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The Situation Room

Trump To Travel To Kenosha, Wisconsin On Tuesday; Intel Chief Tells Congress It Will Get No More In-Person Briefings On Election Security; Jacob Blake's Family Holds March And Rally In Wisconsin; New Harrowing Video Shows Russian Intercept Of U.S. Aircraft; More Than 1,200 Students Test Positive For COVID-19 At University Of Alabama; Kenosha Police Union Defends Officers In Jacob Blake Shooting; "Black Panther" Star, Chadwick Boseman, Dies At 43 Of Colon Cancer. Aired 9- 10p ET

Aired August 29, 2020 - 21:00   ET

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

[21:00:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN Breaking News.

WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Welcome to our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. This is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM. Three major stories this Saturday night, all dealing directly with the health and the security of the American people.

The family of Jacob Blake, the black man who was shot seven times by a white police officer, leading a peaceful protest on the streets of Kenosha today. Blake's father today telling CNN he believes the police officer who shot his son should be charged.

Also tonight, here in Washington, D.C., there's shock in Congress as the Director of National Intelligence now says he is cutting off briefings on election security issues. Only written updates going- forward, even with the top intelligence official on election security saying just this month that China, Russia and Iran are looking to interfere in the U.S. presidential election, now only 66 days away.

And all of this unfolding as the coronavirus pandemic here in the United States, the cases in the country now nearing 6 million, more than 180,000 lives lost in the United States, including nearly 1,000 yesterday alone. The reported death toll so far this Saturday already well over 250.

But let's begin with the breaking news this hour. The White House just announcing moments ago that President Trump will go to Kenosha, Wisconsin this week, site of the police shooting of Jacob Blake and the protests all week. We're covering this here in Washington as well as in Wisconsin. Jeremy Diamond is joining us from the White House. Sara Sidner is on the scene for us in Kenosha.

Jeremy, so tell our viewers what you've learned about the President's decision to go ahead - it's a very sensitive time - and visit Kenosha. JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf, the

President just spent the day outside of Washington, touring some of the hurricane damage in Louisiana and in Texas. And on the way back, as he landed here in Washington, the White House Deputy Press Secretary Judd Deere confirmed that the President will be going to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday. They say that he will be surveying some of the damage from the fires there as well as meeting with law enforcement officials on Tuesday.

The President earlier in the day had suggested that this was a possibility, but it wasn't clear that plans were actually in action for this to happen. But now we know that the President will be going to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday. And certainly, this could be a very combustible situation. The protesting there, as Sara I'm sure can attest to, has continued there over the last week.

And of course, the President entering that situation, there is - it's really hard to see how the President can help alleviate some of the tensions there. This is not a President who has chosen in the past to be that consoler-in-chief for this nation. This is a president who instead has seized on divisions happening in the country, including over this reckoning on racism and police brutality in this country over these last several months, seized on those divisions for his own political gain.

And of course, the President has been seizing on some of the protests and some of the protests that have turned more violent into riots in parts of the country, as he is trying to tout this law-and-order message as he tries to win re-election in the 2020 campaign.

So certainly we'll have to see how the President handles this very, very delicate visit on Tuesday. And as of now, again, there are no plans for the President to meet with Jacob Blake or the family of Jacob Blake. We'll have to wait and see whether something on that front does develop. But as of now, no plans for that, Wolf.

BLITZER: Well, Sara, you're there on the ground for us in Kenosha. Do you get the sense that the President's visit will ease tensions there or increase tensions there? This is really obviously a very sensitive moment.

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It is. And if history is any guide, he has been the divider-in-chief when it comes to some of these things. And if he is just meeting with law enforcement, just coming to see the damage that has happened here, and not try and look at what this meant for the family, then that could cause more tension.

I will tell you that over the last couple of nights, the protests have been much smaller. We saw a huge protest today with a couple of thousand people that was absolutely peaceful because it was led by the family. And their whole point is that they believe in peaceful protests, they do not like seeing the destruction because they know what that means to the community and how it hurts the residents who live here. And they've been calling for the very beginning for peaceful protests, not for destructive, violent protests. But this is also coming at a time when there was the worst violence

that happened here, deadly violence at the hands, according to police, of a 17-year-old white teenager who came in from Illinois armed with a long gun, who came into town saying he was here to protect businesses.

