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Witnesses Begin Being Called in Trial of Derek Chauvin for Death of George Floyd; George Floyd's Brother Philonise Floyd Interviewed on Beginning of Trial of Derek Chauvin; Biden, CDC Director Warn of Virus Rebound If Americans Let Up. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired March 30, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

DR. ROCHELLE WALENSKY, CDC DIRECTOR: So much promise and potential of where we are and so much reason for hope. But right now I'm scared.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Here's what she's seeing. Cases are rising in nearly half of all states. This time there's a rise in cases and hospitalizations among younger people. In Michigan, new cases are spiking the most in 10 to 19-year-olds. Hospitalizations there are up more than 600 percent for people in their 20 -- sorry, in their 30s, people in their 30s, and 800 percent for adults in their 40s. So we will speak to the White House's senior adviser on the pandemic in just a few minutes.

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: Also this morning, the prosecution in the Derek Chauvin murder trial set to continue questioning witnesses after starting their case by playing the entire video of George Floyd's death to the jurors. A key witness, Donald Williams, is expected to take the stand again. Williams overheard Mr. Floyd pleading for his life as Chauvin, with his knee on Floyd's neck, for an agonizing nine minutes and 29 seconds. We'll speak with George Floyd's brother in just a moment.

We begin with CNN's Omar Jimenez live in Minneapolis with the emotional start to this trial.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John. This is day 14, but in many ways, this week has felt like a new beginning for this trial, this true test of what criminal accountability looks like for policing in America. And opening statements gave us a clear indication of what each side is going to argue, either in favor of or against Derek Chauvin.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

JERRY BLACKWELL, PROSECUTING ATTORNEY: The most important numbers you will hear in this story are 9:29. What happened in those nine minutes and 29 seconds.

JIMENEZ: Nine minutes and 29 seconds that's the corrected length of time prosecutors say Derek Chauvin knelt on George Floyd's neck. During day one of opening statements, prosecutor Jerry Blackwell played a bystander's video in full for the jury.

BLACKWELL: Mr. Derek Chauvin betrayed this badge when he used excessive and unreasonable force upon the body of Mr. George Floyd.

JIMENEZ: Chauvin faces three counts, second and third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter. The defense argues that Floyd died of previous health conditions and his methamphetamine and fentanyl use. An autopsy said drug use was a significant condition, but it listed his cause of death as heart failure during restraint.

ERIC NELSON, DEFENSE ATTORNEY: Derek Chauvin did exactly what he had been trained to do over the course of his 19-year career. The use of force is not attractive, but it is a necessary component of policing.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Check his pulse.

JIMENEZ: Chauvin's attorney also argues the crowd that formed at the scene distracted the officers.

NELSON: They are screaming at them, causing the officers to divert their attention from the care of Mr. Floyd to the threat that was growing in front of them.

JIMENEZ: The jury heard testimony from three witnesses, including the 911 dispatcher who called the police sergeant while watching surveillance video of the scene. At one point she said even thinking the real time video froze given how long the officers were on top of Floyd.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: My instincts were telling me that something is wrong.

JIMENEZ: The jury also heard from Donald Williams, a mixed martial- arts instructor who was at the scene. He's trained in the use of chokeholds, and sys he yelled to Chauvin of the blood choke he had Floyd in.

DONALD WILLIAMS, WITNESS: Every time his shoulder is moving, he's pushing that pressure down on his neck.

JIMENEZ: The nation has been waiting 10 months for this trial. Demonstrators flooded the surrounding streets outside the courthouse in Minneapolis. Floyd's brother was in the courtroom Monday. He says this trial is a test for the justice system.

PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: America is on trial right now. Minneapolis, Minnesota, they will have to get this right. We're tired of people being killed and slaughtered. If you can't get justice for this as a black man in America, what can you get justice for?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

JIMENEZ (on camera): And testimony is going to pick up with Donald Williams. He's going to finish what he started yesterday. And back in May, I should say, he told CNN just days after he witnessed what happened to Floyd from just feet away that he believed these officers wanted to kill that man, speaking of Floyd. And of Chauvin, he said he knew what he was doing.

Court gets back into session in just about an hour-and-a-half. The judge is going to start by hearing motions involving the broadcast of the testimony from four witnesses who were minors at the time of George Floyd's death. But then we'll hear from more witnesses in this trial that is really a culmination of everything that has been building over the last 10 months since Floyd's death. Alisyn?

CAMEROTA: Omar, thank you very much for all of that reporting.

