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Mitt Romney Wins New Hampshire Primary; Ron Paul Speaks in South Carolina; Haley Barbour's Pardoning Gift as Governor; Obama Makes Jobs Push; Restoring Prosperity In America; Addressing Poverty In The Presidential Race; Cornel West And Tavis Smiley Interview

Aired January 11, 2012 - 12:00   ET

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

SUZANNE MALVEAUX, CNN ANCHOR: Top of the hour. I'm Suzanne Malveaux.

Want to get you up to speed.

South Carolina, it's the next battleground in the presidential race. The candidates are descending on that state today. Both Ron Paul, Newt Gingrich are campaigning in South Carolina this hour. Gingrich and other candidates are taking aim now at Mitt Romney after his big win in New Hampshire last night. Romney says the attacks on his business record are not going to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MITT ROMNEY (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I understand that President Obama is going to try and put free enterprise on trial, but Rick Perry and Newt Gingrich are going to be the witnesses for the prosecution. I'm not worried about that. They can take it as they like. But you saw last night that that approach didn't work very well for either Rick Perry or Newt Gingrich.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRICH: I believe that South Carolinians are either going to center in and pick one conservative, or by default we're going to send a moderate on to the nomination. We've seen when we nominate moderates, they can't debate you, they can't explain it, because they're standing there trying to figure out, what is it I believe now?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: It was a decisive victory for Mitt Romney. Here's a look at the results from the New Hampshire primary.

Romney took 40 percent of the vote. Ron Paul finished second, with 23 percent. Jon Huntsman got 17 percent to finish third place. Newt Gingrich finished with 10 percent, ahead of Rick Santorum, with 9 percent. Rick Perry had just one percent.

So it is the number one issue in the presidential race. We are of course talking about jobs. It is what President Obama is going to be talking about shortly. He's meeting with business leaders and others to talk about insourcing, what he calls insourcing jobs, looking for ways for keep companies from outsourcing jobs and moving them overseas.

We're going to bring you the president's remarks when they happen live, scheduled to speak in about 15 minutes. Keeping our eye there on the White House.

And now former Mississippi governor Haley Barbour is under increased scrutiny for pardoning --- we're talking about 199 criminals. The four that you see here, convicted murderers who worked at the governor's mansion. They're among 14 killers who were pardoned by Barbour as he left office.

A shooting survivor and the sister of a victim spoke to CNN.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RANDY WALKER, VICTIM: I feel like my safety is in jeopardy. I feel like we are in jail now and David is out of jail. We will forever be looking over our shoulder, wondering if today is the day that David decided that he was going to finish what he started.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right. So we're watching this. This is the scene Monday in the Syria city of Homs. We are getting reports now of new violence that is happening there today.

A French journalist was killed in a mortar strike on a pro-government rally. Now, a journalist who witnessed the incident told CNN that a civilian also died in that strike. Ten others were injured, including a Dutch journalist.

Our Nic Robertson is reporting from a protest that is inside the capital. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: The level of anger and passion here is absolutely palatable. We're just a few miles from the center of Damascus. And this is a crowd here of perhaps -- thank you. Thank you. This is a crowd here of perhaps several thousands people.

They've taken over this whole are. They've put rocks in the roads to prevent the police coming in here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Two Nigerian trade unions accuse the country's president of using what they say armed thugs to attack protesters. Nigerians first took to the streets last week when the government ended fuel subsidies that doubled actually the price of fuel. The Red Cross counts 16 dead and more than 200 injured now in that violence.

Penn State assistant football coach Jay Paterno has resigned from his job. Now, he leaves two months after his father, the legendary head coach, Joe Paterno, was fired. Penn State is still in the grips of a child sex abuse scandal that is centered around former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky.

All right. So Mitt Romney making history by making it two in a row. He is the first non-incumbent Republican to win both Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. Romney is starting to sound a lot like the Republican nominee, but Democrats say he heads to South Carolina with some real battle scars.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. DEBBIE WASSERMAN SCHULTZ (D), FLORIDA: To not crack 40 percent in a primary that you should have droves of Republicans coming to the polls to vote for you, that's a problem. But he's here as -- he came out of this primary as a wounded candidate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right. Wolf Blitzer here, in the House, to talk about New Hampshire.

WOLF BLITZER, HOST, CNN'S THE SITUATION ROOM: Thank you, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: Nice to see you.

