Return to Transcripts main page
CNN Newsroom
Hillary Clinton Campaigns in South Carolina; Bernie Sanders Behind in Polling in South Carolina; Chris Christie Endorses Donald Trump for President; Bill Clinton Speaks in Oklahoma; Melinda Gates Defends Common Core; Russell Simmons Organizes Comedic Movie Awards Show focusing on Race in Hollywood. Aired 10-11a ET
Aired February 27, 2016 - 10:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:00:20] CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Well, good morning and happy Saturday to you. So grateful for your company as always. I'm Christi Paul at the CNN center in Atlanta. And, of course, Victor Blackwell is not here.
VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, I'm live in Columbia, South Carolina, here on the campus of the University of South Carolina, as people across this state, Democrats are voting in the primary here. It is 10:00 eastern and the polls are open, voters trickling in. It's a big contest on the Democratic side. Republicans here voted last week. Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton fighting for every last vote here. So far Clinton is leading by a wide marge in the polls in South Carolina. She spent most of the week campaigning hard across this state. This afternoon, she's in Alabama, looking ahead to Super Tuesday. But she'll be back in South Carolina tonight for a watch party.
Now, for Bernie Sanders, there was a concert and rally here in South Carolina last night. He's also looking ahead, though, to Super Tuesday. He'll be campaigning in Texas today. He'll be in Minnesota tonight. CNN senior Washington correspondent Joe Johns is live from a polling station in Lexington, South Carolina. Joe, we understand there was a large number of absentee votes cast.
JOE JOHNS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Absolutely, that's right. Perfect day weather-wise for people to come out and vote here in South Carolina, at least this part of South Carolina. But absentee ballots apparently up quite high, 53,000 absentee ballots, we're told, have been returned to the state election commission. That is of just a little while ago, checking with them. And that number is up substantially over 2008, something like 35,000 were returned in that election.
So that's good news and bodes well for turnout here in the state of South Carolina and the Democratic primary even though authorities have suggested we will not see the kind of record turnout that the Republicans had during their primary last weekend.
We've seen a lot of African-American voters flowing through this polling station here in South Carolina. And that is what Hillary Clinton has been focusing on so much in the state, trying to get African-American voters to the polls to have a big turnout to make a statement going into Super Tuesday. And we listened a little bit to her last night in her closing arguments in Columbia, South Carolina.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
HILLARY CLINTON, (D) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Nobody is perfect. And nobody has a right to look down on anybody else.
(APPLAUSE)
CLINTON: So I need your help tomorrow. The South Carolina primary is personally important to me because I want to send a strong signal that South Carolina is ready for change, ready for progress.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JOHNS: So again, our new nugget this morning, 53,000 absentee ballots in South Carolina, that's according to the state's election commission. Obviously we don't know who the ballots were cast for because they will not be counting them or at least releasing the numbers until 7:00 eastern time when all of the voting has ended here in South Carolina. Victor, back to you.
BLACKWELL: All right, Joe Johns for us there in Lexington, South Carolina. Joe, thank you so much.
Now, of course, we've seen the race for the White House is heating up on both sides as the remaining candidates are looking ahead to Super Tuesday, just three day as way now. And many of the candidates see this as a do or die day for them. Here's the latest now from the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. MARCO RUBIO, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Friends, do not let friends vote for con artists.
DONALD TRUMP, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: He was so scared, like a little frightened puppy.
BLACKWELL: The rowdy Republican CNN debate spills on to the campaign trail, and Marco Rubio comes out swinging, taking aim at Donald Trump's tweets.
RUBIO: And I only reach two conclusion conclusions. Number one, that's how they spell the words at the Wharton School of Business where he went. Or, number two, just like Trump Tower, he must have hired a foreign worker to do his own tweets.
BLACKWELL: Then a former Trump rival hits back at Rubio.
GOV. CHRIS CHRISTIE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Marco Rubio, your campaign is almost over, buddy.
(APPLAUSE) CHRISTIE: He showed a lot of desperation today, throwing punches from every angle. But none of them are landing because America has made their decision.
BLACKWELL: And governor Chris Christie made his decision to endorse Donald Trump.
[10:05:04] CHRISTIE: Donald Trump represents strength and Marco Rubio represents Washington, D.C.
