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CNN Live Event/Special
Joe Biden Projected to Win South Carolina Primary, Bernie Sanders Coming in Second; Tom Steyer to Drop Out of Presidential Race after South Carolina; Interview with Jill Biden on Her Husband's Win in South Carolina. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired February 29, 2020 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[21:00:00]
JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: But the way he mocks and makes fun of other people, if all of you here in South Carolina, and especially Jim Clyburn, my friend, who lifted me in this campaign on his shoulder.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: But I mean, all of you. Many I don't have time and the name. All of you. We, Jill and I, our daughter Ashley, my son Hunter who's been on the phone straight through for me, my brother, my sister -- my two brothers, my sister, my five grandchildren, my four granddaughters who have come on the campaign trail, we'll never forget what you've done for us. Well --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We love you, Joe.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: We can say without fear of contradiction, the Bidens love you guys, man.
(CHEERS)
BIDEN: The Bidens love you. That's real. Folks, now we need to stand behind Jaime Harrison.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's right.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: The next president -- the next senator of South Carolina. We need to send Joe Cunningham back to the House of Representatives.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: And all of us, all the Bidens thank you, thank you for everything, everything you've done for us. Folks, so here's the deal. Let's get back up.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: We're decent. We're brave. We're resilient people. We can believe again. We're better than this. We're better than this president. So get up. Take back our country. This is the United States of America. There's nothing beyond our capacity if we do it together.
God bless you all and may God protect our children. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Joe Biden speaking in Columbia, South Carolina, tonight after his massive win in that state.
Van Jones, quite a speech from Vice President Biden.
VAN JONES, FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: That's extraordinary. That's extraordinary. That was the first time that I felt in this campaign that the Obama-Biden spirit of hope and optimism, he turned it personal. He took it back to Mother Emmanuel. He took it back to his own personal pain. He's making this campaign a symbol of coming through, of finding your way. He's turning the break down to a breakthrough, that's what he's doing. And he's hitting these emotional and spiritual notes that this country really needs because of the toxicity of the environment. That was medicine, and that was beautiful.
DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER: One of the things that has confused me about the Biden candidacy is that it devolved in kind of to a tactical argument. He's the guy who can beat Trump, but not enough about why he should, and why his comparative advantage in this race is decency, empathy, humanity.
JONES: The heart, man. The heart.
COOPER: In a sense in this speech, he got back to his entry into the race, into the video he produced.
AXELROD: Yes. About the soul of America.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. The soul of the country.
AXELROD: Yes. His appeal to the end.
COOPER: Often in debates what he ends up talking about is, I'm the guy who did this in the room.
AXELROD: I was in the room.
COOPER: And I met this person as opposed to the things at town halls which he speaks about.
AXELROD: Those are the best moments he's had in this campaign. Those town halls where he's talking to people, ministering to their concerns and fears and loss. Because they know he has experienced loss and he understands that pain. That is the essence of his appeal and the closer he stays to that, because these are elements that people don't see in the president. They don't see empathy. They don't see humanity. They don't see connection or caring.
COOPER: It's interesting actually when you think about Joe Biden going toe-to-toe with Donald Trump on a debate stage. And, you know, there's all sorts of reasons you can say well, you know, the president will, you know, be aggressive and Joe Biden, you know, might be faltering in, you know, bringing out facts and stuff. The arena in which the president can never compete with Joe Biden is as a human being talking from the heart.
AXELROD: Precisely.
BORGER: They are flip sides. And there is no way, you know, Trump is -- has no empathy. Not about empathy. Never has been. And Joe Biden is Mr. Empathy. Joe Biden on a good day is a happy warrior. Donald Trump is just a warrior. And so they're nothing alike and the contrast if they would ever get on a debate stage together would be quite stark. And the thing that struck me tonight as David was saying about Biden, and he said it in the town hall the other night.
He talked about after his son died he had to find purpose, and he found purpose back again in the church in South Carolina. And I think tonight he spoke to that purpose in his life again, because you have a sense he's an older man.
[21:05:07]
He's done a lot in public service which has been his life. And this is now his purpose, to build on the legacy of Barack Obama, to -- you know, to bring the country, to unify the country and to take the divisiveness out of the country. And again, you know, that's never going to happen in the short term. But to have a sense that this is why -- this is the answer. Why are you running for president?
AXELROD: Yes, the challenge --
(CROSSTALK)
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He also distinguished himself, I think, from others in the field. There were some lines that he offered that are memorable. One that I wrote down is talk of revolution is not changing anyone's life. I think we know who he's referring to.
Something else, Anderson, that I noted with Jim Clyburn's presence is the "Washington Post" is reporting tonight that as recently as February 23rd, Biden and Clyburn met, and Clyburn's polling at that point showed that the margin that the margin was down to five points. I don't know exactly where we are right now, but it's a double digit probably 20-point plus lead that he enjoys.
