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Don Lemon Tonight

Getting The Economy Back Is President Trump's Top Priority; Doctors Use Blood Thinners To Treat COVID Patients; President Trump Defended Jared Kushner's Fumbled Effort; Tyson Foods To Reopen Pork Processing Plant In Iowa That Was Closed By Coronavirus Outbreak Among Workers; New Developments In Case Of Georgia Man Police Say Was Chased, Shot And Killed While Jogging. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired May 06, 2020 - 23:00   ET

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

[23:00:00]

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DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon.

It is 11 p.m. on the East Coast and we've got the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. Now more than 1.2 million cases of the virus in the United States, a number of new cases climbing by more than 20,000 each day. And the coronavirus death toll in the U.S. now surpassing 73,000.

The president reversing himself today, now saying the White House Coronavirus Task Force will continue indefinitely. The reversal coming after outcry from medical experts who say it is too soon to disband the task force while the nation is still in the middle of this pandemic.

The president also saying that Dr. Anthony Fauci and Dr. Deborah Birx will remain in their current roles on the task force. At least 43 states now in the process of partially reopening with the encouragement from President Trump even though the virus is still spreading in many parts of the country.

Here's the latest data from John -- Johns Hopkins University. Over the last 14 days, 19 states are seeing an upward trend in coronavirus cases. Eighteen states are not seeing any change in their case levels, and only 13 states are seeing the number of cases go down.

Joining me now, CNN White House Correspondent John Harwood, and former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicaid and Medicare Services, Andy Slavitt. Good evening, gentleman. Good to see both of you.

So, John, the president pressuring states to reopen saying that the country can't stay closed forever. But his administration has done their part, that's what he's saying, they have now had months to put us the in a position to reopen safely.

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, we've talked about this for a couple of days. The president has decided that holding the line on this shutdown and social distancing is simply too hard. That kind of leadership is too hard. He laid out guidelines a few weeks ago for reopening for states. He got some praise for those guidelines.

But when the pressure came hard from business in particular to restart and some from ordinary citizens, although the vast majority were not applying that pressure, he declined to shield the governors from it. He joined the pressure. And now we're getting this opening.

In the worst-case scenario, you will see a quick spike up in cases. We are right back where we were a month ago. And the economy has to shut down again. That's the worst of all worlds. I think they're hoping for something more in the middle which is that yes, people are scared so you don't get a full economic reopening but you get some which is better than none.

And on the public health basis, you flatten the curve. You don't push it down, but you kind of muddle along. And by the way, the sharpest impacts are with communities of color who are not your people.

The one -- and you also hope by the way in that scenario that medicine in the form of therapeutics and vaccines help you, maybe summer weather gives you a break.

The one thing he's not going to do is try to show the grit to hold the line through May, really get that curve down so that your testing and contact tracing could handle it. That requires a commitment to a kind of delayed gratification that temperamentally Donald Trump simply can't muster.

LEMON: Interesting. Andy, as I mentioned earlier, over the last two weeks, 19 states have seen cases go up. You say the White House had a plan to drive down the numbers. They just decided not to stick to it.

ANDY SLAVITT, FORMER ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: I completely agree with John. You know, I think we decided that rather than do what other countries are doing actually quite successfully when you look around the world, the Czech Republic, Greece, even Italy, South Korea, New Zealand. They all have implemented strategies. They're sticking with them. They're -- and they're slowly opening their economies safely.

What we're doing is basically neither. We're basically allowing the death toll to continue to stay where it is or rise and for what? For a barbershop economy, for a tattoo parlor economy. We're not even really opening the part of the economy that drives jobs or drives income or drives businesses.

[23:05:02]

We're opening the part of the economy that is a small fraction that just allows Trump to feel like he's doing something. And I think that's going to get us nowhere.

LEMON: Yes. But those jobs are important to the people who hold them and to the people who have to feed their families. It's important to them.

SLAVITT: Every job is important. What people don't want to be doing is forced to go to work because the governor says you're no longer eligible to collect unemployment because you've got to go into work in an unsafe environment, essentially creating more essential workers.

