Hillary Clinton Clinches Democratic Nomination; Rape Victim Pens Letter to Attacker
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN HOST (voice-over): Ahead at the</s>INTERNATIONAL DESK: Hillary Clinton, will she be the first American woman to be a major party's presidential nominee? A rape victim's words stir an outpouring of emotion on social media. And I'll talk to an athlete who is skipping the games because of Zika.</s>CURNOW: Hi, there. Welcome. I'm Robyn Curnow at the CNN Center. Hillary is to make history, as she, the first U.S. presidential candidate. She might have enough candidates, enough delegates to clinch the Democratic nomination, making her the first woman in U.S. history to lead a major party's ticket. On the Republican side, the party is facing the reality of having Donald Trump as its nominee. Republicans are trying to balance support for the Trump while dealing with a backlash he's creating. While the two parties have their presumptive nominees, perhaps tied up, primary season is not over. Several key states are holding primaries right now on the last Super Tuesday of the election. Well, let's begin our coverage with Clinton. She may have -- be about to clinch her party's nomination but she's not celebrating just yet. Chris Frates explains.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: According to the news, we are on the brink of a historic, historic, unprecedented moment.</s>CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Overnight Hillary Clinton clinched enough delegates to become the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.</s>CLINTON: We're going to fight hard for every single vote, especially right here in California.</s>FRATES (voice-over): But she is not claiming that historic milestone just yet. Instead, focusing on getting her supporters to the polls in the final six states holding contests today.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I), VT., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In case you haven't noticed, there are a lot of people here tonight. Thank you.</s>FRATES (voice-over): Clinton's rival, Bernie Sanders, is insisting that the primary contests aren't over yet, his campaign releasing a statement arguing that super delegates can change their minds before the July convention. Saying, quote, "It is wrong to count the votes of super delegates before they actually vote at the convention this summer." The senator not acknowledging Clinton's triumph at a rally in San Francisco but softening his rhetoric when asked about the possibility of endorsing her.</s>SANDERS: Let's assess where we are after tomorrow before we make statements based on speculation.</s>FRATES (voice-over): Clinton is hoping to bring Democrats together quickly after this long and bruising primary season.</s>CLINTON: I'm going to do everything I can to unify the Democratic Party, an I certainly am going to be reaching out to Senator Sanders and hope he will join me in that because we have got to be unified going into the convention and coming out of the convention.</s>FRATES (voice-over): Clinton is poised to get a major boost from President Obama, who sources say could endorse her as early as tomorrow and is itching to take on Donald Trump.</s>CURNOW: Chris Frates reporting there. Now to the Republicans and Donald Trump's brash and unconventional campaign, which has brought him to the brink of the Republican nomination. Now he's facing a backlash of his own from his own party over criticism of a judge. Jim Acosta has that story.</s>DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't care if the judge is Mexican or not. I'm going to do great with the Mexican people.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SR. WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Donald Trump is refusing to back down or apologize for his attacks.</s>TRUMP: I don't care about Mexican. But we are treated very unfairly.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Calling for Judge Gonzalo Curiel to recuse himself from a civil fraud case involving Trump University.</s>TRUMP: When you have thousands of students saying that the place was great, it was a great school and they loved it, this should be dismissed on summary judgment.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): His attacks on the judge.</s>TRUMP: I'm building a wall. He's a Mexican.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): -- are causing an uproar and unifying the GOP against his controversial rhetoric.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), FLA.: And that judge is an American and Donald shouldn't keep saying that. It's wrong that he keeps saying it. And it's inappropriate, wrong, offensive. I hope he'll stop. When I ran for president, I told everyone that this is what would happen.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): On a conference call with staffers and surrogates, sources say Trump told them to keep up criticism of Judge Curiel.