Return to Transcripts main page

The Lead with Jake Tapper

Kamala Harris Said the Reality of COVID Absent from the Republican Convention; Rusten Shesky Identified as the Officer Who Shot Blake 7 Times; Alleged Vigilante Gunman Supported Trump, Had Affinity for Guns; Police Chief Puts Blame on Protesters for Defying Curfew; NBA, WNBA, MLB, MLS Postpone Games. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired August 27, 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]

DANA BASH, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: The issues but on Donald Trump, the person. And Jake, the question that I have is, you know, 2016 that was the Hillary Clinton message. How can you vote for this guy? You really want him to be the guy in your living room for the next four years? And it didn't work.

And the Biden campaign is betting on the fact now that he is actually President, it will work. And we'll see if that happens.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Well, I mean, now he's actually been President for almost four years.

BASH: No, exactly.

TAPPER: People can judge and that's not just a theoretical construct. What if we put this disrupter in the White House. Thanks to you both.

I want to bring in MJ Lee who's at the speech venue right now. MJ, clearly the Biden/Harris camp wants to draw this stark contrast with the President in a pre-buttal kind of fashion. President Trump will speak this evening at the Republican Convention.

MJ LEE, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Jake, and you know, one of the things I was so struck by being in that room is that when Kamala Harris took the stage this afternoon and stood behind that podium she wasn't just standing there as the Democratic nominee for vice president. You know, she was standing there as the black and Asian vice presidential nominee. And what she was saying about Jacob Blake's shooting, you know, she said that she was absolutely sickened to see this video of a man being shot seven times in the back as his children watched.

She said that in this country the reality is that the life of a black person in America has never been treated as fully human. You know, a sentence like that resonates so differently when it is coming from a black woman like herself than versus if it were coming from Joe Biden. You know, Joe Biden could have given the exact same speech, written

exactly the same way, and it wouldn't have had the same meaning, because she herself today was talking about members of her own community. She was probably thinking about black men that she knows in her own life that she worries about, you know, the safety of whom she worries about, because this is the reality of being a black person in America.

And I think you saw there pretty well what kind of a powerful messenger she has potential to be on Joe Biden's ticket, on issues like this one. On issues like racial divisions plaguing this country right now. I also think as far as the prebuttal to Donald Trump's speech goes this evening, she basically said this is a reality show. What we have been seeing all week coming out of the Republican National Convention is completely ignoring the realities of the coronavirus pandemic. As if it doesn't exist and as if we are not still in the middle of this crisis right now. And so that's clearly a message that she wanted to drive home.

You know, all week at the Republican National Convention there is a certain picture of America that clearly Republicans have wanted to paint and we saw that pretty well captured by Mike Pence last night in his speech. You know, talking about Joe Biden being a trojan horse for the radical left or saying that nobody will be safe under Joe Biden's America.

These are all images that clearly both Joe Biden and Kamala Harris are eager to rebut and eager to refute and say, you know, this is not the vision for America. Whether it is right now or the vision that we have for going forward. And I just think that two different pictures and the images of an America under Donald Trump and an America under Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, if they were to win, just could not be more starkly different.

TAPPER: All right, MJ Lee. Thank you so much. Appreciate it.

We are also following the breaking news extensive damage after one of the strongest hurricanes to ever hit the United States barrels into the Gulf Coast. We're going to live on the scene.

Plus the disturbing social media footprint left by the 17-year-old Wisconsin teen charged in connection with deadly acts against protesters Tuesday night and the new details coming in about his arrest.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:35:00]

TAPPER: In our national LEAD today new details about the officer that shot Jacob Blake in the back and left him paralyzed from the waist down. Investigators are now confirming that Officer Rusten Sheskey who's been with the Kenosha Police Department for seven years fired those seven shots into Blake's back after officers tried to arrest and tase Blake. Though we don't know why they were trying to arrest him. We have teams covering the investigation, the violence in streets of

Kenosha, including that 17-year-old charged Trump supporter now charged with murder. And the reaction in the world or professional sports at large.

Let's start with CNN's Shimon Prokupecz who's live in Kenosha, Wisconsin for us. And Shimon, just a hour ago, the Kenosha County Sheriff, the police chief and mayor spoke at a press conference they did not take any questions from reporters. They did not offer any new details about Jacob Blake. What do we know about the events prior to the shooting of Jacob Blake?

SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME AND JUSTICE REPORTER: We have very little information, Jake, as to the events leading up to the shootings. Specifically in the moments before the shooting when police chased him around the car trying to grab him and then fired on him seven times in the back.

Of course, we know that they claim there was a knife in the car. Mr. Blake himself they say told them that. Confessed to them that there was this knife in the car but we don't have explanations as to why the officer felt so threatened that he needed to fire his weapon.

