Return to Transcripts main page

Cuomo Prime Time

White House Defends Trump's False Claim That 99 Percent Of COVID-19 Cases Are "Harmless"; Atlanta Mayor On Her Coronavirus Diagnosis; Armed Black Men In Louisiana Show Up To Counter Armed Supporters Of A Confederate Statue. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired July 06, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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


[21:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: --behind. Fred Whitesel was 83 years old, and Judy Whitesel was 81 years old. What a life! 60 years together!

The news continues. Want to hand it over to Chris for CUOMO PRIME TIME. Chris?

CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST, CUOMO PRIME TIME: All right, thank you, Anderson.

I am Chris Cuomo and welcome to PRIME TIME.

"99 percent of cases of COVID-19 are harmless," says Trump. Remember, the White House numbers puts our death rate at around 4 percent, 4- plus percent. So, is that harmless?

To the 130,000-plus dead, to their families, to the tens of thousands, who've suffered terribly, to all those suffering now, harmless? Maybe if he gave a damn!

Maybe if the President of the United States were not ignoring and coming up with new ways to reportedly get you to "Live with a pandemic," maybe then he would know just how stupid that statement is.

I will say this. Trump's strategy of lie, deny and defy all facts and decency is just as toxic to our society as 99 percent of COVID cases.

But he is being honest, about one thing, and it matters, especially now, especially to you, the President's supporters, because you also own what he is saying right now, his blatant pitch to bigots.

He has no position on whether the Confederate flag should be flying in America in the year, 2020. This man will not bring anyone together. His plan is the opposite.

That's why if you want to beat this pandemic, if you want America to be better for the worthy, the key is the "We," you and me, together as ever as one.

What do you say? Let's get after it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: We have a special guest tonight, Atlanta Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. She'll be on in just moments, here on PRIME TIME, just after learning tonight that she and her husband are COVID-positive.

Life is going to change for them. They got kids. They have people to take care of. They have a community to take care of. We'll talk about that. Now, the Mayor is more proof of this virus ravaging our country. It can reach anyone, anywhere.

And the President says "No big deal."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Now we have tested almost 40 million people. By so doing, we show cases, 99 percent of which are totally harmless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: And, by the way, he was reading. Somebody wrote that. Somebody wrote that crap, 99 percent harmless is a 100 percent wrong, and he should know it. His son's girlfriend has it now, Kimberly Guilfoyle, and I wish her well.

He has everyone around him wearing masks, everyone around him getting tested. Every case that pops up around him, traced, contacts fully, but he is telling you testing is the problem. And the self-declared Wartime President has refused to mount a national attack on the virus.

And when confronted with deception, what does this White House do? It doubles down.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: I think the world is looking at us as a leader in COVID-19, because the chart I showed you, where you have mortality rate in Italy and U.K. up here, and across Europe, and you have the United States at a low case mortality rate, it's because of the extraordinary work that we've done.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Their own Task Force says, "There is no national strategy." They just lie to you. And she is right about one thing.

The world is looking at us, the richest country on Earth, with just 4 percent of the global population, and 25 percent of the cases. The country with the best healthcare in the world having its system potentially overwhelmed because there is not enough smart testing being done. Their own Task Force says it. There is no national cohesive plan.

Their own Task Force says it. 32 states have surging cases. Their own data says that.

And we have a President holding rally after rally where people are exposed to the virus, and also his poisonous politics, as he is, more than ever, flagrantly and flamboyantly, fanning the flames of racial tension in this country.

[21:05:00]

His plan is obvious. He wants to get as many of you, who are White, angry and active on Election Day as he can. Look at this tweet that would make George Wallace proud, blasting NASCAR for banning the Confederate Flag.

You support Trump? You support that. Why? Because you don't get to say "Well, I'm not about that. I just like the" no, no. You support it.

The animus and the bigotry that he ignores, and emphasizes, he empowers. He is OK with that. What he empowers, he owns. He's OK with that. You are complicit. You own it as well. Are you OK with that?

