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CNN Live Event/Special

Live Coverage of Super Saturday Results; CNN Projects Clinton, Trump Win Louisiana; Hillary Clinton Speaks in Michigan. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired March 05, 2016 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:00] JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. We're inside the ritzy Trump International Golf Club in West Palm Beach where Donald Trump will be out here.

Within the hour, we believe, to get his reaction to Super Saturday. It has not been a Super Saturday for Donald Trump.

He is going to, at best, go two for four tonight. And I talked to a top Trump campaign official who said, obviously, this is a good night for Ted Cruz. They bank on the strategy, of focusing heavily on caucus states, that is paying off, that is paying dividends tonight for Ted Cruz.

You can pardon, some of the people moving around in this room, Wolf. That's because this is not only a press conference, this is also a watch party. There are seven rows of Trump supporters standing in front of the press area here. Only four ...

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Sure, because there's an announcement about to be made on the Democratic caucuses in Nebraska.

Vince Powers, the State Democratic Chairman speaking.

VINCE POWERS, NEBRASKA DEMOCRATIC PARTY CHAIRMAN: ... was the state director for the Sanders campaign, these two gentlemen, along with their team, were true professionals, they handled any issues that came up with grace and I think that they made us all proud to be Nebraska Democrats.

The -- I also would like to thank Hadley Rictors, our Executive Director and her team for doing this spectacular job.

And we were not expecting such a large absentee ballot request. We had 8,756 ballots were sent out. And of those, 6,241 were returned and already will be included in the count that I'm about to give you.

Today's caucuses could not have been possible without over 200 to 300 volunteers across the state who worked very hard. It's not easy. We are not a taxpayer-funded election. We did this with volunteers and self-funded through the county chairs, county parties and state party.

I'm going to give you the first round, round approximately, 75 percent of the vote is in. And with this and with today's enthusiasm, we're well on our way to making certain brad effort as returned to Congress and that we begin winning statewide elections for giving, beginning with the governor's race in two years.

Most importantly, we are focused on using this energy, the voter registrations that came out for our candidates in the primary and then in November.

Thus far, we've received results from 116 locations representing 21,368 participants. With appears, we're going to have strong turnout. And while you're here, all the results that we have received so far, Hillary Clinton has 9,665 votes, or 45.23 percent. Bernie Sanders has 11,703 votes, or 54.77 percent. We have about 25 percent remaining and however, I want to be clear that when I say 25 percent, that's not a raw number. That's a number of polling places out. For example, this does not include Sarpy County and this is not included Lancaster County, which is just finishing up.

Stay posted to our website, nebraskademocrats.org for more results as they continue to be updated. We continue to take results in, but, you know, it's just been wonderful. And Nebraska Democrats have been inspired by our two outstanding candidates who conducted a very positive campaign and we're very proud of the fact that Nebraska Democrats have come out across the state with great enthusiasm.

And if anyone has any questions, I'd be happy to answer them or not.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you have an idea of the turnout overall?

POWERS: I really don't without Lancaster County numbers.

BLITZER: All right. So, there you have it. That's 75 percent of the vote in Nebraska among the Democrats has been counted.

Bernie Sanders is the leader right now, but it's not a done deal yet. No winner yet, Dana. This is an important race, Bernie Sanders is ahead, not by a whole

lot, but he is ahead in Nebraska.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: He is. And luckily, we have somebody who knows this state very well who grew up there, Jeff Zeleny.

You were talking about and you heard the party chair say, part of the reason why he can't call it for Bernie Sanders is because huge population centers are still not counted.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right, at least two counties that we know of Lancaster County which is the city of Lincoln and University of Nebraska Lincoln the state capital and Sarpy County, which is right around Omaha, two of the biggest population centers.

And their caucuses were at different times today. Of course, this patch work of election, a laws that we've always see, shows that we vote differently. [21:05:02] So, caucuses were different times. So, are just finishing in Lincoln now.

Anecdotally, it looks like Bernie Sanders had a much stronger turnout in the city of Lincoln, the most liberal of all 93 Iowa, Nebraska counties. Excuse me, we talked about Iowa, so I would. So I would expect Bernie Sanders to continuous trend here. But this is a sign about and we talked about earlier and the Clinton campaign did not throw away Nebraska as they did eight years ago, so they will still split the delegates here. But Bernie Sanders right now has a big lead.

