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CNN Live Event/Special

Trump Wins Presidency; GOP Takes Senate, House Still Undecided; Harris Has Reached Out To Trump, But Has Yet To Connect; Trump Elected 47th President Of The United States; Rick Scott: I'm A "True Ally" Of Trump In Senate GOP Leader's Race; Source: Harris To Make Concession Speech At 4pm ET; Voters Express Economic Discontent At The Polls. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired November 06, 2024 - 12:00   ET

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

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR, THE SITUATION ROOM: Hello. I'm Wolf Blitzer alongside Erin Burnett. I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR, ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT: All right, several battleground states. Wolf, we're still waiting for results, still being counted. But let's just be clear. This race to 270 is over. This is CNN special coverage of Election Day in America continue.

BLITZER: Donald Trump returns to the White House. The president elect pulling off potentially the biggest political comeback in American history. Remarkably, Trump made significant gains in nearly every demographic group across the country. And now is on track to win the popular vote as well, something he failed to do in his previous two presidential runs.

Also, at stake right now. The balance of power in Washington, Republicans have flipped the U.S. Senate. We're learning they're growing more and more confident. They'll also keep control of the House of Representatives. More on that in a moment.

But first, we have a key race alert for you right now.

Let's take a look at the key race alert, starting in Michigan with its 15 electoral votes. 98 percent of the estimated vote is now in, Trump has a lead of nearly 100,000 votes, 49.8 percent to 48.2 percent for Kamala Harris.

In Arizona and its 11 electoral votes, 63 percent of the vote is in, Trump has a lead of 51.9 percent to 47.2 percent, a lead of more -- slightly more than 100,000 votes over Kamala Harris in Arizona, another key battleground state.

Nevada and its six electoral votes, 88 percent of the estimated vote is in, Trump is ahead in Nevada, 51.5 percent to 46.8 percent, a lead of nearly 60,000 votes for Trump over Harris in Nevada. Right now, just hours from now, the Vice President Kamala Harris will be speaking after conceding to Donald Trump.

CNN's Priscilla Alvarez is over at the Harris campaign headquarters in Washington, D.C. Kristen Holmes is over at the Trump headquarters in West Palm Beach, Florida. Let's start with Vice President Kamala Harris. We're told she has reached out to Trump to concede but has not connected yet with him. Priscilla, what else do we know?

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, she wants to connect with him before she delivers her remarks at her alma mater of Howard University later this afternoon. Recall that this was where she was also having her election night party last night. She did not give remarks, then she will be giving remarks today.

But certainly, the feeling among Harris allies, those close to the campaign and those in the campaign is a sense and state of shock and disbelief. That is what I have been hearing over the course of the morning, including in the early morning hours of today. One source saying their stomach was in knots.

Another saying that they felt, quote, terrible, and yet another saying that the can -- that the mood among campaign officials was gloomy. That it was the results that came in in Pennsylvania, which had been a linchpin of their strategy to 270 electoral votes. That really was, as this person put it, the nail in the coffin.

The reason this has been such a shock among those close to the Harris campaign is because privately and publicly, senior campaign officials had been projecting confidence and optimism over the course of the day yesterday, essentially citing internal data and suggesting that some of those undecided voters, from the voters that they had been targeting were leaning toward the vice president.

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The results show that was not entirely the case, and some of those -- some of that has already led to finger pointing, especially -- for example, the strategies deployed to reach those disaffected Republicans. We have seen that some of those red counties stayed very much red and included higher margins for former President Donald Trump.

So certainly, a reckoning within the party and the campaign as they look forward to today. But we are also told that the vice president, when she gives remarks today, intends to implore her supporters to respect the outcome of this election and to urge supporters to find common ground. Certainly, we'll hear more on all of that later this afternoon when the vice president speaks at Howard University. Wolf?

BLITZER: And we'll have live coverage, of course, to be sure. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you very much. I want to turn to CNN's Kristen Holmes right now. Kristen, what are you hearing from the Trump team down in West Palm Beach?

KRISTEN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, if I do want to quickly touch on this idea that Harris has been reaching out to Donald Trump. We have reached out to several senior advisers, to campaign staff, to see why exactly Harris has been unable to reach the former president. We have not heard back yet.

But when it comes to the former president, look his team clearly celebrating, they've been celebrating since last night. They were projecting a cautious optimism. And then, of course, we saw what happened last night when Donald Trump won the presidency, or I guess, early this morning.

