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Social Media Details Emerge on Kenosha Shooter; Trump Administration Officials Brush Off NBA Strike; Live Coverage of Kenosha, Wisconsin Press Conference. Aired 2-2:30p ET

Aired August 27, 2020 - 14:00   ET

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

[14:00:00]

ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: CNN's Drew Griffin is following it all for us. Drew, what more have you learned about the shooter?

DREW GRIFFIN, CNN INVESTIGATIVE CORRESPONDENT: Yes, this is the tragedy within the tragedy, Anderson. He's 17 years old, he was armed with a loaded AR-15-style weapon. And by his own admission, was apparently in Kenosha, Wisconsin to, quote/unquote, "keep the peace."

"The Daily Caller" caught up to him before those shootings took place, and asked him exactly what the heck he was doing there, standing in front of a car dealership armed -- this is a snippet of that interview.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- doing out here? Obviously you're armed and you're in front of this business we saw burning last night. So what's up?

KYLE RITTENHOUSE, VIGILANTE GUNMAN: So people are getting injured, and our job is to protect this business. And part of my job is to also help people. If there's somebody hurt, I'm running into harm's way. That's why I have my rifle, because I need to protect myself obviously. I always have my med kit.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GRIFFIN: We've been seeing these individuals like this, young white males, armed, showing up at protests all across the country in Minneapolis, New Mexico, Louisville, Kentucky. Kyle Rittenhouse is just from about 20, 25 miles away.

We do know from his Facebook and TikTok that he is a police sort of wannabe. He was a police cadet as you mentioned. He also has strong feelings of support for the police, back the badge, back the blue on his pages. There is one line that says "Trump 2020" on his Facebook page.

And TikTok videos, Anderson, one showing him shooting a gun; one I think we can show you have him assembling his gun, or what appears to be him assembling his gun, we just see his hands. And then we also have video of Kyle Rittenhouse at a Trump rally at Drake University in January, which he is briefly seen there. Donald Trump is not seen in that video.

So that is what we know about him at this time, as we continue to dig into his past. But again, he seems to be one of these armed individuals who is compelled to go to these protest sites and act like a police officer.

COOPER: And CNN has learned that Facebook did not shut down one of its pages that served as essentially a call to arms in the city, encouraging people -- like the shooter, who came from Illinois -- to take to the streets?

GRIFFIN: Right. Despite the fact that apparently Facebook was warned about this particular site -- it's called Kenosha Guard, Facebook has since taken it down. We don't know if this shooter, alleged shooter visited that site, but it is a site, as you said, that actually called people to arms. I think the -- it was armed citizens to protect our lives and property, is what was on their Facebook page. Facebook has since reacted and taken it down, and also taken down Kyle Rittenhouse's pages.

COOPER: Drew Griffin, appreciate the reporting. Thanks very much.

Athletes are making sure we hear their voices. Players forced the NBA to cancel all their playoff games Wednesday, and Major League Baseball players forced the cancellation of three games. All in all, a call for justice in the wake of the shooting of Jacob Blake.

Some NBA teams even considered ending the season, but have now decided against it. Joining me now is Nikole Hannah-Jones, a write for the "New York Times Magazine," creator of the "1619 Project."

Thanks so much for being with us. What should we take away, do you think, from the strike by pro athletes and now the decision to continue playing?

NIKOLE HANNAH-JONES, STAFF WRITER, THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE: Well, I think what we should take from it is that people are tired, and that athletes are using what power they have to position the struggle for black lives to matter in this country. It is definitely a strike, it's not a boycott. They are workers who are -- decided that they are not going to work because they want to see justice.

COOPER: It's so interesting. I mean, you're obviously well versed in history. I'm fascinated -- you know, I look back at Muhammad Ali, who everyone looks back on now and respects and loves and thinks, you know, my God, what an amazing American, what an extraordinary thing he did.