BASH: What do you make of it, David?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: I was just 54.8 to 45.2 is pretty significant, especially if the remaining 25 percent of the vote is going to be even more pro Sanders, perhaps. I take your point that they will win some delegates here and it won't be truantry (ph) for her in the delegate side ...

BASH: The Clinton campaign.

CHALIAN: Yeah, the Clinton campaign. But still I think Bernie Sanders is clearly having a really strong night and, again, this is about the ability to continue to make arguments to donors, supporters, to the media for your continuation in the race.

It's what we see -- Ted Cruz is getting in a big argument to keep the fight going against the frontrunner and Bernie Sanders gets a big argument tonight.

ZELENY: And he went there again. He went there on Thursday, there were thousands of people there, Hillary Clinton chose not to always is introvert for a reason Bill Clinton was there last night, the former president. But this is a big win for Bernie Sanders, no question about it, because it puts another one on the board.

So if my math is right, at the end of Nebraska, if this holds and we project it for Bernie Sanders, I believe he'll have eight states now overall here. But let's watch to see Lancaster County and start be county in Nebraska. It's like a governor's race there.

BASH: Wolf?

BLITZER: Well, we're ready to make a projection right now based on the information just provided by the Democratic chairman in Nebraska, watch this.

And CNN will project that, is projecting right now that Bernie Sanders will win the state of Nebraska, the Democratic presidential caucuses in Nebraska. This is his second win of the night. Earlier we projected he's the winner in Kansas the Democratic presidential causes in Kansas, right there Bernie Sanders picks up win number two tonight.

According to the official numbers that were released by the Democratic Party, you can see Bernie Sanders with 54.8 percent and Hillary Clinton with 45.2 percent but based on that information, based on where the outstanding vote is, we have made the projection, Bernie Sanders, picks up win number two for him tonight in the state of Nebraska, earlier he win Kansas. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, Wolf, thank you very much. I've said in the couple of times tonight but I think it bears repeating, if you were watching and if -- we just picked up there with party official from Nebraska saying, how, you know, this said that this isn't state-funded, it's not taxpayer-funded, we did it with volunteers and he said it, you know, as a point of pride that they got it done as party.

But how about that, of all the things that your dollars go to when your in a state that they won't pay for the election process that decides for who your nominee is going to be as the President of the United States.

Nia-Malika Henderson, we've been talking about this. But, you know, it's one of the things that winds up undermining confidence, almost every election, feel my career a lot ...

NIA MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yeah.

CUOMO: ... with Bush and Gore, who want to go ahead down there and hang out and see what was going on in Florida with hanging chance, but the idea of this process, once it's undermining your confidence, everybody is a little bit specular of whether or not the result should be believed, you get numbers coming out with zero percent of the precincts reporting, you know, a lot of that doesn't make sense.

HENDERSON: In those long lines of people we saw that in 2012, and obviously the idea voting rights has been a big topic of conversation, particularly on the Democratic side. But God bless those people who are doing this process who where, you know, counting the ballots, making those ...

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: Who know what is we would do if we didn't have them.

HENDERSON: Yeah exactly.

CUOMO: You have to go house to house and ask them, Wolf has got some new information that coming out from Louisiana. That's a big front, Wolf?

BLITZER: We've got a Key Race Alert coming in. The poll just closed in Louisiana. Here are the first numbers coming in on the Republican side. Remember, these are primaries in Louisiana, not caucuses, Donald Trump is ahead with 4 percent of the vote and he's got 46.4percent, Ted Cruz is in second place 24 percent, Marco Rubio in third place 20 perecnt, John Kasich in fourth place, only 3.4 percent, very early only 4 percent of the vote in.

On the Democratic side, 5 percent of the vote is in, Hillary Clinton has got a significant lead 72.4 percent, Bernie Sanders 20.9 percent, only 5 percent of the vote is in. But so far, early counting, Donald Trump ahead on the Republican side and Hillary Clinton ahead on the Democratic side. These are primaries in the state of Louisiana, Chris?

CUOMO: All right, Wolf, thank you very much.

Again, very early there Louisiana also a little bit of a different state. There are lots of big swings of change within it. So you'll have to watch the numbers and percentages as they come out.

Now, let's look at a constructive argument that works on the GOP, maybe also on the Democratic side, which is your party has changed. Your party is dissatisfied. You've been saying the same thing for a long time and you haven't been getting it done. We know what that argument is on the GOP side we talked about all the time.

