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Day 17 Of Protests Over George Floyd; Roundtable For Racial Justice Excludes Top Black Leaders; Trump Plans Next Rally In Tulsa; States' Continued Increase In Covid Hospitalizations; U.S. Stocks Plunge As Fears Of Second Wave Rise; Latin American Coronavirus Cases Top 1.5 Million; Trump Warns Against "Falsely Labeling" People as Racists; Confederate Symbols Removed amid Protests for Racial Equality; Long History of Complaints against Minneapolis Police; Crowds in London March for COVID Victim; Backlash Grows with Cop Shows on TV. Aired 1-2a ET
Aired June 12, 2020 - 01:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Hi. Welcome to our viewers joining us from all around the world. Thanks for joining me, I'm Robyn Curnow. You are watching CNN.
So just ahead on the show.
Americans are calling for change but the president of the U.S. doesn't seem to be fully on board.
All the latest on the unrest ripping through the United States.
And after a brutal day for Wall Street, our eyes are turning towards Asia. We'll check the markets with CNN's business expert.
Plus calls for police reform.
Hollywood is reexamining everything from "Live PD" to -- yes, "Paw Patrol."
CURNOW: So we begin with more protests across the United States in the wake of the killing of George Floyd in police custody.
In New York, protesters shut down one of the main arteries out of the city, the Holland Tunnel, at least for a time. They soon left the area and then marched through other parts of Lower Manhattan. Those protests were noisy at times, but peaceful.
And then on the opposite side of the nation, large crowds in Portland, Oregon carrying signs reading "Black lives matter," "Speak truth to power," and, "Enough is enough."
And in Dallas, Texas, more protests too with chants of, "No justice, no peace."
Well, President Trump was in Dallas, Texas on Thursday as well, speaking of quote, "dominating the streets with compassion." He was there for a roundtable discussion with faith leaders and law enforcement representatives, but three of the top law enforcement figures in the area, all of them black, were not even invited.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARIAN BROWN, SHERIFF, DALLAS COUNTY, TEXAS: When you initiate a conversation and you purport that conversation to be about racism and policing in America and you failed to include the top three law enforcement officials in an area where you are speaking, I think that says a lot and causes one to raise the brow.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: And amid these nationwide protests after the killing of George Floyd, Mr. Trump praised police, describing the ones using excessive force as bad apples. And instead of addressing racism, he focused on officers targeted in the line of duty.
He also warned against labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racist or bigots, and described using force to clear protesters as quote, "like cutting -- like a knife cutting butter."
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They went in and it was like a knife cutting butter. Right through. Boom. There was some tear gas and probably some other things and the crowd dispersed and they went through.
By the end of that evening -- and it was a short evening, everything was fine.
But if you're going to have to really do a job, if somebody's really bad, you're going to have to do it with real strength, real power. I said we have to dominate the streets.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, President Trump is promising to take back the city of Seattle, Washington from protesters who have occupied some of the streets in front of a police precinct.
The protesters call it a quote, "autonomous zone," and Mr. Trump says he'll use force, even if he has to.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We're not going to let this happen in Seattle. If we have to go in, we're going to go in. The governor's either going to do it -- let the governor do it. He's got great National Guard troops. He can do it.
But one way or the other, it is going to get done. These people are not going to occupy a major portion of a great city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: But as you can see, the streets have been quite peaceful. Seattle's mayor says it's a quote, "block party atmosphere, not an armed takeover or a threat to public safety."
She spoke to Chris Cuomo about why the president's aggressive approach is wrong.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR JENNY DURKAN, SEATTLE: It shows a complete lack of understanding of why people are in the street. They're in the street fighting a system of domination, and he doesn't understand that. And his response is always one that's bellicose and militaristic.
But he doesn't honor the military in that way either, as you've seen from the line of generals that have disputed him. So I think he says dominate because he totally does not understand what is happening in America. And he is desperately trying to start the old fights and the old divisions that put him in power in the first place.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, the top military official in the U.S. is apologizing for his role in that infamous presidential photo op near the White House last week. And he becomes the latest U.S. military figure at odds with Mr. Trump's handling of protesters.
As Kaitlan Collins now explains.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Your reaction to Milley.
KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: President Trump left Washington today without commenting on the remarkable apology from the nation's top military official for participating in his photo op at St. John's Church near the White House.
[01:05:00]
In his first public remarks since authorities cleared peaceful protesters from the area using chemical gas and rubber projectiles, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Mark Milley, said he made a mistake.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched, and I am not immune.
As many of you saw the result of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week, that sparked a national debate about the role of the military in civil society. I should not have been there.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: In a pre-recorded address to graduates, Milley said he was angry about the murder of George Floyd and offered this praise for peaceful protesters.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MILLEY: Peaceful protest means that American freedom is working.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The apology capped off an extraordinary week, showcasing a deep divide between the president and the Pentagon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MARK ESPER, ACTING U.S. SECRETARY OF DEFENSE: I do not support invoking the insurrection act.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: His current defense secretary pushed back on his demand to use active duty troops to crack down on protest, his former defense secretary condemned him in a rare statement. And Colin Powell, the first black chairman of the joint chiefs, accused Trump of drifting away from the constitution.
