Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Buttigieg Campaigning in New Hampshire after No Results in Iowa; Biden's Deputy Campaign Manager, Kate Bedingfield, Discusses the Iowa Caucuses Chaos; Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) Discusses Impeachment Trial, Possible Trump Acquittal & Iowa Caucus Chaos; 427 Dead, 20,000- Plus Cases of Coronavirus in China. Rush Limbaugh Reveals He Has Advanced Lung Cancer. Aired 7:30a-8a ET

Aired February 04, 2020 - 07:30   ET

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

[07:30:00]

ALISON CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: So, John, we know that you will be speaking with Mayor Pete Buttigieg soon and he is already out and about it sounds like there in New Hampshire.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, we hope to be speaking to him soon.

But there you're looking at live pictures of him in Nashua, New Hampshire, which I know you know well, Alisyn. He is in a cafe talking to voters. No rest for the frustrated. No results from Iowa. But the candidates, they've got to be out on the trail this morning.

Can we hear him? No, we have no audio of the mayor there.

Hopefully, he will drive up and join us in Manchester shortly.

In the meantime, we have a representative from the Biden campaign joining us, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BERMAN: Welcome back. John Berman, here in Manchester, New Hampshire.

We are still waiting for the results of the first-in-the-nation Iowa caucuses. As frustration mounts, the Biden campaign is not taking any of this lightly. They he sent a letter to the Iowa Democratic Party asking about the acute failures of the caucuses.

Joining me now is Kate Bedingfield, Joe Biden's deputy campaign manager and communications director.

Kate, I know you're working on 90 minutes sleep and flew in from Iowa last night. So we appreciate you being with us.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, DEPUTY CAMPAIGN MANAGER & COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, JOE BIDEN 2020 PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Of course.

BERMAN: This is a letter that your campaign wrote to the Iowa Democratic Party from the general counsel. And you say, "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."

What have you heard so far?

[07:35:10]

BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, you know, you see in the letter we have real concerns about the integrity of the process. I think there were significant failures in the process last night that should give voters concern.

You obviously had the app failure, the app that precinct captains were using to report in their results failed. You had the phone system where precinct captains there were reports of them getting frustrated not being able to report results, hanging up.

Then you have the presidential preference cards, which are essentially the paper trail for the app, which we already know failed.

So I think taken together, those are significant concerns. I think they should raise concerns for voters.

And, you know, election integrity is obviously of the utmost importance. We really want to make sure that the Iowa Democratic Party addresses this before they put out official data.

BERMAN: They're saying they're just trying to get it right. What reason do you have to believe that this isn't just a matter of getting it right?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, I think exactly these issues that we just raised are really significant.

If you have a process where you can't be confident that the results that are being reported are reflective of the votes that people cast last night in the process, that's a real concern.

So I think, you know, the important thing to remember is that people should be able to have faith that the process was fair, but we should already remember Iowa is the beginning of the process. it's not the end of the process.

Here we are in New Hampshire where we have a full day of campaign events today. For us, we've always said that the nomination runs through Nevada, South Carolina, Super Tuesday, places where the electorate is more diverse. So we're moving forward.

BERMAN: There will be critics who say that you don't like the results out of Iowa or you don't like the results that you think are going to come from Iowa so you are criticizing the process. What do you say to that?

BEDINGFIELD: Not at all. I mean, you know, our internal data shows that we overperformed in parts of the states where we didn't expect to. Our internal data those that we won Cherokee County. We performed well in Dubuque. We won Ida County. Our internal data shows we won precinct 72 in Des Moines, which is a

precinct Bernie Sanders won in 2016 with 66 percent of the vote. So we think out --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Do you have a sense, if you finished first, second, third, fourth in the state delegate equivalent?

BEDINGFIELD: There's no official data that's been presented yet.

BERMAN: All right.

BEDINGFIELD: You put your finger on exactly the problem here, which is we have zero official data from the Iowa Democratic Party at this point.

While we feel great about our performance last night and our internal information showed we are outperformed in a lot of places in the state where we didn't expect to, and we will have our fair share of the delegates coming out of Iowa, there are serious questions about the process.

