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Haley to Exit Race, Biden-Trump Rematch Nearly Cemented; Super Tuesday Exit Polls Show How Trump Has Reshaped the GOP; Philippines Convoy Swarmed by Larger Chinese Ships. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired March 06, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:13]

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We begin with breaking news. Nikki Haley will drop out of the presidential race this morning. A huge wave of Super Tuesday losses cementing her campaign's fate, while victories for President Biden and Donald Trump made a 2020 rematch practically a done deal.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN with unprecedented accessing firsthand China's aggressive attempts to dominate one of the world's busiest shipping waterways.

SIDNER: And the new legislation to protect IVF providers in Alabama could be passed today, a direct result of the Alabama Supreme Court ruling frozen embryos are children.

I'm Sara Sidner with Kate Baldwin and John Berman. This is CNN News Central.

All right, the major breaking news this morning, we're standing by for Nikki Haley to officially end her presidential run, which will all but solidify a Trump-Biden rematch.

And now with Haley soon out, it is all about November and winning over her supporters. The Biden campaign now gunning for Haley's voters as they make a new push to take down the man they just called wounded, dangerous and unpopular.

Right now, Trump has over 1,000 delegates as Haley announces in hours that she is exiting the race.

John Berman is in Denver. John, what are we hearing from Haley as she's about to make this announcement in just a few hours? What are we hearing for her as far as whether or not she is going to back Donald Trump? Has she said anything on those terms?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Well, look, I think that is going to be the most interesting thing, how she frames this, how she frames this day.

I'm here in Denver, in front of the Colorado State Capitol. Colorado is a state that both Donald Trump and President Biden won on Super Tuesday, but Super Tuesday was so yesterday. We're now in this brand new, historic phase of this campaign. The first presidential rematch is Dwight Eisenhower and Adlai Stevenson, the first time Donald Trump hopes to be a president to serve non-consecutive terms since Grover- Cleveland. This is truly historic.

And if yesterday was Super Tuesday, today is sort of Haley Wednesday. Nikki Haley dropping out of the race very shortly, and both candidates, Donald Trump and Joe Biden, who are left trying to win over her voters, Joe Biden much more explicitly, the Biden campaign putting out a memo even before we learned that Haley was dropping out, specifically targeting Haley voters, so everything we're about to see today and in the next few days seems to be fighting over that urgent political terrain.

Let's get right to Charleston, South Carolina. Kylie Atwood is there. That is where we will hear from Nikki Haley shortly with this major announcement that doesn't just end her campaign, Kylie, but reshapes the rest of the presidential campaign.

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right, John. So, we're expecting to hear from Nikki Haley today at 10:00 A.M. According to sources familiar with her plans, she is going to end her presidential campaign today. But as you guys have been talking about, those sources say that she does not plan to endorse former President Trump, at least not today.

What she's going to say is that there needs to be a conversation. She is going to say that Trump needs to earn the support of her voters. And that's not all together surprising, because we have heard from Nikki Haley over the course of the last few months saying that Trump cannot win a general election if he is losing the faction of the party that is voting for her.

So, she is now daring him to engage in a conversation with those voters. She has said that those voters don't want to be ignored, that they see a different vision for the future of the country. The question is, how does Trump engage with them? How does he engage with her? We'll have to watch and see how that plays out.

Now, one interesting thing on this conversation topic of endorsing the nominee of the Republican Party, Nikki Haley did commit to endorsing that nominee back last summer, that she had to do that in order to get on the debate stage.

[07:05:00]

But she has given indications in the last week or so that she was leaning in this direction because she laid out a few reasons for why she no longer felt bound to endorse the eventual nominee, saying that the Republican Party is different now than it was when she made that commitment, also noting that former President Trump never made that commitment, so why does she have to uphold that commitment?

She is bowing out today, but she is putting herself into a position of power. It is a very deft political move for Nikki Haley. And we should note that even though she didn't get enough support to keep her campaign alive, there were some states where she had a significant faction of the voters voting for her, and so her campaign is trying to use that to their advantage today as she continues to engage in this conversation surrounding the future of the Republican Party.

BERMAN: Yes, Nikki Haley, who won Vermont, Vermont, not enough to get you the nomination, but she can at least leave the race coming off some state victory last night.

All right, Kylie Atwood in Charleston, please keep us posted as you hear more from the Haley campaign over the next few hours before this major announcement.

Let's go to the Trump campaign now. Our Alayna Treene is in Washington covering that group.

And it is interesting, Alayna, because while Nikki Haley's going to say that Trump needs to earn her support, he hasn't really been trying to do that at all over the last few months.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right, he absolutely hasn't. And I think it's interesting because, you know, unlike with some of the other former Republican rivals that Donald Trump had faced and then dropped out of the race and became surrogates, I think that's very unlikely, at least for now, to happen with Nikki Haley.

