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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump Wins Indiana; Cruz Addressing Supporters; Campaign Source: Ted Cruz To Drop Out Of Presidential Race; Ted Cruz Drops Out Of Presidential Race; Cruz Drops Out Of Race; Standing By For Trump To Speak. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired May 03, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:18] JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: But John Kasich is still fourth in a three man race with his delegate counts. He still trails Marco Rubio who dropped out of the race several weeks ago. But there you have it, CNN is awarding or projecting the awarding of 42 out of the 57 delegates that will be won in Indiana this evening, 42 of them as of right now going to Donald Trump. This is a sweep. I mean, it's huge.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: There's no other way to put it. I mean, it's been said already for the past hour a lot of different ways, but we have to underscore this is something that Donald Trump can be incredibly proud of. And more importantly the voters who are in great Washington can be very proud of.
TAPPER: All right. Let's go to Anderson next.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes. Well, one of the things we heard from Ted Cruz when talking to Dana Bash, it was just yesterday, is Ted Cruz was kind of discounting Donald Trump's victories in the east coast and New York and elsewhere, and neighboring state. He cannot discount Donald Trump's victory in the state of Indiana. Just a massive, massive win.
As we anticipate hearing from Ted Cruz very shortly as well as Donald Trump, obviously, we are going to bring those comments to our viewers. What do you think Ted Cruz comes out and says tonight?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, his tone is really important. And I think he comes out and says that he continues to fight and that --
COOPER: And attack the media for anointing Donald Trump.
BORGER: And attacks the media, it's not over until you get to 1,237 and you're not at 1,237 and he still has an opportunity in California. I mean, we know the whole game plan. I think that his tone is going to be really important because the Cruz we heard from earlier today reacting to Donald Trump taking on his father was angry and Trump got under his skin as one can understand. And you know, he called Trump every name in the book.
And tonight I think he has to kind of move beyond that and he has to say, you know, tonally he has to act like a president if he wants to be seen as a president. And I, by the way, believe that Donald Trump needs to do the same. And I was talking to somebody in the Trump orbit today and I asked what is Trump going to do? And he said to me, well, there will probably be a little bit of lying Ted there, but we're all about the general election now. We are going to be talking about Hillary Clinton. So while Cruz is still talking about Donald Trump, Trump is going to be talking what comes next.
COOPER: We'll see.
BORGER: We'll see. I'm not predicting what Donald Trump will do.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: What I want to know is whether Carly Fiorina knows how to sing the party is over. Because I think that, you know, the handwriting is on the wall here. And as has been said before momentum breeds momentum. There's nothing that suggests that somehow this train that seems to be in full engagement now is going to suddenly slow down.
COOPER: You think this from a political standpoint, if you're a candidate whose objective now is just to try to prevent Donald Trump from getting the 1,237 and then hope in the second round of voting in the convention that you have a lot of defections, do you come out and say that or do you say, well, there is a path - I mean, do you not spell at that?
AXELROD: Well, he is pretty much saying. I mean, he acknowledges that he can't get there. His whole game and I don't think there's any subtlety about it is to throw himself on those tracks and try and stop the train before it gets to 1,237 in hopes that it won't squeak over the line and that somehow it will get to the second ballot, this opposition being that once it does and almost half the delegates are unbound. That that's the end of Donald Trump.
But that just seems very unlikely. I mean, Ted Cruz made so much of Indiana and that this was the place. He told everybody all over the state, this is where we have to make our stand. Well, he tried to make his stand and he got run over, so.
COOPER: Right. I mean, Ted Cruz kept saying finally I'm in a head to head matchup because of this deal I made with Kasich who is bailing out of Indiana. He got creamed.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: He got creamed in Indiana. A state he should have done well in in these last moments even calling out Trump he was clearly trying to rally conservatives to his call really maligning Donald Trump's character there. But if that didn't work and we sort of saw this preview of that in those SCC primaries when he wasn't able to rally evangelicals.
I think Cruz in some ways should be looked at not in sort of the framework of this campaign, but his future. You know, he is a young man. I think he is 45 now. His argument remains, you know, that he is the true conservative that the only path for Republicans in a presidential campaign is to nominate a conservative.
(CROSSTALK) MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, MICHAEL SMERCONISH SHOW: It's also - it is a rejection of Ted Cruz and I'd love to see which way -- I know that John Kasich didn't have an enormous vote in the state to begin with, but I would be curious to say which way did those voters prayed. I don't think they vote for Cruz despite whatever that a-boarded deal was. I think they went to Trump.
COOPER: Do you think - I mean, do see Donald Trump again impossible to predict what Donald Trump's going to, you know, no matter what his advisers say what he is going to do, but do you see him pivoting to a general? Do you see him talking about Hillary Clinton only?
[20:05:09] VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think he will attack whatever he thinks to attack at that moment. But I think for Ted Cruz this is really, really bad for a couple of reasons.
