Debate Over Efficacy Of Trump's Proposed Wall; Trump's Deepening Crisis With Turkey.
CUOMO: President Trump has yet to weigh in on the three way battle for the GOP nominations in the race to succeed Senator Jeff Flake in Arizona. Now, Politico says the National Republican Senatorial Committee wants Trump to endorse Congresswoman Martha McSally, who is the establishment favor. Fear is that the alternative, Joe Arpaio and Dr. Kelli Ward, a former state senator are unelectable. That is the reporting. What does Kelli Ward think about? Welcome to primetime.</s>KELLI WARD, (R), ARIZONA SENATE CANDIDATE: Hi, Chris. It is great to be with you. Well, I mean, I think that is another establishment miss that they try to create fear in the minds of the voter thinking that we have to settle for what we have. I say the status quo has got to go. It is time for big changes in Washington and we need new blood there, new ideas, stronger backbones so that we could continue to move the country in the right direction.</s>CUOMO: Why no love from Trump to you?</s>WARD: Oh, Trump, I think Trump likes all of the people in the race, you know I think that is why he is kind of sitting back and watching. I can tell you the people of Arizona are the ones that I really want their endorsement.</s>CUOMO: More than Trump? He is become the golden ticket from Willy Wonka for people in the primaries and in the elections if he takes a side.</s>WARD: Well, unfortunately, President Trump doesn't have a vote in Arizona. So, I need those votes in Arizona to come across the ballot box for me.</s>CUOMO: No question, but I got to check you on this, one more time, Doc.</s>WARD: Sure.</s>CUOMO: You know that Donald Trump being behind you and your party right now, especially coming from your perspective on issues is the golden ticket from Willy Wonka, I love that because I just love the movie. You got to want it.</s>WARD: I do too, it is one of my favorite. Of course. I think that having the support of the President as a Republican in a time when we're going to have a heat wave and bring the heat to drain the swamp, of course it would be wonderful to have the President on board. And you know, but, it's not the most important endorsement. The most important endorsement is the people of Arizona who want a thoughtful, effective, results oriented leader with a proven track record of success. And I'm the only one in the race that has those credentials.</s>CUOMO: Why are you better than Joe Arpaio?</s>WARD: Well, because I have a proven track record. When I was in the state Senate, I got 19 bills signed into law based on excellent policy. Not on political pandering or you know, any kind of extreme partisanship. Great policy that I brought forward. And people on both sides of the aisle agreed that it would be good for the people that they represented. And then I was able to navigate that swampy murky process of getting things from the Senate to the House and to the executive's desk. And that is why so many people wanted me to run for the United States senate. They're tired of the gridlock in Washington. They're tired of the partisanship. They are tired of the head butting. They want someone to go there and get things done. And then that is what I am going to do when I get to Washington</s>D.C. CUOMO: You and Arpaio have been coupled often in different analysis of the race. And you are both attributed with the same potential plus and minus which is they have a tendency to demonize the immigrant population and source them as a huge problem for Arizona. Do you think that is fair treatment of you?</s>WARD: I don't really. I think that, you know, people who come here illegally and illegal immigration really have -- it has affected every aspect of our society. Not just in Arizona, but across the entire nation. It's not just an Arizona border crisis.</s>CUOMO: For better or worse?</s>WARD: You know, it affects education. It affects health care. I've seen as a physician up close and personal. Education as a mom it's affected public safety. It has affected corrections. All of those things are affected by illegal immigration which is why I'm such a staunch supporter of border security and building the wall. I think that --</s>CUOMO: Do you believe that most of these illegal immigrants are criminals, bad people?</s>WARD: I don't. You know, I mean, I heard you talking earlier or stuff that you talking about your family and how they got here. My family came the same way. My great grandparents came from Hungary and from Poland. They were fleeing communism. The communist were coming in taking over their farms. They couldn't survive. So they came through this great land, through LS Islands. They came the right way. And my grandparents, both of my grandfather's became coal miners. They went into the scariest darkest most dangerous profession in order to provide for their families. My grandfather, my dad's side, died in a mine explosion and his body was never recovered, but they did that so that my parents, my mom and dad could both become teachers. And my parents worked hard so that my brother and I could both become doctors. And that is the American dream. And I want people to experience that. I want people from all over the world to be able to come here to experience that. I just want them to come the right way. And the reason we need a wall is because we need a symbol of a right and wrong way to come in, not only symbol, a significant deterrent.</s>CUOMO: Right. It's a pretty expensive symbol.</s>WARD: But it is also a significant (inaudible).</s>CUOMO: A lot of people think it wouldn't work. That people would get over just like they got over anything else. Ten foot wall, 11-foot ladder.</s>WARD: My opponent, Martha McSally, says walls don't work. And we're never going to have one. No matter what she says on the campaign trail?</s>CUOMO: What is wrong with that?</s>WARD: What we do know is that not having a wall hasn't work. Back in 1986, President Reagan, one of my favorite Presidents, great American, conservative, happy warrior. He granted amnesty and then trusted Congress to secure the border. It didn't happen then and it's not going to happen now.</s>CUOMO: But what you said earlier about the dream, you know, a lot of people who come illegally have that same dream. They work themselves to death here and they get paid subpar wages and a lot of industries here and a lot of households here are dependent on them and a lot of the analysis show that they are a benefit as well as how you would define them as a burden. The second part is that legal immigration is under attack by people in your party as well. Donald Trump, specifically wants to limit immigration legally in way that would have kept his own in laws out of this country. That is not embracing the same spirit of inclusion that we see at the foot of the statue of the liberty. Fair point.</s>WARD: Well, I think that people need to come here the right way. I think that proposing --</s>CUOMO: Are you trying to limit who can come the right way. That is what I am saying to you.</s>WARD: Well, we're trying to change the system.</s>CUOMO: Limit.</s>WARD: So it is something that work. It's right now it's so bogged down by the people who have come here illegally. In my state, the federal court dockets are clogged with people who are -- have come back through illegal re-entry again and again and again. And that slows down the process for people who wanted to come here legally. That is not fair. I just talked to a man yesterday. He is going to be -- having his citizenship ceremony next week on the 17th, he came here from Brazil as a teenager, the right way. His parent's came here legally but it took him 19 years to obtain this citizenship ceremony that is going to happen next year. That is too long. We've got to be able to get people to come in who will be assets to our society and our economy as wells as to their own.</s>CUOMO: Good, then you should be against Trump administration policy they are trying to put through that men like him who are here on a visa that could be approved or not renewed, that if there's any sign that they used the government benefit like the earned income tax credit or anyone related to them has, they can be nixed. What an unfair thing to do. Do you agree with that?</s>WARD: I don't think that is what he was on. But I think it's something we have to look at. When people come to our country for economic benefit that is paid for by the taxpayer that is something that is unacceptable to most people across the country. They want people to come here, they want them to be prosperous on their own. They want them to have skills to be able to take care of themselves to be able experience the joy and success of having their own job and being able to take care of themselves and their families.</s>CUOMO: All right.</s>WARD: And so, you know, we have to look at all of those signs because it's not fair to burden the American taxpayer with people who come into our country.</s>CUOMO: Remember, as we heard from the CEO's the other day, they just a burden. All right. Not only are immigrants the people that built this country in the first place, but now you have CEO's asking the President to give them more. And he said he would help them in the White House tonight. Dr. Ward, thank you for making the case. We'll be following your race very closely.</s>WARD: Thank, Chris. It is great to be here.</s>CUOMO: All right. President Trump ramping up tensions with Turkey and NATO allies. We are going to get after this growing crisis with counter terrorism analyst, Phil Mudd. There's more to it than you may know.