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Don Lemon Tonight

All Four Officers Charged in George Floyd's Killing; Barack Obama Urges Young Black Americans to "Feel Hopeful"; Interview with Rodney King's Daughter, Lora, on George Floyd Protests; Former Defense Secretary James Mattis Slams Trump as Threat to Constitution; Former Defense Secretary James Mattis Slams Trump as Threat to Constitution; Peaceful Protests in L.A. Under Curfew; Three Men Charged for Trying to Incite Violence in Las Vegas; National Guard Faces Off with Protestors in D.C.; Four Officers now Charged in George Floyd's Death. Aired 12-1a ET

Aired June 04, 2020 - 00:00   ET

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

[00:00:00]

DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: This is CNN TONIGHT. I am Don Lemon. It is just a little after midnight here, on the East Coast.

After a day of massive and peaceful protests, there are major developments in the killing of George Floyd. All four of the former Minneapolis police officers involved in his death are now -- they are facing charges.

And former officer, Derek Chauvin, who pressed his knee into Floyd's neck, now facing more serious, upgraded count -- an upgraded count of second degree murder. And three others were charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder.

And, in the face of all those protests, the former Defense Secretary, James Mattis, launching a stinging rebuke of President Trump, accusing him of trying to divide the country, instead of trying to unite the American people and saying, and I quote, "We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership."

Protesters out in the streets of Los Angeles tonight, where a curfew has just taken effect. CNN's Kyung Lah is live for us there.

OK, Kyung, it is curfew time.

What are the protesters doing?

What are police doing?

KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR U.S. CORRESPONDENT: You wouldn't know that it's curfew time, if you take a look at what's happening here. This is the group that has been downtown. It is a large group. And it was even bigger earlier in the day.

But you can see, as we bend the corner here, how many people still remain on the streets. That's the spotlight from the police chopper, as they make the turn here.

And I want you, look at the police over there. That's something we've been seeing as the protesters have been marching through downtown Los Angeles, law enforcement protecting critical buildings; in this case, that is the L.A. Police Department, the headquarters downtown.

So it looks like they are heading towards city hall. I believe. It's a little difficult to predict exactly where they're going. But I'm going to actually have you look behind me as well. There are a lot of people out here.

So if, you know, if they were intending on following curfew, these crowds, certainly, don't suggest that there were any plans like this at all.

Something I want to point out, too, is that, last night, what we saw was a definite decision on the part of the protesters that what they were going to do is that they were going to get arrested.

That was a decision made by members who were still out in the night because they wanted to make a point. They -- they want to show civil disobedience, peaceful, civil disobedience and make sure that the city knew that they did not heed their order and that they wanted to make a public statement by being shown getting cuffed and being led away -- Don.

LEMON: All right, Kyung Lah in the streets of Los Angeles. The curfew is in effect. Just took effect three minutes ago. We shall see what happens.

Last night, we saw protesters get arrested when they defied that curfew. I want to bring in Dan Simon in San Francisco for us this evening.

Dan, tell us what you're seeing.

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hey, Don. Here we are, at the end of several hours of protests and you can see a small group behind me, in front of these police officers, we're right next to the Mission District Police Department.

And as we often see with these protests, at the end of the night, you get down to a few folks. And they stand in front of the officers. You have a little bit of taunting going on.

But all day long, it was a very peaceful protest. This is one of the largest protests I have ever seen in San Francisco and we've covered a lot of them, whether it had to do with same-sex marriage or immigration rights.

You've got at least 10,000 people on the streets, according to the San Francisco Police Department. And what we saw, Don, was really incredibly inspiring. We saw young kids with their parents.

[00:05:00] SIMON: One mother told me that she brought her -- her young son with her because she wanted him to witness history unfold on the streets of San Francisco and really be part of this movement throughout the entire country.

This is, again, the Mission District. We haven't really seen any looting or violence in the Bay Area over the past 24 hours but this is an area where you have lot of restaurants and shops. So most of the area has been boarded up as a precaution. But thus far, entirely peaceful and, from what we can gather, no arrests, no violence tonight, Don.

LEMON: The streets of San Francisco. Dan Simon, you're taking me back to my childhood. There is a television show called the "Streets of San Francisco" in the '70s. Thanks very much, Dan Simon.

Alex Marquardt live for us in Washington, D.C., right now.

