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U.S. Cities Brace for Chauvin Verdict as Closing Arguments Begin; Families Demand Answers in Massacre at FedEx Facility; Biden Administration Ramps Up Role in Distributing, Administering Vaccines; GOP's Cornyn Defends Pushing Biden Mental Fitness Conspiracy; White House Warns Russia Will Face Consequences if Navalny Dies. Aired 6- 6:30a ET

Aired April 19, 2021 - 06:00   ET

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

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: NEW DAY with John Berman and Brianna Keilar starts now.

[05:59:13]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I'm John Berman alongside Brianna Keilar. On this NEW DAY, American cities on edge, bracing for a verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial, closing arguments set to begin in just hours.

Plus new reporting just in on the Biden administration's efforts to vaccinate the entire country despite hesitancy among many Americans.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: He's said to be dying behind bars in Russia, a foe of Vladimir Putin's. Now the U.S. delivers a new warning, should Alexei Navalny die.

And QAnon conspiracy theorists get a backer from on high: the man who played Jesus.

Good morning to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Monday, April 19. And you're Brianna Keilar.

KEILAR: I am. And it is so wonderful to be here with you, John Berman.

BERMAN: I'm the biggest fan. I love your work.

KEILAR: Well, I'm excited to be here. I'm excited to take the baton from Alisyn, and it's going to be a great, great week.

BERMAN: It's going to be awesome. Let's do some news, all right?

Cities across America bracing for unrest as the Derek Chauvin trial enters its final days. Closing arguments begin in a matter of hours. The jury will be sequestered before deliberations begin.

KEILAR: There is anger in the streets before a verdict is even reached. Protesters turning out in Minneapolis and other cities, following two more deadly police shootings. Thousands of National Guard troops ready to deploy in parts of downtown Minneapolis, and Adrienne Broaddus is there. Adrienne, tell us what you're seeing.

ADRIENNE BROADDUS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning to you, Brianna.

Behind me what you'll see you'll see on every coverer here in downtown Minneapolis, members of the National Guard. There are more than 3,000 troops deployed not only here in the cities but throughout the surrounding area.

Also, the beauty of downtown Minneapolis is hidden, because the buildings are boarded up, and more boards went up over this weekend. Also, later this week, schools here in Minneapolis will return to remote learning. Students not going into the classroom.

And there's a lot of anticipation as we prepare to hear those closing arguments today. I spoke with Minnesotans and asked them what do they think will transpire this week. Listen in.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAURI FREISLEBEN, NORTH HIGH SCHOOL PRINCIPAL: (AUDIO GAP) fractured in Minneapolis right now. We're in -- we're in so much pain that it's almost like that family that stops speaking to each other.

WENDY WOLF, LIVES BLOCKS AWAY FROM GEORGE FLOYD SQUARE: I'm concerned for our community no matter what the verdict is. Of course, we want justice for George Floyd, and we want Derek Chauvin held accountable, but I -- I think the reform and the things that need to happen are going to take a long time.

LESLIE REDMOND, FORMER NAACP PRESIDENT: I serve a God that sits high and serves low. I don't have any fear. But our trauma and problems started long before the Chauvin trial, and our work is going to continue long after, right?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROADDUS: Meanwhile, people here in Minnesota are bracing for pain and anguish, even if they agree with the verdict. They say after that verdict comes, they know there's more work to be done here in the Twin Cities and around the country -- John and Brianna.

BERMAN: Adrienne Broaddus, thanks so much for being there for us. We appreciate your work. We're only a few hours away now from the closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin trial. Joining us now, Natalie Jackson. She's a wrongful death attorney who's represented the families of Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and others.

Natalie, let's start with the prosecution. What are you expecting to see from them?

NATALIE JACKSON, WRONGFUL DEATH ATTORNEY: Well, it's going to be interesting who does this closing. I believe it will be Jerry Blackwell. He did the opening in this case, and I felt that he did a great job on that. He seems to be the person that wants these big occasions in this trial, so I believe it will be Jerry Blackwell.

