CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with South Carolina State Senator Marlon Kimpson

Interview

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HARLOW: All right. All eyes on South Carolina now, at least for the Democratic candidates. This comes as House majority whip and a key voice from South Carolina, and so influential across the country, Congressman James Clyburn says he will make an endorsement after the debate Tuesday night, so probably no Wednesday morning.

Joining me now is a surrogate for Joe Biden in South Carolina, State Senator Marlon Kimpson. Good to have you, sir. Thanks for joining me again.

STATE SEN. MARLON KIMPSON (D-SC): Good to be here with you, Poppy.

HARLOW: All right. So you said, last year, about Joe Biden, quote, "If he can't win South Carolina, he's dead, he's done" -- excuse me. "If he can't win South Carolina, he's done." Do you still think that?

KIMPSON: I'm glad you clarified that.

HARLOW: Me, too.

KIMPSON: I think that Joe Biden is on a trajectory, Poppy, to win South Carolina. I do see a difficult path if he does not win South Carolina. However, from every indication that I'm getting, he is on track to win this -- South Carolina primary, and that's why things will change. As you know, Poppy, this is the first real test of a Democratic -- demographic that's reflective of the rest of the party.

HARLOW: So when you look at the momentum, though, that we're seeing for Senator Sanders, especially also among Latino voters and African- American voters, where he came in second only to Joe Biden in Nevada.

Listen to this. This is a clip from a Sanders ad that they're running in your state, and they're touting the support of Richland County Vice Chair Dalhi Myers, who, as you know, switched her support from Biden to Sanders. Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DALHI MYERS, RICHLAND COUNTY VICE CHAIR (voice-over): I switched from the Biden campaign to the Sanders campaign because I want to see the kind of lines around the building that we saw in 2008. I want to see people motivated to get out and vote for a candidate that they believe in. This campaign's got the movement, we've got the momentum.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Is she wrong, sir?

KIMPSON: I have a great deal of respect for Councilwoman Myers, but the reality is, in South Carolina, African-Americans will make up over the majority of the demographic. We know Joe Biden. When Joe Biden was selected by President Barack Obama, it was -- and he said this -- it's the most important decision that he could make.

And so the fact is, is that Sanders does have momentum coming out of largely white states. That's not disrespectful, we wish we could have won those states. But South Carolina is the first real test.

And what we have, Poppy, is we have a number of moderate candidates. In my view, a vote for any other candidate in South Carolina other than Joe Biden is a vote for Bernie Sanders. We've got to consolidate our field behind a moderate candidate and Joe Biden, to me, is the one who is the most electable.

HARLOW: It was interesting, though, when you look at the entry polls in Nevada, self-described moderates or conservatives, 24 percent of them went for Biden, and 24 percent of them went for Sanders. So he appears to be able to be gaining some momentum among moderates.

KIMPSON: Well, when you look at -- first of all, there were a lot of moderates in that race, but when you look at the demographic, Joe Biden won the African-American vote by double digits. Now, that's just a fact.

[10:40:09]

Nevada, the demographics of Nevada, New Hampshire and Iowa are totally different. So in South Carolina, we are not buying the narrative that Joe Biden is weakened. We have listened to this now since the man has gotten in the race. It's on to South Carolina. This state is truly --

HARLOW: Yes.

KIMPSON: -- reflective of the demographic of the country.

HARLOW: It is more reflective than the states that we've seen. When you brought up the African-American vote in Nevada -- and it's true that Biden walked away with 39 percent of that, but Bernie Sanders walked away with 27 percent of that.

And if you look nationally, the latest poll -- it was just from last week, ABC-"Washington Post" shows that Biden's support in the last few weeks nationally among African-American voters has fallen from 51 percent to 32 percent. Why do you think that is?

KIMPSON: Well, there has been a political obituary written about Joe Biden since he entered the race. Not only do we have a division within our moderates, but this president has spent the last two years of character assassination.

The fact is, is that African-Americans do not buy fantasyland proposals. We are living in a fantasyland, we hope to get to (ph) Nirvana one day but we're not going to be rabbit hole -- we're not going to be following a rabbit hole pipe dream vision. We are more practical voters.

And the reality is, we support Medicaid expansion of the Affordable Care Act. We -- we want someone strong on guns who has a track record of taking on the NRA, and we support a health care policy that is realistic and viable for the average American.

HARLOW: Tom Steyer is now polling at 18 percent in your state, that's according to the new CBS polling. And he appears to have siphoned a lot of the support he's getting directly from Vice President Biden. What do you make of his showing in your state and what it could mean for Biden?

KIMPSON: Well, no doubt, Tom Steyer has spent a lot of money. In fact, I'm told, in Nevada, he spent $2,000 per -- in advertising for every vote he got. That would buy an American family about six months' worth of groceries.

Look, the question for Tom Steyer is whether 10 to 15 percent that he's polling in is a good return on investment for over $15 million that he's spent. Time will tell, we've got a race to run in South Carolina.

But, again, a vote for these candidates who are not polling well nationally, not polling well in the African-American community, simply is a vote to give Bernie Sanders a larger lead. We need to consolidate the base behind someone that has a proven track record of speaking on behalf of the largest demographic in the state and the National Democratic Party.

HARLOW: Look, it's clear how important your state is for the former vice president, as you laid out at the beginning. We'll see how the debate goes last -- tomorrow night. Thank you very, very much, Marlon Kimpson. Nice to have you, sir.

KIMPSON: It's good to be with you.

SCIUTTO: It's going to be a big test for the race there.

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