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tv   Politics Nation With Al Sharpton  MSNBC  May 4, 2019 2:00pm-3:00pm PDT

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oft pretzel roll. and try the new turkey bistro with warm turkey and smokehouse bacon. or the new hot club chicken dijon with black forest ham. the new hot pretzels, only at togos. how far would you go for a togo? - i own you, doug. thanks for watching this hour of msnbc live. i'm gigi stone woods in for richard lui. now i turn it over to reverend al sharpton and "politics nation." good evening and welcome to "politics nation" where tonight i'm in columbia, south carolina. tonight's lead, he smiled at me. that was what mattered most to president trump coming off his telephone conversation friday with russian president vladimir putin, closing yet another week
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that the russia investigation was front and center with the revelation that the president never once warned putin to back off meddling in the 2020 elections. but that's all right because according to trump, putin smiled at him through the phone. and despite the mueller report's conclusion that russia influenced the 2016 election for its own ends, helping president trump in the process, his white house still has no answer for the president's inexplicable regard for the kremlin. it caps a bruising week for the administration after attorney general william barr's testimony before congress over the mueller report went so badly that he was a no-show the next day. but it's also election season, and we saw his stark week of economic news with unemployment not seen in 50 years.
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and even though the news hasn't boosted the president's approval numbers, with the democratic 2020 field growing more diffuse by the week and a base that forgives everything, does it even matter? joining me now is adrienne elrod, former senior adviser to the hillary clinton campaign and msnbc contributor. and joe watkins, republican strategist and former white house aide under president george h.w. bush. let me go to you first, adrienne. the fact that we're looking at the lowest unemployment numbers in 50 years should be -- in the past it's been something that a president could boast about the economy is well. but there's so much going on with the attorney general. there's so much going on with the russian influence. he ends the week with his
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attorney general not showing up for congress, looking bad in the senate hearing, even admitting under the questioning of senator kamala harris that he did not look at the evidence that was used to come to the mueller report conclusion, and then he did a no-show as i said on the next day with house judiciary. after all of this, it's capped off with the president talking to putin on the phone and saying, he smiled at me. will the economy be enough for the president to survive outside of his base because he can't win re-election just with his base alone down in the 30s in the polls. >> you're exactly right, rev. i think that's what's frustrating so many republicans out there because the economy is doing well. i'm not exactly going to give president trump credit for that. i'm going to give president obama credit for the policies
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that got us to this point. every time we think we've seen the worst out of the trump administration when we look at the conclusion of a week, then another week takes place where there's even more chaos and craziness. that's what we saw this past week. normally a president would be able to run on a strong economy, would be able to have approval ratings that are not in the gutter, which is where trump's are. but he can't because he keeps stepping in his own mess. he has a myriad of unethical problems he's still dealing with, and there are still many, many americans fortunately who remain very concerned about the fact that russia meddled in our election, and they do not think that the trump administration has adequately addressed this issue to ensure that it doesn't happen again. >> now, joe watkins, when you look at the republican party, which you are republican, and you look at the right wing and they're touting patriotism, you have a report that says unequivocally the russians
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meddled in the election. they have found no collusion with the trump administration though it clearly has said there was obstruction and left it up to the attorney general to charge. but let's deal with the russian piece. it is clear there was russian meddling. how do you, in any way, justify if you're donald trump talking to putin, talking about "he mil smiled at me" and not warn him, there's been an investigation under my justice department about meddling in 2016. it is now official. it has gone out publicly. you better back up because we are seeing some people forecasting in the intelligence community that there may be some meddling in 2020, and i'm telling you not to do it. as barack obama said to putin, stop it. how do you play patriot and have a smiling conversation with a man who has just been found to be meddling with the very basic
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core of what america is supposed to stand for, and that is free elections? >> very well said, rev. that's absolutely right. our national intelligence agencies have found that russia meddled in the election. the mueller report categorically says that the russians meddled in the 2016 presidential election, and we all know that it's in the best interest of america to make sure that they don't ever meddle in our elections again. and had it been me, if i were president of the united states -- obviously i'm not -- i would think it would make sense to bring that to the attention of vladimir putin, let him know that under no circumstances will the united states stand for russia ever again meddling in the affairs and certainly in the elections of american candidates. but that being said, the president chose not to do so. i can't tell you why, but he chose not to do that. i think perhaps he was looking to the bigger picture and figuring that maybe it's more important to talk about matters
