going to shake up Washington. He gave it all he could in Indiana, that was
his last stand essentially, and just couldn't do it.
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GORANI: What happened to Ted Cruz?
BALL: Well, I think Ted Cruz always had a very narrow path to the nomination because his whole campaign was predicated on the idea of winning
this very narrow base of the Republican party, the extremely ideologically conservative sort of activist and anti-establishment voters. Now, this has
been -- it was successful for Ted Cruz in getting to the senate. If you haven't been asleep for the last few years, you remember the rise of the
Tea Party, which won primaries and got a lot of Republicans into the senate and into congress by running against incumbents and against the
establishment and against Washington.
But what Trump understood that I don't think Cruz did was that that anger was deeper and broader than ideological conservatism.
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BALL: It was an anger that was much more formless than that and much more in some ways reckless than that. So Cruz was left looking like a factional
candidate.
GORANI: By the way, I want to show our viewers the "New York Daily News'" front page, it mirrors a little bit the headline of your articles.
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GORANI: Where it's actually -- you see a red, white and blue elephant in a casket, "Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to mourn the GOP."
[15:40:03]
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: But I suppose my question regarding this anger theme because it comes up a lot, it's come up a lot. And we're seen all over the world and
many people ask me who live in parts of the world where there are much bigger problems than there are in America, what are Americans so angry
about? And why is it benefitting a candidate like Donald Trump?
BALL: You know, I've followed Donald Trump around the country and I've spoken to a lot of his supporters, and what you hear from these people is
that they feel that they aren't being heard in the current system. They feel that their point of view is not something that the elites listen to.
That there is this sort of upper crust of people who are rich and people who have power and those people are not in touch with the concerns of
regular, ordinary Americans.
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BALL: In a lot of cases, Donald Trump supporters look different than the rest of the Republican party. A lot of them are people without college
degrees, people with lower incomes than other Republicans or other voters. And so this is a sort of working class white movement that feels
discontented, that feels it's sort of status slipping in the America that we have today that's increasingly diverse and that's increasingly unequal.
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BALL: So I think Trump has tapped into a sort of class and race war that was going on in the Republican Party that his rivals didn't see.
GORANI: All right. It's a race that has not ceased to surprise us pretty much on a daily basis. Mollie Ball, political writer for the Atlantic and
her article "The Day The Republican Party Died." She's been covering Donald Trump and the race now for several months. Thanks very much Mollie.
And don't forget you can get all the latest news, interviews and analysis from this show on our Facebook page, Facebook.com/halagoranicnn.
Now, we have new information just in to CNN on the death of music legend Prince. A lawyer for two of Prince's deceased relatives claims the singer
had an addiction to Percocet decades before his death, that this goes way back.
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GORANI: Now, this comes after Wednesday's developments that the pop star's team contacted an addiction specialist one day before his death. That came
too late clearly. But before any medical assistance could be provided as we now know, Prince was found unresponsive and later died.
CNN correspondent Stephanie Elam is in Minneapolis, Minnesota with the latest on these new developments. So I guess for you know fans of Prince,
the fact that you know the team of the music legend reached out to a specialist just 24 hours before the death of Prince must be extremely
frustrating and all the more tragic.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It's not even 24 hours, Hala. They say, according to the lawyer representing the doctors from California who were
called in to help Prince, they called him, he said, on the evening of the 20th. We know that he passed away at 10:07 a.m. on Thursday morning. So it
was literally hours that they missed perhaps being able to help Prince and maybe save his life. What they're saying is that they were called by
Prince's team Wednesday night. The doctor could not clear his schedule for Thursday but he sent his son, who does work with him, he's a pre-med
student, out here to come and explain what the treatment would be like so that Prince would understand. The doctor also reaching out to someone he
trusted in the Minnesota area to make an appointment to see Prince so this co start treating him now, get him stabilized and then transfer him to
California for further treatment.
