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Donald Trump Elected 47th President of the United States; Republicans Win Control of Senate with House Still Unclear with Many Key Races Outstanding; Harris to Address Supporters After Loss at Howard University. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired November 06, 2024 - 11:00   ET

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

[11:00:00]

WOLF BLITZER, CO-ANCHOR, CNN ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA: Hello, I'm Wolf Blitzer alongside Erin Burnett, I want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world.

ERIN BURNETT, CO-ANCHOR, CNN ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA: All right, well, for several battleground results are still being counted, but the race to 270 is over, and Donald Trump will be the 47th president of the United States. And this is CNN's special coverage of ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA continues.

BLITZER: Donald Trump cruises to victory winning a second term and capping off an astonishing political comeback. Trump dismantled the so-called blue wall, seizing on the economy and immigration to stifle Kamala Harris' abbreviated campaign. Let's take a closer look at his road to 270 and we can see it right there.

You see in the electoral college map, all those red states for Trump, the blue states going to Kamala Harris. Right now, Trump has 276 electoral college votes, you need 270, so, he will be the next President of the United States, Kamala Harris with 223 electoral college votes right there, you could see it, what's going on and the popular vote, Trump also wins and this is significant.

The popular vote, he's got 51 percent, Kamala Harris 47.4 percent. This is where 89 percent of the estimated vote is in . He is up by more than 5 million votes, he has more than 71 million votes, she has more than 66 million votes. So, Trump wins the popular vote, wins the electoral map, a major win for the former President of the United States -- by the way, there are still several battleground states still on-call standby for a key race alert.

All right, take a look at these states, we're still counting, you know, votes in these states, in Michigan right now, 15 electoral votes with 98 percent of the estimated vote is in, Trump is ahead, 49.8 percent to 48.2 percent, he is ahead by some 93,000-plus votes in Michigan. In Arizona with 11 electoral votes, 63 percent of the estimated vote is in, Trump is ahead 51.9 percent to 47.2 percent.

He is up by a little bit more than a 100,000 votes in Arizona. In Nevada, Trump is ahead there as well, 88 percent of the estimated vote is in, he has 51.5 percent, Kamala Harris has 46.8 percent, he is up by nearly 60,000 votes in Nevada which has six electoral votes. I want to walk over to Phil Mattingly at the magic wall to get a little bit more and how we got to this historic moment.

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, we knew going in to last night, there were seven battlegrounds. There were seven places Donald Trump and Kamala Harris were really fighting over for that path to 270. We knew both of them had multiple paths. The path we didn't get into a lot as we were kind of walking through the different options was the path it looked like this, the entire blue wall turned red.

Both of the southeastern states, North Carolina and Georgia red, Arizona, Nevada red. Seven for seven, that's where things are heading right now. We obviously haven't called several of those races, but Donald Trump is over 270 electoral votes. And the big question going into the night, Wolf, was, could the coalitions that Joe Biden put together to win in 2020 to take back the blue wall states that Donald Trump had won in 2016, flipped Georgia, flipped Arizona, potentially flipped North Carolina.

Could Harris, Kamala Harris and her campaign match up with that? We got an answer fairly early on. And I think I can slice and dice, Wolf, every single county here and tell you what did or didn't happen, who over-performed and who underperformed. Let me just put it like this, in the counties of Pennsylvania, where did Donald Trump over-perform his 2020 margin?

Every county but five, including all of the Democratic strongholds, and Wolf, I say Democratic strongholds, we're talking about right here in Philadelphia County, he flipped Bucks County, one of those collar counties, these collar counties as well that Joe Biden really drove -- used to drive his victory back in 2020.

All but these five counties right here, Donald Trump over-performed his 2020 map. In every single one of those counties, what about Vice President Harris? Well, where did Harris underperform where Joe Biden did in 2020? Pull that up .

[11:05:00]

All of the counties you see lit up, red or blue are places where Harris underperformed Biden's 2020 results, including in those critical Democratic strongholds, Philadelphia into the collar counties including Allegheny. Now, it wasn't an underperformance by a significant margin, particularly in those strongholds.

But Wolf, these are the areas that the Harris campaign said they needed to not just match where Joe Biden was in 2020, they needed to try and bump up to make up for what they knew would be a strong effort by the Trump campaign. One last point, tying to all this, and not just in the seven battlegrounds, Wolf, where did Donald Trump over-perform in the entire country compared to his 2020 results?

