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Sanders Pins Hope on Younger Voters; Trump's Moment of Truth as Iowans Cast Votes; RNC's Reince Priebus Talks Republican Race. Aired 1:30-2p ET

Aired February 1, 2016 - 13:30   ET

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


[13:30:00] JEFF WEAVER, CAMPAIGN MANAGER, BERNIE SANDERS PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Obviously, they're geographically disbursed. We think we have enough voters to win who support Senator Sanders. That we have enough voters in all the right places to win. It's just a question of getting folks out.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Was it a mistake -- you can be honest -- that the Senator avoided --

(CROSSTALK)

WEAVER: Only by --

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: -- the entire Hillary Clinton e-mail controversy, the investigation by the FBI, saying leave it alone, we're not going to talk about it, because a lot of the pundits are saying, if he would have gone after her on that, maybe he would be even better than he already is.

WEAVER: With all due respect, I -- we try not to run our campaign based on what the pundits say. I don't think we would be tied if we did. In terms of the emails, you know, he has been clear since that first Democratic debate that CNN held, his conversation with Chris Cuomo afterwards. Look, it's an issue. It is a legal process in place. It will go where it goes. Let's not politicize it. And let's talk to voters about the bread and butter, kitchen table issues that are important to them and their families, things like health care, college education, wages, jobs. I mean, these are the things that people are concerned about in Iowa and frankly all over the country. You know, the e-mail thing will go where it goes, right? There's no way to influence it. The Obama administration is looking into it, and whatever the conclusion is what the conclusion is.

BLITZER: Have you guys -- when you say you guys, I mean you and the Clinton campaign, worked out all the details of the remaining Democratic presidential debates? I think there's supposed to be one maybe Thursday night, as early as Thursday night in New Hampshire. Is that a done deal?

WEAVER: I would not describe it as a done deal, Wolf. There are still some details to be worked out with respect to the three debates that would follow that that we asked for in exchange for the secretary getting the debates she wanted next week in New Hampshire. We're still working it out. One of the sticking points is we like to have one of those debates. The second one of those three in New York. There seems to be some reluctance from the Clinton campaign to have a debate in New York. Not quite sure why, seeing she was a Senator from New York. The first debate is going to be in Flint, Michigan. We believe that it should be held actually before the Michigan primary as opposed to after the Michigan primary, which is what the Clinton campaign had proposed. If we can get those two issues wrapped up and make sure we're in Flint, Michigan, before the primary, and we can be sure that we have the second debate in New York State prior to the New York primary, then I think we can put this whole thing to rest and meet in New Hampshire.

Look, as I said before, this is a favor to the Clinton campaign to do this debate on Thursday. It is outside the normal setup structure that the Clinton campaign endorsed -- which we abided by even when it disadvantaged us in the fall. They wanted to change to it. We've agreed to that provided that there are these additional debates. The ball is really in the Clinton campaign's court. All they have to do is say, Sunday, March 6, Flint, Michigan, and then we'll do a debate in New York, preferably New York City, prior to the New York primary the week before. If they say that, we're good to go and will be there in New Hampshire. We're not going to let the Clinton campaign determine when and where we have debates. This is going to be something that the campaigns work out.

BLITZER: If the Hillary Clinton's campaign agrees, and has Debbie Wasserman-Schultz and the Democratic committee signed off and authorized the additional debates?

WEAVER: That's not clear to me. The MSNBC debate was put on the table without DNC sanction, initially, so I'm want sure that that's really the controlling factor at this point.

BLITZER: OK. Jeff Weaver, good luck to you. Give our best to the Senator as well.

WEAVER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We'll be watching the outcome tonight and what happens on all of this. Thank you very much for joining us.

WEAVER: Thank you. Thank you.