[21:10:01] On the Democrat side, the left, they have been starved, with somebody who talked about what that party use to be, all about, believe me and my ears will ringing with it as you grow up. Now they're hearing it Bernie Sanders, how real threat is that to Hillary Clinton?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, it's a threat to a point, I mean, I think what's the primaries get going? They are little bit like a tennis match where you change the momentum if you break serve.

Bernie Sanders had a good night tonight, but he basically held serve. He won two states that are 90 percent white, Nebraska and Kansas.

Tad Devine his very Savvy Senior Strategies had predicted, they would do well in part, because what's left of the Democratic Party in those states, as they become more Republican are heavily liberal.

So, ultimately, what Bernie Sanders has to do and what he's not doing in Louisiana, he showed that he can extend beyond that Ted Cruz get a little bit of that tonight. A little bit mistake in Maine, showing he was going beyond where he had been.

But again, if Louisiana and Kentucky go back to Donald Trump ...

CUOMO: But Ted Cruz is running against somebody that nobody in the establishment that party wants.

The opposite is true ...

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah, right.

CUOMO: ... for what Bernie Sanders is facing and yet Michael Smerconish, he shows time and time again, that no matter how many people want to keep him down, he still makes his own games.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: There's something quirky. I don't know what to make of it. But we're now saying Nebraska is Bernie Sanders, Kansas, Bernie Sanders has already won Oklahoma. The pattern, Ted Cruz, on a Republican side, the exact same three states versus geographical correlation between where Ted Cruz has just won and where Bernie Sanders is winning.

CUOMO: The people versus the power structure continues to play out.

Now, we have something to take you to right now. Live from Michigan, here's Hillary Clinton on the Hastings.

HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: ... John Conyers, Brenda Lawrence, Dan Kildee, the mayor of Flint who's been so courageous, Karen Weaver and Warren Evans and all of you.

You know, it's exciting to be here and I want to thank you for supporting and building the Democratic Party right here in Michigan.

We need to elect Democrats up and down the ticket in November.

I want you to know, if I'm fortunate enough to be our party's nominee and be elected president, I'm going to work hard every day to bring back the Michigan Democratic Party and parties across our country.

Now, I believe, we can't rise together unless we have inclusive economics in an inclusive society and inclusive politics where all voices are heard.

And that starts with supporting President Obama in nominating a new Supreme Court justice.

And we've got to continue to put pressure on the Republicans in the Senate to do their constitutional duty, but here's what I want you to know. Even if the president ...

BLITZER: All right. I'm going to interrupt Hillary Clinton, but she'll be happy with this interruption. Listen to this.

CNN projects that Hillary Clinton will win the Louisiana Democratic presidential primary. Polls just closed there. But based on all of the information we're getting, CNN projects Hillary Clinton as the winner.

This is her first win of the night. She wins in Louisiana in the democratic primary. Bernie Sanders has won in Kansas. He's won in Nebraska. Two to one so far, you see 8 percent of the voters in. Hillary Clinton with 71.1 percent, Bernie Sanders with 21.4 percent, Hillary Clinton is the winner. In the only primary of the night, Louisiana, she's the winner CNN projects. Dana.

BASH: Pretty decisive. And of all of the contest tonight's the most delegate rich, Louisiana.

And as we were talking about the most typical of Hillary Clinton's states where she really does well. I mean, Louisiana is for the democratic side has a large African-American community. She has been racking up the votes across the board in those communities.

CHALIAN: And margins matter.

BASH: Exactly.

CHALIAN: This is what we were talking about here.

So, where they have the largest delegate price today, as you're saying, 51 delegates at stake, that's a 50-point race right now and only 8 percent of the voters in. But, if she holds that kind of margin, she wins the lion's share of those delegates.

If -- yes, Bernie Sanders has two states to add to his category, to his win list tonight in Kansas and Nebraska.

But if it was closer margins and they're not as delegate rich, at the end of the night, Hillary Clinton makes more progress.

ZELENY: Right, and you have wonder why Bernie Sanders didn't campaign more there actually, because it was so many delegate at stake. He didn't go there at all.

BASH: That's interesting. Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right. So, so far, Hillary Clinton has won one state Louisiana Democratic primary in Louisiana.

Bernie Sanders has won the caucuses in Kansas and Nebraska.

Let's take a quick break, we'll be right back with much more.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:17:30] BLITZER: Let's update you down and where things stand on this Super Saturday. The result that we've just projected, Hillary Clinton is the winner in the Democratic primary in Louisiana. Earlier we've projected that Bernie Sanders is the winner in Nebraska, Bernie Sanders is the winner in Kansas as well. That's on the Democratic side.

