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Former NBA Player Dwyane Wade Interviewed on His New Book; House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Gives Speech on House Floor Ahead of Vote on Build Back Better Bill; Hundreds Gather for Prayer Vigil Outside Courtroom of Ahmaud Arbery Trial. Aired 8-8:30a ET

Aired November 19, 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]

DWYANE WADE, THREE-TIME NBA CHAMPION, 13-TIME NBA ALL-STAR: But I didn't hear from LeBron from July 4th until I signed on July 7th and didn't hear from him on July 7th. So I'm like, well, maybe it's a tough decision to make. And so maybe he woke up on July 8th and was like, I don't want to do it. So I didn't know. And I went to the TV just like everyone else to watch and make sure that everything that we discussed was coming true. But that natural celebration was just, it was real, because I knew, like, to be able to sit across from each other, to be able to do something that the game hasn't seen, to be able to do it with your friends, to me that was one of the dopest moments in sports for me.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: It's a hell of a time to be ghosted by one of your friends.

(LAUGHTER)

WADE: Yes, I got ghosted for four days.

BERMAN: You only have the rest of your life to worry about it.

WADE: I understood the decision was super hard, especially leaving his hometown. I didn't pressure him. I just was a little nervous.

BERMAN: Dwyane Wade, thanks so much for coming in, appreciate it. Congratulations on the book.

WADE: Thank you.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to viewers here in the U.S. and around the world. It's Friday, November 19th, and I'm Brianna Keilar with John Berman.

Breaking news. You are looking at live pictures of the House chamber right now, where in just minutes Speaker Nancy Pelosi is expected to speak ahead of a vote on President Biden's Build Back Better social agenda. The bill is poised to pass along party lines. It is a major milestone for the president. A vote was planned for last night, but Kevin McCarthy, the House

Minority Leader, had some other ideas about that. The Republican leader taking to the floor. He started talking, and then he didn't stop for the next eight hours and 32 minutes. He swerved from one topic to another during a record-breaking talk-a-thon that did force Democrats to delay the vote until this morning. Beyond that, it's not really clear what was accomplished.

BERMAN: So assuming the bill passes today, and Democrats do think they have the votes, the burden falls squarely on President Biden to sell it to the Senate and ultimately the American people. CNN's Kaitlan Collins live at the White House this morning. Kaitlan, we could be minutes away from this vote in the House. How does the White House see what is happening this morning?

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: This is a vote that they have been waiting on for about 12 hours now that they were hoping was going to come last night, of course, before Kevin McCarthy went into that eight-and-a-half-hour speech, because the White House was either going to have President Biden speak last night or issue a statement from him after that vote happened. And, of course, that's a vote that still has not happened.

So I don't think the White House is thrilled with this delay. You saw that pretty clearly in the chief of staff Ron Klain's Twitter feed overnight, talking about Kevin McCarthy's speech, which of course was incredibly wide-ranging, to say the least. And so I do think, though, at the end of the day, the White House is hopeful because they know that despite the fact that he did speak for eight-and-a-half hours, it's not ultimately going to change the outcome of this because Democratic leaders are confident that they have the votes to get this passed.

And so that is going to enter them into this next phase of where this goes, which, of course, is into the hands of the Senate. And once it is in the hands of the Senate, the fate of this is still uncertain, though the White House has a pretty good feeling about it. They still have some key senators to get over the line here, including, of course, that moderate, Senator Joe Manchin, who is very close to the president and has been speaking pretty clearly this week about what his expectations are for this bill, making clear to our Capitol Hill team that he is not necessarily ready to take this up for a vote immediately or get started on this immediately.

So I think that's a big question for the White House now, is what does this timeline look like, because Senate Majority leader Chuck Schumer is hoping to have all of this wrapped up by Christmas. Whether or not that actually happens, though, does remain to be seen, John.

KEILAR: Because there is an issue too, Kaitlan, of the price tag, right? You would suspect that Senator Manchin and Senator Sinema in particular are going to want to maybe pair down some of what the House passes. Obviously, it's a tougher hurdle in the Senate. What is the expectation there?

COLLINS: Yes, the bill could look a lot different by the time the Senate gets done with it, of course. So that remains to be seen how the House responds to that. They have been, of course, having their own divisions over what should be in the final scope of this bill. And it's smaller than what the president had initially rolled out and had initially envisioned.

