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New Day

Officer Who Shot and Killed Daunte Wright in Minnesota Charged with Second-Degree Manslaughter; Defense May Rest Its Case Soon in Derek Chauvin Murder Trial; President Biden Announces Withdrawal of American Troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021; Secretary of State Blinken Arrives in Afghanistan; Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) is Interviewed About U.S. Withdrawing All Troops From Afghanistan. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired April 15, 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]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: John, thank you very much for that.

NEW DAY continues right now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Former police officer Kim Potter has been charged with second-degree manslaughter.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The family of Daunte Wright will get to have their day in court.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: An arrest is just step one, but we have to get a conviction. And you can't give up on that.

JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's time to end America's longest war. It's time for American troops to come home.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: President Biden announcing that he'll withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan by September 11th.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The threat from Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan is significant degraded.

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL, (R-KY) SENATE MINORITY LEADER: Withdrawing U.S. forces from Afghanistan is a grave mistake.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY.

BERMAN: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is NEW DAY. I'm John Berman. Poppy Harlow here with me this morning. Thanks so much. Last hour I couldn't say my own name. Poppy had to do it for me.

POPPY HARLOW, CNN ANCHOR: And I said it for you. BERMAN: Thank you for being here for me when I really need you.

The former Minnesota police officer who shot and killed Daunte Wright makes her first appearance in court today via Zoom. Kimberly Potter is charged with second-degree manslaughter and faces a 10-year prison term if convicted. For a fourth consecutive night protesters gathered around the police station where she worked demanding justice. Not far from these protests, Derek Chauvin's defense team could rest its case today. The big unknown is still whether Chauvin will take the stand in his own defense.

On Wednesday, a pathologist blamed heart disease and drug use for George Floyd's death, not a look of oxygen, while pinned to the ground under Derek Chauvin's knee.

HARLOW: We are also tracking a number of significant foreign policy developments. CNN has learned the Biden administration plans to announce strict new sanctions against Russia as soon as today. This comes in response to the Kremlin's election interference, and of course that huge hack of SolarWinds. Also this morning, Secretary of State Antony Blinken touching down right there in Kabul after President Biden announced that he is ending America's longest running war in that country.

BERMAN: First, we're going to talk about the duel situation taking place in Minnesota. Joining us is Jeff Storms, the attorney for the families of George Floyd and Daunte Wright. Jeff, thanks so much for being with us. Former police officer Kimberly Potter has now been charged with second-degree, which carries a sentence of up to 10 years in prison. What's the family's view of this charge? Is it enough?

JEFFREY STORMS, ATTORNEY FOR FLOYD AND WRIGHT FAMILIES: Well, at this point, the charge is a no-brainer, right? I don't think anyone expected anything less. The family has not been privy to all of the information yet, and so the family is still processing its grief, processing what happened. They are happy obviously -- maybe "happy" is too strong of a word -- but believe that this charge is obviously a good initial step towards trying to get justice. But there ultimately is no such thing as whole justice in this case because the family can't have their loved one back.

BERMAN: A statement released by you and your co-counsel, you said this was no accident, and you called it an intentional and deliberate use of force. We all heard the bodycam footage now of former Officer Potter screaming "taser, taser," and then, "oh, my God, I just shot him." So how can you be sure it was intentional and not as she and the police claim, a mistake? How do you convince a jury of that?

STORMS: There are a host of intentional acts that happened that led to Mr. Wright's death which started with the pretextual stop on the vehicle. And then from there, there were the intentional acts of the officer reaching and grabbing her sidearm from her dominant side. The taser, as we know, is kept on the non-dominant side for a reason. It's removed from her holster. It looks different. It feels different than a taser. It weighs significantly more than a taser. All of those differences exist so that what happened to Mr. Wright can't happen. So a jury is certainly going to hear about all of the deliberate acts

of this officer that it took in order for her to ultimately pull the trigger and kill Mr. Wright.

