Transcripts For CNNW Crossfire 20140520 : vimarsana.com

League . Its a great question, scott, and its hard for me to put in words sometimes. I mean, especially as i said earlier, that were coming off some of the best playoffs in certainly my memory. And your question makes me think of Kevin Durants mvp speech. I hope if anybody hasnt seen it, go to nba. Com and watch it, but i remember at one point kevin durant says, really in addressing his mother, who was sitting in the audience at the end of the speech, im paraphrasing, i think, but he said something like, you know, mom, we werent supposed to be here, you know, the deck was stacked against us, and even i get choked up a little bit remembering and watching him give that speech, and i think kevin durant as our most valuable player embodies what this league is all about, and frankly, mr. Sterling doesnt. And so its not just the performances on the court that its a distraction from, and i think what made this moment bigger than basketball, certainly for everybody involved in the league, and that moment being that recording, was that it did come from within, that under david stern and commissioners that came before him, barriers were broken with this league, and i think they are for those who say its a slippery slope and, my god, what happens to the next player or the next owner who does something wrong, i only say theres something particular about race issues when it comes to sports, and maybe the nba in particular. I mean, its no secret, we have a league that majority of the players are africanamerican, the vast majority of the owners are not, but its as a galtarian an institution as it is anywhere, at least that i know of, and i look at the track record in terms of hiring of coaches, general managers, front office personnel, even increasingly in the ownership ranks, i think its you know, its beyond anger. Its sort of what i said earlier, certain sadness, and you feel it. Its almost a malaise around the league. Thats what i sense when i first met with the clippers. It was something deeper than anger. It was something again, its that so many of our players, and listening to kevin durant, you know, who had experienced discrimination in their lives, you know, were not a postracial society, but at least within the boundaries of my authority, you know, i feel an obligation to protect the people who are within this league, and so thats my reaction. Well take our last question up front on the right. Commissioner, youve talked about continuing to grow the game globally. Does the league have any plans to play any exhibition or preseason games in australia in the future . You know, no specific plans, but were looking at it. Australia has been a terrific market. All right, there he is, adam silver, commissioner of the nba, now moving on to other nbarelated issues, but you heard him make a very passionate statement on whats going on in the aftermath of the Donald Sterling scandal. Lets get a quick thought from our panelists, rachel, first to you. What did you make of adam silvers very poignant comments . Yeah, i was struck by the fact he used the phrase, its something deeper than anger. That tells you how far hell go to make sure this sale happens and it also tells you a little bit about where the league is right now and sort of how far weve come. I think its pretty impressive. Very impressive, indeed. Jeffrey . June 3rd Donald Sterling is gone unless a court intervenes, and the clock is ticking. Don lemon, wrap it up. I think adam silver gets it. For anyone who is sitting there in america and you may be siding with Donald Sterling for any particular reason, this man gets it. He spoke to the heart of america. Most americans, and not to businesspeople saying this guys business shouldnt be taken away from him. He spoke to the heart of america. He gets it, hes doing the right thing, and lets hope Donald Sterling hears him. You got to give the new commissioner a lot, a lot of credit for the way hes handled this crisis in the nba. Don, see you back 10 00 p. M. Eastern, don will have a special program. Much more on this story, certainly, coming up. Thanks very much. Were also following another breaking story. Its election day in six states. Cnns complete coverage of these critical primaries. Ill be here, along with our political team. Were going to bring you the results as they come in and the reaction, a special edition of crossfire starts right now. Tonight on crossfire, americas choice 2014. Crucial primaries in a half dozen states. Whats really on voters minds . Tough call. Are they telling republicans keep moving to the right . Not much difference between the tea party and average conservative republican. On the left, van jones. On the right, s. E. Cupp. In the crossfire. Brad woodhouse, a democratic strategist and david bossy, a republican strategist. What messages are voters sending today . Which party has the edge . Tonight on crossfire. Welcome to crossfire. In the crossfire tonight, a pair of top strategists from both parties. Todays primaries really arent what democrats hope theyll be. What they are is the beginning of a twoyear referendum on president obama and the democrats agenda. Tonight and over the course of 2014, well learn if democrats will pay a price for obamacare, a muddled economic agenda, and out of control government bureaucracy. So take notes, hillary, youre going to get a glimpse of the issues youll run on and away from in 2016. Here we go. First of all, we actually agree on something, it is not a fight between moderate republicans and tea party republicans, because there are no moderate republicans. Tea party have taken over the entire Republican Party. Before we get into it and bring in our guests, the first votes are starting to come in tonight. Lets go back to wolf and get the latest results. Thanks very much. This is the most important night so far in the Midterm Election year, voters in six states across