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Wright's Family Speaks before Today's Funeral; Rep. James Clyburn (D-SC) is Interviewed about Policing Legislation; New Unemployment Numbers; China and Russia Weaponized QAnon. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 22, 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]

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Process will go?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY FOR DAUNTE WRIGHT'S FAMILY: Well, you know, unfortunately, we live in a (INAUDIBLE) process that always tries to justify the unjustifiable killings of black people in America. Unarmed black people. And I honestly believe, Brianna, that when it's marginalized minorities, especially black people, police engage in the most excessive use of force. This was for a minor traffic violation about a tag not being registered, even though during the pandemic there was a memo that many people's tags were not registered because they couldn't do it. It was shut down.

So, once again, we have a traffic stop leading to a death sentence of a black person. And this whole notion that we tase or we arrest black people when there are minor misdemeanors is a reason that leads to deadly consequences.

KEILAR: Naisha, I know you said a week ago that this former officer held the gun in front of her for a long time. That clearly she should have known the difference. Do you think -- do you think that this was a mix-up? Do you think that if Daunte were white that he would not have even been tased? How do you see what happened?

CRUMP: Exactly.

NAISHA WRIGHT, DAUNTE WRIGHT'S AUNT: I will tell you like this. 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. So for the 30 seconds, you -- you hold something out in front of you for 30 seconds and tell me, within that 30 seconds, you're not going to look down at your hands, not at least one time? When there are different safety things that you have to unleash before you shoot a gun, before you shoot a Taser, OK?

My grandmother, my father, I have so many family in law enforcement. My grandmother is a retired sheriff of over 28 years. I've seen her come home plenty of nights, plenty of nights with her gun on her side and everything. There's no mistaking.

CRUMP: Yes. And, Brianna, just the weight of it. You've got a gun that weighs two and a half pounds, 2.6 ponds, the Taser was 8 ounces. The gun is on your dominant side. You have to remove a button to get the gun out. Your Taser is on your non-dominant side. It's shaped different. You have to do certain things to a Taser to engage it.

It is so troubling that you have yet again another unarmed black person. We have Oscar Grant's (ph) family coming to the funeral. Over a decade ago, he was killed, blown -- his head was blown off. The officer, while he was handcuffed, talking about he was trying to tase him. Why were you even trying to tase him? He's face down in handcuffs.

And so, yet again, we are continuing with these justifications of unjustified killings. In America, we can do better. We can have better policing in America. That's why we pray that President Biden goes through with his promise to George Floyd's family that we will get this George Floyd Justice and Policing Act passed so we can hopefully prevent some of these hashtags, these unnecessary killings and these painful, God-awful painful funerals that we keep having to go through.

KEILAR: So that we don't have to be having this interview, right? That is the -- that is the hope because we do a lot of these, unfortunately.

You mentioned George Floyd's family, Ben.

Naisha, some of his relatives are expected to attend the funeral of your nephew Daunte. What does that mean to you?

WRIGHT: Yes. Oh, my goodness, it has been such an honor to meet their family and to really sit down and speak with them. They are some of the most beautiful people. Like, they have given my family so much support. And even with what they've been dealing with, like literally, they put aside what they're dealing with to see how my family is doing.

[08:35:06]

CRUMP: Yes.

WRIGHT: And it takes a lot of strength. It takes a lot of strength to been able to do that. They have seen over and over and over and over their brother, their uncle being murdered. Murdered!

CRUMP: Yes.

WRIGHT: In front of millions.

CRUMP: Yes.

WRIGHT: And that family, they -- they see us and they give us hugs, you know, the --

CRUMP: Right.

WRIGHT: Just -- yes, they -- the encouragement to keep going because that's what we're going to do. We're going to keep fighting. You know, I'm going to keep fighting because this isn't -- this isn't over with. You know, yes, it was amazing to get that judgment that came in, but we've got to keep pushing --

CRUMP: Yes.

WRIGHT: Because we've been fighting way too long for this, way too long to be accepted as equal. And we are people. We are human beings. If I cut you and you cut me, we both bleed red. We're not bleeding no different.

CRUMP: Amen.

WRIGHT: And we just want to be treated again the same. We want the same.

