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CNN LIVE EVENT/SPECIAL

Sanders Leading In Early Michigan Vote Count; Trump Wins Mississippi GOP Primary; Clinton, Trump Win Mississippi Primaries; Standing By For All Michigan Polls to Close; Standing By For Trump News Conference. Aired 8-9p ET

Aired March 8, 2016 - 20:00   ET

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

[20:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: This is a moment a lot of people have been waiting for. Let's go to it.

And CNN projects that Hillary Clinton will win the Mississippi Democratic presidential primary. Another win for Hillary Clinton in Mississippi tonight. Hillary Clinton is the winner in Mississippi.

We also have a key race alert on the Republican side right now. On the Republican side, take a look at this. These are estimates based on our exit polls as of right now, Donald Trump is with 45 percent -- excuse me, 49 percent based on the exit poll, 36 percent Ted Cruz. Marco Rubio and John Kasich, they're distantly back at only seven percent each.

Remember, these are exit polls. These exit polls are estimates based on our early survey of voters as they left their polling locations. The final outcome may be different. We can expect, in fact, those numbers to change throughout the night, but those are the initial exit poll numbers we can share with you. We have projected Hillary Clinton is the winner in Mississippi tonight.

I want to go to Jeff Zeleny. He is our reporter in Cleveland tonight. That's where the Clinton headquarters are.

I assume the folks behind you, they're going to get pretty happy once they hear we projected Hillary Clinton is the winner in Mississippi, Jeff.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: They certainly are, Wolf. And that's going to happen here in just a couple minutes. There's a bit of a delay here with our CNN coverage. But you will be seeing here behind me momentarily when they cheer the win for Mississippi.

Now, the Clinton campaign has been looking for a win in Mississippi. Let's just watch here, Wolf. We're going to watch you projecting it right here behind me. The crowd will be cheering here like you said. Just like clockwork here, just about 45 seconds delayed here in Cleveland.

But Wolf, the Clinton campaign believes that these Mississippi votes will give them a margin, will give them a cushion if they need one in Michigan. You can see the crowds behind me here gathering in Cleveland. There is a reason that show is in Cleveland. There's a reason they are here in Ohio. They believe Ohio next week is a place that can put this race away potentially, but only if Michigan goes well.

There's still one hour left in Michigan. The polls still open for one more hour. I just talked to a top Democratic official in the state who is aligned with the Clinton campaign who said they are still working to get out the vote. They're working in neighborhoods across Detroit and Flint to get more voters out there. A lot of times, you can get a lot of people to the polls in an hour. The Clinton campaign is not giving in. They want to do well. And if they win Michigan tonight, Wolf, this race is much, much closer to being her reaching the tips point to the nomination - Wolf.

BLITZER: She basically, all those states in the south, she has done really well in the south because in those Democratic contests, a huge percentage of the people who actually show up are African-Americans. She does really well with minorities, with African-Americans as opposed to Bernie Sanders, not yet.

ZELENY: That's right, Wolf. Bernie Sanders didn't campaign in Mississippi. He didn't go down to Mississippi to campaign because they believe that their best bang for their buck as one adviser explained to me is staying in Michigan, a place like Michigan. They plan to fight for Michigan as they have seen. But also Ohio, also Illinois, and they will be going on to Florida but that is a tough state for them as well here. So the Sanders campaign really hoping for a good showing in Michigan, but we will find out in an hour or even more when the polls close in Michigan, Wolf.

BLITZER: This is her 12th win so far coming into tonight, she had won 11 contests.

ZELENY: Right.

BLITZER: I assume at some point we are going to be hearing from Hillary Clinton behind you, right? Do we have any idea when she's going be speaking?

ZELENY: We certainly are, Wolf. She has arrived in Cleveland, or is on her way to Cleveland, I should say, and they are really keeping an eye on Michigan. They may speak more closer to the time of when the Michigan polls close. So maybe an hour or so. But, you know, she's monitoring this very carefully because as we have said, an hour is a lot of time and they are not going to give anything up until the can work until that final minute in Michigan.

We will definitely be hearing from her here at the Cuyahoga County Community college. Cleveland very symbolic. It is one of where the most Democrat votes are in the state of Ohio. That's why she will be coming here tonight. She will coming here again Saturday and again on Tuesday I'm told really fighting hard in Cleveland, Wolf, to try and drive up that vote for the Ohio primary, one week from tonight - Wolf.

BLITZER: Ohio, Florida, the states a week from today, they will be critically important as well. But we have to point out on the Democratic side it's not winner take all, it's proportional. It's proportionate, if you will. So Bernie Sanders will emerge even if he loses some of these states, he'll emerge with delegates.

ZELENY: He certainly will emerge with delegates and that's why this races likely to go on and on. The Democratic rules here, as we've known, as we kind of got a preview in 2008, it is all proportional. That's different from Republicans. Republicans become winner take all next week. Democrats are proportional all the way along. That's why Bernie Sanders believes he can and will, in fact, stay in until the convention. Particularly because a lot of those big states come at the end of the calendar. California, New York, New Jersey, some of the big states are coming at the end of this process which is much different than 2008. Those big states were on Super Tuesday eight years ago during the Clinton/Obama fight. That's why Bernie Sanders believes he will stay in this race until the convention. He believes he has hundreds of delegates yet to win.

The challenge here for the Sanders campaign, Wolf, is that the math gets very difficult for them. They have to start winning in big states and earning more delegates, not just a few delegates. So that's the challenge for the Sanders campaign at this point - Wolf.

[20:05:42] BLITZER: It's also increasingly more difficult because she has all those so-called super delegates as well. Jeff Zeleny is in Cleveland with the Hillary Clinton campaign.

You know, Dana and David, a big win for Hillary Clinton in Mississippi. Continues her sweep in the south. Very impressive. We're going it see what happens in Michigan.

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right. And we can we say before we say anything else, that was so impressive what Jeff Zeleny just did. You could hear his voice, blasting behind him. It was a minute delay. So he was talking to us with his own voice blasting and everybody cheering. I've been there. But that was quite impressive.

