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Trump Paying A Price For Response To Protests; Caught On Camera: Police Chase Ends In Death Of Black Man; State News: Korea Halting Communications With Seoul; Thousands Mourn George Floyd at Houston Memorial; Minneapolis City Council Votes to Dismantle Police Department; New York City Enters First Phase of Reopening; Travelers to U.K. Must Self-Isolate for Two Weeks; WHO: Asymptomatic COVID-19 Spread Deemed "Rare". Aired 2-3a ET

Aired June 09, 2020 - 02:00   ET

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


[02:00:00]

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JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR (voice-over): As protests in the U.S. over the death of George Floyd enter their third week, the focus shifts to police tactics, training and funding. But not for President Trump, who praised law enforcement officers as great people.

New word on how the coronavirus spreads and how it doesn't and the experts have been left totally confounded.

And the silent treatment from Kim Jong-un, upset about anti-regime pamphlets and on the border from the South and now is refusing to talk to Seoul.

Hello and welcome to our viewers all around the world. I'm John Vause and this is CNN NEWSROOM.

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VAUSE: The protests across the United States over the death of George Floyd have ended their third week with continued calls for racial equality and police reform.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE (voice-over): In New York, a large crowd chanted "Black lives matter" and "Defund the police" as they marched to the mayor's residence.

In Washington, about 2 dozen Democratic lawmakers, including the House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate minority leader Chuck Schumer, knelt for more than 8 minutes in tribute to Floyd. That's how long former officer Derek Chauvin knelt on Floyd's deck.

Chauvin appeared in a Minneapolis courtroom via video link where a judge set bail for $1.25 million. George Floyd will be laid to rest in the day ahead in his hometown of

Houston, Texas. Thousands of people turned out already on Monday to pay their respects and CNN's Sara Sidner was there.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A somber homecoming for George Floyd in Houston, where the hearse carrying his casket arrived at the Floyd family church this morning for a public memorial attended by thousands.

Jennifer Edwards and her son live in Houston.

JENNIFER EDWARDS, HOUSTON RESIDENT: It's all about solidarity at this point. I feel like that could have been my son that's in there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of scary, like, not being able to, Well, go outside and go places and not feel safe.

SIDNER: Presumptive Democratic nominee for president Joe Biden met privately today with the Floyd family. The family will have their final private service here tomorrow.

In Minneapolis, the first court appearance for fired Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin, who is the officer that held his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, until Floyd died.

The judge set bail at up to $1.25 million. Over the weekend, from coast to coast, huge protests continued calling for racial justice and police reforms, including defunding police departments. In Minneapolis, the City Council approved a plan to start the process of dismantling the police department and rebuild a new model of public safety.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Our commitment is to end our city's toxic relationship with the Minneapolis Police Department, to end policing as we know it.

SIDNER: But the mayor is not on board.

MAYOR JACOB FREY (D-MN), MINNEAPOLIS: I am for massive structural and transformational reform to an entire system that has not for generations worked for black and brown people. We have failed them. And we need to entirely reshape the system.

Am I for entirely abolishing the police department? No, I'm not.

SIDNER: Leaders across the country are already looking for new ways to repurpose some funds from law enforcement to other areas, like in New York City.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: We're going to be able to take money out of that police force, put it into youth programs and still, of course, keep New Yorkers safe. But this is preventative. This is proactive. SIDNER: And, in Washington, D.C., where activists painted "Defund the police" near the Black Lives Matter street mural, the mayor said what's been submitted for police funding in her budget is what's needed. She avoided directly answering whether the addition to the mural would be removed.

MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER (D-DC): We recognize it as expression. And especially right now, acknowledging and affirming expression is important to this discussion that we have to have as a community.

SIDNER: Sara Sidner, CNN, Houston, Texas.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: So what does it mean to defund the police?

Well, it can actually refer to dismantling the entire police force.

[02:05:00]

VAUSE: Or just reducing their budgets and redirecting the money to social programs that focus on the causes of crimes, especially disadvantaged communities, programs that focus on mental health, domestic violence and homelessness.

But President Trump is not on board.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: There will not be defunding, there will not be dismantling of our police and they're not going to be in a disbanding of our police. Sometimes you see some horrible things like we witnessed recently but 99, I say 99.9 but let's go with 99 percent of them are great people.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Trump is clearly at odds with the tens of thousands of protesters and many moderate Democrats who are trying to empathize with protesters without embracing the "defund the police" slogan. That includes Joe Biden, the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER U.S. VICE PRESIDENT AND PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: No, I don't support defunding the police. I support conditioning federal aid to police, based on whether or not they meet certain basic standards of decency and honorable-ness and in fact are able to demonstrate that they can protect the community and everyone in the community.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: On Monday, a county judge said that the Minneapolis police department would stop using chokeholds and neck restraints.

In New York the state assembly passed the Eric Garner Anti-Chokehold Act. Garner died in police custody six years ago. That bill would make the use of chokeholds a crime.

Denver police also strengthening their language on chokeholds and cardiac compression, both of which are banned.

