Transcripts For CNNW Wolf 20160406

But it is delegates that counts. I think keep focused on the facts here. We have a considerable lead in the popular vote and a considerable lead in the delegates. But again, you know, were going to take our various cases to the states that are coming up. We will be making those vigorously. Im sure he senator will and i know that i will and we will draw contrasts. You will be hosting a debate on the 14th, which im looking forward to. I think we still have some good ground to cover. I think its great to have a contested democratic primary because it brings more people in to the process. When i dropped out at the end of the primary in 2008, i immediately urged all of my supporters to support then senator obama. I not only endorsed him, i nominated him at the convention and worked really hard. We will have a unified party when the process is over. Do you expect the same from senator sanders the way you dealt with the situation in 2008 . Do you think he will do the same . I would certainly hope so. The most important goal of the primary process is nominating a democratic candidate who will defeat the republicans in the general election. You know, both of us share a lot of the same goals. The republicans are die metrically opposed to what we believe. I would hope that at the end of the process if i am fortunate enough to be the nominee that the senator and his supporters will join the campaign to join in november, just as i and my supporters did in 2008. I am going to ask for a couple of reasons. One last night you may have heard that Sanders Campaign manager jeff weaver said something interesting, inflammatory on the air here saying the clinton campaign, secretary clinton they need to be careful not to destroy the Democratic Party merely in pursuit of her own ambition to be president. [ laughter ] your response to that idea . I mean, its ludicrous on the face of it. You know, i have been campaigning for democrats,s fundraising for democrats, recruiting democrats to run and win for a really long time. I think about 40 years. Senator sanders, by his own admission, has never even been a democrat. I understand they are anxious. I get that. They need to be thoughtful about what they do say because at the end of the day we need a democratic president to succeed president obama and to protect and further the progress that weve made under his eight years in office. Exit polls do show those democrats who want to see president obamas policies extended continued, favor you. This is done in the context of what you said about senator sanders about being a real democrat. In a recent interview you said you are not sure he is a democrat. Is that how you feel . Well, he himself has said he never was. He never ran as a democrat until he started to run for president. But look, hes in the race. Im in the race. And i believe strongly that its not only critical to nominate someone who will win in november but also to elect more democrats. Im already helping other democrats with who are running. Iep helping to raise money for them. Im supporting them. I think it is important to have a democratic senate. I think it is important to have a very Clear Mission to elect democrats and thats something that i not only have done in the past but i intend to do in the future. Two policy questions for you. First of all, you pointed out recent interview with the Editorial Board of the daily news it said it raises real questions about his firm grasp of how i the system works with regard to regulating banks and to how we fight the war on terror. How so . Well, hes been campaigning now for a year. His core message of inequality, which i absolutely agree with and i put forth my own plan. In the interview, it seemed unclear as to whether he understood how dodd frank works. How he would go about breaking up banks posing risks to our economy. I think i, and many other people, were surprised because thats been the centerpiece of his campaign. I have been saying for many months that its not enough to just have dodd frank on the books. My plan goes much further and independent experts have analyzed it and say it is a toptobottom effort to rein in the risks in the economy. Ive given a lot of thought to. This ive worked hard to come up with plans that will build on dodd frank. Im committed to using the tools in dodd frank, as they are described in the legislation, if that arising as a crisis that requires response. So, i was i think a little bit surprised that there didnt seem to be a lot of substance to what he was saying. How much more substance does he need, other than i want to break up the banks . We will figure out how. I want to go after isis, i will figure out how to interrogate them. A lot of people say it is about what you want to do. You figure out how later. Thats not the way i have seen it work over a lot of years and a lot of reading of history. I think the president s that are successful know what they want to do and how to do it and they hit the ground running, able to do every aspect of