explosives and machine guns and you see this. they can do both. they can shoot up an airport. sent send twoed is bombers in to an airport or close down a city like paris using commanden doe-style tactics. >> thank you for that. stay tune td. my colleague with big breaking news off the top of the program. he starts now. >> hello, i'm wolf blitzer. it is noon in milwaukee, 1:00 p.m. washington, d.c., 7 p.m. cairo. wherever you are watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. we begin with breaking news. legal trouble for donald trump's campaign manager, corey lewandowski. he turned himself in this morning in jupiter, florida. he is charged with simple bat ry and missystem, stemming from a march understand d

march incident involving a reporter. moments ago donald trump tweeted "wow, corey lewandowski, my campaign manager, and a very decent man was just charged with assaulting a reporter. look at tapes. nothing there." . he adds this, why aren't people looking at this reporter's earliest statement as to what happened. this is before she found out the episode was on tape. that reporter michelle field responded on twitter "because my story never changed. seriously, just stop lying." . bring in brian stelter, the host of cnn's reliable sources and our legal analyst danny cevallos. the accused the campaign manager of grabbing her arm. fill us in on the details. >> trump campaign has a contentious relationship with the press. this was a dramatic example.

this this video that comes from one of trump's buildings, you can see michelle fields appearing to be grabbed by the campaign manager. she says she was shaken up by this incident. right after it happened she spoke to another reporter from the "washington post" and said she had never been grabbed that way by any campaign official in her life. she was disturbed by it and spoke out publicly. the campaign denied it at the time, very strongly. trump at one point said he thought she made it up and corey lewandowski called her delusional and said she is an attention seeker. a couple of days later she went to the police in florida and asked for this to be investigated. a couple of weeks later, we see the video from the first time. and we know he will have to appear in court in early may because authorities believe there is probable cause for battery charge. >> hold on a minute. danny, our legal analyst is with us, as well. we just got the statement in from mr. lewandowski. let me read a couple of

statements from it. mr. lewandowski was issued a notice to appear and given a court date. he was not arrested. mr. lewandowski is innocent of this charge. he will enter a plea of not guilty and looks forward to his day in court. he is confident he will be exonerated. the statement goes on to say he is represented by scott richardson of west palm beach and kendall coffey of miami. all right. let's talk for a second, danny, about this charge. how serious is it? >> in the world of criminal charges, it's less serious than others. it is misdemeanor battery. in this case, the maximum penalty, the statutory maximum is up to a year in jail and a year probation and of course fines. in the criminal charges it is one of the lower rungs. but for someone in a high-profile position like this individual any criminal conviction has serious collateral consequences.

>> in the statement, he says he was not arrested. he was issued a notice to appear and given a court date. so does that mean he was not arrested? >> florida rules allow for a criminal case to begin in one of two ways, either by a physical arrest or you can issue a notice to appear, which is just a written order to appear in court. you have still been charged but you have not been physically arrested. if you look at the charging documents, the document s released, you will see the form says "arrest/notice to appear" which leads me to believe it maybe one of those dual purpose forms. so lewandowski maybe correct, according to florida rules, which allow for this alternative to a physical arrest. >> yet the police in jupiter, florida, are calling this an arrest. there's a dispute in the language about what it is. no matter what you call it, it's not good news for the trump campaign. what campaign wants to talk about its campaign manager being

accused of this? and of course michelle field as we saw on twitter a couple of minutes ago, standing by her story and accusing donald trump of lying. >> i want to bring jim akos tarks our correspondent covering the trump campaign. you have been at a lot of these events where there are restrictions on what the press can and can't do. when you heard about this notice to appear and give an court date. what went through your mind giving the times you have seen the relationship between the media covering donald trump and those who are trying to protect mr. trump, shall we say, from the media and from people out there who atitend these rallies >> you are right. i have been to a lot of rallies. i have seen a lot of that up close. i should jump off you it an arrest or notice to appear, i can add that the jupiter police department public information officer said there is not going to be a mug shot released as a result of corey lewandowski

