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CNN Live Event/Special
Outsiders Trump and Sanders Win Big in New Hampshire; John Kasich is Tonight's Breakout Candidate; Major Battle Underway for Third Place in GOP. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired February 10, 2016 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[00:00:02] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We won.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is the wow number of the night.
DONALD TRUMP (R) REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Oh wow! I wanted to congratulate the other candidates; okay? Now that I got that over with.
HILLARY CLINTON (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It's not whether you get knocked down, that matters. It's whether you get back up.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Our disappointment tonight is not on you; it's on me.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It was a human moment for somebody who has been accused of not being human.
SEN. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Tonight the light overcame the darkness of negative campaign and you made it happen.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, both outsiders of their parties, coming out of New Hampshire tonight with huge wins, baffling the Republican and Democratic establishment. They're now trying to figure out what comes next, as the candidates set their sights on South Carolina and Nevada.
On the Republican side, Ohio Governor John Kasich is tonight's breakout candidate, coming in second after holding more than 100 town halls in New Hampshire. Kasich proved he had a ground game there, but how will it play in the upcoming contest? Does he have the resources, the organization, the money to go the distance?
We're watching the republican battle for third place right now, as well. Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio, each of them has had missteps. Each of them needs momentum coming out of New Hampshire. Let's take a look at a key race alert right now on the Republican side: as you can see, Donald Trump, a huge win over John Kasich, 35- percent to 16-percent, 43,720 votes ahead of Kasich with 16-percent; but you see that fight for third-place between Cruz, Bush, and Marco Rubio. They're all at 11-percent right now. We're watching this closely. 84-percent of the vote is in; plenty of votes out there remaining.
On the Democratic side, Bernie Sanders had an extremely impressive win as well, with 85-percent of the vote. He's almost 45,000 votes ahead of Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, as of right now. 60-percent to only 39-percent for Hillary Clinton. Jake Tapper and Dana Bash, big wins for these two candidates.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: That's right; what an unpredictable night in an already exciting and confounding political year. We have Bernie Sanders and Donald Trump in first place in their respective parties. Donald Trump, right now, has a 19 point, percentage point, victory over his next closest competitor. That is the biggest margin of victory since John McCain won here 16 years ago and then, of course, John Kasich second-place finish, strong, surprising. Then that tight, tight battle for third place among Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. it has been a very, very eventful night.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are going to make our country so strong. We are going to start winning again. We don't win anymore, as a country. We don't win on trade. We don't win with the military; we can't beat ISIS. We don't win with anything. We are going to start winning again and we're going to win so much; you are going to be so happy. We are going to make America so great again, maybe greater than ever before. I love you all. Thank you, New Hampshire. Thank you. Thank you, New Hampshire. Thank you.
We are going now to South Carolina. We're going to win in South Carolina. I love you all. Thank you very much. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: That's, of course, the first place winner declaring victory and giving a lot of his stump speech while he had the attention of the nation.
BAS: Oh, no question about it, and something that we'd heard over and over. Listen, for somebody who's never been a politician, he gets the importance of saying the same thing, your core message over and over and over again for it to stick and making it very simple. Make America great again and we're going to be winning all the time. When people think of Donald Trump now they think of that so why ruin a good thing?
TAPPER: Well some of his opponents think of other things, possibly, but those are definitely the messages he is conveying and successfully so, especially this evening. What a strong showing, we should say, for John Kasich. A lot of people thought that maybe this was going to be his last stand, he wasn't going to finish even in the top three. Here he is in second-place.
BASH: He's in second-place and he had 106 town halls here. He's a sitting governor of Ohio. He virtually moved here for the past many, many months, working very, very hard.
We talked earlier in the night about the fact that when his volunteers were making calls at the last minute trying to convince those undecideds to come [00:05:01] his way, that he was reaching out to independents; but the other thing that they did was they had a very detailed database of people who were leaning towards Jeb Bush, leaning towards Marco Rubio, calling them specifically and trying to pull those voters away from those competitors and it looks like he had some success with that.
TAPPER: Ground game working. Let's go to the headquarters of tonight's big winner on the Republican side, Donald Trump, of course. Jim Acosta is there at Trump Headquarters in Manchester. Jim, has everybody gone? What's going on at Trump Headquarters?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Just about, Jake, that's right; and Donald Trump Instagramed a picture on his way out of New Hampshire. He says he's on his way to South Carolina and you know, you're talking about Trump's victory tonight. I think it's interesting when Donald Trump acknowledged, during his victory speech here, that he's learned a lot about ground games in the last week and he tipped his hat to Corey Lewandowsky, the New Hampshire native who is the campaign manager, basically saying Corey Lewandowsky got a right here in New Hampshire and perhaps Corey is now becoming a bit of a household name across the country. If Donald Trump had not won tonight or if it had been really close it might have been an "Emperor Has No Clothes" type of night. Yes, he can get big crowds, but can he deliver; and he answered that question tonight definitively, no question about it.
