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More Results from Iowa Caucuses, Buttigieg Holds Lead; New Iowa Results Just In: Buttigieg Holds Lead; Trump, Pelosi Drama Overshadows State of the Union. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired February 05, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: I want to thank everybody on the panel. Our coverage continues right now with Chris Cuomo -- Chris.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: All right, thank you, Anderson.

I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to PRIME TIME MIDNIGHT EDITION. We have breaking news on our watch. We're expecting more votes coming from Iowa at any minute.

The big question is, is Pete Buttigieg still in the lead?

And did you watch tonight?

Boy, was the state of our politics was clear at the State of the Union. The president started it out with a snub of the Speaker. And she ended it with the tear heard 'round the country. The good news is, we are better than the current poison politics around us and an election is here. Let's get after it.

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CUOMO: All right. Let's start with what we know about what you're saying with votes in Iowa. Iowa may finally be decided. Here's the current reckoning: 62 percent of precincts and Buttigieg leading the field, 26.9 of state delegate equivalence, SDE. Sanders, 25.1, Warren 18.3, Biden way back at 15.6.

No matter how they want to spin it. This is a problem. I'll tell you the popular vote. But SDE is what matters, the delegates. Yes, Bernie was supposed to win. He is. Why and what his strengths were versus Buttigieg in second, Warren in third. Look at Biden, doubled by Bernie.

Many of the candidates have already moved on to New Hampshire. All of them have. Let's go to CNN Ryan Nobles waiting with us on the latest.

We have been told imminent. What does that mean to us?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: As far as we know, the numbers, a very small batch of updated numbers have been uploaded to the Iowa Democratic Party website. We're in the process of taking those raw vote totals and turning them into something that's digestible for the viewing audience to understand.

That will give us a breakdown, what the percentages are and what the current popular vote total is. We're in the process of processing that. We know the vote totals are in. Keep in mind it's not a significant number.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: What are we talking about?

NOBLES: It was 62 percent earlier today. Now were at 71 percent. Only about 9 percent added to that total. Still about 29 percent of the vote yet to be counted.

From Sanders and his campaign, they still believe there are a lot of votes available for the senator in that 29 percent batch yet to come. In particular, keeping a close eye on the out of town satellite caucuses. They put a lot of effort into reaching out to those folks that with from Iowa but voting in different parts of the country and the world.

There's not a single vote recorded from the satellite caucus group. They believe they can make gains there. The vote total is extraordinarily close. Talking about less than 2 percent.

So a couple of shifts here or there. And outperforming precinct in any place and Sanders could take the lead. His campaign feels confident they have a real shot at making that happen.

Regardless, the way they're spinning it, they believe under any circumstance they're going to have the most -- going to win the popular vote both on the first and second round of voting. That doesn't mean they win the Iowa caucus.

But they will say over and over again that more Iowans voted for Sanders for president than any other presidential candidate.

CUOMO: Let's go through what matters here. One of the interesting things here, this maybe the last type we have this conversation. I think after this screw-up, unless they find a way to blame it on the technology, which I think the state party kind of talked its way out of doing that, the state doesn't make sense for the Democratic Party in terms of where the party's leaders say it it's going.

It's 88 percent white. It was so red in Trump's election. Yes, Obama won it twice. But let's talk about the metrics that matter. I'm looking at my emails. If I see it, I'll let you know.

Popular vote: we don't follow it as a metric, why?

Because like with the electoral college, it's the delegates. That will make the biggest difference, who carries the most into the primary and into the convention into the state. So Sanders will be right; in all likelihood, he'll have the most votes. Let's talk about why.

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CUOMO: The joke was they're having a caucus in the Caucasus, in eastern Europe they're having and in Near Asia they're having caucuses for people abroad from the state of Iowa.

It's kind of the absentee ballot myth about how many votes out there. The biggest part of the analysis, and weigh in on this, is Bernie does very well in the college towns. Buttigieg, while like half his age, does not get the young vote the way Bernie does.

Buttigieg's numbers, he did well very evenly, maybe most evenly among the top echelon of candidates. I think that's what Bernie's campaign is waiting out on.

