Presidential Candidates Campaign Ahead of Weekend Primaries
KRISTIE LU STOUT, HOST: OK. Let's break away from New Day. As you heard just then, Donald Trump, he has been fending off a barrage of attacks from his presidential rivals Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz, they just took turns going after him on Thursday night's Republican presidential debate. Now, I want to bring in Mark Preston for more of this. He is the executive editor of CNN Politics. He joins us now live from Washington. And Mark, a lot to get to, but first, let's get to talk about this debate. The insults, the vulgarity and of course the attacks. How did Donald Trump, in your view, how did he handle the relentless attacks on that stage?</s>MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR CNN POLITICS: Well, he responded in typical Donald Trump fashion. He attacked right back. As we saw in Phil's report right there, Donald Trump went directly at his rivals personally. He went after Marco Rubio, because Marco Rubio is not a terribly tall person, calling him Little Marco. He turned to ted Cruz and called him Lying Ted. What he was doing was what we have seen throughout this whole entire campaign with Donald Trump is that his defense is a very strong offense. And when he does that, it's not necessarily on policy positions, what he does is he tries to attack his rivals on all fronts whether that is -- he may disagree with them say on immigration or on taxes, but he really goes to the gutter in many ways and goes after them personally. And we saw that on full display last night here all across the United States.</s>LU STOUT: And Mitt Romney also going after Trump in a speech he made earlier. And there's talk that Romney's team is looking into the possibility of blocking Donald Trump at the Republican National Convention. Now, we need some background here for our international audience. Mark, what is a brokered convention and could it work?</s>PRESTON: Well, Kristie, this is now the intrigue of what's happening here in American politics about who will be the eventual Republican nominee. Now, we have been reporting here on CNN International for the last few days that power brokers here in Washington are trying to find a way to block Donald Trump. We saw Mitt Romney, the 2012 Republican presidential nominee come out and give a scathing speech, something we have seen necessarily in modern day American politics where you have the former presidential nominee going directly after the front-runner for the current Republican race. What Mitt Romney is talking about and what he laid out in his speech yesterday was to try to deny Donald Trump from getting the requisite number of delegates. And for our viewers around the world, that means votes, basically, to become the Republican nominee. And how you do that at this point, is that everybody who remains in the race, he has three rivals in the race, you keep them in the race and you try to get them to go out and to win contests all the way until the convention in Cleveland, Ohio in July. By doing that, you potentially could stop Donald Trump from getting the 1,237 delegates or votes needed to become the nominee. And what would happen, then, Kristie, is that it would go into what's called a contested convention at this point, because unfortunately for the Republican Party, there are no real power brokers anymore, it doesn't even become a brokered convention, it becomes a contested convention. They have a vote on the first vote, a secret ballot vote. Donald Trump doesn't get enough votes. And then it goes to a second vote. And when the second vote happens, all bets are off and then that's when you see Republican establishment types trying to rally behind one candidate to try to take out Donald Trump.</s>LU STOUT: And this is extraordinary, because this is like a Republican civil war. Donald Trump is effectively under attack from his arrivals and GOP party veterans. They say that he is a liability who could lose the election. How much truth is there to that?</s>PRESTON: Well, look, there is certainly some truth to that because Donald Trump is nuclear hot. But we need to take a step back and show -- at least acknowledge, that Donald Trump has been able to drive out record numbers of voters, Republican voters, over the past couple of months to participate in this primary process. In many ways, the Republican establishment's efforts or expected efforts to try to thwart a Trump candidacy could cause an even further civil war. It could even get uglier because it could disenfranchise perhaps millions of voters who have voted for Donald Trump. So, what we saw last night on stage at that debate was really the disintegration of the Republican Party right now. And there is a lot of concern. Now, Kristie, I have to say this, if there is not a contested convention, there is also a talk about running a third party candidate against Donald Trump, another Republican, to at least give safe haven to candidates who are running for lower level offices who do not want to be associated with Donald Trump, but need to at least back some kind of candidate in the presidential election.