What I expect from him is him to come out hard to disprove all of the different causes of death that the defense have thrown out there, such as the drugs, the crowd, the adrenaline, the excited delirium, the pre-existing medical conditions. So I think that that's what you're going to see from him, spending a lot of time showing that it was not that and George Floyd died because of Derek Chauvin's knee on the neck.

KEILAR: And Natalie, what are you watching for from the defense?

JACKSON: From the defense, I'm expecting the exact opposite. They are going -- I think it's important to remember the defense doesn't have to prove anything. All they have to do is poke holes and prove -- and try to get some doubt from the jury that perhaps something else caused the death of George Floyd besides the knee on the neck, besides Derek Chauvin's knee on his neck.

So from the defense, we're going to hear about the drugs. We're going to hear about the crowd, about the distraction, about the -- George Floyd's physical condition, his heart -- his pre-existing heart condition. We're going to hear about things like excited utterance. So I really do believe you're going to see the defense throw everything on the wall and see what sticks.

BERMAN: So Natalie, you said one of the biggest failures in the prosecution of George Zimmerman was ignoring race. So how does that apply in this case? Do you feel the prosecution here has made the same mistake?

JACKSON: No, I don't. I think -- that was in 2013, and I think we were just coming to terms with the racial issue with policing in the United States.

Since then, we've seen protests all over the nation, especially during the pandemic in the last year that was multi-racial. We've seen, you know, the protesters in Oregon, in Portland, in Chicago, everywhere. And they've been multi-racial.

So I think -- and also video has come a long way. We didn't have any video in the prior cases like Trayvon Martin's case or Michael Brown's case. Now we have video. People can see for themselves.

That's one of the things the prosecution talked about in their opening statement, and I think we'll hear a lot about this, this bouquet of humanity. And those were the words he used, and that's what we saw here. We saw all different races, ages, people who were concerned and tried to stop Derek Chauvin's actions.

KEILAR: Natalie, thank you so much for joining us on this very important day.

This morning the list of communities affected by gun violence is continuing to grow. In Austin, Texas, a manhunt is under way for the suspect in a shooting situation involving three people. Police are describing the shooting as an isolated domestic situation.

The suspect is a former sheriff's detective who resigned after being charged last June with the sexual assault of a child.

In Brooklyn Center, Minnesota, police enforcing another curfew Sunday night amid the eighth straight night of protests following the police killing of Daunte Wright. Hundreds of protesters gathered to remember the 20-year-old.

BERMAN: In Kenosha, Wisconsin, a person of interest in custody following a shooting at a tavern early Sunday morning that left three people dead and three injured. Police say the shooter was ejected from the bar, and they came back with a gun.

And in Chicago, demonstrators gathered for a vigil to honor 13-year- old Adam Toledo who was fatally shot by a police officer last month. The peace walk took place in Little Village, the predominantly Latino neighborhood where Adam lived.

KEILAR: And in Indianapolis, family and friends paying tribute to the eight people killed in a shooting in a FedEx facility last week. It is at least the 50th mass shooting in the U.S. just in the past month.

At a prayer vigil, the mayor of Beach Grove, Indiana, said the shooting hit close to him, because he knew one of the victims, 19- year-old Samaria Blackwell.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR DENNIS BUCKLEY, BEACH GROVE, INDIANA: She is one of our bright young citizens who has been called home. I'm never going to question why, but she was. Now she's standing on the right hand of God, looking down on all of us, and that is refreshing to me. I'm sorry.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, in the meantime, police say the 19-year-old gunman legally purchased the assault rifles that he used in the FedEx attack. And what's raising so many questions is this happened after the FBI had investigated him and seized a different weapon.

CNN's Whitney Wild is joining us now -- Whitney.

WHITNEY WILD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, really an example of a system folding here. What we know is that this all started back in March of 2020. The gunman's family reached out to law enforcement back then and said, "Look, we're worried he's going to try to commit suicide by cop."

