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Voting Under Way in New Hampshire GOP Primary; Israeli Spy Chief Proposes Hamas Leaders Leave Gaza as Part of Ceasefire. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired January 23, 2024 - 06:00   ET

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

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): The first votes cast in the first in the nation primary.

[06:01:04]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): A two-person race, but for how much longer?

DONALD TRUMP (R), FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT, 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have to get out; we have to vote. This is the single biggest political movement in history.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Republicans coming together behind Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What we're seeing is an audition for the vice presidency. This is like a giant version of "The Apprentice."

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The reluctance to go negative is on purpose. It is on purpose. They see no incentive to.

NIKKI HALEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I love the Live Free or Die state, but you know what? I want to make it a Live Free or Die country, and we're not going to stop until we do it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It does not look like the path goes that much further past New Hampshire.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Let the New Hampshire voters turn out. If there is a state where there would be an upset, it would be there.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning from New Hampshire. So glad you're with us. The nation's first presidential primary is now. It is 6:01 a.m. on the East Coast; it is now officially under way.

I am live at Chez Vachon (ph) Diner in Manchester. Phil is in New York. Kasie Hunt is here with me. We've got full team coverage.

The first big round of polls just opened in the Granite State. This could very well be Nikki Haley's last stand against Donald Trump. During her final blitz across the state, Haley pushed back on the naysayers who have been suggesting that she give up and drop out.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HALEY: America doesn't do coronations. We believe in choices. We believe in democracy, and we believe in freedom.

Let's show the country what we can do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Those first ballots were cast just after midnight in the tiny town of Dixville Notch, and guess what? Nikki Haley won all six votes.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: One of the better traditions in politics.

Here are the big questions we are watching today. Will Nikki Haley's big bet pay off? Her campaign has focused heavily on New Hampshire. It's a state where Haley has the best chance at beating Trump.

The other looming -- and I would say biggest -- question right now: if Trump wins tonight, is the GOP race just over? Will Haley really stay in the race for the South Carolina primary, which is still a month away?

Also, have Haley's attacks against Trump been effective? In recent days, we've seen her escalate her rhetoric, even questioning Trump's mental fitness. She told CNN she sees Trump and Biden as, quote, "equally bad options."

Now in the final hours before the primary, Trump has been racking up endorsements from Republicans on Capitol Hill. Both the House and Senate GOP campaign chairs have called for the party to unite behind Trump

And last night we saw Trump bring his former opponents on stage in the ultimate show of force.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC), FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you want four more years of Donald Trump let me hear you scream!

If you want the race to be over tomorrow, let me hear you scream! All right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Let's start with Omar Jimenez. He is live at a polling location. It just opened. A number of folks there this morning. What are you seeing? What are you hearing?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, there was a line waiting for 6 a.m. Eastern time, when this polling location officially opened. You can see them getting processed right now as they initially walk in here at this polling location in Manchester.

So once they go from this table here, they will then essentially go to one more spot and then be ready to vote.

You can see some folks already getting their votes under way. Nice and early here in Manchester. A long-awaited opportunity after, really, what's been a year-long campaign in this particular state. The question now for someone like Nikki Haley: has she done enough to challenge the former president?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The New Hampshire primary is officially under way, with one lone Republican rival remaining against Donald Trump.

HALEY: We've got a lot on the line here.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Nikki Haley is making her final pitch to New Hampshire voters, hoping to stop Trump's march to the Republican nomination.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nikki?

HALEY: Yes.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Will you marry me?

HALEY: Are you going to vote for me?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to vote for Trump.

[06:05:04]

HALEY: Oh, get out of here.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Overnight, the first primary ballots were cast in Dixville Notch, providing a very early glimmer of hope for Haley, who picked up all six votes in the small New Hampshire town.

Trump, for his part, is trying to rally and consolidate Republican support, holding his final campaign rally in the Granite State flanked by former Republican candidates offering their endorsement, including former Republican candidate and Senator Tim Scott, who just announced his engagement.

TRUMP: Biggest story out there, he's engaged to be married. We never thought this was going to happen. What's going on?

JIMENEZ (voice-over): Trump did target Haley during his rally.

