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CNN Live Event/Special
Trump and Sanders Win in New Hampshire Primary; Aired 1-2a ET
Aired February 10, 2016 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:00:10] SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The people want real change.
GOV. JOHN KASICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If you don't have a seatbelt, go get one.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Who'd have thunk it, six months ago, Donald Trump and Senator Sanders both winning New Hampshire primary?
DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We learned a lot about ground games in one week. I have to tell you that.
SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Your victory tonight has left the Washington cartel utterly terrified.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: What an unpredictable night in an already exciting and confounding political year.
HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You are the reason we are here, and you are the reason we are going to win the nomination. And then win this election together. Thank you all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The outsiders, they scored stunning runaway victories in the New Hampshire primary. Republican billionaire Donald Trump and Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders shaking up the establishments of their respective parties, setting the stage for battles in South Carolina, Nevada, and beyond. Sanders trouncing Hillary Clinton by more than 20 points. Both Democrats say their fight, though, will go national right now.
A political novice just a few months ago Trump captured the GOP contest in New Hampshire by close to 20 points as well after faltering in Iowa. Just barely, though. Ohio Governor John Kasich, he came in second place tonight in New Hampshire, separating himself from the pack of Republicans desperate for tickets out of New Hampshire. But can he go the distance?
With votes still being counted, Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, they are, as of right now, still in a tight battle for third place. With a sixth place finish on the other hand, Governor Chris Christie of New Jersey says he's heading back to New Jersey to, quote, "take a deep breath," but he has not dropped out. Meantime, the rest of the field will already be pounding the trail in South Carolina just hours from now.
Let's go to our CNN political director David Chalian and CNN Politics executive editor, Mark Preston. I want to go to Mark Preston first. He's joining us from Manchester right now.
You're getting some new information on Marco Rubio, Mark. What are you learning?
MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICS EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: Well, Wolf, we just learned in the last 30 minutes now, Marco Rubio has sent out a fundraising e-mail where he's acknowledging that he dropped the ball during that debate on Saturday night, that devastating debate where Chris Christie really took him to the mat.
Now Marco Rubio trying to raise money but also telling his supporters that he will never, ever let that happen again. Marco Rubio in the past has made some pretty big mistakes. The whole water incident, Wolf. If you remember he reached over and grabbed water during the Republican response to the State of the Union. He was successful raising money off of that. But this is more serious at this critical time. But he says he's going on to South Carolina, Wolf. Marco Rubio not giving up, even though he had a disappointing sixth place finish.
BLITZER: Yes. Publicly acknowledging now that he did blunder in that debate last Saturday night.
David Chalian, you're getting some more information, too, on these Republican candidates and how it all unfolded tonight.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Wolf, that's right. What Mark just said is so true about Rubio obviously continuing on to South Carolina. I think what you're seeing in that very muddled middle there of Bush and Kasich and Cruz and Rubio out of New Hampshire, what you're seeing is a contest that's going to go on for a while. And if you look at the vote totals tonight, I find this fascinating.
Add Trump and Cruz's number together, the outsider lane, you get to 47 percent. Add Kasich, Bush, Rubio and Christie together, the more establishment, you're at 45 percent. There's a basic tie going on in these two factions within the Republican Party. With no clear directive here. Obviously, Trump catapults out of New Hampshire with a very big victory. But this whole establishment lane is still so crowded, and everyone taking a slice of the vote that it seems to me that there's no clarity here. This is going to continue for quite some time.
BLITZER: And, Mark Preston, I want to go back to you over there. You're in New Hampshire. Everybody is now getting ready for South Carolina and Nevada. And some of the candidates even looking beyond to Super Tuesday and all of those other contests. This is going to go on for quite a while.
PRESTON: It is. And look, South Carolina is a very interesting state. In some ways it is going to be like a replay of Iowa. Ted Cruz's folks are telling me right now that he is going to play it hard to the evangelical vote that tends to be in the upstate. He's going to be talking about his Second Amendment support for gun rights. How he's going to talk about gay marriage, how he's going to talk about family values. At the same time, though, as David just said, you're going to see Jeb Bush and John Kasich battling it out in some ways with Marco Rubio for that more centrist Republican type that we see in South Carolina.
[01:05:04] And of course, the big question is, Donald Trump, who has come out of here with an unbelievable victory here in New Hampshire. He's won by so much. But is that enthusiasm here in New Hampshire going to carry over into South Carolina? And right now, Wolf, we don't know the answer to that.
BLITZER: You know, it's interesting. As we're watching all of this, for so many of the Republicans, the night seems to have breathed some new life into their campaigns. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are going to make America great again.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
KASICH: Hillary, you just needed this much and head to South Carolina. Because it ain't working here.
CRUZ: The real winner is the conservative grassroots.
SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I did not do well on Saturday night, so -- listen to this, that will never happen again.
KASICH: There's so much going to happen. If you don't have a seatbelt, go get one.
TRUMP: 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.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: David Chalian, here's the question, though. He comes in second, the Ohio Governor John Kasich, impressive second place. But does he have the ability now, really the resources, the money, the staff, the opportunity to do better in South Carolina and Nevada? Some of these upcoming states. Not necessarily all that conducive to him.
