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George Floyd Laid to Rest After Emotional Last Memorial; Cries for Racial Justice at Floyd's Funeral; Protests Already Leading to Changes in Policing; Trump Talks of Conspiracy Instead of Addressing Police Reform; Republican Lawmakers Avoid Addressing President's Comments; Investigation Launched into Georgia Primary Voting Delays; Floyd's Death Sparks Protests, Removals of Statues; W.H.O. Clarifies Comments on Asymptomatic Spread. Aired 4-4:30a ET

Aired June 10, 2020 - 04:00   ET

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

[04:00:00]

JOHN VAUSE, CNN ANCHOR: A man known around the world for having died remembered for how he lived as family and friends gathered to say good-bye to George Floyd.

But from the White House no words of comfort for a nation in crisis. Just a retweeted respiratory theory.

Also ahead how to and how not to lift a lockdown. The rip off the Band-Aid approach apparently the best way to ensure a surge in the number of infections.

Hello and welcome to our viewers here in the United States and all around the world. I'm John Vause. CNN NEWSROOM starts right now.

For more than two weeks now we've heard almost every grim detail of how George Floyd died, a death at the hands of police which was both cavalier and cruel. But on Tuesday at a memorial service in Houston, Texas we got to know more about George Floyd's life. He was larger- than-life it seems in many ways and now in death he is a symbol of racial injustice embraced by so many around the world.

After an emotional celebration filled with music and tributes he was laid to rest. His body taken by horse drawn carriage to a final resting place. Crowds chanting say his name and we will breathe. And it wasn't just family members there were many public figures also calling for action.

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REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: You calling your Cabinet in, trying to figure out how it's going to affect your vote, rather than how it's going to affect our lives. You're scheming on how you can spin the story, rather than you can achieve justice. Wickedness in high places. You take rubber bullets and tear gas to clear out peaceful protestors, and then take a Bible and walk in front of her church and use a church as a prop. Wickedness in high places. You ain't been walking across that street when the church didn't have the boards up. You weren't holding up no Bible when Arbery was killed in Brunswick, when Taylor was killed in Louisville. Wickedness in high places.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: This funeral for George Floyd saw friends and family grieving. The loss of a father and a brother. Who was also at times, a political rally demanding change in the justice system, change in the White House amid tears and laughter. Many at Floyd's Memorial talked of this being a moment, a turning point in the U.S. long painful history of race relations. CNN's Sara Sidner was there.

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(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A fourth and final farewell for George Floyd, a man whose death has sparked new life into a movement.

His family members breaking down in front of the casket just before his body was sealed inside forever.

REV. GUSTA BOOKER, GREATER ST. MATTHEW BAPTIST CHURCH: Let justice run down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I love you, and I thank God for giving me my own personal Superman.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE (SINGING): He will take care.

BROOKE WILLIAMS, FLOYD'S NIECE: In this life we can be changed. No more hate crimes, please. Someone said make America great again, but when has America ever been great?

REV. AL SHARPTON, NATIONAL ACTION NETWORK: We must commit to this family all of these families, all five of his children, grandchildren, and all, that until these people pay for what they did, that we're going to be there with them because lives like George will not matter until somebody pays the cost for taking their lives.

JOE BIDEN, U.S. DEMOCRATIC PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Unlike most, you must grieve in public and it's a burden, a burden that is now your purpose to change the world for the better in the name of George Floyd.

SIDNER: Among the 500 family and friends of Floyd inside the Fountain of Praise Church in Houston, the black American families who know their pain all too well, their children killed by police too.

[04:05:00]

The family of Ferguson's Michael Brown, New York's Eric Garner, and Dallas' Botham Jean attended the services, offering their support.

Protests around the country pushing cities around the nation to consider police reform after two weeks of nationwide demonstrations. The Houston police chief himself demanding reform from the inside out.

ART ACEVEDO, HOUSTON POLICE CHIEF: The community recognizing bad policing when they see it, and there are still too many instances where bad policing is tolerated. So, we need to -- we need to say no.

SIDNER: The Houston mayor going further, announcing at Floyd's funeral an executive order to ban chokeholds among other reforms.

SYLVESTER TURNER, HOUSTON MAYOR: In this city, we will ban chokeholds and strangleholds. In this city, we will require de-escalation.

