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CNN Live Event/Special
Delay of Iowa Results Due to "Inconsistencies"; Biden Campaign Calls Out Iowa Democratic Party; Pete Buttigieg Speaks Post-Vote Rally; America's Choice 2020: The Iowa Caucus: Pete Buttigieg Speaking Now Amid Delay of Iowa Results. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired February 04, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Iowa caucuses, a huge, huge embarrassment for the Iowa Democratic Party. The deputy campaign manager, communications director for the Joe Biden campaign, Kate Bedingfield, just issuing a statement.
"The integrity of the process is critical and there were flaws in the reporting systems tonight that should raise serious concerns for voters."
John King, David Chalian, you're speaking to your sources as well, this is an awkward moment for the Democrats in Iowa.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: It is opening night of the what the Democrats need to be for them a successful campaign, no matter the nominee. The goal is to beat a President of the United States with a strong economy. This was the starting gate. They are having a problem out of the starting gate.
Kate Bedingfield, a senior Biden aide questioning the integrity of the process. We don't have any results; it's midnight in the East, 11 o'clock in Iowa, all the campaigns are livid. Nobody is happy. They say they had a phone call with the Iowa Democratic Party officials and it was ended. Some campaigns saying they hung up on us when they started to ask questions.
When will we get the results? Explain the process to us.
I'm told by sources in two campaigns, at the time of the call an hour ago, they had zero verified results and 35 percent of the vote counted. But it hadn't been double checked yet. One person in one campaign said the impression was this might not be done until the morning.
BLITZER: Four years ago about 98 percent had already reported. Right now it's 0 percent.
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: And as the Iowa Democratic Party said, they think it's due to inconsistencies in the three different streams of data, the first vote, the final vote and state delegates. They're seeing inconsistencies that has them going through this much more laborious process.
Nothing, nothing was verified data from any precinct at the time of this call, which ended in 35 minutes ago or so.
What you have here is -- the other thing on the call that I heard from a source is that the campaigns weren't getting anything that wasn't being put out publicly. They weren't getting any more detailed information behind closed doors.
It was this is the issue that we're stating publicly. So they have no more real insight into the -- what actually broke down here and how, as the Biden campaign is raising, how the party is going to verify the results in a way that is totally believed by the voters and the campaigns.
Some campaigns, especially if the results are not to their liking, are going to now wonder aloud if the results ever can be trusted.
KING: This is about the time, maybe earlier, on Iowa caucus night, especially with a crowded field where the conversations we're having and the conversations with officials in one or two of those campaigns is, can you survive?
Can we raise money after this?
What you have now is all the donors are saying, well, what do we do tomorrow?
All the candidates giving the "we think we did well" speeches and going to New Hampshire. So the traditional Iowa struggle, we want to assess that now. We'll get it and go through it.
But somebody who comes in fourth or fifth will question the integrity of the process and suggest we shouldn't believe the results. That's not good for the Democratic Party out of the gate.
It's not just the campaigns that are mad. If you have been in touch with county chairs across the state over several months, remember, Iowa planned to have a so-called virtual caucus where people could participate electronically. That cancelled that. They realized it was undemocratic.
(CROSSTALK)
CHALIAN: -- voted that they couldn't do it because they were concerned.
KING: Some of the county chairs have complained consistently that, every time they asked for information and tried to just get reassured from the state party they were ready for this, a great number of them in rural counties and in larger counties have been frustrated for months. Tonight we get this.
BLITZER: These candidates spent millions campaigning in Iowa and hoping to get results. So far, nothing at all. And it's shocking.
Anderson, over to you.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: We're here with the panel.
Governor, to his point, these candidates have spent a lot of time a lot of effort and money.
Can we trust anything out of Iowa?
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You're furious. You spent a year campaigning. You've missed your best opportunity.
