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LEGAL VIEW WITH ASHLEIGH BANFIELD

Obama Comments On Nancy Reagan's Death; Flags Lowered To Honor Nancy Reagan; Trump Holding Rally In North Carolina; Anti-Trump Groups Unleash New Wave of Ads; GOP Candidates Fight For Wins In Four States; Hulk Hogan Sues Gawker Media For $100 Million; Clinton Tours Software Development Company and Meets Workers In Michigan. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired March 7, 2016 - 12:30   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:30:14] BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: As somebody who's been lucky enough to have an extraordinary partner in my life, I know how much she meant, not just to President Reagan but to the country, as a whole. He was lucky to have her. And I'm sure he would be the first to acknowledge that. So she will be missed.

UNINDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

OBAMA: Thank you, guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN ANCHOR: So there you have it. Those comments just coming in to us live and we just turned them around for you obviously. The tributes have been pouring in as the world mourns the loss of Nancy Reagan. I can tell you this today, that flags are now flown at half-staff on Capitol Hill and at the White House.

Live picture for you there. Also at the Reagan National Library where she will be buried beside her husband Ronnie.

The former first lady being remembered not just for her devotion to him but for her influence on Ronald Reagan's presidency. She was a political force in her own rite, in addition to being a fierce protector of her husband. She was also a mother and an actress and a breast cancer survivor and a crusader of the Just Say No anti-drug campaign.

Nancy Reagan died at her home in Los Angeles on Sunday of congestive heart failure. She was 94 years old. She will be very much missed.

A lot of people have asked questions of how Nancy Reagan would have regarded the race we are in today, particularly when a candidate like Donald Trump on the right side of the screen has involved the size of his manhood during a Republican speech. It has a lot of people talking, some for and some against. But Donald Trump is speaking live in Concord, North Carolina. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we have right here, come here, Mark. Mark Martin, everybody come here.

MARK MARTIN: Hey, guys. Donald Trump has my vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Well, Donald Trump has Mark Martin's vote but I know you want to hear from Donald Trump. So we will try to get in a quick break if we can and come back to Donald Trump. He's been rallying voters in North Carolina and he has been preparing for another pivotal day tomorrow. That's when four states are expected to hold contests.

The biggest surprise, from Super Tuesday part two, Michigan, take a look at your map 59 delegates at stake in Michigan. And speaking of Michigan, a new Monmouth poll finds that Trump is holding a double- digit lead over his closest rival in that state. All of it taking place at several outside groups move in to deploy millions in new Trump attack ads in state s like Florida, that's a winner take all state also Illinois. One of the ads from the American Future Funds, (inaudible) I'm going to show it you in a moment but right now Donald Trump has taken to the mic again. Scrap the break and let's listen to Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, Brian France was with us last week at our venue and he got up on behalf of NASCAR. And Brian is an amazing guy and some job, I tell you that. And for them to endorse me was really a very great honor. Thank you very much.

So, a lot of things have been happening. A lot of polls he com, out. The latest one, National Poll, CNN Trump 49 --

( CHEERS AND APPLAUSE )

Little Marco Rubio, you know, he's a no-show in the U.S. Senate. He never goes to vote. I'll tell you what, that guy, he couldn't be elected dog catcher in Florida, the people in Florida. I'm in Florida. That's my second home and I will tell you, he's not very popular. You know, he got elected and then said I'm not ever going to vote. He has one of the worst attendance in history, actually the history of the U.S. Senate.

So, you have Rubio at 16 and Cruz at 15 and Kasich at 6. And I just to tell you, that's pretty good stuff, right? You know, one of the polls just came out. Isn't that a beautiful sight? Beautiful. I love it. One of the polls -- you know, I only use the ones where we are doing well, but we are doing well in most of them. So -- one of the polls just came out and number of them came out and I'm beating Hillary Clinton quite easily, thank you.

( CHEERS AND APPLAUSE }

Honestly, we really haven't even started on her. We only had one skirmish a month ago. You remember that little skirmish, right. So, I will tell you what -- who said that?

And He means it.

