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CNN Live Event/Special
Live Coverage of the Primary Results; Trump Sweeps All Five Super Tuesday States; Clinton Wins Three States. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired April 26, 2016 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[20:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Big night. Five states and five major contests. We are now ready to make some major projections.
Polls are closed and CNN projects Donald Trump will win the Pennsylvania Republican presidential primary, a big win for Donald Trump tonight.
CNN also projects that Donald Trump is the winner in Maryland. He wins the Republican presidential primary in Maryland.
CNN also projects another win for Donald Trump in Connecticut. He will win the Republican presidential primary.
On the Democratic side we have a projection as well. CNN projects Hillary Clinton is the winner in Maryland. She wins the Maryland Democratic presidential primary.
Right now we have some key race alerts at the same time. Look at this. In Pennsylvania and Connecticut, we have exit polls but we cannot make projections, too early to call on the Democratic side between Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders in Pennsylvania as well as in Connecticut. We didn't do exit polls in two other states on the Democratic side, Delaware and Rhode Island, too early to call in those states as well.
Similarly on the Republican side too early to call in two states. We didn't do exit polls in Delaware and Rhode Island, but here are the wins so far tonight. States won first by Donald Trump. Donald Trump has won in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. Hillary Clinton has won in Maryland. Big win for Hillary Clinton in Maryland. Huge win for Donald Trump in Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut.
Let's go over to Trump headquarters right now. Sara Murray is standing by.
I don't know if they got the word yet, Sara. But I presume they're going to be pretty happy.
SARA MURRAY, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I think you're right, Wolf. I mean, obviously, the Trump campaign wants to sweep all five. They are well on their way with these three victories and they believe that coming out of tonight, they are going to have an undeniable sense of momentum, the kind of momentum that could help them in contests that are coming up in places like Indiana, West Virginia and the kind of momentum that's going to make it harder for people to argue that there's any way that the GOP nominee could be anyone but Trump. They realize they may have to June 7th to actually get those 1,237 delegates they need to become the nominee, but I think this string of victories will make it easier to bring on not only voters in upcoming states, but also more unbound delegates who may have been a little bit unsure. They think if they come out with five wins tonight it will look like there can be no one but Donald Trump.
BLITZER: All right. Sara, stand by. I want to go over to Jeff Zeleny. He is over Hillary Clinton campaign headquarters.
Tonight, big win in Maryland for Hillary Clinton. We are not able to make projections, too early to call in the two other states. We have done exit polls, Pennsylvania and Connecticut.
Go ahead, Jeff.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the crowd of supporters here just a few moments ago here in Philadelphia came to their feet and cheered, erupted in cheers when the state of Maryland was being called for Secretary Clinton. They believe this is the first of what they hope will be five wins tonight.
Maryland is significant, Wolf. There are 95 delegates in Maryland. So that is one of the most important states tonight other than Pennsylvania. You can hear the crowd behind me here now. They are cheering once they see themselves on television, Wolf. But they are really holding out hope for Pennsylvania. They believe that Pennsylvania was so good to Secretary Clinton in 2008. They believe it will be good to her again.
And Wolf, Secretary Clinton is flying here from Indiana. She has been campaigning there all day long. She is going to give a speech tonight. And I'm told by one adviser it's going to be a forward looking speech. It's going to look ahead to the challenges ahead and talk much more about Donald Trump than Bernie Sanders. And will also look for her to keep extending that olive branch. Keep trying to reach out to Bernie Sanders' supporters, a continuation of her message last week in New York saying there's much more that unifies the party than devices the party. But Wolf, there's no question there's a divide in this Democratic Party. And the Clinton campaign is hoping to wrap this up, of course about one win down, they hope there are four more to go coming up tonight -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right, Jeff Zeleny in Philadelphia over Hillary Clinton headquarters. We'll stand by to hear from her. We will stand by to hear also from Donald Trump. He's in New York -- Jake.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, what is very interesting is it is pretty early in the night and we have already called three of the five states for Donald Trump. That suggests very strongly that he won by a significant margin.
David Chalian, the political director of CNN, let me bring you in with some of the exit poll information. Who turned out in these three states, Maryland, Connecticut and Pennsylvania where we have projected Donald Trump will win? How did he win?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Exactly. What is sort of fueling that victory we took a different slice in each state. Take a look in Pennsylvania where we looked at white born again or evangelical Christians, Trump won 58 percent of them in Pennsylvania to 29 percent for Cruz to 12 percent for Kasich. They made up 42 percent of the vote in the Pennsylvania Republican electorate. He won them by 30 points over Cruz, not usually that kind of Trump group. But they were in Pennsylvania tonight.
Look at Connecticut. Those angry at the federal government, Trump is like the only candidate in the race here. He wins the most 65 percent of the vote, 17 percent of them went for Cruz, 16 percent went for Kasich. They made up 43 percent of the electorate in the Connecticut Republican primary. So that anger at the federal government fueling him there and across all these states.
And in Maryland, look at this. Also, you don't tend to think of Trump doing this well with very conservative voters. Trump won very conservative voters in Maryland, 61 percent to Cruz's, 28 percent to Kasich's 10 percent. They made up about 28 percent of the electorate there. Again, that is not normally a group that you would expect Trump to win by more than 30 points, these self-identified conservative voters. Each one of these component and we have seen it across all three states, Jake, are what is behind his huge victory tonight.
[20:05:46] TAPPER: Fascinating, David Chalian. Thanks.
