♪ ♪

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. we're continuing our special coverage of the first in the nation primary in new hampshire. i'm wolf blitzer in new york. right now, polls are open in parts of the granite state. republican race for the white house began with a very crowded field but has slow ly narrowed

down to the final two. we're talking about nikki haley and donald trump. haley doing last-minute c campaigning and promising new hampshire is not the end of the road for her campaign. >> i didn't get here because of luck. i got here because i outworked and outsmarted all the rest of those fellas. so i'm running against donald trump. i'm not going to talk about an obituary just because y'all think we have to talk about it. i'm going to talk about running and saving this country. >> there's a lot more at stake than the 2022 republican delegates up for grabs. survival is the goal for nikki haley while team trump is hope ing another landslide win will pave the way to the top of the republican ticket. we're all continue ing our live coverage from manchester, new hampshire this morning. john, go ahead. >> reporter: i was just going to say we are watching people

voting at the polls right now. we have been here talking to people. it's great to see people out experiencing democracy and answering some of the questions people have about this race. >> the form er governor is here with us. as are some of the best food and it's interesting to hear what they have to say. this is known as a place where people have independent minds. they think through all of these things. live free or die. very serious. and nikki haley keeps using that over and over and over again. she low knows the language of the place. it's interesting to see the energy that is behind her right now with the governor. but the numbers are difficult. the numbers from polling are very difficult for her. she knows that, but it's been really cool to kind of see the way she's moving through new hampshire one after the other. she's still going and will go until the voting ends. >> part of the unpredictability we won't know until we know is where turnout is.

the secretary of state predicted record breaking turnout for the republican primary. 322,000 voters in the republican primary. you have had some suggestion from some of the people you have spoken to today on our show that maybe it's not going to hit that point, but i was talking to a former senator who said this secretary of state is better than anybody at at predicting the outcome. so this turnout is -- this is the x factor. because high turnout, one would tend to think, would help nikki haley. >> the haley campaign thinks higher turnout would generally have to come from the undeclared voters. new hampshire you have democrats and republicans and you have undeclared. they can can vote in either primary. nikki haley is obviously campaigning towards those. the secretary of state predicting record turnout. iowa the turnout was down substantially. the question is was it the freezing weather there that drove it down. i really am waiting to see what happens here.

not just because of what it means for nikki haley, but because of what it might mean for the broader presidential race going forward. >> that's a great point. when we head out of new hampshire into south carolina and everywhere else. >> let's get to the ground right now. kiley atwood is in hampton where she's been following nikki haley. that is where donald trump has his campaign event tonight. let's start with you chasing around nikki haley. what's on her mind this morning? >> she's determined. this was the first polling site that she visited here in hampton, new hampshire. and she responded to those comments from former president trump just yesterday saying that she's probably going to drop out today by saying that she doesn't listen to trump. she's never listened to what trump tells her to do. saying she's going to run the tape here in new hampshire. she's going to try to get every single vote she can can can. we know she has a busy day today. she's going to go to multiple

polling locations and she is determined to go to south carolina after that. now it all really does depend on what happens here in new hampshire for her. and we have talked to voters today who are voting for both. nikki haley and former president trump, one of those voters that i spoke with today said that he's voting for trump because he believes that trump was a good leader. he did good things for the country. he wants to go back to a trump presidency. listen to what he said. >> four years, our economy was turned around. our military was once again respected. our country was once again respected. there's a guy over here with gas for $1.87. >> reporter: he's not the only one who is talking about gas prices. i can show you over here there's a bunch of signs here. a lot of trump signs here at this polling location. you see one sign that says gas, $1.87. that man who we just spoke to, he showed me a picture he had

taken in 2020 when trump was president. it showed that gas prices were within $1.8. that's going to be tested today. >> gas price was low because no one was driving in their cars. cars were collecting dust. that may not be the most apples to apples measurement you could have. >> let's go ahead to alayna treene. what are you hearing from voters as they are going to the polls? we will see if they go to the polls in record numbers. >> reporter: i spoke with some election officials here. they had more than 500 people. it's already increased come through this polling station

