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Trump Tulsa Campaign Did Not Meet Expectations; Phoenix, Arizona Is Trump's Next Campaign Stop; NASCAR Bans Confederate Flag; Bolton's Tell-All Book Might Risk Jail Time; Florida Woman Fights Against A Confederate Statue To Be Removed In Her Community. Aired 5- 6p ET

Aired June 21, 2020 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: They test and they test. We had to test the people who don't know what's going on. We got a test. We got another over here. The young man is 10-years-old. He's got the sniffles. He'll recover in about 15 minutes. That's a case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: A joke, even as the virus has claimed nearly 120,000 lives here in the United States. A joke, even though six of the president's own campaign staffers have tested positive for the virus while they were working on this rally that health experts begged him not to have.

And he had what the Trump campaign was not willing to joke about, the lack of people who showed up for what was supposed to be his triumphant return to the campaign trail. The Tulsa Fire Department says just over 6,000 people were inside a venue that can hold 19,000. The Trump campaign disputes that number.

Meantime, Trump is set to hold another campaign event this week this time in Arizona, but pulled (ph) -- once again, I have to show the spotlight with the coronavirus because cases there are spiking. Let's get over to the White House and CNN's Kristin Holmes. Kristin, White House officials are insisting that the president was kidding about slowing down testing.

KRISTIN HOLMES, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's right, Boris. And this is not the first time they have used this defense when President Trump has said something that is extremely controversial. The difference is, as you said, the backdrop of coronavirus. The fact that we are nearing that 120,000 cases.

However, they are sticking with that narrative. Administration officials say, he was "obviously kidding. And then White House trade advisor, Peter Navarro doubling down on that narrative in an interview with our Jake Tapper. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) PETER NAVARRO, WHITE HOUSE TRADE ADVISER: You know, it was tongue in

cheek.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: Did the president -

NAVARRO: Come on, now. That was tongue in cheek, please.

TAPPER: I don't know that it was tongue in cheek at all.

NAVARRO: I know what's tongue in cheek.

TAPPER: He has said similar sayings for months.

NAVARRO: That's news for you, tongue in cheek.

TAPPER: He has said similar things for months.

Are you preparing for a second wave in the fall?

NAVARRO: Of course -

TAPPER: You're preparing for a second wave in the fall.

NAVARRO: You prepare, you prepare for what can possibly happen. I'm not saying it's going to happen, but of course you prepare and I'll tell you what. We're a lot more prepared under this president than we were when China foisted this on us to begin with.

And let's not forget that, Jake. China created this pandemic. They hid the virus, they created that virus, and they send over hundreds of thousands of Chinese citizens here to spread that around and around the world.

TAPPER: Did you say China created this virus? Did I hear you wrong?

NAVARRO: You did not hear me wrong. That virus was a product of the Chinese Communist Party, and until we get some information about what happened in those labs, what happened in that wet market, we know that that virus was spawned in China. That is what I mean.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

HOLMES: So, you hear that, you know, Jake Tapper there asking again and again, was it purposely created? We heard Navarro say that's an open question. He said that China was guilty until proven innocent, but also in that interview, he repeatedly called it the China virus, the Wuhan virus.

I note that because last night President Trump in his rally noted that and said China virus, Wuhan virus, but then he took it a step further when he said it was called it the "kung flu." Now, Navarro later after this interview was asked by reporters about those remarks. He also said that those were just another light moment during last night's rally.

SANCHEZ: A light moment, something that White House official, Kellyanne Conway previously said was incredibly offensive and denied that it had been said to one of our colleagues there at the White House. Kristin Holmes thanks so much for your reporting.

Despite bragging that 1 million people had RSVP'd for his event in Tulse, the crowd at Trump's rally failed to meet expectation. And it turns out many of those who asked for tickets may have actually been trolling the president in a stunt organized mainly through the social medai platform TikTok.

For that part of the story, let's bring in CNN reporter Donie O'Sulivan. Donie, the Tuls Fire Department said there were around 6,200 people on hand. The Trump campaign is denying that. They say it was about double that, some close to 12,000. Either way, the venue was clearly not filled. So what happened?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Boris. We should obviously point out here that there wasn't a cap on the number of people that could request tickets for the rally so it wasn't as if the TikTok users were blocking real Trump supporters for going to the rally in some way.

