Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Op-Ed Says Obama Is Wrong, The Democrats Are Not Too Far Left; Kurds Say They Feel Betrayed by President Trump; New Explosion at Texas Plant after Huge Blast This Morning; Fans Flood GoFundMe of Underdog Who Beat Duke. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired November 27, 2019 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: In the race for 2020 new CNN national poll numbers revealing some big changes between the moderates and the progressives just in the past month. So when you look at Senator Elizabeth Warren, she slipped five points battling for second place with Senator Bernie Sanders and then South Bend, Indiana, Mayor, Pete Buttigieg rising in ranks since October at 11 percent. But what hasn't changed is former Vice President Joe Biden he leads the field by double digits at 28 percent.

And my next guest wrote this opinion piece for CNN.com about this uncertainty over what Democratic voters want in 2020. Someone who can appeal to a moderate swing voter or more of a leftist changemaker? And journalist David Love is with me now. He's also an adjunct professor at Temple University and Rutgers University. And so David, pleasure to have you back, welcome back.

DAVID LOVE, CONTRIBUTOR, "THEGRIO", "ATLANTA BLACK STAR", "PHILADELPHIA CITIZEN": Thanks, Brooke. It's a pleasure to be with you.

BALDWIN: So you wrote this in part as a response to some comments that President Obama had made at a top donor fundraiser earlier in the month where Obama warned against veering to the left and claimed the quote/unquote average American doesn't want, quote, completely tear down the system and remake it. And you, sir, see evidence of otherwise. So let's start there. Make your case.

LOVE: Yes. Well, you know, I think when you look at the situation in the U.S., people want change. You know, over the past few years, people have been suffering under the Trump administration. When you look at this country, the fact of the matter is that this country has the most economic inequality of any advanced nation. People are suffering. They want change. And I think that the Democrats, the Democratic establishment, might be -- you know, sounding the alarms a little too prematurely and I think they are misreading the situation, the sentiment of people in this country.

The fact is that when you look at polls, various polls, people want more of a government role in their lives. Whether it's fighting climate change.

[15:35:00]

Whether it's dealing with the 1.5 trillion dollars in student debt. Whether it's dealing with health care, affordable health care. People want these things.

BALDWIN: But -- but, I hear you on people wanting change and this is where I play devil's advocate. And of course, you know, then Senator Obama ran on change. Right? I mean there is change then there's change. Because when you look at this CNN poll there's another takeaway, 56 percent of potential Democratic voters say that they prefer a policy approach that is most likely to become law. Meaning that you know it'd be some sort of compromise, where Democrats and Republicans could actually get together and get something done. Versus a policy approach that would be such massive reform, massive change, that it would overhaul something altogether.

And so I think what I'm hearing you throw down here is you know the majority of Americans actually don't agree with you. Aren't they saying that there is such a thing as such a candidate as too far left?

LOVE: I really don't think so. I mean, I think that what the Democrats are witnessing right now is their resurgence in a sense that they are going back to their roots. Going back to the legacy of FDR. You know, the New Deal, Social security, Medicare. I think that it would be a big mistake for Democrats to go -- to veer away from that.

The fact of the matter is that Democrats are doing very well. They won the Congress and I think that that was a mandate, really, a sense that people want change, and it would be a big mistake for Democrats to think that they can somehow combat a far right wing Republican government in the form of the Trump administration by providing milquetoast, lukewarm policy solutions that are not going to energize the base.

And we have to remember, African-Americans, people of color, progressive whites, they are the people who are responsible for the Democrats being in power right now. And the Democratic establishment, they haven't really provided any proof that these, you know, middle of the road policies are what people want. I don't know how you fight against the policies in the Trump administration, such as, you know, putting brown children in cages, I don't know how you combat that with a middle of the road point of view

BALDWIN: I hear you, I hear you and I think that's the million-dollar question. Right, to fight if you're a Democrat, to take Trump out. Do you fight fire with fire? In the sense, of this extreme right wing you know sort of President, do you fight with the far left, which is what you're advocating or someone more in the middle to grab those independent voters and folks who maybe aren't on the Trump train?

It's the question we're going to keep asking and keep talking about for the months to come until next November. David Love, thank you so much though for sharing your opinion and I am sure we will talk again. Good to have you on. LOVE: It's my pleasure. Thanks for having me.

BALDWIN: Coming up next -- thank you -- this powerful explosion at a Texas chemical plant caught on tape moments ago. The fire has been burning since early this morning. We'll have an update on the efforts to put this thing out, next.

[15:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Two months ago President Trump ordered U.S. troops out of northern Syria paving the way for a deadly incursion by Turkey. Nearly 200,000 Kurds were forced out of their homes, many of them are now living in makeshift camps. And as CNN's Clarissa Ward found they say they feel betrayed by President Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CLARISSA WARD, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Class should be in session now, but here in Al-Hasakah, the school has become a temporary shelter for displaced people.

In one classroom, we met Ibrahim Hassan, the Kurdish father of five tells us he was forced to flee his home in Al-Rashidin with his children when the Turkish military operation began.

