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Three Dead, At Least 20 Hospitalized After Boat Capsizes Off San Diego; Memorial Services Held For Andrew Brown Jr.; Republican Party Infighting Reaches Fever Pitch; Defining President Biden's First 100 Days In Office; Biden Administration Touts COVID Achievements, Vaccine Rollout; Biden Hits The Road To Sell His Massive Economic Plan; United Shades Of America Premieres Tonight 10 P.M. Eastern Time. Aired 7-8p ET

Aired May 02, 2021 - 19:00   ET

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

[19:00:02]

PAMELA BROWN, CNN HOST: Well, the search for survivors, three people are dead tonight, dozens are in the hospital after a boat capsizes off the San Diego coast.

And also tonight, outraged and in search for answers, protesters demand to see the footage of the fatal police shooting of Andrew Brown.

Plus, the Republican Party riffed and the damage it's doing to democracy as party leaders continue to spin the big election lie.

Hi, good evening. I'm Pamela Brown in Washington. You are live in the CNN NEWSROOM tonight.

It is the hour's breaking news that we are following on the West Coast right now. A tragedy, a deadly accident in the waters off San Diego. Officials say a boat with between 25 and 30 people on board capsized and broke apart.

CNN's Josh Campbell is gathering details for us.

Josh, rescue and immigration officials spoke to reporters just a few minutes ago. What did they say?

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN SECURITY CORRESPONDENT: Well, we're learning this was indeed a tragedy, Pam, although we are told that three people are now dead after this boat capsized this morning off the coast of San Diego. Over 20 people were taken to the hospital. Some with serious injuries.

We just got an update from officials a short time ago, as far as the reason for this boat, why it was in the water, why it was transiting the location outside of San Diego, authorities believe this was part of a smuggling operation. Take a listen to what they just said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JEFF STEPHENSON, U.S. CUSTOMS AND BORDER PROTECTION: Every indication from our perspective is that this was a smuggling vessel, used to smuggle migrants into the United States illegally. We haven't confirmed the nationality of the people involved. But our agents are with many of them at the hospital. And the man who we believe was the operator agents are with them, and the suspected smuggler. But the investigation is still unfolding.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

CAMPBELL: Now the captain of that vessel has been detained according to officials. He is under investigation at this hour. What authorities said is that this was something that they've seen in and around that area near San Diego, which is only about 15 miles from the U.S.-Mexico border. And that is these attempts by smugglers to try to, in this official's word, blend in with shipping traffic up and down the coast there of San Diego.

They received a call just after 10:20 a.m. Pacific Time about a boat that was in distress. They believe at the time that there was one person on board, this boat apparently, and I call it a boat, it's more like just a contraption that was going down the water because once it hit the reef it apparently just disintegrated according to officials. They then responded. Upwards of 30 people they were told were actually on board.

They made a number of different approaches and rescue attempts taking over 20 people to the hospital. This particular area of San Diego is home to traffic from shipping lanes. There are pleasure cruises there. There's also a U.S. naval installation that's home to at least two aircraft carrier units at any given time there but also, according to officials, this area frequented by smugglers.

Finally, it's worth noting that should this person actually be prosecuted, again we're told that he is under investigation, U.S. federal law has significant and very stiff penalties for smugglers, especially those that engage in operations that result in death, including life in prison -- Pamela.

BROWN: All right, Josh Campbell, thanks so much for bringing us the latest there.

And turning now to North Carolina. People there are demanding transparency and accountability for the death of Andrew Brown Jr. at the hands of sheriff's deputies. Brown's family led a march for criminal justice reform and there have been two separate viewings ahead of his funeral tomorrow.

Brown was shot April 21st as deputies were trying to execute an arrest warrant. A judge has ruled the video from four police body cameras will not be released publicly for another month, and that the Brown family and one of their lawyers will be allowed to see them.

Now Brown family attorney Wayne Kendall joins me now.

First of all, thank you for coming on the show. We appreciate you spending some time to talk with us. Have you seen any of those videos?

WAYNE KENDALL, BROWN FAMILY ATTORNEY: No, I've not seen any of the videos.

BROWN: Would you expect to see any of the videos?

