[Lemon:] Donald Trump declaring himself the presumptive GOP nominee following his big sweep in the five northeast primaries. Yet, Ted Cruz makes the unusual move of naming Carly Fiorina as his vice presidential running mate. I want to talk about this now with CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord, who is supporting Donald Trump, he is with us via Skype, also here Ron Nehring, California chairman for Ted Cruz, and Matt Lewis, senior contributor for The Daily Caller who is the author of "Too Dumb to fail." Good evening to all of you. Ron, you first.
[Jeffrey Lord, Cnn Political Commetnator:] Good evening.
[Ron Nehring, Ted Cruz's California Chairman:] Hello, Don.
[Lemon:] Ted Cruz, you know, picks Carly Fiorina for a running mate. Why Carly Fiorina and why now?
[Nehring:] Well, boy, Carly Fiorina is a real superstar. You know, she ran for the U.S. Senate for California when I was the state party chairman there in 2010, and she really electrifies republicans. She connects really, really well. She's a very, very solid on all of the issues that republicans are concerned about today, that the country is concerned about today. And once Senator Cruz made a decision to choose Carly Fiorina, there was no real reason to wait on that decision. Let's get that information out there, let's have the announcement today and let the voters decide. She's only going to strengthen the ticket and provides another person to go out and campaign, you know, very, very strongly for Senator Cruz's leadership and now voters know who they'll get when Senator Cruz is the nominee.
[Lemon:] I want you to take a listen to this. This is Donald Trump reacting tonight to Ted Cruz's V-pick.
[Trump:] On television they say it nicely. "He has no path to victory." That's a nice expression, right. No path to victory. He's got no path to victory. He's mathematically eliminated. It's like if you're playing in the World Series and your team loses a game, a certain game he's mathematically eliminated. He has set a record, though. He is the first presidential candidate in the history of this country whose mathematically eliminated from becoming president who chose a vice presidential candidate, OK?
[Lemon:] I mean, he said no path to victory here, Ron? Is it time to throw in the towel? Because many say he's just trying to change the narrative here and get some good news on his side.
[Nehring:] Well, you know, as for Donald Trump who models himself as being the most unpredictable guy out there, the great negotiator, the flexible guy, he seems to react really predictably to every single thing that happens, which is to throw, you know, insults out there and, you know, highly personalize everything and go on some kind type tear. So, that's not really surprising at all. Look, Donald Trump is going to be mathematically eliminated from this race on or before, you know, June 7th because this is going to a contested convention, there will be multiple ballots. And there will be no nominee that will come out in the first ballot. But we're going to have Ted Cruz the nominee on the second ballot. That's where this thing is heading. He knows that. And if he didn't you know, if he really was on a pathway to become the nominee, he wouldn't flip out the way that he does. He wouldn't you know, he would just blow it off and so on. But instead he goes on this tear because he knows he's not getting the altitude. Because every other republican nominee in recent times has been able to consolidate the republican base by this time. And he can't do that because he winds up insulting everybody and alienating those...
[Lemon:] Well, I think Jeffrey Lord probably disagrees with that. As a matter of fact, Jeffrey, do I see you laughing?
[Nehring:] I would be stunned if Jeffrey Lord disagrees with that.
[Lord:] Well, look, Gerald Ford didn't agree with this kind of thing either. And he had not consolidated the base by the time he got nominated in 1976. Look, I would actually, I don't want to make Ron faint but I would agree with this description of Carly Fiorina. She's terrific. I mean, I have no bones to pick with Carly Fiorina. It's just the simple math fact that Senator Cruz, whom I also like, is losing. That's just that's the fact. He lost here in Pennsylvania. As a matter of fact, I'm writing a column this minute, this is the first time in history that I can I can research that anybody of either party has carried all 67 counties of Pennsylvania in any election. And Donald Trump managed to do that.
[Lemon:] Yes.
[Lord:] Not to mention all the states and all the counties he carried in all these other states.
[Lemon:] Yes.
[Lord:] What this says is that Senator Cruz, God bless him, just has not been able to strike a chord here in the northeastern United States and he needs this to have an election victory, as did Ronald Reagan, who did carry Pennsylvania.
[Lemon:] Yes. I was waiting to see how long it would take for to you bring up Ronald Reagan, since he's right there over your shoulder. But I hate to tell you, Jeffrey, but you're on television right now. You're not writing a column this moment. But when we...
[Lord:] But that's still historical fact, Don.
[Lemon:] I know. I'm just messing with you.
[Lord:] Those who carried 67 counties period in modern history that I can find period.
[Lemon:] So, Matt, to you now, you say that this move with Carly Fiorina is both a smart pick and an act of desperation. Why do you say that?
[Matt Lewis, "too Dumb To Fail" Author:] Well, look, they're not mutually exclusive, you know. If you're down by you're down by a touchdown and time is running out, you throw a Hail Mary, that's not dumb, that's smart. That's what you do. I actually wrote a column over a month ago saying that Ted Cruz should have picked Carly Fiorina as his running mate back then. And I think had he done it back then, he would be in better shape today, but better late than never.
[Lemon:] Yes. Hey, I want to ask you, you also wrote something today on Twitter. You wrote quite a lot on Twitter. You said, here's what you said oh, Eric Trump did, not you. Donald this is what the critics took to Twitter right away. I'm sorry, not you. And here's what Eric trump said.
[Lord:] Don't confuse that, it's Donald.
[Lemon:] Yes. He said, "This is truly one of the greatest acts of desperation I have ever seen." Hash tag, Cruz, hash tag grasping a throat. And then there is one. It's from john Brabender. He said "If Donald Trump wins Indiana next week, does Ted Cruz then announce his cabinet picks? Just curious." So, I was just talking about this, Matt, with Gloria and Mark.
[Lord:] That's good.
[Lemon:] The math really is against Cruz at this point. How can he change the outcome here?
[Lewis:] Well, look, I think he has to win Indiana. And the interesting thing is that I don't know that Carly Fiorina, for all the guide things I think she can do, and I think she could help. Look, you know, having her go against Donald Trump every day, baiting him potentially into mixing it up with her would not be good for Trump. And then she can go after Hillary Clinton in a way that I'm not sure a man can. She's tough. She can take the fight. But I don't know that it helps him i Indiana. And that's the bottom line Cruz has to win Indiana. If he doesn't, then I think it is game over.
[Lemon:] All right. Everyone stay with me because we have lots more to talk about for the race in the race for the White House. We'll be right back.