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He has an affinity, according to his social media, with the police. He was a former police explorer, someone interested in potentially going into a career of policing. But he ended up, according to authorities, shooting and killing two people and injuring someone else. And so there is a volatile thing going on here, depending on what the President says, that he could certainly inflame things, depending on how he reacts.

I do want to let you hear from Jacob Blake's father, who has been very clear about what he thinks about the President because he will only refer to President Biden, as he puts it, and Vice President Kamala Harris. He will not say President Trump, looking forward to the next four months, believing that Biden and Harris will become the next leaders of this country. He also talked to us about the shooting itself and what he thinks should happen to the officer who shot his son in the back seven times, paralyzing him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: They came out and they made a lot of accusations. Do you think that the officer was in imminent danger at the time of the shooting?

JACOB BLAKE SR., JACOB BLAKE'S FATHER: How can you be in imminent danger when a person has nothing in his hands? What was he, superman? He could see the knife through the - the walls of the car? The police union means nothing to me. It's a bunch of cats that pay a bunch of dues to have a title, a union. They do nothing but support their bad cops. He's a bad cop. It didn't take seven shots to find out that.

The first shot told you that the second one was coming. The third shot told you that the fourth one, he's trying to kill him. The fifth shot said, damn, how many more times are you going to shoot? By the time the seventh shot got there, it's attempted murder. He's sure (ph) he was no threat after the third shot. Now my son won't be able to walk for the rest of his life.

SIDNER: Do you think that this officer should be charged with attempted murder?

BLAKE: He should be charged with attempted - he should be charged with attempted murder because he didn't kill him. So if he had killed him, he would had (ph) murder one. But it was attempt.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SIDNER: So that's what you're hearing from the father. The police association obviously having a completely different view of things, saying that Jacob Blake had a knife, saying that he ended up putting one of the officers in a headlock. All of these details coming out from the police association, which by the way, Wolf, is not the investigating association and not the investigating agency that is the state DOJ. And they say the police association does not speak for them or any other agency that is looking into this. They are solely there as defenders of the police. Wolf?

BLITZER: All right. Sara Sidner, Jeremy Diamond, guys, thanks very much. Let's discuss this in more with the Harvard University Kennedy School Professor Cornell William Brooks. He is the Former President of the NAACP.

Cornell, thanks so much for joining us. A very busy Saturday night here in Washington.

CORNELL WILLIAM BROOKS, HARVARD KENNEDY SCHOOL PROFESSOR & FORMER PRESIDENT, NAACP: Thank you.

BLITZER: First of all, what's your reaction to the breaking news that President Trump has announced through the White House Press Secretary that the President will be heading to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday?

BROOKS: Under normal circumstances in these extraordinary times, a president going to a site of civil unrest would be reassuring. In this case, it is absolutely alarming. It is frightening. The President is really going to Kenosha, turning Air Force One into a gasoline truck. That is to say, he's bringing gas to a fire.

Given his incendiary remarks during the Republican convention, given his record, given the fact that he's going to Kenosha to visit - note this, Wolf - with law enforcement and to survey the property damage. Not on his itinerary is visiting with those who are suffering bodily damage. That is to say the brutalization of black bodies, the fact that Jacob Blake is paralyzed, shot seven times in the back on his son's eighth birthday while his children are watching, and the fact that the President isn't talking about him.

So he's talking about visiting with law enforcement, not having a conversation, a dialogue with protesters. In other words, he's literally turning Kenosha into a political prop with the protesters as the backdrop.

(CROSSTALK)

BLITZER: So what's going to - Cornell, what's going to be the impact, do you think, if he shows up in Kenosha, doesn't meet with the family, the Blake family, for example, meets with the police, meets with others, does a little tour over there? Wisconsin, as you know, is a key battleground state, which the President did carry narrowly four years ago.

BROOKS: Well, I - here's what I expect to happen, based upon having led many, many demonstrations. He's going to make - the President is going to make a bad situation worse. So, in other words, we have two competing narratives.

[21:10:00] We have a Presidential narrative and a protest narrative. The Presidential narrative is that he is seeking votes with fear. The protesters have a narrative whereby they are literally trying to articulate the fears of black people about being brutalized by the police, turning those real fears into hopes and votes.

