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Erin Burnett Outfront
House Set To Pass Biden's COVID Relief Plan Tomorrow; No Republican Support So Far Despite Bill's Popularity; Interview With Rep. Katie Porter (D-CA); GOP Bashes COVID Relief Bill As "Socialist" On Eve Of Final Vote; 100,000-Plus Migrants Arrested At U.S.-Mexico Border Over Four Weeks; Jury Selection Begins In Ex-Officer's Trial In Death Of George Floyd; CDC Says It May Update Travel Guidelines For The Fully Vaccinated; Queen On Harry & Meghan Interview: The Whole Family Is Saddened. Aired 7-8p ET
Aired March 09, 2021 - 19:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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"ERIN BURNETT OUTFRONT" starts right now.
ERIN BURNETT, CNN HOST: OUTFRONT next, a major victory for Joe Biden, all but set in a matter of hours. Republicans united in opposition to the COVID relief bill, but do their complaints add up?
Plus, a troubling surge at the border. There is now a record number of unaccompanied children in custody.
And the uncanny similarities between Princess Diana's bombshell interview and Meghan's. Let's go OUTFRONT.
And good evening. I'm Erin Burnett.
OUTFRONT tonight, Biden's big win. A monumental piece of legislation about to pass and be signed by the President into law. And this bill is huge, massive. That is the fair way to describe it, not just when it comes to its price tag, but to its ambition and its impact. It is one of the biggest expansions of benefits since Lyndon Johnson was president. And Democrats from progressive to moderates are united in their support.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. BERNIE SANDERS (I-VT): This is the most significant legislation for working people that has been passed in decades.
SEN. JOE MANCHIN (D-WV): Tremendous piece of legislation is going to create an awful lot of employment all across this country.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Getting both Sen. Sanders and Sen. Manchin, the two poles of the Democratic Party onboard right now is no easy feat, but they are united and Republicans also are united in opposition.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Socialist wish list.
SEN. JOHN KENNEDY (R-LA): This is a left of Lenin, neo-socialist wish list.
SEN. JOSH HAWLEY (R-MO): It is a left-wing giveaway. It is a left-wing social agenda.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: No Republicans so far getting behind the bill, not a single one. Even though, of course, it is wildly popular, 62 percent of voters support it, which is no surprise given that it includes the biggest stimulus checks so far during COVID.
Phil Mattingly is OUTFRONT live near the White House. Phil, President Biden is now getting ready to sell this bill to the American people in a big way and doing a kind of a blitz the likes of which we have not seen from him.
PHIL MATTINGLY, CNN SENIOR WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Yes. That's exactly right, Erin. Look, there's a recognition inside the White House that while those popularity ratings for this bill have remained remarkably stable over the course of the President's first 49 days in office, they need to keep pushing. Obviously, the President has a primetime address on Thursday night. This will be a central pillar of that address. The expectation is the House will pass this bill tomorrow.
But after that, the President is going to hit the road. He will be in Air Force One. He will be traveling around. And I think one of the things you hear repeatedly from administration officials is they have learned lessons from 2009. Obviously, President Obama passing a $787 billion stimulus back then and they don't believe the President or his team put enough effort into selling it, put enough effort into letting people know the actual benefits of that plan.
That will be the primary purpose of President Biden and his team over the next several weeks. One other element to keep an eye on that's probably just as important, if not more so and that's the implementation.
There is a recognition inside the White House that this bill is very, very positive from their perspective, buoyant is what I would probably characterize White House advisors and congressional Democrats is feeling up to this point, but now they actually have to deliver and first and foremost comes from those stimulus checks, obviously $1,400 checks.
The Treasury Department, IRS are already working together to get those checks out as fast as possible. Erin, the President has said he wants those checks out by the end of the month. I'm told that timeline is going to move up. There's an expectation that those checks should get out the door,
particularly the individuals that have their bank account information already on file with the Treasury Department and IRS over the course of the next couple of weeks.
One thing that will be very different though from his predecessor, obviously, President Trump signed two bills that sent stimulus checks out. President Biden's name will not be on them. President Trump made a very big deal of having his name on those paper checks that were sent out.