If you watched the speeches tonight -- Pete's about to come out -- you have the feeling he had a good night. I bet he and Sanders are close. Warren and Biden under that. If you watch the speeches. It's very unfortunate for the time and effort. The banner headlines the next day, boom (ph) wins Iowa.
(CROSSTALK)
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DAVID AXELROD, CNN HOST: If you were a Pete Buttigieg who bet everything on doing well in Iowa, he's been victimized here tonight.
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AXELROD: Sanders may make his mark. But he moved on. Buttigieg now has to make the case tomorrow, if these numbers come out and he has to get the benefit that he didn't get tonight.
VAN JONES, CNN HOST: The converse is Biden probably got a lifeline tonight. I think Iowa was throwing him a big anvil. And because we don't know what happened, he got to turn it into a lifeline and give a speech and walk off.
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AXELROD: Which is what this letter is --
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Now he's challenging the legitimacy of these results. He is saying, we need to -- an opportunity to respond to your methods before any official results are released.
This could have all been taken care of in a better way if there was some transparency on the part of the Democratic Party earlier in the evening.
COOPER: Michael Smerconish.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST: I was going to say, a cynical interpretation of that letter is to say we want the results kept in the vault. We don't want them to see the light of day until maybe never. (CROSSTALK)
RICK SANTORUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think Pete Buttigieg, where are you?
I have no idea why he's not out there talking. This makes no sense.
BORGER: Just wait a few minutes.
SANTORUM: He should have been out there. It's midnight East Coast. He should have been out there a half hour ago and he should be declaring victory. If he has numbers to show he's close, I'd say I'm going to win. Thanks for listening.
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: I want to add there were stories 10 days to two weeks ago about the Iowa caucus app and how it was sparking election security concerns.
And at that point, Troy Price, the Iowa Democratic Party chairman, said that there were safeguards in this AP and said if there's a challenge we'll be ready with backup and backup to that backup and a backup to the backup to the backup.
JONES: He needs to back up because that didn't happen.
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SANTORUM: I have no doubt they'll be able to validate every number and --
BORGER: Eventually.
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COOPER: At that point it doesn't matter.
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SANTORUM: People are getting -- Pete Buttigieg is getting hurt tonight.
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NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You think about all the millions of spent in Iowa. Iowa, the crown jewel of the process, you get to go first. We'll spend all this money on air and have all the volunteers.
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MCAULIFFE: Don't forget, the party makes a fortune as well, the big state dinner, they sell the voter list to everybody. They make millions.
COOPER: Does Iowa go first the next time in four years?
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JONES: I will say this should be the end of this nonsense with Iowa.
BORGER: For caucuses.
JONES: And caucuses, in general. It doesn't make any sense.
Where the payoff for anybody in the party?
If you're a young person who believes and got involved, where's the payoff for you?
You're African American. You got states where we're better represented. We're nowhere in Iowa.
Where's the payoff for you?
Where's the payoff for all the blood, sweat and tears?
I don't know what percent of the GDP for Iowa this is.
But where's the payoff for us?
I don't see it.
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JESS MCINTOSH, 2016 HILLARY CLINTON CAMPAIGN: -- spent this much time and energy and resources and our best organizers and sent our best staffers to states that we knew were going to be a really big deal in the general election.
Wouldn't that be a better use of resources?
SANTORUM: As someone who -- I'll defend the Iowa caucus even though it didn't do right by me in some respects, having a state that individual candidates, who is not the most well funded candidate, having an opportunity to go out there and connect with voters, not buy an election, that's an important part of our democracy.
If we just go to regional or California primaries and whoever raises the most money wins or whoever has $50 billion, will win. Iowa, New Hampshire, give the opportunity for candidates to actually sell themselves against people who actually --
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AXELROD: I have always defended the caucuses and the early states for that reason. There is an argument that you rotate that to get the same effect, that it doesn't --
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SANTORUM: The question is whether other states would take it as seriously as Iowa and New Hampshire do. Maybe they would.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That's not fair.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These voters are pretty serious.
