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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Projects Senator Bernie Sanders Wins Nevada Caucuses. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired February 22, 2020 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[21:00:00]
WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back to our special coverage. I'm Wolf Blitzer in The CNN Election Center. A very impressive, very big win for Senator Bernie Sanders in the Nevada Democratic presidential caucuses. David Chalian is taking a close look at how he did. David?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: That's right, Wolf. These entrance polls provide us a roadmap to Bernie Sanders' victory tonight in Nevada. Among very liberal voters, key part of his coalition, they made up about 30 percent of the electorate in Nevada today, so it was a pretty liberal electorate. Bernie Sanders wins 49 percent of them, Warren at 17, Biden at 11, Buttigieg at 9, Steyer at 6. But this is a Sanders blowout category, very liberal, 30 percent of the electorate.
And on healthcare, his Medicare-for-all position, as you've been hearing us talk about, is the dominant position inside this electorate tonight. 62 percent said they support Medicare-for-all instead of private insurance. Bernie Sanders wins 49 percent of that huge chunk of voters.
And then you heard Senator Sanders in his speech down in Texas talking about a multi-generational, a multiracial movement he's building, take a look at the age breakdown here. 17 to 29-year-olds, 66 percent of them go to Bernie Sanders. They make up 17 percent of the electorate, not the largest slice necessarily, but, my God, Buttigieg is next at 10 percent, huge Sanders category, they powered him to victory as well.
And finally, here's that multiracial component and I think these might be the most interest numbers of the night in the entrance poll. 35 percent of the electorate in Nevada is non-white. We have not seen that in Iowa or New Hampshire, obviously predominantly white states. So this first test of a diverse electorate, Bernie Sanders wins that test. Among non-white voters, he got 44 percent of them.
Joe Biden, who was looking to the non-white voters in the Democratic Party as his base, as his reason for being the frontrunner all last year, he's at 21 percent, significantly behind Sanders, then Steyer at 11, Warren at 8 and Buttigieg down at 7 percent, with non-white voters.
So Bernie Sanders passed this test of going to a more diverse place and showing he can still win by 23 points among these non-white voters tonight. All of that put together is how Bernie Sanders won the Nevada Democratic caucuses.
BLITZER: It so impressive, I must say. David Chalian, we'll get back to you. Dana and John, you know, Dana, this is a very, very big win, but where does the candidate, Bernie Sanders, go from here? A week from today, South Carolina, then three days later, Super Tuesday, 14 states, including California, Texas, really huge states and require a lot of campaign money.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And that really is the day to look at for Bernie Sanders, its March 3rd. The next contest as you said is South Carolina. It's going to be very important for momentum for other candidates.
But if you look at the map for March 3rd, for Super Tuesday, first of all, if you look at the total number of delegates, it's about a third needed for the nomination that are up for grabs that day.
BLITZER: In 1991.
BASH: That's right. But look at -- I want to point out two states in particular, okay? Texas, right, this is where Bernie Sanders is today, this state in particular has 228 delegates alone possible to grab that day. And according to polls right now, it is early, considering the calendar, he is doing well. It's very competitive for him but he is doing well in Texas.
And then let's look at California, another huge state, much bigger when it comes to the delegates, 415, most polls have Bernie Sanders with a very healthy lead in California. So that's not even including the rest of the states that are -- they're going to see a contest. And just look at these two, and you assume given the fact that he has momentum out of today's contests, he has the campaign cash, as you mentioned, he's got the volunteers, that is kind of exhibit A and B of why Pete Buttigieg came out and said that, you know, people are looking at him as somebody who has a wide path to the nomination.
BLITZER: Yes, he is. One thing we should point out, all of these states are proportionate, they are not winner take all, unlike in Republican, so they could split some of those delegates.
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: And a lot of Democrats think this is going to go on all the way. There's a lot of Democrats posit that Bernie Sanders may welcome out with a plurality of the delegates after this if he continues this momentum. They want to have a majority. I would say, just let's stop that talk for minute. Let's take this one race at a time, right?
What does Bernie Sanders have right now? He has money, he has momentum.
[21:05:01]
Heading into a period of time where if you're Joe Biden, yes, we have to count the results still. Joe Biden says, he want, quote, unquote, by coming in second in Nevada today. Joe Biden has to win South Carolina. Joe Biden is not on television in any of the Super Tuesday states. Bernie Sanders is in Texas tonight. He has a good organization in California. For the other candidates, they have this immediate priority of proving themselves. Joe Biden has to win South Carolina.
Bernie Sanders, if you look what David was just talking about, especially younger African-American voters. Can Bernie Sanders take this momentum and go in and win South Carolina or at least give Joe Biden a run for his money in South Carolina? That's an interesting thing to watch in the week ahead.