CHALIAN: Well, I think I have already seen three fundraising appeals from the Kasich campaign in the last couple of hours hit my inbox. Obviously, he's going to get a positive news cycle here and get coverage for his big second place showing. John Kasich has already announced that he's going to spend two days next week, the week of the South Carolina Republican primary, in Michigan. Michigan votes March 8th. John Kasich is already looking ahead and sort of where the delegates are available and sort of thinking he's going to plant a flag in places like Michigan, Ohio, Illinois.
The problem is, there's a lot of time between now and March 8th. So if he's able to raise the money off of this second place showing tonight, if he's able to show that he still has life in South Carolina, perhaps he can build something. But my god, to go from here and think you're going to automatically be in a position to post good showings in March 8th and March 15th states, you've got to be able to keep that -- keep some life in you between now and then.
BLITZER: And there's no doubt, though, Mark, he's going to get some big money now as a result of his second place finish in New Hampshire. A lot of those establishment Republicans, they've always liked John Kasich. No Republican has ever been elected president of the United States without carrying Ohio.
PRESTON: Well, certainly. And we'll see how much money comes out of Ohio. You know, in many ways, a very wealthy state. Also, John Kasich has ties to Wall Street. So it will be interesting to see if he will start to see some of that centrist money, some of that really business money come his way.
Now John Kasich up here really put in hard spade work to win New Hampshire. The question is, does he have that same type of infrastructure built down in South Carolina and onward?
Now, Wolf, John Kasich, his type of politics played very well up here in New Hampshire. Last night when I was up at Dixville Notch, I was talking to one of the first voters in the nation who said that he had met John Kasich about eight months ago. And his advice to Kasich was, go directly at Hillary. You need to go negative. And Kasich said, listen, that's not my type of politics. I'm not going to do that.
About seven months later, he saw Kasich again. Kasich actually went up to this northern -- northernest part of New Hampshire, held a town meeting with 60 people. They all came together, he talked to him again and he said, you know what, you were right. You were right to do this. And he ended up going on and voting for him. I think that's what you saw all across the state here in New Hampshire.
Is that going to reflect on how he does in South Carolina? Again, we don't know. But I think that all this talk over the past week from all of us that this would turn into a three-person race has really turned into a five-person race right now -- Wolf.
BLITZER: It certainly has. And there's a Republican presidential debate coming up Saturday night as well. We'll see what happens there.
Anderson, lots to assess right now.
COOPER: Yes. I want to talk to our panel of analysts. I mean, we keep talking about lanes, who's in the establishment lanes. Are there lanes anymore? Do lanes exist?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I think the lanes are going to have to start to meld at a certain point. And I think if you look at these numbers that David was just talking about, at a certain point, the establishment is going to have to figure out what it wants to do. And it may have to adopt Donald Trump. Because he's got 35 percent of the vote here. He looks like a winner in many places in the south. And if you can't beat him, you're going to have to adopt him.
COOPER: There's a lot of establishment Republicans who don't believe that Donald Trump, you know, really is enough of a Republican.
BORGER: Right. But they believe he's malleable. They believe he's more malleable than a Ted Cruz.
(CROSSTALK)
DAVID AXELROD, FORMER OBAMA ADVISER: They really can't stand Ted Cruz.
BORGER: Right.
AXELROD: And the fact is that they may have to make a choice between a punch in the nose and a knee to the groin.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Because none of the other so-called establishment candidates are willing to drop out to coalesce support for one.
AXELROD: If they don't -- but you know, one thing I think -- you know, Trump had a good night and we ought to give it to him.
[01:10:05] But he got a third of the -- of the Republican vote tonight. He's polling about a third of the vote everywhere. It's not clear to me where his ceiling is. And he may hit a ceiling at some point. And as the field narrows, that could be problematic. The question is just whether it's Ted Cruz who takes advantage of that or someone else.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: And they couldn't prolong like this.
AXELROD: One point I want to make, one final point I want to make. There's a discussion about John Kasich. He just spent eight months essentially working New Hampshire.
COOPER: Right.
AXELROD: Now these things come in rapid fire succession. They are basically major media events. And so he can't do what he did in New Hampshire. And I think that's going to be a big problem for him.
COOPER: Just in terms of ad buys, it's a lot different, isn't it?
AXELROD: Well, yes. I mean, I think first of all it becomes very expensive, as Kevin mentioned earlier. But you just don't have time to touch people the way you did in New Hampshire. COOPER: Right.
AXELROD: That kind of campaigning works in Iowa, works in New Hampshire. Doesn't work going forward.
PETER BEINART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think what's interesting is, you know, one of the things that this term establishment lane I think misses is it's actually a real ideological divide between Kasich and Rubio. They have responded very differently to Donald Trump. Rubio essentially has mimicked Donald Trump. He's talked a lot about how Barack Obama wants to destroy America. He hasn't really defended the idea that there should be a path to citizenship for legal immigrants.
One of things that's interesting in the exit polling is that Kasich ends up winning people who supports a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants or at least trying with Trump. He also wins people who oppose the ban on Muslims coming to the United States. So I think one of these we saw that Kasich was able to create in a way his own lane, not just an establishment lane but an actual moderate lane.
