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tv   Wolf  CNN  May 24, 2016 10:00am-11:01am PDT

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>> that was donald trump back in 2006 talking about making money if the housing bubble bursts. bernie sanders has words of warning about the democratic convention coming up in july in philadelphia, said things could get messy. his words. sanders is holding a rally in anaheim, california. you're looking at live pictures right now. this is only two weeks, exactly two weeks ahead of the california primary. that's coming up. sanders keeps keeping up by his push to make the democratic party, he said, more inclusive and in an associated press interview, he said the process might not be pretty. >> it's going to be messy. democracy is not always nice and quiet and gentle. but that is where the democratic party should come. >> you think the convention could be messy? >> somewhat.
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democracy is messy. every day, my life is messy but if you want everything to be quiet and orderly and want things to proceed without vigorous debate, that's not what democracy is about. >> for more on the campaigns, let's bring in cnn correspondent phil mattingly, joe johns, our chief analyst, gloria borger and political director. phil, hillary clinton is bringing up donald trump's past bankruptcies, warning that he'll do the same for the u.s. economy if he were president. how does this fit into the campaign strategy? >> wolf, the idea is to hit donald trump on his perceived strength and it repeats what president obama's team did to mitt romney in 2012. early on in the campaign, the earlier stages of the general election period, attack the republican opponent on the area that he and his team think is his strength. hillary clinton's issue here is trying to make it appear that donald trump does not care about middle class workers. you saw that on the housing
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crisis and saw the continued attacks related to the business bankruptcies of the casinos. their efforts here to say donald trump claims he's a great businessman. donald trump claims he makes the best deals but if you look at his past, there are plenty of examples where he has failed. they're trying to undercut him at one of his perceived greatest strengths, wolf. >> trump campaign, phil, also bringing up bill clinton's past indiscretions. what's the strategy behind that? >> slightly scorched earth and may be an understatement. i think what you're seeing is they have long said they will punch back if they feel like they've been attacked. donald trump clearly feels like he's been attacked. this is what special counsel said this morning. >> she attacked mr. trump as being sexist, misogynist and that's inaccurate. donald trump's not anythi of th things and trying to portray him as such to turn the women against mr. trump when, in fact,
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women seem to be turning against hillary clinton for being the enabler in chief. >> donald trump made clear this was an attack line he was going to pursue but somewhat jarring to people who aren't used to this kind of thing ending up in politics but one thing made clear by trump and his advisors but this is a line of attack not going anywhere anytime soon even warned away from these types of issues. trump made clear this is something they're going after and believe it can work but now everybody has to wait and see if it actually does, wolf. >> we'll see soon enough. thank you very much for that. joe johns is standing by as well. joe, let's talk about the sanders campaign right now. it's getting a larger role in drafting the democratic party platform in philadelphia. what's behind this. >> that's right, wolf. the sanders campaign got to name five people to the committee to help lay out the policy positions of the democratic national committee supports and if you look at the names and
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bios of the people on the list, you can see how important this is, for example, congressman keith allison, a big supporter of sanders, congressman from minnesota, the only office holder on the list and a convert to islam, cornell west and james, a supporter of palestinian rights. i have to tell you, there's a big of breaking news. >> hold on for a moment. i'm going to get back to you in a moment. i want to update our viewers about to get a decision in the preliminary hearing involving bill cosby. whether or not a trial could go forward. gloria allred, one of the attorneys for a woman making accusations. i want to listen in and hear what she has to say. >> well, mr. cosby presented a vigorous defense today.
