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CNN Live Event/Special

Super Tuesday Arrives; High Stakes Night: 14 States Voting in Dem Primaries. Aired 4-4:30p ET

Aired March 03, 2020 - 16:00   ET

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

[16:00:01]

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Martin Savidge, thank you so much, in Birmingham.

Quick check of the Dow. And we can see it is still dropping after the Federal Reserve announced its biggest rate cut since the 2008 financial crisis. Of course, this is all from the coronavirus outbreak.

I'm Brooke Baldwin. Thank you for being with me.

Special CNN coverage of Super Tuesday starts now.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We're closing in on the first results for a blockbuster night of presidential primaries.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: The Democratic candidates who are still in the race are being tested like never before.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NARRATOR (voice-over): Right now, the Democratic race is going coast to coast, and two leaders are going head to head.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The Democratic establishment is getting nervous.

JOSEPH BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Democrats want a nominate who's a Democrat, a lifelong Democrat.

NARRATOR: Fourteen states are voting, as the field has been shrinking.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am running to defeat Donald Trump.

SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Right now, I can feel the momentum.

NARRATOR: Who will rise or fall on this Super Tuesday? It's America's.

Tonight, the 2020 hopefuls compete for hundreds of delegates that decide the nomination, Bernie Sanders aiming to lock in his lead and spread his political revolution.

SANDERS: And I hear the establishment saying, oh, Bernie can't win. Take a look at this crowd today and tell me that we can't win the election.

NARRATOR: Joe Biden on the rebound after his first win was a blowout.

BIDEN: We are very much alive. This campaign is taking off, so join us.

NARRATOR: The rest of the pack seeking a path forward.

Mike Bloomberg making his primary debut with millions to spend.

BLOOMBERG: If you are ready to clean out the Oval Office and get things done, then welcome to Bloomberg 2020.

NARRATOR: Elizabeth Warren finding new fire on the attack.

WARREN: You don't get what you don't fight for. I'm fighting back. We can do this.

NARRATOR: Now it's time for voters to have their say.

BIDEN: It's time to get up, take it back.

NARRATOR: The Democrats are taking their fight to new battlegrounds.

SANDERS: I am absolutely certain that we are going to defeat Donald Trump.

NARRATOR: And this is the most important primary night yet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center.

We're counting down to the first votes on this Super Tuesday. It's a critical night for the Democrats, after three momentous days that left only a handful of candidates fighting for the presidential nomination.

We're following primaries in 14 states across the country, with new results coming in all through the evening. At 7:00 Eastern, polls close in Virginia and Vermont. A half-hour later, we will look at results from North Carolina.

At 8:00 Eastern, voting ends in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Maine. At 8:30, the focus is on Arkansas. At 9:00 Eastern, all polls close in Texas, Colorado, and Minnesota.

Texas has the second biggest pool of delegates tonight. An hour later, we head farther west to Utah. And at 11:00 Eastern, the top prize, California. It has more delegates than any other state in the nation.

A total of 1,344 delegates are up for grabs on this one night. That's about one-third of all the delegates at stake in all the contests this primary season.

We will get our first clues about the outcome tonight when we roll out our first exit polls in the coming hour.

Jake Tapper, what are you looking for tonight?

TAPPER: Well, Wolf, there are nearly 10 times as many delegates on the line tonight than in the first four contests combined. That gives Senator Bernie Sanders a chance to rack up a commanding lead in the delegate race.

But Joe Biden is now in a stronger position to get in Sanders' way, after that South Carolina blowout Saturday and the endorsements of former rivals Pete Buttigieg and Amy Klobuchar. We're going to be looking to see if one of them or neither of them is on a path to the nomination.

Don't forget, Mike Bloomberg will be on the ballot for the first time today, spending millions, hundreds of millions, as he challenges Biden to be the leading moderate alternative to Sanders. We will see if Bloomberg or Elizabeth Warren can win some of those precious delegates in any significant way.

