Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Clinton Takes New York; Trump Wins Big in New York; Cruz Shifts Focus to Pennsylvania; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired April 20, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

[10:00:13] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Happening now in the NEWSROOM.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you, New York.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We love New York, we love New York.

COSTELLO: And New York loves the frontrunners. Now Clinton looking to lock up the Democratic nomination with five primaries next week. But Sanders says this is still a race.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We believe we have the momentum and we believe we have a path toward victory.

COSTELLO: And Donald Trump takes on a more presidential tone.

TRUMP: Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated.

COSTELLO: Saying the deal is nearly sealed, but Cruz and Kasich fight on.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is nothing to do with the politician winning his home state.

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.

We begin with a big night for the 2016 frontrunners. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton moving closer to their party's nominations and a general election collision course.

After surging to victory in the New York primary, Trump with a route taking 60 percent of the vote from his rivals, John Kasich a distant second with 25 percent, Ted Cruz coming in at 14 percent.

But Cruz is wasting no time hitting the campaign trail this morning. He's now in Hershey, Pennsylvania. You'll see him there soon.

As for the Democrats, Hillary Clinton handily beating Bernie Sanders 57 percent to 42 percent. Both candidates celebrating their big victories at dueling rallies in New York City last night.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Thank you, New York.

TRUMP: I can think of nowhere that I would rather have this victory.

CLINTON: There's no place like home. This campaign is the only one Democrat or Republican to win more than 10 million votes.

TRUMP: We have won millions of more votes than Senator Cruz, millions and millions of more votes than Governor Kasich.

Thank you, everybody, and thank you, New York. We love New York.

CLINTON: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Brianna Keilar with the Clinton's campaign headquarters. She joins me live with more on Clinton's big night.

Good morning.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. And the math here is what's really important, right, as we look at this delegate count between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. She widened her delegate lead over Bernie Sanders, which is exactly the opposite of what Sanders really needed to do last night to maintain a viable path to the nomination.

This is the overall count. 1930 for Hillary Clinton, 1223 for Bernie Sanders. You can see that when it comes to New York, she gained 139 delegates, he gained 108. And so you're seeing her lead here in pledged delegates tick closer to that 300 mark. Of course, her lead when it comes to all delegates, which include superdelegates, much higher in the realm there of about 700, which is a very big lead.

The Sanders campaign talking about how they may try to flip some of those superdelegates but that's very much in question as it seems like they would be rather entrenched with their decision to back Hillary Clinton.

But listen to the messaging here. Hillary Clinton now focusing more on the general election last night. Bernie Sanders still very much in this primary fight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Donald Trump and Ted Cruz are pushing a vision for America that's divisive and frankly dangerous, and we have a very different vision. It's about lifting each other up, not tearing each other down. So instead of building walls we're going to break down barriers.

SANDERS: Today we took Secretary Clinton on in her own state of New York and we lost. I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victory. Next week we will be competing in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Maryland and Delaware. And we look forward to winning a number of those states.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: So setting up some -- pardon me, Carol. Setting up some expectations there, you see Bernie Sanders' big day next Tuesday. We're looking at Connecticut, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware.

And I'll tell you, talking to Clinton campaign sources, they're feeling pretty confident about the two very big fish next Tuesday which is Pennsylvania and Maryland. Bernie Sanders is going to really need to compete, really going to -- he would need to really be able to win and pull ahead of her when it comes to delegates.

[10:05:10] He has a very difficult task ahead of him to move towards the nomination, but he has tons of money, still out-raising Hillary Clinton.

COSTELLO: He is. Brianna Keilar, thanks so much.

So despite a double-digit loss, Bernie Sanders, as you heard Brianna say, vows to fight on. Clinton wishes he would call it a day but she can't appear to push him out of the race or his supporters will burn her, big time. So she's offering an olive branch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: It's humbling that you trust me with the awesome responsibilities that await our next president. And to all the people who supported Senator Sanders, I believe there is much more that unites us than divides us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now, Sally Kohn, a Sanders supporter, and "Daily Beast" columnist, and Philip Levine, a Hillary Clinton surrogate as well as the mayor of Miami Beach and host of Sirius XM's "The Mayor."

Welcome to both of you.

MAYOR PHILIP LEVINE (D), MIAMI BEACH, HILLARY CLINTON SUPPORTER: Thank you.

