Return to Transcripts main page

CNN Newsroom

Obama: "Context" Important To Keep In Mind; Obama: "I Send My Thoughts And Prayers"

Aired July 19, 2013 - 14:30   ET

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

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: You know, as we continue our breaking news and in the wake of the president of the United States now reacting publicly during the White House daily briefing just about an hour ago, speaking without a teleprompter, speaking not scholarly as we've seen him in a race speech in the past, but more personally, mentioning his family. Mentioning a couple of examples in which, perhaps, an African- American man may be discriminated against. And he ended the sentences each time saying, that happened to me.

We've had these conversations throughout the week in the evenings with Anderson Cooper. He's talked to multiple voices about their own personal experiences. And I want to just play something for you. This is Charles Blow. He's a "New York Times" op-ed writer and he's also a CNN political commentator. And this was Charles talking to Anderson earlier this week about his own experience.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHARLES BLOW, "NEW YORK TIMES" COLUMNIST: I used to tell my boys, you know, don't run because they may think you're suspicious. Well, actually, now I have to say don't walk slowly because that also means that you may be suspicious. We have to figure out, what is the pace for which a black men can walk in America and be beyond suspicious. That is a crazy conversation to have to have.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: And Charles now joins me on the phone. Charles Blow.

Let's just begin with the president. Did you hear him? Did you watch him?

CHARLES BLOW, "NEW YORK TIMES" COLUMNIST (via telephone): Yes, I was in the briefing room today.

BALDWIN: You were in the briefing room. Surprise, I mean, here he was. I talked to Jessica Yellin, our chief White House correspondent. She said this is the sort of most heartfelt and personal the president has been in the whole time she's covered him. What did you make of his tone and his remarks?

BLOW: Well, I thought, you know, it was interesting to me that he kept saying, I want to make sure that I give you context, that he wasn't necessarily talking specifically about the legal parts of the case. Although at the end he had a few areas where we could do better on terms of policy and training. But he really was focusing on how to view reaction to this case in a historical context.

And secondly, he spoke specifically about how those -- the history of race in this country -- although that is not necessarily completely history. I think that's really important to have that part of the conversation. To have that come from the White House. You have 400 years of slavery and oppression and racial violence. That caused a deep scar in the racial memory of the people.

If you want to have conversations about, well, why can't we just today turn on a dime and make it all right? Why can't you just today turn on a dime and change behaviors? Those behaviors are influenced, in some cases dictated, in some cases manipulated by a larger culture and particularly among young African-American men. You are not only seeing interracial violence in terms of physical violence but also psychological violence.

BALDWIN: The president mentioned that.

BLOW: Yes, doing something destructive to another. You have this kind of history that we have had with African-Americans in this country, self-destructive behavior becomes more likely because of the dehumanizing conditions under which people have lived. So that history cannot be, you know, magically sucked out of the conversation. And you say, well, let's just let all that be water under the bridge. Some people are on the bridge and the water came over the bridge.

Some people can't breathe because they feel like they're drowning. I think that having that kind of conversation where he spoke about this history that we have experienced and also present actions and present accountability and trying to figure out how we make those things meet is very, very, very important when we talk about all these issues that affect young African-American men.

BALDWIN: And again, let me underscore, I know you were sitting in there. For people who did not see the president, we have spoken about sort of his scholarly race speeches in the past. When the Reverend Jeremiah Wright story was percolating a number of years ago, here is a president, incredibly personal, drawing upon his own experiences from when he was a boy. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Think about why in the African-American community, at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here. I think it's important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history. That doesn't go away. There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: That includes me, he says. Charles, do you think this speech was more toward African-Americans who have been saddened by this verdict and wanted to just hear the president sort of speak to them, or is it to other races, saying, understand this perspective.

BLOW: I think there were two things happening there. One of them was that I think this is something he felt he needs to -- some of his own burdens. He needed to acknowledge that I have felt the -- at one point he said, you know, Trayvon could have been me. Not only if I had a son, it could look like Trayvon. He could have been me. I thought that was incredibly personal. That was just speaking from his own experience.

To the larger point, I think he is trying to find a way that -- to help facilitate conversations around this where he makes it real. It's very important about having a conversation about any kind of oppression, whether it's racial or gender or whatever, is that you -- that the person who's the recipient of the pain does not shoulder the responsibility of the pain on their own.

