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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin
Clinton's Last Pitch to Voters; Trump Hits Five States on Final Day; First Votes Cast in Dixville Notch. Aired 4:30-5a ET
Aired November 08, 2016 - 04:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[04:30:57] HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Love trumps hate. Thank you. Let's go vote, North Carolina.
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JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hillary Clinton's final words to voters on these final moments before election eve.
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DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am with you. I will fight for you and I will win for you. I promise.
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CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump with his final promise before the polls open just hours from now.
BERMAN: And while were you sleeping, New Hampshire wasn't because New Hampshire never sleeps. New Hampshire votes. That's what New Hampshire does. They vote first. They insist on it. We have early results from the first voting town on Election Day in America.
Welcome back to EARLY START, everyone. I'm John Berman.
ROMANS: And I am Christine Romans. It is 31 minutes past the hour.
We welcome all of our viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. Welcome to Election Day.
Today is a day two years or more in the making, after hundreds of rallies, millions of miles travelled by each of these candidates, the countdown is finally finish. Election Day is here.
BERMAN: Well, the countdown is never finished. We still have a countdown clock right there.
ROMANS: We have various versions of countdown clocks always. You know, look, these polls start opening in just a few hours. Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump up all night wrapping up their sprint from battleground to battleground, just hours ago, rallying the faithful in the final exhausting hours of the campaign.
Also today, the first election results from the tiny town in New Hampshire. You can count the votes on your fingers.
BERMAN: Right. We are all over this election in the pre-dawn hours. We're covering the candidates, we're covering the battleground states, we are covering the studio like you would not believe.
Hillary Clinton, she just landed at the Westchester County Airport in White Plains, New York. Before that, she had the final rally in this election year in Raleigh, North Carolina. You could see the Hillary Clinton sandwich between Jon Bon Jovi and Lady Gaga right there. That's a lot of star power in one place.
Let's go now live to North Carolina, CNN's Phil Mattingly. Phil Gaga or Phil Bon Jovi, as we like to call him. He was there.
Phil, what do you see?
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Phil Jovi is actually the preferred --
(LAUGHTER)
BERMAN: Phil Jovi.
MATTINGLY: Look, guys, it was an interesting moment. There was a lot of emotion and nostalgia and recognition of the reality of this moment. Obviously, this rally was happening on Election Day. It was supposed to happen before midnight. It pushed well into midnight, past 1:00 a.m. And her advisers and I think you could tell the Clintons themselves recognize that not only could this be a day of great history, but also a day that launches a presidency.
And that carries a lot of weight with it. It is something that Hillary Clinton tried to underscore. Take a listen.
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CLINTON: When your kids and grand kids ask what you did in 2016 when everything was on the line, you will be able to say you voted for a stronger, fairer, better America.
(APPLAUSE)
An America where we build bridges, not walls.
(APPLAUSE)
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MATTINGLY: Guys, obviously a not so subtle jab at Donald Trump. That was a rarity on this day, or yesterday I guess at this point. A lot of focus was healing, on the next step, on the recognition that they will have to govern if they win the White House tonight. That was what Hillary Clinton's final optimistic message was.
One other thing I want to point out. We kind of joke about Lady Gaga being here, Bon Jovi, Bruce Springsteen earlier in the night in Philadelphia, Jay-Z, Big Sean J. Cole. I know the guys in the CD players that John Berman has all over his house.
Donald Trump has been giving Hillary Clinton a really hard time about having celebrities vote, celebrities kind of with her all the time. He just can't do it by himself. He gets the big rallies on his own. There is a very real reason these people were out, were in Philadelphia, were in Cleveland, Ohio, and were here in Raleigh.
[04:35:04] And here's why, in Raleigh, they have problems with the constituency that they need to win the state of North Carolina, a very clear tossup state. Millennials, African-American voters, they're on the campus of NC State, you bring Lady Gaga out and you pack this building behind me. You have an overflow crowd of thousands.
This is a get the vote operation, no matter what Donald Trump has to say, you talk to Clinton advisers. This juiced the early vote in Ohio like nothing else would. And they hope, they believe, this might juice the vote in North Carolina tomorrow and they need it guys. When you talk to advisers, there's one thing they're very clear on, they have no idea what's going to happen in the state tomorrow. They don't have to have it to win, but if they win it, it should help them lock up the election -- guys.
ROMANS: It's not just showbiz and optics.
