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Interview with South Carolina State Senator Marlon Kimpson (D); Celebration of Life for Kobe Bryant in Los Angeles Today; Prince Harry and Meghan Markle to Drop "Royal" from Title of Charitable Organization. Aired 10:30-11a ET

Aired February 24, 2020 - 10:30   ET

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

[10:30:00]

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: -- Jessica Mann, of course, counts three, four and five all have to do with her allegations. What does that indicate to you?

JENNIFER RODGERS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST:: It may be that they accepted her testimony and they don't have any problems with it. You know, usually, in the jury room, when the jurors are disagreeing, that's when the folks who are for conviction will say, well, let's listen again to the testimony to try to convince those who aren't. So they may have just completely accepted it from the trial and they don't need any more. You know, that's -- it's really speculating at this point.

HARLOW: Yes, yes.

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR, NEWSROOM: Big picture here, does this show you -- and I don't want to overstate the circumstances of one case being indicative for others. But in terms of the law and sexual assault, does it show a challenge in prosecuting cases like this, that that law -- has the law not caught up? I mean, what -- are we learning something?

RODGERS: Well, it's not really a legal challenge here. The challenge here is and has always been that this is a man who had these transactional relationships that continued after the assault itself, and there's all sorts of evidence about that happening.

So I think that's always been the challenge with Harvey Weinstein, it will continue to be the challenge if the victims in L.A. similarly had ongoing relations with him after the incidents. So that's really the challenge. It's not that the law hasn't caught up, it's just that the law doesn't take into account very well a situation where you have sort of voluntary but then also obviously very involuntary relationships.

SCIUTTO: Right.

HARLOW: You bring up L.A., he has a whole other trial waiting for him in Los Angeles, regardless of the outcome here.

RODGERS: That's right. He was charged with separate incidents in Los Angeles, so he's going to have to face those as well.

HARLOW: OK.

SCIUTTO: Remarkable story. Great to have you, Jennifer. Thanks very much.

HARLOW: The 2020 Democratic candidates, awaiting a key influential endorsement. Who will Congressman James Clyburn back? Of course the majority whip, hugely influential nationally. The latest on where he's leaning, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:36:20]

HARLOW: All right. All eyes on South Carolina now, at least for the Democratic candidates. This comes as House majority whip and a key voice from South Carolina, and so influential across the country, Congressman James Clyburn says he will make an endorsement after the debate Tuesday night, so probably no Wednesday morning.

Joining me now is a surrogate for Joe Biden in South Carolina, State Senator Marlon Kimpson. Good to have you, sir. Thanks for joining me again.

STATE SEN. MARLON KIMPSON (D-SC): Good to be here with you, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. So you said, last year, about Joe Biden, quote, "If he can't win South Carolina, he's dead, he's done" -- excuse me. "If he can't win South Carolina, he's done." Do you still think that?

KIMPSON: I'm glad you clarified that.

HARLOW: Me, too.

KIMPSON: I think that Joe Biden is on a trajectory, Poppy, to win South Carolina. I do see a difficult path if he does not win South Carolina. However, from every indication that I'm getting, he is on track to win this -- South Carolina primary, and that's why things will change. As you know, Poppy, this is the first real test of a Democratic -- demographic that's reflective of the rest of the party.

HARLOW: So when you look at the momentum, though, that we're seeing for Senator Sanders, especially also among Latino voters and African- American voters, where he came in second only to Joe Biden in Nevada.

Listen to this. This is a clip from a Sanders ad that they're running in your state, and they're touting the support of Richland County Vice Chair Dalhi Myers, who, as you know, switched her support from Biden to Sanders. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALHI MYERS, RICHLAND COUNTY VICE CHAIR (voice-over): I switched from the Biden campaign to the Sanders campaign because I want to see the kind of lines around the building that we saw in 2008. I want to see people motivated to get out and vote for a candidate that they believe in. This campaign's got the movement, we've got the momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Is she wrong, sir?

KIMPSON: I have a great deal of respect for Councilwoman Myers, but the reality is, in South Carolina, African-Americans will make up over the majority of the demographic. We know Joe Biden. When Joe Biden was selected by President Barack Obama, it was -- and he said this -- it's the most important decision that he could make.

And so the fact is, is that Sanders does have momentum coming out of largely white states. That's not disrespectful, we wish we could have won those states. But South Carolina is the first real test.

And what we have, Poppy, is we have a number of moderate candidates. In my view, a vote for any other candidate in South Carolina other than Joe Biden is a vote for Bernie Sanders. We've got to consolidate our field behind a moderate candidate and Joe Biden, to me, is the one who is the most electable.

HARLOW: It was interesting, though, when you look at the entry polls in Nevada, self-described moderates or conservatives, 24 percent of them went for Biden, and 24 percent of them went for Sanders. So he appears to be able to be gaining some momentum among moderates.

