Trump & Clinton All But Certain to be Nominees
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Ted Cruz and the stop Trump supporters licking their wounds, drowning their sorrows this morning after Donald Trump's big victory in Indiana that forced Ted Cruz out of the race. The RNC chair, Reince Priebus, declared that Trump is now the party's presumptive nominee, or will be the presumptive nominee. The question now is, can Hillary Clinton and the Democrats unite their party? Can Donald Trump unite his? ALISYN CAMEROTA, Joining us to discuss all of this is Jeffrey Lord, Trump supporter and former Reagan White House political director, Marc Lamont Hill, host at BET News and professor at Morehouse College, and Ana Navarro, a Republican consultant who previously supported Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush.</s>ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Marco Rubio and Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz,</s>CAMEROTA: You have quite the Midas touch.</s>NAVARRO: I mean I'm going through like 15, OK?</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. You also sent a pithy note to our producers last night. Let me read it. It was only four words, "I want to die." Can you expound on that at all this morning?</s>NAVARRO: It's just - I - you know, I feel like, you remember - you remember that film where, you know, she just like falls into her chicken salad.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>NAVARRO: OK. That's where I am right now. Give me a chicken salad that I can just rest my face in until November.</s>BERMAN: Well, is it past November though? I mean, seriously, you know, you are -</s>NAVARRO: OK, wake me up in either four month or four years. It depends.</s>BERMAN: What are you going to do that November day when you walk into that voting booth?</s>NAVARRO: You know, frankly, I'm just not prepared -</s>BERMAN: Drink.</s>NAVARRO: To cross that bridge right now because I - I have absolutely no desire, no intent of voting for Donald Trump. I also have no desire and no intent on voting for Hillary Clinton. But I know I can't stay home because there's a bunch of down ballot races that depend on Republicans, as despondent as some of us may feel, showing up and having some enthusiasm for our candidates that are down ballot.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>NAVARRO: I have a Senate race in Florida I've got to go vote in. I've got to go worry about that. So, you know, I think that both Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton have got to earn the votes of people like me right now. There's a lot of us who are despondent, who just cannot believe that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party. Can Donald Trump do something to change my mind? I can't fathom it. Can Hillary Clinton do something to change my mind, I can't fathom that. But let me give them a chance.</s>MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the other danger, though, is not - is that many voters aren't as responsible as Ana, right? So some will just stay home. Many will stay home. The down ballot issues won't make them leave their homes. And so what you might see is Hillary Clinton winning by a landslide just because people are so frustrated with the electorate. There's also the possibility of a third party or an independent candidate who comes up and also gets some of that energy. But I - at this point, I think things look bad for the Republican Party right now. And I'm not a Hillary Clinton supporter. I'm also going to hold my nose when I go into the ballot when I choose whoever I choose. But this is a really dangerous moment for the Republican Party. I think Reince Priebus made a very strong move by saying, look, he's the presumptive nominee, we have to close ranks around him because if you don't do that early, then you loss the whole party.</s>CAMEROTA: Hey, Jeffrey, Ana is not alone. We have heard from tweets last night, there's a whole bunch of high-profile Republicans, radio talk show hosts, editors of "The National Review," who basically want to burn their GOP party affiliation. I mean that's what they're saying. I mean some of them are going so far as to say that they'll vote Hillary Clinton. So it doesn't seem as though Donald Trump has yet unified the party.</s>JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I advise Donald Trump to send Ana shoes and see if we can start that way.</s>NAVARRO: It's going to take a little bit more than that, Jeffrey, but thanks for that - but thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: Buy shoes.</s>HILL: Is that strategy for - is that Trump's strategy for women voters?</s>NAVARRO: I'm a - I'm a - I'm a size eight. And, really, there's - I mean I'd have to build entire, you know, thousands of square feet of closets in order to even feel the retail therapy.