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Happening Now, Funeral for Andrew Brown Jr. as Calls Continue for Release of Body Cam Footage; Rep. Liz Cheney (R-WY) Says, Anyone Who Claims 2020 Election was Stolen is Poisoning our Democratic System; Biden Pitches Ambitious Infrastructure, Family Plans. Aired 1- 1:30p ET

Aired May 03, 2021 - 13:00   ET

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

[13:00:01]

JOHN KING, CNN INSIDE ANCHOR: Have a good day.

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Thanks for joining us, I'm Ana Cabrera in New York. I hope your Monday is off to a good start.

We are following multiple stories this hour. Happening right now, another family says goodbye, the funeral for Andrew Brown Jr. is under way right now in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. The 42-year-old black man was shot and killed 12 days ago by sheriff's deputies who were trying to execute a warrant, and we still know few details about what happened that day. And until the body cam footage is released, the city, frankly, the nation, is very much on edge.

Also this hour, President Biden on the road, set to make a major pitch for his massive spending proposals. The president is battling to win over Americans and Republicans on the Hill. We are following developments on both and we'll bring you his remarks live.

Plus, Republicans facing a major test and it's not clear how the party passes this one, rising tensions over the big lie, it's get onboard or get out. Is there a future for those vocal members who don't back up the false claims that the 2020 election was fraudulent? We dig in.

But, first, I want to go to CNN's Natasha Chen. She in Elizabeth City, North Carolina, right now. Natasha, what is the message there today?

NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Ana, this is a really difficult moment inside this church right now because they are grieving, of course, and celebrating Andrew Brown's life, but they are also having to deal with the fact that they don't know a lot about how he actually died. And there is a search for transparency here that's been going on for about 12 days.

And right now, at the podium, we are hearing from Sandra White, she's an aunt of Andrew Brown Jr., just talking about how she knew him, saying that he was such a wonderful person, she's standing up there with other children, children of Andrew Brown, many of whom have been involved in some of the peaceful protests, including the march that was happening yesterday through Elizabeth City.

And earlier, we heard from Attorney Benjamin Crump, who said that there were other families in attendance today, families of Eric Garner and of Daunte Wright, and that this is unfortunately becoming a growing fraternity. Here is what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR FAMILY OF ANDREW BROWN JR: Because Andrew cannot make the plea for his constitutional rights. It is up to us to make the plea for his constitutional rights. And because of District Attorney Womble, Andrew cannot make the plea for transparency. It is up to us to make the plea for transparency and demand that these videotapes be released.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CHEN: And we don't know, Ana, when those videos will be released because last week, a judge said that they could not be released publicly at the moment. The judge did say that the family of Andrew Brown could view more of the body camera footage in private, not sure when exactly that's going to happen. The judge said within ten days.

To be clear, as of this moment, only two family members, including Khalil Ferebee, his son, have seen the 20 seconds of body camera footage offered by the county attorney and that 20 seconds was also redacted with blurred faces, Ana.

CABRERA: We are not going to let up. We are going to continue to push for answers. Natasha Chen, thank you for your reporting.

And we are waiting to hear remarks from President Biden any moment now in Portsmouth, Virginia. He's trying to convince Americans his sweeping proposals for infrastructure jobs, education and child care are worth the big price tag, nearly $4 trillion. Bipartisan talks are happening on multiple levels back on Capitol Hill.

CNN White House Correspondent Arlette Saenz is in Portsmouth. So, Arlette, what is the pitch from this president today?

ARLETTE SAENZ, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Ana, President Biden's overarching message is that investments in physical and human infrastructure will not only boost the economy but also keep America competitive on the world stage. And you are hearing him make that case in Southeastern Virginia over the course of the day.

This morning, he stopped at an elementary school that just reopened a few weeks ago to having students in classrooms four days a week and then he toured an HVAC workshop here at a community college where he is also set to speak any minute now, really. And free community college is part of that $4 trillion investment that he has been calling for.

Now, the White House believes that they have broad support for these proposals out in the country and they are hoping that that will, in turn, pressure lawmakers up on Capitol Hill to get on board with this plan. The president has indicated he does want to try to get bipartisan support for these measures, and you've seen White House officials and the president himself starting to engage with Republicans to talk about areas of agreement in this plan.

[13:05:09]

The president having a phone call, just last week, with Republican Senator Shelley Moore Capito.

