Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) On Trump Impeachment, No Acquittal Without A Trial; Fourteen-Year-Old Arrested In New York City College Freshman's Murder; Former Friends Turned Rivals Waging Political War; Will Bloomberg Qualify For Next Debate In Las Vegas; Buttigieg Only Candidate At Latino Conference That Could Name Mexican President; Biden Optimistic Nevada Will Launch Him Into First; Jamilah Lemieux, A Surrogate For Warren, Discusses Why She Supports The Campaign & Bill Maher Saying People Don't Want A Democrat Pushing "Too Far Out, Left, Wokey Stuff". Aired 3-4p ET

Aired February 15, 2020 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:03]

MAX FOSTER, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: We look at how the two princes came together and then drifted apart.

Max Foster, CNN, Kensington Palace, London

ANA CABRERA, CNN HOST: All right. Be sure to tune in to an all new CNN original series, "The Windsors: Inside the Royal Dynasty." That premieres tomorrow at 10:00 p.m. Eastern and Pacific only on CNN.

Hello on a Saturday, I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

And we begin with a CNN exclusive, Nancy Pelosi speaking candidly about President Trump's impeachment. The House speaker insists that Trump was not acquitted, doubling down on her stance that you can't be acquitted if there was no trial.

In a sit-down interview with our Christiane Amanpour, Pelosi also defends her decision to rip up the president's State of the Union speech.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): I had no intention of doing that when we went to the State of the Union. That was well into -- past the first third of it. Now, I'm a speed reader so I was reading ahead, I knew what was there. And I got past like about a third of it and I thought this is terrible. I made a niche in a couple pages thinking you ought to remember what's on this page, on this page, and then I realize that most every page had something in it that was objectionable.

CHRISTIANE AMANPOUR, CNN CHIEF INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: What about, though, the fact that the president seems liberated and this is about Democratic politics, so I'm not asking you to criticize here, but he was acquitted, his poll ratings are high -- PELOSI: He was not -- there was no acquittal unless you have a trial. And you can't have a trial if you don't have witnesses or documents. So he can say he's acquitted and the headlines can say acquitted but he's impeached forever, branded with that and not vindicated. And even the senators were saying, yes, t wasn't right but didn't have the courage to act upon that.

AMANPOUR: Except for?

PELOSI: Except for Mitt Romney, God bless him. And then the president criticized him for using his faith to do something he knew was wrong. How could you -- well, I don't know if the person -- if the president is a person of faith. It's not for me to make that judgment.

AMANPOUR: He criticized you about saying that you pray for him as well.

PELOSI: I said I did pray for him. But I felt like if he is a person of faith, he would recognize another person of faith. And if he prayed, he would recognize that other people do, even for him.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Jeremy Diamond joins us now from Washington.

And, Jeremy, Pelosi continues to criticize the president who appears empowered by the outcome of the impeachment proceedings.

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: He certainly is, Ana. But let's look at the facts first because of what the speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, is saying here. Let's be clear. President Trump was acquitted by the Senate. Now, the speaker of the House can quibble whether or not that was a fair acquittal or not, but he was indeed acquitted by the Senate under the constitutional process of impeachment.

But the president certainly has become more emboldened since that acquittal and he has been unapologetic about his behavior in this Ukraine scandal that even those Republicans who did vote to acquit the president have called problematic and not perfect, as the president himself has claimed.

The president in the wake of that acquittal, he has been on a bit of a vindictive tour. He has exacted revenge against some of those administration officials who testified in those impeachment proceedings, most notably the Lieutenant Colonel Alex Vindman, as well as the U.S. ambassador to the European Union, Gordon Sondland.

And the president also has become increasingly suspicious of the people around him at the White House. And we've seen the president move to reinstate some loyalists, including Hope Hicks, his longtime communications director, as well as Johnny McEntee, his longtime body man. So we are seeing the president retrenching himself here on himself and with his loyalists and certainly not having learned any lessons from that impeachment. CABRERA: And, Jeremy, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky also spoke with Christiane during the Munich Security Conference this weekend and he strongly denied Trump's claims that Ukraine is corrupt. What else is he saying?

