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Trump's Victory Speech Turns Angry as Haley Vow to Fight On; Russian Media: Military Plane with 74 Aboard Crashes in Russia; New Hampshire Voters on their Vote for Trump. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired January 24, 2024 - 08:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:00:51]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I want to congratulate Donald Trump on his victory tonight. He earned it, and I want to acknowledge that.

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We've won New Hampshire three times now, three.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: She didn't win. She lost.

HALEY: New Hampshire is first in the nation. It is not the last in the nation.

(APPLAUSE)

HALEY: This race is far from over. Now we're the last one standing next to Donald Trump.

TRUMP: Who the hell was the imposter that went up on the stage before and, like, claimed a victory? She did very poorly, actually. I don't get too angry. I get even.

HALEY: The worst kept secret in politics is how badly the Democrats want to run against Donald Trump. A Trump nomination is a Biden win and a Kamala Harris presidency.

TRUMP: Let's not have somebody take a victory when she had a very bad night. She had a very bad night.

HALEY: Most Americans do not want a rematch between Biden and Trump. The first party to retire its 80-year-old candidate is going to be the party that wins this election.

TRUMP: Just a little note to Nikki. She's not going to win. We're going to have the greatest election success. We're going to turn our country around. We are going to win this. (END VIDEO CLIP)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. So glad you are with us. So our reporting is that Trump is seething and Nikki Haley, we know, is vowing to fight on to South Carolina. Good morning, everyone. I'm Poppy Harlow with Phil Mattingly in New York. Donald Trump made history last night as the first modern area non-incumbent Republican to win the first two contests in the presidential race. And he is now a step closer to the Republican nomination as President Biden pivots to the general election and a possible 2020 rematch.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR: The primary results making very clear Trump has a firm grip on the Republican Party. But the exit polls also show there's some pretty glaring weaknesses among independents and suburban voters. Nikki Haley vowing to stay in the race largely because of that reason as she heads to the primary in her home state of South Carolina. But that contest a month away, and polls show her trailing by quite a bit.

We have full team coverage this morning with correspondents on the ground and expert analysts standing by. I want to start, Kasie, with you and Kristen Holmes in New Hampshire. The primary is over. The political conversation, though, very, very much ongoing.

KASIE HUNT, CNN ANCHOR AND CHIEF NATIONAL AFFAIRS ANALYST: It sure is. And yes, Kristen, it's great to be with you the morning after.

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning.

HUNT: Let's talk about Donald Trump, because you have been covering this in and out. He clearly was incredibly angry last night when he took the stage. That speech that he gave and we just saw how it interspersed with what Nikki Haley was talking about, it doesn't seem to me that the Donald Trump we saw last night is the person his campaign team wants to see if he is going to actually move to this general election. How do you explain what happened? And how -- are they going to try to get him back on track here? Can they while Nikki Haley is still in the race?

HOLMES: So I think the thing to keep in mind here is that his team now is the most disciplined team he has ever had. And when we talk to them, they know who Donald Trump is. They know he is going to do stuff like this. He wasn't on prompter last night. This was not planned. I think that was very clear by that speech. He was very angry. He wanted her to drop out. He wants this to be over and he wants to be the nomination. And she was very clear that she wasn't going to drop out.

And I think taking it to another level, he also wanted to embarrass her last night, saying that Senator Tim Scott endorsed him because he must hate Nikki Haley. That's a pretty pointed comment, and if you know Senator Tim Scott at all, that is not his brand of politics at all.

HUNT: That's why he said, no, I love you.

HOLMES: No, I just love you, right. And that was a quick recovery. But their team wants to, in part, embarrass her in her home state.

That's going to be the next move here. You're going to see that in South Carolina. Our polling shows that Trump is leading by a huge margin. Yes, she was the governor there, but they believe the electorate changed. It's more pro-Trump. And now you see what they did here, which was bring out Henry McMaster, the governor of South Carolina, bring our Tim Scott, bring out congressmen from South Carolina, trying to essentially show that she's not even popular in her own state.

[08:05:00]

HUNT: So Kristen, I'm hearing from Haley supporters, people who are putting up ads for her in South Carolina who are really on board, they are trying to argue that it's important for Haley to stay in potentially through Super Tuesday to try to rack up delegates because of the possibility that one of the legal challenges comes through in some sort of unexpected way, something happens to Trump where he collapses inside the party.