BLITZER: Nice to see you.

MALVEAUX: First of all, you talk about the Democrats, and they look at Romney as wounded, having battle scars.

Does he go to South Carolina with some problems, with some real baggage?

BLITZER: He's always got some problems, but that's ridiculous to say he's wounded. He had a decisive win, almost a landslide. Forty percent in a field like that is pretty good.

He was way ahead of Ron Paul, way ahead of the number three, Jon Huntsman, certainly Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum. It was a very impressive win. And it was a record turnout for a New Hampshire Republican primary.

Two hundred and fifty thousand people showed up. So that was pretty good. That was pretty impressive.

I don't think you can say he's wounded. Does he have issues? Will he be attacked in South Carolina? Absolutely.

Is Newt Gingrich, Rick Perry -- are they going to go after him? They certainly will. We'll see what happens in South Carolina.

MALVEAUX: And Ron Paul has a lot of money, and he's got a lot of stamina, and certainly very passionate supporters. Back in 2008, long after he had dropped out of the race, we kept seeing signs, Ron Paul signs, on the campaign trail. What's the impact if Ron Paul decides that he's just going to keep going for a while, getting that 11 or 12 percent?

BLITZER: Well, he got more than that. He got more than 20 percent. And he did really well -- he got more than 20 percent in Iowa, too. So he's a force.

He's got a strong base of support out there that wants him to keep ongoing. And I suspect not only will he keep on going in South Carolina, but throughout February he's going to keep on going.

Even if, let's say -- and I don't know if this is going to happen. Let's say Mitt Romney wins in South Carolina, and the other candidates sort of drop out, I suspect some of them will go on to Florida. Ron Paul is going to stay in it. He's got a mission, he's got a statement he wants to make. So Mitt Romney is going to have Ron Paul to deal with for a while.

MALVEAUX: And we're going to watch him in West Columbia, South Carolina. That's where he's going to speaking shortly.

Let's talk a little bit about Huntsman, because he really needed New Hampshire, came in a distant -- well, he was third place there.

BLITZER: Third, yes.

MALVEAUX: I mean, does he -- where does he go from here? Doe he have any kind of stamina --

BLITZER: He says he's going to South Carolina. He says he has an organization there.

Look, he's got money. His father is a billionaire. If he want to tap into that, he can do so. He's got some support. I know he's doing some fund-raising today.

We'll see. Let's see how he does in South Carolina.

The last poll that we did there didn't show him doing very well, but as we saw from Rick Santorum's surge in Iowa, in politics -- and you and I have covered this -- a week, two weeks, that's a long time in the world of politics. Things can change. You never know what happens.

So he's in it, at least through South Carolina. We'll see how he does there.

MALVEAUX: I talked to his wife, Mary Kaye, yesterday, Mary Kaye Huntsman, and she said the $2.3 million from his own war chest and his own personal finances to get his campaign up and going. So we'll see if he taps into his billionaire dad's money.

BLITZER: He's got a lovely wife. He's got great kids, too.

MALVEAUX: The four -- the daughters. They've gotten a lot of attention. BLITZER: Those are major weapons in his arsenal, if you will. But then take a look at the Romney boys, those five boys. They're pretty good weapons as well. And Ann Romney, I spoke to her when I was in Iowa. She's a secret weapon for Mitt Romney. He should use her a lot more often.

MALVEAUX: Yes. Not so secret now.

BLITZER: Yes.

MALVEAUX: We've got a lot of family members.

I think we're going to go to Ron Paul. He's stepping up to the podium in West Columbia, South Carolina.

Let's listen in.

(JOINED IN PROGRESS)

REP. RON PAUL (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Thank you. Thank you very much.

AUDIENCE: Ron Paul! Ron Paul! Ron Paul! Ron Paul!

PAUL: Thank you.

(APPLAUSE)

I guess you know who is with me -- my wife, Carol.

(APPLAUSE)

We have a few other members of the family with us today. I have a daughter-in-law, Peggy; a grandson, Mark (ph); and a granddaughter, Linda.

(APPLAUSE)

Thank you so much for coming out.

We did have an exciting evening last night. Anybody watch TV last night at all?

(APPLAUSE)

It was great. It's pretty amazing how sometimes if you're in second place, they go -- they talk about the first and the third place.

(LAUGHTER)

But last night it was a little bit different. They had a little harder time avoiding the real conversation.

