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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Breonna Taylor's Mother: Lack of Justice is "Still Unbelievable"; Cuomo Blames "Cancel Culture" Amid Increased Calls for Resignation from Fellow Democrats. Aired on 4:30-5p ET
Aired March 12, 2021 - 16:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Forget about the harm and the trauma caused to this community.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[16:30:09]
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Now, Jeanelle Austin is on the board of the George Floyd Global Memorial. And she says they are planning to open up a pop-up art installation very soon.
There's also news from the settlement, of that $27 million unprecedented pre-civil rights settlement with Floyd's family, there is $500,000 that has been set aside for that area, 38th and Chicago, for the business district there, to try to help them recover -- Jake.
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Sara Sidner in Minneapolis, thanks so much for that report.
Tomorrow marks one year since 26-year-old Breonna Taylor was shot and killed by Louisville, Kentucky, police officers during a flawed police raid inside her apartment. And for her family, amidst the heartbreak, there is a sense of disbelief, because they say 364 days later, there's been no justice for Breonna, as CNN's Jason Carroll reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TAMIKA PALMER, BREONNA TAYLOR'S MOTHER: I'll never get to a point where I'm over what happened to her.
JASON CARROLL, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Tamika Palmer says she will mark the one of year anniversary of her daughter's death by attending a rally Saturday to remind people justice has not been served.
PALMER: It's been a year for people, but every day's been March the 13th for me still.
CARROLL: Every day?
PALMER: Every day.
CARROLL: March 13, 2020, the day Taylor was killed during a botched police raid at her apartment. PALMER: There's always be that sense of anger because you know that
she should be here.
CARROLL: None of the police officers who raided her apartment have been charged in her death. Instead, a grand jury brought charges of felony one endangerment charges against one of them, Brad Hankison, for firing to Taylor's wall into a neighboring apartment. The state attorney general defended the officer's actions saying they were justified because Taylor's boyfriend Kenneth Walker fired at the officers first that night.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The male was holding a gun, arms extended in a shooting stance.
CARROLL: Walker argued he fired in self-defense, thinking someone was trying to break in. He says the officers never identified themselves but the officers say they did.
Just this week, a Kentucky judge permanently dismissed charges against Walker who was initially accused of attempted murder for shooting at the officers.
STEVE ROMINES, ATTORNEY FOR KENNETH WALKER: He's just supposed to say thank you and walk away? No, there has to be a consequence. There has to be accountability.
CARROLL: Accountability is key not only to people like Walker and Tamika Palmer, but to thousands of demonstrator such as Pastor Timothy Findley who protested over the past year calling for police reforms in the wake of Taylor's deaths and the deaths of other African-Americans at the hand of police.
TIMOTHY FINDLEY, PASTOR: When we think about March 13th now, it's Breonna Taylor not just remembering her name, but it's become a rallying call, a rallying call for justice in our city and state.
CARROLL: Last year, the city of Louisville paid Taylor's family $12 million in a civil settlement and passed Breonna's law, which bans no- knock warrants and mandates the use of body cameras during searches. And the city's mayor says there has been a top to bottom review of the Louisville metro police department.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There's a lot to do. We have done a lot. But we're going to keep working at this.
CARROLL: But it's still not enough for Palmer. With no officers charged in her daughter's death, she says justice is something that still eludes her. With the help of her attorney, she penned an open letter to President Joe Biden in "The Washington Post", asking his administration to enact national policies to hold police accountable.
LONITA BAKER, TAYLOR FAMILY ATTORNEY: I guess we're hopeful because we're at a point of reckoning where if we don't fix it, we're going to be in a lot of trouble.
PALMER: She's more hopeful than me. CARROLL: Why is that?
PALMER: It's a trust thing. Like, at this point, I don't trust them.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CARROLL: And Jake, this update -- today, Taylor's mother filed a complaint with the Louisville metro police department's professional standards unit, alleging that six officers allegedly filed false information about Breonna Taylor related to the raid.
Today, the metro police responded. A spokesperson saying they're taking this allegation, this complaint very seriously, saying it will be fully investigated. Also saying they believe in full transparency -- Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Jason Carroll in Louisville, Kentucky , thank you so much, sir. Appreciate it.
Coming up, a son of a governor and current governor who was once married to a Kennedy now says he's a political outsider at scandals close in on him. That's next.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[16:39:05]
TAPPER: In our politics lead, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo today blamed cancel culture as the list of Democrats calling for his resignation continues to grow. Fourteen of New York's 19 congressional Democrats now say he should step down. But Cuomo today once again said he's not going anywhere, as New York state legislators officially launch an impeachment inquiry.
CNN's Shimon Prokupecz joins me now from Albany.
And, Shimon, the governor seemed to go after his fellow Democrats calling for his resignation.
