Republican Party in Turmoil to Stop Trump; Obama Aims to Stop Trump, Protect Legacy; Obama Lashes Out at Senate GOP Over Nominee Fight; North Korea Launches Ballistic Missiles.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): I don't think you can say that we don't get it. I think you'd have riots.</s>SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is time to still prevent a Trump nomination.</s>SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: His campaign's based on xenophobia, race-baiting and religious bigotry.</s>TRUMP: You would have problems like you've never seen before.</s>REP. PAUL RYAN (R-WI), SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: This is more likely to become an open convention than we thought.</s>SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Now that we are in the west, the climate is a little bit friendlier for us.</s>HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (via phone): I think we've done a really good job. Those who say we haven't are not paying attention.</s>BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Mr. Trump will not be president. I have a lot of faith in the American people.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want clean water! Now!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want clean water! Now!</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want clean water! Now!</s>REP. ELIJAH CUMMINGS (D), MARYLAND: You need to resign.</s>GOV. RICK SNYDER (R), MICHIGAN: I kick myself every single day about what I could have done to do more.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've had about enough of your false contrition and phony apologies.</s>ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota and Michaela Pereira.</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning. Welcome to your</s>NEW DAY. MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: It's Friday.</s>CUOMO: Oh, yes. We've got the big TGIFs working here on NEW DAY. It is March 18, 6 a.m. in the East. So this morning we have another shocker in the election. Not only are GOP party officials talking about an open convention, but now a third-party threat is real. Conservative leaders of the GOP calling for a unity ticket, readying for a convention to stop Donald Trump. Trump not backing down from his warning right here on NEW DAY that there could be riots if he's denied the nomination.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Meanwhile, Senator Lindsey Graham, a one-time rival and fierce critic of Ted Cruz, is now backing Ted Cruz. This as Senator Marco Rubio says he's leaving politics and will not be anybody's running mate. And a new report says that President Obama plans to take on Trump in an effort to stop him and to protect his own legacy. So we have all of these angles covered the way only CNN can. Let's begin our coverage with CNN's Phil Mattingly. Hi, Phil.</s>PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Alisyn. Well, Donald Trump wasn't even out on the campaign trail yesterday. But he was about the only person anyone in the GOP was talking about across the party. In public and in private, top officials huddling to try to answer the question that has befuddled them for months: How on earth do you stop Trump's roll to the nomination?</s>TRUMP (voice-over): I don't think you can say that we don't get it automatically. I think it would be -- I think you'd have riots.</s>MATTINGLY: The GOP upping the pressure on Donald Trump two days after the front-runner's interview on CNN's NEW DAY, where he warned that riots could erupt if he is denied the Republican nomination after securing the most delegates.</s>RYAN: Nobody should say such things in my opinion, because to even address or hint at violence is unacceptable.</s>MATTINGLY: Top conservatives meeting privately in Washington on Thursday, plotting any way to block Trump's path to the nomination, raising the possibility of a third-party option.</s>RYAN: It's not going to be me. It should be somebody running for president.</s>MATTINGLY: House Speaker Paul Ryan again rejecting talk that he could become the Republican nominee through a contested convention. Trump hitting back at his opponents in his own way, taking to his free attack ad platforms of choice, social media, with a series of posts aimed at Ted Cruz and Hillary Clinton. And Trump's fiercest one-time rival, Marco Rubio...</s>RUBIO: Hopefully, there's time to still, you know, prevent a Trump nomination.</s>MATTINGLY: ... speaking out for the first time after his bruising loss in Florida...</s>RUBIO: I'm not going to be anybody's vice president. I'm not -- I'm just not going to -- I'm just not interested in being vice president.</s>MATTINGLY: ... saying he's done with politics.</s>RUBIO: I'm going to finish out my term in the Senate, and then I'll be a private citizen in January.</s>MATTINGLY: And a surprise endorsement for Ted Cruz from South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham after months of colorful digs.</s>GRAHAM: If you're Republican and your choice is Donald Trump and Ted Cruz in a general election, it's the difference between poisoned or shot. You're still dead.</s>MATTINGLY: Now telling CNN's Dana Bash he's raising money for the Cruz campaign.