Return to Transcripts main page

New Day Sunday

Trump Addresses Less-Than-Capacity Crowd at Tulsa Rally; British Authorities Rule Fatal Stabbing Was an Act of Terror; New York City to Enter Phase 2 of Reopening Monday. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired June 21, 2020 - 07:00   ET

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

[07:00:01]

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: One person is now deceased. I want to talk here with a witness. This is Eric. You saw this happening. Tell us what went down last night.

ERIK THOMPSON, WITNESS TO SHOOTING: Well, first, it started off with we heard kind of fireworks. I heard a couple more. And we kind of looked at each other and we started hearing whizzing by our ears, and as the bullets actually coming towards us.

The hardest part was just not that moment of not knowing what to do. So, we kind of hit the deck. The two cops over there on our sides of the streets. They had the protection with the cop car, you know, in them, and they draw their weapons and, you know, it was pretty surreal.

CAMPBELL: Yes, and we're looking at the video you shot here. You were down the street. This whole area was blocked off. Just the night before there was another chaotic scene where there were cars burning out, a lot of people were in danger. So, you and your local residents here were set up with the police trying to keep cars out of this area when this happened, right?

THOMPSON: Yes, the night before Friday night, there was fireworks going on all night for about four or five hours. We're just kind of used to it. And that's kind of led to the lockdown of all of this you see back here.

We barricaded the streets and it's relatively quiet night. No cars and all of a sudden it happened again. And, you know, just take cover.

CAMPBELL: You said I know it's been a long night for you. Thanks for talking to us. So, you heard bullets going left and right by your ear. What's going through your mind as you reflect on that night?

THOMPSON: You know, just a lot of things, like, you know, happy Father's Day to everybody. It's just, the situation you don't want to hear. You don't want to hear it again. It's just been a long night.

CAMPBELL: And you've lived here in Minneapolis for 15 years, you said. Have you ever seen anything like this? THOMPSON: No, nothing like this at all. You know, it's been the

epicenter of what's going on in the world right now. We're taking a turn and something like this happens, where it's just -- people just going out of their way to ruin someone else's life.

CAMPBELL: We're glad you're safe. Thanks for talking to us.

And, guys, again, 12 people injured. One person is deceased. Now, the shooters we're told by a witness, there were more than one shooter that were likely firing at each other. One person said it was some type of gang issue. Now, we don't know. Police telling us they don't have anyone in custody, but that investigation remains ongoing.

Also, we talked to a local business owner picking up some of the shell casings and said that they have identified at least three different kinds of weapons, three different kind of shell casings. Again, their amateur view of what was taking place.

But again, it looks as though not just one person firing into a crowd, but people shooting at each other, as evidence by destruction on both sides of the street here. Again, a very violent, chaotic night here in Minneapolis -- Christi, Victor.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: All righty. Josh Campbell, we appreciate you bringing it to us. Thank you.

We're also following the fallout from President Trump's campaign relaunch in Tulsa, Oklahoma, last night. The campaign didn't attract those massive crowds that it had expected.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Yes, after promising a record-setting audience and predicting no empty seats in Tulsa, look, plenty of empty seats. And also, one of the big headlines out of the speech, the admission on how he feels about coronavirus testing. His response to the pandemic, part of the president's speech to his supporters there.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: I stand before you today to declare the silent majority is stronger than ever before. Five months from now we're going to defeat sleepy Joe Biden.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: CNN's Sarah Westwood is at the White House.

So, walk us through the reality of this. What went wrong for the Trump campaign last night?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: What went wrong is a much smaller than expected crowd showed up to the bank of Oklahoma Center in Tulsa last night for the president's rally. The campaign had billed this sort of as a reboot of the president's re-election effort. It's been on hold for the past three months as the president has been focused on the pandemic response. The crowd of nearly 100,000 that local officials and the campaign predicted didn't materialize. It didn't come close. In fact, that venue where the vein wu was speaking was supposed to hold 20,000 people and the campaign set up an area for 40,000 or more outside.

But the arena itself was not even full. The president who was supposed to make remarks in that outside space, that ended up being canceled just as the president was arriving in Tulsa because there simply were not enough people outside.

