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CNN Live Event/Special
Super Tuesday 4: Trump Wins Five States, Clinton Wins Four; Path Ahead for Presidential Campaigns. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired April 27, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This was, to me, our biggest night, because it shows such --
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Politicians are competitive, right? Frankly, this is embarrassing.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The chosen candidates of Washington, the chosen candidates of big money and the lobbyists, they are not going to decide the Republican nominee. It is going to be we the people.
TRUMP: these two guys cannot win. There's no path. So why would I change?
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will build on a strong progressive tradition from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have won over 1,200 delegates to the Democratic National Convention.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Winning is more than getting the nomination. It's also shaking up the Democratic party.
CLINTON: With your help, we're going to come back to Philadelphia for the Democratic National Convention.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN election center. You're watching our live special coverage of the critical Eastern primaries.
A very big night tonight for Donald Trump, winning in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Delaware, Connecticut and Rhode Island and padding his delegate lead. Was it really close in any of those five states? Republicans trying to stop Donald Trump may really be out of time after tonight.
Hillary Clinton, meanwhile, is relishing four more victories in Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Delaware, boosting her delegate lead as well.
For Bernie Sanders, his campaign is not talking about winning the nomination tonight. They're talking about shaping the party platform, because it's almost, almost impossible to sketch a scenario that ends with Sanders accepting the nomination.
Lots going on. Let's go over to Jake. Jake?
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf, it's been a phenomenal night if your name is Donald Trump. I mean there's just no two ways about it. He won all five states. But if there is any wrinkle, it's that there is this question out of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania about these unbound delegates.
Let's bring in Phil Mattingly to explain this to us. Now, Phil, of the 71 delegates, 54 of the ones in Pennsylvania are unbound. Do we know who they're going to go for? Did Donald Trump improve his ground game to get his people elected?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes and yes, Jake. Basically, CNN's amazing team over here did a fantastic job collecting in the weeks leading up to the Pennsylvania primary where the 100-plus people, 161 people that were running to be elected delegates actually stood on this.
As you've tracked the election results up to this point, we know that at least 29 of the elected delegates will either be committed to Donald Trump or committed to whoever won their congressional district, and that was obviously Donald Trump.
Now, why this is such a big deal, Jake, is this. If Donald Trump falls, say, 30 delegates short of 1,237 after the California primary on June 7th and he goes into Cleveland needing delegates, he can get unbound delegates to come to him.
What we've been counting, basically, Jake, has been pledged delegates. These delegate are now more or less committed to Donald Trump. They can change their mind, but as of now, they'll be committed to him.
These are delegates out of the 150-plus that will be unbound that Donald Trump can now tap into when he gets to Cleveland. So even if he falls short of pledged delegates, these delegates will be there for the taking.
And it's not just Pennsylvania. There are a number of places where there are unbound delegates, Jake. They said more than 150 total, but Pennsylvania was the biggest haul.
And the biggest question was, could Donald Trump's ground game be effective. They've been whipped in multiple places all over the country by Ted Cruz's team. It has become very clear that not only did they get their act together over the last two weeks, but they have been extraordinarily successful here, at least up to this point, Jake.
TAPPER: So now of the 54 unbound delegates, you're saying that 29 of them are even -- are either committed specifically to Donald Trump and have been elected or pledged that they would vote for whomever their congressional district voted for. And those congressional districts because all of them went for Trump, would win for Donald Trump, so that's 29 going for Trump, no matter what. That's the bottom line.
MATTINGLY: Yes, that's the bottom line, and that could actually grow going forward. And Jake, I think one of the most interesting elements of this is this actual ground game.
We spoke when I was in North Dakota, which had 25 unbound delegates, and Ted Cruz mopped the floor with Donald Trump's delegate team there. Apparently, something changed. And we knew that when Paul Manafort came on board as the convention manager, he worked very hard and his team focused heavily on Pennsylvania, because they recognized how important these 54 unbound delegates were.
They put together a slate. They made sure they had a presence in every single congressional district, and it looks like it paid off.
And Jake, going through the congressional district numbers, one of the most interesting things is a lot of these delegate races weren't even close. Donald Trump's preferred delegates were winning by landslides in these congressional district, really undercutting any claim that Ted Cruz's team had to a big presence in the state and really just dominating any chance that John Kasich's team of getting their own unbound delegates, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Phil Mattingly, thanks so much.
And Dana, I mean, it really shows how much the Trump campaign is growing as it gets bigger and bigger and racks up victory after victory. A few weeks ago, we were hearing these crazy horror stories out of places like Colorado --
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.
TAPPER: -- and other states where Donald Trump's team were putting forward, telling voters, vote for these people and they weren't even Trump delegates. There were misspellings. Things were lost in the mail, et cetera. They really seem to have gotten their act together for the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
BASH: That's right. That is one thing that I don't remember hearing in Donald Trump's speech tonight that the system is rigged. That's, you know -- and that did -- as you said, I think that really did work in the past when we saw those.
The other thing, just to kind of continue on the theme that we just heard from Phil about the Trump campaign kind of getting their act together, looking forward, we know that he's giving a big policy speech here in Washington tomorrow.
But then on Friday, he's going to California. And he's going to personally attend the California State convention. Now, the other two candidates are as well, but it makes a big difference for Donald Trump to personally go and kind of work the potential delegates the old- fashioned way. And I'm not sure that that would have happened, you know, in the old Donald Trump world where they weren't as focused and understanding as much how important these state conventions really are.
