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Governor Kasich is placing his bets on a strong finish in next week's primary in New Hampshire; Clinton is blistering through the Hawkeye state today; The band Vampire Weekend supports Bernie Sanders; 3:30-4p ET

Aired February 01, 2016 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:30:00] DAVID YEPSEN, FORMER POLITICAL EDITOR, DES MOINES REGISTER: Yes, I think O'Malley people really like their candidate but they see some flaws in Sanders or Clinton. So after the -- if they are declared nonviable, I think you will see some of them go both ways.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: But that's why second place matters here so much for Iowa, for Democrats. And you know, adding to that, as you mentioned, you walk into these rooms. And so, you could be -- because you could be in a small town, at a small library in a school. And someone knows you and they say, hey, David, I know that child care is an issue for you and children. Well, let me tell you why Hillary Clinton is the best, right?

YEPSEN: And that is very important because one of the big determinants of people's political belief, their friends and neighbors.

BALDWIN: Yes.

YEPSEN: And so, this is a community. This is a neighborhood. And they talk politics. And if I think you know something about politics and I don't, I might say, OK, you make a good point. And that is what makes it so difficult to predict what's going to happen tonight because it's this real human conversation that goes on.

BALDWIN: In 60 seconds, you know, just having been around the block a few times here in Iowa, what could be the biggest surprise? The most fascinating aspect?

YEPSEN: Would be if Bernie Sanders wins. The question is, will his young supporters turn out. And the other surprise is going to be, what's the role of social media in this campaign?

BALDWIN: How do you mean?

YEPSEN: Well, the turning out the vote. Younger voters. I think about 4:00 tonight, there's going to be a battle of the thumbs going on.

BALDWIN: Battle of the thumbs.

YEPSEN: To get younger people out. If you're going to be 18 by November and you're 17 years old. BALDWIN: You can caucus.

YEPSEN: You can caucus. And I think coming up very shortly, you are going to see that kind chatter starts to talk. Hey, let's go. We can register at the caucus. That's going to be key to Bernie Sanders.

BALDWIN: Battle of the thumbs. I'm going to steal that from you.

David Yepsen, thank you so much. Thank you so, so much.

Now this.

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GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Because win or lose, it's been unbelievable. It's been amazing. And my daughters, you know, my 16-year-old daughters are amazed at this. And I want them to store in their brain so when they have children, they can say my daddy, your grandfather, he raised the bar. He was about positive, he was about solutions, he was creative. That's why this is all going so well for all of us in this campaign.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That was Republican presidential candidate and governor of Ohio John Kasich speaking to voters in New Hampshire today. While many of his rivals are on the ground here in Iowa, Governor Kasich is placing his bets on a strong finish in next week's primary in New Hampshire. He is polling in the top five there in seven New Hampshire newspapers have endorsed him, seven.

Joining me now is one of Kasich's biggest supporter, his former Pennsylvania Republican congressman Bob Walker.

Congressman Walker, nice to see you.

BOB WALKER, FORMER PENNSYLVANIA CONGRESSMAN: Sure. Nice to be with you.

BALDWIN: Good to meet you.

WALKER: Sure.

BALDWIN: Beginning with the fact that, you know, I understand realistically speaking he's not polling so great here in the Hawkeye state. We barely often running in New Hampshire.

WALKER: But we love Iowa.

BALDWIN: That's where I would going. Of course you're going to tell me you love Iowa. But what I mean, what does that say to Iowans and you are already like, see you?

WALKER: No, that is not the case though. Just a few days ago, he spent three days here on the ground. Part of that was he was out here for the debate. And we also did some events here. BALDWIN: But today is caucus day.

WALKER: We put a lot of people into Iowa. We have a nice team working out here. And we want Iowa to know that when John gets the general election, we're very much wanting Iowa to support us.

BALDWIN: He has gotten some huge endorsements from big papers like the "New York Times" and "the Boston Globe," although those are known as liberal-leaning publications. Is that necessarily a good thing?