As you said, police today having a press conference. They refused to take any questions. It was more about to talk about how the community is coming together, how things here are getting better. But when asked specific questions on the investigation, they refused to answer.

Tomorrow we expect perhaps we'll hear more from investigators. But again, Jake, there are still a lot of questions here that need to be answered about the moments that led up to the shooting -- Jake.

[15:40:00]

TAPPER: And police and sheriff there have been opaque, no transparency really as of yet. Shimon, thanks so much.

New details about the 17-year-old who has been arrested charged and with first-degree intentional homicide. This is also very strange because investigators will not say which shooting 17-year-old Kyle Rittenhouse is charged in connection with. Two people were shot and killed Tuesday in the streets of Kenosha. And a third was seriously injured.

Well, it looks to be Rittenhouse's social media profile paint a picture of someone with an affinity for guns and for law enforcements. A Facebook profile and TikTok biography Both refer to, quote, "Blue Lives Matter."

In videos posted to a TikTok account individuals can be seen taking part in target practice and assembling a long rifle. Another video shows what looks to be his perspective, his view from a Trump rally back in January.

CNN's Sara Sidner is now with us. She's coming from Kenosha with the latest. And Sara, this alleged shooter, what more are you learning about him?

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: You know, you talk about the fact that he was in that Explorer program. And that program is really for young people to explore the possibility of being in law enforcement or having a career in law enforcement.

It is very clear that he had an affinity for guns, if you look on the social media that is linked potentially to him, you can see him actually with a gun firing many times into the woods. He also clearly has an affinity for police a lot of "Blue Lives Matter" quotes there.

And we are learning as well that he was working part time for the YMCA but that in March because of the coronavirus he was furloughed as well. We also know from police that he at this point is charged in at least one shooting, and deadly shooting, and that he is charged with first-degree intentional homicide.

He is being held in Illinois but there is a plan to try and extradite him and there is an extradition hearing tomorrow actually, tomorrow morning, to try to bring him back to Wisconsin. He lives in Antioch, which is about 20 miles or so from Kenosha itself.

So this is sort of rounding out the picture. And we also we saw he was sitting in the very front row of a Trump rally. So clearly has an affinity for the President as well and his political views are his political views. Those are perfectly fine. But now police are saying that he has decided to take his long gun out and shoot someone in Kenosha during these protests -- Jake.

TAPPER: Again, so much information we need to learn that we have not yet learned --

SIDNER: Yes.

TAPPER: -- about this. Sara Sidner, thanks so much.

Sports also put on pause for now. Players from the NBA, the WNBA, Major League Baseball, Major League Soccer and NFL have postponed games or practices to protest the police shooting of Jacob Blake though we are told the NBA will resume their season, their playoffs soon as this weekend.

President Obama praised the Milwaukee Bucks for leading the charge. President Trump on the other hand said the NBA has become, quote, a political organization, end quote, it's not a good thing.

Joining us now, sports journalist and contributing writer at "The Atlantic" Jemele Hill. Jemele, always good to see you. So, the Bucks said -- the Milwaukee Bucks said, they don't want this protest to just symbolic. They want the officers to be

held accountable. They accused Wisconsin lawmakers of months of inaction on policing reform. Do you think that this pressure might actually be able to enact substantive change?

JEMELE HILL, CONTRIBUTING WRITER, THE ATLANTIC: I think that's what's they hope. You know, the reality is that the players have been trying to sort of sweet talk America into caring about this issue. I mean, they've worn t-shirts. You see their court painted with Black Lives Matter. At every opportunity as they've been in the bubble, they've steered the conversation away from basketball to talk about voter suppression, to talk about police violence.

And for them, the reward was seeing what happened with Jacob Blake. Seeing a man, a black man, who was nearly executed in front of his own children after being shot seven times in the back. So, it just doesn't feel like they were getting anywhere. They're frustrated. They're angry. I mean I can't blame them for feeling the way that they do. Most black people in America feel that way.

And so finally I think they reached their boiling point and decided maybe the message they need to send to the rest of America is, you don't get to disrespect black bodies in the street, and then watch black bodies for entertainment.

TAPPER: And this news from the Milwaukee Bucks, which came yesterday, was exactly four years since San Francisco 49er Colin Kaepernick sat for the national anthem in protest against police brutality, racial inequality. Are you surprised that it took this long for the rest of the sports world to catch up? Or does that make sense to you given how much Colin Kaepernick was demonized and ostracized?

HILL: I think Colin Kaepernick gave them a particular blueprint in which they saw that meaningful change or at least conversation, some very serious and uncomfortable conversations could come from just a gesture. And they sort of added their own emphasis to what Colin Kaepernick did.

