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Anderson Cooper 360 Degrees
Trump Suggests Millions of Americans Are Being Falsely Accused Of Being Racists Or Bigots; Sobering New Coronavirus Projection; Influential Coronavirus Model Predicts Nearly 170,000 Deaths In The U.S. By Oct. 1; Trump: "We Are Not Going To Let Seattle Be Occupied By Anarchists"; Seattle Mayor: Trump Tweets A "Threat To Invade Seattle"; Louisville Bans "No Knock" Warrants With "Breonna's Law"; Trump Campaign's Coronavirus Campaign Rally Waiver. Aired 8-9p ET
Aired June 11, 2020 - 20:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ABBY PHILLIP, CNN POLITICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Abby Phillip, CNN, Washington.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: And thanks very much to Abby, and thanks to all of you, as always. ANDERSON COOPER 360 with Anderson starts now.
[20:00:10]
ANDERSON COOPER, CNN HOST: Erin, thanks. Good evening.
At a moment of sweeping change in this country on the question of race and justice, the President of the United States today signaled his resistance to it and showed in ways that we'll talk about tonight how out of step he appears to be where a significant part of the country now he is.
He's been building up to this for days now. His senior advisors battled over whether he should give some kind of address to the nation on this subject and one Cabinet Secretary said, stay tuned.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DR. BEN CARSON, U.S. HUD SECRETARY: I believe you're going to be hearing from the President this week on this topic in some detail.
And I would -- I would ask you maybe to reserve judgment until after that time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Well, the question tonight, did we just witness that moment that Dr. Ben Carson was saying stay tuned for.
Were his remarks, were the President's remarks this afternoon to a handpicked roundtable in Dallas all there is? Because if so, nothing much has changed. The President began today by praising himself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: From day one, I've been fighting for the forgotten men and women of America and I think we've been doing a great job of it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: He praised himself as he has, of course, many times already for low black unemployment until in his words, the plague from China arrived. He then addressed the issue of systematic racism by alluding to it than undermining the notion.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: In recent days, there had been vigorous discussion about how to ensure fairness, equality, and justice for all of our people. Unfortunately, there are some trying to stoke division and to push an extreme agenda, which we won't go for that will produce only more poverty, more crime, more suffering.
We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear, but we will make no progress and heal no wounds by falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racists or bigots.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: We have to work together to confront bigotry and prejudice wherever they appear, the President said. The question is when has Donald Trump called out bigotry or prejudice when it has appeared? How often? When? We know he is familiar with bigotry and prejudice, his father practiced it in business, the business that his son continued in, and Donald Trump has promoted bigotry and prejudice -- in his words -- for decades. This we know.
The question is, when has he called it out when it's appeared? Perhaps the White House will provide examples. He went on to say that they will make no progress by quote, "falsely labeling tens of millions of decent Americans as racists or bigots." Who is they? It is the thugs he has spoken about protesting in the streets?
The marches that have been taking place night after night overwhelmingly peaceful throughout this country have not been saying -- the marchers -- have not been saying that tens of millions of people are racist or bigots. They're asking for equal justice for everyone.
They're asking for everyone to acknowledge the well-founded fear that African Americans experience in encounters with police every single day that white Americans simply do not.
It's also worth noting throughout his remarks this afternoon, the President never once mentioned George Floyd's name or Breonna Taylor or Ahmaud Arbery. He spoke instead of police being attacked, police being knifed, police being shot.
And at a moment when so much of the country is talking about reforming police and making it more responsive to the communities the law is supposed to protect and serve, the President again spoke approvingly of force. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: I said and people said, oh, I don't know if we like that expression. I said we have to dominate the streets. You can't let that happen, what happened in New York City. The damage they've done. We have to dominate this.
And I was criticized for that statement. I made the statement, we have to dominate the street and they said, oh, that's such a terrible thing. Well, guess what? You know who dominated the streets? People that you don't want to dominate the streets and look at the damage they did. So, I'll stick with that.
And I think most of the people in this room, maybe every person in this room will stick with that and we're doing it with compassion, if you think about it. We are dominating the street with compassion, because we're saving lives and we are saving businesses. We're saving families from being wiped out after working hard for 20 and 30 years.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: Dominating the streets with compassion. Compassionate domination -- it is an interesting concept for a democracy. It's an interesting concept, the idea of dominating the people who are paying the taxes that fund the domination, but they're doing it compassionately according to the President.
