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President-Elect Joe Biden Pledges To Unify Nation, Trump Not Conceding; Trump Campaign Files Suits In Several States; Kushner Approaches Trump About Conceding; Trump Tweets Baseless Claims; International Leaders Congratulate Biden On Win. Aired 4-5a ET

Aired November 08, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

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JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to stop treating our opponents as our enemies. They are not our enemies. They are Americans. This is the time to heal in America.

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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Time to heal. President-Elect Joe Biden calls on Americans to come together, to work together.

A very good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Jim Sciutto.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I'm Poppy Harlow in New York. It is 4:00 am on the East Coast, 1:00 am on the West Coast. Maybe you didn't go to sleep. It has been a big night in America. Welcome to our live coverage of the historic U.S. 2020 presidential election.

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HARLOW: Overnight Joe Biden and now Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris certainly made history.

SCIUTTO: The mood at his victory speech, their victory speech, was one of celebration but we should note a raging pandemic continues. There is widespread unemployment, continued racial division, a bitterly divided country, some of the challenges awaiting Biden and Harris as they take office in January.

On Saturday, hours after clinching the White House, the former vice president addressed these many challenges and it's a daunting list.

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BIDEN: America has called upon us to marshal the forces of decency, the forces of fairness, to marshal the forces of science and the forces of hope in the great battles of our time: The battle to control the virus, the battle to build prosperity, the

battle to secure your family's healthcare, the battle to achieve racial justice and root out systemic racism in this country and the battle to save our planet by getting climate under control.

The battle to restore decency, defend democracy and give everybody in this country a fair shot. That is all they are asking for, a fair shot.

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Joe Biden's running mate Kamala Harris has made history as well with a litany of firsts. The first woman, the first woman of color are, the first Black person, the first South Asian person to be elected vice president. She spoke about what her achievement means for the future.

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KAMALA HARRIS (D), VICE PRESIDENT-ELECT OF THE UNITED STATES: Every little girl watching tonight sees that this is a country of possibilities.

To the children of our country, regardless of your gender, our country has sent you a clear message: dream with ambition, lead with conviction and see yourselves in a way that others may not, simply because they've never seen it before. But know that we will applaud you every step of the way.

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HARLOW: And with those words, history made for sure. Let's go to Jason Carroll, who is in Wilmington, Delaware.

What stood out to you most when you saw that, both what happened on stage and what you heard from the people around you watching?

JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, a couple things. First thing that stood out I think to not only me but to some of those who were out here who came to see Joe Biden, a hometown hero, was the message of unity. And it is a tall order considering just how divided this country is.

But this was a message that we heard him talk about tonight, Poppy, it is a message that we've heard from the very beginning of the campaign, this is something that Joe Biden really believed in, wanting to unite the country.

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CARROLL: And he talked about that tonight, saying it is not about red states, it is not about blue states, it is about the United States, about recapturing the soul of the country. And when we spoke to folks who were out here, that was a message that really resonated with them.

It was a really diverse crowd who came out here to hear the president- elect speak and some of the things that really stuck with some of the folks that we talked to was this message of calm, that they felt a sense of relief, that this is a man who could really bring the country together.

One man that I spoke to from Cameroon, now a U.S. citizen, he has a young daughter. He said when he saw Joe Biden on the sustaining and especially with Kamala Harris, he felt as though for the first time that his daughter could grow up and be whatever she wanted to be.

Kamala Harris for her part saying a few things that really stuck out to me, where she said that the country really chose decency, truth and hope. And she also talked about the work that needs to be done going ahead.

And the country facing a pandemic, facing an economic crisis as well. Biden saying for his part on Monday, he will be announcing a 12-person task force dealing with the pandemic. A lot of folks wondering what will be happening with the transition.

His transition team has been working behind the scenes since Labor Day. They already have folks in mind for the cabinet. He says his cabinet will look like the rest of the country, diverse.

And these are a lot of the messages that I think are sitting home with a lot of people who came out here tonight and last night, it is all blurring in, quite frankly, at this point.

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CARROLL: But to hear Joe Biden, the president-elect speak. It was an incredible moment being here in Wilmington, where so many people care about him and I think at this point a lot of folks are just waiting to see what happens next and how he will tackle all of the challenges.

