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AG Barr: Russia Isn't Biggest Threat To Election, It's China; Food Insecurity Rises During Pandemic; Facebook Reveals Plan To Battle Voting Misinformation. Aired 12:30-1p ET

Aired September 03, 2020 - 12:30   ET

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

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WILLIAM BARR, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: -- unarmed black man is simply a false narrative and also the narrative that that's based on race.

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JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Let's discuss this. Joining us now CNN legal analyst, Elliot Williams, he's a former federal prosecutor, former deputy assistant attorney general. Elliot, when you listen to the Attorney General now, do you agree there's not two systems of justice in America?

ELLIOT WILLIAMS, CNN LEGAL ANALYST: You know, I'll go out on a limb here and say I will agree with the Attorney General that there are not two systems of justice in America. We have one system of justice in America, but let's unpack how that works in real terms.

So look, under a 2015 study, unarmed black Americans were shocked 3.5 times -- there were 3.5 times more likely to be shot by a police officer than an unarmed white individual. Now, this is once they are engaging with the officer. What took the University of Michigan study from I think 2016 that blacks consistently on average get sentences about 10 percent higher than whites when they are arrested for the same crimes. If you look at marijuana with relatively consistent usage rates across the population, blacks are arrested about 3.7 times more likely than whites.

So once arrested blacks and frankly, other people of color are more likely to be charged with an offense, once charged with an offense, they're more likely to be convicted by a jury. And once convicted by a jury, they're more likely to face a stiff sentence. So fine if the Attorney General says we don't have two different systems, we can agree with that. We have one system, but that just has hugely disparate impacts on certain on black and brown members of society.

To some extent, maybe we do need two systems, one in which black people are actually treated fairly. But that's just not the way the law applies today.

KING: And not the way the law applies today. One of the questions from the very early days of this Attorney General's tenure is, is he America's lawyer, is he the President's lawyer, we know when he wrote that summary of the Mueller report that it was not by any means accurate. It did not accurately portray what was actually in the Mueller report. So that question has persisted for some time. Listen to the answer here. Wolf tried to ask him about foreign interference in the election now in 2020.

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WOLF BLITZER, CNN ANCHOR: The intelligence community has pointed to Russia, China, and Iran, which is the most assertive, the most aggressive in this area?

BARR: I believe its China.

BLITZER: Why do you say that?

BARR: Because I've seen the intelligence. That's what I've concluded.

BLITZER: What are they trying to do?

BARR: I'm not going to discuss that.

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KING: It's what he's concluded. He's concluded China. If you read the published documents, never mind the private intelligence we don't have access to, if you read the published documents from the intelligence community, they completely disagree with what you just heard from the top law enforcement officer of the United States. Those documents say that Russia is actively helping, actively interfering, actively meddling in the election to help President Trump win reelection that China has a preference. It would prefer Joe Biden wins but there's no evidence right now of any massive actually China trying to pull the levers.

There is evidence of Russia trying to move voters. How can the Attorney General lie to the American people about what the intelligence says? I guess his defense is that's what I conclude, read the same piece of paper come to a different conclusion.

WILLIAMS: Well, again, we don't know what intelligence the Attorney General himself is reading. But I think quibbling about whether it's China or whether it's Russia, it's actually the wrong question to engage in here, because there seems to be a partisan tint to that because of the way President Trump regarded talking about Russian interference, as you know, not wanting to acknowledge it, because suggested that it all came from Democrats and the Democrats are doing.

What we know is that actor -- the Russia, China, and Iran are all trying to interfere in our system of elections. And this is a nonpartisan issue on a core system of American government, on a core system of constitutional rights, but also, frankly, a core national security issue. And so whether it's China or whether it's Russia, we have a problem. And what it sounds like the Attorney General is doing is echoing some of the President's talking points and trying to minimize the threat posed by Russia. They are all profoundly serious. And we need to come together and take them seriously. And we're just not getting that rhetoric from the Attorney General today.

KING: Some rhetoric we do get from him, as he says, we're playing with fire if we have greatly expanded mail-in voting in the United States of America, in the middle of this pandemic, we're playing with fire. You can talk to secretaries of states, Democrats and Republicans across the country who say we need some help. This is a giant challenge. But we can do it, we can handle it. Why would the Attorney General undermine the integrity of U.S. elections?

WILLIAMS: Yes. That's an excellent question. Now, in those comments in that interview with Wolf, last night, he talked about not basing this on any evidence that he had, but on logic. Well, it just seems logical that there's going to be fraud. And that contradicts by partisan scholars and analysts who have looked at this issue, who said that vote by mail is safe with adequate protections in place and the states that do this, do have adequate protections in place and you don't find this raft of widespread voter fraud that people see.