Did he find pockets of votes?

Here's the counterpoint, Buttigieg may have done better with realignments. So the way the procedure works, when you come, each precinct, like 1,700 of them throughout the 99 counties, sets a viability number. This is how many you need. Sometimes it's 28 or 100. Depending on the size of the forum.

If you reach that, that's it. You're counted and stuck. That was the case for Bernie in almost all his precincts.

If you're not viable, you get to combine with other not viable groups. That could have been to Buttigieg's benefit. So his campaign is looking for areas where he bundled.

Do I have it right?

NOBLES: Right. The analogy is spot on as well. That's exactly what happened in Hillary Clinton four years ago. She ran up the vote totals in California and New York. But there was a ceiling as to the number of votes available in those states.

The same can be said for the process in Iowa. You have a weighted system, where the caucusgoers in the more rural counties count more than the caucusgoers in some of the college towns.

What's interesting about the conversation, and you are homing in on it, this is the case the Sanders campaign will make, virtually all the Democratic candidates for president, including Pete Buttigieg, have railed against the electoral college system. They think it should be put on the scrap heap of history.

Now they find themselves in a position where Buttigieg will benefit from the way the system works.

Regardless, you play by the rules and that's what the Buttigieg campaign did. They may be successful here. But I'm interested to see when we get the raw vote total, transformed into something we can understand, even though this maybe a small batch, the idea of -- if it comes from one of the exact caucus locations you're talking about, a college town and Bernie doesn't overperform in one of those areas, even though there's not a significant amount of votes, it could tell the story about --

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NOBLES: -- what's interesting is --

CUOMO: -- 10 percent is --

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CUOMO: -- 10 percent is a big dump of votes because the margin is so small.

Another thing about where the party is, based on this election, we have had big Democratic fields before. I think Professor Brownstein told me last night, not getting 30 percent of the vote -- we'll have Harry Enten here to help us with the history of this -- not getting 30 percent is unusual.

Now they're close. Buttigieg around 26 and Sanders around 25. So that margin, 10 percent of the vote could make a big deal, depending on where it comes from.

So let's do this, I was where you were last time around, waiting for Sanders to come after the caucus into Manchester, only to tell him when he landed I think you lost. That was a tough night for everybody.

But let's do this, whoever hears first, let's bring it to the audience. If you hear, Ryan, let them know from the truck. I'll bring you right back with the numbers. Otherwise, listen along and we'll process it together. Thank you very much for being there, cold out there but these are going to be hot results, 10 percent matters because it's so tight. Especially with what they're fighting for. They need the delegates. Think electoral college.

Where the votes come from therefore will also be significant. Let's get some thoughts on the state of play from some of the important minds who understand what's coming on here.

It's good to have you all with us. Let's start with a little bit of perspective on this.

Brother Gergen, the idea of not having someone who looks like they'll get to 30 matters. Shows the state of play in the party, not just polarization, all the different lanes.

How big can 10 percent be?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SR. POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, 10 percent can be very big for bragging rights. The person who ends up with the most will have the best bragging rights heading into New Hampshire and you get a bump, you get some momentum.

[00:10:00] GERGEN: "The Boston Globe" is reporting tonight they're seeing movement ,some boost for Buttigieg just on the preliminary numbers. I think the most -- the biggest surprise out of Iowa is the fact that Sanders and Buttigieg are running neck in neck.

We all knew Sanders was rising, rising rapidly. But we were caught by surprise I think by the Buttigieg. But the biggest story of the night is where Biden finished up. Fourth is an awkward place for him to be. It puts pressure on him to perform well in New Hampshire. I think he has to come in number one or two. Three would be a problem.

CUOMO: You're hearing the same thing I am. We're looking Nevada and South Carolina. That's where the vice president has been set up. But he got doubled by Sanders in Iowa. That's an issue. He was the most benefitted from this mess of the caucus last night. He bought himself a day.

Angela Rye, let me skip over to you. It's just not like that the party has two different areas. I think the results that we're seeing show that the party is really nowhere.

We have the new votes.

Who will give them to us?

John King, who has the vote, where's it coming from?

