tv New Day With Alisyn Camerota and John Berman CNN February 6, 2020 5:00am-6:00am PST
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the nearly complete results, sanders has serious reason to gripe. iowa claims they'll have all the numbers this morning. we are waiting. this is a number that has the sanders campaign smiling. they are putting this out intentionally. they raised $25 million in january alone. this comes as mayor pete buttigieg is holding fund-raisers in new jersey and elizabeth warren is paring back. former vice president joe biden addressed his disappointing performance at a cnn town hall last night. he says he could have done better in iowa. >> president trump plans to make a statement today now that the republican-controlled senate acquitted him on both impeachment charges. the president, though, is already attacking mitt romney, the lone republican senator who voted with democrats to convict the president. romney is now the only senator in american history to vote to remove a president of his own party. allies of the president are also
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targeting romney who was emotional on the senate floor as he explained his vote. let's discuss all of this with cnn political analyst david gregory, cnn's senior political analyst john avlon and cnn political commentator ana navarro. david gregory, we haven't heard from you yet this morning. let's start with what happened. let's start with iowa. let's start with what continues to happen in iowa. let's start with the news this morning that there is now a tie in iowa basically between sanders and buttigieg. and i know that you often talk about the ideological, you know, so can we draw any conclusions at this still early hour about which way democrats at least in iowa are leaning. >> iowa used tock a big event on the political calendar. now it's more like a long weekend apparently with these results, which is just such a shame for all of the candidates. but what you showed in terms of
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the numbers, in terms of the results out of iowa, it says something about where we are. there is three candidates right now who we should be paying the most attention to. it's buttigieg, warren and sanders. biden is a big story because he's been a front-runner for so long. he's in this red zone of, can he come back? but he's dealing with sanders and warren who are neighboring senators in new hampshire. and these are the most liberal figures in the democratic party and they are getting most of the votes and budget with a strong finish as an outsider candidate. perhaps more moderate compared to the other two in a strong position. so i think that's what we focus on, the money, and now we focus on what happens in new hampshire as this other important data point. >> i can't get beyond the fact that monday there was no winner.
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wednesday it looked like pete buttigieg may have been the winner and now it's possible within 20 minutes bernie sanders could end up being the winner in iowa. >> the last 20% breaking really his way. look, this has been a disaster. from jump. six months for candidates to devote the majority of their attention. they've only met candidates 15 times before they make up their mind and we don't have definite results. the real focus should be on new hampshire. what are the independent voters going to do? which candidates will they break for? bernie sanders won big there last time. does buttigieg get a bump? >> dwloothat's why it matters w happened in iowa. how does it affect what's going to in new hampshire right now? >> the momentum does make a difference as harry enten has attested using history. buttigieg has based a lot of his campaign on appealing on independents. that's a message that could and should resonate. bernie sanders won last time around and joe biden trying to
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get his mojo back and putting a lot of emphasis on the fact he's been doing well in south carolina but that's still a way away from momentum. >> ana, where does this leave former vp joe biden? >> oh, alisyn, i am from florida. i'm in no position to criticize a state for not being able to count their votes. you know, at least they've done it in three days. it only took us, what, two months? look, at this point, i think this is not only affecting the race. it's affecting the future of iowa. this is a state that's known for one thing every four years. if you've got one job, every four years, and you can't get that done correctly, you've lost your standing at this point. where it leaves the race, i think we're just going to have to live with the idea that generally, generally, because who can trust the specific numbers. after all of this, who can trust
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the accuracy, the specific accuracy of iowa? generally people buttigieg and sanders came out on top. then came warren. then came biden. general terms. you'll have to live with that, america, and go on from that. turn the page and go on to new hampshire. >> you were -- joe biden, there was a cnn town hall last night, a series of them and a series more tonight. and joe biden is trying to pivot off of iowa. i want to play some of joe biden last night. a more aggressive joe biden because this resonated with you. listen to this. >> look, let's put this in perspective. there are a total of, what, 44 delegates are going to come out of napt looks like it's going to break down between 7 and 15 among the top four of us. you need 1900 delegates to become the president of the united states, to become the nominee. so i expected to do better, and i expected that our organization would perform better. but the fact is i'm happy to be
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here in new hampshire. >> that was him talking about iowa specifically, but had another bunch of moments talking about his stutter which we'll focus on later in the broadcast. much more aggressive in addressing bernie sanders and more aggressive about talking to donald trump. what did you see last night, ana? >> i saw a very open, very frank, very accessible and relatable joe biden. my one criticism, my big criticism of the biden campaign is they have not allowed access to joe biden in the same way we've seen access to pete buttigieg, for example. pete buttigieg's press shop is so good. i've even learned how to say buttigieg. or this is as good as it gets. and whereas biden has been kept away. let joe biden be joe biden. let him lose. let us see the joe biden we saw yesterday emoeting and talking n empathetic terms about stuttering. i have a stutterer in my home.
