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2016 Election: Voters Hitting the Polls in Historic Race. Aired 9-9:30a ET

Aired November 08, 2016 - 09:00   ET

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


[09:00:08] CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: It's such an exciting day. Thanks so much. NEWSROOM starts now.

And good morning, and thank you for joining me from our nation's capital on this beautiful Election Day in Washington, D.C. I'm Carol Costello.

It has been one of the most bitter and polarizing elections in modern history, and the nation is just now just hours from electing a brand- new President. Hillary Clinton casting her vote in the last hour near her home in suburban New York. She campaigned well after midnight and so did her rival, Donald Trump, who, this morning, is predicting victory.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (through phone): We're doing very well in North Carolina. I think we're doing very, very well in Florida. We're going to do very well in New Hampshire.

STEVE DOOCY, FOX NEWS ANCHOR: Those are the two most important early states, aren't they?

TRUMP: Excuse me?

DOOCY: Those are the two most important early states, Florida and North Carolina.

TRUMP: Well, I think they're very important, and I think we're doing well there. We're doing very well in New Hampshire. Ohio is incredible. It's just a great place. I mean, these are -- the people are just amazing in this country. Ohio, we're doing incredibly in. We're going to win Iowa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Voting now underway across most of the United States. We're already seeing lines in many of the polling stations. Here in yellow are the states opening their polling sites this hour. Most are already up and running in the Eastern and Central time zones.

The weather should not play a huge role in today's turnout. No excuses. There could be some rain showers in a few key states in the Midwest and the Great Lakes region but nothing big.

CNN has deployed its vast resources to bring you this historic election like no one else can. We're covering both presidential campaigns, all the angles, and the races that will decide who controls Congress under our next President.

Let's begin, though, with Joe Johns in the Clinton camp. Hi, Joe.

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: A beautiful morning here in Chappaqua, New York, for Hillary Clinton as she and her husband, the former President, went out to vote around 8:00 Eastern Time. We had been told she was going to show up a bit earlier, around 6:30 this morning, but that would have been hard to do given the fact that she arrived back at White Plains around 3:30 this morning, greeted by supporters.

She was greeted at the elementary school where she voted this morning by, among others, her Congresswoman, the Democrat Nita Lowey from this area.

She talked just a bit after she voted. And interesting, listen to the tone of Hillary Clinton trying not to show any sign of inevitability, suggesting that if she wins, she's going to do a good job for the entire country. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is the most humbling feeling, Dan, because, you know, I know how much responsibility goes with this. And so many people are counting on the outcome of this election, what it means for our country. And I'll do the very best I can if I'm fortunate enough to win today.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: This campaign has been so careful about the issue of tone coming all the way down to Election Day, putting out even the fact that she's put together both a winning speech and a losing speech depending on what happens tonight.

Hillary Clinton expecting to have a very light schedule throughout the day here in New York, going to do a number of radio interviews and then make her way over to the city for what she and her supporters hope will be a victory celebration.

Back to you, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Joe Johns reporting live from Chappaqua this morning. Now, let's turn to the Trump campaign and head out to New York City. CNN's Jason Carroll is there. Hi, Jason.

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And good morning to you. Donald Trump expected to vote here at about 10:00 at P.S. 59. He's expected to walk right through those doors, and we see the crowds of people lining up to vote. It's all in the voter's hands at this point. Yesterday, Donald Trump, five states. Making five stops, Carol, going

over much of the themes that we've heard throughout his campaign, that the system is rigged. He's going to repeal and replace Obamacare. He is the candidate of the working class. He is the candidate who can clean up Washington, D.C.

You know, we've heard Donald Trump say so much about what he's going to do if he wins. We've also, throughout this campaign, Carol, heard him repeatedly talk about how he would feel if he did not win. Again, we've heard it throughout the campaign. We heard him say it again yesterday and he said it again this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP (through phone): If I don't win, I will consider it a tremendous waste of time, energy and money. I'm going to be --

DOOCY: Sure.

TRUMP: I will have spent over $100 million of my own campaign, meaning I don't have to take, you know, tremendous -- I don't have to take the money from all the fat cats that are going to tell you what to do. I think it's a big asset. It doesn't get talked about much, but, you know, it's --

DOOCY: Yes. So you feel that way?

TRUMP: I think it's a tremendous asset. But, no, I will not consider it great if I don't win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[09:05:05] CARROLL: And you know, with so much talk throughout the campaign from Donald Trump about the system being rigged, in his words, there's been a question about what he would say tonight if he did not win. Of course, the campaign expects that he will win.