And in Los Angeles, the police chief and commission president have imposed an immediate moratorium on the use of (INAUDIBLE) restraints.

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VAUSE: Joining me now is CNN law enforcement analyst and former police commissioner for Philadelphia, Charles Ramsey.

Thank you for being with us.

CHARLES RAMSEY, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: Thank you, good to be here.

VAUSE: I just want to know as someone who's run a police department, what is your experience dealing with police unions?

RAMSEY: Well, unions, depending on the city and the contract, they have gotten far more powerful over the years. And I recall when they first came into existence in policing back in the early 1970s, compared to now there really is no comparison. They didn't nearly have the power and strength that they do now.

But many unions, particularly those on the East Coast -- Philadelphia, Boston, New York -- have a tremendous amount of power. And that influences a lot of what we are dealing with now in terms of problem officers and our inability to remove them from the force and discipline them in any way. It makes it very difficult.

VAUSE: You mentioned the city and the contract, I want to talk about the contract, because here's part of CNN's reporting. Some police contracts have outlined how long police leadership must wait to investigate an incident, how they can ask police officers questions and what they can ask and how quickly the department must complete an investigation.

Taken together, it puts the disciplinary power in the hands of the unions, which are set up to protect police officers' jobs.

How can a police department agree to legally tying their hands in the first place?

RAMSEY: It's not the police department agrees; the city agrees. When you go into a contract negotiation, at least where I've worked, you're at the negotiating table but the city attorneys are the ones running it and it's the city that signs off on it.

Oftentimes the department will argue against it but the city agrees, trying to minimize the amount of a pay raise officers get or what have you. But over time, management rights can erode to where it becomes very difficult to really manage a police department.

VAUSE: At the federal level, House Democrats have a reform bill that would make it easier to take legal action against defending police officers and would place a nationwide ban on chokeholds. It would create a national registry to follow fired officers. Lynching would become a federal crime.

Just over the weekend, the Florida chapter of the Fraternal Order of Police made this offer to hire the 57 police officers who resigned from the Buffalo PD because 2 of their colleagues were suspended for knocking over an elderly protester.

And the 6 officers in Atlanta also accused of excessive use of force. On Facebook, they posted this.

"Lower taxes, no spineless leadership or dumb mayors rambling on at press conferences. Plus we've got your back."

A similar offer was made to Minneapolis police as well. This gets to the heart of the problem with the unions out of step with what the vast majority of people are thinking to what is and what is not acceptable.

RAMSEY: They are out of step. And that is going to cause them some serious problems, they have not recognized that the environment has changed and they need to change along with it.

[02:10:00]

RAMSEY: There's no balance any longer. When you have systems in place like arbitration, for example, where good cases are overturned on a regular basis. Those decisions oftentimes are not made public and you wind up getting a problem officer back over and over again.

I've have a couple of cases where I literally fired a police officer twice for different offenses but you fire them once, they go to arbitration and get their job back and then they do something else that rises to the level of termination. You terminate them again and the union fights it. But fortunately, the second time, it actually stuck.

VAUSE: We're mainly talking about defunding the police and President Trump tweeted this.

Law and order, not defund and abolish the police. The radical left Democrats have gone crazy.

It would be crazy if this was all about abolishing police but it's not, as SENANAYAKE: Kamala Harris explained on Monday on "The View." Here she is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. KAMALA HARRIS (D-CA): We have confused the idea that, to achieve safety, you put more cops on the street, instead of understanding to achieve safe and healthy communities, you put more resources into the public education system of those communities, into affordable housing and to home ownership and to access to capital for small businesses, access to health care, regardless of how much money people have. That is how you achieve safe and healthy communities.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: I'd like your thoughts on this, because I wonder if we've asked too much of police departments. We've loaded them up with way too many responsibilities, now might be a good time to get back to basics.

RAMSEY: We have asked too much of police officers. We are first line in just about everything, whether it's substance abuse, whether it's homelessness or people going through a mental health crisis.

And it's not that police should not have some responsibility to respond to some of those things. But we should not necessarily be the lead on it.

I think what Democrats have done and what demonstrators have done is used a poor choice of words. They used the term "defund," when actually what they're talking about is reallocating funds.

And they need to talk about it in those terms. If they want to reallocate some money that had been provided to police to provide coverage for schools and they decide that they don't want armed police in schools, they'd rather have private security or use that money for more school counselors or school psychologists, substance abuse.

Maybe they want substance abuse counselors and they redirect money that had been given to the police department to actually deal with substance abuse issues, it makes some sense with some of that.

But the way they explain it is the problem. So when you start talking about defunding, disbanding, those are terms that really frighten people, so they need to be clear when they talk about what they plan to do.

And not only that, if I can add one thing, if you're going to draw money, it should not just be from police. The rest of city government, you need to rebalance your budget in order to be able to provide money to those social services that are critically needed. But it doesn't all have to come out of the police budget.

VAUSE: Good point about the wrong word. Good idea maybe, but a bad choice of words. Charles Ramsey, thank you for being with us.

