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Don Lemon Tonight

Barack Obama Warns About Restricting Voting Rights; Vice President Kamala Harris To Central Americans: Do Not Come To U.S.; Democrats Frustrated With Sen. Manchin; GOP Senator Johnson Twists Martin Luther King Jr.'s Words To Deny Systemic Racism And Critical Race Theory In U.S.; At Least 17 People Killed In Mass Shootings And Gun Violence Across The U.S. This Weekend. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired June 07, 2021 - 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 (on camera): Tonight, the former President Barack Obama and a big CNN interview warning about the danger to voting rights as states all across the country passed laws restricting access to the ballot box.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Are we still just teetering on the brink or are we in crisis?

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Well, I think we have to worry when one of our major political parties is willing to embrace a way of thinking about our democracy that would be unrecognizable and unacceptable even five years ago or a decade ago.

When you look at some of the laws that are being passed at the state legislative level, where legislators are basically saying we're going to take away the certification of the election processes from civil servants, you know, secretaries of state, people who are just counting ballots, and we are going to put it in the hands of partisan legislatures who may or may not decide that a state's electoral votes should go to one person or another.

And when that is all done, against the back drop of large numbers of Republicans having been convinced wrongly that there was something fishy about the last election, we've got a problem. And you know, this is part of the reason why I think the conversation around voting rights at a national level is important.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): We'll have lots more from the former President Barack Obama just ahead. The current Vice President Kamala Harris in Guatemala sending a strong message to Central Americans thinking of coming to the United States. Don't come. You'll be turn back.

Plus, Senator Joe Manchin frustrating his fellow Democrats, doubling down on his position to kill the, to killing the filibuster. Let's discuss now. Joining me now, a CNN political analyst Toluse Olorunnipa and Mark McKinnon, former adviser to President George W. Bush, and John McCain, executive producer of the circus.

Gentlemen, good evening. You know, Mark, before we get into this, it is interesting to listen to the former president. Like someone actually -- a president actually thinking about what they're saying rather than just spewing like some -- oh! Everybody is out to get me and blah, blah, blah.

It was a very powerful warning, a contemplative warning about our democracy. But with Joe Manchin saying that he's going to vote against the for the people act, is the fate of this dire crisis essentially in one Senator's hand?

MARK MCKINNON, FORMER ADVISER TO PRESIDENT GEORGE W. BUSH (on camera): It appears to be. I think the former president really put his finger on the primary issue on all these voter laws that are being enacted. And that is the notion that you can have a political body overturn a civil servant's adjudication of the results, which means that basically, they're rewriting the laws to say that we could undo what happened in 2020, and 2024. And that's what he's saying.

And so, yes, this is in the hands with Joe Manchin who keeps seeking a bipartisan solution when Republicans have shown no sign of setting up to the plate on anything bipartisan. If there's ever going to be a bipartisan vote, it would have been on the COVID relief plan and there were zero Republican votes.

[23:00:08]

And the notion that Democrats will are going to get that, are going to get that on the voting rights act is pie in the sky for sure. And so somewhere it's going to break. And whether or not that means there is a provision where you just say, OK, we suspend the filibuster on this issue as we've done on judges and as we've done in taxes. By the way, noting that the only place filibusters don't apply on the two things Republicans care about, judges and taxes. Well, maybe Democrats should do that on the things that Democrats care about, which is voting rights.

LEMON: There you go. And listen, you would think that it would be some bipartisanship on a committee, you know, to investigate January 6th, especially when they were all running for their lives. You would think that they can all say, OK, let's figure out how this happened, so that it never happens again, but no. So, this bipartisanship thing, I'm sorry. It's never going to happen.

MCKINNON: Thirty-three, during Benghazi zero on attack on our own Capitol.

LEMON: What was Benghazi? Two and a half years? I forget. I forget how many it was.

MCKINNON: Thirty-three.

LEMON: Thirty-three months?

MCKINNON: Thirty-three hearings.

LEMON (on camera): Thirty-three hearings and like $7 million. Anyway. Toluse, I want you to take a listen to the former president weighing in on the media landscape and how it plays into the polarization in this country. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: This is part of the challenge. It's part of the challenge for social media, you know, I think there has been a lot of conversation about how we are able now to just filter out anything that contradicts our own biases, prejudices and pre dispositions. It is not symmetrical but what is true-ish for all of us, there is a great danger that we just shut out anything that contradicts our own sense of righteousness in these big debates.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): So let's talk about this, Toluse. When Trump was deplatformed from Twitter, I mean, disinformation online went down a lot. He was just banned from Facebook for another two years. But that is not stopping disinformation from spreading all across social media at lightning speed.