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he was very important in my life. i know how much this means. let the man be him and let him be able to touch people's hearts and be out there. let him be out there more. >> it's been an important point. i don't understand why campaigns need to relearn. in 2016, hillary's team tried to control the press and coverage and donald trump was amazingly accessible. look what the former mayor of south bend has been able to do by being accessible. at the end of the day, the lesson is always, let biden be biden. let the candidate be themselves. that's where you'll get the risk of intimacy where they'll really connect. >> it's also the fact that biden's team has positioned him to kind of cruise, to play rope-a-dope, not to be too accessible so he doesn't make mistakes and just focus on donald trump. you'll have to fight for it if you want the nomination. there's a lot of energy on the democratic side. and within progressive circles in the democratic party that you'll have to contend with.
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you can't cruise. you can't just hug the president, president obama and then play rope-a-dope with the press and everybody else. biden has to dig in and fight. he's right about the perspective but that's what you say when you're losing. there is a big ideological split between the progressives of the party and this overall view of how do you beat donald trump? and is it a more moderate party or progressive party? democrats are finding that out now every day, and out of iowa, you get to make your story lines which is buttigieg and sanders come out of there. warren is muted for the moment. but she can rear back in new hampshire. and then the struggles of biden. >> ana, we want to talk about what mitt romney did where he broke with his party and voted guilty. the president had abused his power. so romney had spoken about how he understood that this would make him vulnerable to all sorts of attacks from all sorts of
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different corners. i don't know if he could have anticipated the one that don junior, the president's son, put on instagram because it's more vulgar than we can say for a family show. right now it invokes a term that the president used also. it's the "p" word. i don't know. your thoughts this morning on all of this? >> i really don't even want to spend any time talking about that little boy and his father and how inappropriate they are. i just want to say thank you to mitt romney because, you know, i've now heard his speech several times. and every time it hits me even more. as somebody who knows a lot of those senators, a lot of those republican senators, it gives me -- it gives me sustenance, such hope to know there's at least one republican, only one, one, who hasn't sold out his principles, who hasn't sold out his convictions who isn't trying to accommodate a president that
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wasn't a republican until a few years ago and who has no compass. who has no principles. and who are trying to accommodate him and, you know, all of a sudden, crown him the emperor of the republican party. to mitt romney, look, i have heard some of his colleagues say, oh, this was because of animus against president trump. i was team mccain and we hated each other. we hated romney and those two men because they were great men, john mccain and mitt romney put that aside and became great friends before john mccain died. i wish every senator had the freedom and the conscience that mitt romney has. he, you know is not like lindsey graham for whom being in the senate is the be all of his life. he is not marco rubio worried about, you know, how he's going to deal with four children. he eventually has to put through
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college. he is not some of my republican -- former republican friends who are worried about primaries. mitt romney is not worried about running for president again. been there, done that. he is free to be mitt romney. he is free to exercise his conscience without having to bend himself into shape. and i really took seriously what he said about his religion and his faith being part of it and being a big motivator for his decision because i know mitt romney. he's not one that wears it on his sleeve he's not out there tweeting bible verses every single day and then violating those principles. he actually lives them. he lives them on a daily basis. i also want to thank his wife anne and his children because he's got a very strong family who support him, who counsel him and who i'm sure told them, it's okay. we know we're going to get attacked, and that's okay. we're willing to do it because we're behind you and because it's the right thing to do. so thank you to the one sole