Every single county you see lit up red or blue across the country, granted still counting out west, Donald Trump did better than he did in 2020. It's not just a blue wall or a Sun Belt state or out west, it is the entire country Donald Trump did significantly better than he did in 2020, better than he did in 2016, it was a scaled victory that I don't think anybody expected, even a very confident Trump campaign, Wolf.

BLITZER: Yes, and it explains why he not only won the electoral college vote, but also the popular vote --

MATTINGLY: Exactly --

BLITZER: Which is very significant as well , 89 percent of the popular vote is in, and he's ahead by almost 5 million votes over Kamala Harris, very significant and indeed, he's going to be very proud of that, not often that a Republican presidential candidate wins the popular vote even after that candidate wins the electoral college vote, but Trump has just done so. Phil Mattingly, thank you very much.

While Republicans will now control both the executive branch as well as the U.S. Senate, control of the House of Representatives is still unclear. CNN's chief congressional correspondent Manu Raju is following all of this for us. So, what's the latest, Manu?

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Wolf, the Republicans do have control of the United States Senate, remember, they just had to net one seat if Donald Trump were to win the presidency. They picked up three last night, right now, the Senate is at 52-42, that's three pickups, those are in three states, West Virginia, Montana and Ohio.

Now, all in the Republican column, those used to be Democratic seats, but they could potentially grow their Senate majority as well. They are leading right now in two states at the moment, that is in Nevada, there's also in Pennsylvania, Republicans could potentially get up to 54 seats in the Senate.

There are a couple of others that we still have not called yet in purple states like in Wisconsin and in -- that Democrats right now currently have an edge in, potentially, we'll see what turns out there. But Republicans are feeling very good about the Senate. So, where do things stand about the potential of Democrats having any power in Washington?

The United States House is the big question at the moment, 204 seats the Republicans have, they picked up five, Democrats have picked up two. They have 182 seats, remember, they had to net four seats to take back the United States House. And right now, they are not on path to do that.

Right now where Democrats are leading in just five Republican districts, that is -- that is why this is complicated, is that Democrats are trailing in some seats as well. There are three seats Republicans are leading in Democratic districts. So, shows you the complication that they face in taking back the House majority.

Now, let's drill down into why the Democrats are struggling, unable to at the moment, get there. That Don Bacon, this is a seat in Nebraska, a seat in which Joe Biden and district Keith(ph) carried pretty easily, Kamala Harris carried last night. Democrats thought that this would flip, this cycle. That at the moment is not happening.

Don Bacon, the incumbent Republican, he is ahead by 8,300 votes against a Democratic challenger Tony Vargas in that second congressional district in Nebraska. There's 95 percent of the vote in, Republicans feeling very good about that. See, there are a couple of other key seats in California which Democrats thought that they could pick up.

John Dougherty; the incumbent Republican, he is ahead by 3,100 votes against the Democratic challenger Adam Gray, 48 percent of the vote is in, still more vote to come at the moment. Republicans are feeling pretty good about that seat. And also another seat in California as well. This is with Congressman Mike Garcia.

He is an incumbent, someone from the southern California, from the Los Angeles area, Democrats had high hopes of this Biden district to flip. Well, for a moment, Garcia is ahead by 5,300 votes against his Democratic challenger George Whitesides, there are still some votes coming in, 65 percent of the estimated vote is in.

There are still some pick-up opportunities for Democrats including in New York. One of them -- ones we're looking at is on Long Island, Anthony D'Esposito; the Republican incumbent; he's a freshman there, he is trailing his Democratic challenger by 6,100 votes, there's 92 percent of the vote in, perhaps Democrats could pick that up.

But as you can see, this is complicated. So, few districts that are truly at risk of flipping them. Republicans could pick up some, Democrats could pick up others, can they get the four seats? It is a very complicated path at the moment to get 218 seats for the Democrats to pick up control of the House, which is why the Speaker of the House Mike Johnson put out a statement, Wolf, this morning, saying he is confident that GOP will retain power in the House.

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BLITZER: We'll keep a close watch on those remaining seats. Manu Raju, thank you very much. My colleague Erin Burnett is standing by with more campaign reaction. Erin?

BURNETT: That's right, Wolf, and just going through those numbers, still things we don't know, but obviously, the picture here, of what we're looking out -- looking at is starkly clear. We are standing by to hear from Vice President Kamala Harris, obviously, she did not speak last night. A source now telling us she will deliver her concession speech this afternoon at Howard University.