As we said, it was a carefully curated group he was speaking to, minus critical voices. Among those who were not invited to this discussion of race and policing, the Dallas Police Chief, the County Sheriff and the District Attorney, all of whom are African American.
Also not invited, three Democratic Members of Congress from the area, again all three African American.
[20:05:05]
COOPER: The President did say the administration is working to finalize an Executive Order to quote, "encourage police departments nationwide to meet the most current professional standards for the use of force." Some encouragement, but the main message was one of law and order, of tarring protesters as a violent mob and barely acknowledging how rapidly and profoundly the country is changing all around him.
Whether it's cities and states banning chokeholds and neck restraints, NASCAR banning Confederate flags, cities removing Confederate monuments.
Today, the Republican-controlled Senate Armed Services Committee adopted a measure by Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren for taking Confederate names off military bases like Fort Bragg, home to hundreds of members of the 82nd Airborne who were nearly used against protesters in Washington.
And in striking contrast with the President's attitude toward admitting mistakes, Joint Chiefs Chairman, General Mark Milley, who took part wearing combat fatigues in the President's church publicity stunt two Monday's ago today, two weeks later apologized.
Here's what he told graduates at the National Defense University in a video commencement speech today.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. MARK MILLEY, CHAIRMAN OF THE JOINT CHIEFS OF STAFF: As senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched and I am not immune.
As many of you saw, the results of the photograph of me at Lafayette Square last week has sparked a national debate about the role of the military and civil society.
I should not have been there. My presence in that moment, and in that environment, created a perception of the military involved in domestic politics.
As a commissioned uniformed officer, it was a mistake that I've learned from and I sincerely hope we all can learn from it.
We wear the cloth of our nation. It comes from the people of our nation. We must hold dear the principle of apolitical military that is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our republic.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: And good for him. A leader admits a mistake. It wasn't so hard. Nobody's going to criticize him for admitting a mistake. The President might pay attention to General Milley.
CNN Chief White House correspondent, Jim Acosta joins us now with more. So Jim, the President in this -- in an interview with Fox News talked about police. He also talked about the, you know, his phrase that he used when the looting starts, the shooting starts and he claimed that, you know, he just heard it over the years, a lot of people saying it over the years.
The fact that you've heard something a lot of people just kind of saying over the years, that's not a good indication that it's a legitimate phrase, or you might want to, if you're a President, know where that phrase comes from.
He claims even today, he thought it came from, I think the Mayor of Philadelphia, when in fact it came from a Southern Sheriff in Miami in 1967. What did he say about police?
JIM ACOSTA, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Exactly, yes. Exactly, Anderson. I mean, the President is still having trouble answering that question about when to used that phrase, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
He tried to say he has known about this phrase for some time, but then mischaracterized what it means saying that when people are out looting, sometimes people get shot. When the Police Chief in Miami when he uttered that phrase back in the
1960s meant if you go out and you loot, you are going to get shot by our police officers. So, the President continues to mischaracterize that.
As for the overall issue of police brutality, and this played out at the church, he was speaking out earlier today, Anderson. The President seems to be spending more time lamenting the fact that officers are sometimes targeted in the line of duty. Regrettably, that is the case, more so than what happens to people like George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, and all of the other victims of police brutality that have been in the news over the last several years.
And the President was asked about this on one of his favorite conservative news outlets and here's more of what he had to say.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: We are going to do lots of, I think, good things. But we also have to keep our police and our law enforcement strong. They have to do it right. They have to be trained in a proper manner. They have to do it right.
Again, the sad thing is that they are very professional, but when you see an event like that with the more than eight minutes of horror. That's eight minutes of horror. It's a disgrace.
And then people start saying, well, are all police like that? They don't know. Maybe they don't think about it that much. It doesn't make any difference. The fact is, they start saying well, police are like that. Police aren't like that. Most of the police officers are really good people.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
ACOSTA: And earlier today, Anderson, the President pledged he will be taking some executive action to take aim at some of these police tactics and professionalize law enforcement agencies around the country.
But Anderson, at this point, it's not clear whether any of these executive actions will have any teeth and whether or not the President will sign on to some of these reformed proposals up on Capitol Hill.
Even the Republicans in the House and the Senate seem to be moving further ahead in terms of what would like to see done by the President in the White House at this point -- Anderson.
