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Biden Opens Climate Summit With Pledge To Cut U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions By Half By 2030; Biden Touts Infrastructure Plan At World Climate Summit; Merkel: "Delighted" To See U.S. Back To Work On Combating Climate Change; GOP Pollster: Chauvin Verdict Does Not Indicate National Support For Police Reform; Soon: Funeral For Daunte Wright In Minneapolis. Aired 12-12:30p ET

Aired April 22, 2021 - 12:00   ET

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

[12:00:00]

RYAN YOUNG, CNN CORRESPONDENT: So, Kate, this is just the beginning of a much longer conversation on this topic.

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN HOST: For sure. Ryan, thank you so much for that update. I really appreciate it. And thank you all so much for joining us at this hour. I'm Kate Baldwin. John King picks up our coverage right now.

JOHN KING, CNN HOST: Hello to our viewers in the United States and around the world. I'm John King in Washington. Thank you for sharing a very busy news day with us. Two huge stories playing out today.

Hope for a compromise this hour here in Washington and congressional talks over police reform. The Lead Republican Negotiator now floating a workaround on a key sticking point, civil lawsuit protections for police officers accused of using excessive force.

More reminders, sadly of the urgency for this conversation and for change, protests last night over another pair of fatal officer involved shootings of black men and women in North Carolina, Andrew Brown, and in Ohio, Ma'Khia Bryant, more on that important issue in a moment.

But we begin this hour with today's Global Climate Summit and the dramatic new tone of the American President. President Biden calling this meeting of 40 world leaders and he opened it by committing the United States to slash fossil fuel emissions in half by 2030.

It is an ambitious objective one that would rearrange the American economy and one we all know strange American politics. It's also a giant global leadership challenge. After four years of Trump White House denial and retreat, Mr. Biden faces skepticism from some on the global stage is they think is bold new climate commitment could be undone by a future president, down the road a few years.

And he is trying to prove to the United States and its closest allies can and must work hand in hand with China and Russia on the climate crisis at the same time, yes, there are major flashpoints with Beijing and Moscow, over military aggression, human rights and other bad behavior. The science the president says leaves these leaders no choice but to act together now.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Scientists tell us that this is the decisive decade. This is the decade we must make decisions that will avoid the worst consequences of the climate crisis. This is a moral imperative, an economic imperative, a moment of peril, but also a moment of extraordinary possibilities. Time is short, but I believe we can do this.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: With us to share their reporting and important insights our CNN Chief White House Correspondent Kaitlan Collins and Rob Jackson, an Earth Scientist and Professor at Stanford University. Let's start Kaitlan at the White House with you.

This is an ambitious goal from the president. I want you to listen to a little bit more of his speech to the 40 world leaders this morning. The president promises he will do this. He says America is back unlike the previous administration on the climate issue. And he says his big initiative now pending before Congress is infrastructure plan will help him achieve this goal. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BIDEN: No nation can solve this crisis on our own as I know you all fully understand. All of us, all of us and particularly those of us who represent the world's largest economies, we have to step up. That's why I've proposed the huge investment in American infrastructure and American innovation, putting these people to work. The United States sets out on the road to cut greenhouse gases in half, in half by the end of this decade.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: Significant word there, Kaitlan he's proposed. There's no guarantee the president will get that plan through the Congress. Do they have a plan B in the White House to get to that commitment if they can't get some of what they want in that legislation?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, that's a big question that still remains, even after this summit is now underway is how are they actually going to do that, get to cutting this in half by 2030?

Of course, it's not that far away. When you look at this, this is more than double the goal that was set by the Obama Administration. And so I think that this is a thing that could set up a partisan fight here in Washington because what the president is calling for is something that would virtually change, you know, every sector of the American economy and the way fossil fuels are used here in order to achieve that. And I think the White House is well aware of that. They say that they

have basically a task force that is going to be studying this over the next several months figuring out ways that they can achieve this goal, this really ambitious goal that the president is setting.

But there John, what he was saying with the infrastructure comment, I think that this speech was aimed just as much as it was for those other 39 world leaders that are joining this as it was at the American audience, this domestic audience here.

