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CNN NEWSROOM

Will Former Secretary of State Respond?; Private Account Stirs New Criticism; President Obama Crosses Iconic Bridge; John Lewis Led Selma March in 1965; Boko Haram Pledges Allegiance to ISIS: New Poll on Race Relations in U.S.; Hillary Clinton's 1st Appearance Follow Private Email Account Discovery

Aired March 7, 2015 - 17:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi, everyone. Five o'clock Eastern. You're in the CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Poppy Harlow joining you from New York.

And we begin this hour with Hillary Clinton and the e-mail controversy that could stain her expected campaign for the White House in 2016. At this hour, the former Secretary of State is set to speak at a Clinton Global Initiative event being held at the University of Miami. This is a planned event. Obviously before all of this news broke this week, but it is her first public appearance since reports revealed that Clinton exclusively used her private e-mail account during her time at the State Department. Will she address that? That is the key question, we will take you there live.

For now, our panel is here to discuss. CNN senior political correspondent Brianna Keilar, also CNN political commentators Ben Ferguson and Marc Lamont Hill. Also joining me here in New York, foreign editor for The Daily Beast Christopher Dickey.

Brianna, let me begin with you. You have been tracking this very closely. You follow the former First Lady and former Secretary of State very closely. Set the scene. Do you expect that she will talk about the e-mail controversy?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: We don't know at this point. There's no indication that she will talk about it and I think we're getting an indication when we do hear from her people that she's trying to move on from this. But really we don't know, Poppy. There will be a Q&A so it's possible that it comes up but it's also very possible that it doesn't. And we don't honestly have guidance. They are not telling us much about this. And all that we have heard from Hillary Clinton is that tweet where she said that she wants the State Department to release the e-mails, her e-mails from her time at state. The issue though is this, while this is an effort to try and shut down this controversy, it doesn't.

And the reason it doesn't is pretty simple. The e-mails that she's talking about having the State Department release are the ones from last year that she and her team turned over, 55,000 pages of e-mails. The thing is, it's what's really their -- they used their discretion on what they were turning over. So it was really up to Hillary Clinton and it was up to her staff on what they turned over. So you have some people asking the State Department, as they did yesterday when for yet another Davis dominated the State Department briefing. The reporters asked, hey, is the State department going to make sure that these e-mails that are on the private server that all of them that pertain to her official business are turned over and at this point it doesn't appear so.

HARLOW: Brianna, some people are saying, look, she did exactly what someone in her position before her did, right? Exactly what former Secretary of State Colin Powell did. What's the difference? This is all just politically motivated against her. Is there a difference or did the rules change between when Colin Powell was there and when Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was in that position?

KEILAR: The issue -- there were some regulation adjustments and it does appear there were regulation adjustments both in I believe 2005 and then in 2009. So, there were changes actually, Poppy. And what's very clear is that even if folks on Hillary Clinton's side can prove that she did not break the federal records act here, which is entirely possible, then we wouldn't actually know because she has controlled these e-mails.

HARLOW: Right.

KEILAR: Even though -- even if she didn't go against the letter of the law, she went against the spirit of the law because even back in 2009 when she was secretary of state, the whole idea of this act was, if you use private e-mail to conduct government business, you need to turn it over, you need to put it into the State Department recordkeeping system. She didn't until 2014.

HARLOW: Right.

KEILAR: So you're talking about almost five or six years later that she didn't and also we're getting more information now that the White House was really alarmed to find out this summer that while they knew she had used a private e-mail address, they didn't realize that she solely used it perhaps and also that she hadn't turned over the documents. So, you're seeing that there was concern from the White House that this was what was going on and so that's part of the reason why this controversy continues.

