hello. i'm wolf blitzer. it's 1:00 p.m. here in washington. 8:00 p.m. in damascus, syria. 1:30 a.m. tuesday morning in pyongya pyongyang, north korea. wherever you're watching from around the world, thank you very much for joining us. we'll be hearing from the republican presidential

front-runner, donald trump. the republican candidate making his first on-camera comments since his two opponents said they're teaming up to try to defeat his candidacy. we'll take you live there as soon as that rally in rhode island gets under way. the cruz and kasich campaignl announce a partnership of sorts over the weekend to deny trump the needed amount of delegates to make sure he can't secure the nomination before the republican presidential convention in cleveland in july. it means kasich will step away from indiana ahead of the may 3rd primary there. so he won't take support from senator cruz and cruz will do the same in oregon and new mexico. hoping kasich can win those states and stop trump. we heard from cruz and kasich a little while ago. >> i don't see this as any big deal other than the fact that i'm not going to spend resources in indiana and he's not going in other places. what's the big deal? >> who's more in indiana?

>> i've never told them they ought to vote for me. >> both focus our energies. we focus our energy on the state of indiana and governor kasich focuses elsewhere. i think that is a decision, an allocation of resources that makes a lot of sense and devoted to the principle of beating hillary clinton in november and turning this country around. >> all of this comes with yet another super tuesday just a day away. donald trump could very well run the table tomorrow winning all five northeastern states by a healthy margin just like he did in new york state last week. again, we're going to have live coverage of trump's rally. his public remarks in warwick, rhode island. stand by for that but trump weighed in already on the new strategy. tweeting this. wow. just announced that lying ted and kasich are going to collude in order to keep me from getting the republican nomination. desperation.

that was donald trump's tweet. he's in warwick, rhode island. should we expect more of the same when trump hits the stage there any moment now? >> reporter: yeah, wolf. it's not a matter of if but how long he's willing to let this go before hitting this and hitting it hard. this fits very nicely into the trump campaign's narrative of the last couple of weeks. the process is rigged. the establishment is working against him. and now he has a prime example of this in what john kasich and ted cruz decided to do last night. they feel good about taking this message on the road. donald trump looking towards tomorrow and you can bet he'll be mentioning this over and over and over again. not just in these rallies but on twitter and every opportunity he can get. they think this fits very nicely with the point donald trump's been trying to make the last couple of weeks. >> what are the expectations from the trump campaign, phil, as far as tomorrow is concerned? >> reporter: well, they're very high, wolf. 172 delegates at stake. five states. and five states that look good

polling-wise for donald trump and trump's campaign advisors also pointing out, hey, it's a nice announcement by the ted cruz and kasich campaign to take away the focus on what is expected to be a very good night for donald trump. now, they're not tossing out delegate stestimates like they were willing to do in new york but it's expected to be a big night that keeps him on the track to get to the 1237 number in the cleveland convention. donald trump's team, especially in some of these states, allocated by congressional district, their goal is to pick up as many delegates as possible and keep them on track heading into that enormous primary in indiana in may, wolf. >> we'll stand by to hear what trump has to say. phil mattingly. in the meantime, this cruz/kasich strategy to stop donald trump. here's how the campaign has laid it out. the cruz campaign said and i'm

quoting now, they will devote time and resources in indiana and clear the path for governor kasich to compete in oregon and new mexico. while the kasich team says this. quote, we'll shift west and give the cruz campaign a clear path in indiana. joining us now from dallas, katrina pierson, the national spokesperson for the trump campaign. judson phillips the founder and president of tea party nation and a ted cruz campaign supporter and trent duffy, national communications advisor for the kasich campaign to all of you. thank you for joining us as we wait donald trump. we heard about this sort of cooperation between the cruz campaign, the kasich campaign a couple of weeks ago but at the time, the cruz campaign rejected this idea floated by the kasich campaign. why did he accept it now? >> i've got to give you the disclaimer. i'm not involved in the inner leadership workings so i can't tell you the discussions but i can tell you it's a good idea because they have a good goal.