BORGER: It's a good general election strategy.
BEINART: It's a good -- right. It may not win him in primary because New Hampshire is an unusual state. But I think --
AXELROD: I'm sure South Carolina is opening its arms to that right now.
BEINART: Right. That's why he has to rely on states like Massachusetts which will be voting on March 1st. But there is an -- important ideological difference in where he has gone and where Rubio has gone.
COOPER: We should also point out, though, that Trump and Rubio are both running ads already in South Carolina, some against each other. I want to show both of those ad, the Trump and the Rubio ad. Let's take a look and talk about it.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I'm Donald Trump, and I approve this message.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of man talks from both sides of his mouth for amnesty for illegals on national television and still denies it? He took more than $1 million in sweetheart loans from Wall Street banks and fails to disclose it as required by law? Who runs a campaign accused of dirty tricks to try to sabotage Ben Carson with false rumors?
Ted Cruz, the worst kind of Washington insider who just can't be trusted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And then there's also the ad that Cruz is running against Trump, which is deploying more of a sense of humor. Let's take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look, I got the Trump action figure.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No way.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What does he do?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He pretends to be a Republican.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I like bailouts for the banks.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Too big to fail.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I gave money to Pelosi, Reid, and Anthony Weiner.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, Hillary, I'll give you money to be my friend.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Look at my house, Mr. Trump.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's a lousy house. I'm going to take your house with eminent domain and park my limos there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eminent domain.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We wouldn't tolerate these values in our children. Why would we want them in a president?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Eminent domain.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It's interesting because tonight Trump was saying to Jake that while he wasn't willing to name whether it was Cruz as his main opponent or not, he was saying well, I'm looking at all of them. But clearly he's running ads against Cruz.
KEVIN MADDEN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Cruz is clearly his main competition down there right now. And particularly on the question of resources. Cruz is the one candidate that's probably in the best position to take Donald Trump on with an air war versus just having the earned media fight that you've seen. Now that's one of the things that's happened in New Hampshire, was that not many -- all of these other campaigns, whether it was Jeb Bush or Marco Rubio or whoever, they didn't take on Donald Trump in a very broad and sustained way.
COOPER: Right.
MADDEN: Someone's going to have to do that now. The person best positioned to do that is Ted Cruz.
COOPER: And --
(CROSSTALK) COOPER: And when they did take him on, it was normally not from a position of strength.
MADDEN: Correct.
COOPER: I mean, it was some of the ones -- it was Bobby Jindal and those others who were trying to get attention.
MADDEN: It was a reflective tactic on their part rather one that was proactive.
COOPER: Right.
AMANDA CARPENTER, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR, SEN. TED CRUZ: There really has to be -- and I think Cruz trying to do this with his ad, to define Donald Trump for what he is. He is the toddler in the corner that throws a tantrum when he doesn't get his way. Other people have tried to take him on by using the kind of same tactics. You know, Bush was calling him a loser and a whiner, and things like that. That's not going to work. You have to put Donald Trump in the box that he can't get out of. And I think that is a good start.
MADDEN: I think the advantage that Donald Trump has here, too, is he is much more fully defined in the eyes of many voters.
COOPER: Sure.
MADDEN: And the risk for Ted Cruz here is that because he's not as defined, new information like that about immigration or past positions or the dirty tricks against Ben Carson, that puts him -- and that puts him in a very vulnerable position with a lot of voters.
[01:15:12] AXELROD: Amanda, let's take a question here. Do you think that Ted Cruz will be willing to take Donald Trump on in a debate? Because he had a chance in the last debate to go at him.
BORGER: That's right.
AXELROD: He was invited to do it.
CARPENTER: Here's the thing.
AXELROD: And he kind of pulled up short.
CARPENTER: Yes. The timing has to be right. You know, I played softball. Sometimes, you don't take the pitch. You pick your pitches. You have to wait for the timing to be right. You have to wait for that moment. You have to lay the ground work on things like eminent domain and that he supports touch back amnesty. So the voters are primed for that attack. Ted --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: The question was, you said that Donald Trump doesn't have the temperament to have his finger on the button. He said it. And then he was asked, would you say that to him now, and he didn't. MADDEN: Here's where the timing is right.
CARPENTER: Yes. Because he didn't want to have the fight in New Hampshire. He wanted to have it in South Carolina.
MADDEN: Here's where -- yes, well, that's where the --
AXELROD: You think in South Carolina it's going to happen?
MADDEN: That's where the timing is right. If you don't take Donald Trump on now with the head of steam that he has coming out of New Hampshire.
COOPER: Right.
MADDEN: If he wins South Carolina and goes into those March 1 states with that head of steam --
BILL PRESS, HOST, "THE BILL PRESS SHOW": Quick point. I just want to say, first of all, on the two ads, maybe I'm old-fashioned. But if you're going to be dirty and negative, you've got to be dirty and negative right in your face. I think the Trump ad is a lot more effective than the Cruz ad. It's just too cute for me. But I just want to say a word about the forgotten man tonight. Me of all people to say Jeb Bush had to keep himself alive tonight.
