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CNN Live Event/Special
Coverage of the Primary on Pennsylvania; Maryland; Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island. Aired 11p-12a ET
Aired April 26, 2016 - 23:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The man has a 65 percent disapproval rating in the general election poll. So, something happened. Something happened.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, the consequence will come in the general for sure.
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, she -- and hers are 56. I mean.
[23:00:02] SMERCONISH: Yes, 10 points lower than...
(CROSSTALK)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I don't know but just listening to 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 of you, not Jeffrey, if you would think Donald Trump loss tonight. Donald Trump had a major sweeping...
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: Yes. If I could just say, this is the difference. This is what I keep trying to say. This is the difference between all of us, aka, the political class and the folks that I saw at that Donald Trump rally in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, who could care less about all this and root for people to take us all.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: And they love that he is going back against the elites who disdain him.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And the Trump supporters -
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: -- movement is a strength in Trump movement. That's what happened. The more that elites, (INAUDIBLE), but also Republican leads, were they try to stop him, to pose their will on top on the - between the votes, the better he does. This alliance has failed.
BORGER: It is just a barometer of how fed up people are. You know, I don't know whether it is Donald Trump himself. I think he has an awful lot to do with it because he is a good communicator and he is a great brander of himself. But people are so fed up, disgusted, feel betrayed in the Republican Party -- .
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: One more crack at this.
BORGER: The more the elite and the establishment complain about Donald Trump, it doesn't matter.
COOPER: So how does Hillary Clinton run against Donald Trump?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Easily.
BEGALA: She is plenty tough. In fact, I think that's probably at her core. (INAUDIBLE). She is tough. But she has to advance these ideas. That's the whole reason for doing it. She is not a natural politician. She is a natural policy woman. She is I think have been very effective in her leadership jobs in the senate and in the state department. So she has to play her game, not his. She is not going to get up there like Marco Rubio and attack his fingers or hands or whatever (INAUDIBLE). She is going to play her game. And then Trump is going to have to play his. And it is going to be sort of asymmetrical ballot.
LORD: She too is part of the political class, though. Not forgetting the one thing, she is a politician, I mean. And I think that that puts her as much as --.
COOPER: Do you think it is going to be easy for her?
BORGER: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: I just mean it hurts her in the same way that it has hurt all these other Republicans that ran against him who are politicians.
COOPER: But S.E., why do you think it is going to be easy? Because I don't see that. I mean, isn't he an opponent unlike any that any has sort of faced?
CUPP: Yes. He also has the highest unfavorables of any politician or nonpolitician that has ever run since gallop started polling favorables. I believe since 1920, women can vote, yes? Is that true? If so, I think that's going to have a big effect on a general election. Like I was saying earlier before we went to break, this idea that all of the things he said about women and all of the things he said about minorities will simply vanish into thin air once, you know, the general election switches polls, I think is a fantasy. There might not have been come-up-ins in the primary. But I think there will be --.
COOPER: Didn't we have this conversation after he said that stuff about illegal immigrants? And didn't we have this conversation after he said about John McCain?
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: This is the proposition that needs to be tested. Because if you have an 80 percent disapproval rating with Hispanic voters and you got a huge disapproval rating with women, that runs counter to the general convention wisdom about how you win a national election. On the other side of the equation is the notion that this guy will throw any punch and like any asymmetrical boxer, he may land one of them.
SMERCONISH: It doesn't seem like it is a battle for independents the way it normally is because each has such a hardened base. It seems to me that each is going to try and drive their core constituency as opposed to winning people over. Who is out there to be won over if these are the two competitors? Everyone has an opinion.
BORGER: It is not going to be about persuasion. It is going to be about immobilization.
(CROSSTALK)
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: And I think the battle ground is going to be are for (INAUDIBLE). Those suburban white women who typically have voted for Republicans. I think Obama -- Romney won white women by 56 percent. I mean, what do those white women who are Republicans do in this campaign?
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: I just don't think there are going to be a lot of undecided voters, honestly. If you have to choose between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump, the choice is clear and you can probably make it today, OK.
AXELROD: Well, you got two candidates with very high negatives. So people are going to have to make a choice they don't want to make.
CUPP: They both have high name ideas. It is not like -- we haven't really gotten to know Donald Trump because we have been, you know, paying attention to the Democratic primary or vice versa. These are known commodities.
[23:05:08] BORGER: So if you are Hillary Clinton or if you are Donald Trump, it is getting your people out there and finding them and making sure --
COOPER: It could also as demonizing the other in order to get your people out.
AXELROD: Well, I think that when you have candidates with negatives this high, that is a given that that's going to happen. But Jeffrey's point is an important one which is in an anti-establishment year, and this has been Secretary Clinton's problem in the Democratic primary in the anti-establishment. When you are someone who has been part of the establishment for 25 years, you can't erase that. That is who you are. So that's a burden -- it may be a blessing in so way, but it is a burden she carries into it. And Trump will prosecute that every single day.
