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CNN NEWSROOM

Candidates Move on to New Hampshire for Next Primaries; Iowa Voters Pick Cruz Over Trump; Rubio Happy to be Third in Iowa; North Korea to Launch Satellite in February; Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired February 2, 2016 - 10:00   ET

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


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[10:00:22] SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: God bless the great state of Iowa.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Wow, what a night. An unbelievable night.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I absolutely love the people of Iowa. I think I might come here and buy a farm.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Astounded the world. And now in New Hampshire we're going to astound the world again.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: They told me that we had no chance because my hair wasn't gray enough and my boots were too high.

TRUMP: We love New Hampshire. We love South Carolina.

CRUZ: Iowa has made clear to America and the world morning is coming. Morning is coming.

CLINTON: Join me. Let's go win the nomination. Thank you all and God bless you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAROL COSTELLO, CNN ANCHOR: And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me.

Overnight flights and early morning events, the presidential candidates hit the ground running in New Hampshire, some trying to build on the momentum of Iowa, others trying to get back on track.

Among Democrats, Hillary Clinton claiming victory but party officials have not yet declared a winner in a race still too close to call. One precinct still has to be counted and Bernie Sanders' team now says they are requesting count sheets from certain precincts.

All that drama aside, the near tie would have been unimaginable several months ago.

Also some surprises in the Republican race. Ted Cruz scores a huge victory and gives Donald Trump a harsh reality check. Marco Rubio stronger than expected and within a point of Trump, and two candidates call it quits, Democrat Martin O'Malley drops from the race and among the Republicans, Mike Huckabee shuts down his campaign.

So let's start with the last two Democrats standing, shall we? Both Clinton and Sanders are each claiming momentum as they charge toward the primaries one week from today.

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SANDERS: I want to take this opportunity to congratulate Secretary Clinton. Somebody -- yes.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

SANDERS: And her organization for waging a very vigorous campaign.

CLINTON: I am excited about really getting into the debate with Senator Sanders about the best way forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COSTELLO: Our crews are also in New Hampshire. Jeff Zeleny is following the Democrats, Jim Acosta, the Republicans. But let's begin with you, Jeff. Good morning.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Hey, good morning, Carol. We're in Nashua, New Hampshire. And you can see the line forming behind me right now. It is going several blocks long or a couple of blocks long at least here to see Hillary Clinton. And this Democratic race has been reset. Iowa is the beginning of this campaign. Of course, it is nowhere near the end of the campaign. New Hampshire often has a mind of its own when it comes to presidential campaigns.

But there's no question that the Clinton campaign now is in a bit of a reset mode. You can hear it when she was speaking last night in Des Moines. You can see it on the faces of her advisers.

Listen to one thing what she said. It's offered a bit of a direction of how her campaign is going to go from here.

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CLINTON: It is rare that we have the opportunity we do now. To have a real contest of ideas. To really think hard about what the Democratic Party stands for and what we want the future of our country to look like if we do our part to build it.

I am a progressive who gets things done for people.

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ZELENY: And, Carol, you notice she said, we're going to have a debate on what the future of the Democratic Party stands for. That is a subtle way of saying that Senator Sanders has not been a Democrat. He's a Democratic socialist from the state of Vermont here. So that is the direction that this messaging on a campaign is going here.

What does the Democratic Party stand for? What is this fight going to mean? But Bernie Sanders, as he flew here from Iowa overnight, had a bounce in his step. He was, you know, talked about how his campaign sort of rose from obscurity to take her on. This is one thing that he said that I was struck by as we asked him some questions. He said, "We're in this to the convention. It shows America this campaign can win." So he said again and again we're in this to the convention. It's a fight for delegates here.

But of course we're still keeping one eye on what happened in Iowa last night. The results are still not completely certified.

[10:05:01] It is a deadlocked race. Some precincts are still out. So we asked Senator Sanders after he stepped off the plane what he intends to do about it.

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UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Any concerns about the voter irregularities?

SANDERS: Well, we're studying that right now. We'll see what happens. But I'm just very proud of the campaign that we ran. And the thousands of volunteers that worked so hard.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ZELENY: And his campaign is telling my colleague, Mark Preston, this morning that they are requesting individual tally sheets from all these precincts. They're going to go through everything today and look to see if they need to vigorously question the results of Iowa. But as that's happening, this New Hampshire primary is well under way. Only one week to go until that. And of course both candidates will be head-to-head tomorrow night at CNN's town meeting here in New Hampshire -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Can't wait. Jeff Zeleny, many thanks to you.

Ted Cruz looking to take the momentum from his Iowa win all the way to New Hampshire as well.

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CRUZ: We're flying to New Hampshire, and we're going to work every day to earn the votes of the men and women of New Hampshire. We just did a bus tour, we could go in New Hampshire. Had incredible excitement and enthusiasm, and that was before this victory. And so we're going to work to try to earn the votes.

