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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Rubio Vs. Trump: Day Of Insults; Trump: Rubio Is A "Nervous Basket Case"; Chris Christie Endorses Donald Trump; Super Tuesday By Numbers; Kansas Mass Shooting; Clinton, Sanders Make Final Pitch In S.C.; Pres. Obama Sings At W.H. Ray Charles Tribute. Aired 9-10p ET
Aired February 26, 2016 - 21:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:00:20] ANDERSON COOPER, CNN AC360 HOST: And welcome back. 9:00 p.m. here in Washington, D.C. out of the campaign trail going to the final weekend before Super Tuesday they are getting ready for round three. Round one was the debate last night with Rubio launching his first big Trump-style attack on Donald Trump. Round two came today a real Donny brook of insults.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Is a nervous basket case. Here's the guy you had to see him, OK, you have to see him backstage. He was putting on makeup with a trowel, all right. No. I don't want to say that. I will not say that he was trying to cover up his ears.
MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What does Donald Trump do when things go wrong? He takes the Twitter. I have them right here let's read some. You'll have fun.
All right, number one, here's the first one. Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. Is this is true? The problem is he is a "choker." And once a "choker" always a "choker" I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled "choker" C-H-O-K-E-R, "choker".
TRUMP: When they put Marco on to refute President Obama's speech, do you remember that gets catastrophe? And he's like this. And we will -- I need water. Help me.
RUBIO: Next tweet, leight weight "choker" Marco Rubio looks like a little boy on stage not presidential material. He meant to say lightweight but he spelled it l-e-i-g-h-t. So he got that wrong.
TRUMP: Out of nowhere he goes on live television, he's got a response, he chocked just like he did with Christie, he say a choker.
And all of a sudden he's being drained and he goes like this. Remember? I said where is he? And then he comes back with water and honestly, water is fine. But it should be in a glass. He's got the label of the company here. And he's drinking -- honestly, I've never seen anything like this.
RUBIO: We have a con artist as a front-runner in the Republican Party. A guy who has made a career out of telling people lies so that they come and buy his product or whatever he does. Do you ever heard of Trump vodka? You have? Well, it isn't around anymore.
TRUMP: It's Rubio.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And joining us now, Jim Acosta traveling with the Trump campaign. I mean, to say that today was sort of bizarre is an understatement. I mean to have two candidates -- leading candidates attacking each other on their makeup, I've never seen anything like it.
JIM ACOSTA, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Right. That's right I don't even hear that is happening between anchors and correspondence and we wear makeup every day, Anderson. That's right, not exactly Masterpiece Theater.
You know, the race for the GOP nomination has descended into trading insults over who sweats the most, who can control their bladder, but this is a intentional. What Rubio is doing he's trying to crack the code for defeating Donald Trump so he's decided to answer cutdowns -- with cutdowns.
Earlier today you had Marco Rubio's speculating whether Trump had wet himself last night. And then Trump fired right back saying, Rubio sweats so much its disgusting. I will say that, you know, talking to Rubio's team you know, his advisers believe that they have rattled Donald Trump but they accomplished something pretty important at last night's debate even though it may not be the most highest-minded material. They feel like the wheels are starting to come off Donald Trump's campaign.
Now, he answered that today by rolling out to Chris Christie endorsements. Sort to put that debate performance to rest last night but in a sign that Trump is getting sort of concerned about Rubio's attacks he did answer one of the Florida senator's accusations from last night's debate, here at this event here in Oklahoma City, Anderson. Insisting he did not get a $200 million loan from his father. He said it was $1 million and that he paid it back, so it does sound like Trump is feeling the pressure a bit and he is feeling like he's forced to respond.
COOPER: What do we know about the endorsement, where it came from, how long it was planned because certainly from a timing standpoint it did alter the new cycle from, you know, focusing on Rubio's continued attacks to a more positive story for Donald Trump?
ACOSTA: Right, right. I mean Chris Christie he just endorsed Donald Trump here this evening in Oklahoma City saying. your campaign is almost over, buddy, to Marco Rubio. So this is something that Chris Christie clearly enjoys. He clearly enjoyed going after Marco Rubio during that debate in New Hampshire. It almost ended Marco Rubio's campaign. And he talk to people inside the Rubio campaign and you know, they had -- you know, they were like, you know, deer in the headlights after that debate. [21:05:06] But at the same time, you know, this was such a well- guarded secret all week long Anderson that it was a shocked to everybody in the press con when Chris Christie walked into that room and earlier today but if he talk to the Rubio, if he talk to the Trump aides and the Christie aides, they say that this was just hammered out yesterday in Trump Tower in New York City.
So, this was sort of a last-second arrangement that came about. And at the same time, you know, Christie is saying that there is a substantive reason for all of this. He's saying that Trump will beat Hillary Clinton in the forum and you don't need junior senators run against Hillary Clinton of all. That's what we had with President Obama, Christie is reasoning.