And then there is the polarized media were people only listen to or watch people who they agree with. How do we get down to the truth in a time like this, when you have such polarization?

TOLUSE OLORUNNIPA, CNN POLITICAL ANALSYT, WHITE HOUSE REPORTER, BLOOMBERG NEWS (on camera): Ye, Don, that's a really tough question, because there is a huge market behind that polarization. There are people making millions and millions of dollars behind, keeping people polarized, keeping people angry, keeping people clicking on social media.

And until that market breaks down, that's going to continue to happen. They are going to continue to the social media misinformation that is put out just because they can get clicks, they can get people riled up.

They can get engagement and even if it is not true, people will spend time sharing it with their friends and family. And by the time, you know, reporters and fact checkers can get around to dispelling some of these rumors, it may be too late. So, the hard work remains to be done, it needs to be done in newsrooms. It needs to be done by journalists. It needs to be done by classrooms that teach people social media literacy and media literacy more broadly.

And obviously the market behind social media disinformation needs to be dealt with. (Inaudible), confusing people, and misleading people, it's going to continue to happen. And that's what we had been seeing. It has a really -- have a major impact on our democracy s we saw on January 6. A lot of those people who storm the Capitol had been living in social

media bubbles and they have been forced to believe or led to believe that what they were doing was righteous when it was based all on a lie.

LEMON (on camera): Yes. Mark, President Biden is heading out on his first foreign trip as president on Wednesday. Vice President Harris is on her first one right now in Latin America. And that warning for potential migrants considering entering the U.S. illegally. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I want to be clear to folks in this region who are thinking about making that dangerous trek to the United States-Mexico border. Do not come. Do not come. The United States will continue to enforce our laws and secure our border. And I believe if you come to our border, you will be turned back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): How significant is this strong language from the vice president on her first foreign trip in office?

MCKINNON: Well, that right there, Don, is clean-up on aisle 4. I mean, as the Biden presidency has done a lot right and the (inaudible), the contingencies that they encounter but this is one that had caught them flat-footed. The border did.

[23:10:00]

And it is a problem. There's no question about it. And there's going to be record numbers of people coming across the border and you know, people you know are sort of for that or against it, but the fact is that the Biden message out of presidency was more relaxing the border and people got that message in foreign countries and they came. And so, we're seeing record surges.

So, the Biden administration has to figure out what they are going to do about this issue long term and short term. Short term is what Kamala Harris started with today, the vice president with that message. That's just part of it, but they got a lot more to do and it is pretty muddled right now, Don. I'll be honest.

LEMON: All right. Mark, Toluse, thank you, gentlemen. I'll see you soon.

MCKINNON: Thanks.

LEMON (on camera): I want to bring in now CNN political commentators Bakari Sellers, and Ashley Allison, she is a former Obama White House senior policy adviser and the former national coalition director for the Biden-Harris campaign. You all know what you're talking about.

You're the perfect people. That's why I invited you on. Good evening to both of you. Bakari, let's start with you. Anderson and the former President Barack Obama, they spoke a lot about race in this country. Take a look and we'll talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Looking back as president, did you tell the story of race in America enough, do you think?

OBAMA: Well, look, I tried. I think I told a lot of stories. You take look at the speeches I gave in Selma. And the speech I gave during the campaign about Reverend Wright and that whole episode. And, you know, each and every time, I tried to describe why it is that we are still not fully reconciled with our history. But the fact is that it is a hard thing to hear.

It is hard for the majority in this country, white Americans, to recognize that, look, you can be proud of this country and its traditions and its history, and our forefathers, and yet it is also true that this terrible stuff happened and that, you know, the vestiges of that linger and continue. And the truth is when I tried to tell that story, oftentimes, my political opponents would deliberately not only block out that story, but try to exploit it for their own political gain.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): Says the former president. And even David Axelrod mentioned this last week on the show, he said that after he spoke out about professor (inaudible) getting arrested back in 2009, polling showed that his support among white voters dropped, Bakari. The first black president, well aware that he had to be cautious when it came to bringing up race. How has his calculations changed now?