Back to the results. The fact, as Wolf just said, Hillary Clinton continues to do well, not just in the south but in states that have a very high African-American population, and Bernie Sanders tonight, let's see what happens tonight, but you know, he has so far not done not so well there and better in areas that are white. There's such a racial divide between the two candidates.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: There is, Dana. And here's what's so important about how it relates to the delegate math. This is what Donna was talking about before. The way that the proportional delegate allocation system works is that the highest performing democratic areas which are largely in states with big African-American populations, the African-American areas, they get a bigger basket of delegates to give out and allocate because they're high democratic performers.

BASH: Right. CHALIAN: So it's not just an, Bernie Sanders is having a difficult

with the African-American vote, end of sentence, and isn't that -- it is actually a blockade for him toward actually putting the math together that he needs for the nomination. If he doesn't start performing better with African-American voters, the math just gets tougher and tougher and we have some numbers now to point to how this went tonight.

Take a look in Mississippi. This is how Hillary Clinton won the state of Mississippi tonight. Among African-Americans voters, take a look at that, she wins them 89 percent to 11 percent. They made up 69 percent of the electorate today in Mississippi.

BASH: Wow.

CHALIAN: Take a look at senior citizens. I think this is someone of the untold stories of Hillary Clinton's success this cycle. She does really, really well with older voters 86 percent to 14 percent. They made up a fifth of the Democratic electorate down there in Mississippi.

And this one, the Clinton campaign is just going to love. This shows you how strong her victory in Mississippi is. She wins the honest and trustworthy vote 65 percent-34 percent. That's nearly 2-1 that she bets Sanders on honest and thus trustworthy. It wasn't the most important candidate quality for Democratic voters today. But those that did say that, they clearly by 2-1 gave their vote to Hillary Clinton.

BASH: The reason why you are that think they are going to be happy with that is because in most states it's the opposite, the numbers are flipped. And I think, Wolf, what is interesting is I interviewed Bernie Sanders on Sunday, asked him about the fact that he is doing well with white voters, not so much with African-American voters. And his answer was, well, I'm doing better with young people, even young black voters, not so much with older voters and that's exactly what the exit polls are bearing out tonight in Mississippi.

BLITZER: Yes. The historically older Americans vote in much bigger percentages than younger Americans. I assume that's continuing right now.

All right, guys. Thanks very much.

Anderson, another impressive win for Hillary Clinton, this time in Mississippi.

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: No doubt about it. And David and Gloria, it's interesting because we saw in South Carolina that the Clinton firewall among African-American voters really rise for the first time. The question was would it sustain itself all way through the southern states? And Mississippi, I mean, that's an extraordinary turnout among African-American voters for this county.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: It's unbelievable. I would also say, though, that Hillary Clinton is winning over half of the white vote. And in the south she has won on sort of south of the mason Dixon line. I was looking at it today. Her share of white voters has been more than half in seven states. So she - you know, you can't just portray this as victory for her among African- Americans, although that is her key base. She's winning with white voters --

COOPER: And David, you know, the map we are showing up there on the right hand side of the screen on the upper right corner, that way, it really gives you a sense of that southern swing for Hillary Clinton.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, absolutely. But we should say the African-American community is not just a base for Hillary Clinton, it's a base for the Democratic Party. If you have no inroads into that-- into that community, it's very hard to be the nominee of the party and this is what Bernie Sanders is running into.

As you look ahead to the states next week, a quarter of the vote in Illinois will be African-American. Large minority vote in Florida. Large minority vote in North Carolina. These are big delegate- producing states. And as Donna and David mentioned, the African- American districts are the ones that have the largest number of delegates. It's really hard to see how Bernie Sanders actually becomes the nominee of the Democratic Party without picking that lot. It's one of the reasons she's far ahead in pledged delegates.

[20:10:35] COOPER: And Nia, it's interesting because Bernie Sanders after Iowa and New Hampshire, there was a lot of talk about him reaching out to the African-American community. There were some very high-profile African-Americans who came out in support of Bernie Sanders. And yet, the numbers are not holding up at all.

NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: They're not holding up. They're not improving. And I think the first sort of sign of that was with South Carolina.

COOPER: Right.

HENDERSON: I think even the Hillary Clinton campaign was shocked at how well they did vis-a-vis Bernie Sanders with the African-American vote. Where he goes from here, given the fact that he's done an HBC youth tour, he has got high-profile surrogates like Cornell West and Nina Turner and Killer Mike, what does he do going forward?

COOPER: We got a key race alert. I want to go to Wolf Blitzer for that -- Wolf.

BLITZER: Anderson, here is our key race alert. In Michigan right now, polls have closed in some parts of the state. One percent of the vote is now in. Take a look at this. Look how close it is. Only one percent of the vote is in. But John Kasich and Donald Trump neck and neck, 35.8 percent for John Kasich, 35 percent for Donald Trump. Only 51 votes ahead. Ted Cruz at 19.3 percent. Marco Rubio in fourth place, 7.8 percent. Very, very early, but so far, neck and neck between the Ohio governor and Donald Trump. On the democratic side, in Michigan, once again, very, very early,

Bernie Sanders with 52.2 percent. Hillary Clinton with 47.1 percent, 395 votes ahead for Bernie Sanders. We're sharing these numbers with our viewers right now even though all the polls in Michigan don't close. There are some central time zone areas where all the polls in Michigan will close but they have released these numbers officially in Michigan, Anderson, and I wanted to share them with our viewers.

COOPER: Wolf, thanks very much.

It is interesting, Andy Dean, we had John Kasich on I think an hour or so ago. He said he felt very comfort about Michigan. He thought they were going to do well. He wouldn't actually say whether it would be second, he didn't suggest first place. But certainly the numbers, again, they're early numbers, tiny percent of the vote in are encouraging for Kasich even if he doesn't beat Donald Trump. Just that conversation.

ANDY DEAN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: Look, it's less than one percent so, you know, we can't jump to a conclusion there, but it seems to be he's over performing in Michigan. But to me, the bigger story is when see in Mississippi, that if Trump is going to win by double digits, I think that's going to be the key to unlocking Florida. Because Florida votes as if it's three different states. It got Northern Florida which is going to votes like Georgia, Alabama, and Mississippi. That's what Mississippi is teaching us tonight. So Trump has already won Georgia by 20, Alabama by 13. If he wins Mississippi by double digits, he's going to dominate in Jacksville, Pensacola. Then central Florida, the 1-4 corridor. That is going to vote like Virginia which has Trump has one and a little bit of a mix of Michigan and then southern Florida, Broward County and Dade County is very, very unique in the Cuban population. Buy Marco Rubio is going to have trouble to Cuban population as something very, very specific.