So the fact that the Trump campaign was unable to fill this 20,000 capacity arena isn't the Tiktokers fault necessarily. Now, I want to show you what this campaign online look like, this protest of Trump. Take a look at this TikTok of Toren Hudson (ph), a 16-year-old who took part in the protest.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HUDSON (ph): Guys, I actually just reserved two free tickets for the Tulsa, Oklahoma Trump rally on Juneteenth. And now I can't go, because my dog's goldfish's funeral is that day. So, it'd be a shame though if like everyone else did this and then there were empty seats at the rally.

[17:05:01]

That'd be really bad, because we don't want that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'SULLIVAN: So there was that massive push there for people to register for the event and not go, even including K-Pop, South Korean pop music fans who are among the sort of most organized people on the internet were involved in this effort. Boris?

SANCHEZ: Yes. I did not expect K-Pop fans to be organizing this kind of political stunt. Donie, what's the Trump campaign saying about al of this?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes, so Brad Parscale, the Trump campaign manager put out a statement earlier today, saying that leftists and online trolls doing a victory lap thinking they somehow impacted rally attendance don't know what they're talking about or how our rallies work.

Registering for at a rally means you've RSVP's with a cellphone number and we constantly weed out bogus numbers. Those phony ticket requests never factor into our thinking.

But all week the Trump campaign and the president himself were boasting about a million people registering for the events. So, if the campaign really did weed out a lot of those bogus claims, the question still remains where were those 1 million people last night? Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes. And where were those 40,000 people that the president expected to address just outside an event that had to be cancelled, clearly no where near 20,000 inside of the arena, just falling short of expectations. Donie O'Sullivan, thank you for that.

Look, it's no secret the president deeply cares about crowd size and media coverage. So let's look at some of the headlines that this event last night is generating. "Trump rallies in red state America and faces a sea of empty blue seats," that in "The Washington Post."

The "A.P." with "Trump comeback rally features empty seats, staff infections." From "The New York Times," "Trump rally fizzles as attendance falls short of campaign's expectations." And from conservative leaning "Drudge Report," "MAGA less mega."

Joining me now to discuss the fallout from last night's rally and more is the former director of Richard Nixon's presidential library and our presidential historian, Tim Naftali, and assistant editor for "Washington Post" David Swerdlick.

Tim, first to you, TikTok campaign or not, it doesn't fully explain why Trump's base didn't show up in the numbers that the campaign was touting beforehand the numbers we're used to seeing. The campaign claims that supporters were scared away because of violence and thugs, as the president called protesters. Our reporters on the ground did not see anyone being blocked from getting in. What do you make of all of this?

TIM NAFTALI, CNN PRSIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, this is an extraordinary moment for a campaign that was trying to hit the reset button. The campaign not only assumed that it would fill a 19,000--seat auditorium, but that they would fill an overflow area.

In fact, they were so confident that they would fill that overflow area that Air Force One took a little ride over it so they could look at the gathering numbers of supporters. I believe it was on Air Force One that they decided that since there weren't any, that they would cancel that overflow opportunity.

So, this was a major, major defeat for the campaign. TikTok activism or not, however funny, and I'm sure helpful it was to, you know, the resistance; the fact of the matter is they couldn't get their own people out.

And they couldn't get their own people out, one, partly because of a lack of enthusiasm, but two, because of the virus. So there are two kinds of denials, two kinds forms of denial that I think the campaign is in. One is about the enthusiasm at the moment for the president, and two, it's about fear of COVID. The fact of the matter is, the campaign is in denial of something that Trump supporters apparently understand in Oklahoma at least.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Look, the president got an early lead in the 2016 primaries in part because he got a lot of attention for stoking racial divides. He's made a number of racist statements as president, and he made a series of racially charged statement last night. Let's listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So if you want to save your heritage, you want to save that beautiful heritage of us, we have a great heritage. We're a great country. You are so lucky I'm president. That's all I can tell you.