TRUMP: The people behind Nikki Haley are pro-amnesty, pro-China, pro- open borders, pro-war, pro-deep state, and pro-Biden.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): And Haley is trying to make the case that both Trump and Biden are too old to effectively serve four more years.

HALEY: This really is an option. Do you want more of the same?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No! UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We want Nikki!

HALEY: Or do you want to go forward?

JIMENEZ (voice-over): And saying she feels Trump has mentally declined.

HALEY: The more you age, it just does -- you have declined.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The Democrats are also heading to the polls today. Congressman Dean Phillips has launched a long-shot campaign against President Biden. Phillips is hoping the fact Biden won't appear on the ballot, and is relying on write-in support, could help his chances.

REP. DEAN PHILLIPS (D-MN), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The sad truth is, I respect the man, but Joe Biden is not able to beat Donald Trump in the next election.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): The New Hampshire attorney general is also investigating a fake robocall that appears to use an A.I. voice resembling Biden's, urging voters to stay home.

ROBOTIC VOICE: It's important that you save your vote for the November election. Voting this Tuesday only enables the Republicans in their quest to elect Donald Trump again.

JIMENEZ (voice-over): It's unclear who's behind the call. Biden's campaign responded to it, writing, "Spreading disinformation to suppress voting and deliberately undermine free and fair elections will not stand."

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JIMENEZ (on camera): And as I mentioned, the polls opened just a few minutes ago. You can see folks who have finished voting, making their way back out with their "I just voted" stickers. One of them, we've got my man Norm here.

Norm, how are you doing?

NORM, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: Doing well. How are you?

JIMENEZ: All right. So you're up and early. Why did you want to come here? You were one of the first people in line. Why did you want to be here so early?

NORM: I figured there would be a big line. Might as well get here, get it over with, get out.

JIMENEZ: Yes.

NORM: Go to breakfast.

JIMENEZ: There we go. Go to breakfast. So if you don't mind, who did you vote for? Why? You've obviously been seeing a lot of campaign stuff over the last year here in New Hampshire.

NORM: Well, we both voted for Trump and give him a chance to finish what he started.

JIMENEZ: Was there -- obviously, it came down to Trump and Nikki Haley in the end. What didn't you like about Nikki Haley that made you go with Trump?

NORM: Not that we didn't like her -- excuse me. Just we've been a Trump supporter, weren't too happy with how he behaved. Seems like he might have changed that a little bit. So we figured, give him another chance. He can only go for four anyway. So --

JIMENEZ: Yes. You weren't too happy with how he behaved --

NORM: Well, sometimes he'd behave like a child, you know? But, then again, we didn't hire him to be a personality. We hired him to get a job done.

JIMENEZ: And how do you think he changed, you know, from, as you say, behaving like a child?

NORM: Well, I think he's trying to contain himself now instead of the name calling and the belittling stuff. But as long as he -- which he did in his first term -- was he did what he said he was going to do. If he does it again, well, we'll be in good shape.

JIMENEZ: He has called Nikki Haley a few names. I'll point that out.

But just the last thing I'll ask before I let you go is just walk me through did you vote for him in 2016?

NORM: Yes.

JIMENEZ: 2020?

NORM: (NODS)

JIMENEZ: How has your support for him maybe changed over the years? And why did you feel so confident this time?

NORM: Well, it really hasn't changed the support for him, just haven't found anyone we think is going to do the job. We looked at -- we would have liked DeSantis, but as they're saying now, it just wasn't his time I don't think, you know. And, who knows? Maybe -- maybe he will be a V.P. pick, and he'll be able to get eight years out of it.

JIMENEZ: We will see. And I should ask, if DeSantis was still in the race, would you have voted for him?

NORM: Probably.

JIMENEZ: Yes, yes. All right. Norm, thank you so much. I appreciate you.

NORM: You're welcome. Have a good day. JIMENEZ: All right. One of the -- one of the first in line to vote

here in Manchester already did what he needed to do, a process long awaited here in this state. And obviously, it's just one person, but it gives you a little bit of insight to folks here who may be leaning toward the former president and some of why.

HARLOW: Yes. You know, Omar, that was a really illuminating interview that you just did. Thank you very much for that.

