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CNN Live Event/Special
Sanders Win Alaska and Washington; Hawaii Democratic Caucuses Underway; American Couple Killed in Belgium Bombing. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 26, 2016 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:00:12] JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to CNN's coverage of Western Saturday, the three Democratic contests. We have cover this two of the three already. Let's bring it up to speed.
Washington State, the Democratic caucuses there, Bernie Sanders will be projected to win with 75.1 percent of the delegates to Hillary Clinton's 24.7 percent, 101 delegates at stake there. That's going to be a big delegate haul for Senator Sanders. That's the 35 percent of the vote in so far.
In Alaska, the Democratic caucuses there, CNN has also projected for Bernie Sanders with 73 percent of the delegate votes in. Bernie Sanders has 79.2 percent of the delegates, Hillary Clinton with 20.8 percent, only 16 delegates at stake there. Still Bernie Sanders with an impressive margin of victory. He will lead that state with more delegates than Clinton as well.
Now, of course it is the third state, Hawaii, and its turn to weigh in on the Democratic presidential contest. You're looking at a caucus site in Honolulu where voters are getting ready to make their choices known. The door is closed. The contest begins just moments from now, Washington State, Alaska and now Hawaii. We're calling it Western Saturday.
Bernie Sanders hopes it will be Sanders' Saturday after his wins in Washington State and Alaska. Sanders is looking to make it a Trifecta in Hawaii, to make a dent in Hillary Clinton's significant lead in the delegate race. In Hawaii, Senator Sanders has a key endorsement from Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. She even quit her position at the Democratic National Committee to support him. 142 delegates are at stake in this day's round of voting.
Hawaii is another state where Democrats split their delegates proportionally so both Sanders and Clinton expect to get something out of this contest.
Donald Trump's won Hawaii's Republican caucuses on March 18th. His Republican opponents have the day off from any contest. But let's go to Hawaii right now. Let's go to CNN's Stephanie Elam. She's at a caucus site in Honolulu.
Stephanie, I don't know how you got this gig, but congratulations. Good work on getting the assignment to the cover, "The Honolulu Caucuses". Tell us what's going on there.
STEPHANIE ELAM, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You've got to win one every now and then, Jake. But take a look at this room. Look at the turnout here. This is what's going on here in Honolulu. They are talking about record turnout potentially here.
They said a surge of people towards the last couple months of people registering to be a part of this what they call a "Presidential Preference Poll". As you can see, it's standing room only. They are now just about to start the voting here and they are going to take the next half hour. So it may go a little longer because there's so many people here to take a look and see how these people are going to vote by precincts.
In this room, you have five different precincts that have shown up today. There's a lot of support for Hillary and a lot of support for Bernie. In fact, you may be able to use some of the pre fund that are up here on the wall here, at this elementary school. They are hoping to get that all sorted out. They'll tally them by precinct and then they take all of those votes and figure it out.
But as you can see it may take a Little longer than they expected because the turnout here is so huge. The way they prepared for it, they printed out 100,000 ballots for today here in Hawaii to be ready. Because the last time they saw a big surge was when native sun Barack Obama was running in 2008. They 37,000 people show up. So just to be ready, they say the numbers may rival that again. They made sure that they were ready with enough ballots, here in the state, Jake.
TAPPER: All right, Stephanie Elam in Honolulu, Hawaii for the Hawaii caucuses which will get under way any second.
Let's go to John King now who is at the magic wall and break down exactly where the race is as of right now with senator Sanders projected who have won both Washington State and Alaska.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And the margins matter. We talked about the beginning of the day. Here's where we woke up this morning before the voting started in these three states. These are just pledge delegates. Like, you do the math right there, it's 304 delegates, right. Bernie Sanders was 304 delegates behind.
This is not a final estimate by any means. We have to go through the Congressional districts. They don't have a 100 percent of voting yet. But it looks like Senator Sanders is on track to do something like this, 101 delegates. So it looks like he's going to get 75 to 25, 76 to 25. If that holds up, that's a big haul, right. Then you come up to Alaska where his margins are even better. If hold up, he gets Trump with also plus eight, out of there.
And let's just say for the sake for argument that he matches in Hawaii, there we go. Now, what he just did in Alaska, then he gets, that's a plus 15 there, it is conceivable. This is our projection, just an estimate. But look at this, 1263 or 1033, right? So he's could -- he could cut 74, 75 into her lead. It was 304 to begin today. It's going to be down to 230 range to end the day. The Hillary Clinton campaign will still say that's a big lead, in pledge delegates plus the superdelegates.
[19:05:06] But, let's give credit where credits do big win, big win. We'll see what happens down here. If he matches anywhere close to the Alaska numbers or the Washington numbers in Hawaii, Bernie Sanders is going to take a decent slice, 75 delegates or so off Hillary Clinton's lead as we go to battle ground Wisconsin. He'll have momentum. You just heard him saying now he has a path to victory. There's no question he has energy. His supporters are energized. Then this is a test for Secretary Clinton.
