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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Projects Donald Trump to Win New Hampshire; Bush Considers Anything Close To A Win; Awaiting Trump & Sanders Victory Speeches; Trump & Sanders Win: Tight Race For Second In GOP; Kasich, Cruz, Bush & Rubio In Tight Race For Second. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired February 09, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We will be ready to make projections in this race for the presidency of the United States. Let's go to the breaking news.
CNN makes two projections in New Hampshire. CNN projects that Donald Trump will be the winner of the New Hampshire Republican primary. We also project that Bernie Sanders will be the winner of the Democratic primary in New Hampshire.
There you see the winner, Donald Trump, the Republican primary winner. Bernie Sanders we project will be the Democratic winner. We make that projection on the basis of the exit poll information we have received. We also make that projection on the actual numbers. The actual votes that have already been tallied.
All of the polls in those states, in the states are now closed. Let's take a look at the picture right now from Donald Trump headquarters. You can see they're beginning to get the word. They are ready to celebrate right now. Donald Trump headquarters, Bernie Sanders headquarters. They've got the word as well.
The CNN projections, Trump is the winner in New Hampshire. Bernie Sanders is the winner in New Hampshire. The Republican race, the Democratic race, obviously, a lot of excitement right there. The polls apparently were very accurate on the basis of the actual numbers, though, and the exit polls. We have those projections.
Let's go to Dana and Jake. Jake, this is a moment that Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump have been waiting for.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: What a stunning, stunning moment, Wolf. And, again, I say two years ago, somebody had told you that Bernie Sanders, an independent Democratic socialist from Vermont and Donald Trump, a businessman and developer from New York City, were going to win the Democratic and Republican New Hampshire primaries, you would have ...
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: So easily.
TAPPER: You would have said I was crazy. BASHG: I would have said you were crazy. I have to be honest with
you. And I think what this does is obviously, puts, officially, puts Donald Trump on the map. And answers the question that we were talking about beforehand which is whether or not he can bring those supporters to the polls. It didn't happen in Iowa as much as he wanted. It happened tonight. And it is pretty astonishing when you think about the fact that he's never been a politician before, ever. And he just won the New Hampshire primary.
TAPPER: It's astounding. It is a great night for Donald Trump, a great night for Bernie Sanders, a great night for their supporters. A horrible night for the Democratic establishment and horrible night for the Republican establishment as CNN projects that Donald Trump will be the winner of the New Hampshire Republican primary and Bernie Sanders, the senator from Vermont, will be the winner of the New Hampshire Democratic primary.
Let's go right to Trump headquarters where we have our own Jim Acosta. And, Jim, I can't even imagine the shouting and cheering going on where you are.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that shouting and cheering has been going on for several minutes now ever since CNN announced that Donald Trump has won the New Hampshire primary based on our projections.
I can tell you right now that this is pretty much what the Trump campaign expected all along. They did not think that this was going to be a repeat of the Iowa caucuses. They felt that the Iowa caucuses were different, perhaps not well-suited to their new voters coming to their campaign. Whereas in New Hampshire, this was about getting out the vote and you saw on that big splashy rally, that pre-primary rally Donald Trump held last night that he was feeling very confident.
Otherwise, maybe he wouldn't have used some of that salty language that we heard from the candidate last night.
All day long , Donald Trump has been saying, he thinks he's going to win but he wasn't sure by how much. And when I talked to the Trump Campaign Manager, not too long ago, Corey Lewandowski who was a native of this state, by the way, he's getting a big win in this state as well, his home state.
He did not want to predict any kind of big victory. He was saying, "Hey, let me look at the numbers. Let me wait until these returns come in and I'll get back to you". But no doubt about it, as you were just saying a few moments ago, if you were to predict six months ago when Donald Trump rode that escalator down in the Trump Tower in New York City that he was going to win the New Hampshire primary, there were few people that were going to believe you.
The rhetoric we've heard from the candidate throughout this campaign which has been much maligned inside the media, Donald Trump has not dispensed with that rhetoric one bit. As a matter of fact, earlier this evening at a polling place in Manchester he once again said, "We're going to build that wall on the Mexican border". So, Donald Trump is going to stick to his guns. He is going to be feeling very confident going into these next states. I can tell you from talking to people inside the Trump campaign. They feel like this campaign is built to last, that he can continue to do this strategy that we've seen all along. He can go from state to state, hold these big rallies, bring in all kinds of new Republican voters.
Disaffected Democrats, you can hear them chanting, "Trump, Trump, Trump." behind me. And this strategy will continue to work contest after contest after contest. And after tonight, this is going to be a very difficult candidacy to stop at this point. Jake and Dana?
[20:05:03] TAPPER: All right. Jim Acosta at Trump headquarters in Manchester, New Hampshire. The other campaign headquarters going bananas this evening is that of Senator Bernie Sanders in Concord, New Hampshire, where we find our own Brianna Keilar.
Brianna, the mood there must be just jubilation.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Oh, definitely, Jake. We heard them as soon as the projection came out. They were watching CNN. And people here just went crazy yelling "Bernie, Bernie, Bernie." And actually all of this happening before a lot of people were even able to get into this event here at Concord -- Concord High School, I should say.
But this is what all of these supporters of Bernie Sanders were expecting. And this has been fulfilled for them and now what they're really looking forward to is, of course, the candidate coming out and giving their speech. We do understand that that is going to happen sooner than later, now with these projections out there.
But this is something obviously so important for Bernie Sanders after his narrow loss in Iowa. He certainly felt like his message about a rigged economy was resonating in New Hampshire. That's what we really saw yesterday during his series of events. Today, he really took it easy, clearly confident he was going to cruise to a win here in the Granite State. And we'll be awaiting him here at Concord High School, guys.
TAPPER: All right, Brianna Keilar at Sanders' headquarters in Concord, New Hampshire. It wasn't -- it didn't take long for CNN to project that Sanders won the event. And, in fact, the concession was already at the ready by the Clinton campaign headquarters.
Jeff Zeleny is traveling with the Clinton campaign and joins us now. I believe by phone. Jeff, what is the Clinton campaign saying?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, the Clinton campaign is saying at this hour that they do intend to compete. In fact, they have (inaudible) team that's been -- Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton are at their hotel in Manchester. They will be making their way just outside of Manchester to the campus of the University of Southern New Hampshire where they will concede this election. So quite frankly, they're trying to spin this loss as just another contest. But of course, we know it is so much more than that. This is New Hampshire. The state that she won eight years ago, that delivered Bill Clinton to the White House in 1992.
