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Legal View with Ashleigh Banfield

Latest Campaign Happenings; GOP Candidates in South Carolina; Dems in Nevada; Rep. Clyburn Endorses Hillary Clinton. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired February 19, 2016 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00] JIM BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: ... with Wolf Blitzer, Anderson Cooper, and Jake Tapper. Kate Bolduan and I pick up the coverage at 11:00 p.m. tomorrow night. Legal View starts now.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN CHIEF NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Hello everyone. I'm Jim Sciutto in again today for Ashleigh Banfield. Welcome to Legal View. And we begin today again with politics. We are a day away from two more presidential contests that could give this race further clarity or make clear that the drama will last through springtime and beyond.

Democrats will caucus in Nevada, and we will go live to Nevada in a moment. But, we're going to begin in South Carolina where Republicans hold their first southern primary where Donald Trump still holds a very comfortable lead in our poll of polls. Rolling average of the five latest polls of likely voters shows Trump the choice of 34 percent with Ted Cruz just behind at 20 percent, Marco Rubio at 15, Jeb Bush, you see there at 11 percent.

Our national poll of polls is remarkably similar, except in this one, Jeb Bush comes in last place just for 5 percent here.

All six remaining GOP candidates are making the most of primary eve with town halls, rallies, and meet and greets taking place somewhere in south Carolina every hour through 9:00 tonight.

I should mention that Donald Trump is due to speak shortly in Myrtle Beach. You're seeing live pictures there. Our CNN Chief Political Correspondent Dana Bash is there.

So, Dana, looking at these polls, big leads for Trump. At this point from the view of the Trump campaign, is it just a matter of how much he wins by in South Carolina?

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: They have a lot of confidence. There's no question about that, Jim, inside team Trump. But, they also now have experienced under the belt. And their experience in New Hampshire was quite good. The polls bore out. He did well. He won by big margins. Iowa, not so much.

So, they are a little bit more cautious than in the past. And they should be because although he is doing quite well, and although you see the big crowd behind me, a lot of people here and a lot of people who are already all in for Trump, a lot aren't. A lot are undecided. I talked to several who said, "Well, I went to a Cruz rally, I went to a Rubio rally and now I'm checking out Trump."

So, you know, the cliche taking nothing for granted, that should be sort of the watchword for all of the campaigns going into tomorrow's primary here.

SCIUTTO: No question. We talk a lot about South Carolina, a lot of military bases there. Heavily pro-military state, Trump taking a very strong position against Jeb Bush, 43, and Bush 43, Iraq War -- on the Iraq War. But now we're seeing, of course, there were those comments to Howard Stern by Donald Trump in 2002 expressing support for the war at the time. Is he getting any fallout for that there?

BASH: Not that we've seen yet. He was asked about that by Anderson Cooper last night, of course, at CNN's town hall, and Trump's answer was effectively, "I don't really remember that and it was probably the first time I was even asked about the possibility of the Iraq war. And that soon after that, I was against the Iraq War." Whether or not that's true, probably the biggest hurdle for him here in South Carolina needs to be the Iraq War and George W. Bush is what he said last Saturday night on the stage talking about George W. Bush saying flat out that he lied about weapons of mass destruction, lied to get the United States into war with Iraq.

Also last night, he really backed off of that. And he was asked about those comments by a voter who was really persistent, if you remember, Jim, and he -- Trump refused to use the word lie again and kind of rolled it back a bit.

SCIUTTO: A lie is not a word that is that uncommon in this race as we know. Dana Bash, thanks very much with the Trump campaign.

We're up to Charleston now where my colleague Sunlen Serfaty, she is following Ted Cruz there. Phil Mattingly is in Columbia, South Carolina's capital covering Marco Rubio.

Phil, let me begin with you. So, Rubio and Cruz, based on the numbers simply, they seem to be slugging it out for second place there. How is Rubio trying to pull away from Cruz?

PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jim, it's really dual track. Marco Rubio's advisors have been delighted with the ongoing war between Ted Cruz and the Marco Rubio campaign. Insults going back and forth. Accusations of lies and deceit and deceptive practices, but what you've seen from Marco Rubio on the trail is something a little bit different. It is a message of unity, a message that he is not only the future of the party, but that future is now. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We can't win if we're divided, if we're still fighting against each other in the conservative movement. If Republicans are still fighting with each other in October, we're going to lose.

