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Results Coming in from Puerto Rico Primary; Interview with Representative Adam Schiff; Puerto Rico Democratic Primaries. Aired 6- 7p ET

Aired June 5, 2016 - 18:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Show the world that California's going forward with the political revolution.

[18:00:02] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I believe on Tuesday, I will have decisively won the popular vote and I will have decisively won the pledged delegates to majority.

SANDERS: My problem is that the process today has allowed Secretary Clinton to get the support of over 4 00 super delegates before any other Democratic candidate was in the race.

CLINTON: I know we've never done this before. We've never had a woman president.

SANDERS: The Democratic National Convention will be a contested convention.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, and welcome to election night in America. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center. Thanks very much for joining us.

Hillary Clinton set to speak just moments from now in California. This is the first results from Puerto Rico's Democratic presidential primary coming. And so far, Hillary Clinton is winning. It's still very early.

Just 60 delegates are up for grabs there, but guess what? That's the exact number of delegates that Hillary Clinton needs to clinch the nomination. If she wins at least 85 percent of the vote, she will have the needed number of delegates for nomination all before delegate-rich California even heads to the polls on Tuesday. That would force Bernie Sanders to take his complaints about the party's super delegates system to the convention floor in Philadelphia in July.

The stakes clearly incredibly high right now, and what happens tonight could change potentially the very course of the race.

Let's go straight to CNN's Dania Alexandrino. She's in San Juan, Puerto Rico, for us.

Dania, did you talk to people as they left the polls? We're getting an initial trickle of votes coming in. Hillary Clinton is ahead, at least very early with about 2 percent of the vote. What are you hearing and seeing?

DANIA ALEXANDRINO, CNN CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Good afternoon, Wolf. I spoke to some of the people. Surprisingly most of the people who

actually voted did not want to share who they not voted for. They would repeat all the vote (INAUDIBLE)

Those who did share, it was in the majority, a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters. However, I do have to say that there were a lot of Hillary Clinton supporters, mainly older people. People who actually lived on the island and were already adults when Bill Clinton was president back in the 1990s. So, they remember President Clinton's administration. They remember both President Clinton and Hillary Clinton visiting the island on numerous occasions. So they have that very close admiration for the Clintons.

So I can tell you, it was pretty much divided. However, in comparison to other years, we did see a lot of people out voting for presidential primaries. Normally, people are not very enthusiastic when it comes to presidential primaries because people, Puerto Ricans on the island cannot vote in presidential elections come November. So, in comparison to my experience in covering primaries in the past, I did see a larger number of voters, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll get back to you. She's in San Juan, Puerto Rico for us, thank you very much.

Right now, all eyes are on Puerto Rico. We're analyzing the results of the Puerto Rico's Democratic primary. Remember, 60 delegates are at stake and that's what Hillary Clinton needs to clinch the nomination including her 500 plus cache of super delegates. Hillary Clinton is looking to finally put a lock on the nomination she's been seeking for years and to tamp down the momentum of her rival, Bernie Sanders.

Let's talk about all of this with our senior political reporter Nia- Malika Henderson, our political director, David Chalian, and "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor, John King, he's our chief national correspondent.

Guys, thanks very much for joining us.

Once again, the numbers very early trickling in. Let's take a look over there, David. You see 65.2 percent for Hillary Clinton, 33.9 percent for Bernie Sanders. Hillary Clinton is up by almost 500 votes. It's still very early in this contest.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Still short of the 85 percent number you were saying to keep --

BLITZER: Tell our viewers why that 85 percent number is so important tonight. CHALIAN: Well, if she won 85 percent of the vote or more, she would

keep Bernie Sanders from getting the threshold that he needs to win any delegates out of Puerto Rico tonight. You must win 15 percent statewide, and within these eight Senate districts across the island, you have to hit a threshold.

So, by winning 85 percent of the vote, she would presumably keep him from getting any delegates tonight. And as you noted, she's 60 delegates away from crossing that magic number needed to secure the nomination, and then she would win it all. If this is the final, and I know it's early, only 2 percent of the vote in, she would fall short of that goal.

[18:05:00] BLITZER: The only way she would be able, John, to get to that magic number of 60 which is the magic number at least on this day is if super delegates who are still undeclared, if you will, decided to declare.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And knowing how contentious of an issue that is between the Sanders campaign and Clinton campaign, especially between Sanders supporters as they think if she goes on to be the nominee, can they get from there, at the moment, Never Hillary position to getting the nomination. It would not be a wise political tactic.

