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CNN Live Event/Special
CNN Projects Biden Wins VA, Sanders Wins VT. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 03, 2020 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: We certainly will. Voting is about to end in Virginia and Vermont, 150 delegates are on the line in those two states. Most of them in the key battleground of Virginia. Vermont is Bernie Sanders' home state.
And CNN can now project that Joe Biden will win Virginia, 99 delegates at stake in Virginia. Joe Biden will win the Democratic presidential primary in Virginia.
CNN can also now project that Bernie Sanders will win in Vermont. That's his home state, 16 delegates at stake. Bernie Sanders will win the Democratic presidential primary in his home state of Vermont. Let's go to reporters who are covering these two contests.
Arlette Saenz is joining us right now. She's over what's going to be Biden headquarters in California right now. Arlette, this is going to be very good news for the Biden team.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Yes, Wolf. It certainly is and it could be the first time that Joe Biden has benefited from the past 72 hours after he emerged from South Carolina with a decisive victory and also picked up a key number of endorsements from his former rivals as moderates are beginning, in some cases, to coalesce around Joe Biden.
And Biden also was trying to court African-American voters in Virginia. That is a key part of their strategy in Super Tuesday. We'll see how it turns out the rest of the night.
BLITZER: Biden will win in Virginia. Sanders will win in Vermont.
Ryan Nobles is there. You're at Sanders headquarters, they must be happy that the home state goes with Bernie Sanders.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes. No doubt about that, Wolf. This crowd obviously all Vermonters, they had the chance to vote for their home state senator today. Very happy that he was able to win in Vermont.
What we should point out, there has to be a degree of disappointment in the Sanders campaign that he was not able to win in Virginia. This was a state that Sanders spent a lot of time and especially in the closing days of the campaign. In fact, spending as much time in Virginia in the week leading up to South Carolina as he did in South Carolina. And the Sanders campaign felt that they had a number of gains in
Virginia. He spent time both in Northern Virginia in Richmond and in the Virginia Beach area. But it looks as though with our projection being as early as it came in, that this is going to be a decisive win for Joe Biden.
So not a good sign for the Sanders campaign this early on in the night that Virginia, a state that they thought could go either way is solidly in the Biden column. Certainly, they're glad to have the win here in Vermont. But the Virginia one is something that I'm sure they're disappointed on, Wolf.
BLITZER: I think you're absolutely right. They're pretty happy right now as we can see. Clearly, they're watching what's going on, on CNN, at the same time happy about Vermont, must be disappointed about Virginia right now. At some point, we're going to hear from all of these candidates right now. Let's go over to Jake and Dana, a big win for Biden in Virginia.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Yes, that's significant. Vermont has 16. Let's look at the board here or the tablet. Vermont has 16 delegates and that goes to Bernie Sanders. Virginia is a much bigger prize with 99 delegates. And obviously, Joe Biden winning Virginia does not mean he gets all 99 delegates. They're awarded proportionally according to how big the victory is and, of course, it's about 40 percent of the delegates we have in that way, 60 percent given according to who wins congressional districts.
So what really matters here is not just that Biden won, but more importantly, how big will he win. But with that said, that's a big victory. That was a competitive state or Commonwealth and the fact that Joe Biden, that were calling it for Joe Biden so early in the night suggests that it was a pretty big win, Dana.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. You just heard Ryan talking about the candor and how disappointing it is to the Sanders campaign that this is a W on the board for Joe Biden. Yes, it is proportional, it is unclear how many delegates he will get, but they have been playing all of the campaigns, especially, but the Biden campaign has been playing the congressional district game.
And by that, I mean, the delegates are also awarded by congressional districts. So for example, they got Bobby Scott, a very popular Congressman.
TAPPER: Very powerful.
BASH: A very powerful Congressman, who has an important district to endorse him and that matters a lot when it comes to the delegate count. You can't emphasize enough how much of a numbers game it is at this point. Having said that, it is also a psychological game.
And for Joe Biden to now have not one but two wins in his column is a very big deal for the Biden campaign, despite the fact that it is very early and there are a lot of contests left to talk about. TAPPER: And also we should just point out if we look at the board
here, Virginia will be a battleground state in the fall. South Carolina, which Joe Biden won last Saturday will not be, but Virginia he will have to win in order - is presuming whoever the Democratic presidential nominee is, Virginia they'll have to win in order to win the White House.
[19:05:01]
If you look at the board here, you can see that as of right now, there were 14 states in play and plus American Samoa at the beginning of the night. Now there are only 12 states in play. Joe Biden has won one, Bernie Sanders has won one. But Sanders, after the first three contests, after the Nevada caucus, we were all saying Bernie Sanders is the frontrunner.
I think it's fair to say he's still the frontrunner in many ways. But as of right now, Joe Biden is right on his back and Joe Biden as of right now leads in the popular votes.
BASH: There's one other quick thing that we need to point out, Michael Bloomberg. Michael Bloomberg, this is the first results that we have seen since Michael Bloomberg has been on the ballot. He played hard on Virginia just like everywhere.
TAPPER: He was just there yesterday.
BASH: And he was hoping to take this away from Joe Biden. The fact that we are calling it so early means that he wasn't even close.
BLITZER: Based on our exit poll information, David, you're taking a closer look at the exit poll information. How did he do it? How did Joe Biden win Virginia so quickly?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Very simply, he did it with black voters and he did it on the issue of electability. Take a look at the African-American vote in Virginia. It makes up about 27 percent of the electorate, roughly a quarter of the electorate.