But the problem for the other candidates except for Michael Bloomberg and Tom Steyer, who are writing unlimited checks, they have to win -- they have to focus to get a win. Bernie Sanders is everywhere. As David Chalian is fond of saying, sticky support, an organization left over from 2016 that he has only strengthened in most places heading into 2020. So he can take the longer term view, and Dana lays out this calendar.
The other candidates yes, Amy Klobuchar is going to focus on Minnesota on Super Tuesday. Yes, you might think, okay, I can't, you know, win in South Carolina, I'm going to go somewhere else. But you're at a point in the race, in some ways, it's an absurd conversation. People say, well, it's only three contests, how can you be saying it. The other candidates will simply not be able to raise money.
BLITZER: I was going to say, Dana, he won younger voters in Nevada with impressive numbers.
BASH: He did.
BLITZER: He won minorities, African-American voters with impressive numbers. He did what a lot of people didn't necessarily suspect he could do.
BASH: Yes. The biggest win, according to entrance polls, and we have to see what happens actually after it's done, was with Latino voters. And they worked very, very hard inside the Sanders campaign to learn from, as you've been talking about, what they did or didn't do in 2016. The organization has been on the ground there for some time to try to do that.
And that's why it does put into question whether or not he can continue to eat into some of the Joe Biden support that he says he has, which he does have, according to the polls, among those same diverse groups, because that's what we have seen in the past. You know, winning begets winning. And if Bernie Sanders continues to look like a winner, that will only help him with all -- you know, all group, including and especially groups of color.
KING: And he has a very unique claim. Again, especially since he sees -- Elizabeth Warren over the summer was challenging Bernie Sanders and we were all having a conversation about, is the progressive vote in the party going to be split and is that going to help the moderate more. So we flip it over. Bernie Sanders has sole solidified, deeply solidified the liberal base, the progressive base of the party. He's reaching over at least in the early states, we'll see if he can continue it. You're getting a lot of of incoming from Democrats saying, this electorate in Nevada was disproportionately liberal.
So when you see Sanders peaking up support among voters who describe and something moderate or conservative, a lot of people will argue they're left or center. We'll see if he can continue. But he is expanding he's coalition. And he has a very unique lane in the race.
And everybody else is fighting for the, I'm not Bernie vote. And so as long as you have the crowded center, if you will, of the Democratic race, Sanders can continue to win with 30 percent or more. The question is, how does that play out?
But there's no incentive until one, moderate alternative, centrist alternatives, not Bernie alternative emerges, what's the incentive for the others to get out, which create the cycle. They're not getting out. It is hard for somebody else to emerge.
BLITZER: We're going to see what happens. Everybody stand-by.
Coming up, Pete Buttigieg is warning Democrats against the rush to nominate Senator Bernie Sanders. Will his attack work? We heard it here live. We'll be right back.
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ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: Bernie Sanders has declared his grassroots movement as unstoppable after his victory tonight in the Nevada caucuses. His rival, Pete Buttigieg, is warning Democrats to be aware of Sanders' revolution. Listen to what Buttigieg told to his supporters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETE BUTTIGIEG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Senator Sanders believes in an inflexible, ideological revolution that leaves out most Democrats, not to mention most Americans. I believe we can defeat Trump and deliver for the American people by empowering the American people to make their own healthcare choices with Medicare-for-all who want it.
Senator Sanders believes in taking away that choice. Removing people from having the option of a private plan and replacing it with a public plan whether you want it or not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: It's interesting watching, Gloria, watching Buttigieg -- I mean he clearly set out to draw parallels between him and Sanders, whereas when we saw Biden, although I don't think I saw the entire Biden speech, the part I saw, he wasn't doing that at all. I mean, he was talking with the crowd, talking about, you know, the comeback kid.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: On to South Carolina.
COOPER: Right. But he used -- Buttigieg wisely used the opportunity to try to draw at least a parallel between and another candidate.
BORGER: Oh, well, he was merciless. I mean, he just kind of slashed --
COOPER: Brutal.
BORGER: -- at Bernie Sanders. And, you know, we can prioritize either ideological purity or inclusive victory. We can either call out people names online or we can call them into our movement. So he just went on and on about Bernie Sanders. It's clear he wants to make this a two- person race and he wants it to be between himself and Bernie Sanders. And he is going to be the never Bernie.
And Joe Biden just got up there and gave a victory speech even though he didn't win, but they were so grateful, I think, in the campaign, to actually be in the running on something and do well that I think they wanted to let Biden be Biden and do that.
VAN JONES, CNN HOST: Well, I think one that of the reasons that Pete is doing this is -- toughness is one of the things that people want to see anybody who's going to go up against Donald Trump. And so, you know, Biden is beloved, Biden just has to be a good Biden most days, and he's a good Biden that night, okay? He didn't have to do anything. He's Biden.