We need to nominate someone that can bring us together. I know that I can better than anyone in this race. I will bring this party and this movement together so that we can begin the work of growing our movement.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[12:05:00] MATTINGLY: Now, Jim, at the core of the Rubio campaign is this argument that as this contest moves forward, Marco Rubio can be the one that everybody can get behind, both conservatives and moderates in the party, the establishment folks, the tea party folks, all of them can coalesce behind him. He has yet to prove that he can actually do that. And South Carolina really giving him a big shot at this the point.

One thing to note, Jim, at the end of every rally since Nikki Haley endorsed -- the very popular governor of South Carolina endorsed Marco Rubio on Wednesday night, the campaign carefully choreographs a photo they want everybody to take. It's Marco Rubio, Nikki Haley, the rising star governor of Indian decent, Tim Scott, the only African American senator in the U.S. Senate, and Trey Gowdy, the rising star, young South Carolina congressional representative.

They want that picture out there. That's the picture they want everybody to see. The one they think defines their campaign here in these final closing hours, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Well, we'll see if that hopeful message attracts the voters there in South Carolina.

Sunlen, Ted Cruz, certainly not backing off from fighting, are you seeing any change in his message strategy there on the ground?

SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, his message, Jim, really has been all about drawing contrast with his rivals and painting himself the most tried and true conservative of any of the candidates and really trying to lay into both Donald Trump and Marco Rubio's conservative credentials, really trying to, you know, crack some breaks in their conservative label.

And, what we've really seen from Ted Cruz recently, since the death of the Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, we've really seen Ted Cruz ratchet up the warnings to voters here in South Carolina, saying, "Look at the records of the people that you're potentially voting for", really talking about the implications going forward.

Here's what Ted Cruz argued earlier this morning in Myrtle Beach.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP_

SEN. TED CRUZ, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If we nominate the wrong Republican, if we nominate a Republican president who doesn't care about the court, who isn't committed to the court, they're going to make the same mistake Republican president after Republican president has made of not investing the capital, not fighting, and one more justice on the left.

And the second amendment is written out of the Bill of Rights.

(END VIDEO CLIP) SERFATY: Now, much of this closing message by Ted Cruz is also been really going after Marco Rubio. You heard just now from Phil talked about the furious fight that's been going on. Ted Cruz here really wants to score a high second place, do very well, really try to make sure that there's a lot more room between him and Marco Rubio going into Super Tuesday. Jim.

SCIUTTO: Sunlen Serfaty with Ted Cruz, Phil Mattingly with Marco Rubio, thanks very much.

Donald Trump, he is speaking now at a campaign event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina. Let's listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The United States like never, ever, ever before, they're money manipulators, they're currency manipulators, they cut the value of their currencies at points where, for some reason, we never, ever talk retribution. And, we're going to get our businesses back. We're going to get our businesses back.

Remember I said it. Remember I said it.

You read the other day, Kerry (ph), left, beautiful company, I used to buy a lot of Carrier air conditioners, I'm not buying them anymore. They're off the list.

But, I buy, you know, thousands and thousands of air conditioners a year. I buy televisions, I buy -- they're all made -- everything's made in other countries. I want televisions, South Korea. I want air conditioners now, it's going to be Mexico for air conditioners, OK. Not going to happen. So Carrier announced 1,400 jobs, they're moving to Mexico. You saw that, right?

So I said to myself, "Well, that's a problem." And I thought it was very sad, just like all these cellphones that are up in the air, they're taking like the video of the man, I guess the boss, saying, "We're closing up, we're moving to Mexico. Bye bye, your jobs are gone."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: We've been listening to Donald Trump there, a campaign event in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina, familiar message about American jobs going overseas, taking aim -- a particular aim you heard there about jobs going to Mexico, but also China, Donald Trump saying in his words, "We're going to get our businesses back."

We're going to turn now to the Democratic race, the Nevada Democratic caucuses there tomorrow, and Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are making their final push there today.

Plus, looking ahead to South Carolina, a key endorsement for Hillary, will it secure her a win? That's right after this break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [12:13:20] SCIUTTO: Welcome back. The Democratic presidential candidates, the field of just two are on a final push for voters in Nevada before tomorrow's caucuses there. That's, of course, Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton. It's the first test for the candidates in the American West. And, in a week out of the Deep South for South Carolina's first in the South Democratic primary.

CNN Senior Political Correspondent Brianna Keilar, she is in Las Vegas. Brianna, it wasn't long ago that Nevada and South Carolina looked solidly Hillary Clinton. Right now though, of course, the numbers have changed a lot. I mean, does either Clinton or Sanders have a lock on either state at this point?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's neck and neck, Jim, here in Nevada. And also the caucuses are really tricky to figure out how they're going to go. There's just a little more wiggle room because of the format of this contest. So, the fact that Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders are neck and neck, and that we're hearing that from some Hillary Clinton backers they're worried that a caucus format actually favors Bernie Sanders.