[20:10:14]
COOPER: It seems so obvious now that the President is using this and talking about this in ways that he believe will best suit him for reelection. He talks about they, you know, the people he has labeled thugs, protesters in the streets, and you know, good decent Americans who they are calling racist.
I mean, it's all about division. Is this the talk that Ben Carson was saying stay tuned for? I mean, is this all there is?
ACOSTA: Anderson, it all appears to be about his base and not about race. The President you know, was on Twitter earlier today defending the tactics that were used in Lafayette Park, praising the National Guard saying that it was all too easy the way they moved through those protesters on June 1st.
Obviously, there are people like Secretary Carson, there officials inside the White House that we talk to you from time to time who will say no, the President wants to use some unifying themes and try to talk to the whole nation.
But the end result, at the end of the day, either whether it's on Twitter or in an interview with a favorite conservative news outlet, he is making appeals to his base.
I mean, earlier today, the White House Press Secretary, Anderson, was defending the fact that the President is going to hold his first pandemic rally -- a rally in the middle of this pandemic in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the scene in one of the worst incidents of racial violence against African Americans in this country's history and doing it on June 19th, also known as Juneteenth, the day that emancipated slaves -- or when we first learned about the Emancipation Proclamation down in Texas.
And so, the White House Press Secretary tried to say, well, the President understands all of that. Anderson, if he doesn't understand where the expression when the looting starts, the shooting starts comes from, it's hard to imagine that he is well versed in all of that history that he appears to be treading into when he has this rally next week.
It seems to be time and again, Anderson, just a failure to grasp the reality on the ground and on the streets where people are clamoring for change -- Anderson.
COOPER: Or the flip is true, he absolutely grasps the reality on the streets and what is actually happening. He just doesn't like it and he wants to try to stop it as best he can.
We just got the sound of him, you know, justifying his use of, you know, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Let's look at what he is claiming now.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
TRUMP: So, that's an expression I've heard over the years and it's --
QUESTION: Do you know where it comes from?
TRUMP: I think Philadelphia, the Mayor of Philadelphia.
QUESTION: No, it comes from 1967. I was About 18 months old at the time. Everybody is shooting wiki because he probably got it wrong. But it was from the Chief of Police in Miami. He was cracking down and he meant what he said. And he said, I don't even care if it makes it look like brutality, I'm
going to crack down, when the looting starts, the shooting starts.
TRUMP: Yes.
QUESTION: That frightened a lot of people when he said that.
TRUMP: It also comes from a very tough Mayor, who might have been Police Commissioner at the time, but I think the Mayor of Philadelphia named, Frank Rizzo. And he had an expression like that, but I've heard it many times from -- I think, it's been used many times.
It means two things, very different things. One is if there's looting, there's probably going to be shooting and that's not as a threat. That's really just a fact because that's what happens.
And the other is if there's looting there's going to be shooting. They are very different meanings.
QUESTION: Oh, interesting.
TRUMP: No, it's very different --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: By the way, Frank Rizzo was a Police Commissioner in Philadelphia 1968 to 1971. I mean, the police force, you know, police forces in the late 60s and early 70s in the City of Philadelphia in New York. Those were very different police forces even then they are right now.
So, you know, the idea that he is quoting Frank Rizzo is not necessarily going to, you know -- I mean, it's not the greatest -- I believe his statue was just targeted in Philadelphia as well.
But the idea that the President, you know, believes it's a nuanced phrase, meaning multiple things. I mean, just everybody knows what it means. We're not idiots.
ACOSTA: That's right. That's right. And he appears to relish this role of unleashing police forces in whatever city he sees fit. And Anderson, I mean, we still haven't had a chance to press the President on what took place in Lafayette Square behind me.
They finally took down the fence at the park and he still has not been pressed on these brutal, ridiculous tactics that were used to clear out those protesters where people were pummeled and gassed by their own government.
And the President is, if he can't handle these questions on Fox, it's hard to imagine how he is going to handle these questions when they're finally put to him. And you know, they haven't been the news bunker right now, but eventually these questions will be put to him. And I just can't imagine he'll be able to handle those questions very well.
You know, talking to people around him, he is still in this base mode where he thinks he can divide his way all the way to November and he seems to be doing that right now -- Anderson.
[20:15:37]
COOPER: Yes. Jim Acosta, maybe he can. Maybe that will work for him. Jim Acosta, thanks very much.