if you don't stop donald trump, neither is up as a winner and i'm part of the group that says never trump. i don't want a liberal democrat becoming the nominee for president. >> this is a win for the cruz campaign more than it is for the kasich campaign is an argument because cruz has more delegates already than kasich does. >> well, this is the win for the 63% of republican voters who have not voted for donald trump and not going to vote for donald trump. it's also a win for the republican party because donald trump cannot win the general election. 67% of voters nationwide, wolf, as you know, know he's negative. they have a negative view of him. we haven't seen those sky high negatives since david duke in 1992. that's why the campaigns are banding together to represent the majority of republicans that do not want donald trump in cleveland. >> it looks like katrina wants to respond. go ahead. >> look, wolf. this is two desperate campaigns who cannot win on their own. they are two institutional

candidates that never had a clear message and the voters are rejecting them. so at this point, they're no longer running against donald trump's campaign. they're running against the will of the republican voter and that's what's happening here. they are rejected. donald trump beat cruz 2.5 million votes. 5.5 million for john kasich. so their bright idea is to join together to try to stop the momentum of the trump campaign when the people are overwhelmingly supporting him? it doesn't make any sense at all whatsoever, but you know what? we'll take it because donald trump is going to get to 1237 before the convention. he will be the gop nominee. and he will beat hillary in november. >> you heard, judson, the description of this act of desperation by the cruz campaign that you support and the kasich campaign. is it an act of desperation? >> it could be a liberal move. everybody is not bowing down and giving him the coronation he

seems to think he has. the trump campaign is probably the only planet where two-thirds of the people vote against you, it's an overwhelming majority to support you. >> he has millions more votes than cruz does. a lot more obviously than kasich does as well. almost 300 more delegates at this point at the same time. >> well, the delegate issue is a little bit fuzzy depending which delegates are bound, unbound. >> we're talking about the pledge delegates, right? he has almost 300 more on the pledge. >> he has an advantage right now. it's not a majority. and if you look at the best case scenario, there's just no way he gets to 1237. so this is a smart move by both campaigns. >> if he does get the republican party -- >> but there's no way. >> katrina, hold on one second. i want to get this on the record. if trump gets the nomination, kasich, your man, and the rest of the republican party rally around him in order to prevent a democrat from being the next president of the united states? >> well, governor kasich has spoken clearly on that especially after the implosions that donald trump had on the campaign trail that he has to

really think that through. he hasn't made up his mind yet. >> what about you, personally? could you support trump if he's the nominee? >> i work for john kasich and i represent what governor kasich is going to do. i think a lot of the delegates in cleveland will have really deep problems. because not only is donald trump going to lose in november, he's really not a true republican in terms of the principles that our party fought for over the years. >> katrina, he does have high negatives. the man you want to be the president of the united states. they clearly are worried that if he's a republican nominee, hillary clinton is the democratic nominee, she'll beat him. >> look, this is the same establishment through their magic crystal ball told us that john mccain could win and then mitt romney could win and they were wrong. mr. trump is going to be able to bring those negatives down just like he did at the beginning of the republican primary, close the gap in three months. but if either of these campaigns truly believes that donald trump wouldn't get the nomination or get the delegates before the convention, they wouldn't be joining forces right now.

this is just spin. it's a hail mary to stop mr. trump and manipulation and the voters will reject it. >> donald trump has started speaking. everyone stand by. i'll get all of your reaction. i want to listen to trump right now. >> this started like 12 hours ago. we said, i have to do this because we're going over. we're doing great in pennsylvania. we're doing great in maryland. i was in maryland yesterday. we had 17,000 people. massive crowd. and they were great. what a crowd. i had somebody today say nobody -- oh, thank you very much. awe, that's very nice. get him out. get him out of here. [ crowd chanting "trump" ] get him out. these people. where do they come from? where do they come from? get him out of here, please. right there.

