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Minneapolis Rejects Overhaul of Police Department; Democrats Suffer Defeats on Election Day. Aired 3-3:30p ET

Aired November 03, 2021 - 15:00   ET

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

[15:00:00]

DAVID HOGG, PARKLAND SHOOTING SURVIVOR: And it's not because those countries have more guns than people.

It's because those countries have sensible regulations that allow people to practice at times, in the case of Switzerland, their gun culture, but, at the same time, they don't see school shootings and instances of gun violence happening on a near daily basis.

We can coexist in this world. We can have these systems in place, but we just need to have that well-regulated militia, so that stories like mine and so many other young people -- so that we're the last generation to have to deal with this issue, because we can be.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN HOST: All right, David Hogg, good to have your insight. Thank you.

HOGG: Yes, the -- yes, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

BLACKWELL: It's a brand-new hour. I'm Victor Blackwell. It's good to be with you.

President Biden back in the White House from an overseas trip. He now has to confront some serious warnings from Election Day results. Voters dealt his party several major blows. In New Jersey, what was expected to be a smooth win for Democrats, the governor's race there, is still too close to call. In Virginia, the governor's race their, voters rejected Democrat Terry McAuliffe.

Instead, they opted for Republican Glenn Youngkin. Republicans had not won a statewide race in Virginia since 2009.

Let's start, though, in New Jersey.

CNN's M.J. Lee is in Asbury Park there.

Count still happening there, much closer than many Democrats and probably some Republicans expected.

M.J. LEE, CNN NATIONAL POLITICS CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Victor. The counting is still going on. And Governor Murphy's team is basically waiting. They saw their campaign take the lead earlier today over their opponent, Jack Ciattarelli, and they do still believe that it is simply a matter of time before the race is called for them.

But there's no sugarcoating this, Victor. They had a tough day yesterday and a tough night. Last night, the race was closer than they hoped it would be. They had hoped that last night at the victory party that they were holding in the building just behind me that the governor would come here and be able to deliver a victory speech.

But now they know that the people that they wanted to show up and vote for them simply didn't show up. The folks who are supporting their opponent on the other side, they showed up, showed up in higher numbers than they expected. And what we saw last night from the governor was coming into the ballroom and essentially saying, I'm sorry that the results aren't in yet, that we can't celebrate quite yet.

And he also had this to say, making a contrast between the campaign that he has run and the campaign that his opponent has run. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. PHIL MURPHY (D-NJ): We're leading with compassion and empathy, not anger and despair. We're following science and facts, not the political winds. We

(CHEERING AND APPLAUSE)

MURPHY: May not always agree. But when we disagree, we sit down and we treat each other with respect and understanding, always seeking common ground.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LEE: You know, that anger and despair line is pretty interesting, because Democrats are grappling with right now the question of, if people who are angry about vaccines or masks, for example, if they are showing up for the other guy, then what is the message that we can have to make sure that there's enthusiasm for our base that trumps the anger on the other side?

That is certainly going to be a question that Democrats grapple with for a while after the results of last night -- Victor.

BLACKWELL: All right. We will talk about that with two progressive Democrats in just a moment.

But, first, let's go to Virginia.

M.J., thank you so much.

CNN's Dan Merica is in Washington watching that race in Virginia.

So, Republican projected winner Glenn Youngkin, what's he doing today?

DAN MERICA, CNN POLITICS REPORTER: And I have actually just been told that he has already begun transition meetings, kind of starting to build out what will eventually be the Youngkin administration.

He's also, I'm told, spending time with his wife. And Governor Ralph Northam, the Democratic governor who campaigned against Youngkin throughout this campaign, will actually meet with Youngkin tomorrow to kind of go over that transition process, so you can see already getting to work.

And that's something that Youngkin talked about on the campaign trail. He had said over and over again that he would do a number of things on day one, even joking that, yes, day one will be busy, but there will be additional days. And part of those promises were on education. He made parents' choice a huge issue in this campaign, pledging that he would make it central to his administration.

He's obviously promised to ban Critical Race Theory, something that has gotten a lot of attention in this race, even though it is not taught currently in Virginia schools. He's talked a lot about police and crime and then he's also talked about cutting taxes, especially the grocery tax, something that he actually used against McAuliffe somewhat effectively in ads and a number of other different venues.

Take a listen to what he said especially on education last night at his victory party.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GLENN YOUNGKIN (R), VIRGINIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We're going to embrace our parents, not ignore them. We're going to press forward with a curriculum that includes listening to parents' input, a curriculum that allows our children to run as fast as they can, teaching them how to think, enabling their dreams to soar.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

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MERICA: Victor, while Youngkin is preparing to get his administration stood up, I can tell you that Republicans here in D.C. and across the commonwealth are jubilant.

