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Don Lemon Tonight

Family Wants Justice For George Floyd's Death; CDC Warns Of False Antibody Tests; President Trump Mocks Biden For Wearing A Mask; Twitter Labels President Trump Tweets With A Fact Check For The First Time; Coronavirus Is Causing Serious Labor Shortages For Farmers Across The United States. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired May 26, 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]

TERA BROWN, GEORGE FLOYD'S COUSIN: And we have protest, you know, going on there. And we also have people doing things to support here in Houston as well. So, we are grateful.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Yes. Let's talk about what's going on. Both the FBI, the Minnesota Department of Public Safety are investigating George's death. The four officers involved have been fired. Which the mayor of Minneapolis said was the right call. But is that enough for your family, Philonise?

PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: No. Not at all. I love my brother; everybody loved my brother. Knowing my brother used to love my brother. They could have tazed him. They could have maced him. Instead, they put their knee in his neck. And just sat on him. And didn't care at all. He screamed mama, mama, I can't breathe. I can't breathe.

They didn't care. So, I don't -- I don't -- I just understand. What more we have to go through in life, man? They didn't have to do that to him. He's a gentle giant. He didn't hurt anybody. He gave his last to anybody. They didn't care.

They treated him worse than they treat animals that (Inaudible). They took a life now they deserve life. I don't feel sorry for them. They hurt me and they hurt my family. I can't take nothing back. I can't get my brother back. They're at home, they sleep with their wives. They've got kids. If something like that happened to him, they would be just like me. I just don't know what's going on now.

BROWN: So, firing them is a good start. But we want to see justice for our family. We want to see them charged. We want to have them arrested. They need to be charged with -- because what they did was murder. And almost the whole world has witnessed that. Because somebody was gracious enough to --

LEMON: The connection we lost it for a second. You said you want to see them charged. Did you say charge with murder? Is that what you said?

BROWN: We want to see them charged with murder. And we want them to be convicted. We want them arrested. They need to pay for what they did. He didn't deserve what happened to him. And they didn't do anything to help him. They were supposed to be there to serve and protect.

And I didn't see a single one of them lift a finger to do anything to help. While he was begging for his life. Not one of them tried to do anything to help him. That I didn't see. What I did see was murder. And that's what I want them to be arrested and charged and convicted for.

LEMON: Ben, I haven't forgotten about you, so hold on. I'm not going to forget about you. I just want to continue on with the family just for a bit.

BEN CRUMP, ATTORNEY, GEORGE FLOYD'S FAMILY: Sure.

LEMON: OK. So, Rodney, hold up -- that's your brother's photo, right?

RODNEY FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: Yes, this is him.

LEMON: Rodney is holding up his brother's -- I can see it. It's got a little bit of a glare on it. If you can just bed it down. There you go. You guys have a house full there. Who all is there with you? Helping you get through this.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Family. All my nieces, my cousins, we're all here.

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My wife. My brothers and sisters. They're all like me. It's bigger than that. We're all comes together --

LEMON: We put the picture up that you're holding up. So, we had it up on screen, so you're good, Rodney.

The reason I ask is because, you know, I said that we have these two viruses that's infecting America strongly right now. And that is COVID and racism. COVID-19 and racism '20.

Can you explain to America when people protest over -- over criminal justice and police brutality and racism, can you explain as someone who is going through this, as someone who is dealing with it, to America what that feels like and why people are out there protesting for the very thing that happened to your loved one?

[23:04:56]

BROWN: I think frankly, people are really tired of seeing this happen. Time after time again. And we're just not seeing justice for these people who are losing their lives. And it just shouldn't happen.

And so, I think a lot of people can't get angry about it until it touches them. Or it's their family member. What we're seeing is people at large are really tired of seeing this happen. And justice not being served.

LEMON: Benjamin Crump, the initial police statement said that they were able to get the suspect into handcuffs and noted that he appeared to be suffering medical distress. Without this video, do you think what happened to George would have come to light?

And let me preface that. Because they are saying that he died at the hospital. There are witnesses who are on social media and who are contacting -- and I don't know which one. That's what police are saying. Saying that they believe that he died there at the scene. So, do you think he died at the hospital, do you think he lost his life at the scene and do you think that this would have come to light without this video?

CRUMP: Well, Don, we know that he went unconscious at the scene. And it's important to note, Don, on my Instagram and Facebook at attorney Crump, there is new surveillance video from a restaurant that shows you George Floyd's demeanor.