the job both as president and as commander in chief. But voters can make up their own minds. Ive also laid out a plan about defeating isis that i think takes in to account of what we need to do around the world, building coalitions, something i have experience in do ing and keeping us safe at home. Im going to talk about the issues that i think are on the minds of americans and the next two weeks the minds of new yorkers. And i will let senator sanders speak for himself. On the same cover of the same newspaper, where he did the interview, the daily news, today they are going after senator sanders about sandy hook. Not easy to say. Not easy to read either, secretary. So emotional, so difficult and the core issue comes down to should gun manufacturers be liable for their products being used illegally . You say yes. The senator says you have to show me something more than that. That there is a reason they should be liable. I get the emotion but wheres the reason behind holding these gun manufacturers liable for in a way that no other corporation would be . Thats not true, chris. In fact, under this legislation that senator sanders supported, they are the only industry in america that is not liable and accountable for what they do or fail to do. Lets remember why the nra called this piece of legislation the most important gun vote in years. Its because cities like new york and states and other groups were coming together around legal challenges to the behavior of gunmakers and sellers, trying to stem the epidemic of gun violence. The nra wanted to stop it in its tracks. They were able to get people like senator sanders to do their bidding. I voted against it. President obama voted against it. Because clearly, it was an effort to bypass legal accountability. Here we have this remarkable situation where you can not question the liability or the behavior of gunmakers and sellers. I thought senator chris murphy from connecticut summed it up. Senator sanders wants Higher Standards for toy guns than real guns. One last question. Thank you for your time this afternoon. New york is more relevant than people expected it to be. You were the senator here for eight years and lived here longer than that but you are going against bernie from brooklyn. Even though he is the senator from vermont. Who do you think is more of the real new yorker . Look, i think i know the state better. I have a lot of recent experience. Ive worked hard. Ive done a lot with people who are sharing my values about breaking down barriers, ending gun violence. Taking on special interests, improving education so every kid has a good teacher and good school regardless of the zip code. Continuing the work of health care, reforming criminal justice. I have been working on these issues steadily and im proud of my service as senator. Im going to keep working and keep talking about what we can do if i am fortunate enough to be president. Secretary clinton, thank you for giving us the time today. Appreciate it. Thank you. Thanks a lot, chris. All right. So we have secretary clinton laying out the case why it is not about whether or not she wants senator sanders to step out of the race. She believes it is good to have a contested primary and now it will be about the issues. So we laid out some of them right now. Who am i going to now, ashleigh or wolf . Who is taking it from here in the cnn family . It is wolf. I want you to stand by and help me and our viewers analyze what we heard from the former secretary of state. I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Chris, lets talk about some of the highlights of this interview. She lost, obviously yesterday in wisconsin. But all of her hopes moving forward, presumably she will do well in new york in less than two weeks now. A week later in pennsylvania. She has states potentially right now that are more conducive to her winning. Right . You are there in new york. Theres whats the presumption, that the northeast is more suitable for clinton than wi with wi in that region. Why . Her team would argue demographics. That you are you are going to have many more richette ic minority base of voters that plays to her strength and that is more representative of this country. I think new york is winding up being more of a test than people assumed because this is more than just the math. This is about the momentum and the mood. Just to stick with ms. We saw in wisconsin last night, 14 of people polled were enthusiastic, excited about the prospect of Hillary Clinton as president. Thats within democrats last night. Then you have the mood. Which is that part, the Democratic Party is going through something similar to the gop. They can talk about how their primary has been more tame, more about ideas. They can make that case if they want, but the party is trying to figure out who it is. And the left part of the party is aggressive about it and it is going on the ground in new york state as we speak. Thats going to matter. Thats why i ended the interview seeing where the secretarys head is in terms