At the time, we forget, he was vilified. I mean, he was destroyed. You know, people wouldn't -- attempted to be destroyed. You know, people just hated him. White America was outraged at what he was doing. And yet in years later, we look back and suddenly everyone loves him.

It's so interesting to me. You know, these players are being vilified, and -- for taking what they believe is a principled stand. And I just wonder how the lens of history will look at this years from now, if it will be like with Muhammad Ali?

HANNAH-JONES: Yes. I mean, we don't even have to go back that far to Muhammad Ali, we can look at what happened to Colin Kaepernick, when he decided he was going to --

COOPER: Sure.

HANNAH-JONES: -- start kneeling to protest police brutality. And actually, the strike was on the anniversary of that act. So he was vilified. He lost his ability to play in the NFL for that. And four years later, you have the same NFL that was embracing the message of Black Lives Matter.

[14:05:09]

The thing is, it is clear that these athletes are on the right side of this issue. These men and women were black before they ever picked up a basketball or decided to engage in any sports. And for us to say that our entertainment is more important than their fight for justice? I think is deplorable.

So I imagine that we will also be looking back on these athletes and the stance that they took today as understanding that they were on the right side of this, even if a lot of people are upset about it now.

COOPER: I just want to play for our viewers some comments made by members of the Trump administration, taking aim just in the last 24 hours or so at these athlete activists.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JARED KUSHNER, WHITE HOUSE SENIOR ADVISOR: I think that the NBA players are very fortunate that they have the financial position where they're able to take a night off from work without having to have the consequences to themselves financially, so they have that luxury, which is great --

MARC SHORT, CHIEF OF STAFF TO VICE PRESIDENT PENCE: I don't know that you're going to see the administration weigh in on that one way or the other. In my mind, it's absurd and silly. What you saw from the professional Basketball Association was a continued acceptance and nondenial or non-speaking out against China's continued abuse.

If they want to protest, I don't think we care. I think at this point, there's -- if they want to say we're not going to play more games, I don't think that's a position that you're going to see us speak out on one way or the other.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: It does seem to be an extension of the kind of shut-up-and- dribble response that we have heard before.

HANNAH-JONES: Exactly. I mean, when you think about the fact that we are saying that these athletes have the luxury? They don't have the luxury. They're black in America, and they're worried about their family members, they're worried about their community. And they are saying that the lives of black people are more important than you being able to sit there and be entertained by me dribbling on the court.

I don't understand how it sparks outrage. And this whataboutism, well what about this stance or why aren't they doing this? It's typical, it is typical of people who are not having to bear the brunt of this nation's 400-year-old caste system.

And I personally feel like there are a lot of people who are very proud of the stance that these athletes are taking, that if you are given any amount of privilege or power in this society, you have a moral obligation to speak up for those who don't have it.

COOPER: We have not heard from President Trump or even Vice President Pence in his speech last night about the shooting of Mr. Blake. There's obviously -- the police haven't really given much information at all about what they were doing there, what happened beforehand. What we have seen is what is on that video, and there's a second video as well.

But we haven't heard anything from the president addressing it. A man was shot seven times in the back, regardless of whatever happened before that. Does it surprise you that -- I mean, I get that it's not going to surprise you. But I just find it interesting, we're told now that the president will address Kenosha tonight. The question is, will he actually address the shooting of Mr. Blake or will it just be about violence and protestors?

HANNAH-JONES: I think we should long ago disabused ourselves that we're going to see some type of moral guidance from this president. What we will likely see is more rhetoric on law and order, the racialized rhetoric of law and order that wants peace over justice.

That wants to pretend that the reason people are in the streets right now is because -- or wants to pretend that the reason people are in the streets right now is not related to the fact that a black man was shot in the back seven times in front of his kids, and that the real problem is the protestors and not the violence that leads up to the protestors.

So I think we should stop looking for or expecting this president to act in ways that he has shown himself incapable of acting.