KENDALL: Well, according to the ruling that the judge made last week, only one attorney for the family will be allowed to see the video, and that attorney has to be a North Carolina licensed attorney.

BROWN: OK.

KENDALL: I'm not a North Carolina licensed attorney.

BROWN: So one of Brown's relatives told CNN that Brown started backing up his car, and then they started shooting the front windshield of his car. That is not what the D.A. said. He said the deputies only fired after Brown hit them with his car. Those are obviously two very different versions. How do you explain that disconnect?

KENDALL: Well, I can't explain it. And the reason that the D.A. gave for not allowing us to see the video or the public to see the video is undercut by the very fact that he has a disagreement with our attorney who did see the video, which is why we need to see the video.

[19:05:05]

The compelling reason for the public to see the video is that obviously there is a different interpretation of what's on the video. There can be no more compelling reason. The public has a right to know what government officials do in their name in the execution of search warrants and arrest warrants. He should allow us to see the video and clear up this discrepancy.

BROWN: I want to ask you more big picture about police reform across the country, what should be done. Republican Senator Tim Scott says that he is hopeful that Congress can come together to pass a police reform bill. Here is what he said this morning on CBS's "Face the Nation."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. TIM SCOTT (R-SC): The real question is, how do we change the culture of policing. I think we do that by making the employer responsible for the actions of the employee. We do that with doctors, we do that with lawyers. We do that in all -- most all of our industries. And if we do that in law enforcement, the employer will change the culture. So as opposed to having one officer change or not change, we'll have all officers transforming because the departments are taking on more of that burden.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Do you agree with him? Do you think this would make a meaningful difference in policing?

KENDALL: The biggest problem in policing in America today is the doctrine of qualified immunity. If we were to aggregate that doctrine, get it out of the legal lexicon, there will be accountability on police officers. As it currently stands, very rarely is a police officer held accountable for his or her actions as a police officer for acts of violence against citizens that are done in the name of that particular governmental unit.

If we get rid of qualified immunity, then the employers, Senator Scott says, will be responsible, or their insurance carrier will be responsible. Currently, there is no responsibility because nine times out of 10, a police officer will get away with acts of misconduct based on a doctrine of qualified immunity, which holds that officers are not accountable for actions done under the scope of their authority as police officers.

BROWN: Right. And that is the sticking point of course is over that qualified immunity, Tim Scott has said that he thinks it should apply, that these police departments should be held responsible, not the individual police officers. That's still ongoing in Washington. But back to your case, Wayne. You talk about wanting the body cam video to be released public for the sake of transparency.

Well, the sheriff actually has said he wants the same. He has said that. Even though state law is preventing that from happening quickly right now, is it a good sign in your view that the sheriff at least wants to get out in front of this?

KENDALL: Not only has the sheriff said he wants to release the video, but the state Bureau of Investigations has also called for complete transparency. The problem is the district attorney. The district attorney for whatever reason, and I think his reasons are primarily political. He's running for judge at the same time that he's probably handling the largest most public interested case in his career.

I think that's an inherent conflict. A person running for office who can use this case as a means of a political advantage should not be the person calling the shots. The governor has called for special prosecutor, we think there should be a special prosecutor, even though the law here in North Carolina does not allow for the governor to appoint a special prosecutor.

But somehow some way this district attorney needs to step aside and allow a special prosecutor who is independent to come in and investigate this matter.

BROWN: Very quickly, the sheriff has reinstated four deputies who were at the scene. They did not fire their weapons, though. Do you agree with that decision?

KENDALL: Well, we don't know what they did because they won't release the video. But what the sheriff did do that I think is laudable is that he named all seven individuals. He named the four that he's going to reinstate, put back on active duty. And he also named the other three. By his naming those individuals, there is no reason for this video to have faces blurred. We know who the shooters were because the sheriff himself has identified the shooters.

So we can determine who these individuals were. I don't understand the rationale for blurring their faces, blurring their badges, blurring their name plates when we know who they are.

BROWN: OK.

KENDALL: So that undercuts the rationale for having the video redacted.

BROWN: All right. Wayne Kendall, thank you for coming on and sharing your perspective. We appreciate it.

KENDALL: Thank you for having me.

BROWN: And meanwhile, hundreds of people gathered in Arizona to remember a police officer killed in the line of duty.

