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CNN Live Event/Special

President Trump Delivers State Of The Union Address; Trump Departs, Democratic Response Soon; Trump Appears To Snub Pelosi When She Tried To Shake His Hand; Hidden Animosity Between President Trump And Speaker Pelosi Very Palpable; President Trump Expects His Acquittal Tomorrow; Iowa Caucus Results Comes At A Snail's Pace; The Iowa Democratic Party Released The Results From The Iowa Caucuses. Aired 10:30p-12a ET

Aired February 04, 2020 - 22:30   ET

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

[22:30:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: We have never seen anything like that before and obviously the surprise never will freedom that the first lady bestowed upon Rush Limbaugh where he seemed rather shock. I mean, this really is a true and full embrace of who this president is. Which is somebody from the world of reality television, where he was trying to have these moments for the American people to experience. And it worked on a lot of people.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: I'm sure it will resonate with a lot of Americans out there. It was a little unusual though at the very beginning. Dana, you've covered Congress for a long time. As soon as he started, we heard a bunch of Republicans starting to chant four more years. Four more years. Have you heard that in State of the Union address before?

DANA BASH, CNN HOST: Possibly. But I think that as much as this was, I think you're absolutely right. Authentic Donald Trump in the fact that he was putting on a show. And he wanted people to take away these moments. On the flip side, it was about the most traditional speech for a politician than I think we have ever seen him give. First of all, he was much more comfortable in this format. It's the third time that he's given a speech like this. The first time, I mean it was not an actual State of the Union.

But he -- I was just texting with somebody who works on the Democratic side of the aisle, who was reminding me of President Obama's reelection speech. In the reelection year back in 2012. And obviously the was content couldn't be more different.

But the structure of the speech was very similar in that here's what he said, here's what I have done, here's what I want to do. Here's some human moments. Let's talk about the terrorist I killed. And so he tried to weave all of that together which is exactly what if you are trying to get reelected or if you're the people around him trying to get him reelected exactly what you want to deliver.

TAPPER: Although I will say, I mean, this is for a State of the Union address this was a full embrace of the fact that President Trump sees his reelection as a base election. In other words he needs to get Republicans --

BLITZER: His base clearly was there. You can see the Republican standing --

BASH: Well, that's what Rush Limbaugh thing was (inaudible).

TAPPER: Rush Limbaugh and guns, and religion. And I mean, it was a full embrace of really red meat Republican issues.

BLITZER: Definitely was. All right. Hold on for a moment, because we're about to get the Democratic response. Delivered by the Michigan governor, Gretchen Whitmer. Let's listen in. Gretchen Whitmer.

GOV. GRETCHEN WHITMER (D-MI): Good evening. I'm honored to be here and grateful that you are tuning in. I'm Gretchen Whitmer, the 49th governor of the great state of Michigan. Tonight I'm at my daughter's Sherrie and Sydney's public school, (inaudible) High School. We're here today with families and parents, teachers and most importantly students. I want to thank you all for coming. But tonight I'm going to talk to those of you watching at home.

I made a lot more than 10 minutes to respond to what the president just said. So, instead of talking about what he is saying, I'm going to highlight what Democrats are doing. After all, you can listen to what someone says, but to know the truth, watch what they do. Michiganders are no different from Americans everywhere. We love our families and want a good life today and a better life tomorrow for our kids. We work hard and we expect our government to work hard for us as well.

We have grit and value loyalty. And we still root for the Detroit Lions. We and all Americans might be weary of today's politics. But we must stay engaged. Our country, our democracy, our future demand it. We're capable of great things when we work together. We cannot forget that despite the dishonesty and division of the last few years and that we heard tonight from the president of the United States, together we have boundless potential.

And young Americans are proving that every day. By taking action. That is what I want to focus on tonight. Manny Scot, is 13 year-old and lives in the Steven Heights Michigan. Manny's street was covered in potholes. They were ankle deep. And he got tired of waiting for them to get fixed. So he grabbed a shovel and a bucket of dirt and filled them in himself. During my campaign people told me to fix the damn roads. Because blown tires and broken windshields are downright dangerous. And car repairs take money from rent. Child care or groceries.

And we the Democrats are doing something about it. In Illinois, Governor J.B. Pritzker passed a multibillion dollar plan to rebuild the roads and bridges.

[22:35:04]

Governor Phil Murphy is replacing led pipes in New Jersey. All across the country, Democratic leaders are rebuilding bridges. Fixing roads, expanding broadband. And cleaning up drinking water. Everyone in this country benefits when we invest in infrastructure. Congressional Democrats have presented proposals to keep us moving forward. But President Trump and the Republicans in the Senate are blocking the path.

When it comes to infrastructure, money has tried to do more with a shovel and pile of dirt than the Republicans in D.C. have done with the Oval Office and the U.S. Senate. Bullying people on Twitter doesn't fix bridges. It burns them. Our energy should be used to solve problems. And it's true for healthcare too.

For me, for so many Americans. Healthcare is personal. Not political. When I was 30, I became a member of the sandwich generation. That means I was sandwiched between two generations of my own family for whom I was the primary caregiver. I was holding down a new job, caring for my newborn daughter, as well as my mom at the end of her brain cancer battle. I was up all night with a baby and during the day I had to fight my mom's insurance company when they wrongly denied her coverage for chemotherapy.

It was hard. It exposed the harsh realities of our workplaces, our healthcare system and our child care system. And it changed me. I lost patience for people who are just talk. And no action. So as a state Senator I worked with a Republican governor and legislature to expand healthcare coverage to more than 680,000 Michiganders under the affordable care act.

Today Democrats from Maine to Montana are expanding coverage and lowering costs. In Kansas, Governor Laura Kelly is working across the aisle to bring Medicaid coverage to tens of thousands. In New Mexico the Governor Michelle Lujan Grisham enshrined ACA protections into law. Every Democrat running for president has a plan to expand healthcare for all Americans. Every one of them has supported the Affordable Care Act with coverage for people with preexisting conditions.

They may have different plans. But the goal is the same. President Trump sadly has a different plan. He is asking the courts to rip those lifesaving protections away. It's pretty simple. Democrats are trying to make your healthcare better. Republicans in Washington are trying to take it away.

Think about kids like 17 year-old Blake Carol from Idaho. Who organized a fundraiser to pay for his mom's colon cancer treatment. A 19 year-old Ebony Myers from Utah. Who sells art to help pay for her own rare genetic disorder treatment. No one should have to crowd source their healthcare. Not in America.

But the reality is not everyone in America has a job with healthcare and benefits. In fact, many have jobs that don't even pay enough to cover their monthly expenses. It doesn't matter what the president says about the stock market. What matters is that millions of people struggle to get by or don't have enough money at the end of the month after paying for transportation, student loans or prescription drugs. American workers are hurting. In my own state our neighbors in Wisconsin and Ohio, Pennsylvania and

all over the country, wages have stagnated while CEO pay has skyrocketed. So when the president says the economy is strong, my question is, strong for whom? Strong for the wealthy? Who are reaping rewards from tax cuts they don't need.

The American economy needs to be a different kind of strong. Strong for the science teachers spending her own money to buy supplies for her classroom. Strong for the single mom picking up extra hours. So she can afford her daughters soccer cleats. Strong for the small business owner who has to make payroll at the end of the month.

Michigan invented the middle class. So we know if the economy doesn't work for working people, it just doesn't work. Who fights for working hard working Americans? Democrats do. In the U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Democrats pass a landmark bill on equal pay.

Another Bill to give 30 million Americans a raise by increasing the minimum wage and ground breaking legislation to finally give Medicare the power to negotiate lower drug prices for America's seniors and families. Those three bills and more than 275 other bipartisan bills are just gathering dust on Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's desk.

[22:40:00]

Senator McConnell, America needs you to move those bills. Meanwhile, Democrats across the country are getting things done. Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf is expanding the right to overtime pay. Michigan is too. Because if you're on the clock, you deserve to get paid. Nevada Governor Steve Sisolak and North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper are working to give hard working teachers a raise.

And speaking of the classroom, Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers, unilaterally increased school funding by $65 million last year. In Colorado, Governor Jared Polis has an active free all-day kindergarten. In 29 states we have helped pass minimum wage hikes into law which will lift people out of poverty and improve lives for families. That's strength. That's action.

Democracy takes action. And that's why I'm so inspired by young people. They respond to mass shootings, demanding policies that make schools safer. They react to a world that's literally on fire. With fire in their bellies. To push leaders to finally take action on climate change. They take on a road filled with potholes with a shovel and some dirt. It's what gives me great confidence in our future. And it's why sometimes it feels like they're the adults in the room. But it shouldn't have to be that way. It's not their mess to clean up. It's ours.

