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Republican National Convention Sets to Begin; Sentencing Hearing Begins for Christchurch Gunman; Protests After a Black Man was Shot by Police Officer; Bayern Munich Beat Paris Saint-Germain 1-0 in Final; FDA Gave Emergency Approval; Health Experts Dubious of FDA's Decision; RNC Kicks off Monday; Two Storms on its Way to the Gulf Coast; Acres of Land Burnt. Aired 3-4a ET

Aired August 24, 2020 - 03:00   ET

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

[03:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KIM BRUNHUBER, CNN ANCHOR: Calling it a historic breakthrough. President Trump praises the FDA's emergency's authorization of a coronavirus treatment, but medical experts warn the controversial decision has its flaws.

Plus, breakout stars and the Trumps. The Republican National Convention will feature some new and familiar faces, including appearances from Donald Trump all four nights. This.

And this.

Bayern Munich closes out the Champions League with another European title. We'll break down the emotional match.

Live from CNN world headquarters in Atlanta, welcome to you, our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Kim Brunhuber, and this is CNN Newsroom.

U.S. President Donald Trump says it has nothing to do with politics, but one day before the start of the national Republican convention, he announced the Food and Drug Administration would issue emergency use authorization for convalescent plasma to treatment COVID-19 patients. Even as many question whether there's enough data to support its use.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Today I'm pleased to make a truly historic announcement in our battle against the China virus that will save countless lives. This is a powerful therapy that transfuses very, very strong antibodies from the blood of recovered patients to help treat patients battling a current infection. It's had an incredible rate of success. Today's action will dramatically expand access to this treatment.

(END VIDEO CLIP) BRUNHUBER: Mr. Trump also says the FDA made a, quote, "independent determination that convalescent plasma is safe and effective." We hear how the head of the FDA describes it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He said that the FDA has made the independent determination that the treatment is safe and very effective. Yet, Dr. Hahn just said it was showing promising efficacy. So, which of the two is correct?

TRUMP: Well, I think I'll let Dr. Hahn answer that question.

STEPHEN HAHN, COMMISSIONER, FOOD AND DRUGS ADMINISTRATION: So, under our legal authority for emergency use authorization, this is not the same as an approval, but it's an authorization and allows us to expand the access to this. And our data, we know we're going to continue to collect data. We knew that for all our emergency use authorizations.

So, for example, Remdesivir approved on authorized on May 1st, we're still collecting data and will continue to do that with plasma as well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: CNN's Jeremy Diamond has more on the announcement from the White House.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: President Donald Trump on Sunday announcing that the FDA has approved an emergency use authorization for a potential coronavirus treatment, and that is convalescent plasma. Now, convalescent plasma certainly has been used already in about 70,000 patients here in the United States alone.

And there is some promising data behind it, but certainly randomized, controlled clinical trials have not yet reached a conclusion about this convalescent plasma's efficacy, but nonetheless, the president insisting that this is a historic breakthrough.

Now while this maybe certainly may be an incremental improvement, something that will widen the availability of plasma, to call this a breakthrough is simply not the case, but the president insisting that he was able to overcome what he called a logjam at the FDA.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Well, I think there might have been a holdup, but we broke the logjam over the last week, to be honest. I think that there are people in the FDA and actually in your larger department that can see things being held up and wouldn't mind so much. That's my opinion, a very strong opinion. And that's for political reasons. This has nothing to do with politics. This has to do with life and death.

(END VIDEO CLIP) DIAMOND: Those comments followed a tweet that the president issued, in which he made similar accusations about the FDA, accusing members of the, quote, unquote, "deep state," of trying to undermine him by slow-walking the approval of vaccines and coronavirus treatments. We should note there is absolutely no evidence to back that up.

And what is interesting here of course, is that the president appears to have put some significant political pressure, political pressure on the FDA to grant this emergency use authorization. And the timing, of course, is very notable.

The president is set to begin the Republican national committee over this coming week, and the president certainly looking for a win. So, this appears to be the one that the president was able to find for himself.

[03:05:01]

But, again, the way that the president described this as a breakthrough, as something historic, not the case. Jury is still out on convalescent plasma, but there is some promising data behind it.

