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Soon, Biden To Apologize For Abusive Indian Boarding Schools; "Washington Post" Not Endorsing Presidential Candidate For First Time In Decades; Former Model Says Trump Groped Her In Front Of Jeffrey Epstein, Trump Team Denies Allegations; Biden Speaks To Native Americans In Arizona, Apologizes For Abusive Indian Boarding Schools. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired October 25, 2024 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[13:33:06]
ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN HOST: And there's breaking news. President Biden is about to deliver a formal apology to Native Americans, apologizing for hundreds of government-run boarding schools where Native American children were forcibly taken to be assimilated into white society.
BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: The president is set to speak at any moment now to the Helo River (ph) Indian community in Arizona.
CNN's Arlette Saenz is there traveling with President Biden.
Arlette, what are we expecting President Biden to say? And why is this happening now?
ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Boris, now Biden is expected to make this historic apology to the Native American community for the U.S. governments role in these Indian boarding schools that forced thousands of Native American children to be removed from their families and assimilate, being stripped of many ties to their cultures.
Now this took place over a period of 150 years, where thousands of children, some as young as 4-years-old, we're taken from their families and put into these boarding schools.
They we're stripped of their tribal ties and cultural practices with many of them enduring abuse, neglect, and some even suffering from death.
Now President Biden said that this is a long overdue apology for the community. And it stems from a review that was ordered by a secretary, Deb Haaland, who is speaking behind me, who had called for review of these practices.
Ultimately, they found there were at least 400 schools across 37 states with nearly 1,000 children who had died. They ultimately have been able to identify so far about 18,000 children who were part of these schools.
But the federal government acknowledges that there could likely be many, many more.
Now, Deb Haaland, who is the first Native American to serve as a cabinet secretary, her own family has history, went through some of these federal boarding schools.
She said, "Long ago, it was farfetched the idea that the U.S. government apologize for this." But today, that is what President Biden, in fact, will be doing.
[13:35:08]
The first recommendation from this review from the Interior Department called for a formal apology for this community.
It comes at a time, just less than two weeks from the election, when that the administration, the campaign are also trying to show some of the work they are doing for the Native American community, which makes up an important Putin slice of the electorate here in Arizona.
So for President Biden today, he is trying to take some steps, trying to turn the chapter from what was a very painful and dark period in the U.S. especially for the Native American community.
SANCHEZ: And we'll be listening in for the president's remarks, set to start at any moment.
Arlette Saenz, live for us in Arizona, thank you so much.
This just in to CNN. We've just learned that the "Washington Post" will not be making a presidential endorsement in this year's race. The move breaking with decades of tradition at the newspaper.
MARQUARDT: CNN's media correspondent, Hadas Gold ,joins us now with more.
Hadas, this is quite a moment. What more do we know about "The Post's" decision?
HADAS GOLD, CNN MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: This is quite a moment. This was announced today by the "Washington Post" publisher, Will Lewis, saying that we recognize this will be read in a range of ways, saying, "including as a tacit endorsement of one candidate or the condemnation of another or an abdication of responsibility."
But he says, "We don't see it that way. We see it as consistent with the believes "The Post" has always stood for."
As you noted, "The Post" has been endorsing for decades, really since the 1970s. In 1998, they sort of did a non-endorsement, but this has been a tradition now that they are breaking for decades.
And I now have reporting, according to sources with knowledge, that actually "The Post" editorial board did have an endorsement drafted for the vice president, for Vice President Kamala Harris, and that is the endorsement that would now potentially not be running.
I'm also told by a source the knowledge that many on the editorial board are surprised and angry with this decision.
Some were also questioning the timing of this. I spoke to another source who said, "It's fine that 'The Post' is not endorsing, but why are they making this -- why are they making this announcement so close to this election. The timing is just terrible," I'm told.
And we are getting some very harsh criticism from some very high places. This is the former "Washington Post" editor, Marty Baron, posting shortly after this announcement was publish saying, "This is cowardice. With democracy as it's casualty. Donald Trump will see this as an invitation to further intimidate owner, Jeff Bezos, and others. Disturbing, spinelessness at an institution famed for courage."
I'm still getting a lot of -- doing a lot of reporting on this, talking to people at the "Washington Post." The big question, of course, is going to be the reaction within the NEWSROOM.
I'm also told there could be resignations as a result of this non- endorsement decision.
MARQUARDT: Yes, that is quite the condemnation from Marty Baron, who is not just extremely well regarded in that NEWSROOM, but across the industry.
And it is going to raise major questions to his point about any kind of pressure that the owner, Jeff Bezos, is feeling.
Hadas Gold, thank you for bringing us that breaking news and all of your reporting.
Still ahead, a former model sits down with CNN describing an alleged incident that she claims happened more than 30 years ago with former President Donald Trump. Her allegations and why she's speaking out now. That's right after this.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[13:42:33]
SANCHEZ: Today, the Trump campaign is denying groping allegations from a former "Sports Illustrated" swimsuit model. Stacey William' claims the incident happened in the 1990s at Trump Tower in front of Jeffrey Epstein, who she was briefly dating at the time.