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i might add that in my experience, 40 years of practicing law, i found it to be very unusual that such a defense was presented at the preliminary hearing stage in a way that it was, one would have to speculate why, you know, some might speculate because the defense was attempting to have an impact on the potential jury pool to suggest that no crime was committed. having said that, it's, i believe it's also an advantage to the prosecution to be able to hear from the defense the potential themes that may present at the trial. the defense suggested nthat the
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felt andrea constand should testify and just to be clear, i never had any communication with andrea constand. they wanted her to testify. they did not get what they wanted. because under pennsylvania law, it is not a requirement that the victim herself or himself testify at a preliminary hearing. of course, she will testify at trial but under pennsylvania law and this is also true in the state of california where i practice and some other jurisdictions, it is not necessary for the victim to testify at a preliminary hearing. instead, what she has stated in her police report can come in through the interviewing law enforcement officer. in this case, to detectives, testified about her interview
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and the court found that that was sufficient. in addition, this is just my educated guess. i don't think that mr. cosby was thrilled that his own interview with the police was admitted into evidence. because some of what he said could be quite damning for mr. cosby. having said that, the court having reviewed all of the evidence found that there was sufficient evidence to require the defendant, mr. cosby, to stand trial. i think that was the right decision based on the law and based on the facts as provided. i'm happy to answer some
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questions. >> she never said no. >> part of the defense's argument, in fact, a large part had to do with consent of the victim. the assertion and the argument by the defense that she didn't say no, in other words, therefore, that she did consent. the argument of the prosecution is that if a victim is incapacitated for any reason, in this case, perhaps the pills that mr. cosby admitted in his police report that he gave to miss constand and her ingestion of some wine at the same time and the fact that she had not had food rendered her, according to miss constand, where she was going in and out of conscio
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consciousness. she was aware some things were happening, for example, her legs were paralyzed. she could also feel, according to her statement, that mr. cosby was touching her breast, touching and inserting his fingers into her genital area, but that she could not say no. she could not say anything that she was incapacitated. as a matter of law, if a victim is incapacitated, unconscious, or conscious or unconscious and then conscious again, the victim is unable to consent. that's going to be a central issue at the trial as to whether she could consent. >> do you believe other alleged victims could testify in trial? >> the question has to do, do i think that other victims will be called at trial?
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will any of my clients testify? under pennsylvania's prior bad acts legal doctrine, potentially other accusers could be called to testify at trial. whether they will be called, that is subpoenaed to testify at trial, that is a decision that will be made by law enforcement, the district attorney, and the court, in terms of admissibility. that is a decision later on down the line and that is for the district attorney to decide and the court to decide after hearing what i am certain will be many objections by the defense to the calling of other accusers. if the testimony of other accusers, one or more is or
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could be argued to be a same or similar signature activity, it might be considered relevant and admissible. and that's for the court to decide. as to whether any of my more than 30 clients who are accusers will be called, that's not a decision that is in my hands. that's the decision of law enforcement and i have no information on that at this time. i think it's probably premature for anyone to be making that decision. >> i think mr. cosby's interview with the police in the police report that was admitted into evidence was very damaging to him.
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and it is now at evidence. often, a perpetrator or an alleged perpetrator does not give a statement to the police. he did. and now he's going to have to deal with his own words which, it was indicated through testimony that he signed his statement that he was asked at the end of the statement, something to the effect of is everything true and correct and he said, yes, and he signed that it was and then in addition, he had an opportunity to make any changes and he did not. now, the defense wanted to underscore, emphasize many times that miss constand did make changes in her police statement suggesting that somehow there is