SIDNER: In Minneapolis, a judge approved a restraining order to stop police there from using neck restraints and chokeholds. In Los Angeles, official announcing a moratorium on one type of chokehold. In New York, a promise by the mayor to cut some police funds and move them to youth and social services.

Back in Texas, a procession following Floyd's casket to its final resting place. His body to be laid to rest next to his mother whom he cried out for in his final moments.

(on camera): The Floyd family has been on a three-city sojourn and held their heads-up high in four memorials. They are finally able to say a final good-bye as George Floyd's body is buried next to his mother, the last mile he was taken in a horse drawn carriage so that the public could also say their final goodbye.

Sara Sidner, CNN, Houston.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Well the U.S. President is expected to unveil plans for national police reform after two weeks of protest over George Floyd's death. But you wouldn't know that if you look at his tweet feed. The President has been spreading a conspiracy theory about a 75-year-old man who was knocked down by police in Buffalo New York saying that the protester could be Antifa provocateur bent on disrupting police equipment and take a look. Here's the video.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Don't worry. Don't Worry.

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VAUSE: Lying on the ground (INAUDIBLE). I Tuesday you said to be in fair condition and moved out of the ICU. The officers involved have been suspended and charged with assault.

His attorney responded to Donald Trump's theory saying, quote, we're at a loss to understand why the President would make such a dark, dangerous and untrue accusations.

A longtime friend of that protester also lashing out at the President's remarks. He's bothered by Mr. Trump's tweet and says his friend has now become a victim twice over. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KEITH GILES, FRIEND OF INJURED PROTESTER: Victim of police brutality on that video. That was painful. But this morning he was the victim of presidential brutality and that was very, very surreal. I want people to know this is not, you know, an anonymous person. This is someone I've known for 13 years. This is a man who is 75 years old. He was not in very good health. He was a very kind man, a very funny man. He's a human being. He's a person. He doesn't work for -- he's not an agent of the deep state. I promise you he does not know how to turn his cell phone into some kind of, you know, hi-tech James Bond device.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Republicans are struggling to respond to public anger and demands for police reform as well. Lawmakers tried to sidestep talking about the President's conspiracy theory. Some flat out just ignored it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The President said that he could be an Antifa provocateur. He said that he fell harder than he pushed any question if he was set up. Was that appropriate?

SEN. MITCH MCCONNELL (R-KY): Well as I said, what we've been talking here in the Senate Republican conference is what we think is the appropriate response to the events over the last few weeks.

SEN. RICK SCOTT (R-FL): I didn't see it. So I have to -- I mean you know, I'm sure that my office will be able to get me a copy of it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What do you make of the President's tweet this morning? And does the president need to be more cautious?

SCOTT: Yes, I saw the -- buy you know that he'd fallen and so (INAUDIBLE).

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just saw the tweet and I know nothing of the episode.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't think it should be surprising in general because he tweets a lot.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And I just read the tweet. But I don't know the reference point.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It doesn't shock me that they come out often.

MCCONNELL: As I said, we are discussing in the Senate Republican conference what response we think is appropriate to the events of the last two weeks.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: Now since these protests began two weeks ago Mr. Trump has not said a lot about police reform other than ordering the National Guard to withdraw from Washington after it was called in to push those protesters back while the President staged one of the most awkward photo ops in political history in the front of a local church.

[04:10:06]

The U.S. Attorney General says Mr. Trump couldn't stand idly by as the government was threatened by those peaceful protesters.

Extreme voting delays in the U.S. state of Georgia's primary election have led to an investigation called for by Georgia's Secretary of State and State House Speaker. Fulton County, home to a large population of voters was able to keep polls open until 9:00 p.m. On precinct in another county staying open until after 10:00 p.m., three hours after it was meant to close. The primary had already been delayed twice because of the pandemic. Critics say precincts had faulty voting machines and lines upwards of four hours causing some prospective voters to leave early. One precinct in Fulton County was reported as having only two working voting machines. State officials say the long lines and fewer volunteer workers are all a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

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GABRIEL STERLING, GEORGIA STATEWIDE VOTING IMPLEMENTATION MANAGER: Well the reality of what you're seeing in Georgia today is a function of the COVID situation in large part. We did lose many polling places because it's summertime and schools are closed, churches opted out. VFW also opted out. In Fulton County specifically, they lost 40 locations and collapsed many of those locations into mega precincts which saw a lot of these amazingly long lines. We said this is not a good idea. You need to find other alternative locations.

