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New Day
Tishaura Jones is Interviewed on Becoming Mayor and the Chauvin Verdict; Don Lemon on the Minnesota Verdict. Aired 8:30-9a ET
Aired April 21, 2021 - 08:30 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[08:30:00]
JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: All right, we're getting more reaction this morning from some of the sports stars who helped keep Black Lives Matter, the movement, in the forefront. What they say about the Derek Chauvin verdict, next.
BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Plus, the Las Vegas Raiders criticized for this tweet with the words, "I can breathe." The team's white owner is defending it.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAYOR TISHAURA JONES (D), ST. LOUIS, MISSOURI: And I am standing on stone that was not built for me. I am speaking in a rotunda that was never envisioned -- that never envisioned my ascent to mayor. I'm going to walk into an office that my ancestors could have never imagined me working in, but I'm here.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BERMAN: That's Tishaura Jones being sworn in as the first black female mayor of St. Louis just hours before -- hours before the Derek Chauvin verdict was announced. Jones is now the ninth black woman currently serving as a mayor of America's 100 largest cities.
[08:35:00]
That's an all-time high.
Joining us now is the new mayor of St. Louis, Tishaura Jones.
First of all, congratulations on your inauguration. Historic, as we've said. And we've had you on the show before. But on that day, on this day that was so historic also, just your reaction to all of it.
JONES: Yes. So thank you again for having me. It's wonderful to be here.
You know, yesterday could have been a very different day for my first official day on the job. We were aware that the verdict was forthcoming pretty much all day. And then to get back a guilty verdict totally changed the trajectory of the rest of the day for us. We were prepared to have to deal with potential protests in the wake of a not guilty verdict. But as my mother always says, but God, now we have a guilty verdict and Derek Chauvin will be held accountable and the Floyd family can breathe a little easier.
BERMAN: You've talked about your son, 13-year-old Aden, a lot during your campaign. And I've heard you talk about him in interviews. What does this mean for you as the mother of, you know, of a 13-year-old black boy who will be a, you know, young man?
JONES: Yes, because he is already 6 feet. So he is -- he's tall, as most men, right? And this means that his mother is now in a seat to try to transform public safety in our city, to transform it in a way that sees him as a 13-year-old boy and not -- and doesn't treat him like a man, to see him as a little boy who's still learning and growing and can make mistakes and not fear being killed by police because of his mistakes.
BERMAN: How does the verdict in this trial help you, or what does it change for you as a mayor and also as a mother in your efforts to make sure the world, as you say, treats Aden as a 13-year-old boy, which any 13-year-old is?
JONES: You know, I think it's a first step. I don't see it as a silver bullet or solving anything. I think that this is a major verdict and a major case and that now there's more precedent for officers who take the lives of everyday citizens in such -- in such ways. So I think that this is a first step for transforming our public safety systems, but it is -- it is not the end. It's just the beginning.
BERMAN: You are now in charge of a metropolitan police force. What changes do you plan on making over the next several months?
JONES: Well, the way that we're going to try to lead is we're going to try to transform public safety to lead with prevention instead leading with arresting and incarcerating. St. Louis is also tops in the nation for the number of officer-involved shootings and so it is my goal to reduce that number to zero, to make sure that people feel safe when they call 911 and that we deploy the right professional to the right call.
BERMAN: Mayor Tishaura Jones, as we said, you know, congratulations on your historic day. We appreciate you being with us. You know, your son, Aden, must be proud, I have to say. He must be so proud of what he's seen over the last day. So, thank you.
JONES: Thank you.
KEILAR: Next, Don Lemon will join us live as President Biden says this moment could start a change, that it should start a change. We'll talk about Vice President Kamala Harris' role in this crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KAMALA HARRIS, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We are all a part of George Floyd's legacy. And our job now is to honor it and to honor him.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[08:43:08]
BERMAN: The sports world has brought so much attention to the Black Lives Matter movement over the last year. Minnesota's four major sports teams, the Twins, the Timberwolves, the Vikings and the Wild, all responded with relief that there was justice, they said, for George Floyd and reiterating their commitment to social justice. Also former NBA and WNBA stars sharing their feelings on what they hope this will all mean.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SHAQUILLE O'NEAL, FORMER NBA ALL-STAR: Justice was served. And we still have a long time to go. The fact that we're sitting there not knowing what's going to happen --
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes.
