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Mass Shooting Takes Place in Railyard in San Jose, California; America has Suffered 17 Mass Shootings over Past Week; Interview with Man Whose Six-Year-Old Granddaughter Killed in Mass Shooting; Interview with New York City Mayoral Candidate Andrew Yang. Aired 8- 8:30a ET

Aired May 27, 2021 - 08:00   ET

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

[08:00:00]

SEN. ANGUS KING, (I-ME): The president has indicated a willingness to compromise, so I think the discussions are still alive. But the pay- for, as we say around here, is the real problem.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: Interesting, though, that you might be willing to accept $1 trillion if the pay-for were the right way in your mind. Senator Angus King, thanks so much for being on with us this morning.

KING: Thanks, John. Good to be with you.

BERMAN: NEW DAY continues right now.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: I'm Brianna Keilar alongside John Berman on this NEW DAY. Nine more families are now suffering through the pain of losing a loved one in a mass shooting. We're going to hear from a close-knit community that is struggling for answers this morning.

Plus, the deadly COVID spike that is threatening the Summer Olympics just two months from now in Tokyo. Gold medalist Dominique Dawes tells us what that is like for these athletes who have been training for years to compete.

BERMAN: "The New York Daily News" now defending a cartoon that Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang calls a racialized caricature of him. Andrew Yang will respond right here live.

And we'll talk to the former Republican congressman who said his anti- Trump views literally got him canceled from his new job.

A good morning to viewers here in the United States and around the world. It is Thursday, May 27th. And it is a tough morning. Americans who are surviving the pandemic are dying from America's other epidemic. Another day, another hour, another mass shooting. This morning, the friends and loved ones of nine more Americans are shattered by unimaginable grief. The latest carnage in San Jose, California, where a gunman when on a shooting rampage at a light rail yard in what appears to be a case of workplace violence. This is the 232nd mass shooting of 2021. It is the 17th just in the past week according to an analysis from the Gun Violence Archive. Let me just repeat that, 17 mass shootings in America this past week.

BERMAN: Seventeen.

Since last Wednesday, at least two dozen people have been shot to death with many more injured. It's a list that is expanding. Mass shootings occurring in San Jose, Inkster, Michigan, West Jefferson, Ohio, Chicago, two of them, Park Forest, Illinois, Youngstown, Ohio, Fort Wayne, Indiana, Norfolk, Virginia, Paterson, New Jersey, Columbus, Ohio, Charleston, South Carolina, San Angelo, Texas, Fairfield Township, New Jersey, Minneapolis, Jersey City, and Bay Shore, New York.

KEILAR: So finding a safe place in America is impossible. In recent years shootings have taken place everywhere -- in a church, in an elementary school, high school, a restaurant, a military base, a Navy yard, at the post office, in a movie theater, at a grocery store, at a concert, at a college, at a nightclub or bar, at Walmart, a FedEx facility, a McDonald's, in a hospital, a community center, a city center, a municipal center, a newsroom, in your homes, in your workplaces, in massage parlors, a gas station, in the street, at a festival, in a hotel, at the airport, at a party venue, a sports complex, a park, and most recently in a public transportation railyard in San Jose, California.

BERMAN: Joining me is State Assembly Member for San Jose, California, Ash Kalra. He's also the former board chair of the Valley Transportation Authority. The attack took place, obviously, at the VTA railyard. Assemblyman, tell me how your community is doing this morning.

ASH KALRA, (D) REPRESENTS SAN JOSE IN CALIFORNIA STATE ASSEMBLY: Yes, it's shattering. It's heartbreaking. You can see the pain in the community, the outpouring of concern. But it's something, as we hear the rattling off of all the places this occurs, that happens in so many places. And it's absolutely unacceptable.

BERMAN: Yes, and now it happened to you and to yours. And I know that that's hard.

