>> yeah. one of the things we wanted to show and that was part of the -- i think the ongoing theme in the last episode was the cost. people pay a price for that experience. and it's not something that one should take lightly. major -- colonel -- i say colonel. father mulcahey lost his hearing. major winchester lost his music. hawkeye lost his sanity for a while. all of those things -- all of those things happen to people in the war. as you indicated earlier, you do a lot of work with vets. i think people don't really fully appreciate what we're asking of people when we send them to war. >> mike farrell, thank you so much. such an honor to have you on the show. really appreciate it. tune in for the premiere of "the eighties" at 9:00 p.m. eastern. turning you over to wolf blitzer in "the situation room." happening now, gop divide.

donald trump huddles with the republican party's top leaders in an increasingly bitter campaign and facing the prospect of a convention floor fight. can they mend the grand ole party's great devoid. reversing course. donald trump reverses himself on punishing women who have abortions and reverses himself on the gop loyalty pledge. is this the reversal of his fortune? his opponents, they have been waiting for that. no do-overs. ohio governor john kasich finally takes the gloves off, slamming donald trump and warning that presidents don't get do-overs. is kasich's criticism, though, too little too late? and isis leaders ex-wife. she was married to the world's most wanted man and fled after only three months. now she's speaking out, even though her own life may be in danger. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." we're following surprising new developments in the presidential race right now.

donald trump leading the campaign trail only days before the next crucial primary. instead of campaigning in wisconsin, he's here in washington today meeting with the head of the republican party. we're also getting new information about what they discussed. all this comes as ted cruz and john kasich pounce on trump's most recent missteps and controversial statements. more pointedly than ever, they're questioning whether the billionaire businessman is fit to be president of the united states. we'll discuss the state of the race with the republican congressman shawn duffy. he's from wisconsin. our correspondents, analysts and guests will have full coverage of all the day's top stories. let's begin with sunlen serfaty who's in wisconsin right now. sunlen, what are you hearing about that meeting between trump and the republican party chairman? >> reporter: wolf, sources tell cnn that this meeting was mostly about convention rules and delegates. this meeting coming as donald trump faces significant heat over a string of series of controversial statements which his rivals are now trying to

capitalize on, calling into question his readiness to be president. donald trump in washington today behind closed doors huddling with his national security team and later with officials at the republican national committee, as the uproar over his abortion comments continues to swirl. >> i have to tell you that as commander in chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. you need to be able to get it right the first time. >> donald's comments, they were unfortunate, they were wrong and i strongly disagree with them. >> reporter: trump set off a firestorm wednesday after he said that women should be punished for having an abortion if the procedure is made illegal in the u.s. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion, yes or no, as a principle? >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. >> reporter: the trump campaign first tried to clarify by saying the issue should be left to the states. then it quickly put out another statement completely reversing his initial one, saying, quote, the doctor or another person

performing this illegal act upon a woman would be legally responsible, not the woman. his rivals, seizing on trump's stumble. >> really it's the latest demonstration of how little donald has thought about any of the serious issues facing this country. >> reporter: trump's meeting with his national security team comes as he also faces scrutiny for refusing to rule out using nuclear weapons in europe. >> just say it, i'm never using a nuclear weapon in europe. >> i am not taking cards off the table. >> reporter: john kasich blasting trump's response was unpresidential. >> it is not the way that a leader of the free world or the commander in chief of our country to be so casually talking about the use, by the way, of nuclear weapons. it just shows that he's really not prepared to be president of the united states. >> reporter: trump also is on the receiving end of cruz's jokes from the late night couch. >> if i were in my car and getting ready to reverse and saw

donald in the backup camera, i'm not confident which pedal i'd push. >> reporter: that as a new front has opened in the gop fight between cruz and kasich. kasich jabbing cruz for having a steep delegate climb to clinch the nomination before the convention. >> there's a greater chance that you will fly out of this building and flaand land in midtown. >> reporter: and with this wisconsinth ad. >> if ted cruz's mouth is moving, he's lying. >> reporter: he argues that he's unknown. >> part of the reason he does well in national polls against hillary is nobody knows anything about him. >> reporter: and donald trump is off the campaign trail for the next two days. he is anticipated to return here to wisconsin over the weekend. the latest poll here shows him ten points behind senator ted

cruz and of course important to note that that poll was done entirely before this latest string of controversies. wolf. >> sunlen, thanks very much. as we just saw, the ohio governor john kasich came out swinging at donald trump today taking special aim at trump's comments on abortion and nuclear weapons. the governor explained why he's so uncharacteristically departing from his earlier commitment to try to stay positive and not directly criticize his opponents. >> i continue to be positive, but when i see a number of these things that have been said, i have to say something about it. if i don't say something about it, then i really feel as though as a public official that i'm not doing my job. but i don't want to live in this mode. but there are times when i have to speak out. >> and he did today. jim acosta is joining us from wisconsin right now. jim, is the trump campaign showing any signs right now of serious vulnerability? >> reporter: well, wolf, donald

trump was all smiles when the cameras caught up with him in washington today but a talked to a slew of gop sources today who said trump's comments on abortion were very damaging. john kasich, as you heard, went even further today and said that that comment along with trump's remark that he won't rule out using nuclear weapons in europe meant the real estate tycoon is not fit to be president of the united states. trump appears to have his work cut out for him here in wisconsin, wolf. the latest polls show he is trailing ted cruz by double digits. if he losz here in wisconsin and then in colorado, which holds a caucus, which does not play to his strengths, he could go limping into his home state of new york, even though a poll there shows he's got a pretty healthy lead in new york later on next month, wolf. >> what do you know about the meeting that he had today over at the time republican national committee headquarters here in washington regarding the loyalty pledge? it's certainly gone away as far as not only trump but all three republican candidates. they clearly are backing away from a commitment to go ahead and support whoever the

republican nominee is. >> reporter: absolutely. trump emerged from that meeting with rnc chairman prients priebus and he tweeted out he's looking to unite the republican party. something he said in that tweet will happen. but an rnc official told me not a whole -- you know, not a deep dive into what happened in this meeting, wolf, but that trump and priebus had a productive meeting about the state of the race. the convention did come up. that suggests there was a discussion about delegates. there was a discussion about what happens if trump falls short of the magic number of 1237 delegates that he needs to clinch the nomination. but as for that loyalty pledge, wolf, i think all three candidates have essentially buried it. i have talked to rnc officials about this pledge. all they will say at this point is they are confident that the party will rally around whoever is the republican nominee to defeat the democrats later on this fall, but they're not saying at this point, wolf, that

the pledge is alive and well. they're certainly not saying that, wolf. >> jim acosta reporting for us, thank you. let's get an insider's view of the contest in the badger state. we're joined by sean duffy. congressman, thanks very much for joining us. >> thank you, wolf. good to be with you. >> and i just want to be up front. you have not endorsed any of these three remaining republican candidates, at least not yet, is that right? >> that's correct. i was first with walker, then with rubio. i'm the kiss of death, wolf, so i'm not endorsing any of these candidates. if i did, i'd probably endorse mcas the kiss of death. >> so you're not going to be -- not going to tell your supporters who you like? >> i'm the central to the northwestern part of the state. about a third of the state in land mass. it's pretty evenly divided, probably goes a little bit towards trump. both sides of my republican party are split and they are passionate and they're very