So, let people decide. Let small businesses decide. There are a lot of safe things that we can do. But that's not what's happening in Georgia. That's not what's happening in Iowa. What's happening in these locations is you're basically allowing businesses to let people go at no cost.

LEMON: So, John, listen, no matter what the data shows or says, President Trump claims the virus is going away and that he'll be back to 25,000-person packed rallies before November.

Does he think if he doesn't talk about death or sick people that it won't be a problem for him, that it's just, you know, it's just going to go away and that was sort of the reason that they weren't having the briefings anymore like nothing to see here, move along?

HARWOOD: Well, it's not going to have that effect in the country overall. But Donald Trump prefers to inhabit a reality that is flattering to him and try to communicate that reality to others.

So, talking about sick people and death, that's failure. That is not something that he wants to talk about. Those rallies are source of adulation for him.

And, you know, we had a glimpse of this at the Oval Office today when there were nurses behind the president and a nurse was asked a question about the availability of PPE and she said well, it's sporadic, some places don't have it.

And the president corrected the nurse who of course is in the business, who knows what she's talking about because that's her profession, and said no, no, I hear that there are plenty of stuff available all along.

He could not acknowledge that the situation had not been taken care of. And that psychically is what President Trump tries to do. He needs to portray himself as somebody who has solved the problem, who's the king of ventilators, who's gotten testing like no other country in the world whether or not that corresponds to the external reality that the rest of us can perceive and apprehend.

LEMON: Well, you see it during the briefing or any time there is someone there who disagrees with, does not compute, does not fit into his reality. And he's like no, no, no, no, nope, nope. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

I want to bring in now our resident fact checker, Daniel Dale. Daniel, hello to you. President Trump claiming he and his team claiming he has saved millions of lives from coronavirus. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Yes?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Mr. President, could you explain the change between what you said yesterday about winding down the task force and now saying you're keeping it because it is different from what you said yesterday.

TRUMP: Yes. Well, I guess if you think we're always winding it down, but, you know, it's a question of what the end point is. But I think it is a change a little bit. I thought we could wind it down sooner.

But I had no idea how popular the task force is until actually yesterday when I started talking about winding it down, I'd get calls from very respected people saying I think it would be better to keep it going.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Wrong sound bite. Do we have the right sound bite? OK. Let's play it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We saved millions of lives by doing what we did. We have saved millions of lives.

KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: There was supposed to be 2.2 million deaths and we're at a point where we're far lower than that thanks to the great work of the task force and to the leadership of President Trump.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So, he said my question to you was President Trump and his team claiming that he saved millions of lives from the coronavirus. And he's -- you heard him. You heard Kayleigh McEnany.

DANIEL DALE, CNN REPORTER: Yes.

LEMON: Give us the facts.

DALE: Don, there were never supposed to be millions of Americans killed by this virus. What happened was at the end of March Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House response coordinator announced that they had received an expert estimate saying that if there was no mitigation, in other words, if nothing at all was done to try to stop this, there would be an estimated 1.6 million to 2.2 million deaths.

So that was a worse-case do-nothing at all scenario not what was supposed to be. The president and his team are now setting up a situation in which any number of deaths lower than this absolute worst-case do-nothing number is a testament to the president's leadership. And that's just absurd.

The president did issue distancing guidelines, of course. However, the primary mitigation efforts were implemented by governors, local officials, and by citizens who did the distancing.

And again, it's just absurd to claim that, you know, as we continue to go beyond 70,000, going to pass 80,000 pretty soon, that this is all a testament to president's great leadership.

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LEMON: Yes, facts do matter and context as well. Daniel, even though we're in the middle of the pandemic, President Trump said today that he'll continue trying to get rid of Obamacare. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: What we want to do is terminate it and give great healthcare, and we'll have great healthcare. Including pre-existing conditions, a 100 percent pre-existing conditions. There will never be a time when we don't have pre-existing conditions included.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What are the facts?

DALE: Well, let me take you back to a time called 2017 when the congressional Republicans repeatedly tried with the support of President Trump to pass Obamacare replacement bills that significantly weakened protections for pre-existing conditions.