[ crowd booing ] oh, thank you. so this started, this started, yeah, don't hurt him. we have to be very gentle. got to be very gentle. all right. where do these people come from? you know, in new york, we had some protesters and they're all paid for but we had some protesters and we had these people. they're nice people. they had a couple of hundred and the press, the media, the most dishonest people in the world, the most. these are the most -- these people are probably more dishonest than lying ted cruz. that's a lot. that's a lot. but the press went up to him and said to one woman, young woman, why are you here? do you like donald trump? actually, i do. she's holding a sign. it was manufactured, made in

china. and she's holding the sign. do you like donald trump? why are you here? and they go -- thank you, and they go, no, i do like him quite a bit. well, why are you? oh, i don't know. and then they went to another one. what do you think of donald trump? i love him. and she's holding a sign. trump equals hate. i'm not equal hate. i equal love. believe me, we are going to change things around. and that's going to be good for everybody. that's going to be good for everybody. so what happened is we're in maryland and in pennsylvania and we went to delaware. we're all over. and i said, what about rhode island? this was yesterday. what about rhode island? and these professionals, who get paid a lot of money, they said, oh, no. that's okay. you're so popular up in rhode island. that's okay. [ crowd chanting "trump" ]

all right, get him out. [ crowd booing ] these are just professional agitators, folks. they're put in -- it's the first time we've had it in many, many sessions. they're put in. just nothing but trouble. they're nothing but trouble. i actually believe that they do not love our country. i'll be honest with you. i really believe that. they don't love our country. so we said, what about rhode island? oh, that's okay, mr. trump. you're doing so well in rhode island. you don't have to bother. i said, i'm bothering. set it up. set it up. and that was yesterday morning. and i'll tell you what.

my team in rhode island has been so amazing. and i just want to thank everybody. the team. the team has been so great, and i want to thank them. [ crowd chanting "trump" ] [ crowd chanting "build that wall" ] folks, folks. don't even think about it. it will be built. don't even think about it.

don't waste your breath. it will be built. believe me. believe me. it will be built. and it will go up fast and it will be big and it will be high and strong. and it's going to help stop the drugs from pouring in to rhode island where you have a big problem. and everywhere else. including new hampshire, which is my first big victory. and one woman came up to me and said, mr. trump, we have a terrible, terrible heroin problem in new hampshire. and i look and i see the beautiful trees. the beautiful roadways. the beautiful everything. the lakes. i say, what do you mean heroin? she said, it's our single biggest problem and i realized it was as i got to see new hampshire. i said, if we win, we'll stop this problem from poisoning our youth fast. and it's all coming from the same place, folks. we're going to get it stopped. we're going to get it stopped. i wanted to talk to you about a couple of things and i do this

and it's almost like we just won new york, big, big league. oh, this news today. did you see where they band together, where they collude? you know it's collusion. [ crowd boos ] you know, if you collude in business or if you collude in the stock market, they put you in jail, but in politics, because it's a rigged system, because it's a corrupt enterprise, in politics, you're allowed to collude. so they colluded and actually, i was happy. because it shows us how weak they are. it shows how pathetic they are. you know, i tweeted toda today @realdonaldtrump. i'll give it up after i'm president. we won't tweet anymore, i don't think. not presidential. but let me tell you, it takes

two long time politicians, right? two long time politicians to beat, except they're way behind. if you add up both votes and both delegates, they're way behind me, so it doesn't matter, but it takes two guys, long time politicians, to try to get together to try and beat trump and yet, they're way behind. and i said to myself, that's pretty bad. that's pretty bad. and here's the key. i've only been doing this for ten months. i haven't even been doing it very long. so i wanted to talk to you about one thing and then we'll get back to the other and get back to it. when i heard it, i heard it last night at 11:30. i was called and said, sir, kasich, we call him 1-41. i thought it was 38. he won one race in 41 states. one! okay, state's an island. i have a new nickname for him. 1-41.

soon, it will be 1-46 or 47. so he's going nowhere. and he keeps talking about how he does with hillary clinton. he hasn't had one negative ad yet. when they put in the first negative ad about him, he's going to collapse like a rock. wait until you see this. boom. boom. you'll see. you will see. i will beat hillary clinton, crooked hillary. i will beat her so badly, so badly, and lying ted cruz cannot beat her. he can beat her. he got, like, no votes in new york. if you can't get votes in new york, it's over. he can't beat her. you look at his numbers in new jersey. you look at his numbers all over the country. lying ted cruz will lose so badly to crooked hillary. it will be one of the great defeats ever and kasich will also as soon as they start putting up the negative ads. get him out. get him out.

