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Kentucky A.G. Vows Transparency in Probe Of Breonna Taylor's Killing; Ex-Atlanta Cop Who Killed Rayshard Brooks Turns Himself in; Trump Rages as Conservative Supreme Court Judge Helps Defeat Effort to End DREAMer Program; Bolton Book Details Unflattering Portrait of Trump; Facebook Removes Trump Ads for Violating Policy Against Organized Hate with Symbol Similar to a Nazi One. Aired 3:30-4p ET
Aired June 18, 2020 - 15:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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LONITA BAKER, BREONNA TAYLOR FAMILY'S ATTORNEY: -- and it lacks in transparency, you know, our mayor keeps saying he wants to be transparent however its actions like this that show us he does not have any intent to be transparent.
BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: Lonita Baker, we'll be in contact of course as this progresses, I know this family wants charges. We'll see what happens with the A.G. thank you so much.
I want to head actually back to Atlanta. Back to Ryan Young, who has some breaking news involving the other officer involved in the death of Rayshard Brooks. Ryan, what's the story?
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Brooke. I was on last time live, I was getting a text message. I didn't have a chance to read it until now. We know the other officer has now turned himself in, Garrett Rolfe is inside the jail. We've been able to confirm that with jail staff as well. A mug shot will be coming forward. Of course, this is the officer who faced the most serious charges. 11 of them, including that felony murder. And look, this is discussion right now, we're wondering whether or not his attorney will walk out at some point and talk to us about what his client is feeling.
This is a conversation especially after all of those charges were laid down yesterday by D.A. Paul Howard. There's been a big conversation in the community about how this will move forward. The GBI hasn't finished their investigation. They're usually the ones who move forward with their investigation before the D.A. steps in.
We heard the D.A. really lay out a case yesterday and talk about the fact there's on that tape, that utterance from Rolfe where he says, "I got him" and then you saw a snapshot of the kick, which made a lot of people in this community very angry.
Then there's other folks who said they watched the video and they did not see that. But we can now confirm that that former officer has turned himself in to the Fulton County Jail. We believe he used a back Sally port to get inside the jail. We also know because he was a former officer he has to be segregated from the rest of the population. So that's something they had to set up here and they're going to have to have a high amount of security for him while he's in the population there. And, of course, we'll try figure out when that first court date is and get all the details so, but, Brooke, we wanted to you this quickly as possible.
BALDWIN: Got it. Appreciate it. So now former officer Garrett Rolfe, who faces that felony murder charge is now behind bars. Ryan, thank you so much for turning that around for us so quickly and getting the news on.
President Trump, he's having a bit of a bad week. Now he is raging against the U.S. Supreme Court after a conservative justice helps block his effort to end DACA.
Also, John Bolton joins the list of former White House officials who say President Trump is unfit for office and that is just one of multiple damning claims ahead of release of his tell-all book.
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BALDWIN: Here's a quote: Do you get the impression that the Supreme Court doesn't like me?
That is a direct quote from the President today tweeting after this second stinging defeat from the Supreme Court this week. Today's decision on DACA, the court ruled 5-4 that the President does not have the power to end an Obama era program that protects hundreds of thousands of immigrants known at DREAMers brought to the U.S. as children from deportation.
And it was Chief Justice John Roberts who actually sided with the liberal justices to keep DACA in place. President Trump clearly none too pleased about this decision. Also tweeting out that he will be releasing a new list of conservative Supreme Court Justice nominees.
We should remind the President that he has successfully appointed not one but two Supreme Court Justices. One of whom sided with the liberal justices on Monday's LGBTQ ruling.
So, with me now, CNN Supreme Court analyst Joan Biskupic and Raul Reyes, attorney and member of the "USA Today" board of contributors. And so welcome to both of you. And, Joan, I mean you wrote the book on John Roberts. What did you think when you saw the Chief Justice write the opinion?
JOAN BISKUPIC, CNN SUPREME COURT ANALYST: Well, you know, I love the way Donald Trump says it's all about him. Well, for John Roberts, it's all about John Roberts. This was a real legacy move with some classic John Roberts touches.
First of all, I should mention that back in November during oral arguments, he did drop some hints that he was reluctant to have the Supreme Court be part of a massive rollback of a program that has benefited 700,000 young immigrants. You know, people who could experience some hardships that maybe the administration did not consider when it started its phaseout program. So, we had those hints.
But today, what he did, Brooke, were two things. First of all, bring down the temperature in a battle between, you know, President Trump, the judiciary, these challengers, trying to sort of bring a certain kind of steadiness to the court and to this dispute and say, neither side is going to win big time.
Obviously, there's a big win for these DACA recipients who can now breathe a sigh of relief. But John Roberts didn't say this cannot be phased out. He just said you have to do it properly. And his ruling recalled two prior rulings that you know. One from last year when he said that the Commerce Secretary can add a citizenship question to the 2020 census
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But the way that the Trump administration tried to do it was flawed. Just like here. You can phase this out, but you did not follow the proper procedures.