Now, in terms of what happens next, he goes to South Carolina, but get this. He's not staying in South Carolina for the next nine or ten or eleven days. He's going to Florida. He's going to Louisiana by the end of the week. He's continuing to go with this leapfrog strategy, where he does not just focus on the state that is next on the calendar. He's bouncing around to these other states to try to tee up these other contests that are looming down the calendar. It's an approach that was criticized last week. Remember he was snowed out of New Hampshire, still went down to South Carolina. Did that event down (no audio). - what is he doing? He's not in New (no audio) just a few days before the New Hampshire primary he's down in South Carolina.
Well you can't really second guess that strategy anymore. This approach of filling these arenas, filling these auditoriums, getting people whipped up into a frenzy in these small to medium sized TV markets and the states that are on the calendar and hope that that translates into people voting come election night. I think the other thing to look for in the coming days, does he go after John Kasich? John Kasich is a threat now; he's number two, obviously, here tonight in New Hampshire. Donald Trump earlier today was praising John Kasich. I can't imagine him turning around and going after John Kasich on a dime, but we've seen him do that with Ted Cruz.
We know that Donald Trump is ready to go after Ted Cruz in South Carolina. He sees Cruz as a big threat there. He's already got a negative ad out there on the air waves attacking Ted Cruz. As we all know too well, over the last week, Donald Trump has a taste of attacking Ted Cruz. It's a favorite target of his, guys.
TAPPER: They are competing for some of the same voters, especially in South Carolina. Jim Acosta in Manchester, Trump Headquarters; thanks so much.
Most of the Republican candidates are already heading to South Carolina. They'll be campaigning again just hours from now. CNN Political Correspondent Sara Murray joins us now, by phone. She is on board the plane of the second place GOP finisher, Governor John Kasich. Sara, I imagine that it is a fairly festive environment on that plane.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER, via telephone: You know it actually, it is pretty festive but you would expect somebody like John Kasich, who the stakes were so high for him, it was really do or die, deliver a strong a strong finish in New Hampshire or there was really no way out of there and he's not exactly bouncing off the walls. He told us in the airport, as we were boarding the plane, that he almost can't describe the feeling right now. It's like he can't quite believe it. He knew that they had a strong ground game. He knew they'd been working really hard and they felt solid, that they could attain a second-place finish going into tonight, but he also told us he's been listening to this 21 Pilots song lately, it's called "Stressed Out" and he said that song has really been resonating with him. I think it's a certain sense of relief that he feels, that he is boarding this plane that is full of his campaign staff and reporters and is heading on to South Carolina.
You know, senior staffers tell me it's not just South Carolina. They're hunkering down and deploying staffers and volunteers to eight or nine states that are further down the calendar. They want to stay in this for a long time and they feel like over the next couple of months they can pick up some delegates along the way and that by the time you get to April 15th they will be in a very good position to pick up big batches of the delegates in places like Ohio, which is, of course, Governor Kasich's home state. He's the sitting governor there, or Michigan, the neighboring state. So I think what this really does is it sets up a long slog for us over the next four to six weeks and just really muddies the establishment lane that a lot of people would have thought might have become clearer coming out of New Hampshire.
BASH: Sarah, thank you so much. And Jake, you know, (Inaudible) who is one [00:10:02] of intrepid imbeds just sent in video from the plane before they're going to take off, to sort of show what Sarah was just describing and Kasich did look pretty elated in that.
The only thing that I was just thinking about is the strategy that the Kasich campaign employed was what you have been mentioning which is the McCain 2000 strategy, which is hunker down, basically live in New Hampshire for a long time and, you know, rise in the polls. He didn't win like John McCain did but he did much better than others did because of that and the person who he has on board, John Weaver, is a political strategist who helped John McCain do that. He kind of followed the same strategy here in New Hampshire. The question is whether or not they can continue in a way that John McCain couldn't in 2000.
TAPPER: Yes, and let's bring in our Executive Editor, Mark Preston; and the challenge for John McCain 16 years ago was, okay, you've won Moderates and Independents in New Hampshire, can you win Republicans in South Carolina and the answer was no.
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Right, and what's next - you know, it's interesting, the John Kasich narrative is okay, he does well in New Hampshire but what's next? What's next? You know, Sarah's absolutely right. The whole play for Kasich is let's go to Midwest. Let's go on my home turf. Let me talk the talk that those folks understand and I'll be okay. The problem is that's a little bit far away for him to do so, although I did get a note for from a top Kasich advisor that said listen, you all are saying we don't have a game in place. Look at the experience we have. We've won a lot of states before. We have a very good team in place. Don't count us out, which is very, very interesting.
To the point of what happens between Ted Cruz now and Donald Trump and John Kasich and here comes Jeb Bush and there's Marco Rubio, we now have what was going to be a definition of three people coming out of New Hampshire -
TAPPER: Yes.
