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State Rep. David Bowen (D-WI) Discusses Joe Biden Visit to Kenosha & Police Shootings; Missouri in White House Task Force "Red Zone"; New Unemployment Claims Drop Below One Million; Ohio in Play with 2 Months to Go Until Election Day. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired September 03, 2020 - 11:30   ET

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

[11:00:00]

STATE REP. DAVID BOWEN (D-WI): It's about making sure that this system can be accountable to the community and which it serves. Can it be accountable to black families and communities across this nation that continue to get the short end of the stick?

They are looking for transformation from the system, not just the same old same old with the status quo.

JOHN KING, CNN ANCHOR: And you're counting back the days to the death of George Floyd under the knee of a Minneapolis police officer that obviously drew national attention, deservedly so and drew people into the streets, remarkably so.

You talk about your demand for justice. I want you to listen to the attorney general of the United States saying what happened in Minneapolis is very different than what happened in Kenosha.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: I think it's different than the Floyd case.

UNIDENTIFIED NEWS CORRESPONDENT: What's different?

BARR: Well, Floyd was already subdued, incapacitated, in handcuffs, and was not armed. In the Jacob case, he was in the midst of committing a felony and he was armed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Is that factual in your view? We know there was a knife in the car. I have seen no video evidence that the knife was ever in Mr. Blake's hands around the police officers. There was a knife in the car and he conceded that point.

Is the attorney general describing the events in Kenosha there accurately?

BOWEN: No, I think he's trying to mislead the public. And let's be very clear. White people are able to fight the police, run from the police, even use weapons against the police and they still survive those encounters.

Lethal force was not used in those. And that's why we're trying to prioritize our escalating with the law enforcement officials.

But the attorney general is misleading the public. The details of Jacob Blake also are being missed, that he was there trying to protect his community, stepping up to keep the peace in his community.

And officers were called, and they weren't originally called to deal with him. They were originally called for the dispute that he helped to diminish and then they turned him into a problem.

So I -- I'm disappointed in the word of the attorney general.

KING: We will follow the investigation, and in any event, seven shots into the back of any suspect, white, black, nonviolent, seven shots in the back of anybody should require close scrutiny.

Joe Biden, the Democratic nominee for president, you have this case and a very serious conversation about race and policing. And you also have, because of the calendar, a presidential election that's two months away.

And you live, sir in, a state that could well decide who the next president is. What is Joe Biden's challenge today as he comes into this community?

BOWEN: His challenge is to make sure that he can serve the contrast between him and President Trump.

Literally, a few days ago, President Trump came to fan the flames.

And I think it's important for Joe Biden, vice president, to come in here and come with a fire extinguisher, come with love to bring healing back to this community that Donald Trump wants to tear up on that condition, tearing Americans apart.

And we though he has a very big stake in making sure that white America is merciful at this time. That is his campaign strategy and he's all in on that strategy.

Vice president Joe Biden has to do the opposite. He has to fill the void that President Trump is creating to actually heal our communities and help people get past these differences.

We could not be more divided than any other time in the view, the politics and the things that we're seeing.

But we know that black people want to be alive. Black people want to thrive in this country, in this state. And they can't do that if they are being killed in police encounters.

And I do not expect Vice President Joe Biden to ignore the plight and pain and black people of his visit. He's doing that already to make a priority in Kenosha.

KING: David Bowen in a state representative in Wisconsin, from Milwaukee.

Thank you, sir, for your time and perspective. It's good to see you're doing well.

BOWEN: Thanks, John. Come back to Wisconsin at some point.

KING: Looking forward to it. Looking forward to it.

Thank you very much, sir.

[11:33:57]

Up next White House gets an update from the Coronavirus Task Force after a surge in infections there.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:38:53]

KING: Missouri now another midwestern state getting stern private warnings from the White House task force about coronavirus. The White House briefings, a thing of the past because President Trump wants to send the message all is well.

But his experts see the threat differently and are trying to get the attention of governors without the wrath of the president. The task force puts Missouri in the "red zone" and asks the state to mandate masks and close its bars.

Omar Jimenez now with more.

Omar, yesterday, we were talking about Iowa. Today, the same situation pretty much in Missouri.

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, John. Missouri is one of multiple states now in the Midwest that are concerning by White House Coronavirus Task Force standards.

And it's why they are recommending a statewide mask mandate be put in place there and bars are closed.

When you look at the map of Missouri and where some of these cases have been popping up more than others, you can see why there's so much concern. Obviously, you look to population centers like St. Cloud and St. Louis County as points of concern.

And as we've seen positivity rates rise and also around colleges and universities, especially in recent weeks, as students have begun making their way back to campus.