RAMSEY: Thank you.

VAUSE: Well, coming up, the big fear during this pandemic has being contagious patients with no symptoms spreading the coronavirus. There's now word those concerns may be overblown.

But first welcome to the U.K., welcome back; now isolate for at least 14 days on arrival. Airline companies among others are not pleased.

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VAUSE: Just hours ago, crowds of Cubans welcomed home doctors who went to Italy to help fight the COVID-19 pandemic; 52 health professionals landed in Havana on Monday after spending more than two months in the Lombardy region.

Cuba has employed health care workers around the world as part of their response to the outbreak. U.S. State Department has criticized the country's medical diplomacy as propaganda.

The U.K. has imposed a mandatory two-week quarantine period for those who are arriving back.

And now in some areas in the United States, we are seeing spikes of the coronavirus. This is not the U.K.; this is New York, where they're taking the first cautious steps toward reopening. CNN's Nick Watt has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): One hundred days since New York State's first case the Big Apple is back. Well, they're now allowing more retail, manufacturing and construction with some strict parameters.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: It is the day that we start to liberate ourselves from this disease the day we move forward. Phase 1, the restart begins today in New York City.

WATT (voice-over): Let's not forget the terrible toll on this city. Nearly 22,000 deaths so far and black and Latinx New Yorkers dying at twice the rate of white residents. And it's not over.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D-NY): We're not out of the woods, but we are on the other side certainly.

WATT (voice-over): The governor rode the subway to his daily briefing this morning. The message, it's safe.

CUOMO (voice-over): We are continuing our decline. The rest of the country is still spiking.

WATT (voice-over): Florida has added more than 1,000 new cases a day for five straight days. Texas, another early reopener, now adding an average of over 1,500 cases a day. That's up 50 percent.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Governor Abbott has had an inadequate and weak response that has been based more on politics than on science. He opened up the state too early.

WATT (voice-over): Bucks County, Pennsylvania, announced 33 new cases Saturday, 11 of them tied to one person who they say has been partying down to the Jersey Shore. UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's kind of a coming together of a perfect storm, if you will. We had the Memorial Day weekend, a lot of folks were being very lax and relaxed about proportions. And we've been having a backdrop of states reopening. Plus, all the protesters in these mass gatherings.

WATT (voice-over): Protests sparked by George Floyd's death might be spreading this virus around the country.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't want to catch it. I don't think anyone wants to catch it. But when it comes to issues of social justice, that takes precedent, I feel like. COVID-19 is going to be here for a little bit. Hopefully we'll get a vaccine.

WATT (voice-over): The White House has a vaccine program.

TRUMP: It's called Operation Warp Speed.

WATT (voice-over): But today, two prominent professors say they're scared it might move too fast.

"Given how this president has behaved, this incredibly dangerous scenario is not far-fetched," they wrote in a "New York Times" op-ed.

"In a desperate search for a political boost, he could release a coronavirus vaccine before it had been thoroughly tested and shown to be safe and effective."

The big question, did lockdown work?

Well, researchers from UC Berkeley say absolutely. They estimate that just the first few weeks of lockdown here in the U.S. might have prevented 60 million infections. But the price we are paying for that, the U.S. is now officially in a recession, as it has been since February -- Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.

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VAUSE: Meantime the U.K. is bracing for a grim milestone, which is a death toll that could be north of 50,000. CNN's Nina dos Santos is standing by in London.

So this seems to be the British government moving too slow and acting too late.

What are they saying?

[02:20:00]

NINA DOS SANTOS, CNNMONEY EUROPE EDITOR: Yes, that's what it seems to be the case. But to be honest with you these are figures that are likely to come up from the official statistics that are higher than the public health bodies here.

And remember we have this idiosyncrasy here in this country; other parts of the United Kingdom, like Scotland and Northern Ireland and Wales, that have their own health bodies and they tally up their own numbers separately. They also count them slightly differently.

It's the same situation we've seen in many European countries as well, when it comes to the overall statistics agency, that they are likely to report that we are at 50,000 or close to 50,000 for the bulk of the U.K., which is England and Wales.

And this is a grim milestone, it is one of the worst death tolls anywhere. You can't say the British government was not warned here. But they claim they were taken by their own science advisers who briefed members of Parliament back in mid March when the virus was taking a grip here before the lockdown and saying that "a good outcome" for the public health officials in the U.K. for the death toll at that point would be only 20,000 people.

And he was roundly criticized for those comments, being insensitive. But as you can see we surpassed our 40,000 and are set to hit around 50,000.

The big question in this country and elsewhere, is how did we get here?

It's a lack of testing; as we know, the government has had difficulty with logistical gymnastic maneuvers to try to meet its testing targets. Then there's been an embarrassment over the contact tracing apps and, as of yesterday, there is a 14-day isolation rule on new travelers traveling to the U.K.

Many are perplexed, especially those who are coming from countries where the infection rate is lower and then saying, why wasn't any of this done earlier and the borders locked down sooner?