Because that is what something President Biden was also focusing on in his brief remarks at the onset of this summit was saying that he believes that this plan that he has is not only going to pay off in dividends for the U.S., but he also says it's going to be able to create jobs.

And he kind of read through a list of what jobs he envisions as creating and I think that is a really big question that people are going to have is not just how do we get to this goal, but also what are we going to do along the way?

What do we lose and what do we gain? And he is saying that we are going to gain jobs. And of course that's going to be something that's vitally important to people if they are actually going about changing the way that they power their homes and fuel their cars and live their everyday lives.

KING: And take us Kaitlan, walk us through as someone who covered the Trump White House and now covers the Biden White House. We talk almost every day about the 180s.

[12:05:00]

KING: Biden doing so many things almost completely different from the Trump Administration but this issue, an issue of global urgency is one of the most dramatic. President Trump back in his days said, sure there might be climate change. No, I don't think so hope, but I don't think it's really manmade and it'll swing back the other way. We just, you know if this is a bad year, next year or next month, we'll be better. That was the Trump approach.

The Biden approach creates the first cabinet level position specific to climate change, rejoining the Paris Climate Accords, canceling the Keystone XL Pipeline, elevating climate change to a national security priority now directing the federal government to preserve 30 percent of its land and water protected by 2030.

As someone who covers the White House, this is a case of significant and the scientists would say, belated of policy turnaround.

COLLINS: Yes, if you had to look up the definition for the opposite of what Trump's climate policy was, that is Biden's. And if you can see it and every facet of it from what you just laid out there, but I think one of the biggest that everyone can point to is rejoining the Paris Climate Accords. Because of course, that was something that the Present Trump not only

proudly walked away from, but defiantly did so and the fact that the U.S. was the only country to formally go back on that agreement. I do think it hangs over this summit here.

Because you're seeing all these world leaders come out and talk about the past commitments that they've made either renewing those or making them more ambitious in some cases. And a lot of these world leaders are talking about the U.S. is rolling this.

Because for four years under President Trump, there was an absence in this climate fight, not only were they not doing things, they were also rolling back regulations and taking steps that were counter to what a lot of scientists believed would be a good climate policy.

And so that is going to be a big question though, that a lot of these world leaders have is what the U.S.'s commitment here is? Isn't just for the next four years or eight years depending on how long President Biden is in office you know, what does that look like?

And I think that's a big question that a lot of them have because while they've been working incrementally toward these goals, that has been a big one which is what is the U.S's level of commitment? And so how that affects things going forward? So that's a big question that remains to be seen.

How Donald Trump's time in office actually changed what the U.S. was getting to when it comes to these climate goals? That's a big one as well. But I do think that what you're seeing is a very different policy here with the Biden Administration, of course, but the question of world leaders have is how long that last does?

KING: Kaitlan Collins at the White House. And let's take that question and carry it over to our scientists with us here on Earth Day, Rob Jackson. Robert, grateful for your time on this important day I want to answer that question. But first, I want you to listen to the leaders of the UK and Germany, who after four years of an American inaction are grateful that America is back at the climate table. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BORIS JOHNSON, BRITISH PRIME MINISTER: It's vital for all of us to show that this is not all about some expensive, politically correct green active of - this is about growth and jobs. And I think the president was absolutely right to stress that.

ANGELA MERKEL, GERMAN CHANCELLOR: I'm delighted to see that the United States is back to work together with us in climate politics.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: I want to get Rob to some of the nuts and bolts of what needs to change? What can change? But on the just on the question of leadership as someone who has been in this fight. And now you see an American President urging the world to get together and to act more aggressively and to act now. How much of a difference does that make that if we were having this conversation six months ago?

ROB JACKSON, EARTH SCIENTIST, STANFORD UNIVERSITY: Well, it makes a huge difference. We're seeing climate become a priority. And I think there are good reasons to promote climate action beyond climate itself we are not creating jobs in the future.

We've already created millions of jobs in clean tech and clean energy, far more than we've lost in industries such as coal. So there are benefits right now for jobs and health and national security. So I'm excited. Happy Earth Day, by the way.