BLITZER: And when Iowa ends tonight, by the way, and the race moves to New Hampshire, CNN will have a very special event in New Hampshire. This Wednesday night, Wednesday night, all three Democratic presidential candidates, Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders, Martin O'Malley, they will take part in a presidential town hall in New Hampshire. That's Wednesday night live here on CNN. A critical moment for each of the candidates to face the voters directly, the voters of New Hampshire, the first primary, answering their questions directly, making their closing arguments in a presidential town hall. It will be moderated by our own Anderson Cooper. Wednesday night, it starts 8:00 p.m. eastern live only here on CNN. And coming up, Donald Trump is leading in the polls, but will he get

enough of his supporters to actually come out and caucus later tonight? We'll talk with is campaign co-chair. That's next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & CEO, TRUMP ORGANIZATION: this is it. It's crush time, right? It's crunch time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:38:47] TRUMP: This is it. It's crunch time, right? It's crunch time.

I put out a tweet this morning. It said, "We're going to take back our country." This is where we start. This is day one. We're going to take back our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: He has defied a lot of conventional wisdom and tapped into voter anger and left many political pundits scratching their heads. Now Donald Trump faces a moment of truth when the first votes are cast in the 2016 presidential race tonight. The final polls before tonight's Iowa caucuses show Trump maintaining his position as the front runner.

Sam Clovis is Trump's national campaign co-chairman and policy advisor. He is joining us from Des Moines.

Sam, thanks very much for joining us.

What do you think? Are you expecting a win in Iowa tonight?

SAM CLOVIS, NATIONAL CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIRMAN & POLICY ADVISOR, DONALD TRUMP PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN: Oh, I think we're going to win. I think it's going to be a good turnout. The weather is perfect, as you can see. You know, no matter what happens, people turn out on caucus night, and I think we're going to have a big turnout. If we have a big turnout, I think the Trump campaign is going to have a very successful evening.

BLITZER: A lot of the pundits think Cruz has a better so-called ground game to bring out his supporters than Donald Trump says. You say what?

CLOVIS: Well, I think a lot of it is it depends on your perception. You know, if you say something often enough and people pick up on it, then maybe that's what people think is ground troops. I think the ground truth will be figured out tonight after the votes are counted, and we'll see what kind of ground game anybody has. You know, I think at the end of the day, Wolf, people still have to go out and fill out the cards and still have to make the contacts, we have to make the phone calls. We have our caucus captains. We get the people to stand up and speak. All of that is the same. It's just a matter of us finishing the job, and as the old sports metaphor goes, we're not going to leave anything on the bench.

[13:40:33] BLITZER: Cruz says a vote for Donald Trump is a vote for Obamacare, to which Donald Trump says Cruz is a liar. He says he has wanted to repeal and replace Obamacare for the last two years. What do you say as somebody who is out there in Iowa right now? How much of that Cruz statement against Donald Trump resonates?

CLOVIS: Well, I don't know that that is really the top of everybody's list. I think Obamacare is an important thing. Mr. Trump has been very clear his position on this. He wants to cover as many people as possible, but this is -- but Obamacare has to be repealed, and it has to be replaced with market driven systems. That's what he said all along. Where is Senator Cruz coming up with this? The things at the top of the list for everybody out here certainly is the economy, national security, immigration, tax reform, trade reform. A lot of these issues that are still up here on the front burner, and I think we'll get to some of these other things as time goes on. Obamacare is a real issue, of course, because it impacts people's pocket books. Right now I think everybody is concerned about national security, the economy, and let's get to the economy back on track so we can do the rest of the things we need to do.

BLITZER: When Donald Trump calls Ted Cruz a liar, what is he specifically referring to?

CLOVIS: You'll have to talk to Mr. Trump about that. I don't speak for Mr. Trump on those issues. I'm here to represent the campaign. I'm here to represent the policy positions that we have, and I'm here to help get out the vote. When Mr. Trump speaks about certain things, I leave that to Mr. Trump.

BLITZER: What's your biggest fear tonight?

CLOVIS: I think the blizzard getting here six hours early, that would bother me a lot.