And Dana, there are a lot of people out there who might think of these states as northeast states, therefore, they are liberal, but that's, it is not the case necessarily in a lot of these parts. You have obviously western Maryland. And in Pennsylvania, Paul Begala I believe made up a line about Pennsylvania from his 1991 senate campaign that he ran there. You have Philadelphia and you have Pittsburgh and in between you have Alabama so really deep red conservatives there.
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That was Carvell.
TAPPER: That was Carvell made it up? Well, I was giving you credit. You should take the credit. IN any case, you guys were working on the campaign together. Those conservatives turned out for Donald Trump.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely. Look. It still have said my mind as somebody who has covered politics for a long time as have you and even Ted Cruz and the way that he has positioned himself for the past several years since he has been in the national stage, that he is losing in states like this where there really are real as you said real conservative voters.
Among those voters so badly to Donald Trump, especially on the issue of hating the federal government which is where he really made his name, even though he's a senator.
TAPPER: I'm going to take everybody now to the Huntington, West Virginia where Bernie Sanders is speaking. Hillary Clinton, the projected winner of the Maryland primary. Let's listen to Senator Bernie Sanders about what comes next to the path forward for him and his supporters.
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: When we began this campaign just about a year ago we started with no political organization, we started with no money and we had no name recognition outside of Vermont.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: And I want all of you to get up to Vermont and visit our beautiful state.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: And when we began this campaign, the media said well you know Bernie is a nice guy, he combs his hair really well, top-notch dresser, but nonetheless he really is a fringe candidate. The campaign is a fringe campaign, not to be taken seriously.
And in the middle of all of that we were taking on the most powerful political organization in America, an organization that elected a president, President Clinton on two occasions and ran a very strong campaign for Secretary Clinton in 2008. And when we began this campaign, we were about three percent in the national polls. We were about 16 points behind Secretary Clinton. Well, a lot has happened in the last year.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
CROWD: Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! Bernie! Bernie!
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: As of today we have now won 16 primaries and caucuses all over this country. (CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: And with your help we're going to win here in West Virginia.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: We have won over 1,200 delegates to the Democratic national convention.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: And in the last several weeks the national polls, they don't show us 16 points down, a few of them have us actually ahead or a few points down.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
[20:10:18] SANDERS: And what is also extremely important if the Democratic Party is to look at which candidate is the candidate to other Republican -- CROWD: Bernie! Bernie!
SANDERS: What we are seeing are national polls which have us 15, 20 points ahead of Donald Trump, far more than Secretary Clinton.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: Almost every national poll and every state poll has us defeating Trump and that margin for us is significantly larger than madam secretary Clinton.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: And the reason that we are doing better against Republican candidates is that not only are we winning the overwhelming majority of Democratic votes, but we are winning independent votes and some Republican votes as well.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: And that is a point that I hope the delegates to the Democratic convention fully understand. In a general election everyone, Democrat, independent, Republican, has the right to vote for president.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
SANDERS: The elections are not closed primaries. We were in New York State last week. Three million people in New York State could not vote because they were independents. Well, you know what, those folks and independents all over this country will be voting in November for the next president of the United States.
(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)
BLITZER: Bernie Sanders making his pitch to his supporters tonight. Bernie Sanders has a lot to say clearly indicating he is not going anywhere. He is staying in this contest despite his initial loss in the state of Maryland. We projected Hillary Clinton is the winner in Maryland. Have not made projections in the other four Democratic contests so far.
But let's get a key race alert right now.
On the Democratic side in Connecticut right now, very early, less than one percent of the vote is in, Hillary Clinton has a lead, 52.3 percent to Bernie Sanders 46 percent. Once again very early.
Similarly in Rhode Island. Bernie Sanders with less than one percent of the vote in. Only a about little more than 1,000 votes cast so far, 60.6 percent for Bernie Sanders and 38.5 percent in Rhode Island. Bernie Sanders ahead but very, very early.
Similarly in Rhode Island, once again, early on the Republican side. Trump maintain has a significant lead, but only a few hundred votes are in, 63.4 percent to Kasich 25.1 percent and Ted Cruz just in third right now at 10 percent. Very early in the contest in Rhode Island.
Anderson, over to you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Wolf, thanks very much.
As we continue to watch the votes come in, let's turn to our panel.
David, what do you make of what you heard from Bernie Sanders tonight?
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, harken back to what Dana said, I always said to my clients when I was a consultant that attacking the media is a looser lament. And now we have heard a couple of candidates tonight sort of lashing out at the media for their coverage. And it seemed as if he was kind of attacking the process. And in that is a sort of veiled recognition that it may not end up where he wants to be which is clearly the trend here.
So, you know, you didn't hear a guy who was surrendering. You didn't hear a guy who is handing it in olive branch to Secretary Clinton. But you did hear a guy who was I think beginning to rationalize why he hasn't done better.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes. And I think also saying that the progressive movement is strong and it's so strong that in those polls that it does pretty well against Trump. I thought this was in some ways vintage Bernie Sanders without a lot of attacks that we have seen on Hillary Clinton and it was sort of his we have come a long way baby speech which we have heard before.