And this will be the first time that we will hear, see from her since she lost to Donald Trump, a night that of course, she thought would go very differently, that Trump seem to think could go very differently. Priscilla Alvarez is just outside the Harris campaign headquarters in Washington D.C., Alayna Treene is outside Trump's campaign headquarters this morning. So, Priscilla, first to you, what do you know about just what's gone

on in these past few hours in the inner circle of that campaign where we head all -- heard their view, they've been public, they were confident, they thought -- David Plouffe said they thought they could win all six or seven swing states, and yet here we are.

PRISCILLA ALVAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Erin, I've been talking to allies of the Vice President, and sources close to the campaign over the course of the morning, including in the early morning hours, and they are in a state of shock and disbelief, just to give you a sense of some of what I'm hearing.

One source telling me that, their quote, stomach is in nuts, another telling me that they felt, quote, "terrible", and another just describing the mood among campaign officials as quote , "gloomy". And it was Pennsylvania, and the results that came in, in Pennsylvania, that was really the nail in the coffin.

This source also saying bluntly, the caveats won. Now, the reason that there is so much shock this morning among those closest to the Vice President is because of what was being said privately and publicly by senior Harris campaign officials, essentially projecting optimism and confidence in those final hours leading up to election night, feeling as though they could pull some of those undecided voters to their site.

And of course, finger-pointing has already begun because part of this strategy also included bringing in disaffected Republicans who they believe were fatigued by former President Donald Trump as well as trying to lock in parts of the coalition where they had been waning enthusiasm. But the numbers have shown they just were not able to accomplish that, including in some of those red-rural counties that they had banked on peeling off some of those Republican votes.

Now, as you mentioned there earlier, the Vice President will be speaking at 4:00 p.m. at her alma mater here at Howard University. She is also inspected to call former President Donald Trump ahead of that speech. So, certainly, Erin, a lot of work going on behind the scenes to work on those remarks.

BURNETT: Yes, absolutely, I can only imagine that phone call, right? You know, it came out just the other day, right? Low IQ, all these things, and you have to pick up the phone and make that call. These are, of course, I think at these moments to remember, human beings. Priscilla, thank you very much.

And let's go to the Trump campaign now where Alayna Treene is in West Palm Beach, Florida. And Alayna, here's the thing, it appeared from everything that Trump campaign was signaling, the way he was acting himself, he didn't think he would win, then he came out and won, and he didn't just barely win, he won in a landslide. So, how does this adjustment sink in, and what do his next few hours look like?

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: Well, you're certainly right, Erin, that -- you know, heading into yesterday, Donald Trump's campaign kept saying they were cautiously optimistic, but behind the scenes, there was a lot of un-easiest -- uneasiness. They expected the race to be incredibly close, and they were not expecting it to be called as soon as it was.

When I talked to some advisors soon after most of the networks, including ours had called it for Donald Trump, they said that they were obviously excited, but also relieved, again, because they had not anticipated that it was going to come so quickly, particularly those crucial -- those crucial votes in the battleground states.

Now, as for today, I'm told Donald Trump is laying low for the most part. We know that he's been taking calls with a series of people who have been congratulating him. One thing to note about that is that we've heard, you know, clearly, we've seen foreign leaders publicly reach out and congratulate him online, but they've also been calling him as have CEOs.

And Donald Trump's campaign is very closely tracking who is reaching out and when? Because remember, Donald Trump values loyalty, and many times above all else. And so, this is something that they are watching very closely throughout the course of this day.

BURNETT: Yes, of course, even watching the world leaders, as you think about what people said, what they thought and now what they're saying. How does he manage that? I mean, so much as resting on how he manages that for the whole country and the world. Alayna, thank you very much. Wolf?

BLITZER: Erin, thank you. My team of experts is here with me right now, MJ Lee and Gloria Borger. MJ, you're a senior White House correspondent, I understand you're working your sources, getting some new information, what are you learning?

[11:15:00]

MIN JUNG LEE, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, you know, Wolf, obviously, there's going to be a lot of soul-searching and asking a lot of questions in the coming hours and days about what if anything could Democrats and the Harris campaign have done differently?

One thing that we are clearly already starting to see take place is finger-pointing and the blame game. And a lot of that is going to be directed at President Biden. And this is even coming from some folks inside of the Harris campaign. One senior official I just talked to said Biden will hold a lot of blame for it, and frankly they said, he should.