[19:10:04]

A candlelight vigil in Chandler Saturday night honored the life and service of Officer Christopher Farrar. Police say he was struck and killed by a man driving a stolen car after a lengthy chase. Farrar was an 18-year veteran of the Chandler Police Department. He is survived by his parents, two sons, a daughter, and a grandchild.

Our hearts and thoughts are with his family.

Still ahead tonight, CNN's chief political analyst Gloria Borger grades President Biden's 100 days. And then Arizona Republic columnist Laurie Roberts tells me why she thinks the state's election audit is, quote, "laughable and only getting worse."

Plus, the NASA SpaceX mission makes history with the first nighttime splash down in the U.S. in 50 years.

But first, before we get all that, you reap what you sow. The Republican Party rift and the damage it's doing to democracy as party leaders continue to spew lies about the election. S.E. Cupp and Chris Cillizza join me next to discuss.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:15:12]

BROWN: In recent days a public battle has played out between Trump loyalists and the Republican establishment. Senator Mitt Romney Booed, number three house Republican Liz Cheney shunned. Former president George W. Bush sidelined. But it's not just a rift inside the party machine. It's trickling up from a vocal Trumpist base that's mounting a full-on takeover of the party.

Here to discuss CNN politics reporter and editor-at-large Chris Cillizza and CNN political commentator S.E. Cupp.

Great to see you both.

Chris, let's launch right into it with you first. Obviously, party infighting is nothing new. But how significant is this current moment we're in right now? Can you think of any other times in politics where it's been this intense, this public, and gone on this long?

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: I can't think of a time, Pam, when it's been built around a single person that doesn't really represent what we traditionally would say is conservative values. S. E. can speak more to this. But, I mean, the reality is Donald Trump is -- he's tonally conservative. But on a lot of things, debt and deficit, I mean, trade, there's a lot of issues where Donald Trump's views do not line up with what we would have described as conservatism call it a decade ago.

Another point I want to make is you mentioned bottom up. And I think that's so important, because what you saw during the Trump years, we focused on the top of the ticket, the presidential race, the Senate races, the House races. And, yes, Democrats took back the Senate, took back the House. But one thing that happened is at the state party level, you saw these small groups of extremely vocal, extremely organized Trump-aligned folks take control of state parties, Republican Parties across the country.

Arizona is one example. Kelly Ward who ran multiple times lost to John McCain. She ran against Jeff Flake. She was sort of widely sort of dismissed as a candidate. She's the chairwoman of the Arizona Republican Party now and is one of many people pushing this recount in that state, which is if you look at it, ridiculous, and has pushed the idea that Donald Trump won the election.

So that stuff trickles upward and has an impact on our national politics. We're seeing it in places like Utah and Arizona right now.

BROWN: So then, S.E., what does a more traditional Republican who wants to stay in power, stay in politics do when other Republicans who do speak out, Liz Cheney, Romney, get excommunicated? I mean, look at the special congressional election in Texas, the one candidate who spoke out against Trump only received 2500 votes out of nearly 80,000.

I mean, that says a lot, doesn't it? S.E.? Is she frozen? OK. So, Chris, I'm going to let you pick up the torch there.

CILLIZZA: Yes. Look, I think that special election in Texas, not that many people are paying attention to it, but one thing that is worth noting, the voting was Saturday and there's going to be a runoff. Two Republicans are in it. Democrats thought they'd might have a chance.

But your point is the important one, Pam. There was a candidate saying, look, I'm a conservative, I have been my entire life, I don't agree with Donald Trump, I think we need a different sort of future, 2500 votes. The candidate that Donald Trump endorsed, the widow of the former congressman, first in the voting.

So when we paint it as a fight between the establishment and the Trump wing, it's sort of a one-sided fight. Right? It's like me against LeBron James in basketball. Yes, we're playing one on one, but, like, LeBron James has a significant advantage. Right?

BROWN: Yes. CILLIZZA: That's the deal. The Trump people just keep winning. I mean,

that's what I think you have to focus on, these candidates getting in these races, Kennedy Gutmann, North Carolina, Senate races with Ted Budd, congressman, he had a thing about, you know, running over liberal values with a monster truck. And he played a long video of Donald Trump praising him in his introduction video.