[15:45:00]

But the issue, Jake, goes deeper than that. Don't forget that on Milwaukee's own team, there's a player named Sterling Brown who is in the process of a federal lawsuit against the Milwaukee police for the way that they treated him. They tased him. They beat him. They nearly broke one of his limbs after an encounter over him parking his car across two handicap spaces outside of a Walgreens.

So this issue wasn't just about Colin Kaepernick. It was also about this being very personal to the NBA because between Sterling Brown and also Thabo Sefolosha another NBA player whose leg was broken by the New York City police.

So, this is beyond just Colin Kaepernick. This is about these players having very personal experiences with police violence.

TAPPER: I want you to take a listen to some of what the President's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner and the Vice President's Chief of Staff Marc Short had to say about these moves, this strike by these professional athletes. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARC SHORT, VICE PRESIDENT'S CHIEF OF STAFF: I don't know that you can see the administration weighing that one way or the other. In my mind, it's absurd and silly. JARED KUSHNER, TRUMP'S PRESIDENT'S SON-IN-LAW AND ADVISER: I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What's your reaction, Jemele?

HILL: Well I just think it's really interesting that Jared Kushner wants to pull the card about somebody being deserving or having the luxury. Guess what people also don't have? The luxury of your father- in-law being the president and you being put in positions on which you have shown you are wholly unqualified for.

Donald Trump ran on the entire campaign that America wasn't good and according to him at least he has plenty of money. So Donald Trump is allowed to complain about the status of this country and about what's going on in this country but black athletes are not.

I'm not surprised, because this is a familiar position that black athletes and also any prominent black person has always been in. Which is that we need to be grateful for the things that we are apparently given by this country and that we don't have the right to speak to our experience about what it's like being black in America.

TAPPER: Jemele Hill, thank you so much. Always good to see you. Really appreciate it.

HILL: Good to see you, too, Jake.

TAPPER: To the other big story in the national LEAD. What was hurricane Laura still on a deadly and destructive path. We'll take you to some of the areas that were hardest hit. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:00]

TAPPER: In our national LEAD, devastating almost apocalyptic scenes in Texas and Louisiana this afternoon as we're getting our first look at the havoc left behind by hurricane Laura. So far, we know four people in Louisiana were killed. One of the hardest-hit areas, Lake Charles, Louisiana, where you can see entire structures have collapsed, roofs and walls torn off buildings.

One resident who stayed behind telling CNN it's the worst he's experienced in over a decade. But despite the devastation we have heard from multiple people who are, believe it or not, thankful today because they say the storm could have been so much worse.

CNN meteorologist Derek Van Dam is live for us in Sabine Pass right on Texas-Louisiana border along the Gulf Coast. Derek, how serious is the damage where you are?

DEREK VAN DAM, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, I think what I'm going to do is quote the mayor of Port Arthur, the location where we're located. He said to us that we fared pretty well. In fact, they had evacuated about 80 percent of the city before the storm. This was the region's first major hurricane evacuation since the COVID-19 pandemic struck. And it was successful.

The payoff, no fatalities and no injuries that we're aware of in the Port Arthur region. But you can see some of the destruction left that was left behind namely from the water and wind combination. You can see the high water level here on Sabine Pass, just all the debris being pushed up to this location shows you the force of nature.

But we rode out the storm last night in Beaumont, Texas. We got battered around but it was nothing compared to what occurred 30 miles to our east in Lake Charles. We've all seen the harrowing video that's coming out of that region. Windows blown out of buildings. We saw structures compromised. We saw trees and power utility poles just snapped like twigs.

Now the good news is, that we did see several utility workers ready and prepped to be dispersed to help restore power to the 100,000s of people that lost it last night, including us -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Derek Van Dam on the scene, thank you so much. So glad you're OK.

We are following a ton of breaking news. Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, President Trump, local officials all speaking amid the unrest in Wisconsin and the COVID pandemic. We're covering all angles of these major stories. That's next. Stay with us.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:55:00]

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

TAPPER: Welcome to THE LEAD. I'm Jake Tapper.

We begin this hour with breaking news. The police shooting of Jacob Blake in Wisconsin and the subsequent violence in the streets of Kenosha. Vice presidential candidate Kamala Harris minutes ago saying that President Trump has failed at his most basic duty to protect the American people. Calling the pain of this shooting, quote, all too familiar.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, DEMOCRATIC VICE PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: You must always defend peaceful protest and peaceful protesters. We should not confuse them with those looting and committing acts of violence, including the shooter who was arrested for murder. And make no mistake, we will not let these vigilantes and extremists derail the path to justice.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

TAPPER: President Trump has so far remained silent on the shooting of Jacob Blake ignoring a question about Jacob Blake this afternoon.