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City Where Floyd Killed To Vote On Emergency Police Changes; West Wing Frustrated By Melania Trump's Messaging; Cops Suspended After Pushing Elderly Man During Protest. Aired 1-1:30p ET

Aired June 05, 2020 - 13:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

[13:00:00]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN RIGHT NOW: I'm Brianna Keilar in Washington. And right now, the nation is watching Minneapolis where its city council is considering a temporary restraining order to address the use of police force by implementing more consequences for offenses after the police killing of George Floyd. A day of remembrance for the 46-year- old father who died at the hands of Minneapolis when an officer put a knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds.

Floyd's family attended his funeral in Minneapolis as one of his brothers paid tribute to him in Brooklyn. And today, protests are expected to continue throughout the nation in his name. But his demonstrators call force an end of police abuse, there are a troubling number of new cases where officers are accused of doing just that. Police pushing a 75-year-old man to the ground in Buffalo.

Police slamming -- police slamming a woman to the ground in Atlanta.

And in Atlanta, police slamming a woman to the ground, breaking her collarbone, in Atlanta. And when asked how this is a good day for George Floyd, the president didn't answer.

In the meantime, three additional -- in the meantime, there were three additional -- pardon me, I just want to continue on here by saying there were three additional officers who were involved in his death. They appeared in court yesterday after being charged with aiding and abetting his murder. We know two of them were extremely new to the job. One had been in his role for just four days, another was on his third shift. This was his third shift that he had ever had as a police officer.

Those two rookie cops now blaming the senior officer, Derek Chauvin, for Floyd's death. He, of course, is the arresting officer who put his knee on Floyd's neck for nearly nine minutes.

CNN's Omar Jimenez is joining me live now from Minneapolis.

And, Omar, before we talk about these specific officers, tell me about the city council vote. Because officials say that the changes will be short term pending the results of an investigation.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Brianna. So we spoke to the city council president, Lisa Bender, a little bit earlier this morning to try and get a sense over what this meeting is going to be about and why it is so important. The meeting starts at about 30 minutes.

And, basically, we had seen an investigation ordered by the State Department of Human Rights into Minneapolis Police Department practices over the course of the past ten years. But, obviously, that review is going to take some time. And officials here felt like their community and they couldn't wait that long.

So they called this emergency meeting to try and put in place short- term measures that could hold that city over until that long-term guidance from them. And these are short-term measures that include police disciplinary action. These are measures that could impact use of force policies.

And we know the city council president who I have followed for a while now just based on different questions that have come into place with the Minneapolis Police Department, there have been calls in the past to not invest as much in police departments and sort of move towards public safety, community-based public safety.

And even today -- or yesterday, I should say, she tweeted that they would dismantle the police department in favor of moving more toward a community public safety measure. So that's what's going to be debated. Again, we will see that play out in just about 30 minutes or so.

And as you alluded to before you came to me, this also comes as we saw initial court appearance for three of the four officers charged in this case. These are the ones that did not have their knees on George Floyd's neck, but two of them had their knees on his body and the other one is standing in front. Each of those charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder and second-degree manslaughter.

And we got a glimpse a little bit into what the strategy may be for the defense, saying, these officers were junior officer and that they were just following orders. And in regards to potentially getting Chauvin's knee off of Floyd's neck, one of the defense at one point in court, as our colleague, Josh Campbell, and Aaron Cooper were there, said that what you expect my client to do, to physically pull him off of George Floyd?

And so that seems to be the dynamic in regard to where they are for the court proceedings. We have yet to see former Officer Derek Chauvin's initial court appearance. But that's expected in the next few days, Brianna.

KEILAR: All right. Omar, thank you for that report from Minneapolis.

And my next guest was the special prosecutor in another landmark case on excessive force in Minneapolis, the officer involved killing of Philando Castile. Don Lewis, thank you so much for being here to talk about this.

[13:05:01]

Keith Ellison -- DON LEWIS, SPECIAL PROSECUTOR IN PHILANDO CASTILE CASE: Good afternoon.

KEILAR: Good afternoon to you.

Keith Ellison, the attorney general in Minnesota, says that it's going to be hard to get convictions against these officers. What do you think?

LEWIS: Well, it's hard to get these types of convictions against police officers. The deck is stacked in favor of police officers in these cases at every state to the proceedings. First of all, these cases are investigated by police officers. So you're seeing the facts through their lens.

The standard that governs the charging decision and the decisions at trial weighs heavily in favor of the officers. The issue is whether or not they're conduct is justified and reasonable and it's viewed from the positive of a reasonable police officer acting under the circumstances that confront the officer.

Finally, you have jurors that are predisposed to render verdicts in favor of police officers. We all grow up learning to trust police officers and I think that bias is reflected in how the juries read these cases.

And then if you add the element of race when you have, for example, a black witness testifying against a white police officer, you have all the biases and prejudice that come with our racial inequities in our society and in our justice system.