KING: Happy Earth Day. You say you're excited; I want to walk through some of this. First, I just want to show on the screen, why American leadership is so important. American leadership is important not all issues but if you look at the global greenhouse gas emitter so the United States has a fair share of it in the teens there.

You see China, it's the biggest player. And again, a lot of differences with China right now on policies. But President Biden saying bring President Xi into the equation there you see why he thinks that's important.

So number one, you have this global climate. But I want to put up your Stanford roadmap here and I want you to walk me through here. You talk about how do we get here, right? By 2030, solar wind and batteries could cut emissions in half compared to electricity.

By 2030, electric vehicles could be 90 percent of the market, social movements, more global discussions, economic impact, speed of technology, all positive contributing factors in dealing with the climate crisis.

So walk me through what you think some of this is being done by the market technological advances, companies just deciding it's the right thing to do and it's what our clients and consumers are demanding of us. What does the government need to do to give it that extra push, if you will?

JACKSON: One thing to follow that roadmap, the first key step is to continue to de-carbonize electricity and that's happening for economic reasons. Wind and solar are cheaper now than in coal, even natural gas now something nobody, nobody expected five or 10 years ago. It's happened much more quickly.

[12:10:00]

JACKSON: It's also - right, the two biggest sources of deaths from air pollution in the U.S. are still coal and cars. And so by cleaning up coal power by cleaning of cars, switching to electric vehicles, we're going to save tens of thousands of lives a year and millions worldwide.

KING: And Rob quickly, if you can address the point made by Boris Johnson there, the UK Prime Minister, when he talked about you know, there are some people out there who still believe this is a bunch of elites who drive Tesla's trying to tell them what to do. There is a just like it is getting people to accept a COVID vaccine.

There is a challenge about I'll call it climate hesitancy if you will talk to those people for a second.

JACKSON: I think there is - there is a challenge. There's a perception that you know, it's the elites and greens trying to take control of everyone's lives. But I really think that's - I think - I really think that's missing the point. And I'll go back to the issue of yes, it's about climate change.

Yes, it's about our children and future generations, but it's about lives and national security and health today. It isn't we've created jobs. We're cleaning up our air. Our air is better today than it was when you and I were kids. And even national security is at play.

When we switch to electric vehicles over oil we're still importing 8 million barrels of oil, 8 million barrels of oil a day from OPEC nations. So we're sending billions of dollars overseas and we could keep here in the United States and use that money. So it's about jobs. It's about health. It's about national security as well.

KING: Stanford's Rob Jackson, grateful for your time and insights on this important day that happens also to be Earth Day. Rob, thanks so much.

JACKSON: Thank you. Thanks for having me.

KING: And joining us here on CNN for a Special Town Hall with the U.S. Special Presidential Envoy John Kerry and the White House Climate Team Members Gina McCarthy, Michael Reagan, Jennifer Granholm and Dana Bash moderates the Global Climate Crisis tomorrow night here on CNN 10 pm Eastern.

Up next, progress in finding a compromise on police reforms in Congress and more reminders across America of why this conversation is so important?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[12:15:00]

KING: Today there was a new compromise proposal and congressional negotiations on Police Reform if it will lead anywhere? Well, it depends on whom you ask. Republican Senator Tim Scott's proposed work around on qualified immunity would shift the burden from individual police officers to their Police Department.

Scott says he believes this idea will lead to a breakthrough. Congresswoman Karen Bass the Democrats Lead House Negotiator says there is now "Room for discussion". Others though are less optimistic. Republican Senator Josh Holley, for example, says he is "Skeptical of anything that weakens protections for police officers".

And no is Freshman Democratic Representative Jamaal Bowman's answer if he could back the current proposed compromise joining our conversation from POLITICO Laura Barron-Lopez and CNN's Manu Raju. Manu let me start with you on the Hill. Talks are a good thing. Both Senator Scott and Congresswoman Bass say they see good faith and a reason to keep going. The question is can we get to a finish line?

MANU RAJU, CNN SENIOR CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that is the big question. Look, did the fact that they both recognize the need to get a deal. Both parties see areas of compromise. This progress in trying to get an ultimate deal remembers that this effort fell apart last summer in the middle of all the unrest we saw across the country.