And so, you know, it was quite an endorsement as you said, Anderson, it changed the entire news cycle. We started the day talking about last night's debate with that changed everything certainly, Anderson.
COOPER: Yeah. Jim Acosta, thanks for the reporting.
Marco Rubio once enjoyed a cordial relationship with Donald Trump, we all know that like every single one of his opponent so far, their relationship changed, more on that from our Jason Carroll.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JASON CAROLL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Things started out nice enough. Listen to what Donald Trump said about Senator Marco Rubio just four days ago.
TRUMP: Marco Rubio is a nice young man. But -- right? Nice young man. No, he hasn't hit me.
CAROLL: Apparently in politics, the enemy of my enemy can be my friend, at least for a while.
For weeks, the two opponents did challenge each other but seemed to keep their harshest criticism for the others.
Even when the pope criticized Trump for wanting to build a wall on the border between the United States and Mexico last week, Rubio, a Catholic, sided with Trump.
RUBIO: The wall is not just about immigrants. It's also about potentially terrorists crossing that border, not to mention the drugs that are coming across that border.
CAROLL: But, after Trump won South Carolina, then handily won Nevada, and Rubio's path to the nomination seemed a steeper climb, political observers pushed him to take on Trump, to get him back on track.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You go after who's number one. I just ask myself, what the hell is going on out there.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: but, if you play, you play to win.
CAROLL: A Rubio adviser told CNN late Wednesday, Rubio was going to attack Trump. But hours earlier, he said this.
RUBIO: And I don't have any some voters begging me to attack anyone. I'm not in this race to attack any Republican. I didn't run for office to tear up other Republicans.
CAROLL: Trump that same morning.
TRUMP: It's been very nice, so that I think I've been very nice to him.
CAROLL: Nice? Well, then came the debate.
RUBIO: If he built the wall where he built Trump Towers, he'll be using illegal immigrant labor to do it.
The second thing about the trade war, I don't understand because you're ties from the clothes you make is made in Mexico and in China.
TRUMP: Well, you know, I think about business. You loss ...
(CROSSTALK)
RUBIO: This is the guys that inherited $200 million, living had inherited $200 million, you know, where Donald Trump would be right now?
(CROSSTALK)
KATIE PACKER, FMR ROMNEY CAMPAIGN MANAGER: The time came, you know, for somebody to step up and, you know, sort of take it a hard swing at him.
And I think that that's starting to happen now. And I think it's been a change the dynamic of the race.
CAROLL: The change in tactics certainly re-energized Rubio's supporters who came out to hear him go at Trump again at a rally in Dallas, Friday.
RUBIO: It's time to pull his mask off, so that people can see what we are dealing with here.
What we are dealing with here my friends is a con artist. What is Donald Trump do when things go wrong? He takes to Twitter. Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night. This is true.
The problem is, he is a "Chocker. And once a chocker, always a chocker." I guess that's what he meant to say.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He's been our guy for since day one. But last night, it was a perfect platform for him to really give content and put Trump in his place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: That was Jason Carroll reporting. Joining us now to talk about it all the toll that's may have take the general election voters, the Christie endorsement all of it, top Republican Communication Strategist, Brett O'Donnell, Director of Messaging in the 2008 McCain Campaign.
Also a CNN Senior Political Analyst, David Gergen as well as CNN Political Commentator and Republicans Strategist, Margaret Hoover.
Brett, were you surprised at how forceful Rubio came out, a really for out of the gate against Donald Trump last night?
BRETT O'DONNELL, COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST: No, I wasn't. I mean, he really had to. This was his moment. Trump had all the momentum.
If he was going to demonstrate to folks that this was a two-man race, he had to come out and take on Trump.
COOPER: Is this something he should have done eight debates ago?
O'DONNELL: Well, probably. I mean, the problem with this is once the voting has started, once there's momentum, debates don't change the narrative as much as they do when they are the only focus on a campaign.
Right now, there's lots' going on between states that are voting and other campaign events.
When the debates are the only thing, they tend to set the narrative. But, now they're not. So, he probably should have attacked him four debates ago.
COOPER: And Margaret, I mean, the time to have defined Donald Trump, not as a person, because everybody already play had an opinion about Donald Trump as a person when he came into this race.
But as a political candidate, was probably a long time ago. I mean, now, opinions are pretty solidified and certainly among his supporters. Calcified, some have said.
[21:10:04] MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, you're right about that. I mean, everybody thought he would flame out. I mean, it wasn't just the commentators, it was the establishment of the Republican Party to infrastructure of Republican Party even Reince Priebus. I mean everybody thought this was going to be attacking moment and said nobody -- I mean a $150 million Jeb Bush sat on, spent seven times more on attacking Marco Rubio, four times more on attacking Kasich, three times more on attacking Chris Christie than attacking Donald Trump. No one thought this was going to be a real thing.