Donald Trump and his campaign have long been very frustrated with Haley. They think that she was standing in the way of uniting the Republican Party behind him by remaining in the race for as long as she had. But we also know that Donald Trump had long faced Nikki Haley with skepticism. He argues that she had flip-flopped on a lot of issues. He has questions about her loyalty after she had announced that she was going to be running for president.

So, there's not a lot of love between the two. And I don't think that's going to change anytime soon. But, of course, we know that anything is possible with Donald Trump. We know that people have nine lives with him. So, what is true today is not always true for the future.

And I can tell you from some of my conversations with outside Republicans, including those who are loyal to Donald Trump and some of Donald Trump's allies, that some people do actually think Nikki Haley would be very effective in a future Trump administration.

But, again, if the election were tomorrow and say Donald Trump were to win, of course, this is just a hypothetical I'm referring to, I don't think that would happen. They are very, again, frustrated with Nikki Haley.

And I think it's interesting if you actually compare this to Ron DeSantis. We know that last year, the majority of 2023, Donald Trump had really aimed most of his attacks on the Florida governor. And part of that is because he had a personal animosity for Ron DeSantis.

But because of the way that DeSantis dropped out and immediately endorsed Donald Trump, he kind of laid off DeSantis, right? I don't think that's going to happen anytime soon with Nikki Haley. John?

BERMAN: Yes. Alayna Treene in Washington, again, Alayna, keep us posted what you hear from the Trump campaign, because as of now, it's the Biden campaign making a more explicit play for Nikki Haley voters amid this news that Nikki Haley is dropping out of the race shortly. Obviously, Kate, we're watching this very closely as it develops over the next several hours.

BOLDUAN: Absolutely. I mean, as you put it, John, this is the first day of the major next chapter in this presidential race. It all reforms, even though Donald Trump has won all of these races in the Republican primary with the official exit of his only competitor, the game does change.

We're going to get back to John. He's in Colorado, watching all of it from there.

So, from the top of the ticket to critical down ballot races, the balance of power in Congress is also on the ballot in November. The important Senate matchups that are now coming into clear focus this morning. We'll show you those.

And Democratic Senator Bob Menendez hit with a new indictment and a dozen new criminal charges.

New moves in Alabama when it comes to access to IVF treatments facing tons of public pressure after that state Supreme Court ruling, state lawmakers are moving fast now to take action.

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[07:10:00]

BOLDUAN: The breaking news this morning, sources telling CNN Nikki Haley is ending her presidential bid today. Her announcement expected around 10:00 A.M. Eastern. You'll be sure we will be bringing that to you.

Her departure from the race comes after Donald Trump dominated the Super Tuesday contest. He won all but one of the Republican primaries last night. This morning there's the new exit polling data coming in is really revealing that showing what Donald Trump's remake of the Republican Party looks like right now.

Let's go through this right now with CNN's Harry Enten. You've been taking a look at these exit polls as they were coming in last night as they kind of update throughout the evening.

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Looking at that refresh button, right?

BOLDUAN: Exactly. Let's start with one question that we have that's been asked over and over throughout for quite some time now, Republican primary voters and their take on if Joe Biden won the 2020 election and one of these exit.

[07:15:00]

What do these numbers show? ENTEN: I think there's no question that sort of gets at how the party has been remade in Donald Trump's image than this particular question. We all know that Donald Trump legitimately won that 2020 election. Well, GOP primary voters didn't yesterday. Take a look at the states we have exit poll data from California, North Carolina, Virginia. The majority in each of these states said that Joe Biden did not legitimately win the 2020 election.

Look at that, 57 percent in California, 62 percent in North Carolina, 50 percent in Virginia, which was the lowest percentage. The, yes, the correct answer, 41 percent, still a minority there.

Here's the thing to keep in mind, Kate. How did these folks vote? How did they vote for the 2024 GOP primary? If you legitimately believe that Biden legitimately won the 2020 election, Nikki Haley won these voters by 34 points across California, North Carolina and Virginia. But that was a minority of voters. The lion's share believed that the 2020 election was illegitimate, look at Donald Trump's margin among this group, 88 percentage points. It was this question over and over again we've seen in the exit polls correlated so highly with support for Trump and it worked for him in California, North Carolina and Virginia.

BOLDUAN: Well, he's the one who pushed it from the beginning, and that's one of the reasons voters were sticking with him, and we know that's one of the ways he has reshaped the Republican Party in large part.

Okay. So, what about what the numbers say about how Republicans feel about Donald -- about Trump right now in the context of the criminal charges he's facing?

ENTEN: Yes. So, here's I think the real sort of bongo bonanza sort of question here.

BOLDUAN: What does that mean?

ENTEN: It means that at 7:15 in the morning that I'm trying to come up with new phrases. That means --

BOLDUAN: Is it crazy?