The President going to Kenosha literally injects this racialized fear. That is to say he's the savior of white people, who are afraid of property damage, at the expense of black lives, as opposed to being a president who's a consoler-in-chief, who goes in seeking to be a peacemaker, seeking to bring about justice, in order to bring about peace and establish order, as opposed to selling for and seeking law and order at the expense of black bodies.

We've seen this again and again and again. And the reality is, most people in this country do not trust the President to make a bad situation better, but rather make a bad situation worse when it comes to race. That is the unfortunate reality, and that's what we're contending with.

BLITZER: Cornell, the President was asked also today about Kyle Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old charged in the shooting deaths of two Kenosha protesters earlier this week. I want you to listen to what the President said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: Well, that's under investigation right now, and they'll be reporting back to me over the next 24 hours, 48 hours maybe max, and we'll have a comment about it. But that is right now we're being - we're looking at it very, very carefully.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: Cornell, I want to reiterate to our viewers and to you that Rittenhouse, the 17-year-old, he's facing already two felony homicide charges. So what do you think of the President's reluctance to comment on this part of the Wisconsin story?

BROOKS: Let us know this. The President is always willing to side on the side of law enforcement relative to protesters and black people being charged. Here, Kyle Rittenhouse has been charged by law enforcement, but the President won't say anything about it. That says everything.

And the fact of the matter is, here we have a child, a 17-year-old, who's carrying an assault weapon to a march, to a protest. And the fact that the President will speak on end about looting and rioting and says nothing, not a mumbling word about someone who carries an assault weapon, shoots, kills two people, shoots others, and he says nothing. That - the silence by this President is an indictment.

BLITZER: Cornell William Brooks, thanks so much for joining us.

BROOKS: Thank you, Wolf. BLITZER: Coming up, we have new video that just has come into THE

SITUATION ROOM - get this - of a Russian fighter jet coming dangerously close to U.S. B-52 bomber. We're going to share what's going on.

Plus, nearly 1,000 Americans died yesterday from the coronavirus. Now, get this. The University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa has just announced that more than 1,000 University of Alabama students have now tested positive for the coronavirus in the past two weeks since August 19th, shortly after classes resumed on the campus.

Lots of news coming into THE SITUATION ROOM. We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: There's a very disturbing breaking news coming in into THE SITUATION ROOM right now. Truly stunning. Just released video, released by the Department of Defense, showing what the Department of Defense says is a Russian jet making what U.S. officials are calling an unsafe, unprofessional intercept of a U.S. B-52 bomber over the Black Sea yesterday. In this footage, you can see through the U.S. aircraft's cockpit, a purported Russian fighter jet actually crossing in front of the U.S. plane at very, very close range.

Let's bring in our Pentagon Correspondent, Barbara Starr. She's joining us on the phone right now.

Barbara, what are you learning about this disturbing incident?

BARBARA STARR, CNN PENTAGON CORRESPONDENT (via telephone): Well, Wolf, what apparently happened is two Russian pilots, their fighter jets crossed within 100 feet of the nose of the U.S. B-52 bomber multiple times, and that caused turbulence, making it difficult - the Pentagon to - for the B-52 to actually correctly maneuver. The Pentagon calling this unsafe, unprofessional action by the Russians.

The U.S. B-52, the Pentagon says, was in international airspace over the Black Sea in Europe. Actually, on Friday, a number of B-52s were flying through Europe in initial support, if you will, for NATO and a bit of a message to Moscow.

This is just the latest of Russian actions really sort of pinking away at the U.S. Earlier in the week, of course, you remember a Russian armored vehicle crashed into a U.S. vehicle in Eastern Syria, injuring seven troops. The U.S. contending there that the Russians were in violation of an agreement and they were in part of Eastern Syria where they had promised not to be where the U.S. takes a leading role in working with fighters there to push back against ISIS.

So we have two military incidents with the Russians this past week just a couple of days apart. Not a lot of comment from the administration. We have seen some statements, if you will, by spokesmen. But right from the top, nobody has much to say about this. A lot of people are wondering when the top leadership, including the White House, is going to speak out about whatever it is the Russians think they're up to. Wolf.

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BLITZER: Yes. It certainly looks like a deliberate provocation by the Russians on these sensitive issues indeed. I will stand top of it together with you.

Barbara Starr reporting for us, thank you very much. As I said, a very, very disturbing development in the U.S.-Russian relationship.

