Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Reviewing Last Night's Iowa Caucus Results; Candidates Look Toward New Hampshire. Aired 9:30-10a ET
Aired February 02, 2016 - 09:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[09:30:00] RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST : Competing with Jeb Bush, John Kasich and Chris Christie. And that's where Rubio has to establish himself as a leader of that lane.
By the way, Carol, if you kind of look at it that way, you see the potential for something Republicans have never really had in the modern primary era, which is a sustained three-way race. Cruz relying on evangelicals, Donald Trump on his blue collar support, and someone, Rubio, Kasich, Christie or Bush, consolidating that more white collar, center right lane.
CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: OK, Hadley, I leave you with these five words, Ben Carson, Florida, clean clothes.
HADLEY HEATH MANNING, SENIOR POLICY ANALYST, INDEPENDENT WOMEN'S FORUM: Man, that was just an odd moment last night when Dr. Carson excused himself to get a fresh change of clothes. But he says he's not suspending his campaign. He had a strong fourth place finish in Iowa and he'll continue. He'll go on to New Hampshire with a new change of clothes.
COSTELLO: Try -- he'll be fresh and ready.
MANNING: That's right.
COSTELLO: All right, thanks to all of you.
MANNING: Thank you.
COSTELLO: Lisa (INAUDIBLE), Ron Brownstein, Hadley Heath Manning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, his crowds were huge, the lines were long. So why didn't Trump win in a landslide?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:35:12] COSTELLO: A big day in Pennsylvania, in a Pennsylvania courtroom, I should say, for Bill Cosby today. There he is. The hearing is getting underway right mow. This is Cosby walking into the courtroom. Cosby's legal team has asked a judge to dismiss the case against him. Cosby, as you know, is accused of drugging and sexual assaulting a Temple University employee in 2004. His defense team says Cosby cut a deal with a previous district attorney who promised Cosby no charges would be filed if he testified in a civil suit. The current D.A. says only a judge can offer immunity. Of course we'll keep you posted.
Back to politics now. Well, the polls were wrong. It looked like Donald Trump was standing on the verge of the stunning victory in Iowa. And, yes, according to entrance polls, most first-time caucus goers did back the billionaire businessman, but those who voted before, hmm, not so much. Most notably the very conservative and the evangelicals had different plans and threw their support behind last night's Republican winner. That would be Senator Ted Cruz.
Craig Robinson joins me now live from Des Moines. He's the editor of the iowarepublican.com and the former political director of the Iowa Republican Party.
Craig, welcome.
CRAIG ROBINSON, EDITOR, IOWAREPUBLICAN.COM: Good morning.
COSTELLO: Good morning.
So you're an Iowa guy. What stands out most to you from last night?
ROBINSON: Well, it was a huge turnout last night. Almost 190,000 Iowa Republicans caucused. No one would have ever believed that Ted Cruz could have garnered over 50,000 votes. My caucus site was swarmed with new people registering that night. And the assumption was is that that was good news for Trump. It ended up being a great night for Ted Cruz instead.
COSTELLO: And Marco Rubio as well, right?
ROBINSON: Absolutely.
COSTELLO: So -- so --
ROBINSON: I --
COSTELLO: Go ahead.
ROBINSON: No, I mean I think Marco Rubio is a huge winner coming out of Iowa with a head of steam. Showed a lot of momentum and -- and this will really reset I think the race in New Hampshire moving forward.
COSTELLO: Maybe so. But, still, you know, Donald Trump sucked all the air out of the room. But he ran, for lack of a better term, a more national campaign. Big campaign rallies. The anger he expressed did not seem to have the impact he desired in Iowa. Why do you think that was?
ROBINSON: Well, he still got over 45,000 votes. And if you look at the results from last night, what he really lacked was is, he needed places in this state where he could build a margin and make up ground on Ted Cruz and other places. He didn't have that. In fact, Marco Rubio ended up being a big problem for Donald Trump where in some of these more urban areas that maybe Cruz struggled in, Marco Rubio was also strong. And so I think it was kind of the perfect storm to kind of keep Trump down. You had Rubio coming on strong and Iowa voters, I think, sensed when they showed up to their caucus site, hey, I might like some of these candidates that were lower in the polls, but I think I'm going to vote for someone who's viable. And it's clear that they viewed Cruz, the social conservative, Rubio, the mainstream Republican candidate, and Trump as the outsider as the viable candidates in this race. It's a three person race moving forward.
