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Don Lemon Tonight

More Than 1,400,000 Cases Of Coronavirus In U.S., Death Toll Approaching 90,000; At Least 48 States In Process Of Partially Reopening; Obama Critical Of Trump's Handling Of Coronavirus Pandemic, Trump Calls Obama 'Grossly Incompetent'; Maryland Man Makes 'Miracle' Recovery From Virus; Justice Department Looking Into Bringing Hate Crime Charges In Arbery Shooting Death; Phyllis George, Pioneering Sportscaster And Former Miss America, Dies At 70. Aired 9-10p ET

Aired May 17, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon, 9:00 p.m. on the East Coast and we've got the latest on the coronavirus pandemic. More than 1.5 million cases of the virus in the United States right now.

The coronavirus death toll in this country now approaching 90,000 and we are learning tonight that the President will travel to a Ford plant in Ypsilanti, Michigan on Thursday. He is expected to tour the plant that has been making ventilators and PPE during the pandemic. And tonight, the head of the Federal Reserve, the chairman Jerome Powell, saying the U.S. economy will bounce back from the devastating impact of the pandemic but warning, it could take more than a year.

So let's discuss now with our White House Correspondent, Mr. John Harwood. John, good evening to you, sir. The death toll in this country almost 90,000. President is going to be traveling to another battleground state this week -- just this week, even though his coronavirus related travel seems to be more about election than it does about the actual coronavirus?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well Don, I think this is served multiple purposes for the President. We know that he wants to turn from fighting the coronavirus to the -- restarting the economy. By going to this ventilator plant, the President has been proclaiming victory in the supply of ventilators.

He calls himself the king of ventilators. So by going to this plant, the Ford plant in Ypsilanti that's been repurposed for this, he can say, look what we did, this was successful. That in turn fuels a message of OK, now we'll turn to the next thing which is restarting the economy.

And of course the third aspect is Michigan is one of the three crucial Midwestern states that put him over the top by bare margins in 2016 against Hillary Clinton. He is behind in nearly all the battleground states he desperately needs to make up ground. And so this is -- this serves multiple purposes for the President. And we're going to see more of it after that.

LEMON: Yes. Let's talk about your piece in CNN.com. It's titled "Trump's turn to the economy leaves a vacuum when it comes to controlling the pandemic". I mean, he's pretty obvious about why he wants to turn to the economy. Obviously, it's important, you know, because for his re-election. It's not of really about fighting the virus for him, at least from his rhetoric. This is more about him getting back into office come November.

HARWOOD: Not from his own personal efforts. Look, the effort to battle the coronavirus is difficult, it's detail oriented. The more the President involves (ph) himself, the more responsibility he takes the challenge now, is to substantially ramp up testing that requires pushing businesses in a way that some don't want to be pushed and pushing his party in a way that it doesn't want to be pushed. He hasn't been particularly good in terms of his personal efforts in fighting the coronavirus.

We all remember the briefing where he talked about injecting disinfectant to have a cleanse of the body and so he is more comfortable in a role of cheerleading for the economy. So he is in essence leaving the coronavirus fight, protesting fight the contact tracing, find all those things to governors, local officials and those parts of the federal apparatus that are assisting with that.

[21:05:02]

His own personal efforts are being devoted to talking up the economy trying to get that recovery going. We expect a sharp drop in economic activity in the second quarter of this year. And the President has got to get that turned around in the third quarter to have a shot at making up his deficit against Joe Biden.

LEMON: Yes. They probably should realize the smartest way to get the economy back open is to fight this virus and the pandemic out there. And that would actually --

HARWOOD: No question.

LEMON: -- get the economy back going and make people feel better about it. Thank you very much. I appreciate it, John Harwood.

Let's bring in Dr. Harvey Fineberg, the chair of the Standing Committee on Emerging Infectious Diseases, and he has been helping us answer a lot of questions about the virus. I think I'm right on this, Dr. Fineberg, the best way to get the economy back open is to fight the virus because then people feel more comfortable about going back to work, which will get people out working and then the economy opens back up. Everybody's happy pretty much.

