Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Live Coverage of the Republican Presidential Caucus in Kansas. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired March 5, 2016 - 15:00   ET

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


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:00:07] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: A large number of delegates on the line for Democrats and Republicans today.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: Can Donald Trump come one step closer to conquering the Republican Party?

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Right now, it's an urgent new phase in the presidential campaign.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We have come too far to stop now!

ANNOUNCER: Both front-runners, stronger. One party in turmoil.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not a normal Republican.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If he's our nominee, it will split the Republican Party.

ANNOUNCER: Voters in five more states are choosing sides. Will they bring any clarity to the chaos on this super Saturday? It's America's choice.

Tonight, in the Republican race, Donald Trump triggering alarm among the GOP establishment, after his Super Tuesday success tightened his grip on the nomination.

TRUMP: They call it a phenomena. You're a phenomena. We are all a phenomena.

ANNOUNCER: Ted Cruz adding to his win column urging the anti-Trump movement to rally behind him.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Head-to-head, our campaign beats Donald Trump resoundingly. We must come together.

ANNOUNCER: Marco Rubio, fueled by his first victory, still vowing to fight Trump to the finish.

RUBIO: We will not allow the party of Lincoln and Reagan to fall into the hands of a con art i.

ANNOUNCER: In the Democratic race tonight, Hillary Clinton fresh off a southern sweep, gaining ground on the path towards the nomination.

CLINTON: Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers.

ANNOUNCER: Bernie Sanders charging forward with new wins to keep his revolution going.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Stand up to the billionaire class. Tell them they can't have it all!

ANNOUNCER: Now, it's time for voters to have their say, with the front-runners growing eager to take on each other.

CLINTON: The rhetoric on the other side has never been lower.

TRUMP: Hillary Clinton cannot do the job. She shouldn't be allowed to run.

ANNOUNCER: America is choosing. The race is moving in new directions, and the super Saturday showdown begins, right now.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLITZER: Americans rights now across five states, they are headed to the polls. Take a look at this. Live pictures coming in from Kentucky, where officials have more ballots on standby. They expect they will need these extra ballots because of the big, big Republican turnout today.

And these are pictures coming in from Brian high school in Omaha, Nebraska. Two gymnasiums packed with Democrats ready to caucus right now.

We want to welcome our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN election center.

The field is narrowing. Only six candidates. Two Democrats, four Republicans. Only six candidates left after Dr. Ben Carson ended his quest for the Republican nomination. Here is the big question right now, where do the votes go? And are there enough of them to swing the race? With 155 delegates at stake today, the four remaining Republicans will all be looking to grab that support.

For the Democrats, there are 109 delegates at stake today. Two of today's contests are caucuses which could favor senator Bernie Sanders. We are standing by for the first votes, and our first chance to make projections, less than one hour from now from caucuses in Kansas. Then the first results out of Kentucky, where Republican caucuses are already under way.

Later tonight we'll bring you results from Republican caucuses in Maine, and democratic caucuses in Nebraska. And both parties holding primaries today in Louisiana. Can Donald Trump be beat? Today we will see if polls by the last Republican nominee, Mitt Romney claiming that Trump could doom the GOP in November. Will have any impact on conservative voters out there.

If Republicans want to stop Trump, Marco Rubio and Ted Cruz need to win more states and they need to win a lot more delegates. Trump has taken advantage of a fractured field. He has won ten of the first 15 contests so far.

We have our CNN reporters spread out across the country. Right now they're following the campaigns. They're watching the caucuses. Our Chris Frates is in Orlando right now. We are standing by to hear directly from Donald Trump.

Chris, what is the latest over there?

CHRIS FRATES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, I tell you, Wolf, it is no surprise that we are in the sunshine state on super Saturday here even though there's no voting going on. Republicans looking ahead to this winner take all state on March 15th. Lots of delegates, 99 at stake here. And Donald Trump throwing $2 million worth of advertising here. That's unusual for him, as he usually relies on free media.

But Marco Rubio, the native son, the U.S. senator, getting a big endorsement from the Orlando sentinel just last night. That's here in central Florida, along that voter-rich i-4 corridor. That's huge for him. They are saying that has the knowledge and judgment to be the president, questioning both Trump's thin policy proposals and questioning whether he has trouble telling the truth.

Now, despite all of that, Donald Trump is ill it doing very well here in Florida. Latest polls show him up 44 percent. Marco Rubio at 28 percent. So as Donald Trump continues to gather steam, though, we are seeing more and more of his rallies. A huge rally here today in central Florida. Those rallies are being disrupted by protestors. So we are seeing a private security contractor starting to work with the Trump campaign to limit those disruptions and get those protestors out up here quickly. We will see what happens in just a few minutes when Donald Trump comes to the stage tonight, Wolf.