BERMAN: No, I have actually had operatives suggest to me we may not know today or tomorrow who wins North Carolina. So, that tells you how close it is.
ROMANS: Bite your tongue.
BERMAN: Just North Carolina. Leave the rest of the country out of it.
ROMANS: All right. Phil Jovi, thank you so much for that. We'll talk to you again soon.
Donald Trump is back home. He's going to cast his vote here in New York. He hit five states in about 12 hours overnight. He finished in Michigan by declaring this is our independence day.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty is here with the very, very latest.
Good morning.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning to you, guys. Yes, Donald Trump campaigned well past 1:00 a.m. early into the wee hours of this morning. He just arrived back here in New York a short time ago.
As he was campaigning and wrapping up his final rally, he seemed a little reflective on his time on the road saying it has been such a long journey, 511 days since he declared his candidacy. We also saw in his closing message, classic vintage Donald Trump. He railed against the system being rigged. He attacked Hillary Clinton many, many times from stage.
And he railed against in his words, against the corrupt Washington establishment. But it did seem that he was also determined to end his campaign, striking an optimistic tone, a hopeful tone if you will. Here is Trump early this morning in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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TRUMP: I'm asking you to dream big because with your vote, we are just hours away from the change you've been waiting for your entire life. So, to every parent who dreams for their child and to every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight. I am with you. I will fight for you and I will win for you, I promise.
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SERFATY: And Trump will vote later this morning here in New York City. He will watch returns from Trump tower and move over for his watch party, which is at a hotel in Midtown Manhattan. Excuse me, this is interesting. It's only 1.5 miles away from Hillary Clinton's watch party.
ROMANS: Can you believe that?
SERFATY: Such an interesting dynamic. Yes.
BERMAN: It's all happening right here in New York City tonight. They've got security concerns in both places because there's a lot going on. A lot of power. The next president of the United States is here in New York City tonight, one way or the other.
ROMANS: New York can handle it. They just had the marathon. There's all kinds of big stuff going on here, you know?
BERMAN: I hear it's the city that never sleeps, I'm told.
All right. The state that never sleeps is the state of New Hampshire. They demand on being the first to vote. Pretty much always in the tiny town of Dixville Notch is the first of the first. The polls open at midnight. They closed at 12:01 a.m. This is the tradition dating back to 1960.
But the people of New Hampshire say it goes back even longer than that. It goes to the Stone Age. It is practically written in stone tablets that they'd be the first to vote.
I want to bring in CNN's Rachel Crane live from Dixville Notch.
Give us the first Election Day results, Rachel.
RACHEL CRANE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: All right. Well, John, it was in this room that the eight registered voters here in Dixville Notch cast their votes. Took just a minute to tally up those votes.
Clinton winning four of the eight votes here. Trump with two. Johnson with one. And actually one of the residents wrote in Mitt Romney.
Now the reason that Dixville Notch is able to have the midnight voting tradition is because New Hampshire has the weird law that say if a town has less than 100 people, they can close the polls early if all of the registered voters have voted. And, of course, when you only have eight residents, you can close really early.
But Dixville notch is not only in in New Hampshire that participates in this midnight voting tradition. There is also Hart's Location as well as Mills Field.
Now, collectively, Trump is actually beating Clinton. He has received 32 of these midnight votes, where Clinton has received 25. So until those polls open in about 30 minutes, Trump has -- I'm sorry, an hour and a half, rather -- Trump has bragging rights.
John, back to you.
BERMAN: Rachel Crane in Dixville Notch.
You know what's interesting in New Hampshire tomorrow, you will start seeing candidates for 2020.
[04:40:03] They're campaigning, basically posturing for the next election.
All right. Rachel, thanks so much.
All right. We're going to be here with continuing and continuous and continual coverage.
BERMAN: All of it.
ROMANS: All of it. Today and through election night, every race, every results. Stay with CNN until the last vote is counted.
BERMAN: All right. Really, there is no more campaigning. We bring you good tidings this morning. There's no more campaigning anymore. But what did the candidates deliver in those final moments of their campaigns with closing arguments? We'll discuss next.
ROMANS: Want a chance to be featured on CNN's Election Day coverage. Tag your voting instagrams with #myvote, and let us know who you voted for and where. We'll be showing them, some of them, throughout the day on CNN.
BERMAN: But make sure it's legal. It's going to be illegal in some state?
