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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Minneapolis Police Officers Involved in Suspect's Death Fired; Coronavirus Slamming Brazil; Airlines Fight Refunds; Sports Leagues Planning For Coronavirus. Aired 4:30-5p ET

Aired May 26, 2020 - 16:30   ET

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

[16:30:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Complaints have been filed by customers claiming these airlines are doing everything they can to keep their money.

CNN's Pete Muntean takes a look at what the rules are when it comes to airlines and refunds.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): With airlines struggling as passengers cancel due to coronavirus, they are increasingly offering vouchers for future travel, rather than refunds. And many customers are not happy about it.

New numbers show passenger complaints have jumped significantly. The Department of Transportation was flooded with 20,000 complaints in April, 13 times the norm. "Consumer Reports" says it received more than 3,000 e-mails.

BILL MCGEE, "CONSUMER REPORTS": Overwhelmingly, they're saying they want refunds. They don't want to just provide interest-free loans to the airline industry, on top of the government bailout.

MUNTEAN: "Consumer Reports"' Bill McGee says airlines are trying to avoid giving money back.

With airlines trying to stay afloat and customers caught in a bad situation, vouchers have become the default offer, meaning that airlines hold a customer's money until they are willing to fly again. McGee says, if your airline goes bankrupt, you may never see your money again.

DIANE SAMPSON, CANCELED TRIP: I'm not even sure I'm going to want to travel this year at all.

MUNTEAN: Diane Sampson is from California. Sara Snook (ph) is from Ohio. Both teachers, they canceled their spring break trips, as states across the country issued stay-at-home orders. Neither has received refunds from their airlines, but instead were offered vouchers and waived fees. UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: They have my money from a flight I didn't get to

take.

SAMPSON: It makes me upset. It's just another symptom of being a -- the whole the whole system is, like, rigged against little people.

MUNTEAN: The Department of Transportation has issued a memo reiterating that refunds are only required when the airline cancels. When the customer cancels, they are not entitled to a refund or even a voucher. It is up to the airline.

Consumer advocates say, to avoid canceling themselves, sometimes, airlines are reading booking customers on other flights the airline considers similar, leaving it to customers to cancel and then accept a voucher.

The industry group Airlines For America insists carriers are following federal law and offering increased flexibility for customers, adding -- quote -- "We understand that these are difficult times for our country, our passengers and our employees."

SEN. EDWARD MARKEY (D-MA): We need to pass legislation in order to make them give this money back to passengers.

MUNTEAN: Democratic Senator Ed Markey of Massachusetts argues that airlines were given billions in federal bailout funds to avoid layoffs. But he wants customers like Snook and Sampson to be made whole.

MARKEY: They shouldn't get back a voucher for a future trip they may never take. They should get back the cash, which they need right now to take care of their families.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

MUNTEAN: It begs mentioning one more time what happens if an airline goes bankrupt.

Advocates stress to us that consumers will fall at the very bottom of a long list of creditors -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Pete Muntean, thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up next, the devastation in one of the hardest-hit places, 103 people buried in one day in one cemetery.

CNN goes on the ground to Brazil next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:37:58]

TAPPER: In our world lead today: Latin America is the new global epicenter of the novel coronavirus.

And a new Trump administration travel ban takes effect in just a few hours, stopping anyone who has been in Brazil in the last two weeks from entering the United States.

CNN's Nick Paton Walsh takes us now inside one of the country's hardest-hit cities, where the rising number of dead are being buried in mass graves.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK PATON WALSH, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL SECURITY EDITOR (voice- over): This is a landing of last resort, seeking salvation in a coronavirus hotbed.

Tiny planes bring the sickest COVID patients from hundreds of miles away deep in the Amazon to Manaus, Brazil's worst-hit city, and to a hospital bed, a journey most make alone, from which some won't go home.

This is what doing well looks like on these flights moving, the woman on board struggling, motionless. Once, they had to intubate a patient in midair.

DR. SELMA HADDAD, BRAZIL: It's very hard. You carry a weight that you don't see. Every time I carry this weight, I feel like I carry this weight.

WALSH: They arrive in a city mired not only in death, but also fury.

Brazilian President Jair Bolsonaro has made light of the virus and called the mayor here a piece of excrement for digging these mass graves. They had little choice here, when the bodies started piling up.

This month, they buried 103 in one day, digging at night. Even in two hours, five come, one by one laid in the trench. Many mourners say there's aren't coronavirus deaths, but it's hard to know here.

(on camera): The official numbers in Brazil don't tell the whole picture, partly because there isn't enough testing. You can see that here. These are those who've died and have tested positive for coronavirus, but these graves, staggeringly, well, they're the ones that they suspect may have died of the disease.

[16:40:00]

(voice-over): The mass burial itself distressing.