[20:15:00] AXELROD: You know, the thing about it is he's right that he does well in those polls in the fall, but he has had the advantage of being a guy who hasn't taken any attacks from the Republicans. And part of that is that they don't anticipate that he will be the nominee of the Democratic Party in the fall. And what is untested is how he would stand up to the attacks which when they came which would give you more of a sense of where he would be in a fight like that.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, MICHAEL SMERCONISH SHOW: Normally you get out when the money dries up and the crowds go away and neither one of those things is happening in this case. And I said it is not just from watching the image where he was just speaking in West Virginia. But anecdotally, the people who call my radio program and are Bernie people, they want this message hammered until the last possible moment and they don't want him to get out.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: No. And is making -- he made his general election argument saying that he is the one who can bring in independent voters and beat Donald Trump and Ted Cruz. Earlier tonight was making his general election argument saying that Donald Trump is a liberal who would be running against a liberal and no conservative (INAUDIBLE).
COOPER: Three wins for Donald Trump tonight, one for Hillary Clinton. We will be standing by for their victory speeches. You are going to hear what tone Trump will take as well as Secretary Clinton. That's all ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:19:25] BLITZER: All right. Let's get a key race alert right now.
On the Democratic side, take a look at Connecticut right now. Three percent of the vote is in. Still very early. Hillary Clinton has a lead of 52.8 percent to Bernie Sanders 45.4 percent. Very early.
Similarly in Connecticut. Very early. Only two percent if that in the vote is in.
In Rhode Island, 53.8 percent for Bernie Sanders, 44.9 percent for Hillary Clinton. And that is for Bernie Sanders at least so far very early in Rhode Island.
On the Republican side, let's take a look at the Republican side.
In Connecticut right now, we project that Donald Trump is the winner. You can it is still very early in the actual vote that has been tabulated, 59.3 percent for Trump and 27.2 percent for Kasich, only 11.4 percent for Cruz. Very early but Trump, we projected is the winner.
We have not projected a winner on Rhode Island on the Republican side. We didn't do any exit polls in Rhode Island but Trump with four percent of the vote is in. He has 64 percent, Kasich in second place with 22.9 percent, Ted Cruz 11.8 percent in Rhode Island.
States won so far, Donald Trump has won three states, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Connecticut. Those are all the states we did exit polls in so far. Hillary Clinton we projected is the winner in Maryland. Too early to call. We have not made other calls in the state, but we'll be taking a closer look at all the other states in a moment.
I want to go over to John King right now.
Take a look at how they manage to do what they are doing. You have got Rhode Island up there.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Went to college at Rhode Island. Started my career at Rhode Island so it started by looking at Rhode Island. Very little in so far, Wolf. But you see Donald Trump off to a big lead early on, 64 percent on the Republican side. He is certainly counting on winning and winning big in Rhode Island tonight. The blue color state, he hope (INAUDIBLE).
Also, if you pull it back out and just look, again, the front-runner started to claim this part of the country if you will, but if we me back in and that's Massachusetts, you can pop-up Rhode Island, 64 percent right now, this is the one battle ground we think on the Democratic side of all the five states tonight, this one is more open primary unaffiliated independent voters can vote.
For the Democratic Party, you see Bernie Sanders only two percent of the vote. But Senator Sanders is off to an early lead as we watch these votes come in, the largest population center of the state. It is the capital providence. Nothing from providence yet. We'll see how this one plays out.
Let's scroll over this. Sanders, though, with an early lead. They'll appreciate that in the Sanders campaign as they look for at least one win tonight. Now, we come over to Connecticut, very early on, again, only five percent and Secretary Clinton 53, Senator Sanders as 45. Not much to speak of yet again. Hartford is your major population center here, three-and-a-half percent state. She is winning 70 percent there. To the degree there's an African-American turnout in Connecticut. It's largely here in Hartford.
I remember, Secretary Clinton, she went to college down here, right. Come over here in new haven, (INAUDIBLE) university, pretty close at the moment, with 27 percent of the vote in, 50 percent and 48 percent there. Still though, as you say only five percent in statewide. We'll watch as the votes come in Bridgeport. Not a big population center here. Four percent of the state population. She is winning at the moment.
But we have a long way to go in the counting here. In Connecticut and Rhode Island results starting to come in. Let's just check and pull back out. Let's see if we have anywhere else. Still nothing from Pennsylvania or Delaware or Maryland so far, but they are starting to trickle in, Wolf. And once they start we'll count them.
BLITZER: We'll take a closer look.
All right, stand by. We want to go back to the magic wall in a moment.
I want to go back to Jake and Dana.
So we have made four projections, three on the Republican side and one on the Democratic side, six to go.
TAPPER: One of the things that we have been watching and covering for the last few weeks is this never Trump movement or forces or whatever you want to call them, people who say that Donald Trump has to be stopped.
So let's bring in David Chalian, our political director who is looking at the exit polls.
David, in terms of the people who turned out to vote in Pennsylvania and Maryland and Connecticut, the three states we project Donald Trump won or will win, how many of them went out to vote for a candidate and how many of them were voting against a candidate primarily?
CHALIAN: Yes. It's a measure that we look at in a lot of these states that we have had primaries and caucuses in. Tonight, you are going to see that the never Trump, stop Trump movement just doesn't have a ton of traction in these states tonight.
In Pennsylvania, look at this, 77 percent of Republican primary voters were there to vote for their candidate. Only 20 percent said they were there to vote against his opponents.
If you look at Connecticut, similar results, 72 percent voting for your candidate was the main motivation. Voting against your candidate's opponents 25 percent said that's why they voted the way they did.
And in Maryland, similar, 74 percent voting for your candidate, 24 percent voting against his opponents.
TAPPER: So not a big turnout, David Chalian, when it comes to people, Dana Bash, voting defensively against somebody as opposed to voting for somebody.
