Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Live Event/Special
Final Super Tuesday Voting in Six States; Hillary Clinton to Give Major Speech; Donald Trump Expected to Start More Aggressive Fundraising; Trump Wins New Jersey, Clinton Has Early Lead; Trump Says He Will Speak About "Great Journey" To Nomination; Crucial Night For Clinton, Sanders & Trump; Clinton Has Early Lead In New Jersey; Trump To Speak Momentarily. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 07, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: First votes coming in momentarily from New Jersey but the polls right now are closed in New Jersey.
Our first key race alert of the night, right now it's too early to call, for us to make any projection on the winner in New Jersey. We simply don't have enough of the votes in yet but momentarily the votes will be coming in. Is this a state that Hillary can win, can win decisively or can Bernie Sanders surprise a lot of people and win in New Jersey? We'll see what happens in New Jersey. Stand by.
We're also waiting for major speeches to come up momentarily within the next hour or so I should say. Hillary Clinton has got a big speech coming up, an historic speech, the first one as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. And also Donald Trump has got a big, big speech coming up outside of New York City, a speech that is going to help us better appreciate the controversies over the last few days over his very, very controversial remarks about a federal judge.
In the meantime we've got some new information about what Hillary Clinton is about to say later tonight. Let's go to Jeff Zeleny. He's over at Clinton headquarters.
Jeff, what are you learning?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, I am getting new information tonight about what is going to be in Secretary Clinton's speech. An adviser tells me this. He said there's going to be three main points. First she will make clear that this is a historic moment and put that moment in context of all the historical progress that has been made in this country, specific about how she will be the first woman to be the presidential nominee for a major party.
So she will talk about history but she will also talk about her vision and how it differs from Donald Trump. Again, the themes we heard last week in that speech in San Diego that she's been amplifying ever since, about how she believes Donald Trump is dangerous, not prepared or ready to be commander-in-chief. She'll talk about Donald Trump.
And finally on point number three, perhaps most important here on this night of Democratic primaries, she will thank her supporters and thank Senator Sanders and welcome his supporters on to her team, welcome them to this unified -- what she hopes is a unified Democratic Party going forward here.
Wolf, more importantly she also wants to make the point that by the end of tonight she will have the majority of pledged delegates. For all the talk about how superdelegates are actually influencing this, she will make the case that she has the majority of pledged delegates and that is something this campaign believes will be very critical in terms of finally winning people over because she does have more votes and she will say that she has 13 million votes in terms of raw total votes and Senator Sanders trails her a little bit at 10 million.
But, Wolf, a big olive branch to Senator Sanders supporters tonight when she comes on stage here later this evening.
BLITZER: And I understand, Jeff, they have a new film that they're going to be releasing as well. Is that right?
ZELENY: They are indeed. And this is something that's going to be introducing her tonight, Wolf. It really is -- making this historical moment clear here for the people in this audience, her supporters here behind me, but also others. She wants to show what the idea of a woman president would look like in the ideals of -- or in the eyes of a young girl and children and others. So it's a pretty powerful biographical campaign message here.
But, Wolf, the main takeaway from tonight is her differences with Donald Trump. That's what she wants voters in America to see and of course we'll hear a rebuttal or a pre-rebuttal perhaps from Donald Trump as well, Wolf. This New York race is now on starting tonight.
BLITZER: It certainly is. A historic night indeed. A historic speech coming up from Hillary Clinton. But before Hillary Clinton speaks, Donald Trump will be speaking.
Sara Murray is over at Trump headquarters in West Chester County, outside of New York City. What are you learning, Sara?
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, there's no doubt that advisers in the Trump campaign are hoping that Donald Trump will come out tonight, that he will set up the contrast between him and Hillary Clinton in the general election but I think one thing that's going to give us an indication of whether these last few tumultuous weeks have really hurt the Trump campaign is going to be his schedule going forward for the next few weeks.
Sources tell us he's expected to aggressively ramp up his fundraising schedule and that's where you see whether skittish donors are going to be sitting on the sidelines, giving less or doing nothing to help Trump. That's what some sources are predicting is going to happen. But one Republican fundraiser told me they really haven't seen an impact on donors yet. That nobody is really waiting on the sidelines as a result of his comments. Maybe they're just used to it.
So I think over the next few weeks we will really get a better sense of just how damaging this has been in terms of Donald Trump's ability to raise the kind of money he needs to mount a general election fight against Hillary Clinton -- Wolf.
BLITZER: And there teleprompters there, is that right? He's going to be reading at least part of this speech?
MURRAY: That's right. There are teleprompters here tonight. That is giving people a little bit more confidence that it will be a more formal speech, that it will be kind of a scene setter for the general election.
Now, Wolf, as you know with Donald Trump even if he comes out here and delivers a speech from the teleprompters you never know if he's going to stay -- decide to stay out here and take questions from reporters and go off topic.
[20:05:07] And I think that's always the risk when you have a candidate like this who is unscripted.
BLITZER: He's going to be speaking right at the top of the hour then Hillary Clinton follows.
All right, Sara, thanks very much.
Anderson, over to you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: You know, Wolf, we'll obviously be covering all those speeches live.
David and Gloria, I mean, Donald Trump put out the statement several hours ago clearly hoping to try to turn a corner essentially re- litigating the Trump so-called university case again, kind of saying that his remarks were taken out of context and trying to clarify what he claims he meant and yet he also says he's not going to talk about it anymore. That of course remains to be seen.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, there are two Donald Trumps. There's the one who we see in front of the cameras and there's the Donald Trump who wrote that statement, whoever that was.
(LAUGHTER)
AXELROD: But it's very hard to reconcile the two. Listen, this is the problem for the Republican Party. Let me hold this up. This is a cartoon from the "Chicago Tribune" today and it's a -- it's Donald Trump hand in hand with Paul Ryan except Paul Ryan is in a hazmat suit. And this is the concern of Republicans. So here is the challenge, though. You know, what Jake said, well, can he stay on script?
This is not what got him here. Reading from a teleprompter isn't what got Donald Trump here. That's not who he is. He's selling authenticity. How long is he really going to stay on a teleprompter? I just don't believe it. It's not in character with his candidacy. It's not in character with the personality. COOPER: In fact, in an interview with Jake, he attacks Hillary
Clinton for -- when she gave her speech which was a sense about foreign policy but it was really an attack on Donald Trump. He attacked her saying she wasn't giving a speech, she was basically reading somebody else's words, which he also did at his AIPAC's speech. The only other one that I know that was actually written for him and on teleprompter.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, David and I have been talking about this because he attacks her for being too cautious, right? And we've been talking about this during the breaks about how actually her caution could help her now ironically against a candidate like Donald Trump who many people believe is so unpredictable. So it's her stability versus his instability, unpredictability whatever you want to call it.