(CROSSTALK) SMERCONISH: Can I just respond to that briefly? Because it is a tale of two cities. When you look at the exit data and when you look at the internals on the Democratic side of the aisle, what's most valued? Experience. Then you go to the Republican voters and they say, what's most cherished that he is an outsider. So, I'm not so sure that division exists.
AXELROD: The real question is, what about the people who call themselves independent voters? And how do they process all of this? The Republican primary is a smaller cohort than, you know, than - Republicans are smaller cohort than Democrats. But where are those people who call themselves independents going to land? Neither of them have particularly high approval ratings among independent voters in a general election.
BEGALA: But, I mean, as you well know, President Obama lost independents by five points and still got to be president. It's the moderates actually that I am more concern about. And those are two very different universes. A lot of people calling to us independents because the Democrats are too conservatives so they far left while the Republicans are too moderates, they are far right. But those moderate voters, that's where President Obama won his two elections and I think Hillary will go right at them, first in her ideas, but also in tone and temperament. These are moderate voters. It is this guy like who is hurling these bricks that is really the guy you want with his finger on the nuclear button and elevate. The bigger the race is, the bigger the job is, the better I think Hillary is.
AXELROD: And that is her in mission has to focus people on that question because there is a kind of visceral feeling that he generates that, you know what, I'm a big guy. I'm a tough guy. And I can make it work just like I did on "the Apprentice." That's the image he exuded on that show. I am in control. I know how to get the job done, you know.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Just play President Obama's 2011 White House correspondents there.
HENDERSON: And if you look at the message from like Emily's List and Planned Parenthood, there, of course, sending out messages, that's one of the things they are talking about, this guy, not only do they, in their words, is he disrespectful to women, but that he is a dangerous person and he unpredictable.
COOPER: But he is unpredictable in some of the positions he takes. I mean, Planned Parenthood is one where he is supportive of Planned Parenthood other than abortion services. I mean, there are unexpected positions he takes. And can't that reach across to some of the moderates and some of those independents.
JONES: And it is also why he is so dangerous.
LORD: I knew you will say that. JONES: I say it every time. (INAUDIBLE). It is because he can go
that rust belt. You know, if Lord of the rings, where will the hammer fall? The hammer will fall to the rust belt.
CUPP: What?
JONES: He will go to rust bell --.
CUPP: What does that mean?
JONES: I'm a geek.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: The hammer will fall in the rust belt. He can go to the rust belt, Donald Trump. This our big fear. Pennsylvania, Michigan, Ohio, and he can say, as he was saying, first of all, to the black community, he can say, you have been poor a long time. I'm rich. Give me a chance. You can say to the workers. This family, the Clintons, signed after. Stole all your jobs. I'm going to tear up NAFTA. I'm going to seal the borders. The job will come back. You will get them, not the Mexicans. Give me a shot. And I'm going to tell you, he only has to get three African-Americans out of 20 to agree with that and he is president.
COOPER: You know, obviously, tonight is all about the delegates. Let's go back to Wolf and John King who have been crunching some numbers-- guys.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right, Anderson, thanks very much.
John, you have been taking a very close look at delegate number on the Republican side right now. Big night for Donald Trump. All five contests, he wins. Where do we go from here?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is a huge night from Donald Trump. And so then, the question is was it big enough to get 1237 more within reach. Ted Cruz saying tonight no way he can make it. Well, Ted Cruz might end up taking those words back.
Let's look at this. Right now, I'm a little ahead of the CNN official delegate estimate because we have not allocated them all. But it looks like we are going to end the night ball park Trump in the 964 range, right. That does not include the 54, there are 54 non- committed, non-pledged delegates on the ballots of Pennsylvania. But CNN reporters and producers have been in touch with those delegates in recent days. Again, there are 54 of those delegates.
Based on what we know tonight at least half, at least half, so let's just make it 27, 27 had said either that they are that they are committed to Donald Trump or that they are committed to vote as their district went and Donald Trump is winning cross the state of Pennsylvania.
So remember that number, 27. If you add the 27 to the 964, at that point, heading forward to the primaries, it gets Donald Trump down to about 50 percent. That's all you need is about 50 percent. But I want to tell you something else as we go forward, look.
