Trump Adds Louisiana and Kentucky to Wins; Sanders Keeps Campaign Alive
SEN. TED CRUZ, (R-TX) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: In all likelihood Hillary wins.</s>GEORGE HOWELL, CNN HOST: No doubt it was a Super Saturday for Ted Cruz in the republican race for the White House, and of the democrats, Bernie Sanders did enough to ensure that Hillary Clinton won't get it all right away. Plus, a rough night for Marco Rubio. Why Donald Trump is telling him to throw in the towel. And the never-ending wave of humanity facing little or no relief. A look at the growing refugee crisis in Greece. From CNN world headquarters, welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm George Howell. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now. America's choice 2016, and Super Saturday. It is on the books now in a wild election cycle that has had pleasant of twists and turns. Republican frontrunner Donald Trump did not get a clean sweep as his opponents feared, but he did score both Louisiana and Kentucky adding to his lead over the field. Ted Cruz also had a strong showing winning the States of Kansas and Maine. He may be emerging as the Trump challenging with the most staying power. Saturday helped Cruz close in on Trump's delegate lead with Marco Rubio now at a distant third. On the democratic side, Hillary Clinton took home her main target which was the State of Louisiana. But her opponent Bernie Sanders earned wins in both the States of Kansas and Nebraska keeping that campaign alive. Sanders has an uphill climb now for the nomination but Saturday proved that he has no intention of throwing in the towel either. Ted Cruz is urging republicans to look to him as the alternative to Donald Trump after his two wins on Saturday; Cruz claims that he has the best shot to get past Donald Trump. He welcomed voters to get on board.</s>CRUZ: Today, we've beaten Donald Trump not once, not twice, but seven times in states all across this country with wide geographic diversity, wide ideological diversity. And if you're one of those republicans at home who doesn't think Donald Trump is the best candidate for us to nominate, who doesn't think we should be nominating a candidate who has been liberal democrat most of his life, who agrees with Hillary Clinton on foreign policy, who agrees on Hillary Clinton on here cronyism and corporate welfare, who agrees with Hillary Clinton on issue after issue after issue, then I welcome you to join us.</s>HOWELL: Now there is no question that Ted Cruz still has a great deal of work to do if he wants to catch up with Donald Trump and present himself to voters as the Trump alternative. But Rubio, and for that matter, John Kasich have given no indication that they will be stepping aside either. Jim Acosta reports on the very latest from the republican field.</s>JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump declared victory in two of the four contests that were up for grabs after winning in both Louisiana and Kentucky. Donald Trump said that that was a testament to the organization that he's put together and also the movement that he's leading in this country. As for Ted Cruz, who also won two states on the Super Saturday, Trump said that the victory for Ted Cruz in Maine was due to the fact that he was born in Canada. As for his other big rival in this race, Marco Rubio, Donald Trump suggested that he should drop out. Here's what he had to say.</s>DONALD TRUMP, (R) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I think Marco -- Marco Rubio had a very, very bad night and personally I'd call for him to drop out of the race. I think it's time now that he drops out of the race. I really think so.</s>ACOSTA: Trump also defended the level of discourse he's bringing to the campaign saying that the occasional scuffles that brake out at his rallies are due to the fact that his events are larger than those of the other candidates. Jim Acosta, CNN, West Palm Beach, Florida.</s>HOWELL: Jim, thank you. Bernie Sanders touched on the potential of a general election match-up with Donald Trump. This pivot in messaging came after his two state victories on Super Saturday. The Vermont Senator won Kansas and Nebraska and now he is looking ahead to the State of Michigan and the primary there. Senior Washington correspondent, Joe Johns has this report for us.</s>JOE JOHNS, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Bernie Sanders appearing on Super Saturday at Macomb Community College in Michigan, the very same school where Donald Trump had appeared just one day before the campaign said that Sanders appearance was not in reaction to the Trump appearance. However, during a speech here, Sanders did talk about a CNN poll that says he would beat Trump in a general election match-up.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, (I-VT) DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The American people know that togetherness, standing together Trump's divisiveness.</s>JOHNS: Sanders also talked about Flint, Michigan, the site of the water crisis and the scene of the CNN democratic debate on Sunday night. And he once again called on Michigan's governor to step down over the issue.</s>SANDERS: When you have that kind of dereliction, dereliction in duty, I think the governor should do the right thing and resign.</s>JOHNS: Sanders may be fighting an uphill battle here, but he needs to make a strong showing in the primary on Tuesday. Joe Johns, CNN, Warren, Michigan.