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CNN This Morning

Now, More Polls Open Across New Hampshire; Harris Embarks on Abortion Rights Tour, Zeroes in on Trump; Today, Biden and Harris Make First Joint Campaign Appearance of 2024. Aired 7-7:30a ET

Aired January 23, 2024 - 07:00   ET

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

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[07:00:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: It is the top of the hour. We are so glad you're with us on this Tuesday morning and good morning from New Hampshire.

Right now, the nation's first presidential primary is underway. I am live at Chez Vachon Diner in Manchester, New Hampshire, with Kasie Hunt, Phil Mattingly, with us in New York.

And another big round of polling locations just opened across the state. Take a look. It is now or never, basically, for Nikki Haley. This could very well be her last best shot at beating Donald Trump. Last night at his final rally before today's primary, Trump predicted the GOP race will end today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: Now we're down to two people. And I think one person will be gone probably tomorrow. And the other one will be gone in November. But now is the time for the Republican Party to come together. We have to unify.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: And along those lines in a very clear show of force, Trump brought his former opponents onto the stage of that rally. He received a flood of Republican endorsements during the final hours before the primary. That includes both the House and Senate GOP campaign chairs who are calling on the party to unite behind Trump.

During her last sprint across the state, Haley went all-in on attacking Trump, his age, his mental fitness, all that she looks to break through.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Are we really going to say that we're okay with having our options be two 80-year-olds that want for president? I'm not being disrespectful. We need Russia, China and Iran to be on their heels. They need to know that somebody is at the top of their game.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We have full team coverage this morning. Let's start with Omar Jimenez. He joins us at a polling location in Manchester.

Fascinating insight from the voter you talked to last hour, Omar. I wonder what you're hearing now as more people line up.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We're starting to hear a wide range of opinions. A lot of folks, in some parts, considering some of what Nikki Haley have said, but we've also heard a lot of Trump voters, particularly among the registered Republicans.

I want to give you an idea of what we're looking at right now, this polling location, obviously still very busy in this early morning time. I was just talking to the moderator. We've got an hour that we've been open here, and she just told me that they've processed 162 voters in just that first hour.

And, obviously, there are a lot more in line here as well. They get signed in there. They get all processed. Then they make their way over to the voting booths. Obviously, these two just voted and are making their way towards the processing.

I want to show you a little bit of where folks are coming in from, because a lot of the people that we've been talking to have been coming before work. Obviously, it's an early morning start for a lot of these folks. And so they all sort of come in through this entrance, through this galley way.

Excuse me, guys. How you doing? How you doing?

And as we're coming through, you know, this is where the voters are coming in. And, you know, I'm just trying to talk to one of them.

Ma'am, how are you? I'm Omar.

DELPHINE WALDREP, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: Hi. Glad to meet you. I'm Delphine.

JIMENEZ: So, do you just go in there and vote? I can see your sticker here.

D. WALDREP: Yes, I do.

JIMENEZ: How did you vote this time? Who'd you feel strongly about?

D. WALDREP: Trump.

JIMENEZ: And why Donald Trump?

D. WALDREP: He did a good job the first time.

JIMENEZ: And did you see anything over the course of this process that either reinforced your love for him or your support for him, or made you even worry or second guess yourself?

D. WALDREP: I feel like he's going to do the same talk and job he did before and help our country. And that's what I'm looking for, is to improve our current situations.

JIMENEZ: I'm curious how long ago did you make that decision?

D. WALDREP: Probably when he declared he wanted to run again.

JIMENEZ: So, none of the candidates that came to this state over the course of 11 months ever swayed you from that opinion?

D. WALDREP: I was interested in Nikki Haley as well, but I'm going with the popular vote.

JIMENEZ: When did you rule out Nikki Haley?

D. WALDREP: Probably when it got down to two people.

JIMENEZ: Really? So, when the field was larger, she was still very much in your --

D. WALDREP: I was watching for her, yes.

JIMENEZ: And what about Nikki Haley that for you just said, okay, I can't support her?

[07:05:00]

D. WALDREP: I like her. I like her, but I'm going with a popular vote. I want to make sure we have a change of the guard here.

JIMENEZ: So, part of it is you believe that Donald Trump can beat Joe Biden?

D. WALDREP: Yes, I do.

JIMENEZ: And who are you with here? I didn't get to meet you. Sorry, I'm not going to ignore you here. How's it going? Omar.

JAMES WALDREP, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: Hi Omar, I'm James Waldrep, her husband.

