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Body Cam Video Released of 13-Year-Old Shot by Chicago Officer; CDC Says, More Than 30 Percent of Adults in the U.S. are Fully Vaccinated; Biden Puts New Sanctions Russia for Hacking, Election Interference. Aired 11:30a-12p ET

Aired April 16, 2021 - 11:30   ET

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

MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D-CHICAGO, IL): Of their child's last moments, much less be placed in a terrible situation of losing their child in the first place.

[11:30:13]

RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Chicago Police say Toledo had a gun in his hand before the shooting and that they recovered one from just behind the fence, highlighting it in this video edited and released by the department. But the body camera footage appears to show Toledo had his hands up and was not holding anything at the time that he was shot, a crucial detail his family's attorney says is important in the investigation.

ADEENA WEISS ORTIZ, LAWYER FOR ADAM TOLEDO'S FAMILY: If he had a gun, he tossed it. The officers said, show me your hands, he complied, he turned around.

YOUNG: Toledo's family agreed to the release of the video after viewing them at the Chicago mayor's office earlier this week. Now the officer who killed Toledo is on administrative leave, his attorney telling CNN he was left with no other option, adding, Stillman was well within his justification of using deadly force.

But for protesters and Toledo's family, there are questions about his death that need to be answered.

ORTIZ: All I know is that an officer is trained to not shoot an unarmed individual, not to shoot an unarmed child.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

YOUNG (on camera): Kate, you really have to slow down the video to see the weapon or what police are saying is a weapon in their hand. And that's something they're sort of highlighting here, that split second decision that the officer felt he had to make.

Something else we should probably stress is that 21-year-old has also been arrested in connection with this case for endangering a minor. There are so many more details of this. When you go frame by frame, you really see that position the officer was put in, according to the police in terms of having, to make that fatal shot on the 13-year-old. Of course, all this is under question at this point and still under investigation.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN NEWSROOM: Ryan, thank you very much.

Turning now to the fatal police shooting of Daunte Wright, his family is demanding that former Police Officer Kim Potter face more severe charges for shooting and killing a 20-year-old. Right now, she is charged with second manslaughter.

Listen here Daunte's family.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

AUBREY WRIGHT, DAUNTE WRIGHT'S FATHER: What is going on is unfair, these young black men being killed. Can you blame my son or anyone else from being scared of the police?

NAISHA WRIGHT, DAUNTE WRIGHT'S AUNT: You all see the difference? This is a taser. This is a taser. But, no, my nephew was killed with this, a glock.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Wright was killed during a traffic stop just outside of Minneapolis. Body camera video shows what happened, the moment Wright broke away from police, got back in his car, the officers yelling at him. Potter, the officer, warning that she was going to use her taser, instead of using the taser, she shot him at point blank range.

Joining me now is the president of the Minneapolis NAACP, Angela Rose Myers. Thanks for coming on, Angela.

ANGELA ROSE MYERS, PRESIDENT, MINNEAPOLIS NAACP: Thank you for having me.

BOLDUAN: Of course. You heard there from Daunte's family some of what they said. Do you want to see tougher charges brought against the officer?

MYERS: I think that the context is key here. And I think we should remember Officer Mohamed Noor, who was the officer who shot Justine Diamond a couple of years ago. He was pushed. That was an accident as well. And he actually was charged with stronger charges than Officer Potter right now. So I think the context is key and Officer Noor is currently in jail for those actions. So, an accident or not or this precedent and be history in the context shows that she can be and she should be charged with tougher charges.

BOLDUAN: This is really just the latest tragedy on top of another for the broader Minneapolis community. At a press conference this week, I heard you say black leaders are not playing. We are done dying in Minnesota. What do you mean?

MYERS: I mean this. Minnesota was founded through white supremacy. Minnesota is a white state. We can all admit this. But, originally, the Dakota, Lakota, Anishinaabe, Ojibwe people, this was their land. In Minnesota in the 1862, the United States had the largest mass execution in the United States history, and that was a 38 Dakota men lynched on this ground.

In the 1920s, three black men in Duluth, Minnesota, were lynched in this state. We saw the murders of Jamar Clark, Philando Castile, George Floyd, now Daunte Wright, we saw Kobe Heisler in Brooklyn Center was also murdered a couple of years ago, numerous since 2000, over 400 people have been brutalized or murdered by police in this state.

[11:35:10]

We are done dying.

It was 1920 when the Minneapolis NAACP was here for our community. When it was Jamar Clark murdered, we were here for our community. When it was George Floyd, we are here for our community.

And my question is to the legislature, to the state senators, to our elected officials, where are you? We have yet to pass meaningful legislation, we have yet to pass meaningful police policy when it comes to police reform and accountability. And so that's what I mean when we are done dying because we have watched and we have witnessed time after time again and black people being murdered in this state, and yet there is a silence from our elected officials on any steps in legislation or policy going forward.