But at this current moment the two sides are far apart when it comes to the price tag and how to pay for it. Republicans have introduced a proposal that's around $600 billion, focusing on a more narrow version of infrastructure, like roads, rails and bridges, while the president has introduced an overarching $4 trillion proposal.

Now, one thing that there is some openness to doing is potentially breaking off these plans into smaller pieces if they are able to find areas of agreement. But those pay-fors are some areas that the two sides will need to work on to see if they can find an agreement there.

And you have also heard some Democrats expressing skepticism with these price tags, and wanting the White House to engage in bipartisan negotiations to get these passed.

CABRERA: Okay. Arlette Saenz, again, in Virginia for us, the president expected to speak any minute, we'll continue to monitor that, bring those remarks live.

Just to give our viewers a sense of what needs to happen there in Virginia, when it comes to infrastructure proposals, 577 bridges, 2,124 miles of highway are all in poor condition, according to state's infrastructure report. Of course, the president is expected to address some of that today.

To the battle now within the GOP, the number three House Republican, Congresswoman Liz Cheney, is still facing growing backlash for not supporting former President Trump's false claims, the big lie, that the election was fraudulent. But she is not backing down, tweeting this morning, the 2020 presidential election was not stolen. Anyone who claims it was is spreading the big lie, turning their back on the rule of law and poisoning our democratic system.

Trump is still pushing this lie, even just this morning. And it is a test that a seemingly tearing his party apart. Senator Mitt Romney who, let me remind you, was the Republican nominee for president less than ten years ago, he was booed at the Utah Republican Party's organizing convention for his vote to convict Trump after he was impeached.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. MITT ROMNEY (R-UT): I don't have the fact that I wasn't a fan of the last president's character issues, and I'm also no fan --

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: With us now, CNN Senior Political Analyst John Avlon and Margaret Hoover, Host of Firing Line on PBS and a CNN Political Commentator. It is so good to see both of you again since we used to have our weekly segment on the weekend. So thank you for making time for me today.

Margaret, let me just start with you, because Trump didn't win the election but Trumpism seems to be winning in today's Republican Party.

MARGARET HOOVER, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, it depends what you mean by Trumpism. If you mean by Trumpism, sort of an intellectual patina or veneer over some of the policies of Trumpism, I don't even know if that's winning, because I think the party really is trying to figure what their policy posture is going to be, vis-a-vis President Biden. We'll hope to expand the federal government in the most meaningful ways since the Great Society program.

However, if you mean the attitude of Trumpism, the fact that you can say a lie and it doesn't matter that it's a lie but you just say it over and over, and eventually people will believe you, that's absolutely what you've seen in the base of the Republican Party. That's what you saw in that revolt against Mitt Romney there, that really, really unseemly, disreputable, beneath the dignity of a respectful political system where you can have disagreements with people, but you don't shout down a former nominee of your party for president.

This is just a new low for the Republican Party, Ana. And it's (INAUDIBLE), here we go again.

CABRERA: It kind of seems though like there is no room for multiple perspectives, let alone just even stating facts. The Republican Party has been basically saying there's no room for anyone who didn't vote for Trump or who doesn't buy his lies.

John, I think how this is supposed to be a party that idolizes the Constitution. But how can it attack the basis of our democracy at the same time?

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: You can't. It can't. There's no room for pretending you're a super patriot if you're trying to undermine democracy and the rule of law at the same time. This isn't a fight between the establishment and the insurgence. This is about truth versus lies and any republican, quote/unquote, leaders who are trying to say there's moral equivalence between those two positions for political purposes is part of the problem.

So, good for Liz Cheney, good for Mitt Romney, good for Adam Kinzinger, because we need a sane center-right party right now, but we also need to confront the reality that right now the Republican Party is far from sane.

HOOVER: Well, I just want to say, that is the base of the Republican Party. This is truly the base of the Republican Party. You've got Liz Cheney, you've got Adam Kinzinger, you've got Larry Hogan, you've got a lot of them.

CABRERA: Hey, guys, stand by, forgive me for interrupting. The president is about to speak in Virginia. Let's listen.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- lovely lady in blue over here is a professor at a community college. My wife also works for your husband. And thank you for the welcome today at the airport, I appreciate it very, very much.

