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Congressional Black Caucus To Endorse Clinton; Interview with Rep. James Clyburn; When Will President Obama Endorse?; George W. Bush To Campaign For Jeb In South Carolina; Beyonce's New Music Video Sparks Backlash. Aired 7:30-8a ET

Aired February 11, 2016 - 07:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:31:51] MICHAELA PEREIRA, CNN ANCHOR: FAA investigators are heading to the site of a plane crash that killed a veteran pilot and a sheriff's deputy in Central California. Officials say that aircraft hit the side of a mountain Wednesday evening and caught fire. Right before the crash, the plane, which belonged to the sheriff's department, helped arrest a suspect. It's unclear what caused that plane to go down.

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: All right. There is a very important event to watch for today, a senate committee hearing on the Zika virus. President Obama's $1.8 billion funding request to fast track a vaccine. Now one Republican leader is saying, the CDC and NIH don't need additional money since there is a surplus from the fight against Ebola. The director of the CDC and the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases both set to testify.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Fresh off his big victory in New Hampshire, Bernie Sanders wasted no time hitting the late night circus with his focus now on South Carolina. Stephen Colbert gave the Democratic candidate some pointers on how to win in his home state.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEPHEN COLBERT, CBS HOST, "THE LATE SHOW": I am from South Carolina so I wanted to educate you a little bit on my home state. OK? If you are going to get the vote down there, you have to eat boiled peanuts. Have you ever had a boiled peanut? OK. The recipe is very simple.

SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT), DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Delicious. Beautiful. Beautiful.

COLBERT: You can have that with a nice beer. Want a beer? All right. That is -- this is a little -- you like them? They're damp, aren't they?

SANDERS: This wins me South Carolina.

COLBERT: Yes, it does. If you like boiled peanuts, it will certainly give you a leg up in South Carolina. People up here, when I offer them this food, they say, oh, here comes Colbert with more of his damp food. (END VIDEO CLIP)

PEREIRA: I have to tell you, a damp peanut is an acquired taste, I believe.

CUOMO: Strong move by Sanders. Taking a swig of the barley hops right in front of his face.

PEREIRA: Without hesitation.

BERMAN: With gusto.

CUOMO: I like it.

All right, so, from Bernie to Hillary Clinton on the heels of her stinging loss in New Hampshire, Clinton is set to pick up a major endorsement from the congressional black caucus this morning. But, one prominent member of the caucus has still not officially thrown his support behind a candidate.

That is South Carolina congressman James Clyburn, joining us live this morning. Very good to see you, sir. Thank you for being on NEW DAY.

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D), SOUTH CAROLINA: Thank you so much for having me.

CUOMO: No word from you. You matter a lot in the caucus and beyond. Why are you holding?

CLYBURN: Well, I'm going to be huddling with my family and some political friends this weekend and we'll make a decision as to what I will do if I do anything. I know that the congressional black caucus, of which I'm a member and a former chair, will be endorsing Secretary Clinton today. There will be maybe a dozen congressional black caucus members throughout South Carolina this weekend. So I'll follow their lead and make a decision sometime soon as to what I'll do since they're endorsing today. I don't want to get out in front of them.

[07:35:08] CUOMO: Understood. But you are a leader, to be sure. So let's look a little bit at what the basis is for an endorsement. Nobody, fair to say, in this campaign has been talking more about issues that matter to African-Americans in this country than Senator Sanders. Why is that not enough for the endorsement?

CLYBURN: Well, I don't think that's all that fair to say. The fact of the matter is, we say down in South Carolina all the time that the best way to tell what person to vote for is to look at what he or she has done. And I really do believe that senator Sanders has got a good record. So does Hillary Clinton. She has an excellent record. People keep forgetting that to get us the universal access to health care, what we call now Obamacare, I call it the affordable care act, but to get to that was a long road starting out with Theodore Roosevelt more than 100 years ago. But Hillary Clinton as first lady made a significant contribution to that effort. In fact, it was called Hillary care back then when it failed. But out of that grew SCHIP, the student -- what do we call it -- the state children's health insurance plan came out of that. And that's one of the critical programs that we have today. So that is very, very important to African-Americans. I think she -- like Senator Sanders, she has a great record to lay out before the American people. But people get so caught up in the emotions of a campaign, they sometimes forget that history. And so we're going to be discussing all of that this weekend with family and friends. And we're going to be guided by the advice I get from them.