JONES: Let's make a distinction out of fairness. I think your point is well raised. The people work their butts off. You have people who voted or who participated who, they talked to every single candidate sometimes multiple times.
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JONES: I think the people there are taking it seriously. Something is off. Something is wrong. I do believe if you had another state that was more diverse and more representative and had a year and a half of runway and people spend that much money and time, people would take it seriously. Something is wrong tonight.
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MCAULIFFE: -- 10 percent of the eligible people actually vote. I'm sorry, Rick. I disagree. Give me a primary state where Democrats vote in a primary and you may get 70 percent. They take it very seriously. Don't tell me a voter who works in campaign and votes in a primary is not taking it serious.
Only 10 percent come out and vote. I'd rather go to a Democratic state where people come out and vote and do it in big numbers.
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AXELROD: I'm influenced by the experience that I had because I worked for an African American candidate. Came to Iowa, was not a favored candidate and he won the caucuses and it vaulted him forward to the presidency.
So the turnout was large and enthusiastic. One of the reasons why -- I think transparency is a great thing. We need it. But the party was trying to respond to the petitioning of the Sanders campaign and include lots of different data here so there would be different marks for victory. And they got out over their skis in trying to accommodate this.
MCAULIFFE: How difficult is it to build an app that you have had a year to prepare for to deal with the three numbers?
I'm sorry.
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SMERCONISH: Old school telephone call; if the app failed, they didn't have sufficient operators, the old snow chain, call off school so people can phone in results. BORGER: But if you don't know how to use the app or you're not
proficient, it can be difficult. And then you're trying to make the phone call when it doesn't work and then there's a backup on the phone lines --
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BORGER: You do have four years to prepare for it. And I understand they were trying to be transparent. No good deed goes unpunished. You're trying to provide more information for voters. I get that except you ought to know how to do it. And when it messes up, you ought to tell people what's going on, particularly these days.
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AXELROD: -- I would be, oh, you were chairman of the Democratic National Committee.
MCAULIFFE: This didn't happen when I was chairman.
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COOPER: Let's take a break. Let's take a break. More ahead.
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BLITZER: Well, after midnight on the East Coast, 11:16 pm in Des Moines, that's the Pete Buttigieg headquarters. We're waiting to hear from the presidential candidate. We heard from Klobuchar, Biden, Warren, Sanders.
There's a huge problem the Iowa Democratic Party, John King, David Chalian, announced, we found inconsistencies in the reporting of three sets of results. Normally at this time, four and a half hours after the Iowa caucuses begin, we have 98 percent of the precincts reporting. Right now we have zero.
KING: We have zero because they had a problem that turned into a domino effect that created more problems. We'll get the full story. We're not getting much information from the party right now. They are in the bunker.
A couple statements about inconsistencies and, smartly, that the quality and integrity of the results is what matter most. If we have to wait, we have to wait. The party is confident they have the paper trail so they will go through this.
But the campaigns are livid. They are raising questions about the integrity of it and saying -- and the state party confirmed that from earlier in the day, there were problems with the new app, then problems calling into the backup hotline system. And there was communication problems all around the line.
So we're waiting now. It's now Tuesday here in the East, about 11:00 in Iowa. Pete Buttigieg just finally speaking, someone who thought he might have a strong performance tonight and who wanted to come out early and give a speech. We don't know the results.
They have some information, some math from the people around the state but they can't trust that, either.
MJ Lee is joining us from the Warren headquarters.
You've got some new reporting over there.
What are you learning?
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We saw Senator Warren give remarks here at her election night party and she's taking photographs with supporters.
Even though the mood was celebratory, her aides are raising concerns about what they heard about what went on tonight at the caucus sites.
At some of the sites, there were issues that their people were seeing and their hotline was blowing up. They were getting reports that, during the second alignment, caucus chairs were making mistakes by not properly understanding the rules or counting properly.