And not only are they excited about what a Youngkin administration means, they're also excited about what this means going forward in 2022 and beyond and whether they can replicate what Youngkin did in areas across the country.

BLACKWELL: Dan America, thank you.

Let's talk about that right now, with both parties trying to analyze the Virginia race to determine if there is a template, if there's a playbook going forward.

CNN politics reporter Chris Cillizza is here to walk us through how Youngkin pulled it off.

Hey, Chris.

CHRIS CILLIZZA, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: Hey, Victor.

Yes, as Dan was saying, the whole thing is maybe not just about Virginia. Can Youngkin's blueprint work for Republicans? Well, let's walk through what Youngkin's blueprint was.

OK. first of all, let's start here. In 2020, Joe Biden won the state, Virginia, by 10 points. So this is not necessarily a swing state. This is a state that leans blue, which speaks to what Youngkin accomplish. How did he do it?

All right, first of all, you heard it in some of that clip last night from his victory speech. He took this comment, "I don't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach."

Terry McAuliffe, his opponent, makes this comment in a late September debate. Youngkin turns this into the central piece of the campaign. He makes the entire race about this, that Terry McAuliffe doesn't think you should be involved in your kids' education.

It's a lot more complex than that, what Terry McAuliffe was saying, but politics is politics, and it worked. That's step one. Now, you can't talk about the Republican Party without talking about Donald Trump. We say here Trumpy enough. Glenn Youngkin did say he represents so much of why I'm running about Donald Trump. He was honored to receive Trump's endorsement. He's compared himself to Trump. They're both outsiders. They're both businessmen.

But -- well, my pointer finger will work. He's not too Trumpy. So he's Trumpy enough for the Republican base, but not so much that he alienates women and particularly people in the suburbs. Donald Trump lost the suburbs of Virginia by one point to Joe Biden. Glenn Youngkin won it by 14 points in 2021.

How did he do it? He didn't have Donald Trump in the state. When he was asked why Donald Trump wasn't coming in state, he said, well, because this race is about Virginia. He also did not attend either of the tele-rallies that Donald Trump did. He called -- Donald Trump called into a few rallies, praised Youngkin. Youngkin was not there. That was all on purpose.

It was keeping Donald Trump at enough distance that he didn't have to own him every second, but not so far away that Republicans ran away from Youngkin. Last thing -- and this is very much a Donald Trump thing to do strategically. You heard Dan talk about it, culture warrior.

You heard a lot of talk about Critical Race Theory. Even though it's not taught in Virginia schools, Glenn Youngkin is going to ban it. Not really sure how that will work. Talking about race more generally. Talking about transgender issues. There's an issue in Loudoun County, one of the exurban counties, suburban counties here in Northern Virginia. There was an issue about transgender students in bathrooms that became a big hot button.

He even talked about COVID-19 and mask requirements and kids going back to school and what they should and shouldn't do. He took this whole sort of bucket and made it about culture, that this is really about our parents and parents getting the say. You heard it in his victory speech. This is about parents having to say in their education.

So this, it looks somewhat easy in retrospect. It's not. Glenn Youngkin is the first person who has been able to walk this line between keeping Trump happy and not alienating suburbanites and maybe soft Democrats.

The question is, can other candidates follow this blueprint? At least it exists now. Harder to follow maybe than it looks, though.

BLACKWELL: All right, Chris Cillizza, let's get into it. Thank you so much.

Jess McIntosh is former director of communications outreach for Hillary Clinton's last presidential campaign. Dr. Abdul El-Sayed is a former Detroit health commissioner. Bernie Sanders endorsed him when he ran for Michigan governor.

Good to see both of you again.

Dr. El-Sayed, let me start with you.

Is there any good news, anything that is encouraging for the progressive movement that you saw last night?

DR. ABDUL EL-SAYED, CNN COMMENTATOR: Well, I will tell you this.

I think that if we are able to take on the incredible, well-supported projects inside of the Build Back Better agenda, whether that's paid family leave, or that is universal pre-K and child care, that those are messages that we have failed to talk about and fail to achieve.

And so if we are able to pass this bill, to talk about all of the incredible things that would benefit everybody in our country, whether you are low-income in a rural community or you are low-income in a urban community you are middle-class, that these things will benefit you.

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If we're able to talk about them and achieve them, I do think that not only benefits progressives, but it also benefits the Democratic Party writ large, and it benefits the country. And so there is a focus on what we're doing, but just getting it done, getting it across the line, that, I think has to be the focus right now.

BLACKWELL: But, Doctor, what is the evidence that if we just, if people just understood?

