Hello, everyone. Welcome to the lead. Im jake tapper. Two outsiders raging against the machines. First, donald trump, mega businessman turned republican frontrunner not feeling the love i think its fair to say. Trump says the rules are stacked against him as he fights to keep delegates that he says senator ted cruz is, quote, stealing. Delegates it should be pointed out the Republican National committee insists are being earned completely in accordance with previously established rules. On the other side of the aisle theres senator Bernie Sanders. Hes taking on democratic heavyweight Hillary Clinton. Tomorrow the two will go headtohead in cnns debate in brooklyn. Sanders is in another fight over delegates, but the ones he wants are super delegates. These are democratic establishment figures who have already pledged support for clinton whom sanders wants to change their minds. Aiming to get a ground swell of grass root supporters to make his case and today to walk the walk, quite literally, sanders this afternoon joined picketing verizon workers protesting what he calls corporate greed. Lets bring in cnns joe johns live from new york. Joe, today was endorsement day for both sanders and clinton, including sanders first Senate Colleague to support him. Reporter thats right, jake. Oregon senator jeff merkley came on board for sanders today, but the front and Center Moment for the candidate came with a union group that endorsed him months ago and now finds itself out to know strike against a telecom giant. Bernie sanders out today on the Communications Workers of america picket line in support of the thousands of verizon workers striking over contract disputes. And competing to pull in lastminute endorsements to boost his support in new york. I am honored, i am grateful to have the support of this fantastic union. Thank you so much. Reporter sanders with the endorsement of the new York Transit Workers Union and for the first time one of his colleagues in the senate, senator jeff merkley who talked to cnns manu raju. Its bernie that i am endorsing because he has been in the battlefield fighting clearly on these issues in a way that i think is the boldest, most powerful voice. Reporter but Hillary Clinton firing back with but support of her own winning the endorsement of the New York Daily NewsEditorial Board who had the interview with Bernie Sanders last week that made him look seemingly unprepared. Clintons proposals are shaped for the world in which we live. Clinton also won the endorsement of two major immigration groups, announcing her plan to create an office of immigrant affairs and once again hitting the republican frontrunner. As i have said frequently about donald trump, basta, enough with the prejudice and bluster and bigotry. Reporter another key voting bloc for clinton, africanamericans. Shes leading sanders and trying to side step the land mines of race and politics. Controversy arose in a skit she appeared in with new yorks mayor where she thanked him for endorsing her and he said she was running on cp time, colored peoples time. And then another wrinkle after the New York Times called on the candidate to more fully explain her position on the controversial 1994 crime bill her husband signed while in office. But in her speech today before reverend al sharptons National Action network, mrs. Clinton played it safe with wording shes used before. Reforming our criminal Justice System and ending the era of mass incarceration. Reporter Bernie Sanders is holding a rally tonight in Washington Square park here in new york. It was originally scheduled for tomorrow but the campaign had to move it because of tomorrows debate. Hillary clinton also holding a rally tonight in the bronx, jake. Joe johns, thank you. As you heard, jeff merkley from oregon is now the first sitting senator to endorse sanders and he joins me now live to explain why. Senator, thanks for being here. Youre welcome. So when asked why now, you explained that your home state of oregon is getting ready to start the mailing ballots process at the end of this month. Your oregon colleague, ron widen, is with the vast majority of Democratic Senators having endorsed Hillary Clinton and he endorsed her before iowa. Wouldnt it have made more sense to get ahead of this train a long time ago . He certainly needs help. Well, you know, theres been a string of endorsements all the way through by senators, each choosing what moment felt right to them. For me what felt right is when oregonians start paying attention, which is about two weeks out from the ballots to weigh in and hopefully have the arguments im putting forth hold some sway. A big question for senator sanders is whats his path to the nomination. As you know, he trails clinton by 229 pledged delegates, almost 700 if you include the super delegates. His path largely depends upon quipsing convincing a lot of these super delegates to change their minds. You know a lot of super delegates. Do you think they will be convincible . Will they change their endorsement from clinton to sanders . Theres no question its an uphill battle. If you look at campaigns in the past, sometimes events happen in the campaign and that uphill battle becomes a little easier and often successful. I think the super delegates who are not in office are more likely to consider changing where they stand because they havent taken such a public