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CNN Live Event/Special
Iowa Caucuses' Results Still Unconfirmed; Campaigns' Responses to Uncertainty Vary; Trump to Give State of the Union Tonight. Aired 10:30-11a ET
Aired February 04, 2020 - 10:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[10:30:00] JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: -- Friday night, Deval Patrick issued that statement, he's trying to get into the mix here. He's not in that debate. It's Biden, Buttigieg, Klobuchar, Sanders, Warren, Steyer and Yang. That's tough for him. That debate probably takes on added importance.
And just one last point, the State of the Union address is tonight, the impeachment final vote is tomorrow. These candidates in New Hampshire will get plenty of attention on the ground. But for the national conversation that helps you with fundraising, that helps with those states that come later on the calendar, last night and this morning was supposed to be the bounce in the boot (ph) from Iowa. Instead, it's a big question mark.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Before the -- the next Democratic presidential debate, Friday night in New Hampshire, we have --
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right.
BLITZER: -- two nights of town halls with the eight leading Democratic presidential candidates, tomorrow and Thursday night, each candidate getting one hour. How important are those?
HENDERSON: Very important. I mean, this gives them --
KING: Right.
HENDERSON: -- a chance to forward the message that they want people to take from Iowa. It's a muddled one, you had Pete Buttigieg essentially trying to be the happy warrior out of this debate, trying to say that he exceeded expectations, wrapping himself, in many ways, in the mantle of Obama, with that long speech he gave last night.
I do think the underlying dynamics of both Pete Buttigieg as well as Biden haven't necessarily changed. Biden has money problems and Buttigieg has black and brown people problems, right? It's not clear that even though he is wrapping himself in the sort of mantle of Obama, that he's going to be able to expand the coalition.
But I think he's doing the right thing in terms of going on TV, he's going to be in these town halls, all these other candidates as well. So we'll see how this ends up. And I think if you're -- if you're a voter and you're sort of looking at Biden, you know, sort of the sour grapes message, I don't know that necessarily helps you with the money problem.
KING: It's a great point both of you make about the town halls in the sense that that's plan B for the candidates now, because especially in this new age of online fundraising, that's a very emotional visceral thing. You have a good debate, you raise a lot of money. You have a good night in Iowa, you raise a lot of money.
That disappeared. Nobody had a great night in Iowa last night because the American people don't know the results. And so can they use these town halls, once they have the results -- hopefully -- you know, for those who did well? That's -- it's sort of a -- it's not an A game for them, it's not last night but they need to try to create that excitement to bring in the money.
Because if you look down the calendar, Wolf, yes, you have New Hampshire, Nevada, South Carolina. But then the calendar gets really crowded. This long-shot strategy of Michael Bloomberg, does it work now because of this muddle? Who knows, but he's got unlimited spending to his advantage. These other candidates, this could be -- we don't know how this is going to turn out, but that's a giant question mark, does it dry up the money for some candidates who might have had a better night if we'd got the results.
BLITZER: Nia, Pete Buttigieg effectively declared victory --
HENDERSON: Oh, totally. Yes.
BLITZER: -- last night. So with zero percent of the precincts reporting -- not 20 percent, 30 percent: With zero percent of the precincts in Iowa reporting, how does he declare victory?
HENDERSON: You know, he did it, right? I mean, he probably leaned into it much more than people thought he would. He gave a pretty lengthy speech, I think echoing a lot of the language that Obama did in 2008, when Obama really did shock the world.
Pete Buttigieg said that Iowa shocked the world, and it really did this year, by failing so miserably --
KING (?): Sure did.
HENDERSON: -- with this process.
But, yes, I imagine, if you're a Pete Buttigieg supporter, you like his presentation and sort of his swagger, this morning. It is undeserved? We'll see. You know, by all accounts, if you look at the sort of posturing of Buttigieg, he probably did exceed. And Biden, it sounds like he came in maybe fourth or something, that's what Symone Sanders said on our air.