today. and the polls opened a at 6:00 a.m. so they are expecting to see a lot of people come through this location. but listen, when i talk to voters, i grab bed a lot of the as they exited the polling location here in gnash away. and the majority of them actually told me they are planning to vote for nikki haley. people who had voted for boiden in the past, but also people who voted for trump in the past. they told me that they think they voted for a donald trump before and now they think that it's time for a new person a new leader to be in the white house. take a listen to what they said. >> who did you vote for today? >> nikki haley. >> can i ask why? >> i think she has the best chance of going against joe biden.

>> what made you switch your support? >> looking for youth. >> any attributes specific to haley that you really like about her or things you dislike after having voted for trump in the past? >> i'm just not sure -- i think it's time for a change. military you have to retire at 65. surgeons don't operate at that age. i think it's time for a younger generation. >> what immediate you change your mind away from trump to haley? >> trump brings a lot of chaos. i think i'm just kind of tired of it. >> so you can see there both of these voters different reasons for switching their support from donald trump. one was about age being a concern. the other saying that trump brings chaos. i think those interviews, it's interesting. it highlights just what new hampshire is like. it's a very different state. there's a lot of independent voters here. people are changing their minds. past trump supporters are not necessarily trump supporters today. so i think that's all going to be taken into account when we look at what happens lirt.

particularly when it comes to ins. something i know from my conversations is something they are watching for very closely here. >> alayna treene, kiley, it's interesting to note the people she just talked to are literally parroting what nikki haley has been saying on the campaign trail. chaos and age. over and over. >> are they saying it because they heard it from the canened they support or because it's what they want to hear. >> back to you, wolf. >> thank you. i want to bring in seen political commentator scott jennings, historian leah wright, and political commentator maria car cardona. what are you watching for specifically today? >> how many independents actually vote. it's a semiopen primary. the record is like 40%, which we saw in 2012. some folks on the ground think it could get a as high as 45%. there's a theory if they are more behavioral democrats, haley

will get some of those. but there's some trump campaign folk who is think that some of these independents may just be inaffiliated folks. they do like donald trump because they view him as outside the normal political system. so specifically, independent share of the overall electorate. >> the undeclared voters in new hampshire could pull ballots in either primary. how many will the results come down to them from your perspective? >> i think they will have o outoutside influence on the result, but i don't think they will have outside influence in the way we would imagine. right now, it's apparent that donald trump is going to win the primary in new hampshire. but what they may do is send a signal to this larger ecosystem about the kind of state of the general election. meaning that i'm going to be watching and see figure these moderates, if these people in this unique position, if it they are polling for trump or for nikki haley. most likely, they will be

breaking for nikki haley. one of the things that that signals is that while donald trump has the base of the republican party locked up, and that trumpism is the ideology of the base of the republican party, it's not something that the rest of the country wants or is interested in. so what that means is that for donald trump, the path to the presidency is much harder than it was in 2020 or even 2016. >> important points. what do you think democrats will be specifically look ing at in the results as they come in tonight? >> i think what they are going to be looking at is the margins. i don't even want to say the margin of victory for donald trump, but also what's interesting here is that while everyone is saying, yes, donald trump will win, that's what the polls are showing, he has an overwhelming advantage, no one is saying that there's an impos billty that haley can pull something out of new hampshire. new hampshire loves to give us surprises. and specifically it's because

all of these independent, nonaffiliated voters. so we're going to be looking for that. and if nikki haley wins, we were just a talking about this earlier, it will be a tech tonic shift. does that mean she is has a path to the nomination? probably not. as we move into super tuesday, all of those states become win or take all. it will be tough mathematically to catch up to donald trump. but so what democrats will be looking at is the margin. what does that mean? if the margin is large in terms of donald trump's victory, then clearly i think he has it put away. but if haley is close and you look at how many independent voters, how many unaffiliated voters there are, it's going to point to a deficit and i think a weakness in donald trump's electorate that we really aren't talking a lot about today. if you go become to look at what happened in iowa, yes, sir, he won overwhelmingly percentage wise, but almost half of iowa