You know, I'm from Broward County, so I can talk about this. But Marco Rubio misrepresented his biography running for office as a young man. And so, that still lingers. So I think you're going to see him underperform in southern Florida. So if Trump wins northern and central and can do well in southern, I don't see how he doesn't win on the 15th.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, to go back to Michigan off our latest news in that poll, Michigan is so interesting for Donald Trump. I lived in Michigan in the '90s and he has a long, complicated history in Detroit which we're going to see play out tonight. Back in the '80s he considered building in Detroit eventually passed. Back in the '90s he considered builds a casino in Michigan, passed. He speaks glowingly about Detroit and was very bullish on its recovery. Counter that with the way he has spoken about autoworkers recently in that state. Just last year in August he basically said that Michigan needs to close up some plants, some auto plants, bring them to other states where they pay workers less. Basically telling autoworkers to take a pay cut in Michigan. I don't think that went over well. You're going to see this state render its decision on all of that tonight with Donald Trump. COOPER: But on trade, and we saw the exit poll numbers from the

voters who would say they believe trade hurts American jobs, that's a message Donald Trump has been hammering home and is actually pretty close to Bernie Sanders on that speaking against NAFTA. Even in a general election if he's against Secretary Clinton.

CUPP: That's another --

COOPER: Secretary Clinton is going to argue the same thing she's been arguing against Bernie Sanders and we're going to see a continuation of this.

[20:15:03] CUPP: Yes, it's another, you know, complicating but very, very interesting piece of the Michigan puzzle and why Michigan, I think, is really, really important for Trump and obviously for Kasich as well. But I think he'll learn a lot about how some of Trump's messaging has been playing out when we get Michigan's decision.

COOPER: I just hope everybody gets a screen shot of Kasich over Trump for now.

(LAUGHTER)

COOPER: Do you want to take a picture with your camera?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I'll get my phone out. That was really, really cool. And I don't think that's going to hold.

(LAUGHTER)

AXELROD: On the other hand -- I agree. You look at Marco Rubio at 7 .8 percent, it's not likely he's going have a good night in Michigan. And there are big implications to that. You know, he started --

COOPER: By the way, it's now three percent of the vote in.

HENDERSON: It's early.

AXELROD: Well, you know, there's certain things that you can deduce from all of this. One of them is he isn't going to have a very good night here. You think about how this whole assault on Donald Trump began with Marco Rubio on that debate stage, and you might say tonight he looks like the hands-down loser in all of that. Get the hands reference?

JONES: There seems to be this kind of kamikaze effect.

COOPER: I got it.

AXELROD: Thank you.

JONES: It is like a kamikaze effect in this election. Chris Christie takes on Rubio. He then collapses, but, you know, maybe Trump has benefited from that. But the person who goes hard, you can sometimes knock somebody else down or you knock yourself out. I don't know who benefited from that. The person who goes hard, you can sometimes knock somebody else down but you knock yourself out.

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN HOST, MICHAEL SMERCONISH SHOW: I think he wounded Marco Rubio. I think --

AXELROD: Without a question.

SMERCONISH: Never been perceived in the same way because the issue is, is there any there there? And from the moment that Christie said there you go again, you are repeating it for the fifth time, you started to wonder is there substance?

JONES: It didn't help Christie.

CUPP: No. He's gone.

JONES: In other words, whoever does these devastating attacks, Christie does the attack and he disappears. I think Rubio actually did some damage to Trump, but now he's about to disappear.

AXELROD: Well, in that way he followed up with what looked like open mike night at the frat house for the next several days after that. I think it actually diminished him in a way that hurt him. The guy who benefited from this is Ted Cruz, wisely hung back and let Rubio do all the dirty work.

COOPER: And also perhaps John Kasich who continue -- to not attack --

(CROSSTALK)

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: John Kasich has spent a lot of time in Michigan doing these town hall meetings. The same kind of meetings he did in --

COOPER: New Hampshire.

BRAZILE: I'm not surprised that he's picking up just a little bit of gas because here's a state that is tailor made for the kind of message that he's bringing to the Republican Party.

COOPER: Already a good night for Hillary Clinton in Mississippi. And now we are counting down to when the polls close in Michigan. As you saw, early indications show a very tight race for both Democrats and Republicans.

Stick right here to our special live coverage.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:20:43] BLITZER: Once again, the headline right now, Hillary Clinton wins the Democratic presidential primary in Mississippi. Another win for Hillary Clinton. Her 12th win so far as she came in tonight with 11 wins. Big win for Hillary Clinton in Mississippi tonight.

Let's get a key race alert right now. In Michigan right now, three percent of the Republican vote is now in. Look at how close it is between Donald Trump and John Kasich. Donald Trump ahead by only 152 votes, 35.6 percent for Trump. Kasich at 35.3 percent. Ted Cruz in third place with 18.8 percent. Marco Rubio in fourth place, 7.8 percent. Remember, three percent of the vote still a small number. But those are actual votes in Michigan.

On the Democratic side, bigger percentage of vote is now in. Twelve percent and Bernie Sanders maintaining his lead. Just changed a little bit, 51.9 percent for Bernie Sanders in Michigan. Hillary Clinton with 4.71 percent. He's got a lead right now, 4,704 votes, 12 percent of the vote is in in Michigan.

I want to go over to John King over here at the magic wall. Let's talk about Michigan first and foremost. Very close right now, 12 percent of the vote is in, but you're looking here that vote is and a lot of vote outstanding.

JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Early Sanders lead. 12 percent of the vote. But Senator Sanders happy with the early results have him up.

What do we have so far? If you notice, look at the state including up here the Upper Peninsula, not that much of the vote in here. But we're getting some vote in the urban areas in the droit suburbs. This is Oakland County. You are getting out into the suburbs. So-called Reagan Democrats live out here, 52 percent-47 percent so far with zero percent. So just the first vote starting to come in Oakland County.

Come down here to Wayne County, this is the big ball game here, 18 percent of the population. You have the African-American center in Detroit. Some of the suburbs as you get out here. Car country, auto country right in here as well as the suburbs. Senator Sanders, again, at zero percent. So he got just a few precincts in. You see 187-157 votes. So not to right whole about on bet on you, but the early results coming in for Bernie Sanders. What are we looking for? We want more down in Detroit. We obviously want to get over to Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo. But most of the -- for the Democratic primary, most places we're going to look for, and (INAUDIBLE), the University vote. And in Detroit in the suburbs here is where the bulk of your vote will come in. We'll watch it play out.