PRESTON: -- and now we have a free for all, an absolute free-for-all. I think what we're going to see a replay of what we saw in Iowa play out in South Carolina. We're already hearing from the Cruz folks right now who are telling me, listen, we're going to talk about the Second Amendment. We're going to talk about gay marriage. We're going to talk about prolife. And we're going to talk about strong conservative values.
BASH: But South Carolina is different from Iowa in a lot of ways. I mean, historically, they tend, on the Republican side, to vote for the more establishment figure, despite the fact that there are a lot of evangelicals, a lot of people who would like that kind of appeal.
PRESTON: True, but in the way that that state is -- is broken up is that if you're going to go along the coast, that's McCain land. That's Lindsey Graham land. That is more establishment type. What makes this even more interesting going into South Carolina is Henry McMaster, the lieutenant governor which is about as establishment as old-school establishment is, and he's a Trump supporter.
BASH: Right.
TAPPER: Except the governor, Nikki Hayley has been very, very tough on Trump and has been very, very critical of him and, as we were talking about earlier, this is a state that has a long rich history of very, very tough politics.
BASH: Yes.
PRESTON: Very clean politics. TAPPER: So we'll see how it goes. It's already -- people have raised their eyebrows at some of the attacks that have been made last night. Donald Trump quoted one of his members of his audience, and something that is not suitable for family television. That's going to be nothing, I suspect, in a week and a half, but let's go to Anderson Cooper and our political experts back at campaign headquarters in Washington D.C. Anderson?
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Jake, Dana, Mark, thanks very much. Let's go to our political analyst and reporters. Can John Kasich repeat what he did in New Hampshire? I mean, he doesn't have the time to do that in South Carolina.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: You know, I was just thinking about this, listening to Dana and Jake and Mark which is, Kasich prided himself on running a positive campaign, which worked for him in New Hampshire. Given what's going to go on in South Carolina, I'm not so sure you can do that, or maybe it's a way to distinguish yourself. You know, I just don't know.
We just saw two ads a few minutes ago that Cruz and Trump are running, and Kasich ran above it in New Hampshire, but it's going to be such a -- a fight, you know, cage match.
COOPER: And if you are Donald Trump do you keep going after Cruz? Is that your target number one?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think so.
PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think Cruz is - I think for Trump Cruz is more of the threat but I think the problem with Kasich is Jeb Bush has all of his money. He's been using it and using it to nuke Marco Rubio in New Hampshire and I think now he's going to turn and try to nuke John Kasich.
[Cross Talk]
BEINART: He hasn't had to -- no one has done that to him yet and that I think is the danger.
AXELROD: I was reminded, watching John Kasich this morning on television, talking about how he was able to go down to South Carolina and have some jambalaya.
[Laughter]
AXELROD: He hasn't spent a lot of time -- he's got a lot of catching up to do and it isn't clear that his positioning works down there and you've got -- there are establishment republicans down there who have followings, who have picked their candidates, Lindsey Graham is with Jeb Bush.
BORGER: Sure.
AXELROD: The other senator was with Rubio; I assume he'll stay with Rubio [00:15:01] if the experiment is still afloat here. And -- but it's not clear at all where the Kasich play is in South Carolina.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I mean, you can burn a message into South Carolina pretty quickly. The problem is, is that people have been down there burning messages in long before Kasich. Jeb Bush on the air, talking about his strength in the military. Cruz obviously on the air and having a real inroad with evangelicals. Even Rubio has laid some ground work there. Jim Dement was a big backer when he ran in 2010. So I think again, I think Kasich will do better than I think we would because I think he has a good personality and sort of a folksiness that will appeal to some South Carolinians. I think at this point it's about time.
BORGER: Don't forget W. is going to be down there, too.
COOPER: Campaigning for Jeb Bush, right. He's really dwelled there before. Let's turn to our political contributors.
If you are Marco Rubio, he has said tonight, look, this loss was on me. What happened at the debate is never going to happen again, but the thing that was so powerful about that debate is that it did sort of confirm a previous narrative that already existed, fairly or not, about Marco Rubio as a candidate that he was repeating well-rehearsed lines, that he was a sound bite machine. Is that something he can suddenly abandon?
AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I worried when he said that because he's raising expectations so high in that debate. He could potentially have not just Chris Christie, who knows we'll see if he makes it to that debate, but all the candidates may want to finish him off. So he made a target on his back even bigger. I don't know a guy who prid - a campaigned that prides itself on managing expectations. I think they put them sky high.
KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: He has no choice really. He really has to change the narrative from that last debate and really have a good one here. I spent some time with Marco Rubio on the campaign trail. He was out as a very strong surrogate for Romney in 2012. I've never seen somebody with the ability to work both a small room and a big room, and deliver the right message like Marco Rubio.
COOPER: Really?
