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CNN's America's Choice 2020; Dem Candidates Expected To Land In New Hampshire; Results in Iowa Still in Suspense; Not Much Energy Seen from Joe Biden; Caroline Kennedy Endorses Joe Biden. Aired 3-4a ET
Aired February 04, 2020 - 03:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[03:00:00]
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: We're covering the caucus, the Iowa caucus where it apparently not much weren't right because we have zero results in at this hour, that is why we're on live right now, but should have been at home in bed, but here we, we're on live.
Listen, we are getting some information in, though, as time goes on about what happened. They are not telling us much but they are telling us that sometime today on Tuesday could be anytime time they're going to release the results, the results will start to come in.
But just a short time ago, as we've been telling you though, before I get to that, the candidates, many of them told you in their speeches that they were going to fly to New Hampshire.
Now, they're on to New Hampshire, we are going to leave this behind and figure out what happened later on. But they were on to New Hampshire, and so we are getting some of the candidates as they were coming into the Manchester airport now.
Just a short time ago, just minutes ago, the former Vice President Joe Biden landed, and our very own Leyla Santiago had some questions for him. Let's play then we're going to go to Leyla right after this. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Vice President Biden, how do you see this impacting your campaign? How do you see this impacting your campaign, the delays? What do you make of the -
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. Vice President, any kind of reaction, sir?
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.
SANTIAGO: How are you feeling?
BIDEN: Great.
(END VIDEO CLIP) LEMON: All right, Leyla joins us now live. Leyla, not many answers to
your questions. How do you see this impacting your campaign, didn't really say anything, how do you feel? Great. He wasn't in a very, a very talkative mood.
SANTIAGO: No, he just arrived. We saw his campaign staffers first making their way and then we saw Vice President Biden who, by the way, as he was closing his speech, his supporters in Iowa, the last thing he said was, on to New Hampshire.
He is here. How he will move forward in campaigning here in New Hampshire after Iowa, a very long night in Iowa yesterday, it's hard to make sense of what day it is, it's been such a long night, we'll have to wait and see.
But he is not the only one arriving tonight. We expect Amy Klobuchar will be arriving soon. We've already seen some of her supporters that are here waiting for her with signs. We expect Senator Elizabeth Warren to also be making her way in the next few hours.
So, we'll be here to ask those very questions of these candidates that we're hoping to gain momentum from Iowa into New Hampshire and now are really just waiting for results, Don.
LEMON: All right. Leyla Santiago. Leyla is on airplane patrol there, we'll see which candidate gets off the plane, and as soon as we get the report will go back to Leyla. Leyla, thank you very much.
So let's bring it back to the group here in the studio. Any reaction from the former vice president?
(CROSSTALK)
JEN PSAKI, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I mean, I want to say having done that flight a few times, you are so bone tired on this plane. I don't think he had reporters with him, or he didn't seem to, often you do have reporters. But you've just kind of built up to the first contests. There is finally voting. Obviously, as we've been talking about, we don't have results.
And you get off the plane and, you know, you are in the next state. The mistake they made, and I hope other people are watching, is you're supposed to fake it until you make it in this situation.
ANDREW GILLUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, right. Exactly.
PSAKI: I mean, you're supposed to come off the plane and say I'm excited to be here, can't wait to see the people of New Hampshire. Maybe you have a crowd, maybe you have supporters, maybe you have signs.
(CROSSTALK)
GILLUM: Maybe he hit the ground to do some pushups.
PSAKI: I think we did some rallies. Do some pushups, whatever it may be, and that sort of fed into the narrative about Biden. So, I would expect others to come up with a little bit more energy.
LEMON: Did he look a little shell-shocked, do you think?
MARK PRESTON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes, I was on that flight four years ago and Jen is right. I got to tell you, I mean, you are coming across, you are exhausted. However, for him to just kind of walk out and seem like he was kind of sleepwalking, not the first image you want people in New Hampshire to see the next morning.
I mean, you certainly don't want to see that and especially as we've seen that Carolyn Kennedy has now endorsed him.
PSAKI: Yes.
LEMON: Yes.
PRESTON: She has an op-ed in the Boston Globe, you would think that they would've said, Mr. Vice President, when you walk out come out and say, glad to be here and I'm so glad that, you know, that Carolyn Kennedy has joined the team.
Remember, it was Carolyn Kennedy that endorsed Barack Obama at a very crucial time.
LEMON: Right.
PRESTON: And then it brought a little bit of the Kennedy magic in what happened.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Do you think he wasn't expecting that there would be reporters, cameras outside of the airport? I mean, it's just --
PSAKI: That's hard to believe.
LEMON: Yes.
PSAKI: He has been to this rodeo a few times.
LEMON: Yes.