of her ownership of new york. Its a big deal if it is a tight race between sanders and clinton in new york. You know Bernie Sanders was born in brooklyn and he always makes the point in speaking to new yorkers. He lived in brooklyn until he reached the age of 18. Then he went to the university of chicago and moved on. Didnt come back to new york. She spent eight years as a u. S. Senator in new york. She knows the state very well. Know knows your hometown of new york, she knows my hometown of buffalo, in upstate new york. Bernie sanders knows brooklyn and new york. What about upstate . I think that, look, the idea of how deep you can go is relevant in new york. I think by extension it is relevant period. Whats the main criticism coming out of the daily news Editorial Board . Exactly that. When senator sanders pushed two to three levels down in to his position had more difficulty with it. That is a rigorous setting. Not a tv interview where time is a constraint and then aisis, what would you do, where would you interrogate it was a question that was tricky to handle. We are seeing it with the gun issue on the front cover of the tabloids this morning in the form of whether or not you make gun more manufacturers liable for the use of their product, their weapons, when it is used illegally. That would be unusual to do to a manufacturer. You could spin that issue one of two ways. Bernie sanders is caught on it right now. Hes on the wrong side of it from the democrats perspective because he is a little 0 open minded about it. Where this is highly emotionally charged. Especially when you attach a it to newtown. You and i were there and we understand the emotion behind it but reason and logic is a tricky issue for him and that will be front and center in this race. The lengthy interview he had with the New York Daily News, the Editorial Board. She getting criticized where you are in new york right now i for not answering a lot of specific questions of major policy issues. He wants to break up wall street an the big banks but didnt have specific information what laws he could use to do that. She is going after him on those issues, as well. We heard it in your interview. How big of a deal is this which where you are in new york . I think guns are big everywhere. Not just guns but im talking about the issue of breaking up wall street . Oh, sorry, wolf. I think that you have wall street here, right . But the idea that the concern, the frustration, anger, hostility toward what happened during the financial collapse is centered and lives only in new york is obviously wrong. Its something that permeates the country. It permeates the frustration of people who feel there are two sets of rules. So senator sanders is on the right side of that from a campaign move momentum perspective. Its a big driving force for him and feeds directly in to income inwall equality. What is the challenge to sanders, can you get it done . Are you promising an optimism of hope that you cant deliver on. That is once he had to dig down in to how he had to get it done it was a struggle for him. Some play play it as as a gotcha. I dont think it is that simple. I think you have to be ready, the way donald trump needed to be ready to answer the question about where he is on reproductive rights, no matter the context or the scenario. This is that kind of issue. If you make it the center of your campaign you have to own it on all levels. Good point. Good interview. Thank you very much. I want to remind you a week from thursday, a week from tomorrow there will be a debate. You heard Hillary Clinton tell chris she is look ing forward to debating Bernie Sanders in brooklyn. That debate will air here on cnn. 9 00 p. M. Eastern. A week from tomorrow, april 14th. We will take a break and we will continue to report on what is going on in the democratic side and standing by to hear from ted cruz. He is getting ready to speak to reporters in new york. The focus of political activity. Right now new york, new york. Well be right back. You premium like clockwork. Month after month. Year after year. Then one night, you hydroplane into a ditch. Yeah. 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Ted cruz is standing by to do q and a with reporters in new york city. We will have live coverage of that when he shows up. In the meantime, listen to how ted cruz sums up his win in wisconsin last night. Tonight is a turning point. It is a rallying cry. It is the call from the hardworking men and women of wisconsin to the people of america. We have a choice. A real choice. Jeffrey, he says this is a turning point in the race. Is it . Im not sure that it is at this point. Our colleague at cnn whos also with the daily news an interesting column that said that donald trump is on the path to the nomination. I think that is cruz. Senator cruz sb about to come to the northeastern United States. I guess he is already here in new york. He is a smart guy. I like him and i congratulate him on his victory when he was campaigning in iowa he went after donald