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES (on camera): I think first and foremost, we have to acknowledge that the speech he gave in Philadelphia on a campaign trail was arguably one of the best pieces of oratory on race in America that we've seen. But I do think that the president at the time, he got kind of caught in betwixt and between.

I would argue that he wasn't forceful enough on the issue of race. And it was weird because any time he stepped out there, even if he step out lukewarm, you know, he still got blamed for being a radical. So many of us are saying, if you're going go, simply go all the way.

Tell us how you feel. I mean, I think, and Axe and I had many conversations about this. A lot of times when it came to issues of race, the language wasn't as strong it is a could be because there was this belief that Barack Obama as a black man didn't have to state or reaffirm his blackness because people could see it.

But here we are now, where people need to do more and be able to see it. They need you to tell your stories. And that's something that I appreciated about this interview with Anderson, beside it being refreshing as you say, to have a president whose subjects and verbs actually agree, it actually was an opportunity to hear him relaxed.

Be what we all know him to be. Which is a black man in America married to a black woman who is raising black children and having to duck and dodge and deal with all of those successes, all of that pride but all the obstacle that come with it.

LEMON: Yes. We should say former president. Because we have one now whose subjects and verbs actually --

SELLERS: I think people know the comparison between 44 and 45.

LEMON: I get it. I get it. I just want to clarify. You know how people will take things out of context. And it will be like, Bakari is criticizing Joe Biden.

(LAUGHTER)

SELLERS: Thank you.

LEMON: Yes. I just want to make sure about that. Ashley, I want to bring you in. You worked in the Obama White House. I said it earlier, perfect person, both of you the perfect people -- do you think the former president thought that he could do more for race relations as a symbol, rather than actually moving things forward with specific policy or speeches? Do you understand what I'm saying?

[23:15:01]

ASHLEY ALLISON, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR (on camera): Sure. You know, we did everything in our capability in executive office to try and move things forward. I started working in the Obama administration a month before Michael Brown was murdered. We had not felt that type of protest at least not in our generation that we saw hit the streets of Ferguson. Or Black Lives Matter coming up in a call for racial justice.

We brought people from the streets protesting in the (inaudible) conversation. We made sure when we were doing criminal justice reform, we were bringing formerly incarcerated people into the White House which actually wasn't even allowed before, the former administration.

But the reality is, we would have commissions, we would do executive orders but then there was someone always on Capitol Hill, Mitch McConnell and people following him just like we're doing with right now that the legislation when we tried to pass things, it seemed to actually have bipartisan support. It got stalled.

I mean, he used his bully pulpit to say that he could have been Travon Martin after he was killed by somebody unjustly. That's powerful and we had never seen it in a country. And the back lash from that is the Tea Party. The back lash from that is someone who wouldn't even acknowledge his own citizenship and then became president of the United States right after him.

So he tried and tried and we did as much as we could. But we also were the country's president for everyone. Unlike many people who sit in that seat. I.e., president 45, who didn't care about me, didn't care about you and surely didn't care about Bakari.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: Well, next time we have you on, why don't you say how you really feel, Ashley?

(LAUGHTER)

ALLISON: I try to.

LEMON: Thank you both. I really appreciate having you on. Good to see you. Thanks.

SELLERS: Thank you.

LEMON (on camera): So how are Democrats going to get anything done if their hands are tied by the filibuster and its long disgraceful racist history?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. BARBARA LEE, (D-CA): This filibuster has been used in a very sinister way. We need to make sure that the voice of the people are heard in our country and we need to make sure that Mitch McConnell does not continue to stifle progress.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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[23:20:00]

LEMON (on camera): So, we heard a lot these days about the filibuster, the filibuster. Senator Joe Manchin vowing not to kill it despite a lot of his Democratic colleagues who want to scrap it all together. But if you only know about the filibuster from Jimmy Stuart's classic role in Mr. Smith goes to Washington, there is a whole lot more to it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: I tell that you a certain man on my state, now Mr. James Taylor, wanted to put this through this damn -- for his own profit. A man who controls a political machine and controls everything else worth controlling in my state. Yes, and a man even powerful enough to control a Congressman. And I saw three of them in his room the day I went up to see him.

UNKNOWN: Mr. Senator.

