Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Live Event/Special

CNN Discusses a Very Tight Election; Trump Does Much Better Than Expected; Donald Trump is Ahead With 167 Electoral Votes; 270 Needed to Win the White House. Aired 10-11p ET

Aired November 08, 2016 - 22:00   ET

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

[22:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, THE SITUATION ROOM SHOW HOST: Right now we're going to be able to make a projection. And CNN's projection Donald Trump will carry the state of Montana and its three electoral votes. Another important win for Donald Trump in Montana. He get those three electoral votes.

Every electoral vote will count tonight. Let's get a key race alert right now.

Too close to call in several states where the polls have now closed. In Iowa, with the six electoral votes, too early to call. No projection there. In Nevada, six electoral votes, too early to call. No projection there. Similarly in Utah, too early to call there. Six electoral votes.

Evan McMullin, a Utah Native, a third-party candidate, a conservative, he is making a push in Utah right now. Too early to call there let's update the all-important Electoral College map. Where it stands right now, you can see Donald Trump maintains his lead.

He has 139 electoral votes compared to Hillary Clinton's 104 electoral votes. Two hundred seventy needed to be elected president of the United States.

Now let's get another key race alert right now. Here's where the votes stand. Let's start in Florida, 95 percent of the votes is in. Donald Trump still maintains an impressive 105,000 vote lead over Hillary Clinton, 5 percent of the vote outstanding 29 electoral votes, Trump ahead in Florida.

In North Carolina, 81 percent of the vote is in. Trump maintains an impressive 114,000 vote lead, over Hillary Clinton, 15 electoral votes. Trump ahead in North Carolina. In Ohio, 67 percent of the vote is in Donald Trump has a very impressive, almost 400,000 vote lead over Hillary Clinton. Eighteen electoral votes at stake in Ohio.

In Virginia, 83 percent of the vote is in, Hillary Clinton all the sudden has taken a lead, 15,456 vote lead over Donald Trump, 83 percent of the vote is in. Thirteen electoral votes in Virginia. Hillary Clinton ahead there.

Let's go to Georgia. Right now, in the state of Georgia, almost half of the vote is in, Donald Trump here, too, he has a very impressive lead, 365,000 vote lead over Hillary Clinton, 16 important electoral votes at stake in Georgia right now.

In Colorado, 53, more than half of the vote is in, Hillary Clinton has a lead of about 73,000 votes over Donald Trump. Nine electoral votes in the state of Colorado. In Michigan, quarter of the vote is in. Trump is ahead there. Still maintaining a lead of almost 50,000 votes over Hillary Clinton right now. Twenty four percent of the vote is in, 16 electoral votes at stake in Michigan.

In New Hampshire, 41 percent of the vote is in, Trump is ahead there, as well, 5,297 vote lead over Hillary Clinton, four electoral votes, everyone is critically important in New Hampshire. Trump is ahead in New Hampshire right now.

More votes coming in. Let's take a look at Wisconsin, 28 percent of the vote is in, Trump is ahead in Wisconsin right now by more than 15,000 votes. Ten electoral votes at stake in Wisconsin. In Pennsylvania, third of the vote is in, Hillary Clinton has an impressive lead, 250,000 vote lead over Donald Trump, 20 electoral votes in Pennsylvania.

Votes just beginning to come in Arizona, only 2 percent of the vote is in. Donald Trump has a lead of 6,600 votes over Hillary Clinton, 11 electoral votes in Arizona.

Let's take a look and see nationwide where the popular vote stands right now. U.S. popular vote, Donald Trump has 48.9 percent, Hillary Clinton has 47 percent. He is ahead nationally by 1,153,000 votes in -- nationwide, that's the popular vote. He's ahead by more than 1,100,000 over Hillary Clinton.

In the all-important electoral vote, Donald Trump, once again, he is ahead there with 139 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton's 104 electoral votes. Two hundred seventy, I have to remind you, that's the magic number. The magic number needed to win the White House.

Let's go back over to Jake. Jake, I know you've checked the markets right now. How are they reacting? Well, all of this so far pretty good news for Donald Trump.

