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Congressional Black Caucus PAC Endorsement; Questions about American Sailors Detained by Iran; Jeb Bush's Campaign. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired February 11, 2016 - 14:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[14:00:00] WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Wow. All right, Sanjay, excellent report. Much more coming up in our 3:00 p.m. Eastern hour as well. Sanjay Gupta reporting.

That's it for me. Thanks for watching. The news continues next on CNN.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: Wolf Blitzer, thank you, my friend.

Great to be with all of you on this Thursday. I'm Brooke Baldwin. You are, of course, watching CNN. And you will definitely want to be watching right here, 9:00 p.m. Eastern tonight, where Hillary Clinton will get her first face-to-face with Bernie Sanders after he beat her by a crushing 22 points in the New Hampshire primary earlier this week. By the way, we are simulcasting that Democratic debate on PBS.

And as Clinton prepares to seize her chance to derail Sanders' momentum, she gets a critical endorsement today from a key Democratic group, the Congressional Black Caucus PAC. No doubt her campaign is looking toward that February 27th Democratic primary in South Carolina where, check the numbers with me, as of Monday, 28 percent of registered voters, that includes all parties, are African-American. The lawmakers who endorsed her today also took some digs at Bernie Sanders without mentioning him by name.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. GREGORY MEEKS (D), CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS PAC: So you judge a person by their results. And there is no question that the person that has obtained the most results and benefits for communities of color and everyone in America, in my opinion, but especially getting Democrats elected, there's not even close, it's not even close, it's Hillary Clinton.

REP. G.K. BUTTERFIELD (D), CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS PAC: We need a president who doesn't simply campaign and just promise wonderful things, but things that are politically impossible to achieve.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's take you now straight to the site of the debate and my friend Brianna Keilar, who is our senior political correspondent, the scene of the PBS Democratic presidential debate.

Here's my question to you, and you've been covering Hillary Clinton for two years now. So, you know, if we're hearing from her campaign that she will be more aggressive, what exactly do you think that means?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's really the question, right, Brooke, is she going to really, in a sharp way, critique Bernie Sanders. And certainly the environment is ripe for it. But the other issue is, think about leading up into Iowa. We talked about this. She was really attacking Bernie Sanders sharply and then she kind of pulled back about a week or so before the Iowa caucuses. I think there was some concern that maybe that wasn't working for her. And what we've seen recently is some of her backers, including her husband, Bill Clinton, and certainly some prominent African-Americans today who are in her corner really attacking Bernie Sanders and kind of doing that for her.

But what we do know is that she at least is going to be very aggressive in trying to draw some contrast on a number of issues, gun, for instance, crime, immigration. And talking to sources, Brooke, one of the areas that she really, I think, is going to try to drive home tonight is casting Bernie Sanders as someone who is breaking with President Obama and that she is the one who wants to build on his legacy.

BALDWIN: All right, Brianna Keilar, thank you very much.

Again, the debate, 9:00 Eastern. We'll be watching.

Meantime, Senator Sanders has gotten some significant support from prominent African-Americans, including activist professor Cornell West, Ben Jealous, who once led the NAACP, and writer Tenacy Coats (ph), the latest famed voice planning to vote for Sanders, Hollywood royalty actor and activist Harry Belafonte.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HARRY BELAFONTE, ACTOR/ACTIVIST: To those of you who have not yet made up your minds or maybe even some of you who have made up your minds, to maybe consider and reconsider what it is that Bernie Sanders offers. He offers us a chance to declare unequivocally that there is an America, there is a group of citizens with a deep caring for where our nation goes and what it does in the process of going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Let's dig into the Clinton/Sanders race with Democratic strategist and attorney Angela Rye, who is a board member of that Congressional Black Caucus PAC. Vanessa Deluca, the editor-in-chief of "Essence" magazine, and author and essayist Rich Benjamin, who is the director of fellows at public policy organization DMOS.

So welcome to all of you. Thank you for joining me.

ANGELA RYE, BOARD MEMBER, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS PAC: Thank you.