[15:05:45] BLITZER: We will have a live coverage. See what he has to say.

Chris Frates joining us from Orlando.

Let's go to Miguel Marquez. He is in Omaha, Nebraska right now where Democrats are turning out in a big way to caucus. I see a long line behind you. Has it been like that for a while?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Enormous numbers, Wolf. They opened up the doors an hour early here and they can't get them in. And you have - if you are a Democrat in South Omaha, you have six more minutes to get in line.

There are so many people out here. They have brought out the forms to register to get in here outside so that they can get everybody in by the time this is supposed to start. It was supposed to start at 2:00 p.m.

How many of you are new caucus goers? Wow. Lots of hands.

How many voted for Bernie? How many for Hillary?

All right. This is what we have seen all across the state. I want to take you inside and show you where all of this is going. The people are lining up here. They have to register to get into one of two locations here. This is one of 149 different locations across the state of Nebraska, where Democrats are caucusing. There are 93 counties here, and they have record turnout as far as we can see. Excuse me. A huge turnout across much of the state.

This is where they actually are trying to get to now. This is where they register to check in here, and then they go to one of two different areas inside Brian high school. Home of the bears, by the way. They go into an auditorium here on the left which is one legislative district, or they go into a gymnasium, where I'm going to take you now and they line up then according to whether they support Bernie Sanders or Hillary Clinton on one side or the other of the -- of the area.

They expect it will take about two hours. These things have taken about two hours across the state. They expect this to take about two hours for Democrats to figure which one they support. At 9:00 p.m. eastern tonight, they will start releasing all of these numbers, the whole numbers.

The 25 delegates up here in Nebraska, and they won't be able to figure out exactly how they break down until later in the day. This is the gym. Democracy in action here. Bernie supporters here on the left side of the gym. Hillary supporters there on the right side of the gym. I can give you an idea how excited the people are here.

You guys ready to caucus here?

(CHEERS)

MARQUEZ: And if you come down here -- these are the Hillary - how is the Hillary camp?

(CHEERS)

MARQUEZ: Now, interestingly, they had pulled out just these bleachers on this side. They have now pulled out the bleachers on this side of the gymnasium because they expect so many people in this gym that they will have to use both sides. They are expecting 1,200 total in this location. They will probably blow through that - Wolf.

BLITZER: I see somebody being strolled out behind you, too. Looks like they have a little issue going on over there, Miguel. Thank you very, very much.

Kyung Lah standing by in Louisville, Kentucky. She is at Seneca high school.

Kyung, what's it like where you are?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hours here, and even though this is a caucus, this is going to feel a bit more like a primary, Wolf. I want you to look over here. You are seeing a crowd as they line up trying to find their voter registration. This is where they check in. You can see that they have driver's licenses out. They are making sure that the registration is valid, and then they get a voter form. And then they fill them out and then this over here. See these cardboard boxes? This is where they drop those ballots, then they get those all-important stickers showing that they did indeed vote.

The turnout here is phenomenal, according to the woman that you see right there. She is the caucus chair. And she says that what they have done so far is they have already run through a number of batches in the county room. And what they are doing now, as we kind of peek in over here. They have asked us to keep our distance but we are going to take a look here. They are running through the third batch of vote count right now.

All of that information, you see it's like a fax machine, Wolf, that's being sucked in, each ballot, one by one. All of that information then goes to the Republican Party headquarters here in Kentucky. All those results will be tabulated at around 7:00 p.m. eastern time. They expect to have those results. They will instantly spit that out and this is what's happening around the state.

But we are hearing from the Republican Party here, is that energy is very, very high. A lot of people are voting. They are being driven here by anger against the Republican Party. But you would think that would automatically mean Trump is leading in our location, in our informal polling, at this particular location, it looks like a dead heat between the three top candidates, Wolf.

[15:10:33]BLITZER: We are going to watch it closely.

Kyung Lah in Kentucky for us.

Let's go over to Dana Bash, and David Chalian.

Dana and David, big turnouts we just saw in both of those states?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It looks like it. And of course, we are just in, you know, singular caucus site. We are not sure if that's emblematic of the entire state. But having said that, I just got a text from somebody in Bernie Sanders campaign, who says that they are feeling very, very going about Nebraska. You know, that maybe isn't such a surprise because the people in Nebraska tend to be in the people who will go out and vote in a caucus tend to be more in line with who Bernie Sanders is getting traditionally.