So, listen, this all about optics in some ways, it's obviously about data as well. But, listen, you've got this opportunity to project a winning message, so he took it.
BLITZER: Yes. Symone Sanders works for the Biden campaign --
HENDERSON: Exactly.
BLITZER: -- and she said he came in the top four --
HENDERSON: Four, exactly.
BLITZER: -- top four.
HENDERSON: Right, the top four.
BLITZER: That could be one, two, three or four --
HENDERSON: Could be one, two, three, or four, you're right.
KING: He's the former vice president of the United States. Again -- again, had that result come in last night, knowing he's short of money and he was -- let's -- you know, we don't know what he was. But if he was fourth and if Amy Klobuchar was really close to him, that would have a damning impact on the Biden campaign's fundraising. So they are hoping to say, never mind, and move on to New Hampshire.
But we will see this anyway. A strong candidate is a strong candidate, a weak candidate is a weak candidate. We'll see as this play out. But to the money part of it, the last 12 hours up to now --
HENDERSON: And they sank -- yes.
KING: -- is (ph) important.
HENDERSON: And they sank a lot of money --
KING: Right, they did.
HENDERSON: -- into Iowa, Biden's --
KING: They sure did.
HENDERSON: -- campaign did. And at times, they felt like they may come in, you know, one or two. We'll see, maybe they did. But yes, I mean, this was not a great result for them. And, listen, they can sort of think it's downplayed, but still, the results are the results.
BLITZER: You're from Massachusetts. Elizabeth Warren's from Massachusetts, neighboring New Hampshire; Vermont, Bernie Sanders' home state, neighboring New Hampshire. Do the two of them have the advantage, going into New Hampshire, a week from today?
KING: They had the advantage in the sense that Elizabeth Warren had a great summer, Bernie Sanders has the history of 2016. Never underestimate Bernie Sanders. In our most recent poll that came out last week, it was Sanders, then Biden.
But again, what happens to Biden here? Biden had some decent numbers in Iowa. When we see the results, we'll see if he met that performance. This has been the question about Joe Biden from day one. Does he actually deliver? Do his numbers on Election Day match the numbers he gets in these polls, where people have an affinity for him and pick him? Does he have the organization to turn people out?
[10:35:05]
Bernie Sanders is the favorite in New Hampshire, period. Can he deliver on that? Is there something in these Iowa results that might impact that? You know, I don't know. But Sanders' people are committed.
For Warren, this is a big test. She also wanted to have a good night last night. Even if she came in second place to Bernie Sanders in Iowa or something like -- she wanted to come out with some momentum because, after her great summer, she has plateaued if not sunk a little bit. And so you have a Vermonter, two candidates from Massachusetts, Deval Patrick trying to break through --
HENDERSON: Yes.
KING: -- we'll see what the neighborhood brings.
BLITZER: All right, we'll see how those two town halls that we're doing -- four candidates tomorrow night, four candidates Thursday night, all very significant.
Coming up, the candidates are about to get an update on the caucus results from the Iowa Democratic Party. We're going to tell you what they're learning. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:40:22]
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. In the absence of any actual data, we have learned some things, specifically about how the campaigns decided to use strategy in this vacuum, and what they want you to think about their campaigns.
Now, we saw that with Pete Buttigieg, he came out strong, said he won. And he is waiting for that to become not true on any level. And the longer it takes for it to be not true, the truer it is over time. That's how politics works, perception can be reality.
Now, if we flip it, though, we saw some things last night that we didn't expect to see, and we didn't see some things that people had been hyping up a lot. Rojas, they had said, oh boy, a problem in Iowa, here comes the stink machine from Bernie Sanders. He was arguably the most gracious person when he had the most reason to be upset about this.