engaged in this race. i don't think it's my position right now to step in and try to influence one way or the other so i'm going to stay out. >> let's talk about what happened today here in washington. donald trump, he met with the rnc chairman reince priebus. a republican source telling cnn the meeting was about convention rules, delegates. here's the question. do you believe that the person, the candidate who has the most delegates going into that convention should be the nominee? >> what i believe is we should follow the rules that are going to be made by the delegates when they get to the convention. and so on round one if we don't have -- whether it's cruz or trump that have enough delegates to win, i think we'll have to go by the rules of the convention. now, i think if donald trump has more delegates, i think he'll probably w the convention. but if not, you know, it could go to ted cruz. wolf, i think what's important to note here is when reince priebus engages the top

candidates, it's important they understand the rnc will treat each of them fairly, they all know what the rules are, they all play by the rules and there's no funny business or shenanigans. i know there's ca-- rein ce wil make sure it's fair. i'm sure that's what the conversation was, to put donald at ease that he'll know the process and it will be fair to him. >> the point being, though, 1237, that's the key number you need, the number of delegates you need in order to get the nomination. let's say he gets very close, he's within 100 but cruz is much further behind and he has millions more votes. his supporters are going to be very frustrated if he emerges without the nomination. >> absolutely his supporters will be frustrated. but also we're a republican party that's bound by the rules of the party. and so the way you clinch the nomination is you get 1237.

if you don't get 1237, you go to a second round and then many of these delegates are free to vote for who they want. >> is that what you want, congressman? do you want a contested convention? >> listen, frankly i think donald trump is probably going to win the 1237 as an outside-viewer of what's going to happen. but if trump doesn't get 1237 and you look at the cruz campaign, wolf, ted cruz has done a really good job of organizing delegates in all these different states. and so if you look at the ground game at convention, if donald trump doesn't clinch the 1237, i look at ted cruz who's been focusing and working on delegates, i think it will b bow -- be tough to beat ted cruz because he's been focusing and working with his organization on making sure if it's a contested convention, that he wins second or third round. >> many of those pledged delegates, they become free agents in the second and even more become free agents in the

third round if it goes to three or four rounds. here's another question for you. if donald trump is the republican presidential nominee, are you ready to commit to supporting him? >> i am. and the reason is that i look at the progression i've liberal socialist agenda of hillary clinton and bernie sanders. donald trump, john kasich, ted cruz, all of them are better than president hillary clinton. so hands down i'm going to pound signs and work for whoever our nominee is. we can't have another four years of progressive policies like we've had with barack obama. so i'm going to work for them. >> congressman, we have more to discuss. stick around, i'll take a quick break, we'll continue our conversation with congressman sean duffy of wisconsin. the wisconsin primary next tuesday. stick around with us.

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we're following some surprising developments in the presidential race. with only a few days left until the wisconsin primary, polls show donald trump some ten points right now behind ted cruz. trump today spent much of the day here in washington where he met with the top leaders of the republican party. we're back with the republican congressman sean duffy of wisconsin. you saw that marquette law school poll that has ted cruz ten points ahead of donald trump right now, 40 to 30% for trump, 21% for kasich. do you think trump can come back and win on tuesday? >> i would say yes, he could, but for the fact that you saw just recently scott walker endorsed ted cruz. that in and of itself is not a

big deal in wisconsin. however, donald trump then started to attack scott walker. and i know donald trump has been successful in other states attacking elected state officials, but that won't play well in wisconsin because, listen, if you think back to the big protests at the state capitol when scott walker did all of his reforms, conservatives all over the state stood up and fought with scott walker and won with scott walker. they love this pguy. they get really angry if you start to attack him and that's exactly what donald trump has done the last couple of days. so i think the numbers actually would be tighter except for the fact that donald trump is attacking our golden boy in the republican party, scott walker, and i think that's going to have a negative impact on him. >> you had originally endorsed scott walker yourself. wisconsin is an open primary, meaning independents, even democrats can go in and vote for the republican primary, is that right? >> it's true. and i think you'll see a lot of traditional democrats cross over

and vote in the republican primary. >> so that could help trump, right? >> yeah. so in my district, we have a lot of union guys that are coming out and are going to support trump because they love him. they think he is the only one that's looking out for them. so you have this unique divide in our state. in the southeast corner, which is the greater milwaukee suburb area, ted cruz has been lifted up by conservative talk radio, donald trump has been bashed for months. so you see those numbers consistent with ted cruz in the lead, donald trump far down. as you go up to my part of the state which still has a lot of voters, though it's more rural, that's more trump territory. these are people that feel disenfranchised. they had milwaukee, madison, green bay, and everywhere else. people are sick are being considered everywhere else. they're mad as hell this economy hasn't worked for them, their government hasn't worked for

them. they want someone who's going to fight for them. you have donald trump who says i'm not about ideology, i'm about you, i'm about america and i'm going to do what's right for you. not what's right for the republican party or the conservative movement. if i think trade is bad, i'm going to stand with you and fight with you to make sure you keep your job and good salary. i'm not going to support a bad trade deal. the people in my district, they love that. there's another wing to wisconsin, they call it a purple state. it's not purple because we have a lot of moderates, it's purple because we have a lot of far lefties and a lot of far righties. a lot of my righties are very conservative republicans. and they don't think that donald trump is a conservative. they look at ted cruz, they might not like his preachy southern style, but they look at him and go this guy is a true conservative. he believes in the same principles that i believe in and so i'm going to support him and that's where we have this unique divide in wisconsin. >> it could be very close. how do you think his controversial comments yesterday on abortion rights for women,

saying one thing, revising it, then coming up with a totally different statement a few hours later, how is that going to play in your state of wisconsin? >> it doesn't help him, i'm tell you that. the reason is we have one of the best pro-life organizations in the country in pro life wisconsin. and even they have come out and said, listen, the pro-life movement is about pro-life for little babies and for women. we don't want to start, you know, a big war on women with the trump comments. you're setting us back, mr. trump. and i think this goes to this additional point that donald trump shoots from the hip and people like that. but you've got to actually spend some time and think through the issues about what your policy position is so you don't get caught in the tough interview that he had with chris matthews. it's on what's happening in europe, in the middle east, with russia and china. those are all problems that donald trump if he's going to be our nominee, one has to start acting more presidential, but also he has to work on the policies so he can communicate these ideas effectively and not have the gaffe like he had

yesterday on the abortion issue. >> sean duffy shall the congressman from wisconsin, thanks very much. >> thanks, wolf. coming up, after generating so many controversies, has the trump campaign finally, though, reached the tipping point? our political experts are standing by. also ahead, an astonishing interview. the ex-wife of the leader of isis talking candidly about what it was like being married to the world's most wanted terrorist. your path to retirement... may not always be clear. but at t. rowe price, we can help guide your retirement savings. for over 75 years, investors have relied on our disciplined approach to find long term value. so wherever your retirement journey takes you, we can help you reach your goals. call a t. rowe price retirement specialist or your advisor

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we're following important new developments in the presidential race where donald trump is uncharacteristically keeping quiet, relatively quiet at least on this day.

