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Donald Trump Pulls Off Stunning Upset; Three States Waiting to Be Called. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired November 09, 2016 - 05:00   ET

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

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR, EARLY START: All right, Alisyn. This is where things stand just after 5:00 a.m. on the East Coast.

[05:00:01] As you said, Donald Trump will be the 45th president of the United States. He has 289 electoral votes as of right now, Hillary Clinton at 218.

There are still three states waiting to be called, Michigan, Minnesota and New Hampshire. In Michigan, just 21,000 votes separating the two, Donald Trump with a slight edge there.

Let's look at New Hampshire this has been close all night long. In the state of New Hampshire, Donald Trump ahead by 300 votes. Just 300 votes.

But the bottom line is, he doesn't need them, he's got already, when it's all said and done, he may end up with 300 electoral votes. That is a sizable victory. As of now, Hillary Clinton at 218.

The key overnight, the blue wall crumbling. It a cliche now but it's very important to understand.

Donald Trump picked up wins in Wisconsin and Pennsylvania. No Republican has won Pennsylvania since 1988. No Republican has won Wisconsin since 1984. That is a long time. Hillary Clinton didn't even go there. She thought she had it in the bag.

Now, one of the other big surprises in this sea of surprises, Donald Trump, he had coattails. The Republicans, they will keep control of the Senate winning at least 51 seats, no tiebreaker. Mike Pence isn't going to have to pass the tiebreaking vote for the majority. They win it 51 senates, with a possibility of a couple more. As for the House of Representatives, Republicans easily maintaining control of that chamber, at least 235 seats, nine seats remaining.

Democrats did pick up six seats. You see a Democratic pickup. You say that's good for the Democrats that is nothing like what they thought they might pick up three weeks ago.

These numbers will change. We're still waiting for three states that haven't been called yet. We will you keep updated throughout the morning -- Alisyn.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: All right, John. Thanks so much for all of that.

Donald Trump addressing the nation for the first time as president- elect. It was shortly before 3:00 in the morning. He congratulated Hillary Clinton for a hard fought campaign. And he told his supporters that there's a lot of work to be done.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENT-ELECT: I've just received a call from Secretary Clinton.

(APPLAUSE)

She congratulated us, it's about us, on our victory. And I congratulated her and her family on a very, very hard-fought campaign. I mean, she fought very hard.

Hillary has worked very long and very hard over a long period of time, and we owe her a major debt of gratitude for her service to our country. I mean that very sincerely.

Now, it's time for America to bind the wounds of division, have to get together.

To all Republicans and Democrats and independents across this nation, I say it is time for us to come together as one united people.

(APPLAUSE)

It's time.

I pledge to every citizen of our land that I will be president for all of Americans, and this is so important to me.

(APPLAUSE)

For those who have chosen not to support me in the past, of which there were a few people, I'm reaching out to you for your guidance and your help so that we can work together and unify our great country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. That was the first moment we got to hear from Trump as president-elect.

Let's got to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty live at Trump Tower for more on president-elect's big night and what is next.

Sunlen, his first remarks as president-elect notable for what he did not mention more than what he did say. That conciliatory tone is very different than what we heard in the campaign.

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Very different President-elect Trump than we saw candidate Trump, and certainly, the goal coming from the Trump team going into that victory speech, Chris, was for him to come off gracious, and they believe that they largely achieved that goal tonight.

President-elect Trump has spoken to President Obama. We know that President Obama called him a short time ago. And this, according to one of our star campaign reporters who caught up Trump campaign manager Kellyanne Conway as she was leaving the victory party. Kellyanne Conway describing the conversation between the two men as great and saying that they will meet at the White House some point soon.

We know that President Obama has cleared his schedule for that potential meeting at the White House on Thursday. So, we'll see the details of that as it comes together.

On Trump, back here in Trump Tower, I can tell you it's still very much a party-like atmosphere.

[05:05:00] A lot of supporters still gathered chanting "Trump, Trump, Trump" wearing their make America great hats. Trump getting a few hours of sleep before the work starts today. And the work really does start in a different way. Not only does he have a new title, but he has new things to think about, most importantly the transition.

We know that the completed plans for the Trump transition was delivered here at Trump Tower last night at 5:00 p.m., according to GOP sources. So, the work according to everyone on the Trump team starts today -- Chris and Alisyn.