First of all, don't forget -- it's hard to feel sorry for him tonight. He started this fire. He decided to torch the U.S. Senate so he could become president. He decided to throw reason and they quorum out the door in the garbage can because he thought it was a way to become president. He sat a fire and now he is trapped in the house he sat on fire because Donald Trump has done exactly what Ted Cruz pioneered and he has done it better. So for now for Ted Cruz to say, my goodness, what happened to the quorum and reason and -- he's calling his own colleagues a liar.
COOPER: Well, also, Ted Cruz early on was embracing Donald Trump and attacking the media.
(CROSSTALK)
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, just I mean just on one point you can say what you want about Ted Cruz's relationships on the hill, those are self-evident. But he also -- you could argue that he did what he was elected to do and he did the things he made promises to voters that he said he was going to do. Ted Cruz, and not to put him on the couch here, but I think what is also going through Ted Cruz's mind is that look, of 17 Republican candidates, I'm still left standing. That's remarkable.
COOPER: We have to take a quick break. We are anticipating comments from Ted Cruz and from Donald Trump. We'll bring those to you live. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:10:18] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST, SITUATION ROOM: We're standing by to hear from Donald Trump. Big win for him tonight in Indiana. Also standing by to hear from Ted Cruz. Big loss for him tonight in Indiana. Ted Cruz momentarily will be speaking - he will speak before Donald Trump. Anxious to hear what he says. Does he continue to fight on or does he announce that maybe he is suspending his effort. We will see. We will hear soon as they said repeatedly, even if he loses he is going to continue this fight. We'll see what he says momentarily. Very important remarks coming up in Ted Cruz. And later, Donald Trump. Let's get a key race alert right now and see where this contest
stands.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders expanding his lead right now with 40 percent of the vote. How did Bernie Sanders has 52.1 percent over Hillary Clinton 47.9 percent? He has built up that lead. He has got more than 12,000 advantage over Hillary Clinton in Indiana right now. But still 60 percent of the vote remains outstanding right now.
On the Republican side, Donald Trump a huge winner in Indiana tonight. More than half of the vote counted. He's at 52.6 percent, Cruz at only 36.8 percent. John Kasich 7.9 percent. John Kasich really didn't even campaign in Indiana. Big, big win for Donald Trump in Indiana.
As we await these candidates' remarks, Anderson, let's bring it over to you.
COOPER: Yes. Well it's - we continue to watch both for Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.
Jeffrey, what do you expect to hear from Trump tonight as-I mean, do you expect a pivot to general election?
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I do to some degree. I mean, I think he is going, in essence, come out and declare a victory. You know, when we think back to this primary season and we think of Marco Rubio winning third place and coming out and declaring victory, well now, the guy who has really won is going to come out and declare victory. And I think most people are going to agree that it is pretty much with the exception of Ted Cruz that somewhere in his inner soul he is realizing this is over. So yes, I do think that he is going to do it.
CUPP: You know, a lot of us have been wondering if Donald Trump would start talking more presidentially. I don't know that he has any reason to. I mean, today, he was talking about a national enquirer story that is patently false. Went on to win.
I think what is remarkable about Donald Trump and this season is the GOP had been searching for the kind of candidate who could generate this kind of enthusiasm for decades. Not since Reagan have they had a candidate that they didn't need to force on the voters and package and convince them. Here's why you should love John McCain o here is why you should get behind Mitt Romney.
Donald Trump has needed no prodding from the establishment, from the party to take fire. In fact he has done it in spite of tremendous resistance from a lot of the establishment and the party. That's remarkable. I can lament that the right guy at the right time isn't particularly conservative, but you cannot deny that the party has finally gotten that enthusiasm they had been hoping for the way Democrats had for Obama.
SMERCONISH: But for the wrong reason, right. I mean, he has gotten there with positions that play very well to this Republican base that don't bode well with the general election like whether we should ban Muslims. It's a party favorite for the GOP, but it is stone cold loser for the general election.
CUPP: Some of the GOP, Michael.
SMERCONISH: (INAUDIBLE).
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When governor Reagan had secured his party's nomination, first thing he did was reach out to Gerald Ford, the only person to beat Ronald Reagan in election. He tried to get Gerald Ford to join the ticket. That fell apart. So then he picked George Bush, the other guy, who fought him so bitterly for that primary.
Reagan was all about addition. Does anybody believe that Donald Trump has that kind of capacity because I don't because today he stood up, today he smeared Ted Cruz's father with some nutsy stuff out of this national enquirer. He is the bear from the revenant.
LORD: He wants to win.
BEGALA: No, he wants to eat him (INAUDIBLE).
JONES: I see it differently than most of my Democratic friends. I was going to be very, very clear. Get the sandbags ready, Democrats. Get the sandbags ready. A wave is coming. It is building. It was built in our party but it was stopped very effectively by the Clinton. That wave does not go away. I'm telling you right now.
COOPER: Do you think the Democrats know how to run against Trump.
JONES: I don't think anybody knows to run against him. I'm going to tell you this.
BEGALA: You are six inches to your left, buddy.
JONES: I love this man.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: You cannot quote George W. Bus Bush. You cannot misunderestimate this man. It cannot be like Jeb Bush and play by the Marcos of Queensberry rules. You know, you have to keep it on your shoes because you don't want to be Marco Rubio trying to match an insult for insult, but this is as Michael points out a target which I feel like a mosquito in a nudist colony when I look at a trunk. I don't know where to land. There is so much who are attacking.