On the Republican side, Ted Cruz is the winner in Kansas. Ted Cruz is also the winner in Maine. Two Republican contests outstanding the Kentucky caucuses as well as the Louisiana primary.

We'll see if we can make some projections soon and let's get a Key Race Alert. On those states in the meantime that, in Louisiana right now with 7 percent of the vote is in Donald Trump has the lead, 47.8 percent over Ted Cruz with 23.3 percent, Rubio is in third place 19.3 percent, Kasich a distant fourth place, only 3 percent.

In Kentucky, 32 percent, almost a third of the vote is in Trump is ahead there as well. 40.6 percent, Cruz at 31.1 percent, Rubio is in third place but it's a very close contest in Kentucky. Rubio and Kasich, very, very close right there. I want to go back to listen to Hillary Clinton. She's in Detroit speaking.

CLINTON: ... America prospers when we all prosper. America is strong when we are all strong. And, you know, we've got work to do. But not to make America great again, America never stopped being great.

We've got to make America whole. Diversity is a strength not a weakness. If we see each other's humanity, if we lift each other up when we stumble, we can keep moving toward that more perfect union.

Instead of trying to divide America between us and them, let's try to find a little more love and kindness in our hearts, to respect one another, to support one another. We should work together for both inclusive prosperity and an inclusive society.

I believe, with all my heart, we can bring down barriers for hardworking families. All across America, in old industrial cities and small Appalachian towns and farm country and Indian country, in every community that's been hallowed out by lost jobs and lost hope.

It starts with making very clear and I've put this at the center of m economic policy, working families need a raise and more good jobs, jobs that pay well and provide dignity pride and a sense of purpose.

[21:20:19] And don't let anyone tell you we can't make things in America anymore. Because as you're proving every day here in Michigan, we can, we are and we will. But it's not -- it's not going to come from re-fighting battles from 20 years ago.

We need a real strategy to invest in manufacturing, small business and clean energy. Enough clean energy to power every home in America.

So when you vote in the primary on Tuesday, remember, there's only one candidate in this race who actually has a plan to do that. And we're going to stand up to all those who put special interests ahead of America's interests.

You know, the other day, I was in Boston at the site of the original Tea Party and I had to wonder, what would those early American patriots make of corporations that seemed to have absolutely no loyalty to the country that has given them so much.

Look at Nabisco, laying off 600 workers in Chicago, moving a production line out of the country. Even though Nabisco has long received tax breaks from the state of Illinois. They have no problem taking taxpayer dollars with one hand and giving out pink slips with the other.

Look at the growing number of corporations moving their headquarters overseas just so they can avoid paying their fair share of taxes here at home, like Johnson Controls, which makes car parts in Wisconsin. It actually lobbied for and benefited from the auto rescue in 2008 and 2009.

Taxpayers helped save the company. Now it's turning its back on our country. Now, look, I'm not interested in condemning whole categories of businesses for the entire private sector of course now. But I do understand a clear message.

If you cheat your employees, exploit your customers, pollute our environment or rip off the taxpayers, we will hold you accountable. BLITZER: Hillary Clinton speaking in Detroit. This coming on the heels of her win in the primary in Louisiana. She wins Louisiana. Bernie Sanders wins in Nebraska and Kansas.

We've got to take another quick break. Much more of our special coverage coming up, right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:26:31] BLITZER: Exciting night here, Super Saturday. Let's update you on the winner so far. Hillary Clinton has won the Louisiana Democratic primary. You see it there.

Bernie Sanders, he's won the two other Democratic contests today, Democratic caucuses in Nebraska, Democratic caucuses in Kansas. Two wins for Bernie Sanders, one for Hillary Clinton.

So far, on the Republican side, two wins for Ted Cruz. He wins the Republican caucuses in Kansas. He also wins the Republican caucuses in Maine. Two other states Republican contests still outstanding right now.

We have a Key Race Alert for you. Here are the results as of right now in Louisiana. The Republican primary, 8 percent of the vote is in. Donald Trump has a significant lead 47.7 percent over Ted Cruz 23.4 percent. Marco Rubio in third place 19.5 percent. John Kasich in fourth place distant fourth, only 3.1 percent in Louisiana.

In Kentucky right now, more than the third of the vote is in. 34 percent of the vote is in. Trump maintains his lead with 40.4 percent. Ted Cruz in second place, 31.1 percent. Marco Rubio and John Kasich, they're fighting for third place but they're a distant third. 13.5 percent for Rubio, 13.1 percent for John Kasich.