The choices we make today create their reality tomorrow. Young people I'm talking to you. And your parents and grandparents. Democrats want safe schools. We want everyone to have a path to a good life. Whether through a union apprenticeship, a community college, a four year University without drowning in debt. We want your water to be clean. We want you to love who you love. And to live authentically as your

true selves. And we want women to have autonomy over or bodies. We want our country welcoming and everyone's vote counted. 2020 is a big year. It's the year my daughter Sherrie will graduate from high school. It's also the year she'll cast her first ballot. Along with millions of young Americans.

But two things are connected. Because walking across a graduation stage is as important as walking into the voting booth for the first time. Her future, all our kids futures will be determined not just by their dreams, but by our actions. As we witness the impeachment process in Washington, there's some things each of us no matter our party should demand. The truth matters. Facts matter. And no one should be above the law.

It's not what those Senators say. Tomorrow, it's about what they do that matters. Remember, listen to what people say but watch what they do. It's time for action. Generations of Americans are counting on us. Let's not let them down. Thank you for listening, god bless America. Good night.

(APPLAUSE)

(CHEERS)

BLITZER: Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, giving the Democratic response to the president's State of the Union address. Earlier the president wrapped up his final State of the Union address just before the presidential election in November. One day before a likely acquittal in the Senate impeachment trial. A very, very partisan atmosphere was evident throughout the evening.

The president appeared to snub the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's handshake. Prior to the speech. But it was not the only testy moment between the two leaders. She also didn't deliver the typical introduction to the president. She would normally would have said, I have the high privilege and distinct honor of presenting to you the president of the United States. Instead look at this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA), U.S. HOUSE SPEAKER: Members of Congress, the president of the United States.

(CHEERS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: At the very end of the speech after the president have finished and he was walking away. The speaker was clearly seen ripping up what appeared to be the advance copy of the speech she had. There you see her ripping it up. Jake and Dana are here, let's get some thoughts, Jake.

TAPPER: Well, I mean, it's just I thought the whole evening with the few exceptions like the Tuskegee airmen and the soldier returning from Afghanistan, that the whole evening was pretty partisan on both sides. President Trump gave a speech that was really not aimed in -- for most of it on uniting the room or uniting the country. It was aimed at appealing to conservatives with red meat Republican issues.

[22:45:04]

It included some things that were just not true. He said at one point, I have also made an ironclad pledge to American families we will always protect patients with preexisting conditions, that's a guarantee. That's not just factual. I mean, his administration has supported getting rid of those preexisting conditions. In fact, here's the falsehood the presidents. Let's role the tape.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have always made an ironclad pledge to American families. We will always protect patients with preexisting conditions.

(CHEERS)

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: I mean, it's just a lie. I mean, the administration has tried to end guarantees for preexisting conditions. They've supported lawsuits. They've supported legislation to get rid of it. And even when they talk about how they don't support taking away healthcare guarantee for people with preexisting conditions. What they refuse to commit to is making sure that the health insurance is the same price for people who do have preexisting conditions as it is for people who do not.

So, I mean, it's just a falsehood. And I understand that most people probably don't know that. And you really have to be a policy wonk and understand that. But it's just a lie. Now on the other hand there were a lot of times that the president was saying things that are just unequivocally good. Such as, you know, lower on insurance -- I mean, I'm sorry, lower unemployment for various minority groups and the like in which Democrats were seen not applauding. So, I mean, I just thought -- you can tell that we're in the middle of not just an impeachment and impeachment trial. But a very divided time in this country.

BLITZER: There was no reference at all to the impeachment of the president. Didn't make any reference. I assume tomorrow after he's acquitted he'll say something.

BASH: And that's what our colleagues at the White House are reporting. That he's going to save that. I was told that earlier there were references to impeachment and that was excised by people who are very focused on this speech and more broadly this term being the first of two terms. Because they really wanted him to knock it out of the park in a way that was kind of, you know, bigger picture. But to your point about the whole partisan aspect of it. It really was

astonishing when you think about it. State of the Union speeches are usually when everybody is on their best behavior. Think about this speech more than the person who is in the White House. More than the person who is in the speaker chair. But about the institutions of both.

And that was out the window. From the beginning whether or not the president saw her put her hand out or not. He didn't make eye contact with here. There was absolutely no attempt at all. To the end when the speaker who has admonished her caucus on more than one occasion to, you know, present themselves with, you know, decorum and so on and so forth. She was just angry.

BLITZER: She ripped up the speech.

BASH: She ripped up the speech. I was texting to the source close to her who said, I know this is probably a little obvious. But that was not planned. That was an emotional moment. That was a genuine reaction to what she just heard.

BLITZER: She ripped it up and then she threw it.

BASH: Yes, and there are lots of reasons for that. I mean, just -- on the substance of it, one of many reasons she would argue is because of what you just said about healthcare. Him telling the American people and the world that he thinks that preexisting conditions should be --

TAPPER: He's going to guarantee it, to guarantee.

BASH: To be guaranteed when he is in fact in court fighting to dismantle.

TAPPER: To take it away.

BASH: Dismantle Obamacare. I was at a meeting with her and with Chuck Schumer, the Senate Democratic Leader today and they predicted that he would do exactly that. They are also trying to turn the page back to healthcare. So, they were prepared for that. But the fact that, you know, both sides, everybody was -- everybody is so on edge. And even in this moment where usually they try to be on the best behavior again, they didn't even try.

BLITZER: So obvious.

TAPPER: Another thing, I mean, you can tell -- this there's very little difference I thought in terms of content. Between what the presidents said with a few exceptions obviously. The Tuskegee airmen and the soldier coming home. The trillion trees initiative. Things like that. But in terms of most of the policy it's really not that different from the stump speeches he gives. Except this was teleprompter Trump, who pretty much stuck to the script.

BLITZER: He's stuck completely to the -- the advanced copy. He's stuck to that teleprompter, he barely deviated at all. TAPPER: Right. When you think about the way for example that he

talked about immigration. Right? It was exact -- first of all he used terms that a lot of Democrats and even some moderate Republicans don't like. Like illegal aliens. Criminal aliens, Sanctuary cities. Things -- terms that are really part of the debates going on. Stuff he says on the campaign trail. Stuff his base loves.

[22:50:01]

Stuff that Republicans love. But that's not bringing the room together. There are areas obviously where Republicans and Democrats can come together to work on immigration reform. And he can talk about this is how I envision immigration reform, you get this, I get this, we come together, but that's not what he did. This was a very partisan speech in an election year, and it really shows you what he is banking on for reelection.

BLITZER: But he said that the United States will never be a socialist country. We know what he was referring to.

BASH: That we expected.

BLITZER: Yes, we expected, he said something similar last year as well. Anderson, you know, we're told that several lawmakers boycotted the session Democrats, they didn't show up. And during the course of the speech Anderson, several of them walked out in protest.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Yes. And Speaker Pelosi seemed to be admonishing at least somebody, I'm not sure who it was, it seemed like there was some, I think on the issue of guns and the second amendment. There was something that Speaker Pelosi was kind of -- here with our political panel. John King, you've heard a lot of these speeches, what do you make of tonight? Was it as partisan as (inaudible) say?

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it may be even more so. In the sense that if you're watching at home around the world and you forgot that we were in an election year here in the United States when Speaker Pelosi is confident, she's going to keep her majority but she's trying to stoke it up because of the impeachment criticism. The Senate is in play, and the president sees him play, you saw it right there. T

The Speaker ripping up the speech, interestingly the Michigan governor mentioning impeachment at the end of her speech, talking about the Senators, the big vote tomorrow. She says, you know, the truth is the truth, the facts are facts, the law is the law, the president didn't touch it, she decided to. The Democrats making that speeches approve here in Washington. The Michigan governor didn't write that on her own. It's a conscious decision, we're going to go there with the American people watching tonight.

For the president, I mean, just think about this. The economy, immigration and the border wall, socialism, abortion, judges, guns, school prayer and a medal of freedom for Rush Limbaugh, this is about the base, period.

COOPER: there was also a moment when the Republicans started chanting four more years, I just want to play that. Let's watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(CROWD CHANTING)

Four more years, four more years, four more years.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Have you heard that before? Is that common?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't remember that.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think so.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It might be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It could be. I don't know. It didn't shock me that they did it.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: You know, I think John is right in terms of reaching out to the base in all of this hot button issues, the sort of cultural issues that we always talk about. So there was that in terms of the base but then there were all of these minorities, right? Who he featured throughout the evening. I think most of the folks who got recognition and stood up were people of color.

