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Jobless Benefits Numbers are Released; SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA) is Interviewed about Trump's Call, Voting Legislation and Immigration; Don Lemon is Interviewed about his new Book on Racism. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired March 11, 2021 - 08:30   ET

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

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[08:33:16]

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Breaking news, new jobless claims numbers have just been released and chief business correspondent Christine Romans has the breaking details.

What are you seeing, Christine?

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: I'm seeing some improvement here in the -- just the mass layoffs we've seen every single week. And 712,000 new filings for state unemployment benefits. That is the lowest of the crisis by my count here.

You add in the people filing for pandemic unemployment insurance, though, a number, 478,000, you're still more than a million -- a million and change people filing for benefits. So that's -- that's still troublesome to see.

But I'm hoping this is rear view mirror kind of data here. Here's why. We saw that once this is signed into law, the COVID relief is going to provide much needed relief for thousands and thousands of airline workers who can tear up their pink slips their furlough slips, their companies are saying. There's support in here -- more support for restaurants in particular. So hopefully you're going to be able to keep people whole. And that's still filing for unemployment benefits because of that COVID relief that is expected to be signed by the president this week.

Overall, these numbers are still big, 20 million people, the government says, are still receiving some sort of unemployment benefit. Those benefits, we think, will now have signed into law, will go all the way through to September. $300 extra a week, John, in unemployment benefits.

But, again, fingers crossed here that the worst of the layoffs of the pandemic crisis is behind us. And as the vaccine picks up, and as COVID relief gets into the economy, you'll start to see these numbers improve and hopefully improve quickly, John.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: These green chutes that we remember talking about from a decade ago.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: Thanks so much, Christine Romans.

So brand-new audio obtained by "The Wall Street Journal," you can hear former -- the former president urging a top Georgia investigator to find fraud in the 2020 election.

[08:35:00]

Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: And I won Georgia. I know that. By a lot. And the people know it. And, you know, something happened. I mean something bad happened.

But if you go back two years and if you can get to Fulton, you're going to find things that are going to be unbelievable, the dishonesty that we've heard from.

It never made sense and, you know, they dropped ballots. They dropped all these ballots. Stacey Abrams, really, really terrible, I mean, just a terrible thing. And I will say this, hopefully, you know, I will -- when -- when the right answer comes out, you'll be praised. I mean I don't know why, you know, they -- they made it so hard. They will be praised. People will say, great, because that's what it's about, that ability to check and to -- and to make it right. Because everyone knows its wrong. There's just no way.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Joining me now is the new Democratic senator from Georgia, Jon Ossoff.

Senator, this is the second call that we've heard between the former president and a Georgia official in which he is urging election interference in your state.

So what's your reaction when you hear that?

SEN. JON OSSOFF (D-GA): Well, Former President Trump tried to intimidate Georgia's secretary of state, Brad Raffensperger, to commit election fraud. It was a disgraceful act. And now on the basis of all of the misinformation that the former president spread, Georgia state legislature is passing meritless voting restrictions that are brazenly intended to disenfranchise black and working class voters for partisan ends. And it's why the United States Congress needs to advance substantial voting rights measures.

But I do just want to observe, former President Trump is just that, a former president. And now President Biden, in his first 60 days, with this Democratic Congress, has passed the most substantial economic relief for working class and middle class families in American history. We've done it without drama. We've built political capital. We're sending thousands of dollars to working families, billions of dollars to safely reopen schools, billions of dollars for vaccine supply and distribution and better days are ahead.

BERMAN: I'm going to come to the relief bill in just a moment because, actually, it is tied into voting. You're the personification of the fact that it's tied into voting in a certain way. But I do want to talk to you about what you just brought up in Georgia, several measures being voted on now in your state that will make it harder to vote.

President Biden says he's not going to support eliminating the filibuster in order to get federal voting rights legislation through. So if that's off the table, you know, what's the realistic path forward?

OSSOFF: Well, we may indeed need to reform Senate rules to enact substantive voting rights measures. And I'm certainly open to having a discussion about those rules changes.

Here's the bottom line about those voter suppression bills in Georgia. And I think this really says it all. Georgia's own Republican lieutenant governor, Jeff Duncan, was so disgusted by these bills, which are flagrant in how they seek to disenfranchise people just to score partisan ends, just to gain political power, abusing -- using the force of law to disenfranchise voters, that Jeff Duncan, our Republican lieutenant governor, refused to preside over the debate in Georgia's state senate. They are open about what they're trying to do here. It's why we need to pass the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the For the People Act in the U.S. Congress.

