are unable to afford the care in that hospital. louise brown and all of us stand for guaranteed high-quality universal health care for every single american meeting their stories with our action and our commitment. and then in buford with queen ket who described the challenge they face in the low country every time that it rains, it floods. they are burying the brunt of climate change, not caused by god or mother nature, but you was a, our emissions, our inkhakis in the face of the facts. so when she tells us her story, let us meet that with our commitment to free ourselves from a dependence on fossil fuels, to embrace renewable

energy technology and keep this planet from warming so much that it is uninhabitable for the generations that follow. [ cheers ] and then right here in columbia, walking the grounds of the state house with the house minority leader who tells me that if we cannot pull down the statue that honors ben tillman, a white nationalist terrorist, then we should at least tell the full story of what he did to the people of his state and make sure that we elevate the stories of those on whose backs the wealth and the greatness and the success of this country was built in the first place. it is only when we tell everyone's story that this country is going to live to its full potential. it is only by bringing everyone in that we defeat donald trump and bring this country together and achieve our true success as

a country. thank you, south carolina, for having us out. [ cheers ] thank you, south carolina democrats. [ speaking spanish ] thank you, thank you. ♪ good evening and welcome to a special edition of "politicsnation" live from columbia, south carolina. we're here at the state's democratic party convention where throughout the day nearly two dozen presidential candidates have and will continue to make their case in what is a crucial stop in this early voting state. as you can imagine,

south carolina's first in the south primary is critical for democratic hopefuls and winning will depend largely on the support from its black community. later in the show i'll talk one on one with former texas congressman beto o'rourke, new jersey senator cory booker, and former vice president joe biden. but first, joining me now, house majority whip and democratic congressman from south carolina, jim clyburn. thank you, congressman. >> thank you so much, reverend, very field goal me. >> nobody could run for president without coming through you, and one of the big things of the calendar every presidential election year is your fish frying. they were all there last night but they were all there there's save one who had to go back. but he came back this morning and one called in.

so 22 of the 23 announced candidates were there. it was a great event. as you know, we started doing this as we do every year to say thank you to these people here who are on the floor. >> right. >> the delegates that work hard to help us get elected. they can't afford to pay 150 bucks to go to the fundraiser that's always here, so we started doing this fish fry to give them an opportunity to have something to do, get to know each other, waiting on the convention to start as it started today. but about ten years ago, a lady said something to me that changed my attitude about the fish fry. she told me she would never miss another one, and i asked her why. she said, because it gave me this ordinary young lady from this rural county an opportunity

to advance the electric slide for the next president of the united states. and you know what she was talking about that happened back in 2007, i believe. and then i talked to people today, and one lady told me i just cannot get over being in the same setting with over 20 people running for president of the united states and i could reach out and touch them as any ordinary person would. and thank you so much for that opportunity. >> you and -- a lot of people do not know with your exalted position in congress, but you started as a civil rights activist here in south carolina. >> absolutely. >> and went through all of what that meant. so you lived it. you didn't study this in -- i was just -- did a commencement at voorhies, all i'm talking about in the middle of the state. i'm not talking about the big city. your legendary civil rights work speaks for itself, and then you went to congress and worked your

way up. >> absolutely. you know, on monday i'm going to celebrate by 50th wedding anniversary. you know, i met em la england in jail, march 1960 when we were demonstrating against segregation and the ability to vote. so i tell people all the time jokingly, sometimes jail works. it worked for me. but i got started -- i never got out of it. john lewis and i first met in october 1960 when we were both founded what is now known as snip. i went on, got married, raised a family, and went to work in politics started in 1970. but i tried to bring that experience into politics. i won't try to make politics

something that it ain't. i'll try to say it to the people in my democratic caucus. here is what people are experiencing in rural south carolina. voorhies is in bamburg county. you don't have to tell me, your cell phone didn't work. you have to get across south carolina before it works. trying to get rural broad band in the communities. >> those are the issues that make south carolina different in the primary because you still have those areas that need to be developed. they have a majority of primary voters that are black. this is not a place you can come by and give your regular speech. you have to deal with real people issues here. >> absolutely, absolutely. and that's with these candidates have been doing. cory booker has been to voorhies college. beto o'rourke, you just heard him talk about bamberg county and denmark college. denmark tech had their choir