President Biden according to his Press Secretary, Jen Psaki, today, it was not a priority for him. The President's priority now getting those checks out as fast as possible. So while President Trump wanted, as he called it, his name on a big fat stimulus check, President Biden just wants to get him out the door, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Phil.
So I want to go now to Democratic Congresswoman Katie Porter of California. And Congresswoman, I'm glad to see you again. Obviously, it looks like Democrats are united in support of this bill, as I said, from progressives to moderates. The question though is do you know of any of a single Republican in the House who will support it?
REP. KATIE PORTER (D-CA): At this time, I don't know of any. But I certainly hope that they will. And I think the right frame to think about that is that we historically had bipartisan agreement about providing disaster relief. That has been one of the most bipartisan aspects.
And here's the thing, COVID-19, this pandemic has been a disaster and this American rescue plan is disaster relief, so I hope we'll see Republicans step up and support it.
BURNETT: So it is the biggest obviously stimulus package related to COVID that we have had thus far even as we are vaccinating people and some argue the package is too big for the time.
[19:05:09]
Obviously, former Treasury Secretary Larry Summers, a Democrat, wrote recently that the bill could set off inflationary pressures of a kind we have not seen in a generation with consequences for the value of the dollar and financial stability. The bill is five to six times bigger than it would need to be just to replace lost income from COVID.
Do you have any concern that the bill could end up being deeply damaging to America's future, even if it feels good right now?
PORTER: Well, first, I think we can debate whether Larry Summers is still a Democrat, given that he's opposing something that virtually every Democratic member of Congress has supported. But second, I think what's not being quantified by Mr. Summers is the cost of inaction and the reality is this pandemic has not fallen evenly on everybody. Perhaps it hasn't hurt him, but the reality is that we have people of
color, particularly women of color, who have exited the workforce that are unable to return. They need help putting food on the table. They need help affording childcare and our state and local governments need help balancing their budgets.
So there's a real danger here of going too small and of not doing enough, particularly when you look at what we've done here in the United States compared to our competitor nations, given how severe our COVID-19 outbreak has been.
BURNETT: So let me ask though to this point of the timing, when the first stimulus checks went out in April of 2000, unemployment was 14.7 percent. It is now 6.2 percent. The savings rate has surged and yet these are the biggest checks of any stimulus thus far.
So just so we understand, why now, why do they need to be the biggest at this point when unemployment has plunged?
So unemployment may have gone down from the worst of the time on COVID, but some of the remaining unemployment is structural and it's going to be very difficult to meet. The people who've been able to work remotely who could make an adjustment, who could get a laptop, businesses that could reopen with a combination over the course of the last several months, they've done so.
So what's remaining is people who are really going to have a difficult time returning to their jobs because of the kind of work that they're in or because of their life circumstances. And by the way, while that may be true about the unemployment figure, there are other parts of our economy that are in even worse shape.
So our states, our cities, our counties have stretched their budgets to the absolute breaking point and they desperately need this funding or they're going to face having to make massive layoffs that could double or triple the unemployment rate very quickly.
BURNETT: One thing that you've been outspoken about but I want to make sure you get a chance to talk about is how this impacts - well, I mean, there's all kinds of impacts that we don't always see in all cases. You happen to be a single mother. You've been outspoken about something a lot of people did not see about how the bill penalizes single parents, because single parents who make as much money as married parents may not qualify for the same child tax credits.
So tell me how this could happen, why this is not fair across the board.
PORTER: Well, our country has had a long-standing tradition of kind of lining up different kinds of families; single people, people who filed head of household which are very often single parents and then married couples and giving them different kinds of tax relief. Well, when we focus on the child tax credit, the focus should be on the child, not under on the parents' marital status.
And so we want every child in this country to have adequate nutritious food, to have safe housing and to be able to get quality childcare. So to do that, we need to give the same child tax benefit to each household regardless of the parents' marriage status and that's something that simply, I think, until I had raised the issue, a lot of people hadn't thought about.
