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Don Lemon Tonight

A Cafeteria Owner Inside White House Tests Positive For COVID- 19; President Trump's Interview On Fox News; CNN Fact Check On President Trump's Press Briefing; Joe Biden Calls President Trump The First Racist To Win The Presidency; News On The Vaccine Front; Iowa City Mayor Announces Mask Mandate, Defying Governor; Attorney General William Barr Calls Reaction To George Floyd's Death 'Extreme'. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired July 22, 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]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

DON LEMON, CNN HOST: This is CNN TONIGHT. I'm Don Lemon, 11:00 p.m. here on the East Coast. United States about to hit another grim milestone as coronavirus rages out of control across many states, especially those in the south and southwest. The number of confirmed cases since the pandemic took hold in this country is about -- it's about to pass four million people.

And here's a staggering fact for you. The case load in the U.S. grew by 1 million in just the last two weeks. As of tonight, more than 143,000 Americans have died from the disease. And we have some breaking news to tell you about.

CNN is learning that a cafeteria employee who works on the White House grounds has tested positive for COVID-19. Tonight an email advises staffers there is no reason for panic or alarm. That contact tracing has been conducted and no executive office workers need to quarantine due to exposure.

Let's discuss now. CNN White House correspondent is John Harwood. He's there. And our resident fact checker is Daniel Dale. Daniel will join me in moments. So we have Daniel? There he is.

OK, so, thank you both. John, the president went in front of cameras today, made claims about this virus that go against everything that we're hearing from medical experts. Is this why he wants to -- the briefing room all to himself, so that he can spread misinformation?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Look, it was a step backward today. Yesterday when the president resumed these briefings, he seemed to suggest that he was going to convey a more serious attitude about the crisis. He urged people to wear masks in ways that he had not done before. He said it's going to get worse before it gets better. He seemed to be girding Americans for the really difficult challenge ahead, trying to rally them. But that only lasts for so long. Today the president came back, second day in a row without medical

experts who can actually provide the information Americans need to conduct their daily lives and develop an understanding of where we're headed with the virus, and he made these statements like kids don't transmit -- don't catch the virus and bring it home from school and infect family members.

Well, there's a new study from South Korea that says kids from 10 to 19 do it as much as adults do, so that's simply false, and the president was using that false information in an attempt to boost his argument for school reopening. He bragged about the declining test positivity rate and said its way down from the peak in April. Well, yes, it was down from the peak in April, but it went much further down and now it's gone back up.

Now, the hope is that we will get it down again, but the president gave the indication today that really what this was about was putting him in front of cameras, letting him promote himself as he's running for re-election, not for constructively helping Americans get on top of this virus.

LEMON: Yes, it was going down and then back up like a backwards check, right? Because -- but he doesn't -- it doesn't show --

HARWOOD: Exactly.

LEMON: Yes, exactly. So, listen, the president implied in an interview with Fox News tonight that he has a friend -- a friend who is dying of the coronavirus. Let's listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I have lost five people. Probably six. Actually. As of this moment, I think, pretty soon. But I've lost five friends that went in and, you know, that's happened on numerous occasions. Probably happened to you with people, too. I never remember anything like that. It didn't -- I mean, I never remember this happening with the flu.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[23:05:20]

LEMON: So the president says things like this, but he has spent months, John, downplaying the severity of this virus and even acting like it's over. It's a very mixed message with clear strategy that he can't even seem to articulate what it is.

HARWOOD: Right. I think the president uses that statement to reflect -- I'll take him at his word that it's reality, that that number of friends of his have died. And by mentioning that is a way for the president to signal to others, I get it. It still doesn't substitute for the lack of expressions of empathy for the 140,000 plus Americans who have died of coronavirus.

And it doesn't substitute for a meaningful plan, meaningful action in a more aggressive way than he's shown so far. That seems to be a small personal emblem that he understands, but not enough to move him to do what presidential leadership would require in this situation.

LEMON: When you think about that, and he's been saying, you know, it's the sniffles or that most people get over it and it's like the flu, and then he just said in that sound bite more than -- I didn't know anyone from the flu -- I don't know. Anyway. So the president also brought up his cognitive tests again in that interview. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: I said to the doctor, it was Dr. Ronny Jackson. I said is there some kind of a test, an acuity test. And he said there actually is and he named it, whatever it might be. And it was 30 or 35 questions. The first questions are very easy.