BLACKWELL: On the Democratic side, as polls open in South Carolina, the State Department releases another 1,500 pages of Hillary Clinton's e-mails with the final batch coming Monday.
MARK TONER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: We take our obligation to the court seriously and are we're making every effort to comply with the order.
BLACKWELL: And Bernie Sanders hopes to regain some of the momentum lost after the setback in the Nevada caucuses. Sanders rallying in Columbia and Orangesburg at the historically black Claflin University.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to earn the black vote. You don't own the black voters.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: Let's bring in Terry Alexander, South Carolina state representative and a Bernie Sanders supporter, Maria Cardona, CNN political commentator and Democratic strategist, also a Hillary Clinton supporter. And Terry, I want to start with you. Some of the have video we saw at the end of that piece was Claflin University yesterday. We know that Bernie Sanders typically has a strength among young voters, college students. The reporting is that there were fewer than half of the number of students expected there. And that they were expecting 450. There were about 200. And he is not as strong here among young college students, specifically African- American college students. Why?
TERRY ALEXANDER, (D) SOUTH CAROLINA STATE REPRESENTATIVE: I don't think that's really the case that he's not strong. He has a very strong following with the young African-American people here in the state of South Carolina. Why they didn't turn out at Claflin college, I don't know. Maybe there were a lot of things going on. But Bernie is resonating with those young folks. They want to see a change. They want something different to happen in Washington, D.C. They are tired of the same old business being led by the same old people.
And Bernie represents something new. He represents a revolution that's going to adjust how business is being done in Washington, D.C. And you can see that revolution taking place even in some of the remarks that Hillary Clinton is talking about. Now she's beginning to talk about those issues that Bernie has been talking about everywhere, not only in a black state of South Carolina, not in Harlem, but Bernie Sanders has been talking about that in Iowa, in New Hampshire. So he's been talking about those issues that are relative to the African- American community from the very beginning.
BLACKWELL: We'll see if the young voters show up at the polls today. Maria, let me come to you. Does this expectation that Hillary Clinton will win by a large margin hurt her potentially? Maybe some of the voters who were -- might have been excited if this were a much tighter race will stay home and maybe this margin will be much narrower than expected?
MARIA CARDONA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Certainly, that is not a message that the Hillary Clinton campaign has been putting out there. What they've been talking about from the beginning is she is hard at work earning and trying to appeal to every voter in South Carolina. She has spent the majority of her time in the last two weeks in South Carolina making the case for African-American voters, for white voters, for every person who lives in South Carolina and who has been hurt by this recovery that has not helped everybody.
And, you know, with all due respect to Mr. Alexander, these are not issues that are new to Mrs. Clinton. She has been talking about the issues for the past four decades since being in South Carolina in the '70s talking about juvenile justice reform, to health care for millions of kids in the '90s, to criminal justice reform in the Senate. The list goes on and on. And that's why you see a very robust support for Mrs. Clinton among African-Americans, including young African-Americans not just in South Carolina, but in other southern states, in Georgia, in Texas, in Louisiana, and all of that is going to help her moving into Super Tuesday.
BLACKWELL: Super Tuesday, let me ask about Super Tuesday. After New Hampshire, there was a strong narrative for Bernie Sanders. But after the loss in Nevada, the expected loss here, does he need make a change?
ALEXANDER: I think the loss in Nevada really wasn't a loss. Two weeks before the Nevada primary, he was down by 15, 18 points. And he narrowed that gap to five points. So it's really not a loss.
BLACKWELL: There's a winner, there's a loser.
ALEXANDER: I understand. I understand. But they expect him to lose by a larger margin. So him losing by vive percent to seven percent, in my mind, that is a victory for him and we're relying on that victory to take us not only here in South Carolina but across this state in terms of narrowing those margins that exist right now.
BLACKWELL: Maria, coming out to you, does Secretary Clinton have to adjust her campaign? We know that there have been rhetorical changes, and some attribute those to Senator Sanders. But does she need to adjust her campaign to attract more younger voters?
CARDONA: Well, I think that she has focused on doing exactly that, Victor. And she's been very open in terms of talking about it, that she's going to do everything that she can to appeal and to attract every voter.
But I think what is so interesting about what she is saying is that even if young voters don't support her, she's going to support them, meaning, she will continue to push policies that are going to help them pay for college, that are going to help them pay for their families once they have those young families.