MADDEN: Yes.
PRESS: He really worked hard in New Hampshire and he managed to do it. He'd rather be third than fourth. He may still end up being third. And he's got the money. He's still going to be -- and he's going to have his brother in South Carolina.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESS: He's got the organization. So I'm just saying, he could end up being the alternative to Trump and Cruz. Still.
COOPER: And also how interesting to have his brother now out on the campaign trail when early on in the campaign, you know, he's sort of waffled on exactly what to say about his brother, what to say about --
(CROSSTALK)
PRESS: But Jeb Bush is still alive.
DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: He had his mother. And Jeb --
PRESS: Yes.
BRAZILE: Jeb Bush spent $36 million to come in, what, third place? Fourth place? And I'm sure he's spending a substantial amount to win in South Carolina. I think of all of the candidates that I have watched on the Republican side, Jeb Bush seemed to be the only one willing to take Donald Trump on. But here's my pro-Donald Trump moment. Don't -- you can't take him on. His voters like him. I don't think you've got to let him fail at it.
MADDEN: But hope is not --
BRAZILE: I don't think --
MADDEN: Hope is not a strategy.
BRAZILE: I agree.
MADDEN: And one of the ways in that lane to consolidate the voters who believe that Donald Trump is not only a threat to the party but the country is to confront him and win. You can't run from Donald Trump in this race.
BEINART: And I think the other point --
(CROSSTALK)
BRAZILE: But his voters are with him.
BEINART: There's a model for doing this. It's what Ted Cruz did in Iowa.
BORGER: Right.
BEINART: Ted Cruz was able in Iowa to sow a lot of concern among conservative evangelical voters about the fact that Donald Trump really isn't one of them.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: We got to take another break.
BRAZILE: It went to the voters.
COOPER: Coming up, he's in a tight battle for third place. We were just talking about him, Jeb Bush declaring himself this year's comeback kid.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: This campaign is not dead. We're going on to South Carolina.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:21:56] CRUZ: Now I want to congratulate Donald Trump on an impressive win tonight.
(CROWD BOOS)
CRUZ: And John Kasich had a good night tonight. But the real winner, the real winner is the conservative grassroots.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CRUZ: Who propelled us to an outright victory in Iowa and to a far stronger result and outcome in New Hampshire than anyone had predicted.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All eyes now on South Carolina, the next battleground for the Republican presidential candidates. They're fanning out across the state just a few hours from now and in the coming days, ahead of the state's GOP primary. That happens a week from Saturday.
Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz and Jeb Bush, they're still fighting tonight for third place in New Hampshire. Rubio will campaign part of the day in South Carolina, but both he and Cruz will also be in Washington for a vote on new sanctions against North Korea.
Rubio in particular has been slammed by his rivals for missing Senate votes while campaigning for president of the United States.
Let's go to CNN's Sunlen Serfaty. She's over at Cruz headquarters for us right now in New Hampshire with more on the Cruz reaction -- Sunlen.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Ted Cruz tonight already trying to raise the stakes in South Carolina. In a fundraising e-mail to supporters, Ted Cruz saying South Carolina will be the tipping point going forward in this race. Very clear that the Cruz campaign wants to make South Carolina their breakout moment in this race. They feel very well positioned in that state. They have invested a lot of time, a lot of money, a lot of groundwork. They have invested well.
And they also of course feel that they -- South Carolina is a state that favors Ted Cruz. A large evangelical population. A very good, a very -- big amount of conservative Republicans in that state. All things that favors Ted Cruz.
Now tonight in that concession speech of Ted Cruz, which has actually sounded more like a victory speech, he gave a nod to that point, he said Washington liberals may find South Carolina far less hospitable environs. And he really telegraphed the argument that he's going to bring on to South Carolina ground against Marco Rubio and Donald Trump, really trying to tie both of them to Hillary Clinton. Really kryptonite among Republicans.
Very clear that the message he will bring is that these other candidates are campaign conservatives. That's what he called them tonight. And he will argue he is the consistent conservative, the one that has walked the walk.
Ted Cruz is en route to South Carolina right now. He will hold a rally in Myrtle Beach. And then as you said return back to Washington, D.C., to cast some votes tomorrow -- Wolf. BLITZER: Yes. In New Hampshire, Sunlen, he lost to Donald Trump by
more than 60,000 votes. Trump had more than 60,000 votes ahead of Ted Cruz. Clearly a very, very significant number.
[01:25:08] I want to go over to John King right now.
John, the evangelical vote very important in South Carolina as it was in Iowa. Not so much in New Hampshire.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: No, not so much in New Hampshire. But Ted Cruz, looks like, Wolf, as we await the final results, right, 92 percent, stuck waiting for a number of small towns to report, but it looks like Ted Cruz at the moment anyway holding on to third place. Some small places in there could change the math. But if he comes out of New Hampshire third, then what does he do? He has a win in Iowa, he has a show in New Hampshire. Donald Trump would have a win and a place. So then they go on to South Carolina.
And you mentioned, you know, why is this such a big state, often decisive in Republican presidential primaries? It will not be this year because we have no clear frontrunner yet. But remember Ted Cruz in Iowa with the evangelicals. Let's take a look at the population here. The deeper the color, the more evangelicals you find in this part of the region. So let me shrink this down and look at South Carolina.