Look at this lead. Biden gets 63 percent according to these early exit polls of the African-American vote. Sanders at 18 percent. That's a 45 point victory among African-American voters for Joe Biden. Michael Bloomberg, one of the things Dana said she was looking for in Virginia tonight how did he do with African-American voters? Only 10 percent of African-American voters according to this exit poll in Virginia.
Take a look at the electability factor, 55 percent of the electorate is looking for a candidate that can beat Donald Trump. Among those voters looking for a Trump defeater, 58 percent. A sizable majority go for Joe Biden, Sanders 39 points behind him at 19 percent, and Bloomberg and Warren both at 11 percent with those voters looking for a Trump defeater.
Now, in Vermont, how did Bernie Sanders win Vermont? Wolf, obviously, it's his home state, very liberal voters make up about 30 percent of the electorate there. Three out of every 10 voters say they're very liberal. Sanders wins them going away with 70 percent of them. Warren is behind him by about 51 points, 19 percent. She gets among very liberal voters.
And then take a look at this issue of looking for a candidate who can bring needed change, OK, that was for 44 percent of the electorate, that was the top candidate quality they were looking for. Well, Sanders in Vermont is that change agent for them. He gets 65 percent of those change voters. Warren' is not even close in second place, 50 points behind at 15 percent of those voters, Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: David Chalian, thanks very much. We'll be getting more numbers as they come in. I want to go to Governor McAuliffe. Let's talk about the win Virginia. What do you make - a big win obviously for Biden.
TERRY MCAULIFFE, CNN COMMENTATOR: Yes. We're down. I mean, a week ago this was a different race in Virginia. I think South Carolina was a huge opportunity for the vice president to take that momentum. Obviously, you saw the numbers in the African-American community very strong support in Virginia. It's a state that's urban, rural, suburban, it's got everything.
It's got military. It's got 27 military installations, the largest naval base in the world. It's a real composite of who America is and I think this is a huge win for Joe Biden. Because it goes to the electability for me in the general election, who can win in the state, it is broad, diverse, huge African-American population, Asian population, Hispanic, Latino, all in Virginia. It's a big.
Win to me what I want to see tonight is not only Virginia, North Carolina and Colorado. Those are three swing states that are critical for our victory in the general election.
TAPPER: How much time did Sanders and Bloomberg spend focused on Virginia?
MCAULIFFE: Oh, both of them were there extensively. Listen, Mike Bloomberg, the one thing people talk about what he has done on air and all the media has bought, he has a massive, Anderson, and very talented field staff. If you're into field operations, he has second to none. He had 80 field staff for months in Virginia. They knocked on 700,000 doors. They did 100,000 doors this weekend, Mike Bloomberg's campaign.
So we weren't on TV, the Biden campaign. So this was real (inaudible) ...
TAPPER: To point out, you endorsed Biden on Saturday.
MCAULIFFE: Yes.
JESS MCINTOSH, FORMER DIRECTOR OF COMMUNICATIONS OUTREACH, HILLARY CLINTON: And that's why this occurred. And that's why this occurred.
(CROSSTALK) VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: It's kind of a bumblebee
phenomenon right now with Biden. Like with Bernie, I've got a movement, I've got all of these people out there. With Bloomberg, I've got a money machine. With Biden, I've got me. That's what I've got. He doesn't have this great ground game. He's not on the air and yet somehow he pull this thing off.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: This organization thing is really, really interesting. We heard for many, many months, well, Elizabeth Warren has a great organization. Bernie has a great organization.
Organization is very important in politics, but it's like the - I'm going to make a football reference here, Anderson.
[19:10:01]
TAPPER: OK.
AXELROD: (Inaudible) for a second. But it's like the field goal team, you got to get down the field for the organization to make a difference and if someone has big momentum that overwhelms organization and paid TV is secondary in a situation like this where the free media coverage, earn media just overwhelms the ads.
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: And people want to vote for a winner with someone that they think is going to win. And you're talking about paid TV, David. Bloomberg, according to our numbers, spent $17 million, over $17 million of his own money on this. Biden's campaign, this doesn't include the Super PAC, Biden's campaign spent $233,000.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he did some radio ads.
BORGER: So there is a big difference, but nothing succeeds like success. People see a winner. They decide, well, maybe I'll vote for somebody else, but they're not going to have much of a chance. I want to be with the winner. That is what is helping Joe Biden right now.
Let me caution everyone, organization does count in a presidential campaign, should it be the nominee and also, and we're far away from that, and this is where the Biden campaign wants to be right now, because they want to rack up these numbers against Bernie Sanders who may know will do very well with the big prize at the very end of the night or tomorrow morning which will be California.
MCAULIFFE: One big thing to mention that was big in Virginia as well is the electability in the general election. We picked up three members of Congress last year. Two of them, Elaine Luria, who a Commander in the Navy and Abigail Spanberger, a CIA officer. A very tough district for Democrats to win.
They also wanted someone at the top of the ticket who would benefit them to keep them in office. That was a huge who would be the best at the top of the ticket and they wanted to run and Elaine Luria was with us in Norfolk on Sunday night, they wanted to run with Joe Biden because they felt he would be the best to help them win (inaudible) ...
BORGER: Spanberger just announced ...
MCINTOSH: That's she's going endorse ...