SALLY KOHN, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Nice to be here.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. So, Sally, Sanders supporters simply do not like Hillary Clinton and you found out -- you found that out firsthand because you were actually saying kind of same things that Hillary Clinton does, right? And the crowd booed you, these Bernie Sanders supporters booed you. So why do people who feel the Bern dislike Hillary Clinton so much?

KOHN: Well, let's -- I'm going to add a little nuance to that. COSTELLO: OK.

KOHN: So when I endorsed Bernie Sanders at his rally almost 30,000 people in Brooklyn on Sunday, A, I said, you know, look, I'm supporting Bernie Sanders. Like Hillary Clinton, I agree with her 90 percent of the time, it's the 10 percent I don't that I worry about. And it was that remark that led to some boos, not the entire crowd, not the majority of the crowd.

Let's be clear, but there is -- sorry, I don't want to overstate the issue, I also don't want to, you know, beat around the bush and suggest there are Sanders supporters who are very vitriolically against Hillary Clinton for a set of reasons.

Now I've said and I'll continue to say a lot of those people supported Barack Obama enthusiastically in 2008. Barack Obama is arguably at this point Hillary Clinton's running to left of Barack Obama. So how you can do one and not the other I think should raise questions including the specter of sexism?

But the fact of the matter is, people need to kind of -- I love senator Sanders, I'm continuing to support his campaign. I think he should continue to push his agenda in the Democratic Party and vis-a- vis Hillary Clinton. He's making her a stronger, more populous candidate, and at the same time Sanders supporters need to realize Hillary Clinton is not the devil. We do agree with her on 90 percent if not more. And the real danger here is a President Cruz or a President Trump, 100 percent. No question.

COSTELLO: So -- OK, so does the Clinton camp worry about that? Because she does need some of those young voters to come on board, right? And they're -- they want Bernie Sanders to stay in the race, no bones about it. If you look at the exit polls, they sided with Bernie Sanders overwhelmingly against Clinton.

So what can she say besides what she said at that rally to get them on board?

LEVINE: Well, Carol, I think that what Sally said is very, very true. You know, when you look at what's going on, I mean, I think right now we need a good marriage counselor between Secretary Clinton and Senator Sanders. But on the Republican side, they need to hire a team of divorce lawyers. OK. Because things are a lot rougher over there.

We're going to come together. This will take a little bit of time. But I think that our agenda, our vision is so similar. When you listen to the debates, it's really Senator Sanders and Secretary Clinton saying who can help America more. And I think that's --

COSTELLO: Yes. But here's the thing -- and I hear you, but here's the thing. Sanders is not giving up. His camp is now targeting superdelegates. Here's what his campaign manager Jeff Weaver said last night. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) JEFF WEAVER, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, BERNIE SANDERS FOR PRESIDENT: We're going to go to a convention. It is extremely unlikely that either candidate will have the requisite number of pledged delegates to get to this number. Right? So it's going to be an election -- an election determined by the superdelegates.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If June 7th comes and goes and Hillary Clinton has won the pledged delegate count in the primaries and she's won the popular vote, there are going to be calls from her campaign and calls from a lot of influential delegates in this country for you, the Sanders campaign, to make a decision to unite around her.

You're saying instead of that you will spend those months, those weeks in the summer trying to flip superdelegates to Bernie Sanders before the convention?

WEAVER: At this point yes, absolutely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So that doesn't sound like, you know, there's going to be one big happy marriage between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton.

LEVINE: Can I say -- when I'm listening to him, I also hear a very happy campaign manager. Tad Devine, who is the consultant, they are all making a lot of money. Senator Sanders has a lot of money, they want to keep receiving that money. I understand that, it's OK.

But listen, you don't change the rules in the middle of the game. You know, for example, when I, you know, watch the Miami Heat, we play the Golden Warriors every day, the Golden State Warriors, Stephan Curry is an incredible three-point shooter.

[10:10:06] In the middle of the game I wanted to say, can we move the line back a little bit? Because he's getting too many three-point shots. But that's how the game is played. So yes, you know, it's really nice to want to change the rules in the middle of the game, but that's not how it's played. And I really do believe, Carol, that we're all going to come together.

COSTELLO: So why is Mr. Weaver saying these things?

KOHN: Well, look, because first of all it's his job to keep fighting on as a campaign. They haven't ended their campaign yet. And by the way, Hillary's campaign folks are also doing quite well at this campaign. Let's be clear. But second, look, this Democratic primary is about the rules. That's what we're fighting about, that's what we're voting on. We're fighting about the rules that are going to govern Wall Street and this economy going forward. And by the way now a majority of Democrats think that Wall Street does more harm to the economy than good.