HARLOW: Brianna, thank you. Stand by as we wait for these live remarks from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Marc Lamont Hill to you. Brianna just addressed this issue of the letter of the law versus the spirit of the law. Do you believe that we should have heard more from Hillary Clinton now outside of that tweet?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think that she's doing her best to engage in proper damage control. The way to manage a situation like this is to not drip out information slowly as we saw with Benghazi and other so-called controversies a year or two ago but instead to put it out all at once. The tweets that she sent out. The attempt to say, look, we're going to turn over all of our records, that's the best thing she can do at this moment. I don't think to continue to talk about it is a wise strategy. I think she may address it in the speech today and that will be the end of it. Now, is that fair to voters? Is that fair to citizens? No. What Hillary Clinton did was wrong. It violates the spirit of the law. And we'll find out whether it violates the letter of the law perhaps in a later date. I'm not defending Hillary Clinton but I think she's handling it the exact way everyone would have handled it and if they're doing it properly in a crisis.

HARLOW: Ben?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I totally disagree. If she was handling it the right way and she had nothing to hide, then she would come out much earlier than even today and said, here is exactly what went on. They have been in scandals before. The Clintons know how to deal with scandals. And what it shows me now in her taking so long in tweeting out that I want you to see my e-mails but not really talking about it yet, tells me they were trying to get their game plan together. And if you had nothing to hide and if you didn't delete any mails, and you had turned over all of your e-mails, then you would easily come out, sit down and do an interview with anyone that's willing to interview you and say just that. There's a reason why she hasn't.

And so I think there is something here that they're concern about internally, that maybe they don't have their old e-mails, maybe they did comb through them, maybe they only turn over the e-mails that they chose too and now they got busted for it and they are in serious trouble.

HARLOW: Chris, to you. Go ahead, Marc.

HILL: Real quick, Ben. Ben, I think you're arguing a point I'm not making. I'm not saying that the Clintons don't have anything to hide. My experience is that the Clintons often have something to hide.

FERGUSON: We can agree on that.

HILL: They're handling it properly.

FERGUSON: Yes.

HILL: I'm saying from a damage control perspective, they are doing it right.

HARLOW: I want to get Chris Dickey in here. Obviously, there are two things. Right? There's politics and there's also national security and private information and then there's Benghazi. How much do you think that plays in here? Serious concerns?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, FOREIGN EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST: Look, I mean, I think most listeners listening to this debate right now are going to say, what is this all about? The technicalities, the rules on emails, who cares? Is that really what this is all about? No. Politically, the issue here is the arrogance of the Clintons, the feeling that the Clintons act as if they are above the rules and regulations. And this is a clear example. Also politically, this reminds me of the Nixon tapes way back when,

when you had a hungry Congress ready to go after Hillary Clintons just as the Congress and Senate was ready to go after Richard Nixon and when they suddenly discovered they had tape recordings of all of his conversations, then that became the center objective. But then you have the question of Benghazi. Are we going to learn anything different about Benghazi? What actually happened on the ground in Benghazi than what we already know?

HARLOW: You mean, from these e-mails?

DICKEY: From these e-mails. Absolutely.

HARLOW: Gentlemen, very quickly, we've got to get a break in here. Yes, Ben?

FERGUSON: Yes. There's one other thing. You have an e-signature e- mail that went out from Hillary Clinton's staff at state telling all the State Department employees you must keep your e-mails on the government e-mail and you cannot use personal e-mail and it was signed by her e-signature. So, if she is telling everyone else to play by the rules and she was not while saying and demanding that of her own staff and her own State Department, that tells you a lot more about their mentality that they don't have to play by the same rules as everybody else or they have something to hide.

HARLOW: All right. Ben, Mark, Chris, Brianna, stick around, quick break. We're back with more in a moment.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Will she address the e-mail scandal? That's the big question right now that is awaiting, that all of us are asking as we prepare to hear from the former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative event at the University of Miami. It's Hillary Clinton's first public appearance since reports surfaced that she exclusively used her personal e-mail account while she was at the State Department.

Let me bring back in Brianna Keilar, Ben Ferguson and Marc Lamont Hill, Chris Dickey is with me here in New York. Also joining us from Des Moines, CNN Politics executive editor Mark Preston.

Let me begin with you, Brianna. You made the point that this is not a woman who is just going to open her doors and say, sure, come in, take a look at my private e-mail server, it's all there, do whatever you need to do.