New Jersey is at the very end of the calendar, Wolf, so I am jumping ahead here and turn to the map. New Jersey is at the very end on June 7th. But Donald Trump is heavily favored. Just look at the geography in the area. It is winner take all. If you add that in and then if you add in the state of West Virginia, again, it is Indiana is next. We are jumping ahead of it here. But let's say Donald Trump is going to take them all in West Virginia, if you add those in as well, plus tonight, plus at least half of those Pennsylvania uncommitted, at this point here, Donald Trump would have to win only 40 percent, 41 percent of the remaining delegates. So, is Donald Trump's math improving so dramatically tonight that he is in a position, assuming he keeps New Jersey and keeps West Virginia, Indiana is next week, the big prize in California, without a doubt tonight, Donald Trump has so improved his delegate math, "a," winning in these states, "b," the commitments of at least half of the uncommitted, unpledged delegates to Pennsylvania. And his prospects in New Jersey and West Virginia, when you look at these other states going out, tonight, he is going to end in the ballpark of needing half of the remaining delegates. If you add these two states in, it drops the numbers down.
BLITZER: And the polls in California which is June 7th show him considerably ahead at least right now.
KING: Right, very encouraging. So let's do something. I'm going to go all the way out to June for the Republicans here. I'm going to project this out. Now, in this scenario, we had Cruz winning Indiana with the polls show Donald Trump winning Indiana. So let's say Donald Trump wins it but not by a huge margin and shares the delegates there, right. Right now, we have Oregon. This is the case of Cruz alliance. In the scenario we built, we gave these two to governor Kasich. But Donald Trump thinks he is going to go in here and win. Let's say it is not a proportional basis, so he picks them up, but not by a huge amount, but he get some. Look where he is now. He is at 1121, right. He is at 1121, a big win in California, let say it goes something that, gets him there over the finish line. That does not include the 27. When I went to this map, those 27 that we know he has in Pennsylvania, at least tonight, we are not included in that. So even if in this scenario, let's say John Kasich held on and won New Mexico and Donald Trump came in second, even there he is still at 1237 plus he has these. So it is not easy but he has so dramatically improved his position. And it is more than doable.
BLITZER: Very encouraging news for Donald Trump, indeed.
All right. Coming up, a new statement from Bernie Sanders on the road ahead for his campaign. What he is planning to do for the convention? Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:17:05] Welcome back. Let's take a look at the states won so far. All 10 states, the primaries are all done. Donald Trump, he wins all five Republican contests tonight, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware. Not only does he win all five of those states, he wins by very, very have impressive margins. Hillary Clinton, also wins four states: Pennsylvania, Maryland,
Connecticut and Delaware. She wins those four states by impressive margins. Bernie Sanders, he has a nice win in Rhode Island as well. Bernie Sanders, the only win for him tonight in the state of Rhode Island.
Let's get a key race alert on the actual votes that have come insofar starting with the Republicans.
Pennsylvania, look at this. Donald Trump, 97 of the vote is in. He is up at 57 percent. Ted Cruz at 21.4 percent. John Kasich, 19.3 percent. He is up by more than 448,000 votes in Pennsylvania.
Let's move to the next state of Pennsylvania, Rhode Island. Look at this. Donald Trump with 99 percent of the vote in. He is 63.8 percent. Kasich is in second place there with 24.4 percent. Ted Cruz only 10.4 percent in Rhode Island. Another impressive win.
In Connecticut, look at this, 88 percent of the vote is in, 57.9 percent for Trump. Kasich, is second place, 28.3 percent. Once again, Cruz a distant third with 11.7 percent. Impressive win there for Trump.
Delaware, another 60 percent win for Donald Trump, 60.8 percent. Kasich in second place, 20.4 percent, 15.9 percent for Ted Cruz, 99 percent of the vote is in Delaware, another big, big win for Donald Trump. Let's stay on top of the Republican contest.
Let's go to Maryland right now. You can see Maryland, 80 percent of the vote is in. Trump here too, 55 percent of the vote. Kasich in second place, 22.4 percent. Cruz in third place, 18.9 percent. Impressive win there.
Connecticut for Hillary Clinton, she has got 51.2 percent. We projected she is the winner there. Bernie Sanders, 47 percent, 94 percent of the vote is in in Connecticut. A win for Hillary Clinton there.
In Pennsylvania, a very big win for Hillary Clinton, 55.7 percent of the vote with 89 percent of the vote in. Bernie Sanders, 43.4 percent. She is ahead by 175,000 votes in Pennsylvania, an impressive win there.
In Delaware, almost 60 percent for Hillary Clinton, 59.8 percent, 39.2 percent for Bernie Sanders. That's with almost all of the vote in, 99 percent of the vote in Delaware. Hillary Clinton wins that state, another big win for Hillary Clinton.
Maryland, 88 percent of the vote is in. She has 63.2 percent. That's an impressive majority, 32.9 percent for Bernie Sanders. It just went up to 63.2 percent. Bernie Sanders 32.9 percent, 88 percent of the vote is in Maryland. Hillary Clinton wins there.