BURNETT: Yes. No, I don't think they had and I think it's really important that you're pointing that out and it has a simple solution, focus on the child is how you do it as opposed to the parents' marital status. Thank you very much, Congresswoman, I appreciate your time.
PORTER: Thank you.
BURNETT: And I want to go now to Michael Smerconish who, obviously, you host "SMERCONISH," you also host radio show and in that you take calls from people, you talk to voters. Obviously, this bill is extremely popular. It has the biggest checks of all the bills thus far. So what does this mean? The GOP is united in coming out against. By the way, for the other ones with the checks, not for this one, is it going to hurt them or not in the next election?
MICHAEL SMERCONISH, CNN ANCHOR: Erin, I think what they're making is a what's the matter with Kansas type wager. I'm sure you remember Thomas Frank's immensely popular book a couple of years ago, which spoke of voters willing to vote against their own economic interest, particularly in cases where there are cultural issues at play.
[19:10:00]
Here the Republican Party in the last decade has made great inroads in particular with white working-class voters. And so you would say to yourself, isn't this going to jeopardize that standing, for example, as we approach the 2022 midterm. I think that their calculus is to say that so long as there are other cultural issues in play, they don't run that risk.
BURNETT: So let me ask you about those, Erick Erickson pointed out what you're saying. His take was this, "I know a lot of smart people are out there saying the GOP was so focused on Dr. Seuss that they couldn't mount effective opposition to the COVID plan. I think they need to learn what I've started learning - more voters will remember Seuss when they vote than the COVID plan." What do you think?
SMERCONISH: I think there's some truth in that, I think it's a great example of what I was just making reference to. And as to the economic argument, you already heard because you rolled some of the sound in your lead in. The argument that they make as well so much of this, in fact, The Wall Street Journal editorial board says 825 billion of the stimulus is really not related to COVID at all.
BURNETT: Right.
SMERCONISH: So that's largely a part of what they're saying. It's a progressive grab bag.
BURNETT: Right. And of course, there are real questions as I've said and time will tell, but as to sending out the biggest checks at this point in the crisis, that is not what you would expect, that is what is happening. Let me ask you about one other thing, though. This is pertaining to the former president who passed two of these.
Election records show that he has requested a mail-in ballot for a local election. Trump, of course, we all know how he feels about mail- in ballots. He said that that would result in the greatest fraud and him losing, but he wouldn't really lose in all of that business.
He's voted by mail before, but here he is, again, the irony.
SMERCONISH: So the interesting part about this is I think that the Palm Beach rules specify that he's too late to return it by mail, so he'll have to entrust a third party with the delivery. Erin, you know that derisively there's a name that Republicans use for that. They call it ballot harvesting. So he's apparently on the side of ballot harvesting with regard to his own ballot being returned in Palm Beach.
BURNETT: Site of mail-in ballots, it's a site of ballot harvesting, probably the site of, well, it should have three days from the date of the election to be counted, the site of all of those things that he was not before. Thanks so much, Michael.
SMERCONISH: Thanks, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. And next, an influx of migrants at the southern border. More than 100,000 migrants arrested. So what is Biden's plan?
Plus, the Judge in the George Floyd case ruling the jury cannot be told the officer was fired for putting his knee on Floyd's neck for about nine minutes. Floyd family attorney response.
Princess Diana and Meghan and eerie similarities in their stories.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:16:26]
BURNETT: New tonight, the White House saying the situation at the U.S.-Mexico border is 'not a crisis yet', but it does come as a record number of unaccompanied migrant children are now in custody at the southern border. And the more than 100,000 migrants arrested and encountered in recent weeks is at a five-year high. So whatever you want to call it, it is a dramatic surge.
Ed Lavandera is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
ED LAVANDERA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice over): In a tent city near the U.S.-Mexico border, Lijia Giselle Amador Zavala waits with her two children. She says she left Honduras nine months ago to seek asylum in the United States.
Lijia said she jumped the border two times illegally because of desperation to find work. Both times she was sent back to Mexico. Now, she says she'll wait for a legal way to cross. The anticipation spreading through this tent city in Tijuana, Mexico
speaks to the hope these migrants have that the Biden ministration will be more receptive to their plights.