Let's flip over to the Republican side. Doesn't get much closer than that. Very close early orange again, just three percent of the vote in. Trump up a little bit over John Kasich. Ted Cruz running third right now. Marco Rubio well behind in third. But again it is only three percent of the vote.

If you look at it filling in, let's come to Wayne County, again, look at Detroit, Trump leading at the moment. But again, just a handful of votes there. Couple hundred votes when you add them up. Then you start move into the suburbs to get Oakland County. This is a big Republican area right here. If you look pretty split right there, again, very early results.

As you look. And I want to go back in time and show you, remember, Michigan was tighter than we all anticipated. Mitt Romney, the son of a former Michigan governor had a run for his money from Rick Santorum in 2012. Santorum getting the conservative votes up here, also in the western part of the state, Grand Rapids, good conservative pocket there. So this is something we'll keep an eye on tonight.

If you look back at this history, Santorum came in, did very well with evangelicals but also started to switch his message to more blue collar economic appeal. Gave Mitt Romney a run for his money, surprised him in the state of Michigan. So if you look at the Santorum vote, come forward and think about the race this year, this will play out. More candidates competitive in the race than we think, anyway. We'll see what Cruz does. But if you're going to see a Cruz comeback it will be up here and over here to the west Trump and Kasich fighting in the suburbs and Trump and Rubio fight in other states.

BLITZER: Yes. Still very early on the Republican side and the Democratic side but close contest in Michigan so far on both.

Anderson, back to you.

COOPER: Yes. Thanks very much.

David Axelrod, you run campaigns, know Michigan well. Too early to tell anything, or --?

AXELROD: On the Democratic side?

COOPER: Yes.

AXELROD: You know, I think that this figures to be a close race because Bernie Sanders has made some inroads with working-class whites and there are a lot of them in Michigan, but --

COOPER: Do you think he's been able to do that on trade issues? Is that particularly --

AXELROD: Well, I think those trade important, you know, but he's been -- I think just generally the whole issue of income inequality of the rigged system is one that resonates with these voters who really feel it in their lives. But, again, you know, when we see Detroit roll in, I think that that gives her a real beachhead that's going to be hard for him to overcome. Hard to say. But the fact that he's struggling here, and that she may win this state is probably better news for her than it is for him.

[20:25:10] COOPER: And on the Republican side, and John Kasich has found -- we were talks to him an hour or so ago, he was saying, I mean, how much time he has spent there.

BORGER: Lived there, right. He said he should pay taxes there. And he didn't predict he would win, but I think what he needs to do in Michigan if he can't beat Donald Trump there is come in a very good second. If he comes in a very good second in Michigan, it portends very well for him in his home state of Ohio where he has a 70 percent approval rating, winner take all. We all know that. And it's important for him because he hasn't been anywhere except for New Hampshire, right? So we -- he needs --

AXELROD: Where he also should pay taxes.

BORGER: Right. That's right. And he's had the same strategy as you point out going all along. This is so important for him because it will show the progress that he has made in his campaign and he's run a very different campaign from everybody else, but he needs, I think, to beat Cruz here, and we'll just see. You know, it's very close, obviously.

AXELROD: It's a hard business, you know, because these are the optics of presidential politics.

BORGER: Right.

AXELROD: You can be a point into third or a point into second and everybody will give you a win or a loss.

BORGER: I mean a good second.

AXELROD: No, but I agree with you. I think it's important for him to finish second to Trump here.

HENDERSON: Trouncing Rubio who according to these early polls is way down.

BORGER: He kind of makes the --

COOPER: Michael?

SMERCONISH: I was going to say, big picture tonight just to come back to where we are I think is can Donald Trump get to 1,237? He needs to win Michigan teeing up Ohio and Florida. If Kasich can dent him there, he is more likely to win Ohio and take Trump off that track which I think then means we hobble along all the way to Cleveland.

COOPER: Also, if Trump doesn't do well in Michigan or comes in in second even, it does continue that attacks against Trump, all this money that's pouring in against him, the ads that have been run, are they having an impact?

DEAN: Well, I think there's something huge happening in Michigan tonight. I think John Kasich won himself on the ticket because the key to November for Republicans is through the industrial Midwest. And the fact that John Kasich can perform there is huge for Donald Trump. But Kasich cannot perform anywhere outside of a place where he doesn't camp out for two months and that's a huge problem for John Kasich. Plus he's still going to be after tonight last in the delegate count. So there's no real path forward for him except the vice presidency. And I think this makes it a lot more likely. I think Trump is going to get to 1,237. I look at the math. If he's just shy, the deal that will be made, I hate to use that word because Donald Trump will have won it with the voters will be a Trump/Kasich ticket.

SMERCONISH: What makes you think Kasich will take that deal? That's contrary to Kasich's brand.

CUPP: Kasich, I think Kasich has been playing for VP this entire which is why you have not seen him take a swing at anyone else.

COOPER: It's a good argument.

CUPP: Because he wants to be -- he's a very attractive VP candidate.

COOPER: A number of debates, he has, I mean, been handed up on a silver platter an opportunity to talk a swing at Donald Trump or even to say that Donald Trump is wrong on something and he hasn't done it.

HENDERSON: Well, or any of them. And I don't know that he would take a Trump ticket, but, and I don't know that he's been thinking about Trump, per se. I think he's been thinking about everyone from the start that he is going to be a very attractive VP candidate. I also agree with Andy, even if he wins tonight in Michigan, or comes in second, and then let's say he wins Ohio, these still are just, like, drop in the bucket delegates for Kasich. I don't think his rust belt revolution is a real thing. I think right now he's basically playing spoiler and VP.

COOPER: We -- I want to toss it back to Wolf. Our conversation continue in a minute - Wolf.

BLITZER: All right, guys. Stand by. I want to go to Brianna Keilar. She is over Sanders headquarters in Miami right now with Jeff Weaver there. He has Bernie Sanders campaign manager.