One thing that they're contending with this morning is that the knives are already out. It's not just talking about at the campaign level, but in Donald Trump's whole orbit. I have been talking to a number of sources who are already starting, starting not jockeying for a position on the Trump administration.

They are talking about various jobs, like secretary of state, like chief of staff. They are trying to get their names floated. They are trying to prove to Trump's inner circle, and that's likely the people who have been closest to him during this campaign, just how loyal they have been to this cycle.

And one thing to keep in mind, we talked about this in January. Donald Trump was keeping very close tabs on when exactly Republicans backed him. Did they back him after he won Iowa or before? Were they joining his team with closest to 2022 when he was exiled essentially from the Republican Party, or were they just coming around in recent weeks?

All of this is something Donald Trump is likely to take into consideration. One thing to note, he has not been having serious conversations about what his transition would look like or what his administration will look like, because he is so superstitious, that's obviously all now going to change. Wolf?

BLITZER: Kristen Holmes down in West Palm Beach to Florida for us. Thank you very much. Let's bring in our panel for some serious discussion. And MJ, let's talk a little bit about the extraordinary reporting that we're getting from inside the Harris camp, where there's apparently a lot of fingers being pointed at Biden.

MJ LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. There's a lot of finger pointing going on as Democrats are now trying to process what happened here. How was it possible that we suffered such a loss? And one of the people that is going to get a brunt of that is President Biden, going back to his decision to even seek reelection in the first place.

Something else that I think, just bears repeating is the degree of shock that I am getting from the Harris campaign as well. You know, this is a candidate and a campaign that, from the very beginning, they build themselves as the underdogs. And up until the very end, you know, they said, we know that this is going to be a very close race.

This could come down to the margins in a number of the states. But I will say, everybody that I have talked to, to a person there is shock at the scope of the defeat that Kamala Harris saw last night.

One senior adviser I was talking to said, of course, we knew that this was possible, but in a world where she is winning New Jersey by just five points, this is a state that Joe Biden won by 16 points back in 2020. We knew that something bigger was at play.

And I think it's also just worth talking about, the fact that this is just an emotional time for everybody on the campaign and Democrats, of course, writ large. You know, these are people that worked on, whether it's the Biden campaign that turned into the Harris campaign, really poured everything into trying to get the vice president elected.

And now not only are they dealing with sort of the emotional processing of what happened last night, but also figuring out their lives or packing their -- packing up their homes that they had temporarily set up in the -- in these battleground states. And figuring out what's even next for me in my life and my careers, happens every cycle, but just worth repeating that this is some of what they are processing right now in the big picture and then in their own lives.

BLITZER: And Gloria, on that point. The Democrats clearly have a lot of serious soul searching to do right now. Where do they start?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think they start at the very beginning. And the question about Joe Biden, as MJ was talking about, and how Joe Biden decided to run for reelection. The Democrats I talked to say, look, if it were -- if he hadn't decided, we would have had a real primary.

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We would have been able to craft a theme that would get us somewhere and we wouldn't have been tied to Joe Biden. And that's the problem. She became the candidate who couldn't separate herself from Joe Biden. And when you have three quarters of the country, thinking it's headed in the wrong direction, that's a real problem.

So, Donald Trump, became the candidate of change, and you always want to be the candidate of change when you're running. And he became the candidate of change, and she became the candidate of more of the same. No matter how much she tried, no matter how many proposals she proposed. People saw her as an extension of Joe Biden.

And as we were talking about before, I was talking to one source who called this a rolling realignment. Because if you look at the major shifts in the way the parties are defined now, the populist party is the Republican Party, the party the elites are the Democrats.

You know, when the margins are small in a state like New Jersey, you have to kind of look at that and say, well, what's going on there. You know, this isn't about race. It's more about education and the way people are -- have been feeling about the way they've been treated by government, and they don't trust government anymore. And Kamala Harris was government.

BLITZER: Yeah, good point. New Jersey, historically, a pretty democratic state, as we all know. Manu, I know you're getting some new reporting right now about the Florida Senator Rick Scott and how he's positioning himself. What are you hearing? MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yeah. This is actually the next election that's going to happen immediately next week. Republicans have a huge decision the United States Senate. Who is going to be the next Senate majority leader? This is the person who will decide what bills can come to the floor? What bills will not come to the floor? How to position themselves in working with or maybe sometimes breaking with the incoming president.

