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GOP Candidates Make Last Push Before NH Primary On Tuesday; Trump And Haley Take On NH, DeSantis Campainign In SC; SC Gov, McMaster To Campaign With Trump In New Hampshire Tonight; CNN Is Inside Texas-Controlled Area Along Southern Border; Alec Baldwin Indicted For Second Time In Fatal Movie Set Shooting; Nikki Haley Defends Remarks On Racism In America. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired January 20, 2024 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

FREDRICKA WHITFIELD, CNN HOST: All right, Andy Scholes, thank you so much.

All right. Hello again, everyone. Thank you so much for joining me this Saturday. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. And then there were three, three candidates, three days remaining until the first in the nation primary in New Hampshire. And today the remaining Republicans in the race are speaking to voters in the Granite State and in South Carolina. Former President Donald Trump and his former UN Ambassador Nikki Haley trading barbs on the campaign trail in New Hampshire while Florida Governor Ron DeSantis is taking his message to voters in South Carolina.

We have teams tracking all of the campaigns right now. Let's start with CNN, Alayna Treene in Manchester, and New Hampshire, Alayna. Last night we saw South Carolina Senator Tim Scott endorsing former President Trump and now we're hearing another South Carolina lawmaker will campaign with Trump tonight.

ALAYNA TREENE, CNN REPORTER: That's right. Governor Henry McMaster of South Carolina will be appearing with Donald Trump tonight at his rally in Manchester. And look, I mean, McMaster is a very fierce ally of the former president. He was one of the first people to endorse him shortly after Trump announced in 2022, that he was going to be launching a third bid for the White House. And really, I mean, his appearance as well as Tim Scott, obviously a major endorsement pickup for Donald Trump last night as well. It's all part of a broader strategy from the Trump campaign to try and hammer Nikki Haley in the final days before New Hampshire's primary on Tuesday. And part of that is, you know, South Carolina is Nikki Haley's home state. She was a former governor herself.

And what the Trump campaign is trying to do is theoretically paint her as someone who is not as well liked by people in her own backyard. So you're going to see more other or more people from South Carolina as well, including Congressman Russell Frey, also appearing with Donald Trump on the trail this weekend, really just a full-court press as they continue to attack Nikki Haley. Now speaking of him attacking Nikki Haley, Donald Trump has really

been escalating his rhetoric toward her in the past couple of days. Last night, when he was in a different rally in Concord, New Hampshire, he argued that Haley isn't fit to be president and also through cold water on the idea of picking her as a potential running mate. Take a listen to what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: She used that presidential timber. Now when I say that, that probably means that she's not going to be chosen as a vice president, you know. A woman that I know very well, a woman that is not capable of doing this job. I know a very well, she's not tough enough. She's not smart enough. And she wasn't respected enough. She cannot do this job.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TREENE: Now, Fred, I think it's important to take a big step and look at the bigger picture here of why he is going after Haley so hard, and that's because his campaign for weeks now has been watching her rise steadily in the polls in New Hampshire. She's really been narrowing the gap with Donald Trump here. And part of that is also because of the way that New Hampshire's primary setup independent voters, known as undeclared voters in New Hampshire, are able to participate in the primary, and in poll after poll, Nikki Haley is shown to do very well with those more moderate voters. And that is a concern, according to my conversations with Trump's team, a big concern for them and they do see her as a threat. And that's also why you're seeing Nikki Haley respond to a lot of his attacks and say that she welcomes them, in some sense, because she says it argues that they are afraid of what she might do in New Hampshire. Fred.

WHITFIELD: All right. Alayna Treene, thank you so much in Manchester. And Kylie Atwood is following the Nikki Haley campaign throughout New Hampshire. All right, so Kylie, you know, how is the former South Carolina governor making her case to voters today and where are you right now?

