make sure you tune in. that's it for us tonight. thanks for watching. "ac360" starts right now. good evening, john berman here in for anderson. tonight, can the donald take a bumping and keep on trumping? one thing's for sure, a night after the pummelling he took at the hands of ted cruz, high can sure draw a crowd. donald trump just started speaking with plenty inside and plenty of protesters outside. for the first time he spoke about senator cruz since losing to him last night. >> lying ted cruz came tonight. he couldn't draw a hundred people. a hundred people. i'm telling you. in fact, it was a big headline today in the new york post. he couldn't draw a hundred people. now, do you remember -- do you remember -- do you remember

during the debate when he started lecturing me on new york values like we're no good? like we're no good. and i started talking to him about the world trade center, the bravery, the incredible bravery of everybody, our police, our firemen, our everybody. >> so i looked at him and started about our incredible police, our incredible firefighters, our incredible people, our unbelievable construction workers. who could have done that? who could have rebuilt that

hole? there was never anything like it in this country. the worst attack in the history of the united states, the bravery that was shown was incredible. we all lived through it. we all know people that died and i've got this guy standing over there looking at me, talking about new york values with scorn in his face, with hatred, with hatred of new folks, i think you can forget about him. forget about him. >> he is lyin' ted.

the bible held high. he puts it high and then he lies. >> a few minutes after that, donald trump launched in a kind of parable about immigration, especially from syria. he did a dramatic reading of the 1968 al wilson song "the snake." >> so here's the story. you think of this in terms of the people coming into the country, especially coming in from syria. we don't know where they are, we don't know who they are, we don't know how they're getting in. they're all over the place. but me, it's going to be a problem. you think of this, all right? this is called "the snake." on her way to work one morning down her path along the lake, a tender hearted woman saw a poor half frozen snake. his pretty colored skin had been all frosted with the dew. oh, well, she cried, i'll take you in and i'll take care of

you. take me in oh tender woman, take me in for heaven's sake, take me in side the snake. she wrapped him up and laid him by the fireside with some honey and some milk. now she hurried home from work that night. as soon as she arrived, she found that pretty snake she'd taken in, finally, finally had been revived. take me in, oh, tender woman, take me in for heavens sake, take me in oh tender woman sighed the tender snake. now she clutched him to her bosn bosom. if i hadn't brought you in by

now you might have died. she stroked his pretty skin and then she kissed him and held him tight. but instead of saying thank you, that snake gave her a vicious bite skp take me in oh tender woman, take me in oh tender woman, sighed the snake. you know your voice is poisonous and now i'm going to die. oh, shut up silly woman, said the reptile with a grin. you damn well knew i was a snake before you took me in! >> inside the house in beth page, new orleans. what you're seeing on the screen is outside that event happening right now. there are protests going on. there's been an enormous law

enforcement presence. we're going to check in with them in a moment. first i'm going to go to sara murray inside the trump event. give us a sense of the energy inside. donald trump sure seemed into it tonight. this did really feel like a hometown crowd. they were very responsive to him. they were screaming and cheering for him. there are about 10,000 people inside. the fire martial shut the doors and didn't let the entire crowd in. it does seem like donald trump has an edge. >> the crowd did seem to eat it up. the crowd was quiet, mostly kept

off twitter. we didn't hear phone interview after phone interview. he kept a low profile. there was a question. is that going to be some kind of different trump we might see? >> i think that was a rare day for donald trump. he is dealing with a little bit of internal campaign turmoil right now. but he came out on the stump getting back to basics, knowing he had to go hard against ted cruz. you heard him try to turn that new york values line that ted cruz rolled out back against him. >> let's go outside that event where we're seeing these protests right now.

cnn's sara ganham is there. can you give as you sense of what's going on? >> hey there, john. they've been out here for about an hour. on this side of the crowd are pro-trump supporters. and the other side anti-trump protesters. and they mostly have just been exchanging chants. about 100 people on each side. the anti-trump protesters saying stop the hate and the other side chanting things like build that wall. you can see in the middle there is quite a line of police. there haven't been any arrests we've been able to see or any clashes -- physical clashes between the two sets of protesters. just verbal exchanges that have gotten a little rowdy at times but nothing violent. nothing that we've seen at previous protests of this sort here on long island tonight. this is something that's been going on for about an hour.