Asking if the only Black NASCAR driver, Bubba Wallace, had apologized to drivers and officials, who came to his aid, and stood by his side? What does he have to apologize for? "Oh, well, the noose, you know, it had been there."

NASCAR calls it a noose, not a garage pull, Kayleigh, not a garage pull, a noose that they were using to pull the garage. NASCAR calls it a noose. NASCAR wanted the noose investigated. Bubba Wallace didn't ask for it.

Fact, even Trump's Press Secretary couldn't spin this dizzying bit of bigotry.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCENANY: In aggregate, what he was pointing out is this rush to judgment to immediately say that there is a hate crime, as happened in this case, as happened with Jussie Smollett, as happened with the Covington Catholic boys.

In an aggregate, those actions made it seem like NASCAR men and women were racist individuals, who were roving around and engaging in a hate crime.

The President's intent was to say, "No. Most American people are good, hardworking people." I mean we should not have this rush to judgment, knee-jerk reaction before the facts come out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Why does she equate what happened with the Covington kids and Jussie Smollett with NASCAR people? What is a NASCAR person? I love NASCAR. Am I a - I'm NASCAR person.

What is she talking about? What is this code? What is this division? Why are they spending so much energy on that and no energy on what is literally killing us?

Again, the FBI called nothing a hoax. They certainly put no blame on Bubba Wallace. Why would the only Black NASCAR driver apologize at a time that we are struggling with systemic racism?

What is the President's position on that?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why can't this White House unambiguously state whether or not it supports displays of the Confederate Flag and--

MCENANY: No, I said--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --Confederate monuments, which are much more--

MCENANY: I said in his--

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: --a part of this question than Gandhi?

MCENANY: Yes, I said that, you know, he was - his tweet was not to indicate approval or disapproval of that particular policy of NASCAR. It was in aggregate to stand against the rush to judgment to call something a hate crime before the facts were out, when clearly the media was wrong about this.

The President has made clear. He was not taking a position one way or the other in that tweet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: I can't believe she said that. I can't believe, in 2020, somebody who thinks about how to get out of every situation, as a function of her job, or at least how she chooses to do it, just said that and felt good about it.

He has no position on whether or not a Confederate Flag should be flying in America in the year 2020? This isn't about context. Slow down. This is not about the context of the comment. This is about the content of his and her, frankly, character.

No position on flying a Confederate Flag in America? Here is one, as a journalist. It's wrong, because it is not heritage as if it's benign, OK? It is a heritage of bigotry.

"America will be motivated by bigotry, in this day and age, naked in your face. I'm OK with Confederate symbols? I will enlist the government to protect the monuments of those who tried to protect the Institution of Slavery?" Really? That's going to get your vote? Really? We have to be better than this.

Let's bring in someone who is battling both American pandemics, personally, Atlanta Mayor, Keisha Lance Bottoms. She and her husband don't have bad symptoms but were diagnosed positive.

Mayor, thank you for showing up tonight. Do I have the news correct?

MAYOR KEISHA LANCE BOTTOMS, (D) ATLANTA, GEORGIA: That you're right, Chris. We tested positive. One child has tested positive.

CUOMO: Oh!

BOTTOMS: So, you know, hopefully, it won't get much worse than this.

[21:10:00]

My symptoms have been like my seasonal allergy symptoms. I've had a headache the past few days and just, you know, little dry cough, but that's not unusual, because I have that with my allergies, which are just about year-round in Atlanta.

And my husband literally has been asleep since Thursday. And so--

CUOMO: All right, he's been asleep since Thursday.

BOTTOMS: --yes, I'm just.

CUOMO: Let's just talk mom to dad here, sick person to sick person, for a second, all right?

Because I can only imagine what you're dealing with, in terms of how to manage the household now, how to protect the other kids, and what you have to do, and where they can go in all this.

He's been sleeping. Any fever?

BOTTOMS: No. Well actually he had one at about 99. But again--

CUOMO: Good.

BOTTOMS: --we both have allergies. So, it's - it's just it's not unusual when everything is in bloom.

CUOMO: Now, everything's random. Everybody's random. You'll see now. You'll get the frustration that we all have of everybody's going to tell you different things. But I got good news for you, OK?