TAPPER: He didn't go to the one in Colorado.
BASH: Exactly.
TAPPER: Ted Cruz did. Ted Cruz cleaned up in Colorado.
BASH: Exactly.
TAPPER: Lesson learned. Anderson?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, it seems like there was. You know, it's interesting, Gloria, there was a lot of talk in the last couple weeks as -- did Donald Trump have time to build up an operation --
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
COOPER: -- to reach out to these delegates, to get his delegates elected. There was some thought, well, look, Ted Cruz has just put in the time. Do we know -- did Ted Cruz just not put the time into Pennsylvania, because he didn't put resources in there? Or did Donald Trump just have a better ground game?
BORGER: Well, this was a calendar that was inhospitable to Ted Cruz. The states are much more naturally --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
BORGER: -- Trump country than Cruz country. Having said that, I think that what we've seen in Pennsylvania is that Trump was getting his act together and deciding that you're now down to the -- to the very end here.
And for example, if Trump were to somehow lose big in Indiana and lose those 57 delegates, whatever it is, then he has to win in California. And as Dana was pointing out, so he's going to California.
So this is a kind of a different strategy now. It's not just an air game now. He understands that. He's got to play it at the retail, local level, and I think he and his team are doing it.
But I -- you know, also think it's a combination of the fact --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BORGER: -- that tonight something changed. Something changed. Donald Trump over-performed.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: He's playing the outside -- this is still the outside game. It was great that he got slate cards into the districts. That was sophisticated, I guess. But in the inside game, these meetings that are going on among -- you know, in Iowa, for example, Ted Cruz won eight, Donald Trump won seven. And that's how it will go on the first ballot.
BASH: Right.
AXELROD: I'm told that when they are all tolled through the process that Cruz will have close to 25 --
BASH: Yes.
AXELROD: -- and Trump will go down.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
AXELROD: So, you know, he's not playing that game well. But I -- let me just make one point. I'm sorry, Ron.
BASH: He's playing it better.
AXELROD: But in this -- in this mash-up that you did before we started speaking of what people said tonight, it is a little bit laughable to hear Cruz talk about the candidates. You know, we're running against the candidates of the lobbyists and Washington. He is relying on the lobbyists in Washington --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
BASH: Yes.
AXELROD: -- at this point to deliver the nomination --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
AXELROD: -- that votes are not delivering to him.
COOPER: Right, he was talking about the will of the people. I mean, the will of the people is who they're voting for.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Where he's at in votes. I mean, part of the clarity of tonight was not only Trump's strengths, but really underscoring the limitations of Ted Cruz and John Kasich as alternatives, which if would have implications if Trump falls short of that 1,237.
I mean after tonight, Ted Cruz simply has failed at the fundamental promise of his campaign. The fundamental initial promise was he was not going to be Mike Huckabee. He was going to Rick Santorum. He was going to bring together not only religious conservatives but economic conservatives.
He's won voters who are not evangelicals at this point in one state, Wisconsin. Tonight, his performance among voters who are not evangelicals, 12 percent in Maryland, 10 percent in Connecticut, 16 percent in Pennsylvania, 12 percent last week in New York.
And then for John Kasich, these were the kind of places where a candidate like that should do their best --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: -- the suburbs of Philadelphia, Connecticut, moderate, white collar. Didn't do it here. It's going to be hard for them, I think, to go to the convention, even if Trump is short, and say, I can be stronger.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What's the (inaudible) argument?
(CROSSTALK)
AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I do think it bears worth repeating, these were states where a moderate liberal Republican will do well. Donald Trump did well. This was going to happen.
That said, you know, Cruz does have to regain the ground in Indiana. He certainly has to get the evangelical vote. He has to prove -- this is the last test.
COOPER: He has to win Indiana?
CARPENTER: I think so. I mean to change the momentum, to go into the convention, the Western states, that necessitates an Indiana win.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But and to Ron's point, I think it's underscored when you look at the map and when you see the entire eastern half of the United States entirely dominated by Trump. Cruz didn't just lose in the Northeast. He lost in the Southeast --
CARPENTER: But these aren't things --
MCENANY: -- and beyond (inaudible).
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: -- that are going to be in play for Republicans necessarily in a general election --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
CARPENTER: -- against Hillary Clinton.
MCENANY: I think we can make some of them in play --
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: The other thing, we saw Trump tonight winning groups where he has not performed well. I mean he put up his best numbers --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sure, educated voters.
BROWNSTEIN: -- anywhere among college educated Republicans. Best numbers among women, both of which have been you know, holding out as Trump has moved forward.
I mean it feels this was a different kind of pattern --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Something's changed.
BROWNSTEIN: -- for Trump than we have seen to this point.
CARPENTER: But I would say for a general election, Republicans must win Indiana, and a Republican must be able to win Indiana. If Trump can't win Indiana, it doesn't matter if he can win those mid-Atlantic, Northeastern states.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: But I'm not sure how --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Look, I agree with you. I don't think -- I think if you look at the polling right now, there's very little chance that Trump's going to win the states that he won tonight. So this was a triumphant night for him, but they're not -- they're not Republican states.
