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Demands Grow for A.G. to Release Grand Jury Info in Breonna Taylor Case; Raoul Cunningham, NAACP Louisville Chapter President, Discusses Taylor Case, Protests Following Grand Jury Decision; Larry Kudlow Stunt Shows Administration Doesn't Care about Struggling Americans; Mission Viejo High School Teacher, Marc McCormack, Discusses Hundreds of Teachers Asking that Schools Not be Opened in California Next Week. Aired 1:30-2p ET
Aired September 24, 2020 - 13:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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[13:31:57]
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Demands are growing for a Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron to release the grand jury transcript in the Breonna Taylor case.
The A.G.'s decision not to charge any of the three officers involved, or I should say the grand jury's decision not to do that, who engaged directly in the killing, has set up protests across the country.
More than 100 people were arrested in Louisville where two officers were shot during the unrest. The officers are recovering. A suspect is in custody. And the city's curfew remains in effect.
The attorney for Taylor's boyfriend echoing the public outcry and questioning the grand jury's decision.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
STEVE ROMINES, ATTORNEY FOR KENNETH WALKER: When you've got a politician summarily declaring these people were justified, that's what a jury does.
You don't get to just recklessly shoot bystanders. It is like pulling out a machine gun and wiping out a group of people and saying, well, that guy was pulled a gun on me. You don't get to do that under Kentucky law.
But it is back to the same thing. Release the entire file. Let everybody see it. Be transparent about it.
And it will show that the information they presented to the grand jury was simply designed not to charge these officers.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: I want to bring in Raoul Cunningham, the president of the Louisville chapter of the NAACP.
Sir, thank you so much for being with us.
We have had our eyes on your city. I know that you have been trying to process the grand jury's decision and also try to understand maybe exactly what the grand jury was presented with.
How's your city coping? And do you have any clarity a day later on these outstanding questions?
RAOUL CUNNINGHAM, PRESIDENT, NAACP LOUISVILLE CHAPTER: No. I have no clarity on anything pertaining to the grand jury.
We also want to see the transcript. We also would like to know the makeup of the grand jury, the racial makeup, the gender makeup. This has not been released. And it looks as if it is not going to be released.
In terms of how the city and the residents are accepting it, I think I would break it down into two groups.
One, I feel sorry for the young activists who have never experienced justice or the dispersement of justice in Louisville, Kentucky.
For those of us who have been around a while, I want to say we were disappointed. But we have seen justice unevenly administered in the city before. And therefore, we have to learn to cope with it as do the young people.
[13:35:01]
But I do believe we will cope with it and we will, hopefully, survive.
KEILAR: Jesse Jackson warned yesterday that violent protests after this decision would be, quote, "a commercial for Trump." There were two officers who were shot yesterday. One protester was arrested.
Do you worry at some point the message could be lost as eyes are trained on the violence that we see at times during peaceful -- there are some peaceful protests and then there is violence. And it's very serious. Two officers were shot.
Is the message being lost?
CUNNINGHAM: I think it may be.
We need or we should be advocating for a peaceful demonstration. The violence has no place in today's society where justice has not been dispersed fairly.
I think that those in leadership positions must discourage the violence but not discourage the demonstration.
And we have got to try to get a positive spin on the violence. And hopefully, we'll use the energy that is going into violence to take it to the polls on November the 3rd. KEILAR: Mr. Cunningham, thank you so much for being with us. President
of the Louisville chapter of the NAACP.
CUNNINGHAM: Thank you.
KEILAR: Next, why a stunt that the White House just pulled shows they're ignoring millions of Americans struggling right now, acting like they don't even exist.
Plus, I'll speak live with a high school teacher who's among hundreds asking the school district to reconsider opening schools next week.
And more than retired generals and admirals have come out to endorse Joe Biden, including a top general who advised Trump.
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[13:42:24]
KEILAR: The president and his administration officials will tell lies, they'll mislead, stretch the truth, or spend numbers to make themselves look good or absolve themselves of blame. We have established that, right?
But this is a new one. Larry Kudlow, the president's top economic adviser, is pretending that time stopped in 2019.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LARRY KUDLOW, TOP ECONOMIC ADVISER TO PRESIDENT TRUMP: I want to show you some more examples of the "V"-shaped recovery.
Actually, I can jump in here. This is from the Census Bureau report. Change in the number of people living in poverty during President Trump's first three years, pre-pandemic. And 6.6 million fewer people, 6.6 million fewer people living in poverty.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What is the number post-pandemic?