KYLIE ATWOOD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I mean, Rindge, New Hampshire. So this is Nikki Haley's third event of the day. She's really barnstorming the state. In stark contrast to former President Trump is holding, you know, a single larger rally on a daily basis like he has been doing, obviously, throughout the entirety of his campaign. She is really doing the retail politicking. She's going to small diners, she's going to schools. She's really trying to get in front of as many New Hampshire voters as she can.

And one of the interesting things she did this morning in an interview with Fox News, but also when she spoke with the folks here in New Hampshire coming out to see her what she sees on a moment from Trump's campaign rally last night where he appeared to confuse her with former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi. And she used that moment to key on -- key in questions about his mental fitness. I want you to listen to what she said about that.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'm not saying anything derogatory. But when you're dealing with the pressures of a presidency, we can't have someone else that we question whether they're mentally fit to do this.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:05:05]

ATWOOD: And so obviously the campaign is citing the fact that she has long called for mental competency tests for politicians over 75 and said, you know, this is part of that. But it is significant that she is looking at one comment that Trump has made and really trying to use that to gather questions, to bed questions about his mental fitness, not explicitly saying if she thinks he's mentally fit or not, but encouraging voters to look at that seriously as they head out to the polls here in New Hampshire in just a few days. The other thing that the campaign is doing is, as Trump has these lawmakers from South Carolina, as Alayna said, her home state coming up here to New Hampshire, and out on the campaign trail for him, she and her campaign are announcing that they're going to be investing $4 million in a media buy in South Carolina, starting on the same day as the New Hampshire primary. So they've essentially got a month for that investment to take root in the state before the South Carolina primary.

And they're trying to downplay these endorsements that Trump is getting, you know, essentially saying they're not a big deal, they won't have much of an impact, and that Nikki Haley is very popular in her own state, also playing up the fact that they've got some money in the bank. They are in the words of Haley's campaign manager loaded to bear when it comes to competing in South Carolina. And they also think that she is going to be capable to continue going on to Super Tuesday and competing in states, particularly where independents are able to play in the primary like they are here in New Hampshire.

But of course, the question comes down to how well can she do. How well does she need to do here in New Hampshire? On Tuesday night, Hayley and her campaign resisting any questions to really pin them down on that question and say how well they think they need to do just saying that they expect to do better here than they did in Iowa, where she came in third place, 30 points behind for President Trump.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kylie Atwood in Rindge, New Hampshire and Alayna Treene in Manchester. Thank you so much.

All right. Let's get some perspective now on the current state of the race. Joining me right now is Alex Thompson. He is a national politics reporter for Axios. Great to see Alex.

ALEX THOMPSON, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, AXIOS: Hey, great to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right. So what do you make of Nikki Haley sharpening her attacks on Trump in the closing days now raising questions about his mental fitness to be president? How does that go over with New Hampshire voters?

THOMPSON: We're suddenly going to find out Tuesday night and that part of the reason I think that she is sharpening these attacks because you after Iowa, me, and several other reporters on the trail found her to be a little bit lackluster. She wasn't doing that many events in the first few days. She seemed a little bit shell-shocked after the disappointing third-place finish in Iowa.

Now that has changed in recent days. She did at least six publicly advised stops yesterday, she's basically doing the same. She's starting very early in the morning, and she's sharpened his attacks. She's bringing the fight to Trump. And it's interesting that she's doing it on some issues, but not others.

You know, some of these racist attacks by Donald Trump about his insinuating that maybe she's not qualified to be president, even though she was born here. But because her parents were immigrants when she was born here. She's not engaging with some of those attacks. She is really trying to focus instead on you know, his mental fitness, the fact that he prays Chinese president Ji 12 times during COVID, you know, she is really trying to try to make it appear that she is the adult in the room.

Now, what's unclear is if Republican primary voters want to vote for the adult in the room, or really wants to just bring back the Trump presidency. And, you know, I can tell you that the enthusiasm of Trump events still is a little bit higher than Nikki Haley. But Nikki Haley is hustling in the state.