COOPER: David, I wonder what your thoughts for the last night's debate I think you have a kind of a different perspective about in the eyes of a lot of people who actually won last night who was really effective.
DAVID GERGEN, FMR PRESIDENTIAL ADVISER: Well, I was struck, Anderson by the degree to which the press concluded that Marco Rubio had really bloodied Trump. That Rubio had won the debate. And the only question was, why didn't he do this earlier. And so that's the dominant narrative in the press.
But if you look at the data's that we've had so far, it may be at online polls are unreliable, they often are but in the "Time Magazine" online poll, over 60,000 people have now voted, and only 20 percent found that Rubio had won the debate, 69 percent believe that Trump won the debate. There's a disconnect between what the mainstream press often says about this race and what we've been saying about Trump.
And what the voting public and we don't know very well, frankly, believe. And so, yeah, I think that we've got to be cautious in interpreting just who got hurt and who got helped. I will take my general view is that everybody gets hurt when your presidential candidate and you are playing in a sand box against a lot of other kids.
COOPER: Brett?
O'DONNELL: I agree with David looking at the debate as in isolation right now, but if this debate would have happened four or five debates ago, I think the poll results would have been a lot different because attitudes weren't as set back in September and October as they are now.
COOPER: Right, and Margaret, I mean it's interesting. Stuart Stevens was on earlier in the last hour. When I was reading a lot of his tweets last night and one of the things he was saying, is well look, if you're Marco Rubio, it's not enough to have this one debate performance where you go after Donald Trump. If that's what you are going to do, you have to do that every single day.
And Kevin Madden was saying this as well saying, this is what you have to do every single day from now on as long as this race lasts. You have to have press conferences in front of, you know, failed Trump businesses. You have to have, you know, have press conferences with people who are suing Trump for Trump University. You have to kind of have the sustained barrage.
HOOVER: Yeah it does. And it doesn't, you know, it's not -- can't just come from Marco Rubio, frankly because he's not going to get enough press to generate the momentum. It really needs to be a broader and larger effort which is I think we are starting to see, Anderson, I mean you're trying to see the outside money come behind some of these complaints to get some of these individuals who are harmed by Trump University on camera telling the story, victim to camera.
In a way that was quite damaging frankly, for Mitt Romney if you recall and in the early part of the summer in 2012, after he had won the primary. So I think you're going to start to see that again. You're right. It's the 11th hour. But, you know, you have to fight fire with fire, I think, is what they've decided and that there is no other way other than stooping to Donald Trump's level, going after, not just add him in attacks but the things that Republicans are generally uncomfortable with that.
We consider them, you know, character assassinations. But if it, you know, it is a real record. This isn't libel. I mean these are really things that Trump is in front of a federal jury. A federal judge about Trump University and these are fair issues to bring to the voters, they have determined.
COOPER: David, how legitimizing is Governor Christie's endorsement for Donald Trump? How powerful is it for him?
GERGEN: I think it's more significant that it may appear at first notice. Christie we know from a previous debate is, you know, like a world class prosecutor and he took the case after Rubio and he's going to be out on the trail like a pit bull against Rubio, he hates Rubio, I think he's totally unqualified for it.
And I think he's going to be a force for Trump. He can be a spokesman for him. He can say some things even Trump may not say. What -- he's sort of like deliciously ironic amidst that's the politics, is that it not too long ago, but Mitt Romney was running for president, who was his best advocate? It was Chris Christie.
And now here's Mitt Romney and going after Trump, and now here's Chris Christie defending Trump. So it's going to be interesting when Romney goes after Trump and harder, what Chris Christie will say and that sort of task.
COOPER: Yeah. All right David Gergen, Margaret Hoover and Brett O'Donnell, it's great to have you on. Thank you so much.
HOOVER: Thanks Anderson.
COOPER: In case you missed, we'll going to be running a special encore presentation of last night's debate, it's underway 11:00 p.m. Eastern tonight right here on CNN.
Just ahead on the eve of South Carolina's pivotal Democratic Primary, a look at what is at stake there. Plus what Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders face just two days later on Super Tuesday. Why that single day could clinch the rest of the race.
Plus horrifying new details tonight in a mass shooting at a lawn motor factory, one survivor saw the shooter looked happy as he gunned down his co-workers.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:18:09] COOPER: Just hours from now, polls open in South Carolina. 53 delegates at stake in a pivotal Democratic primary there.
Tonight, Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders both held rallies in the state's capital of Columbia. They started the day though, in two Super Tuesday states. Senator Sanders in Minnesota and Former Secretary Clinton in Georgia.
And there was a reason obviously they call it Super Tuesday. 865 delegates are at stake for the Democrats.
John King is here to break it all down for us by the numbers. John?