all the continental u. S. Time zones, they are having their say tonight. Tonights results will be the clearest indication yet about whether a huge republican wave is sweeping towards washington or whether democrats can cling on and control the senate this year and the white house in 2016. Here in washington, joined by john king. Hes over at the magic wall. But lets begin our coverage right now, chief Congressional Correspondent dana bash in kentucky, one of the biggest political dramas playing out tonight. Was he speaking more broadly, just in an individual race, whats the latest there . He was speaking about his individual race, but it goes a lot deeper than that. It is personal for him and it is, obviously, about the broader idea of control of the senate. He, and ive watched him, covering him for the last four years, has been kicking himself is probably putting it mildly, the way hes regretted the fact that in 2010 and 2012 he felt that they lost the ability to take control of the senate because there were challenges from the right against some of his colleagues, friends, and some of the candidates he backed and some of those conservatives who won, went on to lose in the general election and that robbed him of the ability to be a majority leader. He has worked very hard over the past many months, spent a lot of money, and did some things that maybe some may raise eyebrows at to make sure he beat back his own republican challenger to make him go forward and not only win this reelection, but he hopes the majority leader in november. All right. Dana, stand by. Were going to get back to you. The results are going to be coming in starting very, very soon. Lets bring in john king taking a closer look. This is a big night in politics. Big night because its the first big primary night of a Midterm Election year. 36 senate seats in play. 16 were watching right now. Even democrats privately concede republicans are likely to concede the house. 36 races in play. Republicans need a net gain of six to take control of the senate. These are the 16 races we view as very competitive or potentially competitive and this gives it away. If they are highlighted in blue, you see oregon, montana, we come across, michigan, iowa, louisiana, arkansas, new hampshire, if you see them highlighted in blue, that means democratic incumbent. Republican incumbent. Tells you everything you need to know about whos on defense. Republicans defending only two. In the primaries tonight, we talk about the states up, key Senate Primary in oregon, Tea Party House establishment race here in idaho, but these are the two big ones, kentucky and georgia tonight. These are two seats democrats think they have a slight chance to take. To the race you were talking about with dana, obviously, Mitch Mcconnell, hes a fiveterm senator. He wants to be the republican majority leader if they get the plus six. To do that, he has to defeat matt bevin tonight. Everybody down there, even the Bevin Campaign concedes mcconnell is well ahead. Then hed have a race against the democratic secretary of state, allison grimes. The most recent polls show it to be a dead heat. This race will be a target through november. Mcconnells last race, he got 53 against a businessman who spent a lot of money on this race. Thats back in 2008. This is why Mitch Mcconnell thinks for all the talk of a close race, it wont be close in november. Midterm elections are about the president. What youll hear from mcconnell is this election in november is as much about obama as alison grimes, but on this big night, lets see if he can crush his tea party challenger. Well watch the margin in that race and learn how much healing he has to do internally in the Republican Party. Turnout in a Midterm Election year, thats a huge issue were going to have to see, assuming he wins tonight, mcconnell, the turnout for democrats, how enthusiastic they are in november and the turnout for republicans, especially if the tea party loses tonight, will they really turn out for mcconnell . Excellent point. Its not exactly a place you expect president obama to be welcomed because he faired so poorly. Were waiting for the first results. Lets go back to s. E. And van. They are in the crossfire. Thanks wolf. Well get back to you in a bit. But right now in the crossfire, we have democratic strategist Brad Woodhouse and republican strategist david bossy. Lets start with you. The medias got this 100 wrong, right . This is not moderates versus tea party. The tea party has taken over the entire Republican Party, dont you agree . Well, van, really it is look, the conservative movements been around a long time, since barry goldwater. The Tea Party Movement is nothing more than that as an outgrowth. It truly is. When i was a youngster, i would have been called a tea partier back when i was a young man. Tea party has a specific brand and its terrible. 29 . Branded by folks like you. I didnt make up the name tea party, i think you did that. 29 favorability is not very good. Isnt it bad now even moderate republicans, socalled, have adopted this Tea Party Extremism on every issue. Dont you think thats terrible for the Republican Party . Let me agree with you. All of this is well and good. We all got to spend a lot of time on various topics, but these primaries are a side show. As you said, tea party has taken over the Republican Party. What republican incumbents learned is they better run and govern like the tea party. Like the conservatives ill give you three quick examples, Mitch Mcconnell hid under a desk while ted cruz shut the government down, eric cantor will not cross the Tea Party Caucus in the house to put Immigration Reform on the floor, even though it will help in the longterm, and in 2011, john boehner turned over his cojones to the tea party and never got them back. I know democrats really want to make this about an interparty fight between the republicans and the tea party, because 2014 