[08:05:00]

And joining us is George Floyd's brother Philonise Floyd. Also with us, Benjamin Crump. He is one of the attorneys for George Floyd's family. Gentlemen, it's always really nice to see you, and I'm sorry it's under these circumstances. Philonise, tell us what that was like being in the courtroom yesterday.

PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: It was an emotional rollercoaster. To everybody else, it was a case and a cause. To me, it was my brother, somebody that I grew up with, eaten with, sleeping in the same bed with, going fishing with, just watching him dance with my mother. Those are the things that I think about when I think about my brother. He was a protector. He was someone who we can go to when we were in trouble and in need for anything. Hopefully we will get justice because we have 27 million reasons why we should get justice.

CAMEROTA: Philonise, many of us did not know that that video of your brother under Derek Chauvin's knee was longer than we had previously known. I know so many people who are not related to George Floyd who had to turn away, who can't make it through those nine-plus minutes of watching that video. Have you seen that whole video?

FLOYD: I was in court. I'd seen the entire video. The first time I'd seen the video, I spoke to you a while back. Every time that I have a chance to even look at a partial piece of the video, I just ask myself, where's the humanity? Life is precious. We shouldn't be killing each other. There's only one race, and that's the human race.

CAMEROTA: Yes, Philonise, you and I spoke in June, right after this happened, and we talked about all of that, and you said the same things. Of course, there's no other way for you as his brother to interpret it. Were you able, Philonise, to see Derek Chauvin's face and his reaction during that?

FLOYD: I've seen him. I watched him. I watched the reaction when the witnesses were responding to questions that they would ask. Pretty much he's in there, he's fighting for his life, just like I'm fighting for my brother's life. We have seen the video. We have facts. They are in there trying to assassinate his character. When you don't have facts, that's what you have to do.

CAMEROTA: I want to ask you about that, Ben. So the defense has tried to introduce all of these other contributing factors, they say, that would have led to George Floyd's death -- his underlying health conditions, his drug use. In terms of the assassination of character, millions of Americans struggle with substance abuse. I personally don't know a single family that isn't touched by addiction of some kind. So do you think that still works? The introduction of his drug use, do you think that will work to acquit Derek Chauvin?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR GEORGE FLOYD FAMILY: Well, I know the rules are different when it's a marginalized person of color that is killed unjustifiably by the police. History has shown us, you and I have talked many times about these types of cases where police kill people in some of the most unbelievable ways, but yet, because they are a black person, they engage in the intellectual justification of discrimination.

And you are absolutely right. Opioid use in America is an epidemic. And so are we now going to say because George Floyd had a dependency issue like millions of other Americans that what we saw in that video was acceptable? I think we're better than that, America. We have to have equal justice under the law for all Americans, whether they are black or white.

CAMEROTA: Philonise, what's it like for your family to hear those things brought up about your brother?

FLOYD: It's troublesome just hearing everything. But the fact that my brother was upright. And before he was on the ground with his hands behind his back in the prone position, that guy had his knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds, he tortured my brother to death with a smirk on his face, with his hands in his pocket.

CRUMP: Nine minutes and 29 seconds.

FLOYD: Nine minutes and 29 seconds. But the thing about it is, nobody tried to render aid. None of those officers, the people who tried, they were trying to mace them. He was trying to mace them. So it shows you what he was doing to my brother. He didn't care. He didn't care my brother was lifeless at one time.

CAMEROTA: And Philonise, to be clear, did your -- did you know it was nine minutes and 29 seconds before yesterday?

[08:10:00]

FLOYD: They didn't -- the video, every time I watch it, I only just hear eight minutes and 46 seconds. I never try to watch the entire video. It's not something that you want to watch, your brother tortured and screaming and asking for our mom and saying tell my kids I love them. I can't breathe. He was basically like a fish out of water gasping for air.

CRUMP: Yes, and that was a great analogy that Donald Williams made, that comparison to watching a fish suffocate and then watching a human being in George Floyd suffocate from lack of oxygen.

CAMEROTA: Ben, one of the things that the defense attorney said was, Chauvin didn't do anything he wasn't trained to do. That was his training. What's your response to that? Isn't there some sort of legal code or playbook that we can go to to find out, are you supposed to stay on someone's neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds?

CRUMP: Yes, I think you're going to hear as the prosecutor said in his opening argument, Alisyn, that the police chief himself is going to come in and testify that those things that were done by Derek Chauvin was inappropriate, and it was contrary to their policy, not only to police policy, but it defies all common sense, logic, and most of all, as Philonise said, humanity. Where's the humanity?