Reaction now from two CNN political commentators and former advisers to President Obama, Van Jones and David Axelrod, also Gloria Browne- Marshall who teaches Constitutional Law at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice here in New York. She is also the author of "Race Law in American Society: 1607 to Present."
Van, I mean, the event today was billed as a roundtable on justice disparities. He didn't focus on police violence against African Americans. He didn't talk about systematic racism or, you know, he's trying to make this you know, thugs in the streets, calling police officers "decent" quote-unquote Americans, racists and bigots.
Most of the people I know, the protesters, are talking about systematic problems within police forces, not necessarily even individuals and everybody is a racist. It is systematic problems that are ingrained in the justice system, in the healthcare system, in the education system, and on and on.
VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well, listen. The mere fact that we're having this conversation to this level. I'm not going to let anybody steal my joy today.
Yes, we're now trying to explain systemic racism in a country where NASCAR says we're not going to fly the Confederate flags anymore, where the NFL is apologizing for not supporting our peaceful protests earlier.
The dominoes are falling in one direction through corporate America, through the young people of America.
The irony here is that Donald Trump got into office by navigating the choppy waters of a populist uprising in the country in our party, you have the Bernie Sanders uprising in his party with a Donald Trump uprising. He should understand and recognize a populist uprising when he sees one.
But instead, this is a populist uprising against the status quo on race in this country. We are tired of his videos. We're tired of the stuff that is going on. And he is having a hard time navigating it because it doesn't fit with what he expects from populism in the country. But this is a populist uprising, too.
And so I'm not going to let anybody steal my joy. We don't even know what we're in right now. We are in a moment that maybe history will call maybe a Great Awakening, where people have come together. There is a new consensus that has emerged and people are moving on to get stuff done at all levels of society that the Trump administration still has an opportunity to be a more constructive part of this process. But the reality is, the reason he is even talking about this and the
reason that we're talking about this is because millions -- tens of millions of ordinary Americans black, white and otherwise are in the streets right now wanting a better way forward, and the dominoes are falling in only one direction.
COOPER: Professor Browne-Marshall, I mean, just yesterday, the President's top economic adviser, Larry Kudlow says he doesn't believe there is systematic racism in the United States.
I mean, if the President and his top aides deny there is a problem, how can they be part of the solution?
GLORIA BROWNE-MARSHALL, PROFESSOR OF CONSTITUTIONAL LAW, JOHN JAY COLLEGE OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE: Well, they can't be and that's why people are in the streets. We can't expect a man, Donald Trump, who abused his public to stop other people, the police officers from terrorizing the black community and abusing their authority.
There are the majority of police officers who do good work. They go into this job to help people. And there are the rogue police officers who are outright terrorists and we saw it with Derrick Chauvin that he was terrorizing the black community and has probably been terrorizing the black community for many years, teaching younger officers how to terrorize the black community.
So, I had a chance to actually talk with the daughter of George Wallace and George Wallace knew when he ran for office that he was running for office on a ticket of racism and he used it to propel himself to a national stage.
Donald Trump is doing the same thing, but I'll tell you this, George Wallace's daughter apologized for what her father did and history is going to have the children or the grandchildren of Donald Trump apologizing to this country for what he is doing.
COOPER: Well, there's no doubt I mean, you know, Ivanka Trump is going to be wanting to sell, you know, clothes and shoes to people. You have -- there's no doubt she's going to be going on a campaign of reinvention when her father is out of office.
David, the reference the President made to Frank Rizzo and the phrase, you know, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Rizzo was someone who was known for police brutality.
I mean, if you were the Police Commissioner in 1968 to 1970 in the City of Philadelphia, you knew a thing or two about brutality.
DAVID AXELROD, CNN SENIOR POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes, if you look -- if you looked up racism and brutality in the dictionary, you'd find Frank Rizzo's picture. He brutalized his citizens, particularly his citizens of color and he celebrated that and ultimately ran for Mayor on that kind of platform as the President is trying to run for on what he calls a law and order platform here.
But he could not have invoked a worse symbol than Frank Rizzo who is exactly what America is saying. We need to live in the past. We need to confront that past and we need to address that past.
You know, the President talked about, you know, police officers who risked their lives, some get shot. He is absolutely right and I agree what was said, most of them do a fine job -- heroic job and in many cases -- but when a police officer gets shot, the whole force of the Criminal Justice System comes down on their assailants.