As Ron, I think, pointed out, a Republican hasn't won Pennsylvania since '88, and the polls suggest that he's not likely to win it now. So these aren't necessarily predictive. And if he were to lose Indiana, I'm not sure that's predictive either.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But the reason I think that tonight was big for Trump is -- and just to give him some kudos, because, I mean, he deserved it in the last two weeks, if nothing else -- is he dispelled narratives. Donald Trump was made out to be a regional, low-information voter's candidate, and he's not that, by any stretch.
I mean Donald Trump won in the deep South. Donald Trump won in New York. I mean Donald Trump has won in the North.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And most people were saying Donald Trump had a cap at 35 percent.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Right.
And then Donald Trump today in one night he showed you that he can win -- he can win the wealthy in Connecticut, and then he can go and win the blue collar in rural Pennsylvania. So I mean I do think that Donald Trump tonight with his victories dispelled these narratives that just have to be tossed out the window.
BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Anderson, which is why I want to take the other side of the argument I myself made earlier in this panel, which is, Democrats would be making a big mistake to underestimate Donald Trump's appeal in the general election. We may laugh at him and make fun of him, but, look, he's shown amazing strength in this primary.
It is an anti-establishment, as David stressed last hour or so, year, right? There's an appeal to that. On the trade issue, he can go into those rust belt states, I think, and really do well and in the South.
We should not make the same mistake that Republicans made early in the primary process, which is to write him off. He's going to be a serious threat.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: (Inaudible) where he was after April 5th, right?
PRESS: What's that?
BORGER: After Wisconsin --
PRESS: Yes.
BORGER: April 5th. Came back, changed the narrative, right? It was -- it was all about Cruz on the rise and for Ted Cruz to be able to change the narrative away from Trump. And he turned it around. And yes, the calendar -- the calendar assisted him, but the campaign also changed. We don't know if the candidate has changed.
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: And they unveiled -- I mean to me, it's the same old Donald Trump. I mean the thing that was most successful the last two weeks, Lyin' Ted, which you've heard before, but then also the false charges about bribery.
I mean let's not dismiss the fact that Donald Trump plays dirty. Hillary Clinton ought to call him Dirty Don.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There we go.
(CROSSTALK)
Thank you for that. We've been trying to find something.
(CROSSTALK)
MCENANY: But exactly to Gloria's point, you know, here's one of the things that Donald Trump has done so well is he's proven resilient. And I think Bill Clinton, who has very keen political instincts, from the get go said, do not underestimate this guy. And he's proven, despite every time we've said this is the end of Donald Trump, oh, could this be the end, every time he's come back and proven to be resilient in a very large fashion.
COOPER: Well, Donald Trump certainly showed himself to be resilient. A huge win tonight. Huge wins across the board for him tonight, but Trump cannot take his foot off the gas if he wants to clinch the Republican nomination on the first ballot in Cleveland.
The question is, what is his campaign's plan moving forward? It's to not leave anything to chance. Details ahead.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TRUMP: You know, the best way to beat the system is have evening like this where you get record-setting votes, where you get record-setting delegates. I use the analogy of the boxer. You know, when the boxer knocks out the other boxer, you don't have to wait around for a decision.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ROSEMARY CHURCH, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Rosemary Church. This is "CNN News Now."
In England, a jury ruled 96 Liverpool football fans were unlawfully crushed and trampled to death at Hillsborough Stadium back in 1989. The jury found the fans were not at fault and that police made mistakes in how they handled the crowd.
Families of the victims say justice has been served, but it came way too late.
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MARGARET ASPINALL, MOTHER OF HILLSBOROUGH VICTIM: What we've gone through, somebody's got to be held accountable. If I say prosecutions, yes, I think they do need to be prosecuted.
But what they put us through, the truth was there for 27 years. We never got that truth. A lot of that has come out in the court over these past two years. It's things we've never seen. We haven't seen before, and that's what just made -- and I thought, that has been there. Why wasn't that handed over?
CHURCH: Venezuela is imposing rolling electrical blackouts for 40 days to deal with chronic power shortages. The government blames weather patterns and drought for record-low water levels at the country's main electric dam. Opponents blame the move on mismanagement and a corrupt government.
Brazil has released its first official medical report on the prevalence of the Zika virus. They say there were more than 2,800 confirmed cases of the mosquito-borne virus between February and April 2nd of this year. There were also nearly 7,600 suspected Zika cases among pregnant women.
Apple iPhone sales fell for the first time in the company's history. Apple says both its sales and profits were down last quarter, its worst quarter in more than a decade. The company's stock dropped eight percent in after-hours trading following the report.
That's your "CNN News Now." Thanks for joining us.
BLITZER: Welcome back. Very, very impressive night for Donald Trump right now and for Hillary Clinton.
Let's start off with Donald Trump. Take a look at the percentages, the wins he had in these five Republican presidential primaries, starting in Pennsylvania, the most -- the biggest contest of the night. He won 56.8 percent of the vote in Pennsylvania.
Look at Cruz and Kasich. They're way, way down. Let's move on.
Donald Trump winning impressively in Pennsylvania. In Rhode Island, he won by 63.8 percent. Kasich and Cruz, way, way down. Also very impressive.
Take a look at Connecticut, 57.7 percent for Donald Trump. A huge win in the state of Connecticut for the Republican presidential front- runner.
Also in Delaware, 60.8 percent, another big win for Donald Trump in Delaware. And in Maryland, he wins the Republican presidential primary by 54.4 percent. All big wins for Donald Trump tonight.