CUOMO: Two things that seem to be a word of caution on each side, whether it's Clinton or Sanders. First on the Sanders side. We're hearing more and more suggestion that the senator is a new-found Democrat and that his allegiance and respect for the work of President Obama is somehow lacking. Do you agree with that?

CLYBURN: No, I don't. I worked very closely with Senator Sanders when we were putting together the affordable care act. He was a champion in the senate for community health centers that I'm very much a champion of. And so we worked together on that. He's caucused with the Democrats. I don't have anything critical to say about him. I never looked upon him as being anything other than an independent Democrat. Now he calls himself a democratic-socialist or something of that sort, but he can call himself what he will. That's not going to be operative with me. I'm going to make my decision based upon past records and future possibilities, because campaigns are about the future and who can best deliver a -- what I would call, a growth of president Obama's foundation that he's laid for all of us to build upon. So I have been a part of the Obama presidency and I really am going to do everything I can to develop a legacy for President Obama. And whichever one of these candidates I feel will be best to build upon that legacy is who I think my family and friends will want me to stand up for.

CUOMO: Understood. There are supporters for Senator Sanders who are trying to remind of what happened when Hillary Clinton ran against then-senator Barack Obama, specifically some of the harsh talk in South Carolina and Nevada from Bill Clinton about then-senator Barack Obama. Is that something that is still in the collective memory when it comes to what the Clintons represent?

CLYBURN: You know, certainly people remember all that. But that's not going to be controlling. I think I was at the center of all of that. But I know what it is to have your spouse stand up for you. My spouse has been standing up for me for better than 54 years. And so I know what that's all about. Nobody -- I never held that against Bill Clinton. I spoke out at that time because I thought I should. But I wasn't holding anything against him. I just offered an alternative opinion.

CUOMO: Well said, congressman. I brought up the question because I remember well your role at that time and once again today. We look forward to who you endorse and the rationale for it. Thank you for being on NEW DAY, sir.

[07:40:00] CLYBURN: Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

CUOMO: John -- BERMAN: Two former presidents, one almost-former president, all with the potential to play a big role in this campaign. Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, and get ready for George W. Bush. Who will have the biggest impact? The answer next.

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BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: One of my few regrets is my inability to reduce the polarization and meanness in our politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: That was a very candid President Obama examining his legacy at the place where he launched his presidential campaign, Springfield, Illinois, nine years ago. For this election, presidents, both the current and two former presidents, play a very active role. Bill Clinton, George W. Bush now about to be on the trail-- what impact will it have? Here with his unique insight, CNN presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley, he's a history professor at Rice University. Professor, thanks so much for being with us.

Let's start with president Obama because we just saw him right there. Of the three of them, he is the one not officially endorsing, though his former press secretary Jay Carney out and out said yesterday, President Obama supports Hillary Clinton. President Obama has done interviews where he seems to go out of his way to say nice things about her, and now we learn from Hillary Clinton's people, Paul Begala, not officially with Hillary but pretty much with Hillary, tells us that we can expect to hear her speak much more about President Obama on the campaign trail, maybe as soon as tonight. So what role do you think he has in this election?

[07:44:52] DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well he plays a very large role. Hillary Clinton is basically trying to say, I'm a third Obama term. She was his Secretary of State. She's got to double down on things like the affordable care act or her own record of fighting terror when she was at State Department. But more than that. Barack Obama's an amazing campaigner. Now he's not gotten into action yet, but when he eventually does in 2016, we will notice. He has high marks in the African-American community, probably 90 percent approval rating. So come the fall in places likes Cincinnati and Cleveland, Orlando, Miami, getting him into urban centers is going to be a big boon for the Democratic party because he can bring out the vote.

BERMAN: I just wonder if Hillary Clinton needs more help if he'll be tempted to put his thumb on the scales even more during the primary. I couldn't think of a time, and I don't think there is one, where a sitting president has ever endorsed in a primary.

BRINKLEY: Well, this is an unusual situation though. We have a former president, Bill Clinton, virtually everywhere with the Democratic front-runner. So the fact that another president gets on board on Hillary's bandwagon at the appropriate time would be hugely interesting but it makes sense. The big thing for Hillary Clinton right now is she can't lose the African-American vote in South Carolina. It's what's being really contested between her and Bernie Sanders right now. So she could be seen to have the president on her side, it's a help.

BERMAN: So you mentioned Bill Clinton, the other former president we're about to see for the first time on the trail in the next nine days, is George W. Bush. This is the guy who hasn't run an active campaign for anything since 2004. He was conspicuously absent from the campaign trail in '06 and '08 with many Republicans running away from him ever since. This will be really interesting to see how much he does, how aggressive he is, whether he likes it in South Carolina.