after meeting with the head of the republican party, a wave for reporters is all we've seen from the republican front-runner, at least so far. joining us in the situation room are senior political reporter, nia-malika henderson, dana bash, ana navarro and washington post assistant editor david swerdlick. dana, what are you learning about trumpes meeting with reince priebus, the chairman, among others? >> there being, as you said, extraordinarily tight-lipped. what i was told is it was a lot about delegates. some about convention rules and how that will work, depending on various scenarios. it was a very small meeting. and obviously with reince priebus, but what's unclear still at this point is what precipitated this. whether it was what trump said at the cnn town hall the other night, going after the republican convention -- excuse me, going after the republican party, whether it was his threat

to sue over what happened in louisiana or maybe all of the above. >> he tweeted after the meeting, this is donald trump, just had a very nice meeting with reince priebus and the gop. looking forward to bringing the party together and it will happen. that was what he tweeted. will it happen? >> i think at a minimum, wolf, the two sides, if you will, are stuck with each other. i don't have dana's report of what happened in the meeting today, but that pledge, even if it starts to fall apart, it served the purposes for chairman priebus that he needed it to. if donald trump leaves the party at this point, everyone sort of knows that trump will have his followers, the republican party will have another candidate, maybe senator cruz, and that will split the conservative or republican vote and that will clear a path for the likely democratic nominee. so both sides now have to sort of figure out a way to work this out. >> he wasn't speaking public low but he was tweeting. he said the trump doctrine -- he now calls it the trump doctrine -- peace through

strength. he was saying that he like ronald reagan had this policy of peace through strength. well afternoonly kw l-- relativ quiet today, are you surprised? >> yes. we haven't had a relatively quiet day on twitter from donald trump in a very, very long time. i think some of it may have to be that he stuck his foot in his mouth yesterday talking about abortion. he doesn't want to address it. there's been a lot of surrogates out there saying that he misspoke but he himself has not said that he misspoke. i'm very glad there was this meeting between the rnc and donald trump because it almost felt in the cnn town hall that he was laying the groundwork to make the charge against the rnc, that they were going to be unfair, that they were going to be something untowards him at the convention. it is very important because there may be a lot of controversy in that convention that both sides, that the rnc be absolutely transparent with all the candidates who may be involved. >> you know, the -- it's very interesting that he hasn't really spoken out, but john kasich all of a sudden came out

today swinging at donald trump. i want to play a little clip for you. >> i just want to take a few minutes to -- i usually don't have notes. as you all know, i pretty much speak right off the cuff, but i had to list five things that continue to prove that donald trump is clearly not prepared to be president of the united states, commander in chief, leader of the free world. it appears as though when he does these events and people press him, he becomes unmoored and then has to spend a lot of time trying to figure out how to correct all of the mistakes that he made. and i have to tell you that as a commander in chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. you need to be able to get it right the first time. >> that was uncharacteristic for john kasich. he's stayed away from that kind of direct tough criticism of his republican rivals.

at least until now. >> yeah, and any time you kind of see these rivals who have all of a sudden discovered donald trump and discovered ways they should criticize him, it comes across as a little disingenuous because for a long time they stood on the sidelines and didn't want to criticize him. that was part of kasich's identity. he was the nice guy, he didn't want to mix it up and get in the gutter with the other folks. he of course is doing that now. he wants to present himself as the adult in the room. he in some ways as always run a resume election. he can name drop, ronald reagan and strom thurmond because he served in washington when they were both around. so far the voters haven't taken to that argument. he's won one state, he's behind in the wisconsin polls so far. that should be a state that he would think he might be able to win. >> but if we're going to label this tough criticism, really, we've all seen 5-year-olds on the playground wage tougher criticism at each other. >> well, he said he's unmoored

and not qualified to be commander in chief. that's pretty tough. >> i don't know that given what we've seen between trump and krouz in the last several weeks -- >> not as personal but he's basically saying he could not support this guy to be president, that he's the republican front-runner right now. >> i think if we're going to draw a contrast, he's going to have to draw blood at some point. >> kasich has no mathematical chance of getting to 1237, the number of delegates you need to be the republican nominee. his only hope is that if there's a contested convention it goes to round two or three, all of a sudden he could emerge as the republican nominee. here's the question. is that realistic? >> is it realistic? you know, if you're john kasich, yes. is it possible? or maybe his top aides, yes. look, it's not just from the perspective of the kasich campaign. it's not just that, you know, that they hope that things could change in the convention. but they're banking on that everybody will look around at the convention and say, wait a minute, don't we like want to

win in november and that they're going to look at polls, which do show that he at this point has the best shot of all the republican candidates to beat hillary clinton. but that's a lot of hypotheticals to get to their ultimate goal. the one thing that i will say that is important to point out about the whole question of republican rules and the convention is the rules last time around four years ago said that you had to win eight primary -- or eight contests in order to even get the nomination. he's won one, ohio. we'll see what happens in the next couple of weeks. >> they can change that rule. the rules committee comes in and they can create any rule they want. >> absolutely. you bet that both donald trump and ted cruz are going to scream bloody murder and their supporters are going to scream even more if they try to change it, even though that is what happens every four years. >> they put that rule in only last time to prevent rand paul from getting a vote. >> ron paul.

>> i mean ron paul. all right, guys, stand by. we have a lot more. there's excitement and new developments on the democratic side as well. we'll update you on that when we come back. ♪ what if we invented a paint that's not only in the top of its class but lets you breathe as deeply as this or this or this. not guilty. if it doesn't upset your allergies like paint, is it still paint?

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hillary clinton and bernie sanders can of course claim strong ties to new york state, but only one of them will walk away with a victory in the state's crucial primary. the contest will offer one of the biggest delegate hauls of the campaign and both candidates seem eager to sharpen their

differences before the vote. let's go to our senior washington correspondent jeff zeleny who's joining us from new york city. he's in the bronx right now. jeff, what's the latest? >> reporter: wolf, bernie sanders was born in brooklyn and hillary clinton was elected here twice to the senate. there is no question this new york race is so important. and it's really touching on all of the themes of the national race as well. income inequality, wall street, economic injustice, racial reform. but wolf, it is so central to clinton's candidacy to win here. that's one of the reasons bernie sanders is trying so hard to stop her. now playing in new york, hillary clinton -- >> he goes around telling young people he's going to give them free college. >> reporter: versus bernie sanders. >> secretary clinton has supported virtually every one of these disastrous trade agreements. >> reporter: tonight, the democratic rivals dueling on their home turf wfor a whopping prize of 247 delegates. >> i grew up in brooklyn, new york.