[20:15:08] COOPER: But there are plenty of Republicans who tried to keep it on issues and that didn't work.
JONES: The one thing we haven't talked about is the protectionist message. When I was a young guy, I was out there in Seattle protesting against the world trade organization, talking about NAFTA, (INAUDIBLE) you kids you don't understand economics. Once this thing passes your economy is going to flourish, you are going to have, you know, chicken in every pot and guess what, it didn't work out. And the winners from globalization are (INAUDIBLE) and ungrateful. The losers are clear and mad as hell and they are coming. And I'm telling you Democrats --.
COOPER: So, do you think Donald trump can reach out - I mean, we talked about this earlier. Can Donald Trump, and does he start to do it tonight, can he reach out to some of the Sanders supporters and he can actually get them.
JONES: He is doing it. There's a huge fight. Now, listen. You are right when you look at the polling data you will see the Democrats are not as mad. We're a little bit more fun together. We can heal. But there's a hairline fracture. It is not a shattered (INAUDIBLE). It is hairline fracture and it has to do with this pain over trade. And you have now somebody who is going to run a tough campaign. You're going to see a sun setting of some of this possibly some of this racial stuff, you don't know, but you're going to see a big push on the trade and the protection stuff. And that is going to be a hard --.
AXELROD: Let me just say, there is I think what's going on Brooklyn now and perhaps in precincts that Paul patrols, experiments going on as to how to take Donald Trump --
COOPER: Brooklyn is where Hillary Clinton (INAUDIBLE).
BORGER: Yes.
AXELROD: Exactly. But the big question to me is, you know, Donald Trump says it is easy to be presidential, but it's not easy to be president and people know that and I sat next to that office for a couple of years. It is a very, very tough job. You can -- you take the wrong step and you send arms marching. You see markets tumbling. People sense that. And I think the case that Donald Trump has to make that he hasn't come close to make him yet is that he can be trusted with that responsibility. And I think that there's still a majority of Americans who are going to be very concerned about that.
BORGER: And you know, you used the word trust. I mean, the Achilles heel for Hillary Clinton during this campaign has been the trust, don't you? And you know, I think Donald Trump is going to take at that of APO (ph) research and dump it on her head. And everybody in Brooklyn where Hillary's headquarters are they are preparing for that.
COOPER: But why would Donald Trump run a traditional presidential campaign? I mean, he has gotten this far.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: But I do think that there's a certain level of credibility that you have to pass for American to say OK we will give you the keys, you know. We are ready to let you be the guy who has his finger on the button.
BORGER: And he already is the guy who is the guy who tells it like it is, right. And Democrats may not think that, but Republicans do. He is motivated Republicans. You know, my big question here for Hillary Clinton versus Donald Trump is the role of President Obama in all of this. And you know, Van is talking about trade --
COOPER: But Jeffrey, as a Trump supporter, I mean, would it be a mistake for Donald Trump to suddenly get on a teleprompter and start trying to go kind of --.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: When you do these policy speeches that's fine like he did the other day, but too much of that he will lose exactly why he is there. You know, you may have notice I compare him on occasional to Ronald Reagan. But there's a great article in "Politico" that compares the talks about Jimmy Carter in 1976. And the same kind of atmospherics here where the people in the Democratic Party had it with traditional politicians and later prove all of Americans and they went for a guy who was a peanut farmer, a one term governor of Georgia.
AXELROD: And governor of the state.
LORD: Governor, yes. But I mean, he was an outsider and the insiders of the Democratic establishment had no idea how to deal with him. And they wanted to stop him and they couldn't d| it.
JONES: Well, one thing at Gloria is 100 percent right about though is that right now President Obama has not come off the fence. You haven't seen President Obama, you haven't seen Michelle Obama. One antidote, and I don't agree with, one antidote to a lot of this is you send in the Obama's into the rust belt. They are going to be I think to extra factor here. Trump has to run against both Clintons, both Obamas and both Sanders to win but he still might pull it off.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: One at a time.
SMERCONISH: I would argue, and this is counter intuitive, I would argue that he's not been fully vetted. I know that he has been out there on the stage for a year. We think we know him. We know from the TV show. I think there's so much because the Republicans were caught flat footed that has yet to be written about, has yet to be explored.
COOPER: I see Paul smiling very happily. I think I heard him mumbling, he is right.
SMERCONISH: Let me remind the panel. The man has not released his tax returns. He is now locking up the Republican nomination without having done so.
HENDERSON: You are right. Republicans were too afraid to bring up a lot of these issues because they were courting those same voters.
[20:20:03] COOPER: Paul, you probably looked at this close though.
BEGALA: (INAUDIBLE) mentor is the former governor of Georgia used to say a hit dog barks. If you watch at the tapes of those debate, the only time that Trump - a hit dog barks. When Trump was hit was Trump University, bam, he barked. Now, the Republicans never picked up that thread.
BORGER: What do you mean by barked?