Look, I think it is entirely possible that we know our nominee by the end of March. If you look at the states and the states are front loaded, a great many of the delegates are chosen by the end of March and winning Iowa was a good first step.

(END VIDEO CLIP) COSTELLO: So how's the rest of the Republican field faring? Jim Acosta live in Manchester, New Hampshire -- Manchester, New Hampshire with more on that.

Good morning, Jim.

JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. It is not Groundhog Day when it comes to the Republican race for the White House. We're accustomed to seeing Donald Trump in the headlines and riding high in the polls and sucking up all the oxygen every day. That is not the case this morning. Ted Cruz had a Texas- sized victory last night in the Iowa caucuses.

And it has been, we've been counting, 14 hours since Donald Trump's tweet. For an unconventional candidate who does a lot of his campaigning on Twitter, he's been eerily silent since his disappointing second place finish last night in the caucuses.

But, Carol, you know, this unconventional candidate simple just did not do the conventional things you need to do to win Iowa. He did not go to these pizza ranches that are scattered across the state, he did not do what Ted Cruz did which was visit all 99 counties. Iowans crave that kind of attention, and Donald Trump simply did not give it to them. But in the end, last night Trump was gracious tipping his hat to Ted Cruz. But he vowed to keep on fighting. Here's what he had to say.

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TRUMP: Iowa, we love you. We thank you. You're special. We will be back many, many times. In fact, I think I might come here and buy a farm. I love it. OK?

I don't know who's going to win between Bernie and Hillary. I don't know what's going to happen with Hillary has got other problems, maybe bigger than the problems she's got in terms of nominations. But we've had so many different indications in polls that we beat her and we beat her easily, and we will go on to get the Republican nomination, and we will go on to easily beat Hillary or Bernie or whoever the hell they throw up there.

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ACOSTA: Now Donald Trump here in New Hampshire has a sizable double- digit lead. Of course all of that could change because of the momentum that is swinging in this race. Marco Rubio was obviously taking support away from Donald Trump in those Iowa caucuses last night. Trump does have an event scheduled here in New Hampshire later on this afternoon. That should be the first chance we'll hear from Donald Trump at least in front of a crowd in terms of a reaction to what happened in last night's Iowa caucuses since his speech last night in Iowa.

And, Carol, he has an event in, of all places, Arkansas, Little Rock, Arkansas, scheduled for tomorrow. That is a head scratcher when Donald Trump really probably needs to win New Hampshire at this point to keep his momentum going. You know, yesterday we were saying, you know, if Donald Trump wins Iowa and New Hampshire his campaign is going to be hard to stop. He now needs to win New Hampshire to make sure that this is -- this race that he's trying to wage can stay in healthy shape. He certainly does not want to come out of New Hampshire losing here -- Carol.

COSTELLO: Interestingly enough, Jim, Donald Trump has sent out no tweets. Not one. None today.

ACOSTA: That's right. Very quiet. Fourteen hours since. That's right.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: That's a long time to be quiet for Donald Trump.

Jim Acosta reporting live from New Hampshire. Thank you.

And by the way, if you're wondering about Punxsutawney Phil, it is Groundhog Day. And he did not see his shadow. So yay to an early spring.

Let's talk about the Democrats now. Hillary Clinton's Iowa campaign director says, quote, "There is no uncertainty and Secretary Clinton has clearly won." The Clinton campaign claiming victory even as the numbers still show a razor thin race. And as a senior campaign aide for Sanders tell CNN, they will request the actual count sheets in certain precincts because the Sanders camp is not so sure that Clinton won Iowa.

[10:10:07] Jason Johnson is politics editor for TheRoot.com, John Avlon is editor-in-chief of the "Daily Beast" and a CNN political analyst. He'll join me in a second.

But, Jason, I want to start with you. So could this, you know, request from the Sanders camp develop into something bigger?

JASON JOHNSON, POLITICS EDITOR, THEROOT.COM: I mean, you know, if Bernie Sanders thinks that he's going to get benefit from trying to make Clinton look like she cheated to win Iowa, you know, he can do it. But honestly, Sanders should be infinitely more concerned with maintaining his lead in New Hampshire and actually working in South Carolina.

We had this happen in 2012, with Rick Santorum and Rand Paul, and Ran Paul people were arguing about whether or not the Iowa vote count really matter. It doesn't matter. He can claim victory because he did well. Hillary can claim victory because she did well. They need to focus on the future. Not hassling over Iowa.

COSTELLO: OK. So, John, is Jason right? Because, you know, it's actually hard to determine who won Iowa. On one side a win is a win. On the other side, should Hillary Clinton be concerned it was so close?

