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Voters Head to the Polls in Oregon and Kentucky; John Kasich Not Yet Ready to Endorse Trump; Pro-Clinton General Election Ads Target Trump; Clinton Looks to Stop Sanders' Winning Streak. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired May 17, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


[10:00:02] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: No such drama for Donald Trump. The last Republican standing. Each delegate nudges him closer to the nomination but it's been knocked off message by an unflattering news article that could wind up in court.

There's a lot to cover this morning. Our correspondents and guests are here to break it all down with us. But let's begin with the Democrats in Kentucky and Brynn Gingras, she's live in Louisville.

Good morning.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Good morning. You know, we checked in with the secretary of state's office who predicts 20 percent turnout for today's primary which is low but this particular precinct is very active with voters. We've seen more than several hundred come through here this morning in just the four hours that polls have been open.

And I want to bring in one of those voters this morning. Ann Hager (PH), she's a retired teacher, retired real estate agent.

Come here a little closer to me, Ann. And, you know, we were just chatting, and you -- I think you have a feeling that a lot of people feel, frustration.

ANN HAGER, DEMOCRATIC VOTER: Yes.

GINGRAS: With this primary, with the election ahead in November. Tell me why you're frustrated.

HAGER: Well, I'm not sure that either one -- whether Hillary or whether Trump really are the best choice of candidates that represent our country, but they are -- it looks like that's the choice. I mean, I like Bernie, but I think he's too -- I don't want to use the word socialism but some of his policies I don't think they'll be accepted by the American public. I'm not sure that all of Hillary's will, but it's Hillary, when I look at her record, she has handled some things.

I do think you need someone with confidence and someone who can compromise, someone -- yes, we all make mistakes. She's made some mistakes, but I don't -- my other choice of Trump who he is just so -- I feel him unpredictable. I feel him unreliable, so I vote for Hillary like a forced choice. GINGRAS: So your decision today was to go with Hillary because you

look ahead to November. That's what it came down to.

HAGER: Yes. Yes. It came down to that and I don't like voting that way. You know. I don't like voting that way, but it looks like that's the way I think a lot of us are voting, and I think the election is turning people off. I worry about in November, this is one of the most active precinct. I hope that the lines will be here, but, you know, I hear from my grandchildren that they don't think they're going to vote because they're so unhappy about the choices, and that shouldn't happen in America.

GINGRAS: Absolutely. Ann, thank you so much for joining us this morning.

Carol, we'll send it back to you.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Brynn Gingras, thanks so much.

Donald Trump reversing course and revealing a shift to the general election in November. Trump has hired a top pollster as a campaign strategist, a move he scoffed at for months. It's the latest sign that Trump is trying to widen his appeal and tamp down the lingering doubts within his own party. One former rival, Ohio Governor John Kasich, says Trump must tone down his attacks.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, AC 360: One obvious question is, will you endorse Donald Trump?

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), OHIO: I don't know. Unless I -- I told you about this two paths. You know, if I feel -- you know, I read some stuff recently, well, I'm not, you know, glued to this, I have read some other stuff that to me is too negative. So I'm undecided.

COOPER: What sort of stuff?

KASICH: Well, I don't think I need to get into specifics, but, you know, people that are, you know, attacking. I don't like when he's attacking, putting people down or -- you know, learn to take it a little bit. You know, the idea -- you know, at least initially of, you know, well, maybe Paul Ryan shouldn't be at the convention. I mean, come on, man, you won. You know, be magnanimous in victory.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: CNN's Phil Mattingly is here with more on what John Kasich had to say. Good morning.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning. And, Carol, look, it's not new that a Republican leader would be reluctant to back Donald Trump, right? But there's an important point here from John Kasich. Obviously a former rival coming out of a tough primary. It makes sense that he might have some problems. Trump attacked him as Mr. 1 for 37 or 1 for 41 mocking that he'd only won one primary contest, but, Carol, that one primary contest was the state of Ohio, a state Donald Trump will have to win in order to win the presidency.