The last questions are much more difficult, like a memory question. It's like it will go person, woman, man, camera, TV. So they'll say, can you repeat that. So I said yes. So it's person, woman, man, camera, TV. OK. That's very good. If you get it in order, you get extra points.

When you go back about 20, 25 minutes later and they say go back to that -- they don't tell you this. Go back to that question and repeat them. Can you do it? And you go person, woman, man, camera, TV. They say, that's amazing. How did you do that? I do it because I have, like, a good memory, because I'm cognitively there.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So why does he feel the need to repeatedly talk about passing this test? Our medical analysts say that it's a pretty basic test.

HARWOOD: Let me get my mind around this. CNN, Don, question, answer, go. OK. So what I would say about the president is he is somebody who clearly consistently feels the need to exaggerate his own attributes and his own accomplishments. He brags about having gone to Wharton. Mary Trump, of course, said in her book recently that he paid a friend to take the entrance test, the SAT, to get him in there.

He brags about knowing more than generals. He brags about having a special talent for medical stuff when he goes in front of the cameras. I don't know how many times Daniel's fact checked him on saying I passed the veterans choice act which nobody else could do when, in fact, it was Barack Obama. He has to affirm his ego, and in doing so, he consistently lacks self-awareness of how that comes across.

So when you boast about this test, which is a test designed to screen for dementia, and say that by showing you don't have dementia that makes you really smart, it makes him look ridiculous, frankly. And people are laughing about that clip.

And I'm not sure it proves the point the president thinks it proves because if you were -- if you were really brilliant, you would have enough self-awareness not to think that the questions on that test would be an indication of tremendous mental capacity. LEMON: Yes. Well, and even just to -- you're right, to put it out

there. You don't even have to tell anybody you did that. I guess it's because he wants people to think that he's sharpen than Joe Biden. He's trying to say Joe Biden is not sharp. Drawing a contrast there that is not really working in this moment.

HARWOOD: But he doesn't prove that.

LEMON: Yes, exactly. Thank you, John. I appreciate it. I want to bring in (inaudible) -- John mentioned Daniel Dale. Here he is, our resident fact checker. So there you go, Daniel. I want you to take a listen to what the president said about this recent spike in coronavirus cases. Here it is.

[23:10:05]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Cases started to rise among young Americans shortly after demonstrations, which you know very well about, which presumably triggered a broader relaxation of mitigation efforts nationwide.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So what is the truth, Daniel?

DANIEL DALE, CNN FACT CHECKER: There is no good evidence that the racial justice protests were a significant cause of the recent spike in coronavirus cases. Don, experts caution that it's still early. We're still learning about how the spread happened, but in numerous cities where there were large, repeated demonstrations, including New York City, and Minneapolis, Chicago, we saw no sharp uptick after the protests, possibly because they were outdoors, many protesters were wearing masks.

And I'll add that it's strange the president is suggesting that these protests led to a relaxation of mitigation measures. At the same time as these protests, he, himself, was urging a relaxation of mitigation measures, saying the country has to get back to normal, has to open up. So the idea that, you know, governors relaxed restrictions because of the protests rather than because of him I think is pretty strange.

LEMON: And calling people who were not socially distancing or wearing masks, what did he say? They were patriots because they wanted liberty and to liberate, you know, certain states and certain people.

DALE: Right. Yes.

LEMON: Yes. Daniel, listen, the president also tried to place some blame on Mexico. Watch this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: We're also sharing a 2,000-mile border with Mexico, as we know very well, and cases are surging in Mexico, unfortunately. 257 miles of newly constructed wall along the southern border has had a great positive impact on people coming in. And we have record low numbers of people coming in illegally. That's helped greatly. It was really meant for a different purpose, but it worked out very well for what we're doing right now and for the pandemic.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: OK, Daniel, give us the facts.