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Now look, in any governmental system, John, there's going to be some risk of harm. There's going to be some risk of fraud. We have that everywhere in society. But you have to weigh that against number one, the importance of the constitutional right at issue here. But number two, public safety and the question of not forcing people to be in a position of having to go out in person in vote where in communities and jurisdictions that may just not be prepared to have them out there.

When you layer that on top of the President of the United States, literally calling for people to commit a federal offense around this question of voting, we have a very profoundly big problem. So again, the Attorney General here just isn't basing his statements on evidence or facts or actual actionable research, but just logic. Logic is a wonderful thing. But we live in a world of laws and we live in a world of facts. And just seems the Attorney General and the President just aren't there with the rest of us right now.

KING: Elliot Williams, grateful for your insights and expertise on these issues. We'll continue the conversation.

Up next for us, the coronavirus pandemic forcing millions of children to go some days without food.

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KING: New data this week confirm a national disgrace. The richest country in the world cannot feed its poorest kids, the Department of Agriculture putting the number of food insecure Americans at 37 million, the Salvation Army says the number of boxes at hands out there drive-through pantries up 84 percent, Meals on Wheels now serving 47 percent more people. The pandemic impact is clear, it's pushed already struggling families to a point where going without food is part of the new normal, and also affirms part of why this back to school moment is so important. The National School Lunch Program provides low cost or free meals to nearly 30 million children in 2018.

Joining me now to discuss is Renee Sims, a retired teacher in Washington D.C. and Maribel Garcia, the superintendent of El Monte City Schools in California. Superintendent Garcia, let me start with you. I know you work with No Kid Hungry through Share Our Strength, one of the many organizations trying to deal with this. I'm fascinated by the challenge.

Now when you have children going back to school, we've lived through this through the summer and this is a national disgrace that children are going hungry. No child should go hungry. When you have some children coming back to school, summer at home, summer in a hybrid model where they might come to school for two days but then be home. How can the logistics of all that be handled to make sure these children are getting food?

DR. MARIBEL GARCIA, SUPERINTENDENT, EL MONTE CITY SCHOOLS: John, thank you for having me. It's a pleasure to be here and really talk about this very important issue.

You know, as you as you described, there are many scenarios that are taking place throughout the country. And I know that school districts are just working around the clock to meet the need a very, very essential tool, an important tool for kids, you know, aside from pencils and erasers is nutritious meals. Meals are needed for kids to learn. And so I know that districts are planning to continue to provide services in my district. We are currently in a distance learning mode. And we are providing five days worth of food, in addition to that, a farmers market basket that will assist families to get through this crisis.

KING: And Renee, I just want to read something. You read things like this, and it's just -- it stops your heart, it stops your heart. This is from Brookings Institute, 13.9 million children lived in a household characterized by child food insecurity in the third week of June, 5.6 times as many as in all of 2018 and 2.7 times as many than did at the peak of the Great Recession back in 2008.

This has always been a stain on our country. But at the moment, those numbers, I'd say, wow, but wow, sounds positive. It's so depressing.

RENEE SIMS, RETIRED TEACHER: It's truly is depressing. And when you think in terms of everybody going through the pandemic, and without children being at home, parents being at home full time, students who are normally getting those meals, three meals a day pretty much in school who no longer have that opportunity. It's really devastating for those families who are on fixed income to be able to provide for their families.

And the data shows you that we are really suffering right now. And our children have too many situations right now that they don't have -- they shouldn't have to worry about being hungry, having food to eat a well-balanced nutritional meal. And so it's very important that the USDA has to understand that these programs that they're providing our communities are opportunities for our families to be able to live, survive, and to be happy.

KING: We have all had to learn new things. And we're continuing to learn new things as we go through this pandemic. So Maribel Garcia to that point, so you have these places, this is a terrible problem. You have places and organizations, whether they're charities, whether they're government programs, whether they're school systems that have a structure in place, and then you get bam, hit with the coronavirus pandemic. What is -- what has to be done differently and for somebody out there listening who wants to help in some way, what is the best way to help?

GARCIA: John, excellent question. Let me just tell you that there were a lot of food insecurities before this pandemic. And I know one of the things that we continue to say at Share Our Strength is, you know, childhood hunger is the most preventable issue. We can solve this issue if we all come together. So the idea is that we need government policies that will support families during this time. We need extensions to go through the remainder of the school year. We need also need charitable donations, support to organizations like No Kid Hungry are essential. They have provided a dish, you know, lots of technical assistance to school districts and organizations in order to continue to feed students during this time.

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And we also need to come together, right? So this is an opportunity for government policies, charitable donations to people -- for people to come together in order to solve this issue once and for all. Childhood hunger can be eradicated.