get him out. hey, folks, folfolks, is there better place to be than a trump rally? do we love it? i love it. are you glad i came up to rhode island? yeah. and by the way, i just saw coming up, a new poll came. we're actually over 60. and i just found out, listen to this, listen. if we get 68, which was never meant to get because the whole

system is so crazy, but if we get 68, we win everything. we win all the delegates. there's no shenanigans. and normally, you wouldn't mention it, but we're so close to him, you've got to get out tomorrow to vote. all right? i will not let you down, believe me. i'm self-funding my campaign. these guys are all taking their money from special interests. let me tell you. the politicians will never do the job. because they're bought and paid for, folks. just remember it. just remember it. they're never going to do the job. they're never going to do the job. in many cases, they're incompetent. in some cases, they're outright stupid. and in many, many cases, they're controlled. they're competent, but controlled by the people who give them campaign financing and probably lots of other things. okay? so we are going to do the job.

we're going to bring jobs back to rhode island. you happened. i've been doing this for eight or nine days to go around new york straiate. i go all over the place and all over, it was, i could use the same stats. the jobs have been ripped out of our country, folks. and if you look at a guy like cruz who wants tpp, transpacific partnership, that's going to be worse. you watch. worse than nafta. now you look at kasich, i don't think he knows -- you see him, he has a news conference all the time when he's eating. i have never seen a human being eat in such disgusting fashion. i'm saying, and i always with my kids, always say small little bites. this guy takes a pancake an d

he's shoving it in his mouth. do you want that for your president? i don't think so. honestly, it's disgusting. and then one of the things he said. they make a deal. politicians, they're no good for deals. so they make a deal at 11:30 last night. the deal is done and this morning, i talk to kasich and he goes, i'm going to indiana. we're leading in indiana and tremendous support in indiana. same thing happened, by the way. jobs are being sucked out of there by mexico and moving to mexico and other places. china is taking our business but i look at it and i see kasich. you know what he approved? nafta. he was one of the big pushes of nafta which destroyed new england, destroyed rhode island, and destroyed big sections of our country because nafta was a disaster. now he wants transpacific partnership which is a group of countries that's going to do a

number on our country like you've never seen before. you can't let it happen. now, cruz, cruz doesn't want to stop china from devaluing its currency and monetary manipulation. the single greatest tool that various countries are using to hurt the united states and our companies. okay? and if you want to let people go ahead and devalue and if you want to let people get away with that and cruz is the leader of the pack, he is bad for this country and he's bad for jobs and business. all right? bad. it's sort of funny. i watched cruz this morning and he's all mixed up because he's losing so badly and when he's under pressure, he's like a basket case. so he's stuttering and stammering and i watched him and he's saying, i want jobs and i want the economy and i want this and i want that. all stuff i've been saying for years. and he just started saying it. he doesn't know anything about the economy. he doesn't know anything about jobs. he was a failed senator.

he couldn't get anything passed. nothing. look at his legislation. he got nothing passed. and now he wants to be -- all he is is a guy that will go down and stand and filibuster for a day or two and the other senators all, once you get them off the floor, jim, guy's a pain in the ass. getting off the floor. you know, the senator that he most respects in the world is senator jeff sessions of alabama. great senator. and look at his early speeches. everything was jeff sessions, and jeff sessions. only one problem. jeff sessions, senator jeff sessions, came out just recently and he endorsed donald trump. okay? so i think the fact that they colluded, i think the fact they got together, the two of these guys, number one, it shows they are just getting killed.