voters who voted in the caucuses did not vote for him. and the turnout was also really awful. so i think all of those things point to perhaps weaknesses within trump support that we'll be looking at. >> you want to get your reaction to something that chris sununu sauz earlier. listen to this. >> when it comes to republicans, we're tire d of losing. we're tired of losing. we lost in '18 and '20. we're going to get that red wave in '22. where the f is the red wave? give me a break. >> what do you think? >> it's true. donald trump has never gotten more votes than a democrat. when he's been the central issue on the ballot, they have underperformed. it seems like primary voters have settled on something more visceral, which is the idea that joe biden is going to lose to anybody. so the most satisfying or ewe

fofic vindication is correct. i'm just not certain enough republicans are listening to it right now. >> it's interesting. nikki haley has been hitting the age issue very hard in recent days. listen to this. >> do you want two 80-year-olds running president? in the military, you have to retire at 65. you don't have surgeons doing surgery at 80. there's multiple things. it's just a fact that people start to decline. and when you have a country in d disarray, you need someone at the top of their game that can put in eight years, that can go and get things back on track. that's what this is about. making sure that we have the best person, not settling for the fact that two 80-year-olds running for president. >> that's an argument she's been making, but the people on her side are not listening to her.

and i think what you have seen recently is she's pointing to the gaffes that donald trump has been making and pointing to the lack of his mental acuity when he thought she was nancy pelosi, when he thought he ran against obama, and joe biden starting world war ii. all of thoefz things point to what we haven't really talked a lot about, which is donald trump's lack of mental acuity, the fact that he could be losing it even though the other side likes to point to a lot of the things on joe biden that it seems to be that donald trump is the one who has been demonstrating it a lot more. >> i think a lot of the candidates like to point to age, but one of the things we know is that the american public, even though they say they want somebody young, overwhelmingly time and time again, when it comes down to their choices, they will go with experience and, quote, unquote, wisdom. which often means they end up

choosing the older candidate. think ronald reagan. think joe biden, think donald trump. so i don't necessarily know if the age argument is one that is going to stick. it's certainly not stick ing within the republican party. where it is sticking for nikki haley as part of this larger a argument she makes about stability in the midst of chaos and what i think works amongst independents is this argument about eight more years. trump can only be president for four more years. that's it. eight more years with somebody younger, more stable, less chaos, more direction. >> two terms. thank you all very much. still ahead, much more of our special live coverage of new hampshire's primary. we're going to hear from more gop voters who are deciding if donald trump or nikki haley should take on president biden in november. plus other important news we're following. the u.s. and the uk are now working to cut off money flowing to houthi rebels after launching

another round of strikes against targets in yemen.

welcome back to our special live coverage of the first in the nationen new hampshire primary. almost automatic all of the polls are open. you're looking at live pictures coming in a as voters are picking a republican norminee t take on president biden in the general election. it's down now to donald trump and nikki haley. the former president is looking for another resounding win after his first place finish in the iowa caucuses. while the former south carolina governor is hoping to deliver a huge upset.

my colleague kate baldwin is inmain manchester. update our viewers. >> absolutely. thank you so much. so there is not only watching the polls that most of them are open at this hour for what's going to happen in the primary. there's also a democratic primary happening today. and president biden is not twill on the ballot. so democrats have been running write-in campaign for him instead. this comes after a fight, a dispute between new hampshire state officials and the dnc over the state's first in the nation primary status. that's a brief summary of what's been a messy dispute. joining me to talk more about all of this is the former governor of new hampshire john lynch. thank you. you have been sitting with me for a bit. let's talk about the democratic primary. i have heard you say it was a mistake for the dna and a mistake to not put his name on