The virus -- the numbers go down as far as the number of infections and so on and so forth. But it doesn't seem that President's figured that out. You're not a politician, so I'm not going to give you that. But let's -- he -- this President has ousted his vaccine Chief, Rick Bright. I spoke to Rick Bright to 60 minutes tonight, as a matter of fact. Listen, and then we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RICK BRIGHT, FORMER DIRECTOR, BIOMEDICAL ADVANCED AND DEVELOPMENT AUTHORITY: I had industry, manufacturers' industry reps, sending me e- mails almost every day, raising alarm bells that the supply chain was running dry America and the world was in trouble.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: In fact, on January 25th, you wrote your colleagues that the mass situation seems to be of concern, and we have been receiving warnings for over a week. How did they respond?

BRIGHT: Passively. They responded with a thank you for notification. We'll talk to the manufacturers ourselves and we take appropriate action when it's needed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So the Trump administration was all about containment. But that only buys you time. Did they waste that time by not getting prepared, Dr. Fineberg?

DR. HARVEY V. FINEBERG, CHAIR, STANDING COMMITTEE ON EMERGING INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We've not been prepared for a long time, Don. And not enough officials shared Dr. Bright's sense of urgency about the preparations and the needs right now. That was a serious problem. And frankly, it has dogged us all the way to today.

The biggest need from the beginning has been to establish a unified command structure to fight this virus so that we can do what you just said earlier, which is to defeat the virus and have the surest way to reopen the economy safely, securely and successfully.

LEMON: Yes. And listen, it's not about having zero cases. That's not the point. It's about being able to live with it and being able to at least moderate it, right, in some way and being able to handle it as we are with any virus, or any flu, or any disease that pops back up in the culture in society every single year. Listen -- I want you to take a listen. This is what President Trump said tonight. This was NBC Sports, watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So when you have all of those thousands, tens of thousands of people, going to your majors and going to golf tournaments, we want them to have that same experience and we don't want them to be -- we're having to wear masks.

And, you know, be doing what we've been doing for the last number of months because that's not getting back to normal. We want to be back to normal. We have the big crowds, and they're practically standing on top of each other and they're enjoying themselves.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK. So, listen, that is wishful thinking, right? And I don't mean that in a bad way. Because I think everybody wants to get out and they would love -- people would love to go see their sports teams and all of that, and who wants it's cumbersome to wear that. But here, this is the issue with that, as I went out this weekend, and I look at the pictures that are on television, hardly anyone is wearing a mask.

And I just think it sends the wrong message, at least where we are now. And so to say that we want to, you know, go and not wear a mask and be in sports arenas piled on top of each other, is that what the President should be saying, at least at this moment?

FINEBERG: If you were a coronavirus, you'd be thrilled at the prospect of thousands of people getting together, shouting, cheering, talking to one another without any protective masks, without any distancing, without any of the usual protections that we've heard over and over are a critical part of protecting ourselves at this time. It's true, as the infection prevalence goes down low enough in the community if we had adequate testing and could detect soon enough any escalation, we'd be in a much better position to relax some of these restrictions.

[21:10:17]

Right now, we're not in that position.

LEMON: Hey, Doctor, just a quick, quick note, because I've got a big show ahead of me. I got a lot more to get to. Do you think -- and I was wondering, you know, as I see these folks, do they think that they should last (ph) up a lot of people in the video in bars, in restaurants not wearing masks?

Do you think people outside who are outside think that they don't have to wear masks outside or they're not supposed to? Because I was just flummoxed when I said -- I was wondering where are the people's masks yesterday when I went to the beach to see the sunset?

FINEBERG: The biggest purpose of wearing a mask is to help protect others. I protect you, you protect me by arresting droplets that would otherwise be emitted by any one of us who is unknowingly infected. In general, outdoors is safer than indoors. But it's still not completely safe and we still can do a lot to help all of us by wearing the face masks that have been recommended by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

LEMON: Dr. Fineberg, thank you, thank you, thank you so much as always.

Texas coronavirus cases are spiking. The state reported its biggest single day increase just this weekend, just two weeks after easing restrictions. As more and more states reopen, time will tell if they have moved too soon. Here CNN's Natasha Chen.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NATASHA CHEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): At least 48 states will have partially reopened businesses or ease restrictions by tomorrow. And with it comes some familiar sights. NASCAR held a race with no spectators today. Graceland is inviting visitors back, but also with it troubling images of crowded bars and boardwalks.

GAVIN SOMMERS, SOMERS POINT, NEW JERSEY RESIDENT: It feels like a regular summer right now.

TRUMP: Tremendous progress is being made.