UNKNOWN: No, sir, I will not yield.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): So, let's talk more about the filibuster with Adam Jentleson, he is the former Deputy chief of staff to Senator Harry Reid. He is the author of Kill Switch, the rise of the modern Senate. I'm so happy to have you on, Adam. I've been dying to do this. It's so important, what you write about. So, can you please tell us about the filibuster, what is actually being used today? How it's being used today?

ADAM JENTLESON, FORMER DEPUTY CHIEF OF STAFF FOR SENATOR HARRY REID: Yeah. So the thing about the filibuster is, it has a very sordid history. It came into existence primarily to support the existence of white supremacy. You showed the clip of Jimmy Stewart in Mr. Smith goes to Washington.

So, that movie came out in 1939. And a funny thing about that is that during that period, during the entire Jim Crow area, the filibuster and its super majority threshold was being used almost exclusively to block civil rights bills.

The only bills that were killed during that period were civil rights bills. In some ways, those are actually ready to pass long before they actually started to pass in the 1960s. The nation was ready to support them. Gallup found 72 percent of Americans ready to support an anti- poll tax law that was ready to pass in the 1930s and it was blocked by the filibuster.

Fast forward to today, and filibuster continues to support the forces of the status quo and entrench power over progressive change and its use is still a disproportionately advantages conservatives and entrench powerful interests over vulnerable populations and progressive change.

LEMON: Listen, I mentioned earlier that you worked with Harry Reid's deputy as head -- as Harry Reid's -- if I can get my mouth to work. His Deputy chief of staff when he was the Democratic leader. The filibuster was being used to block President Barack Obama's nominations. Reid lowered that threshold. It was dubbed the nuclear option.

Then Republicans came into power. Senator Mitch McConnell took that and then lower the threshold for the Supreme Court nominees. So, the GOP held up Obama's nominee. Then rolled out the red carpet for Trump's. So what happens in the future? What happens in the future if the GOP holds the House, the Senate and the White House? What would stop them from passing just whatever they want?

JENTLESON: Well, they would probably do it anyway. And I think that's what Democrats need to realize about the filibuster. As you mentioned, as soon as the filibuster stood in Mitch McConnell's way when it came to Supreme Court nominees, he got rid of it with the flick of a wrist essentially.

I think it would be folly for Democrats to decline to pass critically important measures that are being blocked by the filibuster and will continue to be blocked by the filibuster like democracy forum, like the for the people act, in order to preserve this tool, hoping that it would be useful to them if and when Republicans are back in power.

Because you would incur a massive up front cost by not passing these things that are essential to rebalancing and restoring our democracy. And then Republicans would just get rid of it as soon as it was to their advantage to get rid of it. So, you know, you can't count on keeping something if the other side can just get rid of it as soon as they want.

LEMON: What do they need to know? Because it was used -- again as we said to get rid of voting rights. What do people need to know and what do, I guess, Democrats or everyone needs to know about this?

JENTLESON: Well, the filibuster is shrouded in myth. It is not a foundational feature of the Senate. That movie, the Jimmy Stewart movie, Mr. Smith goes Washington, did more to sort of enshrine the filibuster as part of the Senate than is really merited.

[23:25:07]

You know, the founders did not want the filibuster to exist. They were extremely clear that the Senate should be a majority rule body. The Senate was a majority rule body for more than 200 years of its existence. So everything that we think about the filibuster today is largely myths that had been coming to existence to serve narrow political interests. So Democrats should be fully comfortable with the idea of reform because there's a long bipartisan tradition of reform with both Democrats and Republicans had supported.

They should get rid of this mythical tool that is blocking progress that is essential to restoring our democracy, because it is the right thing for our country. It's also the right thing for the help of the Senate. The Senate could function again. Things could actually pass. Senators go back to legislating. Imagine that. It would be a good thing all around to get rid or to at least reform it.

LEMON (on camera): Yeah. There is a sort of romanticized history about what the filibuster is and what it was which is not true. And so often does people will romanticize history. And speaking of, 1963, this is Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. talking about the filibuster, Adam. Here it is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARTIN LUTHER KING, AFRICAN AMERICAN ACTIVIST: I think the tragedy is that we have a Congress with a Senate that has a minority of misguided Senators who will use the filibuster to keep the majority of people from even voting. They won't let the majority Senators vote. And certainly, they wouldn't want the majority people to vote because they know they do not represent the majority of American people. In fact, they represented their own states. A very small minority.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): I mean, is that what you see happening now? You know, a lot of these bills had a ton of support from people all across the country and they used the filibuster to block them.