KALRA: Yes, it's a nightmare because you see this happen in other places. When it happens in your hometown, a place you represent, a place that I've called home for over four decades, and especially a place like VTA. These are bus operators, maintenance workers, these are individuals that have had a really, really hard year. We all have. But they've been running the buses, the light rails. They've been working through this year and suffering through the public health pandemic we've all been going through. We see a light at the end of the tunnel, and then this tragedy strikes.

BERMAN: Do you know any of the victims or have any connection to the community at large that was directly attacked?

[08:05:04] KALRA: Well, I used to be a board member for the VTA, as well as a board chair, so I do know the union leadership of ATU. I spoke with the president yesterday who was, obviously, completely shattered. He was in the room when the gun was first revealed. And I can't imagine what he and others that have survived are feeling. The survivor's guilt, having to see their co-workers, people they see every day, gunned down and massacred. And so absolutely, I'm very much connected to VTA and to these workers and to this community. And you're feeling that pain because it's so visceral. Everyone sees the buses driving around. They know their local bus driver. They know what VTA is all about. So it's very connected to all of us that have grown up here.

BERMAN: Let me ask you this. Now you're an elected official. So what are you going to do about this?

KALRA: Here in California, we have continued to have some of the strongest gun violence prevention legislation and background checks. We have red flag laws that are stronger than ever before. But at the end of the day, this runs a lot deeper than that. This is a cultural phenomenon that doesn't happen anywhere else. And we have a complete lack from the federal government mostly because we have a GOP that refuses to act on any type of restrictions on gun use, including battleground checks, which are so wildly popular amongst all Americans in a bipartisan manner.

BERMAN: Listen, Assemblyman Ash Kalra, we're so sorry for your loss, for the loss in the community. We appreciate you being with us this morning.

KALRA: Thank you so much. And I just want this to end. We all do. So thank you.

BERMAN: How? That's the question. How, though? It's not going to end by nothing happening, but you're asking the right questions there. Thanks so much, Assemblyman.

KEILAR: It has to end, because this gun violence is devastating. It is tearing apart American families. You hear that from San Jose. It's also robbing families of their most precious members, children, and small children. In Minneapolis, six-year-old Aniya Allen was shot in the head while just riding in her mom's car. They were on their way home from a day at the lake when they were caught in an exchange of gunfire, and Aniya later died at the hospital. At this point, no arrests have been made, no suspects identified, and we're still waiting for more details on the investigation here.

Joining me now is Aniya's grandfather K.G. Wilson. K.G., I want to thank you so much for joining us this morning as your family is grieving. I think it's so important for people to hear from you because it feels like anyone can be in your position, as you are going through what has got to be the most horrible thing you've ever dealt with in your life. Can you tell us, what is on your mind today? What do you want people to know?

K.G. WILSON, PEACE ACTIVIST WHOSE SIX-YEAR-OLD GRANDDAUGHTER WAS SHOT AND KILLED: Well, first of all, the pain and the hurt from the beginning was just devastating. It continues to be devastating. As the days go by and there has not been an arrest, waking up is torturous. Waking up this morning and looking at my phone, and not only that, waking up this morning, just all day long, throughout the day just looking at my phone, checking my phone to see if I maybe have missed a call from local detectives who are on the case, or somebody in the community that may have some information on who killed -- shot and killed my granddaughter.

So it's just like a constant thing that goes on that is just haunting to my spirit and my mind, and it's just aggravating. And to know that these people are still out here, or this person is still out here who did this to my granddaughter as well as even the two other children that were shot also.

KEILAR: What do you want them to know, the person who is still out there?

WILSON: I want them to know that -- enough. It's time enough running. You've got to be miserable. If you have any conscience or any feelings inside of you, it's time to stop running. It's time to turn yourself in and get this done with and bring some closure to my family and the other two families and to the city of Minneapolis. And now to all the viewers who have seen this and know that this is happening and going on in Minneapolis right now. I definitely don't want this person who is running and scared, hiding like I probably think they are -- I believe they are -- to end up shooting someone else's child trying to run and hide in fear.