Other important news we're following, for students at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa right now, back-to-school has all of a sudden turned into a sharp spike in confirmed cases of the coronavirus. Get this. More than 1,200 students on campus have tested positive for COVID-19. According to the university, 1,000 of those cases have been diagnosed since classes resumed on August 19th, which is (ph) 10 days ago.

Dr. James Phillips is joining us now. He's the Chief of Disaster Medicine at George Washington University here in the nation's capital.

Dr. Phillips, it's a very disturbing development. As schools are reopening right now, 1,000 students confirmed for coronavirus in the past few days alone. How disturbing is this, especially if you're looking for other colleges and universities around the country where young people are gathering?

DR. JAMES PHILLIPS, CHIEF OF DISASTER MEDICINE, GEORGE WASHINGTON UNIVERSITY: Good evening, Wolf, and thanks for having me on. In regards to these colleges, in particular, Alabama today that had this announcement, it's completely predictable. This was - this is completely expected. And we've been talking about this for weeks that we think that the most dangerous places you can possibly be right now are bars and college campuses.

Look, we - we've taken a lot of time to take a look at risks in going to K-through-12 schools. The different factors that can mitigate against those risks like social distancing, wearing masks, limiting class size, and only going to school if the community prevalence is low. And those environments are relatively controlled. We've got teenagers and kids that you can control the behavior to a certain degree.

But when it comes to college, you've got these kids who have new freedom. And you can make those classrooms as safe as you possibly can. But what goes on when you leave that classroom, that's where the true damn disease transmission risks are, whether that's bars, whether that's living arrangements like the dorms or Greek houses. Those are far more difficult to control. And that's where the disease spread is going to take place. So this is completely predictable.

BLITZER: You've heard the President often say these young people on college campuses, he wants them all reopened. They're either be totally asymptomatic or have very mild systems (ph), they're young and they're strong. But that seems to ignore a fundamental fact that even if you're asymptomatic and you're young and strong, you can spread, you can transmit this virus to all sorts of people who come into contact with you.

And correct me if I'm wrong this, Dr. Phillip. We don't the long-term impact of the coronavirus on young people, if there's going to be any long-term danger to them as a result of this virus.

PHILLIPS: That's absolutely true, Wolf. We've only known about this virus for eight or nine months. So long-term impact is something that we'll be studying for years. We do know that people that have the most severe disease, those that are hospitalized and intubated in the ICU, we already know that they're going to have long-term impact on organs like their heart, their kidneys and even their brains. However, the patients with less symptoms, although they're unlikely to have long- term symptoms, we simply don't know that.

Now, the issues with schools and with this viral transmission is not necessarily just the students that are going to get sick, but, as you said, it's that second generation transmission, where they go home for the weekend to get their laundry done, they go home because they miss their parents. And then they spread it to them and to their grandparents.

And regardless of whether or not you have to wear a mask when you're in that classroom, you're not wearing a mask at the bar or at the house party or in your fraternity house. And so people need to be really careful because this virus is going to spread in those environments. And it's my firm belief that if things don't change dramatically, whether that's by testing, whether by voluntary behavior or by mandated behavior, the majority of schools in this country will be closed by October.

BLITZER: Yes. And the headline, once again, more than 1,000 students at the University of Alabama, Tuscaloosa, in the past 10 days alone, have tested positive for coronavirus. Very disturbing development, indeed.

Dr. Phillips, thanks so much for joining us.

PHILLIPS: My pleasure.

BLITZER: All right. Coming up, more on the family of Jacob Blake. They are disputing a new police union account of what happened in Kenosha, Wisconsin. We'll take a closer look when we come back.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: I want to recap the breaking news this hour. The White House announcing that President Trump will - repeat - will go to Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday, site of the police shooting of Jacob Blake and the protests that have been going on all week. This as we're learning more about what led up to the Jacob Blake shooting.

Our Sara Sidner, on the ground, reporting an account from the Kenosha Professional Police Association, which has been contradicted by witnesses. The police officers association says that Blake wasn't compliant, that he forcefully fought with the police officers and put one in a headlock prior to what we see on that video and that two police officers deployed tasers on Blake that didn't appear to stop him. The tasers apparently didn't work.

I want to bring in Ed Davis, the Former Police Commissioner of Boston. He's joining us now.

Commissioner, thank you so much for joining us. Even if all of that is true, what the police union is now suggesting, could shooting someone in the back seven times be justified?