CNN's Sunlen Serfaty sat down with Williams in her first on-camera interview about the allegations.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
STACEY WILLIAMS, FORMER MODEL ACCUSES TRUMP OF GROPING HER IN 1993: The second he was in front of me, he pulled me into him and his hands were just on me and didn't come off.
SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Former Sports Illustrated model Stacey Williams says that Donald Trump groped her more than 30 years ago in Trump Tower with the later convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein watching and smiling in the room as it happened.
WILLIAMS: Then the hands started moving and they were, you know, on the side of my breasts, on my hips back down to my butt, back up sort of them -- you know, they were just on me the whole time. And I -- sorry, I froze.
SERFATY: Williams has not spoken out about the incident extensively until now. And in her first on camera interview, she tells CNN the most detailed accounting of the incident yet, alleging that in 1993, Epstein, who she was briefly dating at the time, brought her into Trump Tower.
WILLIAMS: I just had this really like sickening feeling that it was coordinated, that somehow the whole thing was -- I was rolled in there like a piece of meat for some kind of weird, twisted game.
SERFATY: Soon after the encounter, she severed ties with Epstein and said she was unaware of the kind of predatory behavior that would come to light in later years. ]
She also says she received this undated postcard from Trump delivered to her modeling agency by courier shortly after the incident.
"Stacey, your home away from home. Love, Donald."
WILLIAMS: I felt sick to my stomach.
SERFATY: Williams says she did not tell anyone about the incident for over 10 years.
WILLIAMS: I felt a wave of shame and I just couldn't think about it, face it, talk about it for a very long time.
SERFATY: The Trump campaign has denied Williams' allegations, calling it a fake story, contrived by Kamala Harris' campaign.
Williams' account only adding to the lengthy list of women who have alleged that Trump groped, kissed, or assaulted them. Trump has also denied those allegations.
[13:45:00]
Trump, who was close friends with Epstein, once calling him a terrific guy, has long sought to publicly distance himself from Epstein since he first face charges related to inappropriate sexual conduct with underage girls in the mid-2000s,
DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I was not a fan of Jeffrey Epstein.
SERFATY: Williams has been engaged as a Democratic volunteer for decades and shared her story on a Zoom call on Monday at a Survivors for Kamala event.
With the election less than two weeks away, Williams arguing that her decision to speak out now was not driven by the presidential campaign, but with the release this week of a documentary about "Sports Illustrated," one she participated in two years ago, during which she briefly alluded to the incident.
(on camera): What do you say to those critics who say this is politically motivated?
WILLIAMS: I can't control when that documentary comes out. I can't control the fact that it's premiering two weeks before the election.
SERFATY (voice-over): And she says she could not stay silent any longer.
WILLIAMS: It takes a lot of guts and you have to really prepare yourself to be ready for that onslaught. And I'm ready now. Just bring it.
SERFATY: Despite her saying that this timing speaking out now about this so close to the election is coincidental, in our interview, she does make very clear her support for Harris, in addition to not wanting to see Trump retake the White House -- Boris and Alex?
(END VIDEOTAPE)
MARQUARDT: All right. Our thanks to Sunlen Serfaty for that reporting.
And we should note the Trump campaign has just released an additional statement saying that the handwriting on that postcard that you just saw in Sunlen's package there, is not Donald Trump's.
We want to take you out to Arizona where President Joe Biden has just started speaking. He's going to be apologizing to Native American community for America's role in forcing indigenous children into boarding Indian boarding schools over 100 -- sorry, over a 150-year period.
Let's listen.
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When I became president of having administration look like America. Except you're America.
And there's never has been -- never has been a Native American indigenous person was on the cabinet or are in the secretary's job or any consequences the job in a presidential administration.
She's the first. It's clearly not the last Native American cabinet secretary.
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: And historic and dedicated leadership to strengthen relations between tribal nations and the federal government is unlike anything ever happened before. That's why we're here today.
You know when, I got to the Senate, I was only 29-years-old. I had to wait 17 days to be eligible. And I had -- after I got elected, while we were waiting, my wife and daughter we're killed. My two boys were badly injured.
And the guy that came to my assistance was a guy named Dan Nowat (ph). The first thing he taught me, not a joke, was, Joe, it is not Indians. It's Indian nations. Indian - no, he was being serious. Deadly, earnest about it.
It's been 10 years since a sitting president came to visit Indian country. That's simply much too long. That's why I'm here today, not only to fulfill my promise, being the president -- first president to visit Indian country, but more importantly, to right a wrong, chart a new path toward a better future for us.
I'm also here today, because as I said, my wife, Jill, has been here 10 times in Indian country, literally. The first lady sends her love and said, Joe, make sure you come home.