Now let's look at what John Kasich has done in Ohio. In his re- election in 2014 he won 86 of the state's 88 counties. He has a fairly high approval rating there. He beat Donald Trump in the state by 11 points, more than 235,000 votes. That is an individual you want on your side if you're running in a general election. Now this isn't to say that John Kasich will at some point won't come over to Donald Trump at one point or another, but, Carol, this is a problem going forward.

That said, one thing Donald Trump has dodged on the Kasich front, a third-party run. Take a listen to what he said about that to Anderson.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Has Mitt Romney reached out to you? Have you had --

KASICH: Well, I don't -- I don't want to get into who. I have had a phone call with somebody that wanted me to run, consider running as a third-party candidate.

COOPER: Are you considering running?

KASICH: No, I'm not going to do that.

COOPER: Why?

KASICH: Well, I think that I gave it my best where I am, and I just think running third party doesn't feel right. I think it's not constructive.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Carol, John Kasich throwing cold water on that idea. Just the latest in a series of top Republican figures who have done just that.

[10:05:04] And for the conservatives who are trying to mount a third- party candidacy or some effort to derail Donald Trump, they're facing a major issue right now, and that's time. They have a very limited window to find a candidate, find the money to finance the candidate, and then get that candidate on to the ballot. Time running out quickly. Still Bill Kristol saying on CNN this morning they plan to continue that effort.

Just one thing we know for sure, Carol, that effort will not include John Kasich.

COSTELLO: Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.

Mr. Trump is fighting charges that he is sexist by threatening a lawsuit against the "New York Times" for libel. In the meantime a pro-Clinton super PAC is capitalizing on Trump's woes with women in a new ad.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: You know, you can see there was blood coming out of her eyes. Blood coming out of her wherever. Does she have a good body? No. Does she have a fat ass? Absolutely.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you like girls that are 5'1" that come up to you to wear?

TRUMP: If Ivanka weren't my daughter, perhaps I'd be dating her. I view a person who is flat-chested is very hard to be a 10. And you can tell them to go (EXPLETIVE DELETED) themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Donald Trump already fighting back tweeting this, this morning, quote, "Amazing that crooked Hillary can do a hit on me concerning women when her husband was the worst abuser of women in U.S. political history."

With me now CNN political commentator and op-ed columnist for the "New York Times" Ross Douhat, senior policy analyst for the Independent Women's Forum, Hadley Heath Manning, and CNN media analyst Bill Carter.

Welcome to all of you.

ROSS DOUTHAT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning.

HADLEY HEATH MANNING, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: Thank you.

COSTELLO: Hadley, how should Donald Trump respond to those ads?

MANNING: I'll tell you how he should respond and then I'll tell you how I think he will respond. I think Trump needs to focus on an economic agenda that's going to have broad appeal, especially with women. Women do a lot of household budgeting. They know that their budgets are stretched in terms of health care expenses, education. He needs to meet some of these conversation points from the Clinton campaign about equal pay and paid leave head on.

But instead I'm afraid what we're going to see in this campaign cycle is more negative ads. Of course, just as the Clinton camp can take some of Trump's own words and use then against him, there also can be the same play against the Clinton campaign. I'm afraid Trump's response is going to be more negative ads against Secretary Clinton. Although we don't like negative ads, they're very effective.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Yes, that's true. A lot of analysts do say that.

Ross, some suggest that Trump should respond by giving interviews to news stations, not through negative ads. It's cheaper and, of course, it's worked for him in the past.

DOUTHAT: Yes. I mean, I think one of the lessons of this cycle at least has been the relative ineffectiveness of negative ads, including negative ads against Donald Trump in the Republican primary, and I think Trump's strategy all along has been to essentially dominate the free media landscape and his perspective is, you know, that he can basically get the same amount of coverage that an ad gets just by going on TV or in this case just by tweeting.

And you know, I think that there's something to that. I think that Trump -- it's pretty clear that Trump's response to being accused of sexism will be to attack Hillary Clinton for enabling her husband's history of misbehavior with women. And I think he can get that message out fairly effectively whether he does it through Twitter, television, or any other medium. The question is, I'm very doubtful that that message will be enough to actually win him the election but that does seem to be the message that he's running with and I don't think the media will be shy about covering it.