CAMEROTA: Sunlen, thank you very much.

Hillary Clinton did not speak publicly last night but she is expected to speak this morning.

CNN's Phil Mattingly joins us with more.

What have you learned, Phil?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Alisyn, her decision not to speak, not to concede publicly underscores a key reality here. They never expected those happen. A senior Democrat telling me that Clinton needed time to digest this. Really get her message together.

Now, the speech itself we don't know when it's coming or where it's coming. It is coming this morning. And it will be talking about healing. It will be kind of a reflection on where this campaign needs to go. Gracious was one word a Democrat used to describe the message Hillary Clinton will try and get across.

But, guys, again, you can't understate. This wasn't expected to happen. Devastated is the word you hear over and over again. Democrats around the campaign repeatedly question how they could possibly be at this.

This isn't a narrow loss. If you look at the electoral votes, this is a very big loss.

Now, I did talk to some of the few Clinton supporters who are actually picking up their phone and asked, what did this happen? What did you guys missed? Because going into discuss morning, they were very clear, they felt good about where they sat and they felt they had a number of different pathways to 270.

I asked, was their data off? They said, look, we're not going to trash our programs here. But it's very clear, we were looking at an electorate program that simply didn't track with the reality of what ended up happening on Tuesday night.

So, where does that lead the Clinton campaign? It's kind of an open question. We'll see what Hillary Clinton has to say this morning. Again, most of her top advisers pretty much shut down their phones by late afternoon yesterday -- guys.

CAMEROTA: All right, Phil. We want to break down this morning.

We want to break down this momentous morning with our panel. We have David Gregory, John Avlon, John Berman and Jackie Kucinich.

It's great to have you all.

John --

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Good morning.

CAMEROTA: -- what happened?

AVLON: That is a question we're going to be analyzing if not for days, for years. This is one of the greatest upsets in American political history. And when Donald Trump was campaigning these last few weeks in states that Republicans haven't won since Ronald Reagan. I said to Tom, I said either they're geniuses or they're complete fools.

Well, they're not foolish today. They pulled off a win today by flipping states that Republicans hadn't really played in. And the analysis of why the polling was off, why so much the predictiveness was off, how a candidate who had fundamentally divisive appeals was able to match Mitt Romney among the Latino vote, not do worse, and the rule of class, as well as race in this election, were all things that we're going to need to really analyze and understand.

DAVID GREGORY, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: And that he could overcome such division in the electorate, the things that he said about women. And his own past with women, that "Access Hollywood" tape and yet, he did very well among non-college educated white women. The gender gap was not as big as the class gap that he exploited.

He understood something about the electorate that so many of us, I certainly didn't think he could win. I thought his path was exceedingly narrow. He understood something about the electorate better than the political class, Republican and Democrat, better than the news media. He got it.

And so, when he said tonight that people who are forgotten, men and women forgotten in this country will be forgotten no more, he knew who he was speaking to all along.

CUOMO: Jackie, do we see any proof that provides an answer to the question of did he win because of all of the ugly things that he says, or despite them?

JACKIE KUCINICH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I don't really know the answer to that yet. I really don't. There are so many questions and so much data to go through and so many people to speak to.

But I was talking to a longtime Republican pollster last night. And he said that Trump basically -- he exceeded all expectations and ran a perfect game. And this person have been in it a long time and never seen it.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but no voter says I like the "Access Hollywood" tape.

KUCINICH: No, of course not.

CAMEROTA: They just say I don't believe, either I do believe it and I care about --

(CROSSTALK)

KUCINICH: No, no, no. What they were saying is they were sick of what was going on right now. They didn't like the status quo. And we said over and over again, this wasn't a change election, because we're looking at convention, right, if the president has a good approval rating that usually bodes well for the person in his party. It didn't this time.

GREGORY: Cruder, the more crash, the more unorthodox he was, I think people said, not that "I don't believe it", but like, yeah, he was making everybody crazy in the media. He's making everybody in Washington crazy. I think it was a net positive.

BERMAN: Part of that change, right? If you can be that crass. I also think there's a certain amount of debt of denial that happened in the last week or so. When the polls in Michigan started closing.

[05:10:00] The polls in New Hampshire started closing.

It was two or three points, yes, Hillary Clinton was ahead. But that's within the margin of error. A lot of us close to look at it and say, yeah, it's in the margin of error, and we believed the high end of it and every state it turned out to be wrong.

