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Politics Nation, Transcript 6/4/2017

Guests: Jim Cavanaugh, Jacqui Patterson, Mustafa Ali

Show: POLITICS NATION Date: June 4, 2017 Guest: Jim Cavanaugh, Jacqui Patterson, Mustafa Ali

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: Good morning. Welcome to "PoliticsNation."

A busy show today with lots of news. The former president of the NAACP is running for political office. We`ll talk to Ben Jealous in a few minutes.

Comedian and friend Bill Maher is using a word that he shouldn`t, and I`m pretty upset about that.

And those Paris Accords that President Trump pulled out of, why they matter especially to poor and minorities.

But we start with breaking news. Seven people are dead, 48 injured in an attack in the heart of London. Around 10:00 P.M. local time last night. The incident began on London Bridge as a car veered off the road and on to the sidewalk. Hitting pedestrians. The attackers then fled the van and started attacking people in bars and restaurants at a nearby Borough Market.

The police killed them within eight minutes from when the attack began. Both Prime Minister Theresa May and the London Mayor Sadiq Khan spoke a short time ago.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

THERESA MAY, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: We believe we are experiencing a new trend in the threat we face. As terrorism breeds terrorism. And perpetrators are inspired to attack, not only on the basis of carefully- constructed plots after years of planning and training. And not even as lone attackers radicalized online, but by copying one another and often using the crudest of means of attack.

While we have made significant progress in recent years, there is, to be frank, far too much tolerance of extremism in our country.

SADIQ KHAN, MAYOR OF LONDON: I`m appalled and furious that these cowardly terrorist will deliberately target innocent Londoners and bystanders enjoying their Saturday night. One of the things that these terrorists want to do disrupt our way of life. They want to stop us enjoying the freedoms that we have, enjoying the mingling and mixing on a Saturday night and London having a good time. They want to stop us voting on Thursday in the general elections and enjoying the democracy that we have. We can`t allow them to do that. We aren`t going to be cowered by terrorism nor let them win.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: No group has claimed responsibility for the attack. The White House said in a statement that President Trump had spoken with the Prime Minister Theresa May on the phone to offer his condolences and full support.

Trump tweeting, "We need to be smart, vigilant, and tough. We need the courts to give us back our rights. We need the travel ban as an extra level of safety." He later tweeted, "Whatever the United States can do to help out in London and the UK, we will be there," and in all caps, "WE ARE WITH YOU, GOD BLESS."

Let`s go to London. NBC`s Lucy Kafanov is on the scene with the latest, and also NBC News security analyst Duncan Gardham.

Lucy, what is the latest?

LUCY KAFANOV, NBC REPORTER: Good morning, reverend. Well, authorities have now largely contained the crime scene or crime scenes. Both London Bridge and Borough Market where these attacks took place yesterday evening. There are now forensic investigators combing the areas for evidence. There are lots of closed circuit television cameras across London. So they will be combing through that footage to try get more clues about just how these attacks unfolded.

But the biggest focus, of course, is on figuring out the identities and the potential networks behind these three attackers. All three of them killed by the police. We saw a raid, a large police raid undergoing this morning. About 30 minutes away from where I am in an east London suburb. Police raiding a large apartment building there and now would indicate that although we haven`t learned of the identities of these three suspects, the three dead attackers, that police do have a sense of who they might be and are now potentially chasing up on leads.

That`s what we saw in the Manchester attack last week in the immediate aftermath of the attacks. More and more arrests. They are legally allowed to detain suspects here for about 14 days under the UK terrorism laws before they have to apply to extend that. So they will likely be pulling in any possible associates, known associates of the three attackers to try to piece together who and what organizations, if any, might be behind them.

Now, the Prime Minister Theresa May did speak earlier as we saw there in your intro. She mentioned all of the -- all three of the major attacks that have taken place in the past three months. Westminster in March, Manchester last week, as well as this attack. She said, "It does not appear that they are connected, that they are connected by a common networks. But she did say that they`re bound together by what she called an evil ideology of Islamist extremism. A significant clue, Reverend, because we have not heard from the authorities that Islamic extremism -- Islamist extremism was behind these attacks and that is something that the prime minister here pointed out. Reverend.

