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CNN NEWSROOM

Campaigns Face Make-or-Break Super Tuesday. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired March 15, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:02] PEREIRA: That's so beautiful.

CAMEROTA: That's beautiful.

PEREIRA: Really lovely. Thank you for that.

CAMEROTA: Thank you for that. Time now for "NEWSROOM" with Carol Costello.

PEREIRA: Good morning.

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: That was really nice: Good morning. Have a -- have a great day. NEWSROOM starts now.

PEREIRA: You too.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, Super Tuesday part three, and a critical clash in Ohio.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This is the place I want to win. This is the place --

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to win Ohio. I feel very good.

COSTELLO: Marco Rubio fighting for Florida.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to shock the country. And we're going to do what needs to be done.

COSTELLO: Ted Cruz looking to add to his win.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's only one campaign has beaten Donald Trump over and over and over again.

COSTELLO: Can Sanders pull off another Super Tuesday surprise?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Let's make sure that tomorrow we have a huge voter turnout.

COSTELLO: Not if Clinton can help it.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Join me in this mission. Join me in making this come true. COSTELLO: Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COSTELLO: And good morning, I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

It may be the single most decisive day yet in this presidential race. The next hours will decide who goes on toward the White House and who simply goes home.

Voting now underway in Ohio where Republican Governor John Kasich must win his home state in order to keep his campaign alive. Marco Rubio faces the same make-or-break test today. And Democrat Bernie Sanders is hoping for another shocking upset in the Midwest just like last week.

As voters go to the polls in Illinois, Donald Trump goes for the kill. If he wins Ohio in Florida the nomination appears all but locked down.

It is Super Tuesday three. But the numbers that really matter today. Five states, more than a thousand delegates up for grabs.

Our reporter, analysts and experts are scattered across today's battle ground states and covering every single angle for you. But let's begin in the all-important state of Florida, CNN's Boris Sanchez is just outside Orlando in Winter Park.

Hi, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. This could be the last stand for Marco Rubio and his campaign. Not only do the 99 delegates he could win in Florida represent keeping his campaign afloat but also it represents a buffer, keeping Donald Trump from that all-important 1237 delegates he needs to go to the convention as the presumptive nominee.

I can tell you so far voters that I've spoken to here at this precinct are not for Donald Trump. Central Florida is supposed to be a stronghold for Trump but only two voters tell me that they're in his corner. Despite that about 40 percent of voters here in Winter Park have already cast their ballots through early voting. So we may still see a tough fight ahead here between Donald Trump and Marco Rubio in Florida, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Boris Sanchez reporting.

Hillary Clinton is expected to continue running the table in the south and polls show Trump is favored among the Republicans in North Carolina.

CNN's Polo Sandoval is in Charlotte. Good morning.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. This will perhaps be one of the last opportunities for the Republican establishment to stop Trump. On the Democratic side, as you mentioned, Hillary Clinton expected to do very well here in the Tar Heel State. And African-American voters make a large portion of the Democratic electorate here in Charlotte.

We continue to see what I would describe as the steady flow of people that have been coming in to cast their ballots here in Charlotte. We have seen significantly larger numbers according to some of the latest information coming to us from the state election board saying that early voting and also absentee voting has already been higher than the primaries in 2008, 2012.

Carol, all feeding to the level of excitement here as North Carolina shares the spotlight from four other states today.

COSTELLO: All right. Polo Sandoval, reporting. Thank you.

Now let's turn our attention to Ohio, where Democrats have been switching parties so they can vote on the Republican side of the ballot. At stake the presidential hopes of Ohio's governor and the momentum of Donald Trump.

CNN's Phil Mattingly in Columbus this morning. Hi, Phil.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Well, as polls have started to slip away from Marco Rubio, all eyes have really turned to Ohio, right here, where John Kasich came into this race with a 77 percent in-state approval rating amongst Republicans. A series of structural advantages. Big party -- with the state party, with the opportunity to really try and close the deal on his first victory of this race, still even Kasich's aides willing to acknowledge this is largely a toss-up right now. Donald Trump really going all in on this state over the last four or five days.