Thank you for being here.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Let me tell you, we're up to 71 percent from 62 percent. But the margins haven't changed that much. The first thing we look at is delegates. When we were at 62 percent, Buttigieg had 26.9. He now has 26.8.

So the Sanders campaign was hoping that they would close the gap. We're in the decimals there. Up to 71 percent now. I want to look a bit to places where Sanders is doing well. Up to 66 percent there.

We were at 50 percent earlier. Still 48 percent here. There are places in eastern Iowa, Buttigieg green here. Sanders did do well here, better in some of the areas four years ago.

I want to go here to Linn County, up to 71 percent there. There was more votes earlier. So votes are coming in where places where Sanders is running strong and where you have more precincts. We don't see the giant gap. Again, we have gone from 62 to 71, still 30 percent to go, 29 percent to go.

It is mathematically possible Sanders can catch up?

Yes, it is. But we didn't see it in this latest report, a big 9 percent jump. Warren and Biden down a little bit, Klobuchar not moving. So we're looking at the fight at the top.

I want to show you in the popular vote that the Sanders campaign has been talking about, we were at 62 percent it was 1,190. He has gone up to 1,320. It stretched a bit. Bragging rights, they will make a big deal about this. It's not a huge number. And we still have 29 percent of the vote to come in. It went up a bit.

But the first thing, the Democratic race is about delegates. The winner is who gets the most. Came down a tiny bit but still Buttigieg with the lead. And still has bragging rights as he moves on into New Hampshire. But it's competitive. We'll see when the rest comes in.

This is our poll. There are other polls in New Hampshire. This is from a few days ago. Sanders, Biden, Buttigieg.

Does Sanders hold?

Every reason to believe he does. He's popular, from next door in Vermont. Biden and Buttigieg in the margin of error.

Is there a Buttigieg bounce in New Hampshire?

If so, the former vice president is in trouble. And so is Warren from Massachusetts.

CUOMO: I know you're on the verge of coming close to setting the modern record for the most hours on TV.

First one, do we know where this percentage of the vote came from?

And how relevant is where in this state or which precincts and counties the rest of the vote is?

Do we know that and is it relevant?

KING: Yes, it's relevant. I do not know. I can't see individual precincts. Last time, we were at 62 percent, we were not yet up to 66 percent in Woodbury County, for example.

Places where Sanders is winning quite comfortable by a decent margin. I'm trying to see if he keeps winning. That's the way he could catch up. This went up from the last reporting. And Senator Sanders gained a little bit.

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KING: Statewide we were over here earlier, Iowa City up to 82 percent. Here's the issue with Sanders. Many some areas look he's running essentially even with Elizabeth Warren. A little bit ahead.

I want to show you the difference. Here we're up to 82; Sanders may have gained a bit there. But if we go back -- here's one here, back in time to 2016. You see the difference. Johnson County progressive, college town. In a two candidate race, Sanders was running it up.

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KING: Multiple candidate race with the Warren competition, it's tougher.

CUOMO: You are the gift. Let me ask you something.

How much is just multiplicity, having more candidates versus a party in a different place?

Four years we were doing this together, the Democrats were like how -- Clinton was the anointed one. And Bernie was the insurgent with the phenomenal populist base. Now this is a party in search of itself.

Is that part of the calculus?

KING: Absolutely, yes. Four years ago, we had the establishment and the insurgent, the Clintons and the revolution. Now we have a much more complicated equation in the sense that Sanders says he's the revolution, the real deal, unique.

She appeals to the same voters Warren does, I'm a progressive, broader appeal.

Don't you want a woman president?

So there's a fierce competition here. Biden, the establishment without a doubt. He has relationships with liberals and across the party but much more establishment figure than either of the two senators.

Buttigieg is interesting and his performance so far shows this, 38 years old, openly gay, military veteran, small town mayor.

How is he beating these people who have much more experience in presidential politics and the national stage?

Her first run, his second run, his third run. But she's a liberal icon nationally.

How is it happening?

The depth and the breadth. We're only 71 percent, but 99 counties in Iowa, Pete Buttigieg leading or tied in 64 of them. He's not winning in pockets. He's winning and running strong everywhere.