SHIMON PROKUPECZ, CNN CRIME & JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, he's saying that they're rushing to judgment, saying it's dangerous for them to do so without reviews being finalized. Here's more of what he said.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: The people of New York should not have confidence in a politician who takes a position without knowing any facts or substance. People know the difference between playing politics, bowing to cancel culture, and the truth.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
[16:40:11] PROKUPECZ: And, Jake, those reviews, you have the assembly doing their impeachment investigation and, of course, the state attorney general conducting her investigation. Cuomo is urging everyone to wait, wait for those investigations to finish before rushing to judgment. Meanwhile, Cuomo says he has no intention on resigning. He says he's going to keep governing.
He's got a budget to deal with and of course the pandemic. He says his hope so to deal with the vaccinations and get a budget for the state.
TAPPER: All right. Shimon Prokupecz in Albany of New York, thanks so much. Let's discuss.
Let me bring in addition to Gloria Borger, Deanna Paul.
Deanna, one of the many eyebrow raising comments Governor Cuomo made today is he was gunning for him because he's not part of the political club. Take a listen.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
CUOMO: Part of this is that I am not part of the political club. And you know what? I'm proud of it.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
TAPPER: So, he's the incumbent governor. His father was three-term governor of New York. The field was cleared for him so he could run for attorney general of New York. He was at one point married to a Kennedy.
I mean, how can -- how can say he's not in a political club?
DEANNA PAUL, STAFF WRITER, THE WALL STREET JOURNAL: Jake, that's a great question. He can say, that but at the end of the day there's bad news ahead for Governor Cuomo. We have the state legislature who's opened a impeachment inquiry. We have a state investigation into these claims of sexual harassment, and then this is a federal investigation into whether or not there was an undercount of deaths at nursing homes during the pandemic.
TAPPER: Gloria, what do you make of Cuomo saying this is because of cancel culture? There are accounts by several women, at least five, mostly former employees accusing him of inappropriate conduct, sexual harassment. There are hard documents, even confirmation from a member of his staff that his office hid that nursing home death data.
I mean, how could lawmakers -- what's your reaction to these allegations that this is cancel culture?
GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST: I mean, it's not cancel culture at all. I think he just picked up a political phrase that people kind of, you know, listen to today and say, oh yeah, yeah, that's cancel culture, and maybe he thinks it will be good for him politically to say that. I have no idea. And maybe he's just trying to talk to those Democrats who were saying he ought to resign. But what this is about is somebody who's got some credible charges
leveled against him coming on top of a preexisting problem, dealing with nursing homes and hiding the COVID numbers in nursing homes allegedly, and that is being investigated.
So one thing piles on top of another, and politicians get anxious and they get nervous and they get upset, and that's what's going on. But it is not cancel culture.
TAPPER: And, Deanna, one of Cuomo's accusers, a woman named Ana Liss. She worked as a policy adviser for the governor from 2013 to 2015. She told "The New York Times" of working in his office, quote, it's a very scary place to be, particularly if you're young, female, naive, and without a lot of connections. I have a lot of regrets about not calling it out because I know there are so many other women who had it worse than me, unquote.
There are a lot of women giving detailed accounts of their interactions with Governor Cuomo. The accusers just keep coming forward.
Is it -- how long can he just continue to say that he never did anything wrong?
PAUL: That's actually the reason that Ana Liss did come forward to begin with when we spoke to her. She said there was this normalized culture in the office. I'll give you an example. She talks about the governor coming up to her desk while she was sitting there, kissing her hand, asking personal questions about her dating life, whether or not she had a boyfriend.
We talked to several former and current staffers who described this work environment but also whom described top officials reaching out to them and asking them about one of the first accusers, Lindsey Boylan. And several of them said that those calls, they found to be intimidating. Ana Liss actually said, I felt intimidated.
TAPPER: Yeah, there's a New Yorker story about whether or not Cuomo's office leaked information about Lindsey Boylan, the first accuser, in order to tarnish her reputation, and there's questions about whether or not that was ethical or legal. Gloria this investigation by the as Shimon mentioned, there's an impeachment inquiry in the Democratic-led legislature and the majority of Democratic House members are calling on Cuomo to resign.
Do you think he's going to have to step down?
[16:45:01]
Or is the example of Donald Trump and the example of Virginia Governor Northam really the example he's following here, just stick it out and eventually it will go away?
BORGER: Look, I don't pretend to know Governor Cuomo, so I can't tell you what his nature is. What I know about him from watching him is he is somebody who seems to be pretty much of a fighter. He's in his third term as governor and he has to put out a decision of whether or not he wants to run for another term, which he could.
He could say, of course, you know, I want to finish the work that I've got to do. Today he outlines how much work he has to do. Maybe he could say to people, I promise I'm not going to run again.
You don't know what he'll do because you don't know what these investigations are going say. But you know, he is up against it right now, and it is a part of every public conversation that he's having and it becomes more and more difficult to do your job in public service when everywhere you go, you're being dogged by this.
TAPPER: Yeah. Gloria, Deanna, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Have great weekends to both of you.