These won for the last six, yes. The week before that, she had a good week. This is a good boxing match if you will. And now they're back in the ring at Wisconsin and she needs to deliver because he comes in with the wind at his back.
TAPPER: You point out this is just an extrapolation but even though she has a lead in this extrapolation of the data of 230, that's still not as good as how she started the day with a lead of 304.
KING: Right. There is momentum in politics and there's math. And the math still favors Secretary Clinton but, you know, sometimes we try to pretend this is really hard. Most of our politics is the most math, excuse me, arithmetic. And you start the day plus 34, you end the day plus with that 230ish. That's bad. You're going in the wrong direction.
She's still, at that still at good lead. At, then here again, it's not a five alarm fire but it should be a cause of concern that he's starting to pick up delegates. She believes she's moving into state where the demographics more favor her but she's going to have to prove it. And Wisconsin is the next big battleground. And that's why Senator Sanders is there smartly celebrating in Wisconsin.
TAPPER: Let's look in Washington State and the votes that have come in. Because we have more votes since last time you spoke.
KING: Yeah. Bring it over this month and we count the votes. And we're up now to 40 percent. And you can see, this is very impressive, a 75 to 25 percent since he's working on every side ...
TAPPER: He's won every county that's coming so.
KING: So far, he has won everything. And remember, this was tied early on. King county, where Seattle is. Redmond as well, it's the biggest county in the state. It was tied early on, we had 6 percent.
TAPPER: Yeah.
KING: He's a winning it 69 39. Now, let's just go back and take a peek. Senator -- then Senator Obama had 72 percent. So that's one of the places where Senator Sanders' numbers seemed below. Then Senator Obama four years ago, but pick your county. We come down here, this is Pierce County which is Tacoma. Again, a large population that about 12 percent. He's winning 73 to 27. And you can go anywhere. Ignore the smaller rural counties, 73 27.
So this is across the board. There is not -- sometimes you pick a state and you see she has pockets of support, she does. This is pretty much across the board in the 70 percent range for Senator Sanders. Again, some of the delegates are allocated based on statewide numbers. Others you have to go through each of the t 10 congressional districts.
So my math that I just gave you won't be perfect but because we see the numbers relatively consistent you can ballpark it that he's going to get about 75 percent of the delegates and the big prize, 101 of 142 up today.
TAPPER: She is still in the lead, obviously by roughly 250, 230 delegates by the end of the day, probably. She's won 18 contests, Sanders has won 13. When you look at a state like Washington State and see he is just destroying her even though she is clearly the frontrunner? Why? Is it because it more Liberal than the average state, even a blue leading state? Is it because it's more white than the average blue leaning state. What's the reason?
KING: All of the above. It traditionally has a history of progressive politics. So let's keep watching this sheet up as we do it. This has been a battle ground in Seattle area for raising the minimum wage for example. It has been a state where both Bill Clintons and Hillary Clinton historically have had troubles. It is a progressive state and it is a largely white population. That's a fact as well. And it's a progressive population and it's a traditional Democratic base. And Senator Sanders has tapped into them. I would also say Senator Sanders outworked her in the states. Got more time there, he spent ore time working it and that work is producing today. This is very impressive win across the board.
TAPPER: Lot -- much like the win that Barack Obama had eight years ago. We're going to take a very quick break. When we come back, we're going to get some results from the Hawaii caucuses which just started a couple of minutes ago. We'll be right back after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:12:35] TAPPER: Welcome back to CNN's Coverage of Western Saturday. Yes, right now you're looking at live pictures from our caucus cam in Honolulu. The Democratic caucuses in Hawaii are just about to get under way.
Let's get to Stephanie Elam who is in Honolulu and covering the caucuses. Stephanie gives us an idea of the room there. Do they seem like Clinton supporters, do they seem like Sanders supporters, are they split down the middle?
ELAM: It's a lack of room, first of all, Jake. This room is packed. It's really, like standing room only. People are trying to edge out of my shot as you can see you got it so packed here. But just on my unofficial looking around the room and the number of Bernie stickers that I see in here, I would say that this is a Bernie positive crowd. There are a lot of people here who seem ready to support him. People were showing up two hours early to verify that they were registered to be a Democrat. They were that they could vote today because that you have to be registered to vote at as a Democrat in today's poll.
So a lot of people showing up early making sure that all their Ts (ph) are crossed and add were dotted so that they can take part in it but definitely seeing a lot of support from Bernie. You're also seeing a lot of generations here too. It's a wide turnout here as far as the ages are concerned.