DALE: This is such a weird paragraph, if you can call it that, because the president is simultaneously vaguely suggesting that Mexican migrants contributed to the spike in cases, and then he's also trying to boast that he's keeping a record number of Mexican migrants out with his border wall. It's strange to argue both at the same time. Beyond that, Don, there is, again, no evidence that migration from Mexico is driving this uptick.

Mexico's number of cases, at least recorded cases, is way less than the U.S. recorded number. There are caveats here in Mexico does have an increase in cases and deaths and Mexico has very limited testing. So we have to be cautious in the comparison between Mexico and the U.S., but again, no firm basis for blaming Mexico for this U.S. domestic problem.

LEMON: The hardest working person on this network right now is Daniel Dale, fact checking the president and this administration. Thank you so much, we appreciate it, Daniel. We'll see you soon.

Today, former Vice President Joe Biden calling President Trump the first racist to be elected president.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, 2020 U.S. PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: What President Trump has done in going -- his spreading of racism, the way he deals with people?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

BIDEN: Based on the color of their skin or national origin, where they're from, is absolutely sickening. No sitting president has ever done this. Never, never, never. No Republican president has done this. No Democratic president. We've had racists, and they've existed and they've tried to get elected president, but he's the first one that has.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: Let's discuss now, Tara Setmayer is here. Toluse Olorunnipa as well. Good evening to one and all. I haven't seen you both in a while. So good to see you.

TARA SETMAYER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Thank you.

LEMON: So, Toluse, what is your reaction to the former vice president's comments? TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALSYT, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER,

BLOOMBERG NEWS: Well, I think the broader point he was trying to make is probably more accurate than the specific point. Obviously there have been racist presidents in the past. We've had slave holder presidents, we've had presidents who have pushed blatantly racist policies in the past.

But the he's trying to make the broader argument that President Trump in the modern era is unique. Republicans and Democrats have tried sort of bring the races together or have not spent as much time sowing racial divisions as President Trump.

And when you saw President Trump's response today in the white House briefing room, he basically doubled down on that kind of division. He said that he's done more for black Americans than any other president, except for possibly Abraham Lincoln. That kind of language and that kind of rhetoric is not going to bring racial unity.

Instead, it's clear that as we get closer to the election, the president is doubling down on the kind of racial offensiveness and the racial divisiveness that Joe Biden wants to highlight going into the -- into this campaign.

LEMON: Didn't he around the same time, he'll call it the China plague when he said it was -- OK. That he wasn't racist. OK, so, listen, Tara, the Trump campaign is responding tonight in a statement saying in part, and I quote here, this is an insult to the intelligence of black voters.

President Trump loves all people, works hard to empower all Americans, and is -- and is supported by more black voters than any Republican presidential candidate in modern history. No one should take lectures on racial justice from Joe Biden.

[23:15:15]

OK. So, first of all, Donald Trump did better with the black vote than Mitt Romney and John McCain, but they ran against the first black president from 1980 to 2004 the Republican candidates got the same or slightly higher percentage than President Trump. Now that we have that fact check out of the way, Don. So, I don't know, who is the person that -- who should we be listening to lectures from on racial justice, Joe Biden or Donald Trump?

SETMAYER: I mean, that question is laughable. Does Joe Biden have the same record that Donald Trump does for his entire career of being a bigot and a racist? No. Was Joe Biden sued for racial discrimination, housing discrimination in the 70s?

Was he sued by black dealers in his casinos for racial discrimination? Has he, you know, has Donald Trump been given an award by the national civil rights museum the way Joe Biden has? Was, I mean -- there -- the records are not comparable in any way.

Donald Trump -- that statement from Donald Trump's campaign is laughable. I mean, it's laughable. We see and hear what Donald Trump does every day. Just because Jared Kushner convinced him the way to try to get a talking point to say that you're not a racist is to pass criminal justice reform, we're supposed to believe that that's what's in Donald Trump's heart? His entire career has demonstrated that he is a racist.

The birther movement. The central park five. The Charlottesville. He's defending confederate flags and statues, for goodness sakes. He's threatening to veto the national defense authorization bill, which actually funds the Pentagon and our soldiers. He's threatening to veto that if there is a renaming of confederate names on bases. How many times do we have to see Donald Trump engage in behavior that is overtly racist? It's no longer a dog whistle. It's not a nod and a wink anymore.