Sandra Caballero says she has spent a year sitting on the border's edge with her husband and three children. She says they left the endless crisis of violence in Honduras to seek asylum.
Sandra tells us she hopes President Biden will open the door to the border because we need a better future for our children. The increasing surge of migrants on the southern border is reaching emergency levels for the Biden administration. U.S. authorities have arrested and encountered more than a hundred thousand migrants in the four weeks before March 3rd. The highest levels for that same time period in at least five years.
And new data reviewed by CNN shows there are more than 3,400 unaccompanied children in the custody of Customs and Border Protection. Federal immigration officials are scrambling to make room.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA (on camera): We're here in the town of Donna, Texas on the Mexico border. And CBP has just opened up this massive tent facility.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA (voice over): This temporary processing site for migrants was opened just over a month ago. A Homeland Security official told CNN the facility is significantly overcrowded mostly with children. Republicans and some Democrats say the Biden administration isn't moving fast enough to keep the migration crisis under control.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GOV. GREG ABBOTT (R) TEXAS: They are completely unprepared for what is going on in the border now and they're going to be even more unprepared for what will be happening in the coming months.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA (voice over): The Biden administration says the majority of migrants are being turned away at the border and refuse to describe the situation as a crisis.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: Look, I don't think we need to sit here and put new labels on what we have already conveyed is challenging, what we have conveyed is a top priority for the President.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA (voice over): But many more families are being allowed to wait in the U.S. for their immigration court dates. We met Jose at a church shelter. We were asked to protect his identity. He says desperation and fear is driving them to the border. He left Honduras with his son three months ago.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA (on camera): Did you see a lot of children traveling by themselves?
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAVANDERA (voice over): Jose tells us he saw many children along the way begging or cleaning windows for money. He says not all of them will be lucky enough to make it.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
BURNETT: I mean, that is amazing to see what's happening right now. And let's just start with this disturbing reality, a record number of unaccompanied migrant children in custody at the border. This is a really big challenge because they're unaccompanied and they're there. What do you do with them? Where do you send them? What happens? What is the Biden administration going to do about this?
[19:20:00]
LAVANDERA: These are serious pressing questions and the Biden ministration overall, essentially what they're arguing is that they're trying to implement a much more humanitarian immigration policy compared to the four years of the Trump administration.
The border and immigration has really been dominated by two things in the last few years and that is the remain in Mexico policy, you've had some 25,000 migrants sitting in border towns waiting to get permission to enter the U.S. And you also have what is known as title 42, which is what the Trump administration was using because of the coronavirus pandemic to block a lot of people from entering the United States to seek asylum because of the medical issues facing the country in this pandemic.
So the administration says it needs time to kind of work through all of these problems to implement what they describe is a more humanitarian approach. But the bottom line is, this is a situation that is quickly changing and many of the administration's critics say that the administration just isn't acting fast enough.
BURNETT: And what are the most pressing issues? I mean, you talk about a record number of children. You got about 100,000 people turned away, but what is the most pressing issue that they face right now?
LAVANDERA: Well, I think you hit it off the topics, the unaccompanied children, they're in custody as we reported. The data shows about 3,400 of these unaccompanied minors/migrants that I've spent a lot of time speaking with, who have spent the last month traveling toward the U.S. border described seen many children by themselves making the journey to the U.S. southern border. So that is a pressing concern. I mean, this kind of situation and you
can see how quickly it can escalate into a crisis of even look back during the Obama years and the Trump years as well. Children in custody and how they're handled is a very delicate situation. They're only supposed to be in custody in CBP custody for about 72 hours and then moved on to other facilities or other sponsors and that doesn't appear to be happening as fast as it should right now, so that's one of the more pressing immediate concerns.
BURNETT: Right. Right. And, yes, all right, thank you very much, Ed. Appreciate it.
And next, as the trial of the officer charged in George Floyd's death begins, Floyd's brother says it should be an open and shut case.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PHILONISE FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD'S BROTHER: The video is enough. There's nothing else to talk about.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: Floyd's brother joins me next.