But it's not even just the price tag. It's also what is included in this. And some of the biggest provisions, and one is this state and local tax deduction, which may not sound significant, but it is given, of course, what is tied at the backbone of the bill, which President Biden said is a supposed to be a boost for the middle class. But there are concerns from people like Senator Bernie Sanders and other senators, other Democratic senators, that it is too much of a tax break for wealthy families, and that it is going to benefit high earning incomes way more than it does the middle class.

And so whether or not that changes, whether they put an income threshold on that, that remains to be seen. The White House is kind of viewing it as something that is inevitable here because they feel like they need that in this package in order to get some of the moderate Democrats on board.

[08:05:02]

Whether or not it ultimately ends up in there and what it looks like still remains to be seen. And so I think that's what the White House knows, that even though this vote is going to happen today, they know that there is still a very long road ahead to actually getting this part, this second part of the president's economic agenda passed.

BERMAN: What you're seeing on your screen there is the ranking member of the House Ways and Means Committee Kevin Brady. You also saw Richard Neal from Massachusetts, the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee. They're the ones dealing with procedural matters right now on this vote. And we do expect to see House Speaker Nancy Pelosi deliver what will be the final speech in support of the Build Back Better agenda, and who knows what else she might say in regards to Kevin McCarthy and what else we saw last night. So stand by for that.

In the meantime, Kaitlan, also some news on the president getting his annual physical shortly, just a day before his birthday.

COLLINS: Yes, this is pretty routine for the president, of course, to get a physical, but he will be going to Walter Reed today. The White House has been talking about this for months, saying that he would get this done before the end of the year. And whether or not they release the results of that today or in the days to come still remains to be seen because we have seen past White Houses vary on when they release those results.

But as this vote is expected to be happening this morning, President Biden will be going to Walter Reed to get his physical. And of course, that's something that is typical of every president, but it is notable, of course, and it is something that everyone waits to see what are the results, what does this look like?

And so we will see the president this morning. It won't be about this vote, but it will be on his way to Walter Reed to get this physical. He will be also making an appearance later this afternoon to do that annual Thanksgiving tradition of pardoning those turkeys, and of course whether or not he comments on this big step by the House that is expected this morning, that still remains to be seen, though it is something the White House is hoping to get out of the way so they can start focusing on the next phase of this.

BERMAN: I believe the turkeys' names are Peanut Butter and Jelly, which I feel like it is important to mention. Kaitlan Collins at the White House, please stay with us and keep us posted.

KEILAR: They are indeed Peanut Butter and Jelly.

BERMAN: So in Georgia, the defense has rested, and closing arguments are set for Monday in the murder trial of -- three men who were charged with killing Ahmaud Arbery. One of the men, Travis McMichael, during cross examination, testified that Arbery had never posed a legitimate threat.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He never yelled at you guys.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never threatened you at all.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Didn't brandish any weapons?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Didn't pull out any guns?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Didn't pull out any knife?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No, ma'am.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Never reached for anything, did he?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: No.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: He just ran.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes, he was just running.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Black faith leaders from across the country gathered for a prayer event outside of the courthouse in a direct rebuke of the defense counsel's, one of the lawyers in the defense, repeated attempts to bar black pastors from the courtroom.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REV. AL SHARPTON, CIVIL RIGHTS LEADER: I came to the trial to console them, because you can't imagine the pain of a mother to sit there and look at the killers of her son, and their families, and nobody is sitting there with her. The pain of a father, who won't get a call from his son anymore. I did not come in the courtroom to protest. I came to pray.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

KEILAR: Live now to the Speaker now on the House floor.

NANCY PELOSI, (D-CA) HOUSE SPEAKER: -- and informative comments of the distinguished chairman Mr. Neal with our distinguished Democratic Leader Mr. Hoyer, the Democratic whip, last evening, and with respect for those who work in this Capitol, and as a courtesy to my colleagues, I will be brief.

