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New Day

Anti-Trump Conservatives Grade Lawmakers; Private School Bars Vaccinated Teachers from Students; Greg Fischer is Interviewed about the DOJ Investigation in Louisville Police; Laurie Woolever is Interviewed about her Book and Anthony Bourdain. Aired 8:30-9a ET

Aired April 27, 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]

ELIZABETH NEUMANN, CO-DIRECTOR, REPUBLICAN ACCOUNTABILITY PROJECT: And it tells me that this is the group of the squishes (ph), right? They tried -- they're trying to walk -- have it both ways, condemn Trump but not really do what you need to do. And that's interesting. I think if -- one, if you can convince them that what they -- if they would come together as a unified group and denounce the big lie and be very consistent with it, like, over and over and over again, the election was not stolen, Joe Biden is legitimately elected, over time that actually might help us with the security problem we have where you have 4 percent of Americans believe that the election was stolen and violence is justified. That's out of the University of Chicago. That equates to 10 million people. Ten million people that think that violence potentially could be justified is a significant security problem.

These Republican senators, especially in leadership, could have the ability -- I think there's over 60 of them that scored C's or C minuses, if they would just come out very consistently, denounce the big lie and when they're in their home districts and home states, be very consistent with that messaging, over time that could help us a lot from the security perspective.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Yes.

Elizabeth, thank you so much.

Elizabeth Neumann.

NEUMANN: Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: A private school in Florida is telling teachers who get a coronavirus shot to stay away from students. Wait until you hear why, next.

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[08:35:27]

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: A private grade school in Miami telling its teachers if they get the coronavirus vaccine, they must stay away from the students. In a letter to the staff, one of the school's co- founders made a serious of wildly false claims about negative impacts from contact with vaccinated people.

CNN's Leyla Santiago live in Miami with more.

I didn't even do the crazy justice there, Leyla. This story, wow.

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: You know, we were just over at the Centner Academy watching as students came in, John. And we couldn't get any of the parents or teachers or staff to stop and talk to us. They were actually escorted in by security.

But here's what I can tell you. Yes, what you said is correct. In a letter that was put out by the CEO and co-founder of Centner Academy, it states that vaccinated people cannot come close, they cannot allow them to come close to their students until more information is available.

Now, that same letter cited a series of false claims, claims that have been contradicted by the CDC, the FDA, the World Health Organization. You get the point, right? All false claims here that are not true. Things like, if you're close to vaccinated people, that alone is a risk. Again, can't say it enough, that is not true.

Now, CNN reached out to the school and in a statement they are standing by their decision, saying that it is being taken out of an abundance of caution. That's their reaction.

But here's a reaction from a local health expert.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. AILEEN MARTY, PROFESSOR OF INFECTIOUS DISEASE, FIU: Here we have one of the most powerful tools in our arsenal to protect ourselves and get out of this problem and they are discouraging the use of it. It's tragic.

It's egregious towards anyone who wants to protect themselves from this virus who would be employed by them.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: And, Brianna, let's look big picture here because it is that type of misinformation that officials here are working really hard to tackle. Just yesterday, I was at a vaccine site where the spokesperson took every opportunity to say vaccines are safe and they are saving lives. In fact, that was the response when I asked, how are you tackling misinformation and vaccine hesitancy right now? Definitely big messaging effort in Florida right now for that.

KEILAR: Definitely. Major problems too.

Leyla, thank you so much.

Here is what else to watch today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ON SCREEN TEXT: 12:30 p.m. ET, COVID task for briefing.

1:15 p.m. ET, Biden speaks on mask guidelines.

1:45 p.m. ET, White House press briefing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: The Justice Department just opened a brand-new investigation into Louisville Police practices following Breonna Taylor's death. What it could reveal.

KEILAR: And a new look at the late Anthony Bourdain and the woman that he called his, quote, lieutenant, will join us live.

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[08:42:36]

BERMAN: Attorney General Merrick Garland announced the Justice Department has launched a wide-ranging investigation into whether the Louisville Metro Police Department engaged in a pattern of civil rights abuses amid a nationwide reckoning after the death of Breonna Taylor.

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MERRICK GARLAND, U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: All of these steps will be taken with one goal in mind, to ensure that policing policies and practices are constitutional and lawful.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BERMAN: I'm joined now by the mayor of Louisville, Greg Fischer.

Mayor, thanks so much for being with us.

You said you welcome the investigation. What do you expect that it will find?

MAYOR GREG FISCHER (D), LOUISVILLE, KENTUCKY: Well, that's what we're going to find out, John. I mean it's no surprise that policing is at a real crossroads in America right now and every mayor is looking at their police department and saying, how can we make sure that the practices are constitutional, there's no discriminatory practices present and what's the best practice with use of force, search warrants, all these types of things.

So, we've done a lot of deep review ourselves through outside consultants with our department. We've had a lot of reform take place in our city. But the DOJ should be the gold standard for investigation. So anything that they find, we're going to get right to work to because what does a great police force look like right now in the 21st century America is the real question and we aim to be that best police force. BERMAN: Well, you tell me, what does it look like? I am curious

because this comes on the heels of a similar investigation into the practices of the Minneapolis Police Department. So do you think the issues that you've seen in your city are reflected other in cities as well?

FISCHER: Absolutely. And you see that daily on the news, as you well know. So the key is, is how do you build police community legitimacy in our city and every city across America so police officers are welcomed into every neighborhood, especially communities of color, as guardians and they're part of the community's fabric.

So what we're trying to do here is co-produce public safety, citizens, police department, working together to define, what is that best way? Nobody argues with the function of policing. It's now policing is being exercised in 21st century America. That's the problem and those are the issues that we're working to, to produce this best practice.