JOHN AVLON, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, of course she should be concerned. I mean, she came into this race the overwhelming favorite against a 74-year-old Democratic socialist from Vermont. And here she's fighting, you know, over a couple hundred votes in the Iowa caucuses. But a win is a win. And, look, Iowa caucus counting is not an exact science. I know that's frustrating and hard for folks to understand. But, you know, last time in the Republican side, Romney was thought to win by right. Ultimately it was Santorum by 34.

JOHNSON: Right.

AVLON: It looks like Hillary Clinton has the votes needed to call this a win. And politics and campaigns are not like the equivalent of exceeding earnings expectations. If she had lost even by the same amount, it'd be a very different narrative this morning. But she can kind of narrow win but a tough fight going into New Hampshire. A state that is overwhelmingly, polls show, in Bernie Sanders favor as a neighboring state senator. She's got to fight hard here and then cruise on to South Carolina and Nevada. So this is a tight win, a deep divided in the Democratic Party. She's got to bridge it, close the gap and move on.

COSTELLO: All right. So, Jason, let's look closer at the exit polls as to -- who actually voted for who on the Democratic side. Sanders won among those under 40 years of age. Clinton won those over 40 years old. Sanders won big among independents. Clinton won big among Democrats. What should we take away from this?

JOHNSON: That this is the kind of split that we expected going into it. But I'll say this. I went to a really, really interesting caucus, actually observed the caucus in Districts 33 and 34 right there in downtown Des Moines. What I saw was this, especially from people who have been caucusing in 2008 and 2012. Both sides are in agreement that they're going to support the other. You know, there were a lot of people who said back in 2008, look, if they were Hillary supporters, they did not want to support Barack Obama. And if they were Obama supporters, they did not want to support Hillary Clinton.

The vast majority of people who I spoke to said, look, if Bernie wins, we're really happy about it. But if Hillary wins, we'll support her as well. There was a lot of laughing, talking, Kool-Aid, Oreo cookies. I think -- I think both sides of the Democratic Party are going to be enthusiastic about whoever they get.

COSTELLO: Interesting. So let's talk about the enthusiasm factor in just a second, John. Because, you know, I'm still going through these entrance polls. That's what I should have called them. Sanders wins big among very liberal Democrats. Clinton wins handily with somewhat liberal and moderate voters. So that means Sanders is appealing to only one branch of the party, the very liberal -- he's only appealing to very liberal Democrats at the moment.

AVLON: Right.

COSTELLO: Doesn't he need more than that to continue to be successful?

AVLON: Of course he does. Not only in the Democratic primaries but respectively in the general election. Look, reality check here. Only 11 percent of Americans identify as very liberal. That's nowhere near enough to run anything resembling a credible presidential campaign. So you need to reach out and win over new voters. That's how Bill Clinton first rose after the Democrats lost three elections in 40 states. He was able to reshuffle and expand the coalition.

Bernie Sanders has a lot of work to do in that regard because Hillary Clinton has an edge on him. He cannot simply be promoting sort of, you know, Democratic socialist policies and solidifying that 11 percent to be a credible nominee for the Democratic Party. That's just the reality. And while it has been a civil substantive debate inside the Democratic Party, especially compared to the Republicans, they're going to need to face that fact.

COSTELLO: All right. I have to leave it there. John Avlon, Jason Johnson, thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, Marco Rubio did not win in Iowa. He's not the runner-up either. So why is he all smiles as he heads to New Hampshire?

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[10:18:45] COSTELLO: Senator Marco Rubio did not win Iowa last night. He didn't even come in second, but the Florida senator declared a victory of sorts with what many consider a strong third place finish behind Ted Cruz and Donald Trump.

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RUBIO: So this is the moment they said would never happen. For months, for months they told us we had no chance. They told me I needed to wait my turn. That I needed to wait in line. But tonight, tonight here in Iowa, the people of this great state sent a very clear message. After seven years of Barack Obama, we are not waiting any longer to take our country back.

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COSTELLO: Joining me now to talk about this and more, former Reagan advisory Charmaine Yoest and CNN political commentator Margaret Hoover.

Welcome to both of you.

CHARMAINE YOEST, FORMER REAGAN ADVISER: Good morning.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Good morning, Carol.

COSTELLO: Good morning. So Marco Rubio, Margaret, he's like partying this morning. He's already onto New Hampshire, trying to win over voters there. How do you think he'll fair?

HOOVER: Marco Rubio has established himself as the lead guy in the establishment lane. That's the pejorative word this campaign cycle, establishment has never been such a dirty word in the Republican Party. It is this year. And Marco is leading the pack.

[10:20:02] I think you're going to see a winnowing of the field and a rationale for corralling behind one candidate coming into the state because you still have Trump who is leading in the polls. He is legitimately crushing the polling.