Plus, the CDC still advising people who have been fully vaccinated not to travel, but could that change?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:26:57]
BURNETT: New tonight, the first three jurors have been selected in former Minneapolis Police Officer Derek Chauvin's trial for the death of George Floyd and you can see Chauvin sitting there on the right. This as the Judge also ruled the jury cannot be told that Chauvin was fired over his actions. Sara Sidner is OUTFRONT.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
PETER CAHILL, HENNEPIN COUNTY DISTRICT COURT JUDGE: Juror number two, you will be on this jury.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice over): Juror number two is a chemist, the first person chosen to serve on the jury for the trial of former Minneapolis Police Officer, Derek Chauvin, who stands accused of killing George Floyd. Finding impartial jurors is a major challenge that could take weeks.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEORGE FLOYD: Please, I can't breathe.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER (voice over): The video of then Officer Chauvin kneeling on George Floyd's neck even after Floyd's body went limp was seen across the world, fueling an unprecedented number of civil rights demonstrations. In Minneapolis, some of those protests turned violent. The destruction left behind still visible today. Floyd's family argues though video evidence of Floyd's treatment is all jurors need to see.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
P FLOYD: The video is enough. There's nothing else to talk about, because Chauvin showed you, he was the judge, the jury and executioner all at once.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER (voice over): But that is not how the defense sees it. Chauvin has pleaded not guilty and there are hundreds of potential witnesses who may be called.
CAHILL: Roughly 400 once we get rid of duplicates.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER (voice over): Because of the publicity the case has received, no one expects to find jurors who haven't heard of the case. But the court does expect jurors to be able to base their decision on the evidence they see in court, not what they've learned elsewhere.
One of the things jurors won't be able to consider is the fact that Chauvin was fired from the police department because of his conduct with Floyd. The judge ruled that detail was prejudicial.
For the first time in Minnesota history, cameras are being allowed in criminal court to film the entire trial. Floyd sister, Bridgett Floyd, says she is in court to show Chauvin Floyd was loved.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BRIDGETT FLOYD, GEORGE FLOYD SISTER: The officer took a great man, a great father, a great brother, a great uncle. He loved his family. He loved his daughter, Gianna meant the world to him and we would never get that back. I want you guys to continue to pray for our family because we need it. We need it.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
SIDNER (voice over): What the Floyd's family says they do not want is to see violence erupting the city and George Floyd's name. Monday, hundreds gathered peacefully outside the courthouse demanding justice. Many here are already worried about the outcome of the trial.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
DEVONNE MAYWEATHER, MINNEAPOLIS RESIDENT: My concern is that the outcome is going to be the same as it always been, a cop being found not guilty saying he was just do his job and I'm afraid of that happening. It's going to hurt.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
(END VIDEOTAPE)
[19:30:04]
SIDNER: And we heard from another demonstrator who said that if it does happen, there may be hell to pay. And that is one of the reasons why you were seeing the kind of security that they have here.
BURNETT: Yeah.
SIDNER: I'll give you a look at it. Jonathan Shear (ph), our photographer, showing you.
I mean, it looks like, again, the Green Zone in Baghdad. You have razor wire. You have double and triple fencing at one point.
They're laying -- every time someone comes in an out, they have to open the gate. You have huge trucks, armored vehicles and you have these really big concrete barricades.
They have it set up because they are concerned about security. They are trying to make sure that the trial goes on without a hitch so far. Judge Cahill has been very serious. He has been very honest in making sure the jurors understand what they are up against and how long it might last. And also, they have three jurors now, three jurors in one day.
If they go through, they need 12 jurors and two alternates. That just changed. It used to be 12 jurors and two alternates.
So, today, 12 jurors and two alternates, what they're looking for, so far, as you mentioned earlier, Erin. They have three jurors already.
BURNETT: All right. Thank you very much, Sarah.
And I want to go OUTFRONT now to George Floyd's brother, Philonise Floyd, and the Floyd family attorney, Ben Crump.
And I appreciate both of you being with me tonight.
Ben, let me just start with you.
