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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
New Protests Across The U.S. Over George Floyd's Death; Retired Generals Slam Trump's Photo-Op At Church; AG Barr: There Was "No Correlation" Between Clearing Protesters And Trump's Church Visit; 10Th Night Of Protests Across The U.S. Justice For Ahmaud Arbery Rally In Georgia. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 04, 2020 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: Our coverage continues now with Anderson in AC 360.
[20:00:04]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST, ANDERSON COOPER 360: Good evening. For 10 straight days, in cities across this country, people are on the streets. The vast majority peacefully protesting both George Floyd's murder by four now fired and charged Minneapolis police officers, and the systemic racism in police conduct that has hurt generations of black Americans.
In addition to marches and other demonstrations today, we saw a gathering dedicated to honoring Mr. Floyd's memory and grieving his loss, the first of several.
The one today in the city where he died and as people in the Twin Cities and all over the world mourned, the three officers charged yesterday with complicity as officer Derek Chauvin kept his knee on Mr. Floyd's neck as Mr. Floyd's life drained away, they made their first court appearances.
More on all of that tonight. The memorial, demonstrations that have been so calm that curfews have ended tonight in Los Angeles County and Washington, D.C.
We'll look closer just why Washington still resembles an armed camp and just who ordered all those armed unidentifiable forces onto the streets there.
Plus, in the wake of former Defense Secretary Mattis calling the President a threat to the Constitution, we're joined by another retired four-star general, the former Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan, General John Allen who warns that the President's crowd clearing to enable his Bible stunt on Monday, quote, "may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment."
We have a lot to get to tonight starting with CNN's Miguel Marquez in Minneapolis.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (singing): Oh, praise God.
MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Moments of prayer and reflection at the first memorial service for George Floyd.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody wants justice. We want justice for George. He is going to get it. He is going to get it.
[APPLAUSE]
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I want you to know that he will stand up for any injustice everywhere. Whew. Can you all please say his name?
GROUP: George Floyd.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you, all.
[APPLAUSE]
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ (voice over): As the city and the country mourn Floyd killed by Minneapolis Police, which has sparked ten days of protest and outrage.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
AL SHARPTON, MSNBC HOST: The reason why we are marching all over the world is we were like George. We couldn't breathe. Not because there was something wrong with our lungs, but you wouldn't take your knee off our neck.
We don't want no favors. Just get up off of us. And we can be and do whatever we can be.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ (voice over): The three former police officers that either held Floyd down or stood by and watched made their first court appearance after being charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder, all being held on at least $750,000.00 in bail.
Police here have released highly redacted personnel records on the four officers, including a 2007 incident where Derek Chauvin now charged with second-degree murder was reprimanded after claims he needlessly removed a woman from her car.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH ELLISON, ATTORNEY GENERAL OF MINNESOTA: It is very difficult to hold a police accountable even when there is violation of law.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
MARQUEZ (voice over): And there are new details from a friend who was in the car with Floyd during the arrest.
Maurice Lester Hall telling "The New York Times," "He was from the beginning trying in his humblest form to show he was not resisting in no form or way. I could hear him pleading, please, officer, what's all this for?"
Today, thousands protested by walking across the Brooklyn Bridge joined by Floyd's brother, Terrence.
And as Floyd's life is remembered in Minneapolis, new questions are being raised about other cases of police using controversial neck restraint in Tacoma, Washington; Sarasota, Florida, and Sacramento.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHARPTON: This is the time. We won't stop. We're going to keep going until we change the whole system of justice.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Miguel Marquez joins us now. Miguel, on the day -- the first day of a series of memorials, I'm wondering how the day went and what you're hearing.
MARQUEZ: It feels a bit like a somber protest. The sense of defiance and a sense of where do we go from here? Here at the memorial, the growing memorial where George Floyd died just a few feet from where I'm standing, it's gotten much bigger.
It's almost celebratory. They have opened up this area. It's got an open mic right now, a communal open mic where anybody who wants to come up and say something, to pray, to sing, to recite poetry, they can do that.
Also, for those where the neighborhoods have been destroyed, perhaps their stores are no longer there, they can come down here to get food, get water, and get all of the household goods that they might need.
They can even register to vote down here. This has become sort of the center of Minneapolis, at least for now -- Anderson.
COOPER: Miguel Marquez, appreciate it. Thank you.
Joining us now, CNN legal analyst, Laura Coates. Also, Gloria Browne- Marshall, Constitutional Law Professor at John Jay College of Criminal Justice, and author of "Race Law in American Societies 1607 to Present."
