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New Hampshire Democratic Primary; New Hampshire Secretary Of State Predicts Record Turnout; Clinton's Final Push for New Hampshire Voters; GOP Governors Looking For Strong New Hampshire Finish. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired February 9, 2016 - 13:00   ET

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


[13:00:00] CHRIS CHRISTIE (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Each one of these elections makes a big difference. And so, we intend to change the narrative tonight.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Everyone's got exceptions when they start and a good candidate changes it. And I think I've done that here.

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am just looking for a great election day. As many people who can turn out. They can express their opinions. You know, be part of this process.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The voters, they're turning out. So are our correspondents in New Hampshire. Brian Todd is at a polling center in Hudson. Joe Johns is watching the voting in Manchester. And our Manu Raji is keeping an eye on all of the candidates.

Let's start with the votes being cast. Brian, where you are right now, are we seeing a good turnout anecdotally? What are you seeing?

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, a very good turnout so far here. This is the precinct in Hudson, New Hampshire, just outside the city of Nashua. This is about as thin a crowd as we've seen all day. It has been packed since the polls opened at 7:00 a.m. with lines out the door. We saw a line of cars to get into the parking lot here that stretched six blocks down the street. Very, very excited voters to show up here at the Hudson precinct.

What they do is they come in and they check in here and they just -- they tell them which affiliation they want to do. And if they're undeclared, they tell them which way they want to vote that way. They come in and they say that they're independent, they're undeclared. They'll ask them which way they want to vote. Then they'll give them a pink ballot if they are a Republican voter, if they want to go Republican. A blue ballot if they're a Democratic voter.

Then, they go into those booths over there. We've timed it. It takes the average voter here roughly 35 seconds to move in and out. Not -- it doesn't take very long to vote at all here. It's a pretty simple process. Then, they come in and there's a -- there are two tabulation machines right behind that gentleman right there. They will put their votes into the tabulation machines, and those will be read out in a printout later on.

My photojournalist, Jamie Wiener, and I are going to kind of move back this way to get out of the way of some voters who are trying to check out here. Jamie, let's move you over slightly to your left here. And here's what they do, Wolf, when they come out of the voting booths. They come and they -- if they want to register as an independent voter, they do it right here at the undeclared desks. So, you can come in as an undeclared voter, decide which way you want to vote. Tell them about it and go in and vote and then come and re-register as an undeclared voter here.

We are told that the undeclared independent voters are outnumbering Democrats and Republicans here in New Hampshire. So, that is a critical segment of the vote. And we're told that there are hundreds of undeclareds coming in here, Wolf. I've witnessed several of them. Most of them have gone the Republican way, the ones that I saw.

We are told now that so far today, 3,200 people as of a little while ago -- about an hour ago, 3,200 voters have been through here. A little over half of them were GOP voters so Republicans edging out the Democrats here. But, again, the independent undeclared vote vert critical in New Hampshire and it's been a dominant force here in the Hudson precinct -- Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, good point, very good point. A lot more simple than what we saw last week in the Iowa caucuses. You just go in, you vote, and then you leave. All right, Brian, thanks very much.

Turnout is expected to be a big factor in New Hampshire. Remember, we had a record turnout in Iowa just a week ago on the Republican side. And that helped Senator Ted Cruz get his victory over Donald Trump and Marco Rubio.

Joe Johns is joining us live in Manchester right now. Joe, so what kind of turnout is expected there, and how is the weather holding up?

JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the weather's held up very well. Around 6:00 Eastern time, quite frankly, Wolf, they pulled the plug on the weather alert and people have been streaming in here ever since. About 1,100 at McDonough Elementary School in Manchester which is where I am. Now, that's a pretty good clip.

Since two hours and 15 minutes ago, just about 400 people through here, heavier than normal around the lunchtime hour as expected. The secretary of state in New Hampshire has said he expects a record turnout. No indication as to whether that's going to happen.

And I can tell you from talking to some of the people who've been coming in here voting, it's very difficult to keep track of which way they're going. So, we're not really trying to do that. This is the official sample ballot, if you will, for the Republicans and the Democrats. There are 30 Republican names on this ballot, 28 Democratic names on the ballot. And people can vote for just about anybody they want to through the process that Brian Todd just described. One thing we're told that people cannot do, in fact, is write in the name of, say, a Republican if they happen to be voting on the Democratic ballot. Because what happens then, we're told, is Jeb Bush voted for by a Democrat in a write-in situation would end up being nominated on the Democratic side.

So, complicated process, very interesting. People very engaged here in New Hampshire, and we await this evening when we expect the crush of voters to this location in Manchester -- Wolf.

[13:05:00] BLITZER: All right, Joe, thank you. Joe Johns reporting.