I want to go over to John King, let's take a closer look at Kentucky, rabid trouble with Kentucky. And more than a third of the voters in, Trump maintains his lead but there's still some outstanding counties we're looking at to see who wins the state.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been a steady Trump lead, since we got a distant amount of votes since. So it seems be turning his way. But we'd like to be cautious about these things. Close race when it count to votes.

Now why did I call if, you look at it so far, Donald Trump is clearly winning more counties. He's running up the vote but we have absolutely nothing from the largest county in the state, Jefferson County. That's where lower (ph) is, large Republican base here especially when you get out and see the suburbs. 17 percent of the state populations, so we'd like to get at least a flavor of that to see if the statewide trend is continuing.

Also over here in the center of the state, Fayette County, just shot at 7 percent of the state's population, absolutely nothing in, yet again, a key area in a contested Republican race in the state. So you just want to at least get, at least get a flavor of those votes and see if they track what you're seeing statewide as we count them in. But it so far, impressive Cruz holding his own in some places, but Donald Trump doing what he is done, Wolf. If you pull it out again, across the south so far, across the south so far, you see from South Carolina, Trump running it up, in Virginia, obviously a closer race and his doing tonight in Louisiana as well.

If you move down here, again, we're only at 8 percent but this is a pretty impressive early numbers and this trend line continues. This looks very much like it will be a Trump win in Louisiana as well.

We're still waiting Orleans Parish. We have nothing yet, our friend old friend Mary Madeline (ph) and we haven't counted her vote down there in Orleans Parish yet.

So again, major population center here, nearly 8 percent of the state's vote. So you're waiting to get this in but the picture tells the story of the entire state. If you saw, you know, a fight, if you saw other candidates winning some counties, you'd think may, you know, this be on early at 8 percent, this might shift, it could as you count more votes but this is a pretty compelling early map for Donald Trump who is the 48 percent here, 37 percent there. Running up the numbers pretty good.

And again, when you pull it out to the big picture, Ted Cruz can claim win here tonight, win up here tonight. It's interesting. Ted Cruz won in Alaska, as far west as you can get. And he won in Maine, as far east as you can get. And he's doing fine here in the middle of the country as well.

But Donald Trump still has the most wins and I would say it looks right now that Marco Rubio is going to end the night 1 and 18. He just told reporters down in Puerto Rico which votes tomorrow, that the map is about to get better for him. We'll see.

BLITZER: We shall see, indeed. Donald Trump is about to speak in West Palm Beach as well. We're going to have live coverage of that.

[21:30:03] We'll see these two remaining contests for tonight. Much more of our special coverage, in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: Standing by to hear from Donald Trump your looking live pictures from West Palm Beach in Florida. Donald Trump will be speaking momentarily. In the meantime, as we await for Trump, let's get you a Key Race Alert.

In Louisiana right now, 8 percent of the vote is in. Trump has an impressive lead with 47.8 percent over Ted who has 23.7 percent. Rubio is in third place right now with 19 percent. John Kasich a distant fourth with only 3.1 percent.

In Kentucky, much more of the vote is in. More than a third, 36 percent of the vote has been counted. Donald Trump maintains his lead. Forty percent for Donald Trump in Kentucky, Ted Cruz, 31.3 percent, Rubio and Kasich fighting out for third. Close battle between the two of them but that's a distant third for Rubio and Kasich right there.

Let's go to Dana and David right now. All of the races have been called so far except for Kentucky and Louisiana on the Republican side.

BASH: That's right. And those are two states obviously where Donald Trump seems to be leading. Now, we should say that usually on this days and nights we have exit polls or, in the case of caucuses, entrance polls to give us a sense of why voters are going a certain way or toward a certain candidate.

[21:35:01] We don't have them today for lots of reasons but we do know, based on history, why Donald Trump seems to be doing well in these kinds of states.

CHALIAN: All right, because we can look at the demographic makeup and of the ...

BASH: Exactly.

CHALIAN: ... states and compare them to the states where he has done really well and they look very similar to those states. We should note that in Louisiana right now, the bulk of that vote that's in right now is absentee vote. Donald Trump tends -- to has tended to do better with absentee voters. And so, I think what our decision desk is waiting to see is some more Election Day vote to join that absentee vote before we're able to make any kind of projection there.

