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Dangerous Wind Chill Alerts; Iowa Caucus for GOP Candidate; Clay Masters is Interviewed about the Iowa Caucuses; Car Ramming Attack in Israel. Aired 9:30-10a ET

Aired January 15, 2024 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:31:05]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: You're looking at live pictures from Des Moines in Iowa, where it is cold. How cold? I have to walk up to the screen here to see, I think it's minus 4 degrees. I'm going with minus 4 degrees in Des Moines, Iowa, right now. Which -- oh, no, now I'm told it's minus 8. It just dropped four degrees while I've been speaking to you. Minus 8 degrees in Des Moines, which is still relatively balmy because tonight some of the forecast temperatures I have here up on the screen are for minus 14 in Des Moines. It could get down to minus 16 in Davenport, minus 18 in Cedar Rapids. That's cold.

Let's get right to Allison Chinchar at the Weather Center to get a sense of just how historic these temperatures could be.

ALLISON CHINCHAR, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, and I want to point out too, John, that's the temperatures. That doesn't even take into account what the wind is going to make it feel like. For some of those spots, you're talking 20 to even 30 degrees below normal for that windchill. And that's just one part of the country that's going to be seeing it. Some of these areas could be looking at windchills as low as 45 degrees below zero. These windchill alerts stretch from the Canadian border all the way down to Mexico. So, it's impacting a lot of different people with these not only temperatures below normal, but those windchills, down to frigid conditions.

But because that cold air is in place, it means all of this moisture that's going to be making its way to the eastern half of the country is going to turn into the form of snow or even ice. Ice is the concern for areas of east Texas, all the way over to Alabama. But for areas of Arkansas, Tennessee, and then up into the mid-Atlantic by the time we get to this evening, the main concern is going to be snow.

By tomorrow morning, all of that snow pushes into the northeast. So now you're talking about the concern for some slick spots across Boston and, yes, even New York. This could end up being the system that breaks the snow drought for cities like Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and even New York, which have gone an incredibly long period of time without having at least an inch of snow in a day. Seven hundred consecutive days at least for the city of New York. This could end up getting broken, however, as this next round of snow begins to come into the area in the next 24 hours.

BERMAN: All right, Allison Chinchar, thank you very much.

Let's go back to Iowa, where these candidates are trying to get voters to show up despite the cold.

We've been talking about the battle between Nikki Haley and Ron DeSantis, seen as a battle for second place. We'll see. How does Nikki Haley have a successful night? She has been reaching out to independent and moderate voters. Well, one question is, can these voters actually vote in a Republican caucus? The answer is yes. Yes. "The Des Moines Register" poll asked likely caucusgoers which party they were in. Almost 79 - 70 percent, I should say, said they're Republicans, the lions share, but 5 percent said they're Democrats, 23 percent say they're independents. They can vote tonight as long as they register as Republicans at their caucus site.

This is a not insignificant amount. Where are they in Iowa? To figure that out, let's go back to the presidential election in 2020. Ninety- nine counties in Iowa. Joe Biden, the Democrat, he won only six of them. But they are fairly populous counties. They include the capital where Des Moines is. They also include university towns like Ames, where Iowa State is, Iowa City, where the University of Iowa is. These have the highest level of education, by and large, these counties do.

I can put up this filter right here and you can see, the darker areas have the greatest percentage of non-college educated voters. Lighter, the highest percentage of college educated. You can see, all these light areas in places where Joe Biden did well. Well, you're wondering, does this matter in a Republican caucus? The answer is yes. Yes, it absolutely can.

I want to go back to 2016, to the Republican caucuses in 2016. Now, it's a little hard to tell because both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio are red. But Marco Rubio is a right red. And you can see, the counties that Marco Rubio won are in these areas, the college towns, the capital Des Moines.

[09:35:03]

And Marco Rubio finished third. But it was a strong third. Pretty close to first place here. This is the type of finish that Nikki Haley would very much like to see on caucus night tonight. And Marco Rubio did campaign in that path.

Now, one group that thinks that Nikki Haley at least is some kind of threat, Donald Trump and his supporters. Why do I say that? If you look at the ad spending in the closing weeks in Iowa, you can see here, "Politico" tracked this, Donald Trump's campaign and his super PAC spent $4.5 million targeting Nikki Haley, zero targeting Ron DeSantis. So, the Trump campaign, the Trump people see Haley as the biggest threat here.

Wolf.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Interesting, indeed. Thanks very much, John. Joining us now, CNN political commentator, the Republican strategist,

former Trump campaign adviser, David Urban, and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp.

David, Iowa is the first big test, as we all know, later tonight. And it will test Trump's 2024 appeal, specifically -- not necessarily completely, but specifically with Republican voters. Can he get 50 percent?