[10:10:12] And while, you know, Mr. Sanders is focused on beautiful rhetoric, talking about a political revolution, which is wonderful to hear, Mrs. Clinton is focusing on real solutions instead of a revolution because that is what middle class families, young voters, Latinos, African-Americans want and deserve. They want real action and they want to see real change.
BLACKWELL: All the -- they will all be at the polls today. We have to wrap it there. Maria Cardona and Terry Alexander here with me in Columbia, thank you both.
ALEXANDER: Thank you.
CARDONA: Thank you.
BLACKWELL: Still ahead, Ron Brownstein is going to join us. He has written a piece for "The Atlantic" that says Trump is waging a two front war and winning. And then we'll talk with rapper Killer Mike about why African-Americans specifically should support Bernie Sanders. Two of them have been traveling across this state.
Also, you can't miss this. President Obama channels his inner Ray Charles.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BLACKWELL: A con artist, a liar, a choker, a lightweight, those are just a few of the insults flying between GOP frontrunner Donald Trump and the man who wants to beat him, Marco Rubio. The two are taking their fight from the CNN debate, what we saw Thursday night, now to the campaign trail where the mudslinging shows no signs of letting up. Here's Jim Acosta on their war of words.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Donald Trump trying to turn the page after CNN's fiery Republican debate, rolling out a jaw dropping endorsement from Chris Christie.
TRUMP: This was an endorsement that really meant a lot.
CHRISTIE: There is no better fighter than Donald Trump. He's going to fight for the American people.
TRUMP: Other than that, I rest my case.
ACOSTA: It was a deft move for Trump after he seemed rattled by a newly aggressive Marco Rubio at Thursday's debate.
[10:15:04] RUBIO: If he hadn't inherited $200 million, do you know where Donald Trump would be right now? Selling watches in Manhattan.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: That is so wrong.
ACOSTA: Rubio decided the only way to take down the frontrunner is match insult with insult.
RUBIO: Let me tell you something, last night in the debate during one of the breaks, two of the breaks, he went backstage. He was having a meltdown. First he had this little makeup thing applying like makeup around his mustache because he had a sweat mustaches.
(LAUGHTER)
RUBIO: Then -- then he asked for a full length mirror. I don't know because the podium goes up to here. But he wanted a full length mirror. Maybe to make sure his pants weren't wet. I don't know.
ACOSTA: In Texas, Rubio ridiculed his misspelling of the words "lightweight choker" in his post-debate tweets.
RUBIO: Here's the first one, "Lightweight Marco Rubio was working hard last night." This is true. "The problem is he is a chalker, and once a chalcker, always a chocker." I guess that's what he meant to say. He spelled "choker" c-h-o-k-e-r.
TRUMP: He was sweating so badly.
ACOSTA: Trump mocked the Florida senator as drowning in sweat backstage at the debates, badly in need of TV makeup.
TRUMP: I will not say that he was trying to cover up his ears. I need water. Help me. I need water. Help. When you're a choke artist, you're always a choke artist.
ACOSTA: It was a continuation of the alley fight that broke out during CNN's debate. On Obamacare, Rubio got the last word over who repeats himself the most.
RUBIO: That's the only part of the plan, just the lines?
TRUMP: The nice part did -- you have many different plans. You'll have competition. You'll have so many different plans.
RUBIO: Now he's repeating himself.
TRUMP: No, I'm not repeating. No. No.
(APPLAUSE)
TRUMP: Here's the guy that repeats himself.
RUBIO: You repeat yourself every day.
TRUMP: I watched him repeat himself five times four weeks ago.
RUBIO: I watched you repeat yourself five times five second ago. ACOSTA: Trump wondered whether Rubio will now land the support of the
last GOP nominee Mitt Romney. Romney, Trump joked, was never going to win in 2012.
TRUMP: When you walk onto a stage, you cannot walk like a penguin. He walked like a penguin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BLACKWELL: That was Jim Acosta reporting for us.