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there is something wrong or inappropriate about making changes. i'm glad, for one, that miss constand or any person alleged to be a victim has an opportunity to make changes to make sure that it is accurate. i've represented many victims in criminal cases and still do, including in rape cases and still do, and some of them in other jurisdictions have never had an opportunity to review the police report to see if it's accurate and a reflection of what, in fact, they told law enforcement, so, of course, in many cases, if a person is lying, then they have a standard script and have no need to make any changes because they're just going to stick to their script, often, if they're being truthful, they want to really look at what is said and make sure it's accurate. simple as that. >> is that a pattern from what
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your clients have said? >> i think that mr. cosby is coming out. all right. >> miss constand, interactions and that kind of a thing and sometimes otherwise interact? >> i think that only miss constand and her mother should be the ones to explain why there was continued interaction with mr. cosby, but there very well may be reasons and i don't think that one should take that as some kind of tacit admission
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that she wanted to with cosby or a criminal nature. as a matter of fact, there was testimony about a conversation between the mother and mr. cosby. pardon me? >> can i come for a minute? >> absolutely. >> let's get our team together. we just conducted our preliminary hearing. all charges were held. we're here because we want to seek the truth. we're here to serve justice. the evidence in this case that was presented at the preliminary hearing is of a limited basis. a preliminary hearing is a
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situation where we only have to show that a crime is committed and the defendants connected to the crime. we did that through the victim's statement and the defendants. admissions to much of the crime. consequently, we're going to move forward on the case and look forward to getting a trial date. >> how they're going to go forward -- >> i'm not going to get into the specifics of this. she was available to testify at trial under the case law that we represented and the judge ruled. it was unnecessary. it's a preliminary hearing. hearsay is dismissible aadmissi
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step is where we have to go. >> is there an indication? >> next question. >> did you have any thoughts about what they were trying to make as opposed to any other drug as other accusers they said, they have quaaludes and testify to? >> the point of this is that it was intoxicating to her and that she was unable to consent. that's the crime and that's the charges that were bound over and we look forward to hand all this in court. we're going to keep our comments to what happens in court here. so while we look forward to the next step. no, thank you.
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>> all right. so there you have the official word. the breaking news that bill cosby will, in fact, stand trial in the criminal sexual assault case. i want to go right to cnn's jean casarez. you were in the courthouse when the decision was made by the attorney. set the stage for us. you're with danny cevallos, our cnn legal analyst as well. ashleigh banfield is standing by. a full analysis of what is going on from joey jackson. but you were inside the courtroom. tell us how it went down. >> reporter: let me tell you exactly the feel in the courtroom was professional. bill cosby was there. he had to be there under law. he sat at the defense table. he didn't talk very much. it was a packed courtroom. the defense was extremely aggressive towards that judge. you heard gloria allred.
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the prosecution theory in a nutshell and they had andrea constand's statement read through in the months of january and february of 2004. andrea constand went to bill cosby's home. when she got there, she said she was having emotional issues. went upstairs. brought down three blue pills. had her take them and told her to drink wine. after that, she suddenly felt woozy and her legs were weak and had to assist her to a couch. said she was conscious in and out but wasn't able to stop him from sexually assaulting her. but the defense fired back on cross-examination saying so many things that andrea had said. she wrote other things. that she had gone to bill cosby's home several times before that and she had gone after that. she had accompanied him and met him at foxwoods casino where he was performing that and
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specifically went into that because andrea originally had written that bill cosby invite her to the bedroom because she was going to pack and she crossed that out and originally had written they laid down on the bed together with their legs touching and she crossed that out. the defense made a point of this and ultimately, she said we were just close to each other at that point. now the prosecutor objected to all of this because the preliminary hearing is not credibility. that is not taken into account. it is a prima fascia case. but the way the defense got it in, they kept saying there was consent to all this and the defense was very strong in their argument and during testimony. bill cosby's statement saying bill cosby admitted to the things but said it was consensu consensual. she was given some pills but