Jeremy Diamond, CNN, the White House.

BRUNHUBER: The head of the Food and Drugs Administration denies his agency was pressured by the White House. Dr. Stephen Hahn says he's never been asked to make a decision based on politics and that the decisions at the FDA are based solely on data, but some are questioning the move.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: This was surprising to a lot of people. Just a couple, three days ago on the FDA's web site itself, it said there was not enough evidence to support an emergency use authorization. That was just, you know, a couple of days ago. It's not clear at all that there was any more data presented.

I've gone through their memorandum, decision memorandum, and I don't see any new data being presented, so I know that coronavirus task force members did not get any new data, so it's really unclear to me what exactly happened here.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Other medical experts are also weighing in, echoing Dr. Sanjay Gupta's findings that there is still not enough data to know how effective convalescent plasma is. One vaccine expert says he believes the White House may have bullied the FDA into giving emergency use authorization.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL OFFIT, DIRECTOR, VACCINE EDUCATION CENTER, CHILDREN'S HOSPITAL OF PHILADELPHIA: You have to prove that the plasma made a difference, and all the data so far really haven't done that. And that's why it is that the FDA was slow to approve the drug through EUA. Now we get an approval and the question is, are there more data that we haven't seen?

And if there were more data, you would think that they would have presented those data because it only makes their case better. By not presenting those new data, you wonder whether there really are any new data, and if there aren't, then what just happened is that the administration just bullied the FDA into approving something that they were uncomfortable about approving.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: And Democrat James Clyburn, chairman of the House select committee on the coronavirus crisis, had this reaction. I'm troubled by the president's desperate and dangerous pattern of pushing unproven treatments, as he did with hydroxychloroquine, and refusing to allow scientists to determine the appropriate authorizations and recommendations with respect to particular therapies.

All right. Let's bring in Dr. Keith Neal who has over 30 years controlling infectious diseases. He joins us now from Anglesey, Wales. Thank you so much for speaking with us, a lot to unpack here. And the key question, of course, is there any proof this works?

KEITH NEAL, INFECTIOUS DISEASE PHYSICIAN: I've not seen any. And I had two journals and read 100 papers a week on this sort of subject, and I would have expected any successful trial that is going to hit the New England Journal of Medicine or Lancet very quickly.

BRUNHUBER: So then, what do you think is behind this? Why would they seemingly rush this?

NEAL: I really know, I'm not really sure because I'm not how the legislation licensing works in the states. It certainly wouldn't happen in this country, although you can have compassionate use. That's mainly use for people with terminal cancer and new drugs that haven't really been even close to being tested.

What worries me is you've given the plasma to 70,000 people and it would be easy to get 70,000 controls. And we have the answer, does it work? I think one of the big criticisms, particularly that could be made of the Chinese, is that no trials were done properly in the initial stages. So, we never found out what worked and it showed the recovery trial in the United Kingdom to show the benefits of dexamethasone and how dangerous hydroxychloroquine was.

BRUNHUBER: OK. So, let's take it from the other side then. The commissioner of the Food and Drug Administration says the treatment was safe and had the potential to be helpful. So, with such a deadly disease, even if we don't have solid proof that it works, isn't there merits to the argument that if it's not outright dangerous we should, you know, try everything?

NEAL: I'm not quite sure we can even say it's not outright dangerous, giving a blood product which could transmit infections, although this would be screened out in most cases, and not do any good. We also know that some of the problems with COVID-19 are due to a cytokine storm which is an overstimulation of the immune system. And too many antibodies, particularly from those people who was seriously made -- who made more of it. It might actually be deleterious. We just don't know.

BRUNHUBER: Wow. So, you know, we know that just recently the FDA wasn't ready to approve this and then President Trump tweeted that the FDA is slow-walking a treatment and then, presto, it was approved. It's hard not to be under the impression that the FDA has been pressured here.

So as a scientist, how do you feel seeing, for instance, that the Trump -- that President Trump is suggesting that it's the deep state rather than the scientific method that's delaying potential treatments?