WHITFIELD: Yes. So you know, you kind of touched on it, do people kind of want to see more of the, you know, kind of the Trump show, and all that comes with it? I mean, he too, is kind of, you know, increased his attacks on Haley, that is, you know, his style he knows how to do and he also knows how to kind of direct the narrative, right, create all kinds of distractions. Is that working for him there?

THOMPSON: Well, absolutely. And, you know, this is something that I just got some of the conversation with Nikki Haley's campaign manager, and one of the things that she expressed frustration with was that the Trump focus that every single thing that Nikki Haley, or about, you know, Ambassador Halley has done, it's always seen, you know, in the media of through the prism of how does this affect Donald Trump or why how is this reaction Donald Trump. And so what she's trying to do is trying to respond enough so that it, you know she remains in the narrative but also talk about what she wants to talk about.

[15:10:07]

Now I can tell you from Donald Trump perspective, what you're seeing tonight because Donald Trump wants to end this primary on Tuesday night he wants to have such a huge victory the second in a row that basically donors and other Republican luminaries are just like it's over. Stop giving money to Nikki Haley. Stop giving money to Ron DeSantis. Let's go to the general election. And that's why you're seeing him his this tour de force of endorsement after endorsement, including from people in Nikki Haley's home state. He is trying to end this primary this week. We'll see. New Hampshire

primary voters have a long history of being a bit contrarian. And that's what Nikki Haley is counted on.

WHITFIELD: Last night, there was an endorsement of Donald Trump from a familiar face for Nikki Haley in South Carolina, South Carolina Senator Tim Scott, the timing, you know, is quite notable. One has to wonder if this was designed to kind of rattle her, especially since she, you know, appointed Scott as a senator when she was governor, or New Hampshire voters taking notice of that. I mean, actually, first, let's listen to this soundbite of how Tim Scott threw his endorsement last night towards Donald Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SEN. TIM SCOTT, (R) SOUTH CAROLINA: We need a president who will close our southern border today. We need Donald Trump. We need a president. We need a president who will unite our country.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: And then there's the South Carolina governor McMaster to also now throwing his support behind Donald Trump. So I wonder do New Hampshire voters take a lot of stock in endorsements like this? Is it pivotal? Is it influential? Is it meaningful?

THOMPSON: Well, I'll say that polls when Tim Scott was in the presidential race show that he was one of the most well-liked candidates. So I think you know, because he was running for president. They're certainly more familiar with him. They work upper McMaster. That being said, I'm sort of doubtful that a lot of New Hampshire voters are going to determine their boat like that. That they were on the fence and they were like, well, Tim Scott endorsed Trump, I'm going to change my vote.

That being said, I do think it was intended to rattle Ambassador Haley a bit. I reported earlier this week that Nikki Haley privately called Tim Scott on Wednesday, trying to solicit that endorsement, as she knew that Tim Scott was also getting calls from Donald Trump and some of his surrogates like Senator Lindsey Graham encouraging him to endorse. And the fact that she told Fox News earlier today that Tim Scott didn't even call her to give her a heads up before he endorsed. So I do think there was a little bit of politicking here in order to try to rattle horror-headed the primary.

WHITFIELD: All right, Alex Thompson, thank you so much. Great talking to you.

THOMPSON: Great talking to you.

WHITFIELD: All right. And tune in tomorrow morning for a CNN exclusive interview with Senator Tim Scott. That's at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

All right, still ahead of dramatic escalation of tensions in the Middle East, and Iran-backed militia group claiming responsibility for an attack injuring U.S. personnel at an airbase in Iraq. And reports of Israel launching a deadly missile strike in the Syrian capital of Damascus amid mounting concerns of a widening conflict in the region. What President Biden is telling Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:17:55]

WHITFIELD: An Iran-backed militia is now claiming responsibility for missile attack on an airbase in Iraq that injured U.S. personnel. The group said the attack was in retaliation for the war in Gaza. Meantime, earlier today Syrian state television set a missile strike in the Syrian capital of Damascus killed several Iranian military advisors. Iranian and Syrian news agencies both say Israel was behind that attack. And Iran is vowing to punish Israel over it. Israel's military says it won't comment on the reports.