KUDLOW: And the
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What is the number post-pandemic?
KUDLOW: Well, we'll have to wait and see on that.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: More accurate --
(CROSSTALK)
KUDLOW: Let me go to the -- under the Obama years. And 787,000 people moved into poverty. So that's a problem. And we have the second chart --
(CROSSTALK) UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Isn't that an old chart?
KUDLOW: No. This is a brand new -- this stuff just came out --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: What about right now?
KUDLOW: If I may, OK?
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I just like accurate information.
KUDLOW: This is the accurate information.
(CROSSTALK)
KUDLOW: This is from the Census Bureau. And --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: This is 2020.
KUDLOW: Well, let me just go back into this.
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: Number of Americans living in poverty right now, do you happen to know that answer?
KUDLOW: No.
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You don't know that?
KUDLOW: I will wait --
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: You're an economic adviser and --
(CROSSTALK)
KUDLOW: Right. If you will just stop nitpicking and let me explain. These numbers --
(CROSSTALK)
UNIDENTIFIED REPORTER: I want to know what's happening.
KUDLOW: Well, you should have a history lesson, too. It would help you understand.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Nitpicking. Wanting answers about the millions of people unemployed or hungry is nitpicking? Wanting numbers that don't completely omit a pandemic and a recession and the year of 2020 is nitpicking? Nearly half of Americans say they have serious financial problems
right now. According to a new Harvard/NPR study, one out of three used up all or most of their savings.
Nearly one out of five Americans are struggling to pay their rent and their mortgage.
And black and Latino households are twice as likely as white families to say they're struggling to pay or have fallen behind on rent and mortgage payments.
Food bank demand has exploded in the last six months.
What economist-turned TV host-turned economic adviser, Larry Kudlow, is trying to do is back up President Trump's claim of the greatest economy ever before the pandemic hit.
Now let's take a look at that. Because while the economy was doing well, it wasn't the best-ever.
[13:45:01:]
Take the GDP before the pandemic. Growth in the president's initial three years was 2.5 percent. This is barely above the Obama administration's and it's below the Clinton, Reagan and Johnson administrations.
It is also worth noting that the economy was goosed by President Trump's corporate tax cuts but it never achieved that 4 percent annual target he promised.
Then take jobs. With the pandemic, he has the worst jobs record of any president dating back to World War II.
But before the pandemic, there were nearly seven million jobs added between inauguration and February of this year. That's a 5 percent gain from when he took office.
If you measure by percentage, and just totally ignore that this whole year we're in right now never occurred, that it ever occurred, that is the 11th best record out of the last 20 presidential terms.
The thing is though, yes, this year happened, right? This is hardly the first time that Kudlow given a questionable assessment.
This was what he said in February about the coronavirus.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUDLOW: We have contained this. I won't say airtight but pretty close to airtight. We have done a good job in the United States.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Well, now more than 200,000 Americans are dead. And the Labor Department says about 26 million people were claiming some type of jobless benefits in September.
But let's see what he said in June when the reality of the pandemic was undeniable.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUDLOW: There's no second wave coming. It is just, you know, hotspots. They send in CDC teams. We have the testing procedures, the diagnostics.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Well, welcome to the second wave, Larry. It wasn't just hotspots in June, it was a nationwide crisis still. And it's nearly October.
And, no, there's no national testing strategy. In fact, the CDC just had to reverse itself on faulty guidance that asymptomatic people don't need to be tested even if they've been exposed to someone positive for coronavirus.
And this from just this week.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUDLOW: The USA is in a much better position, thankfully. We have regained control of the virus, both the cases and the fatalities.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: Not even close. It contradicts everything that health experts say. And it's an insult to the families of those lost to the virus and those who are struggling to survive financially.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KUDLOW: Just go back to school. We can do that. You know, you can social distance. You can get your temperature taken. You can be tested. You can have distancing. Come on. It is not that hard.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: It is hard, Lawrence. Colleges are now epicenters of the virus. Millions of children, they're still not back in school.
But it's not just Kudlow who pretends the pandemic doesn't exist. It's Congress. Because they're about to leave Washington for an entire month without a new COVID relief deal.
Goldman Sachs just cut its fourth-quarter outlook in half simply because that deal in country is unlikely.
So they're divided. They have their paychecks, though. Most of them have avoided the virus. But they can't bring themselves to compromise to help millions of suffering Americans.