KEILAR: No, you need to understand some of the context about Hillary Clinton. And look, maybe she is going to say, come look at my server but I will tell you that that's not her first inclination, by far. This is think back to the '90s when the Clintons under fire over the white water land deal, they were facing so much controversy that, in the end, President Clinton said, okay, you know, what? I'm going to acquiesce and have this independent counsel come in. Well, then the independent counsel will start investigating other things. That ultimately is what led to revelations and focuses that had nothing to do with whitewater but led to his impeachment. So, there's this tremendous fear from the Clinton camp about saying, you know what? Okay, we have nothing to hide because they are afraid it's going to become a witch hunt and yet you really have to understand this context to sort of know what their instincts on this and what are their instincts on this.

HARLOW: Mark Preston, to you, I mean, you're in Iowa. Where you have a lot of likely Republican contenders for the White House speaking this weekend. Jeb Bush has got to be part of this conversation, right? This is someone who came out and said, here all my emails and my sort of private account, take a look at them. But again, it was up to his discretion what to release. Are people at all concerned about what this might mean for Jeb Bush or do they see it as completely different?

MARK PRESTON, CNN POLITICAL EXECUTIVE EDITOR: Well, I think in terms of Jeb Bush, the Republicans think that's entirely different, that what we've seen from the Clintons, specifically because Jeb Bush didn't create an e-mail server and house it within his house. Now, Democrats will argue the other way and say, in fact, it is the same. So this is not something that's new certainly in the past few months, certainly with Jeb Bush. We've seen with Hillary Clinton most recently, Scott Walker had trouble as well with the private e-mail account about a year or two ago. That came out. So all of these presidential candidates seem to be having a little bit of problem. But I have to tell you, Poppy, you know, they were here on stage, they're talking about agricultural issues. However, when they came off stage, several of them expressed outrage at what the Clintons have done with the e-mail server, including Lindsey Graham who served with Hillary Clinton in the Senate and this is what he had to say to me today -- Poppy.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R), SOUTH CAROLINA: I like her, but I can only imagine how this would be if a Republican secretary of state set up an e-mail system that avoids the law and transparency and accountability. I'm not going to buy that we have all of the e-mails. I want a bipartisan group to look at every e-mail.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PRESTON: Well, I think basically what we're hearing right there, Poppy is that this is not going to go away. Not only will we have the State Department reviewing these e-mails, you are going to have Congressional Committees as well looking into them. Lindsey Graham indicating there that the Senate itself will start looking into it as well.

HARLOW: Yes.

PRESTON: So, certainly something that will be hanging around with the Clintons, certainly when Hillary announces that she's going to run for president. HARLOW: So, Marc, to you and then Ben on this, when you have an

active congressional investigation, even if it turns up nothing more, when you're talking about someone who is widely expected to run for the White House, what does that do?

HILL: I think in general it can do a lot but I think if people view an investigation as politicized, I think that the voting base doesn't necessarily budge, particularly in a primary season. Another example is Rick Perry, Rick Perry being indicted to me wasn't something that would make it more difficult for him to win a Republican primary. There are other reasons why but not that. Because it looked like a political witch hunt coming from Democrats. This will ultimately look like a political witch hunt coming from Republicans. That's not to say that what Hillary Clinton did was right.

Let me be clear, I think Hillary is wrong in this but I also don't think there's a big smoking gun in her e-mail that they are going to find. Spending hours and hours looking for some scandal, a house of cards-like crisis or crimes is not going to happen but what it does allow Republicans to do is construct Hillary Clinton as a criminal, as someone who operates above the law, or think she can operate above the law and it puts the Clintons back in scandal-ville and that's not where people want to be if they are on Hillary's side.

FERGUSON: The biggest liability for this, for Hillary is people looked at her differently until recently and it's these types of things, whether it be Benghazi or now the e-mails that remind you of the culture of corruption and dark room shady deals that the Clintons are known for still in Arkansas and on the way to the White House.

