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Doc Rivers Emotional Speech; Georgia Among Worst States for New Covid Cases; Wildfires Burn 700,000 Plus Acres. Aired 9:30-10a

Aired August 26, 2020 - 09:30   ET

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

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[09:33:22]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: Concerning events overnight in Kenosha. Protests over the police shooting of a black man turned deadly. Overnight, three people shot, two of them killed during what some witnesses say was a clash between demonstrators and not police but a group of armed men, civilians, described by officials in local reports as a militia or vigilante group.

In Kenosha, it's now been three days since Jacob Blake was shot multiple times -- that's a picture of him there, in the back, on camera, and in front of those children we see there, his three young sons. There's still no explanation from police as to why he was shot, what police saw, what justification they are claiming there. And now a deeply emotional response from the coach of the L.A. Clippers, Doc Rivers. Rivers addressing Blake's shooting and the current Republican National Convention.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DOC RIVERS, COACH, LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS: All you hear from Donald Trump and all of them talking about fear, we're the ones getting killed. We're the ones getting shot. We're the ones that will deny to live in certain communities. We have been hung. We've been shot. And all you do is keep hearing about fear. It's -- it's amazing to me, why we keep loving this country and this country does not love us back.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCIUTTO: Quite a moment there.

With me know is LZ Granderson. He's an ESPN radio host, and sports and culture columnist for the New York -- for "The Los Angeles Times," rather.

[09:35:05]

LZ, good to -- good to have you on.

He, Rivers, put into words I think what you've described on this broadcast and others I've spoken to. Tell me about the disconnect you see between the fear that Donald Trump is describing, seems to be appealing to fears of white people, and the fear that Doc Rivers is describing there.

LZ GRANDERSON, SPORTS AND CULTURE COLUMNIST, "LOS ANGELES TIMES": Well, first of all, thank you again for -- for having me on.

After I saw that clip, I sent Doc a text. I'm sure that he got plenty of text messages because he really embodied the frustration that a lot of us in this country feel, those of us who happen to be black. Not all of us, but a lot of this, which is this, we turn on the television, we see elements of our culture being commercialized.

We go through billboards and we see models who are trying to emulate African-American features, whether it's with injections or tanning or darkening of their own skin. All these little indicators that there's something right about us, except for the embracing of us. Us as a people. Us as a culture that encompasses our presence.

You know, I can't even tell you how many times I've -- I've traveled around this country and have heard our music in bars, but not felt welcome as a person of color. And the conflict that riddles through your head when you're in these environments, like clearly you like our culture, you like us, but you don't like us.

SCIUTTO: Right.

GRANDERSON: And that's the frustration, that's the anger that you hear in Doc Rivers' voice. And when it comes to President Trump, he's really playing on the fear that people have of black skin, of dark skin. It's what Public Enemy said back in 1990, fear of a black planet.

It's what Spike Lee was saying in "Do the Right Thing" when the question was asked, how come there's no brothers in the war (ph)? Why do you think Magic is different? He's black too. So that's what you heard with Doc Rivers and that's the fear that Donald Trump is peddling that you're referring to.

SCIUTTO: You have a personal connection to Kenosha. Your best friend is from there. You've visited many times. What we're seeing now is a dynamic we've seen in many other communities following police shootings like this, right? Understandable protests, largely peaceful protests, but sometimes at night devolving into violence, looting, et cetera.

Now we have this added dynamic of what appears to be vigilantes injecting themselves into this.

Tell us about that cycle. What do you want to see happen there now and what do you say to people who are participating in the protests when they turn violent?

GRANDERSON: Well, I -- first of all, I think it's imperative that the national media, whether it's CNN, whether it's "The Los Angeles Times" or any other medium outlet make sure that there is a delineation between the protesters and people who are looters and people who are rioters. They're not one in the same. We shouldn't be using that language interchangeably.

I know a lot of people want to use it interchangeably because it feeds into their narrative, which is black lives matter is some sort of terrorist organization. We're not a terrorist organization. It's an organization that's designed to help America fulfill its promise.

And as someone who has been to Kenosha numerous times with my best friend, who happens to be white, I know that's a cliche, but it's the truth in my case, my best friend does happen to be white, I fell in love with this beautiful town that sits in the west coast of the -- of Lake Michigan. But I was seeing the town through my best friend's eyes.

And in our conversations, and I have a conversations posted in "The Los Angeles Times" today, you can see that those eyes were through the eyes of a man with white privilege. And he recognizes that now, as did his brother, who was in that conversation. And I too recognize that I was seeing Kenosha through those eyes of white privilege.

But when you see what's happening in the streets right now, and when you hear about the stories of them growing up, you realize that Kenosha is no different than Chicago, no different than Atlanta or Los Angeles. Where there are people, there is the chance for evil to arise. And we need to be vigilant as a -- as a country to make sure that we don't just think that it's just something that happens over there or that it's just something that happens in these places. This can happen everywhere.

SCIUTTO: I hear you, LZ. The -- and the distinction you described, by the way, is one we effort to do every day and will continue to.

It's good to have your voice on. Let's keep talking about this because God knows it's a conversation -- a continuing one in this country and a necessary one. Let's keep talking, LZ.

GRANDERSON: Yes, sir, definitely.

[09:40:01]

SCIUTTO: All right. Well, that's a commitment we make to you.

Other news we're following, the state of Georgia is the worst in the nation with respect to cases of coronavirus for the second week in a row. And so are they following White House task force guidelines? What actions, if any, are they taking? We'll have an update.

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SCIUTTO: State legislators in Georgia are urging Governor Brian Kemp to issue a statewide mask order. This as the state ranks among the worst in the nation for new coronavirus cases for the second week in a row. The latest report from the White House Coronavirus Task Force shows Georgia in a fragile state that could suffer even more unless aggressive, new actions are taken.