BOLDUAN: Angela, Minneapolis has been through so much. Minnesota -- I mean, you just listed it out. But this, of course, goes beyond the city, it goes beyond even the state. I want to play for you something that my colleague and friend, Bakari Sellers, said last night after the body cam video of Adam Toledo was released in Chicago. Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Only in America can you be in the middle of a trial in closing arguments for a cop killing a black man with a knee on his neck, only to be interrupted by a cop accidentally killing another black man, only to be interrupted by a 13-year-old boy in an alley turning around with no gun in his hand being shot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: What Bakari described kind of what is described an endless cycle of just exhaustion. How do you describe it?

MYERS: I would agree with the exhaustion. I would agree with the rage and the despair and hopelessness that our people and our community members feel right now. And at this point in time, silence is not an option. If you do not know there is a problem, you do not want to recognize that there is a problem, you are the problem.

And so, yes, it's only -- only in America that this system of almost every day, almost every week we're hearing of another case of police officers brutalizing black people or people -- just Americans in this country. And it's extremely, extremely unfortunate and scary and terrifying, but we have to also recognize that the root of it is not just police officers. It is not just our criminal justice system.

The government is rooted in a white supremacist framework. And we need to attack that and we need to be clear when we're talking about this is not a black versus white issue. This is a right versus wrong issue. And people in our state and our government should not be murdering their citizens.

BOLDUAN: This is also not just a conversation for today. You have -- this say long conversation. And you have many tough days ahead. Closing arguments in the Derek Chauvin trial are coming Monday and what happens in the days to come, that is a huge question. Thanks for coming on.

MYERS: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: This just into CNN, Vice President Kamala Harris, she just addressed the mass shooting at that FedEx facility in Indianapolis. Let's listen in to it together.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

KAMALA HARRIS, U.S. VICE PRESIDENT: I briefly want to discuss the tragedy that occurred in Indianapolis last night.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: Yet again, we have families in our country that are grieving the loss of their family members because of gun violence.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: There is no question this violence must end.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: And we are thinking of the families that lost their loved ones.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: (INAUDIBLE).

HARRIS: And the president will speak later about the case.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: Vice president was making the remarks ahead of her bilateral meeting with the Japanese prime minister, who is in town as the first foreign leader to be visiting the White House in person since President Biden took office.

[11:40:09]

We're going to bring you more updates as they come in on that tragic mass shooting in Indianapolis. We have that update at the top of the hour. There could be new information coming out. When we get it, we'll bring it right to you.

Also ahead for us, one step forward and another step back, more and more Americans getting vaccinated against coronavirus while the future of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine is very much up in the air right now.

We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BOLDUAN: Some good news and good signs coming from the CDC right now. New data showing more than 30 percent of adults in the United States are now fully vaccinated. 64 percent of seniors are already there. Great news.

But this morning, there could be a few more obstacles to getting more Americans to roll up their sleeves. The CEO of Pfizer is now saying that people will likely need a third dose, another booster shot, if you will, between 6 to 12 months after their first round. That's on top of the CDC advisory panel pushing -- advisory panels pushing off a decision on the Johnson & Johnson vaccine after it was put on pause over concerns of rare cases of blood clotting issues.

Joining me right now is Dr. Leana Wen. She is a CNN Medical Analyst and former Baltimore Health Commissioner. She's also the author of a new book titled, Lifelines, A Doctor's Journey in the Fight for Public Health. It's good to see you, Doctor.

Let's start with the booster shot that Bourla, the Pfizer CEO, was just talking about. Does the need for a booster shot surprise you and does it say anything about the effectiveness of these vaccines?

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: It's not at all surprising that at some point we may need a booster shot. Actually that's what we've been saying that all along for two reasons. One is that the effectiveness of the immunity may wane over time, they decrease over time. So getting the booster might increase the immune protection.

The other reason is we have these variants that are remerging and we may need booster that's specifically target new strains that may evade the effectiveness of the existing vaccine.

[11:45:07]

And so it's not surprising. And I actually think that people should see this as a good thing. As in science is evolving and we're going to be giving people the best immune protection against this deadly pandemic.

BOLDUAN: That's an important message. So while this is not -- maybe not be surprising, do you think that this could be another hurdle just in the past week, really, of convincing already hesitant people to get the shot when you add that on to the J&J pause?

WEN: I think the messaging at this point has to be very nuanced and very careful. For example, around Johnson & Johnson, I think the messaging has to be that look how careful our federal health officials are being, that even something that looks like it's one in a million possible side effect is being investigated. And so we should have so much confidence in the vaccines that we have in Pfizer and Moderna because over 100 million people have taken these vaccines without incident.

And, look, these booster shots, that's just the science evolving and this is a once in a generation pandemic, if we're able to take the booster that will protect us more, that is great. And I think we need to have public health messaging that is affirming of how safe and effective these vaccines really are.

BOLDUAN: Reinforcement of how important messaging is when it comes to a public health emergency.