[20:05:10]
COOPER: Laura, I am wondering what you made of the memorials that we saw today and they are just really beginning. The funeral actually in Houston is going to be on Tuesday.
LAURA COATES, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: It was incredibly powerful, I felt to hear from Reverend Al Sharpton precisely and the family, of course. Precisely because really of the amount of time that Reverend Al
Sharpton has been trying to articulate these concerns and over the course of history, we see how really systemic these problems are.
And he made a couple of references about really the general theme, from Attorney General Keith Ellison to former President Barack Obama to what he was saying today about a holistic approach to justice and Criminal Justice Reform, talking about every aspect of it.
I thought it was very powerful, very compelling and really articulated the overall atmosphere and feelings of the nation.
COOPER: Professor Browne-Marshall, when people talk about Criminal Justice Reform, police reform and there is obviously a lot of different ways to go about it. There's a lot of different points of view on it, I'm wondering what for you would be priorities in terms of police reform.
GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, CONSTITUTIONAL LAW PROFESSOR, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Well, Anderson, you know we've been around this a long time, and I've said on your show before that the system is rigged.
And now, what we're seeing with this particular instance is Officer Chauvin was training -- on training day, these other three officers had minimal experience, days of experience. He is training them how to abuse authority. He is training them how to harm people in the African-American community.
And so we see that although we have policies, if the trainee and the policy is only supposed to be for certain people, that they will take a time to talk and de-escalate situations in the white community.
But now we're seeing how despite whatever the standard of law is, whatever they're learning in the actual academy, the individual officers are explaining to younger officers how to be brutal, cruel and break the constitutional rights of other people in the instance and take their lives and then get away with it.
So unfortunately, we're seeing behind the scenes. In order to stop this from happening, there's got to be criminal liability to the officer and a change in the prosecutor's office.
The prosecutors have too much power not to bring a case, and the officers have too much power to hurt people in the African-American community and get away with it.
COOPER: Laura, it's so interesting what the Professor is saying and when you read the criminal complaint, one of the officers -- the officer who I guess was one of the new officers -- asked. He was the one who actually raised the point that Mr. Floyd is in distress and should he perhaps be put over on his side?
And it is Officer Chauvin who says, you know, no, he is staying exactly where he is. COATES: Yes, I mean, the idea that a rookie essentially would be able
to have a greater sense of humanity -- and I'm not calling the treatment or the action any of these officers made humane given that they are now being charged, essentially of aiding and abetting second- degree murder by Officer Chauvin.
That the idea that a 19-year veteran did not have the experience or record level of humanity to be able to know that somebody was dying underneath him.
And remember, you're talking about a police department who had to write in after the Department of Justice came and looked at the ineffectiveness of its policies and tracking problematic police officers, trying to ensure that there were ways for the community to know who and which officers were presenting problems, which were not abiding and even added a thing called Sanctity of Life Provision here, Anderson, talking about it, it should be the cornerstone of effective policing.
And the fundamental thing in training the Professor is talking about as well is every officer knows that you can only use the level of force needed to repel the force. Lethal force can only be used to repel lethal force, not when there is not even active resistance and somebody is unresponsive below you, below the knee that you are placing on the person's neck.
I mean, fundamentally, even if the training was there, that's why these officers were fired and it is such a dereliction of duty as highlighted by the chief's firing and now the prosecution.
COOPER: Professor, I mean, in order to get real reform at all, you're talking about systematic reform at all levels -- I mean, not just at the Criminal Justice System, but let's focus on the Criminal Justice System for this discussion.
I mean, is there the political will, the capabilities -- it just seems like a herculean task and I'm wondering how does -- I guess it starts with a first step.
BROWNE-MARSHALL: One of the first steps, Anderson, is criminal liability. One of the first steps is to take the amount of discretion the Prosecutor's Office has.
It is inept when it comes to the civilian crime that's committed by a law enforcement officer, but the prosecutor's office is brilliant when it comes to civilian upon civilian crime.
[20:10:22]
BROWNE-MARSHALL: And so the idea that Ellison is here because we can't trust Mike Freeman, the prosecutor to actually do his job efficiently when it comes to a law enforcement officer.
So my concern is let's look at the prosecution, let's look at how much power they have. Let's reform the Prosecutor's Office and then if we have criminal liability, these officers won't feel they can literally get away with murder.
CARLSON: Gloria Browne-Marshall and Laura Coates, thank you. I'm sorry, Laura, did you want to say something?
COATES: I was going to say, there certainly is a forum there, but it has to be even more expanse of about qualified immunity with the Supreme Court wanting to review it. It has to be about reinforcing the rolled back consent decrees that the former Attorney General Jeff Sessions pulled back as his last act in office before he was let go, shall we say.