VAUSE: Yes, interesting times with the death toll so high and the infection rates continue, yet they're opening up. I guess a lot of unhappy people at the moment. Nina dos Santos live for us there in London.

VAUSE: On Monday during the World Health Organization's regular press briefing, the head of the health emergency program dropped this new nugget about how the coronavirus spreads or doesn't spread.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, WHO: It is still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward. What we really want to be focused on are -- is following the symptomatic cases. If we followed all of the symptomatic cases, because we know that this is a respiratory pathogen, it passes from an individual through infectious droplet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Just (INAUDIBLE) because that first part seems to be a pretty big deal. In case you missed it and you're not too sure what she said, I'm going to play it again because it's important.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) KERKHOVE: It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So everything we've been told so far, about social distancing because people could be infected and wear a mask because you could be contagious, well, it turns out that maybe not such a big deal after all. Dr. Neha Nanda is an infectious disease specialist in Los Angeles and joins us right now.

Thank you for being with us, Doctor. Good to see you. I think most people understand here, that this new virus and we're learning as we go. But this seems to be a big deal on how everyone assesses their own risk when they go out if the risk of asymptomatic transfer is very rare.

DR. NEHA NANDA, UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA MEDICAL SCHOOL: So at this time, it is difficult to say what percentage of people actually are asymptomatic, depending on the study that you're looking at.

Depending on the study, it could be anywhere from 10 percent to 50 percent. There's some studies saying more than that.

The second piece, that you are alluding to is what is the risk of transmissibility. I think there is more to come on that. The WHO, just this morning or I think yesterday, said that the risk of transmission from asymptomatic people seems to be low or almost nonexistent.

I think at this time, what I would say is that there is more to come on that because we have seen that happening in studies in Southeast Asia and experiences that people have shared.

VAUSE: I guess there's a lot of confusion and it confirms the fact that there's a lot we don't know.

[02:25:00]

VAUSE: But we know that the New York City is starting to reopen, 100 days after its first case and the mayor had this message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO (D-NY), NEW YORK CITY: This is a triumph phenomenon (ph) for New Yorkers, who fought back against this disease. This was the epicenter. And folks did the hard work. They sheltered in place. They did the social distancing, the face coverings and got us to this stage.

So my message, John (ph), is stick to it. Come back to work but remember to stick to those smart rules that got us this far.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: But again, because of the confusion, stick with what? Wearing a mask, not wearing a mask, keeping social distancing. (INAUDIBLE) said there should be a much higher emphasis on testing and tracing.

So what is your advice?

NANDA: OK. I think this is a great question. And I have to emphasize here, the nonpharmaceutical interventions, like the mayor mentioned, the physical distancing and masking, are really the cornerstone. And there is not one tool that will get us through.

It will be a combination of these. So that is physical distancing, then masking and along with that, testing and quick isolation. In fact, there was a recent study that was done -- and this is based on a mathematical models -- one of the most recent models that was share in a scientific (INAUDIBLE) was that physical distancing alone can reduce your R nought to less than one, basically emphasizing how strong that level can be.

VAUSE: Even so and this is a very contagious virus it seems, because worldwide number of new cases continues to rise. Each day we saw 100,000 new cases of 9 of the past 10 days, more than 130,000 new cases reported on Sunday.

So when it surges in one part of the world, chances are it will appear in another as well, right?

NANDA: So also when we talk about numbers increasing, keep in mind, as the testing capacity increases, that is a big confounder. So it's very challenging to say when the number of tests increase, the number of new cases and incidences increases, does that mean the disease is progressing?

Or you've given more access to testing?

To tell you the truth, at this time there is no one metric that can tell us whether we are moving in the right direction or not. It's a combination of all metrics. That's what will help us decide that.

VAUSE: One last question here. There's a report that U.S. hospitals have about three months to resupply and get ready for a possible second peak, round 2. "The New York Times" reporting 60 big hospital chains have received billions of dollars of government bailout money are sitting tens of billions in cash reserves that are meant to help them weather the storm.

At least 36 hospitals have furloughed or reduced the pay of employees as they try to save money through the pandemic.

So aside from what they do with the federal cash, if they are laying off health care workers now, how ready will they be for round 2 of the coronavirus?

It seems they'll be further behind than they were when it first broke out. NANDA: I will tell you is that in the U.S., in different parts, and I can speak really for California and specifically L.A., we are prepared for a surge. It didn't quite happen here and now we are in a situation where we are financially strapped. It is impacting our human resources.

If there is going to be another surge, will there be another surge?

We don't know that. But I think there will be more job creation. At that time we do have to get those resources back, though I suspect that, perhaps, if there is going to be another surge and another peak, it wouldn't be as high as it was because our belief is that, with time, the height of the peak will reduce because of our social distancing -- physical distancing and other nonpharmaceutical interventions.

VAUSE: OK, thank you so much, Doctor, appreciate the advice and your insight. Thank you.

NANDA: Thank you, John.