i laugh, especially with cruz, because, look, kasich is going nowhere. again, remember kasich. you know, i have a new nickname for him. 1-41. it was 1-38. and then they actually said, no, it's 41 states. and i would have won ohio if i had two more days to campaign there. i came very close. would have won ohio but i had to stay in florida and i won florida in a big, big landslide. but you know the story. we were given a dirty poll. and i was leading florida by a lot. and then all of the sudden, two days, i was going up to ohio and i was going all over ohio and then i got a dirty poll. believe from nbc. i wouldn't say that. and then they were partners with "the wall street journal." so who knows if it was dirty or not but all of the sudden, i dropped from leading like 16 or 17. i went down to 6 in florida. i said, i have to stay here. i can't take a chance.

this is bad. and then had the election. i won in a landslide. i wish i could have gone up to ohio. he would be 0-44. and what is he doing? really? he's just a stubborn guy. that's all he is. he's like if you have a child that just says, i want it, mommy. i don't care, mommy! i want it, dad dy. i don't care. i want it. let me tell you. chris christie, who endorsed me, was doing much better than kasich. think of this. ben carson, dr. ben carson, a tremendous guy who endorsed me, was doing much better than kasich. marco rubio, a very good guy, i have to tell you, he, marco rubio, who is, who has many more delegates right now than kasich,

he did much better than kasich and you had numerous other people that were doing better than kasich or would have if they said, i'm not getting out. i don't care. i don't care. you ever see it? he's eating today's stuffing. i never saw. bites this big, he's pushing. i never saw a guy eat like this. i told my son, he was watching, he said, daddy, look! i said, don't watch. little bites. little bites. and he's up there and honestly, it showed such total weakness and it's pathetic. when two long time insider politicians, establishment guys whether you like it or not have to collude, have to get together to try to read a guy that really speaks what the people want. we want our jobs back. we want our military strong. we want our borders because otherwise, we don't have a country and we're going to have

the wall but we want our borders back. we want to end common core. we're going to end it and bring education locally. we're going to repeal and replace the horrible obamacare which is a disaster. we're going to save our second amendment which is under siege. under siege. and that's all we want, folks. you know, no great secrets. we want to make great trade deals. we can't have trade deals with china this year that has a trade -- you look at the imbalance between china, japan, mexico, and us. it's like we're a bunch of babies. like we're a bunch of stupid, stupid babies but we're not the babies. our leadership has no clue. they don't know what they're doing. they don't know what they're doing. and it can be ended so easily. it can be ended so easily. we have trade deficit with

china. $505 billion. this has been going on for years. with mexico, $58 billion. that's why they pay for the wall. number one, they used to say, oh, they won't build a wall. even the guys on stage when i debated, by the way, i've been center stage for every single debate. i've beat everybody according to the polls. according to the debate polls, i beat every single person in the debate every single debate, according to drudge, who's a phenomenal guy, by the way, according to drudge, according to "time" magazine, according to slate, according to everyone. like six or seven of them. every time there's a debate. i think because me now. but then i heard this guy, cruz. he's getting killed. he's getting killed.

i mean, he got so badly beaten last week and he's getting killed generally. in fact, i have to tell you, i don't think he's going to come in second anywhere. he's now in third place. but i heard cruz say this. i wanted to debate afraid. ay-yi-yi. so dramatic. so dramatic. you know the truth? i heard he was a good debater in college. and you know what, he might be, but in college, they don't interrupt you every 15 words like i do with him. okay, but you know what? he said, we want a debate. donald trump is afraid to debate. the flourish and everything else. and here's what happened. we do need trump. thank you, honey. thank you, babe. thank you. thank you. [ chanting "we need trump" ] thank you, rhode island. now i'm glad i came up to rhode island, right? you know?