PSAKI: He had to have known there were going to be cameras. He looked just tired and that's OK. But again, everyone is tired --
LEMON: Fake it till you make it.
PSAKI: And that you've got to fake it until you make it.
LEMON: Yes, I agree. Listen, you guys are talking about Caroline Kennedy. Here is what she said to the Boston Globe in part. She says, more important this election is about winning. We need a nominee who can compete in every state, who can bring wandering Democrats and independents back into the fold and even attract some Republicans. Biden at the top of the ticket is our best bet to win the White House. Keep the gains we made in the House and put the Senate in play. [03:05:05]
She perhaps needed to have a chat with you.
GILLUM: Well, I probably, if I were them, I would've waited until tomorrow's results came out more final, turn the page, if this wasn't going to be good news for the Biden team, maybe turn the page with the Caroline Kennedy endorsement.
She is still very well revered within the Democratic Party and I think it could've helped to shift the news cycle.
Now, I have to say, I do believe there is going to be a natural shift of the news cycle anyway given what is coming up over the next two days. But I do think it might feel a little bit buried considering the fact that we have not had the official results come yet, we're still at zero percent reporting --
LEMON: Yes.
GILLUM: -- out of Iowa and we should know more in a few hours.
LEMON: And then this was -- that was, you know, the former vice president and his wife, Joe Biden there earlier in Iowa tonight.
But listen, mayor, the other mayor, you brought up a very good point as we were talking and watching some of these pictures come in about Iowa being the first contest. What if the first contest was South Carolina, we have different --
(CROSSTALK)
MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Tonight, we don't look like it looks. You would have a very different person leading, or you have candidates that would still be in the race.
This is -- so what happened today in Iowa, as you talked about earlier, brings up the top issues. Is the caucus better than a primary, a, and b, is it wise for Iowa to go first given the fact that it's not really representative of what the Democratic Party is? Those issues have been around for a long time.
But I can assure you at South Carolina where the first primary, the results wouldn't be what they are today.
(CROSSTALK)
GILLUM: And not only the results will be different but you might have a different lineup of candidates in the race.
LANDRIEU: Completely different lineup.
GILLUM: Cory Booker probably would have made a different formula.
LANDRIEU: Sure.
GILLUM: Kamala Harris may have made a different formula had some of those more diverse states come earlier on in the process.
LANDRIEU: Well, to be specific about it, if the south, the south of this country has 53 percent of African-Americans who live in the south and a very good portion of the Democratic Party are African-Americans and if the votes were there first, you could have a very different grouping of nominees and this thing would roll out in a different way.
PSAKI: But why didn't Cory Booker and Kamala Harris make any movement in South Carolina then?
GILLUM: Well, listen, I still have to say and I'm not sure that South Carolina would end up ultimately with --
(CROSSTALK)
LANDRIEU: Right.
GILLUM: -- Biden behind. Well, a bit different. I think some of the formula going into it may have been different but listen, black voters for a long time have always had to consider whether or not white voters would be willing to vote the same way that they would. They've always been of two minds.
I remember this is a candidate running for governor. Some of the most convincing I had to do were with older black voters basically saying, you think why people are going to vote for you?
LEMON: Yes.
GILLUM: And that is a calculation that still has to be made in this process. I just think if they were earlier on in the process, they could help shape that a little bit more rather than having to sit back and wait for Iowa or New Hampshire to tell us whether or not white voters have an appetite for voters of color.
LEMON: So, let's talk about some of the confusion. And since we're talking about Biden. Biden this is a letter from Dana Remus who was a general counsel for Biden for president.
Again, as we reported earlier, some of the lawyers and the attorneys for the campaigns were on the call with the Democratic chair out of -- out of Iowa. But this what they say. They say, you know, we appreciate that you planned to brief the campaigns momentarily in the issues. We planned to participate in that.
However, we believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding the methods of quality control you are employing and an opportunity to respond before any official results are released.
So, they want to be able to respond to it and see the results so that they'll know how to react which is interesting. We look forward to hearing from you promptly. It's almost like a demand letter, right, from an attorney.
PSAKI: Yes. It may be smart in a dark and evil way. LEMON: yes.
PSAKI: I mean, not evil. It may be smart in a strategic way --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Dark hearts kind of way.
PSAKI: Dark hearts kind of way.
LEMON: Yes.
PSAKI: But you don't complain about the process if you are winning.
LEMON: Yes.
PSAKI: So, it's telling.
GILLUM: That's right.
PSAKI: And I think once we see the results it will be even more telling perhaps.
LEMON: All right. Well, speaking to all of that and the process, let's bring in Dan Merica. Dan, you were on the call with the press. You heard what the campaign says. Well, you heard the Democratic Party chair Troy Price speaking not only to the campaigns but to the press as well.
