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Don Lemon Tonight

President Biden Hours Away From Critical Meeting With Vladimir Putin; Twenty-One GOP Vote Against Honor For January 6 Officers; Interview With Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (D-IL); "New York Times:" Trump Org. Exec Could Face Charges This Summer; Trump Pressured Department Of Justice To Pursue Stolen Election Lies; Former Trump Chief Of Staff Refuses To Comment On E-mails That Show Him And Other Trump Allies Pressuring DOJ On Big Lie; Coronavirus Pandemic In The U.S.; New Video Shows Police Kicking, Tasing Teens Over Vaping. Aired 11p-12a ET

Aired June 15, 2021 - 23:00   ET

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

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DON LEMON, CNN HOST (on camera): President Biden just hours away from his critical summit with Vladimir Putin. The stakes could not be higher with both leaders admitting U.S.-Russia relations are at a new low. Plus, on the same day the House holds a hearing on the security failures of the January 6 attack, 21 House Republicans voting against awarding the Congressional gold medal to officers who defended the Capitol. Seriously?

And the New York Times reporting that one of Donald Trump's top executives at the Trump organization could face criminal charges as soon as this summer. We are going to talk about what that means for the former president.

I want to start though with CNN White House correspondent, John Harwood and political commentator Amanda Carpenter. Good evening to both of you. Good to see you. John, Biden and Putin will meet face-to- face in just a matter of hours. What are you hearing from the White House about how it will go, how was this is going to go down? What will make this meeting a success for Biden? What's the word?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (on camera): Don, we expect it to be long and tense. It will start about 7:30 Washington time, start with a bilateral meeting with Putin and Biden as well as their foreign minister, Secretary of State Blinken, Foreign Minister Lavrov of Russia, then have an expanded meeting, one break during that time, and we don't expect major breakthroughs, perhaps a return of the U.S. Ambassador to Moscow and the Russian ambassador to Washington.

They were recalled during turbulence in the relationship recently, but big breakthroughs are not the point. The point is twofold. One, for Biden to reestablish directly face to face that after four years in which Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin had a sort of mutual assistance relationship that America had a president again who was going to stand up and speak out against Russian misbehavior on behalf of the United States and the free world, but also to do that without having the fractures in the relationship spin out of control.

And also try to identify some areas where they might be able to work together such as arms control between the U.S. and Russia, the Iran nuclear deal and perhaps climate change as well.

LEMON: Yes. Amanda, America's relationship with Russia hasn't been this bad since the cold war, really. Former President Trump embarrassed the country by siding with Putin on the world stage over our own intelligence community. I had Fiona Hill on just a short while ago, she likened the moment to -- remember Deborah Birx? Her reaction when Trump talk about injecting bleach. What are you expecting from Biden?

AMANDA CARPENTER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR, FORMER COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTOR FOR SENATOR TED CRUZ AND THE AUTHOR OF GASLIGHTING AMERICA (on camera): What I expect that he wants to send a message as John suggested that there's a new sheriff in town. But I just got to say I'm not excited about the prospect of another American president giving Putin such a prestigious sit-down, high-profile, global media opportunity.

Of course, I do think Biden will be well prepared to go into these meetings. But Putin is going to spin this to his advantage. And given Putin's hostile posture towards the United States, not only when it comes to election interference but when it comes to the ransomware hacks and other propaganda efforts that are ongoing.

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You know, I think it's hard to see how we are going to get an immediate win out of this meeting. Maybe there is more long-term goals that play, of course, you know when it comes to nuclear arms in Ukraine, but frankly, I'm a little nervous and hesitant to see what's going to happen here.

LEMON: Yes. And listen, I've got to get your take, though, on the 21 House Republicans who voted against legislation awarding the Congressional gold medal to officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. How do you explain this? I mean, these officers risk their lives protecting these lawmakers. By the way, can we put their pictures back up as Amanda answers this? I mean, these are the folks who voted against that. So what do you think, Amanda?