In This is what remains of his house. Ibrahim says it is one of his Kurdish neighborhood that was deliberately ransacked by Turkish-backed forces.

IBRAHIM HASSAN, DISPLACED SYRIAN KURD (through translator): They took everything, and after they took all our belongings, they set it on fire and burned it all.

WARD: Just days before the offensive began, Ibrahim's children had posed smiling with U.S. troops patrolling the area. He says America's presence gave him a false sense of security and then suddenly they were gone.

HASSAN (through translator): Since America betrayed us, every time I look at these photos of my children with the Americans, I want to erase them.

WARD (on camera): Do you feel that you trust the Americans still?

HASSAN: (Speaking in foreign language)

WARD: Definitely not.

HASSAN (through translator): Now we hear and we see on television America saying that they're only here for the oil. Why did Trump do this? You've betrayed all the people.

WARD (voice-over): It's a sentiment we found shared by many here. Nearly 200,000 people have been displaced by Turkey's offensive. Hundreds of their homes have been damaged or looted. Local authorities are now trying to move them out of the schools so that class can start again and into hastily built camps like this one. Conditions are bleak and resources are scarce.

[15:45:03]

Because of the security situation, international aid agencies have had to pull out, leaving the Kurds with no one to rely on but themselves.

(on camera): So she is saying it's really difficult here because it's very cold, especially at night. They don't have enough food. They don't have electricity and the water is not good.

(voice-over): Camp organizers say there are 3,000 people living here now, with more arriving every day.

(on camera): Almost everyone in this camp is from the town of Ras al- Ain, and Ras al-Ain used to be around 75 percent Kurdish.

Now, though, we're told there are just a handful of Kurds left. And the people here believe that the ultimate goal of this Turkish offensive is to essentially push the Kurds out of this area completely and change the ethnic makeup of it forever.

(voice-over): Turkey has done little to alleviate their fears, as the Kurds have poured out of these areas, Arabs have been bussed in. Syrian refugees who Turkish authorities claim are originally from these areas.

After more than 8 years of civil war, this part of Syria is full of stories of people forcibly displaced. In the Christian village of Tel Nasri, we find more families from Ras al-Ain sheltering in the ruins of a destroyed church.

Will you try to go home, I ask these women. There is no home to go to, they reply.

ISIS cleansed this area of Christians when it was in control. They have yet to return. Now, the village provides refuge for another people, forced from their homes with no sense of a possible return.

Clarissa Ward, CNN, northern Syria.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Clarissa, thank you for that.

Multiple stories breaking today on Rudy Giuliani's ties to Ukraine. The President's personal attorney was reportedly trying to get hundreds of thousands of dollars in contracts there at the same time pushing Ukrainians to investigate the Bidens. We have those new details ahead.

[15:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) BALDWIN: Want to take you now to Texas to some breaking news out of Port Neches where a chemical plant fire that started this morning has already

injured three people. Obviously, quite a dangerous situation. And this is video of a second explosion that just happened moments ago. So Ed Lavandera is up on this for us. And so, Ed, are people OK? What is the situation with the fire?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's still a volatile situation down there. This is a plant just south of the Beaumont, Texas, area, and you could see the intensity of that fire that has been burning since just after 1:00 this morning. So we're into almost 14 hours of this fire burning down there. Air monitoring is being done.

The plant is run by a company called TPC Group and they say that three people were injured, two employees suffered fractures and another employee suffered burns. All three of those workers have been treated and released from area hospitals.

But the explosions have just been stunning. Extensive damage in the area surrounding this chemical plant. In fact, many of the explosions -- the explosion this morning was caught on front porch cameras that showed the shockwave cutting through these neighborhoods, buckling ceilings, blowing open garage doors, and the front doors of homes.

Extensive damage, the company says it's setting up an insurance claims hotline so that residents there can start calling in as well. But still they say that they do not know what the cause of this fire is and that right now they're just working to contain it and they will have to let the chemicals in those tanks burn themselves out at this point. And that right now they're in the mode of containing to make sure they don't spread to other tanks in that chemical plant facility -- Brooke.

BALDWIN: Crazy to look at all that smoke. Ed, keep watching it for us, thank you very much, in Texas.

Coming up next, his last second layup beat Duke in this massive upset. So why did fans start giving him thousands of dollars afterward? Stay with us for this amazing story.

[15:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: It is the upset of the year so far in college basketball as a Carolina grad -- I will do my best to be straight about this. Top- ranked Duke losing to Stephen F. Austin, 85-83 on a last-second layup in overtime. Roll it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- they just couldn't secure it. Loose. Kensmil's got it. They got a timeout. They don't use it. Bain. Yes! The Lumberjacks have done it. (END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: The Lumberjacks have done it. The loss snaps Duke's 150 game non-conference winning streak at home, a streak that dates back to 2000, folks. The player who made it happen Nathan Bain is from Freeport, Bahamas. And back in

September his family lost almost everything in Hurricane Dorian at the time. His athletic department launched a GoFundMe --

[16:00:00]