It's not complicated here. For every voice like Mitt Romney or Liz Cheney or Adam Kinzinger in Illinois, there's a hundred or a thousand other voices. And the establishment of the party is a little bit cowed. Kevin McCarthy, you know, they don't know what to do and because they're afraid of their own base.

BROWN: Yes. I have heard that privately from Republicans who have said to me, look, Pam, I mean, look at our base.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

BROWN: If we get ousted, then more fringe candidates like the Marjorie Taylor Greene types will take our place. What do you say to that? Do you think that that's right?

CILLIZZA: I mean, it's not wrong. At the same time, if you vote like Marjorie Taylor Greene, how big a difference is there other than sort of her theatrics, right? It's like saying, hey, I was with you all the time, sorry, I didn't do anything to make clear I was with you, but I was with you.

[19:20:07]

Like that's the definition of cowardice. Right? I mean, particularly in politics. What you have, I'm going to say it again. What you have is a national party that is afraid of its base. It just is. If you think that the vast majority of elected Republicans in the House and Senate think that Donald Trump should be the nominee in 2024 and that everything that he advocates where the party should go, you are fooling yourself.

What you have is very few people like Liz Cheney who are willing to step out and risk their political careers. People don't follow her out on that limb, Pam, not because they don't agree with her, they do, but because they are afraid for their own politics.

So, this whole thing, like, oh, well, imagine what it would be like if I wasn't the nominee. Maybe, but functionally, the vote is very similar to what you'd be getting from a Marjorie Taylor Greene or a Lauren Boebert or a Matt Gaetz. So I don't see -- that feels to me like a distinction without much of a difference.

BROWN: That's interesting. And, you know, I was talking with my team today just about this idea. Is this an identity crisis or is the bottom line here this is the party of Trump and a very small number are trying to fight against it?

CILLIZZA: Yes. BROWN: The Republicans like Romney, Cheney, Bush, Asa Hutchinson, Adam

Kinzinger, they're just the minority trying to push up against it. But really this is the party of Trump. What do you think?

CILLIZZA: Yes. I think that's exactly right. I think we do a disservice to our viewers, to our readers when we paint it as a 50-50 matchup. Like, ooh, who's going to win, is it going to be the Trump candidate or the guy running against Trump in the Republican Party? Like, I'll tell you how that's going to work out a hundred times out of a hundred. Now, maybe that will change, you know, as we get further away from Trump or he loses -- but currently right now, Donald Trump, it is a cult of personality around Donald Trump.

The voices who are willing to speak out are very few and far between. And whether or not lots of people who are silent agree with them, it doesn't matter in practical terms, Pam, because they are silent. So that doesn't do Liz Cheney or Mitt Romney any good when some senator comes up to them and says, a Republican says, hey, I really support you, I can't say it publicly. Well, that's the business that we're in, right?

I mean, that's like me saying, like, oh, yes, I knew all the answers on "Jeopardy!" but I didn't say any, but I just kept them in my head. I mean, come on, like at some point you have to show and prove it, right?

BROWN: Right. I've talked to some folks about that, Republicans, and I've said, I've asked them, you know, how do you stay true to yourself and keep your integrity on stuff like, you know, the big election lie? You know it's wrong.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

BROWN: And stay in Republican politics as it is or the trajectory it is going. And I think I have found that it's a quandary for them. They don't know what to do.

CILLIZZA: Yes.

BROWN: Like on the election lie, it's a prime example. Right? They don't want to talk about it because they know the truth. But they know that if they speak out about it, their base is going to just light them up.

CILLIZZA: The theory is, right, it's a rollercoaster ride. You hang on for as long as you can in hopes that you get through the spins and the loops and you come to a more flat place. And I think that that's what they're hoping, which is I'm going to do everything I can to stay in office and maintain some semblance of credibility personally and with my voters because I have to believe that this fever, this Trump fever is going to break. What I keep pushing back on is it's been five years.

BROWN: Yes, there is no sign of that.

CILLIZZA: Right? Donald Trump -- almost six. Donald Trump has been -- Donald Trump got in the presidential race June 2015. I don't -- yesterday Donald Trump endorsed a candidate who came in first in a Republican primary, in an open primary, and a guy who ran expressly against Donald Trump as a Republican, as you said, I can't do the math in my head, but 2500 votes out of 80,000 votes cast ain't a lot in terms of percentages.

