[Costello:] The battleground state of Michigan is shaping up to be a supersized battle for Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders. And now voters get to have their say. Clinton and Sanders are locked in a war of words over the auto bailout. But with the general election looming, are the candidates possibly eyeing ways to bridge the divide in their bid to defeat the Republicans? Our senior White House correspondent Jim Acosta is here with me now with more on that. Good morning.
[Jim Acosta, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] Good morning, Carol. That's right. It has been a tough battle between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders for this Democratic nomination. And, you know you know, this is making its way into the questions. Hillary Clinton today, town hall, yesterday, she was asked whether or not she considers Bernie Sanders an ally or an enemy, considering how nasty this fight has been between these two candidates over the last several months. And here's how she answered that question.
[Unidentified Male:] Secretary Clinton, when you think of Senator Sanders, do you consider him an enemy or ally?
[Clinton:] An ally, for sure. And here's how I think about it, Samuel. We have differences, and we are passionate about our positions and our differences, and, you know, like we saw in the debate last night, we air those differences about issues. I hope to win the nomination. If I am so fortunate, I hope to work with him.
[Acosta:] Now why is this why is this so interesting, Carol? It's because, obviously, this conversation brings up the subject of the deep stakes. It may be early to be talking about this on the Democratic side, but the moderator of that town hall, Bret Baier over at FOX News, asked right after that response, you know, Madam Secretary, would you consider Bernie Sanders as your VP, and she said, oh no, no, let's not get ahead of ourselves here, but this is a conversation that is occurring in Democratic circles. I talked to several Democratic strategists this morning who said yes, it makes sense to consider Bernie Sanders as the vice presidential running mate for Hillary Clinton. He would bring a lot of enthusiasm to the ticket. One of the Sanders' top advisers, Tadd Devine, was saying to Politico earlier this week that, yes, maybe he should be on the ticket. Now when you talk to other when you talk to these Democratic strategists about this, Carol, they'll say yes, Bernie Sanders should be considered, but there are other names being floated out there, and the first among them it seems at this point is Tim Kaine, the Democratic senator from Virginia. Obviously the HUD secretary is being mentioned as well, Julian Castro. And so this is going to be interesting to watch over the coming months. But the Clinton campaign, they want no part of this. They don't want to talk about this at this point. They feel like that's getting ahead of theirselves, and it may just energize the Sanders campaign if some of these talks gets going. And so that is something they're trying to avoid at this point Carol.
[Costello:] All right. Jim Acosta reporting live for us this morning. Thank you. Super Tuesday round two, just part of the big political week here on CNN. We'll have complete coverage all day of the primaries in four states. Tomorrow the Democrats will debate in Miami. On Thursday, the Republicans will also debate in Miami. You can see it all right here on CNN. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, new reports suggesting Iran has already violated that nuclear deal. So what happened?