[Blackwell:] Donald Trump has a new general election strategy, and just like his campaign, it's unconventional. He wants to try to paint traditionally blue states red, including California. It's not seen a Republican win since the 1980s. Listen to what he said in Fresno last night.
[Donald Trump,  Presidential Candidate:] No other Republican, let's say Ted Cruz won or let's say any one of them won, they wouldn't even come here for dinner, because they are told that as a Republican you have zero chance, OK? I really believe we're going to win it. I think we have a real chance to win it. And you know what, I view it strategically also, because if we don't win it, they are going to spend one hell of a fortune in fighting me off, that I can tell you.
[Blackwell:] Let's talk about that part of what he just said. Let's bring Katrina Pierson, national spokesperson for the Trump campaign, and Angela Rye, CNN political commentator and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. Good to have both of you this morning. Katrina, I want to start with you. How much of this is a real belief and strategy to win California, or is Donald Trump just trying to drain the coffers of the Democratic nominee?
[Katrina Pierson, National Spokesperson, Trump Campaign:] No, I think Mr. Trump does believe he can win California. I think we've seen from the beginning of this campaign that Mr. Trump has been underestimated from the beginning. There are a lot of independents and a lot of Democrats that do support Mr. Trump, and we've seen now that he's been able to break records even on the Republican side.
[Blackwell:] So, Angela, we know that there are some states along the rust belt that the Democrats will have to fight for that are typically Democratic states. If we go out to the west coast, are Democrats concerned that Donald Trump can take California?
[Angela Rye, Cnn Political Commentator:] I think to Katrina's point, he had been underestimated, and it's unfortunate on the Democratic side and really for the other really Republican candidates who he beat that he has been underestimated. The reality of this is we have to fight a 50-state battle. Howard Dean when he was chair of the DNC made it very clear that we need to play in all 50 states. What playing in 50 states looks like is up to each presidential candidate to decide. What I will say to you is, if Donald Trump continues down the same vein that he's been going down in terms of his rhetoric, which sparked all types of protests yesterday in California where he says he wants to play, and if he ever introduces a substantive policy agenda that matches the violent rhetoric that he's continued to spew and the vitriol and bigotry behind it, I don't think we have anything to worry about at all. I think Californians just like the rest of Americans are much smarter than that and won't buy into that type of hateful rhetoric.
[Blackwell:] Katrina, let me come to you with what happened yesterday in San Diego. We have pictures up now. And we have had Democrats and Republicans all morning long who have gone back and forth for on whom the onus is for what we saw here. Does Donald Trump have a responsibility to come out and denounce what we saw here? We saw a tweet here saying thanks to the police department for controlling the thugs. I think we have it. We can put it up where he says "Fantastic job on handling thugs who tried to disrupt our very peaceful and well- attended rally. Greatly appreciated." Does that help?
[Pierson:] It absolutely helps for a couple of reasons. Most people in this country don't believe that it's bigoted and racist to enforce current United States laws on immigration. But more importantly with regard to California and the protesters, Mr. Trump has already come out several times and condemned the violence at these rallies, but we've also figured out it's not Trump people. These are paid agitator in many cases that are escalating. We are seeing people debase public property, violence against police officers.
[Rye:] Who pays them, Katrina?
[Pierson:] You can go to Craigslist, Moveon.org. Bill Ayers was out at the Chicago rally talking about it.
[Rye:] Katrina, that's ridiculous.
[Blackwell:] Hold on for a second, Angela.
[Pierson:] George Soros funded some of these. It's all on the Internet. Ads have been placed by these organizations. They've been tweeting about it.
[Blackwell:] You're saying that there are ads on Craigslist to hire protestors.
[Pierson:] Yes, and Moveon.org. And they have tweeted about it from the beginning, taking credit for having these protestors out there.
[Blackwell:] Angela, to ahead and respond to that.