Can he carry this out?

I don't know. It's one state.

He's said I'm from Indiana, I can compete in the places in the Midwest that Trump flipped, the pivot counties, 31 of them. Iowa is a great state to study for changes in national politics in recent years, 31 counties flipped, voted twice for Obama and flipped for Trump.

How does that happen?

Buttigieg running strong in pivot counties. That's why he's having a good night and is going to New Hampshire saying, I'm the guy who can beat Trump.

Can he sell that?

We'll see.

CUOMO: He's looking good, saying he won last night. The media was chirping all day. Now it seems to have been a good move for the Buttigieg campaign. Every day we're talking about him and wondering whether Biden can compete is a good day for Pete Buttigieg and his fate going forward.

John King, thank you.

Let's take a break. We have to digest the new numbers. We're getting a better shape of the state of play.

What does it say about the party?

What's likely or more likely in New Hampshire?

Next.

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CUOMO: Seems things happen late all the time these days and tonight is no exception. New information out of Iowa, another chunk of the vote has come in, now 71 percent reporting.

Pete Buttigieg is holding onto his narrow lead over Sanders. Now the Sanders campaign will say, no, we have more votes than he does. Just like in the general election, you win through delegates, like the electoral college. And Buttigieg is leading. This is a huge boost to his campaign.

He was close in polls, up a few weeks ago but to deliver this way, especially after all the drama that happened, when he announced a victory last night. All the media chirping at him.

Should you have done it?

He's looking good. The Hawkeye State often predicts the Democratic nominee. That's controversial now.

Is it really as indicative or predictive?

It's 88 percent white and it's not really what the Democratic Party sees itself as or the country as.

But if the numbers continue this way, it's big for Pete because his name keeps coming out of my mouth. Donors go to his site. It gets momentum.

Who am I not saying?

Elizabeth or Bernie even though he could likely win the state. We need the rest of the count.

Who else am I not saying?

Biden, once the clear front-runner.

Is he still?

Each different event changes the calculus. Let's go to the best minds of the business.

Angela Rye, I'm sorry, I cut you short.

Do you agree with my reckoning of where your party is as a reflection of what we're seeing with the results?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: First what I think we have to say is whether Mayor Pete ends up in first place or second place. This is a huge win for Mayor Pete. For someone who entered this race much like Obama with a funny last name that folks couldn't pronounce until last week.

So we tend to say Mayor Pete. I think people have to understand that they probably really underestimated his ground game in Iowa. He worked for Obama in 2008 in Iowa and probably understands the state just a little bit.

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RYE: I think this is someone who has substantially been underestimated in terms of sheer brilliance. I had him on my podcast.

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CUOMO: That was a really good interview. You came at his -- this perception of him having trouble with people of color in different ways about how -- it was really good. People have to watch it for themselves.

How much does it say about your party, that Pete Buttigieg is attractive?

RYE: Let me be honest, transparent in the moment. You saying "your party" to me right now is making me cringe. That is where I am with the Democratic Party.

CUOMO: Because I said it?

Is it about me personally?

RYE: It's about my own kind of wrestling with. I think part is coming in at 40 years old and I'm wrestling with so much about my identity and how I represent myself. This is not a party that I'm particularly proud of in this moment. I think it's incredible that there's a diverse slate of candidates but we talk about diverse, it's only diverse in terms of perception and policy solutions. It's no longer diverse in terms of what the racial makeup is of the party or even gender diversity.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: If you had started with a bundle of states that's more representative --

RYE: I agree.

CUOMO: -- of the country it would be different. But let me --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: -- go to break. And by the way, I have to say for the audience, she grossly challenge exaggerated her age. Everybody knows she's 24.5.

Mayor Mitch, what's your take on what this means for Buttigieg going into New Hampshire?

MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It was a big night for him and historically. This was the first openly gay candidate that's ever run and won. That alone is a special moment.

Secondly, he'll come out first or second; Warren questionable and Biden, of course, had a very difficult night. But since we're talking about delegates, there are about 3,979 delegates that will be counted on the first ballot in the convention and Iowa is 41. As you said, 88 percent white state. So, as Angela said -- and, Angela, 40 doesn't hurt as bad as you think it does.