>> reporter: their fight is also now revolving around that other new yorker, donald trump. >> just yesterday donald trump said women should be funnished for having an abortion. >> reporter: both democrats seizing on his comments about how women should be punished for seeking an abortion. he recanted his words but that did little to stop the firestorm. >> let's remember this, all the republican candidates want to make abortion illegal. if you make abortion a crime, then you make women and doctors criminals. >> reporter: sanders tweeted, your republican front-runner, ladies and gentlemen, shameful. by now the clinton campaign had hoped to be focusing on trump and republicans alone, but at a rally today not far from her chappaqua home, clinton found herself tangling with support s supporters -- >> the bernie people came to say that. >> reporter: she had the last

word. >> what i regret is they don't want to hear the contrast between my experience, my plans, my vision, what i know i can get done and what my opponent is promising. >> reporter: it's a stark reminder the democratic primary is also boiling hot. in wisconsin, which votes tuesday, sanders leads clinton by four percentage points. here in new york, clinton holds a 12-point lead but she's not resting easy, even dispatching former president bill clinton to union halls across new york city. before a nighttime rally in the bronx, sanders stopped in pittsburgh. >> what an extraordinary turnout. >> reporter: he lashed out at clinton's support for trade agreements and ties to wall street. >> i just don't know why wall street has not invited me to speak before them. i've got my cell phone on, i'm waiting for the call. >> reporter: the acrimony between clinton, sanders and their supporters is alarming some democrats. in the end, clinton seaid the

party must come together. >> we have to unite and make sure we have a democrat in the white house in january. >> reporter: that is really the open question here and many democrats are concerned about these two sides coming together. now, you can see the crowd gathering here, here in the bronx for a rally. bernie sanders will try to make his case. most of these supporters are young supporters of bernie sanders, but he had supporters of all ages here. they're really trying to stop or slow this momentum, so many delegates at stake here in new york. wolf. >> jeff, thanks very much. nia, is she really worried about her home state of new york? >> you know, in some ways i was surprised that the poll was so close, 54% to 42%. i don't think she's going to see a vermont-style victory in the way that sanders won his home state overwhelmingly. i was texting back and forth with a sanders supporter. they feel very good about where sanders is now. they feel like he'll go into

that contest with the wind at his back, possibly picking up the wisconsin win and probably wyoming too. so they're aggressively playing for new york. i think if you look at those internal numbers, clinton does have something to feel good about. she's essentially tied among white voters. she's 35 points ahead among black democrats. and she's also essentially tied among white men. if she can keep there, i think she's in a good position. but again, sanders folks think that he's a good closer and that he can quickly close big gaps in the end. >> she has to always worry that if she gets the nomination, she needs those bernie sanders supporters to come along and help in a general election. that's why she's got to be very careful in how far she goes in alienating them potentially. >> i think she's got to stay worried throughout this until he clinches this nomination. we thought bernie sanders would be deflating by now. he's not. if anything, he's gaining steam. i think nia is absolutely right.

we don't know what level of momentum he's going to leave wisconsin with. should he win, how big his margin might be should he win. the biggest mistake probably that hillary clinton made early on was taking bernie sanders for granted. not taking him serious low and trying to nip it at the bud when it started happening. it's too late now. he is the real force. he is the person that is carrying the mantle for the progressive movement and she will absolutely need his supporters. >> and he's raising a ton of money right now, relatively small contributions, not big sums, but former representative barney frank, all of us know him, he was a democrat from massachusetts. in an interview he said that sanders had little to show for his 25 years in congress. he really was pretty critical of sanders. how's that going to play? >> a lot of times when members of congress leave congress they speak more frankly. i think he was expressing the

view that he has that others like senator al franken have, that even though there's this moou movement and this message that bernie sanders is having for progressives, party insiders are still behind clinton. they think she's the more viable candidate in the general. i think that if -- it's going to sting if she loses wisconsin, but if this was a case where there was no rancor on the republican side, this would hurt her more. with what's going on ot republican side, democrats can afford that. >> she's got more than 400 super delegates. he's only got about maybe 30, if that. so that's going to be her cushion. >> i don't know that you want to win with super delegates. how undemocratic does that sound? >> you want to win. the key is to win. it's all part of the rules of the democratic side. >> she'll also point out she's getting millions more votes than him too in all these contests. at least a million more or whatever. guys, stand by. coming up, very different story we're following right now.

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tonight the former wife of the head of isis is speaking out in a brand-new interview. she could be leaving important clues for officials on the hunt for the world's most wanted terrorist. brian todd is gathering details. what are you learning? >> reporter: tonight analysts are telling us this interview may give western intelligence agencies information about abu bakr al baghdadi's personal interactions with others. it may not give many clues about

where he is physically but we've gotten information on that from a top white house official. a new warning from top u.s. officials to the terrorist leader of isis. we'll find you. >> abu bakr al baghdadi's days are numbered. >> reporter: the anti-isis envoy says baghdadi is likely hiding in raqqah, syria. could u.s. intelligence have just picked up yushl information on baghdadi from his ex-wife. she has just given a videotaped interview to a swedish affiliate. >> translator: why did you leave? >> translator: i wasn't happy. translate did you love him? >> translator: no. >> al dulaimi says it was a traditional arranged marriage after her previous husband had died. she was married to baghdadi for just a few months in 2008. at that time she says he was a university lecturer. she says she didn't know he had terror connections at the time,

even though bag dadi had been held by the americans at camp buka years earlier. >> he was living a double life and didn't tell her anything because she was not privy to the real side of him. >> reporter: sasha al du laimi was shocked to find out her ex-husband is the most wanted man in the world. baghdadi is said to have sexually assaulted kayla mueller repeatedly. in her interview, al dulaimi describes him as a, quote, family man. >> he was the children's ideal father. the way he was with children, he was a teacher. you know how teachers are. he knew how to deal with children better than how to deal with the mother. transla >> translator: did you dare have discussions with him? >> translator: no. >> translator: why not? >> translator: he has a mysterious personality. >> reporter: she says their relationship was shallow. baghdadi would boss her around.

his other wife who he married first resented her. she says she left him but not information becoming pregnantz with the terror leader's now 8-year-old daughter hagar. cnn is not revealing her face. analysts believe she may be in danger. >> i think she's children are very much in danger, if not just from agents of al baghdadi who may try to kidnap them. also people who are opposed to isis who may try to use them against baghdadi. >> sasha al dulaimi's other children are from other husbands. the terror leader did tell her he would take the child back if she remarried, which she has. u.s. intelligence officials are not commenting on what insights they may have gotten from this interview but one kourn counterofficial told me the fact that al baghdadi is a bad husband should come as no surprise. >> if this interview would have put her and her children in

danger, what would she have gained by doing it? >> it may have been a plea to live somewhere in the west. she said she wants to move to europe to get a better education for herself and her children. right now she and her current husband reportedly live somewhere near the syria/lebanon border. >> brian, thank you. coming up, donald trump. he comes off the campaign trail, meets with the top leader of the republican party here in washington. our reporters are working their sources. stand by for more on what took place. differentlyaint question everything you know and what you don't know what if it's built with better ingredients given super powers and even a secret base to test those powers. since benjamin moore reinvented paint, it makes you wonder is it still paint? find benjamin moore paint, only at one of our authorized retailers near you.

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happening now -- party time. donald trump makes a surprise visit to the republican national committee headquarters as his

campaign deals with one dust-up after another. now that trump has ditched his party loyalty pledge, can he and the gop leadership see eye to eye. plus, trump's firestorm. critics in both parties are pouncing on his stunning remark about abortion and his awkward reversal. will trump's teflon hold, or will this controversy stick? and piling on. john kasich seizes on trump's newest stumbles declaring the front-runner is not prepared to be president of the united states. is this a new opening for trump's rivals to gain momentum? we want to welcome our viewers in the united states and around the world. i'm wolf blitzer. you're in "the situation room." tonight, donald trump has been working in the shadow of the white house to keep his presidential campaign on track to the nomination. we're told the gop front-runner discussed dell gatss and convicinityion rules during his meeting at the rnc headquarters.