I like the NFL. I like Roger Goodell, but I didn't like what he said a week ago. I said, where did that come from in the middle of summer? Nobody is even asking. We will never kneel to our national anthem or our great American flag.

It's a disease, without question, has more names than any disease in history. I can name "kung flu."

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Just as a point of clarity here, the statement that Roger Goodell made at the behest of a number of NFL players was simply Black Lives Matter.

[17:10:00]

David, given the current climate, the reckoning of the country's experiencing on race, is this as effective a tactic for President Trump as it was four years ago?.

DAVID SWERDLICK, ASSISTANT EDITOR, THE WASHINGTON POST: I don't think it is, Boris, and Happy Father's Day to my dad and all the dads. Look, here's the problem with President Trump. Now he's locked into speaking to that 40 to 45 percent of the country.

And so last night we saw him out there, a little rusty, doing his greatest hits, "kung flu." In the recent weeks he's been all over the map, on the NFL and Kaepernick trying to play both sides of that issue.

It's not working, making some wild and inaccurate claims about what he has done for black America. And overall, I think the speech was just lackluster. As Tim said, it was a flop. I expect polls to tighten up as we head toward November.

This is still anybody's race, but President Trump and his campaign team realized that their play really is continue to divide because his -- the president's behavior has been so consistently divisive and at times racist over the course of the last 3 1/2 years, that he just is not seen as a sort of credible interlocutor on issues of race. He's not an honest broker on race.

And so he doesn't have that avenue to pivot to, and now it's about trying to turn out core supporters. You know, the one remark about they're trying to do away with our heritage. I spent a few minutes last night just thinking, who does the word "our" refer to in that situation. And I think that is reflective of that trap that the president is in and last night he did not help himself.

SANCHEZ: Yes. President Trump, a native New Yorker, feel such an affinity for southern heritage. There was a bizarre moment last night, Tim, where the president addressed two things that drew attention during his speech he gave at West Point. One of them is when he very carefully made his way down the ramp. The other is when he appeared to awkwardly drink a glass of water. I think we have that clip.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So I was bent over, right? And I'm going like this.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: Trump spent more than 10 minutes talking about his appearance at West Point, and our fabulous producer, Laney, helped me look into this. He spent roughly 30 seconds talking about the lives lost to coronavirus. What do you think, Tim?

NAFTALI: Two things. One, he's lost his mojo, at least for the moment. One of the things he was in 2016 for many Americans was the shock and awe candidate, and now it is pathetic. He's trying to explain something that went wrong at West Point.

Second issue is you don't make a joke of death. You don't -- you never tongue in cheek about death. The way in which he talked about coronavirus is a reminder that he still doesn't take it seriously and is afraid of its political effects on his future.

SWERDLICK: Boris, can I just add one thing to what Tim said?

SANCHEZ: Of course.

SWERDLICK: One also stunned me about this - well, not stunned, but what struck me about this speech is that even now there is so little conservatism in a speech coming from a Republican president.

No talk about not relying too much on government, no optimism, no stoicism, just sort of this amalgamation of grievance and division that is his formula, and again that he stuck with.

And, you know, he has taken his party in a particular direction. Again, I think they think it's going to work, but he has taken his party in a direction that's a departure from his Republican predecessors.

SANCHEZ: The other thing that really strikes me about last night's event, David, is that if the campaign had not made such a big deal about the million people that wanted to show up and get tickets, we probably wouldn't be emphasizing the crowd size right now and the campaign wouldn't be in a position to try to defend why we didn't see so many people there. It seems like they shot themselves in the foot.

SWERDLICK: Yes, they definitely did. They overplayed it and, you know, as I think I heard David Axelrod say, one of the things you want to do in partisan politics is under-promise and over-deliver. They did exactly the opposite of that.

You had people going out on various cable channels and in other venues saying we had hundreds of thousands of signups, and then you didn't even fill, if you go by the fire marshal, half of the B-O-K Center or BOK Center -- I'm not sure which one it is.

And again, I think that their campaign will adjust. There's a lot of time left, but last night they didn't help themselves. It was a flop.