MADDEN: Yes, and that's why it was such a dramatic departure from what many people who know him have seen on the campaign trail. He needs to get back to that and he's working off script and really he's making this about a contest for the future and start to really draw that contest with his now most important rival I think in Jeb Bush.
COOPER: How is working a big room versus working -- I mean, what is the difference? Maybe this is too much in the weeds but I just find it --
MADDEN: Well in a big room he has the ability for everybody in that room to feel as if he's talking directly to them. He does that very well when you hear him tell the story about his father, the bartender, and still a very middle-class economic message that republicans haven't been as good at and articulating. Then in that small room, people, I think, who meet him, they come away recognizing that he's got an incredible charisma.
COOPER: Right.
MADDEN: So I think that -- he needs to get back - he needs to find platforms where he can start to exploit those strengths, and I think this debate, you're right, managing expectations and politics is so important, but embracing and then beating expectations is what it's going to be.
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You know, I would skip South Carolina and go straight to Nevada. He lived there for a while. He speaks part of the language. I'm sure he's bilingual. I would go and put all of my eggs in that basket, rather than try to, you know, fight it out -
[Cross Talk]
MADDEN: The thing about that is, that runs counter to his argument that he's made up to this point which is, he's the candidate that can play not just in one state, and doesn't have to skip any states, but, instead, can compete --
COOPER: But he's been claiming he'd run a 3-2-is plan and clearly that's not happening.
BRAZILE: It's about getting momentum for Super Tuesday.
COOPER: Bill, and then we've got to go.
BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, I was just going to say, as a democrat, I always thought of Marco Rubio as the one candidate that I would not want to run against, that he would be the strongest opponent to Hillary or to Bernie, or whoever it is. And last Saturday night, he lost it for me, and I don't think he can recover. I really don't think he can recover.
COOPER: We're going to talk to Donald Trump coming up, fresh off his win tonight, plus the runner's up, including Jeb Bush. Does his finish in New Hampshire give him a much need boost?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The pundits had it all figured out last Monday night when the Iowa caucuses were complete. They said the race was now a three-person race between two freshman senators and a reality TV star. And while the reality TV start is still doing well, it looks like you all have reset the race, and for that I am really grateful.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:23:18] (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) RUBIO: I'm disappointed with tonight. I want you to understand -- but I want you to understand something.
[Cheering]
RUBIO: I want you to understand something, our disappointment tonight is not on you. It's on me. It's on me. I did not -- I did not do well on Saturday night so listen to this: that will never happen again.
[Cheering]
RUBIO: That will never happen again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: Senator Marco Rubio acknowledging he did not do well at that Republican Presidential Debate last Saturday night, acknowledging he had a major, major blunder. Let's take a look at the results, as of right now, with almost 90-percent of the vote in: Donald Trump a huge winner in New Hampshire with 35-percent of the vote. He's almost 50,000 votes ahead of John Kasich, who comes in second. The Ohio governor with 16-percent.
Look at this battle underway though for third-place, between Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. They're all at 11-percent. Ted Cruz slightly ahead of Jeb Bush. Bush ahead of Marco Rubio. Chris Christie, very disappointed; coming in at sixth-place, with eight- percent. Carly Fiorina, Ben Carson, down below.
On the democratic side, Bernie Sanders with a very impressive win over Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire, on the Democratic Primary; 60- percent of the vote. 45,000 votes ahead of Hillary Clinton, she gets some 39-percent of the vote.
I want to go to CNN Senior Political Reporter, Manu Raju. He's over at Rubio Headquarters. It's pretty unusual for Rubio to acknowledge that mistake he made at the debate may have cost him a much better position in New Hampshire.
MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Absolutely; well, particularly [00:25:02] after that debate performance the Rubio campaign and the Senator himself have been saying that they were okay, that they felt pretty good about the performance. They really blamed the media for making a big deal out of it, but it's really been what a whirlwind week, Wolf, for Marco Rubio. I mean, he came here out of the Iowa caucuses with a head of steam, a lot of energy and then just now he makes that admission that he's very disappointed what happened here.
There's really not much energy in the room and folks really hightailed out of here immediately after that concession speech. But now we'll have to see what changes, if any, Marco Rubio makes to his strategy going forward. We'll have a chance to talk to him on his campaign plane tomorrow morning as he goes to South Carolina, and continues his campaign there. One thing we do know, we're anticipating a pretty intense fight between Jeb Bush and Rubio going forward.
Jeb Bush circulating talking point to his supporters earlier, saying right after the results came in, saying that tonight's results show that Marco Rubio had lost momentum and that he's completely unprepared for him to be the republican nominee. I also spoke to the Rubio spokesman, Alex (Inaudible), who said the longer that Jeb Bush stays in this race the more likely it is that Donald Trump will become the republican nominee. So you can see this fight building and growing between Rubio and Bush to claim that establishment alternative, assuming however that John Kasich does not do well in South Carolina and also Ted Cruz is a threat as well. This race is just muddled but Bush and Rubio have targets on each other's backs.