CHEN (voice-over): President Trump has encouraged reopening the country with or without a vaccine. Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar explained.

ALEX AZAR, HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES SECRETARY: Everything does not depend on a vaccine. We're committed to delivering a vaccine. We're going to put the full power of the U.S. government on our private sector towards getting to a vaccine. But that's one part of a multifactorial response program.

CHEN (voice-over): One of the important factors is expanding testing. New York Governor Andrew Cuomo was tested during his live press conference today.

GOV. ANDREW CUOMO (D), NEW YORK: That's it.

CHEN (voice-over): New York is now conducting 40,000 tests a day. Cuomo said per capita, that's more than other countries. More testing is one of the reasons Texas says it saw the highest single day increase in new cases since the shutdown began. And that has some officials in Texas wondering if they're on the wrong path.

MAYOR STEVE ADLER (D), AUSTIN, TEXAS: Well, we do know, based on our last six to eight weeks is that if we're on the wrong path, we're going to be able to react in time to fix it. And if that happens, I sure hope the governor's on board for that.

CHEN (voice-over): Georgia, one of the most aggressive in opening high contact businesses as early as three weeks ago, has not seen a dramatic spike in the seven-day average of daily new cases. But there hasn't been a dramatic drop either. Wandie Bethune family has been watching carefully and didn't go out before this weekend.

WANDIE BETHUNE, ATLANTA RESIDENT: I just didn't feel as if we were really ready. And I want it to feel that these establishments were really taking the proper precautions.

ELAINA BETHUNE, DAUGHTER: It's actually very scary, but it's kind of exciting and happy that you get to go outside to some places that you enjoy again. But you also have to be very careful.

CHEN (voice-over): In New York, the epicenter of the U.S. outbreak, a phased reopening didn't begin until Friday and only in certain regions. The state's seven-day average of daily new cases has been on an obvious downward slide.

CUOMO: Total hospitalization is down. Good news. That changes down, intubations is down. And new COVID hospitalizations are down. So it's a good day across the plate. CHEN (voice-over): California, the first to institute a statewide stay-at-home order is seeing numbers fluctuate in the same zone. But its budget deficit like in many other states is skyrocketing due to the pandemic. The House passed a $3 trillion aid package Friday that Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has indicated would not pass the Senate.

GOV. GAVIN NEWSOM (D), CALIFORNIA: The next time they want to salute and celebrate our heroes, our first responders, our police officers and firefighters, consider the fact that they are the first ones will be laid off by cities and counties.

CHEN (voice-over): A reality of uncertainty.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CHEN: A study published Thursday in the journal Health Affairs found that government imposed social distancing cut the virus's growth rate by 9 percent in two to three weeks, preventing tens of millions of infections. Without social distancing measures, the U.S. case numbers could have been 35 times higher, Don.

[21:15:01]

LEMON: Natasha Chen, thank you very much. Former President Barack Obama giving a pretty pointed message to President Trump without ever mentioning his name. We know President Obama gets under President Trump's skin but why does it go so deep, next.

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LEMON: You know, there's a growing public feud between President Trump and his predecessor, President Barack Obama, who has criticized the Trump administration's handling of the coronavirus pandemic. Your Trump struck back today calling Obama, quote, grossly incompetent. So let's discuss now.

David Smith is here. He's a Washington Bureau Chief of "The Guardian". And David, thank you so much. I really appreciate you joining us tonight. I found your piece absolutely interesting, and fascinating and right on point.

Let's talk about the President tonight though. President Trump on Twitter continuing to attack President Obama. And I said it before that President Obama lives rent-free in President Trump's head. What's with this obsession?

[21:20:10]

DAVID SMITH, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF OF THE GUARDIAN: I think obsession is the right word. I think it's a personal and political inferiority complex. And it's been going on for many years. People I talked to put the story as really outlined three main reasons. One is envy. Another is vengeance and another is racism.

And just in brief detail, the envy, Trump really seems jealous about the respect Obama has in America and around the world. He also envies everything from the size of his inauguration crowd, how many Twitter followers he has, and winning the Nobel Peace Prize and so on.

The vengeance element, in particular seems to be that White House Correspondents dinner in 2011, where Obama mocks Trump who had to sit in the room looking stony-faced and furious, as a bomb even had a mock-up of what a White House would look like under Trump.