[17:15:04]

SANCHEZ: It is the B-O-K Center by the way, David. Thank you both so much for joining us. Tim Naftali, David Swerdlick, enjoy the rest of your Sunday.

Up next, despite what the president said this week, the coronavirus pandemic is not dying out. In fact, 23 states are currently seeing an increase in new case numbers. Look at all the red on the map. We're going to breakdown those numbers and look at how to minimize your risk with a medical expert, next. You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

SANCHEZ: Welcome back. The next city to host a Trump rally in just a few days is Phoenix, Arizona. But a recent spike in coronavirus cases has local officials making masks mandatory. CNN's Kyung Lah reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

KYUNG LAH, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Pandemic? What pandemic?

What do you see when you look at that bar?

[17:19:56]

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Obviously they're definitely not social distancing and not wearing masks. Those are my friends over there. If they have coronavirus, I have coronavirus.

LAH (voice-over): This is the next state to host a presidential rally, Arizona, a growing COVID-19 hot spot and home to a fight over masks. Look up and down the street, and the impact of the virus is everywhere. Some businesses still shut down. Bright signs warn to socially distance. One bar worker in a mask, but many of these Tempe, Arizona, residents --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think the masks are good, but I think they kind of act as a placebo to some extent.

MURTAZA AKHTER, EMERGENCY ROOM DOCTOR: It angers me and I'm trying to be calm for this interview and for the camera. LAH (voice-over): Dr. Murtaza Akhter is an emergency room doctor in

Phoenix where he is seeing a dramatic increase in COVID patients, just like the rest of the state. This is what's happened to cases in Arizona since March. The number of new cases continues to break records nearly every day this week.

Arizona was among the first states to reopen. Businesses back, the gatherings followed like the protests of police brutality, and mask in public, as we saw in Tempe, not always used.

AKHTER: To tell the whole world that basically I'm a social Darwinist, if you die, I don't care, I just want my beer and burger, is really, I mean, even kindergarteners have more empathy for other people. It's really upsetting.

LAH (voice-over): Dr. Akhter is one of more than 3,000 doctors and nurses to sign this letter. The goal, to get Arizona's governor to issue a statewide mandate requiring masks writing, "Please stand up and educate as well as protect those who do not understand the importance of masks. Doug Ducey instead says he will leave those policies to each mayor.

AKHTER: The governor of our state is saying I'm going to let the mayors decide. I mean, the mayors could potentially say I'm going to let the neighborhoods decide. And as you can imagine, that breaks down pretty quickly.

LAH (on camera): So, ineffective.

AKHTER: Not as effective as it could be.

LAH (voice-over): Publicly, Governor Ducey has shifted. Last week at his weekly news conference, he carried his mask in his pocket. This week, he arrived wearing it. As Ducey prepares his state to host the perpetually mask-less president on Tuesday for a rally at an indoor mega church, the governor says the White House protocol will call for masks. Ducey stressed the 3,500 capacity event should go on.

DOUG DUCEY, GOVERNOR OF ARIZONA: We're going to protect people's rights to assemble in an election year.

LAH (voice-over): The city of Phoenix passed an ordinance requiring masks in public places. So, when the Trump campaign is here on Tuesday, will they be subject to this ordinance? The city says yes and has notified the White House about this ordinance.

If the president isn't wearing a mask, will that mean he'll get a ticket? Technically, yes. In reality, no. The city says this ordinance is meant to be led by education. Only the worst repeat offenders will be subject to tickets and fines. Kyung Lah, CNN, Scottsdale, Arizona.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

SANCHEZ: The CDC is set to make to updated recommendation on masks soon, according to senior aids and senior (ph) official. They say a study is underway to figure out if masks can actually protect you from getting COVID yourself.

But as we await that update, the White House seems to be downplaying the pandemic. Last night at his rally in Oklahoma, President Trump said he told officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing because of the rising number of cases in the United States.

Of course, his campaign says that was just a joke, but also in a "Wall Street Journal" op-ed, Vice President Mike Pence claimed, "There isn't a coronavirus second wave." This coming as administration officials tell CNN they are actively preparing for a second wave. With me now is Dr. William Schaffner. He is a professor of infectious diseases at Vanderbilt University.

