Andrea Mitchell: Sanders ‘Is Going to Put on a Really Tough Fight’ Against Clinton

RUSH TRANSCRIPT: 
BRZEZINSKI: "NBC News Chief foreign affairs correspondent and host of Andrea Mitchell reports, Andrea, tell us what you heard from the Clinton campaign last night and when you heard it."
MITCHELL: "I should first preface this by saying I am punchier than Nicolle. Truly! I mean, Nicolle is in much better shape than I am. We have been going straight through for two days and landed here I guess around 4:30 this morning and came right here to try to figure out, you know, what the heck is going on. When we landed, we didn’t have Wi-Fi on the plane, that’s the first time. A cheer went up from the front of the plane, which was the staff, that they had won this apparent victory, which they had declared in emails at 10:30 last night central time. Look, you know, obviously for hours there was radio silence, so all of us were messaging Clinton aides and saying, what’s going on? What are you seeing? What are you tracking? What are your models? Finally there was this message to see that we have won and that our modeling shows that we have won. And it was long before anyone could have possibly declared that because the — they hadn’t counted a lot of precincts. A lot of votes were still out there. A lot of networks hadn’t declared anything. They were trying to get ahead of any declaration and declare victory. There were some — it was clear that there were some missing counties that hadn’t been counted. But by then she arrived with Bill Clinton and Chelsea. We had been told that Chelsea, then bill, then Hillary Clinton would speak. There were teleprompters set up. They were pulled down. Bill and Chelsea never spoke. There was no rope line or glad-handing. She gave a very short speech. It was completely different. Her declaration of victory was that she could breathe a sigh of relief and then a tweet after she had left. This was clear it was an awkward moment. We got on the plane and her top aides said, yes, we won. And that was their yes, we have won."
SCARBOROUGH: "They made the declaration, Mika and yet NBC news this morning and all the other news agencies have said apparent winner."
MITCHELL: "Apparent, exactly."
SCARBOROUGH: "We may not know for quite a while whether she officially won or not."
BRZEZINSKI: "You will at headlines are saying it’s a tie and that’s obviously in print, but, Andrea, what does apparent victory mean? Is it okay that she declared complete victory? Is that correct?"
MITCHELL: "It certainly was not correct at the time. There is no way. And it’s an apparent victory which still could be challenged, we have yet to hear what the Sanders campaign is going to do. The one thing we do know is that Bernie Sanders landed here, all these planes landed almost simultaneously, 4:30, quarter of 5:00 this morning, and he immediately went, climbed on a pickup truck, you know, I guess about 15 minutes from the airport and greeted supporters who had been waiting until after 4:00 in the morning in the cold of New Hampshire. You all know how cold it is here, and had been waiting to greet him. So he is absolutely — you’re seeing the pictures here."
SCARBOROUGH: "So exciting."
MITCHELL: "He is going to wage a very vigorous campaign, he is way ahead in New Hampshire. Sure, the Clinton organization can, you know, fight him in primary states, he’s going to go to Nevada, he’s going to be strong in Minnesota and other caucus states. He is going to put on a really tough fight."
SCARBOROUGH: "All right. Andrea Mitchell, thank you so much."