But I think Pete has to show his toughness. And so I think by him saying, look, I will be the person, I will be the dragon slayer, I will stand up to Bernie Sanders. I will say for you what everybody is saying about him on national television. I think, in some ways, it's going against Sanders, who is also trying to demonstrating the toughness of his character which like if it works for him, it worked for him in two ways.
ALEXANDRA ROJAS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But I think, you know, what he said was just flat-out wrong.
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There is not, right now, at least, and, you know, we have to wait to the upcoming contest, a majority of Americans that don't believe in Bernie Sanders. Its showing that, including, and all of the national polling heading into most of the states, he is on the upward trajectory and I'm sure he's going to get a bump. So I think that is a little bit of a disingenuous of a take.
But, you know, I think that we have to remember that four years ago -- or for four years, progressives, I think, have been made to feel small, like they are a tiny fraction of America, that we're divisive, and that we have to wait, be patient for these changes to be made. And right now at least the Nevada and what looks like across America, people are rejecting that notion that they have to wait for these things, and there's a sense of urgency that people seem to feel on not only defeating Donald Trump but prioritizing the poor and working class --
BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: But we've just had one of the most progressive presidents in the country, in the country's history recently. I mean, let's not erase Barack Obama. I mean, let's not erase --
JONES: Who is doing that?
ROJAS: Nobody is erasing Barack Obama.
SELLERS: But when saying that progressives felt small, like they weren't a part of anything, all I'm saying is that, no. I mean, we've always had -- we have Barack Obama who gave us Obamacare, who insured tens of millions of people who otherwise wouldn't be there. So I'm just --
JONES: I think the split in the party though wasn't about Obama. All of us loved (ph) Obama. It was about Hillary versus Bernie. And so the Bernie progressives, I think, have felt --
ROJAS: I just want to add that there is a new generation of Democratic voters that look a lot more like me, Alexandria Ocasio- Cortez, Ayanna Pressley, than they do Nancy Pelosi or Joe Biden. I agree, and I think that Barack Obama is one of the many movements that have opened up the space to make these things possible. We stand on the shoulder of giants but you cannot also erase the work of millions of young people like myself and others who have been working very, very hard over the past four years to --
SELLERS: Yes. But the most popular figure in our party, the person who expanded our party the most, I want everybody to understand, was a progressive president. He is a progressive figure. And although Bernie Sanders has moved the window, there's a paradigm shift in the party. We have become more progressive. I don't dispute that.
But I also want to -- it's not as if Barkari Sellers, who is a Democrat from South Carolina, got elected and served for eight years simply because I'm more moderate, simply because I find myself -- it doesn't mean that I'm excluding anyone else. It doesn't mean that all of a sudden we're just -- we're not including progressive voices. And I want people to --
JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No. But I think for this election, since Donald Trump, we have been hearing a lot about electability. The way we frame this question, would you rather have somebody who can beat Donald Trump or somebody who agrees you with on the issues, literally sets up the frame that progressives can't win at the same rate that moderates can. And I think we're seeing in these contests that that's just not true. There is a major movement behind it.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: I don't think that we know really the answer to that question. I mean, we have been looking at three Democratic primary contests, and very small pools of voters, and I think the big debate that's happening in the Democratic Party right now is between the sort of Sanders progressive camp that says, actually, the country is with us on these issues, and then the Bernie -- the Biden camp and the Buttigieg camp that says, actually, you know, we don't think that in a general election, that these -- that Medicare-for-all, specifically a Medicare-for-all that eliminates private insurance is the answer to, you know, to what the voters are looking for, particularly when you get to a sort of more independent voter or moderate voter.
So I actually think that is not settled yet. That is the central debate that they're having right now. And if you are on the other side of Bernie Sanders on this issue and you're not taking that fight to Sanders, I don't understand what's going on. I mean, I think that we're at the stage now where they have to make the case to voters that there is an alternative to the guy who is winning right now, and nobody has wanted to do that so far.
ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think this is really smart by Pete. And he was clearly trying to do it on the debate stage earlier this week, and it became a pile on Bloomberg, and meanwhile Bernie was like staying his way out of it. He's like, hey, I'm the frontrunner. And Pete was like, no, no, how can I -- damn you, Bernie. And he did it tonight, and I can guarantee you, he's going to do it on Tuesday night. Because Pete sees that Bernie is the frontrunner, he is trying to become the alternative to Bernie, and the best way to do that is by saying I am the alternative to Bernie.
So I think that other candidates should probably follow suit. I think Amy, Joe, Elizabeth should be trying to contrast themselves with Bernie more.
BORGER: Biden tried on guns. He tried on Medicare-for-all, right? He's tried. But Buttigieg is just surgical about it. And he is so good at it.