But I think big picture, we can take a step back. This is a day where there are a lot of states voting. A lot of states are caucusing. It doesn't have that big of an impact, big picture on delegates, but every single delegates counts at this point. It is a delegate race.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: There is no doubt about that. And you know, the momentum here still matters. And I think it matters in terms of one of the things I'm looking for tonight and when I see people showing up at sites like that I just wonder, especially the Republican side, are we going to see more record turnout? At the end of the day. Like we've seen across so many of these states and is Donald Trump the figure responsible poor for that? Because one of the things I want to see, this is the first voting day we have had since a sustained attack against Donald Trump, the never Trump movement. Does it have any impact at the ballot box, or is this just the talk and strategy of some of his opponents right now, of Mitt Romney?

That is the big picture thing I'm looking to see tonight. Because a state like Kentucky that we just saw with Kyung Lah, that should be a state when you look at a demographically, that is a pretty good state for Donald Trump.

BASH: Absolutely.

CHALIAN: So I'm looking to see if we see some change of the trajectory. Is Trump somehow not dominant anymore in the race? And so, yes, it's a delegate race. But I also think today is one of those days because of where we are in the story that he still needs to ratchet some victories to continue to prove the point that he is not taking on water from these attacks, right.

BASH: And the decision that he made to not go to CPAC, which is a very large, traditionally very important meeting of conservative grass roots activists from all over the country. He decided not to go. He was supposed to be there this morning and instead went to Kansas where they are going out to the caucuses today. Maybe a sign that he realizes that he has got to keep this momentum going for the exact reason you just said.

CHALIAN: Yes. Listen, I think it was probably a very wise decision on Donald Trump's part to skip CPAC. It's clearly not his crowd.

BASH: I was there this morning. It is not his crowd.

CHALIAN: It is not his crowd and he knows that. And you know what? Having tens of thousands of people in Orlando, that is his crowd. So I think he made a very smart move optically today. I think the stakes today, obviously, Louisiana, obviously plays into Donald Trump's hand. I think Kentucky by this. I would look at Kansas and Maine on the Republican side, to see if something else is going to there. Those are states that may not be tailor made for Donald Trump. We'll see if maybe a Ted Cruz can make a play there.

And on the Democratic side, I think both the Sanders and Clinton campaigns, will tell you, I'm sure they have. They have said it to me that this a day they would expect Sanders perhaps to get some victories under his belt.

BASH: No. That's exactly right.

And so, Wolf, you expect on the Republican point that David was making, Donald Trump's support has been rock solid among his supporters. The question has been whether he can try to go out in that support. And it is going to be interesting to see whether the attacks that he has been taking is going to stop that expansion of his support base.

BLITZER: We should know much more in the next few hours. And we are standing by to hear from Donald Trump himself. We will have live coverage of what he has say. All of the candidates, Republican and Democratic candidates, that is coming up as well.

We are counting down to the top of the hour. We could make a major projection, a first of the day. These are live pictures. Check it out coming out of Kentucky. Long lines to caucus there today.

CNN caught up with one voter, you might recognized, Senator Rand Paul. So which candidate got his vote?

CNN special live coverage of Super Saturday continues right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:19:01] BLITZER: Take a look these live pictures coming in from a rally in Orlando, Florida. Donald Trump getting to address that crowd, his second big rally speech of the day. We will have live coverage coming up of what he has to say.

We are watching all of the candidates on this day.

Right now, we are the key race alert we want to share with you. These are the first votes coming in from the Republican caucuses in Kansas right now very, very early. There are only a few votes have been counted but Ted Cruz, look at this, he is ahead 45.2 percent. Donald Trump in second place with 30 percent. John Kasich with 11.7 percent. Marco Rubio with 11 percent. But it is still very early. Less than one percent of the vote in the Republican presidential caucuses are now in.

That's our first key race alert of this day. They are beginning to count the vote in Kansas.

I want to go to Kentucky right now. CNN's Brian Todd is on the scene for us in Bowling Green, Kentucky where they're getting ready to vote as well.

Brian, update us on what going on.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, super Saturday has brought a super turnout here in Bowling Green. This is the nicely a conference center. People checking in here. We're not really allowed to film past this point but we are going to pivot over here.

Check this out. We are going walk down the line and show you just how enthusiastic these voters are. Look, they are bringing their kids today. Everybody is really jazzed about coming out for the Republican caucus here. The first-ever GOP caucus in the state of Kentucky and it's the doing of Senator Rand Paul. He arranged for this caucus to be moved up to March 5th from the May date that they had earlier, because constitutionally he is not allowed to be on the ballot twice in one day. So he is running for reelection for the Senate. That race is in May. That primary's in May. So he arranged for this to be moved up. And he actually paid for this to be moved up due today.