You have to -- I have to help you to feel what I'm feeling so that we can understand how to -- I think having the president address that issue, I think personal issues, that this is a pain that I have felt and I can help you to understand how people try to shoulder that pain, that I can help you understand the psychological damage that it does to me every time someone, you know, assumes a level of criminality because of the way that I am -- I was born and the skin that I wear, that that actually does a psychological damage to me.

And that we are all responsible for that damage being done. And that until we share the burden of that responsibility and that conversations about race are not simply among people who are the recipients of discrimination, but among everyone who is participating in the racial environment, that we cannot move forward in terms of dealing with and getting past what, you know, the place that we now find ourselves in.

I think he did a great job of making the conversation bigger than one man who killed one boy in one small town in Florida. He made this about America. I think that's how we have to conceive any conversation that we have on this subject.

BALDWIN: Charles Blow, CNN political commentator and "New York Times" op-ed columnist. Thank you so much. I appreciate your perspective.

But, you know, while Charles says this was a great thing, not everyone says this is great. Some folks are saying the president has injected himself too far into what has become a huge, huge story for this entire nation since this not guilty verdict last Saturday. We're going to talk to folks on both sides of the aisle, get their reactions to the president, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: We heard from the president for just about 20 minutes. This is the first time the president, really surprised everyone, weighing in publicly about what has been an incredibly controversial verdict in the George Zimmerman second-degree murder trial. The president opened everything up by basically saying his thoughts and prayers are with Trayvon Martin's family saying they've been handling this with grace. But at the same time, he said the jury has spoken, that is how his system works. Then he delved into his own personal experience. I want to play you part of that. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: When Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is, Trayvon Martin could have been me, 35 years ago. And when you think about why in the African-American community, at least, there's a lot of pain around what happened here, I think it's important to recognize that the African-American community is looking at this issue through a set of experiences and a history. That doesn't go away.

There are very few African-American men in this country who haven't had the experience of being followed when they were shopping in a department store. That includes me. There are very few African- American men who haven't had the experience of walking across the street and hearing the locks click on the doors of cars. That happens to me at least before I was a senator.

There are very few African-Americans who haven't had the experience of getting on an elevator and a woman clutching her purse nervously and holding her breath until she had a chance to get off. That happens often. And I don't want to exaggerate this, but those sets of experiences inform how the African-American community interprets what happened one night in Florida. And it's inescapable for people to bring those experiences to bear.

The African-American community is also knowledgeable that there is a history of racial disparities in the application of our criminal laws, everything from the death penalty to enforcement of our drug laws. And that ends up having an impact in terms of how people interpret the case.

Now, this isn't to say that the African-American community is naive about the fact that African-American young men are disproportionately involved in the criminal justice system, that they're disproportionately both victims and perpetrators of violence. It's not to make excuses for that fact although black folks do interpret the reasons for that in a historical context.

They understand that some of the violence that takes place in poor black neighborhoods around the country is born out of a very violent past in this country and that the poverty and dysfunction that we see in those communities can be traced to a very difficult history. And so the fact that sometimes that's unacknowledged adds to the frustration.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BALDWIN: Toward the end of the president speaking, he gave a couple of examples. He said, listen, I don't want to have a five-point plan on how we can move forward on what happened. But he gave a couple examples of how we can learn lessons. Take a look at laws. I just want to read to you the final note. He said this was long term, going back to young African-American boys. He said we need to spend time thinking about how we bolster and reinforce African-American boys. He said that is something he and his wife talk about very often.

Much more from the president's surprising 20 minutes in the White House daily briefing as he talked about what has happened in the wake of this not guilty verdict. We continue to bring voices in the conversation. I encourage you to tweet @brookebcnn. Back after this.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: If you're just now joining me, breaking news this afternoon. You have witnessed and heard and watched a myriad of debates taking place this past week after the not guilty verdict in the second degree murder trial of George Zimmerman. Well, you are now looking at the president. This was within the last hour. The first time the president publicly opened up about the verdict and about African- American boys, including himself once upon a time in America. Here he was.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PRESIDENT OBAMA: They rendered a verdict and once the jury has spoken, that's how our system works. But I did want to just talk a little bit about context and how people have responded to it and how people are feeling. You know, when Trayvon Martin was first shot, I said that this could have been my son. Another way of saying that is, Trayvon Martin could have been me 35 years ago.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BALDWIN: Coming up, some folks are praising the president coming forward and speaking about this. Others saying, no, he's injecting himself in a conversation he does not need to lead, those two perspectives, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Want to bring in a Republican and a Democrat to talk about the breaking news of the day here. President Obama publicly weighing in on this George Zimmerman verdict, really just talking about the status in America today and giving his own perspective on the experiences of African-Americans given the history in this country. Ana Navarro is our Republican and Maria Cardona is our Democrat, both of whom are CNN political commentator.