SHARPTON: Duncan, let me ask you. The prime minister also suggested that it was a copycat type of terrorism. Do you think that this was inspired by the Westminster bridge attack earlier this year?

DUNCAN GARDHAM, SECURITY ANALYST, NBC NEWS: Probably. In between that attack and this one, we`ve seen two foiled attacks that have been foiled by security services who had the individuals under surveillance. So it does appear that that particular attack which gained such a lot of publicity and was so high profile because it was right in the center of the capital has also inspired several other individuals who were thinking along the same lines to conduct copycat attacks. And it`s possible of course that the Manchester attack which was more sophisticated may have pushed them down that line as well.

SHARPTON: All right. Thank you, Lucy Kafanov and Duncan Gardham in London.

Let`s bring in an MSNBC contributor Malcolm Nance.

Malcolm, let me bring this full circle here. The attacks in London, Paris, President Trump now saying that`s why we need a ban in the United States, New York, L.A., Chicago, Washington D.C., the nation`s capital. People have to say whether verbally or to themselves, can this happen here? What is the real threat there? And how do you secure American cities and European cities from what is now becoming a too often event that happens in our lives?

MALCOM NANCE, MSNBC CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I think the problem is that terrorism spreads fear, and this fear is actually -- working in the United States. I think that since 9/11 this -- we`re actually a more frightened population today than we were in the immediate aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. I find it quite confusing. Terrorists have one goal. And that is to make you want to put in harsh restrictive measures which violate your own laws, which make you give up your own rights according to your own constitutions. The English are very resilient in this respect. They have had multiple attacks certainly this year and a few failed plots, but they keep up the pressure and what they don`t do is they don`t change their society in such a way that the terrorists actually win.

This is a counterintelligence counterterrorism mission which has counterterrorist forces at the end and law enforcement on the other end. And so when you go and you throw bans up against countries that have nothing to do with terrorism because as of right now, we would have to ban English because these attackers are English, and we would have to ban the French from coming into the United States.

SHARPTON: Because they are also -- but the other thing here is that we`re seeing Prime Minister May in the UK now saying that they are all bound, even though it`s not one conspiracy, the three attacks we`ve seen are the last three, in England, she said they`re not bound to necessarily one conspiracy but they`re bound by one terrorist, extremist ideology. And how do you deal with that? And how do you in many ways, deal with the fact that you`re dealing with people that are not looking to make attacks to convert people but to punish people for not being what they are? I mean, that`s an almost indefensible kind of way to deal with building a counterterrorism kind of strategy. Wouldn`t you think?

NANCE: Well, the problem is our counterterrorism strategy is based on kinetic warfare, which is going in and killing people. I`ve written three books since 2010 about destroying the religious or cult religious ideology of Al Qaeda and ISIS. And it`s the one thing you hear people talk about all the time. No measures are taken. We had one state department Twitter feed which was supposed to counter all of ISIS`s ideology and social media worldwide. There`s recently a video out of Kuwait which I thought was the single most brilliant counter ideology method use thus far, where they had a singer who`s very well-known speak about how you`re not even Muslims. You`re not even -- what you`re doing is not Islamic. You`re killing children. You`re killing women, and that God is greater than you. And until you destroy their link to their corrupt version of Islam by using the 1.6 billion Muslims, not pushing them away from the United States, we in the intelligence community will be very busy.

SHARPTON: It is not true Islam as we are taught by Islamic Scholars.

Thank you, Malcolm Nance. Coming up, thousands of people across the country marched against President Trump yesterday. We`ll talk to one of the speakers. That`s all right here on "PoliticsNation" on MSNBC.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Welcome back to "PoliticsNation."

Thousands of protesters took to the streets across dozens of U.S. cities on Saturday. Calling for an investigation of President Trump and especially his ties with Russia. "March for Truth" led by a coalition of grassroots organizers took place in cities including Washington D.C., New York, Boston, and Portland.

Joining me now is one of the speakers in the march, Congressman Al Green, democrat of Texas who`s also been outspoken calling for the impeachment of President Trump.