And I think that -- we just keep getting reminder after a reminder after a reminder that this fever -- this may be a permanent condition or at least a semi-permanent condition, you know, through 2024, 2028. I don't see any evidence that even though Donald Trump is out of office, suddenly voters are done with him in the Republican Party.

BROWN: Right.

CILLIZZA: And I don't see anybody stepping forward really in a large group to say we're not doing this anymore.

BROWN: Right. Certainly seems that way. Chris Cillizza, thank you so much for the --

CILLIZZA: Thanks, Pam.

BROWN: The interesting conversation there about Republican politics right now as it's playing out. We're watching it. Thanks so much.

Well, nothing defines President Biden's first 100 days in office more than the coronavirus. Coming up, CNN goes in depth to see how the U.S. went from having one of the worst COVID responses to being a global leader in vaccinations.

[19:25:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BROWN: Well, President Biden is now past the 100-day threshold in office. So how are Americans grading him? A recent CNN poll showed a 53 percent approval rating overall. But his handling of the pandemic puts him at 66 percent approval. The president has said that he will be judged by how he steers the U.S. out of this crisis.

CNN's Gloria Borger takes a deeper look at his administration's push to do that and what they inherited from their predecessors.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEFF ZIENTS, BIDEN WHITE HOUSE COVID-19 RESPONSE COORDINATOR: From day one it's been about urgency, overwhelming problem, we're at war with the virus.

GLORIA BORGER, CNN CHIEF POLITICAL ANALYST (voice-over): For the last hundred days, how to get vaccines into the arms of hundreds of millions of Americans and convince the hesitant to get a shot has been an immense, historic undertaking, and also personal for those on the front lines.

[19:30:08] ZIENTS: I'm worried that people have lost loved ones, people continue

to lose loved ones. People's lives have been upturned.

You know, this is hard -- and people are tired, which means that there's a tendency to let down our guard, which we can't do.

DR. LEANA WEN, CNN MEDICAL ANALYST: If you had told us a hundred days into President Biden's tenure, that it would be open season for every adult American that wants a vaccine to be able to get one, I think we would have all said that's really incredible.

BORGER (voice over): A country with the highest number of confirmed deaths worldwide, now vaccinating at a speed more than four times faster than the world.

JOE BIDEN (D), PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The progress we've made has been stunning.

BORGER (voice over): Donald Trump's Operation Warp Speed developed the vaccine.

PAUL MANGO, TRUMP H.H.S. SENIOR OFFICIAL: It turned out to be the most significant medical discovery and manufacturing achievement in American history,

BORGER (voice over): Nothing short of a miracle.

DR. ANTHONY FAUCI, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF ALLERGY AND INFECTIOUS DISEASES: Do you realize what a dire situation we would be in if we did those vaccine trials and oh, my God, they were 20 percent effective instead of 90-plus percent effective?

DONALD TRUMP, FORMER PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Operation Warp Speed --

BORGER (voice over): But in the beginning, the transition did not move at warp speed.

TRUMP: You know we won Georgia --

BORGER (voice over): President Trump was preoccupied with finding votes, not shots.

FAUCI: There was much more of a concentration of the President on re- election and a dissociation from the fact that we were having an epidemic.

BORGER (voice over): And governors were left wondering who would be running the show.

GOV. LARRY HOGAN (R-MD): I raised the issue to Mike Pence several times about, hey, you know, regardless of whatever stuff the President is saying, we got this vaccine thing that we've got to make sure that these guys know what's going on as soon as they get up. He assured me that that was going to be the case.

BORGER (voice over): And then --

ZIENTS: There was no plan to get shots into arms.

BORGER (on camera): No plan?

ZIENTS: There was no plan as early doses of Moderna and Pfizer were being dropped shipped to states and there were just not enough places for people to get vaccines.

BORGER: They say that you were using their playbook on vaccine distribution.

ZIENTS: I just think that's just not true.

MANGO: I have to say it's frustrating when they spend all their time disparaging what we did. They say we didn't have a plan.

BORGER: Yes.

MANGO: We had 65 plans.