So ladies, welcome to both of you. Ana, just because we haven't heard from someone on the right yet, I want you to get right into it, you heard the president, your reaction?

ANA NAVARRO, CNN CONTRIBUTOR (via telephone): You know, Brooke --

PRESIDENT OBAMA: First of all, tell you that Jay is prepared for all your questions.

BALDWIN: We can hear you. Go ahead.

NAVARRO: I have African-American friends, including folks like Donna Brazile, who I have heard said that President Obama should not opine on this, should not become more political and that he's got other things to do like focusing on jobs and the economy. Now, I also have to tell you that the reality is he is a black man and I think what he did was give a very personal perspective. I thought his statement was measured and it was balanced. It gave respect to the judicial process.

It acknowledged that there had been a judicial process that had run its course and that we must respect it. It also called for nonviolence, but it also gave a very personal perspective, and I have to tell you, only somebody that's been in those shoes can share. And it is not -- you know, it's not terribly unusual for a president to weigh in on an issue that has consumed the national attention and been part of the national debate now for weeks on end.

So I know there's going to be people that find it difficult, that are not going to like it. I think he stayed away from the politics of it and I think it was a measured and balanced statement.

BALDWIN: You say measured and balanced. Maria Cardona, do you agree?

MARIA CARDONA, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: I think it was pitch perfect. When I say pitch perfect, I mean that it was surprisingly personal, but at the time when I think the country, the African-American community, and everybody else needed to hear that, Brooke. And I say that because when you look at the context of what he talked about, you know, I've heard people call him the consoler in chief, the soother in chief, as he was trying to do this, I kind of look at it as he was dealing with this as a therapist in chief. Talking to two communities, white America and African-Americans, that have lived side by side for decades yet don't really understand each other.

And so the fact that, you know, the history, the weighing on him in terms of being the very first -- first African-American president who has walked in these shoes, I think gave him a very unique perspective to be able to play that role. And to talk to a country that is divided by this verdict and that is hurting so that understanding is what comes out of it and that we can actually move on.

BALDWIN: Ana, back to you. I want to push you just a little bit because I hear you ladies are agreeing on something. And I want to ask because, listen, I've talked to plenty of Republicans, plenty of conservatives over the week including people, I'm reading their tweets right now, who say absolutely not. The president should not have injected himself in this.

You know, not only were they already peeved that the president once upon a time had said that had he had a son he would have looked like Trayvon. The president sort of doubled down on that today saying, listen, if this was 35 years ago, I could have been Trayvon Martin. What do you -- how do you respond to your colleagues who disagree with you?

NAVARRO: I think they need to listen to what he said and really read the transcript. I think the president had the -- really a duty to be everybody's president. The president for white Americans, the president for black Americans, for Hispanic-Americans, for every American under the sun, and I think he's got to focus on unifying, not dividing. I frankly did not find anything divisive in what he said. I thought it was human. I did not find it political.

He did not talk about the -- the investigation and the process going on at the Department of Justice. He did not criticize the verdict. He acknowledged, I think, some of the sentiments going on in this country. And I would say to people that I think one of the things we have to do to get past this is to understand each other's sentiments.

Brooke, I'm very fortunate in my life to have some very close, very personal family, African-American friends in my life and it has been very painful for me to hear some of these African-American friends of mine talking to me about how they're having to have conversations with their teenage sons about what just happened. And I'm talking about people that are in Congress. I'm talking about professional athletes.

I'm talking about some very successful people and, you know, there are people in this country who don't have diversity of friends. What I think President Obama said is, listen, there's different perspectives going on here. Let's just be a little bit tolerant of each other's difference perspectives. I don't see anything wrong with it.

BALDWIN: Right. Talking about --

NAVARRO: If you want me to see something wrong with it because I'm a Republican, I'm just not going there. I don't see anything that's terribly divisive. I'm not going to make it up.

BALDWIN: We don't want you to either, Ana Navarro. I thank you for your candor very much and Maria Cardona, I thank you as well. Ladies, appreciate it. Coming up, we'll continue this conversation and bring in additional voices, some whom do not agree with either of the ladies you just heard from, think it was the wrong thing, what the president just did. That conversation is next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)