AVLON: But setting expectations very low, I think a lot of internal numbers didn't see this coming. One of the factors is, how much was it celebrity that ultimately drove this. How many first-time voters were there?

And it's a concept that Bill Clinton used to talk about, ironically. Especially in times of chaos, people will vote for strong and wrong, by which they mean, a strong leader will give people comfort in a time of chaos. That clearly worked. And the question for the country now is can we unite, how can we

unite? We have to unite after such a divisive campaign. The tone President-elect Trump said is a step in that direction.

CUOMO: Well, look, that's conventional thinking also. You could make a different suggestion you stay with what got you there.

The reason I asked the question about whether he won because of it or despite, is Trump seems to be answering that question early this morning as president-elect. He came out, he didn't mention the wall. He didn't talk about Muslims. He didn't talk about us versus them.

He talked about we, and I get that that's what you usually do. However, you don't usually get there by playing up all of those differences in the worse way that you can. And that's why I asked the question.

KUCINICH: He did this after -- I mean, with primary that we're talking about, after he beat Ted Cruz at one point. He came out, he didn't call him Lying Ted, he called him Senator Cruz.

We all were taken aback and, oh, is he turning a page. Now, we haven't seen him in a position where he hasn't been in competition. And, you know, one of the Trump surrogates that truck me said he was going to fight Republicans, he was going to fight Democrats. I didn't here -- but then he was saying, they're going to have to work together.

He's going to have to figure out what he's going to do and how that's going to work in terms of working with Congress.

GREGORY: But you've got to give his due, this is not an ideological guy.

KUCINICH: No, absolutely not.

GREGORY: That's what we know. He doesn't care. He says nobody should touch Medicare and Social Security --

(CROSSSTALK)

BERMAN: Can I say something? One of the things I think that made him win was the fact that Republicans decided that he was ideological enough for them. That he wouldn't pick the Supreme Court justices that they wouldn't like. That he was going to repeal Obamacare. So, all those Republicans, you know, when he was down 80 percent among Republican support, I've seen the numbers this morning, I'm sure it's up close to 90 or higher than that.

GREGORY: I don't think he's as ideologically rigid as president.

(CROSSTALK)

KUCINICH: But the right is going to try to hold him accountable. Ralph Reed is having a press conference this afternoon.

GREGORY: But he leads a movement that is bigger than Ralph Reed and the conservative right.

AVLON: Yes. And what is the governing relationship between Pence and Ryan, and does that strain, or does that encourage?

And look, part of the whole -- what we're trying to figure out how much of the divisive demagogic talk would be blustered, designed to get attention, and how much of it reflects who he really is? And how is that going to be navigated? Because it is difficult to unite a nation.

COUMO: The last part is key, though, there are people who just put him in power because they're pissed off, they feel forgotten and they wanted to change. Drain the swamp. Now, he's the biggest alligator in the swamp.

BERMAN: And yet President Obama has a 54 percent approval rating. So the voters who say they're very, very angry, at the same time they're saying we really like to --

CUOMO: They didn't have to go out and vote for Obama this time.

AVLON: Over 60 percent of voters -- the exit polls seem to be a bit fraught. We'll have to get into greater detail on that. But over 60 percent of voters said he wasn't temperamentally qualified or experienced enough. And yet, we elected him with a clear majority. That's a kind of conundrum we haven't confronted in our democracy.

CUOMO: Well, clear electoral majority, we'll have to see what the popular vote is.

GREGORY: By the way, what about the Democrats because you have an opposition here that doesn't just oppose him, isn't just against him, but fears him. So, how are they going to position themselves? Are they going to give him his due, or are they going to try to create space for him.

CUOMO: Bronx tale, is it better to be feared or to be loved? Better to be feared, especially in government.

CAMEROTA: Au contraire.

Panel, thank you.

CUOMO: Coming up on NEW DAY, Trump's campaign manager Kellyanne Conway is going to join us like. She had a great tweet this morning where she said stop saying all the pollsters got it wrong. Of course, she is a pollster and she got it right.

CAMEROTA: All right. So, how did Trump pull off the improbable, some would say implausible upset? We're breaking down the vote to see who put him over the top. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[05:18:35] ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

CUOMO: The next president of the United States is Donald J. Trump. Why? We'll tell you right now.

