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Donald Trump Wins All Super Tuesday States in Republican Party Presidential Primary besides Vermont; Republican Presidential Candidate Nikki Haley Reportedly to End Presidential Campaign But Not Endorse Former President Trump Immediately; Biden-Trump Rematch Nearly Cemented; Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 06, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

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MICHAEL WALDMAN, FORMER CHIEF SPEECHWRITER FOR PRESIDENT BILL CLINTON: -- usually do better, and they can sometimes help shape and reshape the public sense of what's going on. I think he needs to point out where the challenges are, but not be afraid to claim credit when things are going well.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Very quickly, you brought up the age issue. How do you address that? Do you do it explicitly or some other way?

WALDMAN: I think the performance will be the main answer. He may want to try something with some humor. Of course, it's not an entirely sympathetic audience, so I'm sure he has to be careful. But other presidents, Ronald Reagan and others, have done it with a light touch. He cannot, however, be defensive in any way. He needs to show some positive energy and momentum.

BERMAN: Michael Waldman, great to get your expertise. Thanks so much for joining us this morning.

The next hour of CNN NEWS CENTRAL starts now.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news this morning, Nikki Haley is ending her presidential campaign this morning. We are standing by to hear from her as this effectively marks the beginning of a general election rematch.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: An A.I. tool is posing a serious risk to political campaigns. A watchdog group finding that misleading A.I. generated photos can have a big impact on voters.

BOLDUAN: And 217 COVID shots, that's how many vaccines one man received. What researchers learned from his very unusual case study.

I'm Kate Bolduan with Sara Sidner and John Berman. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

BERMAN: And the breaking news this morning is big. Nikki Haley will announce shortly that she is dropping out of the presidential campaign. She delivers a speech in Charleston, South Carolina. We are standing by to hear what she has to say. This, of course, follows Super Tuesday. On the Republican side, Donald Trump won everything except for Vermont. Nikki Haley won there. On the Democratic side, President Biden won everything but American Samoa. Someone no one has ever heard of won there by like eight votes.

This is changing the structure of this campaign going forward. This now is historic. This is the first time you've had a rematch in a presidential campaigns since Dwight Eisenhower in Adlai Stevenson. This could be the first time that a former president ever serves non- consecutive terms. If Donald Trump manages somehow to win, he's be the first president to do that since Grover Cleveland.

We are now in this historic territory. And add to that this announcement coming in the next few hours from Nikki Haley that she is dropping out of the campaign, and we do not expect her to endorse anyone. So as of this morning, we are in the Nikki Haley phase of the campaign where both Donald Trump and President Biden are trying to reach out to her voters explicitly. The Biden campaign already out with a memo that seems to give some ideas of how to do that.

Let's get right to the ground in Charleston, South Carolina. Kylie Atwood is there standing by to hear from Nikki Haley. What have you learned so far this morning, Kylie?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Thats right, John. Nikki Haley is expected to announce here in her hometown or Charleston, South Carolina, at 10:00 a.m. that she is getting out of the presidential race, that she is ending her campaign. And as you said, according to sources familiar with her plans, she is not expected to endorse former President Trump. Rather, she is going to make the case that he needs to win over her voters.

This is not altogether surprising. She has repeatedly said that Trump cannot win a general election if he doesn't expand the party. She has argued that the Republican Party needs to be the party the addition. And so what she is going to say is that he needs to really talk to those voters who had supported her.

Obviously, she didn't have enough support to keep her campaign alive. She didn't have enough support to surpass the former president. But in a handful of states, Nikki Haley did get a significant portion of the Republican voters voting for her. And so now we're going to walk what this conversation looks like. She is bowing out of her presidential campaign, but she is making an effort to put herself both into a position of power, to engage potentially with former President Trump and her voters to see what that conversation looks like.

I do want to note, however, that it does not appear that she is closing the door altogether on the possibility of endorsing Trump ahead of the general elections in November. And so, that is significant. That means that this is a space that we will continue to watch.

And I also think it's important to note that Trumps tone when it comes to Nikki Haleys voters has not been altogether welcoming.

[08:05:05]

We haven't seen him court those voters very much over the course of the last few months. And when it came to those Republican donors who had donated to Nikki Haley just in recent months, he said that those folks would be permanently barred from MAGA. So we'll have to watch and see what his tone looks like now that she is ending her campaign.

BERMAN: All right, Kylie Atwood in South Carolina, keep us posted what you hear. The Trump campaign not yet reaching out to those new Nikki Haley voters. You know who is? President Biden in his campaign with a memo that came out even before the announcement than Nikki Haley was officially dropping out of the race.

Let's get right to the White House. Arlette Saenz is there to report on this strategy memo from the Biden campaign, which almost seems precient, Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, and Biden campaign officials I've spoken with have long believed that Super Tuesday would be the moment that this race crystallizes in the minds of voters between Joe Biden and Donald Trump. And the latest proof point they got in that argument is the fact that Nikki Haley is expected to withdraw from the GOP race this morning.