There are three candidates in this race. One of them is the person on your screen there, Florida Senator Rick Scott, who did win his second term last night in Florida. He is telling his colleagues that he will be essentially the Trump candidate, someone who could align himself with Donald Trump. They say they could push along the Trump agenda.

Now, he is seen as a long shot candidate in this race. He's up against Senator John Thune, who's the current Republican whip, and Senator John Cornyn who is a former whip, someone who is actually involved in ran the GOP campaign committee for two cycles. Both Thune and Cornyn are seen as the favorites in this race. But this is a secret ballot election, Wolf.

So, it's unclear how senators will ultimately come down. And here's another big question. What will trump do? We know that Cornyn and Thune in particular, been trying to bolster their relationship with Trump over some time. Thune had a bit of more fraught relationship with Trump over the past couple years. He backed him Scott for the presidency as well.

How does Trump react? Does he try to tip the scales into senators actually listen to him, because this position is so huge to help define the future of this party. As Republicans are looking at a 50 to 48 Senate at least, but that could potentially grow even to a 54, 46 Senate.

BLITZER: I suspect the senators will listen to him.

RAJU: Yeah.

BLITZER: But that's just my suspicion.

RAJU: Yeah. But some of them don't. Some of them don't. And with the secret ballot election, you really never know.

BORGER: Yeah. Don't they want to stay out of it?

RAJU: Yes, some of them do.

BORGER: Yeah.

RAJU: Yeah.

BLITZER: We'll see what happens. An important decision indeed. Coming up. Everybody standby. I want to get back to Erin Burnett, who has reaction from a Harris surrogate. What are you learning, Erin?

BURNETT: All right. Well, Wolf, let's find out here now because obviously crucial surrogate in the state of Michigan was Debbie Dingell. And Donald Trump is leading Kamala Harris by more than 90,000 votes in what was supposed to be the blue wall state of Michigan. That state, though, just to be clear, we have not formally made the call yet. There is a very tight Senate race as well playing out in Michigan as Manu just explained.

With us now the Democratic Congresswoman Debbie Dingell of Michigan. So, Congresswoman Dingell, you and I have spoken several times over these past recent days. I guess there's got to be a part of you who knew this was possible because I remember the last time we spoke, you said you were nauseously optimistic, and that was after going across the state.

Now you know what you know, and obviously, we have not yet made a formal call. What are you thinking about what happened in Michigan?

REP. DEBBIE DINGELL (D-MI): So, I'm not surprised, Erin, like many others are -- that back to the matter is, is that I continue to tell all of you for months that this state was tight. It was going to be close. It may be a little bigger than I thought that it was going to be, but I knew that it was coming down to. So, it's not unexpected for me.

So, I think -- I'm going to be very blunt. As Democrats, we got to do some soul searching that we're getting a message from a lot of people that we're not hearing them. And I hope we take the time to do the soul searching. We have to do.

BURNETT: Well, I think a lot of people have to appreciate your honesty and your bluntness on this. Can I ask you about a couple of those groups? Congresswoman, first, let's just talk about women.

DINGELL: You may.

BURNETT: We're too many having this conversation. Harris did worse with women than Biden did with women, and then Hillary Clinton did with women.

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That is just something. I mean, maybe you saw it. I don't know anybody who saw that. I don't know when the Trump campaign who saw that. How do you explain that?

DINGELL: So, in Michigan, we had a ballot proposal on choice two years ago. So, it wasn't the first and forefront issue that it was, say, two years ago on our ballot. But you know -- you know me, I talk to everybody. That's how I get a gut. I went into the eye doctor on Monday morning and saw, you know, a mid-50s African American woman. And I said, have you voted? And she said, no. And I said, do you have a plan? And she said, no. I haven't decided who to vote for.

And so, it doesn't surprise me. If people listen to real people and talk to them about what the issues are. The economy was a big issue. And look, I don't think giving billionaire tax cuts is exactly the way to solve it. But I'm going to work -- we have to respect the integrity of the electoral system, and now we're going to have to work with a new president for the next four years and learn what we weren't hearing and why we lost.

BURNETT: Well, I mean, look, that's humility. I also think it's important for people to hear you'll work with them, right? That you will -- that this is the way this country works. And I know it can't be easy for some to hear and maybe even to say, but it is so important.