My wife felt exactly, it's not a boy-girl thing, but she felt exactly the way you do right now. "Maybe I have a sinus infection. Maybe it's my allergies. I'm a little - I'm a little low energy, but I'm all right."

She had that for about a week, eight days. She couldn't smell or taste anything though. It recently came back, freaked us all out, but no other symptoms. One week, and then that was gone.

My son did the sleeping thing, like your husband is. And again, I'm not saying it's gender-related. But I say he had it. One week, was gone. He had a little bit low-grade fever early on, nothing else.

You know my deal.

Everybody's case is different. If you don't have symptoms early, it's a really good sign that they're not going to come anecdotally, OK? Now, how's your kid doing?

BOTTOMS: Fine. And my husband just told me--

CUOMO: Great! Great!

BOTTOMS: --as I was getting ready to come on that he - that he said, "I've been having those Cuomo dreams." He described them as the dreams that you were having, but he just mentioned that to me today.

And, you know, I'm still in the state of shock because I don't have any idea how we were exposed and because we've all been - we've been very careful. Even, you know, my kids have been careful. So, I'm stunned.

CUOMO: Now, what do you do about the other kids?

BOTTOMS: Well I have two more, who one's tested positive, one's tested negative, I have two more who I have to get tested.

And, as fate would have it, I was actually with my mother yesterday, who I've not spent a lot of time with, just being mindful that she then need to be around us. So, she is going to get tested again, and then, we'll figure it out if - I don't know. I hadn't gotten that far yet.

CUOMO: Well also, as you know, I'm always a phone call away. And, you know, we have tremendous reach here, between Sanjay, and access to the Task Force, and everything, any information that I can help with, in any way.

You have to take it one test at a time, Mayor. You got to see how your mom is, see how she does.

They will tell you that, the doctors, that a big part of their understanding now, and again, don't be frustrated by what they say they don't know, because that's just the nature of this beast, is dose.

What is viral dose? Viral dose is how big a hit did you get?

Early on, I was in hospitals all the time, when this was first happening. I probably got a big dose.

My wife was taking care of me. That's got to be how she got it. But she was being so careful, took her 18 days to get it, smaller dose. Didn't get sick, OK?

My mother was around, right up until when I got sick. I don't know when I had it. You know what I mean? I know when my - my symptoms got worse. She's been great, thank God, knock on wood.

My son, same thing, he wasn't around me, low dose. He got better very quickly.

So, factor that into your thinking. They are pretty aware about dose. And if you just went and visited with your mom, and she hasn't been there, and she hasn't been all over the house, and everywhere, where you guys are, those are all good factors for her well-being, going forward.

So, let me ask you this, because my point tonight was not to make you more anxious. How does this change--

BOTTOMS: Ever since this--

(CROSSTALK)

CUOMO: --your personal sense of urgency, Ms. Mayor, about what you're dealing with? You've been incredibly committed to your community. But now that it's hit your family, what does that mean?

BOTTOMS: You know, Chris, I'm still as committed, as I was on the front-end.

We still have this phased reopening in Atlanta, despite the eagerness of the State to reopen. And so, thankfully, many of our jobs centers still have not opened. Many people have been heeding all of the warnings that we've given.

[21:15:00]

The Governor's order does not allow us to put a mandatory mask in place. My good friend, Mayor of Savannah has done it. And so, I think this is probably as good a time, as any, for Atlanta, to follow suit with that.

But it still remains the same. Black and Brown communities are getting hit, and we are getting hit harder.

Thankfully, my family, all of my kids have asthma. That's a concern to me. But my husband and I don't have underlying health conditions. And so, prayerfully, you know, this will be as bad as it gets for us. But this is scary.

We've done all the things that we thought that we should do. And, for us to still test positive, I think, really speaks to how easily this virus is spread. And obviously, none of us are immune from it.

CUOMO: Where are you on the freak-out factor?

BOTTOMS: I think I'm still in - I'm still in shock right now, quite honestly. I got the news around just before 6 o'clock. And I went and I was speaking with my husband. I said, "Can you believe this has happened?"