trump for new york values. Now he has to come to new york and the classic case of a candidate looking down on the values of people whose votes he is trying to get is never a good formula. Im not sure it will epihelp him in new york tore pennsylvania. We will see if he is asked that question. He will meet with reporters momentarily. We will see if any of them ask about this the new york values. As you know, the Trump Campaign responded to the loss in wisconsin with a statement blasting ted cruz among other things the statement said not only was he propelled by the antitrump super pac spenting countless of millions of dollars on false advertising against mr. Trump but coordinating with his own super pacs which is illegal who control him. Ted cruz is worse than a puppet. She a trojan horse used by the party bosses attempting to steal the nomination from mr. Trump. First of all, theres no evidence that mr. Cruz has been coordinating with super pacs. That would be illegal as you know. Trump is making that accusation. Whats your reaction to that tough statement from the Trump Campaign . I think it is a reflection of how unhinged and pet lient he cn be. Instead of looking at the situation and realizing you lost fair and square, buddy, like in utah, 69 to 14. He lost handedly in wisconsin. And instead of taking responsibility and moving forward and acting president ial this is a campaign. You compete against other people. You dont control the outcome this is what he does. He lashes out. This is supposed to be the pivot point, right . Everyone kept saying if trump he now has to pivot and become president ial. He has done nothing 0 of the sort ever since march 15th. The wheels have been coming off the campaign. Theres a report in politico about how paul, who you hired to come in as a professional seasoned operative, he was supposed to come in and make the campaign professional, go forward with the delegate situation. It is a delegate game. He is threatening to quit because the trump folks the other side, Corey Lewandowski and those Campaign Staffers are not cooperating with making this a more Adult Campaign and more professional a moving forward. We are looking at an open convention most likely. This is the beginning of the wheels starting to come off a bit of the trump reality show and the reality of a real president ial campaign is starting to sink in for him. I dont think he can handle it. Jeffrey, when the Trump Campaign accuses ted cruz of breaking the law by coordinating with the super pac, he doesnt provide evidence to support the allegation. Is that fair . Well, you know, wolf, i dont have any evidence myself. But let me just address i think the general problem here is i dont know what prompted this on Donald Trumps part. Let me say this, the whole issue of super pacs, donald trump well aside, and ted cruz well aside has gotten to be so iffy. There is a general feeling abroaded in the land here n the political world, theres always a sort of winkwink, nodnod relationship between the super pac and the candidate. That somehow there is always some hankypanky going on. This is a reason why we should get rid of super pacs. The candidate should be responsible for his campaign, not somebody else, the candidate. As long as this goes on, you will get accusations like this and he is not alone in this. Hold on. Everybody hold on for a moment. We need to take a break and once again we are waiting for ted cruz. He will be answering reporters questions in new york city. There you see a crowd has gathered. We will have live coverage of that. He had a big victory in wisconsin yesterday. Raising the odds of a contested convention for the republicans in july in cleveland. How exactly would that play out . Our tom foreman takes us through the delegate shuffle coming up up. Also, Donald Trumps National Campaign spokeswoman is standing by to join us, as well. We will have her reaction to the loss to trump in wisconsin and the dhanss this will come down to a floor fight in july. Im a Customer Relationship im roy gmanager. Ith pg e. Anderson Valley Brewing company is definitely a leader in the adoption of energy efficiency. Pg e is a strong supporter of solar energy. We focus on helping our customers understand it and be able to apply it in the best way possible. Not only is it good for the environment, its good for the businesses bottom line. These are our neighbors. These are the people that we work with. That matters to me. I have three children that are going to grow up here and i want them to be able to enjoy all the things that i was able to enjoy. Together, were building a better california. Youto get the help yourefar looking for. Thats why at xfinity were opening up more stores closer to you. Where you can use all of our latest products and technology. And find out how to get the most out of your service. So when you get home, all you have to do is enjoy it. Were doing everything we can to give you the best experience possible. Because we should fit into your life. Not the other way around. We are getting in a new monmouth poll of Republican Voters. Donald trump way ahead in this monmouth poll with 52 among likely Republican Voters in the new york state primary. Thats april 19th, 13 days from now. John kasich, the Ohio Governor is in second place in new york among republicans, 25 . Cruz in third with 17 . Remember, this is a closed primary new york state, only registered republicans can vote. That 52 number very significant. New york state, if you get more than 50 of the vote, you get all 95 delegates. That would be a huge bonanza is donald trump could maintain the majority you see there. 