JOHN KING, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, Anderson, let's just reset the state of play as we move on to the Democratic race. By the end of the day tomorrow, the 27th, we will be done with February. And the first four contests, the momentum phase will be over. And then we're heading into a busy March.
As of tomorrow night, 3.3 percent of the Democratic delegates then comes the big busy Super Tuesday. We'll be up to nearly only 22 percent of the Democratic delegates by then as all these states fill in.
Let's switch walls. I will tell you why Secretary Clinton thinks she's going to have a big advantage here.
South Carolina and then most of Super Tuesday, play out below this line. Why is that significant? Well, Secretary Clinton is hoping that she can run up for the support among African-Americans. The deeper the shading here, the higher the percentage of the African- American population in these states.
Again, most of Super Tuesday is down here. It should be advantage Clinton.
Let's switch with maps and we'll show you what the impact of that should be.
Here's how Secretary Clinton hopes things play out over the next few days. Number one, she is anticipating a win and she's hoping for a big win in South Carolina. Assuming she gets that, that's a 60-40 ratio there.
Senator Sanders still gets delegates. Secretary Clinton starts to pull away among pledge delegates. Remember she also has that big basket, 445 super delegates.
But this, they believe in the Clinton campaign will be the state of play Saturday night. Three victories for her to just one for Senator Sanders. Then what they're hoping for on Super Tuesday, is to fill in the map with Clinton blue. Now, they don't expect to win them all.
Senator Sanders home State of Vermont is likely to go off for Senator Sanders. Senator Sanders says and for the sake of this hypothetical, let's give him the state of Minnesota. We'll see what happens, next week.
[21:20:03] But let's say Senator Sanders wins that one. He also says he believes he's very competitive in Oklahoma. So, let's just give him that for the sake of this hypothetical.
Colorado is another big Super Tuesday target for the Sanders campaign. Again, this is a hypothetical, the Clinton campaign thinks Sanders won't win all of these. But let's give to him for the sake of hypothetical. Even if Senator Sanders wins those states four states on Super Tuesday, Secretary Clinton is expecting to run the board in the rest.
And you got some big delegate prizes down here where you get in to Georgia, when you get into Texas and the like.
Here's how she expects somewhere in this ballpark, maybe even bigger by the end of Super Tuesday. Getting her in mid-550 maybe a little higher than that. She's hoping she gets close to 60 percent or more on somebody's sates down her. And then if you add in the super delegates, psychologically what Secretary Clinton is hoping, that she's out here. She out somewhere out here by Wednesday morning and that sense the message to Senator Sanders you're competitive but not enough to win and to tone it down a little bit. Anderson?
COOPER: Interesting, and John, thanks very much.
Lots to discuss with our panel, Political Strategist Angela Rye is here. She is a former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus. Also with us CNN Senior Washington Correspondent Jeff Zeleny and Senior Political correspondent Brianna Keilar.
Angela, let me start with you, how successful? Obviously Senator Sanders had started with a big deficit among African-American voters particularly in the South and elsewhere. How successful do you think he has been at your chipping away at that from Hillary Clinton?
ANGELA RYE, POLITIC STRATEGIST: I think from a messaging standpoint, very successful. Of course his weaved in mass incarceration, criminal justice reform and economic disparities into his overall talking points and message. The problem I think so far with Bernie Sanders is that he's done very well from a messaging standpoint. He have been very consistent. He repeats himself.
Often I think the issue is, he's resonating with folks who are so anti-establishment, they haven't turned out yet to show their support for him. So if they are anti-establishment to the point where they are not voting, I don't think that's success at all.
COOPER: OK, and Jeff, I mean look at South Carolina. Let's look to that for a moment. Hillary Clinton well out in front of Sanders there. How much of an impact could a win there for Clinton have, just in terms of momentum going into Super Tuesday?
JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, I think it's very significant. I mean just think where we were a week ago and a week and a half ago. The Clinton campaign, the confidence was shaken. Donors were skeptical. They are wondering if she could do this. That's not the case now on the eve of the South Carolina primary.
And a big win here tomorrow night could set this really into motion what we always thought would be. That she would be in the domineering position here to seal this nomination.
Now as John talked about, it's not going to happen at once. It is a delegate of fight. But going out of here, she has so many advantages. So just psychologically, I think is the biggest advantage here, and financially as well. Some donors have been a little bit skeptical. This is going to increase her online fund-raising without questions. So it is a big situation.
In contrast to eight years ago when she was losing in South Carolina. She knows what that feels. So Anderson, I've never seen her work harder than she's been working here this week because she wants a big win here in South Carolina.
COOPER: And Brianna, for Super Tuesday, you know, what kind of results does Sanders need to see Tuesday night in order to remain viable?
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, those states that you saw John King outlining there that Sanders says he believes he's competitive in, he would need to win and keep the delegate count very close.