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wasn't woozy. wasn't unconscious. she didn't object. she never said no and she was able to say no. she was able to talk. in the closing argument, the defense actually started screaming at the top of their lungs in the courtroom and i have a quote here, they said, no one should be brought to an american courtroom to undergo this, screaming at the judge, directly at the judge. the judge obviously ruled that the case will go on. but the prosecution really focused on the elements and that they had proven that prima fascia case and i feel a bump and i looked up and right there was bill cosby, right above me. he was being led into the courtroom on the other side but he had bumped into my court bench really hard and the
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defense had said his eyesight is impaired. he is actually blind and can't see, and he went walked out from my court bench and to the defense table and sat down. >> we see him led in by an aid. clearly, got vision problems. ashleigh banfield, you've covered this story for a long time. this is one woman, andrea constand who made these allegations against bill cosby but what, there are more than 50 other women who made similar allegations? >> and gloria allred represents 30 of them. she doesn't represent andrea but has a lot of interest because her clients may paraded in there. that has yet to be determined, wolf. we don't know how many women or if any of them will be allowed to come in to testify to patterns, things that seem similar to them that andrea constand said happened to her so
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that still has to be resolved. who and how many witnesses may come in on behalf of the prosecutors but i think what you saw today, especially what jean casarez just reported which is remarkable to me and i think a lot of people who watch court that the defense was screaming in the courtroom. no american should have to be brought in an american court to go through this. referring to their client, bill cosby who is suffering from difficulties in bumping into things on the way and that may be a classic case of jury pool work because we are now going to be looking for 12 people who can be fair and unbiassed no matter what they've seen in this case, no matter what they've heard in the millions of words that have been printed in broadcast about bill cosby and the allegations of his indiscretions, but man, that you see some serious lawyering and serious leg work
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and real estate being laid for what is to come. whenever they decide when this trial is to happen but the headline is huge. i don't think we all are surprised, wolf, but the fact that he is going to stand trial for andrea and that case, it doesn't mean we're not going to hear about all the others as well. >> that's an important point. danny cevallos, what did you expect to hear? this is a pretrial hearing, the judge made the decision not to go forward with the trial on this judge. it's a very serious charge of indecent sexual assault against andrea constand. were you surprised by the decision by the judge to go forward with the trial? >> reporter: i was not, wolf. preliminary hearings in pennsylvania and elsewhere in the county have always been the prosecution's show. the burden is very light. the prosecution must only show a prima fascia case. more likely than not a crime was committed and this defendant committed it.
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consequentially, most preliminary hearings are held over for trial and because of that statistic, defense attorneys approach preliminary hearings with an added objective. to test the medal of the prosecution's case and two, if possible, get as much information about the prosecution's case as they can as they prepare for trial and if that is a test of the defense's job at a preliminary hearing, by all accounts, by any measurement, the defense did a very, very good job today. another battleground issue was using hearsay, using constand's statement instead of constand herself to testify, but it is true that last year in 2015, pennsylvania superior court issued an opinion allowing the prosecution to make out their case using solely hearsay evidence. a case that many in the defense bar have called down right unfair and is currently on appeal to the supreme court. it is a rule that may not be a rule for long.
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>> let me go back to ashleigh. i know you're there with joey jackson, one of our legal analysts and want to hear his analysis is. how do you go forward in a case like this and make sure the trial will be a strong trial because there's a lot of publicity out there and the jury could be impacted? >> wolf, that's the very issue. the issue, make no mistake about it, the defense in this particular case was playing not to the court but playing to the jury pool who is going to have to assess the voracity of the victim in this case so therefore, this is not about from a judge's perspective, wolf. a credibility assessment. this is not about, did you consent or not consent, those are factual issues. all of this is about is do you have enough? do you have enough reasonable belief that a crime was committed and cosby committed it? therefore, no surprise at all that the matter is going to trial and the defense was