One of the ways in which he is being blamed right now actually just goes back to the simple decision of seeking a second term and re- election in the first-place. Remember, back in 2020 when he was running, he had initially said I plan on being a transition and a bridge President.

And of course, changed his mind ultimately and said I'm the only person that can defeat Donald Trump, I have more work to do and ended up seeking a second term. And then when his performance completely blew up at the CNN debate over the Summer, he had no choice, ultimately was forced to get out of the race, and that's why we ended up having this very truncated Kamala Harris campaign in the first place.

And Democrats are looking back on all of this and thinking what about that parallel universe where Joe Biden had not sought a second term, and there had been a full Democratic primary contest where the party actually chose whoever they thought was going to be the strongest person to run a full campaign.

Again, I think just one of many ways in which Democrats are going to be asking themselves the tough questions. A lot of tough questions are going to be aimed at President Biden.

BLITZER: A lot of tough questions indeed. You know, Gloria, let's talk a little bit about what was going on, some mistakes that may have been made, the Harris campaign focused heavily on abortion rights for women, as you know, focused heavily on the threat to democracy --

GLORIA BORGER, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Yes --

BLITZER: Which they kept referring to. But the CNN exit polling results which came out overnight showed that it was the economy, more specifically inflation that was a decisive issue for voters out there, nearly 7 in 10 describe the economy as not good or poor, 75 percent said inflation had caused their family hardship in the last year. So, was this a miscalculation on the part of the Harris campaign?

BORGER: Well, look, as MJ was saying, I think that Kamala Harris had this albatross around her neck, and it was Joe Biden. And she had a very difficult job separating herself from Joe Biden. In the exit polls, you use that 80 percent of Trump supporters say that they are worse off than they were four years ago.

So, the economy was a major issue. She tried to say, look, here are my plans, but I think a pivotal moment was on "The View" when she couldn't distance herself from Biden and couldn't think of anything that she would have done differently. I mean, this is a moment in this country that one source described to me this morning as a rolling re- alignment, where you have these disaffected voters who are upset because they're not doing as well as they were doing four years ago.

And it is not based on race , it is based on class, because Donald Trump has brought in all these -- all these new Hispanic voters and black voters for example, and the Democrats are left being the party of the elite, which they feel has nothing to do with them. And so, she had a tough job.

LEE: Yes --

BORGER: And she had to do it in just over a 100 days. And you know, looking back on it, that might almost seem like an impossible task.

BLITZER: A very difficult challenge indeed. MJ, you're a White House correspondent, we know that Kamala Harris is going to be delivering a speech at her alma mater, Howard University in Washington D.C. later today. Do we know if she's planning on calling Trump to congratulate him in advance of that speech?

LEE: Yes, as we've reported that phone call is likely to happen before she actually addresses the public. I mean, remarkable that there was a whole election night party essentially set up at her alma mater in Washington D.C. last night . She ended up not making that appearance period, really reminds you of actually the 2016 at Javits Center set up where Hillary Clinton was supposed to appear, everybody thought that there was going to be a celebration, and ultimately John Podesta ended up coming out to tell the crowd it's time to go home, we can't call this race yet.

It is going to be very interesting to watch what tone the Vice President takes as she publicly concedes this race, again, presumably after having done that privately in that phone call to Donald Trump. Remember, Donald Trump is somebody that the Vice President recently referred to as a fascist.

She has minced no words when talking about Donald Trump and the threat that she believes he poses to the country. And now here we are, the day after election day and we know that this is the man that is going to return to the White House. So, how does she talk to a big segment of the country and the population that is going to be completely devastated by the thought of another four years of a Trump presidency --

[11:20:00]

BORGER: You know, it's the popular vote as well. I mean, we're not --

LEE: Yes --

BORGER: We're not just talking about the electoral college anymore, it's quite an achievement to win both, that hasn't happened --

LEE: Yes --

BORGER: In a while. And so, you know, she has to recognize that, you know, that they got whammed. And you have to go back and look at -- and look at why, and I think it's always a very difficult thing for campaigns to do, but the Democratic Party writ-large has a lot of thinking to do about what the American public thinks about it.

BLITZER: Yes, she referred to Trump as a fascist, but we all know the way he was talking about her low IQ and all that kind of stuff as well. So, let's see what happens in the course of these next few hours, guys, thank you very much. Stay with CNN, our special coverage, ELECTION DAY IN AMERICA continues, is back after this short break.