The candidates, they are making their final pushes on this very important day. Not necessarily with big speeches but with visits to polling places all across the state of New Hampshire.

Manu Raji is joining us from Manchester right now. Manu, a lot of people are guessing what's going to go on the Democratic, Republican side. We've all seen the polls, what the polls show but the polls may or may not be accurate.

MANU RAJI, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: That's right. The big question here, Wolf, I mean, about 30 percent of New Hampshire voters, according to those same polls, are undecided. And when I spend a lot of time, at these Republican events in particular, voters are really deciding who to get behind. Sometimes they're even debating whether or not to voter in a Democratic primary versus the Republican primary. So, it can go, really, any way.

You know, one thing that it does seem is that Donald Trump is the clear favorite going into tonight. But how much will he win by if he does end up winning is going to be a big question.

And another huge question going into tonight is that who will become second, third and fourth? That is really a muddle right now. The polls are all over the map. And we know whoever gets in that second, third and fourth-place position, it's important for two reasons. One, this state awards its delegates proportionally. And, of course, you need to have a certain number of delegates in order to get the Republican nomination. The better you do, the more delegates you get.

But also, the narrative coming out of here. The better you do for those candidates who are second, third or fourth, if they're in second place, they can make to the case of their party if they have the unity candidate. They're the person who can go against Donald Trump and can win the Republican nomination. And that media narrative, the narrative that they want to sell to donors and their supporters is incredibly critical coming out of today -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Most of the polling stations in New Hampshire, Manu, close around 7:00 p.m. Eastern. But all of them are closed by 8:00 p.m. Eastern. So, people after they work, if they put in a full day's work, presumably they'll have plenty of opportunity to go and vote. Usually, there's a big crush right around 5:00, 6:00, 7:00, assuming polls are still open between 7:00 and 8:00 where these people work. So, the numbers could really explode around those hours. RAJI: They really could. I mean, that's really the question how much

does the turnout affect things? How much do some voters who may say -- you know, who are considering voting on one side say that a Democratic voter -- an independent voter may vote -- they may then decide to vote in the Republican primary, particularly if that turnout is very large. It's such an open question right now how -- what can happen here.

I'll tell you, Wolf, one of the big questions coming out of Saturday's debate in particular is how will Marco Rubio do according to that CNN- WMUR poll that we put out yesterday. He was still in second place. But that did not test how voters -- did not really fully test the full spectrum after that Saturday debate that's been much talked about about Marco Rubio's performance. But can he maintain that second- place position? That's going to be another big thing we're going to have to look out for tonight in the voter turnout you were just mentioning could certainly change things there -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Manu Raji in Manchester for us. Manu, thanks very much.

After a strong third-place finish in Iowa, Senator Marco Rubio trying to keep up the momentum in New Hampshire right now. Just a while ago, our Dana Bash caught up with Rubio in Dairy, New Hampshire. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL REPORTER: How're you feeling about things?

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm feeling great. We really are seeing a lot of energy. A lot of people coming into the office last night just to volunteer at the last second so we feel great. We're going to leave here with more delegates than we came in and we feel very positive about that. We're going to keep building. We look forward to South Carolina.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Let's talk about this with Senator James Risch. He's a Republican from Idaho. He's a Marco Rubio supporter. He's joining us from Manchester, New Hampshire. Are you there, Senator Risch, to campaign for your friend, Marco Rubio, is that right?

SEN. JAMES RISCH (R), IDAHO: Well, I am and I have been for some time, working the phones and those sort of things. Obviously, my message to everyone is this is a man who you don't have to wait to be ready on the first day. He's ready today. I sit -- he sits next to me on foreign relations. One away on the Intelligence Committee.

He and I, over the years, have spent hundreds and hundreds of hours in meetings dealing with every problem, every idiosyncrasy, every challenge that we're getting from the significant countries on the planet. He has always impressed me as being such a quick study. And he has a great analytical mind. He's ready to do this.

BLITZER: What about the complaints about the debate the other night? Are you over that? Because he really got hurt, at least in the media.

RISCH: Well, he did get hurt in the media. I know what the media told me I thought I saw. But, generally, what they -- as you know, Wolf, I've run 34 times. And campaign 101 is stay on message. And his message simply was is the people that are criticizing him because he's -- they're comparing him to Barack Obama as not having experience and, therefore, can't get the job done. He was explaining that Barack Obama has gotten the job done. Not the way we want it, clearly.

[13:10:01] But, you know, he passed Obamacare. He passed the bill. He passed the stimulus bill. He passed the Dodd-Frank bill. All in the first half of his first term. I mean, that was very significant. And it was certainly competence on his part. Not where we wanted to go but he did with a much shorter time in the U.S. Senate than what Marco Rubio has had.

