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New Day

Al Schmidt is Interviewed about Voter Fraud in Pennsylvania; Marine Sues Police after being Tasered; China Responds Investigation into Separated Families; Terrence Clarke Remembered. Aired 6:30-7a ET

Aired April 23, 2021 - 06:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[06:33:37]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Developing this morning, a stunning revelation from a Pennsylvania Republican who pushed the big lie of mass election fraud in his state. In an interview with the "Pennsylvania Capital-Star," State Representative Seth Grove is asked, who committed that fraud in Pennsylvania? Grove answered, right. Republicans. But it's still election fraud. It doesn't matter who commits it. Now, I will say there's not like this mass amount of fraud, that's going to shift hundreds of thousands of votes.

When asked about his role in propagating the big lie, Grove responded, I can't help people believe everything on the Internet.

Joining me now, Republican Philadelphia City Commissioner Al Schmidt.

I think -- Commissioner, nice to see you.

I think people will remember you from when ballots were still being counted in Philadelphia. You were out in public then saying, let us do this. The count is going well. Everything is going according to plan.

When you hear a Republican lawmaker in your state say out loud, you know, we've been saying there was fraud, there was fraud, there was fraud. Yes, there was fraud, but we were doing it. I mean, what are you supposed to think?

AL SCHMIDT, PHILADELPHIA CITY COMMISSIONER: Well, it's -- it's certainly frustrating from the standpoint of an election administrator in one of the biggest cities in the country, here in Philadelphia, to hear people say they are so concerned about restoring confidence in the elections but really the biggest thing that anyone could do to restore confidence in the election and election results is to obviously stop lying about them.

[06:35:10]

BERMAN: Right. So he continues to say that we need to be careful. I'm just asking questions about whether the elections are fair.

But you point out there's -- there's actually something insidious about continuing to say that.

SCHMIDT: And I think you hit on something very important. I watched all the hearings in the House and the Senate and I've testified in front of the Senate and my office and I have testified in front of House committees about elections since the election as well. And it's really about raising questions. There are far more questions than there is evidence of any voter fraud at all on any scale that would have made any difference.

Just raising the questions alone seems to be, rhetorically, a tool that's used to kind of conjure up these ghosts or phantoms and to then try to come up with solutions for problems that don't exist.

BERMAN: I mean, to make this more clear, they keep saying, we want to know if the elections are fair. We think the elections are rigged. We think there's evidence of this. We're just asking if there's evidence that there's fraud.

And then they have the gal to say, well, there are all these questions out there about whether the elections are fair, but they're the ones asking those questions with no evidence.

SCHMIDT: Right. And in the hearings, and I really think they've done a pretty thorough job. They had a lot of hearings with a lot of people testifying. And you didn't hear from -- at least that I saw -- any of the election administrators suggesting there was anything that required legislation that would, you know, crack down on this -- this alleged voter fraud. It was really about, how do we improve elections and how do we -- how do we make structural changes to lessen the opportunity for people to lie about them.

BERMAN: Commissioner, you were not running for re-election. And just to remind people what you went through, I want to play a little bit from a discussion we had while the ballots were still being counted in Philadelphia.

Listen to this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SCHMIDT: I have seen the most fantastical things on social media making completely ridiculous allegations that have no basis in fact at all and see them spread.

I think people should be mindful that there are bad actors who are lying to them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: Bad actors lying to them. So after everything you went through then, Commissioner, after everything that you've gone through, really at the hands of people of your own party, do you still consider yourself a Republican?

SCHMIDT: Well, you know, I -- I've been a Republican longer than Donald Trump has been a Republican. And it's strange that, you know, you're referred to as a rhino and others are referred to as rhinos simply because they know and tell the truth that the election was fair and transparent. That seems to be the litmus test right now is if you are willing to keep perpetrating or perpetuating that lie.

BERMAN: Commissioner Schmidt, we appreciate you being with us. Thanks so much for your time. Thanks for the work you've been doing.

SCHMIDT: Thank you. Thank you, sir.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: A Marine veteran is suing police after officers Tased him inside a hospital room in front of his family, including his young daughter. I will speak with him next.