AXELROD: But he can't versus -- and she's the status quo and we'll say which wins out. But what Donald Trump --
BORGER: But she looks like change. You know?
AXELROD: But the thing about presidents -- she does. But for the president -- presidential races ratchet up every step of the way and the kind of scrutiny you receive as a candidate running for the nomination is nothing compared to the scrutiny you get when you take that step, one step away from the presidency and the question is how will these candidates deal with that pressure.
BORGER: Exactly.
AXELROD: She's accustomed to that pressure, he is not.
COOPER: The other question of course is how does he wear over time, you know, there was this sort of novelty factor when he burst on the scene. He's unlike a lot of other candidates, he is unscripted in that sense. But over time how does that wear?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, I mean, it's sort of like if you watch reality TV, sort of the villain on a reality TV show you want to watch them and they're amazing for a little while but then after a while it starts to get redundant. And you do wonder --
AXELROD: And the show is only on once a week. I mean, this is --
HENDERSON: Yes.
(LAUGHTER)
AXELROD: This is all the time.
HENDERSON: All day. And you can tell Hillary Clinton in some of her speeches an Democrats are broadly saying this is how he would be in the White House. There wouldn't be any change. That this kind of unpredictability could you see this person in your living room every day leading the country in the face of the country? I think tonight Republicans want to see a different Donald Trump.
They want to see that he is starting to have the apparatus of a campaign around him.
COOPER: Michael, and then I want to get Jeffrey in.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR, "SMERCONISH": I want to say that I think that the comment that he made about the federal judge was an enormous blunder and I think that it struck people as being anti- American and there's a question that Donald Trump can't answer, which is if he belies that this gentleman is biased against him why hasn't his legal team gone to court, followed the process and filed a recusal motion? The lawyers won't touch it and he has no response to that question.
COOPER: Jeffrey?
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Donald, don't listen to me.
(LAUGHTER)
LORD: Look. What we're about to see here, anybody who wins a presidential nomination can they reshape their party, has the party been reshaped from the bottom in essence. As I believe it has in Donald Trump's case. So is he going to put his (INAUDIBLE) on the Republican Party as Ronald Reagan did? As Dwight Eisenhower did? These other nominees from both parties do? That's going to be one of the questions.
To answer Michael's question, my point here has been repeatedly that the Republican establishment has basically sold out on race. They have bought into this whole notion of identity politics. It's bad. It's a descendant of slavery and segregation. It should get nowhere near the party of Abraham Lincoln.
[20:10:01] What Donald Trump is doing, and I will admit that he backed into it with the Trump University case, but he's calling out this role model. How many times over the years have we heard about the politicization of the police and the judiciary from liberals? I mean, how many times -- how many times do they -- wait, wait, wait. How many times do they say this police chief is racist? This judge is racist? This, that -- what do we hear about Ferguson? What do we hear from Baltimore? What --
SMERCONISH: That's not an answer, though.
LORD: What?
SMERCONISH: Jeffrey, that's not an answer. Respectfully you're a Pennsylvanian, I love you but why hasn't the motion been filed? Why hasn't he put in paperwork -- whatever the cause is.
LORD: Look, look.
SMERCONISH: That he thinks other than this man's Mexican heritage? Where is it? (CROSSTALK)
LORD: Look, look, look. This man is a lifetime member of the National Hispanic Bar Association --
SMERCONISH: Then put it in a pleading.
LORD: Wait, wait, wait. The National Hispanic Bar Association.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Nothing wrong with that, Jeff.
LORD: Wait. Which on July --
JONES: Scalia is a part of the Italian group.
LORD: Wait, wait, wait. Wait. Which on July 2nd of last year put out a statement saying that there should be a boycott of all Trump properties.
(CROSSTALK)
SMERCONISH: That's not a defense.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's also not an answer to Michael's question. Nor does it address --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: Look, look. Whatever his lawyers are going to do that's -- what his lawyers is going to do --
SMERCONISH: You know that -- if I were representing him I couldn't say -- I'm an attorney. If I were his attorney I could not say -- I would run afoul of the Code of Conduct if I were saying extra- judicially what he is saying and taking advantage of the process.
LORD: Michael, Michael, this is -- he's running for president of the United States.
SMERCONISH: That doesn't --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: No. Wait. Are we going to have a judiciary that is infected by racial politics?
CUPP: OK.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: One at a time. One at a time. S.E.?
CUPP: This is a total, total distraction from both Michael's question. The other question of what the hell this has to do with the actual case, nothing, and the notion of Donald Trump out of one side of his mouth saying Hispanics love me, they're going to vote for me, because I've not said anything disparaging to him now saying this Hispanic hates me because I've said disparaging things about him. You can't have it both ways. You can't be winning the Hispanic vote and having Hispanics love you and have this Hispanic --
LORD: You're missing the point.
CUPP: -- be biased because you have said things disparaging about Hispanics.
LORD: You're missing the point.
CUPP: It's a total admission. And I think it really has him spooked. And you know it has him spooked because he's using a prompter tonight which is a complete defeat.
JONES: I'd like to say something.
CUPP: I mean, he is going to look so small on this rally on such a big day --
LORD: Really having defeating almost daily for the last six months.
CUPP: He's going to look so small standing at this rally on such a big night speaking from a prompter with all of the excitement completely out of his sails because he has been spooked by this.
JONES: I want to say something.
CUPP: It was near universal condemnation. And even you, Jeffrey, I love you, you cannot spin his way out of this.
JONES: I've listened to you for a while and I now have a theory about how you see race in this election. When Trump talks about race, Trump is a hero. He's standing up against the PC hoards. And when anybody else in the world, including Paul Ryan, if they don't agree with Trump, they are a racist. And there is no other way to make sense of your comments, sir. No -- there is nothing wrong with this judge at all.
This judge is a part of some organizations. Organizations do all kinds of stuff. But Michael is right. I'm an attorney and so are you. He is right. There is no basis to attack this man's character, to attack his professionalism, and you I think would be much better served to have a more consistent view of race than if Trump said it it's right, than if anybody said who said it they're wrong.
LORD: No, no, no.
JONES: There's no other view.
LORD: I am saying --
COOPER: Let Jeffrey respond.