BERMAN: I want to ask now about the Derek Chauvin trial. The defense expert Dr. David Fowler, this retired forensic pathologist, testified that he felt there were multiple factors that may have contributed to George Floyd's death and not Officer Chauvin's knee. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DAVID FOWLER, FORMER CHIEF MEDICAL EXAMINER FOR MARYLAND: We have a heart that's vulnerable because it's too big. There are certain drugs in the system that put him at risk of an arrhythmia. We've got the carbon monoxide, which has the potential to rob some of that additional oxygen-carrying capacity.

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UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Is it your opinion that Mr. Chauvin's knee in any way impacted the structures of Mr. Floyd's neck?

FOWLER: No, it did not. None of the vital structures were in the area where the knee appeared to be from the videos.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Look, on that carbon monoxide point, just to be clear, Fowler later admitted that he wasn't sure the vehicle was running and that Floyd's body was not tested for carbon monoxide poisoning, but generally speaking, what do you say about these points from the defense?

STORMS: None of this is really surprising, right? From the outset, what was clear was that the defense doesn't have a clear theory of this case. And that's why they've thrown everything out there that they possibly can, hoping something will ultimately stick. And every lawyer who's trained in law school knows that when you know you're right, when you have a strong argument and a strong theory, that's what you stick with, that's what you support.

Here for the defense, they're in the position where they have to try to somehow disprove what's been obvious to every credible layperson, every credible expert, and try to convince the jury of something that law enforcement has known has happened for decades. Everyone knows in law enforcement for the last 20 to 30 years that if you put weight on somebody's back while they're in the prone position, they'll asphyxiate.

And here they have to now convince the jury of something that everybody already knows, right? They have to convince the jury that asphyxiation didn't happen when all evidence is to the fact that it did.

BERMAN: Very quickly, the defense may rest today. This will be their last chance to call Derek Chauvin to the stand. Do you want to hear from Officer Chauvin?

STORMS: Well, I think everyone would like to hear from Officer Chauvin. I'm not going to guess at what they're going to do, but I think that if we hear from Officer Chauvin, it will likely further support the conviction that should happen in this case.

BERMAN: Jeffrey Storm we appreciate you being with us this morning. Thanks so much for your time.

STORMS: Thanks for having me.

HARLOW: So let's talk more about action, what might change after this, if anything. Abby Phillip is the anchor of INSIDE POLITICS on Sunday morning, appointment television in my household, Abby, that's for sure, and our senior political correspondent.

I just want to start with if anything is going to change, right, and the political will, because it's notable this week in the middle of all this, the White House, Susan Rice announced the decision to punt basically to Congress on this policing commission and say we're not going to do what Biden did say he would do, but we're going to leave this in the hands of those that legislate, in the hands of Congress. If they didn't get anything done in the month after George Floyd was killed on the streets of Minneapolis, what says they will now?

ABBY PHILLIP, CNN ANCHOR, INSIDE POLITICS SUNDAY: Yes, it's such a good question. I think there are two ways of looking at this from the Biden administration's perspective, and also from the perspective of advocates who are trying to figure out what's the most effective strategy to get change into the system. And one way of looking at it is by saying we're going to put the pressure on Congress to do something, is that they are putting all of their muscle, their political muscle behind some kind of congressional action, behind the George Floyd policing act that has been passed in the House and stalled in the Senate.

But on the other hand, I do think that the reality of Congress right now is that even on things that are less polarizing, it is virtually impossible to envision getting to 60 votes that you need in the Senate. And so it almost seems that by taking administrative action off the table, they're kind of acknowledging that this really isn't going to go anywhere.

And, frankly, one of the unfortunate things about the last year has been that in some ways on the politics of this, on the Republican side, all of the demonizing of activists, of Black Lives Matter, has really settled in among Republicans and has made progress on this issue very, very difficult. And so for people watching what seems like deja vu between last May and this March and April, unfortunately it's not really a very hopeful story about what's happening in Washington.