There are two different proposals mixed in with election year politics and ultimately, the Democratic bill didn't' advance in the Republican led Senate. The Democrats blocked the Republican bill in the Senate. And as a result, no talks happen.

Now talks are happening, but they are still far away into getting a final deal. You mentioned that qualified immunity compromise that Tim Scott is proposing that proposal would Democrats want to do is do away with that standard that prevents police officers from being sued in civil court so called qualified immunity.

What Tim Scott is saying is that instead put that burden on the Police Departments themselves, have them be liable in civil court. Some Democrats are open to that idea. Dick Durbin told us yesterday he's open to the idea. But Karen Bass, who is the House top Democratic Negotiator in the House side, says she is not there yet on that issue. She wants to continue to negotiate.

Some of the left are pushing back. You mentioned Josh Hawley some on the right are pushing back as well. But John there is other issues too, such as whether or not to lower the standard to criminally prosecute police officers? Democrats want to lower that standard.

Tim Scott does not want to lower that standard. So a number of key details to go through even though both sides want to get a deal potentially, in time for May 25th, which is when George Floyd died, John.

KING: That is - and so if you're watching out in the country, Laura and you support police reforms Washington on any issue can sometimes makes you cringe or drive you crazy. And so you have the anniversary of George Floyd's death that would be a very good marker for people to put on their calendar. Let's try to get this done by then as a tribute to Mr. Floyd and his legacy.

However, everybody in this town Democrats and Republicans also think about next year, which happens to be the midterm election year and that's what I mean, frustrates people outside of Washington. But I want to read you this from Neil Newhouse very respected Republican Pollster.

He says yes, across the country there's broad support for the Derek Chauvin verdict, the Officer in Minneapolis being found guilty. But he says "That does not mean that there is support for a national effort to reform the police". This has been police reform, one of the issues in which Republicans and there's a lot of hyperbole involved here like to put in their socialism basket, if you will, when they attack Democrats.

What does it tell you to see a respected pollster whose firm handles a lot of congressional races on the ballot and midterm elections say I'm not sure it's a good idea?

LAURA BARRON-LOPEZ, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, POLITICO: Well, they're capturing the base of the Republican Party, which is that the Republican Party that elected Trump that has also elected a lot of these Republicans in the House and in the Senate; do not support action on police reform.

And so as Republicans look to the midterms, they're going to want to be keeping that base together because they also have a limited number of voters that are - that they're pulling from the vast majority of Republican voters are predominantly white.

[12:20:00]

BARRON-LOPEZ: More college educated voters white voters have gone over to Democrats in recent years when they used to vote Republican. And so in order to keep that coalition together and to potentially flip the House and the Senate, they're going to do what they think their voters want.

And it doesn't sound based on that polling, like they want to see criminal justice reform or police reform overhaul. They also are very close. Go ahead, John yes.

KING: I was just - I was just going to come in and say to that very point, the issue here becomes if Karen Bass can cut a deal she accepts with a Tim Scott, she's going to have to give some that's the way it works. But if she can get a deal and Republican Tim Scott of South Carolina goes to the Majority Leader and says, Mitch, we got to do this.

We got to do this that then the question comes, are the Democrats willing to give up? Or are they willing - qualified immunity plan would not be what the House passed? There's just no question about that. There'd have to be some compromise. I want you both to listen here to one of the top Democrats, Jim Clyburn and tell me if you - do hear any clue of where he is on this question.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. JIM CLYBURN (D-SC): And it's simply like that. That outlaws things like - it gets rid of so called qualified immunity, because qualified immunity has become absolute immunity. We hold doctors and lawyers and other professionals accountable. Why is it that we have such a hard job holding police officers accountable? That has to stop. We can't keep--

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KING: So Laura, to you first, and then we'll close with Manu. Did that question is part of a dynamic we see on so many issues? Progressives have a very ambitious agenda to get any of it through the Senate they have to give somewhere. Do you hear in Congressman Clyburn there Laura, the idea that if Congresswoman Bass came to me and said, this is the best I can do, we should take it that he'll say, let's go.