Alex, what do you know?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL SECURITY CORRESPONDENT (voice- over): Well, Don, protesters express themselves in many different ways. We have seen -- we have heard lots of chants. Tonight here, we heard live music. Actually, was a really nice atmosphere.

This is a spotlight that some protesters have set up. They are beaming different messages with these little metal inserts onto the famous Hay Adams Hotel. That one, if you can't see it, says, "We can't breathe." So that is one of the many messages, of course, that we have heard from protesters over the course of the past week.

Now this right here, is essentially as close as protesters have been able to get to the White House. The White House has been the epicenter of the protests here, in Washington, D.C., for the past six nights.

What has happened, however, is that law enforcement has pushed the protesters back farther and farther away from the White House. At first, they were in the park.

Excuse me. Sorry about that.

Then, they set up a fence in the park. And, today, they pushed them all the way back to this line. What you are looking at here is a long row of National Guard forces, some of the 2,000 to 3,000 different National Guard forces here in the District of Columbia here to reinforce the law enforcement efforts.

What we've also seen, rather interestingly, Don, are Bureau of Prisons forces. Essentially, the riot police for prisons who came here to guard the White House, all the way, some of them, from Texas.

Now right behind this row of -- of National Guard, you can see those two trucks. So essentially, it would be very difficult for anyone inside the White House, say, president Donald Trump, to actually see what is going on out here in the streets. I want to point out one more thing. That, right there, is St. John's

Episcopal Church. It's the Church of the Presidents. It's gotten a lot of attention over the course of the past few days because that is where, on Monday night, the president, after the protesters were violently cleared out of the area, walked across the park to go there, not to go inside to pray, as a bishop for the diocese said.

He did not mention the name George Floyd. But he went out there to hold up a Bible. Now I spoke with the rector of that church earlier today. Parishioners are not able to go to that church today because of this line you see right here.

This is the first time worshippers can't go to the church, according to the rector, since 9/11. Now, Don, we are just after midnight. It is more than an hour past the curfew. I had mentioned to you earlier that the crowds are thinning out.

In fact, what we've seen are, in the words of protesters, reinforcements arriving. Down there in that intersection is another crowd of protesters who, we understand, marched here from the Capitol to join the protests here.

Everybody out here, all day, Don, has been -- has been very peaceful. Obviously, there are some concerns that, at some point, things could turn, as we have seen in the past few nights.

And it is notable that there is no separation, no barrier, between those forces, those National Guards and the protesters. I should mention, there is a bit of controversy going on between the City of Washington and the federal government because the federal government has gotten this hodgepodge patchwork of all sorts of different agencies, more than a dozen, to help them out on the law enforcement front.

And the mayor of D.C., Muriel Bowser, has insinuated that the federal government is overstepping their bounds. The chief of police here has said that what we have seen from these federal law enforcement officers has made his job much more difficult.

So the mayor of D.C. is saying that they are looking into the legality of deploying military forces on the streets of D.C. And she says that, in fact, making a move like that, deploying military forces, is unconscionable -- Don.

LEMON: Alex Marquardt in Washington. We'll follow. We'll check back. Thank you very much.

The former president, Barack Obama, throwing his support and encouragement behind the thousands of Americans taking to the streets to protest George Floyd's killing and speaking directly to young people of color, urging them to feel hopeful, even as they may feel angry, because he believes change is coming.

[00:10:00]

LEMON: I want to bring in now CNN's W. Kamau Bell, the host of CNN's "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA."

How are you, sir?

I got enough CNN --

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: -- Kamau Bell. I saw you on the "Tonight" show last night. Nice job. It was really good. You said something very profound and I'll talk to you. You said something. It goes along with this.

You said, "We are living in the part of history that people write about right now," when you see these massive protests and what the president did day before yesterday with that photo op. It's pretty incredible.

W. KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST: Yes. I mean, this is -- I think a lot of people, you know, with the COVID-19 pandemic, which you know, as quiet as it's kept, we are still in the midst of a global pandemic.

People aren't paying enough attention to the fact that, like, things are not going to get back to normal. And this just redoubles the fact that things are not going to get back to normal.

LEMON: Do you think that the diversity in those huge crowds is notable?

What do you think of that?

BELL: I mean, I live in the Bay Area, so I'm used to protests being multiracial, multiethnic, multireligion, multigender. I think that, right now, because of the pandemic, everybody's at home. And everybody's frustrated.