The judge says that the jury cannot be told, cannot hear in court that Chauvin was fired over his actions in George Floyd's death. They can only know the dates of his employment as an officer. They cannot know that he was fired.
The judge says that telling the jury that would be prejudicial, would cause them to, you know, to view this obviously with prejudice.
Is the judge right?
BENJAMIN CRUMP, GEORGE FLOYD'S FAMILY ATTORNEY: Well, he is -- it's his court, so the decision he's make is what he concludes.
I know that it is important for the fact finders, which are the jurors, to decide that conduct and actions of Derek Chauvin to be criminal or not.
Obviously, I feel strongly about these matters, Erin. As I've told you before, I think our courts sometimes give more preference to police officers because if the roles were reversed, I have no doubt that they would know everything about George Floyd. In fact, I think that is going to be the issue here.
Derek Chauvin is on trial for killing George Floyd. But if they do what they always do, they are going to try to put George Floyd on trial and assassinate his character to try to distract from the fact that Chauvin kept his knee on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds and tortured him to death.
BURNETT: Philonise, you know, I saw you nodding there a moment ago. I mean, it's been ten months almost since you lost your brother. So, you know, when you hear Ben say this, you know, that he worries what's going to be on trial is George Floyd's character, instead of Derek Chauvin and what he did.
Do you share those worries? I mean, how do you feel on day one?
PHILONISE FLOYD, BROTHER OF GEORGE FLOYD: Just like Mr. Crump said, they are going to try to assassinate his character because when you have facts, facts bring out the truth. That anytime you don't have the facts, you have the trial to do something to bring another person down.
But like we were saying, every day, anybody who have eyes, and a blind man who can hear anything he heard in the video, they know it was wrong.
Somebody who was sworn to protect us, he killed my brother. He tortured him to death. He had a smirk on his face. And he had his knee on his neck. And I had no idea that a human being could do something that was that hurtful. I'm talking about the graphic content that everybody had to view across America.
We have to get justice in this case. We -- it's a must. We have to get a conviction because if you can get away with that in America, then you can get away with anything because we need justice, because the things that my family are going through, nobody else will go through in life. We are torn and broken down right now.
BURNETT: Ben, you admit though that history is not on your side when it comes to convicting a police officer in the death of a black man, right? You talked about it today. You talked about with me before.
So, you've said this is part of why you need a fair jury that is also diverse.
So, here we are today, day one, and Sara was laying out, you know, you got more jurors to pick. But you got three jurors so far chosen. We appear to have two white men and one woman of color in her 20s or 30s. So, that's what you have for three out of 12.
[19:35:03]
How do you feel about that?
CRUMP: Well, obviously, we want a diverse jury. We want somebody who can respect the life, and the background and the culture of George Floyd.
Oftentimes, we see jurors that cannot appreciate the culture of minorities or people of color. And so, they give greater consideration to the police.
Erin, it's not rocket science. All we're saying is, we want equal justice. When you look at everything, all considered even, if the roles were reversed and George Floyd would have did to Derek Chauvin what he did to George --
BURNETT: Yeah.
CRUMP: -- nobody would say this is a tough case. But when you put race into the mix, everybody says, oh, we don't know if this is as clear- cut. They are not being honest with theirself.
And, America, we're better than this. We have to finally say that black lives matter and George Floyd's life matters.
BURNETT: Philonise, you were talking about your concern about justice, that you want justice to be served. I don't you heard when our reporter who is there on the ground, spoke to a man there. He's concerned there will not be justice.
And here's exactly what he said, about how he fears the community may react if Chauvin is acquitted.
Let me play it for you, Philonise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I think history repeats itself. You know, it is not just him. There have been riots in many other situations, not just George Floyd's. And it comes from a place of being tired and being fed up with the same outcome over and over again.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
BURNETT: I know, Philonise, that you have been so clear, your whole family has been so clear that while you are broken, you want peace. I know you're worried about how things may go in this trial. If they do not go your way, are you concerned about the hurt and angry that so many people will feel could lead to more unrest?
