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New Day
Clinton Campaign Claims Victory in Iowa; Sanders: 'Tonight Was a Thrilling Night'; Cruz Upsets Trump in Iowa, Rubio Posts Close Third. Aired 6-6:30a ET
Aired February 02, 2016 - 06:00 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.
[06:00:45] CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. You are watching NEW DAY. We are the place to be on this Tuesday, February 2. Mick is in New York. Alisyn and I are in Manchester, New Hampshire at the Waterworks Cafe.
And we have big breaking news in the 2016 presidential race. The headline should be for the Democrats, "It is too close to call." Hillary Clinton is claiming victory in the caucuses, the historically slimmest margin they've ever had there. Literally just tenths of a percentage point away. CNN not confident in the outcome enough to declare a winner yet.
ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: OK. So over on the Republican side, Ted Cruz has reason to celebrate this morning. The evangelical turnout helped him beat Donald Trump for the win. Trump comes in second, and Marco Rubio finishes a strong third.
As the sun rises here on the East Coast, the sun sets on two candidates who called it quits after a poor showing in the caucus. So we will be speaking with three of the presidential candidates this morning. We have for you Bernie Sanders, Ted Cruz, and John Kasich.
But let's begin our coverage with senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar. She is in Des Moines with a look at the Democratic race, which I know changes by the minute.
Brianna, what's the latest?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Alisyn.
Well, as you heard it, the Clinton campaign saying, "Look, we won this. Now, the delegates get split. Keep that in mind. But the Iowa state director for the Clinton campaign saying statistically there is no outstanding information that will change the results.
What does that mean? Well, what it means is that, at this point, according to the Iowa state party, Democratic Party's count, Hillary Clinton is leading Bernie Sanders by a little more than four state delegates equivalents. And at this point in time, there are only 2.28 state delegate equivalents that are really in question.
So you do the math there, and you realize what -- sort of what the Clinton campaign is saying. That both campaigns, they said this would be close. No one said it would be this close.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Wow. What a night.
KEILAR (voice-over): The final votes are still not tallied.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It looks like we are in a virtual tie.
KEILAR: But Hillary Clinton's camp is claiming victory in a tight race, the closest in Iowa Democratic caucus history. Secretary Clinton optimistic early on that the final results will be in her favor...
CLINTON: I stand here tonight breathing a big sigh of relief. Thank you, Iowa.
KEILAR: ... delivering a fiery speech to supporters, conjuring the same ideals fueling her rival, Bernie Sanders', campaign.
CLINTON: I am a progressive who gets things done for people. I know what we are capable of doing. I know we can create more good- paying jobs and raise incomes for hard-working Americans again. I know that we can finish the job of universal health-care coverage for every single, man, woman, and child.
KEILAR: Supporters listening over at the Sanders camp did not agree.
SANDERS: What Iowa has begun tonight is a political revolution.
I think the people of Iowa have sent a very profound message to the political establishment, to the economic establishment, and, by the way, to the media establishment. That is, given the enormous crises facing our country, it is just too late for establishment politics and establishment economics.
KEILAR: Now the Democratic candidates setting their sights on the Granite State, carrying their momentum gained in this dead-heat match up into is next week's New Hampshire primary.
SANDERS: We're going to be all over this thing. And I look forward next Tuesday to having a great victory in New Hampshire. Thank you all so much.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CUOMO: That's Senator Bernie Sanders. This morning in Bow, New Hampshire, we went out there to find him at the airport. He had just landed. We got him to do an interview with us. He still hadn't heard from the Iowa state party about what the final results were. That's how close this tally is right now. So how does the senator see it? This is what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) [06:05:04] 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 that campaign, you know, 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 that we won. 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 that thought is now gone.
We're going to fight really hard in New Hampshire. And then we're going to Nevada, then we're going 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 where 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 and Republicans, there is profound anger at 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, No. 1, 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 a billionaire class whose greed is doing so much damage to our economy.
Second of all, in the last election, the midterm election, 80 percent of young people didn't vote. Eighty 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: Right. 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 Senator -- 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.
CUOMO: What was it like to be there with your family and have this moment?