COSTELLO: No, you're right about that.

So, Bill, Trump is threatening to sue the "New York Times" but only one of the nine women quoted in that article says she was misrepresented. Trump's former executive Barbara Res did an interview on CNN. She says the article was accurate and that Trump is an angry man. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARBARA RES, FORMER ENGINEER ON TRUMP CONSTRUCTION PROJECTS: He would criticize -- For as long as I've known him, he always had comments on people's appearances and, you know, primarily in weight. Male and female. I ran into him at a funeral and he was kind of nasty to me. But I would say, good luck with life, Donald, but I don't think that you're -- you know, should be president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Still, Bill, did the "New York Times" only create sympathy for Donald Trump?

BILL CARTER, CNN MEDIA ANALYST: Well, it gave him the opportunity to attack, which is what he wants to do. That's his general mode is to come at any story that's in any way critical by attacking back instead of answering the actual story, and, you know, there was this woman who says she was misrepresented in the tone of the story, not really misquoted, but the idea that he would sue is kind of laughable. The guy has tried to sue -- threatened to sue everybody. He never goes through with that. I don't think anybody is taking that seriously, but I do think when you do any piece on him, you have to dot your I's very carefully because any opportunity that he has to question that, he's going to throw that back and attacking the media is very, very effective for him.

COSTELLO: Absolutely. You know, one effect that Donald Trump's complaints about that "New York times" article has had, Ross, it' become, what, the most read story -- I don't know. Yes, the most read story -- yes.

[10:10:12] DOUTHAT: I am very pleased with that statistic.

COSTELLO: You are?

DOUTHAT: Should I not be pleased that my newspaper's stories are being read all around the world? I think I should be.

COSTELLO: You are a loyal employee. I want to talk --

DOUTHAT: I'm actually -- I mean, I'm being a little bit tongue in cheek, but, in fact, I'm being perfectly sincere. I think it was a story that accurately captured what we know about Trump and his relationships to women, and I think it deserves a wide readership. I do think that -- you know, there was not a sort of smoking gun in the piece on the scale of, say, you know, again the kind of Paula Jones, Juanita Broderick stories that Trump is going to bring up about Bill Clinton. But as a portrait of Trump as he's been, as he's been with women, I thought it was a very good piece and deserves a wide readership. I'll leave it there.

COSTELLO: All right. Interesting. I want to turn the conversation to John Kasich for just a minute. You heard Phil Mattingly's report, right, Hadley. He said he won't endorse Trump at this time. Trump needs Ohio. John Kasich, maybe he'll think about it if Trump, like, softens his tone, but is that likely to happen?

MANNING: I don't think it's likely to happen, and more importantly, this is the landscape that Trump has created. He's created a win-win for himself. It doesn't matter if it's the "New York Times" or John Kasich, but if Kasich comes out in support of Trump, that's a win for Trump. If he comes out and opposes Trump, that's a win for Trump because then Mr. Trump will say, look at another establishment Republican who is opposing me.

Just in the same way that he's responded to this "New York Times" article by saying look at how this mainstream media has a liberal bias and they're attacking me. He's calling it a hit piece. So that's the way he responds to anyone who sides with him or against him. He tries to make it into a win-win, and I think he's been pretty successful at that.

COSTELLO: Although, I will say, Bill, Kasich, there are reports out there that Mr. Trump is going to meet with Henry Kissinger maybe tomorrow and talk about foreign policy. So that's something else for newspapers like the "New York Times" to write about, and then it can turn its attention to serious issues, right?

CARTER: I guess, but I also think anytime he deals with substance, it tends to expose the fact that he doesn't really know that much about foreign policy. So it's always a risk for him, and just meeting with Kissinger doesn't really accomplish anything.

I think one of the most interesting things from Kasich was that he questioned whether his wife and daughters would back him if he -- endorsed Trump because he feels like that -- you know, the women issue even hits in his own family.

