Decision Day In Iowa Where Voters Are Taking Part In Caucuses; Some Caucuses Already Underway At Satellite Locations In and Outside Of The State; Awaiting Results From Caucuses.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: It's decision day in Iowa where voters are taking part in caucuses. You're looking at some live pictures coming in from one of the caucuses in Des Moines, caucuses that could shake up the fight for the Democratic presidential nomination. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN Election Center. We're closing in on the official start of the first contest of the 2020 election. Most caucuses begin across Iowa, about two hours from now. Eleven Democratic candidates are hoping to stand out from the pack, only one will come out on top. Joe Biden, Pete Buttigieg, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren, they are the leading contenders in Iowa. They're bracing for a close battle tonight. Some caucuses are already underway at satellite locations in and outside of the state. We're awaiting results from caucuses happening right now in Des Moines, Iowa, St. Petersburg, Florida, also in Queen Creek, Arizona, that's near Phoenix. Let's go to Jeff Zeleny. He's in Des Moines at one of those so-called satellite caucuses. Are you getting some results, Jeff?</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: We are, Wolf. And what we're seeing now is a realignment in real time. There were two candidate preference groups, the Warren campaign and the Sanders campaign who were viable here. Those were the only two candidates who were viable. So now, there are other supporters who are moving around and seeing where they are going to go. We should point out, Wolf, this is a snapshot in time. This is one location, this is one satellite caucus. Not indicative, as far as we know, of what is going to happen tonight. It is just one location. But it's clear there's a lot of enthusiasm for the Sanders' campaign, not surprising. They're closing the campaign strong, no question. But we are watching now the realignment. You can see some people moving back and forth. There's a little bit of discussion going on, as you can see, with the Bernie Sanders supporter, perhaps trying to convince supporter for Pete Buttigieg to come on to their side. The Buttigieg campaign in this particular satellite caucus was not viable. It took 11 people to be viable. They had around 9 or so under a preliminary count, so now there is some conversations and horse trading. Let's look over here to the Warren campaign, also some conversations going on here with some Sanders supporters and Warren supporters. Wolf, again, just a snapshot in time as these satellite caucuses are unfolding. We'll come back to you when we have the numbers from the Drake Fieldhouse. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: You know, before you go, Jeff, I want you to explain what a viable candidate means and what realignment means right now, because we're going to be hearing a lot of that over the course of the next several hours.</s>ZELENY: We are, indeed. And in a satellite caucus, the rules are slightly different. So let's talk about the rules of the caucuses overall tonight. The rules are that a candidate has to have 15 percent support in most caucuses in the room to be viable. If they are not viable, if they don't have 15 percent support, then the second choice begins to be incredibly important. And what that means is, if -- like here, this afternoon, former Mayor Pete Buttigieg was not viable, so then some of his supporters were going to other places. I can see right now, Wolf, follow me here with my photojournalist, Andy, can come with me, there are some people going over to the Sanders campaign, so that's where some of the conversations and horse trading comes into play. This is just a preview of what we're going to see tonight on a much larger scale here. At this very location, there are going to be perhaps more than 500 people gathering and all the campaigns are certainly working to organize that. But viability and second choice, so important, we are keeping an eye on those second choice decisions tonight, for candidates who aren't viable. That could boost someone --</s>BLITZER: All right, hold on for a moment there, Jeff.</s>ZELENY: So just a snapshot here, a bit of a test run.</s>BLITZER: We've got the results from the first round over where you are. And you could take a look at this. Bernie Sanders, 60.6 percent, Elizabeth Warren, 21.1 percent, but everybody else below that, 15 percent margin, Pete Buttigieg, 11.3 percent, Andrew Yang, 4.2 percent, Klobuchar, 1.4 percent. So those who support Buttigieg, Yang and Klobuchar, they have options right now. They're not going to be viable, these three candidates. They're not going to go to the second round. At this one caucus only, Jeff, explain what's happening now. What are their options, those who went for the non-viable candidates?