Kasich versus Trump, really to decide whether or not Kasich stays in the race and potentially whether anybody else will have a chance after Donald Trump is done with this state.

COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Columbus, Ohio.

So as you heard Phil say it is a make-or-break day for Governor Kasich in his home state of Ohio. These are live pictures outside of North Olmsted. That's in Cleveland. Voting is now underway there.

[09:05:02] Ohio is a critical primary. Donald Trump knows that. If Kasich wins that slows Trump's path to the GOP nomination. That's why the GOP -- frontrunner, rather, is on an all-out blitz against Kasich.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Ohio is going make America great again. Kasich cannot make America great again. Can't do it. Go home. Go to sleep. Get a good rest. Go out tomorrow. You got to beat Kasich. He's not going to be a great president.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: All right. Despite Trump's attacks, though, logic says Kasich should win his home state. He has a high approval rating with Ohio voters and the support of some big-named backers like Mitt Romney, for example. Kasich has also been endorsed by the last five Ohio State football coaches including Urban Myer and Jim Tressel. And he's someone who is from the state of Ohio that matters. It's not ridiculous. That really matters.

So let's talk about all of this with Republican strategist Adam Goodman, chairman of the Ohio Republican Party Matt Borges, and Scott Nell Hughes. She's a Trump supporter and chief political correspondent for USA Radio Networks.

Welcome to all of you.

SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, USA RADIO NETWORKS: Thank you.

MATT BORGES, OHIO REPUBLICAN PARTY CHAIRMAN: Hi, good morning.

ADAM GOODMAN, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Thank you for being here. So, Matt, I should start with you. Ohio. Most important state today?

BORGES: It always is in the -- in the fall. We always know whoever wins Ohio will go to the White House. And because we want to pick the candidate that can help us win in the fall, the person who's going help us win Ohio is the person who's going to win Ohio today, John Kasich. So he wins here and it sets the race on a completely different course.

COSTELLO: But, Adam, is a tossup in the state of Ohio. And like I said, logic says that John Kasich ought to win. He's got a 72 percent approval rating in the state of Ohio. He's got endorsements from everyone who is important in the state of Ohio. Why is it a tossup there?

GOODMAN: It's a tossup because this whole election, Carol, this year has been about the outside versus the inside. And right now on both sides of the aisle with both Sanders and Trump the outsiders are on the rise and the insiders are on defense and Kasich, with all his boat and advantages, has to take on -- you might say a made-for-television candidate in Trump. That kind of changes the odds overnight. And the last thing I think that may be is significant here, Carol, about two weeks ago a lot of decisions were made about where to put anti-Trump PAC dollars, super PAC dollars in TV ads. 18 million or so has been run to this moment in Florida where it looks like Rubio is going to be on his last legs as opposed to an even greater concentration which could have been directed to Ohio, which in a close election if Donald Trump pulls it out tonight, the outside may have learned another lesson in resource allocation.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: All right. Scottie, I want to talk about Ben Carson because, you know, Donald Trump is facing a critical election in the state of Ohio. Yet Ben Carson, who threw his support behind Donald Trump last week, he was on News Max TV and he said in an interview, even if Trump is a bust as president, it will only be four years. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. BEN CARSON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Even if Donald Trump turns out not to be such a great president, which I don't think is the case, I think he's going to surround himself with really good people. But even if he did, we're only looking at four years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, Scottie, if somebody endorsed me for president, I kind of wouldn't want him talking like that.

HUGHES: Well, I'm not going to sit here and criticize Dr. Ben Carson. We're very grateful. I think Mr. Trump is grateful for his endorsement. But I will say this. Have some faith. If you're not a Trump supporter right now, which I hope you will be at some point, you also have to put some faith in our founding fathers and this check and balancing system and that it's supposed to work. And so that Mr. Trump works on one hand and then the Congress works on the other. So it's not like for all of you that are saying that doomsday is going to happen, that it's the end of the world as we know it, as Republicans, when we've survived eight years of this horrible bureaucracy that is built by the Obama administration.