Can I ask you about something else, Congresswoman? Because you and I spoke a couple times in recent days, right? And both times, you talked about Jill Stein, and you talked about how significant it was.

And in fact, in one of the interviews, I knew coming in that you really wanted to bring it up because you were concerned. You wanted to send the message to the Arab American community, particularly in Dearborn, that voting for Jill Stein was a vote for Donald Trump, of course, who is a very clear Israel supporter.

So, the numbers for Dearborn come in. Trump wins by 42 percent, Harris at 36, Jill Stein got 18 percent of the vote in Dearborn, Michigan. 18 percent of the vote. This isn't two or three. It's not on the margin where it was possibly polling. It's 18 percent. What do you think about that?

DINGELL: I think that the community is trying to send a message. Look, I want to say to you that what is going on in the Mideast is tearing people apart, and it's particularly hard in Michigan. People are raw and hurting on both sides. And quite frankly, I get killed by both sides. I get protested. I have threats, but I listen to them. I talk to them.

And a lot of people are unwilling to just put themselves out there and listen and understand what their hurt is and what they're saying. And I quite frankly think, the fear of people on all sides being willing to talk to them is what resulted in Jill Stein getting support. People are angry. They've lost family members, by the way, both sides. Here in Michigan, I feel like the war in the Mideast has come to Michigan. And even people inside the Democratic Party are at each other's throats. It's not good.

BURNETT: You know, when you talk about looking at how you're going to have to work across the aisle. You could be looking at a Republican White House. Obviously, we know that a Republican Senate, we know that. Could be a Republican House as well. So how do you navigate within that as what you say is a pragmatic democratic elected Congress person? How do you deal when they have a full sweep?

DINGELL: Look, I have relationships on the other side of the when. Look, I'm going to always stand up for what I believe and when I think something's wrong, I'm going to be respectful and top and 10. But I will also say, I agreed with Donald Trump that we needed to redo NAFTA. By the way, that's why I thought he wanted in 2016.

Bob Lighthizer, I've worked with a lot. I think he's a smart man. He's going to be part of this administration. So, there are some things that I support that he does, and you've got to do that. And if you disagree, you're going to -- I'm going to stand up strong. And what I really want is all the vitriolicness, the ugliness, the threats, the violence, the pettiness against each other to please stop.

We are strong in this country as the United States of America. And my biggest problem with the former president about to be president again is the way that he pits each other, all of us against each other, at times with his rhetoric. And if I were to ask or pray for anything, it's that we all dial it down and find ways to disagree in a civil manner and stop this vitriolicness that is really going across the country far too much.

BURNETT: All right. Well, Congresswoman Dingell, I appreciate your time and your thoughts as always, and thanks for joining me on this post-election war (ph). Well, the saying that it's the economy stupid rings true. Once again, we saw it in the exit polls. We're seeing it across the board. It mattered more than any conversation about Hitler or fascist or anything like that. So, we're going to go in a deep dive on exactly what that means as you continue to watch our special coverage of Election Day.

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BLITZER: We're back with our special coverage. Donald Trump back in power, elected the 47th president of the United States. Let's get to Phil Mattingly, he's over here with me at the Magic Wall. So, tell our viewers, Phil, how did the president elect make this truly historic comeback?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN ANCHOR & CHIEF DOMESTIC CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, it is clear the former president over performed just about everywhere he needed to, compared to his 2020 results. But we dig a little deeper right here. This was the blue wall. The former president shattered it in 2016 on his way to his first presidency. Joe Biden won it back in 2020. Now Trump looks to have -- he already has two of the three in his column, a third may be on its way.

What's important here with the blue wall is not just that Trump was able to cut into suburban margins or urban margins or run up his own margins in the rural counties. It starts here. We actually saw this. We were out on the campaign trail over the course of the last several months.

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Wolf, what you're looking at right now is the darker the county, the darker the shade of the county. That tells you where people are falling behind when it comes to keeping up with the increase in the cost of living.

If you look at the entire national map. What's the darkest state overall? All the counties taken together, it's the state of Pennsylvania, the critical linchpin state of the blue wall. Also, a number of the counties in Michigan, a number of the counties in Wisconsin. This was an area where despite the broadly positive macroeconomic numbers of the Biden administration, people were failing to keep up with the cost of living.

I want you to pay attention, Wolf, to the darkest counties you see here in Pennsylvania. Right here, this is Centre County, right here this is Erie County, right here this is Monroe County. North Hampton is right below it as well.