Now Donald Trump continues that frontrunner status, continues to hold on to that. There are a lot of people who see no way of stopping him on the way to the nomination. For "The Atlantic," we have Ron Brownstein who wrote this. He said that "Trump has displayed remarkably consistent support from voters across the GOP's ideological spectrum and has also run about as well among voters who are evangelicals as those are who are not." And we have Ron Brownstein us with because he is senior editor for "The Atlantic" and also a senior political analyst for CNN. Ron, I just want to start with this headline you write. Good morning you to. That Trump is winning a two front war. Explain for us.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN EDITOR, "THE ATLANTIC": Yes, he's doing something that John McCain and Mitt Romney could not do, which is he is winning on both sides of the GOP's demographic and ideological divide because his support fissures the party in different ways than we've seen before. The best way to understand Super Tuesday is a two front war. On the one hand you have a group of southern states that are heavily evangelical and heavily blue collar. So that is Arkansas, Alabama, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Texas. Victor, in all those states, at least 60 percent of voters last time were evangelical Christians and at least 50 percent were non-college voters. Donald Trump is very strong in all of those because, as we talked about before, he has broken Ted Cruz's hold on those evangelical voters or who are also blue collar and are responding to his populist messages, anti-elite, his, you know, attacks on trade and immigration.
And so if he can win those states against Ted Cruz in the south on one front of this war, I think it very hard for Cruz to go forward even if he holds his home state of Texas.
On the other side, you have northern and border Virginia, Vermont, and Massachusetts where they're smaller part of the population and they're much more white collar. And those are critical states where a John Kasich or a Marco Rubio, really anyone would want to hold that somewhat conservative, mainstream conservative part of the party. Romney and McCain won virtually all of those states in '08 and '12. And yet Trump is ahead in most of them as well, and the reason is because he is consolidating the blue collar voters in those states. And as we talked about before, the white collar side remains fragmented.
So he is in position to do something on Tuesday that neither McCain nor Romney could do, which is win at both ends of this geographic and demographic divide, and in the process, I think demonstrate how big a hill his opponents face in trying to stop him from the nomination.
BLACKWELL: Trump's critics have said repeatedly that they're looking for a candidate who can bring the party together. Maybe they already have that candidate, and his name is Donald Trump.
I want to play for you something that the daughter of former governor and presidential candidate Mike Huckabee said. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
[10:20:002] UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I don't think it's good for anybody. I think it's unfortunate the nature of politics seems to create this type of tension. I think the person ultimately sadly ends up being at times good for is Hillary Clinton.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: She says she doesn't like the infighting. However, she is supporting Donald Trump. I want to ask about Marco Rubio's new strategy. There are some voters who are not considering voting for Trump because they don't like the street fighter style. How does Marco Rubio attract those voters by adopting that style?
BROWNSTEIN: That's a great question. I think there is significant resistance still to Trump in the party. There is no question in particular if you look at college educated voters, postgraduate voters, they are much less supportive of his agenda, a temporary ban on Muslim, mass deportation. They're also less likely to view him as someone with the temperament to be president. But that is the constituency that is most available for Marco Rubio. There's no question about it.
His bigger problem, as we talked about last week, is I think he has been pitching his agenda several clicks to the right of where those voters are and has left a lot of space for John Kasich as a more moderate alternative. But I think you're right. He has essentially decided very belatedly, I think at the 11th hour with the Super Tuesday and March 15th, perhaps even more important looming, to go after Trump full throttle. But in the process, I think does he raise some of the same questions that are holding the voters back about Trump, about temperament.
Having said that, I think the Trump issue is much larger for those kinds of mainstream conservative white collar voters who still, I think, the biggest hurdle they have is envisioning Donald Trump actually functioning as president.
BLACKWELL: Let's listen something Governor Chris Christie said long before he endorsed Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CHRISTIE: Donald is a great guy and good person. But I just don't think he's suited to be president of the United States.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why? CHRISTIE: I don't think his temperament is suited for, I don't think
his experience is. He has great experience in doing things in business. But I'll give you an example. If he doesn't give what he wants from John Boehner, he can't fire him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Obviously change in tone from Chris Christie. But I want you to answer this. What does he bring, his endorsement? We know what Sarah Palin brought. She helped with the questions about his conservative bona fides in Iowa. Jerry Falwell helped with the questions from evangelicals. Trump doesn't need an attack dog. What does Chris Christie bring?