Brianna, not a good night for Bernie Sanders in Mississippi but it looks like a pretty good night in Michigan.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, that's exactly right. I am here with Jeff Weaver, Bernie Sanders' campaign manager. I think you were resigned to the result in Louisiana but you're looking at what's happening in Michigan. Not too much reporting yet but obviously it's good so far. How key is this?

JEFF WEAVER, BERNIE SANDERS' CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, look, we were down 30 points not long ago. I think you saw public polls last week that had us down 20 points, 30 points. Look. He finished very, very strong. We'll see how it turns out. But it is obviously going to be very close in Michigan one way or the other. I think his debate performance despite the pundits was well received in Michigan on substance. I think he scored all the points. And I think, frankly, secretary Clinton's negative false attack which has been exposed over and over again in various media on the auto rescue really backfired on her because I think, you know, I think you have to be very careful, rightly or wrongly, she has perceived to not always have the most authenticity and to launch a negative attack that's shown to be false I think is really devastating.

[20:30:03] KEILAR: If we -- so we're seeing 15 percent reporting at this point, Bernie Sanders with a bit of a lead here. Do you think that will hold?

WEAVER: Well, it's hard to know. I don't know where the results are coming in from. Right now, you know, I'll talk to my people and see where, you know, where I think they're come in from. But, I mean, it's difficult to know this early.

KEILAR: You're pivoting now and you're here in Florida.

WEAVER: Yes.

KEILAR: To these series of contests that we're going to see in a week. What is important for Sanders to do in order to really make up some ground?

WEAVER: Right, well, look, so the 15th we got five very important states. It's very important in these states that we hold our own in terms of delegates because after the 15th, the calendar changes radically in our direction. And the second half of this primary and caucus process season, much heavily tipped in our favor.

KEILAR: Why is that? Why do you feel like it's tipped in your favor?

WEAVER: Well, look, Secretary Clinton was first lady of Arkansas for years and years, over a decade. She has a lot of strong relationships in the south. She's very popular there. And all the southern states were front loaded, right?

And so after the 15th, there are no more southern states. And if you look at the states that Bernie Sanders is winning by double digits, in some cases by 30 points up north, it's a lot more states that look like that.

KEILAR: All right, Jeff Weaver with the Bernie Sanders campaign. Thank you so much. Back to you guys.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: All right. Brianna, thanks very much. He's got a smile on his face right now seeing the results coming in from Michigan. So far we've made one projection. Hillary Clinton is the winner in Mississippi.

At the top of the hour, we might be able to make another projection. Stand by. Much more of our coverage coming up right after this.

(COMMERICIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: We have our second major projection of the night. Take a look at this.

CNN projects Donald Trump will win the Mississippi Republican Presidential Primary, an important win for Donald Trump tonight. He's won 12 so far coming into tonight. This is his 13th win, so far. Donald Trump, we project, is the winner of the Mississippi Republican Presidential Primary.

We also have a key race alert. We want to share with you right now. Take a look in Michigan what's going on. On the Republican side, 12 percent of the vote is now in. Donald Trump expanding his lead, 37.5 percent to John Kasich, the Ohio governor, with 29.8 percent that just changed, Ted Cruz in third place with 20.5 percent, Marco Rubio in fourth place, 8.5 percent.

[20:35:12] Once again, 12 percent of the vote is now in, in Michigan. We'll see what we can do at the top of the hour.

On the Democratic side, 18 percent of the vote is in, and Bernie Sanders maintains his lead over Hillary Clinton. 51.4 percent to 47.2 percent. He's got a lead right now, Bernie Sanders, of 6,266, 18 percent of the vote is in, still plenty of votes outstanding. Just changed, by the way, in Michigan, 20 percent of the vote is in.

Bernie Sanders getting a little closer, 50.6 percent for Sanders, 47.8 percent for Hillary Clinton, A difference of about 4,400 votes.

I want to go to Sara Murray. She's our correspondent covering the Trump campaign in Jupiter, Florida. Right now, the crowd is going to get a little bit bigger behind you. Good news for Donald Trump, we projected, he's the winner in Mississippi.

SARA MURRAY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Wolf, that's absolutely right. It's good news for Donald Trump. And what it also tells you is that even in the face of this barrage of attacks that have been hitting Donald Trump. He is still managing to notch these victories.

Now, of course, you know Mississippi is a state that awards delegates proportionally. We're waiting to see where all this shakes out. But no doubt this is a good night for Trump. I think a couple things worked to his favor in that state. One is, of course, his immigration message. This has been a cornerstone of his campaign. This has rallied voters to his side. But the other thing in talking to voters in Mississippi and just looking at how the crowd responded, people really liked there his call to ban Muslims, at least temporarily, from coming into the country.

There's a certain sense that that was really resonating with voters. These are not necessarily the Traditional Republican messages you might think that a candidate would go to a state like Mississippi with, but it clearly is something that worked out for Donald Trump tonight, Wolf.

BLITZER: Sara Murray, thanks very much. I know that Donald Trump is going to at a news conference and delivering a speech there. We'll, of course, have live coverage of that, Dana and David, good nights in Mississippi for both Trump and Hillary Clinton.

BASH: That's right. And, again, we've talked about this, David, in many different election nights past, but a billionaire from New York who tells it like it is, doesn't speak southern, if you will, winning in Mississippi.

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Because he's speaking to where the voters are ...

BASH: Exactly. That's exactly right.

CHALIAN: ... on a whole host of issues that the Republican primary voters -- his message is clearly resonating. This is a big victory, right? We were able to project it pretty early. It's funny to see, also, a similar pattern to Hillary Clinton. They're doing well in the same region of the country. BASH: That's true. Yeah.

CHALIAN: ... which is interesting to see as well.

BASH: To be fair, Donald Trump is doing well in every region in the country.

CHALIAN: That's true. That is true.

BASH: But, you know, I was down in Mississippi two years ago when there was a big Republican -- intra-Republican fight. The Incumbent Senator, Thad Cochran, was fighting for his life against an insurgent Republican. And so, Republicans down there shouldn't be surprised that somebody like Donald Trump with that kind of message is winning. What is our exit polling telling us about exactly how Trump won?

CHALIAN: Well, let's first start talking about those Evangelical voters that we talked about before. Take a look at this. Trump and Cruz are pretty close, Trumps wins them though. 45 percent of evangelical voters in Mississippi go for Trump, 40 percent for Cruz. We looked at the non-evangelical voters and he wins them overwhelmingly. But this was 76 percent of the electorate and he wins them by five points.