BLITZER: They certainly do and you can see how important those debates are as a result of what happened to Marco Rubio in that last presidential debate. Let's so to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty, she's over at Cruz headquarters in New Hampshire as well. Cruz, as of right now, with 89-percent of the vote, Sunlen, he's at 12-percent, slightly ahead of Jeb Bush?
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: That's right, Wolf, and I can tell you it's a much different tone here within the Cruz campaign world than it is at Marco Rubio's tonight. The Cruz campaign is thrilled with this battle for third that's going on for a few reasons. They feel they've beat expectations here in New Hampshire; they feel like they've largely come out of New Hampshire unscathed; but equally important is they feel that Marco Rubio is coming out of this state damaged and this will be a key part of their message going forward because they think it cuts into the very core of Marco Rubio's message that he is the candidate that can be the alternative to Donald Trump, that he is the candidate that can coalesce the establishment wing of the party to form against Donald Trump, and if he does it and they feel like tonight's win really hit at that message and really took the air out of the tires of that message, that that can benefit Ted Cruz in the end.
Now, Ted Cruz did give Donald Trump a call tonight conceding the race. He has called Donald Trump's win impressive. But I have to tell you, when Ted Cruz took the stage shortly after it was much more a victory speech than it was a concession speech. Cruz saying that they really defied expectations and proved the naysayers wrong and this will be the part of his message going in to South Carolina, going forward; and he made clear tonight he intends to bring the heat against Donald Trump and Marco Rubio, strongly, made not so veiled jabs at both of them here tonight. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right; Sunlen Serfaty over at Cruz Headquarters, thanks very much. I want to go to Athena Jones. She's over at Jeb Bush headquarters for us right now. He's slightly behind Ted Cruz, still 11-percent of the vote still standing. What's been the action over there, Athena?
ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT, via satellite: Hi, Wolf; well, you heard Sunlen say that the Cruz Campaign is happy with his third place, possibly fourth place finish in this race. Well the Bush camp sees this as a win. They're in a fight right now for third place; but third place, fourth place, they are given this as a win, given how far Bush has come. He was written off, counted out, now he's back in the conversation and they believe he's the best positioned to head into South Carolina. They say that they're very well organized in that state. He should compete better with evangelicals better than he was in Iowa. I spoke with Chief Strategist, David Cotchel (ps), who told me that the military population, military and former military population of voters in South Carolina will be beneficial to Bush, who has laid out a plan, for instance, to defeat ISIS. So they're excited how they've ended up tonight.
Bush is already on the plane to Hilton Head, South Carolina, where he'll hold his first event tomorrow. They say they're very well organized there. They've had 20 plus staffers in the state and they've made hundreds of thousands of phone calls between staffers and volunteers and door knocking. So they say that they are ready to compete in South Carolina. That's also where we expect to see Bush get some help from his brother, George W. Bush.
BLITZER: Athena, thanks very much. Anderson, no doubt there's a fight going on for third-place, but there's no doubt about it who crushed everyone else and is in first place.
COOPER: That's true.
[00:30:01] Donald Trump and Senator Sanders both winning the New Hampshire primary. This battle for third place, how much advantage does Bush have, given the amount of money that they have already spent, given the organization they have on the ground there, compared to Cruz, compared to Rubio and certainly to Kasich, who doesn't really seem to have much (inaudible) game?
BORGER: I think Cruz has organization in the South. He spent a lot of his August on a bus tour throughout this South. He was planning to run in the South. Clearly looking at these exit polls tonight, as the candidate who shares my values, Cruz and Kasich tied tonight in New Hampshire, but Cruz is becoming the values candidate, to a great degree, in the Republican Party. So, you know, I think it's a very hospitable terrain for him.
I think Jeb is declaring himself the "comeback kid" tonight, to a great degree. he's got a lot of organization. He's got his brother who's very popular in the republican party right now and you know this fight between Jeb and Rubio is kind of Shakespearian, you know. He was Rubio's mentor and now they're out to destroy each other, literally, and in Bush's talking points tonight he said that Rubio has been exposed as completely unprepared to be president, period.
COOPER: Whoa.
HENDERSON: Yes, I know; I was going to say, talking to some establishment Republicans down there, they very much want their reputation back for South Carolina. South Carolina has picked the winner every time, on the GOP side, except for last time going with Newt Gingrich. So I do think there's going to be a kind of a coalescing, trying to figure out who is the best establishment candidate down there to go up against Donald Trump, unless, as you said, Donald Trump is that establishment --
AXELROD: At some point that might be the case, but I think that you're looking at Establish Smackdown II, right? This is another episode of what we saw here in New Hampshire and I think you're going to see Bush, you know, he still has that Super PAC and that Super PAC is still well armed; and I expect that both Rubio and Kasich may be the recipients of some --
COOPER: You also pointed, David, during the break, to me that Rubio had gone after Chris Christie.