They're putting out a memo tonight calling it the way forward. Campaign Manager Robby Mook is putting out this memo saying the rest is yet to come and saying that this nomination will be won in March. And they lay out in very detailed strategy how they can win this nomination in March because it's a delegate fight.
I mean, they are right in saying that some 56 percent of the delegates will be awarded in March. But this is moral blow to their campaign. This is a reset for their campaign. It is hard to overestimate the changes and just the structural decisions they will make going forward, but they are getting out in front of this and they will be conceding tonight as soon as the Clintons get here, as soon as all their supporters get into this arena tonight, Jake.
BASH: And, Jeff, you know, we have, of course, heard all of the spin, all the expectations in the days and weeks leading up to this that, of course, this is going to happen because it's Bernie Sanders, practically his home turf because he's from the state next door.
But as you said, there's a lot in politics to be said about kind of a moral or psychological blow. But beyond that, just looking forward after this, Bernie Sanders has a lot of money and a lot of staying power and enthusiasm behind him to make this a long haul competition. Doesn't he?
(Off-Mic)
ZELENY: He does. He does have a lot of money behind him. No question at all. And that is the thing that frustrates this Clinton campaign (inaudible) it all. That they're able to race money, really unprecedented measures organically over the internet, more than Barack Obama could have done eight years ago to put it in some perspective for you.
So that's why this campaign will be a long fight really until the convention here now. That's what this loss tonight is. This will be a fight until at least the spring or the convention.
TAPPER: All right, Jeff Zeleny traveling with the Clinton campaign. Rough night for the campaign, but as they rightly point out, this is going to be a long, long campaign and one night of bad news is not -- does not end the campaign.
And now, of course, the big challenge for Bernie Sanders to turn his campaign even more into a credible national operation. Let's bring in CNN's Mark Preston for that. How are they going to do it, because as you know, Clinton so far has had commanding leads among especially minority voters in states such as South Carolina and Nevada which are the next two up?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, what's going on right now, Jake, is they're no longer looking at this as a singular geographical contest.
[20:10:01] We had Iowa, we had New Hampshire. There's a lot of talk about us just going straight to South Carolina then Nevada.
Now, they're opening it all up. They see this as a national campaign. They're looking at states such as Colorado, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Oklahoma. They're putting ad dollars into these states. They're also noting that in March, a majority of the caucuses are, happen during this time period, over these 30 days.
Now, these caucuses are largely driven by the grassroots, the enthusiasm. And this is the Bernie Sanders type of support. They also note that going into Michigan on March 8th, to expect to see the compare and contrast on trade, TPP and NAFTA. They are going to hit Hillary Clinton hard on that. As we know, Hillary Clinton back in the fall decided to come out against TPP, even though during the time ...
TAPPER: Trans-Pacific Trade Deal.
PRESTON: The Trans-Pacific Trade Deal. During her time in the Obama administration, she was supportive of it. So yes, 50-state campaign, they think they're coming out of this tonight, Jake. They're going to get more money to fuel this campaign and try to open it up.
TAPPER: An exciting night in politics, Wolf. Let's go back to you in the CNN Elections Center.
BLITZER: Very exciting, indeed, Jake. Once again, CNN's projections that Bernie Sanders wins on the Democratic side, and on the Republican side Donald Trump is the winner.
But look at this, there's a major battle for second place among the Republicans in New Hampshire right now between Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich and Marco Rubio. Second place will be very, very important.
Let's take a look at the actual votes that have come in right now with 7 percent of the precincts reporting, Donald Trump still way ahead with 35 percent. But look at this battle for second place. John Kasich, the Ohio governor, 16 percent, Jeb bush, 12 percent, Ted Cruz, 11 percent, Marco Rubio, 10 percent, Chris Christie not all that far behind at 8 percent right there.
So this is a huge battle that is under way right now. Right now for second place on the Republican side. I want to go over to John King because he's studying all these numbers. The numbers are coming in, real numbers, the exit poll numbers. The projections have been made about the winner, but this battle for second place will be significant in New Hampshire.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Huge battle for the Republican race going forward. We know Donald Trump's going on, we know Ted Cruz is going on. The question is of the center right candidates. Rubio, Bush, Kasich, Christie, Fiorina, how many of them survive tonight to go on to South Carolina and beyond? You mentioned the results. 7 percent so far, Donald Trump at 35 percent, Governor Kasich coming in second right now at 16 percent. But then Governor Bush at 12 percent, just left the state. Let's come back to New Hampshire. Governor Bush at 12 percent, Cruz at 11 percent, Rubio at 10 percent, Christie 8 percent, Fiorina at 4 percent. So, Wolf, only7 percent in, well, a lot of movement still potentially to happen here.
So what are you looking for on the map as you looking out? Number one, the Republican race will be decided down here. Trump is going to win. We know that. But down here in these suburbs, especially suburbs below Manchester, this is where close Republican races in New Hampshire are won. So what are we going to look for? We're going to watch this as we go through the night.
At the moment, Donald Trump is winning Manchester. Look how quick the count is coming in Manchester. Let me bring this back down so you can see it. Donald Trump is winning Manchester. We expect him since he's winning statewide to win most of these cities and towns.
The question is where there are a lot of votes, Manchester, John Kasich running second with Jeb Bush pretty close behind. So let's watch the rest of the count there.
And then, we're just going to have to follow this around throughout the night. Tiny county here, again, Kasich is second. Pull out and come over here to Concord, which is another big city by New Hampshire standards. Again, you have Trump at 30 percent, Kasich second and the Bush.
So Kasich running a strong second now in most of the populations, so I just want to check over here on the Seacoast, Portsmouth, now their descent population for New Hampshire. And again, Trump just around 30 here, Kasich second.
So we'll watch this play out throughout the night. Who comes in behind Trump in the big population centers and then in those big suburbs just here south of Manchester where we've talked to our correspondents. Merrimack, Hudson, Bedford, right down in here.
That's where as we look into the little towns filling in down here, down on the Massachusetts border, that will determine second place and then how close second, third, and fourth are which will say a lot about how many go forward.