So it's not -- and even though it's hitting black people at a harsher rate, everybody's suffering under the pandemic. So we all have seen this footage of George Floyd. And so the outrage is so palpable because, a lot of times, white folks could avoid these videos if they didn't want to see them.

But you can't avoid it because many of us are sheltered in our homes.

LEMON: Do you think more people would be out if it wasn't for COVID, out in the streets?

BELL: No. That's the thing about this. This is like a two-layered attack here. People have the opportunity to be out in the streets because a lot of us aren't working. A lot of people don't have jobs to go to.

So the opportunity, the opportunity that COVID provided to, that you didn't have a job, has allowed people to be outside, which is why nobody -- well, many people aren't respecting these curfews because they don't got to be up in the morning.

LEMON: What do you think of all four of the officers being charged? So, listen, It's a long way from, you know, the end.

But are you encouraged by any of this?

BELL: I am encouraged by the fact that that only happened because people have hit to the streets and people have made a lot of noise. So what that means is that activism works, protest works.

And I just hope the people who decided to charge those officers are still listening because I think people will come out again if justice isn't served.

It's not enough to charge the officers but I want to be clear. Activism works. Protest works. That would not have happened in a vacuum. I don't believe those officers, those other officers, would have been charged without all these protests going on around the world.

LEMON: Here is the former president today. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have been hearing a little bit of chatter in the Internet about voting versus protest, politics and -- and participation versus civil disobedience and direct action.

This is not a either/or. This is a both/and. To bring about real change, we both have to highlight a problem and make people in power uncomfortable. But we also have to translate that into practical solutions and laws that can be implemented and we can monitor and make sure we're following up on.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: You just answered part of what he talked about when he said -- when he talked about voting versus protesting.

Listen, it all works, right?

But you talked about people, sometimes, needing to -- to be made uncomfortable, to listen, do you think people in power are listening?

BELL: I mean, to hear General Mattis come out and speak against Trump, you know, we all know military people don't want to do that. They don't want to speak against the commander in chief. That is -- that is the power of the people. We all sort of suspected Mattis felt that way. But he never said it out loud.

LEMON: I know.

But like, why didn't you say it out loud?

But, anyway, that's not how military --

(CROSSTALK) LEMON: -- I know but that is the eternal question. But everyone is telling me now since I said that earlier, you know, I appreciate his service. I appreciate him saying it. I don't want to, you know, downplay the importance of what he said.

But why didn't he do that when he was in power?

Go on, I'm sorry.

BELL: I mean, let me be clear about this. Everything that has happened with Trump, aside from COVID, everybody I hang out with in the Bay Area and Oakland knew it was coming.

Police power in the streets, beating up people and being violent and something that feels more like authoritarian rule than democratic rule, everybody I know in Oakland knew this was coming.

We didn't know the COVID-19 thing was coming. And, for this whole -- the three years Mattis talked about, me and my friends have been wondering, when is one of those people close enough to talk to him going to say something?

Most of them don't say anything until after they leave. To me, these people are -- just like those officers are guilty, everybody who surrounds Trump, even Democrats who are close enough to get to him, are all implicated in this.

[00:15:00]

LEMON: Yes. No lies detected. Thank you, sir.

BELL: Thank you.

LEMON: Appreciate you. Keep up the great work. We miss seeing you in person.

BELL: We got no choice, Don. And I just want to show people a white guy they can model themselves after, if they are curious about how to be the right kind of white person, our friend Tony --

LEMON: Oh, I thought that was you. OK. Yes. Talking about missing somebody. Man, we miss that guy. Yes. Good guy. Thank you for reminding us. Thank you. Thank you. I appreciate you.

You know, it's been more than 29 years since Los Angeles police savagely beat Rodney King?

Even all these years later, it is hard to watch because of just how graphic it is. The shocking video was seen by millions of Americans and seemed, at the time, to promise a change in the way of -- the way race influences policing in the United States.

Now with Americans, you know, all across this country now protesting in outrage over police violence against another black man, how much has actually changed?

How much is changed?

I am joined now by Rodney King's daughter, Lora King.

I'm so glad to have you here. Thank you so much for joining us.

LORA KING, RODNEY'S DAUGHTER: Thank you, Don. Honored to be here tonight. Thank you.