BERMAN: So you, Senator Ossoff and Senator Warnock, when you ran in the runoff elections, you ran on the explicit promise of providing direct stimulus to the voters in Georgia, the $200,000 check at this point. So this was very much on the ballot in early January. And as I said, I mean you could make a case that you and Senator Warnock are the personification now of why a vote matters. This legislation that was passed and will be signed into law on Friday is almost impossible to imagine it being passed through Congress if you were not a senator right now. So do the voters in your state get credit for this?

OSSOFF: Absolutely. As Senator Warnock said yesterday, thank God for Georgia. We would not have passed this legislation had we not won these two runoff victories on January 5th. So for anybody who ever doubts that elections have consequences, and that voting matters, the thousands of dollars of economic relief that working families are about to receive, the hundreds of billions of dollars for the public health effort and to reopen our schools, the most progressive economic relief package passed in generations by the U.S. Congress, zero percent of the tax credits and stimulus check going to the top 1 percent, promoting economic recovery by getting help directly to working class and middle class people would not have been possible had folks not turned out in record numbers in Georgia in early January. That's the beauty of our democracy, the people's voice is what counts.

The people demanded this economic relief. Georgia voters demanded this economic relief.

[08:40:00]

We've delivered this economic relief. Now it's time to pass voting rights measures and to advance a bold and historic infrastructure plan.

BERMAN: I want to -- I want to ask you about the surge in unaccompanied minors at the southern border. Thirty-four hundred children are now in Border Patrol custody. That is a very high number. It's more than the peak under President Trump.

You know, Biden's own czar acknowledged yesterday that the administration's humane approach may be -- more humane approach, and this is what they said, may be affecting, may be incentivizing, in a way, people to come.

What's the right way to handle this?

OSSOFF: Look, the right way to handle immigration has been well-known to be the right way to handle immigration for 20 years. It's comprehensive immigration reform with a path to legal status for those who are here without proper documentation and otherwise follow the law, and substantive efforts to improve boarder security. There's a bipartisan consensus among the people that that's what we need. Just like there is a bipartisan consensus among the people that we needed to pass this stimulus. Ordinary Americans know what's right and what's needed. It's up to politicians in this building and this town to get it done. And it's up to politicians in this building and this town as well to pass the kind of infrastructure bill that will leave a mark for a century, modernizing our economy, getting our electric grid to 100 percent carbon free electric production, getting our vehicle fleet 100 percent electric. We can make history in the next 18 months with a massive infrastructure package. We need to get it done. We should look at getting it done this summer.

BERMAN: Senator Jon Ossoff from Georgia, thanks for being with us this morning. Appreciate it.

OSSOFF: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: And here's what else to watch today.

ON SCREEN TEXT: 12:30 p.m. ET, White House press briefing.

5:15 p.m. ET, Merrick Garland sworn in as attorney general.

8:00 p.m. ET, President Biden addresses the nation.

CAMEROTA: CNN's Don Lemon is known for fearless conversation.

BERMAN: Also punctuality.

CAMEROTA: And for walking into our studio and disrupt things a minute ago.

BERMAN: But also walking in seconds before his hit.

CAMEROTA: Now in his new book he's sharing some of the frank discussions he's having with family and friends about racism. Don will be with us on the couch, next.

BERMAN: He's not micced, so we can say anything we want about him and he can't respond at this point.

CAMEROTA: Yes, we can.

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[08:46:55]

BERMAN: So racism is something that she talked about out loud. That's the idea behind our friend Don Lemon's new book "This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends about Racism." It comes out on Tuesday. It's full of honest and fearless conversations he's had with his own friends and family.

And "CNN TONIGHT" anchor Don Lemon joins us now.

CAMEROTA: In the flesh.

BERMAN: It's great to see you, first of all.

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR, "CNN TONIGHT": It's great to see you and it's great to be here in the flesh. I haven't done this in so long.

BERMAN: So I --

CAMEROTA: We haven't sat over here for that lone.

BERMAN: I was texting you all day yesterday about how much I was enjoying reading your book and you made me tell you out loud before -- during the break how much I liked it again. And I'm going to say it right now on television how much I liked it. This is a phenomenal book. And the way you weave stories in and out of the arguments that you're making, you talk about your mother, it's really, really well done and important.

And I almost don't know where to begin. But I want to start with the title, "This is the Fire," because I think it's so important about why you chose that title, where it comes from, and it also gets to how you structure the book.