(LAUGHTER)

I think that would be a biggie. I do think that -- I think one thing that is people not taking seriously getting to the caucus locations early. Once are you in line, if you are in line at 7:00, you get in. If you are not in line at 7:00, you're not going to get in. And that's a real issue because I expect we're going to have a bumper crop of folks show up tonight. We may have historic numbers in the Republican side, and I think this is really to our benefit. The more people that show up, the better off we are.

BLITZER: Donald Trump's decision to skip the Republican debate last week, did it help or hurt his campaign?

CLOVIS: I don't think it hurt it. I think we're in good shape. We had a lot of people here, as you know. If you look at the polls, we have support for Mr. Trump that's galvanized. We have very few people who are weak-kneed about their support for Mr. Trump, and I think we're going to find out that again tonight by 10:00 central we're going to know a lot more about the mood of the country. I think this is really the most important issue. The mood of the country is something that a lot of people, the media, the establishment, a lot of people across the board inside the Beltway have really turned their back on the American people and I think the American people have finally reached a breaking point, and they're looking for somebody who can be their champion. I think Donald Trump fits that bill better than anybody, and I think we're going to start to see that manifestation tonight.

BLITZER: Sam Clovis, national co-chair for the Trump campaign. Sam, thanks for joining us.

CLOVIS: Wolf, thanks so much. Great to talk to you.

BLITZER: Thank you.

Up next, voter turnout. Just how important will it be for Donald Trump and his GOP rivals? We're going to speak with a chairman of the Republican National Committee as the clock continues to wind down for the Iowa caucuses. There you see him. Reince Priebus, he is in Iowa. He is standing by live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[13:43:26] SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R), FLORIDA & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you so much. Good work. Thank you, guys, for your support.

I'm really grateful for you guys.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Marco Rubio, you just saw him thanking his supporters.

The presidential candidates making their final pitches, thanking their supporters in Iowa just a few hours before the very first votes are cast in this, the 2016 presidential election campaign here in the United States.

On the Republican side, it's been somewhat of a two-man race, at least recently between the front runner, Donald Trump, and Senator Ted Cruz. Senator Marco Rubio, at least according to all of the polls, running third.

Joining us now, the Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus.

Reince, thanks very much for joining us.

Do you have any indication about voter turnout? That could be significant in determining whether Trump brings in a lot more Republicans, newer Republicans to support him, or Cruz gets his way. What are you hearing?

REINCE PRIEBUS, CHAIRMAN, REPUBLICAN NATIONAL COMMITTEE: When you have this many candidates running, obviously, you're going to have higher turnout. That's obviously what everyone wants to try to figure out. Every campaign is looking at their data, trying to figure out what those numbers look like. You know, they're not -- we don't have a couple people running, so obviously everyone has their pockets of support. And their job now is to go through their lists, go through e-mails and phone contacts and data they've mined over the last year and then figure out how to get all those people to vote. Naturally, you would guess the turnout would be pretty high but again, who are those folks, what is it all about.

BLITZER: There are three tickets out of Iowa, the top three candidates will move on to New Hampshire and then South Carolina. You still buy that or are there more tickets out of Iowa now?

[13:50:17] PRIEBUS: Well, you know what, you don't know. What I try to explain to people, at some point, it's not going to be today and it's not going to be after New Hampshire, but at some point, people are going to start looking at delegates and start to try to figure out what the delegate count is. Ultimately, for all the viewers, the delegates of the Republican National Committee decide who the nominee is. These primaries influence the delegates on how they're going to vote on the floor of a convention. When we get into a March 1st super Tuesday and you have 16, 17 states going, you all aren't going to sit around and say, well, what happened to Tennessee, what about Mississippi, what about Alabama. You're going to say "what's the delegate count." And once that conversation - starts, I think it's going to be sort of a little bit of a slower roll through the month of March.

BLITZER: For those candidates who are still left standing. I assume you agree that after Iowa --

PRIEBUS: That's right, that's right.

