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Exit Poll Results; Reviewing the Super Tuesday Wins; Ohio Democrats Switching Affiliation, Voting for Trump; Lawyers Think Trump May Run into Ethics Problems if President. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired March 16, 2016 - 09:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


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[09:33:03] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Marco Rubio is out of the presidential race, but he gave an impassioned concession speech, warning of a fractured nation after losing Florida to Donald Trump. And he might have a point. Christine Romans has been looking at the exit polls. She has more on this.

Good morning.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol.

These exit polls, this is where we ask voters, who are you and why did you vote for your candidate? I want to start in Florida here where Trump swept every category with a notable exception. Minorities went for Rubio. Fewer than one in five Republican voters we asked identified as Latino. Of them, Rubio won big with 52 percent. Trump received just 27 percent.

But in almost every other demographic, Donald Trump dominated. He's done an excellent job building a core of white, working class voters. In Florida, Carol, 54 percent of voters, white voters without a college degree, went for Trump. The trend repeating across these states. In North Carolina, again, white voters with no degree voted decisively for Donald Trump. Eleven points over Ted Cruz. Even in Ohio, Carol, where Governor John Kasich had the home field advantage, where he prevailed, the white voters, no college degree base, went for Trump, 43 percent. Now, voters with a college degree far and away preferred John Kasich there, 55 percent.

Trump has shown popularity with every group except minorities. He'll need to focus on that, work on that for any general election match up. But among his strongest supporters are these white voters without a college degree who feel their government and their party has abandoned them and their economy, Carol, is just not working for them.

COSTELLO: Interesting. Christine Romans, you'll be back a little later.

ROMANS: Yes.

COSTELLO: Thanks so much. You'll be back with more.

So it looks like it will be Donald Trump versus Hillary Clinton in a general election if everything holds as it does today. If that is the case, it will be angry white voters against pretty much everyone else. Clinton dominates Trump when it comes to Hispanics and African- American voters. Example, in Florida, Clinton nabbed 75 percent of the minority vote, Trump, 27 percent. In Ohio, Clinton took 67 percent of Trump's -- to Trump's 30 percent. In Illinois, Clinton nabbed 63 percent. Trump, so few minorities voted on the Republican side, the information is not available.

[09:35:14] So let's talk about that. Tim Miller is the former communications director for Jeb Bush's presidential campaign. Steve Munisteri is the former senior advisor to Senator Rand Paul's presidential campaign, and Adriana Cohen is a columnist for "The Boston Herald" and a Trump supporter.

So, Adriana, I'll start with you.

Donald Trump did poorly among minority voters. Is there any -- is there anything he should say to -- to garner support or is this just a primary thing?

ADRIANA COHEN, COLUMNIST, "BOSTON HERALD": Well, first off, I think he should push back on the misinformation that's out in the media. You know, a lot of Donald Trump haters, the never Trump crowd, say, oh, he's against Mexicans. He's calling them all rapists. That is certainly not true. He has said, you know, a great number of Mexicans are very good people. He just said, yes, are there possibly a few bad people or criminals or drug runners coming through the border? He needs to clarify that a little bit better. He's not saying all Mexicans are bad. That's ridiculous. So I think he needs to clarify that messaging.

But I can tell you that I know personally many Hispanics who are voting for Donald Trump. My mother included. My mother's a Ph.D., lifelong college professor. She loves Trump and voted for him in the primary.

COSTELLO: Well, like I said, 27 percent of Hispanics voted for Trump in the Florida primary, but Marco Rubio got 52 percent. So I don't know if that's saying much at this point.

Tim, is Adriana right?

TIM MILLER, FMR. COMMUNICATIONS DIR., JEB BUSH PRES. CAMPAIGN: Well, I think the understatement of the year is that Donald Trump needs to start clarifying his statements, you know, if he wants to appeal to minority voters, that's for sure. You know, look, I heard a story down here recently that just shows the problem with Donald Trump's rhetoric, and that was a mother whose daughter is in third grade. She's Hispanic. And the other kids in the class went up and said, you know, when Donald Trump is president, you're going to be deported. And, you know, that really crystallizes just the problem that Donald Trump has and it seeps very deep into the Hispanic community. Right now he is at negative 64 favorable/unfavorable rating. So that's

-- that's about 70 plus percent of Hispanics don't like him and only around 10 percent do. And that's an unprecedented number. And if that holds, Hillary Clinton will win in a massive landslide that we haven't seen in this country in decades. So Donald Trump has major issues there and that's why, you know, our PAC, our principles PAC, is still working to stop him. And I think there's a path to do that before the convention.

