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CNN NEWSROOM

Trump: U.S. Headed for "Massive Recession"; Cruz Attacks Kasich in Wisconsin Attack Ad; 2 Dead, 35 Hurt After Train Slams Into Backhoe; Hillary Clinton and the "Likability" Question; Backlash Over North Carolina Law's Effect on Transgender Citizens; The Long Tradition of Smear Campaign. Aired 6-7p ET

Aired April 3, 2016 - 18:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[18:00:00] POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: The Democratic and Republican primary is there in just two days.

Senator Ted Cruz will soon rally supporters in Wisconsin. Some Republicans believe a business which is victory for Cruz who is currently leading in the polls there could redefine this race on the Republican side.

The frontrunner, though, Donald Trump tells "The Washington Post" in an in-depth 96-minute interview that the United States is headed for a, quote, "very massive recession". He says the U.S. is sitting on an economic bubble, a financial bubble. Comments like that from the Republican frontrunner for president can certainly rattle global markets. Don't forget, Asia opens in just a few hours. Despite this gloomy economic outlook, the New York billionaire says that if elected, he alone could eliminate the $19 trillion debt in eight years.

Let's go to Sara Sidner. She's live at a Trump campaign event in West Allis, Wisconsin.

Is he doing more to explain these bleak economic views on the campaign trail today?

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The quick answer is no. He was at a local diner here today in Milwaukee. He did do an interview with a local reporter and he talked about everything but the economy really and was asked about everything but the economy, talked about nukes, he talked about all sorts of different issues, the abortion issue, that he's flipped on, and tried to clarify again on that.

But the economy did not come up in this local business. What you are hearing from people, though, you know, for his supporters, they look at this and they say he's just telling it like it is and his detractors are rolling their eyes in disbelief, worried that his comments could actually negatively affect the comment by negatively affecting the market, both global and here in the United States.

So, this is the sort of brash thing that Donald Trump will do that his supporters cheer saying, look, this is a man that knows business and he's telling us what people on Wall Street won't tell us. And he even said himself to the "Washington Post," "Look, I know Wall Street people better than anybody. So, the comments, of course, are divisive for those who support him and those who do not. But he certainly hasn't talked much about it yet. We will wait and see, because we have a couple of hours now until he comes to speak here in West Allis.

HARLOW: And also, Sara, some in his own party are responding to it. I mean, Jake Tapper this morning "STATE OF THE UNION" asked the head of the RNC what he thought.

SIDNER: Yes. And he talked to him about, look, he's making some pretty bold statements, one almost telling people, don't invest right now, this is a bad time. Tow, saying, look, I can fix all this in eight years and get rid of the deficit, which is a pretty tall order.

And here is it what the head of RNC committee basically said about those comments.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REINCE PRIEBUS, RNC CHAIRMAN: Well, certainly, people are afraid in this country and they're angry with a president that hasn't delivered, and whether you're on Main Street or whether you're in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, or wherever you're from, things have not improved. And so, I think, you know, when people are afraid and when they're angry, sometimes people say things that they regret. But the truth is, is that people are concerned about the future and every candidate is going to communicate their message differently.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: And if you think those comments had any kind of negative impact on a number of people who are coming to see him, you'd be wrong. There is a very, very long line that's snaking around this high school here in West Allis, waiting to hear from Donald Trump.

HARLOW: Something we've seen throughout this election.

Sara Sidner, live for us in West Allis tonight, thank you very much.

So, let's talk about the week that it has been. Let's talk specifically about female voters, because some pundits say this has been Donald Trump's worth week. It depends certainly who you ask. There was the misdemeanor battery charge against his campaign manager, he's controversial comments on abortions, switching positions four times in a week and polls showing he's 10 points behind Cruz in Wisconsin.

Now this disapproval rating among women. Look at this, 73 percent of voters, Republicans and Democrats who are women, have an unfavorable view of the frontrunner. If you look at just Republican female voters, his unfavorable numbers have climbed from 29 percent to 39 percent in just a few months. Here's what he had to say today on the trail about those female voters.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) REPORTER: Do you regret anything that you've said over the past week and a half (INAUDIBLE) hurt you with women voters?

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It might, but I'll tell you, I've had -- I've been doing very well with women voters.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: He said he might it hurt me, but I've been doing very well with women.