How Warren does in her home Commonwealth of Massachusetts tonight may be crucial in any decision she may make about her campaign.

Our correspondents are fanned out across the country covering the primaries and the candidates.

[16:05:03]

Let's go first to Ryan Nobles. He's covering Bernie Sanders -- Ryan.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Jake, there's no doubt a lot of voting that needs to take place here tonight, but the Bernie Sanders campaign knows that, in the very near future, this race is likely to become a head-to-head matchup.

And this is something they have been preparing for from the very beginning. And, in fact, the campaign sending a memo to its supporters saying that they're prepared for that head-to-head matchup.

And they're specifically prepared for it to be against Joe Biden. And in an interview with me this morning, Faiz Shakir, the campaign manager for Bernie Sanders, told me that he views Joe Biden as the perfect foil for Bernie Sanders.

He said that both Sanders and Biden have been serving together. They have been a part of some of the most important policy decisions in American history over the past two decades. And when you compare the Sanders record to the Biden record, Shakir argues that Sanders has been on the right side of history, and that Biden has been on the wrong side of history.

Jake, the Sanders campaign is ready to make that argument to the American people. They believe that argument begins tonight on Super Tuesday. They still view this as a relatively long slog until the primary day. They know they have to win a head-to-head matchup. And they believe that head-to-head matchup starts tonight -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Ryan Nobles, thanks so much.

Arlette Saenz is with the Biden campaign -- Arlette.

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Well, Jake, Joe Biden says that his hopes are high heading into these Super Tuesday contests, after a race-shifting 72 hours that featured a decisive victory in South Carolina and a trio of endorsements from his former rivals.

A Biden adviser I spoke with said that their long-term strategy of using South Carolina as a springboard for the nomination is playing out in real time right now, with that wave of endorsements across the country and also an influx of cash.

Now, the Biden campaign is hoping to do well in Southern states with large African-American populations like Alabama. They're also seeing some signs of hope in Virginia, as -- after a few endorsements from that state had poured in.

One Biden adviser I spoke with said that they think they have a chance of doing better everywhere after these past three days. But one thing to remember is that Joe Biden is outspent and is outmanned on the ground on the ground here in many of these Super Tuesday states.

So the question for Joe Biden going forward is, can he convert the biggest 72 hours of his campaign into actual results at the ballot box and momentum going forward?

TAPPER: All right, Arlette Saenz with the Biden campaign, thanks so much.

I'm here with my colleague Dana Bash.

Let's take a look at the 14 states that are voting right now. These are the Super Tuesday states. Obviously, American Samoa is also part of this, although not on this map. And right now, we're going to be just looking as to see what is going to happen.

Now, keep in mind, obviously, this is not the same thing as electoral votes. It's not winner take all, like in Republican primaries. So Sanders theoretically could do well in the West. Biden could do well in the South

We also expect, of course, Sanders to do well in the Northeast, although Elizabeth Warren has her home state there as well. And what's important here is that there are a lot of different strengths and weaknesses that the candidates have.

We do expect that Biden will do better in the South. We do think that Sanders will have a good time in California and perhaps even Texas.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And you just kind of alluded to this. The states holding contests

today really are representative of the Democratic electorate as a whole, very diverse ethnically, economically and geographically.

That means we're going to get a better picture of how the remaining candidates fair across the board with these key groups inside the Democratic Party. Now, inside each state, the campaign will be looking at turnout in places that represent their traditional supporters.

For example, a Sanders campaign source tells me that they will be looking at college towns across the 14 states voting tonight, since young voters are, of course, a huge part of Senator Sanders' base. If the turnout is up there, they will feel good about how the night will go.

The Biden campaign will be looking at areas that represent groups that he tends to do better among, older voters, African-American voters, and, as you just noted, particularly voters in the South.

TAPPER: In the Deep South and also in the new South, Virginia, North Carolina also voting today.