COOPER: Right.
(CROSSTALK) SMERCONISH: To think that as recently as the 23rd it was just down to five, and why among other things did it grow so large? It's because Clyburn decided to get in and to get knee-deep in this and endorse the vice president. What I'm saying is I really think he owes a debt of gratitude to the man who showed --
AXELROD: There's no doubt about it.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Or Clyburn has said that they got to retool this campaign. That he's not going to sit by and watch the folks running this campaign mishandle the campaign. And you can sort of see that happening already. Obviously in South Carolina that endorsement paid off big. Folks were on the ground who support Clyburn and then supporting Biden as well. And then this speech as well.
They have retooled the campaign. There's some new folks who are involved like Anita Dunn. It was a perfectly well-written speech. It was very moving. It reminded people of the Joe that they love. The personal stories about his loss. About his faith. And also the connection to Obama. Right? And the sort of incremental change that he thinks is more realistic than revolution.
ALEXANDRA ROJAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JUSTICE DEMOCRATS: I just wanted to add that I think that -- you know, I agree with my colleagues here that, you know, this was one of a better speech for Joe Biden than I think that we've seen. There's a lot of reasons for him to celebrate. And I think he showed in like some of these town halls he can get really, really personal and really empathetic with folks.
And I think, you know, hearing that line about the revolution, you know, coming from the perspective of a young person that I feel like is always told to get involved. Right? The younger generation. I think that there are so many movements that have changed. The material lives of people across America not just in the 1960s but Bernie Sanders running for president, obviously not winning in 2016, has completely shifted the conversation on universal health care where you have someone like Joe Biden who is staunchly against public option now campaigning on that. Right?
You have someone like Pete Buttigieg that is talking about Medicare for All because Medicare for All is a popular idea. And so I think that, you know, that same empathy should be taken into account to this sort of next generation of Democratic voters. You know, Millennials are starting to turn 40. It's not just, you know, young people 25 like myself, but it's, you know, the consequences of decades of bad decisions by both parties. Right? Not just Republicans.
I think is, you know, part of the reason why Bernie Sanders is doing so well. And I hope that that same empathy is extended to the next generation that look a lot more like AOC.
AXELROD: Important point.
TERRY MCAULIFFE, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: The other message that came out tonight as well is he was making the point that I'm the best one to help the down-ticket ballot. This is about Nancy Pelosi increasing seats in the House. This is about getting control of the United States Senate. I think that's a big argument for Joe Biden. And I think he put that out there tonight. That I'm the best one to be the standard bearer to help us win in the House and Senate, and with all the issues we got going on in the world today, with coronavirus and the Trump calling it a hoax, they want someone with experience and leadership. And I thought that really came through.
COOPER: Andrew, what do you think?
ANDREW YANG (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. I've spoken before and after Joe maybe dozens of times, and that was the best I've ever seen him. You know, I think the intro when it says that, you know Joe and Joe knows you, I think the essence of that was you had the sense that Joe cares about you in America, which he does very deeply. And I feel like if Bernie represents anger and revolution, Bloomberg represents wealth and managerial competence, at least, you know, to some measure, I feel like Biden is caring, empathy, and patriotism.
And if he's able to demonstrate that in a way that's not talking about how he's going to win but actually just showing those qualities, I think this has a chance to be a transformative moment.
COOPER: Coming up, the impact of Joe Biden's win. Will some Democrats -- will some of the candidates drop out? That's next.
[21:10:00]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We got a key race alert, a very impressive, very impressive win for the former Vice President Joe Biden. A blowout win in South Carolina. The Democratic presidential primary.
Take a look at this. More than half of the vote, the estimated vote, is now in 56 percent of the vote is in. And look at this, Joe Biden has 50.1 percent, the second place right now Bernie Sanders 19, only 19 percent. Tom Steyer, third place, 11.7 percent. Pete Buttigieg -- all in single digits that remain here. Pete Buttigieg 7.7 percent. Elizabeth Warren 6.6 percent. Amy Klobuchar only 3.1 percent. Tulsi Gabbard, she's at 1.1 percent.
Very, very impressive win for Joe Biden.
Let's come over here to the table as we're getting ready to assess what's going on.
[21:15:01]
We've got some major breaking news right now. I want to bring in CNN's Jeff Zeleny.
What are you learning, Jeff?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, we are learning that just in a few moments or so in South Carolina, Tom Steyer is going to end his presidential candidacy. He's going to make these remarks in his speech in South Carolina. He is running third place as you were just saying there. But I am told by someone close to his campaign that he is going to end his candidacy.