But if he did not win, what would he say? Would he concede? Well, this morning, Donald Trump, Jr. speaking about that saying, quote, so long as it's a fair fight and it's evident that it's a fair fight, he fully expects his father to concede. But, once again, he fully expects his father to win tonight. Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Jason Carroll reporting live from New York City. One of the key battleground states is Florida, and it's not just the presidential race that's sending voters to the polls this morning.

Let's check in with CNN's Boris Sanchez. He is in Miami Dade County. Good morning, Boris.

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. Yes, the big story here in Florida has been turnout. Already historic, more than 6.5 million Floridians have cast their ballots in the Sunshine State. That's more people than voted in the entire 2000 election. And it's also who is voting that's important. There's been a huge uptick in the number of Latinos coming out to

early vote in this election, an 89 percent jump compared to 2008. And, of course, the big question is, who are those Latinos and who are they supporting?

Here in Miami Dade County, huge Cuban-American community, it is imperative for the Republicans, if they want to win Florida, to hold on to these voters. The problem is that there's a generational divide between this traditionally GOP-leaning demographic.

I spoke to a younger voter just a few moment ago. His name is Jonathan. And he told me that his family is split. He's Cuban. He is young. He is more liberal. He says his parents are conservative. He jokes that his mom made him sleep outside because of his support for Hillary Clinton.

The idea is that if Donald Trump can cut into the Democrat's advantage here in these communities, he puts Florida into play. Democrats right now have about 90,000-vote advantage.

To give you some perspective, back in 2012, Democrats had about 100,000-vote advantage in early voting going into Election Day. Democrats are trying to hold on to that lead and, you mentioned the Senate race, they're also hoping that a lot of the votes that are going against Donald Trump in the Latino community go to Patrick Murphy and that tight race between him and Marco Rubio.

Republicans, so far, are confident that Rubio can win. He's put out several ads in the past few weeks. He's also very popular being Cuban-American in this Cuban-American community. So he's hoping that they will go his direction, Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Boris Sanchez reporting live from Florida this morning. Another highly coveted prize for both campaigns, North Carolina. The swing state home to 15 electoral votes. It went to President Obama in 2008 but turned red for Romney in 2012.

CNN's Gary Tuchman is live there. Good morning.

GARY TUCHMAN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Carol, good morning to you. Welcome to the Mount Moriah Baptist Church in the heart of Charlotte, North Carolina, which, today, is one of 2,700 precincts in the swing state of North Carolina.

Business is brisk. The polls opened at 6:30 a.m. We want to give you a look at how it works here. You walk into the church, you come up to this desk and you sign in. You put your name and address, telling them who you are. You do not need an I.D. in the state of North Carolina. You then take that piece of paper to this desk.

If your last name starts with A to C, you come here, you show them the slip. They verify that you live here.

Hello. You're all smiling today, right?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. TUCHMAN: Everyone is happy it's Election Day here. They verify

you're in this precinct, and then you walk over here to one of the 21 video voting machines. There are 21 in this room. You cast your vote not just for President of the United States but also two other very tight races here in this state, for Governor and for U.S. Senate, which could ultimately determine which party controls the U.S. Senate.

One thing I want to point that's amazing, Carol. If not one person voted in the state of North Carolina today, if everyone woke up and said we're not voting today, there would still be a 45 percent voter turnout -- 3.1 million people voted in early voting here in North Carolina. There are a total of 6.9 million registered voters. So that was 45 percent to start. So there will be a very high turnout here in the state of North Carolina when the polls close at 7:30 p.m. Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Gary Tuchman reporting live from North Carolina. Thanks so much.

So let's talk about this and more. Matt Viser is with me. He's a national political reporter for "The Boston Globe." He's also a graduate of the great University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. And I had to say that because, Elaine, one of my writers -- there you are -- is a graduate of that university. So I promised I would. So there you have it.

David Swerdlick is the assistant editor of "The Washington Post" and Ryan Lizza is the Washington correspondent for "The New Yorker." Thanks to all of you --

RYAN LIZZA, WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORKER: Thank you.

COSTELLO: -- for coming in because -- OK. I'll start with you, person who graduated from the greatest university in America --

MATT VISER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE BOSTON GLOBE: Yes, keep that between us. Right.

COSTELLO: Exactly. How does it feel on this day?

VISER: It's the culmination of, you know, a year and a half, two years. You know, watching the clips on "NEW DAY," you know, you sort of realize how far we've come.