Take us through that. Not offering very much of an explanation about what happened but saying that sometime today on Tuesday that those votes or the count at least would be, the results would be released.
DAN MERICA, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, you know, so Joe Biden can he is feeling great as he lands in New Hampshire, but it's safe to say that his campaign and every other campaign here in Iowa are not feeling very great. And that ire is being drawn at Troy Price who was the Iowa Democratic Party chair here.
He held a call with the different campaigns. CNN was able to listen into that call. And what happened was that Price basically was repeatedly questioned by the campaign in an intense fashion over the transparency of the process.
[03:10:05]
(Inaudible) the Iowa caucus, saying he was trying to, quote, "ensure the integrity of the process" and trying to quote, "keep the campaign in the loop throughout the entire process," but that did not quell any concerns from a number of different campaigns.
Many of their questions stem from how much of the information that the party currently had, a question that Price could not answer, whether they were confident that every single Iowan filled out a presence card that they were supposed to. Price did say yes to that. But the most direct criticism came from Jeff Weaver who was a senior
adviser for Bernie Sanders campaign. He was taking issue with the fact that the party was blaming the fact that they had to report three different numbers as the reason for the delay. Weaver called that, quote, "bogus," and said that the idea that this was a reporting issue was prove if true, that the whole process was, quote, "has been a fraud for 100 years."
Just to give you an idea --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: What do think Weaver was getting at? What was Weaver getting at there, Dan?
MERICA: I think -- I think he was getting at the idea that this time they are reporting more numbers. And if that is what complicated the process Weaver is trying to get to this idea that, that fact that they haven't had to do that in previous caucuses raises questions about the number of those as well, whether those numbers were accurate in the proceeding years of the caucuses.
Just to give you an idea of how chaotic this was, Pol County is the largest county in Iowa, that's where Des Moines is. The chair of that Democratic Party told me past midnight on Tuesday, that they were going door to door of precinct chairs and captains who had not reported their numbers to the Iowa Democratic Party yet.
So knocking on the door, waking people up, (Inaudible) in some cases, to get their numbers, and then taking them back to the headquarters of the Polk County Democratic Party where he -- and he sent me photos of boxes and boxes and boxes of documents that they have, just to keep the paper trail of the number of caucus sites and the data from those caucus sites in Polk County.
LEMON: So, here is, I think, the irony here, you're speaking of Jeff Weaver who is now you said a senior adviser for the Sanders campaign. He was the chairman last time, right? He was the -- he ran the campaign.
Didn't they want this system and they wanted all of this information and these numbers that they are now complaining about?
MERICA: Yes. I think what he's -- what Weaver's complaint was, is that he doesn't want those changes to be blamed for the delay, he doesn't want the fact that they are now having to report those numbers to be blamed and then brought by extension the Sanders demand to be the blame.
They think it's the broader issue. Now I will say that Iowa Democratic Party officials including Troy Price have said that this was not a hack, this is not intrusion, they have repeated that. They want to be very clear that this is an issue that does not have to do with someone hacking the app that they've been using to report the numbers.
One of the bigger issues, frankly, was that the call number that they had, so they had this app for people to program in the numbers from different precincts across Iowa, they had a backup which was a call number where people could call and report their numbers.
In some cases, we're being told, that the wait time for that call number was over an hour and that people were just dropped off when they were -- when they were on the phone. The phones just hung up automatically. That's where some of the issue was because a lot of people who are reporting these numbers couldn't get the app to work, they turn to the phone number and then the phone number didn't work. So that's kind of the chaos you're seeing here in Des Moines.
LEMON: Yes. Stand by, Dan, because I have some more questions for you. But I just want to add a couple of things here. The irony, is that a Murphy's Law, I should say, if we bring it back the group for a second, is that when Wolf was on the phone call with one of the precinct captains, and then as soon as he starts to talk to him, it does the whole button, how can I help you, and then they hang up. That has happened to every single one of us before.
GILLUM: But can we just separate that though, from -- we're talking about wait times.
LEMON: Yes.
GILLUM: We're talking the phone line dropping.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Yes, 90 minutes.
GILLUM: All of it is unacceptable. That is very different than changing votes --
(CROSSTALK)
PSAKI: It doesn't mean the credibility of the data.
LEMON: Yes.
GILLUM: -- than votes being traded out, being -- I think candidates have to be in their campaigns, need to be seriously responsible with this moment. These are all people who participated, they were complicit in a process that they believed in, they put millions of dollars on the ground, organizers on the field and they rightfully are hurt and disappointed by the fact that it did not work.
LEMON: So, do you think they should hold off and be patient --
(CROSSTALK)
GILLUM: That being said, --
LEMON: -- before they express --
GILLUM: -- I think they can express their disappointment. However, I think when we get to the point of undermining the outcome of that part of the election --
LEMON: Right.