BASH: That's right. And you know, sort of in theory you would think as you were saying that this is bad news for the never Trump movement because their whole motivation is the people are so upset about the prospect of Donald Trump that they are supporting other people.
I talked to somebody before coming on tonight who is very involved in raising money for the never Trump movement who insisted they are still doing quite well. There are a lot of very rich people and maybe people who are not so rich who are still giving money. They are still advertising in Indiana and the states going forward. And that they knew that the cake was baked in these states. Tonight, I'm not so sure that they knew that it looked like it was going to be what appears to be the kind of route that we are seeing as we speak.
TAPPER: So the way that they measure success is how much money they are raising and not how successful they are achieving in stopping Donald Trump. It is interesting I suppose. That's one way to look at it.
Anderson, back to you.
[20:25:05] COOPER: It's a unique metric for measurement on that. I mean, S.E, is that movement, isn't viable still?
S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Look --
AXELROD: Yes.
CUPP: I have said for months now that Trump is going to secure the nomination before the convention. All of this, you know, hand wringing over what happens at a contested convention I think is really wishful thinking. I say that as someone who really is unhappy that Trump is going to be the nominee of my party.
That said there is a very real problem for Trump if he doesn't at the convention. That problem is significant because Donald Trump is not invested in figuring out the delegate fight and the system in the way that Ted Cruz and John Kasich have for months if not years before mounting a presidential campaign. That would be --
COOPER: That's different than an organized movement that would try to stop him before the convention. CUPP: Absolutely. And I think that that movement has really had the
wind sort of sucked out of its sails as Trump has not just gone on to win states maybe you would think he would, but to win in places you would think there are no Trump voters. I'm thinking the Tony counties that are affluent and well educated, Lake County, Illinois, Westchester County, New York, Oakland County, Michigan, all places I know very well and you would never imagine Trump to win there. Cruz has not been able to find the voters who will not vote for him.
COOPER: In Pennsylvania, among born again and evangelical voters Trump winning overwhelming.
CUPP: Cruz has really failed. He has tried at times to be the blue collar anti-New York values candidate. Well, Trump has won those people. And it is, you know, Cruz has tried at other times to be the intellectual of the party calling Trump's voters low information. Well, Trump is winning them too. So Cruz just can't find the voters who are not for Trump. That's the problem.
LORD: This is the political flaw with Ted Cruz who I persist in saying I like although I'm sure it's not reciprocated.
CUPP: Not helpful for him.
LORD: No. He cannot do well in the north eastern United States. You look at these figures when you have 14 percent in New York, he is getting what? I don't know what the percentage is yet in Pennsylvania, but in some of these other states he is getting 11 percent, 12 percent, whatever. This is terrible. We keep talking about Ronald Reagan. Yes, Ronald Reagan carried New York. He carried Pennsylvania. He carried the entire northeast with the solitary exception of Rhode Island in 1980. He carried the whole thing in 1984. You have got to be able to make inroads there and he is demonstrating repeatedly he can.
AXELROD: But you know, to S.E.'s point, there is one group of voters who Trump hasn't been able to get and Cruz has been able to get and those are Republican insiders. And every weekend they meet and they have their caucuses and Cruz walks away with all the delegates. And so, if it does go to a second ballot Donald Trump is done. He has to win in the first ballot with 95 percent of the bound are delegates.
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: I am usually happy to nod along earnestly with a conspiracy theory about the liberal media ganging up on conservatives, but if this idea from Cruz that he floated at his speech tonight is that network executives really want Hillary Clinton to face the weakest Republican that's Ted Cruz.
COOPER: Let's go back to Wolf for another projection -- Wolf.
BLITZER: We have another major projection right now, a fourth win for Donald Trump. CNN projects Donald Trump is the winner of the Rhode Island Republican presidential primary. His fourth win of the night. Donald Trump wins in Rhode Island, his fourth win. States won so far by Donald Trump four of the five so far -- Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut and Rhode Island.
So far, CNN has projected that Hillary Clinton is the winner in Maryland. Five states projected so - five contest projected so far, five more to go.
Let's go back to Sara Murray. She is over the Trump headquarters on this night at Trump tower in New York. Another big win for Donald Trump, Sara.
MURRAY: Absolutely. And I think the question now obviously Donald Trump is poised to have a very big night, these are four wins and we're waiting on a fifth which the Trump campaign believes that they can get. So the question is what tone do we get from Donald Trump tonight? Are we going to see a gracious victory speech or we are going to see a fiery clash at Donald Trump who comes out and essentially says look, Ted Cruz and John Kasich have no path to 1,237. It's time for them to step aside. It is time for them to unify behind me.
And it was interesting, Wolf, Donald Trump is at the 100 gala tonight before he comes over here. And he was asked by reporters if we're going to see a tamer, softer, gentler Trump and he told them I don't think I want to change. I think we have gotten to where we are by me being me and I don't think it's time for a change. So maybe the idea of a Trump 2.0 has gone by the wayside, Wolf.
[20:30:05] BLITZER: The only state Sara, we're waiting from the Republican side, Delaware. We didn't have exit polls in Delaware. We'll see what we can project there. We'll see what happens, but let's talk a little about what time we expect to actually hear from Donald Trump, he's going to be speaking I take it fairly soon.
MURRAY: Yeah, that's right Wolf. We're expecting him to speak right around 9:00 p.m. and as of right now they're saying he's not expected to take questions from the press. He's just going to make some remarks now and usual, he doesn't usually use a teleprompter, we're expecting that to change and I were expecting it to be off the cap.