FLOYD: Right now, my biggest thing is I have confidence, I have faith that we will get justice and we will get a conviction. The footage in that video, it tells you everything. There's nothing that you can see that the jurors won't see. People who are watching the video, if you don't think that he's guilty
by what he did, you have a problem, because people out there watching in the streets, they've seen it, they went out during a COVID pandemic. They didn't care about putting their lives on the line for what was right.
So you've got to make the right decision, you have to put guilty, because he killed that man. Him and the other three officers that were, there they helped. Nobody tried to aid, nobody tried to render aid.
My brother, he was laying in the morgue and Chauvin was at home that night. If I would've stole a piece of gum or anything out of the store, they would've put me in jail the same day.
So I want the same respect that they should give everybody else. It shouldn't be about White America and Black America. It should all be as one. We are one and we need to stick together.
We're stronger in numbers. So in this court appearance comes up, when everybody is in there and have to make that difficult decision, I don't understand why it would be difficult. Because the video has all of the proof, there's nothing that you can see in that video.
BURNETT: Philonise, thank you very much for being with me. Ben, thank you very much for being with me. Thank you.
CRUMP: You're welcome.
FLOYD: Thank you.
BURNETT: And next, West Virginia has one of the highest percentages of people vaccinated. Success story, how are they doing it? I'm going to talk to one man, making it happen.
Plus, Queen Elizabeth says she's saddened by the troubling revelations from Harry and Megan's interview. So, what does she plan to do about it?
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[19:42:56]
BURNETT: Tonight, the CDC says it may update its travel guidelines for those who are fully vaccinated, once the science is clear.
Okay, well, right now, nearly one in 10 people in America are fully vaccinated. One state that has been leading the country in getting shots into arms is West Virginia. Thirteen of the state's population is now vaccinated, which is one of the highest percentages in the country.
OUTFRONT now is Drew Massey. He's director of pharmacy operations at Fruth Pharmacy, a local family-owned chain. He's been traveling around West Virginia to administer vaccines. And, Drew, it's just wonderful to be able to highlight the story of success, of something going right in this. The governor of West Virginia, you know, opted out of a federal program that uses big pharmacies to vaccinate those in nursing homes, right? He said, no way, I don't want that federal help. He chose to have pharmacies like yours go out and vaccinate those populations instead.
Tell me why it has worked.
DREW MASSEY, DIRECTOR, PHARMACY OPERATIONS, FRUTH PHARMACY: I will tell you, I -- number one, thank you for having me on. But I'm proud that West Virginia not only led the nation but the world out of the gate for the COVID-19 vaccinations.
Like you said, we continue to stand near the top, and Governor Justice recognized that early on.
When you look at a state of West Virginia, we have a very older population for a state.
BURNETT: Yeah.
MASSEY: So, he decided upfront that we need to take care of that older population. We need to take care of our frontline workers. We need to take care of our first responders.
And with the help of the National Guard, Health Departments, health care facilities, and pharmacies, in particular independent pharmacies like ours, an independent chain, we've had boots on the ground since day one. And -- you know, day one it was, just like you said, out to nursing homes, out to anywhere from people's houses to having clinics to take care of people that at the end of the day, the goal was to get shots in arms.
BURNETT: So, you know, you point out, your state is older than many states in terms of your population. You have a lot of rural communities, right? Mountainous. And you're out there traveling all over the state.
So what's a typical day like for you?
MASSEY: I do not have a typical day myself.
[19:45:01]
One day, we may be doing a mass immunization clinic, one day I may be out in rural Virginia like you said. I may be get -- they want to take care of somebody that's homebound, or somebody in the underserved area.
So, it goes back and forth from the small to big clinics. For me in particular, I'll just give you a case in point this week. This morning, I did a small clinic of a few hundred shots, followed up by taking care of some people at some nursing homes and some resident care facilities. Tomorrow, we're taking care of one of the counties. So, it's a bigger
clinic, and the next day is going to be a bigger clinic as well. But tomorrow, after I get done, I have 23 people I'm going to go see it homes, people who are homebound that can't get out.
BURNETT: Wow.