LORD: I am saying that this issue goes way beyond Donald Trump. And it has been -- it has been -- JONES: Everything about race is bad.
LORD: It has been --
JONES: Has Trump ever said anything about race that's wrong?
LORD: He hasn't said that much about race to be perfectly candid.
JONES: OK. He can't stop.
PAUL BEGALA, CLINTON SUPPORTER: He began his national political --
LORD: I mean, has he given a national speech on race?
BEGALA: He began his national political career attacking the president of the United States lying and saying he wasn't legitimately president.
LORD: Well, what that have to do with race?
BEGALA: That was the birther -- it was all about race. And he's made his --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: So Chester Allen Arthur in 1880 was about race and he wasn't like that.
BEGALA: We're going to cover the Chester Allen Arthur election. Don't worry.
LORD: Good. Good.
(LAUGHTER)
LORD: He succeeded five different white guys get attacked like this and it's race when Obama is attacked?
BEGALA: Of course the birth thing was racist. Second, excuse for talking --
LORD: Yes, sir.
BEGALA: I let you run your theory about your race.
LORD: Go ahead.
BEGALA: I need you to pay attention.
LORD: Go ahead.
BEGALA: Mr. Trump began with a racist attack on our president. He announced for president with a racist attack against Mexicans. He said they were rapists, they were murderers.
LORD: No. Illegal immigrants -- (CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Let him answer. Let him say his peace.
BEGALA: He now has also said he wants a total and complete ban on Muslims coming into the country. He said he wants surveillance of mosques.
LORD: That's not true.
BEGALA: Of houses of worship, of mosques. He now has attacked a federal judge and he didn't say, oh, he belongs to a group, which there's wrong with, he said he can't judge me fairly because he's Mexican, which he's not. He's from Indiana, not Mexico. Indiana is still part of the U.S. Now he's also said a Muslim could not judge him in court.
[20:15:03] These -- I don't -- I can't see into his heart. OK. I have no idea if he's a racist, I hope he's a good person, but Speaker Ryan of his own party said the comment about Judge Curiel was, I quote, "the textbook definition of racist comment." That's coming from the Republican speaker of the House. I mean, this is racist stuff he's playing with.
AXELROD: Jeffrey, the thing that I found most interesting was that you said -- somehow suggested that what Trump is saying is in the tradition of Abraham Lincoln and I can't imagine what the Great Emancipation --
COOPER: Let Jeffrey respond.
AXELROD: -- would have to say about what he's hearing from Donald Trump.
LORD: The tradition of the Republican Party is that we are a color blind party and a color blind country. That is not the tradition of the Democratic Party which has successively, on the records, supported slavery, segregation, lynching, the Ku Klux Klan.
SMERCONISH: That's not what this is about.
LORD: Wait, wait, wait.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: The racial quote is illegal immigration by skin color --
JONES: The Civil Rights --
LORD: Van, the Civil Rights bills -- the Civil Rights bills of the 1960s were redid by civil rights law, done a century ago --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: One at a time.
JONES: Was the civil rights movement a racist movement?
LORD: The civil rights movement had to re-do what we passed 100 years ago. You spent 100 years profiting politically off of keeping black people out of polls. The Democratic Party.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Is ADL a bigoted organization? The ADL.
LORD: The Defamation League?
JONES: The Anti-Defamation League which defends -- was it a bigoted organization or not?
LORD: No.
JONES: OK. So what's the difference between a civil rights organization and the ADL?
LORD: Why are we -- I mean --
JONES: Is the NAACP, in your view, your outright view, a race --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: It's become now a liberal interest group instead of what it was originally. Yes.
CUPP: But, Jeff, if the Republican Party is supposed to be color blind then why is Trump the first to bring up the fact that this judge is Mexican?
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: What I'm saying is --
CUPP: No. Michael, I'd love an answer. I just want an answer to this.
COOPER: Let him respond. Let him respond.
CUPP: If the Republican Party is supposed to be color blind, I agree with you.
LORD: Yes.
CUPP: Then why is Trump the first person to mention that this judge is Mexican?
LORD: Because what he's saying here is that the judiciary has been politicized and racialized --
CUPP: That's not at all what he said. You're saying that. That's not at all what he says.
LORD: I'm saying that what he has touched on is part of the larger problem of doing this. If we all remember Judge Bork he was a racist. Right? Ted Kennedy --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: But, Jeffrey, you are interpreting comments made by Donald Trump without any evidence that that is what Donald Trump actually was referencing. You've sort of come up with this elaborate --
LORD: He was referencing --
CUPP: Right.
LORD: The Trump University. Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Right. But no, no, what he was referencing was that this guy's Mexican, I'm building a wall. That's all he said.
CUPP: He's an anti-Trump Mexican.
COOPER: You're reading into it and sort of projecting all these things on to it.
LORD: I am saying that we've had a long history here in recent decades of the politicization --
COOPER: None of which Donald Trump has ever mentioned.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Does Donald Trump even know that what you're talking about? I'm not sure he does. Because he's never talked about it.
LORD: Sure. Sure. Because I think he's backed into this in his own fashion here with this particular judge.
COOPER: Again, you have no evidence that's what Donald Trump meant. All you can go on is what Donald Trump actually said and he made no reference to anything you are referencing.
LORD: Well, what he's saying is the guy has a political conflict of interest.
SMERCONISH: That's what I want to respond to. I uncorked this, and I would like to try and explain this to people at home because there's a danger here that undermines the entire judicial system. So here it is. If S.E. Cupp were the judge and I were a litigant and it were a divorce case or a child custody case, by Trump's logic I would say well, she must recuse herself because she's a female. If I had a discrimination case and Judge Van Jones were presiding, I'd say, well, hell, he's a black, he can't treat me fairly. And if the case involved the Catholic Church because you're a Catholic, Paul, then I'd say, you must recuse yourself because after all we know where you worship on Sunday. Who is left to serve if on that thin basis --
LORD: This is the point. This is the -- SMERCONISH: -- Donald Trump gets away with this?
LORD: This is the point, Michael. This is exactly the point. This is what the American left has done to the judiciary, to police universities --
BORDER: How is Trump not doing it?
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: Wait, wait, wait. Let me give you an example that has nothing to do with Donald Trump.
CUPP: So you should condemn Trump for doing exactly that.
LORD: Wait. I belong -- David, this will surprise you -- to the United Church of Christ, which Barack Obama belong to. Just today there was an article on the "Daily Caller," Tucker Carlson's --
CUPP: I'm familiar with the thing.