COSTELLO: But isn't that different than pushing a contested convention?

(CROSSTALK) COSTELLO: Like, I understand the rules you're talking about but that's not what Jeff Weaver is talking about.

KOHN: But -- look, I think the Sanders campaign is right to be pushing this larger issue of superdelegates, that it is a question about the party that calls itself Democratic where there's so much power, in this case, in this convention, so much disproportion of power is going to fall on these people who get to make up their minds --

LEVINE: And Sally, can I say something, though? Even without superdelegates she's way ahead.

KOHN: Well, that's right, she currently is in pledged delegates. So it's -- I also think --

LEVINE: And popular votes.

COSTELLO: And popular votes, she's also ahead, right?

LEVINE: I mean, I think 2.7 million at this point.

KOHN: And I think that's going to -- I mean, the honest truth is, I think it's going to sway when it comes to the convention. How long this continues to go is everybody's bet. But I do think the larger conversation about, you know, disentangling the superdelegates and their anti-Democratic input from the process is valid. And it continues to be helpful to push our party and Hillary Clinton to clarify where they stand on the issues that affect working folks and poor folks.

COSTELLO: I'll only say that it's a great civics lesson for all Americans this election.

LEVINE: Absolutely.

COSTELLO: Yes. Mayor Levine, Sally Kohn, thanks to both of you for stopping by.

LEVINE: Thank you.

COSTELLO: OK. Now to the Republicans, Donald Trump celebrates a blowout win after capturing more than 60 percent of the vote. That means Trump picks up at least 89 delegates while Senator Cruz who finished in third walks away with a big fat zero. The GOP frontrunner now signaling a new face of the campaign as the candidates gear up for the next round of primaries.

Jason Carroll has more on that. Good morning.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, Carol. You know, that was a big win last night. No doubt about it, a decisive win.

There's been much talk about Donald Trump sounding more presidential in his speech last night. Of course there was no name calling, no crooked Clinton, no lying Ted. Going forward Trump is saying look, the numbers for Senator Cruz simply just do not add up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We don't have much of a race anymore based on what I'm seeing on television. Senator Cruz is just about mathematically eliminated. We have won millions of more votes than Senator Cruz. We're really, really rocky. We can't be caught. It's impossible to catch us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: You know, so much last night and talk about different tones in terms of candidates and the way they were addressing their supporters.

Cruz himself had a different tone last night as well, Carol, positioning himself as someone who is the outsider, someone who can unite the party, also borrowing a phrase from President Obama, you remember, the "yes, we can" campaign slogan. Cruz coming up with his slogan, saying "yes, we will." And again positioning himself as the outsider, comparing himself at one point to Bernie Sanders.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Will we continue to live in the past with what we know no longer works? Or will we move forward to a new and better place? The people in state after state have made it clear. They cry out for a new path. This is the year of the outsider. I'm an outsider. Bernie Sanders is an outsider.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CARROLL: Right now you're looking at some live pictures of a Cruz even t going on right now in Hershey, Pennsylvania. Trump believing he is going to do well and is polling well in Pennsylvania, expecting to beat Cruz there as well. He also tweeted out this morning, again talking about those numbers saying, "Ted Cruz is mathematically out of winning the race. Now all he can do is be a spoiler, never a nice thing to do. I will beat Hillary." Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live for us, thanks so much.

And we are keeping an eye on that Cruz campaign, we expect Carly Fiorina to take the stage and say some words of support for her chosen endorsed candidate, Ted Cruz. I've got to take a break, though. I'll be right back with much more in the NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:18:42] COSTELLO: All right. Back to Hershey, Pennsylvania. Today Ted Cruz is shaking off his third place finish here in New York and looking ahead to the Pennsylvania primary. As I said, these are live pictures out of Hershey, where Cruz is now holding a rally.

Let's right to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. I saw Carly Fiorina on stage moments ago. Good morning. What did she say? SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you,

Carol. Well, certainly Senator Cruz and his surrogate Carly Fiorina trying to pick up from that rough night last night in New York where his campaign not only lost but was completely shut out of the delegates. So the big question that the Cruz campaign is now facing is what is their path to victory? What's their path to getting to 1237?