Bernie Sanders, sole win of the night in Rhode Island. He does get 55 percent of the vote in Rhode Island, 99 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton, only 43.3 percent. He is up by more than 14,000 in Rhode Island.
Four wins for Hillary Clinton, one for Bernie Sanders on the Democratic side. Five impressive wins for Donald Trump.
And Jake, it is obviously very significant. Almost all of those Donald Trump wins by around 60 percent of the vote. You have got some new news on Bernie Sanders.
[23:20:30] JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. We have been trying to figure out what the direction is for the Sanders campaign going forward in his campaign just issued a statement.
Let's bring in Jeff Zeleny to help us. Jeff, what are you learning from the statement and from your reporting with the campaign?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, we do know that the Sanders campaign is going forward. They are going forward until the end of this primary season in June, June 7th in California. But it is a different type of campaign that we have seen. So this is what senator Sanders said just a few moments ago. Let's take a look at this.
He said, the people in every state in this country should have the right to determine who they want as president and what the agenda of the Democratic Party should be. That's why we are in this race until the last vote is cast. That is why this campaign is going to the Democratic National Convention in Philadelphia with as many delegates as possible to fight for a progressive party platform.
So, Jake, to break that down, he said he is going to run an issues- oriented campaign. But he is not saying I am in this to win. He is not saying there is a path toward the nomination. He said that he is going to run an issues-oriented campaign. We will see tomorrow when he campaigns in Indiana exactly what he says about his race going forward and more importantly, his rival. That is something the Clinton campaign, Jake, certainly is watching, his tone, his language. Is he going to keep going after her on her speeches or her Wall Street contributions and other things?
But this is a different moment tonight in this Democratic race. Jake, you can feel the shift as you can see behind me here. The Clinton victory party has moved on to other establishments across Philadelphia here. But the reality here is that this race has shifted and moved. The Clinton campaign already pivoting toward the general election. They will be starting to raise money for the general election at some point in the coming weeks, I'm told. Not exactly sure when that will be. That is a pivot here going forward. They know that this primary is effectively over. But they are still going to give him the respect that they believe he deserves for the next month, two months or so. But effectively, Jake, in May, they believe that they will all but wrap up this Democratic nomination. But all eyes tomorrow on Bernie Sanders just to exactly what he says. If he goes back to the issues or he keeps hammering hard on Hillary Clinton -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny, thanks so much. And while this is not a concession, this is not a white flag, this is
potentially a very significant statement from Senator Sanders. He basically saying he is going to stay in the race because every Democrat should get an opportunity to vote in many -- plenty of states where contests have not yet been held. And also, because he wants as many delegates as possible so he can force as many progressive issues into the party platform in to the Democratic Party plank at the convention, but no longer does it seem like he is putting out the suggestion that he can win.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No question. This statement marks a major turning point in the race for the Democratic presidential nomination for all the reasons you just said. And most importantly, because he is listing all of the things that he clearly wants to use as leverage. Anybody who has listened to one of his speeches would not be surprised at the issues, $15 an hour for minimum wage, Medicare for all and the list goes on.
So, this is, as Jeff says so well, this is no longer Bernie Sanders, the guy who says, I am going to be the Democratic nominee. But this is Bernie Sanders, the guy saying, I owe it to the people who have already voted and the people who haven't yet voted to continue to push for these issues, because he does have a lot of leverage and he is going to use it.
TAPPER: And also, the suggestion that he wants to be running in these remaining 14 contests, what he calls issue-oriented campaigns. He is signaling, it seems to me, signaling Clinton campaign, we will not be attacking Hillary Clinton. We will be growing differences in terms of issues that we believe in but perhaps he is suggesting that they will not be talking about Goldman Sachs speeches. That they will not be talking about her being part of a status quo establishment system.
BASH: It is the very first line of his statement. He says, to your point, I look forward to issue-oriented campaigns in the 14 contests to come. I mean, there is no other way to read that. That is exactly what he is saying.
TAPPER: So potentially very significant, Wolf. Potentially, what we are being told by the Sanders campaign is we have now entered a phase at some of us remember from eight years ago when Clinton made it clear when she was losing to Obama and was not going is to be able to surmount the obstacle there. That I'm going to keep running until everybody has votes. But I understand the situation I am in. And we are just going to keep going until the end. Please be patient. That was the signal that Clinton send eight years ago. Now, it seems as though Bernie Sanders is sending that same signal to the Clinton campaign.
[23:25:32] BLITZER: And I think it is significant, the first words in this official statement he released. I congratulate Secretary Clinton on her victories tonight. A nice gesture on his part to be sure.