There was Tim Scott, there was a guy who benefitted from the opportunity zone, there was a woman who got the scholarship, it was the Tuskegee airman. So there was that. And you know, listen, Donald Trump's administration is probably the least diverse ever in the history of administrations over the last 30 or 40 years. The Republican Party itself, the least diverse Republican Party we've seen in quite some time, but you had those appeals to African-Americans and to minorities.

And Van and I were talking about it, does that matter to African- Americans who might be looking at this, or Latinos, in a way, but also I think as we were talking about matters to those suburban white women in particular.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. That's what I think.

HENDERSON: Who are nervous and turned off by Donald Trump's displays of intolerance, right. So, I think in that way it worked for him. Listen, this is one speech and we know who Donald Trump is on Twitter and on the road. So it's hard, I think, for him to stick to this. But for just average Americans who are tuning in, I think, for this hour, they did that in a very effective way.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, I think this was a -- as we say, I think it turned out as we expected, it was a blueprint for the reelection, the touting of the economy, the red meat for the base, the characterization of the opposition as socialists who want to take away your health care and give it to illegal immigrants. And, you know, all of that was there.

The interesting thing was the outreach to minorities that I think was meant to reassure, particularly some of these women who are nervous about him. He's running a huge gender gap. He needs to close it. I think divisiveness is one of the reasons. So, I think that is one of those things -- one of his motivations. And then, you know, the reunification of family at the end and so on, which, you know, was a reality show touch, but probably worked with a lot of people.

[22:55:00]

So, you know, this was a very, very well crafted reelection. I'll leave the fact checking to the fact checkers and it will enrage a lot of his opponents, but he did what he wanted to do. The question is, as I said before the speech, what is the half-life on it and how much does he carry through on these themes moving forward?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: There was the reality show touch that you were talking about which I think was very effective. And then there was the real show, which was Nancy Pelosi sitting behind him the entire time biting her cheek, biting her lip, refusing to smile, applauding sometimes, and standing a couple of times. But you can tell that the caucus was looking at her. There were members as wolf mentioned who left. And then of course the ripping up of the speech in anger, I think.

AXELROD: I viewed it as a gesture for recycling.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Recycling.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Trillion trees.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: And it was one of those moments where you honestly see this epic clash between these two powerful and important political figures. And he wouldn't shake her hand. She held it out. She ripped up his speech. And she wouldn't smile. And walked out. I mean, it was remarkable to me. And honestly I couldn't take my eyes off of Nancy Pelosi. At the beginning, not even having a conversation with Mike Pence. Standing there as if they had nothing to say to each other.

COOPER: They had some early words.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A few early words.

JONES: I think the last 24 hours have been a big wake up call for Democrats. That's what I think. The Iowa caucus was a debacle. And this was a very strong speech. And it shows what he thinks he needs to do to win. I think it's actually very clinical about this. I think you're exactly right.

He knows he's got to give a lot of red meat to his base and he gave it. What, from religious liberty, abortion, all of it, the military, et cetera. But he's doing something else. And it has to do with how he's going to manage race in this thing and there seems to be a tradeoff between the Latinos and the African-Americans, that's what you see.

He went hard on the Sanctuary City stuff. That is very, very disturbing. It turns out sanctuary cities are actually safer than non- sanctuary cities. (Inaudible) Institute which is libertarians have come out and said that immigrants are committing less crime. So, for some reason he thinks that doubling down on the anti-immigrant piece is a big part of this thing.

At the same time, warning the Democrats. What he was saying to African-Americans can be effective. You may not like it but he mentioned HBCUS are black colleges have been struggling for a long time. A bunch of them had gone under, he threw a lifeline to them in real life in his budget. He talked about that. He talked about the criminal justice reform. He talked about opportunity zones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Fiscal choice.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Listen, wake up, he doesn't have to be effective. To move margins --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Around the edges.

JONES: The thing about it is, and I think we've got to wake up, folks, there's a whole bubble thing that goes on, well, he said s-hole nations, therefore all black people are going to hate him forever. That ain't necessarily so. And I think what you're going to see him do is say, you may not like my rhetoric, but look at my results.

Look at my record to black people, if he narrow casts that, it's going to be effective. Which means, as we've move through this primary process, we got to pay a lot more attention both to what's going on with the Latino vote. Are we going to get a benefit in terms of having them respond and with the black vote, is it going to be a split off, especially for black male voters, we've got to be clinical about this stuff.

We get so emotional about it. That was a warning shot to us, a warning shot across the ballot of Democrats that he's going after enough black votes to cause us problems. It's not just the white suburban voters, it's like the black voters too.

AXELROD: Can I say one thing about this? The problem with that for him that he's going to have to balance is this was a speech off the teleprompter that was finely calibrated. Then you get into the room in those rallies and things are said that undo whatever he was trying to do there.

HENDERSON: But then you look at some of the things they are doing on the ground in some of these communities, I mean he talked about opportunity zones and I've been talking to some of the Republicans who -- black Republican who do work in the administration and they're doing some real work and reach out to some of these African-American communities.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got to work harder.

COOPER: I just want to go to Jim Acosta here. We're going to have more on the exchanges between President Trump and House Speaker Pelosi tonight, a lot more about the speech. But I want to go to Jim Acosta at the White House right now with reaction there. Jim?

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Anderson, I mean, I think this was a state of the base speech, not a State of the Union speech. The state of the Trump base is strong. The State of the Union is deeply divided. That was on display tonight and we are just getting some reaction to what happened inside that hall.

I will tell you, I talked to a White House official just a short while ago, responding to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ripping up the president's speech as soon as he was finished, right in front of the Vice President Mike Pence.

[23:00:00]

And as White House official said for such a really big night, she sure behaved pretty small.

But I will tell you, Anderson, I talked to a Trump adviser just a short time ago, just a few minutes ago who speaks with the president regularly who said, you know, the president missed an opportunity here.

He had a chance tonight with a deeply divided country watching to extend a bit of an olive branch. And when Nancy Pelosi reached out to shake his hand, he snubbed her. And in the words of this adviser that was a missed opportunity.

And so, I think this really sets the stage, as you all have been saying for the months to come, yes, the president had some heartwarming moments during this speech but he was also engaging in some deeply divisive rhetoric aimed at immigrants, aimed at Latinos.

And while, yes, he was trying to make appeal to the African-American community it can't be forgotten that he was awarding the Medal of Freedom to Rush Limbaugh who has a history of making derogatory comments about African-Americans.

And so, I think, you know, overall, it's a wash, and as David Axelrod was saying the base pays a lot more attention to what the president says at these rallies than what they do at the State of the Union speech. Anderson?

COOPER: Thank you very much from the White House. Back now with our panel. Rick? Governor?

RICK SANTORUM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. First off, I would just say that this was the best delivered speech that I've seen the president give. I mean, this was the most presidential speech Donald Trump has ever given. He had his tone was solemn.

He -- I mean, the idea that this was a base speech, as if this was some sort of rally speech, it was not a base speech. I mean, yes, he talked about things his administration is doing and wants to do, just like every president does.

You don't go out and say that's a base speech. I mean, he's talking about his agenda. That doesn't mean it's a base speech. It means he's putting forth his agenda, just like Gretchen Whitmer talked about the things.

So, I think that's a complete mischaracterization. The thing -- I agree 100 percent with Van, yes, maybe it's about suburban women, it's about minorities. And I know that everyone thinks, well, the president's rhetoric is really hostile to minorities.

The reality is, in his rallies he talks about African-American unemployment. He talks about -- you know, he talks about youth poverty in African-Americans. He goes through the litany at the beginning of this speech where he talked to, you know, the facts of all of the different statistics of how well different groups of people, wage earners, manufacturers, blacks, Hispanics. In the context of all the other things he's doing, opportunities. There is a direct play.

This president believes that his policies and what he's trying to accomplish is a different path, school choice. Is a different path than the liberal statist path that the Democrats have laid out for the African-American community and he's making that pitch and he's not going to stop.

He -- and that's why criminal justice reform was so important to him. He is going to go after that vote. Now you may say it will never work. He's raised to some of it. He is going to go after that vote and he's got a real good pitch to make.

JONES: What I think -- what I think it is clear to me is that the Democrats are going to have to work harder to explain why our pathway is better than his. And I think there's been an assumption, listen African-Americans gave 90 -- black women 96 percent of our support to Hillary Clinton.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.

JONES: Black men 88 percent. That's as close to unanimous as you get in a Democratic election anywhere in the world.

SANTORUM: Well, Obama was higher.