Now, this is a very rough guesstimate. If this math held, and David has a very huge, important point, this is 2 percent of the vote. But if this math, then roughly, Hillary Clinton would get 40. Now, if there's eight island Senate districts, this is how this is apportioned. So, the island-wide vote doesn't give you an exact estimate of the delegates. But roughly, 40 delegates, 39 delegates in this math.

BLITZER: That's 20 for Bernie Sanders.

KING: That's roughly 20 for Bernie Sanders. You know, give or take a few. So, that would put her, you know, 20 short or so.

Does she have 20 super delegates in her back pocket she can roll up between now and Tuesday? Yes, she does. Would that be a smart political strategy or would you rather wait and let New Jersey vote, you know, as New Jersey, the Dakotas, Montana, New Mexico and California, the six states. New Jersey and California, with California by far having the biggest basket of delegates. And they would be more than happy in the Clinton campaign to have New Jersey put her unofficially over the stop with her super delegates.

And what they're hoping when New Jersey and New Mexico and the biggest contest that Jeff Zeleny is just talking about, for the math argument here, will be for Secretary Clinton. If you want to have a moral argument here, winning the last big huge state, California, the anchor of the Democratic Party and national presidential politics, is those 50-plus electoral votes in California. Secretary Clinton, if she can carry that trophy in the convention, she thinks Bernie Sanders has no argument left. BLITZER: She's already won most of the bigger states. He's won a lot

of the smaller states, a lot of smaller states that have less delegates. But there -- we're going to be hearing from Hillary Clinton momentarily. We're going to have live coverage of what she has to say.

It's sort of a delicate tight rope she's going to walk right now. How far she goes in talking about Bernie Sanders if she talks about it all. No doubt she'll talk about Donald Trump.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: And she hasn't really been talking about Bernie Sanders much lately. She gave the big speech, of course, about Donald Trump on Thursday. In terms of sort of encouraging Bernie Sanders to make a decision, she has used herself as an example saying listen, in 2008, I was a closely fought contest, but then she came out, of course, and embraced Obama on June 7th, right? I mean, it will be eight years to the day on Tuesday when she conceded in 2008. She looked like she'll clinch the nomination on June 7th, on Tuesday.

But again, you have from other Democrats signaling that Bernie Sanders, it's time to wrap this up, that they think Hillary Clinton is the best person to move forward as the head of the party.

CHALIAN: The one thing she has been saying about Senator Sanders, she's using her own experience in 2008 as an example as saying I will do my part to unify the party, and I fully expect senator Sanders to do his part. She doesn't specify what either one of those parts are, right? She doesn't actually say the specifics of what is required to bring the party together. I would imagine if you talked to people in Clinton quarters, they don't believe Bernie Sanders folks will be doing their part if he continues and his supporters to continue to push this notion that superdelegates should not be discounted and that she should not be declared the presumptive nominee until the convention floor.

You have to remember, Wolf, I just want to make this point, because it is -- it's an odd system. I -- we get it. It is an odd system. There are these primaries and caucuses and these results matter, and they dictate, but then there's a super delegate free agent component, they can do whatever they want.

But here's the thing, super delegates, we track them. CNN reports them. We contact them, we ask them who are they supporting right now, and we record that support. That's CNN's reporting.

So, basically, the Sanders argument is: please ignore your reporting on the superdelegates because they may change between now and then. But we're actually reporting what we know about their support level and will report if that changes. That would be a huge story of the superdelegates went away from her.

BLITZER: We've got an experienced team of people who are doing that.

Very quickly. KING: And in 2008 when Secretary Clinton on June 7th said Obama has won, Obama went over the top with super delegates who would like to -- had not voted, the convention had not been held, but the Clinton campaign checked them out and they said, these people aren't going to switch. It's done.

BLITZER: Yes, I remember that because I made that projection. I remember it very, very vividly.

All right, guys. Stand by. Any minute, Hillary Clinton will speak live in Vallejo, California. She's hoping to win delegate-rich -- that delegate rich state of California on Tuesday. We're going to have live coverage of Hillary Clinton's comments.