There have been people that have been saying that that's going to happen for years, and so I am skeptical of that. But I'm curious how the Trump team is thinking about that. Do they worry about it at all? Are they planning for it? Or is that not on the radar?

HOLMES: I think it's more exhausting for them to now have to do this longer. I think the goal was twofold, that they would win by big margins in Iowa and New Hampshire, which they did, and then afterwards they would get the big donor money, which hasn't really come in from the big banking money that went from DeSantis to Haley. The other part of this is they would campaign less, they would focus on the general election, pivot to those critical battleground states. Now they do have to just continue on with a primary. And I think that's really the issue. They do believe that Donald Trump is going to be the eventual nominee. He is not threatened by her in that way. It's more just prolonging the process.

HUNT: That's really interesting. Kristen Holmes, thank you very much. Phil, back to you.

MATTINGLY: Thanks, guys.

Joining us now, Republican Congressman from Florida Brian Mast. He's the chairman of the Veterans for Trump Coalition. Congressman, appreciate your time this morning. I want to pick up on something that Kristen noted, because I think there's a through line here, which is the Trump campaign in a very savvy manner got a bunch of Florida Republicans to come to dinner when Ron DeSantis was running and made it very clear that Florida Republicans were behind Donald Trump. They're doing the same thing in South Carolina. It was framed by my colleague, Kristen Holmes, as basically trying to embarrass Nikki Haley. Do you think that's the way they are trying to do it here?

REP. BRIAN MAST, (R-FL): I don't think that's how it's done at all. When you compare it to Florida, it wasn't arm-twisting. It wasn't savvy. It was thought out conversations with each member. Hey, do you like what I did before? Do you think you could get behind me? It was heartfelt. It was long conversations with all of us. And that's the same thing that he is doing in South Carolina. He is speaking to Tim Scott. He is speaking to others. He is learning issues that he already knew and already did very well, but hearing what people want this time as opposed to last time. And he is addressing those things. He is winning their hearts and winning their minds. That's what's taking place. It's not arm-twisting.

MATTINGLY: To be clear, I'm not questioning the rationale for why people endorsed. But I do think the photo-op, it wasn't unintentional, and it certainly made the point that he did have significant support among the congressional delegation in Florida. I do want to ask, last night, Ronna McDaniel from the Republican National Committee, usually tries to stay out of these types of things at this point in the primary, said this. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RONNA MCDANIEL, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE CHAIRWOMAN: I'm looking at the math and the path going forward, and I don't see it for Nikki Haley. I think she's run a great campaign. But I do think there is a message that's coming out from the voters, which is very clear. We need to unite around our eventual nominee, which is going to be Donald Trump.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you telling Nikki Haley that she needs to get out?

MCDANIEL: I just don't see the path and the math. I hope she reflects tonight. I think it's time to move forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Congressman, we are hearing more and more national Republicans say that. I was surprised to hear it come from the RNC chair. I guess my question is, what's the damage if Haley stays in the race? Why is that a problem?

MAST: It's nothing other than a problem for Nikki Haley. I would agree with Ronna McDaniel in this. I don't think that Nikki Haley makes it to the end. I'll use a baseball analogy. She might be in the second inning heading into the third, but I think she gets mercied. I don't think she makes it to the ninth inning. Donald Trump has the history. He has the track record. He's performed. People want to see him perform again. She tried using the message that chaos follows him, but that's not the case. He provided order. He provided America first policies, and that's what South Carolina wants to see as well. That's what all of us across America want to see, that order and that America first.

MATTINGLY: To continue your baseball thread, that's also why you play to see if you're going to end up getting mercied at some point. The idea of -- it was striking last night how different Trump's tone was from his speech in Iowa where he called for unity, was complimentary of the people that he ran against. And last night, he just seemed -- to be blunt, he was pissed at Nikki Haley. Why? MAST: He recognizes that this race -- people get a voice. They get to

vote. But the race is over. It shows that people are going to vote for Donald Trump in the primaries. They're going to vote for him in the general election to see his policies come forward again for America, for the betterment of it. And he wants to see the party unite and not move forward divided. It's not about a hatred for Haley. It's about wanting to see the party move forward in the best possible way. Be tactical, be strategic, do the best thing to make sure it's best for the United States of America. That's what his policies are always about.

