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CNN Live Event/Special

Special Coverage of the Iowa Democratic Presidential Caucuses; Iowa Votes. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired February 03, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:00]

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Winning is absolutely, by far, the most important, but don't underplay the overperforming of expectations, especially for someone like Amy Klobuchar.

She keeps waiting for that moment. She's good in debates. Numbers moved up a little bit. She keeps waiting for a moment.

So, if Amy Klobuchar can pass one of those top four and get into the top three, now, at least, I think you are much more in the mix. I don't think she's going to win. I mean, if she wins, it's a giant story.

But there will be an obvious winner from the top. But look at second and third, because sometimes third doesn't mean the same thing for everyone. Third for Joe Biden doesn't mean the same thing as third for Amy Klobuchar.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Kirsten?

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes, I think that's the thing about Iowa is that there's usually more than one ticket out of Iowa. So it's like who overperforms, right? Who does better than what we thought they would do?

I do think, just stepping back, it's kind of -- it's hard to believe that we're here, because it just feels like we were just here, right? It's already happening again.

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: It never ended.

POWERS: Yes, but what I love about it is, we're actually getting to now have some actual voters telling us what they think vs. we're always talking about the polls.

COOPER: It's also easy -- it seemed far away, and then all of a sudden it was happening. And part of that obviously is the impeachment and what's been going on.

(CROSSTALK)

CILLIZZA: The impeachment thing has, without question -- I mean, look, it's become -- the campaign has become so nationalized. Some of that is Trump. But look at the visits in Iowa 2008, 2012 and now in terms of the candidates who visited. It's way down. Trump has nationalized everything. This is no longer I'm going to go live in Iowa. And I do think the whole impeachment thing -- I mean, look, the closing statements in impeachment ended about an hour-and-a-half ago, and now we're onto Iowa.

SELLERS: But this is a big night for Democrats, because finally we get to take back the message even for one day, because you have impeachment ended at 3:00. You have the State of the Union tomorrow, but tonight is the Democrats' night.

And whoever wins gets to go out and lay out this message. But I do want to say one thing. Well, two things. Winning is important. I do remember, in 2016, the biggest speech given was by Marco Rubio, who came in third place. That was really the end of his campaign.

He came out and every -- he overperformed expectations and he gave us speech in the hotel. And that was effectively it.

But Iowa is important if you win because I remember sitting in South Carolina in 2008. And black voters were -- they had two concerns. One, white voters weren't going to vote for Barack Obama. And, two, they thought they were going to kill him.

The number one -- the number one question they had was answered because of Iowa. We cannot underscore the import that Iowa caucus voters have. Whether or not you agree with Iowa going first or not, today is very important as a springboard.

COOPER: After Iowa, it can reframe a candidate. It can make people look at a candidate in a different way through a different lens.

(CROSSTALK)

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Totally. Totally.

To your point, though, just very quickly, I hope we can have a discussion after this year about changing Iowa as being the first...

COOPER: They're announcing right now in Port Charlotte on the second round of voting.

Let's listen in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We did have three people who were disappointed that their groups were not viable and chose not to stay.

So we had 135 on the first alignment, and 132 on the second alignment. OK? So now I need to figure out the percentages of the delegates. And so let me calculate that. And we will get -- while you search, there are nine candidates.

So I would say we're talking about two, three or four, but let me work out the math, please. So start thinking about who's willing to be a delegate to the district and -- or -- and state convention, please.

COOPER: So we're going to continue the conversation.

We're going to obviously check back in for the results of the second round of the results of the caucus. Again, that's a satellite caucus in Port Charlotte, Florida, for residents of Iowa.

No one can just wander in. But it is -- it's the first time they're doing these satellite caucuses. What's the rationale behind it? It's just trying to...

SELLERS: Caucuses are, by nature, slightly undemocratic, because, if you're working, if you can't -- you don't have child care, you can't sit and wait for hours on hours on end.