JIMENEZ: All right, so --

J. WALDREP: I'm 51 years.

JIMENEZ: Oh wow, congratulations. Well, that's a lot of election cycles. How did you vote this time?

J. WALDREP: I voted for Trump.

JIMENEZ: And why did you vote for Trump?

J. WALDREP: Because he's still a businessman. He's not a politician. He did well the first time running this country as a businessman. He promoted businesses. He promoted those that had been left out up and had more of the Americans of color, the Americans of all colors, not just white, not just black, but all colors, and got them jobs. And --

JIMENEZ: Bottom line, you feel he's going to do -- you feel like he'll do the best job that you feel he can do, yes?

J. WALDREP: Yes, I do. And I think it's going to be a good race.

JIMENEZ: All right, thank you so much. I appreciate both of you.

That's a lot of part of what we're hearing, obviously a different range of opinions as voters continue to come in here. Kasie and Poppy?

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR: Fascinating conversation. Omar, thank you for that and stand by for us. We'll be back with you in a moment.

We want to go to Alayna Treene now who is at a polling place in Nashua, and Alayna has also, of course, been on the trail covering Donald Trump for us. Alayna, what are you seeing there?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Right. Well, good morning. We are at Amherst Elementary School. The polls opened here at 6:00 A.M. And as you said, Kasie, we are in Nashua, it's one of the largest cities in the state. They have about 50,000 registered voters. So, a lot of people coming through this polling location. But the polls opened, like I said, at 6:00 A.M.

They started to walk through these doors. And I'm just going to give you a sense of how this process works at this location. So they walk through these doors, they line up at these tables back here where they get their names checked and receive their ballots. Once they do so, they will come in here and begin voting in some of these booths here.

As you can tell, they have privacy. They're able to do this behind the curtains. Once they fill out their ballots and those are completed, they will bring them to the back of this gymnasium here and then put them in that black box at the far end of the wall. That's the tabulator that will be counting the votes throughout the day. Once they put that in the tabulator, they will exit through that door back there.

And, of course, you can see this table in front. This is where they're going to be throughout the day, counting again some of those ballots as well as processing some of the write-ins. They also will be having absentee ballots from here where they're going to be processing those around 8:00 A.M., I am told.

And I just have to tell you, I met with a lot of the election officials working here today. They are very committed to making sure that this is a fair and free and accurate election, particularly in this location.

HARLOW: Alayna Treene, thank you. We'll get back to you soon. Phil?

MATTINGLY: Well, Poppy, it is a huge day for anti-Trump Republicans, Republicans who just want someone else than the former president, not just in New Hampshire, but across the country, as Nikki Haley faces, what could be her last chance to not just pull off a major upset, but also reset a race that currently feels like it's going to be a foregone conclusion at this point.

So, let's take a look at why the Haley campaign has been so keyed on the Granite State. The second competition that's happening, the primary after the caucuses in Iowa, if you want to know just how seriously they were taking this race, well, just look at the spending itself. Over the course of New Hampshire, $29 million from Nikki Haley and her aligned super PAC. That's nearly double what Donald Trump and his outside groups have spent, much more than Ron DeSantis, who's now no longer in the race.

This has always been the target. What did Haley say? I'm paraphrasing here, it's going to correct what they did in Iowa.

So, this is the state as it currently stands. You'll see one township is filled in, that would be Dixville Notch. Obviously, just after midnight, all six votes in that place voted for Nikki Haley. That's not really indicative of what's about to happen, but it is a very fun tradition over six-plus decades. Haley, happy with that. Can it continue on though? That's the biggest question.

If you want to know why Nikki Haley wanted to choose this state, it's demographic, it's the socioeconomic kind of outlines of this state, higher educated, higher income than Iowa, less evangelical, less conservative on social issues, moderates basically was here.

So, what happened in 2016? This is important because if you look at the map in 2016, Donald Trump won by 35 percent and he crossed those socioeconomic lines in a way that really kind of let people know he had a real grip on the Republican Party.

[07:10:00]

But if you look at the pink, all the red obviously is what Donald Trump won, the townships that he won, the pink is where John Kasich won, lost by 20 points in this state, a state that he basically took up residence in throughout the course leading up to the primary.

But these are the types of places that Nikki Haley will almost certainly have to win and not just win, but run up big numbers. Those are places with higher education levels, higher income levels as well, suburbs, suburban voters.