So law enforcement investigated. They put him on an immediate, although temporary, mental health hold. Throughout the investigation, they did not find any racially-motivated extremism. They didn't find that he had committed a crime. However, back then, law enforcement actually seized a weapon from him. However, fast forward to July 2020, then again to September 2020.

Those were the two dates in which he was able to legally purchase the two firearms he used as he tried to commit this crime.

Of course, we know, fast forward to just this month when he was able to effect this absolute atrocious crime that left eight people dead, his family telling a CNN affiliate they did everything they could. They tried to help get him the help that he needed, but it simply wasn't enough.

Over the weekend, we learned the names of those victims. But just another example of an attempt to try to stop an atrocity, and it just simply not being enough, John.

BERMAN: Yes. It's an issue of red flag laws, how they're actually administered being an issue here. Thanks so much for your reporting.

Every American aged 16 years old and older eligible to be vaccinated starting today. The Biden administration also increasing its role in distributing and administering vaccines.

CNN's Jeremy Diamond live at the White House with the brand-new reporting. Jeremy, what have you learned?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Good morning, John.

The Biden administration has tripled the share of weekly doses going through these federal pipelines rather than through the states for state and local officials to make the decisions about where those vaccine doses are going.

That means that the Biden administration, the federal pipelines, are now handling about more than a third of the weekly doses going out every week to get Americans vaccinated.

This as we enter this new phase of vaccination, with every American 16 and older now eligible to be vaccinated. The Biden administration ramping up these federal pipelines, largely in hopes of setting up the infrastructure to make sure that that mass vaccination can take place.

[06:10:04]

Nearly 40,000 pharmacies are part of that pipeline now, and that is where Americans can now be getting vaccinated with those 90 percent of Americans within five miles now of a vaccination site.

Now, this gives the administration more control not only in terms of the infrastructure that is in place to handle these doses but also in terms of hitting some of these equity measures. We know that the -- the U.S. has lagged behind in terms of getting those minority communities vaccinated.

But the federal channels, including the pharmacy program, these mass vaccination sites run by the federal government, as well as these federal health centers, they have been outperforming the national average in terms of getting non-white Americans vaccinated. And so that is a big part of what we are going to be seeing here.

And, again, as we enter this new phase, we're not just focusing on those priority groups but every American above 16 can now get vaccinated.

KEILAR: And now that you got the availability of vaccines so widespread, the White House is launching a media blitz today to promote the vaccine. What do we know about that?

DIAMOND: That's right, Brianna. We are going to be seeing about 30 administration officials fan out across the country for local and national TV interviews to focus on the fact that Americans 16 and older can now get vaccinated.

You're going to be seeing a lot of the health officials. You're also going to be seeing Vice President Kamala Harris, who's traveling to North Carolina today. She's going to be doing some local TV there.

You're going to be seeing Dr. Fauci on unlikely forums such as Snapchat, and the administration is also going to be using Facebook and Twitter to send push notifications to Americans to let them know that it's their turn to get vaccinated.

Last night we also already saw President Biden, as well as former President Obama participating in this NBC special focusing on getting communities of color vaccinated -- Brianna, John.

KEILAR: Jeremy Diamond at the White House. Thank you so much.

A Republican senator defends pushing a conspiracy theory questioning President Biden's mental fitness.

BERMAN: Plus, what George W. Bush says to Americans who criticize his friendship with Michelle Obama.

And all eyes on Vladimir Putin as his foe, Alexei Navalny, is said to be dying behind bars.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:16:29]

KEILAR: Republican Senator John Cornyn of Texas is defending a pretty out-there tweet that he sent out last week, questioning President Biden's mental fitness and asking if Biden is really in charge of the country.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN CORNYN (R-TX): That actually was a quote from a "Politico" story that I pasted into a tweet, and then I simply asked a question. That tweet was not meant to suggest anything about the president's competency or physical or mental. I know some people have suggested that. Certainly wasn't my intention. It's simply trying to reconcile the rhetoric with the reality. And we need the reality to match the rhetoric. (END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Joining us now, CNN political analyst Maggie Haberman. She is a Washington correspondent for "The New York Times."