Congressman, tell me the intent and the effect of yesterday`s marches around the country.

AL GREEN, U.S. REPRESENTATIVE: Thank you for your service and thank you for having me on, Reverend. Reverend, these were loyal American, they were patriotic Americans. These are people who love their country. These are people who don`t want to see Russian intrusion, Russian collusion, if you will, with the Trump administration, that creates a circumstance that`s adverse to the best interest of democracy. These are people who marched in the rain. They were not deterred. And they made it very clear that they want an investigation by a bipartisan independent commission. And they want persons prosecuted if persons have committed offenses.

I called for the impeachment of the president as I have before for obstructions of justice. I believe this has occurred. And I don`t think we need additional evidence to prove it. I think the congress has to act.

SHARPTON: You think that there has been enough evidence to establish obstruction of justice to justify impeachment right now? There`s already enough evidence in your judgment for them to proceed in the house impeachment proceedings?

GREEN: Yes, Reverend. And the judgment of others as well. The president confessed on national television at prime time. He indicated that the Russian thing was a made-up story, and that he was considering that when he fired Mr. Comey, the director of the FBI. He did fire Mr. Comey and then he went onto tweet some statements that could be considered intimidation.

The point is this. If you want icing on the cake, Mr. Comey`s testimony may be that icing next week when we go back to congress. But I like my cake plain, if you will. I like the truth, the plain truth, and the plain truth is the president has obstructed justice. He fired the investigator who investigating him and said he did so because of the investigation. That is enough to impeach the president for obstruction of justice.

SHARPTON: All right. Thank you, Congressman Al Green.

Let`s bring in Yamiche Alcindor, reporter for "The New York Times," and an MSNBC contributor.

Yamiche, this week ahead we`re going to hear testimony Thursday from former FBI director James Comey who the congressman referred to President Trump terminated. We`re going to have other things that will inevitably point back to what is facing the president. But he`s going on the road. He`s going to Ohio. He`s talking about doing other things.

Is this part of the Trump strategy to try to divert attention away from Comey and other issues that are coming up this week? Will he be able to get the media to go some other way?

YAMICHE ALCINDOR, REPORTER, THE NEW YORK TIMES: I think that he`s always had this tendency, this pattern to go back to his basic, go back to his safe space, go back to rallies and the try to just talk to people who really love him and really support him throughout whatever he does. But I think that`s part of what he`s doing. I think it`s a personal thing for him to just go out and remember that he`s a celebrated figure.

But I don`t think -- I mean, it would be illogical to think that because you`re on the road going to these Midwestern states that somehow James Comey who people have been waiting for really months to hear from, I think ever since -- he talked about the fact that he was reopening the investigation into Hillary Clinton, I think from that point on, the nation wanted to know what was going on with him.

So I think that Thursday is going to be a ballpark day. It`s going to all about James Comey. And even if Donald Trump does something in tweets, something James Comey will be covered and that`s going to be a big story. And James Comey has notes that he took that were contemporaneous that he before he got fired that are going to be very important to what he has to say.

SHARPTON: He took copious notes, we`re told in real time. He has documented those things. He has certain information, certainly no one else would have.

What are the things we`re going to be most interested in hearing Comey say or Comey be questioned on? And will he say them and will they be questioned in your opinion?

ALCINDOR: Well, it depends on how much -- what he says is going to depend on what`s classified and what`s unclassified. I think he`s going to say as much as he can that`s unclassified. I think, and most of the sources that I`ve been talking to, think that James Comey wanted to testify publicly for a reason. But I think he has something to say.

I think the whole hearing is going to be about Russia. It`s going to be about, did you ask for more resources? What was his attitude when you were talking about Russia? Did he ask you to back off on Michael Flynn? These are stories that have been out in the media that have been sourced by anonymous sourcing, but now we can have James Comey saying, yes, I was asking for money or no, I wasn`t. Yes, he told me to leave Michael Flynn alone, he`s a great guy or not. So I think James Comey is going to be able to tell us whether or not the president was, in fact, trying to obstruct justice or whether or not he was just talking about the Russia investigation and maybe it was inappropriate, but he wasn`t trying to stop them in any way.