So bringing a lot of people out here in Hawaii to take part in that and keep in mind, Jake, neither Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders has made the Journey to Hawaii to be here. We do understand that Jane Sanders, Bernie's wife, was here, but neither of the candidates has made the journey to Hawaii. But still, what's going on, on the mainland playing big here in Hawaii, Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Stephanie Elam in Honolulu. And David, tell us about some of the endorsements and ads and things that have been playing in the state of Hawaii.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICS DIRECTOR: So you know one of Bernie Sanders' big Hawaii endorsements is Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard. She stepped down from her role at the DNC where she had to be neutral in order to endorse Bernie Sanders, one of the superdelegates if you will. But did so with the really tough message about national security and that she didn't think Hillary Clinton was ready to be commander in chief. She cut a really emotional ad for Bernie Sanders. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. TULSI GABBARD (D), HAWAII: Bernie Sanders voted against the Iraq war. He's understands the cost of war, hat that cost has continued when our veterans come home. Bernie Sanders will defend our country and take the trillion dollars that are spent on these interventionist, regime change, unnecessary wars and invest it here at home.
[19:15:06] The American people are not looking to settle for inches. They're looking for real change.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: So that, that is the Tulsi Gabbard ad for Bern Sanders.
Hillary Clinton's campaign put up an ad in Hawaii and they did something they have never done before with a paid television ad this entire campaign season thus far. They put Barack Obama's words on the screen of the ad very supportive word from Hawaii Native son Barack Obama, even though he hasn't formally endorsed her. You may not get that impression from this Clinton ad.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The world a president has to grapple with sometimes you can't even imagine. That's the job. And she's the one who's proven she can get it done securing a massive reduction in nuclear weapons, protecting social security, expanding benefits for the National Guard and winning health care for 8 million children. No wonder President Obama calls Hillary an extraordinarily experienced leader, making a difference to people in their day-to-day lives.
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm Hillary Clinton and I approve this message.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHALIAN: So it's a little bit of Tulsi Gabbard versus Barack Obama on the airwaves again even though the President has not endorsed Hillary Clinton. He made those comments in an interview back in January. The Clinton campaign touted them at the time and now actually put paid television advertising on the air in Hawaii with those words.
BRIANNA KEILAR, SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (ph): It's not quite as impactful as if it were his actual voice saying it.
CHALIAN: Sure, yeah.
KEILAR (ph): Don't you think?
CHALIAN: Yeah.
TAPPER: Or an actual endorsement. But still his praise of her and the fact that we generally get the idea through his comments, although he has not endorsed one candidate or the other, he has made it clear that he is generally supportive of the one of the candidates who served in his administration.
KEILAR (ph): And he's -- he has kind of all but endorsed her. And so when you listen to people who -- first off, just look at all the people who were supportive of Barack Obama or very close to him in 2008 and 2012. And a lot of them have moved over to Hillary Clinton. So that's where you're taking the signal from. They clearly think that she has the better shot at moving his legacy along and sort of protecting it. And of course he has not endorsed her and, you know, you would argue nor should he right at this point. But his words for Hillary Clinton, if you were just to add them up, it's pretty clear where -- you could say at some points he's put his finger on the scale.
TAPPER: I think that's fair. You know, one thing that's interesting is that the incumbent female Democratic senator in Hawaii has endorsed Hillary Clinton as has, has every Democratic female senator except for one. And yet that senator is not on the television ad for Hillary Clinton.
CHALIAN: Right. That's an interesting observation, Jake. I will say though, it's -- it is because of what you guys are talking about I think the Tulsi Gabbard endorsement of Sanders cuts through because she's making a critical argument on this fundamental Iraq war vote of Hillary Clinton, something Bernie Sanders has brought up, the thing that helped Barack Obama to beat her. And so, any sense that Barack Obama may be at times putting his thumbs on the scale in favor of Hillary Clinton, here is somebody from Hawaii saying hang on there, folks, I have a different story to tell about Bernie Sanders here and my reservations about Hillary Clinton as commander in chief. And I think that that in a state where -- again, it's a caucus state, it's a state Sanders should do very well in, having Gabbard make that kind of argument so that whatever sense there is that Barack Obama may be on team Clinton if not formally sort of gets mitigated.
TAPPER: And it's a more emotional ad.
CHALIAN: Yeah.
TAPPER: Also, Gabbard who is currently in the army reserves, who is a veteran of the Iraq war. I don't think he was in the snip that we just showed but there's a moment where she catches her voice, she gets very emotional talking about colleagues of hers, comrades who are no longer around, people who have suffered.
And she does have a very critical assessment of Hillary Clinton basically saying that she fears that secretary Clinton is too interventionist, whether it comes to Iraq or Libya or Syria and congresswoman Gabbard does not view the world the same way as Secretary Clinton, views it much more the way that Bernie Sanders does.
KEILAR (ph): And Secretary Clinton is a lot more hawkish than Bernie Sanders and also than a lot of Democrats. So that's really what ...
TAPPER: Also in more than a lot of Republicans.
KEILAR (ph): Yes that's true.
CHALIAN: That she's the front runner.
TAPPER: Right.
KEILAR (ph): That's true. She's very -- she's actually quite aligned with some Republicans when you look at some of her views. I saw Tulsi Gabbard speak. She came in to Florida for a Bernie Sanders event. And this is something that really resonates with his crowd. Also she's not always friendly to President Obama. She has this reputation for calling it like she sees it.