And like I said last night, Romney did have a victory, but we had something very, very special. We had a victory for something very important in this country. We had a victory for the cause of liberty last night.

(APPLAUSE)

And that is so different, and that is also the reason the crowds are different, the enthusiasm is different. Somebody told me -- I wasn't there, so I can't verify it -- but they said, you know, the governor, they had a good crowd out and they had a lot of enthusiasm. But he left and everybody else left.

Well, two to three hours later, we had people there still having a real good time and celebrating. There's just so much enthusiasm that keeps growing.

You know, it was mentioned by Mike (ph) about four years ago, we were much smaller in numbers, and I always talk about the tireless, irate minority that leads the charge. But we're not so small. We're not so much a minority.

We're marching on. The numbers are growing. They grew exponentially in New Hampshire, and they are going to grow continuously here in South Carolina as well.

(APPLAUSE)

You know, this morning they cited a poll, and of course they can cite one poll or they can make a poll up. You know, sometimes they try to move elections by polling.

Of course, the polling they cited was, I was not at the top here in South Carolina. I said, yes, but you haven't done a poll since last night.

So we're on the move, and it isn't only because you have a candidate. We have an issue. We have a set of principles that we are going to defend and --

MALVEAUX: Ron Paul there campaigning in South Carolina.

We are also expecting remarks shortly from President Obama. He's going to talk about, of course, the number one issue in the presidential race. That is jobs.

The president has been meeting with business leaders and others on what they are calling insourcing jobs. They're looking for ways to keep companies from outsourcing jobs and moving those jobs overseas. So we are going to be bringing those comments live. That's going to happen soon, scheduled to speak around 12:15 Eastern.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're keeping an eye on the White House there. We're expecting for President Obama to make remarks fairly soon. He's going to be talking about the number one issue in the presidential race. That is jobs.

He's been meeting with business leaders, others, about what he's calling insourcing jobs, or looking at ways to keep companies from outsourcing jobs, moving them overseas. And we're going to bring you those remarks live. Keeping our eye on the White House, scheduled to speak any minute. So we'll see if they start on time.

Now the pardons that have shocked the country, rocked Mississippi. Conservative Republican Haley Barbour's parting gift as he left the governor's office was to set free 199 convicted criminals. Those pardons include 14 murderers, most of them involved in domestic violence. Others convicted of rape, around robbery, drunk driving, numerous drug-related offenses.

Almost all of the 199 received full, complete, unconditional pardons. That essentially means it wipes their criminal records clean.

And the victims' family members, of course, they are devastated.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It outrages me. You know, Governor Barbour, I would like to think, didn't have all of the facts, because if he did, and he pardoned this man in any way, we've had a monster for a governor.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Wow, a monster for a governor. That's what people are saying here.

I want to bring in our senior legal analyst, Jeffrey Toobin, joining us on the phone from New York.

So, Jeff, a monster of a governor. People are angry, they're heartbroken, and they don't understand how something like this can even happen.

Do they have, first of all, recourse? Is there anything these families can do?

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN SR. LEGAL ANALYST: Absolutely nothing. This is one of the powers that goes to a head of government, head of state, that really goes back to kings, even before the American Revolution. It has been a power of the leader of a country simply to undo an injustice.

And it is an unreviewable power. It is a power that cannot be checked by the legislature. He can't be overturned by a court. It is simply at the discretion of a governor, just as presidential pardons are at the discretion of a president. And that, for better or worse, is the end of the story.

MALVEAUX: So, Jeff, are you saying -- because this really is unprecedented when you think about nearly 200 criminals being pardoned by an outgoing governor -- there is no way to change the law or change the Constitution or anything regarding this? There's just nothing that anyone can do? TOOBIN: You would have to change the Mississippi Constitution. And every constitution -- state constitution in the country, including in the federal Constitution, has a provision that allows for pardons. And the pardons have been used for good purposes over the years.

There have been unjust convictions that have been undone. There have been excessive sentences that have been undone.

But here it looks like the governor pardoned his cronies. I mean, many of these appear to be people who were so-called trustees, who worked in the governor's mansion. The governor got to know them and then pardoned them.

There appear to be friends of his who received pardons. But the check on this is simply, don't elect a governor who will do this kind of thing, because this is a power that really does not have a check once someone is the governor.