It's about the idea of Human Rights campaigns in cases against the officer in there. It is always about, as Congress has the power of the purse, Anderson, you know full well that one of the ways in which you can incentivize people to behave appropriately is through these consent decrees. It's also through civil liability and recourse, and, of course, effective police training and accountability.
Unfortunately, criminal prosecution As Keith Ellison has been talking about is going to be one piece of a very large pie. Necessary, but part of a more holistic approach.
COOPER: Laura Coates, thank you. Gloria Browne-Marshall as well.
The memorial service is Saturday in Rayford, North Carolina, where Mr. Floyd's sister lives. The funeral as we mentioned will be held next week in Houston. I spoke about an hour or so ago with Houston's Mayor, Sylvester Turner.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Mayor Turner, I'm sure you watched the memorial service for George Floyd in Minneapolis today. Reverend Sharpton delivered the eulogy.
He said what happened to Mr. Floyd happens every day in this country and it's time for us to stand up in George Floyd's name and say, get your knee off our necks.
I'm wondering what your reaction was when you heard that.
MAYOR SYLVESTER TURNER (D), HOUSTON, TEXAS: Well, I mean, it does happen way too often, you know, Anderson. It is important, for example, that we create a system or devise a system that respects everyone.
Every life is important. Every neighborhood is important. And it doesn't matter which city you're in. We always should be taking a look at our policies, our practices and our procedures.
We can always do things better. Training is critically important. And it's especially important now when there are a lot of people that are experiencing a great deal of anxiety and nervousness.
There are mental behavioral health issues, so training becomes important, especially de-escalation training and crisis intervention training.
COOPER: When people talk about police reform, there is obviously a lot of different arms about that criminal justice reform and also police reform. For you police reform begins with training.
TURNER: It begins with -- it begins with training, and not just training in general. That can be generic. But what's important is crisis intervention training.
We started that in the City of Houston back in 1998. We still need to refine it. Now, every single cadet has to go through 40 hours of crisis intervention training, and we are looking now to see whether or not that even needs to be increased.
COOPER: You know confidence is at just incredibly low among many -- certainly, the people who are protesting in the streets, among many Americans, particularly African-Americans, people of color.
There is a growing move of defund police, some protesters are calling for. When you hear that as a Mayor obviously, I'm wondering how you see that. Obviously there's -- how do you see that?
TURNER: I hear it all the time, Anderson. I hear it all the time. We just had a public hearing. Our budget process starts next week and there were a number of speakers who came just this week and talked about defunding or reducing the police budget.
Let me just say for the City of Houston. We're the fourth largest city in the United States. We have 5,300 police officers covering 640 square miles.
To give you some comparison, Chicago is the third largest city. They have about 12,000 police officers covering 275 miles.
In our city, we need more police officers. Most of our people in our community are saying we need more. It's not the question of how many are defunding, what people want and what they deserve is good policing.
They're wanting police officers who recognize that every single person, every community is important. Everyone needs to be respected. So, they want good policing. They want accountability and they want a system that they can believe in.
[20:15:09]
TURNER: That's what's important. If you do that, then people will be supportive. Look, I grew up in the hood, as we would say, in the City of Houston.
And as the Mayor of the City of Houston, I still live in the same neighborhood. I still live in the hood.
Now, George Floyd, for example, grew up in this city. He grew up on the south side, graduated from Jack Yates in the hood, so to speak. I grew up on the north side. I graduated in Acres Home. So, I understand how people have been overlooked. I've lived in this
city all my life. There have been tensions that existed. We've worked very hard to build that trust between the police and the community.
COOPER: His funeral is going to be in Houston on Tuesday. I understand -- I read that he is going to actually have a police escort. Is that correct?
TURNER: That is true. We will be providing security from the time when his body returns over the weekend, and then we will escort him to the funeral home and on to the church.
Look, just this past Tuesday, 60,000 people in the City of Houston marched downtown. I was right there with them, to pay tribute to George Floyd and to support his family.
They will carry a pain and a loss for the rest of their lives. We wanted to honor them, to support them. And when his body returns to the city in which he was reared, graduated from high school, we're going to do the same thing.
The family has asked that we do it in such a way that it will be peaceful, to pay tribute to him, and not to defame or deface his memory.
COOPER: Mayor Turner, I appreciate your time. Thank you.
TURNER: Thanks. Thanks, Anderson. I appreciate it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Well, we have much more ahead tonight on this as well as the growing number of retired top military commanders standing up and speaking out about the failures of President Trump in handling this moment in our history, failing to reach out to all Americans and why so many of them are concerned about the very future of America's democracy.