ALEXANDRA ROJAS, FORMER 2016 SANDERS CAMPAIGN ORGANIZER: I think that's absolutely right. I think you saw Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders last night lean into their integrity. They didn't take the results for granted, and said, you know what, we're going to focus on the volunteers and the supporters that gave their blood, sweat and tears to this moment, and we're going to wait for the official party results. And I think it's interesting that, you know, going into this, Joe
Biden is the one that is calling into question the results, even though they said Bernie was going to do that. Buttigieg is claiming victory even though they said Bernie was going to do that.
And I think that it speaks to the power of not just thinking about winning and losing campaigns but really building a movement across -- that cuts across generation, that cuts across ethnic, racial lines --
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think --
ROJAS: -- and, you know, brings it to caucuses like this.
JONES: -- it's a good point. We were sitting out here saying, listen, Bernie's going to be the bomb-thrower, he's going to be the person that's going to be, you know, saying, hey, listen, I (INAUDIBLE) didn't win. I think it's -- I think it's --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He wasn't.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The truth is that Bernie really -- he didn't really need to either. Because the fact is that he did just fine. I mean, wherever -- whether he finished one or two, he did fine. And he is built for the -- for duration because he has this renewable financial base of support. So, you know.
But, look, I think he handled it well. Bernie -- Bernie handles, you know, his public-facing stuff is pretty good. It's rarely Bernie who raises these issues, it's Bernie's supporters who raise these issues on these divisive (ph).
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And the Warren campaign, this morning, is saying that they've collected photos and other raw documentation of the results at hundreds of caucuses, and they're going to provide them to the Iowa Democratic Party.
This is what the candidates should be doing --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What.
BORGER: No, they should be sharing. And I'm sure they will, all of them, eventually. They should be sharing all of their information with the Iowa Democratic Party to try and get it right in -- as quickly as possible, and not going out there and saying, well, we claiming victory or we're challenging the results. They just need to get it right, at a certain point, soon.
JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: And that -- and that -- I mean, honestly, to be fair to the Biden campaign, that's all they're saying, is that they should -- they're not calling into question the results because there are no results --
BORGER: So they should provide their documentation --
GRANHOLM: -- what they're saying is -- totally.
BORGER: Right.
GRANHOLM: They should provide their documentation. But what they're saying is, take your time and get it right, that's what --
(CROSSTALK)
CUOMO: a little bit, a little bit. They're saying that this was suspect and we can't trust the results.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: -- the letter, the letter.
GRANHOLM: Look at this statement. Is, we need to get it right. Take your time and get it right. But they're (ph) blamed (ph) for that.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: Here's the letter, here's the letter from last night.
AXELROD (?): Take your time and get it right, and if it takes (ph) for the New Hampshire primary, that's fine.
GRANHOLM: There is -- wait a second, there is somebody who is not in Iowa who is, I think, being strategic about this, which is the Deval Patrick campaign. And for those of you who want to write him off, think about this. In New Hampshire, he -- which is the next-door state, he is campaigning hard. All he needs is one delegate to qualify for the Nevada debate (ph) --
UNIDENTIFED MALE: No, I hear you on that.
GRANHOLM: -- just one delegate, so.
CUOMO: But just, you know -- you know, hold on a second. Let me just -- you know, because, you know --
GRANHOLM: -- don't rule him out.
CUOMO: govs (ph), you know, you're trying to --
GRANHOLM: You're going to pull me back on the Biden thing.
CUOMO: You're trying to -- you're trying to bulldoze me a little bit --
BORGER: Here's the letter.
CUOMO: -- you know, and that's what you're doing. And I respect the muscularity of the point, but --
GRANHOLM: Do you?
CUOMO: -- however -- of course I do. However --
(LAUGHTER) CUOMO: -- we believe -- one line from the Biden for President letter here, just to you know, I'm (ph) going (ph) to let the facts get in the way of your story.