And we saw today Senator Cruz really respond in part to this question of him being now near mathematically impossible to get to that 1237 before the contested convention. Moments ago in a radio interview he made a very new and unequivocal declaration, saying, point blank we are going to a contested convention, we are headed to Cleveland. So really no ifs, ands, or buts about that. He also went on later in that interview, Carol, to say that he thinks Donald Trump won't be able to get to 1237 before the convention either.

That said as you noted this state-by-state slog does continue here in Pennsylvania. This is a state where the Cruz campaign thinks that they can be competitive. Of course a very tough terrain here in Pennsylvania and the other four states that are coming up next Tuesday -- Carol.

[10:20:08] COSTELLO: All right. Sunlen Serfaty, reporting live from Hershey, Pennsylvania, this morning. Thank you.

Today Donald Trump is rubbing his -- he's rubbing in his landslide victory and urging Ted Cruz to drop out. Early this morning, Trump tweeting, quote, "Ted Cruz is mathematically out of winning the race. Now all he can do is be a spoiler. Never a nice thing to do."

Last night Trump wasted no time taking aim at his rivals and repeated claims that the delegate system is rigged.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Nobody should be given delegates which is a ticket to victory and it's not a fair ticket, and even though we're leading by a lot and we can't be caught, it's impossible to catch us, nobody should take delegates and claim victory unless they get those delegates with voters and voting.

The people aren't going to stand for it. It's a crooked system, it's a system that's rigged and we're going to go back to the old way, it's called you vote and you win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: With me now is Alice Stewart, Ted Cruz's communication director. I'm also joined by Trump surrogate and Arizona state treasurer Jeff DeWit.

Welcome to both of you.

JEFF DEWIT, TRUMP SURROGATE: Thanks, Carol.

ALICE STEWART, TED CRUZ COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: Thanks, Carol.

COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. Alice, Senator Cruz won zero delegates in New York. Many would say he now has as much a chance of catching up to Trump as John Kasich does. So I'll ask the question, why is Senator Cruz still in the race?

STEWART: First of all, that's an absurd way to look at this. Look, it's expected that Donald Trump would win his home state. It's no surprise and he did. Ted Cruz won his, John Kasich won his. And I will remind you the last --

COSTELLO: But Senator Cruz had hoped to gain some delegates here. He claimed none.

STEWART: Ted Cruz has swept the last five contests. Well, look at the last five contests. We swept several of the last contests, Donald Trump received zero delegates as well. I'm here to remind you, this was expected for him to win and the last five contest we have swept, I'm talking about Wyoming, Wisconsin, Colorado, Utah and North Dakota. And many of those states Donald Trump won zero delegates. So that's what's important to keep in mind. And we are winning because Ted Cruz is winning over the hearts and minds of people of this country.

Our grassroots are on the rise and rising up. We're reaching out to people in the states and they connect with Ted and our grassroots organizing, motivating our supporters out on the field is what has led to our recent victories and as we move forward down the primary calendar, we expect to continue to do the same because we have a positive message and as Ted said last night, Americans have an opportunity to choose.

COSTELLO: Right.

STEWART: Choose the consistent conservative moving forward and the momentum --

COSTELLO: OK. OK. Let me get this question in to Jeff. Because a lot of people would argue the momentum is not with Senator Ted Cruz at the moment, and Jeff, Cruz is determined to stay in despite that. He lashed out at Sean Hannity on his radio show. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: All of this noise and complaining and whining has come from the Trump campaign because they don't like the fact that they've lost five elections in a row, that Republicans are uniting behind our campaign, so they are screaming on "Drudge" and it's getting echoed. This notion of voterless election. It is nonsense. They are making it up. And so when the delegates are elected, conservative activists, real conservative activists show up and they elect delegates and we are winning those elections over and over again.

The Donald Trump campaign doesn't know what they are doing. I cannot help that the Donald Trump campaign does not seem capable of running a lemonade stand.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So Senator Cruz has some success in winning over delegates and that is the American way, that's how our country, our voting system, our election system is set up. So is Senator Cruz right?

DEWIT: No, he's absolutely not right. And I'll go back to what you first said. And even touching on what Alice said. Donald Trump won his home state with over 60 percent of the vote. He's the only one of the three that even cleared the halfway mark. Think about Texas. Senator Cruz in Texas couldn't even get halfway. 57 percent of Texas voted against Ted Cruz in his home state. And Donald Trump took one third of all the delegates in Texas.