[03:09:59]

NEAL: I think there is always a caution on behalf of the regulators so they don't initiate treatments that are unhealthful or even dangerous. I think the best case would be for the FDA to publish the evidence that they've actually used to make this decision and then other regulatory bodies around the world can use this information to make informed decisions.

BRUNHUBER: There seems to be a rush to release things. We've seen, you know, Russia rush to release a vaccine without full trials. Is there a danger here that the U.S. administration might try to approve a vaccine that hasn't been, you know, fully tested before the election and what are the dangers if politics are driving the response here instead of science?

NEAL: I think if you listen to -- read what the Russian scientists actually have written then Putin's licensing of the vaccine was really a political publicity stunt. They openly admit they've only given it to 98 people who have actually shown an antibody response and they had just started the phase three trials. That makes it only the sixth vaccine to enter this phase three trial.

I do think the one thing that we do need to know is whether the vaccine actually works and does any protection because large swaths of the population, particularly those under 45, are at very low risk of getting COVID side effects or serious disease. And giving them an unsafe or useless vaccine would -- it entails risks that are not necessary.

BRUNHUBER: Well, listen, I really appreciate your insight in this as we're trying to understand all of this. Thank you very much, Dr. Keith Neal.

NEAL: OK.

BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Republican National Convention is set to kick off just hours from now. The party announced Sunday it will not adopt a new platform. It will instead maintain the party's 2016 platform and support president Donald Trump's agenda. CNN's Ryan Nobles is in Charlotte, North Carolina with a preview of

this made-for-TV event.

RYAN NOBLES, CNN CORRESPONDENT: The city of Charlotte, North Carolina will play an important role in the Republican National Convention this year. Perhaps not the big role they expected to play when they won the bid for the convention more than a year ago, but a lot of the activity taking place here on Monday will be very important for President Trump's campaign.

That's where the delegates will come from around the country, more than 300 of them, and cast their ballots for President Trump and Mike Pence to be the ticket for this year's presidential election. And President Trump will actually be here, he and the vice president will thank the delegates for their participation. He'll deliver brief remarks.

Now, this is not his formal acceptance. That's not going to happen until later in the week on Thursday when President Trump officially accepts his nomination, and that will happen at the White House. In fact, most of the activity will shift from Charlotte to Washington almost immediately. Many of the speeches that will take place that happen live will originate out of Washington, and that includes speeches from the second lady Karen Pence, and Melania Trump will also deliver her remarks from Washington as well.

The vice president, Mike Pence, will travel to Baltimore and deliver his remarks from Fort McHenry. Now, this is something that President Trump has a lot riding on. He, of course, a former reality television show star himself. He's told his team that he wants this convention to be bigger and better than what we saw from the Democrats last week.

He's even brought in some of his former colleagues from "The Apprentice" to help produce all of the events that take place this week, a lot riding for President Trump. And we shouldn't forget that there are two hurricanes that could make their way on to the gulf coast some time during the week of this convention, which could add a further complication to this entire process.

Ryan Nobles, CNN, Charlotte, North Carolina.

BRUNHUBER: And you will want to tune in to CNN for coverage of the Republican National Convention starting Monday at 7 p.m. Eastern here in the U.S. And for our international viewers, that's 12 a.m. Tuesday in London, 7 a.m. Tuesday in Hong Kong.

Less than a day before the start of the convention, word came that Mr. Trump will lose a top aide. White House counselor Kellyanne Conway revealed late Sunday that she will leave her post at the end of this month to focus more on her family. She's scheduled to speak at the RNC, but it's unclear whether she will still do so, and her husband and prominent Trump critic, George Conway, is also leaving his job for same reason.

He announced on Twitter Sunday that he will quit the anti-Trump group the Lincoln Project. We'll have much more on the Republican National Convention later in the show.

But after the break, we'll be talking to the owner of a winery in California who is facing losses from hundreds of wildfires in the state.