here for this whole convention last night and today. these young people who are really interested in politics, to have them be a part of this, give them a good experience in this business. you know, what i say to people, if you tell a person in rural south carolina that you cannot have broad band because it's profitable for us to bring it to your county, they aren't going to have much faith in this system of capitalism. we got to make cassette capitalism compassionate. we got to make capitalism work. and i am a big capitalist. my mother was an outstanding businesswoman, i believe in it, but it has to work for everybody. if you got health care that's not accessible or affordable, education, accessible and affordable. that's what makes the system work, making sure that the greatness of this country more

accessible and affordable for. >> everyone congressman, it's an honor to have you on "politicsnation" here. thank you very much. >> thank you so much for digifying our presence here today. >> we're going to take a break. thank you, congressman clyburn. much more from south carolina democratic party convention here in columbia, including interviews with beto o'rourke, senator cory booker, and former vice president joe biden. be right back. when i got my dna results, it opened up so many doors.

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welcome back to "politicsnation." we're live from the capital of south carolina. today the state is holding its democratic party convention. joining me now is democratic presidential candidate and former texas congressman beto o'rourke. first of all, thank you for being with us. >> thank you. thanks for having me. >> you have been here most of the day and you came in different. you came down the aisle, you didn't take the stage. >> right. >> you and stood among the people in the box and you talked passionately. and i think that that's the beto o'rourke that the country is beginning to see, a kind of difference but authenticity. >> we've been all over the state going to communities big and small, hold town hall meetings, and listening to people. very often in almost every

instance, you're not on a stage, elevated, or kept part. you're with the people you want to serve, listening to them. today i want to be with the people here in this convention hall and reflect back all the stories that have been shared with me along the way. struggles that people are going through, but also their aspirations and the way we're going to overcome this together. so south carolina's been very inspiring to me and i wanted to reflect some of that back at the convention. >> you told stories of different people and different things that are represented around the state and you didn't bite your tongue about calling people that had been racist or that had been backwards and exploitative, and you told the stories of cities around south carolina. >> absolutely. i was talking about being here in columbia, on the state house grounds seeing a monument to ben pill tillman who was a white

nationalist terrorist with the blood of many african-americans on his hands. yet he's a venerated position. why don't we talk about people like robert smalls who command diedre a confederate ship, ran his americans to safety and came back and served as a congressman not just during reconstruction but after reconstruction, almost uniquely amongst african-american legislators. so i want to make sure everyone's story is included in our national story and we tell the full story of america. it's the only way you right the injustices people have experienced, and it's the only way you get on the right course on the big challenges we face, health care, more inclusive economy, or confronting climate change before it's too late. >> when you talk about tillman and others that have the ugly racist background and the original sin of slavery here in this country, how do you respond to vice president biden's statement that many of called on

him to apologize for? >> i don't know that i fully understand his statement, to somehow explain the impasse we've seen or the gross discrimination that many americans have experienced that's resulted in the largest prison population on the face of the planet, one that is disproportionately compromised of people of color. that's not a function of lack of civility or bipartisanship. that's racism that's still systemat systemic today in 2019. obviously the vice president doesn't understand that or has to explain better what he meant by that remark. for my part i want to make sure those who've been locked out or locked up in this democracy have a voice, have a vote, can participate not just in our elections, but in our economy. it's only then that this country's going to hit its full stride, going to be firing on

all cylinders and really reach its potential and its promise. >> the president received a call last night from speaker nancy pelosi asking him to delay, if not stop, this whole sending out i.c.e. to go after illegal immigrants. this hits home to you. you talked about it here today about el paso, six kids dying in custody or under the supervision -- well, custody of immigration authorities. how do you react to the two-week delay? is it a good sign? is it nothing? how do you feel? >> i think this is another example of the president's successful attempts to distract us from what's really happening under his watch you mentioned the six children whose lives have been lost in our care, in custody, but there are kids right now who are sleeping on concrete floors in a border patrol station in clint, texas, just outside of el paso, covered

in their basically tinfoil blankets in their own soiled clothes that haven't been changed, kids taking care of kids, more kids are going to you ever and ultimately die as a result unless we stand up to this administration and force him to change this policy. this will forever stain our conscience. this is our moment of truth. we have to be focused on what he's actually doing to our fellow human beings. so i want to elevated their stories and make sure they're on our conscious so we can still do something about it while we can. >> the debates are less than a week ago. you are on the first night. how do you distinguish yourself without being divisive in because you've been very straightforward. you have not in my judgment tried to in any way dilute your wordings and your passion. how do you do that on the stage