And so I think that's her biggest thing is, you know, now she turns truly into that Hillary Clinton the candidate, a woman that is incredibly calculated. This also brings up -- all right, this is a woman, she's a lawyer, she knows how to do things and get around things and not play by the rules and it's not normal for an average person to put a server in their house unless you really want to hide something and we don't know how many e-mails she's already gotten rid of that we'll never see. That is the big X factor and I --

HILL: Most normal people are not Secretary of State, Ben. Most normal people are not Secretary of State, man.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: Secretary of States don't set up their home server in their house, Marc. That's the point here. If you're the secretary of state --

HILL: But they do have personal e-mails.

HARLOW: All right. Guys, I want to get this Twitter question in that we just got from J.J. Powell wrote in, "Who had password access to Clinton's e-mail account? What classified data was sent to her e- mail?" Brianna, do we know yet?

KEILAR: So, we don't know who had password access, if it was just Hillary Clinton or maybe it was her aides. We don't know. We would expect it to be no one in the State Department. And then the other question there was --

HARLOW: It is, who had access to the e-mail account and what classified data was sent to her e-mail?

KEILAR: Okay. So here's what we understand about classified e-mail. If you talk to State Department sources, they will say that classified email is housed in a different system and if you're e-mailing classified information, you kind of use a separate machine than if you're e-mailing unclassified information it's also a different machine. So, they are saying -- they made the point yesterday at the State Department that she wouldn't have been able to send classified e-mail because her e-mail wouldn't have had access to it. The other question though, Poppy, going beyond what this tweeter asks is, did she e-mail perhaps sensitive but unclassified information? And this is the question when it comes to security because something doesn't have to be classified for it to be something that you don't want out there. So this maybe one of the questions.

HARLOW: Yes.

KEILAR: But even if in this review that's found, the State Department wouldn't necessarily say that they'll make it public that they found this in the review.

HARLOW: Right. So, Chris Dickey, so do you as foreign affairs editor, classified versus sensitive?

DICKEY: Well, look, the subjects that she's likely to have dealt with on that e-mail server are likely to be subjects that would or could have been classified if she had been dealing with them in the State Department context. I mean, it's a little bit like the black notebooks of General Petraeus that just got him in so much trouble. Those were not classified documents but they were full of information that related to classified activities. I think that is potentially the real scandal here with these e-mails, not just the question of Benghazi but the question of whether the subjects that were being dealt with in those e-mails were subjects that normally would be treated in classified correspondence.

HARLOW: Right. And again, as Brianna has been reporting, pointed out, it's up to the discretion of Hillary and her team which of those 55,000 e-mails were handed over to the State Department.

Guys, thank you very much. Stand by, we're going to talk more about this throughout the hour as we monitor the Clinton Global Initiative event at the University of Miami, and also more on this 50th anniversary of the march in Selma, straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. I want to take you back to Selma, Alabama, where the President of the United States Barack Obama just a short time ago walked across a bridge, a bridge where something happened 50 years ago today that helped set the national climate for his election decades later. We're talking about the Edmund Pettus Bridge there in Selma, Alabama. You're looking at pictures of what took place just moments ago. The President leading those events, marking this 50th anniversary of that day that became known as Bloody Sunday. In 1965, marchers demanding equal voting rights and treatment were beaten brutally by Alabama state troopers. The President stood there just a few moments ago and spoke about the work towards complete equality in this country that still lies ahead.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The single most powerful word in our democracy is the word "We." We the people. We shall overcome. Yes, we can. That word is owned by no one. It belongs to everyone. Oh, what a glorious task we are given to continually try to improve this great nation of ours.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: Congressman John Lewis spoke in front of that bridge as well. He was there. He marched. He was 25 years old on Bloody Sunday. He marched along with all of those other people fighting for exactly the same thing, equal treatment.

Our Athena Jones joins me now from Selma, Alabama. Athena, give me a sense of what it has been like for you to be there today.