That divide was deepened yesterday when Trump flatly rejecting a suggestion under consideration at the Pentagon to rename military bases that are named for confederate leaders.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAYLEIGH MCENANY, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: The president will not stand for that. These names are associated with the heroes within them, not the name on the fort.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: Sources say the president remains convinced that these racially tinged culture wars that he immersed himself in in 2016 remain a winning strategy.
And his latest salvo comes as he's preparing a return to the campaign trail.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: Do we have a great time at a trump rally?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COLLINS: The date and location of his first rally since he suspended them amid the coronavirus is coming under scrutiny.
Trump will be in Tulsa next Friday on Juneteenth, the annual holiday commemorating the end of slavery. It's the site of a race massacre 99 years ago when a white mob killed hundreds of black citizens and was recently portrayed in the beginning of the popular HBO show, the "Watchmen." And the president hosted that roundtable in Dallas. Let's assume he focused on justice disparities, according to the White House. We should note that while they had some law enforcement officials there, some small business owners, some church leaders, what they were missing were three key law enforcement officials from the city of Dallas.
That would be the Dallas police chief, the Dallas district attorney, and the Dallas county sheriff's office representative. All who are black leaders that were not invited to the president's roundtable on justice disparities.
Kaitlan Collins, CNN, the White House.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Thanks, Kaitlan, there at the White House. And lest we forget, there's also a pandemic going on. But if we were to look at the White House, you might actually not know it.
The meetings, the briefings of the coronavirus task force team have practically now disappeared. But one thing has not, the virus. Far from it.
As Nick Watt now explains.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. LINDA BELL, STATE EPIDEMIOLOGIST: I am more concerned about COVID-19 in South Carolina than I have ever been before.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
NICK WATT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: She's not alone. In South Carolina where the average daily case count just doubled inside of a week is also not alone.
In Texas, 2100 were hospitalized yesterday, the highest number since this pandemic began.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: We are seeing the appearance of additional infections, particularly in the areas that are opening. If we handle them well, we could be okay. If not, then we really have a significant problem.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: In Maricopa County, Arizona, a quarter of all of their COVID cases have come in just this past week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR KATE GALLEGO, PHOENIX: We have hit so many of the records you don't want to be hitting for COVID-19. From my perspective, we opened too much, too early. And so our hospitals are struggling.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: A reminder of how bad this virus can be. A woman in her twenties with COVID just had a double lung transplant. A first.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ANKIT BHARAT, CHIEF OF THORACIC SURGERY, NORTHWESTERN MEMORIAL HOSPITAL: She smiled and told me just one sentence. She said, "Doc, thank you for not giving up on me."
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Those well-known University of Washington modelers now say the daily death toll across the country will drop in June and July, stabilize in August, then rise sharply. By October 1, they now project that nearly 170,000 Americans will be dead. Killed by COVID.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. ASHISH JHA, DIRECTOR, HARVARD GLOBAL HEALTH INSTITUTE: And we won't be done, right. We'll have many, many more months to go.
It's really stunning to me that we have this much suffering and death and we're just not doing enough about it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: But what can we do as individuals?
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY SLAVITT, FRM. ACTING ADMINISTRATOR, CENTERS FOR MEDICARE AND MEDICAID SERVICES: If you get the majority of people wear masks, the virus really has nowhere to go.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Take this hair salon in Missouri. Two sick stylists potentially exposed 140 people to the virus, but none of them has since tested positive. Officials think that might be because everyone wore masks.
[01:10:00]
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SLAVITT: If President Trump did one thing, if he wore a mask, and encouraged his supporters to wear masks for three weeks straight, he would be -- we would be sitting here four weeks from now, five weeks from now, six weeks from now with much of this virus behind us. (END VIDEO CLIP)
WATT: Here in L.A. County, we have seen the case count nearly double in this past month. But on Friday, zoos, gyms, movie theaters, movie production will reopen again.
But masks were, are, and will continue to be mandatory in L.A. County, whenever you leave your house.
Nick Watt, CNN, Los Angeles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And you heard Nick mention there this new model predicting nearly 170,000 Americans dead from the virus by October the 1st.
Well, earlier I talked with a viral specialist about that.
DR. JORGE RODRIGUEZ, INTERNAL MEDICINE AND VIRAL SPECIALIST, IHME: There are models that predict up by the end of the year I think it's very realistic that we're going to have almost 200,000 deaths in the United States. There appears to be very few areas in this country that are actually slowing down.
On the contrary, we're seeing these wildfires -- happening in different states now. Arizona, Tennessee, Florida. So it's going to continue.
CURNOW: It's going to continue. And what do we know about antibodies?
Because there was a Swiss trial I was just reading before we came on air where -- even places where COVID hit hard, hardly anyone really got infected. I think it was about a 10 percent rate.
What does that mean in terms of a second wave or what we're seeing now here in the U.S. in terms of how our bodies are responding to this?
RODRIGUEZ: Yes, that's very worrisome. Because what's it's saying is that people that actually got infected, a large majority of them did not get antibodies. Antibodies is what we presume will give us protection going forward.
