Return to Transcripts main page
CNN NEWSROOM
Trump Meets with GOP Leaders on Party Unity; Clinton Slams Trump on Abortion Comments; Clinton, Sanders Trade Barbs Over Campaign Donations and Abortion; Obama Meets With Brokers of Iran Deal. Aired 10-10:30a ET
Aired April 1, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:00:01] SCHOLES: Before we talk about the CNN anchor brackets. You know why? Because --
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: Why?
SCHOLES: I'm the first. I'm in first place.
COSTELLO: Whatever.
SCHOLES: So I have to let you know -- you're a little bit further down the standings, Carol, but hey, it just wasn't your year.
COSTELLO: A little bit? I think I'm dead last. Damn, Michigan State. I'm sorry for cursing, but it's Friday, and I'm upset.
Andy, thank so much. I think. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM. Donald Trump's surprise meeting with GOP leaders.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think they wanted to really discuss, you know, unity and I like discussing unity, too.
COSTELLO: The frontrunner trying to wave off criticism over his comments on nukes, NATO and abortion.
Also, Hillary Clinton lashing out.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am so sick of the Sanders campaign lying about that. I'm sick of it.
COSTELLO: Now Sanders supporters fight back.
Plus, President Obama speaking soon about tamping down on nuclear materials. And keeping them out of the hands of terrorists.
Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.
Donald Trump goes behind closed doors with Republican leaders. Was he called to the carpet or was he calling them out? A quick glimpse and a short wave as he emerged from the RNC meeting. This just days after breaking that unity pledge and then igniting a firestorm with his abortion comments. Trump has since reversed course over whether a woman should be punished for having an illegal abortion but certainly not apologizing, saying it's the media's fault.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Could be that I misspoke. but this was a long, convoluted subject. We talked about Catholicism, and his religion, and, you know, Chris went back and forth about that, and this was a very long convoluted discussion which frankly they didn't want it on television because it was too long. My stance is the same stance as Ronald Reagan and if, in fact, abortion was outlawed, the person performing that act is responsible, not the woman.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Right now in Hersey, Pennsylvania, Trump rival John Kasich is holding an event. You can see his supporters waiting for him to speak.
Phil Mattingly is there with more. Good morning.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. John Kasich really unloading on Donald Trump yesterday. Breaking from a strategy that up until this point is left the attacks to others. Now the reason why that point-by-point takedown came through is just pure frustration, according to John Kasich's aides, and the recognition that potentially he could peel off some Trump supporters as he listed off the reasons why he is so against Donald Trump right now.
One of the primary ones, his off-the-cuff remarks, subsequent indecision and then reversals just like we saw with his abortion comments. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: As a commander-in-chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. You need to be able to get it right the first time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Now obviously Ted Cruz has joined John Kasich, really led the way on the attacks to Donald Trump up to this point. But, Carol, it's worth noting that it's not just the Republican opponents of Donald Trump that are going after him right now. Democrats in groups aligned with them really queuing up what we may see in the general election should Donald Trump lock in the Republican nomination. Take a look at this ad from Priorities USA. The primary super PAC backing Hillary Clinton and Planned Parenthood Action, the political arm of Planned Parenthood that just started running this week. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAPHICS: When it comes to women, the Republican frontrunner is --
TRUMP: Must be a pretty picture, you dropping to your knees.
GRAPHICS: Demeaning.
TRUMP: You wouldn't have your job if you weren't beautiful.
GRAPHICS: Insulting.
MATTHEWS: Do you believe in punishment for abortion? Yes or no, as a principle?
TRUMP: There has to be some form of punishment.
MATTHEWS: For the woman?
TRUMP: Yes. There has to be some form.
GRAPHICS: And dangerous.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Now, Carol, all of these attacks obviously coming as Donald Trump's unfavorability rating with women is really skyrocketing, hitting 70 percent and even 80 percent in some polls. Ted Cruz really looking to take advantage of that in Wisconsin, the next primary state coming on Tuesday. Cruz starting to open up a lead in the state sending out his wife and top surrogate Carly Fiorina to campaign there yesterday. Trying to really hammer home the fact that Donald Trump has a problem with female voters. Donald Trump will be working hard this week to try and make up that ground in Wisconsin -- Carol.