GILLUM: -- we need much more proof to substantiate that votes have been changed and that it is compromised.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Because ultimately, you're shooting yourself in the foot.
GILLUM: You're shooting yourself but you're also shooting democracy --
LEMON: Right.
GILLUM: -- unless there is proof --
LEMON: Yes.
[03:15:00]
GILLUM: -- that there was something illegal, untoward that took place during this period of time of wait, I think that we ought to pump our brakes, hold our horses and let's just see what comes out. It was unacceptable but let's see what --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I also -- I have people who are asking me about the percentage is on the bottom of your screen. But listen, the percentage is on the bottom of your screen that you're seeing there has nothing to do with the results of the campaign. Those are just entrance polls, and those are the ideology of people.
Do they feel that they are more liberal or more moderate or more conservative, or what have you, and those results were reported accurately? So that has nothing to do with the outcome of the Iowa caucuses. Those are entrance polls.
So, I need to say pay no attention to what you see on the screen, but you can look at that but that is not the results at all. That is nothing to do with the results.
Go ahead, Mark.
PRESTON: Can I add one thing about the entrance polls -- excuse me, and talk about the whole discussion about whether Iowa should be taken out of this very privilege position it sits in right now.
Again, I don't have any relatives in Iowa, I have no stake in Iowa, but what's interesting about Iowa is a couple of things. One, if you look at the entrance pols 67 percent of Iowans who caucus tonight said that they were liberals, self-identified liberals, right?
About a third of those said they were conservative or moderate. OK? So, you have to figure probably more moderate than conservative, OK, if you're going to be in a caucus. When we are talking about the makeup of the Democratic electorate party, I think you do have to give some credit.
And look, I understand I'm not saying something that is going to make people endear themselves to me. But if you look at what happened with Iowa, New Hampshire in the northeast, but you quickly get to South Carolina where you have obviously African-Americans will dominate that currently.
LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, POLITICO: Latinos in Nevada.
PRESTON: Latinos in Nevada, right? And if you look at the delegates that are awarded from each of these states, it's very miniscule, OK? So, when we talk about, well, Iowa has this unbelievable place, you know, at the beginning, well, they do because people in Iowa are very much engaged in the process, they really know what's going on.
LEMON: I don't know but is it chicken or the egg? Because are they engage because they do come first or do they -
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: It doesn't matter.
LEMON: Yes, it does matter, Mark.
PRESTON: No, no, no.
LEMON: It does matter, because it does matter because as the mayor was saying, if you had the first contests that started in a more diverse state, then the candidates who came out of that or come out of that contest would look quite different than they -- different than they do when -- in Iowa.
(CROSSTALK)
BARRON-LOPEZ: And also, a number of Democrats that I've spoken to have raised the issue that just because Iowa is engaged doesn't mean another state of similar size that you could retail politic in but not be similar to --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: And who would --
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: That's right.
LEMON: -- who actually more representative of him than the candidate --
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: I've covered politics for a very long time, I've seen how these states operate in a very long time, I'm not saying that Iowa should be giving the sheriff's role. I'm just saying that there are a lot of candidates that wouldn't be able to campaign for president because --
LEMON: Yes.
PRESTON: -- they could not afford to buy ads that you can buy in Iowa and that they can actually get people to come in.
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: I want to -- I want to continue this conversation because I have to get a break in. But what -- the main reason this would happened at what, 67 convention but also because the process in Iowa is so complicated --
(CROSSTALK)
PRESTON: Well, that takes --
LEMON: -- and it takes -- it takes so long, that is one reason that they're first. I mean, but is that a deserving enough reason for them to be first? I think it's time to start evaluating that.
But we will continue this conversation on the other side of the break. We have to get a break in. But listen, it's morning all over America right now and we have no results from last night's Iowa caucus, so we'll be right back. It's officially morning. We'll be right back.
[03:20:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
LEMON: All right, back now with our -- we're live by the way for the Iowa caucuses, still at 3.20 in the morning here in Washington, D.C., on the East Coast. I want to bring in my panel of experts here.
So, yes, we are live, I just got a text from my fiance, you're still on? Yes, I'm still on.
Ron Brownstein joins us. Ron Brownstein joins us now. So, listen, we've been having this discussion about Iowa and whether it should be first and no one is saying, we are not seeing anything disparaging about Iowa, except they got this one wrong today. I mean, not necessarily the entire state. But what do you think, should it start there necessarily?
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't. I mean, I think that having two 90 percent white states starting the process for the Democratic Party in which over 40 percent of all the voters will be non-white is just not right.