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[11:25:00]

BURNETT: All right, welcome back. World voters and Latino men delivered big for President Trump last night propelling him back to the White House. And the former President built on his support making significant gains with these two groups most notably. So, let's go now to Harry Enten digging into the exit polls.

Harry, when the exit polls first started to come out, you know, there was the usual caveat, this all was in there, but it was sort of, well, you don't know what this really means, you don't know if it's going to pan out, in this case, of course, it very clearly did. So, looking in them, doing the deep dive, what stands out now?

HARRY ENTEN, CNN SENIOR DATA REPORTER: Yes, I mean, you mentioned rural voters right off the top. You know, we knew that Donald Trump was going to do well with rural voters, I think it was surprising how well he did with rural voters. Look at this margin, we're looking at a 27-point win for Donald Trump among rural voters, that is a double- digit improvement from how he did with them back in 2020.

Of course, you also mentioned Latino voters, let's dig in among Latino voters, specifically, we're going to dig in among Latino men. Look at this, I want you to note here. Donald Trump won among Latino men. Why is that so impressive? Erin, I went back in the exit polls the last 52 years, all the way back since 1972, and granted I am a little bit tired, but I believe that this is the first time that a Republican candidate for president has carried Latino men, Donald Trump was the one to do it.

Let's look at state level data regarding Latino men because I think this also gives you an understanding that Donald Trump didn't just do it nationally, he didn't just do it in one state, he did it across the nation. So, Latino men in the state of Florida, look at this margin for Donald Trump, 29 points. Why is that so impressive?

Four years ago, Joe Biden carried Latino men in the great state of Florida. But it wasn't just in Florida. Let's go across to Texas, because again, here it is a similar story. Look at this margin, a 29- point win for Donald Trump among Latino men, again, another state where four years ago Joe Biden carried Latino men and this time around, Donald Trump did. Erin.

BURNETT: Yes, I mean, and those numbers -- I mean, those are stunning margins, right? They'd be stunning margins --

ENTEN: They are huge --

BURNETT: They're huge. I think the part that just really is just something to consider and maybe give everyone some humility even those A.I. geniuses, that people just did not see that. They didn't see it, talk about the self-Trump voter in every case, in this case, perhaps that is ground zero for that theory. All right, Harry, thank you very much. I do just --

ENTEN: Thank you --

BURNETT: Have some breaking news I want to share with everybody as we go here to talk with our panel, and that is that Kamala Harris has now -- we understand reached out to speak to Donald Trump, obviously to concede, to speak to him, she has yet to connect with him, but we do know that she will be addressing the country at 4 O'clock this afternoon. Extensively, obviously she wants to speak to the next President before

she does that. My panel is back with me now. Ashley, that phone call, all right, the speech she's going to give, obviously this is going to be difficult for her, she's taking her time to be able to prepare herself for that. But this phone call with Trump --

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes --

BURNETT: Just again, on the human level, right? These are two people making a call. She is making a call to someone who has said all these things about her personally, pejorative, and yet, that's a phone call that has to happen and we anticipate will happen at any moment.

ALLISON: Well, it definitely should happen, it hasn't always happened, no, and again 2020. And I think that this is the type of woman that Kamala Harris is, this is why I would support her because she's an adult and she believes in our democracy and she understands that the voters have spoken and she will accept the results of the election.

Because she loves this country so much that it is not about her, it is about the will of the people. So, it takes a lot of courage to make that call, nobody likes to lose -- you know, you don't run an election to lose, definitely not run for the President of the United States to lose --

BURNETT: Right --

ALLISON: And I'm sure it's going to be very hard, but I will say that I'm sure this is not the first time she has had to work with somebody or have a conversation with someone who has said nasty things about her. She has done many great things in her life, and so, I'm sure she will handle it with grace and dignity as she has on the campaign trail.

BURNETT: All right, so, Karen(ph), can -- let's talk about something, that -- with Harry going through some of these numbers, and we're going to talk a lot about them because I don't want to bucket any group because there's differences. But there were just across the country some really important things in there.

Just when it came to women, the exit polling, again, and first, with caution, hey, you can see it, but you don't know. What do people really say?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes --

BURNETT: It turned out to be accurate. Kamala Harris did not do better than Joe Biden or Hillary Clinton when it came to --