Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Hillary Clinton Wins South Carolina Primary; First Major Election in Iran Since Nuclear Deal; Hollywood's Big Night. Aired 2- 2:30a ET

Aired February 28, 2016 - 02:00   ET

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

[02:00:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

NATALIE ALLEN, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): Hillary Clinton says she is taking her campaign national after thrashing Democratic rival Bernie Sanders in South Carolina's primary. We'll explain how the front- runner edged farther ahead.

Clinging on to a fragile cease-fire in Syria as the international community fights to ensure that it lasts.

And we're counting down to Hollywood's biggest night, will it be fifth time lucky for Leo at the Oscars?

We'll look into that coming up in a few hours, the Academy Awards. It's all live here on CNN NEWSROOM from Atlanta. Thanks for joining us, I'm Natalie Allen.

(MUSIC PLAYING)

ALLEN: Well, U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton is celebrating her overwhelming win in South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you so much, South Carolina. Thank you.

ALLEN (voice-over): Clinton steamrolled rival Bernie Sanders in the state's primary Saturday by almost 50 points. She has won three of four Democratic nominating contests so far, boosting her campaign's confidence.

CLINTON: Today, you sent a message in America, when we stand together --

(APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: -- when we stand together there is no barrier too big to break. We've now gone through four early states.

And I want to congratulate Senator Sanders on running a great race. And tomorrow, this campaign goes national. (APPLAUSE)

CLINTON: We are going to compete for every vote in every state. We are not taking anything and we're not taking anyone for granted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, you heard her say it. She is full steam ahead to Super Tuesday now. While giving her victory speech in South Carolina she took a shot at Republican front-runner Donald Trump. Here is senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, with that. She's in South Carolina.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The Clinton campaign just relishing their big win here in South Carolina. Hillary Clinton's communications director, Jen Palmieri, saying they did better than they expected they would.

Campaign sources have been telling us they think Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee.

And it was significant that, in Clinton's speech, she outlined what her argument in a general election would be against Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CLINTON: Despite what you hear, we don't need to make America great again. America has never stopped being great.

But we do need to make America whole again. Instead of building walls, need to be tearing down barriers.

KEILAR (voice-over): Publicly, Clinton aides are striking a cautious tone, saying they still have 46 states ahead of them. They have a long way to go.

But, privately, they're not as cautious, one aide telling me they think they'll have this wrapped up by March 15th.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: We'll see a series of contests then following those series of contests that we're going to see on Tuesday for Super Tuesday.

By mid-March, almost 60 percent of delegates will have been awarded. By then, aides think it will be clear there is no pathway to the nomination for Bernie Sanders -- Brianna Keilar, CNN, Columbia, South Carolina.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: Earlier I spoke with Josh Kraushaar, political editor for "National Journal," about Hillary Clinton's victory in South Carolina and her support among minority voters. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSH KRAUSHAAR, POLITICAL EDITOR, NATIONAL JOURNAL: The big challenge for Hillary Clinton was showing and proving that she could dominate, not just win, but dominate among African Americans and among Hispanics. And she showed that she thoroughly won the African American vote in both Nevada and South Carolina.

And she won Hispanics. If you look at the precinct data out of Nevada, she did very well with Hispanic voters, too.

And for a Democratic candidate in a Democratic primary, if you're doing well with non-white voter as well as Hillary Clinton has done, it's a pretty sure path to winning the Democratic nomination.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Clinton is eyeing six states with heavy minority populations for Super Tuesday as a way to lock in a clear delegate advantage. She is hoping for big wins in --

[02:05:00]

ALLEN: -- Texas, Georgia, Virginia, Tennessee, Alabama and Arkansas.

To Syria now, where a shaky cease-fire is well into its second day. Sporadic outbreaks of violence have, for the most part, tapered off. The U.S. and Russia brokered the truce; Syria's government and most of its opposition signed on. But terrorist like ISIS did not and ISIS fighters have attacked a town held by Kurds on the Turkish border.

CNN international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson joins me now live from Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

And 24 hours ago we were not believing that this was kind of happening and it is still kind of happening, Nic.

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Yes, it still seems to be holding. The high negotiating committee, the Syrian opposition group that's based here in Riyadh, holding off on making any sustained or complete picture comments about the cessation of hostilities yet. They really want to see which way it goes.

There have been reports today in Hama Province in Syria of warplanes -- this has been reported by the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights organization based in the U.K. They monitor the situation inside Syria. So they're reporting some clashes of violence, so warplanes bombing in Hama.

