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Blake Family Calls for Peace; Sex Scandal Topples Evangelical Leader; Wildfires Push Residents to Leave for Good. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired August 26, 2020 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: The family's pastor joins us next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
BERMAN: All right, breaking news, police in Kenosha, Wisconsin, are searching for a man with a long gun, perhaps seen in this video that was seen on social media. Two people were killed overnight. The sheriff says there are armed vigilantes on the street. He even used the word "militia" to describe what is now happening in response to the protests over the death -- sorry, I keep saying that, over the shooting -- Jacob Blake is not dead at all, he's in the hospital recovering. And this is exactly what Jacob Blake's family and mother said they did not want to see. This is the plea from Jacob Blake's mother to the American people.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JULIA JACKSON, MOTHER OF JACOB BLAKE: Do Jacob justice on this level and examine your hearts.
As I pray for my son's healing, physically, emotionally and spiritually.
[08:35:04]
I also have been praying, even before this, for the healing of our country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: Praying for healing.
Three days after Blake was repeatedly shot by police in close range in front of his children, we still don't have basic details on what happened.
Joining me now is Reverend James Ward Jr. He led the emotional news conference yesterday and is a friend and pastor to the Blake family for more than 30 years.
Pastor, thank you so much for being with us this morning. First, I just want I guess your reaction to the news overnight, the
presence of armed militiamen possibly on the streets of Kenosha. What's your prayer for Kenosha this morning?
REV. JAMES E. WARD, JR., BLAKE FAMILY PASTOR: Yes, thank you so much for having me, John.
What we're seeing in Kenosha is exactly what we did not want, exactly what Julia did not want. And as I opened the press conference yesterday with prayer, I am continuing to stand, (INAUDIBLE) believers across the country, we're continuing to stand for the very best for Kenosha.
And let me just kind of give you some -- some context in terms of knowing Julia very well, having been her pastor, been associated with her family for more than 30 years. The -- some context of what's behind her -- her plea to our nation and to the citizens of Kenosha is this, we're having conversations about criticism and controversy much more than we're having conversations about change and compassion. We're more concerned with right and left than we are right and wrong. And we need to call the cease-fire and come back and deal with the spiritual and the moral route.
Julia, on several -- several occasions, mentioned the heart, examine your heart. We've got to go back to the heart being a Christian pastor, being Julia's pastor, Matthew Chapter 15, Verse 18, Jesus himself said that evil, murder, these things come from the human heart and comes from within to defile a man. And so if we're ever going to see the true and lasting change in our nation, John, we've got to get back to these spiritual and moral roots from which we see these problems continuing to -- to stem and -- and this plague -- this scourge in our society.
BERMAN: And that was Julia's message yesterday.
WARD: That's correct.
BERMAN: Even with her son in the hospital --
WARD: That's correct.
BERMAN: Shot six or seven times, bullets in his back, that was her message for healing.
How is Jacob doing this morning?
WARD: Yes, as far as -- as far as I know, I haven't got an update. We're -- we're giving Julia time to rest, giving the family time to be intimate together. We understand that he's still stable. He's doing -- he's doing relatively well. We pray -- we thank God that his health is doing well.
But we know, as she -- as she made her plea, Jacob does not want this. Jacob, he shared his prayer. He had a time of prayer, even before his latest surgery with his mom, and he -- he himself is praying for peace and praying for things to be better in America. Just a reflection of the nature of this family that we're so blessed to serve and to -- to be pastors and to be involved with.
BERMAN: So Jacob's sister had a different message.
WARD: Sure.
BERMAN: I'm not saying it's necessarily an opposing message, but a different message that I think was very interesting and worthy of note.
WARD: Sure.
BERMAN: She says she's not sad. She's done being sad. She said, she hasn't shed a tear. What she says is she's angry and she wants the change now.
WARD: Yes.
BERMAN: What do you think is driving that? How do you respond to that?
WARD: I think that's a natural response. I mean, come on, if I touch a hot stove, if I'm in pain, if some pain is inflicted upon me, it is natural for me to cry out, to lash out. I think that's an understandable expression of a lot of the -- the rage that we see across the nation. It's an emotion. And we know that as a pastor I can tell you that oftentimes emotions are much more powerful even than our decision making. It's why we fall in love with people that we know may not be good for us. We have gambling problems, anger problems. I've done (INAUDIBLE) ministry. Emotions are very powerful. And so we have to take some time to defuse the emotions. Something that I call a zero victim mentality for us to act and not react so that we can develop some comprehensive solutions again to these -- these issues that we're dealing with.