WALKER: Well, I think particularly those two endorsements from "The New York Times" and "the Boston Globe" say that he is a national candidate with national recognition to present times. We struggled in some in the national polls to get his numbers up because his name is not well known. When all of the sudden you get "The New York Times" endorsing you. There are a lot of people out across the country says, who is this guy, "The New York Times" has endorsed? So I really do believe in the end this is something that's good for us.

BALDWIN: If he finishes, let's play the "if game" in New Hampshire looking ahead. He is polling better in New Hampshire. If Kasich finishes second or third there and there's this whole battle for that, you know, establishment candidate, who else then do you think drops out?

WALKER: I don't know who drops at that point because I mean it's going to be a matter of resources at that juncture. Right now --

BALDWIN: Who would you like to drop out? Let me ask that way.

WALKER: Well, obviously, we would like to consolidate the governor --

BALDWIN: So Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, you would like for them to go away?

WALKER: No.

BALDWIN: I'm putting it bluntly.

WALKER: Clearly, those are competitors of ours. And I think the other main competitor for us right now is Marco Rubio. But Marco seems to have the resources to go forward for quite some time. What's happened as we have risen in New Hampshire is the fact that our resources have come up some. And so, we're going to be very competitive in South Carolina. We're going to be competitive in the south. Mississippi is a place where Trent Lott has an organization that's working for us. We think we are going to do well in places like Tennessee.

And what we really have to do is remain viable until we get to the Midwest because that's where John has a very strong suite of both supporters and of a record.

[15:35:06] BALDWIN: Final question, if this guy Donald Trump had never been part of this race, how do you think your candidate would be doing? WALKER: Well, I think probably we would be very much in the mix to be

winning in Iowa right now, had Trump not been in the race. And I don't know how it would have come down, but the fact is, the debate you saw the other night without Trump gave you some idea of the capabilities of these candidates and all of them did pretty well.

BALDWIN: Congressman Walker, thank you so much.

WALKER: Sure. Nice to be with you.

BALDWIN: Great to see you.

The Democratic race, meantime, has been neck and neck as well in Iowa for weeks and weeks. So how does Hillary Clinton avoid a 2008 and pull off a win in Iowa? Her chief strategist joins me live coming up next here on CNN.

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[15:40:04] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I will continue to fight for immigration reform with a path to citizenship and for criminal justice reform so every single American is treated equal under the law. I will fight against the privatization of Social Security. Another bad idea they keep resurrecting on the Republican side.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: All right, you're watching CNN special coverage here out of Des Moines. That was of course Hillary Clinton rallying a crowd in Des Moines here in the capital. The former secretary of state is neck and neck with her fiercest opponent Bernie Sanders in some of the polls in Iowa. Clinton is blistering through the Hawkeye state today drumming up support just hours before the caucuses begin. Just less than four hours from now.

Joining me right now, Joel Benenson, chief strategist for Hillary for America.

Nice to see you.

JOEL BENENSON, CHIEF STRATEGIST FOR HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Nice to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: Thanks for swinging by CNN.

BENENSON: Happy to be here.

BALDWIN: Let me begin first with this. I am fascinated by how so many young people, specifically young women are actually rooting for Bernie Sanders. And I was at a rally the other night in Iowa City and I said, why are you not supporting Hillary Clinton, as a young woman, do you not want to see a female in office? And they said that these millennials they said we will in our lifetime and they're into Bernie Sanders for other reasons. I'm just curious if you're worried about the young people, the young women in particular who are not necessarily going your way?

BENENSON: Well, look. I think when you do a caucus for any election, you try to put together people who will get you over the finish line. You know, even back in 2008, in those races, not everything is cut and dried. Barack Obama stayed pretty competitive with Hillary Clinton with women. She had support in the African-American community.

The key is to put together your winning margin. We are pretty confident we're ahead with women overall right now. The race is close. We think women are going to make a difference going into the caucuses tonight. But, you know, we have got a universe of support as we go all the way through these primaries and caucuses that is very broad. Much more closely aligned to the Obama coalition of 2008.

There's no question Sanders has energized young people. He has concentrated there. He is making it competitive obviously and doing a good job of that. But we think our support is broader and deeper as we go down past Iowa into New Hampshire and then into the long game into March where there are about 1,000 delegates up for grabs.