BEGALA: He responded in a way that told me, oh my, this hurts. The state of New York. We need to translate.
BORGER: I thought he was dismissive.
BEGALA: No. A hit dog responds.
JONES: If you hit the dog, it barks.
BORGER: I get that.
HENDERSON: Because it's hurt. About hitting dogs.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Trump University fraud case is moving forward. The state of New York has filed a civil suit, not criminal, civil suit against Donald Trump for fraud on Trump University. The hearing on that case the first day of the Republican convention.
LORD: And here is why this isn't going to work. And it's not going to work because all he has -- which he's already done and which I've written about is to pick the attorney general accurately in my view as just another call of using the political system to go after his political enemies and scarf up campaign contributions. And Donald Trump will nip that in the bud in 0.2 seconds, I think will be sympathetic.
CUPP: So the hundreds of people that are involved in this class lawsuit they're all just trying to get after campaign contributions.
LORD: I think they were absolutely ginned up. But more to the point, the attorney general himself was trying to get campaign contributions out of the Trump family.
CUPP: I think it has been - but it has been a real dereliction of duty as everyone has pointed out that Republicans didn't take on a lot of this meat this fodder earlier. It is way too late. Well, I beg to differ. And I think if anyone had really followed Trump University is just one of the stories, really followed this to its conclusion, interviewed some of these people named in the lawsuit, interviewed some of the people who feel wronged by Donald Trump really put them out there, I think you might have a different picture and that will come in a general election.
BORGER: But Trump is so good --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Ladies and gentlemen --
COOPER: Ted Cruz's mother and father have just walked out on the stage. Carly Fiorina is also now appearing and we are waiting to hear from Senator Cruz any moment now. Again the tone of what -- how he says what he says is going to be very important to watch. It's one of the things that a lot of people will be watching for tonight.
CARLY FIORINA (R), REPUBLICAN VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Hello, Hoosiers!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: I know that I speak for the entire Cruz family, the entire Cruz team when I tell you how many Hoosiers we have fallen in love with on this campaign.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: All the wonderful people who have shown up at rallies across the state, the retail stops where people let what looked like awesome food get cold while we all stood and talked about the state you love and the state we have come to love and the nation we all love.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: We came together as fellow warriors, warriors in a cause to save the soul of our party, the character and the future of our nation.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: And that cause continues and you are warriors still.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: You know -- you know what makes this country extraordinary. You know that we are extraordinary because while people are gifted by God all over the world, it is only in that so many people have been given the opportunity to realize their God-given gifts. And we have been given that opportunity because we were founded on two powerful ideas. One, that each of us have a right to find and use our God- given gifts, a right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: That those rights come from God and should not be taken away by man or government.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: And the other idea that power concentrated is power abused. And so when power gets concentrated in the hands of too few for too long too many Americans and this nation suffer. And you know as I know that in this nation extraordinary people step up. You have all stepped up.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
FIORINA: And it has been my great pleasure, my privilege, my honor, to stand by and fight alongside one of the great citizens of this extraordinary nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: The Ted Cruz that I have come to know, the same man that you have come to know --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
FIORINA: This is a man who favors substance over sloganeering.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: Who favors respect over insult.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: Who favors positive policy solutions that will actually work over hand waving. It has been my great privilege and honor to come to know him as a friend, as a husband, as a father. He is indeed a great citizen of this great nation. And so citizens, fellow citizens, as we fight on for the nation we hold dear --
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
FIORINA: -- as we know that our history is long and our future is longer still, please join me in welcoming a great man, Ted Cruz, his wonderful and brilliant and great wife Heidi Cruz and the two girls that I have come to love as much as you have, Caroline and Katherine, a great American family.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Cruz! Cruz! Cruz! Cruz! Cruz!
[20:27:49] SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God bless the Hoosier state.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Let me tell you about the America that I love. Our nation is an exceptional nation. We were founded by risk takers and pioneers, brave men and women who put everything on the line for freedom. We began with a revolutionary idea that our rights don't come from kings or queens, or even presidents, but from God all mighty. That everyone one of us has an alienable the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. And that to protect those rights the constitution services as chains to bind the mischief of government.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: For more than two centuries we have protected those rights. We believe in equal rights for everybody, that everybody deserves dignity and respect whether they agree with you or not. That there will always be evil in the world and injustice in stands up to it and confronts it.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Even from a Montgomery jail, our voice for justice and equality rings out for the ages. America is hopeful, optimistic. America is kind. We are not boastful or mean spirited.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump is.
CRUZ: America is brave and we keep our word and we believe in peace through strength.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[20:30:02] CRUZ: We have spilled more blood, spent more treasure in defense of liberty than any country in history. Yet, we do not engage in wars of conquest. We do not seek to enrich ourselves at our neighbor's expense. America is the land that gave my mom, an Irish- Italian girl growing up in a working class family. The chance to be the first in her family ever to go to college, to become a pioneering computer programmer in the 1950s. I love you, mom.