52 . Thats a significant number. 13 days is a long time to go between now and the new york state primary. Those numbers just coming in from the Monmouth University poll. In the republican race for president , once again, ted cruz is getting ready to answer reporters questions in new york. We will have live coverage of that once he shows up with the microphone. He is clerly say verirying the win over donald trump in the wisconsin primary a. Cruz beat trump by 48 to 35 . 13point advantage. His victory moves the Republican Party closer to a contested convention in july. For more on what that means lets bring in cnns tom foreman. Walk us through what happens in a contested convention. These are the latest delegate numbers we have right now. They are all chasing that number. If anyone can get to that before the convention, its a done deal. Thats the nominee. If not, then you can come to the situation where people have to vote on the floor as to who they want to support, and that could be a different equation where the actual people who serve as delegates could make a big difference, wolf. Lets talk about how it works by looking at tennessee for starters. This is 58 delegates chosen by the people of tennessee. If you divide them based on the popular vote, trump would get 33 delegates, cruz 16, rubio would get nine. By the rules in that state and every state has its own rules they must vote that way for the first two ballots on the floor here if nobody has reached the magic number. Heres the tricky part. That little number, that note up there that says 14 are chosen by the state committee. The Cruz Campaign has been good about trying to gets of own people in to the group of del delegates. Even some Holding Trump signs here and have to vote for trump may actually support cruz. If you g from this, past a second vote suddenly you can see the delegation change and donald trump could lose a state he had won. Look at louisiana as another example. In louisiana we have 46 delegates. Pretty even split. Trump won 18 and cruz won 18 of them. Are uncommitted. Five and five right away we have ten people over here, we dont know what they will do. After the first vote under louisiana rules, all of these people become unbound, which means they can vote as they please. Suddenly all of these delegates are a big question mark. It comes down to the more you go to the voting the more people become unbound and they can, if they wish, ignore what all of those millions of voters have done so far in the primaries and caucuses, wolf. In some cases this could get extreme. The popular vote wouldnt matter at all. Thats correct. Thats exactly right. Look at north dakota. There arent a lot of states that have done this, but it does matter. There are states like north dakota that have 28 delegates. Think didnt have a popular vote. Simply had a state convention and at the state convention the cruz people worked the room pretty hard to make sure they had some folks among the delegates but we dont really know. Because nobody in the delegation has to declare who they will vote for and they can change anytime they want. Thats a question mark, too. The simple trut is, wolf, if you go to a contested convention with each vote it becomes much less certain who will win and you end up with not just in the bayou state but many places what i say is some kind of voodoo voting, wolf . Fascinating material. Good explanation. As the race moves forward it is all about the critically important delegates. Donald trump trying to get to the magic number of 1237. Ted cruz desperately trying to stop him from reaching that magic number in the first round of ballots. Whats the strategy for donald trump moving forward . Whats the strategy for cruz . Joining us is katrina pearson, the spokeswoman for the Trump Campaign. She is joining us from dallas. And joined by amanda carpenter, a former Communications Director for senator cruz. Ladies, to both of you, thank you for joining us. Katrina, how likely is it this will be a contested convention . That your candidate donald trump wont have the magic number of 1237 . We are still confident that mr. Trump is going to achieve the delegate number to secure the nom nooe nation prior to going to a convention. We werent even expecting to win delegates in wisconsin last night and in fact we did. Moving forward the map is favorable to mr. Trump as you showed the latest poll in new york. We will do well in the northeast and a heading