MATTINGLY: Congressman, as you look across the party, and I think unity right now, the reason why officials are calling for unity is they know it's a long general election path ahead. It's going to be a very tight race regardless of what happens. But when you dig into the numbers in New Hampshire, you see Nikki Haley's strength with independents.

[08:10:02]

Independents breaking away from Trump, having issues with Trump, being concerned about Trump, that's why Democrats won the House in 18. That's why they won the White House in 20. That's why they overperformed in 22. Are you concerned about that dynamic heading into 24?

MAST: I think that's a miscalculation of what took place. When you look at the last election, you saw a media that tried to bury Hunter Biden, tried to bury what was going on with the Biden family side hustles, tried to use the FBI and the CIA and other government entities to bury the former president of the United States, tried to do so many things. And America is on to what took place, and that's not going to happen again. That's not going to be allowed to happen again.

You see judicial propaganda that's going on right now. And every time that that happens, Americans are being aware of what's taking place, that Democrats will do anything possible to keep Donald Trump off the ballot, not because they want to run against him. Because they are deathly afraid of running against Donald Trump. That is the situation that's playing out.

MATTINGLY: Congressman Brian Mast, always appreciate your time. It's interesting to dig into the exit polls last night. We will see what happens in the months ahead. Thank you.

MAST: Always look forward to talking to you.

HARLOW: So Nikki Haley says she's more electable in a general than Donald Trump. Exit polls show New Hampshire voters care most about someone who fights for people like them. We are joined next by former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan who endorsed Haley, weighs in the electability debate.

MATTINGLY: And breaking news from Russia, a military plane crashed near the Ukrainian border. What both sides are saying, very different stories about that crash, that's next.

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[08:15:06]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE U.S., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I really think this is time now for everybody, our country to come together.

I want to congratulate Ron and Nikki. They're very smart, very smart people; very capable people.

Who the hell was the impostor that went up on the stage before and like claimed a victory. She did very poorly.

I find it in life, you can't let people get away with bull [bleep], okay, you can't. You just can't do that.

And when I watched her in the fancy dress that probably wasn't so fancy come up. I said, what is she doing? We won.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Right? I mean, just a split screen to remind you of how different Trump was last night after his win in New Hampshire compared to what we saw a week ago in Iowa. He directed his anger at Nikki Haley, who is vowing to remain in this race.

MATTINGLY: Joining us now is former governor of Maryland, Larry Hogan. He endorsed Haley earlier this month.

I feel like we should all be taking names of those who after the Iowa speech were like, he is changing.

LARRY HOGAN (R), FORMER MARYLAND GOVERNOR: Yes.

MATTINGLY: Because I feel like he has also done that a hundred times. Your takeaways from the race last night?

HOGAN: Well, I think Nikki Haley overperformed. I'd heard a lot of talk from the Trump team earlier in the day saying it was going to be a blowout, twenty, thirty points, and look, it was disappointing for her team that she wasn't able to pull it off.

But she comes out of there with a little bit of momentum. People saying, wow, it may be a two-person race. Everybody was running to get in second place and hoped Trump would stumble. The other 10 guys are gone and Nikki Haley is the last person standing.

MATTINGLY: I love -- I mean, I'm all for expectation setting, but how is that over? I mean, she lost by 11 points. I understand the numbers and how things split, but 11 points in New Hampshire is a loss, a big one. HOGAN: It was a tough night, I think. But look, you see Trump

changing his tune, aggressively going after her, that was not a gracious speech. It's not just because she made him mad, it's because they're worried about her and they want to take her out.'

So you know, she lives another day.

HARLOW: Ana Navarro, Kate Bedingfield, Van Jones with us as well.

Ana, to you. I know you don't want to see it, but is this the end of the road for Nikki Haley? Is this Trump clenched it?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Okay, I think so. I have to say, last night, he was thoroughly annoyed. And anytime that anybody gets under his skin, and he is visibly irritated, I'm enjoying it.