afterwards, trump tweeted he's looking forward to bringing the republican party together. trump also met today with his national security team. this as critics are sounding more worried than ever about trump's foreign and domestic policies. his controversial comments on abortion helping to fuel the outrage. tonight, trump's gop rival john kasich says the abortion blunder is more evidence that's trump is not prepared to be president. kasich says you can't make wild suggestions as commander in chief, and he also says you don't get do-overs. we're going to have our correspondents, analysts and newsmakers. they are standing by to cover all the news breaking right now. up first, let's go to jim acosta. he's in the next primary battleground state of wisconsin. he has the latest. jim? >> wolf, with the wisconsin primary just days away, donald trump was in washington. he just wrapped up a meeting with reince priebus. his rivals are slamming his

string of potentially damaging gaffes on abortion and national security. for ted cruz and john kasich, the hope is this rough week for trump marks a turning point in this campaign. even with his campaign in turmoil, donald trump was all smiles. criss-crossing washingtons in motorcade, trump sat downith top rnc officials behind closed doors. later vowing in a tweet that he will bring the party together. even as john kasich and ted cruz furiously try to block his road to the white house. >> i have to tell you that as commander in chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. you need to be able to get it right the first time. >> reporter: kasich nvd cruz are tag teaming trump over his comment that women should be punished if they undergo an abortion. >> do you believe in punishment for abortion? yes or no, as a principle. >> the answer is that there has to be some form of punishment. >> reporter: on a popular

conservative wisconsin radio show, cruz attacked trump as uninformed. >> it was the latest confirmation that donald has not thought seriously about the issues facing the country. and he's willing to say just about anything to try to get elected. >> reporter: while team trump was brushing off the abortion comments as a slip-up. >> there was a misspeak here and you have a presidential candidate that clarified the record. not once, but twice. >> it takes restraint, judgment, experience. not wild eyed suggestions. >> reporter: kasich blasted trump for another jaw-dropping comment that he would not rule out using nuclear weapons in europe. >> i would never take any of my cards off the table. >> it is not the way that a leader of the free world or the commander in chief of our country to be so casually talking about the use, by the way, of nuclear weapons. it just shows that he is really not prepared to be president of

the united states. >> reporter: looking to push back on that notion, the trump campaign confirmed he met with his recently announced foreign policy team. >> that's why i'm supporting ted cruz for president. >> reporter: back in wisconsin, the next contest on the calendar, cruz appears to be widening his lead and running a new ad featuring the state's governor scott walker. still fuming over his war of the wives with trump, cruz cracked a joke on jimmy kimmel that revealed the texan senator is not quite ready to forgive and forget. >> if i were in my car getting ready to reverse and saw donald in the backup camera -- i'm not confident which pedal i'd push. >> reporter: now as for that meeting with trump at the rnc, a party spokesperson called it productive. they talked about the state of the race in the upcoming convention. no word on whether that gop loyalty pledge will make a comeback. if you listen to kasich, it doesn't sound likely. it's hassed for a contested

convention. as for the comments that's donald trump is not prepared to be president of the united states, that's video has already been turned into a web video for the kasich campaign. it does not sound like he's backing away from those comments at all. he may not clinch the nomination or get the nomination but those words will probably carry a lot of weight in the republican party in the days ahead. >> jim acosta, thank you. donald trump isn't the only opponent getting slammed by the ohio governor. kasich is sharply rejecting the idea that cruz may have a chance of winning the republican nomination outright with a contested convention. >> senator cruz needs almost 90% of the delegates going forward to win the required number and avoid a convention. that's -- there's a greater chance that you will fly out of this building and land in midtown than -- you're in midtown but to fly to where the ball will be dropping at the end of the year than there is for

ted cruz to have enough delegates to go to the convention. >> sunlen serfaty is covering the cruz campaign in wisconsin. any response from the cruz camp to what governor kasich just said? >> the cruz campaign is largely brushing kasich's comments aside. a cruz aide quipping back to me. they said we've been tracking our path to achieving 1,237 much longer than john kasich has. you know, the strategy for so long with the cruz campaign has really been to treat john casing it -- kasich as a spoiler and treat this more as a two-man race and not engage with john kasich. he rarely see senator cruz take kasich on. there are some signs of that strategy starting to show. much to do likely because kasich has been targeting, it seems, senator cruz much more. today in a radio interview, senator cruz attempts to marginalize john kasich, trying to undercut one of his core

campaign talking points. senator cruz saying that this hypothetical matchup with hillary clinton where kasich fares very well. cruz quipping that nobody -- that's because nobody knows anything about them. so some sharper rhetoric than we've heard from senator cruz in the past, wolf. >> sunlen serfaty in milwaukee for us tonight. joining us, donald trump supporter scottie nell hughes. thanks for joining us. you are well plugged in to the trump campaign. what is your understanding? what happened at that meeting that donald trump had today with rnc chairman reince priebus? >> it was a very productive day in washington, d.c., for mr. trump. they discussed delegates. and the same thing that's being released to the public. one point people are missing is this week the rnc put out a website called convention facts.gop. it's a very interesting website that sits there and explains the process of how delegates are

awarded, votes are awarded and opens up the process to the people so there's no question. and they are encouraging all of the republicans to go and read the rules and facts. don't go with the rumors circulated about a brokered convention and the rules that go with it. read what the gop has right now in their rules themselves. that is why mr. trump met with the chairman today so they could get some of the ground rules and re-establish what they consider to be the loyalty to the gop. you saw the confidence in mr. trump. ing this meeting was well pronounced. mr. trump checked in at the gop on his facebook status. made sure he posted twice he was there. also posted on his twitter account. he wants the public to know he wants to work with the rnc and unify with republicans and unify this party. that such different than the message we're hearing out of the kasich and cruz campaigns that they are continuing to try to splinter and try to divide this party up so we would have a

brokered convention. the only chance cruz and kasich have of receiving this nomination is to almost guarantee we have this brokered convention and continue the chaos. >> did they discuss, donald trump, reince priebus, the issue of a contested convention. there will be if donald trump doesn't reach that magic number of 1,237, the number of delegates on the first round of balloting that you need to be guaranteed. that's the majority. the rule right now is you need a majority, not a plurality. >> i don't know what officially was discussed in there. i imagine that's was on their agenda. the trump folks i've talked to today are still very confident when you look at some of the numbers. now wisconsin, you pointed out the lead is widening. i don't necessarily agree. the latest ppp poll has trump only below cruz by one point. and a new poll came out that has trump above. and kasich actually beating cruz. so right now the polls are all over the place. and in wisconsin you have to remember it's not a winner take

all state. it's a winner take all district with at-large dell gatss being awarded to the overall winner. and go with the biggest point of why the state is so important. we're going into the yankee primaries after that. that's in mr. trump's backyard. and in all of the polls with trump having a 36-point lead over ted cruz, still in favor. and there you can see why the optimism from the trump campaign that they'll still reach 1,237 and hopefully start unifying this party which has been the message of mr. trump all day today. >> mr. trump met with members of his newly established national security foreign policy team. do you know who was there? how many advisers showed up to brief the republican presidential front-runner? >> this is where mr. trump thrives. there were 11 foreign policy leaders in that room today. names have not been released. but people have underreported and maybe that's part of the trump campaign, that's a part of

their strategy, of who all is advising mr. trump when it comes to foreign policy. and i think that's the thing. when you look at the strategy of the trump campaign from the very beginning, has not been to inundate all the information. rather to then be in control of releasing the information and be in control of the message. as opposes to the kasich and cruz campaign that whenever theyor tv, it's always because they are speaking disparagingly and going negative against mr. trump. we never find sound bites baseod their own policy or an issue they brought to the public's attention. it's always based on something mr. trump has said or done or a policy he has. and that right there shows the divide but also the negativity coming out of the other two campaigns. and i think mr. trump is trying his best now. if you want to talk about a switch, we're going to try to start this unification process hopefully going into next week. >> he's been very, very severely criticized in national security for what he told anderson cooper that he'd be open to japan and

