Super Tuesday Voting Now Underway; Interview with Tom Tancredo and Representative Adam Kinzinger
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Polo Sandoval reporting live for us. The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM starts now.</s>COSTELLO: Happening now in the NEWSROOM, today is the day. GOP candidates steamroll into Super Tuesday.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He knows the American people are angry. He knows Americans are frustrated. He knows Americans are scared. And he's preying on that. He's tapping into that in a very negative day.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are you from Mexico? Right smack in the middle of my punch line.</s>SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Marco Rubio is losing his home state of Florida by 20 points. That is a real problem. You can't beat Donald Trump if you can't win your own home state.</s>COSTELLO: CNN crew spread out across America. Will Trump and Clinton dominate or will Super Tuesday change everything? Let's talk. Live in the CNN NEWSROOM.</s>COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. It's the most critical day of the election so far. Super Tuesday is upon us. The polls now open. Candidate Bernie Sanders casting his vote a few hours ago in his home state of Vermont. And former President Bill Clinton showing support for his wife just moments ago outside of a polling place in Boston. In the fight for the Democratic nomination more than a third of the delegates needed are up for grabs. For Republicans the stakes are even higher. About half of the GOP delegates needed will be doled out today. And while no one will clinch today, frontrunners Clinton and Trump could jump out to a lead that would be almost insurmountable. George Howell is outside the polling location in Marietta, Georgia. CNN's Jim Acosta is in Columbus, Ohio, following the Trump campaign. But, George, let's start with you in Georgia. Good morning.</s>GEORGE HOWELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you. A very busy day here at Johnson Ferry Baptist Church. Now the rules prevent me from taking you inside to show you what's happening there as this building also doubles as a daycare for children. But I can tell you I went inside and the lines are steady. As of the last 10 minutes, 322 people have voted. Keep in mind, some 3,000 registered voters in this particular polling center. It really represents Cobb County in the sense that it has shown. Just in 2012 the voters here they chose Mitt Romney, they chose Barack Obama in the two primaries. And this country also represents the state of Georgia. The latest polling showing that Donald Trump is ahead of his rivals, far out ahead of them, and also it shows that Hillary Clinton is ahead of Bernie Sanders. So, you know, what we're seeing right now, a steady stream of people that continue to come into this building and people are coming out with that sticker that says that they voted and we expect the lines to get longer as the day goes on, Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. George Howell reporting live from Marietta, Georgia. Let's head to Columbus, Ohio, now and check in with Jim Acosta. Good morning.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Donald Trump is looking inevitable, on a roll heading into Super Tuesday. His nearest rivals are showing no signs they can stop him and more top Republicans are rejecting him, pointing to the daily firestorms ignited by his campaign and warning he will be a disaster for the party come November. Consider the last GOP nominee, Mitt Romney, tweeting some stinging criticism aimed at Donald Trump and also some top Republican senators coming out of the woodwork up on Capitol Hill saying that Donald Trump cannot be the nominee for their party. It will be a bad sign for other Republicans on the ticket heading into the fall. Donald Trump is rejecting all of this. He's even saying he can expand the party, bring in new voters, and perhaps even beat Hillary Clinton in places like New York, other traditionally Democratic strongholds in the general election coming up in November. Here's what Donald Trump had to say about that earlier today on "Good Morning America." Here's what he had to say.</s>TRUMP: I haven't even focused on Hillary Clinton yet. And I can tell you, the one person that Hillary Clinton doesn't want to run against is me. And I have that on good knowledge. I will defeat Hillary and we're going to take a lot of Democrats and a lot of independents away and we're going to possibly win places like Michigan, New York, states that are not even in consideration. And by the way, these aren't things that have been taken advantage of in the poll. I will beat Hillary Clinton much more easily than anybody else.</s>ACOSTA: Now there is a latest CNN-ORC poll that shows that Donald Trump does not do as well in a head-to-head matchup with Hillary Clinton as Ted Cruz and Marco Rubio do in similar matchups. Now, as for Super Tuesday, Carol, we should point out Trump's campaign manager, Corey Lewandowski, they are feeling very strong about what they're going to see later on tonight, but he is managing expectations somewhat about the state of Texas, the home state of Ted Cruz. He is saying it will be tough to beat Cruz in his home state, comparing that to defeating the New England Patriots on their home turf. And we should point out Donald Trump doing something that frontrunners do at this stage, and that is starting to look ahead. He's got an event coming up here in Ohio in just the next couple of hours. That's not even voting today, Carol. That's how confident the Trump campaign is right now about its prospects -- Carol.</s>COSTELLO: All right. Jim Acosta, reporting live from Columbus, Ohio, thank you. Perhaps the daily news sums it up best for those who fear Trump. Here you see it. See the headlines here. Trump 49 percent of the vote. It's a sign of the apocalypse. Senator Marco Rubio doesn't use the word apocalypse, but he does say if Trump wins, Republicans will lose the presidency to Hillary Clinton. That's not all Rubio said about Trump.</s>RUBIO: As I walked in I saw a sign, and I'm going to show the sign. Can I show the sign? All right. This is the sign, and it reminded me of this has been a tough election. Can you hand me the sign for a second? All right. So this is how tough this election has gotten. It says, "My boyfriend prefers Trump. I'm single now."</s>COSTELLO: Seriously, though. Can Rubio or Ted Cruz for that matter stage a comeback and knock Trump from the top spot? Joining me now to talk about this, former Colorado congressman and Ted Cruz supporter, Tom Tancredo. He's now president of the Rocky Mountain Foundation. I'm also joined by Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger, he supports Senator Marco Rubio. Welcome.