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Clinton Campaign Declares Victory In Iowa; Cruz Wins Iowa; Did Trump's Debate Boycott Cost Him Iowa Win? Aired 5:30-6a ET

Aired February 02, 2016 - 05:30   ET

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

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, just landed here in New Hampshire, where we are this morning.

And he is speaking right now. He has not given any definitive word about last night's election in Iowa last night, the caucuses. The state party hasn't released final results. Let's listen to what the senator has to say.

[05:30:00] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We thank you so much.

CROWD: We love you, Bernie!

SANDERS: We love you, too. And you know what, you've heard me say a million times but let me say it to you here at 5:00 in the morning -- we're in this together. In this sense, bottom of my heart, no president can do it alone. That's what the political revolution is about. It is millions of people standing up and demanding that we have a government that represents all of us and not just wealthy campaign contributors. So I just want to thank you all. We've got a lot of work in front of us. We've got a rally tomorrow in the afternoon. It's today. That's right. Little bit later today. And we're going to be running all over the state and I look forward to next Tuesday to having great victory in New Hampshire. Thank you all so much.

CUOMO: So Senator Sanders. Here we are in the wee morning hours in New Hampshire, Bow, New Hampshire, already a crowd for Bernie. You can hear them chanting his name. We were just with the Senator when he landed at the airport. He just got off a plane.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Has he slept?

CUOMO: He said he had gotten a little bit of sleep. Obviously, this was the night to stay awake because the results aren't in yet. Hillary Clinton is declaring victory. This gets very complicated, especially on the Democratic side because of how they calculate the delegates. And they are waiting -- the state party's going to decide, not the state government as is often the case in the primaries. So that's Bernie Sanders speaking to the crowd. Just got off the plane. We'll give you an interview that we did with him at the airport in a little bit.

But we do want to welcome you. Let's take a breath here, now. It's already frantic and we're still -- not even with sun up, here -- at the Waterworks Cafe in Manchester, New Hampshire. Breaking news about the election last night. Hillary Clinton's campaign declaring victory in the Iowa caucuses. Historically close. Big numbers of turn out, a lot to tell you about. One precinct has yet to finalize its results. CNN has not yet called the race. Why? Because the margin between Clinton and Senator Bernie Sanders is just like 0.4 percent.

CAMEROTA: Look at that. So the picture is much clearer on the Republican side where Senator Ted Cruz dealt a blow to Donald Trump. Evangelical voters propelling Cruz to the top spot. Billionaire business man Donald Trump falling short of polls and expectations there. Senator Marco Rubio finishing a strong third right there behind Trump. So we will be speaking with three of the presidential candidates this morning. We'll have Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich.

But let's begin our coverage with senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar. She is live in Des Moines with all of the breaking news in the Democratic race. Brianna, what is the latest?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I thought for sure that you guys would be exactly where the story is, but here I am where this is still not resolved. You said it, no definitive claim of victory on the part of the sanders campaign, but not so much for Hillary Clinton's campaign. Her Iowa state director, Matt Paul, saying, "Hillary Clinton has won the Iowa caucus. After thorough reporting and analysis of results, there is no uncertainty and Secretary Clinton has clearly won the most national and state delegates. Statistically, there is no outstanding information that could change the results and no way that Senator Sanders can overcome Secretary Clinton's advantage." Now there is still some outstanding information in that precinct.

As Chris mentioned, in the Iowa Democratic party, saying this, they say, the results tonight are the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history. Hillary Clinton has been awarded 699.57 state delegate equivalents, and check this out, Bernie Sanders has been awarded 695.45 state delegate equivalents. They say, we still have outstanding results in one precinct, that is Des Moines-42, which is worth 2.28 state delegate equivalents. We will report that final precinct when we have confirmed those results with the chair. So eagerly awaiting some information there, guys.