He retweeted someone yelling white power for goodness sakes in a video. His entire campaign is law and order. It's a rehash of the racist strategy that unfortunately Republicans employed in 1968 in the Nixon campaign that was about the fear of black crime in 1968 after the riots. This is a rehash of all of this. I mean, does the Trump campaign really think that we're that stupid? We see what's going on here. It's obvious.

LEMON: I think you're saying at this point it's not a bug, it's a feature. All right.

SETMAYER: Absolutely.

LEMON: Thank you both. That's all we have time for. Thank you very much. I appreciate it.

Millions of doses of coronavirus vaccine could be ready by December, but one third of Americans say they won't get vaccinated. What will that do to our efforts to get this under control?

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[23:20:00]

LEMON: A big development on the coronavirus vaccine front. The U.S. government striking a nearly $2 billion deal with Pfizer to produce 100 million vaccine doses. The Health and Human Services secretary says any vaccine sponsored by the government will be free or affordable for Americans.

Let's discuss now. CNN Medical Analyst Dr. Larry Brilliant is here with that. Doctor, so good to see you. Let's talk about this, these 100 million vaccines could be ready as soon as December. Although Pfizer still needs to complete a phase III trial. Can you tell people at home exactly what this means?

DR. LARRY BRILLIANT, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST, EPIDEMIOLOGIST: Well, first of all, hi, Don. It's nice to see you again.

LEMON: You as well. Thank you.

BRILLIANT: Next year there will be a vaccine. It will be safe. It will be effective. And I am looking forward to taking it. And we need it because this is the worst pandemic of our lifetime. There have been 4 million cases in the United States. There were 70,000 cases today. There were 1,000 deaths today.

LEMON: Yes.

BRILLIANT: So we should be excited that there have been 165 vaccines in process. Of those, 27 are in human trials and 4, like the Pfizer vaccine, are in advanced stage III trials. That's all very good.

LEMON: So, just -- when you say next year, what -- when? I'm sure people are wondering just how soon.

BRILLIANT: Nobody knows. I mean, we have now spent $2.3 billion, taxpayer money, to make advanced purchases of vaccines. We've made agreements to buy the vaccine when it's done. And that has allowed manufacturers to start making vaccine now in advance of knowing whether it will be safe and effective. So, we will get 100 million doses by the end of the year. They will be in boxes.

What we don't know is will they be safe? Will they be one dose or two doses? Will you need a cold chain? And how effective will they be? What kind of immunity will they give you?

That's what we're going to find out with three trials of 30,000 people each. That we will see early this fall. But there's no doubt that we'll get the cases. It will have the vaccine in it. The question is, how good will it be? And that's what we're going to learn over the next few months.

LEMON: That's interesting. So, real quickly because I want to move on. The ones that are not safe and don't work, do they just trash them and get rid of them? Is that what happens?

BRILLIANT: Yes, and I think that's not a bad thing. If you think -- that's not the usual way of doing things, but we're trying to work at pandemic speed.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: No, I was just wondering. I don't think so it's a bad thing, because listen, it's better safe than sorry, right? Its better you get them in the boxes and ready to go so that they are ready.

BRILLIANT: You got it.

[23:25:00]

LEMON: I get you. Yes. So, listen, doctor, HHS Secretary Alex Azar addressing the Pfizer deal. Here it is. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ALEX AZAR, U.S. SECRETARY OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES: We're not concerned about supply chain and its domestic manufacturing across the portfolio that we're investing in. We've even gone already to ensure fill finish capacity, syringes, and needles, et cetera.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So we have seen how much the government has struggled to scale up testing and contact tracing. Could the same happen with vaccines?

BRILLIANT: Oh, I wish we would scale up contact tracing and testing at this level. That's the problem. Making vaccines takes all the oxygen out of the air. But we do need it and it is the right thing to do. I just wish it was in addition to not instead of contact tracing and isolation.

No, I think this is a great thing. I think this is science moving at, you know, the same speed, the exponential speed of the virus, and we have a lot to be grateful for that we'll have vaccines as soon as we will. But anyone who tells you the date's certain or the result of these trials before they're done is not really watching very closely.