LORD: Right. OK. Thank you. That says that someone at my church on the staff of the United Church of Christ has put out a memo that says if you're white, you are a racist automatically. You can't get out of it. Accept the fact. Now that has nothing to do with Donald Trump, it didn't have nothing to do with the issue. The point is that this is the thinking that goes on in places that are occupied by American leftist. Churches, universities --
CUPP: So why wouldn't you condemn it?
LORD: Et cetera, et cetera. I --
CUPP: When Donald Trump does it?
LORD: I am condemning it repeatedly.
CUPP: When Trump does it, it's OK.
LORD: I am condemning it repeatedly. What I'm saying is the Republican Party -- the Republican Party, the Republican Party has accepted this stuff and ingested it into its own situation here and is accepting this.
[20:20:03] And I am saying that's morally wrong.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: So you're saying what Donald Trump said is morally wrong.
CUPP: Right.
LORD: I am saying that racism is morally wrong and what he is doing here -- by backing into this, is saying that here is a judge who belongs to these organizations --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: That is what I am saying.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Here's the big danger in America. That you begin to develop a cult of personality.
LORD: No.
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Be quiet. You develop a cult of personality when an authoritarian strongman --
LORD: No.
JONES: -- is right because he's right.
LORD: Oh my god.
JONES: In other words, the --
LORD: We're not talking about Barack Obama.
JONES: No. The exact same behavior if it were done by a liberal you would say is racist. When Trump does it it's right. It doesn't make sense to me. So I listened to you very, very carefully. And I'm not going to say -- will you denounce what Trump said as racism?
LORD: It wasn't racist. He is calling attention to racism. Hello. Hello.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: He said this judge can't judge me because he's Mexican. That's what he said.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: You just did just a six-mile lap to avoid answering a question.
LORD: No, I am not. I am not -- you're not hearing me.
AXELROD: You didn't answer the question as to why he doesn't just go on to court --
SMERCONISH: Put it in a motion.
AXELROD: -- and ask the judge to recuse himself because he has a bias and you didn't answer the question as to why you shouldn't just condemn his emphasis on race --
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: He is saying this guy is so self-identifying as a Latino before he's a judge.
CUPP: And that's not what Donald Trump said. You're putting -- you're inventing a better explanation --
LORD: I am not. I am not. He said --
CUPP: -- that Donald Trump has never said himself. What he said was very clear. He's Mexican, he's an anti-Trump guy.
LORD: Right. A Latino.
CUPP: He's anti-Trump guy.
LORD: Are Mexicans Latinos?
CUPP: Yes.
LORD: Are they, yes or no?
CUPP: Yes.
LORD: Thank you. OK. This judge belongs to organizations that repeatedly go out there -- legal organizations, this is not about, you know, if --
CUPP: This was not Donald Trump's reasoning. He said he's an anti- Trump guy.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: Would you not find this --
BEGALA: He did. It's call the federalists society.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: He told Jake Tapper over and over again. He told Jake Tapper over and over again, I want to build a wall. He's a Mexican. His point is very clear. Yours is very circuitous.
LORD: He belongs, as I just said to you, to a bar association.
CUPP: Right.
LORD: That said that all Trump properties should be boycotted.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: Then file a motion. Then file a motion.
COOPER: But also, Jeffrey, Donald Trump didn't say that. You said that.
CUPP: No, you're saying that.
(CROSSTALK) COOPER: Donald Trump said Mexican.
LORD: I just found out today.
COOPER: OK. But then -- so Donald Trump didn't even know that so Donald Trump -- all he was latching on was Mexican, which by the way he's not Mexican. He's American. He's an American citizen.
LORD: Of course he's American. But what I'm saying --
COOPER: But Donald Trump -- doesn't say that.
LORD: Anderson, what -- god. What I am trying to say to you is that we have so divided this country --
COOPER: I get you're saying that, but that's not what Donald Trump is saying. And Donald Trump doesn't even know that.
CUPP: In Jeffry's defense this is a very difficult job. I mean, no one -- almost no one has defended Donald Trump.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Jeffrey is very skilled. He's very, very skilled, but sometimes you just have to say the guy was wrong. The guy was wrong.
BORGER: I don't understand --
LORD: It is not wrong to call out racism.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: We all agree on that. We all agree on that.
LORD: Good. Good.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: One at a time. One at a time. Gloria?
BORGER: Can you please explain to me --
LORD: Yes, ma'am.
BORGER: When you say that Donald Trump backed into -- and this is a little Alice through the looking glass for me because I really don't understand it, when you say that Donald Trump backed into this.
LORD: Right.
BORGER: What do you mean?
LORD: What I'm saying is he approached this through the lens of his Trump University suit. And he has come face to face with a judge that he believes is prejudiced against him because of his political stance.
BORGER: OK. So then why, to Michael's point --
LORD: But what I am saying to you is that the larger issue, this is part a larger issue that has been going on this country for years long before Donald Trump. I mean, this is when Sonya Sotomayor said put me on the bench because I'm a wise Latina, she is saying the same thing. She is saying the same.
AXELROD: That's not what he said.
JONES: I want to say one good thing -- I want to say something in defense of Donald Trump. Is that OK? So --
LORD: It all depends.
JONES: Up until now, as much as I didn't like it, you could make a case for him. He would say, you know, keep all the Muslims out --
LORD: No. He didn't say that.
JONES: Just let's me finish.
COOPER: He said a temporary ban on Muslims.
JONES: Temporary --
BEGALA: Total and complete were the adjectives he used.
JONES: When he said that, though, there was a higher moral principle to which he could appeal, which is that I'm trying to protect America. I don't agree with that but at least you could make a case. When he says, I'm going to build a wall. That's very offensive. There's a -- I'm trying to protect America. He has now only, not about his patriotism, this is about him, this is about his pocketbook, this is about his reputation, and it's the same appeal to race. Now you are the one that says appeals to race should be taken out.
And what I kept saying to you is you now have two problems, sir, as you try and defend this man.
[20:25:04] Number one, we are way down the rabbit hole -- this is not about defending America. This is about him. That is a problem. But number two, if I said, you can't be my judge because you're a white man, and white men have done horrible things to me, you would say I'm a racist. But if Donald Trump says a Mexican can't be a part of his judge-jury, he's a hero?
CUPP: For calling out race --
JONES: And now he's a anti-racist? This does not make sense. And I'm saying, you have been brilliant, sir, figuring out before anybody else what he was going to be able to do and you have found ways to defend him. I think you are now out of defenses. And I think if you would -- if you can't say this is racism --
LORD: Van --
JONES: I think you're now -- you're beyond the ability of a rational mind to follow you.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: If I thought he was a racist, I would not be here.