JAKE TAPPER, STATE OF THE UNION SHOW HOST: It's great news for Donald Trump so far, and it's an unpredictable race. We're talking about this how much this really upends so much of the prediction industry, but the one thing that the markets don't like is uncertainty.

And right now we've been told that U.S. stock futures are down nearly 500 points, that's 2.7 percent, Wall Street has consistently, during this election season, whenever Donald Trump took the lead or seemed to be doing well, investors have been worried about his unpredictability, and his tough talk on global trade deals.

In the market jitters most obviously in the currency markets with the Mexican peso plunging 7 percent against the U.S. Dollar, obviously, Mr. Trump has talked about negotiating tough trade deals with Mexico, talking about scrapping NAFTA, the free-trade agreement.

[22:05:03] Gold, which tends to rise when investors are nervous, is up 3 percent, and it's up more than $1,300 an ounce. So right now, with all this news that seems to be excellent for Donald Trump, Wall Street and the markets are very, very jittery.

BLITZER: A lot of jittery people out there right now, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN'S CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, I'm guessing that the people in Brooklyn, they're probably -- I can see their fingers are probably...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: After Hillary Clinton had put.

BASH: Yes. Fingers probably bleeding because there's no more nail to bite. I'm guessing that that's probably what's happening and it's -- I think it's really, really important to point to the state of Virginia because these other battleground states, where the candidates both of them traveled heavily, OK. You know, we expected those to be close.

But the story of the Virginia tonight, even though she has pulled ahead here, in the polling and frankly in some of the modeling, she was ahead by many, many points.

TAPPER: Significant, yes, absolutely.

BASH: Significantly, and the fact that he is doing so well there tells you about the fervor out there. Whether it is for him, against her, or just against Washington. To me, that is a story that has really encapsulated in the...

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: And let me just say it again. We are still waiting for the result from these four firewall states, but I don't know what we're going to -- I mean, Hillary Clinton needs to hold on to these four.

We are still don't know what's going to happen in Michigan, Pennsylvania, Virginia, or New Hampshire, but Donald Trump is competitive in all four of them, and it is entirely possible that there is a wave out there that the pollsters and the predictors and all the vote modelers did not see coming at all.

BASH: The one thing that I will say about the modelers is that I was just talking to somebody who said that with regard to the modeling that both parties do when both campaigns did, that they had it -- there was sort of a 2 percent margin of error for lack of a better way to say it.

Having said that, you know, there is something that is out there that is hard to get with data.

BLITZER: Yes.

BASH: And it's just clear that that's true.

BLITZER: Those early exit polls show there were a lot of angry voters out there in the United States. John, let's take a look at North Carolina right now, because that's really emerging as a critically important state. Eighty two percent of the vote, North Carolina is in, Donald Trump still maintains the lead of about 120,000 votes.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: So, you start to get to that point, 120,000 votes you're thinking is it possible, is it at all possible to make that up. So, you start looking at the blue population centers. You look at here, they are at 100 percent. So, there's nothing more to be gained for Secretary Clinton there.

This is the biggest one here, you come in to Mecklenburg County still some votes to be gained here, is it possible? Yes, sure. There's math there. It's possible to be done, but that's assuming, you know, that she runs it up at the margin she is there, it also assume that Donald Trump is not adding.

Let's come over here. We're up to 99 percent in Wake County. Hillary Clinton is winning this county, by just what they targeted. They wanted -- we wanted to win this big, 15 points or more. Very successful here. And yet, they're getting swamped with turnout elsewhere. That's what making this still a race. They did exactly what they wanted to do here, at 77 percent.

The question is the numbers. We've got to match the numbers up past campaigns and see if they're getting the percentages right. The question is, that they (Inaudible) to turn out, can she come back here at 17 percent? You look around, let's go back in time. I want to look at some of these rural counties at top here.

There's some small counties up here. You know, you're looking -- again, let's go back, this is the race before. If you're going back here -- let's go back in 16 to see if we have anything here. You know, 80 percent. So, even if you keep going there, you talk about a couple hundred votes at best when you look up here.