So I'm all for her staying in and continuing to irritate the bejesus out of him. That's a good thing. It's entertaining, if nothing else. But if you are realistic, I think you'll look at what's up the road for or down the road for Nikki Haley, and it is humiliation in her own state that she wants to do that.

But I also look at Nikki Haley, and I think to myself, you know, she doesn't have that much to lose. She's not Governor Ron DeSantis, who is the sitting governor with a legislature that's meeting in Tallahassee right now.

I think that her value as far as giving speeches, writing books, getting on TV, being on corporate boards, frankly, raises. It goes up because she's done a good job. She's performed well. She's been articulate.

I mean, except for the race part, which she has screwed up every single chance she gets, maybe now that she goes to South Carolina, where there's actually some Black people in the streets not as opposed to Iowa and New Hampshire, she will realize there was slavery.

MATTINGLY: You make an interesting point, though, the race -- yes, that is a good point. But the previous point, why not just like light everything on fire at this point, right?

And to that point, she just dropped two new ads, they have a big buy that's going out in South Carolina. We are going to watch a piece of one.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Biden, too old. Trump, too much chaos. A rematch no one wants.

There's a better choice for a better America.

Her story started right here. America's youngest governor, a conservative Republican, and boy did she deliver.

NIKKI HALEY (R), 2024 PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's a great day of South Carolina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MATTINGLY: Obviously tailored to the home state, but also the message that she kind of got to by the end of the race.

KATE BEDINGFIELD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, well, you're asking why doesn't she light everything on fire?

MATTINGLY: To Ana's point like, why not?

BEDINGFIELD: Well, because she's thinking about our own political future. I mean, presumably, you know, she's what -- 52 years old. She has put together a coalition within the Republican primary electorate. It's not going to make her the nominee this go round, but she has established herself as somebody who can speak to a sector of the Republican electorate who doesn't feel heard by Trump, who doesn't support Trump, and she is thinking about her own future.

So I would imagine that's a big reason that she's not just going to entirely burn it down.

You know, this argument from her, you know, I think it's unfortunate that this all sort of rose up in her, you know, three weeks before people went to the polls, right?

If she had spent the duration of the campaign, if Ron DeSantis had spent the duration of the campaign, really taking this argument directly to Trump, maybe we'd be in a different place, but we won't know.

HOGAN: I've been saying for a long time about, if you're going to take on Donald Trump, you've got to take on Donald Trump and I was frustrated that for the whole time, nobody was and it may be a little -- too little too late, but straight message.

HARLOW: Chris Christie.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Campaigns are run off of billionaires and broke kids, that's how campaigns are run. So if you've got billionaires willing to write cheques, she can stay in. You've got broke kids willing to continue volunteering, continue making those phone calls, knocking on doors, she can stay in.

But if you run out of both, it doesn't matter what you want to do, you just can't burn it down, you've got no fuel. And so that's the question you've got to -- you've got to watch the next couple of weeks. Do the donors keep writing cheques? Do people start moving toward her because she's standing -- the last person standing between Donald Trump and his nomination is a woman named Nikki Haley. Does that attract people? Or does people say look, we don't want to go down on her ship.

I think what you're seeing right now is a bunch of Republicans wanting to kiss Donald Trump's ring, rather than stand on principle, but I think anybody in this country, there are two people standing down between Donald Trump and the White House. One is named Joe Biden, the other is named Nikki Haley.

NAVARRO: It's going to be I think, very painful though for her, and humiliating and embarrassing to see. You know, she's going to see Trump having big rallies in South Carolina standing next to Lindsey Graham and Tim Scott.

Tim Scott was behind Donald Trump the entire time and grinning like a Cheshire Cat last night while Donald Trump was trashing Nikki Haley. The woman who gave him the biggest gift a governor can bestow on a human being, which is a US Senate seat. She appointed him to the US Senate. And there he was, grinning every time Donald Trump trashed her.

I thought to myself, reminder, you want loyalty in Washington? Get a dog.

JONES: Get a dog.

HOGAN: I will say --

HARLOW: How is Cha-Cha? Just wondering.

MATTINGLY: I felt the grin was a little bit more like, oh God, I can't believe I put myself in this position like everyone else has before me.

Guys, stick around. We've got a lot more to get to.

NAVARRO: At least, he wasn't limited to just one minute like Vivek, right?