BLITZER: All right, standby, John, I want to go to Sunlen Serfaty. She's over at Cruz campaign headquarters. You got news, Sunlen, what are you learning?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. The Cruz campaign is watching Marco Rubio's results very closely. Conversations with many of the Cruz advisers that are watching results with the candidates right now reveal that they're looking at how well Rubio does.
They have always seen New Hampshire a chance to take down Rubio, really blunt his momentum going forward and in conversations with Cruz advisers, they see some signs that this might be happening tonight. Where the chips fall, they will really make their message going forward. They will start to cast Marco Rubio as weak, someone who cannot coalesce the establishment wing of the party.
This is their consolation prize, if, indeed, Marco Rubio comes out poorly tonight that they will take to the next state, South Carolina, going forward. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right. Sunlen, thanks very much. David Chalian is with me right now. David, you're looking at these numbers. How this happened, the projections. We know the winners, Trump and Sanders. What happened?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL EDITOR: Well, let's look at how Trump won New Hampshire tonight. This is a really angry electorate, OK? 46 percent of Republicans say they're betrayed by the GOP.
[20:15:02] Donald Trump won those voters going away. 32 percent for Trump, 16 percent for Cruz, Kasich at 15 percent, Rubio at 10 percent.
How about outsider versus insider? 48 of Republicans want an outsider. Trump wins them going away. 57 percent to Cruz's 12 percent, Fiorina, 9 percent and Kasich at 6 percent and those critical independents.
Take a look at this. They made up about 35 percent of the electorate and once again, Donald Trump wins them. 36 percent for Trump, 17 percent for Kasich, 13 percent for Rubio and Bush at 11 percent. So those Republicans who feel betrayed by their own party, who are looking for an outsider, those independent voters, they have fueled Trump's victory in New Hampshire, wolf.
BLITZER: People made up their minds relatively late in the game, right, or were they going in relatively early?
CHALIAN: On the Republican side, we saw a little more of late deciders than we did on the Democratic side. The Democratic side was a little more ...
BLITZER: And who did they break for?
CHALIAN: And they went for Donald Trump, I do believe.
BLITZER: On the Republican side, and Bernie Sanders obviously doing very well on the Democratic side.
CHALIAN: Right.
BLITZER: This is -- when you think about it, as everybody says, a major, major win for Donald Trump and for Bernie Sanders, two outsiders, non-establishment candidates.
Anderson, this is a moment both of these candidates clearly have been waiting for. They will relish it. We're anticipating they will be delivering victory speeches relatively soon. ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: No doubt about it. And Concession speeches from Hillary Clinton, and of course, the battle, though, for second place and third place on the Republican side is a fascinating one to watch. The numbers right now obviously too close to call.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, it's really too close to call. It is a muddle. I think the big question everybody is asking tonight is this question of Marco Rubio and can he distinguish himself tonight, having got ...
COOPER: We did hear in the exit polls that the debates matter.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Matter. 67 percent say that the debate was -- the recent debate was important. Voters in New Hampshire watch these debates, and even in talking to a source in the Rubio campaign. He admitted to me, "Look, we didn't do well, but they believe that he could recover". And we don't know what that's going to mean yet this evening.
COOPER: And to see Bush's name up in the top, I mean, right now at third place, again, we should caution only 9 percent of the votes in, but with 12 percent, very close, ahead of Rubio, ahead of ...
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And there's this battle between Rubio and Bush, right? I mean, this is -- this is sort of a ...
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the Bush team had a goal tonight. It was to finish ahead of Marco Rubio.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Exactly.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We'll see if they do that.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That was it. It's a real battle between the two of them and it's personal.
COOPER: But when you look at these numbers, Michael, I mean, moving who can now move forward to South Carolina. Assuming, obviously, someone will come in second, someone will come in third. Assuming these numbers stay relatively close, the percentages stay relatively close, a lot of people can make the argument, "Well, I can go on to South Carolina".
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN: Yeah. I think David made the point earlier this evening it's now improbable we're going to see some exodus from the race and that's wonderful news for Donald Trump. It's exactly the scenario he needs to continue to lead at 35 percent of the vote.
COOPER: We got to take a quick break. We'll have much more election results coming up in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:21:00] BLITZER: All right. We have a key race alert. As you know, Donald Trump we have projected is the winner on the Republican side. Bernie Sanders is winner on the Democratic side in these New Hampshire primaries.
Let's take a look at the actual votes that are coming in right now. They're beginning to come in right now. 9 percent of the vote is in, Trump is ahead with 34 percent.
But look at this race for second place in New Hampshire among the Republicans right now. John Kasich, the Ohio governor with 16 percent. Jeb Bush, 12 percent. Ted Cruz, 11 percent. Marco Rubio, 10 percent. Chris Christie at 8 percent. Carly Fiorina, 4 percent, Ben Carson, 2 percent, a very, very tight race for second place.
Remember, 9 percent of the precincts reporting. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders we projected is the winner. Right now with 13 percent of the precincts in. He's almost 5,000 votes ahead of Hillary Clinton, 56 percent to 42 percent right there. Big winners tonight, Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders.
Let's go back to John King over here at the magic wall. You're looking first of all at the Republican side, 9 percent of the numbers in. We're getting a feeling of how Trump did it.
KING: How Trump did it? Number one, and you look at that, Donald Trump never ran for office before. Second contest in the New Hampshire primary, he's going to get a win. And it looks like his margin is going to be a pretty healthy win.
So Donald Trump will go to South Carolina with a bit of steam. Ted Cruz will be waiting there with his Iowa win. And so, now the question is, who else breaks out from the establishment?
Kasich running a good second right now, we'll see if it holds up. We're still shy of 10 percent of the vote. This gets fascinating, Wolf, when you look at this. Number one, Donald Trump's doing it because he's winning by pretty good margins. Concord here, and then you drop down to Manchester, the biggest population center, blue collar voters, and much bigger margin there.
BLITZER: 83 percent of the vote.
KING: 83 percent. So he's winning in the center of the state, the two largest cities. He's also winning on the Seacoast in Portsmouth. If you bring this over here with the closer race here, these are much more moderate voters.
But with so many establishment candidates splintering the vote, Donald Trump is 28 percent is enough to win. We'll see what the final number holds up. 28 percent, 30 percent is enough to win in a lot of cities and towns which is why this is the conversation happening in Republican circles right now.
Governor Kasich, if he stays right there, you can bet bottom dollar he's going on. Governor Bush has needed New Hampshire to do something, to revive what's been the most struggling of the Republican establishment campaign. If he can stay there, you know he goes on.