And those kind of polling closures and things you're discussing are literally county decisions. They are made at the county level and state has zero ability to tell them not to do that. Although this Secretary of State who just introduced a bill that would require if there are lines of over an hour anytime during the day, you've got over 2,000 people registered at a polling place you have to split that polling place or supply more machines to do it.

Now what we saw today too was as an example in Fulton County, my home county, at a library there were 15 machines that were sent there but what the rules of COVID spacing only allowed four voters at a time in those place. Those are the realities. Trying to get poll workers trained because we lost the majority of our poll workers, the average age is 70. So we lost many of those poll workers. So we recruited -- the county has recruited new poll workers that they had to train during COVID. It's very difficult to do, hands on training with equipment when you can't get more than ten people in a room.

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VAUSE: Georgia's Secretary of State says the investigation will try and resolve all of these issues before November's presidential election. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM. Still to come here -- George Floyd's

death has sparked a global movement against racial injustice. Coming up we'll speak to an expert about the roots of racism here in the United States.

[04:15:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: If you would've had any idea that all of us would react, you'd of took your knee off his neck. If you had any idea that everybody from those in the Third Ward to those in Hollywood would show up in Houston and Minneapolis and in Fayetteville, North Carolina, you'd of took your knee off his neck. If you had any idea that preacher's, white and black, was going to line up in a pandemic, when we're told to stay inside, and we come out in March in the streets at the risk of our health, you'd of took your knee off his neck, because you thought his neck didn't mean nothing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Reverend Al Sharpton there delivering an emotional eulogy at George Floyd's funeral service in Houston, Texas on Tuesday. The world had not heard about George Floyd 15 days ago but he's now a global symbol of racial injustice. More than two weeks since his death, anger around the world is breathing new life into the Black Lives Matter movement. Tuesday was a final farewell to Floyd.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This guy that you've known for so long, and you want to celebrate him in almost a private moment, but yet you have to share him with the world. And so just seeing the energy and emotions that were out there, it was almost difficult for me to celebrate and you know, bid a fond farewell to my long-life friend.

WANDA COOPER, AHMAUD ARBERY'S MOTHER: Ahmaud Arbery, he was killed in the streets as well. And I know at some point the last minutes of his life Ahmaud thought of me himself. Ahmaud, I know that he cried out for me as well. I stand with all other mothers who have lost their sons to these types of events. We do command change. We can't lose another life to such tragedy. Something has to change.

LEE MERRITT, LEAD ATTORNEY OR FAMILY OF AHMAUD ARBERY: I appreciate today that the focus was on George and that George was just a normal person. He was an everyday person. He wasn't a celebrity. He wasn't a politician. You know, he was just another guy and it struck -- we throw this term around but there's a genocide occurring in our community.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

VAUSE: And joining us from New York is Nikole Hannah-Jones, staff writer with the "New York Times Magazine" and creator of the 1619 project which re-examines the legacy of slavery in the United States. Nicole, thank you so much for being with us.

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, STAFF WRITER, NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: Thank you for having me.

VAUSE: Right now statues of confederate leaders in the South are coming down. Streets in New York City are being renamed to honor the group Black Lives Matter. These are symbolic gestures, but symbolic gestures are important. But is it too soon to declare this a watershed moment in the history of the United States?

HANNAH-JONES: You know, I never want to predict how we'll view things that are occurring right now but it certainly feels like a watershed moment. This will be a moment no matter what ultimately comes from this that I think is remembered in history. We are seeing the longest stretch of protests probably since the 1960s. Protests in every state in the country, the multiracial nature of the protests.

[04:20:00]

And, yes, you know, I think of the picture of the two black ballerinas standing at the base of the Robert E. Lee statue in Virginia that is now being taken down after decades of black people trying to get that taken down. Of the statue of the racist mayor of Philadelphia that's being taken down. And it certainly feels like we could be having a watershed moment. It's a symbolic reckoning so far. Those are important. That's why we erect monuments to people but I hope that it goes further than symbolism as well.

VAUSE: At George Floyd's Memorial service in Houston, the Reverend Al Sharpton talked about America's racist history. I refer to his name which isn't really his name. It's the name of the man who owned his grandfather. Listen to Al Sharpton. Here he is.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SHARPTON: That's how deep race is, that every time I write my name, I'm right in American history of what happened to my people. I can't talk about what my great grandparents did. They were enslaved and we're still being treated less than others. And until America comes to terms with what it has done and what it did, we will not be able to heal, because you are not recognizing the wound.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: You know that particular chapter of American history some white people may be aware of it but they're not confronted by it multiple times a day. So until as Al Sharpton says, there's a recognition of the sins of the can this country address the problems of racism and you know, the trouble of the present?