MATTINGLY: Fair point. Yes. For Vivek.

HARLOW: We do have this breaking news out of Russia. Take a look.

This is a plane in Russia's Belgorod region. It has crashed, there you see the explosion. Huge flames.

Russian media reports that plane was carrying 65 Ukrainian servicemembers ahead of this prisoner exchange that was supposed to happen. That is according to the Russian Defense Ministry. That is completely at odds with what Ukrainian sources are saying that the plane wasn't carrying POWs, but instead of carrying missiles.

Let's go to our chief global affairs correspondent, Matthew Chance.

Two completely different stories about a huge crash. What do we know this morning?

MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN CHIEF GLOBAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Poppy, there are a couple of unanswered questions. The first one is how did this plane sort of plunge into a field near the Ukrainian border? Well, the Russians have come out now and said look, this was a Ukrainian surface-to-air missile attack, that they were shot out of the sky basically by Ukrainian air defenses.

There's some credibility in that in the sense that this is very close to the Ukrainian border inside Russian air space.

Ukrainian air defense systems have been very active over the course of the past couple of weeks. They've been denying Russian aircraft the ability to operate freely just across that border inside Russia, inside Russian air space.

Also the Ukrainians have not commented yet. They haven't confirmed or denied on whether or not they shot this aircraft out of the sky. And so on the balance of probabilities, it was probably a missile strike, probably Ukrainians are responsible, we'll have to see.

The second unanswered question is what was the cargo? What was on board? The Russians say that this was a plane carrying 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war that they were shipping back basically across the border back into Ukraine to return them home. That would be of course an absolute tragedy if the Ukrainians did shoot an Aleutian 76 aircraft out of the sky that was carrying 65 of its own people on board, POWs, that were being sent home.

Ukrainians are casting doubt on that version of events, though they're saying that their intelligence suggested that this plane was carrying munitions, weapons, missiles for Russian S-300 air defense systems. If that's the case, that obviously would have been a very high profile high priority target for the Ukrainian military to address.

HARLOW: Yes, either way, we're going to have to get the facts.

Matthew, we appreciate all your reporting on it. Thank you.

MATTINGLY: Donald Trump's win in New Hampshire shows the stronghold he has on part of the GOP electorate, but the exit polls also reveal clear cracks in the coalition. Voters tell us what influenced their decision and how it could impact the general election?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MATTHEW, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Well, I like Trump. He's got some rough edges on his personality, but I do like his policies.

DOUG BRENNER, HALEY SUPPORTER: I was a Trump supporter for many years and now I'm a Haley fan.

I think it's time for a change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REPORTER: Did you feel particularly strongly about a candidate?

TONY RENNELL, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Oh, absolutely.

REPORTER: Who'd you vote for this time?

RENNELL: Donald Trump.

REPORTER: And why did you feel this time that he was the one?

RENNELL: Because my life was a lot -- I think everybody's life was a lot easier, better economically, everything.

REPORTER: Nikki Haley, for example, did you ever give her any thought of potentially giving her your vote?

KIM, TRUMP SUPPORTER: No.

REPORTER: And why is that?

KIM: Because I just very strongly feel that Trump should be our president.

ALEX SAIDEL, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I feel that his policies are aligned with making the country more stable and economically successful for everybody.

And he's the guy that I think can run the country. I don't think I'd want to go out and have a beer with the guy or hang out with him, but that's not what I'm voting for him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Those Trump voters came out to push their candidate to a double digit win in New Hampshire, and this just in, the New Hampshire Republican primary saw record turnout.

CNN has tallied 301,000 votes in the Republican primary there. It surpasses nearly 280,000 ballots cast in 2016 and in any previous Democratic presidential primary contest in the state. We expect the final tally to reach 320,000 votes.

MATTINGLY: And back with us, former Maryland Governor Larry Hogan; CNN political commentators Van Jones, Ana Navarro, and Kate Bedingfield.

I want to start there because turnout was huge.

HOGAN: Yes.

MATTINGLY: And that's what they'd been expecting, but still -- and turnout was supposed to be key to Nikki Haley, and yet, you listen to Trump supporters and this is the dynamic. His just absolute walk up with the Republican base doesn't leave a path for anyone else. You disagree?

[08:30:20]