And Tim Kaine, one of the great senators and a great, great friend, and a guy I've relied on most of my career when I was in the Senate, we worked together, and as vice president, and now is Bobby Scott. Bobby, thank you for everything you do. And, Congressman, whom you got to meet when you were in uniform, I think, if I'm not mistaken. And you're doing a great job, and thank you for being here, and all the faculty and management and folks here at the community college.

You know, one of the things that I really found interesting, Jaden, is that the major used to talk cyber security, we've spent a lot of time as my colleagues in the Congress and the Senate can tell you, we're in dealing with cyber security, and it's really important that we get this under control. We have the best trained people in the world. You're going to be among them.

I'm here today to talk about a community college to talk about America's family plan and that I announced last week, a once in a generation investment in families and children, and addresses what people care most about and most need, the investment we need to win the competition with other nations in the future, because we're in a race. We're in a race. It all starts with access to good education, as you well know.

When America made 12 years of public education universal in America in the early 1900s, it made us the best educated nation in the world and you saw the benefits that came from that. But the rest of the world has caught up to us. Rest of the world has caught up to us. They're not waiting. And 12 years is no longer enough to compete with the world of the 21st century and lead the 21st century.

That's why my American families plan guarantees four additional years of public education for every person in America starting as early as we can. We're at an elementary school earlier today. And what we're talking about here is it means universal high quality preschool for three and four-year-olds, not day care, preschool.

And the research has shown here at the great universities in this state and others that children of that age who go to school, they are far more likely to graduate from high school and continue their education beyond that. Rather than start off behind the eight ball if they come from families that are -- don't have education, college educations, you know, a lot of kids start kindergarten hearing a million fewer words spoken than other families, and it's an unfair disadvantage. But every child is capable, every child is capable of learning.

So we just visited, by the way, a fifth grade classroom in Yorktown earlier today where the students are back together with their classmates and teachers in school. And we saw what being in school means for those kids. Safely reopening majority of the K through 8 schools was one of my top priorities in my first 100 days, because there's so much that happens when they don't have the certitude and the companionship and the familiarity of being with their friends. There's an awful lot of need in this pandemic for mental health facilities and counseling.

We met that goal by working with the governor here to get educators and school staff vaccinated, and to get them the resources they needed to open up safely. I often said that children are the kite strings that keep our national ambitions aloft. We say all those kids, they're all our children, they're all our children and they are the kite strings that literally lift our national ambitions along. So we've got to invest in them, invest in our children, to invest in the future.

We can't stop there. We're going to add two years of community college on top of that. You just heard Jill talk about community colleges and how it can change lives. Well, students here at the community college, across the country, know why. For some, it's two years of community college to earn enough credits to transfer to a four-year university, which is available almost every single state, to become a teacher or entrepreneur or anything else. For some, it's getting extra training through a certificate program to get a good paying job in a business in town.

[13:15:00]

We just met with students at the HVAC workshop, ambitious, talented students who are up to taking the next step in their lives. And with the skills they're learning here, and some of the students will go on to be plumbers, members of pipe fitters, Local 110, electricians, it means higher union wages with guaranteed health care and pensions. And it's kind of amazing.

One of the things, I don't know if you know, the first lady of this state understands, she does, I'm positive, that an awful lot of folks who even get an opportunity to go to community college still can't get there because of food, transportation, those other costs. And so we're going to increase Pell grants so they'll qualify -- it will make a gigantic difference.

By the way, I have to admit, if I didn't have these positions, I'd be sleeping in the Lincoln bedroom rather than the president's bedroom. But it really -- you know, it really is how to start to transform the life and family and community in our economy by investing, investing in people, every child has the capacity to learn.

And if I've heard it once, I've heard it from Jill a thousand times, Joe, any country that outeducates us will outcompete us, and it's a fact. And she'll be deeply involved in leading this effort as well.

The second thing, the American families plan is going to provide access to quality affordable child care, keeping parents -- helping parents go back to work, providing a lifeline of benefits for children as they do better in school throughout their lives. You know, it guarantees low and middle income families pay no more than 7 percent of their income for high quality care for children up to the age of five, and that makes a gigantic difference.

There're millions of women out of work today not because they're not qualified for the jobs they have but because they can't take care of their children and do their job. And the cost of child care is extraordinary. I was a single father when I first got elected to the Senate, two young boys raised after their mom and sister were killed, and I had the family I had, I would never have been able to do it. And I'm not joking about that. When I was a senator, I was making a decent salary.

