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The Lead with Jake Tapper

Kenosha, Wisconsin Center of Nationwide Protests After Unarmed Black Man Shot in Back by Police; Evangelical Leader Resigns as President of Liberty University Amid Sex Scandal; New Book Says Hannity Thinks Trump Is a Crazy Person; Hurricane Laura Strengthens as It Moves Toward Gulf Coast; RNC Keynote Speakers Include First Lady Melania Trump. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 25, 2020 - 15:30   ET

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

[15:30:00]

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: It's path of damage and destruction, people very concerned right there about what some, not all, but some demonstrators are going in terms of the violence.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, it's true, and like you said, it's not all. It's a few people. But it has been very destructive in this town of about 100,000 people. There were clashes between police and protesters, the National Guard called out.

But I also want to talk to you about what happened before the shooting of Jacob Blake. And what we are hearing now from a witness who actually took that video that went viral, is he saw what happened before there was the actual shooting, the seven times in the back by the police officer. Here's what he said he saw in the lead-up to all of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RAYSEAN WHITE, WITNESS: I seen this black man get out the truck. His son was on the lawn. He told his son get in the truck now. His son ran to the truck like he was happy because he said, daddy, when he seen his dad. So he ran to the truck and he walked in the house behind one of the women. I don't know if she was arguing but I just seen her walk in the house behind one of these women that was outside. I stepped away and I came back and I see the police wrestling him.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So you hear him say he saw the police wrestling with him. He also mentions that there was a taser. Now, attorney Benjamin Crump has said that there was a taser involved in this as well.

Everyone is wondering exactly what led up to police going after him. We hear from witnesses and from family members that there was some sort of altercation between two young ladies that he stepped into the middle of. We do not know what the scenario and circumstance is there, but

there's a lot more to be told and there's a lot of frustration here that after 48 hours there's still no new details coming out from the police investigation. Although the State Department of Justice is investigating this case and is trying to go through that so they can get through it without leaking out information to the public they may need to complete their investigation -- Jake.

TAPPER: Sara, three years ago body cameras were unanimously endorsed in Kenosha, Wisconsin. But as I understand it, there still aren't any body cameras for police. Why not?

SIDNER: Yes, so there are no body cameras for police. No body cameras I think for the sheriff's department as well. And it's a matter of them -- the common council talking about parameters and policy surrounding it and budgeting for it. And so, there are a lot of questions being asked now. We would be able to see exactly what led up to all this if the officers had body cameras on. And so, there's a lot of talk about that because there are towns right next door that do, in fact, have body cameras for their officers.

And a lot of folks believe that, look, those body cameras can both protect the officers and the public to show exactly what has happened. Now it is going to be a matter of, you know, what police say and what witnesses say and whether those match or not -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Sara Sidner in Kenosha, Wisconsin, thank you so much. Appreciate it as always.

Next to Virginia, where scandal has rocked Liberty University. The question's in limbo for the Christian school and its leader Jerry Falwell Jr. as he deals with a sex scandal. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00]

TAPPER: We have some breaking news in our politics LEAD today. Outspoken Trump ally and evangelical leader Jerry Falwell Jr. is resigning from his position as President of Liberty University as a young man comes forward and says he that would regularly have sex with Falwell's wife while Mr. Falwell would watch. This afternoon the school's board of trustees accepted Falwell's resignation effective immediately as CNN's Athena Jones now reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BECKI FALWELL, WIFE OF JERRY FALWELL JR., IMPLICATED IN AFFAIR: We look forward to 2020 and winning and making America great again and again and again.

ATHENA JONES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A resignation followed by a swift reversal only adding to the drama surrounding now- former Liberty University President Jerry Falwell Jr. and his wife as the prominent Trump supporters confront a sex scandal. The board of the evangelical university meeting today to seal

Falwell's fate after he waffled over what to do next in a series of phone calls with "The Wall Street Journal." Repeatedly insisting he had done nothing wrong. Telling the paper he is still due his full compensation and saying of the board, they put me on leave because of pressure from self-righteous people.

The unflattering end of Falwell's term as university president coming as a man, Giancarlo Granda, told CNN he had a years-long extramarital affair with Falwell's wife after the couple met him on a trip to Miami eight years ago. Granda telling "Reuters" Jerry Falwell enjoyed watching from the corner of the room while the pair had sex.

In a lengthy statement to CNN that referred to a, quote, fatal attraction-type situation, and included multiple references to scripture, Jerry Falwell admitting his wife's relationship but denying being involved at all. Let alone having watched.

Becki had an inappropriate personal relationship with this person, something in which I was not involved.

"Reuters" first reported Granda's side of the story, Granda saying the liaisons happened multiple times per year at hotels in Miami and New York and at the Falwell's home in Virginia. The agency also publishing text supplied by Granda including from Becki Falwell who serves on the board of Women for Trump and has been called the first lady of Liberty University.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're there at Liberty University, and you guys are training tomorrow's workforce but you're also promoting traditional family values.

[15:40:00]

JONES: In one text from 2012 she allegedly writes to Granda.