He says it wasn't meant to suggest what the tweet suggested. I mean, it was very clear what the tweet said, Maggie.

MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Right. Look, you can do the charitable interpretation, extremely charitable interpretation that the quote that he was lifting from "Politico" in his initial tweet was about the idea that -- that the criticism Republicans have lobbed repeatedly at Biden, that he is controlled by the radical left, OK. But that's not what the tweet actually said.

And there's also this other line from Republicans that Joe Biden is not all there. And they have said this repeatedly. Former President Trump said it repeatedly. Former President Trump also would do things like say, I'm just raising a question, or I'm just asking -- doing a retweet and just putting it out there.

That was a very familiar statement from him. It should have been clear to the senator how that was going to be taken, if he didn't intend it that way. He had ample opportunity to clean it up before Sunday, and I didn't see that.

BERMAN: Also, it's a blanket defense for anything in the world you can say, I'm just asking the question. You've noticed some people trying --

KEILAR: Was there really a moon landing, question mark? No.

BERMAN: Was there really -- Does Maggie Haberman really hate puppies? I'm just asking.

HABERMAN: No.

BERMAN: I'm just asking questions. Why do you hate puppies, I'm just asking. No, I mean, it doesn't solve everything, just saying it was a question.

HABERMAN: No, it doesn't. It doesn't wipe it away. It barely solves anything. In fact, it actually suggests that it's fine to have done, and he sort of got there again in that interview where he says, I was in no way suggesting. But once he has put that tweet out there, a lot more people are going to see that tweet. Then we're going to see that tweet than were going to see that Sunday show interview.

And again, this has been a lie that Republicans have been pushing for many months, which is that Biden is not all there. And I'm using that phrase very specifically.

BERMAN: Very important policy decision, which was sort of a track, backtrack, and then track again, having to do with what the president wants to do on the refugee cap. He promised to raise it, and then the administration said, Nuh-uh, not going to happen. And then he said -- this is all within a few hours. Then the Biden administration says, yes, we're going to raise it some but not all. What's going on here?

HABERMAN: What's going on here is this is the first real error that we have seen of the Biden administration that has had a strikingly good first first hundred days or so. This was -- this was a mess up.

They had known for weeks this was something that was going to be controversial. They had known this was going to be a problem. They have not been sure of how to deal with it.

You know, Biden does want to honor this. There has been concern about, from what I have heard from multiple sources within the administration, concern about the optics of we're getting hit over border crossings. The Republicans are beating up on us. We're afraid the public is going to conflate these issues, even though these issues actually don't relate to each other. That's what's going on.

KEILAR: George W. Bush had an interview this weekend. And he talked about a lot of things, but one of the things that was particularly interesting was how people might have been surprised by the friendship that he had with Michelle Obama. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: And it shocked me. We got in the car, and I think Barbara and Jenna said, Hey, you're trending. And the American people were so surprised that Michelle Obama and I --

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your friendship.

BUSH: -- could be friends. I think it's a problem that Americans are so polarized in their thinking that they can't imagine a George W. Bush and a Michelle Obama being friends.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: He seems surprised that people were surprised.

HABERMAN: He seems to be learning about Twitter is my basic takeaway.

Look, I do think it is true. He's right. In this polarized era, I do think there are people who are very surprised that they are friends. And they are friends, and we have seen it over and over. And particularly, there was a famous picture, I think, from the Trump inaugural, where Michelle Obama is hugging former President Bush.

But I think it says a lot candidly about the degree to which former President Bush has absented himself from the national discussion, because I don't think this level of polarity is that surprising to most people. And again, I don't think that Twitter is necessarily the most accurate representation of what the American people think, although I did like his shock that he was trending.

BERMAN: Look, the guy just wants to paint pictures and have friends. I mean, honestly, that's the sense you get from George W. Bush. And it also represents how the political world has passed him by. But his choice, among other things, it's just in a vastly different place than George Bush ever was politically.