That local doctor cleared his schedule the attorney says, but Prince never showed up. The son coming in on the red eye, got to Paisley Park about 9:30
in the morning with two people from Prince's camp. When they got to Paisley Park, they couldn't find him and then he was located in the
elevator unconscious. The son of the doctor from California was the one to call 911 and get the paramedics there though. So it's a lot here in this,
but we're getting more of an idea of what led up the hours leading up to Prince passing away, Hala.
GORANI: All right, thanks very much there for that, Stephanie Elam. And by the way as you can potentially read there in our graphic in the lower third
of your screen, we are learning that the U.S. Attorney's Office and the DEA, the Drug Enforcement Administration will both join the investigation
into Princess's death as well as this investigation is widening as we are learning more as well about the days leading up to the tragic death of the
music icon.
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GORANI: This is "The World Right Now,"
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GORANI: Refugees face countless hurdles in Europe but they can expect a warm welcome from one Greek grandmother next.
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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[15:46:55]
GORANI: Britain is promising to make a U-turn on child refugees who are unaccompanied.
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GORANI: The Prime Minister David Cameron says the U.K. will accept children who are alone who have arrived in Greece, Italy and France. Mr. Cameron
came under growing pressure from lawmakers within his own parliament to do so. Just a few days ago the Parliament voted against the motion. Here's
what Mr. Cameron as a result of this pressure is now saying.
DAVID CAMERON, U.K. PRIME MINISTER: We're already taking child migrants in Europe with a direct family connection to the U.K. and we'll speed that up.
And I'm also talking to Save the Children to see what we can do more, particularly with children who came here before the E.U./Turkey deal was
signed. Because as I say again, what I don't want us to do is to take steps that will encourage people to make this dangerous journey.
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GORANI: The Greeks are very proud of their hospitality. And now one grandmother is exemplifying that trait. Nima Elbagir shows us how the woman
everyone calls "Mama" is doing her bit to help the refugees.
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PANAGIOTA VASILEIADOU, GREEK GRANDMOTHER: (As translated) We were five children and our parents. They burned down everything. We had nothing left,
only the clothes we were sleeping with. I understand the pain these people feel.
NIMA ELBAGIR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Panagiota Vasileiadou is 82 years old. She's called "Mama" though by almost everyone whose met her. She's lived
in the tiny Greek town of Idomeni for most of her life except for the darkest days of the Nazi occupation of Greece. That's why she says when
Syrian refugees knocked on her door, she couldn't turn away.
VASILEIADOU: (As translated) I have been through all of it. If you haven't, you cannot feel for them. I went through it and I know.
ELBAGIR: Two of the young men staying with Mama Panagiota agreed to speak to us. They may be far from the ravages of Syria but neither of them give
us their names. There are still family members at home whom they believe could be harmed by the Syrian regime.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (As translated) Not just any person would open up their home, not just any person. Given the war we have come from, most people
would think we are a violent people but she found it in herself to do this. It has lifted our spirits, given us hope that we can live with normal
people in spite of what we've seen.
ELBAGIR: The future for these young men and the almost 10,000 other refugees is Idomeni is bitterly uncertain. Once the gateway to the Balkan
route into Western Europe with the shutting of the Macedonian border, Idomeni they tell us has become a purgatory.
This young woman says they queue for hours for food. Another young man angrily describes the relentless rain and cold. Greece is in the grip of an
economic crisis that even as the country teeters on the brink of economic collapse, every day citizens are attempting to do what they can.
[15:50:10]
ELBAGIR: How long do you think you're going to continue to do this? How long do you think you'll be able to continue to do this?
VASILEIADOU: (As translated) I wish I was younger and with more money and take with me half of the camp and look after them. The issue won't be
resolved with only five of them being taken care of. They were the lucky ones.
ELBAGIR: Mama Panagiota knows what she does with the help of her family and neighbors can never be enough. (Selwa's) families like the refugees who
live with Mama Panagiota are grateful to the Greek family that allowed them shelter in a disused garage. But it doesn't take away the sting of their
European dream turned to dust.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (As translated) This is an embarrassment for Europe. Where is the respect for human rights? My child is crying at 3 in the
morning because he's hungry and there's nothing I can do.