Plus, two powerful storms are heading toward the U.S. Gulf Coast. The first could make landfall in just a matter of hours. Officials are issuing urgent warnings.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: These storms are not to be taken lightly, especially because there are two of them. You need to be prepared to ride out the storms, you and your family, wherever you are.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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BRUNHUBER: The U.S. Gulf Coast is bracing for not one but two powerful storms back-to-back this week. First up is Marco, downgraded a short time ago from a hurricane to a tropical storm. It's expected to make landfall along the Louisiana coast in the coming hours.

And following right behind it is tropical storm Laura. Laura's forecast to strengthen into a hurricane before heading towards some of the same areas in Marco's path. Evacuations have been ordered for parts of Louisiana. And you can see here in this video the long line of traffic leaving the town of Grand Isle. The storm killed at least nine people in the Caribbean over the weekend.

Our Martin Savidge is in New Orleans, Louisiana with more on the double threat storms barreling towards the U.S.

MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: By themselves each storm would be considered manageable by emergency officials, but combine their impacts and no one's really sure what to expect.

[03:19:55]

Locally, officials have said residents had until nightfall Sunday to finish their preparations, saying wherever you are when it gets dark is where you should plan to be for the next 72 hours.

For the most part, this should be a shelter in place event, meaning that most people will ride out the storm where they live. There are some mandatory evacuations in coastal areas, particularly those that are prone to flooding areas outside the flood protection system, but there is no evacuation order for the city of New Orleans.

The real fear is flooding. The storm surge and rains from Marco will likely cause some flooding. The problem will be, can the waters recede either naturally or be pumped out mechanically before the next storm, Laura, brings more flooding potential? The governor is warning there may not be enough time or opportunity

between the two storms to carry out significant rescue operations if people become trapped by high water. Officials are warning for the first 72 hours many in the paths of these two storms could be on their own. Back to you.

BRUNHUBER: All right. Let's bring in meteorologist Pedram Javaheri who joins us with more. What's the latest.

PEDRAM JAVAHERI, CNN METEOROLOGIST: Yes, Kim, you know, looking at these two storms, of course, a lot of people talking about the dual nature of storms coming in one after another with Marco approaching land within the next few hours potentially and then raining itself possibly out right along the coast there.

But I want to really talk about what's happening here. Because Laura, really, of the two storms is the one meteorologists here, at least at CNN weather, are looking at very carefully because the significance could be far more great here moving forward as far as how expansive and how dangerous a system it could become.

Here is tropical storm Laura. Parked, Marco, I should say, parked just off the coast here of the state of Louisiana. Approaches land here we think sometime in the afternoon or evening hours of Monday. Could make landfall on Monday or possibly skirt the coastline, make landfall maybe even as late as Tuesday.

Now, there is also a third possibility that it never makes landfall and rains itself out. That's because quite a bit of sheer against the storm system breaking it apart as it works this way across this region.

Now what is it has already done is put quite a bit of water in motion. As much as four to six-foot storm surge is possible, so right around two meters here across some of the southern region, Grand Isle in particular where we have mandatory evacuations in place. And then you notice what's happening on the heels of this, tropical storm Laura.

This particular storm has already made impacts across the Island of Hispaniola. Concern now as it skits just south of Cuba in the next 24 hours, is that, limited land interaction is expected within the next 24 hours. This time tomorrow we could be looking at Laura into the Gulf of Mexico. Beyond this, we do know conditions are very much conducive for rapid development.

So, going from a tropical storm to a hurricane potentially even up to a major hurricane, that would be a category three. Forecast models right now put it at a strong category two as it approaches land Wednesday evening, but the concern is that the conditions are favorable for this to strengthen rather quickly.

So, we've seen storms in the gulf intensify very quickly. And that is what we're watching with this particular storm for later in the week. And highlighted here are some of the offshore oil platforms. You'll notice both Marco and Laura forecasts over this particular region. So, of the 600 platforms about 100 have already been evacuated as

well, Kim. So, it's certainly a big story developing for lot of people.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. Yes, lots of possibilities all of them troubling. Meteorologist Pedram Javaheri, I appreciate it.

Right now, California is reporting more than 600 new wildfires in just over a week. Scenes like the one you're seeing here are happening across the state. It's caused by a combination of warm and dry weather and some 12,000 lightning strikes since mid-August.