And as the president was about to take off for Tulsa, the news broke that six campaign staffers working in the arena on the advance team for that rally tested positive for coronavirus. So, really a stark reminder that the coronavirus is still making its way through the country and affecting the campaign. And the campaign blames the lack of attendance on protesters who they say were trying to prevent supporters from accessing the venue.

[07:05:01]

But we should note that CNN teams on the ground did not see any evidence of protesters in any way barring people from getting into the arena, Victor and Christi.

BLACKWELL: Sarah, how is the White House explaining this comment the president made about coronavirus testing?

WESTWOOD: Yes, this is a claim that we've heard, Victor, from President Trump sort of hinting at before. He claims that the ramped up testing capacity in the U.S. is responsible for unfairly labeling the U.S. as a leader, a global leader in coronavirus cases and infection rates because the U.S. is more transparent about its numbers and has been conducting more testing.

But I want you to take a listen to what the president said last night at his rally.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: Testing is a double-edged sword. We've tested now 25 million people. It's probably 20 million people more than anybody else. Germany has done a lot. South Korea has done a lot.

They called me, they said the job you're doing -- here's the bad part. When you test -- when you do testing to that extent, you're going to find more people, you're going to find more cases. So, I said to my people, slow the testing down, please.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: White House officials attempting to clean this up claimed that the president was obviously joking when he said that. Public health experts say ramped up testing capacity is very important for returning to normal life, and it prompted a rebuttal from Joe Biden who took to Twitter to say that the U.S., in fact, needs to speed up testing -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, live from the White House for us there -- Sarah, thank you.

BLACKWELL: Well, Dr. Sanjay Gupta had a strong reaction to the president's comments last night about slowing down the testing. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, you can't think of a better metaphor for burying your head in the sand on this. If I told people to stop doing colonoscopies, they're finding too much colon cancer. I mean, it's just the level of ignorance that I'm dumbfounded by five months into this now, the idea that we're still not doing enough testing and I told them to slow down testing.

It's the only thing we really have, Wolf. Testing and masks. There is no super effective medicine. Obviously, there's not a vaccine. And yet, countries around the world, you know, their death counts number in the hundreds, not the thousands or the hundreds of thousands like we have in the United States. Why? Because they tested -- they tested early. They did enough test and they were able to isolate people and stop the transmission of this virus. To suggest now that owe I told them to slow down testing. First of all, did he tell them to slow down testing. Was this the coronavirus task force that was told to slow down testing?

I mean, this is obviously something we're going to want to dig into a little bit. But this is suggesting a complicity in the worst public health travesty of our lifetime. I mean, it's criminal from a public health perspective.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Let's bring in CNN political commentator, Julian Zelizer, also historian and professor at Princeton and author of the new book, "Burning Down the House: Newt Gingrich, the Fall of a Speaker and the Rise of the New Republican Party."

Julian, it's been a few months. Good to have you back on NEW DAY weekend.

Let's start with this comment. I mean, the president said some people wear masks to show disapproval of him. Then he creates this highest risk possible environment for the spread of coronavirus and says that people should -- that the testing should be slowed down. It would be naive to think politics wouldn't play a role. But is politics drowning out public health?

JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think that's the story of the Trump presidency and the pandemic. It's public health versus the administration, rather than the two working together. And both with wearing a mask and with testing, the president has pitted himself against the experts.

And it all came together in his opening rally for 2020. And it's a dangerous situation. But it also captures where the president stands on how to deal with COVID-19. BLACKWELL: What's the -- we're looking at the video now. The

significance of the thousands of empty seats and there being no overflow?

ZELIZER: We're back to crowd size, all the way since the inauguration. We're still dealing with this.

It certainly deflates the president. He thrives on large crowds. He thrives on the idea that everyone wants to go to his rallies. So, I'm sure that this gets under his skin.

But in the end, I think the substance of what he said is probably more damaging than the crowd size.

BLACKWELL: So, let's talk more about substance. The president initially planned it for Juneteenth and changed it to the 20th. He goes to the site of one of the worst race massacres in U.S. history.

He doesn't mention that. But he defends Confederate monuments. This isn't tone deafness. This is a decision. What does it get him?

ZELIZER: It's hard not to see it as intentional. We are in the middle of a new phase of the civil rights movement that started many decades ago.

[07:10:05]

And to choose Confederate statues rather than deal with the issue of civil rights and criminal justice is a conscious choice. It's pretty consistent with the president.