VAUSE: Up next, with Washington in the grip of protests, did the first family make a dash to the security of the White House bunker?

Or was it just a quick inspection by the president?

The attorney general and Trump loyalists set the record straight.

As the world mourns the loss of George Floyd, newly released video shows a police chase ending in the death of a black man in the state of Texas. Details on that when we come back.

[02:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

JOHN VAUSE, CNN INTERNATIONAL ANCHOR: Welcome back everybody. I'm John Vause with an update on our top news this hour. New data by the World Health Organization now suggests the spread of COVID-19 by someone who is not showing symptoms appears to be rare. In an immediate briefing on Monday, the head of the emerging diseases unit said what appears to be asymptomatic cases often turned out to be cases of mild -- of a mild disease.

George Floyd will be laid to rest in Texas in the coming hours. Thousands of people turned out Monday through a memorial service in his hometown of Houston. His death in police custody two weeks ago has sparked protests for police reform, social justice around the world.

And New York demonstrators march to the home of Mayor Bill de Blasio. Chanting Black Lives Matter and defund the police. The number of cities and states of banning police chokeholds like the one used by Minneapolis officers on George Floyd.

In Washington, the U.S. Attorney General William Barr has contradicted the president and confirmed that Donald Trump was moved to a security banker last month. The Secret Service major recommendation in response to protests which were close to the White House. Sources tell CNN First Lady Melania and son Barron will also take into the bunker. The President and the Attorney General's explanations are vastly different.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I went down during the day and I was there for a tiny little short period of time and it was much more for an inspection. There was no problem during the day.

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL, UNITED STATES: Things were so bad that the Secret Service recommended the president go down to the bunker. We can't have that in our country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: And the White House standing by last week's decision to use force to clear peaceful protesters from a Washington Park so the President could hold a photo op. Now, comes to the political price it seems. CNN's Chief White House Correspondent Jim Acosta explains.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Still on the defensive over his response to protests against police brutality across the U.S., President Trump met with law enforcement officials to hammer home a simple message.

TRUMP: The reason for less crime, that's because we have great law enforcement. I'm very proud of them.

ACOSTA: One week after the Trump administration gassed and pummeled protesters at Lafayette Park minutes before the President's photo-op outside St. John's Episcopal Church, White House officials are still offering no apologies.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There's no regrets on the part as this White House and we stand by those actions.

ACOSTA: As to the president are already sounding cold, a new legislation from House Democrats aimed at reforming police practices, saying some proposed measures are non-starters while declining to weigh in on controversial tactics like chokehold on suspects.

MCENANY: The President again hasn't reviewed this piece of legislation. The President is looking at what's the state issue, what's a federal issue right now. He's currently reviewing proposals actually on this very topic about police reform, so I'll leave it to him and not get ahead of him.

ACOSTA: Democrats say it's high time to end the kind of police brutality that led to the death of George Floyd.

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): That's a long time, eight minutes and 46 seconds. That's a long time to be on one knee. But for 244 years, there are plenty of knees on the necks of blacks who came to this country.

ACOSTA: Yet Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany had no problem laying out where the President stands on professional athletes taking a knee at football games and protests of unjust policing. Last week, the National Football League admitted it was wrong not to listen to players' concerns.

MCENANY: The President is very much against kneeling in general. The President has made clear for years that kneeling that's tied to our national anthem that it does not respect our military men and women across this country.

ACOSTA: The President's political advisors are seizing on a proposal from the so-called defund the police movement that would draw resources away from law enforcement agencies.

MCENANY: That means defending police departments, if not getting rid of them entirely. No, he does not agree with that and the rest of America does not agree with that.

ACOSTA: A spokesman for Mr. Trump's Democratic rival, former Vice President Joe Biden says the candidate does not believe that police should be defunded. A new CNN poll finds the President's approval numbers are in freefall, down seven percentage points in the last month as high-profile Republicans flocked to Biden.

COLIN POWELL, FORMER SECRETARY OF STATE: We have a constitution and we have to follow the Constitution, and the President has drifted away from it.

ACOSTA: Utah GOP Senator Mitt Romney actually marched with the demonstrators and uttered the words Black Lives Matter.

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): And to make sure that people understand that Black lives matter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Is that your Bible?

TRUMP: It's a Bible.

ACOSTA: Contrast that with the president who has walled himself off from the protesters, dodging questions from reporters for days.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Mr. President, why haven't you laid out a plan to address systemic racism?

[02:35:01]

ACOSTA: As more top administration officials refuse to say there is systemic racism in law enforcement despite mounting episodes of violent police behavior.

BARR: I think there's racism in the United States still but I don't think that the law enforcement system is systemically racist. I understand the distrust, however, of the African American community given the history in this country. ACOSTA: And aides to the president are dodging the questions about the steel fencing that is now wrapped around the White House saying those decisions are made by law enforcement and not inside the West Wing. The President again refused to take questions from reporters today. It's been more than a week since he has taken questions from reporters at any length. Jim Acosta, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Segun Oduolowu is a social commentator and host of the syndicated newsmagazine T.V. show The List. He joins us now from Phoenix. It's been a while. Good to see you.