SANDERS: Tonight was a thrilling night. You know, 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 VIDEOTAPES)
CUOMO: The senator, his wife and family very happy with last night.
Look, Bernie Sanders is now legit coming out of Iowa. But there's a success story here for Hillary Clinton, as well.
CAMEROTA: Yes. CUOMO: Iowa was a place where Bernie Sanders set out to be very
strong. There were a lot of dynamics going on there that played to his favor. So that campaign feeling good, as well, in fact, declaring victory as we await the final word from the Iowa state party.
Now, over on the GOP side, the big story, you could argue, is Marco Rubio. Ted Cruz won, but he was always in the calculus. But Marco Rubio almost tying Donald Trump, that's a big deal.
[06:10:02] CNN SENIOR White House correspondent Jim Acosta live in Manchester, New Hampshire, where several candidates are stumping ahead of the primary now.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Chris. And so much for those expectations that Donald Trump was going to cruise to the nomination. It was a Texas-size night for Ted Cruz, who rode his impressive ground operation to victory in Iowa.
But now the race, as you said, comes here to New Hampshire, where Donald Trump has a sizable double-digit lead in the polls. But suddenly looks beatable.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Congratulations, Senator.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you very much.
ACOSTA (voice-over): This morning, 11 GOP candidates...
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Welcome to New Hampshire. Now we're ready.
ACOSTA: ... are marching on to New Hampshire.
CRUZ: God bless the great state of Iowa.
ACOSTA: Ted Cruz is riding high of the best night in the Texas senator's political career.
CRUZ: To God be the glory. Tonight is a victory for courageous conservatives across Iowa and all across this great nation.
ACOSTA: In a surprising victory, Cruz defied the polls that had him in second place and surpassed Donald Trump by the thousands in Iowa, a disappointment for the frontrunner that can only be described as huge.
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I was told by everybody, "Do not go to Iowa. You could never finish even in the top 10." We finished second. And I want to tell you something, I'm just honored. I'm really honored. And I want to congratulate Ted.
ACOSTA: Cruz turned out the most votes ever cast for any Republican winner in Iowa, a stunning result that sets a long table for the heart and soul of the GOP.
TRUMP: We will go on to get the Republican nomination.
ACOSTA: The brash billionaire, who often boasts about his poll numbers, was gracious in defeat and even suggested he might become an Iowan.
TRUMP: I think I might come here and buy a farm.
ACOSTA: Nipping at Trump's heels, the other freshman senator.
RUBIO: They told me that we have no chance, because my hair wasn't gray enough and my boots were too high.
ACOSTA: Marco Rubio's strong third-place finish may give him promising momentum heading into New Hampshire.
RUBIO: The people of this great state sent a very clear message. After seven years of Barack Obama, we are not waiting any longer to take our country back.
ACOSTA: Momentum his supporters hope will give the Republican establishment the fighting chance it's been seeking in this race.
RUBIO: When I am our nominee, we will unite our party; we will grow our party; and we will defeat Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders or whoever they nominate.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
ACOSTA: Now, there was one political casualty on the GOP side. Mike Huckabee announced he is ending his campaign. There was speculation that he would travel to Arkansas tomorrow to offer his endorsement to Donald Trump, who has a rally scheduled there, of all places. But a Huckabee spokesman says that is not happening.
And so how good of a night was this for Marco Rubio? Get this: Both he and Donald Trump are tied in delegates. Donald Trump is not the frontrunner anymore, guys.
CAMEROTA: All right. Jim, thank you for that status update.
So this morning, to all of you watching, you're going to hear from the candidates. I speak with Governor John Kasich. Dana Bash speaks with the winner of the Republican Iowa caucuses, Senator Ted Cruz, and of course, Chris spoke with Bernie Sanders.
So a stunning night for several candidates like Ted Cruz and Bernie Sanders in Iowa. How can they capitalize on their momentum going into New Hampshire? We'll talk about all that when we come right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:17:33] CAMEROTA: If you are just waking up, we have a lot of news for you. Hillary Clinton declaring victory in the Iowa Democratic
caucuses, though the state party has not yet officially declared a winner. And the headline for the GOP: Ted Cruz winning big in Iowa.