COSTELLO: All right. Phil Mattingly reporting live from Hershey, Pennsylvania. Thank you.
In the meantime the attacks on Trump are at fever pitch not just from the Republicans but from the Democrats, too, as you saw. Trump's fellow GOP candidates invoking Kim Kardashian to describe the frontrunner in this contentious primary process.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There's no doubt that Donald Trump is the Kim Kardashian presidential candidate. He sits on Twitter and makes a lot of noise, but he has no solutions to fixing the problem.
[10:05:01] KASICH: I believe that the overwhelming majority of the delegates at a convention will take this -- will take this responsibility very seriously. And I think that's where we're going. And I think it's going to be fantastic. Probably less Kardashians, more who's going to be president. (END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Hillary Clinton on the Trump attack train, too, despite an increasingly contentious contest with Bernie Sanders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: One of my favorite Americans, Maya Angelou, said when someone shows you who they are, believe them.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: Donald Trump is showing us exactly who he is, and we should believe him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: All right. Let's talk about this with radio talk show host Cenk Uygur. I'm also joined by Scottie Nell Hughes. She's a Trump supporter and national political commentator for USA Radio Networks.
Welcome to both of you.
SCOTTIE NELL HUGHES, NATIONAL POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, USA RADIO NETWORKS: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning. Cenk, I want to start with you. Hillary Clinton is kind of walking a fine line here. Right? Because donors want her to attack Trump and she is, but doesn't she run the risk that she might alienate Sanders supporters who might think that she's presuming she has the nomination wrapped up?
CENK UYGUR, HOST, THE YOUNG TURKS: Well, she's been doing that for a long time. So why stop now? Yes, she -- well, she thought she had the nomination wrapped up for the entire time, and she seemed to a year ago she had a 59-point lead. She's lost that entire lead and now she's in a lot of trouble. She's lost the last six out of seven races, and yet, she still goes on pretending that she's definitely the nominee. And by the way, if you want someone who can beat Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders is better against Donald Trump in every single poll over Hillary Clinton.
COSTELLO: And, Scottie, Cenk is right about that. Hillary Clinton also does pretty well with women as far as that goes. As Politico points out, a Quinnipiac University poll has Clinton 16 points ahead of Trump among women voters. Clinton also led among women voters by 19 points in a FOX News poll and by 27 points in a CNN-ORC poll.
How can Trump possibly beat Clinton or Sanders for that matter?
HUGHES: Well, and then we look at polls. Obviously they do hold a factor and are very important. However, what these polls are registering are just straight Republicans versus straight Democrats. They're not talking to the cross-overs as well as those that are independents that are going for Donald Trump, and we're finding out more and more that's a very large part of his base, a base that the GOP has been saying they want to go after. And yet now that they have, they continue to basically back hand every chance they get.
You know, this whole media circus -- we've seen on the right has completely allowed what's going on on the left to be basically -- I mean, we saw this morning, we saw Hillary Clinton putting her finger in a Greenpeace protester's face and wagging it and basically calling -- you know, saying she's tired of Bernie Sanders' lies. Yet that right there -- I mean, if it would have been a Republican candidate, if Mr. Trump would have done that, that would have been the headline on every single news right now.
So I think, you know, the key is -- and you're seeing it with this meeting yesterday with the GOP. I think the key is starting to really go for some peace and unity on the GOP side and start to bring the light, the chaos that's going on right now with the Democrats. And as soon as the Bernie Sanders folks feel like in real life that the math is against them, I think we're going to have a very, very strong contentious contentions at the Democrat convention much probably even more than the Republicans.
COSTELLO: Cenk, do you agree with any of that?
(LAUGHTER)
UYGUR: Well, first of all, there's no chaos. There's a race. So right now it's a very close race. And by the way, the media drives me crazy, including CNN when you guys count superdelegates. Superdelegates don't vote until later. And in 2008 they switched from Hillary Clinton to Barack Obama when he had won the popular voting. So that could easily happen here again with Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders is more electable according to CNN polling. Every polling he crushes Donald Trump not only better than Hillary Clinton but he actually does far better with independents as Scottie just mentioned than Donald Trump does. Leagues better. So he's the more electable candidate --
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: So let's -- let's let Scottie -- is Donald Trump more afraid of Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton?