RYE: It doesn't hurt.

(LAUGHTER)

CUOMO: Tell my knees.

LANDRIEU: Once you swing south, it's going to be a different ballgame. I think the race got really muddy. It didn't get clarified. I think it got harder, not easier.

CUOMO: I hear you. Let's take a break.

David, when we come back, I want to speak to you about what you have learned over the campaign cycles about who the media is talking about. because that's why it matters. Mitch is right, of course. It's a small number of delegates overall and not really a representative sample state.

But the momentum, the narrative, how the media plays into it. No one knows better than David Gergen. Let's stay with the brain trust right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Iowa has just gone from being more of a probably then a maybe, especially where Pete Buttigieg is involved. We now have over 70 percent of the precincts reporting, and Pete Buttigieg is still on top. What does it mean?

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Some of the best minds in the business are here. David Gergen, of course the Mayor Mitch Landrieu was right when he said that all of the almost 4,000 delegates, Iowa is just a small slice. But the narrative, once the elections start and the media starts to cover the winners and losers, what becomes part of the equation of what matters and why?

DAVID GERGEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Sure, well, Mitch is always right, of course. The -- a couple things, Chris.

As you all know, the media is very, very drawn to underdogs, especially underdogs with fresh faces. It -- and I can think of two instances in the last 30, 40 years when this has been very apparent early on. One was Jimmy Carter, running in 1976, and the other was Barack Obama running in 2012.

Both men were fresh. They were both seen as underdogs. The country just didn't know who they were. They did very well in the early going, and they got a lot of attention out of it. They spoke to the ideals at a time when the country was pretty disgusted with what was going on in Washington. And there was a real desire in part of the country to somehow get back on top and feel good about the country itself, feel good about where the country is being run. Both Carter and Obama spoke extremely well to that; they were both very articulate. You can see obvious parallels between Buttigieg, Carter, and Obama.

That does not mean Buttigieg is a -- is a top dog yet. He's very much the underdog and he's got a long way to go. But he's fresh copy, in a sense. It's a fresh story. And because he's such an underdog and he speaks so well, he speaks to our idealism, he's got -- he's got that extra element that could let him take off.

CUOMO: And look, there's just an aspect of group think, Mitch, and you know this. You've been effective in campaigns and figuring out how to play the media, it's the new part of news. Why did we cover Trump so much? He was different. He was provocative. He took every interview. He called into any show. You know, he was always making headlines. People were reading what he was saying.

Buttigieg is similar in terms of a point of fascination. He's nothing like Trump.

GERGEN: Thank goodness.

CUOMO: But we're talking about him right now. We're not talking about Warren or Biden, Mitch.

MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right. I think that -- I think that's exactly right, and if it's a point that's well made. However, when you look at the long game, because Bloomberg is out there doubling down on everything that he has, you have Steyer, you have Deval Patrick. You have candidates that haven't even played in Iowa. This whole narrative could change --

CUOMO: Sure.

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LANDRIEU: -- by the time Super Tuesday comes around, and we just don't know. Clearly, it was a super night for Pete Buttigieg. He's going to get the bump that is coming to all frontrunners. But if you look at this thing --

CUOMO: And the campaign says he raised a lot of money.

LANDRIEU: -- in its larger context -- Well, no doubt. He raised a magnificent amount of money in the first quarter last year, which was astonishing. He wiped everybody else out, and he's probably going to do it again.

But there's Bloomberg sitting out there with a bank of a half a billion bucks, and he's evidently having some impact. So after Super Tuesday, it's going to be a long slog between now and then. We'll see what people's staying power is.

CUOMO: And Angela, you know, look, you speak about this so eloquently so often. You're all over the country, meeting with different groups of people. You know, I feel, and you tell me if I'm wrong -- I mean, you love to do it anyway -- the idea of what we did last time in 2016 with Clinton -- Well, you know, she's the right one. She's the one. She checks the right boxes. She's -- but they didn't love her the way Democrats tend to have to love.