On the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton won four of the five contests in Connecticut. She won. She had 51.7 percent to Bernie Sanders' 46.5 percent. Still a big win for Hillary Clinton in Connecticut. Ninety-nine percent of the vote is in.
Continuing her win, she won four of those five states. In Pennsylvania, more impressive win for her there, 55.6 percent to Bernie Sanders' 43.6 percent. She wins by, what, about 12 points in Pennsylvania.
Let's continue to take a look at her wins. In Delaware, even more impressive, 59.8 percent to Bernie Sanders' 39 percent -- 39.2, a 20- point spread for Hillary Clinton in the state of Delaware. So that's an important win for her as well.
Take a look at Maryland right now. She got 63 percent in Maryland to Bernie Sanders' 33 percent. That's a 30-point spread for Hillary Clinton in Maryland.
In Rhode Island, that's the state that Bernie Sanders won. Bernie Sanders won. He won by 12 points in Rhode Island, 55 percent to 43 percent.
So you can see the impressive wins for Donald Trump, for Hillary Clinton, that one win for Bernie Sanders in Rhode Island.
John, this is a race that still has some ways to go, but it's a big night. You can't ignore the fact that it's a big night for Donald Trump.
KING: The scope of the Trump win tonight makes it much more plausible to get him to this magic number of 1,237. Wolf, we have it around 956 right now, still allocating some delegates. But he's going to end the night somewhere around here.
Remember, Phil Mattingly a little bit earlier, though, said, we know from CNN reporting, Donald Trump, there were 54 non-pledged, uncommitted delegates in Pennsylvania. But we know that Donald Trump is going to get at least 29 of those, at least 29 of those. Probably higher, though.
If you factor that 29 into this total and then we start looking forward, that means at this point, Donald Trump would need, of the 502 delegates at stake from tonight forward, as we head into May and June, Donald Trump needs half of them, 50 percent.
He started tonight needing 58 percent of the remaining delegates. He ends the night needing 50 percent of the remaining delegates. That alone tells you how important tonight was to cut it from 58 to 50 percent going forward.
So now, let's take a look. Is that doable? Well, the next contest is next Tuesday night in Indiana. Couple weeks ago, Ted Cruz was leading, but in the polls now, Donald Trump is ahead.
If Donald Trump can win in Indiana, let's say he splits the delegates with Ted Cruz but Trump comes out on top, if he can do that, he moves up to 990 plus these 29. So he's over a thousand at that point, right?
The next contests after that are in Nebraska. I think by all accounts, people expect Ted Cruz to win out in Nebraska, so let's give that one to Senator Cruz, who's had a lot of success, if you notice, out in this part of the country out here.
And West Virginia, most people think Donald Trump will win and win them all in West Virginia that night. So if the next three contests go that way, Trump gets two, Indiana and West Virginia, Cruz gets Nebraska.
Then Trump here, now he's above 1,050 when you add in these 29. And so next Tuesday night is critical for Donald Trump to continue to build this momentum and start reducing that percentage. He started tonight at 58. He ends tonight at 50.
As this goes forward -- now, I'm going to just skip ahead here. This is May, and then the rest of the May calendar goes out to the West coast. We finish in Oregon and Washington State. If Trump can wins those, essentially it'd be game over.
We'll see what happens out there, but I just want to remind people, this is at the very end in New Jersey on June 7th. But this is essentially delegates in the bank for Donald Trump. Unless something dramatic changes, we expect him to win this.
You see what starts to happen when you work that in. So can Donald Trump win Washington State? There's a conservative base in Washington State. It could be a Cruz state, It could be a Trump state. We'll have to see. Forty-four delegates there.
Oregon in the end of May. If Trump ends the month by adding at least one of these West coast states, then his math is below forward, and we go into California in the end if something like that happens.
But the main test for Donald Trump -- Wolf, I want to take these ones away and not get ahead of ourselves here. The main test for Donald Trump is simply -- and take these off here -- is to get -- if he can get Indiana next week, that -- the conversation among Republicans tonight is the last resort for the Stop Trump movement is for Cruz to win Indiana and win it convincingly to stop Donald Trump's momentum. And then we go on to West Virginia and Nebraska. But, again, the
simple math tonight, when you start the night needing 58 percent, you end the night needing 50 percent, pretty simple.
WOLF: And the polls do show that California --
KING: Right.
WOLF: -- the biggest prize of all 50 states, he's doing well in California, Trump --
KING: Right.
WOLF: -- right now.
KING: And this gives him 70 percent of the delegates. That's a big win. Cruz or Kasich people say, no, we can keep him below that. Well, they didn't prove that tonight. They said they were going to pick up a lot of delegates tonight, and they didn't.
Perhaps the math will change for them by the time they get to California. But if Trump does something like this, even if he's just a little bit over a hundred there, I mean you can just see this. That has him at 1,195, plus these 29, and I took away those states out there. So if you're going to stop him, that next Tuesday night, and then somehow if they could figure out a way for West Virginia, but I don't see that as a possibility.
WOLF: Yes, Trump looks very, very strong right now. Anderson, over to you.
COOPER: Yes, let's talk with our panel about surprise tonight. Did -- what -- did anything stand out to you? Did anything surprise you?