BORGER: ... she just endorsed Biden.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: So I do want to note that ...
COOPER: I just got to get this quick break in, a crucial win for Joe Biden in Virginia, a win for Bernie Sanders in the home state of Vermont. We'll get more results soon when polls close in North Carolina, stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:16:08]
BLITZER: All right. Just to recap, we've projected that Joe Biden will win Virginia, 99 delegates at stake in Virginia. A big win for Joe Biden. Right at the top of the hour, we made that projection. Bernie Sanders will win Vermont. That's his home state.
Two wins so far, one for Bernie Sanders, one for Joe Biden. We're waiting, Jake and Dana, Biden is expected to make some sort of statement. He's at a restaurant in Los Angeles right now, but we anticipate he will be making a statement. I'm sure he'll be very happy about Virginia.
TAPPER: He'll be happy. And look, there are 14 contests in the United States plus the American Samoa territory. And look, it's going to be a long night and it's very possible that we're going to see some really big early wins for Biden.
We have to keep in mind, California is really the hugest prize there and Senator Sanders was polling way ahead there last time we look. So certainly this is a great sign for Joe Biden for the fact that like two weeks ago, people thought he was going to have to drop out. His campaign has completely been resurrected with the South Carolina win. Now, we're projecting a victory in Virginia.
In between those two states we have, of course, North Carolina. We're going to find out in a few minutes. So far, it's looking good for Joe Biden.
BASH: And it's such an exciting night for those of us who follow this for everybody, because this could be so determinative. Virginia polls close early. It is very important for all of the reasons we've said, but polls are still open across the country and the other states and territories are still voting, including and especially the states that have the biggest prizes of the night, California and Texas.
So we should probably underscore that. People are still going and voting. This is just the beginning.
BLITZER: It certainly is. And Texas, let's not forget Texas, that's the second biggest prize of the night.
TAPPER: Very competitive there as well. Bernie Sanders has really done a lot in the last four years since his last presidential run to make inroads with the Latino community there. But we should point out, I mean, the Latino community in Texas is not the same as the Latino community in California. They're somewhat more conservative for Democrats and it may be that his message of change resonates more with the Latino community in the California than in Texas, we don't know.
But those are the two big prizes, Texas and California. Although, as we've talked about all night, this is a delegate game. This is a numbers game. Joe Biden, with what we believe will likely be a pretty significant win in Virginia where there are 99 delegates. Bernie Sanders picks up his home state of Vermont where there are 16.
So far, I mean, when it comes to the night, Joe Biden picking up the bigger prize.
BLITZER: Can we assume, Dana, that because Biden won decisively in South Carolina, now in Virginia, that some of the other southern states were waiting for those numbers to come in once the polls closed in North Carolina, let's say, or in Alabama or Tennessee or Arkansas that Biden will do well in those states as well?
BASH: That's certainly the hope in the Biden campaign. They were looking at the top and early four as narrative setting nights for the night. Obviously, Virginia, we've already seen, North Carolina and also they're looking at Alabama and Tennessee. There we're looking at those, glad that they are early nights when it comes to poll closing and the best terrain for Joe Biden, given where his support is, where he made clear his support was in South Carolina and then, of course, tonight in Virginia as well.
The concern going into tonight in Bernie Sanders' campaign, they were very candid about the fact that they also saw those four states as very good places for Joe Biden. And because some of the states that are better suited for Bernie Sanders, the polls don't close until later of the night that that will sort of set the narrative in a negative way for Bernie Sanders and they're just saying, OK, let's take a deep breath and remember.
[19:20:00]
And they're right, across the board, this is all about delegates and we might not know for quite some time because there's so many delegates at stake tonight, how it all adds up, all of the campaigns.
BLITZER: Yes. Jake, it's a critical night for Michael Bloomberg and Elizabeth Warren.
TAPPER: That's right and we're waiting to get the results from Massachusetts, Elizabeth Warren's home state or home Commonwealth and we'll see how she does there. If she does well there, then that could be a new lease in life for her campaign. She's fourth place in delegates right now, but if she doesn't she's going to have to do some thinking. We also have Maine. Maine is a state where Bernie Sanders did really
well four years ago. Is he going to repeat that again. And as you noted, you have all of these southern states.
Joe Biden's base, basically right now is African-American voters. And Alabama, where they also have an interesting Senate race going on a senate primary to who's going to run against the Senator Doug Jones, the Democrat.
In Alabama, last time, a majority of the Democratic vote not just a big chunk of it, but an actual majority, I think like 54 percent, 55 percent of the of the Democratic vote was black. So that's also a place where Joe Biden is looking to do very, very well.
BLITZER: It's a critical moment for all of these candidates. We're getting closer and closer to the end of voting in North Carolina. That's the third biggest delegate prize tonight. Will we be able to make a projection? Find out that's coming up.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:25:32]
BLITZER: All right. We're coming down to the half hour and our next chance to project a winner. That's when the polling places close in North Carolina. Democrats will divide up a hefty stash of 110 delegates in that state. It's all part of the bigger Super Tuesday battle for more than 1,300 delegates on the line tonight. That's more than a third of the total delegates that will be needed to decide the nomination.