Also, Puerto Rico, the first results, you see them, they're coming in right now. We're monitoring those results. We're going to bring you our live special coverage as we continue to watch Puerto Rico right now, much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:13:06] BLITZER: Our main focus tonight, the primary results emerging from Puerto Rico. All about the Democrat right now. Hillary Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders only moments away, by the way, we expect to hear from Hillary Clinton. She's getting ready to speak in Vallejo, California. We'll have live coverage of that.

As for the Republicans, even though Donald Trump is all alone on the GOP side, he's not necessarily coasting quietly toward the convention. Just in the past week, he hammered a federal judge by name. Then there was this moment on Friday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look at my African American over here. Look at them. Are you the greatest? You know what I'm talking about? OK.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Campaign insider says that Donald Trump was just thanking one of his supporters in the crowd. Didn't mean anything racist or offensive by the remarks in fact it happened just after Hillary Clinton blasted Donald Trump in what was described as a foreign policy speech in San Diego. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: He is temperamentally unfit. We cannot let him roll the dice with America. I don't understand Donald's bizarre fascination with dictators and strong men who have no love for America. I will leave it to the psychiatrists to explain his affection for tyrants. Making Donald Trump a commander in chief would be a historic mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right. Katrina Pierson is joining us. She's a national spokesperson for the Donald Trump campaign.

Katrina, thanks very much for joining us.

I want to get your reaction to what Hillary Clinton said, but are you guys in the Trump campaign already working under the assumption she will be the Democratic nominee and Bernie Sanders won't be the Democratic nominee?

KATRINA PIERSON, NATIONAL SPOKESPERSON, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: You know, absolutely. Mr. Trump has said time and time again the system is rigged. And Bernie Sanders doesn't stand a chance, and I think even Bernie Sanders people know this.

But with regard to what Mrs. Clinton actually said about Mr. Trump and temperament, I don't recall Mr. Trump ever screaming at Secret Service and calling them pigs and throwing vases across the room and clawing the face of his spouse which Hillary Clinton has been reported to do.

[18:15:14] So, I think the issue of temperament is more of a problem for Hillary Clinton.

BLITZER: Where was she reported to do all that?

PIERSON: It's been written in books. Secret Service has reported it and there are books coming out. This has been something that has been widely known in the Clinton circles that have been reported over time.

BLITZER: I haven't heard about it. But we'll check that out.

Katrina --

PIERSON: I'll send you the links.

BLITZER: All right. Send me the links.

Let's talk a little bit about some of the Republicans criticizing Donald Trump right now, especially on that issue of his comments on the federal judge who is overseeing that case involving Trump University. You heard what Mitch McConnell, the Senate Republican, the majority leader had to say, the speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, Senator Corker today, and even Newt Gingrich who strongly supports Donald Trump, they're not happy with his comments.

Are you?

PIERSON: Well, look, I don't think either of the individuals that you have mentioned have experienced what Mr. Trump has experienced in this whole process, which is a number of decisions made by this judge, not the to the mention the connections that this judge has to the opponents in this case, not to mention the two law firms that he appointed which have been Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama supporters, as well as the attorney general in New York. There are a ton of connections here to activism, particularly, not just against Republican politics but to immigration politics.

BLITZER: So, Katrina, he's not going to back away from the criticism of this federal judge, Curiel?

PIERSON: Well, no. Not at all. I mean, we've been talking about this for the last few days. It's not just ethnicity of the judge. It's also his connections and also the activism associated with him. And we have seen many of times on this network, several people have been given a platform, because of ethnicity in the justice system and how there's a bias.

BLITZER: He suggested today he's going to have his lawyers perhaps do a formal motion to have the Judge Curiel recuse himself, get him out of this case. What can you tell us about that?

PIERSON: That is something that Mr. Trump has said, and he has said that on the campaign trail, just because day by day, there's more information that comes out --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Why hasn't he done that over the past several months?

PIERSON: Well, that's probably a legal issue. I wouldn't be able to answer that question.

BLITZER: All right. I want you to stand by. We have more to assess. We want to get your reaction. Once again, we're standing by to hear from Hillary Clinton. We'll get your reaction.

We'll continue to watch right now the Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary. Results are coming in, 3 percent of the vote is now in. Hillary Clinton, 69.3 percent. Bernie Sanders 30.2 percent.