And you know, people talk about the increasing influence of Nevada and South Carolina. And that's real, I mean, you bring in more diversity there but they are choosing among the candidates who get through the isthmus of Iowa and New Hampshire. And the fact is, the fact that all of the candidate -- major candidates of color were out before anybody voted I think it was partly reflected of the fact that they had to make their case initially to those isthmuses.
Kamala Harris decided that the only way she can be competitive in South Carolina was to move all of her attention to Iowa.
PRESTON: That's right.
BROWNSTEIN: And it's not that people won't vote for diverse candidates. They voted for Barack Obama, they voted to some extent for Jesse Jackson in '88, but it's simply isn't as big a priority. It just doesn't cross there, you know, it isn't something that motivates a lot of votes.
Yes, we need -- we need to have more diversity at the top of the tickets. So, I think there are a lot of reasons to question this even before tonight's debacle, I think caucuses in general are problem.
I mean, this is a really consequential, you know, moment, and it is speaking someone who may or may not defeat Donald Trump. It may put us on a path toward four more years of Trump or not and people are standing in hallways with sharpies filling out cards. I mean, they should be vote -- we have a, you know, we had a mechanism for about 100 years for doing this.
LEMON: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: It's called primaries, and then we have voting machines.
LEMON: So, you want voting to be as easy as possible or tough as possible because in order to caucus you have to have, you need child care, and all of that.
BROWNSTEIN Right. I think we're down to three caucuses now? Is that right?
LEMON: Yes.
BROWNSTEIN: We're down to three caucuses left. And I got to think by 2020 for, there is going to be a lot of pressure to be down to zero.
GILLUM: I hope so.
LEMON: Mark, do you disagree with that? Do you take umbrage with some of what he said?
PRESTON: No, no, no. I mean, look, here's my thing about Iowa. My defensive Iowa is not a defensive a system in what has happened tonight, and the idea that caucuses in many ways disenfranchises people.
[03:25:03]
Because if you can't get there then, you know, it's hard, you know, for you to vote.
What I'm saying is, though, is that I just think that we should take a step back and not throw all of this anger on the state of Iowa in the voters, and it's like, Iowa doesn't deserve this. You know, Iowa screw this up.
No. The system screwed this up, the caucus screwed this up. That's all I'm saying.
LEMON: Well, not the entire system.
PRESTON: Yes.
LEMON: No one is angry, no one is saying -- no one is throwing anger on.
PRESTON: A lot of people are frustrated that we --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Well, maybe outside of the studio.
LANDRIEU: Well, we are having a couple of different discussions.
LEMON: Yes.
LANDRIEU: Today was a mess.
GILLUM: Yes.
LANDRIEU: It was a colossal mess, there is no question about that. But the bigger issue that we're talking about now is, one, should we have caucuses or primaries? I think primaries are better than caucuses.
But secondly, whether or not Iowa actually is a reflection of what the Democratic Party is today. Now the people of Iowa were spectacular, we've all been there. We know how seriously they take it. They do a great job and they're all wonderful people.
But it is a fact that the demographics of Iowa don't accurately reflect the demographics of the Democratic Party. And diversity is a strength, it's not a weakness. And if another state was before Iowa, you could very well get a different result that catapulted you into a different place.
That's the only point, not that they shouldn't be first or second but that the mix of it all does not accurately reflect whether Democrats --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Because depending on where you come in in Iowa, either people will say, my gosh, they're not viable.
LANDRIEU: Sure. LEMON: Or they're great and they get a lift out of it, or they don't.
LANDRIEU: Well, I believe that if South Carolina were held today on the same day with the same candidates, you would have the reverse result. Biden would be first. Today, if you did the same, they're both at the same time, Biden be first and maybe Buttigieg would be fifth or Bernie. It wouldn't be the same way.
And so, you would have two different results and the public could go, well, that's interesting, let me look at both of those discern what it is I want to do. And as they move on to super Tuesday, they would have a more broader set of options available to them.
BARRON-LOPEZ: And just a matter of contest. I mean, regardless of what happened tonight which is we all agree there was a process meltdown, this conversation about whether Iowa should or shouldn't go first is something Democrats have been talking about for months. It started with Julian Castro when he was in the race and then --
(CROSSTALK)
GILLUM: For years, really.
BARRON-LOPEZ: Yes, three years, but it also seems to have taken on a greater life this cycle. And it started with him and then it's been carried on by others, even Ayanna Pressley who is a Warren surrogate recently just told me that she thinks they shouldn't go first anymore, also that New Hampshire shouldn't be second anymore.
So, this is a conversation that is really alive within the Democratic Party right now. But what remains to be seen is whether or not four years from now the DNC actually does anything --
(CROSSTALK)
LEMON: Well, speaking of that --
BARRON-LOPEZ: -- or if this conversation survives ahead of the next cycle.