the ballot. what impact do you think these decisions could have? >> i don't think it's going to have any impact on our first in the nation status. i'm very disappointed, dismayed and frustrated with what the dna did along with the white house. we have had first in the nation primary going back 100 years. and we take it very seriously. they look the candidates in the eyes and care not only about the policies, but their temperament as well. so we're going to continue with our first in the nation primary for the next 100 years regardless of what the dnc, the rnc , the white house or future white houses make decisions about. >> one of the leaders of the write-in campaign, i saw put it this way. division is donald trump's best friend. it's widely expected joe biden will win the democratic primary here in new hampshire, but is this dividing democrats? are you concerned about what this looks like if turnout is

low for democrats because of what you're seeing, what you're talking about here? does it concern you about the message it sends as you propel forward into the general? >> i think most democrats who are voting, they are upset, like i am, about the dismissal of new hampshire's primary status. but like me, they are saying what's best for new hampshire and what's best for the country. i think they all believe the best way to avoid donald trump is by electing joe biden. nominating him and getting him elected. i do believe that biden is going to do pretty well here in new hampshire. i don't have a percentage in mind, but the other thing that's important is that i think he will do well in the general election here. we have four electoral votes. but our votes matter. we're a purple state. people forget that when al gore ran in 2000, al gore lost new

hampshire because of the ralph nader on the ballot. if he won new hampshire, he would have been elected president of the united states. so our 4 votes matter. >> don't dismiss new hampshire, that's the message from the the former governor. the secretary of state predict ed historic turnout for the primary saying it could be like 322,000 votes. when you hear that, what's your reaction? >> i am delighted. new hampshire historically has high turnout. because there's a republican contest now, i think independents, which tend to sway one way or the other s and that's our biggest market segment with 40% of the electorate, if many of them vote republican, that's going to help with the republican turnout. and i want erbe to vote. i don't care who they vote for. it says a lot for new hampshire

that we have a good turnout. >> one thing that both of the candidates in the republican side have said is their best against joe biden. nikki haley touts a "wall street journal" poll that says she would beat joe biden by up to 17 points. you would like to see jb win another term. who concerns you more? >> i think joe biden can beat either of them. i don't believe in polls either. when hillary was running against barack in 2008, the polls all showed barack obama winning by 15 points. i did the media circuit that day as governor. people would ask me, do i think obama can get 20% lead over hillary? and hillary won. that was the pull poling this took place the day before. i don't have a lot of stalk in polls. >> talk to me about undeclared. what's your sense you're hearing

from your contacts? are there still new hampshire voters that haven't yet decided before they walked in today? >> yes. i do have a number of friends who are independents or undeclared. is and i have asked them who they are voting for. and they say they don't know. they are going to make up othei mind when they go to the polling place. that's not unusual. people tend to make up their mind at at the last minute. i to think it's a big unknown in terms of how the independent vote is going to go. >> governor, thank you for coming in. >> thanks for coming to our great stiet state. >> happy primary day. wolf, back to you. we're following the pivotal primary in new hampshire right now. what's pushing voters as they decide between donald trump and nikki haley? plus we'll take a closer look at what needs to happen today for nikki haley to keep her campaign on a possible path to the white house.

we'll have more special coverage of the first in the nation primary in new hampshire coming up. but there's also other important news we're following, including the u.s. and the uk carrying out a new round of strikes against houthi rebel targets in yemen. according to senior u.s. and uk

mean military officials, they struck eight sites and successfulfully destroyed missiles, drones and weapons storage facilities. @eighth round of attacks in just over ten days. cnn national security correspondent is over at the pentagon for us. what was the u.s. going after here specifically? >> according to a joint statement from the countries involved in this operation, they were targeting a houthi underground storage facility as well as different locations associated with houthi missile and air surveillance capabilities. as you said, this was the eighth time that the u.s. has conducted strikes against houthi targets in yemen. it was the second time that the u.s. has conducted these kinds of operations jointly with the united kingdom. now the u.s. says at this point they do believe these strikes were successful. they hit roughly eight different locations inside yemen. they say they successfully hit the targets that they were intend ing to go after.