COOPER: It's interesting to me that, you know, the president uses the term "law and order," and that he wants to be the law and order president. It seems to me that the protestors, that all Americans want law and order, they just want equal treatment under the law. And you know, order in their communities just like other communities as well. I mean, the same kind of treatment. It seems to me, protestors aren't saying they don't want law and order, they just don't want to be treated differently.

HANNAH-JONES: Absolutely. Law and order is about accountability. And it is about a very high level of accountability for people who are armed by the state with the ability to kill. People aren't protesting for no reason, they're protesting because an unarmed man was shot seven times in the back, something that any moral person could argue is not the right thing that law enforcement should be doing.

And the other thing is, law and order is not applied equally even in concept. You have a president who pardoned a man who pled guilty to violating the law, you have a president who, if it comes to the FBI or people who are investigating him, does not seem to have respect for law and order.

But we want to apply law and order to people who are doing their constitutional exercise and their constitutional right to protest what they consider to be unjust treatment by the government.

[14:10:09]

COOPER: I do not understand people who believe it's a good idea to encourage citizens to take up arms and go to protests. I mean, I understand everybody has a right to protest and that's how change happens in this country and there's a long proud tradition of it.

But going armed, heavily armed with long guns to a protest? It just -- it -- no matter what your politics are, it just seems like a recipe for, you know, if there's problems with police officers and all the training police officers get to handle weapons, to have just citizens who don't have that training showing up at protests, whatever's -- you know, whoever they are, whatever their causes may be, just doesn't seem like a good idea. It's not going to lead to anything good.

HANNAH-JONES: Yes, this is the worst manifestation of why you do not want vigilante justice. You have a child who goes there with what is a semiautomatic rifle. And of course when he's approached, he's afraid. And what does he do? He pulls the trigger. This is exactly why you don't want this sort of thing.

But it also speaks to the disparate realities of America, because one could not imagine a 17-year-old black boy walking around with this rifle, shooting someone and then walking past the police and the police don't even stop and question him, and he gets to go home that night.

Meanwhile, you have Jacob Blake, who walks to his car, has no weapon, is shot seven times in the back. You can't think of a more perfect summation of the disparate racial realities of America than that.

COOPER: Nikole Hannah-Jones, I appreciate your time. Thank you.

HANNAH-JONES: Thank you.

COOPER: After yesterday's playoff games were postponed, several former NBA stars also began to speak out, openly expressing their hurt and anger. Robert Horry, who won seven NBA championships during his playing career has this response.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) ROBERT HORRY, FORMER NBA PLAYER: Today -- well yesterday, you know, I was sitting there and I started crying. And my wife walks in, she's like, are you crying because you're turning 50 today? And I started laughing, like no. I said, did you see the video of this guy getting shot?

At first, I -- and I saw it, I'm looking at it, I thought maybe they're going to tase him, right? Because that's what they do with white people, they tase them. And so I didn't have the volume up.

And then Christian walks in the room, he says, no dad, they shot him.

So I play it again. I'm like, wow. They shoot this guy seven times in the back.

And then I have this conversation with Christian. And he's like, that's not -- that's wrong, that's wrong.

I said, yo, it is beyond wrong. It's just flat-out evil. And I'm telling him -- and it's hard to tell your 14-year-old son that I worry about him when he walks out that door. I have a 21-year-old son, I worry about him. Because black men are an endangered species, pretty much. People are -- these cops are just killing because they feel like if they don't have their bodycams on, they have a right.

And I tell my kids all the time. I say, do -- I don't care what's going on because at the end of the day, I want you coming home to me. If you have to lay down on the ground and they can kick you, beat you, at least you're going to go to the hospital and you're going to come home to me.

Don't -- whatever they say to you, don't take it upon yourself to let that rage you have against that cop come out. Because he has the gun, he can end you. And I don't want him to end you because if he ends you, that means I'm going to end him.

And I know that's wrong for me to say. But I'm so much a time to kill type of guy, like Samuel Jackson, you know? And this is going to happen with me. And I said, I don't want that to happen. I already lost one child, I don't need to lose another.