And I kind of sense that again. People think Biden is sweet and empathetic and they believe in him as a good person. But I don't see you guys -- and I also know it's early, but everything happens so fast now, Angela, and I wonder if this -- how in search is this party?

ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, and here's the thing. I really do fear the fact that we have spent so much time being anti- Trump that we haven't developed at least a policy platform that we can argue behind.

There is good reason for us to be so anti-Trump. If you paid attention to the State of the Union, there's Exhibit A. But we also have to really have something that people feel excited about going to vote for. It shouldn't always have to be the person. It should be the issues.

And the challenge is exactly what AOC said when she was talking about her and Biden. She said, in another country, they probably wouldn't be in the same party. That is our truth, and the only way to bridge that divide is to talk about the things where we align. We cannot do that if we're so focused on tearing folks down because of differences. We are still far better than a Donald Trump if we can come together and really push on what's right.

We also can't be tone-deaf. Speaking of tonight, you can't have someone talking about infrastructure when someone stood up there and is dismantling democracy. We have to sound the alarm, and I think that is where we can unite, but then after we sound the alarm, it is what are we for and why should you come to the side of things.

CUOMO: Thank you very much, lady and gentlemen. I appreciate it, as always. We're going to keep watching Iowa. We've got another 20-plus percent of the precincts to come in. It could be a big deal, but so is this Pelosi/Trump drama at this State of the Union. We have to look at what happened in that speech, what does it mean and what's going to come next.

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CUOMO: All right. It was supposed to be a big moment tonight. What would the president do? What would he say? I'll tell you what we all got to see: the state of our politics at the State of the Union. You want to see it? Here it is. Watch the president when he comes out. Hand one to Pence, one to Pelosi, oh! What happened there? She reaches out the hand. He seems to snub.

And then after the speech, look what Pelosi did. She rips up his speech. The speaker than tweeted out, "Democrats will never stop extending the hand of friendship to get the job done." I guess that's what this was. "#ForThePeople. We will work to find common ground where we can, but we will stand our ground where we cannot." That was the ripping up part. She called it a "manifesto of mistruths."

The White House then tweeted out their explanation. No offer about what happened with the handshake, no excuse. Remember, this is the never admit you do anything wrong group, right? They say this: "Speaker Pelosi just ripped up one of the last surviving Tuskegee Airmen, the survival of a child born at 21 weeks, the mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller, a service member's reunion with his family. That's her legacy."

Now, look, the challenge to the White House is, those were really poignant moments that came. I don't know if you saw them, but you should go online and look, and I'm going to talk to you about it more later on. The president in that speech tonight celebrated what this country is about for one set of moments, our diversity, how we overcome, how we come together. But is that what he's really about, and is for them something for them to use as a sword and a shield? I don't know.

But here's one thing I do know. This country is not just a sum of the actions of its politicians. So let's discuss the state of play. We have Bakari Sellers. We have April Ryan, and we have Scott Jennings. People to account for everything we saw.

Bakari, start with you. Nancy Pelosi doesn't seem to get the extended hand from the president. Rips up the speech. She says that was the nicest thing she could do. Right or wrong?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen, I think that the Republicans who are now being snowflakes and have a problem with the decorum at the State of the Union fail to remember my good friend Joe Wilson from the state of South Carolina, who yelled out --

CUOMO: You lie.

SELLERS: -- you lie. And Nancy Pelosi didn't come close to that. You lie, and all of a sudden, you know, they get -- it's so funny watching Lindsey Graham and even Nikki Haley, who actually sent out a tweet condemning Nancy Pelosi for ripping it up. But her silence. She was as silent as a church mouse using a bathroom on cotton, because she did not want to criticize Joe Wilson at that time. But now you want to criticize Nancy Pelosi?

Look, this is political theater, and what we saw was political theater and calculus from Donald Trump, and you saw the same thing from Nancy Pelosi. And nobody is going to vote in November based upon how anybody reacted at -- at the State of the Union. But I will tell you this. There were a lot of us, including myself, who simply say the president of the United States, we took three things away. He's a liar, he's a liar, and he's a liar.