The most hard-pressed working families won't have to spend a dime if, in fact, my plan works, if you're low income folks you'll be able to get child care for free.

Third, the American families plan is going to finally provide up to 12 weeks of paid and medical leave, paid family medical leave. We're one of the few industrialized countries in the entire world that doesn't have this feature. No one should have to choose between the job and a paycheck or taking care of themselves, their parent, their spouse or a child that's ill. They should have that opportunity.

The fourth piece of the plan, the American families plan puts money directly in the pockets of millions of Americans. In March, we extended the tax credit for low and middle income families with children.

Now, if I could hold a second here, you know, if you make enough money and you're paying taxes, you end up in a situation where you get to deduct $2,000 per child as a tax benefit, you don't get it back but you get to deduct it. Well, if you're a minimum wage worker, you're not paying much tax. And if you're making less than that, which many people are, you're not paying any federal tax, so you get no benefit.

So we put in place, and the number of my Republican colleagues shared the view too, none were voting for it, but I think they share it as well, and that is up to $3,000 per child, six years and older, and $3,600 for a child that's over -- under six years of age.

That means two parents and two young kids, with -- they can get a check back from the government for $7,200 in their pockets, which they're doing now, which can help them take care of your family. And it will benefit more than 65 million children. And all the data shows it will cut child poverty in half this year, cut it in half.

My plan extends the tax credit, at least through the year 2025. Because what's going to happen in 2025, as the press knows, is the tax cuts of the last president expire and we're going to go back to -- put us $2 trillion in debt and then we're going to compete as to what tax credits there are. I think it's about time we start giving tax breaks and tax credits to working class families and middle class families instead of just the very wealthy.

And here's what the American family plan doesn't do. It doesn't add a single penny to our deficit. It's paid for by making sure corporate America and the wealthiest 1 percent just pay their fair share.

[13:20:01]

I come from the corporate capital of the world. More corporations are incorporated in the state of Delaware than all the rest of the nation combined. And I'm not anti-corporate but it's about time they start paying their fair share. It's about making a choice.

You know, we have out there, this year, you have 50 corporations making $40 billion then didn't pay a single penny in taxes, not a single penny. I don't want to punish anybody but everybody should chip in, everybody should pay something along the road here. The choice is about who the economy serves. And so I plan on giving tax breaks to the working class folks and making everybody pay their fair share.

Here is an example of that choice. If you ask the top 1 percent to pay the same tax rate they paid in 2001 when George Bush was president, that would generate $13 billion a year. Now, that's enough for us to take around 11 of that $13 billion and provide for two years of community college free for every student in America.

So, what's fair? Go from 36 to 39.6 percent like it used to be and be able to take care of -- what's better? Just think about it in terms of what's better for America, not Democrat, Republican, Independent, what's going to grow America more? What's going to grow America more? What's going to make us more competitive, stronger? What's going to make us better educated?

So for folks at home, I like to ask a question. Do we want to give the wealthiest people in America another tax cut or do you want to give every high school graduate the ability to earn a community college degree on their way to good paying jobs, or on their way to four years of school in industries of the future, health care, I.T., cyber security, you name it.

Look, another example. For too long, we've had a two-tiered tax system. Working families pay taxes they owe on the wages they earn. While some of the wealthiest Americans avoid paying anything close to that fair share. My plan revitalizes the capacity of the IRS to crack down. There are a number of studies from the former secretary of treasury on that millionaires and billionaires are able to avoid taxes and cheat in avoiding those taxes because we have so few agents in the IRS.

The consensus is, if you increase the disclosure requirements for banks and financial institutions and accounts of the wealthiest Americans to reduce tax, you will have two steps, two steps would recover $70 billion per year, that currently goes unreported and unpaid.

Now, we've been hearing about this the last ten years. Instead of cutting the number of agents, we should be increasing the number of agents, not hounding anyone, just being able to get access to information, and shut down all the tax savings from the islands to -- anyway, I won't go into it. I get a little carried away with this. But, look, we can take this money, this money and pay for universal pre-K for every three and four-year-old in America. So what is better? Making people just pay their fair share, paid family leave, child care cost of working families, maximum of 7 percent of their income. Again, it's a choice. It's more important to shield millionaires from paying their fair share or is it more important that every child gets a real opportunity to succeed from an early age and ease the burden on working families?