And so, the president confirmed today he is supporting a lawsuit right now at present that would invalidate, eradicate the entirety of Obamacare without -- he's not -- he hasn't provided any replacement plan whatsoever.

Now he said again today as he said for years now that he will replace Obamacare with what he calls great healthcare. But what that supposedly great healthcare entails, what kind of protections for people with pre-existing conditions entails, he's never specified.

LEMON: Daniel Dale, thank you, sir.

Dr. Celine Gounder is here. She is an infectious disease specialist and an epidemiologist who has been helping us make sense of the coronavirus developments joins us now. Thank you, doctor.

New study finds that blood thinners can help save those with severe coronavirus infections. Your hospital has been using them. What makes these drugs so effective?

CELINE GOUNDER, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: Well, one of the things that we have learned, Don, is that coronavirus is very much a disease of immune dysregulation. So, in other words, your immune system kind of goes haywire and starts to turn on the body itself. And when you have such high levels of inflammation, one of the risks associated with that is blood clots.

And these are not just large blood clots but also tiny blood clots in the capillaries, the tiny blood vessels in the lungs, in the kidneys. And that's what leads to in some patients, lung failure as well as kidney failure.

So, what we've learned is that by giving them blood thinners to prevent these clots, to treat these clots, patients, especially those who are trending towards severe disease, may have a better chance at survival and doing better in the long run.

LEMON: Today, the New York State Department of Health issued an advisory about pediatric multi-system inflammatory syndrome associated with COVID-10. The U.K. is also reporting a link between a pediatric COVID-19 and serious inflammatory disease. How concerned should we be about this?

GOUNDER: Well, you know, I think big picture, children are still a very small proportion of those who are severely affected by COVID. But this is sort of on that same continuum of what I was describing of the immune system essentially being overly revved up and turning against itself.

And one of the key targets seems to be what's happening in blood vessels. And that can lead to Kawasaki disease which is the disease you're talking about in children and, I think, you know, is also related to the clots that we're seeing in adults.

LEMON: In this age of social distancing, a lot of healthy people are staying away from doctor's offices, leaving many practices strapped for cash. Hospitals are struggling without revenue from elective surgeries. Are you worried that this pandemic could put some doctors out of business?

GOUNDER: Well, I think especially doctors who are in private practice who are not parts of bigger systems that can help subsidize and bridge them through this, I think, you know, the doctor who hung out his own shingle, runs his own practice, and then also rural hospitals that are already in very dire straits, I think those are the folks that I'm most worried about being able to make ends meet to keep their businesses afloat through this.

But even the big hospital systems like here in New York, due to the loss of the revenue from elective surgeries and those kinds of medical interventions they're at risk of losing in the hundreds of millions of dollars over the course of the pandemic.

LEMON: The former CDC director, Dr. Tom Frieden testified on Capitol Hill today that this is just the beginning, he says, of this pandemic. As someone on the front lines of this virus in New York City, do you agree with that assessment?

GOUNDER: I think big picture, yes. I think we in New York are actually on the downslope, but if you actually subtract the New York numbers from the national numbers, the trend in the rest of the nation becomes clearer and that trend is very much still on the upswing and accelerating in many parts of the country.

And so, you know, I think unfortunately the first peak hasn't peaked yet and we're then looking at probably a second wave in the fall and winter. LEMON: Hey, real quickly, do you -- have you read the reports on these

super spreaders at --

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GOUNDER: Yes.

LEMON: -- people going to weddings and that sort of things.

GOUNDER: Yes.

So, when you hear the president talk about rallies in the fall and that sort of thing, thousands of people, what do you think of that?

GOUNDER: I think idea of having mass gatherings right now is quite scary. It's frightening to me. It's frightening in terms of what it would mean for healthcare providers working in those areas who would be on the front lines and then contending with that.

And of course, the patients themselves. And you know, many of these mass gatherings you have older people, people at high risk for disease. So, I just don't think that kind of gathering is advisable at this point in time.

LEMON: Thank you, Dr. Gounder. I appreciate it.

A team of young inexperienced volunteers led by Jared Kushner was supposed to secure desperately needed medical supplies for hospitals fighting coronavirus. And there are reports they fumbled the job. That story is next.

