Return to Transcripts main page

New Day

Trump Encourages People to Vote Twice; Black Man Dies during Police Encounter in New York; Barr Denies Systemic Racism. Aired 6:30- 7a ET

Aired September 03, 2020 - 06:30   ET

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


[06:30:00]

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So weak or so. You have such weak feelings about the American system of elections. And this is part of -- of the strategy.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Look, the president --

JEFFREY TOOBIN, CNN CHIEF LEGAL ANALYST: Well, and I think it's actually --

BERMAN: Go ahead, Jeffrey.

TOOBIN: I think it's actually worse -- even worse than that.

BERMAN: Right.

TOOBIN: Because, I mean, what's going on here is an attempt to suppress Democratic votes, capital "d," Democrats. That, you know, it is long established that Democrats vote by mail in greater numbers than Republicans do. And to the extent you can drive that vote down or discredit that vote and prepare the way for, you know, that vote to be challenged later, you are hurting Democrats. So this isn't just sort of chaos sowing, this is an attempt to win the election for Republicans. This is -- this is not just lying, but it's lying for partisan purposes.

BERMAN: It's insidious. There's no other way to put it. It's just insidious what's being done here. And it's designed to sow doubt in the system. Don't pay attention to the fact that the president's telling people to go commit a felony by voting twice. You obviously can't do that. And there are systems in place to make sure that you can't do it. They check your name to see if your absentee ballot is in when you get there.

But that's not what's happening. He's trying to suggest that the system is broken to sow doubt. And it's just insidious to see when what should be happening is to shore up the system, to help it be so people can vote safely and get their ballots in, Juliette.

KAYYEM: That's exactly right. And so -- so you have the internal sort of threats from Barr and Trump, sort of in terms of, as Jeff correctly said, the Democratic vote predominantly. And then you have this external threat that we know exists, which is primarily from Russia. The Trump administration is trying to sort of muddy that story and say it's also China and Iran. No one actually believes that.

And so you have this external threat, which is clear and targeted, about misinformation, disinformation, and even potential targeting of voting facilities by the Russians, which is being -- the fact of that is being ignored by the Trump administration, is being silenced by the Department of Homeland Security. That information is not getting to Congress or the American public or secretaries of state.

So both internally and then externally, you have an administration using the tools that they have, right, because they run government, to try to -- to try to impact this election. And just going back to Barr, you know, I think we should stop calling him the attorney general. He is the campaign chairman. That -- that interview with Wolf Blitzer was intended for one purpose, which was essentially to say, I will use everything I can do to essentially help Donald Trump become president.

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: What about that, Jeffrey? What is Bill Barr doing? How can the attorney general of the United States not know that millions of people in 2014, '16, '18, have used mail-in ballots quite successfully without voter fraud?

TOOBIN: Because he sees himself as Donald Trump's personal advocate, not the people's lawyer, which is what the attorney general is supposed to be. I mean if you look at what he said, you know, that people voting by mail -- the vote by mail process is playing with -- playing with fire. That is directly out of what the president said.

He -- you know, by saying that China is a greater threat to the integrity of election than Russia, completely out of the Trump playbook. Also false according to the office of the Director of National Intelligence.

But, you know, all -- every -- you know, that was what was so shameful about his interview with Wolf is that, you know, everything he said was a, you know, a slightly more palatable version of the campaign speeches that -- and statements that the president has been making, even though, especially when those statements were false by the president.

BERMAN: Just one more thing on voting. Republicans have a record of making it harder to vote in person. So when you hear them criticizing mail-in voting, don't think for a second that they want to make it easier to vote in person at all, because there's a record of them working against that, too. So there is dramatic inconsistency here.

Jeffrey, Juliette --

TOOBIN: I wouldn't call it -- I wouldn't call it inconsistency, I would call it consistency.

KAYYEM: Right.

TOOBIN: I would say, if they are trying to make it harder for Democrats to vote, whether it's by mail or photo ID requirements at polling places or closing polling places in African-American neighborhoods. I mean I think it's all perfectly consistent.

CAMEROTA: OK. Got it.

