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On the New Hampshire Primary (Interview)

Date: Feb. 2, 2000
Location: World News Now
Issues: Elections

SHOW: WORLD NEWS NOW (2:00 AM ET)
HEADLINE: BILL BRADLEY, AL GORE, AND JOHN MCCAIN ON THE NEW HAMPSHIRE PRIMARY FROM "NIGHTLINE"
ANCHORS: BERTHA COOMBS; STEVE AVESON
REPORTERS: TED KOPPEL

BODY:
TED KOPPEL reporting: And we're joined now from Nashua, New Hampshire, by John McCain who is the—the—the one unambiguous winner of the night. Must feel awfully good?

Senator JOHN McCAIN (Republican Presidential Candidate): I sure do, Ted, and I am very grateful and pleased, of course. And I think it was the message, the message of reform of government, the message of getting Washington out of the hands of the special interests and back to the people. And we're very pleased at the way things have turned out tonight. In fact, very surprised.

KOPPEL: You know that we journalists are an ungrateful lot, OK? We've seen—we've seen what you can do in New Hampshire. Now what?

Sen. McCAIN: Well, we've got a great organization in South Carolina. We're moving up in the polls there. We're on television. That's our next big step. We're moving into Michigan and California. And the money's coming in pretty well. It's
mccain2000.com. And we're—we're—things are going well for us.

KOPPEL: You seem to have done particularly well with the Independents.

Sen. McCAIN: Mm-hmm.

KOPPEL: Can you—can you break through with the Republican establishment the way that you did in New Hampshire today with the Independent vote?

Sen. McCAIN: Well, we took the majority of Republican vote here, too. It's obvious that if anybody wants a status quo in Washington, they're not going to support me. I'm—I'm taking on the establishment, and I'm proud to do that.

In South Carolina, we have a lot of good people who have already signed up over the Internet and other places, lots of veterans. I'm—I'm very—I'm very pleased and, again, uphill fight, but already we've closed rather significantly in the polls in South Carolina in the last couple of weeks, and tonight I was able to have a chance at the megaphone and I—I hope I put it to good use.

KOPPEL: Senator McCain, always a pleasure. Thanks very much.

Sen. McCAIN: Thank you, Ted.

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