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LEMON: The president is defending his son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner after reports detail a team he assembled to source masks, gloves, and other PPE failed at its task. The team which was reportedly made up of mostly young and inexperienced volunteers was disbanded in early April and is subject of -- the subject of a whistleblower complaint from a former member.

Here's how the whistleblower described it as to the New York Times. OK? It said for the next three weeks the volunteers worked 12-hour days struggling to keep up with leads funneled through FEMA's web site in trying to navigate the federal government's byzantine procurement rules. But their work was plagued by frequent changes in process, efforts that turned out to be wasted, poor communication, and mounting dread about their lack of progress.

Still, today the president is saying the team ran like a well-oiled machine.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: These were young brilliant people that were brought in because they have great expertise of this, people that love the country, people that I don't think were paid anything. In fact, some of them were very rich people where they were able to sell their company, I mean, some people would say nerds, OK? This is what they do. And I think they helped us a lot with the ventilators. I wasn't involved in that but I think they helped us a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's discuss now with Zolan Kanno-Youngs, a homeland security correspondent at the New York Times who worked on the report, and Dr. Esther Choo, an associate professor at Oregon Health and Science University. Good to see both of you back here again.

So, repeat guests here on the show. Zolan, I'm going to start with you. President Trump says that Kushner's team was made up of experts. But according to your report they fumbled and they fumbled big time. What really happened here?

ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, HOMELAND SECURITY CORRESPONDENT, THE NEW YORK TIMES: So, our reporting does show that this group of young people that were brought in to Washington, D.C., that they were well intentioned.

However, that even they realized that this position that they were put in is one that was challenging and at one point and in the end did lead to missed opportunities for procuring protective gear at a time when the states desperately needed such medical gear and it lost time at a point when time could not be more valuable.

At this point, our report has shown that the administration decided, elected to go with those with private sector skills, with private sector experience as opposed to FEMA officials who have had experience with dealing with disasters throughout the years.

Now, the administration would say this is a pandemic that is impacting all 50 states at the same time and therefore they needed this type of effort, they needed this type of initiative.

What our reporting did show is yes, these volunteers were on the front lines and they were vetting a blizzard of leads coming in. But we talked to a doctor who had what's known as a proof of life video of PPE from a manufacturer overseas. He was not able to eventually -- he did not make progress. It was stalled.

This doctor ended up make -- selling two other hospitals in Michigan. But at the same time, these volunteers were given a VIP update, the VIP list of people to prioritize focusing on. Those people included Republican members of Congress, a Trump youth director, a former apprentice contestant.

LEMON: Wow.

KANNO-YOUNGS: So, it wasn't solely just the volunteers but more so a system where it was rather chaotic. It was almost an ad hoc process at a time when, you know, medical workers really did need protective gear. LEMON: Let me ask you this before I bring in Dr. Choo. Your report

about a Silicon Valley engineer who said that he could provide more than a thousand ventilators but that didn't happen.

KANNO-YOUNGS: That's right. So, initially a BuzzFeed report showed that that deal, that no ventilators had been turned over after that individual, a Silicon Valley engineer tweeted at President Trump saying that he had such ventilators.

What our report showed and broke was that it was these volunteers through documents that we obtained that ended up sending this person's information over to the Health and Human Services Department which then sent it over to the New York government. New York government then assuming that this was a legitimate supplier.

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LEMON: Got it. Dr. Choo, OK. So, let's talk now. So, you started the get me PPE hash tag and we talked about it on this program. It turned into a movement. What is your reaction when you hear about how Kushner's team may have set back efforts to get these desperately- needed supplies?

ESTHER CHOO, FOUNDER, EQUITY QUOTIENT: Yes, obviously as a healthcare worker, it's so painful to hear about that lost time because that is literally illness and even death on the side of healthcare workers because they were working conditions where we didn't have adequate PPE.

I mean, I will acknowledge that this problem is hard. It's not like they had an easy job and they fumbled it. It's an incredibly hard job. I mean, we've all read these stories about even executives at hospitals trying to get this PPE, having to pay ten times or more the ordinary costs. There's tons of corruption. Everybody's coming out of the woodwork and trying to make a profit.