They bury their heads in the sand, like Kudlow, who wants to pretend that 2020 didn't happen.
Well, join the club, buddy, if you can find any room in here.
And just in, the president's niece, Mary Trump, is suing him and his siblings for fraud, calling it the family way of life.
Next, I'll be talking to a teacher in California where there are some mixed opinions about if it's the right time to send kids back into classrooms.
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[13:53:09]
KEILAR: Public schools in parts of California are set to partially reopen next week for limited in-person learning. Some California teachers are raising major concerns about potential health risks associated with returning to the classroom during the pandemic.
I want to bring in Marc McCormack, who teaches English and journalism at Mission Viejo High School in California.
Marc, full disclosure, that is my former high school. You were not a teacher there when I was a student there.
But I want to thank you for coming on to tell us what's going on there.
Your district is offering students and parents a choice to continue with all virtual classes or to go back to school for limited in-person learning.
And you've made the choice not to return as a teacher. You have a unique family circumstance that takes precedent. Tell us about this.
MARC MCCORMACK, ENGLISH & JOURNALISM TEACHER, MISSION VIEJO HIGH SCHOOL, ORANGE COUNTY, CALIFORNIA: Correct. And thanks, Brianna. I want to say you're a favorite. And I'm not just saying that because my journalism students need new computers.
But you're awesome. And you could be the Brianna School of Journalism.
And, real quick, my mom -- this is the first time I think she's ever watched CNN.
So, hi, Mom.
It's a difficult situation right now for teachers obviously. And I'm not coming from any kind of point of confrontation. I'm not here to disparage anybody.
I feel like this needs to be a time of unity for all educators, not teachers versus admin or teachers versus district or parents or anybody. We need to all come together for our students.
And I had to make the unfortunate decision, as you mentioned, to choose my family over work, which is really difficult.
I have a special needs son. My son, Brady, is 13. He's blind and nonverbal autistic. He was born in 24 weeks and came home on oxygen.
And right now, he would not be -- he would not do well in school. Flu season is always frightening. And his doctor verified that COVID would potentially kill him.
[13:55:04]
He won't wear a mask. In fact, he doesn't wear clothes sometimes. When we go to the pool, I'll look away and he has his swimsuit off. And I'm like, son, we're not European.
Anyway, it's a difficult situation. But I made it because my family is number one. And it's really hard.
My students and families are also my consideration. I just had to tell my last class that I won't be with them anymore. And it's really hard, really hard.
KEILAR: You're currently going to be going unpaid at this moment, as I understand it? Is that right?
MCCORMACK: Correct. And --
(CROSSTALK)
MCCORMACK: I'm sorry. Go ahead.
KEILAR: I'm sorry.
I was going to, and you're going unpaid. There are a lot of teachers who are going to go back into the classroom.
So hundreds of teachers, like yourself, have signed a letter saying that they have a lot of concerns about reopening high schools.
I know that, in your case, you were only given about, what, two weeks' notice before you go back.
So, what are the concern -- if you were going back, what are the questions that you would have about how you proceed safely and what you need to do?
MCCORMACK: Well, it's been a really challenging time to be a teacher, I mean, besides the fame and fortune and public adoration.
We have been tasked with March 13th, when everything went to hell, we had to reconfigure everything over the weekend.
And I'm like one of those file cabinet teachers where everything is there and let's put it on the computer. And we did it. And we went online.
And I spent all summer -- I know teachers all over the country spent all summer to reconfigure all of their lesson plans. And it's been successful.
I was skeptical at first. But I have some classes of seniors of 37. They're actually -- I have all 37. They're working really hard. Online learning is working. And now we're being told that we have to return to the classrooms.
And our classrooms, to be honest, it looks like right out of a Netflix dystopian series. It looks like "Black Mirror" kind of because of all the safety measures, shields on desks, thermometers right next to the door.
And asymptomatic students are going to pass right through that. It's not safe. We've been told that.
And there's no reason to do it, no reason at all.
KEILAR: Well, Marc, I think about certainly your colleagues, you among them, often. I know this is a really challenging time.
And I really thank you for talking to us about what you're going through. Thank you so much.
MCCORMACK: Thank you so much, Brianna. Take care.
KEILAR: Go Mission.
Thanks, Marc.
(CROSSTALK)
KEILAR: President Trump making it clear he might not honor the election results if they show him losing by refusing to say that there will be a peaceful transition. Why some Republicans are shrugging off these comments.
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