"However, we believe that the campaigns deserve full explanations and relevant information regarding" -- now that's your point, but hold on -- "the methods of quality control you are employing, and an opportunity to respond before any official results are released." That's skepticism at the surety of the result.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Very Trumpian.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, they should be participating --
GRANHOLM: But can you blame them? We still don't know what the (INAUDIBLE) or not --
CUOMO: Yes, I can -- I can, Jennifer. They're inserting a negative aspect to the unknown.
JONES: All -- hold on a second. Let's -- let's -- this is a serious thing that Biden's doing. First of all, he's the only campaign that's calling for that level of freezeout of this whole process, and he's doing it for a reason.
[10:45:06]
You know, you have one of his surrogates who's, you know, basically admitting that they fell far short, and he's trying to freeze the process. The downside of this, the danger of what Biden is doing, by going far beyond any other campaign in calling into question this whole process is, he adds to the skepticism --
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Yes.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Well, right.
JONES: -- that is -- the poison (ph) in our party right now is cynicism.
CUOMO: He's Trumping -- he's -- oh --
JESS MCINTOSH, CNN COMMENTATOR: Can I just say --
CUOMO: -- he's Trumping it up.
JONES: -- the poison in our party right now -- let me finish, let me finish.
GRANHOLM: If -- if -- what have we been talking about here on CNN for the past -- for the past 12 hours is, we don't know. This is crazy. This is
MCINTOSH: But saying, I need to sign off (ph) before we share the results with the public --
JONES: He's (INAUDIBLE).
CUOMO: A little Trumpy, a little Trumpy.
MCINTOSH: Do you want to take one second -- one second --
(CROSSTALK)
MCINTOSH: -- to talk about Elizabeth Warren?
GRANHOLM: Yes, I think so (INAUDIBLE).
MCINTOSH: Because we have not brought her up almost at all. We've got two guys that we are assuming are vying for first, and we have Joe Biden who is making a lot of noise by doing exactly what we were just discussing.
Elizabeth Warren very well might be second, she might be a third so close there is no real daylight between.
UNIDENTIFED MALE: Good point.
MCINTOSH: The top three might be so close that it's a virtual three- way tie, we don't know these things yet. But the idea that we're not putting her up there in the possible frontrunner status, I think, is a mistake.
GRANHOLM: Sure. Or Amy Klobuchar. Has anybody said a word about Amy Klobuchar, so --
CUOMO: Yes, because she came out first last night --
(LAUGHTER)
-- playing into the void of the unknown.
GRANHOLM: Which was strategically smart.
CUOMO: I don't think -- I don't think that it is a gender exclusion, what's going on. I think that people expected Bernie to win, expected him to be upset about being denied that, he didn't. That was something to watch.
MCINTOSH (?): Well, but I think --
CUOMO: Buttigieg had put much more on this than Elizabeth Warren had, he came out --
AXELROD: Although she was pretty --
CUOMO: -- with (INAUDIBLE).
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: She (ph) was missing. AXELROD: -- leveraged on this thing. She -- she --
CUOMO: All right, we've got to take a break. Hold on, they're telling me to take a break.
And while we take a break, we'll be working the phones to figure out where's Tom Perez? Where's the head of the DNC? Give us a call, Tom. Tell us if this is going to be OK. Stay with CNN.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:51:20]
BLITZER: Welcome back to our special coverage. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN elections center here. John Harwood, our White House correspondent, is watching the president right now.
John, the president is going to be delivering a State of the Union address later tonight. He's got the conclusion tomorrow of the Senate impeachment trial, almost certainly with acquittal. But he's got Iowa on his mind as well.
JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, the president's had some rough days lately with this impeachment trial, but this Iowa debacle for the Democrats is really a breath of fresh air on multiple levels for the president.
First of all, it allows him to say, going into the State of the Union address, his tweet this morning -- saying that Iowa is an unmitigated disaster for Democrats -- helps him make a broader argument that Democrats are incompetent, the people who want to kick me out of office don't know how to run anything. Brad Parscale, his campaign manager, has been making that point as well.