LEMON: Two things, who decides whether, you know, Iowa is first is that the DNC.
PRESTON: Yes.
LEMON: But the other thing is, as we are sitting there watching this go on, we said, well, here we start with Iowa, and this appears to be a debacle tonight, right? And then we end with the electoral college, which has been frustrating to so many people because --
GILLUM: Sure.
LEMON: -- the actual person who has the most votes doesn't necessarily become the president of the United States. So, who is disenfranchised by that? More Americans, I think are disenfranchised by not having a person who has the most votes than the other way around.
PSAKI: I think a big factor we're just not talking about here, there has been an ongoing debate, there should be debate, as if a Democratic who finishes in the top two or three in Iowa is wins and is in the White House.
GILLUM: That's a big art.
PSAKI: This conversation is going to be delayed. It's not going to be a priority. Maybe it should be but that's the big factor. If Donald Trump is reelected --
LEMON: Yes.
PSAKI: I expect the conversation will be expedited and there may not be a first Iowa.
LEMON: All right. Stand by, everyone. I'm sorry, I have to go to the break.
Amy Klobuchar is about to land in Manchester, New Hampshire. We saw the former vice president do it. Everybody who won, which is everyone --
PRESTON: Smiling --
LEMON: Everyone who won she is probably smiling, and she said she punched above her weight class which means, I think --
(CROSSTALK)
GILLUM: She pops up.
LEMON: -- that she thinks she beat the former vice president. We'll be right back. Don't go anywhere. We'll see who else is landing in Manchester, New Hampshire after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:30:00]
LEMON: We are still live. We're live in D.C., we're live in Iowa, and we are live in Manchester, New Hampshire. As a matter of fact, we are live at the airport and that is where you will find CNN's John Berman up early. John, I understand some of the candidates are coming in. We saw the former vice president come in just about 30 minutes ago. What do you see now? What's going on?
BERMAN: So, Don, this is the private flight terminal here at the Manchester airport and every four years the night after Iowa, this is where the candidates all come through and oftentimes they are met by supporters here. You can see Amy Klobuchar is due here in a few minutes and she's got the most supporters here right now. This is Nick. Hey, Nick, how are you doing?
NICK: I'm good. BERMAN: It's very nice to see you here. Andrew Yang is going to walk
through here, maybe even before Klobuchar, and then he's going to head to an early morning rally, like, right now, in another part of the airport and then we expect Elizabeth Warren a little bit later. I have been through this airport many times over the last 20 years and so I remember landing here with George W. Bush in the year 2000 the night after Iowa and there were throngs of people out on the tarmac out there greeting him.
This year it's decidedly different because all of these candidates are arriving not knowing whether they are winning or losing or what the heck is going on. So, we don't know exactly who is on the ground yet. We saw someone directing a plane out there and I expect we could see Andrew Yang shortly, Don, and if that does happen, I will let you know as soon as we see him.
[03:35:00]
LEMON: Well, you got a good old group there behind you, J.B. I mean, at 3:30 in the morning, to have these folks out. They are pretty die hard. That is their candidate.
BERMAN: They are. They are, but you know, it is an important picture to, get, this is an important picture to get. Don't forget, New Hampshire starts for real right now. You want to hit the ground running here and if you can get the picture arriving here in Manchester with a crowd cheering and get on the local news starting 5:00 a.m., that is a good image to get and that is why they do it. There is a local station up here, WMUR channel nine, which is very, very important and that is what all of these candidates are trying to do today.
LEMON: Listen.
BERMAN: The ones who have a good story to tell, I mean, Joe Biden did not seem to want to talk when he landed here earlier and that's the thing. I mean, if you have a story to tell you race to the cameras.
LEMON: Yes. Well, don't underestimate yourself. Being live with John Berman, I mean, I think that is really exciting and I would want to get my picture taken with John Berman, and be on the morning local news as well so there you go, J.B.
BERMAN: If I know I was talking to you, Don, I would've tied my tie all the way up. No one told me I was going to be on TV with Don Lemon.
(LAUGHTER)
LEMON: We thought you were doing hurricane coverage. Double duty there. John Berman, we are going to get back to you. If you get any of the other candidates, give us a hollow and we will get right back at you. John Berman, at the Manchester airport, doing great job there. Up early the host of the morning show here on CNN. So let's bring it back to the group here.