JONES: As close as you can get.

SANTORUM: Yes.

JONES: And there is a -- it's important now I think for Democrats to point out that that's a worthwhile investment to make in this party.

SANTORUM: I mean, Donald Trump is going to say you've been taking for granted.

(CROSSTALK) JONES: We know -- we know that. But what I'm trying to say is that there is a liberal bubble that just dismisses it out of hand. And I think we are going to have to sharpen our argument. That said, his attacks on the Latino community, I know you say he's only going after illegal immigration.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: We were talking about criminal illegal aliens.

JONES: Hey, listen. And you know what, white men are much more violent, they commit much more crimes than the group he's talking about. But he's picking this group out for a reason. He's picking this group out to demonize them and to hold them up for false scrutiny.

And again, and he's going after -- and he's going sanctuary cities. He's going after sanctuary cities when sanctuary cities are safer than non-sanctuary cities.

COOPER: Rick -- We haven't heard from the governor.

JENNIFER GRANHOLM, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Can I just -- it's all in -- this speech was delivered all in the context of somebody who has lied now 16,000 times.

And do you remember when Obama was president and wanted to tout the gains in the economy? He was very sensitive about how people were feeling things on the ground. Not to overstate stuff.

And so tonight he says, you know, that he's got -- created more jobs, five million more jobs than the Obama administration. That is a lie. And people across the country who are in these communities that have been hurting, particularly manufacturing communities.

[23:05:02]

JONES: Absolutely.

GRANHOLM: There is a manufacturing recession happening. He cannot go forth and claim that everything is rosy when individuals are not feeling that on the ground. When he brags about the stock market, yes, the stock market's doing great but half of America does not own stocks. Forty percent of Americans.

A lot of them in Michigan, Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, and a lot of the southern states too, the poor communities that they -- 40 percent do not even have $400 in the bank account. So, you cannot continue to say everything is great. It's wonderful. When the real GDP of everyday citizens is not that.

And then one other thing I want to say is he spent a good amount of time on health care and I know we disagreed about this at the beginning.

But truly he has put forth a budget that is proposing to cut Medicaid by over $800 million, and Social Security. To stand up there and say I'm going to protect all of your health care is just not true. I could go through the litany of things that he said that were not true.

JONES: Drug price negotiation.

GRANHOLM: Total -- drug -- I mean, it has been declared by PolitiFact to be a lie that drug prices have gone down. The Democrats have passed a drug price cutting bill. It is sitting on the 275 stack that is on Mitch McConnell's desk.

Same thing with infrastructure. He says I want to pass an infrastructure bill. Broad band, they've passed that bill. They're announcing that bill. Come on, let's tell the truth. That's all I'm saying. And tell it in a way that resonates with what people's real experience is across the country.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, preexisting conditions is another issue.

GRANHOLM: Of course.

BORGER: I mean, you could attack everyone Medicare for all, you might have an argument to make about that, because the Democrats are arguing about that and they talked about the socialist takeover and I know you're going to argue with me on this, Rick --

SANTORUM: Great.

BORGER: But, but you have a Justice Department that is fighting the protection of preexisting conditions.

SANTORUM: No, they're not.

BORGER: And you say you want to protect preexisting conditions. If you really want to protect preexisting conditions why doesn't he do something about it?

SANTORUM: OK. Well, first off, there's a law in place called Obamacare that protects preexisting conditions.

BORGER: Which he's trying to undo.

SANTORUM: He's trying to undo the entire act. That happens to be one small part of it.

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: Well, he didn't remove --

SANTORUM: They do care deeply about it. But by the way, most states already had a protection for preexisting conditions prior to the federal law. So, the -- I don't understand what -- and with all respect to Jake, it's not a lie.

GRANHOLM: Come on.

SANTORUM: The president has from the very beginning said I will not do anything to take away protection for preexisting conditions. And so, I will tell you --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: But they are.

SANTORUM: He's trying to repeal a broader law.

GRANHOLM: Control of the legislature and he didn't pass any --

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: A law that the Democrats admit is a failure. Why? Because they all want to --

(CROSSTALK)

GRANHOLM: Democrats do not admit it's a failure.

SANTORUM: Because they all want to replace it.

JONES: We want to improve it.

SANTORUM: No, you want to replace. Bernie Sanders wants to replace it. Elizabeth Warren wants to replace it.

(CROSSTALK)

GRANHOLM: Twenty-nine million people have lost health care under this president.

SANTORUM: Pete Buttigieg wants to -- I mean, they all want -- they all want a fundamentally different bill than what's in place right now.

AXELROD: Yes. But none of their -- none of their proposals would lead people with preexisting conditions by our coverage.

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: And neither --

AXELROD: That's not true, Rick, he has not proposed --

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: If you look at -- if you look at what Donald Trump has proposed.

AXELROD: -- he's not proposed a replacement for that provision. He wants to -- he wants to -- he wants to end the Affordable Care Act.

SANTORUM: Correct.

AXELROD: And he doesn't have a proposal to protect it with preexisting conditions. SANTORUM: We've put together a bill called the Health Care Choices

Act which does protect people with preexisting conditions. The administration has embraced that bill and which does --

(CROSSTALK)

GRANHOLM: And he has not gotten it through.

JONES: Can I say something else about the speech?

SANTORUM: He hasn't gotten it through, I agree. Look, the Republicans failed for two years to get it through, and it's a pox on their House for doing so, a pox on the president for doing so. It was a huge failure, it's one of the reasons they lost the election --

GRANHOLM: Right.

SANTORUM: -- in 2018. But don't -- the idea that Donald Trump --

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: Right. Which is why -- this is why he said what he said in the speech.

COOPER: Didn't he run with that full --

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: Because of preexisting conditions.

GRANHOLM: Right.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: So, he ran -- but his whole thing when he was running, don't you remember the whole it's going to be instantaneous, it's going to be -- we're going to get rid of the Affordable Care Act, and maybe within like an hour or two, the same day, it's going to magically switch over to this thing and it's going to protect everything.

AXELROD: We all have --

COOPER: That's just not -- that's just made up.

SANTORUM: It didn't happen. Well, no, I mean, I think the president went in there with an expectation that things --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: But it's not like you get rid of it in court and there's something else that like as soon as the jury reads the verdict they're going to run out and switch over to this thing they have waiting.

SANTORUM: Yes. The answer is that the president could I think very quickly pass something that would get bipartisan support to protect people with preexisting conditions. And, you know, I have no doubt that a straight up bill that did that would pass like this if the Affordable Care Act was repealed.

BORGER: And there's a drug pricing bill and right now that's what the Democrats --

(CROSSTALK)

SANTORUM: Well, that's a very --

BORGER: -- was dreaming about on the floor.

SANTORUM: I mean, as we sit here and cry for the drug companies to solve the problem of the coronavirus, we want to say let's crush them so they don't have any money. So, you can't it both ways.

BORGER: Well, but the president's speech was I'm going to lower your drug prices.

GRANHOLM: Right.

BORGER: Pass a bill.

GRANHOLM: There is a drug price --

(CROSSTALK)

BORGER: There is one.

[23:10:01]

AXELROD: But can just look back to one point that you made, whatever you argue, it's very hard to argue that when the president talks about we'll never let socialism destroy American health care or when he says we're not going to -- you don't join the radical -- here it is.

You're forcing American taxpayers to provide unlimited free health care to illegal aliens sounds fair to you, then stand with the radical left. it's very hard to argue this isn't a base speech when he provides, when he bestows the Medal of Freedom on Rush Limbaugh in the gallery.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Let me show that, let me show that section that you're talking about.

AXELROD: It's hard to say that's not a base play.

COOPER: Let's play that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: To those watching at home tonight I want you to know we will never let socialism destroy American health care.

(APPLAUSE) (END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTORUM: that's Medicare for all. I mean, that's basically what he's saying. I mean, look, this is a mainstream position now within the Democratic Party.

AXELROD: No, I understand that but that he is going to run depicting Democrats, whoever the nominee is, whatever their positions are --

SANTORUM: Every -- every Democrat raised their hand saying --

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: My argument isn't that --

SANTORUM: -- they would provide health care to illegal immigrants.

AXELROD: I understand what the political argument is but all I'm saying is, it is ludicrous to say this wasn't a base play that the speech was a base-oriented speech.

SANTORUM: Every president says things in their speech that is focused on the base. Obama did, everybody does it. And I mean, the idea --

KING: I wasn't saying it was a novel idea in your reelection year to give a speech that appeals to your base.

SANTORUM: But there were --

KING: But the specific language, look, they have a map. They look at their 2016 map.