And look at the difference that it's made. A huge voter turnout here. Much more than they expected here at the nicely conference center. I got a chance to talk to Rand Paul earlier when he came here to vote about how all this is going. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. RAND PAUL (R), KENTUCKY: I think it is exciting and I think a lot of people in some ways, we might get a better turnout because we're actually relevant. You know, we are right in the middle of a race. The race is not yet decided. The only thing about Kentucky is it hasn't been polled very much. So I think it's very uncertain who is going to win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TODD: Now, I asked Senator Paul who he is voting for, who he is supporting in this race. He would not tip his hand. He wouldn't say. But I kind of tried to get limb to narrow it down. I said one of the two senators one of the guys you're supporting today? He still wouldn't tip his hand, Wolf. So he is instrumental in this turnout and this date being so successful here in Kentucky even though he dropped out of the race a month ago.

Yes. They are very enthusiastic here. How are you guys liking this so far?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm loving the how fast the line is going.

TODD: Yes. It is only about ten minutes, is what they're telling us.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People in Bowling Green, Kentucky, are more organized than anyone else in the world.

TODD: Well. You're showing it here, sir.

All right. This is the story here, Wolf. Very dynamic crowd. Polls close here at 4:00 p.m. central time, 5:00 p.m. eastern.

BLITZER: People are patient. Love democracy in action.

Brian, thanks very much.

Donald Trump is now speaking at that huge rally in Orlando, Florida. Let's listen in.

TRUMP: -- I said, yes. So I did want to get the word out, folks. You know? I didn't want to go the rest of my life having everyone say I have small hands. I've heard of worse things but who needs it, right?

I want to thank you all, really. I mean, it's amazing. This crowd, look at that. All the way up to the rafters. All the way up, unbelievable. Unbelievable. Unbelievable, and the fire marshal, you know, we have thousands of people outside. We have lost about 10,000 people. They have had to leave, but we still have thousands of people, and I think because the police are so incredible, we love our police

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: And your fire departments and everything, they are going to try and let another few hundred people come right up here. I said, don't worry about it. We are not going to have any problems. OK? So we're going to fill it in, and it is great.

You know, the one I work on most when I go to a site are five marshals. They are my most important people, because they're the ones that let us pack -- you know, nobody has crowds like we do. Nobody. And you take a look today. Here's a day.

Now in all fairness to you, right now I'm supposed to be at the Cadillac world golf championships at Trump National Doral, and I'm here. I'm here.

(CHEERS)

TRUMP: And I just left Rory -- actually, I just left Kansas and hopefully we'll do well in Kansas, and Kentucky, and you know, I have is a list. Look at this. New Hampshire, we won. South Carolina, we won. Nevada -- Nevada, we won, in a massive landslide. That was supposed to be for lying Ted Cruz. Lying Ted. He holds up the bible, and then he puts it down and he lies. I don't like that.

And you know what? That's why I'm winning virtually every category with the evangelicals, who I love. And you heard today Paula White, who was fantastic and I appreciate Paula's being here, but Pastor Paula White was so great. And you know, Jerry Falwell Junior from Liberty University was so great to me, and he doesn't endorse people. He doesn't do it, but he felt this was important.

And remember this. Every one of the candidates goes to liberty. They all go to Liberty. They speak. When he endorsed me, that was a great, great thing.

All right. So we won -- we won Nevada big. We won Georgia in a landslide. We won Tennessee really big. We won Alabama in a massive landslide. We won Vermont, Vermont was incredible. Vermont -- everybody thought that would be Marco. Marco didn't even show up. By the way, he doesn't show up to vote for the Senate. He doesn't show up, so why the hell should re show up to Vermont? Right? Yes?

We won Virginia. We won Arkansas. We won Massachusetts. Many polls have come out that I easily beat Hillary Clinton. And I want to tell you, you know, you don't hear that on television. You watch these dishonest pundits, well, Trump can't win the general election. We will beat her so badly folks. We will beat her so badly.

I used to listen to Jeb Bush before he flamed out, and they say, Donald Trump cannot beat Hillary Clinton. And I said, why can't you beat me? Right? He got nothing. Low energy. Low energy.