In multiple precincts they were told that caucus chairs did not know how to actually calculate the final math, including -- pertaining to the rule that allows people to leave after the first alignment. There were instances of only counting the total as the people who remained in the room rather than the total people that were first in the room at the caucus site.
Again, even though the mood here is celebratory -- and Warren tried to show up for the supporters who have been waiting -- behind the scenes we are getting another sign that there is concern, at least within the Warren campaign of some of the reports they heard.
And this is what they say about the hotline, again, blowing up with concerns about rules not being properly followed and the counting not being done properly.
BLITZER: It's so awkward and embarrassing. MJ, thank you.
David, it's so unfair to the candidates and the supporters. Everybody was looking forward to seeing who will get a little momentum from the Iowa caucuses. And all of a sudden, 0 percent.
CHALIAN: It's unfair to the voters, the caucus goers who went out today who now have a question mark hanging over this process.
[00:20:00] CHALIAN: But it's surprising -- that was fascinating reporting from MJ that the Warren campaign was concerned about some of the math they saw. That is actually not new this cycle.
So if you're an experienced caucus chair in Iowa, you know the formula and how caucus math working. You have to get that full count in the room of who's there initially. You know how many delegates are available for your caucus site. There's a formula they plug in and do and that didn't change this cycle.
So the fact there might have been problems doing the math is yet another wrinkle but not a new one. Not like the app they were going to publicly report out different streams of information. That's actually the traditional way of running these caucuses.
BLITZER: John, you and I should be at the magic wall. You showing where Biden did well and poorly, what about Pete Buttigieg. All of that we should be going through as we normally do. Instead, we have nothing.
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KING: -- we have 99 counties of gray.
BLITZER: Listen to Pete Buttigieg, walking into his rally right now. He doesn't know how he did tonight. We don't know how any of the candidates did tonight because a serious flaw that developed, the Iowa Democratic Party itself said, we found inconsistencies in the reporting of three set of results in addition to the tech system being used.
There was several other problems as well. We want to hear from Pete Buttigieg. He's getting ready to speak. Let's listen in.
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND, IND., PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Thank you, Iowa. Thank you.
Thank you.
Thank you. What a night because, tonight, an improbable hope became an undeniable reality.
So we don't know all the results. But we know by the time it's all said and done, Iowa, you have shocked the nation. By all indications, we are going on to New Hampshire victorious.
One year ago, it was in the deep freeze of an Iowa January where we began this unlikely journey to win the American presidency. We weren't well known.
We had a new idea, the idea that, at this moment when Washington has never felt further from our everyday lives, a middle class mayor from the American Midwest could carry the voices of the American people all the way to the American Capitol and make sure they're heard.
[00:25:00] BUTTIGIEG: We had the belief that in the face of exhaustion and cynicism and division, in spite of every trampled norm and every poisonous tweet that a rising majority of Americans was hungry for action and ready for new answers.
(APPLAUSE)
BUTTIGIEG: We could see an American majority yearning for leadership to rally us together behind those ideas to make a difference in our lives. We saw that Americans were ready to come together. But our politics were not.
To seize this moment, we needed a new path forward, a path that welcomed people. Instead of pushing them away, brought them together instead of driving them apart because this is our best and maybe our last shot.
We knew that with this American majority, we are on the cusp of changing the game for ordinary Americans but that we couldn't win or govern if we wrote people off who didn't agree with us 100 percent of the time.
If we could come together, the future we know is possible would start on January 21st, 2021.
(APPLAUSE)
BUTTIGIEG: There were skeptics, an awful lot of skeptics, who said not now, not this time. All this talk of belonging and of bridging divides is too naive, too risky. So tonight I say, with a heart full of gratitude, Iowa, you have proved those skeptics wrong.
(APPLAUSE)
BUTTIGIEG: By your effort -- and it was by your effort -- we brought together an extraordinary coalition of Americans, progressives, moderates and that good number of what we like to call future former Republicans.