BRINKLEY: It's going to be very interesting. I think the big mistake Jeb Bush has made is probably not activating his brother sooner. He was so busy about trying to be his own man and not having the name Bush on his signs, just Jeb about an exclamation point, and he raised a lot of money and kind of stayed away from the family but turns out the family are his great assets. His mother, Barbara Bush did a tremendous job in New Hampshire and I imagine George W. Bush talking foreign affairs, national security, reaching out to the military in South Carolina, reminding people about 9/11 and how he responded -- you might as well, if you're Jeb Bush, double down on things with your brother when you're as low as he is in the polls.

BERMAN: It's going to be interesting to see them both out there. They're very different politicians, right? George W. Bush is much more natural at the retail side of this.

BRINKLEY: Much more natural. It'd be hugely interesting. It will be interesting to see if George W. Bush goes after Donald Trump or not, how often they work together in tandem. It's going to be a lot of photo-ops of the two of them together? Or is George W. Bush going to be more of a surrogate going around on his own trying to stimulate people for the upcoming primary? It is going to be very unique. Democrats still don't like George W. Bush, but in Republican circles, 77 percent of the republicans apparently say that George W. Bush is a hero to them and that's what Jeb is leaning on.

BERMAN: Quickly, with Bill Clinton on the trail, with George W. Bush on the trail, do you think they will, either of them, come under attack from primary opponents? Bernie Sanders refers to the Bill Clinton years in ways that sometimes aren't flattering. What about George W. Bush? Do you think any of the primary guys will go after him?

BRINKLEY: I think they probably will, and should. Donald Trump might be the one to do it. Trump is unique in the way he's attacked Jeb Bush for his brother's war, the war in Iraq, the unpopular war. So there is a downside to having George W. Bush there. If Jeb Bush was high up in the polls, one wouldn't recommend it. But when you don't have a whole lot in the percentage points on your end, you might as well try something like this.

BERMAN: Going to be amazing. Two former presidents, George W. Bush, Bill Clinton, in the same state, roughly at the same time, the specter of President Obama hanging in there as well. What an election. Douglas Brinkley, thanks so much for being with us.

BERMAN: Michaela --

PEREIRA: All right, John. You see the halftime show of Super Bowl 50? Did you feel Beyonce slayed it, or was her performance making too much of a statement? Some going as far as calling her new music video racist. We're going to discuss ahead.

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PEREIRA: That is a clip right there from Beyonce's music video for her new song, "Formation". The video and her Black Panther inspired Super Bowl halftime show lighting up social media. Many say the Super Bowl is not the appropriate venue to bring attention to issues of social justice. Others are lauding her decision to do that.

Let's discuss it all. Michaela Angela Davis is here, a cultural critic. Glad she's here. Christopher J. Farley, senior editor at "The Wall Street Journal", really good to have you as well. Boy, this has got people hot. Hot, hot, hot. On both sides. On all sides. Because it isn't just us and them or one side versus other. Why do you think, first of all, that Beyonce is flexing this activist muscle more so now than she's done before? She has. It's not the first time she's delved into these waters. But this was in a big way.

MICHAELA ANGELA DAVIS, CULTURA CRITIC: Well because look what has happened. She's doing this in the middle of the black lives matter movement. She's flexing her muscles because Trayvon Martin would have been 21 and Sandra Bland would have been 29. These are very, very active times, and so she's responding accordingly. I think -- we've watched her evolve, we've watched her have feminist movements, we've seen her really empower women in a big way, so there was so much packed into this --

PEREIRA: Chris, you could really sit through and sift through that entire music video frame by frame and look at all of the imagery and -- all of the things that are packed into -- absolutely.

CHRISTOPHER J. FARLEY, SENIOR EDITOR, THE WALL STREE JOURNAL: People are reading a lot of things into her video and the Super Bowl performance. The one thing people are saying, oh, this is a tribute to black lives matter, this is a tribute to the Black Panthers, and maybe that was there -- there certainly was a lot going on. But the only real message you can take away from it was the last message, believe in love. A pretty non-controversial statement. The rest is, people reading stuff into what it meant. I didn't know what that X meant. Maybe it meant Malcolm X, maybe it meant the X men. We don't know.

