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Voters Head To Polls For First-In-The-Nation Primary; Barr Confirms DOJ Reviewing Ukraine Information From Giuliani. Aired 10- 10:30a ET

Aired February 11, 2020 - 10:00   ET

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

[10:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN NEWSROOM: And I'm Poppy Harlow.

One week after Iowa, well, let's try this again. Democratic candidates making their final pitches outside New Hampshire polling sites as voters make their picks I the nation's first primary.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN NEWSROOM: The Democratic Party facing something of a test as progressives and moderates battle for support, two very different visions going forward. But will the results in today's contest give a clearer picture of where this race is heading? It's possible it won't. We've got you covered across the state.

Let's start with CNN's Jessica Dean live in Nashua, New Hampshire. So, Jessica, you have new reporting about Biden's Super PAC warning of, quote, a doomsday scenario if Bernie Sanders is the nominee and in line with the harder attacks you've heard from Biden?

JESSICA DEAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Right. If Biden is not the nominee, warning of a doomsday scenario, Jim and Poppy, this is new reporting from myself and my colleague, Arlette Saenz. And the treasurer of the Super PAC that supports Biden lays it all out in a memo to donors and supporters of that Super PAC specifically pointing to the possibility of a split convention with Bloomberg and Sanders and that's the doomsday scenario that they're pointing to in this memo.

The treasurer also lays out his concern that Pete Buttigieg won't be able to get African-American support in the way that the nominee will need to. It goes on and on and finally closes essentially saying the time is now to donate to the Super PAC that Biden has to be the nominee if they're to beat Trump in 2020.

Now, back here in New Hampshire, of course, the Biden campaign has been lowering expectations. They have been doing that from the beginning, saying they don't need Iowa or New Hampshire, but will then turn to Nevada, to South Carolina, to the Super Tuesday states, with a more diverse electorate that's going to be participating in the nominating process, specifically that African-American support in South Carolina, which they consider their firewall.

He doesn't have any big rallies or anything scheduled for today. We are expecting Joe Biden to address supporters this evening here at this hotel in Nashua, but, guys, again, the campaign just hoping for a solid finish and then really looking forward to moving on to the next part of the nominating process.

HARLOW: Yes, you can bet they are. They've made that pretty clear since Iowa. Jess, thank you very much.

Ryan nobles is in Manchester, New Hampshire. And, Ryan, you've got two senators, both from New England, both progressives competing for votes in this race. What does it look like today for Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, really a tale of two different senators at this point, even though both had very high expectations for New Hampshire, they are really heading in very diverging paths.

Right now, Bernie Sanders seems very strong at this point. Poll after poll shows him consistently at the top of this field of Democratic candidates and in many ways solidifying his support here that was built back four years ago in 2016 when he overwhelmingly beat Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primary.

For Elizabeth Warren, it's been a struggle to really remain relevant, frankly. She has had a hard time building a level of support that she expected being someone from nearby Massachusetts. And you're also seeing kind of a diverging strategy between both of these progressive candidates.

Sanders not afraid to go after who he right now views as his chief rival in Pete Buttigieg, hammering his donor base, suggesting that it would influence his presidency, while Warren, even though she is struggling in the polls right now, continues to remain above the fray, arguing what the Democrats need to beat Donald Trump is a unity candidate, and that even though she is struggling at this point, she's not trying to bring down her other opponents.

It's important to point out though, Jim and Poppy, you know, we long thought there is this progressive lane versus moderate lane and that Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders sat on the progressive spectrum while some of the other candidates, Buttigieg, Biden and others were on the more moderate lane. There is a little crossover here between some of these voters. There are a lot of Warren voters that might support Biden, a lot of Biden supporters that might support Sanders. So we're not going to be able to really figure where all that lies until after the results here in New Hampshire and what happens in the subsequent states. So it will be interesting to see how it all plays out.

SCIUTTO: Yes, those lines are not necessarily hard and fast. I mean, there are folks who voted for Obama in districts and then voted for Trump, I mean, even between parties. Ryan Nobles, thanks very much.

Now to Senator Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, Kyung Lah is at the spot where they both made a stop recently. Kyung, Buttigieg was handing out doughnuts. He -- well, did you get one is a question, but also how confident is his campaign feeling now as voters go to the polls?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The way to a vote is through your stomach, I think that's what the mayor is hoping for. What these candidates are trying to do is to make a good impression before voters come into places like this. In a school gym, this is a polling place, you can see that the people are gathering over here, they're lining up, they're picking up their ballots and then after they pick up their ballots, they head over my right shoulder, those are the voting booths, so that's where they will vote.

And both of those moderates you talked about wanted to stop by here and make an impression on these voters in Manchester, New Hampshire.