LEMON: The officers who beat your father were acquitted in 1992, I mean, sparking the Los Angeles riots. And as of today, the four of the police officers involved in George Floyd's death have been charged.

Are you confident that we're going to see justice this time?

And what would that look like?

L. KING: You know, honestly, I don't want to be negative but no. I still don't feel like the officers that were involved in my father's beating, I don't think we got justice for them. It was like, you know, in the media, we got justice.

However, if I'm not mistaken, none of them got, you know, none of them got long-term sentences. As a matter of fact, if I'm not mistaken, I've done research recently; one of them is employed, I believe, by the Santa Monica department or the Culver City department, which is very depressing for me because that means he got his job back, which means somebody else is now suffering because I'm sure he didn't learn because I'm sure he did not get a long-term sentence.

So, no, I don't. I just think it's unfortunate.

LEMON: You know, I got to spend a considerable amount of time with your father. In 2011, I did actually a documentary on -- on your father.

L. KING: Yep.

LEMON: You remember that?

L. KING: I don't know if -- did I -- did I meet you then?

Were you a little one?

L. KING: No, but I watched that interview over and over because it -- it helps me. But I know exactly what interview you're talking about.

LEMON: Yes. I remember the house with the pool in the backyard and so on. Listen. I interviewed him, it was 2011, after he was stopped by police, right after the 20th anniversary of that infamous beating in LAPD. And I asked him if he thought things had changed. Listen to what he told me.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Do you think things have changed when it comes to police, especially in Southern California, in Los Angeles? Does it seem like it's a different department now?

You didn't go to jail. You weren't abused in any way. I would imagine they treated you fairly respectfully.

RODNEY KING, POLICE VICTIM: Oh, yes. I'd have to say the police enforcement has been working on relations in -- in Los Angeles County and California, period, it seems like, since the beating. It's been a big, big difference in relations with -- public relations and police, real big difference.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Yes. That wasn't part of the documentary. It was an interview I did with him. But here we are, nine years later, and, for me, 20 pounds heavier later. And the country is, again, reeling from, you know, police violence.

Have the underlying issues really changed since 1991-1992?

L. KING: You know, my dad is a person that's full of hope. He is full of positivity. And I, too, see that. I see a little change.

But honestly, no. We should not be where we're at, 30 years later. There's no way we should be where we're at. Like, this -- we -- it -- you know, America woke up. But we still are in the same place, to me. That's how I feel.

I feel like, you know, a lot of people are more aware of the situation. But we're still at the same place. If not, worse. If not worse.

LEMON: George Floyd has a daughter, who is just 6 years old. You were around that same age, when your father was beaten.

How did that change your life, Lora?

L. KING: You know, that's something that here I am, 36, that's something that I live with every single day. And that's something that she will, unfortunately, live with every single day. I don't wish that upon anybody. There's nothing you can possibly do to make her feel better. There's nothing you can say.

[00:20:00]

L. KING: There's nothing, you know, no materialistic type of anything. I'm speechless. I still -- she lost her father. You know, that night, my father was beaten, I lost a part of him but I didn't lose him, luckily, by the grace of God.

But I don't even have words for her because I can't even imagine that. That's a different kind of pain that even I don't know about. Of course, my father has passed on. But as far as that night's concerned, I got to hug my father after that. Even though he was never the same, she will never get that opportunity. And, for me, that's -- that's sickening. LEMON: Yes, you're right.

L. KING: And she shouldn't have to witness that, as myself, as Eric Garner's daughter, Sandra Bland's sister, no one should -- you can go on the Internet and try to escape it and you're stuck with it over and over. To me, that's sick.

LEMON: Yes, and you're stuck with it over and over. I'm sure watching that videotape of your father being beaten, you know, makes you feel a certain kind of way because, you know, you relive that time.

You launched the I AM A KING Scholarship in your father's memory. The scholarship aims to help black fathers spend more time with their families. Talk about why you began this scholarship, Lora.

L. KING: I actually began the scholarship because, on the TV, in the media, all we see is negative images of African American men. And that's not the case and it's not fair.

And it's like our children need to see that these men are not bad men. These men are working men. These men are loveable. These guys are providers. They do want to spend time.

And it's like in urban communities, in certain communities, they can't. They can't afford to take off work and spend time and, you know, provide a great night. Just what we would consider a basic night for a kid, a lot of them can't even provide that. A lot of them can't even see their kid for whatever situation.