Very early in Puerto Rico. We're watching the numbers come in. Sixty delegates at stake. Meanwhile, brand new polling out of California shows Hillary Clinton slightly falling behind Bernie Sanders. This only two days before Super Tuesday.

Once again, Hillary Clinton ready to speak any moment right now. We'll have live coverage. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton is expected to speak any moment now at a campaign event in California. We'll have live coverage of this. This issue leads in early results coming in for Puerto Rico, an important Democratic presidential primary. Remember, 60 delegates are at stake in Puerto Rico. Hillary Clinton, she needs exactly that number to clinch the Democratic nomination, if you include her 500-plus super delegates.

So, let's bring in Larry Cohen, a senior advisor to the Bernie Sanders campaign.

Larry, thanks very much for joining us.

LARRY COHEN, SENIOR ADVISER, BERNIE SANDERS 2016 CAMPAIGN: Pleasure. BLITZER: If after all the votes are counted on Super Tuesday which is

this Tuesday, the District of Columbia, the following Tuesday, should the Democratic nominee be the candidate who has the most pledged delegates?

COHEN: Well, I think that's the way it should be in the future. The problem, as Bernie has said, we started out with more than 400 superdelegates declaring for Hillary Clinton before the Iowa caucuses and that being reported. And so, Bernie has had an uphill race the entire time.

Yes, I mean, I'm a super delegate. We'll campaign to eliminate superdelegates going forward. But this year, we have to play with the rules as they are, and that means we will be asking superdelegates to look at who is the strongest candidate.

BLTIZER: Because right now, she is way ahead in superdelegates. What you're saying is Bernie Sanders probably won't get more pledged votes than Hillary Clinton and will lie on superdelegates to change their minds and go with him. Is that right?

COHEN: Yes, that's the way the rules are at this moment. But I think more importantly, in many ways, this is a campaign as Bernie calls it, political revolution, how do we make the Democratic Party more of a populous party, not only getting rid of superdelegates, or getting rid of super PACs, at least the nominating contests and convincing the American people that the people's party is the Democratic party, not the fake populism of Donald Trump, and I think this campaign will make that clear in the comes weeks as well in terms of how we interact with the Clinton campaign and the kinds of things we talk about.

BLITZER: What does it mean when Bernie Sanders says he's going to Philadelphia, the Democratic Convention? There will be a contested convention, irrespective of what happens on Tuesday and the following Tuesday in the District of Columbia where there's a small number of delegates at stake as well?

COHEN: I think it's similar to what I heard Bob Reich say in a previous segment. It's uphill. But the way our system is works is superdelegates get to make up their own mind and do it at the convention, and we will be trying to persuade them of that.

But at the same time, but just as importantly, we'll be trying to shape what kind of party is this, not only in terms of electing the president but electing a Congress that can actually deliver on the programs we have in common.

BLITZER: Right now, because our team has checked in with all those super delegates, right now by our estimate, she has 548 superdelegates. He has 46 superdelegates.

[18:25:02] The numbers in recent weeks, they've gone up on her side, they have really basically stayed pretty much the same on his side. How realistic is it to believe that he is going to convince those superdelegates so switch? COHEN: Well, I mean, I think for starters, super delegates in a state

like Washington where every single down of them, including all the members of Congress are with Clinton, even though Bernie Sanders got over 75 percent of the vote. That's not the only state like that. Massachusetts, we heard from Elizabeth Warren. Bernie has virtually no super delegate, we have few in Massachusetts, despite almost a tie vote. Illinois is similar.

If Bernie Sanders had the right proportion of super delegates compared to pledge, he would have somewhere in the neighborhood of 250 more delegates supporting him. So, I think in part we need to tack about what kind of a party is this as well as what's going to happen in Philadelphia this year, not only in terms of the nominee but in terms of convincing the American people that this is, in fact, a people's party, not a party of the financial elite.

BLITZER: You've heard the arguments from the Hillary Clinton supporters, from the Hillary Clinton campaign that in all the contests so far, she's won basically around 27 or 28 of the contests. He's won 21 of the contests. She has more 3 million more votes, popular votes than he has. She has almost 300 more pledged delegates and 500 more superdelegates.

They say it's over. What do you say?