DAVID URBAN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think you're going to see - I think he's going to outperform tonight, Wolf. They've been on the ground. They've got an incredible operation. Knock and drag. The team's been doing very, very well there. I think if you look at the numbers, if you look at the DeSantis numbers and the Haley numbers in that Des Moines poll, add them together, they don't even come close to Donald Trump's numbers. So, I think he's going to outperform, I think, some of those Ramaswamy voters, some of the DeSantis voters are going to - going to, you know, caucus for Trump. You get in that room, people twist your arm. Trump's going to end up with over 50 percent tonight, I think, in - and leave here with big momentum going into New Hampshire.

BLITZER: How do you see it?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, that's going to be the really interesting first tell of this entire primary season. Are the polls over indexing Trump or under indexing him? And we've all made a pretty big deal, rightfully, over the giant gap between Trump and his nearest competitors in Iowa. We'll see. It might be bigger at the end of this. We'll see if the field shrinks a little bit and the gap narrows, which will tell us a little bit about some of the primaries and caucuses going forward, that maybe it's not as close as Trump wants people to believe. But that's going to be a really, really important first lesson.

URBAN: And just to add to it. Just to add to that. People like to be on a winning team, right? If you - you see Trump's numbers, you look at this poll, you're sitting at home, you're on the fence, you don't know if you're DeSantis, Ramaswamy, Trump and you look at that and you say -

CUPP: Haley.

URBAN: Yes, Haley. Well, but if you're looking there and you're thinking -- most Haley voters aren't Trump voters to begin with. But if you're looking at them, am I going to vote for DeSantis or Ramaswamy or Trump, and the Trump numbers are really big, and you think, well, I'm not going to waste my vote.

CUPP: What's the point? Right.

URBAN: Yes. I'm going to - I'm going to vote for Trump. So, people want to be with a winner. So, I think, again, they suck along some of that vote as well. That's why I think -

CUPP: Well, and that momentum coming out tonight - URBAN: Yes.

CUPP: Is going to be so important.

BLITZER: But you know the Trump team, they're very worried -

CUPP: Yes.

BLITZER: That this horrible weather out there in Iowa right now could deter people from showing up. And - and if these Trump supporters think that Trump has it locked up right now they might say to themselves, you know, what's the point?

CUPP: Well, Trump has made that mistake a number of times. In other midterms elections he's said, these aren't that important because he wasn't on the ballot. And, of course, the name of the game for these is turnout.

But I've got to be honest, I think he's more worried about Nikki Haley than he is the weather. And I think that ad spending shows that. But Nikki Haley is turning her fire on Trump, too. I talked to the Haley campaign this morning and they said they're moving on towards Trump. And she said yesterday, it's you versus me now.

So, their mindset is looking over Ron DeSantis, past Ron DeSantis, on to Trump in New Hampshire and South Carolina.

URBAN: Yes.

BLITZER: And given the weather, Trump said this, and it was pretty stark. He said at one point, he said, even if you vote and then pass away, it's worth it.

URBAN: Yes, shocking that he'd say something that was like, you know, that got people's hackles up.

CUPP: Oh.

URBAN: Listen, it -- the weathers is - you listened to John, I heard that. You know, I grew up in Pittsburgh, right. It's cold. But it's not minus, minus, minus cold. And, you know, the cars don't start when it gets that cold. You can't get your -- the car door won't unlock. You've get a lot of problems, right? Even if you want to go vote, even if the Trump campaign and the DeSantis campaigns, these guys have done a great job on the knock and drag. You get out there at 8:00 p.m., or 7:30 p.m., you know, you go to turn your key and it won't -- you can't get your car going. So, there's a lot - a lot of problems with the cold. It's going to make it - it's going to make it very, very interesting.

CUPP: It's also not as quick as going to vote, right?

URBAN: No. No. You're there for a long time.

CUPP: The caucuses, you go there and, you know, there are the caucus sort of whips that are trying to get your vote and get you to move from this corner of a gym to this corner of a gym. And it's a commitment. And - and these voters are used to that by now but the cold definitely doesn't help.

URBAN: And, Wolf, you heard Dana earlier talking to Ron DeSantis. They've knocked on nine -- almost a million doors, right? The Trump people have reached out to lots of people. I'm not so sure Haley invested as much in the ground game here. So, we're going to see if that pays off. If DeSantis does a strong - a strong second, it's because his team did all those things you need to do in a boring, kind of nuts and bolts campaign, knock and follow up, et cetera. So, we'll see.

BLITZER: You know, "The Des Moines Register" released their final poll Saturday night, S.E.

