time. we ll be past the tipping point for the crisis. we must elect people representing the people of america. one of the candidates was tom steyer. i spoke to him a little bit about climate justice, about the ways in which pollution and the effects of climate change fall disproportionately on communities. america as concentrated its pollution in the low-income neighborhoods that don t have political power. so if you look, for instance, in my home state of california in the city of fresno, people have a 22-year lower life inspectsy than people who live two miles north of them. the pollution is concentrated. to me it s essential to go to those neighborhoods and make sure that this plan reflects the needs of those communities that have been so targeted for pollution. obviously, what s your name? lauren. that has been a big focus off
we have to elect officials that represent the democracy. one of the candidates we talked to was tom steyer and i spoke to him about climate justice, take a listen. america has concentrated i pollution in the low income neighborhoods that don t have political power. if you look in my home state of california, in west fresno, people have 22 year less life expectancy than people two miles north of them. the pollution is concentrated. so it s important to go to those neighborhoods and to make sure this reflects the needs of those targeted with pollution. that s been a big focus. do you think you ve transformed the conversation politicians are having? definitely. we re with sunrise, and like nadia said, we re generation gnd, we want the green new deal
majority of voters who voted in 2016 were black and voters of color make all of the difference. everybody has to reach out to the african-american community. you can t take us for granted. reporter: candidates are staffing up big and visiting often. one tracker tallying more than 200 events from presidential hopefuls so far. while blackout reach is essential, it doesn t guarantee success. the names i hear when i talk about south carolina are joe biden, kamala harris and cory booker. but kamala harris and cory booker s poll numbers have been kind of stagnant. what do you make of how they re doing in the state right now? that s from a little bit of an amazement to me as well because i thought, sure, there would be much more of a surge. and i can t quite figure that out yet. after a week where family divisions spilled out in public view he said things that are hurtful and that are harmful. i believe he should be apologizing to the american people. cory should apologize.
joining me now the new york times editorial member and msnbc contributor mara gay. in miami, nbc news political reporter maria vitaly. and in washington mike memoli, our expert on all things biden. mike, let me start with you. the timing on this was so interesting. biden steps in to a trefrs involving race as he and the entire democratic field go to south carolina where 60% of the democratic electorate will be black. what is your assessment of how this weekend went for joe biden. listen, steve, i think it was interesting. not just do you have the controversy over comments about seg ra gasists but also the reversal on the hyde amendment and across the street joe biden needing to court african-american voters in this important state and also speaking at a planned parenthood event where both of these
democratic primaries in 2016, win a bunch of states. is his thunder being stolen a little bit in the early going by elizabeth warren, who has in many ways a similar message? i don t think so. the politico poll and hill poll still has bernie sanders in a strong second. the polls go back and forth. senator warren is running a strong campaign. i think senator sanders has two advantages. he s got the best ground game in iowa and he s going to organize that state and i think he s going to do it very well. second, he s really a candidate who represents movement politics. it s not just about his specific platform. he really believes in movement politics. and i think that s going to, in the long run, stand him in good place for the primary. if sanders for whatever reason were unsuccessful in his campaign, would elizabeth warren be your second choice? well, i don t want to get into that because i anticipate that senator sanders will be successful. i think he s going to do tremendously wel