But what's also interesting is you look at the 2020 map. Now, why does this matter? Because where you see these blue areas in a state that Joe Biden won fairly handily, these are areas where there are Republican voters. There could be undecided voters, undeclared voters who decide to vote Republican. And these are the types of areas that Nikki Haley could actually capitalize on as well. It doesn't mean they're Democratic voters coming in to vote, but it means they're coming from Democratic areas.

Those are counties that you're going to have to watch. Those are counties you're going to have to pay attention to, not because they voted for Joe Biden, but because those are places that match up with the demographics that the Haley campaign has been pointing to. If they want to surprise really the entire country tonight, they're going to have to run up big numbers there and hold down the margins in places like Manchester, where Omar has been. Poppy?

HARLOW: And, Phil, that's exactly what we heard from the vice chair of the Republican Party here earlier today. She's got to pull a ton of those votes tonight if she wants to pull off a mini miracle here.

Phil, we'll get back to you soon.

As New Hampshire voters head to the polls, the Republican Party looks to be coalescing right now around Trump once again. In the final days leading up to this primary, the former president receiving a slew of endorsements, including from those members of his party who once criticized him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): What we want to see from our president is clarity and moral authority, and that moral authority is compromised.

If you want four more years of Donald Trump, let me hear you scream?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Would you ever do business with Donald Trump?

GOV. DOUG BURGUM (R-ND): I don't think so.

I just think that it's important that you're judged by the company you keep.

There's one candidate in this race that understands how to make our nation more secure, our nation more prosperous. It's the person who did it when he was president before. That's Donald J. Trump.

GOV. RON DESANTIS (R-FL): You can be the most worthless Republican in America, but if you kiss the ring, he'll say you're wonderful.

Trump is superior to the current incumbent, Joe Biden.

He has my endorsement because we can't go back to the old Republican guard of yesteryear.

REP. NANCY MACE (R-SC): I believe we need to hold the president accountable. I hold him accountable for the events that transpired, for the attack on our Capitol.

Everything was better under Trump by every measurement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Joining us now, New York Times National Political Correspondent Shane Goldmacher and New York Times Political Correspondent Michael Bender. He is the author also of, Frankly, We Did Win This Election, the Inside Story of How Trump Lost. Just seeing that is like, wow. The question, Michael, is do those endorsements, Trump pulled them all on the stage here last night, do they make a difference here?

MICHAEL BENDER, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: Well, I guess we'll see. I mean, I do think it does lend a little bit of credence to Trump's inevitability argument and definitely demonstrates for voters once again for, you know, the millionth time in the last eight years of what a hold he has on the Republican Party. I mean, that montage shows how little options, how few options Republicans have once they, you know, decide not to run. It does seem like another Trump train here.

HARLOW: I mean, that interview with Chuck Todd did with Doug Burgum wasn't even that long ago, by the way.

I want you to listen, Shane, to Norm. Norm is a voter here, and I think he represents perhaps a lot of folks who are supporting Trump. Here's what he told Omar earlier this morning after he cast his vote for Trump. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NORM GAGNON, NEW HAMPSHIRE VOTER: We've been a Trump supporter. We weren't too happy with how he behaved. It seems like he might have changed that a little bit. So, we figured we'd give him another chance. And he can only go for four anyways, so --

JIMENEZ: You weren't too happy with how he behaved?

GAGNON: Sometimes he behaved like a child, you know? But then again, we didn't hire him to be a personality. We hired him to get the job then.

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

GAGNON: Well, I think he's trying to contain himself now.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Do you think that represents a lot more folks than just Norm?

SHANE GOLDMACHER, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I mean, I think that tells you why Donald Trump is dominating this primary, right? There are a lot of Republican voters who liked the way Donald Trump behaved. And if he is winning the people who think he behaved like a child, that tells you why he's winning 50 percent of the vote in the early states. It tells you why he's at 70 percent of the vote in a lot of these national polls.

There was potentially an opening for a non-Trump candidate, I think, this year, and it was among people who thought they didn't like him as a person, they didn't like his behavior, but maybe they liked some of his policies. That was the argument that Ron DeSantis made. But, look, on an Election Day, if the voters who think he behaved badly still want to vote for him.

[07:15:00]

HARLOW: But the fact that you're speaking in the past tense says a lot. You're saying there was. There was a case. Nikki Haley is like, I am here.

GOLDMACHER: She is still trying to make that case, but what you've seen is that it hasn't resonated so far and this is one of the last places she's going to have a strong chance to make it because of the way the electorate is set up here.