JENTLESON: Yeah. I mean, Dr. King put his finger on it. And you know, at the time that he was speaking, the filibuster was being used to allow a predominantly white and openly white supremacy's minority at the time. They were not shy about their motivations. And openly white supremacist's minority to block civil rights bills. At that time, civil rights bill were the only thing being block by the

filibuster. Fast forward to today, and what the filibuster does is it still allows an overwhelmingly white minority of conservatives to block and exercise a veto over everything that the diverse majority of this country want to see enacted.

That's not just bad for Democrats. That is an unhealthy dynamic for our democracy. It causes the agenda of the government to get far out of step with the will of the governed. That's not something that is sustainable long term in our democracy. So, this isn't just about what is good for Democrats. This is what's about what is just good for the health of our democracy overall.

LEMON: Listen, if you want -- can we put Adam's book back up? And I want you to read or anything. Just go on do a google search for Adam Jentleson, talking about the filibuster. You will learn so much. And read his book, kill switch. OK. The rise of the modern Senate. And I promise you, it will make you a smarter person.

Adam, thank you. We appreciate having you on. We hope you'll come back.

JENTLESON: Definitely, Don. Thanks for having me.

LEMON: Thank you.

Republican Senator Ron Johnson denying systemic racism exists in America and he is twisting Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s vision to try to make his point.

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[23:30:00]

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LEMON (on camera): Republican Senator Ron Johnson pointing to Martin Luther King, Jr. while denying systemic racism and rejecting critical race theory in schools. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNKNOWN: What are your thoughts on critical race theory in schools?

SEN. RON JOHNSON (R-WI): It shouldn't be taught. I do not believe America is a systematically racist nation. I wish the current leaders of some of these movements would really go back and re-read Martin Luther King, Jr.'s speeches and his approach to achieving greater racial equality.

I realize we still have racism present in this nation, but we have come a long, long way. We have. And we should recognize the progress we've made and we should do everything we can to heal this nation. What President Biden did in his memorial -- in his Tulsa address is awful. I mean, it's so incredibly divisive. We should try to heal this nation. (END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): So, what did Dr. King say about achieving racial equality? Let's get to know our history with Peniel Joseph, professor of history at the University of Texas and the author of "The Sword and the Shield: The Revolutionary Lives of Malcolm X and Martin Luther King, Jr." Anyone should know, he will.

Peniel, good to see you. Good to see you, professor. So, Senator Johnson has been leading the charge of GOP denialism on everything from the insurrection to racism in this country. Now, he is using Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. to make his argument. You are the expert.

Tell us why Johnson is getting it wrong by pointing to the civil rights icon as a way to reject critical race theory and systemic racism.

PENIEL JOSEPH, PROFESSOR OF HISTORY AT UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS, AUTHOR: Yeah, Don. It's great to see you. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was really a political shield and sword. He talked about systemic racism. He talked about white supremacy and racial slavery.

By 1967, 1968, he was saying that, you know, most Americans had unconscious racism. But he also said that we could overcome this situation through radical political transformation.

So, one of the things I write in my book is that Dr. King becomes a radical and then a political revolutionary, always non-violent.

But even at the march in Washington in 1963, King confronts the legacy of racism and racial slavery.

[23:34:57]

JOSEPH: He says that states like Mississippi and Alabama, their governors are dripping with the words -- their lips are dripping with the words of interposition and nullification, which was the word -- where were the words of white supremacists in the 19th century.

So, Senator Johnson gets it exactly wrong. It's really interesting, Don, because when we think about the period of time that we're in now, this is the time for truth telling. It's a time to confront these systems of racial oppression that really haunt all of our lives.

And in confronting those systems and finding out about Tulsa or finding about uprising, you talk about one in your book, "This is the Fire," slave uprising that occurred in Louisiana, we actually go stronger as a people and our young people become critical thinkers.

So, when something like last summer happens or George Floyd or Breonna Taylor, they actually have the critical thinking skills and the tools to understand why this is happening, but more importantly, to try to change it.

LEMON (on camera): Mm-hmm. You heard the sound bite that I played. Johnson calling Biden's speech last week in Tulsa divisive, after the president acknowledged the racist massacre that took place there 100 years ago. Listen to some of what he said and then we can talk about it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Hell was unleashed. Literal hell was unleashed through the night and into the morning, the mob terrorized Greenwood, torches and guns shooting at will. A mob tied a Black man by the waist to the back of their truck with his head banging along the pavement as they drove off.