dissipating at times and getting back up and people, you know, chanting back and forth exchanging chants with one another. but as i said, police have seemed to have control over the situation. they're not letting anything get violent. people for the most part are staying within the protest pens. they're staying in their area. there's not a ton of people here, but there are enough to cause police some concern. they're obviously here. they're obviously monitoring. john? >> we can see that law enforcement presence to be sure. there are a lot of cops on the streets right now outside the event. there's a counterprotest. there are trump supporters there protesting against the protesters. are their numbers growing as the event is breaking up? are they leaving this event and coming to see the protests? >> that's an interesting question, john. the event is not really that close. you have to walk about a half a mile, a quarter, three-quarters of a mile to get to the actual event. earlier in the evening we saw people walking past the protesters.

and nothing was provoking anyone at that point. they were simply just walking to the event. when they exit, we'll be watching to see if that's a different story. the people who showed up here who were the trump supporters, the reason that this got lively because it wasn't before this group showed up, but the reason it got lively, seemed to be people who didn't make it into the event on time or didn't have tickets or were never going in the first place. when they set up across the police line from the anti-trump protesters, that's when we started to see it get a little more rowdy, john. >> we're going to keep our eye on this. sara ganim on long island watching these protests and counterprotests. the police there have it firmly in hand. no violence of any kind she's seen. we'll keep our eyes on it because emotions do run high at these events. let's talk about what we saw tonight. the first donald trump event since his loss.

former romney strategist stuart stevens and katon dawson. neither, fair to say, trump supporters. kayleigh mcenany, however, is. with us as well, chief political analyst gloria borger. we watched that donald trump event, and we were wondering, what donald trump would we see? is there such a thing as a chastened donald trump? >> no. >> the answer seems to be no. >> no, and he went back to sort of donald trump 101. he's now got one candidate that he's taking aim at. and it's very clear to me he's going to treat ted cruz like some kind of alien in the state of new york. who is this guy who talked about new york values. what does he know about us? this is donald trump's home turf. and he is going to make ted cruz seem as strange as he possibly can to new yorkers.

and, you know, it's clear, trump has a lot of appeal in urban areas. cruz might be heading in upstate. but donald trump is clearly saying he is not one of us. and he believes and his campaign believes that what happened in wisconsin stays in wisconsin. and has absolutely nothing to do with new york. >> you are looking at pictures on the right of donald trump inside that event on long island. still signing posters. meeting with supporters. more than 10,000, we think, inside. on the left, a small gathering of protesters and counterprotesters. stuart stevens, you heard gloria say that he's going to try to make ted cruz seem like an outsider. he really did more than that. he said that ted cruz hates us. us being new yorkers. do you think that's an effective strategy in new york? you've run campaigns here. >> i think that is a good strategy for donald trump. he has to win new york by a big margin. he has to get north of that 50%

so that he'll be able to take those delegates and also symbolically. but, look, i mean, that guy up there reading "the snake," al wilson, this is a person running for president of the united states? this is someone you want to give command authority to? it's like some sort of deranged performance piece that has absolutely nothing to do with being commander in chief or being the most important person in the free world. donald trump is good at one thing. he's a grievance monger. all those who feel slighted, that moment we didn't get what we should have, he's the guy that's going to settle the score. that's clearly what he's playing to. as we've seen nationally, it's just not enough to build a coalition to win a national election.