And his people are now on television fighting me saying, we have to stop Donald Trump. He's not going to beat Hillary Clinton. They work for Jeb Bush, and I say, to my people, you know, I have these debaters, right? I say, why don't you just say he worked for Jeb Bush and they were terrible? But I see it all the time. We are going to beat Hillary -- I'll tell you something. The one person that Hillary doesn't want to run against, I will tell you this, is Donald Trump. That I can tell you.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: That I can tell you. And it's amazing. I watched it the other day where little Marco is going, well, Donald will not win -- I mean, this guy's got so many problems, I don't think he'll come close to winning his own state. How would you like to be this? I'm 21 points up -- I happen to love Florida, in all fairness. Truly, truly, my second home. I'm here all the time, as you know. All the time. I love this area, by the way. But I'm here all the time. I have done many, many jobs in Miami, with related and with George Perez and with, you know, Gil Dezzer and Michael Dezzer and we have had great success and we have many of the buildings on the Miami. We have a lot of stuff and it's been great.

And as you know, Doral, and in Jupiter, we did a big job, very, very successful. And in West Palm Beach we did a big, big job, very, very successful and the Maralago club and many more. And in fact, tonight we are having our news conference, hopefully, it will be a victory conference in West Palm Beach. In West Palm Beach.

See, with all the places I could pick, I picked Florida. I want to pick Florida. So we all love Florida. But I hear these people, and they talk about the general election. Look, the general election is very important, but I'm the one that's going to beat her. And I will say this. The one person that she does not want to run against is Trump.

You know, she got a dose -- I didn't -- I haven't even -- folks, I'm beating her in many polls. I'm beating her in many polls and I haven't even started yet. I haven't started with her yet. Only once. Only once. Four weeks ago, she said something about me being sexist. Remember? And I'll tell you, the press treated me very unfairly. Because right after she said that, I attacked her, and Bill, and Bill. We talked about the word. We came up with the word, a very true word, enabler. You know what enabler is? And we talked about Bill. I said, you mean to tell me I'm bad but her husband's OK? Maybe one of the worst in the history of politics. Right? And I had to put up -- OK.

This was a disaster for them. I guarantee you, they had one of the worst weekends of their life. This was -- this was not a friendly weekend that they had sitting together at home wherever they are at home, if they were together.

So here's the story. So here's the story. Here's the story. We can't play games. Our country is in deep trouble. We have to beat her. It looks like she is going to make it. Bernie is gone. Bernie's gone, regardless. Bernie's -- Bernie had his time. You know, he had has time in the sun and I watched -- I've seen this so often with politicians. They blow it. What happens, he had his time in the sun. He was doing great and then they asked him the question about email a month and a half ago. Right? And he said, I'm tired of them discussing it. Like, in other words, they shouldn't be discussing it, and I said, bye-bye Bernie. You just blew the election, and I was right.

But when I attacked Hillary, six weeks ago, people don't realize this, and the press gave me zero, and I want credit. Do you understand? You are the most dishonest human beings on earth. The most. They are -- disgusting, dishonest human beings. And I'll tell you -- well, not all of them. Actually, amazingly, because I'm no fan of the "New York Times," I had a front page story on the "New York Times." It was a in a phenomenal story. I can't believe it.

(CHANTING)

[15:30:24]TRUMP: Get them out here. Get them out! We had an amazing -- amazing story today on the front page. I'm going to have to be nicer to the "New York Times," you know? They give me all bad stuff, then I attack. Today was really, amazing, because somebody said, in the story that there's been nothing like this happen with this movement in the United States for over 100 years. Can you imagine? Over 100 years. And it's true. No matter where we go we are packed. We have the biggest audiences, the biggest crowds by far.

I must tell you, Bernie was second. A distant second, but Bernie was second. Where are these people? Come on. Get them out fast. We want speed. There he is. Look, little wise guy. Little wise guy. A lot of guts. A lot of guts. I wonder who sent him. And you know, they send them in, by the way. It's very -- but I love -- I love my protestors. Because these guys never move the cameras. I say it all the time. I call my wife, Melania, by the way, has she done a great job on television lately? Right? Will she be a great and very beautiful first lady, right? And she's very, very smart, and she's got a big heart. I will tell you. She's got a great heart.

But I love my protestors, because, I'll go home and see Melania, say how did you like the crowd? Didn't see it. What do you mean, you didn't see it? I heard it. You know, when you hear this crowd, you know there's a lot of people. Can you imagine where we had to have over 10,000 people not come in today? But I promised I'm going to come back. None of you can come here when I come back. None of you. We're going to let the -- OK?