CARPENTER: Well, on the bright side, it was only 21 lawmakers out of 406, but, you know, I was trying to understand. I was going through a lot of their statements ahead of coming on the show tonight and they're grasping at ways to justify this. People like Marjorie Taylor Greene, say she disagreed with the word insurrection that was used.

Tom (inaudible) said he didn't like the freezing included temple of democracy in the resolution. Other people were upset that not all Capitol police officers were injured in all incidences were included. And to me that just says they're far more concerned about their own personal priorities, about wording rather than giving these Capitol police officers the recognition that they deserve and putting your own kind of myopic personal priorities ahead of our national security in such a way is a disgrace.

LEMON: What do you think, John? I mean, she mentioned Marjorie Taylor Greene. She voted against this as well. She mentioned her, so she doesn't you know, like the temple of our American democracy, and they don't like the word insurrection. I mean --

HARWOOD: Look, kooky people say kooky things. Marjorie Taylor Greene, and some of those people who voted against that resolution, were, in fact, in sympathy with the insurrection. You could hear that from Paul Cosart in his questioning of Chris Wray today as you discussion in the last hour.

That's a part of a sad fact about of where we are in the certain segment of the Republican Party today, and you know, Marjorie Taylor Greene makes a new spectacle almost every day. We can't be surprised about it anymore, and there are going to be more of them to come.

But I think the next relevant development on this front is when they make a second pass as Nancy Pelosi the speaker said today she wanted the Senate to do to see if they can get 60 votes for a nonpartisan outside commission to investigate what happened on January 6.

I presume she's doing that in the belief that there is some shot that that will happen. Joe Manchin has indicated that, and we'll have to see whether there are 60 people, including enough Republicans with the guts to stand up to what happened on that day despite the wrath of a segment of their Party and the former president Donald Trump.

LEMON: The last thing you said, most important. Thank you both. I appreciate it.

So today the House holding a hearing with FBI Director Christopher Wray and key military leaders to examine security failures leading up to the January 6 Capitol attack.

My next guest question those officials, Congressman Raja Krishnamoorthi joins me now. Thank you, sir. Congressman, it's good to see you.

REP. RAJA KRISHNAMOORTHI (D-IL) (on camera): Same here.

LEMON: So, there was a big development at the hearing today, including that your committee obtained documents showing that social media company Parler sent the FBI evidence of planned violence in Washington on January 6. And that Parler referred this content to the FBI for investigation over 50 times. 50 times. Was this a massive oversight by the FBI?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think so, Don. I think there was just a lot of lapses with regard to the FBI's detection of the intelligence in leading up to January 6. And my biggest problem, quite frankly, is that Christopher Wray and the FBI and the Justice Department are not coming clean with regard to the errors or laps lapses in judgment or their missteps leading up to January 6 or on January 6 or the aftermath. Even now, you know, 500 people have been arrested, but close to a

thousand people actually breached the Capitol. Why haven't the other remaining people who were part of the insurrection been arrested and why have so few been prosecuted? We need to hustle right now, because if we don't, the people on the alt right are going to continue to declare victory as a consequence of January 6. They got away with it.

LEMON (on camera): You also pressed the FBI Director on whether there was foreign funding of individuals involved in the January 6 attack. Let's listen to that.

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KRISHNAMOORTHI: Sir, you can't rule out that other far right extremist groups received foreign donations in the lead-up to January 6, can you?

CHRISTOPHER WRAY, FBI DIRECTOR: Not only would I not want to rule it out, but certainly the possibility of foreign funding or support for domestic violent extremism is something that's particularly high on our priority list because of the challenges it poses, (inaudible).

(CROSSTALK)

KRISHNAMOORTHI: You can't -- yes, sir. You can't rule out that foreign financing helped fund activities related to January 6, right?