Here with us to talk about all the permutations of this is the former moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press", David Gregory. Also, our CNN contributor and former Democratic member of the South Carolina House of Representatives, Bakari Sellers; and CNN political contributor and author of "Too Dumb to Fail," Matt Lewis. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.
OK. So the big headline is Ted Cruz wins Iowa. The polls were not right, it turns out, David. I mean, they didn't exactly capture what the margins were going to be here, certainly, for Donald Trump.
DAVID GREGORY, FORMER MODERATOR, NBC'S "MEET THE PRESS": Well, what's really extraordinary is that even Ted Cruz's supporters -- Steve King, who was the on the program yesterday, said 135,000. He said if we're at 135,000, Ted is good. There was 187,000 Republicans who came out. So all those new voters, and the thinking was a flood of new voters? Oh, they're all for Trump.
Not so. You have to give Cruz his due. Strong ideological campaign against Trump. Where does he tick him off? New York values. Positions on abortion. All the loans he got. Personal bankruptcies. He went right at Trump, which the other candidates have not done.
And he really turns out those very conservative voters. That's classic -- a classic play for Iowa. And that's really what makes a difference.
CUOMO: ... factors to look at, Bakari, here on the GOP side with respect to Trump. What did missing that debate mean? Because a lot of voters picked up their choice in the last few days. And the category of can they win the election seemed to be the biggest plus/minus for him.
BAKARI SELLERS, FORMER DEMOCRATIC MEMBER OF SOUTH CAROLINA HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES: Well, also, you have to realize in Iowa we weren't sure the role of the ground game and what role that would play. The question was, can Donald Trump come in here and win, just based on his brash personality? Can you do the flyovers in the 757 and just win the hearts and somehow not have any ground game whatsoever and people just show up and vote for him? The answer to that question is resoundingly no.
And to the New York values question, how Ted Cruz, even when all pundits -- even when all the pundits said, "You need to back away from that. You need to stop, because Donald Trump so eloquently pivoted to 9/11 and how New York rose from the ashes. But he stayed the course, and he kept drilling Trump. He kept drilling Trump.
And at the end of the day, the question was who can take out Donald Trump? The answer, the voters of Iowa.
GREGORY: And how about the ethanol play? That was risky: opposing the ethanol subsidy. He got hammered by that by Terry Branstad, the longest-serving governor in the country.
[06:20:08] SELLER: And that's -- I think Governor Branstad is a loser, too. I mean, we talked about -- we talked about the establishment. Three of the four -- Trump, Cruz, and Carson -- three of the top four are anything but establishment. The GOP leadership has a problem.
CAMEROTA: So, Matt, is it fair to say this morning that the birther attacks against Ted Cruz's citizenship didn't work?
MATT LEWIS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Yes. Yes. Didn't work.
I have this one. I called Cruz. And I knew -- we knew something was going to surprise us. And I think the big story here is that, for months and months we've been hearing Donald Trump is dominating polls. For at least several weeks, he was winning in Iowa.
And you know, this clown car, this too dumb to fail Republican campaign, finally the voters in one state have spoken. And what we have is a much -- I think today is a return to normalcy. It's a much more sane campaign. It's a campaign that those of us who follow politics, can wrap -- guess what? Organization matters. Guess what? Turnout matters. Guess what? The Republican Party is a conservative party, not a nationalist populist party. Big, big...
CAMEROTA: So there are still rules? We haven't thrown out the rule book?
GREGORY: An injection of reality. The notion that, on the day after Iowa, Ted Cruz is giving people a sigh of relief, this guy is a very unconventional candidate...
LEWIS: Yes. But there's Marco Rubio, too. That's the other part of this.
CUOMO: I don't think it's Cruz that's playing to Matt's point. It's Rubio.
The big question that comes up, though, now for your party is, what do you do to coalesce around the rival to the outsider influence in the GOP? Do you think there is anybody who can make a phone call to governors Kasich, to Christie, to bush and say, "Looks like Marco's got you this time"?
LEWIS: You know, they're saying like a brokered convention. We were talking about that earlier. Nobody can broker anything. Nobody has the gravitas or the moral authority to get anybody out of this race.