turning himself in. apparently when you turn yourself in and you are issued a notice to appear there's no mug shot taken. we should throw that out there, as well. i i can tell you there is a heavy security presence. and for good reason. you saw what happened in chicago. the near riot that broke out there. you saw what happened in fayetteville, north carolina, where a protester was sucker punched bay a donald trump supporter and where a "time" magazine reporter was trying to cover a protest and choke slamd by a secret service agent. there's a tight security perimeter around reporters. we call it the pen covering these trump campaign rallies. quite often there is a need to go out of that pen and cover the candidate, cover what is happening at these rallies. on march 8th, from what i can understand, is that michelle fields was attempting to ask

donald trump. as you see in the security camera footage and as danny was saying and as brian were saying this appears to be why this charge came forward and why we are at the stage now with this case. he clearly, corey lewandowski, clearly grabs the arm of michelle fields and perhaps because michelle, as she said in the hent comment she's never been grabbed like that before. you and i have been in campaigns where you do get jostled by secret service and security. sometimes jostled by the campaign staff. i think what is interesting about this footage and why it is illuminating is up until this point, corey lewandowski had tweeted michelle fields you are totally delusional. donald trump said after one of the debates to our -- one of our reporters, that he thinks this was all made up. clearly when you look at this footage, wolf, this wasn't made up. this isn't delusional.

something clearly happened here. >> everybody stand by. i want to get official reaction from the donald trump campaign. joining us his national spokesperson joining us from dallas. we have seen the response from donald trump on twitter, in which he says specifically and i will read it again for our viewers, corey lewandowski, my campaign manager and decent man was charged with assaulting a reporter. look at tapes, nothing there. what's the official word? is he going to keep his job, take a leave of absence? does donald trump have total confidence in his campaign manager? >> yes, we have total confidence in our campaign manager. we feel he will be exonerated. you know, wolf, this is no different, for example, when i am in the middle of the scrum and get smacked around by television networks. i don't go and sue the television network because i have a cut on my arm from a camera. everyone knows at these type of scrum events there is jostling

around and pushing and the second you cross the secret service threat threshold you will be moved away from the candidate. this is not new. corey lewandowski is going to beat this. he will plooed plead not guilty and we will have to let the process play out. >> is it -- in other words, until all of this is resolved, legally he stays on the job as the campaign manager? >> absolutely. >> he is not going anywhere, is that what you are saying. >> that's exactly what i am saying. again, these charges -- we keep forgetting the initial charges that she made, that the reporter made in her own words and they are out there, she specifically said that he aggressively grabbed her and nearly threw her to the ground. it is very obvious that is not what happened in this case. mr. lewandowski is going to fight it. >> you can see that he did grab her arm over there, as he was trying to interfere, stop her from asking questions to donald trump. there was a reporter from the "washington post" who backs up

her version and so clearly there was some sort of contact between lewandowski and this reporter michelle fields, right? >> it is actually the reporter at the "washington post" that created the narrative. what we have seen over time is the story did change a little bit. she didn't even go to the authorities for a couple of days after the attention started to rev up. i think we will see moving forward she wasn't too concerned about the reaction initially. she didn't can contact the campaign or the authorities. she didn't contact anyone other than twitter when the alleged incident occurred. >> let me ask our legal analyst if he is still there, danny, are you still with us? he's not there. i wanted to ask him because the point is that she waited three days before she contacted police. if that was a legal issue as far as his defense is concerned. the whole notion that he didn't know who she was. he claimed he didn't know who she was. he had no contact with her. there are a lot of people, as you know, who are accusing him

of lying. that he knew she was with breitbart, she knew who she was and he wanted to deliberately stop her from asking questions and that's why he grabbed her arm and stopped her effectively from asking questions. >> that is absurd. a lot of reporters and bloggers think they are known and they are not. you can see from another angle of the video. he is walking through the crowd accordingly. that is what the campaigns do. it is particularly when you cross the threshold of the secret service. you can't even tell he made eye contact with her. how is he supposed to know whoever writer is. it is insane to assume particularly with the number of reporters always trying to talk to mr. trump immediately after they walk in to a brick wall of reporters. so of course these things happen in the scrum. perhaps campaigns, particularly presidential campaigns, should change the rule the type of access the press get from here on. >> why was he blocking in effect for trump? i have covered a lot of

