Transcripts For CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 20160301 : vimarsan

CNNW Anderson Cooper 360 March 1, 2016

Trump rout. He blew out his voice. And well talk with the soft spoken Melania Trump about his tone and the way over the weekend he declined to disavow the support of a white supremacist leader. A busy two hours ahead starting with sara murray in valdosta, georgia, where a trump rally finished up a short time ago. Its been a tumultuous two days for this campaign. Reporter tumultuous may be an understatement. Were talking about just hours before voters head to the polls on super tuesday. And this was a day when donald trump had to explain why it took him so many times to disavow White Supremacists and a former kkk leader. He had this awkward runin with protesters and asked if they were mexican. It was a day where a photo journalist was slammed to the ground by a secret service agent. Got into a physical altercation there. This is not the messaging that donald trump was hoping to go into super tuesday with. Here in georgia he rallied a crowd of thousands. It was clearly a look ahead message. He said look ahead to tomorrow. He wanted people to get out and vote. On his schedule tomorrow, he is looking ahead himself. Hes going to be in ohio in florida. Both states that do not vote until march 15th. You may notice they are both the home states of two other candidates who are still in this race. How is the Trump Campaign feeling ahead of super tuesday . Reporter they are feeling they are certainly feeling confident. They see the same public polling which shows them with very wide leads in a number of these states. And donald trump has said himself he really does want to try to beat ted cruz in texas which many people feel would be the death blow to senator cruzs campaign. They got burned in iowa. This is a lesson that sticks with them. One of the messages they give to their supporters and volunteers is you need to get rid of the public polls in your mind and assume were running ten points behind. They are very aware of this antidonald trump sentiment that theres a belief among Party Leaders the nominee should be anyone but trump. They feel they are waking up every day running against that message. Sara murray, thanks. Marco rubio is yet to win a contest. Remains behind in polling for his own state primary two weeks from now. He continues to hammer away at donald trump. Phil mattingly joins us now. Rubio fired back at the fact trump didnt immediately disavow the former kkk leader yesterday in that interview with jake tapper. What did he say . Hes continued to attack on that interview. This feeds into the lines marco rubio has been deploying. Just a few minutes ago at a rally in oklahoma city, getting a standing ovation for daurks vowing trumps comments and saying this would make him unelectable. Its a message hes been repeating across the south. Take a listen. We cannot be a party that nominates someone who refuses to condemn White Supremacists n the ku klux klan. By the way, not only is that wrong, it makes him unelectable. How are we going to grow our party with a nominee that refuses to condemn the ku klux klan . Dont tell me he doesnt know who the ku klux klan is. That last line from marco rubio, dont tell me he doesnt know who the ku klux klan is, that is saying this is intentional by donald trump. The s. E. C. Primary and Southern States and they are upset and ruffled by the fact hed be willing to do this going into super tuesday. How does the Rubio Campaign feel ahead of tomorrow . Do they think theyll win anywhere, which is ultimately what it boils down to . Its been the big question from donors. A big question from supporters. A big question from critics of his campaign. They dont expect any wins across states. They expect to play well and their big thing throughout super tuesday is these delegates are handed out proportionately. They want to pull raas many as they can. For the Rubio Campaign, its all about florida. 99 delegates, winner take all. And try to keep trump and ted cruz from getting as many as they can. Phil mattingly, thanks. That new poll already showing trump leading in every race but texas tomorrow. Our new cnn orc national survey, if anything even more daunting for the stump the stop trump forces. John king breaks it down for us by the numbers. Its a National Poll. The next challenge is 11 different states tomorrow on super tuesday. Is there a message in the new numbers . Yes, theres a huge message in the new numbers. Its a National Poll before 11 states vote. On the one hand, dont even read National Polls or pay any attention to them. But this one is worth looking at. Donald trump sat 49 in our National Poll among republicans. Rubio 16 . Cruz 15 , carson 10 and kasich 6 . Whatever business youre in, whatever sport you play or competition it is, whether its politics, baseball, you sell products you dont want to let the other guy get ahead. Donald trump is stretching his lead in the time the other candidates are facing pressure to catch up or drop out. The numbers are simply not good. Even though its a National Poll. National poll means some people in these 11 super tuesday states are among those being polled. Some in the states just to follow among those being polled. 78 of trump voters are locked in and definitely support him. Only 57 of the voters who support the other state are definitely locked in. If you are trailing trump and trying to catch up, sure, if you are rubio you want kasich votes. You also need to get trump voters to switch sides and donald trump voters are locked in. It makes it harder as we go forward. If you are one of the others trying to defeat trump. What worries you in these numbers beyond his national lead. If you are ted cruz, let me give you a number that has you unhappy. Choice for nominee among white evangelicals. Why does that matter . Let me show you on the map where evangelicals live in america. The deeper the shading, the higher the number. Most of super tuesday is played out below this line. Tex aoklahoma, arkansas, tennessee, alabama. Trump won in South Carolina. This is supposed to be ted cruzs wheelhouse. Evangelical america. Donald trump leads 44 more than 21 over ted cruz among evangelicals. Ted cruz doesnt like that number. Let me show you one more number. One more number for our poll is donald trump is expanding his coalition. Earlier in the campaign we talked about trump had a lot of support among those who did not have a College Degree. He holds that support, 50 . 