(APPLAUSE)
BUTTIGIEG: That's how we're going to win in November because it's about adding people to our cause, adding to our majority. That is how we will guarantee that, on the day Donald Trump leaves office, we'll be ready to move America forward into the era that must come next.
BUTTIGIEG: I want to thank every member of the campaign family, every organizer, every volunteer, every caucusgoer who talked to neighbor or coworkers, every staff member in every supporter who believed.
And anyone who shares our vision can join the three-quarters of a million grassroots supporters fueling our movement and chip in right now with PeteForAmerica.com.
(APPLAUSE) BUTTIGIEG: While we're at it, I want to recognize a few other people who helped us. My mother, who not only helped raise me but put her love of language to work answering letters sent to the campaign; my father, who left us just in the very early days of this journey but whose own journey to this country made tonight possible in the first place.
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And to the love of my life, keeping my feet on the ground, how about a hand for the future first gentleman of the United States? Let's hear it for Chas!
I also want to congratulate my fellow Democratic competitors in this diverse and formidable field. For months, we've been having an honest and respectful but vigorous debate about the course of our party and the future of this nation, and tonight, Iowa chose a new path.
From river to river, in churches and community centers and high school gyms, you joined your neighbors to say that the time has come to turn the page and open up a new chapter in the American story. You chose to move on, not just from the broken policies of these last few years, but the broken politics that got us here.
And tomorrow, because of what we did here, the nation will have that choice, too. We take our message onward, to New Hampshire, which has a way of making up its own mind, to Nevada, to South Carolina and beyond, to every corner of America.
And as we do, we will be building the movement that not only will win the election against Donald Trump but win the era for our shared values.
We have exactly one shot to defeat Donald Trump. And we're not going to do it by overreaching. We're not going to do it by division. We're not going to do it by saying it's my way or the highway. This is our shot, our only shot to galvanize an American majority to win.
And make no mistake: ours is the campaign that will defeat this president.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: USA! USA! USA!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
BUTTIGIEG: A president who cuts taxes for corporations while crushing the rights of workers to organize ought to have to compete with a middle-class mayor who entered politics fighting for auto workers and actually lives and works in the industrial Midwest.
A president who tries to cloak himself in his wrongdoing and religion should have to debate a candidate not afraid to remind America that God does not belong to a political party. And a president who avoided serving when it was his turn should have
to stand next to a veteran ready to show what troops deserve from a real commander in chief.
Now, this president may get a pass on the floor of the Senate, but this November, the verdict will be up to us. And when I am your nominee, we will win big enough to send not just Donald Trump's presidency but Trumpism itself into the dustbin of history where it belongs.
Something is stirring in America right now. You can feel it. We saw it tonight in the bluest counties, in the reddest, in rural towns and industrial cities, in big communities and small, and the suburbs in between. We're seeing Democrats hungry to win. Independent voters, who had been turned off by our politics, Republicans tired of trying to look their kids in the eye and explain this presidency, all standing together, and all standing together to declare that we are defined not by who we voted for in the past but by what we're voting for in the future.
This is the coalition that no pundit saw coming, and it's the coalition the president won't see coming either. It's the majority we're assembling to agree not just who we're against, but on what we are for.
We are unifying a rising American majority, ready to raise wages and empower workers in this fast-changing economy. A majority ready and determined to put an end to endless war. A majority committed to bringing about a day in America where your race has no bearing on your health, your wealth, your access to education, or your relationship with law enforcement. A majority of Americans ready to support our teachers with a president and a secretary of education who believe in public education.
Those Americans are counting on us to come together and act, and they cannot wait. I've met Americans not even yet old enough to vote, but who know that we cannot wait. An 11-year-old asking how his family will be able to be able to afford the insulin he needs. He can't wait for a president who will ensure there is no such thing as an uninsured American or an unaffordable prescription.
