Return to Transcripts main page

Don Lemon Tonight

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Calling Her Party to Stay Focused; Democrats Makes Their Case to South Carolina Voters; President Trump Not Bothered by the Coronavirus Crisis; President Trump Holds Black History Month Event at White House; Democratic Candidates Make Final Pitch to Voters Ahead of South Carolina Primary; Obama Sends Cease- and-Desist Letter to Republican Super PAC Over Biden Ad; Families Demand Action After Dozens of Native American Women and Girls Mysteriously Disappear. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired February 27, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN Tonight. I'm Don Lemon.

We've got a busy hour coming up. And here are tonight's big headlines. The Dow plunging nearly 1,200 points over the growing threat of the coronavirus, that's the greatest one-day point drop in history and a clear message there are concerns about the Trump administration's handling of the outbreak.

And the state of the race. Democratic candidates are making their last push to sway South Carolina voters before Saturday's primary. Joe Biden is betting everything on South Carolina that he can win. Can he deliver?

Plus, Democrats worrying about a potential convention fight. At a DNC meeting, speaker -- House Speaker Nancy Pelosi apparently urged her party to stay focused. According to the New York Times, she said Democrats must keep our eye on the ball. Adding, the ball has an orange face.

Plus, President Trump courting black voters in his outreach, helping -- is it helping or hurting his chances with African-Americans in November? We're going to discuss that.

And more than two dozen Native-American women and girls have mysteriously vanished. Why and what can be done about it.

But first, the coronavirus. As of now there are over 83,000 cases worldwide. Over 2,800 deaths. So why does President Trump seem so optimistic? Here's what he said tonight.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: We have done an incredible job, we're going to continue. It's going to disappear, one day it's like a miracle, it will disappear, and from our shores -- you know, it could get worse before it gets better, it could maybe go away. We'll see what happens. Nobody really knows.

The fact is the greatest experts have spoken -- nobody really knows. But we have done, and our professionals have done a fantastic job.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, joining me now, Douglas Brinkley, CNN presidential historian, Celine Gounder, clinical assistant professor of medicine and infectious disease at NYU Medical School and Bellevue Hospital who is the host of a new podcast, it's called Epidemic, the first episode coming out tomorrow.

Also here is Washington Post columnist Catherine Rampell, and New York Times columnist Frank Bruni. Good evening. Thank you so much.

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Good evening.

LEMON: I'm so glad you're all here to discuss this.

Frank, I'm going to start with you, because you heard what the president said about the coronavirus, he said it's going to disappear. How problematic is it to -- that his message is so fundamentally different from his own health officials?

FRANK BRUNI, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, it's a huge problem because it sow confusion. And the last thing you want is that kind of confusion when the country is facing a threat like this. It's also a big problem because it's a reflection of how little respect he has for experts and for science. Right?

I mean, the mismatch between this president and this problem is just about a perfect mismatch. Because what you need right now is you need good science. And you need the faithful work of civil servants, you know, who believe they're supported from the very top and this is a president who has no regard for science.

He's shown that again and again. And he has no regard for the civil servants who are going to combat this thing for us. He has no regard for expertise, for subject matter -- for subject matter expertise. And what you heard in that contradiction of what experts were saying was his disregard for expertise. And that's going to be a big problem going forward.

LEMON: Doctor Gounder, I want to bring you in, because CDC officials have confirmed this is the first known what is called a community spread of the coronavirus in the U.S. This is a new phase of this epidemic.

CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASES SPECIALIST & EPIDEMIOLOGIST, NYU SCHOOL OF MEDICINE: This is. So, you know, there's been a lot of debate recently, do we call this an epidemic, a pandemic. You know, from my perspective this is a pandemic. It meets all of the criteria.

So, you have a novel virus, to which people have not been exposed, do not have immunity. It is spreading rapidly on multiple continent - continents and we're seeing community spread and it's deadly among certain high-risk groups, so the elderly and people with chronic diseases.

LEMON: We've learned tonight this patient is in California, the patient is in serious condition, the patient has been intubated. How long does it take for a population to develop antibodies to the coronavirus?

GOUNDER: Wow. I mean, you're going to have to see this sweep through the population or have them be vaccinated. I mean, that's the only way to have population immunity to something like this.