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challenging and challenging because they're serving notice that they believe in their client, they're serving notice everyone in the world should know when that jury gets in panel, should not do this. two significant issues we have to talk about. the first significant issue relates to the issue of consent. remember we're talking about pills here. was it penn dribenadryl or herb supplement or quaaludes? but when you elevate and talk about drug use and gave her drugs and wine, how do you really consent when someone takes those things and also keep in mind, there are three theories the defense has to rebut here because the prosecution is proceeding on the theory, number one, three counts that there was no consent. even if you get out of she didn't consent, now she was unconscious. that's count number two and count number three is that the defense plied her with alcohol and made her unconscious. the next hurdle, what ashleigh banfield talked about earlier and that was the parade of women
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coming in that courtroom. that's going to be a battleground. the defense really has to object and say, you know what? if there's a common plan, a says common scheme, if there's a similar interest that all of them have, it goes to motive or intent and the law says, yes, you can testify, but this is so overwhelmingly prejudicial, my client is not going to be evaluated and judged on what he did or didn't do to andrea constand but on what he did yesterday, the week before, the year before, the month before and that would be a collateral issu issue. in order to keep the rights fair, they do not allow them to testify and the extent to limit this issue and make it about andrea constand, that would be significant because if the women come in, it's not about what he did to her, he did it to all the women and that represents guilt. >> and, you know, ashleigh, if
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he's convicted on these three felony charges of sexual assault, the incident going back to 2004, what kind of sentences could he anticipate? >> we're talking about an 80-year-old man here. so any sentence could be a life sentence when you're looking at these particular felony sexual assaults, about ten years a piece if i know pennsylvania law and then three separate counts. could they be current or consecutive? my thought is that it's all based on one act, not three different acts at three different times. they're not consecutive. it would be concurrent. if he got the max, likely ten years but for an 80-year-old. but i have to say, wolf. to what joey, my esteemed colleague here said, the parade of women. you're right. it is absolutely, you know, a probative versus prejudice durable iss
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case. but phil specter, i always bring that up. there was a parade of women who came in to say the same thing happened to them and it could have been the lynch pin in his case because when you talk about all the discrepancies in this case, andrea's got discrepancies in what she told the police, bill cosby's got discrepancies in what he told them. it will be a battle of the discrepancies but if you bring in those women, we have heard over and over, there's not a lot of discrepancy as to the pattern of that practice. >> this represents a real fertile ground and we're not there yet because there has to be a trial but in the event you're convicted, there's something called an appeal and something about propensity, they cannot be about my propensity to kill or sexual assault or drink, they have to be about what did you do on the day in question, the evening in question? so in the event, the judge has
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to be very careful in terms of allowing these things in. if, it's a huge if, there's a conviction here, the extent to the appeal being viable depends on how many, if any, women that judge allow to come into that courtroom saying he did it to me, he did it to me, he did it to me. after a while, he says, he's serial in terms of doing this, therefore, guilty. >> that's a huge tight rope to walk for any litigator who decides to go down that path. it is powerful. juries are absolutely riveted by this kind of testimony and can be the absolute lynch pin as it may have been for phil specter but no trial date yet but we have an appearance and it will be july 20th. those pictures you're seeing on your screen right now, dozens and dozens of media under that courtroom, when they got this announcement and went live with this. i guarantee you, it may just be
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status quo or status hearing but there will be that much coverage all the way through this case because there are so many other cases of allegations where they can't get a court date because of statute of limitations, they can't get resolution civilly because of statute of limitations. they want to see what happens in this one and many feel they get justice based on andrea and andrea alone. >> i want to go back to jean casarez outside of the courthouse in norristown, pennsylvania. jean, another hearing, another appearance at the end of july and then set a date? is that right? >> reporter: that's true to a point. the formal arraignment set for july 20th. in the courtroom, waived his appearance. signed the piece of paper right then and there and spoke that the judge said, so you have waived your formal arraignment and the judge said thank you and that was it.