It is unclear if he's going to announce his support for someone else in the race. I do not believe that is going to happen this evening. But this is significant because Tom Steyer, of course, put his personal wealth behind his candidacy. He spent some $22 million in advertising alone in the state of South Carolina. Of course getting third place. So it certainly helped him to some degree, but his aides do not see a path forward for him.
Wolf, his objective has always been to try and defeat the president. So we do expect him to stay involved in this arena. Of course he's been very actively involved in politics in terms of registering people to vote. The impeachment proceedings, et cetera. So I am told he is going to stop his candidacy tonight in South Carolina. So the question here is as this -- you know, is he the only one who is going to be making this decision here in the wake of this first-in-the-south primary?
Certainly this is a decision time for all of these candidates. But we do know tonight that Tom Steyer in a short time will announce that he's dropping out of the race -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes. We'll hear what he has to say. Jeff Zeleny, excellent reporting as usual.
This is an important moment right now because Tom Steyer, if he would have continued, he has a lot -- he's a billionaire. He could have spent a lot more but he sees the handwriting on the wall.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. He's not gotten the return on this investment at all. Yes, he's in third place in South Carolina, which is a big deal given the fact that he's never held office before. But he has not gotten a delegate as far as we know. I mean, he's under 15 percent. Perhaps if he gets that threshold in one of the congressional districts, then he will get a delegate.
But to spend as much as he had -- has and I'll just pull it up here, just remember, $22.5 million in television and radio ads in South Carolina. I mean, he completely, you know, trounced the other candidates when it came to spending. And that's not even including the direct mail and other -- you know, campaign staff and other spending that he did there.
And the other thing that I just want to put out there as a question is whether or not despite his money that he could put behind other candidates, whether or not it makes much of a difference when it comes to other candidates getting his support, because he has no delegates to date. Zero delegates to date. And it didn't look like ahead on Super Tuesday in some of the big states. He wasn't going to get any at all.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, the question really is do other candidates see him drop out and think maybe I should have that conversation with myself? You know, that's the only potential impact here, is to get the other candidates to think about it. Andrew Yang was just talking about it during the panel conversation earlier. That, you know what, am I really making an impact on the race?
Because in our California poll that came out the other day, Steyer was at 3 percent. In Texas he was at 1 percent. It is not like Tom Steyer getting out of this race is creating this giant opening, you know, to take a pool of voters that would otherwise be for Tom Steyer. He simply didn't have the support. South Carolina was his best state by far, and he's going to glance again, and look, 11.8 percent statewide.
That is nowhere near a return on the investment. And let's give him some credit in the sense that he did spend a boatload of money there. He also spent a lot of time there. He did try to develop relationships in the community. So this is one where he worked hard. His wife moved to South Carolina, more or less. He did a ton of events there. He tried to develop at least a decent base in the African-American community. And tonight it's proof that it didn't work.
And so getting out -- you know, my only question here is he doesn't have a big impact in future states because he doesn't have a big reservoir of support. My only question is, do other candidates say, you know what, that's what's happening, maybe I should think about it?
BASH: That's an important point. Being in South Carolina, talking to African-American voters just anecdotally, he did have a presence there. And it wasn't just Johnny come lately coming in to say hey, I'm here, please vote for me in this presidential primary. He and his wife went in and invested in the African-American communities years ago, and that stuck.
Just one quick anecdote. The Uber driver that David and I had the day before, two days before our town hall, he was going to vote for Tom Steyer. Heard that Jim Clyburn had endorsed Joe Biden, and real time -- we told him, and real time he said well, maybe I'll change my mind. I'm guessing he wasn't alone -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, thanks very much. I'm here with David Chalian right now. We're talking about the all-important delegate count. First, let's talk about the delegate count tonight. What do we see happening right now?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, as you see here, 54 delegates are at stake tonight in South Carolina. We have been able to assign 22 of them, 19 for Joe Biden, three for Bernie Sanders, and that's because you see he is above that 15 percent threshold state- wide.
[21:20:08]
He may be in some congressional districts as well. But right now we have 32 more delegates out of South Carolina to assign tonight but look at that. That shows the depth of the Biden victory, not just in the vote totals but in this delegate haul tonight, he's so far netting 16 --
BLITZER: So what does that mean for the delegate count to date, four states?
CHALIAN: Well, take a look. So you know you need 1,991 delegates to win the nomination. Look where we are. 48 delegates for Sanders now, 34 for Biden, 26 for Buttigieg, 8 for Warren, 7 for Klobuchar. Joe Biden is making real gains on Bernie Sanders in this delegate count.
As you know, Wolf, the first four states are really about momentum. This delegate game goes on super drive when we get to Super Tuesday.
BLITZER: It certainly will. 14 states, plus American Samoa.
John King, 60 percent of the vote is now in. A really impressive, very impressive win for the former vice president.