The 14-year-old who let me know she's already written out a basic will, because she's terrified the next day in school could be her last. Cannot wait for a president who will see to it that she can walk into her school free of fear.
A ten-year-old who let me know he expands to be around in 2100 and look back at whether we acted fast enough to secure his future. He cannot wait for a president prepared to enlist every American in the fight for our climate.
We are running for them. This campaign is giving voice to them. And it has room for everyone, because no matter who you voted for in elections past, and for that matter, no matter who you caucused for tonight, we welcome you in your campaign, and you belong in the future that we are building for America. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: USA! USA! USA!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: USA! USA! USA!
BUTTIGIEG: Whether you're a young woman with autism in Muscatine, or veteran battling addiction in Clermont, you belong. Whether you clean hotel rooms in Las Vegas or are getting a new business up and running in Charleston, you belong.
I believe the presidency has a purpose, and the purpose of our American presidency is not the glorification of the president. It is the unification and the empowerment to the American people to solve these big problems.
America has a place for everyone, and I believe this not because of my age but because of my experience. I believe in American unity because of my experience serving, of lacing up my boots in the dust of a war zone, alongside Americans so different we hardly had anything in common besides the flag on our shoulders, yet learned to trust each other with our lives.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
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BUTTIGIEG: I believe in American boldness because of my experience governing, guiding a city once called dying out of the shadows of our empty factories and into a brighter future.
And I believe in American belonging because of an experience you are a part of, right here tonight. Looking out at you, and remembering how it felt to be an Indiana teenager, wondering if you would ever belong in this world. Wondering if something deep inside him meant that he would forever be an outsider, that he might never wear the uniform, never be accepted, never even know love.
And now that same person is standing in front of you, a mayor, a veteran, happily married, and one step closer to becoming the next president of the United States.
That is the America we are building. That is the American so many Iowans chose tonight. If you are ready to build an American life defined by belonging, this is our chance. If you're ready to build an American politics defined by boldness, this is our chance. And if you are ready to build an American future defined by unity, in the face of our greatest challenges, this is our chance.
So with hope in our hearts, and fire in our bellies, we're going on to New Hampshire, on to the nomination, and on to chart a new course for this country that we love. Thank you. Thank you, Iowa. Thank you so much.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: And Mayor Pete Buttigieg coming as close to a victory speech as you can without actually knowing if you have won. Nobody knows at this point because no results have thus far been released, a highly unusual situation. We're going to take a short break. We'll have more from our panel right ahead.
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COOPER: And we just heard from Mayor Pete Buttigieg, giving essentially a victory speech, though no results have actually been -- been released.
Back now with our panel. Governor, was it the right thing to do for -- for Mayor Buttigieg to come out?
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Absolutely, I think he knows from all of his precinct captains, he's got a pretty good idea how he did tonight. He's feeling very good. Either thinks he won it, or he's very close. Go out and declare victory tonight. He did the right thing.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think all these campaigns sort of know. They don't know exactly where everybody's going to land, but they know if they had a good night or a bad night. The Biden campaign obviously knows they didn't have a good night, which is why they were the first ones to send a letter, questioning whether the results were valid.
And so, you know, everybody is behaving as you would behave if you knew what actually happened.
COOPER: If Mayor Buttigieg won the Iowa caucuses, I mean, then -- then he got really --
AXELROD: Got screwed.
COOPER: -- screwed today.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Right.
AXELROD: To use the technical term.
COOPER: He didn't come out until 12:06 or something.
BORGER: On the other hand, I understand where you're saying he did the right thing, Buttigieg. But if he didn't win, and you're all nodding, but if he didn't win and he came out and he claimed victory --
COOPER: Well, he didn't say they won. He said --
(CROSSTALK)
BORGER: And how do you define victory?
JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It was a risk. I think it was a risk to say we're going to go to New Hampshire victorious. And we've left out Elizabeth Warren, who is still definitely in that top tier. Her campaign manager is saying there's a top three.