BERMAN: What do you think the intersection will be in terms of investigating what's gone on the last few years and maybe some of the specifics surrounding the Breonna Taylor case?

FISCHER: Well, I think, you know, it comes back to some of the basics. You know, search warrant processes. Are there particular practices that are dangerous that should be restricted on when they take place?

[08:45:02]

Or, in our case, where we've banned no-knock warrants with Breonna's Law. What does community oversight look like with policing? We put in a civilian review board to do that, along with numerous other reforms. So there's a lot of, I think, basic things that we've learned that are safe and not safe to make sure that all of the safe elements and the civilian oversight is in place within a city. And there's all kind of new technology that's out there as well.

In my view, it's just a time for a total top to bottom review for all of policing in America and have a set of national standards that apply to every police department.

BERMAN: You know, no charges were brought directly in the killing of Breonna Taylor. So how confident are you this will actually lead to meaningful change?

FISCHER: Well, if there's areas to change, we will. Breonna Taylor, that was a tragedy for our city and, obviously, there's a pending charge, officer awaiting trial right now. And when you saw that, how it took place, no body cameras evident, that's the big difference with the Breonna tragedy.

So, since that's happened, we've done everything we can to get to the truth in that case to make sure that justice is served.

BERMAN: Mayor Greg Fischer of Louisville, thanks so much for being with us this morning.

FISCHER: Thank you, John. Take care.

BERMAN: Up next, the irreverent journeys of the late, great Anthony Bourdain. New stories from the book he planned but never had a chance to finish.

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[08:50:31]

KEILAR: Among the many reasons people love the late Anthony Bourdain was his passion for exploring new places with good friends, often with his side of colorful language.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANTHONY BOURDAIN: It's a judgment-free zone here, though.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Totally.

BOURDAIN: It's kind of a come as you are situation.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes.

I think that's true of Queens in general. And you can kind of fly under the radar, you know, and you have not been harassed too much today, right?

BOURDAIN: No. A guy came up to me and he says, hey, you look like Anthony Bourdain. I said, I wish I had his money. And he said, yes, right, that asshole. It was great. It was like the perfect encounter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Yes. That's Queens.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Now the woman that you saw there with Bourdain was his longtime friend, assistant and co-author, who has just released a new book that the pair began together before his death in 2018. And she's with us now.

Laurie Woolever, this book is called "World Travel: An Irreverent Guide," which it certainly is.

Thank you so much for being with us this morning.

LAURIE WOOLEVER, AUTHOR, "WORLD TRAVEL: AN IRREVERENT GUIDE": Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

KEILAR: I want to read just a couple little parts from your introduction because I thought it was such an important entry into this book. You said, did the world need another travel guide and did we need to write it? In March 2017, when Tony and I began to discuss the idea for this book, an atlas of the world as seen through his eyes, I wasn't entirely sure. But then later you go on to say, after he had passed, maybe the world could use another travel guide full of Tony's acid wit and thoughtful observations and a few sly revelations of the mysterious contours of his battered heart stitched together from all the brilliant and hilarious things he'd said and written about the world as he saw it.

You changed your mind over time. Tell us why.

WOOLEVER: Uh-huh. Well, you know, Tony's death was, obviously, a huge shock for a lot of people, myself included. And there was -- it was so sudden that there was this -- there is this collective wanting to hear more from him, you know? I personally felt so -- and continue to feel so -- what a regrettable thing that all of the work, all of the writing that he did exists. There's -- there's -- so I wanted to take all of this collected, wonderful work that he did and figure out a way to kind of make it new and fresh and make it useful to people, whether they're planning to travel, whether they've never traveled and won't ever travel, or whether they're starting to think about it now with the way the world is starting to open up a little bit more again.

KEILAR: I mean, Laurie, I think you really did that in this book. And I was wondering, like, I'm sure I am one of many people who would say, yes, there does need to be another Anthony Bourdain book, but how are you going to do it without Anthony Bourdain. And the answer as you go through this book is that you didn't do it without him. I mean he is all over these pages, all of the wonderful things that he has said and you have put them in one place.

WOOLEVER: That's right. You know, he was -- he was an amazing speaker, just off the cuff. He spoke like a writer. And he really wrote like a great storyteller who was just speaking off the cuff.

So all of that exists. Some of it's in voiceover from the shows that he did and some of it is just on camera remarks he made and some of it's in the many wonderful books that he wrote. So it's all there. And it was a matter of figuring out what makes sense to include, what's relevant to all of these wonderful destinations that he showed people through his travels. And so that was my job for a good year and change after he died.

KEILAR: Yes, and before that, you met him back in 2002. You started working as his lieutenant, which I think is lovely that that's what he called you in 2009. And you were really friends as well as colleagues.

How is this, for you, writing this book? Is this something that helped you heal from losing your friend so suddenly?

WOOLEVER: Absolutely. It was a really useful thing to have a reason to sit down and really immerse myself in all of his just tremendous use of language, to watch episodes, to read the transcripts, to go back and read the books and listen to them on audio in some cases and just to really, in some cases, look at things with a fresh eye and really see just what a magnificent observer he was and what a wonderful storyteller he was, how generous he was in giving other people a platform to tell their stories about their little corner of the world.

[08:55:26]

KEILAR: Yes, it is -- it is a beautiful memento, Laurie, that you hear him in it. And I think people are going to enjoy this, as they continue their travels here in the future, which certainly we all -- we all need so much.

Laurie Woolever, thank you for being with us.

WOOLEVER: Absolutely. Thank you so much.

BERMAN: I can't wait to read that.

So just a short time from now, President Biden will unveil the new guidelines for Americans when it comes to wearing masks.

KEILAR: Plus, President Biden making a big announcement when it comes to the minimum wage.

And a Capitol rioter trying to get out of jail is using a typo defense for what he did in Nancy Pelosi's office.

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