America's the land that welcomed my father as a penniless immigrant. He'd seen oppression, prison and torture in Cuba and for him America was hope. It was opportunity. In 1957 if someone had told that teenager washing dishes for $0.50 an hour, that one day his son would be elected to the Senate and he would get a chance to cast his ballot for his son to be President of the United States. That teen-age immigrant washing dishes could never have believed it and yet that's exactly what happened. Only in America.
In recent months a lot of people have been talking about what happened 40 years ago at the Republican convention in Kansas City, our party's last contested convention. When I look back at that convention Missouri, I think at the speech that Ronald Reagan gave to our party. He spoke not of the next four years. He saw not the close horizons that are of interest to those who seek to build their own fortunes in the short-term, but instead he looked to the distant times that concerned the men and women whose purpose it is to secure the blessings of liberty to their posterity. Ronald Reagan spoke of the next 100 years and of the generations of Americans who would come to know whether our nation had escaped the existential threat of nuclear war, who would know whether our party had succeeded in its fight against the erosion of constitutional freedoms that only grow and multiply under rule of the Democratic Party.
Ronald Reagan spoke of the purpose that defined our party then and that must unite and drive our party now. The Republican Party of Ronald Reagan and of George Herbert Walker Bush ensured that thousands of nuclear missiles that the Soviet Union and the United States had targeted each other were never fired and that Soviet communism was consigned to the ash heap of history.
They fought hard so that our American freedoms were not lost to any foreign foe nor sacrificed in the pursuit of any domestic agenda of the Democratic Party. Yet the challenges we face today remain as great as ever. Americans are deeply frustrated and desperately want to change the path that we're on. We have economic stagnation at home and our constitutional rights are under assault. Under the Obama/Clinton foreign policy Russia has emerged as a resurgent threat. China looks with cover its eye on the lands of our allies in the region. A nuclear North Korea and a near nuclear Iran yearn to devastate our homeland and radical Islamic terrorism unleashes an evil that threatens the world.
This year, two weeks before our party gathers in Cleveland, all American will celebrate the 240th birthday of the United States of America.
[20:35:14] American parents and grandparents will watch the fireworks with their kids and will dream of the grandchildren and great grandchildren to come and wonder how those future generations of Americans will remember what we do not only this summer, but in the coming decades. Will we rise to meet the challenges that face our nation on the international stage or will we withdraw and cower timidly from the world? Will we secure freedom of thought, expression and religion for future generations? Or will we succumb to the tear any of a political correctness and the temptation of racial politics and balkanization here at home?
Will we hold fast to our founding values of rewarding talent, hard work and industry, or will we continue on that path of creeping socialism that incentives apathy and dependency? Will we deliver control of healthcare to citizens and their doctors or will we continue down the ObamaCare road to second rate socialized medicine? Will we keep America safe from the threats of nuclear war and atomic terrorism? Or will we pass on to future generation a land devastated and destroyed by the enemies of civilization?
This is the responsibility with which we have been charged by history. This is our challenge. This is the fight that falls to our generation.
When we launched this campaign 13 months ago, we saw a movement grow. The pundits all said it was hopeless, but we saw over 300,000 volunteers all across this nation. Over 1.5 million contributions averaging about $60 each. Many of those volunteers, many of those contributions you never forget. Just a few days ago two young kids, ages four and six, handed me two envelopes full of change. All of their earnings from their lemonade stand. They wanted the campaign to have it. That's what built this campaign. That's what fueled this movement.
Thank you to each of you. Incredible patriots who have fought so hard to save our nation.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll fight with you.
CRUZ: And I with you. I am so grateful to you, to my amazing wife Heidi. To our precious girls, Karoline and Katherine, to my mom, the prayer warrior. To my dad, who has traveled this nation preaching the gospel. To Carly Fiorina, who has been an incredible, phenomenal running mate. What you have done, the movement that you have started is extraordinary. I love each and every one of you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We love you!
[20:40:03] CRUZ: From the beginning I've said that I would continue on as long there was valuable path to victory. Tonight I'm sorry to say ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No.
CRUZ: It appears that path has been foreclosed.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No!
CRUZ: Together we left it all on the field in Indiana. We gave it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path and so with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long term future of our nation we are suspending our campaign.
But hear me now, I am not suspending our fight for liberty. I am not suspending our fight to defend the constitution, to defend the Judeo- Christian values that built America. Our movement will continue and I give you my word that I will continue this fight with all of my strength and all of my ability.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're a great man Ted.
CRUZ: You are extraordinary and we will continue to fight next week and next month and next year and together we will continue as long as God grants us the strength to fight on. For one thing remains as true today as it was 40 years ago in Kansas City, in this fight for the long-term future of America, there is no substitute for victory. There is no substitute for the America that each and every one of us loves with all of our heart, that we believe in with all of our heart and that together we will restore as a shining city on the hill for every generation to come. Thank you to each of you and God bless you.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Ted Cruz announcing he's ending his quest for the presidency right now. Take a look at this, he's embracing his wife, his father, his whole family is there. He has suspended his campaign following a devastating loss to Donald Trump tonight in Indiana.
Donald Trump I think it's fair to say for all practical purposes is now the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, even though he doesn't yet have the magic number of 1,237 delegates, he is well on his way, doesn't look like anything is going to stop him. Donald Trump emerges as the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Interestingly enough, take that from Dana Bash.