So now I'm - I'm in mommy mode, trying to figure out what this means. I was trying to fix something to eat for one of my kids, and he's like "Don't touch my food," and so, you know, so, I've just got to figure that out. My kids scattered when they heard that we were positive. So, I probably won't see them for the next 14 days, you know. Everybody's yelling across the house. So, that's the - that's the other side of this.

I'm Mayor. But I'm also a mom and a wife. So, I've got to wrap my brain around what exactly this means, and how do I keep all of my kids, the rest of my kids, safe from this.

CUOMO: Hey, if you didn't identify with the priorities of people, and their families, they wouldn't have elected you in the first place. It's always family first, and you're going to have to take care of that.

Let me get a quick take from you, as somebody who's dealing with both of these issues, the pandemic, and the poison in our society of systemic racism.

What is your response to the President saying, "Here - here's the good news, Mayor. 99 percent of the cases are harmless. And Confederate Flag, I have no position."

BOTTOMS: Chris, I try not to give any energy to him, because it is energy that I will never get back. That being said, he - each time he opens his mouth, he reminds us of how bad he is for this country. This is the reason that we all need to show up and vote in November.

This man is dangerous. This virus is spreading across this country, and he refuses to do anything, on behalf of the nation, to make it stop. He is a danger to all of us. And that doesn't have anything to do with Party affiliation.

And so, you know, what - what can you expect? To expect something different from him is like insanity.

And I just refuse to keep giving him that energy. I'm going to put my energy into electing a decent man, in November, and that person is Joe Biden.

CUOMO: And getting well. Health first!

Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms, thank you, especially, getting this kind of news, to come on and let the audience know, how it is for you. I appreciate it very, very much.

I'll keep you on, when I go into the commercial, I'll make sure you have my phone number, so you can reach me, if there's anything I can do. God bless you and the family.

BOTTOMS: Thank you.

CUOMO: I hope you get through it very quickly. And, just like in my family, one of the kids had it, two of them didn't. So, let's see what the tests show, all right? God bless, and I wish you well.

BOTTOMS: Thank you. CUOMO: All right, another example of the Coronavirus spread. It's not about more testing. More testing would be part of the solution. It is not part of the problem.

We have more spread, more hospitalizations. Hospitalizations are not about measuring. They're about sickness. The U.S. Military, now deploying medical personnel to Texas, why, because the disease is taxing the system.

Dr. William Schaffner is back tonight with the science. I know the numbers are getting foggy and frustrating. The "Why" is what matters. He has it next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[21:20:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Here is some straight talk, from the most credible man in America, Dr. Tony Fauci.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are still knee-deep in the first wave of this.

We went up, never came down to baseline, and now, we're surging back up. So, it's a serious situation that we have to address immediately.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: He said that today. I didn't hear the "99 percent are harmless" though. Weird!

You see anyone around Fauci, addressing this immediately? No. I see the much-hyped reopening running into problems, cases going up, being blamed on testing, when the only real issue with testing is there's not enough, and it still takes too long.

I see a straight shooter in Dr. William Schaffner.

Doctor, it is good to have you. Your concern about the messaging of this reported "We need to live with it" motto that the White House may start pushing? DR. WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE EXPERT, CDC ADVISER: Well if we want to live with it, I'm afraid we'll die with it also, because that will cause many deaths. We still don't have a national program, as you have already said.

It's something that the countries that were successful, in suppressing COVID, did. They had a national program, coherently described, and clearly communicated, to the population. They indeed brought everyone together, in their countries, to follow the national plan.

That's what we desperately need. And absent that--

[21:25:00]

CUOMO: "Well we don't need it, though, Doctor. We don't need it, because 99 percent of the cases are harmless, and the world is looking at us with envy, because we've handled it much better. We've done more testing than anybody else. And our death rate is lower than all the other places."

That's what the White House says.

SCHAFFNER: Well I'm wincing as you can see.

Obviously, it's not harmless, because it's harmful. We can see that with the increasing hospitalizations, the difficulty some hospitals are already having with enough Intensive Care Unit beds, and it's all over the country now. It's spreading widely.