[06:10:02]

Let's bring Kasie in. What -- so Trump sounded childish before, but he thinks that he can contain himself now. What did you make of what we just heard from that voter?

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: I mean, honestly, it is an encapsulation of all of the phenomenon that explain why Donald Trump is where he is. Because, you know, he's got that core group of MAGA supporters. He talks to them a lot on Truth Social, where we should note there is an awful lot of name calling and other things that our -- Norm, our voter here, doesn't see.

Which kind of tells you that Donald Trump knows what audience he's talking to when he's doing that.

But for the ones that, you know, if Donald Trump is going to be president again, the people that are going to put him over the edge are going to be voters like the one that we just heard from who basically say, well, there are things about him that I don't like, but I'm willing to overlook it, because I like what he did policy-wise. And, you know, we didn't get a chance to talk to him about Biden and what he would do in a general election.

But for voters who would consider, it doesn't sound like Norm ever considered to vote for Joe Biden. But for swing voters in independent states that's going to be the distinction.

And it is -- it is very interesting to me and, I think, telling for all of us that a lot of, you know, what we notice and what we focus on in terms of how Trump conducts himself, it just doesn't break through with a lot of these voters.

HARLOW: It was also notable that he said it's not that I don't like Nikki Haley, but let's just let Trump finish what he started.

HUNT: Yes. Let's give him another chance. I mean, and that's -- if we're going to get a President Trump for a second time, that's -- that's going to be the narrative we're going to hear.

HARLOW: It's going to be the Norms. Thank you, Kasie. Get back to you very soon -- Phil.

MATTINGLY: Yes, get it over with early and go to breakfast is kind of the energy I want to take for the remainder of this election season. That is elite right there. Guys, there's a lot of things we want to get into. Kasie has pointed

out and covered it very closely. Back in 2016, New Hampshire was not only just the first primary that Donald Trump won, but it was also the first primary where you saw the reach was much wider in the Republican Party than I think a lot of people expected.

But let's start with where Omar is, where he just interviewed that voter. This right here is a map of 2024. You'll see only one place is filled in. That's Dixville Notch. We already told you, Nikki Haley won all six votes there. Not really predictive of what's coming but a good start to the day for Nikki Haley.

Back in 2016, if you go into New Hampshire where Omar is right now, this is a place that Donald Trump won 36 percent of the vote, pretty close to where he ended up overall in the state. Manchester is the biggest population center in the state. If Donald Trump can roll up big wins in the big population centers in New Hampshire, in the townships and the counties throughout the state, that obviously bodes very well for him. And that's exactly what he did in 2016.

When you look at what he did in 2016, this is a state where John Kasich essentially took up residence over the course of several months. Same with Chris Christie.

John Kasich won several townships, won some of the more -- the areas that Nikki Haley will be targeting -- without any question at all. Higher educated townships, suburban townships, areas where there's a population that matches kind of the demographic lens that Nikki Haley has been targeting over the course of the last several months.

But it's also a place where Donald Trump, even if you pull up where the suburbs are, Donald Trump almost swept the suburbs in the Southeastern part of the state.

If you push out into the rural areas, Donald Trump crushed these rural areas, as well.

In the places where Donald Trump lost, if you want to look at the population centers, pull it out a little bit, and you see where the bigger bubbles are; that's where more people are. The places where he lost, not really that sizable.

And that underscores his dominance in the state back in 2016 when it was a much more even race than it appears to be right now.

So what does that mean going forward? I want to pull up the amount of money that Nikki Haley has spent up to this point. Ad spending. Everybody you talk to when you're in New Hampshire talks about the fact that they've just been blitzed over the course of the last several months.

Nikki Haley, $29 million between the Haley campaign and her super PAC. It's almost double what Trump has spent. They have made very clear, this is the race. This is the state. This is the primary for them to make their move. That will all come -- be determined later tonight. The big question

right now, when you look at the polling in terms of where things stand, historically, it's actually really interesting.

The biggest margins of victory over the course of the last several cycles in the Republican Party: Reagan, 27 percent in 1980; McCain at 18 percent; Romney at 16 percent.