(LAUGHTER)

PELOSI: In his remarks, our Democratic Leader Mr. Hoyer talked about the pride we take in telling our children and our grandchildren that we were here, present, to pass the Build Back Better legislation and what it means for future generations. Whip Clyburn talked about the three legs of the Biden platform, the rescue package, the BIF, the infrastructure and jobs bill, and now the Build Back Better, the infrastructure for our future. And Chairman Neal quoted Daniel Webster and spoke of our responsibilities to the people.

In that spirit, Madam Speaker, I proceed by saying under this dome, for centuries, members of Congress have stood exactly where we stand, to pass legislation of extraordinary consequence in our nation's history and for our nation's future. In the original House chamber, now Statuary Hall, where Lincoln served is Clio, the muse of history.

[08:10:03]

Clio reminds men and women in these hallowed halls that we are part of history, that our words and actions will face the judgment of history, and that we are part of the long and honorable heritage of our democracy. With the passage of the Build Back Better Act, we, this Democratic Congress, are taking our place in a long and honorable heritage of our democracy with legislation that will be the pillar of health and financial security in America. It will be historic in forging landmark progress for our nation. We talk about history as we look and prepare for the future.

Much has been said since the distinguished Democratic leadership spoke last evening. Much has been said on this floor. But the facts are these. Following the vision of President Biden, guided by the expertise and energy of our chair's members and staff, we have a Build Back Better bill that is historic, transformative, and larger than anything we have ever done before. We are building back better. If you are a parent, a senior, a child, a worker, if you are an American, this bill, this bill is for you. And it is better. It's better in terms of healthcare. It's better if

you're a senior, your cost at the pharmacy will be cut to a fraction, with annual costs capped under Medicare Part D, and you will benefit from the Medicare hearing benefit.

It's better if you have diabetes. When you go to the pharmacy, instead of paying hundreds for insulin, you'll pay no more than $35 per month. And --

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: And it's better for all Americans. We are halting big pharma's outrageous price hikes, and in addition to that, we are dramatically lowering healthcare costs under the Affordable Care Act. We're also expanding coverage to millions under the Affordable Care Act, as I mentioned.

It's better in terms of family care. If you're a parent, it's better, most families will benefit from child care costs reduced, cut fully in half for most families, and free universal pre-k for every three and four-year-old in America.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: It's better if you are middle income family, you will benefit from an expanded Biden child tax cut and paid family and medical leave.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: It is better if you're a caregiver, you will have the respect you deserve, and with the benefit of a historic investment of high quality home healthcare.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: And it is better for America's working families, with an average of 2 million jobs created each year over 10 years together with the BIF. Jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs, jobs. Four-letter word.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: And it's better for climate. If you want your family to benefit from clean air, clean water, the development of good-paying green jobs for the future, and from improved national security, we are meeting the president's vision to cut pollution in half by 2030, and by 100 percent by 2050.

(APPLAUSE)

PELOSI: Creating good-paying jobs -- union jobs and lowering family's energy costs, advancing environmental justice, with the justice for --

BERMAN: This is a moment that has been months, months in the making for House Democrats. Nancy Pelosi, the House Speaker, giving this final speech before they will have a vote at long last, Democrats say, on the president's Build Back Better agenda. It's not the final step. It still has to go to the Senate and then back to the House, but a big step for Democrats and the president. Nancy Pelosi finishing up here, the House Speaker, and they will vote very shortly. We're going to keep our eye on that.

KEILAR: And we're going to head back now to the trial for the killing of Ahmaud Arbery, the black man who was jogging in Georgia. I want to speak with the senior pastor at the Atlanta area New Birth Missionary Baptist Church Jamal Harrison Bryant. Jamal, you were at this prayer vigil that happened yesterday, hundreds of people, including a number of pastors. Tell me about how -- the message you were sending, but also how the family responded to this, because I know you've been in touch with them after the vigil.

JAMAL HARRISON BRYANT, PASTOR WHO ATTENDED RALLY OUTSIDE BRUNSWICK COURT: It was absolutely jubilant in the atmosphere that we came with great expectation on the power of prayer. You have to understand that in the middle of our prayer vigil is when we got the news that Julius Jones' sentence had been commuted. We knew that our colleagues in Oklahoma were --

JAMAL-HARRISON BRYANT, SENIOR PASTOR, NEW BIRTH MISSIONARY BAPTIST CHURCH: -- understand in the middle of our prayer vigil is when we got the news that Julius Jones' sentence had been commuted.