PEDRO CHAVES, BRAZIL RESIDENT: We are here around 30 minutes waiting for (INAUDIBLE). I just -- I just want to put my mom there and finish this. We don't need this. My family doesn't need this.

WALSH: We asked the grave diggers, who thinks fewer would have died here if the president had kept quiet?

"No one listens to Bolsonaro," one says. "He's not there for the people."

Adds another: "He should have asked us what was going on." But, still, the hospitals here receive a daily stream of new patients, these from outlying villages, where local tribes live, badly hit too. The ICU, which avoids ventilators where possible, using less invasive means, is frenetic. And even the patients have heard what the president said.

"The mayor is just trying to save lives," says Raimondo (ph), "and the president is against that."

Inside, a local indigenous leader visits, newly adopting the role from his father killed by the virus two weeks ago.

"I took my father into hospital, where he was intubated for five days," he says. "Now we have 300 people with symptoms. Politically, the president forgot us and is killing the indigenous people."

Bolsonaro insists he is for economic growth and safety. But the virus is still tearing through the poor here. Their remote way of life was no protection from this modern plague. It just put help further away.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALSH: Startling to see how that remote, remote city was so badly impacted.

Here, though, Rio de Janeiro, Copacabana Beach, you couldn't get more of a Brazilian icon than this, frankly, they're worried this may get hit hard next. Face masks already around, partial lockdown, quite a lot of the shops shut here.

A reasonably pretty beach front here, though, many worried that Brazilians, because the message from their president that this could just be a little flu, focusing on the economy, that Brazilians may not be taking this disease seriously enough yet.

We will find out the week or two ahead, as the peak hits these major cities -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Nick Paton Walsh in Brazil for us, thank you so much.

Coming up next: He pleaded with the officers. He couldn't breathe, he said, as he was pinned to the ground. We have breaking news about the officers involved in the death of an African-American man.

The police chief making an announcement about their fate.

Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[16:46:31]

TAPPER: Breaking news in our national lead right now.

Moments ago, the chief of police in Minneapolis announced that he had fired four police officers involved in the arrest and subsequent death of a black man in police custody.

George Floyd repeatedly told the officers that he could not breathe after an officer knelt on his neck, pinning him to the ground during an arrest. A bystander captured yesterday's incident on a cell phone camera.

A warning: This might be difficult to watch. Police say Floyd was assisting arrest on a forgery charge. But this disturbing video we're about to show you did not capture that. It begins when Floyd is already on the ground.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

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

GEORGE FLOYD, MINNEAPOLIS: I can't breathe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I have been trying to help out.

(CROSSTALK)

FLOYD: I'm about to die.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Relax.

FLOYD: I can't breathe.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: The video posted on Facebook goes on for 10 minutes. You can hear several witnesses ask the officer, why does he still have his knee on George Floyd's neck?

CNN's Omar Jimenez is live for us in Minneapolis.

And, Omar, give us the details from the press conference with the police chief.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the press conference with that police chief, one of the big things he was trying to call for was a push for trust between the police and the community here.

And this was -- in part came from the swift action we saw this police department take. Let's remember this just happened yesterday. And within 24 hours, all four of the officers involved with this have been fired, when we have seen, sadly, many of these cases play out throughout the country, and that hasn't -- that type of action, I should say, hasn't come as quickly as we have seen.

And when you watch that video that again is disturbing to many people, it plays out for 10 minutes. He is communicating with the officers, George Floyd, on the ground there for some time, saying: I can't breathe. I need to be taken to -- he needs medical help in regards to that. And then, at one point, the words begin to trail off and then his body

isn't moving at all, as bystanders are literally asking for officers to check for a pulse.

Here's what the mayor of Minneapolis had to say a little bit earlier today:

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACOB FREY (D), MAYOR OF MINNEAPOLIS, MINNESOTA: What we saw was horrible, completely and utterly messed up.

This man's life matters. He matters. I believe what I saw, and what I saw was wrong at every level.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JIMENEZ: And George Floyd, obviously, was that was the man that was unfortunately killed in this incident.

He's being represented by Benjamin Crump, the attorney, who released a statement saying: "This abusive, excessive and inhumane use of force cost the life of a man who was being detained by the police for questioning about a nonviolent charge."

And it's part of why we are seeing people out protesting today, Jake.

TAPPER: Right. Police say it was a forgery arrest.

What else are police saying about this?

JIMENEZ: Well, in regards to what led up to this, I will give you a little quick scene-setter here.

You see that Cup Foods over my shoulder here at 38th and Chicago here in the Minneapolis area. It was there that police first got the report of a potential forged document being used in a purchase. And they were later given a description that may have matched George's.

And when they got there, it was a physical resistance to an arrest, according to police at that time, that began the sort of entanglement and then, of course, the horror that we saw unfold in that video -- Jake.