HARLOW: Michael, she says she is in it no matter what happens here through, you know, she's going to her home state, but that's like not next week. It's in a matter of weeks, which maybe makes it more challenging for her.

Governor Sununu, very popular governor here, endorsed Haley, said last night to Anderson, she doesn't have to win New Hampshire. In fact, he said New Hampshire has never been a must win for Haley. It's a must win for Trump. Is that right or backwards?

BENDER: Well, I mean, Trump is -- half of his sort of image is that of a winner. So, a loss for him would be pretty stunning and heard of Trump is not going to drop out after if he loses in New Hampshire, that's for sure.

But Haley definitely has a different calculus. There's a month to go until the South Carolina primary, as you mentioned. It's her home state. The polls are not great there. And to head into South Carolina with anything less than a win, knowing she's going to face a very painful campaign push from Trump and his super PAC on air in her home state, she would have a lot to weigh if it's not a victory or very close one tonight.

HARLOW: The polls are one thing, they matter, but what matters today, all that matters today is the votes. And from what we've been hearing, Shane, from voters, talking to our reporters on the ground since 5:00 A.M. this morning, is, you know, if they're not supporting Nikki Haley, it's not, I don't agree with her, it's I like her but, and I just think that is pretty telling. I wonder what you think.

GOLDMACHER: I think that is telling, and I think when you talk about the weight for South Carolina, it's worth looking at what has happened to date, which is this campaign has really been based in New Hampshire and before that in Iowa.

I actually looked at the spending from her super PAC. They spent $71 million. 99.9 percent of that money has been in those two states, right? So, this is the place where she has made her case most strongly. This is the place where her allies have aired television ads. You can't get away from them online ads.

So, if this is not a place where she's gotten traction, just like for Ron DeSantis in Iowa, if you don't get traction in the place where you've made your biggest investments, it's hard to say where you will. HARLOW: And where the electorate is more favorable to you given what undeclared voters can do here, given the more moderate electorate here.

BENDER: I think that's an important point. I mean, in a general election, we've seen how Trump is a motivating factor for Democrats to show up. We haven't seen that inside the Republican Party, even in this state with a lot of independents.

I talked to one person who is an active Republican. He worked for Jeb Bush back in 2016 against Trump, that kind of Republican who is for Haley and said his Nikki Haley sign is sitting in his garage, that he just feels like there's a certain inevitability here. A former state chairman is supporting Haley and says like he won't go on, but not enough to go on social media and defend her, not enough to tell his friends and family to come out to the polls.

So, that enthusiasm, I mean, here's where it's -- we'll see today what happens.

HARLOW: That was reflected in our poll, the enthusiasm for Trump here is way higher than for Nikki Haley.

Thank you both. We got a big day ahead. We appreciate it. And we have a lot coming up.

President Biden and Vice President Harris also hitting the trail together today, launching what could be the defining issue of their campaign, the fight for abortion rights.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: If one does not have to abandon their faith or deeply held beliefs to agree, the government should not be telling women what to do with their bodies.

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MATTINGLY: That's Vice President Kamala Harris previewing what is going to be a cornerstone of the re-election argument for the Biden- Harris campaign in an exclusive interview with CNN's Laura Coates.

While voters are casting ballots in New Hampshire in the primary, Biden and Harris are continuing on their quest to mobilize voters on the issue of abortion with a visit to Northern Virginia, but they're set to make their first joint campaign appearance of 2024.

Let's bring in CNN Political Commentators Van Jones, Kristen Soltis Anderson and Scott Jennings.

On the issue, we constantly talk about, well, this is going to be the main issue, whether it's democracy, whether it's abortion or Bidenomics, abortion in and of itself, is it enough in a general election given the focus that they're putting on?

KRISTEN SOLTIS ANDERSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's an issue that motivates a particular type of voter, younger, much more likely to be female, who might otherwise say, Biden, Trump, no, thank you, I don't want to participate in this election. Feel like that's something that's at stake, they may be more likely to turn out.

We saw this in the midterms with young women, particularly on college campuses, turning out in big numbers. And so it is something that Republicans really need to be aware of, even though Republicans these days do quite well on issues like immigration, the economy, et cetera, this is their biggest weak spot politically, and one they really need to be concerned about.

MATTINGLY: Do they have an answer for -- do the Republicans have an answer for it?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I mean, it depends on who you ask. I mean, there's a lot of different views in the Republican Party about what abortion policy should look like, and that's one of the things that's plagued the party, frankly.