Then when you look at the numbers overall and the new daily cases that have come up in the state, you can see how those numbers are trending upwards significantly from June to July.

[11:40:11] They dip down a little bit but now you're seeing sort of the fear that officials have that it could get back up to some of those levels. That's why they asked for that mandate to be put in place.

And it's similar to what the situation has been here in Iowa as well in that it was also part of the weekly Coronavirus Task Force report that was sent to the governor here that said that Iowa had the highest new case rate in the entire country. And it's why they have asked for similar recommendations.

Now, the governor in Missouri hasn't really acknowledged the recommendation just yet.

The governor here in Iowa has said they don't want to go forward with the mask mandate, saying they were able to get the case rate down before without one and they plan to use that same mentality again -- John?

KING: Another Republican governor, another red state, Iowa, I guess they call it more of a purple state. But I guess we'll watch it through the rest of the summer.

Omar Jimenez, grateful for the live report there. We'll continue to stay on top of this.

This is hardly encouraging but there's less encouraging news about the economy. The number of Americans filing for new unemployment benefits fell below one million for the second time since March.

CNN chief business correspondent, Christine Romans, is here with the details.

It's just so odd to think of this as better news.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Any other time in American history, this would have been catastrophic. Less than a million. But the bad news it's still 881,000 people filing for the first time for unemployment benefits.

And, John, when you put all the programs together, the pandemic programs for people who were jobs and part-time workers and freelancers, you've got 29 million Americans who are receiving some sort of jobless check.

We like to check in on the continuing jobless claims number, gives us an idea who is running week by week in the state programs. And that declined a little bit. That's what you want to see.

A little more than 13 million but that's still 13 million people. Every one of those numbers is somebody who has lost a job.

And now the stimulus money, the CARES Act money has expired for about a month now.

And with Washington not making any motion on what they are going to do next, it's a reminder of how deep the COVID damage is to this labor market -- John?

KING: More than 13 million people not experiencing what the president likes to call the super "V."

Christine Romans, appreciate the live reporting there. Important numbers.

Coming up for us, President Trump is pushing his law-and-order message to voters in the suburbs.

CNN's Jeff Zeleny taking a firsthand look in battleground Iowa, asking the question: Is it working?

First, though, mural painters in Atlanta have added face masks to their art. Take a look, to send a message. Neighborhoods hit hard by coronavirus.

Here's this week's "IMPACT YOUR WORLD."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We're not seeing visual cues of a pandemic.

Turning the mural that people have been looking at for the last few years into a statement saying, hey, put on your mask and stop the infection.

It's just another form of visual messaging. And I feel like it's an underused tool.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: This is a 100 percent volunteer campaign. We have a series of murals across the city being outfitted with vinyl masks. And they are vinyl versus actually painting over various murals because the idea is there's not permanent.

We're disproportionately seeing black and brown people being impacted by this disease. We very much wanted to target people who we knew were hourly workers and essential workers, people who we knew had to be out and about. And we've also put out about 500 masks in the communities.

Our hash tag is Big Fat Small Acts. And anything that you see that we put out, from our yard signs to our murals to our promotional videos, have that hashtag, which drive back either to our web page or social media channel so that people can find the tips on how to stay safe and keep other people safe.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: On the site, it's we're going to be all right. It's from a song. And it's true. We're going to get through this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: That's remarkable, quite remarkable.

[11:44:17]

For more information on how to help, go to CNN.com/impact. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The battleground states get most of the attention in presidential politics, no surprise there. We've seen both candidates in Pennsylvania. We lean that one blue. President Trump will be there tonight. Joe Biden was there the other day. It's a big battleground.

The president in North Carolina. Both candidates visiting Wisconsin.

And Ohio is a battleground on our map. That Ohio is a tossup is a big deal because, if you look at the map, if we go back in time and look at 2016, President Trump actually carried Ohio pretty comfortably, but it is in play this time.

Why? Columbus, Franklin County, the state capital. This up here, Delaware County, the suburbs north of Columbus. If Joe Biden can put those in play he can maybe flip Ohio.

Which is why our Jeff Zeleny is right there.

JEFF ZELENY, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: John, there's no question that the Biden campaign is focusing on Ohio as well as other battleground states.

In fact, it's part of the new advertising wave that they have spending $45 million just this week alone in several battleground states, including Ohio.

So we spent the last several days talking to voters of all stripes, Democrats, Republicans and Independents, testing how that law-and- order message is resonating with former Vice President Joe Biden's pitch for a change in leadership.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

(CHEERING)

[11:50:14]

ZELENY (voice-over): President Trump is seizing on the suburbs as a weapon in his fight with Joe Biden.

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: He will totally destroy the beautiful suburbs. Suburbia will be no longer.