We have another retired four-star general speaking out tonight. General John Allen, former Commander of the U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan joins us next.
And later, new testimony in the videotaped murder of Ahmaud Arbery in Georgia. New information about what they did to Mr. Arbery who was out for a jog, hunting him down, hitting him with a truck, shooting him to death, and now we know the words one of the killer's shouted as Mr. Arbery lay dead in the street.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:21:10]
COOPER: The President tonight is in the middle of a raging tweet storm about former Defense Secretary James Mattis who as you know went on the record against the President's church publicity stunt on Monday, and the beating and firing of pepper balls on peaceful protesters leading up to it.
He called Donald Trump, quote, "The first President in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people, does not even pretend to try." Instead he wrote, "He tries to divide us."
Tonight the President repeated his false claim that he fired Mattis, General Mattis in point of fact resigned. He lashed out at former Chief of Staff, retired General John Kelly for also pointing out that the claim of him firing Mattis is false.
Suffice it to say tonight, and last night, the man who avoided one second in uniform insulted General Mattis's five-decade long military career.
And remember, the President is talking about someone he handpicked for his Cabinet and boasted about. He basked in the General's reflected accomplishments of what he imagined military commanders do.
Well, General Mattis actually did in the pages of "The Atlantic" yesterday and throughout his military career was in the service to the country whose Constitution he swore to protect and defend.
Today, Alaska's Senator Lisa Murkowski became a lonely voice in the Republican Party when she told CNN's Manu Raju, quote, "I was really thankful. I thought General Mattis's words were true, and honest, and necessary and overdue." She added that she is struggling over whether to support the President in November.
Tonight, the President vowed to campaign against her when she runs for reelection.
Our next guest has weighed in along with General Mattis. He, too, is a four-star Marine Corps General, former Commander of U.S. and NATO forces in Afghanistan -- about Monday, John Allen writes, and I quote, "Remember the date. It may well signal the beginning of the end of the American experiment."
He went on to write, "While Monday was truly horrific, no one should have been surprised, indeed the moment was clarifying in so many ways."
General Allen is currently President of the Brookings Institution and he joins us now.
General, thank you so much for being with us. The beginning of the end of the American experiment. When I read that, I just found it really chilling given your experience and all you have seen. Can you just elaborate on that?
GEN. JOHN ALLEN (RET), U.S. MARINE CORPS: Anderson, we haven't been at this place in history, in the history of this country ever. Let's remember what's going on here.
We are experiencing a global lethal pandemic, over 107,000 dead. More than 40 million unemployed. Our economy is in tatters, almost two million Americans infected. All of that is an operating system over just four months behind this
awful moment of the death of George Floyd. Let me just take a moment and offer my deepest condolences to the family and to the community in Minneapolis on Mr. Floyd's passing, and how incredibly emotional that memorial service was today.
And so, it's a moment, an incredible moment for us, Anderson, in the context of we can take this as an opportunity to look at those factors that have brought hundreds of thousands of Americans into the streets to protest massive social injustice, centuries of racism and discrimination or we can make this a security problem and ultimately treat those individuals as a security problem themselves as they are seeking to exercise their First Amendment rights of freedom of speech and freedom of assembly.
Of course, that thing which is prized by us in so many ways in America, the right to dissent. And so we can take this moment, the leaders of this country can take this moment and take stock of why we are in this situation, and we can judge the issues with compassion, empathy, sympathy, and instead of debating whether to commit Federal troops against American citizens, let's debate how we can pursue real reform.
[20:25:10]
ALLEN: Let's look at the legislative changes that need to be made. The reforms from the bottom up of the police forces, and how Washington can partner with governors and with mayors rather than upbraid them, to see how we can take this moment.
And rather than treat the American people as a potential enemy, treat the American people as a population with guaranteed rights under the Constitution who are in enormous pain right now, pain from the pandemic and pain from the realities of what is ultimately at the heart of the death of George Floyd.
Let's use this as the moment. As I said at the end of this -- at the end of my paper, as a moment not ultimately to make this a security issue, but an issue of hope.
And if we do that, this is the opportunity for us to save the American democracy, reinforce that which is at the center of it, our Constitution, and move forward as a people united.
This is the chance the President has. And I hope he'll seize it.
COOPER: Not only in your career of service in what you saw around the world in all the posts that you held, but just as a leader of men and women in battle and in peace and in war, but also American forces, also international forces when you were in Afghanistan.
