Did Bloomberg Team Offer Yang A V.P. Candidate Slot?; NY Times: "Democratic Leaders Willing To Risk Party Damage To Stop Bernie Sanders"
COOPER: Well, we have more breaking news. "The Wall Street Journal" is reporting tonight that Michael Bloomberg's campaign has reached out to former democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, courting his endorsement and floating the possibility of Yang being his running mate. If only we had Andrew Yang here -- oh, hi, Andrew Yang.</s>ANDREW YANG, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hi, Anderson. How are you?</s>COOPER: Andrew is now a CNN Political Commentator. Obviously, I know the kind of person you are and you're probably not going to talk about a private conversation. What can you say about this or what would you want to say?</s>YANG: What I can say is that multiple campaigns have reached out. And it's flattering to be considered for a V.P. role or any role in someone's campaign. I made clear to every other candidate that I ran on a set of issues, automation of jobs involving economy that we need to humanize and a dividend of a thousand dollars a month for every American. And I said that if a candidate were to make a significant commitment in those directions, then I'd be much more enthusiastic about considering an endorsement.</s>COOPER: So you didn't really indicate yes or no to anybody on anything other than these are the issues I'd care about? I'd like to see those issues?</s>YANG: I publicly said a couple of things. Number one, I will support whoever the nominee is. And number two, I am very enthusiastic about having the democracy -- the democratic process play out and to decide who the nominee is. But also, if someone decides to support the ideas that were central to my campaign, that would go a long way towards making me consider an endorsement.</s>COOPER: All right. Andrew is going to stay here. Van Jones is here as well. Gloria Borger as well. New reporting in "The Times," Van, that I want to ask you about, that the Democratic Party officials appear ready, essentially, to risk intraparty damage --</s>VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Hiroshima.</s>COOPER: I don't know what you would call it --</s>JONES: Yes.</s>COOPER: -- to stop Bernie Sanders getting the nomination.</s>JONES: Yes.</s>COOPER: Superdelegates coming. How serious is this?</s>JONES: Well, look, I mean, it's hard to know. Most of these people are not being quoted on the record but --</s>COOPER: They're also saying that, look, these are the rules, and its rules that Sanders wanted and --</s>GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: Wrote.</s>JONES: Yes, sure. Well, listen, here is the deal. There's the rules and there's the norms. The rules are that on the first ballot, if you don't get the majority, there is something called the second ballot. And the second ballot, you will get a chance to vote. But what is usually happened is if you're close -- you know, Hillary was close in 2016, and then Bernie gave her the delegates to get across the finish line. They didn't end up -- it didn't go into a brokered convention. I think Obama was in a similar situation and Hillary helped him. So the norms are if you're close then, you know, everybody gets across the finish line. What's going to be interesting is, yes, Bernie did agree to these new rules, but there is a new set of norms that may show up that may make this convention very, very interesting.</s>COOPER: Gloria, I mean, if Senator Sanders has a leading plurality of delegates going to the convention, the nomination goes to someone else, I mean, I guess it depends how close they were and how close is close.</s>BORGER: Right.</s>COOPER: But, I mean, doesn't the Democratic Party risk alienating all his supporters who could every well, you know --</s>BORGER: Absolutely.</s>COOPER: -- just say I'm staying home?</s>BORGER: Absolutely. And of course, a lot of this then would depend on how the candidate behaves. If the candidate says for the good of the country -- and Bernie Sanders, by the way, if -- I don't know if it would be Bernie Sanders doing this, or would it be Joe Biden doing this, or would it be Bloomberg doing this, but Bernie Sanders has publicly said he is going to support the Democratic nominee, period, because beating Donald Trump is more important. But it does depend on what the candidate does. So Bernie Sanders, say it is Sanders, and he were to say to his folks, you know, you've got to do this. This is for good of the country. He can't make them go out and vote, and I think that would be a real worry. But he could make a convention a little calmer. But if it does go to a contested convention, I'm with Van. There is no -- you know, there is no way to avoid what could be a very, very ugly situation that could be ultimately damaging in the fall.</s>COOPER: Andrew, if Vice President Biden wins in South Carolina, comes in first, how big a help is that for him for Super Tuesday? And conversely, if he doesn't win, I mean, how bad does that hurt him?</s>YANG: If Joe did not win South Carolina, it would be devastating to his campaign.</s>COOPER: He would still stay in for Super Tuesday, I would assume.</s>YANG: Yes, it's only three days away, but it would be devastating. But I know Joe is very, very confident and every indication is that he is going to win South Carolina. The two factors are what's his margin of victory if he does win. And number two, how much press coverage and momentum does that give him heading into Super Tuesday three days later. I would expect that he does win. I think he wins significantly. And I think it does give him a burst of momentum heading into the 14 states on Tuesday.</s>COOPER: Van, I mean, it certainly gives him something to argue, which is, you know, the most diverse race so far. I'm, you know --</s>JONES: I mean, look, he's done this rope a dope strategy. I'm just going to get beat up in all these other states. But in South Carolina, I'm going to show you what I'm made of. And so if it comes true, and he does great and he wins by 10 points, it can't help but give him a little bit of a boost.</s>COOPER: It really rope a dope strategy?</s>JONES: I mean, this is the way they're getting beat up, man.</s>COOPER: But why not to let the other guy get tired out?</s>JONES: Let's find out. Listen, I'm doing the best I can. Nobody can figure out this guy's strategy until now, so hopefully he wins South Carolina.</s>YANG: The close a thing to the rope a dope was when he said in the New Hampshire race, yes, I'm probably going to lose here too.</s>BORGER: Anderson.</s>COOPER: Yes, go ahead.</s>BORGER: You know, I was talking to somebody who is very close to the campaign and involved in the campaign who said to me here is their strategy, which is they have to win big in South Carolina, and that means double-digits. So it depends on how everybody ends up defining big. But then going into Super Tuesday, they have to come in second overall. Because what they want to do is do better than Bloomberg, and they want to be the alternative to Bernie Sanders and they figure out that is a way to do it. They believe they can win a couple of states, maybe Alabama, maybe North Carolina, who knows. But they have no money, Anderson. I mean, no money, and they're hoping that the momentum they would get out of a win in South Carolina would also come with a lot of money attached to it. But don't forget, Bloomberg has unlimited money and Bernie Sanders does too.</s>COOPER: Yes. Gloria Borger, thank you. Van Jones, Andrew Yang, thanks very much. Coming up, more on South Carolina next. And joining us, one of the state's and the country's most influential lawmakers, House Majority Whip James Clyburn.