ZELENY: But, here in Ohio, these sprawling communities have long been changing. Just ask Angie Jenkins.

ANGIE JENKINS, REYNOLDSBURG, OHIO, CITY COUNCIL PRESIDENT: I have no idea what he's talking about, because the suburbs are not what they were in the '60s.

ZELENY: Jenkins is the new city council president of Reynoldsburg, just outside Columbus. She and two other black women were elected last year, in part, she believes, as a reaction to Trump.

JENKINS: I do feel like he's trying to put fear in people.

But people know what we have had for the last four years and what he has been as a president.

ZELENY: Nine weeks before Election Day, the suburbs are again a critical part of battleground Ohio, a state Trump won in 2016 by 8 percentage points.

This time, front yards showing new signs of division, from All Lives Matter to Black Lives Matter, from Trump to Biden, often on the same block.

Ed Paxton owns a cigar shop in the nearby town of Delaware.

ED PAXTON, OHIO VOTER: Some people love him. Some people hate him.

ZELENY: His view of Trump has improved over the last four years and believes the president's law and order message will resonate with some voters in both camps.

PAXTON: It is Trump's America. But I think, at a local level, our law enforcement has been handcuffed.

ZELENY: John Murphy, an ironworker who dropped by to pick up a cigar, disagrees. He says the summer unrest is justified.

JOHN MURPHY, OHIO VOTER: when people are dying for no reason other than the color of their skin, they have a right to be angry.

ZELENY (on camera): Do you think President Trump's trying to scare people?

J. MURPHY: Absolutely. I think that's his main tactic.

ZELENY (voice-over): Stephanie Pyser believes the scare tactics won't work, particularly on women awakened to politics because of Trump.

STEPHANIE PYSER, CO-FOUNDER, POSITIVELY BLUE: It's pretty obvious what you know what the future is going to look like under Trump, which scares a lot of women.

ZELENY: After Trump won in 2016, she helped form a group in the Republican-leaning suburbs called Positively Blue, recruiting women to run for local office and become more politically aware.

PYSER: We're not going to convert any Trump supporters, but finding those people that are on the fence, the Independents and Republicans that are just fed up with the way that our country has been run.

ZELENY: Not long ago, many Democrats believed the state was out of reach, but the coronavirus crisis and economic fallout changed that.

Plus, Biden is a known quantity after being a partner on the Obama ticket that twice carried Ohio.

That's why the Trump campaign is trying to rebrand Biden. Among some Republicans, at least, it may be working.

GINA HEFFNER, OHIO VOTER: The Democratic Party is not what it used to be. And it's extremely liberal. And I think it's scary. And I think it's got a very Socialist vibe. And I think our country will be in great danger.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ZELENY: Now, this week, Ohio voters have already began receiving absentee ballot request forms in their mailbox. The Republican secretary of state is sending a request for an absentee ballot.

So, John, even though we're two months from Election Day, election season is well under way here.

KING: Biggest changes because of the pandemic. We always say two months ago but we are in the election now.

Jeff Zeleny, grateful you are there. In a very important place in a very important state. Check it out for us.

Jeff, thank you.

More Americans were paying attention in the presidential campaign in the past week. And the conventions seemed to be a driving factor.

CNN is partnering with University of Michigan and Georgetown University on what we all "The Breakthrough," a survey to test how much Americans hear about the candidates and what sticks with them.

This word cloud is impressions of Joe Biden. You see the convention and his vice-presidential pick, Senator Harris, were among the topics that broke through with more voters.

Convention was also the word most cited about President Trump last week. You see coronavirus still looms large there. But this was the first time in nine weeks that coronavirus was not the number-one thing associated with the president.

[11:54:14]

Still ahead, President Trump's daughter-in-law, Lara Trump, hits the campaign trail with a controversial far-right conspiracy theorist.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KING: The Biden campaign today says you should judge the president and the team by the company they keep.

Laura Loomer is a Republican congressional candidate in Florida. She peddles in conspiracy theories and a self-described Islamophobe.

The president's daughter-in-law, campaign adviser, Lara Trump -- you see her right there -- a photograph with Loomer at a campaign event in Florida. In a statement to CNN, a spokesperson for the Biden campaign says,

quote, "The Trump campaign's embrace of Loomer and her values is another in a ceaseless stream of urgent reminders we must win the battle for the soul of this nation."

Top of the hour. Hello to the viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing your day with us.

A new interview from Dr. Anthony Fauci cements the giant Labor Day coronavirus challenge. Dr. Fauci says cases may surge if Americans disregard the new rules of the new normal. He is urging people, please, wear a mask, socially distant.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[12:00:07]

FAUCI: We don't want to see a repeat of the surges that we have seen following the holiday weekends.