KING: It's a blowout with an exclamation point in the sense that this is a 30-point win. There was a poll just a week ago that had Joe Biden up two. There's another poll that had him up five. Then one came up midweek that had him up 20. Everyone thought well, what's right?
The Clyburn endorsement certainly helped. But the Biden campaign, that is a blowout. We're at 60 percent. The numbers could change some. But there's clearly -- he's winning. And this tells you everything you need to know, all right?
These are the counties of South Carolina. You go through them one at a time. 50 percent in Richland County. That's the second largest county in the state. There are 46 counties, Wolf. There's two we're still waiting for results from, Orangeburg County, heavy African-American population here, you would expect it's going to fill in just like everything else. You move out here to Bamberg County, very tiny, more of a rural county, .3 percent of the population. But you can expect by the end of the night barring something we don't see, this looks pretty typical.
BLITZER: And it looks like Biden is winning every single county in South Carolina. You know, what about Bernie Sanders? He's coming in second, I assume, in some places.
KING: Right. And if you look, that's why he's going to get some delegates tonight. Bernie Sanders not coming in first anywhere. Joe Biden is winning every county that has reported results so far. And again, we're only waiting for two. But look, in all those counties Bernie Sanders came in second. Add in some more where Bernie Sanders came in third. That is why, early in the night we were looking -- a lot of the night he was below 15 percent, the threshold you need to get delegates.
As David just noted, he's going to get at least some of the state-wide delegates because he's above 15 percent. And he may pick up some congressional delegates, too, when you go through the congressional districts later tonight when we get the full count in. And we can overlap that with the congressional map. So Sanders coming out with some delegates but this is overwhelming, especially if you take it out in the context, just come out to the other states.
Remember, Iowa went first. Buttigieg, but very narrowly. Right? Very narrowly, and look at the competition throughout the state. Several candidates winning counties across Iowa. There's 99 over here in a very, very close race. Then you move over to New Hampshire, this is a state Bernie Sanders won in a blowout four years ago. Again, an incredibly close race in New Hampshire. Three candidates pretty close. But especially the top two very close, and you see the votes split between several of the candidates winning towns in New Hampshire.
Now we went out to Nevada. This was a big Sanders win. It's a big Sanders win. But you did have some Buttigieg here. You know, but impressive here. Two very close races in the first two. A blowout for Sanders in Nevada. Caucuses there. And then you come here to the first primary where the African-American vote mattered most, and you just see, it's just a blowout.
You filling in Biden blue just as it was all Clinton blue. If you go back in the race four years ago, and so you come out here and look at this, and we wait for the rest to come in, it's a big win. The question now is you heard that Biden speech, went right at Bernie Sanders. We don't need a revolution, we don't need false promises. We need an Obama-Biden Democrat.
Does this spring board into other states? We'll be back here Tuesday night. It's going to be fun.
BLITZER: It's only three days away. So we'll be busy.
Coming up, Joe Biden's wife Jill on his blowout win in South Carolina and his battle against Bernie Sanders on Super Tuesday. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:27:34]
BLITZER: We have another key race alert right now. 68 percent of the estimated vote is now in. Look at this. Joe Biden, he's the winner obviously, 50 percent so far. It's a blowout win for the former vice president. Bernie Sanders in second place. But way, way below with only 19.1 percent. Tom Steyer 11 .4 percent. He has just announced that he's dropping out of this race. Pete Buttigieg 7.8 percent. Elizabeth Warren 6.8 percent. Amy Klobuchar only 3 percent. Tulsi Gabbard 1.2 percent.
I want to go to CNN's Jessica Dean, she's in Columbia, South Carolina, for us. She's got a special guest -- Jessica.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf, we're here with Dr. Jill Biden, fresh off the rope line there. And your victory speech.
Dr. Biden, I want to ask you. South Carolina is very personal to your family. It's where you came after your son died to grieve. Ironically, after this what has been a bruising primary process, very personal in terms of the attacks, they delivered this huge victory for you tonight. What does that feel like for you and your family? JILL BIDEN, JOE BIDEN'S WIFE: Well, it's hard. You know, as a mother,
it's very hard for me to see my son attacked, and to see my husband attacked. And these are all distractions for Donald Trump. It just shows you that Donald Trump doesn't want to run against Joe Biden because Joe Biden is going to beat him.
DEAN: And you guys certainly have a lot of personal relationships here. This is a lot of years you've been spending here.
JILL BIDEN: A lot. We've been coming here for years and years. You know, we knew (INAUDIBLE) and the Clyburns certainly. Emily was such a strong force and friend, and you know, we have so many relationships, and I look forward to coming back.
DEAN: And now, though, you've got to go travel to -- you're going out -- I think it's fair to say you're your husband's favorite surrogate. And so you're going to go now to Arkansas and --
JILL BIDEN: Yes.
DEAN: You've been everywhere. You were in California this morning. What is the message you're going to be taking to people? Do you think that you can take this momentum that you guys have here?