But looking at some of the entrance poll information that I think is telling not just in Iowa, but beyond -- people were asked, Democratic caucus-goers were asked, who do you find more honest and trustworthy? 83 percent said Bernie Sanders. Only 10 percent said Hillary Clinton, revealing a big vulnerability for her there. And then also showing the enthusiasm difference between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders and whether they're getting new people out to the polls. For first time caucus-goers, 59 percent of them went for Sanders, 37 percent went for Clinton. Guys -- [05:35:03] CUOMO: All right, Brianna, thank you very much. A lot of this obviously still in motion. There's also a little bit of controversy, this question of whether or not all of the different precincts, how they divide up the areas in Iowa, were properly chaired. Whether they were run the same way. So there's a little bit of intrigue there. But we just met up, as I was saying earlier, with Senator Bernie Sanders. He just got off the plane. It was really quite a sight, I have to tell you. All these private jets landing. Marco Rubio had come through. Hillary Clinton had come through.

CAMEROTA: They were just high tailing it out of Iowa right here to New Hampshire to set up shop

CUOMO: That's exactly right. Going through the night because momentum is everything. So we caught up with Senator Sanders as he had just hit the tarmac. He literally doesn't even have information about the race yet; he'd been on a plane where he couldn't get the information. This is what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CUOMO: What is the party telling you right now? We know that they were releasing some information, nothing final. There seems to be some flux about which delegates, which votes are still outstanding.

SANDERS: Chris, I think you probably know more than I do. We just got off the plane. We haven't studied, but obviously we'll be in contact with the party tomorrow. But bottom line for us, look -- we started our campaign 40, 50 points behind. Whether we lose by a fraction of a point or we win or whatever, we're very proud of the campaign. And I think the significance is that for folks who did not think Bernie Sanders could win, that we could compete against Hillary Clinton, I hope that thought is now gone. We're going fight really hard in New Hampshire and then we're going to Nevada, go to South Carolina, we look forward to doing well around the country.

CUOMO: Do you take this as a victory regardless of what the margin is?

SANDERS: Absolutely. Look, what you're talking about is one way or the other. A couple of delegates when we're going to need 2,300 delegates to win this thing. So maybe we lost by two, maybe we lost by one, maybe by zero, whatever it may be. But what this shows is that this campaign has started in a very forceful way starting way, way back and coming to a virtual tie and we are going to fight here in New Hampshire. Look forward to winning here and doing well around the rest of the country.

CUOMO: Two things seem clear in the exit polls. I want your take on them, Senator. The first is, there was an expectation that this would be a national security election because of recent events and just the state of affairs. It seems that the idea of economics and what the security for the future is economically and as a country seems to loom as large, if not larger.

SANDERS: Look, national security is always a major issue when we're dealing with barbaric organizations like ISIS but on the other hand, the truth is that the average American understands that there is something wrong when the middle class continues to decline and almost all new income and wealth is going to the top 1 percent. And I'll tell you something else, Chris. What I found in Iowa, and not just from Democrats, but from conservatives, from Republicans, there is profound anger in a campaign finance system which allows billionaires to buy elections. Nobody likes that.

CUOMO: What does it mean to you that as voters get younger and as their income moves more into the middle class, your numbers got bigger and bigger in the preliminary information?

SANDERS: I am -- well, number one, in terms of working class people who are gravitating to our campaign, that's what this campaign is about. It's asking working people and middle class people to stand up and fight for their rights, help us take on the billionaire class whose greed is doing so much damage to our economy. Second of all, in the last election, the mid term election, 80 percent of young people didn't vote. 80 percent. I am very proud that we're bringing a whole lot of young people all over this country into the political process, that we're revitalizing American democracy, and if we're going to change America, that's what we've got to do.

CUOMO: What is your message to older voters who did not come out for you in the same numbers?

SANDERS: That's true. And my message is, check my record. You'll find that there is no United States Senator who has been stronger on senior issues, not only on defending social security, but on the need to expand social security benefits. People can't make it on $12,000, $13,000 a year social security. Second of all, very few, if any members of the senate have been stronger on the need to take on the pharmaceutical industry and end this disgrace of Americans paying by far the highest prices in the world for prescription drugs.

CUOMO: Areas of minorities have also not been a source of strength for you so far compared to Secretary Clinton. What's the message there?