</s>GRAHAM: I think the best alternative to Donald Trump to stop him from getting to 1,237 is Ted Cruz. And I'm going to help Ted in every way I can.</s>MATTINGLY: Now anyone who has paid attention to or been in the middle of the Lindsey Graham versus Ted Cruz battles over the past couple of years can tell you those are about the last words you ever thought you'd hear out of Senator Graham's mouth. But on some level, it really underscores the desperation the party leaders are feeling right now. The kind of desperation that can lead to some odd bedfellows. The question remains: to what effect? You talk to Republican operatives involved in these efforts, and consistently, guys, you hear one big fear: is it already too late?</s>CAMEROTA: Great question.</s>PEREIRA: It really is. Indeed. All right, Phil. Thank you. President Obama is apparently ready to go full throttle on Donald Trump. The president is planning to hit the campaign trail in an effort to stop the GOP front-runner and protect his own legacy. CNN's Athena Jones live at the White House with more -- Athena.</s>ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Michaela. That's right. whiteA White House official tells me we're going to see a whole lot of President Obama on the campaign trail, talking about what he feels is at stake in this election and also talking about the tone of the race so far. Take a listen to what he had to say earlier this week on Capitol Hill.</s>OBAMA: The longer that we allow the political rhetoric of late to continue and the longer that we tacitly accept it, we create a permission structure that allows the animosity in one corner of our politics to infect our broader society. And animosity breeds animosity.</s>JONES: So that's a clear reference to some of the rhetoric we're hearing on the Republican side. But of course, when it comes to presidential politics, each party thinks a victory by the other party spells doom. But when it concerns this White House, they're talking about trying to protect the president's legacy. Not just things like the Affordable Care Act, which Republicans have voted some 60 times to repeal. But also things like the Iran deal, the opening to Cuba where he's traveling this weekend. Things like the environmental regulations, financial regulations. And the White House and the Democratic National Committee feel that the president is going to be an excellent spokesperson for protecting his legacy. They also hope that he can rev up Democratic voters, drive more of them to the polls. We've been seeing from some of the early voting in these states that Democratic enthusiasm is lower than Republican enthusiasm. And so the hope is that having the president out on the campaign trail will help Democrats keep the White House but also retake the Senate and make some progress in the House -- Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right. Let's discuss, shall we? Let's bring in CNN political commentator and political anchor at Time Warner Cable News, Errol Louis; and CNN political commentator and senior contributor to "The Daily Caller," Matt Lewis. No relation. Matt, let's start with you. Your party, my brother, it's hurting. What's going on now? Not only open convention, but we may need a third party is what we're hearing. How real is that, and how would it work?</s>MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's a mess. And the problem Republicans are in right now, of course, is if Donald Trump loses the general election, Republicans lose. If Donald Trump wins the general election, Republican -- it's really a no-win situation if you're a Republican. So you're looking for the least bad of several options. I certainly think that the best strategy forward is to try to stop Donald Trump from getting the delegates he needs to clinch the nomination and then have some sort of a unity ticket with Ted Cruz and Kasich or something else to try to have an alternative that would be palatable to at least most of the Republican base. But I think you have to have a contingency plan. You have to have a plan to maybe have a third party, to sort of have a government in waiting to keep mainstream conservatism alive, should Donald Trump end up becoming the nominee.</s>CAMEROTA: So Errol, yesterday there was this closed-door meeting in Washington, D.C., among prominent conservatives. Erick Erickson, radio talk show host, put out a statement afterwards where they were trying to strategize and figure out what to do to stop Trump. Here's the statement: "We believe that the issue of Donald Trump is greater than an issue of party. It is an issue of morals and character that all Americans, not just those of us in the conservative movement, must confront. We call for a unity ticket that unites the Republican Party. They were unclear about who's on that ticket. What does this mean?</s>ERROL LOUIS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, it's an interesting prospect. We went -- when somebody like Erick Erickson, who has been anti-Trump, really, on principal for months now.</s>CAMEROTA: But he doesn't think that he's a conservative.