</s>REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R), MARCO RUBIO SUPPORTER:  UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.</s>COSTELLO: Nice to have you here. Tom, I just wanted to start with you because you changed your party affiliation from Republican to independent. I just wondered why.</s>TOM TANCREDO, TED CRUZ SUPPORTER: Well, because, frankly, it goes back quite some time. Even when I was in Congress and I recognized that the Republican Party generally was not the party that I thought I was in, in terms of its conservative nature. It had lost it. And things got worse over a period of time, and finally during my last run here in Colorado as -- for the Republican Party nomination for governor, the Republican Party actually under the head of the Republican Governor's Association, a guy by the name of Chris Christie, actually came into this state the last week of that primary, spent a quarter -- actually, laundered a quarter of a million dollars through a different organization against me. So I figured it was a mutually beneficial arrangement that we leave each other.</s>COSTELLO: So why are you supporting Ted Cruz over Donald Trump then?</s>TANCREDO: Well, because -- from my point of view, I enjoy that outsider thing. You know, I am against the establishment. Drives me crazy like so many people. But, you know, people like Carly when she was still in it and Dr. Carson, these people are outsiders, and Donald Trump. They are outsiders. It's true. But it's easy for them to be an outsider. It's easy for them to criticize the establishment because they're not in it. You criticize the establishment while you're in it, you stand up on the floor of the Senate and call the majority leader a liar, and I'm telling you, that takes guts. I appreciate that. He's a man of principle. He has got a lot of courage, and there's substance behind him. So I like him a lot, and certainly I support him.</s>COSTELLO: OK. So, Adam, you support Marco Rubio. He's got kind of a strange strategy because he's not slated to win any states on Super Tuesday. That would be today. But he's waiting for his home state of Florida to pull out his first win. So how can he possibly think he can beat Donald Trump when Donald Trump will probably have a number of wins under his belt?</s>KINZINGER: Well, look, yes, I mean, Donald Trump is definitely in the cat bird seat right now. There's no doubt about it. But Marco Rubio is a strong second in most of these states. May win a state or two. We'll see. Probably it will definitely be a strong Trump night, but what's going to happen is people are going to realize Donald Trump cannot be our party's nominee. I mean, he is -- he's a fourth grader in terms of how he talks, how he debates, how he talks about people. And they're going to coalesce behind Marco Rubio, the guy that unites his party. Look, Ted Cruz, probably a wonderful person but at the end of the day very divisive. You do stand on the floor and call the majority leader, you know, bad names and call your colleagues, bad names, that's not a way to unite a party. So Marco Rubio is definitely the guy that's going to do it. And I think at the end of the day, look, Donald Trump cannot beat Hillary Clinton. It's very obvious. All you have to do is look at the polls. All you have to do is look at the people he associates with. You know, he has a hard time disassociating himself with David Duke and then blames is on an earpiece which is ludicrous. He can't be our party's nominee and I'm going to scream as loud as I have to, to say, he's not the guy.</s>COSTELLO: On the other hand, let's talk about Ted Cruz. I know he won Iowa. He's ahead in the state of Texas. But what if Donald Trump gets very close and beats Ted Cruz in Texas, Tom? Does that mean -- does that spell the end of Ted Cruz?</s>TANCREDO: Well, yes. Probably so, frankly. I don't know how anybody really survives Super Tuesday if they can't win their home state. I think it's pretty much over with, but here's the thing to be aware of and mindful of. Donald Trump's major support, 29 percent of his actual support base comes from Democrats and affiliates. OK. Great. And in -- you know, it's ironic because during the intro there, when we were talking -- heard him talking, he was talking about that as being a great strength. And indeed it is in a general election. However, there are 31 states coming up, primary states, in which the primary is closed. That is to say, only Republicans can vote in those primaries. And in those states where only Republicans can vote, actually, believe it or not, Ted Cruz has an advantage or did up until a couple of days ago. I haven't seen anything very recent. Because, you know, it's just a strange kind of anomaly in terms of the primary process. But it's not over with. If Ted wins today in Texas, Oklahoma, a couple of other states, I assure you he's still in this race, and in fact, it could easily go to a brokered convention at the end of the day because of these 31 states that have closed primaries.</s>COSTELLO: And Congressman Kinzinger -- and I hear you, Tom. But I want to -- but both -- it sounds like such pie in the sky from both of you. You don't think it is?</s>KINZINGER: No, look -- look, I think obviously Trump is in the best position. I mean, we'd rather be in his seat. But look, at the end of the day, people are going to realize this guy can't be our nominee. He's going to fail in the general election like many of his businesses. Trump Mortgage, Trump College, Trump Vodka which tasted so bad nobody bought it, by the way, and some others. And so I think they're going to realize that he can't be our nominee and they're going to see Marco Rubio in a very strong position. An optimistic guy, by the way. Somebody who talks about a vision. United the party. And I think they're going to get behind him. We've got a lot of time. Super Tuesday is obviously a big chunk of the delegates but it's proportional, keep in mind. You know, you got the primaries beyond including March 15th in Illinois. I think Rubio is going to be sitting in a very strong position and be the guy that overtakes Donald Trump eventually. But it's a lot of real estate ahead.</s>COSTELLO: Yes, you're right about that. Congressman Adam Kinzinger, Tom Tancredo, thanks to both of you for being with me this morning.</s>KINZINGER: You bet.</s>TANCREDO: You bet.</s>COSTELLO: You're welcome. Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Virginia, a critical swing state. Trump and Clinton leading in the polls there. But it ain't over until it's over, right? Brian Todd is out talking to voters.</s>BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Carol, talking to a lot of first-time voters here in northern Virginia, and they're bringing a ton of energy to the primary. Just ahead, we're going to tell you why northern Virginia is so critical for the primaries. And why the state of Virginia could determine how the whole country goes in November. That is just ahead.