WRAY: Correct. I'm not sure we've seen that at this stage, but I certainly wouldn't purport to rule it out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEMON (on camera): So, Congressman, how significant would it be if rioters were given money by people outside the U.S. to attack the U.S.? Has anything like that happened before?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Not to my knowledge. Don, just so your viewers know, basically $250,000 in bitcoin was deposited into the account of Nick Fuentes who is the leader of Groypers, one of the groups that actually breached the Capitol that day. That bitcoin came from a donor in France who was lamenting the decline of western civilization. So this is the challenge that we have to deal with at this point, the foreign financing of domestic violent extremists.

LEMON: Yes. And that's according to the investigation that you've done. It's not -- again, it's not CNN's reporting, but that's what you have gathered here. So you also heard from Amy -- excuse me, Army General Charles Flynn today.

He's the brother of that disgraced big lie and coup promoter, Michael Flynn, Lieutenant General Walter Piatt, director of the army staff. Did they clear up whether any political consideration were made in the deploying of the National Guard during the attack, or the lack of deploying them early enough? KRISHNAMOORTHI: Unfortunately, no. They just weren't able to shed any

light on this issue or explain why there was such a delay between the time that urgent requests were made for assistance and when the assistance actually arrived.

And, again, that is a big unanswered question, and that's why we need that bipartisan commission that you talked about in the earlier segment to get to the truth of why there was such a delay and how to prevent that from happening again.

LEMON: Tonight the House overwhelmingly passed legislation to award Congressional gold medals to two police officers who defended the Capitol on January 6. I was just talking to Amanda about this. 21 of your GOP colleagues in the House voted against it. What did you think of that, Congressman?

KRISHNAMOORTHI: I think it was appalling. It was disgraceful. I think that these folks, you know, unfortunately, are exemplified by Paul Gosar who, during the oversight hearing, basically said that the Capitol police officer who was trying to defend the House chambers from the rioters who was breaching executed one of the attackers on the House chambers.

And basically what he's implying is that person who was attacking the House chambers was somehow in the right. And that is just a crazy perspective, and I, for one, am not going to hop on this first bus to crazy town that Paul Gosar and others are taking. We're not going to go along for that ride.

LEMON: Yes. Thank you, Congressman. I appreciate your time.

KRISHNAMOORTHI: Thank you so much.

LEMON: I want to go now to this New York Times reporting that Allen Weisselberg, the long-time chief financial officer of the Trump organization could face charges and could face them as soon as this summer.

CNN's senior legal analyst Elie Honig joins me now. Elie, thank you for helping us through with this story. So listen. Good evening to you. If Weisselberg may face charges this summer, what does that tell you about where this investigation into Trump and the Trump organization is right now?

ELIE HONIG, CNN LEGAL ANALYST (on camera): Yeah, Don, this investigation is about to hit a key turning point, because the single biggest variable that I believe will determine whether Donald Trump gets indicted is whether Allen Weisselberg flips.

Now, he's only going to flip if he gets charged. So pretty soon, I believe, according to this new reporting by the end of the summer, we will find out whether Manhattan prosecutors will bring criminal charges against Allen Weisselberg.

If they do, then he's going to have a really difficult decision to make here which is, does he stay loyal to the Trump org, who he's been working for over 40 years, or does he try to protect himself and his own family, by cooperating, trying to reduce his own sentencing exposure?

LEMON: What do we know if anything about the potential charges?

HONIG: Yes, so, it looks like prosecutors are trying to build a tax case against Allen Weisselberg. The basic theory is that, a portion of Allen Weisselberg's income over the years was actually paid not in a paycheck the way that most people get their salary, but some of it was paid by the Trump org directly paying for tuition for his family members, directly paying rent payments, car payments.

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And the theory is the reason they did that and Weisselberg would have to be in on this in order for it to be a criminal charge was to avoid taxation on that part of his income. If they can prove that, they will have a tax charge against Weisselberg.

LEMON: Yes. The report says that for now Mr. Weisselberg appears to have rebuffed Mr. Vance's office and continues to work at the Trump organization. Do you think that he'll remain loyal to Trump?