I also know you got here at 6:00 in the morning, many of you. So, pretty amazing. But we're going to come back. But can you imagine, I go home and I'll say, did you see the size of that crowd? We filled up Dallas, you know, the Mark Cuban, the Dallas Mavericks, they are wonderful team. They had a beautiful stadium.

I spoke with Mark. I said, you know what? That will be good. He said, you would fill it up fast. We took it over Thursday. We filled it up on Monday, 21,000 people, nobody knew. And the reason they didn't know, number one, the reporters don't want to report it. They don't want to say. They had a case where Bernie -- it's unbelievable. That's why I like my protestors. The only time they move the camera, if there's a protestors up on the top in the rafters, they'll move it, because it's a negative thing in their mind. It's actually very positive.

But you know, I'll tell you what. We have a thing going on here that's incredible. There hasn't been anything like it. The biggest story in politics, which really isn't talked about as much as it should be, is voter turnout during the primaries. Fifty percent up, 60 percent up, in some cases, 100 percent turn -- there it is, cameras! Look up there, camera. Look up there at the protestors, camera.

(CHANTING)

ALL: USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA! USA!

TRUMP: Are the Trump rallies the greatest?

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: You know, when little Marco has a rally, when they get 300 people, 200 people, its fine. I'm not knocking it. But that's sort of a normal thing. This is not a normal situation, folks. This is not a normal situation. So it's been an amazing period of time for me.

You know, on June 16th I took a deep breath. This is not something that's so easy. I want to say. I took a deep breath --

BLITZER: All right. Donald Trump now going back to his stump speech. We are going to continue to monitor what he is saying. A huge rally underway for him in Orlando, Florida.

You hear the protestors. He is kicking him out. One at a time, we are going to continue to watch this. We are also watching the voting that is coming in the Republican caucuses in Kansas right now. You see it is very, very early, Ted Cruz slightly ahead. But once again, very early. Only one percent of the vote is in. We are watching it closely.

We'll take a quick break. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:39:38] BLITZER: We got a key race alert. I want to update our viewers right now what's going on in Kansas. Take a look at these numbers coming in.

In the Republican caucuses in Kansas, three percent of the vote now in. Ted Cruz building up a lead. He has got 52.6 percent. Donald Trump in second place, 21.1 percent. Marco Rubio at 14.5 percent. 10.1 percent for John Kasich. But you see this is really early. They still has a nice impressive 745 point lead of Ted Cruz over Donald Trump. I want to go to Sunlen Serfaty. She is covering Cruz for us right

now. And she is joining us from what is being describe as Cruz headquarters.

I take it they are pretty excited there, at least very early in Kansas. He is doing very well.

[15:40:22] SUNLEN SERFATY, NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Wolf. And you can hear the excitement here building at Cruz' headquarters here in Idaho. A campaign official came out onstage and said Cruz is winning Kansas. Of course, that's just an early prediction. But the Cruz campaign tells me they are feeling encouraged by why what they're seeing tonight in Kansas and as well other states. They feel optimistic. They say that this will be a good night for them in terms of expanding their delegate count.

A Cruz campaign official pointing not only to Kansas but also pointing to Maine tonight where they think things are looking good. Also they are really eyeing Louisiana as well. The Cruz campaign, though, is not predicting any sort of outright win of any state yet. For them it really is about delegates, delegates, delegates. The goal for them is to make basically make sure that they reach each threshold in every state to accumulate, pick up those delegates. They really want to widen the divide with Marco Rubio in delegate counts. And of course, lessen the divide with Donald Trump. Again, not predicting any outright state but the cherry on top, of course, will be if they can get a W, a big win, potentially in Kansas. We'll see how that shakes out for them tonight -- Wolf.

BLITZER: We will stay in close touch with you, Sunlen. Thanks very much.

We will, obviously, hearing from Senator Cruz at some point as well.

Let's go to Chris Cuomo. He has got a big, big job for all of us tonight -- Chris.

CUOMO: All right. My job is to listen, Wolf. We have so many great panelists assembled to figure out what's going on today. We just heard Donald Trump saying it's no longer just about a man. It's a movement.

Gloria, when you heard those lines from him and he was doing a lot of his stump speech but he started to list states and he started to make this historical. And that we haven't seen this in 100 years. What's the new move?

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, I think he has got to keep winning. And I think the job for his opponents today is to stop this inevitable movement towards victory, which a lot of people think he has. And so if they can pick off some states. If they can -- if Ted Cruz, for example, can do what Rick Santorum did last time and surprise everyone and win Kansas, for example, lots of evangelicals in Kansas, or if they can start wrecking up delegates. This is not about toppling Donald Trump. It is about stopping or trying to stop his momentum. You've seen the establishment freak out this week. You heard Mitt

Romney. And I think that what that may do in the end, and we'll see today, is incite Trump supporters to come out even more. We just don't know yet.