I'm just wondering what did you learn about leadership, leading black and brown and Asian and white and people from all different countries around the world that this leader, that this President does not understand? ALLEN: Well, I can't tell you what he understands or not, Anderson,
but I can simply tell you what I know with respect to leadership, and that is the finest leaders that I know are humble servants.
Those who are willing to lead from the front, those who are willing to make themselves accessible, those who demonstrate real compassion and respect for those that they lead.
I grew up in a service when I was very young -- I enlisted when I was 17 -- and one of the greatest challenges we had in the very early '70s was the issue of race. And we overcame it by learning how to respect each other and how to trust each other and how to lead from a position of humility, and lead from a position of the sense by officers that we truly serve those that we lead.
Those examples are on full display in our terrific military every single day. And I served with Jim Mattis and he was one of those kinds of leaders, as was Mike Mullen and Jim Stavridas and those who have expressed themselves on this issue.
But I have to tell you that those kinds of qualities are desperately needed right now. The American people are looking for leadership at the senior levels, at the most senior level. And this is a chance for the President to truly unite the country as he tries to lead us through the COVID crisis, but also to lead our people through this moment of intense pain by virtue of centuries of inequity and social injustice and inequality.
It can't be about security. It has got to be about the future, bringing our people together and resolving these issues of inequality. Here is the President's chance to truly lead our country forward in a unified manner.
COOPER: Things like police reform, Criminal Justice Reform, and obviously, look, they're very complex issues. There's a lot of moving parts to it, but something like how much do you think something like police reform is about leadership ultimately?
ALLEN: It's all about leadership, Anderson. Any reform is about leadership. Now, there will be components that are technical dimensions to it. There will be equipping and training and education and recruiting.
All of those things fit in some form or another in the larger spectrum of policing. But it's all about leadership. It's about the leaders at the heads of the various forces, the commissioners and the police chiefs, setting the example, setting high standards for performance, ensuring that police are trained to the right kinds of standard so that they are doing community policing.
They are identified as being of the people and not against the people. And you've seen this already. The reporting -- CNN has done this reporting and others, where police officers, police leadership, and the police themselves in this awful moment have taken the opportunity to take a knee and hold hands with those who are demonstrating to show solidarity with why they are demonstrating, why are they in such pain. And how can the police protect them as they demonstrate and how can
the police be part of the solution and not be viewed as the problem.
And, Anderson, as you well know, the vast, vast majority of the police in this country serve selflessly. Their lives are on the line every single day. And some of them are paying with their lives probably even as we speak because of the attacks on the police.
[20:30:30]
This is an opportunity for reform from the bottom up. And it's an opportunity for leadership from the top down. This is my -- that was my point, when I said when you look at what was happening on the first of June, we as a people have an opportunity, a rare opportunity that comes along only very infrequently in our history, during moments of great crisis and duress, for the leadership of this country, to exercise the kind of compassion, the kind of assertive leadership that can solve these problems once and for all and bring the country together, get us through this pandemic, recover our economy, and ultimately take the leadership position on the globe that the United States should.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Colonel Allen, I appreciate your time and you're (INAUDIBLE). Thank you.
ALLEN: Thank you, Anderson.
COOPER: CNN's political analyst, analyst Maggie Haberman has been reporting writing stenciling these days about the President's well, what the President is up to, she is of course White House correspondent of "The New York Times". She joins me now.
Maggie, I mean the fact that there are that General Allen, General Mattis. These high profile retired generals with, you know, extraordinary surplus records of service are speaking out against the President against the President. I mean, it is rare to that former generals at this level come forward like this.
MAGGIE HABERMAN, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: It is, look, we saw this from some military leaders during the 2016 campaign around the time the conventions such as General Allen talking about the problems that he saw coming with Donald Trump, clearly, those problems remained. You know, I think that people have had for years to see that what was described by President Trump's then candidate Trump's advisors as him playing a role at the time. It's really not a role, so he is. And I think that they are making clear that this is, in their minds a threat going forward. What has been striking is the volume of people who such as General Mattis, who served under President Trump spent extensive time working in this administration. He obviously has been under a lot of pressure to speak sooner. Some Democrats think it is too late.
I think that it is a precarious moment for the President, especially as he is fighting with current Department of Defense leadership, where he risked losing the military support. And that is, that is a dangerous place for a commander in chief to be. So I think that we will see if there are more people coming forward in the coming days to talk about this President. The President is obviously very bothered by it. We've seen his tweets that's consistent with what he's been saying privately to advisors. He's very angry at General Mattis. I expect that if there are more people speaking against him in part -- you know, who -- even people who have worn the uniform, I think that will be very jarring to him.