COSTELLO: Yes. So should the other candidates, the many candidates on the Republican, should they drop out?
ROBINSON: Well, I mean, Iowa does a great job of winnowing the field. And I think last night's result is a clear indication that you could probably chop this field in half pretty easily. It might take New Hampshire to force some other candidates out. But, I mean, this is really a three person race moving forward. I mean there's no other way to look at the results last night than to say that this is a three- person race. So, I mean, New Hampshire will probably, you know, clear the deck of maybe some of these other candidates that -- that were more focused there.
COSTELLO: Right.
ROBINSON: But a real --
COSTELLO: Well, let me -- let me ask you this because I want to get to the Democratic side for just a little bit before I have to go. Bernie Sanders, he had a great night, or did he? Sanders told reporters this morning his camp is studying voter irregularities. And we also got this word from CNN's Mark Preston, who was told a senior campaign aide for Senator Bernie Sanders says the campaigns has no plans to stand down on its pursuit of gathering additional data from last night's caucuses. The aide went on to say, "the campaign would request the Iowa Democratic Party provide more information from specific precincts given the closeness of the race." How do you take this? From your view, were there irregularities? Is something up?
[09:40:09] ROBINSON: I don't know. I mean any time in a caucus setting where you have very close results, a very close race, you're going to have issues like this. Republicans had it in 2012. Now Democrats have it in 2016. And I think this is also a problem that the Iowa Democrats never release, you know, the raw voter data either. That would help clarify maybe in a close race who really did the best job of turning people out. So I think there's some questions moving forward.
I understand what the Sanders campaign is doing, you know, even though I don't know if it really matters all that much in the sense of, if Hillary's the clear winner or Sanders is the clear winner. I think they both politically got what they needed. But I think it's smart for the Sanders campaign to kind of throw some doubt here and, you know, make this more of an issue moving into New Hampshire.
COSTELLO: All right, I have to leave it there. Craig Robinson, thanks so much.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, candidates already fanning out across New Hampshire. Why several say this could be the state that makes or breaks their campaign. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:45:25] COSTELLO: You know how fast the world moves. Iowa is now ancient history. It's on to New Hampshire, the make or break state for several GOP candidates.
(BEGIN VIDEOCLIP)
COSTELLO (voice-over): Chris Christie continuing his campaign blitz of the state. There he is right there, talking to his supporters, no doubt putting a lot of eggs in the New Hampshire basket. And Christie isn't the only one. Here is John Kasich on why New Hampshire is so critical to his campaign.
GOV. JOHN KASICH, (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Look, nobody in the country knows who I am. I mean, they just don't. They know who I am in New Hampshire, but I'm not a celebrity candidate. I didn't have a national television show. I don't live in Washington. I'm the governor of Ohio, you know, so nobody knows me, but we do well here. That whole business of being known is going to change.
(END VIDEOCLIP)
COSTELLO (on camera): CNN's Phil Mattingly live in Bedford, New Hampshire with more on this. Good morning, Phil.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Iowa is in the rear view mirror. That's what Chris Christie, standing behind me, just told people here at his Bedford, New Hampshire campaign headquarters, This is the final push. He's rallying the troops here. Hewlett Packard CEO, Meg Whitman, is with him.
And for Chris Christie, Jeb Bush and for John Kasich, you just mentioned, these next seven days will make or break their campaign, Carol. All of their eggs are in this basket and one of them needs to break out, try and make this not a three person race, as everybody's been saying it is in the wake of yesterday's results, but instead a four person race. John Kasich making the point this morning that he deserves to be the top candidate out of that group. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KASICH: We will know on the morning of the tenth whether we are a story. And it's really going to be whether you're saying, oh, my goodness, this guy Kasich, you know, we sort of counted him out. Look, the campaigns are spending $4 million of negative ads against me. You think they're worried? They don't spend $4 million ahead (ph) of somebody who's at the bottom. And then all of a sudden you folks will be forced to shift a little bit of your attention away from the Trumper. And you'll - you might have to talk about John Kasich. .