And you look at that video for yourself. It doesn't seem like he was posing a threat to the police officers. And they did not have to use this lethal excessive force. For somebody who they were investigating for a non-violent forgery charge.

I mean, we are seeing I can't breathe again in 2020. And it's so much worse because, Don, it's not one minute it's not two minutes. It's not three minutes. It's not four minutes. It's not five minutes. It's not six minutes. It's not seven minutes. It's not eight minutes. It is over nine minutes they have a man begging for his life where a knee of a police officer on his neck. And nobody offers him any humanity.

I would ask that people take a stopwatch and put it for nine minutes. And just try to imagine George Floyd struggling for breath. Struggling for life. How is this not murder?

LEMON: If you just about the length of this interview is the time he was begging to breathe. And for the police officer to take his knee off of his neck. Benjamin, I want to thank you. But I want to give the family of the last word here. What would you like it say about George?

R. FLOYD: I would like to say we need justice for my brother. They need to be convicted of murder. And basically, I do not think that for 25 years that George is to be murdered -- and I know he'll say the same for me. If they are going with me, I'm not going to take my foot of these folks' neck for doing what they've done. So, this is, I can imagine my brother would not sleep if it happened to me. This hurts me deep.

P. FLOYD: At this time, just like my mother like my mother passed away around this time. She's been dead for like two years now. He loved my mom. For him to be calling my mom like that and it meant a lot to me sitting there. Because he loved my mom. He wasn't the same when she passed away.

BROWN: Yes.

P. FLOYD: He wasn't the same. Nobody was the same. We loved my mom, we loved him. And they took him away. That was my mom's freak of nature. She said that all the time. I want to see my freak of nature. He is a gentle giant. They took him away from us. They (Inaudible) for over 10 minutes just with the knee in his neck. The man couldn't breathe. They (Inaudible). They didn't care.

R. FLOYD: Again, we say neck. But the knee was on his throat. His windpipe. We have to call it like it is. And I'm tired of this crying on TV and this hurts us deeply. And you know, look, we just need murder. Complete charge of what they done.

Because you know what, they (Inaudible) to their family. My brother is here earlier. We don't get to see our family. We don't get to see him. We don't get to see his family. This upset the whole community where he's from in Houston. And you know, our family is big. And it hurts me that I am crying on TV.

[23:10:03]

Another we are -- another black family going through this nonsense. While they're at home sitting with their wife and kids laughing because they killed another black man. You now, it's senseless. They need to be convicted of murder. And it's (Inaudible) --

LEMON: Well, Rodney, I want to thank you. Tera, thank you. Philonise and Benjamin Crump. And family, I want to say it's going to be tough. I don't have to tell you that. You know that. Over the next coming -- we lost the shot. But you can hear me hold your head up. Keep calm and carry on. And stay dignified as you are. And stay strong.

Our thanks again to the family and to attorney Crump.

We are going to continue on. But we need a breath. I'm going to take some time. Excuse me. I shouldn't have said that. But we're going to take some time. We'll be right back.

[23:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: OK. We're back, everyone. Welcome back to CNN TONIGHT.

There are more than 1.6 million cases of coronavirus in the United States right now. And the U.S. is approaching a grim milestone. We're just over one -- 1,000 away from 100,000 deaths.

While the number of cases continues to grow in this country the CDC is sending out a warning today about antibody tests which are supposed to determine whether someone was already infected with COVID-19. The agency warning antibody tests might be wrong up to half the time.

So, let's bring in now Dr. Tom Inglesby, he is a director of the Center for Health Security at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. So, doctor, thank you. I appreciate you joining us.

I want you to check out this map. This is the coronavirus cases in the U.S. Seventeen states in red and dark red are trending up. Twenty states in green trending down. What does this tell you about where we are in the first, you know, in the fight, this fight against the virus right now?

TOM INGLESBY, DIRECTOR, CENTER FOR HEALTH SECURITY, JOHNS HOPKINS BLOOMBERG SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: I think the first thing it says is the things can change quickly. A number of those states that are looking red now were more yellow or green even a couple weeks ago.

So, things can change with this virus. It's the same virus we have been dealing with for the last couple of months. It's just as transmissible as it was when it started this pandemic. And so, I think it's important for people to know that there is still risk around this virus. Even as states are reopening carefully.