ELBAGIR: Nima Elbagir, CNN, Idomeni, Greece.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Coming up, a high-end fashion show on a famous old street.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Not in Paris, not in Milan -- in Havana. We'll take you there live.
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GORANI: Well, first it was a big cruise ship. Now it's a high-end fashion show. Cuba is showing its chic side.
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GORANI: The fashion house Chanel showcased its "Resort 2017 Collection" down one of Havana's busiest streets. It was an extravagant runway show
that featured Cuban music and ended with models dancing in a conga line.
Our Patrick Oppmann, is there and he joins us now live.
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GORANI: Patrick I've got to say just in the last few months , just in the last few months Cubans have been getting something new every day thrown at
them. And now a Chanel fashion show. How did it go down?
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PATRICK OPPMANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It feels like that doesn't it Hala, a country changing before your eyes. A luxury brand in a communist-run
country, there's just so much to talk about there. But you know in the center of Havana, not on a fashion show blessed by the Cuban government but
one attended by several of both Raul and Fidel Castro's children. So you know taking this all in where Cubans from their apartments, there houses,
watching models sashay down the runway carrying clothing and purses that cost more than many people make here in a year. Really a very interesting,
memorable evening. I've never seen anything like it here before.
GORANI: I was going to say, I mean we're talking - I mean a Chanel jacket, as some of our viewers know, thousands and thousands of dollars. What did -
- why did Chanel do this in Cuba? Was it just for the extra publicity? For sort of like -- there's Carl Lagerfeld, by the way. Just to have some - you
know the contrast between the high end French fashion house and Cuba's old streets and old cars?
OPPMANN: You know like the Rolling Stones, like other people, they felt that Cuba is having its moment. A few years ago, you wouldn't have been
able to do this, the Cuban government just wouldn't have been interested. This is part of the reason of course they fought the revolution way back
when was to throw the rich out and raise the (inaudible).
[15:55:05]
OPPMANN: That's all changed though Hala in the last few years. The Cuban government like so many other countries around the world depends more and
more on tourism and they know that the world will be talking like we're talking about it right now.
And for Carl Lagerfeld, Chanel officials tell, executives tell me he wanted to do something that had never been done before every time they do one of
their fashion events and this is Chanel's big official event for the year.
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OPPMANN: They said not only was it about creating buzz, it was about creating history. And of course they have to keep raising the bar and I
think many people felt they did just that last night.
GORANI: All right, I don't know how they're going to top this one. Patrick Oppmann, in Havana, thanks very much.
And finally, I don't know if this went all the way to Cuba but it is Star Wars day and everyone has been tweeting "ay the fourth be with you" because
it's fourth of May.
Jeremy Rock reports on the surprising origins of the geeky greeting that you can use each year on the 4th of May.
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JEREMY ROTH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: No matter if you use social media in this galaxy or in one far, far away, it's time to get down for May 4th "Star
Wars Day." Are you excited? Yes you are.
According to starswars.com, one of the first mentions of the date came back in 1979 from an unlikely source, newly elected British Prime Minister
Margaret Thatcher. After her historic win to become the U.K.'s first female premier, her supports took out an ad in the newspaper saying " may the 4th
be with you, Maggie, congratulations." Since then "Star Wars Day" has taken off with the millennium falcon in hyper drive. Online videos are full of
people celebrating and Disney has even gotten in on the fun, posting videos with costume ideas and even suggestions for food.
Needing to celebrate? May the 4th be with you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: Well, some people were taking this extremely seriously.
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GORANI: This is the person who sold me my sandwich today at my local coffee shop. A barista was getting into the spirits. I asked the newsroom for
captions, the best they could do was "Luke, I have your latte." Let me know what you think about this and some of the other more hard hitting news
we've covered this hour as we do every day. You can find me at halagorani on twitter.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
GORANI: This has been "The World Right Now," I'm Hala Gorani, thanks for watching. "Quest Means Business" is next on CNN.
END
