Sanders Slammed For NY Daily News Interview
LEMON: Breaking news out of the Bernie Sanders in Philadelphia rally tonight. Sanders telling a cheering crowd that he doesn't believe Hillary Clinton is qualified to be president. Joining me now CNN Senior Political Correspondent Brianna Keilar. Brianna, I want you to listen to the comments of Bernie Sanders just made about Hillary Clinton.</s>SANDERS: Secretary Clinton appears to be getting a little bit nervous. We have won seven out of eight of the recent primaries and caucuses. And she has been saying lately that she thinks that I am "not qualified to be president". Well, let me just say in response to Secretary Clinton, I don't believe that she is qualified if she is.</s>LEMON: Brianna Keilar, I know it's loud where you are. Why does he say that she's not qualified?</s>BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, he had a whole laundry list of reasons on among them, he said, she's not qualified because her Super PAC. If she's taking money through her Super PAC, $10 million for special interests. He also said, and you know, if she has voters for a number of these trade agreements. But you have to put this in context. This has been -- he had this ... (</s>OFF-MIC) KEILAR: ... with interview with the "New York Daily News" editorial board where he stumbled over a series of topics, and Hillary Clinton really has made hay of that as her campaign did basically trying to charge that Bernie Sanders is not qualified to be president. So he came out to this crowd very supportive, 10,000 people were thousands more overflow. And he said, you know, there have been charges that I am not qualified. Well I don't believe you're qualified to be president if this and this and that. So that's the list of things that I just spelled out for you.</s>LEMON: Brianna Keilar in Philadelphia in a loud Bernie Sanders rally. So Brianna, thank you very much. I want to bring in now Ben Jealous, a Bernie Sanders surrogate and former president of the NAACP Oregon, also CNN senior political commentator, Bob Beckel, Bob Beckel and Maria Cardona, a superdelegate committed to Hillary Clinton. I have to ask you, Ben, first of all, what do you make of Sanders' comments about Hillary Clinton not being qualified to be president?</s>BEN JEALOUS, BERNIE SANDERS SURROGATE: Look, I think what we're seeing is that we are getting into there, you know a place where the race has really tightened up. We've won seven out of eight races. In a couple of days will be eight out of nine races. The Clinton campaign said last night that they were going to attack Sanders, so that they would go after, you know, my friend trying to discredit and disqualify and that's exactly what they are doing. They've chosen to go heavily negative. Bernie is from Brooklyn, and he will frankly defend himself.</s>LEMON: What do you make of it? What do it make of that Bob? Do you think he had been saying, Hillary Clinton is not qualified to be president?</s>BOB BECKEL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that's a bit of a reach, but, you know, I talked to Tad Devine today for some time, Sanders Chief Strategist who used to work for me, which is why he's so good. But he in the course of this and sort of pieced together a strategy. The four states that really matter to them. New York, Pennsylvania, Indiana and California. If they can win two of those or maybe three, they go to the convention, and here's the issue. Superdelegates. They can't get there by pledge delegates. So they get there and say she's not electable. How not electable she is? She is not and I think ...</s>LEMON: Yeah. As you find your microphone, I'm going to turn to Maria Cardona. And, Maria, I mean at first they were very cordial. But I mean, you know, they're going back and forth with each other now. She had an interview with our Chris Cuomo this morning basically again saying that, you know, Bernie Sanders is, you know, she's saying basically he's not qualified and now she's well, you know, what let's listen to the Chris Cuomo interview and then we'll talk.</s>CLINTON: In the interview, it seemed unclear as to whether he understood how Dodd-Frank worked. How we would go about breaking up banks that were posing risks to our economy. So I was, I think, a little bit, you know surprised that there didn't seem to be a lot of substance to what he was saying.</s>LEMON: She was talking she was referencing the "New York Daily News" interview that many are calling disastrous and was asked, how do you plan to go about breaking up the banks and he didn't seem to have a consistent or concrete answer.</s>MARIA CARDONA, CNN POLITICAL CONTRIBUTOR: Right. Look, I mean certainly, they are going into the New York Primary, which is going to be very rough and tumble. We all knew from the very beginning. But I think he has gone beyond the pail tonight by saying he doesn't think she's qualified to be president. She has never said that she think he is not qualified to be president. What she has been saying and will continue to say all along is to contrast her experience, her knowledge, what she has done for the past 30 years and say that she believes she is more qualified to be president. And it is a very different contrast when you say that.</s>LEMON: I don't know about that. I mean maybe she's not saying it so directly, but it sounds like she's saying it in the next sound bite we have. Listen to this.</s>CARDONA: OK.</s>LEMON: Is that what -- OK where she talks about him and being in Congress and really not having consistent answers. We don't have that. So, I'll ask you -- Bernie, so Bernie Sanders is not some newcomer to government like Donald Trump he's been in Congress for 25 years. How can he lack detail on issues that have been the centerpiece of his campaign for months?