One more thing to watch that impacts the race for the White House both today and, of course, in November, the stock market. The Dow Jones industrials just closed down almost 800 points, adding to the sell-off that we have been seeing, as coronavirus fears rock Wall Street and global markets -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We're also getting closer and closer to our first exit poll results, Jake, and early clues about what to expect tonight.

Our special Super Tuesday coverage continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:13:48]

BLITZER: We're only about 46 minutes away from the top of the hour, when we will be able to share with you the first exit poll information.

John, we're going to have a very busy night over here at the Magic Wall, 14 states and American Samoa. Tell us what you're going to be looking for.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's a lot of fun, right?

BLITZER: Yes.

KING: This is a coast to coast, if you will, 14 states from the tip of Northern Maine to the tip of Southern California and beyond to American Samoa, 14 states, a giant test for the candidates.

Here's one way to look at it. Let's look at it in terms of what we have right now. So far, in the first four states, we went through February one at a time, 4 percent of the delegates, right? Just tonight, Wolf, more than a third of the Democratic delegates are going to be decided in these 14 contests, plus American Samoa.

So you cannot overstate the moment for the candidates. This is ginormous for them. And now the three biggest prizes, California out West, Texas toward the West, North Carolina in the East, so the three biggest prizes when it comes to delegates trying to get the math to get to the nomination in these three states, but plenty of others as well.

Here's where we start, a relatively modest number of delegates allocated so far, which is why the math tonight gets so critically important. So, a number of themes as we go through it and look at some of the states here.

Number one, the states in these lighter gray, at home, are the states on the ballot tonight. We have some regions to look at.

Elizabeth Warren's home state of Massachusetts, can she win it? She does not have a primary win yet. She needs a win.

[16:15:01]

Look at home, Bernie Sanders, state of Vermont, he won huge there four years ago. We expect that again.

What will happen in Maine? Maine also in the ballot tonight. Sanders won it four years ago. We'll see how that one plays out tonight.

That's one region to look at here. Then you come down here. You look at the states here, the light gray states -- Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama.

If Joe Biden is going to get a bounce out of South Carolina, especially with the African-American vote, we will see it here. And they're to the east, so Biden should start, if he's going to have a strong night, we should know early on as we start to count, as we go across.

Put Arkansas in there as well. We'll see what happens in Arkansas.

Going to blank this out now. This way, the two biggest prizes, Texas and California. I want to change the map a little bit for us here and just bring this in, and come up here, and look at the two sets of colors. What are you looking at with the two sets of colors?

The shading here, the darker it is, is the African-American votes, right? This is what Joe Biden's constituency in South Carolina, the reason for his big blowout win there. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Alabama, over to Arkansas.

This is a big test for Joe Biden. Does he get momentum out of South Carolina with the endorsements? Can he capture some delegates early on?

Because Bernie Sanders, you move west here now, see that green? The darker it is, the higher the intensity, meaning the bigger the population. That's the Latino vote.

California as well. Senator Sanders worked this so hard. We expect that to be his constituency today. The margins will matter. But when you go through the states, and the congressional districts within them, Bernie Sanders' delegate strategy in Texas and in California, built on the Latino vote. That will be something fascinating to watch.

Let's blank this out. One other big thing tonight, Michael Bloomberg not on the ballot in the first four contests, this is the first big test for Bloomberg. So, where will see that? Well, here's one way to look at it.

You come down in here, come back up to the top here. Wrong one. Where did it go? Bring it here. Bloomberg. Where did Michael Bloomberg spend his money, right? The darker it is, the higher the spending.

He spent $235 million in Super Tuesday states, Wolf. So, what will the test be for Michael Bloomberg?

Well, number one, it overlaps with Joe Biden, doesn't it? Virginia, North Carolina, states where Joe Biden needs to do well, Bloomberg spent a lot there. Can he cut in with big delegate prizes in Texas and California, or was that money not well invested by Mayor Bloomberg? We will see that tonight as well.