</s>LOUIS: Well, exactly. And he -- what he has -- what he has said is that, you know, if you look at where conservatives were, say, in 1964, when they got wiped out with Barry Goldwater as the nominee, it starts this long 16-year march to when conservatives finally get the White House with Ronald Reagan. What he's saying is, like, this movement is bigger than any one election. Let's try and salvage what we can. He's also making an interesting point about what happens further down the ballot. As we know, there's some concern that the Republicans with Trump, if he were, say, the nominee, could lose control of the Senate. They could have turmoil down where people are struggling to keep control of different state legislatures. And what Erick Erickson says is, like, look, we've got to have some kind of coherent way to limit the damage if Donald Trump is at the top of the ticket. So on both ideological and practical grounds, there's some logic to all of this stuff. And it, once again underscores just how fractured the Republican Party is.</s>CUOMO: The idea that we are talking about Erick Erickson and Mark Levin are now coming up as these mainstream names in your party, Matt Lewis: "Well, we've got to listen to what Erick Erickson is saying." Usually, you guys run away from these guys as your crazy cousins. Now they're trying to save your party. What is it -- where are the real Republicans that you guys always used to tout to say who the GOP was? All we heard after 2012 about how you learned to be the big tent.</s>LEWIS: I would make -- this is inside baseball. But I would make a big distinction between Erick Erickson and Mark Levin.</s>CUOMO: It is inside baseball.</s>LEWIS: I think...</s>CUOMO: Either way, you're dealing with somebody who's a nonconformist, traditionally, for the</s>GOP. LEWIS: And that shows -- that shows you how -- how out of the mainstream Donald Trump is and the strange bedfellows we've been talking about. But look, I think Mark Levin, in a way, helped create Donald Trump and -- and sort of provided him cover for a long time. Now he's backing away from it. I think Erick Erickson is an example of somebody who I hope could be the future of the conservative movement as a leader. An adult, someone who's sort of up and coming. Because that's what's really been lacking. Rush Limbaugh, I think, could have stepped up early on and taken on Donald Trump and written him out of the movement. And he abdicated that responsibility to do so. I think someone like Erick Erickson in the future could provide that leadership to help police the right and make sure that real conservatives, not populist nationalists like Donald Trump, have control of the movement and the party.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, well, I'll through another name out there, Glenn Beck. He's also gone after Donald Trump. I mean, it is strange bedfellows, in seeing all of these different allegiances. But in terms of real Republicans, I mean, Speaker of the House Paul Ryan has also come out and talked about this yesterday. In fact, he made a prediction about what he thinks will happen at the convention. Listen to this.</s>RYAN: This is more likely to become an open convention than we thought before. So we're getting our minds around the idea that this could very well become a reality, and therefore, those of us who are involved in the convention need to respect that.</s>CUOMO: Well, he has to. He's the chairman of the convention.</s>CAMEROTA: Right, but...</s>CUOMO: He can't be closed to the possibility.</s>CAMEROTA: Good point. But I'm confused by his premise, where he says it's more likely than ever to become an open convention. Is that true? I mean, I think the numbers are heading in Donald Trump's direction. Is it really likely that it is going to be a contested convention?</s>LOUIS: Not necessarily. I mean, the numbers may be heading in this direction from sort of a total delegate standpoint. But as we've seen -- and you want to talk about inside baseball -- state by state we've now got, like, the sort of intermediate stage where they actually name -- the actual names of the delegates are being determined. And if you show up at certain meetings and you forget about other meetings, you could actually end up with control of the delegation or with a certain amount of sway with them so that people who come in are not sort of committed, necessarily, to your candidate until the end but are sort of open to this idea that, OK, if there's a second ballot, here's what we're going to do.</s>CAMEROTA: That is inside baseball.</s>LOUIS: The intrigue is getting very, very thick. And believe me, I suspect Speaker Ryan is right in the middle of it.</s>CUOMO: "House of Cards," this exact scenario plays out in "House of Cards." Those writers must be like, "Wow, we were making something up that we thought had no chance of every being like..."</s>CAMEROTA: Sure.</s>CUOMO: "... what's going on in real life." The -- the idea of -- something else that we're also hearing a lot, Matt, is that, "Hey, you know what? We have to be in panic mode, because we want full energy to stop this before it is too late," instead of "already too late." Fifty-five percent he needs to get of the remaining delegates. There are a lot of states out there. It really is the halfway point. But it's about momentum. You know, as we say, yes, there's still halfway to go. But his ramp is going down in pitch, and Cruz's and Kasich's is going up. Tougher sledding for them. How realistic do you think it is to stop him from 1,237?