Trump in 2016 is actually fourth. Right now is looks like he could surpass what he did in 2016, could even go even further. If he tops 50 percent and surpasses some of these numbers, by all accounts when you talk to Republican officials, the race is probably over. And that's exactly what Haley is trying to prevent over the course of the next several hours.

Well, joining us next to discuss how this might all turn out, the vice chair of the New Hampshire GOP.

This is CNN THIS MORNING's special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:18:18]

HARLOW: All right. You're looking at live pictures. This is a polling site in Bedford, New Hampshire, 6:17 a.m. here. And voters are there and the voting -- well, some. It will get more full soon, right, Kasie?

HUNT: I mean, it's very early.

HARLOW: I mean, it's very early. Joining us now is the vice chair of New Hampshire's Republican Party, Ryan Terrell. He has not endorsed either of the Republican candidates in the primary, given his position.

We really appreciate you being with us here. Talk to us about what you're expecting today in the state.

RYAN TERRELL, VICE CHAIR, NEW HAMPSHIRE REPUBLICAN PARTY: I expect a high turnout. People are excited about a primary. You know, the Republicans are the only primary that kind of has a lot of momentum with the candidates coming here. And people are fired up to vote for the candidate that they want to see lead the Republican ticket.

So I think you'll see 325,000, something close to that, at least turning out. And like we all talk about in New Hampshire, that independent vote is going to be very important to see how they wind up voting.

HUNT: Ryan, what is your sense of what Nikki Haley would have to do today? I want to show you, Governor Sununu was on with our colleague Anderson Cooper last night, talking about expectations for her.

TERRELL: Sure.

HUNT: Take a look at what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Do you believe Ambassador Haley needs to win tomorrow?

GOV. CHRIS SUNUNU (R-NH): No, New Hampshire has never been a must-win for Haley. If anything it's a must-win for Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HUNT: Do you think it's must-win here for her to have a future in the presidential primary?

TERRELL: It's hard to tell what wins are a must win. We can't tell the future. There's certainly been a lot of political things that have changed over history, but I think it's a huge indicator of how successful the campaign can be.

New Hampshire is a primary state for a reason. We have a retail politic that's steeped in tradition. And so candidates really get a lot of one-on-one questioning.

And when a candidate wins New Hampshire, it really makes the nation understand that they fine-tuned with their candidate and that they understand the voting block. So I think it sends an important message to win New Hampshire for whatever candidate wins the state.

[06:20:14]

HARLOW: You talked about independents or undeclared voters that can participate here. And they can poll either way, right? They can go for a Republican candidate, Democratic candidate.

Donald Trump has incorrectly, falsely been saying, you know, Democrats are going to help Nikki Haley. A Democrat cannot -- a registered Democrat cannot vote in the Republican primary here.

But I do wonder how much sway you think those undeclareds are going to have for Nikki Haley.

TERRELL: Sure.

HARLOW: That's what she needs, a lot of them.

TERRELL: She needs a lot of undeclared voters, and Nikki has certainly been trying to get the undeclared vote quite active. I know her campaign has been targeting the independent or undeclared voter.

And you're correct where the cutoff that allows Democrat voters to switch over and vote different parties was in October. So you're correct that only undeclared voters can participate and jump over if they want to participate in a Republican primary.

I think Nikki Haley needs as many voters as she possibly can that aren't already ascribed to Trump to come out and show out for her to get a victory today. Because there's a huge momentum around Trump. Just in my vice chair role participating in the primary events, Trump

has a huge name recognition; and a lot of voters are really excited to vote for him a second time. In fact, some voters are going to be voting for him for the first time this election season.

So I think Nikki Haley is going to need every vote she possibly can get from somebody who isn't already sold on Trump.

HUNT: So Ryan, let me ask you, this is also a very hotly contested general election state, New Hampshire. And one of the things that President Biden is going to have to do if he wants to retain the White House is keep together the coalition that put him there.

And that includes, they would say, you know, black voters, brown voters, women voters. He's shown -- young voters. He's shown erosion in all those groups. And I'm curious, just from your perspective, black voters in particular, black men, why are they abandoning Biden? Why are they so interested in Donald Trump?