Let me explain just some basis here in terms of what we're seeing. John, there are three types of law that govern every society, spiritual law, moral law and civil law. People are generally familiar with civil law, but the two more important kinds of law are spiritual law and moral law.
Civil law exists to either reward or punish people for breaking spiritual and moral law. We've got to get back to matters of the heart, whether there's with citizens, whether that's with police officers, black people, white people. We've got to deal with the human hearts and we continue to bypass those primary conversations to deal with secondary issues. We've got to go back to those. And I -- I want to be here with Julia for us to introduce perhaps a new way of thinking, some new conversations in terms of how we can bring change to not see these events continue to happen over and over again. This time I believe with Julia's help, with the family's help, that if we come together, we can see change and see that these things are eliminated from our society.
BERMAN: Right. I hope you're right. I mean "this time is different" is a refrain we have heard before though in this situation.
WARD: Yes. BERMAN: I do want to know what answers you feel like you need to begin
this process.
[08:40:00]
What answers do you want or need from police?
WARD: The answers -- we have to let the family, which has a great legal team in place, I'm honored -- I'm not a legal -- I'm not an attorney, I'm a pastor. I was there for spiritual and moral counseling and I'm still involved as the overall council working with the legal team. I have to let the legal team do the job of the legal team. My job is to come back to this place of talking about the heart. We've got to deal with the hearts of police officers and we've got to deal with the heart of people who are involved in the violence. We've got to deal with the hearts of politicians, the hearts of citizens, the hearts of clergy, like myself. We've got to come back to the root.
I sometimes describe that it's a sin problem and not a skin problem. Sin is the root, racism, these other things are the fruit. And, John, you know what, if you keep picking the fruit off the tree and you don't kill it at the root, the fruit's only going to go back. That is why we hear calls for change each time but we don't see change because we're not dealing with the root. The root is still strong. The root is still growing. And it's only going to produce more fruit. I think we deal with these things -- we treat them as symptoms and we never get to the virus. That is my job and I want to call on the faith community to help engage, to work alongside the medical community, the legal community, law enforcement. We've got to come together. But faith leaders like myself, we've got to engage to get to the root, to the heart matter and then we'll see the change. We never get that far, but we need to do that.
BERMAN: Pastor Ward, we appreciate you being with us.
WARD: Yes.
BERMAN: The family is lucky to have you.
WARD: It's my pleasure.
BERMAN: Kenosha is lucky to have you. I hope people are listening. Thank you.
WARD: Thank you so much, John. Great being with you.
BERMAN: All right, this is a tough turn.
Jerry Falwell, Jr., is no longer leading the university founded by his father, so why is he walking away with more than $10 million after resigning because of a sex scandal? Details in a live report, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:45:43] CAMEROTA: New this morning, Jerry Falwell, Jr., tells CNN he'll receive more than $10 million after stepping down as head of Liberty University. The embattled evangelical leader officially resigned in the wake of a sexual relationship between his wife and a pool boy.
CNN's Athena Jones has more.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
BECKI FALWELL, WIFE OF JERRY FALWELL, JR.: And we look forward to 2020 and winning and making America great again and again and again.
ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): A resignation, followed by a swift reversal, only adding to the drama surrounding now former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell, Jr., and his wife, as the prominent Trump supporters confront a sex scandal. The board of the evangelical university meeting today to seal Falwell's fate after he waffled over what to do next in a series of phone calls with "The Wall Street Journal," repeatedly insisting he had done nothing wrong, telling the paper he is still due his full compensation and saying of the board, they put me on leave because of pressure from self- righteous people. The unflattering end of Falwell's term as university president coming as a man, Giancarlo Granda, told CNN he had a year's long extramarital affair with Falwell's wife after the couple met him on a trip to Miami eight years ago. Granda telling Reuters, Jerry Falwell enjoyed watching from the corner of the room while the pair had sex. In a lengthy statement to CNN that referred to a, quote, fatal attraction type situation and included multiple references to scripture, Jerry Falwell admitted his wife's relationship, but denied being involved at all, let alone having watched.
Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved.
Reuters first reported Granda's side of the story. Granda saying the liaisons happened multiple times per year at hotels in Miami and New York and at the Falwell's home in Virginia. The agency also publishing texts supplied by Granda, including from Becki Falwell, who serves on the board of Women for Trump and has been called the first lady of Liberty University.
LARA TRUMP, TRUMP CAMPAIGN: You're there at Liberty University and you guys are training tomorrow's workforce. But you're also promoting traditional family values.