So one of the hopes or one of the things that we discuss all the time is herd immunity. Which means that if people get infected they will have protection. This study shows that not everybody that got infected got protected.
And if that's the case, then a second wave could be very dangerous and much more -- well, debilitating and perhaps much -- many more deaths than we're seeing now.
CURNOW: And there could then also be a third and a fourth as well. A second wave is just a concern for the next few months.
RODRIGUEZ: Unfortunately so. I think months ago, I said that this is going to be like a rollercoaster ride where we're going to see increases and decreases and increases. Which is why precautions and preventions are so important right now.
CURNOW: I want to talk about that in a moment. But also then people and folks are pinning their hopes on a vaccine. I know I covered the HIV/AIDS epidemic in South Africa and Africa for many years, particularly in those early days.
I know you have treated HIV patients since the early 80s.
RODRIGUEZ: Right.
CURNOW: You also investigated HIV drug trials. There's still no vaccine for HIV, it's also a virus. Are you hopeful that there'll be one sooner for COVID?
RODRIGUEZ: Of course. I have to be hopeful. But as you mentioned, it's been 35 years and there is no vaccine for HIV, there is no vaccine for Hepatitis C. So I don't want to be, as we sit here, a Debbie Downer, but we have to be careful so that we use other modalities to try to prevent spread.
So am I hopeful? Yes. There are very interesting and unique vaccines that are being developed here. But unfortunately, there has been no vaccine ever developed for s coronavirus.
So we're just crossing our hands right now -- I mean, our fingers and our hands.
CURNOW: Everything. We'll just twist ourselves into pretzels --
RODRIGUEZ: Everything.
CURNOW: -- crossing what we can.
So you're saying, essentially, social distancing, masks work, contact tracing, quarantining if you do come in -- all of that stuff is what many countries have done and have done successfully. We can quote new Zealand, who have done it really well.
RODRIGUEZ: Right.
CURNOW: America is not doing that. It's not following public health guidelines. Why --
RODRIGUEZ: I think the same thing that makes the American spirit so vital and so unique, that sort of drive towards individualism, may be our Achilles heel right now.
I try to say we're talking about give me liberty or give me death, I don't want to wear a mask. Well, be careful what you wish for, you may get both. Liberty and death.
There seems to be a distrust of institutions going on in this country and among those institutions is the scientific community. There is no doubt, there is no doubt, that wearing masks decreases the incidence of spreading the virus, even probably more than quarantining.
So I like to call it the holy trinity of COVID prevention which is wearing masks, washing your hands, and social distancing.
[01:15:00]
And we Americans have to realize that part of our legacy isn't just individuality, but it's teamwork. And it's going to take teamwork for all of us to protect each other. It's that simple, really.
CURNOW: And Dr. Jorge Rodriguez speaking to me a little bit earlier. So according to Johns Hopkins University, Latin America and Caribbean countries have recorded more than one and-a-half million cases of coronavirus. Brazil is leading the way with more than 800,000 cases, nearly 41,000 deaths.
Matt Rivers has the latest on that.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
MATT RIVERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, for the first time since this outbreak began, the region of Latin America and the Caribbean is now recording more than 1.5 million confirmed cases of this virus.
Regularly, 1.3 million of those cases come from just four countries. Brazil, with the most cases in this region by far, followed up by Peru then Chile and then here in Mexico.
But part of the reason the cases continue to spike in this part of the world is because of the way many countries around here have their economies structured. By some estimates, more than 50 percent of all workers in this region are forced to participate in what's called the informal economy.
These are people that don't get a regular paycheck from some company, they have to go out and work to earn a living. They have to go out because they don't have savings to fall back on, they don't have government subsidies to fall back on. Certainly, no sick leave or paid vacation to talk about. And so that's why they have to go out and expose themself to more risk.
And then also consider the way cities are structured in Latin America. This is one of the regions the highest rates of urbanization in the world. Many, many people live in very tightly packed quarters where social distancing simply is not an option.
And despite the fact, though, that many people are back out working, they have to do so in order to survive, the United Nations is predicting a 5.3 percent regionwide contraction in the GDP as a result of this outbreak. That would be the worst such contraction since records began in 1900.
Matt Rivers, CNN, Mexico City.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: (INAUDIBLE), Matt, for that. So still ahead here on CNN.
The spike in coronavirus cases has Wall Street spooked. We're live in Abu Dhabi to see how financial markets around the world are reacting.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CURNOW: So Wall Street plummeted on Thursday as investors reacted to an uptick in coronavirus cases in the U.S. and this renewed fear of a possible second wave.
The DOW sank more than 1800 points, that's the largest sell-off since mid-March. It also comes on the heels of a dire outlook from the Fed. The chairman warned the U.S. economy has a long road to recovery.
Well, let's go straight to John Defterios, John Defterios joins us now from Abu Dhabi. Hi, John. Good to see you.
JOHN DEFTERIOS, CNN EMERGING MARKETS EDITOR: Hi. Thanks.
CURNOW: So let's talk about these numbers we are seeing on Wall Street. Is this sell-off so deep that it's carrying over to Asia with the same velocity?
[01:20:00]
DEFTERIOS: Well, it started that way Robyn, but we've had cooler heads prevail, if you will.
