'This Week' Transcript: John Kasich, Bernie Sanders, and Reince Priebus

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT FOR 'THIS WEEK' ON March 6, 2016 and it will be updated.

STEPHANOPOULOS: So how can Bernie Sanders come back? He is here now to tell us. Senator Sanders, thank you for joining us this morning.

And you were admirably candid last Saturday after South Carolina. You said you get decimated. What's your take on last night?

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS, 2016 DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I think we did great overall yesterday. We won, as you mentioned, by over two to one in Kansas, we did very well in Nebraska. There's going to be a caucus in Maine. And if the turnout is high, I think we're going to win there. That would mean that we'd have won eight primaries and caucuses.

And what impresses me very much, George, and what I mean when I talk about a political revolution, in Kansas they had the largest voter turnout in their caucus history. That was the case in Colorado where we won as well.

In fact, in every primary and caucus that we have won, we have won by double digit numbers. And we're winning all across the country.

I think geographically, we are looking good. I think we have a path toward victory.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You've still got that demographic problem, though, you've still got that -- you've winning in these states that are overwhelmingly white like Kansas and Nebraska. Any state that has more than about 10 percent African-American vote, she's killing you.

SANDERS: Well, we are -- well, I think you're going to see those numbers change as well.

And what we are noticing, and this is very interesting, it's not just racial, it's more generational. We are doing better and better with young African-Americans, young Latinos, and young whites. In fact, in many instances we ware winning those demographics. With the older people, we're not doing as well. And that's something that we're going to have to work on.

But I think here in Michigan where there is a caucus coming up, where there is a primary coming up on Tuesday, I think the issues of trade, where NAFTA and permanent normal trade relations have decimated communities all over Michigan, all over Illinois, all over Ohio, I have had helped lead the opposition to these disastrous trade agreements. Secretary Clinton, by and large, has supported them all. I think that's going to give us a lot of momentum here in the Midwest.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Yeah, in fact, you put out a tweet this week, and I want to put that up on the board right now. It says the people of Detroit know the real cost of Hillary Clinton's free trade policy. It shows those abandoned buildings, those abandoned homes in downtown Detroit.

Is that really fair, though? I mean, Detroit has been hollowed out since the race riots in 1968.

SANDERS: Well, what is fair, George, and honestly I didn't know this until a week ago, that in 1960 it turns out Detroit was one of the wealthiest cities in America. Flint, Michigan, which today is mired in terrible poverty, was an extremely prosperous city. There is no doubt -- I don't think anyone debates this, that these disastrous trade policies -- NAFTA, permanent normal trade relation with China, have cost this country millions of decent paying jobs and resulted in a race to the bottom, where many of the new jobs being created pay significantly less than those jobs used to pay years ago. That is the result of a disastrous trade policy.

I'm not going to say it is the only problem that Detroit or Flint has, but it is a significant part of the decline of many, many communities in America. Companies shut down in this country. They go to China, they go to Mexico, pay people low wages, bring their products back in to the United States. Very bad policies for the American worker.

STEPHANOPOULOS: At the same time, there's a new poll out this morning in Michigan. The NBC/Marist poll, which still shows you pretty far back. 57 to 40. That's a lot of ground to make up in just a few days.

SANDERS: Well, you know, it's a funny thing about these polls, George. And we started this campaign, as you well know, at 3 percent in the polls, 3 percent. We have come a very, very long way, closing the gap nationally with Secretary Clinton. I'm very proud that in many of these matchups that take place -- Sanders versus Trump, Clinton versus Trump, do you know who is doing better against Trump? Bernie Sanders is.

And in almost every state that we have contested, we start off in Iowa, we started off 50 points behind, New Hampshire 30 points behind, won New Hampshire, tied in Iowa.

We are closing the gap here in Michigan, and I think we're going to surprise people on election night.

STEPHANOPOULOS: But as you know, the delegate map is working against you. Democrats have proportional representation. She now has about a 200 delegate lead. That's bigger than any lead at this point than Barack Obama had over Hillary Clinton back in 2008.

So, don't you have to do something brand new to try to change the dynamic? You'd have to win by massive numbers in just about every state.

SANDERS: Well, here's what I think. You're right, I mean, that -- your numbers are correct.

But you know, we're still fairly early in the process. I think this may be 18-19 states that have voted. We think we have an excellent chance to do well out on the West Coast in California, state of Washington, Oregon; we think we have an excellent chance to do well in large states like New York. We think we're going to surprise people here in Michigan.

So I think that time is on our side because the more people get to hear our message -- and that message is that we need to reform a corrupt campaign finance system in which billionaires and super PACs are buying elections -- look, one of the key differences between Secretary Clinton and me, she has a super PAC, millions of dollars from Wall Street are coming in to her campaign.

We have raised, George, almost $5 million individual contributes average $27 apiece. People appreciate that. They're tired of super PACs buying elections.

So I think we have momentum on our side; more people hear our message, the better we are going to do.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Senator Sanders, thanks for joining us this morning.

SANDERS: Thank you.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Let's go to John Kasich right now. He joins us this morning as well.

Governor Kasich, thanks for joining us this morning. You're laughing --

(CROSSTALK)

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Sounds like a -- hey, George, it sounded like a sporting event, you know.

(LAUGHTER)

STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, a little bit like a sporting event there in numbers as well as statistics. And the numbers don't like here. You are way behind in all the states again last night, three-fourths and a third. You're 0 for 19 overall.

So how do you justify staying in the race?

KASICH: Well, first of all, George, we did better than anybody thought we'd do last night. We picked up delegates in three states. And we have our game plan.

Look, you were there when you put your game plan together in the old days, back when you weren't as a broadcaster, and we have our game plan. Our game plan was to do well in New Hampshire, which we achieved. We did better than people thought in South Carolina. And we continue to pick up delegates.