SHARPTON: All right. We have to leave it there. Thank you, Yamiche Alcindor.

Up next, a comedian using the N-word on live TV. Not on my watch. We`ll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SHARPTON: Comedians are not having a good week. At least in my book. First it was Kathy Griffin, and now it`s Bill Maher. Griffin was forced to apologize after widespread outrage of images of her with a fake decapitated head of President Trump. Not a good idea, and also not funny.

By the way, the irony was not lost on us here at "PoliticsNation" as it was not too long ago that President Obama went through eight years of abuse through twisted and sick creative minds on social media. Out of respect, I`m not showing any of those despicable images. But you know what I`m talking about. We, of course, do not condone any threat of violence against this or any president.

Now on Friday night, comedian Bill Maher used a racial epithet during an interview on his HBO show sparking another outrage on social media. Maher was talking to republican Nebraska Senator Ben Sasse who was there to promote his book when the following exchange happened. The two were discussing teenagers and maturity, when Maher mentioned that adults dressed up for Halloween in California. He then asked Sasse if people do that in Nebraska.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BILL MAHER, COMEDIAN: You got to get to Nebraska more.

BEN SASSE, U.S. SENATOR: you`re welcome. We`d love to have you work in the fields with us.

MAHER: Work in the fields?

SASE: That`s part --

MAHER: Senate. I`m a house [BLEEP] -- no. It`s a joke.

[APPLAUSE]

MAHER: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no. There are no exceptions that make this acceptable. Yes, comedians are expected to cross some hard lines. I get it. But let`s be clear. Free speech comes with a responsibility to speak up when folks use that word and that`s what I`m doing now. The history of the n-word is too painful, too loaded, too raw. The N-word is an attack on human dignity. It`s an attack on the American creed. You cannot allow anyone to act like there`s anything funny in any context about using that word. And you have to have one standing no matter who it is.

We led the fight against radio host Don Imus in 2006, after he made derogatory slurs about the Rutger`s women`s basketball team. We stood up to Rush Limbaugh and his racist comments. We fought to oust Sony executive Amy Pascal in 2014 after she said racist emails about President Obama. And last year, I called out black comic Larry Wilmore who hosted the White House Correspondent`s Dinner and called President Obama, quote, my N-word.

So now we are up in arms and upset with Bill Maher. He doesn`t get a pass because we`re friends. What Bill Maher did was normalize a word that is anything but normal. By the way, Bill Maher, HBO, and Congressman Sasse all have issued apologies.

Bottom line, be consistent with holding our friends accountable as much as we do our foes. Bill Maher, I hope to hear from you in real time, and clear time and until then, I gotcha.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: We want to give you an update on the breaking news out of London. Where police are now saying they have made 12 arrests in relation to the attack last night. Police say all 12 arrests took place in east London. And searches for more suspects are continuing.

Seven people were killed and more than 48 were injured. Police say three men drove a van across London Bridge, mowing down pedestrians. They then ran into nearby Borough Markets stabbing people as they went. Police shot and killed all three suspects within eight minutes of being called.

Joining me now is Jim Cavanaugh, an NBC law enforcement analyst.

You`ve been through this, Jim, before. What will this do in terms of those of us in the United States? How can this affect us at home? And how will it affect ongoing security in Europe?

JIM CAVANAUGH, NBC LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Well, I think it`s affecting us at home, our law enforcement authorities are all paying close attention to everything that`s going on here, for sure. It just makes us all as citizens want to be more alert and more attune to our surroundings. And I think take a clue from what the prime minister of England said when they were in this tremendous threat category they were in the high threat with Manchester and Westminster Bridge and now this is that, some people are tolerating extremism in their country.

You`ve been a champion at rejecting extremism if from all corners. And that`s what has to happen. Communities can`t let people amongst them preaching hate, making hate like it`s all right. It doesn`t matter what corner it comes from. But they have a tremendous problem. They have hundreds of people who are directly affiliated with ISIS who`ve traveled to the conflict area and who`ve come back, and those tentacles are strong, and some of these people could be connected to those people, and those people can be agents of influence if they`re not direct to actors into the terrorist act themselves.