COHEN: Well, again, we would say it's uphill. We don't doubt that at all. I think what's amazing is where this campaign has come in a year. We will go into that convention with at least 1,800 elected delegates and a real demand the change the party, and as somebody who has been party of the party establishment, that's what we need to elect a president and a Congress that counts. Tuesday our message is every vote, every delegate, every vote is a vote for change. Every delegate is a delegate for change, and that's what this Democratic Party needs.

BLITZER: And you got to give Bernie Sanders, you're absolutely right, a lot of credit. He's come from almost nowhere as an independent senator from Vermont with little name recognition to be where he is right now. He's run an impressive, very impressive campaign.

All right, Larry. Thanks very much for joining us.

COHEN: Thank you.

BLITZER: Larry Cohen from the Bernie Sanders campaign. Once again, the results from Puerto Rico's Democratic primary, they are continuing to come here in the CNN election center. Take a look at the numbers.

Right now, about 3 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton has this very early lead, 69.3 percent. Bernie Sanders, 30.2 percent. Also, Hillary Clinton getting ready to speak in California any moment now. We'll have live coverage of that. Much more right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:30:55] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to the CNN Election Center. I'm Wolf Blitzer reporting.

Hillary Clinton takes an early lead in the Puerto Rico Democratic presidential primary. Take a look at the results right now. About 3 percent of the vote is in. She has 69.3 percent to Bernie Sanders' 30.2 percent.

We're also waiting for Hillary Clinton to start speaking at an event out in Vallejo, California. When she does, we're going to bring you her remarks live.

Donald Trump says he could have a rebuttal to Hillary Clinton as soon as possibly tomorrow. Many political observers say Hillary Clinton scored big with Thursday's foreign policy speech in which he cast Donald Trump as, quote, "temperamentally unfit for the presidency."

Appearing on CNN's "STATE OF THE UNION," the presumptive Republican nominee told our Jake Tapper he could respond before the election in California and four other states.

With us now is Congress Adam Schiff of California. He's a Democrat. He's the ranking member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. He's a Hillary Clinton supporter.

Congressman Schiff, thanks very much for joining us.

REP. ADAM SCHIFF (D), CALIFORNIA: Great to be with you, Wolf.

BLITZER: So are you concerned about what Donald Trump might say when he fires back at Hillary Clinton on national security foreign policy as early as tomorrow?

SCHIFF: No, I'm not. In fact, every time Donald Trump wades into foreign policy or national security, he seems to make his problem even worse in terms of his credibility. Just within the last 24 or 48 hours, he reversed himself again in terms of his views on what we should have done in Libya. So I think he's only digging the hole even deeper.

What made Secretary Clinton's speech so powerful the other day was the fact she was using his own words against him. His positions very much against antithetical to our national security interests, very much against what has been bipartisan American foreign policy and national security policy. So no, I'm not that concerned about what he'll have to say.

BLITZER: Listen to how Donald Trump responded to charges from Hillary Clinton that he is thin-skinned. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: First of all, I don't have thin skin. I have strong and very thick skin. And when somebody is right about me, I always -- you know, if you do a report and it's not necessarily positive but you're right, I never complain. I do complain when it's a lie or when it's wrong. But I have a strong temperament, and it's a very good temperament, and it's a very in control temperament, or I wouldn't have built all this unbelievable company, I wouldn't have built all of the things that I've been able to do in life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He made those comments to our Jake Tapper on "STATE OF THE UNION."

You know, we've sort of seen this before, the back and forth between Donald Trump and political rivals. In fact, a lot of those Republican candidates, they really brutally went after him. He beat them all rather handily.

Why aren't you concerned that he potentially can't do the same thing to Hillary Clinton?

SCHIFF: Well, look, I don't think anyone should take Trump anything but seriously. He has confounded expectations within the GOP primary, and there was a certain percentage of the GOP electorate, obviously, that was attracted to message. But I don't think he wears well, and I don't think there's anyone who watched that interview, frankly, with Donald Trump denying that he has a thin skin who found him at all believable.

He is, if anything, very thin-skinned and a bully. And I think he demonstrated this week by doubling down, tripling down on these bigoted comments about the judge in the Trump University case that he is just fundamentally unsuited for the highest office, really in my view any office in the land, so I don't think we can take the challenge lightly. He's kind of a human wrecking ball. But at the same time he is -- he is proceeding to alienate greater and greater numbers of people it seems every week.