A murdered Black family draped over the fence of their home outside. A lonely couple knelt by their bed praying to God with their heart and their soul, and they were shot in the back of their heads. Private planes -- private planes dropping explosives, the first and only domestic air assault of its kind on an American city, here in Tulsa.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): OK, so, what he said was historically accurate in its history. So, how is it divisive when someone speaks truth about racist atrocities committed in this country like what the president was talking about? How is it divisive? That's what happened.

JOSEPH: I think racial truth is always divisive to white supremacist that not white supremacist -- you know, not the cartoon version of the Klan, but just ordinary white people who are benefitting from privilege and the racial status quo that we are all trying to transform or some of us are trying to transform.

It is interesting about Tulsa. The actor, Tom Hanks, just wrote a really important op-ed in The New York Times about Tulsa. And the reason why it is important -- Tom Hanks is 60, 62 years old, white, loves American history, and says, look, growing up in Oakland, California, I never knew about Tulsa and I feel I was rot, I was denied that chance to know about Tulsa and to have the aftermath of that massacre impact my art, my ability to talk to my children about race, my understanding of American history.

So when we think about division, part of the trick of white supremacy goes beyond the poll task. It goes beyond voter suppression. It actually goes beyond racial lynching. It is -- part of it is the narrative of war that people who are pro-freedom have continuously lost.

What I mean by that, that narrative war starts right after the civil war with the lost cause. The lost cause is this idea that the south and racial slavery was a great thing and that they were just defending their honor and their way of life.

It is not talking about the heads that were on pikes in Louisiana. It is not talking white riots in Memphis in 1866. It's not talking about white supremacy and white violence in Texas in the 1860s and the 1870s. And that narrative is why we have confederate statues, why we still have certain states celebrate the birthdays of Robert E. Lee and other confederate -- LEMON: Peniel, the real -- sorry. We have a delay here. But the rewriting of history or the not writing of history is really -- led to a lot of our brothers and sisters, our fellow Americans, being ignorant about what really happened in this country.

That got to be the last word, Peniel. We will have you back. We will see you soon. Thank you so much.

Another weekend of tragic gun violence in America leaving at least 17 people dead across the country, including a 10-year-old boy. Will we ever reach the point where we will decide enough is enough?

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[23:40:00]

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LEMON (on camera): At least 17 people killed in gun violence over the weekend across the country. Ten mass shootings in 10 different states. More tonight from CNN's Ryan Young.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): An outbreak of deadly shootings in 10 different states across the country this weekend. Eight of them mass shootings where at least four people were shot. Seventeen people killed by gunfire and dozens injured. In Chicago, 55 people were shot in 41 incidents, five of them fatally over just 48 hours.

DAVID BROWN, CHICAGO POLICE SUPERINTENDENT: Our murders are up five percent over last year. Our shootings are up 17 percent over last year.

YOUNG (voice-over): The list goes on and on.

[23:45:00]

YOUNG (voice-over): At least eight people were wounded in New Orleans. Four killed in a shooting in Portland, Oregon. In St. Louis, Missouri, four people injured. One dead and four others injured in Salt Lake City, Utah. Two more dead and two more injured in Indianapolis. One person dead and three more were injured in Fruitport, Michigan.

Seven injured at a graduation party in Cleveland, Ohio. And three killed and five injured outside a graduation party in Miami-Dade, Florida. And in New York, a 10-year-old boy's life was taken when an unknown shooter fired numerous rounds into his home in Queens.

MAYOR BILL DE BLASIO, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK: The fact that this reality in our nation, in our city, that a child's life was taken by gun violence is something we are way too used to is unacceptable.

YOUNG (voice-over): More than 8,200 people have died from gun violence in the United States this year. Not including suicides, according to the gun violence archive. Two hundred and fifty-six of them were killed in mass shootings. A 23 percent uptick in deaths from gun violence so far this year, far outpacing the amount of gun death at this point in 2020, according to the archive.

Many left wondering what it will take for lawmakers to take action on this disturbing trend of gun violence in this country.

Reporting in Atlanta, Ryan Young, CNN.

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON (on camera): Ryan, thank you so much. America's gun violence epidemic creating endless frustration for those desperate for change, including survivors of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting, the shooting in Parkland, Florida.