HARLOW: We know night is blending into day. So thank you for staying up through all of it for us. We appreciate it.

CARROLL: You bet, you bet.

SCIUTTO: So you heard the victory speeches.

What about the current president's concession speech?

Unfortunately, we're still waiting on that. Sources tell CNN that President Trump has not denied the election outcome privately but publicly he continues to make baseless claims about mail fraud, about voting fraud, pushing his lawyers to challenge the results in court, tweeting in all caps, "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT."

It is not true. We've also learned that his son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner has approached the president about conceding. The question is, is that going anywhere? Ron Brownstein joining us now from Los Angeles.

I'll set aside the president for a moment here because I suppose it is up to him when he recognizes reality. But I want to take a look at the electoral map again. Beyond the numbers -- and we should note, both Arizona and Georgia as the tally stands now, both going red, North Carolina and Alaska more likely to go blue -- Georgia and Arizona.

What does this map tell you about Joe Biden and Kamala Harris' victory, where their support was and where it extended into?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: It tells me that Joe Biden was probably the only Democratic nominee who could have beaten Donald Trump. I wrote on Election Day in 2016 that the risk to Hillary Clinton was that she would fall just in between the party's past and its future, that the party coalition in the Rust Belt would crumble a little faster than the party coalition coalesced in the Sun Belt.

And, of course, that is what happened. And it is pretty clear that that was possible for Democrats again, even with Joe Biden on the ticket.

And with a massive gain in the metro areas of Philadelphia and Detroit and Madison and improvement even in the suburbs of Milwaukee, Donald Trump turned out so many rural blue collar voters that it was a narrow squeeze in Pennsylvania, Michigan and Wisconsin.

And while Biden significantly advanced the Democratic cause in the Sun Belt, those remain a very narrow squeeze as well. So I think this does point the party toward clearly a better position in the Sun Belt, where they can continue to build on his gains in places like the Atlanta metro, Houston and Dallas.

But both sides are still narrow for Democrats and one perhaps only Joe Biden could have afforded.

HARLOW: Can I ask you about the lesson here building on that, Ron, for Democrats?

Because it was a long time ago that James Carville said, "It's the economy, stupid."

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HARLOW: But it was the economy this time around again when you look at exit polling. And you have got one Democratic House member who, anonymously telling CNN, quote, "Thank God for Biden or we would have gotten wiped out," being very critical of Nancy Pelosi and some of the more progressive Democrats.

And Tim Ryan in the Rust Belt, saying, as a party, we have to live and breathe in the economic space.

Does this change the calculus, is there a major lesson for party to learn?

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BROWNSTEIN: I don't know because I do think culture is more of a dividing line in our politics than economics at this point.

And I think that --

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HARLOW: Even though more people said that they voted on the economy?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, I do. yes, I think attitudes towards the underlying cultural changes in the country and the demographic change is so powerful in driving -- look, people -- what Trump has been able to do is achieve enormous levels of turnout and continued margins, even against Joe Biden.

Biden did recover somewhat among the blue collar white women but probably not as much as they hoped.

On the other hand, Democrats really -- we can't overstate the size of their advantages in these big kind of metro centers of the country, whether it was Cobb and Gwinnett, which used to be reliably Republican counties, or Biden winning in Philly by 275,000 votes, or the Denver metro by 400,000, even in Texas winning the big urban centers, that is real.

And I think that is the fundamental dividing line. And what you saw in the House was Republicans running not so much against what Democrats actually did in 2019 and 2020, prescription drug negotiation for Medicare, background checks, they ran against what they might do, like defunding the police or single payor health care, which are unlikely to pass but become a flashpoint in the Sun Belt.

SCIUTTO: And so let's talk about the possibility of divided government here. We don't know what will happen to those two Senate elections in Georgia. But let's say Democrats don't get both of them. So paint a picture for me of how the Senate under Mitch McConnell works with Joe Biden in the White House.

Is it pie in the sky to imagine compromise on anything?

I mean, Mitch McConnell famously said when Obama was elected, I want to make him a one term president.

HARLOW: Right.