BERMAN: Washington seems to have given up on the idea of incremental change, given up on the idea of finding little things maybe everyone agrees with and just getting those done. It did seem for a time last year that there was agreement on the issue of qualified immunity, which is whether or not police officers can be sued, frankly, for actions they take, and right they can't be because of qualified immunity.

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I thought there was genuine bipartisan agreement on something there, at least, Abby. That would be a big change.

PHILLIP: Yes. There was some. I think that's what's so interesting about this. For a period of time, there were a couple of members who were willing to say, yes, let's talk about this. But now actually the issue of qualified immunity is one of the red lines that many Republicans are drawing on police reform, that they can agree on things like banning chokeholds, and even no-knock warrants, you have Senator Rand Paul from Kentucky where Breonna Taylor was killed, backing the banning of no-knock warrants.

But now actually I think the politics on qualified immunity has shifted. So this is about politics and less about actually making progress, to your point, John, that even biting off small parts of this apple does not seem to be on the table for either side of this issue. And it seems unlikely because of that that anything will move forward. Plus, not to mention, I do think Republicans have found that using defund the police, that slogan, against Democrats, has been a political -- it's been politically advantageous to them, whether it's just to rile up their base or to demonize their opposition. And so they're trying to hold onto as many of those tools as possible as they go into the midterm elections, and I don't think they want to take that off the table by actually talking about what they can do to actually improve policing, which I think most people agree needs to be reformed in some way.

BERMAN: Abby Phillip, great to have you on. Thanks so much for being with us this morning.

PHILLIP: Of course.

BERMAN: New this morning, sources say that President Biden has resisted raising the Trump-era cap on refugees because of bad political optics. His hesitation comes at a moment when there is increasing pressure on him to be tougher, among some, on immigration and border security. CNN's Priscilla Alvarez live in Washington with more on this. It's been very interesting after promising to raise this cap to watch the president not taking any action, to sign the one document that would make that happen.

PRICILLA ALVAREZ, CNN REPORTER, CNN POLITICS: That's right, John. The president's hesitation comes as the administration faces heat from Democrats and Republicans over the handling of the situation on the U.S.-Mexico border. But the refugee program is a separate issue entirely. That program dates back decades and has support among Democrats and Republicans.

And so this all dates back to February when the State Department proposed a cap of 62,500, up from the Trump refugee cap of 15,000. So that would return the U.S. to higher refugee admissions, but also stripping restrictions that had been put in place under the Trump administration. So without the president's signature, however, that proposal has stalled, and the delay has led to refugee flights being canceled as well as thousands being left in limbo.

Now, a White House spokesperson told us in a statement, and I quote, "President Biden remains committed to rebuilding the U.S. refugee program," adding that "A new presidential determination is under active considering." But still a lot of frustration among Capitol Hill where Democratic allies have been seeking answers from the administration as well as advocates who say they're ready to take in refugees as soon as that paperwork is signed, but still no paperwork from the administration, nor a timeline, John.

BERMAN: All right, this is being watched very closely, to say the least. Priscilla Alvarez, thank you so much for your terrific reporting. Appreciate it.

So Secretary of State Anthony Blinken just arrived in Afghanistan less than 24 hours After President Biden announced he will end military operations there by September 11th. One of the closest allies to the president joins us next.

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BERMAN: Secretary of State Antony Blinken touching down overnight in Afghanistan. His visit comes after President Biden announced that U.S. troops will be out of the country by September 11th, ending America's longest war.

Our Nick Paton Walsh is live in Kabul with the latest.

And, Nick, as you pointed out, this will end America's involvement in the longest war, but it absolutely doesn't end the crisis in that country.

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR: Yeah. I think Antony Blinken will get a taste of that during his meetings today, most of them already concluding.

And you can see some of the pool footage. His meeting with President Ashraf Ghani will probably have in private conveyed Afghanistan's anger really. I think they're being left in a lurch some would argue here.