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republican with the guts and the intestinal fortitude to do the right thing for the country, not for himself, not for the party. not for a president. >> hard to put a finer point on it than that. >> david? >> yeah, i think at the end of the day, people are going to have different views about whether this was the right decision. people will look at mitt romney cynically. but any of us who have covered him know he's a person of integrity. that's all you have to say. >> go ahead, john. >> if you are too cynical to not be moved by what mitt romney did in contradiction to the fear-fueled suppression of people's real beliefs in the senate, then either you spent too much time in washington or you should look into your soul. >> john, david, ana, thank you all. another series of cnn presidential town halls tonight in new hampshire. they include the front-runners at the moment in iowa, pete
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buttigieg and senator bernie sanders. so it should be very interesting. tune in tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern. >> that was very interesting. mitt romney made the speech in the afternoon. in the morning, he invited a reporter to come explain what he was about to do. an incredible inside look at how mitt romney came to make the decision he did to vote to convict the president. . only pay for what you need with liberty mutual. con liberty mutual solo pagas lo que necesitas. only pay for what you need... only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪ this round's on me.eat. hey, can you spot me? come on in. find your place today, with silversneakers.
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i'm profoundly religious. my faith is at the heart of who i am. i take an oath before god as enormously consequential. >> that's republican senator mitt romney talking about his vote to convict president trump on the first charge for abuse of power. senator romney is the only senator in history to vote to remove a president from his own party. joining us is mckay, a staff writer for the atlantic who interviewed mitt romney the morning before thus vote. thank you for being with us. you, over the years, i think have a greater insight into mitt romney than almost any other reporter. when you were invited to his
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office yesterday, you knew it was to discuss the upcoming vote, but what did you think was going to happen? >> yeah, you know, i had spent quite a bit of time with him last year as he entered the center profiling for the atlantic. i knew he was more liberated at this political moment than he has been throughout his entire career. he's not running for president anymore. he sees hims as at the end of his career thinking about legacy and history. so on the one hand, i knew there was a chance he would do this. but on the other hand, i had watched throughout the impeachment process as there was kind of this rathful reaction from the right toward everything that mitt romney did that wasn't completely toeing the party line. and i have to admit, i'm a cynical washington reporter. when i showed up in his office, i did half expect that i was going to find him there kind of calculating and ready to give me the list of excuses for why he was voting to acquit. and i'll tell you this.
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i had set out two sets of questions to ask him. one if he was going to acquit and one if he was going to convict. and i was much more ready with the questions on acquittal because that's really what i was expecting. so i think i was as surprised as anyone else was later when they actually watched the speech. >> we were all surprised in certain ways watching it. i've covered mitt romney extensively also. the part that most surprised me. we know he's a man of deep faith. but he is a man who, ironically, has had a complicated relationship discussing that faith in public over the years for various reasons. so why do you think he leaned into it so hard when he made this decision, how he announced the decision? >> well, you know, a couple of things. i covered his 2012 presidential campaign. i share his faith. i'm also a member of the same church as his, but in 2012, whenever i would write about that element of his character,
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that element of his campaign, he and his campaign strategist really tried to put me off. this was not something they wanted at the center of the election. he didn't want to talk about it. it was an inconvenience for them. so, you know, i have to say, i was pretty struck by how open and candid he was talking about it. he was quoting scripture, quoting mormon hymns to me and he said, here's what i think is at the center of it to directly answer your question. he told me that when i decided to run for the senate and once impeachment became something that was on the horizon, i knew that i was going to have to swear an oath to god to be an impartial juror. and he talked about this in the speech and he said i'm a religious person, you're a religious person, that's not something i take lightly. swearing an oath to god is something that matters and means a lot to me. so i can't do this. i can't just act out of partisan self-interest. i'm going to have to do what my