BLITZER: But, remember, Congressman, that whether it's Jeb Bush or Ted Cruz or Marco Rubio or any of the other Republican candidates, they spend literally hundreds of millions of dollars, a lot of that money in attack ads against him. They really went after him at all of those debates. He has achieved something that is pretty impressive. He got more Republican votes in all of these contests than anyone else in Republican presidential primaries.

[18:30:09] He did really well despite all the controversial things he said during those campaigns.

SCHIFF: That's certainly true. And I think no one underestimated him as much as the mainstream GOP. And that's a mistake that Democrats are determined not to make. We're not going to underestimate him, but it's one thing to compete within the GOP, within the base for, you know, frankly, some of that base which is not reflective of the rest of the country. In fact, perhaps not even reflective of many within the Republican Party, and it's another to compete in a general election when you're alienating huge groups of the American electorate.

It's very hard to see how Donald Trump, for example, will not get the lowest level of Latino support in a presidential election in modern history, the lowest level of African-American support, and that's just a couple groups that he's alienated recently. Recently I think you'll see over the course of the campaigns as more of his misogynist remarks come out, more of his attack on veterans who were taken prisoner.

You know, it just seems to be a catalog of comments and positions that are alienating different sectors of the American public, and I think as you see more and more Republicans have to distance themselves. We saw Mitch McConnell and Speaker Ryan try to do this bizarre juggling act where they're endorsing and supporting him but trying to disagree with him at the same time.

Well, they're going to be bound with him. The House GOP, the Senate GOP, they're going to be bound with him. He is their nominee. And I think he's going to be a disaster for their party, but we're going to have to work hard and you're absolutely right. We can take nothing for granted in this general election.

BLITZER: Adam Schiff, Democratic congressman from California, thanks very much for joining us.

SCHIFF: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Once again we're watching the Democratic primary results coming in from Puerto Rico right now. Hillary Clinton is leading. Senator Bernie Sanders, you can see the numbers right there. 69 percent for Hillary Clinton. So far still early, 30.4 percent for Bernie Sanders. Those numbers are still coming in.

We're also waiting to hear from Hillary Clinton. She's about to have a campaign stop in northern California. CNN will have live coverage once she's there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:40:56] BLITZER: Right now Hillary Clinton is ahead in the Puerto Rica Democratic presidential primary. 60 delegates are at stake. Right now that happens to be the exact number she needs to mathematically clinch the Democratic presidential nomination. Months and months of very, very tough campaigning may come down to it all tonight if she gets all 60 of those delegates.

Let's discuss with our panel. Joining us our senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson, our CNN political director David Chalian and "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor John King, our chief national correspondent.

I should point out, Nia, that we're also waiting for Hillary Clinton to start speaking in Vallejo, California. She's about to make a statement. We'll have live coverage of that.

But the results you can see right now about 3 percent of the vote is in. She's close to 70 percent. He's got 30 percent. She would need 85 percent to get all of those 60 delegates. We'll see what happens. It's still very, very early.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's early. It looks like, you know, as we were saying, if this is kind of a snapshot of how this thing is going to end up, she's not going to be able to deny Sanders votes and get the whole basket of votes and get over. But listen, this is sort of a preview of what we'll see I think on Tuesday. We'll see what she says tonight if she continues her attacks on Donald Trump, for instance. And if she sends another signal to Bernie Sanders.

I mean, in some ways she's been saying to him, she is going to unify this party, that she is the presumptive nominee. She said, I think, on a recent speech out in California that we've never had a woman president before, hint, hint, hint, this is an opportunity for the Democrats to make history again in the way they did in 2012. But, you know, it's a night where she gets closer to what we think is going to happen on Tuesday.

BLITZER: And it's not just CNN, David Chalian. It's most of the major news organizations including the Associated Press. They take a close look at the pledged delegates. They put their estimates up there, their numbers up there, but they also take a very close look at 15 percent of all the delegates who happen to be the superdelegates. They speak with those superdelegates, the superdelegates declare who they are supporting.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Right. 15 percent is a good number to put out there. They are 15 percent of the total universe of delegates. Neither candidate can get the nomination without superdelegates. That's not --

HENDERSON: That's important.