People need to know that reopening doesn't mean no risk. It means that governors have decided that on balance they should proceed with opening a certain line of businesses or certain activity. But it doesn't mean that there is no risk from those activities. People still have to be vigilant and take their own individual precautions very seriously.

LEMON: At this point, Dr. Inglesby, and in this pandemic, why do you think that so many states are still trending up right now?

INGLESBY: Well, in part, we haven't been able to get contact tracing in place in the way that we need to. The way to break these chains of transmission is to identify cases with rapid diagnosis, and then to identify all their contacts, and move them into quarantine.

And once we start doing that, we can break the chains of transmission. Just like they've been doing in Singapore and South Korea, New Zealand and Iceland. Many parts of the world.

But in our case, we don't have the contact tracing workforce that we need yet in place around the country. And we're also not quite where we should be in terms of diagnostic testing. We're moving in the right direction but still need to do better with diagnostic tracing.

So, in a lot of cases that are in our communities that we're not diagnosing or not tracing.

LEMON: So, I want to put up. This is a coronavirus model often cited by the White House. Revises forecast to 132,000 deaths by August, which is 11,000 fewer than it projected just a week ago. Here's how the director of the model, his name is Dr, Chris Murray, how he explained the change.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHRISTOPHER MURRAY, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION: It's reflecting that the scale up of mobility that started late April, ran all the way through May, took over off the weekend has not yet translated into big numbers. And so, the data are suggesting that our forecast were a bit high. Instead we're coming in at 132,000 deaths now.

But there are some states that look pretty troublesome in the near term. Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, the Carolinas and Arizona. The trend up in cases has been there. But it's also turning into a tick up in deaths.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Are these states to be the states that we should be watching in the next few weeks?

Can you hear me, doctor?

INGLESBY: I can now, yes.

LEMON: OK. Are these states, I don't know if you heard him, he said Alabama, Louisiana, Florida, the Carolinas and Arizona. Are these the states that we should be watching in the next few weeks?

INGLESBY: I think because they have increasing numbers, we should certainly be watching them. But I think for the most part I think all states need to be on guard for the possibility of rising cases.

I think everyone around the country should be aware that they should be physical distancing and try to keep their space between people. We should really be avoiding large gatherings because we know that's where disease is spreading. In places around the world Like churches and funerals and birthday parties. That's where disease is spreading.

We should be wearing cloth masks in public wherever we are. And certainly, where places are already on the rise, we should be extra vigilant. That that trend could continue.

LEMON: Doctor, thank you for your time. I appreciate it. I want to get to Ron Klain. He is the former White House Ebola response coordinator. Ron, good evening to you. Thanks for joining is again.

[23:20:03]

President Trump is turning wearing a mask into a culture war. This is what he said this afternoon.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Biden can wear a mask, but he was standing outside with his wife, perfect conditions, perfect weather. They're inside, they don't wear masks.

And so, I thought it was very unusual that he had one on, but I thought that was fine. I wasn't criticizing him at all. Why would I ever do a thing like that?

And your second question was? I couldn't hear you.

JEFF MASON, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, REUTERS: The second --

TRUMP: Can take it off, because I cannot hear you.

MASON: I'll just speak louder, sir --

TRUMP: OK. Because you want to be politically correct. Go ahead. MASON: No, sir. I just want to wear the mask.

TRUMP: Go ahead. Go ahead.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: I mean, I don't want to -- I should -- what most people are saying at home you can only imagine. I think you know. But Vice President Biden and that reporter, Jeff Mason, were just following the president's own health officials' guidelines. Why make masks people wearing masks why is that political now? Why make it political, Ron?

RON KLAIN, FORMER WHITE HOUSE EBOLA RESPONSE COORDINATOR: Hard to understand. As you said, Don, this isn't a decision that Vice President Biden made kind of on his own or out of some gesture. The president's own surgeon general, his surgeon general said to the country before Memorial Day weekend, if you are going to be in public you should wear a mask.

So, I guess the question is why does the president find it peculiar that people are following advice of his surgeon general? Or put it another way. If we want to know why 100,000 Americans are dead, it's because we have a president who thinks it's peculiar to listen to the surgeon general. I mean, that's the entire COVID catastrophe in a nutshell, Don.

LEMON: To say that you want to be politically correct though, it's just outrageous. And what I want to say is that, people at home are saying, watching this and I'm sure the reaction when he said it is, this man says the dumbest you know what.