campaigns. campaign managers usually have a different role than someone walking behind the candidate preventing journalists from asking questions. >> they do. in this case corey was one of those people. there are staff that take on multiple roles and this is one of them. i myself have been moved around by staff members of campaigns, even lower level staff members who are helping at a particular event. this is nothing new. at the same time, the allegation is he grabbed her aggressively, nearly throwing her to the ground. it did not happen. it is not on the video and mr. lewandowski will be cleared of all charges. >> we remember after the incident at one of the election nights at an event, a news conference plaus plus a statement delivering, at his club in palm beach. it looked like corey lewandowski was standing right behind him as a vote of confidence, if you

will, by donald trump a vote of confidence for corey lewandowski was that to show he had confidence in his campaign manager? >> i think you can look back at other election nights. many of the staff, including myself have shared the stage with mr. trump on victory night. that is nothing new. it fits in to the narrative the media has been trying to create around the campaign. everyone has been attacked on this campaign. i think it is worth pointing out simply that these types of things are not uncommon to be jostled or moved or hit, whether it is by a campaign person or media person. gi again, like i said, you can start to sue networks for slashing your arm can with a camera which is what happened in my case. this is absurd, ridiculous and will be beat. >> if it is not beat when he appears in court does he stay in the campaign or forced out? >> yes, mr. lewandowski is an

intrigual part of the team and the camp wholeheartedly supports him and will see him through the ordeal. >> i will ask you to stand by. more to discuss this hour. we will bring in representatives from the cruz campaign and the kasich campaign. much more coming up. will this charge against donald trump's campaign manager have any real impact on trump supporters? a week from today, a huge election, the primary in wisconsin. we will get assessments from that. later this hour, the clinton andened bernie sanders sanders will join us live. we will have their reaction to this news and more. stay with us. you both have a

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liberty mutual insurance. republican presidential candidate ted cruz now responding to the news we have been following. the charge being levelled, simple battery against corey lewandowski. the donald trump campaign manager for grabbing the arm of a reporter. listen to cruz. >>. >> is there consequences at a campaign level that should be undertaken? >> it's a very sad development. this is the consequence of the culture of the trump campaign. the abusive culture. when you have a campaign that is built on personal insults and

attacks and now physical violence. that has no place in a political campaign, and no place in our democracy. i think it is a really unfortunate development. i do think it helps clarify for the voters what the trump campaign is all about. and my focus is not on the personal insults and attacks. it is on a positive, optimistic conservative agenda. how we turn the country around. how we bring jobs back to america, how i to bring manufacturing jobs back to wisconsin, how we see wages rising and expand tune for young people. that's my focus and why we see energy and enthusiasm in wisconsin. it's why today we were very honored to earn the support of governor scott walker, one of the strongest conservatives in the country, a strong principled governor in the state and the latest development in republicans continuing to unify

behind our campaign. >> ted cruz reacting to the news. donald trump's corey lewandowski has been charged with simple battery. corey lewandowski showed up in a police station today in jupiter, florida. the charges stem from an incident on march 8th, involving a reporter for breitbart, michelle fields. this is the last thing a campaign wants to see, exactly a week before crucial primary in wisconsin. >> it is. you see the way ted cruz was handling this. cruz understands he has to win wisconsin he has been through this heidi, cruz, melania trump controversy with each other's wive and he is calling the trump campaign saying it has an i bussive culture are not soft words ands it's clear to me and

cruz is a smart candidate. what he is playing for are women voters. and the question is, trump has done well with republican women, so far, overall with women he has a 74% unfavorable rating but with republican women he beats ted cruz. it seems to me that cruz is trying to take advantage of this and tarring the candidate with corey lewandowski wrapping them all together in one big bow to play for women. >> strong statement of support for corey lewandowski from donald trump. and you heard the national press spokeswoman for the trump campaign. he's with him 100%, even if he is convicted he stays on as campaign manager. >> this seems to be the donald trump play book. he is loyal to his people. he doesn't back down. he doesn't apologize. he doesn't retreat. he basically comes out. that's what we have had from him on this incident so far.

he has known corey lewandowski since april 2014. he came on board january 2015 in this present capacity. we saw him during that the super primary night. there was corey lewandowski next to him on stage and he said, good job, good job, to corey. one thing we see happening is even as donald trump wins many, many contests in this republican party primary capturing, 35, 38% of the vote, his unfavorable rating is not just among women but all voters seems to be going up. in january we saw 55%. now 67%. even as he wins, i think those unfavorable numbers are ticking up. >> by all accounts in wisconsin it could be a close race. >> it is going to be a close race and cruz is all in on he has to win this, i believe. he is not cutting deals with john kasich. he just wants to win this.