And I don't think people understand -- especially white people -- how hard it is for black people to watch that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

COOPER: Robert Horry.

Any moment, we are expecting a news conference from police in Kenosha who have been mostly silent on exactly the circumstances around the shooting of Jacob Blake. We'll see what they say today.

[14:14:33]

Plus, Laura has now been downgraded from a hurricane to a tropical storm, not before leaving behind a path of destruction along the Gulf. More on the ground there. We're live, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

COOPER: We are tracking the destruction from Hurricane Laura, which hit the Louisiana coast with 150-mile-per-hour winds. It's now been downgraded to a tropical storm.

The winds were sustained for as much as an hour in some places. We've seen roofs ripped off houses, walls town away, heavy flooding in some areas. Some of the worst of it's right on the coast of course, where we also saw the highest storm surge. Ed Lavandera is in Orange, Texas for us. What's the scene there?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hey, Anderson. Well here in Orange, Texas, this was the western edge of Hurricane Laura, and it is really stunning to see as we've driven around town here, this is some of the worst damage that we've seen.

This is the First United Pentecostal Church. You can tell that the winds blew through here. This is facing back toward the south, so this was the -- clearly the back side of the storm where the roof and wall were blown over here to the south.

But Anderson, what really strikes us as we drive around town is the lack of structural damage. It really is amazing, considering that the worst of this storm passed just 35 miles or so to the east of where we are. It's amazing we've seen so little of this kind of destruction -- Anderson.

[14:20:10]

COOPER: Ed Lavandera, thanks for being there.

Let's go to the press conference in Kenosha about the events there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: -- ask God's permission to bless our time. And so would you pray with me.

Oh Gracious God, we come, Lord, in the name of Jesus Christ, knowing who you are. You have called this moment of time and so that we can reflect on what we need to do.

But more importantly, Lord, we need wisdom from you, and we need to pray for this family who is in pain right now, they're grieving right now. We need to pray for this whole city because, Lord, the turmoil, the things that's happening here, we know that this is not from above.

But yet and still, Lord, we ask for your grace and your mercy to comfort us, to bring peace to us. And most importantly, Lord, would you shine your light into the darkness so that we can have solutions (INAUDIBLE) us today. And we're going to be careful to give you all the praise. And we pray this in Master Jesus Christ's name, amen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll start with Mayor Antaramian.

MAYOR JOHN ANTARAMIAN (D), KENOSHA, WISCONSIN: Good afternoon, everyone. I am going to be talking a little bit about a couple of the issues that I think are important to the community and for everyone else to understand.

Number one, the most important aspect of what is going on is the safety of all people. Safety in the city of Kenosha, and making sure that the residents understand that the law enforcement, the National Guard, the Sheriff's Department, all of them are here to be protective and to help protect the community, and to also keep protestors who are peaceful protestors, safe. So that I think is one of the main messages that I want to make sure everyone gets today.

But once we get past the safety issue, the next question that comes is unity. And though we're not going to go into a lot of detail today about how we're going to do all these things, unity becomes one of the main aspects of what has to happen in this community.

And that unity is only going to happen if all of us work together. So the city has been working, along with other entities, on putting together a number of committees that are going to be working on systemic racism and dealing with how we're going to improve our community and give everyone a voice. In fact, Pastor Peoples is the person I have requested to be put in charge of making that happen.

The last issue that I wish to bring up is dealing with the rebuilding of the community. And rebuilding is more than just fixing buildings. It's one of the things that I thought that was very impressive and I'm very proud of our community. And that is that when -- after the damage had been done, people came out. Neighbors came out to help neighbors. All neighbors came out to help neighbors.

The downtown had numerous people in the downtown, cleaning up the streets, fixing buildings, doing everything they could to help their neighbor. And that is what this community really is about, and that is what we need to make sure that people see within our community and what is happening.