BROWNSTEIN: I said to my colleague, Major Garrett, "National Journal" magazine when I was there. I think Biden has a better chance of getting cooperation from Republicans if Democrats win both those Senate seats in Georgia and have a 50-50 majority.

I think if McConnell has the opportunity to block the Biden agenda, he will -- expanding the public option in ACA, Medicare negotiation for prescription drug prices, big increase in spending on green energy, a new Voting Rights Act, further gun control, police reform, what part of that is Mitch McConnell and the other Republicans in the Senate going to feel like they want to help him to advance?

And the fact that we saw again in this election virtually every Senate race go the same way as the presidential and Democrats simply could not beat any Republican in any state that Donald Trump carried, unless Trump ultimately wins Arizona. But the fact that they are now kind of all in the same coalition, I

think it makes it really hard to peel off meaningful Republican support unless they win both those races in Georgia. And Republicans know this is going forward. Then Joe Biden's dealmaking might allow him to bring some of them into the tent.

But if they have the opportunity to just block it all together, I don't know how he gets many of them to come across the line.

SCIUTTO: Oh, Lord. Well, let's hope -- I think Americans want some progress on something.

BROWNSTEIN: And I think on the coronavirus, by the way, that is the big exception. The conditions are so horrific that they may have to deal with that.

But I think on many of his agenda items, it will be awful tough again, paradoxically, I think if they have the vote, Biden's instinct will be to make deals and bring in Republicans genuinely. But if they don't have the votes, I think McConnell likes to be the Grim Reaper.

SCIUTTO: So the age of the executive order continues. Ron, thank you so much.

HARLOW: And President-Elect Biden faces, as we just talked about, a deeply split America. He also faces a Congress, where Democrats lost in key races. The view from both sides of the divide ahead.

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SCIUTTO: Plus the latest on President Trump's planned legal fights over mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.

HARLOW: The scene earlier in Philadelphia, Biden supporters in the state put President-Elect Biden on the finish line and headed to the White House. Stay with us.

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HARLOW: All right. So the theme of the night was unity.

How do you unify this divided country?

So let's try to do that with two women on opposite sides of the political spectrum, Alice Stewart and Maria Cardona.

SCIUTTO: All right, Maria -- good morning to both of you. And we owe you a debt of gratitude because you're with us in the crazy overnight hours,

Maria, let's take a moment because we're only a few hours into this.

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

SCIUTTO: The history here. Kamala Harris, first woman, first Black woman, first Indian American woman to serve as vice president. Your reaction.

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CARDONA: It is overwhelming, Jim. I was on the air yesterday when they made the announcement, when CNN called it for Joe Biden, I was on CNN Espanol. And I did exactly what I'm told Van Jones did on the air, I cried.

It was completely overwhelming, the flood of emotion. As a Latina mom, I have a Latina daughter and a Latino son who are able now to see what the possibilities are after four years of so many communities, including the Latino community, being attacked, being marginalized, being dehumanized, being haunted by the rhetoric that this president has inspired.

And so for Joe Biden to have picked Kamala Harris and to see her last night on stage, speaking to my little girl directly about the possibilities in terms of what this country has in store for her, was just -- it filled my heart and it filled my soul. And I know that that did for so many Americans as well.

HARLOW: Alice Stewart, as a Republican strategist, I wonder what you think, post this election, happens to Trumpism because the president still got 7 million more votes than in 2016 and 70 million-plus people voted for him, the most ever to vote for a losing candidate. The margins were razor-thin.

Is this the new Republican Party?

ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He certainly has captured the voice of Republicans, 70 million of them, in fact. And what he stands for and the message that he delivers and the ideology he delivers is strong.

And he has unified the Republican Party in terms of having such tremendous support amongst his base. And I think what we do moving forward is part of the action item conversation in the autopsy report.

But I think that we have to remember that, while people might not agree with the tone and tenor that this president brought forward, I have a lot of issues with it and I've said them publicly often, you have to remember, peel back the layers and it is the policies that he represents and the fact that he is giving voice to these 70 million people across the country.

And they are united behind him and they look forward to how the party comes out across this.