How women are talked to and how they have been talked about has been central in this presidential election. Whether it is candidate's wives, or the woman who is the currently frontrunner on the Democratic side.

So, with me know, one of the most influential women in business and media, Tina Brown. She's the founder and CEO of Tina Brown Live Media. She was also the first woman ever to edit "The New Yorker".

Nice to be with you.

(CROSSTALK)

HARLOW: Editor of "Newsweek", editor of "Vanity Fair". Your resume goes on and on.

Let's just start with your take on Donald Trump and what he would have to do to comeback in the favorable category with women?

TINA BROWN, FOUNDER & CEO, TINA BROWN LIVE MEDIA: Well, first of all, when he talks about the big bubble economically that's about to hit, I mean, he's the bubble, right?

[18:05:03] He's the only bubble that's going to explode, as far as I'm concerned, and I think he's exploding in front of our eyes.

HARLOW: He hasn't yet.

BROWN: And he's exploding because he just does not have any regard for the other half of the human race, namely women. You know, right from the beginning, he showed how terrified he is of smart women when he went postal on Megyn Kelly, right? She was asking him, you know, smart, direct questions and he just couldn't handle it, that a woman who is actually it a very good looking woman, the kind that he's used to fawning on him he feels simply didn't wish to play that game.

So, he -- I don't see how this guy can honestly having offended, you know, immigrants, having offended Mexicans, having offended women, can really win this primary.

HARLOW: The poll numbers don't reflect that.

You have a very big week ahead of you. You're hosting the Seventh Annual Women in the World Summit here in New York. I was part of it last year. It's a fascinating sort of coming together of women from all over the world truly.

Megyn Kelly is one of those people who is speaking at the summit, and we've known the back and forth between Donald Trump and Donald Trump's vitriol against her.

You know, when you look at for example the other, his competitor, Ted Cruz, you'll remember that Ted Cruz tweeted in December that Donald Trump is terrific. He said, sorry to disappoint, Donald Trump is terrific, right? This was after Donald Trump went after Megyn Kelly. This was after Donald Trump's comments about Carly Fiorina's face.

Do you think that Ted Cruz at all played somewhat of a role in the rise of Trump?

BROWN: Well, I mean, frankly, I think all of the people on that GOP platform all year long have been extremely bad candidates for women. Every one of them fell over themselves to say they wanted to defund Planned Parenthood, absolutely disregarding the fact that there are so many American women out there who need Planned Parenthood for their pap smears, their mammograms. You know, they really don't seem to care about women, period.

So, Ted Cruz is a pretty regressive candidate when it comes to women. Just that Trump who is a huge cartoon that takes the oxygen out of the room, everybody looks almost normal.

HARLOW: What about the women we've heard from so much whether it's in Wisconsin or New Hampshire, et cetera, who say, Trump is my guy. This is my guy. He's finally saying, you know, what I want to hear, saying it like it is. I sat down for a long interview with Ivanka Trump, his daughter, who said my father would be amazing for women and look how he's elevated women in his own business.

What do you say to that?

BROWN: Well, you know, I think, actually, in business Donald Trump has been pretty fair to women. I think, you know, he has promoted women and they do work for him it seems willingly and happily and he has a terrific daughter in Ivanka who is enormously attractive, well adjusted, you know, smart, successful, all of those things.

But the fact is that his comments are just crude and misogynistic that ultimately it takes time to penetrate. I think a lot of people don't really focus for quite a long time. One thing that has been appealing to people is that he looks like he's certainly masquerades as a guy who can sort of fix the status quo, who can just simply, you know, sweep it away and change things and know about business and fix the economy and it's only when you start to drill down a bit do you understand that so much of what he says is based on nonsense.

And then women I think are beginning to sort of tweak to that finally. It's taken a while. It's just taken a remarkable time in a sense. But it is beginning to hurt his numbers now.

HARLOW: How much is the world summit this we're going to focus on the world view of this political race? Because that's something I find fascinating. A few weeks ago, I asked Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz about that because he spends so much time around the world, and he said foreign leaders tell him that they are flabbergasted just at the race that we're seeing on both sides.

BROWN: They're absolutely flabbergasted. And we have some brilliant women coming from places like India and Iraq and so on, and they are really baffled, and actually, they're very disappointed because, you know, they have such a lot of problems with human rights in these countries. I mean, they really do.