DIAMOND: That's right. Well, he did push back on President Trump's claims that Ukraine remains a corrupt country, insisting that he and his administration have done a lot to fight that image that was previously a very strong one in Ukraine. And he also talked about this notion of fresh start with the Ukrainian government between the United States and Ukraine.

Zelensky, a former actor and producer, he talked about the fact that he would like to be famous, would have liked to be famous in the U.S., but this isn't exactly how he envisioned it. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VOLODYMYR ZELENSKY, UKRAINIAN PRESIDENT: I truly say, when I was producer, scriptwriter and actor, I wanted to get Oscar. I wanted to be very popular in USA. Now, I'm very popular in USA but I didn't want to find such way.

[15:05:01]

But, you know -- but if this way will help Ukraine, I'm ready for next call with Mr. Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

DIAMOND: And you hear Zelensky there saying that he's really ready for his next call with President Trump. He also said that he would be willing to come visit the president at the White House or to have the President come visit him in Ukraine. Ana?

CABRERA: And still no date or meeting set there. Thank you, Jeremy Diamond, for that reporting. You can see Christiane's full interview with Speaker Nancy Pelosi and the Ukrainian president on her show, Amanpour, Monday afternoon on CNN International.

In the meantime, there are new questions about the independence of the Justice Department and Attorney General Bill Barr. Despite Barr's public show of frustration that

President Trump's tweets about criminal cases make his job harder.

Well, now, U.S. officials confirmed to CNN that Barr is ordering a re- examination of some high profile cases, including the case of Michael Flynn, President Trump's former national security adviser. And that revelation comes just days after CNN learned that Barr had been pushing for Flynn to be spared prison time and after senior Justice Department officials undercut federal prosecutors and their sentencing recommendation for another Trump Associate, Roger Stone. That move caused four federal prosecutors to quit the case and even more said to be considering walking out over concerns about the Justice Department's independence. With us now is CNN Presidential Historian, Tim Naftali and former U.S. Attorney Greg Brower. He is also the former deputy general counsel for the FBI, where he worked closely with the DOJ and Congress.

So, Greg, let me ask you this first. Are these normal actions for an attorney general? Do you have any concerns about Barr's behavior?

GREG BROWER, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY: Ana, they are not normal in the least. As a former U.S. Attorney, I can tell you I've never heard of the type of thing that we saw this past week where the attorney general reversed a U.S. attorney's recommendation with respect to a sentencing memorandum. And so in the absence of an adequate explanation, of course, most observers think there's something political about this and that's an awfully bad look for DOJ.

So, no, it's not normal. It's causing a lot of concern within DOJ. I can tell you that. And I think that the attorney general is going to have to do a better job of explaining the Stone decision. And the Flynn decision is just as bizarre because, look, Mr. Flynn pled guilty, he has admitted to his guilt in open court under oath to the judge. I can't imagine what the judge is going to do with respect to this motion to set aside his plea other than to deny it.

CABRERA: Well, of course, earlier this week after the Stone revelation came out, that's when we learned about the Flynn revelation and this was also after Barr had gone on T.V. and he denied he was acting under pressure from the president. Let's remind our viewers what he said then.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I will make those decisions based on what I think is the right thing to do and I'm not going to be bullied or influenced by anybody. And I said at the time, whether it's Congress, newspaper, editorial boards or the president.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: President, Tim, he says. Do you see that as a rebuke of the president?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, I think we should consider Bill Barr as somebody who has his own agenda. I think his agenda and the president's agenda are similar.

The attorney general came back to government for some reason. And he has a fanatical commitment to the expansion of presidential power. He would do that for any president. This president is particularly happy to see the expansion of power. Bill Barr, when he was working for the American people but he served under George Herbert Walker Bush, he counseled Bush to pardon people who had been found guilty and indicted in the Iran-Contra scandal.

Now, he is using the power of government to investigate the efforts by Mueller. Why? Why is he using taxpayer money to investigate an investigation? I think it has something to do with his view of presidential power and the fact that he doesn't like the fact that the Mueller investigation happened, jJust as he didn't really like the fact the Iran-Contra investigation was conducted the way it was conducted.

This is great for President Trump, it's terrible for the American people and the attorney general owes us an explanation why he's doing this.