the thing that is astonishing to me as a political journalist and i don't know if you agree with me, but normally on a campaign if something like this happened and there was a "misunderstanding," somebody like corey may come out and instead of saying she was delusional may say there was a misunderstanding here. i'm sorry if anyone got hurt. the candidate would then say, you know, we have to figure out a way to get around this. sorry if anybody got hurt. the trump campaign does not back down, does not apologize, does not recognize any misunderstanding here. that's what is kind of puzzling to me. >> the story obviously is not going away. i want you to stand by. there's other news developing as well. it has been bitter and personal. tonight, by the way, an important event, the feud between ted cruz and donald trump will play out live here on cnn. we will have the details of

that, and a lot more. stay with us.

the rule troubles facing donald trump's campaign manager is almost certain to come up tonight during the cnn town hall. corey lewandowski is charged with simple battery a missystem. michelle field accuses him of grabbing her by the arm. for more on what to expect tonight bring in our panel. the national spokesperson for the donald trump campaign. also joining us the national

chairman for the cruz campaign and trent duffy the communication adviser spokesman for kasich for america. thank you for joining us. how's this going to play out tonight as far as the town hall is concerned from the per specktive of your candidate? >> unfortunately, wolf, this culture of physical abuse as become part of the trump campaign and set from the top by the candidate. we have seen personal, verbal and now physical attacks that have no place in the selection of the next president of the yiechlts it is the hope of the cruz campaign this is not part of the discussion and we can focus on the issues. every time we spend time on distractions it is not helping to secure the border or helping americans get jobs. we hope -- cnn has done a good job in the past of staying focused on the issues. that's where we want to be. >> you want him out, corey lewandowski, you think trump should fire him? >> we are trying to say we need

to stay focused on the issues. every time we spend a minute discussing these type of distractions, unfortunately it is not helping to secure the border, helping a american get a job or increase their take home pay. >> clerly you want to move on. >> trent, what is john kasich saying about this? >> i think he is saying kind of what chad said which is a campaign is reflective of the candidate's values and the way they conduct themselves. the more we learn about donald trump and the way he conducted his campaign the reason his favorables are way high in the negative is because this is happening. that's why he can't beat hillary clinton and the more we learn about donald trump the more it goes on the more hopefully people will realize he is not the right leader for 0 our country and party. i agree with chad we need to talk about how to bring jobs back. that's what john kasich wants to do and how 20 bring america together, not divide and get in to name calling and mud

slinging. >> we will move on. and i will get katrina to respond to both of you. go ahead. >> chad said there was a history of culture of physical abuse in the trump campaign. i find that interesting. everyone is innocent until provenen guilty or at least that's what i thought. more importantly, the reason why donald trump is winning and other candidates aren't is because he is putting out his vision that is different from the other candidates. mr. trump wants to move forward, a 21st century foreign policy mission, stop illegal immigration and move forward with negotiation on trade, which does bring back jobs which is why mr. trump is winning and why the other candidates have been trying to politicize every single allegation that comes out. that's the only thing that is happening here. i will say it again, wolf, i will say it again, what we have is a situation where you have a kantd date, annan outsider c--

winning democrats and republicans. there is an all-out effort this campaign no matter what. >> go ahead and respond. >> >> the key thing is you have your candidate at rallies saying he will pay legal bills for those that engage in physical violence. we see the same culture at the campaign manager level. can't make this up. if corey is selected, his defense counsel, kendall coffey, a disgraced attorney under clinton who had to resign in 1996, because he bit -- >> scott richardson is corey lewandowski's attorney. again, trying to politicize an incident. scott richardson is corey

lewandowski's attorney. >> we're not politicizing an incident. he was charged by the jupiter police department today. this is a real thing that happened. >> you are misrepresenting who is representing corey lewandowski. scott richardson is corey lewandowski's attorney. >> hold on a second. the entire country is watching footage of what happened, which the campaign previously denied. i worked for president george w. bush. i have been with secret service agents and president of the united states. you made the point about the notion this reporter had breached the security of the candidate. there is a secret service agent next to trump. if he thought there was a physical threat to mr. trump he would have stopped it. he didn't. this is what is playing out. no one is politicizing it. we are all watching in realtime. and campaigns do reflect the candidate. for him, mr. trump to disavow this and to suggest this is a politicization is, you know,