Sorting through legitimate PPE manufacturers and illegitimate ones is hard. I mean, ever since I started that hash tag, not a day goes by where I don't get an odd offer in my e-mail. But some look good, some don't. I can't really tell who can supply this stuff. It's very hard. I'm also part of a volunteer group called getusppe.org.

We have -- we have hundreds of volunteers and we've managed to connect about a million piece of PPE to healthcare workers who need them. But --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: Before we ran out time let me ask you something, before we ran out of time.

CHOO: Yes.

LEMON: And I'm sorry to interrupt here. You heard the president disagree with that nurse today about -- where -- about PPE, saying she was sporadic. Where do we stand today on nurses getting PPE? CHOO: Right. We are still, you know, highly variable but there's still

many, many places that have inadequate PPE or looking forward have maybe, three or four weeks supply and don't have a lot of capacity to, you know, dial up if they -- if their volume goes up.

So, what that means is that still is important to stay at home. You know, we can open up more confidently when we know we can handle illness if it -- if that is a side effect of opening up.

LEMON: Dr. Choo, Zolan, I really appreciate both of you coming on this evening. Thank you so much.

A Tyson foods pork plant in Iowa set to reopen tomorrow after hundreds tested positive for coronavirus. Is it at risk for even more spread?

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LEMON: After hundreds of workers fell ill with COVID-19 last month, Tyson Foods is set to partially reopen their largest pork processing plant in Waterloo, Iowa tomorrow morning. New measures have been put in place to try to prevent the spread of coronavirus, but will they be enough?

Let's discuss now with Deborah Berkowitz, former chief of staff at OSHA, and Dr. Sharon Duclos, the co-medical director at Peoples' Community Health Clinic in Waterloo. I'm so glad to have both of you on. Thank you so much.

Deborah, let's talk about officials at this Tyson -- at Tyson. They tell CNN that some of the steps that they have taken to keep workers safe include installing what they say are partitions on production lines, supplying face masks and other PPE, stepping up efforts to clean and sanitize facilities, testing everyone returning to work this week. Do you think it will be enough to slow the spread?

DEBORAH BERKOWITZ, FORMER CHIEF OF STAFF, OSHA: So, you know, since Friday when the Centers for Disease Control put out a report in how many cases there were in meatpacking and poultry where they said there were about 4,800 cases, there are 10,000 workers in the meat and poultry industry now. The numbers have doubled in just, you know, less than four or five days.

Those infected, 47 are dead. And the reason it spread so rapidly is because the companies did not implement sort of basic safety practices. And today, the agriculture secretary, Secretary Perdue, on behalf of the president, exhorted the industry to open up, and so Waterloo is opening up.

But what they did do in the federal government is they didn't set any specific requirements for safety provisions to be implemented. They're going to just leave it up to the company to decide what to do.

And I have to tell you that, you know, we really look at sort of what's the gold standard in how to prevent exposure and how to prevent the spread of the disease in meatpacking and poultry, and that is keeping workers six feet apart. It's the same reason so much of America is social distancing --

LEMON: Yeah.

BERKOWITZ: -- and stepped up sanitation and so many other things. But if you look at the Waterloo plant, still on the processing line, they're not six feet apart. And I read a story about how they're crowding into break rooms or locker rooms.

And I just want to make it clear that there's no data that dividers between workers like sneeze guards will prevent the spread of the COVID-19 in the workplace that you really have to keep workers six feet apart. But there are no requirements. So, again, (INAUDIBLE) trusting the company.

LEMON: Dr. Sharon, you care for workers at this plant. Forty -- 444, excuse me, have tested positive. Are you concerned for their safety?

SHARON DUCLOS, CO-MEDICAL DIRECTOR, PEOPLE'S COMMUNITY HEALTH CLINIC: I'm always concerned. It's always a worry from right when things started and we started to see positives.

[23:35:03]

DUCLOS: It's -- the population that we serve is an underserved population, and they're already having a hard time making ends meet. And then, you know, you add another layer to that. And so it is always concerning and it's overwhelming. So, we're concerned. I'd be concerned -- I'm concerned if they open up next week, the week after.