[21:30:00]

ED DAVIS, FORMER BOSTON POLICE COMMISSIONER: Well, it's really difficult to understand that. And the lack of information that's coming out from the public authorities in Kenosha is really troubling. We can't understand exactly what happened because we don't know when the knife first appeared, whether it was simply on the floor of the car or whether he was brandishing it. These are all pieces of information that we should be hearing.

But I've talked to many of my colleagues who have been in this situation, exact same situation, dozens of times. Normally you go hands on with the person and drag them to the ground. That's the normal protocol. There had to be a reason for the officer to pull his weapon. And if he can't articulate what that is, then you have to assume that it wasn't appropriate behavior.

BLITZER: When you watch the video, we've all seen the video and we wish that the police officers had body cameras, but they don't have body cameras, the police department in Kenosha, Wisconsin. You see why that officer - I mean, do you see any reason at all why that police officer would open fire at such close range seven times into his back?

DAVIS: No, I can't. I can't understand why you would pull the trigger once in that particular situation unless he was turning around with a knife and swung it at you. And even in that case, you can retreat in these situations, especially with children in the car. There's no reason to continue - it's just a very troubling situation.

BLITZER: In their statement, the Kenosha police officers association, they say "Mr. Blake forcefully fought with the officers, including putting one of the officers in a headlock. Mr. Blake was not unarmed. He was armed with a knife. The officers did not see the knife initially."

And then they go on and make these other accusations. But why do you think the police union is getting involved in the middle? I mean, there's a separate Wisconsin Justice Department investigation that is in charge. The Attorney General in Wisconsin is investigating. And all of a sudden, we're hearing from the police union. Why?

DAVIS: Well, because the police union are advocates for their membership. And they're simply telling the story in the best light for the police officer that's been accused. A defense attorney will do the same thing. But the prosecutors and the investigators are looking on all the facts

and will make a determination as to whether or not charges should be brought. So this is all part of the process. It's not that surprising. It is their role, actually.

BLITZER: Because some people have expressed their deep anger that Jacob Blake obviously was shot seven times in the back. Fortunately, he's alive, but he's paralyzed in a hospital bed, maybe paralyzed from the waist-down for the rest of his life. We heard, as you heard from the union, that he may - may have had a knife. It's certainly not evident, completely evident in the video.

Meantime, the 17-year-old, Kyle Rittenhouse, he's charged with double homicide in the shooting of those two protesters, he actually walked away, drove back across the border from Wisconsin to Illinois, carrying an AR-15 type weapon. What do you make of that?

DAVIS: Well, on the issue with the officer, I really believe that the leadership of that police department and the city can do one of two things. They can either put facts out that defend what the officer did and explain why it happened or they can take responsibility for it and apologize for it.

And I think those are the two options that they have. We've done that in Boston. It does make a difference. If you've got a bad shooting and you come up quickly and say what happened, it calms tensions in the community.

On the issue with a 17-year-old who shot - vigilantism is something that we should not accept on our city streets. People walking around with no training and have AK-47s or AR-15s slung over their shoulder, it's a recipe for disaster. We've been predicting this would happen for the last six or eight months since these people started to show up at these events.

There should be a law against it. There isn't right now. And I think that that - we really need to do something. But I can't blame those officers that were responding to a report of shots fired, with people screaming at them as they drove by that young man. I've been in situations like that. You are trying to get to the victim that you don't - you try to provide first aid and stop the shooting. And the fact that he walked by them with his hands up I don't think is an indictment of the police officers that responded to that scene.

BLITZER: All right. Ed Davis, the Former Boston Police Commissioner, thanks so much for joining us.

DAVIS: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: All right. So we're just 66 days away from the presidential election here in the United States and less than a month away from the first of three presidential debates in an unprecedented year.

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How much of an effect will the conventions have on voters? All - both conventions are now over with. How much of an effect will they have on voters as they go to the polls on November 3rd and earlier, the weeks leading up, as a lot of early voting here in the United States. We'll be right back.

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BLITZER: The first debate between President Trump and Former Vice President Joe Biden is exactly one month from tonight, but in a year like no other. What will the unprecedented Democratic and Republican national conventions mean for the campaigns?

CNN Presidential Historian Doug Brinkley is joining us right now. He's the author, by the way, of "The Great Deluge: Hurricane Katrina, New Orleans, and the Mississippi Gulf Coast." It's really excellent book.