These fires have scorched more than 1.3 million acres up and down the state. The governor of California has declared a statewide emergency and the White House has approved a major disaster declaration.

I'd like to bring in now Gerry Luliano in Vacaville, California. He is the owner of La Borgata Winery and Distillery. Thank you so much for joining us. I know how difficult it must be given how much you've lost. For viewers, just take us through what we're seeing behind you there. Where exactly are you?

GERRY LULIANO, OWNER, LA BORGATA WINERY & DISTILLERY: Right now, I'm in front of what was our winery. We had built this about 15 years ago. My dad and I built the whole thing here, moving out to California to -- to follow our dream. And build the winery.

You can see the tasting room behind us and some holding tanks. You can also see the forklift and a whole bunch of bottles. And it's just -- I had to watch it burn down. And we had no warning. So, it's pretty rough for me and my whole family.

[03:25:04]

BRUNHUBER: My gosh. I can imagine how heartbreaking that must be to see that all just erupt into flames. I know from covering the fires in Paradise and elsewhere in California, often you just have moments to decide whether to stay or make a run for it. Take us through exactly what happened.

LULIANO: Well, I was staying in a town that's very close to Vacaville in Vallejo because I needed to work early the next morning. And so, my sister called me and she said there's a mandatory evacuation. And this was at, like, 12 o'clock at night. And so, I hopped in the car and I had to drive in the back way down over the hills to get over here.

And when I left that day, I mean, the fire was so far away. It was in Napa. And it was probably, like, 20 miles away. And so, from 5 o'clock in the evening until, like, midnight, it must have traveled that far and the wind just picked and up it pushed it over the hills.

And when I came down from the hill down looking towards our property, I could just see, like, the flames were everywhere. It looked like Armageddon from the north to the south. You can see it all over the hills coming in in different veins. It was terrifying. And so, when I got here, you know, we loaded up our cats that we had

and we just grabbed what we could out of the house that was important to us. Mostly like keepsakes and things like that. And I hooked up my tool trailer to my pickup truck and everyone had left.

And I said, I -- I had to leave my chickens and my goats behind, which was -- it was very trying for me because I raised those goats since they were little. And they were here. And I had them to eat down the grass behind and around our property to protect it from fires.

And so, I had to say good-bye. And as I did, one of my cats that took off came running up to me. So, I grabbed her, I put her in my truck, and we drove out, and the last thing that I saw was just up behind the hills behind our house, the flames coming in and you could hear the trees exploding.

And, I mean, it's a very, very terrifying thing because the embers were flying up and over and just landing all over the place. And it was like (Technical difficulty) storm -- they called it a firestorm. And I can attest to that -- that is probably the scariest thing because the fire could be completely surround us -- could completely surround you and luckily, luckily in this whole thing, we got here the next day. We were able to come back up to the property.

And the fire had gone completely around our house but it wiped out the vineyard, it wiped out our tool shed, and it then came around and burned the distillery and the winery.

BRUNHUBER: Wow.

LULIANO: So only the house is left standing. But miraculously, the goats were all here and the area that they had eaten down had protected the house. So, I, you know, I just am so appreciative of them. I'm like, I was so happy to see them and then all of the chickens.

And so -- and one of our other lost cats that was there was -- I was so happy about that. I think the hardest thing for me is that I lost sentimental stuff, you know? My dad and I built this together. And there's so many things, like his press that he brought from Italy.

The stained glass that he, you know, put into the winery. The -- all of just the pictures that were in there of different things. And those are the sentimental things. Because everything else can be replaced --

BRUNHUBER: Yes.

LULIANO: -- but all the stuff that we put into it was --

[03:30:00]

BRUNHUBER: Well, you have your house. You have your lives. Where there's life, there's hope. We wish you the very best as you try to rebuild and carry on as so many in California have had to do over the decades through these fires.

Thank you so much for speaking with us, Gerry Iuliano.

IULIANO: I really appreciate the time. My friend Lisa has a GoFundMe and I am -- the insurance can pay so much, but I think for everyone, all of the farmers, all of the people that live up here, they all need help right now.