And during this time where we have no official verified information from the Iowa Democratic Party, we have, you know, campaigns putting out incomplete -- incomplete data that doesn't paint a full picture. So --

BERMAN: Based on what you saw last night, how do you feel about Iowa going first in the future?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, look, I think anybody who watched that process last night would have some concerns with how that played out.

For us, we're focused on the campaign at hand, we are here in New Hampshire, we will be campaigning hard for the next week and then on to Nevada and South Carolina and beyond.

BERMAN: You always talk about the long road, about this being a long process. One might think that you only talk about a long road if you don't like the short-term road you are on. That the road right now might be rocky.

BEDINGFIELD: No it's a long road because that's the way the process works. If you look at Iowa is 41 delegates, for example. You need almost 2,000 to become the Democratic nominee for president. It's a long process.

It's built that way. It's supposed to be built that way so diverse voices, people from around the country get their say in the process.

We think that Joe Biden is best positioned to build the coalition that Democrats need to be successful in November to beat Donald Trump.

BERMAN: How many fundraisers do you have planned or how much time will the vice president spend fundraising between now and next Tuesday when New Hampshire votes?

BEDINGFIELD: He is focused on talking to voters. He has a full day of campaign events today, we obviously have the debate later this week, he is going to spend the last majority of his time talking to voters in New Hampshire over the next week.

BERMAN: I was reading the "Boston Globe." There's an endorsement overnight there --

BEDINGFIELD: Yes. Yes.

BERMAN: -- from Caroline Kennedy, former ambassador to Japan.

BEDINGFIELD: Yes, a huge endorsement. We're very excited about that.

She -- I think if you look at the piece in the "Globe" today, she really talks about why she believes that the vice president is the person who can restore the sense of leadership and dignity in the country. It's incredibly powerful. I would encourage everybody to check it out.

BERMAN: Will she be campaigning in person with the vice president in New Hampshire?

BEDINGFIELD: We will have news on that in the future. So stay tuned.

BERMAN: Kate Bedingfield, again, I appreciate you being here with me. Ninety minutes of sleep is not enough.

BEDINGFIELD: It's not. It's really not.

BERMAN: I recommend getting some sleep if you can over the next few days.

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Thank you very much.

BEDINGFIELD: Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.

BERMAN: All right, Alisyn, you can see, bleary eyed campaign representatives across the board, trying to make sense of what happened. We all are.

CAMEROTA: I feel like I might be projected with the bleary eyed part of theat. They look fresh as daisies.

BERMAN: Yes, absolutely.

(CROSSTALK)

[07:40:02]

BERMAN: --what I'm really saying is I'm exhausted.

CAMEROTA: I get that. I know you. BERMAN: No question.

CAMEROTA: Meanwhile, the president appears to be on the verge of being acquitted in his impeachment trial.

And there's a new strategy emerging as a way to hold him accountable without voting him out of office. One of the House impeachment managers joins us on what's going to happen today.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The impeachment trial of President Trump continues. And today, Senators get to speak their minds. Senators will be speaking out about their decision to acquit or convict President Trump.

And this follows an emotional day of closing arguments, including a Harry Potter reference.

[07:45:55]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): There are a lot of things outside our control. But my wife and I have tried to teach our kids that what we can always control are our choices.

It's in that spirit that, hanging in my son's room, is a quote from Harry Potter. The quote is from Professor Dumbledore, who said, "It is our choices that show who we truly are."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: And we are joined by that House impeachment manager, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow.

Good morning, Congressman.

CROW: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: Who doesn't like a good Harry Potter reference and who doesn't understand the wisdom of Dumbledore?

But my question to you this morning is that, after all the work and energy that you and your fellow impeachment managers have put into making these arguments, if you haven't swayed a single Republican to convict the president, will you have thought that it was all for not?

CROW: Well, I think doing the right thing always matters. I can't control other people. I can't control will weather they keep their oath. I can't control whether or not they are going to do the right thing.