GRANHOLM: Yes.

KING: It's a little more complicated than 2020. But as we said at the beginning, the president is actually in a much stronger position today than he was just a few months ago. And they have this play, they have this play.

If they play -- they think that with immigration, the warning about socialism, abortion, judges that they turn out their people and then they try to do this work on the margins. Whether it's suburban women turning out or pulling over some African-Americans, and if they can't do that using what they're doing in the digital space, to turn them on the Democrats and depress turnout. Something we saw in the last campaign.

If they can do it on the margins, if you look at the map now it's very easy to get Trump to 259.

SANTORUM: Yes.

KING: He needs 11 electoral votes, he could get that in your Pennsylvania and have some to spare. He could get it in Wisconsin, toss in one electoral vote for Maine, there's the finish line at 270.

You can get to it but the way he gets to it is in places where you're not looking for big Latino population --

SANTORUM: That's right.

KING: -- but you are looking to just move the margins of the African- American population. If you can tweak it this much in the suburbs, the finish line is in sight.

(CROSSTALK)

AXELROD: I thought it was interest --

GRANHOLM: You keep talking about abortion and judges, you're not going to get those women.

JONES: That's --

AXELROD: Well, I also think what's interesting, one thing that he didn't say, he had one sentence about the Second Amendment.

BORGER: Yes.

SANTORUM: Yes.

AXELROD: Didn't really go deeply into guns --

JONES: Right.

AXELROD: -- because that's one of the reasons that a suburban voter fled in droves from him and particularly women.

JONES: Yes.

AXELROD: So, I do think that there is -- he is trying to cut his margin. His gender gap among women.

(CROSSTALK)

JONES: Another thing -- another thing he's trying to do on that -- notice he's mentioning the environment. He tries to -- he's got a problem with the suburban women on that.

HENDERSON: Yes, trillion trees.

GRANHOLM: Trees.

JONES: Notice the use of these trillion trees as a sort of like all kind of purpose thing, that's kind of a climate measure. It's kind of a good drink --

BORGER: Pelosi applauded that.

JONES: And so, why is that? It's because the concern about climate and environment is actually going up. And these young people are driving that very, very hard and he has no actual answer to that.

So, you can see some stuff he does shows some weaknesses for Democrats to focus in on and drive harder.

COOPER: I want to go back to Wolf and Jake. Wolf?

BLITZER: Thanks very much, Anderson.

You know, it's interesting it didn't take very long, Jake, for the White House to react to Nancy Pelosi ripping up --

TAPPER: Yes.

BLITZER: -- the president's speech and then just basically tossing it.

TAPPER: Well, and it would be political malpractice for them not to do it. It was such a visceral moment, as Dana points out it was not planned by Speaker Pelosi. It was obviously done because she was upset at what the speech was.

And the White House has now tweeted, "Speaker Pelosi just ripped up one of our last surviving Tuskegee airmen, the survival of a child born at 21 weeks, the mourning families of Rocky Jones and Kayla Mueller, a servicemember's reunion with his family. That's her legacy." That's a quote that I'm reading.

Obviously, when Speaker Pelosi is asked about this she's going to say that she did not have an issue with those moments ant about mourning families or families reuniting with Tuskegee airman, that what the issues was that she was upset, you know, upset about obviously have to do with the more partisan moments of the speech in her view.

But that is, of course, what we expected. And Dana Bash and I were talking about this.

BLITZER: Before I ask Dana I just want to point out --

BASH: Yes.

BLITZER: -- Speaker Pelosi just tweeted this.

BASH: I was just -- that's what I was looking at. I didn't mean to be --

BLITZER: All right. Go ahead.

TAPPER: Go ahead.

[22:14:59]

BASH: Well, there are a couple things. First of all, just staying on this topic, she told Fox up on Capitol Hill that the reason that she ripped up the speech is because that was the courteous thing to do.

TAPPER: Yes. She said that to a bunch of reporters while walking the hall.

BASH: To bunch of reporters. Yes. OK. So, second -- (CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: Why was it courteous?

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: I guess as opposed to throwing it at them. I mean, something l like that, I suppose.

BASH: The point that she was trying to make is what she really wanted to do was a lot more --

(CROSSTALK)

TAPPER: Was a lot harsher than ripping it up.

BASH: So that was the nice thing that she sort of, found to do. But separately on the idea of the president kind of blowing off her attempt to shake his hand --

TAPPER: Yes.

BASH: -- this is what she said in a tweet just moments ago, and this is what you're referring to, Wolf, "Democrats will never stop extending the hand of friendship to get the job done for the people. We will work to find common ground where we can but we'll stand our ground where we cannot."

TAPPER: So, one of the things that I think is interesting here is that Speaker Pelosi has been really effective at getting under Donald Trump's skin.

BLITZER: Yes.

TAPPER: And she has done, I think, generally speaking a pretty good job at not letting his attacks get to her while he makes it very clear when her attacks bother him. He has little outbursts on Twitter and the like.

I think we saw a little bit of the opposite here. Donald Trump is having a week that is frustrating lots of Democrats. They had their Iowa imbroglio, fiasco in the Iowa caucus, we still don't know who won that caucus and we're still waiting for results.

President Trump's approval ratings, according to Gallup, are the highest they've ever been, 49 percent approve, 50 percent disapprove, that's much higher than they were when he was elected. I think his approval rating was somewhere in the 30s and he still was elected.

Obviously, he has the State of the Union. Tomorrow he is about to be acquitted in the impeachment trial, an impeachment that Speaker Pelosi did not even want to do.

So, this is for Democrats a very, very frustrating week. And I think that the speech, which I think was partisan, I don't think it's odd that it was partisan, but it was a partisan speech really got under her skin. And she let it show that it bothered her in a way that usually she's better at hiding.

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: I think it's such in (Inaudible) point. Because one of the reasons why Nancy Pelosi, in the past three years has become an iconic figure, a real iconic figure among Democrats is because she is the person from their perspective, the only person who should be and could be their leader to go up against Donald Trump because she gets under his skin so much.

TAPPER: And she plays it cool with her little hand --

BASH: Exactly.

TAPPER: -- with her applause with the hands like this, the camera is not showing me, so when she did that whole thing, like, you know, when she did that and she came out of the White House with her sunglasses on and her big red coat.

BASH: Yes. There's all --

TAPPER: Iconic to liberals.

BASH: All those moments, her, you now, kind of taking the White House photo that the president thought made her look like an angry woman.

TAPPER: She's pointing at him, yes, across the old desk.

BASH: And making it her profile picture on social media, all of those things and tonight felt different. And the fact that she -- that she even is saying that ripping up the speech, something that there's no question that that kind of reaction would be and has been something that she admonished her own caucus not to do, it just, it just shows you we're at a completely different place right now.

BLITZER: And they haven't spoken since October.

BASH: They haven't spoken since October.

BLITZER: The president and the president.

BASH: Speaking from that, yes.

BLITZER: And you can see when he first walked in normally, they shake hands, they, you know pass along the -- he presents the advance copy of the speech. Afterwards he didn't even turn around to look at the vice president, who's the president of the Senate, or the Speaker of the House, he just walked right out. At that point as he was walking out, she rips up the speech.

TAPPER: I have to say, though, also, I mean, I see a lot of Republicans on social media talking about how horrible this moment was, how Speaker Pelosi has done away with norms that have lasted for decades. And, you know, I'm not going to take issue with any of that.

But President Trump has been doing away with norms that have lasted for decades as well and many more of them. So, I mean, again, this is going to be one of these opportunities where -- one of these moments where we hear a bunch of people talk about how offended they were, and maybe they are actually offended.

I mean, this was something Speaker Pelosi did that is certainly notable and I can see people being bothered by it, but let's not forget also who she was reacting to when all the norms that he --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: And let's also not forget the impeachment. The president of the United States was impeached by the House of Representatives.

BASH: In that very chamber seven weeks ago.

BLITZER: That's correct. And the Speaker of the House she's in charge of the House of Representatives and the Democrats, and as our White House team, our reporters and producers of the White House have been reporting it was very clear that this whole impeachment process has really gotten under the president's skin.

Because even though he's going to be acquitted tomorrow at 4 p.m. Eastern, he's not going to be convicted. He's not going to be removed from office. He's going to go down forever as an impeached president of the United States. And that has clearly irritated him.

[23:20:03]

TAPPER: I'm sure that bothers him and I understand why it would bother him. But I mean, we hear a lot of Democrats say this is going to -- Speaker Pelosi, he's always going to be impeached. This is going to be a stain on his record for the rest of his life.