I mean, they're used to looking at American and seeing that as a gold standard of the way women are treated. And now, they're looking at this election race and they don't understand. I mean, Trump is making the kind of misogynistic comments that frankly even get you sort of repudiated in places like India. So, they don't get it and they're sort of mystified, and they're puzzled and they're hoping it will go away.

HARLOW: What about Hillary Clinton as the only -- I should ask you first, have you publicly supported anyone? Are you public supporting anyone?

BROWN: No, I mean, I'm a journalist. So, I like to just, you know -- I have an opinion about everything. But it's usually not one that's particularly --

HARLOW: So, Hillary Clinton, when you look at sort of -- you've got this panel at the summit, focusing on the lasting impact of Anita Hill in that case. So, 25 years ago, her case, her testimony in front of the Senate, and then you look at Hillary Clinton and sort of her presence on the national stage over the past 20-plus years ago, what do you make of the fact that we could have the first female president and to sort of how the media has looked at women in politics over the last 25 years?

[18:10:10] BROWN: Well, I mean, what's interesting is how hard it still is, right? I mean, if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency, there's no one who could say it was handed to her. She has slogged it out to the bitter end.

And there's no doubt that women are held to the higher standard at all times, whether it's -- you know, the way they look, what they say, you know, how they are. The fact is, is that, I mean, we have in Bernie Sanders, you know, a 75-year-old, totally disheveled guy by who stands up there, you know, honking away in his hoarse voice, stuff that all of time is completely unfact-check.

And, you know, at the end of the day, if Hillary did that stuff, she would be either absolutely lambasted. So, there's a kind of a part --

HARLOW: I think Sanders gets hit hard, too.

BROWN: He gets hit but not as hard in my judgment. You know, actually, I like Sanders, he has a lot of charm and what he says is actually spot on actually. But you just look at the style of the guy and you look at some of the things that he doesn't get lambasted on, and you just think, Hillary would be lambasted.

So, she never complains about it which is really -- which is what I think is kind of good about her and cool about her. I mean, she's so tough that in terms of proving that she has a tenacity for the job, there's no doubt that she does prove it. Why she wants it is a whole other question.

HARLOW: Tina Brown, before I let you go, in one word, who takes New York, Sanders, Clinton?

BROWN: I say Clinton.

HARLOW: We'll watch. Thank you. Tina Brown, good luck with the summit this week.

BROWN: Thank you.

HARLOW: Again, Women in the World starting tomorrow.

While Trump is on top, Ted Cruz has a chance to make up some ground on Tuesday. He is taking no chances in Wisconsin, with a new ad. But the target isn't the GOP frontrunner. We'll explain.

Also this --

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got off track and it was like the big explosion, and then a fire. Then a window burst out and some people were cut up, but no, it was not much --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: One passenger said it felt like a nightmare, an Amtrak train smashes into a backhoe in a deadly derailment this morning. We'll have a live report from Pennsylvania, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:15:26] HARLOW: Welcome back.

Ted Cruz is coming out swinging with a new attack ad in Wisconsin leading up to the critical primary on Tuesday. But his target is not the frontrunner Donald Trump. Instead, for the first time he's taking aim at Ohio Governor John Kasich.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Ted Cruz and I approve this message.

AD ANNOUNCER: Right before John Kasich was governor, he collected $611,000 from a Fortune 500 corporation. After Kasich became game governor, that same company received 619 grand in state tax breaks for job creation. But last year, the company laid off 100 Ohioans even as the CEO cut a half million check to Kasich's super PAC. John Kasich's not for us.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is with me now. She is Green Bay, which has a pretty good darn football team, said from a Minnesota Vikings fan.

Thank you for being with us, Sunlen.