CABRERA: And what you said reminded me of something he said previously. This was in 2001 when he was describing his first stint at attorney general under President George Bush. And he talked about the department's protected status in this post-Watergate era and he said, quote, you didn't mess around with it.

You didn't intervene. You didn't interfere, which is, again, seems contrary, Greg, to what he is doing here. What message is Barr sending to te men and women who work at the Justice Department and, you know, more broadly what does this mean for its credibility?

[15:10:05]

BROWER: Unfortunately, the message I'm sure that most are receiving within the department and certainly outside the department is that no matter how hard the men and women of the department work to get to the right decision under very difficult circumstances oftentimes, that there's the potential that for political reasons, their hard work and their well thought out conclusions are going to be reversed, for no reason other than political considerations. That strikes at the very heart of what the department is not supposed to be about.

And so, you know, the department relies on two things, both doing its best to get the right result in very difficult circumstances and secondly, and just as importantly, trying to do everything it can to make sure the American people think that it's getting to the right result for all the right reasons and that politics don't come into play. And I'm afraid that at the end of this week, there's a lot of doubt about that in America.

CABRERA: President Trump reflected on his impeachment during an interview earlier this week and he said he thinks of Nixon more than anyone else. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think of Nixon more than anybody else and what that dark period was in our country and the whole thing with the tapes and the horror show. It was dark and it went on for a long time.

Every time in the White House, I pass this beautiful portrait of various presidents, right? But the portrait of Richard Nixon, I sort of -- I don't know, it's a little bit of a different feeling than I get from looking at the other portraits of presidents.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Tim, what's your reaction to that?

NAFTALI: Well, I'm really interested in where he has the portrait of Richard Nixon, because every first family can put the portraits where they want. I happened to visit the White House when George W. Bush was president. One of the advantages of being a library director, you get a tour. The first lady gives you a tour. It was really great. And I looked around and I said, where is the Nixon portrait, and it was often past in a corner with Herbert Hoover. The first family did not want to see the portrait.

CABRERA: It was out of the way.

NAFTALI: Here is what I don't understand, a lot of things I don't, but here is one in particular that matters, what does the president, the current president, think he learned from Richard Nixon, this dark period? Did he learn things not to do or did he learn how awful it can be for a corrupt president when the system works? I'm not sure what he learned from it.

But I'll tell you one thing, if he learned anything from studying Nixon, he'd know that intervening in a criminal case that involves somebody who has knowledge that could affect you personally. I'm talking about Roger Stone. That's a crime.

Richard Nixon was partly impeached, or at least was going to be impeached, for having dangled pardons in front of people that knew things about the cover-up that he didn't want people to know. That is just the same as the president promising pardons to people like Roger Stone.

So I'm wondering what did Donald Trump learn from Richard Nixon?

CABRERA: Well, we have months before the next election. We'll see where he takes this from here. Thank you very much, Tim Naftali, as well as Greg Brower, really great to have both of you here with us.

New details just in to CNN on the murder of a college freshman in New York. Police have now arrested 14-year-old boy in connection with the stabbing death of Tessa Majors. We'll have a live update next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:15:00]

CABRERA: Breaking this hour. In New York, a 14-year-old boy now faces murder charges in the stabbing death of Barnard College freshman Tessa Majors. The NYPD commissioner saying, we are confident we have the person in custody who stabbed her. Majors was walking in Manhattan's Morningside Park on December 11th when she was attacked. The 14-year- old is now the second teen arrested and charged in this case.

Let me bring in CNN's Polo Sandoval, who's been staying on top of this investigation. Polo, what more do we know about this 14-year-old suspect?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: We were at police headquarters earlier today, Ana, as they announced that this arrest is a major milestone in their search for justice and for answers here. We know that he's 14 years old.

We do know he has -- he is now in custody, he was actually arrested last night and investigators, as you correctly point out, believed he is the one who actually that stabbed 18-year-old Tessa Majors back on December 11th in that Manhattan Park. So that has been nine weeks now of her family searching for answers and now perhaps at least some closure here now that they do have an arrest. But, again, these are at this point just an accusation here.