HUGHES: Absolutely not. I think it's definitely more Hillary Clinton. You can't sit there and say that there are Republicans crossing over to vote for Bernie Sanders if anything. And yet these establishment folks that are taking their ball and leaving the playground are going to Hillary Clinton camp, not necessarily Bernie Sanders. I think there's a lot of good -- I think there's a lot of similarities between Bernie Sanders --
UYGUR: Are you proud of that? That the establishment is going to --
(CROSSTALK)
HUGHES: No, I'm not. Well --
UYGUR: Yes, you're right.
HUGHES: Leaving Donald Trump --
UYGUR: The establishment does not like Bernie Sanders. Because Bernie Sanders would give you real change.
HUGHES: Well, that's I'm what I'm saying. So don't talk about that crossover. Don't talk about Republicans --
UYGUR: The establishment hates that.
HUGHES: Well, the Republican -- what I'm saying is crossover votes are not going --
UYGUR: No, no, those are independents. Independents go to Bernie Sanders in overwhelming numbers .
HUGHES: Yes, OK, but what I'm trying to say --
UYGUR: Over Trump and over Hillary Clinton.
HUGHES: Republicans that leave are going to Hillary. They're not going to Bernie Sanders. They don't identify with the Bernie Sanders message at all.
COSTELLO: OK. Let me --
UYGUR: Your donors are going to Hillary Clinton. You're right about that.
[10:10:03] COSTELLO: OK. Let me ask you this --
HUGHES: And those are groups that we both don't like.
COSTELLO: I want to ask you about this, Cenk. I want to ask you about the Democracy Spring. You're a vocal supporter of Democracy Spring. It starts tomorrow in Philadelphia. And promises acts of civil disobedience. Help us understand what this rally is about.
UYGUR: Yes. So it's going to start in Philadelphia tomorrow. And it's going to go to Washington. They're going to march to Washington. I'm going to be there on April 11th. And we're doing a sit-in at Congress because we're so sick of this corruption.
Let's call it what it is. These donors, they give money to Hillary Clinton and to all the Republicans, are basically bribes. They've legalized bribery. So we've had enough of it. There's three bills and an amendment that is sitting in front of Congress. They need to get money out of politics right now. 84 percent of Americans agree with that. 72 percent of Republicans say that money should be limited in campaigns. We should all agree on this. In fact the American people do.
But the politicians, the Republicans and Democrats in Washington, don't. So we're going to sit in in Congress. DemocracySpring.org. Come join me and let's start doing civil disobedience again because it's obvious that this corrupt, corrupt Congress will not listen.
(CROSSTALK)
COSTELLO: So, Scottie, would pro-Trump people take part in Democracy Spring?
HUGHES: I don't think he would, but you know, Cenk said a lot of great things. And I agree with most of what he said except for the fact that Donald Trump is not taking those big dollar donors. That I think is why the Republicans and conservatives identify with Mr. Trump because he's not -- that's where him and Bernie have a like message is they're going up against this big money donors that have controlled Washington, D.C. But I guarantee Mr. Trump is not going to encourage people to do anything that's going to disrupt other people's opportunities to listen to candidates.
I don't -- you know, Mr. Trump can speak for himself on this issue. I just don't think this is the way to go. I think you can have a peaceful protest, and go for it, but I don't think when you sit there and take other people who want to hear about their candidate, whether they're Republican or Democrat, and get in the way of that happening, I don't think that -- I think that's counterproductive.
COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there.
UYGUR: OK, first of all, this is peaceful.
COSTELLO: Scottie Nell Hughes --
UYGUR: This is peaceful. I just want to be clear on that.
COSTELLO: Right. It involves sit-ins.
UYGUR: OK. And Donald Trump, you're right, would do nothing to disturb the establishment.
COSTELLO: All right. Scottie Nell Hughes, Cenk Uygur, thanks to both of you.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Bernie Sanders pushing back after Hillary Clinton accuses him of brushing off Donald Trump's comments on abortion. His fiery response next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:16:18] COSTELLO: Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton are locked in a battle for New York. In just a couple of hours Bernie Sanders will be at an event in the heart of what has long been considered Clinton country, Harlem, New York.