I can assure you that the checks and balances system, and maybe this might be the catalyst to get our do-nothing Congress to actually do something by putting someone like Mr. Trump in the White House to motivate them to start actually doing their job the taxpayers paid them to do.

COSTELLO: And, Matt, Scottie might have a point here because blue- collar Democrats especially in the state of Ohio have been frustrated because Democratic policies have not worked for them. We hear that a lot of blue-collar Democrats are changing their party affiliation and voting Republican so they can vote for Mr. Trump. Why?

BORGES: Well, one of the things that I'm hearing that is actually kind of disturbing me is this notion that somehow there will be checks and balances. The thing that has kept us over the last six years, really, from having the full effects of Barack Obama on this country is electing Republicans down ticket, electing them governors, electing them, taking over Congress. Unfortunately Donald Trump on the ticket in November imperils Republicans across the board.

[09:10:04] So we don't want to have that situation happen and empower Democrats even more. Make those policies even worse on coal country in Ohio and elsewhere.

John Kasich has helped bring 400,000 jobs back to Ohio. Cutting taxes. Balancing budgets. It's exactly the kind of thing that we need for Washington. So we need someone who can actually win here and he'll win today in the primary and then I think that will help him go on to our nomination and eventually win in November.

COSTELLO: And --

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Go ahead. Go ahead, Scottie.

HUGHES: Carol, real quick, let me point out something here. The numbers don't lie in Ohio just like Shakira's hips. Actually since John Kasich signed NAFTA more than 300,700 jobs have left Ohio. As governor with the TPP agreement that he agrees for, hence why a lot of these Democrats are crossing over to go against Mr. Trump. More than 112,000 jobs have left Ohio and gone to these TPP trade countries.

So to say that John Kasich is a pro-jobs governor is absolutely ridiculous when his own state right now, the reason why he is not overwhelmingly winning is because he has sold out his own members to other countries and shipped jobs out of state.

(CROSSTALK)

COSTELLO: Well, here's the other thing that I think --

BORGES: 415,000 new jobs in the state.

COSTELLO: And I agree, Ohio's economy is doing well. But I think something that people miss about, especially blue-collar Democrats, and I know I'm talking to a Republican panel, but I'll just lay out there. Blue-collar Democrats are socially conservative. They don't like the idea of gay marriage or abortion. So that's something else that might appeal to them. Especially on the Democratic side.

And I would say what appeals to them on Donald Trump's side is even though the economy is booming in Ohio, according to John -- and it is doing better, right? Wages --

HUGHES: Where did Kasich go? The economic policy --

COSTELLO: Wages aren't growing. Wages aren't growing. Especially for those who hold manufacturing jobs. And John Kasich can't -- can't escape that fact, can he, Adam?

GOODMAN: Carol, no, not really. But can I make a point about Republicans on behalf of all Republicans? At the end of the day, the thing, Carol, that's going to unite us -- and I disagree with Matt. The thing that's going to unite us at the end most likely will be Hillary Clinton and something that was unexpected which was the death of Judge Scalia and control -- you might say control, ideological control of the Supreme Court.

At the end of the day Republicans are going to rally around their own and if it's Donald Trump, with no disrespect to Matt, if it's Donald Trump, we're going to be there for him. And I think anyone that tries, Carol, to predict how a Donald Trump-Hillary Clinton square off is going to turn out is wildly speculating because we have no idea how that kind of confrontation will play out in an environment where people are upset with the system. They are angry. They have angst. They have impatience. They want things to change. And if it is Donald Trump, I think this country, as well as this party will have -- be treated to one of the most important civic debates in many years.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Adam Goodman, Matt Borges, Scottie Nell Hughes, thanks to all of you.