>> kayleigh, what's your take on what you saw tonight? we saw some polls leading into this event where donald trump is out ahead in new york by quite a bit. that said, those polls were taken before what happened in wisconsin. so the wisconsin loss hasn't settled in, but 52% is pretty good. >> i disagree with stuart. donald trump is winning across the nation. he won the southeast. ted cruz who was supposed to win the southeast did not even take a single state in the southeast. likewise he is domineering the northeast. ted cruz won maine but that seems to have been an outlier. donald trump winning in diverse locations. i think gloria is right. he's going to try to paint ted cruz as an outsider with the new york values comment. that's very important. he's going to hammer home the fact this is someone that thinks we live by our own set of rules and values. ted cruz tried to dial that back. by new york values i meant liberal values but if he meant liberal values he would have said liberal values. ted cruz was making a calculation saying i don't need new york. i'm going to win in the southeast. i can lose the northeast. but that was a bad

miscalculation because ted cruz did not -- >> he said new york values means anthony weiner. >> ted cruz trying to carry his momentum into tough territory. he spent the day in the bronx. later the growing war of words between hillary clinton and bernie sanders.

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we're back. a pretty large group, growing group of trump supporters and trump protesters are outside an event in bethpage on long island, the site where donald trump just finished speaking. a crowd inside of about 10,000 listening to donald trump. they're now making their way out. the situation appears to be getting more intense. we want to go back to sara ganim on the scene. what's going on? >> you're right. as the supporters, the trump supporters who were at the rally began to exit and had to walk past this group of supporters, and you can see what's happening here. they began to chant at each other. police, obviously, moved their formation to block, to create a block in between the protesters and the supporters. now as i said before, so far nothing violent.

we haven't noticed police arrest anyone. but it certainly is getting rowdy at times causing police to adjust. the protesters are moving about halfway down a block in order to be closer to these people who attended the rally as they exit. they had been earlier in the night clashing with supporters who never went into the rally. they were exchanging chants such as stop the hate and build the wall. now as thirally exits, and we know it was a full house. you are seeing these people begin to shift their focus to the people who are exiting. >> you've been there for a while. law enforcement has been there for a long, long time. no arrests that you've seen. did law enforcement give you any sense of how much of this they'll be willing to take before they do try to put a stop to it? >> you know, they brought in some floodlights and they certainly adjusted their formation. they have mounted police here.

there was a moment about a half hour ago where it got intense where it looked like something was happening that they were begiing to get too close to each other. and police got a little nervous. they moved in to separate the two groups that before had been separated by these metal barricades. police began to form a line to keep them away from each other physically. but this is nassau county police. they've been here all evening and keeping control over the crowds. as i said, i didn't see them have to arrest anyone. they just kept them from each other. john? >> sara ganim, thank you. we'll keep watching this. sara said she's seen no violence as of now. no arrests as of now. going to bring back our panel to talk about the politics of the day. gloria borger, stuart stevens, katon dawson and kayleigh mcenany. katon, a lot of the talk today

was about the idea of turmoil inside the trump campaign. his campaign manager corey lewandowski in trouble. might there be some layering, some new personnel. paul manafort who we believe has been brought in to run the delegate operation. he apparently had a meeting at trump headquarters today. do you think a shakeup is in order? >> a lot of times i've been on a couple of staffs, newt gingrich, ron perry, george bush. you have growing pains and concerns and mix-up. but trump is a loyal guy. i think they'll shake up some responsibilities. certainly to concern themselves with delegates and the convention is the right thing. trump is now shoved all his chips in new york. he's got to have a big win there to get close to the magic number. i'm talking to people all over the country that are listening and watching. they are open to the process of the republican national convention, picking a nominee.

i would contend that trump is going to have to get to that number. these are 2,400 people coming from around the country, john, that the first thing they are concerned with are four supreme court justices. they want a winner unlike some of the primaries that you are seeing all over the country. and, third, they are going to take this very seriously when they meet in cleveland. and they're going to write new rules for the convention about a week and a half out. we'll see what happens. >> they'll be very, very popular people for the next several months as all the campaigns reach out to them. stuart stevens, you've been part of a lot of campaigns. many successful. a few not. you've been part of campaigns where there were shakeups or rumored shakeups. do you see things in the campaign -- i know you're not a fan of donald trump -- in terms of how this campaign is being run. do you see things they could start doing differently now that