46 of republicans who do have a College Degree say they support trump. Thats a troubling number. And marco rubio and john kasich, traditional republicans win in the suburbs. Virginia is on the ballot tomorrow. The suburbs just outside of where we are, a lot of highly educated, college educated, masters degrees and the like. Donald trump runs strong in those areas. Fascinating numbers. Lets go to our analysts table. Gloria borger and former top obama adviser david axelrod. The newest member of the cnn podcast family. Sign up at cnn. Com podcast. And with us is niamallika henderson. Numbers, 78 are firm in their donald trump commitment. Thats an extraordinary number for this candidate. Its an extraordinary number. The 49 is an extraordinary number. Conventional wisdom among establishment folks has been when the field winnows there will be an establishment on a white horse that rescues the field from donald trump. Theres this broad coalition. Also some numbers that i think if you are rubio should be troubling. This idea of theres a question about who is the candidate who can bet handle the responsibilities of being commander in chief . Trump wins that 48 . Cruz at 17 . Rubio 14 . Hes now trying to be the antitrump, but it isnt clear that even if he fires donald trump that people want to hire him. David is there anything, if you were one of those other candidates, or representing one of them, that you would take pleasure in in those numbers or be looking to chip away at . Where is there not a masochist. I dont think theres a whole lot. One number that i found interesting, an even number of people percentagewise say that trump, rubio and cruz would be unacceptable to them. Thats a change. Theres growing acceptability of donald trump as the nominee among the party, even as the republican establishment frantically is trying to alert voters that he would be, as we heard earlier, the end of the party and a disaster in the fall. Buyers dont seem to be buying it. Acceptability and inevitablity. Some of the republican establishment is actually feeling the same way going trough the stages of grieve and they are finally sort of accepting trump to a degree. I spoke with a lot of them today. Some of them were saying, all right, we just have to learn how to live with trump. That hes malleable. There are others who say we ought to disown him completely, like senator and say i cant support the party nominee. Im not going to vote for Hillary Clinton but i cant support him. And then theres the third way which is the marco Rubio Campaign and other campaigns which are now looking for the sort of hail mary contested convention scenario. John, is there anything rubio or cruz do to stay viable tomorrow . Coming in second in a lot of states is that enough . Cruz has to win texas. Lets go through super tuesday. If you bring up super tuesday, move this over. If donald trump wins them all, cruz is ahead in the late polls in texas. Donald trump wins them all, he opens up the delegate lead. For ted cruz, survival means winning your home state. Well give second to trump and third to rubio. Thats survival at stake. Ted cruz hasnt said this publicly but if he doesnt win his home state, its very hard to continue on. He would say hes the only candidate to beat domd trump twice. If donald trump wins the other ten states allocating republican delegates tomorrow, not only does he pull ahead in the delegate lead but its just it just speaks for itself. This is why you have this debate in the republican establishment. Some are saying we have no choice. We have to embrace him. The customer is always right. The customer is our voters. And then the debate about never trump. If you go forward from here, if donald trump keeps winning, look what happened. He starts to pull way ahead. This is dethe defining day. Rubio has to win at home in florida. If rubio wins floridaed in trump comes in second, this is the defining day for rubio and kasich. If kasich doesnt win his home state hed get out. Rubio hasnt said it, but if he doesnt win, its hard to see how he continues on. For somebody to take their state. If they all stay in and start splitting states they cant catch trump. The only way is to get a one on one and then youd have to run the board. Youd have to essentially hold donald trump to no states or one or two small states. And even then, you might not clinch the nomination. The republican establishment is now hoping and praying that somebody can keep donald trump from reaching the majority, 1237. If you look at the map right now, this is not only tilted in trumps favor. Its heavily tilted in trumps favor. Beyond the numbers, marco rubios strategy, do you think its making any headway against donald trump . All the rhetoric thats been thrown around, its like a real housewives reunion episaid, spray tans and makeup and little hands and you know what else that means. Its incredible. Does it work . We dont know. My question is this. If your target are upper educated, upscale Republican Voters which were told they are for marco rubio, are they impressed with what hes been doing the last few days . I have some real doubts on this. One thing about the map. Thats the perfect map for donald trump. The best outcome for him tomorrow would to be take everything but texas and keep ted cruz in the race for a few more weeks because for donald trump, the more the merrier. A lot more ahead. Were also going to talktoour commentators. Youll hear what one republican u. S. Senator said on camera about what hed do if it comes down Hillary Clinton versus donald j. Trump in november. And a wideranging conversation with the former slovenian fashion model who could become americas next first lady, Melania Trump. One day a rider made a decision. The decision to ride on