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conscience dictates. and that was really the case he made to me and that's why he placed his faith at the center of this. >> at a basic level, that's what mitt romney is about. one of the most interesting conversations i had with him, comparing who had better label players, naming whether there were more good mormon baseball players or jewish football players. he was eager and proud to discuss that. i want to read one quote here that gets to the faith. throughout the trial he said he was guided by his father's favorite verse of mormon scripture. search dill gently, pray always and be believing. all things shall work together for your good. i was in contact with people close to the senator and they noted not just his faith but they did think that his father was probably very much on his mind as well. so when you said that it was one of his father's favorite verses, that did strike me. >> and i do think this is important context to understand mitt romney. george romney is a kind of major
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figure in political history but especially to mitt romney, he looms large in everything that mitt does. george romney famously broke with his party in the '60s over barry goldwater and his record on civil rights. he was kind of seen as this kind of maverick figure at the time, and i think mitt romney has always admired that. he's always respected that. and i think throughout romney's career, he has been accused of opportunism, of being overly calculating. and i think he's always wanted to be able to continue his father's legacy which he sees as being about principle over party and politics. >> in the interview with you he did admit he's made decisions based on politics over the course of his career and he knew he'd be criticized, and he knew he was going to come under attack. i don't know if he suspected the likes of donald trump jr. would be posting vulgar words but he knew. how did he feel about what was
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coming? >> he was grimly resigned to it, but bracing for it. he told me, i know that the president and his allies will come after me. i know it's going to be force and loud. even before he cast this vote because he hasn't been seen as part of the team. he gets yelled at in airports. he was in florida with his wife and somebody driving down the street shouted traitor out of the car window at him. he's been kind of experiencing this back dlash already and kne it would probably increase tenfold. he was ready for it. but i think he's at the twilight of his career. he's had a long business career. he's had a political career. he's run for president. and he's in his 70s now. he may or may not decide to run for re-election in 2024, but he wanted to do something that would kind of cement his legacy and also, he said this in his speech, but he's thinking about this in terms of history. how these votes will be remembered. high thinks he'll be vindicated.
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>> he said we're all footnotes in history but in this country, being a footnote in history not necessarily a bad thing. mckay, it's a great article. people should read it carefully. mitt romney said he was looking for off ramps the whole trial. he was looking for a way to acquit the president and couldn't find it. that's so interesting. great work. thanks for coming on "new day" this morning. >> thank you. >> really interesting to get that kind of access and insight. there is much more primary voting coming up as you know. each one could produce vastly different outcomes. we have the forecast with harry enten, next. have you ever wondered what the motorcade driver drives when they're not in a motorcade? [ upbeat music starts ] [ engine revving ] ♪ this one drives a volkswagen passat.
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we have new results from iowa this morning. with 97% of the precincts now reporting, pete buttigieg and bernie sanders are tied neck and neck with 0.1% separating them. yes, there are candidates -- harry is already chiming in. the candidates are looking ahead to the next primary and caucus states to see if they can make up ground. let's get the forecast with
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senior politics writer and analyst harry enten. you were going to jump in. >> this is what i was doing. it's so close right now in iowa. and the truth is we have no idea who is going to win. we still have the satellite caucuses that need reporting. that's what -- >> when do we get the final numbers? >> i was expecting monday night so given that it's thursday right now, it seems like we're in the twilight zone, but they're coming. >> your deep statistical analysis is it's really close. >> yes. >> new hampshire. we've polled the heck out of new hampshire. there is no small northeastern state in the history of america that's been polled as much as new hampshire has the last couple of months. >> exactly. we can look at new hampshire because that's obviously occurring on tuesday. and what we see right now is that bernie sanders is holding a lead there. fairly substantial lead. if you see joe biden in second place, he's at 18%. warren at 14%, buttigieg at 13%. i want to point out how white this state is like iowa.