no, but i have to tell you this before i get back to his debate because i don't think he's a good debater, if you want to know the truth, but let me just tell you. i have friends in rhode island. so they were calling me saying when are you coming up? i am all over every place. maryland, went to delaware. amazing trip. went everywhere. and he said, when are you coming up? he said, i love rhode island. we're not scheduled. this was two days ago. i said, what do you mean? it's not that big a state. i said, but it's my people. these are great people. i don't care. i don't care. now cruz was coming up. you know what happened. cruz was coming up and he cancelled. remember that he cancelled. he was coming up two days ago. he cancelled his trip to rhode island. so i not only didn't cancel, i said, i don't care what your schedule says, oh, you. look at that beautiful baby. i love to hear babies cry a

little bit. it's fine. but let me tell you, i don't care what the schedule is. i couldn't care less. we're going to rhode island. so they put it in. now i got to make two or three of these suckers. so let's see how i feel now at the end of the day. it won't be good because we're going right now. pennsylvania, same thing. we have massive crowds. massive rallies. same thing. and honestly, i want to thank all of those people because when the car drove up, you people are all in here, nice and comfortable. but when the car drew up, there were thousands of people in the road with trump signs, saying we love trump and just get the word to them. >> there's donald trump speaking in rhode island today making his pitch, really going after john kasich and ted cruz. his republican presidential rivals. saying he was actually happy he heard they had gotten together to work and prevent him from reaching that magic number of 1,237 delegates by focusing in on respective state.

judson phillips is still with us. a ted cruz supporter and katrina pierson is still with us, the national spokesperson for the trump campaign. let me get your reaction. he had harsh words for the man you want to be the next president. ted cruz call, called him lying cruz. >> liberal donnie lies again. i don't know how many times senator cruz has to say he opposes it before it will finally sink in to donald trump. except maybe donald trump lives in a fact-free world. and i love the part he's going ted cruz isn't a great debater. really? donnie, if he's not a good debater and you're so good, why don't you take him up on his offer in indiana? i think because liberal donnie is scared of a debate. >> katrina, is he scared? >> i don't think donald trump is afraid of anything. i think that's been quite clear all along and it is fair to say

that senator cruz does support tpp. in fact, it was senator cruz who actually did an op-ed with paul ryan pushing for tpa which is fast track for all of obama's secret trade deals. senator cruz himself on other pieces of legislation have said, vote for cloture is same as the vote for the bill. and that is what it was. cloture not just for the pacific agreement but the services agreement including back door amnesty and these type of trade deals coming up that senator cruz pushed for fast track on include agencies that allow corporations to sue governments when they implement regulation that hurt their profits. that is obscene and it is absurd and senator cruz pushed with paul ryan to push that measure. >> go ahead. >> first of all, senator cruz voted for trade promotional authority and then said he regretted the vote, opposes it now and something katrina needs

to understand, i would hope she would understand is that trade promotional authority is not the same thing as the transpacific partnership. trade promotional authority passed two years ago. the transpacific partnership is lingering in congress where hopefully it will die a very violent and ugly death in congress. but they are completely different things. >> i give you the final -- >> that's exactly what i said about cloture and what i do know why senator cruz pulled back from tpa is every single senate district in the state of texas in austin voted for a resolution unanimously opposing it. he had no choice but to back off of it. >> katrina pierson and judson phillips. we'll continue these debates down the road. thanks so much to both of you. connecticut, delaware, maryland, pennsylvania, and rhode island. they all hold primaries tomorrow. another super tuesday. we'll be live from polling stations in all of those states. we're going to bring you special all-day coverage right here on cnn. also coming up. putting the pressure on

isis. president obama announces plans to send 250 more u.s. troops to syria. what role will they play? and one of the commanders leading the fight against isis stands by to join us live from baghdad in the middle east. we'll be right back.

united states are adding 250 troops to the war in isis and syria. they won't be involved in combat but the role will be strictly advisor advisory. president obama made the announcement today in germany on this, the last day of his european trip. >> they're not going to be leaving the fight on the ground. but they will be essential in providing the training and assist forces that drive isil back. >> bring in nick payton walsh that's joining us now in turkey

along the border there. this is a five-fold increase in the number of u.s. troops on the ground now in syria. now another 250. what's the strategy here? >> reporter: i think they'll be involved in the air strikes hitting isis pretty hard. they continue to be effective. they increase in frequency. and i think all of this is focused on what isis called a council of the self-declared caliphate, raqqa, and rally the syrian kurds doing a lot of fighting on the ground against isil but the important part of the strategy here is that raqqa is a syrian/sunni arab town and the u.s. is very clear. it needs to have sunni/syrian arabs in the mix to move in the town if they see military success in pushing isis out. there's not been as many as the americans want to see around in this stage with the vital sunni syrian rebels and perhaps the