BRUNHUBER: Mm-hmm.

IULIANO: And we are doing what we can to help other people also. So, just keep them in mind, too.

BRUNHUBER: Mm-hmm. Well, we have seen the community already rally in these circumstances so we can expect that to happen again in this case. Thank you again for speaking to us. We appreciate it.

U.S. Democrats took center stage last week. Now, it's President Donald Trump's turn to formalize his party's nomination. What to expect from the Republican National Convention straight ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We have had tremendous response to the hydroxyl --

That is a game-changer if that's the case.

Here is my evidence. I get a lot of positive calls about it. What do you have to lose? Take it.

If things don't go as planned, it's not going to kill anybody.

And then I see the disinfectant. That knocks it out in a minute, one minute, and is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

[03:35:08]

BRUNHUBER: A litany of questionable statements from U.S. President Donald Trump about unproven medical treatments for COVID-19. On Sunday, Mr. Trump hailed the decision to authorize a treatment that shows promise but is still unproven, the use of convalescent plasma.

It came less than a day before the Republican National Convention begins. Some elements of the event are still being worked out. Mr. Trump says he wants to send a positive message.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STEVE HILTON, FOX NEWS HOST: What is the overall message?

TRUMP: I think it is --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Why should people vote for you next time?

TRUMP: I think the overall is going to be a very positive as opposed to a dark, a very, very positive message. And positive on the economy -- we're going to have a great year next year. You know, people find it hard to believe. You have seen the numbers that they all said we are not going to have a V. Well, the way we're going, we're going to have a super V.

And we haven't even gotten the additional stimulus that the Democrats should have approved and they probably will because I think they have a lot of political pressure, But no, I think it's going to be a very, very positive message.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BRUNHUBER: Meanwhile, new CBS/YOUGOV poll find some trailing democratic rival Joe Biden by a 10-point margin.

Let's dig deeper into all this. We are joined now by Richard Johnson, lecturer in U.S. politics at Lancaster University in England and author of "The End of the Second Reconstruction: Obama, Trump, and the Crisis of Civil Rights."

Thank you very much for joining us. As the poll we just mentioned suggests, you know, for Trump, ground to make up, and Republicans are hoping the convention will give them a boost. Can we -- you know, we're going to expect lots of Trump, Trump appearing almost every night, I guess, or every night, lots of Trump speaking.

Does that suggest it is not really about a platform or issues? It's about him? What are we expecting to see in here?

RICHARD JOHNSON, LECTURER IN U.S. POLITICS, LANCASTER UNIVERSITY: Yeah. I mean, Trump is underwater at the moment. He has got to really land this week, I think. You know, the election is getting closer and closer and for all of the talk from Republicans about false timing and so on, they haven't really tighten nearly enough.

The first mail-in ballots go out in North Carolina in two weeks' time. So, the clock is ticking. I think the Republican Party is the party of Trump. I mean, that is not a unique phenomenon.

The Democratic Party under Obama very much became his party. It's in phenomenon political science we call executive-centered partisanship with the president as party leaders are very important force.

But yeah, the recent announcement that the Republicans are unlikely to even write a party platform this year, you know, with all of the issues, it shows you how focused, laser focused this party is, not so much on any particular given policy agenda as much as it is the leadership of Donald Trump is taking pretty much everything on that.

BRUNHUBER: Among those speaking, the couple who wielded guns at Black Lives Matter protesters. You study race and politics. Does it feel to you as though race is driving this election perhaps even more so than in 2008?

JOHNSON: I think race is always a very significant background factor in American politics. That runs right through American history. I think it is more visible, in a sense, for -- particularly for white voters this time. And I think that President Trump -- you know, the key demographic that he is -- or one of the key demographics that he's been suffering with at the moment is white suburban women.

He won the white female vote last time in spite of people's expectations that women would vote for Hillary Clinton, white women would vote for Hillary Clinton. But this time, it looks like he is in trouble.

And so that suburban couple with the guns, for example, or the couple with the guns, for example, they are meant to be emblematic. Certain fear among segment of white suburbia about crime, about safety.

