[Cabrera:] Possible 2020 candidate Michael Bloomberg is apologizing today. He told an African-American church congregation he was wrong to pursue that controversial stop and frisk policy as mayor of New York City. It is a critical step if Bloomberg hopes to garner minority support for a Democratic presidential bid. CNN's Cristina Alesci has more.
[Cristina Alesci, Cnn Politics And Business Correspondent:] Ana, a surprising about face for the former mayor of New York apologizing for a policing tactic that he's defended for years, even as recently as this year. So the timing of this apology on the eve of potentially announcing a presidential run does open him up to criticism that it's too little too late. Now opponents are already questioning whether the apology is genuine. Let me put some context around stop and frisk. It was a major NYPD tactic while Bloomberg was mayor, empowering police officers to detain, question and frisk people. And at its peek, police stopped more than 200,000 people during the first three months of 2012. Now, the New York Civil Liberties Union estimated that Blacks and Latinos accounted for more than 50 percent of the stops in 70 out of 76 New York precincts and more than 90 percent in 32 precincts. Activists, no surprise, called the measure racist. Now, Bloomberg has denied that accusation and touted the rereduction in crime and incarceration rates. Still, after intense and sustained backlash at the time, the stops started to decline until they were ultimately reduced by 95 percent by the end of Bloomberg's administration. Now Bloomberg, however, continued to defend the tactic as recently as January. Now, it's hard to tell whether an apology will help Bloomberg win over Democratic primary voters but we'll have to wait and see, Ana.
[Cabrera:] All right, Cristina Alesci reporting. Thanks. Back with us now, Patrick Healey, Joe Lockhart and Shermichael Singleton. Guys, let me play for you what Bloomberg actually said today. Okay, we're working to get that sound so stand by for that. We just summed it up though. I'll actually just read it to you. He says, "I was wrong and I'm sorry" and now we have the sound. Let's listen.
[Michael Bloomberg, Former Mayor Of New York City:] I got something important really wrong. I didn't understand back then the full impact that stops we're having on the Black and Latino communities. Now hindsight is 2020, but as crime continued to come down as we reduced stops and as it continued to come down during the next administration to its credit, I now see that we could and should have acted sooner and acted faster to cut the stops. I wish we had. I'm sorry that we didn't.
[Cabrera:] Patrick, this apology on stop and frisk, is this maybe the most important trial balloon for Bloomberg should we decide to run?
[Healy:] I think that's a good way putting it, Ana. He's been taking several steps over the last 10 days leading up to an announcement which I think is pretty imminent at this point. The reality is that Black voters are, you know, the backbone of the Democratic presidential primary process. And for Mike Bloomberg to go into that process and to have really any kind of chance, he had to address stop and frisk. Now, the problem here, Ana, is that Mike Bloomberg is data guy. The data has shown for years that stop and frisk disproportionally targeted Black men, Latinos. The data was always there. You had judges. You had a key judge ruling against the program. And time and again, Mike Bloomberg has defended it. Not necessarily by citing empirical data that he could sort of argue about, but making that case that he, you know, wanted to reduce violence, look out for public safety. Those were goals of his administration clearly.
[Cabrera:] And crime did drop
[Healy:] And crime did drop.
[Cabrera:] but it's also dropped when stop and frisk left.
[Healy:] Exactly, continued to drop afterwards. So this is very much something that he to have any sort of a chance in the presidential primary process, he really needed to do. His aides said that he look, they realize he's 77. The notion that Mike Bloomberg would just suddenly flip on stop and frisk simply to go from zero percent in the polls to maybe 2 percent in the poll, that doesn't make sense. I think the regret was genuine. The question is why didn't it come real soon.
[Cabrera:] And now Joe, is it smart for him to be starting a campaign with that apology?
[Lockhart:] Well, I think he had to. I think once we get out of Iowa and New Hampshire, the real Democratic base emerges. You have Blacks and Latinos, nonwhites and going into South Carolina or Nevada, you know, he would talk about stop and frisk. So, I think doing it at the outset and I think trial balloon is right. I agree with both of you. He wants to see how these things play out before he gets in. And he wants to make sure that this, you know, doesn't blow up in his face. It doesn't appear. I mean, I agree that it seemed genuine in his speech at the church, but this was something he had to do and it actually is not surprising at all.