[13:35:07] So, we have been going around and it's been amazing. We won New Hampshire. We won South Carolina. Oh, South Carolina. We love South Carolina, right? We love South Carolina. We won Nevada, Georgia, Tennessee, Alabama, Vermont, Arkansas, Massachusetts, we're going to have, I think, a couple of good ones tomorrow, I hope. Let's see what happens. But we have some good ones. Michigan is going to be -- look, I have been fighting hard for cars.

Cars are going to be made in our country, made in our country. We really have been. We have been fighting hard for that industry. I have been to Michigan a lot. I think we will do well there. And we have Idaho. We love Idaho potatoes, right? Who doesn't have potatoes from Idaho? And we have Mississippi, which I'm there a lot actually. And what a great -- do we love Mississippi, yes? Right.

So, we have and we have Hawaii. I have a big hotel in Hawaii. I employ a lot of people in Hawaii. Yes, Hawaii, it is beautiful. So we have a lot coming up and the following week we go with Florida and we go with Ohio and some others. It's going to be -- well, let me ask you most importantly, who's going to win North Carolina? Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: That is a great question. Who's going to win in North Carolina. The polls have shown he's ahead in many states, but what he just said may not be entirely true whether he wins head-to-head match ups with Hillary Clinton, in fact most of the polls that you can actually trust because they're not done online where you can hit send, send, send, send, send. The're done by a telephone, actually say the opposite.

In head to head match up Hillary Clinton does beat Donald Trump. I want to correct the record. He tends to say things off the cuff a lot at his rallies. Here's one of the issues he's going to face.

Up until now he's been doing a lot of campaigning, using his celebrity, going to giant rallies filled with tens of thousands of people but the machines are turning ferociously against him. And some of those machines are pumping out extraordinarily negative ads, and they aren't coming from the establishment, and this time. No. This time, people in Florida, people in Illinois, are going to see ads like this one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I heard Donald Trump insult my fellow prisoners of war from Vietnam by calling us losers, that was the most infuriating comment I think I have heard from a politician in my entire life. Trump would not have survived the P.O.W. experience, probably would have been the first to fold. Learn about Donald Trump. He is not what he appears to be. Donald Trump is a phony. Stop him now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Stop him now. Super PACs are coming out with these ads. There's another one very similarly produced from a Lieutenant colonel in the Special Forces who calls him a draft dodger. They're very, are very powerful, but will they have the desired effect? We will talk more to Trump supporter Jeffrey Lord along with CNN political commentator and Republican consultant Margret Hoover.

Jeffrey Lord, you have to admit that is powerful stuff and it's not coming from the establishment which fuels his voters. How are they going to digest this?

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Two points. I think, Ashliegh, nuber one number one, one of the interesting things about Donald Trump, I think in a political sense is that like Ronald Reagan, ;like Anold Schwarzenegger, Sonny Bono, other people who have been icons, if you will, of one degree or another in American culture, they -- because they are so familiar to the American people, political attack ads don't matter their source don't really seem to have an affect. They have sort of difficult candidates, has a teflon quality to them.

I think that helps Donald Trump no matter who the source of the ad or what the ad. The second thing is I notice that the one ad there refers to him as a draft dodger. Well, to be perfectly candid, that issue was more or less settled in 1992 and 1996. The same allegation made againts Bill Cill Clinton. And in Bill Clinton case, he was running against two certified war heroes from World War II, George H.W. Bush and then Bob Dole. They have no effect whatsoever, and Bill Clinton was elected twice. So, I just don't think that that's going go anywhere.

BANFIELD: Well, the swift voting had a huge effect on John Kerry when voting against George W.Bush.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

BANFIELD: So, tend to I wonder if they are true or not or they have, sort of grains of truth and they push. Margaret, you have to admit, these are really powerful messages from people who tend to love them.

HOOVER: Yes. And with due respect to Jeffrey, I think Jeffrey Lord knows that negative campaigning works. Anybody in politics knows that negative campaigning works. That's why you see it. That's why it happens. Everybody likes to stay above board. I think the Democrats generally done a better job this time until last night. It didn't really get ugly in the Democtratic side even though, it's still maintains a -- it's still a match --

LORD: Right.