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[06:42:41]

KEILAR: As law enforcement in America is under scrutiny, another police encounter back in 2019 is getting renewed attention. A Marine veteran is suing the city of Colorado Springs and Teller County, Colorado. Police officers used a Taser on him inside an intensive care unit where his 19 month old daughter was receiving treatment for serious injuries after being hit by the family's car. That is according to a civil complaint filed last year.

CJ Andersen claims that he was standing next to his daughter's hospital bed when four law enforcement officers entered the room. And the suit says the officers suspected Andersen's daughter had been injured as a result of a crime. Police body camera footage, obtained by CNN, shows a scuffle ensued after the officers attempted to seize his fiance's cell phone in search of possible criminal evidence.

We do have to warn you, this video is disturbing and it may be difficult to watch.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CJ ANDERSEN: Excuse me, you do not grab anything from my pockets.

OFFICER: Hey, hey, gentleman, you're going to hit the ground real hard.

ANDERSEN: I'm not leaving my daughter's side.

OFFICER: OK. Then just give us the phone and we'll be done.

ANDERSEN: No, you're not getting the phone.

OFFICER: Yes, we are.

ANDERSON: You don't have a right to take the phone.

OFFICER: Yes, we do. As part of the investigation.

ANDERSEN: No, you don't. So you're going to Tase me because I'm not going to give you my wife's cell phone? OFFICER 2: So I'm going to go behind you because I don't want anybody behind you getting hurt OK?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hold on. Gentlemen. Gentlemen. Gentlemen.

OFFICER: Give me the cell phone.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Out of the room.

ANDERSEN: This is crazy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the room. Get out of the room.

ANDERSEN: (EXPLETIVE DELETED).

OFFICER: (EXPLETIVE DELETED): (EXPLETIVE DELETED) go down.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not right.

ANDERSEN: Are you (EXPLETIVE DELETED) serious?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is not right.

OFFICER: Put your hands behind your back.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm going to sue your ass. I want your badge numbers now.

Hey, that is enough!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now, CNN reached out to the Colorado Springs Police Department. They said they are unable to comment on the matter because it is under litigation.

Andersen's attorney say the defendants filed a motion to dismiss the case and it was denied. So now it is going to through discovery.

Joining me now is CJ Andersen, who was the man that you saw in that video being Tased, and his attorney, David Lane.

CJ, let's start at the beginning here.

We are very happy to hear that your daughter has made a full recovery. That is, obviously, most important here. But tell us, first, why your daughter was in the hospital and why police wanted your phone.

[06:45:05]

CJ ANDERSEN, MARINE VETERAN TASERED BY POLICE IN DAUGHTER'S HOSPITAL ROOM: She was in the hospital. My wife at the time, she's my fiance, she was dropping Charlotte off to me at my father's residence. She was attending night school at the time. And as I was placing the car seat in my truck, Charlotte was standing next to me and I failed to notice she turned around and was walking back towards mom when Carissa (ph) was pulling out of the driveway and she walked into the side of the vehicle and got struck by the car.

KEILAR: So -- I mean that, as a parent, that -- this happens and this is a parent's nightmare, obviously.

You're there. You end up in the hospital. You were concerned for your daughter's health, for her life, and they want -- the police want your phone. Did they tell you why they wanted your phone?

ANDERSEN: No, they never told us why they wanted the cell phones. Initially, when we had been demanded to give the cell phones, the individual who came in the room was in plain clothes and never identified himself as a police officer. He came in and demanded my cell phone and demanded my fiance's cell phone. Gave no explanation. No introduction. And at one point my father, who happened to be in the room at the time, asked him if he was conducting an investigation, and he said, yes. I asked him if he had a warrant to seize our property and he said, no, I do not need I warrant. I said, well, yes, you do. You do need a warrant to take my personal property.

KEILAR: So -- and that was your father in the video who was saying, gentlemen, gentlemen, to the police officers, just so that folks are aware.

You served in Afghanistan and you have said that this felt like Afghanistan. What do you mean by that?