AXELROD: Well, yes; you say they're - Bush and Rubio are a Shakespearian but there's kind of a "Sopranos" theme here as well, which is that Rubio went after Chris Christie and really took him down with negative media at the beginning of this year and its sort of a you take one of mine, I'm going to take one of yours sort of thing.
HENDERSON: Right.
AXELROD: And Christie took Rubio out tonight.
COOPER: Right.
BEINART: We're all under the assumption that someone will emerge from this establishment lane. That's not a foregone conclusion. One of the problems is going to be money. You know, Kevin was talking about how big an issue money is. Cruz has a lot of money. Rubio's fund raising maybe stalls now a little bit. I don't know there are a lot of new people giving money to Jeb Bush. Kasich is not a huge fundraiser. Although we think about Donald Trump as only in this one lane, the amazing thing about the New Hampshire results, he tied for first among voters who support amnesty for illegal immigrants. He won New Hampshire -
COOPER: On both sides of that issue.
BEINART: I mean, New Hampshire is a very highly educated state. What we knew about Donald Trump, we thought, was that he only does well amongst non-college aged votes.
COOPER: Well that's -
BEINART: He did well -- he may not be as confined to one lane as people may want think.
COOPER: I want to talk to our political contributors coming up, but first we've got to take a break. Still ahead, what does Donald Trump think? What is the secret to his success tonight? We'll talk to him again next.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
We are going now to South Carolina. We're going to win in South Carolina. I love you all. Thank you very much. Thank you.
(END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:37:36] BLITZER: Really commanding wins tonight for Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders in the New Hampshire primaries, giving each of these outsiders' new momentum, as they set their sights on South Carolina, Nevada and beyond. The Ohio Governor, John Kasich, the Republican candidate to watch tonight. He came in second thanks to a strong New Hampshire campaign. Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio they're battling it out for third right now.
Let's take a look at the numbers. With 90-percent of the votes now counted, Donald Trump, very impressive, almost 90,000 votes; John Kasich in second place with about 40,000 votes. 35-percent to 16- percent, but take a look at this fight for third place right now. Still 10-percent of the vote out there. 12-percent for Ted Cruz. 11- percent for Jeb Bush. 10-percent for Marco Rubio. Chris Christie and everybody else in single digits; but if you look at Donald Trump almost 50,000 votes ahead of the number two, John Kasich; 60,000 votes ahead of Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush. Very, very impressive for Donald Trump in New Hampshire.
Let's take a look at the democratic side. Similarly, Bernie Sanders, the Independent Senator from Vermont, 60-percent of the vote, almost
50,000 votes ahead of Hillary Clinton, 39-percent. 89-percent of the vote counted in New Hampshire. Very impressive on both sides.
Let's go back to Jake and Dana in Manchester for us right now. What can you say? All of us been pointing out, who would have thought only a few months ago, Donald Trump, Bernie Sanders would not only win, but would crush the rivals both in New Hampshire?
TAPPER: Quite a momentous evening. Shortly after Donald Trump's win I spoke with him, and I began by asking him if he ever thought this day -- this win was really ever going to happen.
TRUMP (on the phone): Well, it's been a really wonderful evening, Jake, and you know I thought it might but I didn't know by these numbers and I was so happy. I just looked at your report and it was right across the board with men, with women, with old and to win every single category was perhaps the greatest honor of all.
TAPPER: And it looks like obviously the voting results are coming in, but it looks like this is the biggest victory in a Republican primary since [00:40:00] George W. Bush lost to John McCain in New Hampshire 16 years ago. How does it feel?
TRUMP: Well, I didn't know that number. That's a long time. That's a great feeling to know it's been that big of a victory, but - it's a lot of years, but I will tell you, it's just an honor to have won. As you know, I told you, if I win by even one vote I'll be happy, but this makes me even happier, I will say that, Jake.
TAPPER: It's by a bit more than one vote. So if you look at the exit polls you'll see that voters were looking for an outsider; they're mad at the Republican establishment. What do you think, in particular, about your message resonated with the voters of New Hampshire?
TRUMP: Well, I think it started with trade and the fact that we're just being ripped off by everybody, whether it's China, Japan, Mexico, and I think it ended up being very much borders and security and other things have been to do with security, and then you have the migration and you have ISIS and all of a sudden it morphed into that. I think because of the fact I had done so much with the border and done so well with the wall, which will be built, I think what happened is people started saying that I would be the best, with respect to ISIS and some of the outer problems that we have. So it seems that the whole security thing, the military thing, the fact that we're going to take care of the Vets far better than anybody else would be able to, it all sort of came down to that. But it seemed like a victory in every category, and, of course, the easiest thing of all, for me, is going to be trade and jobs because that's really what I do.
