Trump Campaigns in Arizona; Cruz Attends Private Fundraisers in Los Angeles; Trump, Cruz Play Nice
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Just after 9:00 PM here in New York, a new day on the campaign trail as leading republicans try to capitalize on last night's CNN Debate. They got a lot of exposure, more than 18 million people watched. The focus, national security, stopping terror attacks, fighting ISIS. There's new development tonight on all those fronts, but first, how the two frontrunners tried today to turn their debate performance into a post-debate bounce. Jeff Zeleny is with the Trump campaign in Mesa, Arizona. Sunlen Serfaty is in Los Angeles with Ted Cruz. Let's start with Jeff. Donald Trump's speech in Arizona, almost like a self-declared victory lap.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, it's certainly seen that if Donald Trump was subdued last night, he certainly was not today. He entered this rally in dramatic fashion. He was landing his airplane right in the front of a hangar. Loud, loud music from the Air Force 1 soundtrack. Not surprisingly here. So this is all part of his plan to, you know, if you say you're winning, you are winning, you keep winning. But boy, Anderson, there was no specifics about policy. There was nothing really discussed that would, you know, change any voters' minds, if someone will sort of came to him with an open mind and wasn't quite sure about him. He talked about how he's leading in the polls. He listed 13 separate online polls. He read from a sheet of paper, saying he won the debate last night. And so Donald Trump is obsessed about these polls, about winning. The question is, if he ever does not win in one of the actual contests in Iowa or New Hampshire or South Carolina, what will happen then? There was no talk about that today. It was a victory day for Donald Trump.</s>COOPER: You know, before the debate and the days before, he had said some critical things about Ted Cruz. He got kind of attacked or cautioned, I guess, by Rush Limbaugh, Mark Levin, radio -- conservative radio for going after Ted Cruz. At the debate, he had the opportunity to repeat the things, he walked it back. Did Trump say anything about Cruz today?</s>ZELENY: He said very little about Ted Cruz. He embraced him a little bit more. He said he's a very nice guy and that's all he had to say about Ted Cruz. So Anderson, this is one of the most fascinating dynamics of the race here. Ted Cruz is a serious candidate. He's leading Donald Trump in Iowa. Most respected polls say he is growing nationally, but Donald Trump is not taking him on. It's the first time we've seen this happen in this campaign. So far, it's good for business for both of them, to sort of embrace one another. But I have to think that that will change coming in the New Year, when Ted Cruz continues to ascend here. But for today, at least, he did not talk about him at all. He did seem to relish going after Jeb Bush yet again. He clearly got under skin at the debate last night. So Donald Trump had some more words for Jeb Bush. But for Ted Cruz, it is all happiness and hugs and light. We'll see if that keeps up. I'm not sure it will.</s>COOPER: Happiness, hugs, and light. Jeff Zeleny thanks very much. Now Ted Cruz spent more time last night squaring off with Marco Rubio than Trump. For that, let's go to Sunlen Serfaty in Los Angeles. Did Cruz address Trump at all today?</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, keeping in line with last night's debate, Anderson, Ted Cruz said not a single bad word about Donald Trump today. It was all positive. And he really seemed to go out of his way to praise Donald Trump today, saying he's energized with a lot of voters and he's happy that a lot of voters will potentially be coming out to vote. You know, this is a well-masked strategy by Ted Cruz here, making sure that he doesn't alienate Trump's supporters, wants to woo them over to his side, if they should come. And he seems for the most part really determined to stick to that strategy, at least publicly, and for the short time at least at his sights really hone in on Marco Rubio.</s>COOPER: And about Rubio, he's suggesting Rubio's campaign is now nervous. What do you have to say about that?</s>SERFATY: Well that's right. At least four times today, Ted Cruz mentioned that he does think that Rubio and his campaign are getting a little nervous. And that was the reason he said he thinks that they clashed repeatedly during last night's debate. But this, of course, has been a battle that is a long time coming between the two senators, really previewing, potentially, what this -- how this dynamic could play out on the campaign trail and will continue to dominate, most likely. Very clear that both of these senators understand the very real threat that the other poses to their path forward and they're ready to take each other on.