ANDERSEN: What I meant by that comment was when the officers entered the room, one of them already had their Taser drawn. And at that time there's a deep seeded feeling of, well, something's going to happen. And when I made that comment, I was saying, when you're getting ready to go on a patrol or getting ready to go on a post, you typically have this feeling of, I don't know what's going to happen. Something is going to happen today. And that's how I was feeling.

KEILAR: You, obviously, had a very bad feeling about what was happening around you.

CJ, you were charged with obstruction. You were charged with resisting arrest. And those charges were dropped. At the heart of this case of the issue that you have here, it sounds like it is police training, which is a huge topic of conversation right now in this conversation of police reform.

What do you think needs to happen? What is accountability here?

ANDERSEN: Well, accountability for me is, these individual officers have made a mistake and they need to be held accountable for their actions.

I do want to state, I full support law enforcement across the nation. I do, however, believe that when an individual makes a mistake, they need to be held accountable for their actions. And that is the purpose for our lawsuit.

Unfortunately, things happened. And I do believe that if there was a training -- let's call it a sensitivity training for officers where they realize, people in a situation like mine, we were in the hospital. It was already very stressful. We don't need people coming in demanding things from us, not giving us a reason why and then attacking people. That's just not needed, you know? That -- had the officers realized and taken the time to say, hey, these guys, these parents are -- are in a situation, let's give them a minute. And we had asked the officers for a minute. Earlier in the earning we had said, we're not going to answer your questions right now. We want to make sure our daughter is OK. Come back later and we'll talk to you then. We want to make sure Charlotte is OK.

KEILAR: Well, CJ, we are so happy that Charlotte is OK. We want to thank you and your attorney, David Lane, for joining us, for sharing your story and thank you, CJ, for your service.

ANDERSEN: Yes. Thank you for your time.

BERMAN: So, this morning, China's government has responded to a CNN investigation, one that shed light on one of the world's great humanitarian crises. Last month we told you about children from China's Xinjiang region where -- who were ripped from their families. Amnesty International estimates that Beijing's policy towards ethnic Uighur Muslims has split up thousands of families.

[06:50:01]

The U.S. and other countries have labeled China's treatment of Uighurs as genocide. Chinese authorities vehemently deny allegations of human rights abuses in Xinjiang, claiming their actions are justified to fight religious extremism and prevent terrorism.

CNN's David Culver has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

DAVID CULVER: We began looking into this after the parents of these children reached out to us, desperate for answers and hopeful that they might be reunited with their kids. We took their concerns to Chinese officials throughout your news gathering effort, sending them dozens of detailed questions about the families. We didn't hear back despite giving them ample time to reply. Since the broadcast of our story, however, the Chinese government and state media have launched a concerted campaign to discredit our reporting and claim the parents are terrorists.

CULVER (voice over): It's a familiar site by now, families of Uighur exiles profiled by international media suddenly showing up on air and online in Chinese state media stories and posts.

Here, 10-year-old Muhisa Momojon (ph) telling state broadcaster CGTN she's living a happy life in her grandparents' house, along with her younger brother.

CULVER (on camera): Let's try this.

CULVER (voice over): But just days earlier, when we unexpectedly found her in Kashkar's (ph) maze-like old town, telling her our colleagues had interviewed her father, her reactions were quite different. But amidst her innocence and awareness not to say too much, she told us she had not spoken to her father since 2017. And when we asked her --

CULVER (on camera): What would you want to say to him if you could talk to him?

CULVER (voice over): I miss him, she later told me.

CULVER (on camera): Can you tell me some of what you're feeling?

CULVER (voice over): I don't have my mom with me right now. I don't have my dad either. I just want to be reunited with them, she told me.

We later showed Muhisa's father, Mamud Jon Abdul Ahim (ph), the video of our encounter with his daughter and parents in Kashkar (ph). He watched from his home in Adelaide, Australia, overcome by grief for the years lost.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What kind of country does this to people, to innocent people?

CULVER: More than a week after our story aired, in a written statement sent to CNN, the Chinese government accused Mamud Jon of influencing his wife with extremist religious and violent terrorist views. China claims she returned to the country with an assignment of encouraging others to join overseas terrorist groups.

CULVER (on camera): It's locked on the outside, so unless they're gone for the day or they're gone permanently.