ROMANS: Yes, in Ohio, please do not take a selfie in the voting spot in Ohio.
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[04:45:10] BERMAN: Fifteen minutes until the hour. This is our special Election Day coverage. It happens only on Election Day.
I want to bring in our guests now. CNN political commentator Donald Trump supporter John Phillips who hosts a radio show in KABC out in California. Democratic strategist and birthday boy Richard Socarides is here.
ROMANS: Happy birthday to you.
BERMAN: He's a former senior adviser to Bill Clinton and a writer for NewYorker.com. Senior media correspondent Brian Stelter, host of CNN's "RELIABLE SOURCES", is here. And Ellis Henican, best selling author and "Newsday" columnist.
We are going to start with the birthday boy Richard Socarides.
As we sit here on the last day of the 2016 race, what will this race be remembered as and for?
RICHARD SOCARIDES, NEWYORKER.COM: Well, certainly, it will be remembered as the most unusual campaign probably in my lifetime.
BERMAN: Not hyperbolic? You were saying that it is --
SOCARIDES: No, it's really unusual. I mean, I was thinking about it this morning. I mean, never before have we had a candidate, you know, like all kinds of crazy stuff happened in the election. It wasn't really just the rhetoric or the nastiness, but, you know, we had all kinds of discussions that we never had about sexual harassment. We had a candidate who seemed constantly under the microscope
BERMAN: Under investigation.
SOCARIDES: Well, not any longer.
ROMANS: But watching Bill and Hillary Clinton come down the campaign plane in Westchester, you are watching history. I mean, Bill Clinton was your boss, you know? I mean, you are talking about the first female nominee for a major party candidacy and then her husband was also a president. I mean, it's just -- sometimes you have to think about the history there.
SOCARIDES: I think with respect to Hillary, I was thinking about this also that and other people can talk about Mr. Trump. But I think all things considered, the Hillary Clinton folks waged a fantastic campaign. I mean, she had three stellar debate performances. And a lot of things went right for them.
And I think when the history books are written, it will show that under difficult circumstances, they really ran a brilliant campaign.
BERMAN: John Phillips, you were just referenced there as other people, other people --
JOHN PHILLIPS, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Ii have been referenced as worse.
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BERMAN: Go ahead. Discuss.
PHILLIPS: There's a certain order to world. What is the percentage of incumbents? When you look at the primaries, there is one candidate that gets all the endorsement and all the money. We know going into it who is likely the winner.
What we saw in this election was that turned upside down. When Donald Trump entered the Republican primary and everyone thought this would be a side show. No one thought he had an actual chance of winning. All the money, all the endorsements were behind Jeb. Marco Rubio theoretically had the shot. In the early days, Rand Paul was going to be the guy who stepped in and was the anti-establishment figure.
ROMANS: It seems like a lifetime ago, isn't it?
PHILLIPS: And Donald Trump turned the whole thing upside down.
ROMANS: Let's talk about what happens today. We can talk about what happens, and what happened going forward, you know, with healing and a new administration.
But Ellis Henican, let's talk about today. We don't know what's going to happen. This is the day when America votes and we simply don't know. Many of these battleground states are too close to call.
ELLLIS HENICAN, NEWSDAY: It's absolutely right. Anyone as the day goes on who tells you they know is lying to you, because we all know a lot of smart people and none of them knows what's going to happen tonight. So, yes, there's tremendous drama. There's a hugely important race.
I resist the notion that oh, my gosh, it's the nastiest race ever. You know, we get tone of those every time we have a race. But hugely important. You know, whatever you do, get out and cast that thing. It's what you got.
BERMAN: Brian Stelter, another unknown is this. I mean, people look to Donald Trump and he's unpredictable this whole campaign. And people are looking to see what he says tonight. Win or lose, in a way. I think this will be a speech, if there is a speech delivered tonight by him that is watched very, very carefully.
BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: If he wins, obviously, he speaks. If he loses, number one, will he speak and then number two, what will he say? And then if there's a third scenario, if we don't know what's happening at 11:00 p.m. or midnight, it's too close to call, then it will be interesting to see what Donald Trump says in that moment.
In some ways, he has laid the ground works to challenge the election results, talking about election rigging. Deeply destabilizing language in a democracy. We will see if he follows up on that. He kind of laid the seeds, right, many months ago and weeks ago. We will see if he follows up on that today and tomorrow and into the rest of the week.