(CROSSTALK)

SELLERS: Usually, you can just go down and vote, vote early in some places, click a ballot and go home.

And so in order to make the process more inclusive, I think the Iowa Democratic Party did all it could do by having these satellite caucuses. And you saw candidates like Elizabeth Warren even offering child care to caucus-goers.

And so that's very, very important. And I do -- I left off a name earlier, because he's going to have a huge impact on the night, and that's Bernie Sanders, because...

COOPER: I just want to -- we're just putting the -- this is actually -- we have a counter in the room, so even before they have it, these are the final results, by our count, in this room, 42 percent for Amy Klobuchar, 32 percent for Mayor Pete Buttigieg.

Vice President Biden has 25 percent. And that's it. So, that's where things stand right now in Port Charlotte.

[16:35:00]

GRANHOLM: And it looks like Amy picked up a couple of points on that.

This is what is so fascinating about the caucuses, is because the human dynamics in the room about having somebody stand up there and try to persuade number one, and then see -- you heard a bunch of people saying, Amy, Amy, for the folks who were -- whose people were not viable.

So, obviously, they were influential in bringing her over.

But to your point about the satellite caucuses, the Iowa Democrats have decided to have a caucus for people on the shift that would -- to make sure that, if they were working in that time frame, in a normal caucus, they could go to it.

But it is ultimately only about 16 percent of eligible Iowans participate. So it's really difficult for people who are working. COOPER: We're going to shortly go to another caucus site, satellite caucus in St. Petersburg, Florida, also one in Iowa itself.

We're going to take a short break. Our coverage continues in just a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:40:22]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Welcome back to CNN's coverage of the Iowa Democratic presidential caucuses. I'm Jake Tapper with Dana Bash.

We are in Des Moines, Iowa, eagerly awaiting the doors to open for these caucuses. We have seen some results of these satellite caucuses for Iowa Democrats who live in Iowa, but are not in Iowa right now, such as in Florida or elsewhere, not necessarily indicative of what we're going to see statewide, but still interesting, nonetheless, Dana.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: And it really does give us an early sense and give our viewers an early sense of what we're going to see across this state in a matter of hours.

And to get even more of a sense, I want to go to Tom Foreman, who is in Grinnell, Iowa, who can dig even deeper to explain how these caucuses, while they seem complicated, are set to work with new rules, new guidelines, and perhaps more people.

TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, absolutely, Dana and Jake.

Look, what you have been looking at on a small scale is about to happen here on a big scale, as close to 1,000 Iowans will flood into this gymnasium in a short order to help pick the next Democratic nominee.

And here's how they're going to do it. Different areas will be marked off to represent the different candidates. And at the appointed hour, all these people will physically walk to those areas to show their preference.

This is the first vote. Once they're there, percentages of the overall vote will be calculated. And, importantly, in a big caucus like this, anybody who comes in with less than 15 percent of the vote will be declared unviable. Those candidates are effectively pushed out.

But their supporters are very much in play. And this is why. Every single voter will have a card like this. Look at it a little bit closer. And you can see that, on the front, they will write their first preference.

If your candidate is unviable, you get to flip that card over, and you write your second preference. Now, this is going to come amid a lot of wrangling and discussion, because, for example, maybe a couple of unviable groups want to join together to make a viable candidate. More likely, you will have viable candidates reaching out to those

people, saying, look, come join us, because that's what they can do at that point. They can move from one camp to another and change the equation of the entire room.

A few important rules. If you are in a viable camp, you cannot change after the first vote. You are stuck with your first choice. That's it. And if you are in an unviable group, you do not have to pick someone else. You can simply leave if you want to.

But after everyone has realigned they have all went to these different camps, then there will be another count of everyone in the room. And they're going to collect all of those cards that we showed you earlier. So they will create a paper trail of who had support at the beginning, who ended up with support at the end.