Because the president has been pushing this legislation, your party has been pushing this legislation; 71 percent of people believe the country is going in the wrong direction. The president is underwater on job approval. You see the loss of Virginia, the close race in New Jersey. The socialist Democrat lost after winning the nomination in Buffalo.

Of course, we're going to talk about Minneapolis in a moment. So what indicator do you see here it's just people don't hear what we're trying to do, instead of, which some are saying, they reject it?

EL-SAYED: I hear where you're coming from, Victor. The problem is we haven't done it yet.

And it's not about what we're trying to do, right? As Yoda says, do or don't do. There is no try. If you look at poll after poll, it shows that people don't actually know what's in the Build Back Better agenda. But when they are told what's in the agenda, they like those things, whether it's the paid family leave, or it's even the climate mitigation efforts, or it is the universal pre-K.

People understand that these kinds of programs would fundamentally change their quality of life. And so the issue here isn't that they don't know what we're trying to do. The issue is that we're not doing it. And I think if we get on with the work of doing it, if we're able to stand up to the brick walls that have been Kyrsten Sinema and Joe Manchin and say, look, this is how this is changing your life, it could fundamentally change the trajectory of this presidency and the trajectory of this country.

BLACKWELL: The CNN polling also shows that there's a significant amount of even Democrats who don't believe that what is passed in the bill will improve their lives, those who know about it.

Jess, let me come to you. In the race of Virginia, did Democrats overplay the Trump card?

JESS MCINTOSH, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: No, look, I agree with everything that Abdul just said.

But I want to add a piece that speaks directly to this. And that is, in addition to making our campaigns about the strong policy proposals that we are accomplishing, we also have to have a serious response to disinformation campaigns.

We have heard it twice in this segment already. Critical Race Theory is not being taught in Virginia public schools. It's not being taught in any public schools in America, because it's a legal scholarship that is taught as an elective in law school. It's not even taught at the undergraduate level.

But, apparently, Critical Race Theory has become one of the leading issues in Virginia. Now, when you ask people what they're actually objecting to, since, again, it's not being taught in schools, what they point to is American history. Saying that white people enslaved black people for 250 years and then there was Jim Crow is not Critical Race Theory. That's just American history. Saying that European settlers committed genocide against indigenous people who are living here is not Critical Race Theory. It's just American history. But they can't run on barring teachers from teaching American history and banning books by authors like Toni Morrison, because that would turn off any Virginia voter that wasn't a straight white supremacist voter.

There are more of those in this country than we would like. But there's a reason why they're lying about what should be scaring parents in schools. And I think Democrats need to be able to say that very strongly over and over again before this stuff takes root.

BLACKWELL: But, Jess, let me ask you this. What we know from the exit polling is that education as a line item was a top issue, not just for those who voted for Youngkin, but those who voted for McAuliffe as well.

Under education, clearly, we heard anecdotally the concerns over Critical Race Theory, which, as you say, is not being taught. But also parents just had their kids learning, three kids, one in the kitchen, one in the bedroom, one of the basement, teaching them for a year and are disappointed with how education has been run in their homes, in their districts.

So how much of that top issue of education is not only what you discuss, the Critical Race Theory element, but also just the failure of local school districts to do the basic elements of education and the fear that their children are behind?

MCINTOSH: Yes, there is no question that parents have been through absolute hell in the last year-and-a-half trying to make sure that their kids were well-schooled.

It's the Democratic Party that has been the party of public education pretty much from the jump, and that is the way it continues. Calling the Critical Race Theory fight an education issue is like calling a mask mandate a health care issue. Like, it is so much broader than that, and we are being subjected to such disinformation about it.

I think that almost any Democrat running would be happy to run on their plans for improving public schools. I mean, heck, we are very, very close to getting universal pre-K done. Do you know what that would do for parents who have been juggling multiple kids' remote learning throughout the pandemic? That would be a massive, massive improvement in their lives.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

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MCINTOSH: So, I think as soon as we can get past the negotiation part and into the implementation part, Democrats have a much, much easier road ahead of them.

BLACKWELL: I would just say that there have been Democratic governors in both Virginia and in New Jersey who've been -- have been in many ways their approach to it rejected it.

Now, we will still see what happens in New Jersey, but that race is much closer than many expected.

Jess McIntosh, Dr. Abdul El-Sayed, got to wrap it there. Thank you so much.

In just a few minutes, President Biden is expected to speak on vaccinations for kids ages 5 to 11, as parents line up across the country to get their kids that first dose.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I felt very nervous. But now it's over, and now we're vaccinated.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

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BLACKWELL: All right, just into CNN, Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey will be reelected based on unofficial results of rank-choice tabulation.