</s>LEWIS: I think it's a flip of the coin right now. I know that's kind of a cop-out answer, but I really do. Look, as he's sitting, he had about 55 percent of the delegates. When has he ever done that? He really -- he's never done that in the past. Now, I know the field winnows, and so maybe it becomes easier for him to do later in the game. But I -- he is not a majority candidate. He's never been a majority party candidate. He's winning a plurality. And the rules say, if you don't have, you know, 1,237 delegates at the convention, that whoever gets the majority of the delegates becomes the nominee. So I think right now the key is to tamp down on the expectation that, just because you have the most delegates, you automatically become the nominee. That has never been the case. Those are not the rules. And I think we have to follow the rules. And the notion that suggesting that there's going to be rioting if Trump doesn't get his way, I think, is really beyond the pale. That's exactly what he's done.</s>CAMEROTA: All right. Gentlemen, thank you very much for your perspective. Obviously, we'll talk about all of this throughout the program -- Michaela.</s>PEREIRA: All right. New this morning, President Obama is hitting back at Republican leaders who refuse to meet with Supreme Court nominee Judge Merrick Garland, much less vote for him. He told NPR their refusal to consider Garland hurts Americans' faith in government. Our senior political reporter, Manu Raju, is live in Washington with more on this. Hey, Manu.</s>MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Michaela. Republicans are showing absolutely no willingness to consider this nomination. No hearings, no votes. Not until there's a new president. The one area where there is some division among Republicans: whether to even meet with Merrick Garland. Now, a handful of GOP senators say they will meet with Garland, but they say that doesn't mean there will be any movement on his nomination. Yesterday, I caught up with Senate Judiciary Chairman, Iowa Republican Chuck Grassley. And he had this to say about possibly meeting with President Obama's nominee.</s>SEN. CHUCK GRASSLEY (R-IA), JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: If I can meet with a dictator in Uganda, I can surely meet with a decent person in America.</s>RAJU: Now, the White House and Senate Democrats have started their first space of a furious public realizes push. And the president plans to be very visible during this fight. He just spoke to NPR and said it was, quote, "puzzling" that Republicans say the decision should be left to the voters, even though those voters decided to reelect him in 2012 to a second four-year term. And watch for this intensifying fight to head to battleground states next week when the Senate begins a two-week recess -- Alisyn.</s>CAMEROTA: OK, Manu, thanks so much for all of that. We do have some breaking news to tell you about. This out of North Korea and its response to the latest round of U.S. sanctions. The Pentagon confirming that Pyongyang launched a pair of ballistic missiles off the east coast of the Korean Peninsula today. CNN's Ivan Watson is live in Seoul, South Korea, with all the breaking details -- Ivan.</s>IVAN WATSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Alisyn. That's right. The U.S. and its allies, South Korea and Japan, are all denouncing North Korea and its pre-dawn launch of what appeared to have been two medium-range ballistic missiles. Now, one of them dropped off radar at about an altitude of 10 miles. The other one traveled from North Korea deep into the Sea of Japan, a distance of about 500 miles. Why does that terrify Japan? Well, the distance between Pyongyang, North Korea's capital, and the Japanese port city of Hiroshima, that's just under 500 miles. So the U.S. State Department came out with this announcement calling on North Korea "to refrain from actions that further raise tensions in the region and focus instead on taking concrete steps toward fulfilling its international commitments and obligations." But Pyongyang is furious at the U.S. right now and South Korea, because both militaries are conducting annual joint military exercises right now here in South Korea. We got to see them last weekend. South Korea describing them as the largest ever. North Korea claims that this could be a precursor for an invasion into North Korea. And get this: They have threatened preemptive nuclear strikes in response. That's part of why relations here are so tense right now. And the worst that we've seen between North and South Korea in years -- Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right. Ivan, appreciate the explanation. We'll check back with you later in the morning. We also have news of a lightning strike the was forcing an American Airlines flight to divert from North Carolina to New York. The 55 passengers, 4 crew members, not hurt.</s>PEREIRA: So is President Obama ready for his campaign close-up? He is set to hit the trail in an effort to keep a Democrat in the White House and Donald Trump out of the White House. Our panel will discuss that, next.