RICH BENJAMIN, AUTHOR & ESSAYIST: Thank you.

VANESSA DE LUCA, EDITOR-IN-CHIEF, ESSENCE MAGAZINE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Vanessa, I know - I know you are my - my fellow journalist, you're going to be the neutral person here, the other two Dem. So with my two Dems, I just want to see a show of hands, do you know, either of you, if you're voting for Hillary Clinton? Raise your hand if you are. OK. What about Bernie Sanders? OK. I don't know if we have undecided people or people who don't want to share, but let me just begin then, Angela, with you. Since we have the news of the CBC PAC today, of which you are a member, you know, endorsing Hillary Clinton, you abstained. Tell me why.

[14:05:09] RYE: Brooke, because I'm on with people like you. And I think it's important for me to maintain my ability to be as neutral and as objective as possible, particularly in this election where we have so much at stake. You have the rising of Black Lives Matter over the last couple of years, of course with the start of the death of Trayvon Martin. And I think things have gotten progressively worse.

Of course we know that there are white supremacists that say, for example, that race relations have gotten bad and worsened under President Obama because of Barack Obama. And I don't believe that's the case at all. I think that people are starting - really starting to show their true colors. And I think that it is time for us to take race relations in this country, racial injustice in this country, economic injustice and wage disparities very seriously. And for that reason alone, it's very important that every candidate on both sides of the aisle are taking black voters and our issues very, very, very seriously.

BALDWIN: All right. Rich, I'm turning to you.

BENJAMIN: Yes.

BALDWIN: Do you know - I mean I know Angela was saying she wants to remain neutral because she's on TV with people like me. Do you know in your heart who you want yet?

BENJAMIN: I have leanings.

BALDWIN: You have leanings.

BENJAMIN: I have strong leanings as of date, but I don't have a decisive answer and I wouldn't say it publicly anyway. So I'm following the race closely. It's a very important race. It's a great race in terms of interest for a lot of Democrats.

BALDWIN: We talk a lot - we've been talking a lot, especially looking ahead to South Carolina, and the non-white vote -

BENJAMIN: Yes.

BALDWIN: Which is so, so, so important. And when you look at the numbers and how, you know, there are some who assume of course it's in the bag for Hillary Clinton just based upon sort of the legacy and Bill Clinton seen as the first, you know, black president. But - and you're friends with this writer with "The Nation," Michelle Alexander, she wrote this piece entitled, "why Hillary Clinton doesn't deserve the black vote." She writes about from the crime bill to welfare reform, you know, policies Bill Clinton enacted, Hillary Clinton supported, decimated black America. Do you stand with your friend on that or disagree?

BENJAMIN: It's - yes. Yes. They've - they've decimated black America in terms of unemployment, in terms of the incarceration of black people in prison. And some of this are beyond the Clintons. When we see how the deindustrialization of this country has left to a lot of unemployment, some of these are technical factors that go beyond Hillary Clinton. So the main point of that article is to sort of question really -

BALDWIN: Definitely question.

BENJAMIN: Who is supporting Hillary Clinton in terms of black communities and why and not to take for granted that every black person is supporting Hillary Clinton just because her - former President Clinton was deemed the first black president.

BALDWIN: Let me - let me play some sound. And, Vanessa, I want to tee this up for you. You know, Georgia congressman and sort of civil rights icon John Lewis was - was, you know, speaking today during the CBC endorsement of Clinton and this is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JOHN LEWIS, BOARD MEMBER, CONGRESSIONAL BLACK CAUCUS PAC: But I never saw him. I never met him. I would chair the student non-violent coordinating committee for three years, from 1963 to 1966. I was involved in the sit-ins, the freedom ride, the march on Washington, the march from Selma to Montgomery and directed the voter education project for six years. But I met Hillary Clinton.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: He says he met Hillary Clinton. He never saw Bernie Sanders. As we well know, he marched with Dr. King. Vanessa, do you - do you think that will be damaging to Senator Sanders at all?