Now take a look at this. The angry electorate, we told you how angry the electorate was before, 40 percent say they're angry. Trump wins them going away, 57 percent, to Cruz is 33 percent, to Rubio at 6 percent.

And then how about the 58 percent of voters who want an outsider? This is Trump's base, basically. 65 percent of them want Trump. 27 percent want Cruz, 4 percent, Rubio.

You know, for Ted Cruz who made his entire time in Washington with the label "outsider", he is not winning that outsider vote. And when nearly six in 10 voters who went to the polls want an outsider and Trump wins them by 40 points, he gets -- he is winning that angry outsider electorate, the folks that are just so pissed off at Washington and want nothing to do with anyone who's attached to it. That is what the electorate is screaming for basically in a place like Mississippi tonight and Trump is answering their call.

BASH: That's right. And Ted Cruz really thought that he was going to be that guy without anticipating that Donald Trump would be the one to come up. And Wolf, go to any Trump rally and the number-one thing that pretty much every voter there will say is, we like him because he's not a politician, period, end of story. That just showed up tonight in Mississippi again.

BLITZER: You hear that all the time. That's an important, important factor. Guys, thanks very much.

I want to go over to John King over at the magic wall. John, Michigan, Mississippi, we know the winner is Trump and Hillary Clinton -- but Michigan it's close right now. Look at this, 21 percent of the vote is now in Michigan. Bernie Sanders with 50.2 percent, Hillary Clinton 48.1 percent.

[20:40:04] That's a significant number so far.

JOHN KING, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Up to 21 percent, that's a very close race. The gap has closed little bit. What are we waiting for most of all? We're waiting for Wayne County where we have zero percent officially. Just to see that a little over 300 votes there.

Bernie Sanders leading in the early returns but this is the African- American heart of the state. This is where Hillary Clinton expects to do very well. But Senator Sanders leading in that county as we begin the count right there. Detroit in the suburbs out this way, then move up into Oakland County, again, part of the big part of the auto industry and the industrial base of the state. Pretty close right there so far, right?

BLITZER: Big chunk of the vote is in there.

KING: Half of Oakland County is in. This is important county in the state. A good chunk of population. More than 12percent. Very close race. Competitive in Oakland County then move over here, McComb County is the county we spent so much time on in the 1990s, this is where Bill Clinton's pollster Greenberg did studies of so-called Reagan Democrats.

This is where then they crossover voters who voted for Ronald Reagan, Democrats, blue collar workers who voted for Ronald Reagan. The Democratic Party studied them very clearly. Hillary Clinton with a decent lead right now, only 4 percent in McComb County as we watch this play out.

So out here, blue collar workers, that has been the struggle in the race. She's up by a decent margin in McComb County. They're fighting in Oakland County. I just want to pop up here and see if anymore votes are coming in. OK.

Genesee County here, the home of Flint. So will see we have zero results yet. But Flint is in this county, that where they have the big debate that's obviously where you have the national tragedy of the water crisis. We'll see when their votes come in here.

But you pull out now to look statewide, just to see were up to 22 percent right now, Senator Sanders holding that narrow lead. But we are a lot to wait for. We got to wait for in Detroit and we got some more rural counties up here. Fewer votes up here for the Democrats but if it's a close race, they all count. We'll take a look.

Let's switch to the Republican side real quick. And 15 percent in. Trump starting to pull away a bit. Its only 15 percent. Plenty of time to catch up. Cruz in third place. And you see Marco Rubio still down there in single digits. It's a tough night for Marco Rubio so far if you look at the results.

What's happening here, again, if you look at the areas around Detroit, John Kasich says he's the blue collar guy from Ohio who understands Midwestern workers. Right now, Donald Trump beating him narrowly in Oakland County, McComb County very early results, only 4 percent, beating him quite convincingly in McComb County. Donald Trump says he can bring make Trump Democrats in the land where we had Reagan Democrats.

More affluent suburbs here, Santa Clara County, Donald Trump winning by a decent margin, they are very healthy margin did you bring it around. So you start to see the map fill in. If you're Donald Trump, you're happy with that. For obvious it's filling in your colors.

Ted Cruz winning in Kalamazoo but only by narrow margin there right there. Now, let's go to look for for the Republican's, Wolf, as Grand Rapids has nothing in there yet. And then more conservative votes up here in the northern part of the state. But, Trump starting to inch ahead. Only 15 percent. We got some counting to do.

BLITZER: Yeah. Kasich if he comes in second, that bodes well next week for Ohio, his home state, maybe Illinois which is next week as well. Stand by. We're going to keep checking in what's going on. In Michigan, we know the winners. We projected the winners in Mississippi. Much more coming up right after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[20:46:05] BLITZER: We've got a key race alert, want to update you right now in Michigan on the Republican side, look at this, 16 percent of the vote is now in. That's significant. Donald Trump has the lead. 37.9 percent over John Kasich's 27.8 percent. Donald Trump has 93,500 with John Kasich, 68,600 got a lead of 24,894.

Ted Cruz in third place, 20.9 percent. Marco Rubio just in fourth place right now with 8.9 percent, 16 percent of the vote is in on the Republican side. Trump is ahead. Let's see what happens over there.

On the Democratic side, it's a lot closer than a lot of people thought it would be. A quarter of the vote is now in, and Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, they are neck and neck right now. Look at this, 49.9 percent for Bernie Sanders. 48.2 percent for Hillary Clinton. That's a difference of only 3,260 votes. That's a slight lead for Bernie Sanders. Still lots of votes outstanding, but it's very, very close.

You can see how close it is in Michigan right now on the Democratic side. On the republican side, Donald Trump has the lead, but only 17 percent of the vote is in. Anderson?

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN ANCHOR: David Axelrod, when you look at those Michigan numbers particularly for the Democrats, are you surprised at how well Sanders is doing, and do you think, I mean, to Jeff Weaver's point from the Sanders campaign that we just heard from a moment ago, he was saying he thought Hillary Clinton attacking Bernie Sanders on the auto bailout at the debate hurt her.

DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I don't know whether it hurt her or not. I do think it was -- in my view, it was kind of a cheep shot because he voted against the bailout for banks from which some funds were used to help ...

COOPER: Right.