So you look at this big population center, again, this is where the votes are and these areas around the Raleigh Durham Research Triangle and the areas around it, 80 percent, so there are some votes to be counted here.

But if you go back to that statewide lead at 83 percent, that's a tough margin to make up. Does it make it impossible, if she's going to make it up, a lot of it is going to have to come from right here in Charlotte and in the suburbs.

Again, if you do that math you're at 43 percent. If she doubles that, you know, there's 100,000 votes there. And if you double -- and so it's there. The question is you start checking these republican counties. You know, there's couple hundred votes here for Donald Trump to make up, maybe a thousand.

There's still some votes here for Donald Trump to make up here. And so, we've got ways to go before you can get in to the exact nature. But if you're in Trump campaign headquarters right now you think it might get closer because your votes are in here, and your votes are in here, and that's what happens in the war room. They start calling around to all these counties, who is left out and

what's left out in here, they're looking at it, are they asking here, are they close to Charlotte, or they're more up here with the republicans run a little better. That's what they do in the war rooms right now and this is...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let's take a look at two states, Michigan and Wisconsin, these are states that Hillary Clinton obviously has to win. Michigan first. Donald Trump is ahead right now in both of those states.

KING: And as you look at the map before I go into the members, these are the two states, if the map stays like we see it right now, if -- if Donald Trump holds on to Florida, if Donald Trump holds on to North Carolina, then these are the states that will decide the next president of the United States.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: What about Michigan.

[22:09:56] KING: That's a big if, that's a big if. But let's just go through. Twenty six percent of the vote right now and you're just looking here -- again, you're up here, Upper Peninsula, you're down to here. Donald Trump is winning...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He's got a lead of about 60,000 votes.

KING: He's winning areas where the republicans and conservatives needs to win and he's winning them. I just want to go back again. These are tiny places so you think that's not a big deal. It does matter in a close race. Fifty nine percent, 70 percent.

So in these small rural counties, Donald Trump is running up numbers. And you think, oh, it's 200 votes, oh, it's 300 votes, well, guess what. It's 200, 300, 1,800, you start rocking that up that's what she need to offset the democratic leads down in these places.

You have 63 percent of the vote in Oakland County, so more votes for democrat and much more population as you see, but let's go back in time and take a look, 51, 54. So, she's underperforming President Obama a little bit here in the Detroit suburbs. I just want to come back to Wayne County. She's stretched out a little bit. The last time that was two or four points. She's now in a 10-point lead range there.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Only 15 percent of the votes.

KING: This is -- this is the key. This is the key and this is why, you know, again, in Trump headquarters they're looking at Michigan, they're thinking 16, that's a magical number to add to Trump's math if they can get those 16 electoral votes. But let's take some time. Let's wait. Wayne County is notoriously slow

in reporting its votes. We've been up -- look, we'll be here for a while, let's just put it that way.

We're at 27 percent statewide, but she needs a big number out of Wayne County to make that up. Mathematically, possible, absolutely. But again, in the Clinton war room, trust me, they are frantically calling not only to Wayne County but they're calling in down here, too. As you get at 66, you know, only a 5 percent.

Again, smaller county, less population, but if the margin stays like that and it's early, so you're not sure the margin is going to hold like that. But if it stays like that, the math is still possible in a very tense Clinton war room right now they're looking at Michigan and they're saying the math is possible, so let's go next door. We're at 33 percent.

BLITZER: Wisconsin.

KING: This one is getting interesting in the sense that this is a republican area usually up here. Let's come over to Eau Claire, we got...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: He's 51,000 votes ahead in Wisconsin right now, a state that usually goes democratic.

KING: And so, here's the big area where President Obama round it up 56, 43. And we have absolutely nothing. So you start to look again in the -- are there votes out here for Hillary Clinton to make this up. Janesville, which is home for the House Speaker, at least at the moment, Paul Ryan, 51 to 42 or 52 to 43 if you want to round those up.

Again, you go back in time, that's a problem. That that's a problem when you're in a state like this and you're underperforming where the last democrat who won it, that's an issue.