south korea getting a nuclear arsenal to deal directly with the north korean nuclear threat. that goes against the grain of nuclear nonproliferation that we've heard since the end of world war ii. >> he also talked about he thought it was time for other countries to start stepping up in international policies. why is it that america continues to have to police the world? it's not like we don't have a $19 trillion budget here at home to deal with, and a deficit to deal with at home. anderson cooper's town hall was fantastic, but it also pointed out, and this is a big difference between senator cruz and donald trump where senator cruz continues to have this neocon attitude that we need to be the police keepers for the world. he's not saying pulling out of nato. he wants to renegotiate it. we have 73% of the nato budget on the shoulders of the taxpayers of the american people. that is not right. we need to make these other countries who have probably a lot better shape financially than we are to step up to the

plate and put into their own protection and security. >> i don't know about the 73% figure, but we'll discuss that's in a moment. more criticism against donald trump coming in from his republican presidential rivals. john kasich and ted cruz. much more after this. ♪ ♪virgin islands nice ♪ ♪so nice ♪so nice, so nice ♪ spend a few days in croix and return with a lifetime of experiences. that's virgin islands nice. ♪so nice, so nice

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donald trump was over at rnc, republican national committee headquarters in washington today as he tries to move beyond some of the new controversies. we're back with trump supporter scottie nell hughes. we're talking about u.s. expenditures for nato. we just did a quick check. the u.s. does spend the most for nato defense. the u.s. is the main contributor at 22%. germany second, 14.5%. france third, 11%. uk 10.5%.

all the other countries are 28 members of nato. they spend a lot less. but it's nowhere near -- clearly the overall u.s. defense expenditures worldwide is much more enormous number. but specifically for nato, the u.s. devotes 22%. trump wants to reduce that. let's move on and talk about governor kasich. he came out swinging at donald trump. i want you to listen to this. >> just want to take a few minutes to -- i usually don't have notes. i pretty much speak right off the cuff. but i had to list five things that continue to prove that donald trump is clearly not prepared to be president of the united states, commander in chief, leader of the free world. it appears as though when he does these events and people press him, he becomes unmoored

and then has to figure out how to correct all the mistakes he made. i have to tell you as commander in chief and leader of the free world, you don't get do-overs. you need to be able to get it right the first time. >> i guess it's fair to say he was motivated to do that at least in part by the blunder, donald trump's mistake he made yesterday. his comments to chris matthews about punishing women who have abortions if abortions were to become illegal in the united states. he had a reversal on that and tried to fix it. that was a major mistake, wasn't it? >> it's a clarification. congratsulations to kasich. this is the first press conference he got all the media to cover. it speaks credence to the fact that it's a press conference about donald trump. that never speaks well and goes well to the idea if all these folks go negative on mr. trump would spend the time and dollars they've spent to go negative on him and put that money back into why they are positive for the

united states, they might be doing better in the polls and delegate counts. this is not new for governor kasich. this is how i remember him being at the very beginning when we had 17 people on the debate stage. he was the little kid at the end of the stage huffing and puffing back and forth asking for time. this is the kasich i've known from the beginning. he's been the adult in the room the past few weeks. he's a great, great governor. a very good conservative when he was actually a congressman, but when you have the ghost of voting for nafta, the ghost of being basically pro-common core and pro-obamacare and instating a version of medicaid, upping medicare and medicaid in your state, those costs are hard to forget by republican voters. he can hold all the press conferences he wants. his voting record and governing record is always going to haunt him. >> have you ever seen such a quick 180-degree reversal by donald trump on an issue as we

saw yesterday on this issue of abortion. >> i think it was more of a clarification. >> no it was a real reversal. >> i think the one lesson mr. trump learned is never sit there and answer hypothetical questions that aren't necessarily true or could ever become true. or you will get trapped. and one thing that we have learned is the liberal mainstream media that have been anti-republican and anti-conservatives for so long use the issue of the pro-life/pro-choice abortion issue to trap republicans because there's usually a way there's no way to win. it's not just good enough to say i'm pro-life as mr. trump has said with exceptions. they want details. chris matthews was setting him up with detalss and once again sitting there and able to give a sound bite that could be taken out and -- >> but scottie, he's done a million interviews, donald trump. he knows what he's doing when he goes into a one-hour session like this with chris matthews or anyone else. he's going to be asked a lot of questions and not be able to do a do-over, if you will, is what

john kasich was talking about. >> right, at the same time, the context of it. one thing about mr. trump, he realized this is not an issue the executive branch necessarily handles. if roe vs. wade is reversed, that's a product of the judicial branch. the only influence he can have over it is nominating a pro-life judge, something mr. trump has said over and over. there's a reason we have the separation of branches. i think if chris matthews would have focussed on issues the executive branch actually did control and didn't put him up for these hypothetical gotcha questions, it would have been -- >> this is a very important issue. whether you are in support or oppose abortion rights for women, this is a critically important issue. >> and he said time and time and has also been for during this campaign season, since he started, since 2000, he's evolved into being extremely

pro-life. he has said he will only nominate pro-life judges. what's more do you need to know from a president? he is pro-life. he believes life begins at conception and in preserving the life of the baby except in circumstances that's are beyond their control that we all know about. so it's a very important issue. what more do you need to know about trump than he is pro-life. that's the most important figure. he's only going to nominate pro-life judges. >> you want to be president of the united states, you have to answer a lot of questions. >> not hypothetical questions. >> you can dodge the question and say i don't want to get into it and move on, but he answered the question. that was his decision that he made. clearly he regretsed it and reversed it a couple of hours later. >> and he misstepped. and i agree that he probably did. he misspoke and definitely did not say it theerate way he probably wanted to. within the hour, he had the clarification out there. >> all right. scottie, thanks for joining us. >> thank you. >> scottie hughes joining us. a supporter, clearly, of donald

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donald trump trying to get into some sort of presidential mode while he's been here in washington today. he sat down with members of his new national security team after taking a series of provocative positions on national security and foreign policy. let's bring in our pentagon correspondent barbara star. donald trump is sharply at odds with current u.s. policy in several areas. >> he is, wolf. and it goes beyond that even. we've talked to a number of analysts today. some of donald trump's ideas have been out there in one form or another. the question tonight show far do they run counter to decades of republican and democratic foreign policy and how much would the u.s. military really support these ideas? >> two of our closest allies -- >> reporter: president obama with japanese and south korean leaders urging a unified front against nuclear north korea. >> we recognize that our security is linked, that we have to work together to meet this challenge. >> reporter: donald trump has a different idea. >> at some point we have to say,

you know what? we're better off if japan protects itself against this maniac in north korea. >> reporter: trump says japan and south korea should pay the u.s. for security protection or consider building their own nuclear weapons, which would be a major policy reversal for the u.s. >> where trump's comments are most potentially dangerous is, again, getting away from the assumption that once the genie starts to leak out of the bottle on nuclear prolifration that we could control where it goes. >> reporter: trump raising another potential nuclear scenario. he says he wouldn't take nuclear weapons against isis off the table. >> would there be a time when it could be used? possibly. >> reporter: the deputy commander fightingu sis doesn't think nuclear weapons are a good idea. >> no, that's a conversation up front i've never heard discussed amongst any of our coalition members at any stage.