PHILLIP: But it's also about policy. It's also about style. I think that's the other element.
SELLERS: But this also all changes, because Joe Biden gave a short speech, got on a plane and is now going to be in a North Charleston Baptist church tomorrow.
[21:20:04]
You can always tell what's going to happen and where people are going and where their strategy about or where they're campaigning. Bernie Sanders may run into a wall next week.
COOPER: And still ahead, what are at the odds that any of Bernie Sanders' Democratic opponents can stop him. Our resident odds maker, Harry Enten, joins us.
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BLITZER: We got a key race alert. We've projected already that Senator Bernie Sanders is the winner of the Nevada Democratic presidential caucus, but we're getting some numbers now in from the Nevada Democratic party. 11 percent of the precincts now reporting as far as the all-important county delegates are concerned, and that will determine how many delegates go to the candidates. Look at this, Senator Sanders with 44.1 percent, former Vice President Biden, 25 percent, Pete Buttigieg, 14.9 percent, Elizabeth Warren, 8.4 percent, everybody else, much, much lower.
Bernie Sanders are clearly celebrating a very critical, important win tonight in the Nevada caucuses. He has the wind at his back right now heading into the next round of contests, including delegate-rich Super Tuesday on March 3rd.
Let's break down on what happens next with the odds maker, Harry Enten, who is joining us. Harry, you've been looking at the numbers. Is there a candidate right now who can actually stop Bernie Sanders?
HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL WRITER AND ANALYST: You know, I think that's the correct question to ask, Wolf. And I'll just be flat out honest with you.
[21:25:01]
Bernie Sanders is hot, hot, hot, hot, hot right now. You know, if we're talking about the chance of having plurality of delegates, the most delegates, look at where Bernie Sanders was before Iowa. He just had a three in ten shot of having the most delegates, but now he shot up to seven in ten shot. And the reason for that is look how well he did in Iowa, look how he did in New Hampshire, look how well he is doing this evening. You know, you win the first three contest or you tie in (ph) the first three contests, that's a pretty good sign of you going forward.
And when Bernie Sanders has a seven in ten shot, look at where Joe Biden is, right? Take a look here. He -- before Iowa, he had a 4.5 in ten shot. You know, he was the favorite to win or to have the most delegates at the end of this. Now, he's just down to just a one in ten shot. He is going southward. And, you know, looking forward, South Carolina, obviously a week from today, and look at this, you know, Joe Biden hopes that South Carolina can be the place that revives his campaign.
And while he is leading in the latest Winthrop University poll from that state, look at what Bernie Sanders is. He's at 19 percent, just five points behind Joe Biden. He could deliver the knockout blow in South Carolina and continue the momentum that he has built in the first three contests so far.
BLITZER: You know, Harry, we're only about ten days out from Super Tuesday, March 3rd, 14 states, including California, Texas. Bloomberg will be on the ballot then for the first time. Can he slow down Bernie Sanders' momentum?
ENTEN: You know, I think that is the key question, right? Mike Bloomberg has not been on the ballot in the first week contest. He will not be in the ballot in South Carolina. And, you know, if you look at the national polls, you look at where Bernie Sanders is, you look at that historically, that's a very good position to be in.
And, you know, if you look at the money race, which I think is so important, because that gives you the indication of why Mike Bloomberg might be able to stop or at least slow the momentum of Bernie Sanders. Look at how much money, my goodness gracious, nearly $160 million that Mike Bloomberg has spent in the Super Tuesday states, Bernie Sander, really the competitive candidate so far as closes at -- nearly $11 million.
But look at the bottom of that graphic. Joe Biden, who was once the frontrunner in this campaign, has spent zero, count them, zero dollars in the Super Tuesday states. Even if he goes on to win in South Carolina, I'm not exactly sure how he is able to transfer that momentum in the Super Tuesday states given how much money he has spent, zero dollars, and that's --
BLITZER: Money talks. There's no doubt about that. Harry, thank you very, very much.
Let's go back to Dana and John. So it looks like a crushing win for him tonight, Bernie Sanders.
BASH: The question at this point -- first of all, yes, and we've talked a lot about what that means for Bernie Sanders. And he, you know, deserves to get the -- all of the discussion around what it means and what he has achieved tonight. But we're still -- we still got an open space for number two. And because of the splintered race, because there is so much anticipation about what happens with number two, that is sort of the next big question tonight. And we only have 11 percent reporting still for the county delegates, which are the money numbers, but that will determine where the delegates in Nevada go.
We don't know exactly. We know the Biden campaign claims that he's going to come in second. The Buttigieg campaign claims that he's going to come in second, so that's going to be one of the next questions of the evening.