And one task ahead and for the Biden campaign is trying to tap into those Haley voters who have been turned off by Donald Trump. Also, those donors who may not want to donate to Trump, and they believe there could be a universe of donors that could start to give to Biden as well.

And senior campaign officials really spoke to that in a memo last evening as they painted the former president as a damaged and unpopular candidate. The two women leading the campaign, Jen O'Malley Dillon and Julie Chavez Rodriguez, laid out their assessment of the Super Tuesday results, and in it they noted, quote, "a significant share of moderate and Haley voters across the country are saying that Trump cannot count on their votes in a general election."

And that is something that will be key for the Biden campaign heading into November, trying to peel off support from those Nikki Haley supporters, trying to win over more moderates, more suburban, especially suburban women. The campaign has long believed that reproductive rights is an issue that will work to their advantage and one that will damage of the former president.

And the campaign also believes that they have a lot of money to work with, that President Biden has a significant cash advantage at this time over the former president. That could certainly narrow as this race proceeds as it did back in 2020. But they believe that they have a lot of runway right now, the resources, the time, the money to make the case to those undecided voters, to moderate voters.

But of course, President Biden is facing challenges of his own. He has to keep together that 2020 coalition as we've seen some narrowing of support in groups, for instance, such as black men. There's also discontent within the Democratic Party when it comes to his handling of the conflict in Gaza. And then those persistent questions about the president's age.

But really, there's this three-day span, Super Tuesday and then the State of the Union address tomorrow that are pivotal for the Biden campaign. The president tomorrow will really have his biggest platform so far in this campaign to tout his accomplishments and offer his vision for a second term as he's trying to convince voters to reelect him to the White House.

BERMAN: Arlette Saenz at the White House. Yes, Super Tuesday, Haley Wednesday, State of the Union, Thursday. And Kate, it really is interesting that, at least as of now, the Haley support, that's the terrain where this campaign seems to be being fought, at least for now.

SIDNER: Kate has morphed into Sara, but all things are well here at CNN. It's all good John. You are flying blind, doing awesome out there. Thank you so much.

We're going to continue this conversation. Former Trump administration official Matt Mowers is with us and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp. All right, so Nikki Haley did something that's historic. She is the first woman to win a presidential primary, but she only won one. And that was Vermont. And now we're expected her to say, I'm out. I'm done. The question is, what next? And what are you hearing in Haley world? Because apparently you've got how a lot of contacts there.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I do. I've been talking to a Haley campaign throughout all of this. And I did, I talked to them this morning because if you saw in that "Wall Street Journal" article where they talk about what she's going to do next. And I talked to the campaign. They said, yes, they're going to encourage Donald Trump to earn her voters. And that's important. She's not encouraging her voters to find their own way or maybe even choose Joe Biden. She wants her supporters to go with Donald Trump if he earns the vote.

Now, importantly, we're talking about whether she will endorse or not. I said does that mean that there's a world in which Nikki Haley could endorse Donald Trump. They said, yes. Yes, there is. So end any speculation that she will not endorse him, I think it's inevitable that she probably will at some point.

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That will be disappointing to a lot of Nikki supporters, perhaps, moderates and independents who kind of really liked that she was taking on Donald Trump. She is the first, not just woman to win a primary. The first Republican to beat him anywhere since 2016. That's big deal.

SIDNER: That's a really good point. But as you say, she wants him to earn the votes, which probably means that at 10:00 talk when she's expected to make her announcement that she's out, she won't immediately endorse him. But we will wait and see on that.

I want to let you hear what Senator Lindsey Graham said to our Dana Bash just yesterday about where he sees Haley going. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM, (R-SC): I hope she can support President Trump. She can make the case of why she would vote for Trump versus Biden on policy. I think it would resonate with people. I'm pretty confident, I've known her most of my political life, that she'll be a team player, that there will come a time, and I hope sooner rather than later, where she realizes this is not her moment. And there's a lot at stake, so I'd find it difficult to imagine that Nikki Haley would not support President Trump when its all said and done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: Matt, what say you?

MATT MOWERS, FORMER TRUMP ADMINISTRATION OFFICIAL: Well, I think Senator Graham is exactly right. If you look at the fact that Ambassador Haley, up until she really got to South Carolina, was really trying hard not to alienate Trump supporters and Trump voters. She's both trying to bring in the non-Trump coalition in the Republican party while also maintaining the potential of future support from more of the MAGA coalition, so to speak. And so I would expect you're going to see Ambassador Haley endorse. It probably won't be right away. It's been pretty contentious and personal the last few days. I know personally she's very bothered by the comments that former President Trump made about her husband, in particular, and military service. And so it's going to take some time for him to show that he can or her support.