</s>ZELENY: So what is happening now, if you are supporting a non-viable candidate, then you make another choice. So just eyeballing some of them, some of them went over to Senator Warren's campaign. We will find out here in a short period of time what the count is in the second round of counting to see where they all went. But there was -- the interesting part about this is the persuasion aspect at these caucuses. These precinct captains have been trained by these campaigns to approach someone whose favorite candidate did not make the cut, and try and win them over. So you can see, you know, a lot of the discussions, I'm trying to go have a conversation with the one person who is standing for Joe Biden. Let's see if we can chat with him for one second. Hey, Jared (ph), excuse me. If I can talk to you live on</s>CNN. JARED (ph): Sure.</s>ZELENY: So you were supporting Joe Biden. You are the only person in your row. Who did you realign with?</s>JARED (ph): Well, Mayor Pete, but we're one short right now, and we're not sure that there's anyone we can take from with the new rules. So --</s>ZELENY (ph): Right, right. So why did you decide Mayor Pete on the second round? Why?</s>JARED (ph): I'm more of a Moderate Democrat. I care about foreign policy and I think both Biden and Mayor Pete are the two strongest on foreign policy in my view.</s>ZELENY: Right. Thank you very much. So, Wolf, that is just a snapshot here of the conversations going on. They are trying to make the Buttigieg campaign viable by getting up to 11 people in this precinct. So, again, consider this a test run, if you will, a preview of what we'll see tonight in nearly 1,700 precincts across the state of Iowa, when there are these conversations going on, back and forth. Again, second choice, so valuable, one of the most important positions and certainly a weighty position here. So, Wolf, we'll send it back to you as we await this realignment here to see if anyone else becomes viable. As of now, after the first round, certainly Bernie Sanders strong in this precinct. But again, we should point out, this is one satellite caucus, not indicative of the state as a whole. Those caucuses start this evening. Wolf?</s>BLITZER: From what I saw, a lot of young people there. Quick question, Jeff, we see Buttigieg, 11.3 percent. He's not viable. He didn't reach that 15 percent threshold. What about the Yang supporters and the Klobuchar supporters. I assume they're trying to attract them. And if they get together, they could potentially make Buttigieg viable?</s>ZELENY: Indeed, they could. And that's -- they're one person short. And actually, I heard someone say they were looking for that Andrew Yang supporter. And that is the other key thing to watch tonight. If you're non-viable, do you stay in the room and go with someone else or go home, do you leave because your candidate was not viable. So that is an important thing to keep an eye on here. But we should point out that this is -- certainly some young people here, but these are, you know, intended for people who have jobs this evening. So we are expecting, since we are on the campus of Drake University, more students coming tonight. And the Andrew Yang supporters actually won the mock caucus, a trial run earlier in the week. So again, we should point out that -- what's happening now is not necessarily foreshadowing what's to come here tonight, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Important point, all right. Stand by, we'll get back to you. I want to get to Dianne Gallagher. She's over in St. Petersburg, Florida. It looks, Dianne, they're just beginning right now this process in St. Petersburg. The voting continues.</s>DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's Right, Wolf. And I'm back here right now as we're trying to kind of keep the area quiet as they pass out these instructions. They have just now given out those preference cards to the 104 voters, Iowa registered Democrats here in St. Petersburg, Florida. We had a bit of a delay dealing with the location that we were at here. They have since gotten that figured out. We're in the room and expecting to be starting relatively soon. They got most of the procedural stuff out of the way at this point. We've been speaking with some of the voters here. A lot of them who spend part of their time in Florida, because the winters are cold in Iowa, but there are also college students who are here, as well as people who happen to be visiting family. They were on vacation. So this is something that as you can listen to them right now, as they're trying to get through. They voted to go ahead and move into their positions first, before they hear from any sort of voters or representatives from the particular candidates, campaigns, and then they're going to listen to those speeches before they decide if they want to go ahead and move again. So this has been pretty orderly, as it goes right now. Again, they have a pretty large number of people who have chosen to come out to this. People I talked to were so excited. They were taking selfies and were waiting to get underway in the next couple of minutes here, Wolf.</s>BLITZER: Looks like a bunch of snowbirds down there in St. Petersburg. Dianne, we're going to get the results of that caucus, 104 Iowa voters in St. Petersburg, Florida. Much more of our coverage right after this.