SEGUN ODUOLOWU, HOST, THE LIST: Hey, John, how's it going?

VAUSE: It's good. I'm glad to see you. OK, we spent a lot of time on- air a few years ago talking about Colin Kaepernick in the NFL. Over the weekend, what do you know? Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ROGER GOODELL, COMMISSIONER, NFL: We the National Football League admit we were wrong for not listening to NFL players earlier and encourage all to speak out and peacefully protest. We the National Football League believe Black Lives Matter.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: So, Roger Goodell apparently now wants to be on the right side of history. Can you be on the right side of history four years after the event? How different would the world look today if Kaepernick's protests had been embraced back then?

ODUOLOWU: Well, John, it's the 1ultimate bait and switch. When you tell me as the Commissioner of a league that is 70 percent black that black lives matter, that you're just covering your bottom line in more ways than one.

If Black Lives Matter now, how come when Colin was kneeling in peaceful protest, they didn't seem to matter then when owner Jerry Jones was saying that anyone wearing a Dallas Cowboy uniform wasn't going to kneel, and the President of the United States would lead to rallies telling people not to kneel and that you know, Colin Kaepernick should be fired and this was an affront to the flag.

It's all just a bait and switch. The kneeling has never been about the flag or patriotism. In fact, the kneeling came because Colin actually asked a former Green Beret what would be a way to show respect for the flag but still kneel or still show that you want it to make a protest? And the idea of protest is not to make the people you're protesting feel comfortable, that's why you're protesting.

So it's all just a bait and switch. The NFL really is not to be trusted because some of its most prominent athletes, the Super Bowl winner in Patrick Mahomes, visible players like Ezekiel Elliott and Odell Beckham Jr. were part of this video. So when the most visible football players are basically telling you, you need to say this, please don't, you know, miss me with all of your sanctimonious, this is what we really feel because this is because your players are telling you if you don't do something, you might not have a league anymore.

VAUSE: You know, when tens of thousands of people are on the streets and they're protesting police brutality, would it be a good idea for the police to avoid engaging in blatant acts of police brutality? I mean, this would seem to be a no brainer, but you know, it's happening across the country. And even if you know, those police departments which are doing the right things now, what are the guarantees they will -- they will keep doing that when no one is watching?

ODUOLOWU: And this is the thing. If we all owe Steve Jobs a tremendous debt of gratitude because these cell phones that have cameras are basically the evening factor in why we're getting to see all of this brutality. You saw the officers in Buffalo who pushed a 75-year-old man to the ground. The original report said that he tripped. But because there was video, those officers have now -- are now being -- are under review.

If the police want us to trust them, then by all means be trustworthy. What everyone is now seeing without any type of varnish or any smokescreen are police tear-gassing American citizens, you're seeing them beating them with clubs. Peaceful protests are turning into riots because the police are actually going after American citizens.

What happened to protect and serve? That is their mandate. And no, I don't think all police are bad. I do not believe that. But like Chris Rock said, there are some professions where you cannot have bad apples. And so, if there needs to be more review, partners of these police that are acting in bad faith, need to start speaking up.

And what transpired in Louisville to me is the biggest and most concrete way reform can happen. The mayor of Louisville fired the police chief because of a shooting where the police did not activate their body cameras. That's how we can have some accountability. Start at the top. If the officers are doing things in bad faith then punish their superiors.

Because if a police chief knows he's going to lose his ability or her ability to be their family because of their bad actors or bad apples in their bushel of police officer, maybe they'll hold more accountable.

[02:40:23]

VAUSE: OK, (INAUDIBLE). So we're running out of time, but when the protests first started, there was some looting and violence. Critics and others said that, you know, the unrest was kind of a way delegitimizing the demonstrations. How does this help them? I want to play this. This is the host of The Daily Show, Trevor Noah. He had this take. It's really interesting. This is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) TREVOR NOAH, COMEDIAN: And a lot of people say well, what good does this do? Yes, but what good does it do? That's the question people don't ask the other way around. What good does it do to loot Target? What does it -- how does it help you to loot Target? Yes, but how does it help you to not loot Target? Answer that question, because the only reason you didn't loot target because you're upholding society's contract. There is no contract if law and people in power don't uphold the end of it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: In other words, what's the point living by the rules if the police and the justice system are not?

ODUOLOWU: Well, first and foremost, we have to look at the rules. And if the contract is broken, then the rules are null and void. And like Trevor Noah, as someone who is a child of immigrants and is seeing America in real-time, go through what some of these third world countries have gone through, you cannot legislate and say you are about democracy and law and order and then the people that enforce that law in order unfairly target one group of society.

If the numbers are to believe one in 1,000 black men can expect to die at the hands of police. So if that is the case, if they are killing us at an unreasonable rate, we're only 14 percent of the population, then the contract is null and void. I don't advocate looting, but come on, if Target and all these companies want to say they're for the black community, your board of governors, how many minorities are on that? How many minorities are on all of these companies that are now saying black lives matter?