KEILAR: I wonder as you look at this and, you know, you must look at many cases and think how you would prosecute it. How would you prosecute this case?

LEWIS: Well, you know, the star witness in this case is the video tape that we have all seen. And then there will be body-worn camera that we have yet to see videos from. We'll have many witnesses who were there at the time. There will be experts. There will be, obviously, the medical examiners that are going to improve the cause of death, witnesses regarding what police officers -- how they are trained and how they are not trained. And so that's a type of evidence that you will see brought by the prosecution and the trial of this case.

KEILAR: You say that the strongest evidence is actually what happened after Floyd was taken away in the ambulance. What do you mean by that?

LEWIS: Well, that is very important. Because what we have not seen, for example, are any records of conversations between the officers in the squad car or in the police precinct office. But most critical, I think, are going to be the incident reports that were completed by the officers and whether or not they contain any false statements regarding the degree to which George Floyd may or may not have resisted or their own conduct during the episode. And that could be evidence to the extent that there is evidence that they lied in the police reports of complicity and concealment. KEILAR: Two of these officers, we've now learned, were new to the job, extremely new, and they are now blaming Officer Chauvin, who is a 19- year veteran. What do you think about how that's going to play out here?

LEWIS: That illustrates what Keith Ellison was saying a few days ago about the difficulty of these cases, because it's up to the defense lawyers to prove, number one, they're going to say that their conduct was justified. And if they can say that, hey, I was new to the force, this is how I was trained to handle these situations. And even more importantly, I was following the lead and I was referring to the more senior officer, Officer Chauvin, who've been in the force for 18 years.

And so the defense lawyers are going to offer that as an excuse for their conduct. And that's why Attorney General Ellison recognized that these could be very difficult cases to prosecute.

KEILAR: Don Lewis, thank you, we really appreciate your perspective on this.

LEWIS: Well, thank you for having me.

KEILAR: There is some disturbing video that has come to light here of an elderly man there being pushed to the ground by police, even though police reported that he tripped and fell, which you can clearly see did not happen. I'll be speaking with the person who recorded this video.

Also, the president's former chief of staff echoes former military leaders, saying that President Trump is a threat to the Constitution.

And as sports begin to return despite the pandemic, we're now learning several players on Alabama's football team have tested positive for COVID-19.

This is CNN's special live coverage.

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KEILAR: So welcome back.

Add another esteemed retired military leader to the list of those condemning the president for threatening to use the U.S. military on American protesters, peaceful protesters. President Trump's former chief of staff and Homeland Security secretary, John Kelly, says he agrees with former James Mattis.

Mattis wrote a blistering piece, saying that he is angry and appalled by Trump's actions in the last week and that the president is trying to divide the country. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) GEN. JOHN KELLY (RET.), FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: He's quite a man, General Jim Mattis. And for him to do that tells him where he is relative to the concerns he has for our country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Do you agree with him, John?

KELLY: I agree with him. I think we need to step back from the politics.

[13:15:01]

I think we need to look harder at who we elect. I think we should start, all of us, regardless of what our views are in politics, I think we should look at people that are running for office and put them through a filter, what is their character like, what are their ethics?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining me now is CNN's Abby Phillip and Kate Bennett as well.

Abby, what did you think of the statement from Kelly?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: It's really extraordinary, Brianna. I mean, let's take a step back. I mean, John Kelly just said in that clip that we need to think harder about who we elect. Well, shortly after Donald Trump was elected, he agreed to join the president's cabinet as Homeland Security secretary and then as chief of staff. So there is a little bit of a kind of why didn't this occur to him at the time. I don't think Trump has really changed all that much in terms of character.

But, secondly, Mattis and Kelly, when they were both in this administration, were fairly close. So it should not be a surprise that they agree on this.

At the same time, I watched a lot of this conversation that he had. And this is still a man, in John Kelly, who -- he is criticizing the president in a strong language we have seen anybody criticize someone they used to work for.

However, there is so much hesitance still there. He still does not want to go too far in this criticism, which goes to show, I think, that people like him who have a military background, the bar is very high for them to agree to come out and criticize the president of the United States, which I think tells you a lot about how far we have come and what the president did this week and how that affected people in the military world.

KEILAR: Yes, they're breaking norms and they're in a place that they probably didn't think they would ever be, right? For decades, they have just served and kept their private thoughts private.

Kate, I want to ask you something about with the first lady, because she's actually causing some frustrations in the west wing. Tell us about this. KATE BENNETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: Well, I think we've often seen the first lady give messaging on her tweets that feels very different from the rhetoric of the president when he was on the call with governors, calling them jerks and weak and wanting to dominate. At the very same time, the first lady was tweeting about the need for peace and healing and unification.

And when Twitter slapped the violation on the president's tweet about when the looting starts, the shooting starts, not long after, that same morning, the first lady was tweeting that the country allows for a peaceful protest and that violence won't be tolerated and calling for everyone to come together.

