Final GOP Showdown Before Crucial Florida and Ohio Votes.
BLITZER: We're counting down to tonight's CNN Republican presidential debate here at the University of Miami. Florida may be senator Marco Rubio's home state, but senator Ted Cruz says he's competing hard to win Tuesday's primary here in Florida. CNN correspondent Sunlen Serfaty is covering the Cruz campaign for us. She join us -- joining us right now near the debate stage. Sunlen, Trump says he wants to face Senator Cruz one on one. The senator wants the same thing, doesn't he?</s>SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's absolutely right, Wolf. Ted Cruz's goal is really to push this race into a face-off with Donald Trump exclusively. Put simply, he has been calling more or less on John Kasich and Marco Rubio to get out of the race. A subtle message to them but a direct message, no doubt. So a big goal for him here at this debate hall will be to present himself tonight as the most viable alternative to Donald Trump among all of them up there on the stage. It's been interesting to see Ted Cruz out on the campaign trail leading in today almost exclusively focused on Donald Trump. Laser focused on drawing contrasts with him, only mentioning Rubio and Kasich in the vein of calling on their supporters to come to his campaign. He invites those supporters to come to his campaign. Certainly sets up an interesting dynamic tonight. It will be interesting to see his approach, how he really treats Rubio and Kasich when he has more or less called for both of them to drop out, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: As you know, Sunlen, Donald Trump likes to hit Ted Cruz for being unpopular, even among his Republican colleagues in the U.S. Senate. Cruz today has a new response to that, right?</s>SERFATY: That's right. And his response came in the form of rolling out the endorsement of Utah Senator Mike Lee. This is his very first Senate endorsement. So it certainly is notable, and in part a response to that talking point of Donald Trump, hoping to put that talking point to death, so to speak. And Utah Senator Mike lee appeared here in the spin room at the debate stage and talked about the party unifying behind Senator Cruz. Here's what he had to say.</s>SEN. MIKE LEE (R), UTAH: I'm sending the signal that it's time to unite, that the time has finally come. The time is finally at hand when we as Republicans need to unite behind one leader.</s>SERFATY: And interesting that Mike Lee was asked directly should Marco Rubio drop out of the race if he does not win here in Florida on Tuesday. He did not mince words. He said yes, he should, and that he should come to senator Ted Cruz's campaign. So interesting that that message is coming from all facets, even the new ones of the Cruz campaign -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: All right, Sunlen. Thank you. Joining us now, our chief political analyst, Gloria Borger, our chief national correspondent John King and our senior political reporter Nia-Malika Henderson. Gloria, Trump wants a softer tone tonight. A, is that really doable? And why would he want a softer tone? So far these debates, even if he doesn't necessarily win, they've done pretty well for him.</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, the answer to your first A question is not sure it's really doable but he does want a softer tone because I think he understands that it could make him look more presidential. He's the prohibitive frontrunner right now. He could be the nominee after Florida and Ohio. He's got to start looking presidential. The question that I have is once he is attacked, and he will be attacked on this stage, I don't know if Donald Trump has it in him not to punch back. He's a guy who always says, if I'm attacked, I'm going to punch back. And then the third question I have is the people who attack him, how are they going to do it? Because they cannot make themselves look smaller. That's what happened to Marco Rubio last time on the stage. I don't think Marco Rubio wants to make that mistake again.</s>BLITZER: Yes. We might be hearing more of "Lying Ted" and "Little Marco" if you will and all of that. But this is an opportunity for Cruz tonight as well.