Bloomberg Apologizes for Stop and Frisk
NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL REPORTER: Former New York mayor Michael Bloomberg trying to make amends with communities of color this week. He's once again apologizing for the controversial policing tactic known as stop and frisk. This after an audio clip surfaced this week from 2015 from a speech in which Bloomberg defended the practice. Here's what he said last night in Houston during the launch event for "Mike for Black America".</s>MICHAEL BLOOMBERG (D), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: There is one aspect of approach that I deeply regret the abuse of police practice called stop and frisk. I defended it. Looking back for too long because I didn't understand then the unintended pain it was causing young black and brown kids and their families. I should have acted sooner and faster to stop it. I didn't and for that I apologize.</s>HENDERSON: And this marks the first time that the billionaire has publicly apologized for the policy since launching his campaign for president. How much do we think these matters for Bloomberg at this point? He's clearly targeting African-American voters. You saw him with that launch, he's been in South Carolina, and just nationally up on air even though he's not on the primary ballot in South Carolina, visiting places like North Carolina and Texas that have a large African- American communities. What's your sense?</s>TARINI PARTI, NATIONAL POLITICAL REPORTER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: So, Bloomberg knows that he needs black voters in order to do well on Super Tuesday. He's put in all of his money essentially on Super Tuesday states. These are states that have big minority populations and so he's been trying to target them and woo those communities. Since even before he launched his campaign he had publicly apologized after defending stop and frisk for years. He apologized at a black church for this practice. And since then they've been really making the case there, you know, airing an ad with President Obama in it. And when I talk to voters both in Tennessee and in North Carolina, black voters who attended his events, they kind of said that they accept his apology, that they are trying to move on. They oftentimes compared him to President Trump. Now, these are people who live in states that President Trump won, they know people who are Trump supporters. So what they said is what we hear from people around us is so much worse than what we heard Mike Bloomberg say that we think that this guy could actually beat Trump and so we're willing to look past it, is what I heard from at least about a dozen voters.</s>HENDERSON: And Jeff,</s>TED RUETER, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I think he's the best candidate for the Democrats. I think he's got, obviously, the most money. Definitely the most organized campaign.</s>SYLVIA SWAYZE, NORTH CAROLINA VOTER: I'm very impressed with his commercials, they're very positive. They show -- they talk about things that people care about, healthcare, gun control. And that's what makes me feel good about him as a candidate.</s>HENDERSON: The commercial is inescapable, always on TV. I was talking to an African-American woman, an older African-American who had liked Biden and is now liking Bloomberg and describe Bloomberg oddly enough as a man of the people based on all of the commercials that she's been seeing.</s>JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: He's basically living with people in their living rooms, around their kitchen tables. He is on television so much he does seem like part of the family in some respects. So, look, I had the same experience talking to voters yesterday in North Carolina as well, but, people also said they wanted to hear him acknowledge it and apologize. He didn't address it at all yesterday while he was in North Carolina. He did last evening in Houston. Look, no one is going to, I think, very few people will hold it against him until the very end, if he apologizes, but also the language that he used on those audio tapes. And there are certainly more audio tapes out there. He's given so many speeches and things. He'll have to navigate this on a debate stage if he qualifies next week when his other opponents are going after him. We'll see how he responds. The challenge I think for Mayor Bloomberg is, this has been a very -- you know, he's controlled the narrative. There's television ads, through data and everything. How is he able to stand up in an environment that he cannot control? And I think that that is what we will see, we don't know the answer. But people are willing to give him the benefit of the doubt because they want to win. He project strength</s>HENDERSON: Yes. Because of the $60 billion that he has. And Joe Biden talking about the vetting idea and that would be an environment that he can't really control and this is what Joe Biden had to say. "The advantage I have is I've been vetted, re-vetted, and vetted again. If you're reading the paper, they're just starting on Mike." What's your sense?</s>GINGER GIBSON, POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: I think thus far Mike Bloomberg has been a guy running ads against Donald Trump. And if he makes that debate stage and he keeps going he's going to be a candidate in the primary. And that's going to come with all of the trappings of a candidate. Not only is he going to have the vetting, he's going to have to answer real-time. I would expect Elizabeth Warren to go right at him on a debate stage and press him not just what the voters want which is acknowledging the language as Jeff pointed out, but explaining what it means for him going forward and what he would do in the White House.</s>HENDERSON: Right.</s>GIBSON: And you can give a speech off a teleprompter where you say you regret some of the -- defending it as long as you did. It's different when you have to answer in real-time. And I think that's going to be the big test for him if he can make that debate stage.</s>HENDERSON: And Julie, he clearly has the president's attention. He has said that we're scaring the living hell out of Donald Trump and that they're just getting started. Now, the president tweeting about him, the nickname mini Mike.</s>JULIE HIRSCHFELD DAVIS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. I mean, clearly, one of his -- the things that he's presenting to people is why he should be an appealing candidate is that he could take to it Trump. And even though I'm not sure this wins him many voters, you've also seen him trying to really get under the president's skin. He tweeted yesterday about how they know the same people in New York and behind his back he says people laugh at President Trump and call him a clown. And again, I'm not sure that really resonates with voters except insofar as they are really looking for someone who will take on this president in an aggressive ways. And as they look the at the field and as they look at some of the less appealing information that maybe coming forward as the other candidates start to focus on Mike Bloomberg's record, he wants to be able to say we need to pivot and think about who is best equipped financially and otherwise to take on this president. I think that's the case he's going to try to make.</s>HENDERSON: Yes. He is every where, and we'll see what happens on Super Tuesday and watch this closely. And, as we go to break the first lady spending part of her valentine's day at a children's inpatient facility in Bethesda, Maryland helping the kids with some arts and crafts.