But his aids are saying the same thing, they were always saying which is this is Donald Trump. If he comes out and he wants to take questions from the press he'll do it. It's impossible to predict ahead of time what kind of tone he's going to take or sort of how he's going to feel when he comes out on that stage and this is part of what has really driven the campaign from the outset which is let Trump be Trump.
For a while there was a question about whether that was going to change and at least right for now it doesn't that stare look like that's the case.
BLITZER: All right, Sara standby, we have another major projection.
A clean sweep for Donald Trump tonight. Donald Trump, CNN projects is the winner of the Delaware Republican presidential primary. All five contests Donald Trump wins. He wins in Connecticut, Dela -- and let's go through the list, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware. A clean sweep winning all of them. A big, big deal for Donald Trump, impressive wins in all five of these mid-Atlantic north eastern states. Once again, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.
Hillary Clinton we have projected is the winner in Maryland so far, for more Democratic contest so far. Jake and Dana, a big, big win for Donald Trump. You can't deny that.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Five for five and though it was a few week ago that we noted the 35 percent ceiling that the Republican establishment figures said Donald Trump had has been broken, they need it to remodel the House because he had broken through. It will be interesting to see what his margin of victory is this evening with all five states being called so early. That would suggest possibly, possibly more than 50 percent in many if not all of these states that's one point.
The second point Dana is Donald Trump has been driving home one point for the last two weeks and that is the system is rigged and the Republicans are out to get me. That seems to have really resonated with voters.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CORRESPONDENT: It does seem to have resonated and, you know, you're absolutely right that we're going to see where the margins are and we're not taking anything away from Donald Trump. This is a huge night for him tonight, but that numbers do matter at the end of the day. Delaware is winner take all that's great news for him.
Pennsylvania, you know, we're going to have to wait and see what happens because so many of the delegates there are unbound, but the bottom line is even the opposing campaigns who I talked to going into tonight said, you know, if Donald Trump for example ultimately in Pennsylvania wins or total wins about 108 of the delegates tonight, he's well on his way.
TAPPER: Yeah.
BASH: And, you know, of all the conversations that we've been having about a brokered convention, about a contested convention, what's going to happen at the convention. If Ted Cruz doesn't stop him in the next contest in Indiana, it doesn't look like there's going to be that, that he will in fact potentially really get the nomination before we even get to Cleveland.
TAPPER: And honestly, as the results come in for the specific delegates in Pennsylvania, CNN is going to bring those results because we know which delegate is supporting which candidate, that's an important part of this as well.
But Dana, as you noted it's very, very interesting how the other campaigns Cruz and Kasich have tried to change the subject and in fact a day or two ago they started talking about the primaries in New Mexico and in Oregon and in Indiana almost as if they were weren't phrasing five primaries tonight, they were and they got destroyed I mean, you know, Donald Trump all five states called relatively early I tonight.
Let's go back to Wolf Blitzer.
BLITZER: All right, we got another Key Race Alert right now. Let's look at Connecticut on the Democratic side. 10 percent of the vote is in. Look at how close it is right now. That's a significant number 49.5 percent for Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders is 48.8 percent, she is only 282 votes ahead of Bernie Sanders right now just change not 521 votes ahead but very close, 49.8 to 48.5, 11 percent of the vote in Connecticut is in.
Coming up, clearly as clean sweep tonight for Donald Trump. We're standing by to hear from him live but we'll also hear live from Hillary Clinton about her win so far, one projected win in Maryland. We're going to get more results from the four Democratic contest, still unfolding right now, a lot more coming up right after this quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:38:00] BLITZER: We're waiting to hear from Donald Trump, waiting to hear from Hillary Clinton, but right now we have another projection.
CNN projects Hillary Clinton is the winner in the Delaware Democratic presidential primary. That's her second projected win of the night. Earlier we projected she is the winner in Maryland. Let's take a look at the states won so far. Let's actually go to Jeff Zeleny, he's over inside Hillary Clinton headquarters in Philadelphia, they're cheering right now, a second big win Jeff for Hillary Clinton, Delaware and Maryland.
All right Jeff, hold on for a moment. We're having trouble hearing you. We're going to get back to you, the second I want to just point out states won so far tonight. Clean sweep for Donald Trump, he has won all five Republican presidential primaries tonight, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island and Delaware.
Hillary Clinton has won two of the five on the Democratic side far, Maryland and Delaware, still waiting for three more -- here's a Key Race Alert of what's going on in Pennsylvania right now.
On the Democratic side Hillary Clinton with 52.5 percent, 46.5 percent for Bernie Sanders. But once again very early, very early less than 1 percent of the vote is in, in Pennsylvania, we're watching that state closely.
On Rhode Island on the Democratic side 4 percent of the vote is in. Bernie Sanders maintains a slight lead. Actually it's a nice lead, but it's still very early. 56.6 percent, 42.2 percent for Hillary Clinton. We'll see if that stands in Rhode Island. Then Connecticut it's very, very close. A significant number of votes already in, 14 percent. Look at how close it is, Bernie Sanders 49.2percent, Hillary Clinton 49 percent, only now 161 votes ahead. Bernie Sanders is ahead by 49.2 percent to 49 percent, 50 percent of the vote is in. [20:40:00] In Delaware CNN has projected Hillary Clinton is the winner, 38 percent of the vote is now in. She's at 51.8 percent, Bernie Sanders 47.1 percent, that's in Delaware right now.