would make things better for them? >> running for president is a unique experience unlike any other endeavor which is why you see so many people run, lose and run again. donald trump doesn't have a team that can win a national campaign to take it to the white house. to bring in more senior people like paul manafort is smart. they should. they have to elevate this. listen, we have shown before that republicans will vote for people who are unelectable in multicandidate fields, even though it's not necessarily in the party's best interest. we saw it with todd akin and richard murdock in indiana. the question is why hasn't this happened on a national level? it could be happening with trump. to be able to reach out to other people, to get a larger base of support, politics is about addition, not subtraction. someone like paul manafort, some of these more senior people have been part of a broader coalition

and what it takes to build that. you have to approach it humbly. one thing about running for president, you can enter it humbly or not, but you're going to leave it humbly, even if you win. because it is such a demanding, grueling process. and that goes to everybody working on the campaign. >> kayleigh, stuart talked about the ability to grow support. one thing about wisconsin, was that he probably hit a reasonable number for donald trump. 35%. not an awful number for donald trump but he didn't grow it. he wasn't able to grow it. how can he do that? >> i think he has shown he has a broad coalition. he's won in the southeast, in the northeast. and donald trump, to his, i guess, benefit, has tried to step forward to the establishment. he stepped forward and tried to meet with paul ryan. he hosted a meeting for political figures to try to bring people into the fold. when he takes a step forward, the establishment takes ten steps back.

there's a never trump movement. they don't want to see trump. no matter what he does, they're going to come up against him. this isn't donald trump isolating people. it's him trying to take a step forward and the never trump movement trying to take a step back. >> guys, thank you very much. just ahead, ted cruz on donald trump's home turf here in new york. he's aiming to capitalize on his victory in wisconsin. can he do it? also we're going to take you to a bernie sanders rally getting under way in philadelphia. we're going to look at how his win last night is propelling that campaign forward into next week's big cnn democratic debate.

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the breaking news tonight -- protesters, pro-donald trump protesters, anti-donald trump protesters squaring off at a rally outside an event where the candidate just finished up a few minutes ago in bethpage on long island. they were largely kept separated by a heavy police presence. plus, ted cruz is in trump territory touring a factory tomorrow in brooklyn looking for votes.

he campaigned today in the bronx where sunlen serfaty had a chance to speak with him. what did senator cruz have to say about the state of his campaign today? >> he's clearly trying to capitalize on his wisconsin win, and really bring some of that momentum from wisconsin here into far less territories like new york. i talked to the senator today as he was campaigning in the bronx and asked him about that trump statement last night after his wisconsin loss where he basically says that senator cruz is a trojan horse that's being used by party bosses. senator cruz shot right back to that and rather sarcastically answered saying donald trump can always be counted on to take the high road and to demonstrate class. and later went on to say donald trump always gets angry when voters reject him. this was something, a word he kept using. reject, reject. trying to paint the picture of his campaign as being in a free-fall.

his in contrast trying to paint that as one on the rise. >> we heard donald trump bring up the issue of new york values. ted cruz has accused donald trump of having new york values. trump responded tonight. but cruz kept his foot on the gas today. >> that's right. this was interesting today. at this bronx visit today where senator cruz was asked about that and asked to clarify those remarks. of course, those remarks were made by senator cruz months ago when he wasn't maybe anticipating being campaigning here in new york. now he's trying to court these new york voters. he was asked and offered something of an explanation of new york values. he said what i meant was liberal democratic values and offering up some names like eliot spitzer and anthony weiner, of people where he pointed to as represent those values. he says the voters here know exactly what i'm talking about.