special forces are in there to make the military more cohesive and better cooperation with the syrian kurds and to be sure there's enough ready in place if, for example, they see rapid overnight success trying to move against isis and raqqa. that's one of the key things, particularly in turkey where i'm standing. very wary of the syrian kurds that are considered to be allies of the enemies here of them being too successful so far. the special forces are designed for whatever occurs on isis has been better communication and cohesion. 250 doesn't sown likeund like a lot but it's a five-fold increase and i think could speed things up on the ground, particularly given how isis is substantially on their back foot right now, particularly in syria, wolf. >> panick paton walsh. thank you. the anti-isis coalition

established in iraq. joining us from baghdad right now. colonel, thank you very much for joining us. what's behind the decision to increase these u.s. troops who will be on the ground in syria? >> thanks for having me. this is about capitalizing on this and their presence really made a difference. what they did for us was two things. number one, they helped us to see and understand the battlefield. and number two, they advised the syrian forces who are actually doing the fighting. so those two things combined really was an exponential increase in our ability to do things. through them, we were able to capture the key and critical town of shidade. we'll find things that work and do more of them. >> the president said they won't be involved in any combat role or part of operations going after targets.

are they strictly there as advisors and how dangerous is it for 300 american troops inside of syria? >> well, the question, they're going to a dangerous place. syria is a very dangerous place. they are operating behind the front lines. there's no intention of these forces involved in fire fights or even being in a place where they could potentially be shot at. their role is to advise the syrian opposition leadership on how best to coordinate their fighting. how best to synchronize with the coalition air power that we've provided and also giving them some tips on how to expand and grow the size of their force, reaching out to arabs, helping them with some advice on how to set up training camps. these types of things. >> there's going to be about 300 u.s. troops on the ground in syria. right now, the u.s. has built up the forces in iraq. what about 5,000 american troops in iraq right now, still about 10,000 in afghanistan right now. what's your assessment?

how many more u.s. troops will be deployed to try to destroy isis and syria and retake mosul which isis does now control for more than two years inside iraq? >> well, it'smportant to remember that it's going to require indigenous local ground forces to really do the fighting and of course, we'll have to advise and assist and enable as required, for example, the secretary announced it will bring some apache attack helicopters to bear in the near future or help liberate mosul but this is about having local forces fight the fight so that the victory that comes is a victory that will stick. and let's be clear. we're fighting an enemy that is a threat to us. we have killed kdozens if not more than dozens of terrorists in syria and iraq actively plotting to attack our homeland. they are plotting to attack america. theyre plotting to attack europe.

this is an important fight. the fact that we're in it, i think, tests to how important it is. >> i assume you saw the story in the new york times today that the u.s. is now expanding its cyber warfare offensive against isis. this could be a major development. what can you share with us about this new chapter in cyber warfare in isis, iraq, syria, and elsewhere? >> this is an important development. we've seen this enemy use the cyber domain to great advantage, to their own advantage, and we have come to the decision we cannot longer let that stand. this is another arrow in the quiver. a weapons system from their perspective but we believe it's one to cause this enemy significant problems. because now he's not going to know who he's talking to or what's being said. we look at expanding this. we can't get into too many details but know this. our cyber warriors are the best in the world. they come from right here in america. >> colonel steve warren is the

spokesperson for the anti-isis coalition joining us live from baghdad. thank you very much for joining us. and coming up, hillary clinton sets her sights on november even as bernie sanders vows to fight on and on. how super tuesday tomorrow could shape the race going forward. we have details. that's next. you both have a