The big ad war between Trump and Cruz is right here up here in the Greenville market. This is critical to a Christian conservative evangelical Tea Party candidate. This part of the state is absolutely critical. Ted Cruz needs it. Donald Trump is going at Ted Cruz already right there. And Ted Cruz fighting back.
Let's pull this out just for a little national perspective. Come back out to the math. Why is this so important? If you take a look at this, you know, round one in Iowa went to Ted Cruz. A healthy evangelical population, especially in the caucus environment. They are a clear majority. Here's New Hampshire. Very light. Very few evangelicals here. South Carolina is next. You can tell obviously it's a huge evangelical community. But most of March, not all of March, but most of March is down here.
The color speaks for itself. This is evangelical bible belt for Ted Cruz, who unlike Huckabee and Santorum who won Iowa in 2008 and 2012, he has organization, he has money. So now you have a -- essentially he goes at it with Trump in South Carolina. The question is, Kasich will come in with a little momentum. Can he play here? The Bush family name. This state was critical to George H.W. Bush back in '88, it was critical to George W. Bush after John McCain beat him in New Hampshire in 2000.
It will be fascinating this week to see President Bush -- George W. Bush on the road with his brother here. But Jeb Bush can't afford to come in fourth or third again. He needs a breakthrough moment. So the evangelicals are critical for Ted Cruz. A slice of that is also important to Marco Rubio. But Trump-Cruz, South Carolina.
BLITZER: Remind our viewers what happened in South Carolina four years ago on the Republican side.
KING: Four years ago on the Republican side, let me come out of the demographics here. Four years ago, Newt Gingrich beat Mitt Romney here, extending the Republican race. And you can see that Gingrich -- Mitt Romney won in Columbia and he won along the coast here, more establishment areas. Newt Gingrich won pretty much everywhere else because remember Santorum did not have the resources to compete, even though he had the evangelical vote out in Iowa.
If you go back in time to 2008, a much more classic evangelical Christian conservative vote versus John McCain's establishment vote. Fred Thompson a factor in that race. I would look more to 2008 as we watch what's about to play out between Trump and Cruz. The question is, who is the third force in South Carolina and how hardy they get? Because this was a very important number back in the 2000 race -- 2008 race, excuse me. A lot of people made the case that Thompson drew some votes away from Huckabee, some conservative votes away, and that helped John McCain.
That'll be very interesting to watch, the third and fourth candidate chess inside South Carolina.
BLITZER: And South Carolina on the Democratic side is very different than either New Hampshire or Iowa for that matter. Much more diverse Democratic population.
KING: Right. For the very same reason. You're talking about the demographics of the state are different. Now this is 2008 South Carolina. A big victory for Barack Obama coming -- remember, Obama wins Iowa. Clinton narrowly wins New Hampshire. A huge win for Obama here, sending the race on deep into the calendar year. But what made the difference here, 43 percent of the vote was white in South Carolina. Obama was third. 24 percent behind Edwards and Clinton.
But a majority of the vote, as it will be this time in the Democratic primary, is African-American. President Obama got nearly eight in 10 of those votes. Hillary Clinton thinks that that's her reservoir of votes now? But as our panel has been discussing all night long, Bernie Sanders, he comes from Vermont. He does not have a history of competing for the African-American vote, but he's got a big win tonight. That will get some eyes open.
The question is, in a couple of weeks, can he make his chance and make his inroads there? Hillary Clinton thinks this is the southern firewall. We're about to find out.
BLITZER: We certainly are. Not that long away. South Carolina, Nevada, other contests coming up.
Also, South Carolina voters have been watching tonight's results very, very closely. What do they want? Who do they like? We're going to talk to some of them.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Boy, do we have a ground game. Where's Corey? Corey. Corey Lewandowski. You know, we learned a lot about ground games in one week. I have to tell you that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:33:38] SANDERS: Democrats and progressives win when voter turnout is high. Republicans win when people are demoralized and voter turnout is low.
CLINTON: And here's what we're going to do. Now we take this campaign to the entire country. We are going to fight for every vote, in every state.
SANDERS: And we won because of your energy. Thank you all so much.
CLINTON: My goodness. I don't know what we'd have done tonight if we'd actually won.
SANDERS: The right-wing Republicans we oppose must not be allowed to gain the presidency.
CLINTON: I still love New Hampshire, and I always will.
SANDERS: Thank you, New Hampshire. And now it's on to Nevada, South Carolina, and beyond.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: The votes still being counted in New Hampshire tonight. Donald Trump and Bernie Sanders, though, they are the clear winners. On the Republican side, the drama still unfolding. The Ohio Governor John Kasich surging to second place while Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, and Marco Rubio, they are still battling for third place. Rubio, though, acknowledging he dropped the ball in the last Republican presidential debate.
[01:35:03] But he and most of his rivals, they are now moving on to the next contest, South Carolina. They'll be on the ground there within hours.
Here are the numbers. As of right now in New Hampshire, on the Republican side, as you can see, 92 percent of the vote is in. Donald Trump a decisive, impressive win. 35 percent over John Kasich, who comes in second with 16 percent. 50,000 votes more for Donald Trump over John Kasich.