JILL BIDEN: Absolutely.
DEAN: And really make a difference going into Super Tuesday?
JILL BIDEN: Yes. Absolutely. This is just the beginning. You know, I'm a marathon runner. And this is just the beginning of our marathon. We have all those other states to hit. And I think when they -- you know, they see Joe and he's so presidential and he has the experience, and I think we're just going to take it the whole way.
And before we go, I do want to say thank you, thank you, thank you, to the people of South Carolina because they opened their homes and their communities, but best of all, they opened up their hearts to us, and really, the Bidens will never forget this. They gave us wings. And, you know, we're so thankful.
JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: And it's interesting you say that because I talked to a senior adviser with your campaign who said money doesn't buy relationships, which was really a swipe at Michael Bloomberg.
BIDEN: Yes.
DEAN: We're going into Super Tuesday. That's a big strategy for him to win in some of these states like Arkansas, Tennessee. What -- do you have a message for him tonight?
BIDEN: Money can't -- people see through that. Money can't buy people. And I think he hasn't been out here. He hasn't been on the trail. He wasn't in the four -- the first four states and you saw his debate performances. And I think, you know, Joe is just head and shoulders above Michael Bloomberg. So I think people are going to see that in Joe.
DEAN: All right, Dr. Jill Biden, thanks so much for being with us. We appreciate it.
Wolf, back to you.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: All right. Thanks very much, and thank Jill Biden for us as well.
All right, we've got a lot more that we need to cover. We will right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TOM STEYER (D), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I said if I didn't see a path to winning that I'd suspend my campaign. And honestly, I can't see a path where I can win the presidency. So am I going to continue to work on every single one of these issues?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[21:35:02]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Tom Steyer dropping out of the race just moments ago. I want to talk about it with the group here.
Andrew Yang, I mean, it's a decision you made as well. It's interesting, you talked about kind of looking at this rationally, trying not to get -- you know, obviously there's a lot of emotion with the race. Looking at it rationally. There wasn't a path ahead for you, you saw, and that seems to be the decision he made as well.
ANDREW YANG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Yes. It's not surprising to me that Tom dropped out. I think that Tom is a rational, principled actor. He's not going to do something that he thought was bad for the country. He invested a lot of energy in South Carolina so he wanted to see it through. The question now in my mind is whether several other candidates follow suit in the coming days.
The big question marks to me are Pete and even Bloomberg. And so for Bloomberg, he's likely to see Super Tuesday through, but if you make this decision before Super Tuesday, it's actually much more impactful than if you make it after. So those are the conversations that I think some other candidates should be having.
COOPER: Yes.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I think in a way he had no other choice, but it was the right statesman-like thing to do. If you want a Democrat to win, and if you spent also $210 million on radio and television, and you may not even get a delegate.
COOPER: Yes. BORGER: Out of -- out of tonight. And he -- as he said, he saw no path
to the presidency. He did not endorse. So that will be an interesting question. And also, will he help any other candidate who is the nominee?
VAN JONES, FORMER OBAMA ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: I think that he will.
BORGER: Go up against Donald Trump.
JONES: Look. Class act.
BORGER: Right.
JONES: All the way. You know, Tom Steyer is somebody -- I've known him personally for almost 20 years. He's somebody who really does care about these issues. He's not just, hey, you know, I heard climate change is a good issue to run. I heard racial injustice is popular now. Let me do some woke performative stuff. Maybe I'll get, you know, some attention. He believes in this stuff. And he put his money where his mouth is, and I think he did the right thing to back out.
I hope that other people will do the same thing. We do need to clarify this race. We need to give people a chance to vote for one part of this party or the other, and I think Tom did the right thing tonight. And I'm not surprised.
COOPER: Hey, Governor, if you're Team Biden tonight, what are you doing to try to capitalize on this for Super Tuesday?
TERRY MCAULIFFE, FORMER DNC CHAIRMAN: I think you're on the phone right now with Tom Steyer, one of the first calls probably. Right? But the campaigns right now, Anderson, they're all talking to each other. I mean, they all know each other. They've all worked on campaigns. So there is a lot of interaction going on to the different campaigns right now. But, you know, I think Biden gave probably the speech of his life tonight.
He said there's no greatness without goodness. I mean, I thought that was a very impacted speech. And I think a lot of the candidates who were watching this tonight said wow, I can see him as president. I think a lot of people saw that tonight. And I think that will have an impact on the candidates as well saying well, he put a great message out there. I think we ought to get behind him.
But campaigns are talking. I'm sure Joe Biden is on the phone right now with Tom Steyer as I would assume Bernie and everybody else.
COOPER: You also have Clyburn earlier on CNN saying this has been a, you know, badly run campaign for Biden. It needs to be revisited, retooled. He wants to get involved with it. How does that -- you know campaigns. How does that happen?
