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CNN Live Event/Special

Pete Buttigieg Thank his Supporters in New Hampshire; Sen. Bernie Sanders Ended his Day with a Big Smile in the Granite State. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 11, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

PETE BUTTIGIEG (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We are cleared eyed about the challenge before us. And we much be equally cleared about the choice at hand.

My competitors and I share the same fundamental goals. Bringing balance to our economy, guaranteeing health care to every American, combatting a climate crisis and a rising tide of gun violence but we do differ in what we believe it will take to make that happen.

In this election season we have been told by some that you must either be for revolution or you are for the status quo. But where does that leave the rest of us? Most Americans don't see where they fit in that polarized vision and we can't defeat the most divisive president in modern American history by tearing down anybody who doesn't agree with us 100 percent of the time.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROWD CHANTING)

BUTTIGIEG: Americans want the freedom to make choices for themselves on health care or on any other issue, not to have Washington decide for them. And a politics of my way or the highway is a road to reelecting Donald Trump.

Vulnerable Americans do not have the luxury of pursuing ideological purity over an inclusive victory. We also --

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: -- we know this. We also know better than to try to defeat such a disruptive president by relying on the same Washington framework and mind set. After all, if today's Washington were serving America well, a guy like Donald Trump would never have come within cheating distance of the Oval Office in the first place.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: So, to win and to govern we need to bring new voices to our capital. We need to get Washington starting to work more like our best run cities and towns rather than the other way around.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: And I know that when you talk this way you might get dismissed as a naive newcomer. But a fresh outlook is what makes new beginnings possible. It is how we build a new majority.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: And election after election has shown us that putting forward a new perspective is how Democrats win the White House and we will win the White House.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROWD CHANTING)

BUTTIGIEG: So, as we take this campaign to the rest of the country let's welcome that debate. Let's have that debate. Let's debate what the best way forward is, the best way to earn the White House and the best way to unify this country.

And the answers, they lie in a vision that brings Americans together, not only in the knowledge of what we must stand against, but in the confidence of knowing what we are for.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: This is the powerful majority we are gathering together, from Davenport to Dover, from Carson City to Columbia, it is a coalition of addition, not subtraction.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: It is a movement reaching into church basements and barbershops, into universities and union halls, carrying the same values with us everywhere we go. We saw that coalition awakening. We saw it tonight in cities and suburbs, from the seacoast to those industrial towns too often left behind.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: And together we are building a future where there will be no such thing as an uninsured American, or an unaffordable prescription.

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: That's what we can deliver with a plan most Americans can get behind. Medicare for all who want it, ensuring care for every American, but trusting you to choose whether you want it and when you want it.

[23:05:04]

(APPLAUSE)

BUTTIGIEG: Together we will stop enabling corporate greed and start raising wages, empowering workers and making good on the idea that one job ought to be enough.

(APPLAUSE)

(CROWD CHANTING)

BUTTIGIEG: Together we will stop sending our young people into the teeth of endless wars and start recruiting every American in the fight for our climate future.

(APPLAUSE)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Mayor Pete Buttigieg giving a speak right now, he is in second place at 24.3 percent, Senator Bernie Sanders has just gone on stage. He is about to speak. We are going to bring that to you live. So, let's go there now.

(CROWD CHEERING)

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you.

(CROWD CHANTING)

SANDERS: Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you, New Hampshire. Thank you, New Hampshire.

(CROWD CHEERING)

SANDERS: Let me -- let me take this opportunity to thank the people of New Hampshire for a great victory tonight.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And -- and let me thank the thousands of volunteers in New Hampshire. Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Who knocked on doors in the rain and the snow and the cold.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: The reason that we won tonight in New Hampshire, we won last week in Iowa --

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: -- is because of the hard work of so many volunteers.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And let me say tonight that this victory here is the beginning of the end for Donald Trump.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: With -- with victories behind us, popular vote in Iowa and the victory here tonight we're going to Nevada, we're going to South Carolina, we're going to win those states as well.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And tonight, I want to take the opportunity to express my appreciation and respect for all of the Democratic candidates we ran against.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Pete Buttigieg, Amy Klobuchar, Elizabeth Warren, Joe Biden.