As Dr. Fauci said, we never got over the first wave. We put a little dent in it. We opened up, and that first wave just kept rolling on, and it's all over the country now, and we need some coherence.

It now relies on us, as individuals, if we don't have a national plan. We have to wear our masks, watch the social distancing, avoid large groups.

I have to tell you, I saw all those videos of what happened, over the holidays, and we're going to reap the results of that in two weeks and three weeks, just as we are now reaping the results of what happened over Memorial Day.

CUOMO: Cases are up. Deaths are down. How?

SCHAFFNER: Well - well, first of all, we're getting better at treating these folks. That's really the good news. We have a couple of drugs that we can use. We know much more about how it is, this virus, makes us sick.

We were talking about coagulation issues before. And we know how to anticipate those, and prevent those, in large measure now. So, that's the sort of thing that we can do much better.

And then, of course, it always takes a little longer, for people, who are cases, to come to the hospital, go to the Intensive Care Unit, stay on those ventilators, and then some of them pass away. So, it's a lagging indicator.

CUOMO: Hey, do you make anything of this blood type analysis that people are doing?

Every time people ask me, I'm - increasingly, more and more people are asking me this stuff. And, I say, "Yes, I'm A-negative." They're like "Oh! No wonder you got so sick!"

You know, "If you were O-negative or O-positive, those cases are much better, or they don't get sick at all." Do you buy any of that?

SCHAFFNER: Early scientific reports would suggest there may be some genetic difference. But it's not confirmed. We need to study that much more. So, it doesn't help me very much at the present time.

CUOMO: And the science will follow. But the urgency, the immediacy, right now, is for the targeted testing, and you believe, that has to be nationally coordinated, not State-by-State, why?

SCHAFFNER: Because there is so much confusion out there, on the part of the populace, they don't know really which drummer they should be following in the parade.

So, if we had some national standards, some national targets and goals that we could get all the governors to participate in, then I think the people will follow, if they see it's a nice coordinated plan.

It's that old analogy with the orchestra. You need a good strong conductor to keep all those diverse instruments together. Then you get pretty music.

CUOMO: We got Captain Cacophony up there, right now, barely starting to even recognize the need for masks.

Dr. William Schaffner, thank you very much for keeping us true-blue on this. Appreciate it.

SCHAFFNER: Thanks, Chris.

CUOMO: All right, and think about that. You just heard from Schaffner. You hear it from the other people, Fauci and Birx, "No national coordinated plan." Find me another country that got through this that left it all to the locals. Of course, you need local control. But think about it, no national plan.

You're starting to see something new with our other big battle in this country. At the protests that blanket our nation, over the racial divide, you know what you're seeing now? Firearms. Not the weapons themselves. You got a right to carry. Carry. It's who's carrying them.

What will it do to people when they see men, like this, carrying guns on the street? I find this highly instructive and provocative. So, instead of hiding from it, I want to talk to the man you just saw on your screen.

A leader of one of the Movements is here. Why does he believe that this is the way that he will be safe? Next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[21:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Scare people in America when you start talking about protecting Confederate monuments, and protecting a heritage that was about protecting slavery. What started out, as a battle, over the future of a Confederate monument, therefore has shifted to a conversation about guns.

In late June, a group of protesters, in Shreveport, Louisiana, showed up Downtown, calling for the removal of Confederate statues. They were met by counter-protesters, who showed up, armed with handguns and rifles. You've seen this, right?

"Well they have a right. They have a right." And they were accused of trying to intimidate the peaceful crowd. But everybody says, "But they had a right, they had a right, Second Amendment."

Well then why is everybody so upset about what happened next? It's become an important part of the national conversation. Members of a Black gun club showed up on the scene, with their own firearms, and a message of their own.

I don't see the President cheering the armed Black protesters on his Twitter feed. Do you? I wonder why not!

Why did he cheer the other ones? "There are some good people. The Governor should listen to them." Why isn't he making that appeal for the Black people, who are good people, who are scared?