MCAULIFFE: Yes. And I will tell you, Joe was much better in the campaign. I can't answer like in Iowa how there was virtually no field operation. It just didn't work. I don't know who -- you know, someone ultimately has to be responsible. He was the incumbent -- he was the vice president. He was the frontrunner going into it. You would assume you could have picked up a lot of early support.
I think one thing, the vice president waited too long to get into the race. That's all -- I mean, there's just the mechanism of politics but, you know, I think they've retooled the campaign. But Joe is going to drive it now. This is -- this was a huge win tonight. Nobody can say it wasn't. It was a gigantic win. There will be huge momentum coming out of this, and he will get a tremendous amount of financial support tonight. I guarantee his online is through the roof tonight. But a lot of major donors will say, I got to get behind him, and I'm sure his super PAC is having a spectacular night tonight.
BORGER: Right.
DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA SENIOR ADVISER: Can I say this? And I think he -- I agree with everything you said about his performance here, about his speech. But every campaign reflects the person at the top. It's not really true to say well, it wasn't his fault, his campaign didn't serve him well. The fact is that when you're the candidate, one of your responsibilities is to be the sort of chairman of the board of your campaign.
And, you know, Biden's never had great success in presidential politics before, and this is one of the reasons. Now, the question is, has he had a wakeup call here? I thought his speech was magnificent tonight. Can he carry that message through every bit of his communications? Can he carry it through on the debate stage? That's going to be the test for him. You can't just have one good night and the campaign can't just have one good primary.
They've got to retool and he's got -- you know, he's got to recognize that this has been a flaw, and not just this time but every time he's run for president.
(CROSSTALK)
[21:40:04]
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Is there something to be read into the fact that no one is seizing the moment right now? I remember when we were together and the governor said Amy Klobuchar should get out there, and she followed your advice. It seems to me that this is a free media opportunity for the asking right now before Super Tuesday, and we've heard from Senator Sanders.
We've heard obviously from former vice president Biden. We just heard from Tom Steyer, but where's everybody else? And should we be reading something into that, the fact that they haven't come out and said something?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I think some of these are -- you know, some of these folks are giving campaign speeches in different states. I think Warren is down in Texas -- Houston, Texas. Of course, that's going to be a big contest on Tuesday. I think she's hammering Sanders and Biden. I don't think we're necessarily going to cover it, but I think they're going to try to figure out what their message is going forward. For Biden I do think the question is, can he be consistent? Can he
show up as the Biden we saw tonight, as the Biden I think people remember from 2008, remember from 2012, remember from standing by Obama. It seems like the campaign has hidden him in some ways. You know, you think about all of these other candidates out on stage all the time, out doing interviews all the time. Hasn't been the same with Biden.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Nia, he's apparently doing -- he's doing four Sunday shows tomorrow.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Which is not unusual for him.
SMERCONISH: The old advance man, the old advance man in me says you put together an event, you plan it out on a night like tonight with friendly faces around so that people across the country who are watching see that there's still life in your campaign.
COOPER: So for those who've run campaigns here on the panel, I mean, is this the conversation of, you know, should my candidate drop out? Is that a conversation the candidate and their campaign have already had? Has Buttigieg, Warren, Klobuchar?
AXELROD: I don't -- I don't think you can have that conversation with a candidate who is out there trying to campaign. I think campaigns have had conversations internally about here's our situation. When are we going to talk to the candidate? When is the -- what is the recommendation we're going to make? And I think those conversations are going to happen.
You know, Michael, I think one of the reasons why not everybody has stepped out tonight is because it is hard to just stop short and walk out and say, OK, I'm out after devoting yourself and your whole organization --
COOPER: So -- which is why I asked the question. This is not something they have pre-thought out already because of the, what, emotion and --
AXELROD: Yes. I mean, I just -- I'm sorry.
BORGER: But they're not in -- one of the reasons they're not in South Carolina is because they want South Carolina to be in the rear-view mirror, and they don't want to come out and talk about how badly they did. If you look at all of our numbers, I mean, Bernie Sanders to his credit, came out, was not in South Carolina but came out and congratulated Joe Biden. And that's important. That's important for Democrats, I think. So it's not -- you know, it's not easy. And you're just a recent candidate here. It's nice.
MCAULIFFE: We just said, if you're a candidate -- I've been a candidate, I've won, I've lost. You never think you're going to lose and you never want to get out. Let's be very clear. BORGER: Right.
MCAULIFFE: At some point your campaign manager and your team has a very tough conversation, comes in and says, there is no pathway, or we don't have any money left. You as the candidate, you never want to get out because you always hope for that long haul.
AXELROD: And this is the moment, Terry. This is the moment. Yesterday wasn't the moment. This is the moment. South Carolina primary is over. This is the moment to have that discussion.