BLITZER: -- there will probably be a few of these candidates who drop out, suspend their campaign after New Hampshire, maybe some more maybe after South Carolina. These things are going to go relatively quickly. Eventually, they'll be a much smaller Republican field, right?

PRIEBUS: Yes, you would think so, because there's just not enough hard cash to go around. I'm not trying to suggest it's something the candidates might not like to hear, but the truth is, when you need hard FEC money, meaning, you know, the individual personal donations, in order to pay for a campaign, there's only so far you can go without having significant success along the way. So these early test dates are a big part of that winnowing the field time frame. Then once we get into March, that's when 60 percent of all the delegates are going to be awarded. So February's about 5 percent. March is about 60 percent. But then you balance all of that with exactly what you've indicated, which is, you know, do you have the sustainability to get through the month of February, that's where this stuff starts separate folks. BLITZER: From the standpoint of the Republican Party, Reince, you're

the chairman, is it smart to have Iowa first, New Hampshire second, or you think it's time to rethink how the Republican Party nominates someone to be their candidate?

PRIEBUS: Well, even rethinking this every four years for 30 years, Wolf, and, you know, you're hitting on one of the great debates of our convention every year. I know it's maybe boring to a lot of people but the rules of how the primary process take place is always subject to a huge debate. I've always said there's no sacred cows in our party. The primary process, the early states, the carve-outs, this is a conversation that will take place at the convention. I'm not breaking any news here. It happens every four years. People are going to evaluate it and whether or not more tweaks need to take place to the scheduling and the calendar. But we're happy with where we're at. We've never had, I think, a better national party prepared for victory before. And the first time in the history of our party, at least as long as people around here remember, all of the states are in compliance. We feel good about what's on the calendar.

BLITZER: After Romney lost almost four years ago, you did that famous postmortem to come up with new ideas. How that's working out? Are you implementing the recommendations?

PRIEBUS: Yeah, we're implementing all of them. We have two less weeks of proportionality. Remember, when you have a lot of candidates, it's tougher as far as the distribution of delegates. It makes it a little slower obviously. But under the old rules, when Mitt Romney ran, the entire month of March, it was mandated that all the delegates be distributed proportionately. What we did is we cut that number in half. Now starting on March 15th, the states have the option of going winner take all. So the whole breakdown comes to about 55 percent of the states are proportional, 45 percent are either hybrid or winner take all. Hybrid is very similar to winner take all. So we think these are significant changes, earlier convention, and we have no violating states jumping the calendar like they did four years ago when Florida jumped to January and everything sort of avalanched earlier. So the calendar itself I think is in much better shape.

BLITZER: Reince Priebus, thank you very much for joining us.

PRIEBUS: Thank you, Wolf.

[13:54:50] BLITZER: Stay tuned to CNN. We'll be reporting live in Iowa all day. Our special coverage starts at 4:00 p.m. eastern. I'll be anchoring all night as the results come in.

Sarah Palin, a vocal Donald Trump supporter, now taking aim at his closest GOP rival, Ted Cruz. You're going to hear why she said she's concerned about the Texas Senator's tactics.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: During an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Trump supporter, Sarah Palin, blasted a recent mailer sent out by Cruz's campaign.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SARAH PALIN, (R), FORMER ALASKA GOVERNOR & FORMER VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What I've been concerned about is what the Cruz campaign has done to previous voters, potential voters, who weren't able to make it to a caucus maybe because it's a difficult process.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT & ANCHOR: You mean that literature, the voter --

(CROSSTALK)

PALIN: And then they were ashamed. They and their neighbors being sent a report cards saying, you know, you got an "F" because you didn't do what we think you should have done. That, to me, is very reflective of politicians thinking they know best or they know the intricacies of your life so they can make decisions for you. That's what I've been concerned about with this whole thing (ph).

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: You can see the rest of the interview with Sarah Palin coming up later today --