And then thirdly, the racist element really baked in from the beginning when, of course, Trump was pushing the birther conspiracy theory suggesting that Obama was not born in the United States, all the way back in 2011. So in some ways, we've come full circle now with the Obama gate.

LEMON: Yes, it really bothers him how he can -- no matter what he does, he can never stack up to the former president and, you know, in terms of intelligence, education, wit, looks, all of that even the presidency, the success of the presidency, even now, the economy and so on and so forth. So that has to really bother him. I mean, and, you know, even in terms of marriages, this President is on this what his third, and the former president has one very successful, very happy marriage.

I mean, you point out how President Trump is more interested in blaming his president -- his predecessor, I should say, rather than tackling the coronavirus, taking responsibility for his own shortcomings. Is President Trump ramping up his attack on President Obama because of his own failures on this response, you think?

SMITH: Yes, I think it's a massive distraction exercise. Clearly, he's been widely criticized for his mishandling of the coronavirus pandemic, and the death toll ticks up. And so his default mechanism rarely is to look for a scapegoat, look for someone else to blame and throw out those shiny objects that the media and everyone else will go to. And certainly again, it seems to be working with Fox News, in particular devoting huge amounts of coverage to Obama gate and mentioning Michael Flynn more frequently than the pandemic.

Also, as you say, I think there's a built in envy to incredibly different people, harder to imagine two presidents are more different both in their personal life and their political life. Barack Obama publishes an annual list of books each year that he recommends from his summer reading. Donald Trump seem to purely measure success in terms of TV ratings.

LEMON: Yes. And it's not even -- I can barely read a teleprompter. And so, you know, it's very -- I can't string a sentence together. Listen, just real quickly, I just want to play this -- President Obama's critique on coronavirus leadership, watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: More than anything, this pandemic is fully finally torn back the curtain on the idea that so many of the folks in charge know what they're doing. A lot of them aren't even pretending to be in charge. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: And this is what we're hearing from President Trump today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: He was an incompetent president. That's all I can say, grossly incompetent. Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So it's interesting when he says grossly incompetent when you look at, obviously, it's an inferior personal -- inferiority complex. When you look at what happened when Obama took over the presidency, an economy that was really in the ditch, and he pulled it out and then had one of the most successful economies after, you know, taking over when a very poor economy and handed a good economy to this President, and you look at where this President is now. It is obviously -- that's the sort of political and personal inferiority complex that he is responding to.

SMITH: Because even before the pandemic, Trump was trying to claim credit for the ongoing, robust economy, now he's trying to blame the Obama administration for just leaving behind a lack of equipment and a lack of planning. And, of course, we know that that was a plan. So yes, it's a common habit.

[21:25:01]

But what I think will be fascinating is as Obama increasingly re- enters the political arena, campaigning for Joe Biden, that will definitely a strength for Democrats. But of course, Trump will try to use it to his advantage and tell his supporters, a vote for Joe Biden as a vote for a third term of Obama and that might be quite effective in rallying at least some of his base.

LEMON: Yes. And the whole thing that you talked about with Flynn and on and on, and that that is just a response to President Obama's high poll numbers. And according to the reporting, President Trump's team was showing him Obama's poll numbers and he needed something to fight that and so came up with this whole fake thing about unmasking and Obama and on and on.

So thank you very much. I appreciate you joining us. I found the piece fascinating and I wanted to have you on and talk about it. Appreciate it. Thanks.

SMITH: Thank you very much.

LEMON: So his doctors call him a medical miracle. How one man beat coronavirus after nearly 30 days in the ICU, that's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:30:32] LEMON: A Maryland man battle coronavirus for nearly 30 days in an intensive care unit. Now he's telling CNN about the recovery he and his doctors are calling a miracle. Here's Miguel Marquez with the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KEVIN SWINK, RECOVERING FROM COVID-19: I'm a miracle. Yes, I'm a miracle. A lot of people in the hospital call me medical miracle.

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Eighteen days on a ventilator, nearly 30 days in the ICU.

SWINK: And I'll take syringe here.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Three times intubated a tracheostomy, his throat healing, he still eats through a tube.

SWINK: Or here is my stomach too.

MARQUEZ: (voice-over): At the worst, his heart nearly stopped beating, the miracle, he's alive.

(on-camera): Is there a point where you realized this may be it?