KIMPSON: Well, when you look at -- first of all, there were a lot of moderates in that race, but when you look at the demographic, Joe Biden won the African-American vote by double digits. Now, that's just a fact.

[10:40:09]

Nevada, the demographics of Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa are totally different. So in South Carolina, we are not buying the narrative that Joe Biden is weakened. We have listened to this now since the man has gotten in the race. It's on to South Carolina. This state is truly --

HARLOW: Yes.

KIMPSON: -- reflective of the demographic of the country.

HARLOW: It is more reflective than the states that we've seen. When you brought up the African-American vote in Nevada -- and it's true that Biden walked away with 39 percent of that, but Bernie Sanders walked away with 27 percent of that.

And if you look nationally, the latest poll -- it was just from last week, ABC-"Washington Post" shows that Biden's support in the last few weeks nationally among African-American voters has fallen from 51 percent to 32 percent. Why do you think that is?

KIMPSON: Well, there has been a political obituary written about Joe Biden since he entered the race. Not only do we have a division within our moderates, but this president has spent the last two years of character assassination.

The fact is, is that African-Americans do not buy fantasyland proposals. We are living in a fantasyland, we hope to get to (ph) Nirvana one day but we're not going to be rabbit hole -- we're not going to be following a rabbit hole pipe dream vision. We are more practical voters.

And the reality is, we support Medicaid expansion of the Affordable Care Act. We -- we want someone strong on guns who has a track record of taking on the NRA, and we support a health care policy that is realistic and viable for the average American.

HARLOW: Tom Steyer is now polling at 18 percent in your state, that's according to the new CBS polling. And he appears to have siphoned a lot of the support he's getting directly from Vice President Biden. What do you make of his showing in your state and what it could mean for Biden?

KIMPSON: Well, no doubt, Tom Steyer has spent a lot of money. In fact, I'm told, in Nevada, he spent $2,000 per -- in advertising for every vote he got. That would buy an American family about six months' worth of groceries.

Look, the question for Tom Steyer is whether 10 to 15 percent that he's polling in is a good return on investment for over $15 million that he's spent. Time will tell, we've got a race to run in South Carolina.

But, again, a vote for these candidates who are not polling well nationally, not polling well in the African-American community, simply is a vote to give Bernie Sanders a larger lead. We need to consolidate the base behind someone that has a proven track record of speaking on behalf of the largest demographic in the state and the National Democratic Party.

HARLOW: Look, it's clear how important your state is for the former vice president, as you laid out at the beginning. We'll see how the debate goes last -- tomorrow night. Thank you very, very much, Marlon Kimpson. Nice to have you, sir.

KIMPSON: It's good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: It's going to be a big test for the race there.

[10:43:38]

HARLOW: CNN's special town halls in South Carolina, they all begin tonight, 9:00 Eastern, with Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders, Pete Buttigieg, Tom Steyer, all answering questions. And it continues on Wednesday night with former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg, Joe Biden, Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren, only right here on CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SCIUTTO: Well, just a few hours from now, thousands of people will unite at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. This, in what's being called a celebration of life for the late Lakers icon Kobe Bryant, his daughter Gigi, seven others who were all killed in a helicopter crash just late last month.

HARLOW: Today's date, of course, 2/24, symbolic of Kobe and his daughter's jersey numbers. A source close to the family says that Kobe Bryant's widow, Vanessa, will attend the memorial today.

Christine Brennan, our sports analyst, joins us now. She's also a columnist for "USA Today." So, I mean, Christine, you were on with us, of course. The tragic news, we found out that Sunday morning, what had happened. What do you think about today as his life is -- and his daughter's life and the seven other lives are going to be honored in this way?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: Poppy, it's almost hard to believe this has been four weeks and a day --

HARLOW: Yes.

BRENNAN: -- so many people, it's still surreal, you know? That they're gone and that this happened and these families, the girls especially, the girl basketball players going to a game and Kobe coaching his daughter.

So that surreal aspect, I think, lives on for so many people. But today, in the arena that Kobe built in many ways -- Staples Center -- he will be honored one final time. And, you know, you think of both jerseys, 24 and eight, they're in the rafters. The five NBA titles that Kobe helped the Lakers win, in the rafters, hanging from the ceiling.

And this is the place, appropriately enough, where Kobe and his beloved daughter Gigi, a rising basketball star herself, this is the -- perfectly appropriate place for them to be memorialized and remembered by the sport and by the city and by the world, frankly, that fell in love with his skills, and of course fell in love with the promise of what Gigi could have become.

[10:50:04]

SCIUTTO: This is, of course, a deeply personal tragedy, not just for Kobe Bryant's family but for all the families who lost loved ones in that crash. And they're going to be celebrated.