Now we are closing fast in Michigan. We're going to have a good result out of Michigan because you see, it's like March Madness. Now we have now moved to the Midwest. We've now moved more to my territory. I will win Ohio. And it'll be a whole new ballgame and I'll be able to compete in a lot of these states.

And let's face it. There's some places in the South I didn't -- you know, we just didn't compete there really aggressively, we didn't compete in caucuses last night. We still got delegates. So just hold on, George, you know, look at Mississippi, look at Michigan and then look at Ohio --

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- you say Michigan first of all, brand new poll out this morning from "The Wall Street Journal" and Maris and NBC, has Trump at 41, Cruz 22, Rubio 17. You're in fourth place at 13. You're not closing the gap.

KASICH: No, that's -- well, I mean that -- you've got your polls and there've been a lot of other polls that are out. Just watch. We've got a lot of momentum up there since that debate. People have been very positive. I was there for a couple days. I will be back and I can tell you that we are closing the gap. And you will see a better result than what you expect and then, of course, we go to the -- to the gravitational center of the political universe in Ohio.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Ohio always is. That is for sure. And of course --

KASICH: It's amazing.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- that is your home state. But if you look at the numbers right now, even if you win Ohio, there's no realistic path for you to get the number of delegates you would need before that convention.

So your entire strategy now is basically a spoiler strategy, isn't it?

(CROSSTALK)

KASICH: George, first of all, let's talk about what the strategy ought to be. The strategy ought to be who has the record and the vision to run the United States of America and to be the leader of the free world. Every -- look, I've been endorsed now, I think, by 30 major newspapers in this country.

What do they all say?

He's the guy that can do this. He's the guy that can bring people together.

We're not running for class president. This is not Valentine's Day, where we stuff the ballot box. OK?

Secondly, my message is starting to really get out there, George, and you know -- and I just had a commentator tell me the other day, if you don't start name-calling, you're not going to get anywhere. You see, I'm not going to do that. And I think people are realizing it. And I tell them --

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- at the same time -- let me just interrupt you right there because you've been -- this has been a -- your consistent message all year long. You're the experienced guy; you're the guy that can make the system work. Donald Trump, Ted Cruz are promising to shake the system up. And they're the ones getting the votes.

KASICH: Well, George, I've shaken the system up more than anybody who's on that stage. As you know, I've never been establishment. You know how many toes I had to step on to get the budget balanced in Washington, to reform the Pentagon and take on Defense contractors, what I've done in Ohio. I'm not an establishment guy.

The problem is you guys didn't give me any coverage. For six months, I wallowed at 1 percent in the polls.

Why?

Because I'm not name-calling --

(CROSSTALK)

STEPHANOPOULOS: I've had you on my show from the very first day you announced --

KASICH: George, I'm not just -- I'm not -- look, I'm not just talking about. You know -- look, you want to look at the numbers?

You want to look at the amount of coverage people get when they name-call as compared to the discussion about policy and who can run the country?

That's --

STEPHANOPOULOS: Fair point.

KASICH: -- indisputable. You know that.

So here's the situation. Look, I'm going to be competing up north. The calendar worked in the south. It didn't work great for me. We never worried about that.

Our strategy was always to survive and get to the north. And now we're getting to the north. And forget that Maris Poll. I don't know who took it. I don't know what it's all about. If I thought that was true, I would tell you we're not doing better. We are doing better...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you know the numbers. But you j you...

KASICH: -- and we're going to win Ohio and I'm going to be competitive all...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But you...

KASICH: -- across the north.

STEPHANOPOULOS: -- but you know the numbers. And you've said this already. You know that you're -- you're banking on the possibility that a brokered convention would turn to you. That's your only way to -- way to victory.

KASICH: George, no one is going to have the numbers.

What are you talking about?

It would -- I would have to win 68 percent of the remaining contests, OK, 68 percent of the remaining delegates. Marco would have to win like 64. Ted would have to win like 60. Donald Trump is going to fall short.

This is not like -- this is the way it's going.

Now, if Trump, you know, wins all the rest of these things, he'll go to the convention with the right numbers. But if he doesn't have the right numbers, then we are -- we're in a -- we're in a multi-ballot convention.

What's -- what's the big deal about that, other than it's exciting?

And you know what this year?

Is there anything else to be expected with the way things have gone this year?

So let's just -- and you know I'll tell you what would be great about it. Now, I agree with Ted Cruz from the standpoint, we can't let a bunch of Washington insiders pick the -- the nominee.

You know why?

I'd have no chance at that, because they don't like me, OK?

Plain and simple. But think about how much education our kids are going to get, about the way in which we pick a president. It will be fantastic in this country, so spending their time, you know, looking at some of these Hollywood stars. They're now going to -- there's nothing wrong with that. But now they're going to spend more time thinking about how we pick a president.

I think it will be very cool. But...

STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't think we're going to be watching a Republican Party split apart?

KASICH: George, I think at the end of the day, the Republican Party is -- is a -- is a reflection of the nominee. And, frankly, I went down to CPAC, the Conservative Political Action Committee, OK?

They said, you know, Kasich, we don't know if he's a conservative. I got two standing ovations down there. People were energized. The fact is I beat Hillary Clinton by 11 points, more than anybody else. We can get the crossover votes. And my agenda is a -- I've got a shock and awe agenda for the first 100 days of Congress.

So the fact is, is we'll bring the party together. I really don't worry about that...

STEPHANOPOULOS: But...

KASICH: I just worry about making sure to get on your show so people can hear my message of economic growth and providing some economic security for Americans.

STEPHANOPOULOS: You got it today.

Governor Kasich, thanks for joining us.

KASICH: All right, George.

Thank you.

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