ENTEN: A little bit. Not even a little bit.

BOLDUAN: Okay. I thought we were talking about dance moves. Okay, keep going. No, don't.

ENTEN: Trump fit for the presidency of convicted of a crime. Look at these numbers in Virginia, North Carolina, and California, look at this. The majority, again, in all these states said yes, 68 percent in California, 65 percent in Virginia, 55 percent in Virginia, excuse, 65 percent in North Carolina.

And I think that this really gets at the strength that Donald Trump has within the GOP, because this isn't just asking whether or not he has, in fact, committed a crime. It's if he was convicted of a crime, which is still, in fact, think he was fit for the presidency. And overwhelmingly in all these states, they said, yes, he was.

And, again, look here, how they voted in the GOP primary. Think Trump is fit for the presidency of convicted. Look at this across California, North Carolina, Virginia, an 85-point margin for Donald Trump. If you don't think he was fit, you voted for Nikki Haley, but it was just a 47 percent margin. So, the fact is Trump had the majority of voters on these questions, and they overwhelmingly voted for him.

BOLDUAN: This also does one of many ways we're seeing in the exit polls that Donald Trump has some work to do to win over these people, all of these people who voted for Nikki Haley as I inappropriately marked her face with my paper.

Thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: Thank you so much. Sara?

SIDNER: All right. Coming up, a scene in exclusive, our reporters live on a ship in the South China Sea as a battle broke out with Chinese vessels trying to dominate the waterways there. The video next.

And we're following the latest from, of course, Nikki Haley and the Donald Trump campaigns, what we're learning ahead of Haley's planned announcement and exit from the presidential race this morning.

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[07:20:00]

SIDNER: A confrontation on the high seas between China and the Philippines, our Ivan Watson was there to witness Coast Guard vessels from each country as they clash in the disputed waters of the South China Sea on Tuesday. The Philippines has accused China of executing dangerous maneuvers. Here's a look at what Ivan saw.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is just after sunrise, and as you may see, there is a large Chinese Coast Guard ship directly in front of this Philippines Coast Guard vessel. And we've been watching this over the course of the last hour. These are supposed to be international waterways with free passage.

I'm aboard this Philippines Coast Guard ship that was part of a convoy of four vessels that were headed towards a place called the Second Thomas Shoal. And before dawn, all of a sudden, these Philippines ships were swarmed by much larger and many more Chinese ships. They're more off to our port bow. These are not marked like the Chinese Coast Guard ships, but they're clearly operating with them and operating in very close proximity to this Philippines Coast Guard ship. In fact, I've seen them in the past cutting this off. And what they've succeeded in doing is not only pretty much stopping our ship in its tracks, but it has separated this ship from the other boats in the Philippines convoy, which included two small resupply vessels that were trying to get to the Second Thomas Shoal.

Now, part of what is at play here is a territorial dispute. That shoal, the Philippines claims, is part of its economic exclusion zone. China, though it is much further geographically from this area, claims it for itself and clearly tries to stop Philippine ships from getting to it.

We're completely encircled by a fleet of Chinese ships, at least 14 that I've counted.

[07:25:04]

And moments ago, the Chinese Coast Guard ships were blasting a Philippines resupply vessel with water cannons. It is clearly, by swarming this ship, a show of force and a shot of intimidation, and it is physically stopping vessels from another country from being able to move forward through this international waterway.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Ivan, those are incredible pictures that you were able to witness and sort of be a part of as you're watching this, what looks like real aggression on the part of China in the South China Sea. What is China saying? How are they explaining this?

WATSON: Well, they're accusing the Philippines of acting illegally by going into this area that China claims for itself. They've accused the Philippines of being dishonest and of trying to stir up trouble. The Philippines is accusing China of acting illegally in this area, and a top security official today has said that if China thinks that this is going to weaken the Philippine's resolve, they're going to be really disappointed. They're going continue trying to assert what they say are their legal rights.

And a number of years ago there was an international arbitration court that ruled in favor of the Philippines in this territorial dispute.

This isn't the first time that there have been these confrontations at sea. They've happened over months in the past. One of the different things that happened here were that Filipino servicemen were lightly injured and there were some damage to some of vessels.

Also, we were the first among the foreign journalists in decades to be on board one of these Philippine Coast Guard ships as it was trying to run the gauntlet past this much larger Chinese fleet.

And I might add the Philippines is a mutual defense treaty of the U.S. If things escalate, the U.S. will be beholden to come to the Philippines' defense potentially against China, which commands the world's largest Navy. Sara?

SIDNER: These are really dangerous times. Thank you so much, Ivan Watson, for that exclusive reporting. Kate?

BOLDUAN: So, as the 2024 presidential race now moves much closer to looking like a 2020 rematch, the Biden campaign out this morning with now its plans, its new plans, new strategy to take on Donald Trump in November.

We'll be back.

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