SHARPTON: So the fact that now President Trump is saying that this is why we need a Muslim ban, are we now hearing Prime Minister May say that there is the ideological link of extremist here? Will this and these kinds of almost continual events now, though seemingly disconnected but they are seemingly continuing to happen with some kind of normalcy almost setting in. Will this, in fact, push the need or push the selling of the need for a Muslim ban or other bans both in the United States and Europe no matter how much many of us object to it?

CAVANAUGH: Right. Well, I strongly object to it having been involved in terrorist investigations and terrorist task forces. A Muslim ban is totally wrong. It plays exactly into the philosophy of the terrorists. The terrorists who basically are a death cult, they want the world to believe that they represent Islam, 1.3 billion people on the planet. It`s total garbage, and they kill more Muslims than anyone us. That`s going to hurt us. We need to help Muslim-Americans, the UK needs to help their Muslim population, and none of us needs to tolerate extremism or give the terrorists an edge. Don`t focus on Muslims. That`s so wrong-headed. It can`t even be explained. It`s bad policy.

SHARPTON: As you said, more Muslims are being killed by them and it`s not true Islam. Thank you, Jim.

CAVANAUGH: Thank, Rev.

SHARPTON: Back in the U.S., the democratic race for governorship of Maryland is already heating up with the crowded field of candidates. And on Wednesday, former NAACP head Ben Jealous formally announced his bid for the state`s top job. Jealous, the youngest president in NAACP history, is credited with modernizing the organization and was an avid supporter of Bernie Sanders, and later Hillary Clinton during the 2016 presidential race.

Late this week, I spoke with jealous about many topics starting with the state of American race relations under president Trump.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BEN JEALOUS, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: I see the pretty eyes of my children. My daughter`s about to be 12. My son`s about to be five, and it`s been really sad to watch over the last six months just the increase in hostility, racial tension on the playground. Here. Here in Maryland, we`ve had two white men, both seemed somewhat disturbed but also both very much associated with white supremacist groups stab black men to death twice. Apparently just because of their race in the last six months. One of them came from north of Baltimore. He got on a bus to go to Times Square and hunted a black man in New York City. The other one was a student at the University of Maryland College Park, who at 3:00 in the morning, two days before graduation killed a young man from Bowie State who was two days from graduating but also about three days since he`d become a second lieutenant in the U.S. Army, stabbed him to death. A story very much like Cain and Abel.

And then this morning, we were greeted to news that they found a news for the second time at the Smithsonian. This one inside of our new Black History museum. And so I`m very much concerned that our young people are at risk in more ways than we realize.

I`m very much concerned that we`re not doing everything that we could be doing to move our state, to move our country beyond this hate, to really confront it on the terms of which it needs to be confronted. Rev, you and I know, we are guys who`ve had our lives threatened simply for standing up for justice, and you and I know that what tends to happen is right after the crisis people want to act like everything is OK. They just want to ignore it. But things go back to normal.

But something is going on in our country right now, and I believe our president and the way that he has conducted his politics has brought out the worst in many people. But it runs much deeper than that. And we as a society in our cities, in our states have to finally have the very courageous conversations but also make the changes in our educational institutions. In our businesses. In our large corporations about how we encourage people and inspire people to be their best selves and to let go of some of those old traditions of hatred and division that run so deep.

SHARPTON: And I think we need the continued effort and coalescing to push this forward. We saw that your successor Cornell Brooks left the NAACP, but we need NAACP, we need all of us, with what we`re doing National Action Network and the young activist groups. I don`t like what I see with some pitting groups against each other when we`re facing this climate. You need everybody doing whatever they do and do it effectively. Do you have any comment about the NAACP and the state of it going forward as you served as the youngest president of the NAACP?

JEALOUS: You know, Rev, look, I have great faith in the association. The chairman, the vice chairman who stepped up in this time, are very much rooted on the front lines of civil rights activism in the south. But I also, frankly, grew up in the NAACP and our local branches like the Baltimore branch here which will host the national convention this summer, are very much just plugging away every day, standing up for young people, the Prince George`s county branch here in Maryland, very much engaged with this aftermath of a killing of young Mr. Collins. And that`s what, frankly, gives me the faith that no matter what happens, the NAACP will move forward.