But if I can say this, please, that I watched everything that happened yesterday. And I too, like Maria, I was chilled, I was touched in my heart. And when Kamala Harris said, I might be the first woman in this office but I will not be then last and the camera panned to little girls, it is heartwarming.

And I'm encouraged to see what type of unity we have in this country moving forward.

SCIUTTO: Listen, I'm a dude and I was moved as well, right?

CARDONA: I'm sure you were, Jim.

HARLOW: You're also a dad of a little girl.

SCIUTTO: For sure. And she was watching. I had her up well past her bedtime but she was watching last night.

CARDONA: It was an important moment.

SCIUTTO: Let me play devil's advocate here for a moment. Because yes, 70 million people voted for him but he will be 5-7 million behind Joe Biden. He underperformed his party in these races, losing the White House while they gained seats in the House and maybe lost only a couple in the Senate.

And when Jimmy Carter lost after one term or George H.W. Bush lost after one term, they didn't say the party would forever be defined by them, they said the opposite.

Can we overstate, is it possible that if not all but many Republicans say that we need a course correction here?

CARDONA: You know, that I think will be the question of the moment moving forward in terms of how are Republicans going to deal with this humongous presence. And we all know that he is not going to go quiet into the night, right?

We are all wondering whether he is going to try to grip on to the Oval Office and to the Resolute Desk with Super Glue and we'll have to peel him off.

And who is that going to be?

But broadly he and his supporters, frankly, specifically his son, have already acknowledged and kind of said, look, Republicans, who, you want to run in 2024, why aren't you coming out and defending Donald Trump?

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CARDONA: I think signaling we are not going to leave you guys alone, we are going to hold as much as we can our grip on the Republican Party. So I think that it is really going to be incumbent upon Republican leaders to figure out what the way forward is for their party.

I know so many Republicans, those folks who worked on The Lincoln Project, everyone who understood how dangerous Donald Trump was for the country and for their Republican Party, were hoping that they could just start clean with a clean slate after this election, if and when Joe Biden won. And that hasn't happened yet.

Will it?

We'll see. I think that it will take, all of us frankly, working together. We'll help Republicans with that if they want it.

HARLOW: Alice, you're from Georgia. And there is a very good chance that Joe Biden will flip Georgia blue for the first time in 28 years.

And if it happens, is it Biden, it the moment, is it Stacey Abrams' work?

What is the reason?

STEWART: There are several reasons. I speak with folks there and those in the secretary of state's office and a lot of it is in Atlanta, the Fulton County, the large number of Democrats, that have moved into that area. And some of them have said that Trump's demeanor did give them heartburn and it turned some of them off.

Look, it has been a long time coming in terms of this blue wave coming into Georgia in terms of the presidential. I'm not convinced that we will lose those seats to the Democrats. It is a possibility, but I'm not convinced.

And to your point, Stacey Abrams has moved mountains to help energize the Democratic Party and as well as the Black Lives Matter group and their organizational skills in Georgia, starting when Stacey Abrams ran for governor. It has been tremendous.

But the Republican Party in Georgia is still looking to galvanize, they will put boots on the ground and every effort they can possibly do to keep those seats Republican. I think that is critical because it is important to keep, I think for the balance of power and for democracy in this country, to have divided government.

I think America will be better with Joe Biden in the White House and Democrats controlling the House, that we need the Republicans to control the Senate to keep the balance of power. And Republicans in Georgia will work extremely hard to make sure that that is the case.

HARLOW: You all of a sudden, your home state became the center of the political universe for the next nine weeks, that is for sure.

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HARLOW: We have to leave it there but you we'll have you back soon. Thanks, ladies.

SCIUTTO: Yes, so much to get through there.

At Trump claims, the Democrats stole the election, many Republicans keeping quiet, some endorsing his unfounded accusations. Coming up, latest turns in Trump's legal and Twitter battles over mail-in ballots in Pennsylvania.

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HARRIS: All the women who have worked to secure and protect the right to vote for over a century, I stand on their shoulders. And what a testament it is to Joe's character, that he had the audacity to break one of the most substantial barriers that exists in our country and select a woman as his vice president.