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upon which they could agree and not to bring up matters that would clearly cause some disagreement. but in a perfect world, he would have told vladimir putin, you meddled. russia meddled in the elections. that can't happen again. that would be the right thing, i think, for the american president to do. >> but even if you're going to bring up matters you disagree, i can't imagine if the united states had meddled in something in russia, that putin would have said, we may disagree, but i'm telling you don't do this anymore. i mean to give it a pass and then do the opposite, come out and say "he smiled at me," i mean he did not only not deal with it, he gave a very positive report on their conversation. >> he did. you're absolutely right, rev. >> adrienne? >> no, you're absolutely right. something, rev, that i think about a lot is what if all of a sudden vladimir putin decides, you know what, i don't donald trump to be president anymore. i'm going to meddle in this next election to ensure that he does
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not get re-elected. i'm going to support the democratic nominee, or i might support an independent or somebody else of my choosing. i mean what is donald trump going to do now? the fact that he has failed to do anything about this, the fact that his administration fails to address the fact that, you know, take politics out of the equation. you know, take the fact of the occasion that obviously putin want ted donald trump to be president, not hillary clinton, and just looking at the sheer fact that a foreign adversary meddled in our democratic electoral process here in the united states, his administration doesn't care. he has such an affinity toward these dictators, these rulers who are so dangerous, so toxic. these are the people that he likes to spend time with. these are the people whose affection he is constantly trying to seek and gain approval from. and, you know, there are no words to describe how incredibly frustrating as an american citizen, watching this spectacle play out is. >> joe, when you hear one of the
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senators saying and questioning attorney general barr about the meddling and saying, well, is it all right for foreign governments to interfere, i mean -- and the response that he raised, i mean seemed to open the door, well, that would be fine. well, if that's fine, then if the chinese decided to help the democrats, is that all right? if the north koreans decided to help independents, i mean where are we going with this if we don't close the door? and after that eyebrow-raising response from attorney general barr, the president has a friendly call with putin. i mean what are we saying about the respect and regard this administration has for the core principles of having a democratic process that is in any way -- that is pure, let me
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use that word, and that is not in any way mingled with or meddled with by outside sources, particularly adversarial sources. >> you're absolutely right, rev. a strong response from the united states government, from the top leaders of the united states, saying that we won't stand for this anymore, we won't stand for russia meddling in elections, nor would we ever want to see china nor north korea meddle in u.s. elections -- that would be the appropriate response and the usual response. and i think that this was clearly a very, very difficult week for attorney general bill barr. he had a challenging time answering some of the questions that kamala harris and some of the others put forward to him, and i'm sure that it's a week that he perhaps would care to forget. but that being said, it's in the best interest of our government for the attorney general and also, i think, for the president
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and others -- and this maybe speaks to the fact that we're still missing a lot of key players in the state department, in a number of our departments. we don't have all of the officials in place that we need to have, and we need a more robust -- we need to have those positions filled, i think, so that we can ensure in the future a proper and robust response. >> but, joe, where are the republicans that will stand up for the country? they claim to be patriots. i'm in south carolina, a red state today. i was in tennessee yesterday. where is the republican leadership? it seems that they've all gone silent and have given this to the president and those in his cabinet to just run amok with this kind of "it's all right to let this go down with russia and therefore open the door for other adversaries to do this"? >> republicans need to stand up and do what's right. they need to say what's right. they need to not be so concerned
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about whether or not what they're saying will impact the next election, but they need to think about what do we say that's in defense of america, and what's the right thing to say? just like with the response to charlottesville, republicans need to stand up and say what's right and what's true. the south carolina u.s. senate by the way said the right thing in response to charlottesville. he's the only african-american in the united states senate, and he said it well, and he wasn't afraid to say what is right and what is true. we need more senators to do the same. >> adrienne, are we looking at a possible constitutional crisis with the attorney general refusing to come before the house judiciary committee, and there may be subpoenas, and there may be some kind of legal showdown? are we now looking at where the legislative and executive branch are going to have a showdown on checks and balances? >> i think we are, rev. and frankly in my opinion -- and i think that we saw this from