It's pretty clear no one has the lock on the caucuses here tomorrow night. But when it comes to South Carolina, Hillary Clinton is by far and away ahead of Bernie Sanders. And it would really take a lot for him to make up ground there. So she, right now, has a lock on South Carolina just about a week or so before the primary there.

SCIUTTO: Now, what's interesting about both states is you have big minority votes, Hispanics, particularly in Nevada, African Americans in South Carolina. And both candidates need them for the nomination, the national race. How are they, in these races, trying to appeal to those blocks?

KEILAR: Yeah, and you can tell that they're tailoring their messages. Here in Nevada, it's about the Hispanic vote, it is a minority, but it's a sizable minority here in the state.

[12:15:02] So you're hearing a lot of talk about immigration. And then in South Carolina, if you're a Democratic candidate, there's no way you can win without pulling a significant part of the black voting block, that's just the way it is.

Right now, Hillary Clinton, she has a lead overall, but she has a tremendous lead with African American voters there. And that's really the reason why she does have the lock in South Carolina. You hear more discussion of things like criminal justice reform or even today, we're hearing, you know, when it comes to education, funding for historically black colleges and universities. Very tailored messages in these two states.

SCIUTTO: Brianna Keilar, thanks very much. She's in Nevada.

We learned earlier today that the highest ranking African American member of Congress, and powerful political player in South Carolina specifically, he now endorses Hillary Clinton. Bakari Sellers is former state representative in South Carolina, our

political commentator, he supports Hillary Clinton as well. Also, CNN Political Commentator and Columnist for the Daily Beast, Sally Kohn, she is leaning towards Bernie Sanders.

Bakari, let's talk first about this key endorsement for Hillary Clinton, and that, of course, is Representative Clyburn. We saw him make this announcement earlier today. He said that Hillary Clinton is the best for equal pay. She's the best to address the income inequality in an election where he said it's about the future.

How big a prize is this for Hillary Clinton in South Carolina, Jim Clyburn's endorsement?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it's huge. And it's not just huge here in South Carolina, but people have to remember that Jim Clyburn is the highest ranking African American in the entire United States Congress.

So this is going to have ripple effects beyond South Carolina and further into Super Tuesday.

But what this does do is it coalesces our support here in African American community in South Carolina, which is essential to winning the Democratic nomination.

And it shows that, you know, those mitts, as I like to call them, about women supporting Bernie or young people supporting Bernie. They haven't proven to be true as his message has transcended to South Carolina. Now, we still have about eight days left.

But, Hillary Clinton's done yeoman's work to build her support here, solidify her support here, and Jim Cyburn's endorsement today is the proverbial cherry on top.

SCIUTTO: Sally, speaking about Bernie Sanders, he took a fairly strong position to say that Hillary Clinton is pandering, that was his description, to black voters by playing up her tight relationship with President Obama.

What does that offer appeal, how does that appeal to African Americans who still have very positive views of the president?

SALLY KOHN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yeah, I don't think that was a smart move. And look, that is one of Hillary Clinton's strongest arguments, right? And Bernie Sanders is arguing he is in -- he won't sometimes say it, but he is in fact to the left of President Obama. And for voters who really like the legacy of President Obama, want to continue the legacy of President Obama, supporting someone who is in his cabinet and is on the same page with him in a lot of policies sort of more toward the middle of the political spectrum, that's very appealing.

But, let's be honest, where I think is most encouraging about this entire dynamic is that you finally have both political candidates on the Democratic Party finally trying to speak to, appeal to and connect with African American voters and voters of color in general as opposed to, for instance, what we see ...

SELLERS: Exactly.

KOHN: ... on the other side, where they're trying to distance themselves as much as possible from voters of color, Muslim voters, Latino voters, angering and alienating them and competing over how much they can do so.

So, in general, it's all still a very encouraging trend for Democrats.

SCIUTTO: Sally, I want to give you a chance to respond to something Bakari said just a moment ago. He questioned Bernie Sanders's support among young people, among women, saying it's a bit of a question mark.

The numbers, though, in a state like New Hampshire, were impressive for Sanders in those categories. How do you respond?

KOHN: Well, look, the enthusiasm and energy, especially among young people writ large is behind Bernie. And this has always been the case. It's sort of politics as a momentum game and an expectations game, and the expectations for Bernie were very, very low, and he now seems to have the momentum.