When it comes to the police, again, I'm going to say this, we want the highest. Why? Because they take an oath to protect and to serve us. Just like doctors take an oath. If doctors so-called make a mistake, oh, they go for them. So, again, for the people to protect and serve us, you take an oath to protect me, to protect my children, to protect Ben, to protect everybody. At the end, we shouldn't end up six feet deep.

CRUMP: Yes. Yes.

KEILAR: Naisha, Ben --

CRUMP: Brianna, we're --

KEILAR: Sorry, go on, Ben.

CRUMP: Yes. No, I was going to say, with my legal team representing both George Floyd family and Daunte wright family, it is so fascinating to have these family dinners where Daunte Wright's family is starting to go through what George Floyd's family had to go through this time last year. And to watch how painful it is, but the advice they give them of saying, they're going to try assassinate Daunte's character, just like they tried to do George Floyd, but you all define his legacy. Don't let this racist society define this young black person's existence in this world. Let's let a better society, a more loving society, define the existence of this 20-year-old young man who, as his aunt said, was a man in the making. What could have come of Daunte had she de-escalated the situation versus escalating it.

KEILAR: These are all very good questions, Ben.

And, Naisha, I want to thank you so much for coming on and sharing your heart with us.

WRIGHT: Yes, ma'am.

KEILAR: You are right, we cannot feel your pain --

WRIGHT: Thank you.

KEILAR: But we are hearing it loud and clear. We are seeing it. We are witnessing it.

WRIGHT: Thank you.

KEILAR: And we are thinking of your family and you today. Thank you.

WRIGHT: Thank you.

KEILAR: In the wake of Derek Chauvin's conviction and after nearly a year of protests, Democrats in Congress are determined to pass legislation aimed at reforming police. So what can they realistically get passed with bipartisan support?

Joining us now to discuss this is the House majority whip, James Clyburn of South Carolina. He is a member of the Congressional Black Caucus.

Sir, I think -- I hope you just heard that interview there with Daunte Wright's aunt. And this is what she is asking for. She is -- she is crying for Congress to do something, to address this problem so that there is not another aunt or a mother or a father standing where she is. What can be achieved here?

REP. JAMES CLYBURN (D-SC): Well, thank you very much for having me.

I did listen to that interview. And I really grieve with her.

And I said on yesterday, I have a 26-year-old grandson. And he lives across the street from me. And I have a strange feeling, whenever I look and don't see his car at home, especially if it's late at night, worried about what may be happening with him.

And that's a feeling that's in every family, African-American family, in this country. And it should not be that way.

I didn't grow up with that kind of feeling. We did have issues. We did get those lectures from our parents as to how to conduct ourselves when you encounter police officers because I grew up in the segregated south where, at one time, lynching was a pastime.

[08:40:12]

So I understand all of that.

But I thought -- sincerely thought that we were putting all of this behind us. Now we are trying to address this issue today with the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act. And it's simply an act that outlaws things like chokeholds. It gets rid of so-called qualified immunity because qualified immunity has become absolute immunity. We want, as has taken place today in Minneapolis, we wanted to reinstate patterns and practices investigations. And I'm glad that this administration is going to do that as it relates to Minneapolis.

That's what we did in Ferguson years ago. That's how we got to the bottom of what was happening to people in Ferguson. And when I think of the way police are conducting themselves, some of them -- not all of them -- most of them are very honorable people. But this aunt, today, is expressing the same thing that I have expressed for a long time, and that is, 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.

KEILAR: So --

CLYBURN: We can't keep doing this. We are devolving -- our society is devolving into something untoward for human beings.

KEILAR: I do want to ask you particularly about a compromise that is being discussed, including with Republican Senator Tim Scott from your state, and qualified immunity you mentioned. Democrats want to get rid of that protection for officers as it shields them from excessive force. What we've seen from Tim Scott is putting the onus on police departments so that victims' families that do have a place to go and seek, you know, to sort of seek out blame, but it would be from the department, not from the individual officers. Is that something that you would accept?

CLYBURN: Well, you know, I'm going to accept anything that they come up with. But I will say this, that is a good start if it doesn't cure, it may do that, because I have been saying for a long time now, this is not about training. People keep saying, you've got to get better trained officers. Nope. You've got to be better human beings to be officers. This is about recruiting. And if you put the recruiting, this onus on the backs of the police department, it might help them to recruit better people.

Let me tell you something. I've heard in my state of little (ph) police departments hiring people because how they look and how big they are and, in some instances, whether or not they can be insensitive. That is not good policing. That's the kind of foolishness we've got to stop. And so if we hold these departments -- hold them responsible, maybe they'll do better recruiting.