MALVEAUX: So the communities, say, who find themselves in the neighborhood where one of these murderers, convicted murderers, happens to move next door, is there anything that they can do to protect themselves, like publicly shaming these guys, posting signs, denying them access? Is there anything they can do to protect themselves, especially those who are worried about their own safety?

TOOBIN: Well, sure. They can exercise their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech, and they can criticize someone. They can criticize Haley Barbour, as they're certainly doing. But there are no laws in Mississippi for murderers to have to register.

And one of the things that's very important about the difference between a pardon and just someone whose sentence has ended is these people no longer count as a convicted felon. It is as if they were never charged.

So they can vote, they can buy firearms, they can run for office. They are free to a degree that people whose sentences simply ended are not. I mean, they have advantages that are very substantial and, as I said earlier, there is really nothing anyone can do about it.

MALVEAUX: Right. And I assume if they wanted to apply for a job or anything like that, there's nothing on their record that says they were accused of anything or convicted of anything as well.

Jeff, thank you very much. We appreciate it.

TOOBIN: That's a little less clear to me. I have to say, I don't know -- there are not that many pardons, so there's not a ton of law on this.

Certainly, they have legal rights as if they were never charged. Whether they would have to put it on a job application, I don't know. I certainly wouldn't want to be the co-worker of someone who simply left off that they had been convicted of murder, but I am not sure about what the law is about job applications.

MALVEAUX: All right. Really a shocking story out of Mississippi.

Thank you, Jeff. Appreciate it.

Of course it brings us to today's "Talk Back" question. Should unconditional pardons be allowed, the bottom line, their record wiped clean of the crime as if they were never charged?

So, it means convicted criminals, as we said before, can possess weapons, vote, run for office. So, what do you think about all of this? Should unconditional pardons be allowed? Should someone who has been convicted of murder have those rights?

Leave us your thoughts at Facebook.com/SuzanneCNN. We're going to share some of them later in the hour.

And also, waiting for President Obama. We're keeping our eye on the White House there, you see.

He is going to be talking about insourcing. And what is insourcing? It's simply trying to get those jobs to stay here, in this country, as opposed to outsourcing and having those jobs be created or transported overseas.

We're going to take a look at what this means very soon. As soon as he is live, we'll bring it to you very shortly.

(BUSINESS REPORT)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: The election, all about jobs. And the president, of course, pushing hard to highlight all the good news that he can get when it comes to the economy. We are awaiting a statement that the president is going to be making at the White House.

And joining us is Mark Preston, CNN political director.

Nice to see you.

When the president speaks, we'll go to that live and talk a little bit about it. But clearly, he has some work to do, and he's pushing himself as the guy who really cares about the middle class, about folks who are struggling.

Does he have the accomplishments that he needs to convince voters that that's true, that their lives are better off today?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: You know, he's in a really tough position, because, Suzanne, if you remember, he inherited this problem, and the problem got worse. And then he placed blame back on the Bush administration. And then at some point he had to take ownership.

And then he talked about working with Congress. And as you have said now, he is now the fighter for the middle class, and they are taking it straight to the Republican Congress. Look, he has a very difficult task. He has to not only legislate over the next year, because he is the president, but he has to win re- election, and it's going to be very, very difficult on this issue.

Now, what he's got going for him is that people like him personally. I mean, you covered him. You were on the campaign trail, you were in the White House with him. People like him, but they are not necessarily enamored with what he's done with the economy.

MALVEAUX: And I think the problem is too and the difference perhaps in 2008 and in 2012, is that you do not see the enthusiasm. You don't see -- and it will be interesting to see when that emerges.

He's got time. He has a year. But you have a lot of people who you'd say, yes, we like the guy. We understand that he had a really tough job on what he has to do, but that's not going to motivate us necessarily to come out and vote like we did the last go around.

What does he need to do now? What does he need to do to get that kind of response from people?

PRESTON: This is two folds, right. Not only does he have to get the liberal base to embrace him and say, we're going to go out and knock on doors and make telephone calls and we are going to write 5, 10, 15, $20 checks to his campaign, right.

So he needs to get the base solidified. At the same time, he need to get independents to think that he is the one who is going to be able to fix the ills that's facing this country namely the economy.

If we look at where we are right now, the unemployment rate is at 8.5 percent, a lot better than it was a couple months ago, but what he needs more importantly than an unemployment rate at 8.5 percent or perhaps a little bit lower, he needs a trend line.