CNN Nic Robertson is in Tel Aviv. Nic, what do we know about the group who say that they are behind the air base attack in Iraq?

NIC ROBERTSON, CNN INTERNATIONAL DIPLOMATIC EDITOR: There were an Iranian-backed group, the title Islamic Resistance in Iraq is an umbrella title that sort of encompasses a lot of these different Shia militia groups, which have really grown in strength over the past decade or so. And they've had many, many, many times a take us bases in Iraq and in Syria 143 times since Hamas attacked Israel October 7. That's a lot of attacks. They ramped it up. Why? Because they're proxies for Iran.

So this has Iran's fingerprints all over it. What we know from the local mare who was able to witness this attack on the Al Assad airbase, he saw it from a distance and he said he can see a lot of missiles incoming. Some of them were intercepted by missile defense systems, but some got through. And we understand from the Pentagon that there were injuries among us service personnel. We don't know how many personnel, we don't know how severe. And this is a joint Air Force base at Iraqi military also there and the Iraqi military say that at least one of their service personnel was injured in this attack. So this really does look like a ramping up and when you take an in conjunction of what happened in Damascus this morning, you get the sense that this escalation everyone talks about this is what We may be witnessing here.

WHITFIELD: And then what more do we know about that missile strike in Damascus and what it could provoke?

[15:20:08]

ROBERTSON: Yes. I think the key and interlocutor here, when you want to kind of look at these things and say, is the strike in Damascus, on Iran's interest? They blame Israel. Israel says they're not going to speak about it. That's that standard line when they're blown from a number of different strikes against Iranian interests inside of Syria over the years. That's a standard response.

But if you're looking for the connective tissue of what Iran does, you have the president of Iran today saying we will, you know, we will take revenge on Israel, and in the same statement, putting the United States side by side with Israel, saying the United States is an enabler of Israel. What we know that was had in Damascus today, five IRGC members. This is the sort of top military Echelon in Iran, and that were killed. And one of those was the head of the Quds Force Intelligence inside Syria.

Now, the Quds Forces kind of, if you will, the elite that of the IRGC, as well as the elite of the elite. But when the president of Iran speaks about taking action against Israel, and he lumps in the United States with Israel for a strike in the morning, and then in the afternoon, U.S. troops get hit in Iraq. That looks like escalation.

WHITFIELD: Yes. It looks like a correlation. All right, Nic Robertson, thank you so much.

President Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu talking on Friday about what a post-war Gaza would look like. And now there's a back and forth about what exactly was said and what was meant on that call. It has to do with Netanyahu's comments on creating a two- state solution as a means to resolve the Palestinian conflict. CNN's Kevin Liptak is with the President in Delaware. Can you walk us through what each side is believed to have said?

KEVIN LIPTAK, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Yes. And this call was the first time that the two men had spoken in nearly a month. And it comes against this backdrop of growing divisions between the United States and Israel, and specifically the Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over this issue of what will happen in Gaza once the war there ends. Of course, President Biden has long been an advocate of the two-state solution and eventual Palestinian state, but Prime Minister Netanyahu has been increasingly public in his rejection of that idea. And so this call was an important opportunity for the two men to discuss that and get into some of the details of how this would all come about.

We heard from President Biden yesterday after the call, saying that he did not think that it was impossible to come up with a two-state solution with Prime Minister Netanyahu still in office, and he raised this idea of a demilitarized Palestinian state, a state without a military as a potential option. And we're told by people familiar with the matter that this is an idea that intrigues President Biden, and it was discussed on that phone call. But then today, we heard from the Prime Minister's office saying that in the conversation with President Biden, he reiterated his policy that after Hamas is destroyed, Israel must retain security control over Gaza. And they said that's a requirement that contradicts the demand for Palestinian sovereignty.