But on Kobe in particular here, I wonder, as people think about him, place him, given your experience, in the pantheon of sports greats in this country. It's a rarified group that he was really a part of.

BRENNAN: That's right, Jim, absolutely. You know, we're on a first- name basis with some of our biggest starts, you don't need the last name.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BRENNAN: And Kobe certainly was one of them. Tiger, Serena, Venus, you know, there's quite a few. Michael -- although I guess Michael Jordan might have been the Jordan part more.

But Kobe was there. He was a winner, he was classy, he -- we've watched him grow up. He came right out of high school to the NBA, and was -- and really grew up in front of our eyes. And there were -- there was trouble, there was controversy.

Of course the 2003 rape allegation that was settled, or -- the case was dismissed, the charges were dismissed. And yet there was a civil settlement and Kobe himself admitted that while he thought that the action was consensual, he realized that the woman, the alleged victim did not believe it was consensual.

And we look at that through our -- from our vantage point here of 2020, that's a very important thing that Kobe said.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BRENNAN: And yet that arc of his life, to go from that terrible moment and losing his sponsors, to then becoming the #GirlDad. And his wanting to talk about women's sports and wanting his daughter to get a chance to play basketball, and talking about the WNBA and the women's soccer team, a fascinating arc of his career.

Not to forget what happened in '03 and '04, not at all. But to look at him as a -- in the totality of how then he changed and became that person that we've come to know over the last few weeks.

SCIUTTO: Yes. #GirlDad, being a #GirlDad myself, I love that about him. You saw --

HARLOW: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- you saw him, and you even saw him push back. There was that great answer about women's pro --

HARLOW: Oh, yes. Oh, yes.

SCIUTTO: -- league (ph), you know, thinking of his daughter.

Christine Brennan, great to have you on.

HARLOW: Thanks, Christine.

SCIUTTO: Thanks very much to all of you.

BRENNAN: Thank you both.

HARLOW: All right, we'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:57:03]

SCIUTTO: After a royal battle over the word "royal," Prince Harry and his wife Meghan are dropping it from their proposed brand. HARLOW: It is clear they're not happy about having to do this, here's

what they write in part in a statement. "While there is precedent for other titled members of the royal family to seek employment outside of the institution, for the Duke and Duchess of Sussex a 12-month review period has been put in place."

Max Foster is with us live from London. What does this mean for them in actuality, in terms of trying to have this brand, Sussex Royal, that was sort of at the core. What are they now, Sussex?

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: They are the Duke and Duchess of Sussex, they are Harry and Meghan. Their new organization, their new charitable organization or body, whatever they come up with eventually won't be able to have "Royal" in the title.

This is all to do with jurisdiction in this country that doesn't allow people to make money from royalty. It is -- the queen is the head of state, it's a crucial pillar of a democracy. So there's a system there. And all of this was thrashed out at summit in Sandringham earlier in the year. We're getting a bit more detail about this.

But what's interesting about the latest tensions -- if I can call it that -- is that we got notes on Friday, saying that this would be the case, that they can't use "royal" in their titles. But then, later on, without telling any journalists, the Sussexes put up a statement, up on their website, where they fleshed out that initial media statement, if you like, and part of it was the element that you pulled out there.

And it's being seen as a dig, frankly, at the queen and Prince Charles and Prince William because they're basically saying that there are other minor royals who are allowed to make private incomes and didn't have to go through this transition period, which Buckingham Palace is forcing the Sussexes to go through.

There's another element which has also upset a few people here as well. They write, "While there is not any jurisdiction by The Monarchy or Cabinet Office over the use of the word 'Royal' overseas, the Duke and Duchess of Sussex do not intend to use 'Sussex Royal' or any iteration of the word 'Royal' in any territory."

So they're actually calling into question whether or not the queen can, you know, offer any jurisdiction around the world "royal." They're -- you know, there's some tension there, clearly, and the tabloids are making much of it.

SCIUTTO: Mm. tabloids. They make much of royal stories, I've never heard that. Max Foster, thanks very much.

HARLOW: Thank you, Max.

Some sad news to report. We've just learned that NASA mathematician Katherine Johnson, the woman who helped put Americans on the moon, has died. You'll remember her and her remarkable accomplishments, they were all depicted in the 2016 Oscar-nominated film, "Hidden Figures." There she is. She began working at NASA in 1953, calculated the trajectory for Alan

Shepard, the first American in space. NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine called Johnson "an American hero."

SCIUTTO: NASA's Langley Research Center tweeted, "Katherine believed in equality. She overcame obstacles to achieve great things and make life better for others."

[11:00:00]

She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom back in 2015 -- there's that moment. As she passed away, she was 101 years old.

HARLOW: What a life. Pretty amazing.

All right, well --