Some Young & Black Voters Plan Not to Vote in Protest
HARLOW: As Hillary Clinton heads into the home stretch for the race for the White House she's stepping up her efforts to gain voters of young people and African-Americans. She's in South Carolina. She has to convince everyone to come out in large numbers to show their support for her, like they did for President Obama. Turnout is a particularly large concern for both party nominees, and some say they plan to protest by not voting at all. Here's what a former presidential candidate said.</s>JEB BUSH, (R), FORMER FLORIDA GOVERNOR & FORMER PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: If everybody didn't vote, that would be a powerful political statement, wouldn't it?</s>HARLOW: Mary-Pat Hector is with me. She's the national youth director for the National Action Network, and founder of Youth in Action. She's also a student organizer at Spellman College. Thanks for being with me.</s>MARY-PAT HECTOR, NATIONAL YOUTH DIRECTOR, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK & FOUNDER, YOUTH IN ACTION & STUDENT ORGANIZER, SPELLMAN COLLEGE: Thank you for having me, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Part of what you're doing is trying to make sure what Jeb Bush just said doesn't happen, that every eligible voter goes to the polls. Hillary Clinton has African-Americans, 93, according to one poll but her support among young black voters is 60 percent according to this survey from just last month. The big question is how many of them will turn out on Election Day. Are you running into that problem as you talk to people, a lack of support for her from black youth?</s>HECTOR: It's not even just Hillary Clinton but it's both presidential candidates. What's lacking is when asked questions like at the debate when you're talking about issues that affect African-Americans like police brutality we're hearing much more answers regarding how we're going to deal with the victims instead of how we're going to deal with the officers that commit these crimes and hold them accountable. Once we come out with actual plans that the young people are asking for and that's, again, on both parties and especially really talking about one who's not released a plan at all then we will really begin to see young people engaged and ready to vote.</s>HARLOW: Young black woman quoted in a recent "New York Times" article said choosing between Clinton and Trump is like deciding stabbed. Some of that probably hyperbole but, still, how do you convince someone that feels like that that they need to vote?</s>HECTOR: Because you know it's more than the presidential elections. When you're registering to vote and you look at cases like Trayvon Martin and others, they choose the juries based off of registered voters. When you think about the Senators and congressmen and others that create policies and laws we live by as day to day citizens, it's important to exercise your political agency. And when you have presidential candidate openly demean citizens and women and people who are Americans then it's important to exercise your right to vote. Lastly, Poppy, when you think about this being the very first president after the very first African-American president of the United States then it I important to exercise your political agency.</s>HARLOW: On that point, black voters have traditionally been -- last recent decades been very loyal to the Democratic Party. I wonder if you think we're seeing a generational shift. A few weeks ago, I was speaking with a young black voter in his 20s and he said, quote, "The '94 crime bill signed under President Bill Clinton and Hillary Clinton's support, her comment about super predators sticks with me, even though she's walked those back." How do you counter that sentiment?</s>HECTOR: Poppy, I feel like so many times people don't necessarily think about Clinton and all she's proposing and they only focus on Bill Clinton and his past policies. She's openly stated that the crime bill was problematic what we need to focus on are the people that voted for the crime bill as well as the stations and police officers that use that crime bill to target African-Americans. That's what we need to focus on and more so what she's pushing policies she's pushing now that will benefit not only African-Americans but Millennials and other people that need help in this country.</s>HARLOW: Mary-Pat Hector, I wish we had more time. Thank you for being with us and thank you for all you are doing to get everyone to exercise their right to vote. It's nice to be with you.</s>HECTOR: Thank you very much, Poppy.</s>HARLOW: Coming up next, more on our breaking news, video just released of Donald Trump answering questions under oath. His videotape deposition. Also, the Commission on Presidential Debates issuing a statement regarding Donald Trump's microphone at the debate. You heard him complain it wasn't working right. Is that true? Next.