Let's go over to John King over at the magic wall and we've already projected that Joe Biden will carry Virginia. Just moments ago, he reacted to that win. Listen to this feels.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: It feels good. Well, I don't know what the outcome or the actual results are, but it feels good and we're feeling optimistic, I think we're going to do well in some other states as well.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: How do you define success for you tonight?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLITZER: All right. So he's obviously happy. Let's see what happens in the other states, Virginia. Clearly a big win for Joe Biden right now. You have some results coming in from Virginia already.
KING: I do. A long night to go, but Joe Biden has every right to be happy, optimistic, confident at this point in the night. Stay with us for several more hours, we'll see how it goes. At this moment Joe Biden is now the leader in the national delegate chase because of what we've been able to allocate in Virginia so far. Senator Sanders won Vermont, a long way to go. So jumped to no
conclusions, but if you're Joe Biden, few weeks ago, you were struggling, now you're feeling a lot more confident. So what do we have? We have our first Super Tuesday votes right here. Commonwealth of Virginia, very tiny percentage in, 2 percent. We have a long way to go.
But we do know from the exit polls, the reason we're able to project Joe Biden the winner is because of this. He's opened up a big healthy lead. A lot of votes to count still, but look at that big healthy lead. Where is it coming in at the moment, the results are sort of scattered all around the state and they're coming in impressive for Biden everywhere.
Down here at Chesapeake County, near the beach area, Virginia Beach, Norfolk area down here, 56 percent of the vote down there. You come back up here, you're going out here along the border at Frederick County way out from Washington, D.C., 51 percent.
Move in Clarke County, you're coming closer to D.C., this way he's above 50 percent, move in one more Fauquier County, this used to be a reliably red Republican area. It's now trending more blue. It's a fight. Joe Biden 54 percent there.
If you pop out the whole picture, Bernie Sanders at the moment leading in one small county, Page County, in the Commonwealth of Virginia. But we've projected Joe Biden to be the winner here, because the exit polls backup this, opening up a big early lead.
So what do we watch, Wolf, is the results continue to come in, number one. Senator Sanders at 24 percent here that means he's viable. If that sticks, Senator Sanders will get some delegates out of Virginia. We got a long way to count to know how many, but this is critical tonight. Look for the 15 percent number.
Somebody is not in first, look down here, where are they? Are they viable? Are they getting any delegates? Senator Sanders looks like he will very much be in play for some delegates. Joe Biden in play for the most right now.
This is important, Elizabeth Warren 9.6 percent, Michael Bloomberg 8.4 percent, Tulsi Gabbard not in play at all. But Warren and Bloomberg both thought they could compete in Virginia, both thought they could appeal to suburban voters, both thought they could get on the board, especially for Michael Bloomberg, the first contest he's competing in today, Super Tuesday.
These 14 states, Virginia was one of the places he thought he would come away with delegates. We have a ways to go, but he needs to nearly double that where he is in the very early results to get into viability. So a big win for Joe Biden in Virginia, a very big disappointment from Michael Bloomberg. It appears the same for Senator Warren and we'll watch the numbers for Senator Sanders.
I just want to pop out here to see still nothing from the State of Vermont. We've been able to call this based on the exit polls. We don't have any votes in yet as well. But just a reminder, it's Bernie Sanders' home state, 16 delegates. He won in the walk four years ago.
The big question here is does anybody compete the same, the 15 percent. Hillary Clinton did not make it four years ago, can another candidate compete for some viability there? Let's come back to the 2020 map and pull it out to where we are tonight.
So Vermont is called. We can do this for you to look. If you want to see what the map looks like, if you call the races so far. So Senator Sanders won Nevada, he won New Hampshire and he's winning Vermont tonight. Joe Biden has won Virginia tonight and he won South Carolina last weekend. We got a lot to fill in and that's what makes tonight so fascinating, 14 states to fill in at all, so 12 (inaudible) ...
BLITZER: But they're about to close the polls in North Carolina.
KING: They're about to close in North Carolina. One thing I want to show you about that, you asked this question of Dana earlier, I just want to circle through here a little bit. The question is does the big South Carolina win? How much momentum does it create? How much momentum does it give Joe Biden as we push forward?
Now, campaigns don't always follow each other. But if you go back to the 2016 primaries and you look at the states, West Virginia went for Senator Sanders, but Hillary Clinton won Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, Joe Biden is hoping Tennessee votes tonight, North Carolina tonight, Alabama tonight. Wolf, Joe Biden is hoping what's happening in Virginia repeats itself.
[19:30:02]
BLITZER: All right. We're only seconds away from the end of voting in North Carolina, a hundred in delegates, once again, are on the line.
[19:30:02]
This is the biggest delegate prize so far in the Democratic race and it could be one of the most competitive battlegrounds.
Take a look at this.
All right. We have a major projection right now. CNN projects that Joe Biden will win the Democratic presidential primary in North Carolina, the third biggest prize of the night, 110 delegates at stake. Joe Biden is the winner.
This is his second win of the night. Earlier half an hour ago, we projected that he will win Virginia as well. Virginia goes to Biden, North Carolina goes to Biden. Two big wins for the former vice president.
He's got to be thrilled so far.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: That's right. You heard him sounding cautious there because, of course, the results are what he wants to wait for, the actual results not the projections. But out of three contests that CNN has projected, Vermont with 16 delegates and there's -- let's go to the map here.
Vermont with 16 delegates. That went to the Sanders pile. Biden, we've already projected Virginia and Virginia has 99. Now, let's color in North Carolina with 110 delegates.