The trend line needs to go down. People need to look at President Obama and say, he's working. Things are starting to improve. He needs the trend line.

MALVEAUX: The one thing he does have going for him is he certainly does have the money. He's got a lot of money. The DNC has got a lot of support within the Democrats even though the liberal Democrats are still extremely frustrated with him in terms of his agenda not really matching their own agenda.

Romney has money as well. The other Republican candidates, how are they doing? How are they stocking up in terms of how they are going to go against potentially this Obama money machine?

PRESTON: Sure, so two-tiered. There was talk last year that the Obama campaign was going to raise a billion dollars and it was leaked out and the Obama campaign officials said that that is not true.

But however, it was a leaked number and it was perhaps attainable because if you look at what happened back in 2008, he raised over $740 million. He was just shy of a billion dollars.

He has the bully pull pit of the White House. He have people who's willing to want to give him money and he's not competing against Hillary Clinton or Joe Biden or Chris Dodd or anyone else for this cash of cash.

So what he needs to do at this point is to try to get that base solidified at the same time we have Mitt Romney who, let's assume that he's the nominee, he needs to get the Republican money base behind him.

Right now, Mitt Romney has $19 million cash on hand. Now, he has to spend money because he's in a tough primary and let's not forget about this one tier, the "Super PACs."

These are independent groups that are going to come in and they're going to spend a lot of money and they are going to run nasty, nasty ads. The Democrats are going to do it.

MALVEAUX: They have their own "Super PACs" on the other side.

PRESTON: Absolutely.

MALVEAUX: It's a very ugly situation and it's profound actually how it's changed the way we do politics and the way we elect our presidents, our leaders. The fact that you have these massively, unrestricted funded campaigns that they can weigh in so heavily.

PRESTON: So heavily --

MALVEAUX: And early on.

PRESTON: And early on and take -- look, this isn't new necessarily, but they are taking words out of context. They are putting them in these 30-second ads and blasting them out there and they are putting a lot of cash behind them.

MALVEAUX: All right, Mark, good to see you.

PRESTON: Good to see you, Suzanne.

MALVEAUX: All right, we'll be following it closely. Primary voters have told us that it's the economy and their family's financial health. It's the number one issues for the candidates.

So the so-called great recession, which officially ended back in 2009, it has now left almost one in two Americans in the poor or low-income categories. That is according to a new census measure.

That is 146,000 Americans now living in poverty and one out of three low-income. So what are we going to do about it? And our politicians are addressing it in the campaigns.

Tavis Smiley And Cornel West, they've been traveling across the country trying to bring the issue of poverty into the political conversation.

Tavis is the host of "Tavis Smiley Show" on PBS and radio on Public Radio International. Cornell West is a Princeton professor and author as well. Good to see you both here.

You have been on the frontlines. Tavis, I want to start with you. Take a look at his map. We're looking at this. This is the dark red. This shows the states that have the highest rate of poverty.

One of them is South Carolina, the next primary voting state. The rest of them, mostly in the south and southwest. Explain to us why that is the case right now.

TAVIS SMILEY, HOST, "TAVIS SMILEY SHOW" ON PBS: Too many Americans who live in certain regions of this country are suffering from the loss of manufacturing jobs, number one. This country is no longer the leader in the world when it comes to manufacturing.

But across the country, we see as you mention in that southern swing, number one, but in many of the key battle ground states, Suzanne, we see poverty as high as it has been in many years as well. So I think this issue has got to become an issue that gets some traction and get some conversation during this campaign.

I've said before that in the last race for the White House, Suzanne, you were at the White House at that time, in 2008, in those three presidential debates between Mr. McCain and Mr. Obama, the word poor did not come up one time.

The word poverty did not come up one time. Mr. McCain did not raise it. Mr. Obama did not raise it. The moderators in those debates did not even ask a question about poverty.

Fast forward very quick four years, you put the map up. You've seen the numbers. There's no way that we can abide or endure another race for the White House where poverty doesn't get discussed.

MALVEAUX: And I want to ask you -- we're going to bring in the politics later here. But we've seen a new Pew Research poll here. Nearly a third of Americans who were raised in middle class now, they do not make it into middle class as adults.

Back in 1979, being in the middle class family had to make between $33,000 and $64,000. Fast forward now, being in the middle class means making between 54,000 and $111,000.

