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CNN 10
Key Moments From Election Night. Aired 4-4:10a ET
Aired November 06, 2024 - 04:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
COY WIRE, CNN 10 ANCHOR: Welcome to this special election edition of CNN 10. I`m Coy Wire and it is Wednesday, November 6th. The goal of this
episode will be to bring you the key moments from CNN`s coverage of election day 2024.
Yesterday, millions of Americans headed to the polls to cast their vote for who would become the next president of the United States. And when we
produced this episode, CNN had projected that Donald Trump would become the 47th president of the United States, joining Grover Cleveland as the only
U.S. president to hold the office for two non-consecutive terms.
Here`s a special look now at how the historic day played out.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ANNOUNCER: This is CNN`s coverage of election night in America. The race for the White House, the campaign for Congress, and the challenges facing
the nation.
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT & DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Do we believe in the promise of America?
DONALD TRUMP, REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: Will make America great again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There`s never been an election like this one and anything is possible until the last vote.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN ANCHOR: Democracy in action as you see voters casting ballots in Arizona as well as in Wisconsin and of course all across the
nation.
The very first exit poll information with potential clues for how this night might play out. David Chalian has that.
And David, how are voters feeling about the state of the country as they cast their ballots?
DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Yeah, Jake -- sorry, before we dig into the numbers, I just want to say two things so that everybody
understands what we`re looking at here. One, these are early preliminary exit poll findings. These numbers will shift as the night goes on and more
and more interviews come in.
The second thing everyone should be aware of, this exit poll encompasses every kind of voter, whether you voted pre-election day, on election day,
by mail, early in person before election day. We have incorporated polls of all kinds of voters that are incorporated into this exit poll. With that
being said, let`s look at the numbers on the mood of the country.
It`s a pretty dour mood in terms of the way people feel things are going in the United States. Nationally, only 7% of voters say they`re enthusiastic.
19% say they`re satisfied. Look at these numbers. 43% dissatisfied, 29% angry, 72% of the electorate in nationally say they`re dissatisfied or
angry.
What about America`s best days, we ask? Are they in the future or are they in the past? 61% of voters in this election across the country say
America`s best days are ahead of the country. Six in 10 say so. 34% say the best days are in the past.
And finally, President Joe Biden`s approval rating, it`s at 41% in these early preliminary exit poll findings. 58% of voters in this election across
the country nationally disapprove of the way that the incumbent Democratic president is doing his job.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sara, now it looks like, I don`t know if this is the after-work crowd that you`re seeing, but it does look like it is quite busy
right now.
SARA SIDNER, CNN ANCHOR: It is, and it`s been getting busier. And as you mentioned, 5 o`clock hit and we started seeing another run of people. It`s
been sort of trickling all day with lots of people in the morning, and now we`re starting to get a lot more people in the evening.
I do want to bring in quickly the Fellows-Leese family. What we have been seeing that is so lovely here in Cedarburg is that entire families are
showing up, voting separately, but together. I noticed that you did this lovely thing where they were showing you the ballots and sort of how it was
working. I heard you guys talking back and forth, and it was just wonderful to see families teaching and also learning about this really important
process that we all should be taking part in.
And Cedarburg, as we understand it, may have up to 95% of the voters come in to vote, which is an incredibly high number. So thank you so much for
doing your civic duty and coming in today as the whole family. I love it. It`s wonderful.
TAPPER: Let`s go to John King at the Magic Wall. John.
JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Jake, let`s start with the context of what you just went through. I`m going to wander over to this wall here just to show the
race to 270 at the moment. If you`re a Republican, you might be saying, wow, this is a route. If you`re a Democrat, you might be saying, oh my
goodness, we should be worried.
No, we`re early in the night. As Chris Wallace said, I love the analogy, nobody has broken serve yet. As in every red state here, Donald Trump won
in 2020 when he lost the White House. Every blue state on the map so far, Joe Biden carried when he won the White House. What don`t we have? We don`t
have Rhode Island. We don`t have Connecticut. We don`t have New Jersey. We don`t have Illinois just yet. Long time blue states.
So as we move west and as the count advances in some of the New York as well, some of the most reliably blue states, this map will change in the
near future. At least that is our expectation. We`ll keep an eye on it.
TAPPER: Major projection. CNN projects that Donald Trump will win the state of North Carolina. This is the first of seven battleground states
that we`re keeping an eye on. Georgia will go to Donald Trump, Georgia, a very highly contested battleground of 16 electoral votes.
CNN projects that Donald Trump will win the great Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. This is a huge, huge achievement for Donald Trump and a huge
bucket of electoral votes, 19 of them for his path back to the presidency.
CEDRIC RICHMOND, HARRIS CAMPAIGN CO-CHAIR: We still have votes to count. We still have states that have not been called yet. We will continue
overnight to fight to make sure that every vote is counted, that every voice has spoken. So you won`t hear from the Vice President tonight, but
you will hear from her tomorrow. She will be back here tomorrow to address not only the HU family, not only to address her supporters, but to address
the nation. So thank you. We believe in you. May God bless you. May God keep you and go HU and go Harris.
TAPPER: And CNN can now project that Republicans will win back control of the United States Senate. We can make this projection because CNN projects
Republicans win the U.S. Senate seat in Nebraska. The GOP picking up enough seats to reclaim the majority that they lost four years ago. This is a huge
victory for Donald Trump`s party.
TRUMP: This was a movement like nobody`s ever seen before. And frankly, this was, I believe the greatest political movement of all time. There`s
ever been anything like this in this country and maybe beyond. And now it`s going to reach a new level of importance because we`re going to help our
country heal. We`re going to help our country heal. We have a country that needs help and it needs help very badly.
We`re going to fix our borders. We`re going to fix everything about our country. And we made history for a reason tonight. And the reason is going
to be just that. We overcame obstacles that nobody thought possible. And it is now clear that we`ve achieved the most incredible political thing. Look
what happened. Is this crazy?
(APPLAUSE)
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The presidential race is officially undecided, but officially is doing a lot of work in that sense. The winner appears
more and more obvious by the minute. Donald Trump is on the cusp of clinching the Oval Office and becoming the 47th president of the United
States.
The battlegrounds that we said would decide the race have all broken for or may soon bend toward the Republican. Three big ones already in the Trump
column, North Carolina, Georgia, Pennsylvania. The four still on the board heading into the ninth inning and showing a Trump lead, a sizable Trump
lead, Arizona, Nevada, Michigan, and Wisconsin.
Again, ahead or declared in all seven of the battleground states. So how did Donald Trump do it? Like 2016, he ran up the score in the rural areas.
But unlike 2016 or 2020, he seems to be rewriting some of the DNA of his political coalition.
It is now official. CNN projects that Donald Trump has been elected president, defeating Vice President Kamala Harris and making a political
comeback unlike any in modern American politics.
Now we can make this projection now because CNN projects that Donald Trump has won Wisconsin. You can see right there currently ahead by 30,000 votes
with 99% of the vote in. Mr. Trump is only the second former president in U.S. history to be reelected to the White House. He will return to office
after two impeachments in his first term, followed by unprecedented criminal indictments and felony convictions. Mr. Trump scoring a landmark
victory as he now heads back to power, leading a politically divided nation.
Again, CNN projects that Donald J. Trump is elected the 47th president of the United States.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
END