But because ISIS and Al Qaeda are still, if you will, legitimate targets, despite the cease-fire on the rest of the battlefield, it's not clear what those planes were targeting. But there are reports of -- the same organization is also reporting today the government shelling in Latakia in the west of the country and the north clashes between rebel groups and ISIS, sniper fire in and around Damascus. So the picture is still one of a cease-fire holding. But, you know,

there are places around the country where it is still shaky and wobbly.

What the high negotiating committee have said -- and this is more broadly to the humanitarian effort that's also underway, the effort to get food to beleaguered communities inside Syria -- what they're saying is, the international community needs to do more to make sure all the people are getting enough food.

They have listed a number of locations where not enough food has been delivered to the beleaguered communities, to the point where they accuse the government forces of taking food supplies off the trucks that are destined for these communities so the communities are ending up with, in some cases with only half the food that they're required to sustain them.

So it's not a complete picture yet that's going to satisfy everyone. And of course, there is still the potential here for further trouble in the days ahead -- Natalie.

ALLEN: We certainly hope more aid can reach those people. It's hard to believe anyone is still living in Syria in some of the video that we were just watching there, the ruins.

Thank you, Nic Robertson, for us there in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

Well, in Iran, early results show reformists making big gains in the country's first major election since last year's nuclear deal. The votes are still being counted. Former Iranian president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and current President Hassan Rouhani are leading in the powerful assembly of experts.

Senior international correspondent Fred Pleitgen has more on the early results. He's in Iran.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: If the early elections in Iran hold true then this could be a resounding victory for the moderates and the reform candidates here in this country.

Now remember, there were two elections that took place, one of them was for the council of experts, which is a religious body that will vote for and elect the next supreme leader. So that election's very important.

Here for the Tehran area, the votes have been counted. And of the 15 seats available, 12 have apparently gone to moderate and reformist candidates and only three have gone to conservatives.

The picture looks fairly similar in the parliamentary elections, where, after about a third of the votes were counted in the Tehran area, it seems as though Mohammad Reza Aref, the head of the reformist movement, is on top. And of the 30 candidates for the seats available here in Tehran, at this point, the vast majority would also be moderates and reformers as well.

However, the authorities here have warned that these results at this point are preliminary and it will take another three days for final results to come out.

However, many people saw this election as a referendum on the policies of Hassan Rouhani and the centerpiece of those policies was, of course, the nuclear agreement between Iran and world powers that, on the one hand, put significant curbs on Iran's nuclear program but also gave Iran sign sanctions relief in return.

Many Iranians hope that that will lead to big economic growth in this country. And while many Iranians haven't seen that economic growth yet if the results for this election holds true, it seems as though --

[02:10:00]

PLEITGEN: -- Iranians are giving Hassan Rouhani a mandate to accelerate those reforms in the future -- Fred Pleitgen, CNN, Tehran.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ALLEN: We are just hours away from the red carpet, Hollywood's biggest night. The 88th Annual Academy Awards will be held in L.A. Sunday with comedian Chris Rock doing the hosting duties.

Many say this could be the year Leonardo DiCaprio finally takes home the coveted Best Actor award. Earlier I spoke with Kim Serafin. She's senior editor at "In Touch" weekly and she says all odds are in DiCaprio's favor.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KIM SERAFIN, SR. EDITOR, "IN TOUCH": This is Leo's big nomination. I think if anything is a definite at the Oscars, it's Leo getting his first Oscar. This went back to 1994, when he was nominated for "What's Eating Gilbert Grape." It's pretty amazing that he's been nominated this many times and has not won.

But I think this is one thing that everyone agrees will definitely happen at the Oscars, Leo gets his first Oscar.

ALLEN: Yes, that's fantastic and "What's Eating Gilbert Grape," that was one of my Leo favorites, to think that that was his first, right?

Well, let's talk about supporting actor.

What would hap and what would it mean if Sylvester Stallone got to go up on stage and take an Oscar home?

SERAFIN: Pretty amazing. This would be another fantastic Hollywood story to have Sylvester Stallone to finally win that Oscar. He was nominated for two things in 1977, for Best Actor, and for screenplay. He did not win. But for him to come back and win this many years

later for playing Rocky, just kind of the older version of Rocky, it would just be such a sweet Hollywood ending. And I think so many people want to see that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALLEN: Well, this year's Oscars has been surrounded by controversy due to the lack of diversity among the nominees.

CNN is the place to turn before and after the awards for all the glamor from the red carpet. You can tune into Hollywood's biggest night here on CNN. That's 7:00 am Monday in Hong Kong, 8:00 am in Tokyo.

Thanks for watching. I'm Natalie Allen, MARKETPLACE AFRICA is coming up after the break. See you in 15 minutes.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(MARKETPLACE AFRICA)