CUOMO: So one of the --

SELLERS: And so I think ripping up that speech was --

CUOMO: But it's about how you deal with it. I get your take on that. April, you know, again, we'll deal with this in the argument in terms of what we saw and what we didn't see, processing it.

But the idea of, you know, that was some moment with the Tuskegee Airman, now brigadier general, and his great grandson, you know, literally aspiring to even greater heights than his fighter pilot great-grandfather. That's America at her best. But the authenticity of those moments becomes a part of the criticism of the speech.

[00:45:07]

April Ryan, in your estimation, is that the America this president celebrates by what he says and does on a regular basis: the reunions, the cancer research, you know, the overcoming American ideals that we saw tonight?

APRIL RYAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Tonight, Chris, was entertaining. This president had a great use, a really good use, actually, of people to show his examples, but instead of doing it tonight, why not every day?

Tonight, it felt like Oprah Winfrey when she said, "You get a car, you get a car, you get a car." Or Ellen giving out books or something on her talk show. It seemed like every time someone popped up some -- they were giving something. They were either getting a chance at a school of their choice, a Gold Star.

And Rush Limbaugh, someone who is a birther, received the Presidential Medal of Freedom. And I watch Twitter, and people were very upset.

And does this all equate to the president's inclusive society? Well, this president is trying to win the Oval Office for a second time. This president has people like his friend Darrell Scott out in the country, handing out hundreds of dollars in a lottery, if you will, to people buying votes. The NAACP is trying to figure out if it is legal to do that.

So this president is once again working the ground game, trying to bring black folks into the fray, but he brought up issues like HBCUs and how he's standing with them and giving them permanent funding. But in the first year, when he was president --

CUOMO: Right.

RYAN: -- this president decided -- he said, look, this may be unconstitutional to give HBCUs money.

He also brought up the name of Harriet Tubman. Well, Harriet Tubman's face still has yet to grace a 20-dollar bill.

CUOMO: Right. And Mnuchin gave a great --

RYAN: And he also talked about black --

CUOMO: Mnuchin, this guy, gave that great explanation for it, right? And by great, I mean horrible. Scott, let me get you into this, though. Look, this is not a box that is unfamiliar to you. The president said and did things tonight that were good, were good to hear, were good to see, were good demonstrations of what this country is at her best.

But he often acts in complete rejection of those things. So what are people supposed to believe?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, look, I think the president gave the best speech of his presidency tonight. I think if he gives a version of that speech every day for the next nine months, it won't be a close election in November. I mean, that's a winning message.

And -- and we'll see what the Democrats do with it. If this week is any judge, it's not going to be very pretty.

I mean, look, Donald Trump is having the best week of his presidency. It's not even half over. His -- his opposition party is obviously melting down tonight because of the speech he gave. They're melting down in Iowa. He's going to be acquitted, maybe in bipartisan fashion tomorrow. His approval numbers are as high as they've been --

CUOMO: Bipartisan fashion. Hold on.

JENNINGS: -- since the beginning of his presidency. He's having --

CUOMO: Hold on. I have --

JENNINGS: No, let me finish.

CUOMO: We're bringing back the no-spin zone here. How do you see it as bipartisan tomorrow if one or two Democrats, max, vote to acquit him? Is that bipartisan?

JENNINGS: Well, because --

CUOMO: Because then it was a bipartisan impeachment.

JENNINGS: -- you would have a group of -- you would have some Republicans and some Democrats. So, yes, I would define that as bipartisan.

CUOMO: So if you have two, it's bipartisan?

JENNINGS: Yes, of course.

CUOMO: Come on, Scott. Give me a break. That's silly.

JENNINGS: I mean, you want to whip out the dictionary tonight and see who's right? I mean, the definition of --

CUOMO: That's always weak footing when it comes to your guys' arguments --

JENNINGS: -- bipartisan would be two parties in a group.

CUOMO: -- is to go to facts and history. Clinton was a bipartisan acquittal. That was a bipartisan acquittal. This would be a -- come on. You know what this is about. This is about parties playing the structure.

But you are right about one thing, and I want to bounce it back to Bakari. You -- in politics, you are what you say and do in a pattern of moments. If this president were to hold this course -- he doesn't talk about impeachment. He didn't really say anything about the Democrats. Yes, he did the thing with the handshake to Pelosi, but his character is what it is.