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leader pelosi this week when she made it very clear that, you know, a.g. barr lying in front of congress was not to be acceptable or was not acceptable, and made it very clear where she stands on that. look, if congress, you know, sort of -- it plays chicken and doesn't actually address this, then we are setting the precedent for future administrations, future republican administrations or future democratic administrations to be able to take on the same behavior and know that there will not be consequences. so if congress takes politics out of the equation, takes a step back and realizes it is our constitutional responsibility to conduct proper oversight over the executive branch and make sure that proper course of action is taken not just dealing with trump, but also dealing with barr and some the other administration officials, it makes things much more clear. but, again, if congress fails to act on this, we're setting the course and setting a precedent to make it clear that anybody else down the road, any future
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presidents, any future administrations, you can pretty much get away with anything. you can break the law. you can not adhere to the constitution, and you will suffer no consequences. >> yeah. and that is frightening to me. but we'll have more with adrienne and joe later in the show. before we go to break, moments ago the national transportation safety board held a news conference to update about the plane in florida that slid off a runway into a nearby river last night. 135 people were onboard, some of whom suffered minor injuries. the plane was traveling from guantanamo bay, cuba, to jacksonville, florida. here's some of what they had to say. >> we have recovered the flight data recorder. that has the ability to record over 1,000 parameters, and that will give us the air speed, position of flight controls, the altitude, the point of
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touchdown, and many, many things relative to what the aircraft was doing and so forth. that flight data recorder is right now on its way to the ntsb laboratory in washington, d.c., and it was undamaged. so we expect to get a very full report on that shortly. >> coming up, my next guest says that the trump white house is intentionally hiding information that congressional committees would probably like to see. former senior white house official under president trump omarosa is next. flonase sensimist relieves all your worst symptoms, including nasal congestion, which most pills don't. and all from a gentle mist you can barely feel. flonase sensimist.
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i've had him testifying already for 30 hours. >> so is the answer no? >> and it's really -- so i don't think i can let him and tell everybody else you can't, especially him because he was a counsel. >> so is it done? >> i would say it's done. we've been through this. nobody has ever done what i've done. i've given total transparency. >> as congress widens the net of trump administration witnesses that it wants to hear from and president trump pumps the brakes on supplying them after his attorney general's disastrous performance this week, his former white house aide, omarosa manigault newman says she's ready and waiting to spill more tea against her old boss,
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claiming that the trump white house is holding on to boxes of her white house emails that she thinks congressional committees would probably like to see. i'll let her explain more. joining me now, omarosa manigault newman, a former senior white house official under president trump. omarosa, why do you think that the emails that you say they're holding boxes of that are yours would be of such interest to congressional investigators and congressional committees? >> well, first of all, rev, thank you so much for having me on. i think it's important to realize that very early on in the administration, we got letters directing us to preserve all information related to the mueller investigation, all investigations, any information, any emails, any correspondence. we had a clear directive to preserve those documents, preserve emails, preserve text messages. so i thought it was very interesting that after my discussion with general kelly in
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the situation room when i went to take my things, i was instructed that i had to leave seven boxes of documents that came from the campaign, the inauguration, the transition, and they would not allow me to get them. you know, the good thing is that, you know, the trump administration isn't that bright. they sent me tons and tons of emails about these boxes saying, we still have them. we'll decide when to give them back to you. but as of now, rev, i have not received anything from those boxes, and now they're refusing to hand them over. >> now, so you don't know if these boxes were handed over to mueller now, but they could be looked at and viewed by congressional committees, and you feel there may be something in them? is that what you're saying, that would be of interest to them? >> if they did hand them over to mueller, they would have had to be in touch with my attorney, john phillips, or j. wendell gordon because, of course, i had correspondence and had to sit down for interviews with the
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mueller team. so they would have had to let my legal team know that. what's very curious to me is that as i stated, it was seven boxes of documents, and in my emails, they only referenced two, which leads me to believe that they've destroyed the other five. so, you know, it's par for the course with this administration. i believe i'm not the only one who's been subjected to this type of treatment, and i believe that there are more documents that have been destroyed by this administration. if it happened to me, it's happened to others. >> let me be clear because i want to make sure i understand you. you say there was -- >> crystal. >> -- there was seven boxes, but they only referred to two? so are you suggesting that maybe they destroyed five boxes of emails that could have been evidence? >> oh, there's no question. in fact, when i spoke with white house ethics attorney, he said to me that they had a right to go through the emails and decide what they could keep and what they could disregard and throw away and discard.
