Clyburn, who is, of course, the democratic leader in the house, they all say biden doesnt have a problem. That they know him. They know his record. It kind of shifts the onus to cory booker, who we had a great interview with last night. Is he just trying to play to advantage to try to get some wattage in that race . Okay. So heres the thing. I understood what he was saying which one . I understood what, well, former senator, the Vice President joe biden was trying to say. I understand it. He did it inartfully, and many times in conversations we do that. I did it the other night with you when we were talking about the whole, you know, who you give a platform to and when you look back in history, who do you want i brought in hitler. I didnt mean to compare hitler to the president , but it was inartful. I was trying to trying to speak about people who give misinformation and propaganda. And you tried to help me out. Youre like, thats an extreme example. That was inartful. I didnt mean in it that way and i think we have to sometimes people say things in a conversation and you get what im trying to say, but people turn it into something else. And i get what joe biden was trying to say in the same vein. And what he did was inartful by saying boy, right . So if he didnt say boy, i think it would have landed differently. What he was saying was i can work with these people who were terrible. They were, you know, beyond racist, right . They were beyond what we have in the senate and in the congress right now, and if i can work with them then i can definitely work with the folks there. So i think that, you know, as we said the other night, you and i, got to give people a little bit more leeway. We should be nicer. We should be kinder and figure that out. And if you Say Something that was inartful and something comes out of your mouth thats stupid which happens when youre live. You know that happens all the time. Probably me more than you. You say thats not what i meant. Thats one of the reasons your audience loves you. You will open what you say and sometimes youll stick to it if its just that people dont like the opinion. If you decide that you didnt say it the right way, you own it, most people dont. Youre also existing in a gotcha culture, my brother. Thats a problem for us, too. People will take what they say they know where you were going with it, but youve given them a chance given them the ammo. But heres the thing that im going to say. I dont know if you use your mom, who by the way, i love so much. I use my mom as a barometer. My mom is is one of those moderate democrats, votes in every single election, is passionate about how she feels, and i said i called her up and i said, mom, what did you think . She said, i knew what joe biden was saying. He said it a little bit crazy, but i knew what he was saying. Its a tempest in a tea pot and she says democrats have to stop it because theyre going to be so woke theyre going to wake up the day after election day and the person they dont want to be in the white house is going to be in the white house. Now, thats her. Those are the people who make up the bulk of the Democratic Party who show up at every single election are people like my mom and others who i spoke to, and they say the same thing. This election is not going to be had on twitter and who is going to be the wokest. And your concerns about joe biden and him using boy, that was inartful, he should not have used that word, but your concerns about that, thats not the Biggest Issue that we face. Joe biden may end up not being the nominee, but to kneecap someone because you disagree with one word or one thing that they said i think is cutting off your nose to spite your face. Look at the totality of someones record. Realize who your actually allies are, and your allies arent always right and perfect, but the person who has your back most of the time is your ally. The person who doesnt give a damn about you and calls you names and doesnt really care about your issues, thats not your ally. True. Try to work with your ally. True. But you have some practicalities at play here. There is a reason that cory booker and harris and beto and bernie said it in a way that youre not hearing from meeks and clyburn because theyre not running. Theyre playing to advantage. They have to be careful. They can call him their friend all they want. Listen, i respect everyone who is running, all the people who are running for, you know, 2020. Great interview with cory booker. Respect him a lot. Hes done some great work. But they all have to be careful not to come off as opportunists. Because there is a reason that Kamala Harris gets the respect that she gets, because of the work that shes done. There is a reason that cory booker gets respect that he gets, because of the work hes done. And theres a reason that joe biden gets the respect because of the work and his record that hes done. And i dont think there is any black person in america, especially in the voting public, who thinks that joe biden is an actual racist and who is putting a segregationist over someone else. Thats just real talk. I know that people are going to be mad at me. The woke twitter culture is going to come after me, but it doesnt matter, im speaking the truth to them. Republicans fall in line. None of the republicans up on that stage with donald trump in 2016 liked him. Right. They said it then. They all hit him hard and said he was terrible. He didnt deserve to be in the white house. Not now. Hes an awful person. Guess what . When he became the nominee, they all fell in line. Right. At the convention they were screaming trump, trump, trump, build the wall. At the democratic convention, there were hordes of people screaming bernie, bernie, bernie, and we were like what is going on here . That is the difference. Democrats