And I think that's the reaction of most people who are sitting there watching the president. When they know that people are wearing masks because they are trying to keep their fellow Americans safe and healthy.

I just want -- listen, I want you -- I want to put up Joe Biden. Dana Bash talked to the former vice president. He said the president is a fool to talk that way. And then he updated his Twitter avatar with a photo in a mask. How important is it for the leader to model the appropriate behavior during a public health crisis like this?

KLAIN: Of course, it's important for a leader to model that kind of behavior. Again, that's why the surgeon general has been calling for it while he is wearing a mask when he is in public. While other leaders in both political parties. This isn't a partisan issue. This is a Trump issue.

You have prominent Republicans wearing masks. Obviously, Democrats. This shouldn't be a partisan issue, Don. This is a simple issue of common sense, and it's actually showing some citizenship. The mask doesn't so much protect the wearer. It protects your fellow citizens.

And I don't see why this isn't something that all Americans can get behind. We want to reopen the economy, let's wear a mask so we're safer when we interact with other people. We want to go back to our jobs let's wear a mask so we're safer.

I mean, this should just be a common sense thing that health experts have recommended. It shouldn't be something that's dividing our country or some kind of symbolic culture war. The president is trying to stir up.

LEMON: Yes. And listen, for full transparency, you are a Joe Biden supporter. Would you be saying the same thing if you didn't support Joe Biden?

KLAIN: I would be. I mean, again, as I said, there are Republicans -- Kevin McCarthy, the Republican leader of the House of Representatives wearing a mask today in public. So, I mean, this shouldn't be a partisan issue.

This isn't about Biden versus Trump. This is about common sense versus Trump. And about, again, the president's own surgeon general. His appointee saying this is what everyone should be doing. I mean, that just seems like, as I said, common sense.

LEMON: I'm putting out a video saying that you should wear it. And then just after that the president putting up the same mocking Joe Biden.

I want to put up a recent Quinnipiac poll showing the majority of Americans want President Trump to wear a mask. But you know, when you break it down by party, it's 90 percent of Democrats, 66 percent of independents, 38 percent of Republicans. I mean, we have heard people say if he's not wearing a mask I won't either. Is the president ultimately endangering his own supporters?

KLAIN: Well, I think he's endangering all Americans. I mean, the problem is if people don't wear masks they are not the ones getting sick. It's people they come in contact with who they could be making sick. So, we don't really know who the non-mask wearers maybe endangering. And maybe Democrats, independents, Republicans, liberals, conservatives.

No way to know. It doesn't matter. This is something we can all do. It's relatively simple to do that protects your fellow citizen. It should just be our first obligation to one another to do this simple thing. That the health experts say we should do to protect one another.

[23:25:08]

And at the very least if the president isn't going to model that behavior, he should at least stop making fun of people or trying to make fun of people, I think ineffectively making fun of people for modelling that behavior. Attacking reporters for modeling that behavior. I mean, he should do the right thing, but the very least is he should stop attacking people for doing the right thing.

LEMON: I'm always surprised by the logic when people who don't wear masks and they're out and they're saying, you know, I can get -- I think someone said I can get hit by a bus or I can do whatever. But the fact is that you don't disobey traffic laws, you don't walk

across the street and not look both ways. You take precautions in order not to get hit by a bus. So why wouldn't you take precautions not to catch COVID-19 and the coronavirus? The logic doesn't make sense.

Ron, thank you very much. I appreciate it.

KLAIN: Thanks, Don. Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Over 80 million people that's how many people are following the president on Twitter as he spreads baseless conspiracies. Why won't Twitter remove his false tweets? We're going to talk about that next.

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Twitter throwing (ph) President Trump's anger tonight after it called out his tweets making false claims about mail-in voting. He is accusing the powerful social media platform of election meddling. But should Twitter be done -- should they be doing more, I should say, about his tweets filled with lies?

Let's discuss with CNN reporter Donie O'Sullivan and senior political analyst Ron Brownstein. Gents, good evening. Thank you so much. Donie, I'm going to start with you.

Twitter for the first time added they fact-check, too, a couple of President Trump's tweets on mail-in voting. And now, the president is responding, saying this, "Twitter is completely stifling free speech, and I, as president, will not allow it to happen!" Twitter is fact- checking President Trump's lies on mail-in voting, but not the tweet where the president falsely accuses someone of murder. Why is that?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Don, I mean, you know, if it wasn't clear already, I think it is clear today that Twitter really doesn't have a handle or control over its own platform, the platform at his belt. I think, frankly, you know, Twitter is afraid of the president.