TOOBIN: The point here --

CAMEROTA: Guys, we have to go. Thank you both very much for your expertise on this.

KAYYEM: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: We're also, this morning, learning new details about the death of an unarmed black man after a police encounter in New York. We have the video to show you, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:38:43]

BERMAN: Developing this morning, protests erupting in Rochester, New York, over the death of an unarmed black man after an encounter with police. Now, the encounter was back in March, but body cam video obtained just yesterday shows Daniel Prude with a hood over his head and his face pressed to the pavement. Prude's family says he was having a mental health episode.

CNN's Brynn Gingras joins us now with the details.

Lay it out for us, Brynn.

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John, well, as you noted, this incident happened back in March, but the family of Daniel Prude says they weren't able to get their hands on that body camera footage. And they say looking at that footage now, they are even more convinced that their loved one was murdered.

Now, CNN obtained that footage from the Prude family attorney. And it shows just a portion of what they received of that body cam footage. Eleven minutes in total of police trying to subdue Prude. And in it, though, you do see police putting a bag over his head at one point.

I do want to warn you, you may find this video disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GINGRAS (voice over): New calls for justice from the family of Daniel Prude, a man who died in the custody of the Rochester Police Department back in March. The circumstances around his death are under new scrutiny.

MAYOR LOVELY A. WARREN (D), ROCHESTER, NEW YORK: I sympathize with the family because I too, when I saw the video, was very disturbed.

[06:40:03]

I see something here and I disagree with it. And we're going to do everything that we can to hold someone accountable. GINGRAS: Attorneys for Prude's family providing CNN with edited body

cam footage of the March 23rd incident that shows different angles of what happened. The video start with police arriving on the scene after Prude's brother called them, saying Prude was experiencing a mental health episode. The footage shows an officer approach Prude, who was on the street, naked.

OFFICER: Get on the ground. Put your hand behind your back. Behind your back.

DANIEL PRUDE: Yes, sir.

OFFICER: Don't move. Don't move.

PRUDE: Yes, sir.

OFFICER: Chill out, man. Don't move, all right, man?

PRUDE: Yes, sir.

OFFICER: Just don't move.

PRUDE: Yes, sir.

GINGRAS: Prude complies with the officer's request and is then handcuffed.

OFFICER: Are you Daniel?

PRUDE: Yes, sir.

OFFICER: Daniel Prude?

PRUDE: Please -- please let me get my money (ph).

OFFICER: Daniel Prude.

GINGRAS: Moments later, the footage shows Prude visibly agitated for several minutes, yelling at officers and moving around on the pavement.

PRUDE: Jesus Christ, I pray, man, let me go. (INAUDIBLE).

GINGRAS: Then, three minutes after the initial encounter, police place a bag over Prude's head, which distresses him further.

PRUDE: (INAUDIBLE), get that (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

GINGRAS: He continues moving on the ground with the bag on his head and the officers demand he lay still.

PRUDE: Give me the gun.

OFFICER: Lay down.

PRUDE: Give me the gun. Give me the handgun. OFFICER: Stay down. Stay down.

PRUDE: Give me the handgun.

GINGRAS: And when he does not comply, appears to try to stand, three officers get on the ground to physically restrain him and hold him to the ground.

OFFICER: I got him. I got him.

PRUDE: (INAUDIBLE) --

OFFICER: I'm already in (INAUDIBLE).

PRUDE: They're trying to kill me!

GINGRAS: One officer has his knee on Prude's back and the other is holding his head to the pavement while the bag remains on his head. Another officer can be seen putting his weight on Prude's head, who appears to be struggling to breathe. During the struggle, the officers realize Prude is spitting and appears to have vomited. Soon after, the paramedics begin to assist.

OFFICER: I don't know, it's freezing out here. He's been out naked for 30 minutes.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: As I said, (INAUDIBLE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He feels pretty cold.

GINGRAS: The EMTs instruct the officers to roll him over.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, no.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Start CPR.

GINGRAS: After performing CPR for about two minutes, Prude is placed on a gurney and put on the ambulance. Prude was pronounced brain dead upon arriving at the hospital and died on March 30th.