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this is a state that pete buttigieg should be doing well in. here's the thing. this polling does not take into account what has happened in iowa. and if we look at my odds, pre-iowa and then with an iowa bourn bounce, look what we'd expect to happen. buttigieg's chance of winning would go from 2 in 20 to 5 in 20 which is essentially 25%. that is very, very good and that gives you a very good understanding, right, that iowa could, in fact, propel him and we're starting to see that in some of the early data. even if he doesn't win, the fact he overperformed his polling could make him the main contender to bernie sanders in the granite state. >> that's if life were following along rules that we used to follow. >> this is all based upon history. that's what i try and do. i look at history. and give you an understanding what's going to occur. the polls will come fast and heavy over the weekend in new hampshire and then we'll have the results on tuesday. we'll know soon enough. right now if you were doing one and two in new hampshire, bernie
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sanders is the clear front-runner. but pete buttigieg is contending there. >> after new hampshire, the race moves to states that look like the democratic party. that's exactly right. so the next contest after new hampshire is the nevada caucuses. and what i think is so key about the nevada caucuses is, take a look here. pete buttigieg only at 10%. he's behind tom steyer in my polling average with biden and sanders close together. and look at the electorate by race in 2016. that looks a lot more like the democratic party at large. all of the early states that are voting, nevada looks the most like the democratic party with about three-fifths of the voters there or caucusgoers are white. a little bit, 16% latino. 13% african-american. that looks more like the democratic electorate. one early state i'm watching, nevada. that may tell us more about the democratic nomination than any other. >> how about south carolina? >> this is the state where joe biden must do well. look at the polling average.
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he is well out ahead there. a majority african-american electorate. this is the firewall for joe biden. if he can't win there, he can't pretty much win anywhere perhaps outside of delaware. this is a state he needs to do well in. if his polling starts to fall there, his entire campaign will. >> look at the number on the right no longer there. 61% of the democrat electorate in south carolina is black. >> that's exactly right. >> 61% compared to what in new hampshire? 2%. >> 2%. so this is so key. african-americans, this is where they really hold the power. it's so much different than either iowa or new hampshire. and, to be perfectly honest, the base of the democratic party is african-american. that table tells a lot. >> anything else for us? >> the other things i'd point out in history. if you look at how these states have voted over time. in 2008 and 2016, they can show vastly different results. just because something happened in iowa or new hampshire, doesn't mean it's going to happen in nevada or south carolina. >> you look at all these polls, take into account what happened
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in iowa, how that will affect new hampshire. what happens in iowa, new hampshire, how that will affect nevada. >> thank you, harry. >> thank you. voters say that health care is one of their top issues, if not the top. so where are the candidates on their health care plans today? and can president trump's health care promises be trusted? we take a look, next. the ups as of frequent mood swings can plummet you to extreme lows. (crying) lift you to intense highs. (muffled arguing) or, make you feel both at once. overwhelmed by bipolar i symptoms? ask about vraylar. some medications only treat the lows or the highs. vraylar effectively treats depression, acute manic and mixed episodes of bipolar i. full-spectrum relief of all symptoms. with just one pill, once a day. elderly patients with dementia-related psychosis have an increased risk of death or stroke. call your doctor about unusual changes
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health care is the number one issue for iowa voters. that's according to an entrance poll of iowa caucusgoers. 42% say health care is there most important issue. president trump made this claim about his health care ideas at the state of the union. listen. >> i've also made an ironclad pledge to american families, we will always protect patients with pre-existing conditions. >> let's take a look at that pledge, whether or not it is true and what democrats want to do about health care. joining us is senior writer
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tammy lubee. you are steeped in health care. you've been studying this for years. you know more about the health care plans are all the candidates than anybody in this building. so let's go to, first, what president trump said about protecting pre-existing conditions. fact-checkers have said that's not true. >> he says often that he would protect people with pre-existing conditions but his actions say otherwise. now the affordable care act did provide ironclad protections for these folks. insurers can't deny coverage because of pre-existing conditions. they can't charge you more and they're required to provide comprehensive plans with comprehensive benefits. but what the trump administration is doing is they are supporting a lawsuit that's been brought by republican states that would invalidate the affordable care act and all of those protections would disappear. now the trump administration says and the president says they'll have a plan that will protect people. but we haven't seen a plan --