This is when you start looking at it. Then Ted Cruz is right now running fourth. Marco Rubio fifth, just cracking 10 percent. Again, we got a long way to go and I'll show you important blazes in a minute.
And Chris Christie at 8 percent. There are conversations in the Christie campaign tonight if he stays in single digit, going to be stay down here at the bottom of the pack. He could be gone from the race very quickly because he bet it all on New Hampshire, as the campaign now goes south. Not hospitable territory for New Jersey governor, unless he can move up in this final moments.
And then Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson bottoming out the pack. But if you add this up, Fiorina, Christie, Rubio, Bush, Kasich, you get above 50 percent. You're in the 51 percent, 52 percent range which would be enough to beat Donald Trump.
That's the conversation among the establishment. But New Hampshire won't give us one. So what are we going to look for as the battle for second place plays out, right down here. This is where -- if you're in New Hampshire and go to a Republican event, you find the Republican candidates if places like Amhurst, places like Bedford, places like Merrimack and places all along the Massachusetts border down here where you have Nashua City here, Hudson over here where Chris Christie spent a lot of time, the other Republican candidates as well.
As these fill in down here, Wolf, I want to go back to time to Mitt Romney country, right? The coral color is Rand Paul. This is Mitt Romney country, establishment Republican votes. Donald Trump is winning those places right now because of the splintering of the establishment. Second place, the Republican race will decide down here. And .third place, third and fourth could be hugely significant.
[20:24:59] Because one of the debates in the establishment is going to be if you're under Ted Cruz, how much strength do you have going forward?
Now, Rubio if he stays he'll make the case I came in third in Iowa, that makes me viable. That will be the conversation. This is not Ted Cruz's best state. He won Iowa. If you're below -- if you're under Ted Cruz, how much strength to do have going forward?
Now, Rubio at this stage will make the case, I came in third in Iowa that's makes me viable but that will be the conversation. This is not Ted Cruz's best state. He won Iowa. If you're below him in New Hampshire, you're going to face some pressure.
BLITZER: We know Trump is the winner but why is second place in New Hampshire so important?
KING: Well, in part because the big debate among Republicans is who is the establishment? The John McCain, the Mitt Romney, who is the establishment Republican alternative to Ted Cruz, your evangelical and tea party candidate, and Donald Trump who's the outsider disrupter, the most disruptive force in American politics. Who is that candidate?
Because I just pull out for a minute, when we go south, Wolf, the map is going to go south soon and Ted Cruz is going it be happy about that. Because, remember, this is evangelicals. All right, Ted Cruz just had a big win out here in Iowa. You see there's a good chunk of evangelicals.
Look up here in New Hampshire, not many evangelicals. This is where we go now. The month of March is fought down here. The darker the area, the more evangelicals. Ted Cruz is in a good position. Donald Trump benefits from the crowded field right now. It's Ted Cruz who could benefit from the crowded field as we head south.
So the conversation among Republican establishment figures will be, shrink the field as fast as possible, but if you come back to the New Hampshire results, it's going to be very hard to get some of these guys out because they're going to think, "I want to stay a little longer". That will be the fascinating conversation as we get to second and third. See Governor Bush waiting a count here.
If this holds up, you know he's staying, you know, he's going to stay and you know he's going to stay. So the choice of who's the mainstream establishment alternative to Trump and Cruz, New Hampshire's not going to settle l that fight.
BLITZER: Yeah, obviously, a huge battle under way now for second and third place. I want to go back to Jake and Dana. As we're watching what's unfolding, this battle for second place is really, really significant.
TAPPER: It is, indeed. And obviously Donald Trump getting the W for the night and what an amazing victory it is for him. But let us pick up where John and Wolf were just leaving off talking about that race to be the establishment candidate between Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, John Kasich, and Marco Rubio. We thought we were going to get clarity tonight. I think it's getting more muddled. Who do you think has the most at stake of those four tonight?
BASH: Well, actually I think all of them have a lot at stake. But for John Kasich, especially, if he -- he's been saying if he gets smoked here, he's leaving. But the reality is, if he doesn't do maybe two or three, second or third place, it's going to be very hard for him to continue. He's going to South Carolina no matter what, but he is pretty much out of gas meaning money, and they need to put more gas in the tank.
If he does well in second place for this establishment lane as well, he'll get more money. And they do have, even though not a lot of people are talking about it, they do have a plan. I talked to a senior adviser earlier today. To continue and get through -- they don't expect to do well in South Carolina, but to get through to the dates where the Midwest is really key because he's Governor of Ohio, March 15th. If he could stay in the race until March 15th, he thinks he's got a lot. The other person I think we really have to talk about is Marco Rubio because ...
TAPPER: He had momentum coming out of Iowa.
BASH: He had momentum coming out of Iowa. I mean, you remember, I went to Marco Rubio events the day after Iowa here in New Hampshire and so many people came to see him because they said they wanted to take a second look because they wanted to pick a winner. And it just as a reminder to us how an instant, a moment that is memorable for somebody, good and bad, can change the way things ...
TAPPER: You're specifically referring to some of his debate moments when Chris Christie went after him ...
BASH: That's right.
TAPPER: ... and stuck him with a shiv.
BASH: That's right. And Rubio's people admit it's been a very, very tough 72 hours.
TAPPER: It's been brutal for him. What a turnaround, let's say, for former Florida Governor Jeb Bush. His political obituary has been written several times. I interviewed him earlier today. And he was talking about how frustrating it is and how you have to be tough to work through it.
Athena Jones, CNN reporter Athena Jones is at Jeb Bush headquarters in Manchester. And, Athena, he had been talking about momentum and feeling the crowds and energy and the final polls aren't in yet but it looks like he might have a good night tonight.
ATHENA JONES, CNN REPORTER: It certainly does, Jake. The fact that this is such a close race for second, third place, you know, the Bush campaign has said all along they expected Trump to win but they are heartened by the fact they're seeing about 1,200 or so votes separating Bush from John Kasich.
I spoke with a campaign official not long ago and he remarked on this close race and called it something of a win already. He said even by being close, we have won by coming a long way in 30 days. We're back in the conversation. We're actually better, much better positioned than some of the other candidates. One of those other candidates is actually John Kasich.
You just heard Dana talking about how he's running out of gas and has -- may struggle in South Carolina. They say that Governor Bush has a lot of money and resources to be able to compete in the next state.