that distinguishes you without appearing divisive? >> i think this election and our campaign is about the future. we can't return to sometime before trump because things weren't working for everybody in this country back then. in fact, in some cases, they were going in the wrong direction despite the heroic effort of president obama who's been the best president of my lifetime. but some of the structural inequality and racism, for example, or the fact that african-american women today are paid 61 cents on the dollar that a white man makes in this country today. you can't fix that by going backwards. you can't pit people against each other in order to accomplish this. this highly divided country kept further by this president must be brought together by the next president. that's what i want to do. and that's why this campaign is about bringing people in and together and making sure our democracy works for everyone. i want to talk about that on the debate stage this coming week

and invite people in to join this campaign and this movement. it's only a movement that will be able to defeat trump in '20. >> you have said to me -- we talked in atlanta a little -- that you had gone to a certain point, seemed to have leveled off, now seems like there's a resurgence. >> it feels that way. any groove that we have is based on these amazing supporters and volunteers, folks who are out there right now knocking on doors or hosting phone banks or pop-up offices in their home. this campaign that hasn't taken a dime from a single pac or corporation or special interest or lobbyist is driven by people, and they are the energy that you're seeing that i hope i'm reflecting back right now. i'm grateful to be running this campaign with them. >> all right, well, thank you, presidential hopeful beto

o'rourke. thank you for stopping by tonight. coming up, new jersey senator cory booker. we'll be right back. pnc bank has technology to help make banking easier, like.. pnc easy lock, so you can easily lock your credit card when its maximum limit differs from its vertical limit. and clover flex, for when you need to take credit cards when no one carries cash. or requesting a call to help get a new credit card- one that hasn't followed the family goldfish. pnc - make today the day.

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we're back. we're in columbia, south carolina today where the state is holding its democratic party convention. here's my panel, jason johnson, politics editor for the root, and an msnbc political contributor, and atima o'mara, a democratic strategist. well, atima, cory booker is taking the stage and he's about to start speaking. let's listen in. >> now, look, a whole a lot of people running for president these days, 2020 election does not stand for the year. it stands for the number of people running, 2020. but you all know in this room where power comes from. it doesn't come from an individual or an office. it comes from the grassroots. you all are the power. you all are the purpose.

you all are what's going to help us win. look, i live in a low-income inner city community. we don't mistake wealth with worth where i live. we know where power comes from. look, i want to tell you the truth. when i first came to the inner city of newark, new jersey, the neighborhood i still live in, i had this idea coming in as a yale law student, i was going to lead things. but i met a grassroots leader who was the president in the projects in which i lived for almost a decade. and i still remember when i told her, she can see why are you here, she goes if you want to help me, you got to come down to the street and tell me what you see in my neighborhood. and she goes, describe what you see. and i described the projects and abandoned building being used for drugs. i talked about the graffiti and i described what i saw but more i talked, the more this woman looked at me like she was upset

with me. and i finally said, what's wrong, and she said, boy, you need to understand something. the world you see outside of you is a reflection of what you have inside of you. if you look around my communities and all you see is problems and darkness and despair, that's all there's ever going to be. but if you are one of those people that you're stubborn, you see hope, opportunity, and love, then you can be one of the people that helps me. i want to tell you a lot of folks are talking about themselves, but i want to talk about you. because when i learned in newark, eventually become the mayor of that city, that the hope for our community did not lie in one individual in one office. it lied with the people in our ability to come together and stand together and work together and fight together and win together. [ cheers ] and so let me tell you right now, let me tell you right now, a lot of people want to make this election all about donald

trump. well, let me tell you, i'm running for office because we will beat donald trump. but let me tell you, let me tell you, that's not all we need to do. beating donald trump is the floor. it's not the ceiling. beating donald trump gets us out of the valley but it does not get us to the mountain top. i'm running for office because i believe that we as a people can get to the mountaintop. i'm not running because of what we're against. we as a party must stand up for what we're for. we are for in the united states of america once and for all, health care being a right for all americans. [ cheers ] we are for every job in america having a living wage, the right to organize, the right to retire with security. we are for public education, and making sure that public school teachers are paid what they are