BARRON-LOPEZ: It really sounds like Clyburn wants to keep ending qualified immunity, not simply reforming it, not simply changing it. And so qualified immunity, which I've actually covered very closely, is, if they were to do away with it, it would allow victim's families, victims who survived police violence themselves to be able to sue police officers for civil rights violations.

And so even though if that were done away with one important element is that police typically are still not found financially liable. So there's also indemnification, which cities typically indemnify police officers when lawsuits are brought against them and so that means that they're not held financially liable for those lawsuits and that's one of the big things that police unions argue when they're talking about qualified immunity, which is that police officers could be financially ruined if these lawsuits are brought against them.

But they leave out the part about indemnification, which is another backstop to protect police officers from being held totally financially responsible for these lawsuits.

KING: Manu, as Laura lays out it's an incredibly complicated issue in and of itself. But then it is part of what is your daily job right now trying to find? Is there a sweet spot between the ambitious progressive goals of the House Democrats and getting things through the Senate on this one, when you hear Leader Clyburn what do you think?

RAJU: Well, I actually just spoke to Clyburn about this compromise that Tim Scott floated and he suggested he's open to it. He said it's a start. Now, does that mean it's a finish John? That is the ultimate question, but at least it's a starting point in the negotiation. But can they get that the sweet spot a big question going forward?

KING: Manu Raju and Laura Barron-Lopez grateful and important reporting and insights on this very important topic. And today a painful reminder of why we're here and a painful day for a black family yet another reminder of this urgent police reform debate Daunte Wright's family and hundreds of mourners gathering this hour to prepare to lay him to rest.

Wright, of course was shot and killed by a police officer during a traffic stop near Minneapolis early this month. CNN's Miguel Marquez is right there in Brooklyn Center, Minnesota at the spot Daunte Wright was pulled over, now on memorial site, Miguel?

MIGUEL MARQUEZ, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, John. This is actually the spot he was pulled over just down the street. This is the spot where his car came to arrest to rest and where Daunte Wright, took his last breaths.

Look, it has been a very difficult week, a couple of weeks for Minneapolis. And this week in particular with the funeral today of 20- year-old Daunte Wright, the verdict, the murder verdicts against Former Officer Derek Chauvin in the death, the murder of George Floyd and then the Department of Justice announcing his policy investigation into the Minneapolis Police Department here.

People want a sense of justice. They want a sense that the door has opened now it seems because of the quick arrest of Kim Potter who used her service revolver rather than her taser on Daunte Wright.

[12:25:00]

MARQUEZ: And that - those verdicts against Derek Chauvin in the murder of George Floyd, that door is open but they'd like to understand if it's going to stay open and how far it will take them? Daunte Wright's Aunt Naisha just spoke about senseless difficult it is and how senseless his death was?

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NAISHA WRIGHT, DAUNTE WRIGHT'S AUNT: I stayed up all night staring at the ceiling thinking oh my Gosh! This is really happening. We all know the difference. A taser is bright yellow. This is bright as my nails. OK? A gun is just as black as the clothes that you see me wearing. My grandmother is a retire sheriff for over 28 years. I've seen her come home plenty of nights, plenty of nights with her gone on our side and everything. There's no mistaking.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MARQUEZ: So this frustration just generally within the African American community. Why is it that when African Americans are confronted by police maximum force was used? Ben Crump the Attorney for the family of Daunte Wright says the taser never even should have come out.

The taser on Former Officer Kim Potter's left side, yellow, lighter yellow and black and lighter than the service revolver that was on her right side. You can hear her yell taser in that video, but instead she puts a single shot into Daunte Wright, which kills him.

What frustrates people is why? Why do you have to take the most extreme level of force when confronting an African American as opposed to white to white Americans? They just want that equality. They feel that a door is open now with Derek Chauvin and with Kim Potter being charged so quickly, but it remains how long that door will be open? And what will actually come up at all? John.

KING: Miguel Marquez on the ground for us at a very important moment in Brooklyn Senate. Miguel, thank you. Thank you very much. Coming up next, we shift to the COVID crisis the CDC warning about vaccine hesitancy and what it plans to do about it?

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