SMILEY: That's right.

MALVEAUX: To Professor West, why do we think this is happening? If you're in the middle class you won't -- there's not a good chance you're even going to make it and stay there.

CORNEL WEST, PRINCETON PROFESSOR, AUTHOR: No. I think there's more and more limited opportunity. That's precisely why we're here. Brother Tavis is bringing together this high quality panel as you know tomorrow night on C-Span. And we're trying to bring minds together and say how is it so that so many poor people are continuing to work hard and still remain in poverty and the rich still get richer? That is, we need some kind of a class analysis to understand and agree to which one out of two Americans are living in poverty or near poverty.

We know that's a moral disgrace. We ought to be ashamed. What are we going to do about it? If you really believe as Brother Tavis and I do that poor people are as priceless and as precious as professors, talk show hosts, investment bankers, or anybody else.

MALVEAUX: Who are they? Who is the new face of the poor?

SMILEY: That's a proper question. The data that you just presented lays it out. The answer is simply this. The new poor in America are the former middle class. So often politicians on the left and the right taking heed from their pollsters want to talk about directly to the angst of the middle class voter.

This time around, that dog as they say in Texas, won't hunt because the new poor gain are the former middle class. Beyond, that the younger you are in this country, the more likely you are to be poor.

On top of that Pew study, Indiana University, the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at our request put out today, just released today a white paper that talks about how young people are falling faster into poverty.

Women and children are falling faster than anybody else. Even the numbers of the poor are still going to grow and we say it this way, Suzanne. You have the perennially poor, the near poor, and the poor.

we are going to talk about the politics of poverty else and quite frankly, even when this economy starts to uptick says this IU white paper, the numbers of the poor are still going to grow.

So the former middle class we say it this way, Suzanne, you have the perennially poor. You have the new poor and you have the near poor. That's what America is these days.

MALVEAUX: OK, and I want you guys to stay with us because we're going to talk about the politics of poverty. We're going to talk about some solutions here, and also about how the candidates are discussing the problem if they are even discussing the problem. We're going to continue our conversation after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

MALVEAUX: We're now heavy into the political season. We've heard a lot from the presidential hopefuls giving their ideas on the economy. Here are some of the more controversial statements.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) NEWT GINGRICH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Young children who are poor ought to learn how to go to work. It will be great if inner city schools and poor neighborhood schools actually hired the children to do things. Some of the things they could do is work in the library, work in the front office. Some of them, frankly, could be janitorial.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Democrats could very easily take that comment and say, Newt Gingrich wants inner-city kids to become janitors at age 10.

GINGRICH: That's a lie. Newt Gingrich wants inner-city kids to learn how to have a job.

RICK SANTORUM (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't want to make black people's lives better by giving them somebody else's money, I want to give them the opportunity to go out and learn the money.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: All right, so Tavis Smiley, Cornel West joining us again. They're been traveling across the country to try to bring the issue of poverty into the political conversation.

Tavis is the host of the "Tavis Smiley Show" on PBS and radio show on Public Radio International. Cornel West is a Princeton professor and author.

Those are comments that people found quite offensive and strange and we heard from some of the candidates who responded and actually retracted their comments. What do you make of them?

SMILEY: They would be laughable, Suzanne, if they weren't so serious, if the issue of poverty wasn't so serious and so devastating and growing. So exponentially those comments would almost be laughable.

What America suffers from -- Dr. West and I are working right now and we leave you we're going back to the table at the hotel. We've been working on trying to finish up the final edit on a new book coming out in April called "The Rich and The Rest of Us."

It's really a poverty manifesto. We argue in this book, will argue that what America suffers from, Suzanne, is not just a poverty of opportunity, but a poverty of imagination, a poverty of compassion, a poverty of vision.

We somehow have a poverty of a number of things and when you hear those kinds of comments that comes to mind immediately. There's no affirmation there. There's no vision there or imagination there.

These comments are playing to base voters and the bottom line is this. The bottom line is this, in Washington right now on the issue of poverty, there appears to be, Suzanne a bipartisan consensus that the poor don't really matter.

The spineless Democrats have not been as aggressive on this as they should be. Some exceptions, but by and large, they have not been as aggressive.

And if this is what you're getting from the Republicans who want to become president, demonizing, casting aspersion on, a verbal war against the poor. Well, that isn't the answer either.