YANG: Yes. I mean, Tom didn't decide just now to get out. Like, he was having conversations with his team saying hey, if we don't hit a certain result in South Carolina, that gives us some kind of fuel moving forward, then we'll get out. And so Tom has been thinking about this. The other candidates are thinking the same thing is, they're looking around the map and they're saying if we get this result in these states, then let's continue. If we don't, we fall short, then we consider dropping out.
I will say that the race looking ahead is much better for Biden because it becomes much more familiarity, earned media and advertising campaign than it is the retail campaign that has gone on thus far. And Joe is very strong obviously in familiarity and earned media. And I think he's going to raise a truck ton of money. So I think he may be firing on all cylinders very shortly.
BORGER: I think the conversation you'd like to be --
MCAULIFFE: You just run out of money. I've said this on a show. At some point, I mean, we finished Super Tuesday. It's going to come very quick. Then you've got big states on St. Patrick's Day. You've got Arizona, you've got Illinois, you've got Florida, and Ohio. Four big contests. That is -- those are very expensive media markets. Chicago.
AXELROD: I think everybody -- look, I think the teams know. OK? They know. Everybody kind of knows what the score is. It's just a question of getting around the table and having that discussion and figuring out the -- you know, the orchestration.
(CROSSTALK)
SMERCONISH: What I think is, David, is that they're headed toward the exit. The fact that they're not out. Look, none of them can afford to get on television except Bernie Sanders. Right?
YANG: Right. One thing, though, is that, if there was someone -- like Tulsi Gabbard could be having an event right now. There's no one going to cover it. Like as a candidate, you actually know that, like someone had an event right now, there's a good chance they'll get a coverage. So if you were a campaign and you knew you were going to get coverage, of course you'd give a speech. But there's nothing to cover.
(CROSSTALK)
SMERCONISH: Really? HENDERSON: Yes. She was --
[21:45:03]
MCAULIFFE: Why is Tulsi still in, you think?
YANG: You know, I think she's running for different reasons than many other candidates. I mean, she already said she's not running for Congress anymore. She's got a different agenda.
BORGER: So the conversation --
MCAULIFFE: What's her agenda, you think?
COOPER: What's the agenda?
BORGER: Yes. What is it?
COOPER: To be a FOX contributor, isn't it? I don't have any information. I'm just assuming. That's where she appears.
BORGER: Right. I do want to say Elizabeth Warren did speak tonight. I feel that the conversation that we all want to know about is the one that's going on inside the Bloomberg campaign. Because money is not the issue. So you can put that aside. It's different from every campaign you've been in, Terry.
MCAULIFFE: Yes.
BORGER: Governor. It's different, because it's OK, we don't have to think about the money we're going to raise. It's about something else. It's about, how do we help a Democrat get elected president? How do we not embarrass the candidate?
YANG: I want to tell --
BORGER: So it's a whole different thing.
YANG: I want to tell a Bloomberg story, though. I think it will be helpful. So I had coffee with a marketing staffer from my campaign, and I was concerned, what are you going to do next. And he said, don't worry it. I'm working at the Bloomberg campaign and they're paying me 2.5 times what I got paid here. And they have this massive operation that is leaps and bounds ahead of anything the DNC is employing in terms of data and resources.
COOPER: Really?
YANG: They have their own digital war room. So, Gloria, when you asked how is Bloomberg going to make this decision? They've got this incredible data projection.
BORGER: Algorithm.
YANG: Down to the district. Down to the delegate. And they're mapping it and simulating it. And Bloomberg is saying, OK, if we get this in this place -- as soon as he has a clear picture from the data that he's not going to be contributing, he'll be out.
AXELROD: But that's what I was telling you before. What they are saying tonight is that their analytics suggest that the project of stopping Bernie Sanders or slowing him down would be better served by him being in for this round than out. That may have changed because of how Biden performed tonight. But that is what that big war room is suggesting right now.
COOPER: That's fascinating. Still ahead --
MCAULIFFE: Also, Anderson, can I tell you one --
COOPER: Yes. Yes, yes.
MCAULIFFE: I remember South Carolina primary 2008. We were broke, the Clinton campaign. I remember it like it was yesterday. 7:00 in the morning before I got the flight to fly out of Puerto Rico for a meeting. I had to go in. The president and Hillary, still in the PJ, 7:00 in the morning, knocked on the door.
BORGER: Too much information. OK. Go ahead.
MCAULIFFE: No, I just (INAUDIBLE), and I said listen, if this is going to continue, you're going to have to put your own money in. And to their credit, Hillary without missing a beat said I'll do it.
AXELROD: That sounds like a persuasive argument, actually.
(LAUGHTER)
MCAULIFFE: But I mean, these are hard decisions. So if you don't -- if you can't put your own money in, these campaigns end.