worth and raising their salaries. we are for ending the school-to-prison pipeline. we are for standing up to making sure that we don't stick our head in the ground on climate change, but this is the nation that leads us out of this crisis. [ cheers ] i want you all to know this election has to be about us. so many people think that we want to make it all about him. i walked into a town hall up in iowa, man comes up to me and says, hey, i want you to punch donald trump in the face. and i go, hey, man, that's a felony. [ laughter ] we will not beat donald trump by fighting him using his tactics on his turf, on his terms. he wants this election to be about hate. we better make it about love. he wants to make this election

about tearing people down. we're going to make it about building people up. he wants to make this election about dividing folks, we are going to unite this country and put more indivisible into this one nation under god. i want you all to know i still go home to newark. we have seven people shot in my community just last week. the problems we face were going on before donald trump was in office. we live in a perilous time. we could be the first generation of americans to have lower life expectancy than our one before. we see this nation now, baby boomers 95% better economically than their parents. we're down to 50/50. i know we got to beat donald trump, but there's something in the balance. it's a referendum on who we are to each other.

and we are a nation of love. and so i want to tell you right now, they made a mistake giving me a hammer. i want to tell you all right now, where martin luther king was slain, i was taught by that woman on the fifth floor of the projects that hope is the active conviction that despair will never have the last word. where martin luther king was slain, they decided not to write a tribute to him. they decided to write a challenge to us, where king was slain, there's words there that are joseph's words, joseph's brother's words they uttered before they grabbed him and threw him into a ditch. these are the words that are written where king was slain, a challenge to us, the words from genesis, it says behold, here cometh the dreamer, let us slay him and see what comes of the dream. well, this is a referendum on the dream. we now in our generation have to stand up and dream again, bold

dreams and defiant dreams, dreams of love, dreams that are that our ancestors fought and died for. i want to ask you, south carolina, will you stand and dream with me again? will you dream america again? will we dream this country anew? bold dreams, defiant dreams. if we dream together and work together and love together, we won't just beat donald trump, but we will make it to the mountaintop and we will get to the promised land. thank you. thank you, south carolina. [ cheers ] let us dream again. [ cheers ] >> back with me, jason johnson, political editor for the root and atima o'mara, a democratic strategist. we heard cory booker, and cory booker was preaching and talking

about dreaming and talking about there's more than just going after donald trump, that it's about restoring dreaming in america. will that resonate with voters? >> i think it certainly with with a certain generation of voters. i think younger folks who are really looking at this election and a new way of doing things, millennials and gen zers and gen x too. how can we restructure in a way that has an opportunity for everyone because a lot of people some of the way things happened have not worked. the full promise of america has not been realized for everyone still. >> jason? >> so once the collection plate is done being passed -- i expect the old ladies to be running in the aisle and taking their hats off. it was very impressive. but the bigger thing i noticed since i got here but he has a

crowd out here. he had one of the largest contingents of people. his speech was a classic enthusiastic cory booker speech. it looks like he has a really good on the ground organization and that's what he's going to need. if he survives past area, he's going to need zealots on the ground. if the crowd is any indicator, he's got them here. >> you got the polls saying joe biden is way ahead with black voters. you have two african-americans in the race. you have kamala harris, senator from california, and cory booker we just saw from new jersey who will be joining me shortly. what will upset the perception of who has the command of the black vote? if biden does not win the black vote in south carolina, what does that say if he wins overwhelmingly and kamala harris or cory booker -- what do they

have to show in south carolina? >> they're never going to have to show that they can get a large demographic of voters. for them both seem to be the play, a lot of younger black voters are are still shopping and they're still looking at senator booker and senator harris very seriously. over 50, lot more african-american voters are interested in biden, but some of them are also still shopping, right? so it's still early yet. i think biden has higher name recognition than both, but both of them clearly by their presence looking at some cory booker heads right now is there's a lot of energy and they know this is going to be crucial for them to keep carrying on to super tuesday. >> biden wins, iowa is done. he'll run the table f. biden only wins iowa by two points, if he's 31-29 against harris and harris ends up winning south carolina, then we could have a hillary/obama situation for the next four or five months as they compete together.