SHARPTON: Now, you this week, took a step that many people have noted all over the country, and particularly there in Maryland. You co-chaired the state for Bernie Sanders presidential run, and many people were pushing for you to enter the political arena, and you made it official this week that you, Ben Jealous, is a candidate for governor of Maryland. Tell us why.

JEALOUS: Yes, sir. Right now, we look at our federal government, and every single branch is controlled by far right wing extremist. And in these times, we have to decide that quite frankly, all the power that`s been transferred to our states and kind of over kind of rise the state`s rights the last 50 years, we need to, frankly, stop complaining about it and embrace it for the power and the freedom that it gives us to move our states forward no matter what`s happening in Washington.

In our state, we have a governor who on the one hand opposed President Trump. But then as a republican, has lined right up. As soon as Trump became president, he just went silent. Similarly, we`ve seen Sessions come in, and begin actually rolling back the clock on criminal justice reform, and our governor has quietly signed up for it.

SHARPTON: Sessions actually said he wanted to see a delay in the consent decree in Baltimore that came out of the Freddie Gray case.

JEALOUS: And you know what? What most folks don`t realize is that doesn`t just put Sessions in kind of tacit support of our governor at odds with the civil rights community. It puts him at odds with most major city chiefs who across this country one by one will tell you, the only way that they can reform the departments are with these consent decrees. And it certainly has put the republicans at odds with the majority of people in Baltimore.

And frankly, I would say in the state we want to see Baltimore get safer, who know part that of the city getting safer has to be a reform of a department that has lost the trust of local residents and, therefore, folks are not going to the cops with all that they know, because they don`t trust that they will protect them.

SHARPTON: You were a major figure in the candidacy and the political movement around Bernie Sanders in 2016. And later you campaigned for Hillary Clinton. But as much as we saw a big crowd, a lot of movement, we haven`t seen in the at least high profile political wins, out of the Bernie Sanders movement, is your race and if you win, a potential big victory for the Bernie Sanders political movement that started and excited a lot of people in 2016?

JEALOUS: You know, Rev, I start this journey with a lot of hope but also very humble. My family, like so many families across the state, knows that when their son steps out, there`s no person of color who`s ever held state- wide office in our state before. And so even sort of -- if you will, the challenge for the Bernie movement, there`s a greater challenge here.

SHARPTON: Well, Ben Jealous, we`ll be watching, candidate for Governor in the state of Maryland, former head of the NAACP. And certainly happy to have you with us this morning.

JEALOUS: Thank you, Rev. Always good to see you, sir.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SHARPTON: Up next, President Trump`s decision to pull out of the international accord to combat climate change will make life even harder for poor people. How so? I`ll tell you after the break.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The agreement is a massive redistribution of United States wealth to other countries. Our businesses will come to a halt in many cases and the American family will suffer the consequences in the form of lost jobs and a very diminished quality of life.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: On Thursday, President Trump further endangered the nation`s, if not the world`s most vulnerable people. When he announced that the United States would withdraw from the 2015 Paris Accord to combat climate change. Environmental justice advocates insist the move will make life even harder for poor people who stand to suffer the most from more frequent natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina. Nearly 80 percent of African-Americans live close to a coal-fired power plant. The pollution from which is known to contribute to already high rates of respiratory illness like asthma in the black community, and black Americans are nearly twice as likely to die from heat-related illness as -- and as global thermostat rises, so does the probability that even more will suffer.

During his bid for the WHITE HOUSE, President Trump famously asked black voters what they had to lose. Well, if you like clean air, and viable environment, it looks like you have a lot to lose.

Joining me now, Jacqui Patrerson, director of the NAACP environmental and climate justice program. And Mustafa Ali, a former EPA official for environmental justice. He`s now senior vice president of Climate Environmental Justice and Community Revitalization for Hip Hop Caucus.