JONES: A rational mind --
LORD: You hear me? You hear me? If I thought he were a racist, I would never have been here.
JONES: OK. Clear. One question. I don't think he's racist either.
LORD: Thank you.
JONES: I think he's a racial opportunist which is different.
LORD: You think he's Al Sharpton? You think he's Hillary Clinton?
(CROSSTALK)
JONES: Hold on a second. He says he's not a racist. Stay with me. We might get somewhere. I think he's a racial opportunist. I think he says things that are racist. Do you think he said anything that's racist? Said it. That ifs. But said it.
LORD: No.
JONES: OK.
CUPP: You're not going to get anything.
LORD: No.
JONES: All right. I mean, not one thing?
LORD: No.
JONES: But if I said the exact same thing, I'm a racist.
LORD: What I am saying that --
JONES: If I say you're a white man, you can't be my judge, am I racist?
LORD: This is because, Van, we have spent the last four decades, three decades, getting into political correctness, getting into a situation --
JONES: Yes or no? If I say you're a white man, you can't be my judge, you're racist. Am I racist?
LORD: In this climate -- in this climate --
JONES: That's a racist statement.
LORD: In this climate that would be said and ignored. CUPP: Look --
COOPER: No, no, but you still didn't answer the question.
LORD: What?
COOPER: In your opinion, would that be a racist statement?
LORD: Sure. Sure. Of course.
JONES: So I say it, I'm a racist. If Trump says it, he's a hero. This is where we are, sir.
LORD: No, no.
JONES: This is where we are, sir.
LORD: No.
JONES: And there's a tremendous danger --
LORD: You are not --
SMERCONISH: Can I say -- Jeffrey, can I make one other point to you?
LORD: Yes, sir.
SMERCONISH: In July of 2011, I hope I get my facts straight, I think I will. In July of 2011 Chris Christie, governor of New Jersey, appointed a man named Sohail Mohammed.
LORD: Right. I don't know all the case right now. Yes. Right.
SMERCONISH: At the Superior Court of New Jersey. He had represented certain Muslim individuals who have been detained for questioning as part of the September 11th investigation. And immediate there were charges from conservatives, to Christie, who said, whoa, this guy may impose Sharia law. Why? Because he's a Muslim. And Chris Christie said, I'm sick and tired of this Sharia law crap. That's what he said. So was he right about that when he said you're going to assume that this guy would impose Sharia law because he's a Muslim?
Was Chris Christie right to say --
LORD: Sure. If there's no evidence -- sure, of course he's right.
SMERCONISH: OK.
LORD: If there's no evidence. Right?
SMERCONISH: Same thing is taking place with regard to Donald Trump and how sad it was that today Chris Christie, instead of again calling out the crap stood with Donald Trump and said, you know, he's my friend and I don't believe him to be a racist. It's the same principle. It's looking at someone and saying, well, you can't be fair because you're a white guy with a red tie and I don't like people with red ties.
LORD: But that is being said.
(CROSSTALK)
GROUP: By Donald Trump.
AXELROD: By Donald Trump.
HENDERSON: By Donald Trump.
LORD: No, no, no. As I just said to you, my own church has got somebody there that's putting out a statement that says if you're white you're automatically a racist and there's nothing you can do about it.
SMERCONISH: I can't wait to hear what Mr. Trump has to say about this when he speaks to the nation because you know how he loves to call us all out, although never by name. But you know he'll respond to this tonight. It will be very interesting to see what he says about this conversation.
BEGALA: I'm a lawyer, too, but I've never practiced, I'm not going to play one on TV. But I have run a lot of campaigns and it seems to me when you're own party is debating how racist your nominee is probably a bad day for your party.
CUPP: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Let's take a break on that thought. We are standing by for more results out of New Jersey and major speeches by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump that could leave an indelible mark on their general election battle. That's all ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:33:20] BLITZER: Welcome back. We have a Key Race Alert. In New Jersey right now, the Democratic presidential primary only about 1 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton building up a lead, 57.6 percent to Bernie Sanders 42.4 percent only, what about 10,000 votes have been in, we're watching this state very carefully.
No great surprise, Donald Trump has won the Republican presidential primary not with the other Republican opponents in this contest. Donald Trump we project it is the winner obviously of the Republican presidential primary in New Jersey. We're awaiting a speech coming up right at the top of the hour. Donald Trump will be speaking a very important speech. We'll see what if anything he says about that huge controversy involving that federal judge out in California. Jake.
TAPPER: The governor of New Jersey, of course Chris Christie, a big Trump supporter, but let's switch back to the Democratic race where it's still neck-and-neck and there is not an opponent unlike -- there is an opponent unlike in Trumpland. Jeff Zeleny let's go to you. You're at Clinton headquarters in Brooklyn, New York and Secretary Clinton trying to make tonight an event nationwide.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: No doubt about it Jake, I mean the Clinton campaign has ups and downs. They remember the defeats from New Hampshire and then narrow victories from Iowa but tonight in Brooklyn I can tell you this is unlike any other election night rally she's had.
Take a look behind me, you can see the sign that says "history", that is one of the central themes here that Secretary Clinton wants to make tonight that her nomination would indeed mean history. But this is more than in Brooklyn Jake. They are organizing house parties in key battle ground states across the country, from Iowa to New Hampshire Ohio, also North Carolina, that could be the most interesting state of all.
[20:35:01] Of course President Obama narrowly won North Carolina in 2008 and narrowly lost it in 2012. That is one of his states they believed that Trump fatigue in the words of one Democrats calls it maybe setting in. So that's why they are having this parties tonight taking Brooklyn here out to the country and we'll hear from Secretary Clinton later on this evening. Jake?
TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny thanks so much. Of course, one of the big questions this evening not only what will Secretary Clinton say in her speech, but what will Senator Bernie Sanders say in his speech and Brianna Keilar is in Santa Monica, California. California of course having a very big primary today, the biggest prize on the table this evening.
Brianna, what are we expecting Senator Sanders to do next? What is he after he gives his speech, where is he going to go?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're being told now by his campaign Jake that he is heading home to Vermont. He will be there tomorrow and then he's going on to D.C.