The battle for third place continuing right now. Ted Cruz at 12 percent. Jeb Bush at 11 percent. Marco Rubio also at 11 percent. But just below Jeb Bush, Chris Christie, a disappointing 7 percent. Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson in low single-digits.
On the Democratic side, also 50,000-vote advantage Bernie Sanders in New Hampshire got 60 percent of the vote to Hillary Clinton, a very disappointing only 38 percent of the vote. Major setback for Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. But now it's on to South Carolina.
I want to go to CNN's Randi Kaye, she's in South Carolina for us with a focus group -- Randi.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, there, Wolf. We watched the results coming out of New Hampshire. We're with a group of about 65 undecided voters here, both Democratic voters and Republican voters. And they all had in their hot little hands this dial. We call this dial testing. So right now it's on neutral. And when they liked something, watching the candidates' speeches, they turned the dial up. And when they didn't like something, they turned the dial all the way down.
So this was real-time sentiment. Per second, every second that they reacted, we caught it, we saw what you might call an EKG line on the screen. And that was how we were able to monitor their reactions.
So I can tell you that when Hillary Clinton was speaking here on the Democratic side, they really liked -- a few moments they like when she was talking about playing tough on Wall Street. They liked when she was talking about equal pay for women. But it was this one comment where she was really sending the message that I will work for you, that this group's dials went way up. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CLINTON: It isn't right that the kids I met in Flint on Sunday were poisoned because their governor wanted to save money. It isn't right for a grandmother here in New Hampshire or anywhere else to have to choose between paying rent and buying medicine because a prescription drug company increased the price 4,000 percent overnight.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So let's get some reaction to Hillary Clinton there.
Andrea, what did you think of Hillary Clinton? You're an undecided voter. How do you feel now?
ANDREA, UNDECIDED VOTER: I think Hillary got it. You know, I think she realized that she better get moving and start talking about issues. And things that the people want to hear about. So -- and that's what she did tonight in her concession speech. I think that's where I was undecided. And she actually turned me around.
KAYE: Really? Because we spoke, and you weren't feeling the love for Hillary Clinton.
ANDREA: Yes. And I was not.
KAYE: Now you are?
ANDREA: And now I'm getting there.
KAYE: You're closer?
ANDREA: I'm getting there.
KAYE: All right. All right. Well, let's ask Kathy here because you were leaning toward Hillary Clinton, right, when you arrived.
KATHY, UNDECIDED VOTER: Correct.
KAYE: And where do you stand now?
KATHY: I still have grave concerns about her ability to draw in the independent voter. And tonight just reinforced my worry about that.
KAYE: So you're still undecided?
KATHY: I am.
KAYE: OK. Well, let's go check over here with the Republican side because we have a lot of people on the Republican side also undecided. But we watched as they were listening to John Kasich, who came in second. Watched their reaction. And really this group tended to stay pretty neutral. They didn't have a whole lot of reaction to Kasich until he started talking about Hillary Clinton. Watch this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KASICH: Hillary, you just needed this much and head to South Carolina, because it ain't working here, OK? It's not working here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KAYE: So John Kasich as I said not getting a whole lot of reaction.
Barbara, you came in undecided. You normally vote Democratic. Have you decided now sitting here amongst the Republican voters?
BARBARA, UNDECIDED VOTER: I'm still undecided. I know that I am not supporting the Republican candidates. And I am not supporting the top -- who were the two top Democrats. And --
KAYE: How will you decide?
BARBARA: I don't know.
KAYE: What do you need to hear?
BARBARA: I need to hear someone who's a little more moderate, where some of my more conservative views, which the Republicans have are there, and some of my more liberal social views that the Democrats have are there.
I consider myself a moderate. And I fit in either party. But this year I'm voting in a primary for the Republicans, as I can do in South Carolina.
KAYE: All right. Well, let me ask this group. The Republicans as a whole here, the Republican voters, did anybody -- was anybody won over by Donald Trump? Yes. Tonight. How about John Kasich? Anyone? Like him as a VP.
[01:40:02] What about after watching the debate, the last Republican debate? Did anybody decide against Marco Rubio? Raise your hands. Wow. Very large group. OK. Well, let's see what's going on over here, finally before we go at the Democratic side. Did Bernie Sanders win anybody over here? Raise your hands. Four, five, six, seven, eight, nine. OK. That's big.
So of our group of 65 undecided voters, Wolf, I'm told that 23 have finally decided on a candidate right here tonight. Back to you.
BLITZER: Very interesting. Randi Kaye, thanks very much.
Coming up, the candidates moving ahead to the next contest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
RUBIO: You will see us again because we're coming back in November to win the general election.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
RUBIO: And New England. New England -- New England, Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts. We'll see you in a few weeks. We're going to come and win.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
RUBIO: And South Carolina, we are on the way.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[01:45:14] TRUMP: We have some real talent in the Republican Party.
KASICH: Maybe, just maybe we are turning the page on a dark part of American politics.