HONIG: Yes. Things change, Don, when you find yourself on the other end of an indictment. I've seen plenty of cases that I worked where somebody swore, I'm not cooperating, I'm not interested, and then when you show up with an indictment and says United States, the so and so, or New York State the so and so, that can change minds pretty quickly.

But Weisselberg has a little bit of a history here. He cooperated somewhat with the federal government back in the hush money payments case. The Southern District of New York mild off his -- gave him an immunity deal. Meaning, we get your testimony and we won't charge you. He agreed to that. Now, it's not clear he can totally clean, because the SDNY didn't end up charging anybody other than Michael Cohen based on this investigation.

So, I guess the way to summarize is he sort of cooperated with the feds, and so whether that's a positive or negative indicator as to whether he'll cooperate with state authorities, I guess, remains to be seen.

LEMON: That's what I was going to ask you, do you think he's looking at Michael Cohen and saying, there's a lesson there.

HONIG: Yes. He absolutely could be. Look. Donald Trump has no problem letting people around him take the fall for things, right. He cut bait on Michael Cohen real quick and now Michael Cohen is cooperating. Allen Weisselberg may well be looking about and thinking, I don't need to go down that path.

LEMON: Yes. So, if Weisselberg doesn't turn on Trump, what could charges against the Trump organization's CFO mean for the former president?

HONIG: Yes. So, if he does not flip, then I think it becomes a very hard case for prosecutors to make against Donald Trump, because let's remember, the key theory here, the core theory is that the Trump organization inflated and deflated intentionally the value of their assets. You are going to need somebody to put that on Donald Trump. It's not enough for prosecutors to just say, well, Donald Trump was the boss. He had to know.

You have to prove that. And if Weisselberg is not cooperating, the rest of the inner circle all have the last name Trump. Eric Trump, Don Jr., Ivanka, they're not flipping. Donald Trump is not an e-mailer, he's not a texter. So I'm not sure how you prove a case, a criminal case against Donald Trump without testimony from Allen Weisselberg.

LEMON: But if there's evidence that they inflated and deflated their assets -- I mean, someone -- doesn't someone have to take responsibility for it? I mean, the buck has to stop with someone at the organization.

HONIG: Yes. That would be logical, but the beauty of being boss, Don, whether it's in the Trump organization or like I used to do, mafia cases, it is sometimes they have insulation. And it can be hard to make cases against them. And wat you'll see a boss, a corporate boss, a criminal boss sometimes say is, that decision never came to me. I wasn't made aware of that. I leave that to Allen Weisselberg.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: So what do you have to do, who ultimately made this decision? There is no way of ever proving that?

HONIG: Well, you can, but the most common way to prove that is to flip somebody on the inside, right? You can't just stand up in front of a jury and say, he must have known. The best way to prove it are the flipping insider and if you want to penetrate as a prosecutor, a secretive insular organization like this, really the best way to do it is by flipping somebody.

Like I said, Don, being boss has its benefits. That's why it's hard to prosecute bosses. That's why we used to take a lot of pride when we are able to get to a political boss, a corporate boss, a mob boss, what have you. It is not easy, but you can get there if you flip the right people.

LEMON: Elie, thank you so much. I appreciate it.

HONIG: Thanks, Don.

LEMON: the Senate unanimously passing a resolution today, establishing June 19th as Juneteenth national independence day, U.S. holiday commemorating the end of slavery in United States, the holiday honoring June 19, 1865. The day that a union army general rode into Galveston, Texas and told slaves of their emancipation, two years after President Abraham Lincoln issued the emancipation proclamation.

The bill was sponsored by Senators John Cornyn, a Republican and Ed Markey, a Democrat. Senator Ron Johnson, you know him, had blocked the legislation in the past but today said that he would no longer object to the vote on the bill. Senator John Cornyn tweeting, now more than ever we need to learn from our history and continue to form a more perfect union.