And when you look at Cruz, I'm interested in sort of his final case to voters at these rallies in the next 48 hours. What is it?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Well, Poppy, Ted Cruz is all about playing up the importance of this moment of Tuesday's Wisconsin primary, but really trying to almost cast it as more important, a broader importance to the race writ large. And he seemed to get a little reflective today on stage in Greenville when he was up there with his family and talking about the race. Here's a small part of what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CRUZ: Hadn't been born. And we're all sorts of things a year ago someone had said you were going to see would have said, no, that will never happen.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SERFATY: So Cruz almost a little shocked at the state of the race and everything that has transpired. He later went on to say that Tuesday is a decision point, and telling the Wisconsin voters point blank that their decision will resonate going forward and that was I think a big symbol, a big message that he was sending for, that he really does see Tuesday as a potential turning point going forward, not only in math, in collecting all-important delegates, but certainly the momentum for his campaign -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Absolutely. Sunlen, thank you very much. We appreciate it, in Green Bay for us tonight.

Coming up next, how did an Amtrak train slam into a backhoe that was just sitting on tracks this morning heading south from New York? I'll have a live report from the scene where two people have died outside Philadelphia, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[18:21:34] HARLOW: Many questions remain tonight after an Amtrak train headed south from New York this morning slammed into a backhoe that was just sitting on the tracks right outside of Philadelphia. Two Amtrak construction workers were killed in the crash, 35 of the 350 people on board were reported injured.

Our Sara Ganim is live from the site in Chester, Pennsylvania. No one can seem to determine why this backhoe was on the tracks given

that this was the route that all of these trains take south. Any answers on that tonight?

SARA GANIM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Poppy. Good evening. Just a few minutes ago, the NTSB holding a press conference saying that they will be looking in to the communication issues because everyone wants to know why was this backhoe on tracks that were active tracks and a source close to the investigation has told CNN now that those two construction workers who were killed, one in the backhoe, one near it, they were Amtrak construction workers, so how was it that they didn't know an Amtrak train was coming down the tracks and how did the train not know there was active construction going on in this area.

As you mentioned, we're in between the Philadelphia and Wilmington Amtrak stations. This is Chester, PA.

And you can see right here behind me, Poppy, the front of that engine pretty damaged, very advisably damaged by that collision by hitting that backhoe, that engine front car, also derailed from the tracks. CNN speaking to passengers, 341 of them, that were on that train, 35 of them injured, none of them with life-threatening injuries, but still a very frightening experience.

One of them telling CNN that he could tell leading up to the crash something was wrong. There was a cloud of dust that appeared outside of their window. Felt like they were riding on gravel. And then coming to an almost sudden stop like you would in a car accident.

Another 15-year-old Linden Holmes (ph), who was near the back of the trains talked about this experience. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We got off track I guess. And it was just a bunch of dust. Dust everywhere. And then the train conductors were running to the front. People were pretty bloody from the -- because it was an explosion. We got off track and there was like a big explosion, and then there was a fire and weapons burst out, and some people were cut up.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GANIM: Poppy, this is a pretty busy stretch of Amtrak rail lines. This was actually train number 89 en route from New York to Savannah, Georgia. But this stretch is the northeast corridor and it normally on a daily basis, more than 750,000 people ride the Northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, D.C.

Now, every couple of minutes or so, you do see very slowly, they are reintegrating service. They've been able to restore limited service and trains are passing through very slowly as the police continue as you can see behind me to investigate the scene. But no word yet on how this may impact the Monday morning commute as so many people use this stretch of rail line -- Poppy. HARLOW: All right. Sara Ganim live for us in Chester, Pennsylvania.

Again, two construction workers killed, 35 people injured. Thank you, Sara.

Coming up next, we turn back to politics. Hillary Clinton and the question of likability.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[18:25:01] BARACK OBAMA, THEN-PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're likable enough, Hillary.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you so much.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A closer look at the issue that has dogged her for years. What voters have to say about it, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Every year, pollsters at Gallup ask Americans to name the man and woman they admire most. Hillary Clinton has been the most admired for the last 14 years in a row and 20 times overall. But that isn't necessarily mean most Americans admire her because she wins with relatively small numbers in a crowd field. Just 13 percent last time, and that's telling.

Our Jonathan Mann reports some Americans argue she has a likability problem.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She doesn't seem very warm. She doesn't seem very genuine.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She has a lot of baggage. She doesn't appear honest. People haven't liked her for years.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just her personality, which is not a fair thing to say because she's a woman and she comes off as kind of serious. You hear a lot on the news about her yelling.

JONATHAN MANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They are impressions that barely scratch the surface of Hillary Clinton's decades in public life. But they are deep-seated and for Clinton, they are a problem.