So if you're under performing here, the question is, are you over performing anywhere else, because Trump tends to be running well where he needs to do and very well in other places.

Let's just look at place like Oshkosh, 3 percent of the state population Winnebago County 51, 42. He flipped this county at the moment. That's what you're looking for. You're looking for a big population center that has flipped.

And so, let's go -- you go back here, and you look here, 66 percent of the vote, as well. So that -- this 3 percent of the population, you say no big deal. Guess what? In a battleground state, you flip a county like that you're doing some math, and you start to do a math like that, that's what puts you ahead.

So, we're going to watch the vote centers. If you're the democrats now you're looking at Dane County which is 9 percent of the state population, you've got a third of the vote counted. You better hope... (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: You've got almost 9 percent of the population at stake there.

KING: Yes, right. So, you have to hope that you've got more of that coming, and if that margin stays like that and you get more heavy voters as you come through, again, you start looking through -- this is another -- this is it here. This is it.

But your -- she's again running up the percentages, we're only at 45 percent, still a lot of votes to be counted here. You presume most of them are going to go to Hillary Clinton -- just clicked up to 82 percent.

So, let's see what that did. We just jumped from 82 percent in Milwaukee County, so now we pulled back it out. It got her closer. It got her closer. She's now at 48 to 47 percent. So, those votes come in, you see what happens. It's a big vote -- big votes come in, in a democratic area, it brings the votes up.

Let's just take back at Dane County, still at 32 percent so. As you watch these counties start making big jumps it is possible, it is possible to come back. But I could tell you right now in the Clinton war room and in the Trump war room this is where the urgent phone calls are going into Michigan, into Wisconsin because at the moment, again, let's just check one more second right here, North Carolina is holding, Florida is holding, looks like Virginia is trending Clinton's way, Wolf.

We're going to look across the rust belt here, Michigan, Wisconsin, some vote counting to do.

BLITZER: John, stand by. We have two more projections right now. CNN now projects that Hillary Clinton will win the state of New Mexico with its five electoral votes. Hillary Clinton wins New Mexico.

CNN also now projects that Donald Trump will win Missouri with its 10 electoral votes. Another important win for Donald Trump in Missouri. Let's take a look at the Electoral College map right now, where it stands, the all-important map.

I should say Donald Trump is still ahead. He has 149 electoral votes to Hillary Clinton's 109 electoral votes. Two hundred seventy needed to win the White House. You see the blue states Hillary Clinton states, the red states, Donald Trump states.

[22:14:59] All those yellow states, too early to call. We have not been able to make a projection in those yellow states.

Let's go back to John over at the magic wall. John, you're looking at what the national vote right now and Donald Trump is ahead what, by two points.

KING: We look at the national vote, we still got some ways to go and we're still early in the count in a lot of these states right here. So, I just want to go back to this. Again, for people at home who are thinking, is this possible, is this possible. This is where we have it right now.

Actually we've move a couple of other states since you did that. But this is -- this is as we count map. I just want to go back to where we have this coming in...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let's go to New Mexico and Missouri first.

KING: Sure. You bet. Let's switch, we'll get there.

BLITZER: Yes. Just highlight us.

KING: OK. So, let's come out to New Mexico, let's take a peak. By Hillary Clinton running up 50 -- 50 to 40 essentially at the moment. These are the major population centers. You're going to come here first Santa Fe County, back here Albuquerque County.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Not a surprise that she took the New Mexico.

KING: No, it's becoming -- it's used to be a swing state. George W. Bush won it in one of his elections that it has become very much a blue state. So let's go back and look here. This is -- this is -- this is where we started the night right now here, and so what are we looking at, right? Mrs. Clinton was at 268.

We thought she just wins one state like Nevada. We'll get there. But democrats think they're going to win Nevada. Most republicans think they're going to win Nevada, we'll see what happens. But the early prognosis on the night was, is she wins that holds everything out here then she could afford to lose Florida, she could afford to lose North Carolina.