They are afraid of the backlash that you will see tonight when they did fact check one of his tweets, where he said, you know, he sort of threatened them and promised some sort of retribution. I think Twitter is afraid of possible regulation, those cries of anti-conservative backlash, and of course, also, Twitter is really bad at handling bullying on its platform.

I mean, this is obviously a very high profile case where there is a widower and his family now watching on with this. It is, you know, bringing up memories that don't need to -- that shouldn't have -- they shouldn't have to live again, should I say.

So this is something that I think is just more reflective of the platform as a whole and there are a lot of people who suffer bullying and cyber harassments as a result of this platform. LEMON: I'm glad you bring that up because I know so many people who either have stopped engaging on Twitter or they do it, you know, just as little as possible or peripherally but do it through another social media platform that will post the things on Twitter or they don't even read, you know, the comments because it is just so awful. It is such a cesspool.

I don't think that Jack Dorsey realizes that if he did clean this up, he would probably gain more fans and more engagement on Twitter from people who wanted to be there instead of people saying, I don't want to deal with Twitter, it is just too toxic, and it is a disgusting space to be in.

Ron, here -- this is a president today continuing to smear Joe Scarborough with an unsubstantiated conspiracy theory. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Have you seen the letter that was written by her husband, begging twitter to delete your tweets, talking about how hard it has been for his family, for him to deal with that?

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Yeah, but I'm sure that ultimately, they want to get to the bottom of it, and it is a very serious situation. I also saw a clip with Joe and I missed where they were having a lot of fun at her expense. I thought it was totally inappropriate.

Now, it is a very suspicious thing, and I hope somebody gets to the bottom of it. It will be a very good thing. As you know, there's no statute of limitations. So, it would be a very good thing to do.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: It is just -- it is just slimy. I mean, instead of -- seriously, instead of focusing on a pandemic, he continues to promote this disgusting and baseless conspiracy theory about Joe. It is gross. Why is he doing this?

RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: First of all, the obvious is he would rather be talking about anything today than the fact that we are about to cross or depending on account have crossed 100,000 dead, 1.6 million cases, many of whom, research shows, are going to have lasting health issues. The issue isn't only the 100,000 who have died.

But I would say, Don, we did not get to this point overnight. You don't get to a point like this in one step. It has been a steady progression from the point where he came down the escalator in 2015 talking about rapists and murderers to suggesting in the 2016 campaign that Ted Cruz's father was involved in the JFK assassination, two very fine people, to telling members of Congress to go back, to telling the president of Ukraine, I need you to do us a favor though.

And in each case, the system has proven unwilling or unable to impose any consequences for him. Every time something like this happens, every time he does something like this, my thought immediately goes to what Susan Collins after impeachment, where she said, you know, the president has learned a pretty hard lesson.

[23:35:04]

BROWNSTEIN: And she was right. He did learn a lesson. It was the opposite of the lesson she thought she was -- she said they sent which is that he believes he can do anything without fear of consequence because the Republican Congress will not support any limits or consequences. You get the astonishing spectacle of the president of the United States accusing a private citizen of murder without any evidence.

LEMON: Yeah. It's just really vile. It's disgusting, quite honestly. And I can't believe anyone, not, you know, the president of the United States but anyone would behave that way. If that person approached my house, I wouldn't even let him in. I don't think most people --

BROWNSTEIN: Don, can I --

LEMON: Yeah, go on.

BROWNSTEIN: Can I say just one thing real quick, one thing real quick? You know, people sort of feel like there's no consequences to this behaviour. It's simply not true. I mean, you go back to before the pandemic, consistently in polling, we were seeing 20 percent of the people who said they approve of Trump on the economy, saying still that they disapprove of him overall and intend to vote for Biden.

We have never seen anything like that with an incumbent president. There has never been. So many people are economically contented but still intending to vote against the president. That's simply is a verdict on his values, his behavior, the way he comforts himself, his personal fitness to be president.

Yes, there's a portion of his base that thrills every time he breaks one of these windows, but there is a consequence to this behavior electorally.