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HARLOW: There she was, the vice president-elect, Kamala Harris on stage in the U.S., as celebrations underway. In the Indian village where her grandfather was born, look at that. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: People around the world watching. It is 4:30 am on the East Coast, 1:30 am on the West Coast. I'm Jim Sciutto.

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SCIUTTO: The new President-Elect of the United States, Joe Biden, delivering his victory speech Saturday night in Wilmington, Delaware, after a hard-fought campaign in what remains a deeply divided nation.

HARLOW: Joe Biden laid out his plans for the daunting job ahead of him and Kamala Harris on a day that the U.S. saw a record-breaking number of new coronavirus cases. And he reached out to the more than 70 million people who voted for President Trump.

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BIDEN: Tonight, we're seeing all over this nation, in all cities, in all parts of the country, indeed, across the world, an outpouring of joy, of hope, renewed faith in tomorrow, bring a better day. And I'm humbled by the trust and confidence you've placed in me.

I pledge to be a president who seeks not to divide but unify, who doesn't see red states and blue states, only sees the United States.

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HARLOW: When the election was finally called after days of uncertainty, overjoyed Biden supporters poured into the streets across America. And in some places, those celebrations, despite the sun being about to come up, are still going strong.

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HARLOW (voice-over): This is Black Lives Matter Plaza in Washington, D.C., it is right in front of the White House. Just a few hours ago, you can see a sign that reads, "You're fired," pushed up there against the White House fence.

And here is a different shot of the same scene, so you can see the White House in the background. President Trump was there. He returned to the nation's capital midafternoon after golfing earlier in the day.

SCIUTTO (voice-over): In fact, he was on the golf about course when the election was called.

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SCIUTTO: While the current president has not reached out to the president-elect, sources tell us that his son-in-law, Jared Kushner has at least spoken to him about conceding. Ryan Nobles is in Washington, D.C.,

You've covered this president for some time now.

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SCIUTTO: Tell us what you're hearing from the administration, whether folks in that administration believe that Jared Kushner has the muscle to push the president to concede here, what is the latest?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, before we talk about that, I should say those crowds, where we're standing right now in Washington, D.C., we're now 4:30 in the morning, they just quieted down in the last 10 minutes.

So those crowds were going pretty strong all night long. But back to your original point about what is next for President Trump and who is talking to him about those next steps, we do believe that Jared Kushner, his son-in-law, someone who he is very tight with, one of his top advisers, is at least broaching the topic with President Trump that he should at least consider conceding this election.

But all we are have to go by is what he has said. He put out a lengthy statement that essentially said that he would see through the lawsuits that his team has filed in these battleground states.

And he also put out a tweet, which made it clear where he stood at the time and that was where he said, "I WON THIS ELECTION, BY A LOT." He was not mincing words about that, the president still believing that there was an incredible amount of fraud to this election.

And that is the reason why he was some 4 million votes behind Biden in the election. And there is a reality that, at some point President Trump will have to come to terms with though, in addition to the big vote margins, there is just not any evidence of voter fraud of any kind in Arizona or Pennsylvania or Georgia or Nevada.

These states that are at the margins. And there is also not many of the court challenges that seem to have any legs behind them that could actually get to the point where it will alter the future of this race in any way, shape or form. So it seems pretty clear that Joe Biden will be the next President of

the United States. The question is the exit ramp that President Trump chooses to take to end all of this. And it could be a matter of saving face in some way, shape or form.

The president always wants to leave with the upper hand. He clearly does not have that upper hand right now. So this could just be a conversation that he's having with his closest aides or even in his own mind, to look for some sort of an opportunity to claim victory, even in the face of defeat, so that he can then move on and concede this race.

The one thing right now, everything that we're hearing, it is probably not something that will happen at least in the near future. Of course just 75 days until Joe Biden will be inaugurated the next President of the United States.

SCIUTTO: All this attention as to how he feels about the reality of this rather than respect for the election's results. Ryan Nobles, that's where we are. Thanks very much.

HARLOW: On that point, the president still has Pennsylvania in his sights after it is the state that handed Joe Biden the election. Just ahead, we'll talk to a former Republican lawmaker from that state to see what he thinks about the president's unfounded allegations of voter fraud there.