But look, I do think that, in a sane world, Marco Rubio becomes the Republican nominee. He is the best positioned if you want to actually beat Hillary Clinton in November.
CUOMO: Why? Why is he the best? Just because of yesterday?
SELLERS: I think any Democrat with good sense would tell you that the opponent that we really don't want to face in November is Marco Rubio. He's very talented. You saw Marco Rubio last night, in his victory speech, he literally made the entire world, with the speech, think that he won the race. And it was amazing.
LEWIS: Bill Clinton. Very Bill Clinton-esque.
SELLERS: No. He channeled Barack Obama. That's what you heard last night in Marco Rubio's speech. "They thought I wasn't going to win. They thought I was too young. That thought I wasn't going to be here. And I just overcame all odds." And it was just fascinating to watch.
GREGORY: To really answer to your question, I think, Chris, the contrast of Marco Rubio against Hillary Clinton, the future of the party, the past of another party, you really have a future played there. He can bring conservatives around on immigration. He is strong on national defense. He came of age with party support. He can put it altogether. And I think you have to say he is the establishment favorite at this point.
My earlier point, though, is the unconventional candidate in the form of Trump, in the form of Cruz, still got most of the votes. Over 50 percent.
SELLERS: And we're talking about coalescing. If, for example, Trump, Carson, all those evangelical around the person voters coalesce, Ted Cruz, then you have a whole other race in there.
LEWIS: Cruz is at least a mainstream legitimate conservative, not this other weird phenomenon that Trump represents.
CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you. Thanks for all of those insights. Great to talk to you.
CUOMO: All right. So again, the Iowa state party on the Democratic side has declared the race over with a final finding. However, Hillary Clinton is declaring victory, based on what is known at this time.
Bernie Sanders basically in a statistical dead heat. Just a few delegates separate them. The question is what will Iowa mean? It is history on many levels. What does it predict happens in New Hampshire, South Carolina? We'll tell you when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[06:27:57] CAMEROTA: Welcome back, everyone. Chris and I are here in New Hampshire, where Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are set to hit the campaign trail this afternoon as the two Democratic candidates remain locked in a virtual tie in Iowa, with Clinton's campaign declaring victory at this hour.
So joining us now is Jonathan Tessini. He's author of "The Essential Bernie Sanders and His Vision for America." And CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, Paul Begala, who is also co-chair of a pro-Hillary Clinton super PAC. Gentlemen, thanks so much for being here.
Paul, let's start with you. Hillary Clinton, your candidate, is declaring victory this morning. But this is much tighter. The results are razor-thin and much tighter than anyone in the campaign expected. How do you think the campaign is feeling this morning?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, my guess is -- first off, I think Hillary, she committed the sin of candor in her speech last night where she said, "I'm breathing a huge sigh of relief." Iowa was the scene of a stunning and staggering victory by Barack Obama against Hillary Clinton eight years ago. And she carries those memories going into this year. So I'm quite sure they're very relieved.
At the same time, they need to listen to these voters. Caucus attendees in my party are saying something. The gap among -- divided by age is just extraordinary. She won senior, 69 percent seniors. But Bernie won -- I don't want to insult him -- Bernie won the youth vote with 84 percent. And especially those young voters are saying that the economic deck is stacked against them. They really are trying to accepted a populist message. And I think she's got to -- she's got to listen to that and adapt. Frankly, so does Bernie. He's basically in a tie.
And so now we move forward. And it's nice for Hillary. But as a Democrat, I'm very happy with how the two of them conducted themselves.
CAMEROTA: Jonathan, you know, there's two ways to look at this. You can either look this that Bernie Sanders pulled off what is basically a victory for them, because they exceeded expectations in tying Hillary Clinton.
Or you can look at it that Iowa was tailor-made for the Bernie Sanders voter. It is white. There are lots of progressives. There are liberals. There are activists. And so the fact that he didn't win there doesn't spell good signs going ahead. What do you think?
JONATHAN TESSINI, AUTHOR, "THE ESSENTIAL BERNIE SANDERS": Well, Alisyn, I woke up with the famous Gandhi quote in my head. First, they...