But we're in a very different conversation right now. Even if we give her Nevada, Trump is favored here, that's 11, that's 29, that's 15, now we're in the ballpark. Now we're thinking, let's even leave New Hampshire out of it for a minute.

New Hampshire is still in play. We're counting the votes there. But at 259, even if she wins Virginia, Michigan puts Donald Trump over the top. Let's say she comes back and holds on to Wayne County vote comes in, Wisconsin would put him at 269, then you've got a congressional district in Maine, or say New Hampshire can put Donald Trump over the top.

So, we are having a conversation now that it was impossible to have two weeks ago. It was just improbable. You were not having a reality- based conversation, trying to do this map. A couple of weeks ago the polling told you that was a fool's errand. It is not a fool's errand.

Tonight, as we watch this result, does that mean this is going to happen? No, we don't know that. We're going to be counting votes for a long time. But it is now conceivable. And one other thing to watch, you know, democrats thinks that one's gone. We haven't counted many votes out here yet. There was a late push by democrats. Is there anything we can do to turn that one around?

BLITZER: Let's take a look at Iowa. We're getting -- we're beginning to get some votes in from Iowa right now.

KING: Some democrats were thinking at the end, do we need to suddenly go back and try to turn something around? are we going to be in a problem? And it's blue at the moment but we're only at 13 percent of the vote and the votes that are in, Iowa City and Des Moines, those are big democratic area.

So, she's up 59, 60 to 35, up to 13 percent right now, but when I was showing you Michigan, I was saying take a deep breath because all the votes were coming in from conservative areas. Well, in Iowa, there's no reason for republicans to think they're going to win the state to panic or democrats to celebrate because we are very early on and the early votes we're getting, Polk County, which his home to Des Moines, a big democratic area.

Iowa City, college town out here, she's running it up in the college town but only at 2 percent. So, this again, in Electoral College chess, you focus on the big ones. Florida is 29, North Carolina is 15, Michigan is 16, Pennsylvania is 20.

Every now and then the little guys come into play and we may be counting the votes in Iowa, and we may be watching the votes in New Hampshire deep into the night because we have a different race tonight than we thought we had even just days ago.

BLITZER: All right. Let's go to the big key battleground states. Let's start at Florida right now.

KING: Let's come on down here. We're up to 95 percent, and it's close, but you get to the point -- where do we at, 140 or shy on that, 130 something.

BLITZER: Donald Trump is ahead by about 140,000 votes.

KING: So you come down there you think are they there? Well, Palm Beach County is up to 97 percent. So, there are more votes here, not many more votes here. But it could be...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Almost done.

KING: ... it could be some. You're almost done if it's -- you know, whatever it is, you're adding up 10 to 20. Ninety eight percent now in Broward County, which essentially tells you with the Clinton campaign war room, there's not much here.

You might get some, and again, the size of this gap, if the 2 percent comes in, it's a decent chunk of votes in a major population center but it's not enough so you need a little, a little somewhere you need a lot and we're up to 99 percent here. So, there are no more big, giant empty baskets.

BLITZER: And almost all of those three counties heavily democratic, they are almost all in.

KING: They are almost all in. And so now you're going through, again, now you're calling -- I hate to say this, but now is when you're calling in is there anything outstanding. This is at 100 percent. You come in there. let's come up here in other places, tiny much more smaller counties but they're at 100 percent.

So, the issue now with the Clinton campaign headquarters when it comes to Florida, number one, what's left in any of these small counties and if the math continues this way, is there anything -- you know, you're not -- you're not in any -- you're nowhere near automatically recount land. So the question is do...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Let's go to -- let's go back in Michigan and Wisconsin to see what's happening right now. First of all, in Michigan.

KING: Forty nine to 48. Fifty if you want to round that up to 45. I mean, 50 to 45 if you round that. Again, so you're looking just go back in time. There's not much of a surprise up here. Marquette, we'll see where the votes comes in.

[22:19:57] Let's go back and check, let's see where we are right now. Fifty to 43. Fifty six -- they were seeing -- just as I was showing you in Wisconsin, you find that every now and then. You find that one big county, moderate-sized county. It's not huge but in a close race, you flip a county like that, from past races you're talking about a chunk of votes that matter.