And while, of course, COVID-19 is the major public health crisis that we've been talking about, understandably, for months, there is another epidemic in this country that we -- that is playing out that is unique to America, which is what we've been talking about the entirety of the show, gun violence.

The mass shooting, you know, that I'm talking about, another mass shooting I'm talking about today, this is always caught up in politics. But I'm curious as your opinion, if you see gun violence now as the real public health emergency in America today?

WEN: I'm an E.R. doctor. And for those of us working in the E.R., in the ICUs, we undoubtedly understand that gun violence is a health emergency. It's also a public health emergency. What I mean by that is there are public health tools that we can use to address gun violence. There are ways for us to prevent gun violence, studying as a public health issue and the same way we study automobile safety.

We're not trying to ban cars. We're trying to use seat belts and drunk driving laws to make it safer. And that's the same approach that we need to use for gun violence as well.

When I was a health commissioner in Baltimore, we ran a program called Safe Streets that uses community violence prevention methods that are proven to be effective. And so using that kind of public health approach to gun violence prevention is so important especially now.

BOLDUAN: It's good to see you, Doctor. Thank you.

WEN: Thank you.

BOLDUAN: And coming up, from sending a signal to China to sanctions against Russia, to pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan, the big moves that President Biden is making on foreign policy just this week.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:50:00]

BOLDUAN: We have some breaking news just into CNN, the first guilty plea in the January 6th attack on the U.S. Capitol is expected to happen any moment now. A hearing is under way in D.C. federal court, as we speak. The defendant we're talking about is John Ryan Schaffer. He's one of the founding members of the Oath Keepers, the paramilitary group that we have talked so much about in the aftermath of January 6th.

This guilty plea will come exactly 100 days after he and hundreds of other supporters of former President Trump allegedly stormed the U.S. Capitol. The insurrection on the Capitol happening 100 days ago, this being the first guilty plea with all of those that are now charged.

We're going to bring you updates as they come in there.

But we're also following an important moment at the White House. President Biden is about to host his first in-person visit with a foreign leader. The prime minister of Japan is scheduled to arrive in about three hours from now for this formal sit-down with President Biden.

A senior administration official telling CNN that Biden is using this visit to also send a very clear message to another country, to China. This visit also rounds out a very big week of foreign policy moves for President Biden, slapping Russia with sweeping sanctions and diplomatic expulsions and retribution for cyberattacks against the U.S., and interference in two presidential elections.

Here is how Joe Biden put it.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, U.S. PRESIDENT: I was clear with President Putin that we could have gone further but I chose not to do so. I chose to be proportionate. The United States is not looking to kick off a cycle of escalation and conflict with Russia. We want a stable and predictable relationship.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BOLDUAN: That was on top of another huge and consequential announcement, he's withdrawing all U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11th, bringing to an end America's longest war, all of this just this week.

Joining me now for some perspective is David Sanger, CNN Analyst and also White House and National Security Correspondent for The New York Times.

David, first on this first in-person meeting with the prime minister of Japan, the framing and the reporting from my CNN colleagues was really interesting. It's not just a show of a close friendship between the U.S. and Japan. What do you think of this signal to China, and do you think it's effective?

DAVID SANGER, CNN POLITICAL AND NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: You know, the Chinese are always concerned about the U.S. relationship with Japan, because since World War II, that's been where the closest American troop presence has been, that's been where American ships are based, it's where American intelligence operations are based.

And so, really, the history of the past few decades, including back when I lived in Japan in the '80s and '90s, was the Chinese looking for ways to get in the way of that relationship.

So what has Biden done here? He's invited Prime Minister Suga to be the first in-person leader to come to the White House, not to be meeting over a virtual session. And the symbolism of this is that we've got to sow up the allies against a rising Chinese threat and North Korean threat and, of course, it's the opposite of what President Trump did, who threatened to pull American troops out of China -- out of Japan and out of North Korea to the delight of the Chinese when that was going on.

BOLDUAN: I want to ask you about Russia, not just talking about the new sanctions that the administration just slapped on Russia, but I also think, maybe most interesting on that front, is that the U.S. intelligence community this week has disclosed for the first time that the Russian agent who received internal polling data from the Trump campaign in 2016 did pass it along to Russia's intelligence service. So the government drawing this line finally for the first time between the Trump campaign and Russian intelligence.

[11:55:05]

I know this is now in the past, if you will. But isn't this important stuff still?

SANGER: It is because we haven't written the history of all of this and it was the Biden administration's subtle way, almost as a secondary headline to what happened yesterday, to say the Russia hoax wasn't a hoax, there really was a connection between the campaign and Russia. But the primary import of yesterday was a sharp change in tone in which the administration has said this set of cyber activity is off limits.

Now, it was a little bit of a risk along the way because we don't know how the Russians will retaliate and, of course, since they're into those computer networks, they have some easy ways in.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, David, thank you.

SANGER: Thanks.

BOLDUAN: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:00:00]