point of view. Theres a lot of Party Officials around the country who should be thinking about who presents the best path on the biggest issues facing our nation. I obviously think that thats Bernie Sanders. I know youve talked about how strong he is, how bold he is. The Editorial Board of the New York Daily News calls clinton a super prepared warrior realist. They describe sanders as a fantasist whos at passionate war with reality. I assume you disagree. Why . Its completely wrong. When he was mayor, he rebuilt the waterfront, brought in a ball team, set his town on a great path, burlington. When he was in the house he passed more amendments. He was called the king of amendments. More amendments than any of the 435 congressmen. He comes over to the senate, he champions the expansion of our federally qualified Health Care System, our clinics that are the front door to the Health Care System. He got that done. It wasnt about Bernie Sanders, it was about the citizens having fair access to health care. So he had a bigger vision of more affordable single payer, but he was willing to take whatever intermediate step it was towards that vision. But you would agree that those things that you just listed, starting with the waterfront in burlington, are very different from the very grand, very bold proposals you hear from senator sanders on the campaign trail, winning him the support of millions and millions of very idealistic and often young voters. Let me just ask you this. Of the big plans that you hear him talk about and you praised him for his boldness, can you name one that you think would have a chance of passing the senate . Well, i can tell you that by laying out that vision, the likelihood of taking steps in that direction become much more significant. Now, in 2010, we were one vote away from single payer from age 55 up. So we were almost there. 59 votes, we needed 60. So was that in hand . Did we make it in that moment . No. But that vision also propelled a lot of other improvements that we did in the Health Care System in that year. I was on the committee that helped the committee with Bernie Sanders. He was a key part of that effort. And then you turn to the veterans side and it was Bernie Sanders that brought the right and the left together behind a veterans bill that greatly increases employment opportunities, education opportunities. But i didnt hear with all due respect, i didnt hear an answer to my question. Well, youre asking is the ultimate castle in the sdky achievable when you have a republican majority that wages continuous war on the presidency and the answer for almost anything is no. Im just talking about senator Sanders Campaign promises. Well, they are a campaign vision. You can call them a promise, but they are a promise to fight for the direction we need to go. Certainly take, for example, on his understanding of how middle class jobs have been eviscerated by trade agreements with countries where people are paid less than 1 an hour. I mean he understands directly what that has done to working americans not only for those who lost their jobs, which is about 5 million americans, but what it has done for everyone else who still has a job for no more leverage in terms of benefitting from the increase in wealth or the prosperity of that company. For four decades we are now in the situation where virtually 100 of the new income has gone to the top 10 . That means for four decades, weve been leaving 90 of americans out in the cold. This is a powerful grip on the frustration and challenge facing American Families who saw an america that shared in its prosperity, shared its growth in the postwar era and now isnt. I appreciate it. Im sure senator sanders appreciates your passionate endorsement of him. Thank you, senator merkley. You can watch clinton and sanders tomorrow night at 9 00 eastern right here on cnn. Just into cnn, a shakeup for the republican frontrunner, donald trump, making a key addition to his staff. Who . 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Talk to your doctor and visit humira. Com. This is humira at work. We built our factories here because of a huge natural resource. Not the land. The water. Or power sources. Its the people. American workers. They build worldclass products. And that builds communities. And a better future. For all of us. Because making something in america means so much, to so many. Weathertech. Proudly made in america. Welcome back to the lead. Im jake tapper. Donald trump says the deck is stacked and the Republican National committee is shuffling the cards. But now as he huffs and pucffs about the republican establishment, he is entrusting a republican insider with a lot of power on his campaign. Sunlen serfaty is on the trail. Who is this new hire . Reporter the new hire, jake, is rick wiley. He was the former Campaign Manager of Governor ScottWalkers Campaign so now hes coming aboard the Trump Campaign and this comes at a time when donald trump is railing against the establishment, his disagreements with the rnc chief now boiling over. Youre saying that you dont think the rnc wants you to get the nomination . No, i dont think so. Reporter tonight the gop frontrunner and the head of the Republican Party is erupting into an allout war. Because of all the shenanigans that goes on. But those are the rules. Didnt you know those rules . I know the rules very