KEILAR: There are so many people right now in the country who are trying to figure out how to talk about race and the deaths of African- Americans. The House speaker herself has demonstrated this. This happened yesterday. I want to listen to what she said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. NANCY PELOSI (D-CA): Thank you, George Floyd, for sacrificing your life for justice, for being there to call out to your mom. How -- how heartbreaking was that? Call out for your mom. I can't breathe. But because of you, and because of thousands -- millions of people around the world who came out for justice, your name will always be synonymous with justice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, she corrected that in a tweet, Mr. Clyburn, but I wonder what your reaction was to what she said and if you've had a chance to discuss it with her.

CLYBURN: I was standing next to her when she said it. And I realized what she meant. My goodness, all of us sometimes put the infinitive in the wrong place. It was for having sacrificed your life rather than sacrificed. She just used the wrong infinitive and I wish we all had times to consider our grammar (INAUDIBLE) ahead of time before we got ready to speak. We don't do that. So she meant absolutely nothing by that but exactly what she corrected in her -- in her tweet. And I did say the same, he did sacrifice his life. Maybe against his will, but he did.

[08:45:05]

KEILAR: I want to ask you also, Democrats have made it very clear, their expectation of how Republicans use loaded words about violence when tensions are high. We've seen why. We've seen why that is necessary. We've seen January 6th. But one of your fellow Democrats, Maxine Waters, ahead of the Chauvin verdict, said that activists should get more confrontational if the former officer wasn't convicted.

Do Democrats -- I know you're saying people are misspeaking, but in moments where there is so much tension, do Democrats need to make sure that they're holding themselves to this same standard of watching how they speak when there could be violence?

CLYBURN: (INAUDIBLE) very conscious of having to watch our speech. Maxine Waters was making reference to Martin Luther King Jr.'s edict on confrontations. I happen to have grown up in that era. Happened to have been a disciple of his. And I've studied his so-called "c" project, and the "c" stood for confrontation. Maxine has read all of that and she's internalized some of that. And that's what she was saying. And people ran with the word rather than the meaning behind what she was saying.

We have to confront injustice. My dad used to tell me all the time, son, silence gives consent. You speak up. John Lewis told us all the time, when you see something, say something. We've even adopted that for our messages at airports. So she was confronting and she was saying to people, we must confront these injustices. She wasn't saying anything that would border on anything akin to insurrection.

KEILAR: Mr. Clyburn, thank you so much for being with us. This is a -- this is a big day for the country. It's a big day for Daunte Wright's family. We are witnessing something we do not -- we want to stop seeing. And we especially appreciate you discussing these issues with us today.

CLYBURN: Well, thank you very much. And thank you so much for shining the light on this issue.

KEILAR: Thank you, sir.

Just in to CNN, a brand-new snapshot of unemployment in the U.S. Is America's jobs crisis getting better or worse?

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: And President Biden wants Americans to get time off from work to go get a COVID shot. What will your boss say?

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BERMAN: All right, the new weekly jobs report and some really encouraging numbers.

Chief business correspondent Christine Romans here with that.

Romans.

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN CHIEF BUSINESS CORRESPONDENT: Yes, a real spring thaw in the jobs market. Really good to see.

This is a pandemic low for jobless benefits, 547,000 in the most recent week.

[08:50:02]

So you can see the trend there behind me. It's very clear these numbers are getting a little bit better. Layoffs are slowing. Vaccinations, some reopening. You're starting to see people get hired and fewer people being laid off.

Altogether, though, John, there's still 17.4 million people on some sort of jobless benefit. So that shows you kind of the depth of the crisis overall. Still a lot of folks relying on a jobless check. But we know that these numbers are getting better.

Along the lines of just some context for how bad it was, we have new analysis from the Bureau of Labor Statistics that shows about one in 10 American families suffered some sort of job loss in the last year. That's one person in the family. And it's not really that even here. You can see the Hispanic families fared the worst with 14.3 percent of Hispanic families losing a job, about 9 percent for whites. And that's a different pattern than we've seen in previous crises. So that's because so many people in the service and hospitality sector lost their jobs, John.

BERMAN: We have a long way to go, but to see these numbers consistently drop the way they are is exactly what you want to be seeing now.