TAPPER: It's all about congresswoman Gabbard.
KEILAR (ph): That's right. She will at times definitely break ranks with President Obama. She's shown she hasn't had a problem doing that. So maybe it doesn't even come as too much of a surprise.
TAPPER: All right. We're going to take a break, quick break. When we come back, we'll have some results from the Hawaii Democratic caucuses back after this quick break. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [19:23:45] KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. You're looking at Honolulu, Hawaii, where the caucuses, the Democratic caucuses are getting Under way there as we speak. But as we keep our eye keenly there, let's jump way far away and head to Madison, Wisconsin, right now.
Bernie Sanders' headquarters where Suzanne Malveaux is standing by with Sanders' Campaign manager, Jeff Weaver. If he isn't right now, Suzanne, e should be smiling ear to ear.
SUZANNE MALVEAUX, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: He is with me now and he is smiling. Jeff, first of all, congratulations on the wins, Alaska and Washington.
JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS' CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Thank you very much. Thank you.
MALVEAUX: We don't know about Hawaii yet, but clearly you need large margins of wins to get this. It's proportional with the delegate distribution.
WEAVER: Right.
MALVEAUX: And you might have actually gotten that today, but you have to do that over and over and over again, every state moving forward. You have a 300 delegate deficit.
WEAVER: Not anymore.
MALVEAUX: With one -- a little less. How do you overcome that?
WEAVER: We'll, we'll going to do what we did today. We just have victories in state after state after state. Today's victories were overwhelming, obviously. We don't have to do that in every state. And in fact, you know, we have mapped out a path to victory with pledge delegates that even has as losing some states going forward. So we don't have to win every state, but we got to win the vast, vast majority and we've got to have good margins. And today I think we design that we can do that.
MALVEAUX: Jeff, we'll talk about some of those states because you are talking about the momentum this is really important for you. It's very much with big states with big wins, California, New York, Pennsylvania.
[19:25:07] WEAVER: Yeah.
MAVEAUX: But these are the same states that the voter make-up don't necessarily work in favor of Bernie Sanders. We're talking about African-American, Latino populations where he has not yet made a dent. How does he get over that?
WEAVER: Well, I don't think that's true. I think you're Latino vote, we clearly won Latino vote in Colorado, entrance polls in Illinois showed that he won Latino vote in Illinois. He's been doing better and better with African-Americans. We'll, we're going to have to work on it, you know, we're going to have to talk to those communities and, you know, engage them.
MALVEAUX: Yeah, because Hillary Clinton, I mean, overwhelmingly is getting the African-American vote as well as Latinos.
WEAVER: I think what you're starting to see is what similar to what we've seen in the white vote which is younger voters are coming to Bernie Sanders, younger Latinos, younger African-Americans. And in Michigan, we split the young African-American vote with the secretary. So I don't think, you know, I think the narrative is beginning to change. And as people see more Bernie Sanders I think you'll see a change more.
MALVEAUX: And let's talk about the superdelegates. We know that -- tell us a little bit about Wisconsin as well before we get to the superdelegates. We're here, clearly in Madison, you know, this is a place where people love him.
WEAVER: Right.
MALVEAUX: But you look at Milwaukee and other areas where it is going to be much harder for him in those communities, African-American, Latino communities.
WEAVER: We'll, we're going to campaign every where around Wisconsin. You know, it's a big state, a lot of different communities. We're going to campaign in ever one of them. We're going to be here a lot.
MALVEAUX: Talk a little bit, first of all, superdelegates. We are -- you try to convince them, obviously at the convention but that's going to be tough. You still need 400 folks who are going to have to change their minds going from Clinton to Sanders.
WEAVER: Well, there are hundreds of other superdelegates by the way who are uncommitted at this point. So, and for them it will be very easy to be with the secretary but they're not, which tells you something about where they are.
But let me tell us -- it's how you discuss superdelegates. Superdelegates want to win in November. And as we demonstrate in the second half of this primary season that we have the momentum, that we can carry the large margins these states, and at the public polls that say shown consistent. You have Bernie Sanders does better against every single possible Republican than the Secretary Clinton. I think these superdelegates going to begin to take harder look because as I said, they want to win in November.
MALVEAUX: All right. Clearly you guys want to win as well. Jeff, again, congratulations.
WEAVER: Thank you.
MALVEAUX: Back to you, Kate.
BOLDUAN: All right. Suzanne Malveaux, thank you so much.
Two wins so far this evening for Bernie Sanders. We're watching right now in Hawaii -- Honolulu, Hawaii. We were just looking at these as we came to you guys, keeping an eye there as the caucuses are getting under way. And let's talk about talk about Hawaii.
As David Chalian, is before that commercial break, David Chalian was going through these ads that are cut. Tulsi Gabbard cutting up an ad, a passionate ad for Bernie Sanders and then Hillary Clinton's campaign putting at an ad of using Barack Obama's words that look very kindly on her. So as Chalian have said, Tulsi Gabbard versus Obama, what's the message felt?