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MATTINGLY: Now, not just talk about John Kasich, but again, Chris Christie and Jeb Bush. Carol, when you look at it here it's really who of the three governors is going to emerge? The person who comes out on top of that will get donors, will get support and will consider -- be considered a viable establishment candidate.
One key point here, Carol, that you're hearing from all of the candidates, Chris Christie just highlighted it behind me. In the latest CNN/WMUR poll 37 percent of likely Republican voters have not made up their mind yet. Another 23 percent are only leaning. That puts 60 percent of voters in the state in play, Caro. That means there's a lot of work to do over the last seven days, but a lot of votes to gain, Carol.
COSTELLO: All right, Phil Mattingly reporting live from the Christie event in New Hampshire this morning.
Still to come in the NEWSROOM, she's declared victory in Iowa and now Hillary Clinton is taking on New Hampshire. But will this state be an even bigger battle?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[09:52:45] COSTELLO: It is full steam ahead for Hillary Clinton. In less than two hours she will be rallying support in Nashua, New Hampshire. Her husband, Bill, set to be by her side. And just hours ago the Clintons were declaring victory in Iowa.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO (voice-over): This after a photo finish with Bernie Sanders. Although technically, they're still in a virtual tie. We don't know who the winner is. Certainly Bernie Sanders is not conceding.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COSTELLO (on camera): With me now is CNN's Mark Preston. He's - he's near Manchester this morning.
Good morning, Mark. So...
MARK PRESTON, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, CNN POLITICS: Hey, good morning, Carol.
COSTELLO: Should - should Hillary Clinton be declaring victory?
PRESTON: Well, if I'm Hillary Clinton's campaign, it's exactly what I'm going to try to do because I want to try to cut Bernie Sanders off, say that I'm the winner and then come storming here into New Hampshire. If you go back to 2012, she lost Iowa to Barack Obama. A lot of people thought that she was dead in the water at that moment. She came into New Hampshire where Barack Obama had a lead in the polls, turned it around and she had a big surprising win.
As you said, her husband, the comeback kid, Bill Clinton, back in 1992 used his second place finish here to go on and win the Democratic nomination. Now as you said, the Sanders campaign, Carol, they are not backing down. They're going back to the Iowa Democratic Party as we speak, they're asking for specific count sheets to see if the tabulation is done. The caucuses are very inaccurate in many ways when it comes to specific numbers. The Sanders campaign wants to appear as though they're a fighter, and quite frankyl they do want the win, Carol.
COSTELLO: Well, and we can't forget what happened in 2012 on the Republican side between Rick Santorum and Mitt Romney, right?
PRESTON: Yes, no doubt about that. Look, at that - at that point Mitt Romney basically early in the morning was declared the winner. It took several weeks later before Rick Santorum in a recount showed that Rick Santorum had won. But at that point it didn't matter because Mitt Romney had basically won the Iowa caucuses, had that momentum going into New Hampshire where he was going to do well anyway. Rick Santorum could have really used that boost. It just came a little too late for Rick Santorum at that time. So, that really goes to show you why Iowa is important. It's about momentum, Carol. It's all about momentum.
COSTELLO: It's about momentum, and I want to talk about momentum right now because wasn't it Bernie Sanders who had the momentum going into Iowa? Really big, exciting, passionate campaign rallies, you know, and then this -- more on the e-mail controversy surrounding Hillary Clinton came out right before the Iowa caucuses. So, shouldn't he have done better?
[0955:15] PRESTON: Well, the Clinton campaign says so. And just a few hours ago when we landed here in Manchester in a scene that you would only see in a political thriller in the movies, it was amazing having the Clinton campaign, the Sanders campaign, the press campaign planes all lined up, all pouring out, not knowing who had won.
There was no Wi-Fi on the plane as we moved our way from Des Moines over here to Manchester. Now, certainly Bernie Sanders had the grass roots enthusiasm, but we can't take away from the ground game that Hillary Clinton had in place in Iowa and had built. And that is why we stand where we are right now. The Clinton machine was very effective in getting out the vote and that's why, as you said, razor thin margin between the two of them.
COSTELLO: All right, Mark Preston reporting live for us this morning. Thank you.
The next hour of CNN NEWSROOM after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