Let me get your reaction, Doug, to the breaking news we're following this hour. President Trump, the White House announcing that he will - repeat - will visit Kenosha, Wisconsin on Tuesday.

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He's been trying to convince voters that he is the so-called law-and- order candidate. But what's your reaction when you hear he's going to show up at this sensitive moment in Kenosha?

DOUG BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: I feel what a big mistake that is. Donald Trump is a bull who carries his own China shop around with him. Just when people are trying to quell the violence in Wisconsin, he's going to go rattle things up. But from Trump's point of view, he wants to - Wisconsin, as you know, Wolf, is going to be so important this election season.

And police officers are starting to side with Donald Trump by and large. And so he may hit a couple other Wisconsin cities. He's desperate to paint the fact that Biden is staying basically tethered right now to - in Delaware, and he's getting into the heartland in Wisconsin and is standing for law and order. But I feel sorry for the people in Kenosha that's got to have meetings with him and do all the photo ops.

BLITZER: He's not the first candidate, as you well know - you're a presidential historian - to use the so-called law-and-order approach. But does history, at this time, do you think favor that kind of strategy?

BRINKLEY: I don't think so because Donald Trump lost the popular vote by 3 million to Hillary Clinton. He hasn't gotten over a 50 percent threshold in popularity. He's down about 9 or 10 points. It seems to be a desperate strategy. But it's an outsider strategy. George Wallace running a third-party candidacy in 1968 went all law-and-order like that and racism.

But Nixon is always, in my mind, the gold star for this president. Donald Trump wants to be stylistically like Reagan. In the Republican convention at the White House, you could feel the stage craft to old Mike Deaver and those Reagan people, that kind of patriotic gore there, Wolf. But Nixon is his guy, and it's Nixon in '72 who just beat up on George McGovern as being a liberal, being for abortion, wanting kids to take LSD and acid, wanted to praise draft dodgers at the Vietnam War.

So this is Nixon round-two. Nixon - we forget that when he won in 1972, it's the biggest landslide in American history. And Trump knows he's got the red states. He knows where he's going to win this election. It's about six or seven states, Wisconsin being a key one. And he thinks he could get up there and win in the Midwest on law and order.

BLITZER: Sixty six days to go, but as I said, a lot of voting early throughout the United States. We'll see what happens, especially with these three presidential debates coming up.

All right. Doug Brinkley, as usual, thanks so much for joining us.

BRINKLEY: Thanks, Wolf.

BLITZER: Coming up, as we learn new details about the protests in Kenosha, Wisconsin that left two dead, we'll take a closer look at how conservative news hosts are defending the shooter. We'll be right back.

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(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: America right now is in the middle of a racial reckoning. This year has never been more important for truth, transparency and reliable information. The shooting of Jacob Blake by a police officer in Wisconsin has prompted new protests and calls for change in cities across the United States. One of the protests in Kenosha left two people shot dead. The suspect is 17-year-old. But listen to how some at Fox News defended what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TUCKER CARLSON, FOX NEWS HOST: People in charge from the Governor of Wisconsin on down refused to enforce the law. They stood back and they watched Kenosha burn. So we're really surprised that looting and arson accelerated to murder. How shocked are we that 17-year-olds with rifles decided they had to maintain order when no one else would? Everyone could see what was happening in Kenosha. It was getting crazier by the hour.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLITZER: CNN's Chief Media Correspondent Brian Stelter is joining us right now. He's the author of the newly released and now "New York Times" Bestseller, entitled "Hoax: Donald Trump, Fox News, and the Dangerous Distortion of Truth." There you see the book cover.

Brian, what's your reaction to what we just heard, and how does it compare to how Fox News has covered these protests during the course of this summer? BRIAN STELTER, CNN CHIEF MEDIA CORRESPONDENT: We've definitely seen

some excuses being made for this 17-year-old shooter in Kenosha from Tucker Carlson to pro-Trump websites, even some lawmakers backing the shooter or seeming to justify his acts of violence. This is a form of radicalization, Wolf.

I think we've talked about radicalization on the Internet, where people go down these rabbit holes and they get more and more extreme ideas, unhinged from reality. But it's happening, sadly, via Fox News as well. Tucker Carlson being the best example. Carlson was denounced for the clip you just played, where he seems to be excusing the violence.