[23:09:59]

And what I can tell you, with absolute certainty, and I know I speak for every one of the Democratic candidates is that no matter who wins, and we certainly hope it's going to be us, we're going to unite together.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: We are going to unite together and defeat the most dangerous president in the modern history of this country.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And the reason I believe we are going to win is that we have an unprecedented grassroots movement from coast-to-coast of millions of people.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: The reason that we are going to win is that we are putting together an unprecedented multigenerational multiracial political movement.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And this is a movement from coast-to-coast which is demanding that we finally have an economy and a government that works for all of us, not wealthy campaign contributors.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And I want to thank all of those people who have worked and contributed to our campaign, but make the point that in this point in the campaign we are taking on billionaires and we're taking on candidates funded by billionaires.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: But we are going to win because we have the agenda that speaks to the needs of working people throughout this country.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Health care is a human right, not a privilege. (APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: The wealthy and powerful will start paying their fair share of taxes.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: We will make public colleges and universities tuition free and cancel all student debt.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Unlike Donald Trump we know that climate change is very real and an existential crisis for our planet. We are prepared to tell the fossil fuel industry that their short-term profits are not more important than the future of our planet.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: We are going to end a racist and broken criminal justice system.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: We are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Our gun safety policies will be determined by the American people, not the NRA.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And under our administration it will be women, not the government, who control their own lives.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: Now our campaign is not just about beating Trump, it is about transforming this country.

(APPLAUSE)

It is about having the courage to take on Wall Street, the insurance companies, the drug companies, the fossil fuel industry, the military industrial complex.

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: So tonight, I want to thank the people of New Hampshire for this great victory, thank our volunteers, and urge all Americans to join our effort to transform this country at berniesanders.com.

[23:15:04]

(APPLAUSE) (CROWD CHANTING)

SANDERS: So, it's on to Nevada. It's on to South Carolina. It's on to win the Democratic nomination. And together --

(APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: -- and together I have no doubt that we will defeat Donald Trump. Thank you all very much.

(CROWD CHANTING)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: And then what?

All right, CNN has a major projection right now. CNN projects that Bernie Sanders will win the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. This is CNN's projection. We just heard from Bernie Sanders.

CNN's projection based on the actual votes, based on exit poll information. Let's go over to Jake and Dana. This is a major development. Right now, Bernie Sanders wins the vote in New Hampshire.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And it's not just that he wins the vote in New Hampshire, this comes after Senator Sanders won the popular vote in Iowa, this is the second contest and he has the organization and the money and the fund raising ability and the national name recognition, having ran for president once before, to take it all the way.

While Pete Buttigieg is certainly a front runner and right now, they may be neck and neck in delegates. Bernie Sanders is the Democratic front runner for the presidential nomination.

And you just have to take a step back, he is, I believe, 78 years old, he is a Democratic socialist, he is a Jewish American originally from Brooklyn. It is a stunning achievement by Senator Sanders and for his movement.

BLITZER: Very impressive. And he had a heart attack a few months ago.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You know, like many people who have -- who deal with that he got help and he actually says that he feels better and he clearly has a lot of energy.

But on the notion of where we are right now it is remarkable that Bernie Sanders, with this huge field that it started with, people were looking at other potential progressive candidates. But he kept saying, you know what, I'm the classic, I'm the original and he kept on keeping on even for many, many months when he was not doing all that well in the polls, people were doing better, like Elizabeth Warren and others who are in his lane and he stuck it out.

And look, there's a long way to go. But the fact, just like you said, that he has done so well in Iowa, but most importantly in New Hampshire, is a big achievement.

The one thing I will say is that given where we are and given how the Democratic establishment, the more moderate lane of the party feels about him or the notion of anybody who believes what he believes with regard to the major issues, especially things like health care, I wouldn't say that there's panic setting in but there is a lot of concern about going forward in that -- moderates I'm talking to say they hope Elizabeth Warren stays in the race in order to keep him from ascending too much, and they're concerned about too many people in the so-called moderate lane splitting the vote.

TAPPER: Two last points, Wolf. One is, Bernie Sanders of the top three winners in New Hampshire this evening Bernie Sanders alone, not Buttigieg, not Klobuchar, has support in communities of color and those are going to be very important in Nevada, which is a week from Saturday, in South Carolina which is the week after that.

And the second point is Bernie Sanders in many ways has been pulling the Democratic Party with him to the left, I guess that's the other way, to the left. And Medicare for all, Green New Deal, increasing the minimum wage, all of these proposals that he's been pushing for years are now basically in the Democratic mainstream, more or less. Now we have the voters coming with him. Iowa and New Hampshire.

BLITZER: CNN projects Bernie Sanders is the winner in the New Hampshire Democratic presidential primary. Anderson, you've got to give Bernie Sanders a lot of credit.