SCIUTTO: Plus, many world leaders are not waiting for President Trump to concede, including some of the president's allies. We'll show you how the rest of the world is reacting to and congratulating Joe Biden's election win.

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HARLOW: The commonwealth of Pennsylvania has been a key target for the president and for other Republicans that are right now making baseless claims about mail-in ballot fraud. Joining me now, Charlie Dent.

Good to have you, sir. Thank you for being here. And thanks for getting up in the middle of the night for us.

CHARLIE DENT, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Of course.

HARLOW: I think it says a lot, does it not, that Pennsylvania senator Republican Pat Toomey came out and said that he has seen no evidence of Democrats trying to, quote, "steal the election."

It is important to hear that from him and from other Republican colleagues, is it not? DENT: Yes, Poppy, it is. Senator Toomey is correct, there really isn't any evidence that I'm aware of any type of voter fraud. In fact, I would argue, if Democrats in Philadelphia were trying to steal the election, they did a lousy job of it because Hillary Clinton performed a little bit better than Joe Biden.

The story is that Joe Biden performed exceedingly well in the suburbs of Pennsylvania, particularly the suburbs of Philadelphia, where his vote exceeded Hillary Clinton's by 100,000 votes. That is the story.

And Joe Biden also cut down on Trump's margins upstate in places like where I live in the Lehigh Valley and other parts of the state. That is the story here.

HARLOW: He rebuilt the blue wall. He promised that he would do it, the blue wall Donald Trump smashed down four years ago. He rebuilt it.

One, do you believe that Joe Biden is the only Democrat who ran in the primary who could have done that and, seeing margins that we see now, and B, what is the lesson, is there a takeaway for your party to leave with this, if they want to regain it next time around?

DENT: I believe that Joe Biden was a much better candidate than say Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren. That would have been a catastrophe for the Democrats in Pennsylvania if they would have nominated someone on the far Left.

I would argue this election is a rejection of both Donald Trump and the left wing of the Democratic Party because you see what has happened. Another story line that hasn't really been discussed is that there are a significant number of swing voters who are Republican and independent, perhaps some Democrats, who voted for Joe Biden and then they voted straight Republican down ballot.

How else does one explain that not one House Republican lost re- election but Donald Trump lost by a significant margin?

HARLOW: So what does the party take from this, if it does an autopsy?

We remember the 2012 autopsy. I was struck by Marco Rubio's comments about, you know, what the party needs to do. And he said that the hunger and thirst for political leaders to focus on those issues, meaning the economy, is not going to change.

But he says this, the question is whether someone not named Donald Trump is able to do what he was able to do.

Is Trumpism gone or very, very much alive for the future of your party?

[04:45:00]

DENT: Well, that is the debate that we're going to have. I would argue that the autopsy in 2013 was a very valuable lesson for all of us. There will be no need to do another autopsy this time around because we know who killed the patient. The Republican Party has to become much more socially tolerant,

constructively engaged on the international stage and must also have answers on policy issues like climate change, immigration, has to embrace free markets with moderate and reasonable regulation.

I think the party does have to change direction. We have to appeal to constituencies that Donald Trump had problems with, particularly women, LGBT and other minorities. I think that's a given.

To simply double down on this demographic death march is a mistake, I think we have to figure out ways to make inroads. So let's have this debate about the future of the party. We lost by not an insignificant margin.

HARLOW: And final question, why do you think the president did get double the Black male support this time around than he did last time around and more LGBTQ support than last time?

How do you explain that?

DENT: That is a great question. How do you explain it? That is one answer that we'll have to delve into. I think maybe the Democrats have taken the African American community for granted for a long time. And maybe their messages simply aren't resonating.

I think all this conversation about defunding the police, I don't think that necessarily resonates with everybody the way they think it does in every community. And in the LGBT issue, I think many folks thought that Donald Trump, in his heart of heart, was probably more social libertarian, that he wasn't a hard social conservative.

And so maybe they were more comfortable with him than they were maybe, say, vice president Pence.

HARLOW: Fareed Zakaria has a great column this weekend in "The Washington Post: about that and he points out that the president won a larger share of the minority vote than any Republican since 1960. So big question for your party is why and how and how do they expand on that?