if someone can demonstrate that white voters would be willing to vote for cory booker or castro or kamala harris, then joe biden, his support amongst black voters will evaporate by the time he gets here if he loses in iowa. >> well, the fact that you have two african-americans dilute a consolidated african-american vote for a consolidated candidate. >> right. >> and then we see who comes ahead. i remember in 2004, a lot of my staff wanted -- we got to do better than carroll. do we have that same tension here with kamala harris and with cory booker? >> if they're still in the race, right? look, i just rote a piece this week about senator harris and working class black men. people don't realize how important black men actually are in the south carolina primary. there's more black men voting than white women or white men. she can't just run up the score

of black women. she has to run with black men too. if cory is still in the race -- >> black men were significant in alabama. they were only two or three points behind black women. >> not always. >> the black men vote showed up too. >> always two points behind black women. >> when you're dealing in the 90s, that's a significant vote. >> here's the thing, if her victory is contingent upon not having a gender split because she's already leading cory, senator booker in the pools. senator booker has to build his numbers in general. she can't just depend on the black vote because they'll be between biden and harris. he's going to have a more generalized strategy because i doubt he'll win in iowa. >> in this state we also know that the black community and the general community is more conservative than in other states. >> yeah. >> how do the more progressives play in this state?

we saw bernie sanders today and elizabeth warren was here and pete buttigieg. how does that differ in terms of the reaction of voters here differently? because this is still bible belt, even in the black part of the state, which are the majority of the primary voters? >> i think it's going to be talking about the issues that are still very important to the democratic primary electorate which is health care, the economy, it's really fixing and make sure -- the medicare for all is taking off across the base of the democratic party, because it's something we know is still a major issue that still needs to be improved upon. so focusing on issues that are sort of like the bread and butter while still being able to talk about abortion rights, civil rights, lbgtq rights, and talking about an opportunity for all is really going to resonate in a large way in these parts of the country. >> they want to know that you can win, period. they're the ones who are like,

we want trump out of office. so showing them that you have a plan to not just beat -- it's similar to what cory booker just did. it's not just about beating donald trump. we have to fix the problems that existed before he got into office and will continue while he's in office. that's what progressives are looking for. they need a victory speech. they need someone who can march through. >> to jason's point, that's exactly why elizabeth warren is surging as well as she is. she has a plan for that. she really has been putting forward aggressive policies of not only are we going to oppose trump but we have a plan for a better america for everyone. >> all right. we're going to bring in former vice president joe biden who is speaking right now. let's listen in. snow. than i've ever be

♪ >> thank you. is my time running? whoa. my time's running. i'm sorry. hey, thank you, everybody. i never like to cut off cheers, but my time is running here. welcome, south carolina. we're happy to be here. the only thing i miss is my buddy fritz, he was one of my mentors and i'm sorry he's not here. you know in your bones this election is more important than any one you've engaged in. we have a president who's encouraged white supremacy and goes around the world weakening our alliances. our children are watching in the matters the president say and do.

barack obama, they emulated. they wanted to be like him. four more years of donald trump will permanently change the character of this country. we can't let that happen. we have to beat donald trump as the overwhelming imperative we have. folks, we have to begin to rebuild the backbone of this nation, hard-working people, middle class people. wall street did not build america. you built america. average people given a chance built america. and right now the poor are getting poorer and from the bottom they are falling out of the middle class. income inequality is at an all-time high. it's time we start to reward work over wealth. we need big and bold ideas. folks, on day one, on day one i will move to eliminate trump's tax cuts as well for the super wealthy.

and literally cut close to 400 to $500 billion to tax loopholes that have no social redeeming value and put that money to good use. health care, ladies and gentlemen, we need to save and build upon the affordable care act, not jettison it. 20 million are covered that weren't before. over 130 million people with preexisting conditions. folks, wel have to finish the job. under my plan, whether you're covered by your employer, on your own, or not at all, you will be able to buy into an option like medicare and you'll be able to have it. if you don't have the money, you will automatically be enrolled in that. we will guarantee that the poor are, in fact, covered because they can be and it's within our interest and we'll save billions

of dollars. ladies and gentlemen, education, 12 years is no longer enough for the 21st century of education. folks, that's why i want to triple title 1 funding for schools in distress. by the way, we can afford to do this. $15 billion to $45 billion, we need universal prek, we need to raise teachers' pay, we have to fully fund special skpegs double the number of school psychologists, guidance counselors, nurses, because teachers can't do it all on their own. folks, we can easily afford free community college cutting in half the cost of four-year colleges for everyone qualified to get in and further than that, we have to do something and reduce the student debt, which i don't have time to go into now, but we will. child care, i know what it's like to be a single parent. i was one for five years and i had a lot of help. i can't imagine what it's like