So, he's, at a minimum, sending a message that this is not an issue. The civil rights protests that I will stand with right now. And, in fact, I'm going to put my voice on the side of others. We're talking about the Confederacy and about the civil war.

BLACKWELL: You've got a new opinion piece on CNN.com, specifically about this, I guess now, former U.S. attorney there in the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, in which you say this president, despite calling himself the law and order president. He's anything but. What's the case?

ZELIZER: Well, look, in trying to purge a U.S. attorney and from what we're learning, there's a lot of evidence, his main concern are the investigations that Berman was conducting. Berman, by the way, who was originally a Trump supporter or someone connected to the Trump campaign, this is not law and order.

Law and order is protecting the judicial system. Law and order is protecting civilians from police that do the wrong things. In both of these cases, he's actually pitting himself against law and order, against the rule of law in the streets. I think we have to remember that whenever he uses this slogan.

BLACKWELL: Congressional Republicans have not done anything and likely won't, at least in the next five months or so. You say it's up to the courts. What did you glean from the decisions over the last several days about DACA and LGBTQ discrimination? Are you convinced that there will be that wall from the courts?

ZELIZER: Well, I'm not convinced. But it certainly was evidence that the court won't always align itself with the president. On both of these decisions the court including some appoint ease would be sympathetic to the administration didn't rule the way he wanted. And I think that's the signal. The court, the justices can't be primaried. They can act independently, and that might ultimately be one of the firewalls to this administration.

BLACKWELL: All right. Julian Zelizer, always good to have you, sir.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

PAUL: Still ahead, a federal judge thrown out a lawsuit that would have stopped the release of John Bolton's new book. Why the ruling is far from a clear victory for President Trump's former national security adviser, though?

BLACKWELL: An attack in the U.K. is being investigated as an act of terror. We've got a live report.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:16:44]

PAUL: Fifteen minutes past the hour. Following some breaking news out of England this morning. Authorities there say there was a fatal stabbing in a public park and they say it was an act of terror.

BLACKWELL: And so, we're told the 25-year-old man stabbed six people, three were killed. This is yesterday afternoon in Reading, about an hour west of London.

CNN's Salma Abdelaziz is joining us now from Reading.

Salma, what have you learned?

SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN PRODUCER: Well, this horrific daytime attack has been declared a terrorism incident. Three people died of stab wounds, three others recovering from injuries. And counterterrorism police in this country are now in charge of the investigation.

That suspect you mentioned, the 25-year-old, we still don't know his identity. But we did speak spoke to an eyewitness who is in the park just behind me here. This is still very much an active scene. You can hear the helicopters overhead.

The eyewitness told me that people were enjoying the sun yesterday. They were in the park. It was a picnic for some.

Suddenly, you heard a man shouting and yelling. That man began to approach people in the park and stab some of them in the neck and under the arm. He saw multiple stab and truly brutal scene playing out. Chaos ensued. People fled and we know from the police that that suspect was arrested on the scene yesterday.

Shortly afterwards, there was counterterrorism police that we saw in an apartment block just a short distance from here. They were working into the late hours of the morning combing for evidence, asking residents to stand outside so they could carry on their work outside. Police helicopter is loud, as this is an active scene.

But this town of Reading, a very quiet, sleepy town is now waking up to the reality that they've been victim to a horrific terrorist attack -- Victor and Christi.

PAUL: Salma Abdelaziz, we appreciate it so much. Thank you.

BLACKWELL: According to U.S. Health and Human Services secretary, some early coronavirus test kits may have been contaminated and that led to a possible delay in the CDC's ability to get those kits to health labs.

PAUL: An investigation did not find evidence that the contamination led to any false positive or negative results.

But tomorrow, New York City is set to enter phase 2 of reopening. Retail businesses, offices will now be allowed to open. Mayor Bill de Blasio says restaurants will soon be able to open with outdoor seating as well.

Erin Bromage, professor of biology at the University of Massachusetts- Dartmouth is with us now.

Aaron, so good to have you with us. Thank you.

I know that you wrote a piece on CNN.com about COVID and about this summer. One way people are reacting to the pandemic is to look at the number of new tests and new cases that we're seeing per day which has gone up significantly in the last couple of weeks.

You say that's not a good metric. Why?