but, of course, this likely will continue to haunt him as he campaigns here in new york. that primary less than two weeks away. >> sunlen serfaty, thanks. cnn chief national correspondent, "inside politics" anchor john king has more on what comes next by the numbers. new york is complicated. 95 delegates at stake. the trump team wants all of them. is that realistic? >> he's leading by more than 50% in the statewide polls, so yes. but that's not enough. there are 27 races within the one race if you will. 27 congressional districts to get those 95 delegates. it's a very diverse state and diverse electorate the republicans will be seeking. two of these districts. this one up by buffalo, the 27th district. 58% urban. 94% white. look how big it is. nearly 4,000 square miles. 27% have college degrees. median income about $55,000. now where you are, new york city, congressional district 12.

it includes the upper east side of manhattan. 100% urban. more diverse. look at that. 15 square miles compared to nearly 4,000 square miles. nearly 70% of college degrees, median income. so if you are campaigning here they might want to know about wall street. campaigning here, they want to know where the manufacturing jobs go. this is a fascinating challenge for these candidates. very diverse state. >> different worlds almost. john king, what does new york mean in the quest for the big number, 1,237, the delegates needed to win at the convention? >> donald trump has a narrow window and a springboard out of his home state is critical. trump starts today at about 758. the magic number is 1,237. one scenario, donald trump wins new york but ted cruz and john kasich knock him down and he gets only about 44, fewer than half of the delegates. under this scenario, trump just

cracks 800, makes it almost impossible to get to 1,237. let me give you a different scenario. donald trump does a little better and gets almost 70%. or roughly 70%. and let's say kasich comes in second and cruz in third. that's a bigger win for trump. it starts to get him closer. i'll do this quickly for you. we're being very generous to trump in the east, mid-atlantic. we give them to trump by healthy margins. out west we give ted cruz the states he's won. in this scenario i give cruz indiana but just narrowly. even with a big win in california, it's 172 delegates. even getting most of them at 120, donald trump is still short. that leaves him at 1189. so his team thinks the closer you get -- if you can't get to 1,237, get to 1200 and wrangle the last 30. if they're well short, donald

trump's team thinks his best, first and perhaps only chance is that first ballot. as close as they can get to that line, the better. >> that margin is so, so crucial. john king, thanks. up next, the democrats. tensions rising. a lot at stake. we'll take you to a bernie sanders event expected to start any minute in philadelphia. (laughing) there's nothing like making their day. except making sure their tomorrow is taken care of too. financial guidance while you're mastering life. from chase. so you can.

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tensions building ahead of next week's democratic debate here on cnn. after losing wisconsin last night, hillary clinton is piling on bernie sanders, accusing him of prioritizing gun manufacturers rights over the parents of the children killed at sandy hook. cbs news correspondent sandy cordes asked him about it tonight, senator sanders didn't hold back. >> we all are aware of what happened in sandy hook. it's a tragedy beyond comprehension. maybe secretary clinton might want to apologize to the families who lost their loved ones in iraq. >> quick history lesson. hillary clinton voted for the iraq war in 2002 when she served in the u.s. senate. back to 2016, they are focused on pennsylvania today. a key state up for grabs later this month. secretary clinton spoke a short time ago at carnegie mellon in

pittsburgh. right now senator sanders is in philadelphia at temple university. some live pictures right now of this event. there we go. waiting for him to speak. very, very large crowd there. brianna keilar is there. she joins us. senator sanders, i think, thinks he has the wind at his back after last night in wisconsin. what's the message tonight? >> tonight the message as we've heard him say all along, i expect will be momentum, momentum. that he has the momentum and he's hoping that's pushes him forward toward the new york primary, toward the pennsylvania primary. both of these considered must-wins for bernie sanders if he is going to have a pathway to the white house. you see the crowd here. it's pretty big. it's huge. about 10,000 people who fit into

this stadium here. and bernie sanders is running late in part or maybe entirely because he was down the street talking to the overflow crowd which was also thousands more people because this is a crowd that was just a line wrapped around several blocks trying to get into this auditorium in temple university for hours and hours. but as you said, pennsylvania very important to bernie sanders and clearly to hillary clinton. bill clinton will be in the state tomorrow. they both want a really good shot at this delegate rich state. >> brianna keilar at the bernie sanders event. we'll keep our eye on that. joining us van jones, a former obama administration official, bakari sellers, a clinton supporter and former south carolina state house member, and bill press. he supports bernie sanders. also a talk radio host and author of "buyers remorse, how obama let progressives down." van, i want you to respond to something we just heard from bernie sanders. nancy cordes of cbs asked sanders to respond to a call from a family member of a victim of sandy hook saying he should