ATHENA JONES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hi, Poppy. I feel so lucky to have been able to be here to cover this event. It's a big anniversary, the 50th anniversary. And the good thing is that there are still people living today like you mentioned Congressman Lewis, he was also one of the speakers on the stage today introducing the President and one thing he said that stuck with me, "Don't get lost in a sea of despair, stand up for what you believe." And if there's anyone who embodies that spirit and that idea, it's him. I sat down with him recently to talk about that day 50 years ago today when he experienced so much brutality on the bridge behind me. We talked about that violence of that day. We and also talked about Selma's legacy.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

REP. JOHN LEWIS (D), GEORGIA: The bridge of Selma is almost a holy place. It's a place where people gave a little blood to redeem the soul of America. In this city, people couldn't register to vote simply because of the color of their skin so we had to change that.

JONES (voice-over): John Lewis was just 25 years old.

LEWIS: I can never forget what it felt like to be on this bridge on Bloody Sunday. We came to the highest point down below we saw a sea of blue. Alabama state troopers. And behind the state troopers, we saw men on horseback so we got within hand distance of the state troopers.

UNIDENTIFIED MAN: Go home or go to your church.

LEWIS: And the major said, troopers advance. I thought over and over again they were going to arrest us. They came toward us, beating us with nightsticks, trampling us with their horses. I went down on my knees, my legs were knocked from under me. I thought I was going to die.

JONES: He was carried back to the church where the march had begun. It was there he issued a challenge to President Lyndon Johnson.

LEWIS: I stood up and I said, I don't understand it. Our President Johnson can send troops to Vietnam but cannot send troops to Selma, Alabama to protect people whose only desire is to register to vote.

JONES: After Bloody Sunday, President Johnson spoke before Congress.

LYNDON JOHNSON, 36TH PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It is wrong, deadly wrong to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote in this country. And it's not just Negros but really it's all of us who must overcome the crippling legacy of bigotry and injustice and we shall overcome.

(APPLAUSE)

LEWIS: He was the first American president that used the theme song civil rights movement. I looked at Dr. King, tears came down his face. I started crying a little. I didn't like for anybody to see me cry. But I cried. President Johnson pledge alliance to Alabama National Guard called the United States military to protect us all the way from Selma to Montgomery.

JONES: On August 6th, President Johnson signed the landmark voting rights act. Ensuring that all citizens could vote regardless of their color. The Supreme Court struck down a key provision of that law in 2013 and efforts to fix it have stalled in Congress.

LEWIS: If we fail to fix it, many of our fellow citizens would not be able to become participants in the Democratic process.

JONES: It's also why he returns to this bridge every year.

LEWIS: The vote is powerful. It is the most powerful nonviolent tool we have in a Democratic society and I don't want people to forget that people paid a price.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JONES: So you heard the congressman say people paid a price, they paid a price to get the voting rights act passed and he mentioned a need to fix that law. President Obama made the same challenge to the more than 100 members of Congress who came down here to Selma, to update and fix that voting rights law and to do more than just honor the march symbolically but to do something solid like fixing this law -- Poppy.

HARLOW: That was a beautiful piece Athena. Thank you very much.

JONES: Thank you.

HARLOW: Coming up next, breaking news, terrorist marriage made and held. Boko Haram pledging allegiance to ISIS. The details, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

HARLOW: All right. Breaking news from overseas to tell you about. This involves the international war on terror. The radical terrorist group in Nigeria, Boko Haram, posting an online message today pledging allegiance to ISIS.

Let me bring in Chris Dickey, the foreign affairs editor of "The Daily Beast."

We are just reading this wire as it has crossed but the leader of Boko Haram has posted this propaganda video online, so much of what we have seen -- and said to Abu Bakr al Baghdadi, the leader of ISIS, "I pledge allegiance to you." What do you make of this?

CHRISTOPHER DICKEY, FOREIGN AFFAIRS EDITOR, THE DAILY BEAST: Well, ISIS is becoming a franchise and Boko Haram just joined the franchise, just like the people in Libya who were beheading the Christians have joined the franchise, and just like some people in Yemen and Afghanistan are joining the franchise. It's happening all over the world of radical Islam and I think it's a dangerous development. It doesn't mean that it will hold together over time. You have to remember that ISIS itself was originally part of al Qaeda and the people who founded it had sworn allegiance to the leadership of al Qaeda and then broke away.