But clearly, these are both pretty significant leads for Donald Trump and this has bee a goodnight for Ted Cruz. He's able to score a couple victories, really important to get on the scoreboard for him. But Donald Trump is still going to a merge tonight as the dominant force in this race and Ted Cruz is going to have to be the one that emerges making an argument for halting the Donald Trump motion to the nomination. These two states will be part of that propulsion.

BASH: OK, Thanks, David. Wolf, back to you.

BLITZER: All right guys, don't go too far away. We're standing by to hear from Donald Trump. You are looking at live pictures. He's going to go to that lectern and over there speak momentarily.

We're still waiting for the results from the two outstanding states of Kentucky and Louisiana. The democratic races have all been called.

Much more right after this

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:40:08] BLITZER: We're standing by to hear from Donald Trump. But he is getting ready to address reporters and supporters and others that the Trump International Gulf Club in West Palm Beach, Florida. You're looking the live pictures over there, still waiting for two results Louisiana to come and Kentucky to come in. Trump is ahead in both of those Republican contests.

I want to walk over to John King over at the magic wall. John, Louisiana and Kentucky those are the races that remain outstanding.

KING: All right, all right let's take a quick look at the results. You see Louisiana right now, are almost at 40 percent of the vote. Eight-point lead for Donald ...

BLITZER: Kentucky.

KING: ... Kentucky -- yeah I'm sorry. Eight-point lead for Donald Trump, but again we're waiting we're waiting for the two major populations center. So, I just going to wait and count some votes there in Kentucky. And let's go down to Louisiana. We will see what happens here.

We've got only 9 percent of the votes so far. And again, as we explained a few minutes ago, these are absentee ballots that were already on hands when the count of those and release those numbers first.

Now, we're waiting for more votes to come in. But this one is leading -- turning Donald Trump's way 47.4 percent, and nearly 25 percent for Ted Cruz, Marco Rubio at 18.6 percent, and John Kasich at 3.2 percent down there.

So, we you watch this play out looking and you see the map, one Cruz County so far right here up in the northern part of the state. He's winning by 8 point but look, only two percent of vote in there, both counties, still they do. But if you look throughout the state otherwise, this is a very impressive map as it fills in early for Donald Trump. Up in the street (ph) up there it looks have gone nothing yet. So, no votes up here in that parish will come down by calling counties here in Louisiana. I know they're parishes. So, the nights get long sometimes.

Let's come down here and look at Orleans Parish, we still have no votes here. Largest chunk of the state right here, nearly 8 percent of the state's population, we're waiting to count some votes here. But if you look at the big map -- trend short tell you, Baton Rouge, zero percent of the vote in. So, just a few, just smattering of a precinct to two maybe, but Trump leading there.

If you look at the map and you go though the small parishes and larger ones that have come in, let's check over in on Lake Charles, 4 percent of the state population there, again, Donald Trump leading.

So, everything you see, it tells you, it's trending Donald Trump's way. We only got 9 percent of the votes statewide. We want to get some more votes and just to make sure that as you get some of the live votes coming in from today that they track the percentages that we have in the absentee ballots, you look at very important to team Trump here, Wolf, because of the earlier Cruz wins they very much want to get Kentucky and Louisiana, so they can end the night saying we got a lot of delegates, we're still in the lead.

BLITZER: All right, John, thanks very much.

We're getting more information. We're now ready to me that projection.

CNN projects Donald Trump wins the Louisiana Republican primary. That's his first win of the night. Ted Cruz has won in Kansas, he's won in Maine. We now project Donald Trump is the winner in Louisiana. This is an important win.

The only primary contest of the night, all the other contests were caucuses. Donald Trump, the winner in Louisiana. We're getting ready to hear from Donald Trump momentarily. He's over in West Palm Beach. We'll have live coverage of that. But this is what Donald Trump wanted. We're still waiting for Kentucky but a big win for Donald Trump in Louisiana.

BASH: That's right. And as we had the earlier projections of the night from Kansas and other -- and the caucuses where Ted Cruz has been doing well, this is a primary and this is a delegate-rich state. He's not going to get all of them because it's proportional but this is -- it keeps him in the game and keeps the narrative from continuing to be, Ted Cruz is doing well and there's for pause for Donald Trump.

CHALIAN: Right. There's no doubt. Although I do think Ted Cruz's victories tonight are going to foster that conversation about whether or not we are in a moment of the Republican electorate sort of reassessing Donald Trump. But you are right. This is the biggest delegate prize of the night. And a 20-point win, if it holds at that margin, is a pretty significant victory for Donald Trump. Here as you said, it's proportional. So, he's going to add to his delegate total.