We'll have complete coverage of Super Tuesday part three using the vast resources of CNN all day long.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Bernie Sanders looking for another Super Tuesday surprise.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:17:24] COSTELLO: Five states and more than 1,000 delegates. And when you break down the numbers the stakes could not be higher for some of our presidential candidates.

Christine Romans is sizing up what's for grabs today. Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. A very big morning. Call it one America, two economies, Carol. The jobless rate officially 4.9 percent, home prices are rising, the stock market is up. Almost 200 percent over the past seven years. Gas prices are low. But in the states voting today, especially what we used to call those rustbelt states, the focus is on closed factories, stagnant wages and declining opportunity for anyone without a college degree.

Illinois. Let's talk about Illinois. It has the highest jobless rate among these states today. Above 6 percent. 69 delegates at stake for the GOP, 156 for the Democrats.

Let' go to Florida. An incredibly diverse state. Tourism hub. The lowest household income of the voting states today, 99 GOP delegates there. Florida is critical.

Head to North Carolina and Ohio, and it's the imagery of empty factories that is resonating in both parties. Truly the common denominator is a populist revolt against years of free trade deals.

Let's look at North Carolina. This is the drop in manufacturing jobs since 2000. At the low point of the recession 300,000 jobs disappeared from factories in North Carolina, only 30,000 of those jobs have come back.

In Ohio, more than one million manufacturing jobs in 2000, plunging to 600,000 as the economy tanked. It's gained back just 80,000 of those jobs. It is here in Ohio that Bernie Sanders, his antitrade deal message, Donald Trump's promises to tax companies that outsource American jobs to China and Mexico, that's resonating here.

Just this morning Donald Trump writes in "USA Today," America's workers are crushed. These trade deals are bad. He will bring manufacturing jobs back and this is what he writes. "One of the first casualties of the TPP will be America's auto

industry. And among the worst victims of this pact will be the people of Ohio. The TPP will send America's remaining auto jobs to Japan. Yet Governor John Kasich, Senator Ted Cruz, Senator Marco Rubio, they have all promoted the TPP a mortal threat to American manufacturing."

He has really sharpened his tone, Carol, and his words on this and ramped it up on a day that is incredibly important. These attacks on trade are resonating. Ohio will be critical today.

COSTELLO: They are resonating in a big way. Christine Romans, many thanks.

You know, because it is still the economy, stupid. And here is why. I'm going to make it very personal. I am from the state of Ohio. My father was a steel worker who dropped out of high school so he could serve his country. And yet my dreams came true because my family could still afford a good life.

Consider this, according to the "New York Times" in 1987 the average wage for an auto maker was $13.50 an hour. In today's dollars that would be $28.90 an hour. In 2014 an entry level employee made between $14 and 17 bucks an hour.

[09:20:11] That's why Ohio voters took offense to Hillary Clinton's comments about the coal industry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: I'm the only candidate which has a policy about how to break economic opportunity using clean renewable energy as the key into the coal country because we're going put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: You know clean air doesn't cut it when you're not making, you know, the money you think you should and jobs are disappearing. It's why Bernie Sanders' message on trade is resonating because middle class Ohio workers believe their jobs are now in Mexico or China or even Japan, as Donald Trump said.

With me now is CNN senior political analyst David Gergen and U.S. representative and Hillary Clinton supporter, Robin Kelly.

Welcome to both of you.

REP. ROBIN KELLY (D), ILLINOIS: Thank you.

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Thank you. So, David, I'm going to start with you. That comment by Clinton, I know she didn't mean it that way but it was damaging, wasn't it?

GERGEN: It was indeed. This is a very, very sore point in so many states in the -- like West Virginia and Ohio and others. And I think she could have presented it a very different way. It wouldn't come out that way, but I do think it's going to cut her. I -- you know, she still has about an eight-point lead in Ohio according to the latest polls but after Michigan and the upset Sanders pulled there when he was 20 points back virtually on the night before nobody knows for sure which way Ohio is going to go today.