BROWNSTEIN: He brings some credibility from elected officials. That's been the big missing piece. Donald Trump, the winner of New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada virtually no endorsements from sitting elected officials. In fact a fabulous story in "The New York Times" on the enormous anxiety among Senate Republicans and the discussions of perhaps cutting Donald Trump loose if he is the nominee underscores to what extent he would represent a leap into the electoral unknown for the Republican Party. He does bring the possibility of mobilizing a lot of blue collar white voters, older white voters. He also risks stamping the GOP as a party of racial backlash to the growing populations of minorities and millennials. You have a lot of Republicans deeply anxious about that.
So to begin to see a process of prominent elected officials like Chris Christie saying no, no, no. It's OK. We can take this leap. That I think that helps Trump with the kind of voters we have been talking about, those mainstream conservative, mostly white collar voters outside of the south in the big suburb areas of the country who have been resistant to him in polling.
BLACKWELL: Three days until Super Tuesday. Ron Brownstein, thank you so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thank you, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Still to come, as Bernie Sanders struggles to gain the black vote, or at least grow that share of his support, a rapper Killer Mike says Sanders is the best choice. He'll join us in a moment.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:27:25] BLACKWELL: I'm Victor Blackwell live from the campus of the University of South Carolina here in Columbia. The polls here are open across this state, Democrats choosing their choice for the nomination. Bernie Sanders is in Super Tuesday states today, Texas, Minnesota, will not be returning to South Carolina this evening as the results come in. Hillary Clinton will be here for a watch party. I want to bring in one of Sanders' supporters, Atlanta musician and rapper Mike Render, also known professionally as Killer Mike. Good to have you this morning.
MICHAEL "KILLER MIKE" RENDER, RAPPER AND MUSIC ARTIST: Hey. How are you doing? Glad to be here.
BLACKWELL: I'm doing well. Let me ask you about this event. We put the video up here. It was a rally at Claflin University in Orangeburg. The reporting there is that there was a much smaller crowd expected, one of the smallest crowds that he has received recently. But this is supposed to be his stronghold, young people, college students. Why is he struggling here? This is not what we saw for Clinton when she was in South Carolina state.
RENDER: She has campaigned here a few times. Her husband campaigned here. But I dare to say kids were in school. I was on the college campuses yesterday. And throughout the college campuses, I saw Bernie buttons. I saw kids walking up saying I'm voting for him. They were walking down the street going to vote. So the narrative that I think I've seen on the grassroots and ground level is far different. I haven't watched much television, so I don't know the story as it's playing out in the media. But as I'm meeting people on the ground here, younger people overwhelmingly are voting Bernie.
BLACKWELL: I want you to read something I read in "The Daily Beast" from a CNN contributor. Let's put it up on the screen here. He writes, speaking of Bernie Sanders, "From his bouts with the president to the laws he contested to the company he keeps, Sanders raises alarm bells for Obama supporters, especially those from the African-American community." One of the surrogates, one of the supporters, Cornell West, who has been very controversial, very critical of the president, is he the right ambassador to African-Americans for Bernie Sanders?
RENDER: Is Cornell West?
BLACKWELL: Yes.
RENDER: I think Cornell West is a great ambassador not only for African-Americans, for human beings. I want to encourage African- Americans, as we look at our history, let's look at it truthfully. Martin Luther King said that there is a revolution that needs to happen. And people in Atlanta at the time said we have to figure it out. Go to Alabama and get it figured out. He went to Alabama. He was called a radical. He was told he was out of line with the black middle class. And he fought through it.
[10:30:00] In the last years of his life, in fighting for the poor people's campaign and the rights of workers, he was ostracized. He was broke. He was abandoned by many who had been his supporters. I would rather be on the side of someone who matches with Dr. King's philosophy like a Cornell West in terms of if you're not radically shaking up something, not much is happening. If you guy are familiar with the labor figure called Lucy Parsons. She said the smallest progress happens after the most noise, the most shaking that you can do. So I would just like to encourage us to support all our leaders. That includes our president of the United States, but it really includes our more radical people that are willing to shake things up with us. Dr. West is one of those people.
BLACKWELL: And part of your introduction last night, you said if people tell you are wrong, walk passed your mother, walk passed other members of your family. Do you think is a natural resistance to Bernie Sanders and to his message that some of the younger supporters who might consider voting for him have to get passed older voters, older African-Americans?
