Stevie Wonder Performs Before Obama Speech
BALDWIN: Welcome back. Moments away from Stevie Wonder and President Obama taking the stage in Florida, all part of the Democrats out and about on this Sunday before Election Day. We'll take you live when we see that. Hillary Clinton has been deploying an army of celebrity supporters down the stretch of this campaign. You know, the A-team, have been attracting mega crowds and also stirring up a bit of controversy. Let's begin there with my political panel here in D.C., Alice Stewart is with us, CNN political commentator and a Republican strategist, and Angela Rye is also a CNN political commentator and former executive director of the Congressional Black Caucus, and Doug Heye is also a CNN political commenter and a former communications director for the RNC. Welcome to the set in front of the White House here in just a couple of days, obviously, everyone turns out officially to vote. I want to begin with the mega concert Friday night, Cleveland, Ohio. You have surprise, Beyonce pops out along with her hubs, Jay-Z. It's a huge event for the Clintons trying to get that millennial vote. If you're not familiar with Jay-Z, some people may not be or his lyrics, if I can quote without -- you know, you're turned into the mother bleeping greatest he was saying. If you're feeling like a pimp bleep go and brush your shoulders off. You know the lyrics. The issue is it was a huge event for the Clintons, but the Trump campaign and Kellyanne Conway said are you kidding me? You're using that language and does she have a point?</s>ALICE STEWART, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: To a degree. I mean, sure, we all know Jay-Z is a potty mouth. That's not a big surprise, but coming on the heels of what he heard from the "Access Hollywood" tape, yes, it's kind of hypocritical to call that out. Look, there's no doubt these star-studded galas are drawing huge crowds and it makes Democrats feel good and cool and hip. Americans want to feel safe and feel their financially secure and want to feel as though they are going to continue to have jobs. So it's important to have context when it comes to that's all well and good. However, we need to make sure that we are supporting a leader that will make this country safe.</s>BALDWIN: You disagree?</s>DOUG HEYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I agree and disagree. I was troubled by the language I heard. I went to the watch the throne concert when Jay-Z and Kanye came here. I'm a fan of Jay-Z. The language I heard crosses a threshold, doing a song or not, it's a bad place for America. We know that Ted Nugent will be with Donald Trump today. He will probably say something outrageous, and whether it's in the confines of a song or not, given the bad language that we've seen for months and months on this campaign trail, I'd hate to see that replicated more and more.</s>BALDWIN: It does make you wonder if there was some sort of conversation -- I'm looking for the quote because essentially, I guess, a Clinton aide was saying, listen, Jay-Z does what Jay-Z does. Do you sort of say this?</s>ANGELA RYE, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Brush your shoulders off, yes. Here's the thing I'm struggling to understand when Jay-Z started running for president. I'm struggling to understand why --</s>BALDWIN: But he's on a mega stage saying go vote for Hillary Clinton.</s>RYE: And he's using the lyrics from his songs. This wasn't a concert performed on the Sesame Street stage. It was at a college campus in Cleveland, Ohio. Donald Trump is the new white DJ quick, talking about Jay-Z and this man is actually running for president. He says, well, you would never hear me use this lewd language. If there was only one more tape in time to be leaked. Give me a break. Furthermore, we're talking about Jay-Z, a man who used his personal money to bail out Black Lives Matter protesters. We are talking about someone who is absolutely a part of social activism and here's the real issue. He's not mad about that lewd language. He's mad because Jay-Z got on that stage and said we cannot elect this man as our next president.</s>HEYE: When Don King used some bad language at a Trump event, Don King was attacked for it.</s>RYE: And it's different.</s>HEYE: That kind of language I don't think we need in the discourse in politics.</s>BALDWIN: Why is it different?</s>STEWART: Surely there's a calculation on part of the Clinton campaign, given that whether he offered to give this concert or he asked them to, you're not going to get him to sing nice songs or clean songs because Jay-Z will be who Jay-Z is. Clearly they felt that was a calculation or risk that was worth taking.</s>BALDWIN: Going back to Doug's point, why is it different because both are surrogates?</s>RYE: I think it's much different. Don King is not a rapper. The last time I think he's up there using racial --</s>BALDWIN: With the language that he --</s>RYE: Yes. Racial epithet to talk about a person. Jay-Z is using something that is now colloquial term in hip hop. I know that there are people who don't like it. There are black folks who agree with me on this point, but the "n" word is different to me and so I think other folks who I think are similar in age and status to me. If I'm going around calling somebody the "n" word in a negative way is different than saying somebody is your friend, homey, or whatever using the word that way. I know there are people that don't agree with him, but that's he use it in his lyrics.</s>HEYE: If Ted Nugent does what Ted Nugent does on stage with Donald Trump, I think that also takes it to a bad place. For me, that's not a partisan issue. We have kids to go to these events, and that's my concerns.</s>BALDWIN: Right. And we've heard a lot from parents saying, I can't even let me kid watch the coverage because of the language being used, but you look at the column of all the celebrities under Hillary Clinton. I think today she's going to hanging out with King James, Lebron in Cleveland and Stevie Wonder is performing with the president and Bobby Knight and Chachie. Donald Trump says I'm able to fill these arenas, airport hangars, and you're cheating. Here's what he said.</s>DONALD TRUMP (R), PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: We didn't bring any so- called stars along. We didn't need them. You know, the reason Hillary has to do that is nobody comes for her. She can't fill a room. We can get stars. We don't need them because we just want to make America great again and we know what to do. OK. We don't need that. That's almost like a form of cheating, right?</s>BALDWIN: Now, if Beyonce called up Donald Trump and said hey -- I don't think he would say no to her.</s>STEWART: Or Stevie Wonder -- clearly, we're outshined when it comes to putting on big events like that. Donald Trump is out there by himself, the reality is --</s>BALDWIN: People are waiting 12 hours to see him in some places. They are.</s>STEWART: True. The question is why aren't there other top names with him in the Republican Party? It's lonely at the top when you see and insult on people all the way at every wrung of the ladder and that's the reality of where he is and why he is up there by himself. But at the same time he himself does have the charisma and drawing power where he's getting good crowds. There's a reason why he didn't have top named surrogates up there with him.</s>BALDWIN: Let's pause, I'm told we're going to listen in to Stevie Wonder. He's going to play a song he wrote last night.</s>BALDWIN: Stevie Wonder down in Kissimmee, Florida, ahead of the president stumping for Hillary Clinton. Singing a song he says he wrote last night, hearing over and over we already live in America that's great. I want thank all my panel. We're going to stay on this. Take a quick break. More from Florida after this break.