CNN "State of the Union" interviews during 2018: on Civil Rights

Kamala Harris: Calling it "identity politics" marginalizes our issues

(VIDEO CLIP from the Netroots convention in New Orleans): SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): I'm aware that some people would say that is playing "identity politics." But I have a problem with that phrase, "identity politics." Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us.

SANTORUM: The Democratic Party has been focused on different voter groups, whether it's blacks or Hispanics or whether--you name it, and they have tried to divide this country along those lines, along class, it's been a warfare game for them. Trump is taking them at their own game. I didn't like it on either side. I can understand why they are upset. I don't like it either.

Rick Santorum: I don't like dividing America along racial or class lines

(VIDEO CLIP from the Netroots convention in New Orleans): SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): I'm aware that some people would say that is playing "identity politics." But I have a problem with that phrase, "identity politics." Its purpose is to minimize and marginalize issues that impact all of us.

SANTORUM: The Democratic Party has been focused on different voter groups, whether it's blacks or Hispanics or whether--you name it, and they have tried to divide this country along those lines, along class, it's been a warfare game for them. Trump is taking them at their own game. I didn't like it on either side. I can understand why they are upset. I don't like it either.

Paul LePage: Confederate monuments are about a war for land

"What was the war? If you really truly read and study the Civil War, it was turned into a battle for the slaves, but initially--7,600 Mainers fought for the Confederacy," LePage said in an interview with Maine radio station WVOM. "And they fought because, as farmers, they were concerned about their land. Their property. It was a property rights issue as it began. The President really made it about slavery to a great degree."

Slaves were considered property up to and during the Civil War. LePage also said that removing confederate monuments could lead to the removal of history books and monuments to the Oklahoma City bombing and the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001.

Two Civil War historians disputed LePage's assertions, noting that the Civil War "was rooted in racial slavery" where "slaves were the property at issue," not land.