[10:05:04]

First, we just saw this morning Amy Klobuchar pulling up in her not so discreet green bus and she took her time. She got off the bus and she wanted to talk to voters. She wanted voters to see her. She wanted to talk to reporters. And when reporters asked her, how will you do, what will victory look like here, she said that she wants to look at where she was a week ago and defy expectations. A week ago was Iowa. She was in fifth place and she finished in the low double digits. So she wants to do better than that.

As far as Pete Buttigieg, you mentioned the doughnuts, well, he's been making the stops since 6:00 A.M. He stopped here at this polling place, and then he's been making a series of stops at polling places, delivering doughnuts, taking his time, taking pictures, trying to get a little face-time with voters before they enter these polling places. When he was asked, how you think you're going to do, he said he felt great.

So the moderates, Jim and Poppy, displaying some confidence as voters head to the polls here.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

HARLOW: Let's see what happens. I believe we will know something tonight before midnight.

SCIUTTO: We might.

HARLOW: I am confident. Kyung, thank you very much.

With us now to talk about all of this is Trent Spiner, Reporter for Politico, and A.B. Stoddard, Associate Editor and Columnist for RealClearPolitics.

So you, A.B., think this field is way more open than even many of the experts are looking at and that we may not know much more after tonight.

A.B. STODDARD, ASSOCIATE EDITOR AND COLUMNIST, REALCLEARPOLITICS: Right, Poppy. I think if someone surprises with just a killing tonight and puts away everybody else, that would mean something. But I don't think that we can rely on historical patterns anymore given than there are so many choices for voters, they're not really coalescing behind just two people. The moderate vote is bigger than the progressive vote, though it's being split by almost four people, if you include Mike Bloomberg. Mike Bloomberg is likely to have a huge impact in March.

After South Carolina, we're only going to be at 3.9 or something percent of the delegates in highly unionized Nevada. Bernie could really be rejected by voters wanting to keep their private insurance. Black voters could be a firewall for Joe Biden in South Carolina. There is just so much at play here. It's an open primary for the majority of New Hampshire voters who are unaffiliated, undeclared. That really mixes things up more than people understand.

And I think we could be in for some surprises and even if it is not, it is similar to Iowa, it still could mean this is fluid until mid- March, late March.

SCIUTTO: We had a transmitted new reporting just a few moments ago, Jessica Dean talking about how Biden is now sending out an email to supporters talking about a quote, unquote, doomsday scenario of a contested convention here. But I wonder -- we talked about contested conventions every cycle, right, and it never happens. But given what A.B. has laid out there, particularly the entrant of a highly funded candidate like Michael Bloomberg, who hasn't even started, really, does that become less of a farfetched idea, maybe even a likelihood to be split until you get to the convention?

TRENT SPINER, REPORTER, POLITICO: There is absolutely a likelihood of that. I think we're going to see coming out of New Hampshire, it's not so much what I think, but in terms of my reporting for Politico, what I've seen is all of these candidates, despite the size of the field, I think we're going to see low turnout today. People are confused about who to vote for. Iowa was a muddled reaction. Nobody totally understood who the real winner was, at least in terms of real people in New Hampshire. And I think you might see a muddled field coming out of New Hampshire as well.

So there's the potential that all of these candidates survive. There is this old adage that there were three or four tickets out of New Hampshire, but there may be five or six or even.

SCIUTTO: I should note this is Biden's Super PAC that sent out that email, not the Biden campaign.

HARLOW: Right, right. Guys, I think it is interesting, the way that Biden has been gGoing after Bernie Sanders is just imagine what President Trump is going to do with the self-imposed label, Democratic socialist, just imagine how the president is going to spin that, right?

I think this weekend, when he was on Fox News Sunday, Bernie Sanders, for the first time, addressed that. And here is how I believe I'm electable as a Democratic socialist against the president. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump before he was president is a private business person. He received $800 million in tax breaks and subsidies to build luxury housing in New York.

The difference between my socialism and Trump's socialism is I believe that government should help working families, not billionaires. So I believe that healthcare is a human right. I believe we should raise the minimum wage for a living wage of $15 an hour. I believe, in fact, that the rich must start paying their fair share of taxes when you have massive levels of income and wealth inequality.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[10:10:04]

HARLOW: So what do you think, A.B.? My socialism is just different than his socialism.

STODDARD: It took a long time for him to get that answer out. And I think a lot of voters who are going to be looking at this campaign on social media platforms like Facebook, where they're going to see targeted, effective advertising from the Trump campaign, very well funded, very frequently, are going to be told that socialism means the U.S. will become Venezuela. It is going to make the election a choice and not a referendum on Donald Trump, no one believes that Bernie's $90 trillion worth of programs are affordable or possible and basically that voters are being promised a pack of lies.