Dr. Schaffner, thank you so much for joining us. I'm curious about what your reaction is to the administration seemingly downplaying the status of the pandemic.

WILLIAM SCHAFFNER, PROFESSOR, INFECTIOUS DISEASES, VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY: Well, you know the pandemic is here, Boris. COVID hasn't taken a summer vacation. It's spreading throughout the United States. We're still in that first wave and we are concerned that this fall there would be a second wave that might even be higher.

And apropos of mass (inaudible), we should all be doing that. People have a really hard time with that. They have a hard time understanding that they could be perfectly well, but still infected with the virus. They have a hard time wearing the mask for the protection of others.

It intrudes on their independence, and of course, it's been politicized and the messaging has been confusing. So, here we are, but mask wearing is absolutely fundamental as a way of reducing the spread of this virus.

[17:24:56]

SANCHEZ: Right. Doctor, I want to ask you about my home state of Florida. Over 3,000 new cases were reported in Florida today. Yesterday, more than 4,000, and that was a daily record. Is Florida now becoming the next epicenter?

SCHAFFNER: Well, it looks that way, Boris. We're having epicenters of various kinds around the country. And of course, that has to do with opening up and people not being careful enough in addition to the masks, you know, the social distancing and avoiding large gatherings. Large gatherings, particularly indoors, that's an ideal circumstance for this COVID virus to spread.

SANCHEZ: Something I found interesting about the situation in Florida is in regards to something that the governor, Ron DeSantis, pointed out. Cases are shifting in a radical direction toward people in their 20s and 30s. What does that say to you?

SCHAFFNER: Well, it shows that first of all, we're testing more broadly and we're finding more of those cases, which of course is very, very important. And these people tend to be less symptomatic, they get less ill, and they tend therefore to be spreaders. They can spread it among their fellow workers, their family members, and to people who they know who are older who might get more ill.

SANCHEZ: Right. I do want to ask you about New York City too. It's still on track to begin a phase two reopening tomorrow. It's a huge milestone for a city that's been ravaged by the disease. So what should other cities and states they take away from the turnaround in New York?

SCHAFFNER: Well, there's the example. The hottest spot in the country, people generally observing the restrictions, the recommendations for social distancing, and mask wearing in this highly congested place, and things were able to be turned down and around.

Now, we'll see whether we can maintain that. Maintaining these constrictions, these recommendations are, of course, very, very important. And the maintenance, if I'm asked, over the next months we are having to sustain this over the long haul.

SANCHEZ: Yes. Still an open question especially considering that in so many other areas we have seen a spike in rates of infection after reopening. Dr. William Schaffner, we appreciate the time sir. Thank you for joining us.

SCHAFFNER: Likewise.

SANCHEZ: Coming up - of course - coming up, defund NASCAR, that was the message being flown outside the Talladega Super Speedway today. Take a look. This is after NASCAR banned the Confederate flag from its events. We'll take you live to Talladega, next. You're live in the "CNN Newsroom."

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:30:00]

SANCHEZ: NASCAR's ban on Confederate flags at races getting tested today in Alabama and fans are showing strong reactions to the new rule. CNN's Andy Scholes is there and he joins us now live. Andy, in the last few moments, we learned that the race is actually going to be postponed because of rain, right?

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS ANCHOR: Yes, that's correct, Boris. Yes, the race postponed now until tomorrow afternoon, but the fans they did show up today. You know, this first big sporting event here in the U.S since the pandemic to allow a large number of fans.

Five thousand fans were here today and a NASCAR official, you know, told me that the NASCAR -- that the Confederate flag ban is in place and if one of those fans, they try to enter the raceway with say, the Confederate flag on their shirt or hat, they were going to have to remove that in order to enter the event.

We walked around the grounds, many of the fans -- I only saw one person wearing a hat with the Confederate flag on it, but there was a plane flying around before the storms came in with the Confederate flag and the words "Defund NASCAR." Then across the street from the track there are a number of gift shops

selling Confederate flag memorabilia. We went over there and talked the owners of those shops. They actually said they've been selling more Confederate flag items since NASCAR decided to put the ban in place.