COOPER: Yes, no doubt about it, he has hung in there and for now he can say he got the popular vote in Iowa, and has won New Hampshire. Van Jones, where does it go from here?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Listen, he's on track. It is true that he is -- he can get black support, he is winning Latino, Latina support right now. He's got young support.

[23:20:02]

He's got an army of donors that are willing to -- he and Bloomberg have inexhaustible resources because he can get -- so this guy is doing it.

And listen, I remember when Trump was on the march and everybody kept saying, he won this time but, you know, of course he'll be stopped, and let's figure out what, you know, Marco Rubio is going to do or what somebody else is going to do.

This guy is on the march. I think you're going to see the establishment freak out and try to stop him, but tonight you have to give him credit. It is very, very difficult to pull off what he's pulled off. He's never actually been a part of this party but he's transformed the party without joining it and now the voters are coming with him.

COOPER: And the support. I mean, the small dollars that he -- is what has been fueling his campaign, it is extraordinary, I mean, it is something we haven't really seen.

ALEXANDRA ROJAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. I mean, well, look, as someone who worked on the 2016 campaign and someone who helped start an organization that came out of that because we believe so much in this hopeful vision of what our country could be, you know, and to the -- that's huge, this night is momentous.

And to the thousands of young people that are part of the most diverse generation of America, that America has ever seen, this is their victory tonight. This is not some fluke. It is because of years of hard work and a movement that was led by, again, one of the most diverse coalitions of young people America has seen.

COOPER: Governor, I mean, Jake Tapper made an important point, which is of the top three people coming out of the New Hampshire it's really only Bernie Sanders who has support among African-Americans, which -- and more diversity as you move into Nevada and South Carolina.

TERRY MCAULIFFE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's going to be the key. I've said now for a week and a half, these upcoming contests are going to be very important. We just finished two of the whitest of the six states in America. We're about to go into one of the five most diverse states in America, Nevada.

So, this is the test. I think what Bernie has to show is he can expand the coalition. This is very important, that is the next step for him in the Latina vote in the African-American vote. If he can get out there and do that, that is very powerful and he will be hard to stop if he can do that.

He's done very well in the first couple contests. There's one big issue that none of us can answer, is Michael Bloomberg is sitting as I say there with a billion dollars. We've never seen this in our party before.

JONES: Yes.

MCAULIFFE: He is on TV. I live in Northern Virginia, every three minutes there's a television ad, and you can see that he's risen up. He's risen up as we talked about, Van, the African-American community. So that's going to be a big determinant coming down the road, what happens on March 3rd.

I'm saying, three weeks from tonight Super Tuesday will be over and you will have close to 65 percent of these delegates. And my guess estimate is we're going to go of long way from there.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It has broken exactly the way that Bloomberg hoped that it would.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes.

(CROSSTALK)

MCAULIFFE: Yes, you bet.

SMERCONISH: The whole predicate here was that --

(CROSSTALK) MCAULIFFE: Even better.

SMERCONISH: -- Joe Biden would stumble and that Bernie or Elizabeth Warren, but hopefully Bernie for Bloomberg's purposes would be ascendant, someone he perceives as being just too far to the left to be elected.

So, I'm sure wherever it is that he's watching these returns is very pleased.

(CROSSTALK)

JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm am --

MCAULIFFE: I am Bernie Sanders, the perfect foil sitting out there for me is Michael Bloomberg.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Jess, we haven't heard --

MCINTOSH: I am not sure at all that Mike Bloomberg is prepared for how much the Bernie Sanders movement is ready for a Michael Bloomberg opponent.

JONES: Please.

MCINTOSH: That is literally what they have honed their message over the last four years to defeat and if he steps right in there, it could not give Bernie a better opportunity.

COOPER: Also, Bernie Sanders has been running for now --

(CROSSTALK)

MCINTOSH: Yes, he has.

COOPER: The second time. Michael Bloomberg --

(CROSSTALK)

MCINTOSH: I've been saying.

COOPER: -- has not been running for anything in a while.

MCINTOSH: I've been saying all night that it's just the first two states, et cetera. But I think that we can say right now we have a new Democratic front runner. Bernie Sanders is the front runner for the 2020 race.

AXELROD: Yes. First of all, Bernie Sanders will be here until the end of this race. He is built for -- he is durable here, he's got renewable resources, a very committed base.