Which, you know, for Hillary Clinton, she has the advantage in this. You look at the poll numbers, and she does have the advantage in a number of these Super Tuesday states. The issue for Bernie Sanders is just that if he isn't able to clinch a lot of these delegates, or a considerable amount of them, it's not just an issue of, oh, he's so far behind going into other march contests and into March 15th. But it's the indication that he really hasn't been able to make up the ground that he needs to with key constituencies, with African-American voters and enough with Hispanic voters to really make the difference.
COOPER: And Angela, I mean the speed of this really ratchets up in the next couple of weeks. You know, a lot will be decided.
RYE: If there will be a lot decided. And to Brianna's last point, they call it the SEC. Primary now for a reason. There a kind of southern states at stake with large concentration of African-American voters, again, population and demographic that Hillary Clinton has traditionally done very well with.
In fact, when you look at the African-American vote, in 2012, Barrack Obama's victory was sealed in seven states by the fact that they turned out and that they voted for him in such high numbers.
COOPER: Yeah, and Jeff on the Sanders campaign has been putting a lot of emphasis both Colorado and Minnesota just now or just how crucial. I should say, are those states going to be for him on Tuesday?
ZELENY: Yes, I think they're pretty important and they're not primaries of the whole list of Super Tuesday states, those are the only two that are not primaries. They are caucuses. He tends to do very well in them.
So he is actually going to spend the night of the South Carolina primary in Rochester, Minnesota.
[21:25:03] He believes that that is the place where he wants to where to plant his flag and, you know, be seen having a big rally there. So no question -- Minnesota is a liberal state. It fits him very, very well. At Colorado, a lot of liberal activists there as well. The Clinton campaign is not spending much time there at all here. So I think that those two are among his highlights, as well as Vermont and possibly Massachusetts. But otherwise, the calendar on Tuesday night is a little more difficult.
COOPER: Yeah, and Brianna, and say Sanders wins only a couple of states on Tuesday is that enough for him to create some sort of momentum given. I mean to Angela's the speed with which things are moving?
KEILAR: You know, I don't think so. He has shown this ability to fund-raise off losses in a pretty big way. But I think what will happen if he isn't really able to make up much ground, or if he really does more poorly than he expects that he will do or many expect that he will do, then the expectations are so far against him. And I'll tell you even at this point, Anderson he really has to provide a bit of an upset on Super Tuesday.
Looking at the Clinton campaign, you can already get the sense from them that they sort to feel like they have pulled ahead, that almost like it's that secretariat moment where the horse has pulled ahead, and it hasn't won the race yet and still has a ways to go, but nothing is really going to get between it and the finish line.
They are careful to say look we have a lot of work to do, but you can just tell that sort of behind all that they really think that they've already pulled ahead without really a chance where they are doing to go neck-and-neck with Bernie Sanders, going to see if they are right.
COOPER: Yeah, Brianna Keilar, thank you. Jeff Zeleny and Angela Rye. Great to have you, thank you so much Angela.
Coming up next, how some African-American protesters are forcing Hillary Clinton to confront a moment in her past in the statement that she made that that they consider part of an ugly chapter in recent African-American history.
Clinton supporter and U.S. Congressman Hakeem Jeffries will join us as well Professor Cornel West who supports Bernie Sanders.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:30:48] COOPER: It was great to see Hillary Clinton's polling advantage appears in the African-American community. She also faces resistance is base and part of something getting back to her time in the White House and the fear of violent crime at the hands of young African-Americans who became known in the media in elsewhere as super predators.
Now, the time both she in her husband addressing the issue said they so called supper predators have to be quote, "brought to heal" end quote. That language drew protests earlier this week in Charleston, South Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: And we got to be staying here we have to bring them ...
(CROSSTALK)
UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: We you want to apologize for mass incarceration?
CLINTON: OK, we'll talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm not a super predator, Hillary Clinton.
CLINTON: OK, we'll talk about it.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Can you apologize to black people for mass incarceration?
(CROSSTALK)
UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: Thank you very much.
CLINTON: There's a lot of issues. A lot of issues in this campaign, the very first speech that I gave back in April was about criminal justice reform.
UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: You called black people super predators.
(CROSSTALK)
UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: That's was rude. That's was rude.
(CROSSTALK)
UNINDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know that you called black youth's super predators in 1194. Please explain your record. Explain to us. You owe black people and apology.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well there was a similar protest at a Clinton event tonight. Joining me now is Cornel West, Christian Practice at Union Theological Seminary and Bernie Sanders Supporter, and Democratic U.S. Congressman, Hakeem Jeffries of New York and Hillary Clinton supporter. Welcome to you both.
Professor West, Secretary Clinton saying she shouldn't have used the term super predators. Is that enough in your opinion? Does she need to do more because she stopped short of an outright apology?