[07:55:03] PEREIRA: Interesting. So, the idea that -- because again, we have to point out, this is art. We all are going to interpret this differently. Correct? You think that people are reading much too much into all of this. You think it was just a -- FARLEY: It could be. I don't know. And I think this is what great

artists do, is they play along theose margins. Maybe it means this, maybe it means that, and thinking about it, you come up with interesting ideas and philosophies and themes that may or may not be there and it sparks a discussion. And that seemed to be what she was trying to do rather than the agenda people are bringing to what's happening.

DAVIS: Well she did it, because here we are like days later -- but I think what's interesting is understanding that she's a pop star. She is a huge entertainer. She's not like Nina Simone. She's arguably, probably one of the biggest stars in the world. And to give us what I call one of the greatest black history month presents ever, you know.

PEREIRA: OK, what about some of the criticism? Because we have heard voices from New Orleans, black voices in New Orleans saying, look, you are capitalizing and exploiting black tragedy and black death, using it for sales and popular consumption. We've seen even there's been controversy with other videos. "Hymn For The Weekend", shot in India, beautiful video with Coldplay -- but she appears as an Indian Bollywood dancer. Appropriation or shining a spotlight on? That's a struggle for aritists --

FARLEY: Well I think, focusing on "Formation" -- the whole idea that somehow she's exploiting black lives to create video, that doesn't make any sense. Certainly lots of artists do songs and write novels about tragedies and you don't necessarily say they are exploiting things. Was Victor Hugo somehow exploiting the French Rebellion when he wrote "Les Mis"? I mean, that doesn't make any sense. Of course, it's shining a light on things and making sense of it, and it seems to be what Beyonce is doing here. Was Stevie Wonder exploiting urban lives when he wrote "Living For The City? I don't think so.

PEREIRA: Are you surprised by the political response? I want to read you Representative Peter King's statement that he issued. The mainstream media's acceptance of her pro-Black Panther and anti-cop video "Formation" and her Super Bowl appearance is just one more example of how acceptable it has become to be anti-police when it is the men and women in blue who put their lives on the line for all of us and deserve our strong support.

DAVIS: Well you know, this is activism, too. It's art and activism. And what's interesting, again, what art does, is everyone does have a different interpretation. Because of course feelings of Katrina arose but so did Flint, Michigan. This is in the middle of a time where water is actually poisoning poor people of color. So in that last moment when you see her go down into the water, I was thinking of Flint, even though there are people still completely terrorized from what happened in Katrina. So this is the American way. We're supposed to take big moments and make something happen and make something matter. This is the most watched moment on television in America. The perfect time.

PEREIRA: Well, interesting, because a protest has been planned for February 16 outside of NFL offices. I'm curious -- DAVIS: What's the game plan for that? Super Bowl is over. What are you protesting? What's your message? What do you want to happen to protest after the season's over? What's the game?

FARLEY: And certainly this supposed anti-Beyonce protest going on, but there's a pro-Beyonce protest going on, it's called her world tour, where she'll be playing stadiums around America.

PEREIRA: People vote with feet and ticket sales. They certainly do.

DAVIS: That's right. And I will be there with my afro bouncing.

PEREIRA: All right. I'll try not to stand behind you because I won't be able to see anything. All right, Michaela, always a delight. Christopher, thank you so much for joining us. Great conversation. You can get in on it on NEW DAY on Twitter or you can post comments on facebook.com/newday.

All right. Following a lot of news. Let's get a look at that, including tonight's Democratic debate. Let's get right to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Just hours from now, Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton face off in a key debate.

SANDERS: This country is supposed to be a nation of fairness.

UNIDENTIFED MALE: I think the president has signaled, while still remaining neutral, that he supports Secretary Clinton's candidacy.

SANDERS: Go your own way. The revolution is possible. You are the revolution.

GOV. JOHN KASICH (R-OH), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: I'd go home if I didn't think I could compete. Of course I think I can compete.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The only candidate who can beat Donald Trump is me.

SEN. MARCO RUBIO (R-FL), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Jeb has no foreign policy experience. None.

DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: The last thing we need is a another Bush. That, I can tell you.

He's a low energy person.

JEB BUSH (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You're looking at the guy that should be president of the United States. Because they've written me off in this campaign.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I never heard or felt anything like that in my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 12 hours of sheer toruture. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm so glad to be home. That was a heck of a ride.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Chris Cuomo, Alisyn Camerota, and Michaela PEREIRA.

CUOMO: Good morning. Welcome to your NEW DAY. It is Thursday, February 11, 11:00 in the East. Alisyn is off after a snake charming mishap but she is fine. John Berman joins us this morning and we turn to what is certainly a big night for Hillary Clinton.