Bloomberg is the only one who could spend everywhere. With Amy Klobuchar out for example, does that help him in her home state of Minnesota? Does Joe Biden get that vote or does Bernie Sanders win up there?

So, a number of things we want throughout the night as it plays out, including the Bloomberg effect. But the main thing to think about is this, for the first time, we have 14 states that go from coast to coast, Wolf. It's a very diverse electorate. It's a very different electorate. You have the wealthiest county in America voting tonight. You have one of the poorest counties in America voting tonight. There's a lot of ground to cover, a lot of different constituencies and demographics to look at and it will be fun.

BLITZER: Yes, and it will be very, very intense, John. Thanks very much.

David Chalian, you and I are going to be busy over here when the votes start coming in and we get a sense of what's going on. What specifically are you going to be looking for?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, the very specific thing we should all be looking for tonight is the number 15 percent. That is the number you need either in the statewide vote total or by district, congressional district or in Texas, state Senate districts, in order to accumulate delegates. So that's what you need to be viable to collect delegates.

And I want to show you just what it means to have proportional allegation of delegates, Wolf, because it's not winner take all. And real margins matter here. So, take a look at New Hampshire, for example. This is -- these were

the results of the New Hampshire primary. You see the 24 delegates were at stake, in New Hampshire.

Bernie Sanders came out the winner with 25.6 percent of the vote. Pete Buttigieg was just less than 4,000 votes behind him -- 1.3 percent behind him at 24.3 percent in the vote. Certainly Sanders won the primary, but I want to show you how this translates into the primary picture. Look at this -- Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders each got nine delegates out of the New Hampshire primary. Equal, even though Bernie Sanders won. But it was a narrow win.

So, because of the way the formula works, nine delegates to Buttigieg, nine to Sanders. And Klobuchar who had gotten 19.7 percent of the vote, above that 15 percent threshold, got six, tied in the delegates for the two leading candidates there.

BLITZER: It sort of suggests that when the margin is wider, much wider, potentially there could be a significant shift in the delegates.

CHALIAN: And we have a real world example of that from just this past Saturday in South Carolina. Joe Biden's huge victory in South Carolina -- 54 delegates were at stake, he got 48.7 percent of the vote. He was out on top by 155,000-plus votes over Sanders, who got 19.8 percent, again, above that magic 15 percent for delegates.

But when you have a victory this big, look at the delegate allocation. It matters.

[16:20:01]

The margin matters. Joe Biden got 38 delegates of the 54 out of South Carolina. Bernie Sanders only got 15. We still have one delegate, we're waiting for provisional ballots to come in to allocate it.

But, Wolf, look at that. That's a 23-delegate lead out of South Carolina alone for Joe Biden because of how big his victory is.

BLITZER: So, remind us where we are right now going into the today, Super Tuesday, as far as the delegate count is concerned.

CHALIAN: So, this is delegates to date, right? Look up there. You need 1,991 delegates to win the Democratic nomination. This is the thing that matters. This is how you determine the Democratic nominee.

Look at where we are now -- Bernie Sanders with 60 delegates after the first four contests. Joe Biden just seven delegates behind at 53 delegates. Pete Buttigieg, as you know, has dropped out of the race. He had earned 26 delegates. Elizabeth Warren with eight, Amy Klobuchar also dropped out. She had earned seven delegates.

But you see here, that Biden/Sanders delegate accumulation throughout this whole night tonight, when a third of the delegates are at stake, that is what to watch. We may not know who's the nominee after tonight, but we are going to know if this is going to be a long-haul contest all the way to the convention, or if somebody is getting such a delegate lead that they will be the clear front-runner.

BLITZER: The next seven hours will be critical indeed.

We're watching all of this unfold very, very closely. Much more of our special coverage coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Fourteen states in play today. First polls closing at 7:00 p.m. in Virginia and Vermont. We're also expecting the first exit polling information in about 30 minutes from now. We're obviously going to bring that to you as we take a look at it.