CORNEL WEST, BERNIE SANDERS SUPPORTER: I think its part of her neo liberal program that always wants to financial ides, privatize and militarize. And therefore, the language to justify that very ugly crime bill is one in which she was quite vigorous.
Now of course Brother Bernie voted for that bill as well but he voted primarily to protect women. There was a violence against women act as part of that and therefore he was critical of the parts of the bill. He is critical of the very thing that she was promoting at that particular time.
COOPER: Congressman Jeffries, I mean there is this sort of constant flow of criticism with Secretary Clinton for things she said or supported back in the '90s whether is the crime bill or welfare reform, his past densest.
I mean even if she's now disavowed them, how much should they influence how African-American voters perceive and any voters perceive what kind of policies she's going to advocate for as president.
REP. HAKEEM JEFFRIES, (D) NEW YORK: Well, she's acknowledged that she made a mistake when she used the super predator language. But I'm not going to outweigh 40 years of attract record of getting things done with one speech and one inappropriate phrase.
If you look at her entire track record in the 1970 she actually fought against to prison industrial conflicts down in South Carolina when she worked toward keeping teen age African-Americans out of adult prisons and then of course she went to Arkansas and started a civil legal services program in the 1990s.
She was chiefly responsible for the children's health insurance program, and then as a senator from the great state of New York co- sponsored legislation to prohibit racial profiling to try to deal with the disparity between crack cocaine and powder cocaine which ultimately was passed in 2010 when she was part of the Obama administration.
And, so she's got an incredible track record of actually getting things done on issues of importance to the African-American Community.
COOPER: Professor West, does that track record impress you?
WEST: No, no. I disagree with my dear brother. I think when you look at the track record, what you see where she is -- she remain very much a supporter of mass incarceration and its expansion she received the money from the GEO and the CEA, which are private prison lobbyists to expand it. Its only when Bernie Sanders and others bought pressure to bear did she do it.
But I think the larger issue was this. That we are living now in a very sad and serious moment in the history of this democracy. We're witnessing in some way the slow death of it. There's neo fascist noises that has been made on the right. I do not believe in neo liberal, Hillary Clinton in Wall Street Democratic corporate feminist can be a neo fascist like Trump.
Only Bernie Sanders, in some ways he's the last hope, within the electrical political system with a populist seizing the imagination and energy of young people and others can beat a neo fascist like Trump.
[21:35:06] The poll says so. That maltose halfhearted strategic oriented neo liberalism of Clinton is over in a moment in which neo fascism becomes more and more fashionable on the right. These are very serious issues. It's sad for me to see so many of my dear black brothers and sisters jumping on the neo liberal train rather than a populus train as much more type to the legacy of a Martin King of (inaudible).
COOPER: But Professor West, do you see Bernie Sanders as actually being able to get things done if he is elected? I'm actually get things done in Washington? You know, he needs and he talks about a revolution. The voters rising up, you know, putting in new people into the halls of Congress. But if that's doesn't happen, if it's just him, can he get anything done?
WEST: Well, with a Republican Congress, a neo liberal Clinton is not going to get that much done. A populist Sanders might not be get a whole lot done. You have to have a movement outside of the system that's a thermostat that shakes the climate of opinion. Hillary Clinton is a thermometer. She registers, she check and sees what she often believes based on what's out there.
And that's not kind the leadership we need when we get in all of these vigorous enthusiasm moving in ugly directions with big money, xenophobia, military expansion now in Africa, relative collapse and some ways of journalism because they lives at it, the so critic -- critical questions are no longer being raised in a way which they used to, we're in a very serious moment in this democracy.
We can lose it, and I think Brother Bernie is one of the grand hopes at this time. We need integrity and transparency. With Hillary Clinton we get a low level integrity and lack of transparency. Let's see what are in those speeches that she gave to Wall Street, "New York Times" is right about that today.
JEFFRIES: Oh Anderson, here is the thing. It's absolutely not a scintilla of evidence that's the fact that Hillary Clinton has maintained some sort of relationship with Wall Street as a senator from New York and thereafter. That she's actually done the bidding of Wall Street to the detriment of Main Street, in fact in 2005 shortly after George Bush was re-elected, his top priority was to privatize Social Security.
COOPER: But you don't think it was a mistake ...
JEFFRIES: That putting those that both authority.
COOPER: You don't think it's was a mistake for your candidate to take $675,000 for three speeches from Goldman Sachs and when she knew, I mean she said she didn't know she was going to run for president. But, you know, she had the pretty good idea. It was certainly in the Ether. There was in the round of ...
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFRIES: Not at all and as soon as much to about nothing. I'm more concerned about her actual record of fighting against Wall Street as she did successfully in stopping the Bush machine from privatizing Social Security. And let's be clear about the record. Bernie Sanders...
(CROSSTALK)
WEST: No evidence at all.
(CROSSTALK)
COOPER: Let him finish. Let him finish and then Professor West.
(CROSSTALK)
WEST: All right.