but the question now is whether it is going to sufficiently deter the houthis from future attacks because the u.s. has been conducting these strikes pretty regularly and the houthis have continued to launch strikes on commercial shipping there. the question now is whether this is going to be enough. the houthis have been able to maintain a significant portion of their cape blts, but the u.s. said they haven't seen a missile launch since january 18th, which is promising according to officials we spoke to. >> we shall see. nat natasha bertrand, thank you. nikki haley is facing what could be her last chance to pull off a major upset against donald trump today. we're going to break down what needs to happen. >> i just feel she has a shot especially now that desantis is gone. i think between her and trump, i think she's got a good chance. >> it seems like she wants to sustain her campaign, at least through south carolina. so that give mess hope.

so will nikki haley's campaign gain momentum or will it hit a major snag? a lot is riding on what happens in new hampshire today. cnn's phil mattingly is joining us to break down what needs to happen in order for nikki haley to pull off a major set. >> there's a reason nikki haley and her campaign focused on new hampshire. it's a different demographic and socioeconomic profile than iowa. here's the map. not much has fill ed in.

just one township. every cycle at midnight, we see the votes there. that's not indicative of what's to happen, but it's a good start to the day. but as the rest of these townships fill in, what you're going to need to watch is a couple things. why did the haley campaign decide that this is where they needed to play? not only did they decide, they spent a huge amount of money. $29 million, almost double what donald trump have spent. they knew iowa not necessarily made for nikki haley. new hampshire, on the other happened, very much was. lock at the education in this state. nearly 50% of individuals who live in new hampshire are college garraduates. that's 11% higher than iowa. also the income unthereshold is significantly higher. more than 50% make more than $125,000 a year. these are suburban voters. these are educated voters. these are the voters that nikki haley believes she can make end roads with. here's the issue they will run into.

donald trump won 35% in the state. the person he beat john kasich, he basically took up residence in the state of new hampshire over the course of the months leading up to the new hampshire. he did win a number of townships. those are the types of townships when you look at the pink where he was able to edge donald trump out in various places. these are the types of townships that are demographically aligned. but this is higher income, higher education, so nikki haley not only needs to hit on these counties that john kasich won in 2016, but she needs to expand out. here's where the problem lies if you're the haley campaign. if you go to places like manchester this is the biggest population center. this had is a place where democrats in a general election usually win. donald trump dominated this township in 2016. here's what we're watching for tonight. flip down into bedford county. this is where donald trump won by 12 points in 2016.

if you look at the education makeup of this township, this is prime nikki haley demographics right here. 73.6% are college garraduates. higher income as well. watch bedford. if bedford moves towards nikki haley, that will be a sign that what they were looking for in the haley campaign is starting to happen. the oh thing to keep an eye on. you'll remember this is now more and more turning into a democratic state. joe biden winning handedly in 2020. where democrats strongholds are, where you see the blue, that's where biden won. that's also where suburban voters are and voter who is are undeclared but might want to vote for nikki haley. that's where they will need to rack up a big vote. that's the final point. when you look at the voter registration, there are undeclared voters in this state. that means they are not democrat or republican.

they can walk in with their ballots and decide which way they want to go. they need this number to break in a huge way. donald trump's dominance in this number is very clear. if that breaks towards nikki haley, there's a possibility of a real race. >> we'll be watching that undeclared number very closely. excellent report. thank you very much. still ahead, the oscar nominations are now in. the movies and the actors vying for that coveted gold statue, that's coming up next.

with us now in new hampshire

is bureau chief and press association lifetime achievement award winner kevin lander and "boston globe" reporter emma, thank you both for being here. we were just talking about we're in a very interesting time. i think the word you used was bizarre. explain. >> i have done 12 presidential primaries. i'm sure i don't look that old, but this one is the most unusual in that you have a sitting president who is not on the ballot. and isn't really run ning here. and you have a former president on the other side of the ballot who is sucking all the oxygen out of this race since the very beginning making it so difficult for all these candidates to get traction such that we're left with only one candidate left on election day. that's never happened in modern history in either party. >> i'm curious. listening to that, what you're hearing from people and how they are responding to this, because there are two big things happening at tsame time. you have a write-in candidate who is the current president and