MCENANY: Yes, it did. Because, you know, I began the night thinking I'm looking for him to get a majority in states. I want to see, you know, a majority in these five states. But instead of seeing majorities, we're seeing potentially 60-percent margins.
He's consistently over-performing. He over-performed in New York. He over-performed this week. Will that translate to Indiana? I think so, because I think now the momentum is in his favor. He has a tailwind behind him, and he's unstoppable. It was astonishing the win tonight.
COOPER: Amanda, what surprised you?
CARPENTER: Well, I believe in tough love. I expected a better speech out of Indiana from Ted Cruz. That stunt he pulled with the basketball hoop --
BAKARI: The Hoosiers. The Hoosiers thing.
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: -- (inaudible) Hoosiers team. He told the joke, but there was no punchline. He never tied a bow on it to make it understandable. And I just -- it was a long --
COOPER: I just thought it was an amazing coincidence that he had a guy with a measuring tape on a ladder by the hoop.
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: This is an amazing frustration I've kind of had watching this primary process play out. Because after every big contest, there is a national big speaking opportunity. These are national contests. These speeches matter.
And when you continue to speak to these audiences, just the people in the room, not looking at everyone in the audience who is viewing it as a national opportunity to gain momentum and build a message, it's a lost opportunity. And I don't think they've learned that lesson yet.
COOPER: Garth?
BAKARI: I think tonight Hillary Clinton did extremely well, and Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee. And I think -- I want to look one level below that.
Because tonight Katie McGinty also won, and I -- Toomey is up for re- election for Pennsylvania, and that's a seat the Democrats are excited about.
Ron Johnson is probably not happy that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee. And one name that people haven't talked about, who's not happy today, is John McCain, and Arizona is not happy that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee.
Because the Democrats, we feel very good and confident about our changes to take on Trump, but we also very good and very confident about taking back the Senate. So I -- you know, if Hillary Clinton goes in and takes Arizona, then we might see the end of a great legacy that is John McCain as well.
COOPER: Bill Press, what surprised you?
PRESS: First of all, I'm stunned again that we're talking about Donald Trump as the presumptive nominee.
CARPENTER: Yes.
PRESS: But what really surprised me tonight was Bernie Sanders stepping up to the plate so quickly --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
PRESS: -- and recognizing reality. He didn't give the old Kasich line, I won one delegate tonight. Man, I'm on my way to the nomination. He said, look, I recognize the reality, and we're going to proceed to talk about the issues and keep this thing going so everybody gets a chance to vote. I thought it was a real class act. It really fit the moment. It was necessary, and he delivered.
COOPER: Gloria?
BORGER: I'm kind of looking for the relevancy now of John Kasich in all of this, who has been making the electability argument but won five delegates tonight in an area that he should have done well. And this whole sort of Cruz-Kasich deal in Indiana seems to me to be almost meaningless at this point, because if Kasich couldn't get anything in the Northeast, what's he going to do in Indiana? How's it going to help Cruz? Cruz is basically on his own there anyway.
COOPER: And Mark, we haven't heard from you.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, let me be smug right now. Because I think it was seven --
COOPER: I believe it was.
PRESTON: -- days ago about this time when I said this was going to be the most important election --
COOPER: And there were some people who scoffed.
PRESTON: -- and guess what? You all laughed at me. Scoffing is a good word, of course.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Next week is important.
PRESTON: Let me have my moment. What I would like to say is that you all began -- or ended the conversation last week of saying that Donald Trump, you know, he wasn't going to make it there and he had a really tough battle and it wasn't going to happen, and yada, yada, yada. Well, you all began the conversation today, and you're having the conversation tonight saying that he's the presumptive nominee right now because he did so well, and now he's got the momentum heading into Indiana.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: So I will say this one more time.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's so hard.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: Next Tuesday will be the most consequential night.
COOPER: You know when he starts calling people "y'all," --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: -- he's serious.
We're going to take a quick break. Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton both looking forward tonight. The two front-runners sound convinced they're going to be taking on each other on a debate stage soon. Tonight we got a preview of what Clinton and Trump might say about how
they see the United States. That is ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:33:56] CLINTON: As a great Democratic President once said, there is nothing wrong with America that can't be cured by what's right with America.
SANDERS: Together, that American dream, we will not allow to die.
TRUMP: We're going to have our country back. We're going to make America great again.
CRUZ: The eyes of the nation are looking at this state at the crossroads of America.
CLINTON: We believe in the goodness of our people and the greatness of our nation.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: We, the people, are taking our country back and doing it together!
TRUMP: You know what I will never change? Make America great again. I will never change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Welcome back, a big night for Donald Trump, a very big night also for Hillary Clinton. You know, Gloria, she went a long way, I suspected tonight, in moving beyond the feud she's had with Bernie Sanders, looking ahead to a general election and trying to bring in all of his supporters who are so energetic, so young, so important, if she wants to be president of the United States.