[08:10:03]

Turn yourself in now. I said before, those who may know who did this, to turn this person or these people in as soon as possible. There is a $35,000 reward for information leading to an arrest. Hopefully it doesn't take that. Hopefully you find it in your heart to just say I cannot allow this family to go through this type of pain, and I know who did this.

KEILAR: K.G., you are a prominent peace activist in your community. Our viewers may not know that. And two of your sons were shot years ago, and they survived.

WILSON: Yes.

KEILAR: And now you have lost Aniya. You have said that your sadness has turned to anger. You have been dealing with this issue for so long. I wonder why isn't anything changing, and I wonder what you think about as someone who has been touched by this kind of violence and devastated by it repeatedly.

WILSON: Well, until I believe we, in our communities, stand up to those who are doing these shootings, these acts of violence, until we stand up to them and get these people put where they need to be put, away from the other people who want peace, until we separate them so that we can have peaceful communities, we're going to continue to see the same thing over and over again. One of the most terrifying things I think that I will always feel now

after this is that to hear that this happens to someone else, especially if these individuals do this to someone else. That's why it is a must that I'm pleading. That's why I'm here today pleading out to the community, not just for the justice again, I said, for my children, my granddaughter and the other two, but the safety of the other children in our community, because if these people have not turned themselves in thus far, that means that they are in a place of being heartless. And those are dangerous individuals that need to be taken out of our community.

It's sad to say that there may be others like them, and not just in Minneapolis, in different cities where you hear these types of shootings, and there has not been no justice and no closure to these families, meaning that the people in the community have not turned these people in. Sometimes family members know about it and refuse to turn these people in, and children after children after children are continuously being hurt or maybe even killed from community, from city to city, and state to state.

And so until we in our community will stand up and say, hey, enough is enough, our children are our future, we cannot allow these people to continue to hurt and kill them. And so with that being said, that's the only thing that I can see bringing some change. We have to be the change. We can't wait for the police to come in and finding people. They can't do it without our help. We have to let them know who is doing what and what they are doing, and that we need to get rid of them and get them out of our community, so that the people who go to work and the children who want to go to school and just be children can live peaceful lives. Other than that, we are going to live in fear in our community until that happens.

KEILAR: These children, they are the hope for the future. That is what happens when someone like Aniya is taken. We're here in Washington. There's so many families who have been through what you have gone through. And it feels like nothing is being done on a sort of broad scale to deal with this terrible issue. And I want people to know what is lost, even just in this one case. Can you tell us about Aniya, what she was like, what was her favorite thing to do? What are you going to miss?

WILSON: Well, Aniya was a baby who, she wanted to be a big girl. She thought that she was a big girl. She was papa's baby. I would always tease her. I knew that she was starting to grow up, and I wanted her to stay my little baby Aniya. And so what I would say to her, is I would say to her, are you papa's baby? And I would call her, I would tease her and say, Aniya, Aniya, pacifier. And she would say, papa, I don't have pacifiers no more. I'm a big girl. And I would say, no, you're papa's baby. She says, no, I'm a big girl.

[08:15:02]

And so I would tease her and say, well, I think I may have to -- I need my baby Aniya. I have to have my baby Aniya.

And she would say, I'm a big girl. I would say, well, I guess I've got to go to Walmart and find me another baby Aniya. And she would go, no.

And so -- just the most beautiful smile that -- I don't care what you are going through, she would smile at you and just -- she was an angel.

And I have to repeat this. One of my sons, Christopher, said in this quote, he said that Aniya was an angel, and she was too good for this evil world.

And I think that was one of the most, best things that I have been holding onto that keeps me. You know, I go from emotion of tears to anger because there's no justice, and I think about what they did to, I believe, would have been one of our future leaders. I can't see her not accomplishing anything great and positive if she would have still been here.