SANDERS: Well I think -- I haven't looked at all the results but I think in Iowa, from what I saw in one of the papers, we actually did pretty well. We lost, but that gap is growing slimmer and slimmer between the secretary and myself. I think you will find, as we get to South Carolina and other states, that when the African-American community, the Latino community, looks at our record, looks at our agenda, we're going to get more and more support.

[05:40:01] CUOMO: What was it like to be there with your family and have this moment?

SANDERS: Tonight was a thrilling night. Certainly one of the important political nights in my life and we feel great.

CUOMO: Senator, thank you very much. Good luck going forward.

(END VIDEOTAPE) CUOMO: You see Sanders pretty driven there, just off the tarmac, already making the case directly to camera. He's very locked in right now, went right to a rally, so that's what we have on that side. They haven't declared a winner from the Iowa state party. It's a complicated process. There is a little bit of controversy, but it's a complicated process, they're waiting for all of the votes to come in from the precinct. CNN has not called the race.

CAMEROTA: These candidates are tireless. You just see them skipping sleep, they're hopscotching from state to state, and you just saw him there. I mean, they're energized. Yesterday was historic on a couple of levels.

CUOMO: Absolutely. And we don't even know yet what the participation rates are going to wind up being.

CAMEROTA: But record-breaking.

CUOMO: Yes, absolutely. But how much so? So a lot of information still coming in so join us for the ride as we figure it all out. Let's flip the card to the Republican race. Senator Ted Cruz pulling off an upset against Donald Trump in Iowa. Senator Marco Rubio coming in a strong third. They were using that phrase. We didn't know what it might mean. Now we do. This race dramatically heading into New Hampshire now, just one week from today.

CNN's senior white house correspondent, Jim Acosta, live here in Manchester with the GOP field. What a night, my friend.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, Chris. A Texas sized night, you might say, for Ted Cruz. Potentially an even bigger night for Marco Rubio. In terms of disappointments, this one is huge for Donald Trump. He was leading in the polls heading into the Iowa caucuses but as it turns out, Trump was not able to get those swarms of followers at his campaign events to caucus sites and register their support. As for Cruz, he had an impressive organization on his side and it delivered.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa and all across this great nation.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We finished second and I want to tell you something. I'm just honored. I'm really honored.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight here in Iowa, the people of this great state have sent a very clear message. After seven years of Barack Obama, we are not waiting any longer to take our country back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ACOSTA: So why did Donald Trump seem to lose steam at the end? Iif you look at our entrance polling, it appears those last-minute undecided voters opted for Rubio and Cruz over Trump. Many of them determining that Rubio is the more viable candidate who can beat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders. The question as this race now comes to New Hampshire is whether this strong third place finish, it was surprising for Rubio, in Iowa, whether that gives him momentum here in New Hampshire. Trump's challenge, at this point, is proving that Iowa was just a fluke. He was riding high in the polls in Iowa. He's riding high in the polls in New Hampshire, but now, guys, he looks very beatable.

CAMEROTA: OK Jim, thanks so much.

We want to bring in our panel. Here this morning with us, former moderator of NBC's "Meet The Press" and author of "How's Your Faith?" David Gregory. CNN contributor and former Democratic member of South Carolina house of representatives, Bakari Sellers. And CNN political contributor, conservative columnist, and author of "Too Dumb to Fail", Matt Lewis.

Gentlemen, great to have you here with us on this early morning in New Hampshire. David, what are your take-aways from last night?

DAVID GREGORY, FORMER MODERATOR, "MEET THE PRESS": It's such an exciting morning if you love politics. It's a reminder that elections belong to the voters. And we now have a reset race as we come into New Hampshire and New Hampshire has a way of resetting the race as well. But I think, to your great interview, Chris, this morning, Bernie Sanders effectively ties. Whatever the final points are, he effectively ties in Iowa. Very strong showing for him. This is a shot across the bow for the Clinton team. They needed Iowa. She lost there in 2008. She got all of that Barack Obama talent on her side to make sure it didn't happen again. It basically happened again. So they're in some turmoil there. And you've got to give him his due. Bernie Sanders made a strong argument about economic unfairness. He has led a movement within the progressive wing of the Democratic party and now he comes into an area of strength in New Hampshire. He keeps going.