CHALIAN: That's not a possibility. They both need superdelegates. So while the Sanders' campaign would like us not to include superdelegates to come to this calculation or estimate that she becomes the presumptive nominee or clinches the nomination, they very much say every day that they're trying to make the arguments to superdelegates to come on board their side. So that to me is the bind that the Sanders campaign find itself in. Don't count them in your estimate, but let us court them because we want to count them for our total.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If Senator Sanders had 546 superdelegates and Hillary Clinton had 40 something superdelegates, do you think the Sanders people would say stop counting the superdelegates? Of course they wouldn't.

Now I get their passion. And they're absolutely right. These people don't officially vote until the convention. When neither do the pledged delegates. They don't officially vote until the convention either.

I just want to go back to 2008. Hillary Clinton when she conceded, nobody had voted. She conceded before the convention because her campaign looked at the math, her campaign had people, delegate counters, who -- and people plugged into the party who knew the superdelegates, some of whom had switched from Clinton to Obama, were not going to switch back. And that's when she said the math was done. I need to be a good Democrat.

That's what they're hoping happens with Senator Sanders Tuesday night into Wednesday and Thursday of next week. We've got to let this play out including tonight. This will get her, Wolf, as Nia was just saying, she's just shy of 70 percent right there. Now there are Senate districts within the island of Puerto Rico so you can't do it by the island wide vote. But this is going to get her, if it's something like this, 40 of the 60. Somewhere in that ballpark which she's knocking on the door.

The interesting challenge for the Clinton campaign now is if you want -- if you want to go over the top on Tuesday, and what they will do after the votes are starting counting on Tuesday, they have many more, a couple of dozen, maybe as many as 40 plus, more superdelegates who are ready once they get the OK from the Clinton campaign to announce.

They want to overwhelm us Tuesday night with wins they hope in New Jersey and New Mexico, and they hope California.

[18:45:05] But then with more superdelegates on top of that. If she gets 40, 40 plus tonight, one of their challenges between now and Tuesday is to tell their people do not, when CNN calls you --

(CROSSTALK)

KING: When CNN calls you, when AP calls you, and says commit, I know you're for Clinton, do not. Let Tuesday's vote put me over the top. Don't go over the top before then.

BLITZER: And I seem to remember, David, you'll remember, too, eight years ago it was after Puerto Rico where it was clear to Hillary Clinton she was not going to get enough of the delegates, and she dropped out after the Puerto Rico contest. Is that right?

CHALIAN: A few -- it took her a few days --

BLITZER: Yes.

CHALIAN: -- after those final results on that final Tuesday before she got to that place, but yes. It was after those results were in, she did, indeed, come to that realization and then made that speech at the National Building Museum that weekend withdrawing from the race.

BLITZER: And there were still a lot of her supporters who were pretty upset about that. They thought she should have gone on and on and on. But she made the decision it was over.

KING: Bernie Sanders has one of the Democratic Party's premier delegate counters over the last 25 years or so on his staff. Ted Devine. A strategist consultant to the Sanders campaign. I've met in the Dukakis campaign. This is what he did back in 1988. He knows the rules, he knows the process better than anybody. So inside the Sanders campaign, there's many people, but there's at least one person who has done this for a very long time. And whatever you think of Ted Devine, if you've run campaigns against him, he can count.

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton got some introductory remarks. She's thanking some people over there in Vallejo, California. We're going to keep a close eye on that. We're also keeping a close eye on Puerto Rico's presidential primary. The Democratic contest potentially could give Hillary Clinton the magic number of delegates she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination if she were to get all 60 of those delegates.

We'll have much more of our coverage right after this.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[18:50:24] CLINTON: I'm very proud of the campaign we're running here and I believe on Tuesday I will have decisively won the popular vote and I will have decisively won the pledged delegate majority. You can't get much more than that out of a primary season.

SANDERS: The Democratic National Committee has made that clear that what she would be doing is combining pledged delegates. Those are the real delegates that people work for, with superdelegates, people who are appointed by the committee, and what the DNC has made it very clear is that the media should not lump those two together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Two very different viewpoints from the Democratic presidential candidates heading into the final stretch of this voting season. Both of those candidates speaking earlier with our Jake Tapper.

Meanwhile, the first results from the Puerto Rico Democratic primary, they are coming in. You can see them up on the screen right now, still very early, only 3 percent of the vote is in. They are taking their time out in Puerto Rico. They closed the polls there almost four hours ago, 69.3 percent for Hillary Clinton, 30.2 percent for Bernie Sanders. We're watching this very closely. We expect to get more numbers coming in momentarily.