is not going to be pretty for you guys, i have to say. You thought that banging on about raising the minimum wage was going to be this magic elixir. Its not been delivering the enthusiasm you wanted and today the New York Times points out obamas core constituencies are hurting the most in obamas economy. These are the people obama democrats need to turn out. So hes not only failing democrats at the kitchen table, but hes failing you guys at the polls. How frustrated are you guys . Well, first of all, im not frustrated. The president has put forward an agenda. Its the tea party thats stopped the agenda. The American People disagree with the agenda. Let me stop you there. I want you to talk about democrats. Democrats are complaining that president obama has not adequately conditioned the environment to run on an economic platform that works. Im with democrats all the time and i havent heard that complaint. I think the president has put forward a plan. This is a Midterm Election and weve all worked on it or covered them. These come down to candidates and races in states. And turnout. Every race is going to be different. Every candidate is going to treat that race different. What it is is about turnout, excitement of the base. So if our tea party base, if the conservative movement is excited to turn out in november to vote against Barack Obamas candidates, we welcome barack obama in every race. If you want to we want to make a referendum on barack obama. This is what the republicans have, what the republicans have done, cooped the tea party, allowed the Koch Brothers. You guys Koch Brothers will spend more to elect republicans than the nrcc and nrsc combined. You dont think its a mistake to go after tea partiers and koch republicans instead of delivering your own economic message . You talk about somebody that didnt have a message hold on, folks, were going to come back. First we want you at home to weigh in on todays fire back question, have Tea Party Candidates made the Republican Party stronger or weaker . We want you in on this. Reply stronger or weaker using crossfire. Latest from wolf in just a minute. Welcome back to crossfire and cnns coverage of americas choice. And even though its may, happy halloween because the tea partys dragging republicans so far to the right that its scaring me. The orange tie. Hence the orange tie. Before we can continue our debate, first, lets get the latest results from the primaries from wolf blitzer. Go ahead, wolf. You guys are having way too much fun over there, van, s. E. Voters are picking candidates for this falls election. Were getting our first results coming in very early from kentucky. Take a look. 1 of the vote is in. Mitch mcconnell as expected, he is doing well. 61 of the vote to 35 for the tea party favorite, matt bevin. For almost 5,000 votes for Mitch Mcconnell alone. It just went up 6600 to 3200 for matt bevin. At the top of the hours, the polls will also close in georgia where the scramble for a senate seat is attracting nationwide attention. Kentucky is one thing. Georgia is another important skate today. A more crowded republican primary in the state of georgia. You see some of the candidates here. Because of that were likely to get a runoff between the top two. Earlier in the year democrats were hoping and hoping and hoping that phil gingrey or paul broun would win this nomination. They do, the democrats do that these congressmen are so far to the right that they could win this red state in the general election. At the moment, it looks like the two people who make the runoff will be businessman david purdue and Jack Kingston there are no liberal or moderate republicans on the screen. Jack kingston has the endorsement of the chamber of commerce. Karen handle has been running third in the polls. Backed by sarah palin. If she could get into the runoff, it would change the dynamic. At the moment, it looks like these two candidates and the establishment is okay with either one. They would face up against michelle nunn. The name seem familiar . Her dad was the democratic candidate for georgia for quite some time. Democrats believe they have a chance here. But she has not run statewide before. She is new as a candidate for public office. And just in the past week, she has made two statements that you might call wolf, unforced errors. Lets listen to. This well talk about it on the other side. We need accountability. We need to make sure there is congressional oversight of this issue. I defer to the president s judgment about the leadership that will be necessary to ensure that accountability. Would you have voted for the Affordable Care act . So at the time that the Affordable Health care act was passed, i was working for points of light. I wish we had more people who tried to architect a bipartisan legislation. Is that a yes or no . I think its impossible to look back retrospectively and what would you have done when you were there . Great question. If youre running for office in 2014, you have to have a yes or no answer, would you have voted for obama care. She didnt have one there. That first sound bite was in a debate. It was about whether Eric Shinseki would stay on at department of veterans affairs. Georgia has a lot of veterans, a lot of military bases. Deferring to the president in state where he is very unpopular, not the right thing for a candidate to do. Michelle nunn making a couple of unforced errors makes republicans more confident theyll keep georgia. Karen handle gets the nomination two, women would be the candidates for senator. Saxby chambliss giving up his seat in georgia. Thank you very much. Stay with us throughout the night. Well get all the latest results. Lets get back into the crossfire right now with van and s. E. Thanks, wolf. Were back with Brad Woodhouse and david bosse. Maybe we were ahead of the curve on minimum wage. You guys on obama care, you keep banging the drum on that. Let me ask you a