CULVER (voice over): The authorities added that Mamud Jon's wife, whom we tried to track down in Kashkar, was sentenced to nine years in prison last June. The charge, inciting ethnic hatred.

CNN's request to see additional details in the court verdict was rejected.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My name is Mamud Jon Abdul Ahim (ph).

CULVER: Mamud Jon released a video statement in response to China's statement, calling it laughable and again pushing for his wife to be freed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: My demand, for the Chinese government to release my wife, (INAUDIBLE), and so many other innocent Uighurs.

CULVER: CNN's report last month also highlighted the plight of another Uighur family living near Rome. Melhaban (ph) and Ablikim (ph) are still desperately trying to reunite with their four children. Last year, Chinese officials stopped the kids from flying to Italy after they escaped from Shanghai. They were sent back to Xinjiang to live in a state orphanage.

After making a pass by the orphanage, we headed toward the kids' schools. We asked to see the kids. Eventually, a local official showed up and asked for about 30 minutes to get back to us. CULVER (on camera): That was more than two hours ago, but they've yet

to let us talk to the children.

CULVER (voice over): We later made contact with Yaha (ph) through video chat.

CULVER (on camera): Do you want to be with them? Do you -- do you miss them?

CULVER (voice over): I do, he says. He answered quickly and kept looking off camera. Someone was directing him to answer.

Tell them that you see your sister every day, the voice said.

CULVER (on camera): He's being coached (INAUDIBLE).

CULVER (voice over): Despite the pressure that the children face every day, they even risk sending out a photo message to their parents, the four of them lined up, holding a sign in Chinese saying, dad, mom, we miss you. A rare glimpse of an uncensored truth.

Following our report, the children say a state media team went to film them at the orphanage. A video was later circulated online showing an edited interview with the eldest sibling, Zumadium (ph), who said, my life is colorful and happy every day.

The Chinese government told CNN in a statement that the four children are leading a normal life and attending local schools. The authorities allege that the kids' parents had abandoned them to become key members of a violent terrorist group, but declined to provide CNN with evidence.

[06:55:08]

The Uighur parents in Italy told us the Chinese accusations are baseless.

Their eldest boy, Yaha (ph), has since been in touch with his mother. He told her that he and his siblings have faced repeated interrogations since our attempt to visit them. The children even tried to send a hand-written note to the Chinese authorities, formally requesting to join their parents in Italy, who have secured Italian visas for them. Their case has caught international attention since our story aired and was brought up in Italy's parliament, where the foreign affairs undersecretary said the government is working to help the family.

Italian officials have been debating a resolution on condemning human rights violations in Xinjiang and following the U.S. and other countries in labelling China's actions as genocide.

Even with Beijing becoming increasingly forceful and pushing back criticisms of its Xinjiang policy, the parents hope that added international pressure will help them reunite with their children.

David Culver, CNN, Shanghai. (END VIDEOTAPE)

BERMAN: And our thanks to David and his whole team for this crucial reporting. The whole world needs to pay attention to that.

In a matter of hours, the fate of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine could be decided. Is it safe to resume the shots?

KEILAR: Plus, Republican congressmen lobbying sexist attacks at their colleague, Liz Cheney./ What was said to her face will shock you.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

KEILAR: A 19-year-old NBA draft prospect has died and the basketball world is in mourning. Carolyn Manno has this morning's "Bleacher Report."

Carolyn.

CAROLYN MANNO, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Brianna, Terrence Clarke was loved by his family and friends. He was described as a great kid whose life was full of promise. And he was only three months away from realizing his dream of making it to the NBA when he was tragically killed this week. He died after a car accident yesterday in Los Angeles where he was preparing for the upcoming draft after finishing his freshman season at Kentucky.

In fact, Clutch Sports Group announced his signing with the agency this week. Kentucky Coach John Calipari tweeting, I am absolutely gutted and sick tonight. I ask that everyone take a moment tonight to say a prayer for Terrence Clarke and his family. May he rest in peace.

[07:00:02]

Celtics Coach Brad Stephens spoke about the loss of the Boston native after last night's game.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BRAD STEVENS, BOSTON CELTICS HEAD COACH: You know, I didn't.