On Thursday for meetings and for a rally. We knew that he was going to have a rally later this week. This is of course ahead of the Washington, D.C. primary that takes place in a week. What's so intriguing is that he's going to be having meetings in Washington, D.C., because at this point in time you would expect and we know that there's been some reaching out between the two campaigns as we do ahead quickly to the convention here. We know that they are been certainly in touch.
And so are those meetings going to be anything about unifying the party and moving forward here in the next month and a half going into the convention. That is the big question. But Bernie Sanders capping off his almost three weeks here in California where he has really bet the house. He visited a farmer's market just a short time ago in Silver Lake earlier, he was on Hollywood Boulevard. Tonight he's going to be giving his speech in the Santa Monica Airport. And what are we expecting to hear from that, I'm told by an aid that he is tailoring his speech depending on the outcome of the California primary but they're it keeping it very close to the vest about exactly what he is going to say.
TAPPER: All right Brianna Keilar in Santa Monica, with the Sanders campaign, thanks so much. And Dana it could be significant that he's going to Burlington, it could just that he needs some rest, campaigning is very difficult, it's been a long and tortuous campaign, but it could also be that he needs a moment away from everybody to decide what to do next.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: No question. Look, you know, and it's probably all of the above, right? At this point in time presume ably at the end of the night it's not going to be just about superdelegates, probably about pledged delegates also. Meaning it's, you know, game over for him and is how is he going to play his cards which he has many.
And so that is going to be very, very interesting. The fact that he's coming to Washington where he hasn't been in a very long time despite the fact that he works up the street at the capital, Ii think is telling, we know that there is a primary here of course on June 14th so it's not just about campaigning. Perhaps he has other important meetings and conversations that he's going to have about what it will take for him to formally endorse or at least give a blessing to Hillary Clinton.
TAPPER: You say that with a smirk on your face as if you know something that you're not telling us.
BASH: I wish.
TAPPER: Let's go to Wolf Blitzer.
BLITZER: All right guys, we're getting closer and closer to those pivotal speeches by Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. We expect to hear from Donald Trump very, very soon. Will he address the controversy that's swirling around his campaign right now or will he ignore it? You're about to find out. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:42:44] BLITZER: Welcome back. We're awaiting two very important historic speeches coming up right to the top of the hour, Donald Trump will be speaking on this night, that Hillary Clinton will follow with her first formal speech as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee. We'll have live coverage of both of those speeches coming up starting right at the top of the hour. Standby for that.
Let's get a Key Race Alert in New Jersey right now, the Democratic presidential primary, 2 percent of the vote is in. Hillary Clinton maintaining very impressive lead. 57.7percent to Bernie Sanders 42.3 percent. You could see she's up by almost 2,500 votes so far. Once again only 2 percent of the precincts close very early in New Jersey. Hillary Clinton coming out of the gate with a strong lead. Let's go over to John King, taking close look at New Jersey right now.
This is a state everyone anticipated she would do well at.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: Yes, even Senator Sanders the other day when he was listing the six contest, said he thought he had a chance to win the five through in the west and he said, he was hoping for a good performance in what he called a very tough contest in New Jersey.
Only at 2 percent Wolf, so let's wait and see more votes come in, but 57 to 43 just are little few more votes coming here. The only thing significant as you look at the map again, you don't place a bet on 2 percent of the results but in every county that has reported some votes so far Hillary Clinton is in the lead. That includes when you coming right here in Hudson County which had includes Jersey City just across from the New York metropolitan area, she won at 62 percent of the vote there, but again very, very early there zero percent of the expected vote.
And then you move up here into Passaic County, again some you could call it's extended New York suburbs if you will, little shy of 6 percent of the state's population. She's winning very big there, but again very early on. We don't have anything yet from Essex County which is Newark, her friend Cory Booker, promise it help her turn out the vote in Newark including the African-American vote, you move to the western part of the state here boarding Pennsylvania, small Warren County she's winning early on, but again is a couple hundred votes counted in.
So you can't drew any conclusions based on this except if you're in the Clinton campaign you at least know the early vote is starting to come in your way, 12 percent here in Gloucester County if you see that come up, she's winning 56-43 there. So if you're looking at this in the Clinton campaign you're very happy, this what you see early on, this tracks what your expecting out of New Jersey. This is of all the states tonight this is a very difficult one for Senator Sanders.
The question then comes, you know, what happened in the end assuming she's still on top, what does he get for delegates moving for but if you take baseline number that to catch her in pledge delegates, he has to win 71 percent of the remaining delegates then, you know, that's obviously not an encouraging number early on.
[20:45:11] Roughly say, you know, if you can't do it just by statewide vote but to get 71 percent of the delegates he's going to have to be above 71 percent the state wide voted, the early results suggests New Jersey shapes up if that's your metric tonight it's not a good start, but rarely at 3 percent, let see where we go.
BLITZER: You've heard Donald Trump say several times in the general election he thinks he can beat Hillary Clinton in New Jersey.
KING: Yeah, he said that in California too that he thinks he can beat her in California, and look -- look Donald Trump has defied just about every rule of politics. So when he says these things you can look at history if you want to go to the general election, but let's look at 2012, let's look the vote for president, I mean, you know, that is not -- that would not be encouraging to any, any Republican. You go back to 2008, pretty consistent there. And so can Donald Trump do it? Hasn't happened in a very long time. I think you have go back to 1988 if my guess -- if memory is right about the state of New Jersey. Doesn't mean it can be done, but most people think Donald Trump's better path is here across the rust belt. Pennsylvania maybe, not so much New Jersey, but he thinks he can do this. The question is how much is that as a faint and does he when they are RNC and the Trump campaign starts spending their joint money, where is that money go. That's what keep an eye them.
Do the Super PACs and the Republican, the organize Republican money are they going into New Jersey, or Michigan, New Jersey or Pennsylvania, Pennsylvania or California? I would bet the rust belt.
BLITZER: We'll see ...
KING: Not the coast.
BLITZER: We'll see what happens in New Jersey and, you know, he spend a lot of time lately with Chris Christie the governor of New Jersey. We'll see if that helps or doesn't. All right Anderson, over to you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah Wolf, thanks. Sara Murray is standing by at Trump headquarters as we -- or just a couple of minutes away from Donald Trump making speech tonight using a TelePrompTer, or a written out speech, a rarity for this candidate. I don't think we've seen that really since the AIPAC speech. Sara I understand Trump has tweeted out a little bit what we may anticipate tonight.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah Anderson, Donald Trump like to provide his own previews on Twitter and so he's doing that once again tonight. He's saying I will be speaking about our great journey to the Republican nomination at 9:00 p.m. The movement toward a country that wins again, continues of course as you were talking about earlier, a number of Republicans both inside and outside of his campaign are hoping his speech will go a little bit further than that.