[09:45:01] CNN's not yet independently verified the report.

Let's bring Dr. Carlos del Rio, an infectious disease specialist and executive associate dean at Atlanta's Emory University Medical School.

You, of course, know the situation in Georgia very well. The governor's resisted many steps like this, like a statewide mask mandate.

Tell us what that means given it's at a pretty consistent line of new cases coming in and, you know, two weeks in a row in the worst category in the country.

DR. CARLOS DEL RIO, INFECTIOUS DISEASE SPECIALIST: Good morning, Jim.

Yes, I am concerned. And, you know, Georgia is clearly making progress. The cases are coming down. And we've seen a 22 percent decrease over the previous week. But we still have over -- close to 200 cases per 100,000 population and we still have a significant number of hospitalizations. And the test positivity rate is still pretty high. So I am concerned that while we're coming down, we're nowhere close to where we need to be.

And, again, when people say we're coming down, we're coming down from a very high peak. I wish we were back where we were in, you know, early June, which was about 300 to 400 cases per day. That's a big difference to where we are right now. So we have a long way to go and I think we need to accelerate progress. And if we don't do that, I am concerned with schools opening, with universities opening and people also becoming complacent because cases are coming down. We can't see yet another increase in cases.

SCIUTTO: OK, let's talk about CDC guidelines. So, consistently, for months, the guideline had been, get tested if you show symptoms or if you had sustained contact with someone who you know is infected, 15 minutes or more. Now it says all of a sudden you don't have to get tested even if you've had sustained contact with someone who you know has been infected unless you're in a compromised category.

Can you explain why the CDC changed that and is that a good idea?

DEL RIO: I really don't understand why the CDC changed that. And what's concerning about all this changes in guidelines that CDC does is they don't put evidence to back why the change is do.

SCIUTTO: Right.

DEL RIO: And I think having the evidence -- I mean the evidence that I'm aware of as of today is that close to 40 percent of the cases of the infections are asymptomatic and asymptomatic people transmit the infection.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DEL RIO: So not testing -- I mean, if you have been in contact with somebody for a few minutes, that's OK. But if you've been in contact with somebody for 15 minutes and that people is unmasked (ph), I think you need to be tested regardless whether you have symptoms or not because we know that asymptomatic individuals, especially young people go into their house and then transmit inside the household. So it -- the guidelines baffle me and I really don't understand them.

SCIUTTO: Are you concerned about political influence here because we have seen the politicians inject themselves into the science. We saw that on Hydroxychloroquine, something touted by the president, his trade adviser, right, where there was not consistent evidence that it helps and some evidence that it might hurt.

We've seen this on discussions of moving up the timeline for a vaccine. We saw this on the recommendation on Sunday for the use of convalescent plasma.

Do you -- and you're someone who's plugged into the science here -- do you -- have you heard that politics is influencing these decisions?

DEL RIO: I have not, Jim, but I am concerned about that. As you know, over and over, the president said -- has said, well, we have a lot of cases because we do a lot of testing. And, well, if we slowed down testing, we will have a decrease in cases.

So I am worried that this is just a way to slow down testing and -- and that would clearly be not -- not good. We don't want to decrease the amount of testing. We want to decrease cases by decreasing transmission, not by decreasing testing.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

DEL RIO: And it's hard for people at home to keep up, I imagine, what are the regulations when they change so frequently?

Dr. Carlos Del Rio, always good to have you on. Thanks very much.

DEL RIO: Good to be with you, Jim.

SCIUTTO: Another big story we're following, firefighters are battling two wildfires in California that are among the largest ever recorded in the state. We're going to have a live update from northern California, next.

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[09:53:36]

SCIUTTO: California firefighters are struggling to contain two major wildfires that are now among the three largest ever recorded in the state's history. Just breaking records all the time here.

CNN correspondent Dan Simon is in northern California.

So how much of these fires are contained right now? Yesterday you said they got a little bit of help from the weather. What does it look like today? SIMON: Well, hey, Jim, there's still a ways to go, but thanks again to

favorable weather conditions they are making some good progress. The big fire here in wine country now hovering right around 30 percent. The other major complexes, about 20 percent contained.

And here we are at the Calistoga County Fairgrounds and you can see all of these fire trucks behind me. This is the operations center. And you can just imagine the infrastructure involved with managing one of these fires. This is where fire crews, they -- they part their trucks. They hopefully get some rest. They get their meals. They do some laundry. I saw a trailer full of washing machines. It's just an amazing thing to see how they put all of this together.

But you have some 14,000 firefighters here in the state of California trying to get these blazes under control.

But, Jim, also keep in mind, you have tens of thousands of people who are still evacuated and they still don't know when they'll be able to return to their homes or what their neighborhoods are going to look like.

We should also point out that the weather is expected to -- to get worse this weekend. Temperatures expected to bake, particularly in the Central Valley regions.

[09:55:00]

So hopefully fire crews continue to make some progress and get these blazes dealt with and fully contained.

Jim, we'll send it back to you.

SCIUTTO: So many homes lost and it often take years to rebuild.

Dan Simon, good to have you there.

Two people are dead on a shooting on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, overnight. What happened during protests over the shooting by police of Jacob Blake? We have new details and we're going to be live on the ground there, next.

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SCIUTTO: Good morning to you. I'm Jim Sciutto.

There's lots of breaking news this morning. Let's begin with our top story.

A manhunt is now underway after two people were shot and killed, another seriously injured, on the streets of Kenosha, Wisconsin, overnight, a city already in turmoil after the police shooting of Jacob Blake.

[10:00:01]

First, here's the moment -- the video of the moment the shots rang out. There are a lot of remaining questions here.