But I just want to say, again, there are warning signs in these first two races here, too, we can say that he's bringing the people along with him but 75 percent of them didn't come. And that's true in Iowa as well. So, the fact is, he has not -- you know, he won 60 percent in the state last time and yes it was a --

JONES: I --

COOPER: Let him finish. Let him finish.

AXELROD: But if there is -- if there is a center left candidate around whom people gravitate there is a majority of voters there to take him on, whether that happens is a big question.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: I want to say something about --

AXELROD: We've got two moderate candidates who have come out of this in very strong shape tonight. Buttigieg and Klobuchar --

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Let him finish.

AXELROD: Biden still has a -- he's still going to try and revive his campaign in South Carolina if he goes into Super Tuesday, he's going to get some votes. So, we'll see.

And to your point, Anderson, Mike Bloomberg is a very formidable person, he's got unlimited resources, he has never faced the pressures of a presidential campaign, he has never taken the kind of scrutiny that he will get as a candidate as they all do and it starts next week in that debate. We'll see how he performs --

(CROSSTALK)

[23:25:07]

COOPER: You know, but you know what, billionaires love scrutiny.

ROJAS: I'd love to offer two points. I think one, I think that that makes sense. But I think it's important to also acknowledge that the media and the establishment has been discounting Bernie Since 2015.

And regardless the way elections work is when you get the most votes, at least in this case, maybe not Iowa, you win. And so, it's pretty huge that he is winning the popular vote in all of these states, even though it's the first two, and that he is surging in the states to come. So, absolutely is the big --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: It also looks that way in the presidential race.

ROJAS: Yes.

COOPER: I mean, proportionally.

ROJAS: There you go.

JONES: I agree. Listen, I remember sitting here in 2016 and people kept saying the same thing about Donald Trump. Well, he only got 20 percent. He only got 25 percent. Look at all the people who voted against Donald Trump.

The problem is that we have somebody who's cleared the progressive lane, it looks like. If Warren stays where she is, he has the progressive lane and the moderate lane is sliced and diced up with a new person coming in.

If we keep doing what we're doing, and we keep going the way we're going we're going to end up where we're headed, which is him with a glide path. And I heard over and over again people saying look at all the people who voted against Donald Trump. The problem is they never consolidated to stop him and that can happen this party --

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: The one difference -- the one difference is that there is -- that they have a different set of rules than the Republican Party. So it is winner take all over there. This is proportional.

JONES: Yes.

AXELROD: And that makes it more difficult task to move along at 30 percent, with 30 percent or 25 percent wins and make yourself the nominee.

COOPER: Gloria?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think you have to give Bernie Sanders amazing credit for winning because he did have a bunch of moderates who did really well --

(CROSSTALK)

ROJAS: And billions --

BORGER: -- up against him. But one thing to look at in the rearview mirror is these exit polls on his positions on the issues. Buttigieg, the question was, Buttigieg persistence on the issues are too liberal, not liberal enough or about right. It was not asked about Amy Klobuchar. But Buttigieg, 68 percent said about right.

For Bernie Sanders, 43 percent said about right. For Biden, 45 percent. Again, not asked about Amy Klobuchar, unfortunately. But you can see that the Democratic Party, at least in New Hampshire, at least in New Hampshire liked what Buttigieg was saying to them, liked -- 68 percent is a lot to say that his positions were about right. And what was Buttigieg talking about?

He's not talking about Medicare for all. He is talking about what he calls more realistic positions as Biden was talking about. But you can't discount the number of how well the moderates did in this -- in this race tonight. So, while Sanders you have to give him amazing credit. He is so

durable. I've never seen a candidate more durable than Bernie Sanders in all ways, but you have to look at what's coming up at him.

JONES: The moderates are going to have figure out --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Who are they going to get past him?

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. And I think what's coming up for Sanders is Nevada, and he's likely to do fairly well there, it's a caucus state.

BORGER: With labor.

HENDERSON: He has shown that he's got organizing ability there. He may have a slight problem with labor because of the Medicare for all thing. A lot of folks in labor don't necessarily like that. He's good with young folks. African-Americans. He's clearly growing among that group as well.

So, listen, I mean, I think Buttigieg is overperforming. I think he's done better in these first two states than anybody thought he would but he's still got to figure out a way to grow in the way that you've seen Sanders grow in these --

(CROSSTALK).

JONES: And by the way, people who care about health care voted for Bernie. So.

SMERCONISH: I know that every four years there's this speculation, and it's great fodder to talk about a brokered convention. I'm not here to predict that that will definitely happen but I think that today, as compared to 48 hours ago --

AXELROD: Yes.