</s>LORD: It's - it's possible. It's possible. But, secondly, to the larger kind of - I think there's two kinds of opposition here. There are conservatives and then there are people like, you know, I'll single them out since he made a point of it, Mark Salter from Senator McCain's office. I mean those are folks who basically - where was President McCain? I mean they took Mark Salter's advice and they lost. They do this over and over and over again. And then when somebody comes long who really fights like crazy, then they say, oh, well, I'm going to go vote for the other person. I mean this is what a lot of conservatives have thought of these folks to begin with. So I'm - you know, hasta la vista with some of them.</s>BERMAN: But - but - but - but, Jeffrey, what about - what about Erick Erickson? You know, what about Ben Howe? These guys are not Mark Salter. These guys are not McCain speech writers.</s>LORD: Right. Right. Well, they're conservatives. And I'm -</s>BERMAN: These guys are conservatives.</s>LORD: Right. Right. And I - I do think we have to have long conversations with these folks. But the fact of the matter is, if you are not going to support Donald Trump, you are de facto electing Hillary Clinton president. Now, Donald Trump is the nominee - going to be the nominee of the Republican Party, not because of people like me, but because of the voters. The voters. The people. They have voted overwhelmingly for him. So I do think at some point we need to allow for the fact that people in my home state of Pennsylvania or in Indiana or anywhere else in America that went to the polls, that their decision must be respected.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. Ana, it is the voters. He won with the voters last night in Indiana by a wide margin.</s>NAVARRO: Oh, absolutely. Listen - listen, I think - I think you've got to give him a lot of credit for where he is right now. You know, I don't like Donald Trump. Like I said, I have no intention of voting for Donald Trump. But I have to say, this is a guy who's never done this and there is an entire line of carcasses, of skeletons right now, that he left behind in his wake of people that were more seasoned, veteran politicians, better debaters, had more policy knowledge, did not insult everybody and their brother and mother, you know, and yet here we are with Donald Trump. He did it with a ragtag group of people. A lot of them who were not the, you know, the seasoned veteran operatives. He did it his way. He stuck to his persona. He never really changed. You've got to give the guy a lot of credit for where he is today. That being said, if, like me, you think he is unstable, and, like me, you are concerned by the idea of a president who is drunk tweeting without having had a drink at 2:00 in the morning, then you really have to take some pause and say, do I want this person to have a nuclear code? Today, I don't believe he has that temperament to lead this country.</s>BERMAN: Ana, it's so interesting because so many Republican voters, you know, more than 10 million now, think he does. I mean Jeffrey Lord is going to like the fact that I'm quoting Ronald Reagan. Ronald Reagan said, you know, I didn't leave the Democratic Party. The Democratic Party left me. You know, is Donald Trump doing the inverse right now? I mean essentially has the Republican Party, Ana, left you? I mean are you seeing the Republican Party moving with Donald Trump here, Marc?</s>HILL: It's an interesting question. I think the Republican Party is responding to a poor field more so than they're aligned with Donald Trump's interests. They're not out here saying, you know, we feel the same way he does about transgender bathrooms. And I happen to agree with him on that issue. We feel the same way he does on trade policy, although I happen to agree with him slightly on that issue. Ultimately, I think the party is frustrated -</s>NAVARRO: Gee, there, Marc, it sounds to me like you're going to vote for Trump.</s>HILL: I'm voting green party because I can't - I can't vote Hillary and I can't vote Donald Trump and I actually support the green party's agenda. But - but for me, Trump does not - but the fact that he resonates with me is exactly the problem, right, because you and I don't agree.</s>NAVARRO: Yes. You can say that.</s>HILL: And - right. Right. So you end up with this guy who suddenly is the nominee who the party doesn't actually like that much. I think that's going to be a major problem for him.</s>BERMAN: All right, guys, thanks so much.</s>LORD: John, I mean -</s>BERMAN: We've got to go because I've got to talk to Bobby Knight, Jeffrey, no offense, you know, but you come back when -</s>NAVARRO: Is that Bobby Knight with a "k" or with an "n"?</s>BERMAN: It's with a "k" this time. But when you get three national titles, you know, you can have more time also.</s>NAVARRO: Well, ask him what he thinks of The Heat.</s>BERMAN: Jeffrey Lord, Ana Navarro, Marc Lamont Hill, thanks so much.</s>NAVARRO: Listen, I'm in Miami Heat colors today, OK? At least somebody I support won last night.</s>BERMAN: Good luck with that. All right, coming up for us, the legendary Hoosier who backed the bombastic billionaire, we're going to speak to the former coach from Indiana, Bobby Knight. He joins us now - he will join us to talk about why he supported Trump, what he thinks about his position and the road going forward.