We'll talk a little bit more about the contrast voters are facing in the general election between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton and that he'll begin to sort of crystallize his case against her. But Anderson, if you think that people here have been impacted at all by the rust couple of days for Donald Trump, that is not the sense at this event.
On the other side of a door to my left supporters of Donald Trump, his family members are in there, they're sipping champagne, they're sipping cocktails. They're listening to party music. They're certainly a jovial atmosphere in here, it's not lost on them here. And another one of Trump's properties the golf course, but this a monument occasion for Donald Trump. This brings to an end of the primary season and a billionaire businessman with essentially no political experience is the presumptive nominee, Anderson?
COOPER: Incredible achievement, all right no doubt about it. A night of incredible achievements frankly on both sides of the aisle. As we wait for Donald Trump's speech, see Jeffrey I mean, what do you think he tries to do in order to -- and look it's been a tough day for the Republican Party. You've had a number of leading Republicans, Paul Ryan and others, coming and forward and saying, you know, Paul Ryan said Donald Trump's comments are textbook racis -- racism.
So what does Donald Trump need to do.
SARAH ELIZABETH CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He's really got his hands tied tonight because as others have pointed out he's only gotten this far by being himself, by saying these kind of outrageous things, by stoking these kind of fears and tensions and I think by speaking specifically to nationalists.
And so now he's in a predicament of being told by very prominent Republican leaders that he needs to tone it down. He has not listened to them in the past but I think we've all been -- with the exception of Jeffrey we've all been thinking when is the thing going to happen where he is finally held accountable? This might be it. Obviously it's not going to stop him from winning the nomination but I think if he loses the election to Hillary Clinton this incident and how he handled it I think could be the beginning of the end. I really don't think this is something he's just going to hop over as he has every other controversy. So tonight if he goes to prompter as he's supposed to I think he looks completely defeated.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It is different Jeffrey isn't it? Usually he's been such a masterful gorilla fighter. He'll hit, he'll pivot, he'll swing back, he moves. This is like (inaudible) for him, like he's gotten himself just bogged down ...
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You date yourself.
JONES: But I mean -- but he is not showing the deftness. He's usually he does something like that and he changes the subject, so he kind of get the white nationals to like him, but he get to bogged down there. Why is he bogged down there?
[20:50:01] LORD: He's not bogged down there. The establishment is bogged down there. I mean, with all do respect and, you know, I love you all, but when I'm trying to communicate to you is that out there in this audience are people are that are looking at our discussion and seeing mark 7 or 1 and saying to themselves that's why I don't like those people.
JONES: Right.
LORD: That's why I like Donald Trump. And, and ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: One a time, one a time.
CUPP: Yes because we're such bullies.
JONES: But I'm actually saying in it some admiration. I like insurgencies, I like people like ...
LORD: This is one.
JONES: And what I'm saying is as the captain of an insurgency I think he's led aground. In other words usually he's been pretty masterful but this time it doesn't seem to be working.
CUPP: We'll it's remarkable, it's remarkable Jeffrey that in the course of a day and maybe you can understand -- explain his thinking, in the course of a day he went from tripling down on this topic with Jake Tapper.
LORD: Right.
CUPP: And telling his surrogates, "No, no, no don't stop talking about it, go harder on it," to issuing a statement in which he said, "I'm no longer going to talk about this."
LORD: By the way just in terms of the surrogates going harder on it, I had my column, "The American Spectator" about half the three quarters written before I was on that phone call. So in other words ...
CUPP: But isn't that a remarkable shift.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I've been through this process a few times. I said in 2011 that is an MRI for the soul. Whoever you are, you're exposed in the process. It's almost not about any particular incident, but the aggregate of all the things that happen in a campaign that give people an impression of who you are and how you would function as president of the United States.
LORD: Right:
AXELROD: So these lurches and these wild fluctuations are going to be concerning to people. This is not a primary campaign anymore and that's the transition that Trump has to make.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Let him respond.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it asks too much, frankly. I know he's going to have a TelePrompTer. As a guy who has written thousands of speeches like this, I honestly I'm not like trying to -- I worry about setting the bar too high. You know, I think people are saying be Reagan-est. I actually re-watched the tape.
LORD: He's going to prompt this.
BEGALA: I re-watched the tape of President Reagan at Normandy on the 40th Anniversary.
LORD: Yeah. BEGALA: It was one of the most moving speeches. He can't reach that kind of lift and loft. So that's option 1 I wouldn't advice him to try.
Option 2 is double down, triple down, quadruple down on this very divisive stuff bolsters his based you're right. But it makes addition impossible, OK.
The third option is tactical and small and petty and it's what he will do, you watch, is attack Hillary. Which is fine.
AXELROD: Nothing unites the people of Earth like it did for Mars.
BEGALA: Hillary is going to attack Trump, Trump is going to attack Hillary. That's the easy part of this and I suspect that's all we're going to get from him. Maybe it's scripted. Maybe a little less vulgar.
LORD: You mean tonight.
BEGALA: Tonight, tonight.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I want to ask Jeffrey a question because you're talking about the Republican establishment, it's a Republican establishment that's running away from him, but now he's the leader ...
LORD: Right
BORGER: ... of the Republican Party which for better or worse includes the establishment because they're the Speaker of the House, they're the leader of the Senate, they're people running for re- election, so he now is their leader.
LORD: Correct.
BORGER: Does have an obligation to listen to them because their ...
LORD: Of course.
BORGER: ... futures are at stake as well, so ...
LORD: He is a very good listener. I know you find that ...
BORGER: No, I don't, but it would be interesting tonight to see.
LORD: Newt Gingrich who's a critic here in the last 24 or 48 hours ...
BORGER: Right.
LORD: ... has said he's a terrific listener. Bob Carol (ph) from "The American Spectator" same thing.
BORGER: Right.
LORD: I mean a lot of these people who met with him, spent time with him, I certainly have, he is a very good listener.
What he will do here is what any presidential nominee does. I mean, David, I'm sure understands exactly what I'm saying. The Democratic Party is about to transition from being the party of Barack Obama to the party of Hillary Clinton.
BORGER: Right.
LORD: And she gets a few weeks here until July to make it her own and then stand up there, accept that nomination and stamp her brand on it. That is what he is beginning to do tonight. So you bring these people along with you. What you don't do is go in the other direction.