I think that that is the kind of appeal that President Trump is going to make, and I will keep you safe from these nefarious forces, which obviously always has a racial undertone to it.

BRUNHUBER: And we are going to obviously hear the phrase Democrats want to destroy our suburbs. They've already been saying that a lot.

Now, Republicans are pointing the finger at Democrats, saying that their election strategy basically boils down to orange men bad. We know that negative partisanship, which is, you know, the fact that voters dislike of the opposition party have grown in leaps and bounds in the U.S.

How much will that fuel the Republicans' convention and the election going forward, do you think?

[03:40:00]

JOHNSON: Yeah. I mean, first thing I should just say, I think there is a slight mischaracterization of Democrats' strategy. I think the negative partisanship is very strong.

But actually, I think it is playing less -- the Democrats are relying less on it this year than they were four years ago, in a sense that Joe Biden is actually a more popular candidate than Hillary Clinton was by quite some measures. So he has got the kind of positive aspect to him.

I think what the Republicans therefore are going to try to do is try to run up negative sentiments about Joe Biden. At the moment, Joe Biden is not seen as a frightening figure in a way where Hillary Clinton for some voters represented some kind of dangerous, change their way of life.

Joe Biden doesn't give off that signal. But I think what they want to try to do over the next week is to really make Biden a frightening choice for those voters who aren't so happy with how President Trump has handled things recently.

Attempted by Joe Biden, they can sort of say, voting for Joe Biden brings behind all this baggage of the far left, he is the Trojan horse of the far left and so on. That is the next step, I think, that they are going to try and to hammer him against the Democrats this week.

BRUNHUBER: It will be a fascinating week for sure. Thank you so much for your analysis, Richard Johnson. I appreciate it.

JOHNSON: Thank you.

BRUNHUBER: In a break from a longstanding tradition, a source tells us that the U.S. secretary of state will make a speech to the Republican National Convention this week. Mike Pompeo will do so in a recorded message from Jerusalem. He arrived in Israel a short time ago as he kicks off a tour of the Middle East and Africa.

Oren Liebermann is in Jerusalem for us. Oren, Pompeo is delivering that speech. We have lost him. Perhaps we can speak to him a little bit later.

The man responsible for carrying out New Zealand's worst mass shooting. We will soon learn his fate during the sentencing phase of his trial. We will have a live report, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[03:45:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BRUNHUBER: In New Zealand, survivors of the Christchurch Mosque shootings have shared harrowing stories during the gunman's trial. It was the first day of a four-day sentencing hearing for Brenton Tarrant. He faces life in prison. Tarrant stands convicted over the shootings in March last year which killed 51 people.

The mass murderer targeted the Al Noor Mosque and Linwood Islamic Centre. He pleaded guilty to murder and terror charges. As a result of Tarrant's actions, both semiautomatic weapons are now banned in New Zealand.

All right, let's bring in senior international correspondent Ivan Watson, who is following the story from Hong Kong. Hearing from all of those families of victims, addressing the gunman, it is just heartrending. You've been following this for us. What can you tell us?

IVAN WATSON, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you have to remember back to March 15th of last year, it was, as some New Zealanders just described it to me later, like New Zealand's own 9/11, the deadliest terror attack in the country's modern history where 51 people killed and dozens more, some of them terribly wounded.

So the chief suspect here, Brenton Tarrant, has confessed to the 51 murders to committing an act of terror and attempted murders, as well.

And in this first day of hearings, the crown prosecutors laid out a whole narrative here of evidence indicating that Tarrant had been planning this attack for a year and a half running up to it, that he had been flying a drone over the Al Noor Mosque in Christchurch, that he beforehand, that he had been studying the Islamic calendar to find days when there would be more potential victims in the mosques.

And that he confessed to police after he was captured that he was on his way to a third mosque and that he planned to kill more people and he had wished to set fire, to burn these mosques down to the ground. He was a self-avowed white supremacist.