When a police officer harasses or in the case of George Floyd kills someone -- that is a question. You know, it is very rare in America for a police officer to be disciplined for that.
These are systemic problems. They are wrong. They are a part of a larger problem. I agree with Van. I'm really encouraged. I think the President, you know, the only math he does is division, but I don't think he is reading the math of this moment, right, as he is running for reelection because this country is much more united than he thinks.
And it's united on the other side of this debate. People were shocked by what they saw in Minneapolis. They were shocked by what they saw in Georgia and there is an awakening going on and he is still pushing the same old buttons hoping for the same reaction, and I think he is getting less and less of a response.
COOPER: David Axelrod, Van Jones, Gloria Browne-Marshall, thank you very much. I appreciate it.
Coming next, another deeply troubling reminder that whether or not we are tired of the coronavirus, the virus is not tired of us. A new projection that ought to get everyone's attention when we come back.
And later, Chicago's Mayor joins us after members of the Chicago Police force were caught on tape lounging around in a Congressman's office drinking his coffee, popping his popcorn the Congressman says, with police in the streets and looting nearby. We'll be right back.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:27:15]
COOPER: Today, the State of South Carolina reported the highest single day number of coronavirus cases since the outbreak began. So many states are lifting more and more restrictions as cases are spiking. Last night, we reported on new projections from Harvard University of another hundred thousand virus deaths in this country by September.
Now, there's a new projection at the University of Washington's influential modeling effort and it too is sobering.
Joining us, Dr. Chris Murray, the Director of the University's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. Dr. Murray your model now predicts nearly 170,000 deaths by October 1st. How did you get to that number?
DR. CHRIS MURRAY, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION, UNIVERSITY OF WASHINGTON: So, we're taking into account, Anderson, you know the big surge in mobile that we've been seeing unfold since actually the end of April and that's going -- it is driving up transmission.
We now have survey data that's collected every day that tells us the number of contacts people are having and that's going up, and that's going into the model.
And those -- that trajectory is being balanced against a good fraction of America, maybe 40 percent wearing a mask at all times, you know, improved testing, and then seasonality working in our favor.
But all of that starts to turn in August, and so we're going to see this sort of slow -- very slow decline -- some states going up like Arizona, but nationally, numbers going down.
But the whole thing turns around at the end of August, and we go from, you know, just under 400 deaths a day, all the way up to about a thousand deaths a day by the end of September, which bodes really badly past October 1st.
COOPER: And how can you specify that it's at that at the end of August that there is that turn?
MURRAY: Well, what that comes from is that we've found a really strong relationship by looking back in the past, in the last 10 years in the United States, by state, by week of deaths from pneumonia. And we have found that that variable, you know, the number of deaths each week from pneumonia is really predictive of what's going on in the U.S. in aggregate. It's one of the things it's giving us, quote, "protection" against all the increased mobility that's out there and contact. And that turns around at the end of August.
And so -- and kids start to go back to school mid-August, so those two come together and And that really is going to drive transmission, we think, way up at that point.
COOPER: It's certainly seems you know, people have or at least, you know, Governors, the President, others have made the choice. Look, you know, we have to get businesses back online. We have to get going again as an economy and one can argue about that.
[20:30:10]
But given that reality, that things are opening and moving, and maybe that will change at some point, if it gets really bad, maybe it won't. But regardless, there is still a thing that individuals can do. I mean, we know what works, to slow this to protect oneself. And it's wearing a mask, it's social distancing, people, I mean, if people feel deflated hearing this, that there's going to be this potential, you know, surge at the end of August, 170,000 deaths by October, there's still things you -- as an individual can do.
CHRIS MURRAY, DIRECTOR, INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH METRICS AND EVALUATION: There's a lot we can do. You know, masks really work, the systematic analysis and we've done our own on that shows about a 50% protection. And, you know, only 40% of Americans always wear a mask and that number is not getting higher, it's probably going to start dropping. So that's one way to really prevent. And then there's just the number of people close contacts that people are having.
Back in, you know, mid-April, the number of close contacts that people had was really, really small and it's just been steadily rising since then. And those are two things that are really within the control of people. And then we're going to have to see, we're going to see if governors -- if things get really bad in November or later. What will happen at that point?