But rebuilding also means more than that. It's a call to action, it's a call to make sure that we are there to be helpful. We have asked -- I am -- have asked the governor for support financially for the businesses, and we are in conversations with that and we are going to make the same request to the federal government.

So with that, I will turn it over to the county exec.

JIM KREUSER, COUNTY EXECUTIVE, KENOSHA COUNTY, WISCONSIN: Thank you, Mr. Mayor.

Thank you to the people of Kenosha County, and to the peaceful protestors and especially those who followed the curfew, and all the people who followed the curfew. You made law enforcement's job a lot easier.

I want to recognize the continued outpouring of support for businesses, many of which are small and family-owned and downtown, uptown, and really across Kenosha County, for the showing up in person or through donations to rebuild. It's been a heartwarming experience. This is a true representation of Kenosha County.

I want to also reconfirm our commitment to all of us here to address the core issues that have brought us to this point in time. We are still in the thick of the many challenges, but there will be a coming together around a table in the coming days.

[14:25:04]

I talked to Pastor Peoples also, and we are working together, the city and the county, and the community, to -- I've had over 50 e-mails just recently by people who want to participate in that and move forward.

My message to the world, which we know is watching, is that Kenosha County is made up of good and caring people. I'm confident that what we saw Sunday, Monday and Tuesday night isn't who we really are. I call on our community to seek change with peace, and I thank them again for how they adhered to the curfew to keep our community safe during this time. Thank you.

DAVID BETH, SHERIFF, KENOSHA COUNTY, WISCONSIN: I'm going to kind of mirror what the mayor and the county exec already said. Since Wednesday, the entire atmosphere of Kenosha has changed dramatically as far as the people who live here.

And I think the crowds last night were small, it was a few hundred people. And they walked peacefully through Kenosha, and they did exactly what they wanted to do as far as the protest, to make people know their concerns. But they did it without violence. And I think the people that were here last night were Kenosha's people.

We didn't see streams of cars coming in from out of Kenosha County. A huge part of me thinks that a lot of our issues start when different people with different agendas come here to Kenosha. Kenosha's people are loving, peaceful and good with change. And these people did exactly what they needed to do in a peaceful way.

The people that did not want to partake in the -- what was happening last night, which again was very small, they stayed home. We made a 7:00 curfew. The people of Kenosha thank you. Thanks for adhering to the 7:00 curfew and clearing the streets so you, your families, your property were all safe. And it allowed us to do our jobs.

Since Sunday when this whole thing started, the personnel, the resources, the equipment from our county, from the counties around us, we have some departments in the state of Wisconsin that sent us -- they're smaller departments -- that sent us a third of all their deputies.

We have small police departments that sent us one of their officers, and that's probably a third of all their officers they have. They want to come and help keep Kenosha safe. They want to come and help the people here in Kenosha, and they want to help protect the protestors too.

The state has been fantastic as far as sending resources from the very first minute that we asked them. They have sent everything that we've asked for, and they've been outstanding.

The federal government notified us yesterday that they were -- they've been here truthfully from the first day too, we've had people from Marshals, FBI, ATF, we had them from the very first day too. The feds have been here from the first day, helping with the exact same mission that everyone else is: to help protect the people of Kenosha and protect everyone who's here.

We have got generous people and businesses here in Kenosha. Our staff, the numbers continue to grow. And we need to feed them. The businesses, the people, are coming with bags from McDonald's. They're coming with cold meat, they're coming with platters, they're coming with all kinds of nourishment that our staff needs. And we're getting lots of things.

We get some people that don't like us too, got it. But the overall majority of people that are coming, that we're hearing from tell us thank you for (INAUDIBLE) to do our mission.

The -- I think the combined efforts of everyone sitting up here, everyone that's trying to get a little sleep right now, and everybody who's out there at nighttime has been paying dividends. Last night was very peaceful. Tuesday night, not quite so peaceful, but it wasn't too bad.

[14:29:57]

Monday night was our big night. Hopefully we're over that hump of what we have to face.