SWINK: There was a point where it hurt to take even one breath. And I did actually at one time just want to die. But then I heard a voice in my head that said you're being selfish.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Selfish because he thought he'd mar (ph) graduation for one daughter and a birthday for another. He had a wife, two parents, a church and friends that loved him. He also had a team of doctors, nurses and respiratory therapists caring and pooling for him.

DAVID GOLDSBOROUGH, RESPIRATORY MEDSTAR FRANKLIN SQUARE MEDICAL CENTER: You know, the whole time that he was here, you know, I don't know if our patients can hear us or if he even heard it, but I used to tell them, don't give up. And I don't know if he heard that. And I would like to know if he have heard me saying that to him.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Kevin says he does remember that. He wasn't sure if he imagined it, but he remembers it and a nurse named Beth (ph).

SWINK: She's the one that comes up and told me, you know, I was there the night you almost died. And, you know, I'm like, I know nothing about that.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): COVID-19 keeps patients like Kevin sedated and separated from loved ones, medical staff wear masks and gowns. Hard to know who is who. Beth Gelston was in the room on Swink's worst day.

BETH GELSTON, REGISTERED NURSE, MEDSTAR FRANKLIN SQUARE MEDICAL CENTER: He started to crash.

MARQUEZ (on-camera): This is when his heart nearly stopped. GELSTON: It did. So I was caring for him that day. And in the room with him, while all of this was happening, and when I saw him on the day that he left the hospital, I told him that, I told him that he almost died and I thought he was going to die. And I just -- I'm so thankful that he didn't.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Kevin Swink now an inspiration for the staff that saved him.

(on-camera): How do you cope with patients as sick as Kevin?

GELSTON: In the beginning of all of this, it definitely wasn't easy. And a lot of us left in tears a lot of the time. But I really believe that we've become together as such as support for each other. And also seeing people improve. It's helped like the fact that Kevin is home and doing so much better it helps -- it really helps us to know that we're making this much of an impact.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Kevin Swink not typical in another way. 50 years old, no underlying medical conditions otherwise healthy, another COVID-19 mystery. Some for reasons still not understood get deathly ill while others barely know they have it.

DR. MIMI NOVELLO, VP MEDICAL AFFAIRS AND CHIEF MEDICAL OFFICER, MEDSTAR FRANKLIN SQUARE: Is very confusing to us. And, you know, I think there are people that are looking into why this might be. You know, could it be related to genetics, could it be related to the viral load or the amount of virus at the person exposed to.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): Kevin's recovery as mysterious as his illness. He's father also tested positive and may not recover. Other family members got it too, and were barely affected.

SWINK: It just blindsided me. I didn't think I'd get it. I didn't think there was any possibility or anything like that.

MARQUEZ (voice-over): When he was discharged, his church organized a drive-by parade. Kevin will see graduations and birthdays. He's looking forward to solid food. A double portion of Maryland crab cakes.

(on-camera): How sweet is life?

SWINK: Nice. Very sweet. Very sweet.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Definitely down with the Maryland crab cakes. Miguel Marquez joins me now. I'm sure you are too, Miguel. You know, Kevin isn't the kind of person that you think of, in the most at risk categories. Does this help highlight, just how much do we have to learn about this virus?

MARQUEZ: It is the most frustrating things. So many members of his family also got it and people he knows.

[21:35:05]

Others they'd went through it, barely even knew they had it, barely have fever. He almost died. His heart was that close from stopping. It is just incredible how they can't quite figure out how this disease works and why it affects some people so much worse than others.

LEMON: Yes. But I love that he said, I can't be selfish. I have others to think about than myself. I'm not going to die. Miguel, thank you. That was a really great piece and we wish -- we really wish him the best. Thank you Miguel. Stay safe.

MARQUEZ: He still hasn't gotten those crab cakes. He will assume though.

LEMON: He will. Well, give us the address. We got to send them some crab cakes. I promise we'll send if you give me address.

MARQUEZ: Will do.

LEMON: I'll make sure you get some crab cakes.

MARQUEZ: All right.

LEMON: OK, with most states in the process of opening up, small business owners are considering whether they should reopen or not. And for my next guest, that can be a difficult choice between paying the bills and keeping her family healthy. Her concerns and her decision next.

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[21:40:14]

LEMON: At least 48 states are now in the process of reopening getting back to business. So that includes bars and restaurants we've been showing you which are welcoming back customers. But that's not an easy decision for some businesses, some business owners to make.