COSTELLO: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

DOUTHAT: The women issue is a very real issue. I mean, again, at the risk of defending my paper too far, that piece captured an essential part of why Donald Trump is going to have a difficult time being elected president, and it went to the heart of questions about -- not about sort of his capabilities to run foreign policy, though those obviously matter a great deal, but about his basic fitness to hold a -- you know, the most prestigious office in our government, so I don't think -- again the fact that people are talking about these stories and that Trump can blame it on the liberal media, maybe it's a win-win for him but if millions of people are reading that story, I'm not sure that that's what gets Trump the extra 5 percent to 10 percent of the vote that he needs to bet Hillary Clinton. It might be quite the reverse.

COSTELLO: So Hadley, if Donald Trump wants to change --

MANNING: I don't think it hurts him either.

COSTELLO: Right. Well, if Donald Trump wants to change the subject and wants to talk about his meeting with Henry Kissinger and talk about his ideas for foreign policy but everybody is like concentrating on his problems with women, how can he turn the tide?

MANNING: Well, he's certainly a very talented messenger, a very talented marketer. He does have a lot of media exposure. He does have the opportunity to change the conversation. He brags about how he goes directly to the people, bypassing the media and talking to them through social media, means such as Twitter. He can change the subject if he wants to. I don't know that Mr. Trump wants to have a substantive policy discussion. He wants to stay on the talking points about his personality, about how he presents himself as a person of strength, as a leader of strength. Rather than getting into the details because I agree, that's where he appears weak.

COSTELLO: OK. I'm just getting word that one of Trump's attorneys is now calling for a retraction. Is that right? I'm talking to Michelle, my EP.

OK, so, Bill, I will pose that question to you. One of Mr. Trump's attorneys is calling for a retraction from the "New York Times." Think he'll get one?

CARTER: No. I think calling for retraction, OK. They're not even printing a correction because the quotes they're saying are accurate. You know, what she's complaining about is the characterization of it, and, you know, I don't know how you can retract that. You clarify that? I mean, they're not going to apologize or retract. I would be really surprised.

COSTELLO: Well, how do you expect the "New York Times" might react, Ross? DOUTHAT: I agree with Bill.

[10:15:01] I mean, I think that as far as I can tell the complaint is that one of the women, the lead anecdote in the story, said her quotes were accurate but it made her seem I guess more hostile to Trump than she actually was. So the stories were real and the story was about her when they first met taking her into a room and having her try on a bathing suit and so on. But she wanted to make it clear that she had had a good time overall with Trump and still really liked him, which is, you know, a valid issue to raise but does not rise to the level of printing a retraction because the story is accurate and the quotes are accurate.

And, again, it's a story made up of many overlapping voices over a long period of time, and the fact that one of the women quoted still likes Donald Trump doesn't really undercut the thrust of the piece.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. Ross Douthat, Hadley Heath Manning --

(CROSSTALK)

DOUTHAT: The rest of the piece might have been the wrong way of putting it but you take my meaning.

COSTELLO: Thanks, Ross. And thanks to you, Hadley Heath Manning and Bill Carter.

Should Donald Trump apologize for calling women dogs and pigs and rating their bodies on their bust size? Would it matter? I write about that in a CNN op-ed on CNN.com this morning. Here's an excerpt.

"Trump calls the times, the 'Times' article a hit piece, some of his supporters do, too, although others also say Mr. Trump deserves forgiveness for disparaging comments about women because times have changed. Psychologist Dr. Gayle Saltz told me, 'We haven't decided how moral we want our leader to be. Should our leaders' morality be based on whether he or she believes in God, gay marriage, abortion, the death penalty, war?'"

I could go on but you get the drift. Check out the rest on CNN.com/opinion. You can also find it on my Facebook page or on Twitter atCarolCNN. And as always I welcome and thank you for your comments.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Hillary Clinton tries to put Kentucky in the win column and push Bernie Sanders further away from the Democratic nomination.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:57] COSTELLO: A fight to the finish for Democrats in Kentucky today. Here is a live look at a polling station in Louisville. Hillary Clinton making a last-minute push to get all the delegates in Kentucky, even as recent controversy over the coal industry has followed her into the state. Can she pull out a win and put Bernie Sanders away?