for people that don't have the kind of help i had in my the people. we should provide an $8,000 tax credit for every single person who has a child that needs child care. ladies and gentlemen, climate change. we have to restore what barack and i did in terms of fuel economy and doubling fuel economy as well as dealing with coal fired plants. we can double offshore wind energy by 2030, providing $400 billion for clean energy, research, and innovation, twice as much as we spent going to the moon. ladies and gentlemen, we also have to immediately hold polluters accountable. you saw the headline in today's pair, in your paper, it says south carolina, $2 billion problem, pipes like tissue paper threatening public health. it is unacceptable that that occurred. we can afford it. it's not just in south carolina, it's around america. criminal justice reform, there are too many people in prison,

too many black men, and i might add, black women in prison. [ cheers ] look, in our administration we started to address the problem,ing federal prisons by 38,000 people came out. and then we passed the support of school discipline initiative to break the school-to-prison pipeline. but we need to have the safe justice act. no more mandatory minimums period. fund my drug courts so a billion dollars a year no one should be going to jail because they are addicted. they should be going into rehabilitation, not to jail. [ cheers ] bail reform. just because you don't have the money should you be languishing in jail. ladies and gentlemen, no juveniles in adult prisons. mandatory treatment in jail for

people who also suffer from addiction. decriminalize marijuana and automatically expunge records for those that have been convicted. [ cheers ] by the way, instead of teaching people how to be better criminals in prison, we should be educating people in prison. it's in our interest to do so. automatic restoration of rights once your sentence is served, meaning not only you can vote, but you're qualified for every program, including pell grants to go on and get your education. it makes no sense. look, folks, we have to unite this country. we have to unite it. look, we're on the cusp of major changes, we can do this by doubling nih's budget and set up a new project i proposal like what happened in the defense department to find how to come up with the whole internet, provide billions of dollars for basic refer. i call it health care, focus on

research and take all the technology we have to focus on solving problems which within our reach like the moon show the. i beat the nra before. we ought to ban assault weapons again, which i did, and limit magazines. by the way, use technology so you can't fire a gun unless it has your biometric prints on it and you have to pass background checks that i put into law as a consequence of the brady. science and technology can reshape our lives. i'm never more optimistic about this country. we ought to pick our heads up. i remember the phrase from john kennedy when he wanted to go to the moon, he said because we're unwilling to postpone, i'll unwilling to postpone any longer this nation. god bless you all and may god protect our troops. thank you, thank you, thank you.

thank you. >> i'd like to welcome my next guest here at the south carolina democratic party convention, presidential candidate and new jersey senator cory booker. senator booker. >> reverend it's good to be on with you. i want to give you a personal thank you. my church, you preached. people are still talking about it. i'm sorry i wasn't there to greet. >> you i do it every father's day. you're usually there with us. >> yes. >> you made a rousing speech, really bringing the crowd to the mountaintop in memory of dr. king. you have a huge contingent here. what is your message in south carolina and what do you think south carolina electromagnetic will mean

to your team? >> this is home turf to me. my dad grew up in henderson. as a guy that's been the chief executive of a city, newark has been left out, looked aside, looked down on. i'm here to tell south carolina, number one, i will be the candidate that focuses on the issues of the people in this state because they are personal to me. even more than that, too many democrats see this as a stepping-stone to a nomination and a presidency. this is a blue state. people like jamie harris are running for senator, we could win races that we're not winning right now. so i'm looking forward to building a party from the grassroots up. that was the message in my speech. it's not about the candidates. we have a lot of agreements up there. what it's about is igniting the grassroots so that we can become a 50-state party and begin to have the power we need to actually transform health care in this country, wages in this country, revive public education to the greatest on the planet.