LEMON: Yeah. I can't -- I stopped following him years ago and anyone even related to him in any way. I don't mean just personal relatives. It is just every time I read one of his tweets, I feel like on the air, I feel I have to take a shower. It is just disgusting. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

So farmers are worried. They are concerned the workers that they rely on aren't able to get into this country. What this means for them and for getting food on your table. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:40:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: What happens during a pandemic when there is nobody there to work the farms or harvest the crops? Our Sara Sidner reports America is about to find out.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Twelve-year-old Hallie (ph) Eliason is working to help save her family farm --

WADE ELIASON, RANCHER, BOX L RANCH: Hallie (ph), go get (INAUDIBLE) getting out.

SIDNER (voice-over): -- instead of worrying about getting ready for school. She arises early to tend to hundreds of newborns. She is the youngest of four sisters whose lives changed because of the pandemic.

ELIASON: The kids have really stepped up and filled the void.

SIDNER (voice-over): Already suffering from collapsed wool and lamb meat markets, Wade Eliason has 4,000 youths (ph) to care for on his sprawling Utah ranch. But he is missing half of his workers. They couldn't make it into the country from Peru.

ELIASON: When we all first started hearing about the coronavirus, it was like, oh, OK, whatever. But, as we know, it has become very real to each one of us in different ways.

SIDNER (voice-over): The six-generation farmer says he'll only have three qualified men to care for his entire flock through late fall.

RON GIBSON, DAIRY FARMER: If we don't have the people to help us harvest these crops, we don't have a crop. And if we don't have a crop, America doesn't eat. It's that simple.

SIDNER (voice-over): Dairy farmer Ron Gibson knows this pain. He's the president of the Utah Farm Bureau. Gibson says people underestimate the importance of highly skilled guest workers.

GIBSON (voice-over): They know our fields, they know our crops, they know how we harvest, they know our animals, and they know everything about what they're doing.

(On camera): I don't want my tomato pickers performing heart surgery on me. But I surely don't want a heart surgeon picking my tomatoes.

SIDNER (voice-over): Gibson says the pandemic has caused visa processing delays. That combined with coronavirus travel restrictions in central and South America have created a serious labor shortage for farmers across the country.

GIBSON: I have had a lot of people come up to me and say, man, unemployment is so high, you guys probably have a lot of people that want to come work on the farm. I haven't had one person from my community come to me during this whole crisis and say, can I have a job?

SIDNER (voice-over): Curtis Rowley is struggling with something else, the safety of his workers.

CURTIS ROWLEY, FARMER, CHERRY HILL FARM: One of my biggest fears this year is if one of them gets sick, then how many more are going to get sick?

SIDNER (voice-over): Some of the Mexican workers he hired managed to enter the country and get to his Santaquin, Utah orchard before delays took hold.

ROWLEY: With the number of men we have here right now, we can't afford to have even three of them get sick and not be out working.

SIDNER (voice-over): After arriving from Mexico, workers were quarantined for two weeks. Rowley emphasizes hand washing and has added more housing facilities, creating greater space amongst employees. He also checks workers temperatures and routinely asks if they have any symptoms.

ROWLEY: We still have the hope. We're going to get the fruit harvested. People are going to get the best product they can get.

SIDNER: Back on the Eliason ranch, the lambing season is nearly complete. Eliason and his family hope to get through a few more difficult weeks and eventually have the rest of their workers on their ranch. For now, though, his children are taking up as much slack as possible.

[23:45:04]

ELIASON: Even if school starts, I told the girls, I say you're not going back to school anyhow because we got to take care of this at this point.

SIDNER (on camera): Don, one of the farmers has some incredible perspective. Curtis Rowley says he found his great grandmother's diary. And in it, she wrote about what it was like in a farm in 1918 during that pandemic. He says if she can get through it and her family got through that, he believes the family will get through it this time, as well, but it's going to be tough. Don?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

LEMON: Sara, thank you very much.

A white woman called police on a black man after he asked her to put her dog on a leash in New York's Central Park. She claimed he was threatening her life. The whole thing was caught on camera. He joins me next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

LEMON: So there's an incident in New York's Central Park caught on camera and it's going viral. The black man, Christian Cooper, who is a bird watcher, recorded part of the dispute with the white woman. Her name is Amy Cooper. No relation. The whole thing is not captured on video, but it apparently began when he asked her to put her dog on a leash as required by park rules. They went back and forth, and then Amy Cooper claimed that she was scared. He then turned on his camera. She asked him to stop and then dialled 911, telling the dispatcher that an African-American man was threatening her life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AMY COOPER, WHITE WOMAN WHO CALLED POLICE ON A BLACK MAN: Please stop. Sir, I'm asking you to stop.