So, that's a nice little Mid-Atlantic chunk that former vice president has there. North Carolina 110 delegates in Virginia with 99 delegates. Again, remember, this isn't winner take all like they have in the Republican contest and this is not the Electoral College with winner take all when it comes to electoral votes. These are going to be allocated proportionally.
So, it really depends on how big a victory it is for former Vice President Joe Biden. But once again, Dana, the fact we are calling it this early, the polls just closed and we are calling North Carolina. Half an hour ago, the polls closed in Virginia and we called that, suggests that it is a rather sizable victory for former Vice President Biden.
DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. The South Carolina effect is in full force this early in the evening. Obviously with Virginia but now with the neighbor to the North, North Carolina. And the Democratic electorates are pretty similar. And people who are very popular in both places like Jim Clyburn who helped give Joe Biden his win in South Carolina has been in North Carolina campaigning for him.
Again, the caution about we don't know how many of the huge prize of 110 will actually go to Joe Biden, but at least he's going to get a fair number.
The other quick thing is Michael Bloomberg. We have to say again he spent gobs of money in North Carolina, gobbled up really important endorsements, and it didn't buy him a win.
TAPPER: It's remarkable. Two things, one is the resurrection of vice president Biden's campaign which after the first three contests, he came in fifth in Iowa. People thought he wasn't even going to make it to Super Tuesday. Now he not only made it to Super Tuesday, he's won two of the three contests we've called.
And, of course, there are going to be 14 contests plus American Samoa. That's one, two. I saw an article a second ago where it said that Mike Bloomberg spent $18 million on ads in Virginia and Vice President Biden and his campaign and his allies spent under half a million dollars and yet it looks as though -- it's unclear, but Biden, obviously we're calling Virginia for him.
So, the amount of return that Mike Bloomberg is getting on his investment is going to be something he has to look into when he decides what to do after all the results were in tonight.
BLITZER: Biden had an impressive win Saturday in South Carolina as well. David Chalian, you're looking at the exit poll information. We projected that Biden will win North Carolina.
How did he do it?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Well, Wolf, he did it by using momentum, getting a lot of support with black voters, and, of course, the electability issue. Look here in North Carolina, 31 percent of the electorate said they made up their mind in just the last few days of who to vote for.
Joe Biden won 59 percent of those voters. We also see in the exit poll that the absentee vote was a slight edge for Joe Biden but the Election Day vote was huge. He is riding momentum off the South Carolina victory. Only 21 percent of the late deciders went for Bernie Sanders.
And you were talking about Bloomberg. Look here, 7 percent of people who decided in the last few days went for Michael Bloomberg. That is key and telling.
Take a look at the black vote, 27 percent of the electorate, roughly a quarter like we saw in Virginia with a similar result that we saw in Virginia, 63 percent of black voters in North Carolina went for Joe Biden, 16 percent for Sanders -- huge, huge margin of victory there for Biden.
And look again. Michael Bloomberg like in Virginia is only at 10 percent of African-American voters. His whole strategy was to make a run against Joe Biden's hold on the African-American vote.
[19:35:03]
And take a look at the electability issue, 63 percent, nearly 2/3 of the electorate in North Carolina today says they wanted a candidate who could defeat Trump. How those voters split, Biden got 47 percent of that huge part of the electorate that says they want a Trump defeater. Sanders only got 19 percent.
And if you thought Michael Bloomberg's electability factor was working, it's not. He only got 12 percent of those voters in North Carolina looking for a Trump defeater -- Anderson.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: David Chalian, thanks very much.
Let's talk about the numbers we're seeing so far -- Andrew, I see you've been making notes. What's the math tell you?
ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first the math says that half the delegates tonight will be awarded in Texas and California. So, we have to wait and see really what the outcome of the day is going to be.
I would say that hundreds of political science professors around the country have been waiting for today because they wanted to answer the question, what would happen if the candidates skipped the first four states, dumped hundreds of millions of dollars into advertising into Super Tuesday states? And to me, there are three drivers of support. There's grassroots support, earned media, and then paid advertising and paid field staff. And to me, you need all three working. Bloomberg maxed out the ads and
the paid field staff and I think he found out the money is pushing on a string after a while where you spend more money and it doesn't really have an impact.
COOPER: Abdul?
DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that's absolutely right. The good news is that you can't just buy an election. And I think we should all take that and have solace because of that. I think Tom Steyer and Michael Bloomberg are showing that right now.
I do think we have to remember that the big prizes tonight are still in the West and we've got a long time to go. But also say the big question with Joe Biden right now, to put a bit of an asterisk on these wins is can he do it without the crutch of the support of big name politicians in the states.
You have the Clyburn endorsement in South Carolina, you have my friend's endorsement in Virginia, and you have the full congressional delegation endorsing in North Carolina. So, the question becomes is he own his own robust enough? That's always been the question with Joe Biden. Is it the name ID plus a lot of friends, or is he on his own with message able to carry the day? And that's still the question.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: I guess in all these contests, he's going to have people who will endorse him. I mean, that's --
YANG: He's not going to be on his own the rest of the time.
(LAUGHTER)
HENDERSON: That's right. You have people come out and endorse you and stump for you.
I think, you know, these victories in North Carolina and Virginia when you go even deeper down South to states like Alabama, states like Arkansas, I imagine the victory will be even more conservative states, much more conservative than a state like North Carolina and Virginia. You do just see this Clyburn effect going all the throughout the South.