TAPPER: In terms of how you won in New Hampshire, did you pay more attention, did your campaign pay more attention to the ground game, to getting your voters to the polls, to making sure that they were motivated as opposed to the approach of big, big rallies?
TRUMP: Well I think the ground game was really strong and, I'll tell you, we really focused on it after Iowa. You know, the ground game was not something I was extremely familiar with but I learned quickly, otherwise the voters wouldn't like me too much. I think I learned very well and we have a very good ground game and you know, the people of New Hampshire are amazing people. Now I'm going to South Carolina and I think we're going to have tremendous success there. We were just there and I had 12 people thousand in a wonderful, wonderful arena. To be honest with you, the ground game is very important to me and I think we really learned about ground games very quickly.
TAPPER: As you may know, South Carolina, they like their politics a little more rough and tumble. Are you ready for what may come your way, the negative attacks and perhaps even dirty tricks that might happen in the Palmetto State?
TRUMP: Well, we've already had dirty tricks in this campaign. So I'm ready for whatever they want to throw at me and that's fine. I mean, we've had a lot of dirty tricks in this campaign, but I want to congratulate everybody that's run. They're all very capable people. It was an honor to run against them and now I'll see them in a little while, like, tomorrow I'll be around 1:00 or 12:00 tomorrow I'll be in South Carolina getting ready and that should be interesting.
I love South Carolina. I mean, the people are -- I've been there many times and the people are tremendous people and I think I can do very well there.
TAPPER: There's a big competition, obviously, for second-place and third-place in New Hampshire right now. Who do you think is your competition going forward? Is it Ted Cruz? Do you see some rejuvenation for Jeb Bush and John Kasich? Who are you focused on?
TRUMP: I see them all, Jake; I really see them all. I think they're all good competitors and talented people and right now it looks like Kasich has a little bit of a lead, but the other way I'm looking at your chart. it's getting a little bit closer. it's going to be a good race I think and you predicted that and so did CNN and the whole group. It looks like it's going to be a close race for second.
TAPPER: Lastly you've been campaigning with your family, your wife, Melania, your boys, Don and Eric. How are they taking the news? This is a big, big night in Trump family history.
TRUMP: Well they're very proud. Melania is standing with me right now. Don and Eric and Ivanka, and Corey's right outside, who has done a terrific job. In fact, he just walked in now, so I will comment on his ground game, which was excellent. It's been an amazing period of time and we're all thrilled and we want to make America great again. It's very simple. We're going to make America great again.
TAPPER: Well congratulations on a very, very strong win in New Hampshire. Best of luck to you. We'll see you out there on the campaign trail, Mr. Trump.
TRUMP: Thank you very much, Jake. You take care of yourself. Thank you.
BASH: It's still, I think, sinking in for everybody that this man who has never run a campaign before, never been a politician, [00:45:01] never been a candidate just won, as you said, so handily, in the New Hampshire primary, which is not an easy feat. I loved how he was talking to you about the ground game, how he was just, kind of, getting his, basically his political sea legs --
TAPPER: Learning it, yes.
BASH: -- and learning it, and it was clear, and he admitted it, that they didn't do the greatest job of that in Iowa but it was quite different here.
TAPPER: You know, for months the Republican establishment, in Washington and elsewhere, was convinced that Donald Trump was going to implode, --
BASH: That's right.
TAPPER: -- there was no way his popularity could last. He was saying so many outrageous things. Surely this was going to end. And for months you and I have been speaking about this and I have seen no evidence that he can be stopped, that he -- that he won't get the nomination. I hope that the Republican establishment is -- is realizing that this man is here to stay and they need to reckon with him, one way or another.
BASH: Well, they probably are, they're trying to at least, and I think part of the reason why they're quite concerned tonight is because all of their potential candidates, who are in that cluster for second, third place,
you know, it was a circular firing squad -
TAPPER: And even their second place finisher, John Kasich, still his score was twice - Donald Trump beat it by -- he lapped him. 16- percent to what is it, 35?
BASH: And voters really wanted somebody from outside the establishment -
TAPPER: That's what they're looking -
BASH: -- outside of politics, and that's what they chose.
TAPPER: Wolf Blitzer, back to you in Washington.
BLITZER: All right, guys; thanks very much. It wasn't even close. 50,000 votes he beat Kasich in New Hampshire, Donald Trump, by 50,000 votes and they're still counting the votes, John King. 91-percent of the vote is now in but it's not even close in New Hampshire. Trump really did something amazing tonight.
KING: It's not. As we zoom in on those results, let's first remind people one, two. We've got 38 more to go in the Republican race. It looks like it's going to go on for a while. Ted Cruz, won Iowa, anti- establishment, Tea Party guy. Now Donald Trump, the biggest disruptive force in American politics, anti-Republican establishment, even though he's picking up a lot of establishment votes, wins, as Jake just said, this is more than 2 to 1. 91,000 votes.