No congratulatory word to Ted Cruz -- to Donald Trump tonight from Ted Cruz, no effort that we're going to endorse you, work for you, simply a statement he was suspending his campaign and the use of the word Jake as, you know, suspending is for political reasons he can still continue to raise some money as long as he doesn't formally announce his ending his campaign. JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah, just in case he has any campaign debt and who knows what's going to happen at the convention I suppose, but first of all in terms of his not saying anything about Donald Trump, he had plenty to say about Donald Trump just a few hours ago with some of his strongest but not yet, calling him a pathological liar, calling him a serial philanderer, there was even more than that.
So I think it would be tough to say all of that in a heartfelt manner which I believe he did whether or not he with the charges, and then come out and say, but I'm going to congratulate Donald Trump and I think he should be the nominee. That's going to be very difficult.
Second of all, I was talking to somebody from the Cruz campaign, this decision was based on one simple thing, delegate math. They just do not think they can stop Donald Trump from getting 1,237 delegates, just can't do it anymore. It looks like Donald Trump might win all 57 delegates this evening from Indiana, meaning now that he won the state that he's going to win each congressional district. And as we've been discussing all night, this is a state that Ted Cruz should have won. Now the big question is we were talking this few hours ago about whether -- what does Ted Cruz do after this devastating loss? Now the question is, does he endorse Donald Trump?
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. But whether or not he endorses Donald Trump, I think that we can all take a step back, highlight and underline and digest what Wolf just said, which is Donald Trump is now the presumptive Republican nominee. It is May 3rd, it is after a very long, very diverse, very intense battle where the cream of the crop was running in this Republican race.
[20:45:30] TAPPER: One of the best and John and I said I grew with him, one of the best Republican fields ...
BASH: Absolutely.
TAPPER: ... in modern history. Several successful governors, several popular senators, somebody that Barack Obama, Marco Rubio, Barack Obama said that -- had some of the broadest political talents out there.
BASH: And that is absolutely not what the voters in the Republican Party wanted. They wanted somebody new, somebody different, somebody who really doesn't -- well doesn't have the lexicon and the experience in Washington. Someone who is going to bring a new sensibility to Washington and that is Donald Trump.
And so that is where we are and that the fact that that is happening right now, after everything that this season has brought us, given where he came from, where even he says he was considered a joke on June 16th when he announced, now it's almost impossible to see unless something crazy happens which has happened this year, but it's almost impossible to see him not getting that magic 1,237 and in Cleveland him being the person that the Republicans nominate as their presidential candidate.
TAPPER: And let's underline this one more time. With Senator Ted Cruz withdrawing, that's it, he has no more serious competition, I said earlier that John Kasich ...
BASH: That's right.
TAPPER: ... who remains in the race was running fourth in a three man race. I know have to change that, he's now running fourth in a two man race because he's behind a Ted Cruz who drop out, and Marco Rubio who drop out. So that's not really a serious challenge.
Donald Trump who has never run for office before, a man who has offended the sensibilities of the Republican establishment and millions of Americans from every strike whether Latino or Muslim or others, is now the Republican nominee and the big question now going forward is, does -- is he going to be able to change the map as he has promised his appeal to white working class voters, talking about trade deals,
talking about ...
BASH: Right.
TAPPER: ... terrorism, appealing to them sometimes on name of this -- approaches, the question is will that work? Will he be able to redraw the map or is the math that the way that many Republican officials suggest it is and the Democratic nominee will have a leg up? I don't know.
BASH: And the answer to that question is largely going to depend on whether or not what we have seen in modern history also happen with Donald Trump in that even people who said, no way am I going to vote for X, Y or Z, who eventually became the nominee, will those voters eventually fall in line.
Just anecdotally, my experience just last night in Indiana a state that has gone Republican for the last couple of decades at least in presidential years.
TAPPER: Oh by the way 2000.
BASH: I talked to a lot of Republican voters who said, you know what, I might stay home. I might just stay home.
TAPPER: Really?
BASH: I might not vote for Donald Trump. Now, again that might change. There's a long time between now ...
(CROSSTALK)
BASH: Maybe hid of it, there's a long time between now and November. I might stay home. Might write another name in. I might, you know, try to seek out a third-party candidate. There are all those unknowns, but we have to remember that we are right now in the heat of it and that, you know, things do tend to settle down and Trump is dead set on unifying the party. He has said so and the question is whether he can.
TAPPER: He wants to unify the party, he also wants to redraw the map of one of the things that Democrat say when you ask about the challenge of Donald Trump who I think is fair to say this evening is Wolf announce, is the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is he is so unpredictable. You're talking about these voters who don't like him right now being a predictable, he his unpredictable, that's what makes November such a question mark.
Anderson, lots for your panel to talk about.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And we are waiting hear from the presumptive Republican presidential nominee. An extraordinary night, I mean there was -- we were talking up until the beginning of Ted Cruz speaking ...