[09:10:00] So many entertaining moments, dramatic debate moments. You know, the day is finally here. It's sort of a cliche that the only poll that matters is on Election Day. And we're finally here to that last day.

COSTELLO: Does it give you a sense of relief, just as a person, I mean, because, you know, you've been really in it for a very long time?

DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: Yes. We've all been in it -- all of us up here and also the whole country. I feel like people need a sense of catharsis, but at the same time, you know, there's going to be more ahead. There will be a pause tonight and then really political battles will continue with the new President, with Congress, and the nation figuring out how to go forward after eight years of being very accustomed to the leadership of President Obama.

COSTELLO: OK. So I'll ask you the same question.

LIZZA: Well, don't forget, Carol, there's less than two years until the mid-term elections.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Oh, stop.

VISER: You got to start tomorrow, yes.

LIZZA: The countdown begins as soon as the mid-term elections are over, 2020 presidential elections starts.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: Oh, stop.

LIZZA: No, this has been a great election to cover. It's been fascinating. It's been terrifying sometimes. And so there's a sense of relief here at the end.

COSTELLO: Yes, me, too. I'm actually excited. I mean, I want to put up that shot from Raleigh, North Carolina, of the people in line waiting to vote because it's incredible. This was taken when the polls just opened.

I don't know what this says about voter turnout because this is just a snapshot, right, but still, it's a beautiful thing to see democracy in action, right?

VISER: Yes.

COSTELLO: That's a beautiful thing. I just wanted to put that up to remind people what this day is about.

LIZZA: Although one thing about these long lines in North Carolina is you can't forget that this is a decision made by the state to cut the number of places. There are not enough places in some of these states. And as beautiful as it is to see people on line getting ready to vote, we shouldn't have long lines in this country. We should be making it as easy to vote as possible.

COSTELLO: Right. Well, you're about that. There should be a lot of polling places to accommodate voters so they don't have to stand in line.

SWERDLICK: Yes. And this is something that's going to carry over, again, to subsequent elections, right, Carol? I mean, this idea that only in states controlled by Republican legislatures has early voting been reduced or have the number of polling places, like in North Carolina, been reduced.

And as demographics shift and as subsequent presidential elections take place, we're really going to see if this winds up being effective for Republicans or if Republicans are going to be forced to expand the demographics of their voting base.

COSTELLO: Matt, I want to take you back to April 12, 2015. So roll the tape and we can all go back together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Every day, Americans need a champion, and I want to be that champion so you can do more than just get by. You can get ahead and stay ahead because, when families are strong, America is strong. So I'm hitting the road to earn your vote.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: OK. So that's how Hillary Clinton announced her presidential run, not flashy at all, but Philadelphia last night, 33,000 people.

VISER: Yes.

COSTELLO: And all the stars at the Democratic Party, very flashy.

VISER: Yes. And the party sort of rallying behind her. Extraordinary moment with President Obama and Michelle Obama there as well. One interesting point is that announcement video was a month after her press conference about her e-mails, where they thought that that would not be as big of a deal. And we're still talking about that today, in part, because of the actions of James Comey. But they sort of underestimated, I think, how big of a deal the e-mails would be.

And Donald Trump announcing a couple months after that. It's notable that the way that he came out in his announcement, he talked about the same things that he's talking about today.

COSTELLO: Yes. And actually, I have --

VISER: It's remarkably consistent.

COSTELLO: I have that moment because Hillary Clinton's tactics changed through the campaign, right?

VISER: Yes.

COSTELLO: She went from going to small gatherings to like holding big rallies herself to flashy rallies with other surrogates surrounding her, right? But here's -- I want to get the date right. Here is Donald Trump. This was June 16th --

LIZZA: June 16th.

COSTELLO: See, it's cemented in your memory. June 16th, 2015. Roll the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: All of my life, I've heard that a truly successful person, a really, really successful person, and even modestly successful, cannot run for public office. It just can't happen. And yet that's the kind of mind set that you need to make this country great again.

So, ladies and gentlemen, I am officially running for President of the United States, and we are going to make our country great again.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: So, David, I mean, they both looked more well rested.

SWERDLICK: Yes.

COSTELLO: They look so exhausted now.

SWERDLICK: Yes. They both look exhausted but they both, I think, in their own ways have finished up strong. If you look at that clip of Donald Trump there, what he was talking about in the clip was this idea that he is a successful businessman, not a politician, will go out and change the political system.

[09:15:08] But it was what he said later in that speech about immigrants from Mexico in particular that wound up making the headlines the next day and sent us down the trajectory of what we saw for the next year.