BILL PRESS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think the message real contest in Hawaii but I think Bernie is going to pull out a big win in Hawaii as well. You know, it's interesting, the -- I believe that in effect, President Obama has endorsed Hillary Clinton. Four cabinet members have endorsed Hillary Clinton openly. They wouldn't do that. The President hasn't given his OK. I don't think endorsements actually matter that much in this year. And this, it has been proven. You look at all the Democratic senators who've endorsed Hillary Clinton and Bernie keeps winning. But I ...
BOLDUAN: But even one coming from the sitting president?
PRESS: Even the sitting president I don't think his endorsement is kind to make necessarily make the difference.
BOLDUAN: Well, I think that ...
PRESS: But let me just, let me just say this. Look, I know all -- I've been around politics a long time. I know how difficult some of these next states are going to be. I just want to say nobody is going to take this moment away from me or Bernie Sanders. He won two states tonight. He's probably going to win a third. That's five out of the last six record turnout in all of these states. Her lead has gone down from 304 to 250 delegates. This was a good night for Bernie Sanders.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yup.
PRESS: When I leave here I'm going go have a martini and celebrate.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: I'm seriously saying and go to have martini regardless of how the delegates. But I'm just with you right there, Bill.
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But, tonight is I expect that in Hawaii that Bernie Sanders will continue the trend of what we've seen which is they'll have a very good night. That these were tailor made for Bernie Sanders, history caucus states. Bernie Sanders, he over performs in caucus states, so over perform in Hawaii and have a good night.
What's going to happen as we move forward in April 19th, especially for the Clinton campaign cannot get here soon enough. Is you go to a prime area in New York. And the vast difference of -- the difference between what's happening tonight and what's going to happen in the future, not trying to take anything away from you and your martinis later. And then, these primaries are going to be closed.
OK. They're going to be for Democrats and Democrats alone. And what you see is that Hillary Clinton's won 66 percent to 67 percent of Democratic voters. And those are the states she does very well in and you have those in New York, you have those in Delaware, you have those in Maryland, you have those in Pennsylvania. These large delegate counts and that is why the trajectory changes for Bernie Sanders moving forward.
But let me say this, congratulations to Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders has come a lot further than anybody would have ever guessed he would come and tonight is his night so as Western Sanders Saturday.
(CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: We already called it Sanders' Saturday. That means ...
PRESS: Wisconsin next, looks very good for Bernie Sanders.
SELLERS: Right. It does.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah, was and does a very good for him.
[19:30:00] PRESS: The momentum, the energy, the enthusiasm clearly with Bernie Sanders.
ANGELA RYE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Just one more thing. I'm sorry. Because we've been on this demographic thing. I think it's important to know, I think earlier on we talked about this being majority white demographics today with these three primaries. That's not the case. So in Hawaii you have 26 percent of the demographics in Hawaii are white. It's a majority, multicultural state, and I think that's also important to note. I know he overperforms in caucus states but we've also seen Hillary do well in Iowa and in Nevada.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: We don't know exactly who's voting for Bernie Sanders in Hawaii, but it a good night, it is a good day for Bernie Sanders. But the thing that should scare Hillary Clinton are these margins. Not for the primary. I think Hillary Clinton's going to wrap up the primary. But those margins that you're seeing between Bernie and Hillary in these kinds of states with these kinds of voters, should be very, very scary to Hillary Clinton.
You know, progressives who are with Bernie are probably going to still vote for Hillary Clinton, if she wins the primary. The people, young people will probably still go to Hillary Clinton. They're not going to vote for Ted Cruz or Donald Trump, I don't think. The people that Hillary Clinton needs to get are those disenfranchised blue collar, older white men who are either going to decide, I think to stay home rather than vote for Hillary Clinton or maybe even vote for Donald Trump.
So she should be very concern that Bernie Sanders is winning in mostly white states with mostly white voters. (CROSSTALK)
BOLDUAN: It's interesting. It was interesting, we are just hearing from Jeff Weaver, his campaign manager when he said that - talking about Wisconsin, we're going to be here a lot. They see the fight. It's obviously in Wisconsin and when we heard from Bernie Sanders also, in Wisconsin, as he was talking at his rally, one of the things that he said, not necessarily about Hillary Clinton was taking on Republicans, straight on the tone of the Republican race right now. Listen to this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know my Republican candidates think that elections are about are attacking each other's wives, or behaving like they were 10-year-old in a food fight in a cafeteria. And these Republicans, let me tell you, are not just an embarrassment
for the American people, they are an embarrassment for sane Republicans.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BOLDUAN: That was also interesting, Kayleigh. I want you to jump in a second too, Ron, because he also said something that I hadn't really heard before, not only saying if you're a progressive, he was also talking to conservatives and he said it a couple of times.
