[Sen. Ted Cruz , Texas:] We gave it everything we've got, but the voters chose another path.
[John Berman, Cnn Anchor:] The Cruz campaign over. Donald Trump wins Indiana and overnight, the Republican Party chair declares Donald Trump will be the presumptive Republican nominee.
[Sen. Bernie Sanders , Democratic Presidential Candidate:] I think we can pull off one of the great political upsets in the history of the United States.
[Christine Romans, Cnn Anchor:] Bernie Sanders winning Indiana. A big upset against Hillary Clinton, keeping his campaign and momentum alive. Good morning. Welcome to EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
[Berman:] Great to see you. I'm John Berman. It is Wednesday, May 4th, 4:00 a.m. in the East. And the breaking news this morning: Donald Trump, he has knocked Ted Cruz out of the race. Donald Trump won the Indiana primary. He won it huge. And now according to the chair of the Republican Party, Donald Trump will be the presumptive Republican nominee. Look at this. Donald Trump beat Cruz by more than 16 points, 180,000 votes in Indiana. He picked up at least 51 delegates, probably 57 by the time it's all over. And Cruz delivered the hard news to his crushed supporters.
[Cruz:] And so, with a heavy heart, but with boundless optimism for the long-term future of our nation, we are suspending our campaign.
[Berman:] You hear the shouts from the surprised audience there. Late last night, Donald Trump praised Ted Cruz, calling this withdrawal a brave thing to do. CNN's Jim Acosta with the Trump campaign has the latest.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] John and Christine, Donald Trump and his entire family were caught completely by surprise by Ted Cruz's announcement that he was dropping out of the GOP race. Trump trounced Cruz in the Indiana primary, a contest that the Texas senator had basically described as a must win. Trump's son, Donald Trump Jr., told CNN that his father and the entire family were shocked as they watched Cruz make his announcement, and Trump sounded very gracious as he praised Cruz for getting out of the race. A big contrast compared to what he was saying about Cruz earlier in the day. Here's what he had to say.
[Donald Trump , Presidential Candidate:] Ted Cruz, I don't know if he likes me or he doesn't like me, but he's one hell of a competitor. He's a tough, smart guy.
[Acosta:] Trump also made the pivot to the general election campaign, saying he was ready to take on Hillary Clinton, and he even reached out to African-American and Hispanic voters in his remarks. But Trump still plans to keep on campaigning, saying he will continue on with stops in West Virginia and Nebraska set for later this week John and Christine.
[Romans:] All right, Jim Acosta thanks, Jim. Let's talk about last night's developments in Indiana. CNN senior reporter for media and politics, Dylan Byers, senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, host of "RELIABLE SOURCES", and political economist, Greg Valliere, he's the chief strategist to Horizon Investments. All three of you, good morning. Let's start with you, Brian. Your headline from the GOP side of this race grace overnight, Donald Trump nailed it again.
[Brian Stelter, Cnn Senior Media Correspondent:] Yes, and the Never Trump movement loses again. Whether this is the end of the GOP race or whether it will officially end in a few weeks from now with the California race, the Never Trump movement once again losing in a very dramatic way. And $75 million in TV ads were spend just on broadcast TV trying to stop Trump in recent weeks and months. That has failed. You see that with Ted Cruz getting out of this race, acknowledging Trump is the presumptive nominee.
[Berman:] And, Greg, you know, perhaps the most important development came last night, besides Donald Trump sweeping Indiana. A tweet from Reince Priebus, Reince Priebus is the Republican Party chair, who we'll hear from a little in "NEW DAY," tweeted this, "Real Donald will be presumptive GOP nominee. We all need to unite and focus on defeating Hillary Clinton. Never Clinton," he says. This essentially, Greg, right, the Republican Party officially lining behind Donald Trump. Who would have seen this coming?
[Greg Valliere, Chief Strategist, Horizon Investments:] Right. I think that for now, the big story is going to be, will the Republican Party coming to, will they unify. I think they will. It's not going to be pretty. There are going to be a lot of people, Bush Republicans, John McCain Republicans, who will never support Trump. I think by and large, the party will hold its nose and unify behind Trump.