CHRISTIAN COOPER, BLACK MAN BIRD-WATCHING IN CENTRAL PARK: Please don't come close to me.

A. COOPER: Sir, I'm asking you to stop recording me.

C. COOPER: Please don't come close to me.

A. COOPER: Please turn your phone off.

C. COOPER: Please don't come close to me.

A. COOPER: I'm calling the cops.

C. COOPER: Please call the cops. Please call the cops.

A. COOPER: I'm going to tell them there's an African-American man threatening my life.

C. COOPER: Please tell them whatever you like.

A. COOPER: Excuse me. I'm sorry. I'm in the Ramble and there's a man, an African-American man. He is recording me and threatening me and my dog. There is an African-American man. I'm in Central Park. He is recording me and threatening myself and my dog. I'm sorry. I can't hear. I'm being threatened by a man in the Ramble. Please send the cops immediately! I'm in Central Park in the Ramble. I don't know!

C. COOPER: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Amy Cooper has apologized but was fired from her job. Joining me now is Christian Cooper. We contacted Amy Cooper, by the way, last night and she was invited on this show. She's invited on this show at any time. Christian, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us.

COOPER: Thanks for having me, Don.

LEMON: This whole situation must be surreal to you, for you. How are you dealing with this tonight? Talk to me.

COOPER: I'm just trying to stay calm and level-headed. What's really sort of surprising is how it sort of exploded. But that's the age we live in, I guess. In a COVID world, there's not a lot going on, so something like this becomes maybe way more -- bigger news than it would otherwise be.

LEMON: What made you turn your camera? Why did you start filming it? Why did you start taping?

COOPER: Because the situation was obviously, you know, one of conflict and stress, and unfortunately it's an ongoing thing in the protected areas of Central Park like the Ramble for years now where there has been no enforcement or very little enforcement of the rules about dogs having to be on leash at all times.

So, many of us have been documenting when necessary, where we can, where we feel comfortable, the scofflaw behavior that we're seeing when people refuse to put their dogs on leash after they've been asked.

LEMON: Yeah. So, let's go through some of this because you actually wanted Amy Cooper, the woman in that video, to come on this show with you tonight because you wanted to do this together. Our producers reached out to her last night. We have not heard back from her today. What did you hope to -- why did you hope to be on with her tonight?

COOPER: Well, I don't know that I hoped to be on with her tonight, but I was comfortable being on with her tonight, and I hoped that it would bring some sort of closure to this whole thing because it really seems to have snowballed quite significantly.

I think that's -- if I had to guess, I'm not in her head, but that's one reason why she is sort of in seclusion right now, because there's been a lot of -- I know I've had to deal with a lot of messaging and the messaging aimed at her has been quite significant.

So, I could see where that would be a little startling. And some of the messaging I am told has been death threats and that is wholly inappropriate and abhorrent and should stop immediately.

I find it strange that people who were upset, that they -- as they see it and rightly that she tried to bring death by cop down on my head would then turn around and try to put death threats on her head. Where is the logic in that? Where does that make any kind of sense? So that --

LEMON: This is a statement to CNN. Amy Cooper said, "I think I was just scared."

[23:55:00]

LEMON: She wanted to publicly apologize to everyone. "I'm not a racist. I did not mean to harm that man in any way." She also didn't mean any harm to the African-American community. Do you accept her apology?

COOPER: I think her apology is sincere. I'm not sure if in that apology, she recognizes that while she may not be or considers herself a racist, that particular act was definitely racist. And the fact that that was her recourse at that moment, granted it was a stressful situation, a sudden situation, you know, maybe a moment of spectacularly poor judgment, but she went there and had this racist act that she did.

LEMON: She understood the power she wielded at that moment to call police as a white woman on a black man as a scary black man. I'm going to call the police and say an African-American man is -- she understood that part of it. She had the wherewithal to understand that.

COOPER: Exactly. Her -- she was looking for some way to get an edge in that situation and that's where she went. And that ultimately did not help her. So, you know, is she a racist? I can't answer that. Only she can answer that. And I would submit probably the only way she's going to answer that is going forward, you know, how she conducts herself and, you know, what she chooses to reflect on this situation and examine it.

LEMON: Christian Cooper, thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us here. Thank you so much. You be well and be safe.

COOPER: Thanks.

LEMON: And thanks for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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