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, TRUMP SUPPORTER: This is something to me that's so impressive about the democratic party is that they are so good at uniting and realizing that at the end of the day, that's what their fight is about - it's about fighting Republicans, it's about fighting conservatives and we are not seeing this on the Republican side and it's in large part, I would say mostly because of people like Mitt Romney and the establishment from the very beginning do not like Donald Trump, do not like Ted Cruz. They were unpalatable. They rejected them from the beginning and they have created so much divisivenesss within the Republican party, democrats - we should take a cue from their playbook - no matter what happens, no matter how bloody 2008 got they always come together.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: In fairness, Donald Trump personally attack each of the last three Republican nominees.
(CROSSTALK)
BROWNSTEIN: It's not as though the aggrieved party entirely here - look, I think what Bernie Sanders is saying is a reminder that a big part of this primary in both parties is auditioning for the person, to make the case to the other side and you know, it kind of underscores the stakes here because it's a remarkable election where you're going to have in essence, control of all three branches of government at stake, not only the White House but given the increasing correlation between the states vote for president and the way they do for Senate. The party that wins the White House is almost certainly going to win the Senate and if Republicans hold their position, the party that wins the White House, the Senate is also going to control the Supreme Court for the next decade. So you cannot imagine an election in which the stakes are higher for each side and that's why I think this ability to persuade, you can take the case to the other side, it's so important.
And I do think for Trump, it is a kind of bump in the road - this incredible series of polls showing negatives of 75 percent and higher among all the key groups in the democratic coalition have to be giving many Republicans, I think some heartburn at this point as he moves closer towards the nomination.
[19:35:00]
MCENANY: They rejected him from day one though. And this is the difference because you look back at 2008. (INAUDIBLE) in the democrat primary, they might not have been as immature as what we're seeing on the Republican side but they were brutal. There were allegations about Jeremiah Wright and his connections to Hamas which are therefore connected to Obama. There were some really dirty politics that played but regardless of that democrats kept their eye on the prize, not at the White House. Republicans are not doing that. That's because for the establishment, when you threaten our country club, the Republican party, (INAUDIBLE) than the other party.
BOLDUAN: Nia, I'll get your take on this one. Wisconsin. Open primary, right?
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, open primary.
BOLDUAN: When Bernie Sanders is at the podium because of his victory speech tonight in Wisconsin and he's talking about campaign finance reform and he's talking about income inequality and he says this is not just to you, progressives, also talking about conservative Republicans, he's making a play.
HENDERSON: He is making a play and it's very much what he did in Vermont. He often made a play for conservative white voters in the same way that Howard Dean did too. You've seen this argument from John Edwards early on in 2008 and in 2004. He thought that he could do well with conservative white voters as well. Didn't really work out. And I do think - but it is also true that Democrats haven't done well with white male voters for a while.
BROWNSTEIN: A long time.
HENDERSON: And they've been able to figure out the maps.
DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Electoral votes that President Obama won outright.
HENDERSON: The map has changed.
BRAZILE: We would love to have more white male votes. Let me state that for the record. As many as we can possibly mobilize. But at the same time, we're not going to throw away one group to get another group. We have so many what I call younger white males, thank you, Bill, and we have of course the rise of the American electorate. This is why I think this campaign should continue in the democratic party so we can reach out and bring more people into the process. That's what made Democrats great.
BOLDUAN: All right, everyone. Recharge. Because we're awaiting our results. They're coming in in Hawaii. Let's head from Wisconsin all the way back over there right after a break.
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[19:40:50]
ANNOUNCER: CNN Breaking news.
TAPPER: Welcome back. We'll have much more of our election coverage ahead, but first, we do have some breaking news about the terrorist attacks in Belgium.
CNN now confirms that Americans Stephanie Shultz was among the 28 innocent people killed in Tuesday's attacks. Earlier today we learned that her husband, Justin, was killed as well. The Shultzes are from Tennessee. But they had lived in Belgium since 2014. They were dropping off Stephanie's mother at the airport when the attack took place.
Let's bring in CNN senior international correspondent Clarissa Ward. She's in Brussels. Clarissa, we've learned a lot more about some of the victims today, both those injured and those killed. What else can you tell us?
CLARISSA WARD, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, there were eight nationalities among the dead. We know at least two Americans, Justin and Stephanie Shultz. Justin 30 years old. Both of them accountants from Tennessee, dropping off Stephanie's mother, Carol, at the airport. As you said, Jake, we're also learning that the former Belgian ambassador to the U.S., Andre Adam, was also among the dead.
He was traveling with his wife, also a Britain, an Italian, Dutch citizens as well. We're hearing that there are still many people who are very injured, more than 100 people in hospital, Jake, and 62 people in intensive care. So it is still possible that the death toll will continue to rise. Jake.
TAPPER: Turning now to the investigation into this twisted terrorist attack, one of the men arrested in Belgium has been charged with terrorist murder. Do we know precisely what role he may have played in Tuesday's attacks?