TEXT: Donald J. Trump: The Democrat Caucus is an unmitigated disaster. Nothing works, just like they ran the Country. Remember the 5 Billion Dollar Obamacare Website, that should have cost 2 percent of that. The only person that can claim a very big victory in Iowa last night is "Trump".
HARWOOD: More specifically, on Iowa, it's also significant because, remember, Iowa's a state that Barack Obama won twice, 2008 and 2012. Donald Trump won it by about 10 points against Hillary Clinton in 2016, but polls have shown that Biden and Warren and others have been running closer to him.
So by Democrats looking bad in Iowa, him defending the state of Iowa, that probably helps him in that potential swing state. We'll see whether, even if he doesn't mention impeachment tonight -- which is a sore subject -- I would put some money on him mentioning this debacle in the State of the Union tonight to gig Democrats -- guys.
BLITZER: Certainly is a debacle. All right. John Harwood, over at the White House.
Let's go back -- you know, Dana, you were mentioning, for the president, what's happening in Iowa is such a huge embarrassment to the Democrats, that's a win for him.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. I mean, who would have ever thought that President Trump would win the Iowa Democratic caucuses. But right now, that is exactly how they're feeling in the White House. And privately, that's what Democrats are saying, for a whole host of reasons.
Now, let's be clear, it is temporary. Things are going to change many, many times over, as we go forward with the contest in New Hampshire and beyond. And as the president begins to run in a more aggressive way in the general election.
But right now, as he -- think about where we are right now -- and John just mentioned it -- he's going to -- the impeachment vote is going to be tomorrow. Tonight, he's going to give his State of the Union address. He was preparing for that to be under a very big cloud. The cloud has lifted a little bit, or maybe he's sharing that cloud, in a very different way.
BLITZER: John, you and I covered Bill Clinton's State of the Union address, right in the middle of his Senate impeachment trial, 21 years ago. He spoke for, what, an hour and 15 minutes? Never mentioned impeachment.
KING: Never mentioned impeachment, that's what the president's press secretary said on TV this morning, on another network, saying she doesn't think he should. Will he take the advice? We shall see. We know they're going to write him a script that doesn't dwell on it, even if it mentions it in passing.
Bill Clinton was not running for re-election, Donald Trump is. Is there some voter who's going to, in November, say, I was going to vote for the Democrat but now I'm going to vote for Trump because Iowa was such a mess in February? I think not.
However, it does allow the president, at this interesting moment -- he's about to be acquitted, he has a strong economy; if you look at the early electoral map, the president has a clear viable path to re- election.
That doesn't mean he'll get there, but the American people, even if you see that there are numbers about Trump that still show the president has problems. But if you ask people about how they feel about the economy, how they feel about the direction of the country, all those dynamics are getting better which, if you're an incumbent, hug them and try to ride them.
BLITZER: You see this new Gallup poll has job approval number, the president -- for him, an enormously high note, 49 percent of the American public now approve of the job he's doing. And int he same Gallup poll, what, 90 percent -- if not higher -- among Republicans approve of the job he's doing.
[10:55:00]
HENDERSON: Yes. And, listen, the president will focus on these, right? He has always focused on the Republican number, but this 49 percent of the American public, that is a huge number for him. It's -- and it comes amidst what many thought was going to be a real low point for him: all of these impeachment hearings and revelations and allegations about his behavior in office. So, listen, he's got a real reason, I think, to feel good.
And listen, the contrast is with Iowa, right? This was Democrats' chance -- not just the Iowa Democrats, but the Democratic Party more generally -- to show what 2020 would be like, right? To show enthusiasm, to have a big voter turnout. Voter turnout wasn't that high, and of course we have this mess on our hands with what happened with Iowa.
So, listen, I think that contrast works very well for the president, and it makes Democrats look messy, frankly.
BLITZER: Ninety-four percent of Republicans approve of the job he's doing.
We're getting some new information on what went so horribly wrong in Iowa. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[11:00:00]