You have a shock, obviously, because when you see a six percent fall on Wall Street, it has a contagion effect.
And, in fact, if you took a look at the Asian markets, we had the Nikkei index down better than two percent, and you can see the recovery. Hong Kong's been pretty stable, it has a loss of better than (ph) one percent. But again, it hasn't been gyrating like Tokyo or the Seoul index.
Seoul is down sharply because it's had a very strong recovery kind of in parallel with the S&P 500 and the Dow on Wall Street. So obviously, it's going to correct on the downside after the higher valuations.
But I would have to say, when it's all said and done, not bad. And this is the reason it's not so bad.
If you take a look at the U.S. futures, we're above the line in a range of about one to one-and-a-third percent for the Dow, the NASDAQ, and the S&P futures after that washout that we saw on Wednesday.
So where do we go from here? The economic adviser for President Trump, Larry Kudlow, was saying look, it's just a bad day in the market, our health care system can manage this.
But people are looking at the caseload that you've been talking about. Above two million now and the death rates that we're expecting in the second wave. And then the treasury secretary, Steve Mnuchin, was suggesting we can't go back to where we were before, back to a lockdown. We're open today, we've learned a lot, there's a lot of liquidity in the system. Let's move forward.
Let's listen to Mnuchin.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVEN MNUCHIN, U.S. SECRETARY OF THE TREASURY: We can't shut down the economy again. I think we've learnt that if you shut down the economy, you're going to create more damage. And not just economic damage, but there are other areas.
And we've talked about this. Medical problems and everything else that get put on hold. I think it was very prudent, what the president did. But I think we've learnt a lot.
And I also would just say, the fact that Congress, the House, the Senate responded with the administration in an unprecedented way to put three trillion dollars in the economy.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
DEFTERIOS: There's a question mark, of course, about the three trillion dollars, whether it'll be enough in 2021 and 2022.
And we have to put into context. Since that low in March, Robyn, the S&P500 was up better than 40 percent which is just extraordinary and the valuations got very high.
So we'll have to see, as Wall Street closes out the week, whether they start to rethink those valuations even more for a correction going forward. It doesn't appear that way, if we look at the S&P futures.
CURNOW: You mentioned a rethink. What is your assessment of Jerome Powell's assessment of the COVID-19 challenge?
DEFTERIOS: Well, I like the way you put it. Because it's assessing what he was trying to get across, I think, Robyn. And It's a good thing you brought it up.
I think it was a sober assessment and suggesting look, we have low interest rates not only for 2021 but all the way through 2022. He's extended it out two and-a-half years.
Because he says we're going through an extraordinary, once-in-a- generation crisis. A negative six and a half percent for the U.S. economy with unemployment at 13.3 percent.
People got excited about the job recovery in May but we now, after we had the jobless claims overnight or yesterday during trading, we have 44 million Americans that have asked for benefits. He's saying it's going to be a long road back with major bumps. And even suggesting that congress and the president have to rethink next year about perhaps more funding and more payouts to people if they can't get their jobs back going forward.
CURNOW: OK. John Defterios, good to see you. Thank you.
So the coronavirus has not only taken hundreds of thousands of lives around the world but it's also robbed many of their livelihoods, as we've been hearing.
Well, Phil Black has a look at how the U.K. is grappling with the economic and the emotional strain of this virus. Here's Phil.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
PHIL BLACK, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Tourists don't come to Trafalgar Square anymore. But there are still crowds. The vast space is now being used to feed the homeless while ensuring social distancing.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Come that way, please.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Most of the people who have stayed on London streets through the pandemic are long-term rough sleepers. But the charities still working here report a recent trend.
There are many new faces. People suddenly homeless because of COVID- 19.
There are the obvious economic causes. London's lockdown made lots of already insecure, casual work quickly disappear. But vulnerable families have also splintered under the emotional strain of living through this pandemic.
Right up until lockdown, Colin Reynolds lived with his elderly parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: What did they say to you?
COLIN REYNOLDS: Just asked me to leave, so I left. Because my parents are high risk, it wasn't a good idea for me to stay there. So I left and come to London because there's more help here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
[01:25:00]
BLACK: Life for Colin and his family was never easy. He has a long history of crippling depression and anxiety. Now the further pressures of this crisis have torn him from support he desperately needs. On Weymouth Beach, along England's southern coast, there's no obvious
sign people in this community are struggling. But Andy Price knows the truth. His community cafe set up to help traumatized military veterans, has quickly embraced a new purpose.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY PRICE, CO-DIRECTOR, THE VETERANS HUB: There'll be like plastic -- piles of milk, piles of cereal.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: He's feeding people. The isolated, the poor, the suddenly jobless. Owners of what were recently thriving businesses. Anyone who needs it, and the need is great.