O'NEAL: That still means we have a long way to go. We expected that, you know, the outcome was going to be like this, but we've expected that a lot of times and then the outcome was different. I was just saying to myself, I hope they do the right thing, because if they don't, they're going to tear this mother up.
DWAYNE WADE, 3-TIME NBA CHAMPION: I was sitting in front of the TV watching the verdict come down, and my hands started sweating, my body started shivering, and my heart started pounding because I was nervous. I was nervous because I didn't believe, right? I'm sitting in front of the TV and I didn't believe. And even -- even when the verdict came down and all the charges, you know, that we wanted was met, I still was staring at the TV listening to the judge because I was -- I was thinking that there was an outcoming because we've never seen this.
Like Shaq said, this wasn't -- you can't celebrate this. But if it was any win today, to me it was a win for accountability.
CANDACE PARKER, WNBA ALL-STAR: We're sitting here on a sports show speaking about justice and speaking about things that are going on within our court system. It's not OK to just be a bystander of justice or our political system or democracy. And I think democracy we think of as a destination, and it's a continuous journey. And it has to be thought of that way. And just because we're athletes, just because we're stay-at-home moms or businessmen, or doctors, or lawyers, whatever we are, like, we have to actively participate in that because if we don't we're not doing our job and we're failing the generation that comes after us.
[08:45:16]
And I just think, you look at the past and how many people before had to die and had to not receive justice for this to happen today. And I just think we can't -- we can't -- we can't hide behind badges, money, power, race, gender. We can't hide behind those things because that's not justice. And we're lying to ourselves if we continue to think that.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
KEITH ELLISON, MINNESOTA ATTORNEY GENERAL: I would not call today's verdict justice, however, because justice implies true restoration.
[08:50:02]
But it is accountability, which is the first step towards justice.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
KEILAR: That is Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison's reaction to former Police Officer Derek Chauvin's conviction on all counts in the death of George Floyd, including two counts of murder.
Let's bring in Don Lemon, who is the host, of course, of "CNN TONIGHT WITH DON LEMON." And he's also the author of, "This is the Fire: What I Say to My Friends about Racism."
Number one "New York Times" best-selling author of.
KEILAR: It is the number one.
BERMAN: Just saying.
KEILAR: Which is very special, Don. Congratulations on that.
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Good morning. Good morning. It's so good to see you here. It's good to be with you, old friend. We're supposed to be socially distancing, but I'm still happy to be here.
KEILAR: It s wonderful to see you here in New York.
Thank you for being here to talk to us this morning.
This is such a big day as we reflect on what happened yesterday. What are you thinking today?
LEMON: I was thinking the same thing Keith Ellison said, that this was justice. And I said that yesterday, justice was served. And it was the first thing I said after the verdict was read. I should have said justice was served for this one.
But what am I thinking today? Quite honestly, I'm happy that I'm sitting here and I'm not -- I haven't been up since 4:00, or up the entire night, I was here until 2:00 a.m., covering violence or saying, you know, there was -- there was unrest in Minnesota, unrest in New York City or unrest here. Peaceful protests. People appear to feel that, for now, that justice was served. And so I'm happy that we're here talking about what this means, not only for the Floyd family, but for black people in this country writ large.
BERMAN: Yes, (INAUDIBLE) told us that his emotions are in a continuum between relief and cautious optimism, which seems like a fair place to be.
I'm interested to hear from the jurors, Don.
LEMON: I am, too.
BERMAN: When we hear from the jurors, what do you think it is that they'll say?
LEMON: Honestly, I think they -- listen, I know it was ten and a half hours that they went in and I think they wanted to, obviously, consider it and be respectful. But, quite frankly, I think they went, what are we doing here? I mean how -- isn't it obvious? Isn't it obvious? We saw the nine minutes and 29 seconds on video. And all of the things, all of this rigmarole about, oh, what happened before and he was resisting and people were intimidating us and there was carbon monoxide. I think that was insulting. I know that defense attorneys have to do everything, right, to vigorously defend their clients. But I think that they -- I think they're going to say, this was -- it was all ridiculous. He had -- he held a life in his hands.