BORGER (voice over): Localized, not centralized.

MANGO: We have the fundamental belief that local leaders understood their counties, their townships, their states, their islands at a greater level of detail than we ever could.

FAUCI: It's complicated. There was not really a well-articulated long range playbook to get the vast majority of the people vaccinated. That's where I think the full court press of the Biden administration really, really stepped up to the plate and did it well.

CHIEF JUSTICE JOHN ROBERTS, U.S. SUPREME COURT: Congratulations, Mr. President.

BORGER (voice over): The new President inherited a surging pandemic, more than 3,000 deaths a day, only about 15 million vaccinated.

HOGAN: At the very beginning, the frustration was huge demand and no supply, and so the anger and frustration everywhere across the country was: why can't I get an appointment for a vaccine?

BORGER (voice over): Biden became the national vaccine pitchman, setting targets --

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He ultimately decides.

BORGER (voice over): And announcing every milestone himself, eager to show any momentum, starting with what looked like unattainable goal.

BIDEN: A hundred million shots in the first hundred days.

HOGAN: We were already doing more than a million a day at that point. So, if he did absolutely nothing, we would have done a hundred million in the first hundred days even if he didn't show up.

BORGER (voice over): But he did show up, repeatedly.

BIDEN: One hundred million more Moderna, Pfizer --

Johnson & Johnson --

Vaccine supply for every American adult by the end of May.

By my 100th day in office, have administered 200 million shots.

BORGER (on camera): I heard early on the President was very impatient.

FAUCI: He is. He is. You know, and that's the truth. He is impatient, like okay, is this the best we can do?

He asks specific questions. Well, what about this and why aren't we doing this? And are we doing the best than that?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[19:38:14]

BROWN: We continue now with a look at President Biden's first 100 days in office and specifically how he has handled the defining issue of American life for more than a year: the coronavirus pandemic.

Here is CNN's Gloria Borger.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

BORGER (voice over): Biden could not control the delays due to winter storms, or governors who eased restrictions. And he abided by the decision from the F.D.A. and C.D.C. to temporarily pause the Johnson & Johnson vaccine, a move that some saw as overcautious and confusing.

BIDEN: These checks are providing a heck of a lot needed relief.

BORGER (voice over): The President did jump-start a substantial Federal response, a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan.

BIDEN: America's coming back.

BORGER (voice over): Deployment of active-duty military and F.E.M.A., a Federal pharmacy program, a network of community health centers to increase vaccine access and equity.

DR. MARCELLA NUNEZ-SMITH, CHAIR, COVID-19 HEALTH EQUITY TASK FORCE: We have to always start with access, making sure that people can get vaccinated in places where they are comfortable and where they trust the people who are vaccinating them.

BORGER (voice over): Many in communities of color are skeptical.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What about the side effects? BORGER (voice over): Vaccinations of younger people and those in rural

areas are lagging. And with the number of overall daily vaccinations wavering, appealing to the hesitant is crucial.

NUNEZ-SMITH: We always will meet people where they are. We always have to make sure that messages are tailored. So that's about saying, what are your particular concerns?

PROTESTERS: We want to be free.

BORGER (voice over): And politics, as always, comes into play.

BORGER (on camera): Fifty percent of Republican men say they are not likely to take the vaccine. What would you say to them?

HOGAN: I would say that's absolutely crazy, because the people that say, hey, we want to get rid of these masks, we want to open up all the businesses, the only way we ever get life back to normal is if we get enough people to get that vaccine.

[19:40:08]

BORGER (voice over): So, why not explain the rewards of vaccination earlier?

WEN: If what we're saying to them is, get vaccinated, it's great. This is such a safe and effective vaccine, but, by the way, you can't really change much of your daily activities, I don't think that people understand what's in it for them.

BORGER (voice over): And why not open schools sooner?

WEN: I think this was a major mistake at the very beginning was to not prioritize teachers for vaccination.

BORGER (voice over): The administration's answer has always been the same: Let the science lead.

ZIENTS: I think this is another example where we follow the science. The C.D.C. put out guidance as to how to make sure to open schools safely and keep them open safely.

BORGER (voice over): Now a new phase in the effort, an immense get- out-the-vax P.R. campaign, a TV blitz.