As he hits homes across Weymouth, Andy knows many of those he now helps --
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY PRICE: Hello, sweetheart.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: -- bristle against the idea of receiving charity.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
ANDY PRICE: You think you've kind of failed. Yes, you're failing as a parent, you're failing as an individual. And really, like we're kind of discovering now, you're only ever one paycheck away from needing support.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Carrie Watts and her husband, Michael, are grateful for Andy's help. But accepting it is hard.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MICHAEL WATTS, MK CLASSICS: I should be earning, providing for my family. But I'm just not -- I'm just sad. Doing nothing, pretty much. Just sat here wondering if one day I'm ever going to be able to go back to what I love doing. And genuinely that upset me.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Soon after lockdown, people stopped ringing Michael to fix their cars, and Carrie needed hospital treatment for COVID-19. They almost lost everything.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
CARRIE WATTS: Yes. Just what you can do to see how long things go before maybe you just hit rock bottom. (END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: In the northern city of Sheffield, we find the same pain. People who just a few months ago had independent lives and plans for the future now patiently waiting in the rain for handouts. Phil Barrett is a self-employed electrician.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHIL BARRETT: In the initial start of the lockdown, we were sending food up here for people. We never expected that we'd be on the receiving end of some of it towards the end of this.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Back in Central London, Colin Reynolds walks back to his sleep spot, at the entrance of one of the city's iconic theaters. He doesn't know when he'll sleep in a bed again, when or how he'll see his parents.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: Have you ever known a chapter of your life this uncertain before?
REYNOLDS: No. Not this is bad.
BLACK: One day at a time?
REYNOLDS: Yes, yes. That's all I can do.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BLACK: COVID-19 has killed more than 40,000 people in the U.K. It's stolen the emotional and financial security of many more.
Phil Black, CNN, London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And still to come this hour. Protesters in London have more on their minds than just COVID and George Floyd.
They're demanding justice for one of their own killed in this crisis.
Plus, erasing reminders of racism across the U.S. Why these relics of slavery were built in the first place and why they're now coming down.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[01:30:46]
ROBYN CURNOW, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome back. I'm Robyn Curnow.
You're watching CNN. Thanks for being with us this hour. So, the U.S. President Donald Trump spent Thursday in Dallas, Texas holding a roundtable meeting with community leaders. Now he made comments downplaying protesters' complaints that America's social system is fundamentally broken and racist. Mr. Trump said, tens of millions of Americans are good and virtuous people, not racist.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear. But we will make no progress and heal no wounds, by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racist or bigots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, Ron Brownstein is a CNN senior political analyst and a senior editor at "The Atlantic" and he joins me now from Los Angeles.
Ron -- good to speak to you.
RON BROWNSTEIN, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: Hey -- Robyn.
CURNOW: I do want to get your sense of the tone and just the conversation that was had by the President in the midst of this anguish that America is feeling. The President warned against falsely labeling people "racist". He dismissed brutality -- police brutality as just a few bad apples. He certainly didn't seem to address the turmoil being felt by so many.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, "bad apples" I think is the key two words because it is the -- it is the heart of the strategy of how Republicans, and this president in particular, have been dealing with these questions for several years.
As I wrote this week on CNN.com the belief that systemic racism is a thing of the past, that it is no longer a part of American life, is an absolute glue that binds together the modern Republican coalition.
I mean there's been polling last year that two-thirds of Trump supporters say that discrimination against whites is now as big a problem as discrimination against minorities. There's another poll last year from the Pew Research Center where basically 80 percent of Republicans say it was a bigger problem that people were alleging racism where it doesn't exist, than that people were not finding it where it does exist.
And this isn't only rhetoric and kind of messaging -- its policy, too because the President -- President Trump under both Jeff Sessions and Bill Barr has essentially shelved the efforts of the Obama administration, really energized on trying to have federal investigations of systemic racism and push for systemic reforms in police departments.
So what he was saying today was very consistent with not only his messaging but his policy but as you say while it is definitely a unifying belief in the Republican base, it is out of touch with where the country seems to be moving very clearly in this moment.
CURNOW: And out of touch with the sheer facts and examples of systematic racism in America every day.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
Curnow: I mean it's unquestionable. I mean it's glaring.
So the fact that there is -- the fact that there is this division along party lines is not just about the GOP and folks and Democrats in Congress. You're saying this is about the base.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CURNOW: This is about --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CURNOW: -- folks on the ground who say that there aren't any facts about this.
BROWNSTEIN: Well, look, as you know, I believe the fundamental dividing line in American politics is between a Democratic coalition that is largely ok with and even enthusiastic about the way the country is changing demographically, culturally, and economically; and a Republican coalition that is centered on the voters in the parts of the country that feel most threatened by those changes.
And as I say, it's not just the political leadership. If you look across the Republican base for years now, the argument that whites face as much discrimination against minorities, that continued discrimination is an isolated event limited to bad apples rather than embedded in systems, and that people alleging discrimination falsely is a bigger problem than it not being found at all.
All of these have been a growing kind of consensus among Republican voters as the parties have kind of resorted along those lines of what I call transformation and restoration.
[01:34:48]
BROWNSTEIN: And you know, what you have is a president who at every moment, today again, his instinct is to kind of mobilize and inflame that base, even as we have seen very clear movement, as you noted, in public opinion overall.
And as it is almost always the case with him, he's playing to the short side of the field, trying to squeeze bigger margins out of shrinking groups.
CURNOW: And what is interesting also, in the so-called roundtable of conversations with people in Dallas, Texas -- you know who wasn't at that table --
BROWNSTEIN: Yes.