[08:15:08]

We knew the -- our colleagues in Oklahoma were praying there. So our faith was elevated.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN ANCHOR: Certainly, I mean, this is a week, I think, where there are so many questions about race and justice, right? And you know very well that one of the defense attorneys, this is the defense attorney for William Bryan, the defendant who struck him with his truck. He asked for Black pastors not to be allowed in the courtroom.

What do you make of this?

BRYANT: You have to understand it was really pulling off the sheets of America on display, of blatant racism with no policy. Not only did he ask for black pastors not to be present, he said it three times, from Reverend Sharpton, to Reverend Jackson, and then a blanket statement without any fear of repercussion.

And so I think this is time for America to do a deep dive as to the real core of this cancer called racism, that these men would shoot Ahmaud Arbery, who carried in weapon as they testified on yesterday, pose no imminent threat, but they have weaponized his melanin, said it is a crime to be black in America. And what we look at all this week from Wisconsin to Oklahoma and Georgia puts an exclamation point behind that.

KEILAR: I had said that this was rhetoric of another era, that we have been hearing from this defense attorney. And someone on Twitter said, no, this is now. And I think that is, you know that is very much the case. I think there are certain areas in America where people think this should be rhetoric of another area, this doesn't have a place in society, but this is revealing something in a community like this that other moments in this trial have revealed including say the person who owned that house that was under construction referring on a tape -- a 911 call, referring to a black person as a colored person. The fact that we are seeing a jury that is not racially representative of the community.

How do you see race potentially affecting the outcome here?

BRYANT: It is really a snapshot from Bill Murray's old classic "Groundhog Day", we're living the same day over and over again. In the '60s at the height of the civil rights era, you had two different paths. You had Adam Clayton Powell and Martin Luther King Jr. Adam Clayton Powell believed he could change America by changing laws. Martin Luther King Jr. Believed he could change America by changing its soul, changing its conscience and changing its heart.

And so when we went to the courthouse, we knew we couldn't change any laws. But we were praying that God would change the heart and the conscience of a judicial system that needs a complete override.

KEILAR: Pastor Jamal-Harrison Bryant, I want to thank you so much for being with us on another crucial day in this trial. Thank you.

BRYANT: Thank you for the opportunity.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to bring in CNN political commentator Van Jones.

Van, good morning to you.

Brianna was talking to Pastor Bryant about that moment in the courtroom where the defense attorney said he didn't want any more black pastors in the courtroom. Very public, direct statements that I think were startling to a lot of people. I think what hasn't been discussed enough, though, is why he thinks it will work, right? What does it tell you that you have a defense attorney who thinks that will work?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, first of all, I mean, it really should shock the conscience of the nation that that kind of rhetoric would be spoken out loud in public any place, in a shopping center. I don't want any Black pastors around here. You got to remember, this is Georgia, where, you know, pastors are welcome everywhere. People pray and, you know, I'm from the South, it is the black, it is not the pastor, it is the black, that's the motivation here.

It is absolutely absurd, by the way, I mean, if Reverend Jesse Jackson and his advanced age who is very ill with a mask on, not even recognizable, if that's somehow a threat, having his presence there somehow is a threat to the good working order of a courtroom, that sheds a lot more about the racial fantasies of white racists than it says about what Reverend Jackson was doing. He was just sitting there with a mask on. You wouldn't even know he was there.

They are bringing this up because they are desperate to create any record, any opportunity for a mistrial, or for a reversal later on because they don't have anything else. They have three murderers, who killed an unarmed black man, in broad daylight, and actually helped to film it, and they have nothing else.

[08:20:01]

And so, they're going for these racial bomb-throwing hoping that somehow, somewhere in the court system, they'll be able to say, well, the jury was intimidated into doing this. So that's -- part of it is the desperation of a case that has no case.

KEILAR: You know, the prosecution, we heard Elie Honig, our legal analyst on the program, say the way the prosecution handled Travis McMichael yesterday was textbook, like, this is a video that should be played in law school. And she got him to admit he was just running.

What do you think about the -- it is really -- he had a poor showing, just objectively on the stand. What do you make about his testimony and the effect it should have on the outcome here?