WARD: We don't. At this stage he's only being identified by Belgian authorities as Faycal C, as in the letter C. He was arrested on Thursday outside the prosecutor's office. We know that a subsequent raid on his home did not net any explosives or weapons but certainly the gravity and severity of these charges - murder, terrorism, attempted murder by terrorism - indicate that he played a central role in these attacks.
The question that many people here have is could he be the man in that light jacket that we've seen in the surveillance video from the airport or could he possibly be the second metro bomber whose image we haven't seen but who was reportedly in that surveillance video outside the metro carrying a large case. Jake.
TAPPER: Clarissa Ward in Brussels, Belgium. Thank you so much.
We're going to have more election coverage when we come back after this quick break.
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[19:47:10]
TAPPER: We're going to bring you another key race alert in CNN's coverage of western Saturday. Three democratic contests as you know, CNN has already projected that Bernie Sanders will win two of them in Washington state and Alaska.
Let's break down the final - not the final numbers but the latest numbers with 63 percent of the delegate votes in, Washington state and the democratic contest, Bernie Sanders has 72.1 percent of the delegates. Hillary Clinton with 27.7 percent. That is the biggest contest of the day. 101 delegates at stake in Washington state. That is a big margin of victory for Bernie Sanders.
In Alaska, where there are only 16 delegates at stake, still with 73 percent of the vote in, Bernie Sanders with a commanding lead, 79.2 percent, almost 80 percent of the delegates there with Hillary Clinton with 20.8 percent. Again, that is a huge commanding lead for Bernie Sanders in Alaska and of course as we've been discussing all day, what matters today for Bernie Sanders is not even just the victories but the margin of victory. He needs to make up those delegates.
Let's go to the third contest now in Honolulu, Hawaii, where the democrats are caucusing. Stephanie Elam who is at a caucus. Stephanie, what's the latest there?
ELAM: Well, you know what, they were prepared with enough ballots here in Hawaii. What they weren't prepared for was enough new democratic voter signup sheets. They ran out of that, that caused a little bit of a hiccup and a backup, but now they're just having people write down their information on blank pieces of paper so that they can go ahead and get a ballot. This one has not been signed out. It's empty. You can see right there.
You can check it. It's for Bernie Sanders. You can see that's what the ballot looks like. They will then check it, drop it in an envelope. And so all of that is happening here. The turnout so huge they actually had to break up this one district that we're looking at here into several tables so that everyone could get a chance to vote. Taking a little bit longer here because so many people have turned out here, Jake. This is the kind of problem that they were hoping to have. They're happy about it. A lot of people here still just wanting to get out because it is really hot here, to get out of this room, but this is the kind of problem they wanted to have, this kind of turnout. They were prepared for it on most levels because of what they saw in 2008 with Barack Obama. And because of social media here, this time around, they knew that there was a lot more interest in this presidential election, and so that more people would come out to these precincts to vote. Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Stephanie Elam in Honolulu and the Hawaii democratic caucuses. You may note the contests we've seen today have all been done differently. In Hawaii it is by secret ballot whereas the caucuses in Washington state and Alaska were done differently.
John King, break down the numbers that we're seeing here. Bernie Sanders is getting so far the big margins that we talked about earlier today.
[19:50:00]
JOHN KING: Not that this isn't lovely, but how did we end up in D.C.? Stephanie gets Honolulu.
TAPPER: I know.
Elam gets the Honolulu gig and I'm (INAUDIBLE) to the masters.
Well, she deserves it.
KING: She does deserve it. I hope she's having fun.
Look, let's just start in Alaska. 73 percent of the vote in. Speaks for itself. Almost 80-20 right there. That's a shellacking. Bernie Sanders on top, getting the bulk of the delegates out of there. Most of the vote now in Washington state, we're up to 63 percent, 72 to 28. We go across. That's thumping as well. This is so far Secretary Clinton's best county, this King County, the largest county in the state where she's getting a little over 35 percent of the vote. That's important because you do have a congressional district that runs through here and another district, in some of the congressional districts, are heavily located in here could affect the delegate math a little bit. But you pull out statewise, some are allocated statewide. The rest are allocated by congressional districts as we go.
Again, that's a thumping. Big win for Bernie Sanders. What he needed to do - you heard Jeff Weaver, on our air, a short time ago, saying they know they need to do this because - Let's go here, we started the day in pledge delegates. Just pledged delegates. We started the day with Bernie Sanders 304 behind. Well, this isn't exact, because again we have to count the congressional districts. But he's on track to do something like this, to get 75 percent of 101. So 76 to here 25 -
TAPPER: Almost a net of 50. KING: Give or take a few. In Alaska he's going to get about 80 percent. So it's going to be in the ballpark if he gets 12, she gets four.