On the Republican side we've already projected all five contests, Donald Trump wins. But we'll show you the numbers as they come in. Very early in Pennsylvania 69.4 percent for Trump, Ted Cruz 15.1 percent, Kasich 12.8 percent. Donald Trump the winner of Pennsylvania similarly in Rhode Island 10 percent of the vote in a very impressive lead for Donald Trump, 62 percent to 25.7 percent for Kasich, 11 percent for Ted Cruz in third place. 10 percent of the vote is in, in Rhode Island.
In Connecticut Trump is the winner, 20 percent of the vote is in a very impressive lead so far 59.5 percent, Kasich 26 percent, Ted Cruz only 11.8 percent, 21 percent of the vote in Connecticut is now in. Very impressive win.
Well in Delaware CNN has projected that Donald Trump is the winner in Delaware. 61.3 percent, John Kasich 20 percent, Ted Cruz 15.7 percent. We have projected Hillary Clinton is the winner in the state of Delaware. Let's go back to Jeff Zeleny. He's over at Hillary Clinton headquarters in Philadelphia right now. We're having trouble hearing you earlier Jeff, but the crowd I'm sure is very excited. A second big win projected for Hillary Clinton tonight.
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: No question Wolf, this crowd is very excited. Now the Clinton campaign has won two states and they believe that more will be on the way. They hope more will be on the way.
Now Secretary Clinton has just landed in Philadelphia a short time ago. She's going to watch some of these results come in and then speak to this crowd later, but Wolf the location tonight is key. The fact that Hillary Clinton is going to be in Philadelphia I'm told by one of her advisors was by design. They believe Pennsylvania is a key general election state.
Now if Donald Trump should become the Republican nominee Pennsylvania will be one of those laboratories that will be up for grabs. It's always a battle ground state, but it certainly will be a different battle ground state. But first things first Wolf, the Clinton campaign knows they still need a big win here tonight, particularly in Pennsylvania. They know that they still have at least another month to go, a little bit more than that in this primary fight, but Wolf we are seeing a turning of the page here. We're seeing a change of the mood here. You can almost feel the energy here changing as these candidates -- as these supporters rather are looking forward to what they believe will be a fall campaign with Donald Trump or whoever. But again, we need to find out what Pennsylvania does tonight. Wolf?
BLITZER: Yeah, let's see how long that takes. Jeff Zeleny at Philadelphia at Clinton headquarters. We're waiting to hear from Hillary Clinton. We're still waiting to hear from Donald Trump. But Donald Trump has swept all five states on the Republican side. John King, let's go over and take a look. Hillary Clinton she has won in Delaware and in Maryland, three more states still outstanding. We're talking about Connecticut, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: And she just moments ago -- seconds ago pulled slightly ahead in Connecticut. This one looks like it's going to be a seesaw, so we'll count the votes, 49.3 to 48.9, 15 percent of the vote in, your watching it fill in.
So far we see a judicial pattern, Senator Sanders winning in the small in a rural areas in the cities, you know, giant cities in Connecticut but in the population centers are for three and a half state wide, about 60 percent of the vote in, Hillary Clinton winning pretty big there.
Down in New Haven where she want to call it in Yale University, she's leading there. not as big a margin, but leading only 30 percent of the vote and so if your Secretary Clinton, it's close right now, you see that 70 percent of the vote in a -- a place you think your doing well is still to come in. Move over to a Bridgeport, another place she wants to run it up, only 13 percent of the vote in, so there kind of more votes here.
But looks like Connecticut again you pull back out, looks like this ones going to be able to seesaw we count to the night. Let's just move to the east in the state of Rhode Island. Only 5 percent of the vote, we're waiting for the big city of Providence to come in the biggest city in Rhode Island about 17 percent, but the state population. So we're still waiting there, but at the moment Senator Sanders opening up a pretty healthy lead there 57 to 41, it's only 5 percent of the vote but a ways to go. Wolf when you do this on the Republican side, you're looking right -- you looking for either coral orange or purple for Cruz or Kasich. So far, nowhere in Rhode Island.
In Connecticut if it comes to this, we have the congressional district map here that we can pull out and lay over the state if you're looking in a competitive race to see how the delegates go, but let's just throw it over here loosely for now and you have to get -- you see the green lines laying out the different congressional districts. Well at the moment it doesn't look like we're going to need it. John Kasich winning one small town in the northwest corner the state at the moment. So far as it fills in Trump country and this is significant in the sense that Donald Trump wants to run it up. He wants to get above 950 tonight, he wants to get as close to 96 to you're higher as he can.
If you're John Kasich or Ted Cruz you have to stop him somewhere, you got to pick up one here, two there, three there, at the moment we got a ways to go only 21percent of the vote in, in Connecticut, but it doesn't look like we're going to need the map because at the moment it doesn't look like John Kasich and we don't see Ted Cruz at all, we'll watch and see out it plays out.
[20:45:07] Then you move down to the bigger prizes, Pennsylvania, we've already called it. Slow to vote to come in. The only votes we have so far right in Philadelphia county predominantly Democratic area, but Trump is ahead there. Let's switch to the Democratic race, Secretary Clinton starting to open up a healthy lead in Philadelphia which she would expect to do. African-American base, the Democratic Party, we have a lot of wait to do in Pennsylvania in slower count at these ones come out and just try down quickly, you know, we also have nothing in for Maryland that's it either, since it won't come out, there we go. Nothing in at all for Maryland yet and for both frontrunners if you look at Delaware, boom and boom up the board.