The contract is null and void when it does not apply to everyone, and it hasn't applied to everyone for if I check my watch about 500 years now, so let's see some real change.

VAUSE: One of the stories -- one of the stories we covered a few years ago, two African American men waiting for a friend Starbucks had access to the bathroom, asked to leave because they hadn't ordered. The manager then threatened to call the police. Let's get back in time. Here it is. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Why do white people call the police when they have some kind of issue to deal with black people?

ODUOLOWU: You're a white guy and you're asking a black guy? Why do you guys do it?

VAUSE: Because I wouldn't call the police.

ODUOLOWU: I think you're asking a question that runs through black people's minds every day. What about us are you so afraid of?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: We know now why white people call the police because here's the infamous Amy Cooper. Again, watch this.

ODUOLOWU: Oh my goodness.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to call the cops.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please call the cops. Please call the cops.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'm going to tell them there's an African American man threatening my life.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Please tell them whatever you like.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: White people call the police because they know the police are there to protect them and are a threat to black people. How does that change?

ODUOLOWU: Well, because what Amy Cooper did in that moment was to not only display white privilege in all of its ugliness, but he weaponized this man's color against him. She basically said, I will call the cops, I will make up a story and I will have them do my dirty work for me because that's what they do.

In that micro -- in that little moment right there, she said everything that black people have been telling you for a long time, that it is an unfair system that targets our skin color more often than anybody else's, and it's so ugly. That tape needed to happen I think for white people to really see what it is that we've been talking about for centuries.

VAUSE: Yes, it's institutionalized racism and it's being exposed. And that's part of all of this that we go through right now. Segun, thank you. It's good to see you.

ODUOLOWU: Thanks, John. Hopefully, we will talk again under better circumstances and not always dance like this.

VAUSE: Well, police in Austin, Texas have released new video from a year-old car chase which ended in the death of a 40-year-old black man. He died in a confrontation with deputies. Now, during his arrest, Ambler, Javier Ambler is heard repeatedly saying he cannot breathe. CNN's Ed Lavandera has more on the story. And a warning, his report includes disturbing video.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ED LAVANDERA, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: On March 28, 2019, Williamson County Sheriff's deputies are pursuing 40-year-old Javier Ambler just after 1:00 in the morning. According to a sheriff's department incident report, Ambler failed to dim his car's headlights as he drove past a deputy. The report says Ambler tried to flee leading officers on a 22-minute pursuit that ended up in the city of Austin. The incident report says Ambler crashed his car five times during the

pursuit and that's where the officers body camera footage captures how the arrest turned deadly.

[02:45:13]

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I need double cuffs.

JAVIER AMBLER, DIED AT THE HANDS OF THE POLICE: I have congestive heart failure. I have congestive heart failure.

LAVANDERA: According to the documents obtained by CNN, Ambler exited his car with his hands up. He was not intoxicated and unarmed. Officers tried to handcuff Ambler but say he resisted and push back on the officers as he refused to follow the verbal commands. But the body camera footage captures Ambler in distress.

AMBLER: Sir, I can't breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flat on your stomach.

AMBLER: I can't breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Flat on your stomach.

LAVANDERA: Multiple times on the video, Ambler was heard saying he can't breathe and that he's not resisting.

AMBLER: I can't breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop resisting.

AMBLER: Sir --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You need to comply.

AMBLER: I'm not resisting.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop resisting.

LAVANDERA: Several minutes into the arrest, officers realize Ambler is unresponsive.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey.

LAVANDERA: You can no longer hear him talking on the video. Officers then unhandcuff Ambler and can be heard administering CPR compressions until medical units arrive on the scene.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Our thanks Ed Lavandera for that report. And Ambler's death was ruled a homicide due to his multiple health issues combined with forcible restraint according to Texas Attorney General. The county's district attorney is leading an investigation into that deadly incident but so far no one has been arrested. And we will be back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: We had this just in. Cathay Pacific and its parent company announced a $5 billion recapitalization plan. Most of the funding will come from a bailout from Hong Kong's government in return for a six percent stake in the airline to help us see through the pandemic.

Now, U.S. stocks rallied again on Monday apparently driven by surprise drop the unemployment rate last week. The Nasdaq closed at an all-time high, the first Wall Street's main index is to recover from the pandemics market crash. The numbers suggest there's growing optimism for a swift rebound.

But the U.S. unemployment rate is still over 13 percent. The rally came on the same day economists officially declared the U.S. is in recession. CNN's John Defterios has details for us from Abu Dhabi. We've talked about the markets. Let's talk about the recession, though. There's some word that the U.S. went into recession much earlier in the year that I guess many people suspected.

JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN BUSINESS EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Yes, John, starting in February. And the official arbiter of that is the National Bureau of Economic Research based in Massachusetts. It made an early call because of the sharp impact of the pandemic particularly taking place in China and knowing it was hitting the United States.