So we launched it last year, April 29th, in the anniversary of the riots, in honor of black men, in honor of positive image of black men, to promote positive bonding with families because we know that self- esteem is built from fathers, let alone African American fathers. But we wanted to honor them because America doesn't.

I've never seen positive images of a black man on the television. You know, you don't see positive images of them spending quality time, smiling. You never see anything. So we wanted to promote and enhance that.

LEMON: Lora, thank you for your time. It's good to see you doing well and it's the I AM A KING Scholarship. Check it out. Thank you very much. Be well. Be safe. Thank you.

L. KING: Thank you. Likewise.

LEMON: Former Defense Secretary James Mattis delivering a blistering rebuke of the Trump presidency tonight. And you will hear all of it next.

But first, I want you to hear this. These are protesters in our nation's capital, singing the late Bill Withers' "Lean on Me."

(MUSIC PLAYING)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) [00:25:00]

(MUSIC PLAYING)

LEMON: The Trump administration Defense Secretary James Mattis issuing a statement tonight, slamming the president as a threat to the Constitution.

President Trump has responded with a bluster on Twitter, like he usually does, but not addressing the substance and arguments made by the former Marine general.

In the statement titled, "In Union, There Is Strength," Mattis says that the president does not even pretend to try to unite the American people. Here is an extended section of his remarkable statement.

"I have watched this week's unfolding events, angry and appalled. The words 'Equal Justice Under Law' are carved in the pediment of the United States Supreme Court.

"This is precisely what protesters are rightly demanding. It is a wholesome and unifying demand-one that all of us should be able to get behind. We must not be distracted by a small number of lawbreakers.

"The protests are defined by tens of thousands of people of conscience who are insisting that we live up to our values-our values as people and our values as a nation.

"When I joined the military, some 50 years ago, I swore an oath to support and defend the Constitution.

"Never did I dream that troops taking that same oath would be ordered under any circumstance to violate the constitutional rights of their fellow citizens-much less to provide a bizarre photo op for the elected commander in chief, with military leadership standing alongside.

"We must reject any thinking of our cities as a 'battlespace' that our uniformed military is called upon to 'dominate.' At home, we should use our military only when requested to do so, on very rare occasions, by state governors.

"Militarizing our response, as we witnessed in Washington, D.C., sets up a conflict-a false conflict- between the military and civilian society. It erodes the moral ground that ensures a trusted bond between men and women in uniform and the society they are sworn to protect, and of which they themselves are a part.

"Keeping public order rests with civilian state and local leaders who best understand their communities and are answerable to them.

"James Madison wrote in Federalist 14 that America united with a handful of troops, or without a single soldier, exhibits a more forbidding posture to foreign ambition than America disunited, with a hundred thousand veterans ready for combat. "We do not need to militarize our response to protests. We need to

unite around a common purpose. And it starts by guaranteeing that all of us are equal before the law.

"Instructions given by the military departments to our troops before the Normandy invasion reminded soldiers that 'The Nazi slogan for destroying us...was "Divide and Conquer." Our American answer is "In Union there is Strength."'

"We must summon that unity to surmount this crisis-confident that we are better than our politics. Donald Trump is the first president in my lifetime who does not try to unite the American people-does not even pretend to try. Instead he tries to divide us.

"We are witnessing the consequences of three years of this deliberate effort. We are witnessing the consequences of three years without mature leadership. We can unite without him, drawing on the strengths inherent in our civil society.

"This will not be easy, as the past few days have shown, but we owe it to our fellow citizens; to past generations that bled to defend our promise; and to our children."

[00:30:19]

I'm going to bring in now presidential historian Douglas Brinkley and former NATO supreme allied commander General Wesley Clark. Very profound words there by General James Mattis, and I appreciate him writing them. So thank you, gentlemen.

General Wesley Clark, you heard -- you just heard General Mattis. You heard his rebuke of the Trump presidency. Are you surprised that a military man like James Mattis would slam the sitting commander in chief like this?

GENERAL WESLEY CLARK, FORMER NATO SUPREME ALLIED COMMANDER: Not surprised. I mean, when you look at what President Trump did, the politicization of the armed forces, using the military for political theater, and then the assault on the demonstrators, who were totally peaceful, that's a shocking thing for all of us who served in the armed forces to see.