Sometimes it's hard to explain. This is not hard to explain. The dark red is Donald Trump. Take a look at the map. He won from the North to the South. He won on the sea coast. He won along the Connecticut River; on the Vermont border. You see, a little more than a half dozen towns going to John Kasich, that's the brown. One town goes up here to Jeb Bush. One town, up here, goes to Ted Cruz. There are a few more we're still waiting for, but we're up at 91-percent of the vote. We know Trump is going to win big. We know Kasich has a second place that he calls solid. Still a big gap between number one and number two.
Here's the interesting battle, looks pretty good at this point that Ted Cruz is going to hold on here. Mathematically it's still possible for Bush to get here. Marco Rubio has done something significant, very disappointing night for Rubio, but in the last few minutes, if this holds, he has gone from just below ten percent to now at 11- percent. You need 10-percent in New Hampshire to be in play for delegates. So he's moved up a little bit there, but we'll count these as we get to the bottom. Again, Cruz looks like he's going to hold on to third-place, but we've got a little bit more math to do.
BLITZER: Certainly do. It's very impressive; he didn't just didn't win the rural areas, Donald Trump, he won urban area, all over the state. He swept that state pretty decisively.
KING: He did.
BLITZER: All right; stand by. Coming up, the Democrats, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders, what to expect as they head to South Carolina. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SANDERS: Because of a huge voter turnout, and I say huge, we won because we harnessed the energy and the excitement that the Democratic Party will need to succeed in November. (END VIDEO CLIP) (COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[00:52:23] CLINTON: We also have to break through the barriers of bigotry. African-American parents shouldn't have to worry that their children will be harassed, humiliated, even shot because of the color of their skin.
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COOPER: Clinton talking tonight at her speech, and we also obviously heard from Senator Sanders. She's also, clearly, telegraphing ahead to South Carolina where the electorate is a lot more diverse and where she believes that is a great strength for her.
BRAZILE: I believe she's telegraphed not just to South Carolina but to Alabama, Georgia, Texas and other places where she can accumulate delegates. That's her strategy. There's no question that African- American voters are very pro-democratic and democratic primaries, especially one like this, African-American delegate can really help to shape the race in the month of March, when 56% of all delegates are chosen.
COOPER: Bill, how significant, (inaudible) former head of the NAACP has now endorsed Senator Sanders, Dr. Bernell West, Jeff Cleaver, some other prominent African-American leaders. Do you believe that Sanders can make inroads against Hillary Clinton?
PRESS: Absolutely. Absolutely. There will be others that come along too. He doesn't have to win South Carolina, but I mean, I think he's shown, look, Hillary was adjusting her message tonight to show I'm moving forward and I'm really addressing that African-American community. I think what we've seen with Bernie is that Bernie has a message that he doesn't have to change his message. He's not going to change his message. He's been preaching this economic populism, his national appeal. It includes criminal justice reform. It includes police department reform. He talks about those things and I think he can take that nationwide. I think the reality --
[Cross Talk]
COOPER: -- economic inequality?
PRESS: Yes, that resonates across the field. I think that we see tonight that there again, two strong candidates going forward, both well-funded. There are some reports tonight, I mean, Ted Devine is saying that the Sanders campaign may actually have more money, end up with more money than Hillary does because she's been hemorrhaging money in New Hampshire and got nothing for it.
BRAZILE: So Hillary's campaign advisor, who, by the way, I just have to state, for the record, I'm neutral, not as neutral as my brother over there, Mr. Axelrod, but I'm neutral, so I don't want you, just because I'm sitting next to this wonderful, handsome man and see I'm getting to that moment, that one hour, so I got to start picking on somebody.
PRESS: I'll come back at you.
[00:50:02] BRAZILE: But, look, I think I know a little bit about black voters. I think I know a lot after all voters, but black voters want to be courted. I mean, they want candidates to address all of the issues, not just criminal justice reform or, you know, police brutality. The want to talk about economic justice issues and environmental justice issues, after all, that's what Flint is about. They also want to talk about healthcare and war and peace issues. So I think it's very important that those candidates go into these upcoming states and engage these voters because if you don't engage them, they won't turn out. If they don't turn out, that -- what's the point?
And Hillary Clinton has been spending time, has been spending the resources, but lately -- I was in South Carolina recently. Bernie Sanders has an operation in South Carolina.
COOPER: Yes.
BRAZILE: He's spending money, not just to try to get them out but to bring them on board, his campaign.
PRESS: I think we're both saying this --
AXELROD: Nevada is actually an intervening event and that is a caucus, and that is a place where the Sanders campaign thinks they can win. They've increased their buy there. They've sent a bunch of people there and if I were the Clinton campaign, the first thing I would do is button down the Nevada because you don't want more momentum going into --
COOPER: Nevada is obviously the first of the democrats -
AXELROD: Right. Right.
COOPER: Still ahead, it was a night for the outsiders, but can they hold the momentum into the next big contest? Details ahead.
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