DE LUCA: Potentially for those who were considering him or thinking about him. But, I mean, quite honestly, as was mentioned earlier, what's really important in this race is not to kind of look to even the leaders to say how we're going to vote, but it's for these leaders to actually - the candidates to actually address the issues that are of most importance to the voters, right, especially to black women where we over -

BALDWIN: What are you hearing from your "Essence" - your "Essence" readers? What do they want to hear?

DE LUCA: Our - our audience is telling us that they want to hear about affordable health care, they want to hear about living wage, they want to hear about college affordability. Our younger audience, 18 to 34, wants to hear in addition about criminal justice reform. They want to hear about public education reform. Those are the issues that are of critical importance to our audience. And the candidates that actually speak to those things that affect our everyday lives are the ones that are really, I believe, in this particular year, are the ones that are going to move the needle. If they really want our vote, they shouldn't assume that the black vote is an automatic. They should, you know, see that we're not all monolithic and that they should address the issues that we're telling them are important to us.

[14:10:02] BALDWIN: Not all monolithic. I'm looking at you out of the corner of my eye. You're nodding. You agree?

BENJAMIN: Yes. I'm nodding, Brooke. I'm nodding because you have to realize, what's the average age of the CBC members? We have to consider millennials. A lot of these millennials were born after John Lewis' great feat. A lot of these millennials were born after these CBC members were voted into office first. And so they've seen the benefits of the civil rights movement positively and negatively in terms of a backlash that the other guest spoke about with Obama's presidency. And so who - how are they going to vote? And they - the candidates have to address the issues that were just mentioned, affordable housing, debt free college, the minimum wage.

BALDWIN: But in addition to issues, and, Angela, I'm curious, your perspective. Which four - especially let's say these millennials, that Rich is mentioning, what endorsement do you think matters the most? These lawmakers, you know, i.e. the John Lewises or the Cornell Wests, Harry Belafonte, granted he's, you know, on the - on one side of the generational divide. But what do you think resonates most with the younger folks?

RYE: Well, first, I just want to fact check something really quick. Joaquin Jeffries (ph), who's a member, a younger member from Brooklyn, New York, was just on with Don Lemon last night defending his endorsement of Hillary Clinton. He's also a CBC PAC board member.

Now to get to your question, Brooke, I think the - the thing that we have to realize is we are now in a paradigm where there is a group of young people rising up saying, you don't speak for me. Whether you're Harry Belafonte or Cornell West or Ben Jealouss, you don't speak for me. I have the power of my Twitter feed and my followers. I have the power of my FaceBook feed. I have the power of my Instagram feed. I have the power of my bull horn on my campus. And you don't speak for me because I'm just as powerful.

BALDWIN: But if Ben Jealous' endorsement, does that - that has to mean - a Ben Jealous' endorsement, when you look at what he has done, that has to mean something. I don't care how old you are.

RYE: It doesn't mean anything to me, Brooke, and I'm saying that as someone who respects Ben Jealous, but I still have the power to exercise my own voice, to know the issues that matter to me, to know what resonates to me. And unfortunately right now, no, that doesn't speak for me.

What spoke to me more loudly is the fact that Bernie Sanders has this super PAC backing him, the nurse's super PAC, and a room full of white women talking about how they were going to talk to black women in South Carolina. These candidates can no longer afford to be tone deaf. If you want to talk to me, hire people that look like me. If you want to talk to me, get an ad firm that looks like me and that can speak in my voice. That is what's most important in this election.

BALDWIN: That is a powerful comment. We're going to end it there. Angela Rye, thank you so much. Rich Benjamin, Vanessa De Luca, thank you all.

DE LUCA: Thank you.

BALDWIN: It's an important conversation and you make an excellent point.

RYE: Thank you.

BALDWIN: Tonight, by the way, let me remind you, CNN will be simulcasting the PBS "News Hour" Democratic presidential debate live from Milwaukee, 9:00 Eastern. You will find it right here on PBS and, of course, your local PBS station.