CUOMO: So Paul Begala, when you are looking at this from a strategy standpoint, he was saying the names of all the state he's won for a reason.

PAUL BEGALA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Right.

CUOMO: He had that list. He was checking it twice. And what do you think the message is he's sending to people?

BEGALA: I think to his supporters especially, you're not alone. This is a movement. A lot of these folks, and they tend to be, you know, older white guys like me. I'm not one of them, but you know, a lot of guys I grew up with. Maybe they are the only one at their office. Maybe they are the only one at their little league game. But you're not alone. You can join this larger movement.

He also used a name that astonished me, Jeb Bush. Why would Donald Trump - look. A few months ago, I wouldn't say this because he is emotionally unconfident. He needs to where defends around his mouth, OK. But no more. There's a method to the madness.

CUOMO: Did you just say emotionally --?

BEGALA: He is. I mean, come on, Chris. No. But this is strategic.

CUOMO: You are preparing for today, I see, Begala.

BEGALA: He is going at the establishment. Gloria is exactly right. When Mitt Romney came out, and said Trump is terrible. The best thing that could happen to Trump. It is free advice from the establishment? Your base is really angry with you. When someone's angry with you the three most words you can say is I hear you. It is exactly what Romney did not say. He is if you're wrong, you are stupid, you are horrible. The guy you like is terrible. That's not going to move voters off of Trump. It's going to move them to Trump.

CUOMO: Ron Brownstein, what is success today, if you are senators Rubio or Cruz?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Cruz is the candidate with the most at stake in today's voting because there are aren't that many states left. He is from the beginning preponderantly reliant on evangelical voters. He does not won on more than 18 percent of voters who are not evangelicals in any state expect Texas. And today some of the last remaining states on the calendar, Louisiana, majority of the voters in 2012 are evangelical. Kentucky, half of the adult population is evangelical. Kansas, the Republican Party is heavily evangelical.

Again, these are states, particularly Kansas and Louisiana, that both Santorum and Huckabee won. There have been a number of heavy evangelical states already that both Santorum and or Huckabee won that Cruz has not won. If he can't win in these places in a closed primary, the list of places where he can plausibly argue that he is the guy to unite the party is really are dwindling.

[15:45:05] CUOMO: All right. Plenty of points to make. Let's take a quick break. I will come to you, S.E., right on the other side of it.

We are starting to get votes in from Kansas, as Wolf was telling you. We are still early, but we will give you the numbers right on the other side of this break. Take a look at the lines in Wichita on the way out.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:49:26] BLITZER: Welcome back to the CNN election center. I'm Wolf Blitzer. Check it out. We are getting the numbers coming in from Kansas right now. The Republican presidential caucuses in Kansas, three percent of the vote is now in. Ted Cruz has a very impressive lead so far, 52.7 percent, Donald Trump 21.1 percent. Marco Rubio in third place, 14.4 percent. 10.1 percent for John Kasich. Republican presidential caucuses in Texas. But once again only three percent of the vote so far has been counted.

I want to go to CNN's Rosa Flores. She is Wichita, Kansas for us watching what's going on. I see still very long lines, Rosa, right behind you.

[15:50:05] ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, Kansas has a great, great big problem. Take a look. You can see the lines wrap around the building. They had to have a volunteer with a sign at 2:00 p.m., stop that line to make sure they could have enough ballots. Because hear this. This caucus is having to go to Kinkos to print more ballots.

Now I want to take you to the beginning of the line here because you will be able to see just how long this line is. We are going to sprint here a little bit in order for me to get there. But you'll see that there are so many people here, a lot of these voters, first time caucus voters.

I just talked to the GOP organizer here who tells me that last caucus in 2012 they had about 4500 caucus goers. This time they are estimating, they will probably have between 12,000 and 13,000.

Now, here's a beginning of the line. Hi, sir. The beginning of the line, you can see has a lot of people still inside. People register to my left here. And then to the right. This is where people are casting their ballots. And Wolf, they had to add ballot stations as well because of the volume. Because of the number of people who were here. Now take a look, this is where democracy is working, Wolf, in Kansas.

BLITZER: When are they going to count the vote over there, Rosa?