SMERCONISH: -- we're still closer.

HENDERSON: Yes.

SMERCONISH: We're still closer.

HENDERSON: It is more likely this go around than any --

(CROSSTALK)

MCAULIFFE: Just remember 2016, remember the last nominee to go in who actually had the majority was John Kerry, if you remember. In 2008 Hillary had to send her votes over. Same thing happened in '16. Sanders had to say. The last one who's actually gotten this on the first ballot, people forget, is John Kerry in 2004.

SMERCONISH: But of course, the change in rules relative to super delegates not getting a say on that first ballot this time, but having a say for the subsequent ballots, if it comes down to that, who knows --

(CROSSTALK)

MCAULIFFE: Generally --

AXELROD: That's a fraction --

MCAULIFFE: I mean, this is more of a mythical thing on these super delegates.

MCINTOSH: Sure.

MCAULIFFE: It really doesn't. But let me say if someone goes in and has the most delegates and the super delegates change that --

AXELROD: That's a disaster.

MCAULIFFE: Forget it. Go home, burn the house down.

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: I think is --

[23:29:57]

BORGER: But you know, with Trump everyone was talking about a contested convention, with Donald Trump, and of course that went right up to the line. And that -- that never materialized, although that was a very fractious convention with Ted Cruz's speech, if you recall --

TERRY MCAULIFFE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: That's right.

BORGER: -- and the Republicans managed to win the presidency.

MCAULIFFE: You've got to get 1,991 delegates. As I say, you got to go back to Kerry, the negotiations heading into it, and who will come out in those ample states? We got New York, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio. We've got some big states in April.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SENIOR ADVISER FOR OBAMA ADMINISTRATION: Everybody other than Bernie Sanders perhaps to some degree is going to be close to broke going into Super Tuesday, and there's one guy who's going to have the ability to spend across the whole universe of 15 states and has been for months. And that's a big advantage to Bloomberg.

I don't think it's the only thing that -- you know, I think -- I do think in a presidential race, you do have to come out from behind the curtain. You do have to show who you are. You do have to take questions. You do have to give people a sense of your essence. And, you know, this is going to be a test for him. We'll see.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Also, people have to like something about you.

(LAUGHTER)

AXELROD: That is a --

COOPER: I mean, whether they like you as a person or they just think you're a great character or whatever it is.

AXELROD: Right.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: And he is constructing something of a character with these ads, talking about gun control, talking about health care in New York, and I think he's introducing himself to voters who weren't necessarily familiar with him before and they like what they see in some of these states.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Competent. That's the word.

COOPER: Sorry. We are going to take a quick break. Coming up, we are going to have an update on who won the most delegates tonight and the path ahead. We will be back in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The headline right now, of course, Bernie Sanders wins the vote in the New Hampshire democratic presidential primary. He's got the popular vote. He wins the popular vote. He's also going to win the delegate count.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, he certainly wins the primary. There is no doubt about that. There were 24 delegates at stake tonight in New Hampshire. But it's a draw --

BLITZER: Really?

CHALIAN: -- with Pete Buttigieg. Sanders gets nine delegates, Buttigieg gets nine, Klobuchar gets six. This is why it is so important. Remember, Democrats award their delegates on a proportional basis. So, you need 15 percent at least statewide, 15 percent in a congressional district, and then you win some delegates.

But a close race like this doesn't give you a delegate advantage because it is split up proportionally. That is why you see Sanders winning nine tonight and Buttigieg winning nine tonight because they were so close, and then Klobuchar getting the other six.

Let's take a look at the delegates to date, include Iowa in there now that we've been through two contests. Remember, up there in the corner, you see you need 1,991 delegates to win the nomination. This is the beginning of a long road to that democratic convention in Milwaukee. Take a look at where we are. Buttigieg actually has a two-delegate lead at 23, Sanders 21, Warren eight, Klobuchar seven, Biden down at six. So Bernie Sanders very well emerges from New Hampshire after a strong showing in Iowa as the national frontrunner of this race, but actually in the way you get the nomination, winning 1,991 delegates, it's Pete Buttigieg who out of these first two contests is actually out in front.

BLITZER: So explain to our viewers why that is. I want to point out Elizabeth Warren. She got eight delegates in Iowa. Joe Biden got six delegates. Neither of them got 15 percent of the vote in New Hampshire. They got zero in New Hampshire.