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so the discovery will now begin. the case is bound over for trial in the court of common pleas which is the trial court so now we'll see what happens but motions are going to be filed both ways. they should be public and of course, the big question whether other women's testimony will be allowed in this case. that will be a huge hearing before the trial comes out and the defense will want to suppress it all. >> we'll have full coverage, obviously, of all of this. the headline, bill cosby will stand trial in connection with these three felony sexual assault charges the judge has ruled he will have a trial. we'll have much more on this. also, when we come back, we'll get back to the race for the white house. we dig deeper with the battle for trump and clinton as both decide what they're fighting for and bernie sanders doubling down on claims the democratic national convention could get messy. his words, messy. is it good for the democratic
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there's breaking news in the world of politics here. we just learned that democratic presidential candidate bernie sanders is asking for a formal recount of what happened in the kentucky presidential primary. bernie sanders says the democratic convention that's upcoming in philadelphia also could get messy. his word. we're standing by to speak with a top bernie sanders senior advisor, larry, talking to him in a moment but i want to bring in gloria borger and david. what's the recount? >> i think what they're trying to do is to get their people
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more impassioned about this campaign. it's been an issue that sanders supporters have been talking about. in a way, the campaign may be reacting to the passion of their supporters. i also personally believe this is a campaign with $5 million cash on hand. when you get your supporters more riled up, it's also a better way to raise money. it's really not a matter of delegates, as you point out. it's a matter of one or so delegates but i think it's a matter of trying to get that momentum back heading into california. so they go into this convention with something really to say and much more leverage about election reform, the issues that bernie sanders really cares about. >> the race in kentucky was very, very close to 2,000 votes. won by less than 2,000 votes. allison declared she's the winner and a hillary clinton supporter who raised concerns
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about bernie sanders supporters, of course, but gloria's right. even to win, it would maybe be a difference of one delegate. >> that would be it. that would switch the one extra delegate she netted to bernie sanders. listen. here's what i think is going on. and i think it's really interesting. i think what you see lately from bernie sanders ever since the controversy over the nevada sort of vitriolic words we heard out of people in nevada and the democratic convention and the tension rising between the sanders camp and the clinton camp, i think you see sanders try to find ways to give his supporters a release valve, an avenue to express their passion as gloria was saying. i think we saw this over the weekend him saying he was supporting debbie wasserman-schultz, her primary opponent in florida when he said he would not reappoint as dnc chair if elected president and now this. none of these things are damaging to hillary clinton. it's not about going on the attack to hillary clinton or
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saying she's not qualified to be president or taking the fight, continue to her in that way but does draw contrast on the trail but i actually think what you're seeing from bernie sanders of late is giving continued avenue of passionate support for his supporters without trying to take down hillary clinton. >> you know what, larry is standing by, a senior advisor. let's get his reaction. so what's the point, larry, first of all, thanks for joining us of this recount in kentucky. >> i think the point is just transparency. not just about kentucky. it's about trying to create a context now and at the convention that these primaries and caucuses need transparency. they need to be authentic. they need to build confidence among voters, particularly younger voters that this is not rigged and this is for real. i think it's just a simple recount. the bigger items are things like the platfom writing committee.
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what will the rules be going forward? is this a populist party or the financial elite? >> speaking about the platform, they agree that bernie sanders would have five representatives on the platform committee. that's a third. is that good enough for you right now? >> well, not only that, but we would say the make-up of that platform committee is a good group. it's a broad cross section and represents newer elements in the democratic party. not just the old guard. our senior staffer warren will be there with maya harris and personally, i'm confident that we can have a good outcome from that committee. >> what did he mean when he thought the convention in philadelphia in july would be, quote, messy? >> it's not going to be or likely to be orchestrated like they've been since 1988. it's more likely to have motions come to the floor about the rules of the party. it's not the platform.
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and that kind of debate is healthy. i think the key thing is that we believe that coming out of philadelphia, this will be a much more appealing party, particularly to younger voters. it will be a much greater sense this party is on the move, not in the past. and that's what our goal is. >> is it your goal after california and a week later here in washington, dc when the democratic contest takes place, if she has more pledge delegates, will he concede at this point or will he still fight to go all the way to the convention? >> well, i think in terms of the political revolution, it definitely goes to the convention. i don't want to speak for senator sanders about that now. he's focused on california and six other states plus puerto rico to actually get large numbers of delegates so that political revolution is much more realistic or that he, in fact, can persuade delegates
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that he's the better nominated to take on donald trump. >> is he himself acknowledges the arithmetic is not in his favor now. ahead by 300 pledge delegates and maybe 500 or so of the so-called super delegates. so how do you overcome that? >> it's about 270. it's still, he calls it, uphill, a narrow path. and, you know, that's based on the number of people that are still to vote but i think a part of that is also to give encouragement to, again, young elements of voters in the largest state in the country. california, and the six other states plus puerto rico that their say counts too and that this road to build a populist party is a long road and we need everybody to stay on it. >> so even if he's behind in pledge delegates after the district of columbia on june 14th, he's not going to concede. is that what i hear you say? >> no, i'm saying that is
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clearly, you know, up to him. that's not, i think that will depend on what the results actually are. he's definitely going to continue on the path of how do we have the kind of party that appeals to our voters and so that means a negotiation and i think it depends in large part on how that goes, what kind of a party do we have and where do we stand on differing from the president on the transpacific partnership or are we just about words? it's about key issues that people really care about across this country as well as about his candidacy. it's always been about those. >> larry, thank you very much for joining us. >> pleasure. up next, the increasingly harsh ads. month after month. year after year. then one night, you hydroplane into a ditch. yeah... surprise... your insurance company tells you to pay up again.