Hillary Clinton has been many things. A middle class girl from the north side of Chicago, a Yale scholar, the first lady of Arkansas, and then the first lady of the United States.

After a tumultuous eight years in the White House, she would go on to serve as senator from New York, the only first lady to ever hold the post.

And then on 2007, she became a candidate for president herself. She has worn many hats and famously many pantsuits and she is judged for her clothes, her hair, her marriage, her integrity, and something much more basic -- her likability.

OBAMA: You're likeable enough, Hillary.

CLINTON: Thank you very much.

MANN: A CBS/"New York Times" poll found that 52 percent of voters have an unfavorable view of her.

[18:30:01] Donald Trump, perhaps the most polarizing politician in America today, is disliked by only slightly more voters, 57 percent.

There have been questions, scandals, investigations about a land development deal from her days in Arkansas, known as Whitewater, about the deadly attack on a U.S. diplomatic post in Benghazi, Libya when she was secretary of state. About her decision to handle her government communications on a private e-mail server.

What do all the episodes have in common? No wrongdoing was ever proven, but she was never able to wash away the stain of scandal.

MARGARET HOOVER, REPUBLICAN STRATEGIST: The problem with Hillary Clinton isn't the substance. The problem is the style. The problem is, is he the person you want to have a beer with?

MANN: And then of course there was Monica Lewinsky, her husband's relationship with a White House intern that nearly brought down his presidency.

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It's important to remember that Bill Clinton is still one of the most popular living American politicians, but the downside is those scandals. And to the extent that mentions of Monica Lewinsky dredge up a lot of memories that people would not like to relive.

MANN: There may be something else. Maybe many Americans are just uncomfortable with a women as successful and fiercely ambitious as Hillary Clinton. Years ago, she identified the problem.

CLINTON: I supposed I could have stayed home and baked cookies.

HOOVER: She again has already competed in the presidential primary eight years ago. She has been the secretary of state in the United States. By the way, the third female secretary of state in the United States. So at this point, I don't think it's sexism.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Hillary.

MANN: Supporters insist Clinton is still judged unfairly.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: So this will be a big test for the country and whether or not we're able to look past all of these cultural, social and media biases and look at the person, the individual, their leadership traits, and what they bring to the conversation. That is the big test that she will have to pass. MANN: Compare her to some of the most important men in her life

today. Clinton is not credited with Bernie Sanders' honesty, Donald Trump's candor or her husband's magnetism. But she is doggedly working toward a Democratic presidential nomination. And as she approaches the general election, she will at some point have to convince Americans that she can be the first female president of the United States. Whether they like her or not.

Jonathan Mann, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HARLOW: All right. Let's debate it. Maria Cardona, Democratic strategist, Hillary Clinton supporter with me. Bill Press , host of the "Bill Press Show" and a Bernie Sanders supporter with us as well.

Maria, let me begin with you. This issue of likability came up. You just heard it in '08. You heard Obama say she's likeable enough. What do you think this issue -- she can't sort of shake it.

MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Well, I think with somebody who has been in the public eye as long as she has. She has over two decades of literally having a national target on her back by right- wing Republicans. And it is real. It's not just perceived. There has been a whole media industry dedicated to bringing down Hillary Clinton. And for somebody who has been attacked so much, so openly, so publicly, the fact that she's still here and she's still standing and she is winning the Democratic primary right how by over 2.5 million votes, I think the likability issue is something that she can absolutely contend with in the general election by focusing on her ability to be commander-in-chief, on all of those qualities that people see in her because the fact that she has been so dogged. I think that will help her in the general election.

HARLOW: It sounds like you're saying, Maria, and I want Bill to respond, that she doesn't need to be, quote-unquote, "as likeable" because she is, according to you, the most qualified in your opinion.

Bill Press, to you, what do you say to that?

BILL PRESS, HOST, "THE BILL PRESS SHOW": Well, first, I want to say headline news here, right? I like Hillary Clinton. I find her very likeable. I know her well. When I was Democratic chair of California, I got to know her well. I've spent a lot of time with her. She's a great person. And I think this is kind of a bogus issue. But I do have to agree with Maria that this is the end result of decades.

You know, I wrote a book once called "The Obama Hate Machine." I could write another book called "The Hillary Hate Machine."

