Pete Buttigieg Gaining Ground in Iowa & New Hampshire Polls; Buttigieg/Pence Feud Over Faith & Gay Marriage Gets Personal; Andrew Yang Wants to Use Holograms to Reach Voters in Different Places at Same Time
ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Pete Buttigieg makes it official this weekend and move from the exploratory phase to a full-blown presidential campaign. Recent polls show Buttigieg running third in the all-important states of Iowa and New Hampshire. Right now, there's a tidal wave of attention and hype focused on the 37-year-old mayor of South Bend, Indiana. Buttigieg is a Rhodes Scholar, served in the Navy during the Afghanistan War and, if elected, would become the nation's first gay president. "Washington Post" opinion columnist, Ed Rogers, says Buttigieg's time in the spotlight, "What is happening is a naturally occurring part of the campaign season referred to as the Cinderella cycle. Every candidate wants to be the chosen one, who will turning out to be the desirable princess. All candidates want the slipper to fit. At any given time, one candidate has the slipper and is trying it on. Soon it will land in another candidates' hands." With us now, Brian Stelter, CNN's chief media correspondent and anchor of "REALIABLE SOURCES." Brian, granted the media cycle moves so fast and the campaign season is so long.</s>CABRERA: How has Buttigieg's media strategy allowed him to seize this Cinderella moment?</s>BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT & CNN HOST, "RELIABLE SOURCES": Because he's been seemingly everywhere, willing to go on lots of television shows, comedy specials, podcasts. He has found a way to introduce himself to the country. And it is unlike a lot of the other candidates, field of 20, we've seen. Mayor Pete, says he's OK being called, since it's hard to say Buttigieg, was relatively unknown until a few months ago. He's willing to say yes to almost every request. On the cover of "Time" magazine. Been on FOX News, despite the Democrat National Committee's aversion to FOX News. And he made a choice to be as visible as possible to get name recognition leading up to tomorrow's event.</s>CABRERA: He doesn't seem to be worried about a potential gap and hasn't stayed away from FOX News. The day of digital media, and the ability to put mistakes out there, to be exploited, to be shared, to amplified on social media, he doesn't back down away from that challenge?</s>STELTER: The more confident you are about your positions and your identity or brand as a politician, the more natural you can be giving these kinds of interviews. You're right. He hasn't had those moments where he's had to walk things back or regretted various interviews. He's had a very strong rollout. I spoke with one of his advisers, who said, we're willing to go on podcasts, on usual formats like the breakfast radio show, a lot of attention among Democratic contenders. Been on "The View." He's been on a lot of these shows introducing himself. In an interesting way, his odd, funny name, hard to say, helps him. Makes people curious. How do you say "Buttigieg?" Curiosity about that. There's been a lot of factors that helped him out. And more importantly, he comes across on television and radio that is personable and warm and that's --</s>CABRERA: He seems sincere and not so calculated, perhaps.</s>STELTER: Yes</s>CABRERA: One other thing that has given him a lot of media attention, the back and forth with the vice president. Let's watch.</s>PETE BUTTIGIEG, (D), MAYOR OF SOUTH BEND & PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not critical of his faith. I'm critical of bad policies. I don't have a problem with religion. I'm religious, too. I have a problem with religion being used as a justification to harm people, and especially in the LGBTQ community.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I think Pete's quarrel is with the First Amendment.</s>DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: How so?</s>PENCE: All of us in this country have the right to our religious beliefs. I'm a Bible-believing Christian.</s>BASH: Is that belief that --</s>PENCE: My wife and I -- my wife and I are Bible-believing Christians. We cherish or faith. We put our trust in God's word. As do tens of millions of Americans. And I think, as he seeks the highest office of the land, as he seeks to be that person that takes oath of office to uphold the Constitution, he'd do well to reflect on the importance of respecting freedom of religion of every American.</s>CABRERA: Brian, Buttigieg later admitted to CNN's Dan Merica this back and forth with the vice president has been good for his candidacy. But are there any downsides?</s>STELTER: I think that's true, there has been boosting Buttigieg among the Democratic base. I think what he's trying to do is create contrast. President Trump is not the only person that he can contrast with. Pence is another. Buttigieg later said my issues is not with the vice president's faith but with bad policies. I wonder if this will continue or not at this point, if there's any more to say about it. The challenge for Buttigieg is it's only April. At this point in 2015, President Trump wasn't even in the race yet. A long way to go before the first primaries. What will he do to keep building his identify, keep building momentum is another question? He's seized the moment so far. At the CNN town hall, for example, he seized that moment and people talking about it. He raised more money off of it. It' interesting to see how he's built this up, step by step, leading up to tomorrow's announcement.</s>CABRERA: You mentioned town halls. Glad you did. I have one this weekend with some lesser-known candidates. We have Marianne Williamson with Dana Bash, who is hosting that one. And then Andrew Yang tomorrow at 7:00. I'll be hosting.</s>STELTER: I'll be watching.</s>CABRERA: And don't forget to watch Brian's show tomorrow morning, "RELIABLE SOURCES," tomorrow morning at 11:00 a.m., here on CNN. Thanks, Brian.</s>STELTER: Thank you.</s>CABRERA: Presidential candidate, Andrew Yang, has his own idea of what campaigning for 2020 looks like - holograms. The Democratic candidate says he wants to use the technology to reach multiple audiences in battleground states at the same time. And he debuted what it could look like with this video. This on TMZ Live. He shows a hologram of himself alongside - he was rapping there -- alongside a hologram of Tupac Shakur.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): It is -- you, sort of performing with a Tupac hologram, a very famous Tupac hologram forming America's Most Wanted. Can you explain -- I was asking the producers -- what's the -- the plan here?</s>ANDREW YANG, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE (voice-over): Well, if you look closely at that footage, you'll see that actually not me performing with hologram Tupac. That's a hologram of me.</s>CABRERA: I hope that piqued your curiosity. Again, I'll be moderating a town hall featuring Andrew Yang tomorrow night at 7:00, here on CNN. It follows a town hall moderated by my colleague, Dana Bash, featuring Democratic candidate, Marianne Williamson. Coming up, Amazon eavesdropping. A new report about thousands of people listening to what you tell your Alexa devices. And it's raising a lot of questions about privacy.