[02:50:11]

And the second quarter, if you will, is a no brainer, right, because we know how bad the recession is and the unemployment rate hovering above 13 percent. But the investor view here is why have any fear at all, I have the U.S. Federal Reserve at my back protected me with $3 trillion of stimulus. That was done to revive the economy, but interest rates are low, property prices are under pressure, no other place to park your money and make a return.

Nasdaq at a record, the S&P 500 which was in a bear market at the height of the pandemic and March is now in positive territory, yet again. So this meant what 128 months better than 10 and a half years of economic expansion in the United States.

Now the crunch is going to come in the next few years, because Donald Trump was cutting interest rates, cut taxes for corporations, and also the high-end earners are leading to a record debt and record budget deficit before the pandemic set in. So what's the price to pay afterwards? And we won't find that out until 2021. But investors right now are making the bet the recovery will be well underway as a result of that $3 trillion stimulus, John.

VAUSE: Yes. I remember back in the time, Ben Bernanke, the chairman of the Fed back in the day said, in theory, quantitative easing should not work but in practice, it does. I mean, are we looking at a similar situation here now? And I guess this is going, you know, playing with what you were saying about, you know, when will you go to pay the piper? I mean, how long can I keep doing this? DEFTERIOS: Well, John, this is a question that everybody is trying to scratch their heads and say, OK, when does this come to an end? Because you have to think we went back to the global financial crisis and started that process of negative interest rates. The government's playing a very huge role, and cutting taxes at the same time and ignoring debt and budget deficits.

And this is something that we see resonating around the world right now. The World Bank was very dour in its forecasts suggesting we have a negative recession here, 5.2 percent globally. And the thing that stood out for me, obviously, as emerging markets editor, the engines of growth for the last 20 years, John, playing into your thoughts here are going to contract 2.5 percent. We're used to growth five, six, seven percent from the emerging markets. And when is the payback? We still don't know.

VAUSE: I guess, the other -- we're out of time, John, but I guess who actually has to pay it back? Because the U.S. just keeps printing money. Someone actually at the end of the day has to, you know, suffer the pain. And I guess that's always on the emerging markets as well. But John, as always good to have you. Thank you so much, John Defterios.

DEFTERIOS: Yes. Well, you and me, I think, John is the answer to that.

VAUSE: Yes, exactly. We always end up paying, mate. That's always the way. John, thank you. North Korean state media has announced an end to all communications with the South. The first step apparently in a total break, you know, contact. North Korea did not answer a call from the South over a military phone line this morning. The first time that's happened just since poultry nations reconnected in 2018.

The biggest grievance from the North is over what it calls propaganda pamphlets spread by defectors in South Korea on the border between the two nations. CNN's Paula Hancocks live from Seoul, South Korea. So, at the end of the day, these two countries just stop talking. What happens?

PAULA HANCOCKS, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, we've heard from the unification ministry saying that it is a concern because if they cut off this particular communication line, that's the main form of communication that these two careers have at this point.

So what they've done is there's a number of ways they can talk. There's the liaison office, which is in North Korea, just over the border. They've cut off that particular avenue of communication. There's a military hotline as well. They've not answered that this morning. The defense ministry here in South Korea called for the answer to the question, the phone was not answered.

And of course, there's a hotline between the two leaders, between Kim Jong-un and South Korean President Moon Jae-in. Now, we don't know if that was ever used. That was never talked about. But all these communication techniques are now cut off according to the North, and the reason is because they are so furious, they say, with these propaganda leaflets that some defectors sent over to North Korea. The leaflets that denounced the regime, denounce Kim Jong-un himself. Sometimes they have balloons they send over with money inside, with food, with rice.

But of course, the key is this propaganda leaflet that they're sending, it is a surefire way to annoy North Korea. It has countless times in the past. And this is the reason that they say they have for cutting communication lines at this point. Now, whether or not it is just that, of course, we're just a few days away from the two-year anniversary of Kim Jong-un meeting with the U.S. President Donald Trump. It could be trying to get attention ahead of that as well. John?

VAUSE: We'll see how long the silent treatment lasts. Paula, thank you. Paula Hancocks live for us there in Seoul. And we'll be back in 90 seconds.

[02:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Well, K-pop mega group BTS and its fan-base charity have donated more than $2 million to the Black Lives Matter Movement. After reports of BTS donating $1 million, fans actually started the #MatchAMillion. First-day donations total over $800,000. By day two, it raise more than a million. The money will be used to bail out protesters, also help Black Lives advocacy groups fight injustice.

Tennis star Venus Williams is speaking out on the Black Lives Matter protests across the U.S. She posted on Instagram. "I'm amazed at the solidarity that has erupted across the USA. It has brought me to tears. Just as sexism is not only a women's issue, racism is not only a black issue."

Williams adds that when a majority group stays quiet and unwittingly condone the oppression of marginalized groups. And she is happy, so relieved as an African American to finally be heard. You've been watching CNN NEWSROOM. I'm John Vause. Stay with us. My colleague Natalie Allen takes over for me after a very short break. You're watching CNN.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

END