Do Trump's Supporters Care About His Missteps?; Sarah Palin Stumps For Trump, Falls Flat With Audience.
COOPER: Welcome back. Dueling rallies tonight. Leading candidate Donald Trump and Ted Cruz each holding campaign event. We will be listening in throughout the night. But first, Donald Trump speaking right now. Let's listen.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And he said with Wisconsin, you are going to win. I said, well, what do you think? But I'm not seeing polls that are great. I'm a little bit down. I'm down in some. I'm a little down. And he said, no, no, you're going to win but you have to be there. You have to come in. You have to talk to the people like we did this afternoon at the hangar --</s>COOPER: Well, before he began tonight, his wife Melania had some rare words we don't often hear from her on the campaign trail. Let's listen.</s>MELANIA TRUMP, DONALD TRUMP'S WIFE: Hello. It is wonderful -- thank you. We love you, too. It is wonderful to be here today with you and with my husband. I'm very proud of him. He is hard worker. He is kind. He has a great heart. He is tough. He is smart. He is a great communicator. He's a great negotiator. He is telling the truth. He is a great leader. He is fair. As you may know by now, when you attack him, he will punch back ten times harder.</s>CROWD: Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump! Trump!</s>M. TRUMP: No matter who you are, a man or a woman, he treats everyone equal. He is a fighter. And if you elect him to be your president, he will fight for you and for our country. He will work for you and with you. And together, we will make America strong and great again. Thank you.</s>COOPER: Melania Trump stumping for her husband who could be facing a crucial test tomorrow. As for Ted Cruz, this could be the moment where his ground game and the stop-Trump forces add up to victory in Wisconsin aided by local conservative talk radio and so-called Wisconsin news voters who might gristle at Trump's brashness. Either way it will end up or add up to votes I should say and delegates and possibly a turning point in the race. Laying it out by the numbers, CNN chief national correspondent and "INSIDE POLITICS" anchor John King. So John, Trump and his critics actually seem to be in agreement tonight. Tomorrow's Wisconsin primary is critical, maybe even a turning point.</s>JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Maybe the moment of truth for stop Trump movement or Mr. Trump himself. Anderson, before we look forward, let's look back a bit and remember how we got here and the math though. If you go back to March 1st, you see at that point Donald Trump was starting to open up his lead. Needed 52 percent of the remaining delegates at the beginning of March to clinch the nomination. The magic number for Trump, 37. Now the middle of the month, March 15th. His numeric lead is actually getting larger over Ted Cruz but its math is not improving. At that point, he needs 55 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch. So where are we today? On the eve of the Wisconsin primary, right now, Donald Trump needs 56 percent of the remaining delegates to clinch the nomination. To get to 1,237 before the convention which is why Wisconsin and New York two weeks makes so much stakes in this race. Have so much stakes in this race. The moment of truth. Remember, candidate Trump promised to surprise today. The polls show him down in Wisconsin. What if he's right, Anderson? What if Donald Trump pulls off a win, splits the delegates. So let's say Ted Cruz comes in second, John Kasich third. Donald Trump gets the plurality of the delegates but he gets a win. And if he gets that win, the stop-Trump forces have stumbled. Let's say Donald Trump takes that momentum into New York like Kayleigh was just talking about, wins with 50 percent plus. If Donald Trump can do that, win in Wisconsin and get some delegates, then win in New York and get all the delegates, he is pulling away from Ted Cruz and look at this, he improves his math. At that point, a win in Wisconsin with some. A big win in New York with all Donald Trump would only need 50 percent of the remaining delegates. He would be improving his math and taking a lot of air out of the stop-Trump movement. But let's take another scenario. Let's say the polls are right and the Ted Cruz wins tomorrow in the state of Wisconsin, right. And let's say that John Kasich comes in second, maybe wins a couple of congressional districts. And Donald Trump either gets nothing or just a couple of delegates, a few delegates out of Wisconsin. If that happens and then it takes the air out of Trump's polls in New York, Anderson. Let's say he still wins. Let's give him 45 percent of the vote. He still wins but he is under 50. So he has to share the delegates. Let's say Kasich is second and Cruz third. That's not as significant who comes in second, third. But at this point, even though Trump won in New York, if he's shut out of Wisconsin and has to share the delegates in New York, look what happens to his math. At that point, he would need 61 percent on the morning of April 20th, after the New York primary, 61 percent of the remaining delegates. If this scenario plays out, a loss in Wisconsin essentially a shutout for Trump and then he has to share the New York delegates. At this point the stop- Trump forces thing they have got him. They think if the math is like that on the night of April 19th, the morning of the 20th, Anderson, we are heading to an open convention.</s>COOPER: Well, there are some smaller state delegate decision is taking place that could also hurt Trump, right?