And they told me that they were going to continue to sell those items outside of NASCAR events moving forward. We walked around and we talked to a number of fans as well and asked them their thoughts on NASCAR's decision to ban the Confederate flag.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's a heritage thing with the southern people. I think until you bring it up, it's not a racist thing for them, most of those people and it's taking something else from them you know.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I didn't let it affect me, you know, I came here for the race and this and that, but I'm happy that they did do that. It's just progress and moving on.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I really didn't have a problem with the flag. It's just I feel like they're taking people's rights away.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm living the American dream. I'm Mexican and I'm selling Trump and Confederate paraphernalia. The American dream is, you know, you can come, anybody can come here and make a dollar and that's what I'm doing.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

SCHOLES: Yes. And Steve O'Donnell, NASCAR executive vice president actually tweeted responding to that plane that was flying overhead. He said, "You won't see a photo of someone flying a flag over the track here, but you will see this. Hope everyone enjoys the race today, with that image right there, Boris.

SANCHEZ: Yes, Andy. You can see in the tweet he didn't say someone, but I'm glad you chose a different word. You noted that there were a limited number of fans being allowed into Talladega today under some strict new rules to try to limit the spread of coronavirus.

Alabama is seeing a big spike in cases right now. What's NASCAR doing to ensure the safety of its fans?

[17:34:59]

SCHOLES: Well, Boris, Talladega Super Speedway, I mean, usually holds more than 100,000 fans. I mean, they're only letting in 5,000 today. So that helps lend to social distancing, and you had to have your temperature checked as you entered the grounds here in Alabama.

You also had to wear a mask in order to enter the race. And of course they had social distancing protocols in place, but we spoke to a number of fans and they told us that they did feel safe in this atmosphere. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIPS)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: The best thing is a social distance, away from everybody so, you know, that's a good thing. Sit four people to a spot and (inaudible) four more people to another spot, you know, so. We're going to have a good etime.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We finally realize that we could come to a sporting event, which was awesome. So, just coming out here right now, I mean, yes it's kind of weird wearing the masks and everything, but I think we're just excited to be at a sporting event now so, it's been awesome.

(END VIDEO CLIPS)

SCHOLES: And Boris, that gentleman was wearing a cap and gown because he said his graduation was canceled. So he and his buddies, there were four of them, were out here in cap and gown celebrating their graduation at the race. Maybe they'll have to come back tomorrow now that it's been postponed.

SANCHEZ: That's right, postponed until tomorrow. Andy Scholes from Talladega, thank so much.

Coming up, every attempt to block it. Despite that, the tell-all book by John Bolton is set to be released Tuesday. But that doesn't mean that Bolton is out of the woods yet for potential criminal liability. That story, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[17:40:00]

SANCHEZ: White House trade adviser, Peter Navarro, attacking the credibility of the president's former National Security adviser, John Bolton, for claiming in his new tell-all book that Trump asked Xi Jinping, the president of China, for help winning re-election.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAVARRO: He will not only not get the profits from that book, but he risks a jail sentence. He has done something that is very, very serious in terms of American national security and he's got to pay a price for that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: To discuss, we have Anne Milgram. She's a CNN legal analyst and the former New Jersey attorney general. Anne, is Peter Navarro right here. Is Bolton risking jail time by putting out this book?

ANNE MILGRAM, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: Well, you know, what the court has said, and remember that we're only really in round one of this legal battle.

What the court has basically said is that the book can go out and be published on Tuesday, but that the court is going to consider questions as to whether or not Bolton violated his agreement not to put out classified information.

And so, at this moment, it's totally on the table that he could have his profits, for example, his -- the up-front $2 million that he was given, that could all be taken away by the court, but we don't know that yet.

And so, it's too soon to tell. What we do know is that the court has basically said the book is already out publicly, the judge is going to let it go, and the judge was also angry of Bolton for the way that he acted and short-circuiting the process that currently exists.