Christine Romans is breaking down these historic exit polls.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Look, you guys, America first really resonated here: Voters think Donald Trump can fix three things, terrorism, immigration and trade.

Let's start with terrorism. Trump won overwhelmingly, 57 percent of the nationwide electorate, just 39 percent for Hillary Clinton. An even bigger margin of victory with those who say immigration is the most important issue, 64 percent for Trump, 32 percent for Clinton.

Now, he won Florida. But look at this, we asked voters there what should happen to illegal immigrants working in the U.S.? 70 percent of Floridians say they should be offered legal status, 22 percent want deportations. Of those who want deportation, 93 percent breaking for Trump. Just 6 percent picked Hillary Clinton.

This was a trend on a lot of issues. Trump support was huge among voters that believed in his message. And even if some voters agreed with Clinton's positions, the votes just weren't enough of them there for her.

Last share of voters in key Rust Belt state, this is important to Clinton's electoral path, right? But they agreed with Trump's view that trade agreements hurt American workers. Half of all voters in Michigan said international trade kills U.S. jobs, 59 percent break for Trump, just 36 percent for Clinton.

His promises to bring back factory jobs resonating.

[05:20:01] Really, when you look on these issues, guys, you can see clearly his America first, America first on trade, immigration, terrorism, really resonating in a lot of these states, guys.

CAMEROTA: OK, that's helpful. Thank you very much, Christine for that.

Let's talk about it with our panel. And what propelled Trump to the presidency. We have John Avlon, David Gregory, Jackie Kucinich and John Berman.

You seem like you want to say something.

GREGORY: I do. I'm sorry, yes, I was giving my eager eyes and holding my Sally Rafael (ph) glasses.

I think Trump tapped into something even wit his inexperience about foreign affairs. Where he can say the leaders in the Republican Party got us into Afghanistan and Iraq. These were apparently all the smartest in the Republican Party, what good did that get you to have all that experience? Hillary Clinton has all of this experience in foreign affairs and look what happened in Libya, something that she pushed for.

I think there's confusion among a lot of Americans about just what U.S. power means in the rest of the world and how effective it can be. And I think he tapped into the kind of reluctance of projection in American power that we seemed to out our history in times of conflict. I think that's striking.

AVLON: Just the complete blank slate of what he intends to actually do beyond the bumper sticker is itself.

GREGORY: I'm talking about the wariness.

CUOMO: Hold on a second. Let's put some meat at the bone --

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: And that's a good point. Even that, it's a little pressing because it actually skips a point.

We need to see where we are right now. You know what, we got some meat on the bones of this suggestion. These are the exit polls. How do you feel if Trump wins? Thirteen, excited. Scared, 36 percent.

John Berman is shaking his head this because --

BERMAN: Because so much of what we're seeing in the exit polls doesn't make sense. If 56 percent are either concerned or scared, yet he won maybe more than 300 electoral votes by the time it's all said and done, what does that tell you?

CAMEROTA: How do we explain those, that map?

BERMAN: I'm not sure we can.

AVLON: There is -- we need to really -- there are a lot of pollsters and business people who are soul searching and maybe looking for new professions. But there are contradictions that we need to really understand is there a problem with the poll, or is this a contradiction --

CAMEROTA: Well, let's talk about that.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Alisyn made this point a lot during the actual campaign. I'm scared. I'm scared, somebody says. OK?

We assume that means I'm scared of Trump because I'm responding. Because you've often said, there are a lot of people scared that's why they're voting for Trump.

CAMEROTA: I don't know how they phrased the question.

CUOMO: There are a lot of people scared, that's why they're scared. Afraid of ISIS or economic insecurity.

AVLON: They want the reality show to go on. This was something they wanted in their living room, it's been highly entertaining. That's the danger of amusing yourself to death. CAMEROTA: Well, let's talk --

KUCINICH: I wouldn't dismiss entirely --

AVLON: No, no. Look. Donald Trump dominated coverage of this campaign. He was the center of gravity. Hillary Clinton did not generate nearly the amount of attention, nearly the amount of articles. To that extent, he was a pop culture, political fixation and fascination that we have chosen to carry through.

In democracy, you get the country you deserve. To the extent that he part of a reality TV playbook to this election and rocked the political establishment in history, that's celebrity. That wanting this show to go on may have some impact on people's decisions.