BLITZER: He came in third in Iowa. The expectation or the hope, at least on the Rubio camp -- in the Rubio campaign, he would come in second in New Hampshire. Will he come in second after Donald Trump, let's say?

RISCH: Anybody who tells you that they know what's going to happen here tonight probably is living in la-la land. This is very, very fluid here on the ground in New Hampshire right now. And, look, they're doing all this polling. But when you've got -- when you've got as much as 40 percent to 50 percent of the people undecided, I -- polls just aren't going to tell you much. They really aren't.

BLITZER: So, you're not making any predictions right now. How's his mood? I assume you've seen him over the past 24, 48 hours.

RISCH: He's in a good mood. He's always been. One of the things about Marco that has always impressed me is he's -- his mood is very even. He is not a moody person. He is a guy who's generally up. He's positive. He -- and that's how he views the campaign. That's how he views America's future, is very positive. And that's always -- that's always impressed me about him.

You know, we Republicans, we do gloom and doom pretty well. He's got a whole different view of what he can accomplish, what we as Americans can accomplish if we have the right leadership and we have somebody that knows what they're doing. Particularly, like I say having watched him over the last decade work with issues that affect the national -- the international stage, he feels good about what he can do for America and that's why he's so positive.

BLITZER: He's lucky to have you as a supporter, Senator Risch. Thanks very much for joining us.

RISCH: Thank you. Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: Up next, the why -- what is Hillary Clinton doing today to get those last-minute undecided New Hampshire voters to support her? We're going back live to Manchester.

Plus, the Republican candidates with governor on their resume, they're working up to the very last minute for a strong finish tonight. Who will gain momentum on the way to South Carolina? That's the next stop on the race to the White House.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[13:16:47] BLITZER: In the past, New Hampshire has been a friend to both Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton and her husband, the former president of the United States, Bill Clinton. But this primary could be different. Right now, Hillary Clinton is trailing her opponent in almost all of the polls. That opponent being Bernie Sanders. In an effort to close the gap, the former secretary of state made appearances at four polling stations today, shaking hands and taking voters.

Our senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar is in New Hampshire for us.

Brianna, what are the expectations for Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton tonight?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, Wolf, if you talk to people in the Sanders camp, you talk to people in the Clinton camp, they're all expecting that Bernie Sanders is going to pull out a win. You look at the polls and you see why. Our latest poll has him up almost 30 points over Hillary Clinton. So the question really, I think, for Clinton is, can she narrow that gap at all?

But aside from the outcome tonight, which, of course, would be a huge upset if Hillary Clinton were to win, there's also this issue about what kind of Democratic voters are going for Bernie Sanders versus Hillary Clinton. In Iowa, we saw young people going for Bernie Sanders, that included young women, and we started to see this split, this generational divide between younger Democratic or Democratic- leaning women and older Democratic or Democratic-leaning women. This has erupted very much here between Iowa and New Hampshire, especially with comments over the weekend from Gloria Steinem and Madeleine Albright really questioning in a way that a lot of young women found to be insulting why they would go for Bernie Sanders over Hillary Clinton.

I tell you, Wolf, walking around here in New Hampshire, this is what you hear a lot of young women talking about. So it's going to be really interesting to see how this plays out in the primaries today.

BLITZER: Yes, Bernie Sanders really did well with not just younger women, a lot of younger people in the Iowa caucuses.

KEILAR: Yes.

BLITZER: You know, he did amazingly well, especially for a 74-year- old, until recently, largely unknown politician. He's been doing amazing in Iowa and in New Hampshire. Now the argument is, he's from neighboring Vermont. So almost this is like a home state for him. But Hillary Clinton is very well known there, as well.

KEILAR: Yes, that's right. And there's no doubt that his being from Vermont plays into how he is doing here in the polls. And you can't really separate that variable from really just how well he is doing regardless of whether or not he comes from next door.

But this is a state, Wolf, exactly right, this has been very important to Hillary Clinton. And this is probably part of the reason why looking at this sort of lopsided race here, that it stings so much for Hillary Clinton and for the Clinton campaign. She pulled out a key win here in 2008. Also back in 1992, her husband came here -- came in second place here in New Hampshire, labeling himself the comeback kid. It really helped turn around his presidential campaign, as he was mired in controversy.

So this is a place that's very near and dear to their heart. And so at this point to be feeling a little unwelcome compared to Bernie Sanders, you know, that's something that certainly stings.

BLITZER: Brianna Keilar, thanks very much. Brianna's in New Hampshire for us.