Now, you take that. Those are by far the counties that fell the furthest behind when it came to cost of living. Now match that up with where Donald Trump flipped counties over the course of the last 24 hours.

So, we start with Erie. This was a county that in 2020, Joe Biden was able to take back from Donald Trump. Winning it narrowly, but winning it nonetheless. What happened in 2024, Donald Trump took it back.

What about Centre County? This was a place that in 2020 Joe Biden won it by won it by nearly five points. Back in the 2024, Donald Trump flipped it into the Republican column. What about over here in Monroe County? This was a place that in 2020, Joe Biden just win it. He won it rather handily, by him six and a half points.

What happened in 2024? Donald Trump flipped it into the Republican column. What's the through line of all three of these counties? All three of these counties were the counties that you saw the darkest shades underscoring the most difficult time the people who -- the voters in these counties had with keeping up with the cost of living. It's something we saw repeatedly throughout the course of the results coming in with Pennsylvania.

It was not just about one particular issue. Wasn't even about ground game or younger voters, suburban voters. It was about the number one issue that people were facing, that was the economy. And Pennsylvania got hit particularly hard, even as the rest of the country came out and recovered from COVID in the pandemic, Wolf.

BLITZER: So, what you're saying, it's the economy stupid. Is that what I'm hearing?

MATTINGLY: A guy -- a guy, I think, you know, coined that term. I think he's still pretty spot on.

BLITZER: I think you're right. All right, thanks very much. Phil Mattingly here at the Magic Wall. Let's get back to Erin. Erin?

BURNETT: All right, Wolf. Well, obviously Donald Trump didn't just win back the presidency. He also, I mean -- and you know, this is just one day. This is how markets go. But you know, net worth on paper became a billion dollars richer. That social media stock, DJT, Truth Social, which -- you know, this is not indicative of the actual value of the company. This is just a reflection of, you know, him surged at the opening bell on Wall Street this morning.

And the Dow overall is up more than 1300 points. And that has nothing to do with Truth Social. It's just a market that is rallying because they think Donald Trump is going to be good for them. That's the reality.

So, let's go to Harry Enten. So, Harry, you know, coming out last night again, those first exit polls, it was sort of this, the economy came out on top and democracy second. There were a few places where that was reversed, but it was economy on top and democracy second. And that is sort of when you had a feeling, wait a second, this might be going differently, but it was just very clear right, in those polls from the beginning

HARRY ENTEN, SENIOR POLITICAL DATA REPORTER: Yeah. I don't understand how anyone could expect Kamala Harris to win. When just 32 percent of the voters last night said the condition of the national economy was excellent or good. 67 percent, two-thirds of voters said not good or poor. And how did those voters go? Not surprisingly, they went against the incumbent party.

Look at the margin that we see that Donald Trump pulled off amongst those who said the economy was not going to report. Look at that, that's a 40-point margin. No way Kamala Harris could win given that these particular numbers.

How about Latino voters, right? We spoke about them last hour. We spoke about Latino men. Let's talk about Latinos overall. Look at this. What do they say their most important issue was. Number one, the economy. Number one the economy.

And how did those 40 percent who said that the economy was their top issue. How did they vote in the election? Take a look at this. This, I think, gives the game away amongst them. Look at this, a 33-point edge for Donald Trump. You know, in the exit polls, Donald Trump kept Kamala Harris's margin down to, I believe, eight points.

I went back through exit polls since 1972, looking at the Latino vote. Donald Trump did better for a Republican nominee for president than any Republican nominee for president dating all the way back since 1972. And the big reason why, when you look at the exit polls, it was -- dare I say, repeat the phrase. It was the economy stupid, but really it was inflation stupid.

BURNETT: Yeah. I mean, it was and you just -- you saw it across the board. Harry, thank you very much.

ENTEN: Thank you.

BURNETT: The panel is back with me. Karen Finney, you know, it's interesting when Democrats saw the worry about the economy, which they saw. Their argument was, well, prices are -- but we hear you. We feel that pain. Prices are not going up by as much as they were, inflation is abating. We have a housing plant.

Whenever they tried to address it in those ways, it obviously fell on largely deaf ears. 66 percent of Trump supporters said the economy was the most important issue. Only a third of Harris voters saw that. Did the Harris team just not see the full picture here?