Bill Clinton was impeached; he's been given a prime time speaking slot in every single congressional convention since 2007. So, I mean, yes, it will always be on his legacy. Presidents --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: It irritates him.

TAPPER: I'm sure it irritates him. It would irritate me too. But I'm just saying like, presidents are able to go along and still be rather popular figures in their party even after they're impeached.

BLITZER: Yes. He's got, you know, he's going to live with that, even though it irritates him, you're probably right, within that Republican base and that Gallup poll that came out today has him at 94 percent --

(CROSSTALK)

BASH: But with every day --

BLITZER: -- job approval among Republicans.

BASH: Exactly. And with every day that passes he is being told and being convinced by political advisers that as bad as it feels to be impeached by the House of Representatives and that be your legacy politically speaking in his quest to be reelected, maybe not so bad.

TAPPER: Well, his approval rating among Republicans is up.

BASH: Yes.

BLITZER: Yes.

TAPPER: So, it has had at least a limited effect of rallying Republicans around him, not Democrats, and not independents. We should point out, even in that same Gallup poll, but rallying Republicans around him.

And again, we see his effort this evening, a speech that I'm sure his supporters, like Senator Santorum in the other room, really, really liked.

BLITZER: Yes. And the Republicans clearly are happy with him and they want him to get reelected. This is going to be an intense fight over the next several months.

We are going to have a lot more coming up on this very busy night. Up next, our other big story tonight, the Iowa caucuses, we're expecting, yes, we are expecting more results. Stand by.

[23:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: All right. Now we want to continue our special coverage with the latest on the Democratic Iowa caucuses. We are expecting to get some more results soon. That's what we're told.

It's been more than a full day since the doors closed on the caucuses. And we still have only partial results. So far only 62 percent of the precincts reporting. Pete Buttigieg with a narrow lead in state delegates as you can see over Bernie Sanders, 26.9 percent to 25.1 percent. Elizabeth Warren in third. Joe Biden in fourth. Amy Klobuchar in fifth place.

Again, that's with just 62 percent of the precincts reporting. No word from the Iowa Democratic Party on when we will see the full results. Hopefully it will be soon.

Let's go to CNN's Ryan Nobles, he's watching all of this from the Sanders campaign out there. What are you seeing, Ryan?

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, right now the Sanders campaign is just like everyone else, Wolf, they're waiting to see these full results come in from the Iowa caucuses but they're also not stopping moving forward with his campaign.

In fact, in this room right behind me Senator Sanders is delivering his own version of a response to President Trump's State of the Union a few minutes ago, and essentially taking apart the president's speech line by line, and then offering up how he would do things differently if he were elected to the White House.

But getting back to these results in Iowa, yes, the Sanders campaign acknowledges with this first graph -- group of votes that have come in, the 62 percent that have reported at this point that they are trailing in the delegate math.

But they believe when they take a look at the outstanding counties that have yet to come in and also the satellite precincts, they've specifically zeroed in on the satellite precincts as being an opportunity for Sanders to pick up more votes and pick up votes in the key areas that would affect the weighted vote in totality and then bring him either equal with Pete Buttigieg's delegate count or even surpass the delegate count.

They are not ruling out the possibility that Sanders could win the Iowa caucuses outright. Regardless, Wolf, we understand that the way you win the Iowa caucuses is through that delegate count. But the Sanders campaign is still going to continue to remind voters that at this point he is winning the popular vote and they firmly believe that when all the votes come in, he will end up having more Iowans voting for him than any other presidential candidates.

So, Wolf, a busy day of activity for Senator Sanders here in New Hampshire. In fact, tomorrow, he has an event planned in the morning before heading back to Washington to participate in the final stage of President Trump's impeachment trial.

The Sanders campaign feeling very good about where they stand in Iowa and even better about their prospects here in New Hampshire in the coming week. Wolf?

BLITZER: And New Hampshire a neighboring state to Vermont, he's doing very well according to the most recent public opinion polls, right?

NOBLES: Yes, that's absolutely right, Wolf. They've long felt that New Hampshire was a strong opportunity for Senator Sanders, even if he fell short in Iowa. They knew that his base of support here in New Hampshire was strong.

And I have to tell you, Wolf, we were on the flight with Senator Sanders from Iowa to New Hampshire today. He had a pep in his step. He seems very happy. He seems very satisfied with his standing in the polls.

And the event that he held earlier today in Milford, New Hampshire, not far from where we are here today in Manchester, the campaign told me was their largest event to this date in the cycle in the state of New Hampshire.

So, they believe the enthusiasm for them -- for the Sanders campaign in New Hampshire is at an all-time high, they believe that especially if it gets to the point where they're able to claim victory in Iowa that will only further that momentum and then as things head into the next couple of states.

So, yes, they feel very confident about their prospects here in New Hampshire. But, Wolf, still some time to go here before New Hampshire -- the New Hampshire voters have to fully make up their minds.

BLITZER: Yes, after New Hampshire, Nevada then South Carolina then super Tuesday.

Ryan Nobles, thank you very much. Let's check in with the Buttigieg campaign. Abby Phillip is monitoring that for us. She is joining us right now from Des Moines. So, Abby, what's the latest you're hearing from the Buttigieg campaign?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, they are feeling, as you can understand, pretty good tonight. I mean, I think they've been saying for the last 24 hours that they believe they did really well in Iowa.

[23:29:55]

And frankly, based on my conversations with aides over the last week or so, they feel like they exceeded their own expectations for some of the things that they wanted to do in the Iowa caucuses, they believe they overperformed in some parts of the state, the rural parts of the state.

They showed what they hoped to show to voters, not just in Iowa but across the country, that they can put together a coalition that is broad based, that is comprised of people from rural, suburban and urban areas, of younger people and older people.

And that was the objective for Iowa for him because they had really poured everything into that state, hoping that this would be their proving ground as they move forward. Interestingly, toward the end of his time in Iowa, you already saw Pete Buttigieg and his campaign pivoting to what they know is the task ahead.

Yes, New Hampshire comes next. Yes, they are invested in that. But they also know that there's an important task in proving that he can make more inroads than he has been able to make with non-white African-American voters in particular.

At his last rally, he was introduced by a number of African-American surrogates who all came out onto the stage for a massive, you know, 2,000-person rally in the Des Moines area. And on the night of the Iowa caucuses, he was introduced by Congressman Anthony Brown, the Congressional Black Caucus member who has endorsed him, and also by the South Bend Democratic Party chairwoman, an African-American woman who spoke directly to that issue.

There's already an attempt right now for that campaign to pivot to this next phase for them, which is also as critically important as winning the Iowa caucuses. Wolf, there is no question. They're feeling good. Spirits are high.

You saw Pete Buttigieg today getting emotional, which he rarely does on the campaign trail, about the historic moment for him, which is as an openly gay presidential candidate. This milestone is historic regardless of how far he goes from this point forward, Wolf. BLITZER: Really did get emotional at that moment. Abby, thanks very much. Let's go back to Jake and Dana, and discuss a little bit -- you know, Bernie Sanders and Pete Buttigieg, at least with 62 percent of the precincts, Jake, reporting so far, they're one and two over there in Iowa. It could change. Thirty-eight percent of the precincts have not yet reported.

TAPPER: That's right. We need to remind people that what ultimately matters is delegates, who actually gets the most delegates. That's what this is, the race for delegates. I believe in 2008, Hillary Clinton actually got more popular votes than Barack Obama, but Barack Obama, the way that he was able to game out the primary caucus system, he got more delegates, and it's a race for delegates.

So, I'm not sure ultimately whether Buttigieg, Sanders, Warren or someone else, I guess really no one else, is going to have more delegates or more popular vote from Iowa. But really, what matters is the delegates.

BASH: Right.

BLITZER: Yeah, both have -- they'll have bragging rights no matter what happens.

BASH: Absolutely. By the way, that's a pattern for Hillary Clinton, getting more popular votes --

BLITZER: Yeah.

BASH: -- in the caucus and the primary and in the general.

TAPPER: Right. Obama did it to her before Trump did.

BASH: That's right. I'm just looking at the screen here. So Bernie Sanders --

TAPPER: Can you really read that?

BASH: I mean, a little bit.

TAPPER: You're good at it.

BASH: Thank you, control room. So he's -- a little bit over a thousand votes, Bernie Sanders is, more than Pete Buttigieg in popular vote. If you look at the sort of the overall number in the universe of voters, that's not that much. I mean, it's very close.

BLITZER: Especially with 38 percent of the precincts still outstanding.

BASH: Exactly, I was just going to say, and we have a lot more to go --

BLITZER: Yeah.