And so this is obviously an important back and forth. And it really gets to the fundamental question of what will happen once this war ends. This is something that President Biden is very staunch in his belief that a Palestinian state must be the result. It's something as Secretary of State has been talking with a number of regional partners with about and so this will be an ongoing dispute between the two men. And I can tell you that frustrations are mounting, I think inside the White House, then that Netanyahu is becoming more and more public with his rejection of that idea.

WHITFIELD: All right. Kevin Liptak traveling with the president in Delaware. Thank you.

All right. Coming up. President Biden promising massive changes at the southern border as Texas authorities ramp up arrests of migrants and blocked U.S. Border Patrol agents from accessing miles of the border.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:28:20]

WHITFIELD: President Biden says he's hopeful a bipartisan immigration package will emerge next week in the Senate that could eventually unlock the impasse over funding for the southern border. Negotiations over the deal are happening as Texas authorities are cracking down on migrants who enter the country illegally. On Friday, they began arresting migrants at a public park in Eagle Pass, which the state took over last week. CNN Rosa Flores is on the Texas-Mexico border with more on the unfolding situation.

ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I'm inside the area that was taken over by the state of Texas and ride with me because I want to show you what it looks like. If you look here to my left, you'll see that there's one layer of fencing and then several layers of razor wire before you get to the Rio Grande. Now the middle of that river that's the international boundary between Mexico and the United States and technically once migrants cross the middle of the river, they're in U.S. territory.

Under normal circumstances, migrants are able to walk upshore and turn themselves in to U.S. immigration authorities. But as you can take a look there are multiple layers of razor wire and it goes on for miles. Now I talked to a group of migrants who wanted to turn themselves in and Texas authorities asked them to keep on walking all the way to Shelby Park. Once they arrive at Shelby Park. That's where Texas authorities say that they are arresting migrants they are arresting single men and single women and charging them with criminal trespassing.

[15:30:00]

Any migrant families or unaccompanied children that turn themselves into authorities are handed over to Border Patrol. That's according to Texas authorities. And that just shows you the relationship between the Biden administration and the state of Texas because normally it would be federal law that would be enforced in this area. But right now it's state law.

Now as for the state of Texas, the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has said that he does not plan to surrender to the Biden administration. Rosa Flores, CNN, Eagle Pass, Texas.

WHITFIELD: Thanks so much, Rosa. New Mexico Grand Jury indicts actor Alec Baldwin for a second time, it's in connection with the fatal onset shooting of a member of the production team for the film Rust. CNN's Brian Todd has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BRIAN TODD, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The famed 65-year-old actor charged for the second time in the shooting death of cinematographer Halina Hutchins on the set of the movie Rust. Alec Baldwin faces two new involuntary manslaughter charges, negligent use of a firearm, and involuntary manslaughter without due caution or circumspection, which is detailed in court documents as an act committed with a total disregard or indifference to the safety of others. The new charges brought by a New Mexico Grand Jury.

MISTY MARRS, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: This case is really unique because it's been a very, very long road.

TODD (voice-over): In October 2021, Hutchins was killed and director Joel Sousa was injured when a gun that Baldwin was holding fired a live round during a rehearsal. In a previous interview with CNN, Baldwin denied pulling the trigger.

ALEC BALDWIN, HOLLYWOOD ACTOR: So when the guy hands me the gun and says we have a cold gun on set, that means the gun is empty. I pulled the hammer all the way back without locking it, and the gun went off.

TODD (voice-over): Last year, previous involuntary manslaughter charges against Baldwin were dropped. A law enforcement source told CNN at the time, that decision was made after authorities learned the gun used in the shooting may have been modified. But prosecutors said the case could be refiled at a later date. Last October, prosecutors said additional facts had come to light that they believe showed Baldwin quote, "has criminal culpability in the death of Halina Hutchins".