COSTELLO: Congresswoman Kelly, Bernie Sanders' message on trade is resonating. Is it possible -- and I know you're a Clinton supporter. Is it possible that she could lose the state of Ohio?

KELLY: Well, I'm not going to predict. And of course anything is possible. But she is up by 8 percent and I think if people really look at what she said that it wasn't that people were not going to ever have jobs that we need to retrain people and give people other skills so they can take the jobs of the future.

COSTELLO: And I want to stick on that for just a second, Congresswoman, because I think you hit on something. The old manufacturing jobs. Even if we kill all of the trade pacts, right, they probably would not come back to the state of Ohio. But highly skilled manufacturing work is already available in the state of Ohio, and I'm sure in the state of Illinois, but workers aren't trained properly. Am I right about that?

KELLY: You're definitely right because even in my district, the Second Congressional District, we have a lot of manufacturing, and I hear the same thing over and over when I visit with them that they can't find enough skilled people to take the job because there is advanced manufacturing and technology. So we absolutely need to look at skilling up our population.

COSTELLO: So, David, why aren't these Democratic candidates talking about that? Why is Bernie Sanders only talking about killing trade deals?

GERGEN: That is a very good question, Carol. I thought of this for a long time now and I -- that this debate hasn't really settled on the jobs of the future and how to create those jobs. The only way we're going to get there is, frankly, to train far more people for skills, to get the vocational learning back to understand that not everybody has to go to college in order to get a good job and to -- and that really good jobs can often come. You go to two years community college, you go to a vocational skills school.

There are a lot of jobs in computer sciences and elsewhere that pay well. But we haven't -- this campaign has been about so my things other than jobs and other than solutions. We haven't had real economic debates.

Now Hillary Clinton, to her credit, has put forward, as the congresswoman knows this, put forward a comprehensive plan. More comprehensive than Donald Trump's. But one day they're first going to have join this debate so the Republicans and Democrats are squaring off. This is a lot -- about a lot more than trade. COSTELLO: You're absolutely right and I hope that we talk about

issues after Super Tuesday three is finally over but for now we have to talk a little bit more about the game.

Congresswoman Kelly, if Clinton loses Ohio and even if she loses Illinois and possibly Missouri, she still has -- she's still delegate rich, right? So she's still probably win the nomination. Am I correct about that, Congresswoman?

GERGEN: I think so. I mean, she's delegate rich now and I don't think she'll lose all of those states. But even if she does I still think that she's in good shape.

COSTELLO: But still, David, if she loses those states or even comes -- or even like virtually ties Bernie Sanders, let's say, it would be an embarrassment, wouldn't it?

GERGEN: Well, she -- you know, there are five big states here. And it was widely assumed that she would probably take all five. Now she's solidly ahead in Florida and North Carolina. But Ohio seems to be in play.

Illinois is very much in play. You know, Bernie Sanders nipping at her heels there. And in Missouri Sanders has actually got a tiny little lead and, you know, there have been sort of quirky voting. You know, he won Oklahoma. He won Nebraska. He won Kansas. So he may well win Missouri.

[09:25:07] So, you know, it would be more than an embarrassment. I think it would be very tough for her, Mrs. Clinton, if she will lose three out of five. I don't think that's going to happen but it would be very tough it if were.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.

David Gergen and Congresswoman Kelly, thanks to both of you for joining me.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM today, Super Tuesday is all about survival. Up next Florida Governor Rick Scott weighs in on today's critical contest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COSTELLO: Sarah Palin is home in Alaska to care for her seriously injured husband. Todd Palin crashed his snow machine during a run in Alaska. Mr. Palin is a veteran snow machine racer. He was about 70 miles north of the family's home in Wasilla at the time of the accident. He suffered multiple broken bones and a collapsed lung.

Mrs. Palin tried to get home quickly but she couldn't catch a plane out of Tampa right away so she stopped to stump for Donald Trump. Firing up his audience as only she can.