And you think about it. We've been on now for, what, maybe two or three minutes. Think about three times that amount. You don't -- you would have the time to think about your actions and what you're doing. If I said, John, I can't breathe, can you take your knee off my -- I cannot breathe. You're -- you're snuffing the life out of me. I think with -- in nine minutes, you'd have time to think about your actions and to rectify your actions within that nine minutes. And I think the jury saw that. It was obviously. I think that's what they're going to say.
KEILAR: We watched the trial. So we know the parts that stood out to us that seemed particularly convincing or seemed might sway a jury. But when we do hear from the jurors, we're going to hear in -- specifically what it was for them, whether it was this witness or whether it was that witness or whether it was the video.
LEMON: And I think, Brianna, that they're -- some in the jury, mark my words, will say, I don't think the police officer would treat me that way because I didn't look -- I don't look like George Floyd. I think that's going to be part of the reaction. And I think others will say, I knew the police officer treated him differently because I am him. I saw myself in him. Sorry about that.
KEILAR: Oh, no, of course not.
I want to ask your opinion on something that we've seen in the world of sports that's causing a controversy, which is a tweet that was put out by the Las Vegas Raiders which said, "I can breathe." And the context of why this is perceived as offensive is because after the death of Eric Garner, who was the first black man killed at the hands of police, who had said I can't breathe, this was sort of a retort to that. Not in a supportive way, obviously, from some police.
The white coach is standing by --
BERMAN: Owner.
KEILAR: Oh, sorry, the white owner is standing by this tweet. I wonder what you -- what you think about that, what you would say to him.
LEMON: You know, I saw that and people sent it to me and they're like, oh, my gosh, how can he? And I -- I wasn't offended by it.
BERMAN: I mean Bakari -- Bakari Sellers had a pretty simple response, which is, hire black people.
LEMON: Well, I -- that's Bakari's opinion. I wasn't offended by it because for George Floyd's family and the people who supported him said as much that we can breathe now.
BERMAN: Philonise Floyd had said --
LEMON: And so I think we need to give each other a little room to breathe and to be able to have these conversations. And so if you have an issue with the owner saying that, take it up with the owner. Let the owner talk about it. Help him to understand that it may be offensive to some people.
But I do think in this moment that people were so happy with the outcome.
[08:55:03]
So maybe in their response, they did something that you didn't like. You may find offensive in some way. But he didn't say, oh, my gosh, I can't believe this, you know the white cop didn't get off. He's trying. At least he's trying.
So, listen, we all need to be held accountable. We all need to do the work. We all need to figure this whole thing out. But I don't want to castigate someone for at least trying to do the right thing, even in -- if it may be done in ignorance. I don't think it was harmful in any way.
BERMAN: Do you have a book you could recommend to white people if they're looking for ways to discuss this?
LEMON: Actually, I have -- actually I have two books to recommend. I would recommend that everyone reads "The Fire Next Time" by James Baldwin, which offers people grace, even when they mess up or you think that they did something wrong, like the white owner of that team. And then I would recommend a book that comes after that by this author named Don Lemon who says, this is the fire that we are in right now, that also talks about accountability and grace at the same time.
So while we're in this moment, where we're saying there's justice for now and there's accountability, let's focus on the positive and not nitpick something that may be taken out of context or may be offensive to some. The overall picture is better than one minor alleged offense.
KEILAR: Don Lemon, thank you so much for getting up early for us.
LEMON: It's so good to see you.
KEILAR: It's such a big day.
LEMON: I'm going to come back and hang out with you a lot.
KEILAR: I am looking forward to that.
BERMAN: He's saying that only to you.
KEILAR: Right.
BERMAN: He's saying that only to you.
LEMON: She's nice to me, John Berman.
BERMAN: You know, I -- I --
LEMON: You're not nice to me. Everyone knows it.
BERMAN: I'm trying to sell your book as much as I possibly can.
LEMON: I love you, though.
BERMAN: All right.
Don Lemon, great to see you here.
LEMON: You as well.
BERMAN: The book is terrific, by the way, and very important.
LEMON: Thank you.
BERMAN: Don's show is at 10:00 p.m. tonight. Don't miss is.
CNN's coverage continues next.
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[09:00:00]