The city that sparked the defund the police movement in some quarters after the death of George Floyd, it's signaling that it's a much more nuanced issue here. Last night, Minneapolis voters rejected a ballot measure that would have removed the police department, replaced it with the department of public safety.

Let's bring it now Sondra Samuels. She's the president and CEO of the Northside Achievement Zone in Minneapolis.

Good to have you with us.

If this were to pass in any city, one would expect that it would have passed in the city where we just watched the murder of George Floyd. So why didn't it, in your opinion?

(CROSSTALK)

SONDRA SAMUELS, PRESIDENT AND CEO, NORTHSIDE ACHIEVEMENT ZONE: Yes, I tell you -- hi, Victor. It's so great to be on your show.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

SAMUELS: One -- the main reason that it didn't pass is because the ballot initiative to eliminate the police department, eliminate the police chief, eliminate minimum number of police and funding would have been happening at a time where we are at the highest level, historic levels of crime and violence in our city.

And I think that the -- I know that the majority of Minneapolitans are strong, and they're the strong and silent type. And they just went to the polls, and they voted. And they said, now is not the time. Now is the time for us to both eliminate the brutality of police, which happens, we know it does, and, at the same time, protect the disproportionate number of men and women, particularly black women and men who live in my neighborhood, who are being harmed by having too few police right now.

BLACKWELL: Is it, in your opinion, that just the idea of removing the floor for funding of policing was just an extreme idea, that getting rid of the requirement for a police chief was an extreme idea that people by 12 points here just rejected?

SAMUELS: Yes, it was extreme.

And, Victor, I got to tell you, I understand it, right? It was the wrong move. Again, at the height of violence, you don't remove your police department and police chief, and then experiment. This would have been an experiment in something that we have never done before, while 30 children in our city have been shot this year, three murdered, one struggling for his life, just not the time.

Radical idea. We need different. None of us are going to go back to the status quo, Victor. And that was what the fear was, that, by voting no, that you were voting for the status quo. Instead, by voting no, we're voting -- we're voting for all black lives, whether they're killed by police officers, or the preponderance who are killed and shot and maimed because of community violence.

We believed, as a city, that we can do both. But the 44 percent who didn't, Victor, we understand them. And right now, my highest hope is that 100 percent of us would come together and rebuild our city.

BLACKWELL: OK, so I want to put these numbers into context. And you talked about historic levels of violent crime.

SAMUELS: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Homicides are up. Aggravated assaults are up. Robberies are up year to date vs. the 2020 numbers.

So when you say that -- and I understand from reading about you that you're not against the public health perspective or that approach to public safety.

SAMUELS: No. No.

BLACKWELL: What then is -- what then should be the reforms, the changes, if not getting rid of a police department? What do you think should happen?

SAMUELS: Yes, so both/and.

I keep saying we can't throw the baby out with the bathwater. This is a both/and. It's not an either/or. And, by the way, the baby that was going to get thrown out is the black baby, because that's what we have been seeing.

BLACKWELL: Yes. OK.

SAMUELS: Eight out of 10 people hurt in this city and killed are black.

So what I'm hoping is that we continue with the public health approach, so we continue investing in mental health support, addiction counselors, social workers, to be along with the police.

We have always done it. We need to do it more and be more intentional, and that we actually get to systemic issues that keep the problem of poor policing in place, like arbitration rules that were negotiated with the union that cause 50 percent of the time when a police chief fires or reprimands a police officer he or she has to rehire them and undo the reprimand.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SAMUELS: We need to make sure judges are actually keeping incarcerated violent offenders.

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We have been letting folks out. It started with COVID. And, right now, we have people on the streets who are just -- the gang -- the gang warfare is unimaginable.

And we can really continue to stop warrior-style policing. We can continue to stop choke holds. We can put all these things in place, make sure you have your camera on.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SAMUELS: But, mainly, mainly, is there is no universe in which we don't need police.

And we are hoping that we can, with the police, Victor, work with community, with all the supports, hold them accountable and make Minneapolis give the world something to see. We gave them something to see with George Floyd.

BLACKWELL: Yes.

SAMUELS: We want to give them something to see with the real reforms and the transformation that I believe is possible.

BLACKWELL: All right, Sondra Samuels, thank you so much for the insight there.

Again, this ballot measure to replace or pull the police department from the city charter and add this public safety department lost by 12 points there.

Thank you so much for being with us.

SAMUELS: Oh, thank you.

BLACKWELL: All right.

A major milestone in the fight to end the pandemic. Kids 5 and up now are able to get their COVID vaccines. What exactly parents need to know, we have that for you ahead.

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