</s>COOPER: All right Sunlen, thanks very much. Joining us now is CNN chief national correspondent, John King, host of "CNN Inside Politics". Also "Washington Post" syndicated columnist, conservative, Kathleen Parker, and CNN political commentator Jeffrey Lord, who's a Trump supporter and served as White House political director during the Reagan administration. It was interesting to see Trump and Cruz finding kind of new ways to stay out of each other's way in the debate last night.</s>KATHLEEN PARKER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: Well, yes, I think the comments were just exactly right. They're obviously trying not to alienate each other's followings in the hopes that, you know, should -- obviously one of them is going to leave the other one behind, so they want to be able to bring those supporters with them.</s>COOPER: And actually polls kind of show that for our trust board is there -- for a lot of them, their second choice would be Cruz, same with Dr. Carson, their second choice would be Cruz.</s>PARKER: Right. And they're really such different candidates. But Cruz is really, you know, he's got such a sophisticated ground game. He's been working on his infrastructure all along, sort of for a while, off the radar a bit, and now he's kind of, you know, he's the horse at the backside, pulling up.</s>COOPER: Right.</s>PARKER: And ahead of everyone else.</s>COOPER: If it's not just a ground game in Iowa or in a lot of southern states as well.</s>PARKER: It's all over, yeah. He's got the -- he's sort of got what Mitt Romney once have which is, you know, spreadsheets and lots of people on the ground. So he's in a good position to play the long game. And I do think he is probably -- you know, I would predict he's going to win Iowa. And then I don't know what Mr. Trump feels about that. And how -- you know, because he has always talked about the polls, what you have to realize is that's all he talks about. You know, when there are no polls to cite, when he can't just keep saying, "I'm winning, I'm winning," he's not talking about anything substantive in there at all. So that's -- all we're hearing about is he's winning.</s>COOPER: Right, what happens if he doesn't?</s>PARKER: So when he doesn't win, I don't know about what's left.</s>COOPER: Right, it would be interesting to see. John, how do you see Marco Rubio playing to all of this? I mean, he certainly seems to be a candidate who has consistently played a long game, waiting patiently for others to drop off, even if that may not actually happen.</s>JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR, "INSIDE POLITICS": Well that may not happen until after New Hampshire and part of the question for Marco Rubio's lane in this race is where is he by then, Anderson. You're right, he's been patient and in most national polls now he's in third place but it's a pretty distant third place or fourth place, lumped with Dr. Carson, and you have Trump and Cruz at the top. The question in this race really is how many lanes do we have? Ted Cruz is a classic evangelical candidate who, I agree with Kathleen, is surging in Iowa right now. He also adds in a significant tea party element. Those are the two energetic bases of the Republican Party right now. If Cruz gets a big win in Iowa, what does Trump do? Does he go on and try to win New Hampshire, or does that somehow fundamentally change the campaign? And so we have the evangelical tea party candidate in Cruz. We have the disruptive outsider in Donald Trump, who's not really an ideological candidate. He's just a disruptive force in the republican party. And then will there be a mainstream establishment candidate? And Marco Rubio wants to be that candidate. He's ascendant at the moment, but Jeb Bush still wants to be that candidate. Chris Christie, who's gaining ground in New Hampshire wants to be that candidate. John Kasich wants to be that candidate. Of the outsiders, you could say Carly Fiorina could be that kind of a candidate. Well, not all of them can survive. And so the question for Marco Rubio is, yeah, he's a good debater, yeah, he's moving up right now, but where is he going to win?</s>COOPER: And Jeff, for Donald Trump, for your candidate, and to Kathleen's point, if in Iowa he does not win, what happens? I mean, if he doesn't have a poll to tout, does he just move on, and look to New Hampshire or look to South Carolina?