HABERMAN: No, that's right. And look, John, it is striking that Bush sat out the last four years very intentionally. He decided that he did not want to weigh weigh in for the most part on what Trump is doing.

I'm not sure how many Republican minds George Bush would have taken, just given that I think Trump completely remade the party in his image, but I do think there were certainly moderates whose minds he might have impacted and changed. He chose not to do that, and that's fine. But it's notable that he is now emerging when sort of this moment in U.S. history has passed.

BERMAN: Look, and maybe he's onto something, because if you look at where the energy in the Republican Party is. And by energy, I mean money sometimes. You can see where people are raising. And Marjorie Taylor Greene, what did she raise in the first quarter? Two point six million dollars in small-donor donations. Ted Cruz, Josh Hawley, Jim Jordan, they're all raising money, too. You know, these are the people who brought you Jewish space lasers. I mean Marjorie Taylor Greene. Yet, she's still raising $2.6 million. What does that tell us about the Republican base?

HABERMAN: Well, the Republican base is incredibly fired up by this kind of Trumpian approach to politics that we have seen from -- to different degrees, right? I mean, in fairness some of what Marjorie Taylor Greene says is way out there for much of the party.

But she is tapping into the same small-dollar energy that we saw Trump engage in over four years. He and his team built this small-dollar machine, and Trump certainly decided that's where the money is. That's why he is keeping his committees going. Republicans have followed that model, particularly as there has been a split between corporations and Republicans, an alliance that existed for a while, and now they now just have diverging interests.

KEILAR: Maggie, it is so wonderful to see you.

HABERMAN: Good to see you.

KEILAR: So early. People get up this time of day.

HABERMAN: Welcome to early. It is wonderful to see you.

KEILAR: Thank you, Maggie. I'm going to get used to it, I promise. It is so great to see you, though.

The U.S. warning of consequences if jailed opposition leader Alexei Navalny dies in prison. The latest next.

BERMAN: Plus, a doctor in one state experiencing a surge right now says he's worried the vaccination strategy may not work. We'll speak with him live.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:27:44] BERMAN: All right. Right now, President Biden faces blinking red lights in a number of international fronts, among them, worsening relations with Russia.

This morning, concern is growing over the health of Kremlin opposition leader Alexei Navalny, who is said to be dying in prison, and the White House is warning Moscow of the possible consequences if that happens.

CNN's Clarissa Ward joins us now live from London. Clarissa, you have covered this so extensively. You've spoken extensively in the past with Navalny. What's the latest about him and his condition?

CLARISSA WARD, CNN INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, at this stage, John, his allies are concerned that he could literally die any day. One of his physicians said that they have had access to his blood test results, that they showed a very high level of potassium, which could result in heart failure, which could result in renal failure. And in words of this physician, our patient could die at any moment.

Now, the whole reason that Navalny is on hunger strike, and it's nearly three weeks now that he's been on hunger strike, is because he's arguing that he was not getting the proper medical treatment that he needed. He was arguing that he needed to have outside physicians come in to visit him, because he was experiencing numbness in his hands and his legs. He also had back problems.

All of this on the back, of course, of him being poisoned with Novichok last August. He was not given access to an outside position. Hence why he is on this hunger strike. And that has really only exacerbated his existing conditions.

So the situation now is getting very serious indeed, to the point where his allies have called on the people across Russia who support Navalny to come out in mass protests on Wednesday.

Wednesday is, of course, the day that President Putin will be delivering his state of the nation address. No coincidence there.

We have also now heard, I should add, John, from the Russian prison service. They have said that he has been transferred back into the hospital at the penal colony that his health condition has been deemed, quote, "satisfactory," and that he's examined by a general practitioner every day.

But obviously, that's going to be of very little comfort to those who are watching the situation so closely and are so concerned for his health.

KEILAR: The international community is watching, Clarissa. The United States is certainly considering this very real possibility that he may die. What options does the U.S. have if Navalny dies?

WARD: That's the interesting question. We don't exactly know yet, Briana.