Third, we have a loophole in our tax system called stepped up basis. And it's also known as a trust fund loophole. For example, if I had a million dollars in stock that I bought, and it made a million dollars, and I was going to cash it in, I'd have to pay capital gain on that million dollars.

But if, God forbid, I go back to where I was, on the way to where we're talking about, on the way to cash in my stock, I got hit by a car and got killed, I can leave it to my daughter, and she pays no tax, the tax that was owed two seconds earlier. It's not an inheritance tax. It was the tax that was owed two seconds earlier.

But that's what stepped up basis means. If a person passes away and leaves the stock to their son or daughter, son or daughter don't have to pay anything on that multimillion dollar gain when they sell that stock. And that's worth a lot of money.

Look, it may be decent and honorable people, and they are, but the last thing Americans around with the amount of wealth needs is another tax break. We need to make a choice of eliminating the loophole, only the gains above for people -- only the gains above people making $2 million a year, or a couple, at a rate of capital gains rate for people making more than a million dollars a year, which, by the way, would affect three tenths of 1 percent of all the taxpayers, three tenths of 1 percent of the top 1 percent.

[13:25:14]

And close another loophole, like the real estate investment loophole, the wealthiest simply paying the same rate on their wages and investment income that raises $40 billion a year for the next ten years.

The reason I'm bothering to do this is I keep hearing in the press, Biden is going to raise your taxes. Anybody making less than $400,000 a year will not pay a single penny in taxes, and we will not increase the deficit either, unlike the last gigantic tax cut, which increased the deficit by $2 trillion. It's about balancing the system and growing the economy. It would mean wealthy investors no longer pay lower marginal tax rates than their secretary pays, the secretary in their office.

Do you want to know what that would do? That would take that money and extend the life-changing middle class tax cut, and put it in place for American rescue plan, expand child care tax credit to -- I mentioned earlier, that's $1,700 in the pockets of family with two kids for now through 2025. Look, just closing these loopholes by taxing investment income at the same rate as wages for the wealthiest Americans would have enough to extend this again through 2025.

So I ask again, is it more important to keep these tax loopholes from millionaires? They're good people, not bad folks. Or would we rather put $7,200 in the pockets of working moms and dads every year if they have two children?

Folks, trickle-down economics has never worked. For too long, we've had an economy that gives every break in the world to the folks who need it the least. It's time to grow the economy from the bottom up and the middle out.

We can choose to give hard working families a break, a tax break, in effect. We can choose to invest in our students. We can choose an economy that rewards work, not just wealth, and that chooses the choice I'm making, and the vast majority of American people support, is let's give people a shot. Give it even half a chance.

The American people have never, ever, ever let their country down. Imagine if we gave them a full chance. Imagine what it would mean for them and their families and for our country. We're the United States of America. There's nothing, nothing we've been unable to do when we do it together. So let's get together. Let's get this done. Because the truth of the matter is that we can do this and grow the economy, and I won't go into the statistics, the plan is estimated to grow the economy another trillion dollars, this will grow the economy, everybody will be better off.

So I want to thank you all for doing your part here to make sure that not only you're educating and giving people a real shot, a real shot, and a real life consistent with their talents and their capacities, not limited because they don't have the money, and we're going to give it to a lot more people.

I promise you. I promise you America will be much stronger for it. Because like I said, we're setting out a universal education, it wouldn't just be 12 years anymore, it would be -- it would be those 14 years -- 16 years I'm talking about, two to start and two at the other end.

And as your state has done under your governor, and your senator, and your congresspersons, your state, if you get four years out of here -- two years out of here, it's two years towards a state university. You cut tuition in half for a four-year degree as well. So there's an awful lot of possibilities, an awful lot of hope.

And the good news is, I think there's overwhelming bipartisan support for this. When you look at the polling data, Republican voters overwhelmingly support it. Now, we've just got to get some of my Republican colleagues to support it. So thank you all and God bless you and thank you for the work you're doing. And may God protect our troops. Thank you so much.

REPORTER: When do you believe the U.S. will reach herd immunity?

BIDEN: I think by the end of the summer, we'll be in a very different position than we are now. As you know, I've worked very hard to make sure we have over 600 million doses of vaccine. We're going to continue to make sure that's available. We're going to increase that number across the board as well. So we can also be helping other nations once we take care of all Americans.

And what's happening now is all the talk about how people were not going to get shots, they were not going to be involved. Look at what that was -- we were told that was most likely to be among people over 65 years of age.