So these numbers right now are confirming what I've been hearing from Bush campaign officials that they've been seeing momentum on his side and a surge for their candidate, Jake?
[20:30:09] TAPPER: All right, Athena Jones at Bush campaign headquarters in Manchester. Now let's go to Concord, New Hampshire, the capital of the state where we find Sara Murray at John Kasich's campaign headquarters. And Sara, when I spoke with the governor earlier today, he was kind of wistful, let's see what happens, now it's up to the voters. It looks like maybe they were listening to him.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: Yeah, I think you're right, Jake. And as you guys were just pointing out, there's so much at stake for John Kasich tonight and there still is in deciding whether to keep going. But right now his campaign is feeling confident and they are planning ahead. As Senior Kasich staffer tells me they are planning on deploying staff to between eight and nine of the upcoming states.
They're sending about 200 staffers and volunteers to South Carolina. Not because they think they can win there necessarily but they want to play hard and they're looking ahead to Nevada as a potential firewall, a state that could win and to keep their momentum going until you get to the states that vote March 1st, March 8th, March 15th, places like Virginia, places like Michigan, the neighbor to Ohio that could be much more favorable to John Kasich. So that's the strategy for them.
Looking ahead, they are not -- they're certainly not in the same frame of mind they were just a couple days ago talking about what happens if they get smoked in New Hampshire. Totally different mindset for them here tonight. Jake?
TAPPER: All right, Sara Murray, at Kasich campaign headquarters in Concord, New Hampshire. And Dana, when you look at the exit polls and you see how much of the independent vote Donald Trump ...
BASH: That's right.
TAPPER: ... took away from John Kasich and his campaign message was steered right at Independents.
BASH: Because so many of those independents clearly were much more focused on getting somebody outside of politics and ...
TAPPER: Right.
BASH: ... there's nobody more like that in this race than Donald Trump. One quick addition to what Sara Murray was just saying, I was just texting with somebody from the Kasich campaign who insists that they have money but I guess the key is if you have a strong showing, second place in New Hampshire, a lot more money is going to roll in to help them with their long-term strategy.
TAPPER: That's the hope. Nothing succeeds like success. Let's go back to campaign headquarters and Wolf Blitzer and Anderson Cooper.
COOPER: Jake, Dana, thanks very much. Just to give you a sense of how important placing is in New Hampshire in first and second, every GOP nominee, the person who's actually gone on to get the nomination for the GOP since 1944 has either come in first or in second place in New Hampshire.
So obviously that battle for second just historically is an important one. A lot of people in contention for it. Let's talk about it with our political commentators. Van, you're not particularly surprised to see Bush doing pretty well. You've been watching him ...
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, you know, it's really interesting because I wrote him off, everybody wrote him off. He was almost like a laughing stalk, almost like a joke. It's very hard in politics to come back once you are a punch line.
But I watched this guy and, you know, in these town halls, when he had a chance to stand up, he seems to have come into himself, it's almost like a revenge of the nerd who's like, you know what, I'm not going to take this, I'm going to stand, I am somebody. It's almost inspiring to see him climb his way back up.
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I've been saying for months that it would be really silly for Jeb Bush to listen to all of the noise and get out early. He had so -- he still has so much going for him. He's still got a ton of money. Still got a ton of infrastructure. He's rising in the polls in South Carolina.
COPER: He's gotten better in the debates also.
CUPP: He had a great debate performance the other night. He's rising in South Carolina which is a moderate, politically moderate state for Republicans. He has a good opportunity there.
Jeb Bush, I think, has always known that the noise and chaos of the Republican Party was going to calm down and if he can just hang on. And mind you, white knuckle hanging on, just like if he could just hang on, you know, long enough, he could be the last establishment guy standing. I don't know if he will be but it's like ludicrous to ...
COOPER: It's remarkable.
CUPP: ...to suggest he need to get out.
COOPER: ... at those who are in contention for second place then you think about South Carolina, who's best positioned as the potential second-place person for South Carolina?
Obviously Donald Trump has had very big rallies there. He seems to be doing very well there. But in terms of Bush, in terms of Kasich, in terms of Christie, in terms of Rubio and Cruz ...
JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Cruz. I mean, it's a conservative ...
CUPP: Yeah, I think.
COOPER: Strong Evangelical support.
LORD: Right, right exactly. This is Ted Cruz's kind of place. I don't think candidly it's the kind of place for a lot of these other folks now. There may be an exception with Jeb Bush. I mean his brother did win the South Carolina primary.
CUPP: Yeah.
LORD: . So they're maybe ...
COOPER: And there's talk about his brother actually campaigning for him in South Carolina which would be the first time ...
CUPP: They like the Bushes in South Carolina. It was always his plan to go through to South Carolina.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And he has Lindsey Graham.
LORD: To Van's point ...
CUPP: He's got Lindsey Graham.
COOPER: Slow and steady approach.
MICHAEL NUTTER, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Slow and steady. He's been an adult in this, he's not out, you know ...
COOPER: He's been handing out little turtles to people -- he has been.
NUTTER: He's not been some, you know, outlandish attack, you know, kind of person.
[20:35:04] He's been a Governor. He knows what it takes to govern. And, you know, you have to get through the campaign part first to be able to govern, but he's a Governor.
COOPER: And yet, you know, in the exit polls, I mean, among GOP voters, they feel betrayed by the GOP, they, you know, I mean, you can argue that Bush is part of that establishment as GOP.
CUPP: But this is what's so remarkable. I was just looking at that some of these early exit polls, for those Republicans who feel betrayed by the Republican Party. Trump is winning both yes and no. OK? He is winning people who say, no, I don't feel betrayed by the -- and yes I do.
BORGER: Yeah.
CUPP: No one else is even ...
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: You know, let's look at this whole race. I mean, just tonight what we've seen, you have these two candidates who rail against Wall Street, who hate trade deals, who consider Washington politics and campaign finance completely corrupt. Right?
So why wouldn't Trump be winning on both sides as you were saying? Because that is a majority view, you know, among the electorate, among Democrats and among the Republicans.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: As to -- just on that -- as to the point on Bush, because I agree that I think he's come into his own in the last month, giving out turtles and coming out of his shell, as it were. And I think the reason for that is because he finally found a purpose in this race and that purpose was to expose Donald Trump.