COOPER: The -- it's stunning to me, though, that anybody who works around the President must know by now, that no matter how they debase themselves in order to curry favor with him, that in the end, he will turn on them, and he will try to destroy them if they move beyond him, if they say anything that he doesn't like,
HABERMAN: Look, I think the President's supporters have framed it repeatedly as he's just a counter puncher. When he gets criticized, he punches back what he does to people, if they disagree with him on anything, whether it's impersonally, or a policy matter, he attacks them personally. And I think that you have seen repeatedly, one person after another who has left this administration and try to orchestrate it in a way where they weren't getting hate tweeted on the way out the door. And so I do think that this is something that people are mindful of around him to your point he clearly is willing to do this with almost anybody with whatever resume they have. And I think that that weighs on people and I think that it is been something that has kept at least some people working for him.
There aren't people Anderson who do genuinely I think, believe in the policy matters, who do believe in what he does, and who do, who do care about him personally, but the level of morale in the White House now is really bad. And there are people who are really pretty candid in private conversations about the -- this showing the limits of his abilities in this job this past week showing the limits of his abilities in this job.
COOPER: Yes, I've always found it amazing that people call him a counter puncher and the idea that he knows how to throw a punch. And this is coming from somebody who has no idea how to throw a punch. So I know. I know it when I see it. It's always just fun. I just find a ludicrous.
Maggie Haberman, thank you very much.
Coming up next, what Attorney General Barr said today about Monday's photo-op and the timeline that refutes his argument that there was quote, no correlation between clearing the protests and the photo-op.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:38:01]
COOPER: Today, Attorney General Bill Barr denied that the violent and sudden clearing of protesters and subsequent photo-op by the President that we've been discussing. Tonight we're coordinated.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BILL BARR, ATTORNEY GENERAL: So there was no correlation between our tactical plan of moving the perimeter up by one block and the President's going over to the church.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well that denial would be funny and ridiculous if what he did wasn't so dangerous ordering police to rough up innocent Americans exercising their right to free speech. Just so President Trump could stand in front of a church hold up a Bible and say nothing for photo- op. And the timeline of what we all saw with our eyes on live television completely refutes Mr. Barr's explanation to review. At about 6:10 p.m. on Monday, CNN cameras first spot Barr inspecting the protesters and law enforcement. About 12 minutes later he leaves the President's speech in the Rose Garden. Look, he's not ducking from for cover. He's not being pelted with anything. He's just standing there hands in pockets, watching the peaceful protesters.
About nine minutes later at 6:31 exactly after law enforcement has gotten closer to the protesters, our Alex Marquardt reports in law enforcement putting on their gas mask. Four minutes later at about 6:35 p.m. CNN camera spot the first evidence of law enforcement using some sort of gas or smoke. Now keep in mind, according to Alex Marquardt, who was there, the action by law enforcement was completely unprovoked. Minutes later, Trump begins to speak in the Rose Garden that lasts less than seven minutes.
Shortly thereafter, Trump is headed outside of the White House grounds to cross the exact spot where the protesters just minutes before have now been violently been pushed back. He reaches the church at about 7:08, he gets handed that Bible by his daughter, Ivanka Trump, who carried it in her white purse over to the church. All that happened in just under an hour. And Attorney General Barr would like you to believe the two have nothing to do with each other. That the video on your left had nothing to do with a video on your right. Even though again, President Trump was walking to where the protesters had been.
[20:40:09]
And remember, this whole thing was designed to be a photo-op, to show strength. So of course they would want, they probably thought these side by side images were good. They probably thought wow he looks so good, saying that these protesters going to be cleared and having them cleared at the very same time. It's absurd now to in realizing that it doesn't look so good. In fact, using force against peaceful protesters is exactly against what the President claims he supports. It's absurd. It's not the only thing Attorney General Barr has been up to when it comes by the way to using his power to quell the protests.
Alex Marquardt joins us now from D.C. In fact, from the exact spot he was at when all this went down on Monday. Can you just detail what kinds of law enforcement agencies and military units you've seen on the streets there?
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Anderson, it's been unbelievable. I've been trying to put together a complete list and if I started rattling off all the names, it would just sound like alphabet soup. It has been really been every agency under the sun, you've had the U.S. Park Police, which are a federal police officials inside the park along with U.S. Secret Service. You've had ATF, DEA, FBI.
One of the most remarkable ones Anderson was the Bureau of Prisons. So you literally had prison guards, many of them from Texas. I saw one wearing a t-shirt from a prison near Houston, right out there yesterday on that front line and over there on 8th street right off of Lafayette Park surrounding the White House. So that really speaks to this incredible patchwork of law enforcement officials who have descended upon Washington D.C. for the sake of law enforcement. Of course you have D.C. National Guard that was pulled up more than 4,000 and National Guard from different states.