Now, she hasn't done that much broad strokes with the racial divide in the country or spoken out a great deal, like her predecessors have in these sort moments for the country. However, the stuff she has done has been so converse to what the west wing and the president's law and order messaging is that it has caused some frustration on the west wing side.

We know this is a first lady who does what she wants to do. She doesn't need to run or tweets by the west wing. She doesn't dovetail her messaging. However, in this instance, so much of what she is saying feels very counter to the president. Brianna?

KEILAR: And that's all you need to know when someone who is tweeting about healing is running extremely counter to the president. It tells you a lot. Kate Bennett and Abby Phillip, thank you guys so much.

Officers now suspended after a video emerges showing them pushing an elderly protester to the ground. That man laid there bleeding, officers walking past him. I will be speaking with the man who reported this.

Plus, an NBA head coach joins me on why he fears being black in America.

And a flight attendant, a black flight attendant has a powerful conversation with race about a white passenger and is then shocked to learn his identity.

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KEILAR: In Buffalo, New York, two police officers are now suspended without pay and another -- there's another investigation that's under way after a shocking incident was caught on camera. I will warn you. This is disturbing but it's important to watch.

So, all of this was unfolding during a protest against police brutality outside city hall. You can see two officers shoving the man who was 75 years old to the ground. He hits his head. He starts bleeding from his ear. He is laying there motionless, police walking by.

And here is the thing that's going to blow your mind. Police initially said the man tripped and fell. But then this video was released.

[13:25:00]

The elderly is in the hospital. He is in stable but serious condition. And a short time ago, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo condemned the officers' actions.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): I just spoke with Mr. Gugino on the phone, who is that gentleman, who, thankfully, is alive. But you see that video and it disturbs your basic sense of decency and humanity. Why? Why? Why was that necessary? Where was the threat? An older gentleman, where was the threat? And then you just walk by the person while you see blood coming from his head? And police officers walked by. It's just fundamentally offensive and frightening. It's just frightening.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: WBFO Reporter Mike Desmond was in Buffalo. He filmed that incident. Thank you so much for being with us, Mike.

MIKE DESMOND, FILMED BUFFALO POLICE KNOCKING ELDERLY MAN TO THE GROUND: It's nice to be here.

KEILAR: Just tell us -- I mean, we see what you saw. But tell us what you saw leading up to this as this man, we see him approach the police and they had this reaction.

DESMOND: Well, this was the end of more than six hours of protest here in Buffalo. And at the end the police, apparently, wanted to sweep the steps of city hall so that the few remaining protesters were no longer there. They came across the front of city hall with helmets, clubs, and some kind of a combat unit. And this gentleman, whose name I just learned, went up to one of them and you see the sequence of what happened. Subsequently, they eventually got some medics to him and they finally took him away in an ambulance.

The difference, of course, in this incident is it was on videotape. And that's the change of this period of protests from a lot of other protests I have covered over a lot of years. The public can look and see what happened.

KEILAR: And that's so important because the police lied about what happened, right? They initially said he tripped and fell, I mean, after he was pushed, I guess. I don't know what it is but they've since changed their statement.

And, actually, Mike, if I can just read this real quick, because the police spokesman then said, once the department was made aware of other video, the commissioner immediately suspended the two men without pay and an investigation was opened up.

I mean, what do you -- were you surprised to learn that they were lying initially? DESMOND: Well, I think they didn't realize that the video that your viewers just saw existed. They said he tripped and fell. Well, that's not what's shown on the videotape, which, again, is what changes this whole discussion you've been having. The public can look and see what happened.

KEILAR: And as people -- it looked like maybe other protesters were going -- trying to aid the man. Can you tell us what happened in kind of that melee after the officers were just walking by him?

DESMOND: Well, there were people, including me, saying they had to get him some help and the officers just walked by him and someone did shout eventually that were medics seen and two medics did come up and treat him subsequently. EMS was called, an ambulance showed with a couple of EMTs. They continued to treat him and finally, he was put in an ambulance and taken to Erie County Medical Center, which is our designated trauma center here.

But the police screened him. At that point, I was across the street. And you can see the medics and then the EMTs working on him and trying to help out. But he was injured.

KEILAR: Yes. It's so hard to watch, Mike. It's so important you got that video. I just -- I don't know what would have happened if you weren't there to capture it. That's honestly just makes us realize that so often there isn't a Mike Desmond there to capture it. So, thank you so much for talking to us.

DESMOND: Nice to have me on. Thank you.

KEILAR: An NBA coach will join me live why he fears being black in America and why protests and hashtags haven't changed anything.

Plus, a disturbing look shows how many officers haven't faced consequences in the deaths of black men.

And just in, as more sports leagues prepare to restart games, we're now learning that several Alabama football players have tested positive for coronavirus.

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