Let's go over to John King and take a look at the Democratic delegate count, where it stands right now. She has a very, very impressive lead in the all-important delegate count. KING: She does. And there are two sets of math here. The first math
is she is going to end the night tonight. This is our ballpark. We haven't completed allocating all the delegates yet. But out ballpark is she is going to end the night tonight to this. This is 295, lead among just pledged delegates. Not only that, she wins four of the five states tonight. Starts to add more Clinton blue to the map, including a big industrial state by Pennsylvania, a big important democratic state in the divisional electorate like Maryland. So she wins big in these states. She stretches this out to 295.
But inside the Sanders campaign, Wolf, they don't like to talk about the superdelegates because they say, they don't vote until the convention. They can change their mind. But they are also well aware that after a night like this, the superdelegates are unlikely to change this mind. So 295 just in pledged delegates. When you add in the superdelegates, Hillary Clinton has 502 superdelegates who have pledged publicly their support to her. Senator Sanders has just 42. When he add those in, it becomes a 755 delegate lead when you factor them in. And if you look at the remaining contest, it is a simple mathematical. Not impossibility because they can change their mind. But beyond improbability.
And even if you take the superdelegates away for a minute, Jake was just talking about the remaining contest, if you look at the remaining contest and you think, OK, look at the demographics so far. States senator Sanders has won. State Secretary Clinton has won.
If you project those remaining contest based on those demographics, this is just pledged delegates. Hillary Clinton gets well out here. Even if Bernie Sanders won them all, Wolf, if he won every contest left, 55 percent to 45 percent, ten-point win in every state, unlikely to happen, almost impossible to happen. But even if he did, he would not catch her. If we split them as we just did here, now we gave her Indiana. It is a bigger price. We gave her California, the biggest price of all, by a 55 percent margin there. But again, even if you switched that to Bernie Sanders, Secretary Clinton still well out here. And just a loss in California which the Clinton campaign says it won't happen. That even if Sanders won just at that one state of California, that would not be enough to swing enough of the superdelegates.
So if you project to the end based on the demographics, based on this huge win tonight. Hillary Clinton is out here. She could get closer to 2383 with the magic number in terms of pledge delegates. But without a doubt, again, when you factor them in, you get off the chart. You come way past the line here with these 502. Again, this is a conversation that Sanders supporters loathe. When we have it, but inside the Sanders campaign tonight, they are acknowledging winning four out of five, winning big states like this, locks these people in. And when you lock these people in, the math becomes impossible for senator Sanders, barring a miracle. And that's what he is acknowledging.
BLITZER: Huge lead she has especially with those superdelegates assuming they will stay with her.
All right, John. Stand by.
Coming up, Donald Trump won big. His populous appeal to a broad array of voters. We are digging deep by into the exit polls. Much more coming up right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:32:49] BLITZER: Forty states down, 10 states to go on the Democratic and Republican side.
Take a look at this maps. On the Republican side, you can see the dark red, those are the states that Donald Trump has won. You can see the states that Ted Cruz has won, Rubio won, a state as you see up there in Minnesota. Kasich, he won his home state of Ohio. That's all for him.
On the Democratic side, take a look at how similar it is, by the way. Not exact, but Hillary Clinton, those are the dark blue, the states that she has won. The lighter blue, the turquoise, I don't know what you are going to call it, Bernie Sanders, those are the states he won.
But the dark blue and the light blue on the Democratic side, very similar to the dark red and the sort of pink on the Republican side.
There are ten contests left to go. And we are watching them very closely. Ten states, let me be precise, ten states left to go. Some other contests as well. Ten states on the Democratic and Republican side.
Jake, Dana, those maps, Trump won in parts of the country where Hillary Clinton won. They have very similar geographic support.
BASH: Sure. I think that's Carolina blue, by the way.
BLITZER: Is that what it is?
BASH: Yes.
TAPPER: And you heard, there has always been this strain of populism in Trump's rhetoric. And you hear when he goes to the Midwestern states and when he went to Pennsylvania talking about factory jobs that were lots.
You heard him this evening. He took a shot at Hillary Clinton from taking so much money from Wall Street. And it is one of the things that is going to be interesting if it comes down to Trump versus Clinton.
Let's go to David Chalian, our political director right now who is looking at the exit polls and can maybe shed some light on this populous street that Donald Trump tries to show every now and then.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yes. We see them in the results. And it is real, Jake. You also mentioned carrier in Indiana is going to be a big part of this messaging tonight. So we are going to hear this populous message from him a lot over this next week as we lead them to Indiana.
Let's just look at Pennsylvania results tonight. Among those very worried about the U.S. economy, that's 56 percent of the electorate, Trump wins 66 percent to 22 percent to 10 percent.