NARRATOR: With vaccines we can trust.

BORGER (voice over): Celebrities getting jabs.

DOLLY PARTON, MUSICIAN (singing): Vaccine, vaccine.

FAUCI: It really is kind of a race between getting vaccinated and the virus trying to essentially surge up again. Every day that goes by, you get closer and closer to that virus really not being able to do anything, because, when you get an overwhelming majority of the population vaccinated, the virus has no place to go. BORGER: The country is at a tipping point. With coronavirus variants

on the rise, the next hundred days and beyond will still be a tough race, with the final finish line not yet in sight.

Gloria Borger, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BROWN: President Biden is hitting the road this week to pitch his economic agenda directly to the American people. It is part of what the White House calls the Getting America Back on Track Tour. The President, Vice President and other administration officials are blitzing cities across the country to lay out their plans to boost jobs and help families they say.

CNN's Arlette Saenz joins me from the White House where the President is getting ready to depart. So where is he heading this week, Arlette?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Pamela, President Biden starts his week out on the road as he is looking to sell these two massive economic proposals to the American people.

Tomorrow, he will travel down to Southern Virginia where he and his wife, the First Lady, Jill Biden, will be visiting a school in the area to promote that American Families Plan. That is that $1.8 trillion proposal that focuses on childcare, paid family leave, and free community college.

The Vice President will be traveling to Wisconsin and Rhode Island on Tuesday and Wednesday. And then On Thursday, the President is heading down south to Louisiana to further promote these plans.

Now, what the President is trying to do here is build support out in the country among the American people for both that American Jobs Plan and that American Families Plan and he is hoping that voters will then encourage their lawmakers up on Capitol Hill to support this measure.

And his Chief of Staff, Ron Klain explains a little bit of the thinking behind that earlier today. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: The proposals the President has put forward have broad support. They have broad support in the country. They have support from Republican governors and Republican mayors.

I think what we have to see is whether or not Republicans in Washington join the rest of America in broadly supporting these commonsense ideas to grow our economy and to make our families better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAENZ: Now, you have heard Republicans express frustration with the price tag of this proposal and some moderate Democrats have also expressed skepticism about components of this plan. But the President has said that he is willing to negotiate with Republicans, but one concern he has is that if they come with offering a fourth or a fifth of what he has proposed, he says that's a no go for him.

But he is expected to host Republicans here at the White House at some point to talk about that infrastructure proposal -- Pamela.

BROWN: Okay. Arlette Saenz, live from the White House for us. Thanks so much.

Well, a brand new season of "United Shades of America" starts tonight with a look at defunding the police and what a substantial overhaul of the system could look like. Show host, W. Kamau Bell joins me up next.

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[19:48:38]

BROWN: And all new season of "United Shades of America" starts tonight.

W. Kamau Bell takes us to his hometown of Oakland for a deeper look at police brutality in America and the toll it takes on communities of color.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

W. KAMAU BELL, CNN HOST, "UNITED SHADES OF AMERICA": Is this moment different as far as like where we are in America and specifically around law enforcement?

LERONNE ARMSTRONG, CHIEF OF POLICE, OAKLAND: For me, it's just this moment of being a black man in a police uniform. Right. And there are some problems. There are systemic problems that's been in policing for a very long time that you know need to be rooted out.

And so you sit in this place where you're like, do I fit in? Right? Sometimes, you even ask the question, do I fit in? I'm a black man before I put on a uniform.

BELL: Yes.

ARMSTRONG: I'm one when I take it off. You know, I'm not --

BELL: And you are while you've got it on.

ARMSTRONG: Right.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And W. Kamau Bell joins me now. Great to see you. I can't wait to watch this coming up later on. But, you know, to talk a little bit about what you found during your reporting. You know, we just had this guilty verdict in the Derek Chauvin trial last week and I'm wondering, do you think that that will have any impact on policing in America?

BELL: Well, it's interesting because in the clip we just played, you hear me asking Leronne Armstrong who is now the Chief of Police of Oakland: is this moment different? We taped that in October.

Right now, we're still asking: is this moment different?

So until we actually take advantage of the moment and make it different, we're just still sort of spinning in a circle which is what a lot of the conversations around policing are doing.