COOPER: Dr. Chris Murray, I appreciate you being with us. Thank you very much. So bring, but I appreciate that. It's important to hear.
Up next breaking news, the President again threatened to send troops into a major American city, we're just getting the sound and we're going to play it for you get reaction on the ground in Seattle, which is city he's talking about.
Also, what the Chicago Police Department plans to do after police officers are caught on camera lounging in a congressman's office on the south side of the city. The congressman says there was nearby looting at the same time. The officers were drinking his coffee and chilling out. Congressman said they were even eating his popcorn. Talk to the mayor of Chicago ahead.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:36:36]
COOPER: Even as reporting emerges on how close the President came to sending active duty troops into Washington D.C. before ultimately being persuaded not to. He's threatening to do the same this time to Seattle where protesters are occupying part of the city. Washington Governor Jay Inslee, saying quote, although unpermitted and we should remember we are still in a pandemic, the area's largely peaceful. President sees it otherwise he's calling on him to use force or he will he claims.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: We're not going to let this happen in Seattle, if we have to go in we're going to go into Governor's either going to do it, but the governor to do it. He's got great National Guard troops. He'll pick it do it one way or the other, it's going to get done. These people are not going to occupy a major portion of a great city.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: CNN's Dan Simon is in Seattle forest. Dan can you describe what is going on, where you are and explain to people what's actually happening?
DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, hi Anderson. It's a pretty remarkable scene out here behind me is the Seattle Police station that has essentially been overtaken by these protesters. You can see it's totally been the face. Look at the side where it says Seattle people department were used to say, the Seattle Police Department, and you can see that the windows have been completely boarded up. Let me explain, Anderson how this all came to pass. For several days in the wake of George Floyd's death, you had violent clashes between protesters and police officers here in front of this department. And tear gas was deployed. It was not a pretty scene.
So, the department made the calculated decision that they were going to try to de escalate things, and essentially abandoned that apartment. Well, when that happened, you had protesters essentially flood the zone. And that's what you have today. You can see behind me, all these protesters here now, despite the fact that this all began with force, this, what you're seeing in front of me, is a peaceful situation. In fact, it sort of looks like a street festival look behind that you can see all these people in the street, there's food being served, there's a medical tent, people are camping out. There's live music at night. They're watching movies. So it's sort of a, you know, a contradictory situation. On the one hand, it began with forests, but right now it's peaceful. Anderson?
COOPER: And if the President were to go in as he's threatened, what -- I mean, what would the response be? I mean, I mean, can people come and go from this area. I mean, is this an area that has been? I mean, the President makes it sound like this is an area that has been taken over and is being ruled by, you know, somebody and they, you know, it is being ruled by, you know by -- I don't know what how we would describe them.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Everybody, everybody.
SIMON: Yes, well, folks can certainly come and go and this area has been traditionally a community, a neighborhood where there's been a bastion of free speech and people have come together. Now, if in fact there is going to be federal officers or federal law enforcement come to this area, it is not going to be a pretty situation. These people have made it clear that unless there's some kind of major reform and remember, they want to see this Police Department defunded or even abolished short of some type of major concession. They're not going to leave voluntarily.
[20:40:05]
And we should point out that Washington is an open carry state and no doubt some of these protesters are armed, Anderson. So you have to worry about the potential for bloodshed, the potential for violence if in fact, they're going to try to remove these people by force. Anderson.
COOPER: Dan Simon, appreciate it. Thanks.
Now to Chicago, an allegation of police misconduct is caught on camera. This isn't an arrest video. Take a look at the mayor of Chicago says up to 13 city police officers including three supervisors were caught just hanging out and Congressman Bobby Rush's campaign office last week as nearby businesses were being looted. Here's what the congressman said about the officers at a press conference this afternoon.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
REP. BOBBY RUSH (D-IL): They even had an unmitigated (INAUDIBLE) to go and make coffee for themselves. And some pop -- popcorn, my popcorn in my microwave. Wow. Looters was tearing apart businesses within their site within their reach.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
COOPER: So the mayor of Chicago, they're sitting next to Congressman Rush and the mayor of Chicago Lori Lightfoot joins me now.
Mayor, thanks so much for being with us. How did this happen?
MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D) CHICAGO: You know, it's really quite mind boggling. And it's almost impossible to believe that it's true. But yet we have five hours of videotape documenting exactly what happened. Earlier in the day, looting started in a strip mall, the congressman's campaign office was broken into. And then in the early morning hours, these police officers apparently decided to help themselves, started out with a small group, and then grew over time to 13 officers including three what we call white shirts, meaning three supervisors. It's one of the most disgraceful, disrespectful things that I've ever seen. And we are absolutely not going to tolerate it.
COOPER: You know, regardless of the what may happen to each of these officers just in general one of the big questions about reforming police departments is disciplining how officers are disciplined and whether or not, you know, they can be disciplined? What actually happens to them? How difficult is it -- I mean, you said, you know, this is -- you're going to do something about this. What can you actually do? How difficult is it actually to discipline police officers?
LIGHTFOOT: Well, it's not difficult. They do have extraordinary due process rights, which is in and of itself, a problem that we've got to fix. We've got to start by licensing police officers and I call for that today. We've got to change state laws so that we have a baseline of conduct that's acceptable and that we eliminate the problem of so- called past the trap where an officer gets disgraced, gets fired, and then he just moves down the road to the next town, we've got to make sure that never becomes a possibility again.
We've got to make sure that we really hit them where it hurts and make sure that if you have been convicted of a crime, if you resign under investigation, you lose your pension. That should just be automatic. We have notorious police officers here. Jon Burge and others who have done horrible things, cost the city literally hundreds of millions of dollars. And yet Jon Burge, one of the most notorious police, torturers, probably in the United States, he died collecting his pension. So it's all about the will and really seizing this moment to take on the police contracts and other things that are an impediment to reform and accountability.
And I'm determined in partnership and with people of goodwill in my city in my state to use this moment as an opportunity to turn things around and really move in a completely different direction on policing.
COOPER: Do you ever see or hear police unions policing themselves police union saying you know what, actually, here's a bad apple. We actually we've identified a bad apple and we're concerned because it reflects badly on the rest of the police force.
LIGHTFOOT: No --
COOPER: Does that ever happen?
LIGHTFOOT: So it happens so rarely. I have actually seen it. When I worked for the police department back in the early 2000s, but it's very rare. Even today, literally, the officers were through their various contexts. We're trying to say, the congressman actually invited us in and he's lying now, Bobby Rush is a former Black Panther. He didn't invite the police into his office. And the fact that they would even say that and even assuming that was true, it -- five hours when literally murder and mayhem is happening everywhere.
[20:45:10]
Police officers are getting the crap beaten out of them. There were 10 -- ones being called that's an officer distress and you take a siesta for five hours. It's outrageous. And the fact that even in this moment, as shameful as this context is, there are people who are literally saying, making excuses and saying, we're being too harsh. No, no, no. We have not been too harsh. You can be supportive of people who do their job the right way, and still hold the bad ones accountable. That's what has to happen.
COOPER: Mayor Lori Lightfoot, appreciate your time. Thank you.
LIGHTFOOT: Thank you.
COOPER: On the day Louisville, Kentucky passes Breonna's law the mother of Breonna Taylor joins me to discuss why there have been no arrests in the in the death of her daughter killed by police in her own home in the middle of the night in March.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[20:50:17]
COOPER: Tonight when American city has unanimously voted to end no knock warrants, calling Breonna's law comes up to the death of a young African American woman and his questions remain about why police entered her home in the middle of the night shot her at least eight times. Breonna Taylor was an EMT in Louisville, Kentucky. In March police use a no knock warrant to forcefully enter her home. The officer say they announced their presence. Taylor's family said they did not. Taylor's boyfriend fired shots. He says he didn't know who these plainclothes officers were that they hadn't identified themselves. Police fired back killing Taylor. Since then the officers plus another who filed for the warrant have been reassigned. Tonight the city council not only banned no knock warrants, but also regulated the use of search warrants and body cameras.
On Wednesday and mostly blank incident report was released to a local newspaper under injurie, the report said none. Again she was shot at least eight times. She was killed.
Before air I spoke with Breonna's mother Tamika Palmer and family attorneys, Lonita Baker and Benjamin Crump.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Ms. Palmer, first of all, I am so sorry for your loss. What do you make of what is happening in America right now? What do you think Breonna would think about what's happening?
TAMIKA PALMER, BREONNA TAYLOR'S MOTHER: She would be amazed to see the world changing, so.
COOPER: And have you heard Ms. Palmer from the city or the police department in Louisville at all or in any sort of meaningful way? Because it's been almost three months and my understanding is those officers involved or they're still on the job?