MARRIS: Now that we see these charges being resurrected. I anticipate in those documents we will find that the evidence indicates that the gun had not been manipulated or altered. And so all of those arguments relating to negligence are ripe to go to a jury.

TODD (voice-over): But other analysts say prosecutors will have definite challenges.

AREVA MARTIN, LEGAL ANALYST: The prosecutors will have to prove willful disregard not only have the investigators or prosecutors not been able to determine how live bullets or live ammunition ended up in the gun. They don't even know how live ammunition ended up on the set.

TODD (voice-over): Footage obtained by NBC shows Baldwin rehearsing on the set of Rust.

BALDWIN: Now wait a second, I'm going to shoot right. Your want to go on the other side of the camera. I don't want to shoot toward you.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Everyone doesn't need to be right here, like in the path of the gun. Could you please move?

TODD (voice-over): Baldwin has always maintained his innocence. His lawyers issuing a short statement to CNN on Friday saying quote, "We look forward to our day in court." The actor previously telling CNN he often replayed those moments in his head.

BALDWIN: That hurts me every day. You know, every day of my life I think about that. It's horrible.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TODD: If convicted, Alec Baldwin faces up to 18 months in prison and a $5,000 fine. The armor on the set of Rust Hannah Gutierrez read also faces involuntary manslaughter charges in the case. She is slated for trial next month, and she's pleaded not guilty. Brian Todd, CNN, Washington.

WHITFIELD: All right straight ahead. According to Nikki Haley, America has never been a racist country. The backlash she is facing while trying to explain away her controversial comments on race next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:38:12]

WHITFIELD: GOP presidential candidate Nikki Haley is heading into the New Hampshire primary trying to overcome self-inflicted wounds. The former UN ambassador is facing backlash over her comments on slavery and racism in America. Listen to what she told my colleague Jake Tapper at a town hall this week.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NIKKI HALEY, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: First of all, I will tell you. When you look at, you know, the Declaration of Independence it was that, you know men are created equal with an unalienable rights, right? Tthat was what we all knew. But what I look at it as is I was a brown girl that grew up in a small rural town. We had plenty of racism that we had to deal with. But my parents never said we lived in a racist country.

And I'm so thankful they didn't. Because for every brown and black child out there, if you tell them they live or born in a racist country, you're immediately telling them they don't have a chance. And my parents would always say, you may have challenges. And yes, there will be people who are racist, but that doesn't define what you can do in this country. And so I think it's important that we tell all kids that look, America is not perfect. We have our stains. We know that. But our goal should always be to make today better than yesterday.

It's hugely important and that's the problem I have is we have too many people with this national self-loathing. It is killing our country. We have got to go back to loving America. We are blessed because that little brown girl and that small rural town in South Carolina, she grew up to become the first female minority governor in history. She then went on to be UN Ambassador and now she's running for President of the United States. I want every brown and black child to see that and say, no, I don't live in a country that was formed on racism. I live in a country where they wanted all people to be equal, and to make sure that they have life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

[15:40:14]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Okay. But just to just to push back a bit because I was a history major in New Hampshire. You're talking about the ideals of America. But America was founded institutionally, on many racist precepts, including slavery.

HALEY: But when you look at said, All men are created equal, I think the intent, the intent was to do the right thing. Now, did they have to go fix it along the way? Yes. But I don't think the intent was ever that we were going to be a racist country, the intent was everybody was going to be created equally. And as we went through time, they fixed the things that we're not all men are created equal. They made sure women became equal to all of these things happened over time. But I refuse to believe that the premise of when they formed our country, was based on the fact that it was a racist country to start with.

