straightforward you can t beat president trump with double talk on this plan. reporter: now kamala harris also pushed back on biden pointing out his plan would leave out about 10 million americans from health insurance. going forward for biden he still needs to prove to democrats that he s the solid front-runner, there s a long time, lot of debates between now and this iowa caucus and primaries just a few months away. one of those democratic contonners who took a shot at biden, cory booker. they are looking for something that they hoped to be a viral exchange. his on criminal justice reform. reporter: cory booker had a solid night. he threw some punches but avoided getting hit too much. he was able to hold on to that happy warrior which is part of his argument. booker and biden have been fighting over the past week on issues of criminal justice, including the former vice president s support for the 1994 crime bill. take a listen to their exchange
biden has with obama out there? and the polls continue to show he s running better against t the against trump than the other democrats. is that what s powering it? so gene robinson if we put that poll up one more time for people driving in the car it shows that nationally that biden has 53% support among african-american voters. you have to go down to bernie sanders at 8% and kamala harris at 7%. i mean, the gap there is massive. so what is going on here? because joe biden has been attacked during this primary on questions of busing from the 1970s, on criminal justice reform from the 1990s. you ll probably hear more on the stage tomorrow night at the debate. what how do you attest to joe biden s support among african-american voters? well, i think african-american voters my theory of the case is that african-american voters are among the most pragmatic you will find out there. they have we have voted for
series of trump administration policies. some examples, decriminalizing the crossing of u.s. borders without authorization, separating law enforcement from immigration enforcement and authorizing the depp of justice to review allegations of abuse of detained migrants. warren ruled out this plan for addressing the latino civil rights organization in milwaukee. and mayor pete buttigieg is releasing an ambitious plan in his effort to court african-american voters. after a recent cnn poll shows his support among black voters at 0%. he calls this the douglass plan, named after frederick douglass. this includes free college tuition for low-income families. there s an investment in black colleges and universities as well as related institutions. on criminal justice reform, he would eliminate prison time for federal convictions for drug possession and reduce sentences for other federal drug offenses.
this up is not just discussing segregationists at all. it reenforces the idea he has been around for a a long time. he s been in the senate for 36 years before he was vice president. and then also probably no big r divide between how joe biden views the world and the progressive left view the idea that you can t work with republicans anymore. he s still very much believes that s the case. in hearing more defense of the vice president, we heard from nancy pelosi saying it s good for the vice president to be authentic to who he is. i want to play sound from cedrick richmond, who was the former co-chair of the biden campaign. he compared what he s talking about to the work he did with the trump white house on criminal justice reform while sending a signal to rivals. take a listen to this. it s a campaign. it s a big boy, big girl sport. and people are going to criticize. the only wit you move up in the
convinced that democrats pursuing police departmepursue ing mr. president impeachment charges is political suicide. there is a percentage of the population on the fence about donald trump. who are these elusive voters who are still not having they still haven t made up their minds? i m not really convinced that impeachment is suicide. there is accountability yet to be had for this white house. my special thanks to mara gay, jessica roth and maya wiley. good to see each of you. coming up, former attorney general eric hold owner the beat on criminal justice reform and why he is getting so involved in redistricting. also, senator elizabeth warren on her run for president and her fight against big tech. i m ari melber. you re watching a special edition of the beat right here on msnbc. re on msnbc