It's just what Jim said. It sets the military against a civil society. And -- and he went beyond that, Don, because what he really did is indict the Trump presidency. And he called it a threat to the Constitution. And that's the most profound criticism that you can offer as a military officer, because -- retired officer, because you take an oath to protect the Constitution. Where it's not, you know, to Donald Trump. It's to the Constitution of the United States. And when Mattis says he's a threat to it, those are powerful words.

LEMON: Do you think we'll see more follow?

CLARK: I think -- I think you've got, in addition to Mattis, you've got two former chairmen of the joint chiefs, Mike Mullin, the admiral; Army General Marty Dempsey out there, essentially, warning against the politicization.

LEMON: The former chief of staff.

CLARK: Mark Esper, secretary of defense; and Mark Milley, the chairman of the joint chiefs, taking a lot of grief on this. They're trying to back away.

LEMON: Yes. Let me bring Douglas in. Douglas, you know, explain -- can you explain the magnitude of this statement? Have we ever seen anything like this before?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: It's an unbelievable statement. It's brilliantly written. It should be read by school children for generations to come. It's an explanation about what our U.S. armed forces are all about. And it's coming from a Marine Corps general of 44 years, who oversaw our troops in the Iraq War and Afghanistan in the Persian Gulf war. Mattis has done as a great service.

It reminded me, though, in the 1954, during the McCarthy Army hearings, when you know, Welch, the council went after, you know, the McCarthy team and saying, "Do you have no shame? Do you have no decency?" It was when the Army went after McCarthy that you saw McCarthy start collapsing.

And I think General Mattis now has put a gauntlet down. It's powerful, and it's -- it's going to create a lot of veterans, I believe, in this country to start rethinking who Donald Trump is and -- and be able to see the damage that he's doing to most of our institutions in the federal government.

LEMON: Douglas Brinkley, General Wesley Clark, thank you both, I appreciate it.

CLARK: Thank you.

LEMON: Three men who were allegedly planning to exploit protests over the death of George Floyd and incite violence in Las Vegas, well, they have been charged with conspiracy. We're going to have more on their alleged ties to an extremist group called Boogaloo. The Boogaloo movement. That's next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: Protestors out in the streets of Los Angeles tonight, where a curfew has taken effect. CNN's Kyung Lah is there for us.

OK, Kyung, what's happening with the protesters? Anybody getting arrested? Are they still there?

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, they're -- The police chopper flying above us made an announcement that anyone here shortly before 10 p.m. local time would be subject to arrest.

So what are we seeing? These are the people who have decided to stay. Watch your step, Jordan. You can see the police chopper overhead. And this is actually quite organized. They're all going to sit on the grass. And they've all been instructed to not resist. They're going to put their hands up, and they're all going to be peacefully taken into custody.

The police line is to the north of where we're standing and to the south of where we're standing. This -- the way the police are going to move in is they're going to move in over a line, and then they're going to take one person at a time.

And just in case you're wondering, Don, I do recognize some faces. These are some of the same protesters who were arrested yesterday -- Don.

LEMON: All right. Thank you very much, Kyung. We'll check back with you.

Here's our breaking news tonight. The U.S. attorney's office for the district [SIC] of Nevada, announcing the arrest of three men who allegedly tried to exploit protests and incite violence.

Let's get right to CNN's Evan Perez, our senior justice correspondent. Juliette Kayyem joins us, as well. She's our national security analyst and a former homeland security official.

Good to see both of you. Let's get into this. Evan, three men arrested in Las Vegas on these terrorism charges, give us the details.

EVAN PEREZ, CNN SENIOR JUSTICE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Don, these are three men who are associated with the so-called Boogaloo group. And they were initially, back in April, were trying to mitigate confrontations between police and protesters in those reopen rallies in Nevada. They came up with a plan to try to set up smoke bombs and try to create a confrontation between the protesters who were trying to seek the end of the lockdowns and police.

They ended up changing their plans in more recent days, however; started going to some of the George Floyd rallies in Las Vegas, and that's where the came up with this idea that they were going to try to create confrontations between the peaceful protesters and police.

They -- they even bought materials to create Molotov cocktails. They brought firearms. That's why the FBI moved in and arrested them on -- on April 1.