CUOMO: So Bakari, let me bring you in, and while we do, let's try to get David's mic as good as we can get it. You're so much power into the mic.

CAMEROTA: You don't need a mic.

CUOMO: Often, what you see in politics is that conflict brings clarity. So they had their vote in Iowa. They now know who voted, how many, and on what basis. And this idea of economic security and seeing age and income matter so much, especially on the Democratic side, what does that mean?

[05:44:52] BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well it means that Hillary Clinton's going to have to retool her message slightly as we go through the process. She doesn't have to abandon ship but we do see that the preeminent message in the Democratic party right now is one of inequity and fundamental unfairness. Bernie Sanders traditionally goes to the billionaire class and the top 1 percent. And that resonated to voters young and old in Iowa. But, even with the extremely high turnout, just to David's point, here, with the extremely high turnout, Hillary Clinton still did extremely well. She needed a victory and whether or not it's a victory by a slight margin, one or two delegates, or however we want to spin it, she could not take a loss in Iowa. And her campaign today is recognizing that and saying, hey, we won, let's go to New Hampshire. Let's try to get it closer. And then, we move further throughout the South --

CUOMO: Not getting any closer than this, Bakari.

SELLERS: You can't get any closer than this. You're right. But the demographics do change. And I said this earlier today, I was talking to David, and look, the fact of the matter is, Iowa and New Hampshire are where Bernie Sanders does extremely well because they're white liberals. And as we move forward, the demographics become browner and more reflective of the Democratic party and Hillary Clinton has to have a long game.

CAMEROTA: So Matt, obviously Hillary is declaring victory. We haven't, as Chris said, heard from the chair yet. But who do you think -- you've heard two different opinions here -- is this really a win for Bernie Sanders because he's so close or Hillary Clinton?

MATT LEWIS, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: I'm going to go with Bernie Sanders. What Bernie needed coming out of this wasn't just delegates, it was momentum. And I think you can make an argument that the controversy surrounding the closeness of this race actually fuels Bernie Sanders more. We saw people -- you were at his airplane, right? That might not have happened otherwise. The fact that this race is close, in a way, gives Bernie Sanders more excitement, more energy, and the perception could be that it was even stolen from him or whatever Bernie can do --

CUOMO: Look at you fuelling the intrigue, using the S word.

LEWIS: -- revolutionary zeal is good for Bernie.

CUOMO: Nobody is alleging any thievery of anything just yet. They're trying to tabulate it. There's also a very different theory of the case here about whether Iowa's set up as stronger for Bernie in the get-go. Whether there was delivery on that --

CAMEROTA: Absolutely. He had a great ground game. I mean, he spent months there.

CUOMO: That's exactly right.

So let's take a quick break. When we come back, we'll give you the latest information about what's happening in the Iowa race on the Democratic side but also, what a story coming out on the COP side. Marco Rubio, not just a strong third, but almost statistically, second place. What's going on and now, it couldn't be more momentous. New Hampshire, what are we going to have here? A town hall. Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, head-to-head. This state, more important than ever and we're going to bring you town hall here. We'll give you all the details right after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:51:37] CAMEROTA: Welcome back to NEW DAY. We are here at the Waterworks Cafe in Manchester, New Hampshire, and talking about the record breaker of last night.

Let's bring back in David Gregory and Bakari Sellers. Great to have you with us. We just talked about the Democratic side, what happened over there. Let's talk about the COP. David, the big headline, Ted Cruz won. What else?

GREGORY: Well, look, Ted Cruz really needs to get his due. He put it all on the line in Iowa. He ran with a great organization, a strong retail campaign, he courted evangelical voters, ran a very ideological campaign. Not just courting those voters but taking the fight to Donald Trump on those grounds. New York values, that he was too liberal for the party, that he was the only conservative, and that coalition came out for him. Surging turnout. Record turnout on the Republican side, 180,000 plus. A lot of those new voters came in for him. Trump underperforms. He ostentatiously brandished those polls and he lost. Marco Rubio got a lot of late breaking deciders and he shows up big. He got a strong third place. He has the ability to change this race. We all talked about who is the establishment candidate. It's Marco Rubio. And it's time to coalece around him, according to many now in the Republican party. He showed that last night.