[13:19:58] Still ahead, what are Hillary Clinton's expectations for tonight's results? We'll ask her campaign's press secretary, Brian Fallon. He's standing by live. That and a lot more coming up.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: It's a big day in New Hampshire. Take a look at this. These are live pictures coming in from the Red Arrow Diner in Manchester. We're told that some of the presidential candidates may be showing up there, including Ted Cruz. That's what they do on this day. They go around to polling places, to diners, to other locations. They're trying to get the vote out as much as they possibly can. Democratic presidential candidates and Republican presidential candidates, a lot of media in those diners, as well. The food looks yummy, as we can see.

[13:25:10] Still a lot of undecided voters in New Hampshire by all accounts. And as we saw in Iowa last week, just a handful of those voters could make the difference between coming in first or second place. When Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton was asked what she would tell people who are still trying to make up their minds, she said this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HILLARY CLINTON (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I know that there are still so many people who are barraged at this time of political attack machines and I -- you know, I'm going to just keep doing what I've done my entire life, which is I (ph) keep showing folks that they can count on me and that we're going to make real progress together.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Brian Fallon is the press secretary for the Hillary Clinton campaign. He's joining us live from Manchester.

Brian, thanks very much for joining us. So what are your expectations for tonight?

BRIAN FALLON, PRESS SECRETARY, HILLARY FOR AMERICA: Well, we know we have an uphill climb today in New Hampshire. We have spent the last week here campaigning wall to wall. We've had some high-energy events the last few days and she's really been taking to the (INAUDIBLE) in a retail-style approach to campaigning in this state in the last few days. She was going door to door with State Senator Lou Dallesandro, who's a bit of an institution here in Manchester, over the weekend. Yesterday she was in one of the local restaurants for breakfast with President Clinton, (INAUDIBLE). And this morning, as you just showed, she's been visiting some of the polling sites, including Ward 10 here in Manchester. So she's getting out and meeting voters and we're doing everything we can to mobilize her supporters in these final hours. But there's no question that the favorite today is Senator Sanders.

BLITZER: What did she mean when she said yesterday she was going to be taking stock of her campaign after New Hampshire? What did she mean by that?

FALLON: Well, Wolf, as important as these first four early states are, keep in mind that they represent just 4 percent of the overall delegates that are at stake in the nominating contest. And this will be in the final analysis a quest to reach that magic number for delegates to clinch the nomination. And so naturally, you know, as we go through February and look ahead to the March states that will be voting, you have big clumps of states that will be voting on Super Tuesday, and then another round in mid-March. And by the end of March, some 60 percent of the delegates will be awarded. And some of the states, the make-up of those states, is quite different from what we're seeing in these first two states, Iowa and New Hampshire.

You'll see much more diverse electorates in terms of the Democratic universe in those March states. And so naturally, you know, we're going to be staffing up in those states. And, yes, I think you'll hear Secretary Clinton talk about the issues that are of salience to the voters in those states. So that's a natural opportunity to look at our strategy as we move into the March states, which is an important part of this calendar.

BLITZER: There's a huge potential wild card out there, as you know. The former New York City mayor, Michael Bloomberg, publicly said yesterday he's seriously considering running for president as a third- party independent candidate. Earlier, Donald Trump said he would be welcome to do so. What's the reaction been from the Hillary Clinton campaign?

FALLON: Well, we haven't had too much of a reaction to that. You know, we'll let the mayor go through his own deliberation on that. And, for our part, we're focused on our own campaign. You know, when the rumors were first floated, the way that I had interpreted those reports was that he was really looking at a potential entrance into the contest if, for instance, the Republicans nominated someone like Donald Trump, and on our side, if the Democrats chose to nominate Bernie Sanders. So we're obviously hoping to prevent him from having to make that decision based on winning the nomination ourselves on the Democratic side.

BLITZER: What I've -- what I've heard from some people close to the former New York City mayor is, yes, he is certainly very seriously going to consider running if Bernie Sanders were to get the nomination. That's what I thought as well. But he's also been disenchanted by Hillary Clinton's -- what he would regard, lack of performance so far, the success of Bernie Sanders. He's been upset by that. And that's sort of intriguing to him. He also doesn't like the position she recently took opposing charter schools. He's very passionate about the benefits of charter schools, as you know. What's your reaction to that?

FALLON: Well, again, I'll let the mayor make his own decision and go through his own process to get to that decision. For our part, we have the makings, we think, of a winning coalition, not just to clinch this nomination on the Democratic side, but also to win a general election. I think that voters that tune into this race over the course of the next several months during this nominating schedule will come to realize that Hillary Clinton is the one candidate in this race on either side that can protect the gains we've made under President Obama, prevent the Republicans from trying to repeal the Affordable Care Act, Dodd-Frank financial reform, turn back his executive actions on immigration. She's the one that can hold the line on those important milestones we've achieved under President Obama and also take them further.

[13:30:10] You know on -- just to take an example on the issue of immigration.