We should mention that they took into account a lot of evidence here. The grand jury considered blood analysis, surveillance video. And when you read over the complaint, it really does paint a clearer and really a disturbing picture of what happened that day. This is what the district attorney said a little while ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CYRUS VANCE JR., MANHATTAN DISTRICT ATTORNEY: The allegations are really laid out in heartbreaking detail. The complaint paints a picture of the video evidence, the blood evidence, the smart phone evidence, the iCloud evidence, the witness identification and the defendants' own statements that were rigorously collected and examined prior to this arrest and indictment. And it paints a gruesome picture of what this young woman endured in her final moments. As alleged, some of the last words she was known to have said was, help me, I'm being robbed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANDOVAL: Help me, I'm being robbed. It's what's laid out in the complaint here.

Now, keep in mind, this is now the second arrest here, there was a 13- year-old who remains behind bars facing murder charges. However, he is not being prosecuted as an adult, this 14 injured, however, is.

CABRERA: It's just heartbreaking all around. Thank you very much, Polo, for that update.

Up next, bad blood in the race for the White House, President Trump increases his attacks on Michael Bloomberg as they battle it out for votes, but it wasn't always that way. We have details on the long strained history between those two. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:00]

CABRERA: As Democrats pivot their focus to the next primary contest, President Trump is setting his sights on one candidate who won't be in Nevada, former New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg. This week, the two swapped insults on Twitter. The president attacking Bloomberg's height, calling him Mini Mike and a loser, Bloomberg firing back calling the president a, quote, carnival barking clown. As CNN's Brian Todd reports, these are two men with a long history.

[15:25:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TRUMP: Look, he is a lightweight.

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The way they talk about each other now, you would think they've been enemies for life.

MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I am not afraid of Donald Trump.

TODD: But back in New York, back in the day, a different dynamic.

TRUMP: And I have to say, you have been a great mayor. Come here. You really have. I mean, this guy is fantastic.

TODD: That was in October 2013, then New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Donald Trump lavished praise on each other after Trump helped Bloomberg convert a trash dump in the Bronx into a high end golf course.

BLOOMBERG: But if there's anybody that has changed this city, it is Donald Trump. He really has done an amazing thing and this is another part of it. Donald, thank you for your confidence in the city.

TODD: Analysts say that partnership actually could have been the genesis of their falling out, because in a 2016 interview with Wolf Blitzer, Trump took all the credit for the project.

TRUMP: I took it over, I got it knocked up in one year and now it's a tremendous success. Michael asked me if I would get involved in that.

MICHAEL KRANISH, CO-AUTHOR, TRUMP REVEALED: Bloomberg though that was an exaggeration, his former aides thought that was an exaggeration and it sort of split between them.

TODD: But before then, Donald Trump and Michael Bloomberg appeared to get along, or at least found each other useful. Trump backed Bloomberg's effort to run for a third term as New York's mayor, they golfed together. Bloomberg appeared on Trump's NBC show, The Apprentice, and their daughters appeared in an HBO documentary called Born Rich. But analysts say in the real world of New York business and philanthropy --

MICHAEL D'ANTONIO, AUTHOR, THE TRUTH ABOUT TRUMP: In that world, it was Bloomberg who was the star and it was Trump who was the one who was always looking for acceptance and rarely getting it. During all of his life, Donald Trump has longed for the approval of the New York establishment. Mike Bloomberg was the New York establishment.

TODD: Now, the two are being compared and contrasted under a microscope, both switched political parties repeatedly and were unexpected winners in their biggest elections, and both became billionaires. Although on the Forbes list of the wealthiest Americans at the end of last year, Michael Bloomberg ranked eighth with $53.4 billion while Trump ranked 275th with $3.1 billion.

KRANISH: They both named their businesses after themselves, they're both very wealthy people, but Bloomberg came from a more working class background and Donald Trump, of course, inherited a lot of money from his father and ran his business.

TODD: Going forward, how nasty and personal will their battle become?

D'ANTONIO: Well, I think in a head-to-head battle, Mike Bloomberg and Donald Trump will be nastier than anything we've seen in politics, perhaps in 100 years. These are two people who are not afraid to fight and they're not afraid to fight in a very personal way.