You know, Ted Cruz earlier tonight was saying, oh, well, he might be within 100 delegates. But I don't know. You know, Donald Trump may have more than a 100-delegate lead here. I know that it sounds a lot of people but that is a significant delegate lead. It is very hard to dig into that before we get to these win or take all states.

BASH: Absolutely. And Wolf, we are still waiting for Kentucky to see if he does end up officially taking that.

BLITZER: If he holds that lead, he will have won Kentucky and Louisiana. Those are both bigger states than Kansas and Nebraska as far as delegates are concerned, but we're still waiting for Kentucky that's the only outstanding state that we're waiting for.

Once again, we're also waiting for Donald Trump. You're looking a live pictures coming in from West Palm Beach, Florida. That's his country club there. We have live coverage once he goes to the mic.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:48:13] BLITZER: CNN has projected Donald Trump is the winner in Louisiana. The only Republican Primary of the night, all the others caucuses, Donald Trump wins Louisiana. We're standing by to hear from Donald Trump. You're looking at live pictures coming in from West Palm Beach, Florida. Once Donald Trump gets to the microphone, we'll have live coverage of that.

In Louisiana, by the way, right now, 11 percent of the vote is in he's way ahead, 46.3 percent, to Ted Cruz 27.2 percent, Rubio, 17.2 percent, Kasich in distant fourth only 3.7 percent. We've got a Key Race Alert on the only outstanding contest remaining tonight.

We're talking about Kentucky. Almost half of the vote is now in, 43 percent. Trump maintains the lead. 38.1 percent. Ted Cruz, 32 percent. Rubio, a distant third with 14.2 percent, John Kasich, 13.9 percent, that's in Kentucky. Trump is ahead, once again, 38 to 32 percent over Ted Cruz, but we're not yet ready to make a projection in Kentucky. That the only state that has not been called yet. Chris, back to you.

CUOMO: All right, Wolf. We see back behind you there on screen the image of the man himself, D.J.T., Donald J. Trump. He's getting ready to speak. When he does, we will give a taste of that. But first, let's go to the panel, we're do the show our answer style. So now, we're waiting to go Mr. Trump.

So, Smerconish?

SMERCONISH: Yeah.

CUOMO: It looks like Trump may go for 2-4. In baseball, that would make him a giant. However, in a night like tonight, looks like a split. But did he win the states he needed to?

SMERCONISH: Yes. If he wins Louisiana and he has than he has. Here's something interesting, Bobby Jindal was for Marco Rubio, Donald Trump won, Greg LePage was for Donald Trump. Ted Cruz won. Sam Brownback was for Marco Rubio, Ted Cruz won.

[21:50:00] Further deterioration of the power of the power of seven Nikki Haley as ..

HENDERSON: Yeah.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senator Palin.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

SMERCONISH: Senator Palin, yeah. So, all of these governors selections went down the tubes.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah ...

CUOMO: You could have told me that.

BORGER: Yeah.

CUOMO: I know that very well, you know, never want a Governor your side?

BORGER: Right. Here's the important thing about Louisiana for Trump, very big win, because it's a closed primary. SMERCONISH: Yeah.

BORGER: So, we've been talking about ...

CUOMO: So what's more important than, closed or caucus?

BORGER: Well ...

BROWNSTEIN: Caucus seems to be more important so far.

BORGER: Well, it's right.

CUOMO: For Cruz.

BROWNSTEIN: So far.

BORGER: For Cruz.

HENDERSON: Yeah.

BORGER: But for Trump, we've all been saying, can he win, he can only win with crossover voters, he wants to bring in those Democrats. Well, Louisiana shows that in a closed Republican primary, Donald Trump wins.

HENDERSON: Yeah, you know, a Republican voters ...

CUOMO: All right. So one and done? S.E. Cupp, you see Louisiana, we've been waiting for it all night. Does it have magnified importance because this is super Saturday? Yes, this is the one contest we can examine this way, but do you see this as something that will be metaphorical as well?

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I want to know if the Trump Super Tuesday surge is taking a nap tonight or if there's something kind of going on. And you know, this is kind of a bump in the momentum.

We all talk about the momentum. I don't know if Trump leaves super Saturday with the most momentum or Cruz does. I mean, these are two good wins for Ted Cruz.

CUOMO: But Kentucky, which state do you think matters more? Obviously, Louisiana is the only open one to consider, but then after that, could you make the case that Kentucky is the next most important state?