[01:34:59] BORGER: Right. And we've been calling it -- David's been calling it, building the bridge all night, and I think it went both ways tonight. You didn't hear Bernie Sanders talking about Hillary Clinton's speeches or anything else. You heard Bernie Sanders talking about his agenda. And I think it's the Sanders' campaign taking a turn there, although they won't admit it, obviously. Because they're going to take this to the convention, as they should, they have got plenty of money and they've got lots of voters they want to keep energized, but he's talking about his agenda and the impact he's going to have on the platform and the Democratic nominee, Hillary Clinton. I would argue he's already had a great deal of impact, more than he ever thought he was going to have, but I think now is a time they all realize they have to get it together, and this is where the President of the United States, Barack Obama, will come in very handy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And I think for Hillary Clinton, initially, when people talked about Hillary Clinton running, the thought was, she would do better than Barack Obama among white voters, even put states like Kentucky in play, West Virginia -- that probably won't happen, but you do see her making overtures to those voters. She talked about Appalachia in this speech, she mentioned coal country in every speech. If you look at head-to-head match-ups, she does do better than Barack Obama did among white voters. He won about 39 percent, polls show her maybe 45 percent, and that's why Bernie Sanders does even better than Hillary Clinton does in these head-to-head match-ups against Donald Trump, because he does even better among white voters.
BLITZER: And Mark, Gloria makes a good point, money. Usually in a situation like this, candidates drop out if they don't have money. But Bernie Sanders, he has a lot of money right now.
PRESTON: He has a lot of money and he's going to continue to get more money. Just talking to supporters of Bernie Sanders, Bill could probably back me up on this, right now, if you look at the Democratic Party on the outside, you have three main organizations. You have moveon.org, you have Democracy for America, and you have the Barack Obama operation that will separate probably from the DNC, but none of them are really that effective. I mean, they're effective but they're effective in their own ways. You've got to wonder, if Bernie Sanders is able to marshal up what he's been able to build right now with an e-mail list and the ability to raise money and what can he do to push the Democratic Party even farther to the left?
PRESS: That is going to be, to me, the biggest challenge that Bernie Sanders faces. Others have tried. Howard Dean tried, even Barack Obama tried, but Bernie Sanders, he's talked about a revolution from the beginning. He's got the beginning, the essence, I think, of a revolution. And if he's not going to be the president, then how does he marshal those forses, keep them going in the right direction with real power? That is big organization, it's big money -- I think if anybody can do it, Bernie Sanders can do it, but it's not going to be easy.
SELLERS: One of the things that Bernie Sanders has -- well he has two things. One, he has the golden nugget, which is the list, and everybody knows that the most valuable thing you have in politics is data and you mine that data from the list, and Bernie Sanders' list is very coveted. The reason that Bernie Sanders' list is important is because it goes back to a point I just made in the last segment, which is that it allows us to raise money for down-ballot Democrats, which is very important and can win back the senate. And what Bernie Sanders had -- I have to use this as a (inaudible), when many of my friends and colleagues say, Bernie Sanders for vice president, I say, well you've got to realize, if we take back the senate, Bernie Sanders is chair of the budget committee and he will be that much more powerful. So I think that there is a lot in here for Bernie Sanders, with that list, working within the framework of the Democratic Party, getting some of these kinks out, and you just have a dynamo.
BROWNSTEIN: When a primary goes this long, and it's been as bitterly contested as this, it's always, it's natural for there to be questions about whether the two sides can come together. But what really, in modern politics, given how wide the distance now is between the parties, the principal force that brings the party together on each side is the fear of the other side taking power. Donald Trump, if he is the nominee, is going to be a very powerful unifying force for Democrats. Hillary Clinton will win over 90 percent of self- identified Democrats. I think that's right around 90 percent. And similarly, Donald Trump is going to have a lot of problems unifying the Republican Party, but the prospect of Hillary Clinton as the nominee, as the president, is going to be the best weapon he has to unify the Republican Party. It is the price we pay in this polarized world that we're in, parties do come together in the end, and the issue really does turn out to be mobilization. The challenge that Trump faces is that the Democrats won the popular vote in five out of the past six elections. If they can turn out their coalition, they do have an edge, demographically, and he, at the moment, is facing astronomical negatives among those groups. M
CARPENTER: The main problem that Trump faces in trying to unify the party in the way that Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton appear to be doing is that the conservative activist wing of the Republican Party has been conditioned to go after, attack, primary, liberal, moderate Republicans. That is what Donald Trump is. And so I don't know that he has any argument. What can he offer them? What issue will he not compromise on?
BLITZER: The main issue is, prevent Hillary Clinton from becoming president of the United States.
CARPENTER: But if people view him as interchangeable with Hillary Clinton, which I in fact do think he is on many issues, because I don't trust him to be reliable on anything --
[01:40:06] BROWNSTEIN: Where does he fit in, though? Do you call him a liberal Republican when he has moved to the furthest right of the party on issues relating to immigration, on terror, on mass deportation -- mass deportation?
CARPENTER: He talks that way, though, but he just came out in favor of touchback amnesty. He's saying, yes, we'll deport them and allow them to come back legally. That is not being a reliable conservative if he's a hardcore immigration activist.
BROWNSTEIN: Temporary ban on Muslim immigration is a liberal Republican idea?
CARPENTER: But talking tough isn't being tough and reliably conservative on the issues. I think people have confused that. Donald Trump is saying that we think NATO is obsolete, meanwhile, Russian warplanes are bombing -- excuse me -- buzzing our ships in the Baltic Sea while we're coordinating naval activities with our allies there? There's no "there" there with Donald Trump.
BORGER: So what would voters do? Are you saying that these conservative voters, who might be Ted Cruz voters now, for example, that they would stay home?
CARPENTER: Well, how do you make a deal with the devil? You don't. Listen --
BORGER: Which devil would they prefer then?