Thank you, Congressman. Good to have you.

DENT: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: Great to have those conversations.

And people around the world have been watching, of course, this election unfold on the edge of their seats you might say. But just because they can't -- you go, Poppy.

HARLOW: It was my mistake. You were trying to save me, Sciutto.

It's hard at 5 in the morning. But just because they can't vote doesn't mean they don't have anything to say about it. How regular folks and world leaders are responding to Biden's win.

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HARLOW (voice-over): Those are people in Ireland celebrating the results of the U.S. presidential election, this small town in Ireland pulled out all the stops. It's Ballina, where some of Joe Biden's ancestors come from.

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SCIUTTO: And international diplomatic editor Nic Robertson is joining us live from London.

I was in Europe when Barack Obama was elected. And Europe didn't exactly love George W. Bush. But a greater degree with Donald Trump there. But I think the difference here, big picture, is that Donald Trump fundamentally upset relationships with close U.S. allies, Germany, thoughts of pulling out of NATO, that kind of thing.

So beyond the celebrations the streets, what does it mean for those alliances?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: Well, as the French mayor of Paris said, "Welcome back, America."

The message to Europe is that Biden returns the United States away from an isolationist position and towards the multilateralist position that the one Europe knows, has always relied on. I think that you will hear some tweaks and adjustments in those relationships, at least from the view of European Union leaders.

But look at it through the eyes of Boris Johnson. You were probably here when President Obama told the British public that, if you leave the European Union and go for Brexit, you will be at the back of the line for negotiating a new trade deal. And Britain did that.

And so Boris Johnson, who some would see as a mini-me President Trump, will suddenly find himself in a tough position. He congratulated President-Elect Biden. He said the special relationship between the two countries was hugely important, that we'll work together on climate change, on trade, on security.

But he is sort of making good out of a difficult position there. And we heard as well from the foreign secretary here, Dominic Raab, not only congratulating President-Elect Biden and Vice President-Elect Kamala Harris but also saying that it was a close-fought contest, that Trump had fought hard.

That was sort of interesting and makes you realize that perhaps Britain still has things, you know, things that it is trying to negotiate still with the Trump administration.

Emmanuel Macron in France also speaking very strongly, "Let's work together." That is the message here.

SCIUTTO: And let me ask you about this then because Donald Trump also made friends with adversaries, right, strongmen, the Putins, the Kims of the world, the Erdogans.

How are they reacting to this?

I know they haven't made necessarily public comments but what does it mean for them?

ROBERTSON: You know, I think it means different things. The Chinese have said, before the results became clear, that they would work with whomever was leader. And if you listen to what people on the streets of Hong Kong are saying, they are concerned that Biden won't be as tough on China.

[04:55:00]

ROBERTSON: I think that you will find in Beijing, the assessment there is that they can negotiate the differences over trade with the United States better with President-Elect Biden than they can do with President Trump.

Why we haven't heard from these leaders so far, let's not forget, they are close allies of President Trump even though they are enemies of the United States. And we're seeing this sort of trend that -- and we heard this from the president of Mexico, that he didn't want to even congratulate President-Elect Biden, that he was very cautious.

He said, let's wait until the courts decide what is going on. So perhaps that is why we're not hearing publicly. It is hard to judge.

But if we step back and really look at the big picture here, this is the United States coming back into the fold of what the majority of the international community want. And it will have direct repercussions for some of the leaders here, specifically in London.

Those celebrations in Ballina in Ireland, I was there a few months ago, talking to Joe Biden's family there and to his close relatives, they really want this new U.S. president to take a strong line on Brexit, protect the Good Friday agreement in Ireland and make sure that Ireland doesn't get ravaged by the Brexit deal economically as it is.

SCIUTTO: So many effects from this, we'll watch those unfold. Nic Robertson, from London, thanks so much.

HARLOW: Thanks to Nic and to all of you for joining us this early morning. I'm Poppy Harlow.

SCIUTTO: We enjoyed having you. We really appreciate it. I'm Jim Sciutto. Please stay with CNN for "NEW DAY" Sunday with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.