Democrats Draw Battle Line in New York
BLITZER: Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, they can of course both claim strong ties to New York state, but only one of them will walk away with a victory in the state's crucial primary. The contest will offer one of the biggest delegate hauls of the campaign and both candidates seem eager to sharpen their differences before the vote. Let's go to our senior Washington correspondent Jeff Zeleny who's joining us from New York City. He's in the Bronx right now. Jeff, what's the latest?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Bernie Sanders was born in Brooklyn and Hillary Clinton was elected here twice to the Senate. There is no question this New York race is so important. And it's really touching on all the themes of the national race as well. Income inequality, Wall Street, economic injustice, racial reform. But, Wolf, it is so central to Clinton's candidacy to win here. That's one of the reasons Bernie Sanders is trying so hard to stop her.</s>ZELENY (voice-over): Now playing in New York, Hillary Clinton --</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He goes around telling young people he's going to give them free college.</s>ZELENY: Versus Bernie Sanders.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Secretary Clinton has supported virtually every one of these disastrous trade agreements.</s>ZELENY: Tonight, the Democratic rivals dueling on their home turf for a whopping prize of 247 delegates.</s>SANDERS: I grew up in Brooklyn, New York.</s>ZELENY: Their fight is also now revolving around that other New Yorker, Donald Trump.</s>CLINTON: Just yesterday Donald Trump said women should be punished for having an abortion.</s>ZELENY: Both Democrats seizing on his comments about how women should be punished for seeking an abortion. He recanted his words but that did little to stop the firestorm.</s>CLINTON: Let's remember this, all the Republican candidates want to make abortion illegal. If you make abortion a crime, then you make women and doctors criminals.</s>ZELENY: Sanders tweeted, "Your Republican frontrunner, shameful." By now the Clinton campaign had hoped to be focusing on Trump and Republicans alone, but at a rally today not far from her Chappaqua home, Clinton found herself tangling with Sanders supporters who disrupted her speech.</s>PROTESTERS: If she wins, we lose.</s>CLINTON: I know. The Bernie people came to say that.</s>ZELENY: As Clinton loyalists rally to her aid she had the last word.</s>CLINTON: What I regret is they don't want to hear the contrast between my experience, my plans, my vision, what I know I can get done and what my opponent is promising.</s>ZELENY: It's a stark reminder the Democratic primary is also boiling hot. In Wisconsin, which votes Tuesday, Sanders leads Clinton by four percentage points. Here in New York, Clinton holds a 12-point lead but she's not resting easy, even dispatching former president Bill Clinton to Union Halls across New York City. Before a nighttime rally in the Bronx, Sanders stopped in Pittsburgh.</s>SANDERS: What an extraordinary turnout.</s>ZELENY: He lashed out at Clinton's support for trade agreements and ties to Wall Street.</s>SANDERS: I just don't know why Wall Street has not invited me to speak before them. You know, I've got my cell phone on, I'm waiting for the call.</s>ZELENY: The acrimony between Clinton, Sanders and their supporters is alarming some Democrats. In the end, Clinton said the party must come together.</s>CLINTON: When this primary contest is over we've got to unite and make sure we have a Democrat in the White House in January.</s>ZELENY: Well, Wolf, that is really the open question here and many Democrats I talk with are concerned about these two sides coming together. Now you can see the crowd gathering here at -- here in the Bronx for a rally really in about an hour or so. It's time where Bernie Sanders is going to try and make his case. Now most of his supporters are young supporters of Bernie Sanders, but he has supporters of all ages here. They're really trying to stop or slow this momentum, so many delegates at stake here in New York -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Jeff, thanks very much. Nia, is she really worried about her home state of New York?</s>HENDERSON: You know, in some ways I was surprised that the poll was so close, right, 54 percent to 42 percent with Clinton with that 12- point lead. I don't think she's going to see a kind of Vermont-style victory in the way that Sanders won his home state overwhelmingly. I was texting back and forth with a Sanders supporter. They feel very good about where Sanders is now. They feel like he'll go into that contest with the wind at his back, possibly picking up a Wisconsin win and probably Wyoming, too. So they're aggressively playing for New York. I think if you look at those internal numbers, Clinton does have something to feel good about. She's essentially tied among white voters. She's 35 points ahead among black Democrats. And she's also essentially tied among white men. If she can keep there, I think she's in a good position. But again, Sanders folks think that he's a good closer and that he can quickly close big gaps in the end in the way that he did in Michigan.</s>BLITZER: She has to always worry that if she gets the nomination, she needs those Bernie Sanders supporters to come along and help in a general election. That why she's got to be very careful in how far she goes in alienating them potentially.</s>NAVARRO: I think she's got to stay worried throughout this until she clinches this nomination. We thought that Bernie Sanders would be deflating by now. He's not. If anything, he's gaining steam. And I think Nia is absolutely right. We don't know what level of momentum he's going to leave Wisconsin with. Should he win, how big his margin might be should he win. The biggest mistake probably that Hillary Clinton made early on was taking Bernie Sanders for granted, not taking him serious low and trying to nip it at the bud when it started happening. It's too late now. He is a real force. He is the person that is carrying a mantle for the progressive movement and she will absolutely need his supporters. It's her weak flank.</s>BLITZER: And, David, he's raising a ton of money right now, relatively small contributions, not big sums, but former Representative Barney Frank, all of us know him, he was a Democrat from Massachusetts, in an interview he said that Sanders had little to show for his 25 years in Congress. He really was pretty critical of Sanders. How's that going to play?</s>DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. So a lot of times when members of Congress leave Congress they speak more frankly. Barney Frank is someone who sort of spoke frankly even when he was in Congress. Well, I think he was expressing the view that he has, that others like Senator Al Franken have, that even though there's this movement and this message that Bernie Sanders is taking out there for progressives, and as you say, he's raising a ton of money, and Sanders is not going to wilt, but party insiders are still behind Clinton. They think she's the more viable candidate in the general. And I think that if -- it's going to sting if she loses Wisconsin, but if this was a case where there was no rancor on the Republican side, I think this would hurt her more. But with what's going on the Republican side, Democrats can afford a little internal spite.</s>BLITZER: She's got that cushion with the super delegates.</s>SWERDLICK: Yes. Right. Right.</s>BLITZER: She's got more than 400 super delegates. He's only got about maybe 30, if that. So that's going to be her cushion.</s>NAVARRO: I don't know that you want to win with super delegates.</s>BLITZER: You know what?</s>NAVARRO: How un-Democratic does that sound?</s>BLITZER: You want to win. Just you want to win.</s>BLITZER: The key is to win. It's all part of the rules of the Democratic side.</s>HENDERSON: I don't criticize. Super delegates have done it.</s>BLITZER: She'll also point out she's getting millions more votes than him too in all these contests. All right. At least a million more or whatever. Guys, stand by. Coming up, very different story we're following right now. The former wife of the head of ISIS is breaking her silence in a new interview. We're going to have details on her brief marriage with the world's most wanted terrorist.