And then the other ruling that this really recalls is his 2012 decision when John Roberts voted with the four liberals as he did today to save the Affordable Care Act, the signature domestic program of President Obama. And here he is again today preserving an Obama-era program with a bit of a thumb to the eye of President Trump, who is certainly taking it that way.
BALDWIN: Yes, yes. No, no. Take a look a look at this twitter and you can tell that he is. And Raul to you, you know, the ruling itself. I mean, you know, Joan said, this means 700,000 young immigrants protected by DACA get to breathe this sigh of relief. You know, talk to me more about that and then also what the ruling means for new people who can apply?
RAUL REYES, CNN, IMMIGRATION ANALYST: Right. So, what the -- Joan's absolutely correct. What the court did here in my view it's actually surprising. Because remember, typically when the Supreme Court weighs in on an issue, it's a major issue of federal law or where we have some type of competing decisions, contrasting decisions in the lower courts. That wasn't the case here.
So, a lot of court observers took the fact that the Supreme Court even agreed to hear this case as sort of an ominous sign for the fate of DACA. So now when I look at what Chief Justice Roberts has written and what he said about this case, it's not just a win for the DREAMers. I see it as a win for integrity of the court, for judicial independence.
Because up to now this court particularly on immigration has been inclined to give the Trump administration a pass on things like the asylum restrictions. Letting him go forward with construction of the border wall. The Remain in Mexico policy. So, this is not something that the Trump administration expected. And what it means for these DACA recipients, it's about, as you said, about 700,000 of them. But remember most of them we're brough here on average at age 6. You know, they had no say in being in this country. I think there's about 29,000 who are health care workers. There are 19,000, I believe, who are teachers. These are people who are playing a very critical role especially now that we're in this pandemic.
So, the fact that they can breathe a sigh of relief is a tremendous victory for the DREAMers and their activism. But -- and this is an important caveat -- the Supreme Court has punted this issue back to Trump. And if he wanted to, technically, theoretically, he could go head with a plan to end DACA.
But as the Solicitor General Noel Francisco said at the oral arguments on behalf of the Trump administration, we own this. So, the question is going forward, does the Trump administration want to pursue a program that overall is supported by 85 percent of Americans? I mean, polling last week from Politico showed even 69 percent of Trump voters support keeping DACA in place.
So, this gives the administration -- it takes away any cover they might have had in trying to hide behind the Supreme Court decision and eliminate DACA. If they want to end the program, it's on them.
BALDWIN: DACA today. LGBTQ earlier this week. Joan and Raul, thank you very much.
REYES: Thank you.
BALDWIN: You know, when you at this past week for the President, not great if you're President Trump. And that doesn't stop there with those huge rulings. The former National Security Adviser, John Bolton, is about to release his tell-all book describing all the ways he says that President Trump is unfit for office and the details are damning. That's next.
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BALDWIN: It's been a rough 24 hours for President Trump. This morning as we were just discussing the Supreme Court voted 5-4 to block his administration's attempt to end the DACA program. Despite the President's claim that the
coronavirus is quote/unquote, dying out, ten states are reporting a record number of new cases this week. Also, you have this former National Security Adviser launching this media tour for his new tell- all book by declaring this.
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JOHN BOLTON, FORMER NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I don't think he's fit for office. I don't think he has the competence to carry out the job.
There really isn't any guiding principle that I was able to discern, other than what's good for Donald Trump's reelection.
I think he was so focused on the reelection, that longer-term considerations fell by the wayside.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BALDWIN: John Bolton now joining the list, the growing list of past Trump White House officials who have spoken out against the President. So, with me now, "New York Times" opinion columnist Frank Bruni, his new column is called "The Revenge of The Trump Tattletales: Keep Your Friends Close and Your Enemies Away From Book Publishers." Frank Bruni, always a pleasure to have you on. And we'll get to some of the tattletales here in just a second.
But, you know, just looking at this week, 30,000-foot view, you know, hasn't been great for the President. And then just this afternoon he has tweeted about the Supreme Court not liking him and then the "Wall Street Journal" is reporting that Trump thinks that he made Juneteenth very famous. Go. Go, Frank.
FRANK BRUNI, "NEW YORK TIMES" OPINION COLUMNIST: Where does one begin with all of that? Yes, we have President Trump to thank for the fact that the nation is waking up to Juneteenth. I mean, this is not a good week for the President.
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He has not had a good week in a very, very long time. The Bolton book I think in particular is what makes this week significant. Because we're talking about somebody who had access to some of the stuff we've all been most concerned about and most curious about. And while what John Bolton is saying is not surprising in the least, it's damning in the extreme. And you heard a taste of it in that interview right there. The book obviously has more of it buried within a whole lot of other stuff. I hope readers aren't expecting, you know, a front to back pot boiler from this book but they are going to get the latest chilling look at the man who was elected President in 2016.