CHALIAN: That's correct. Amy Klobuchar got one delegate out of Iowa, six delegates tonight in New Hampshire due to her late surge which no doubt had an impact on Pete Buttigieg tonight. It is because Pete Buttigieg emerged from Iowa with a two-delegate advantage in the way that the state party apportioned their national convention delegates.

As you know, the Sanders campaign and the Buttigieg campaign have called on the Iowa Democratic Party to do a re-canvass of some of those precincts. We'll see if that changes the outcome of how the national delegates are allocated. But at the moment, Pete Buttigieg has this two-delegate lead, Iowa and New Hampshire about momentum, we know that. Super Tuesday will be the real battle for delegates. We will get a real sense of where this race is after that.

But right now, you've got two people, the oldest and the youngest in the field, somebody winning over liberals, somebody winning over moderates. This is the choice right now. And Amy Klobuchar who had such a strong night tonight is clearly digging into some of the potential support that Buttigieg would have had.

BLITZER: It's interesting, you made an important point, Pete Buttigieg -- he is what? He is 38 years old. Bernie Sanders is 78 years old. That's quite a difference between arguably the two frontrunners. I think we can call them the two frontrunners right now.

CHALIAN: Without a doubt, we can. Buttigieg is calling for generational change and Bernie Sanders is calling for a revolution based on the policies he's put forth. They have a different agenda. They have totally different voter profiles. And they now are battling for the long haul towards Milwaukee, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, let's take stock. I'm here with John King. Let's take stock tonight right now. Let us look at the strength of Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire, the strength of Pete Buttigieg in new Hampshire. Also, Amy Klobuchar, she came in third.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's remarkable. You look, 4,200 votes in change, we're at 93 percent. You see these lighter grey towns, those are the ones we're still waiting for. Vote is in just about everywhere else. We're just waiting for these towns. Let us take a look. You want to say, number one, if you go back in time, this will be a conversation among Democrats, emphasis a win is a win. However, in a two-candidate race, from the neighborhood, four years ago, this was a blowout. Sanders had to fight for New Hampshire this time. He did not. He now (ph) only won the progressive votes. He won the protests votes, the anti-Clinton votes. He ran it up last time.

This time, this is a battle and a great battle, a very competitive battle. People will be analyzing this one going forward. If you just want to look at the strength of Senator Sanders, let's just take places where Sanders ran first, these are the towns, add in second, and add in third. So you see some Buttigieg and some Klobuchar. Mayor Buttigieg is the lighter green.

[23:40:00]

KING: Senator Klobuchar is the darker green. But in all of these places, Sanders placed either first, second or third. Obviously, the light blue is where he placed in first. That's pretty impressive, right? That is pretty much the entire state.

Most of those other places, what we're missing, votes not in yet, a lot of them are small towns up here in the north. That is an impressive showing. So, that is why he's leading in the vote in New Hampshire, and he's been projected to be the winner. We will wait for the final votes to come in.

So let us go down here and look at Mayor Buttigieg. First, the Vermont border there is interesting. That is Bernie's territory. Second and third, again, just like Senator Sanders, Mayor Buttigieg is competitive across the state as he was in Iowa, good organization, turning out your people. If you're not winning first -- that is the lighter green -- you're coming in second or third. That's how you stay competitive in a statewide race.

If you're not going to win everywhere, it is what you've got to do. Now, Senator Klobuchar, who I think is the surprise here with her debate performance, coming out first, second, and a third. Again, overlay those three maps, Sanders, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, where they came in first, second and third, and you get pretty much the entire state which is -- they were competitive just about everywhere.

If you want to just take it, come at this from a different perspective, let me turn off Senator Klobuchar, this is where it's disappointing. We heard from the former vice president, he said he's going to fight on. You're the former vice president of the United States. You didn't come in first anywhere. You came in second in a tiny, tiny town in the north. And you came in third in a couple of tiny, tiny towns up here, which is why it was so disappointing of a night for Joe Biden.

And again, similar for Elizabeth Warren, turn off the former vice president, bring up Senator Warren from neighboring Massachusetts to the New Hampshire leader during the summer, first, nowhere, second in a couple -- one small town there, third in a few more places there. Again, disappointing, especially for a candidate who throughout the summer --

BLITZER: None of them got anything in the southern part of the state where the people are.

KING: Right. If you're reassessing your campaign organization tonight, you're trying to figure out what to do next, you're trying to figure out, you know, you need to talk about your message, your need to talk about your staff, you need to talk about what you're focusing on in your television ads, can you raise money? All of these campaigns.