SIDNER: Do you think he will? Do you think Donald Trump, because he's been pretty clear that he says he doesn't care.

MOWERS: I would not expect a full-throated apology, but what I do think you're going to be able to see, and you started to see it last night, was this was the Donald Trump about policy. You ask Republican voters, the types who voted for Nikki Haley, these suburban voters, you go to focus groups or polling like we do, and what you often hear is we like the policies. We don't like the personality. Last night was all about the policies. He talked about energy, he talked about crime, he talked about immigration. If he keeps it there between the buoys, he can win a lot of those voters back. And I imagine that that's going to include Ambassador Haley.

SIDNER: I want to listen to some of those voters that voted for Nikki Haley. These are voters that were in Virginia as the results were sort of coming in last night. These are exit poll voters. Let's let you hear what they had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You supported Nikki Haley?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think she's great, yes. I think she's an outstanding candidate.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If it ends up being a Trump versus Biden rematch, do you know who you'd vote for?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. I'll hold my nose and vote for Biden again.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really like her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like her a lot. I think she has got a good record, and I think she's got the best chance of winning in November.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She just seems real and honest and not boom, boom, boom, boom. You know?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: All right, the question is to you, S.E. Where do these voters go?

CUPP: That is the question.

SIDNER: That's the question.

CUPP: Listen, a lot of them, we have exit polling showing a lot of them are not going to vote for Donald Trump. A lot of Nikki's voters are not going to vote for Donald Trump. They might stay home, they might even vote for Joe Biden, as you heard. And that's a big warning sign, a big problem for Donald Trump. Losing 40 percent of the Republican vote in numerous states is a big deal. If Joe Biden were losing 40 percent to Dean Phillips or RFK Junior, they'd be freaking out, rightfully so.

Trump has to earn those voters. The question is, does he want to, does he care? He was just bragging about purifying the Republican Party to 100 percent MAGA. He has been calling her birdbrain. He's been insulting her voters.

SIDNER: Let's bring that up.

CUPP: Yes.

SIDNER: Because the Truth Social that he put out, this was earlier on, as I think this was even before the primary started, if I'm not mistaken, but here's what he said. He calls her a birdbrain. And basically, we don't want -- if you donated to her campaign, we don't want you.

CUPP: That's to voters.

SIDNER: To voters, that's right.

CUPP: We don't want you, voters. And this purity project that has been existing in the Republican Party for the last almost 10 years now, is so wild. To shrink the tent intentionally is not just mind blowing from the point of Republicans whose big tent was always sort of a fetish of ours. Now to shrink it and actively kick conservatives out, not just in Congress, but voters. It's such a dumb strategy, but this is one he seems --

SIDNER: Matt, I'm sure you have something to say about that.

MOWERS: One thing, though. So not only today does Donald Trump essentially become the Republican nominee, but he stars as the frontrunner for president United States right now. And that has less to do with his ability to reach across the aisle and bring in these moderate voters than Joe Biden's weakness right now. His political weakness, whether it's with his own base, and you saw that in Hennepin County in Minnesota last night where Ilhan Omar is the representative. He was underperforming with his base. You saw it in some results on the Texas border where he's underperforming with voters who are overwhelmingly concerned about the lack of border security and immigration challenges.

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Joe Biden has this two-headed Hydra he's got to face right now from now through November in order to get himself not just to win, but potentially to be competitive, and I've seen some recent polling and some pretty blue states that shows that Donald Trump is competitive with Joe Biden, not because Donald Trump is getting forty-nine, forty- eighty, fifty percent of the vote, because Joe Biden is in the 30s in some of these states, and he has to control that.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But the good news now Nikki Haley is out, we're going to get an unpopular president no matter what.

SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: We are going to stay --

CUPP: Congrats, America.

SIDNER: The polls do say that this is the matchup they did not want.

CUPP: Yes, right.

SIDNER: But when the rubber hits the road, we will then see how people decide because you can talk about it and you can say you're not going to do things.

MOWERS: Right.

SIDNER: But when it actually comes down to fruition, we need to remember this is just a moment in time.

CUPP: Yes.

SIDNER: 2024 is coming, November is coming. We are we are in sort of the hinterland as we watch all this happened. Thank you both.

CUPP: Sure.

SIDNER: For being here.

MOWERS: Absolutely.

SIDNER: S.E. Cupp and Matt Mowers. And this is going to be Kate's turn finally.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Thank you. I love that lead up.

And we will bring you in Nikki Haley's remarks live when she speaks from South Carolina at 10:00 AM Eastern.

Also this, the house is scrambling right now to pass a billion dollar spending package called a mega minibus. Doesn't that sound nice? They're doing this to avoid a partial government shutdown that could set it on Friday. Yes, we have been here again. No, you're not watching the show on rewind.