ERIN BROMAGE, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, if we test more, we're going to find more cases. So it sort of gives you a false sense of dread when you see the number of positive cases going up, that things are getting worse, when reality, it could signal that your state is doing something better by testing more.

[07:20:03]

PAUL: So, you're not saying that we don't actually do the testing. Is that right?

BROMAGE: No. We need to be testing as much as we possibly can. Every extra person that we identify as infected and get them isolated is one more of the transmission chains that get blocked and can't go forward.

PAUL: OK. So what is the best way to ascertain where we stand with this and how to protect ourselves? BROMAGE: Yes, so, one of the good metrics to look at is the number of

tests run and how many of them come back positive. So when we look at that, if we run 100 tests and ten come back positive, if we have 10 percent mark, that's quite worrying. Meaning one in every ten people is infected that's been tested.

Where we really want to be is 5 percent or lower and preferably 2 percent or lower if we possibly can.

PAUL: And there's been a lot of talk about herd immunity. That the pandemic will be over once we have that. But that would involve 60, I think it was 60 to 80 percent of the population that would have to be immune to the virus.

And I know that the U.S. isn't close to a number like that right now. What do we know about the lasting effects, though of immunity in this virus?

BROMAGE: Yes. We're only five to six months of the way through this virus. It's completely new. So, we don't know how long immunity is going to persist.

If it follows the original human coronaviruses that we have, we only get a few months of immunity from it. SARS and MERS seems to give you a few years. So, we don't know if it's going to follow the path of the typical human coronaviruses that we have that give you a cold or the more aggressive coronaviruses that we've had the SARS and the MERS that give you a few years.

But there is no guarantee at the moment that infection and recovery will lead to long-term immunity.

PAUL: So you say our choices over the summer months is what is going to determine the trajectory of this virus. What do you mean by that? What do we need to be doing?

BROMAGE: Well, you know, we're reopening. We're sort of entering back out into our daily lives, into our daily habits, going to the beaches, going to parks, having cookouts. Some people are getting this feeling that it's just over.

And the virus is still there. We've got 25,000 Americans a day coming up with new infections, and likely more because we don't have the testing in place.

If we go back and have all the same connections, all the same networks that we had before back into our workplaces like in the past, we're just going to give more fuel to the fire for this virus. It's going to explode again and roll through.

We have to be measured in our approach. We have to look at what we're doing and reduce the opportunity for this virus to find new hosts. Our choices, what we do determine what happens next.

PAUL: It's good point. Erin Bromage, thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. BROMAGE: Thank you very much for having me on this morning, Christi.

PAUL: Absolutely.

There is more confusion surrounding the firing of the U.S. attorney for the southern district of New York. Attorney General Bill Barr says president fired the prosecutor. President Trump says he had nothing to do with it. We'll talk about it.

Stay close.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:27:38]

PAUL: Twenty-seven minutes past the hour.

And Chairman Jerry Nadler says the House Judiciary Committee will open an investigation into the firing of U.S. Attorney Geoffrey Berman.

BLACKWELL: Now, his departure comes after 48 hours of conflicting statements from Berman, Attorney General Bill Barr and President Trump as well.

CNN's Kara Scannell is joining us now.

So, take us through this really convoluted situation where we are now.

KARA SCANNELL, CNN REPORTER: Yes, Victor, it's been a very convoluted past 24 hours, 48 hours. And it's all begun on Friday afternoon when Attorney General Bill Barr met with the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman.

They discussed Berman possibly moving to Washington to take position at Main Justice, the Washington headquarters. Berman wasn't interested but believed according to a source familiar with their meeting that there would be continued conversations. Well, just about two hours later at 9:00 on Friday, Bill Barr issued a press release saying Berman was stepping down and he said that the U.S. attorney in New Jersey was temporarily taking over oversight of the New York office.

Now, this caused a lot of confusion and consternation then about two hours later, Berman comes out with his own statement saying he's not resigning and he has no intention of resigning. He showed up the next day, our cameras caught up with him and he said he was there just to do his job. Well, later yesterday afternoon before 4:00, Bill Barr sends a letter to Geoffrey Berman saying that instead of doing his job as public service, he was causing a public spectacle.

Barr said he asked the president to remove Berman from office. He said the president has and he's effectively firing Berman in this letter.