JEN PSAKI, FORMER OBAMA WHITE HOUSE COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR: And I want to say, Don, I think a lot of the campaigns have missed a moment here in having like a rally or a bigger crowd, you actually organize that much earlier than you know the results. So, that is something they would've started doing a couple of days ago and that is pretty disappointing, as Democrat, to see. So that was fine, but, you know, it could be bigger.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST, AND SENIOR EDITOR OF THE ATLANTIC: He's reference to being there with George W. Bush is actually relevant. Bush on Iowa, went into New Hampshire and got wallop. Obama went Iowa in 2008, went into New Hampshire, Hillary Clinton upset him. 2016, Hillary Clinton win Iowa, gets walloped by Bernie Sanders, 88 and 92 also on the Democratic side of the Iowa went to New Hampshire, there is a history of New Hampshire being contrary to Iowa.
Demographically it is a little different, independents can vote, there are more independents, it is a little more white collar, particularly on the Democratic side than Iowa is. So, it will be interesting to see over the next week. There had been a few cases where the Iowa winners won New Hampshire, and they've always won the nomination. And John Kerry in 04, Al Gore in 2000, but often New Hampshire just has a contrary strict. They don't like to be in the position of kind of rubber stamping or confirming what Iowa has already done.
LEMON: So, what are you saying now?
BROWNSTEIN: I'm saying that -- I'm saying that like when we finally know who won Iowa, if we ever know who won Iowa, it would not be shocking to see New Hampshire go in a different direction.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Just because?
BROWNSTEIN: just because.
LEMON: But also to John Berman's point, I mean, it is important, this is the beginning and you said this, earlier Jim, this is the beginning of New Hampshire and you want to have your game face on, right?
PSAKI: Right.
LEMON: You want to get on the morning news, you know, you want to -- if you're carrying the momentum out of Iowa, hey, I'm great, I'm great, put your game face on.
PSAKI: And, also with supporters, do you want people and energy and people from New Hampshire behind you and with you, and that is why the George Bush rally, we did a rally when we landed with Obama. I'm just surprised that candidates haven't done that. I don't know if there's a secret Warren rally somewhere. Maybe there is.
MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But the other thing that's happening here is the -- they have candidates who are going to play in New Hampshire that did not play in Iowa and then of course you have Bloomberg who just said, I'm not going to any of the first four -- and, so this is kind of a -- this is a very different year than the ones that we had. LEMON: Can we say how the Bloomberg campaign is feeling now -- we
don't know the results, but --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden performed poorly.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once that is confirmed, right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Once that confirmed.
PSAKI: Joe Biden performing poorly but I will also say the fact that the turnout was not that high, I mean, I think the IDP were saying around 2016, they feel that that kind of flies in the face of this notion that Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren or others are bringing out a lot of new people. We'll see with the results. I think both --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: If there's an opening here in the moderate lane, meaning if Joe Biden significantly underperforms and I mean not third but fourth or fifth, I'm guessing that there are going to be a lot of people on the Bloomberg train saying this may be our time for a real strike.
LEMON: Yes, we are still live here on CNN and still awaiting results from the Iowa caucus which was held last night, but the results should be in sometime today. At least that's what we're told from the Democratic caucus there so we'll see. We'll see. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:40:00]
LEMON: We're back now live for -- I'm wondering what this day is going to look like because clearly last night was an issue for the Democrats in Iowa. Welcome back, everyone. This is CNN's coverage of the Iowa caucus and yes, we are still live right now.
So, let's bring the experts back in now. I think it's, you know, we want to know what today's going to look like, but who knows? No one knows. We don't know when the results are going to come in. We were all excited about having this new technology where we'd be able to give people in real-time all these information about the percentages, about the number of delegates and on and on and on, and guess what -- I don't -- we don't have the shot on the magic wall, but the magic wall is asleep because there are no results on it.
PSAKI: And in 17 hours is the state of the union if I'm getting my math, 3:45, correct. So, and there's going to be a lead up to the state of the union, presumably -- who knows.
[03:45:05]
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's Senate speeches. An impeachment vote.
PSAKI: There's impeachment speeches, so there is as we've been talking about tonight a very small media window. And coming out of the Iowa caucus a big priority for candidates is taking advantage of that moment. It's a smaller moment for them. No doubt.
LEMON: So, listen, it all seemed well in the beginning when this all started about 6:00 or 7:00 tonight and then even around in the 8:00 hour it all seemed normal. And then all of a sudden where all the results? None of the results are coming in and no one had any explanation as to why there were no results. Later on in the evening, finally someone chimed in I think it was Troy Price, right, for who's the head of the Iowa Democratic -- he's a chairman of the Iowa Democratic caucus there and decided that someone had to give some sort of explanation, and they were saying it was a reporting problem. But a reporting problem and then having 0 percent of the results in, that is huge issue. And we're sitting here at almost 4:00 in the morning and there's still zero results.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So let's hope this. Let's hope that tomorrow at noon that we come to find out that there was a reporting error, that there wasn't anything bad that happened to it and in fact it was the process and that people want to change it then it should be changed. But let's just hope for our electoral system moving forward, that there isn't anything wrong. But let me add this in because I could not, not add this in.