CRUZ: We put Washington on the run. And tonight's outcome is a victory for we the people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. Let's take a look at the numbers right now. They are still counting votes in New Hampshire. On the Republican side, 92 percent of the votes have been counted. Donald Trump, the decisive impressive winner with 35 percent. John Kasich, the Ohio governor, coming in second place. He's 50,000 votes behind Donald Trump with 16 percent.
Ted Cruz, Jeb Bush, Marco Rubio, they're all still fighting for third place, although Ted Cruz seems to have a slight advantage right now over Jeb Bush and Marco Rubio. Chris Christie, very disappointing 7 percent. Carly Fiorina and Ben Carson, they're at only 2 percent.
On the Democratic side, a very, very impressive win by Bernie Sanders. At the same time, Bernie Sanders getting 50,000 more votes, 50,000 more votes than Hillary Clinton in New Hampshire. As we can see right now.
Tonight wasn't necessarily the result that Republican establishment figures in Washington or New York or elsewhere were hoping for or even expecting.
I want to go to Mark Preston, he's in Manchester for us right now. What are you hearing about the reaction from the establishment? Donald Trump is not necessarily the favorite of the Republican establishment.
PRESTON: No, Wolf. In fact, they were hoping that this would be a winnowing process where they could even shrink this field smaller than the five candidates that will by and large be able to come out of New Hampshire and to continue on.
I was up here about three weeks ago talking to all the operatives of the campaigns, and they were telling me that what they thought was going to happen by Wednesday morning, Wednesday afternoon after the election, so tomorrow, that the phone calls would begin. The phone calls would begin to these governors to say it is time to get out of the race, it is time to consolidate behind one candidate.
And the reason being is that the establishment, Wolf, as we all know, is very concerned about Donald Trump. And they are also very concerned about Ted Cruz, even though he is a U.S. senator. So the winnowing process here in New Hampshire hasn't worked very well, except in one case. We will very likely see one person drop out. We'll see what he has to say. But Chris Christie, who was supposed to go to South Carolina, is now heading back home to New Jersey. He is taking some time to, I guess, consider what he's going to do, Wolf.
BLITZER: Let's listen to exactly what Chris Christie, the New Jersey governor, said. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I have both won elections that I was supposed to lose, and I have lost elections I was supposed to win. And what that means is you never know. And it's both the magic and the mystery of politics. That you never quite know when which is going to happen, even when you think you do. And so we leave New Hampshire tonight without an ounce of regret.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: David Chalian, very disappointing night for Governor Christie.
CHALIAN: No doubt about that. Heading, as Mark was saying, back to New Jersey to consider his options from here. I'm sure we'll hear from him again tomorrow if not in the days ahead. But this is not what he was looking for. He put everything into New Hampshire, and that sounded to me like somebody who realized it did not work out for him there.
I do want to mention, though, what Mark was talking about sort of the handwringing on the Republican establishment. We got to back up here and really look at what has happened here. Ted Cruz won Iowa. Donald Trump won New Hampshire. The establishment can hand-wring all they want, but right now, the frontrunners for the Republican nomination are Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. And so that may cause some concern inside the establishment, but it's not even close in terms of the strength of the candidacies right now.
Trump and Cruz are so far ahead, so much stronger with the Republican base right now and where the electorate is than that other lane of candidates that I'm not sure hand-wringing is the solution here. Clearly they need to consolidate behind one if they're going to have a shot at all. But I'm not even sure -- the energy is so clearly with the Trump and Cruz camps that I think, you know, this is going to be a very tough battle for the establishment to win in the long run.
BLITZER: Speaking, Mark, of the establishment, Jeb Bush, he's still in this contest. He is moving from New Hampshire down to South Carolina. He's got money. He's got staff. How's he doing?
PRESTON: Well, the interesting thing about Jeb Bush is that I think, you know, to David's point, is that he is hoping that Ted Cruz and Donald Trump try to destroy one another. I mean, the goal for the establishment is for that to happen.
Now Jeb Bush tonight was very clear in who he is going to go after, and he's going right after Donald Trump. Trying to make it clear to voters, do they want a president like Donald Trump? And trying to make this compare and contrasting between him and between Donald Trump.
[01:50:09] Now a lot of people have counted Jeb Bush out. But let's not forget Jeb Bush still has a lot of money. Jeb Bush is still going to South Carolina where the Bush family does have a foothold in. And Jeb Bush, unlike some of the other candidates that are starting to come down, Jeb Bush is showing a little fire in his belly and he is starting to come up.
Is it still a pretty steep climb? I believe so. But I don't think we can count Jeb Bush out as we head down into South Carolina, Wolf.
BLITZER: Yes. But you've got to give Donald Trump a lot of credit for a huge, very impressive win in New Hampshire tonight. Now the contest moves on to South Carolina and Nevada and beyond.
Still ahead, we'll have the final numbers. They are coming in right now.
Also, Hillary Clinton, she's way behind Bernie Sanders. As you know, he is a decisive winner by some 50,000 votes in New Hampshire over her. What a disappointing night for Hillary Clinton. Will we see any major change in her strategy as she now moves forward? (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SANDERS: What the people here have said is that given the enormous crisis facing our country, it is just too late for the same old, same old establishment politics and establishment economics. The people want real change.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:55:11] COOPER: And it seems like that based on the results tonight. Let's talk about it with our panel, with both panels here about what happens now on the Democratic side.