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>> they've never presented that. it's really important to keep reminding voters. when the president says something you can't believe it unless you think that actions speak louder than words and that's what -- >> and his actions actually have done otherwise because he keeps saying that the affordable care act is too expensive. and it is expensive for a lot of people. he's providing alternative plans. he's making it easier for people to buy these so-called short-term plans. but they're cheaper because they don't have the affordable care act protections so people who are sick can be denied. people who have -- or they be be charged higher premiums. the short-term plans are not for people with pre-existing conditions. >> really valuable to know. let's talk about the public option. we hear so much about it. can you tell us what it is and which candidates support that. >> sure. so basically what's happening on the democratic side is you have candidates who want to build on the current system and build on the aca or blow it up. so the public option is what biden and buttigieg and klobuchar and several of the
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other candidates are supporting. essentially it's strengthening the affordable care act by providing a government-run plan that presumably would be cheaper. that's one of the big questions. we don't have the details that would show how it will be cheaper but that's what they want to do. and they also would provide greater subsidies for affordable care act plans. various things they would do. now sanders and warren, of course, on the other side, want to institute medicare for all, which is a complete change in the system that we have now. >> that means people having to give up their private insurance. >> right. essentially private insurance would no longer exist and everybody would be covered by a government-run plan. >> what is the difference between the buttigieg health care plan and joe biden's health care plan? >> they are very similar. one of the main differences is that buttigieg, he calls his plan medicare for all for all who want it and what buttigieg would do is he would actually retroactively enroll people who are not covered.
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biden says if you want this public option, you can have this public option. we'll provide subsidies for it. and he says in his initial plan that it would cover about 97% of americans. what buttigieg wants to do is actually, if you don't have insurance, he'll retroactistly enroll you. yes, you have insurance but you also have to pay for it. so it can be very expensive. >> okay. that's really helpful. you just talked about the medicare for all that warren and sanders want. what's the difference their plans, if anything. >> between warren and sanders? >> between warren and sanders. one of the main things is that warren in her transition, she would actually institute initially a -- something like a public option. and then she says that after three years orinher third year in office, she would then push for full medicare for all. bernie sanders on the other hand says medicare for all day one. that's what he's pushing for. >> tammy, we're going to call on your expertise a lot over the next year. thank you very much for
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explaining this to all of us. john? >> here's what else to watch today. people were wondering how president trump would react to the senate vote yesterday. seconds ago, he walked into the prayer breakfast in washington, d.c. a bipartisan religious event and he holds up the newspaper with the headline of him being acquitted. again, this is the national prayer breakfast, a bipartisan religious event. nancy pelosi is speaking, i believe, right now. the two did not even look at each other. >> no, and there was the awkward tearing up of the speech and the snubbed handshake. so she's speaking. and they are close, physically, but there is a chasm between
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former vice president joe biden opened up about his life-long struggle with stuttering at a cnn town hall last night in new hampshire. listen to this. >> i had a mother who had a backbone like a ramrod. she'd go, look at me, joey. look at me. you're handsome, smart, a good athlete. don't let this define you, joey. remember who you are, joey. you can do it. every time i'd walk out, she'd reinforce me. i know it sounds silly, but it really matters. i would practice and practice and practice because i was determined to overcome it. i was led to believe i could, and i basically did. >> joining us is john henrickson, senior politics editor for "the atlantic." he interviewed bien about his stutter in a piece published last month and john has lived with a stutter since he was 4
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years old. your article was terrific when it came out. it all struck us as something notable and new. and then last night, as you were watching the cnn town hall, you wrote, biden is speaking at length about stuttering on cnn right now. he's never done this on such a national televised stage. you also say his stutter is one of the most misunderstood aspects of his life. it's not a cover nor a catch-all for when he gets his facts wrong. it's something far more complicated. what did it mean when you saw biden open up like he did last night? >> it was interesting because biden has opened up that way to other people who stutter. he opened up that way to me in our interview.