So if you're a Republican and you're in that stop Trump Movement or Never Trump Movement, and S.E. Cupp was talking about earlier, you're trying to see as you go through these states some of the other guy's color, is there any place, they're starting to win the take away delegates and at the moment, Wolf, and a little tiny county, little tiny town I'm sorry Salisbury, Connecticut and in the north west corner of the state is the only place in any of these five states so far -- five state and we can find one town that is not colored for Donald Trump so far.
BLITZER: That's a tiny population as you see over there as well.
KING: Right.
BLITZER: All right, let's go back to Anderson. Anderson, a clean sweep for Donald Trump. A huge night for Donald Trump ...
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Yeah.
BLITZER: ... and Hillary Clinton so far has won two of the five Democratic presidential primaries.
COOPER: Yeah, Trump winning by huge margins. So far, Jeffrey Lord, I mean it's got to feel as a Trump supporter.
JEFFREY LORD, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Yeah, yeah, it sounds very good, so not so it's ...
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: I was just hearing ...
COOPER: What your saying your about the so is very steak.
LORD: I was just hearing from somebody who is talking to precinct captains in my congressional district and the turnout is in record numbers, say the precinct counts. So, I mean this is a big deal.
COOPER: So for momentum for Donald Trump, I mean this certainly ...
LORD: Huge.
COOPER: Huge.
LORD: Yeah, and I mean Ted Cruz -- I understand he's going to he's going to say, you know, this doesn't matter, but of course we were here for Wisconsin and Wisconsin was everything, right. But now we're really getting down through I said early the math and the politics at this.
SARAH ELIZABETH CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You really want to see what the -- we've talked about the tone. Will, you know, will he be more presidential? He's promised for weeks that he would. But -- and yet over the past week he slammed John Kasich for the way he's eating on the campaign trail, hardly, you know, presidential and this all the while Donald Trump has been the frontrunner.
Now coming off, of five big wins, you want to see is Donald Trump secure enough, confident enough, to end the petty insults, quit winning about the process that he's clearly benefiting from and clearly winning despite not really understanding it maybe and really just kind of calm it down.
COOPER: But why do the, I mean ...
(CROSSTALK)
LORD: He's winning. He want to make some duties ...
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: He has the voters.
LORD: Yeah.
BORGER: He's winning. The Donald Trump that you see is the Donald Trump that people are voting for. I mean I would call this a Trump tonight ...
CUPP: No, Gloria ...
(CROSSTALK)
CUPP: I meet -- but I meet Trump supporters who tell me ...
BORGER: Right.
CUPP: ... I love him. I can't wait for him to tone it down. And there are people in his camp ...
BORGER: And there maybe.
CUPP: ... and I think people waiting on the sidelines to say, OK, you know, I might not agree with everything he's saying, but I definitely want to beat Hillary. Can he pivot to a general election?
COOPER: But could the margins tonight have been any bigger? I mean ...
CUPP: Right, no.
COOPER: ... it doesn't seem like there's, you know ...
BORGER: He doesn't need to pivot.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: I'm not sure he -- I'm not sure that Donald Trump needs to pivot at this particular point.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.
BORGER: What he's going to do and he said this himself is get rid of the other folks in the race and he's gone a long way towards doing that today. I would argue that the odds for a contested convention are now pretty minuscule at this point and I think that he nothing succeeds like success.
CUPP: Right.
BORGER: So he goes into Indiana and he's got momentum and he can win those 57 delegates or a good part of them and be on his way and he does not to change to less.
COOPER: Paul, do you agree that the odds of a contested convention now are minimal?
PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I just want it hardly minimal, but I can't want it just because I've never been to a riot before. But, he has been this notion and change in tones, he's been a presidential candidate for over 10 months, he's been presidential for under just minute ...
COOPER: Paul, we're going to pin on that, a quick projection from Wolf. Wolf?
BLITZER: All right very important projection right now, take a look at this, CNN is ready to project another big win for Hillary Clinton. The biggest prize of the night on the Democratic side, Hillary Clinton is the winner in the Pennsylvania Democratic presidential primary. This is her third win so far tonight. Earlier we projected wins in Delaware and in Maryland.
Let's go to Jeff Zeleny he's over at Clinton headquarters in Philadelphia right now. The crowd we can see they just heard the projection clearly very happy.
ZELENY: Wolf, you could hear the cheering behind me right now here where the minute you said the word. This crowd is so excited. This was the big win tonight that the Clinton campaign wanted, of course the biggest collection of delegates of all five states. This is what these supporters have been waiting for. They're shouting madam president. They really believe that this is the turning point here.
[20:50:07] Now, at this point if they win all five states or not, the campaign really believes that it done it job tonight Wolf, they've won three out of five but of course Hillary Clinton will be making a speech here within the hour or so. Wolf?
BLITZER: We'll have live coverage of her victory speech live coverage of Donald Trump's victory speech, shaping up to the a very, very good night for the frontrunners. Let's take a quick break. Much more right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BLITZER: We're getting ready to hear from Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton. Big winners tonight in the Republican and Democratic presidential primaries. Let's take a look at the states won so far. On the Republican side Donald Trump an impressive huge sweep winning all of the Republican presidential primaries. Tonight, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Delaware. Five for five for Donald Trump.
On the Democratic side, so far three for five for Hillary Clinton. She wins the biggest prize of the night, Pennsylvania, Maryland and Delaware. Still waiting to hear from Connecticut and Rhode Island.