KING: I think number one, we don't know what happens beneath Bernie Sanders tonight, because the results are so preliminary right now. It's clear that Sanders is going to win in Nevada and it seems pretty clear he's going to win by a pretty good margin. We don't know what's coming in after him. We just don't because we are at 4 percent reporting. We started off early complimenting the Nevada Democratic Party. Now, I think we'll get into the point where it's like, okay, what's happening here, we need some explanation about why this is taking so long. Let's hope they are just being triple careful and we get them soon and we move on.
But there are candidates and people in the campaigns out there who might end up doing better than what their numbers say right now. They're, tomorrow, going to be complaining about another caucus process that took too long to report the votes.
And now going forward, Harry made a good point about Joe Biden. Not broke but not flush with money. So he's focusing on South Carolina right now. If he wins South Carolina, of course, that gives him a springboard. Of course, he is back in the race. But he will not have had money on T.V. in these Super Tuesday states. I think that is the part when you take the Sanders organization, that Sanders can raise money organically through the internet. He just keeps raising as he goes through it, the small donors and the like, and the Bloomberg and Steyer effect, I don't know what happens to the other candidates.
And I think the great uncertainty beneath Bernie Sanders is the great question in this race, will someone emerge? Do others just stay in? After South Carolina, do you get the reassessment? It seems to be from all the incoming from the candidates tonight. Tell me if yours is different. Then everybody says, okay, Nevada is Nevada, now we're on to South Carolina and we're going to hang in through Super Tuesday.
That can change pretty quickly if you're disappointed. But right now, it looks like, again, I'm a broken record a bit, but Bernie Sanders has a unique and I think a bigger lane than we thought, not maybe huge but a slightly bigger lane than we thought on the left of the party, where he's going to -- he has to -- and while they wrestle over everything else. And so the uncertainty continues which benefits Sanders.
BLITZER: It's interesting, Dana, because at the last Democratic presidential debate, most of the candidates, the Democratic candidates, went after Michael Bloomberg.
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That was his first time on the debate stage. Did they miss an opportunity to go after Bernie Sanders and will they, next Tuesday, at the next Democratic presidential debate?
BASH: Well, you can bet that they are going to go after Bernie Sanders. There was a little but it got completely overshadowed by Mike Bloomberg because he was the new guy on the stage and he hadn't been challenged because he didn't sit down for a lot of interviews by people like us. And so they wanted to take the chance.
Just really quickly, Harry talked about Bloomberg in the context of money. Tom Steyer is not Bloomberg. I want to say that very clearly. I understand that everybody understands. But just look before we kind of go off of Nevada at how much money, especially compared to the other candidates, Tom Steyer spent on ads. $15.5 million on ads that -- and Bernie Sanders, who looks like he is just running away with it, spent even -- the next to that, and it wasn't even close, it was $2 million.
So it doesn't look like -- I mean, again, it's early, it doesn't look like he's going to get a lot of bang for that buck, but it also is a reminder that, yes, money got him on to the debate stage, it got him, you know, poll numbers, with regard to public opinion polls, but when it comes to the votes, he's spent a lot here and it doesn't look like it's going to pay off.
KING: He does have better standing in South Carolina. He's also spent a lot of time there in the state (ph). But, again, at some point, you have to perform. Steyer is up in the polls in South Carolina, moving up. We'll see if that holds up because he has spent a ton of money there.
BLITZER: Yes, money talks, as they say in politics.
All right, we're about to hear from Elizabeth Warren and get her take on the Nevada results. That's coming up right after this.
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[21:35:00]
COOPER: And welcome back. We are waiting to hear from Senator Elizabeth Warren, who is the only candidate I think other than Tom Steyer that we have not heard from so far tonight. We will also bring you her comments live as well. There is a statement being put out by her campaign manager that I think we have put on the screen, essentially saying -- there it is, some notes on the state of the race, the biggest debate shook this election up. The Elizabeth Warren -- sorry, the Elizabeth Warren -- I was looking at the wrong one. The Elizabeth Warren vote share appears to have gone up more than 50 percent between the early vote and those who caucused. We've raised $9 million in three days and more than 21 million this month.
JONSE: So her basic argument is that the debate is more important than the election. That's basically her argument. So, listen, if you want to understand where this thing is going, pay no attention to the election results, look at the debate and look back at the debate.
MCINTOSH: That's not what she is saying. She's saying she got considerably a bigger share of the vote (INAUDIBLE).
JONES: As I said.
BORGER: Well, I think we can't confirm those numbers just yet.
PHILLIP: I think the most important thing that she said is that they raised $21 million so far this month. Frankly, the fact that, okay, Bernie Sanders raised $25 million in January, that was by far larger than any of the other campaigns. $21 million at this stage in the campaign in February when she is polling where she is and performing in the elections, where she is, is a huge number and it's one that sets her up to actually make a play in the elections that come next because she has the financial resources to do it, whereas a lot of the other campaigns may not.