And I have to say, they are coming up with every excuse in the book other than what we saw in that video. They are saying there was a trace amount of drugs in George Floyd a system. They say it was some alleged health condition. Alisyn, they are even saying it was the bystanders' fault the police kept his knee on George Floyd's neck. It's just asinine.

And we rebuke when they come and say that this is a hard case. This murder case is not hard when you watch this torture video of George Floyd. And if George Floyd would have been a white American citizen, nobody would be saying this is a hard case. Everybody would be screaming bloody murder, and they would expect justice to come swiftly.

CAMEROTA: Ben, I want to play just a moment of that. Because the defense said that Officer Chauvin was distracted by the crowd, and I know this is very upsetting to have to watch a moment of this video again, but I just want to play what the crowd was doing and saying to Derek Chauvin during this. So here's just a moment.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You got him down, man. Let him breathe at least. Let him breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've been trying to help out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CAMEROTA: OK. OK. Ben, I have never heard a more rational sounding crowd. What the bystanders are saying is, please, man, let him breathe. They are so -- I actually can't believe how reasonable and rational their entreaties to Derek Chauvin were. They were begging him to get off the neck. So how is that distracting?

CRUMP: Alisyn, it flies in the face of all common sense that people who are trying to express humanity, trying to say, please, he's dying. Everyone could see that they were killing him, even the 911 dispatcher who said, she said they may call me a snitch, but what I'm seeing on this video is not right.

And for them to have the audacity to come and say people -- regular, everyday, good American citizens, saying, hey, police officers, you can't do that to this black man. You can't do that to a human being. You have to preserve his life, not take his life. But yet they would have the audacity to come in the courtroom today and try to tell us that the police are -- I'm sorry, the bystanders are part of the problem that he kept the knee on the neck for nine minutes and 29 seconds. It's asinine.

CAMEROTA: So Philonise, I've asked you this before, but today as you sit in the courtroom, what does justice look like for your family? If somehow Derek Chauvin escapes the full murder charge but there's some lesser charge, what is justice at the end of this?

FLOYD: At the end of the day, justice is a conviction. So many times I have seen African-American people killed and nobody gets a conviction. We are all fighting across America. Not just me. You see protesters all around the world, they're all standing up for George Floyd. That's why you see all the signs saying, I can't breathe. We want justice. All different types of things. He had a family. He has kids. He is on the ground. We love him. That's my brother.

[08:15:01]

I'll never get him back.

Derek Chauvin, he can go home. He's bonded out of jail. He's living his life.

But I'm fighting for my brother's life. I'm fighting for what's right. We will get justice, because if you can't get justice in America for this, what can you get justice for then?

ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: Philonise, Ben, thank you very much for your time. We are watching, obviously, very closely what happens, and we'll speak to you both again.

BENJAMIN CRUMP, FLOYD FAMILY'S ATTORNEY: Thank you, Alisyn.

FLOYD: Thank you.

CAMEROTA: President Biden pleading with states to bring back mask mandates as the CDC director warns of impending doom. The president's senior adviser on the pandemic joins us next.

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(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I'm reiterating my call for every governor, mayor and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate. Please, this is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHN AVLON, CNN ANCHOR: President Biden urging local and state officials to reconsider their reopenings, just hours after the CDC director warned of impending doom.

Coronavirus cases are on the rise in nearly half of U.S. states and Puerto Rico, some by as much as double digits in the last week alone.

Joining us now is Andy Slavitt, White House senior adviser on the pandemic.

Dr. Slavitt, good to see you, sir.

Question, what is driving this surge that is so evidently concerning both the president and the CDC director?

ANDY SLAVITT, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISER FOR CORONAVIRUS RESPONSE: Well, thanks for having me. Good morning, John.

You know, I think, we all see it around us. We see signs of hope, signs of optimism, with the vaccine rollout, with spring.

The thing we don't see around us is the invisible thing that's been with us for the last year which is that this virus is still spreading. It finds its way to the people that it has an opportunity to hospitalize and kill. And we take our guard down and see what's going to happen.

I think the really interesting question is, are we going to just wait for science to rescue us, or are we going to participate in our own rescue? And that's going to be very simply done if we decide to be part of this.

This is a story of our last year which is we're waiting for some hope around the corner when we have the opportunity in our own hands to affect this outcome.

CAMEROTA: Andy, what's going on with younger people? Why are younger people getting sick? In particular, Michigan, the cases of 40- somethings are up 800 percent. The cases of 30-somethings up something like 600 percent. Is there -- is this variant affecting younger people and making them sicker?