HOOVER: --on the ideological and in sort of ideas oriented fight on the Democratic side right now. The reason it is so ugly on the Republican side is because there have been personal add attacks from the beginning from Donald Trump. We were never even able to have a policy-oriented, ideas oriented context on the Republican side. And the reason it works, I mean Trump has been leading because he has

been -- he's been pulling this these adhominem attacks and nobody, until very recently met fire with fire. I mean, that's the problem. So, we know negative attack ads work. The question is who they come from, whether it is establishment, the issue is, is there time?

BANFIELD: Is it working at their time. You are right. Margaret Hoover, and Jeffrey Lord, I have to leave it there only because i have so many live events I have to get to. Otherwise I would have you on all day.

LORD: Thank you.

BANFIELD: Thank you to both of you.

HOOVER: Thanks Ash.

LORD: Thanks Margaret.

BANFIELD: I appreciate it.

Just to reminder next GOP presidential debate Miami, Thursday, 8:30 p.m. right here on CNN.

And at this moment, Hillary Clinton is talking to employees of atomic objects. That's an employee-owned software company in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

There are 130 delegates at stake for Democrats in the primary voters cast their ballots. Let's call it really awesome Tuesday that's coming up. We will hear from Hillary Clinton after the break. .

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[12:45:59] BANFIELD: OK. There's this story. Hulk Hogan has won his fair share of wrestling matches in the ring, but now he's hoping for what he can only call smack down in a courtroom.

Opening statements starting today, in fact this morning in Tampa. And this is $100 million whopper of a case against a web site called Gawker, in fact it's called Gawker media. The former pro wrestler suing Gawker after it published a portion of a videotape back in 2012. But it was a portion showing him having sex with a friend's wife. He said that is an invasion of privacy. A lot people might agree but things could be different in a courtroom because Gawker says publishing that sex tape is protected by something called the first amendment. Listen to Hogan's attorney.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID HOUSTON, HULK HOGAN'S LAWYER: Well one of the things that you just heard, when Judge Campbell was instructing you about the law. The law that applies in this courtroom when you decide this case is where that line is drawn. It's drawn where the publication ceases to be the giving of information for which the public is entitled and becomes a morbid and sensational prying in to the private lives of others for its own sake with which a reasonable member of the public with decent standards would say that he or she what had no concern.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: Boy, that's really powerful stuff. As jury selection got underway last week the wrestler predicted he would have a victory and he tweeted out, time for the real main event. I'm going to slam another giant. Hogan versus Gawker, what you going to do, Gawker, only justice, brother-HH. I can only assume HH is Hulk Hogan. He's got another name which was Terry Bollea, but he goes by Hulk Hogan I think in a courtroom, too.

Brian Stelter, he's real name is CNN Senior Media Correspondent, Danny Cevallos we're not sure. It's the CNN Legal Analyst and they're both joining me now. OK I never really thought we were going to have this conversation about a sex tape and Hulk Hogan and bubable of friends wife but that is effectively that's what they're going to be talking about these players all getting involved in a sort of sex tape. But when it comes right down to it, what's the story about Brian.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: The story is about Hulk Hogan's love life, his sex life. About who ho he was sleeping with, people that are not his wife and it was from many, many years ago. That's actually a decade-old sex tape that is in now back in the news.

Now Hulk Hogan apparently wanted to be back in the news and wants to have this fight. Gawker tried for for years to settle. It was unable to and it is unclear what will happen if Hulk Hogan actually wins the $100, 000 this website which only the three of us to know because it is a kind of Manhattan media website, a gossip website. Well-known in circles like this, not well known in Tampa where this trial is happening. It's unclear what would happen to the future of the site. For Gawker this is an ex essential issue, they have to pay him $100, 000 so let's give to them for that.

BANFIELD: So when it comes right down to it, anybody watching right now Danny would say of course you should have a reasonable expectation of privacy when in a bedroom, even with someone who may not be your wife. You close a door in a bedroom for a reason. Why does that maybe not apply or why is that being litigated?

DANNY CEVALLOS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: In a case like this you have two very important concerns that come head to head. And the first one is the idea that matters of public concern are it could go to the the heart of first amendment protection. In other words, if something is newsworthy the courts have to protect it.

But on the other hand, even first amendment freedoms are less than somewhat when we're dealing with private facts about peoples private lives. So the ultimate issue with this case is going to be to what degree, if any, did Hulk Hogan make this on his own doing or otherwise out in the internet. Was it an issue of public concern? Was it newsworthy? And if it was then that is a strong point in favor of the defendant.