Right now, I am just missing you like crazy. Have you had this effect on all of your lady friends?

Falwell was one of President Trump's most prominent evangelical supporters. His January 2016 endorsement helping the thrice married real estate mogul with a history of alleged extramarital affairs win the support of white evangelicals a key voting bloc.

JERRY FALWELL JR, PRESIDENT OF LIBERTY UNIVERSITY: I truly believe Mr. Trump is America's blue-collar billionaire. He is down to earth, he loves America and the American people.

(END VIDEOTAPE) JONES: Now, Falwell had already been on an indefinite leave of absence from Liberty University after posting a photo on Instagram with a woman he said was his wife's assistant showing both of them with their pants unfastened, something that Falwell said was meant lightheartedly.

Well, now the University's board will be meeting to select a search committee for its next President -- Jake.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: Athena Jones, thank you so much for that report. Appreciate it.

Chances are you will not see Falwell pop up at the Republican Convention but will see many friends of "Fox News." An inside look at the network's special relationship with President Trump, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:45:00]

TAPPER: In our politics LEAD today, if you tuned into the Republican National Convention last night, you saw a message that you may have thought does not necessarily reflect life on this planet. You heard that President Trump has been effective in controlling the deadly coronavirus pandemic. Not that the death count is at 177,000 and rising or that with only 4 percent of the world's population the U.S. has more than 20 percent of the deaths due to coronavirus.

You may have heard about the greatest economy in American history, with little mention of the 28 million Americans who filed for unemployment or the thousands standing in line at food pantries to feed their families. But this is not an unfamiliar view of this world, if you are a regular consumer of "Fox."

A new book out today, "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News and The Dangerous Distortion of Truth," has a detailed never-before-seen inside look at the relationship between President Trump and the conservative network.

Joining me now is the author of that book, CNN's chief media correspondent and anchor of "RELIABLE SOURCES," Brian Stelter. Brian, congratulations on the book. It goes on sale today. Wish you success with it.

BRIAN STELTER, CNN SENIOR MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: Thank you, Jake. Thank, yes.

TAPPER: How much of "Fox News" influence did you see in the convention last night?

STELTER: Yes, it was the "Fox" convention. All week long this is a "Fox" convention. You know, back in 2018 in the run-up to the midterms "Fox" had a big hand in starting the caravan invasion. Remember the migrant caravan? The invasion lie? That started on "Fox", went to Trump, went to the GOP. This year it's all been about law and order from "Fox", to Trump, to the GOP, and now that's the convention theme it seems as well.

TAPPER: Your new book, "Hoax," details how "Fox" got where it is, how it created the rise of Donald Trump. You paint a rather cozy relationship between the two, where the President even kept world leaders on hold to do phone interviews with Sean Hannity. Tell us more. STELTER: Yes, that's right. You know, the President's addicted to "Fox

News." And if he was being fed really helpful information, learning about the world, that would be a good thing. You know if he was reading magazines and books and, you know, maybe watching CNN. But instead, he watches "Fox" more than any other network. He even fast forwards through the commercials so he can watch hours and hours on end and he's often getting misinformed by the network. Think that's why this matters, why this book matters.

I've tried to track five years of examples of this phenomenon and it's become most importantly, and most disturbingly, true this year during the pandemic. When he's been misinformed about hydroxychloroquine and other matters relating to COVID-19 right there on "Fox".

By the way, more than 20 people have gone back and forth, be either going from "Fox" to the Trump campaign or going from Trump to "Fox." It goes on and on that revolving door and it spinning faster than ever.

TAPPER: You also have some new reporting on the relationship between President Trump and Sean Hannity. Including what Hannity actually thinks about Trump.

STELTER: And I think this is really important because there's a lot of hypocrisy at play here. It's a big reason why I wanted to write the book, Jake. Here's one of the comments in the book from a close friend of Hannity's who confided in me saying, quote, Hannity would tell you off, off, off the record that Trump is a batsh*t crazy person. That's from an associate.

Another colleague concurred, Hannity has said to me more than once, quote, He is crazy.

Now officially Hannity might say, oh, I'm saying he's crazy like a fox but give me a break. Hannity is on these long rambling phone calls with Trump. He knows Trump better than just about anybody. So do executives at "Fox News" and other talent at "Fox News."

I heard for the past three years concerns about the President's wellbeing, concerns about his fitness from figures at "Fox." The problem, Jake, is they never admit it on the air.

TAPPER: There's another issue I want to ask you about, separate from "Fox." The "Washington Free Beacon" has this really interesting new report about this website called "Courier Newsroom" --

STELTER: Yes.

TAPPER: -- is pushing a seven-figure ad campaign to publish these flattering pieces bout vulnerable House Democrats on Facebook. Courier Newsroom, of course, is not an actual Newsroom. It's an organization funded by Democratic donors. When we look at bias and parading political views as news, it's not just on the conservative side.

STELTER: Yes.

TAPPER: Although it might most prominently be. We also see examples like this.

STELTER: And this is a big problem. I'm glad you brought this up because this is a phenomenon known as pink slime sites. They look like news.