CARDONA: Right.

PRESS: They have been throwing garbage at her for years. And some of it is bound to stick unfairly so, I believe. And the third thing I'd say is, you know, look, judge a candidate -- I'm supporting Bernie, but I'll gladly support Hillary if she's the nominee. Judge a candidate by where they want to take this country, and what they will do for this country.

CARDONA: Right.

PRESS: What kind of a leader they would be. And I would say, beware of the person you'd rather have a beer with because that's what we heard about George W. Bush and look what we got.

CARDONA: That's right. That's right.

HARLOW: You know what --

CARDONA: And by the way, Poppy, it's not my opinion. It's the opinion of right now 2.5 million more votes that she's getting in the Democratic primary.

HARLOW: All right, Maria Cardona, Bill Press, I can't believe you're agreeing on something especially after the back and forth --

[18:35:03] PRESS: Well, let's get to the real issues here. Yes.

CARDONA: Absolutely.

HARLOW: The back and forth last hour, guys. I'm going to leave it --

CARDONA: See? And that's the difference.

HARLOW: I'm going to leave it at the agreement.

(CROSSTALK)

CARDONA: That's the difference between what's going on, on our side and on the Republican side .

HARLOW: I'm going to leave it at the agreement.

CARDONA: Absolutely.

HARLOW: Thank you both. We appreciate it.

PRESS: All right, Poppy.

HARLOW: Have a great week.

CARDONA: Thank you, Poppy. Great to be with you.

HARLOW: Ahead, a big contest in Wisconsin on Tuesday. The Wisconsin presidential primary. You can bet all day coverage, we'll be right here on CNN.

Coming up next, a very important story. Transgender people in North Carolina say there is a new law there that makes it legal to discriminate against them.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) CANDIS COX, TRANSGENDER WOMAN: We're all literally the same and we're all fighting for the same thing. We all just want t be accepted, we want to know that we're not going to be discriminated against.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: A live report from our Nick Valencia on the ground in North Carolina straight ahead. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Welcome back. The LGBT community and many businesses in North Carolina are putting pressure on state lawmakers right now to reverse a new law, a law that prevents cities from passing their own LGBT ordinances.

Also a firestorm brewing right now in particular over a portion of the law which requires transgender people to use the restroom of the sex that is listed on their birth certificate.

Our Nick Valencia has been reporting on this for weeks. He joins me now live from Raleigh, North Carolina.

Nick, look, there has been so much pressure on the state from, you know, folks around the country. But also from a lot of business leaders.

[18:40:10] NICK VALENCIA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. Laundry list of blue chip companies have threatened to either boycott or pull business all together out of the state of North Carolina. We decided to spend the day yesterday with a transgender person who lives her life every day as a woman in ways that matter most to her. She says now because of this new law she will have to use the men's restroom and because of that she's putting her life in danger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA (voice-over): It's Saturday in Raleigh, North Carolina. And this is a midday drag show. A fundraiser for LGBT awareness.

Candis Cox is the woman of the hour.

COX: The most important thing for me personally is that every time I close my eyes and I say a prayer and I ask my God, as a person of faith, how he feels he doesn't seem to have a problem with it, and my parents have no problem with it. And their opinion matters to me.

VALENCIA: Cox is transgender.

COX: I'm black transgender woman in North Carolina, I'm used to being stabbed so, just in my back, though, not in my eye.

VALENCIA: She says she is one of the tens of thousands of transgender people in North Carolina affected by the Public Facilities Privacy and Securities Act. It's a new state law that requires trans people to use the public restroom related to the gender on their birth certificate, not how they identify.

COX: This law affects us because it puts us in danger and it is open discrimination. It's no different than the Jim Crow laws that we had here in the south.

VALENCIA: At home, Candis and her husband, Adam Daniels, say now that's she'll be required to use the men's room they worry she'll be physically assaulted or worse.

PAUL STAM (R), NORTH CAROLINA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I would say most of the attention is because the people do not understand what the bill actually does.

VALENCIA: State House Republican Pro Temp Paul Stam is one of the bill's sponsors. Stam says the law is not about limiting the protections of the LGBT community but rather not giving them special rights.