The measure now needs to pass the House where it's sponsored by Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee and be signed by President Joe Biden to become law.

OK, now, look at this e-mail. Quote, pure insanity. It's a response from inside the DOJ to Trump aides pushing them to back Trump's false election claims. And there are more emails where came from. Stay with us.

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LEMON: A previously secret trove of e-mails released by the House Oversight Committee shedding new light on how former President Donald Trump and people in his White House pressured the Justice Department on multiple fronts to do his bidding in the quest to overturn the 2020 election results.

Let's dig into the emails with CNN's senior legal analyst, Laura Coates. Laura, good evening to you. Welcome to the program. So, let's start with this December email, it's from Trump's White House assistant to then acting Attorney General Jeffrey Rosen, with the subject line, its says, from POTUS. It was a lengthy attachment making debunked claims about a Michigan counties election results being fraudulent. What's the message in that email to the acting A.G. Rosen?

LAURA COATES, CNN INTERNATIONAL LEGAL ANALYST (on camera): Well, look at the date of it as well. You are talking about the notion, first of all from POTUS, because the man doesn't e-mail. He is essentially saying this is actually from the president of United States, trying to alert this person, who in this position to become the acting Attorney General, that I want you to lean on this. I want you to do similar to what was happening in Georgia.

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In the sense of that telephone call we saw with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger about what I would like you to look into in order to assist me in trying to persuade the public that this was actually stolen from me. It's more than a hint.

LEMON: Yes, so again, as you said that the former president is not an emailer. So, his assistant sends the email with the subject line, from POTUS, you think that is as you said an alert that this comes directly from the president? Look at it. Make sure you handle this.

COATES: Absolutely. It is something that said -- it's not a face to face, but it's I want you to know that I want this to happen. It also gives you a little bit of distance to insulate him to say, oh, you know, plausible deniability, I didn't actually send it myself. If I wanted it done, I would have picked up the phone. So, it gives just enough distance to be able for former President

Trump to say, hey it wasn't me, the old shaggy defense, at the same time, allowing the person to know, look at the email account, look what I've been saying on television, look what I've been saying in other places. Clearly this is from somebody that you know is in my orbit and can convey my directive.

LEMON: Got you. Alright, let's continue on, because the from the POTUS emails, it just kept on coming. That same White House assistant sent acting A.G. Rosen, a draft lawsuit for the Justice Department to sign on to with the goal of overturning the election results.

In several states, the attached lawsuit drafted by private attorney Olsen, seeks to overturn the election results in Pennsylvania, in Georgia, in Michigan, Wisconsin, and in Arizona. In what world would the DOJ sign on to a lawsuit drafted by a random person and passed along by the president like that. What?

COATES: No world in this galaxy. You imagine the audacity, the arrogance, the presumption to actually believe they are going to hand the Department of Justice, who by the way, is full of attorneys that are well versed and fluent in the art of rewriting and drafting complaints. It's the bulk of what they do in terms of prosecuting and investigating cases. And you are going to hand to them, you think it's a value add to them in some form of fashion to say I would like you to do this?

If there actually was something to look into, they would have already done so. And of course, the idea of saying here is a draft complaint, it was as if, it would have been (inaudible). Remember, who was the Attorney General at the time a part of this? When Barr said, when Rosen, said there was no evidence of widespread fraud, in the court of law, in the different courts, almost 60 of them, I believe, Don.

There was no evidence to support this or back it up. So they are hoping to have, and rely on the credibility that is part of the Department of Justice to go into a court and have that report with a federal judge to say here, or a state judge, here is what I would like you to look at as prosecutors. Of course, federal courts Department of Justice (inaudible) specializes in here of course. But they are trying to rely and capitalize on that credibility, when there was no there- there.

LEMON: So, listen, this is kind of a side note, but I mean, is this a window into how Donald Trump possibly ran his business? Because he's very litigious. And also, you know, just as he gave legitimacy to conspiracy theorists and bigots, has he given legitimacy basically to ambulance chasers?