apologize for his position on guns. he responded maybe hillary clinton should apologize to families of people who died in the iraq war. that's pretty strong rhetoric. >> listen, he's punching back. he had his best day and worst day all together. he had this great victory in wisconsin but then slipped on this banana peel with his interview. and hillary clinton has shown that she's ready to start hitting him back hard. he's shown he can hit back as well. this is going to be the war to settle the score here in new york. you have two titans now. look at that crowd. that's an amazing crowd for a rock star. this is an amazing crowd for a singer, an athlete. he's a rock star in this party and she's a rock star in her own right. they're going to clash. you're going to see nobody cares about her e-mails. it's going to be blow for blow, toe for toe. >> bakari sellers, look at that crowd for bernie sanders. that's a big crowd. look at the last seven states that have voted.

bernie sanders won six out of the last seven. how much of a problem is this for hillary clinton? >> what we've seen about this democratic race is it's not as much about demographic -- momentum as demographics. hillary clinton came out march 15th and won all five states. but there was no momentum after that. what we saw was the demographics change. when you get into wisconsin, alaska, washington state and hawaii, now those demographics are trending back in favor of hillary clinton. when you go to pennsylvania, maryland, new york city, you are looking at these diverse very big delegate rich states which hillary clinton plans on doing very well in. delaware, connecticut, where these issues of guns are very, very big issues. and, yes, bernie sanders did slip on the banana peel, proverbial banana peel as van jones says. and he even made it more difficult and treacherous when having this discussion about guns and having any solutions for any of the problems he put forth. >> bill press, we're looking at a crowd at a bernie sanders event in philadelphia. you are a bernie sanders

supporter and also a former democratic superdelegate. the sanders campaign is relying on superdelegates to switch allegiances from hillary clinton to bernie sanders because it's unlikely that bernie sanders will be able to get the delegates he needs to secure the nomination without them. how hard is it going to be for him to flip superdelegates who have already committed to hillary clinton? >> first of all, i want to remind everybody, i'm former chair of the california democratic party. so anybody who thinks that california is safely in hillary clinton's pocket is wrong i know california as well as anybody. california politics as well as anybody. bernie sanders is going to do very well in california. i want to get that out. in terms of my superdelegate

hat, there's two kinds of math. and bakari spoke to the delegate math. that's very, very important. there's also momentum math. that's what we're seeing tonight in the last seven primaries where bernie won six out of seven. if he were to win after winning wisconsin, goes on to win new york and some other northeastern states you bet these superdelegates, because their number one goal is to win the white house. they are going to say, look where the momentum is. look where the enthusiasm is. look who keeps winning delegates and primaries and caucuses. maybe we better take a second look at bernie sanders. it happened in 2008. it could happen in 2016. >> van jones, you've been someone who said all along this healthy debate is good for the democratic party. good to have this discussion out there. is it still good right now if, as you've said, the gloves are off to use a cliche, if bernie sanders is saying hillary clinton should apologize to military members who died in the iraq war? doesn't that leave a mark on the party or on the candidate who ultimately does emerge? >> we are getting into the yellow zone starting to get into the red zone. we're going to see now. bernie sanders has a challenge.

he's got to take the fight to hillary clinton. if he doesn't, she's going to take it to him. hillary clinton saying, welcome to my world. this is new york city. this is new york media. they are tough. i know how to deal with them. you don't. every time you make a mistake, i'm coming after you. he has to say, you don't get a lock on the progressive vote in new york city with your war record. bernie, though, mathematically probably can't get there. if he does too much damage to her and curdles his own supporters so much that they can't turn back to her in the election. his supporters are very young. 2008 the young folks won the older people and hillary clinton. they says we're going with obama because we understand the stakes. a younger demographic may not be willing to accept that defeat and turn. so he is now in a situation, he's got to take a fight to her but he can go too far. he's got to be careful. >> both candidates need to be careful. thanks for being with us. coming up, mother and son.