JEFFRIES: Let's look at the entirety of the record. You acknowledge, Professor West, in 1994 the revolutionary Bernie Sanders, in fact, voted for that very same detrimental crime bill that helped to (inaudible).
WEST: To protect women.
JEFFRIES: And then in 2006 ...
WEST: To protect women.
JEFFRIES: ... when he was running for the Senate.
(CROSSTALK)
JEFFRIES: And then in 2006 when he was running for the Senate, he defended that vote by talking about the money that was in that bill for prison construction, not about the Violence Against Women's Act. Let's be clear about the record.
In 2000 in fact he voted to deregulate credit default swaps. You know that that's was the instrument that helped to collapse the world's economy sending so many working class people into a devastating situation. Where was the great revolutionary ...
WEST: He lead the idealogy and that my ...
COOPER: Professor West, I want you to be able to respond and then we've got to go.
WEST: That's fight against the repeal. He led the fight against repeal for Glass/Steagall. And not only that, but if you want us to believe that there's no influence with big money Wall Street flowing into Hillary Clinton, then there's a bridge in Brooklyn, I will sell you for $5 that Hart Crane wrote great poem about it.
JEFFRIES: I look forward to seeing you in Brooklyn.
WEST: They know that she. I love Brooklyn. You know that.
COOPER: Professor West, Congressman Jeffries, we're going to have to leave it there. Good discussion gentleman. Thank you. Just ahead, when people have criticized Donald Trump for the way he's spoken about women, he says, he cherishes women and wants to help them. There are certainly plenty of women who support him. We're taking you to a gathering in Dallas to find out why these women are all in for Donald Trump.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:43:21] COOPER: On the campaign trail, Donald Trump often says he cherishes women and no one will be better for women than he will.
This may seem at odds with some of the ways he's -- or some of the things he said about women. And now, "BuzzFeed" has compiled even more evidence from Trump's appearances on Howard Stern's radio show over the years.
If you're not familiar, part of Stern's zeitgeist, if you can use Stern and zeitgeist in the same breath is talking about women like they're objects to be rated on a scale of one to 10 and encouraging guests to do the same. Guest including the man who could become the Republican front-runner for president.
Howard Stern is also an excellent interviewer. Here's just a small sampling from the clips of "BuzzFeed" unearthed, ranging from 1997 to 2008.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: They said how are you going to change the pageant? I said I'm going to get the bathing suits to be smaller and the hills to be higher.
I view a person who's flat-chested is the very hard to be a 10. OK?
HOWARD STERN, "THE HOWARD STERN SHOW'' HOST: Right.
TRUMP: I mean, it has to be extraordinary, you have to have the face of Vivian Leigh to be a 10 ...
STERN: Exactly.
TRUMP: ... if you're flat-chested. OK? But she went from an eight to a solid four.
First of all, she's unbelievably short and I'm a little bit surprised. I think that the boob job is terrible. You know, they look like two light posts coming out of a body.
I'd be much more accurate and much more blunt if you and I were having this conversation in the back of a limousine. There aren't many 10s. You know, a 10, is a rare, rare specimen.
Some incredible beautiful women, they'll walk up and they'll flip their top. Wow. And they'll flip their panties. I've been with women with extraordinarily bad breast jobs.
Isn't it unbelievable? Women, one woman, beautiful, had big beautiful, real boobs, really beautiful ...
STERN: Right.
[21:45:00] TRUMP: ... and she wants some reduced.
I saw a woman who was totally beautiful.
STERN: Right.
TRUMP: She was angry that so many men were calling her. "How dare they call me, it's terrible. They're all looking at my breasts." So she had a major breast reduction. The good news? Nobody calls her anymore.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Should point out, this question when Donald Trump was not running for president.
His past statements have not seemed to hurt him certainly among his supporters, much less things he has said in the recent past. He has plenty of supporter, among a lot of men and a lot of women.
Randi Kaye caught up with a group of women in Dallas who support Donald Trump and watched the debate together last night. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Donald Trump.
RANDI KAYE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Before Donald Trump, even uttered a word at CNN's GOP debate, this group was cheering for him.
Dozens of Dallas women, all voting Trump come Super Tuesday.
DENA MILLER, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I think, though, they've been saying the silent majority. He speaks for all of us and has given us a voice.
AMY HILLOCK, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: It's nice to have somebody that's not a canned politician. He's not in the box. He thinks outside of the box.
SHER MILLER, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: He has tapped into the anger in America.
I think that he is a person that's going to go down as one of the greatest presidents in history.
KAYE: This woman voted for President Obama and even she's in Trump's corner now.
KATHERINE CAMPOS, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I mean, he's very charismatic.
Nobody is wittier or smarter or quicker on the draw than he is. That's for sure.
But, also, there was like, the boldness about him and an independence that appealed to me.