But I can control what I do. And I think doing the right inning matters. I think it shows a very powerful example. I think it shows the country that people are willing to stand up and do what's the right thing to do in the name of justice in America. CAMEROTA: What do you say this morning to your fellow Democrats? I

mean, not only have you not convinced, it sounds like, a single Republican to convict, what do you say to your fellow Democrats? I'm thinking of Joe Manchin, Kyrsten Sinema, Doug Jones, who may acquit the president?

CROW: Well, I would say the same thing that we have been saying the last two weeks, that right matters, that you are in control of your own choices, that we really need, at this point in our country, people to show courage, to stand up and push back on this president and his enablers.

Even a few people that are willing to do that I think would send a very powerful message.

At the end of the day, we can't allow to happen is for a new normal to be set for us to turn a blind eye to the president's behavior and conduct and say it's OK, or to even give him a slap on the wrist.

It's time that we actually start saying a more powerful message, that this is not who we are as a nation. That takes courage.

Public service, by definition, means you're serving other people, you're serving the public, and that entails some sacrifice.

CAMEROTA: When you say a slap on the wrist, are you referring to censure?

CROW: I'm referring to what a lot of these Senators have been saying it was wrong, it was inappropriate. One Republican Senator even said it was shameful.

Those words I think are important. I'm not saying they are not important. I think it's important that they send a message that this is not OK. But something more substantive like an impeachment was the way to go. That's why we believed that was the right thing to do and we still do.

CAMEROTA: Let's talk about the idea that Senator Joe Manchin floated yesterday. His argument was that the president did do something wrong. And when you hear, as you referred to, Senator Murkowski say it was shameful, that maybe there's a middle ground between doing nothing and removing a president from office, which many people have felt would not be best for the country right now.

CROW: Well --

CAMEROTA: And so he was saying that there's a solution to that and it's censure.

CROW: I think if we've learned one thing about President Trump the last over three years is that there's not a lot of middle ground with President Trump.

I came into Congress looking forward to trying to find a way to work with him, to help him succeed. and I still believe I can find some areas to work with him, by the way. I firmly believe that, because the country's success is more important to me than anything.

So we're going to continue to work together. I'm going to continue to work with the Senators that were in that room, Republican or Democrat. I will continue to work with Republicans and Democrats in the House like I have been all along.

But, you know, the president doesn't leave a lot of room for middle ground. Most people would agree with that.

CAMEROTA: Yes.

CROW: That's why we felt this was the right way to move forward.

CAMEROTA: I understand. But just because the president doesn't like middle ground doesn't mean that you all can't resort to middle ground. What about censure?

CROW: This is about the president's conduct. We are still in an impeachment trial. Tomorrow is the actual vote. We will continue to press that case. We think it's important that people do the right thing, whether that's a Democratic Senator or a Republican Senator.

We have been very clear about what our position is. We think the right thing to do is for the country, with the country and their oath and duty requires.

CAMEROTA: While I have you, I want to ask you about the chaos unfolding in the Iowa caucus. We expected to have an answer already by this time in the morning about who won the Iowa caucuses. We do not have that because of these inconsistencies with being able to tally the vote.

Your state of Colorado did away with the caucus process and this year will be engaging in a primary. Is it time to retire the caucus process?

CROW: Well, Colorado is still going to do both. Actually, we're going to have a presidential primary but we still do have caucuses at the Senate level and below. So there are caucuses.

I'm going to be caucusing and going through in just a little over a month here asking my supporters to show up. We do have the caucus. We're doing both at this point.

(CROSSTALK)

[07:50:03]

CAMEROTA: But you still have confidence in it, you're saying, even after what's happening in Iowa?

CROW: This is the first time I think this has happened in Iowa. Not really sure what has happened. I don't think anybody does.

Whenever something happens. we have to get the facts and figure out of what happened and talk about what needs to be fixed or changed. I don't think anybody sitting here can have that conversation.

CAMEROTA: Congressman Jason Crow, we appreciate you taking time to be on NEW DAY. Great to talk to you.

CROW: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: China has now seen its worst day yet since the coronavirus outbreak began. We have the story for you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CAMEROTA: The death toll from the coronavirus in China is now up to 427. And there are more than 20,000 confirmed cases of people getting sick around the world. The United Kingdom is calling on all Brits in China to leave now.