Now, let look at the voters who say that trade with other countries takes jobs away from the U.S. takes away American jobs. 67 percent of Republican voter that believe that went to Trump. 16 percent for Kasich, 16 percent for Cruz. That was 52 percent of the electorate there. A bear majority but a majority Republican voters felt that way in the primary. Let's look at the voters who says Wall Street does more to hurt the U.S. economy. Also, around half the electorate in Pennsylvania believe this. The Republican electorate in Pennsylvania, Trump wins them huge. 67 percent to 16 percent to 15 percent. This populous message is working for him. It is fueling his victories. And we are going to hear a lot more from him along these lines going forward.
[23:35:00] TAPPER: And in many ways, David Chalian, and let me bring in Dana Bash, it also reflects how much these, I mean, if you look at the rank and file Republican voter in Pennsylvania, 52 percent say trade cost U.S. jobs. That does show you a certain disconnect between Republican officeholders here in Washington and Republican voters in a state like Pennsylvania.
BASH: No question. There shouldn't be a disconnect because anybody who has covered a race, I know lived it. You are from Pennsylvania. There knows that there has been economic anxiety, economic angst for a long time because of the reasons that Trump has laid out.
But I also think what David just showed us and the numbers is a very good example of why Donald Trump is continuing to reach out to Bernie Sanders. Let me just saying, he should run this as independent. He is trying to stir the pot and cause trouble for Democrats which, you know, why not for him to do. But there is something else. It is also saying not so subtly to Sanders supporters, you know, I'm somebody you might want to consider too. They have the same appeal on issues. Very different solutions, but that they do identify the same problems with similar voters.
TAPPER: It is going to be fascinating if it ends up being Trump versus Clinton. He will try to outflank her on the left when it comes to trade, when it comes to Wall Street. There wasn't a lot of applause in Trump tower when he took a shot at Wall Street. But there will be on the campaign trail specially if you look at these numbers, 49 percent of Pennsylvania Republicans saying that Wall Street does more to hurt the economy than help it. And then, potentially, also, Anderson, on some foreign policy issues, will outflank her on the left if, if it is Trump versus Clinton. That will be very fascinating.
COOPER: And we made some of the same arguments made by Bernie Sanders in some of the debates against Secretary Clinton, particularly even Kayleigh McEnany, Trump may continue to talk about her speeches to Goldman Sachs and will she release the transcripts. We may not have heard the end of the that. KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, Anderson. There is
no doubt about that. You know, we have seen in both of the primaries, really, this dynamic of insiders versus outsiders. And in the case of the Republican primary, you are seeing outsider probably going to be the nominee whereas in the Democratic Party, the outsider Bernie Sanders, doesn't look like he is going to get the nomination.
That being said, that same dynamic I think will take place in a general election where you will he Trump trying to be the outsider, trying to encapsulate these Sanders support and trying desperately to paint Hillary Clinton as the ultimate D.C. insider with the Goldman Sachs speech, with the ties to Wall Street, with the authenticity switching from supporting NAFTA at one point, to not supporting it now. You are going to see the same dynamic at play in a general election.
COOPER: Amanda, are you now convinced Donald Trump will get to 1237 before the convention?
AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER CRUZ COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: No, I'm not. But it certainly look better for him than it did before. But going into this, if you are part of the never Trump camper, Cruz supporter, you knew this was going to be a rough two weeks. That said, I do think he over performed in New York in these five contests more than people expected which is causing a lot of worry. And so, I think team Cruz does recognizes this.
If you listen to what Cruz is saying, he is really raising the stakes in Indiana saying this is the battleground. Cruz has got to perform there well. He has got to be able to turn the wheel of the calendar, he is weighing Indiana into the western states to be able to compete and have a shot in California and blunting Trump from being able to get to 1237.
And so, this is high stakes we are going into. This should be the pinnacle of Donald Trump's campaign. He should be able to seal the deal in the next coming weeks. But really, what we are going into is a test of whether the Republican Party does want a Trump alternative at the convention or they are just going to suck it up and go along with it.
COOPER: Bill Press, what do you make of the senator Sanders statement that came out a short time ago?
BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: My translation is we may have lost five battles but we didn't lose the war in the sense, four -- sorry.
In this sense, that really, what Bernie is all about is not -- he want to win, he did want to win. He wanted to be the nominee. But in addition to that, he really did want to shape the agenda of issues that are talked about in the primary and in the general election. So certain said, I think he succeed in the primary. The general is still to come. And -
COOPER: But you are speaking in the past tense. [23:40:01] PRESS: No, I don't mean to. That's why he is going to go
forward. And he wants to change the Democratic Party. He feels the party has become too much like the Republican Party, too dependable or whatever, that's his movement. That's his political revolution. And that's why he will continue to let this process run forward. Let everybody vote and so he can have that.
COOPER: But I mean, as a Sanders supporter, you don't hear him talking about, or at least on that last statement, about winning still?