LEMON: It is -- this book is a tribute to my personal hero, which is James Baldwin, my personal literary hero and also trailblazer, James Baldwin. And so I started -- I picked up -- I started picking up James Baldwin as a young man, you know, in my 20s. Well, I think around 18 years old when I started college. And he helped me get through being a black man from the south and trying to understand race in this country and the book was "The Fire Next Time," which is an iconic book by James Baldwin. And he ends the book by saying, God gave Noah the rainbow sign, no more water, the fire next time.

And so all throughout the Trump administration, as you guys know, everyone had been trying -- every time the president tweeted, the former president tweeted about me, someone would say, why don't you write a book? Hey, Don Lemon, it's such and such from this book company, why don't you write a book? And I said, no, I don't want to write a book. This is not what I'm interested in. And then the summer of unrest last summer with George Floyd happened and it just kind of poured out of me. And I said, we are -- this is the fire. We're in it right now.

BERMAN: Yes, it's not next time, it's now.

LEMON: It's now. The first is -- this is -- this is the fire right now. And it's so appropriate that I'm here with you guys because I'm friends with both of you, because the subtitle of the book is "What I Say to My Friends about Racism."

CAMEROTA: And what is that?

LEMON: And that's where you start.

CAMEROTA: Yes, what -- but what are those conversations?

LEMON: Alisyn, it's in this book.

CAMEROTA: Yes, but I need you to give us a little cliff notes because everybody, I will -- I will speak for most people, you say it shouldn't be a hard conversation. It is a hard conversation.

LEMON: You think so?

CAMEROTA: Because white people are afraid they're going to step in it. Of course, look at what's happening with the royal family. I mean, hypothetically speaking, maybe Prince Charles said something that he thought was innocuous, OK? Maybe he said, what you to think the baby's going to look like when the baby's born? Who knows?

LEMON: And we all had those conversations, by the way.

CAMEROTA: OK. But now he is seen by the world as possibly racist for asking a question like that. So these are tough conversations.

LEMON: They are tough conversations, but there is one very important thing that Prince Charles -- Prince Charles or William or whoever can do.

CAMEROTA: Whoever. What?

LEMON: They're got a big platform.

BERMAN: Yes.

LEMON: They can come out and say, I am not --

BERMAN: (INAUDIBLE). [08:50:01]

LEMON: This is the conversation that we had and maybe there was something in the conversation that was misconstrued or maybe I just didn't understand or know how someone else felt about what I was saying and then there -- there you go, you have a conversation. And then people will understand that what -- it didn't come from a bad place. That's how you do it. You don't do it by, I believe the way the Buckingham Palace is doing it.

BERMAN: Privately.

LEMON: And saying these are -- this is private.

BERMAN: They literally say (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: But every time there's an issue, right, you want -- they want to fix, they run to a television camera, they run to the BBC. You know, Princess Diana did an interview and they're criticizing Meghan for doing an interview.

Prince Andrew did an interview in 2019. So they run to the television and to the media when it benefits them. So this would benefit not only them, regardless of how you feel about Meghan, right? There are people who don't believe her story. OK, fine, that's your prerogative. But look at what's happened when you look at black Britain's. How they feel about it. They're talking about systemic racism in their country now. So take this minute, use it, go to the cameras and try to heal your country. He's got a -- they've got a big platform. I don't feel sorry for him that someone said something about him and he can't respond. He has every opportunity to respond.

BERMAN: I read in this book "This is Fire" that what you think that white people can do is first, you know, deal with your thoughts the way you think.

LEMON: Right.

BERMAN: Then what you say, right, your words, and then it's action.

LEMON: Right.

BERMAN: And you really need to do all three.

LEMON: Well, you do need to do all three. But what you really need to do is find a friend who doesn't look like you. Find a friend like Alisyn who can text me and say, hey, Don, I -- you know, can I call you? I want to talk to you about something. Or John Berman, who sends me off-colored texts all the time.

BERMAN: That's never true. I -- my texts were all about -- I love your book. I love your book.

LEMON: No, but --

BERMAN: But it wasn't enough because you made me say it again. CAMEROTA: Not on color, off color.

LEMON: No, but it's -- we're -- we're at a point that we know each other where we can actually joke about things and if there -- if things are -- there are serious things, you can approach it -- we should not -- we shouldn't underestimate the power of humor, right, and the power of love. That's why I say what I say to my friends, because you need a friend who doesn't look like you. Everyone needs a black friend, everyone needs a white friend, everyone needs an Asian friend, everyone needs a friend who doesn't look like them and doesn't come from the same place.