Now, you've seen Trump try to move the party back to the Reagan position, which is some reasonable limits with the exceptions, whereas you've seen some states go much farther than that, even removing the exceptions, having much lower limits. And so there's been a bit of an incoherence, frankly, in the Republican Party on this. The Democrats have had a more coherent position.

But, really, what you're seeing is the contours of an election abortion and probably democracy issues on the Democrat side, economy, immigration, and fitness on the Republican side, and we're going to have to find out who cares more about what.

MATTINGLY: Yes, what motivates each side more and their people.

To that point you know it's been interesting, the Biden team has constantly tried to make the pitch on the economy. Look, if you look at the top line numbers it's great, it's defying all expectations and people responding to pollsters say no it's not, not at all, we completely disagree.

[07:25:06]

Although in the last couple of weeks, we've seen a shift in consumer sentiment. The University of Michigan surveyed popped 13 points in January. That was very unexpected. You saw that Dow hit a new record. You've spoken rather eloquently about the issues here that they face on the economy. Do you think things are turning?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, it's just hard to know. Facts and feelings are very different. People keep telling me, well, you've got great employment numbers in the black community, and aren't you happy? I'm like, yes, but they're crappy jobs. Like how do people feel is going to be a lot different than what the numbers are? I will say on the abortion thing, people feel really, really pissed off about these horror stories of these women who are -- like they are people who lives are at risk, who don't have viable pregnancies, who have to be in front of judges, telling everything about themselves, traveling out of states, and they don't have money. These horror stories are going to drive numbers that people may not catch.

That's part of why Democrats think that Biden may outperform his numbers. His numbers are terrible, but these stories are terrible, and people are not going to come to rescue Biden. They're not going to rescue Harris. They're going to try and rescue a bunch of American women who are at risk. That's what I think.

MATTINGLY: And it's been fascinating, their big ad campaign on this issue that launched last week, the personal stories very much reminiscent of what Andy Beshear did in the governor's race very, very effectively. The irony, of course, is that Joe Biden's not very comfortable talking about this issue, specifically Gretchen Whitmer made the point he should be out more talking about it. Do you think it matters who the messenger is?

ANDERSON: I think in this case, the ability to have women out there talking to women on this issue is really important. On the Republican side, I think that's why you saw Nikki Haley really try in the Republican primary to say, hey, guys, you can't talk about this issue the way I can talk about this issue.

I have experienced things like going through a pregnancy, knowing what it's like to struggle with these issues. And it does give you the ability to talk about it in a more personal way. This is an emotional issue. It is not just an issue of the head. It is one of the heart. And so having those messengers who can connect is really important.

MATTINGLY: Is there an analog on the Republican side? Is it immigration? Is it -- I was surprised this day, is that immigration has as a top issue. You know, in New Hampshire, you talk to GOP operatives are saying it's even bigger than the economy in some cases, in New Hampshire.

JENNINGS: It is the biggest motivator for Republican voters. And you look inside these numbers, they still trust Donald Trump to be -- to take the hardest line on immigration. I mean, Ron DeSantis, of course, argued that he made a bunch of promises on immigration and didn't keep them. But the Republican voters don't believe that. They think Trump is the only person who can get control of what most Americans legitimately believe is a crisis at the border. So, yes, I would anticipate this topic being a pretty top shelf issue for the Republicans, and not just in the presidential race. I mean, you're going to see this in the big Senate races all the way down.

JONES: It's cutting through now with the Democratic base as well. Because of the kind of tactic or stunt of sending a bunch of immigrants into blue states, it's destabilizing some of the politics in our own party. You have the New York mayor saying, look, I can't handle all this stuff, which is kind of the point the red state governors have been making for a while. I think we live in -- everybody is now living in their own private QAnon in terms of the information environment people have. If you're a Republican, all you're seeing is immigration crisis. If you're a Democrat, you're not seeing it at all. And that's how people wind up, I think, being surprised by some of these issues.

MATTINGLY: I don't want to live in that place. I'd like to get out. Well, guys, stick with us. We're going to be coming back to you later in the show.

Also this morning, Israel says 21 IDF soldiers were killed in southern Gaza during a military operation in Khan Younis, the biggest single Israeli lost during combat since the war began.

Also, the Supreme Court issuing a significant decision, allowing removal of razor wire on the border. Rosa Flores is live in Eagle Pass with a firsthand look at the impact of that ruling. That's next.

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