</s>KING: Right. Remember the percentage he needs right now. I want to switch maps and just show you. This weekend out in Colorado, they had some -- they are beginning their process there. They are about halfway through it. Ted Cruz picked up delegates in Colorado. And Donald Trump having a hard time doing the nuts a bolts of state by state convention organizing. In North Dakota, the bulk of the delegates decided this weekend. They are going to come to the convention in Cleveland uncommitted which means they are not pledged to Donald Trump on the first ballot which made it lowers his number a little bit. Also in both of these states, frees up people to vote for rules maybe in a way at the convention that Trump doesn't like. And then we have in Tennessee, Anderson, over the weekend, Donald Trump won Tennessee. He will get all of his pledge delegates. All the vote he deserves that he won on primary day on the first ballot. But the state party is filling them with people who are not loyal to Trump. So even though they might vote for Trump on the first ballot and the second ballot as required by law, they are free agents after that, number one. And when it comes to voting on the rules at the convention, can we put other candidates' names into nomination? Other rules and procedure that would be critical in an open convention, those delegates, even though they have Trump badges, might not be loyal to their candidate.</s>COOPER: Amazing. OK, John, stay with us. I want to bring in a new face to CNN, a bona fide expert and a wrangling delegate. CNN delegate analyst and former RNC chief of staff Mike Shields. Mike, great to have you on. Even though Trump has recently hired staff to wrangle delegates, the Cruz campaign seems to be out ahead of him on that. And that head start, could that make a difference right now and in the future?</s>MIKE SHIELDS, CNN DELEGATE ANALYST: Yes. I do think it could and I think it is so far. What you're seeing in places like North Dakota is the fact that there is organizations on the ground that Ted Cruz has had from the beginning. You know, he really built his campaign from the bottom up, and that included people that understand the delegate process that have relationships with people in these state parties when it comes to selecting the delegates. In the end, these delegates are people and they have, you know, political leanings. And so, you have to go and talk to them. You have to campaign to them just like you campaign to other voters. And I think Ted Cruz' organization has really steps up. I think Trump is stepping up now. I think he is starting to put an organization together. But Ted Cruz had a lead, not only on Donald Trump. I think he had a lead on all the other candidates that were in the campaign as well.</s>COOPER: Explain how it works. Because I mean, I think it is confusing for a lot of people. Certainly even for me. How does it work to actually win over delegates? I mean, do you -- as you said, it's campaigning directly to them? It's not enough for Donald Trump to just have a big event somewhere and potential delegates, see him on TV? You actually have to have direct contact?</s>SHIELDS: Yes, it's a grassroots politicking. I think, you know, there was a scene in North Dakota in a hotel lobby where you literally have Ben Carson at one end as a surrogate for Donald Trump. Carly Fiorina in the same lobby on the other end for Ted Cruz. And they were going back and forth and talking to delegates trying to win them over. You have cookouts, you have parties that people are throwing. They are doing everything they can to win them over. And keep in mind that a lot of these folks are party regulars. They are the people you see at the convention wear the funny hats and wearing the pins that have been involve in the party. Some of them are really pre-disposed to be sort of Ted Cruz-type Republicans when this starts. That's another thing that Donald Trump has to face is that he is going against Ted Cruz with people that are sort of tea party regulars and he is trying to win them over to his side when he hasn't been involved in party politics at the local level. So he has a little extra hurdle in some of these states.</s>COOPER: And we are watching Carly Fiorina speaking on behalf of Ted Cruz in Waukesha, Wisconsin. John, in terms of what campaigns can or can't do to win over delegates, CNN is reporting several Republican state officials are unaware of any explicit prohibitions on delegates accepting gifts or travel help. So campaign could essentially, or could they - I mean, buy a delegate off and still be within the law?</s>KING: Well, they can try to curry favor with the delegate. We would watch those things, obviously. Local media back in their states would watch those things. If you are an elected official, if you are a member of Congress, if you are governor and the state legislator, and a lot of those guys are delegates, ladies as well, there are generally ethics rules about that. But if you are the average and the state party chairman and you are an insurance sales and also the Republican state chairman of the Republican national committee woman or someone else that shows up who want to come as delegate, no. There some are state rules, Anderson, but not a lot of rules. So you can curry favor with the delegates. It might just note that you can have receptions for them. You can take them to parties. You could put on a show if you want for them. If Donald Trump wanted to or another candidate, you can put them on your plane and fly them say to Mar-a-Lago for the weekend and talk to them about that. Now, we would see such things and we would find out about such things so I don't want to make too big of deal about these thing. But yes, you can lavish some gifts on the delegates or some flattery on the delegates, some big events on the delegates. But we will watch and see how is that plays out because this could come down to some of these uncommitted delegates and how do you sway them at the convention. I think the idea that you are going to buy a delegate, I don't think that's going to happen. Or at least it ever happens, it will happen one or two cases. But it's interesting to watch because each and every delegate matters so much in this environment. The little things the campaigns do to curry favor will be interesting.</s>COOPER: Yes. John King. Mike Shields, great to have you. Thanks very much. Coming up, does John Kasich think he has a chance in Wisconsin tomorrow? And if not, what about his chances moving forward? I asked him about that and about Trump's advice that he should quote "get the hell out." Hear his reply to that, next.