[Cooper:] We have breaking political news tonight, conflicting reports about former President Bill Clinton and whether he tried to persuade Kendrick Meek, Democratic candidate in Florida's three-way senate race to drop out and endorse Charlie Crist, the independent who would then caucus with Democrats. A spokesman for former President Clinton confirmed the story; a senior Democratic official told CNN the White House was aware that Clinton was trying to broker the deal. Democrats reportedly hoped the strategy would defeat Marco Rubio, but later Mr. Clinton talked to Susan Candiotti, denied asking Meek to drop out of the race. Whatever was said or not said between Clinton and Meek, this much is clear, Meek is not dropping out. He spoke a short time ago at a news conference.
[Kendrick Meek , Florida Senatorial Candidate:] Any rumor or any statement by anyone that says that I made a decision to get out of the race is inaccurate, at best. At best it's inaccurate. I think it's very, very important that everyone understands that.
[Cooper:] All this is happening just five days out from Election Day. Political analyst Roland Martin joins me now, along with senior White House correspondent, Ed Henry and Susan Candiotti by phone. Susan you spoke to former President Clinton tonight, actually a few times tonight. What did he tell you?
[Susan Candiotti, Cnn Correspondent:] Well, he said that he acknowledged that he had a conversation with Kendrick Meek about this. They go way, way back their friendship does. He said he wanted to talk to me about it because he was concerned about that Meek and Governor Crist would split the progressive votes. And so that's why he said that Meek wanted to discuss it with him. Here's part of what he said, Anderson.
[Bill Clinton, Former President Of The United States:] He's trying to decide what to do, and I talked to him and I told him that we went through everything; we talked about it a couple times. And I said in the end, you know, he would have to do what he thought was right. He'd have to do what he felt best about, felt right about. And I think in terms of what I said to him and what he said to me, since he's my friend and he's the candidate and he wanted us to talk as we always have, I have to let him say whatever he wants to say about our conversation. It would be wrong for me to discuss it.
[Candiotti:] Now, I also asked the former president whose idea was it. He said, well, you know, a lot of people had been discussing it. He sidestepped the answer, but he said he, Meek, wanted to discuss it with me and so we did. You heard him say I don't want to betray my friendship with him and I think he's great, and therefore he should say about it what he wants to. Anderson, I went on to ask President Clinton what he thought about criticism from GOP chair Steele about no one should get involved in asking people to drop out of the race, especially an African- American candidate. And his response was, well, he would say that, he wants Marco Rubio to win and he's just doing his job and that's a bunch of politics. I asked him whether he, President Clinton, had discussed it with the White House. He denied it.
[Cooper:] Ok.
[Candiotti:] Anderson.
[Cooper:] Ed Henry, what did the White House what are we hearing from the White House? What did they know? Do we know I mean where did this come from?
[Ed Henry, Cnn Senior White House Correspondent:] I spoke to a senior Democratic Party official who said the White House was aware of this. They did not initiate these talks. They let Bill Clinton do it as well as one of his advisers, Doug Band, and that they were involved in the conversation but I'm told the White House very much aware of this, was hopeful this was going to come through. And in fact, they thought just a few days ago I'm told that there was a deal, that Kendrick Meek was going to get out and there was a feeling inside the White House that as Susan was suggesting with Marco Rubio, the Republican, far ahead, Charlie Crist coming in second and Kendrick Meek a distant third, if Meek got out that maybe many of his supporters would go to the independent, Crist and that would throw this race to him. Even though he's elected as an independent he's likely to caucus with the Democrats next year, support Harry Reid for majority leader, et cetera, and that would essentially give the White House a Democratic seat. Then all of a sudden Kendrick Meek backed out, all of this fell apart.
[Cooper:] So are you hearing thought that this was an idea I mean who came up with this idea to begin with? The DNC? Former President Clinton? The White House? Someone on Clinton's staff? Do we know?
[Henry:] My sense is, as Susan was saying, former president Clinton suggested, it really has been out there for weeks as a possibility because Kendrick Meek has been so far behind. There wasn't one person sort of driving this, per se, it was just sort of obvious that this could happen. It was finally Bill Clinton and his advisers who sort of tried to bring it all together. I think that also the Michael Steele statement is important to note because he kind of injected race here and said, look, if a Republican leader had tried to push out an African-American candidate, Democrats would be howling about this. This is very touchy for this White House, with an African- American president, you remember last year they tried to push out the African-American governor of New York, David Paterson, it got very messy. You also remember back in 2008, Bill Clinton is still steaming about what happened when you had some Obama advisers suggesting that there were racist statements by Bill Clinton. All of this is a very combustible mix.
[Cooper:] No doubt. Roland Martin, I want to play the Michael Steele comment that both Ed and Susan had mentioned. Oh, it's in a graphic, Michael Steele said, "President Clinton's actions to have Kendrick Meek withdraw from the campaign sends a chilling signal to all voters, but especially African-Americans. One can only imagine the response if the Republican leadership tried to force out of the race in the 11th hour a qualified black candidate like Kendrick Meek." What do you make of this? Clearly one of the biggest question marks this year has been African-American voters, whether they're going to show up in the kind of numbers the party needs. What do you make of this?
[Roland Martin, Cnn Political Analyst:] Well, first of all, it's not surprising that Chairman Michael Steele would jump into this because clearly they want to keep the attention on Rubio, and also want to make it clear that there's a schism within the Democratic Party. "The Wall Street Journal" actually came out with a report two or three weeks ago stating that a deal was in the works for Meek to drop out. I talked to Congressman Meek earlier tonight. I just got off the phone with him five minutes ago. He is steaming tonight as a result of this report. He said that, when President Clinton came down to Orlando and St. Petersburg to campaign with him, that they did have a conversation. They talk politics all the time. And he said Clinton that told him, "Hey, what's the deal going on in terms of all this talk about you dropping out? Meek told me that he told former President Bill Clinton, that I'm not the one who should drop out. Charlie Crist should be the one who dropped out. And so you have this back and forth. I also talked to a senior administration official who made it clear that President Barack Obama was not involved in any conversations, was not aware of any conversations, did not give any blessings whatsoever to any discussions with anyone about Meek dropping out. So what you have here, obviously different folks there so you have Meek characterizing a conversation with Bill Clinton, that is far different than what Susan just reported that Bill Clinton is characterizing.
[Cooper:] No doubt about that. Roland Martin, Ed Henry, Susan Candiotti, thanks for continuing to follow this. Up next, breaking news, a verdict in the case against one of the men accused of dressing as a ninja, killing a husband and wife while nine of their kids were home some of the kids special needs kids. Plus, Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer boyfriend and one of her doctors learn that they could go to jail for helping her get drugs. And incredible video of a photographer's close encounter with a shark off the coast of Maine.