CARPENTER: What's the difference?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's the question.
MCENANY: The never-Trump movement has always been a creature of the GOP elite and the establishment, orchestrated from on high, but not been a grassroots movement. And look no further than the exit polls which, 20 I think it was in Pennsylvania, said they wouldn't vote for Trump. It was roughly the same number amongst Sanders and Clinton supporters saying the opposite about the opposite candidate. And you look in every state, even Wisconsin, which Ted Cruz won, said the person with the most of the popular vote should be the nominee. The fact is, exit polls reflect the fact that what Ron said, this party will come together, not only will it come together, but Donald Trump can serve to broaden the party among independents and among non- traditional --
(CROSSTALK)
CARPENTER: Is that what's going to happen? Donald Trump would have to attempt to do something to facilitate that, which to date, he hasn't.
MCENANY: He has.
CARPENTER: Look at what Hillary Clinton has done, olive branch after olive branch at Bernie Sanders. What does Donald Trump do? Lying Ted. He has done nothing to encourage --
BLITZER: All right, guys. Hold your thoughts for a moment. We'll see what Donald Trump does tomorrow, actually later today, noon Eastern, when he delivers a major foreign policy address, national security -- only the second speech he's going to be giving with a teleprompter, very carefully crafted speech. See what he says in this speech, see if that goes far in bringing Republicans together. Meanwhile, as Indiana goes, so goes the nation. That's what a lot of people are asking that question. Donald Trump looking to cement his hold on the Republican nomination. We're going to get predictions from our own panel and a lot more, when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CHURCH: Hello, everyone, I'm Rosemary Church. This is CNN NEWS NOW. Families of 96 Liverpool football fans say justice has been served after a jury ruled that their loved ones were unlawfully crushed and trampled to death at Hillsborough Stadium back in 1989. The jury found the fans were not at fault, and that police were partly to blame for mishandling the crowd.
North Korea's ruling workers party will hold its seventh congress on May 6. The official news agency announced the date. This will be the first congress since 1980. The announcement comes at a time of heightened tensions on the Korean peninsula.
[01:45:11] A member of Brazil's opposition party will lead the senate committee that will recommend whether to move forward with impeachment proceedings against President Dilma Rousseff. The lower house of congress overwhelmingly approved a motion for impeachment a week ago.
At least 11 people are dead after an attack at a military base on the Cape Verde Islands of West Africa. A government statement says there are signs a soldier who is missing was involved in the assault. Officials say it looks like this was a personal vendetta.
Apple iPhone sales fell for the first time in the company's history. Apple says both its sales and profits were down last quarter, its worst in more than a decade. The company's stock dropped 8 percent in after hours trading following the report.
And Prince's sister has filed court documents saying she does not believe the late singer had a will. She also requested a special administrator be appointed to deal with his assets. Prince's estate is worth an estimated $300 million. That's your CNN NEWS NOW as special coverage of Super Tuesday continues. Do stay with us.
BLITZER: Welcome back. I'm here with John King at the magic wall. John, let's take a look at the Democratic side. As of our count right now, Hillary Clinton, these are pledged delegates, not the super delegates, 1,066, Bernie Sanders, 1,359. That's like 300-delegate lead she has right now. Is there a credible realistic path to victory for the Democratic presidential nomination for Bernie Sanders?
KING: In a word, no. Is it mathematically possible? Yes. Is it likely, credible? No. We talked at the beginning of the night, the Clinton campaign thought if it ended tonight with a 280, 290 pledged delegate lead, that would be the exclamation point won. That's 307, Wolf. Why? Four out of five states tonight, by very convincing margins in the ones she won, 12 points there in Pennsylvania. You come down, this was a huge win in Maryland because of the delegate basket here for her. Another big win over in Delaware, winning Connecticut as well. How does that translate? We'll switch maps and take it over to the delegate map and see. So now you see Secretary Clinton with that lead, and the question is, can Bernie Sanders, what would he have to do going forward to catch up? Well, it's virtually impossible. He would have to win 95, 96, 99 percent of the pledged delegates to do that, and he would have to win so convincingly that he took away her super delegate math, and Senator Sanders almost acknowledging as much tonight inside his campaign, they say he's still in this to win, but Senator Sanders in a statement saying now, the most important thing to him is to maximize the number of delegates he gets in the remaining contest for influence on the Democratic platform at the convention. Let's play this out a little bit. In the remaining contest, if we essentially split them, we give some out here in the West to Senator Sanders, based on where as you can see, he's done well out in the West -- we give Senator Sanders West Virginia here, assuming white, blue collar voters have been his strength in the race -- we give some other states to Hillary Clinton based on the demographics, including New Jersey here, which is in the same ballpark you see where she's won so much and won convincingly in this region here, and in this scenario, the one thing Sanders' supporters might debate is the State of California. We give it to Secretary Clinton here. If it played out that way or roughly that way, we get to the end on June 7 and Bernie Sanders wins the District of Columbia maybe, 2,195, 1,834, even if Sanders is successful in winning this many states, and even if he won more of them, even, Wolf, if I gave him all of them, he would still trail her in pledged delegates. But at this point, you project the race out like this, and then if you add in these super delegates, 502 for Secretary Clinton, if she keeps winning, she won't lose them. With these in her back pocket, she's well in excess of what she needs to clinch the Democratic nomination. So the Sanders campaign math twisted deeply against him last week in New York. Tonight, Hillary Clinton, for all intents and purposes, will have put the Democratic nomination for Senator Sanders out of reach.