part and parcel of the way he has conducted his campaign. he's saying that. we're not making this up. he is saying that. >> take this allegation in to consideration. she says she was aggressively grabbed nearly thrown to the ground. that's the allegation. >> the police department -- >> small children -- there's a man that has four small children, now having to face charges from this claim that he grabbed a woman, nearly throwing her to a ground in a press scrum that. is absurd and you working on a campaign you know it, too. >> our campaign doesn't get reporters to the ground. >> nobody is running up to your campaign trying to ask questions, breaching a secret service circle. >> i want to find out the statement released by mr. lewandowski he said he is represented by scott richardson at the law office. but the statement goes on to say he is also represented by

kendall coffey of coffey burlington in miami. clearly he has both representing him. katrina, i don'tnow if you are familiar with the statement. >> yes, scott richardson is his lead counsel, yes. >> but kendall coffey is involved, part of the legal team? >> i'm sure there are probably a lot of attorneys involved. >> i'm sure there are a lot of attorneys which is interesting for a campaign for president to have to have attorneys and hire legal eagles to defend after staffer on a battery charge. that's astounding. >> in this campaign it is not astounding. >> that's a good point. you are absolutely right. for your campain it is not astounding. >> this campaign has been under attack from every angle. >> it says a lot that -- it says a lot that you would choose a counsel in any role whatsoever that formally -- a stripper and had to resign as u.s. attorney. let's agree that you and we and the kasich campaign all want to come back to focusing on what

matters, which is how are we going to help americans get jobs, increase take-home pay, increase freedom and at the end of the day security. that's what senator cruz will focus on tonight, wolf, perhaps we can get in to what are the issues in the cnn town hall that you think cnn wants to focus on so we can give our solution that our candidates are going to provide. >> i think anderson cooper and the voters in wisconsin tonight, each candidate will have basically an hour, starting 8 p.m., 9:00, 10:00 p.m., three hours for this town hall and i'm assuming almost all of it will be as all three of your campaigns want the most serious domestic issues facing the american people right now. a week from today when the voters in wisconsin go and vote they will have a better appreciation of these three remaining republican candidates. we will leave it on that. 8 p.m. eastern, the town hall begins. i think it will be really important. thank you so all of you for

joining us. >> you are welcome. >> thank you, wolf. up next, the debate over whether the clinton campaign says no to the sanders campaign for now. are there demands for a new york faceoff? we will hear from both campaigns when we come back. if you have allergy congestion muddling through your morning is nothing new. introducing rhinocort® allergy spray from the makers of zyrtec®. powerful relief from nasal allergy symptoms, all day and all night. try new rhinocort® allergy spray. all day and all night. ♪ ♪virgin islands nice ♪ ♪so nice ♪so nice, so nice ♪ spend a few days in st. croix and return with a lifetime of experiences. that's virgin islands nice. ♪so nice, so nice

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you could save up to $509 call today at see car insurance in a whole new light. liberty mutual insurance. live pictures. this is the scene for tonight's cnn town hall with the three remaining republican presidential candidates. it will begin -- all of it will begin 8 p.m. eastern live from milwaukee, wisconsin. wisconsin is the next battleground for the democratic presidential candidates with a primary scheduled exactly one week from today, next tuesday. there's a battle brewing between

the two campaigns over new york. that primary takes place in april. the sanders campaign is pushing for a debate in new york before the april 19th primary. let's discuss what is going on with the campaign chief for the hillary clinton campaign. your reaction to the charge against corey lewandowski? >> wolf, i will refrain from commenting except to say if it is true it is a serious charge that the trump team will have to answer for. not speaking about this incident but i would add every candidate is responsible for the culture they create around their campaign and staff. in recent weeks and months, we've seen mr. trump incite violence at hi rallies, offer to pay legal fees for people that engage in acts of violence. hillary clinton has spoken out on that consistently. ultimately, as mr. trump knows better than anyone as the head of his business the buck stops