COATES: Well, he certainly has. Over 60 different court proceedings essentially say I would like you to go out there and just throw something against a wall and see if it sticks. I'd like you to be able to cosign a fishing expedition in an absolute desert.

And it's ironic, of course, because if we are learning more and more about Trump's DOJ and his discussions and his attempts to use through different appointees, potentially, the idea of Apple to secure data from people like Congressman and also reporters like our own Barbara Starr, the idea that he would actually try to have the DOJ be complicit in fishing expeditions to promote a big lie is really par for the course at this point in time.

But it's absurd to think, and of course, what I'm very glad about is that there was pushback here, Don. Imagine if people would had been more (inaudible) OK, you know what the top person has told us what to do. Therefore, we must have lied. The pushback is really a restorative for people thinking about the credibility and the integrity of the Department of Justice in many ways.

LEMON: Yes. Listen. The pressure campaign went higher. I want to get back to the emails. OK. So, it went higher than the Trump White House assistant. His then chief of staff, Mark Meadows, is involved in this. He sent an email asking the acting A.G. Rosen to look into claims of voter fraud in Georgia, saying quote, can you have your team look into these allegations of wrongdoing.

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Again, this is coming from the White House chief of staff. It was obvious to everyone how desperate Trump was just to overturn this election. Was he really asking or was this more of a telling?

COATES: The question for me is, why was he so emboldened to use all these different surrogates to convey these points?

LEMON: Mm-hmm.

COATES: Was he in somehow under the impression that there would be people who would act as minions as opposed to objective arbiters of the facts in a case and against the evidence that suggests that there was no widespread fraud, there was no "there" there at other places? He was emboldened enough to use people like Mark Meadows, that Mark Meadows would have done this, that somebody would have done so.

It is really telling about how he had been accustomed to potentially operating within the Department of Justice. I remind you, it is not a private law firm, Don. It is the Department of Justice.

It belongs to the people of the United States, not to the president of the United States, irrespective of the fact that the person who is the attorney general is his appointee. But this tells you that he was so potentially accustomed to having operated this way that there was almost no shame in it.

And also the desperation you speak about, Don. The desperation to have somebody with legitimacy support the big lie when court after court said, is there something there? Show it to me so I can actually act on that. I can't just go on some sort of baseless gut check that really is a partisan attempt. You have to have something there for me to order something as a court of law.

And the sure fire way to do so was to use the backing of the Department of Justice. And when they refused to do so, even calling it pure insanity, it was particularly accurate of a statement. Imagine the insanity of saying I'd like you, the Department of Justice, as high up the chain as an acting attorney general, to lend some sort of credence to what is an absolute farce.

LEMON: So much to talk about, Laura.

(LAUGHTER)

LEMON: I could go on all night, but you know what, I don't have that much time. Italian satellite conspiracy, Jewish space laser -- I mean, it goes on. Thank you, Laura Coates. I appreciate it.

COATES: Thank you.

LEMON (on camera): Thank you. The U.S. surpassing 600,000 coronavirus deaths today, but this is what some Republicans are focused on.

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REP. MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE (R-GA): I'm very proud to sponsor the Fire Fauci Act, and I'm grateful to my colleagues here for co-sponsoring this bill.

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LEMON: A tragic milestone in the coronavirus pandemic. The United States surpassing 600,000 deaths from COVID-19. This as the CDC is calling the delta variant a variant of concern. But there is some positive news. New York announcing that 70 percent of people in the state have received at least one vaccine dose and that all state- mandated COVID-19- restrictions will be lifted immediately. Fireworks are erupting across New York State tonight to celebrate the news and pay tribute to essential workers.

So joining me now is Dr. Peter Hotez, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine. So, doctor, good evening to you. Thank you so much.