anderson and his mother have written a brand-new book together and offer a rare look at the relationship, including what it was like for her to be born into one of america's wealthiest families. >> you never really felt much connection to the vanderbilts. >> i felt no connection at all. >> you felt like an imposter. >> i felt like an imposter, yes. >> and have for much of your life. >> and still do, really. >> reallyou felt like an impost.

>> reallreally?

it's a balancing act, but i got to give the people what they want -- more box. any words for the critics? what can i say? critties gonna neg. [ applause ] the what?! [ laughs ]

you're about to know anderson cooper in a way you haven't before. he and his mother gloria vanderbilt wrote a book. "the rainbow comes and goes: a mother and son on life, love and loss."

it's a conversation he wanted to have with his mother. what they still wanted to learn about each other. also featured in a new documentary airing on hbo this weekend called "nothing left unsaid." anderson and ms. vanderbilt sat down recently to talk. this is part of their conversation. >> when i was growing up, you often didn't talk about your past. why was that? >> well, first of all, it was very complicated. also, your dad spoke so much and told so many stories about his life and his growing up, that i really couldn't get a word in edgewise a lot of the time. so that had a lot -- >> he came from a big family in mississippi, much different family than your own. poor family, essentially. but a much larger family. you never had that sense of family. >> no, i didn't have that, and i also didn't really have a mother and father figure because my mother figure was my nanny, my nurse who i called dodo and my father figure was my grandfather. >> she worshipped napoleon. >> absolutely. >> that was her model. >> her role model in every way. >> you think she was maybe crazy?

>> i loved her so much, but i do think she -- i do think she was in many ways sometimes deranged. >> for people who don't know, you were the subject of this custody battle at the height of the depression in 1934. you were 10 years old. it was a battle between your mother who you really didn't know very well and your aunt, your father's sister. but also behind your aunt was your grandmother and your governess. >> yes, they really plotted because i didn't even know that my aunt existed until i was 9 because after my father died when i was 16 months old, my mother took me to live in france, in paris. >> you didn't really even know her. you'd see her coming and going to parties but you didn't have a real relationship. >> i didn't have a real relationship with her. i just worshipped her from afar. she was so beautiful. >> you never really felt much connection to the vanderbilts? >> i felt no connection.

>> you felt like an imposter. >> i felt like an imposter. >> and have for much of your life? >> and still do really. >> really? >> i -- you know, i'm kind of impressed with them, you know? >> like something you read about in a book? >> yeah. >> but it doesn't feel like -- >> doesn't have anything to do with me. >> i was always glad i didn't have that last name because i think that name comes with a lot of preconceived notions about -- it's one of the reasons why i wanted to do this film and this book is i think your life is so different than people might imagine it to be. it's really about working and creating art and beauty and, you know, i don't think people know -- you have a very public face but i don't think they know the person behind it. you don't think of yourself as a public person. >> not at all. >> you don't have any sense of what people -- >> i don't think of myself as a

public person or -- at all. and it's because of the custody case i really sort of never read things about myself in the newspapers. >> you still don't read -- >> i try not to. all i care about is the photograph. i hope it's a good photograph. >> we're going to have much more of anderson's conversation with his mother in the coming days. their new book, "the rainbow comes and goes ,"is available now. show me movies with romance.

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a. thanks for watching. c"cnn newsroom" starts now. hello everybody. we'd like to welcome our viewers in the united states and all around the world. this is "cnn newsroom" live from los angeles. republican presidential candidate ted cruz riding high after his win in wisconsin but there's a giant roadblock in his path. donald trump and his home state of new york. a new poll shows trump leading with 52%, john kasich has 25% and cruz has 17%. trump lashed out at ted cruz and his krcriticism of those new yo values.