STAM: We have lots of accommodations in the bill for those in special circumstances. But we are trying to protect the reasonable expectations of privacy of 99.9 percent of our citizens. Who think when they are going into a restroom or a changing room or a locker room that they will be private.

VALENCIA (on camera): That's you as a boy.

COX: Yes. Junior counselor.

VALENCIA (voice-over): Nineteen 19 surgeries, two trips to Thailand and more than $100,000 later Cox is post-op transgender. Though her birth certificate says she's a man she's what the trans community would call passable as a woman. But she says that doesn't make it any easier.

COX: We're all literally the same. And we're all fighting for the same thing. We all just want to be accepted and we want to know that we're not going to be discriminated against.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VALENCIA: And there is mounting pressure across the country for the state to repeal the law. But Republican lawmakers, they are not budging. Almost saying bring it on to those blue chip companies. It was just a couple of hours ago that the governor here, Pat McCrory, tweeted, "We are grateful for the outpouring of support of the commonsense bathroom privacy law in our state." Poppy.

HARLOW: Nick Valencia, reporting live for us there in Raleigh. Thank you so much, Nick. Appreciate it. He's been on the story throughout.

Coming up, it is the Washington elite versus a reckless outsider. We take a look at the lessons learned from a vicious smear campaign. We're talking about the election of 1828, Andrew Jackson versus John Quincy Adams, and if any of those lessons applied today. Stay with me.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You probably never heard of it, a sport that combines sled dog raising and cross-country skiing.

This is skijoring. And it changed Dallas Johnson's life.

DALLAS JOHNSON: The dog would there every morning. Let's go out. Let's go run. Knowing that I was working with that teammate, and not wanting to let her down. It sounds kind of silly but it gave me the emotional push to get control of my weight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let's get ready. I know the dogs are all ready to run.

GUPTA: Johnson lost more than 80 pounds and now races competitively every year in one of the country's largest skijor races.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The beautiful thing about skijor is the dogs remind you that the racing is secondary. That being out there and doing it is the important thing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love Comet. She's my buddy.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

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[18:48:40] HARLOW: Desperate, low energy, liar and fraud. The 2016 candidates have hot been shy about throwing around insults. But that is a well-worn tradition in U.S. politics if you look back history dating as far back as 1928 race between Andrew Jackson -- 1828 race, excuse me, between Andrew Jackson and John Quincy Adams. That is the focus of a fascinating episode this week of CNN's original series, "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE." Take look.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: They were calling the president of the United States a pimp. To him it showed how unfit Jackson was to be president, that he would have these mongrels around him doing this kind of thing.

KEVIN SPACEY, NARRATOR: Adams' boys hit Jackson in a most unexpected way. With a spelling bee.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Some Adams' newspapers uncovered Jackson letters, pointing out that Jackson had misspelled a number of fairly elementary words. Misspelled words like government, Congress with a K. It was, of all the accusations, perhaps the one that John Quincy Adams held most closely to privately.

John Adams believed that you ought to be something of an intellectual to lead the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Jackson's people said well, you know, George Washington misspelled a lot of words. What difference does it make?

SPACEY: Adams has shown himself to be a man disconnected from the people.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was incredibly stupid. And the average person goes, that's right, I got some imperfections and I know it and so does he and I'm voting for the guy just like me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Tim Naftali is with me. He's former director of the Nixon Presidential Library, author of the book "George H.W. Bush: The American President Series," and also a star in this series.

Thank you so much for being with me. So let's begin with this. I mean we just heard the clip talking about sort of the character assaults and turning that into a winning strategy. That's really you know, sort of apropos to the discussion today, when you talk about the character assault on Rachel Jackson and then the fight we just saw play out between Donald Trump and Ted Cruz.

TIMOTHY NAFTALI, FORMER DIRECTOR, NIXON PRESIDENTIAL LIBRARY: Well, whenever somebody says this is the worst election we have ever had in the United States, you just have to look to the election of 1828. I mean, think of it, one of the major candidates was called a bigamist.

HARLOW: Right.

NAFTALI: The other one was called a pimp. The one who was called the bigamist, Andrew Jackson, was also called a war criminal for things he had done in the war of 1812. The attacks on these men by each other and their teams was vicious and mean-spirited and it wasn't just politics because poor Rachel Jackson dies in December of 1828 after her husband wins in the November election.

HARLOW: Right.