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I thought, you know, I though the math was impossible for Cruz as we've all said all along, but I thought he was going to stay in until Donald Trump got to 1,237. Now we're in the amazing situation where John Kasich, believe it or not, is the last man standing against Donald Trump and that's only because this is in fact much more of a crusade for John Kasich who one told is not going to get after see things, but then again ...
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Right.
BORGER: Is that, is people close to him say that he will not, that he will challenge Trump to debates, he will stop talking about delegates and start talking about the future of the Republican Party.
[20:50:07] But if we pull back for a minute, all of us myself included the Republican establishment et cetera, we always thought Donald Trump was just like one loss away from falling apart -- oh except for you Jeffrey.
COOPER: Were you said all of us -- except for Jeffrey Lord.
BORGER: Jeffrey.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Donald Trump is, you know, one loss away from falling apart or now he's said it and he can't possibly recover from that and of course he did. And as, you know, I think that the electorate told us exactly how they're feeling, the Republican electorate in this campaign, and they feel betrayed and angry and Donald Trump represents that. Whether that puts his party in some peril in a general election ...
COOPER: Did it surprise you David to not hear anything from Ted Cruz about Donald Trump or un ...
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: When we heard plenty from him earlier today. He called him a pathological liar.
COOPER: Among other things.
AXELORD: Yes. So maybe he thought it would be a little discord ant to embrace him in the evening. COOPER: Right.
AXELROD: And it's going to be a process. I think there are a lot of folks who are going to have a very hard decisions to make now because there have been a lot of bumps and bruises along the way. Look, I don't want to minimize in any way, what is a historical achievement is on the part of Donald Trump.
But -- and so, one doesn't want to discount him and Van's admonishing that withstanding, you're looking at a guy who has really historic negatives, 80 percent negatives among Hispanic voters, 69 percent negatives among women voters. The fact is there are people who are disaffected over trade and other issues who he has galvanized, and he may galvanize some more, but it's going to be very hard for him to overcome the obstacles that he's created for himself with this key blocks of voters, I'm not saying he can't do it, I will never say that about Donald Trump, again, but he has a huge mountain to climb.
HENDERSON: Yeah, and it's not the traditional voting blocks that he only has to worry about. African-Americans and Latinos and Asians and young voters. It's also white women, that's the real problem that he has.
COOPER: But I mean, if you think that he had a huge mountain to climb just entering the race and he basically what are they doing when they mine when they just eliminate the top of the mountain. I mean ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: ... he-- right, I mean he just moved the entire mountains.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Anderson, it's not only constituencies and some of those that David has identified in which he needs to now makeup ground. I'm sitting here drawing a list and wondering what's Paul Ryan saying tonight? What's Mitt Romney saying tonight? What's Jeb Bush saying tonight?
HENDERSON: You know, what they ...
SMERCONISH: Are they're all -- were they're saying holy crap that's all they say.
(CROSSTALK)
SMERCONISH: They want to go to cold west around him, I mean that's really going to be interest to get right.
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I want to say one thing about ...
COOPER: Do you want to just do a couple of victory lapses. I mean, I feel like it's been a long time coming for you.
LORD: It's knowing in modesty (ph). COOPER: Oh yeah, OK.
LORD: I want to say something about Senator Cruz first and that speech. And it may be forgotten now, but when Ronald Reagan lost to Gerald Ford and I'm not talking about the speech in a convention, but the speech at a hotel that his supporters Nick Carter (ph), the Scottish column that said, I'm hurt but I'm not slain, I lay me down and bleed awhile and then I'll rise and fight again, which he did.
Senator Cruz should be and will be I assume a major factor in the Republican Party coming down the road and if he wants to be president of the United States at some point, I think he, you know, stands a shot. So doing this, this way was the best way to do this. Now that's side ...
AXELROD: So speaks the next chairman of the Republican Party.
LORD: I though it was ambassadorship.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can Donald Trump show that grace and class in his speech. That's what exactly what he should say and I think in (inaudible) again.
LORD: We'll see. We'll see. But, but, look, Donald Trump has led a really great and fascinating American life. He's an American original. We all saw him come down that escalator and he really spoke to a lot of people in this country and we cannot loss sight of the fact that these people are responding and I remember Michael sitting over there was at -- I guess it was the night of the Pennsylvania primary and you were surprised that the suburban countries in Philadelphia ...
SMERCONISH: Absolutely.
LORD: ... had voted for him. I mean he carried all 67 counties in Pennsylvania which is unheard of ...
(OFF-MIC)
SARAH ELIZABETH CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well a lot of us were surprised and could not have seen this coming from Trump, but there are also a lot of us who are not at all surprised that having Ted Cruz is the last guy between Trump and the nomination was going to be a problem and this is why months and months ago many conservatives in the party were saying, no, no, no Ted Cruz is not the savior. Ted Cruz isn't going to work out in the end. Ted Cruz doesn't have the likeability to really galvanize people and coalesce people around him and that's why there was an effort to get a bunch of candidates to drop out so that there wasn't just this plurality that Donald Trump was exploiting very well and prop up someone like Marco Rubio who actually maybe had a shot.