ROMANS: That's right.

BERMAN: So, Romans, the White House calling on bosses around the country to give workers time off to get vaccinated. How would that work?

ROMANS: And there's no excuse here because they're saying there will be a new tax credit so you'll get paid for it, the company will be paid, small companies, too, for offering a day off for the vaccination and time off for recovery if you feel under the weather after you've had the vaccine. The president is making very clear that no worker in this country should have to lose a single dollar out of their own pocket to fulfill their pandemic obligation of getting vaccinated. Also really encouraging younger people to be vaccinated so the workforce can get vaccinated. We can get back to normal, John.

BERMAN: Cannot wait for that. That would be nice.

KEILAR: Yes, wouldn't it be? Wouldn't it be?

A disturbing new report shows that the world has taken notice of the QAnon conspiracy theory craziness and some American enemies are using it against the U.S.

John Avlon has our "Reality Check."

JOHN AVLON, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL ANALYST: When the history of our time is written, people are going to scratch their heads trying to figure out how a self-evidently insane conspiracy theory called QAnon elbowed its way into American politics. Now I won't waste your brain cells trying to explain it, except to say that it's basically a Madlibs version of negative partisanship on PCP involving baseless allegations of Satanism, pedophilia and the deep state. Don't believe me? Here's a pre-congress QAnon curious Marjorie Taylor Greene.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MARJORIE TAYLOR GREENE: There's a once in a lifetime opportunity to take this global cable of Satan worshiping pedophiles out.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

AVLON: And Trump fanned its flames, praising its followers as people who love our country, by which he meant people who love him. It's a common mistake.

But QAnon believers say they're super patriots. It's how they justify all manner of sins, like buying into Trump's big lie, storming the Capitol, and hoping President Biden's inauguration would be disrupted by marshal law, mass arrests and the mass execution of Democrats. This inspired perhaps the saddest fact check of all time.

So it's kind of perfect to find these self-styled super patriots have been playing into the hands of hostile foreign powers hell-bent on destroying our democracy. Talk about a confederacy of dunces. And that's according to a new report by the Sufan (ph) center that details the ways that authoritarian states, like Russia and China, have been pumping up QAnon.

Now, it's no surprise that Trumpists would echo Russian disinfo, but it might surprise you that China basically kept pace with Russia by pushed QAnon craziness last year on FaceBook with Iran and Saudi Arabia throwing in as well. And in the first two months of this year, China took the lead, making up 58 percent of foreign influence on QAnon posts.

Why would they want to stir the crazy pot? Well, as the Sufan (ph) report states, amplifying QAnon messaging is a strike against the United States' core democratic values. Though some QAnon folks had a crisis of faith after their dark fantasies failed to materialize. The report highlights ongoing efforts to radicalize Q followers with rhetoric they say, quote, bears striking resemblance to al Qaeda and the so-called Islamic State, namely that there is no political solution and that violence is the only way forward. It's a reminder that extremes ultimately come to resemble each other.

There's more bad news despite being thoroughly debunked. Many QAnon followers aren't going to let facts stop them. Not only do they have a few fellow travelers in Congress while they continue to push anti-mask and anti-vaccine conspiracies. But as "Time" Magazine reports, QAnon advocates are running for local office, like school board, city council.

Now, less than 10 percent of Americans now say they like QAnon, but that's still too many because it means that crazy has a constituency. You can't reason someone out of something they weren't reasoned into. But here's what you can know (ph), the people who scream loudest about being super patriots are the ones being manipulated by hostile foreign powers. Their conspiracy theories are actively being used to undermine our democracy and divide the United States, which is the opposite of putting America first.

And that's your "Reality Check."

BERMAN: I sort of envision, you know, the Russian and Chinese intelligence services looking at television coverage of America saying, wait, there are people who believe this junk?

[08:55:07]

I mean you don't have to be intelligent to figure out that that's easily manipulated. It's like a gift.

AVLON: Huge gift.

BERMAN: All right.

AVLON: And we're just doing it to ourselves. They're just taking advantage of us during the crazy (INAUDIBLE).

BERMAN: John Avlon, thank you very much for that.

All right, busy day. A lot going on.

KEILAR: A really busy day. And an emotional day.

BERMAN: Yes.

That was a terrific interview you did with Daunte Wright's aunt. Really, really moving.

CNN's coverage continues right after this.

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