JONES: Well, it was brilliant. Literally he said, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, yes, ma'am, he was just running. Just drop the mic. If you could drop the mic in a courtroom, and walk off, that's the time to do it.

I wouldn't advise anytime to do that in the courtroom, but that's the time to do it. It was brilliant. It was textbook.

But the reality is it was just revealing the truth. There was no excuse for doing this. And it is a part of this broader conversation in America right now, it seems to be this uptick in racial violence directed against African-Americans by white vigilantes who feel that they have a license, that their whiteness gives them a license to enforce the law and our blackness is evidence of a crime no matter what we're actually doing.

And this has come to light in this particular case, I'm very glad there is a capable prosecutor there to make the argument.

BERMAN: I think people know that you pour your heart and soul and most of your hours into criminal justice reform. And we're watching along with the rest of us working with so many others for clemency for Julius Jones in Oklahoma. And the governor there stepped in, just a few hours before his execution, he was not execution --executed, life in prison without parole after 20 years.

How do you see this moving forward? Obviously a victory to stop the execution, but it stopped there.

JONES: Well, listen, he lives on. That's the most important thing this morning. He is alive this morning. He's alive this morning. He lives on. And we fight on. This young man is not going to die in prison. His innocence is so

obvious that united, this week, where everything is divided, everybody is fighting, everybody is arguing, it united white, black, brown, right and left. Don't forget it wasn't just Kim Kardashian West, or Brian Stevenson, or Scott Budnick or Pastor Mike McBride on the left who were screaming about this, you had Tim Head, from Faith and Freedom Coalition, you had Dan Lope, you had Matt Schlapp from the American Conservative Union screaming this cannot happen. This is wrong.

And so unbelievable right/left coalition came together to say, you can't kill an innocent guy, when the actual killer has been confessing for years, when the actual board in the state said, we can't kill the guy, and the governor is going to override his own board and the confession of the real killer just to murder someone. So people came together, and I got to tell you, I woke up yesterday, afraid that we hadn't done enough, and turned out we did enough to keep him alive.

So, he lives on. We're going to fight on. We're going to get him home. But I do want people to know that despite all this division and crazy stuff, there are moments when the conscience of both sides can be invoked and brought forward and that happened yesterday and we should be proud about that.

BERMAN: Good job pointing out those moments. I know it keeps you going.

Van Jones, thank you for being with us this morning.

JONES: Thank you.

BERMAN: We are watching the house floor as we speak. This is a procedural vote, but very shortly will be the final vote in the House at least for now on the Build Back Better agenda. What happens when it reaches the Senate?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[08:28:08]

BERMAN: All right, we have some pictures to show you from the House floor. These are live pictures where Democrats are expected to pass the president's Build Back Better legislation, shortly.

There was a delay. Kevin McCarthy held the floor, the House Republican leader speaking for eight hours to delay the vote. The vote will happen any minute from now. Then it heads to the Senate where it is by no means a done deal.

Joining me now is Labor Secretary Marty Walsh.

Mr. Secretary, thank you very much for being with us.

The significance of the moment that we're about to see, the House poised to pass the Build Back Better agenda. MARTY WALSH, LABOR SECRETARY: Yeah, this is a historic moment in

American history. We have never seen any type of investment like this in the American people. What we're looking at doing here today with the Congress, President Biden has been very clear from the beginning of his presidency, he's going to lift up American families, lift up American children, lift up the people who need it the most and that's what this bill does. It also helps reduce the deficit, which is a beautiful thing.

BERMAN: Well, the CBO doesn't say it helps reduce the deficit. The CBO --

WALSH: It does, it says --

BERMAN: No, it says it comes billions short. The White House says the CBO is not accounting for revenue that might be generated by IRS enforcement, correct?

WALSH: Yeah, exactly. And when that happens, we're looking at about $112.5 billion per year.

BERMAN: Okay. Again, but just to be clear, the CBO, which President Biden has called the gold standard before, the CBO's projection as of this morning is the bill comes up short, nevertheless it is passing. If I can ask you about one other measure in there, which is interesting in your purview, there is a tax credit for electric cars that are built by union labor in the United States.

What is the environment care about whether its union workers building electric cars?

[08:30:00]