politics is a team sport. we need more people elected and we do not that by empowering the grassroots. that's the kind of leader i want to be. >> we heard today the president after talking with nancy pelosig i.c.e. out to deal with illegal immigrants. how do you react to that? >> i'm angry. this kind of fearmongering, these mass deportations, the kind of threat he put into communities. i live, again, in newark. the fear is so big in those communities that people are afraid to come out of their homes. these are people with american spouses, american children. it's tearing apart families, it's hurting people. we create a much safer community when we don't have this kind of bullying, this kind of fearmongering, these kinds of threats to deport people that in many ways from d.r.e.a.m.ers to people who have been in this country for decades, we need to have an immigration that has a path to citizenship and doesn't

create such broadscale fear. if he thinks he's going to try to intimidate us into capitulating into his outrageous immigration policies, his wal a -- wall and more, he has another think coming. >> you were in the hearing on reparations hr-40. >> i testified in that historic moment. >> why was that important to you? the reparations of descendants of africa? >> because you know the kind of fears we have in economic inequities to inequities of civility. these are all slaveries that we have well into our 60s and 70s that purposely excluded african-americans. and we have got to find a way to create equality in our country, to address these past ills and

set off on a trajectory for more success. not just from black people, because when a child is denied an opportunity, denied the opportunity to manifest their genius, we all suffer as a result for it. this is something we should be bringing. my legislation of the senate would bring the best lines of our country to figure out how to suggest these past ills and figure out equality for all which is a common problem in our country. >> which is why former vice president joe biden addressed his convention. you called on him to apologize to states working with people like former senator eastland or the late senator eastland and others who are outright racist segregationists. he called you. what happened on the phone call and has he apologized, or do you feel he still needs to? >> let me be clear about this. i work across the aisle with folks i disagree with a lot. that's not the issue.

in fact, we need to have a country that can work across our gaps and gulfs more. the way he said it caused a lot of hurt and harm in communities like the one i live in by saying, hey, this avowed racist called me son, didn't call me boy. the reason he called you son, the power dynamics here, is he sees you as a person that could be his child. the reason he calls black people boy is to degrade or dehumanize them, a grown man. that to me was something that showed -- he shouldn't need that lesson and he should understand that he's trampling on hurtful, harmful words in history. i said my piece, he said his. i was a little taken aback that before our conversation he said i should apologize to him. i make no apology for speaking truth to power, especially in a time that we're going to need leaders in our party that can unify us, elevate u bris, bring

together. he did not show that spirit we need, especially going into a fight against donald trump where we're going to be able to need to energize, organize and frankly bring together all our diverse parties. >> if he's nominated, could you support him? >> absolutely. whoever is our nominee, i trust our people. i trust our party. i will fall behind that person and i will -- you will not find another candidate that's more committed to seeing whoever is nominated. but i believe that i will be the nominee. and i believe that because i believe i can unify our party. i can speak to the higher at operations and urgencies of a time when we're too divided, we need to heal, we need to come together and we need to be a nation that addresses the persistent injustices. i have a lot of respect for vice president biden, a lot of gratitude for him and his years of service. for me, though, i was taught as a young man that being nice and being kind often means you say

the difficult things to people, even those that you love, that you don't try to sweep it under the rug or ignore it. we need to have the difficult conversations in our country, even to those people we respect. especially if they have a chance to go on and leading. i hope this has been a learning moment for him and i hope he does not tread upon those tired racist tropes that have so hurt people in the past. >> you will be in the debates this week. first debate wednesday night. what is your plan at the debate that would distinguish you without being divisive? >> you know, these are wonderful opportunities for all of us. we have been in such an extraordinary field, from luminaries and veterans like joe biden to a lot of new folks on the stage. it's extraordinary. and so my view of this is it's a chance to put your heart and your spirit as well as your ideas before the american people. it's not -- i don't think you're going to see a bunch of fighting

amongst us because we all in many ways agree with the same ambitions of more access to health care, raising wages in this country. but i want to let folks know specifically what my ideas are and i want them to understand my heart, my passion and my experience, having been the chief executive of new jersey's largest city and a senator that got major pieces of legislation like the first step back criminal justice reform done in the united states senate. >> many thanks to you, senator cory booker, for being with us tonight. we're not done yet. up next, former vice president joe biden joins me right here on set. this is "politics nation" live from south carolina's democratic party convention. y convention but some give their clients cookie cutter portfolios. fisher investments tailors portfolios to your goals and needs. some only call when they have something to sell. fisher calls regularly so you stay informed. and while some advisors are happy to earn commissions whether you do well or not. fisher investments fees

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welcome back to "politics nation." we are continuing our coverage from columbia, south carolina. we're here at the state's democratic party convention where throughout the day, nearly two dozen presidential candidates made their case in what is a crucial stop in this early voting state. as you can