It was a remarkable couple of days for the vice president to put together -- the former vice president to put together all these endorsements. You call them a crutch. The endorsements and big rally in Texas, it will be interesting to see what the effect was in that state, and then, again, we'll see that later --
JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: That Clyburn endorsement wound up being as important as the Ted Kennedy endorsing Obama moment in 2008. Endorsements can mean absolutely nothing or they can be the kind of vouching, the kind of validator that a campaign needed exactly when they needed it, and that's clearly what Joe Biden got in South Carolina. So, I think we're going to have a long night. The big states are
coming later. This is a huge win. It's Clyburn's win just as much as it is Joe Biden's.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'm hearing a lot of joy and also a lot of pain from different sets of friends. On the one hand, I think there's joy there has been consolidation for the moderate lane, that the Democrats prove to be smarter than the Republicans in 2016 who kept dividing up the pie.
But on the other hand, you do have another set of Democrats who feel likes that an empire striking back, that there was a momentum that was real, there was a movement that had been a hard one and now crushed by consolidation of establishment Democrats. So, even though there's joy tonight and everybody loves Joe, so to see him rise from the dead is great, but this is still a divided party, and tonight could be pretty bitter.
YANG: That's the joke is that Bernie Sanders is the most unifying figure in the Democratic Party because all the Democrats have just unified because they were worried Bernie's going to run away with it.
COOPER: We're going to take a quick break. (INAUDIBLE) is coming up, and polls close in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Massachusetts, and Maine. Will Joe Biden extend his early successes? We'll get results in.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:43:27]
BLITZER: We've got another projection right now. Michael Bloomberg will win the American territory of American Samoa tonight. Six delegates are at stake.
Michael Bloomberg will win American Samoa.
You know, MJ Lee, you're over at Bloomberg headquarters at West Palm Beach right now. So, this is -- I guess he's not having a great night but a little bit of silver lining right now.
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And I have to tell you, one of my favorite details about the Bloomberg campaign that was flagged by intrepid Bloomberg imbed Caroline Kenny (ph) yesterday was that the campaign was that the campaign had seven full- time staffers in American Samoa, just goes to show and good reminder of the kind of resources that Bloomberg poured into this campaign.
But zooming back for a second, Wolf, just to talk about the conversations we've had with Bloomberg advisers heading into Super Tuesday, they have been very reticent to put a number on the number of delegates that they would need to win to feel like they had a good night. But one senior aide that I spoke to recently said that they do expect to pick up a significant number of delegates.
And these are the states that are up tonight where they expected to pick up some delegates. Those states are Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. So, again even though Bloomberg advisers have been reticent to put a number on the delegate math, we should have a sense of whether they pick up again, a significant number of delegates tonight and also, it should be a red flag if at the end of tonight, it looks like he may not be able to get any delegates in the number -- the six states I just listed before -- Wolf.
[19:45:05]
BLITZER: All right. MJ Lee in the West Palm Beach.
We've got a key race alert right now. Let's take a closer look at Virginia right now. Thirty percent of the estimated vote is now in. Joe Biden, he's got a very, very significant lead. 54.9 percent. He's almost 100,000 votes ahead of Bernie Sanders who's got 23.2 percent. The rest are trailing.
Let's go over to David Chalian right now to take a closer look at what's going on.
David, what are you looking at right now. Virginia, 99 delegates at stake. What does this tell you?
CHALIAN: Yes, it's a pretty big delegate prize like California and Texas, but 99 delegates, 30 percent of the vote in. As you noted, Wolf, I am looking all night long at 15 percent. That's the magic number.
So, take a look here. You see that Joe Biden for whom we have projected this state has 54.9 percent of the vote and you see that that is a huge lead over Bernie Sanders who has 23.2 percent of the vote. They are the only two people above that 15 percent threshold statewide.
Obviously about 40 percent of the delegates get awarded based on the statewide vote, about 60 percent roughly, again apportioned to district. But this kind of margin of victory for Joe Biden is going to net him a ton of delegates out of the 99 at stake in Virginia -- Wolf.
BLITZER: All right. David, thanks very much.
John King, we're looking closely at what's going on right now. So far for Joe Biden, it's a good night.
KING: It's a great start for Joe Biden in the state of Virginia. We need to remember we have a long way to go tonight, coast to coast tonight. We're still waiting for Maine, and we're going to go all over Southern California, Northern California, by the end of the night. So, it is early.
But Joe Biden knew because of Bernie Sanders likely victory in California, we'll get there and take the votes, because of the lead in California coming in, Joe Biden knew he had to start well in the Mid- Atlantic in the states that come in early. This is very well. Fifty-five percent to 23 percent. David Chalian was just mentioning 15
percent. If you're watching moments ago, MJ Lee at the Bloomberg event tonight saying they thought Virginia was a place, Mayor Bloomberg could start his race. It's the first time he's on the ballot with delegates at the moment, not viable.
You got to be 15 percent or higher to get delegates. Senator Warren is also not viable. She has struggled early on. This is a big night. This is testing time.
It's prove it. This is prove night for Senator Warren.
BLITZER: A third of the actual vote is in.
KING: Right, a third of the vote is in. On a night when Warren and Bloomberg need to prove it, prove they're viable, prove they have reasons to stay in the race early on, not so. We have a long way to go.