STELTER: So, Gawker said it was. He talks about it in his autobiography, talks about on Howard Stern show. [12:20:008] BANFIELD: News you could is say is Gossip News, news you could say is CNN news, so it's not fair to say that isn't news because it's sexy.

STELTER: That's right.

BANFIELD: News can be news to depending on what you like free.

STELTER: First amendment case is they have been won and lost in the past -- they one in the past over topics like this. This isn't the first time that something like this is actually creating a court battle that actually affects journalism.

CEVALLOS: He's right. Appellate courts do protect the media and first amendment in general. But remember, this is a jury trial. And in a jury trial, virtually anything can and often does happen.

BANFIELD: I'm a big fan of first amendment issues. I'm always a big fan of litigation that get peoples. I vote on to shows like this so they can learn about firs amendments issues, I just don't want to have to talk about what he did.

So instead, I'm going to say good-bye to the two of you because there's a live event that I do want to go to. This is news I like to cover, at Hillary Rodham Clinton and the politicians who are making their case to be president. And we do have one more live event before I want to take to Grand Rapids, Michigan, the state I just flew back from, beautiful Michigan. I truly believe it when I said that spent time in Flint and really enjoyed it.

This is Grand Rapids and she's taking questions, lets listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can I ask you question directly. I also confess that you got my vote. And my question for you is I feel like there are a lot of people out there who would normally be supportive of you but they like Bernie. And like Bernie, too. I like what he is saying. I like a lot of his vision.

However, I feel like you are the right person to take action and make things happen. So you get my vote. With that said, what can I do, what can I specifically do and say to people going in to November who are Bernie supporters and saying, you know, I like Hillary, but she's not Bernie? What can I say specifically say to people to help convince them to get out on November?

HILLARY CLINTON, DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well thanks. Thanks for that. And thanks for your support. It really means a lot to me. Look, I like Bernie. And I really appreciate very much his passion, his incredible drive to raise issues that have to be raised and people have to pay attention to.

And I am really both impressed and excited about the people he's bringing in to his campaign. Many for the first time who have either never voted before or who are very attracted by his message and just want to stand up for it because we do have to deal with in equality. We do have to deal with the deck stacked against most people in our country and advantaging those at the top, both because of their financial standing or because of their political power.

So, he and I have vigorous agreement that we've got to take these issues of on. And I'm very hopeful that I will be the Democratic nominee and I have said it publicly to work with him to work with him, to make sure that we are number one, keeping those issues front and center on the top of the nation's priorities.

And number two to work with him the way that I supported :President Obama when I dropped out, back in 2008. We ran a really tough primary. And at the end of it he won, I lost. I had a lot of passionate supporters who did not feel like they wanted to support then Senator Obama. And, so from the time I dropped out until the day before that election, in November, I worked as hard as I could. I nominated him at the convention. I made the case because he and I shared a lot of the same views about what needed to be done and I worked as a hard as I could to get him elected and was thrilled and relieved when he was elected.

And I would hope to be able to enlist Bernie in helping me reach out to his supporters, if I am so fortunate enough to be the nominee. I also think you know we can look at the Republican side. I said last night in the debate. Whatever disagreements we have you know and we do have some. I raise one last night that I think is an important difference. When the chips were down and the vote was called I voted for the auto bailout. He voted against it because it also helped some other groups like the banks but sometimes you don't get perfect choices in life for politics. And so I voted to get that money flowing to save those auto jobs, to restructure the auto industry and if everybody had voted the way he did we would have lost millions of jobs and the great recession would have been deeper and longer lasting.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BANFIELD: So that's the secretary in a nutshell putting in to -- basically a paragraph, the hottest topic of the debate last night. Where Bernie Sanders went off on her for her support of Wall Street and she went after him for not supporting the auto industry. Both of them are right and both of them are wrong.

[12:55:14] How's that? But at tenor and quorum is pretty good. She actually gave that to him and said look he just don't know he's got perfect choices.

Thank you for everyone for choosing to watch this program today. It's so nice to have you with me. But stay tuned because Wolf starts right after this quick break.

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