And when you put that all together, from those two votes -- the second vote is the one that matters -- then you will have the final percentages in this, one of the biggest caucuses in the entire state, but in a whole lot more like it at a smaller scale all across Iowa.

That's what the caucus is all about under these rules, and that's how it's going to happen -- Dana, Jake.

BASH: Thank you so much, Tom. That was really cool.

I mean, that was really fascinating, Jake. We're going to be able to see that, you and I, in person pretty soon, but to be able to show our viewers that in a really understandable way, what could be a very complicated process.

TAPPER: Do caucus-goers remind you at all of Paul and Pauline from "Mister Rogers Neighborhood" and the Planet Purple?

BASH: A little bit.

TAPPER: A little bit?

Anyway, we're...

BASH: We're showing our age.

TAPPER: We're going to we're going to visit Polk County, Democrats' Caucus 47, in a little bit ourselves.

Stay tuned, and stay with CNN.

We're going to squeeze in a quick break. We will be right back with more coverage of the Iowa Democratic Caucus.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:48:15]

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're watching what's happening at some of these so-called satellite caucuses outside of Iowa, where Iowans can come and they can caucus.

Let's go to St. Petersburg, Florida, Dianne Gallagher.

Dianne, I take it you're at a church there, where people have gathered?

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf.

We're in a church right now, and this is sort of the holding area, as they check people in. About 120 Iowans, registered Democrats have registered to take part in this caucus right here.

At this moment, they're sitting down. The doors for the room where they're going to caucus don't open until 5:00. And they have been kind of trying to deal with what they can at this point.

I have been talking to people all about how excited they are that this has finally come here, that it's successful.

This is Lucy. I was speaking to Lucy.

And you're from Sioux Center. And you drove. You're vacationing here in St. Petersburg. Talk to me about it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I'm a snowbird and stay here in Florida for about six months.

But when I'm in Iowa, I live in Sioux Center, Iowa, which is the most conservative Republican county in Iowa.

GALLAGHER: But you don't -- you're not making -- you're not a snowbird in St. Petersburg. You drove a long way to come do this.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

I snowbird in Ormond Beach, Florida, which is in the Daytona Beach area. And so my friend and I drove here for four hours to be at this caucus.

GALLAGHER: Do who know you're caucusing for?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, yes.

GALLAGHER: Who?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Elizabeth Warren.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Go, Elizabeth.

GALLAGHER: And your friend?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm for Amy.

When did you make up your mind? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, I met -- because we live in Iowa, the

candidates all come visit us.

And Elizabeth Warren even came to our small community. And I heard her speak. And I made a connection with her. And I like -- she just has the energy and the knowledge and the background to do what I think our country needs to do at this point in time.

[16:50:08]

GALLAGHER: Thank you so much. I appreciate it.

Wolf, I'm going to tell you, we have been in here, again, about 120 registered Iowa Democrats expected for the first time to be able to caucus in Florida here in St. Petersburg, driving from all over the state.

I'm going to send it back to you. We should be starting our caucus within the next 45 minutes here.

BLITZER: All right, we will stay in close touch with you, Dianne.

Thank you very much.

Let's go to Queen Creek, Arizona. That's not too far from Phoenix.

Sara Sidner is on the scene for us at that satellite caucus.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

It's exciting here, because we're inside of a theater here in Queen Creek.

And the thing that has a lot of people excited, I'm going to give you a look kind of what the scene looks like. People are coming in slowly. They have already pre-registered. They know that these are Iowa residents who are coming to caucus for the very first time, but they're being able to do it in a warm place.

And that's giving a lot of people lot of comfort and joy, very excited about caucusing.

And to give you some idea of just how popular this has been, the person who was coordinating this, Joan Koenigs, she said that she was going to have this in her house. And there were only 30 people, but then it ballooned to 50.

She thought, OK, I can do it, and then it ballooned again to 100. And she said, all right, that's it. We're going to have to find a new place, and it doubled from there.