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donald trump and hillary clinton haven't secured the party's nominations officially, at least not yet, and hasn't stopped them from squaring off against each other anyway and according to to a donald trump top adviser he's not even started playing rough. >> here's a little hint for them. >> please. >> donald trump is this uber billionaire real estate developer, possibly the greatest negotiator in the history of this planet. he'll never come out with his first offer. right? in real estate right off the bat, meaning if she thinks that this is bad, right, this is nothing. he is not coming out with his strong. >> all right. let's bring in john phillips, radio talk show host in los angeles and a donald trump supporter, also joining us, cnn political commentator, maria
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cardona. thank you very much for joining us. >> hey, wolf. >> thank you. >> one of donald trump's new ads takes liberties sort of with bill clinton's past with women. hillary clinton hammering donald trump over the housing collapse. a question to both of you. is anything off limits? john, first to you. in this race, assuming it's a race between donald trump and hillary clinton. >> well, it's fitting we are having this conversation on the day that the bill cosby news broke because i think there's similarities here. going back to the story, pretty much everyone -- >> come on, john. >> the allegations of sexual assault were pretty much just in the "national enquirer" and anyone talking about it, it was like touching a live wire. wendy williams did it and got fired. janice dickinson trying to talk about it in a book. an npr reporter dressed down by bill cosby. hannibal burress on stage talks about it and the story takes on a life of its own.
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it was exposed to people who had never heard about it before. with bill clinton, the same thing is true in the sense that everyone knows that bill clinton has a wandering eye and the allegations of sexual assault, the allegations are pretty much just in the tabloids and the conservative press. if donald trump talks about this, everyone's going to have to cover it and it will be exposed to a whole new generation. >> maria, go ahead. >> that is just so ridiculous, john, to make a comparison here and just underscores to me when donald trump goes after the clintons this way is because he's desperate and he cannot meet hillary clinton on the battlefield of ideas. which is what american voters are looking for. look. her attacks on him are actually on his supposed business accumen, his businesses that frankly he's let go bankrupt four times on the fact in 2006 and 2007 rooting for a housing
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crisis and millions of people lost their homes and jobs and, frankly, the fact that in his current proposals for the economy many economists and professionals have said they would tank our economy and would lower wages and would be disastrous for america. and so, those are the kinds of comparisons that hillary clinton is going to focus on when she actually has fought for american families for 30 years. >> they both have something in common. the reason for voting, according to the new "wall street journal" nbc news poll, majority of clinton voters voting against donald trump. and it's actually the same story for trump voters, majority aren't necessarily voting for him. they're voting against hillary clinton. instead of voting for donald trump. so, john, could this be problematic come november? >> well sure, it could be problematic but you have seen the ads, the pro-hillary pacs
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running and what's happened since they hit the air waves? hillary's negatives gone up and donald trump is beating her right now and many of the most recent head to head polls so i think she's got to be careful about the same line of attack that many of the republicans in the primary launched against him that didn't work. i don't know why she is repeating it. >> go ahead. let's let maria respond. >> the reason it didn't work for republicans is because they did not go after him until months in to the election, into the primary process and didn't take him seriously. hillary clinton is taking him seriously and last thing she and democrats and many independents and a lot of moderate republicans want is to have somebody as incompetent and, frankly, as dangerous and donald trump in the white house. and that is what hillary clinton is going to focus on. the message of what his presidency would mean to middle class families and her record shows that while, again, for 30 years she has been fighting for middle class families for
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affordable child care, for higher wages, donald trump, he has been out to enrich himself and trying to burnish his credentials as a manhattan playboy. >> maria, john, the debate i suspect is only just beginning. we'll have of course both of you back as the debate continues. >> thank you. >> thank you. there's other news following right now, including a major battle for fallujah in iraq in the second full day and the fighting clearly is intense. iraqi forces have launched an offensive against what's described as the isis stronghold and new pictures of fighting just outside the city. the u.s. already involved hitting 21 targets with air strikes over the past few days. fallujah is a key stronghold for isis lying about 40 miles from baghdad. it's been under isis control since january of 2014.