TRUMP: You tell me about this guy.
KAYE: Watching the debate only solidified their support.
Who here feels stronger about Donald Trump after this debate and they did going into it? More committed?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yeah.
HILLOCK: When I'm watching the debates and I'm yelling at the T.V., the next thing out of Donald Trump's mouth is exactly what I just said.
KAYE: But, does that mean he's going to be a good president?
HILLOCK: I think he will. I think he will.
KAYE: In their eyes, he can neither do or say anything wrong.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Absolutely.
KAYE: Even when it comes to women. This supporter told me she thinks Trump can, "Save the country."
GINA ABIO, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I have a lot of friends that's cringe when he says things. But it's Trump. That's who he is. That's what he does.
KAYE: And that's what you like about him?
ABIO: Yes.
KAYE: They support him on the issues too, like immigration.
LORI ANTHONY, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: People who want to come into this country need to pay their dues and need to work as hard as everybody else to stay here.
KAYE: And while Marco Rubio is demanding more specific plans from Trump.
RUBIO: What is your plan Mr. Trump? What is your plan on health care? You don't have ...
KAYE: These women say they've heard enough.
BRENDA WHITE, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: And if you listen to Trump, he actually does present plans and what his policies are on every issue.
You know, I don't hear that coming from these other candidates.
KAYE: Other candidates like Ted Cruz. Some here plan to vote Cruz, then switch to Trump.
KAYE: Do you think he can beat Ted Cruz in Texas on Super Tuesday?
JUDITH ARONSON, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: I do. I do. I think Ted has revealed himself to be someone who is not someone that we would trust.
KAYE: They do trust Donald Trump.
RUSANNA CRAIG, DONALD TRUMP SUPPORTER: Nobody has gone to Washington that we have elected and did what they said they were going to do.
KAYE: And what makes you think he will?
CRAIG: I look at his history. I see the company he has built. I have seen the empire that he has built.
TRUMP: I'm the only one of the states that's hired people. You haven't hired anything ...
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Randi joins me now from Dallas. Like who gets the answer this already? Who does this women think won the debate last night? Clearly, I'm guessing Donald Trump.
KAYE: Absolutely, Anderson. No question. They think that Donald Trump won that debate.
They think he really kept his cool when he was under fire from all sides.
They think that comes from his experience as a businessman. They also told me, they think he does have the right temperament to be president.
And as far as this taxes go, which was a big issue at the debate last night, they said, they couldn't care less what's in his taxes, they think there are more pressing issues facing the country. And that's what they want to hear about.
And as far as of the accusations that he has been proven to be disrespectful to women in the past. The women I talked with last night, say, absolutely not. He's been wrongly accused. They pointed out that he's hired women at his corporations and he does respect them and they are behind him, Anderson all the way.
COOPER: All right. Randi Kaye, thanks very much.
Just ahead, the latest on a shooting in Kansas left three people dead and more than a dozen hurt.
What police know about the killer's motive, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[21:53:03] COOPER: Well, once again, a community is coming to grips of the mass shooting last night. A man in Kansas targeted strangers then his co-workers, leaving three people dead and more than a dozen injured before police officer killed the gunman.
Polo Sandoval, has the latest.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: 15 people shot at this lawn mower manufacturing plant in a tiny Kansas town. Unlike most of the flags in Hesston, the one outside at Excel Industries doesn't fly at half staff. It sits in what still an active crime scene.
KIRK THOMPSON, KBI DIRECTOR: We ask your understanding as we do a very difficult work in determining what happened and why.
SANDOVAL: Investigators say a 38-year-old employee shot and killed three of his co-workers and injured 12 others. But the random attack started miles away.
This rural intersection is where the killer's first shots were fired. Police say, he shot and wounded a man driving with his two children. He then missed a woman traveling in a separate vehicle.
This ditch just two miles away is where police say the next shooting happened. Investigators say that the gunman actually forced the driver of a pickup truck off the road, shot him in the leg and then made off with his vehicle.
The gunman then made the four-mile drive to Excel Industries and opened fire.
MATT JARREL, WITNESS: He flung open the door like I showed you in the picture and the door still open. He hopped out and just chu, chu, chu. He shot someone down outside and then he went inside the building.
SANDOVAL: Matt Jarrel tells CNN's Cedric Ford, he was scheduled to take a break from his post at the factory's paint shot, when he went looking for his replacement. The man scheduled to take over for him was shooting.
JARREL: He looked happy.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Happy?
JARREL: Yeah. Yeah. He looked like he hopped out, almost like a smile on his face.
SANDOVAL: Inside the factory, it was the small town police chief who chased down and killed the shooter, a clue as to what's trigger the rampage, a restraining order filed by the gunman's former girlfriend and served at his workplace just 90 minutes before the shooting started
Now the small town of Hesston is coming together remembering three lives cut short. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All you guys lost a family member today.