CURNOW: -- were the top three African-American lawmakers in Dallas.
BROWNSTEIN: Yes, absolutely. You know, the police chief, I believe the county prosecutor, all of whom are --
CURNOW: And the sheriff.
BROWNSTEIN: -- and the sheriff -- who are African American. But again, it goes to this point that he is -- you know, he is most comfortable, I like to say, when all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. And if your instinct always is to go back to your base, the President's willingness to reach out on a policy basis, or even on a kind of a personal empathy basis is just so limited that what he is left doing is looking for ways to stir his base.
It is striking, of course, that this had to be held in Dallas. You know, Dallas was the beginning -- Dallas is where the Republican growth in the south really began in the 1960s. Texas has been a very safe state for Republicans since 1976.
But in 2018, Beto O'Rourke the Democrat won one Dallas County by 200,000 votes. And President Trump faces the same kind of risk. His rural strength will probably allow him to hold the state of Texas no matter what, but it's possible that he could lose the five biggest counties by a million votes.
CURNOW: Ron Brownstein -- always great to get your political perspective. Good to see you again. Thanks so much.
BROWNSTEIN: Thanks for having me.
CURNOW: And the Republican-led U.S. Senate Committee has adopted a measure to remove the names of confederate leaders from military bases. Now this comes amid a growing debate about removing certain symbols related to Civil War era in the South.
Well, in Raleigh, North Carolina demonstrators placed a George Floyd- inspired plaque on a confederate statues near the capitol building. And confederate statues, we know in at least 11 other states have been removed or are being considered for removal.
Here's Abby Phillip.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Black lives matter.
CROWD: Black lives matters.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT: A national reckoning on race, could now mean the end for the last remaining symbols of America's dark history of slavery.
In cities across the South, statues venerating military leaders of the confederacy are crashing down. After the killing of George Floyd, protests have swept the nation and prompted fresh soul-searching. MARC MORIAL, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL URBAN LEAGUE: I believe it is a sea
change and it's a long overdue movement against hate and racism in this country.
PHILLIP: It's the very issue that drew a group of white protesters, including white supremacists and militia members, to Charlottesville, Virginia nearly 3 years ago. But today, a massive shift.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's time to heal, ladies and gentlemen. Richmond is no longer the capital of the confederacy.
PHILLIP: Virginia's governor seeking to remove an enormous landmark that commemorates the confederate army commander Robert E. Lee.
REVEREND ROBERT W. LEE, DESCENDANT OF CONFEDERATE GENERAL ROBERT E. LEE: He was a man of his time who fought to continue the enslavement of black people. And in so doing set our nation on a course towards destruction.
PHILLIP: The Marine Corps banning the public display of the confederate battle flag. And even NASCAR following suit, saying fans will no longer be allowed to fly that flag in the stands.
BUBBA WALLACE, NASCAR DRIVER: No one should feel uncomfortable when they come to a NASCAR race. So it starts with confederate flags. Get them out of here. They have no place for them.
PHILLIP: The changes are also sweeping through pop culture. On Thursday, the popular country group Lady Antebellum announcing to change their name to Lady A telling their fans, we can make no excuse for our lateness to this realization, that the name referred to the pre-civil war period that included slavery.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You've been brave so long, Miss Scarlett.
PHILLIP: HBO Max saying it has temporarily removed the film "Gone with the Wind" and will return it to the platform with materials putting that period of history into context.
And now a push from military leaders to strip the names of rebel generals from military bases.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I don't have an emotional attachment to the names of those basis.
PHILLIP: Former Army General David Petraeus writing, "It is time to remove the names of traitors like Benning and Bragg from our country's most important military installations.
But there is also staunch resistance beginning with President Trump who tweeted that the bases represent a history of winning, victory and freedom and he would not even consider renaming them.
Trump warning his party not to fall for a bipartisan amendment introduced in the Senate to remove the confederate names. But it may be too late as some Republican lawmakers say the time for change has come.
SENATOR MIKE ROUNDS (R), SOUTH DAKOTA: We don't want to forget what has happened in the past, but at the same time that does not mean that we should continue with those bases with the names of individuals who fought against our country.
[01:40:00]
PHILLIP: Now, the amendment that President Trump decried on confederate names has already passed with bipartisan support out of a Senate Committee. It now potentially faces another vote in the full senate.
Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell actually ignored reporters' questions on this issue but many Republicans will quickly have to decide will they stand with President Trump on this issue or will they vote to remove the names of confederate generals from military installations all across the country?
Abby Philip, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And one statue in Britain is being given 24-hour security. This one is of Robert Baden-Powell, the founder of the Scout movement. Authorities say it will have security for now until it is either removed or the threat diminishes.
Baden-Powell is considered a military hero and founded the Boy Scouts in 1908 and cofounded the Girl Guides two years later. But Critics say he held homophobic and racist views and supported fascists like Adolf Hitler and Benito Mussolini.
Still ahead, thousands of complaints but very little discipline. CNN investigates who's holding Minneapolis police accountable.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CURNOW: Welcome back.