AXELROD: ... the auto industry and so he was clearly registering his disapproval of the bailout of the banks, and I thought it was a little too cute. But I really don't think that's what made the difference, and if you look at these exit polls. It looks like the late deciders basically split evenly, so it doesn't really support that.

Though I just think this, given the demographics of the state and the way these races have been going, this figured to be a fairly close race because he does have some support -- not some, he's shown support among working class whites. You see the same age divides in all these states where he does fantastically well among young people. She does very well among older people. But more older people vote. I mean, the dynamics are not terribly surprising.

Here's the deal, though. Time is running out here. If you look on "The Chicago Tribune" had a poll today that had in the Illinois primary for next week Hillary Clinton up 67-25. He's averaging a 25- point lead in Florida, 21-point lead in Ohio, 18-point lead in North Carolina and the same in Missouri. So this is really a critical moment for Bernie Sanders. A win here would have been a really big help for him, but ...

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I don't know how it all plays out mathematically, but I do know that there were that there's been a fight inside the Bernie Sanders camp. There have been kind of two different points of view. One is "Go hard on Hillary, be merciless, vet her, get her with everything. There are people don't like her. She can't win."

Other people say, "Listen, you know, you are Bernie Sanders, you're somebody, we love you because of the elevation of your message." When Hillary did that cheap shot and tries to pretend that he was somehow against the autoworkers, it gave a lot of energy to the people, said, "See, we should have never held back ...

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Yeah.

JONES: ... we should have thrown the kitchen sink at her. I think she's got to be very careful because she does have to bring the party back together. She doesn't have to do stuff like that to win. She's will thought she go on the pathway to win. I think she's got to think about the long-term. She's got to pull these folks back together.

AXELROD: Well we have now debate tomorrow night. It will be interesting to see how Sanders ...

JONES: Yeah.

S.E. CUPP, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: That's right.

AXELROD: ... you know, the national thing is happening here which is you go down the road in this campaigns and even if you have a lot of things in common candidates get grouchy. They begin to dislike each other. The campaigns begin to dislike each other.

But Bernie Sanders has to feel a certain urgency here. He has to pull something off in the next few days.

[20:50:01] Because if he loses the big states next Tuesday, it's really going to be hard with proportional representation, proportional delegates to win.

COOPER: Michael?

MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR, "SMERCONISH": The constant in the internals that I'm seeing in these states and the prior states that have voted is this solid support that she enjoys among African Americans. And earlier there was conversation here as to what can he do to make up that ground? Shy of immediately joining the administration and becoming Barack Obama's Secretary of State, nothing.

I think that she is being rewarded. She's being rewarded by people of color for the support that she has given this president for the duration.

COOPER: Loyalty.

SMERCONISH: The loyalty over two terms.

AXELROD: It's extraordinary I haven't been involved in the race 2008 to see this thing unfold because it's the mirror image of that race. And in fact I've said this before, Barack Obama has become kind of her firewall. Her relationship with him -- they have, she has relationships in that community.

But I do -- I agree with what Michael said. I think she's being rewarded for coming after that bitter race, supporting him, joining the administration, becoming a teammate of Barack Obama.

DONNA BRAZILE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Seven out of 10 voters in the exit polls show that they would like the next president, the next democratic president -- sorry, S.E. -- he next Democratic president to continue to protect and preserve and expand upon the policies of Barack Obama. And he's a very popular figure within the Democratic Party. I'm not surprised that Hillary Clinton is out there talks about the things that she supports because African-American supporters back the president.

Bu you know, I want to go back to the delegate math. I mean I want to be a little, you know, don't let me show you all may hands. But, you knows, Bernie Sanders, you got to win these big states and got to win in the cities. Meaning Hillary Clinton understands you got to put together a diverse coalition. She's doing that. That's why she's doing well in these states.

But in a few weeks we have Hawaii, Idaho, some of the states that you Republicans like to hold a little early. We Democrats wait until the end of March madness. And Bernie Sanders, I believe, Washington State, will try to accrue more delegates. But here come April. April is another big bonanza for Democrats.

If Bernie is not able to put together the coalition now in March, going to be very difficult you get to New York and Pennsylvania and the remaining states because the math won't change.

BORGER: Can I just say this?

COOPER: Are you saying we have to wait for April for things to clarify?

BRAZILE: I'm sorry, I know -- your looking for straight word.

COOPER: Every few week's people say it's going to clarify next week, next week.

AXELROD: I think it will be

BRAZILE: We're going to Florida, Anderson, you can get that tan finally.

COOPER: And, so good luck with that.

BORGER: Not just about the math, though, for Bernie Sanders. Bernie Sanders has had a huge impact on Hillary Clinton and on this Democratic race because half of the things that they're talking about now I don't think they would have been talking about if it hadn't been for Bernie Sanders and to a degree Elizabeth Warren and that group within t Democratic Party that is growing more and more powerful. So whether or not Bernie Sanders wins, he's going to have a real presence at the convention.

JONES: Gloria, don't you think it's interesting to see that he is a single issue candidate but then all of it a lot of her issues or if he is a single issue candidate is that she stole all his issues and left him with ...

BORGER: Right. Right.

COOPER: But also, I mean Nia, I think we talked about this before, he has made her a bet candidate, a lot of her supporters believe.

HENDERSON: That right. I mean if you look at some of the ads she has been running in Michigan over this last week, we remember about her tagline has been "I'm with her.'' But there are a couple that are running where the tagline is "She's with us." So she is realizing that this idea that this is a candidacy that was all about her initially, she is now -- this is about other folks.

COOPER: It is so interesting how, and we see this every election cycle, but how the race, itself, I mean, this marathon that it is, it is does make all the candidates better. Think about Donald Trump never having been in debates before, he's a better debater maybe, you know, whatever you think -- whatever you think of his most recent ones or whatever you think of him, he has certainly gotten better as a debater.

BRAZILE: "G" to "PG" to "R".

COOPER: However you define gender but ...

BRAXZILE: I'm sorry.

COOPER: ... I mean it does make all these candidates -- it usually makes them better. And then ones who don't are the ones who fall away.

CUPP: And it's so interesting, Van talked about on our side Van talked about all the kamikazes as, you know, that Chris Christie goes after Rubio and sort of a suicide missions. Well, there are also the conscientious objectors in the beginning who decided, you know, I don't want any part of this really. I thought I did, thinking of Scott Walker who got out early, who really, really I think, read this election well.