JONES: In one text from 2012, she allegedly writes to Granda, right now I am just missing you like crazy. Have you had this effect on all of your lady friends?
Falwell was one of president Trump's most prominent evangelical supporters. His January 2016 endorsement helping the thrice married real estate mogul, with a history of alleged extramarital affairs, win the support of white evangelicals, a key voting bloc.
JERRY FALWELL, JR., PROMINENT EVANGELICAL SUPPORTER OF PRESIDENT TRUMP: I truly believe Mr. Trump is America's blue collar billionaire. He is down to earth. He loves America and the American people.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
JONES: And speaking of that full compensation, Jerry Falwell, Jr., says he is still owed, he confirmed to my colleague Daniel Burke that he will receive, as part of his severance package, $2.5 million over the next two years and $8 million after that.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Just staggering sums.
Athena, thank you very much for all of that reporting.
Also, devastating wildfires year after year are forcing some families in California to consider leaving for good.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We've been together for 43 years. All -- everything we've built together, it's gone.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CAMEROTA: We have more from these families in wine country, next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:52:48]
BERMAN: As of this morning, California wildfires have scorched more than a million acres, destroyed hundreds of homes. The devastation now has some families thinking about leaving the state of California for good.
CNN's Dan Simon joins us now from wine country, which has been hit so hard, Dan. What are you hearing?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, John, first of all, as far as this fire is concerned, crews continuing to make some good progress thanks to favorable weather conditions. This particular fire right now about 30 percent contained, but you still do have tens of thousands of people who have been evacuated and for a lot of these folks this has become something of an annual experience.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON (voice over): The grapes are plump as harvesting is about to begin in California's wine country. But this annual late summer tradition is now accompanied by a more ominous one.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is five years straight we've had terrible fires and it's a real scary thing. This is the new normal.
SIMON (on camera): So you evacuated in 2017?
DAVID STALNAKER, NAPA COUNTY RESIDENT: A couple of times.
SIMON: 2018?
D. STALNAKER: 2018 once and I think we did it once in 2016. And then this year.
Very good.
SIMON (voice over): Five evacuations in four years for David and Marianne Stalnaker. This time their good luck had run out.
MARIANNE STALNAKER, NAPA COUNTY RESIDENT: We've been together for 43 years. Everything we've built together is gone.
SIMON: Their home in Napa County, along with dozens of others in the Bariessa (ph) Highlands neighborhood has been reduced to piles of rubble.
M. STALNAKER: Everybody was very fire wise safe here, but it just roared through the canyons. There's nothing you can do about it. It's -- it's sad. It's a reality, I guess.
SIMON: The reality is marked by these troubling statistics. Five of California's most destructive wildfires in history taking place here in wine country in just the past few years. More than 10,000 structures destroyed.
JILLIAN NOLAN, NAPA COUNTY RESIDENT: I just started hysterically crying.
SIMON: Jillian and Cassidy Nolan, along with their four children, had just moved into their new home in June. Cassidy is a former Marine who had done two deployments in Afghanistan.
[08:55:01]
CASSIDY NOLAN, NAPA COUNTY RESIDENT: The feeling is the same, you know? There's despair. There's -- there's sadness. There's sorrow. There's destruction.
SIMON: More destruction, in fact, than any family should have to endure.
In 2017, Jillian says her mother lost her Napa home to the devastating Atlas Fire. A year later, she says her sister lost her home to the tragic Camp Fire that ravaged the town of Paradise.
J. NOLAN: Bad luck with fire. We have no idea really what comes next.
SIMON: Given all the tragedies and the potential for more fires, they're not certain if they want to stay in California. The Stalnakers weighing their options as well as they look for lost treasures.
M. STALNAKER: We just poured so much money into this home in the last few years. That's what we've been doing since we retired is re -- you know, we had it painted. You know, we've just redone the whole thing, redone the rooms, all for naught.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SIMON: Well, experts say because of global warming, coupled with a lot of dry fuel weather that's from a drought or from wildfire suppression, this is the new normal in California. And, Alisyn, obviously, we've talked to so many of these fire victims and all of their stories are just so heartbreaking.
Alisyn.
CAMEROTA: Absolutely. And it's so important to hear from all of those fire victims.
Thank you very much, Dan.
Well, stay tuned here because Hurricane Laura is closing in on the Gulf Coast. So CNN's coverage continues, next.
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JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Good Wednesday morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.
The breaking news this morning, and we are doing our best to document exactly what happened on the streets overnight in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
[09:00:03]
Reports -- accounts coming out of there, they're conflicting, the view of the violence on the street, though, very concerning.