I'm a columnist, not a reporter. So I can tell you that this is how I interpret this and I think the Trump campaign is going to weaponize it very effectively.

SCIUTTO: Well, listen, corporate welfare is a thing if you look at tax breaks in oil companies, et cetera. It cost the taxpayer money, so it's is not an outlandish argument.

I do want to ask you, Trent, about the makeup of New Hampshire, particularly following Iowa. If you look at New Hampshire's demographics compared to the country's, New Hampshire, like Iowa, is very white, 95 percent white, 1 percent black, 1 percent Hispanic. Look at that comparison to national numbers here. Is that something that bolsters Biden's argument that, hey, you know, these races are not representative, so they should not be the final word, let's wait until we get to more diverse environs such as like South Carolina.

SPINER: New Hampshire is one of the oldest, whitest and richest states in the entire country. The other thing is that, in terms of voters, the vast majority of them -- not the vast majority but most of them are undeclared, which means they can walk into the polling place tomorrow, today, and they can either pick a Democratic ballot or a Republican ballot, and so it's very hard. I mean, New Hampshire is absolutely not representative of the rest of the country.

Now, Granite Staters try to gain that out a little bit though because they are trying to pick a nominee that can beat Trump. And so from what I heard from voters, they are considering that. They are looking at who can win on Super Tuesday who can win in South Carolina. So as much as New Hampshire is not diverse, that is something that Granite Staters do keep in mind.

SCIUTTO: Right. And they do take it like Iowans, they take that early voting seriously. Trent Spiner, A.B. Stoddard, thanks to both of you.

As the critical New Hampshire primary gets under way, we're going to speak with college voters about the race and which candidate is resonating most with them, also efforts to restrict their voting.

Plus, how Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler demanding answers from the attorney general, says subpoenas are always an option, whether they listen to or not, this after confirmation that the Justice Department will review information from Rudy Giuliani, sourced abroad, in Ukraine, about the president's political opponent.

HARLOW: And more than 50 years after his assassination, the murder case of Malcolm X is now being reopened and reinvestigated. Ahead, why a Netflix docuseries sparked all of this.

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[10:15:00]

SCIUTTO: Well, the candidates have been dropping by polling stations, this is in Durham, New Hampshire, that, of course, Senator Elizabeth Warren there, not the biggest crowd, certainly not along the scale we saw with Pete Buttigieg earlier, but each polling station can be different. We're going to keep you on top of this as the candidates continue to go out there on voting day.

HARLOW: That's right. Today, voters in New Hampshire Going to the polls, deciding which Democratic candidate they believe is best equipped to unseat the president in November.

Let's go straight to our National Correspondent Miguel Marquez. He is in Dover. What are you hearing?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is steady but not exactly gangbusters here in Dover. They've had about 460 voters so far in the three hours they have been open. That would put them below 2008 and 2016 when you had contested race. We do watch Dover very carefully because in previous Democratic contested or uncontested races, it has been sort of the bellwether for the rest of the state.

Most voters, I'm taking my own little personal exit poll as people are leaving, and most people are voting for Bernie Sanders. We spoke to them, to one of them about how things are different today from 2016.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WESLEY WILSON, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: What I found from the communities more than anything else besides who the candidates were was that they wanted real change. And when they saw Bernie, a huge portion of people who had not normally have voted Democratic saw that represented change, and when he lost the nomination, they voted for Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: Now, we have seen lots of folks turning out for Bernie Sanders and that person included said he voted for Clinton in 2016. He would vote for whoever the nominee is here. Buttigieg is the second most popular candidate and the people I spoke to, a few people voted for Klobuchar and Warren. Nobody so far said they voted for Biden. Back to you guys.

SCIUTTO: Interesting. Well, it's interesting. It may be that voters are more united than the candidates, right? There's a couple of times they might rally around. We don't know. Listen, a long way to go at the moment. Miguel Marquez, great to have you there.

For many college students, of course, key voting bloc, today's New Hampshire primary, this is the first one they can vote in. And the candidates know that young voters can make a real difference in elections, so they're reaching out to them.

HARLOW: Joining us, two of the younger voters, Davis Bernstein, President of the Keene State College Democrats Club, and Jennifer West, former President of Dartmouth College Democrats.

[10:20:03]

Thank you both for being here very much.

And, Jennifer, let me just begin with you, because I'm not sure that most of Americans know about what changed in New Hampshire for college voters this July. And that is a law that essentially makes them prove not just domicile but residency, go get a new driver's license, et cetera. I understand there is a challenge for that in court, but it's in effect today, right? I mean, help us understand what it actually means for turnout.