So, yes, I understand that some people think these conversations are hard, but they're -- they're really not.

CAMEROTA: Have you had some hilarious conversations with friends where they ask completely absurd questions?

LEMON: Yes, I've had -- I had them every night on television with someone you guys know very well.

BERMAN: Do you watch -- do you ever watch his show?

CAMEROTA: I was leading you to --

LEMON: I do. I do. But, again, as I say, that's -- that -- they are -- they come from a place of love and a place of understanding. And if there's ever an issue, we talk about it.

And, look, I've got to tell you, right after the George Floyd, as you know, George Floyd was -- that was the event for me that started me to write this book. I had so many people calling me saying, what do I do, Don? You're my friend. I don't know who else to call. I love you. Help me. I don't have the tools to talk to my children about this or the vocabulary. What do I do? And I -- that was part of the impetus to write the book. It's like, this is what I say to my friends.

BERMAN: I want to get one more quote from the book, and this is one that jumped out at me, and I was like, really, you, Don Lemon, you're going to say this? You said, it breaks my heart and burns my tongue to say it --

LEMON: Right.

BERMAN: But in 2016, Donald Trump was exactly the president we deserve and probably the president we needed.

LEMON: Yes. And I think I -- I agree, it's true.

CAMEROTA: But what does that mean?

LEMON: That means that he brought it right to the surface. We see who people are. I think I said -- I think I followed up by saying he was a perseverating symptom or the ulcer or the tumor that got us into the oncologist's office.

BERMAN: Yes. Exactly. (INAUDIBLE) no the cancer (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: Because he -- he sent us into the oncologist's office, he sent us into the doctor's office so that we -- they can diagnose a problem and get the problem fixed or excised or whatever.

CAMEROTA: Right, but it is metastasizing. I mean -- as a result.

LEMON: It is metastasizing but it's out there in the open. And I -- here's what I'm hopeful about. I'm hopeful that there were 81 million people who are interested in continuing this grand experiment that we call a search for a more perfect union, not a perfect union, not a perfect union from the 1950s and "Leave it to Beaver," a perfect union from, you know, when there was slavery in the country and all that, a more perfect union which is inclusive. So I think there are enough people who are on the right side of history, right side mentally and emotionally and -- to move this country forward in the right way.

CAMEROTA: Great to have you, Don. Great to talk to you and see you.

LEMON: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: You guys are the first.

CAMEROTA: Yes. Yay.

BERMAN: You'll always -- I'm told you'll always remember us.

Go ahead.

CAMEROTA: You can get Don Lemon's new book "This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends about Racism." It's available in stores and online on Tuesday. Order now for pre-sales.

LEMON: Thank you, guys, so much.

BERMAN: All right, don't go far, actually, Don, because I know you care about this deeply also.

LEMON: OK.

BERMAN: So the CNN family lost a brave little girl to brain cancer on Christmas Eve. Francesca Kaczynski loved -- she was lovingly called Beans. She was the daughter of our colleague Andrew Kaczynski and his wife Rachel Ensign. She was just nine months old.

[08:55:00]

Now, today would be Francesca's first birthday. To commemorate, CNN is launching the Team Beans beanie with proceeds going directly to the Dana-Farber Cancer Institute, which is just such a wonderful place where Beans was treated for an aggressive brain tumor known as ATRT. Proceeds will specifically help fund research and treatment for this rare form of cancer typically seen in infants and we want you -- we invite you to purchase a beanie hat at teambeans.shop. Andrew and Rachel, you need to know that we have been thinking about you so much. Our hearts are with you. We love you and everyone, you know, get the hat, wear it proudly.

CAMEROTA: Team Beans -- #teambeans.

BERMAN: Proud of our Team Beans.

CAMEROTA: It's a great looking hat. I was wearing it all day yesterday. And Francesca's spirit just shines through in all of those pictures that you see of her. She -- what a beautiful baby.

BERMAN: Yes. And the smile.

LEMON: Yes, and watching their interviews and they're just handle themselves so graciously. I can't even image.

BERMAN: Rachel and Andrew, the grace that they've shown through this is heroic, to say the least.

LEMON: Great hat.

CAMEROTA: #teambeans. Everybody, go on his Instagram as well.

BERMAN: All right, our coverage continues right after this.

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