well but i know that its stacked against me by the establishment. I fully understand it. Reporter donald trump taking his criticism of the gop nominating systems rules to new heights, now accusing the Republican Party of conspiring against him to prevent him from winning the nomination. They changed the rules a number of months ago. The people in about eight months ago. Well, not very long ago. But you had a lot of time to prepare a better organization. They saw how i was doing and they didnt like it. Reporter and trump is now making it personal, calling rnc chair Reince Priebus out by name, telling a newspaper that priebus should be ashamed of himself. The rnc chair quickly firing back, saying the Trump Campaign should have known the rules, tweeting nomination process known for a year and beyond. Its the responsibility of the campaigns to understand it. Complaints now . And taking a shot at the frontrunner, quipping, give us all a break. Meantime at cnns town hall the trump family trying to soften his image. Im incredibly proud of my father. Im amazed and truly in awe of what he has accomplished and what hes accomplished throughout the course of his life. Reporter though admitting they have tried to referee him at times. If he would only listen, i did many times, and i just say okay, do whatever you want. Hes an adult. He knows the consequences. Reporter trump conceding that hes not ready to fully be president ial yet. I have two more people i have to take out and when i take them out, i will be so president ial, you wont believe it. Reporter and in another sign of the Trump Campaign seems to be trying to take steps to play the inside game a bit more. Sources tell cnn that tomorrow the campaign will start a fresh new series of congressional outreach meetings tomorrow in washington, d. C. Sunlen serfaty, thank you so much. Joining me now, Mary Katherine ham and donald trump supporter kaylee mcenanny. Rick wiley is regarded as an insider. Paul manafort another insider joined the campaign recently. Ed brookover also an insider. For an outsider campaign, there are an awful lot of insiders coming into the campaign now. Because donald Trump Realizes that he needs to play by the rules or at least be prepared to play by the rules in order to defeat the rules. Where i live donald trump credit is hiring guys like wiley and manafort. He has to, to ensure that he gets the nomination. But i give him credit because instead of being like senator cruz and saying these are the rules, im going to navigate them and utilize them to my advantage, donald trump is standing against the rules and saying you cant disenfranchise colorado, you cant disenfranchise north dakota and wyoming, those voters didnt get to vote. Even if its not in my interest, im going to sit here and say the American People should have a vote. Hes playing by the rules by hiring guys that can navigate the system while also challenging the rules. Mary katherine, you heard about kayleigh talk about the rules. Colorado had a convention instead of a caucus or a primary and they had votes, both on the county level, the Congressional District level, the state level and you hear the Trump Campaign continuing to say that the voters were there disenfranchised. If its a washington establishment conspiracy, then the washington establishment conspiracy has this bizarre headquarters on the western slope of colorado in small towns and rural virginia. These are grassroots people involved in these county conventions. They are not overlords from washington. I also think its interesting for trump to say its no good to utilize the rules and use them to your advantage when his argument for all of his crony capitalism and giving to democrats for his entire career was, look, i was playing the game and using the rules to my advantage. He should know how to play this game. Hes not interested in making the rules known to himself, hes interested in complaining about them after the fact. I think hiring people whon the rules is a step towards recognizing that. Kayleigh, let me ask you that because ive heard this point before Mary Katherine just made. Mr. Trump when talking about using bankruptcy laws and the tax code, he talks about these are the rules and im playing by them. Why is that any different than what senator cruz is doing with county conventions and the like in colorado . Because senator cruz is part of the political game and hes in a position where if he took a hard stand alongside donald trump saying you cant disenfranchise one million voters, its an obvious point to say that its injust to deprive people of the right to vote. Senator cruz is in a position where he can stand behind donald trump and unite and say we need to empower the people and not diminish them. When donald trump was playing by the rules as a businessman, hes not in a position to change those rules. In order to create a successful business, you have to play by the rules washington has created. When you get to washington, you can change those rules. Lets turn to senator ted cruz for a second, Mary Katherine. Marco rubio yesterday was talking about the convention, talking about ted cruz. Take a listen. I want the republican nominee to be a conservative, and in my view at this moment of the candidates that are still actively campaigning, the only one that fits that criteria is ted cruz. The only one that fits the criteria i