CAMEROTA: One last point about pollsters did they not interview working class whites? Why do we think they missed the ground swell?

GREGORY: I don't know.

KUCINICH: I was just talking to pollsters last night, one of the things I heard they underestimated the number of rural voters that would come out for Trump.

GREGORY: Clearly the modeling on white men was off.

KUCINICH: Right.

BERMAN: Here's the thing -- you look at the exit polls, there weren't more working class whites who voted. It's the same proportion as before. It's just that Trump crushed it. He did better than Ronald Reagan did.

GREGORY: Right. But that whole modeling that's predictive --

(CROSSTALK)

BERMAN: Well, the modeling only predicts the percentage of people you talked to, so if the percentage of people they spoke to from the last time, it's not the modeling's fault. It's that people may have changed their minds at the last minute or --

CUOMO: Or speaks to what Trump may have referred to a lot, which is there are people who are going to vote for me who won't tell you that, because they're afraid you in the media are going to judge them. How about the favorable opinion exit poll? Do we have that one? Does that make any sense?

CAMEROTA: Unfavorable of Donald Trump, 60 percent. Nope, John Berman, still doesn't make sense.

BERMAN: It doesn't make sense. I mean, except for the fact, that also, if you look at these exit polls, I don't know if you have that number. I mean, people think the country is on the wrong track and they want change. If that's what they want more than anything, I was looking at numbers before, in states like Michigan and Pennsylvania, Michigan we still haven't called yet. Michigan, these Rust Belt states change was the number one position.

So, even if you have an unfavorable true of Trump, they decided he was the right person.

KUCINICH: And Hillary Clinton also had -- was upside down when it comes to unfavorables. So, they're not as bad, but they don't like either of these people.

[05:25:03] CAMEROTA: But can Donald Trump bring back manufacturing jobs? Is that really one of the defining issues that Christine Romans just laid out jobs and factory workers want back in? Is that possible?

AVLON: The economic pain that Donald Trump tapped into has to do with the slow recovery from the Great Recession. But it goes far back on that. You know, it had to do with outsourcing of jobs, closing of factories.

Is it within the power of a president to bring those solely back? Probably not. What are the impact of trade wars if we start with them with countries? Does that benefit the American people?

GREGORY: Can any president affect economy growth?

I mean, what you're saying a problem that David Axelrod, our colleague, has talked about. So many people who voted for Obama projected qualities on to him that he didn't necessarily have and then were disappointed. He himself, President Obama, according to Axelrod, he wrote this in his book was overwhelmed by all of the optimism and expectation that he came into office with knowing that people would be disappointed.

So, now there is tremendous pressure on Donald Trump who says this is about our movement, this is what we've done together. He's now going to start delivering.

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: How about this connect then -- Jackie, how about this connect then, you get brought in on a wave of "I hate everything", yet the man responsible for everything, you know, putatively, is Obama, he's at 53 percent in the exits? Is that crazy talk also?

KUCINICH: I don't know if it's crazy talk but there is dissidence in these polls.

CUOMO: I'm saying, how does Obama get to be at 53 percent and then the anti-vote winds up winning the election?

KUCINICH: I don't know how to square it, Chris. But I will say, guys, one of the things he's going to have to square, talking about trade, you can't start a trade war and then have goods go up. And that will end up hitting people in the pocket book. That is not something that has been delved into how that's going to work.

BERMAN: You said you guys brought up President Obama, you're saying how does he square this, how does he get out of bed tomorrow morning, right? I mean, this is a repudiation of Obama --

CUOMO: One leg at a time. Just like every day.

BERMAN: But, look, I mean, Obamacare, he would -- you know, repeal and replace. I mean, that will happen now. You have to believe.

GREGORY: All of his legacy on the line, he put all his political capital on the line. He campaigned for Hillary Clinton.

AVLON: He campaigned harder than any incumbent president has campaigned.

BERMAN: And Michelle Obama who stated it in deeply personal terms.

AVLON: Yes.

CUOMO: It is not easy to get somebody to vote for someone else. It's one thing going out there on the hustings for yourself, it's another doing it for somebody else. It's just not as powerful.

CAMEROTA: Panel, thank you very much.

CUOMO: All right. So, we're discussing what this may mean. We know what it already does mean on the markets all over the world. Futures are tanking. That was not unexpected, but it is surprising to a certain degree. And we'll tell you why on NEW DAY, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)