in to california. How do you explain im curious, this monday moth university poll. We showed the numbers and will show again trump at 52 of republicans, remember it is a closed primary, kasich in second place at 25, cruz third, only 17 . Wa does that say to you . Well, i mean, trump this is his home state. I dont think there is a single new yorker in new york city or the upstate who doesnt know who donald trump is. His name i. D. And brand is strong. It is a mustwin state for donald trump. Its not a mustwin state for ted cruz. I think cruz would be crazy to invest a lo of resources in to that very expensive media market to try to win it. Go ahead and let donald trump take it. Try to keep him under 50 . Focus like a laser on the more competitive states like pennsylvania, maryland, where you have a better chance of picking up more delegates. Listen, we all woke up today. The likelihood of a contested convention is much more likely than it ever was because donald trump failed to close the deal in wisconsin. This is a critical moment for donald Trump Campaign. At this time he should be getting stronger, but hes getting weaker. He cannot close the deal. It is the second biggest prize of all of the states. 95 delegates in new york state. If that monmouth poll shows if it is above 50 , 50 plus one he gets all 95 new york state delegates. Heres the question to you, who hurts trump more in reaching the 50 threshold, kasich or cruz . Its most likely john kasich that would be polling votes from the Cruz Campaign. Also from the Trump Campaign. I also say this is isnt a do or die as amanda just said. We are confident we are going to win the 95 delegates out of new york city. Mr. Trump has been able to close the deal. This is one state. Mr. Trump has won the most states and has the most votes and will have the most votes going in to the convention. It seems senator cruz cant close the deal, least on his own which is why they sacrificed their principles of fighting against the establishment to join the establishment to fight against the will of the people. Mott just new york city, it is all of new york state. I want to correct you on that. Amanda, right now the estimates are that donald trump needs to win 60 of the remaining delegates in the contests going forward. Cruz needs to win 90 . Is that realistic . Anything is possible but i think we all realize we are going in to a contested convention. This is why you see donald trump and his surrogates trying to force a narrative that ted cruz is the establishment. If you read between the lines of trumps statement, he is a guy who is saying i can unite people behind me. Se upset that others are not behind his candidacy. It is never trump for a reason. People dont want to get behind trump or be associated with his brand. Thats a problem for a president ial candidate. The idea is to unite the country behind you. Yet, he is alienating people. Ted cruz is showing despite everything he has done in washington to fight the establishment he can still be a unifier. Thats the critical thing going in to a convention. These are party people at the end of the day. He doesnt a surrogate operation help is lacking a lot of fundamental campaign basics that ted cruz has. The longer it continues the more likely it is that ted cruz we have been hearing that for a long time about the lack of organization or lack of ground game. Still, mr. Trump continues to win the most states and votes. Mr. Trump has been running for president for nine months when ted cruz has been running for president nine years. Definitely a gap that is made up for. Im still confident we will do well in and reach those delegates before the convention. We have to end it there. Good conversation. Lets continue the conversations down the road. Appreciate it. Coming up, Hillary Clinton sitting down with cnn sounding off on Bernie Sanders and his stance on guns and more. Stay with us. Well be right back. When you booked this trip, you didnt know we had hundreds of thousands of places to stay all over the world. Or that we searched billions of flights to get you here. A few weeks ago, you didnt even know where here was. Now the only thing you dont know, is how youre gonna leave. Expedia. Technology that connects you to the people and places that matter. Approaching medicare eligibility . You may think you can put off checking out your Medicare Options until youre sixtyfive, but now is a good time to get the ball rolling. Keep in mind, medicare only covers about eighty percent of part b medical costs. The rest is up to you. Thats where aarp Medicare Supplement insurance plans insured by unitedhealthcare Insurance Company come in. 