I refuse to believe that. I have to know in my heart and in everybody's heart, that we live in the best country in the world. And we are a work in progress. And we've got a long way to go to fix all of our little kinks. But I truly believe our Founding Fathers had the best of intentions when they started. And we fixed it along the way, and we should always look at it.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WHITFIELD: All right, joining me right now is CNN Senior Writer, John Blake. John, great to see you. You know, you you wrote a piece for cnn.com about the -- what is now the 15-year anniversary of President Obama's first inauguration. And that article is, you know, currently, the top story on CNN's homepage, and we'll talk about that in a moment.

And, you know, the promise that people felt about race during that time of Obama's inauguration. So I wonder, you know, your assessment of you know, Haley in her comments today and what -- what she meant by that. How she kind of brings together sort of an acknowledgment of racism, right? She says, I -- you know, I grew up in Bamberg, South Carolina, I, I had moments of racism, but then saying, it's her preference not to see racism.

JOHN BLAKE, CNN SENIOR WRITER: Yes. I think on one level, you know, what she says about the country, never being racist is absurd, from a historical point of view. I mean, clearly, the country was racist, white supremacy, was a norm and our past. Slavery, Jim Crow, the very formation of the country was forged in racism. I mean, Native Americans were here and they were displaced.

But so what she's saying from a historical point of view does not make sense. But from a political view, it makes all the sense in the world to me that she was stolen abundant question because the Republican Party in the magical world, they have a different view of racism. And they have this alternative universe where they look back, and they don't see racism, and we look at the slogan, make America Great again, the assumption in that slogan is that the country was once great. Well, for whom? And when, and when you ask that question, you have to

deal with slavery. You have to deal with Jim Crow. So one of the best ways you deal with that, if you're a GOP politician is you ignore it, you minimize it, you rationalize it.

So what happens though, when someone asks you a direct question, and you're in the habit of ignoring it and minimizing it, what will come out is the kind of answer that Nikki Haley gave.

WHITFIELD: So it's really interesting, because, you know, she said this this week, and then here today, we're hearing the endorsement from South Carolina Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina. And there are some real similarities to on how Haley and Scott have kind of approached this whole idea. They've both been asked about racism in America. And you've heard from Scott, who essentially uses himself as an example of if I was able to, you know, ascend. If I was able to reach this, then it certainly can't come from a society that anybody would want to call oppressive or racist.

So talk to me why Haley and Scott, you know, who have lived the experience, right? But why they profess that this rosy or view? How is this advantageous for the party for them as political leaders? How is this advantageous for the country?

BLAKE: Yes. They cannot go high in GOP circles, by saying or implying that racism is other than isolated incidents that occur between people. So they have to tell a certain story about racism. And then that, you know, typically in GOP circles, there's this tremendous is difference between how they define racism and others. And for them racism is you know the Jim Crow sign. Somebody called me a bad word but I rose above it.

[15:45:11]

But any acknowledgment that racism is more than that. That racism might be systemic. And it might involve the justice system. That they might have on housing and all these things. If they talk in those terms, they will not give far in GOP circles because the GOP party, they doesn't -- they do not subscribe to that definition of racism.

So what you have to do if you're a person of color, you have to use yourself as an example of, hey, this country can't be racist, because look at me, look at my story. So for them, racism is almost like dandruff. It's like a little irritant. But it's not something that's pervasive in this country, either past or the present.

WHITFIELD: I don't know if you want to call it a coincidence, or just how telling it is that here, we're having this conversation about this, and these latest examples. And this is on a 15-year anniversary of President Obama's first inauguration and you wrote, so eloquent on, you know, cnn.com about it. And really the hope and the promise that that moment brought that that campaign brought, but at that moment, and people were, you know, being reflective in America. Does this mean that we're you know, we How far have we come? Are we no longer a racist society? You know, but then here we are having these conversations about many who want to deny the truth, deny the journey of this country, and are failing to or unwilling to be introspective about where we are. So how do you kind of classify this moment that we're in?