TODD: Analysts say one reason Donald Trump fears Michael Bloomberg is that he realizes that Bloomberg has the resources, millions of dollars that Bloomberg can spend on ads, highly produced ads that he can use to keep attacking Trump in the most personal of ways.

Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Joining me now Basil Smikle, the former Executive Director of the New York State Democratic Party, and also with us, Maria Cardona, a Democratic strategist and CNN Political Commentator.

Basil, Michael Bloomberg says it would be a bigger problem if Trump wasn't attacking him and that the fact that he is means Trump is afraid of him. Do you think that's the case?

BASIL SMIKLE, FORMER EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NEW YORK STATE DEMOCRATIC PARTY: No, I do think that's the case because owing to an earlier point, you know, Donald Trump has tried to ingratiate himself among sort of New York's power elite for a long time and he had been sort of getting laughed at behind the scenes because of his antics. And it's a complicated history. He has actually done some things as was alluded to earlier to support New York in terms of parks and playgrounds and things like that and elected officials always used that need to sort of self-aggrandize to get some things done, but they never really took him seriously.

So what Michael Bloomberg is doing is essentially calling attention to that and just needling him because he understands how Donald Trump has this need to be accepted. So I do expect that this battle is going to get much more intense for a very long time.

CABRERA: Just a quick follow, do you believe Michael Bloomberg is more respected than Donald Trump in New York?

SMIKLE: In some ways. And I say that because, number one, he was a three-term mayor. In full disclosure, I worked on one of those re- election campaigns. And if you go back to 2005, he got 47 percent of the African-American vote on a Republican line, which is kind of unheard of.

Now, I understand from a policy perspective there are a lot of folks that had problems with stop-and-frisk, some of his other policies. Those are certainly going to get played out on the campaign. So it's a mixed legacy. But a three-term mayor, I mean, that garners a lot of respect in and of itself.

CABRERA: We are still waiting to see if Bloomberg will qualify for Wednesday's debate in Las Vegas. He has money for days though, Maria. He has spent millions to make sure his message is on T.V.s all across the country and that has his competitors saying flat out he should not be in this race. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you think he should be on the debate stage?

[15:30:00]

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Of course not.

But I guess if you are worth $60 billion, you can change the rules.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I don't think you can buy an election.

I've been the only guy through this process so far, person, who has been totally vetted. I have had a target on my back since I got in. I'm still standing. And I'm going to get a chance to debate Mayor Bloomberg

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Maria, is Bloomberg on the rise simply because he hasn't been thoroughly vetted and challenged and hasn't been on that debate stage where you can see his policies up against others?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think certainly that's one of the big reasons, Ana.

Frankly, I think all of the Democratic candidates should be eager and willing and looking forward to having Mike Bloomberg stand next to them on the debate stage the way that they have had to do for almost a year now to defend their policies, to defend what they've done in the past torques defend their record.

Up until now, Michael Bloomberg has been able to spend his millions of dollars and has been able to spin his own message in his own way and has really not had to answer to some of the mixed policies that we've been talking about up until now.

And I think he should have to do that and he should have to stand up to the same scrutiny that the other Democratic candidates have had to do up until now.

CABRERA: And, in fact, Bloomberg's message does seem to be working for him. His strategy is working nationally. We see him rising in the polls. We see him, you know, increasing the support among special groups that are key to the Democratic electorate and vote. CARDONA: Yes.

CABRERA: And, in fact, one of those being obviously African-Americans, where he now is in second place to Joe Biden, according to the latest Quinnipiac poll among that group.

I'm just wondering, though, Basil, what you think of this new -- this new, I guess, theme that he has, this new brand he's launching. It's called Mike for Black America, complete with a section --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- on his Web site with buttons and T-shirts. What do you think of that branding?

SMIKLE: Well, you know, as Maria talked about earlier, he has had an unencumbered opportunity to talk to voters because of the money he's spending.

His legacy across the country will be mixed, depending on where you are. If you are outside of New York, this is the first time you really get to know who Mike Bloomberg is. Everybody is focused on their own mayor. They are not focused on Mike Bloomberg.