and save money. He decided to save money by switching his motorcycle insurance to geico. Theres no shame in saving money. Ride on, ride proud. Geico motorcycle, great rates for great rides. At ally bank, no branches equals great rates. Its a fact. Kind of like bill splitting equals nitpicking. But i only had a salad. It was a buffalo chicken salad. Salad. Ugh heartburn no one burns on my watch try alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. They work fast and dont taste chalky. Mmm. Amazing. I have heartburn. Alkaseltzer heartburn reliefchews. Enjoy the relief. Hi im kristie. And im jess. And we are the bug chicks. Were a nanobusiness. Windows 10 really helps us get the word out about how awesome bugs are. Kids learn to be brave and curious and all kids speak the language of bug. Hey cortana, find my katydid video. Oh this is so good. If youre trying to teach a kid about a proboscis. Just sketch it on the screen. I dont have a touch screen on my mac, im jealous of that. You put a big bug in a kids hands and change their world view. [ laugh ] hi im kristie. And im jess. And we are the bug chicks. Were a nanobusiness. Windows 10 really helps us get the word out about how awesome bugs are. Kids learn to be brave and curious and all kids speak the language of bug. Hey cortana, find my katydid video. Oh this is so good. If youre trying to teach a kid about a proboscis. Just sketch it on the screen. I dont have a touch screen on my mac, im jealous of that. You put a big bug in a kids hands and change their world view. [ laugh ] were talking super tuesday. The possibility that will turn out super for trump but maybe not for the party. Hunter thompson titled his classic act of the 1972 election, fear and loathing on the campaign trail. Tonight among the gop, the fear and loathing is real and its directed toward donald trump. You now have republicans not just going on the record opposing him but going on camera. On the lead with jake tapper, they confronted him with the choice of donald trump or Hillary Clinton. Those are the two frontrunners, and it looks as though they are likely to be the nominees. I understand you reject the premise. Given that most people know those two are the frontrunners, whats would you do . Im not going to vote for Hillary Clinton. Given what we know about donald trump, i cant vote for him. I have taken an oath to preserve the constitution. If those are the two major party nominees, id have to look for a third party option. Back with the panel joining us, republican strategist ana navarro, angela rye, also a trump supporter and conservative columnist mcenany and bakari sellers. A third choice. This doesnt obviously translate into anything thats going to get somebody elected, or does it . Who . Theyve thrown around the name of michael bloomberg. Hes been polling his name out there. Until theres a third choice its theoretical. I think a lot of folks are going to have to cross that bridge when they get there, when we get there. For a lot of us, the idea of voting for trump is just okay. I got it. Mckayla. If i was a trump supporter listening to this talk and hearing the hand wringing and complaining, i would if anything, it would harden my support for donald trump. I definitely think it has that effect. Focus groups found it consolidates the support. Id argue this whole notion of no one getting behind trump san opinion of the Political Class. When you look at the cnn poll that came out, just 27 said they wouldnt vote for trump. The same number said they wouldnt vote for rubio or cruz. This is an opinion among the Political Class because donald trump poses a problem to their interest. Hes not in bed with lobbyists. The flip side of that, and you are also a republican, is if he is the gop nominee, he is obviously bringing a lot of people out. Theres a lot of enthusiasm among his supporters. Support among his supporters is calcified. They are saying theyll vote for donald trump come hell or high water. The other side of that is, stop the hand wringing and just get on board and possibly win the presidency. There is such a think as conviction and principle. It might sound strange and corny. Some still hold on to those notions. I think that donald trump has said and done some things throughout his campaign that bother some of us to the point we cannot imagine voting for him. That being said, you are right. Hes also bringing an entirely new universe of voters into the tent and into vote for him. And i do think that there are some members of the Republican Party, like me, who just cannot come to grips with it. But i think there are members of the republican establishment who are coming to grips with it. Today we saw that in valdosta. Brian france, the owner of nascar endorsed him. He was one of the major donors for mitt romney. He is a guy that every single republican candidate has heavily courted. Hes stayed on the sidelines until today. And to my surprise, this is also a guy who led nascar in calling for the lowering of the Confederate Flag in South Carolina, who has spoken up in favor of gay rights, who has spoken up against the kentucky law. And yet today he was on that stage endorsing donald trump which talks about a couple of things. First of all, that new york donor beltway. They all know donald trump. They may not think he was the best candidate but they all know him and have a relationship. They also see him as having a path to victory. And, third, they think they can make a deal with him. Angela, its interesting. There were a lot of democrats early on who were kind of chomping at the bit to have donald trump be the gop nominee to go against probably Hillary Clinton. Do you still feel that excitement over that prospect, or do you now see donald trump as a more formidable candidate, more formidable foe as a democrat . Right now im not afraid of donald trump. I think to quote cory booker from an earlier segment today, he said bring it on. I whole heartedly agree with that. Heres why. The type of voter that donald trump is turning out is the exact type of voter that when barack obama was elect

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