[09:40:03]

It showed Trump leading with 48 percent, Haley in second place with 20 percent, DeSantis in third place, 16 percent. CUPP: Yes.

BLITZER: Nikki Haley said it herself, Iowa sets the tone. What tone would a second place finish for Nikki Haley set?

CUPP: Well, first of all, it would be momentum going into New Hampshire, where she's set to do relatively well. Secondly, I think it would show that the Ron DeSantis all-in Iowa strategy either didn't work or wasn't enough. And going door-to-door and dumping all his money and all his resources, if you can't make a good finish here. If Nikki Haley, who didn't invest as much in Iowa, does better than Ron DeSantis, to me I think that says, we don't have either the right strategy to finish this race or we - we lost it before we even began.

URBAN: DeSantis, you heard David Polyansky in that - in the previous clip talking about how -- we're going to South Carolina. We're looking past New Hampshire. We're going to go to South Carolina because we're - we - we're really strong there. So, they are totally - they're not thinking about tonight even. They're looking past New Hampshire and they're on to South Carolina already today, today. So, that's pretty telling.

BLITZER: So, you think if DeSantis finishes a distant third it's over?

URBAN: I think he's still in. I think he's still in till South Carolina. I think he looks at South Carolina and says, I've got -

BLITZER: Because he's not going to do that great necessarily in New Hampshire.

URBAN: He's going - he's going to do terribly in New Hampshire. It's a given. I think he's written it off. I don't - he's going to go, he's going to do our town hall. He's going to do a meeting there I think earlier in the day and then he's on to South Carolina, where he's got a pretty strong foothold and it's a more Republican state, more of the -

CUPP: You know it's funny because DeSantis is better positioned for the long haul, right?

BLITZER: Yes.

CUPP: He appeals in more states than Nikki Haley does. But he has set these expectations. He has said, this Iowa might upend Trump's polling. I mean, he is the one that has set these expectations today.

URBAN: It's all about the money, right? So, will people continue to give these candidates money if they have a terrible showing?

BLITZER: Money talks, as they say.

All right, guys, thank you very, very much. David Urban, S.E. Cupp.

Still ahead, President Joe Biden is, quote, closely watching today's caucuses. What Iowa could tell President Joe Biden about the road ahead. We've got information.

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[09:46:32]

BLITZER: The Biden campaign is closely watching the Iowa caucuses today. The campaign's communications director telling CNN they're gearing up to make the election a fight about the future of American democracy. And it comes as we're learning President Biden raised $97 million for his re-election campaign and for the Democratic Party in the fourth fundraising quarter of last year. A huge amount of money. But tonight it's about the GOP and the Iowa caucuses. Our coverage continues right now with Sara Sidner, who's in Des Moines.

Sara.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: Hey, Wolf Blitzer. We are here at the Mars Cafe. It is negative 11 degrees. And yet we are a bit warm here, which is a good thing. We're just hours away from the first contest if the 2024 presidential election. The tradition of going first gives Iowa, of course, an outsized role in American politics. Just 40 delegates are up for grabs in tonight's caucuses. That's less than 2 percent of the more than 2,400 delegates awarded during the primary process.

Now, why does Iowa matter so much? Joining me now, senior politics report for Minnesota Public Radio, Clay Masters.

Thank you so much for being here.

CLAY MASTERS, SENIOR POLITICS REPORTER, MINNESOTA PUBLIC RADIO: Yes, thanks for having me.

SIDNER: Want to talk first, Trump, DeSantis, Haley, all of them making sort of their final pitch, as well as Vivek. Who has the best ground game? What are you hearing from people?

MASTERS: Well, if history is any judge, the traditions of the Iowa caucuses, people are rewarded by going to the 99 counties. Ron DeSantis has done that. He's got the endorsements of the governor of Iowa, which is pretty unprecedented. That hasn't happened since Bob Dole. Former Governor Terry Branstad endorsed Dole. So, that - it's been a long time since a governor has endorsed. So, he's - DeSantis, Ron DeSantis, has been playing by a lot of the rules that have rewarded candidates in the past, but the Trump factor is another factor this time around, just like it was eight years ago. And now we've seen him as president impeached, you know, and all the criminal charges. And so he's just kind of looming over this really questioning, you know, the traditions of Iowa caucus campaigning in the past and whether that kind of test holds up today.

SIDNER: Over and over and over again Donald Trump has - has been seen far out of the sort of traditions of what people expect. And yet what is it about the voters who support him that may be different from some of the other caucus goers who are looking at other candidates? What is the special sauce, would you say, in Iowa?

MASTERS: Well, they - you know, eight years ago they were questioning him because they didn't know, you know, there's an outsized role that evangelical Christians play in this state. And eight years ago they were questioning him. Ted Cruz actually won the caucuses eight years ago.