BASH: -- on that. But, you know what, at this point, because this is -- we're doing this literally a night late --

TAPPER: Yeah.

BASH: We're not supposed to be doing this tonight. That was supposed to be last night. Some of the air is out of the balloon. Not that this doesn't matter, but at a certain point, they're focused on the next big thing, which is New Hampshire.

TAPPER: Well, Iowa is out of their hands, except for the people in the Iowa Democratic Party who are still running this about as poorly as I've ever seen a primary or caucus run. We still have no idea when and if we're ever going to get new results. So whatever, they obviously have no idea what they're doing over there. But more importantly, you're on to the next. You're on to the next.

BLITZER: New Hampshire.

TAPPER: Yeah, New Hampshire, the New Hampshire primary which is Tuesday. The other thing that's very significant here in terms of this battle for delegates versus the battle for the popular vote is the system is what the system is, and the Democrats set up their system according to the basic rules of delegates.

And so, for example, I remember in '08, Hillary Clinton would go to New Jersey and she'd win New Jersey, a big delegate rich state. And she'd beat Obama there by 10 delegates. And then Obama, same day, would go to a state like, I don't know, Idaho or Nebraska, and get the same amount of net votes by spending much less money, not as delegate rich, but at the end of the day, it would be a wash.

BLITZER: Yeah.

TAPPER: And that's the system. And you have to play it according to the system, play it according to the rules, whether it's electoral vote in the presidential contest or delegates.

[23:35:00]

BLITZER: Hillary Clinton, as we all know, she got a lot more popular votes than -- the Electoral College is what counts in the presidential race. Let us go to John King. John, we're waiting. Hopefully, we'll get some more numbers at some point. But what are you looking for right now?

KING: Not as frustrated as we were at this time last night, but still frustrated in the sense that it was hours ago we got the 62 percent and we're still waiting. Some of the campaigns say they expect some more of votes to be dumped out by the party tonight. But again, we wait and wait.

So what are we looking for, number one, to the point you were just having, we scored this by delegates. That is what you need at the convention in Milwaukee to win the nomination. At the moment, Mayor Buttigieg -- sorry about that, when your hand crosses the plane, that could happen sometimes. That was interesting, wasn't it? Sometimes -- let's --

BLITZER: There we go.

KING: Yes, just had a couple long days.

BLITZER: Yeah.

KING: When you get -- this is what it's about, delegates. The Sanders campaign has every right to say, we got more votes. The Sanders campaign has every right to say, let's wait, let's wait and see what happens, because it is quite possible if you look with 38 percent still out, especially if you look at some of the places where Senator Sanders -- only 66 percent of the vote in here, Senator Sanders is doing quite well here.

If he continues in the other precincts that haven't come in from Woodbury County yet, that's possible, he starts to move up. He has to do better than he is doing here. He has to do better than 25 percent as we go through. But that is without a doubt mathematically possible.

You come over here, Scott County, Bernie Sanders won here four years ago. It's relatively close, only half the vote at 48 percent. So Sanders campaign has every right to say wait, let's see if they can catch up in the end, and we'll see if that happens.

They are -- all the campaigns are frustrated. The Sanders campaign is very frustrated that that has not moved in several hours. Where we are now? If you look at this, the light green is Mayor Buttigieg. The way you win delegates, the way you get the delegates especially in a closed competitive race is to be competitive everywhere.

I just want to show you when you break it down, if you look at the 99 counties, 64 of them, the mayor at the moment, this could change, but at the moment, in 64 of 99, he is leading or tied. That's, again, how you win the broader delegates.

Come out of this and come back to Senator Sanders, way fewer, 21 counties where he is leading at the moment, at the moment. It is still a strong organization, not to criticize it at all. But if you look at just how many versus the man in second place, you know, that's the depth of it right there, it's the depth of the organization.

Senator Warren worked hard in Iowa. She's going to get 18 percent. We will see what the final result is there. This is the biggest issue here for me if you look down here. For the former vice president, that's the struggle. They've said from the beginning, Iowa is not our place.

But he's the former vice president of the United States running in the state that won Senator Barack Obama, the president whom he served as vice president, half dozen counties where the former vice president is leading, a couple others where he's tied. That is a disappointing performance. The question is can he rebound from it now in New Hampshire?

And Amy Klobuchar, you know, you do wonder here, all of these senators, how much were they impacted by impeachment? How much were Senator Warren, Senator Sanders, and Senator Klobuchar in the sense that she did claim late momentum, if you look here, Minnesota border, some other counties around here, she did rack up but at 12.6 percent. She is struggling.

Her campaign, like the Sanders campaign, is saying let's wait for the rest of the votes. They think they might be able to catch up to the vice president. That is up to the Iowa Democratic Party to release those numbers and let us do the math.

BLITZER: The last two weeks those U.S. senators who are running, they spent a lot of time in Washington as opposed to Iowa or New Hampshire for that matter.

KING: And you can say Mayor Buttigieg benefitted from that, but then explain that.

BLITZER: Yeah, that's a problem for former vice president. All right, John, thank you. Once again, we are expecting more results. We don't know when. We are expecting them. Up next, how the Biden camp is reacting to the Iowa numbers we have so far. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We are waiting for more results from the Iowa caucuses. We're told they could come fairly soon. When they do arrive, we're going to bring them to you right away.

As for former Vice President Joe Biden, he's been campaigning in New Hampshire most of the day. CNN's Arlette Saenz is covering the Biden campaign for us. She is joining us live from Manchester. Arlette, earlier tonight, the vice president said he actually felt good about the results so far in Iowa. What's the latest you're hearing from your sources?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, Joe Biden opened an event in Concord, New Hampshire, telling the voters there that he was happy to be here in New Hampshire, more than you would know, a signal that he is eager to move on from Iowa and start focusing on this other early nominating state.

One Biden adviser that I spoke with this evening said that they had hoped for more support in the Iowa caucuses but that they ultimately weren't surprised. They say that that's in part because they thought the demographic makeup in Iowa wasn't as favorable to Joe Biden.

But they said that they're not concerned about his future moving forward, specifically pointing to states like South Carolina, Nevada, also states in the Super Tuesday contest, which they see as more diverse demographically and they think that that is more beneficial to Joe Biden.

Now, one other thing that the Biden campaign keeps pointing to is that this is all a delegate game and they say that Iowa makes up just a small portion of the amount of full delegates that these candidates are competing for. Tonight, Biden told reporters that he is focused on hopefully just coming out of Iowa with some delegates on hand. Wolf?

BLITZER: How is the Biden campaign, Arlette, strategizing there in New Hampshire? Obviously, their plan in Iowa didn't go very well, at least based on the numbers we have so far.

SAENZ: Well, Wolf, the Biden campaign certainly wants to come up with a strong finish here in New Hampshire. They understand that having a strong finish, having a win gives you momentum heading into other states. Biden's advisers tell me that his message here is going to stay pretty consistent. But one thing to keep an eye out for advisers tell me is that he is likely to increase his criticisms and trying to draw contrast when it comes to "Medicare for All," the policy proposal espoused by Bernie Sanders.

And the Biden campaign believes that health care is a winning issue for them. We've actually already seen Biden today at both of his stops trying to draw these distinctions with Bernie Sanders when it comes to "Medicare for All" in both of their health care plans.

[23:45:07]

SAENZ: Now, Biden is certainly going to be spending a lot of time on the ground here over the course of the next week. He needs to show that he still can make that electability push, which has been central to his campaign, and they also need to make sure that they are assuring donors who might be uneasy about Biden's performance.

But Biden told voters tonight here in New Hampshire that he's hoping that New Hampshire, that they will rocket him out of New Hampshire and into the other early nominating states.

BLITZER: We will see what happens. Arlette, thank you very much. Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Yeah. Wolf, thanks very much. As you see, we are expecting more results from Iowa. We're not sure exactly what percentage of results will be coming in. I mean, there's been so much today. It's kind of hard to catch up. But how important are these new numbers in terms of New Hampshire, in terms of actually influencing what happens in New Hampshire or is that already done?

AXELROD: Well, there are these questions about, you know, will these numbers hold? And, you know, Sanders people claimed they would move in. But in many ways, I think the cake is baked here.

COOPER: Yeah.

AXELROD: And the question is, is there a bounce off of it? But for Joe Biden, I think it's very, very clear. He was polling in second place in New Hampshire before the Iowa caucuses. Is he able to hold on to it? I think if he slips to third or fourth place, he is in a major crisis. I think he's close to it now.

SANTORUM: Having done both of these states, there's a contrarian nature to New Hampshire. New Hampshire doesn't like Iowa to lead them.