Now, it was after that, that Geoffrey Berman said he would resign, that was in part because the U.S. Attorney General Barr had changed who would you can seed him. In this letter the office would be led by Berman's trusted and loyal deputy Audrey Strauss and not the U.S. attorney from New Jersey. That seems to be a key change that ended the standoff with Berman agreeing to leave.

Now, when the president was asked about this, he deflected. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: It's all up to the attorney general. Attorney General Barr is working on that. That's his department. Not my department. But we have a very capable attorney general. So, that's really up to him. I'm not involved.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCANNELL: So the president there taking no responsibility for the action there.

[07:30:05]

But we saw in Barr's letter that he did ask the president to fire and we do know that the president was upset with Berman's oversight. You know, he was someone that -- Berman was put in place by the president but Berman had also overseen all these investigations that touched on the president's connections, either his company, his former and current attorneys. So, he was someone that the president had been unhappy with for a while.

So now the standoff is over and it seems that at least here in New York, the prosecutors within the Southern District office feel a little less anxiety than they had on Friday night and early Saturday morning knowing that a trusted leader in their office will continue to lead the office and hopefully continue to pursue the cases without any political interference. They hope so -- Victor, Christi.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: That was a whirlwind. Kara Scannell, explaining it well for us, thank you so much.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: Beautiful job, Kara. Thank you.

So, it does appear that John Bolton's new book is going to be in stores on Tuesday. Yesterday, a federal judge rejected the Justice Department's request to stop the publication of "The Room Where It Happened".

BLACKWELL: So, in the book, President Trump's claims the president put personal gain time and time again over the interest of the United States.

Let's bring in CNN's national security analyst Samantha Vinograd.

Sam, good morning to you.

SAM VINOGRAD, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Good morning.

BLACKWELL: I want to start where we got the ruling from Judge Lambert, he denied the request from the administration. But was really critical of Bolton saying that he put the country at risk, gambled with national security. What's your assessment of what you read from the judge?

VINOGRAD: Well, we have to do multitasking when we read what the judge wrote yesterday. There may be two guilty parties here, both Ambassador John Bolton and members of the administration. According to the judge, John Bolton, the former national security individuals adviser, likely jeopardized national security by probably disclosing classified information. At the same time, Ambassador Bolton opted out of a pre-publication review process, which, by the way, John Bolton signed legally binding agreements with the U.S. government regarding the disclosure of potentially classified information of potentially classified information.

And separate from what the judge wrote, John Bolton was in the room that he's writing about and frankly stood by, he was complicit in a lot of the activities he writes about in the book. But on the flip side, we have the administration and Ambassador Bolton is alleging that the administration tried to censor his content by stymieing the prepublication review process and ostensibly playing the classification card, unflattering content wouldn't get out.

We've seen this before from the administration. The overdoing it when it comes to classified content and the censoring of information by redacting it, in the case of Bill Barr and the Mueller report. We're over classifying it. We all remember the transcripts being moved to let's say a covert server.

So, when we look at the judge's ruling, when we look at the big picture here, we have to multitask, because there's really -- there's no protagonist in the story, Victor. There's just a lot of actors that seem to be doing things that, frankly, we should be worried about.

BLACKWELL: So, with that said, I want to ask how concerned are you about any information that might be in this book that would get out and how much credence do you give to the book in whole?

VINOGRAD: Well, the fact of the matter is, Christi, even if there isn't classified information in this book, this book is payday for Putin and enemies around the world. What John Bolton writes in this book is not only terrifying, it also looks like it may be true based upon the president's track record. From the excerpts alone, we have learned that President Trump allegedly solicited foreign election interference, tried to trash human rights in China by being pro- concentration camps for Muslim minorities. Told Erdogan that he would intervene or to look into a case that was special to Erdogan in the case of Halkbank.

So, we're seeing things that unfortunately we've seen from the president before. Looking for foreign election interference to help himself, being transactional when it comes to our law enforcement and legal system. And not being a proponent of human rights to put it mildly.

This all fits with President Trump's track record. So, we do have good reason to believe that it's true. In terms of whether this book contains classified information, the judge yesterday in his ruling says it probably does. Even after that, the big picture here, the synopsis of this book is really that the president prioritizes himself above all else. We've seen that story before this book came out.