SANCHEZ: Yes, I want to read you part of a statement put out by the judge where he calls out Bolton. He writes, "Unilateral fast tracking carry the benefit of publicity and sales and the cost of substantial risk exposure. This was Bolton's bet: If he's right and the book does not contain classified information, he keeps the upside mentioned above, but if he's wrong, he stands to lose his profits from the book deal, exposes himself to criminal liability, and imperils national security. Bolton was wrong."

In your estimation, do you agree that Bolton endangered national security?

MILGRAM: Well, I think the judge went on to say something else, which I think is really important, which is that Bolton was going through this pre-clearance process, which is always mandated when you have access to classified information.

And so, people go through it all the time. All the tell-all books that we've seen come out of the administration have gone through this. Bolton was almost through it and there was a change, somebody else was brought in to oversee more of that pre-clearance process.

Now, Bolton's argument is that this was totally political, that he had already had gotten signed off by the chief person in charge of this and it was a political act.

And so what the judge points out and I think is 100 percent right, which is that if Bolton didn't think it was being done fairly, if he thought that there was corruption or political motivations, it was up to John Bolton to walk into court and sue the administration.

To basically say, look, my book needs to be released, not to just unilaterally say I'm not going to follow the rules, I'm going to basically just release my book without getting this pre-clearance.

So, the judge is clearly angry because of the process that Bolton followed and that he basically just made a decision on his own without letting there be a final sign-off on whether or not there is classified information, which of course should not be made public.

SANCHEZ: Yes. We want to pivot now to the controversial firing of Geoffrey Berman, former U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York. This morning, House Judiciary Chairman, Jerry Nadler, was asked about Attorney General Bill Barr's role in all of it. Watch this clip from "State of the Union" with Jake Tapper."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JERRY NADLER, CHAIRMAN, HOUSE JUDICIARY COMMITTEE: We have seen a pattern of the president opposing of Barr corruptly impeding all these investigations so, this is just more of the same.

He certainly deserves impeachment, but again that's a waste of time, because the Republicans in the Senate won't look at that and we have other ways of getting at this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: We're saying that impeaching Barr is a waste of time, but even if Barr isn't impeached, are there legal ramifications he could wind up facing down the road?

MILGRAM: I mean, I certainly think that Barr could be subpoenaed in the House to testify, and look, by any sort of common sense analysis, what Barr did, it just doesn't add up, right. You've five months into an election.

Obviously, after that election, if the president was re-elected and wanted to replace Geoffrey Berman with Clayton or somebody else -- Clayton I would argue is not qualified having never really seen the inside of a courtroom or litigated a case or prosecuted a case.

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And it's highly unusual to put somebody in as a U.S. attorney who hasn't been a prosecutor. But even so, let's say that they did want to sort of change horses at the Southern District, you would wait until after the election.

In the lead-up and trying to put in the acting New Jersey U.S. Attorney as the acting Southern District prosecutor, it really looks like there's something that they're trying to control and avoid, whether it's an existing investigation and we know there are many including, you know, Rudy Giuliani, the Trump inaugural committee, the indictment of the Turkish State Bank.

I mean, there are so many possible things, or it's even possible that there's something new that we don't know about. And so to me, it just - it really doesn't pass the smell test the way that they did it and Barr should have to answer for that and he should have to explain.

Because to me, one of the things we have seen is a deep political -- they made the Department of Justice very political. Of course, I'm an alumn of the department.

I feel very passionately about it being a place that should be free of politics and that there should not be playing politics with criminal investigations. And so, I too have deep concerns like a lot of other people have expressed about the attorney general's actions here.

SANCHEZ: And he raised a good point, given indications of things that we've heard from Lindsey Graham, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, it does not sound like there's a good chance for a confirmation before the election. Anne Milgram, we appreciate your perspective. Thank you.

MILGRAM: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: Up next, we'll take you to Florida, where a woman is fighting the relocation of a Confederate statue at her local courthouse. That story, next.

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SANCHEZ: A woman in Florida has fought for years to keep a Confederate statue out of her community. For her, the fight is personal. CNN's Rosa Flores has the story.

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ROSA FLORES, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): What was your grandmother's name?