[Romans:] Unify behind Trump. You know, I got to tell you, Dylan, when you look at some of the exit poll, it shows the primary season so far had been contentious for Republicans. When asked if whether they're energized by the campaign or divided, 56 percent said it's divided the party. Can they unify here and move forward? Can they rally behind, Dylan, their candidate now?
[Dylan Byers, Cnn Senior Reporter For Media And Politics:] Yes, I mean, look, I disagree. I think for many Republicans, certainly the ones who rallied behind the never Trump or stop Trump cause, I don't see them coming around to Donald Trump. I do think what we called the so-called Republican establishment, you know, the RNC, Republican National Committee, I think they have to rally behind the candidate who has the most delegates, or who has 1,237 delegates, and that will be Donald Trump. You can see that in the RNC chairman's statement. But I think there are a lot of Republicans out there who believe that in order to save the party, they actually have to stand up against Donald Trump. I don't think that necessarily means fighting for Hillary Clinton but I do think it means sort of standing on the principles of what the Republican Party has historically been about. I think if you look, for instance, at the Republican media, say "The Weekly Standard", if you look at "The National Review", if you look a lot of conservative media throughout the country, conservative radio, those are people who have vowed forever not to stand with Trump, and I'm not sure all of those people are going to be willing to go back on that pledge.
[Berman:] Look, you know, Mark Salter, who was John McCain's speech writer, Ben Howe, who's a blogger at RedState.com, they both tweeted yesterday using the hashtag #Imwithher, meaning I'm with Hillary, indicating they will vote for Hillary Clinton. Ben Sasse, the senator from Nebraska, the next voting primary, a week from now, in Nebraska, Ben Sasse has made clear that he has no plans to vote for Donald Trump. And Ted Cruz, in his victory speech or not victory speech in his concession speech, in his dropping speech last night, Brian Stelter, did not mention Donald Trump by name. And Ted Cruz just yesterday called Donald Trump a pathological liar.
[Stelter:] Yes, these last hours of Cruz's race and Trump's treatment of Cruz in the last hour was astonishing these claims involving Oswald and the JFK assassination, really disturbing stuff. It was only hours before Trump praised Cruz on stage once Cruz had left the race. I mean, to see it end like this is partly what makes it so historic. The word historic is overused, but we are talking about a billionaire businessman, reality TV star, who will be the GOP nominee. That is a once in a generation sort of moment for this country, a true outsider, right? We assume it's always going to be a governor, or a senator, or a congressman or someone else who has a political background. That actually for once in our lifetime is not happening, and one of the reasons why this is extraordinary. Yet at the same time, people like Bill Kristol already calling for a third party, calling for someone else to enter the race. We saw people posting pictures of themselves burning their Republican voter ID information. That kind of thing, we certainly have not seen that before.
[Romans:] Greg, let's talk about the angst he's tapped into here, because he has, if you look at Indiana, it has the highest percentage of manufacturing jobs of any state in the country. It's where Carrier, that air-conditioning company, is located. Revival that video of the economy on the factory floor being told, these workers being told that their jobs were going to be moving to Mexico. That tapped right into what Donald Trump is selling here, this what some would call an isolationist view of going backwards to an old days view of what manufacturing looks like in America. That's really been working for him. Are we going to hear more about that from him? Is that going to be the kind of story line, the policy story line of this election?
[Valliere:] Absolutely. And you've got to say Bernie Sanders also tapped into that last night, this great antipathy toward free trade that even has dragged Hillary into opposing free trade. I think that's going to be a dominant theme. I think Trump obviously has to win Michigan and some Rust Belt states, a long shot. But this really strong opposition to free trade, this economic angst, as you say, is one of the major, major plot lines of this election.
[Berman:] All right, guys. Stand by. A lot more to discuss coming up.
[Romans:] That's right. And Bernie Sanders winning Indiana, pitching his path to victory over Hillary Clinton in the race for president.
[Sanders:] So, we feel great about tonight, not only in winning here in Indiana and accumulating more delegates, but also gaining the momentum we need to take us to the finish line.