KING: And Renee helped me through the idea that if you're a parent watching and you're confused, right, your child maybe during remote learning, you're getting help at home now your students going back to school some. How does a parent out there who's in distress find the right guidance and the right information?

SIMS: For my child who's attending IDEA Public Charter School, which is a wonderful program we have here in Washington D.C., it's a small setting and they provide these opportunities. They come out on a school bus that they have and they bring us bags of nice produce, fresh fruits and vegetables. And it has really been a great savings and a great big help for my family because I'm not have growing youth. You know, I have 16, 17, and 20 year olds, and, you know, who are still in school. And this is very important for them. And I appreciate the opportunity. And I think that we must continue these opportunities for many other schools and other parents and families in our community so that they will be able to provide those nutritional foods for our families.

KING: For all the things we can legitimately argue about, go ahead, quickly, good ahead. GARCIA: John, if I can quickly just share. You can go to nokidhungry.org and there are plenty of resources there for families to tap into. They've created a website that allows you to locate food availability and sources in your local community. And so that's a wonderful resource for parents to have on hand.

SIMS: Yes, yes.

KING: Renee Sims, Maribel Garcia grateful for both of your times. I was going to say for all the things we legitimately argue about in an election year and that we should be debating in an election year, this is one we should not be. This one I don't care what your politics are, we should be able to figure this one out. Thank you both so much for your time.

GARCIA: Absolutely.

KING: Some pictures here just moments ago, the former Vice President Joe Biden, now the Democratic nominee for president. You see Joe Biden and Joe Biden arriving. This is in Milwaukee airport. They of course spending some time in Kenosha today to deal with the racial tensions in that city following the shooting of Jacob Blake. We'll stay on top of that story. Also ahead for us, Facebook has a plan it says to limit campaign advertising ahead of Election Day, but only for the final week. The details next.

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KING: Facebook says it will stick by its policy of allowing politicians to, yes, lie and mislead in ads as we approach Election Day. The company though, is laying out new rules to limit misinformation about the election and voting. Let's check in with our CNN business correspondent Donie O'Sullivan. He's looking into this. So a small fix, I guess is the way to put this?

DONIE O'SULLIVAN, CNN BUSINESS REPORTER: Very small, John. You know, I think it's really important despite Facebook and Zuckerberg being out there today on the P.R. offensive for us not to overstate what Facebook is doing here. They're saying they're not going to allow campaigns to run new ads in the last week of the election campaign. But if you're a campaign, if you're the Trump campaign, any campaign, you can just buy a ton of ads the week before the campaign and it will run all the way out through Election Day, including ads with lies about your opponents. Zuckerberg was on CBS this Morning and here's what he had to say.

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MARK ZUCKERBERG, FACEBOOK CEO: If someone is kind of dumping some new information, if it's misinformation in the last days of the election, then there may not be time for that normal kind of debate and process to play out. And that's why I think it's important to have extra restrictions in the last week. I think on very sensitive is having us be the ultimate deciders of what is right and wrong and true and false in the world.

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O'SULLIVAN: So there's Zuckerberg is saying that, you know, if there's ads being placed and bought in the last week of the election, because Facebook allows false ads, there might not be enough time to have the scrutiny of those ads. So what he's saying here is that Facebook will accept the money from the campaign's millions of dollars from campaigns can still run ads with lies in them, and it's going to be up to us in the media, the voters, and I guess political opponents to call out those ads, all the while, Facebook making a nice pretty penny off these ads, John.

KING: So if your eyes -- if your ads lie, book them early so you're not inside the final window. Got it? I think I got it there. Donie, what's the policy if there's misinformation about election results?

O'SULLIVAN: Yes. I think, John, that this is where the real challenge for these companies might begin is actually on election night and the week after the election. We've seen what President Trump has been doing sort of laying the groundwork to call the integrity of the results of the election into question. And the companies now are really scrambling all across Silicon Valley to figure out a way how they will be able to I guess, rapidly respond to posts that try call into question results, maybe posts that circulate with false election results.

But as we've seen, these companies don't have a great track record in removing this sort of false information. And as you saw there, even Mark Zuckerberg said they don't want to be the arbitrator of truth. I mean, they have said that they will take down blatant misinformation about the election that does call the result of it into question and that is false. But, you know, it's hard to have confidence in this company with all, you know, its track record in election misinformation, John.

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KING: I get it. You want to have the big platform. You want to have the First Amendment. But with that much power also comes responsibility. It would be nice to see them do a better job at that part. But Donie O'Sullivan as always, grateful for your reporting on this very important story, we'll stay on top of it.

And thanks for joining us today. Hope to see you back here this time tomorrow. Brianna Keilar picks up our coverage after a quick break. Have a good day.

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