RENDER: I don't think older voters resist his policy. I think his policy is firmly in line with what civil rights and firmly in line with abolitionists 100 years before, and firmly in line with human rights. I think that what we are afraid of is the Democratic Party for the last 51 years have been black people's only protection against miss-use of us against laws that we're racist, against people that were mean and evil. I think that the Democratic Party, as good of a job as they've done, they have a lot to go, a long way to go.
I think that our standards, however high, could be raised higher. I think that we could require more of the party we toe the line for. And I think that if you give me $12, $15 as an option. I think that if you say, hey, we'll look into reversing some of the crime deals that have caused an inordinate amount of black men to be locked up, I think it's fair to say we'll decrease the prison population. So I'm not saying good isn't good. I'm saying good isn't good enough. We should expect great out of this great party.
BLACKWELL: Killer Mike, Mike Render, good to have you with us this morning. I appreciate the conversation.
RENDER: Thank you. Thank you so much.
BLACKWELL: All right, thank you so much. As South Carolina is turn to cast the ballots for the Democratic presidential nominee, coming up, we'll talk to voters to find out how they're making that decision. We'll also take a look at who is picking up support from African- American voters across South Carolina in the last few hours.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:35:18] BLACKWELL: Voting today in South Carolina, but the candidates are looking ahead to Super Tuesday. You see here on the right of your screen former president Bill Clinton. He is in Edmond, Oklahoma, campaigning for his wife at the University of Central Oklahoma. Let's listen in for a moment.
BILL CLINTON, (D) FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: They say they want to build walls. She said, no, let's don't' do that. Let's build ladders of opportunity and empowerment and tear down barriers.
(APPLAUSE)
BILL CLINTON: They say they want to make America great again. She said, I don't think we ever stopped being great. We stopped being whole. Let's make America whole again and let everybody go along for the ride.
Let's get the incomes up, first of all, creating more good jobs and jobs in areas that have less than average wages. And jobs cannot be sent overseas. Let's begin with a big plan to modernize our infrastructure and maximize our potential to be the clean energy superpower of the world.
Your neighbor, I think it is interesting that your neighbor, Texas, which brags on being the oil capital of the universe, is only of only three states that already gets more than a third of its electricity from the wind. One of those states, Iowa, pays the lowest electric rates in America. There is no accident that they're growing like crazy. And we still need the oil because if you got any clothes on, chances are it has some petroleum in it.
So we got to do this. If we put up 500 million solar panels in the in the next four years, that will create a lot of jobs in America. If we modernize our roads and bridges and ports and the stuff underground, it will create a lot of jobs.
I know you were all upset by what you saw in Flint, Michigan. You couldn't be a person and not be upset. But what you need to know is it is far from the only place in America where children have elevated lead levels in their blood. It is everywhere in America where there are old lead pipes that have been allowed to rust out because we were too short sighted to modernize what is under the ground, and that's a big part of her program, too. If you --
(APPLAUSE)
BLACKWELL: Former president Bill Clinton there campaigning for his wife on the campus of the University of Central Oklahoma there in Edmond, Oklahoma. Now, Secretary Clinton expected to win here in South Carolina in part due to the strong support she has from the African-American community here. A recent CNN/ORC poll found that 65 percent of black likely voters here support Clinton, over 28 percent who support Bernie Sanders. Now that's a far cry from the last time Clinton campaigned here eight years ago when then Senator Barack Obama won by 28 points.
Now, some attribute that in part to the harsh comments from President Bill Clinton and Senator Clinton. So how did the Clintons win back South Carolina's black voters? Let's bring in our CNN political commentator Charles Blow. Charles, good to you have here. So I want to take people back to 2008 and hear what was at the center of the controversy. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL CLINTON: You SAID 2004 there was no difference between you and George Bush on the war. And you took that speech and you're running on that off your Web site in 2004. And there is no difference in your voting record and Hillary's ever since. Give me a break.
CLINTON: Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a movement. He was gassed. He was beaten. He was jailed. And then he worked with President Johnson to get the civil rights laws passed because the dream couldn't be realized until finally it was legally permissible.