Again, it's a very bad night for Senator Warren. Former Vice President Biden, you have to go down below to find him. They say it's not over. We will see how it plays out. It is only two states. So, you say, OK, let's see. Both of them have a brand. Both of them have organization. Both of them will have hard time raising money now because of this.

BLITZER: Elizabeth Warren thought she would do well in New Hampshire since she's from Massachusetts. The landscape changes though as we now move to Nevada and South Carolina.

KING: It does. That's what you've heard the panel talking about tonight. That is what you hear Senator Warren and Vice President Biden talking about. We move on next to Nevada, caucuses there. Let's cross our fingers that they've learned a lesson from Iowa. Then we move on to South Carolina from there. These are very different states.

Let's first look at where we've been. Let us stretch this out a little bit. Iowa and New Hampshire are where we've been, 91 percent white, 93 percent white, when you round it up. Tiny Latino and tiny black population are in Iowa.

We've been in very overwhelmingly white states for the first two contests which is why if you're the former vice president, if you're Senator Warren, you say, wait a minute, let's go someplace where we have more Democrats and a more diverse electorate, and they will get that.

This is the citizen voting age population statewide. In Nevada, 20 percent Latino, 10 percent black, eight percent Asian. The percentages of these groups in the democratic primary will be even bigger. This is the statewide population. So in Nevada, you have a competition for a much more diverse electorate.

And you come over to South Carolina, the same, nearly 68 percent white but 27 percent, if you round it up, black population, a small Latino population here. But again, these percentages are statewide in this graphic. They will be bigger than that in the democratic primary. Democrats have to compete for the most reliable constituency of the party there. This will be a much more diverse electorate.

One of the conversations you're seeing tonight especially in the Klobuchar and Buttigieg camps is they don't have great relationships in the African-American community. Can they get people into those states? Can they find people from back home, character witnesses, if you will? Can they start to organize quickly Latinos and African- Americans here, mostly African-Americans here?

You have momentum coming out of New Hampshire. The other candidates want to stop you. What happens in the next several days in these states will be fascinating, what money goes in, what staff goes in, what ambassadors do you find if you're like Buttigieg and Klobuchar and you don't have a national name in these communities? It is going to be interesting to watch in the days ahead.

BLITZER: South Carolina, I think 60 percent of the democratic vote is African-American.

KING: In the democratic primary.

BLITZER: One of the reasons why Joe Biden rushed off to South Carolina earlier in the day. Then Super Tuesday all of a sudden comes along three weeks from today. I think you have 14 states and that's going to be huge, including California and Texas.

KING: And in a lot of those states, Bloomberg has been on the air now for weeks. We didn't mention Mayor Bloomberg all that much tonight. When Super Tuesday comes, then bang, money matters, California, Texas, other big states.

[23:45:02]

KING: Throughout March, every Tuesday in March brings us a big election night which is why you can say after tonight, you know, these three candidates, same three candidates who came out of Iowa with some good momentum. Warren lost whatever she might have had out of Iowa maybe. She says she can regroup. He says he can regroup.

Tom Steyer is a billionaire. He's competitive. He spent money in South Carolina. The question is, where they can do some business quickly, get more momentum out of Nevada and South Carolina, because then you get into the very expensive Super Tuesday followed by two more big Tuesdays after that. This -- we're going state by state right now. We're about to hit the blur.

BLITZER: Bernie Sanders, we projected the winner in New Hampshire, Pete Buttigieg coming in second, Amy Klobuchar third. What are the implications of this win for Bernie Sanders tonight? We have much more of our special coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: Welcome back to our continuing coverage of the New Hampshire primary. Gloria, now at this stage, Bernie Sanders has won.

BORGER: Right.

COOPER: Pete Buttigieg is very close behind in second place. Good night for Amy Klobuchar in third. Is the race any clearer now tonight at this hour than it was the beginning of the night?

[23:50:03]

BORGER: I think it's less clear probably -- again, congratulations to Bernie Sanders for Iowa and New Hampshire. But you have Klobuchar coming up tonight. She was a big story. Pete Buttigieg is coming in very close behind Bernie Sanders and another big story.

I am waiting, I must say, for the big reveal next week when Mr. Bloomberg appears on the debate stage because he is kind of lurking out there and in our TV ads and we get to actually hear him speak.

So if he's a presidential candidate, it will be interesting to see how he interacts with all these people who have been out on the campaign trail for a year.