[16:50:08]

TAPPER: All right, Omar Jimenez in Minneapolis for us this afternoon, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

As Americans look for an escape from the devastation, economic and health-wise, of coronavirus, many are wondering when you might get to see some sort of sports again.

Well, the NHL just made an announcement on that. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [16:55:02]

TAPPER: Breaking news now.

NHL commissioner Gary Bettman announced just moments ago that regular season hockey is over, and when it comes back, it will just be the playoffs. He did not announce a date for that to start, but it will not be before July 1.

"USA Today" sports columnist Christine Brennan joins me now to talk about sports in general.

So, Christine, the NHL hopes to resume play by summer, the fall. The NBA is in talks with the Disney company about resuming the season in late July at one of its facilities.

Do you see either basketball or hockey coming back that quickly?

CHRISTINE BRENNAN, CNN SPORTS ANALYST: I'd love to see that, Jake. I think we would, right, the escape that sports can give us, that opportunity to have something to watch live on TV in sports. I think we'd love to see it happen.

But if it happens is another matter entirely. These are optimistic plans. It makes sense to have a plan, to start to work on a plan, but will it happen? We have no idea.

And we're seeing the NBA starting with practices. Now, it's not practices the way people would think, with a team practicing on the court. It's one player shooting in a basket and then another basket, practice -- another player. And there's social distancing.

So these are baby steps, just the very beginning. Will we see it happen and come to fruition in July? No idea. And, of course, so much depends on testing and being good citizens. Will these leagues be able to get extra tests, and should they get extra tests if their communities are still (AUDIO GAP) tests?

TAPPER: Let's start at baseball, which I really miss.

I know there are a ton of fans, many of them on my staff, who are eager to get the game going. Owners have finalized a plan for a season to start July 4 weekend, according to ESPN. This would be an 82-game regular season, with games to be held without fans, as long as states and health officials allow it.

Do you think that it's possible America's pastime could happen this summer?

BRENNAN: Certainly, Jake, the term -- as we have got used to social distancing and flattening the curve, let's get used to spectatorless sports, even though most of our sports are a TV show, anyway, for a vast majority of fans.

I think it could work. With baseball, again, it's not the centralized location that the NBA is looking at. It would be all various cities. And, of course, big league cities are also the areas of most concern in this crisis, in the pandemic.

So I certainly hope so. I would love to see baseball return, but the rule book, the new regulations for that, Jake, 67 pages. And that shows you how much of a needle they have to thread to try to pull it off. So I'd love to say yes and be optimistic, but I think, as we have seen over the last few months, we just have to wait and see.

But baseball would be a wonderful relief and a great escape for Americans this summer, if it can happen.

TAPPER: Of course, there's a salary squabble that is threatening any type of baseball season right now. And there are a lot of critics who say, how could these very wealthy baseball players be talking about this, when close to 40 million Americans just filed for unemployment?

BRENNAN: Well, exactly.

This is the baseball union, the strongest union in all of sports. And they are not going to budge, because they don't want to go to a place where it's revenue sharing and potentially a salary cap and lose that bargaining power over the next few years.

But I think it's a terrible look for Major League Baseball. I think they -- Jake, they need to resolve this now and get beyond it, because fans are not going to put up with the fact that baseball players, the -- as we say, the billionaires and the millionaires fighting over more millions.

Enough is enough, baseball. Figure it out and try to be able to play and come back, as your fans would like to see you.

TAPPER: And quickly, if you could, Christine, what's the latest on possible talks between the NFL and its players to get back on the gridiron come August and September?

What could that look like?

BRENNAN: The good news -- sure.

The good news, Jake, is that the NFL has had time that these other leagues have not had, because, of course, they weren't playing. And football might be the toughest of all, because there's absolutely no social distancing with football.

They continue to talk about it, continue to work on it. And, again, there are certainly hopes that we could see it sometime this fall.

TAPPER: All right, Christine Brennan, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

BRENNAN: Thank you.

TAPPER: As the United States nears 100,000 lives lost to coronavirus, we want to take time to remember some of the victims, such as Brittany Bruner-Ringo. She was only 32 years old. She worked as a nurse at a dementia care facility in Los Angeles, who

came from a family of health care professionals. Her sister told CNN that Brittany had such a kind heart. She says the virus took her beloved sister too soon.

We also lost Martin Addison. He was 44 years old. He was a speech pathologist in Waldwick, New Jersey. He did Donald Duck impressions to make his six-month-old son laugh. And he would meet his 2-year-old daughter outside every day after work.

His wife, Pamela, says Martin loved surprises. He was planning a getaway for their anniversary in October.

To both the Addison and Bruner-Ringo families, we're so sorry for the loss of your loved ones. May their memories be a blessing.