COOPER: Yes. Still ahead, we're going to get reaction from some of Joe Biden's rivals to his big win in South Carolina as the field is starting to narrow. Steyer out. Back after a break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:51:19]
BLITZER: Welcome back. Let's get another key race alert right now. 81 percent of the estimated vote is now in. They're doing an impressive job counting votes in South Carolina. Quickly, Joe Biden is clearly the winner, 49.2 percent right now, way ahead of Bernie Sanders who only has 19.5 percent. Tom Steyer, who's just announced he's dropping out. 11.5 percent. Everybody else is single digits. Buttigieg 7.9 percent, Warren 6.9 percent, Amy Klobuchar only 3.1 percent. Tulsi Gabbard only 1.2 percent.
Let's check in with some of our reporters covering all of this. Ryan Nobles is over at the Sanders campaign in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Set the scene for us, what's happening now as far as the Sanders' camp is concerned? RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, there is no doubt, Wolf, that
the Sanders campaign is looking ahead to Super Tuesday. And that's one of the reasons that they ended the night here in Virginia, which is of course one of the key Super Tuesday states. But there is no doubt a little bit of angst within the Sanders' campaign tonight just given where we thought they would be coming into tonight.
The Sanders campaign felt that they were making real progress in South Carolina. They actually upped their media buy in the closing days of the campaign. Sanders ended up spending a lot more time in South Carolina than they had originally planned. They never thought that they were going to win but they never also thought that they were going to lose by the margins that Sanders lost by tonight.
Yes, he did come in second place. He's now come in first or second in every single one of the first fourth contests, and he is certainly in one of the strongest positions heading into Super Tuesday. But this is no doubt going to be a bit of a knock to the campaign, something that Sanders is going to have to recover from.
And you heard him talk about here tonight, Wolf, he did make brief mention of South Carolina, he congratulated Joe Biden and then he immediately made the pivot to Super Tuesday, saying that they are focused on Super Tuesday in states like Virginia where he believes there are still many wins in his future -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Ryan Nobles in Virginia Beach, Virginia.
Rebecca Buck is covering the Steyer campaign. No longer a campaign. He announced that he's dropping out.
Rebecca, he didn't announce that he was endorsing anyone. At least not yet, right?
REBECCA BUCK, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. So Steyer really focusing tonight in his speech on the issues that brought him into this campaign in the first place. And he said to his supporters here tonight that he had no regrets about the race despite the way this turned out for him. That he felt that this was an amazing experience and particularly here in South Carolina he intends to stay involve.
He said I am not leaving. And he really feels that the fight here is his fight as well. Of course he was a very influential donor and activist before he became a presidential candidate. And so we can certainly expect him to stay involved even if he doesn't ultimately endorse. That's an open question. But really what happened here with Tom Steyer's campaign. South Carolina was supposed to be the strongest state for them. And it was ultimately.
But they see -- they saw this as -- you can hear his campaign staff behind me sort of saying good-bye. This was supposed to be launching pad for Tom Steyer into Super Tuesday. An excuse for voters to give him another look. Instead a much weaker results than they expected. They were hoping to hit 15 percent. And so, as his spokesperson told me before Steyer made his remarks this evening, they felt that this was the statesman like thing to do, to drop out at this stage -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much Rebecca Buck in Columbia, South Carolina.
All right, we got a lot more to cover right. We will right after a quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:58:39]
BLITZER: All right. Let's take another key race alert right now. Look at this blowout win for Joe Biden with 48.5 percent to Bernie Sanders' only 19.9 percent. But take a look at this. He's beating Bernie Sanders with 86 percent of the vote in by 122,000 votes. That's so impressive for the former vice president.
Tom Steyer just announced he's dropping out. 11.4 percent. Pete Buttigieg 8.1 percent. Everybody else in relatively low single digits.
Let's go over to David Chalian and take a look at the all-important delegate count right now. Biden, as a result of South Carolina, he's gaining some significant numbers of delegates.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: There is no doubt about it, Wolf, and you know 54 delegates at stake tonight in South Carolina. The biggest delegate haul of the first four states. Take a look at what we've been able to allocate so far to the candidates. Joe Biden tonight so far getting 26 delegates compared to Bernie Sanders getting 8. They are the only two to get delegates so far. And look at what a huge delegate win that is so far.
We still have 20 delegates of the 54 not yet assigned and we'll look as the vote continues to come in. But the big Biden win is also getting him a big delegate haul tonight over Sanders.
BLITZER: It was impressive because even the poll didn't show a blowout win like this, did it?
CHALIAN: Well, no. I mean, there was a poll earlier in the week I think that only had Joe Biden with a five-point lead then we saw a poll later in the week that had him with a 20-point lead. This is even greater than that.