I mean, that fear, that worry, it's going to be there no matter what they do because it's a new virus and there's still a lot we have to know about it. We've definitely seen really sick people. We've had some of our patients die because of this. And so I worry for them.

I can only imagine the pit in their stomach and the lump in their throat when you get up Thursday and you go to work. So, absolutely we're worried and we're praying for our patients.

LEMON: Yeah. You know, as Debbie can tell you, we have been discussing this and we'll have you both back to continue this discussion, and we'll make more time for it. We thank both of you. Don't think I didn't see that big giant thing of hand sanitizer behind you which is really important to have and to wash your hands. Thank you very much.

DUCLOS: Absolutely.

LEMON: Thank you, Dr. Sharon. Thank you, Debbie. We'll see you soon. Be safe. So, as you know, on this show, we have been following the case of Ahmaud Arbery, the young Georgia man who police say was chased, shot, and killed while jogging. We showed you the video last night. We've been following it. We spoke to his mother.

Basketball superstar LeBron James is tweeting about Arbery's death, writing, "We're literally hunted every day, every time we step foot outside the comfort of our homes. We can't even go for a damn jog, man. Like WTF, man, are you kidding me?"

And tonight, we have a big update on Arbery's case which is now going to a grand jury. Our Martin Savidge brings us some new details. That's next.

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LEMON: So, we have some new information about a story that we have been following very closely on this show. It is the case of Ahmaud Arbery. He is a 25-year-old Georgia man who police say was chased, shot, and killed while jogging.

Now, you likely have seen this video of Arbery being shot and killed on February 23rd in Glynn County, Georgia. This video appears to show Arbery jogging in a neighborhood outside of Brunswick, Georgia near a pickup truck with two armed men. There's a physical confrontation between Arbery and one of the men that ensues. And then three gunshots are heard before Arbery falls to the ground. I just want to warn you that the video is disturbing, but watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(GUNSHOTS)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: CNN has not independently verified who filmed the video. So, I want to bring in CNN's Martin Savidge. Wow! Martin, I mean, there was a significant update today in this case. Tell us about that.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN ANCHOR AND CORRESPONDENT: Yes, actually couple of them. And I'm with you when it comes to the reaction of that video. I've watched it a number of times. Unfortunately, I've had to watch it in an unedited form. And it just is one of the most disturbing videos to see for many, many reasons.

But anyway, to what you asked, so first, we know that Tom Durden, the current D.A. that is overseeing this investigation, he has said that he is going to take it to a grand jury, which is very good. And of course, there are many people who see that as a positive thing when there has not been much in the way of any kind of momentum towards justice in the minds of those who support Ahmaud Arbery and his family.

So, it will go to a grand jury. The problem is nobody knows when because of the pandemic. The pandemic has played into this story on a number of levels. Because of the pandemic, there are currently no grand juries that are being seated.

And the Georgia Supreme Court has said that probably isn't going to happen until the middle of next month. And many people believe that's really being optimistic to say that. So, it means that this could still be some time before there was any kind of decision that is rendered.

Now, the other good news that came out today is that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, a statewide law enforcement agency in the state of Georgia, is taking over the investigation.

[23:44:50]

SAVIDGE: Again, many of those who support the Arbery family and the cause believe that this was desperately needed, should have happened from day one, because they say that the Glynn County Police Department just wasn't capable of handling this in an unbiased way, primarily because one of the men in the video there with a gun is a former Glynn County police officer and it's his son who is holding the shotgun that is having the struggle with Arbery.

And many believe that the father was getting favoritism from law enforcement locally because of his connection, his prior connection as being a police officer with the department there. So that is why hearing that the Georgia Bureau of Investigation now will take over has many who are supporting justice for the Arbery family see this as a great development.

LEMON: Martin, listen, my frustration is not with you, and I hate to jump in. This man is -- this -- he is executed on camera and why has no one been arrested? And because -- why has no one been arrested and then taken to court and then proven guilty or innocent? Why has no one been arrested?