LEMON: Yes. Talk to me, Douglas, about the administration's response, at least compared to previous administrations, can you talk to me about that?

BRINKLEY: Sure, I mean, you know, I think that President Trump is just doing wishful thinking and we need to be having a strategy of containment.

[23:04:57]

The president, first and foremost, is supposed to be the person that can reassure the country in a time of crisis. Donald Trump, perhaps as your recent guest said maybe he was jet lagged, maybe it was just a bad formation but he seems to be contradicting his own health officials. Basically, don't blame me, don't blame me, you know, it's going to be OK.

And so, I'm deeply worried that we don't have a response. And some presidents, like Ronald Reagan during the AIDS crisis in the 1980s kind of buried his head in the sand like an ostrich, didn't want to think it's coming.

LEMON: I remember it.

BRINKLEY: And this is a problem. And President Trump now has a credibility gap. I mean, remember sharpie gate during the hurricane, the right mock why are people beating up on Trump for just saying the hurricane could have gone into Alabama?

Because the president has no credibility now because he dissed the meteorologists, scientific experts and now he seems to be worrying about the stock market and his own personal brand.

LEMON: I want to talk a little bit more about the stock market with Catherine in a moment. But do you remember any other -- honest question, any other administration politicizing as you said a pandemic, or a public health crisis in this way?

BRINKLEY: No, I mean, you saw how well the Obama administration deal with -- dealt with problems in Africa, trying to make sure it didn't come to our shores. You go back in the time of World War I period with the Spanish flu.

And I think what's changed, Don, is technology today. The good news is we're trying to track these people. If you took an Uber, somebody has coronavirus, you could track the driver. If you're on an airplane. So, the hope is this can be contained by technology. The sad part is

in China, I mean, they're trying to contain it through authoritarianism and just roundups basically. And in Japan, schools closed.

But this is coming to our shores now, and the president's sort of AWOL on it, punting it to a vice president who has no credibility in health care, and a vice president who's known in Indiana for botching, you know, multiple health crises.

LEMON: Yes. I'm trying to figure out how the Democrats spread -- it's mind boggling to me. But listen, let's talk about what he said when he talked about the Dow and the Wall Street.

The Dow has declined by dropping nearly 1,200 points, and that was just today. The Trump administration is claiming that they're ready for it. I just had Anthony Scaramucci on. I had to stop him and say, people are going to say, why is Anthony Scaramucci talking about this, but Anthony Scaramucci has done really well for himself on Wall Street. Wall Street is clearly not buying that the Trump administration is prepared for the coronavirus.

CATHERINE RAMPELL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, I mean, to be fair, there are a number of reasons why investors might be worried about the economic impacts of whether we call it an epidemic or a pandemic, even if we don't have mass numbers of people get sick isn't the United States.

There are supply chain disruptions in China that affect auto manufacturers here, drug makers here. You have harm to potentially the tourism industry, you could have the U.S. energy industry affected, lots of things that have nothing to do with politics and nothing to do with political leadership.

But that said, public confidence in political leadership absolutely matters. There's a way in which fear about the pandemic -- or the epidemic, let's say, or at least the fear about how it could be mishandled could lead companies and consumers to sort of preemptively pull back and say, you know what, I just need to hunker down because I'm worried that this thing is going to be bungled and mishandled. The government doesn't know what it's doing.

And there's a sense in which the Trump administration today has done exactly everything wrong, well before we even had heard of this particular strain of coronavirus. In the sense that the very first thing that Trump's press secretary did, as our audience, I'm sure remembers, when he started his job, Sean Spicer, went up to the podium and lied about crowd size. Right?

That seems silly, that seemed minor, we laughed about it at the time. There are a lot of other silly, unnecessary lies that this administration made, Trump lies about windmills causing cancer. We laugh about it.

But there's a sense in which the very smallness of those lies is what's so problematic because if the public cannot trust this administration to tell the truth when the stakes are low. When it comes to the small things. Why should anyone expect them to tell the truth when it comes to big things like a potential mass illness?

And there's a sense in which that loss of credibility from those minor lies over the last several years undermines everything that they say now. Even if they're telling the truth.

[23:09:56]

Austan Goolsbee who is an economist at U-Chicago has this great rule of thumb that he calls the pathological irony of crisis. That if you lose your credibility then that means that all of your statements mean the opposite of what you intend them to.