And part of that is, because people are sort of giving him a fresh look, part of that is also because there is a widespread frustration with some of more centrist economic, and sort of militarily hawkish policies of Hillary Clinton. There's not a question about that.

That being said, where I will agree that Bakari is right, is you can't just sort of treat all voting blacks as a monolith. And, while among young white voters, Bernie is still very strong among young, and increasingly by the way, among young Latino voters, among young African American voters, Hillary still holds a pretty strong majority there. So it's anyone's game at this point.

SCIUTTO: Bakari, I want to give you a quick chance to respond. You hear this a lot, it's about the excitement gap for Hillary Clinton. How does she get over that?

SELLERS: Well, I think both candidates have done an amazing job in yeoman's work and again, I say that, in building the enthusiasm and the excitement, building on these positive messages.

But one thing that Hillary Clinton has done so well is vow to build on and protect the legacy of Barack Obama. And that's what this race in South Carolina and throughout the South has boiled down to be.

[12:20:02] And we've seen things, whether or not it's the Supreme Court Justice and Republicans attempting to block the President from doing that, we now see Jim Clyburn. We're starting to see this excitement level amongst the Democratic base continue to ramp up. I expect many more fireworks over the next eight days. We'll see, but I do expect Hillary Clinton to sneak out in Nevada and also come here and have a resounding victory in South Carolina.

SCIUTTO: More fireworks the next eight days, eight weeks, eight months. Bakari Sellers and Sally Kohn, thanks very much on the Democratic race.

KOHN: Thank you.

SCIUTTO: We're going to get back to the race for the White House. But first, saying farewell to a conservative legend, the body of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia is now lying in repose inside the court's great hall up to those marble steps. Hundreds of mourners are streaming by to view the casket throughout the day.

We'll take you live to the Supreme Court as people pay their final respects.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:25:20] SCIUTTO: It is a somber day, a sad day, a historic day at the United States Supreme Court. A long serving legendary justice is there today for the final time.

Live pictures here, long lines of admirers, colleagues, and friends of Justin Antonin Scalia filing past his casket as he lies in repose inside the Supreme Court's great hall. Scalia's casket arrived there this morning, met by the surviving justices who attended a private service led by Justice Scalia's own son, who's a Catholic priest, Father Paul Scalia.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. PAUL SCALIA, JUSTICE SCALIA'S SON: Blessed are those who have died in the Lord, let them rest from their labors, for their good deeds go with them. Eternal rest grants unto him, O Lord.

(OFF-MIC)

SCALIA: May he rest in peace.

SCIUTTO: May he rest in peace. This is a live view again inside the great hall of the Supreme Court. Supreme Court Justice Scalia's funeral is set for tomorrow here in Washington, D.C. at the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.

His son will also deliver the funeral mass tomorrow.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: CNN Senior Legal Analyst Jeffrey Toobin is with me now from Washington.

Jeffrey, you know, we went so quickly into the politics of replacing Justice Scalia that you forget for a moment the history, the vacancy on the court, his impact on the court, you've covered it for years. You know this well. Tell us about this moment today and just how much he'll be missed.

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, I'm just back from the court, Jim, and I had the opportunity to pay my respects as well. And one of the things that strikes you about the Supreme Court is that compared to the rest of the American government, it's really very small. There are nine justices who all serve for a long time. They have four law clerks apiece. There are maybe 100, 200 people who work there. Many of whom stay for a long time.

And when you're in the Supreme Court building, you sense the loss of someone who was a colleague and who was a friend and who was an outsized figure. And just, it's a grand building, but it's also not that big. And you see the live shot right there. If you just go to the left of where the casket is, it's the entrance to the courtroom. I mean, it is not that big a place. And, you just feel the personal nature of the loss when you're inside the building.

SCIUTTO: It is a very tiny, privileged club, you might say. You know, President Obama as you know, he's being criticized for skipping the funeral tomorrow, although he will be going there for the viewing today around 3:00 this afternoon, Vice President Biden going tomorrow.

From your perspective where you sit, Jeffrey, is this a practical decision by the President, or is it a political one?

TOOBIN: I really -- I think it's basically an insignificant decision one way or another.

Historically, presidents have not gone to Supreme Court justices' funerals. President George W. Bush did go to Chief Justice Rehnquist's funeral in 2005, but the Chief Justice is always in a very different position than the rest of the justices.

These are not traditionally state funerals. I think the politics of this vacancy and this future nomination are incendiary enough, I don't think President Obama's decision to come or not come is going to have a bit of impact on how it all plays out.

SCIUTTO: Jeffrey Toobin, thanks very much. And we'll be right back.

TOOBIN: All right.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)