Let's jump from politics here to some - some questions. Just in to CNN, new questions in the investigation over those American sailors who were briefly detained by Iran just a couple of weeks ago. Let's go straight to the Pentagon, to Barbara Starr for that.

Barbara, what's happened?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT: Well, Brooke, we're now finding out that the Navy investigation into the incident where ten sailors last month were briefly detained by Iranian forces, that Navy investigation expected to be wrapped up in the next couple of weeks. They are looking at the circumstances (INAUDIBLE) issue is, what led those sailors to actually wind up in Iranian waters? What actually went wrong with their GPS navigation equipment? We're told by an official familiar with all of this, they're looking at three interesting scenarios. Did the sailors actually just somehow misuse, misread the GPS equipment, was there some technical fault with it, and a third scenario, is it actually possible that the Iranians or some other entities sailing in those waters jammed the GPS equipment causing it to malfunction, directing the sailors into Iranian territorial waters when they didn't realize that's where they were going?

So some really interesting, very high-tech questions still about how all of this came to be. The human element very much still there. We've seen the video, the sailors obviously looking distressed and anxious about their situation, and we're also told today that the sailors have now reported to their counselors, their military counselors, that they underwent what is being called steady questioning by their Iranian captors. Was it a formal interrogation, who knows, but these are very young people that were in a circumstance that was very distressing to them. They underwent steady questioning. That is a typical integration technique of a suspect in law enforcement, of a suspect in a war zone, to try and get them to say something. That's a very well understood fact. It may go a long way to explaining some of the distress that the sailors were feeling. [14:15:05] Carol - Brooke.

BALDWIN: Wow. As soon as you learn more, let us know. Barbara Starr, thank you very much on those American sailors and that investigation.

Meantime, coming up, here's a headline for you, Jeb is not dead. One columnist says he's got a new win as his brother hits the trail with him in South Carolina, but which version of George W. Bush might be see?

Plus, a showdown erupting between Russia and the United States after Moscow accuses American warplanes of bombing a war torn city. CNN takes you inside Syria and the U.S. response.

And, my goodness, the cruise from hell. Have you heard about this? We'll speak live with a passenger who just got off this nightmare ship about what happened on board and why the ship's crew is in big, big trouble.

You're watching CNN. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: You're watching CNN. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

Here's the headline from "The Washington Post" today, "Jeb isn't dead." So says my next guest as Governor Bush hits South Carolina with new wind at his back. He and his brother, former President Bush 43, set to appear together in South Carolina. A state both Bush 41 and 43 won.

[14:20:08] But with this new boost, he is becoming even more of a target. Dana Millbank from "The Washington Post" writes, quote, "Jeb is not dead. He seems comfortable in his own skin. He no longer hides from his name. He asked his brother to campaign for him and he acknowledges that 'I'm part of the establishment'."

Dana Milbank joins me now.

Dana, good to see you.

DANA MILBANK, POLITICAL COLUMNIST, "THE WASHINGTON POST": Good to see you, Brooke.

BALDWIN: I think one of my fast lines in your piece was actually this, "considering that Bush was ready for embalming before Tuesday night, the notion that Jeb is not dead is noteworthy." What's behind the turnaround, you think?

MILBANK: Well, I mean, if - we have to keep it in perspective, first of all, right? I mean the man got 30,000 something votes, 11 percent, fourth place in New Hampshire and we're all saying, hey, look at this, Jeb's the - you know, the new flavor in town. But -

BALDWIN: We were doing that before the end of New Hampshire, by the way, all the snowball fights and the smiles. Come on, yes. MILBANK: Right. So we've got to keep it in perspective. But - but

something is changing here and I think that, you know, going through that near death experience, he's become a much better candidate, a much better debater, much better on the stump. And as I wrote, he seems to be comfortable. And people are picking up on that. The crowds are drawing. And then when you see Marco Rubio faltering, you know, you see Christie getting out of the race, Fiorina out of the race, well, who do you have left? You have John Kasich maybe, but he's seen as, you know, maybe too moderate in a lot of these states. So it - the - what seemed at one point to be impossible now seems at least plausible that Jeb Bush actually could get this second win.