COSTELLO: Steve, is Tim right? I mean -- I mean could Trump possibly vote if it gets a massive -- you know, a massive number of votes from white Americans?

STEVE MUNISTERI, FMR. SENIOR ADVISER, SEN. RAND PAUL PRES. CAMPAIGN: No, you can't. There was a recent article in Politico that pointed out that if the current percentage of women that are supporting Hillary Clinton is maintained, then Donald Trump would have to win 71, 72 percent of white males. And our party has never done that.

And let me point out, we lost 80 percent of the minority vote last time. And I was the state chairman of the Texas GOP. And I can tell you, we cannot hold Texas if we lose our coalition of Hispanic, African-American and Asian American votes. Senator Cornyn won the Hispanic vote 49/48, our lieutenant governor got 46 percent, our governor got 44 percent. If we drop down to the 20s with the Hispanic vote, you could lose Texas and lose its 38 electoral votes, and that would be devastating to the national party.

COSTELLO: And, Adriana, I think that's why some Republicans are talking about the contested Republican convention and that's why some say it may happen because Donald Trump can't beat Hillary Clinton.

COHEN: Well, I can say this. You know, a lot of Democrats and independents are quitting their party to vote Trump. We saw that in Massachusetts, 20,000 Democrats left the party since January 1st so they could vote for Trump. A vast majority for them for Donald Trump in the primary. We're seeing this around the country.

I think what's happening in Massachusetts, which is a very blue state, is a national bellwether. And as you highlighted, Carol, a lot of low education union type workers are voting for Trump. And what's interesting to me is, I'm watching what the unions are going to do at this point because the teamsters have not yet endorsed Hillary Clinton, but yet in 2008 the teamsters had already endorsed Barack Obama. So that indicates to me that they might be considering Trump.

And I can tell you why. You know, the teamsters came out very strong against Obamacare and I think a lot of union workers are starting to wake up, that Democrat policies are continuing to fail them by killing jobs. I mean look at Obamacare (INAUDIBLE) job killer in the country.

COSTELLO: And, Tim, I -- I have --

MILLER: Yes, Carol, here's --

COSTELLO: I have to -- Tim, I have to agree with Adriana here, because you can, like, you know, I was looking at the exit polls in Ohio and in Mahoning County and Youngstown, which used to be the heart of steel country, a lot of Democrats switched party affiliations and vote -- in fact Trump won in Mahoning County.

COHEN: Right.

[09:39:59] MILLER: Look, in the grand scheme of things, it's really not that many. And in all of these kind of white, blue collar district where the Democrats used to do well, Republicans overwhelmingly have begun to get those votes. I mean Mitt Romney did better than Reagan among white, blue collar workers. The Reagan Democrats, if you will.

So, look, if you look at the national numbers, what Adriana's saying just does not bear out. A massive amount of independents, a massive amount of Republicans, yesterday in the exit polls, between 30 and 40 percent, depending on the state, of voters said they would go third party if Trump was the nominee. Trump's numbers among independents are atrocious. They're like 20, 30 points worse than Mitt Romney's. So he --

COHEN: You know what, if it was so bad, why is he dominating? I disagree.

MILLER: There might be a small fraction of Democrats that cross over, but there are a ton of Republicans or independents that are abandoning him. That's why he's getting crushed in the national poll.

COSTELLO: Adriana, last word, and then I've got to go.

COHEN: Trump is the winner. The other candidates are not. So that speaks for -- for itself right there.

MILLER: He's getting crushed by Hillary. Crushed in every poll.

COSTELLO: OK. I've got to leave it there.

MUNISTERI: And those are Republican votes. He needs -- you need --

COHEN: He's going to beat Hillary in the general.

MUNISTERI: You need swing and independent votes to win.

COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Thanks to all of you. Tim Miller, Steve Munisteri, Adriana Cohen, thanks.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, you just heard it, economic worries in Ohio led many blue collar Democrats to vote for Donald Trump. Now organized labor is fighting to keep them in the fold.

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[09:45:28] COSTELLO: Youngstown, Ohio, typifies that state's fading blue collar legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP) COSTELLO (voice-over): Factory jobs have been lost as businesses moved out of the United States. A lot of blame has been aimed at NAFTA and other trade deals which Donald Trump says he will - he will just eviscerate. That proved persuasive with some Democrats. Exit polls show about 8 percent of Ohio Democrats switched affiliation to vote in the Republican primary. State wide 55 percent voted for Governor Kasich, 39 percent voted for Trump. But in Mahoning County, where Youngstown is located, 51 percent voted for Donald trump.

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COSTELLO (on camera): Eric Hauser is a communications director for the AFL-CIO.

Welcome, Eric.