We all love a big political scandal, we love a big crisis but we also love a great resolution. Right? I mean, that's how these things all play out. Politics is like sports and that's exactly what we are seeing.
BROWNSTEIN: Can I throw one more curve ball in -- even if they resolve and we have results and there's nothing nefarious, it's still going to be a muddle. I mean, it's entirely likely that the winner in Iowa last night won with a lower percentage than any winner ever. We could have four or even five candidates reach double digits in delegates. We've only had four once. We've never had five.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well that fact is got lost in the whole night.
BROWNSTEIN: Right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The size of the win is the smallest than it's ever been. And it testifies to the balkanization of the Party at this point and the inability of any of these candidates to really expand beyond their comfort zone and build a coalition big enough to pull away from everybody else.
LEMON: Well, let me ask you this. Does it matter at this point? Does Iowa, does it matter that much?
BROWNSTEIN: The last four winners have won. Even when New Hampshire went the other way, and I think in contrary -- in counter point to what we're seeing earlier --
LEMON: That's not what I mean, -- that's not what I mean, Ron. When all the candidates have come out and basically said I won, I won, I won, I won, does it matter?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It will be diminished. I mean, typically the role that this has is it has the ability to winnow the field. Everybody's coming out of here with a tickets to the next race.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And that's for the first time in 20 years potentially without knowing the results fully that Iowa has not winnowed (inaudible) --
LEMON: You could get the results and there could be no clear winner or as you guys said, the smallest, right.
BROWNSTEIN: Lowest margin has smallest share for the winner ever. But having said that. One thing that I think is still true this year is that the grooves get cut really early in terms of the patterns of support the candidates had. And I think what we saw in Iowa, is probably what we are going to see for a while.
I mean, with Biden really weak among younger people, more competitive with older. Sanders the reverse, the ideological differences, the college, the non-college. Buttigieg actually had the most evenly distributed support, but it was in a safe without any African-American or Latinos and once he gets into places that are more diverse, he's going to have a challenge. I mean, what you really saw were these distinct niches and pools and no one really going beyond their traditional comfort zone.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think it's sort of to be expected with a field as large as this was which is why the whittling is a little bit --
LEMON: Here's Amy Klobuchar -- this is Amy Klobuchar arriving now. Let's listen.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There you go. Big smiles.
LEMON: John Berman, are you there? Can John hear me?
BERMAN: I am here. I'm standing right beside the camera. Listen.
LEMON: Can you get her? Do you think she'll talk? She's going to talk.
SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN), U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I arrived in New Hampshire to see we're tied for second.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERS)
And we just had an excellent night tonight in Iowa. Of course, we don't know the results yet. Minor problem.
(LAUGHTER)
But other than that we know that we did incredibly well. We won a bunch of precincts and delegates that places we didn't expect to win, and so we're feeling good. I'm not going to say what those numbers are, because no one is quite sure.
(LAUGHTER) [03:50:05]
But clearly a lot of people are saying we had a good night. And I was so proud of our staff in Iowa, everything they did. A number of them are going to be coming this way.
(CHEERS)
And then onto Nevada. There we go. So we're really, really excited.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your talk was great.
KLOBUCHAR: Oh, thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It was such a good move.
LEMON: That was Amy Klobuchar. Amy Klobuchar arriving at the Manchester airport. We're going to have to get a break in but it seems to me she is confirming or at least she knows what everyone said earlier that it was actually a really smart move for her to come out first and take the media narrative and take the spotlight coming out not necessarily declaring victory, but saying that she had done a great job and was punching above her weight class in Iowa. Don't go away, we will be right back. More candidates arriving in Manchester, New Hampshire.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[03:55:00]
LEMON: CNN's coverage of the Iowa caucus continues now. We are still live. We came in about 12 hours ago, about 4:00 Eastern Time, started the coverage expecting to get some results and starting around 7:00, or 8:00. As it turns out that did not happen. There is a processing problem, a reporting problem that's going on in the state of Iowa right now. So far still zero results. Nothing is in right now. And we're waiting on the Iowa Democratic committee to come in and tell us when they're going to start getting those results.
They're saying sometime today. Who knows Tuesday, they don't know exactly what time, but sometime today they're going to start giving those results. Obviously CNN will be live throughout the day. So when those first results start to come in, we will bring them to you. According to the chair there they said they don't believe that it was hacked, they don't believe that the system was compromised at any point or at during that period.
But what they are saying is they think that is a processing problem. As soon as they get the results in, we will know them immediately. So make sure you stay tuned to CNN. I'm Don Lemon reporting live from Washington, D.C. Early Start starts right after this very quick break here on CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