question. I think you know why we do. Let me ask you a question. You have bill mcintyre, who the poster for john mccain. He says in the general election going for full repeal is actually a loser. Arent you guys in danger of overshooting on obamacare, overshooting on benghazi and being like 98 and blowing it because youre out of touch with the American People . No. I think thats a great buildup. But were going run against obamacare and run against barack obama. Thats going to be the difference in this election cycle. And were welcoming it. One question. Are you going to call for full repeal . You have a republican pulse for saying full repeal is a loser. People want to fix it, not repeal it. You have candidates like nunn all across the country who are going to run from barack obama and cant answer a simple question whether they would vote for his signature, his landmark legislation, obamacare. He is going to cripple them. He is an anchor around their necks. One more time. Are you for full repeal or not . Because you know that full repeal is a loser, and you guys are way out of place. Were happy fully repeal, and were happy to fix where it needs to be fixed. That wasnt an answer. Destroying health care for 300 million americans by giving it to seven million americans is a losing effort on your part. Brad, clearly, the problem for democrats isnt that republicans are going to run too hard against obamacare. Its as david pointed out and as we heard from john king that your candidates dont even know how to talk about it. Michelle nunn is one. We heard natalie tenet of West Virginia also was not able to answer whether she would vote for it. Alison grimes in kentucky couldnt say whether she thought obamacare should be delayed or not. Isnt that your real problem, that there is a confusing mixed message from democrats on whether obamacare is a net positive or a net negative . No, i dont think thats the problem. I think the problem for republicans and the problem for the tea party is that obamacare has worked. The problem for them is eight Million People signed up. Were not confused about obamacare. The problem for them is theyre not going to be able to do as mcintyre said this full repeal is going to overshoot the runway. This benghazi investigation is going to overshoot the runway. Thats not what i asked, though. Isnt this going to be a problem when your candidates dont know how to talk about obamacare and its only may of 2014 . I would say this, s. E. Its only may of 2014. Oh, so theyre going get better at it. Okay. Six months. Every day the experience with obamacare is improving. The statistics are improving. But they seemed really convincing. Theyre getting worse. More people are having higher premiums. More people are losing i dont want to have thats not true. More premiums have gone up. People are losing their health care. You all know it. But you just wont be honest about it. You will not be honest about it. I know, 300 Million People disagree. Hold on, hold on. Its a big night. Its a big night. Were passionate. I get that. But lets stay with these races. You want to talk about obamacare . Sure. What about this medicaid blockade where you have republican governors refusing to let people who were too poor for boom carrie, too rich for medicaid see doctors. And you have republicans running for office who are even afraid to touch the issue because they know this is going to be a local issue. And when you localize obamacare in places like kentucky, in places like arkansas, you guys lose. What about this medicaid blockade . . Lets have barack obama go to kentucky and make that exact argument. We welcome him. I would love for him to stand next to his candidate, okay, grimes and i would love for him and his candidate to articulate why that would be good for kentuckians. And that will never happen. Youre losing on Health Care Policy here because it has been good for kentucky. No. Lets see what the voters of kentucky say. Its been popular. Theyve expanded medicaid there. Where they havent expanded medicaid, republican governors are in trouble. Rick scott in florida. Tom corbett in pennsylvania. Theyre in trouble in part because they havent taken the medicaid problems. And theyre leaving here is the other thing, david. Forget the politics here. Theyre just leaving millions of people without health care. How do you feel about that . Okay. You guys go right to it. You cant help yourself. The world is going to come to an end. Obamacare fixed it. Obamacare created as many problems as it fixed. Okay, we got to go, guys. Lets check back on our fireback results have. Tea Party Candidates made the Republican Party stronger or weaker . Right now 19 of you say stronger. 81 say weaker. What do you guys think of the results real quick . In a word . Weaker. Weaker. Stronger im imagining. The poll results are based on who is watching cnn. Thats what it is. But seriously. The tea party that has very bad name recognition right now, do you think when you have boehner saying if you vote for the tea party, youre voting for public debt, does it hurt you in the general election . Yes nor. No. Youre laying all of this on the tea party when the republicans dominate in 2014 . Youre going have to come back here and thank the tea party for the victories. Wait. I want to thank you and you right now Brad Woodhouse and david bosse. The debate will continue online at cnn. Com crossfire. Stay with cnn for election updates throughout the night. Join us tomorrow for another edition of crossfire. Erin Burnett Outfront starts right now. Next, a quote, eminent and substantial danger of radiation leak at a u. S. Nuclear facility. Plus, one of the Biggest Bands in rock n roll history facing a lawsuit tonight. Did led zeppelin steal their most famous song . And toxic jerky treats made in china led to more than a thousand dog deaths. Lets go outfront. Good evening. Im Brianna Keilar in for erin burnett. Breaking news in the