CUOMO: All right, so David, you gave us three big topics that matter, here. I love ostentatiously brandished, that's a great phrase. The biggest word I ever use is mayonnaise, on TV. Ostentatiously brandished -- you have -- what this means in terms of why he won, right? Why Ted Cruz won. What this means that Rubio was so strong as a third and what this means going forward. Iowa is a very unique place. And it's important to look at it, not necessarily an historically not predictive of who will be president, but certainly changes the state of play within the GOP. So let's look at these one at a time. When you look, Bakari, at why Ted Cruz won, how big a factor do you think not going to the debate and shaking people up right at the end when so many voters said they didn't decide until the last few days, and many of them broke for Rubio?

SELLERS: I think the tell tale sign from many of the exit polls was sharing our values. Who shares our values? And Donald Trump wasn't even on the spectrum when you looked at that. The number one take away from today, we've been going back and forth. Can Jeb Bush stop Donald Trump? Can Lindsey Graham stop Donald Trump? What we saw yesterday is that the voters of Iowa stopped Donald Trump. When it was time to get beyond the polls and people were literally able to cast a ballot, we saw what happened. And now, as we pivot, one thing that David said --

CUOMO: He was strong there. It's not like Trump was in single digits. I mean, he was strong. Not enough to win, but he was --

SELLERS: He will not calculate this as a victory. Everyone will tell you that he underperformed yesterday. He honestly did. Now what's going to happen is very unique. Because John Kasich and everyone else who were building momentum in New Hampshire and everywhere else, they've been squeezed out. They've been effectively squeezed out by Marco Rubio and you're about to start to seeing the dominos fall. Because the GOP establishment is going to coalesce around Marco Rubio because one thing we know is that they don't like Donald Trump. And if there's anyone they don't like more than Donald Trump, it's Ted Cruz.

GREGORY: It's also timing. So I think those big establishment figures, and there are -- there's no real establishment anymore in the GOP, but there are some important players who are not in public office or who are in public office who were looking last night saying, look, if Marco gets 19 percent, that will be very strong. Well he exceeded that. He got those late deciders. They are going to lean on these guys to get out.

05:55:12] CAMEROTA: But don't they wait until after New Hampshire to lean on --

SELLERS: No. Because today, for example, one of the things that's happening in South Carolina, the biggest endorsement in South Carolina, Senator Tim Scott is going to Marco Rubio. So he is taking this third place finish, where if my kid finishes in third place, I'm like, we got to do better, we got to do better -- this is a third place victory for Marco Rubio.

CUOMO: But Alisyn's raising doubt for a good reason, is, who makes this call? Who calls a Governor Christie, a Governor Kasich, a Governor Bush, and says you need to coalesce around --

CAMEROTA: Who's the party elder?

GREGORY: Well, there are a number of people who could play that role. I mean, speaker Ryan is somebody who could be important.

CUOMO: You think he can pick up the phone and call John Kasich and say, get out of the race?

GREGORY: It could be Mitt Romney who picks up the phone and calls somebody, who's still got a significant donor base and all the rest, but there will be momentum there, whether it happens now or they wait a few days.

CUOMO: Let's take a break. There's a lot to discuss here. Iowa is big in and of itself, but it means so much going forward. Let's talk about that. Now the table is set on the Democratic side for sure. So tomorrow night, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are going to answer questions directly from New Hampshire voters. A presidential town hall in Derry, New Hampshire, moderated by our man Anderson Cooper. 8:00 pm Eastern on Wednesday night, right here on CNN. Couldn't come at a more momentous time.

CAMEROTA: OK, so coming up, how do the candidates feel after last night in Iowa? We'll hear from Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich. Stay with us, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)