But it's very impressive for Joe Biden. Senator Sanders will get some of the 99 delegates, 99 at stake in the commonwealth of Virginia. I just want to show you, remember, Senator Sanders did win four years ago. Hillary Clinton won Virginia and she won it pretty handedly four years ago.
I just want to go back in time to show you, one of the things that you see, just trying to make a comparison, Senator Sanders did win some out here. If you see these counties borders West Virginia, smaller, rural, mostly blue collar. So, you come back here. Joe Biden is leading in these counties right now. Tonight Sanders competitive but these are very small counties, but Biden winning, Biden winning. Just the question is, is there a carryover when we go into Tennessee, when we go into Alabama, when we go into Arkansas, when we go into Oklahoma, is blue collar voters --
BLITZER: Show us that wider view right now.
KING: Yes, blue collar voters we think of as Bernie Sanders wheelhouse. The question is, is Joe Biden proving he can compete especially in the rural areas or is it just a one off in Virginia. It's early on. It's one state. You've got to be careful.
But if you go through the rest of the night, what Biden is hoping for, remember this is what started it, the win in South Carolina. So, what is he hoping for? We've called North Carolina, so North Carolina is blue, right?
So, look at what he's been calling for. Virginia and North Carolina already tonight. Tennessee is voting. Alabama is voting. Then you move through here. Arkansas and over to Oklahoma.
Joe Biden is hoping African-American support, conservative white support. He is hoping -- that looks a little messy the way I did it. But he's hoping to run it up here, run it up here early in the night, get wins, get delegates. Because he knows as we move on, A, the Biden campaign believes its competitive in Texas. Some in the Biden campaign are more competitive than people think in
Texas, but they also understand Bernie Sanders has fought hard there, invested hard there, and this the biggest prize 400-plus delegates in California, nobody will argue with advantage Sanders when you get there.
That math we'll do late tonight and into tomorrow and perhaps beyond if it's very close. This math is later on tonight, what Joe Biden needed to prove that meant something, South Carolina meant something. Virginia and North Carolina says, yes, it did.
BLITZER: Here's a look ahead at the polls that are about to close.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:50:23]
BLITZER: All right, we're heading into the busiest night of the -- busiest hour of the night right now at 8:00 p.m. Eastern. Only a few minutes from now polling places are scheduled to close in Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Massachusetts and Maine.
But we should note that voting in one Tennessee county has been extended because of the delay due to storm and tornado damage earlier in the day. A total of 268 delegates are on the line in the next round of contests. That's a good chunk of the 1,344 delegates being awarded tonight. That's more than one-third of the total.
Jake, what should we be looking for in a few minutes at the top of the hour?
TAPPER: Well, this is going to be a very crucial test, Wolf, for Senator Elizabeth Warren. Warren may face a very strong challenge from her top opponents in her home state, the commonwealth of Massachusetts. Bernie Sanders has been counting on a win in Maine, a state in his backyard. Joe Biden is hoping African-American voters are going to lift him up in Tennessee and in Alabama and build on his projected wins this evening in Virginia and North Carolina.
But Mike Bloomberg has made a strong push in Southern states as well, so let's check in with our correspondents.
First, we're going to go to Arlette Saenz with the Biden campaign in California -- Arlette.
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Jake. The Biden campaign is certainly happy about the way this night is starting. A Biden spokesman, T.J. Douglas, telling us that the Joe-mentum is real. That is the term that the Biden advisers had taken to using over the course of the past day and another advisor tells me this is the start of what they expect to be a good night and specifically looking at Virginia.
The Biden campaign believes that Joe Biden's win there shows it's a bad sign for Michael Bloomberg, who poured $18 million of his own personal fortune into that state and didn't have anything to show for it. They also believe that Biden's win there shows that Bernie Sanders will struggle in a state like Virginia, which they believe will be critical in defeating President Trump in the general election. Joe Biden will be here in California in just a short while.
TAPPER: All right, Arlette Saenz with the Biden campaign in California.
Let me go now to Ryan Nobles. He's with the Sanders campaign -- Ryan.
RYAN NOBLES, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake, the Sanders campaign cautioning us against reading too much into these early states whose polls close first. They know these are states that Joe Biden is stronger than Bernie Sanders is and they know their strength really comes when the map moves west, states like Texas, California and others.
So they're playing a long game here. They know there could be a couple of wins on the board for Joe Biden early on in the night but they are hoping as the night progresses, that Bernie Sanders will pick up some wins as well. You point to Maine and that's a state whose polls will close quickly. They hope they will have a win there as well.
But they don't want -- they are looking more toward the totality of this night, not just a state here or a state there. So the Sanders campaign essentially, Jake, bracing for a long night here on Super Tuesday.
TAPPER: That's right. About half of the delegates will be awarded in Texas and California, states that are very competitive where Sanders hopes to do well.
Ryan, thank you so much.
Let's go to MJ Lee. She's with the Bloomberg campaign.
MJ, Mike Bloomberg has his first delegates ever from the territory of American Samoa.
MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Jake, what's interesting is that heading into tonight, Michael Bloomberg himself and his advisers have said that they're not going to entertain even the idea that their first election night could be their last election night. One of the biggest signs is that where we are tonight is in the state of Florida. Florida is a state that has its election on March 17th. It is not a Super Tuesday state.
So in so many ways his advisers and the candidate himself have really emphasized that they are in it for the long haul. One of the advisers that I was speaking to in recent days compared sort of the task of building up a presidential campaign so quickly to flying an airplane at the same time as you are building it and that they really feel like as they get more time and head further into march that their disadvantage of not having so much time will start to erode.