JENNIFER WEST, EXECUTIVE BOARD MEMBER, DARTMOUTH COLLEGE DEMOCRATS: Absolutely. So this law is currently in effect, however, the implementation of it has been very mixed and very confusing. In fact, the New Hampshire College Democrats sent a petition to Secretary of State Bill Gardner asking him to clarify exactly what this means for us. Many college students don't have a New Hampshire driver's license, many of us don't have a car, it would be very difficult for us to get to the nearest DMV. And the town clerks have sort of been going based on that interpretation, which is that students can vote as they regularly would, so it has been very confusing, but the messaging so far has been that students are allowed to vote in New Hampshire, not only can they, they should vote here.

SCIUTTO: Listen, voter access legislation is a national issue now, pushed in many places by Republican lawmakers to deliberately restrict the vote. Davis, from your perspective, as a young person in this country, I imagine excited to vote in your first election, are you, your group, other students concerned that this is a deliberate attempt to tamp down voting by college aged students? DAVIS BERNSTEIN, PRESIDENT, KEENE STATE COLLEGE DEMOCRATS CLUB: Yes, we absolutely are. The laws in the first place are an issue. But since we don't even know how they're being enforced and many facets of the government don't even know how they're going to enforce it. It really seems like it's a disinformation campaign, making it seem like college students should just stay home and sit this election out.

So it's an issue, but we're trying to combat it as much as we can.

HARLOW: Let's talk about some of the issues because I know, Davis, you said climate change and student debt are some of the top issues for yourself and for younger voters. Let's just talk about student debt, because you have a real divide, right? There's Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren Camp, free college for all, then there is Amy Klobuchar, who I vividly remember in one of our CNN town halls, I believe, with Don Lemon saying, like I would love to be the genie and be able to do all of this, but we can't afford it. How do college students feel about that? Do they believe it's affordable? Do they think Klobuchar is more right?

BERNSTEIN: Yes. So the first issue is that New Hampshire college students leave college with the highest amount of debt in the entire country. We're not worried about baby steps right now. This is an issue and it's a crisis. Public education shouldn't stop after high school. We know that most jobs these days require an undergraduate education and even further to a master's degree, law school, medical school. So we should be supporting college for all people across the country and not just rich people.

SCIUTTO: Jennifer, a lot of talk about voters across the spectrum, that electability is a prime moving force this year, electability specifically against Donald Trump and the general election. For voters like you, folks you're working with there, Dartmouth and elsewhere, is that a big driving factor or is it more issues like, for instance, Medicare-for-all?

WEST: I think it's definitely a combination of the two. Students are definitely concerned about electability, but most of the students that I personally have spoken with said that they'll rally behind whoever the nominee eventually is and they want to make sure that everyone else does the same.

A lot of students do care about particular issues, but I don't think that any of those issues would be necessarily a make or break for many of the students that I'm speaking to.

HARLOW: You are an Elizabeth Warren supporter. What do you make of her decline in the polling, her showing in Iowa, why do you think it happened?

WEST: Personally I'm not exactly sure. I have to say that I support Elizabeth Warren because I think that she's doing a great job of understanding the root of issues and her policy proposals are doing a great job at tackling the cause of most of the problems that we are working with today. I think that polls tend to be relatively flexible and sort of reflect the state of the moment. So I'm interested to see how those polls continue to shake out.

That being said, I don't place too much weight on any particular poll at any moment in time because we know how much they fluctuate.

SCIUTTO: Listen, guys, vote, please vote. The first time I voted like a thousand years ago, but it's your most basic right.

HARLOW: Not a thousand, Sciutto.

SCIUTTO: Close to a thousand. Ignore the misinformation, spread the word. We're glad you're doing it.

HARLOW: Thank you both for joining us and for what you do. We appreciate it very much.

BERNSTEIN: Thank you.

WEST: Thank you.

HARLOW: New questions and new outrage this morning after the Department of Justice says, yes, it is looking into information Rudy Giuliani dug up in Ukraine. We'll talk about that next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:25:00]

SCIUTTO: Just moments ago, House Judiciary Chairman Jerry Nadler gave a little insight into what he might do next if Attorney General Bill Barr does not answer questions about the Justice Department now looking into information supplied by Rudy Giuliani sourced from the Ukraine. Have a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JERRY NADLER (D-NY): Subpoenas are always an option.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Sourced from Ukraine, not the Ukraine. My mistake.

HARLOW: We were talking about that in the break.

SCIUTTO: We were.

HARLOW: This, of course, comes after President Trump's impeachment and Senate acquittal. And where the president's personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani's dealings with Ukraine were heavily scrutinized. Nonetheless, the president still claims his actions were, quote, perfect, defending his decision to fire two key impeachment witnesses who testified under subpoena.

Joining us now to talk about the big picture here, and a lot more, is Ambassador Richard Haass, of course, now President of the Council on Foreign Relations.

[10:30:05]

He's also a former State Department official under former President George W. Bush. Good to have you, sir.