Now let's come down here. This race is going to be decided down here. Oakland County, she's leading, but again, if the final third comes in, at that you're going to make up some votes but not a lot. And this is what we're waiting for.

We're only at 16 percent in Wayne County and this has to be -- not only the margin. If it's this close, 51 to 43, let's just go back in time to look at that, there's no way. If that stays that close...

BLITZER: Yes.

KING: ... we're waiting for inner city Detroit. If inner city Detroit comes in and blows it away, but if you look at the 73 to 26. If Donald Trump at the end of the night is getting over 40 percent of the vote in Wayne County, well, then that's a tough night for democrats in the state of Michigan.

BLITZER: Yes.

KING: So, we're going to wait. We're only at 16 percent. Those votes could be coming from out here, down here more republican areas, but this is a -- this is a question of one, she better turn that percentage around big time if she wants to win Michigan, and number two, where are the votes.

So, that's not a lot of -- that's not a lot of votes right now. We're only at 16 percent. But that's a warning sign. I just want to show you that again because it's a stunner, if you look at it. Fifty one percent for Hillary Clinton in Wayne County, it tells you everything you need to know about Michigan at the moment, with emphasis of at the moment.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: But Donald Trump always said he would get those so-called Reagan democrats...

KING: Right.

BLITZER: ... that working class blue collar voter.

KING: Right. And so, that's -- You're looking at that right now, if you're at the Clinton campaign headquarters you're calling your people out here and you're asking what went on. And to be clear, I know Dana was sharing some of this reporting the other day as well, democrats out here have been calling the Clinton campaign for months, not just weeks but for months saying you need to tend to the garden, you think you have this one for granted.

You have, you know, you're just taking this for granted thinking you're going to win it, you better get out here. And the Clinton campaign late did get out there but there's, you know, there's one of the -- if this keeps going this way one of the criticisms after will be that they took the blue -- the so-called blue wall, which is these states they've won since 1992, 240 -- the last six presidential election, 242 electoral votes.

They include Wisconsin, they include Michigan. They include Pennsylvania, which looks good for Clinton at the moment. If she stays like this, she's going to have a...

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Donald Trump has an anti-trade message like Bernie Sanders, anti-trade message seems to have resonated Michigan. Let's go to Wisconsin.

KING: You make a key point. Before I do that, I just want to do one thing because you just make a key point. I know the experts on the other side of the room and they're right.

Primary wounds very rarely carry over to the general election. So, you can lose the state in the primary or, you know, Hillary Clinton won a lot of southern states in the primaries that she's not winning tonight, but democratic primary, these are Bernie Sanders states. Both of them. And so, as we go through this tonight, to your point, I mean, I did that because of your point about the trade message.

BLITZER: Yes. All right.

KING: About -- do you want to go Wisconsin?

BLITZER: Stand by. Let's do Wisconsin in the moment. Got to take a quick break. This presidential race turning out to be a real nail biter. We're following close contests in multiple battlegrounds right now including Michigan and Wisconsin two states surprisingly very much at play right now. More results right after this quick break.

[22:25:00] (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We have a major projection right now, Donald Trump will take Ohio. CNN projects Donald Trump will win Ohio with its 18 electoral votes, a relief for Donald Trump. No republican has ever won the White House without Ohio. He has won Ohio with its 18 electoral votes.

Let's take a look at the Electoral College map to see where it stands now. A big win for Donald Trump in the state of Ohio. Right now, he's ahead of Hillary Clinton. He has 167 electoral votes compared to Hillary Clinton's 109 electoral votes. You need 270 to win the White House. Donald Trump is ahead of Hillary Clinton right now.

Jake and Dana, Jake, this is a big win. He needed Ohio. He got Ohio.

TAPPER: Iowa and Ohio always look like the first states of the Obama states that Donald Trump would be able to pick off, but I didn't know based on polling and based on polling and based on how democrats talked about Ohio and how Hillary Clinton campaigned there.