BALDWIN: The long game. You have created quite a stir, Joe Benenson. I have talked to a few Sanders folks.

BENENSON: Me, me? Really.

BALDWIN: I think, you know, where I am going with this.

Yes, you, because you have accused the Bernie Sanders campaign of running quote "the most negative Democratic primary campaign in history." So before we talk about that. I want you to respond to Nina Turner from the Sanders campaign. She had some words. Take a listen.

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NINA TURNER, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: Ridiculous. Negative. This man hasn't run a negative ad in all of his political career. There's nothing negative about pointing out the differences between you and your opponent. What is negative is what the Clinton side is doing to distort his record, especially when it comes to health care knowing he has fought all of his life for universal health care and then to turn around and try to scare people, that's negative. But he has not run a negative campaign whatsoever and they know it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Ridiculous she said. Smooth Sanders, not same seat. That it is essentially the same thing. Respond to that.

BENENSON: I have a lot of respect to Nina turner, but I respectfully disagree. Look. I think senator Sanders and his campaign acknowledged before the Jefferson Jackson dinner right here in Iowa that they were going to step up their attacks on Hillary Clinton personally. They did. They have done it on the stump. If Senator Sanders thinks I'm wrong and his team thinks I'm wrong, they should talk about how they had to ask their supporters in social media to kind of tone it down because of some of the vitriolic things they were saying about anybody that disagrees with them.

Look. The attacks have gotten personal from time to time. They have been read any headlines in the last week about Sanders. Senator Sanders stepping up his attacks on Hillary Clinton. Every news media has reported on this in the last couple of weeks.

Look. I think what Nina Turner said that's right is it is fair to compare issues. Don't make it personal. Don't malign everybody who disagrees with you and say people like Planned Parenthood are part of the establishment or human rights campaign. They have been on the front lines of fighting for justice. Dismiss them as part of the establishment because they didn't choose you as their preferred choice. Those kinds of things are meant to diminish people who are not on your side. And I think that is negative.

BALDWIN: What is Hillary Clinton doing right now?

BENENSON: She's out campaigning I think. You just showed me a clip.

Look. I think the last day you want your troops out. We believe it's going to be very close. We have had a good ground operation all through the weekend. Our field people told me we have knocked on through Sunday 185,000 doors getting a good response. And what she has got to do is keep motivating our people to caucus tonight at 7:00, lining up at 6:30. Because you have got to be on line the 7:00 or you are not getting in to caucus.

[15:45:00] BALDWIN: Are you actively seeking out O'Malley supporters to put Clinton as choice number two?

BENENSON: You know, the history of the caucus is there's this unique thing where if you don't get to 15 percent and reach viability, any candidate, you've got to re-caucus and shuffle around. You know, the last time there were competitive caucuses was 2008 and there were about eight candidates. So there's always the shuffling around that every campaign is doing to try to achieve their viability or, you know, maybe have somebody else if you've got a big enough margin --

BALDWIN: So is that a yes?

BENENSON: I assume every campaign does it. I don't know. I'm not intimately involved in that. But I know historically, campaigns have done that because that's how the re-caucusing works.

BALDWIN: OK. Joe Benenson, good luck.

BENENSON: Thank you. Appreciate it.

BALDWIN: Thank you so much. Thank you.

Coming up next, the band vampire weekend holds a big rally for Bernie Sanders in Iowa. How Sanders earned the respect of voters born five decades after him. Why is that? That's coming up.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's really cool that young people are supporting him because he doesn't have the classic signifiers of cool, you know, our generation gets accused a lot of being entitled and shallow and things like that and here are all these kids fired up about 74-year-old man, hair kind of messy, not classically stylish you know what I mean.

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[15:50:48] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We will win tonight if the voter turnout is high. We will struggle tonight if the voter turnout is low. That's the fact. So what is our job today is to make sure that we have the highest voter turnout possible. That happens, we win. Let's go get them. Thank you all.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The Democratic race here in the great state of Iowa. It's a virtual tie between Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. And heading into tonight's caucuses, just hours from now, one demographic Sanders is counting on is young people.