ERIC HAUSER, COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, AFL-CIO: Good morning.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So, why do you think so many blue collar workers voted for Trump in Mahoning County?

HAUSER: Well, I think Republicans voted for Donald Trump in the Republican primary.

COSTELLO: Oh, Democrats did, too.

HAUSER: And I think that's - oh, a small, very, very, very small handful. I think part of this is that Donald Trump certainly has touched a nerve in American society and people are justifiably upset. He's also new to the political scene. People have some impression of Donald Trump from years past and they are getting a first new impression in the political arena. And a lot of Republicans like what he's saying.

Now, if he is the nominee, and even if he's not, certainly for the next several months, our intention is to make very clear how bad his views, his record, and his outlook are for working people all across America.

COSTELLO: Well, I know you're concerned about Democrats switching their party affiliation and voting for Donald Trump because you're rolling out these anti-Trump ads to discourage your members from abandoning the Democratic party. Why didn't you do that before?

HAUSER: Well, what we're doing is encouraging our members to pay attention to his record, which is very much anti-union, 100 percent for right to work laws which will hurt workers in and out of unions, and a statement that is a little hard for most American workers to believe, I imagine, when he says your wages are too high. I don't think many Americans wake up in the morning and think, my goodness, my wages are too high, I wish they were lower.

COSTELLO: But what...

HAUSER: That's what we want people to focus on with Donald Trump. COSTELLO: But what Donald Trump says about trade deals, that really -

that really does resonate with blue collar workers. He said he'll just go in and he'll renig on all of them. And of course, I think many people realize, you need Congress to do that, but who knows? Maybe Donald Trump can make a deal.

HAUSER: Yes, some of that is indeed what you identified, Donald Trump's sweeping announcements, pronouncements about anything. The form of that is appealing to people. They want to hear politicians say things will be easy. That's quite understandable.

Donald Trump acts as though he can blink his eyes and things will get done. On trade, look, sometimes, you know, even a blind squirrel can find the acorn. Donald Trump has other problems on trade with offshoring and outsourcing of his own jobs. So, I think he's -- once workers see his entire record, they are going to be very alarmed at what the prospect of a Trump presidency would be like.

COSTELLO: But see, here's the thing, Eric. I think from - and you know, I'm from the state of Ohio. My father was a steel worker and for many, many years the Democrats haven't been able to help blue collar workers. Their wages have eroded. You can't get a good job in the manufacturing trade, and raise a family and send your kids to college. That's just not possible anymore. So Democrats have let down blue collar workers as well. So, how can you...

HAUSER: Oh, that's absolutely untrue. Democrats have done so many good things for working class Americans on minimum wage, on paid sick leave, on college funding, on safety at work, on rights at work. On and on and on. Republican policies have undercut progressive worker agendas for decades, and that's at stake here. And we're going to make sure that that choice between a raising wages agenda, between a solid progressive future based on economic rules that workers write for themselves as opposed to economic rules that corporations and billionaires write for themselves, that will be the choice this November. We're pretty confident once that choice is made clear, we'll win.

COSTELLO: All right, Eric Hauser, thanks for stopping by. I appreciate it.

[09:49:54] Still to come in the NEWSROOM, some lawyers think Donald Trump could run into 500 ethic violations if he makes it to the White House.

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COSTELLO: It is no secret, Donald Trump is a businessman and he'll be the first to tell you. But the business background that may have helped propel Trump to front-runner status could be a problem if he does win the White House. CNN Money correspondent Cristina Alesci joins me now to tell us why.

CRISTINA ALESCI, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, this would be an unprecedented ethical dilemma for the president because, if he becomes president that is, because Donald Trump would have to avoid any perception that he is making decisions or supporting policies that he would directly profit off of, right?

[09:55:01] Think about it. We've talked to ethical lawyers who said he's negotiating trade deals in countries where he has properties, right? He employs people directly. He's deciding on health care. What if you make the health care policy more beneficial to employers? He's got a range of businesses, and the reason why it's unprecedented is because in the past, presidents have put their investments that they do not run, by the way, in a blind trust.

COSTELLO: In a blind trust.

ALESCI: Exactly. Like George H.W., George W. Bush, all of them have put their investments in a blind trust. Now interestingly, Obama did not, but that's because he had rather bland investments in U.S. treasury bonds so he didn't feel compelled to do so. But here, Trump, unless he sells, by the way, which he's not going to do, there would be significant questions raised over his ability to do this job very objectively, at least according to the legal experts we spoke to.

COSTELLO: I guess we'll have to cross that great, gigantic bridge when we get to it.

ALESCI: Yes. Cristina Alesci, thanks so much.

The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.

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