BALDWIN: It absolutely does. And I'm wondering, you know, you talk about this near death experience, does it stick or heading into South Carolina and potentially beyond, the pressure then gets to him? What do you think?

MILBANK: Well, the pressure got to him earlier on and I think he was tested and he was - you know, think about it, he was really obliterated by Trump and he's learned how to deal with it. He's come back from that and he really isn't - he has become the anti-Trump. And if you think about it, Trump got, what, about 35 percent of the - of the vote in New Hampshire. That means a lot of Republicans are still not ready to go with Trump. So he can potentially solidify that piece of the electorate. And as you noted, you know, the Bushs are strong in South Carolina in particular, and he's got a ton of money still. So he can potentially be viable elsewhere in the country. But, of course, the Trump momentum also shows no sign of abating.

BALDWIN: More on that later in the show. I'm staying with Bush with you. And the fact that we talked a lot about Barbara Bush, his 90- year-old mother, who just, you know, was phenomenal with crowds in New Hampshire, looking ahead to South Carolina. We know his big brother will be on the trail. My question is this, which - which George W. Bush do you think we'll see, the more aggressive former president or the more, you know, embracing his brother's folksy Texan?

MILBANK: I would go for the latter. I think that's what W. has been in his entire post presidency. So I doubt he's going to be giving a barn burner out there on the stump. But I think it's probably a good thing because it's South Carolina and also because Jeb has gotten to the point saying, I'm not going to hide from being a Bush. I am part of the establishment. So, you know, take it or leave it. And I think he may be pleasantly surprised.

BALDWIN: A Marco Rubio aide was quoted as saying South Carolina is going to be a bloodbath. Marco Rubio slammed, of course, his mentor, Governor Bush, along with Trump and Cruz in South Carolina today. Here is Senator Rubio.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Donald Trump has zero foreign policy experience. Negotiating a hotel deal in another country is not foreign policy experience. Jeb Bush has no foreign policy experience, period. Ted Cruz, the only budget he's ever voted for in his years in Washington was a budget sponsored by Rand Paul that bragged about cutting defense spending.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Jeb Bush has no foreign policy experience. Just sort of staying on that thread. What do you think of this strategy, if we want to call this the Rubio reboot? Will it be effective, specifically with regard to Governor Bush?

MILBANK: Well, I mean, he's got a lot of targets to shoot at now. And it is interesting there that he has finally included Trump in the targets that he's shooting at. You sort of get the feeling that Marco Rubio has had his Rick Perry oops moment. It's very hard to recover from that, like we saw in New Hampshire. Maybe he can, but he's suddenly got this exposure last week after doing very well in Iowa and people saw him and said, wait a second, maybe this guy is an empty suit. So he's really going to be on the defensive. I think he's going to be on the receiving end of this bloodbath more than he's going to be dishing it out.

BALDWIN: Saturday night debate. How will that shake out?

MILBANK: Oh, yes.

BALDWIN: We shall see.

Dana Milbank, thank you so much.

MILBANK: Thanks a lot.

BALDWIN: Coming up next, dodging death and an uncertain future. CNN follows the complicated and winding paths of these Syrian refugees who are learning English in an attempt to resettle. Where they're going, how they're being received, you will want to stick around to watch this piece.

[14:25:03] Also later, she says all hell broke loose. We'll talk to one of the passengers who was on her very first cruise when it slammed head on into a monster storm. Her account of what happened. Stay with me.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Just about the bottom of the hour. You're watching CNN.

Today, the U.S. denying Russia's accusations that American warplanes bombed the war torn city of Aleppo inside Syria. And as the brutal war there escalates, families are running for their lives. They are considered refugees. They have nowhere to go. But in Canada, Canada is actually taking in tens of thousands just this year alone.

[14:30:09] CNN's Drew Griffin visited a center in Calgary, where a lot of these families are right now.