Let's just assume based on Stephanie's anecdotal reporting and this is just a hypothetical, we'll count the votes in Hawaii. But if he matches - if he comes somewhere in between or close, again, if we just give it to him. This is giving it to him 80-20. Maybe he won't do that well but for the sake of argument, Bernie Sanders is on track, Jake. Look at the math here, 1263, 1033. 304 down in pledge delegates at the beginning of the day. This is 230. That's a good day. 74, 75, maybe it will be 68 or 70. But he's in the ballpark to pick up from the high 60s to as high as 75, shave that off her lead.
That's a big deal. She will still stay impressively ahead and she is. That's a big day for Bernie Sanders. And then we move to the next big contest, which is why Senator Sanders is right there today. This is going to be a great battleground.
TAPPER: Wisconsin. Let's go to Wisconsin if we can.
Bernie Sanders can count on progressive enclaves like Madison, Wisconsin. Hillary Clinton will probably do better in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Where is the fight going to be really waged?
KING: I think you will see this fight - let's go back to the 2008 map and look at it in the sense that then Senator Obama ran it up pretty good. He beat her almost 60-40 in the state and you see in those states Secretary Clinton had some of the smaller rural counties where she was actually winning. This is the flip race - the race has flipped. She was wining some of the working class, rural white voters running against the African-American candidate in the Senate. But we'll be having this fight down here, walk us there. In Milwaukee, here, 16.7 percent. You go over to (INAUDIBLE) another seven percent. These are the population centers in the state.
You pull back out, you've got Janesville, which is (INAUDIBLE) Paul Ryan, a Republican town. Madison is going to be key for Bernie Sanders. You got this Oshkosh, Green Bay. (INAUDIBLE) you got to Oclair (ph) in the back, this is where Bernie Sanders was today. He knows his key here, run it up in the college towns, run it up in the rural areas. Try to offset - I think 80 something percent of this vote will be white in Wisconsin, try to offset. Hillary Clinton is hoping to get a boost out of Milwaukee. It's going to be great. It's a good battleground for both parties.
TAPPER: Fascinating stuff, John. Great work today.
Very interesting and there's a report in the "Washington Post" today that just broke, Brianna Keilar and David Chalian, where Bernie Sanders is now going to talk about contesting New York, Hillary Clinton's home state of New York, talking about Wall Street, talking about fracking. Trying to really score a huge victory in a state that she should be, theoretically, taking for granted as her own.
KEILAR: The Clinton campaign is pretty confident that they're in good shape in New York but here's the issue. It's on April 19th. We've heard John King say tonight she needs to deliver in Wisconsin, that's on April 5th. Guess who is in agreement actually with some people who said Bernie has a shot - the Clinton campaign - this is what I'm hearing from aide, they say, you know, Wisconsin probably favors Bernie Sanders. So they're setting up this expectation so they don't end up with a Michigan upset like we saw, that she could lose there.
TAPPER: In Wisconsin?
KEILAR: In Wisconsin. Now, if she does lose there, there are some other contests but these ones are the big ones, it is possible that she could have this big night tonight and then we could see about three weeks go by before she maybe blunts that momentum and that would be - you know, that's not a great place to be even when you have the delegate lead.
CHALIAN: That's why we see Sanders' campaign pointing to New York (INAUDIBLE) because Wisconsin is good ground for them. In 2008, it was 87 percent white. In states that have that kind of white population in the democratic primary, we have seen that do really well for Bernie Sanders. It's an open primary state. Independents can vote. That is good for Bernie Sanders. It has a progressive history. Folks like (INAUDIBLE) got elected from Wisconsin. This is good turf for Bernie Sanders.
[19:55:00]
So if he is able to take his momentum Saturday and put a button on it with a really critical win in Wisconsin, that's why I think you see them saying we're going to fight in New York, because they're trying to make sure they get into May with the momentum that they started building today.
TAPPER: But David, do you really think that Bernie Sanders can beat Hillary Clinton in her home state of New York?
CHALIAN: I think the demographics make it really tough. I think that it looks and feels - forget her own service in New York and the fact that it's her home state. It looks and feels demographically a lot more like states where she has put wins on the board. So I think it's an uphill climb for Bernie Sanders. But you know, New York City, even demographically diverse, I have no doubt that Bernie Sanders is going to be able to get pockets of vote there. I doubt we're going to see in New York the kinds of margins we see tonight for Bernie Sanders in these states.
TAPPER: But there are a lot of voters of color, African-Americans, Latinos, a lot of moderates, a lot of people who have voted for Hillary Clinton.
CHALIAN: It would be an earthquake if she didn't win New York. It would be a total earthquake.
KEILAR: Part of it for him is just trying to project this strength thDt he can do it even if it's going to be tough. TAPPER: All right. Brianna Keilar, David Chalian, thank you so much.
We do not expect official results from the great state of Hawaii until midnight Eastern Time. You can go to CNN.com for an update.
Stay with CNN for complete election coverage. Anderson Cooper will host the Republican candidates in a town hall in Wisconsin on Tuesday, just one week before that state's critical primary.
CNN's original series "THE RACE FOR THE WHITE HOUSE" is next.
I'm Jake Tapper, Happy Easter.
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