We will tell you what they're up against and what this means now for the Republican House speaker.

And jury deliberations could begin today in the trial of the armorer on the "Rust" movie set. Closing arguments start this morning.

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SIDNER: Biden-Trump. Sound familiar?

This morning, Donald Trump has a clear path to the Republican nomination with Nikki Haley set to bow out of the race in just a couple of hours. Now the announcement expected.

CNN's Harry Enten is here.

Harry, how do the polls look ahead of what everyone sees is going to be a Biden-Trump rematch?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, we're on track for perhaps one of the longest general elections in the modern primary era, and let me tell you, Sara, the polls now look so much different than they did four years ago at this point.

So look at these polls that came out over the weekend, right? There were four of them. The New York Times/Siena College Poll got the most press had Trump up four, but it was matched by a CBS News/YouGov poll that also had Trump up four.

Fox News, Trump up two; Wall Street Journal, Trump up two, and as I mentioned, when we started, the polls right now look so much different than they did in 2020, because keep in mind, Trump led in not a single -- there were zero -- count them -- zero general election polls nationally that Trump led in during the 2020 campaign.

Here, we have four right here, and I want to bring this to your attention because I think this is so interesting. Okay. Has Trump committed serious federal crimes? This is among likely voters. Overall, the majority say yes, yes, he has. Yet Trump is leading in that poll by four points, as you see that New York Times/Siena College poll up there.

Why is that? Because take a look at 2024 Trump supporters. Even among them, 18 percent say he committed serious federal crimes, and yet they're still voting for him. If you're Joe Biden, I just have to ask the question, what the heck are you supposed to do with polling like this?

SIDNER: Right. What are you supposed to do?

Look, this is probably going to be decided by the swing states and the Electoral College in the end. What is going on in the all-important Electoral College?

ENTEN: Yes, so let's have a fun little game here. All right, we're going to go race to 270, and if we bring it up here, take a look at where we were in the 2020 election. Right?

Joe Biden won with 306 electoral votes, Donald Trump got 232. But look at where our CNN race ratings are right now.

SIDNER: Wow.

ENTEN: Look, Donald Trump at 272, Joe Biden at just 225. What the heck is going on here? Well, there are a few things that are going on here.

Number one, Georgia, which Joe Biden won last time around leaning in Trump's direction. Nevada, which Trump won last time around, I am sorry, Biden won last time around leaning in Trump's direction. Arizona a tossup that Biden won.

And here is the key nugget. Look up here in the Upper Midwest, the Great Lake battleground states, Michigan, look here, leaning in Trump's direction, despite the fact that Biden nearly won that state by three percentage points back in 2020.

So we're just seeing a very, very different pathway in this general election. And keep in mind, even if Joe Biden wins all these yellow toss up states. So let's say we give him Pennsylvania. Let's say we give him Arizona, that gets him to 255. Let's say we give him Wisconsin, he's only up to 265. And let's see if I can do that right there. Well, I couldn't.

SIDNER: Yes.

ENTEN: And even there, Joe Biden at 266 electoral votes, so something needs to change going forward. The pathway right now for Donald Trump is very clear to 270 electoral votes. It's far, far less clear for Joe Biden.

SIDNER: It's interesting. The polling taken though before Nikki Haley made her announcement because that is expected happened in just a couple of hours. We will see.

It is a snapshot in time and we have to mention that every single time.

ENTEN: It is a snapshot in time, although, the last few election cycles, the polls have stayed fairly steady over the course of the campaign, but the sample size is only really two, right?

SIDNER: Exactly right.

ENTEN: Let's see what happens in 2024 where things could be even crazier, obviously with the Trump trials, we don't know what's going to happen there. Still early days yet in what is shaping up to be one of the longest general election campaigns on record.

SIDNER: Harry Enten in the poll of polls. Everyone gets excited about it.

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ENTEN: Woo.

SIDNER: Especially you.

ENTEN: I know I do.

SIDNER: Thank you so much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

SIDNER: Kate.

BOLDUAN: Can I just also say I'm just now realizing watching you in this angle, the elbow patches on your jacket.

SIDNER: Yes, yes. That's part of the -- this is my poll of polls jacket.

BOLDUAN: This is a strong game. I am very sorry. I should not have done a lecture on that. I'm sorry.

SIDNER: Poll of polls.

ENTEN: Oh, I like that. That's nice. I got to get those for me.

BOLDUAN: Polls matter and so do elbow patches on jackets.

All right, coming up still for us. I'm going to get back to the news. Closing arguments are set to begin this morning in the "Rust" shooting trial.

But first, the defense wants to call final witnesses. We will take you there on this day.

One man deliberately got 217 COVID-19 vaccine shots in the span of 29 months, 217. What happened is the focus of a new study.

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