MALVEAUX: Professor West, I want to bring you to the conversation here. Two things, are there any Republican presidential hopefuls that you have heard a message that seems to address the solutions to the problem of poverty and secondly, does the president, President Obama, is he doing enough to actually bring attention to this and address it?

WEST: No, I haven't seen a Republican candidate that hit this issue head on in the way that he or she ought. There's no doubt that President Obama is much better than the Republican candidates when it comes to the issues of justice.

It's just that in the end he has not had the kind of commitment that I think he ought to have especially if he had the same commitment to poor people than he had to the investment bankers. I think we'd be in better shape.

I think he needs to listen to the Bernie Sanders and Maxine Waters and Steven Cohen and others in his own party. He's been recently speaking in a very powerful way about jobs and that's a good thing to have Smiley and I applaud that.

When he sides with the poor, we're with him. When sides with the well to do and the powerful were critical of him, we support principles, not politicians. But certainly he's been at Republicans.

But for the most part, the best thing to happen to the issue of poverty is Tavis raised the issue, Amy Goodman raised an issue, Keith Oberman raised an issue. You raise an issue on your show and the Occupy Movement making sure that we talk seriously about poverty, wealth, and equality.

MALVEAUX: All right, we've got to wrap it there. Professor West, Tavis Smiley, thank you very much for your time and the conversation.

Moving on to a story. Her life cut short, but 30 years later, the investigation into Natalie Wood's death is now still ongoing. We're going to have the latest on that.

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MALVEAUX: We are keeping a close eye on the White House there. You see President Obama's just minutes away from making remarks. He's going to be talking about insourcing jobs, keeping jobs here in this country as opposed to providing them overseas. He's expected to talk about the state of the economy as well. This is all about his push to show voters that he is paying attention to the middle class, that he is concerned about the struggle that many Americans are feeling during these tough economic times. And, of course, it comes in the larger context of the 2012 presidential race. The campaign that is well underway. And we're going to bring that to you live as soon as it happens. See the journalists gathered there waiting for his remarks. I want to go to another story. Celebrity death, sex. The Natalie Wood story has all the elements, right, of a Hollywood drama, but did this story spin out of control? The actress died in 1981 while boating off the California coast with her husband Robert Wagner and fellow actor Christopher Walken. Well, two months ago, authorities re-opened that case, but now L.A. investigators say there's still no new leads and the captain of the boat, Dennis Davern, has openly accused Wagner and Walken of being responsible for Wood's death. I had a chance to talk to Davern about what he remembers about that terrible night.

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DENNIS DAVERN, CAPTAIN OF "THE SPLENDOR": And I said to Robert Wagner, I said, well, you know, let's turn on the search light to see if we can see her. And he says, no, we don't want to do that right now. I said, well, maybe let's call into the restaurant. And he said, no. He said, we don't want to do anything right at the moment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MALVEAUX: Investigators say that they are still digging into that case.

Now those words from Joran van der Sloot today. He says, I am really sorry for what happened. Van der Sloot pleaded guilty just a short time ago to all charges against him. Now this is in the killing of a Peruvian woman in May of 2010. He faces 30 years in prison. That is the maximum sentence for murder in Peru. But his lawyer hopes that this guilty plea is going to translate into a lighter sentence. Joran van der Sloot remains the main suspect in the 2005 disappearance of the Alabama teenager Natalee Holloway.

President Obama just minutes away from remarks on insourcing jobs. We're keeping our eye on the White House. As soon as that happens, we're going to bring it to you live.

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MALVEAUX: Let's go straight to President Obama at the White House.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And the most creative and innovative entrepreneurs in the world, and that is the United States of America. That's worth applause. That's exactly the kind of commitment to country that we need, especially right now when we're in a make or break moment for the middle class and those aspiring to get in the middle class here in the United States.

All across this country, I met folks who grew up with a faith that, in America, hard work paid off and responsibility was rewarded. And anybody could make it if they tried, no matter where you came from, no matter what you looked like, no matter how you started out. Those are the values that my grandparents and my mother taught me. Those are the values that built the best products and the strongest economy and the largest middle class that the world has ever known.

I think we understand that over the last few decades, that bargain has eroded for too many Americans. The economy has changed rapidly. And for many, that change has been painful. Factories where people thought they would retire packed up and went overseas, where labor costs were cheaper.