Now, a CNN investigation into the long history of complaints against police officers in Minneapolis, Minnesota well before the George Floyd incident.
Here is CNN senior investigative correspondent, Drew Griffin.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
DREW GRIFFIN, CNN SENIOR INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: In the midst of this video that horrified a nation, a bystander called out a badge number.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: 1087.
MICHELLE GROSS, COMMUNITIES UNITED AGAINST POLICE BRUTALITY: I played it over and over and listened carefully and figured out for sure this was Badge 1087. And at that point then I knew that it was Derek Chauvin.
GRIFFIN: George Floyd had been dead less than 12 hours. Michelle Gross, who heads a Minneapolis group called Communities United Against Police Brutality, was about to tell the world who killed him.
GROSS: And so when I saw the name, I said "Oh, him." I wasn't surprised because when you start to see those same officers over and over again with multiple complaints, their names lodge in your brain.
GRIFFIN: For two decades her organization has been tracking complaints against Minneapolis police. The data is limited. The investigative details not public. But the outcomes are clear.
Scroll down data from the city's own Web site and you will see complaint after complaint closed with no discipline. Minneapolis police have racked up 2,013 complaints in 7 years. Of those, just 31 ended in serious discipline. Just 1.5 percent.
GROSS: We have so failed to address police conduct in this community. It made it literally inevitable that somebody was going to die this way.
GRIFFIN: Derek Chauvin, whose knee was on George Floyd's neck, has at least 18 complaints, just two have ever led to discipline. His partner that night Tou Thao has six. One still pending, five dismissed with no discipline.
[01:44:55]
GRIFFIN: In 2017, Thao and his partner were sued for using unreasonable force by a man who was punched and kicked so hard his teeth broke though he had not committed a crime. The city and officers denied any wrongdoing, settled for $25,000. Thao remained a cop.
Minneapolis police have a long history of allegations of excessive force, lawsuits and even intervention from the federal Department of Justice. Police chiefs, city councils, mayors come and go without fixing the problems that have built for decades.
R.T. RYBAK, FORMER MINNEAPOLIS MAYOR: If I had an easy answer about why we haven't gotten more done with police before in Minneapolis, we wouldn't be in this mess today.
GRIFFIN: R.T. Rybak was mayor of Minneapolis from 2002 to 2014. He changed the police chief three times. He says he fought for more transparency and complaints, fought to bring in minority officers and better training to handle the mentally ill.
But when we see over and over again the data, the complaints filed went nowhere and continued to go nowhere -- I really have to question whether or not there was a sincere attempt to restructure the Minneapolis police department.
RYBAK: It's the right question. Someone like me should stand before you and have to answer that because I don't want to leave the impression that I didn't try. But I did not get the job done. And now is the time to get the job done.
GRIFFIN: Phillip Atiba Goff is the co-founder of the Center for Policing Equity.
PHILLIP ATIBA GOFF, CO-FOUNDER, CENTER FOR POLICING EQUITY: If we think the problem here is wow policing is going to be bad in the United States, we missed the point.
GRIFFIN: What is the point? Goff says it's entire swaths of communities lacking grocery stores, lacking jobs, lacking good education. And he says let's begin using data for far more than law enforcement.
GOFF: So I'm talking about measuring everything that we need to, to ensure those communities can be healthy, safe and empowered to determine their own outcome.
Police are the spark but the historic disinvestment of black communities, which is why they only have police to solve their problems, that's really the powder keg.
GRIFFIN: A powder keg that erupted with the protests but had building for decades.
The city of Minneapolis tells us that most of the complaints against its officers are low-level and in fact in 300 cases, officers received coaching instead of actual discipline. But how coaching is applied is unclear and it's certainly not transparent.
A former police chief of Minneapolis told us, if one of her officers was coached for bad behavior even repeatedly, she wouldn't even know it.
Drew Griffin, CNN -- Atlanta.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: And then in Kentucky, a local council has decided to ban no knock search warrants, a key measure in what's being called Breonna's law -- excuse me. The name is in honor of Breonna Taylor, a black woman who was killed after officers forced their way inside her home and exchange shots with her boyfriend. They were executing a search warrant in a narcotics investigation.
Well, CNN's Anderson Cooper spoke with her mom before the measure was passed. Take a look.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TAMIKA PALMER, BREONNA TAYLOR'S MOTHER: She was loving and caring, and she loved to help people. She loved to be around family.
Everybody loved her. Her coworkers her friends, her family. She just was full of life. She was so full of life.
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: It's interesting you use that expression "full of life" because when I was looking at the pictures of her, in all the pictures I have seen of her, I mean she's got this smile and this joyful -- just joyful kind of countenance about her. She really just jumps off the page and in photographs.
I mean there must have been -- I kind of just -- looking at her picture, you get a sense of the personality she must have had in life.
PALMER: Definitely. She had an old soul. She was just -- yes, she loved to smile. She loved to be this person. She had a vibe out of this world like you could not ask for a better child at all.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CURNOW: Well, the mayor of Louisville, Kentucky tweeted, "This law is one of the many critical steps on police reform to create a more peaceful, just and compassionate, and equitable community.
Meanwhile, the Black Lives Matter Movement is spreading across the United Kingdom. Protesters are marching not only for George Floyd, but also their own country.