LEMON: Yes.

RAMPELL: That if you tell people, everybody, stay calm, what they hear is, time to panic.

LEMON: Time to panic.

RAMPELL: And I think that's what you're seeing people on Wall Street do.

LEMON: Well, the interesting thing about it is, and you see the -- Frank, the coronavirus now, which is a public health emergency, is now tied to the economy, right, because this president places so much emphasis, right, so much importance on the stock market and the stock market is now going down and now it's tied to his reelection. And now you have this whole -- you've got a storm.

BRUNI: Well, yes. No, I mean, many presidents have extolled the economy when the economy has been good. This president has fetishized the economy. I mean, he's gone out there and said we've never had an economy this good and it's all -- it's all my doing.

LEMON: Right.

BRUNI: And so, this is an enormous political threat. Because -- and he's going to talk about truth. I guarantee if the stock market doesn't come back up, if it continues to go down or stays down, we're going to hear that corona is the fault of Nancy Pelosi and sanctuary cities.

(CROSSTALK)

RAMPELL: He's already done that.

BRUNI: We're going to hear. Well, he hasn't said sanctuary cities. BU I was going to say it's going to bring out all of these greatest hits and you were talking about credibility and truth.

I think one of the fascinating things to watch is how far past truth have we moved, as he talks to his base, those people who think everything he does is great and are living in a world of curated news feeds where they're not seeing a full range of information is he going to be able to sell them lies about something this important and something this potentially threatening to them and to all of us.

And I think we're going to get a real lesson here how much of a post- truth society we're living in when it comes to partisanship.

RAMPELL: The thing is that he tried that on Monday, right, when markets plunged 3 percent on Monday Trump tweeted markets look very good to me.

LEMON: Yes.

RAMPELL: And what happened? They kept falling.

BRUNI: But those are the markets. I'm talking about the 40 percent of people who are at any given moment are like, we love Donald Trump.

RAMPELL: Right.

BRUNI: Will they buy anything he says when it comes to something like an epidemic --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: You do have that now. You have conservative media talking about well, you know, how many people die from car crashes and how many people die from the common cold and how many people die from the common flu, from the flu, making excuses for what this president is doing now.

So, what do people do? What is the takeaway? How do we protect ourselves? What should people know, doctor?

GOUNDER: Well, first, I just want to address what Catherine and Frank were saying, I was an Ebola aid worker for two months and I saw the politics firsthand. They -- there are two countries that were in the middle of their own presidential elections, these are countries that had histories of distrust of government and it's not that they were superstitious or stupid.

They didn't follow instructions that were being given to them in terms of health education because they didn't trust the people providing the information. And that's really scary right now that we may find ourselves, if I'm told that these are the travel restrictions, I don't know that I would trust them frankly at this point.

In terms of what we can do to protect ourselves. You know, well, we were saying earlier, I'm not shaking hands with people now. I think, you know, we need to be very religious about keeping our hands clean, having alcohol sanitizers in your backpack in your purse, teaching kids to do that.

You know, this talk about mask honestly, if you have kids at home, we know that they are massive germ carriers, if they're -- what's the point of wearing a mask if your kids aren't washing their hands, you know?

And then the other thing I would say supply chains are going to be a major issue. I worry I heard, I was texting with a friend on my way here, who's out in California, he's an infectious disease doctor there, they're already having mask shortages in some of the hospitals.

So, you know, those kinds of things. We should not be hoarding them. What we should be worried about is can we get our hands on the precipitation prescriptions medications we need. We should be calling our doctors if we have such chronic medications and asking, hey, can I get a refill, can I get a 90-day supply instead of a 30-day supply, that's the kind of thing we should be doing right now.

LEMON: All right.

BRINKLEY: And a telephone hot line so people can call and get information, find out -- you know, because the problem is, hospitals are going to get overloaded, anybody with the cold and a cough is going to worry that this is happening. And it's going to create kind of an epidemic of fear going on.

The president should be taking a leadership role here. Instead, he's given it to Pence because if Pence fails then he could be blamed, not Donald Trump and Pence has a history of talking about things that are silly, like cigarettes don't cause cancer and don't -- you know, aren't bad for your health.

LEMON: Or needle exchanges aren't necessarily -- he doesn't believe in --

(CROSSTALK)

BRINKLEY: Who trusts that?