[20:55:03] But this scenario was completely predictable unlike so much of Trump's success, I think Cruz's demise ultimately was seen for miles down the pike. VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I see Cruz differently tonight than you do. I don't think he should have done this tonight. I mean we were just talking about this. I mean somebody talks about your father, somebody goes after your family, would you have dropped out tonight?
BEGALA: Never. Even though there was no path to victory, maybe I'm a smaller person but you have to defend your family honor.
CUPP: But you can't see parting on the fact that why is this guy still in and he can't get there and then why did he get out?
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: Oh widespread set over there, who said running for president, is the MRI to the soul and I thought of that when Hillary Clinton got out of the race, a day or two later I spent the whole day with her, she was really impressed by Barack Obama. She ran against him, tested him I mean she was really honestly thought he was fully qualified to that point to be president. She was really impressed by him she had seen his soul up close in the clenches. Ted Cruz has seen Donald Trump soul up close and in the clenches, I bet your right now he's not impressed with what he has seen, and I'm really surprise that he bow down.
CUPP: Well and especially because of what Dana was saying earlier, which was spot on, if anyone in the Senate really had the stomach to take this all the way, he doesn't get cowed by defeat or embarrassment or that really.
(CROSSTALK)
SMERCONISH: I think what's about to unfold is really going to be significant because so many Tuesday nights we've sat together and we've said what Donald Trump will we see tonight. It's the first night he walks out on that stage and he is the presumptive nominee. So does he take on a different persona, what does he say about Ted Cruz, does he try to recast the dye for a new electorate, we're about to find out.
COOPER: Well you also wonder if right now is he recalculating -- recalibrating whatever the notes he had.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: Let's take the insults out.
COOPER: Right.
CUPP: You see every time someone gets out, Trump has flips completely and says I like Chris Christie, Chris Christie is great. I like Jeb, he's a nice guy, so yes you wonder if he's going to make those same overtures.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Yeah, look out John Kasich.
BORGER: Right.
HENDERSON: Yeah, and what does he say about Hillary Clinton, this time. You remember last time he started the whole women's card rift and talked about Hillary Clinton, you know, not being anywhere, and would only get 5 percent if she were a man. Does he continue that line of argument which I would argue would essentially hurt him in a general election? I think that will be fascinating.
AXELROD: Let me make one point about his popularity and Jeffrey you may have a different response to this. I can't think of a nominee who is emerging from his own process who is less popular in his own party.
LORD: Barry Goldwater.
AXELROD: All right, OK.
BORGER: How did that work out?
AXELROD: How you feel about that?
LORD: Well, no, no, no, no. I mean the Goldwater, I mean JFK had been assassinated. OBJ was in height of his popularity, no Republican was going to win that, but just in terms of the -- I mean what Goldwater ...
AXELROD: I mean in his own party.
LORD: Right, right, in his own party. I mean if we're -- let's not forget the Nelson Rockefeller stood up at that convention and excoriated Goldwater and all of his supporters.
AXELROD: Now we're, we'll see what happens in ...
LORD: Right, right, right. So clearly that's not the way to go and it does now mean that Donald Trump has to start bringing people together and I have no doubt that he'll try to do that.
BORGER: Paul, how do you think -- what do you think about the fact that Donald Trump has wrapped this up before Hillary Clinton? Whoever thought that was going to happen.
BEGALA: It so impressive. It is and I'm, you know, I'm a Clinton person, I'm going to support her bla, bla, bla. This is enormous a caption (ph) for Donald Trump.
BORGER: Yeah.
BEGALA: For all this guys have stated, but this is a complete victory. This is room sucking cartage. Burning every building, stealing every bit of property ...
CUPP: Right.
BEGALA: ... and so insult into the field. AXELROD: You just stole some lines from his speech.
(CROSSTALK)
BEGALA: And so we must not under estimate him. Winter is coming.
JONES: Where do I start, as I say. I love you men. But listen, but you connect two things that are in fact connected. That the same rebellion, is happening in the country in both parties.
BORGER: Right.
JONES: The reason Hillary is still fighting is the reason that Trump just won. There is a big, big discontent in this country and tonight for Bernie Sanders and we can say anything about Bernie, he shouldn't be here either. I just don't think that people get it yet. You got people sitting on a white hot stove in their houses right now and they are mad.
COOPER: Well it's also going to be. It's going to be interesting if you now have a situation where u have Donald Trump attacking Hillary Clinton and you have Bernie Sanders echoing some of the same sentiment against Hillary Clinton as well.
JONES: No, no, no. I mean listen. You wish. I mean you talk about an MRI of the soul. You saw Jeb Bush's soul as well and you're seeing Hillary Clinton's grit as well. I think Hillary Clinton is going to be fine. She's not worried about Bernie Sanders, but I do think that she has got to tonight show that she's got the message from both parts, the message from the Republicans, they're mad, they're hurting, the message from the Democrats, they're mad, they're hurting, she can get there. But this should not be a moment of happiness for liberals. We got Trump who's going to win, no one.
(CROSSTALK)
[21:00:03] CUPP: But the axis point, this is we're going to learn this year. In previous cycles for Republicans we have learned that we cannot win without the base, and we have a couple of candidates that did not excite the base.