COOPER: Yeah.

SANTORUM: And so as much as you would get a bounce on it, I think the bigger bounce you got out of Iowa is fundraising credibility.

COOPER: Media.

SANTORUM: You get -- media. I mean, you really get a whole new infusion of oxygen. It doesn't necessarily apply to New Hampshire.

AXELROD: Right. You know, Barack Obama won the Iowa caucuses and then ended up --

SANTORUM: Yeah.

AXELROD: -- five days later losing in New Hampshire.

SANTORUM: No offense to any New Englander here, but they believe they are the real primary, that Iowa is a bit of a sideshow, which they unfortunately proved out in this election. So I think they're going to say this -- the New Hampshire vote is almost de novo, really try to reset the table.

BORGER: Amy Klobuchar said earlier that she was looking at a poll where there's a four place tie for second place. So if Biden is in second place --

AXELROD: Right. That was before --

BORGER: That was before but so were a lot of other people going into New Hampshire after Iowa. I think Biden's big challenge right now is money. He's running out of money. He's the person everybody thought, well, he's a former vice president. He's the frontrunner. Donald Trump is afraid of him. National polls show him beating Donald Trump.

And now, he looks like somebody who's kind of limping along. And as Arlette is saying, he's trying to find an issue that he can carve out and differentiate himself from Bernie Sanders. And that, of course, is health care, where he happens to have a lot of credibility because of Obamacare.

And he's an opponent of "Medicare for All," which a lot of Democrats are opposed to. And you heard the president tonight talk about socialism. He's talking about "Medicare for All." So, I think Biden figures out that this is his niche.

HENDERSON: What an uphill climb in New Hampshire, you know, the state where -- I mean, it's obviously a neighboring state, New Englander, and it is going to be very difficult for him to do that.

He is doing well with these voters. We always talk about African- American voters, older voters. The problem with those voters is they tithe. They give to their churches. They don't give to campaigns in the way that he would need to to fund sort of long-term --

(CROSSTALK)

HENDERSON: Exactly.

GRANHOLM: If he were competitive in New Hampshire, I think some of that money issue would continue to help him along. I think the Biden people see Iowa -- they knew Iowa was going to be a struggle, right? And they know New Hampshire is going to be a struggle because of Bernie Sanders.

However, they also know that Iowa represents one percent of the delegates and they see this -- I mean, in talking to them today -- they see this as the start, the launch of a marathon, rather than all of the sudden it's closed for him --

JONES: So many opportunities where people thought that we would rally to Biden. Now, the foreign policy issue is happening and we've got this now Biden's --

HENDERSON: Even the impeachment thing would make you, you know --

JONES: You can walk through all these different moments of rationale from the Biden campaign. Now, it's going to -- what's happened is the air has continued to come out of the tires. Now, he's still up there, but he's barely hanging on. I think, you know, once we get past New Hampshire, I don't know if he's going to have --

[23:50:02]

COOPER: I want to thank everyone. We've been told more results will come out of Iowa at any minute. We're going to bring in those numbers to you as soon as we get them and check in with John King for a closer look after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We are expecting more numbers, caucus results from Iowa any moment now. We will obviously bring those to you and let you know where they're coming from and how, if anything changes, the race in the democratic side. We are back with our political team right now. Jennifer Granholm?

GRANHOLM: I know. I just have to say, I know we're talking about Iowa. Now, I have to jump back to the state of the union because Gretchen Whitmer --

SANTORUM: Shout out to your girl.

GRANHOLM: I have to give a shout out to Gretchen Whitmer who did the response.

SANTORUM: She did a good job.

GRANHOLM: She did a great job.

(CROSSTALK) GRANHOLM: It's a hard thing to do. She ran on the theme of fix the damn roads. So her story about the kid, you know, filling the pothole and all of that, the legislature still hasn't come around in Michigan to that, but it's just basic pragmatic stuff.

SANTORUM: Anything you have seen from a Democratic candidate in a year.

GRANHOLM: Are you being --

SANTORUM: I mean, it was a traditional meat and potatoes liberal argument for the Democratic Party, not the wild eye stuff that you have seen in the debates.

[23:55:05]

GRANHOLM: It's pragmatic stuff.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: OK. Let's just go back to Iowa.

GRANHOLM: OK, great.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: One of the things that's better to tweet about.

(LAUGHTER)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I do that, too.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Back to Biden.

COOPER: Yeah, Biden.

BORGER: Well, nothing succeeds like success, and Biden didn't have any. And --

SANTORUM: Miserable fourth place.

BORGER: It's very hard uphill New Hampshire. Also --

COOPER: If it doesn't work out for him in New Hampshire --

BORGER: -- Elizabeth Warren there --

COOPER: He claims South Carolina is his firewall.

BORGER: Well, it better be. He's going to be limping.

HENDERSON: The problem is they thought they would do well in Iowa, right? I mean, you were talking to the campaign. I was talking to the campaign. You know, about a month ago, they thought they would do well. They thought --

JONES: Not fourth or fifth. They weren't saying we're sure we'll beat Amy Klobuchar --

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: I want to go back to what you were saying a while ago about essentially Democrats need to wake up. I have spoken to a lot of Democrats, you know, folks who have run before, folks who have been in office before, and they seemed over the last month or two incredibly confident, and I don't quite understand where their confidence is based on.

They seem to think it doesn't matter what candidate it is. There's going to be such turnout. There's going to be such excitement and energy. We're not seeing that in Iowa.

JONES: I think it's a misinterpretation. Midterm election, I think, we performed very, very well. Frankly, women led that charge. I think it give a sense that, you know what, Trump thing was an aberration. I remember this with Obama. Obama was there, the Tea Party came, took the House back, and all my Republican friends were like, we are going to knock Obama out. I said, no, you're not. That's our guy. We will fight until the last dog barks at our guy. And we fought.

And I think that there's something going on where when Trump is on the ballot, it's a different thing. I think his base is going to fight for him. All I am saying is we can beat the guy. We can't beat the guy being arrogant. I watch the news all the time. I don't like what he says. Everyone is going to be with me. That's not the right way to think about this.

He has a strategy. He revealed his entire strategy. He's going to double down on the red meat for his base. He is going to push hard against Latinos. He doesn't need them. He's going to go for the black vote, try to shave it off. Now you know.

That means if you're Democrat, you have to think, which of these candidates is going to really be able to energize and hold on to black voters? Which of these candidates are really going to be able to connect with Latinos and get something out of the fact -- some bounce back from the attack? And who actually can speak to the working class concerns? If you're not thinking about that clinically, then you'll wind up being emotional and make mistakes.

AXELROD: I don't think I question -- first of all, let me just say at the top, I think Donald Trump is at worst even money to get re- elected. We don't generally turn out presidents. It's hard not to get re-elected.

JONES: Get re-elected.

AXELROD: It is -- I think I said earlier, it's unusual in this --

JONES: Do you think he has the advantage right now?

AXELROD: I do. Part of it is -- and I can tell you someone who worked for the reelection of an incumbent president -- when you have no opponent to speak of and you have months and months and months to prepare your campaign and do things to set the table for your campaign, while the other party is in disarray trying to figure out who their nominee is going to be, that is a huge advantage.

You know, this economy is a big advantage for him. The only disadvantage Donald Trump has is Donald Trump. And his lack of discipline and his belief in his own stick -- the tweets he thinks are a huge advantage, you know, I think he can defeat himself.

But if he gets the right opponent, he's going to be very, very hard to beat. So I agree. On the Latino piece, I'm not sure about that because the truth is he's doing better with Hispanic voters than he is with African-American voters. And so I am not sure that he's writing off --

HENDERSON: In state like Florida.

AXELROD: There are a lot of Latino voters who aren't necessarily as offended on these immigration issues. They've been here for several generations.

JONES: I would say it is in Florida.

AXELROD: A conservative, some are evangelical.

JONES: I would say that I think we missed an opportunity with the Puerto Ricans who had to leave the island to go to Florida. Sitting here around the group, we're not giving them enough attention. I think that they are Latino voices and forces in industrial heartland that this party is disconnected from. I just think we should look at it and be a little bit more disciplined about it. And I just assume that he'll gaffe himself out of the election. It will never happen.

BORGER: But the candidate matters, too. I mean, who is --

JONES: That's what --

BORGER: That's the thing. Who is the perfect candidate to take on Donald Trump? There doesn't seem to be one.

COOPER: I want to thank everybody on the panel. Our coverage continues right now with Chris Cuomo.

Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO: All right, thank you, Anderson. I am Chris Cuomo.