You also have active duty troops from Fort Drum in New York and Fort Bragg, North Carolina that were called to D.C. they were never deployed into the street. But of course Anderson you saw that, that back and forth, essentially between the President who would like to see military in the streets. And his Secretary of Defense Mark Esper, who has been very uncomfortable with that. So you've really had this incredible, long list of different types of federal agencies. And today we saw Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi write to President Trump saying that she's very concerned about the increased militarization and lack of clarity about these agencies that may increase chaos, she said, Anderson.
COOPER: I mean, and, you know, in subsequent days, the White House has been, you know, claiming, well, you know, that the President restored law in order to that little area that they then wandered through in order to, you know, make the trip to the church. The idea that they were restoring the law and order against peaceful protesters is just ludicrous.
MARQUARDT: And I should note Anderson, we're at the steps of that church, St. John's because there's been a huge thunderstorm that has just come through just pelting everybody with rain and getting us all soaking wet. That has not deterred those protesters out there who are back up against that fence at Lafayette Park which has been reinforced overnight, but that is the exact spot Anderson where that crackdown began. You have Attorney General Bill Barr saying that, essentially those protesters provoked the response from the law enforcement. I was out there for three and a half hours to the dot before that crackdown started. I was so impressed that there hadn't been any sort of projectiles thrown by the protesters at the police that I'd kept turning to my team, including producer Jamie Crawford to ask them whether they had seen anything they did not.
You have Attorney General Bill Barr saying that stuff was during the police that a warning was given about this crackdown. We saw neither of those things. So as you noted, just after 6:35 -- 6:30 p.m., around 6:35, just before the President was going into the Rose Garden --
COOPER: Yes.
MARQUARDT: -- that crackdown started sweeping through that area, firing all sorts of things that made everybody out here our team included choke, cry, and cough in order to forcibly, violently sweep out what was a very peaceful protest, Anderson.
COOPER: Yes. Alex Marquardt, appreciate you being there. Thank you.
Our next guest retired Lieutenant General Russel Honore knows a lot about leading troops during the crisis in a major American city. He was in New Orleans leading the response effort after Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LT. GEN. RUSSEL HONORE, (RET.) U.S. ARMY: Hey, weapons down, weapons down dammit. Put the weapons down. Weapons down. Put that weapon down on your back (INAUDIBLE). Weapons down. Put it on your back.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[20:45:01]
COOPER: General Honore, I had the privilege of being in the Gulf Coast and in New Orleans during that time and when you did that, I just remember being so impressed because it wasn't about the military coming in to dominate a battle space. It was about as you said, bringing food to people. This President views the use of military forces as a -- I mean, he's characterizing all these protesters as anarchists, as looters, as thugs.
HONORE: The most unfortunate that that description of peaceful protest, they're all looters in there, there are troublemakers in there. But to characterize the general population of Washington D.C., many of those people on the street out there work in government. They're the people that makes the city run and to characterize them because they're protesting. And this man is most unfortunate, and I hope the President learned some manners and how he described the citizens of the United States.
And, you know, Anderson, another thing that we had gotten much into is that helicopter, that loaned medevac (ph) helicopter. It had to be a National Guard helicopter because I could do they don't have that kind of helicopter. That is the most protected airspace in the world. The White House airspace is -- has rings around it. That automatically deployed just so somebody approved that high up in the government --
COOPER: Right and your just --
HONORE: -- but that helicopter --
COOPER: -- and people don't realize you're talking about -- you're talking about a helicopter that was told to fly low in order to --
HONORE: Right.
COOPER: -- help disperse the crowd because of the wind that would be created by the rotors. In fact, the President tweeted about that tonight, praising the pilot is a very talented pilot, which no doubt the pilot, I'm sure he's a very talented pilot, but praising the idea of using a National Guard helicopter or whatever, you know, whatever branch it was from, in order to clear again, peaceful protesters from the White House area is again, just extraordinary what the images that we were getting us to. Where do you see this going? I mean, you know -- where do you see this going?
HONORE: It's got to be investigated that whole chain to come in and approve that any air mission, there's multiple areas of approval. You have the Military District of Washington, you have the opposite of that it's run by the Secret Service and the FBI. So there's multiple levels of command and control that control that space around the White House. I know it because that was one of my job when I was in Joint Chiefs of Staff as Deputy Chief of Operations. That helicopter, using it as a weapon of intimidation against our own citizen is inappropriate and is stupid.