So if his home state won't even vote for him in an overwhelming fashion, how can he expect to win the country? And the same thing with Kasich. Kasich got 46 percent in his home state of Ohio. So Donald Trump now, it's a mandate by voters, 60.5 percent. Ted Cruz getting zero delegates. And honestly, if you hear the Ted Cruz people try to paint this as a positive is like watching the old Iraqi information minister Baghdad Bob. It's that ridiculous.

COSTELLO: OK. On the other hand, a lot of Republicans are nervous about a Trump candidacy because they don't believe that Trump can beat Hillary Clinton. CNN sat down with the House speaker yesterday, Paul Ryan, he's actually urging nervous Republicans who might want to skip the GOP convention because it would imperil them in their elections to attend the convention. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:25:05] REP. PAUL RYAN (R), HOUSE SPEAKER: I think if you were planning on going to the convention, you should go. I think it could be a great historical, you know, exercise. I mean, it could be something that you'll remember for the rest of your life. So I would go if I were -- if I had a chance to go.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So I don't know, Alice, what do you think about that?

STEWART: I think first off one thing is important to note, during the Texas primary there were more candidates in the race and that was an open primary. So that is one factor to keep in mind. Look, in terms of Donald Trump as a leader, look, it is unequivocally clear, based on the turmoil that he is currently undergoing in his campaign, he would be a failed leader. He is a failed leader. And that is what is concerning to Republicans -- those in the Republican establishment and grassroots Republicans and conservatives across the country.

Look at his business life. He claims to be such a great leader, bring on the best team, bring on the brightest and lead them to victory. In his personal life and business life, we had the Trump U, which was a disaster, Trump Steak. You've had four bankruptcies, several failures and it's all because of a complete failed leadership mindset.

(CROSSTALK)

STEWART: That is not the way -- that is not the mindset of a leader that we want leading this country.

COSTELLO: Jeff, last word.

STEWART: That is why people are concerned about Trump --

COSTELLO: Jeff. I get it. Everyone gets it. Jeff.

DEWIT: You know, the funny thing for me, Alice five months ago was getting paid by a different campaign and saying terrible things about Ted Cruz. Now that Ted Cruz is paying her, now she says she's a political hit-man of sorts. But Donald Trump is one of the most successful leaders of all time in our country, business leader. He has built a $10 billion empire. He's hired tens of thousands of people.

Senator Cruz hasn't hired anybody. He's never run a business, had never run a lemonade stand. I don't know how he can criticize Donald Trump in a lemonade stand when Ted Cruz hasn't even done as much as that. So that's the reason that Donald Trump has 2.5 million more votes than Ted Cruz. Yes, is the establishment going to stay home from the convention? Sure, the establishment doesn't want to be anywhere near it because the grassroots Republicans are taking our country and our party back and that's why we're going to beat Hillary in the fall.

It's a very big positive for our country. And come next Tuesday I think Ted Cruz is going to be completely wiped off the map.

COSTELLO: OK. We're watching this Cruz rally in Hershey, Pennsylvania, and we expect Ted Cruz to be taking the stage at any moment now. He's walking up -- can I see him in there? He's walking up right now. I just want to dip in and listen to a little bit of what he has to say because he gave an interesting speech yesterday about bringing the party together and it appeared to me that he tried to appear very presidential.

He also claimed he was the outsider candidate by comparing himself to Bernie Sanders. He even invoked the name of JFK and Ronald Reagan as a way that maybe he could get Democrats and Republicans to unite and bring the country together. He also vowed in that speech to run a much more positive campaign and talk about what would make America great again.

You can see Carly Fiorina on stage. Gave kind of a rousing speech to supporters out there, talking up her candidate, even though he won absolutely no delegates in the state of New York. Let's listen.

CRUZ: God bless the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. And God bless Hershey, Pennsylvania, or as my daughters believe, it must be heaven. My daughters are convinced there are rivers of chocolate with Kisses everywhere you look. So I am thrilled to be here and thrilled to be here with so many patriots who love our nation.

Love and thank you for the incredible job you're doing leading our team here in the state. And how about Carly?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CRUZ: Isn't she fantastic? What an incredible, powerful, principled leader. And let me tell you something, Carly terrifies Hillary Clinton. I can just picture Hillary thinking about Carly, tossing and turning, and tossing and turning in her jail cell.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

CRUZ: You know, all of us, we're here this morning because our country is in crisis. Because we're bankrupting our kids and grandkids. Because our constitutional rights are under assault.