TERRELL: I can't speak for every black man across the country.

HUNT: I'm not asking you to.

TERRELL: Sure.

HUNT: From what you hear in your role.

TERRELL: I can -- I can give an experience that black voters, minority voters often have overlapping interests, as every other voter.

But I will tell you particularly, they're not necessarily happy about what's happening with the illegal immigration crisis. That's affecting a lot of cities across the country.

And also, they're not really too happy about some of the social issues that are coming from the Democrat Party.

And so you have a voting bloc with minority voters, Spanish speaking voters that are actually quite socially conservative. And so now they're butting with almost an identity crisis, in that they've maybe voted Democrat for a while. But now with the illegal migrant crisis that happening and a few other social factors, it's making them start to look at some other candidates to be considered.

We're in a tough economic environment. I think we know that the economy was better over the four years with Trump. And so now voters are really kind of starting to ask, am I going to cross over and make a different decision this time? And that particularly has shown among minority communities.

HARLOW: It's a really interesting point and a great question, right? That is the question in a general. Thank you.

TERRELL: Thank you.

HUNT: Thanks, Ryan. TERRELL: Appreciate it.

HARLOW: Phil?

MATTINGLY: Well, up next, a CNN exclusive, Israel's spy chief offering Hamas leaders a chance to get out of Gaza. Why he's floating the idea now. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:13]

MATTINGLY: Well, this morning the Israeli government says 21 IDF soldiers were killed in Southern Gaza during a military operation in Khan Yunis. About 20 hostages were said to the held in the tunnels in the area.

It's the biggest single Israeli loss during combat since the war began. And a warning: these next images are graphic.

Palestinians say Israel is targeting and battering hospital sites in these same areas. Nearly all of Gaza's population faces a humanitarian crisis, as the death toll reported by the Hamas-controlled Health Authority passed 25,000.

At the same time, in a CNN exclusive, Israel's spy chief is proposing that senior Hamas leaders leave Gaza in return for a two-month-long pause in fighting as part of a broader ceasefire and hostage negotiation deal.

That comes from two officials familiar with the talks who spoke to CNN's Alex Marquardt, who joins us now, live from Washington, D.C.

Let's start with this proposal. It was stunning on its face when I read your reporting. What would it entail?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it is an extraordinary proposal, Phil. And essentially, if it were to happen, it would be incredible to think that this would be Hamas's top leaders in Gaza, the orchestraters of the deadliest day in Israeli history, leaving Gaza, essentially being allowed to walk away.

Now, the way that Israel sees this is that, if they were to leave Gaza, it would weaken Hamas in Gaza. And essentially, it would draw these leaders of Hamas out of the tunnels, allowing Israel to then target them elsewhere.

And we do know that Israel plans to mount a global operation against Hamas leaders around the world.

But, Phil, I think what this proposal really highlights is that, after four months of war, Israel has failed to capture or kill any of the most senior leaders of Hamas in Gaza, among them Yahya Sinwar, who is the top Hamas official in Gaza; Mohammed Deif, who is the leader of the military arm.

We also know by Israel's own estimates that some 70 percent of Hamas's fighting force remains on the battlefield.

Now Phil, I was told that this was raised, this proposal was raised by the head of Israeli intelligence, David Barnea, last month in a meeting in Warsaw with the CIA director, Bill Burns, and the Qatari prime minister.

And then a few weeks later, earlier this month, the Qatari minister -- prime minister met with Antony Blinken, the secretary of state. And in that meeting, he told Blinken that this proposal will never happen.

And that's what I've heard from international and American officials, saying that this is essentially a nonstarter. That these guys -- Sinwar, Deif and others -- would rather go down fighting against their sworn enemy.

But Phil, it's still remarkable that Israel would propose this at all.

MATTINGLY: It certainly is. And it's also a window into the pressures, both domestic and international, the prime minister is facing at this moment in time.

Alex Marquardt, great reporting. Thanks so much.

Let's head back to Poppy and Kasie in Manchester, New Hampshire.

HARLOW: Thank you, Phil. Great reporting, by the way, from Alex there.

We will be joined next by Democratic presidential candidate Dean Phillips. We'll talk about his bid to try to shake things up.