CNN's Joe Johns joins me now from Washington with more. Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. Hillary Clinton is looking for a win tonight in Kentucky, at least for a couple reasons. While she's ahead in the overall delegate count, she's lost to Bernie Sanders in multiple primaries and caucuses so she needs to show some strength at this point and she could really use a win in coal country after losing big to Bernie Sanders in West Virginia.

She's floated the idea of a $30 billion plan to revitalize communities in Appalachia that have been hurt by the decline of the coal industry. And it's critical to make a statement if she becomes the Democratic nominee because Donald Trump seems to have connected with those voters so listen to how Hillary Clinton has been talking about coal country economy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: We do have to transition, but we need to take coal country and coal miners and their families with us and not leave them behind. I am not turning my back on manufacturing in Kentucky or anywhere else in America. And it takes a partnership between the government and business. That's what I believe in.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: One of the problems for Hillary Clinton is a comment she made on CNN in March suggesting that, quote, "We're going to put a lot of coal miners and coal companies out of business," which has hurt her campaigning in the region where coal mining is ingrained as a part of life. What could help her in Kentucky is the fact that her husband, the former president, has won before in the bluegrass state, and so the campaign has been leaning on his name to try to get a win there.

Bernie Sanders has also been in Kentucky, but tonight his campaign is hoping to pull off a victory in the state of Oregon which has responded well to progressive candidates before. Sanders will wrap up, though, with an election night rally in Los Angeles County focusing on California and the primary on June 7th -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right, Joe Johns reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.

Joining me now from Louisville, Kentucky, Joe Gerth, he's a political reporter for "The Courier-Journal." Welcome.

JOE GERTH, POLITICAL REPORTER, THE COURIER-JOURNAL: Hi, Carol. How are you?

COSTELLO: I'm fine. Nice to have you here. Bernie Sanders has been drawing large crowds in Kentucky. Is it possible he could pull an upset? GERTH: It certainly is, and, you know, the one thing we have not seen

in a long time here is polling information. The last poll was released by PPP back about a week before Hillary Clinton made those comments on CNN in March about the coal industry, and so we've really not seen any indication of how those -- how those remarks hurt her. Basically, we've just got some anecdotal evidence in talking to miners and their families in eastern Kentucky that shows us that there is going to be some sort of pushback on that.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So tell me about the differences between Bernie Sanders' crowds and the number of people Hillary Clinton is attracting to her rallies.

GERTH: Clinton has had more events here in Kentucky than Bernie Sanders has. They've -- the largest one I have been to, there were about 1500 people at. Smallest one there maybe were 400 people at. Bernie Sanders has drawn anywhere from 1900 to 7,000 people in Kentucky. So it's -- he has been getting the bigger crowds. The thing about that is, though, I don't know how much that translates. I mean, it could very well, but back in 2008 Barack Obama came to Kentucky and he drew close to 10,000 people at an event here and Hillary Clinton again was doing the smaller events. And she actually destroyed him in that primary election.

So it's hard to tell how much that really matters in the long run, but it does seem like he does have some enthusiasm behind him here that maybe the Clinton campaign doesn't.

[10:25:05] COSTELLO: Interesting. I know that Donald Trump has been trying to woo Democrats in states like Kentucky and also independents. He's called for eliminating NAFTA. He's hinted at raising the minimum wage. He's attacking Clinton for her Wall Street speeches. Is that resonating with Kentucky voters?

GERTH: You know, it seems to be to some degree. Kentucky is a very conservative state and the Democratic Party here is a pretty conservative party when you get outside of Louisville and Lexington and some of the bigger cities, and I think what you're going to see is a lot like what you saw in West Virginia where Bernie Sanders won but a large segment of the vote for Bernie Sanders were saying that in November we're going to go vote for Donald Trump. And I think you're likely to have that here. Kentucky is going to be a Republican state in November, and, you know, you need Democrats to win elections here in Kentucky because the registration definitely favors Democrats even though it is a Republican-performing state.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Joe Gerth, thanks so much for your insight. I appreciate it.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Clinton taking aim at Trump, delivering her best impression of a future debate. Will it resonate though?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)