BLITZER: Yes, that's the way it looks. John, thanks very much. Hillary Clinton certainly had that in mind when she spoke earlier tonight, trying to reach out to Bernie Sanders and his supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: It's one of many reasons that being American has always been such a blessing. And our campaign is about restoring people's confidence in our ability to solve problems together, by delivering results that help people follow their own dreams. That's why we're setting bold, progressive goals backed up by real plans that will improve lives. (applause)
[01:49:52] After all, that is how progress gets made. We have to be both dreamers and doers. And as a great Democratic president once said, there's nothing wrong with America that can't be cured by what's right with America. So here's what I believe. I believe we can create more good jobs with rising incomes. Jobs that provide dignity, pride, and a middle-class life. We can renew our democracy by overturning Citizens United. We can lift up people and places who have been left out, from our inner cities to Appalachia, in every manufacturing town, hollowed out when the factory closed, every community scarred by substance abuse and addiction, every home where a child goes to bed hungry, that's what we Democrats believe in. That's what we know is possible. (applause) So we will build on a strong, progressive tradition from Franklin Roosevelt to Barack Obama. (applause) And I applaud Senator Sanders and his millions of supporters for challenging us to get unaccountable money out of our politics and giving greater emphasis to closing the gap of inequality. And I know, together, we will get that done. Because whether you support Senator Sanders or you support me, there's much more that unites us than divides us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right, Bill Preston, you're a Bernie Sanders supporter. Did she make a good case? Is she going to get all those Bernie Sanders supporters, at least most of them, on board?
PRESS: It's a very good start to do so. And Senator Sanders' statement tonight is as well. I was thinking, listening to her, it was a great speech. The first time I talked to Bernie Sanders in his office in March 2014, about running for president, and he told me his number one goal, he was wasn't thinking he could win the White House at that time. I think later he thought hey, I might get this, but at that time, he wanted progressive issues to be the agenda for the 2016 Democratic primary, and he was sure that Hillary Clinton would not necessarily address all those issues unless somebody pushed her to do so. He was willing to do so. I heard that speech tonight. I don't want to take anything away from Hillary Clinton, but I would also, Bernie Sanders, he can put up the sign, mission accomplished.
BLITZER: And that's why he said in a statement, Bakari, he said tonight, 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. Not necessarily to fight for victory for his nomination, but for a platform.
SELLERS: I think we're at a point in this race where Democrats can look at each other in the face and eye to eye and say, look, this race is politically over, but our party's on the cusp of something great. Yes, we can talk about these progressive political ideologies, but even more importantly, we cannot take away from what Hillary Clinton is on the cusp doing. She's on the cusp of breaking and shattering that ultimate glass ceiling. Hillary Clinton is standing on the shoulders of people like Shirley Chisholm, and we're just that much closer to her becoming a female nominee in this country for president of the United States, and that much closer to having the first female president in the history of this country, and people can say gender card all they want. That's history.
BLITZER: Mark Preston, you and our political team have been crunching the numbers as far as delegates. As of tonight, what are you learning?
PRESTON: Right, so let's just focus on the Republicans right now. Big win for Donald Trump, of course. He has picked up so far 142 delegates. John Kasich has picked up five as well as Ted Cruz only picking up five as well. Year to date right now, Donald Trump has 988 delegates, Ted Cruz with 568, John Kasich, 152. One number to focus on at this moment, Donald Trump is less than 250 delegates from securing the Republican nomination.
BLITZER: It looks pretty good, you've got to admit, if you're a Donald Trump supporter, and I know you're not one of them, looks pretty good for him tonight.
CARPENTER: Winning generally helps you get closer to the nomination, which he has a nasty habit of doing in the Northeastern states. Yes, Ted Cruz has to change momentum. He has to go on and compete well in Indiana, win it in order to have a shot at going to the western states and then competing in California and stopping Donald Trump from getting the nomination. The stakes are very high. Ted Cruz is a competitor, but the stakes are very high.
BLITZER: You have the Democratic delegates as of tonight as well?
[01:54:44] PRESTON: I don't have the exact numbers, but why don't we just talk about them anyway? Hillary Clinton has won at least 200 -- oh, look there, it's moved. It's constantly moving, to our viewers out there, as we figure out how things went out. But as you can see, 214 delegates for Hillary Clinton, 160 delegates for Bernie Sanders right now. She continues to increase her lead in pledged delegates. Let's look at the overall numbers right now from year to date; 2,168 for Hillary Clinton, 1,401 for Bernie Sanders. Break those out, the big number for us to focus on right there is 502 super delegates, these are the delegates, the governors, the senators, the congressmen, the party officials who have pledged their personal support to Hillary Clinton. She is one step closer, or several steps closer to the 2,383 Wolf, that she wins to win --
BLITZER: Very impressive night for Hillary Clinton. Very impressive night for Donald Trump as well. Please be sure to watch CNN next Tuesday for the Indiana primary. In just a few short hours, one of tonight's huge winners, Donald Trump, he will talk to CNN live on CNN's "NEW DAY". You won't want to miss that. Meantime, our special coverage of Super Tuesday continues with Christine Romans and John Berman.
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