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and, again, all of that is in emails. so we'll have to see. i got correspondence from the justice department after having my interview and disclosing those things. so we'll have to see what unfolds. but i'm sure that i'm just not a one-off. i believe that this is a pattern with this administration of being disrespectful to congressional requests, of trying to use intimidation and all types of tactics to keep people silent. but as you can see, i won't be silent, nor will i keep secret the things that i have been subjected to and others have shared they have been subjected to as well. >> do you think that the correspondence and emails that you had and some of which you're suggesting may have been destroyed and maybe others have gone through the same thing -- do any of these really talk about things that could match other witnesses that talked about obstruction or that may have been a material benefit to
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the investigation and could be to the congressional committees? >> i think that's an excellent question, rev. my portion of the mueller report on page 17 is redacted. there's only a couple of lines from what i shared, and the rest of it is redacted. so the answer to that is i'm not sure. it says under the redaction that it's a part of a continued investigation, so who knows? it could certainly be related to ongoing investigations, but i'm not sure because of the redactions. >> let me ask you this. you were a senior adviser in the white house. you certainly played a key role in the campaign. is it possible for anyone to have worked in any shape or form with the russians or anyone else and president donald trump or candidate donald trump not be aware of it and not have signed off on it? is it possible given the way and nature that he conducted both his campaign and the early days of the white house when you were senior adviser?
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>> well, you know, it's not possible, particularly how we had things set up. the campaign was very small. there was a small group of people until we expanded towards the end. but you'll even recall when trump wanted to talk with you, he picked up the phone. he'd call me. i'd call you directly. he was very, very involved. nothing in that campaign happened without him having be aware of it or be engaged in it, directing it, or just saying yes or no to it. so when he says he had no information about what was happening, i find that very difficult to believe, rev. >> and he was very hands-on. he called me directly. >> he did. >> so i know personally that he was very hands-on himself. so it would hard for me to believe if he would call me or send you, that he wouldn't know what was going on with people from russia. >> that's absolutely correct. i mean he was in the trenches, and he wanted to know everything that was happening from meetings in the field with state directors or with regional victory offices.
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he was involved with the data. i was on the plane when jared and brad were talking about some of the information that would impact our key battleground states, and they were discussing that directly with the candidate. this is, of course rs things that i shared when i spoke with the mueller team. so i find it hard to believe what's coming out of his mouth. his denials actually carry no weight with me because we all know otherwise. >> you are prepared to go before congress if they call you and testify, and are you prepared to tell them that there were seven boxes, not two, and that they ought to find out where the other five are and question others to make sure they're getting all the information they need? >> well, absolutely. but i think this discussion about executive privilege, if he's going to stop don mcgahn from going to speak to congress, he may try to do the same to other senior members of his team, such as myself, from speaking and sharing information that we know that would impact this investigation. so i'm watching very closely
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what he does with don mcgahn. if, in fact, he prevents mcgahn from sharing the information that he knows or just reiterating the stuff that he shared that we saw in the mueller report. so it's all going to be determined as to whether or not donald trump actually evokes executive privilege. >> wow. well, thank you, omarosa manigault newman for being with us, again. >> thank you, rev. coming up, i had an interesting lunch this week with a major 2020 presidential candidate. i'll tell you what i can tell you, what i will share all about it, next. pnc bank has technology to help make banking easier, like.. pnc easy lock,
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and stick their fingers. repeatedly. today, life-changing technology from abbott makes it possible to track glucose levels. without drawing a drop of blood, again and again. the most personal technology, is technology with the power to change your life. life. to the fullest. stay tuned tonight for the launch of a new show here on msnbc. "saturday night politics" premieres at 8:00 p.m. eastern with host donny deutsch. on the show tonight, democratic presidential candidate mayor pete buttigieg and much more. but up next, this week i had lunch with mayor pete in new york's harlem neighborhood. he has a lot of buzz right now, but does he have what it takes to attract non-white voters?