The man is jogging down the street. He is shot and killed. None of these people, not one is a police officer. They are armed. He is not. It does not make any sense. Why has no one been arrested?

SAVIDGE: And this is why when you hear on the ground the people who suspect highly that there is a favoritism being played on the part of the Glynn County Police Department to one of formerly their own because it doesn't make sense.

There are many in law enforcement who would say judging by that video alone -- and remember, law enforcement didn't have to wait two months to see that video. They would have seen it that very day. They would have seen it moments after this had happened.

And it's been suggested that an officer first on scene that saw that video should have immediately taken the young man with the shotgun into custody if only to say this is so serious, we need to continue this conversation downtown and continue the process here, and leave it to a district attorney to review and then decide if that person should either be freed or the information taken to a grand jury.

That didn't happen. That can't happen now unless the district attorney, again, in this case, decides to go to a judge and say, get that judge to sign off on an arrest warrant. If that were to happen, you could go out and make an arrest even before a grand jury hears the case.

Here's the problem. You run into the same conundrum. There are no grand juries being seated. So another judge would say, well, you can arrest but I am going to have to grant bond because we don't know when this case would be heard. Thereby, the person would be arrested but then very likely quickly released on bond.

LEMON: If you saw someone chasing you with a shotgun, wouldn't your first inclination be either to -- it is fight or flight, one of the two. And I -- so, I don't understand what's -- and you don't need a video tape if you're unarmed running and someone shoots you. You don't need a video tape to arrest the person who is armed. I don't understand it. Why has no one been arrested?

SAVIDGE: Let me point out one more thing, Don, real quick, that is where that video picks up is actually at the end. This had been a kind of chase through the neighborhood. And we know from the police report that there were not one, but there were two vehicles involved, and that they tried on at least two occasions to stop Arbery as he was running, and he managed to run around them until, of course, the last time.

LEMON: Thank you, Martin. Unbelievable. We'll be right back.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON: More than 73,000 Americans have died from coronavirus and one senior morgue attendant at a hospital in New Jersey is honoring the dead in her care by placing a yellow daffodil on each body bag. I want to bring in now Tanisha Brunson-Malone. Tanisha, thank you so much, thank you for doing what you're doing, placing a daffodil on each of these bodies in your care. It seems like a small thing but such a big gesture. How did you get this idea?

TANISHA BRUNSON-MALONE, SENIOR MORGUE ATTENDANT, HACKENSACK UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER: Thank you so much for having me, Don. It was just overwhelming seeing the bodies roll in every single day not knowing whether or not the trailer would be full or empty.

And then just seeing it every single day, it got sort of sad and depressing knowing that, you know, these patients were dying alone, without family. There were no funerals. Funerals are still suspended. Services are suspended. And I just wanted to recognize them and just show some type of dignity.

LEMON: Because you're the last person to be with these bodies, you take the place of their loved ones, right, for them?

BRUNSON-MALONE: Yes.

LEMON: This is your ministry, you feel.

BRUNSON-MALONE: Yeah. I feel like it was -- it was my ministry. I -- I attempted to restore dignity in dark times.

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LEMON: Yeah.

BRUNSON-MALONE: Being optimistic, every -- you know, health care professional, every team member has had an experience during this COVID-19, but to know that every one life matters and that these patients are not just another medical record number.

LEMON: It's got to be overwhelming right now for you.

BRUNSON-MALONE: It has been, yeah.

LEMON: Yeah. I want to tell everybody that you are a forensic technician. You perform autopsies and you oversee funeral home pickups of patients who have died. So, again, you are the -- many times, in these days, the last person you see, using your own money, you spend over $100 a week on these flowers. Do you expect to get anything out of this?

BRUNSON-MALONE: I just want to, and which I have, know that these families feel some sort of hope and inspiration and joy and peace knowing that someone took care of them. I just would like people to know that, you know, if the roles were reversed and it was you lying in that body bag, would you want someone to place a flower on you?

LEMON: Tanisha Brunson-Malone, you are an angel, my dear. Thank you for doing what you're doing. You take care --

BRUNSON-MALONE: Thank you.

LEMON: -- and be safe. Thank you. Thanks for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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