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's an opportunity for Cruz. He wants, as Sunlen just said, to say I'm the only guy who's got a chance. I'm the only guy who's within 100 delegates. I'm the only guy who has proven he can beat Donald Trump in a handful or half a dozen states. That's what he wants to say. The problem for him is you have Kasich and Marco Rubio who are making their last stand in this debate essentially because their states, Ohio for Kasich, Rubio here in Florida, are up on Tuesday and they're making their last stand. And they understand the stakes here. Kasich needs to win at home to survive. Rubio needs to win at home to survive. He hasn't said he would get out but let's be realistic. If he doesn't win at home, the money is going to dry up. And so -- and Trump knows the stakes. Florida and Ohio, Wolf, that's 165 of the 367 delegates at stake on Tuesday. Plus if you're winning in Florida and Ohio, and you're probably also winning North Carolina, you're probably also winning Missouri. Because you're winning two diverse states like that. So Trump understands this is a chance not mathematically but psychologically to lock it up and to send a message to the establishment, I win. So if you're -- Kasich has not attacked Trump but he needs to win Ohio so I think he'll be more assertive. I'm not saying he's going to go after Trump tonight but he needs to be more a part of the debate tonight. And Rubio, I agree with Gloria, he doesn't want to get back into the hands and other arguments, but he -- this is his last stand. And when you're backed up against a wall, you tend to be aggressive.</s>BORGER: And I think Trump may attack Kasich even though he wants to have a more presidential tone because Kasich is very close to him and in some polls above him in Ohio.</s>NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, and he's been doing that already basically saying that Kasich is an absentee senator. I think if you look on the airwave you can see that the super PACs, Rubio's super PAC is going after Kasich, for instance, and then Trump is obviously going after Marco Rubio saying that he's the absentee senator for Florida. So I think the stakes are high for all of these folks tonight. You have Rubio coming in essentially saying whoever wins Florida is going to be the GOP nominee. Polls show him lagging. Can he have one debate performance --</s>BLITZER: Does he have enough traction now to win Florida on Tuesday?</s>HENDERSON: You know, I think that's the big question. And can a debate performance, however phenomenal it might be, is that enough to catapult him 16 points ahead of Donald Trump if you believe the polls.</s>BORGER: In the last -- in the last round of primaries last Tuesday night, there was a shift for Rubio. And it used to be that the late deciders were heavily going to Marco Rubio. That is not the case anymore. The late deciders were going to Ted Cruz and John Kasich more than Marco Rubio. And that may be an indication of things to come. Once you lose momentum like this, it's really hard to get it back.</s>HENDERSON: Yes.</s>BORGER: It's not impossible. It's tough.</s>BLITZER: There's early voting here in Florida, John, as you know.</s>BORGER: That's right.</s>BLITZER: And a lot of people have already voted. So we'll see -- they haven't released the results of that. We'll see if there's a difference between the early voters and the same-day voters.</s>KING: And imagine if you're Marco Rubio and you come up just short.</s>BORGER: Yes.</s>KING: And Jeb Bush gets a bunch of those early votes because Jeb Bush was in the race until just recently and had a very aggressive early voting program because it is part of the culture -- political culture here in Florida. Imagine if Marco Rubio falls a couple of thousand votes short and you look and you see a big chunk of Jeb Bush votes that grossly outnumber that. But that's the way the system works and you've got to play by the rules in the system that you're in.</s>BLITZER: Nia, if Trump wins here in Florida, in Ohio, and it's winner take all in both of those states, is it basically over?</s>HENDERSON: You know, it's hard for the other folks to make an argument that they can overtake Trump and that they should be the GOP nominee. I think the sort of second best option for these folks is do they stay in and deny him the nomination. That seems to be the strategy of Kasich at least. Doesn't seem to necessarily be the strategy of Marco Rubio at this point, who looks like he's got a do- or-die situation here in Florida. But, you know, they're running out of options, they're running out of time to stop Trump and they tried. They've dumped a bunch of money on him in these super PAC ads but so far he's still rolling.</s>BORGER: You know, there's a lot of talk of what I call Crubio, you know, sort of a joint ticket effort. And I don't -- I don't know if that's possible at all. And I also believe it's just as possible that Trump, who has said he would like someone with a political experience, Trump could say, OK, you guys don't like me, let me tell you, I'm going to pick so and so as my vice presidential nominee and kind of blunt that. You know, Trump is all about the art of the deal. Well, if other folks are negotiating, I think he can, too.</s>BLITZER: All right.</s>HENDERSON: I think that's right.</s>BLITZER: Let's take a break. There's more. We're counting down to this Republican presidential debate here on the campus of the University of Miami. Much more when we come back.