Let's get a Key Race Alert right now to see where they stand. These are actual votes that have come in on the Democratic side in Connecticut, Bernie Sanders has a slight lead, 50.1 percent, 48.1 percent, 90 percent of the vote is in just change a little bit. He's up by about 1,500 votes, very close in Connecticut. Bernie Sanders with a slight lead.
[20:55:01] In Rhode Island he's got a more impressive lead, 57.4 percent to Hillary Clinton's 41 percent up by almost 4,000 votes, 13 percent of the vote is it in Rhode Island. In Pennsylvania we only 2 percent of the vote has been counted, but we've already projected Hillary Clinton is the big winner there, 58.8 percent so far to Bernie Sanders 40.5 percent, big win for Hillary Clinton in the state of Pennsylvania.
Similarly in Delaware 72 percent of the vote is now, 73 percent just changed. She has almost 60 percent, he's got almost 40 percent. She's up by 16,500 impressive win in the state of Delaware for Hillary Clinton.
Let's continue to take a look at some of the other contests we're watching right now on the Republican side. In Pennsylvania, we project that Trump is the winner a very few votes are actually counted, but he's way, way over Ted Cruz and John Kasich, once again only 1 percent of the vote is counted but we've projected he's the winner. Similarly in Rhode Island, 36 percent of the vote is in there, Trump is way ahead 67 percent, Kasich 21, Ted Cruz only 9.9 percent in Rhode Island.
Let's continue, Donald Trump is the winner in Connecticut, 27 percent of the vote is in, very impressive. He's at 60 percent and Kasich 25.6 percent, Cruz has just in third only 11.9 percent, impressive win in Connecticut for Trump. Similarly in Delaware, almost all the votes are not counted, 95 percent of the vote is now in. Trump with 61 percent, Kasich 20 percent, Ted Cruz only 15.9 percent, impressive numbers in Delaware as well.
Let's go over to John King over at the magic wall. You know, these states that he's winning all five in the contest, he's winning by not just barely, he's got almost 60 percent in some of these states.
KING: And Donald Trump is the frontrunner. Donald Trump is from New York and so Ted Cruz and John Kasich will say, well this is Donald Trump's part of the country, but Wolf politicians are competitive, right. Frankly this is embarrassing. This is embarrassing so far. Last time it was one, now you can find two towns in Connecticut where John Kasich is winning two small towns so far. We've got a bunch more to go, only 28 percent of the vote in but as you watch this map fill in Donald Trump winning overwhelming in the state of Connecticut.
Now, his rivals will say it boarders New York. They know Donald Trump in Connecticut but at some point if you're going to beat Donald Trump you have to beat him on the battlefield, this is the battlefield state by state and that frankly is a romp and it's 60 percent of the vote for Mr. Trump so far. And we count it over, we move over to Rhode Island as well, now we have one here is one more, let's pull that out. Barrington, Rhode Island is a beautiful community, I think if all my old friends from cause (ph) to go Rhode Island tonight. Barrington, Rhode Island is a great beautiful community. So John Kasich one point at a pride in the state of Rhode Island, but look at what's happening elsewhere in the state so far, filling it off of Donald Trump.
Now we're only at four each other vote, we'll count it, sometimes it changes, when comes to delegates tonight, but you're Donald Trump and you're at 66 percent as we count the votes in Rhode Island, when you're at 59 percent as we count the votes in Connecticut and then you move down, we know he's going to win in Pennsylvania, but again where is John Kasich was born out here in Allegany county but he's rock, where is John Kasich? Where's Ted Cruz? This is -- let's look at the House districts.
This is a conservative state. Pennsylvania is reliably blue in presidential politics of lay, but if you look at the House districts there are a lot of Republicans in the state of Pennsylvania, so the other Republican candidates need to compete and where are they? So far this map feels in, it is all Donald Trump. We don't have anything for Maryland here Wolf, but there's Delaware. That's Donald Trump.
If you are the other Republican candidates, we're going through these five states tonight, it's a very tough argument to make that you are competitive in this race especially with then you put tonight into context, this was supposed to be Ted Cruz's wheelhouse. I know we batch the media a lot tonight, these were Republican voters. There aren't that many reporters across the Deep South to turn all those states to Donald Trump. These are the Republican voters doing this.
So as we watch this fill in tonight, A, we know Donald Trump is winning all five. B, we know he's looking for a very big delegate haul, 100 plus tonight to add to his count. That's momentum, that's math, can he get to 1,237 by the convention? Difficult, but he is making his odds better tonight, significantly, so.
BLITZER: And let just remind our viewers, in these five wins on the Republican side for Donald Trump in Delaware it's winner take all, so he's going to get all 16 of those delegates, but if you take look at Connecticut, Maryland and Pennsylvania, if he wins those districts presumably that's winner take as well, although in Pennsylvania you have this sort of convoluted system where the delegates are sort of free agents even though they declare who they will go along with.
KING: Let's start with Pennsylvania, we'll have to go through their individual delegates run in the districts, we'll have to go through that later into the night could go until tomorrow, but there are technically 54 of them are not committed. Donald Trump gets 17 for winning statewide, and winning statewide big, but the reason he gets only 17 but for those no committed delegates 54 of them that number is critical.
Where that number is at the end of the night, so that Donald Trump can go back to these delegates if necessary and say -- let's say he's at 1,215 and there's 54 of them.
[21:00:01] And he's going to our first ballot in Cleveland. If he wins Pennsylvania with anywhere near a number like that, he will go back to those people and say you have to go home and look at your neighbors in the eye, and look what I did in your state, you have vote for me.