</s>JASON OSBORNE, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: When Donald Trump today on the call explained his side of the story, it made complete sense. He said here are the facts of the case and we need to continue to attack the bias that is going on out there.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Even Trump's most prominent supporters are blasting his attacks, including Newt Gingrich that's rumored to be on his V.P. short list.</s>NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER HOUSE SPEAKER: This is one of the worst mistakes Trump has made.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): But the former House Speaker dialed back his criticism last night.</s>GINGRICH: I thought he did a very good job of narrowing down his complaint, which I think, by the way, if you look at the record, is totally legitimate. We're both big boys. He is doing a great job overall. I deeply disagreed on one item.</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): Former rival, Ben Carson, also walked back his criticism --</s>ACOSTA (voice-over): -- blaming the media, as Trump frequently does.</s>DR. BEN CARSON (R), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: People assume on the basis of something that is said what a person believes when they could just ask him.</s>CURNOW: That was Jim Acosta reporting there. Republican leaders are forging ahead with their party agenda even as Trump's comments dominate the headlines. House Speaker Paul Ryan is announcing a series of policy rollouts today, they include fighting poverty and education reforms. Ryan and other Republican leaders want to present a positive image of the party and lay out an agenda for the next president. Well, Phil Mattingly joins me now from CNN New York. And the question is, can Ryan and the Republicans really seize control of the agenda?</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: It is just unlikely, Robyn. And I think if you talk to House Republican members if they're being candid, they will acknowledge that the person at the top of the ticket defines where the party goes in the policy side of things. And I think this is why you initially saw Paul Ryan's reluctance to endorse Donald Trump. Paul Ryan has been working on what he is rolling out today, there's a six-plank agenda that House Republicans will be rolling out over next couple of weeks, conservative, principled issues that the party has been working on behind closed doors on the policy side of things for years. Donald Trump is on the polar opposite end on a lot of those issues and that's why you saw Paul Ryan wait to endorse Donald Trump. He eventually came around. But the reality is, if Donald Trump doesn't feel like talking about the House Republican issues, if he doesn't feel like talking about these agenda items, these agenda items essentially wither on the vine. Now one thing Paul Ryan's advisers had told me, these are the types of issues that they think a President Trump would sign into law. They're going to keep working as a party of ideas not just an opposition party. But the reality is as we have seen every single day, Robyn, what Donald Trump says and does dominates the news, dominates the cycle and really dominates the Republican Party.</s>CURNOW: Yes. And it's just one tweet that can change the whole conversation, can't it? Well, let's just talk about these toxic comments Trump made about the judge and how Democrats are using this. They're actually demanding that Republicans either condemn his comments or rescind their endorsements. I mean, that's politicking. But still, is that something some Republicans might be thinking?</s>MATTINGLY: I think, Robyn, here's an interesting way of looking at it. I've talked to a couple of donors, now and obviously these aren't the politicians themselves but these are the types of people that have worked and donated in Republican politics for years, decades even, who have said they were either right about to give money to the Republican National Committee Donald Trump co-campaign account and are now not going to or already have and don't feel like giving any more money. Now the difference is politicians who have already been out and decided to support Donald Trump, for them to go back on that word is a very, very difficult position to be in. You don't want to be a politician accused of flip-flopping. The main issue is here that Democrats aren't going to stop with this. And what you have seen with these judge attacks right now, the Judge Curiel is from Indiana. Robyn, there's a contested Indiana Senate race. The Democrats are now hammering the Republican nominee in that state about. There's -- they're doing the same thing in Nevada, the same thing in Florida, the same thing in Ohio. And what you are seeing right now is all of the candidates that are up for re-election in the Senate, there's 24 seats the Republicans have to defend in a very slim majority for which they have to hold onto are all being attacked on this while I don't expect and I haven't heard that anybody's going to rescind their endorsement up to this point, the reality is that they're going to be faced with these types of questions, these types of attacks every single day until November.