This is the first opportunity that you're really getting to see him and hear from him to some extent. And you see commercials with him hugging Barack Obama, right? And so that's one branding that he's got outside of New York City.

Within New York City, it's a different -- it's a different mix because, as I said before, he's done very well with African-Americans in two reelects.

But he does have that -- that challenge with Stop-and-Frisk and some of the other housing policies and this rapid gentrification, even while he has done very well on gun control, for example. So it's a mix of policies.

But as Maria said, until he actually gets on stage and starts debating other candidates, you're never really are going to hear him explain some of what he's done, certainly relative to the other candidates.

But I'll tell you, this Blacks for Bloomberg seems to be growing. And I will tell you, it's working.

Now, whether or not, you know, as we talked about that fight with Donald Trump earlier, if voters are going to say these 1 percent of the 1 percent battles are going to resonate, but so far they seem to be.

CABRERA: We know Hispanic voters are also a big part of the electorate and the Democratic base, Maria. We have Amy Klobuchar, Pete Buttigieg and Tom Steyer campaigning in Nevada and making appearances at a conference that was hosted by a prominent Latino group where they were asked if they could name the president of Mexico.

Listen to their answers.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CONFERENCE MODERATOR: Do you know his name?

TOM STEYER, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & ENTREPRENEUR: I forgot.

CONFERENCE MODERATOR: Can you tell me his name?

SEN. AMY KLOBUCHAR (D-MN): No.

CONFERENCE MODERATOR: Can you tell me who the president of Mexico is?

PETE BUTTIGIEG, (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE & FORMER SOUTH BEND MAYOR: Yes, President Lopez Obrador -- I hope.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: It went really quick. I don't know if you caught it all. But Pete Buttigieg was the only one of those three

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- who could correctly answer that question, Maria.

CARDONA: Yes. Yes. Do you know what? Good for him. He did his homework. And it is a little disappointing that the other Democratic candidates weren't able to do that because it's not like it's a question about a country that is on the other side of the world that has nothing to do with the United States, right?

Mexico is a critical ally of ours, not just a trading partner, but it's somebody that we have to deal with on so many critical issues, border security, border infrastructure, immigration. And so good for Pete.

I think that this is a wake-up call to some of the candidates that they need to do homework because our relationship with Mexico, our relationship with Central America, is critical, or should be critical, and is key to how we're going to be treating the issue of immigration and trade and security, frankly, and how we are treating our international allies from here on out.

So kudos to Pete Buttigieg. To the other Democratic candidates, I say do your homework.

(LAUGHTER)

CABRERA: All right. Maria Cardona and Basil Smikle, thank you both. Good to have both your voices here with us.

CARDONA: Thank you.

SMIKLE: Thank you.

[15:35:05] CABRERA: Early voting, yes, early voting is under way right now in the key state of Nevada. After finishing low in the first two early voting states, former Vice President Joe Biden is saying he's optimistic he can get enough votes in Nevada to finish first.

We're live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

CABRERA: Right now, voting is under way in Nevada. That's right, they have early voting there ahead of their caucus next Saturday. And Democrats in Nevada are under tremendous pressure because the nation's first Democratic caucuses in Iowa, as you know, spun into total chaos just 12 days ago.

Here is what Nevada officials hope is the key to getting it right in time, iPad. Yes, iPads.

The Nevada Democratic Party scrapped its initial plans on the initial app that they had planned to use, which was at the heart of the mess in Iowa. And instead, all 2,000 caucus precincts will have state- issued iPads with access to Google forms.

[15:40:08]

And people who have been trained on this new iPad procedure tell us it's confusing.

Arlette Saenz is in Las Vegas.

Arlette, Nevada got rid of the app used in Iowa because of the problems there. Why are party officials so confident about this other technology?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Democrats are hoping not to repeat what happened over in Iowa here in Nevada. And the state Democratic Party here has unveiled what they're calling a caucus calculator. This is a tool that volunteers and precinct workers will be using on caucus day to add the early voting data and help calculate those totals on caucus day, just a week from now.

But some of those who have been trained and others have not completely gotten a look at this technology yet. So there are some questions about whether this technology will be useful -- used in the correct way come caucus day. And certainly, Democrats don't want to repeat what happened in Iowa here in the caucuses.