NAFTALI: Now did she die of a broken heart? Did she die because of the slander? Who knows, but she was depressed as a result of the constant attacks that in that era took place in the newspapers.

That campaign was the beginning of modern American politics. And it's a sad thing to note that when American politics begins in the modern sense, it begins with smears.

HARLOW: What I do think is fascinating is that in this election, Adams really wouldn't meet with voters. He didn't want to meet with voters. And then you saw Jackson do the opposite. Sort of on that (INAUDIBLE), et cetera. How much did that hurt him?

NAFTALI: Well, first of all it was the American tradition not to meet with voters. What happened was that you'd be selected at a convention.

HARLOW: Right. NAFTALI: And then other people would talk you up. Sort of the

concept of surrogates that we use now. But the candidate himself wasn't supposed to present himself to the public. So what Jackson's people did, and, oh, we have to keep -- we have to tell everybody that Jackson is really, really angry. He loses the 1824 election.

HARLOW: Some people think he might use violence against Adams.

NAFTALI: And he wants to keep himself available and out there. And his people say you know what, take advantage of the anniversary of your great victory in New Orleans in 1815. Take advantage of that by taking a steamboat right down the Mississippi to New Orleans for a major anniversary event. A commemorative event. And that steamboat trip was a campaign trip. It was -- of course when we talked about 1948, we are talking about the train that Harry Truman used.

HARLOW: Right. Right.

NAFTALI: And this in a sense was Jackson's version of meeting the voters through a journey. But this was unprecedented in American history. And frankly it would take a number of decades before candidates was start really campaigning but Jackson was the first to try.

HARLOW: What's the lesson learned from 1828 in that election? Today in this election?

NAFTALI: Well, you know, I hope that the lesson is not that smearing works. Because after all, Jackson -- Jackson's people smeared Adams. Jackson wasn't the only one smeared in the campaign. I think the lesson, to the extent a 19th century election can provide us a lesson, was that letting the voters see you, letting the voters actually benefit from your charisma is always helpful.

HARLOW: That's playing out this year.

NAFTALI: Adams -- well, Adams was, was part of that revolutionary tradition. He was the son of an American president. As far as he was concerned, it was beneath the office of the presidency to campaign.

HARLOW: He sort of represented more of the Washington elite.

NAFTALI: Exactly.

HARLOW: And Jackson represented the outside.

NAFTALI: The outsiders who wanted a chance at power. And that was the argument Jackson made in 1828 and it's an argument that we're seeing made by a number of people this time around.

HARLOW: It's such a great episode. I loved every moment of it. The drama brought to life.

NAFTALI: Yes.

HARLOW: And Tim Naftali is part of it. NAFTALI: Thank you.

HARLOW: Thank you so much, my friend. Good to have you on.

NAFTALI: Poppy, my pleasure.

HARLOW: Don't miss it tonight, the "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE," narrated by Kevin Spacey, 9:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific, only right here on CNN.

Quick break. We'll be right back.

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[18:58:43] HARLOW: And finally tonight's number, it is appropriately about March Madness and your brackets. One in 9.2 quintrillion, that is our number tonight. Those are your staggering odds of having a perfect bracket for the March Madness college basketball tournament. "USA Today" crunching those numbers and just take a look, it is 9 followed by 18 zeros. Surprise we could fit that on the screen.

The odds are so low that the paper notes it is 500,000 times more than our national debt and you'd have a better chance of hitting four holes in one in a single round of golf than getting a perfect bracket.

One thing you do not have to worry about, and that is bracket competition from yours truly. The art of bracket-making has eluded me this year, resulting in a humbling 12-place finish among my CNN colleagues but let's pause for a moment and show you who actually filled out my bracket. That is right, our senior producer, Peter Kaplan.

Peter, let's do better next year. I think I will stick with my day job.

Thank you all for being with us. Tonight we've got a great line-up ahead on CNN. First, a triple header of the "RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE." Bush versus Dukakis at 7:00 p.m. then at 8:00 p.m. Eastern Truman versus Dewey, at 9:00, an all-new episode, Jackson versus Adams. And at 10:00 p.m., do not miss the latest in Bill Weir's series, "THE WONDER LIST." He takes us down the mighty Colorado River.

I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. Have a great weekend.

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