[Rye:] Sure. A couple things, one is, it's ridiculous. Moveon.org, I don't have any basis for this, so let me be careful. I'm actually someone who comes on air and is careful to be sure I have fact-based arguments and not propaganda.
[Pierson:] As am
[I. Rye:] No, you're not, Katrina. That's why you got called out by Wolf the other day because you're really not. But here's what I will say.
[Blackwell:] Let her finish.
[Pierson:] No, I'm not going to sit there and let her go on.
[Blackwell:] Katrina, I asked Angela to stop for to you speak. And now I'm asking you to stop for Angela to speak. Angela, go ahead.
[Rye:] So what I was going to say is of course there are people who are based and rooted in progressive organizations that are encouraging people to get out and be heard and to fight against this type of conduct. There's a young man who was outside protesting yesterday that wore a shirt that says "I just look like an illegal immigrant." At the rally where they're protesting, Donald Trump, of course he was in town for two reasons. He wants to win California, but he also wants to win that civil suit where he defrauded hundreds of people for attending Trump University. He calls the federal judge in the case a hater and then he says he's a Mexican. How curious is that that this guy who has all kinds of vitriol towards Mexican people has now called this man out as a Mexican. I watched a Trump supporter agitate these protesters. I've heard people who attended the rally yesterday say Trump supporters literarily were going around the block to agitate people. I watch a man in a Kobe Bryant jersey flip someone off and then shortly thereafter get arrested. Let's be honest, if people are getting paid, I don't know who they're getting paid by. I'm sure hundreds of these people if you talk to them they will tell you they're out there speaking up for their rights. They're tired of being oppressed and they're tired of the victim blaming coming out of this campaign. Those are the facts whether you like them or now. They are the facts.
[Blackwell:] Angela, what about those people who came to protest? We know the police came there and tried to allow the people at the event to leave safely and peacefully but were agitated by some of the protesters who were there. So this is on both sides. And let me say, we don't know the political affiliation or the alliances of the nearly three dozen people who were arrested. We don't know if they were all Democrats or all Republicans.
[Rye:] Or mixed. It was both. And I think that here's the reality of this. You see a scene at one point where there's a man and he's been at several events saying free hugs. His sign is free hugs. There's a white guy in front of him that is throwing punches at the other side. So you can assume, again I won't do that, but it's very clear that tensions are high on both sides. And at some point someone who wants to president should act presidential and stop being immature and be accountable for this hate speech.
[Blackwell:] Katrina, I want to give you an opportunity to respond.
[Pierson:] Thank you. If you have to be escorted out of a political rally, that tells you everything you need to know about the protesters. And they don't need to be agitated. These individuals were not agitated. And, yes, they were paid. And those signs do have "La Raza" on there. They wore Bernie Sanders t-shirts. And you don't have to accept that. The video is out there and has been playing since this whole thing started. And yes, it is Moveon.org and other progressive organizations and some funded by the government, particularly those in California. This is out there. It's been covered in the media. It has been fact based and it is proven. You can reject it all you want.
[Blackwell:] Katrina, you have evidence that the protesters were paid by the government?
[Pierson:] These organizations, yes, these organizations have been paid to go out there and protest these rallies. And CNN should really do a special on that and really open the eyes of the viewers.
[Blackwell:] If you've got the evidence, e-mail it to me.
[Pierson:] I will do that right now.
[Blackwell:] All right, Katrina Peterson, Angela Rye, we have to wrap it there. We went longer than we should have. But I thank you both for being with us. I'll look for that e-mail, Katrina.
[Pierson:] You got it, Victor.
[Blackwell:] All right.
[Rye:] You're going to be waiting a long time.
[Paul:] All right, talking about those tense scenes like we were just seeing in San Diego, those are scenes keeping officials awake at night in Cleveland. We're talking to the president of the Cleveland city council about how that city is hoping to prevent violence at this summer's Republican convention. Also the United States as a, quote, "rouge nation" under Donald Trump as one person said, and the prospect of pot use in the White House, we're talking about it all with two leading libertarian candidates for president.