While the sun still had to fully set, CNN wasn’t shy in being completely over the moon for Hillary Clinton as they dubbed her the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee and first woman to hold the title as “a watershed moment of the 2016 presidential race and in the history of American politics.”
Situation Room host Wolf Blitzer followed at the top of 7:00 p.m. Eastern hour after a movie-trailer-like opening and after welcoming viewers from CNN and CNN International, he set the tone that will undoubtedly be repeated throughout the night.
“Tonight, a watershed moment of the 2016 presidential race and in the history of American politics. We're standing by to hear from Hillary Clinton. We're expecting her to celebrate her ground-breaking achievement of the first woman to lead the first political ticket,” he gushed.
Roughly 12 minutes later, AC360 host Anderson Cooper was speaking to CNN reporter Nia-Malika Henderson when he led her to discuss the history of women in America by reemphasizing that “it is just an incredibly historic night for Hillary Clinton and, you know, given the history of the women's vote in the United States.”
Henderson began by relaying a conversation she recently had with a friend of Clinton’s who thinks that the idea of being the nominee “hasn’t sunk in yet” for Clinton personally and then she linked Clinton to the suffrage movement:
[I]t is an historic moment. You think back to 1848. Seneca Falls in New York. Women's rights convention. You think about Sojoruner Truth. You had you know, two or three years after that, black women are part of the movement for enfranchising women, too. So, I mean, all of these events, people picketing in front of the White House in 1917, telling Woodrow Wilson that America is no democracy if 20 million women can't vote.
“So, I think this is in a long line of things that many women and men have done across this country for almost 200 years and I think it’s part of a culmination and we'll see other moments. Obviously, if she wins, it’ll be the biggest,” Henderson concluded.
Back in the 6:00 p.m. Eastern hour, CNN political contributor and former Democratic Mayor Michael Nutter hailed the “incredible experience” Clinton has had in running plus there being “a history and a nostalgia but also an emotion that goes with that and I'm sure she's going to talk about that as well.”
Nutter also made sure to paint Clinton as a sort of comeback kid from her 2008 loss (as if she didn’t do anything in her time in between):
Just that, I mean, she has come back, eight years ago, delivering a different kind of speech and so to Gloria's point, the tenacity of sticking with it and America does love a kind of comeback story and the second is, in a general election, you get to present yourself to a wider array of people and they get to know her better.
The relevant portions of the transcript from CNN’s America’s Choice 2016: Super Tuesday 5 on June 7 can be found below.
CNN’s America’s Choice 2016: Super Tuesday 5
June 7, 2016
6:46 p.m. Eastern
MICHAEL NUTTER: It's been an incredible experience. The timing, you know, this date, very different experience than literally eight years ago and I was with her then and with her today so there is a history and a nostalgia but also an emotion that goes with that and I'm sure she's going to talk about that as well. Again, politics is very very personal. There has to be I would expect, I know, also outreach and expression of praise to Senator Sanders for what he has done in this race and what he has brought to it, the people he's brought, the issues he's brought and he's run for president of the United States of America and that needs to be recognized as well.
(....)
6:53 p.m. Eastern
NUTTER: Just that, I mean, she has come back, eight years ago, delivering a different kind of speech and so to Gloria's point, the tenacity of sticking with it and America does love a kind of comeback story and the second is, in a general election, you get to present yourself to a wider array of people and they get to know her better.
(....)
7:02 p.m. Eastern
WOLF BLITZER: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in the CNN election center. Tonight, a watershed moment of the 2016 presidential race and in the history of American politics. We're standing by to hear from Hillary Clinton. We're expecting her to celebrate her ground-breaking achievement of the first woman to lead the first political ticket. All three candidates will deliver very important speeches tonight — speeches that will frame the election going forward.
(....)
7:14 p.m. Eastern
ANDERSON COOPER: I mean, it is just an incredibly historic night for Hillary Clinton and, you know, given the history of the women's vote in the United States.
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON: Yeah. It is. I talked to a woman has known for Hillary Clinton a long time and she said that she knows that for Hillary Clinton, it hasn’t really sunk in yet, sort of the historical import of this moment, probably because she has so much work to do going into July with Bernie Sanders but it is – it is an historic moment. You think back to 1848. Seneca Falls in New Yorks. Women's rights convention. You think about Sojoruner Truth. You had you know, two or three years after that, black women are part of the movement for enfranchising women, too. So, I mean, all of these events, people picketing in front of the White House in 1917, telling Woodrow Wilson that America is no democracy if 20 million women can't vote. So, I think this is in a long line of things that many women and men have done across this country for almost 200 years and I think it’s part of a culmination and we'll see other moments. Obviously, if she wins, it’ll be the biggest.
(....)
7:30 p.m. Eastern
BLITZER: We're waiting to hear three very, very important consequential, potentially very historic speeches that's coming up later tonight. Hillary Clinton her first big speech as the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee, we'll have live coverage, of course, of that.