And I want to bring in Jasmine Lombrage, she and her husband own the Bullfish Bar and Kitchen and that's in my hometown of Baton Rouge, Louisiana or as we sit down there, Baton Rouge, and her family joins me as well. We've got Angel with me, we have Gabby (ph) and Angelle. Who's Gabby (ph) and who's Angelle?

ANGELLE LOMBRAGE, DAUGHTER OF JASMINE AND ANGEL: Me.

LEMON: Me.

JASMINE LOMBRAGE, OWNER OF BULLFISH BAR AND KITCHEN: And this is Gabby (ph).

LEMON: OK. OK, now, I got it. Listen, thank you family for joining. I really appreciate. Listen, I know it's a really tough decision to make because I have family there. And some of them are entrepreneurs, and they're really nervous about businesses being opened back up. But they've got to pay the bills, they've got to pay the rent, they've got to pay the mortgage, they've got to pay the credit card bills, they've got to pay the light bill, the water bill and on and on and on.

So deciding, excuse me, Jasmine, whether or not to open the restaurant has been really hard for you and your husband. Explain to our viewers what making that choices like.

JASMINE LOMBRAGE, OWNER, BULLFISH BAR & KITCHEN: First, making that -- first of all, thank you for having us on the show. First, for us making this decision is personal. First, our daughter is immunocompromised.

She was a premature baby, and she's autistic, and she's a lot of health challenges. So for us, it's more personal, because she's here with me. I am also a mother, so with school being close, I have to bring them here with me to teach my kids, you know, do the homeschooling process with them.

So if customers are coming in and I'm not sure -- I cannot control who's coming in or who's not but I still have to pay the bills. So we're torn with making that decision deciding whether or not we should open or close because if we don't, our house is connected to the boat (ph), they are long with the Bullfish. So if we don't open then we cannot pay the bills and if we open, we're literally putting our child at risk and our employees and ourselves. And I would hate to take something home to my family.

LEMON: You started -- so you started off with just curbside pickup and outdoor seating. How did that go?

LOMBRAGE: Well, curbside was very slow. It was interesting. We had our hit or miss days and there are days I would literally call the restaurants phone from my cellphone to make sure that it was working and -- because no one ever called and no one ever showed up. So I just called it because curbside was not working. Not until recently, we started doing the outside seating with the social distancing when they open that part up in our space (ph).

LEMON: And how is that going?

LOMBRAGE: Well, before we had the interview on, Victor, New York Daily. It was basically nonexistent. You had a few people here and there, but it was very scary. And we were just in a bind financially. We were just like struggling to make it and survive because we weren't able to make the sales, we weren't able to get the people to come in. the bar is closed, the restaurant. We have a dining facility, so people weren't able to come in. So that affected us a lot.

LEMON: Well, Jasmine, listen, we have a -- I've got a move on. But I wanted to bring you on to -- because you're the embodiment of how difficult it is for people you have, you know, a child who has underlying conditions and preconditions. And so it's a struggle. Just let me know, though, quickly, if you can, do you think you're going to be able to make it?

LOMBRAGE: We don't think so. Right now when everybody coming in and out and just everything going on and news a news about the illness, the COVID-19 and how this affecting the children. Were more nervous now. So I think we may have to take a couple --

LEMON: Do you think you're going to be able to make it financially if you're going to be able to keep your house and your business? That's what I was wondering.

LOMBRAGE: We don't know. We've applied to a lot of persistence, and so we don't know. We've been using credit cards and everything we have and we're hoping because if we don't, our house is on the line.

[21:45:08]

And if you're familiar with children with autism and, you know, (INAUDIBLE). So we don't know (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: Well listen, Jasmine, Angel, Gabby (ph) and Angelle, we really wish you guys the very best and I'm sorry that you're having to deal with this. I'm sorry that everyone is having to deal with this. But you guys, take care. We're praying for you.

We understand the predicament that you're in, and we hope that you guys do OK. We're thinking about you. God bless you. And thank you for coming on CNN.

J. LOMBRAGE: Thank you so much for having us.

ANGEL LOMBRAGE, OWNER, BULLFISH BAR AND KITCHEN: Thank you so much.

A. LOMBRAGE: Thank you.

A. LOMBRAGE: Thank you.

GABRIELLE LOMBRAGE, DAUGHTER OF JASMINE AND ANGEL: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you. Be safe down there. Go Tigers, go Jaguars.