LEMON: Yes. Boy. Well, good luck, everyone, thank you all. I appreciate it.

Up next, state of the race as we count down to the South Carolina primary on Saturday. Some moderate Democrats concerned about Bernie Sanders' momentum as the candidates battle for the nomination. And tonight, there's reporting on what advice Nancy Pelosi is giving them. That's next.

[23:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Now for the state of the race. Tonight, candidates making their last appeals to South Carolina voters with less than two days before voters head to the polls, who's making the best case in this key state?

Joining me now to discuss, Jamie Harrison, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. Senate in South Carolina, looking to unseat Republican Lindsey Graham. There he is, smiling from ear to ear, he's also an associate chair of the DNC. You're in a good mood so I guess you're doing well, I guess you're going -- it looks like you're going to -- are you going to slay Lindsey Graham? JAIME HARRISON, DEMOCRATIC CANDIDATE FOR U.S. SENATE: Listen, man,

we're going to send -- we're going to send Lindsey Graham pack. You know, I've been saying for almost a year we're going to send him home. But I think we're going to send him to Mar-a-Lago and give him a one- way ticket.

LEMON: All right, all right, let's get to the race that's really close now. Jamie, the latest poll in your state shows that Biden is in the lead, heading into Saturday's primary. I know you can't make an endorsement, but which candidates do you think are winning over voters there, who do you think?

[23:19:56]

HARRISON: Well, listen, I think the Vice President Biden has really solidified some support. I think the endorsement from Congressman Clyburn was very key and very crucial. I mean, that's an endorsement that anybody wants if you're running for office as a Democrat here in South Carolina and he got it and it was a very strong one.

You know, Senator Sanders and Tom Steyer and Elizabeth Warren all, and a number of others have been running good ground campaigns. But as I've said from the beginning, in this state, this is a race for Biden to lose. And it seems like he's solidified a lot of support. But we'll see.

I mean, at the end of the day, this is why they play the game, right, is to see who will come out, but I know they're knocking on all of this campaign are knocking on thousands of doors to get their supporters out.

LEMON: The New York Times is reporting, Jaime, that -- at a meeting at the DNC today, moderate Democrats voice concerns over the possibility of a Sanders nomination and a lengthy convention fight. They report that the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that she'd be comfortable with Sanders as a nominee and urged Democrats to "keep our eye on the ball," that's a quote, and focus on winning their own seats and defeating the president. She is urging unity. But is the party on the same page?

HARRISON: Well, listen, I think what her advice is good one. People need to keep their eyes on the ball -- on the ball. You know, folks ask me about who do I prefer on the top of the ticket. And I said, you know, in South Carolina, I'm going to be on the top of the ticket because in this state we're not a battleground state for the presidency.

But, however, this Senate race is going to be a contentious one and people will probably hear from me more than they hear from the presidential nominee. They will get mail from me. They will hear radio. The folks who will be knocking on their doors will be carrying our literature.

And so, for us we're trying to talk about the issues that are important to the people in South Carolina. I think if other candidates do that they'll be in good shape. LEMON: Well, Jamie --

(CROSSTALK)

HARRISON: We're building a grassroots movement like we've never seen.

LEMON: But, so, let me ask you then.

HARRISON: So, I'm really excited. Go ahead, Don.

LEMON: I talked a little bit about this with John Kasich, you don't think having a Democratic socialist at the top of the ticket is going to hurt you?

HARRISON: You know, the thing that I'm focused on, Don, is the fact that we've had four rural hospitals that have closed over the past few years, that there are 14 counties where there are no OB-GYNs, that 41 communities don't -- have lead levels higher than the federal standards. And almost 30,000 in South Carolina don't have any broadband.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Jamie, I get that. And those were issues that are -- I get -- Jamie, listen, I get that. And don't -- I'm not being rude. I get that. Those are issues that are specific to South Carolina.

HARRISON: No, I understand.

LEMON: I understand that. So I get that. But I think what Democrats are concerned, I'm voicing their concerns, they're concerned about having a Democratic socialist at the top of the ticket and what they're saying is that down ballot that is going to hurt them. You don't think that that is going to hurt them and you?

HARRISON: Well, I don't see how it's going to hurt me if I'm the top of the ticket and I'm the one who's actually spending the most money in the state reaching out to the voters.