MAE HAZELTON, LAKE COUNTY RESIDENT: Nelly. She was a fighter and she loved life.

FLORES (voice-over): Mae Hazelton has been in the fight of her life for the past two years.

HAZELTON: -- because there must be a change, Rosa. There must be a change. And if we give up in this little corner of our world, then where does the country go?

FLORES (voice-over): Hazelton who says her great grandmother was part slave, part seminal, has been on a mission against the move to relocate this statue of Confederate General Edmund Kirby Smith from the hallowed halls of Congress, to this historic courthouse in Lake County, Florida. A place 65-year-old Hazelton says she has feared since she was a little girl.

HAZELTON: The terror of our lives was in that building. I think of black men that were beaten there and tortured there.

FLORES (voice-over): Like the Groveland Four, four young black men who in 1949 were accused of a crime they didn't commit. Tortured and subjected to racially motivated oppression, this memorial went up outside the courthouse last year when the young men were posthumously pardoned.

HAZELTON: If you put a statue in here you're saying nothing's really changed. I really hope that I'm conveying not just my passion but how wrong this is.

FLORES (voice-over): Hazelton's fight started in June of 2018 when she learned from a news article that the statue was moving to the courthouse. FLORES (on camera): What did you think?

HAZELTON: We were shocked. Shocked, dismayed.

FLORES (voice-over): And she wondered just how a statue of a Confederate general with no link to Lake County could be moved into a government building without public input.

HAZELTON: Now, I say the county commission should have told us.

FLORES (voice-over): That's when she and a group of residents set off on a mission to find the truth.

BOB GRENIER, CURATOR, LAKE COUNTY HISTORICAL SOCIETY: Because I've been working on this myself and hoping and praying for the last the two years, over two years.

FLORES (voice-over): It turns out, in June 2018, Bob Grenier, the curator of the Lake County Historical Society argued before a Florida Department of State committee to move the statue to Lake County.

GRENIER: As far a support goes, all five county commissioners I met with individually and I've got e-mails from them over the last couple of days saying, go get it, Bob. Best of luck. Get the statue. Bring it back home to Lake County.

FLORES (on camera): The public didn't know about this?

HAZELTON: No. And the only way we knew about it is through public records request.

FLORES (voice-over): Eight cities in Lake County passed resolutions opposing the move and residents spoke out against it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I think as a descendants of confederate brethrens and slave owners, the least I could do to atone for all the pain my family has caused them is to oppose this statue.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These statues only exist in a sick attempt to preserve human slavery.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: There is no real need for this statue. It serves no purpose other than to further divide us.

FLORES (voice-over): Commissioner Leslie Campione defended the statue saying the display would not glorify the man nor the confederacy.

LESLIE CAMPIONE, LAKE COUNTY COMMISSIONER: It will describe Smith's military service and will tell about his career and his friendship with Dr. Alexander Darnes. He became the first black doctor in Jacksonville.

HAZELTON: Alexander Darnes was Kirby Smith's slave. Period. By any other name, if I only knew and I can't walk away to freedom, I am your slave. FLORES (voice-over): As Confederate statues around the country got

torn down in the wake of the death of George Floyd, Hazelton kept fighting.

FLORES (on camera): What makes you keep going?

HAZELTON: What makes me keep going is my grandmother. My grandmother was illiterate, but my grandma said, you fight, and she said, fight for what's right.

[17:55:00]

She said, you stand up for what's right or you lay down for what's wrong.

FLORES (on camera): Days after CNN interviewed Hazelton and requested interviews with Campione and Grenier which were denied, Campione had a change of heart.

CAMPIONE: I believe that this entire situation has created really unnecessary strife and division in our community and I know that it's harmed my relationship with some of my friends in the black community.

FLORES (voice-over): With that, Hazelton won her fight. Lake County commissioners plan to ask the state of Florida to find the statue a new home.

HAZELTON: We're at an inflection point in this country, and it is painful. Commissioner Campione, I heard the pain in your voice this morning, but nothing is as painful as staying at a point where you know that's not who we are.

FLORES (voice-over): Rosa Flores, CNN, Tavares, Florida.

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