SLAVITT: This is really an important point. I think there's a lot of people that feel, if I haven't gotten it so far, I'm immune or I'm relatively healthy. I'm potentially immune.

We don't understand this virus as well as people pretend to who think they've lived with it for a year. Older people now are increasingly more vaccinated. That's the great news.

But what does that mean? That means those hospital beds are still there and they're there for people who are going to get infected. We've got a more virulent variant of the virus now. We got a more contagious strand of the virus now. And just like we were a year ago, we think we are lulled into this false sense that this thing can't get to us.

But as Michigan is showing, as other states are showing, it's not true and it's not done yet.

CAMEROTA: So, is the White House and the CDC pushing for teens to get vaccinated? Does the science support that move? SLAVITT: Well, look, the science is determined by the scientists, not

the White House. So it will be in this case the Food and Drug Administration that will finish up the work on the ongoing clinical trials. And then as hastily as possible we'll do everything we can, just like we are now with adults to get people vaccinated.

But we want to make sure that the scientific process takes the time it needs to take. Sometimes that can be frustrating. But I think we've demonstrated that once that's done, we are going to be capable of a very quick execution and rollout for teenagers.

In the meantime, people just need to be wary of the fact that even if they don't feel at risk, there are other people at risk if they get the virus.

AVLON: Andy, Alabama's governor said she's going to go forward with her plans to remove the mask mandate, despite President Biden's plea. The CDC director will be speaking with governors today.

What message will she be sending, and what can the White House do to help encourage governors not to let off the focus right now at such a critical inflection point?

SLAVITT: Well, I think the governors know better. I think the governors know they're not helping the cause. They're actually weighing down the cause and that they may think it's a popular thing to do.

I don't think that's the case. I think people want to be told what the truth of the matter is. The mask -- to me, a mask feels like a very small price to pay to protect people's lives, to save people's lives. We're seeing death rates go up, even with more vaccinations because we have millions and millions of people that haven't yet been vaccinated.

So I think the CDC is going to press this point very clearly. Her job is to speak the truth, even if people don't like it. I don't think we're naive enough to think that everyone is going to agree with us, but I don't think the facts are very hard to grasp in this particular situation.

CAMEROTA: Andy, apparently, President Trump, former President Trump, watched the CNN documentary on the pandemic with great interest. He's had a lot to say about that overnight. In particular, he seems exercised about what Dr. Birx and Dr. Fauci said in the documentary.

And Dr. Birx was, you know, really, I think, outspoken about -- she said that she believes that about 450,000 American deaths could have been, in her words, mitigated, had there not been so much mixed messaging and confusion and dysfunction in the White House. And had President Trump, you know, complied more with their mask mandate, et cetera.

So does the White House agree with her numbers on that?

SLAVITT: Well, President Biden has asked one thing of us. [08:25:01]

Focus on getting this country safe again. Focus on getting these vaccines rolled out again. And just be very single minded about that.

There will be plenty of people who will provide that kind of commentary. They'll evaluate the prior administration. They'll evaluate this administration.

And, you know, so I don't really think we have the time for the infighting and the finger-pointing and all of those kinds of things right now. I think the public would be disappointed in us if they felt we were looking at this in anything other than a very competent, business-minded like way. And I think that's what we're trying to do.

AVLON: Andy, the WHO report was finally released, will be released today. A draft has circulated. You've seen the reports of its contents. Does the White House view its conclusions with skepticism?

SLAVITT: I think we have to understand the methodology of that report better. Were the investigators who wrote the report given police access to everything? Were they in any way influenced by the government in China when they wrote this report?

Until we know the answers to those questions, I think it's best that we view the report with some healthy skepticism. Not necessarily cynicism, but just important to make sure that these reports are done right. These after-action reports are really, really important.

It's how we prevent the next pandemic. It's not about just who is to blame. It's about how to make sure this doesn't happen again.

CAMEROTA: But, Andy, don't we already know the researchers were not given complete access?

SLAVITT: Well, that's certainly been the suspicion of the State Department, and if that's true, that's very troubling.

AVLON: It does indeed seem to be true.

CAMEROTA: Andy Slavitt, thank you for your time. We really appreciate talking to you.

SLAVITT: Thank you both.

CAMEROTA: So, the Georgia state trooper seen in this video who was arresting a lawmaker for knocking on the governor's door, while he was at that signing ceremony of the voting law -- well, that officer is now telling his side of the story. What he says he was most afraid of, next.

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