LEMON: OK.

HARRISON: And it's Lindsey Graham who's overseeing all of the problems that we have in this state. This is a race for me, it's about Jamie Harrison versus Lindsey Graham. And who is better equipped to serve the people of South Carolina? That's why we are building this grassroots movement, just go to --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: And you think it's that way across the country, it depends on the candidate across the country who that is, you think --

HARRISON: You know, I think that's what it is. And folks just need to focus on their races. They need to focus on personalizing their races and talking about the issues that the people in their states are --

LEMON: Got it.

HARRISON: -- focused on and concerned about.

LEMON: Got it.

HARRISON: Don't get messed up with the presidency stuff.

LEMON: Got it. That's good advice. Jamie Harrison, thank you. Good luck down there. I just left your state and it was beautiful. I appreciate it. Thanks for the hospitality.

HARRISON: It's a beautiful one. Thank you, Don. Take care now.

LEMON: All right. I'll see you soon.

President Trump holding a black history month event in the -- at the White House. As his campaign rolls out a, quote, "woke campaign," to reach out to black voters. That's next.

[23:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. So, President Trump holding an event at the White House in honor of black history month taking the opportunity to praise what he calls his administration's achievements for African-Americans. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Black American unemployment has reached an all-time low in the history of our country, it's the best.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: Best we've ever done. Black youth unemployment has reached a record low.

(APPLAUSE)

TRUMP: African-American poverty rate has plummeted to the lowest level in the history of our country.

My administration is fighting for the great jobs, great schools, great health care and truly great future for African-Americans and for all Americans.

We signed legislation that achieved permanent funding for historically black colleges and universities.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Joining me to discuss, Keith Boykin, a Democratic strategist, Adrianne Shropshire, executive director of BlackPAC, an organization focused on mobilizing and engaging with black voters, and Clay Cane, a host on SiriusXM.

Hello, one and all. Good to see all of you.

Keith, I'm going to start with you. The president says he is fighting for black Americans, all Americans, that's his message and he's sticking to it.

KEITH BOYKIN, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Am I supposed to respond to that?

LEMON: Yes, what do you have to say?

BOYKIN: Obviously, he's not. I mean, yes, black unemployment is down but it was cut 50 percent under Barack Obama. He gave Obama no credit for that. He came in and took credit for what Obama did.

[23:30:04]

That's his only selling point. He has no policy that appeals to black people.

LEMON: He's never going to say he's riding on Obama's coattails, come on.

BOYKIN: Of course, he's never going to say that. But the reality is he doesn't care about black people except as a potential voting bloc that might help him in the election, not necessarily to win them, but simply to discourage them from voting for the Democratic candidate. And secondly, just marginally to increase his fraction from 2016.

Remember, in 2016, he said that he guaranteed he would win 95 percent of the black vote in 2020. It's 2020 and the most recent poll shows that 89 percent of African Americans think he's a racist and nearly 90 percent disapprove of his job performance. So, the guy has been a complete failure, an abject colossal failure for the African American community, and we are looking for a better alternative.

LEMON: He only needs 12 percent. If he gets that, it's over. Adrianne, I want to play this for you. This is a moment from President Trump meeting with African American leaders and supporters. He talked about coronavirus. Watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Democrats said I was a racist, not from black people standpoint but from Asian people standpoint, from Chinese people standpoint. They said I was a racist because I closed our country to people coming in from certain areas. They called me a racist.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What is that exactly?

ADRIANNE SHROPSHIRE, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BLACKPAC: I don't know what that is. (LAUGHTER)

SHROPSHIRE: What I do know is that to Keith's earlier point that even on our own polling but certainly national polls that black people believe that he is a racist. That is about his policies. It's about what they understood about him from before he became president. They don't actually buy the messaging.

So, you know, the unemployment numbers are what they are. The reality is that that doesn't align with the lived experience of most black folks. And so when people hear that, what they know is that they're working a full-time job. We were in a focus group last week and a woman said, I work a full-time job, I work 60 hours, then I come home, I drive 20 hours for Uber, and I feel guilty because I can't see my kids.

So the reality is when we think about how black folks are engaging with the economy right now, most people feel like they're just keeping up or they're falling behind. So this, I've made the economy so great, the numbers may be what they are but it doesn't actually work out for black people if they're working two or three jobs just to keep their head above water.