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we'll be right back.
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>> we want to make sure we're writing our own playbook. >> do you think we should keep troops in afghanistan? >> i do not. i believe we need to do it in a responsible way. we talked to a number of issues that affect our community in south bend. we talked also about an agenda for black america that's going to be a very important part of my campaign, something that focuses on homeownership, entrepreneurship, health, education, and criminal justice reform in the context of making
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sure our democracy is accessible to everybody. >> that was 2020 democratic candidate pete buttigieg earlier this week, speaking after he and i had lunch at sylvia's restaurant in harlem, new york. we discussed some of the issues he'll face as he courts black voters throughout the campaign. all the while we learned about possibly three new faces jumping into the fray -- colorado senator michael bennet became the latest democrat, and the seventh u.s. senator to enter the field. we hear that montana governor steve bullock may announce his candidacy in the next few weeks. and multiple newspapers are reporting that new york city mayor bill de blasio is set to announce a bid next week. all together, the crowded pool of major democratic candidates is now at 18, but will there be more? back with me, former senior
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adviser to hillary clinton's campaign, adrienne elrod, and former george h.w. bush white house aide joe watkins. joe, you cannot win the democratic nomination without the black vote, having a large percentage of it, particularly in south carolina where i am tonight. i received an honor degree at voorhees college, which is in the real middle, and in other states. and i think buttigieg and others have said they're going to reach out. they're going to compete for that vote. you have two black candidates in the race, kamala harris, who had a great week. you have also senator cory booker. the polls in south carolina says joe biden is leading among black voters. how do you view mayor pete's reach-out, and how do you think non-traditional, non-black candidates can reach and cut
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into this vote around the country? >> i think mayor pete is smart to reach out to the african-american community, and he's done -- he's certainly outperformed expectations so far. he's made a real name for himself. he's consistently in the top five or six democratic candidates, so it's smart of him to reach out. i don't know i'll be able to make deep inroads into the african-american community. i suspect that african-americans like joe biden quite a bit. he was president obama's vice president, and i would imagine as well that kamala harris will do very, very well with african-american voters and with women voters not only in south carolina but in a number of states around the country, least of which would be california, her home state, where i expect she'll do very well. so it's smart of the candidates to reach out to the community, but i think it's going to be hard for many of them to really have traction. >> you know, adrienne, one of the things that people don't understand, one of the reasons that i take candidates when they want to talk to sylvia's, it's a
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historic place. they're very engaged in the community and all the politics. >> mm-hmm. >> but sylvia and her husband are from south carolina and were very involved here, and that's the first major state that you're going to see a large black voter turnout. you know from hillary clinton's campaign the importance of south carolina, and one of the interesting things is that it was a solid black vote in most of the primary states that mrs. clinton had against senator bernie sanders. >> mm-hmm. >> and progressives -- and i talked to mayor pete about this and others. progressives have not, in many cases, been able to penetrate the black vote. what have you been finding about that? why is it that they are progressive on issues, but they seem to not be too progressive in terms of how they're perceived in the african-american community? >> well, rev, i think a lot of this has to do with the candidates in this race, in the
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democratic primary, who have deep seated relationships with some of the leaders in some of these key early states who are african-american. that's what joe biden brings to the table. he has very, very longstanding relationships in south carolina and other key states among the african-american community. but, rev, you know this better than anybody. if you do not -- if you are a candidate seeking the democratic nomination for the presidency and you do not have a diverse coalition of supporters, you simply cannot win. and mayor pete has done an incredible job over the past few months elevating himself to -- i would certainly call him a tier one candidate at this point, but he will not move forward if he is not able to garner more support among african-americans. they are the bedrock of the democratic party. they're the most active, most loyal voters, and you will not win as a democrat if you don't have a diverse coalition that includes a large number of african-american voters. >> and, joe, we talked frankly about some of the questions i had about what he did as mayor of south bend with housing and