HANNAH-JONES: No, I mean this has been long-standing issue in America. This sense of denial about how foundational slavery and anti- black racism is to the United States. One of the things that we of course hear all the time is black people in this country, slavery was a longtime ago, get over it. But it's clear that this country has not got over it. Our modern policing systems is the direct descendent of the slave patrols. The fears of black men that are often used to justify these killings is a fear that was born out of slavery in trying to control a population that wanted to be free. So we have never dealt with the sin of slavery or the 100 years of legal apartheid and racial terrorism that followed. And because of that we're in the circumstance that we are in the United States today.

VAUSE: What's interesting is that if you look at those past moments with Martin Luther King, for example, these days the vast Americans speak of him with pride. Earlier the FBI honored Dr. King. They tweeted him on MLK day. You know, this is the same FBI which described King like this back in 1963.

We must mark him now, if we have not done so before, as the most dangerous Negro of the future in this nation from the standpoint of communism, the Negro and national security.

You know, before King was assassinated most Americans did not approve of Dr. King as well. You know so if this moment that we are currently living in becomes a major point in history would you expect some degree of whitewashing just like they did with Dr. King's past and doesn't that in some way indicate the problem is still there.

HANNAH-JONES: I mean if history holds true, what we'll find is after a while, after tolerance runs out there will be an effort to suppress the movement and then to co-opt the movement. And we've seen that again and again. You know, most white Americans probably have never read the entire "I have a dream" speech nor have they read most of Dr. King's speeches.

By 1967 he was writing speeches about the fundamentally racist nature of this country and arguing that most white Americans were actually very content to keep to keep the racial hierarchy in place. He was the most hated man that Americans opposed Dr. King at his death. Then of course, he was ultimately assassinated. So, yes, this is, I think, what a lot of people fear is we have these kind of revolutionary periods where enough white Americans believe that we have, you know, gone too far and we need to actually work towards our founding ideas and equality. But that attention is very fleeting and then we tend to see that followed by a period of retrenchment and backlash.

And so, it's yet to be seen a sustained creative way a majority of Americans actually believe that the fight for equality is a necessary fight. This is not something that can change overnight or can be done overnight. It's taken us literally centuries to get to this point and if we're going to actually become the country that we present to the world, we are going to have to learn to treat the most marginalized people in our society as full citizens and we haven't done that yet.

VAUSE: Yes, and it's been a long time. Nikole, thank you so much. We really appreciate you being with us.

HANNAH-JONES: Thank you.

VAUSE: Up next, the latest research recommending a gradual lifting of the lockdown.

[04:25:00]

Half the population allowed out. The rest staying put for months. But who gets out. Who stays home? Who decides?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

VAUSE: Welcome back everybody.

A new Oxford University study shows even after infection rates have slowed governments must lift lock downs gradually. If they take the flipping a light switch approach it greatly increases the risk of a surge in the number of infections. We'll have more on that in a moment.

Meantime, cases still on the rise in Latin America. The region that has more cases than any other according to the Pan American Health Organization. Meantime, the World Health Organization is trying to clear up a confusing comment about how the virus actually spreads. It now says it's possible for people without symptoms to transmit the virus after saying on Monday that such cases were very rare.

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DR. MARIA VAN KERKHOVE, W.H.O. EPIDEMIOLOGIST: It still appears to be rare that an asymptomatic individual actually transmits onward. What we really want to be focused on is following the symptomatic case. If we followed all of the symptomatic cases because we know that this is a respiratory pathogen. It passes from an individual through infectious droplets

We do know that people who are asymptomatic or some people who don't have symptoms can transmit the virus on. And so what we need to better understand is how many of the people in a population don't have symptoms and separately how many of those individuals go on to transmit to others. And so what I was referring to yesterday in the press conference were a very few studies.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

VAUSE: Well for the very latest now on the coronavirus, Dr. Raj Kalsi is an emergency medicine physician. He is with us from Naperville and Illinois. Dr. Raj it's good to see you. Well let's start off with Dr. Anthony Fauci.

END