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: Because every time she goes, she spent a lot of time -- excuse me for saying this to Navaho Nation, I'm worried --
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: Every time she goes, I'm worried he's not coming home.
(LAUGHTER)
BIDEN: I watched that beautiful performance just now and it moved me deeply. It's a reminder that very -- the native people enjoy and employee, sacred traditions, culture passed down over thousands and thousands of years.
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: Long before there was the United States --
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: -- the native communities flourished on these lands. They practiced democratic government before we ever heard of it. It develop advanced agriculture, contributed to science, art and culture.
But eventually, the United States was established and began expanding and treating the sovereign tribal nations. But as time moved on, respect for science, for tribal sovereignty evaporated. It was shattered. Pushing native people off their homelands, denying -- denying their humanity and their rights.
Targeting children to cut the connection to their ancestors and their inheritance -- and their heritage. At first, in the nine -- 1800s, it was voluntary, asking tribes to sell their children, to send their children away to vocational schools.
[13:50:01]
But then, then the federal government mandated -- mandated removal of children from their families and tribes, launching what's called the Federal Indian Boarding School era - era.
Over 150 years spent -- 150 years, from the early 1800s to 1870 -- to 1970, of those terrific chapters in American history. It should be ashamed. A chapter that most Americans don't know about. The vast majority don't even know about it.
I was at a hotel today. I told the hotel staff who were leaving, I told them, they said, where are you going? I told him. They said they were natives. They said, I never knew that. Think of how many people don't know.
As president, I believe it's imperative -- important that we do know.
Now, generations of native children stolen, taken away to places they didn't know, to people they never met, who spoke a language that they had never heard.
The native community silenced. Their children's laughter and play were gone. Children would arrive at schools, their clothes taken off, their hair that they we're told was sacred was chopped off. Their names literally erased, replaced by a number or an English name.
One survivor later recounted her days when taken away, she said, quote, "My mother, standing on that sidewalk as we loaded into agreeing bus, I can see the image of my mom burned into my mind and my heart where she was crying."
Another survivor described what it was like at the boarding school. I quote, "When I talked my tribal language, I would get hit. I lost my tongue. They beat me every day."
Children abused, emotionally, physically, and sexually abused, forced into hard labor. Some put up for adoption without the consent of their birth parents. Some left for dead in unmarked graves.
And for those who did return home, they were wounded in body and spirit. Trauma and shame passed down through generations.
The policy continued even after the Civil Rights Act, which got me involved in politics as a young man. Even after the Civil Rights Act was passed in 1964, it continued.
All told, hundreds and hundreds of federal Indian boarding schools across the country, tens of thousands of native children entered the system. Nearly 1,000 documented native child deaths. Or the real number is likely to be much, much higher.
Lost generations, culture and language, lost trust. It's horribly, horribly wrong to sit on our soul.
I liked to ask, with your permission, for a moment of silence because to remember those lost and the generations living with that trauma.
(SILENCE)
BIDEN: After 150 years, the United States government eventually stopped the program. But the federal government has never, never formally apologized for what happened, until today.
I formally apologize, as president of the --
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: -- United States America.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: I publicly apologize.
(APPLAUSE)
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: It's long overdue. Like the tribal school -- a tribal school in Arizona, a community full of tradition and culture, and joined by survivors and the Senators to do just that, apologize, apologize, apologize.
Rewrite history books correctly. I have a solemn responsibility --
(CHEERING)
BIDEN: -- to be the first president to formally apologize to the native people.
Native Americans, native Hawaiians, native Alaskans in federal Indian boarding schools. It's long, long, long overdue. Quite frankly, there's no excuse that this apology took 50 years to make.
Federal Indian boarding school policy, the pain it has caused, will always be a significant mark of shame, a blot in American history. For too long.
[13:54:54]
This all happened with virtually no public attention. Not written about in our history books.
(SHOUTING)
BIDEN: Not taught in our schools.
(SHOUTING)
BIDEN: Let her talk. Let her talk.
(SHOUTING)
BIDEN: All right, let - let her go. There's a lot of innocent people being killed. There's a lot innocent people being killed. And it has to stop.
(INAUDIBLE)
(APPLAUSE)
BIDEN: For those who want to turn this period, it was 10 -
SANCHEZ: And that is President Biden formally apologizing, saying I formally apologize for the United States' role in this program that for 150 years took young Native American children and sent them to boarding schools sponsored by the federal government.
There Biden recounting personal stories of survivors of that ugly chapter as he described it in American history.
This his first trip to Indian country as a sitting president.
And notably, Alex, at the end there, he was met with a protester calling out to the president, demanding more action on the Middle East, specifically, in Gaza.
MARQUARDT: Yes, saying "free Palestine" and talking about all the civilian deaths, which he did acknowledge in this truly historic moment. Noting that this was the first apology to the Native American community for this system of children being stolen from their families and put into these schools for 150 years.
We're going to take a quick break. We'll be right back. Stay with us.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