another candidate who we are down to two candidates at the very beginning. >> right. this is the last best chance for nikki haley, as she said, it's the last best chance for anyone who doesn't want trump to be the nominee. and as the point you made, this is a slower new hampshire primary than we're used to s seeing. one event maybe from donald trump when he's not in court in new york. nikki haley picking up the pace over the weekend doing a lot of retail stops with the popular governor here. it's not the type of cycle we have seen in the past. that raises big questions about enthusiasm as we wait to see the polls. >> we were hearing from the secretary of state earlier this morning who say he saws this is going to be a record turnout. do you think the same? we are seeing lots of numbers of people coming out. >> he's saying record turnout on the republican side. and it would be a record and probably will be a record because it's going to be so low on the democratic side. if you're an independent, you want to play in this party unless you feel so threatened by

trump as the next president for another four years that you decide i'm going to send a message and write in joe biden's name or vote for another democrat on that side of the ballot. emma is right. we have seen less energy than we usually see because of what i spoke of, but the voters have been coming out for months. you have to give them a lot of credit for that. they really checked a all these folks out, whether it was ron desantis or chris christie or now nikki haley. i think the problem always for nikki haley has been if you're running against a front runner and trying to attract independent voters against someone so popular with the base, you have to find an issue on which you can turn those voters out. john mccain did this in 2000. he talked about the deficit. people were so upset about the deficit. and frankly, buchanan did this to president bush. he lost the primary, but he got 40% of the vote.

he talked about jobs being sold to china. all these jobs going out. it really residnated there. haley has been una able to create that. that issue that would get people polling to her because she's such a contrast with trump. >> we are talking about the very first primary. there are two republicans that are on the ballot. desantis dropped out over the weekend. what do you see happening with those votes? some people have already voted. i know they can go to the polls afterwards and vote for who is now on the ballot. what do you see happening with the votes that went to him initially? >> delasantis wasn't a huge facr in this primary. it was a two-person race and now officially it's a two-person race. we know from the polling that the majority of desantis supporters told us the numbers would say we should see them breaking that way. i was at the event on sunday when the news broke of the exit. folks were really optimistic that desantis voters didn't want to vote for trump. so they are hopeful those people

will colt their way. >> i want to ask you because we talked about independents. we talked to quite a few endependents. that's what the state is known for. but if those numbers are very high, if people who have not committed to either party decided i'm coming out, who do you think they are going to vote for? >> the polls say they are going it vote for nikki haley and not donald trump. he has such an advantage among this republican core base that she needs to win the dependents against trump in order to eke out a victory here, which would be a complete shock and be unprecedented for somebody to get that kind of support among swing voters against a former president. that's a really high bar. what she also needs today is not a large turnout. she needs a seismic turnout. the secretary of state says 3 320,000. she needs 350,000. people who don't even usually vote every four years in the presidential race in the proi

marry to get off the couch and say the stakes are too high. the choice is between two. new hampshire likes to not end the race. basically not allow the establishment to decide, okay, it's going to be trump or okay, it's going to be clinton. we like to give people a choice. nikki haley is hoping gets enough of those votes tonight. >> i want to ask you if nikki haley does not rise to the occasion. if her numbers are just so much lower than we're expecting, if she doesn't get close, is it over? is this now literally a two-person race with donald trump and joe biden? >> we have seen nikki haley try to manage that expectation this you're managing. there's been questions about could she win new hampshire? but what she's said is i always want to be stronger than i was in iowa and go into south carolina even stronger. we expect her to finish at a second place here, would be

stronger than iowa. she's setting the course for her campaign to continue no matter how it goes. we'll see what her decision is tomorrow. >> we'll be watching. it is exciting because it's bizarre. thank you both so much for coming in to this fantastic cafe. i have been eating since i the moment i g got in herere. much m more on thihis day in n hampshshire, comining up next.t.

good morning, welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. we're continuing our special coverage of the first in the nation primary in new hampshire. i'm wolf blitzer in new york