</s>HOWELL: Earliear, I spoke with Jacob Parakilas with London's Chatham House bout the Super Saturday results. I asked him about the implications of Ted Cruz's victories in these two key states and what it means for Donald Trump and Marco Rubio moving ahead.</s>JACOB PARAKILAS, CHATHAM HOUSE ASSISTANT PROJECT DIRECTOR: The sort of underlying aspect of it all has been when it is going to turn into a two-man race. And I think today you're beginning to see the emergence of the possibility of a sort of a two-man Donald Trump/Ted Cruz race for the republican nomination. Now it's difficult to see how Cruz could actually accumulate the full number of delegates that he would to win on the first battle after republican convention, but you have the possibility of actually having a floor fight at the convention which is something that hasn't happened in modern American history.</s>HOWELL: Wait a minute. I can hear the Rubio camp saying, hey, wait a minute, don't count us out because Marco Rubio is counting on Florida, you know, determined to stay in this race. What do you see?</s>PARAKILAS: It's difficult to see how Rubio could overcome even Cruz at this point. I mean, if you look at what the Rubio camp was saying, they were talking about the number of places they beat Cruz without mentioning Donald Trump. So, I really don't see what Rubio could do, aside from sort of build up to the point where he and Cruz could jointly contest Trump's nomination at the convention. But it's just difficult to imagine sort of Rubio superseding Cruz's delegate count at this point and being the strong, the sort of obvious alternative to Trump.</s>HOWELL: Jacob, let's talk the democrats. Bernie Sanders, you know, we now hear him pivoting talking more about taking on Donald Trump really than sparring against Hillary Clinton, though, Clinton maintained the lead with delegates. What does Sanders have to do to keep up his momentum?</s>PARAKILAS: Sanders would have to massively expand his votes amongst non-white parts of democratic block. Because every state Sanders has won has been over -- has largely white and very liberal and that's not necessarily a demographic that's true for the upcoming big winner take all states. So, he actually sort of has his work cut out for him. He needs to do very well in the big democratic strong hold in Michigan and in Florida and California to come. Clinton got a very strong delegate lead. She also has a strong establishment support. And you're seeing that in her tone where she's talking more about, sort of the general election and trying to be accommodating and gracious about Sanders rather than attacking him as she did earlier when I think she was a bit more worried about his challenge after New Hampshire.</s>HOWELL: You know, just a few days ago, we heard Mitt Romney come out very strongly against Donald Trump making the case there. And we just heard Donald Trump seemingly concerned about this idea of a third party candidate. He basically says that, you know, if that were to happen, the republicans would hand the election over to the democrats. What do you make of it?</s>PARAKILAS: I think the idea of a third party candidate is interesting. I think it would be incredibly difficult to do at this point. Ballot access laws would mean that a third party candidate at this point would almost certainly have to run a write-in campaign. Now Donald Trump can threaten that because he has almost universal name recognition at this point, every one everywhere knows who Donald Trump is. So, if he says I'm running a write-in campaign. Then he could probably -- he probably couldn't win the election but he could probably throw it. He can get enough votes to guarantee a democratic win. It's difficult to see who the republicans could put as a sort of independent republican on a write-in candidate up who would threaten Trump. So, I'm not sure how plausible that is.</s>HOWELL: Jacob, just quickly here, the view from outside the United States for those that are watching this election process take place about the two frontrunners, what are the two feelings about Donald Trump for the republicans and Hillary Clinton as it stands now for the democrats?</s>PARAKILAS: There's a lot of concern about Trump. I mean, people are worried about his bellicose rhetoric. They worry in Europe particularly about the extent to which he would maintain traditional American alliance commitment and the extent which he would sort of swap those out for a more transactional view of America's role in the world. Clinton is much more of a known quantity. I think she's seen as more, representing more of continuity with Obama than a significant step change of any kind.</s>HOWELL: Jacob Parakilas, live for us in London. Jacob, thank you so much for your insight.</s>PARAKILAS: Thank you.</s>HOWELL: That interview with Jacob from earlier. Democratic candidates Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders will face off on the debate stage once again in this CNN democratic debate later today, live from Flint, Michigan. Our own Anderson Cooper moderates. That will be at 8 p.m. Eastern Time, 1 a.m. Monday in London only here on CNN. This is CNN NEWSROOM. And still ahead, much more on Super Saturday coming up. Hillary Clinton did not win the most states yesterday, but she is just as confident heading into the Michigan primary. We'll have details with why ahead. Plus, it has been a painful legal and emotional battle for the families of those on board Malaysia Airlines flight 370. Ahead, how the victims are being remembered two years after.