They know how long this takes. They know how nasty it was going to get. They saw the writing on the wall and they thought, this is not going to make me a better -- a better person rather -- a better candidate.

AXELROD: He may also put, he may also who have read the polls which saw him go from top to bottom.

CUPP: But there were 17 people, really anything could have happened. And I think really astute, you know, people like Scott Walker and Rick Perry saw this is not -- this process is not going to be good for me. I'm not going to get better through this process.

[20:55:00] COOPER: But it's interesting the kamikazes as you call them. Kamikazes knew they were kamikazes is none of these ones seem to have known it. They're all sort of accidental.

AXELROD: Yeah.

CUPP: I think he's just -- intentionally new. He was on his way out and he's going to take one last swing.

COOPER: You think?

AXELROD: And he also was on his way out because Marco Rubio's Super PAC ran millions of dollars of negative ads against him in New Hampshire.

BORGER: Do you think Jeb knew?

CUPP: That's how it goes.

BORGER: You think Jeb knew? When Jeb Bush was attacking Donald Trump that it was a suicide mission? I don't think ...

CUPP: No, I don't think he did.

BORGER: I don't think so.

BRAZILE: But Mr. Trump understood the mood of the Republican electorate. He understood that they felt -- they feel betrayed. They feel like the national Republicans have not paying attention, they don't respect them. And so you have to give Donald Trump a little credit for understanding that mood and tapping into it.

ANDY DEAN, TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think the theory ...

BRAZILE: I'm giving you ...

DEAN: Yeah. I appreciate it. Thanks for handing. Yeah. And I think the theory is that, maybe there was no path for any of these other candidates. No matter if Rubio behaved that landishly like the past week or if he was this, you know, very proper, prim and proper Rubio the past few months. This may be Donald Trump's time and it looks like when you win Michigan and Mississippi in the same night, the Republican Party wants Donald Trump. They said it very clearly. No matter what anybody else tries to do ...

BRAZILE: Say the voters. Say the voters.

DEAN: The voters. The voters.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: She's teaching me.

COOPER: The interesting thing to me, though, about Donald Trump is ...

DEAN: Yeah.

COOPER: ... did he know ahead of time that there was this anger out there that he could -- or did he -- or his instincts so finely attuned that he gets out there ...

CUPP: Yeah, he did.

COOPER: ... and starts to sense it?

DEAN: I truly believe that when he looks at Barack Obama and the people that he's surrounded with, he sees economic incompetence and national security incompetence and he is running personally to do the job that none of these other Mitt Romney, John McCain, could do. That is the way that he looks at it.

(CROSSTALK)

COOPER: Michael?

SMERCONISH: I have to say this, I acknowledge that there's great discontent in the country because my real job is to answer the telephone for three hours a day on a radio program and take calls from all across the country, so I know ...

COOPER: And by the way, today is the second anniversary of your debut of your show on CNN. So congratulations.

BORGER: Congratulations.

SMERCONISH: Yes. And something else happened two years ago today, it was the claim unfortunately still not found. But I want to make this observation about Donald Trump. We're giving him the credit for having seized upon this opportunity that he knew the country was angry. He's fomented so much of this anger. He's the guy going around on the campaign trail with a hat that says "Make America great again." He's the one perpetuating this notion that America is not a great place. So, I know we're not doing great in the nation, but he's stirred the pot. That's what I want to say.

DEAN: I disagree. Look, the idea that right now economically people are struggling isn't a Donald Trump concept. There's a reason why people are angry because wages haven't risen in the past 10 years. They're worried about the Middle East and ISIS attacks. We've seen San Bernardino. So this isn't like Trump is fomenting fake subjects.

(CROSSTALK)

DEAN: This is very real.

SMERCONISH: If the data points today were the same and Mitt Romney had been elected, people would say, "See, all we needed to do was get rid of Barack Obama, we would have 5 percent unemployment, we would have a stock market that's this robust. All these matrix ...

DEAN: $2 gas.

SMERCONISH: ... are subjective of a turnaround.

DEAN: And Middle East is completely out of control and that is Barack Obama's fault. Mitt Romney couldn't do the job that Donald Trump is going to do.

CUPP: Look, Trump deserves absolutely deserves some credit here on a number of fronts but he's also benefited from having a lot of people in this race and he benefited and I don't know if this was intentional, but he benefited unintentionally from some rules changes that the party made before this election in order to correct from a perceived weakness of the 2012 election.

Now, I don't know if Donald Trump and his campaign guys, took a look at that and said, "Oh, we might have an opening here" or if he just happened to sort of wander into a race that was perfectly conditioned for him.

But there's a lot going on and when we do the autopsy of 2016 ...

SMERCONISH: Oh, no.

CUPP: ... there's going to be a lot to look at.

AXELROD: It's early for the autopsy. One thing Andy Dean, I know you were picking vice presidents before, maybe it will be cabinet members before the end of the night.

DEAN: Yeah.

AXELROD: But before you do, take a look at these national polls because Donald Trump is becoming more and more unpopular within the Republican Party. He's much less popular with the overall Republican ...

DEAN: Look at this past summer, this past summer, they said he was unelectable and now he's really dominating.

AXELROD: I'm just say -- I'm just looking at the data now. Making a clinical point, more Republicans have an unfavorable view of him than anybody else ....

DEAN: That will change, when we come together, that will change. But I'll just say one last thing. Historically, sometimes the times do make the candidate. Abraham Lincoln lost the Senate race in 1858 and then won he the presidency in 1860. This is Donald Trump's time.

COOPER: We got to take -- actually let's go back to Wolf near the top of the hour.

BLITZER: Anderson, thanks very much. So we're getting ready for the top of the hour. So far, we've made two projections so far in Mississippi. Hillary Clinton is the Democratic primary winner in Mississippi. Donald Trump is the Republican primary winner in Mississippi.

But now all eyes are on Michigan right now. Michigan, all of the polls in Michigan are about to close. There were some polls that were still open, but the voting has been coming in. Significant numbers have already been reported.

[21:00:00] We can share with you what's going on in Michigan right now on both the Democratic and Republican side.

Here's a "CNN Key Race Alert" right now.

We can't make a projection in Michigan right now on either the Republican or the Democratic side.