LEMON: Dr. Brilliant, always a pleasure. Thank you so much.

BRILLIANT: Nice to see you, Don.

LEMON: You as well.

The mayor of Iowa City ordering a mask mandate for his city as the coronavirus surges across the country. Why he decided to defy Iowa's Governor. Next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:30:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: The president's continued refusal to issue a nationwide mask mandate is causing conflict at the state and local level. Take Iowa City, for example, where Mayor Bruce Teague has signed a proclamation requiring face masks in public places and while outdoors when social distancing isn't possible. Well, that goes against Governor Kim Reynolds's decision that cities have no authority to require face coverings.

So I want to discuss now with the mayor of Iowa City, Bruce Teague. Mayor, thank you so much. Really appreciate you joining us this evening. Hope you're doing OK.

MAYOR BRUCE TEAGUE, IOWA CITY, IOWA: Yeah. I am.

LEMON: Great. So, listen, cases have spiked recently in Iowa. Explain why you're making masks mandatory.

TEAGUE: You talked about cases spiking. So here in Johnson County, we nearly doubled between June 17th and July 15th. And even in the state, the hospitalizations have doubled. And so right now, it's pretty critical that we do something to change this trajectory that we're headed down. And so the face masks, the face covering order, is one way that we know we can make a difference.

LEMON: So, Mayor, as you -- I'm sure you're fully aware, the governor of Georgia, Brian Kemp, suing the mayor of Atlanta over her own mask mandate and tougher coronavirus restrictions. Are you expecting that kind of fight from your governor's office?

TEAGUE: You know, I won't even begin to venture what might happen there, but what I do know is that the decision that I made was based on the Iowa code, our own city code, and so I'm very confident that we have the ability to make this -- this order.

LEMON: How are you going to enforce this mandate, mayor? Will there be penalties for people who don't comply?

TEAGUE: I think in the times that we're living in, when we're talking about coronavirus and all the financial burdens that it placed upon people, and even the novelty of coronavirus and people not totally understanding how to navigate it, whether you touch doors with bare hands or with gloves, so I really believe that our enforcement will heavily rely on just education.

If our law enforcement should be out there, get a call, we're going to educate. We've equipped them even with some disposable masks to give away because sometimes it could be a barrier that people just don't have a mask or they -- there was a -- maybe a little bit of a confrontation just on the approach.

So we're not exactly sure how all of those will play out, but our -- my hope is that we'll get through this order with no simple misdemeanors at all.

LEMON: Yeah. I ran to the hardware store the other day and I got out of the car and I went, oh, man, I forgot my mask, and the person next to me said, hey, I have an extra one, handed me the mask, I walked into the store.

TEAGUE: Yes.

LEMON: Sometimes, you just -- you know, you're running out and you forget, right?

TEAGUE: Yes.

LEMON: Listen, Iowa City is home to the University of Iowa, 32,000 students. University will have online and in-person instruction this fall. Will your mask decision apply on that campus and have you been working with the university?

TEAGUE: Well, one, I have to say, go Hawks because I'm a big Hawkeye fan.

(LAUGHTER)

TEAGUE: So --

(LAUGHTER) TEAGUE: So, here in -- the order is for the city of Iowa City. I have no knowledge of the university not planning to abide by it. I have been in conversation with the university, except I will say that any, you know, anything outside of them not wanting to abide or wanting to learn what their requirements are, I would really refer them to our city attorney with those questions.

LEMON: Well, mayor, let us know how this mandate goes, and, you know, if you face pushback, I'm sure we'll have you back on. And if you bring the cases down, I'm sure we'll have you back on, as well. Thank you. Please be safe. We appreciate you appearing.

TEAGUE: Thank you.

LEMON: Thank you.

TEAGUE: Yes, thank you.

[23:34:59]

LEMON: The Attorney General, William Barr, calling the public reaction in the aftermath to the killing of George Floyd "extreme." What does George Floyd's brother have to say about that? Philonise Floyd and family lawyer Ben Crump join me, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:39:55]

LEMON: Tonight, the Attorney General, William Barr, calling the public's reaction to the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police, and I quote here, "extreme," claiming it led to the demonization of police officers and blaming it for a spike in violent crime in U.S. cities.