LEMON: The president got an interesting tribute from one of the attendees. Listen closely.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): Mr. President, I don't want to interrupt but I got to say this because this is Black History Month. Man, you're the first black president.

(APPLAUSE)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(APPLAUSE)

LEMON: I am so glad that wasn't on TV, right? OK. So, we had an interesting --

(LAUGHTER)

SHROPSHIRE: Who said that?

LEMON: That was a black person in the audience who said that. He called President Trump the first black president. The president seemed quite pleased with the comment. What do you think?

CLAY CANE, HOST, SIRIUS XM: OK, speaking of Black History Month, let me quote James Baldwin, "I can't believe what you say because I see what you do." All right, Trump's outreach to the African American community is diamond and silk. That's his version of outreach. We are these clowns on steroids. His outreach to the African American community is Ben Carson, who compared Obamacare to slavery, right?

I mean, this is Trump's version of reaching out to black folks. And, you know, anybody who will go on a national stage and say he's great, especially if you're a black person, to kind of, you know, tone down his racism, you're suddenly a great success in his eyes. I mean, over and over, we see beyond rhetoric. It's rhetoric. It's policy. It's everything. This is who this person is.

LEMON: I mean are they clowns or are they animated?

CANE: Oh, no, they are clowns.

LEMON: Is it fair to call them clowns?

CANE: I mean, I'll say it --

BOYKIN: That's an insult to clowns.

CANE: Tag me if you want. But literally, they are performing. They were trending today on social media. But this is his version of outreach. This is his version -- or opening up 15 community centers so folks can come in and learn about his agenda. Where's his policy on education?

LEMON: You mean the "woke" --

CANE: Yeah, "woke," Black Voices of Trump.

LEMON: Nobody says "woke" anymore.

SHROPSHIRE: I do think, though, that these are -- we've not actually seen this kind of outreach from a Republican candidate before, opening up storefronts in black communities, what we've seen in terms of the paid media, being up on black radio, being in black newspapers, all ready, right, the digital programs that we -- the digital outreach that we've seen.

There is something that I think should be red flags for Democrats because right now Trump is the only presidential candidate who is engaging black voters with general election message.

LEMON: Isn't that pandering?

(CROSSTALK)

BOYKIN: Wait, Trump -- he's been president for almost four years now, and he's never made a single visit to a black community to attend a black event. How the hell do you say you're making a serious effort to reach black people when you haven't even gone to a black community?

[23:35:00]

BOYKIN: For god's sake, he hasn't even gone to the black community in Washington, D.C. He hasn't gone to the black community in New York, in Harlem or in Brooklyn where he lived. He has not made any serious effort to reach black people. The idea that anybody would sit in a room with Donald Trump and call him the first black president after we had Barack Obama as president of the United States shows just what kind of Uncle Toms were sitting in that room in the first place. That's ridiculous. It is an outrage that anybody would sit in that room and say something like that. That's a shocking, appalling, disgusting thing to say.

LEMON: OK.

SHROPSHIRE: That's offensive, but I do think the Democrats have to pay attention to the fact that right now he has the playing field by himself.

LEMON: All right. Having said that, everyone stay with me. Joe Biden is counting on black voters, especially counting the ones in South Carolina to reenergize his campaign. Will they give him the boost that he needs? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: As the Democratic candidates make their final pitch to voters in South Carolina ahead of Saturday's primary, Joe Biden is hoping his popularity with black voters -- he is hoping that it helps him reenergizes his campaign.

Back with me are Keith Boykin, Adrianne Shropshire, and Clay Cane. OK, so, before we get to Joe Biden, we got to talk about the Uncle Tom moment. Keith, we've got to talk about that. I don't like that term. I hate it when it's said on this show.

I've been called that term and I just -- I don't like it by both whites and blacks. Anyway, I just think it's a derogatory term. I know that you stand by it, I guess. Anyway, I just think it's an unfair term to call people. I don't know who that person is.

BOYKIN: Anybody who sits in a room with Donald Trump, the president of the United States, and calls him the first black president and then everybody else in the room sits there and does nothing about it --

LEMON: OK.

BOYKIN: -- call it what you want.