>> reporter: also raising eyebrows, trump's belief troops are afraid of being held accountable under the rules of the enemy. >> we have the geneva convention, all sorts of rules and regulations. our soldiers are afraid to fight. they don't want to go to jail because we're killing the enemy. so we have all sorts of restrictions and regulations. they have none. >> reporter: it's not a new argument, but commanders say there is no direct evidence of that. >> i've never heard of soldiers afraid to fight because of geneva convention in that regard. we regard it very much as a sense of basic principles which guide our behavior in battle and to live within those rules is good for both our soldiers and for the very population that we fight on behalf of. >> reporter: another military challenge from the top american officer to trump's view that nato is obsolete.

>> i think that question probably is a question that might have been asked 15 years ago, but it's hard to think about asking that question today when you look at the challenges in europe. >> reporter: the pentagon has been trying to stay out of the political campaign but the questions keep coming. they get tougher for them to sit on the sidelines. >> i anticipate the questions are going to intensify in the coming weeks and months. barbara, thanks. let's bring in our cnn politics executive editor mark preston, political reporter nia-malika henderson, chris moody and our senior legal analyst jeffrey toobin. guys, thanks very much for joining us. mark, as you know, donald trump says the u.s. may be better off if south korea and japan did get a nuclear capability to deal directly with the north korean nuclear threat. how do you think this will impact the vote out there starting next tuesday in wisconsin? >> let's go back about 30 days. we asked this question on a cnn poll. we said who would be most qualified to be commander in chief, which would be in charge

of our armed forces. have to deal with foreign policy. donald trump at the time got 48% support from republican voters at that time. second place, ted cruz at 17%. right now republican voters, or at least 30 days ooh had confidence in him. john kasich out there today making the case he is not somebody who should be able to put his finger on the button. that could be problematic. here's the thing about donald trump. his greatest asset up to this point with primary voters has been his ability orness to speak his mind. that could become one of his greatest liabilities heading into the general. >> he also said, donald trump, he didn't rule out the possibility of using tactical nuclear weapons in europe if necessary. maybe to fight isis or whatever. that prompted the ohio governor john kasich today to really slam him saying he would not have confidence with his finger, with trump's finger on the nuclear button as commander in chief. he really came out swinging. >> he did. the top five list of reasons why

donald trump should not be president. you have kasich here really trying to position himself as the kind of republican candidate the republican establishment has always known and loved. he is a hawk. he favors a no-fly zone in syria. he wants troops on the ground as well. he's trying to, i think, really carve out a line and a path in this campaign. differentiating himself from ted cruz who is much more libertarian than john kasich. so far it hasn't gorkd him in terms of racking up wins and delegates. and also saying to the republican establishment, i'm the one who most likely can beat hillary clinton in a general election. >> jeffrey, you are our legal analyst. the geneva conventions regarding warfare. trump said some changes, some adjustments need to be made at the geneva conventions because

soldiers right now are afraid to fight. when you heard that, what was your reaction? >> the geneva conventions are a law. a treaty that the united states signed, and the united states senate ratified. if there were to be any changes under our obligations under the geneva conventions, thaud have to be negotiated and passed by the senate. we can have a debate about whether the geneva conventions can be changed, but president trump, like any president, is not allowed to do it unilaterally. plus, the military has always been a very strong supporter of the geneva conventions. they believe it's the most effective way to fight a war, and it also protects our soldiers from other countries that honor the conventions as well. >> i want to talk about the meeting that we learned about today. i want you and chris to weigh in on this. reince priebus meeting with donald trump. >> i just spoke to somebody very

familiar with the conversation that took place today. this meeting had been on the books for several days. >> it had been. >> it had been for several days. one, the secret service has to go in and have to secure the building. this wasn't just a drop-by by donald trump. i heard the meeting was very cordial. and what we've heard so far that they talked about delegate process. they didn't go too far into the details. but they did talk about that and they talked about the need for unity coming out of cleveland. we've talked about how the republican party is fractured and how are they going to deal with it in cleveland. that was front and center in this meeting today. apparently all went well. we heard donald trump say had a great meeting with reince priebus. really like the staff over there. >> tweeted something along those lines as well. chris, what about the whole issue of these three remaining republican presidential candidates backing away from their earlier pledge that they would work for, they would support whoever the republican nominee is? >> cnn reporters have been working sources about this meeting and we haven't seen any

evidence of that. a lot of people inside -- >> it came up during the meeting? >> that's it came up during the meeting. but the rnc has been tight lipped about what was spoken. the fact we're asking this question shows how toxic this presidential race has become. how the other candidates have treated donald trump saying this movement that was percolating in the conservative movement called never trump. that people would never voted for trump, even if he's the republican nominee. now building up into the nomination process. the nominees are saying it. that's going to be a problem for the rnc. they will have to deal with. imagine if you will they nominate donald trump and top republicans will not come out in favor of the nominee. that's a problem for the rnc. if they didn't deal with it today in a meeting, they'll deal with it later. >> presumably they may want to boycott the republican convention if they're going to nominate donald trump to be their candidate. >> yeah, there are two wings of the republican party at least. there's the trump wing and the anti-trump wing. trump came out today and said,

listen, the party is going to unite. it will happen. it seems to be more of a prayer and a wish and a hope than anything based in what is actually happening right now in the toxicity that's been building up over these last many months with trump forging ahead close to, you know, the majority of the delegates. may not make 1,237. seeming united party is very hard. if trump ends up not being the nominee, somebody else is able to come in there, even if he doesn't run as a third party, you wonder where this movement he's built, where those supporters go. >> we'll see where they wind up. stand by. much more coming up. we'll also look at what's going on in the democratic race for the white house. stay with us.

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we're back with our political team. the democrats battle for one of the biggest primary prizes coming up. we're talking about new york state. the new poll there shows hillary clinton has a 12-point lead right now over bernie sanders. our senior political correspondent brianna keilar is joining us with more. what else are you learning? >> bernie sanders getting started in the bronx here in just a little bit. hillary clinton was a little farther outside of new york city here in west chester county today as he tries to stop bernie sanders from gaining momentum in the empire state.