Hillary Clinton is speaking, by the way, in California right now. She's taking questions from a community event in Vallejo, California. We're monitoring this very closely. Once they get into some substance we'll go there live. We'll hear what Hillary Clinton has to say. She's clearly focusing in much more on the general election that's upcoming than on Bernie Sanders at least for now. But there is a critically important contest coming up on Tuesday, we're calling it the last final Super Tuesday because it includes California, the largest state in the union.

Joining us now, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Donna Brazile, also joining us Hillary Clinton supporter, Hilary Rosen, and Bernie Sanders supporter, Bill Press.

Guys, thanks very much for joining us.

Donna, Hillary Clinton says she will make a push for unity come Tuesday. She assumes she will have clinched the nomination by then. But Bernie Sanders says it's not all that easy. I want you to listen to his latest comments on this. Listen to this. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: After Tuesday I'm going to do everything I can to reach out, to try to unify the Democratic Party and I expect Senator Sanders to do the same.

SANDERS: The idea that I can snap my fingers and have millions of supporters come and march in line, that is not what our effort is about. I think if I am not the nominee, and we're going to fight to become the nominee, it is Secretary Clinton's job to explain to those people why she should be -- why she should get their support and that means she's going to have to address their needs. Secretary Clinton is going to have to make the convincing argument to them.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: But no matter what, are you going to work hard to make sure that Donald Trump loses and the Democratic candidate whether it's you or her?

SANDERS: Yes.

TAPPER: Wins?

SANDERS: Yes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: All right, Donna, I know that's music to your ears right now. You're the vice chair of the Democratic National Committee. So what does Hillary Clinton, and you've been neutral so far in this contest, what does she need to do to win over those very passionate, very active Bernie Sanders supporters?

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: There's no question, Wolf, that the issues in this election are so important to not just Senator Sanders supporter but also Secretary Clinton supporter -- supporters. We've been talking about where it's health care, single-payer system. We've been talking about campaign reform, we've been talking about trade, we've been talking about the stagnant wages of workers, income inequality, climate change.

You have many issues that starting next week after the bulk -- I mean, I'm sorry, starting in a few days after the bulk of the delegates are selected on Tuesday, there's no question that the platform committee will begin to take testimony from around the country, from supporters of both Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton and others to make sure that we can come together around a set of core principles and around a set of priorities for the next president of the United States.

Wolf, I also want to say something. I've been a superdelegate for a long time. I agree that I've been a superdelegate for -- I've been a superdelegate for 20 years and I was a pledged delegate also. This is -- this is going to be my sixth convention as a delegate and I've been to four more conventions. Bill Press probably can beat me in all of these categories. But the fact is, is that we superdelegates, we've never overturned the will of the voters, whether it's Democratic governors, Democratic members of Congress, these are elected officials, Democratic mayors, and the activists. The activists, people like myself who started off knocking on doors urging people to register to vote.

[18:55:02] We are part of the Democratic Party recipe. We are not the biggest part. We're not the sauce. I mean, the sauce are the pledged delegates. The sauce of this party, the soul of this party rests with the people and the will of the people will have voted after June 14th. We know that's the District of Columbia. I have to say that because that's when I'll vote, but over the course of the next couple of days the bulk of the remaining delegates -- Puerto Rico has more delegates today than Montana, North Dakota and South Dakota combined.

All of these states matter, all of these voters matter and of course, the delegates, whether you're a superdelegate like myself who have worked very hard for the party over the last 40 years, or you're a pledged delegate elected for the first time, this is a very important moment in the Democratic Party. We're going to come together around a core set of principles that will move this country forward and we respect and support the fact that we have a president of the United States who's also determined to help us unify this party. That also matters to us as well.

BLITZER: All right, Hilary --

HILARY ROSEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hey, you know, Wolf --

BLITZER: Bill -- hold on a second. Hold on, guys. We have to take a quick break. We're going to continue this. A lot more coming up. We're watching the first results coming in from Puerto Rico right now. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they're waiting to hear where Puerto Rico and those 60 delegates at stake tonight will go, what this could mean for the Democratic nomination. Much more of our live coverage coming up right after this.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[19:00:04] CLINTON: Trump has lowered the bar and now is it a surprise that people who don't like him are stepping over that low bar? I don't think it is.

TRUMP: I don't have thin skin. I am very strong and very --