In the meantime attacks from the Sanders campaign appeared to be getting under Clinton's skin. Listen to this fiery exchange between Clinton and a climate change activist last night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you protect -- with climate change, will you act on your word and reject fossil fuel money in the future in your campaign?
CLINTON: I do not. I have money from people who work for fossil fuel companies. I am so sick -- I am so sock of the Sanders campaign lying about that. I'm sick of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: Joe Johns is following this story for us. Hi, Joe.
JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Carol. One of the simmering disagreements between the two campaigns is what kind of contributions they take and from whom. Despite the protests from Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders has continued to bang the drum on this issue because a lot of his supporters have expressed concerns about the effect of big corporate cash in American politics. Listen to Sanders this morning on "GMA."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not crazy about people disrupting meetings, but the fact of the matter is Secretary Clinton has taken significant sums of money from the fossil fuel industry. She raises money with her super PAC. She gets a lot of money from Wall Street, from the drug companies, from the fossil fuel industry. On the other hand, we have received over $6 million individual campaign contributions averaging $27 a piece. I'm proud of the way we are raising money.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: And, of course, a completely different view from the Clinton campaign. They say she has not taken a dollar from oil and gas industry, political action committees, or corporations, and accuses the Sanders campaign of misleading voters. However, what the Clinton campaign admits to is receiving donations from people who work for oil and gas companies.
Greenpeace say that number is about $300,000. The Clinton campaign says if you apply that same standard to Bernie Sanders, he's taken more than $50,000 on this campaign from individuals working for oil and gas companies.
Sanders, again, has made the point repeatedly that his success comes from small, individual contributions. Loves to say $27. And they did have another huge fundraising month in March.
COSTELLO: They certainly did. What was it, $44 million or something like that?
JOHNS: Yes. It's pretty astounding. And that's the thing that drives them and keeps them on the campaign trail. They bring in those small do nations, $27 a person, they say, and they can go on and on and on.
COSTELLO: All the way, baby, to the convention. We'll see.
Joe Johns, thanks so much.
So New York state is in play. And as you heard, the gloves are off. Clinton accusing the Sanders campaign of lying about her and accusing him of calling Trump's comments on abortion a distraction. Sanders responded to that on "GMA" this morning.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: So I believe it's a serious issue. I've been spending my entire political life fighting for the right of a woman to control her own body. I have a 100 percent voting record, pro-choice voting record. And if elected president, not only will I continue to defend the women's rights to truth, I will take on those Republican governors all over this country who are trying to restrict and take away that right.
What Secretary Clinton did is take things out of context. I am 100 percent pro-choice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: With me now Democratic strategist and Hillary Clinton supporter, Robert Zimmerman, and author of "Why Bernie Sanders Matters," Harry Jaffe.
Welcome to both of you.
ROBERT ZIMMERMAN, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Good morning.
HARRY JAFFE, AUTHOR, WHY BERNIE SANDERS MATTERS: Good to be here.
COSTELLO: Good morning. So, Harry, Sanders said he'd never go negative. But is this the tipping point?
JAFFE: Well, he would rather not go negative, but I can tell you one thing, I mean, having looked into his past, is if you go do go negative against him, it often backfires.
[10:20:08] It happened in race after race. So the extent that senator -- I'm sorry, that Secretary Clinton goes after Sanders, she's going to have the problem.
COSTELLO: But, Robert, is she going to have the problem? Because she just called Sanders supporters a liar. She blames his supporters for disrupting her rallies. So it seems like she's just going to go along this path of attacking Bernie Sanders.
ZIMMERMAN: Well, I think it's more than taking on the Sanders supporters who are very sincere. It's really taking on Senator Sanders for continuing to try to attack her personally. And I think very frankly the fact that she has 2.5 million more votes than Senator Sanders does during this election process and in fact she's winning among elected delegates substantially I think says that her strategy of focusing on the issues, taking on Senator Sanders for voting against immigration reform in the Senate, taking on Senator Sanders for voting five times in opposition to the Brady Bill and for other gun safety legislation.