While other cities are re-opening schools, Los Angeles is waiting more than a month. Up next, parents in L.A. want to know why.
Stay with us.
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[16:50:29]
TAPPER: In our national lead, how to best safely re-open schools for in-person learning has been a major issue since so many schools closed one year ago. On March 1st, Chicago public schools allowed kids in kindergarten through fifth grade to return part-time. In New York, many elementary and middle school students are already back, and high school return for a mixed of in-person or online March 22nd.
But kids in Los Angeles are still learning virtually with a tentative agreement for schools to re-open next month. And beyond this struggle, many parents worry the at-home learning model may hurt their children's future, as CNN's Kyung Lah reports.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have one minute. Go get your backpack.
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): For an entire year --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Just take all the folders out.
LAH: This is life in virtual school.
Dad Kevin Corbin (ph) cooks breakfast.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Do what you got to did.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I know.
LAH: Mom Michelle dashes downstairs. She's the property manager for the apartment building they live in.
So, you're running -- MICHELLE CORBIN, LOS ANGELES PARENT: Up and down, up and down,
nonstop all day.
KEVIN CORBIN, LOS ANGELES PARENT: I drive Postmates frequently.
Hello, this is Kevin from Postmates.
LAH: Los Angeles public schools need to re-open, says Corbin.
K. CORBIN: We're winging it.
We're doing the best we can.
Enjoy it. Have a good day.
LAH: He says his career as an events photographer dried up during COVID-19, so he's doing what he can.
K. CORBIN: We didn't think it was going to be this hard.
LAH: While they say their kids are being forgotten.
K. CORBIN: It's definitely going to be felt because --
LAH: You feel it.
K. CORBIN: Every day, every day.
LAH: Corbin sees this in other large cities. Chicago elementary students now back in the classroom. New York students also back.
Corbin's kids are in the Los Angeles unified school district. LAUSD announced a plan this week to return its more than 600,000 students to in-person learning in April, reaching a tentative deal on teacher vaccinations and new safety protocols.
M. CORBIN: I don't understand what the problem is with LAUSD.
K. CORBIN: I don't think there's enough urgency towards the students.
LAH: Education has been central for this couple who met in college and see it as a key to success for black children.
M. CORBIN: Us struggling with our education that's another fight we can't lose.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're not paying attention.
LAH: But a price is paid in this pandemic.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She does her work. She just needs a little help.
LAH: Not one minute passes all morning without an interruption for 16-year-old Kila (ph).
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do I have to do? UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: She's going to tell you. Just wait.
LAH: Does it make it hard for you?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes, very.
LAH: How have you your grades been?
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Not as good as they were before.
M. CORBIN: I'm just hoping he graduates high school, and that's sad to feel that way.
LAH: Is it her future that you worry about?
M. CORBIN: I'm definitely worried about her future.
LAH: The powerful union representing Los Angeles teachers union says it has no regrets waiting for staff vaccination and safer efforts.
JUAN RAMIREZ, VICE PRESIDENT, UNITED TEACHERS LOS ANGELES: The majority of our students are color, and the majority of them are Latino.
LAH: But the longer it takes to go back to the Corbins --
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You're going to lose.
LAH: The more fragile their children's future remains.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LAH (on camera): Local surveys do show parents of color are disproportionately worried about sending their children back to school compared to white parents. That does mirror a lot of national surveys, but, Jake, the Corbins say they worry more about the long-term impact on communities of color. For example, that 16-year-old daughter you saw, she now no longer believes she can go to college -- Jake.
TAPPER: Kyung Lah, thank you so much for that important report.
Be sure to join me tonight. We have a CNN live special, "Back to School: Kids, COVID and the Fight to Re-Open". We're going to talk to parents, teachers, students, union leaders, policy makers, including the secretary of education, Miguel Cardona, that's at 9:00 p.m. tonight only on CNN.
New information on the links between some of the capitol attack terrorists and former Trump confidant Roger Stone. That's next.
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[16:59:16]
TAPPER: We want to take a moment now to remember just one of the 532,000 Americans who have died from coronavirus. Gary Barham served as commissioner for Henry County, Georgia, for the
last eight years. Before that, he spent 31 years in public service as a volunteer firefighter, chairman of the county fair, director of public works, a Little League coach.
Mr. Barham also volunteered for meals on wheels with his wife Becky and delivered presence to the local children's hospital every Christmas. His family says one of Gary's favorite past times was watching his sons and grandchildren play sports. He was 66 years old.
Our hearts go out to the Barham family today. May his memory be a blessing.
Be sure to tune into this Sunday's "STATE OF THE UNION." I'm talking to Dr. Anthony Fauci, Maryland Republican Governor Larry Hogan, voting rights activist Stacey Abrams and Democratic Congresswoman Veronica Escobar from Texas.
It's at 9:00 a.m. and noon Eastern on Sunday. You can email me -- I'm sorry, tweet me @JakeTapper. Our coverage right now continues on CNN.
I will see you Sunday morning.