FLORES: Well, that's the other thing. I talked to the GOP organizer about that too, Wolf. And he tells me he is like I'm looking at the rules. I know that he said I wrote some of those and he's going to probably start now. He is probably going to start counting those early because he says you know, if we wait until all of this is over, you know, it's going to be a really late night. So they have gone to Kinkos already to print at least 3,000 here in Wichita because they were running out. And they are probably be counting early because of the huge turnout. It's a great problem to have, Wolf.

BLITZER: Very impressive. I must say.

All right, Rosa Flores in Wichita for us

Let's go over to John King at the magic wall.

John, so huge numbers coming out in Kansas. Normally we would expect maybe that would be good news for Donald Trump. But Ted Cruz so far is ahead.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I think it's an open question because of all of the excitement this week. And both on the Trump campaign saying stand there and fight the establishment. But the other campaigns saying it's time to get the never Trump movement going. So let's see if everybody is doing out. We'll see. Rosa is getting her cardio in.

Let's look at Kansas here. This is very early, only three percent. Ted Cruz opened up a pretty big early lead. But again, it is three percent of the vote. And you saw those long lines. We got a long way to go in Kansas. Let's count the vote.

But it is not a surprise to see Senator Cruz up ahead. If you go back through history I think David Chalian was talking about this earlier. In 2012, Kansas went for Santorum. In 2008, Kansas went for Huckabee. So it does have an evangelical base of the party. It also does have a history of being contrarian, if you will, going against the front- runner of the moment. So we will see what happens today.

Let's just go to the delegate map and just - let's just take a look at this because Cruz won Texas and Oklahoma. He won Alaska and Iowa. You can see he is winning here in the middle of the country. If he wins, let's say he wins Kansas today. Louisiana is actually a bigger test for Ted Cruz. This was supposed to be his real house. But you see Donald Trump winning from South Carolina across the south, Mississippi's next week. If Cruz is to make a huge statement today, that would be nice, that would be nice. It is more delegates and it would show that he is back on track in the evangelical south.

But let's just play this out. The interesting conversation of the party right now, Ted Cruz just opened the bunch of offices in Florida, right. The establishment, you heard Mitt Romney. He wants Rubio to win here and Kasich to win in Ohio to stop Trump. Ted Cruz doesn't want to go along with that plan because Ted Cruz thinks if we get to an open convention, they aren't going to pick me because the establishment doesn't like me.

So let's play a little scenario for you here. If we come through to March 15th, all right, this gets you through today, tomorrow, next Tuesday, and then through March 15th Tuesday, if Donald Trump runs the board there, this is -- if Ted Cruz can't win Florida he wants Trump to win Florida because he wants Rubio to get out, right. So under this scenario, let's just say John Kasich wins his home state of Ohio. And for the sake of argument here, let's leave Donald Trump winning Ohio which I mean, winning Florida, which would be what Ted Cruz wants.

What Cruz is hoping at this point is that Rubio drops out, but Kasich only in wins Ohio and people think he is not viable. Watch this as you play out. Even if Ted Cruz won everything else at that point, if he swept board after that point, he would not clinch the nomination.

Now it's very unlikely that Ted Cruz is going to win New York. Donald Trump supporters say he won't New York. He won't win New Jersey. He won't win Connecticut. He won't win Delaware. But if you just gave it to him, this hypothetical, now this would get him very close if he swept the board.

But if you go back and look at this, the Cruz's dream is to get Rubio out of the race. But even if that happens, if you start saying then what happens with Donald Trump, then you may get something like this where they are in a heated battle stopping each other. That's the Cruz dream. But it all depends on the state of Florida. If Rubio, can somehow, and if the new poll today suggesting he is coming back, if Rubio can somehow do this, then a lot of this would disappear. And when he gets interest. But that is the Cruz dream strategy. Got a long way to go counting the votes.

[15:55:04] BLITZER: We have been watching the Republican caucuses in Kansas. Now we are going to be watching the Democratic caucuses in Kansas as well. Kansas, an important state on this super Saturday.

Let's take a quick break. We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:31] BLITZER: We are counting down to the next caucus results. The countdown clock as you can see us right there, right behind us, the next Democratic caucus will begin in about a half hour or so from now.

Let's get a key race alert right now on the Republican caucuses in Kansas. Take a look at this. Four percent of the vote is now in. Ted Cruz maintaining an impressive lead, 53.5 percent to Donald Trump's 22.5 percent. Marco Rubio at 13.2 percent, 9.2 percent for John Kasich. Still an impress sf lead. But once again, only four percent of the vote has been counted in Kansas. We're watching that state very closely.

Let's go to Stephanie Elam. She is watching a Democratic caucus that is taking place with some big crowds over there.

Stephanie, you are in (INAUDIBLE) Park, Kansas.