She was an inspiration for me. You know, I wanted to make sure that she had somebody positive in her life that she could look to. You know, there's so much negativity in our community, and our young people see. They have the two choices -- to either be something negative that they see every day or something positive that they see.

And so, I wanted to make sure that she had somebody positive in her life and so she was an inspiration to me. And I was doing everything I could to show her the way and so that she can be a positive, productive member in her community.

But if you met her, she was the type of little girl that you would have wanted to make your goddaughter or godchild or want her to take her with you or buy her something. She just was precious. She would just move you as soon as you've seen her.

And so, these mean people is what I'm calling them took away a precious angel that our family needed. Our family needed, you know? And so, yes, like I said, it's hard to fight back my tears because they are connected to anger right now because I keep having to deal with daily -- no justice yet.

And so, what happened yesterday is it took me back to the streets that I hadn't been on in months. And now I'm back on the streets, and I just can't sit and wait for somebody to call me now, bring me justice. So I'm back on the streets now and I'm passing out flyers.

I'll be all over the city because I promised Aniya. I said, Aniya, papa's going to get justice, even if it costs me my life, papa is going to be out trying to get justice for you.

And so that's -- that's where I am now, and I wish you guys could have met her. I wish -- if this would have been somebody else's family, thank god it isn't, and I was doing the story, Aniya would be somebody who would be with me. She would be with me because she loved to be with me. She wanted to do -- help people. She loved people, as a child.

So that's pretty much -- she loved purple -- no, she loved blue and pink and she loved watching like TV and we'd sit there. I'd give her all the snacks. Probably even snacks I wasn't supposed to give her.

KEILAR: Of course.

WILSON: It didn't matter. When she smiled, she could have all the snacks. Just eat them all. If she's here now, I'd give her all of them.

KEILAR: K.G., I wish I could have met her.

WILSON: Oh my God.

KEILAR: But I feel like I get at least a glimpse into her from you, and I really appreciate that. I think, you know, we all can be in your position. That's the randomness of this. And it's so important that we understand what is lost.

K.G. Wilson, thank you so much for being with us.

WILSON: You're welcome. Thanks for having me.

KEILAR: We're back in a moment.

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[08:23:06]

BERMAN: "The New York Daily News" defending this cartoon it published of New York City mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, which Yang calls a racialized caricature.

"The Daily News" writes, quote: Yang is a leading contender to be mayor, and as commentators, his opponents in the news editorial board pointed out he's recently revealed there are major gaps in his knowledge of New York City politics and policy. Nor has he ever voted in a mayoral election. Bill Bramhall's cartoon is a comment on that, period, end of story.

Joining me now is mayoral candidate Andrew Yang.

Nice to see you, Andrew. What do you say to "The Daily News"?

ANDREW YANG (D), NEW YORK CITY MAYORAL CANDIDATE: I think anyone objective looking at that cartoon knows that it's playing on an idea of Asian-Americans as permanent tourists and outsiders. And we're at a point in our history unfortunately when Asian-Americans are getting beaten on the streets of New York and told to go back where we came from, or that we don't belong.

So, "The Daily News" characterizing it as simply a political commentary that does not include race just rings false.

BERMAN: It followed you responding to a question about what your favorite subway station was. You said the Times Square Station, so it shows you coming out of the Times Square Station. You don't think there's any legitimate way to depict that? YANG: Again, the cartoon does not work if it's a person of a

different race. And I said Times Square is my favorite subway stop because I live blocks away in Hell's Kitchen and use that stop to get around the city. It actually goes just about anywhere in the city because there's so many lines that converge there.

BERMAN: It is very convenient. You talked about anti-Asian hate crime. The president did sign a bill on that recently.

Have you seen any change in the last week or so?

YANG: I am thrilled that Joe signed that bill. It was championed by New York's own Grace Meng who is co-chair of my campaign. And the fact that we're taking this seriously as a country gives me a lot of pride and hope.