HARLOW: And then even al Qaeda condemned some of ISIS' acts.

DICKEY: Absolutely. This is like the old Communist Parties in the old days of the Cold War that we're always breaking up and mutating and dividing and turning against each other, the guerrilla groups. But this is a bad development. There's no question.

HARLOW: Why would Boko Haram do this? What benefit would it give them?

DICKEY: Publicity, publicity. For any of these people, for any of these radical groups, terribly violent radical groups, one of the things that they want is publicity.

HARLOW: Right.

DICKEY: They want to project themselves on the world stage and Boko Haram has a brand but Boko Haram as part of ISIS has a bigger brand.

HARLOW: Interestingly, a few weeks ago, Al Shabaab, that terrorist group, released a propaganda video threatening to attack Western malls, as we saw at the Westgate Mall in Kenya. Many of them looked at that as them trying to gain attention or compete with ISIS. Do you suspect that this is a trend that we will see, al Shabaab joining --

(CROSSTALK) DICKEY: Sure. All of these groups are either going to pledge allegiance to ISIS or compete with ISIS in order to get as much credibility and publicity as much as they can and gain recruits from the West and gain money from supporters in the Gulf States and elsewhere.

HARLOW: Boko Haram is the horrific militant group that has taken all of those young girls hostage.

DICKEY: Sure.

HARLOW: We're talking about hundreds and hundreds of them. I wonder how you think, if at all, this changes the coalition strategy in fighting ISIS.

DICKEY: Well, I think that the big problem with the coalition is that it hasn't figured out a message that it can use against ISIS or Boko Haram or any of these groups. They all have a message that's tailored to a certain segment of Muslim worshippers who believe they are all under pressure and must defend themselves against the crusaders and Jews around the world. That's the propaganda. And that's what ISIS plays on. What we don't have is a liberal message, liberal in the broadest sense, that says, no, kids, just turn away from this. Don't listen to it.

HARLOW: We need a stronger war on that front, online and social media.

DICKEY: Sure.

HARLOW: Because look what ISIS is putting out and al Shabaab and Boko Haram.

DICKEY: Exactly.

HARLOW: Thank you, Chris. Appreciate it very much.

We'll take a quick break. Coming up next, we're going to talk about a recent CNN poll that just came out about race relation relations in this country under the current president. What do they say? That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Well, from the streets to the mainstream, we're looking at the talent behind the biggest dance craves in this week's "One to Watch."

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNOUNCER: Most popular dances began life as underground sensations in African-American neighborhoods. Every decade it seems these communities seem to create something fresh and vibrant.

Pop stars have been long tapping into this hidden treasure chest of moves, often transforming them to worldwide crazes. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Michael did not create the moonwalk. That was

done on every street corner in America. Twerking and bootie dancing, they have done that in New Orleans for the last 20 years.

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You know, I remember people were upset because they were like, wow, I've been doing that forever and Miley Cyrus comes on TV and she doesn't even do it the right way.

Because I'm trying to keep up with the latest dance.

(SINGING)

ANNOUNCER: L.A.'s south central ghetto has been a laboratory of street dance. One of it is residents, Atomic Clown (ph), is credited for creating the clowning style, the dance style that defines the motions.

(SINGING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Here it's a struggle. These kids go through so much. It's a lot of anger built up that they're able to release in the form of dance. (END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: Thousands gathered in Selma, Alabama, to remember the 50th anniversary of the historic march across the bridge for civil rights. President Obama and the first family are also there. But how much has changed since Selma? Certainly, a lot. But some things have not.

Joining me is CNN political commentators, Ben Ferguson and Marc Lamont Hill.

Guys, I want to read some of these numbers from the new CNN/ORC poll to our viewers. It found that 45 percent of Americans think race relations have stayed the same under this president, 39 percent think that race relations have actually worsened, and you've got 15 percent that thinks they have improved under this president.

Let me begin with you, Ben.

Do those numbers surprise you at all?