Let's get a quick update on what folks are looking for here. Michael Smerconish?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The victory in South Carolina for Joe Biden come too late or was the timing just right?

COOPER: A lot of early voting has already taken place.

SMERCONISH: Yes, a lot already baked in, a lot of votes already cast in California in particular. And too late to be able to capitalize on it from a fundraising standpoint and spend the money on TV. Yes, he raised money but really couldn't put it on the airwaves.

On the other hand, you know, what's the value of a news cycle? It's been all about Biden for the last 48 hours. He picks up two significant endorsements. So, that's what I most want to see tonight.

KIRSTEN POWERS, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes. Well, I mean, that's a lot of what we're all looking to see how he performs in other states that have similar populations to South Carolina, will be interesting to see. And I think Bloomberg, this is the first time that he's going to be on the ballot, to see, you know, what kind of role he plays in terms of are people going to react to the fact that he's basically just been running ads?

And, finally, where -- what's going to happen with the endorsements? Are these people going move to Biden as a lot of people think? Or are they going to be splitting their votes between a lot of different people?

COOPER: Also, Kirsten, I mean, Mike Bloomberg shows no sign of wanting to get out at all.

POWERS: Right, which is odd because he claimed the reason he was get into the race was basically to stop Bernie Sanders and he didn't think Joe Biden was up to it and now, you basically have him as the only moderate lane person left.

COOPER: And also saying that really the only way he can win is a contested convention.

POWERS: Right. So, it's not --

COOPER: Which means he's --

(CROSSTALK)

POWERS: It seems like if it were really -- if that was your primary concern, that he would drop out. I mean, that's what I would do if I was him.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS EDITOR AT LARGE: Bloomberg can withstand $500 million in spending, but I think it's an ego thing. At some point, it's like, well, I spent -- I mean, these numbers are mind boggling. I just want to go over -- $77 million in California, $56.5 million in Texas. I think there's a level at which Bloomberg says, I kind of want to see what voters actually think. I know what the polls say, but I want to see what voters think.

But yet, Kirsten is right. I mean, the fundamental understood lying theory of his campaign has eroded in the last 72 hours since Joe Biden did as well as he did in South Carolina.

COOPER: It's sort of his worst-case scenario.

CILLIZZA: Absolutely.

COOPER: I mean, he was banking on Biden fading and not having this consolidation.

CILLIZZA: It is a remarkable thing, that you look at February 3rd, after Iowa, there's no consensus, right? It's chaos, just broadly speaking, but then it comes out where Biden has finished fourth. Then after New Hampshire, Biden has finished fifth.

And now, if you're Mike Bloomberg, you know, all those stories are Bloomberg tripling down on his, you know, Bloomberg doubling his spending. And again, $77 million in California, $56 million in Texas, the problem then became Nevada. He started to build momentum and then South Carolina, I think he won bigger.

We were all here. He won bigger certainly than I even thought was possible for him to. The other -- only other point --

COOPER: The other problem was Mike Bloomberg actually appeared from behind the curtain and --

CILLIZZA: That's right, you can't just run ads. I mean, I was struck. We were -- I was watching the debate in South Carolina, and you would be watching the debate. And Bloomberg would be better than he was in the Las Vegas debate, but not good.

COOPER: Yes.

CILLIZZA: And then they would have -- you go to commercial and be like, hey, this guy, Mike Bloomberg, pretty appealing guy. And then you come back and like, what happened to the ad guy? I mean, that's -- that's just the reality. You can't just run ads.

COOPER: Bakari Sellers, it's gong to be a long time, and a lot of information we may not have at the end of the night. California, you know, likely, we will not --

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's going to be a long night. Buckle up, I've always told people that what we know is absolutely nothing, and this is going to go to the convention. So, it's just going to -- just relax. I think that Joe Biden is going to do extremely well throughout to South.

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