"The New York Times" reports the autopsy report ruled Prude's his death a homicide caused by complications of asphyxia in a setting of a physical restraint. The report further sites excited deliria and acute intoxication by phencyclidine, or the drug PCP, were contributing factors.

The New York attorney general announcing an independent investigation has begun, promising transparency and accountability. Prude's family is demanding the officers involved be fired and charged with murder.

JOE PRUDE, DANIEL PRUDE'S BROTHER: The man is defensible, butt-naked on the ground. He's cuffed up already. I mean, come on. How many more brothers got to die for society to understand that this needs to stop!

(END VIDEOTAPE) GINGRAS: Now, the attorney general here in New York acts as an independent investigator, which is in line with the police reform bills that were sign offered the summer. Their office has had this case since April, but there's no timeline on when there will be any release of findings.

In the meantime, though, the Prude family is taking steps to file a wrongful death lawsuit. And as for those three officers involved, they are still working, there's no change in their status until this case has some -- is finalized.

John.

BERMAN: The video is very disturbing, Brynn. And it happened so long ago, you would think there would be answers at this point. We appreciate you being with us.

So as this new deadly encounter comes to light, Attorney General William Barr is denying that systemic racism exists in America. His exclusive interview, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:47:49]

BERMAN: New fallout this morning from the Attorney General William Barr's exclusive interview with Wolf Blitzer. Barr says he does not believe there is systemic racism in America.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I don't think there are two justice systems. Let's -- you know, I -- I think the narrative that there's -- that the police are on some, you know, epidemic of shooting unarmed black men is simply a false narrative, and also the narrator that that's based on race.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: So back with us, Jeffrey Toobin. Also joining us, "EARLY START" anchor Laura Jarrett, who covered the Justice Department for CNN.

Laura, it was interesting because Barr said again conflicting things. Sure, black men may get treated differently, but that's not systemic racism. What is it?

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR, "EARLY START": The thing -- well, the thing that really stuck out to me, John, is that he wanted to dismiss people's feelings. He kept saying, people may feel that way. And it allowed him to sort of disregard it.

So let's talk about the facts for a minute. The facts are is that black people are disproportionately, in this country, stopped by police, killed by police, and at least historically executed by the state. Those are the facts. And so to dismiss them as feeling (ph) I think really does an injustice to it and really is part of which leads to such mistrust in communities of color.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey, I also just didn't think that the attorney general understood the root of systemic racism. I don't think that he understands implicit bias. He was giving examples that illustrated implicit bias, and he doesn't understand that that turns into systemic racism. It's not that you're intentional -- it's not systematic, it's not that you're intentionally doing this, it's that it's part of people's mind-set for so long.

TOOBIN: Well, it may be that he misunderstands. But -- but, you know, I thought that part of Wolf's interview was the most sincere part of what the attorney general said, because I think he does not believe there is a race problem in the United States. I mean I think he honestly believes that. I think the president honestly believes that. And that the Black Lives Matter movement is fundamentally illegitimate because there's no problem there.

I mean I think, you know, that is the view of the Trump administration, starting with the president, including the attorney general, and, you know, people have to decide on their own whether that's an appropriate or a legitimate view.

[06:50:13]

But I think it's a sincerely held view that Black Lives Matter is a made-up problem and is just a bunch of complaining by black people and their allies.

JARRETT: He may deny it, Jeffrey, but just looking at the video that you just saw in the last segment, from Daniel Prude, and what happened to him, I don't know how you can look at a video like that and not say that there are two justice systems in this country. They put a bag over his head. He's lying in the street naked in the middle of March. It's freezing. I mean, I don't know how you can look at that and say there isn't something really troubling going on in this country. This is a smart attorney general. He knows what's happening.

TOOBIN: It -- but -- but, I mean, you know, I -- that video was so chilling. I mean it so much reminded me of the George Floyd video because they were handcuffed, both men. You know, the issue in all of these -- in so many of these police killings is, you know, the officers felt threatened. You can't be threatened by someone who is naked and handcuffed.