have a litmus and a purity test for their candidates. Republicans say this is the best person we have to carry our agenda forward. Were going to fall in line and support that person. An interesting thing happens if you want to put this into a category of Political Correctness and how they play out differently in the two parties. Yeah. I easily see this president using the attacks of cory booker against joe biden if biden gets the ticket. Absolutely. I know people are saying, what are you talking about . It would be so hypocritical. No, the right will attack the left for Political Correctness. Look what theyre doing with aoc about her descriptions of things. They dont like them. They do have a good fight on sensitivity so theyll attack her. Theyll never attack their own that way. Never, ever. They will attack you. So if the left motivates those same attacks, they will wind up, as you say, risk kneecapping one of their own who makes it to the next level, especially if its joe biden. Yeah, well, they got Big Decisions to make. Im just going to report it and give it call it like i see it. Thank you by the way, i have some news. I know they want us to go on. So, listen, i spoke to some folks about the phone call. They said booker was right this is a source with the biden campaign. Booker was right. The phone call was sincere. It was heartfelt. Again, there were no apologies. And also, i think you can expect to see the former Vice President say he misspoke. Because as we as we talked about it, he has told the story numerous times, but used he didnt use the boy. He said he called me son because he didnt respect me instead of senator. As a senator. I think you can look to, especially when hes in South Carolina this weekend, doing interviews and so on. I know hes got an interview with reverend sharpton, that he spoke. I got to tell you one other thing. No apologies, no apologies. Apologies are seen as weakness now and i think its such a mistake. Somebody said something to me about i had tweeted. I dont think we should talk about the holocaust this way. That words used all the time. Look, i apologize if you took it the wrong way. They, like, looked at me now, i knew id still get savaged for having said it. Thats this toxic twitter culture. It is what it is, but in real life its starting to bleed through and people see apologizes as weakness. And i think theyre almost always strength. Its not. Its not. I remember when i first started this show, a producer a producer told me something and usually they were afraid maybe that someone would take it the wrong way. I said, you know what, youre absolutely right, im sorry. They looked at me like i had three heads. Who are you . Thats what grown people do. Thats right. You admit youre wrong and you move on. Guess what . I got to move on now. Go ahead, brother. Ill be watching the show. Theyve been yelling at me no the last five minutes. Youve got a guest on with one of the best names ive ever heard, by the way. Oh, wait until you meet marijuana pepsi. Not tonight. Shes going to be on a different night. Oh, a different night . Maybe youre talking about john kasich. The alien . The alien. Bye, chris. Ill see you this weekend. See you later. Im off tomorrow so ill see you on saturday. This is cnn tonight. Im don lemon. We have lots to talk about. The United States may be closer to military conflict with iran than at any time since President Trump took office 2 1 2 years ago. This development after iran shot down a u. S. Navy drone with a missile. The pentagon releasing this its a grainy video. There it is right there. Of the drone falling on to the strait of hormuz. But heres the catch. And i want to show this to you on a map. Take a look at this map. Iran calls the drone claims, excuse me, the drone violated iranian airspace and was spying over iranian territory. U. S. Military officials call the claim categorically false, insisting the drone was operating over the strait of hormuz and fell into international waters. At the white house today, President Trump saying this. Iran made a big mistake. This drone was in international waters, clearly. We have it all documented. Its documented scientifically, not just words. And they made a very bad mistake. Okay . How will you respond . Youll find out. Are you willing to go to war with iran . Youll find out. Youll find out. But then cryptically the president looked like he was walking back his threat to take action. Listen. I have a feeling that it was a mistake made by somebody that shouldnt have been doing what they did. Who do you think did it . I think they made a mistake. Im not just talking the country made a mistake, i think that somebody under the command of that country made a big mistake. I find it hard to believe it was intentional, if you want to know the truth. I think it could have been somebody who was loose and stupid. Look, we dont know what to believe when it comes to this president , quite frankly, and what he says. Hes lost credibility with the American People. Telling almost 11,000 false or misleading claims since he took office. Thats according to the Washington Post fact checker. Remember when he said hell build a wall and mexico will pay for it . Its not and they arent. 