BLAKE: Yes. I think you raise a good point, because this discussion is taking place on the very day Obama was inaugurated 15 years ago. But I actually think of Nikki Haley and Tim Scott looked at Obama's example, they could learn something. Because Obama talked frankly, about this country's racism in the past. But he said that part of loving the country is the ability to be self-critical. And to know that our greatness is not just in the past, but our greatness rests in the future and what we're becoming.

And they haven't been able to find the kind of rhetoric to, you know, to go there. But he did that so well. He gave a great speech in Selma, where he talked about that, that part of patriotism is being self- critical. So that's one of the things I wanted to convey in the story about Obama today, but also wanted to convey that people had tremendous hope back then and that you need that type of hope. If you're going to forge ahead with all these problems ahead. I'm really concerned that there's so much cynicism right now that people have given up on this country even becoming a multiracial democracy. So that's part of what I wanted to convey with the story today about Obama.

WHITFIELD: It is. So beautifully done. So beautifully done. John Blake, and again, right here on the air as well with us. Thank you so much. Great to see you.

BLAKE: Thank you.

WHITFIELD: We'll be right back.

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[15:52:22]

WHITFIELD: All right. As much of the country faces a deep freeze, there's a new study out this week showing how climate change is rapidly altering other parts of our world. Researchers at NASA say they have found substantial retreats of Greenland glaciers. The ice is shrinking at levels far greater than previously thought worrying some scientists about the potential impact on global weather patterns.

Joining us right now the lead author of that study, Chad Greene. He's a glaciologist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. Chad, great to see you.

CHAD GREENE, GLACIOLOGIST AT NASA'S JET PROPULSION LABORATORY: Good to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right, so walk us through this. How were you able to observe these findings?

GREENE: Yes. So what we did is, we use about a quarter million satellite observations of the glacier Terminus positions, looking at the periphery all around Greenland ice sheet. And we built a record of about 40 years to look at how the ice sheet has changed over time.

WHITFIELD: Wow. 40-year span. So how much ice loss are we talking about on these glaciers in Greenland?

GREENE: We're seeing quite a bit. And so the Greenland ice sheet is like this massive bathtub of ice that if it all drained out into the ocean, it would raise global sea levels by over 20 feet. And we aren't suggesting that's going to happen anytime soon. But what's what usually holds back the flow of glaciers is that the ice has to travel through these narrow fjords on the way out to the ocean.

Well, what our research is finding is that a lot of the ice in these narrow fjords, has been edging away slowly. And when that happens, it's like taking the plug out of the drain. And so what we can expect is accelerated sea level rises, these glaciers speed up and are drained out its notion a little bit faster than they've already been doing.

WHITFIELD: So well, how is that impacting life around there wildlife? You know, anything? Any forms of life?

GREENE: Yes, yes. So the impacts are pretty far-reaching. What we're seeing is glacier retreat on a wide scale. So this is almost every glacier in Greenland has retreated over the past few decades. Every single sector of the ice sheet is retreating. And so that's producing a lot of meltwater that's going out into the ocean. The reason that we're concerned about meltwater in the ocean is because the ocean currents in the North Atlantic are highly sensitive to just a little bit of salinity change. And so the next direction in this research is to understand well how is this 1,000 extra gigatons, so, that's more than when we before. Meaning over the past several decades there's been 6,000 net gigatons of freshwater added to the North Atlantic Ocean and that's expected to influence ocean currents as well as weather patterns in particular, around Europe but globally as well.

[15:55:17]

WHITFIELD: All really troubling, really worrisome. Chad Greene, thank you so much, and congrats on all the research and hopefully it will all now lead to potentially impacting a lot of behaviors out there, right?

GREENE: Okay. Yes. Good to be here.

WHITFIELD: All right. Thank you so much. And thank you, everyone, for joining me today. I'm Fredricka Whitfield. Smerconish is up next.

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