Let's talk about this now. Ben Crump is here. He's an attorney for the Floyd family. And Philonise Floyd is here, as well. He is George Floyd's brother. Good evening to both of you. Philonise, it's good to see you again. Ben, I see you more often than I see Philonise, but it's good to see you again. I hope you're holding up well.

So when I heard -- when you heard what -- when I heard what the attorney general said about the impact of your brother and the impact of your brother's death, I just wanted to ask you about it. But, first, let me play for our audience so that they can hear the comments and then I'll let you respond, Philonise.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, UNITED STATES ATTORNEY GENERAL: We had that terrible event in Minneapolis. But then we had this extreme reaction that has demonized police and called for the defunding of police departments. And what we have seen then is a significant increase in violent crime in many cities. And this -- this rise is a direct result of the attack on the police forces and the weakening of police forces.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: What do you make of his comments?

PHILONISE FLOYD, BROTHER OF GEORGE FLOYD: Well, what's extreme is how that officer put his knee on my brother's neck and murdered him in broad daylight. That's extreme. And that's the thing that's going on right now.

And people, you know, they're just reacting because of the pain. They're tired of people dying. Over and over again, you see black people being murdered all the time, and nobody goes to jail for anything.

And it's like I said once before, it's just like a child doing everything positive and all of a sudden, you know, you don't pay him no attention, so they start acting out. That's the only thing that's going on right now.

Because the -- when my brother passed, when they killed my brother, right there, where people was pleading for his life in broad daylight, it hurt me a lot. I had pain. I had rage inside of me. And they had the same pain and the same rage that I had.

But the thing about it is if you constantly do the same thing over and over again, you can't help but watch people do things they don't want to do. They are not trying to do this. They are just saying, please stop killing us, we are not doing anything.

My brother died over $20, $20 dollars. That's what was said. And I don't know what he died for, but right then and there, his life mattered to me, to my family, to his kids, to everybody around the world who seen that video. It's not extreme.

LEMON: Mm-hmm.

FLOYD: To them. That guy killed my brother.

LEMON: Do you -- listen, the pain is -- I mean, I can't -- I can't feel the pain that you're feeling, but I can see that you're in pain. And I know that having lost someone suddenly that you're in pain. I've experienced that. Not in a way and as publicly as your family has, and I can't even imagine what that is like.

But blaming this so-called extreme reaction for a significant increase in violent crime, do you believe that the reaction to your brother's death was -- is responsible for that, for the increase in crime in cities, as he said?

FLOYD: No, I don't think it's -- I don't think that at all, you know? Everything that's going on is a chain reaction. I don't think that's for my brother. I think they ought to know what's going on. You've seen the video. There's no reason everybody should say, hey, they're doing that for my brother.

People are tired. I have seen Trayvon Martin, I've seen Eric Garner, I've seen Breonna Taylor. Breonna Taylor was killed when she was in her home. She was killed. That's not right. And you expect people to just be silent? No, people are going to speak out. That's life. People are tired of seeing this. And this doesn't make any sense.

When those cops did that, they weren't even arrested. My brother was lying up in a morgue. He was lying up in there dead. And they were at home with their families, their kids, and they were talking to their wives when they should have been arrested and locked up, because if I were stole a piece of candy at the store, they would have put me in

jail the same day.

LEMON: Ben, last month, William Barr acknowledged that black people have a lack of confidence in law enforcement.

[23:45:01]

LEMON: Let's listen to this and then we'll talk.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARR: George Floyd's death was not the first of its kind. And it exposes concerns that reach far beyond this particular case. While the vast majority of police officers do their job bravely and righteously, it is undeniable that many African Americans lack confidence in our American criminal justice system. This must change.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON: So, Ben, you know, that was then, this is now, and he's saying that -- he's saying that people seeking to change that distrust and debating how to do it, that they are responsible for a crime surge.

BEN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR FLOYD FAMILY: Yeah, it is ludicrous when you think about it, Don. The fact that the response, as Philonise said, is to the pattern, last week, we filed our federal wrongful death civil rights lawsuit and -- on behalf of George Floyd's family, and we talked about in detail that it wasn't just the knee of Officer Derek Chauvin on George Floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds that killed him, it was the knee of the entire Minneapolis Police Department.