LEMON: All right. So, let's talk about the former vice president, Joe Biden. He came in fourth place in Iowa, fifth in New Hampshire, second in Nevada. Do you think a big win, Clay, in South Carolina would give him the momentum he needs to get back on top?

CANE: I would hope so. One thing I like about Biden is that he really has worked hard for this South Carolina vote. It's not just pumping in ads. I mean, the ground game in South Carolina has been great. I mean, he has to win South Carolina. I think that this is -- it could be a game changer for him.

And the other thing, too, if he wins South Carolina by a huge margin, like a 20-point margin or a 30-point margin, that means that black voters, we are really -- are not on the same side as the rest of the country. So that's really crucial. You need black votes to win the primary to win general election. If he wins by a big margin because he didn't do well in the other states, that's going to say a lot where black voters are and where everybody else is.

LEMON: Mm-hmm. Adrianne, what do you think? He has told me in an interview that he believes that black people will have his back because he has had their backs. I mean, listen, his support in South Carolina, it rests on black vote.

SHROPSHIRE: Mm-hmm.

LEMON: What do you think? And if he wins this, it will give him some momentum going beyond. Do you think it will help him? Does he have enough black support? Are there enough black votes in the rest of the country that can take him to the nomination?

SHROPSHIRE: I think if he does -- so, you know, I was at the debate. I guess it was this week.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: I know. It seems like forever, right?

SHROPSHIRE: And there was definitely a lot -- it was a Joe Biden room in many ways. And so I think that, you know, the support for him is there. I think Clyburn's endorsement helps. I think that, you know, it would give him momentum going into Super Tuesday although I don't know how much -- how much of an operation he has in some of the larger Super Tuesday states.

So I think that there is some -- it will give him enough momentum to bring people, you know, give people some -- feel more assured, right, that he is -- that he is in a position to win the nomination.

LEMON: Yeah. Keith, you heard about the former president sending the cease-and-desist letter to the Super PAC, Republican Super PAC in South Carolina, saying that they took his words out of context because he calls it Biden support "plantation politics." Why do you think he intervened this time?

BOYKIN: Well, President Obama knows that he's never criticized Joe Biden directly. The quotation that they took was out of context. It is from his book, his memoir, "Dreams from My Father," which was written in the 1990s.

LEMON: Years ago. That's why it sounds like -- I mean, it sounds like he's reading.

BOYKIN: Yeah, it sounds like Obama when he was in law school.

LEMON: It doesn't sound like he's giving a speech. It sounds like he's reading.

BOYKIN: It sounds like he's reading. His voice sounds different. He's a different person then. And it's just completely wildly out of context. This is why I kind of disagree with what Adrianne was saying. I don't think you can say this is serious outreach when his campaign is trying to distort the words of Barack Obama, the first black president, in order to appeal to black voters.

What kind of outreach is that? These people are not serious about reaching black voters. They are serious about one thing and it is elevating Donald Trump at all costs. Black people are just pawns in their little game. That's all that is.

CANE: Lying is not outreach, not for me. I mean, I think about the ground game of Elizabeth Warren. That is outreach. Whether or not she's resonating, it's outreach.

[23:45:00]

CANE: Biden -- that is outreach. Even Bernie Sanders has better outreach than Donald Trump. If you're going to blatantly lie and if you're going to pander, for me that's not outreach. To praise that, I think it is such a dangerous tone.

SHROPSHIRE: I don't know that I would say I praised it. I am saying that it needs to be acknowledged because it is happening.

LEMON: I got to run. Thank you all. I appreciate it. We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:49:56]

LEMON: The Native American families in Montana are demanding action from law enforcement after more than two dozen women and girls in their communities had mysteriously vanished or had been found dead. CNN national correspondent Sara Sidner has the story.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Don, Native American family say their girls and women are going missing and turning up dead far more often than anyone has cared to notice until now. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CRYING)

SIDNER (voice-over): Paula Castro-Stops just found the exact spot where her daughter's body was discovered on this Cheyenne reservation.

PAULA CASTRO-STOPS, MOTHER OF HENNY SCOTT: I remember seeing it in the picture.

(CRYING)

CASTRO-STOPS: My baby. SIDNER (voice-over): All the sorrow and questions flood her mind. Why did her daughter walk away from a remote house party in the dead of winter wearing no jacket? Why did it take so long to find her body, which was discovered just a couple hundred meters from that same home?