Let me go to you, Jacqui. This, as I said in the opening, is going to be detrimental to everybody, but it has very direct disproportionate detriment to blacks, minorities, and poor people. You worked on this. Explain why this answers what Mr. Trump said when he was running. What do we have to lose and what we lose by what he just announced.

JACQUI PATTERSON, DIRECTOR, NAACP ENVIRONMENTAL AND CLIMATE JUSTICE PROGRAM: Yes. Thanks so much for having me, Reverend. And hi, Mustafa.

Yes, there`s so much that we`re losing already and that we have even more to lose through the situation. As you mentioned, from the whole continuum of climate change, from the drivers of climate change to the impacts of climate change, communities of color and African-American communities are disproportionately impacted. As you talked about the coal-fired power plants with 78 percent of African-Americans living within 30 miles of a coal-fired power plant, it means that we`re more likely to have these exacerbating conditions in terms of chronic health conditions. For example, African-American children are three to five times more likely to enter into the hospital for an asthma attack and two to three times more likely to die of an asthma attack.

African-Americans are more likely -- adults are more likely to die of lung disease but, yet, less likely to smoke. And so we have these in terms of the driver`s side. And then on the impact side, we see where the extreme weather events, whether it`s the heat islands that are being created by extreme weather and the impacts on communities that don`t necessarily have the ventilation or air-conditioning and so forth to be able to protect themselves to the disasters where communities are often not as -- African- American communities are often not as mobile and able to get out when the disaster is coming or where we don`t even have the infrastructure.

We have a situation where in Louisiana where levees are built based on prioritizing -- built up based on prioritizing areas where there`s most likelihood and economic impact as opposed to considering who needs to be protected.

SHARPTON: I think that`s the point, Mustafa, because when we start saying this will have a disproportionate negative impact, there goes, Reverend Al, there goes the NAACP, whoever, there they go again. But the fact is you can`t divorce the economic conditions of people, like the ability to be mobile, like the fact where they live may not have the ventilation. You can`t divorce or sever the conditions that people live based on the economic standing and based on housing from the environment and then you have the environmental concerns. You worked at EPA on this. You`ve been a champion of this. Connect the dots. Because I think people don`t understand, this is not just another slogan. This is real life on the ground.

MUSTAFA ALI, SENIOR VP, CLIMATE, ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE & COMMUNITY REVITALIZATION FOR THE HIP HOP CAUCUS: This just shows another example that the president does not care about the lives of folks who live in these communities, African-American communities, Latino communities, Asian- American Pacific Island communities and indigenous communities. This is all interconnected. The work that I did, I ran a 17-agency task force on environmental justice, so we understand that housing, economics, the environment are all interconnected.

If you look at what happened in Baton Rouge and those floods that came through and killed so many people and $10 billion associated with that, it just makes sense that we get in front of these issues. Also, if you look at Princeville, North Carolina, a community that was founded by freed slaves and the impacts that happened inside their community also and the lack of infrastructure and the opportunities that existed in getting ahead of this, it is all interconnected.

SHARPTON: Jacqui, you`re with the NAACP, the legacy organizations like ours, the National Action Network, Urban League and others. How do you energize the civil rights community to really put pressure on those in Washington to really say to the president, you cannot do this?

PATTERSON: Yes, very good question. So we really have started to -- we`ve been historically working at the local level and at the state level on getting folks energized around talking to their local legislature, their city councils, their mayors, their state congress folks and so forth. We actually did at the -- in Paris where the Paris agreement was signed, we were there with a delegation with the historically black colleges and universities, climate change consortium and we did a Black Lives Matter die in thee with the Black Lives Matter activists as well, they really say that as much as folks are being racially profiled and shut down the streets, we`re dying in death of a thousand cuts through this climate change disproportionate impact on our communities.

So we`re doing it to local action, starting at the local food movements, shifting away from dirty energy to these activism activities.

SHARPTON: And we must continue our lives depend on it. Thank you, Jacqui Patterson. Always good to see you, Mustafa Ali. We`ll be right back.

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SHARPTON: That does it for me. Thanks for watching and to keep the conversation going, like us on facebook.com/politicsnation and follow us at Twitter @politicsnation. I`ll see you back here next Sunday.

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