I think the fact she's keeping it focused on the issues is working to her advantage. Quite frankly, I was pleased to see Secretary Clinton speak up on that rope line yesterday because rather than see Senator Sanders engage in discussing the issues, he's always trying to imply that somehow Secretary Clinton is compromised by her donations, and in fact he's taken money from individuals who work for the oil and gas industry. She's taken a total of two-tenths of 1 percent of all of her fundraising dollars according to NPR from people who work in the oil and gas industry. It's a really fictitious argument.
COSTELLO: Is it a fictitious argument, Harry?
JAFFE: Well, in a way it absolutely is because, you know, senator -- Secretary Clinton has taken so much money from PACs and from Wall Street, and there's no disputing the fact that Senator Sanders has, you know, not just the lion's share, but I'd say 99 percent of his funds have come from small donors. He's really changed the game. When he talks about creating a movement and a political revolution, he's already done that in the way that he has, you know, gotten his campaign cash. That's a done deal already. You can't dispute that.
COSTELLO: OK. So let's talk about -- let's talk about the Democratic convention for just a second because Sanders was on with Stephen Colbert last night and he was asked the question about his plan to court superdelegates. Let's listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEPHEN COLBERT, HOST, "THE LATE SHOW WITH STEPHEN COLBERT": Why do you want the Democratic Party to be thrown into the kind of chaos you see on the Republican side where they will have a contested convention?
SANDERS: I think that superdelegates should listen to the will of their people. If you get 60 percent, 70 percent, 80 percent of the vote in the state, you know what, I think superdelegates should vote for us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO: So, Robert, is Sanders asking for chaos at the convention?
ZIMMERMAN: Well, Carol, as you know, I'm a Democratic National Committee member, which therefore qualifies me as a superdelegate. And I know that -- I know you look very intimidated by that concept, but as a superdelegate, of course, first Senator Sanders' campaign were castigating us, now he's sending a whole lot of love my way.
And the reality is, this -- no election is -- no nomination since 1984 has ever been decided by superdelegates. This nomination will be decided by the pledged delegates. And so I think that will be the factor. But I don't mind him sending love my way. I have no objection to it. And I think it's important to remember the superdelegates are elected. They're members of Congress, they're governors, they are people like myself elected by the grassroots Democratic organizations of our states. So I think it's -- to put that in perspective.
COSTELLO: I know you say that but voters out there who are just casting their ballots, right. they don't really like the idea of that even though it's written -- I understand it's all kosher and everything, but I think, Harry, that bothers a lot of people that Bernie Sanders might go and try to convince people like Robert to change his mind.
JAFFE: Absolutely. Well, it fits into Sanders', you know, long-time strategy of saying that -- you know, that the economy is rigged, that the Democratic process is rigged. And he's running against the establishment.
Now he's been successful, you know, for 40 years running against the establishment. At this point, unfortunately, he needs these superdelegates which are part of the establishment. And how that falls could in fact determine who becomes the nominee.
COSTELLO: OK. We'll have to see. Robert Zimmerman, Harry Jaffe, I got to leave it there. Thanks to both of you.
JAFFE: Happy to be with you.
ZIMMERMAN: Thank you.
COSTELLO: You're welcome.
President Obama meeting with world leaders right now about the danger of nuclear weapons. What he had to say before heading behind closed doors.
[10:24:38]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thanks so much for joining me.
The nuclear summit is entering its final hour at the White House. Just minutes ago President Obama went behind closed doors with the other nations that helped broker the Iran nuclear deal.
CNN's Athena Jones live at the White House with more. Good morning.
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. I believe we'll be getting a taped playback of the president's remarks any minute now but he spoke at the top of this meeting with the so-called P5 Plus 1, the countries that helped broker that historic deal with Iran, Russia being represented by its ambassador in the absence of President Putin and Germany by its defense secretary.
The president hailed that the historic deal as historic and said it's made great progress so far. It's been effective. Full implementation will take the continued work of the group in the P5 Plus 1. He also said that if Iran were to cheat on anything that it's agreed to, the breakout time when it comes to having the materials for a nuclear weapon has moved from two to three months to a year. I believe we have that sound from the president now. Let's take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It was Iran's nuclear program.