CUPP: Right. AXELROD: He felt Donald Trump was making a mockery of a system of
governance that he relishes, that he was raised in, that he was raised to believe in. And he felt he needed to stand up for serious governance and he found a market for that in New Hampshire apparently enough to move on.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: And his kind of first purpose, it seemed to be, was to expose Marco Rubio. He didn't do it well in that first debate but that that last debate, I mean he was piling on with Chris Christie trying to expose Marco Rubio as not quite ready for PrimeTime, his ads in the right to rise, the SuperPAC ads have all been about Marco Rubio ...
AXELROD: Although if he moves on, if he moves on, if Bush moves on, Chris Christie will go down in history as one of the great blocking backs in ...
HENDERSON: That's right.
AXELROD: ... the history of Republican politics.
HENDERSON: Does he stay on just to play that role? I mean he looked like he was having so much fun in that last debate. Does he hang on to play that role?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Anderson, can I make the observation that last part, tonight is shaping up precisely the way that when Michael Bloomberg hoped it would, Bernie Sanders with a very big victory for the Ds, Donald trump winning for the Rs and an appetite in the race nonetheless for some independent thinking in John Kasich.
If I'm Bloomberg and I'm looking at this, I'm saying, you know, they're just might be an avenue for me and I can't live with either of these front-runners.
COOPER: And he's going to make and he's -- apparently has to make a decision by early March ...
BORGER: Right.
COOPER: ... whether or not he actually is going to ...
CUPP: Well, come on in, Michael Bloomberg.
AXELROD: One of the things ...
NUTTER: March become so critical in this process. By the end of March, more than 56 percent of the delegates will have been awarded through the voting process. March is that time, and as we saw if we're talking about Jeb Bush or one of the other Republican candidates coming through the south, you're going to see the same thing on the Democratic side but also plays to his track...
COOPER: And Mark Preston reporting earlier in the broadcast that Sanders' campaign today spent some time focusing on those later states, you know, that it's not just for them about Iowa, about New Hampshire anymore.
JONES: Well the thing about the Sanders campaign is that they have an endless supply of money. It's unbelievable the amount of -- I just know like normal regular people who never give money to anybody or anything, I gave $20 to Bernie.
If there's something -- he's tapped into something and he's shown that you don't have to take the big bucks, you can argue about whether that's a smear or not. But he's shown you don't have to take the big bucks. So what that means is he gets a chance to just keep going forward and I'm going to tell you, the pain that you feel in the Republican Party and the pain you feel with the Independents and the pain you feel with the Democrats has to find an expression. It has to.
And right now the establishment has not found a way to signal I hear you. Instead, it's to lecturing people saying, you should be with us even when people are not there yet.
LORD: Two striking things here. One is Trump and looking at these exit polls. This Trump's appeal across all areas ...
CUPP: Yeah, really.
LORD: ... I mean, women, all ages, education, income, party I.D., ideology, marital status which leads to the other point here that Donald Trump who's been, you know, criticized just the other night for saying something.
COOPER: Yeah.
LORD: He is the message. He is today's great communicator, as it were, by being himself. By being himself and telling these folks, hey, you're not a bunch of racist bigoted xenophobics, you're hardworking Americans. I hear you. The establishment doesn't hear you. And we're going to carry this to victory.
COOPER: Let's go back to wolf counting more votes.
BLITZER: All right Anderson, we have another key race alert.
[20:40:00] Let's show our viewers right now. Donald Trump we projected is the winner, right now 12 percent of the precincts reporting. Now he's got 34 percent.
But look at this battle for second place among the Republican presidential candidates, John Kasich, the Ohio governor, he's at 16 percent, Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz are at 12 percent, Marco Rubio 10 percent, Chris Christie, the New Jersey Governor, 8 percent.
So there's a huge battle under way right now. John Kasich, now doing well on the Republican side. On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders we projected is the winner, 15 percent of the precincts reporting right now. He got an amazing 58 percent in New Hampshire. And Hillary Clinton's 40 percent. Bernie Sanders is the winner of the Democratic Primary in New Hampshire. John King, let's talk a little bit about how these winners did it, but this battle for second place is really critical on the Republican side.
KING: Right just a quick look at the Democratic map as it starts to fill in, Wolf, 15 percent of the vote. That's so far, one lonely town up here for Hillary Clinton. The rest of it looks like we'll see as the rest going to fills in. But at the moment, it's shaping up like a shellacking on the democratic side.
Let's go over to the Republican race. Donald Trump still in the lead. Just 12 percent of the vote counts. We've got a lot more to count. But that's been a consistent lead for Donald Trump. That's why we're so safe in calling this race. You see just updated a little more. Kasich in second, Ted Cruz just moved into third place as we count the votes now. But very, very close Jeb Bush right behind him at that 12 votes. Right behind him there, there's also 12 percent. Then you got Rubio and Chris Christie. Rubio at 10 percent, Chris Christie at 8 percent.
Fiorina, Carson rounding it out. How is this happening, as Jeff Lord just noted, look at Donald Trump, he's winning tiny counties up hear in near the Canadian Border, these are rural counties. If you go back in time, these are Rand Paul counties, these are libertarian voters who were for Rand Paul.
Donald trump is winning these counties. Let's come back, stretch out the map. You come down here, these are mainline establishment Republicans in Concord. The capital city of the state where you have Republicans it's close but Donald Trump is winning. You come over to the seacoast here, more moderates, even Liberal-Republicans. Again, Donald Trump is winning. He's winning across the spectrum.
Now, New Hampshire is a predominantly wide state but you do have rural areas and you suburban areas and some small urban areas. Donald Trump is winning in all of them because of the fractured establishment field.
Now the race for second place, where is that playing out? You see this is Jeb Bush he's only winning one town so far, it's a tiny one. But Jeb Bush is on the map with 31 percent here as he tried to stay in the top three. Now he's fallen into fourth but he's right behind.
And John Kasich, he's won in the votes tonight, there's some Northern counties that voted at midnight last night. Here's won one here. But here's the key to this race right now.
BLITZER: All right. Stand by for a moment. I want our viewers to know we're waiting for victory statements, victory speeches. We're going to be hearing from Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders. Let's take a quick break. Lots more coming up. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:45:51] BLITZER: A very impressive win for Donald Trump. We projected he is the winner of the Republican primary in New Hampshire. Take a look at this. Trump headquarters, they're standing by. They're going to be really excited once he walks in there and delivers his victory speech. This is going to be a very, very important speech for Donald Trump as he wins the New Hampshire primary.