BORGER: It depends how you define victory and you're, OK, if I came in second or if I came in third, it's victory.
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, HOST, "SMERCONISH": His words were, Iowa, you have shocked the nation. Truer words were never spoken.
BORGER: I think that was about the vote count. And not counting the votes.
MCAULIFFE: If he came a close second, that's a big win, Gloria. No one expected him --
BORGER: So you understand -- right. Nobody expected him to win, but it can be interpreted differently. Now, the person who was the smartest was Amy Klobuchar because she came out right away. She clearly did not win the Iowa caucuses.
COOPER: All she said is I -- We punched above our weight.
BORGER: That's right. And she got covered wall-to-wall, I presume.
AXELROD: Yes. In a good time slot. Yes.
BORGER: And then all the other candidates are saying, Wait a minute. Why don't I get out there?
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: But Buttigieg, I think, left his voters feeling good, feeling excited --
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think it was important that --
HENDERSON: -- and so y es, I think he did a great job.
JONES: Look, I think Pete got robbed tonight. I think -- I think this was history tonight, history tonight. It was a very big deal for Pete.
HENDERSON: Why? Because things went so terribly wrong?
JONES: I think it's history, because you have a gay man who did the impossible. If he's No. 1, if he's No. 2, that's a big deal.
He talked to his husband. His husband came out with him. You've not seen that before in American history on a primary night, a caucus night, and that was a huge deal. And he deserved for the numbers to be running below him while he was giving that speech. He got robbed of that, and I think it's terrible.
I think Biden got an undeserved lifeline tonight because, again, I think an anvil is about to drop on his head. He got a chance to kind of scoot away like Wylie Coyote.
But I'm going to tell you, from my point of view, you know, this is -- the bounce that he deserves, all those stuff. Your prediction is more true, you know. Smerconish said, Hey, listen, whoever comes out here good tonight is not going to be able to enjoy it. We didn't know how true it was going to be.
But I just think it's worth just taking a moment to acknowledge history was made tonight. We had a gay American get that close to either first or second, give a speech like that, and it's important. And it should have been --
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AXELROD: It is. And we did see enough data from these entrance polls to see that he ran more consistently across all groups in the state --
JONES: Yes.
AXELROD: -- which is, you know, Bernie did very well with young people. Biden did very well with people over 65. Buttigieg did well across the state geographically, demographically. That was very good for him.
But look, the biggest story tonight is not, I feel sorry for Pete Buttigieg, but how about the people of Iowa? How about the public --
COOPER: Well said.
AXELROD: -- that was looking for this process to begin? And now this cloud of doubt hangs over this whole process, and that -- that's a tragic outcome. It may be a source of amusement for the president and his team.
BORGER: Right.
AXELROD: But, you know, for people who care about this process, this was a depressing night.
JONES: Yes. There are some other week spots to notice. The turnout was not great. It was not Obama-level turnout. If the theory is, we're so mad at Trump, the train is coming for Trump. This is it. You didn't see it tonight. It was OK turnout. It wasn't strong.
You had the party in disarray. You had the frontrunner, Biden, looking like he stepped on a banana peel. So there's reasons to be concerned. If you're a Democrat, it doesn't mean that we can't get this thing pulled together and be feeling great in New Hampshire, but tonight was not encouraging.
MCINTOSH: I think turnout is possibly a bigger indicator of Democratic success in November than whoever we come up with as our nominee, so I was really hoping that we would see the trend that we have seen, frankly, in special elections, in midterm elections, since Trump was elected, which was an electorate that was really much, much larger than we've ever seen before. So tonight to see a slide --
AXELROD: You know what?
MCINTOSH: -- in the first really big presidential contest, I find -- I hope that New Hampshire comes and rescues that for us.
AXELROD: One of the questions I have is what was the effect of impeachment on this?
MCINTOSH: Yes.