Before this meeting between Ashraf Ghani and Antony Blinken, well, the secretary of state had written some stern letters to the president, asking him to get on board the peace process, and it does appear also, too, from talking to sources here that the Afghan government didn't get an enormous heads-up that the announcement of this full withdrawal was coming.

So, Ashraf Ghani, gracious it seems in his responses. He said, look, we will respect the U.S. troop's decision and we'll do our best to insure a smooth transition. But make no mistake behind closed doors, I'm sure there will be some upset tempered with leaving the door open for military assistance. There was some hint of that by Joe Biden. An interesting moment too when Antony Blinken was meeting some women's

rights activist here. He was told, frankly, by one of them that their views for the future here were deeply pessimistic. He will get a taste, I think, of quite how worried people are with what comes next, the Taliban literally in the last hour or so putting out their second statement in 24 hours saying that the Americans are not leaving fast enough.

The most recent one says they're breaking the Doha agreement. That's the one they signed with the Trump administration which said the American troops would leave by May 1st. That's just 15 days away. So, impossible, frankly, to do that.

May 1st is now the date that President Biden said the withdrawal will begin. The Taliban said because the Americans are violating the agreement, they may have to take countermeasures and America will be to blame for what happens. That's essentially the broad atmosphere fear here of increased violence, possibly Americans targeted and quite with the peace talks even take off.

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It's supposed to start Saturday week. Antony Blinken will be hearing more of that now -- Poppy.

HARLOW: Thank you very much. Live for us -- Nick in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Let me bring in Democratic Senator Chris Coons of Delaware who serves in the Foreign Relations Committee among others.

Senator, thank you for being with us.

And let's begin where we just left off with Nick and that is in Afghanistan. You have applauded the president's move to pull out all U.S. troops by September 11th.

You know your fellow -- some fellow Democrats in your chamber are worried. Jeanne Shaheen is very worried particularly about what this means for women in Afghanistan given the Taliban and from a national security standpoint, considering it was the Taliban that were the host for al Qaeda.

Listen to what Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, just told John.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JAKE SULLIVAN, NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: It is simply a fact that our ability to deal with the threat on the ground will change when there aren't U.S. forces and coalition forces there, but we believe that our posture in the region will remain at a level where we can suppress the terrorist threat in Afghanistan.

BERMAN: Change or diminish? SULLIVAN: It will not be the same by any stretch of the imagination.

We will not have the same level of daily intelligence, but at a strategic level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HARLOW: We will not have the same level of daily intelligence. Are you concerned about that?

SEN. CHRIS COONS (D-DE): Poppy, I think President Biden made a hard decision here, but one that was made in close consultation with military and intelligence and diplomatic leaders, one that was made in close consultation with our allies. That's significantly different from the way that the previous president abruptly decided that he wanted to withdraw all troops by May 1.

This will be a more orderly, more responsible withdrawal in partnership with our Afghan and NATO allies and others.

Of course, I'm concerned about what this will mean for women in Afghanistan, what this will mean about our counterterrorism capabilities. I've been a senator for ten years. My first trip as a senator was to Afghanistan. At that point, these were the sorts of concerns that were keeping us there year after year after year.

Ten years later, I think it is time for us to end this longest American war.

HARLOW: Well, what do you believe the U.S. will or should do if women once again are put in this situation and are targeted and their human rights violated by the Taliban? What does the U.S. do if that happens again like it did?

COONS: Poppy, one of our challenges is that in the world environment the United States faces today, we have an aggressive ascendant China and Russia. China is committing genocide against the Uyghurs in Xinjiang. There were pressing Hong Kong. There are human rights violations all over the world.

And keeping thousands of American troops in Afghanistan for another decade was a cost that President Biden looked at and concluded was too high a cost to pay.

I am concerned about what this will mean, and we will use our assistance and our support to the Afghan government and Afghan security forces to try and preserve as much space as we can for the advances that were won in 20 years of trying to build a more modern and democratic nation in Afghanistan.