BORGER: Well, I think what you're going to see in South Carolina is Hillary Clinton embracing President Obama even more than she's already done.
COOPER: We should point out Nevada is first and then South Carolina.
BORGER: It's first. And, as David was pointing out earlier, you know, caucuses can play to Bernie Sanders' strength with his passionate supporters.
COOPER: But in the Nevada caucus, independents do not --
BORGER: No.
COOPER: Get to vote in the Democratic primary.
BORGER: No. It's Democrats. But there was a memo publicly distributed by the Clinton campaign tonight in which they made the point very clearly that Sanders will face increased pressure to explain his record especially on issues where he deviates from President Obama.
AXELROD: That's our buddy Bill Press' book, "Buyer's Remorse."
BORGER: That's right.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: "How Obama Let Progressives Down," with a blur by Bernie Sanders may be getting a lot of attention in the next --
PRESS: I hope you are right.
AXELROD: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: But it's a problem, Bill, because most Democrats honestly just -- most Democrats don't feel that way. And that's where she's going to try and drive it home.
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Particularly going into a state like South Carolina.
BORGER: Yes.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESS: As I was mentioning --
COOPER: OK.
PRESS: This isn't a debate.
COOPER: You get 30 seconds.
PRESS: I just want to remind you that as David pointed out in the exit polls earlier, right, people were asked, you want to continue the policies of Barack Obama, 41 percent.
AXELROD: Right.
PRESS: Would you like them to be more liberal? 40 percent.
AXELROD: Right.
PRESS: I don't think it's true that everybody says, we just have to continue Obama.
AXELROD: And that's -- but the difference between New Hampshire and some of the other states is pretty profound. And so I think that's a problem.
BEINART: And I think --
AXELROD: Can Bernie Sanders expand his base beyond the white liberals that he's attracted? That's going to be the challenge moving forward.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And he's got to figure that out. I mean, he's been saying for nine months, A, that he's been courting African-Americans, but at the same time African-Americans don't really know him yet. Right? I understand that tomorrow morning, or I guess today, he's going to meet with Al Sharpton in New York. He's obviously got Ben Jealous on his side. He's really got to figure that out.
That voter, that black woman voter that Randi Kaye talked to and talked about Hillary Clinton, that's a voter that he needs to reach in a state like South Carolina. Older African-American women. It could be that he was the one that should have gone to Flint, Michigan. Right? He was so ahead in New Hampshire he probably should have gone to Flint.
COOPER: Right.
HENDERSON: Rather than Hillary Clinton.
COOPER: Peter?
BEINART: It's an interesting opportunity for him. It's important to remember that the Sanders coalition is not the same as the Obama coalition. He does a lot better than Obama did with white working class voters. And so the challenge for him is, can he put together a coalition of young, idealistic liberals and working class voters who -- he can win over on issues of trade? Those were not issues that Barack Obama hit nearly as hard. Can he hit Hillary Clinton on issues -- on issues of trade and globalization? That might be his path going forward.
AXELROD: He did very well with working class voters tonight and he did in Iowa as well.
BEINART: Right. Exactly.
BRAZILE: But her challenge going forward is less to defeat Bernie Sanders, but it's to motivate and inspire people to come to her. She needs to be visionary. She needs to be forward thinking. When you lose young people by 70 percentile, that says something. So I think that's her challenge now.
COOPER: But it's interesting point --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: Plus or minus 4 percent.
COOPER: I'm sorry, David.
BRAZILE: Right.
PRESS: You know, I think the reason that Bernie -- in the sense the reason Trump did so well, both tapped into a discontent if not an anger and a frustration with the establishment and with politics as usual. And no matter hard -- she's a great candidate. But no matter how hard she tries, she is still the establishment. She is politics as usual. She is not change. Bernie is.
COOPER: And also how many times has that discussion been had about retooling the campaign, sort of changing what her message is? Haven't we heard that before?
BRAZILE: You know, we don't have another hour, but I would love to have a debate with you about what constitutes --
PRESS: Do you want to have a drink afterwards?
BRAZILE: No.
(LAUGHTER)
BRAZILE: It's all right. I can't drink. I mean, Anderson wore me out tonight. But we have to have this conversation about what constitutes the establishment.
PRESS: OK.
BRAZILE: Because I understand where Bernie is coming from. But I also believe that going forward, he needs to understand that certain people have fought to get to the table. And putting a woman or minorities at the table and saying we're the establishment, that's not going to fly.
PRESS: No, no, no.
(CROSSTALK)
PRESS: A former first lady, senator, secretary of state, is the establishment.
BRAZILE: He's been a mayor and a member of Congress and a United States senator for --
COOPER: I got to --
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: I got to wrap. I hate to do this. I know it's only been -- I know it's only been nine hours --
(LAUGHTER)
COOPER: You're all rearing to go. But I've got to toss it to another broadcast. It only feels like eight hours to me.
They're still counting the votes obviously in New Hampshire. Our coverage continues now with John Berman and Poppy Harlow.