BORGER: Is that what he's doing though that's the question. Is he ...
LORD: He's not going in any direction. They've got to go with his.
BORGER: He's not bringing them along. So ...
AXELROD: When Ronald Reagan who you said was a great political figure I think it's unfair to compare him to Trump because he was a governor of the largest state in the country for two terms before he became President of the United States but when he got that nomination, what did he do? He put George H.W. Bush on the ticket as vice president. He brought Jim Baker into the fold to run his campaign, he literally merged the factions of his party together. Where is the evidence that Donald Trump is going do that?
LORD: Paul Manafort is right there, you know.
BORGER: Who?
AXELROD: Well, Paul Manafort I think hardly represents the Republican establishment. Well ...
[20:54:59] LORD: I mean think he's become a part of the Republican establishment over the years. I mean and Jeff Sessions, you don't think Jeff Sessions is part of that, Senator Sessions from Alabama?
BORGER: But he wouldn't talk about this issue. You know, he was asked by reporters about it and he kind of ran into an elevator, right. He -- Jeff sessions. So he -- he wouldn't comment on. What I'm saying is that Trump is now the
leader of the Republican Party.
LORD: Right. He's a leader period and he will do what he needs to do.
COOPER: But also he does I mean he does the -- the voters voted for Donald Trump. I mean, these establishment figures, the people who originally voted for him maybe they have -- they're voting for Donald Trump.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah, so ...
COOPER: So, I mean it doesn't it matter what the establishment thinks?
HENDERSON: I mean ...
LORD: Well, in that sense -- in that sense ...
BORGER: They're his flock now.
LORD: No, I mean ...
AXELROD: This is a ...
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: It's a general election campaign.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: They are smart politicians. I mean they're going to have that for their own survival here.
AXELROD: Donald Trump's aggregated vote will be a fraction of what a general election electorate will look like maybe 10 percent, 12 percent of that. This is a general election. You have to expand your appeal.
LORD: Right.
AXELROD: So, if you keep doing the things you were doing in the primary ...
LORD: David, I would say ...
JONES: I'm endorsed by a sitting senator, a sitting Republican senator.
LORD: Meaning?
JONES: Of Donald Trump.
AXELROD: Right.
JONES: In other words you said that the party has to go to him.
LORD: Right.
JONES: The only evidence we have to -- at least tonight is the party is going in the other direction so and they will lose.
CUPP: And you know why because that part hurt (ph) isn't worried about losing his seat. And so the point of uniting congressmen and senators and party leaders is to preserve the House, the Senate, future Supreme Court. If Donald Trump is out there saying I'm going to do it without all of you which is essentially way he's communicating.
LORD: He's not. He's not. He's not. CUPP: Of course he is. He says I want to unite and going to be more presidential and then he does stuff like this. He's the one want to unite, why would he.
BEGALA: I mean just uniting the party that's step one. Then he needs to reach outside the party.
BORGER: Right.
BEGALA: President Reagan when he served who we keep referring to. He got 37 percent of the Hispanic vote. He said and I quote, "Hispanics are Republicans, they just don't know it yet", right. He signed amnesty, not the punishments that Republicans now call amnesty that President Bush and Obama.
LORD: Right, I was there.
BEGALA: He reached out. He was all about inclusion and so far Donald Trump, especially with these hateful comments about the judicial, is about exclusions and subtraction. He's driving people and even some of the most committed people even he's sitting the United States or in Speaker of the House.
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: Wait, you know, if you all listening to yourselves, the essence of what you're saying has been said for the last six months. I mean, the Wall Street Journal editorial which I love in the day said this is right after the McCain incidents said, well, here he comes with the inevitable inclusion. Well, hello, not so. I mean, and we kept expecting every, I mean, I don't have to repeat this. We all know that this didn't happen and we all said there is a ceiling, and some people said there's a ceiling and he's got to get through. When he gets through, he gets 60 percent of the vote. I'm just suggesting ...
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: ... different, yeah.
AXELROD: Until he clinch -- until he clinch the nomination and everybody faded away, he got about 40 percent of the Republican vote which is a small percentage of the overall general electorate. You can take solace and the fact that all of these tactics worked in the Republican primary and you got 40 percent which wasn't enough to win the nomination. The question is how you win a general election with this kind of behavior?
HENDERSON: Yeah and it's already clear that I mean this behavior is going to drag on his numbers. How does he reverse the fact that ...
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: See, what I'm trying to suggest you politically speaking is that what you guys find as terrible behavior folks out there are saying it's about time. You know ...
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Wait, wait. Let me finish. Let me finish. Let him finish. Let him finish.
LORD: The other day that the press conference there that was so "controversial", the next day Rush Limbaugh said this is the press conference Republicans, a lot of Americans have been waiting to hear for 25 years.
HENDERSON: So, why do you think he's only getting 18 percent of the Latino vote in those folks? Why do you think he only engage 4 person of the ...
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: Because people keep ...
HENDERSON: Why do you think he's tied with white women when Republicans typically win white women?
LORD: Right.
HENDERSON: Those are the numbers that are in the polls right now.
LORD: Because I think in terms of the Latinos at this point, the race issue keeps getting played.
BORGER: By him.
HENDERSON: By him.
LORD: No, no. No.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Jeffrey have you going back recently ...
HENDERSON: Jeffrey, he's the one who brought up Mexico.
SMERCONISH: ... and reread the autopsy that was published in 2014 ...
LORD: Not the while.
SMERCONISH: ... and 2012 (inaudible). I suggest you read the column and the word that will jump off the page is tone. What they said is we have a tonality issue and we need to change our tone where we'll lose Hispanics and this is the antiphysis of every ...
LORD: Jobs, that is the answer.
COOPER: Let's toss it back to Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, we're waiting up for some more polls to be closing, waiting to hear from Donald Trump. Of course he's coming up right at the top of the hour, but the polls are closing in New Mexico right at the top of the hour and South Dakota and the caucuses will convenience in North Dakota. That's happening at the top of the hour. Once, again, Donald Trump getting ready to speak. He's Westchester County, a very important speech we'll hear what he has to say if he raises the entire issue of that controversy over that federal judge. In the meantime, go back to Jake and Dana, Jake.
TAPPER: Let's talk about what we are expecting to hear from Donald Trump. First of all, we should note that he hates TelePrompTers and he talks about how he is able to give these extemporaneous speeches whereas he criticizes others, Barack Obama, Hillary Clinton and more for reading from TelePrompTers, but they are rolling out TelePrompTers for him this evening.