PRESS: I don't. But I do. As I say for him winning is more than getting the nomination. It is also shaking up the Democratic Party and having an impact on the platform and on what the party stands for. He wants minimum wage, Medicare for all, free community college, you know, criminal justice reform, income inequality, those issues to be the issues in the general election are also --.
COOPER: So Bakari Sellers, as the Clinton supporter at the race now on the Democratic side, does it change dramatically? I mean, Bernie Sanders continues in the race, continue speaking out, but in terms of the tone against secretary Sanders.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: We have been talking about this Clinton pivot for a while now. You know, before Michigan, we were talking about Clinton pivoting to Donald Trump. And then Michigan happened and we realized it was too early. And then you saw a series of Bernie Sanders wins. And now, you have a string of Hillary Clinton wins. I do think that the race is politically over. I think the race was politically over after New York.
But we get to a point where Bill Press is correct and a lot of Bernie Sanders supporters are correct in that Bernie Sanders movement can live on and even more importantly will live on. And what he is talking about in his speech tonight or his statement tonight, it goes hand in hand with what Hillary Clinton said in her speech. She extended an olive branch to Bernie Sanders supporters. And Bernie Sanders came right back and said, look, you know. We are going to talk about the issues and we will have a platform fight. It won't be much of a fight. But we will include in our platform issues where we are right with the country which is minimum wage, which is women's access to care, which is climate change, which is Wall Street reform.
So we will talk about these issues. But what you saw tonight. What you saw Hillary Clinton really, really umping up for what she wants. What she wants, although Ted Cruz may be an easier general election candidate. But what she really wants is Donald Trump. And Donald Trump may not be an easy out. But there is so much bigotry, there is so much discrimination that's pact up in his candidacy that there is going to be great gratification for knocking that back and showing that America doesn't stand for that.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: (INAUDIBLE) Bakari was going. I think, you know, with Donald Trump's populism, I think one of the key question in the general elections is going to be is the line that has drawn through the electorate along economic grounds or cultural ground. Donald Trump is going to try to make an US against them argument that is fundamentally economic. That basically, you, blue collar America, have been screwed by this combination of elites and immigrants and foreign manufacturers.
I think Hillary Clinton, if she is running as Donald Trump, will try to make a cultural argument primarily. Do you or do you not welcome and accept that changing America that we are living through? Are you part of a coalition of transformation or a coalition of restoration? Because Trump's biggest challenge here is that there are big -- the growing groups in the electorate, particularly millenials, minorities, socially liberal white collar whites, view him as someone who is fundamentally rejecting what American is becoming culturally? And in essence he is facing the risk that whatever the economic message, something calls to a majority of Americans believe that he views them as fundamentally un-American. And that is a very big hole to climb out of.
BORGER: So, do you then think that younger voters, who she has had such a problem with that Bernie Sanders has done so well with, would then gravitate to Hillary?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes. I think that is the risk of Trump, right? He is seen as sort of the opposite of millennial views. I mean, the core of the millennia view of the world in many ways is of inclusion, teamwork, diversity. It is all way of ever know. And Trump is facing these elevated disapproval ratings, un-favor rating among millennials, about 75 percent largely I think on cultural grounds. And that is the kind of thing. He has to figure out a way of economics alone will not solve it.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: And you know, Stanford University institute of politics used (INAUDIBLE). And it should that despite the fact that she wasn't particularly popular that Clinton had a large lead over Trump and I was for all the reasons that you suggest. So, it goes to your point. I mean, the mission for the Republican Party had been to expand support among young people, women and minorities, particularly Hispanics. And it is hard to see how Donald Trump is --.
BROWNSTEIN: (INAUDIBLE). Is that, you know, after 2012 when Mitt Romney won a higher share of white voters than Ronald Reagan did in 1980 and lots by five million votes, the initial impulse of Republicans was we had to reach out. He had to expand minorities, millenials. The counter theory became no. The problem is, we have not turned out enough culturally, conservative whites, our millions of white who sat in the silence because Mitt Romney or John McCain didn't inspired enough. If nothing else, if Donald Trump is the nominee, he will give that theory a road test.
[23:45:03] BORGER: But we always talk about millennials, thought, and about voting. And they always disappoint, because they don't vote in large numbers. The question is whether a Trump versus Clinton candidacy would actually motivate millennials to go out and vote.
(CROSSTALK) SELLERS: The answer to a question is yes.
BORGER: Not as much as anticipated, even for Obama.
COOPER: Bakari.
SELLERS: The answer to the question about millennials is yes, it will motivate. I think that one of the greatest motivators we have in this country goes back to Donald Trump and his rhetoric. Because millennials have grown up in a world that is a lot browner, where we don't have the stigmatism of racism, of fresh and degradation that our four forefathers or generation, one generation prior to this where have been.