All right. So, President Obama, mentioning Ahmaud Arbery during his commencement address to high school seniors across the country. We're going to tell you what he said. I'm going to speak with an attorney representing Ahmaud's family, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[21:50:34]

LEMON: OK. So we are going to continue to follow this story until the very end. There's new information that on the investigation to the shooting death of Ahmaud Arbery. The attorney for homeowner Larry English telling CNN that her client was first connected to the suspect Gregory McMichael, by Glynn county police officer, a Glynn county police officer.

The attorney also providing CNN with surveillance footage showing the still under construction home that had been visited by multiple individuals in the lead up to Arbery's killing. You can see there's some children there, there's another couple, different ethnicities, white couple there, whatever. All going, nobody to our knowledge had been chased down or whatever. Definitely no one had been killed until Ahmaud Arbery.

Benjamin Crump is the attorney for the family of Ahmaud Arbery and he joins me now live. Mr. Crump, thank you. Appreciate you coming on. You know, I spoke last hour with Elizabeth Graddy, the attorney for Larry English, who owns that house that's under construction. They have provided 11 new surveillance clips to CNN.

All sorts of people stopped to check out the construction. It appears Ahmaud was the only one to have the police called on him. Why is that?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR THE FAMILY OF AHMAUD ARBERY: Well with the revelation of this text message, which I think is a bombshell, Don, it certainly shows that there was an organized mob, who had a premeditated plan to confront and capture the young black jogger, who we now know was Ahmaud Arbery because we all witnessed the videotape.

And it's very interesting. When their lawyer says, the McMichael's law he says this wasn't a violent act of racism. Well, like you said, other people visited that house. I mean, you had several white people visit the house. Nobody got on a pickup truck with a 357 Magnum and a shotgun and chase them down. So you can decide for yourself, Don Lemon, what was the motivation why they chased Ahmaud Arbery.

LEMON: And listen, I've got it. You have seen the interview with Mr. English on CNN and his attorney. Mr. English who said nothing to his knowledge was stolen from the property. He didn't think that what Ahmaud did was unusual. He told me personally that contractors including himself, they have insurance because there are looky-loos that enter properties that are under construction all the time, it is not out of the ordinary.

And he said that all kinds of people visited his property. He is not accused of Ahmaud Arbery of doing anything. So it's just to say that -- I see people all the time say, well, he was on the property. He was breaking and entering. He was trespassing. All kinds of people trespassed on that property.

None of them were chased down the way Ahmaud Arbery was. What about this theory, Benjamin Crump, that Ahmaud would stop there when he was running to get a drink of water?

CRUMP: It seems perfectly logical, Don. And literally when you look at the situation of all those other people coming, nobody having problems with trespassing. You can conclude what the obvious is. It was never about people coming on that home that was under construction. It was about a young black man coming into a neighborhood that seemed to alarm them.

LEMON: Had you -- is there anything about, because the -- everything seems -- it seems that everything is going to fall or the biggest portion of this case, Benjamin Crump, is going to fall on this video tape. Have you looked at this videotape? Have you had it forensically looked at? What is this showing to you?

CRUMP: We have, and everything from that video tapes seems to suggest that these murderous duo, this father and son had an organized plan that they were going to confront and capture this young black jogger. And when they got that shotgun at 357 Magnum, they did not have good intentions.

LEMON: OK.

CRUMP: They teach us -- yes. They teach us --

LEMON: Yes, I've got to go Benjamin.

CRUMP: OK.

LEMON: Yes. Sorry, Benjamin. I'm sorry, I'm out of time, and I have to pay tribute to a colleague's family member. And thank you so much. We're going to have you guys back and we're going to continue to follow this. Benjamin Crump, thank you so much.

[21:55:09]

So as we close tonight, I really want to remember a pioneer -- a pioneering broadcaster, and her name is Phyllis George and she died at the young age of 70. She was a former Miss America who became the first female co-anchor of the football pregame show the NFL today. That was back in 1975.

And I have to say, this is my personal thing. I've always admired her. She was a trailblazer, as a trailblazer, as a professional, she was truly, truly one of a kind. But I admired her most of all for raising such an incredible daughter and that's our very own CNN Senior White House Correspondent Pamela Brown.

Pamela and all of Phyllis George's family, they're in our thoughts and our prayers tonight. May she rest in peace. And thank you so much for watching, everyone.

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