BEN FERGUSON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Not so much. We've had a lot of controversial issues that have come up, whether it be Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman, Ferguson. You had the Justice Department and many believe it's been used to go after and double jeopardy that police officer in Ferguson. They found, in fact, there was no wrongdoing. And in fact, his story held up and there was not any race behind that shooting.

So when you have things that are that polarizing, people tend to go back to their core thinking on issues of race and say, wow, maybe things aren't better. Maybe we don't trust each other. Maybe there is real black and white things and they're never going to change. And unfortunately, we saw a lot of that ugliness and reality in Ferguson.

HARLOW: Marc, Ben brings up DOJ report investigation on Ferguson which did, indeed, find that the officer's killing of Michael Brown was not racially motivated. Also the DOJ report found that there was systemic racism broader, though, within the police department. When you look at those poll numbers, what does that tell you?

MARC LAMONT HILL, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: I think the poll numbers are catching up to realities of people all the time. Race relations are probably not worse under President Obama but they are not better. There are deeply entrenched issues that we have to wrestle with at some point, and because of Michael Brown, because of Trayvon Martin, because of Jordan Davis, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, because of these bodies that keep dying in public space, people have more access to the information and people are beginning to talk race talk, again, I hope it's in constructive ways because action is coming out of it, policies are coming out of it, movements are coming out of it, institutions are coming out of it. That's what we need. That's what makes this 50th anniversary of Selma so critical to reflect on.

HARLOW: So I do want you to both listen to part of what the president said today right in front of that bridge in Selma, Alabama. Let's listen and discuss on the other side.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: You know, just this week, I was asked whether I thought the Department of Justice's Ferguson report shows that with respect to race little has changed in this country. And I understood the question. The report's narrative was sadly familiar. It evoked the kind of abuse and disregard for citizens that spawned the civil rights movement. But I rejected the notion that nothing's changed. What happened in Ferguson may not be unique but it's no longer endemic. It's no longer sanctioned by law or by custom. And before the civil rights movement, it most surely was.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: So, Ben, to you first.

Do you agree with the president, reject the notion that nothing's changed?

FERGUSON: No, I do. Look at the country and how far we've even come in the last eight, 10, 12, 15 years. There's certainly -- and especially among younger people, race is not near as big of an issue to younger people as it is to those who are older who have experienced or seen it. That's a step in the right direction. Even Marc said he likes me now more than he did in 2008 so we're obviously making a difference in this country.

(CROSSTALK)

LAMONT HILL: I just agree with you more.

FERGUSON: That's right. And racially, we're doing all right.

HARLOW: Marc?

LAMONT HILL: We are not doing all right when it comes to race. Every measurable statistic of social prosperity, black people are at the bottom of it. And President Obama is absolutely 100 percent wrong when he says that it's no longer sanctioned by law or by custom. We have laws that normalize white supremacy, laws that normalize anti- black violence, laws that normalize and sanction state violence against black bodies, everything from Stand Your Ground, which codifies white supremacist fear of black people to the difference of drugs --

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: Stand Your Ground works, Marc.

LAMONT HILL: All this stuff -- right. But the problem is, when a white jury looks at a black person, they are able to say, yes, I had a reasonable fear of this person. The reasonable man standard when it involves black people is problematic because it's a collective understanding of who and what black people are is still violent, it's still unmoral, it's still unjust, it's still worthy of lethal force, even if your hands are in the air. So, yes, everybody has --

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: But, Marc, this is --

(CROSSTALK)

LAMONT HILL: Hold on. Hold on. Hold on. You're talking about Michael Brown and I'm not. I'm talking about, in general. I'm saying that unarmed black people are killed often in this country. I'm not talking about Michael Brown, in particular. What I'm saying here is unarmed black people are killed and that's a problem. We have laws that codify and normalize that kind of anxiety. And that's --

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: What I'm saying, Marc, if we want to get things better in this country on race relations, when there is someone like Michael Brown, when the Justice Department does, in fact, look at it and realize he didn't put his hands up and he was charging a police officer, we need civil rights leaders, including Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson and others, to not push a false narrative that somebody was putting their hands up, when, in fact, the Justice Department and Eric Holder realize that that, in fact, was not reality. And so when you push things like that and they turn out not to be true, there is where we have the big divide in this country still.