[21:35:00]

I see a need for all of us, to learn more about the motivation for Movements like this. What makes someone so scared that they feel they have the need to defend themselves, and others, with a firearm, in America, in 2020?

Let's get after it with Nicki Daniels Jr., next.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME. (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: LET'S GET AFTER IT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: What do you think about this message? "It's time for Black people to get trained, get permitted, get armed, and protect themselves." Take it the same ways if I said White people? Lot of people on the internet aren't.

That's the message coming from a group of armed Black men called "Sleep is for the Rich" gun club. They're in Shreveport, Louisiana. And they went down to the courthouse with the purpose of protecting unarmed protesters, specifically Black women.

Leader of this group, Nicki Daniels Jr., joins us now.

Thank you for taking the time to meet us.

[21:40:00]

NICKI DANIELS JR., FOUNDER, "SLEEP IS FOR THE RICH" GUN CLUB, ENTREPRENEUR: Peace and love, Chris. Thank you for having me.

CUOMO: So, what is the message? You didn't just go down armed for no reason. I saw the video, and I understand the context. And we did the reporting. There were other people there who were counter-protesters, who were armed. What was your move?

DANIELS JR.: Well, let me - do we have time for me to take you back, you know, to the beginning of, you know, when it - when it - the initial text message that I've got, I was at my house, screen-printing T-shirts for my brand, "Sleep is for the Rich" Clothing.

I got a text message from my - from my friend that lived on the Pines Road, named Trey. He owns White Lobster Clothing. He called me, and said, "Hey, Nick." He texted me actually. He said "Hey, Nick, do you see what those" verbatim, "You see what those White boys that are down there doing at that protests?"

And I said, "Man, hell no. What's going on?" like "What's going on?"

And he sent me the - a screenshot and a - and a link to a Facebook video of this - of this woman. And when I opened up the video, she - she was ripping posters out of the protesters' hands. It was a White woman. She was ripping up posters out of these protesters' hands.

And she will shoot - do I have to - do I need to watch my language on here, Chris?

CUOMO: Yes, watch it a little bit. DANIELS JR.: All right. Well, she kept saying "N-word! N-word! N- word!"

CUOMO: Right.

DANIELS JR.: That was bad back again (ph).

CUOMO: We get it. We get it.

DANIELS JR.: Yes. Got you. This is everything that I was seeing in the - in the video that my friend, Trey, with White Lobster Apparel, sent me. So, when I saw that, I immediately called him on the phone, and we said what we needed to say. We got, you know, we got all the artillery men and we went down there.

CUOMO: So, what do you say when people see this?

DANIELS JR.: And we went down there shouting--

CUOMO: You had good motives. You wanted to keep it safe. You didn't want to shoot anybody. And they said "Oh!"

DANIELS JR.: Definitely.

CUOMO: "These Black guys are scary, coming down with guns. You see? This is what it's all about. They want to come down. They want a Race War." What do you say?

DANIELS JR.: No. You got to - you got to understand. We didn't just grab the guns just to grab them. We grabbed the guns because we saw that those Confederate guys, they had guns on the sidewalk.

And it's one thing - it's one thing to be shouting in somebody's face, you know, yelling out obscenities, you know, telling - telling - I saw one man, one of the Confederate men telling another one of the peaceful protesters to perform a sexual act on him, you know.

Like I said before, the other young lady, the other White lady was a Confederate. She ripped a - she ripped a poster out of somebody's hand, and just ripped it up right down the sidewalk.

And the reason we felt so compelled to come down there is because I didn't see any police officers down there. Surprisingly, when I got down there, we did see some - a couple SPD officers, Shreveport Police Officers down there, but we didn't feel like - we didn't feel like they would stop what was going on.

You know, those guys had guns. And they were getting - they were literally - the video I saw, one of the videos I saw, man, one of those Confederate guys could have easily wired one of those kid's jaws shut, man. They were that close. They were - they were yelling in those kids' face, and they had guns on their side.

And no, Bro, we just wasn't going up for that, man. This is - the more I even think about it, you know, as you saw, yes, - yes, we wasn't going up for that, Bro. CUOMO: Well thank God nothing happened.