BLACKWELL: You know, we were just having a conversation about the -- with Kara Scannell, about Geoffrey Berman, former now U.S. attorney, Southern District of New York, and I don't know if it's a coincidence of the timing, but it was in this book that we learn, I think you mentioned it there, that Bolton accuses the president of telling President Erdogan of Turkey that he would intervene or interject himself, the White House, into an investigation there.

What do you make of the collection of facts and the timing of these two?

VINOGRAD: Well, the timing is certainly interesting. In that excerpt, I believe Trump said that the SDNY, full of Obama people or something like that. Well, Trump appointed Geoffrey Berman. So, that's not quite accurate.

But, you know, one of the most startling piece was this book for me is when President Trump talks to Xi Jinping of China about foreign election interference and saying that Democrats are soft on China and that he isn't and that President Xi Jinping should purchase more agricultural products from the United States and help him get elected.

You know, I think that's a big political liability because of late in light of an attempt to distract from his own failure to adequately prepare for the COVID 19 pandemic, he's trying to remarket himself or rebrand himself as tough on China. Well, asking China for foreign election interference ago being tough, I don't know what soft is.

And going into an election, that may be a political liability for the president when it comes to foreign policy because he really looks just not weak on China, he looks beholden to China.

PAUL: Sam Vinograd, always grateful to have you with us -- Sam, thank you.

VINOGRAD: Thanks.

BLACKWELL: For a global pandemic, racial unrest, economic turmoil, a few -- just a few of the issues that's really stressing people out. We're going to talk that few from Christi next door. We'll talk to a mental health expert about why his latest research gives a reason for us to all be concerned.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:41:35]

BLACKWELL: Actor, comedian, former CNN host, D.L. Hughley, is recovering. He collapsed during a show in Nashville Friday night. Now, he was in a middle of a performance when seemed to start stumbling over words and then he fell over. Watch.

PAUL: Obviously, frightening for everybody there, and his team in hand. Hughley say he was suffering from extreme exhaustion and dehydration due to work and travel. He was discharged from the hospital and went on to Instagram to share that he also tested positive for coronavirus and is asymptomatic.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

D.L. HUGHLEY, ACTOR/COMEDIAN: I didn't have difficulty breathing. I didn't have a cough. I didn't have a low-grade fever. I still don't have a fever. I didn't have a loss of smell or taste.

Apparently I just lost consciousness. So, in addition to all the other stuff you have to look out for, if your ass passed out in the middle of a show on stage, you probably need to get tested.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Apologize to kids in the room. I didn't know that word was coming. But we're glad he's OK, first and foremost.

So, there are these fears about spiking numbers of coronavirus infections and the social and the political unrest that it just all over this country. There's a new poll from the American Psychological Association that says more and more Americans are anxious about the nation's future.

BLACKWELL: Yes, after the death of George Floyd, the survey says that 83 percent of Americans are seriously stressed about future of the country.

Seventy-two percent say that this is the lowest point in the country's history that they can remember. Fifty-one percent say discrimination is a significant source of stress. Seventy-one percent of Americans are stressed about police violence toward people of color. Eighty percent of Americans are stressed about the coronavirus pandemic.

PAUL: Americans aren't too confident about the government response, 66 percent report feeling stressed about that.

Dr. Arthur Evans is CEO of the American Psychological Association.

Dr. Evans, we're glad to have you with us.

You can't -- you can't turn away from what's going on in our country. You also can't go on vacation as people normally do in the summer to get away from things like this. Help us understand what we need to be doing for ourselves.

DR. ARTHUR EVANS, CEO, AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGICAL ASSOCIATION: Well, the first thing is to recognize that this is, what we're experiencing is an extreme amount of stress as our survey has indicated and that if we don't do anything about it, that we're going to experience significant psychological distress and even physical distress.

So the first thing is to recognize that and then to take steps. One of the things that we know for example is that social support is extremely important during these kinds of times when we're under stress. Turning off the television is also very important, limiting the amount of time that we are looking at the videos that really horrific videos that we've seen recently. Making sure that we are doing everything we can around taking care of ourselves physically, because we know that our physical health is connected to our mental health and vice versa.

[07:45:07]

It's very easy in this kind of environment for people to gain weight and not do exercising and right now, it's even more important to do those kinds of things.