But you know what? Carlson has a cushy $10 million a year job, an alliance with Fox Corporation boss, Lachlan Murdoch. He is not going anywhere even though he oftentimes seems to create these controversies and he engages in white identity politics and that sort of thing.

The reason I had to write "Hoax" is because there's been this us- versus-the-world narrative on Fox that actually is damaging the democracy. And the President watches it every single day. So he ends up being absorbed by this. And hey, now all eyes will be on Monday and Tuesday when Biden and Trump visit Kenosha. It's going to be fascinating to see what those two men say when they arrive in the city.

[21:50:00]

BLITZER: It certainly will. What do you think about the President's decision to visit Kenosha on Tuesday?

STELTER: Well, I think what he's been doing is he's been hearing - he's been echoing the law-and-order rhetoric that he's hearing on right-wing media from Fox, from Rush Limbaugh, et cetera. In 2018, as I write in "Hoax," it was all about the caravan, this alleged invasion of migrants from the south, from the Central America and Mexico. Now, the narrative is all about law and order. So it's hard to tell where Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson stop and where President Trump begins. The feedback loop is so loopy at this point.

BLITZER: You're a busy guy, obviously. You're the Executive Producer of the new CNN film, "AFTER TRUTH," which is premiering right at the top of the hour here on CNN. Tell us about it.

STELTER: Not as busy as you, Wolf. Not as busy as you. Look at me. I've got my home studio failing on me with my background going down or behind me. But let me tell you why I think it's so important that "AFTER TRUTH" is premiering on CNN tonight. This is a film that was three years in the making. Director Andrew Rossi wanted to explain the real life consequences of mis- and disinformation.

So, tonight, we take you from Texas Hill Country to Washington, we go from the Alabama State House all the way across the country to look at what the impacts of mis- and disinformation are. When there are these smears and hoaxes, both on the right and on the left, there are real- world victims. And I think we portray that in this film like nobody has before. So that's really what the film is about.

You hear the term Pizzagate, you hear about QAnon, some of these other ludicrous conspiracy theories. But in "AFTER TRUTH," we show you where it comes from. We actually go inside the pizza shop in Washington, Comet pizza, where that man showed up with a gun because he was convinced about this ludicrous conspiracy theory about pedophilia. You actually see what happened when that man showed up and you see the real life consequences. That's what this term is all about.

BLITZER: Looking forward to the film at the top of the hour. Congratulations on the bestseller. And we'll see you tomorrow morning on "RELIABLE SOURCES" at 11:00 a.m. Eastern.

STELTER: Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: You're a busy guy yourself.

We'll be right back.

[21:55:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLITZER: I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. I'll be back with another special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM tomorrow 6:00 p.m. Eastern.

Before we go, I want to mark the passing of a hero on and off the screen. Today, fans all over the world are mourning the shocking loss of "Black Panther" star and award-winning actor, Chadwick Boseman, who died at the age of only 43 after battling colon cancer for four years. He never revealed his diagnosis in public even as he became one of Hollywood's biggest stars.

And in an emotional interview back in 2018, he spoke about how he would trade letters with kids who also had cancer who couldn't wait for "Black Panther." What we didn't know then was that he too was battling the disease that would take his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CHADWICK BOSEMAN, AMERICAN ACTOR: You know, there are two little kids, Ian (ph) and Taylor (ph), who recently passed from cancer. And throughout our filming, I was communicating with them, knowing that they were both terminal. And what they said to me is and their parents said, they're just - they're trying to hold on until this movie comes.

And I - to a certain degree, you hear them say that, you're like, "wow!" That's like, "I got to get up and go to the gym, I got to get up and work. I got to learn these lines. I got to work on this accent," seeing how devoted all of my cast-mates are and knowing that that will be something meaningful to them.

But it's - to a certain degree, it's a humbling experience because you're like, "this can't mean that much to them." But seeing how the world has taken this on, seeing how the movement is, how it's taken on a life of its own, I realize that they anticipated something great. And I think back now to a kid and just - waiting for Christmas to

come, waiting for my birthday to come, waiting for a toy that was going to - that I was going to get a chance to experience or a videogame. I did live a life waiting for those moments. And so it put me back in the mind of being a kid, just to experience those two little boys' anticipation of this movie. And when I found out that they--

(CRYING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Take your time with it.

(CRYING)

BOSEMAN: Yes. This is -- it means a lot.

(END VIDEO CLIP)