Now, if -- about a third of the delegates are up tonight. They are also reminding everyone that two-thirds of the delegates will be up after tonight so again the Bloomberg campaign for the time being really trying to stress that they are in it for the long haul. As we have been talking about all night, all of that could of course change very quickly depending on what ends up happening tonight. Jake.
TAPPER: All right. MJ Lee with the Bloomberg campaign, thanks so much.
We are about five minutes away from polls closing in other key states.
[19:55:00]
Dana Bash, what are you looking for at the top of the hour, 8:00 Eastern?
BASH: Well, we, of course, have seen a strong wind for Joe Biden in South Carolina the other night, and tonight, Virginia and North Carolina. The question is whether Joe Biden can continue this trend in the rest of the about half a dozen Southern states holding contests today, Alabama, Tennessee. Polls are closing there at the top of the hour. Arkansas is another one tonight. They're all prime examples.
Democratic voters there are historically more conservative and racially diverse. And like South Carolina, Alabama and Tennessee in particular are states where the African-American vote went overwhelmingly for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders in 2016. I'm also looking ahead to the top of the next hour when polls close in Texas to see whether Bernie Sanders' campaign is still propelled by his huge support among Latinos, the group that gave him a big win in Nevada. In delegate-rich Texas, Latino voters are expected to make up a third of the electorate.
TAPPER: And you mentioned African-American voters Biden counts on. Virginia, North Carolina, Tennessee and Alabama, those are all states with sizeable African-American votes. They are about a quarter of the delegates up tonight.
David Chalian, what are you looking for?
CHALIAN: One of the things, Jake, that we keep mining in these exit polls to give us a clue is when people made up their mind. Looking ahead to these next states and this is because of what Arlette Saenz was talking about, that Joe-mentum as the campaign is calling it.
Well, take a look at Oklahoma, 47 percent decided in the last few days, 52 percent earlier than that, nearly half the electorate deciding in just the last few days. We see something similar in Massachusetts -- Elizabeth Warren's home state -- and 49 percent, half the electorate, just decided in the last few days, 51 percent earlier than that.
Again, if this is warren's home state territory, she certainly didn't bank a ton of vote because half of the electorate just decided in the last few days. In Tennessee, we see something a little different here. The last few days didn't have perhaps as much of an impact, 31 percent say they decided in the last few days in Tennessee. 68 percent, dramatically different than these other two states in Tennessee decided before that -- Wolf.
BLITZER: Thanks very much, David. This is very interesting. The pledged delegates so far, Biden is ahead of Bernie Sanders but it's going to be a long night.
KING: These numbers will change dramatically as we go from the three states we've called so far across the board and fill them in. They will change dramatically.
If you're Joe Biden, you're glad to be off to a good start. Right now, right now, you are the leader in the delegate chase. We've got a long way to go and it takes 1991 to have a majority at the convention. So, we've got a ways to go in this fight.
Let's look at where we are and what's important is what's happening tonight. Joe Biden gets the big win Saturday in South Carolina. He hoped what it would give him what the campaign calls Joementum. And to tonight, look at Virginia filling in, we're up to half the vote.
Just take a look, there's very little Sanders glue. And a ton, a ton, you got a little bit down here in the state capital of Richmond, Richmond City right here and it's very close, Sanders ahead there and it's a tiny percent of the vote so we've got a ways to go here.
But at the moment, at the moment, the point I'm trying to make here, is Virginia is looking a lot like South Carolina. And that is what Joe Biden wants. North Carolina, polls are closed. We haven't gotten any votes because one precinct was kept open to extend voting there.
So, we don't have any votes yet. But you see South Carolina, you see Virginia. We've already called North Carolina. Joe Biden is just counting on it to fill in as we get that and come in here.
If this is just -- if you look at the sweep of this, and again, the question is does it carry over. David Chalian was just talking about Tennessee. We're going to go to Alabama, we're going to go to Arkansas.
It is Joe Biden winning in the suburbs like he is up here, we're getting out to the exurbs --
BLITZER: Is Sanders running second in all these counties where Biden is winning?
KING: Let's take a look at that. Right now the point you make, I'll bet you the answer is question because on the viability question, do you get delegates? And this is 99 delegates in Virginia. That's a healthy basket of delegates.
Right now, Biden and Sanders are the only two viable. So, you can take a peek at here, and you look out from here, is Sanders running first anywhere? Just a little bit there. Second, yes, third in a couple places. So there are only a couple of places where he's even running third.
Right now, Senator Sanders is competitive. That's why he's getting some of the delegates because he's second in most of these counties. Right now, you have a sweep for Joe Biden. I just want to pull it out to the rest of the map of what we've done so far.
Obviously, we've already projected Vermont. There's only a few results coming in here, but Bernie Sanders winning Vermont big. The interesting piece of this, Joe Biden at the moment is viable in Vermont so he will get some, a couple maybe of the 16 delegates. Again, no one else viable there.
We pull it back and wait. We're about to get North Carolina results. I'm just checking. First results in North Carolina right there coming in. Just a small little Gaston County down here so we're starting to get results there as well and we'll fill in the board all night.
BLITZER: We certainly will. Polling places are about to close in five states -- Oklahoma, Tennessee, Alabama, Massachusetts and Maine. A total of 268 delegates are on the line.