JARRETT: Right.

TOOBIN: There is no threat to those officers. Yet they put a bag over his head, which is some -- which is a police technique I have never seen before and never heard of. Perhaps it's recommended in some communities. I've never heard of it. I seems -- it seems completely inhuman and wrong to me.

But, you know, this administration -- and -- and, believe me, I'm not defending this view by the attorney general, but I think they and their allies at Fox News think that, you know, black people are not -- are complaining about a problem that does not exist. And you can show them all the videos and show them all the statistics you want, but they are hardened in their belief.

Now, you can speculate about what their ultimate beliefs are about black people, but certainly they do not believe that there is a problem with law enforcement and African-Americans. I don't know how they believe it. I certainly don't believe it. But they do.

BERMAN: Very quickly, we talked to Wisconsin officials involved in the investigation into the Jacob Blake shooting nearly every day and they will not give us details. They say the investigation is going on, so they're just not going to give us the details of what they believe happened.

The attorney general of the United States apparently doesn't feel that way and said this out loud to Wolf.

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, I'm not going to talk about Blake -- the Blake case.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: Why not?

BARR: Because I think it's different than the Floyd case.

BLITZER: What's different?

BARR: Well, Floyd was already subdued, incapacitated, in handcuffs, and was not armed. In the -- in the Jacob case, he was in the midst of committing a felony and he was armed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Of course, Laura, we don't know that because the details in the investigation haven't been released. The family denies it. And now you have the attorney general stating it as a fact that Jacob Blake was armed.

JARRETT: He says he's not going to talk about it, and then he talks about it. And it's in the midst of a, you know, an active investigation. The feds are looking at it. Obviously, the state is looking at it. And I just am baffled about why the attorney general wants to put his thumb on the scale in the defense of law enforcement in the case when we just don't know.

We haven't seen the full video. We've seen parts of it. The person who filmed the video said he didn't see a knife. That -- we just don't know. And the family denies it. The -- Blake's attorney denies it. And so why the attorney general feels the need to weigh in on this right now, I -- I cannot imagine.

CAMEROTA: And, also, one more thing, Laura --

TOOBIN: At the same --

CAMEROTA: Yes, one more thing, Jeffrey, because I just want to say that I also think it's very interesting that the attorney general and other officials are willing to speculate and divulge information about Jacob Blake, impugning his character, talking about his background, his motives, but not give us any information about the officers' mind- set and background and motives.

TOOBIN: And, at the same time, the president is defending Rittenhouse, who killed people later that night in Kenosha. You know, the white guy with the assault rifle, on the -- that the president says, oh, no, the white guy, he was about to be killed. It was -- it was self-defense, at the same time as the attorney general is saying, oh, the black guy had a weapon, even though it is far from clear he had a weapon. I mean, you know, draw your own conclusions about how they defend white criminals or white accused criminals, white cops, and disparage black people, always.

CAMEROTA: Jeffrey Toobin, Laura Jarrett, thank you both very much.

JARRETT: Sure.

CAMEROTA: OK, when it comes to a coronavirus vaccine timeline, there's a lot of confusion and concern. Is the administration putting politics over public safety? More on that.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:59:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: The CDC has told public health officials across the country, start preparing to distribute a Covid vaccine as soon as late October.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Be prepared, even if it's very low likelihood.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: We all want a safe and effective vaccine to be approved as soon as possible, but I am concerned about shortcuts being taken here.

WILLIAM BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think the police epidemic of shooting unarmed black men is simply a false narrative.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Joe Biden preparing to counter Trump's visit to Kenosha, Wisconsin.

JOE BIDEN, (D), PRESIDENTIAL NOMINEE: We've got to heal. This president keeps throwing gasoline on the fire.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY with Alisyn Camerota and John Berman. BERMAN: I'm still writing. OK, welcome to our viewers in the United

States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY.

One thousand and fifty-six Americans, 1,056 new deaths reported from coronavirus in the last 24 hours.

[07:00:00]

This morning, there is confusion about a potential vaccine. And given the track record on public trust in public health, there are questions.