at the top. the candidate has to take responsibility for the conduct of their staff and supporters at their events. >> what you are saying is donald trump deserves some of the responsibility for this charge filed against corey lewandowski? >> i'm making a statement in general about the fact that every campaign has to be accountable for the culture they create. but we will have to wait and see on this allegation and charge we learned about today. >> how is the hillary clinton going to do a week from today? wisconsin? >> she's been contesting the state furiously. last poll showed sanders slightly ahead and a few factors in his favor when it comes to the state of wisconsin. it is an open primary we have seen him successful in past open primaries. obviously agresive leaning state. the primary electorate in wisconsin is less diverse than other states coming up like new york on the 19th and regionally it is in the middle of michigan

and minnesota two states that senator sanders have won. we know sanders will have a strong position but we will fight hard over the coming days and at the end of the day, whoever edges out the other in terms of getting the win in wisconsin, delegate wise it probably won't shake up the complexion of the race that much. we expect to have a larger delegate lead regardless a week from now, larger than the largest lead that senator obama ever had over clinton in 2008. i think the more decisive states will come later in the calendar. if you look at new york and pennsylvania, those are two of the four largest states delegate wise, that remain. i think at that point, if senator sanders is not able to win those states and win bigging, and i mean 58% or higher there's no path remaining for him in terms of the math. >> he wants to debate before the

new york primary. >> right. >> your campaign says not so fast. what's wrong with having a debate between these two democratic candidates before the new york primary? >> to be honest, wolf, this is a controversy. there is a process for adding to the debate schedule. the campaigns get together privately, are discussions in coordination with the dnc. that process is underway and we should let it play out. there's plenty of time between now and the new york primary which isn't for three weeks. four weeks until the states that vote april 26th. there's plenty of time to consider and negotiate the potential site and date of a debate. hillary clinton loves debate formats and has given commanding performances in debates so far and she looks to campaign across her home state of new york. this is a manufactured controversy that arose in the last couple of days because the sanders campaign jumped the gun and publicly issued a letter to our campaign trying to hasten

along the process. i don't think it was necessary. i think there's plenty of time to work things out. >> brian fallon, press secretary for the clinton campaign. thank you for joining us. >> thank you for having me. coming up, a different perspective about bernie sanders' campaign manager. jeff weaver is standing by and will respond to what we heard and his reaction to the charge against the campaign manager for the donald trump campaign. much more when we come back. details. ine that's why i run on quickbooks. i use the payments app to accept credit cards... ...and everything autosyncs. those sales prove my sustainable designs are better for the environment and my bottom line. that's how i own it. hi...i'm pamela yellen. you may have read my bestselling book "the bank on yourself revolution". over the last 25 years, i've researched more than 450 financial products. i found that one of the best-kept secrets to help you plan for your retirement is the home equity conversion mortgage. it's a line of credit for homeowners age 62 or older. and it's offered by a company you can trust-

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once again, a reminder to tune in later tonight for a cnn town hall with the three remaining republican presidential hopefuls. it all begins 8:00 p.m. eastern live from milwaukee wisconsin. right before that, by the way, at 7:00 p.m. eastern, erin burnett will interview democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders. four hours of important tv from 7:00 to 11:00 p.m. eastern coming up later tonight. right now, we're joined by jeff weaver. he's the bernie sanders campaign manager. jeff, thanks very much for joining us. i want to talk about what's going on in the race. let me give you a chance to respond to the corey lewin do ski charge filed today. you're the campaign manager for bernie sanders campaign. what's your campaign's reaction? >> look, wolf, i think bernie sanders has been very up front about condemning the kind of --

what i would call thuggary that happens at many of these trump events where donald trump advocates the physical violence against protesters and people who don't support him offering to pay the legal fees of people who sucker punch protester. this is what happens. it looks like it pervades the campaign both amongst reporters and staff. i obviously can't speak about the legal issues because there's a legal proceeding going on but i do think the kind of advocacy of violence by donald trump is unacceptable and this is what it leads to. >> the democratic race for the white house, you just heard the press secretary for the hillary clinton campaign say, you know, why not just talk about another debate maybe in new york, maybe some place else, but do it behind the scenes as opposed to what they call your campaign from doing bernie sanders -- they say he was engaged in a publicity stunt. how do you respond? >> let me respond to it this way.