Ted Cruz, who comes out with a wind in the sails but this state is not set up for him. The state is a state where half of the -- half of the Republican primary voters self-identify as conservative as opposed to the 8 in 10 in Iowa. So this is a place where Marco Rubio could do very well. So could Kasich, so could Bush, so could Christie, except that they're not doing as well.

(LAUGHTER)

COSTELLO: No. And we saw from what happened in Iowa that the polls aren't always right, Charmaine, right? So I guess I was a little surprised. I expected Marco Rubio to come in third. I didn't expect him to be one point behind Donald Trump, though. YOEST: Well, that's it exactly. And the significance of what he did

last night was he created this three-man race. He was the sandwich that really put the pressure on Donald Trump. I think if you had seen what was expected going in of the two-man race of Cruz and Trump, you would have seen a much more jubilant Donald Trump, he would have been able to kind of pass it off as not that big a deal, but coming out with the three of them bunched together and the delegate allocation being so close, this is a very, very different race today as we head into New Hampshire.

And I can tell you, Carol, I've been on that winning plane headed east towards New Hampshire. And there are headwinds that hit you as you start getting closer and closer to New Hampshire. Just as Margaret said. So it is an entirely different race this morning than what we saw yesterday. It is game on at this point.

COSTELLO: Yes. And, you know, there are small signs, Margaret, that Donald Trump might be changing his strategy. There are no nasty tweets, no positive tweets from the Trump camp this morning. He was very gracious with his second place finish in Iowa. He's going to be campaigning in New Hampshire, although he has that weird campaign stop in Arkansas that nobody understands, but do you think that Donald Trump now has to shift his strategy and not be a national candidate throwing all these big splashy rallies but be more local?

HOOVER: Well, look, Carol, every time he's changed his strategy in the past, recall early in the debates people said he's not looking presidential, he's not looking like he could run the free world, and he did tamp down his rhetoric. He stopped being quite as nasty and sharp-tongued. And frankly his polling took a dip then. He didn't do as well. So I don't think what he thinks. I mean, he's had one strategy so far which is that a national earned media presidential campaign strategy can get you across the finish line. And that was disproved in Iowa. So he may change his strategy. But so far there's only one thing that's worked for him in the polls which is this boisterous and ostentatious rhetoric which hasn't worked. One thing that's really interesting, Carol. In Iowa moderates and the

establishment lanes self-identified Republican caucus-goers who were waiting to decide who to support, 44 to 24 percent broke for Rubio over Trump. And 60 percent of New Hampshire's primary voters have not made up their mind on the Republican side yet. They broke hard for Rubio in Iowa at the last minute. It could look that way in New Hampshire as well.

COSTELLO: We'll see. Charmaine Yoest, Margaret Hoover, I have to leave it there. Thanks to both of you.

Still to come in the NEWSROOM, it's a full court press in New Hampshire. But this may not be the New Hampshire many candidates are used to.

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[10:27:52] COSTELLO: There are new concerns over North Korea and its secretive weapons program. The so-called hermit kingdom has indicated that it will launch a satellite in the next few weeks. A similar claim just a few years ago led to U.S. and international outcry.

CNN's Barbara Starr at the Pentagon with more. Good morning.

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, Carol. A number of new developments this morning. North Korea now notifying international organizations it does plan to launch a satellite sometime between February 8th and February 25th. The International Maritime Organization which monitors shipping traffic, the International Technical Agency that's part of the United Nations that monitors satellite transmissions both now getting notification from North Korea about its intention.

Why is the U.S. so concerned? Because when North Korea launches a satellite and they did it before a couple of years ago, the said satellite sits on top of a long-range rocket, essentially a multistage rocket that is the equivalent of an intercontinental ballistic missile. It's that big a booster. They may put a satellite on front -- on the front of it and call it a peaceful satellite launch, but the U.S. concern is that all of this activity adds to North Korea's technical knowledge about how to develop and use intercontinental ballistic missiles.

So look for a lot more out of the Obama administration. The Japanese and the South Koreans about their concern, about what North Korea may have planned now in the coming days -- Carol.

COSTELLO: All right. Barbara Starr reporting live for us from the Pentagon. Thank you.

And good morning. I'm Carol Costello. Thank you so much for joining me. All eyes now focused on New Hampshire where voters cast their ballots one week from today, and the campaign crush is well underway with nearly 20 events across the Granite State today alone.

And it's not the same New Hampshire as it was eight years ago. No, it's a completely different state population wise. Nearly one out of every three new people in New Hampshire did not cast a ballot last time. Either because they were too young or they lived in another state or someplace else.

Let's talk about this study with University of New Hampshire sociology professor, Ken Johnson. Good morning -- good morning, Ken.