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Plus, nine out of ten plan members surveyed say they would recommend their plan to a friend. Remember, medicare doesnt cover everything. The rest is up to you. Call now, request your free decision guide and start gathering the information you need to help you keep rolling with confidence. Go long™. With the with wisconsin primary in the Rearview Mirror they are heading pennsylvania and new york. Im joined by van jones and lewis miranda, the Communications Director for the Democratic National convention. Thank you for joining us. Bernie sanders dwnt do himself favors in an interview with the daily news Editorial Board. Expanding settlements is one thing. Coming in to office as a president who set as a baseline that you want israel to pull back settlements, that changes the dynamic in the negotiations. Im wondering, how far and what you want israel to do in terms of pulling back. You are asking me a question and if i had more in front 0 of me i would give you an answer. I think withdrawal from the territories is appropriate. He spoke about how he would break up the big banks. Chris cuomo asked Hillary Clinton about that a while ago. Listen to this. How much more substance does he need, other than i want to break up the banks . We will figure out how. I want to go after isis, i will figure out how to interrogate them. A lot of people say it is about what you want to do. You figure out how later. Thats not the way i have seen it work over a lot of years and a lot of reading of history. I think the president s that are successful know what they want to do and how to do it and they hit the ground running, able to do every aspect of the job both as president and as commander in chief. How much damage do you believe was done to Bernie Sanders as a result of the lengthy interview he gave to the New York Daily News . Well, obviously that was not a great thing. He had one of his best and worst days. He won at the ballot but he definitely lost in the interview. Heres reality. He can get sharper answers going forward. Because hes considered an under dog hes never had to go through the kind of beating hes going to get in new york. The new york media is a different beast. This is not iowa. Iowa are great but this is a very different environment. Hes coming in to what Hillary Clinton, her lions den. She has been here and knows how it operates. She is tired of playing defense on her funding on her speeches, et cetera. She wants to put him on defensive now and what happened in that interview, especially when you talk about wall street, his strength of going after wall street can be a weakness. He dunn know what he will do in particular. A tough day for him but do not count Bernie Sanders 0 out. This guy has his own trick he can pull in new york. Working Families Party is backing him. One of the most effective organizations out here. This is the war to settle the score. Both of these candidates have to do well in new york. Hillary clinton was laughing. She may not be laughing much longer. Lewis, at this point in the race, im sure Hillary Clinton probably thought she would be focusing on a general selection, focusing on republicans. Instead she is implements, were told now a new strategy. Some are calling it disqualifying defeat about Bernie Sanders. Listen to what she said about his position on guns. We have serious differences. We will be exploring those. Whether it is how dodd frank actually works if you are concerned about income inequality and holding the banks accountable, you have to know how it works and what you have to do to make it work. I have the best plan to add to that. When it comes to guns i was appalled that senator sanders said he didnt see a reason that the parents of children massa e massacred in sandy hook to be d going to get more intense the argument between the debate between Hillary Clintonp and Bernie Sanders . Are you worried this could impact your party, the Democratic Party . From the partys lens this is exciting, weve had a great primary. This is what primaries are about is to discuss these differences. You look at the exit polls out of wisconsin yesterday, seven out of ten democrats are excited and optimistic about both of our candidates. Thats a big difference from four out of ten republicans in wisconsin. Republican primary voters who think they would be scared of a Trump Presidency and about a third that would rather not vote, vote for a democrat, or third party if it was trump or cruz. Were seeing excitement and enthusiasm as a result of our primary and that puts us in a good position heading into november. Standby, president obama, as you know hes trying to scale up the fight against isis. We will go live to baghdad for more on some of the Biggest Challenges faces the u. S. And allies. We will get an update from the front lines. Much more coming up right after this. A perfect car then smash it into a tree. Your Insurance Company raises your rates. Maybe you should have done more research on them. For drivers with accident forgiveness, Liberty Mutual wont raise your rates due to your first accident. Just one of the many features that comes standard with our base policy. Call for a free quote today. See Car Insurance in a whole new light. Liberty mutual insurance. President obama says hes looking to scale up the battle against isis in iraq and syria. Listen to this. We are working to make sure that