[19:50:10]

BROWN: And what does that look like to you?

BELL: I mean, when we talk to activists out here, Cat Brooks from the Anti-Police Terror Project and James Burch who is also in the same organization about defund the police. I know that scares a lot of people. I've been fighting with people in my mentions all week about it.

But simply the idea is, taking funds away from the police that we have seen through evidence that they're not using well, and putting those into other resources and schools and mental health programs so that the community can better support and create safety for its most impacted members.

BROWN: Right, because people hear defunding the police and they may think, are you saying you want to get rid of police? And there happened, those extreme views expressed. But, you know, the other side of this, Kamau, look, we have seen many examples even recently of heroic actions taken by police, right?

I mean, you have the officer in Colorado, Officer Talley, who was killed in the line of duty responding to the mass shootings at the groceries store, you'll recall. Do activists acknowledge that as well? The good the police do?

BELL: I mean, activists talk about, for example, in Oakland, we spend around 50 percent of our municipal fund on policing, but only four to five percent are for violent crime. So basically, they're talking about right sizing the budget.

There are times you may want somebody to show up with a gun to intervene, but those are very few and far between times and those should be highly specialized and trained people.

Mario Gonzalez out here in Alameda, California was killed because he was drunk in a park basically. And the police came and leaned on him the way they did with George Floyd and he was dead. That should have been a mental health worker, it should have been somebody with a ride home. We don't need people with guns to show up in every situation that involves public assisting the public.

BROWN: So you talked to multiple police reform activists who say that law enforcement is an inherently racist system. What do they say about the foundations of policing and how racism has been embedded in the system from the start?

BELL: Well, you know, that's such an easy answer because policing in this country, especially in the south, was developed using a thing called the Barbados Slave Code. That is an open and shut case about whether or not policing comes from a racist history.

And then in the Lyndon Johnson administration, Lyndon Johnson, I know you know, Pamela is not known as a super lefty. They investigated policing in the Kerner Commission and found that that white racism was what was dividing this country, and the police were an arm of white racism.

So we have these answers.

BROWN: The Kerner Commission.

BELL: The Kerner Commission, yes, we have those. We have those answers, we just haven't done anything with them.

BROWN: So over the past several decades, you have police departments around the country becoming increasingly militarized. Why do you think that has happened? And what impact has that had on the communities that they serve?

BELL: Well, you know, a lot of people saw that through Ferguson when you see things like tanks rolling down the streets. I think what has happened is every time in this country, we talk about reform, which is why the defund activists don't want to talk about that anymore, what ends up happening is police say we can reform ourselves. Give us more money, more power, more access to technology and what that does is it just further impacts black indigenous and Latinx communities.

We are currently behind the eight ball in those communities, and it just puts us further and further behind the eight ball and it makes us feel less safe.

BROWN: W. Kamau Bell, always tackling the most important and toughest issues in this country. Thank you so much for coming on.

The brand new season of "United Shades of America" starts tonight at 10 Eastern and Pacific right here on CNN.

Well, inside the G.O.P., it's a battle for the soul of the party. The new wave keeps pushing the big election lie. Can the old guard stop it?

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[19:58:42]

BROWN: As the vaccine rollout continues and parts of the U.S. loosen restrictions, some school reopenings are still in flux and many parents are in a tough spot. When they return to work, who will watch their kids?

Well, that's where our CNN Hero, Jennifer Maddox steps in. She has turned her after school center on Chicago's South Side into a remote learning hub to give students the support they need and family's peace of mind. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JENNIFER MADDOX, TRANSFORMED HER AFTERSCHOOL PROGRAM INTO A CENTER THAT HAS KEPT KIDS ON TRACK THROUGH REMOTE LEARNING: We don't want them to make the choice, me, earning a living versus my child getting an education.

What type of a choice is that?

If with they have to go back to work. We're available for them to bring their kids every day so that they can go to work.

We provide them with a safe space, making sure they are online every morning on time, making sure that they are in class.

They're engaged and able to complete their assignments.

We try to make sure that our door stayed open, that we were constantly staying involved and connected with the young people because they were really struggling trying to cope through COVID.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: And this is the full story about Jennifer's work, go to CNNheroes.com and while you were there nominate someone you think should be a CNN Hero.

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