BILL CLINTON: Jesse Jackson won South Carolina twice in '84 and '88. And he ran a good campaign, and Senator Obama has run a good campaign here. He's a good candidate with a good organization. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACKWELL: Those comments angered a lot of people. It even led South Carolina Representative Jim Clyburn who now has endorsed Hillary Clinton this year to say this about President Clinton.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. JIM CLYBURN, (D) SOUTH CAROLINA: He needs to chill a little bit. And I hope he understands what that means. You get excited in the campaigns. I can understand he wanted to defend his wife's honor and his own record, and that is to be expected. But you can do that in a way that won't engender the kind of feelings that seem to be bubbling up as a result of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[10:40:04] BLACKWELL: So, Charles, how did the Clintons win back the support of black voters here in South Carolina?
CHARLES BLOW, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, I think it's a lot of things happening. First of all, two people running are very different. So Bernie Sanders doesn't have the kind of -- he doesn't have the presence that Barack Obama, and neither one of these guys have the charisma of Barack Obama. But also, you know, there was kind of a historical resonance for a lot of black voters that if nominated and elected, become first black president. That was a very strong appeal for him, particularly after he had won Iowa.
But in addition to that I think a lot of people look at her coming on to this administration and being loyal to him as a way of, you know, looking at it this time around as repaying that loyalty in some way. Whether or not you agree with that, that they should do that, I think that is a sentiment that exists, that it kind of makes up for whatever happened in the election, they got over it. Those two are able to get over it themselves, then maybe question get over it. I think that exists in the body politics. So all of that is happening.
I think, you know, in 2008, it was such a shock to the Clinton system, both of them, that he was able to win both in Iowa but also in the south. If you look at the last 40 years of Democratic nominees from the south, southerners do incredibly well. So you have -- you have Carter, Clinton, Gore. They all won every southern state. Carter didn't win West Virginia. He wasn't in West Virginia. People who are not from the south do not do that well. I think when you were coming to South Carolina and you realize she's not going to be able to win every southern state, which is I think what they were counting on. They count on that history. You saw the crack. And you saw there was a big shock by it in a way.
BLACKWELL: Let me show you something else that I think shocked the senator -- sorry, the secretary. When we saw just earlier this week Black Lives Matter protester who showed up at a private event holding a sign saying "We need to bring them to heal," referencing a statement she made back in 1996 supported the crime bill that passed. She then wrote in or told "The Washington Post," put up that on the screen. I think we have the wrong thing up here. What she said is "I should not have used those words and I would not use them today. Unfortunately, today there are way too many of those kids, especially in African- American communities who say we haven't done right by them. We need to." Is that enough? Has she solved that issue with the Black Lives Matter movement? And people still have questions about the crime Bill.
BLOW: Well, I mean, my feelings of it may be different from South Carolina voters. I believe that if you say something out of your mouth that's wrong, then you need to say something out of your mouth to fix it. This idea of issuing a statement rather than giving the clip that will be on sound, that is a strategic move, right? You don't want to be in the middle of a campaign saying apologize for something. Even that statement doesn't apologize. She said I shouldn't have used that statement. It doesn't say that after advocating for that bill was a problem, which I believe it was. Even Bill Clinton said that, her husband who signed that bill into the law said before the NAACP that it made the situation worse, not better.
I think at some point she has to come to terms and say that. I don't think she'll say it in the middle of a political campaign. But she's had 20 years to deal with that and has not, and has been in front of many black audiences and could have done it. You know, so my feeling is I would like for you -- there to be some atoning for what -- for some of the policy positions that you advocated in front of a camera, out of your mouth, because you said things out of your mouth that advocated those positions. So I think there should be some reckoning.
BLACKWELL: This is not the last time the black voters will be a large part of the Democratic electorate. She's got to go all across the south and up the east coast. So we'll see if that comes. Charles Blow, good to you have here in Columbia.
BLOW: Good to see you.