COOPER: I'm sure they'll all be welcoming him.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: David Axelrod?

AXELROD: I think that obviously Sanders needed to win. He got to win, as I said earlier. I think I'd be concerned it wasn't a bigger win and that the turnout wasn't more robust because you got (ph) 25 percent your way to the nomination. But he is in the midst of consolidating the progressive wing of the Democratic Party because Elizabeth Warren had a poor night.

Buttigieg and Klobuchar have earned the right to move forward but now come the big tests when they get into these more diverse states of Nevada and South Carolina and the second test of raising the resources necessary to compete along those broader array of Super Tuesday states.

And for the vice president, this was a sad night. He has basically one play left which is to do so well in South Carolina that he can move forward. But he's had trouble raising money. This isn't going to help. And you just have a sense that this isn't going to end well.

HENDERSON: But Nevada comes before South Carolina. He's been saying that you move to more diverse electorate. He should do well there. It is about 50 percent white and 50 percent non-white. So he should do well. I think it will be a test of what he has been saying his candidacy. It will be a test of whether or not he is organizing in any of these states, will be on the debate stage there.

I think people are going to draw comparison between how he's doing and Bloomberg as well. We'll see how those two measure up. But it is a real disappointing night for him. He is a candidate, I think, who came in saying that he could do close to putting together some sort of coalition, certainly do well with working class white voters. He's not doing well with working class white voters. He is not doing well with college educated white voters in any of these states either.

I think it is -- I will say it's still shocking. He has done as poorly as he has done in both Iowa and New Hampshire. I don't think his campaign expected that. For weeks, they were saying that they were going to do better in these states, not necessarily win, but certainly be competitive and they have been none of these things in these early states.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No one who has come in lower than second in New Hampshire has gone on to win the White House. And yet, I look at that ranking tonight and I don't think we are capped at just Sanders and Buttigieg. I said in the 7:00 hour when we began, I think the night would end with less clarity and I stand by that. I think that we really don't know what we're headed for.

It is going to be exciting and it is all going to unfold. This has been going on now for a year. The next 30 days, I think, are probably going to be outcome determinative. We are going to know whether someone will be able to secure enough votes to be the nominee.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER SPECIAL ADVISER TO PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA: You just can't get your head around this. Amy Klobuchar beat Biden tonight. If you said a month ago Amy Klobuchar was going to beat Biden anywhere, you will say no way. And she beat Elizabeth Warren, a superstar candidate who had been performing incredibly well the whole time. This is why --

COOPER: Not just beat.

JONES: Trounced. So there is something happening in this party. People are trying to find a way forward. In my heart, what if a Cory Booker held on a little bit longer? What if Kamala Harris held on a little bit longer? These miracles that happened, incredible moments that happened, you know, that's part of I think the pain for people who are watching this process go forward.

Everybody has somebody they wish were in the mix still. You have to give Amy Klobuchar her due credit. She did it the right way. She was principle. She was smart. She found her moment. She found her stride. Timing is everything.

AXELROD: They're not miracles, Van. You earn them.

JONES: Yeah.

AXELROD: These campaigns force you to earn them.

ALEXANDRA ROJAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR AT JUSTICE DEMOCRATS, FORMER 2016 BERNIE SANDERS CAMPAIGN ORGANIZER: The ramifications of the this are massive. Four years ago, we were talking about what was possible. And tonight, Bernie Sanders proved that his ideas are not only possible, but they are also electable. I think it means a lot that he has won at least the popular vote in these first two states. It's a huge bump in momentum heading in.

I think especially comparing with the other two folks that did well, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who give more sort of pre-Trump and Obama nostalgia, whereas I think Bernie Sanders is saying we have to do something different if we want to win the future.

[23:55:04]

COOPER: (INAUDIBLE).

MCAULIFFE: To answer your question, no, there's no clear frontrunner. It's muddled. Two states were demographically very good for Bernie Sanders. He won them, but he didn't have the big win he hoped. And the big surprise obviously you have, Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. The last thing I'd say, Nevada is a week from Saturday. Folks in Nevada, if you're watching me, to the governor to the state party, make sure your apps are working.

(LAUGHTER)

MCAULIFFE: I am just telling you now. Get in the game.

JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS OUTREACH FOR HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN: People are deciding right now. So the debate on the 19th is going to be the most important.

COOPER: All right. It helped (ph) Bernie Sanders one time. We will go inside the exit polls.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Chris Cuomo in the CNN Election Center.