I'll tell you real quick, though, these three men, one of them is an Army reservist. Another one is a former Air Force. And another one is a former Navy enlisted man. And at one of the protests, Don, one of these men even was talking to the protests, saying, quote, "Peaceful protests don't accomplish anything," that they needed to create violence to be able to accomplish their goals.

And according to the FBI and the prosecutors in Las Vegas, the goal here was to bring down the United States government. That's what their goal is.

And Don, of course, we can't, of course, not mention the fact that the president has been obsessed with far-left protest groups, rather, including Antifa and other groups. We have yet to see any charges from the federal government about any of -- any of these left-leaning groups, including Antifa. But we now have one example of a group on the right.

LEMON: Yes. OK, Juliette, you know, we have -- we've seen over the course of these protests, there are instigators. Right? But these men are charged with conspiracy to cause destruction and, allegedly, have Molotov cocktails. How dangerous is this with the massive crowds that we are seeing?

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: It's very dangerous, because one bad move, right, will then sort of maybe start sort of an onslaught of violence. So in some ways you can even think of it as they just wanted to start friendly fire.

What you're seeing is you're seeing the military or police with -- with weapons but not utilizing them yet. And you have protesters. Someone throws a Molotov cocktail in the middle of it, and then you know what happens. The unarmed people get killed.

And so this is -- this has been a concern. The Boogaloo movement, you know, it's just -- people make fun of the name. It's actually a perversion of a really interesting sort of dance and music phenomenon in the Sixties -- and in the Fifties and Sixties with James Brown. It sort of combined Caribbean and Latin and African-American cultures into a really sort of -- you know, sort of a holistic and diverse music festival. And so it was this sort of beautiful thing.

It's been perverted by the right to basically be utilized to sort of start a civil war between whites and African-Americans or Hispanics. And what has happened is Evan was rightly saying is during the pandemic, during the lockdown, you saw on online websites the rise of Boogaloo within the sort of right-wing movement. It's sort of saying the government is taking away your freedoms. They got very popular in the last two months.

And then, when these protests started, they just sort of switched -- you know, switched their orientation and then moved towards trying to disrupt lawful protests against police violence.

So it's a very dangerous group, and we see the military nexus of them, with these three men having some military background, which is always sort of terrifying because they're trained. And it's a great arrest. I mean, it's very important, because this could have been incredibly dangerous.

LEMON: And to Evan's point, earlier, Evan, you said that the government has been blaming all these groups, Antifa --

KAYYEM: Yes.

LEMON: They've been saying and all this -- you know, what he says, left-wing groups. And here we have evidence of a right-wing group. I wonder if he's going to say, Oh, you know, they're taking the --

PEREZ: Yes.

LEMON: -- they're taking on the right-wing groups.

PEREZ: Also -- right. Keep in mind, Don, also you remember, during those reopen protests, especially in Michigan, the president was out tweeting, saying these are very -- very good people. These are -- these are people you've got to, you know, meet them halfway. He was exhorting the governor of Michigan to come out and at least give them something so that they -- you know, again, these are patriots, he said.

Clearly, these are some of the same protesters. We saw some of them in the Michigan state house. The Boogaloo group was among the groups that were out there as part of those reopen protests.

He said the opposite, obviously, of groups on the left.

[00:45:04]

And again, look, we've heard from law enforcement, Don, that there's groups on the extreme left and the extreme right that have been trying to take advantage of these protests in honor of -- of George Floyd.

And so the fact that the president's only focusing on one of them, on one side. And his attorney general, too, by the way, is what makes this remarkable. Right? Because we haven't yet seen any. We do suspect, though, that there are going to be some cases. There's a lot of cases that are still in the pipeline.

LEMON: Yes, this is just the beginning. Thank you, Evan. Thank you, Juliette. I appreciate it.

People across the country coming together to say what happened to George Floyd isn't right. Is this a watershed moment for this country?

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LEMON: All right. We're still following the protests here live on CNN. Alex Marquardt is in Washington, D.C., for us.

Alex, still out there. Defying the curfew, huh?

ALEX MARQUARDT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They're defying the curfew, and the city said that they could, essentially, as long as they remain peaceful, and they have, Don.

I mean, it's almost one o'clock in the morning here on the East Coast. So, you know, there's always this discussion. Throughout the course of the day and in cities across America of protesters versus agitators. People who are here for the right reasons, and people who are out here just to cause trouble.