PALMER: Yes, they are the police department now, but there's other people in the city (INAUDIBLE)
COOPER: Mr. Crump in Breonna's case, the three officers involved here that they have not faced any charges. They're still working for Louisville Police Department, they're on administrative leave. Does that make any sense to you? I mean, it's been nearly three months.
BENJAMIN CRUMP, ATTORNEY: Anderson, it makes no sense at all when you consider how they violated their policies and procedures. And furthermore, their police report that came out yesterday, just was void of anything that made sense when they erroneously put on the reports report that there were no injuries in the execution of the search warrant when Breonna Taylor was killed. Furthermore, they said there was no forced injury and we know that is a lie because they used a battering ram to bust open the front door never identify themselves and being in plainclothes and so on.
So how was Breonna and a Kenneth Walker (INAUDIBLE) to know who was coming into their home that it was the police and not some home invasion.
COOPER: Ms. Baker, I know you're fighting to get a new law passed called Breonna's law that would ban no knock warrants, which is as Mr. Crump was saying that's what the police used on the night that Breonna was killed. Where does that stand right now?
LONITA BAKER, ATTORNEY: Well, is that for a full vote tonight, I am encouraged that it will pass up -- but we have bipartisan support of Breonna's law at the metro Council. And it will not only ban no knock warrants, it would also require officers to wear body cameras during the execution of these search act. Not only wear them but also activate their body cameras because that's one of the issues we also see. So, so we are encouraged that it will pass and once it's passed in mobile, we hope to see it pass around the country as well.
COOPER: Ms. Palmer, I know it was Breonna's 27th birthday last Friday. And I know you've said you haven't had time to grieve. I can't imagine what these last almost three months have been like for you. What do you want people to know about Breonna? What was she like?
PALMER: Just she was she was loving and caring and she loves to help people. She loves to be around family and everybody loved her, her co- workers or friends. Her family was alive. She was just so full of life. She was so full of life.
COOPER: It's interesting to use that expression full of life because when I was looking at the pictures of her and all the pictures I've seen of her, I mean she's got this smile and this joyful. Just a joyful kind of countenance about her. She really just jumps off the page and in photographs. I mean, there must have been I kind of just looking at her picture you get a sense of the personality she must have had an in life.
[20:55:08]
PALMER: Oh definitely see -- she had an old -- so she was just -- yes, she loved to smile. She loved to just be this person. She had a vibe out of this world. Like you couldn't ask for a better child at all.
CRUMP: Anderson --
COOPER: And Mr. Crump -- yes, go ahead.
CRUMP: And Ms. Palmer, Attorney Baker, Breonna was saving lives while she was living and now with the passage of the Breonna Taylor Law, she will be saving lives forever.
PALMER: Absolutely.
BAKER: Yes.
COOPER: Tamika Palmer, I'm just so sorry for all that you have gone through and are going through and I hope you get justice and peace. Thank you so much for being with us and Lonita Baker and Benjamin Crump as well. Thank you.
PALMER: Thank you.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
COOPER: Just ahead on this busy night more breaking news. The Republican National Committee has just announced the new city where they'll hold their convention after pulling out of Charlotte, North Carolina. That and what the Trump campaign wants attendees of their rallies to agree to in case they catch the coronavirus at one of the events. (COMMERCIAL BREAK)
COOPER: Just a moment ago, Republicans announced that they will now hold the Primetime portion of their convention where the President accepts his nomination in Jacksonville, Florida. This comes after President Trump was angry that North Carolina's governor whose city of Charlotte was to hold the entire convention will not allow mass gatherings of people while his state is still battling the coronavirus. The news also comes as the President announced his first big campaign rally next week as we reported in Tulsa, Oklahoma, other mass gathering of people and the man famous for making employees sign non disclosure agreements is requiring that rally attendees sign a liability waiver.
[21:00:00]
Invitation sent by the campaign has this language toward the bottom quote, by clicking register below, you're acknowledging that inherent risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any public place where people are present. By attending the rally you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold Donald J. Trump for President Incorporate as well as others liable for any illness or injury.
Currently there are more than 113,000 dead from this virus and as we reported earlier, that number could reach 170,000 more deaths by October.
The news continues. I want to head over to Chris for "CUOMO PRIMETIME". Chris?