Good news and bad news. Fourteen states have reached the 70 percent vaccination goal. Overall, more than 174 million people or 53 percent of the total U.S. population has received at least one dose and nearly 145 million people or 44 percent of the U.S. population is now fully vaccinated. That's impressive.

But what we are seeing in some areas where lots of people are vaccinated and some or relatively few are vaccinated, it's a difference there. What does that mean for those areas?

PETER HOTEZ, CO-DIRECTOR OF THE TEXAS CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL CENTER FOR VACCINE DEVELOPMENT, FOUNDING DEAN FOR THE NATIONAL SCHOOL OF TROPICAL MEDICINE AT BAYLOR COLLEGE OF MEDICINE, AUTHOR: First of all, Don, you're right. We're commemorating 600,000 American lives lost and, you know, the two of us have been together through 100,000, 200,000 and so forth, and it's just such an extraordinary tragedy.

There is light at the end of the tunnel now, especially in the northeast, places like New York as well as the New England states where so many people are vaccinated now, that I do have optimism we're going to vaccinate our way out of this epidemic.

But, you know, tragically, we're still -- we're now two COVID nations because as good as we're looking in the northeast and in California and a few other states in the south, things are looking very dire. We're only a small percentage of Americans who are vaccinated in the south, especially among young people. Among adolescents, fewer than 10 percent of adolescents in states like Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama.

I'm worried now with this delta variant which is affecting young people and adolescents in the U.K. We have to believe that the same thing is going to happen now in the south over the summer. So, exciting news about the northeast, but I'm quite concerned about the south.

LEMON: You talked about that there is a red state/blue state divide, yes?

HOTEZ: No question. And, you know, there is just no other way to phrase it or to put it. It's very much among partisan lines. And it's defiance. It's defiance of masks and social distancing last year. And now it's defiance of vaccines and it's just so profoundly self- defeating.

And, you know, right now, the numbers are still low in the south. But remember, this time last year, the numbers were low as well and then after the July 4th holiday, we saw this massive surge across the south, and I have to believe given how low the vaccine coverage is, we could see something like this.

More old Americans in the south are vaccinated, so maybe not as many deaths.

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HOTEZ: But with this delta variant which is much more aggressive, especially among young people, we're going to see a lot of young adults and adolescents get sick, go to the hospital, and develop long haul debilitating symptoms. So, it's heartbreaking at the same time.

LEMON: Let's talk about this delta variant. If you are fully vaccinated, are you protected? Do you need a booster? What's the word, doctor?

HOTEZ: Yeah, looks really good. If you've gotten two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, it's really high levels of protection, at least 80 percent levels of protection and maybe higher against severe illness. The problem is, if you've only gotten a single dose of vaccine, it is not very good against the delta variant, not as good as against some of the other lineages like the B117 variant. So a single dose of vaccine is not going to cut it. If you're unvaccinated, you're highly vulnerable.

And Don, the problem is this. Let's say you say, okay, well, I'm going to finally get my adolescent child vaccinated or I'm going to get vaccinated. It requires two doses to be really effective. So, if you get the first dose now, the second dose three or four weeks from now, and then it takes another week or two to develop that high levels of virus neutralizing antibody, you're at least five, six weeks away.

And that is why we need to get vaccinated now. You don't want to start considering getting vaccinated during that horrible surge if that occurs in July and August.

LEMON: So, doctor, you look at where we are with this virus, all the lives we've lost, and yet today, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene and a group of Republicans are putting forth the Fire Fauci Act, saying that Dr. Fauci controlled the lives of Americans for the past year, blaming him for the pandemic and claiming that COVID-19 is a bio weapon. Where do you even start with that?

HOTEZ: Yeah, that's right, where do you start with that? I mean, it's beyond disgusting. Here's the situation. First of all, this is not even about Tony, in my opinion, or about Dr. Fauci. This is about a rising crescendo of anti-science.