SIDNER: Right.

MASTERS: And this time around, Trump has a lot of that support already baked in. He's been president already. People live in these echo chambers. They don't believe the results of the last election. And there are a lot of questions about, you know, what kind of -- that will do on caucus night, especially when the weather is the way that it is. Trump has a lot of strong support here in Iowa, and will they brave the elements to show up for him?

SIDNER: I want to ask you about the weather, because one of the things - I mean it is bitter cold here and Iowans are tough folk. They are used to cold. They are used to - but this is unusually cold.

MASTERS: Yes.

SIDNER: And one of the big factors here are the roads, because in Des Moines you -- you're pretty much OK.

MASTERS: Yes.

SIDNER: But you have smaller cities, smaller towns, that are not OK. And they - if you look at these maps, at all of the roads that are frozen over, this could be a real issue, could it not?

MASTERS: Yes, you're right, Sara. And you think about outstate Iowa, in these more rural communities, people - you know, remember, people have to be there at 7:00 on caucus night tonight -

SIDNER: Right.

[09:50:03]

MASTERS: Which is finally here. Strange to say that. But people will be traversing all over their counties. People live pretty far away from their precincts. So, yes, road conditions are a concern. People might just want to stay home where it's warm. And people that support the former president might think that he's already got it in the bag, so, you know, why show up?

But, again, I think we're all just questioning what this weather factor is going to be and we're really not going to know until we see people actually start showing up on - tonight.

SIDNER: Can you give us some sense of maybe what you've been hearing from people who are going to the caucuses, and just the level of excitement, because it is a very exciting time for people because they make an outsized play in the country because this is the first and the first can dictate what goes on going forward.

MASTERS: Yes, so the - I've covered the -- this is my third Iowa caucus cycle that I've covered. And I remember four years ago and eight years ago talking to a lot of people who were still trying to make up their minds the weekend before the caucuses.

SIDNER: Wow.

MASTERS: There's not as many people out there right now. I was at a DeSantis event a couple of days ago and a Haley event yesterday and you still find them. I found a couple people who were still trying to make up their mind. So, you know, it's almost a cliche you hear so many times that Iowans take this role seriously.

SIDNER: Yes.

MASTERS: So, there are people that are still, you know, weighing their options. But the former president has done a lot to, you know, explain to people how to caucus. There are videos that play ahead of his commit to caucus rallies. And we're just going to see how that test holds up tonight.

SIDNER: Clay Masters, thank you so much for all you do here and for coming on in these frigid temperatures. You made it and you should be rewarded for that.

MASTERS: That's right. Well, thank you. You're welcome.

SIDNER: All right, back to you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, guys, thank you very much.

We're following more breaking news this hour. Deadly twin attacks on a city in central Israel. At least one person killed, 17 more injured. We're live in Israel. That's coming up next.

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[09:55:47]

BLITZER: Much more of our special coverage of the Iowa caucuses certainly coming up. But we're also following some breaking news out of Israel, where

officials now say at least one person was killed, 17 injured in a pair of attacks.

CNN's Nic Robertson is on the scene for us in central Israel, where all this happened.

Nic, you're there in Raanana. What are you learning?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, Wolf,, the person that was killed, an elderly lady in her 70s. Seventeen other people injured. This is the site of one of the points of attack.

Let's take a closer look at it here. We'll step out into the road here, Joe (ph). Just come around this lamp post and we'll take a look.

You can see the way the vehicle - the wheel here on the vehicle is smashed over. The force of the collision there. And we'll go around the front of the other car here.

But just to give you the other details here, Wolf, what the police are describing is a situation where there were two attackers. So, this was a twin attack, simultaneously coming at different areas in this town. They rammed three different locations. And one of those locations it appears to be where most of the people were injured was a bus stop.

Joe, come around the front of the vehicle here and you can really see how smashed up it was. And what police are saying is these two Palestinian attackers from about 100 miles away, in Hebron (ph), they stole cars. They planned to attack together, coming in from different areas into this quite middle class town here in central Israel, and attacking at different places, but at the same time. For about half an hour to an hour, there was a lot of confusion. No one could tell what precisely was happening. But pretty quickly the police came out and gave - gave the very clear information, 17 casualties, one fatality. Two attackers who have been apprehended. And the police now have an operation, a sweep operation going on in the area to make sure there are no other threats at this time, Wolf.

BLITZER: Very disturbing development indeed.

Nic Robertson in Raanana, Israel, for us. Thank you.

And stay with us. We're also live in Iowa, where the subzero temperatures aren't keeping candidates from making their final pitches as the first day of the Republican primary arrives. It's Iowa caucuses day. And much more of our special coverage coming up.

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