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with firing a police chief, and one of the things i think people don't understand is even in this, quote, robust economy, blacks are still doubly unemployed to whites. so even with a 3% unemployment rate, blacks are double that. and how do you close the race gap? and i think if candidates are not addressing that, then in many ways, black voters are saying it's more of the same. >> absolutely. you're absolutely right on that, rev. and african-american voters, no matter what those numbers are, are going to vote overwhelmingly for democrats. and they're going to be listening to what the candidates have to say. and african-americans have gotten to the point that we don't want to be taken for granted by anybody. so we don't want anybody to suppose that they have our vote. we want to hear what they have to say, and then we'll make our decision. but that being said, i still expect that joe biden will probably have the best chance of getting strong black support, and i would think as well that kamala harris, especially given
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her performance already, has a good shot at getting significant african-american support. >> adrienne, when we look at the fact that black voters -- and i don't think any leader anywhere delivers them, but certainly some people, when they speak, people weigh in with their decision that they're going to make on their own. but when black voters look at the fact that we have particular problems, and if they're dealt with, the turnout can be higher. yet we're told that many are saying no identity politics. let's go for the white trump voter and see who can bring them in. are we sacrificing black voters to try to get white voters in the rust belt states that may, in many ways, not come anyway and take black voters for granted, who say, if you're going to leave me out of the equation or the discussion, then i'm not coming out in big
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numbers? is that a big risk in the general election? >> you know, yeah, sure, i guess it's a risk. but any candidate who sa going to be successful, has got to include a coalition that includes courting black voters and delivering a message that resonates with this community. i think you can do it simultaneously. i think that you can have a cohesive message, especially if you're talking about health care and the economy, that is a message that resonates with many communities, including those white working-class voters who reside in the rust belt that democrats have got to win back if we're going to win the white house. but this is where you're going to see, rev, the campaigns who have a strong campaign staff, who are able to build a coalition and build out a strategy that talks to different communities. that's where you're going to see the packs separate because the candidates who are not able to grow their base, who are not able to diversify their coalition and deploy a message that is coherent across the
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board and that is applicable to many different constituencies, they're simply not going to go forward. they're not going to succeed. and they're certainly not going to pick up enough delegates to allow them to cross over the finish line. >> all right. thank you, adrienne and joe. up next, the american economy had another strong month of growth. but will those numbers carry over to the black community? after the break, the president of the national urban league previews this year's report for the state of black america. we'll be right back. hi, what's this social security alert? it's a free alert if we find your social security number on the dark web. good, cuz i'm a little worried about my information getting out. oh, why's that? [bird speaking] my social security number is... 8- 7- 5 dash okay, i see. [bird laughing] is that your daughter? no, it's a macaw. and his name is timothy. timmy, want a cracker? timmy, do you want a cracker? [bird speaking] what do you think, kevin? no. sign up online for free. discover social security alerts.
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monday the national urban league will release its annual state of black america report, one of the most highly anticipated benchmarks for racial equality in america. this year's report focuses on recent efforts to suppress the black vote and how to combat it. joining me now is president and ceo of the national urban league marc morial. marc, i know you have been -- the report till monday morning, but give me some of the highlights we can expect,
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particularly as we talk in this political season because one of the things i noted on your release is that in 2000, 76% of the people that voted were white, and in the last election we project in '20, it will be down to 66%. so the value of non-white voters and black voters have increased. explain to me where we are in our state of black america as it's juxtaposed with the state of the country. >> first of all, reverend, thank you for having me. i'm proud to be first on "politics nation" to discuss this year's state of black america report. let me tell you the most compelling news. we highlight in this report what i call the terrible trio of voter suppression. one, the supreme court and its anti-democratic decisions in shelby and hustead and citizens united. number two, state legislatures across america, 40-plus that
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have engaged in outright efforts to make it more difficult for people, particularly people of color, to vote by eliminating early voting, by creating voter i.d. requirements, by putting clamps on those that want to register to reject racial division in the united states of america. we will show on and mod some of the posts and some of the diabolical things by the russians to suppress the african-american vote. they created fake personalities wearing, if you will, a black lives matter mask who were all over the internet, encouraging people not to vote.