DANIELS JR.: Not in Shreveport, Bro.

CUOMO: You know, you guys didn't get into the kind of face-to-face armed.

DANIELS JR.: Yes. Yes. Yes.

CUOMO: So, if he said something interesting in the video, you said you were talking to a police officer, and he said "Look" - he explained to you that "We're not in the business of stopping crime. We get there after crime has happened most of the time."

DANIELS JR.: Yes. Yes. Yes.

CUOMO: And you have taken that as an explanation of a reality in communities like yours. And you said, "If you want to stop yourself from getting abused, if you want to stop people from coming to get you, and they are coming to get you, you better protect yourself."

Do I have that right?

DANIELS JR.: Yes. That's exactly - you said it right. You're exactly right. The - you know, I'm a big - I'm a huge proponent in that.

And when that - it was a - it was a police officer with the Bossier Police Department who was teaching the class. And I forget his name. Maybe if I look at my card out, you know, I had his name on there.

But when he said that, it just - it made all the sense in the world. Police officers are not crime fighters. Police officers aren't Batman. Police officers aren't Superman. Police officers arrive on the scene after you've already been violated.

So, the message I'm trying to send to my people is we got to - we've got to get off of this peace, love and happiness. We got to get off of this, you know, "My God is going to protect me."

No, no, God gave - God gave us guns. God gave us sense. You know, God gave us the - God gave us pride in - pride in ourselves to have enough love for ourselves, and our families, and our businesses, to want - to not want somebody to come and mess over us easy.

You know - you see what I'm saying? Like--

CUOMO: I hear you.

[21:45:00]

DANIELS JR.: --you should - you should want - you should want to be able to protect yourself.

I tell my little partners down here, in Shreveport, all the time, "Don't carry a gun with the thought in your mind that you're a gangster, man. Carry a gun as if that gun is a sword." And every team - every team carried a sword back in the day.

And that's what I tell boys. That's why I deal my - that's what you're told Louisiana King's Movement is about. I'm trying to show boys you got to carry yourself in a royal fashion.

That's one of The 48 Laws of Power. Shout out to Robert Greene. Robert Greene, he said that - he said that you have to carry yourself - you have to carry yourself in a royal fashion to be - to be seen in a royal fashion.

CUOMO: Well I just wanted to give people--

DANIELS JR.: You know, conduct yourself as a king to be seen - to be seen as one.

CUOMO: And Nicki, I wanted to give people a chance because this is blowing up all over the place. And there are other, you know, there are videos elsewhere in the country, and people want to, you know, typecast it as "Oh, the Black Panthers are back," or this or that.

I wanted people to hear it from you what it was about, and how it was instigated, and what your aims and purposes are, so people can keep the facts straight. And I also want to stay in touch with what your experience is going forward.

And you have a line to us, whenever you want, about what's going on, so we can report it accurately, all right?

DANIELS JR.: Definitely, man. You got to make sure you stay tapped in, man, because you said that that monument - that Confederate monument, has 90 days to come down. It has 90 days to come down. So, CNN (ph) you all might want to stay locked into that because it's going to be a - going to be a monumental occasion, man.

CUOMO: We'll stay on it. It's about what's right, and it's about justice and fairness under law. And I know that, you know, you've said it on the video.

DANIELS JR.: And it's about good versus evil, man.

CUOMO: "Everybody should be respecting the blood"--

DANIELS JR.: Yes.

CUOMO: "Respecting the law and respecting what the - runs through the blood of this country as well."

Nicki Daniels Jr.?

DANIELS JR.: Thanks.

CUOMO: God bless, stay safe.

DANIELS JR.: Shout out to Shreveport, man. Peace and love.

CUOMO: We'll be right back. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CUOMO PRIME TIME.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[21:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TEXT: CLOSING ARGUMENT.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Case counts, seven-day rolling averages, positive test rates, all these graphs, maps, and figures, people are frustrated, and they're tired of it. The President is banking on that. That's his strategy that you get bored and disinterested.

He'll even ignore the pain and commitment of the people we rightfully called heroes, the ones who choose to walk, day after day, into hospitals that are all too often out of control, to be there with those who are afraid, who often die alone, to care for the suffering.