CABRERA: OK. And, Arlette, obviously, you're there following the Joe Biden campaign. And, in fact, his name was brought up by the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi today in an interview with Christiane Amanpour.

Let's take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Quite frankly, with all due respect in the world for Iowa and New Hampshire, I'm not counting Joe Biden out. There's still races ahead that are much more representative of the -- of the country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: I'm sure Biden would be happy to hear that.

How is the former vice president feeling today?

SAENZ: Well, Joe Biden is hoping for a bit of a turn around here in Nevada. He just held a campaign event just a short time ago, an organizing event. They're really trying to get out the Latino vote, especially as early voting started here in the state.

Biden talked about the importance of the diverse demographics both here and in states like South Carolina because he believes that diversity will help him.

Take a listen to what he had to say.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: The reason why we are here is because, you know, 99 percent of the African-American vote hasn't spoken yet and 99 percent of the Latino vote hasn't spoken yet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, the Biden campaign sees Nevada as a launching pad for him as he tries to continue on this path towards the nomination. They point to the diverse demographics in the state as being beneficial to Biden. But also the strong presence of unions. Though he didn't get the endorsement from the culinary workers, they do think he will do quite well.

Biden told me that he doesn't think he necessarily needs to win Nevada but does think they have a shot of winning here -- Ana?

CABRERA: OK. Arlette Saenz, in Las Vegas, thank you.

Next week, you can join CNN for a series of town halls with the top 20 Democratic candidates live from Las Vegas. That's next Tuesday and Thursday night at 8:00 eastern only here on CNN.

We will be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:47:21]

CABRERA: A little more than three years ago, Senator Elizabeth Warren had a meme-worthy exchange with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell. Warren was arguing against the confirmation of Jeff Sessions at the time for attorney general. And this happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) SEN. ELIZABETH WARREN (D-MA): They are mothers, daughters, sisters, fathers, sons and brothers.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Mr. President.

WARREN: They are --

MCCONNELL: Mr. President.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Senate Majority Leader?

MCCONNELL: The Senator has impugned the motives and conduct of our colleague from Alabama as warned by the chair.

Mr. President, I am surprised that the words of Coretta Scott King are not suitable for debate in the United States Senate. I ask leave of the Senate to continue my remarks.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The Senator will take her seat.

MCCONNELL: She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: "Nevertheless, she persisted." That phrase has since become a mantra of sorts for Warren's presidential campaign.

Just this past Monday, in the wake of her third-place finish in Iowa and fourth place finish in New Hampshire, Warren said, "My job is to persist. But persisting and winning are two very different things."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Joining me now, writer and communications strategist, Jamilah Lemieux. She's a surrogate for the Warren campaign.

Jamilah, great to have you with us. Thank you.

JAMILAH LEMIEUX, WRITER & COMMUNICATIONS STRATEGIST & ELIZABETH WARREN CAMPAIGN SURROGATE: Thank you for having me.

CABRERA: Since 1972, no candidate has placed less than second in both Iowa and New Hampshire and gone on to win the nomination in either party.

And as we mentioned, Warren placed third in Iowa where she had a sophisticated ground game. She came in fourth in New Hampshire, which is the neighboring state to her home state of Massachusetts.

If she can't win there, what does that victory come?

LEMIEUX: I think it comes from the other 90 percent of delegates that are still on the table. This race is far from over. Elizabeth Warren is a fighter. As we saw in that clip, she persisted and she is going to continue to persist. I think that victory is still very much possible.

CABRERA: What state is she going to win?

LEMIEUX: I think she's going to win the state where folks actually pay attention to the platforms she's put forward. I think she's going to win when folks look and see this this is a candidate who, in my opinion, better than any other candidate on a Democratic -- still very crowded Democratic field has outlined a plan that will improve the quality of life for so many Americans.

[15:50:01]

I think that when folks have an opportunity to sit with what she's putting forward and get out there and get their neighbors excited about this candidacy, then I think that's where we're going to win.

CABRERA: We know she spent a lot of time in those early states trying to get that message out. And when you look at New Hampshire and the key constituencies that the Democrats need in order to be elected as president, especially first to get the nomination, she didn't win among suburban women. She didn't win among African-Americans in New Hampshire.