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[23:50:00]

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LEMON (on camera): The young survivors of the Parkland school shooting are graduating and reflecting on their past and the future. CNN's Kate Bolduan has this exclusive interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)

BROOKE HARRISON, GRADUATING SENIOR: Mom, where are my shoes?

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR AND JOURNALIST (voice-over): The senior prom is a rite of passage for every high school student. And that's no different for Brooke Harrison.

HARRISON: Love you, too. I'll text.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): But for this graduating senior, everything else about high school has been different.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): A shooting call. It's at Stoneman Douglas, 72 CR sector (ph), active shooter.

HARRISON: I was in the 1200 building, which is where the shooting happened, and I was on first floor in room 1216.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Brooke was a 14-year-old freshman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida when a former student carried out one of the worst-school shootings in American history.

HARRISON: And Alaina, Alyssa and Alex all died in my classroom. And eight people total were shot in my classroom. And so everyone that was around me, like, where I decided to, like, try to hide, was either shot or killed.

BOLDUAN (on camera): There's no way it can't change you.

HARRISON: Yeah.

BOLDUAN (on camera): How do you reflect on the last four years?

HARRISON: I really only had, like, the first semester of, like, my freshman year that was, like, normal. And then the rest just kind of was what it was. Sophomore year was probably like the worst for me like mental-health wise because I was still recovering from just like just like witnessing everything I witnessed like being in the building.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): That was the year Brooke's classmate, Lauren Hogg, and her family decided they had to leave Parkland and move to D.C.

LAUREN HOGG, GRADUATING SENIOR: So much has happened that it feels like I have been living in dog years.

BOLDUAN (on camera): Really?

HOGG: Like it feels like I have been in high school for 20 years.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): And in those years, they have turned their pain into action.

UNKNOWN: I'm 14. I shouldn't have to think about getting shot in my school.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Starting a movement against gun violence that has gone global with "March for Our Lives" and a crisis that's only gotten worse.

(On camera): There have been more than 150 mass shootings since the beginning of this year, and I am sure my number is low and outdated.

HOGG: Yeah, it is.

BOLDUAN (on camera): People are always saying, if Sandy Hook didn't change anything, you already know what I'm going to say?

HOGG: Yeah. I know what you're going to say. And for, like, two years after the shooting, I thought that the reason why these things kept happening is because they just needed to hear one more story. Politicians just need to hear one more voice. And so, as a child, I tried to do that. And then I got older and I worked more. And I realized it's not that they don't know what to do. They choose not to.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): And it isn't just a horrific mass shooting that scarred their high school years. Since then, they have been hit by another trauma: coronavirus, shutting down school, and their lives.

HOGG: It's been awful. And also with everything else going on in the world, it's compounded our trauma. And the fact that we're isolated makes it even worse.

BOLDUAN (on camera): What does this moment signify for you?

DENISE HARRISON, BROOKE'S MOTHER: A new beginning. Really, you've grown to be such an amazing person.

B. HARRISON: Oh.

D. HARRISON: I wish -- I wish you didn't have to go through all of this. Wish it could have been different. That these other families -- It's OK -- that their kids were taken from them. They don't get to see their kids grow up. They all should have been able to graduate and go to college. So, it's hard.

[23:55:00]

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Like so many moments, already, in these young girls' lives, forced to grow up too fast, forced to miss out on so much, so hard. But still, they look forward.

Does college feel like a do-over?

B. HARRISON: Kind of, yeah. It kind of feels like a chance to have like a semi-normal school experience.

BOLDUAN (on camera): Have you -- do you allow yourself to reflect or is it, at this point, it's just you're ready to go, ready to move on?

HOBB: I think reflection is necessary for me moving forward, because I think if I moved forward without reflecting on all the work that I've done, all the things that I've been through, it would just be putting all of those experiences to waste.

BOLDUAN (voice-over): Yeah.

HOBB: -- and I cannot stand for that to happen.

BOLDUAN (on camera): Tomorrow is graduation day for the seniors at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. Brooke tells me that she wants to study journalism when she heads off to college in the fall. Lauren says she is still undecided, though she wants to focus on her art and her writing. Both agree that no matter what they do in the future, they will never leave their activism far behind. They will never stop pushing to stop gun violence. They simply can't. Don?

(END VIDEO TAPE)

LEMON: Thanks, Kate. Courageous young people. Thank you for watching. Our coverage continues.

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