In addition to the evidence that was laid out, some of the scores of victims and relatives of victims are getting a chance to make their own statements. Take a listen to what one grieving mother of a slain man had to say directly to the man who confessed to killing her son.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JANNA EZAT, MOTHER OF VICTIM: I decided to forgive you, Mr. Tarrant, because I don't have hates, I don't have revenge, and in our Muslim faith, we say (INAUDIBLE), which means that if we are able to forgive, forgive. It's -- I forgive you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WATSON: Now, eyewitnesses say that Tarrant was pretty emotional throughout the first day of hearings, but in response to that message of forgiveness from the mother of a man he killed, possibly a point blank range, he put his hand to his face and appeared to rub his eye, at one moment. I don't know what was going through this man's head at that time.

Another testimony though called for the death sentence against Brenton Tarrant. That does not exist in the New Zealand penal code. His maximum sentence that he could face, mandatory, is a life sentence. A judge could decide to remove any chance of parole. Kim?

BRUNHUBER: All right. Thank you very much, Ivan Watson, in Hong Kong. We appreciate it.

Well, we are following a breaking story in Wisconsin. Protests have erupted in the city of Kenosha after a police officer shot a black man.

Governor Tony Evers tweeted that Jacob Blake was shot in the back multiple times in broad daylight. A graphic video, reported to be of the shooting, shows at least two officers following Blake with guns drawn as he walks from the passenger side of a vehicle to the driver side.

CNN isn't going to show the video right now but it is reported to show an officer pointing his gun as he holds on to the man's shirt and then at least seven gunshots are heard before the victim goes limp.

The governor says he doesn't have all the details yet, but he says, what we know for certain is that Blake is not the first black man or person to have been shot or injured or mercilessly killed at the hands of individuals and law enforcement in our state or our country.

[03:50:07]

BRUNHUBER: CNN will bring you more information when it becomes available. Stay with us. Much more ahead.

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BRUNHUBER: Bayern Munich had won it all. Fans of the German team are celebrating after they won against Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final. This completes the trouble of it, the league title, domestic Cup and now the top European football competition.

The circumstances were, of course, unique this year. Fans are not allowed to celebrate with players due to the coronavirus pandemic.

CNN world sport contributor Darren Lewis joins us. Darren, I watched it. It wasn't a classic, given the low scoring game, but I thought that the quality on display made it compelling. Bayern were so dominant this year, PSG, the weight continues. Break it down for us.

DARREN LEWIS, CNN WORLD SPORT CONTRIBUTOR: I tend to agree, Kim, not a display of shock at all that we've seen from Bayern Munich in the earlier rounds, including, of course, that seismic aid to victory over Barcelona in the quarter finals.

But, you know, this was a performance of ruthless efficiency to win their sixth European cup and only their first since 2013.

[03:55:04]

LEWIS: They also made only the first time in 35 major European games that the celebrated frontline from PSG (INAUDIBLE) backhand Angel Di Maria failed to score. This has been a climax, you know, Kim, of a campaign with so many soft blocks (ph) by Munich.

Kingsley Coman, for example, the match won last night scored with the wonderful header in the 59th minute. He has had an injury-interrupted campaign. He actually started the match as something of a surprise because many people expected to the influential Croatian wing and even Paris Saint (ph) to start ahead of him.

But Coman started it more than justified his conclusion. And then, you know, you have the Bayern Munich coach, the 55-year-old Hans-Dieter Flick. He started the season as an interim coach. He was only put into the role as a main man after Niko Kovac.

The former Bayern coach was sacked in November. He had fallen out with his players. They were not doing well enough in the German domestic league. And yet, he is now adding the Champions League to the Bundesliga and is on the run, Kim, of 21 successive matches.

Serge Gnabry (INAUDIBLE) is the young winger, the Germany winger, who was told four years ago by the British coach Tony Pulis, that he wasn't good enough for the second tier side (ph) West Brom. He is now the king of the world, as Bayern. PSG was about to do, but Bayern celebrating this morning.

BRUNHUBER: Absolutely. All right. Well, thank you so much, Darren Lewis, in London. Appreciate it.

And that wraps this hour of "CNN Newsroom." I'm Kim Brunhuber. I will be back in just a moment with more news. Do stick with us.

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