But, Don, it was also the knee of the criminal justice system, the discriminatory, racist police system in America that was all on George Floyd's neck. And for many black people in America, we feel that every day in the most subtle ways when we have interactions with police.

So, hopefully, the attorney general of the United States, the top law enforcement officer in America, would not condone -- I'm sorry, not condemn black people saying that we want equal justice. We don't want you to protect and serve everybody else, but then come and brutalize and police us. We just want to be treated as American citizens.

LEMON: Ben and Philonise, thank you. Our time is short this evening and we'll have you back on, as you know. But we thank you and we appreciate it. Give our regards to the entire family, OK, Philonise? Thank you so much.

FLOYD: Thank you so much.

CRUMP: Thank you.

LEMON: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[23:50:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

LEMON: One woman is turning the loss of her mother to coronavirus into a call to action for leaders and officials to do more to fight the spread of the disease. Fiana Tulip's mother, Isabelle Papadimitriou, died on July 4 in Dallas, Texas.

In an op-ed in the statesman, Fiana called out Governor Abbott's inaction. And she wrote this. She says, "As hospital beds filled up across the state, you finally issued a statewide mask order on July 2nd, too late to help my mother. There will be far more deaths of Texans than there needed to be.

Your inaction and active denial of the devastation from COVID-19 has made it clear that the people dying, and the families they are leaving behind, are just numbers to you. As of Monday, 4,020 people have died from COVID-19 in Texas, 4,020 lives that mattered. My mother mattered."

And then, Fiana invited the governor to attend her mother's funeral. She joins me now. Thank you for joining us. I'm so sorry for your loss.

FIANA TULIP, MOTHER DIED OF CORONAVIRUS: Thank you. Thank you for having me.

LEMON: Your mom was a respiratory therapist and worked in a hospital. You think that she contracted the virus there during the time of Governor Abbott's executive order that forbade local governments from implementing their own safety measures. You're blaming the governor's inaction for putting your mother's life in danger, is that correct?

TULIP: That's 100 percent correct, yes.

LEMON: Yeah. Tell me about that.

TULIP: Yeah. I -- you know, my mother was -- she was a frontline worker and she didn't have the option to Netflix and chill. She didn't have the option to stay home. She had to go to work. And so, whether these frontline workers want to be heroes or not, they don't have a choice. And so she went to work.

And as the spike hit Texas, coronavirus started really invading her hospital. And they started taking patients in her department who had coronavirus. The only place that she went was work and home during this time. And, you know, she started feeling sick on a Saturday. And the next Saturday, she died.

LEMON: Yeah. You invited the governor to attend your mother's burial. Have you heard anything from his office at all?

TULIP: I haven't heard a single thing from his office, no.

LEMON: In your mother's obituary, your family notes that you are channelling your grief into trying to get people to take the virus seriously and to save themselves.

TULIP: Yeah, I am. You know, I haven't had a lot of time to be sad. I was sad, you know, for the first few days and really shocked and upset. And then I started to think about it, and I realized that her death was absolutely preventable.

And I looked at the way that Texas's leaders were handling this virus and it just seemed really reckless and careless.

[23:55:00]

TULIP: I couldn't understand why they opened up so early. And as cases continued to spike, they continue to open up. The recommendation for a mask is not the same as a mandate for a mask. And it just tells their citizens that maybe this isn't -- maybe this isn't as serious. You know, maybe it is a hoax. Maybe we will be OK if we don't wear a mask.

There's just a lot of miscommunication there. And I got really upset because I realized, through all of that, my mom could still be alive had there been a mask mandate much earlier on (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: Yeah. Listen, again, I'm so sorry for your loss. And when I saw your mom's name, I said, what a beautiful name, Isabelle Papadimitriou, and Fiona Tulip, beautiful names. Again, I'm so sorry. You be well and take care of yourself. Give our regards to your family.

TULIP: I will. Thank you so much.

LEMON: Thank you so much. And thank you, everyone, for watching. Our coverage continues.

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