</s>JEFFREY LORD, FORMER REAGAN W.H. POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Sure, of course. I mean, which is -- that's exactly, as a matter of fact, what happened to Ronald Reagan. He lost Iowa to George H. W. Bush. And he went right on to New Hampshire and won New Hampshire and then on to South Carolina, et cetera. And as a matter of fact, he lost some more primaries to Bush along the way. He lost my home state of Pennsylvania in April of 1980, I mean, you know, well down the road. So, this is going to be a long march here. This is not going to be decided in Iowa or New Hampshire either. We're going to go on for quite some time. And that's where you get into questions of organization and money and resources and all of that.</s>COOPER: And Kathleen, how vulnerable do you think Marco Rubio is on immigration, given his past legislative record?</s>PARKER: Well, very. I mean, that's a problem for him. And that sort of explains the animus between him and Ted Cruz too. You know, nobody -- none of Ted Cruz's colleagues like him because he's always been about himself, primarily. And he, you know, works with the house to shut down the government. So, you know, they very much resent him. And then he's also taking pride, Cruz is, in reminding people that he actually fought Marco Rubio on his immigration plans. So he can kind of stand out in the -- you know, as sort of the fire against immigration versus poor Marco, who is trying to do what I think most Americans think should be done.</s>COOPER: John, I mean, just last as we...</s>LORD: Anderson.</s>COOPER: Go ahead. Sorry, go ahead, Jeff.</s>LORD: Anderson, one thing that I think we're not thinking about here, in all the presidential history, only three United States senators have gone from the senate to the White House directly, it was President Obama, President Kennedy, and President Warren Harding. We've had lots and lots and lots of senators, some of them very well known like Ted Kennedy, Barry Goldwater, George McGovern, others, who run for president and either lose the nomination or get the nomination and lose the White House itself. So, I think that perhaps where we may be looking at a phenomenon here of two senators battling here, and whether or not they'll emerge, whether their job itself is, you know, is innately a problem for them. I think we'll find out.</s>COOPER: Interesting. John, how long do you see this going? I mean, how long does this race go on for?</s>KASICH: I wish I had that crystal ball. But, you know, this -- we have -- we're in role reversal this year that looks like, now, you know, Bernie Sanders is still a credible candidate, don't get me wrong. But you could look at data and say you can see the democratic race ending relatively soon. Hillary Clinton has a chance to put it away relatively soon. She's almost the it's-your-turn candidate that we normally have in the Republican primaries. This Republican race, let's assume Cruz wins Iowa. Trump is well ahead right now in New Hampshire. Now, we move on to South Carolina where Trump leads at the moment. Then this is why you have to keep an eye on Ted Cruz. Iowa does not have a great history of picking presidential nominees. Yes, George W. Bush won there for republicans and went on to win the nomination. But Mike Huckabee won there. He was essentially a one state wonder. Rick Santorum won there. He went on to win 11 another states but Mitt Romney had it locked up pretty much by then and Santorum won some of those states. I don't need to beat up on Senator Santorum, he worked really hard at that campaign. But he won some of those states simply because he wasn't Mitt Romney. And you get down to that point in the race. The Republican party changed its calendar this year. So you have -- you're going to have the SEC primary on March 1st. Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Tennessee, Texas, Virginia, Louisiana, Florida are right around those states as well. Some other southern states as well, Ted Cruz is not Mike Huckabee or Rick Santorum because as Kathleen noted, he has a good organization, he has a good team and Anderson, he has money.</s>COOPER: Yeah.</s>KASICH: And so if this race stretches on, this race stretches on, that's the question. Will Trump start digging into his own pockets? He will have to spend more of his own money if this becomes a long protracted race. He has to spend a ton of it so far. He's not airing T.V. ads. Will he make that strategic decision, I mean for the long run, or will losing a state or two change the calculation. We don't know that but this could go on for quite some time.</s>COOPER: Yeah. John. Thank you, Jeffrey Lord, Kathleen Parker, good stuff. Thank you. John just mentioned South Carolina. How the debate played there last night. 150 voters who watched with our Gary Tuchman told them who they thought won the night. We'll show you that. Plus the breaking news in Baltimore, protests now calm after hung jury in mistrial in the Freddie Gray case. The jury deadlocked after deliberating for less than three days. We'll talk about what happens next in the courtroom when we continue.