MCINTOSH: She brings more during that debate than any candidate in the Democratic field has, including Bernie, has raised during a debate. So it really was a major moment that does shake up the race. I don't think she is discounting the early voting.
SELLERS: In that tweet storm that he did, the two things that were missing were South Carolina and where she would actually win. No one can point to a state on Super Tuesday where Elizabeth Warren is poised to be a victor. And so I think that with all of the money she raised and an awesome debate performance, no one can still answer the very fundamental question of where does Elizabeth Warren --
COOPER: And we also can't confirm, by the way, any of that.
JONES: But it's worse than that, and that's as a technical matter, she can't spend that money quickly enough to save her in South Carolina, right? It's a technical matter. There're only so many people you can hire, only some of the ads that you can buy. And so that $21 million has to help her in Super Tuesday.
Super Tuesday, any state, California, you could blow --
BORGER: A lot of money.
JONES: You could blow through $21 million in California. That's one state out of 14.
So, listen, I'm not taking anything away from Elizabeth Warren. I think she has been the most phenomenal debater. Everybody calls her the best athlete on the field. I think that she actually helped to consolidate the progressive cause, even though Bernie benefitted from it, she made -- she really did a lot of the case-making for the progressive cause that is now supporting Bernie Sanders. And I think she still -- she could still pull off a miracle.
But I just don't -- this type of stuff, when you're basically trying to spin a disaster, I just don't like it.
BORGER: Right. And if you look at her -- I agree with you. When you look at her numbers with black voters in Nevada, it's low double digits. One of the entrance polls has her at 12 percent and Hispanics at 7 percent. This may be outdated by now, but, you know, it wasn't high up there by contrast, for example, Biden was at 34, 35 percent, and then Bernie Sanders 28, or whatever it ends up. So it wasn't as if she did well with the base of the Democratic Party that you're going to need in South Carolina.
But I think the point is she succeeded too late in breaking out of the pack. And that was a problem for her. But you have to have great timing in politics.
PHILLIP: And there is a debate coming up in a couple of days.
BORGER: But you can't do the old tricks. I mean, maybe she's got has something else up her sleeve.
YANG: I'm a huge admirer of Elizabeth's, but I referenced this a little bit earlier on. They made a very big bet early on in terms of hiring field organizers, not just in the early states but around the country. And those organizers are not something that you can just adjust and recalibrate that quickly. They're not like ad spending. And so they have a really fixed overhead that's higher than many of the other campaigns. They get these resources in. They have been playing it close to the bone in terms of the finances. They took out a loan recently, that I'm sure they have long since paid back.
But to Van's point, it's going to be hard to activate these resources in a way that's going to move the needle towards victory in one of the states that are coming. [21:40:00]
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. We are standing by to hear from Elizabeth Warren after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLITZER: All right. You're looking at some live pictures coming in from Seattle, Washington. That's where Elizabeth Warren's campaign headquarters happens to be tonight. She got out of Nevada a while ago.
David Chalian is taking a close look. David, we're going to be hearing from Elizabeth Warren fairly soon. You're looking at the exit polls and how some of these so-called second tier candidates, the entrance polls, I should say, of the second tier candidates today.
CHALIAN: Right. We've been talking a lot about Sanders' strength, obviously, and his big victory tonight, the other side of equation, where his opponents are doing strong and where you may see them try to extend that advantage. Among moderate voters, 31 percent of the electorate, same share size as the very liberal voters, that's where you see Biden at 25 percent, Sanders in there too, that's why he is doing so well, che is competitive here, and Buttigieg at 20. But you see, this is an advantage that Biden and Buttigieg are going to try to extend and build upon.
Take a look at opponents of Medicare-for-all. Again, the vast majority today support Medicare-for-all but 35 percent of Nevada Democrats today who are opposed to it, that's a group Joe Biden is winning with 29 percent of the vote followed by Pete Buttigieg with 23 percent of the vote.
[21:45:05]
So this is where they're going to continue to press their argument and expand that advantage.
Take a look at college graduates, white college graduates. They make up 37 percent of the electorate. This is another place where you see, yes, Sanders wins this group, 24 percent. Again, he had a very big victory today. But you see where Buttigieg is so competitive here, and then Klobuchar, Buttigieg at 20, Klobuchar 16. In fact, Biden is down at 15 here. So this is where one place we see Buttigieg really edging ahead of Biden.
And, of course, the Biden strength with African-American voters, they make up 10 percent, 11 percent of the electorate tonight in Nevada. Biden has 39 percent of those African-American voters. Sanders gets 27, 12 points behind. And you don't even see Pete Buttigieg on this board. You see Steyer at 16, Warren at 10, Klobuchar at 3. Buttigieg is down at 2. This is clearly a place that Biden is seeking to expand upon as he heads into South Carolina.