BLACKWELL: Quick break and we'll be back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[10:47:44] PAUL: It's 47 minutes past, and bashing Common Core education standards seems to have become a staple for almost every Republican candidate, the controversial way to evaluate students, schools, teachers. It started under the Bush administration. And now conservatives are one of the biggest opponents. There is a woman, though, who is making it part of her life's work to support that curriculum. In an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, Melinda Gates explains why she backs Common Core.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ERIN BURNETT, CNN ANCHOR: All right, another thing that you have fought passionately for and made a very, very big impact with is Common Core, which is obviously, a set of standards in education in the United States where it says by a certain age or certain grade level you need to be able to do certain things. And part of it stems from, to use the pun, the fact that American kids are way behind in STEM, science, technology engineering, and math. And a way to fix that is say you need to be able to do fractions by this age. You need to be able to do things. It sounds very uncontroversial but it has become incredibly controversial. I'll just play for you a couple things that have been said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CRUZ: If I'm elected president, I will direct the U.S. Department of Education that Common Core ends today.
TRUMP: So Common Core is a total disaster. We can't let it continue.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Whether you hear those comments, what do you say?
MELINDA GATES, CO-FOUNDER, BILL AND MELINDA GATES FOUNDATION: I say, don't we want kids to learn what they need to learn to participate in the economy and in society long term? We know U.S. kids are behind the other nations both in reading and in math and in science. So if they need to learn what is important to learn to be part of the information age and to go on to get a great job, to me that just makes sense.
And the other thing, it's almost like we forgotten history. It was over 40 governors at the state level who decided they want Common Core. So it's funny to me that we're talking about this from a federal level when it's actually the states that decided and that are implementing it. The other thing that is interesting is the more teachers are teaching to the Common Core, they're saying that they're seeing the benefit of it and they're actually seeing their kids advance. To me the evidence is there that it should take hold and it will.
BURNETT: So this whole it's coming from the fed and pushing this down on everybody is just not accurate?
[10:50:00] GATES: No. When you're in the schools, Bill and I were out in Kentucky this past fall, it's been this past fall, it's been the state that's been implementing the Common Core the longest, and guess what, it's the state getting the biggest gains in reading and math across the nation. So when you talk to the teachers, they say we don't even listen to what's going on at the national level. We're just teaching what makes sense in the classroom and this is working for our kids. So I'd rather trust the teachers than I would, you know, some noise going on a political level.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: Erin and Gates discussed so much more, including a topic she's really passionate about, which is poverty. You can see that entire interview at CNN.com/UpFront.
You know, a music mogul has his own answer to this Oscar controversy that we've been seeing bubble up. Coming up, how Russell Simmons plans to use comedy to make his point about race in Hollywood. And at the top of the hour, live coverage of the vote in South Carolina today.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
PAUL: Def Jam recording mogul Russell Simmons is addressing the Oscars controversy with his own award show. He put together the "All Def Movie Awards," really very quickly in 10 days, I think he said. He wants to in part use comedy to highlight the issues of diversity in Hollywood. I talked to him about it a little bit earlier regarding using humor to open up that dialogue.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
[10:55:08] PAUL: I understand there were words such as best picture, best actor, best actress, best producer, a lifetime achievement award for Will Smith. There are other parts, right, that were a bit of -- it is fair to call it a parody of the Oscars in such that there were awards such as the best black survivor in a movie and best helpful white performance award? At the end of the day, I know that it's a serious topic, but how do you think those comedic elements help us further this conversation?
RUSSELL SIMMONS, CO-FOUNDER, DEF JAM RECORDINGS: Realize that comedy, poetry, art, expression is always the best way to broach these subjects. The poets also and the artists also reach inside themselves and then find the real inspiration that comes from inside. So I think it's great to do it in a funny way. Can you say things that are more cutting, biting, inspiring, uplifting through art. And so comedy is a way to really express a lot of what I believe we want to express. So the segregation in Hollywood has run so deep it's shocking. There's not a person of color that can green-light a movie.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
PAUL: He has so much to say. You can see my full interview with him tomorrow at 6:00 a.m. on "New Day Weekend." It really -- it gives you something to think about, certainly.
Also, I want to let you know that Don Lemon and Michaela Pereira are going to be on the Oscars red carpet for Hollywood's biggest night tomorrow at 6:00 p.m. eastern, and you can see it there. We hope you'll be with us tomorrow morning. We'll be back here then. Right now we can say good-bye to you, and hey, Victor.
BLACKWELL: Thank you, Christie. I'll be back with you tomorrow in Atlanta. But coming up in just the next couple of minutes, CNN Newsroom continues with Fredricka Whitfield here live from Columbia, South Carolina, covering the Democratic primary. Stay with us. Quick break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