So we're expecting somewhere between 175 and 190 people here in Queen Creek, Arizona.

I want to let you meet a couple of people who are here. They are obvious fans of the Chiefs. Don't let that fool you. (LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Go, Chiefs.

SIDNER: Douglas Kritzinger (ph) and his wife, Daria Schmidt (ph), are both here.

Now, you have caucused before, but you have not.

Tell me about this relationship and what you guys talk about at the table, because there is something that you guys do disagree on, which, of course, is not the Chiefs.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's true.

Well, we both respect each other's independent thinking here, but I have caucused several years now, the last five elections, and I'm very experienced in it. We just avoid a couple of topics.

This is his first one. And I'm really proud that he's taking advantage of what we are all getting to do here, which is be in Iowa and be in Arizona at the same time for this real important task we have.

SIDNER: Very cool.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You are caucusing, though, for Amy Klobuchar.

And you are not. You are caucusing for Bernie Sanders.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I am.

SIDNER: Tell me about your first time. And are you excited?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm very excited.

We're here in Phoenix, Arizona, came to vacation to be with some friends and watch the Super Bowl. And when we heard that they were going to allow us to caucus while we're on vacation in Phoenix, we said absolutely, yes.

And then, when we heard there was 190 people, we were surprised that there were that many.

SIDNER: What does that tell you both about how important this is, especially to Democrats in this state? I know you guys are from Iowa. But in this state, a lot of Democrats are hoping that they can start to turn this state at some point.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: So it just raises the awareness to the importance of this election.

And everybody's taking it seriously. We're taking it seriously. We're here for three-and-a-half days, but we're carving the whole afternoon out to get this job done, doing our part.

SIDNER: This is part of your vacation. OK.

Just quickly, what can you tell me in a few words why Bernie Sanders? Why should he be the nominee?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He's very electable. He wins all the polls against Trump. He has the most progressive agenda of anybody.

I'm a big fan of Medicare for all. And I promised my son that I would caucus for him.

SIDNER: OK, that's a good reason.

Why Amy Klobuchar?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, let's stay on the same topic. I think her approach to getting medical coverage for all of us in a stepwise manner, where we're going to do the optional first and then we can transition the rest of our country, it's a big haul.

This is a good way to do it. She works across the aisle quite well. And she's a Midwestern gal with some Midwestern -- really good Midwestern characteristics. That's what we need to lead our country.

SIDNER: You guys are fantastic.

Daria and Douglas, I hope there are no arguments tonight. Congratulations to you and the Chiefs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.

SIDNER: Wolf, I will send it back to you.

BLITZER: All right, Sara, thank you very much. Thank them for us as well.

All right, we're only just getting started. More caucuses, they're about to get going.

Much more of our special coverage right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:58:54]

BLITZER: Right now, the presidential race is all about Iowa, as Democrats hold the first contest of this, the 2020 campaign.

I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center.

A little over three hours from now, Iowa voters will take part in caucuses across the state. They have the power to narrow down the large field of Democratic candidates and give the winner a jolt of momentum going forward. We expect to get more early results soon, though, from what are called

satellite caucuses being held in and outside of Iowa, including cities across the country.

The next satellite caucuses we're covering start in Des Moines, in Des Moines, Iowa, as well as Queen Creek, Arizona -- that's near Phoenix -- later this hour.

Another one is about to get under way in St. Petersburg, Florida.

We're covering those caucuses and the results live.

Let's check in with Jake Tapper and Dana Bash. They're joining us from Des Moines -- guys.

TAPPER: Thanks so much, Wolf.

And, Dana, one of the things we're going to be looking for right now, because the caucuses are more than just a measure of support -- it's a measure of the passion that supporters have, because you have to get them not just to the polls to vote, but to go into a caucus and to argue and to advocate for your candidate.

And so that's one of the things the Iowa caucuses -

[17:00:00]