AXELROD: The fact that there were candidates who couldn't campaign. Some of the leading candidates weren't in the state for the last couple of weeks to try and rev the thing up.
And also, we don't know the impact of -- on the Biden campaign was of his getting beating up in these hearings, not because I think voters in Iowa thought that he lacks integrity. I don't think that. I think that he's very well-regarded. Polling, his numbers are very high.
But there is this concern, based on the last election, is this the Benghazi, the emails? Is this the thing they're going to try and tag him with? There is -- you know, Trump's in people's head.
COOPER: And to see that Joni Ernst gave --
AXELROD: Yes, exactly, promising to impeach him on day one for something that no one knows he did. He's not been accused of doing anything wrong.
But so there are all kinds of cross currents here that made this funky and may have contributed to a lesser turnout than it would have been.
SMERCONISH: It would also seem that nobody gets out between now and New Hampshire. I had thought that maybe there would be a candidate or two candidates who might exit, but at this point, why would they? Just hang in for another week and see what happens.
RICK SANTORUM, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Another -- I mean, a huge impact is going to be money.
AXELROD: Yes.
SANTORUM: This is a huge money night for the winner of the Iowa caucuses. And someone may be announced tomorrow afternoon or something, but it just won't be the same. You're not going -- you're not going to get that huge lift. And depending on who's the campaign. Pete and Bernie raised all their grassroots money, and so it may not be as big of an effect on them, but I mean, if Warren ended up the winner -- I don't know if she is in the ballpark -- but if she would, this is a big missed opportunity for someone like her --
JONES: True.
SANTORUM: -- if she -- if she actually did well tonight and didn't get the win.
AXELROD: And the person who was raising the lease was, well, Biden has money problems. We talked about that earlier. But Amy Klobuchar has money issues, and it looks --
(CROSSTALK)
AXELROD: -- like she may have had a better night than people expected. BORGER: Right.
AXELROD: That would've been helpful to her.
SANTORUM: There's a big difference between the two of them. Joe has a big super PAC. Amy does not. And so Amy needed this a lot more than he did.
BORGER: And don't forget: We're going to get results. I don't know when we're going to get results.
(CROSSTALK)
MCAULIFFE: Let me say, it's one down (ph) for Democrats tomorrow. And very important for these candidates. Let's not get stuck in the process of this Iowa caucus. They tomorrow have got to get back talking issues that matter to the American public. And we cannot spend, as a party, yakking about what happened in Iowa. Our candidates have got to rise above this tomorrow, no matter what happened, and get back to talking to the American public about issues that matter, and that's how we beat Trump.
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. Don Lemon and Chris Cuomo continue our coverage when we come back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[00:58:36]
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right, welcome to CNN's continuing coverage of the Iowa caucuses. As you've been hearing tonight, we're waiting on the real returns, the real processing. We will take you through why this has been an epic failure tonight in terms of process, not necessarily outcome.
We don't know who won. We don't know the standings, but we know one clear huge loser, and that is the Iowa state Democratic Party. How they could let this process get to be so wrong so quickly is a big question going forward, because think about it. It means that whoever won here didn't get the push that they should have gotten tonight.
Now, you're going to hear some of the speeches. A couple of different candidates seemed to speak as though they think they're on top, but we don't know. So they're not getting the real push.
And whoever is on the bottom got a real break tonight, because they got an extra day of not being called the loser in Iowa.
So the results obviously matter for the process, but also for the optics and for the momentum going into New Hampshire, which is just literally a week away.
So let's start with our understanding of why there are not numbers filling your screen with the results tonight, and what we understand about the state of this race. We go to Jeff Zeleny. What is the latest reckoning of what they're
dealing with in this Iowa state party and when they'll be able to do their job?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Chris, I'll say good morning to you.
And the sign behind me, I don't think you can see it, but it says, results are coming soon. I'm here at the Iowa Democratic Party media center. That's obviously not happening.
END