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not measuring the oval office but hillary clinton starting to work on a list of possible running mates. hillary clinton keeping an eye on the round of supertuesday primaries tomorrow. five of them and looking ahead to the general election. at a get out the vote rally last hour, clinton took aim at donald

trump on the economy. >> donald trump says wages are too high in america and doesn't support raising the minimum wage and i have said come out of those towers, name for yourself, and actually talk and listen to people. don't just fly that big jet in and land it and go make a big speech and insult everybody you can think of. and then go back get on that big jet and go back to, you know, your country clubhouse in florida or your penthouse in new york. i somehow don't think that puts you in touch. >> for his part, bernie sanders admits an uphill climb in the race and not giving up and reminder reminded supporters today why his campaign is different from hillary clinton. >> i do not have a superpac. i do not represent wall street or the billionaire class. i don't want their money. secretary clinton has chosen to

raise her money a different way. she has a number of superpacs, last reporting period, one listed 25 million in special interest, 15 million from wall street. >> let's bring in the chief political analyst gloria borger and correspondent da that bash. doesn't seem to be letting up going after hillary clinton. maybe after new york a little change in tone but he's still pretty angry. >> i think bernie sanders is going to be bernie sanders. he has enough money to continue as long as he wants and i think his end game here is really to ape the democratic agenda, going forward. to shape the platform. to tell hillary clinton that in the democratic platform he wants a $15 minimum wage, not a $12 minimum wage. she's sort of been inconsistent on that issue. he's going to raise money for republican ral ka liberal candidates.

i don't think this is the end of bernie sanders not getting the magical number at the convention. she can block him with juice on the platform committee. i think she wants to work with him to keep his people supporting. >> all the young people who support him. she needs them if she's the nominee in pennsylvania, the biggest prize tomorrow, take a look at this. this is the nbc news/"wall street journal" marrist poll with a lead over bernie sanders in pennsylvania. that is a pretty impressive lead. >> a very impressi ivive lead. and look. already going into in tomorrow it is going to be very tough mathematically for bernie sanders to even come close to getting the nomination. i think going into -- what are we calling it? spring super tuesday tomorrow, he would need like 82% of the remaining delegates and the remaining contests which is not -- >> not going to happen. >> near impossible. not going to happen.

so i totally agree with gloria that this is and has been about keeping his message alive and he's done frankly brilliantly. and, you know, she has -- if she doesn't get it, she has to get it. she needs to make sure to keep the supporters in the fold and feel like they should be energized about her candidacy because she will embrace some of the ideals he pushed forward. >> i want you to both to react to the latest word, dramatic both donald trump's two opponents cooperating to prevent him from reaching the magic number of 1,237 on the first round. >> the enemy of my enemy is my friend, right? so you understand from their point of view why they're doing this, right? because this is the hail mary pass. cruz needs to do well in illinois or it could be game set match for him so he really needs this. you can also see -- i don't know if you agree with me, dana, it

could backfire. playing into the narrative this is rigged. >> totally. >> also assuming that all of these kasich supporters naturally go to cruz and that's not necessarily so if you look at the polls. >> take a look at indiana a week from tomorrow. if kasich's now abandoned indiana and leaving it to cruz to fight one on one to donald trump and i think gloria makes a good point. will all of those people who might necessarily have voted for kasich now automatically gone to cruz or a lot of them going to trump? >> not necessarily. some could go to trump. and it's important to note that kasich isn't doing what marco rubio did back when he was running which is to say to his supporters, vote for the other guy. kasich is saying if you want to support me, vote for me. but let's just kind of put it in context. this split the map strategy is months in the making.

i was told early march that mitt romney was called in to try to do this, cruz people were really reluctant. but he did so poorly in new york and realizes it is indiana or bust, he had to agree to do this. >> important development. we'll see what happens. thanks very much. that's it for me. i'll be back 5:00 p.m. in "the situation room." for the international viewers, "amanpour" is next. "newsroom" starts after a quick break. i know what i can expect from usaa

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all right. here we go. top of the hour. you're watching cnn. i'm brooke baldwin. thank you for being with me. this is how i see this today. the wild presidential election is an episode of "survivor" and donald trump's biggest rivals using his own advice against him. ted cruz and john kasich taking a page from "the art of the deal" joining forces to guarantee a convention circus. it's bombshell move, they're teaming up to stop trump from winning on the first ballot at a contested convention and focusing on the select upcoming primaries. ultimately the goal is this.