But even more importantly, on the issues tonight in Donald Trump's own speech, he received a question about college affordability. And I know there were a lot of things that people listened to in that speech but that is what peeked my interest, college affordability and student loans. And he fundamentally could not answer the question.
MCENANY: No. That is not true.
SELLERS: His solution, in fact, was student loan debt, I hear this all the time in the campaign trail. He said, oh, my God, you know, my solution to student load debt is I am going to make sure that when they get out, maybe they will have a job. That's not an answer to the question.
MCENANY: Well, believe it or not, millennials care desperately about jobs, you know. I'm on a college campus. I see every day people who can't find jobs. Not only that, he has said previously that he thinks that one of the biggest shakedowns occurring in the society is the government shaking down student loans.
SELLERS: How does he fix the problem? That's my point. He cannot fix the problem.
MCENANY: here is a thing. He is the first Republican, though, to bring this up. You have Mitt Romney and McCain who ignored millennials who had just wrote them off. Mitt Romney in his own words that I wrote off 47 percent of the electorate. Donald Trump is bringing up the issue. He has expanded the platform.
SELLERS: We have been talking about this for months. And my question to you and Donald Trump again is how do you fix the problem? Anyone can identify it. We understand that. And he identified a problem that Republicans haven't talked about, but he still can't answer that question.
CARPENTER: The problem is that campaign is completely dependent on personality into void a policy.
COOPER: We got to take -- we got to take a quick break. We have a preview tonight of how Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are preparing for a likely general election battle with more of their attacks on one another. Will they be effective in the fall? Stay with us for that. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[23:51:55] COOPER: We heard from Donald Trump earlier. Some of his attacks on Hillary Clinton. Let's play some of what he said tonight and then we'll talk about it with his panel.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Hillary is, I call her crooked Hillary. She is crooked. She will be a horrible president. She will be terrible on jobs. She knows nothing about jobs, except for the jobs for herself. And when it came to answering the phone at 3:00 in the morning, she was sleeping. She wasn't with Benghazi and all of the other problems. You look at what she did with Syria. You look at what she has done in so many different ways.
She will not be a good president. She doesn't have the strength. She doesn't have the stamina. I know about dealing with China. I have made billions of dollars dealing with China. China can be dealt with and you can get along with them, but Hillary does not have the strength or the stamina to deal with China or other things.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Donald Trump talking about how he may battle against Hillary Clinton. He keeps mentioning this stamina thing. I mean, do you read anything, Amanda Carpenter, what are you reading are?
CARPENTER: Yes. Well, the fact that he repeated it at least two times, maybe three times in the speech. I think he has some kind of staying power, strength and stamina. Is leading into the fact that Hillary Clinton is elderly? She is not manly? There are so many different ways you can read into that. All of them are very negative and make it difficult to defend Donald Trump. He is better off attacking her on policy but he likes to goo the gutter. We saw the primary. He is not going to change for the general election.
MCENANY: But when he calls Jeb Bush low energy, no on screams sexism. And that's the thing. We just interpret these moments differently when he happens to be talking about a woman, unfortunately. I think everyone should be treated like Jeb Bush, Hillary Clinton both. And to attack her on policy, he just did that. He named Benghazi, he named Syria, he named trade. He has repeatedly attack her own policy. But I think we, the media, just interpret these moment in a gender contact rather than seeing them for what they are.
SELLERS: That's not all the way thought because he finished with a doozy. I mean, his last statement, that wasn't policy. That wasn't a maybe this is sexist, maybe it is not. I mean, if she wasn't a woman, she wouldn't win five percent. You are talking about someone who was a United States senator, who served as secretary of state, who is arguably the most qualified person to even run for president. And to put her down on that level, I'm not sure you or anybody else has any justification for attacking her that way.
MCENANY: She was secretary of state where four Americans died on her watch because of irresponsibility. He is attacking her on that.
SELLERS: That is not - no. That was not -- it was a pure gender attack.
MCENANY: Let's talk about that remark. Hillary Clinton repeatedly uses her gender. When Bernie Sanders accused her of shouting, she interpreted that in a gender, oriented sexist way. So why is she allowed to pull the gender card and when he brings it up gender back, we all sit here and scream gender.
(CROSSTALK)
MCENANY: She repeatedly uses her gender to her advantage all the way going back to Rick Lazio's --.
SELLERS: And if she wants to use her gender to her advantage, we have had 44 presidents and not one have been a woman. And if she wants to use it to her advantage, God bless her. She deserves it. Women in this country deserves it.
CARPENTER: (INAUDIBLE) is that it came in the middle of a victory speech where Donald Trump had lots of time to think about this. This is where he should be having a strong message that can unify the parties. You have momentum and here, he just soiled it at the end yet again.
[23:55:12] COOPER: We have to take a quick break.
Coming up. How important will the next contest be after Trump and Clinton's big win tonight? A look ahead when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