[Cabrera:] Shermichael, though, is this apology enough to make stop and frisk a nonissue for minority voters? Should he jump into the race?
[Singleton:] I mean, I don't think so. I mean and we've talked about how Bloomberg defended this as recently as January. There was an article that was actually posted and published on CNN.com where Bloomberg stated and I quote, "We certainly did not pick somebody by race" despite all of the facts and data and even court cases that suggested that. And so this notion and idea that African-Americans are somehow foolish people and are merely going to take this apology at face value without asking further questions is a bit naive I would argue. And I think for Bloomberg, someone who has been very philanthropic in the past. He has contributed a lot of things to our society. I would argue and urge him instead of running for president, use some of your money to figure out better ways to improve policing in communities of color. Use your money to figure out better ways to give opportunities for some of those very young Black and Hispanic men that were targeted during his administration as mayor so that they have opportunities instead of being targeted by police. That's something that I think would have a far more positive or net positive impact on society at- lager versus Bloomberg jumping in this presidential contest.
[Cabrera:] Okay, I want to get to a couple of other issues so kind of tight answers if you will guys. But let's talk about Mayor Pete Buttigieg and his surge to the top in Iowa. In the last four presidential elections when no Democratic incumbent was running, the winner of the Iowa Democratic caucuses went on to become the nominee. So Patrick, do you think he can sustain this trend?
[Healy:] I think he can. He's got a very good playbook that he's working right now in Iowa. He's spending a lot of time there. He delivers the kind of I think sort of direct thoughtful answers that John Kerry did in '04, Barack Obama did in '08, and Hillary Clinton did in '16. They all won in Iowa and that was key. So right now, the question is, you know, I think we'll see at Wednesday's debate does Elizabeth Warren, does Joe Biden, you know, does Bernie Sanders, are they concerned enough that they start going after Buttigieg and question things like experience.
[Cabrera:] And the fact there's almost a 10-point gap and we saw Joe Biden in particular go down. Elizabeth Warren is going down too. But when it comes to Joe Biden, he and Buttigieg seem to be a little more in the sort of that same moderate bubble. So should he be worried here?
[Lockhart:] Well, I mean, I think one of the things that we've seen is as someone emerges as, you know, Biden started on top and everybody went after him and he came down a little bit. Elizabeth Warren, you know, raced to the top in Iowa and she was attacked and came down. So I think he'll get a lot of attacks. I think Buttigieg has the opportunity to kind of transcend these labels of lanes. He's got he reminds me a little bit of early Obama in the campaign where he goes in and people like him but they're not they don't like him because they consider themselves a moderate or they consider themselves as progressive. They like him because what he's saying makes sense. The question he's got two questions. One is how will he take, how will he handle when everyone comes after him? And two, what does he do after New Hampshire, because again, he does not have a connection with the Black community in this country. And they're going to play an essential role in picking the next nominee, which is why, you know, Joe Biden is sitting there thinking, you know, let this all play out but let's get through the first two and then I go to my strength.
[Cabrera:] Quick final thoughts Shermichael.
[Singleton:] I mean, quickly I think a few variables that could determine this thing. It depends on where Joe Biden ultimately finds himself after the Iowa and New Hampshire primaries. I also think Mayor Pete has to figure out a way as Joe just pointed out, a way to connect with African-American voters. And I would finally add that despite the poll numbers, Joe Biden remains who Democratic voters believe as the best individual to defeat Donald Trump in November of next year.
[Cabrera:] All right, Shermichael Singleton, Patrick Healy and Joe Lockhart, tank you all. And just a quick note, New York mayor and former presidential candidate Bill de Blasio will join us live at 7:00 p.m. tonight. We are also following breaking news back to Hong Kong now with more pictures from a university there where students are barricading themselves, shooting Molotov cocktails and arrows at heavily armed police we are told. We'll take you live, next.