BROWNSTEIN: Yes, yes.

CUOMO: Brownstein's saying yes. What do you say? Don't let him put words in your mouth.

JEFFREY LORD, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Because of who runs Kentucky. I mean, that's ...

CUOMO: The Mitch McConnell's state. LORD: ... Mitch McConnell's state, this is Rand Paul's state. Then that's kind of right. I mean, so, yes, this is an important win for him.

BROWNSTEIN: And not only that, these are two -- again, these are two of the last states where evangelicals are about half of the vote or more. And in fact, if Ted Cruz does not win either of them, the places where he should be strongest are coming off the board.

Yes, Maine shows some ability to expand beyond that. But Donald Trump, if he, in fact wins, you know, if he did win Louisiana, he has won most Republican voters in every state that he has won ...

BORGER: Yeah.

BROWNSTEIN: ... according to the exit polls. And in fact, we have seen the Republican share of the vote drop by three points or more in only three states.

So, the idea that he's fundamentally changing the composition of the electorate at least so far is not borne out of the data. He is basically winning Republican voters in the places that he's winning. There is resistance to him. He's not getting into 40s. He is still in the 30s, but it is not simply a kind of an importation of new voters.

HENDERSON: And some of these are people who voted for Mitt Romney, probably people who voted for Rick Santorum in 2012.

BROWNSTEIN: Yeah.

HENDERSON: He got 49 percent of the vote in Louisiana.

So I think in some ways, it's the establishment fantasy that these are somehow new voters and that he is not doing well with Republicans.

CUOMO: All right. So, we have the returns. We are talking about what they mean, but it doesn't matter until you hear from the man himself.

Here's the question for you at home. Who is Donald Trump going to attack the most when he comes out to speak tonight? Because that is probably the best measure of who he thinks did well. Tell us on social media.

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[21:56:42] BLITZER: Let's get a Key Race Alert right now.

The only outstanding contest of the night, we're talking about Kentucky, right now, the Republican caucuses with 44 percent of the voters in, Donald Trump still maintains his lead, 38.2 percent, Ted Cruz in second place with 31.9 percent, Trump is ahead by 5,437 votes in Kentucky right now that's the only remaining outstanding contest that Donald Trump will speak in West Palm Beach, Florida, at the Donald Trump International Country Club over there after -- maybe he's waiting, John King, to get the results in Kentucky. As we know, he's won in Louisiana, and Ted Cruz has won in Nebraska and Kansas.

KING: And certainly, Donald Trump wants the results, because he's hoping for a win here so he can come out and say, good for you, Ted, you won two, but I won the two biggest prizes tonight. That's what he wants to be able to say. So why haven't we called this race at 44 percent and 38 percent to 32 percent.

Let's closed a little bit for the last time we looked this, Cruz has got a little bit closer. If you look at what's out, the largest county in the state, Jefferson County, 17 percent, we don't have a vote, so our decision desk smartly wants to see smartest part want part of the state.

BLITZER: 17 percent of the population.

KING: 17 percent of the state population. Also in here we would not expect. You have a city and then a close-in suburbs. That is normally not where Ted Cruz does well. If you look at all that voting so far in the states, that's more either Marco Rubio or Donald Trump our country, if you look at that based on past states, but we still want to see how it plays in this one this very same thing over here in the Lexington area, Fayette County here.

Again you've got a small city and then we get the suburbs around it. It's a healthy Republican vote area, and you move out more rural extra urban areas, that's where you see Cruz out here, that for the, Cruz tends to do well to the further, you get out from the suburbs, get up by the back stores and the X curves, Cruz does a little bit better.

So, we want to see how this plays out, but those two big vote centers, and if you see up here, in the Cincinnati suburbs up here, Cruz is winning. So, what I just said about Lexington and Louisville, if you look at this up here, those are areas where Cruz should be doing well, but he's doing better than we expect up here, in the Cincinnati suburbs, so we want to see how those votes come in.

Its close up here but Ted Cruz is winning with 100 percent of the vote in, right that coming and you find in the airport in Cincinnati, landing coming to Kentucky going up to Cincinnati, this is a very important part of the state. So, we're going to continue to count the votes. It's a Trump lead he certainly wants that, Wolf, so he can keep the map like this, but let's count them, be safe.

BLITZER: That's the best way to do it. Thanks, very much John. Let's take another break right now as we await Donald Trump. He's going to be speaking in West Palm Beach.

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