So those are the areas where you're going to see the non-Sanders candidate try to press their edge. But as we see tonight, Sanders is just so competitive with them in some of these places and owning other areas of the party, like liberals and young voters, Wolf.
BLITZER: That's a very important point. And, Dana, what, about 60 percent of the Democratic primary voters in South Carolina are African-American.
BASH: Right. I mean, that's why Joe Biden has said that it's his firewall, and he was speaking the truth. It is and could be. The flipside of it being a firewall is that if he doesn't do extremely well there, you say when, I mean, who knows, he is going to be in big trouble.
KING: He's segueing today.
BLITZER: He used that word.
BASH: Okay, so he did use, win. So he is setting the expectations high, which is quite different than from what the Biden campaign did for the first two contests of this cycle. So it's going to be a test for him but it also is going to be, which is the point that David was making there, interesting to see how Bernie Sanders does with that sector of the population, given the fact that if he is really in the hunt for the nomination, as it looks like he is, he is going to need to continue to pick up diverse voters in addition to the young people and the other sort of more -- the progressives, others that have been his natural base for a long time.
KING: It's a fascinating moment for all of the campaigns, but for Biden in particular. South Carolina does have a history of sort of shifting the Democratic race or writing the Democratic race. Barack Obama went in there in 2008, beat Hillary Clinton and proved he was a credible, viable, potential nominee, almost game over, that went out for a long time. But he locked up the support of the most reliable part of the Democratic Party. Hillary Clinton won there against Bernie Sanders.
Last time, she swept the state, that Sanders did not have significant support among African-Americans. What David just showed us there in Nevada is interesting in a sense that will see -- you see it when you talk to African-Americans this generational divide. A lot of the younger voters are with Bernie Sanders, because owns that age, the group across all demographics, racial and ethnic demographics. They stayed there. The older voters were with Biden.
And what does Tom Steyer do? Tom Steyer, again, he has spent a lot of money in South Carolina. A lot of his ads have been about climate change from the beginning in South Carolina. He went in early, he is targeting an African-American constituency. He decided to put a big bet on climate change. That is an issue that plays more with the younger constituency.
So does Tom Steyer somehow hurt Bernie Sanders there? Does he hurt Joe Biden there with African-American voters? Whatever piece he gets just coming from somebody else, that's part of the fascinating chess game of the week ahead.
BLITZER: And Senator Bernie Sanders, he did well with the Latino vote in Nevada today, which presumably bodes encouragingly well for him in California and Texas, where a nice percentage of the Democratic vote in both of those states is Latino.
BASH: That's exactly right. And that is at least right now, particularly in California, most of the polls show that he is doing extremely well. And that's when, you know, enter on to the stage Mike Bloomberg, who is spending gobs of money in California in order to try to eat into that. I mean you know, technically, he might not be eating into Bernie Sanders' support, maybe other people's support, but to eat into, since it is proportional, to the number of delegates that Bernie Sanders gets in a place like California.
BLITZER: Have we ever seen the kind of money that Michael Bloomberg is spending right now, $400 million already, approaching half a billion dollars, and you and I have covered politics for a long time, have we ever seen anyone spend personal money at that kind of level?
KING: in a word? No. If you go back to the Perot campaign as a third party candidate in 1992, Ross Perot spent a lot of his own money. They raised the money but he spent a lot of his own money particularly to get on the ballot, because that's a huge endeavor if you don't have an existing political party. But, no, there's been nothing like this. We were all aghast at Tom Steyer's spending before Michael Bloomberg got in the race. That was blowing anything in our history of a candidate using their personal resources to push in the race.
[21:50:05]
Then Bloomberg came in and it's blown past Steyer.
The question is to what effect. He had a very rough debate last week. Bloomberg is not on the ballot in South Carolina but he is on the debate stage Tuesday night. Bloomberg was the pinata for all of the other Democrats in that debate. Dana made the point earlier, you know that Senator Sanders is going to be more so and, you know, Bloomberg is going to try to reassert himself. So this debate Tuesday night for all of them, but for Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren trying to find her spot, Pete Buttigieg trying to appeal to African- American voters, Bloomberg trying to get his -- prove he belongs on that stage, fun. We have a very interesting, fun week ahead.
BLITZER: And we're standing by to hear from Elizabeth Warren. She's going to be disappointed in what's happening in Nevada right now, what happened clearly in Iowa and New Hampshire. We'll stand by to hear from Elizabeth Warren. Let's take a quick break. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: We are awaiting Elizabeth Warren. We expect her to be speaking. She's actually in Seattle this evening. We'll bring you her remarks live as they happen.