COSTELLO: Because that lasted and never did go.

SWERDLICK: No, it didn't.

RYAN LIZZA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: And let's be honest, I barely remember Hillary Clinton's initial kickoff or any lines or phrases from it. It was a fairly generic, let everyone get ahead.

COSTELLO: And love each other.

LIZZA: And all of us remember that speech from Donald Trump, because maybe we were watching it live and mocking it. Not taking him seriously, or just the consistency of his message to the entire primary campaign, the fascination frankly of Donald Trump with us in the television world, obviously got way more coverage than anyone else.

And for better or worse, that was the dynamic. I mean, Hillary Clinton, even in the general election when it was the two of them, Trump managed to dominate the debate, become more memorable, frankly for perhaps the worst if he loses.

SWERDLICK: Yes.

LIZZA: She ran as a fairly generic moderate Democrat without a truly sharp message. MATT VISER, BOSTON GLOBE: I think Donald Trump has this reputation

for being so unscripted. But that first announcement speech, you know, he talked about building a wall. He talked about his anti-trade rhetoric and ISIS, you know? And he was consistent with that message throughout the campaign. You know, stumbling plenty along the way.

But Hillary Clinton sort of struggled to find that one slogan. They would change the slogans almost week to week. Find the right moment.

COSTELLO: Did she ever come up with a slogan that stuck?

SWERDLICK: Not really. The slogan was that -- the slogan ultimately was that Donald Trump was unfit. In that initial message she released, she was preparing to run against a conventional candidate like a Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, where she would have had to defend her policy positions more, had to defend the record of the Obama administration a little more.

She wound up not expecting to run against Donald Trump. Then it became less against the issues. She wasn't running against a dyed in a wool conservative.

COSTELLO: Well, I think she was also surprised by Bernie Sanders, right?

LIZZA: I'm with her. So, she was embracing the fact of the historic nature of her -- let me give her a little bit more credit, because remember, the first thing we remember from Trump's initial speech was frankly calling Mexican immigrants rapists. The next thing we remember from his campaign is banning Muslims.

What was her slogan? "Stronger together". This was about -- her campaign was about celebrating our diversity, we're all in this together. His is about there are certain groups that are out to kill us or out to commit crisis against us and I'm the guy to put a stop to that.

I mean, that's fundamentally what the debate was at the end.

COSTELLO: We'll see whose message was louder for the voters today.

So, you guys stick around because we have much more to talk about. Still to come on this Election Day, we're heading out west where the polls have just opened. I'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[09:22:31] COSTELLO: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. It is decision day out west in places like Colorado polling stations are just opening. The state has nine electoral votes up for grabs.

So, let's bring in CNN's Ana Cabrera. She's in Golden, Colorado.

Good morning, Ana.

ANA CABRERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. Election Day has been an ongoing process here in Colorado because it's

a mail-in ballot state. This is a state that twice voted for President Barack Obama and before that twice voted for President George W. Bush. That's why it's a battleground.

Now, the latest polls in Colorado show 39 percent supporting Hillary Clinton, 39 percent supporting Donald Trump and 14 percent undecided. So, this could go either way.

It's too late to mail your ballot back at this point. Voters do have the option of dropping them off at several ballot locations drop off boxes set up all over the state and in each county there are multiple boxes, but a lot of voters are choosing to do it the old-fashioned way.

We're here in Jefferson County. This is one of the bell weather counties. It went the same as the statewide vote in the last several elections. And you can see, here at the old fashion ballot box, this is where people are coming to make their vote count.

I can tell you as far as the early vote returns nearly 2 million people in Colorado have made their vote count. They sent their ballots back or come and voted like this, and that's about 55 percent of the voting election.

Here in Jefferson County we know 66 percent of those registered voters have already sent in their ballots or marked them here locally and in person.

Now, I also think it's important to mention that when you look at the early ballot return breakdown by party, Democrats were really leading early on through all of last week. But there was a turning point. Yesterday, we saw Republicans take the lead, and not just talking about part affiliation and registration.

And, Carol, keep in mind, half a million people who have voted here in Colorado are registered as unaffiliated voters. And so, really, it's too tough to tell which way it's going to go. That's why we'll be watching Colorado closely throughout the day.

Back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Ana Cabrera reporting live from Colorado.

So, let's stay out west and head to the battleground state of Arizona. Arizona, right? The polls have been open there for about an hour.

CNN's Dan Simon live in Phoenix.

Hi, Dan.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol.