hillary clinton campaigning for the second straight day in her adopted home state where a group of students interrupted her rally. >> i know the bernie people came to say that. we're very sorry you're leaving. i have earned 9 million votes in this election already. i have 1 million more votes than donald trump. and i have 2.5 million more votes than bernie sanders. >> clinton is fighting on two fronts, turning to the general election even as bernie sanders challenges her in wisconsin which holds its primary on tuesday. >> just yesterday, donald trump said women should be punished for having an abortion. >> reporter: her campaign releasing a new video. >> what donald trump said today was outrageous and dangerous. >> reporter: as sanders also takes aim. >> to punish a woman for having an abortion is beyond

comprehension. i don't know what world this person lives in. >> reporter: but clinton is trying to cast sanders as out of touch with the concerns of women. >> senator sanders agreed that donald trump's comments were shameful, but then he said they were a distraction from, and i quote, a serious discussion about the serious issues facing america. to me, this is a serious issue. >> reporter: the vermont senator is trying to take on clinton in new york where democrats vote in a few weeks. at stake, a whopping 247 delegates. a new quinnipiac university poll shows clinton with a 12-point lead here but sanders is promising a challenge. buoyed by a potentially strong showing in wisconsin next week and union support that he has been courting. as he did today in pittsburgh. >> not only did i oppose nafta, i stood on picket lines with

workers in opposition to this disastrous trade agreement. secretary cnton supported it nafta. >> i thank you for your votes for her. >> reporter: bill clinton tried to shore hups wiup his wife's b from labor and visited with four groups in new york city today. bernie sanders is trailing clinton when it comes to delegates, but not when it comes to money, wolf. he has raised $40 million this month. according to his campaign. they are trying to best his $43 million haul from last month when he outperformed hillary clinton by several million dollars. >> he's got a ton of money he's raising. a lot of it in small contributions. brianna, thanks. jeffrey, you're in new york. what does it look like from your vantage point. you're in new york city. not in upstate new york. >> it's weird because there are two sort of new york candidates running against each other. hillary clinton, of course, the senator here, even though she hasn't lived here very long and

bernie sanders is from brooklyn. hillary clinton is very popular in this state. i'm not surprised to see her 12 points ahead in this poll. but sanders has closed the gap in many states, and this could be a close one as well. >> you agree, nia? you think this could be close? >> she's ahead by 12 but if you look at what bernie sanders was able to do in vermont. he blew her out there. >> that's his home state. >> so much so that she didn't even compete there. here you have bernie sanders going in there and looking strong. 12 points isn't a lot of distance. he's got weeks to catch up. three weeks or so before this primary comes. she's, of course, ahead among black democrats, doing well among women. 20 points ahead. tight among white voters. looking good with male voters as well. that looks good for her. but again, sanders is going to give her a fight. >> it's april 19th, the new york primary. this tuesday is wisconsin. bernie sanders got some momentum going. he's won most of the most recent

contests. if he wins in wisconsin, he'll get more momentum. >> it's a game of inches. by that a game of delegates. not so much who wins or who loses a state. that's was a lot more important when we were back in iowa and new hampshire to get that momentum going. hillary clinton really only needs to keep bernie sanders from getting about 60% in each state in order to rack up the delegates he needs. and she knows that. that allows her to walk and chew gum at the same time, campaign a little in new york and wisconsin and just hold bernie sanders back under that threshold. while as the challenge for bernie sanders is that he has to get to that threshold and not only win but dominate. >> and start tearing away some of those so-called superdelegates she has. she has a tremendous advantage. a significant advantage over him on those superdelegates. is it realistic to think he can pull some of them away? >> he'd have to start winning by very large margins.

what we saw barack obama do back in 2008. certainly first couple of months where we saw the hillary clinton superdelegates peel off. one of the big stories that will come out this election will be superdelegates, should they be done away with. barack obama tried to do it. the dnc members fought back against it. hillary clinton fought back against it but i guarantee that will be on the table. >> party leaders and elected officials, and they want that power. >> although they never turned over an election to someone who didn't have a majority. >> just ahead, also new details about a shooting at a bus station. we'll update you on the casualties. ♪ in new york state, we believe tomorrow starts today.

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we're following breaking news and a frightening situation for travelers in virginia's capital city. one man is dead and a state trooper is fighting for his life after a shooting at a richmond bus station. brian todd is monitoring the situation for us. what happened? >> from every indication we're getting tonight, this officer was target bed by the shooter. at 2:45 this afternoon, a state trooper encountered an individual just inside the richmond greyhound bus station. it is in downtown richmond just across from a minor league baseball stadium called the diamond. the trooper was speaking to the individual when the suspect pulled out the gun and shot the trooper. two other state troopers nearby opened fire on the suspect. the male shooter is dead. two civilians nearby were also

shot. they were transported to the virginia commonwealth university medical center for treatment. police say they've got non-life-threatening gunshot wounds. but the state trooper is at the same hospital and he has life-threatening injuries. she he is fighting for his life attituat this hour. >> has anyone been identified? >> neither the shooter or the three victims have been identified. the suspect is a male. this greyhound bus station tonight, wolf, remains closed at the moment. we're expecting a news conference very shortly by virginia state police. >> thanks very much. i want to switch gears dramatically and take a closer look back at a decade of change in america. tonight, cnn debuts its original series "the 80s." it looks at television and the rise of cable, including this

network. >> a special segment tonight. the network news, the first in a two-part series on the profound changes taking place in television news. changes being brought about business, competition, and technology. >> there are a variety of reasons why people who worked at the broadcast networks were freaked out in the 1980s. one of them was cnn and the rise of cable. another was being taken over by foreign entities in corporate america. >> we're joined now by our cnn media analyst bill carter who remembers the decade well as do i. television news changed dramatically in the 80s, including cnn. >> of course. all of a sudden you could get news on the television around the clock. three networks totally dominated the news on television for 30-plus years. now all of a sudden there was a competitor that could do it all the time, and that made them

sort of obsolete in terms of breaking news at least. >> i always like to say that ted turner, our founder, who created cnn created the concept of 24/7 cable news. he literally changed the world by doing so. look how many 24/7 cable networks there are here in the united states and indeed around the world. he had that vision and he did it. the 80s was a decade when cable television generally expanded so dramatically. >> well, it made people have choice. they didn't have choice before. there was very limited options. all of a sudden you had things like espn and mtv. people were saying i'm willing to pay money to get more choices. that was really the crucial change. cable is going to charge me money, but i want that. i'm willing to pay. once that happened, that opened up the floodgates for all kinds of change. it's never stopped. it was an explosive change then. the pace has only picked up from there. >> i like to think all of that

had an impablct in terms of wha was going on in the 80s. we had the collapse of the cold war. i would like to think cnn and others brought the world closer together. >> there is no doubt about that because it was an avenue of opportunity for people. they could see what was happening immediately as it was happening all over the world. television works best when it puts you in the historical moment like the kennedy assassination, for example. now it is happening routinely. the russians who were so good at tamping down, it became so much harder in the soviet countries to prevent people from seeing what was going on in the rest of the world. >> i remember that decade and you do as well. people would say i saw it live on cnn and that had a huge, huge impact. all right, bill. thank you very much. bill carter helping us appreciate the 80s.

this note to our viewers. don't miss the premiere on the new cnn original series "the 80s." it begins tonight 9:00 p.m. eastern only here on cnn. you want to check out what i looked like in the 1980s? here's a little picture. very pensive. i was pondering whether to watch "mash" or "miami vice". finally we want to welcome brody davis shenkman who was born last night. his dad cnn legal council drew tells us baby brody and mom patty, they are doing just great. congratulations to the parents and the whole family. brody, welcome. welcome, welcome. thanks very much for joining us. you can always follow us on twitter. please tweet me @wolfblitzer. we'll see you here tomorrow in

the situation room. thanks very much for watching. i'm wolf blitzer in washington. next, donald trump huddling with gop leadership vowing to unite the party. new details tonight on what happened behind closed doors. new video of hillary clinton losing her cool on the campaign trail today. was she baited or is bernie sanders getting under her skin? alabama's governor in a sex scandal caught on tape. will he resign? let's go "outfront." >> good evening. i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight, donald trump holding high level meetings in washington today. the frontrunner coming under fire over his recent marks under abortion, his campaign manager's arrest, the attacks on ted cruz's we.