</s>CARDONA: I think that's exactly right that is</s>LEMON: That was for Ben, but go ahead.</s>CARDONA: Oh, yes, sorry.</s>JEALOUS: Oh. Yes sorry Don. Yes, actually I think you said Bernie instead of Ben, it's like a little confused. Right. You know look, you know, that was a confusing conversation with the daily news. They have zeroing in on the Fed when they should have been talking about Congress. You know, if folks want to, you know, if folks are curious there's a great article in the "New York Times." I said Bernie does precisely what he's going to do. There is one on Huff Post that says the same thing you can go to his speech on Wall Street. Now he's very clear about the actions that need to be taken in Congress frankly to go ahead and essentially restore Glass/Steagall and wants to update at some. But restore Glass/Steagall which ever since FDR put it in place had protected us from a second grade depression. Then, President Clinton, of course, you know, got rid of it. Watered it down and here came the great recession. And, so, you know, the bottom line is that he's the only one with a plan to do it. Hillary Clinton has no plan to do it. And, of course, she won't release her speeches to Wall Street and the bankers who were there so that she would, that she promised them she'd be as good as a managing director at Goldman Sachs.</s>LEMON: But Bob, if -- he's said it in these other interviews as Ben said as Bernie Sanders, if he is clear in the "Huffington Post", he's clear in the "New York Times," then why isn't he clear in the "New York Daily News"?</s>BECKEL: Well, that's a good question. Again this is a time in a campaign when applause lines at gatherings like Philadelphia. The press starts to ask specifics and you better be prepared for. But then let me finish out what Devine was talking about. If they can win two out of four of those big states and they go on to the convention unlike they know they'll not going to have a majority delegates, but superdelegates are clearly their target. And here is the reason why. Superdelegates are not bound. They make pledge themselves to somebody but that doesn't mean anything. They switch all the time. I've had them switch in the numbers of 50 or 100 at a convention. But they think that they are going to make the argument she can't win. She's a liability. The IRS I mean the FBI investigation could be a problem. And that they should switch. And, you know, they also don't have to vote on the first ballot. They can abstain. Put you but low the number you need to get a majority.</s>LEMON: When you said IRS I thought you were going to break some other news on this. So Maria ...</s>BECKEL: No.</s>LEMON: ... you're a superdelegate, despite all the criticism Sanders has that he has enthusiastic support and is on quite a roll now. So, why can't she put him away?</s>CARDONA: Well, because here's the issue. What I think is going on in the Democratic Party in terms of this back and forth between Hillary and Bernie, up until now has been very good for the party. It has helped mobilize Democrats out there. It has helped mobilize our supporters. It has made Hillary Clinton a much better candidate. It has made Bernie Sanders a much better candidate. And from the beginning, Hillary Clinton knew this was not going to be a cakewalk. She knew this was not going to be a coronation. So the question about whether she hasn't or has or hasn't been able to put him away, let's look at the numbers. It is right now mathematically impossible, even if she loses every single state from here until the end of the calendar for Bernie Sanders to catch up to her on pledged delegates. And the problem with a theory about what they now want to do with superdelegates after they were talking about how undemocratic superdelegates were is that there has never been an instance where super delegates have overturned the will of the people. Meaning superdelegates have never gone and flipped to give the candidate with the less number of pledge delegates at the convention.</s>LEMON: OK.</s>CARDONA: Their support so that they could get over the threshold. And that's not going to happen this time around either.</s>LEMON: But to Maria's point, Ben because, you know, Bernie Sanders campaign has been talking about this. Its one thing to imply this race is undemocratic to Hillary Clinton were only winning because of these superdelegates. But she is beating Sanders in pledged delegates as well. So right now your campaign is simply behind. Is that not the case?</s>JEALOUS: Look, we are behind. We're also catching up. We've won eight of the last nine. And frankly most of those by landslides. It's not impossible. It's a steep climb. It is not impossible. And, you know, what's -- you know, quite real is that, you know, we are going up against a candidate who has the highest negatives of any front-runner we've ever seen in the Democratic Party. Who -- performs the worst in head-to-head against any of the likely Republicans? And that's a real issue. So we need to be having a conversation about the voters in the states coming up. Really need to be thinking about not just who they think is going to win their state, you know, it tends to be us in the second half but quite frankly who is the best one to make sure that the Republicans do not get back in the White House and every poll says that that's Bernie Sanders.</s>LEMON: All right, stay with me, everyone. Both Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders claim a home court advantage in New York. But will that help either of them on our CNN Debate next Thursday in Brooklyn? We'll talk about that.