[00:50:11]

It was at this exact moment yesterday when things kind of went off the rails, and those agitators started pushing down the fences next to Lafayette Park, and that provoked a strong response from the officers in the park.

That is not the case here tonight, Don. What you're looking at are, frankly, the few remaining protesters here. The crowd size has really dwindled, who are -- they are facing off. It's kind of a standoff. But it is very -- it is relatively quiet and calm, with -- with these National Guards -- troops, some of the 2,000 to 3,000 National Guard troops who -- who have been sent here to Washington, or who are from Washington.

And they are, as we've noted, farther away from the White House than the officers have been over the course of the past few days. When protesters showed up here today to protest, they noted that this line was about 100, 150 yards farther back than they had been protesting over the course of the past few days.

You can see those two trucks right there. They have -- they blocked that line of sight to the White House. So we are now, yes, almost two hours into this curfew, but the -- the police from Washington don't plan on really enforcing that, as long as people stay peaceful, and so far, it looks like they are, Don.

LEMON: All right. Alex Marquardt in Washington, D.C. Alex, thank you very much.

Protesters are out in the streets tonight, as the fired Minneapolis police officer who pinned George Floyd to the ground with his knee on his neck was charged today with a more serious count of second-degree murder. The other three ex-officers on the scene charged with aiding and abetting. All four are in custody, police custody tonight just over a week after Floyd's death.

Is this a watershed moment in our country?

Joining me now is Douglas Flowe. He is an assistant professor of history at Washington University in St. Louis and the author of "Uncontrollable Blackness: African-American Men and Criminality in Jim Crow New York."

Good evening, sir. Thank you so much. I appreciate you joining us.

DOUGLAS FLOWE, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF HISTORY, WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY IN ST. LOUIS: Thank you so much for having me.

LEMON: I want you to take a look at what the former president, Barack Obama, said earlier today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA (D), FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: There is something different here. You look at those protests, and that was a far more representative cross-section of America out on the streets, peacefully protesting, and who felt moved to do something because of the justices that they had seen.

That didn't exist back in the 1960s, that kind of broad coalition. There is a change in mindset that's taking place. A greater recognition that we can do better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Is he right? Is this time different?

FLOWE: I would certainly hope so. You know, there -- there are a number of things that are different at this moment. Although, unfortunately, there are a number of things that are the same.

But I think -- I think there are a couple of really important factors here. First of all, the tragic loss of George Floyd should be enough to make this a watershed moment. We all saw the visual of his death, and I think, like many other people, you know, I got emotional watching that video. And I think a lot of -- it's difficult for anyone to be a human being, and not see that video and feel something.

But -- and beyond Floyd's death, which is already enough to make this a watershed moment, I think COVID has done something to us that we don't experience very often. It's forced us into a moment of national simultaneity that makes us recognize how connected we all actually are.

It's disproportionately affecting African-Americans. According to the CDC, these differences are due to existing economic and social conditions. Those that we've -- that we all know very well. Which means that these communities are less prepared, health-wise, resource- wise and economically for a problem like this.

They're also more likely to find themselves in situations where they're going to be more likely to be infected. So what we're seeing is that the age-old patterns of racial inequality that we've become very proficient in ignoring are becoming unavoidable during a time like this.

LEMON: You know, Douglas, in just over a week, all four officers on the scene have been charged in George -- George Floyd's death. Is that a sign that we could be in the middle of a watershed moment in this country's history, or is it too early to start thinking about that, there's still a long way to go?

FLOWE: Yes. You know, I think it's a really -- it's a good sign. But I would say, you know, one of the first stories that I address in my book is the shooting of an African-American man in the back by a white police officer for -- for absolutely nothing on the streets of New York City in 1904. That police officer ends up being arrested, and he ends up facing trial for manslaughter.

[00:55:10]

And it was a really big, amazing moment to see this happen. It was for me, when I discovered it in the archives. I was really amazed, but this was 1904.

So -- so hopefully, these conviction -- well, if we do see convictions, hopefully, it will have a way to indicate to us that this is a watershed moment. But as we -- as we all know, we've seen this happen many times throughout American history, and here we are in 2020.

LEMON: Douglas Flowe, thank you so much. Hope to see you back here soon. Appreciate it.

FLOWE: Thank you very much for having me.

LEMON: Thank you.

Thank you for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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