Joining us is CNN chief medical correspondent, Dr. Sanjay Gupta.

[07:55:03]

Sanjay, what's the latest on the cases here in the U.S.?

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, we know the status of these 11 patients now here in the United States. They are spread around the country. A map to show you where they are.

For the most part, we hear they're doing well. Two patients who have received this virus via human-to-human transmission. That was something that public health officials are keeping an eye on.

We also know. in California, there have been a few patients who have been diagnosed and then told to isolate themselves at home. To give you an idea of how public health officials there are approaching this.

Two of those patients, a husband and wife, had to be taken to the hospital overnight last night because they became more symptomatic.

So we're keeping an eye on them. But so far, they're doing well, Alisyn, and announcing no deaths reported in the United States.

CAMEROTA: Sanjay, what does it mean that the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus is not currently a pandemic?

GUPTA: This may be to some degree semantics. It's more like an epidemic in multiple locations around the world. But the vast majority of cases are in China.

You can see how the numbers have increased since the middle of January. Doubling basically every few days if you do that math. Most of that as you point out concentrated in China.

So they say this is still very much an epidemic in China. The vast majority of cases being there. Only about 191 compared to 20,000 are outside of China. So that definition may change. The public health folks use different criteria for that.

But right, now they say not going to call it a pandemic. We think this can still be contained in other places around the world.

CAMEROTA: I want to switch topics to Rush Limbaugh. So as you know, the conservative radio host revealed yesterday on his show that he has advanced lung cancer. And that doesn't sound good. So what is the prognosis for something like that?

GUPTA: Well, it's -- this is one of those cancers that's considered one of the deadliest and also one of the ones where we've made the most progress. If you look back to the early '90s for the -- the lung cancer death rates have come down close to 50 percent over that time.

So it's a tough cancer. But one of the ones where we're seeing some evidence of declining mortality rates.

When he says advanced lung cancer, we don't know what that means specifically. Typically, people mean it's stage four lunch cancer, that it's spread to both lungs, present in fluid around the lungs, spread to other parts of the body.

It's tough to give prognosis. We know he's going to be getting more testing to figure out how far this cancer has spread.

And there's new therapies such as immunotherapies. We heard about this with President Carter where he had metastatic melanoma that spread to his brain. Got an immunotherapy and is functionally cured.

I don't want to paint too rosy a picture on it. It's a tough cancer and will require aggressive treatment but we've had a lot of progress recently.

CAMEROTA: I think Rush says he'll keep his listeners updated. So, obviously, we'll follow that.

Sanjay, thank you very much.

GUPTA: Yes, thank you.

CAMEROTA: Thanks to our international viewers for watching. For you, CNN "NEWSROOM," with Max Foster is next.

For our U.S. viewers, breaking news. Mass confusion over the Iowa caucus results.

"NEW DAY" continues right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BERMAN: Good morning, everyone. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It's Tuesday, February 4th, 8:00 in the east. Alisyn is in New York. I'm in New Hampshire this morning ahead of next week's first-in-the-nation primary.

But we still don't know the results of the first-in-the-nation caucuses from Iowa last night. What a mess.

We're told by the Iowa Democratic Party there won't be any results from that state until later today at the earliest because of issues, they say, with a new app they were using to count and problems with reporting the vote tallies.

Many of the county chairs say they tried to call in the voting results but were kept on hold for hours. Some of the candidates are already here in New Hampshire despite the fact that Iowa is not over yet.

I caught up with Senator Amy Klobuchar and Andrew Yang as they arrived early this morning.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Senator, what happened? Iowa?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): They had -- apparently they had a problem with the computer system and getting the numbers on. I think they'll be able to count them by hand just like people used to and then get them in.

BERMAN: Do you have any questions about the legitimacy of the process when the results do come out? Are you going to wonder, hey, are these fair?

ANDREW YANG, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Well, I'll certainly take the folks in Iowa at their word. I'm sure they would not have wished this kind of delay on anyone.

So the data I'm sure will prove out. They have a record of most all of it. A lot of it happened in public.