First, I want to go Dianne Gallagher though, who is standing by at the Democratic Party headquarters in Nevada.
So what is going on? Why is it we only have 11 percent of the votes? It's kind of late.
GALLAGHER: Yes. And, Anderson, it's very late. And we talked about this a little earlier today that the party had been measuring expectations, noting that because they had to have those three sets of data and because they have this special quality control that it was going to take a while to get results.
[21:55:11]
But this has been slower than expected by a lot of people who've been watching this here. I just spoke with Jon Summers, who's an adviser to the Nevada Democrats. He tells me that it is that quality control process that's holding up the results being published. They have to go through three levels of authorization, one of them being that phone call, the other being a text of the math worksheet.
But he said the party cannot post the result until they have cross- checked the physical worksheet that has been dropped off with them with the results that were reported through the phone and the text. And so as they go through, comb through those numbers, make sure they match, that's kind of been the holdup here.
Now, we're told they have plenty of volunteers in there, plenty of staffers who are still working through this but it's simply taking a lot longer to make sure everything matches, Anderson, and, of course, get those in.
Now, I did ask Summers if he could confirm that every single precinct had at least reported partial results, meaning that phone call or that text picture. He said he'd have to get back to me on that right now. They believed that's the case, but he wasn't 100 percent sure.
But, again, there's a lot of waiting around here. We've been watching these volunteers kind of walk out of the room here, watch room service carts come out of the area where we see the party members, and just sort of seeing this long process play out here. That verification process was extremely important for them because they are using that calculator.
There was a lot of mistrust from the public on whether or not they were going to be able to trust results. Instead of going off the calculator results, they said they would only use these paper results to make sure that it was official, that it had been cross-checked with everything else they received. And that, according to the party right now, appears to be the very long holdup that we're dealing with.
COOPER: Yes. I'd say, less room service, more votes. That's just me. I don't know much about it.
GALLAGHER: You've got to eat.
COOPER: Yes, you've got to eat. Dianne, we'll check back in with you. Hopefully, we'll be getting more votes soon.
Back with the panel here as, again, we're waiting for Senator Elizabeth Warren. Andrew yang, I've heard you saying this, as Dianne Gallagher was reporting. This hurts candidates. This hurts the candidates.
YANG: Yes. if I'm a candidate, I'm really angry. I was angry after Iowa. And I've tried to be forgiving about -- you know, it's like a technical failure. But imagine being a candidate or a campaign that spent months and months of your time, thousands of volunteer hours, staff, blood, sweat and tears and then them coming and saying like, hey, we don't know what happened, like it's incredibly frustrating. And if you're going to try to propel any of the candidates forward, you owe quick results to the American people.
To me, the best process would be primaries with ranked choice voting. And this is something I was talking to Van about. If you had ranked choice voting, Donald Trump would not be our president today because he was consistently getting 30 percent of the vote or so --
COOPER: When you say ranked choice voting, you just mean voting?
YANG: Well, it's just you vote and then you list, let's call it your three top candidates. And then your votes flow to whoever is left standing if your first choice, you know, isn't contending.
And so if you had ranked choice voting, let's say Jeb Bush -- like if you were a Jeb Bush voter, your second choice would be probably not Donald Trump. It was going to be someone else. And the same is true on the Democratic side. This is actually going to be a massive process improvement. And for people who are concerned about, let's say, an insurgent coming and running the table with 30 percent of the vote while you have four other candidates splitting the rest, ranked choice voting would help that immensely.
BORGER: Can we just say this has got to be the end of these caucuses? Harry Reid will kill me because he created this for Nevada and it's important in Nevada and important to the Democratic Party, enough for having three separate sets of answers or results for one caucus. I mean, this is crazy.
YANG: It's crazy.
BORGER: Have people vote. It's not fair to the candidates. And, by the way, it's not fair to the voters.
MCINTOSH: No. They're (INAUDIBLE) delegates with who gets a higher card in some cases. That is not democracy.
BORGER: It's just wrong. We've seen it in Iowa. We're seeing it again to a lesser degree tonight because there is a winner who has been declared at least. But it's ridiculous.
PHILLIP: Who's not really that mad about any of this is Bernie Sanders, who performed really well in caucuses in 2016, pushed for a lot of the changes that we're experiencing today, in Iowa with all the different numbers and various ways of declaring yourself a winner, and he is performing extremely well in Nevada under these rules. So Bernie Sanders is feeling really good. But for the other candidates and for the public, I think this is a little bit of a disaster because now you have the Buttigieg campaign and the Biden campaign both claiming second place and everybody is putting out their own numbers that are not verified by the Democratic Party.
[22:00:01]
MCINTOSH: And who knows what the Russians are doing.
PHILLIP: Everyone gets to declare themselves a winner. And I think what we saw --
YANG: And we all lose.