BLACKWELL: So, are we more stressed overall or just stressed about a different list of things this year?

EVANS: Well, you know, the way stress works is that the more stress we experience at any given time, we're going to experience more stress. And I think what our survey is showing is that there's this cumulative effect where we were already stressed in the nation and our survey had shown that. But our most recent survey is showing that the added stress of the pandemic, then the economic stressors and now the concerns about systemic racism are having this cumulative effect on the amount of stress that Americans are feeling.

PAUL: So for people who are feel that, what is the long-term effect?

EVANS: Well, we know from a lot of research that over the long-term, that we would expect that we would see more mental health challenges. In the short-term, near term and even the long-term. And it's really important for us as a nation to step back and take the kind of action that we've taken relative to the coronavirus.

We knew that based on modeling that if we didn't do anything, that many, many millions of people, hundreds of thousands of people could have gotten sick from that virus. We know a similar kind of thing will happen with the mental health challenges. So what we have to do is bend the mental health curve in the same way we have the coronavirus curve that has occurred in this country and around the world.

BLACKWELL: Are you seeing that the numbers -- I'm looking back at the numbers. I know we ran through them quickly -- 71 percent of Americans are stressed about police violence toward people of color. And that goes across racial lines?

EVANS: It does. I think if there's a silver lining in all of this, is that it seems as if more people are caring about and thinking about the issues relative to police violence and its impact on minority communities. And so, the survey also indicated that about 2/3 of Americans believe that the current reaction and protests to these events will lead to significant change.

So, there is silver lining in all of this.

PAUL: I would think that that would be an indication too, when you're feel this and once you identify what it is and as you said, recognizing that you have it, can maybe set boundaries for yourself of what you can do and who you can be with. Because there are people that cause us stress as well. How do we gently set that boundary? EVANS: Well, it's a really good question. I think it's to recognize

that we have all of these stresses. There are certain things in our lives that cause stress. For example, as you noted, certain people, to be aware of that and to limit that.

One of the things that I'm very conscious about right now is the amount of television that I watch and I'm very intentional about when I'm going to watch news about some of the -- the challenges that people are experiencing, because I know that that's going to affect me psychologically. I know it's going to affect my mood. I think all of us have to be aware of those things in our lives that causes that kind of stress.

BLACKWELL: All right. CEO of the American Psychological Association, Dr. Arthur Evans, thank you so much.

EVANS: Thank you. Appreciate being here.

BLACKWELL: We'll be right back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:53:18]

PAUL: So, listen, so if you ever thought your age was not going to be able to -- was going to hold you back from something, listen to what these two 9-year-old girls are doing. Cameron Johnson and five of her friends have opened a summer business selling friendship bracelets. The group named their effort Cameron and Friends, Bracelets for Unity and Justice. They're donating proceeds to businesses and food banks in Minneapolis affected by the coronavirus pandemic and protests following the death of George Floyd.

According to Cameron's dad, they've raised more than $90,000 through sales online, fund-raising and donations. Yes, for you!

BLACKWELL: Yes, fantastic.

And look at this.

(VIDEO CLIP PLAYS)

BLACKWELL: This is 9-year-old Caitlin Saunders (ph). She's a figure skater, you can tell. And this was a routine she performing over the Black Lives Matter mural in Washington, D.C. And she says the routine was inspired by the injustices that black people face in the United States and that she wants to replace the negative messages that people have in their minds with positive ones.

She told CNN she feels powerful when she's on the ice like she can fly, no one can stop her. She says she wishes everyone could feel that.

PAUL: We wish that for her too. I know, I know. Talk about -- we'll be seeing her again, I think. Maybe skating --

BLACKWELL: She's done performances like this one before, but that one is poignant.

[07:55:02]

PAUL: Yes, and she shows her talent too.

So, we do want to take a moment here to wish all of you dads, uncles, brothers, friends, everybody, a very happy Father's Day. I want to say this to my dad as well because if not for you, I would be a hot mess.

BLACKWELL: And to my dad in Baltimore, time to open up those king crab legs and start the steamer this morning.

PAUL: There you go.

BLACKWELL: I know that's what you're going to do. Happy Father's Day to you. And thank you so much for starting your morning with us.

PAUL: We always appreciate you.

BLACKWELL: Absolutely.

"INSIDE POLITICS" is up next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)