One thing I love about CNN, by the way, we don't talk about polls on Election Day. You know, that's the one thing we don't talk about. I think that is very smart. We let the voters go to the polls today to make up their minds and then we start to count the votes.
By the way, the exit polling will be difficult today. Why? Because Donald Trump voters have been told for more than 16 months to distrust the press, to distrust the media. So, exit polls are conducted by members of the media, by news organizations that gather data at precincts after you vote.
[04:50:01] There is some concern that the exit polls won't be as reliable as usual because some Trump supporters might not fill out the surveys. As a result, it might even take longer to make projections later today.
BERMAN: Exit polls are never wrong. Look, exit polls are counted on for data and about demographics and the make up of the election. People shouldn't be looking at the exit polls to predict who wins. They never should.
SOCARIDES: I would say to Brian's point, Brian has been the smartest person talking about the media's role in the campaign all cycle. I read your newsletter every morning first thing. You know, talk about unusual things in the cycle. And I watch your show.
I hear from you about what the markets are going to do. I watch for that every morning. The media has really been tested in new ways and the role of the media as fact checker. I mean, we never had a campaign where there is so little relation to the truth between what the actual truth is and what people actually say and the media's role I think is really going to be something we look at.
ROMANS: All right. We have to leave there, guys. Don't move. The last words from each candidate on the campaign trail when we come back.
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[04:55:22] BERMAN: All right. We want to leave you with each candidates closing moments of the 2016 campaign. Of course, Donald Trump, he's spoken at a midnight rally in Grand Rapids, Michigan.
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TRUMP: I'm asking you to dream big because with your vote we are just hours away from the change you've been waiting for your entire life. And so, to every parent who dreams for their child and to every child who dreams for their future, I say these words to you tonight: I am with you, I will fight for you and I will win for you. I promise.
(APPLAUSE) To all Americans tonight in all of our cities and in all of our towns, I pledge to you one more time, together, we will make America wealthy again. We will make America strong again. We will make America safe again. And we will make America great again!
Thank you, everybody. Thank you. God bless you, everybody.
Go to bed. Go to bed right now. Get up and vote.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: All right. And finishing a few minutes after Trump at 1:10 a.m. here, we have Hillary Clinton's last words on the campaign trail. Speaking just hours ago in Raleigh, North Carolina.
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CLINTON: When your kids and grandkids ask what you did in 2016 when everything was on the line, you'll be able to say you voted for a stronger, fairer, better America.
(APPLAUSE)
An America where we build bridges, not walls.
(APPLAUSE)
And where we prove conclusively that, yes, love trumps hate.
Thank you. Let's go vote, North Carolina. God bless you. Thank you all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ROMANS: She had a little photo op when she landed in Westchester airport. She just shook hands.
BERMAN: No, just big dramatic moments at the end of this campaign, for both candidates, such a long, long, long journey. And nothing left to do now except --
ROMANS: Go vote.
BERMAN: And then govern this giant, sprawling country if you happen to win the election.
ROMANS: But for you, go vote.
That's EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.
BERMAN: I'm John Berman.
All right. It is Election Day. NEW DAY picks up right now.
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TRUMP: We are finally going to close the history books on the Clintons. We will open a bright new chapter.
CLINTON: We face the test of our time. What will we vote for?
GOV. MIKE PENCE (R), VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It is November 8th, the day we make America great again.
MICHELLE OBAMA, FIRST LADY: This election is on us. It is in our hands. If we get out and vote, Hillary Clinton will win.
REP. PAUL RYAN (R), WISCONSIN: Republicans need to come home.
BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: After eight years as your president, I'm asking you to trust me on this one.
TRUMP: We're hours away from a once in a lifetime change.
CLINTON: This election will end, but our work together will be just beginning.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. This is NEW DAY. It is Tuesday, November 8th, 5:00 in the East.
It is Election Day in America. Time to exercise the right. The franchise that has been secured in blood and is the envy of the world. In the election, the finish line is in sight where Clinton and Donald Trump. Today, it's up to you, the voters, the candidates battling it out until the wee hours of the morning, making their final appeal.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: And the first votes have already been cast in three small towns in New Hampshire. So, we'll tell you those results in a second.
The polls in 12 other states will open for millions of voters in the next hour. We have it all covered for you.
So, let's begin with CNN's Phil Mattingly.