[08:25:06]

But when you talk to Asian-Americans here in New York City and around the country, there's still a sense of anxiety and concern, and it's based upon the interactions that people are having when folks shrink away or glare, or in some cases do even worse.

BERMAN: What's going to change it?

YANG: Well, the hope is that we can start bringing people together and send a clear message that everyone belongs. Everyone is American, that the coronavirus is certainly not associated with any one of a particular ethnic group. And the country is still recovering from the pandemic, in my mind, psychologically and emotionally. Like there's a lot of pain, a lot of struggle, a lot of suffering, and unfortunately that's manifesting in violence against particular groups.

BERMAN: It's also just manifesting itself in violence. I mean, we're seeing -- we see the mass shooting in San Jose. We know that violence in New York City, crime in New York City is up as well.

So, as mayor, what are you going to do about that?

YANG: Well, there are a number of things we have to do as quickly as possible, John. And so, you have to track down the folks perpetrating these shootings and get the clearance rate up, because right now, if you dig in to the numbers, the clearance rate or rate as which we're solving some of these shootings is way too low. It's 20 percent, 25 percent in some parts of New York City, which means if you shoot someone, there's a good chance that you're going to be on the loose and may shoot another person. So, that's job one.

We have to provide more resources to people who are coming out of prison because sometimes, they will give tries some kind of payback or another violent act.

So there are things we can do immediately to get crime going down in New York, but you're right that this is a national phenomenon. That there's a lot of pain and a lot of pent-up energy and it's -- it's expressing itself in violence in many places. BERMAN: What about funding for the police force in general?

YANG: I think defunding the police is the wrong approach here in New York City. What we have to do is take the resources we have and make sure that we're actually utilizing them and deploying them effectively.

Back to this issue on shootings. Often, there will only be one detective assigned to that case. And so, while they are investigating, another shooting will occur and then they'll be assigned to that case and the first shooting will fall by the wayside.

We need to have multiple detectives assigned and then have the gun suppression unit, have the resource to support the precincts, because right now, some of the more violent precincts are left on their own.

BERMAN: In New York City, in the Democratic primary, there's going to be a ranked-choice voting for the first time, which people rank their candidates in order of preference and then the person on the bottom keeps getting taken away until one person basically gets over 50 percent.

This has got to change the way that you campaign as a politician because you are saying to voters, don't just vote for me as your top choice but I also want to be your second or third choice if I'm not your top choice just as well.

I mean, how does -- how does it affect your approach to people?

YANG: First, let me say, I love ranked-choice voting and I hope it's the future of democracy, not just in New York City but around the country. It can free us from this polarization.

And, John, to your point it should make it so that candidates campaign more positively, try to bring people together because if you just snipe at each other, then someone else who is positive will tend to rise and do better. It's one reason I've tried to campaign very optimistically.

But ranked-choice voting should be our future around the country because it can help free us up from this one side against the other dynamic.

BERMAN: How do you make the case that you know as much about New York City politics and government and the way the city works having never voted in a mayoral race, if I'm correct, as the other people who are running against you?

YANG: I'm a public school parent. I know what families are going through here in the city. But also, New Yorkers know that our government has not been working for us for years. We've had systems failing right and left, trash is piling up.

The municipal budget has gone from $60 billion to $90 billion over the last ten years and I cannot find a single New Yorker who thinks that the city or its services have gotten 50 percent better during that time.

We need new leadership in this city. New Yorkers know it. And that's why we're going to win this race on June 22nd.

BERMAN: Andrew Yang, nice to see you again. Thanks for coming in. Appreciate it.

YANG: Thanks, John. Great to see you.

BERMAN: Capitol police officers say they are political pawns to the lawmakers they protect. New CNN reporting, next.

KEILAR: And the longtime Republican who says he was just fired from conservative radio for being anti-Trump.

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