3 to 5 million illegal votes cost him the popular vote. They didnt. His inaugural crowd was bigger than president obamas. It wasnt. Windmills cause cancer. They dont. President Obama Wiretapped him. He did not. The American People need to be able to believe their leader when crisis flares up. Overseas. Thats why the truth is so important. Because as we have said, if you lie about everything, youll lie about anything. Or if you lie about anything, youll lie about everything. It can be said both ways. The Administration May be telling the truth, but their record on that is about as bad as it could be. And the president also has squandered his credibility with Many American allies around the world and anymore not much credibility. When it comes to iran he is standing alone. He unilaterally pulled the u. S. Out of the Iran Nuclear Deal and tightened sanctions on iran. Really ticking off european allies. Nicolas kristof of the New York Times who will join us in just a bit said it is sad how distrustful how allies have become about the u. S. , including its approach toward iran. But thats not all. Trump has questioned the viability of nato, angering allies but not doubt putting a giant smile on Vladimir Putins face. He despises nato. And speaking of, theyre not happy with the way trump has cozied up to russias strongman president and allies are perplexed at trumps moves to have a friendship with north koreas horrible dictator kim jongun. Then we fell in love, okay . No, really. He wrote me beautiful letters. Americas longtime allies want to feel some of that love from trump. Instead, he usually slaps them around. When general james mattis stepped down as defense secretary at the end of last year, his Resignation Letter was a rebuke to trumps approach to americas allies. Reading in part, while the u. S. Remains the indispensable nation in the free world, we cannot protect our interests or serve that role effectively without maintaining strong alliances and showing respect to those allies. He went on to say, we must do Everything Possible to advance an International Order that is most conducive to our security, our prosperity and values and we are strengthened in the effort by the solidarity of our alliances. We have a lot more tonight on the growing danger and the dangerous situation with iran. Also tonight, a Big Development in the controversy surrounding joe biden and the remarks he made about how well he worked in the senate with avid segregationists when he was a young senator in the 1970s. Senator cory booker, a rival for the democratic nomination, called biden out for his comments and the two got into a verbal scuffle last night. Well, it turns out biden later called booker, an aide to booker saying that the call was direct and respectful. But no apologies were exchanged. Is this incident a stumble for joe biden . One of his Campaign Themes is how well he can work with people. People he disagrees with. And he was describing his relationship with former mississippi senator james o. Eastland, who was not only a segregationist, but a major opponent of civil rights. Saying this. I was in a caucus with james o. Eastland. He never called me boy. He always called me son. Well, guess what . At least there was some civility. We got things done. We didnt agree on much of anything. We got things done. We got it finished. But today you look at the other side and youre the enemy. Not the opposition, the enemy. We dont talk to each other anymore. Booker immediately rebuked biden by saying this. You dont joke about calling black men boys. Men like james o. Eastland used words likes that and the racist policies to strip black americans of our very humanity. And calling on biden to apologize. Biden reacted like this are you going to apologize . Thanks, guys. Like cory booker has called for. Apologize for what . Cory bookers called for it. Cory should apologize. He knows better. Theres not a racist bone in my body. Ive been involved in civil rights my whole career. Well, here in studio with me last night, booker responded this way i was raised to speak truth to power. And that i will never apologize for doing that. And Vice President biden shouldnt need this lesson. Mmmhmm. So that phone call, by the way, came after that interview here last night. I have to ask, and were going to get some answers to these questions tonight. Biden no doubt means well, but he now has to deal with how primary voters view these comments. Is he out of step with the Democratic Party of 2019 . Theres a lot to talk about tonight. The biden incident. The escalating tensions with iran and President Trumps surprising response when asked if he needs to expand his base going into 2020, the 2020 election. Ohios former republican Governor John Kasich joins me next. On to the next job. The next challenge. The next place. On to the next level. And all the rewards that come with it. The allnew ram 1500. Motortrends 2019 truck of the year everything you need, to get on to bigger things. After my. I wondered,. Is another one around the corner. Or could it be different than i thought . I wanted to help protect myself. My doctor recommended eliquis. 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Ive got an idea oooh, what is it . What if we give the people iphone xr, when they join tmobile . For a limited time, join tmobile and get the awesome iphone xr on us. Applebees new loaded chicken fajitas. Now only 10. 99. U. S. On the verge of a major conflict or even war with iran. That is the question many are asking tonight. Is it . Well, are we . Iran shot down an american surveillance drone saying it was in its airspace, but the u. S. Disputes that claim. Now the world is waiting to see how america is going to respond. I want to discuss now with former ohio Governor John Kasich. Governor, thank you so much. I appreciate it. I know this is a very serious situation. Don, look, no, it is. But before we get to that serious subject. I want you to know im not an alien, although you can beam me up here from columbus, ohio, you and cuomo. All right. Lets talk about iran. You got it. Heres the problem let me just give you a little. You sat on the House Foreign Affairs committee for 18 years. Thats why i want to know how you feel about this escalation, possible escalation. Are you concerned . Sure. Yeah, im very concerned and im concerned, though, that we have missed an opportunity. On the debate stage, i was the