How threatening is that to your chances of beating him?

SELLERS: I mean, listen, I think that the few people on air before me have gotten this a little wrong in the way that they've cast the net of Donald Trump's speech tonight.

I think Donald Trump was speaking to group 1, and group 1B. Group 1 is white women. Tonight, he was attempting the same thing he did during the Super Bowl ad, which I found to be decently offensive, the ad with Alice Johnson. I referred to it as the "I freed the negro" ad.

But what he's trying to do is soften himself. He's trying to soften himself so that white women in suburbs actually come out and vote for him. If he gets a small bump in white women, white college-educated women, that will go a long way.

The other thing he's trying to do is suppress the black vote. I don't think that Donald Trump believes that he can actually gain a large number of black voters. He probably can gain some in the black -- with black men, but what he's trying to do is suppress that vote. If he can drive that vote down continuously, that is a recipe to win, and he will be extremely dangerous if he does that.

[00:50:05]

So I mean, Donald Trump's speech tonight was geared towards that. And we talk about the system and the pattern, if he keeps up that pattern of trying to suppress the black vote and just do something endearing to drive the turnout of white women, or shrink the margin in which he gets defeated, you know, that's a recipe for another four years of Donald Trump.

CUOMO: At the end of the day --

SELLERS: And we just have to realize that.

CUOMO: I've got to go to break. At the end of the day, the goal of an election is to win.

Bakari, April, Scott, thank you very much, Appreciate you all.

Brand-new numbers out of Iowa. What do they mean about the state of play and New Hampshire, right around the corner? The wizard of odds is next.

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CUOMO: More numbers out of Iowa. Seventy-one percent of the precincts now. Pete Buttigieg in the lead in the metric that matters, delegates. Think like you're talking to the Electoral College.

[00:55:05]

Harry Enten, the wizard of odds, tells me that's the way to do it. Why?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: Think, think. Here's the reason why. That's how we're determining who wins and loses, is delegates. It's not a popular vote game. It's delegate. It's like Hillary Clinton saying, Ooh, I won the popular vote in 2016. It doesn't freaking matter, because the fact was, she lost the Electoral College.

Why is Pete Buttigieg winning the statewide delegate equivalents? I think this is so important. look at all of this color green on the map. It's kind of light green or turquoise, maybe.

CUOMO: I'd go mint.

ENTEN: There you go, mint. Look at how much is on here. This shows how wide his support is, and that is so important in the statewide delegate equivalents, because if we go to that board and we can see that he's ahead right now, what it basically is is --

CUOMO: Show us the delegates.

ENTEN: Yes. Show us the -- if you see the delegates, what you see, essentially, is that he is ahead there, and the reason he's ahead there is right here --- 26.8 -- the reason he's ahead there is because those delegates, the rural counties get more power, because it's based upon the last two general election turnouts. And Pete Buttigieg is playing the game. He is playing the game. He understands how to get those delegates.

So even if Bernie Sanders, say, is winning in the popular vote --

CUOMO: Which he is.

ENTEN: -- which he is, and we can show that on the screen.

CUOMO: He doubled Biden.

ENTEN: Doubled Biden, who had a horrible night. Even if he's winning in the popular vote, it doesn't matter. That is not the way that Iowa selects its delegates. So I don't really understand why we're necessarily talking about that, because everyone knew that we were going to determine the winner based upon the statewide delegate equivalents. And so, to me, this whole popular vote discussion is a rather side discussion.

CUOMO: That's what would matter at the convention anyway. Now, in the next hour, Harry is going to come back and help us with something that I think is the most important and most ignored idea of Iowa to date, which is Buttigieg is making an argument that, no, no, you're not seeing what I did in Iowa. I won places in Iowa, even though Iowa is not that significant overall, but there are certain counties that are.

And Harry Enten is going to explain why certain parts of Iowa reflect a new reality in the country that could mean big things for Buttigieg. So we're going to flesh out of the numbers. We're going to flesh out what the State of the Union means to the state of the play when we get to impeachment tomorrow, next.

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