But there's a fierce battle underway right now for second place among the GOP in New Hampshire. Right now, Donald Trump is the winner but there are several candidates who are fighting for second place including Jeb Bush, Ted Cruz, John Kasich, Marco Rubio. We'll see where they go.
The voting is coming in as we speak right now.
I want to go over to David Chalian. The big winners, of course, and you have to give them a lot of credit, Donald Trump who would have thought only a few months ago, he'd be the winner of the New Hampshire primary. Who would have thought Bernie Sanders a few months ago, would be the winner of the Democratic primary? You're looking closely at how these two so-called non-establishment candidates managed to do it.
CHALIAN: Both of those candidates, by the way, have said they, themselves, are surprised at how well they were doing in this process. So you're right, nobody expected this.
BLITZER: And they didn't just win, they are winning by impressive margins.
CHALIAN: These are solid victories.
BLITZER: Yeah.
CHALIAN: No doubt about that, Wolf. You asked a little bit earlier about late deciders versus those people that decided before the last few days. We went into a deeper dive here. I want you to take a look at this because there's a big difference.
Among late deciders, you see that John Kasich and Donald Trump basically split those 21 percent for Kasich, 20 percent for Trump, 14 percent for Rubio, 13 percent for Cruz. That's about 47 percent of the electorate. Nearly half the electorate decided late.
Those that decided earlier than the last few days, 52 percent of Republicans, Trump won them going away, 42 percent, Cruz 13 percent, Rubio, 12 percent, Kasich, 11 percent.
Donald Trump's support, Wolf, was very solid early on. He was holding on to them. What this shows that those that were deciding in the last few days, this is the Kasich surge at the end. This is what we see him leading in that battle for second place that you discussed.
BLITZER: I mean, you got to think about this. Donald Trump, once again, I can't overestimate how important this is for Donald Trump to emerge.
Second place barely in Iowa, but now in first place in New Hampshire, moving forward to South Carolina, Nevada, and the so-called SCC states. Those are coming up not very far down.
Jake, you're watching out there in Manchester. We're standing by. I want to remind our viewers, speeches from Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders, they're the two big winners tonight.
TAPPER: That's right. And CNN has just learned that Hillary Clinton has telephoned Senator Bernie Sanders to concede in the race and offer her congratulations. We do expect that she will any minute now come to the stage and address her supporters.
As you know, Wolf, New Hampshire, a big, big state for the Clintons historically. Hillary Clinton staged her comeback in 2008 in this state, winning the primary against then-Senator Obama.
Bill Clinton came in second here after a tumultuous start to his presidential campaign in 1992. So this is a -- it's a rough time for the Clinton family and the Clinton machine.
Let's go to Jeff Zeleny who is traveling with the Clinton campaign.
Jeff, what are you hearing from campaign officials?
ZELENY: Jake, I can tell you she is en route here to deliver a speech, but a very different kind of speech that she, of course, wanted to give.
Now, there are signs of life here at this rally. You can probably see behind me. That was not the case a few moments ago. They turned on some pretty loud music and are getting the crowd fired up.
But Jake, beyond this loud music, there is deep worry in the hearts and minds of Clinton supporters. I talked to one senior Clinton supporter from here in New Hampshire who said he believes that their message was muddled.
He believes that she does not have a succinct of a message as Bernie Sanders and that is one of the reasons that they are actively talking about a bit of a campaign shakeup, an adjustment here. They do not -- they underestimated Bernie Sanders. They underestimated how much he would resonate with the populist strain in the party right now. And they are going to try and retool her message. There are no televisions at this rally, Jake.
[20:50:00] And that is one thing that is very different from most campaign rallies. That is one sign that they knew tonight would be a difficult one. But there are teleprompters. The speech that Secretary Clinton is going to give tonight in just a few minutes is going to be untold about the way forward. How she can and will still win this nomination in March once this goes out to a broader diverse section of this Democratic Party.
But the Bernie Sanders Campaign is very confident and they know that they are in the right place here, so the Clintons will have to readjust and they will give this speech then she'll go back to New York tonight. She will not spend another night in New Hampshire. Jake? TAPPER: All right. Let's go to sanders headquarters in concord, New Hampshire, where we find Brianna Keilar. Brianna, what's going on?
KEILAR: Well, you can tell that scene that Jeff just described is the polar opposite of what you're seeing here. Sanders, actually they're watching some video of Bernie Sanders shooting hoops because we understand, if you can believe it, that's actually what he's doing right now. This is concord high school. We're in a gymnasium and there's a basketball court adjacent to where we are where Bernie Sanders is killing time. We -- with his kids, with his grandkids playing basketball.
We're actually told by a campaign aide that he got here about 10 minutes to 8:00 and we're trying to figure out exactly when he got that call from Secretary Clinton. But he's been killing time. He wants to come out at 9:00 p.m. really to take advantage of the top of the hour. This is something that he is relishing. This may be the most crucial victory for Bernie Sanders, and certainly as you know, Jake, he has an uphill battle ahead of him as he pushes toward South Carolina and Nevada.
But he's going to make the case tonight in this speech, and we understand he only wrote one. He didn't even write that just in case concession speech. He's going to make the case that this goes beyond New Hampshire, that his supporters are going to come out for him in states not just Nevada, not just South Carolina, but those March 1st Primary States as well. And he's going to say this is really just the beginning.
TAPPER: All right, Brianna Keilar at a jubilant Sanders campaign headquarters in Concord, New Hampshire. Let's go to Jim Acosta who's at Trump headquarters. Trump obviously the other big story of the night. His big victory not surprising in this state, and yet if you take a step back from the politics of the last six ti nine months and realize that Donald Trump has just won the New Hampshire primary, it is a remarkable thing to behold. Jim, what's going on where you are?
ACOSTA: That's right. I think for tonight Donald Trump has the outsider lane all to himself. What we're seeing right now inside his auditorium, Jake, is a very excited crowd and I can tell you that it just the last 30 minutes or so, campaign officials here at this Trump Election Party have locked the doors. The doors are locked. Nobody else can get in.