At the same time, we live in a global economy. And as other countries grow and develop middle classes of their own, of course global companies are going to pursue those markets and employ workers and make investments all over the world.

But right now, we're at a unique moment, inflection point. A period where we've got the opportunity for those jobs to come back. And the business leaders in this room, they're ahead of the curve. They recognize it.

I'll give you just a few examples. After shedding jobs for more than a decade, American manufacturers have now added jobs for two years in a row. That's good news. But when a lot of folks are still looking for work, now is the time for us to step on the gas. So that's why I pushed Congress to extend the payroll tax cut this year so that 160 million working Americans weren't hit with a tax hike. Now is the time to extend that middle class tax hike for -- tax cut for all of this year. It's the right thing to do and we need to get that done.

But we're going to have to do more. And that's why in the next few weeks we're also going to put forward new tax proposals that reward companies that choose to bring jobs home and invest in America. And we're going to eliminate tax breaks for companies that are moving jobs overseas because there is an opportunity to be had right here and right now. There are workers ready to work right now. That's why I set a goal of doubling our exports of goods and services by 2014.

And it's a goal, by the way, that we're on track to meet. In fact, we're a little ahead of schedule in meeting that goal. That's why, with the help of our outstanding USTR, I was able to sign trade agreements with Korea and Colombia and Panama, so our businesses can sell more goods to those markets. And that's why I've fought for investments in schools and community colleges, that our workers remain the best you'll find anywhere, and investments in our transportation and communication networks, so that your businesses have more opportunities to take root and grow.

I don't want American to be a nation that's primarily known for financial speculation and racking up debt buying stuff from other nations. I want us to be known for making and selling products all over the world stamped with three proud words "made in America." And we can make that happen.

I don't want the next generation of manufacturing jobs taking root in countries like China or Germany. I want them taking root in places like Michigan, and Ohio, and Virginia, and North Carolina. And that's a race that America can win. That's the race businesses like these will help us win. These are CEOs who take pride in hiring people here in America. Not just because it's increasingly the right thing to do for their bottom line, but also because it's the right thing to do for their workers, and for our communities, and for our country. And they're leading by example. I'm proud of that as an American. But as president, I also want to make sure they get some credit for it.

Just three years ago, for example, we almost lost the American auto industry. Today, the big three automakers are turning a profit and manufacturing the next generation of fuel-efficient cars that the rest of the world wants to buy. Ford Motor Company, that's represented by workers and management on this stage, has committed to investing $16 billion in the United States by 2015. $16 billion. And that includes bringing back about 2,000 jobs and shifting production from countries like Japan, Mexico, and China, to states like Michigan, and Ohio, and Missouri.

Master Lock. An iconic company. When Master Lock looked at their numbers, they saw that union workers in America could do the same job at competitive costs as non-union workers in China. In fact, Master Lock is now exporting their products from the United States to China and Europe. And today, for the first time in 15 years -- today for the first time in 15 years, Master Lock's Milwaukee complex is running at full capacity.

You don't have to be a big manufacturer to insource jobs. Bruce Cochran's (ph) family had manufactured furniture in North Carolina for five generations. But in 1966 -- 1996, rather, as jobs began shifting to Asia, the family sold their business and Bruce spent time in China and Vietnam as a consultant for American furniture makers who had shifted their production. While he was there, though, he noticed something he didn't expect. Their customers actually wanted to buy things made in America. So he came home and started a new company, Lincolnton Furniture, which operates out of the old family factories that had been shut down. He's even rehired many of the former workers from his family business.

You also don't have to be a manufacturer to insource jobs. You just heard Tim, CEO of a health care IT company in New Jersey called Galaxy Solutions. They've already hired 150 workers with their outsource to Detroit program. And they plan on hiring up to 500. And Tim was quoted as saying, you know, there are some really talented people in Detroit. And we're putting them back to work. So whether you're a small business that are -- some of which are represented here, or a large manufacturing corporation, or a technology company -

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MALVEAUX: President Obama there talking about insourcing. Making sure that jobs come back to this country and are not outsourced overseas. Part of a campaign, of course, to show voters that he's paying attention to the economy, as well as the middle class.

Our CNN NEWSROOM continues right now with Randi Kaye.

Hey, Randi.

RANDI KAYE, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, Suzanne. Thank you very much.