</s>CURNOW: Until November. Well, let's talk about what's happening with Hillary Clinton. Our editorial note this morning leads with, "Make sure your daughters watch TV today," because this is -- we are on the cusp of a historic win. That said, Hillary Clinton very clearly saying she is not popping the champagne yet.</s>MATTINGLY: Well, I think there's a couple things you have to look at. One, there's six contests today. And they want to win those contests or they at least want to win California and they should win New Jersey. California's a very close race right now. The last thing the Clinton campaign wants is for people to call the race, call Hillary Clinton the presumptive nominee and then Clinton supporters decide not to go out and vote today in California. If Bernie Sanders wins California, and if you look at the polling over the last couple of weeks, it's absolutely a possibility, all that does is give him a reason to keep fighting. That's the exact opposite of what the Clinton campaign wants. Frankly, it's the exact opposite of what a lot of Democrats want right now. What they would like is for Clinton to get a great turnout in California today, to win California, to win New Jersey, to make tonight crystal clear, not only is she by numbers the presumptive nominee but also by recognition of the entire party establishment, the presumptive nominee. One wild card here, Robyn, I think you have to keep an eye on over next 24, 48 hours, President Barack Obama, he's made clear through his aides that he's likely to endorse Clinton as early as tomorrow. The could be a game-changer if Bernie Sanders decides to fight on. But if Hillary Clinton wins California, that really takes any rationale for Bernie Sanders to continue his campaign from going and that's why you have seen the Clinton campaign be a little tepid in their response to the official acknowledgment --</s>MATTINGLY: -- that she is the presumptive nominee, at least according to the Associated Press.</s>CURNOW: Yes. And according to sources speaking to some of our CNN reporters from the White House is that President Obama is quite eager to jump into this race. Thanks so much, Phil Mattingly. Appreciate it. And you can watch the results roll in on this final Super Tuesday of primary voting in the U.S. All-night coverage on CNN starts at midnight in London, 1:00 am in Central Europe. Calls for a California judge to be removed from the bench are growing. People are furious that a sentence he issued last week to a man convicted of sexually assaulting an unconscious woman on a college campus. Our Isha Sesay has the story.</s>ISHA SESAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A terrible crime compounded by its aftermath: outrage over a sentence some feel is too lenient. The case highlighting questions of liability, punishment and American society's attitude towards sexual assault. On Thursday, former Stanford student Brock Turner was sentenced to six months imprisonment after being convicted on three felony assault charges. The prosecution had sought a sentence of six years. The woman was unconscious at the time she was assaulted on the university campus. The incident occurred after a party during which both had consumed excessive amounts of alcohol. Turner will also be placed on the sex offender's register for life. His victim spoke out in a statement read at sentencing. Earlier, CNN's Ashleigh Banfield read part of the statement on the "</s>LEGAL VIEW." ASHLEIGH BANFIELD, CNN HOST: "One day, I was at work, scrolling through the news on my phone and I came across an article. In it, I read and learned for the first time about how I was found unconscious, with my hair disheveled, long necklace wrapped around my neck, bra pulled out of my dress, dress pulled off over my shoulders and pulled up above my waist, that I was butt naked all the way down to my boots, legs spread apart and had been penetrated by a foreign object by someone I did not recognize. "I learned what happened to me the same time everyone else in the world learned what happened to me."</s>SESAY (voice-over): Brock Turner's father has further fueled anger surrounding the case, penning a letter to the judge, in which he states, "His life will never be the one he dreamed about and worked so hard to achieve. "That is a steep price to pay for 20 minutes of action out of his 20-plus years of life." Social media reaction has been vitriolic, with many questioning why Turner's father would depict his son as a victim of the incident and the prosecution has also condemned the apparent leniency of the sentence. District Attorney Jeff Rosen said, "The sentence does not factor in the true seriousness of the sexual assault or the victim's ongoing trauma. Campus rape is no different than off-campus rape. Rape is rape." While Brock Turner denies he committed rape, his victim only became aware of the assault when she woke up in the hospital and was asked to sign papers marked "rape victim" before being allowed to shower. Stanford University has expressed regret over what happened. But in a statement, claimed it had done everything in its power to ensure justice in the case. "This was a horrible incident and we understand the anger and deep emotion it has generated. There is still much work to be done, not just here, but everywhere to create a culture that does not tolerate sexual violence in any form and a judicial system that deals appropriately with sexual assault cases." Isha Sesay, CNN, Los Angeles.