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they ran an advertising campaign directed at african-americans, indicating to them african-americans could vote from home by texting a particular number. and i report and our german research partner, we will expose it all on the national press club monday morning. so many of the efforts we saw on social media and other things telling blacks don't vote, telling blacks that it doesn't make sense, and giving misinformation was actually russia using that to try and suppress the black vote? >> the russians were actively involved, 126 million people were reached by russians on facebook, 73 million engagements, 1,000 videos
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posted. they created a person by the name of louisa haynes, a black lives master activist, a woke sister if you will who engaged in a long, lon colloquy through social media telling african-americans not to vote, telling african-americans all democratic politicians were sellouts. it was an orchestrated, diabolical and sinister campaign. and to this point why investigators, why the mueller report, no one squarely said what the russians didn't want anyone to do was suppress the african-american vote. the evidence is significant. the evidence is overwhelming but the evidence is clear. i think we've got to expose it because it remains a clear and present threat to our election in 2020. >> absolutely as we go in, and i think it is mentioned briefly in a report but it has not really been elaborated on so you're going to blow the lid off for
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monday on this. i think it is extremely important. the ignoring of our community, i noted for the last several weeks how the president had not even said anything about the church burnings in louisiana. finally vice president pence went down the other day to louisiana where you're from, but that was three, four weeks later and i salute him for doing it. but i mean, really, it took three, four weeks to even mention it. >> we expect from the president, we expect from the leader and commander and chief of the country an immediate response when i hate crime takes place. it's important for healing. it's important because it's the moral role for the presidency that we have come to expect. the rise in hate crimes. the efforts to suppress the african-american vote, the assaults on people of color, is just something you have to intelligently, people of goodwill will have to
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intelligently stand up to in america today. >> so you're putting up a giant warning sign that we need to be careful of where we're going in this '20 election because of the evidence of what the russians did and everybody that's talking grass roots and all may really be guided by outside sources to really suppress our vote? >> and we need our intelligence agencies, our law enforcement agencies, to take a strong stand against foreign interference in the 2020 election cycle. to take an ambiguous stand, if we need an investigator, if we need a special prosecutor, if we need a national commission, whatever we need, it's crucial and i look forward to discussing this report more on monday and hopefully people will tune in, watch it on live stream and follow it on social media. it's an important conversation. >> all right. thank you for breaking it here, my friend and brother and
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president of the national urban league. up next, my final thoughts. ♪
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before coming south to speak at commencement ceremonies in three colleges this weekend, i spent two days in london, england. i went in there with top government officials on ten downing street on their growing
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problem of urban violence and how to deal with that. i also went and did television programs to talk about what was going on in the united states in terms of politics, including "good morning britain." but what was most interesting to me is my appearance at cambridge university. and they are wrestling with now the question of reparations for what that well-regarded university made off of the atlantic slave trade and how to deal with reparations for it. but there also is something of note, this whole spirit of against the other, the immigration battle, the same battle that president trump and others are doing here against the other. it seems all over the western world, whether it's germany, france, england, united states, it is us against them. and the them always seem to be
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blacks, latinos, the other. the kind of dog whistlers that have gotten global and is dangerous. we must confront it wherever and whoever raises that, because it's not us against them, it's us against wrong. that does it for me. thank you for watching. i will see you back here tomorrow at 5:00 eastern for a new live edition of "politicsnation." up next "deadline: white house" with my friend nicolle wallace. hi, everyone, it's 4:00 in new york. when a 22-month-long investigation in russian interference in the election finds, quote, the russian government interfered in the 2016 election in sweeping and systematic fashion. you say something the next time you speak to the russian president, right? not if you're donald trump.

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