It is smooth sailing at this church in central Phoenix. We did see a little bit of a line when the poll opened up just a little more than an hour ago. Keep in mind, Arizona is an early voting state and at this point, we are told that more than 60 percent of the ballots projected have already been cast.

[09:25:02] So, we'll see how that manifests itself today at the polls. This has been a reliably red state. A Democrat has carried Arizona only once in the past 64 years. In case you're wondering who that was, that was Bill Clinton in 1996.

But the Democrats say they have a legitimate chance to do it once again with Hillary Clinton, thanks in large part due to the Latino vote. If large number of Hispanic voters come to the polls, they think they have a good chance of winning. And following the national trend, they did see a surge of Latino voters who voted early, about twice the amount in terms of what they saw back in 2012.

A lot of people see this as a must-win for Donald Trump. He's been to the state seven times. He's poured a lot of resources into the state. Nonetheless, this is a true battleground. In terms of the Senate race here, we'll talk about that for a second.

John McCain who withdrew his support from Donald Trump, following the disclosure of that "Access Hollywood" tape, he is expected to coast through. Right now, the polls show him leading his challenger representative Ann Kirkpatrick by about 10 points. So, we'll see what happens with that race, but he is expected to win.

Of course, we'll see what happens with the presidential race. It could be a tight one but at this point, the latest polls show Trump up by about 5 points.

Carol, we'll send it back to you.

COSTELLO: All right. Dan Simon, reporting live from Phoenix. Thank you.

So, let's bring back in our panel -- Matt Viser, David Swerdlick and Ryan Lizza.

OK. I want to talk about the historic nature of this campaign because whoever wins, history will be made. And I think sometimes, we forget that because it's been such a nasty campaign.

SWERDLICK: Yes, no. If Clinton wins, particularly this will be historic. The first woman president of the United States following Hillary Clinton being the first -- the third woman secretary of state, being a U.S. senator from New York.

It is a big moment, especially when you see other women heads of state on the world stage, Theresa May, prime minister in England -- the U.K. rather and Angela Merkel in Germany. There are going to be women potentially leading the world, you know, across the world if Hillary Clinton becomes president.

COSTELLO: I think that if Hillary Clinton does win, that that historic moment for her will be diminished because of the nastiness of this campaign and her unlikability factor, right?

LIZZA: Yes. Look, it's very hard to be in politics as long as Hillary Clinton has been in politics on the national stage and keep popularity. I mean, just aside from anything you can blame on her personally about why people might not like her, support her, why her approval ratings might not be anyone in national public life has low approval ratings with a few exceptions. Obama is a big exception.

But most of the congressional leaders have single digit approval ratings, right? Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton are the first two presidential nominees whose approval rating is, you know, as the pollsters say, under water. More people disapprove of them than approve of them.

So, whoever wins, we're going to have our first president-elect who goes into their inaugural, maybe it will change in the brief period between Election Day and the inauguration, but they're going to start in a bit of a hole.

You're right, that does take away a little bit from the nature of her election if she wins today. She's been around a long time.

COSTELLO: And, you know, she's sort of prepared for, you know, if she wins she's going to give her acceptance speech, right, at the Javits Center with a glass ceiling. She's all prepared, right?

VISER: Yes. That will be a big moment. You would see that history, you know, there. I think one thing if she does win in her advantage is the Republican Party being so, you know, dis-unified at this moment.

You know, Donald Trump has sort of exposed a lot of the deep divisions within the party. So, after 2008, you had the Republican Party, especially the congressional leadership, sort of unite against Barack Obama and it became these two forces that just clashed.

And you may see a little bit of a difference, I think, if Hillary Clinton doesn't end up winning. The congressional majorities will be fairly thin on Capitol Hill and the Republican Party will sort of be a little bit more divided. Not that there will be any sort of kumbaya moment, but I think they play to her advantages.

COSTELLO: So, just because I want to focus still on the historic nature of this election. If Donald Trump wins, history will be made too, right? Because for the first time, we'll have someone at president of the United States that has no political experience and is a true outsider.

SWERDLICK: Yes. So, definitely no political experience.

You know, I go back and forth with the idea of Donald Trump as an outsider. He's been in the public eye, in the tabloids, et cetera, for 40 years. And he also, you know, in some ways still represents a business class even if he's been rejected by Wall Street in this election cycle.

It will be historic though, this idea that someone sort of came out of nowhere and, you know, basically co-opted a party, and rather than running as a third party candidate, took over the Republican party and changed the message of that party in a national election.

COSTELLO: Not only that, but he ran a campaign like no other, right?