</s>CURNOW: Well, you saw Ashleigh Banfield in Isha's piece there. She dedicated most of her show yesterday on CNN yesterday to read the rape victim's own words. Well, Ashleigh joins us now from New York. Hey, there, Ashleigh. This was a very powerful statement, tough words to hear, tough words to read.</s>BANFIELD: Yes. I think tough, tough words to write. And the reason that we read them was because I've never read a victim's impact statement like this. And, Robyn, I have been covering trials for 30 years. And this one was so profound, so insightful and had the potential of impacting so many people that I thought, we have a platform to do this, we have a platform to get this out from just the courtroom. It's already happening on online. It's critical journalism to let people know what consent is and is not from the viewpoint of the people who suffer the most -- and when I say suffer the most, the victims suffer the most. I know people think Brock Turner's suffering because he's lost his college swimming scholarships and accolades --</s>BANFIELD: -- and is going to a county jail for six months, probably three with good behavior. But make no mistake: this victim's impact statement tells you who the real victims in these cases are and how they can be stopped from becoming victims.</s>CURNOW: So you gave voice, she gave voice to herself in terms of telling her story in that. The outrage online, the support towards what you did yesterday on CNN, why do you think it's hit a chord like it has?</s>BANFIELD: I can only say because of her words. When we made this decision to go forward and put as much of this letter on the air as physically possible, I mean, to read it silently, Robyn, I'm sure you did it, it takes 40 to 50 minutes. To read it out loud would have exceeded the hour and so we had to excise it as best we could without changing her context. But it struck a chord because of what she wrote, not because of me or because it was on CNN. It struck a chord because her story is gripping and she has articulated it since best by saying, I don't want people to know who I am because I'm every woman. The fact that I'm anonymous puts your daughter's face on that letter, puts your sister's face on that letter, puts anyone you know, it puts their face on this letter. And so her words were what were gripping. There was no production. There was no video. There were no sound bites. There was no analysis until long after we'd finished reading her statement and it was gripping because she is gripping. She's articulated this issue, this crisis in this country and other countries that no documentarian, no journalist, no lawyer, no activist nor no other victim, up until this point, no other survivor has been able to do in the manner in which she was able to do and that's why she deserves and still deserves a bigger platform.</s>CURNOW: Why do you think the judge, those words didn't impact the judge as much as many people would have liked them to? And with that in mind, there's been a petition. What kind of legal impact would there be because of the outrage on the outcome of this case?</s>BANFIELD: The petition may make people feel better or feel engaged in a process, because that, too, is showing dissatisfaction within the larger community. But when it comes to recalling a judge, who, by the way, Robyn, is actually up for re-election today but he's unopposed; therefore, he won't appear on a ballot but he will appear on a ballot in the general election in November. But for a recall to actually happen, it doesn't come from change.org. Change.org will get the message out very broadly but it's his own constituents who have to do that, to the tune of about 80,000 signatures and, prior to that, there's an option for them to gather 600 signatures to start that ball rolling. But, ultimately, no number of change.org signatures in the world or in California or in, you know, that particular community can do it unless his constituents do it for themselves. And that may or may not happen. Just depends on how far-reaching this statement and this issue becomes. And thank God for this woman's bravery and brilliance for writing this statement.</s>CURNOW: Ashleigh Banfield, thank you.</s>BANFIELD: Thank you, Robyn.</s>CURNOW: You're watching CNN. Coming up, these jets are heading for Syria to bomb ISIS targets. We'll go to our correspondent at the front of America's around-the-clock bombing campaign. And Zika virus is a big concern for many heading to Brazil for the Olympics. It's enough for one athlete to sit out the games rather than put his family at risk these days. We'll talk to him after the break.