Salma Abdelaziz reports now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Here they chant George Floyd's name, but they also call out to say her name.
CROWD: Belly Mujinga.
[01:49:44]
ABDELAZIZ: Belly Mujinga -- a 47-year-old London rail worker who died of COVID-19 after allegedly being spat on by a man who claimed to have the virus. Police closed her case in May after their investigation found insufficient evidence.
But as events in America sparked protests in the U.K., the story of a black, female, essential worker killed by COVID-19 hit a nerve.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: While everybody else was locked in their houses, while everybody else was protecting themselves she still had a duty to deliver to the public. She still had to wake up early and leave her one daughter and go to work.
ABDELAZIZ: Mujinga's case resonated in part because of the work of this group, Justice for Black Lives, which was formed literally overnight via social media. Rachel Mallam (ph), one of its organizers, says she has never protested before this but she was tired of seeing black lives lost without accountability.
RACHEL MALLAM, JUSTICE FOR BLACK LIVES: I think Belly died because she wasn't protected the way she was meant to be protected by the British government, by TFL, by the health sector, by literally everyone in charge of the workers of the United Kingdom. So her death is on their hands. ABDELAZIZ: In a matter of less than a week, Mujinga's case went from a
call to action on Instagram to a massive demonstration where Star Wars actor John Boyega spoke alongside Belly Mujinga's family.
JOHN BOYEGA, ACTOR: Remember this face. Remember this face.
ABDELAZIZ: To an actual result -- authorities agreed to re-examine Mujinga's death due to wider public interest. All this in a matter of days.
MALLAM: The NHS to be able to acknowledge their racism meant --
ABDELAZIZ: With black people in the U.K. four times more likely to die from coronavirus than whites and other ethnic groups, these newly- minted activists feel fighting racism is a matter of life and death.
MALLAM: We have had so many black people die in the United Kingdom in the past 3 weeks because they are not listening to us. When we go out, we're protesting. We know we are at risk. We know we're putting ourselves out there. I have a little two-year-old at home that I could put -- I potentially at risk by going out and protesting.
But I am protesting because of her. That's literally why I'm protesting. I don't want her to go through the same things that we are going through on a daily basis.
ABDELAZIZ: Throughout this pandemic, Britain's black community has suffered disproportionately in isolation. Now, as lockdown eases, their stories and their grief are pouring out into the streets.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN -- London.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: You are watching CNN.
Just ahead, a critical look at how police are portrayed on TV here in the U.S. and around the world, and why that narrative is starting to change.
[01:52:41]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CURNOW: As protests over racism and police brutality continue across the U.S., more businesses are listening and taking action. Nike is joining other companies in making Juneteenth a paid holiday for their employees. That is the oldest known U.S. celebration of the end of slavery.
And then Walmart says it will no longer keep multicultural hair products under lock and key while leaving other salon products freely available on their shelves.
And as the calls continue for police reform, the entertainment world is also feeling the effect. Hugely popular police TV shows are now being scrutinized as never before. Shows like "Cops" have already been canceled. So will it lead to even more cancellations?
Tom Foreman has a look.
[01:55:01]
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
TOM FOREMAN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: From the "Law and Order" franchise to "NCIS", to "Blue Bloods" -- police dramas are iconic, hugely popular, and now under intense fire from activists who say that the shows far too readily portray cops as good and trustworthy while undermining real life claims of systemic racism and abuse.
RASHAD ROBINSON, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, COLOR OF CHANGE: These shows four years have normalized injustice.
FOREMAN: Rashad Robinson is the executive director of Color of Change, an activist group which is leading the charge. And he points out that TV dramas routinely buy into the trope of the bad apple cop but almost never go further.
ROBINSON: They oftentimes show a world where black and brown people exist but racism, and particularly structural racism, doesn't exist at all.
FOREMAN: Reality shows have so far been the easiest targets. Cops has been canceled after three decades of wild success. And, furious complaints about glorification of police violence.
Now, "Live PD" has also been pulled off the air, to the surprise and dismay of the host.
DAN ABRAMS, HOST, "LIVE PD": I'm disappointed, frustrated, I thought very hard to try to keep the show on the air. I thought there was a way to have a national discussion on the show about policing.
FOREMAN: Not likely, according to Color of Change, which says prime television encourages the public to accept the norms of over policing and excessive force and reject reform while supporting the exact behavior that destroys the lives of black people.
And in the highly popular and lucrative world of police shows, he suggests that goes all the way down to kids' programs, like "Paw Patrol".
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I can't trust you right now.
FOREMAN: But do these made-up stories really make a difference? Consider this, a 2015 study found viewers of crime dramas are more likely to believe that police are successful at lowering crime, use force only when necessary, and that misconduct does not typically lead to false confessions.
Once more that study found when TV cops use excessive force, or violate civil rights, and they do that a lot, it is most often portrayed as not only effective, but also justified. Tom Foreman, CNN -- Washington.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
CURNOW: Well, you've been watching CNN. Thanks so much for your company.
I'm Robyn Curnow. I'm going to hand you over to Michael Holmes.
[01:57:31]
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
END