That includes the media. That's because there are so many people crammed inside of this building, the fire marshal and other authorities are concerned about letting more people inside. So that just goes to show you just how excited people are here. We saw hundreds of people lined up for hours outside of this tiny ballroom here in Manchester, New Hampshire, and what we're also hearing from officials here inside the Trump Campaign is that they're trying to determine just how soon to get the candidate out here.
Jake and Dana, as you know from watching all these elections, this is that part of the night when the campaigns start to talk to one another about when who's going to go first, who's going to go second, when do you guys want to go, when do we want to go? And the Trump campaign had expected that he would be coming out at around 9:30 tonight. That was, perhaps, because they were anticipating this process taking a little longer in terms of declaring a winner. This happened so soon.
Now they're trying to determine whether or not to put the candidate or to put Mr. Trump out sooner. And so that's what we're waiting for at this point. A lot of excited people in this room. So many people that they've locked the doors to this election headquarters party here in Manchester, Jake and Dana.
TAPPER: Not the first time that Donald Trump has drawn a capacity crowd during this campaign season. Let us go back to campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C., and with Wolf Blitzer. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right, Jake. Thanks very much. Here's our CNN key race alert right now on the Republican side, Donald Trump is the winner. He's building that lead impressively 35 percent. He's 8,500 votes ahead of John Kasich, the Ohio Governor. He's got 16 percent. Look at this battle for second and third place under way right now. Ted Cruz just changed to 12 percent. Jeb Bush, 11, Marco Rubio, 10 percent. Chris Christie, 7 percent. Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson, they're down below.
Take a look at the Democratic side. Bernie Sanders, the independent senator from neighboring Vermont, 58 percent. He's about 10,000 votes ahead of Hillary Clinton at only 40 percent. A big, big win for Bernie Sanders. A big, big win for Donald Trump.
[20:55:00] You know, actually I want to go back to Anderson right now. Anderson, you're getting more information and you're also getting expert analysis.
COOPER: Yeah, that's right. David Axelrod, Gloria Borger they're taking a deep dive on the numbers both for Donald Trump and for Hillary Clinton, what bodes for her future and for the future of Donald Trump as well.
Well, and I should say all night long we've been hearing people on camera saying, you know, who among political commentators thought this night was possible to have Donald Trump winning. I got to point to Jeffrey Lord who to get, do you want to do a victory lap, Lord?
LORD: That's right.
COOPER: You have been saying from the get-go that Donald Trump can go all the way.
LORD: I have, indeed. I mean, I just -- I spent time with him. I talked to him. I mean you know, you try when you're in politics to listen to people, to understand what they're saying. And, I mean, here's a guy, a billionaire, and he's getting votes from people who are making under $50,000 a year. He knows how to communicate. He's very good at it.
Contrary to all the press, he's a very nice guy, a very charming guy. He just means what he says. He wants this country to have immigration, but, you know, all the rest, but there's a way to do it and to do it the right way. That's the message here, and he doesn't take any, if I may say in front of all my media friends, he stands up to the media which I think ...
CUPP: What?
LORD: ... I know you find this ...
COOPER: He stands up to and embraces the same time.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Or use this I mean there's no candidate who has been so available to so many different types of media.
AXELROD: Let's be honest, there's a symbiotic relationship between the media and Donald Trump and he's played it like a stratafarious. I must say he delivers his message a little less gentility than Jeffry over there. In this poll in this exit poll that people who say they want sounded tells like it is or there is a quality 62 percent of those votes the tell-it-like-it-is voters chose Donald Trump. He just blew everybody ...
BORGER: He blew everybody away on everything.
AXELROD: ... and that's the core -- that is the core of his appeal. Yeah, but this one really noteworthy it can bring changes, the other. And those two are two most important qualities for a majority of the voters.
SMERCONISH: But he can still use to have the highest net and first of all preps to Jeffrey because you've been so right and I've been so wrong about this guy. But let me quadruple down because he has the highest negatives among even Republicans. Yes, he is winning the New Hampshire primary, but among Republicans, he's successful only because there are so many others in the race and in a general scenario, he is equally as unpopular. So I don't see how he can carry the ball all the way to the White House.
CUPP: And before we inaugurate him, you know, it's a long way to November and actually New Hampshire being, you know, blue collar and not Evangelical is good territory for Trump. The rest of the map might be a little more difficult. But as much as you've been listening to people, Jeffrey, and I believe that you have, who have been talking about Trump, have you been listening to the 70 percent of the Republican Party that does not like Donald Trump?
And those are the voters that we're all looking at, and with this many people still in the race ...
AXLEROD: Right.
BASH: ... that is why he is capitalizing not on a majority, a plurality. Hot.
COOPER: And we should point out at the top of the hour we're expecting Bernie Sanders to be speaking and before we do, you wanted to talk a little bit about Hillary Clinton and what the numbers show
BORGER: Can I just ...
AXLEROD: I still think she's -- go ahead.
BORGER: No, I just want to say one more thing about Trump. Give him his due tonight. Honestly, give him his due. He won across the board of all ages. He won college educated, non college educated.
HENDERSON: Women.
BORGER: All incomes. He won women. He won independent voters. And David was pointing out on some key characteristics, I don't think he won on shares or values.
CUPP: No, or among evangelicals.
BORGER: Right. So, anyway, now you ...
AXLEROD: He is still, just to Michael's point, he is getting a third of the vote which we should not ...
BORGER: I understand that. And when it's one-on-one, it might be a little difficult for him, but tonight he had a very impressive victory.
AXLEROD: If I were the Clinton campaign, I'd be looking at these exit polls with -- I still think she's a solid favorite because she does have inroads into the minority communities that are going to be much more important than they are in all White States like Iowa and New Hampshire.
COOPER: But what do you see with the numbers?
AXELROD: But she is - Bernie Sanders got 72 percent of the independents. He beat her among -- she won people under 50,000 last times. He's beating her two to one among those voters tonight. And we all -- we hard ...
COOPER: People earning less than ...
AXLEROD: ... people who earn less than $50,000 you have a white blue collar workers which is important constituency moving forward. And, you know, we heard Madeleine Albright say there's a special place in hell for women who don't help other women. Well, they better make some room down there because 53 percent of women voted for Bernie Sanders.
BORGER: That's right. You know, the people who voted for Hillary Clinton were people who valued experience and wanted to continue the policies of Barack Obama.
[21:00:03] HENDERSON: And he made ...
COOPER: And yet we saw in the exit polls there were a lot of voters on the democratic side who said he wasn't liberal enough.