let's understand the genesis of these debates that are coming up. back right before new hampshire when secretary clinton was under water in new hampshire, they desperately wanted to have a debate, a late scheduled debate. and we said yes, we're happy to do that, as long as your agree to three more debates. one in march in michigan, which we had. one in april and one in may. they said yes. now it looks like they're trying to go back of having these april and may debates. to now go back on their word and try to get out of doing these other two debates. >> how did we -- >> we have been negotiating -- >> go ahead. >> we have been negotiating with them behind the scenes. we said let's have one in new york state. new york is a pitch tall state in this contest. the secretary was elected u.s. senator there twice. and what they're response was about having a debate in new york was it's a nonstarter. so there was no way to get this

on the table without bringing it to the attention of the american public. >> what's the difference between new york or a week later in pennsylvania? >> well, why deny the people of new york when new york is going to play such a pivotal role in this contest? why would we want to deny the people of new york the benefit of having had this debate between secretary clinton and bernie sanders? >> people in new york -- except for the people who are physically in the debate setting in the auditorium, they're all going to watch it on television anyhow. >> the other contests are a week later. having a debate after the 19th isn't it really help the people in new york. >> let's say you had a debate before the 19th, would you be okay with that? >> i think we'd like to see the debate in new york. i don't know why the clinton campaign is afraid to debate in new york. >> how are you going to do next tuesday in wisconsin? i asked brian fallon from the hillary clinton campaign. he's sort of downplaying their

chances. what's your analysis? >> we're fighting very hard there. i think it is a very close race now. i think sander has a lot of the momentum. he's one six out of the last seven contests. the last three he won with just enormous margins. margins frankly we didn't even think were possible. we're in much better shape now in terms of our path to victory because of the margins of those wins. the margins don't have to be quite as large. so we're feeling very good. i think there's a lot of wind at our back. the senator's there spending a lot of time talking to people in wisconsin, and i think we're going to do well there. >> jeff weaver, the bernie sanders campaign manager, thanks very much for joining us. >> always a pleasure, wolf. >> thank you. up next, president obama arrives in atlanta to talk to dr. sanjay gupta about prescription drug abuse. you're looking at live pictures. sanjay gupta standing by live as well. we're going to discuss what's going upon this is a critically important issue. here's the plan. you want a family and a career, but most of the time you feel like you're trying to wrangle a hurricane.

the rest of the time, they're asleep. then one day, hr schedules a meeting with you out of the blue. and it's the worst 19 minutes of your career. but you don't sweat it because you and your advisor have prepared for this. and when the best offer means you're moving to the middle of nowhere, the boys say they hate the idea. but you pretend it's not so bad. and years later at thanksgiving, when one of them says what he's thankful for most, is this house, you realize you didn't plan for any of this you wouldn't have done it any other way. with the right financial partner, progress is possible.

in just about 30 minutes, president obama will address the national prescription drug abuse and heroin summit. you're going to see it live here on cnn. the discussion will be moderated by cnn's chief medical correspondent dr. sanjay gupta who's joining us now from atlanta. sanjay, tell us why this is so important to our viewers not only here in the united states but around the world. >> well, i'll tell you, wolf, it's really the numbers. they really tell the story. in the united states, some 28,000 people die of accidental, accidental opoid overdoses every single year. that's one about every 19 minutes. we also know the consumption of these types of pain pills here in the united states, we take about 80% of the world's supply of pain medications in the united states.

we don't have 80% of the world's pain but we take 80% of the world's pain medications and we are 5% of the population. the president has talked about this. he's been moved by this from previous town halls. today, he's going to come here and talk about it. including introducing some new legislation to try and make a dent in it. it's a pretty big effort on behalf of the president and really the entire federal government. >> and the president, the white house invited you to moderate this discussion. you felt very strongly this was critically important, right? >> i do. i mean, look, there are so many problems that we talk about. so many problems around the world that don't have any obvious solutions and this is a complicated situation. there are people with addiction. but this is a fixable problem as well. as a doctor as a journalist, as a human, you think to yourself

this is relatively low hanging fruit. we can prevent so many of these deaths. so it's a tragedy what is happening with opioids, heroin. we know that 80% of new heroin users start off using pain pills. so, again, this is a manmade thing, we can fix it. >> we'll have live coverage, sanjay, thank you so much for doing it. that's it for me, thanks very much for watching. the news continues right now on cnn. hello, i'm pamela brown in for brooke baldwin on this tuesday. just hours before the republican candidates face voters during a cnn town hall, donald trump's campaign in the headlines for all the wrong reasons. his campaign manager turning himself in to police in florida. he's charged with simple battery from an incident with a reporter earlier this month. i want toak