HARLOW: Turning to Russia and news that as soon as today, the U.S. could sanctions further, expel -- expelled its representatives from the United States. The response from Russia to that move by the Biden administration is, quote, they say, this deprives the world of maybe the last opportunity to avoid great powers' confrontation instead of solving acute problems. What if Russia does more A and B? Is the end of diplomacy I -- with

Russia? Because in the same breath -- I mean, we know Biden wants to potentially meet with Putin.

COONS: Poppy, of course, it's not the end of diplomacy. This is long overdue.

President Trump demonstrably failed to stand up to Russia's aggression over and over again. Ultimately on a bipartisan basis, senators, both Republicans and Democrats had to force the Trump administration to impose sanctions on Russia for a variety of things they did and continued aggression in the Ukraine among them.

But this intelligence attack, the cyber hack, the so-called SolarWinds attack, was one of the worst in history, to go without forcefully responding to that would be a mistake.

Even at the height of the Cold War with the former Soviet Union, when we were very tense and routinely in conflict on all sorts of different international settings, we were also pursuing diplomacy and arms control.

So I don't think this means the end of diplomacy at all. In fact, I think deterrence is restored by a forceful response to an attack on the United States that's known to the world.

HARLOW: On the president's infrastructure push, I mean, you have been candid in saying you don't -- it doesn't sound like you think it's going to be $2.3 trillion in the end and it's not all going to be paid for in the end, but you're broadly supportive of it.

[08:25:00]

Your fellow senator, Shelley Moore Capito, is concerned about sort of the optics of the negotiation but no real change. She said, in the end, we're getting rolled because of the partisan response.

What's your response to -- response from her? Do you think it's a legitimate concern from your Republican colleague?

COONS: I talked with the Senator Capito yesterday.

The path forward that I'm seeing and that I'm working for is one where we take up and pass a bipartisan infrastructure bill, one that focuses on areas where the parties really agree about the need to invest in rural broadband, in safe drinking water, in roads and bridges, tunnels, highways, airports.

For years, previous presidents have talked about infrastructure. It's time for us to finally put Americans to work and make our country more competitive doing it. That could end up being $800 billion to a trillion-dollar bipartisan bill.

There are many other priorities in the American Rescue Plan, the American Jobs Plan, the American Family Plan that President Biden has put forward priorities that I support and that are unlikely to get any Republican votes.

That second broader and bigger bill, I think, we can and should pass by reconciliation and make changes that will pay for it.

HARLOW: You just -- I want to get to your news in just a moment, but you just called it that second bill. Do you indication -- you're close to the president -- that the White House is going to split this thing in two?

COONS: If there's a pathway to a robust infrastructure plan with the Republicans, I will support and urge the Biden administration embrace splitting this into two bills, yes.

HARLOW: OK. Notable.

You have news, a bipartisan bill that you are announcing along with senator -- Republican Senator Roger Wicker of Mississippi to basically expand AmeriCorps. Can you explain what it is and do you see it rolled in to this infrastructure legislation?

COONS: AmeriCorps is a decades-old, well-established nationwide national service program that allows Americans of all ages to dedicate a year or two of their lives to serving our country, whether it's helping with public health issues like pandemic, helping in schools, helping support food banks, helping with conservation and repairing and restoring our state and national parks.

There are 75,000 younger Americans serving as AmeriCorps members right now and almost half of them have provided badly needed help during the pandemic.

This bill would significantly strengthen the benefits that those members receive in terms of their living stipend, the education award they earn, but also increase the number of slots available. Year after year for decades, many Americans want to serve here as civilian volunteers through AmeriCorps than have been possible.

This is a great way to bring our country together, and the fact that there are 16 co-sponsors, Republican and Democrat from across the whole range of our caucuses, indicates that national service is an idea with genuine bipartisan support.

HARLOW: I appreciate you being with us this morning, Senator Coons. Thank you.

COONS: Thank you, Poppy.

HARLOW: What is next for the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? It's now on pause after these reports of rare but serious, sometimes deadly blood clots.

Dr. Sanjay Gupta is here next.

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