The band Vampire Weekend, one of my personal favorites, headlining a rally over the weekend in Iowa City. We hopped a car and headed to this Bernie Sanders' rally and they're hoping to help this septuagenarian congressman sort of get the millennial vote. And I talked to the group's front man about why he thinks the 74-year-old candidate is so appealing to voters four, five decades his junior. Here is Ezra.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Why Bernie?

EZRA KOENIG, LEAD SINGER, VAMPIRE WEEKEND: I mean it's rare that you get a candidate like this, a dude who has literally been saying the same thing for decades. And thank God we have You Tube and we can go back and watch his speeches, like 1991 voting down the Persian Gulf War. This guy is saying the same thing he's saying now. He is predicting gnarly things that might happens based on in same foreign policy.

BALDWIN: I know you supported Obama in 2008 which gets me, of course, to Hillary Clinton, his secretary of state. I mean, she literally, you know, traveled the world and had a front row seat and was integral in foreign policy under the Obama administration. So if you're supporting Bernie, what don't you like about Hillary Clinton?

KOEINIG: Well, if I really like Bernie, I have to keep it positive, the way he does, which I think he has been doing a pretty good job of. I can say personally that I have always resented this idea, as a lot of people do, that because certain politicians are close to power they understand world affairs better than the rest of us. Because how many times in like our history have we been led into war by people claiming they understood things better than us.

BALDWIN: You talk to so many people too and they say, you know, there is something intangible about Bernie Sanders that's really resonating with a lot of people. But they sort of all know, all right, he won't get the nomination. Ultimately it will be Hillary Clinton, that's fine and I'll root for Hillary down the road. Does that sound familiar to you?

KOEINIG: Yes, of course. I think people are saying that less and less now, though.

BALDWIN: Because it's so close?

KOEINIG: Because it's so close.

BALDWIN: Do you think he has a chance?

KOEINIG: Of course he has a chance. I mean, look at the polls. He literally could win Iowa and New Hampshire. I mean, that's an argument that we heard with Obama back in the day.

BALDWIN: What is it, this man would be -- I think he would be 75. He would be the oldest president.

KOEINIG: Right.

BALDWIN: He's been in Congress for decades.

KOEINIG: Yes.

BALDWIN: What is it about him that is so refreshing, especially for all the young people you are drawing tonight?

KOEINIG: Right. I mean that's a good question. I think it's really cool that young people are supporting him because he doesn't have the classic signifiers of cool. You know, our generation gets accused to a lot of being entitled and shallow and things like that and here are these kids fired up about a 74-year-old man, hair kind of messy, not classically stylish. You know what I mean? And that's amazing. And if anything --

BALDWIN: I think he would be OK with that assessment.

KOEINIG: No, I mean, I read his book. He talked about when he came mayor, he was like I had to buy a suit. I did not have a suit. Then I had one suit. And it's like the fact that that's the dude firing kids up, I think also proves a lot of what people say about millennials to be garbage. As we knew was the case for a long time, this idea that these kids who have suffered so much from the insane economic policies of generations before, that they're somehow their brains are warped. And here they are I think making a really sensitive empathic choice in who they're supporting, so.

BALDWIN: So what is it, though? You still haven't put your finger on it. What is that magic for Bernie Sanders?

[15:55:00] KOEINIG: I mean, I don't know if it's that complicated. For a long time - I mean, I remember -- even before I knew who Bernie Sanders was, I would be a kid and see on c-span the vote in the house and then you see RDI, one vote, I, and that was Bernie then. I mean, and then in the Senate it was him too. No disrespect to another independent.

But we have seen so much stuff we don't like in both parties, over and over again. I think it's really hard for young kids who are like seeing past all sorts of binaries, you know. This is the generation seeing past gender binary, looking at race in a way that other generations didn't. So of course this generation is going to try to see past the Democratic/Republican binary. So one of the simplest ways to say why is Bernie different where people think about and that he is a true independent.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Super smart. Ezra, thanks so much for the time backstage there this weekend in Iowa City.

From one candidate to the next, we are going to talk to Jake Tapper sits down with Donald Trump supporter Sarah Palin as our special coverage continues live from Des Moines.

We will be right back.

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