HARLOW: All right. I'm being told we're out of time. We have to go.

LAMONT HILL: I completely disagree. HARLOW: Gentlemen, thank you both.

(CROSSTALK)

LAMONT HILL: Is it because I'm black, Poppy?

(LAUGHTER)

HARLOW: A quick break.

(CROSSTALK)

FERGUSON: I still love you, Marc.

HARLOW: It is certainly not.

We'll be back in just a moment.

(LAUGHTER)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Here you see it on your screen, Hillary Clinton making her first major public appearance since the controversy around her e-mail surfaced. As you know, Clinton exclusively used a private e-mail account as secretary of state, kept a server in her home.

Senior political correspondent, Brianna Keilar, joins me from Washington.

Obviously, as we're discussing this, our teams are monitoring what she's saying, if she's going to address these e-mails. What are you hearing from the Clinton camp?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: On whether she'll address this e-mail, we don't know. That's why we're monitoring. There is going to be a Q&A a little late so it's possible she could address it, Poppy, but honestly, we don't know and that's why we're keeping an eye on it.

HARLOW: Bigger picture, what have they said to you? I know lot knot a lot but what you're hearing from your sources about how big a deal they think this is or this is not.

KEILAR: I think that -- I think what I'm hearing from some Clinton supporters -- say right sort of within Clinton's camp, I get the idea that there's a lack of understanding or at least there was going into this that this was such a big deal. It's become a big deal, so obviously they're confronted with the reality of that right now. There are a lot of Democrats who I think even support Hillary Clinton. I had one Democratic congressman who said to me "Typical Clinton." So even people who support her are wondering why this happened, why she was conducting State Department business solely on her personal e- mail. So even people who are defending her I think privately are wondering what was she thinking, what were her aides think, why didn't they foresee this being a problem. HARLOW: And this concern whether of not the letter of the law was

followed versus the spirit, the intention of the law?

KEILAR: The point that her camp will make is that she followed the letter of the law. But it isn't necessarily the issue. It's more of she did follow the spirit of the law, and certainly I think it's become clear that she violated that, you have especially among younger voters, which is -- who Hillary Clinton is speaking to right now -- this is CGI University, targeting a younger crowd -- there's a tremendous value on transparency. It's even very much different than older generations. And so it's a hard case for her to make to some of these voters.

HARLOW: All right. Brianna, stay with us.

We'll have more from Brianna. We'll continue to monitor the remarks from former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. More on that at the top of the hour.

Coming up after a quick break, more on the breaking news just in to us, the terror group Boko Haram pledging allegiance to ISIS. Details of what is being calling a match made in hell.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

HARLOW: All right. Welcome back. "CNN Heroes" is recognizing a 14- year-old girl who is getting books into the hands of kids who need them the most. Meet Maria Keller.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARIA KELLER, CNN HERO: I've always loved to read. It kind of takes you to a different place. My mom told me when I was eight that some kids don't have books and that shocked me because everybody should have the option to read. So I started by just doing a small book drive. And then I told my parents I wanted to collect and distribute one million books to kids in need by the time I turned 18.

Welcome to the Read Indeed warehouse.

I was 13 when I reached my goal. We've given books to about 16 countries and 40 states.

All of the pink squares.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: I'm a preschool teacher with English learners.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: I'm looking for second through fifth grade.

KELLER: Meeting teachers is amazing. I hear about the kids they serve.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Thank you.

KELLER: Thank you.

Keep up the good work.

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: Good afternoon, fifth grade.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED TEACHER: We have about 1,280 students, a large homeless and highly mobile population. They're in great need.

UNIDENTIFIED GIRL: When Maria Keller came to our school, I was so excited. She gave us books for free. It was amazing.

KELLER: Literacy is so important in education. I want kids to have a better life. I know that reading can do that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)