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there also been isis attacks in and around baghdad in recent days that have claimed more than 100 lives. all of this happening as iraqi forces are scrambling the try to protect baghdad's highly secured green zone which has been breached recently. cnn's barbara starr has exclusive reporting from inside iraq with the commander of the u.s. military central command. >> reporter: protesters invade baghdad's green zone for the second time. violence rising as opposition to the iraqi government grows. the top u.s. commander running the war against isis is watching carefully for the stress mounting on the iraqi military even now as it tries to recapture the key city of fallujah. >> they're having to make decisions in terms of where their force going, where their priorities are. >> reporter: but in baghdad, with the u.s. embassy and military headquarters inside the heavily fortified green zone, does the u.s. have enough
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security on hand? >> yes, i do think we have the right security forces on ground, on the ground from a u.s. perspective to take care of ourself there. >> reporter: cnn was the only network with general joseph votel, the u.s. commander in charge of the war against isis as he traveled in iraq getting the latest assessments on security and the readiness of iraqi forces. this base about one hour north of baghdad is one of the front lines in the effort to train, advise and assist iraqi forces. but they have at least temporarily seen some iraqi forces called back to baghdad for a few weeks to deal with the security situation there in the wake of the rising attacks by isis. votel is trying to convince iraq's military to make certain to station enough troops around the country and not to flood baghdad with security forces as the government tries to confront the latest violence in the capital. >> they are attempting to create
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chaos in the capital. they're attempting to divert attention away from other areas where they're -- where the coalition forces and iraqis are having success. >> reporter: this military warehouse just to the south in kuwait brimming with more than 25,000 weapons for those iraqi forces. all are being shipped out as more iraqis show up for u.s.-led training. >> barbara's joining live from amman, jordan, barbara, if the i iraqi forces retake fallujah, will that have an impact on isis ability to launch terror attacks, let's say, in baghdad, in the green zone, for example? >> reporter: well, it may well be just that, wolf, with fallujah as you know west of baghdad, it's a major route in to the capital. now, baghdad 6 million, 7 million people. impossible to completely seal
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off but the iraqis trying to gather more intelligence all the time on where these ieds and bomb factories are just outside the city so they hope if they can regain control of fallujah that does a couple of things. it lets them move more towards baghdad and ensure that road is secure and it can help ensure to give them a jumping off point to try to bring further security deeper in to western iraq so it's something they very much want to do but the u.s. also pointing out to them votel also pointing out to them, mosul, that major city north of baghdad, still lies ahead, still what has to be gotten back from isis. >> can the iraqi troops liberate mosul this year? what's the assessment, the analysis? >> reporter: well, that from everyone we talk to, that may be very difficult. you know, if you say can they liberate mosul, you also have to ask the obvious question, can
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they hold on to it? they may be able to get to parts of the city but a full, you know, liberation and holding on to it, changing life in mosul, that could be some time away. >> barbara starr doing excellent reporting for us. thanks so much. the news continues right now. hi there. i'm brooke baldwin. you are watching cnn here. breaks news out of pennsylvania. we are leading with the fact that actor and comedian bill cosby will stand trial for sexual assault. the ruling came down just about an hour ago at cosby's pretrial hearing. his attorney during the closing arguments screaming at the judge. top of his lungs. this is according to our crews inside that courtroom. we'll talk to her in a moment, correspondent, lashing out. the judge deciding there is, indeed, enough evidence to proceed with