were accelerating the campaign against isil in syria, in iraq, isil continues to lose ground, we continue to take on their leadership, their Financial Networks their infrastructure. We will squeeze them and well do defeat them. The president made those remarks before a Planning Session with top military officials yesterday to talk about the fight against isis im joined by colonel steve warren, spokesman for the nis Isis Coalition in ishgds joining us from baghdad. What are some of the ideas being considered right now to ramp up this pressure to destroy isis . Well thank you. Its a pleasure to be here. The main thing that we are really looking at doing is increasing what were already doing. So what we want to do here is continue the pressure from the air, while we scale up the amount of training, advising and assisting that we provide to the iraqis. And its the assisting part that everyone is most interested in. That takes many forms. Were not prepared to announce any of those yet but what you will see essentially is whats worked will be increased so we can do more of it. Wha are the prospects of liberating mosul, the second largest city in iraq, a city of about 2 Million People that isis has now controlled for more than two years . Well, we believe that when mosul is liberated, this will be the beginning of the end of the military component of isil. Difficult to say how long it will be. It will be some time. Were not there yet. Weve begun what we call in the military shaping operations, which is conducting strikes in the city marks n maneuver outside of the city to prepare the battlefield for that fight. But it will be some time before it happens. Theres a lot of fear that this Mosul University Chemistry Lab is emerging as a place where isis fighters are building chemical bombs, chemical weapons, if you will, and that the u. S. Wants to target those labs and destroy them. What can you tell us about that . Well, wolf, i can tell you tonight that we have targeted those labs and we have destroyed them. So the chemical labs in Mosul University no longer pose a threat to anybody. They have been completely wiped out. When did that happen . Well, this happened over a series of time. The most recent chemical weapons strike that we took was march 19th. So its been in the last few weeks. Do they have other capabilities where they can build these kinds of chemical weapons, poison gas, stuff like that . They do. We know that they are interested in deploying chemical weapons against us and against, you know, their other enemies on the battlefield. This gives them a tremendous psychological boost when they are able to deploy them. We suspect theyve deployed chemical weapons on several other occasions. Important to know what theyre using really is industrial chemicals, chlorine, commonly found chemical, and also theyre kind of cooking up some of their own kind of homemade mustard gas as well. So these are things that were aware of. As you know we captured their chemical weapons amir several weeks ago. This has been a source of important intelligence for us and were going after that chemical weapons network, wolf. And very quickly, colonel, before i let you go, the mosul dam, theres some concern there could be a catastrophic failure there. Whats the status of that dam . Well, there are concerns about that and we know that iraqis and others are working very hard to mitigate it. We dont really have a dog in that hunt, wolf. Were really focused on isil and defeating this enemy. But we know the Iraqi Government is focused on it and there have been many meetings and much going on in an effort to do two things, one, prevent that dam from failing and number two, set up Warning Systems around the country. Colonel warren, thank you so much for joining us. Thanks to you and the men and women who serve with you in iraq right now. Hopefully this thing will move forward in a positive, positive way. Appreciate it very much. Thank you. Thank you, wolf. And thats it for me. Thanks very much for watching. Once again were standing by to hear what senator cruz is going to say, hes getting ready to answer reporters questions. Well have live coverage of that coming up on cnn. There you see senator cruz moving towards might crow phone. Stick around for that. I will be back 5 00 p. M. Eastern in the situation room for our international viewers, amanpour is coming up next. For our viewers in north america, newsroom with Brooke Baldwin starts right now. Wolf blitzer, thank you so much, my friend. Great to be with all of you on this wednesday. Im Brooke Baldwin. Politics, an already unprecedented president ial election has taken one huge step toward an event the nation has not seen in generations. A contested convention. The likelihood of that just rose after the frontrunner suffered a doubledigit defeat in the wisconsin primary. Im talking about both parties here. First up democratic president ial candidate Hillary Clinton lost to Bernie Sanders by 14 points. Shes still, though, has a strong lead toward the party nomination, but