When you look more broadly at the national polling, she's polling fourth among African-Americans.

What do you see as her path to victory?

LEMIEUX: I think her path to victory comes from her continuing to engage with people. Having surrogates like myself on the ground, being on the ground, having conversations with people.

This is an incredibly impressive candidate, who has a plan to increase funding for HBCUS and other minority serving institutions by $50 billion, who has a plan to protect the right of women to make decisions about their reproductive lives.

Somebody -- and I say this as a mother -- who is incredibly clear how devastating lack of access to both childcare and health insurance can be.

She has a plan to expand access to those things to people who need them desperately.

CABRERA: Why don't you think she's doing better with people of color?

LEMIEUX: I think there's a number of reasons. I think there are certain loyalties that existed prior to this race. I think that just has been the case historically, with white female voters, that misogyny is a factor.

There are many people in this country who struggle to cast a ballot for somebody who truly represents them because we have been trained to believe for so long that leadership has a particular face. When someone shows up and deviates from what we think to a leader, we don't necessarily know how to handle it. I'm not speaking just for African-Americans. I'm speaking for people

of all creeds and colors in this country.

But I think it's important that we really re-imagine what leadership looks like, right? And that we have the courage to really be a able to envision a female president.

If you look at every other corner of our lives, we find women leading, leading in the households, leading in the workplace, leading in in academia. But for some reason, we're still very stuck at the idea that the most powerful person in this nation could be a woman.

CABRERA: Or could it be her policies? If you listen to what Bill Maher told our Fareed Zakaria in an interview that he did recently, he talked about how Democrats, in his view, are, often, their own worst enemies, proposing ideas that are too far to the left, and he feels it could put at risk the nomination in the general election when they're put up against Donald Trump.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAHER, COMEDIAN & HOST, "REAL TIME WITH BILL MAHER": Trump doesn't have to be popular. Listen to what he always says. You have no choice. You have to vote for me. Because he's saying, yes, you may not like me, I may be crude and vulgar and horrible, but they're crazy.

And there's a lot of stuff in that blue bin that is crazy. And people read it every week, just these things, these too far out, left, wokey stuff.

And Obama said it, people are looking for, don't do crazy stuff, don't say crazy stuff. Because we all get tagged with it. And then they go, yes, I don't like Trump but he's right, I got to vote for him, they're nuts.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Jamilah, as Maher noted, Obama himself has said people don't want to see crazy stuff. Does he have a point and is that concern at all of yours?

LEMIEUX: I don't think that -- I wish that more people were bothered by, quote, unquote, "crazy stuff" because then perhaps some of Bill Maher's comments might have had a greater toll on his career, how seriously we take his opinion.

But there's always been cries from folks who believe that if the left, if the Democrats go too far left they're going to alienate everyone.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the aisle, the Republicans have been able to go as far off the deep end as possible. And if there's nothing else I could say good for them, is that they stand by their man. They stand by their party. They're loyal to the soil. Democrats deserve a candidate who has the courage to say compromise

doesn't always work. Some of these, quote, unquote, "woke ideas" that are written off as some sort of flight of fancy or Millennial madness or something --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- Congress and the Senate to be able to enact any of these policies. There are lot of them. Even if --

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: -- Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren were elected president.

LEMIEUX: Absolutely. But again, when I look at these "crazy," quote, unquote, ideas, I see things that will change the quality of life for so many Americans, including a number of groups that I belong to.

CABRERA: Sure.

LEMIEUX: And I think that, if and when Elizabeth Warren is elected, there's two things that will have to happen. One, there will have to be a flip to the Senate. So many people felt, when they elected President Obama in 2008, 2012, their work was done.

CABRERA: Right.

[15:55:04]

LEMIEUX: They could take a four-year break from politics until it was time to elect a president again. We can't do that.

There's also executive orders. Candidate Warren said, when possible, when necessary, she will take out her pen and she will sign things into legislation.

CABRERA: Jamilah, really good to have you here. Thank you very much --

LEMIEUX: Thank you.

CABRERA: -- for coming on.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)