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when he's addressed crowds at the american institute of stuttering, the national stuttering institution, biden has been vulnerable like that. we've never seen him talk that way on a national televised audience. >> look, i want to note, as we said, you've been living with a stutter since you were 4. this might be the first live television interview you've done? i think it's great that you've come on to talk about this because you have a much deeper insight, i think, than anyone else having lived with it yourself and having spoken to joe biden about it at such great length. and before we came on, you noted something very interesting to me which is that biden's central
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trait that people hook onto is his empathy. and in some ways, the suffering he's done through, that he lost his wife and child in a car crash. and that he will talk about almost more openly in some ways than he has talked about his battle with his own stutter. why do you think that is? >> those are largely external circumstances. stuttering is a neurological disorder. it's genetic, hereditary, but it's a very internal, personal problem to have. i've gotten hundreds of emails
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from people who have read my article and have told me i've never opened up about this part of my life before. and they proceed to write 500 words, 700 words, and they just pour it all out. this isn't a problem or a disability that people are talking about every day. so it's interesting to watch him do that last night. >> in your article, you wrote his nickname was dash. his nickname was dash when he was in high school and college. not a reference to his speed on the football field but rather another way to mock his stutter.
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it was like morse code. dot, dot, dot, dash, dash, dash, biden says. for people who don't necessarily understand it, stuttering isn't an issue of not knowing what to say. you know exactly what you want to say, correct? >> yes. stuttering is basically a repetition block or prolongation in the course of producing a sound. while i was having trouble just there on that sentence, i knew i would produce a sound. >> everyone talks about biden's
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gaffes. he misspeaks. and that's just getting things wrong or misspeaking. but you also see elements of the stutter in places where the rest of us might not. explain. >> beyond blocking on the sounds, as i'm doing or repeating sounds like that, r, r, r, there are a myriad of secondary behaviors that people who stutter exhibit. the primary one is loss of eye contact. there's also word avoidance. biden seems to strategically avoid certain words and sounds, and people don't know what to
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make of that. if they don't understand some stuttering. >> again, you acknowledged the eye contact. you're doing it here. you see joe biden do it. let me play one more sound bite from joe biden when he talks about, i think, understanding this. listen. >> things that people cannot control, it's not their fault. no one has a right -- no one has a right to mock it and make fun of them, no matter who they are. >> why do you think the biden team invited you in to get such a window into his life-long struggle with stuttering? >> they initially didn't answer my email. i reached out near the end of june, and i told them i'm a
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journalist who stutters. i'd like to talk with the former vice president about how he has dealt with his. and i didn't get an answer. and then shortly after the second debate, which he exhibited multiple moments of stutter i stuttering but most of the media didn't identify it as such, i think they saw value in getting him to open up about it.
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>> john hendrickson. we love the fact you came on to talk with us about this to help us understand what the former vice president spoke about last night. the article you wrote in "the atlantic" is a terrific window into something i don't think most people know. even though it is something that millions of people like you deal with every day. thanks so much for being with us. i appreciate it. >> thanks for having me. >> john, that was really valuable. thank you so much for being here. that was really brave. it's hard to do live television for anyone. and this was your first live interview. so we really appreciate you coming here and sharing all of this with us. >> we also think it's so interesting when you are talking about the bidens, too. joe biden, there's a lot of stuff he'll talk about that's very, very painful but this may be even harder for him in some ways to talk about it. >> i feel like i know joe biden, we've all known him for decades. i feel like i know him better because of everything that john just told us. thank you. cnn's coverage of the iowa caucus results continue, after this quick break.
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good morning. i'm poppy harlow. >> i'm jim sciutto. you've waited, and it's a dead heat. pete buttigieg and bernie sanders now separated by just 0.1% in iowa with 97% of the votes now in. the final count could come this morning. here's another number we're following today. $25 million. the sanders campaign announcing an incredible fund-raising haul for january. >> it's a big number. as the candidates battle it out in new hampshire, the president is starting his victory lap this morning holding up an acquittal newspaper headline as he arrives at the national prayer breakfast. he is making a statement at the white house in just a few hours. let's begin with the 2020 race. the candidates well into
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