</s>LU STOUT: Yeah, this election is getting a whole lot more complicated. Mark Preston, thank you for talking us through all the points. Until next time, take care. Now, turning now to the Democrats. Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, thye are making their 11th hour push for votes ahead of four contests this weekend. Now, meanwhile, Clinton is facnig more questions over her private email server, especially now that the former State Department staffer who helped her set it up is cooperating with the feds. Now, senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny has more.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders had a message today for Democrats: the primary isn't over yet.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What a fantastic turnout this afternoon. Thank you so much.</s>ZELENY: He had the campaign trail to himself from Michigan to Nebraska to Kansas, hunting for delegates in his uphill fight with Hillary Clinton. After basking in the glow of Elton John and Katy Perry Wednesday night at one of the Clinton's campaign biggest fund-raisers, she spent the day out of public view as questions about her email returned. A former aide was granted immunity and will talk to the FBI about the private server she used as secretary of state. It became instant fodder today for Republicans.</s>TRUMP: Assuming she's not arrested for the email situation, which is so terrible.</s>ZELENY: Again and again, Clinton has defended how she handled classified information.</s>HILLARY CLINTON, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is just not something that is going to have any lasting effect and I'm not at all worried about it.</s>ZELENY: But the Justice Department inquiry still hangs over her campaign. Sanders once again steered clear, but he wasted no time going after other parts of her record, starting with the Keystone Pipeline which would run straight through Nebraska.</s>SANDERS: There is a candidate out there running for the Democratic nomination was a little bit wobbly about the Keystone Pipeline.</s>ZELENY: And on trade, he called her positions a disaster for Michigan.</s>SANDERS: She was very, very wrong, and millions of families around this country have been suffering as a result of those disastrous trade agreements.</s>ZELENY: He told CNN he has to time for Democrats who say he should tone down his rhetoric against Clinton.</s>SANDERS: In many ways, Democrats can say what they want. We're in this race to win it. I don't run negative campaign ads, but I do think it is appropriate that in a campaign you distinguish your differences with your opponents.</s>ZELENY: He is fighting to win the Nebraska and Kansas caucuses on Saturday and Maine on Sunday.</s>SANDERS: On the other hand, maybe Nebraska is not quite so conservative as I've been told.</s>ZELENY: Still, it's an uphill climb for Sanders. In pledged delegates, he has 405 to Clinton's 606. But when you factor in super delegates, Clinton's support soares: 1,074 to 426. Senator Sanders says he has no intention of lightening up on Hillary Clinton and certainly not leaving this race. By the end of the weekend, he believes he will have three more states in the win column: Nebraska, Kansas, and Maine. The Clinton campaign does not disagree. Jeff Zeleny, CNN Lincoln, Nebraska.</s>LU STOUT: Now, both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders have scheduled events Friday in the state of Michigan. It is all in preparation for their showdown on Sunday. Now, the candidates will face off for the first time since Super Tuesday in Flint, Michigan. And remember to tune in for the Democratic presidential debate 9:00 a.m. on Monday in Hong Kong. It's at 1:00 a.m. Monday London time. Now, turning now to Spain where authorities say that they have confiscated 20,000 uniforms and supplies intended for jihadi fighters. The operation targeted a business network that officials say supplied military equipment to terrorists. Now, Spain's interior ministry says the uniforms were being shipped to areas controlled by ISIS and al Nusra in Iraq and Syria. The shipping containers were labeled as second-hand clothes. Now, photos showing the body of a Syrian toddler washed ashore in Turkey made world headlines last year. The tragedy of Alan Kurdy, it came to symbolize the plight of Syrians fleeing along war. And our reports say a Turkish court has found two people guilty of refugee smuggling in connection with the boy's death. Alan and his older brother, they were among 12 people who tied after their boat capsized on the way from Turkey to Greece. Those convicted have been sentenced to more than four years in jail. Now, in North Korea, the latest moves by Kim Jong-un are putting neighbors on edge. After the breakwe go live to Seoul for a look at how South Korea is getting ready to respond. Plus, the political season is in high gear in China. We take you to Beijing for a look at what's in store for this year's National People's Congress.