[15:50:00]

They might taste or smell like news but they are not. They are political activist groups that are masquerading as news. And these are popping up by the hundreds all across the country. It's happening in a lot of local markets affecting local races. The "Columbia Journalism Review" is doing great work on this if people want to read more about it.

It's something we need to keep a close eye on because I think a lot of voters are confused by these websites. And that's the intent, to confuse people.

This is one of those times when it's important to rely on trusted and sometimes old-fashioned brands. When your local newspaper's been around for decades, when a television network's been around for decades, it's more likely to be trying harder to get to the truth rather than these new sites that are popping up pretending to be something they are not.

TAPPER: I remember a bunch of these, and I would see them on Facebook during the 2016 election. I don't know who was behind them. But often with completely false, just blatant lies about Hillary Clinton. Is Facebook, are Twitter, are they doing anything about this?

STELTER: Facebook and Twitter have come a long way from 2016. But they're coming a long way from being tortoises. I mean they were crawling, they were barely crawling in 2016. Now I guess maybe they're a child that's able to walk. But they are so far behind on this problem.

We see this game of whack-a-mole going on. It's the world's worst game of whack-a-mole because they are unable to keep up with the deluge of mis- and disinformation on their platforms. And unfortunately, I fear we're going to be talking about this a lot, closer to November when there's going to be election disinformation discouraging people from voting. And, of course, that may go down to the President's benefit.

TAPPER: All right, Brian Stelter, thank you so much again. Again, the book is "Hoax." it's available right now. Good luck with it, Brian.

STELTER: Thank you.

TAPPER: In our national LEAD, what was tropical storm Laura is now headed for the Gulf Coast as a full-fledged hurricane after the storm hammered western Cuba overnight killing at least nine people on its path through the Caribbean, Laura is expected to gain strength as it barrels towards Louisiana and Texas.

Laura comes on the heels of Marco which made landfall as a tropical storm Monday night at the mouth of the Mississippi. For more on all of this, meteorologist Jennifer Gray joins me now from the CNN Weather Center. Jennifer, what can we expect from hurricane Laura over the next 24 hours?

JENNIFER GRAY, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Over the next 24 hours it could rapidly intensify. We could be talking about a Category 3 storm by this time tomorrow making landfall on the southeast Texas/south Louisiana border. So this storm is in the perfect environment to rapidly intensify. Very warm ocean water, very little wind shear. It's got winds of 75 miles per hour right now with gusts of 90 moving at 16 miles per hour.

It's coming off of Cuba, off the Yucatan peninsula. So really no more interaction with land before it makes landfall. So this is going to be a very powerful storm. Winds could be anywhere from 115 miles per hour to 125 miles per hour by the time it makes landfall. So it is going to be a strong one.

It's not going to be like Harvey where it just sits over one area for several days. That's what a lot of people in Houston remember. So don't think of a Harvey. Think of more -- as much as I don't like to compare storms, think more like a Rita, one that's going to be wind and storm-surge driven, not as much the flooding rain.

So it's going to enter sea surface temperatures right around 90 degrees, the low 90s, so a very ripe environment. Here other storms that rapidly intensified when we talk about that, Rita, Katrina, Michael, all very, very powerful storms.

It is taking a very similar track as Rita did in 2005. And that's what a lot of this region remembers as we mentioned. So 110-mile-per-hour winds. Plus, in this area shaded in purple and the area shaded in red, 74 to 110-mile-per-hour winds.

You're going to be talking about downed trees, structural damage as well. 9 to 13 feet of storm surge in that area right in the middle. Wherever this makes landfall, that's where you're going to see the highest storm surge. And then it could be flooding very far inland as well. Jake, we could be talking about 6 to 10 inches of rain as well in those hardest-hit areas.

TAPPER: All right, Jennifer Gray, thanks so much. Appreciate that.

More convention coverage ahead with a look at first lady Melania Trump's big speech. Aides say her remarks will be nothing like her 2016 speech, which I suppose is a good thing.

Plus, we expect to hear from the family of Jacob Blake, the black man shot by police in Wisconsin in front of his young children, shot in the back. The new details coming in on that case next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:00]

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper. We begin this hour with the 2020 LEAD, day two of the Republican

National Convention set to kick off in a few hours. Among the top speakers this evening, Trump children Eric Trump and Tiffany Trump, first lady Melania Trump, and in a break from precedent, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo will also speak delivering his political remarks from overseas in Jerusalem.

And if the first night of the RNC was any indication, you can probably expect more praise of President Trump, plus those surprises. A Trump campaign official has said to expect every night of the convention. The Trump campaign telling reporters that President Trump himself will appear multiple times this evening.

But as CNN's Ryan Nobles reports, for a convention that President Trump promised would be hopeful and optimistic, so far, we have heard a lot of grim and perhaps terrifying warnings about what the world will look like if Democrats win.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The message of the Republican Convention was clear from the start.

KIMBERLY GUILFOYLE, NATIONAL CHAIR, TRUMP VICTORY FINANCE COMMITTEE: They want to destroy this country and everything that we have fought for and hold dear.