They can see with their own eyes that what he's telling you is BS.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We show cases, 99 percent of which are totally harmless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: Kayleigh "I cannot tell a lie" McEnany can defend that garbage all she wants. But even the chart right behind her head says the virus is worse than POTUS is pushing.

Politicians will spin it, especially Trump. But we can't. We got to be straight with each other.

You want school to open in the fall, so we can get the economy back, and get our kids, where they're supposed to be, where they can learn, because this at-home stuff isn't working.

Sports, shows, resume, sit down inside, see the people you want to see, live your life, that you kill yourself working to deserve?

The only way we do that is by doing the things we have to do, OK? And here's the answer, OK? We are failing to control the virus. Forget about blame. We have to do what the other nations did. We have to move forward from where we are right now.

The answer is twofold. First, you have to take responsibility. You have to wear a mask, if you can't socially distance. You got to wash your hands like crazy. I got the crazy dry skin too. So what? I'm going to tell you this. If you get sick, it's going to be terrible. So yes, doing these things, I just mentioned, can kind of suck. But nothing can defeat us, if we're motivated, and we are together.

The second goes to that as well. The reason that we're not beating this thing is because we're not working hard enough to do it. We don't have the data.

The fact is too many in positions of power are hiding the truth, and hiding the reality, from you, and they're hiding from it themselves. The reasons are political and odious and obvious. You'll get the chance to judge those in 120 days.

Too many at the State and Federal level are ducking, and cowering between the biggest numbers they can find. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We test much more than any other nation.

And we have testing at a level that nobody has ever done before.

Nearly double the number tested in any other country.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: We have no national strategy on testing. We're not doing it smart because he doesn't want to. It's totally on him.

And volume doesn't equal efficacy. And he knows it because there's people telling him it all the time. We're not testing anywhere near the rate other countries are. We're doing so without any plan.

This is what the President's own CDC Director said, just last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. ROBERT REDFIELD, CDC DIRECTOR: I don't want to get into the numbers of tests because I don't think that's the real issue. It's how testing is used and what's the consequence.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: OK? That's his guy!

We've seen long lines, as hundreds wait at drive-thru testing centers. It's not getting it done.

All those tests still have to go to a lab to be analyzed, which means people, who doctors have identified as likely to be exposed, are left to wait in line, with everyone else for their results, lines which once again are back to taking more than a week, all of this burns through valuable reagents, and swabs, which aren't, you know, not - we still don't have enough of this.

He didn't use the legal authority he had, to get it done. He did it for the wall. He didn't do it for this.

[21:55:00]

The lack of testing strategy leaves it up to the states. Some do it well. Some don't. Means we're not comparing apples-to-apples when we look across the country. It's a difference between judging a baseball player on total hits versus batting average. You know what I'm saying? Both are useful, but they're not the same.

Uniform, open, and accurate, data is necessary, to answer certain key questions that we still don't know. And the only reason we're not transparent is because we want to hide from the reality, especially our President, and it's killing us. It's killing us.

Take a listen to what this Federal government is finally doing that it's been talking about for months.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: The whole-of- government approach.

ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: This whole-of- government approach.

The whole-of-government approach.

PENCE: The whole-of-government response that we spoke about so many times.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CUOMO: The guy in charge of the Task Force, the VP, he doesn't want to get this done, the whole-of-government approach.

That would mean HHS handing down national guidelines for both diagnostic and antibody testing. It would mean a strategy for how to monitor hotspots and defining national reporting standards.

While we're at it, it would mean the VA Secretary showing up to answer how the hell he's taking care of the people that we promised to do the best by, a Labor Secretary insisting on protections for workers, who have to be in dangerous places, like meat processing plants, the HUD Secretary defending fair housing rules at a time that so many are hurting.

In other words, it means, do your damn job. I know he doesn't like the reality.

What is your reality? Why are you there? And if you're not going to help people, get the hell out, and let somebody else do it. There are plenty who want to do the right thing in this country.

We'll be right back.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) (END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)