(On camera): You do not believe this was sheer accident?

CASTRO-STOPS: No, I don't.

SIDNER (voice-over): When she reported her daughter missing, there was no amber alert and no immediate official search. In the end, it was community members, not reservation police or FBI, who found Henny Scott weeks later. The medical examiner determined she had died of exposure, aided by alcohol found in her body.

CASTRO-STOPS: She was only 14. Because she was that young, they didn't make it a priority.

SIDNER (voice-over): Eight months later, another teenager from the same reservation disappeared. Eighteen-year-old Kaysera Stops Pretty Places went missing in August 2019. Her family says the Big Horn County sheriff's office made things worse, not better.

(On camera): How hard was it to get them to act?

YOLANDA FRASER, GRANDMOTHER OF KAYSERA STOPS PRETTY PLACES: They really didn't act on it. They said she's probably just out with her friends or --

SIDNER (voice-over): Kaysera had gone missing more than a half dozen times before, trying to cope with a broken family and a difficult life on the reservation. As her grandmother and legal guardian, Yolanda Fraser wants answers.

SIDNER (on camera): What disturbs you about the investigation into Kaysera's case?

FRASER: Really lack of investigation.

SIDNER (voice-over): The sheriff's office did not return multiple e- mails and calls for comment. Unbeknownst to the family, her body was found just days later. Still, six months on, Kaysera's cause of death is listed as undetermined, but suspicious. Kaysera was one of 28 indigenous women or girls to go missing or be murdered in Big Horn County in recent years.

ANNITA LUCCHESI, RESEARCHER: Montana has the highest number of MMIW cases by state nationally based on our data.

SIDNER (voice-over): Researcher Annita Lucchesi says the best numbers she has showed a terrible trend. The government doesn't even have a proper count of all their cases.

LUCCHESI: There is a lot of coverage of this issue that describes it as a mystery, like, we don't know what's happening, we don't know what's going on, as if native women are kind of like a rabbit in a magic act, like we just mysteriously disappear, and that's not real.

SIDNER (voice-over): Native Americans make up 6.7 percent of Montana's population. But according to state data, between 2016 and 2018, they accounted for more than a quarter of the missing person reports. Montana U.S. Attorney Kurt Alme was the only government official involved in some of these cases who spoke with us on the record.

KURT ALME, MONTANA U.S. ATTORNEY: There is a serious problem with missing Native Americans, particularly Native American women.

SIDNER (voice-over): Now, the families working together with activists may be having an impact. Three task forces are now being set up, a county, state, and the latest, a federal task force ordered by President Trump.

ALME: I think one of the real positive things being done by the White House task force is going to be to try to provide some standardization, like the rapid deployment teams that could be brought anywhere quickly.

SIDNER (voice-over): Six months after Kaysera Stops Pretty Places was found dead, a 16-year-old Native American girl was reported missing. A van she was riding in left her behind after breaking down.

(On camera): Authorities say Selena Not Afraid was last seen alive here at this rest stop on January 1st. It took nearly three weeks to find her body, which was three quarters of a mile to a mile away from here. And in a place like this, authorities say one of their biggest issues in trying to find missing indigenous people is the sheer vastness of the place and the limited manpower.

(Voice-over): But in Selena's case, the initial response was totally different.

CHERYL HORN, AUNT OF SELENA NOT AFRAID: They blew their big high- powered drone over here. We had a helicopter fly over. We had people walking. This is all day one.

SIDNER (voice-over): The coroner determined Selena died of hypothermia and sheriff's officials intimated the case was over. But then the county attorney sent out a scathing rebuke, saying the investigation was open and active.

[23:55:03]

SIDNER (voice-over): Selena's family found themselves like the others, mired in confusion created by officials.

In all these cases, the families have taken to the streets to express their frustration with local authorities. Horn says she's hoping President Trump's task force will finally simplify all that.

HORN: I would say you're on the right track, sir. You're on the right track.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SIDNER: Selena Not Afraid's family thanking President Trump for caring about their issues. Now, those task forces, though, that we mentioned are only in place for a limited time, and the families wonder that if in the future enough can be accomplished to save their girls before they turn up dead. Don?

LEMON: Thanks for watching. Our coverage continues.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)