BALDWIN: Is some of it not surprising me. There is that detail, I mean we have to talk about one of the most damning things that Bolton reveals about President Trump that he had no problem with China's concentration camps for Uighur Muslims. You know, during this meeting at the G20 last year, Trump said that Xi should just go ahead, build the camps, which Trump thought was quote, unquote, exactly the right thing to do.
I mean you make it clear that this administration is leaky, you know, the negative stories are going to come out all the time, but this is abhorrent -- Frank.
BRUNI: Well, it is abhorrent. But this is the President who also put children in cages, you know, right over the border. I don't think there's been a single chapter of Trump's presidency where we have mistaken him as human being who was concerned with human rights.
So, I mean, you know, we're seeing some really, really rancid flesh put on the skeleton of what we already knew. But I don't think, I mean, Brooke, is there a dimension of Trump in here that you thought I never considered that before. You maybe didn't think it was as bad as what Bolton is saying. But it's not like we're having an entirely new character revealed to us.
It is also interesting, you mentioned, we talked about my column being called "Revenge of The Tattletales" plural. It is an indictment of this President, an ongoing indictment of this President that people who work for him and get an up-close look do not feel any sense of loyalty after the fact. They do not feel like they need to protect him, they feel like they need to tell the truth about him. They feel like they need to warn the public about him.
And we could have a longer conversation about how long John Bolton waited to do that, he is no hero here but he's the latest in a line that will continue. But people who are basically saying to Americans, I saw it up close. And if you saw it up close, you would not want another four years.
BALDWIN: Let me quote you. But many others have yet to spill the beans. At least not every last lima, pinto and garbanzo. And I think we're on the cusp of a bean buffet. As Trump grows even meaner and more erratic and as the election nears, the impulse to expose him will intensify. It could be what topples him.
Just quickly, Frank, how do you mean?
BRUNI: What I mean is just a couple weeks ago we saw General Mattis, who had taken such enormous pride in holding his tongue. And in fact, that's a long tradition among military leaders. Whatever your differences you don't speak ill of the sitting President. General Mattis in "Atlantic" in a very withering statement that is a companion piece of sorts to John Bolton's book said, I can't be silent any longer. I have to tell you have to tell about this President.
The President's niece will have a book out in about a next month, right. We have not had a book I don't think to date from a relative of Trump's. I don't think that's going to be all of it. Because I believe that people feel to hold your tongue at this point, to not tell the public what you know is essentially to be unpatriotic.
BALDWIN: Frank Bruni on "The Revenge of The Tattletales" in "The New York Times." Frank, thank you. Good to see you.
Coming up, Facebook just took down a bunch of Trump campaign ads that include a symbol practically identical to the one used by the Nazis. We'll be right back.
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BALDWIN: In the latest blow to President Trump's 2020 reelection campaign, Facebook has just taken down multiple campaign ads that included a symbol identical to one used by Nazis. CNN's Donie O'Sullivan is following the details. And, Donie, what do we know?
DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Hey, Brooke, yes, this ad from the Trump campaign was attacking far left groups, actually what the Trump campaign described as dangerous mobs of groups that are rioting across America including the far-left group Antifa. Now the Anti-Defamation League which is a group that tracks sort of hate here across the United States pointed out that this ad also included a red triangle, a picture of a red triangle. And ADL pointed out that that is practically identical to what was used by the Nazi regime to classify political prisoners in concentration camps.
Now that is an assessment essentially which Facebook has agreed with and they told us in a statement this afternoon they have taken action. They've taken the ads down saying that they removed them for violating our policies against organized hate. A policy that prohibits banned hate group symbols to identify political prisoners without the context that condemns or discusses the symbol.
Now, the Trump campaign are insisting that this red triangle is used by Antifa. A lot of people are saying that is not at all the case, including the ADL. And the Trump campaign essentially saying they've done nothing wrong. But I think what this all underlines of course is that Facebook, and Mark Zuckerberg and Silicon Valley and the debate about speech online and behavior online is going to play a pivotal role in November's election.
BALDWIN: And also, just speaking of Facebook, just quickly. You know, Mark Zuckerberg still really kind of in the spotlight to call out disformation on Facebook.
O'SULLIVAN: Absolutely, and you know, he got a ton of criticism a few weeks ago when you 'll remember that when Trump posted that looting leads to shooting. Twitter took action on that labeling it as a glorification of violence. Facebook did nothing about it and a lot of people including even at Facebook were very critical of Zuckerberg not taking action there. Clearly today is different, they are taking action and it will be interesting to see how Trump reacts to this. You know, he signed an executive order on social media companies --
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