COOPER: It's also --
HONORE: And we look (INAUDIBLE) helicopter on the ground on fire.
COOPER: What was so interesting to me about what you said to that -- to those young troops in New Orleans that we just showed, you know, the gentleman who was holding the his rifle, you know, the way he was and you said, you know, put it down. It's not a bad person. He probably just, you know, and he was just doing what he thought was right. It's about leadership as General Allen was saying earlier in this program, you're the leader, you point out to him, you know, that sends a message that you don't want to be sending that that that's not our role here. And that's what leadership is about and that's required for real change to happen.
HONORE: Well, you know, I respect the troops on the ground. I respect those pilots, because somebody told them to do that, but they know better. Their army taught them better than that to use a damn helicopter as a weapon of intimidation. That is stupid.
COOPER: General Honore. I appreciate your time. As always, thank you.
Up next, new details revealed in court in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case. Another black man is killing was caught on video. What an investigator said about the last minutes Mr. Arbery's life when we continue.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:52:32]
COOPER: The 10th night of protests across the U.S. over the death of George Floyd and generations of injustice. Demonstrators are also calling for justice in the Ahmaud Arbery murder case. That includes this protest tonight in Brunswick, Georgia, which is where Mr. Arbery murder was videotaped in February.
He was 25 years old, he was out for a jog, and he was horrifically chased and gunned down. Three white men are now charged in the case and today in a Georgia courtroom, investigators share new and sickening details about the killing. It is hard to hear and we want to warn you it is hard to watch this but this happened. The only reason we know about it is because these murderers were so proud of what they did to a fellow human being because of the color of his skin. That they videotaped it all.
Here's CNN's Martin Savidge was in the courtroom today.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It was a hearing that sounded like a trial. Georgia prosecutors summed up their case against three white men accused of killing a 25 year old black man running through their neighborhood.
JESSE EVANS, COBB COUNTY CHIEF ASSISTANT DISTRICT ATTORNEY: On February 23rd, of 2020. Victim Ahmaud Arbery was chased hunted down and ultimately executed at the hands of these men.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): The three defendants Gregory McMichael and his son Travis and William Rodney Bryan Jr. appeared via video link for the county jail. The McMichaels initially told authorities they thought Arbery was a burglary suspect. The prosecution says Arbery had done nothing wrong.
EVANS: The fact of the matter is that there's no evidence that these defendants saw a burglary, saw any crime had any subjective belief or even a hunch by these civilians that would authorize their choices that they made to chase after and ultimately gunned down this unarmed victim in the middle of the street.
SAVIDGE (voice-over): In fact, Arbery was out jogging the day he died. Friends say it's what he loved to do. Prosecutors detailed the events leading up to Arbery's death, saying all three men using two pickup trucks became a neighborhood hunting party, blocking and redirecting Arbery as he tried to flee before they finally cornered him. One of the suspects captured Arbery's final moments on cell phone video.
On the witness stand, the lead investigator in the case said 34 year old Travis McMichael admitted to the first officers on the scene. He deliberately shot Arbery three times with a shotgun. Then agent Richard Dial shocked the courtroom recounting with alleged co- conspirator William Bryan says Travis McMichael said next.
[20:55:04]
RICHARD DIAL, GBI ASSISTANT, SPECIAL AGENT IN CHARGE: Mr. Bryan said that after the shooting took place before police arrival while Mr. Arbery was on the ground that he heard Travis Michael make the statement.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
SAVIDGE: Now I should point out that the defense attorneys for Travis McMichael, Anderson have denied the Travis McMichael ever made that racial slur and that the defense attorneys for all the men have maintained that all they were trying to do that day even though two of the men were arm was trying to have a conversation with Ahmaud Arbery. But that all went wrong they say when Ahmaud Arbery turned on them, and that Travis McMichael had to fire in self defense.
And one last thing, that hate language, that awful alleged language from Travis McMichael may not have any bearing on his trial. Because as, you know, Georgia is one of only a handful of states that has no state hate crime law. Though there is work now to try to change that. But it won't impact the trial or the killers of Ahmaud Arbery.
COOPER: Martin Savidge, thank you. I said Martin was in the courtroom here at the courthouse, I apologize for that.
More protests across the country as curfew is near. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Live pictures from Atlanta where the curfew is about to begin when in so many cities that have seen people get into so much pain, but also voice so much hope for a better country.
Today Atlanta's mayor met some of those people. She told them, quote, there is something better on the other side of this.
Chris Cuomo. Those are certainly words to lean on 10 days into this. Let's go to Chris right now. Chris?
END