First, it was defiance against mask and social distancing, then defiance against vaccines. Now, you're seeing the next step in the evolution of this. They're targeting prominent scientists. They're targeting Tony. They're targeting me. They're targeting Peter Daszak and a number of other scientists.

There is an agenda here, and that is the conservative movement is increasingly adopting anti-science as a major platform and it is an attempt to portray us as evildoers rather than the reason we got into science, which is to pursue humanitarian goals.

Frankly, it's very frightening to see what's happening. There is a reason they're doing it. They're using this as a way to consolidate power by showing that they're stronger than the scientists in being able to defeat science for their own political gains.

LEMON: Dr. Hotez, thank you for your time. I appreciate it.

HOTEZ: Thank you, Don, so much.

LEMON: Thank you. Multiple teens tackled and tased by police in one beach town all because of vaping. That's next.

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[23:45:00]

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LEMON (on camera): Shocking video showing police kicking and tasing Black teenagers on the boardwalk in Ocean City, Maryland after the teens allegedly violated a vaping ban.

Here's CNN's Brynn Gingras. But a warning, the video you're about to see is disturbing.

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BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A teenager vaping, leading to this chaotic and shocking scene. You see an Ocean City, Maryland police officer kneeing a teenager multiple times in his side.

According to police, officers were enforcing the town's smoking ordinance on the boardwalk when 19-year-old Brian Everett Anderson from Pennsylvania allegedly refused to stop vaping and show I.D. Police say he then became disorderly.

The video recorded by a bystander begins there, when Anderson says he told police he wasn't resisting arrest. He spoke to ABC News this morning.

BRIAN EVERETT ANDERSON, TASED BY POLICE FOR VAPING: They shouldn't have swarmed us the way they did.

GINGRAS (voice-over): Another teen appears to be tased during the scuffle, while authorities say a third member of the group threw a bike at them.

JAHTIQUE LEWIS, ARRESTED ON OCEAN CITY BOARDWALK: I got a bike thrown at me. So, I grabbed the bike and threw it to the side.

GINGRAS (voice-over): The incident escalated to arrest sparked by an infraction that normally carries up to a $500 fine. Ocean City's mayor saying in a statement, it was only after the individuals refused to provide identification that this became an arrestable offense, adding the officer's actions are under investigation. Governor Larry Hogan calling it a disturbing video.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): We're just anxious to get the initial investigation conducted so we can have all the facts.

GINGRAS (voice-over): It's not the only incident in the city being called into question.

UNKNOWN (voice-over): Get down! Get down!

GINGRAS (voice-over): Another video from last week showing the moment 18-year-old Taizier Griffin was tased. Ocean City police say they stopped the teenager for the same smoking violation and used the taser after he became disorderly and allegedly threatened to kill officers.

UNKNOWN: He was not resisting. He was not giving any issues to the police officers. GINGRAS (voice-over): The events combined causing outraged from some of the state's delegation. The state's speaker, tweeting, vaping on the Boardwalk is not a criminal offense.

[23:49:59]

GINGRAS (voice-over): Black and brown children should not be tased while their hands are up. Officers should not kneel on the back of a minor. Vaping should not yield a hog tie.

(On camera): And the teenagers arrested on the Boardwalk in that first video faced a number of different charges, including resisting arrest, assault, and disorderly conduct. They were all released from jail without a bail being set.

As for that other teenager, Taizier Griffin, from that second video, a friend who recorded that video says before she started rolling, he was never a threat to police.

Now Don, keep in mind this all happening in a state, Maryland, that really was ahead of the curve when it came to police reforms. In fact, the legislature passed a number of bills earlier this year that were set to go in effect in a few months. Don?

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LEMON (on camera): We'll be right back.

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[23:55:00]

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LEMON: I want to make sure you know that there is a new season of my podcast, "Silence is Not an Option." It's out now. I'm taking on the hard conversations about being Black in America. You can find it on Apple podcast or your favorite podcast app.

Thanks for watching, everyone. Our coverage continues.

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