MASSEY: And the sheer amount of, you know -- I would like to say joy but I don't know a better way to put it, but people who are just relieved and elated to get the shots. And when you go out to someone who can't get into a store, can't get into a regular clinic, the amount of appreciation that they give is unbelievable.
BURNETT: Well, I mean, it's unbelievable to think you are seeing so many people a day, what difference you're making. And let me just ask, because politics have played such a role in this whole thing, unfortunately. But, obviously, your state was overwhelmingly a Trump state in 2020, 69 to 30 percent.
And in a new Pew poll about the vaccine, 83 percent of Democrats say they're going to get the vaccine or they likely will, but only 56 percent of Republicans. Obviously, though, your state is doing so well, are you just not seeing any of this partisanship or any politics when it actually comes to you drive up to someone and say, here's the shot?
MASSEY: Honestly, I think a lot of people are just -- and it's everywhere across the country, people are just tired of the lockdown and they want to try to get back to some kind of normalcy in their life. People are starting to recognize that when you get the immunizations, the immunizations work, and that people are being protected, and especially in West Virginia, people like -- pharmacists have always been one of the most trusted professions.
And for lack of a better way to put it, they trust our opinion when we talk about things. So, when you talk to somebody, especially at an independent pharmacy that knows your medications, knows your family -- I know where you go -- when I used to work in a store and I was a pharmacist in the store, I know where people went on vacation with their kids. And they take your advice and they take it to heart.
And I think that you are seeing that across the state because it's one of those things. You always have some people who like you said are -- never going to get the shot. They are just adamant that they don't want it.
But the people who get it and the people who are on the fence, those are people that we need to take care of and try to pull them in. And then we need to try to convince the others where we can.
BURNETT: All right. Well, Drew, I really appreciate your time and I know that everyone watching does too. Just to think that, you know, one person with dogged determination every day going and doing it, making such a difference. Thank you so much.
MASSEY: Absolutely, thank you very much. BURNETT: And next, two interviews with two women who married into the
royal family. They were filmed 26 years apart and yet there are some striking similarities.
And Biden's German shepherd Major going from the White House to the doghouse, literally, after he bit somebody.
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[19:51:22]
BURNETT: Tonight, the British royal family breaking its silence following Harry and Meghan's bombshell interview.
The queen saying in a new statement, quote: The whole family is saddened to learn the full extent of how challenging the last few years have been for Harry and Meghan. The issues raised, particularly that of, rates are concerning. While some recollections may very, they are taken very seriously and will be addressed by the family privately. Harry, Meghan, and Archie will always be much loved family members.
Max Foster is OUTFRONT.
And, Max, it took 36 hours, or a little bit more actually, for the royal family to respond to the accusations from Harry and Meghan. Will we hear more from the royal family?
MAX FOSTER, CNN ROYAL CORRESPONDNT: Well, you heard it just there from the queen. These matters will be dealt with privately. She wants this to come off the TV screens. They want to deal direct -- behind the scenes and get it away from the public sphere at this point.
I spoke to the Sussex office as well. They are not making a comment on this. So it does feel like for now, there is a truce here. Perhaps the palace has learned from past experience, particularly with Princess Diana back in the 1990s.
And when you look at it, there are remarkable parallels between Diana's narrative then and Meghan's narrative now.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER: When they joined the ranks of monarchy through their world famous marriages, one was a wide eyed young British girl of 20, born with an aristocratic pedigree who barely had any worldly experience.
The other, an American biracial divorcee in her thirties, and independent career woman in her own right, and actress who had already had her fair share of the limelight.
But whilst the journeys that led Diana, the princess of Wales, and Meghan, duchess of Sussex, to give the two most shocking interviews about the royal family are quite different. Diane already separated from her husband Prince Charles. Meghan, with her husband Prince Harry, supportably by her side. The sit-down exposes filmed 26 years apart are hauntingly similar, in
describing how their lives changed after becoming part of the firm. Both admitting naivete on the lives they chose.
DIANA, PRINCESS OF WALES: At the age of 19, you always think you are prepared for everything and you think you have the knowledge of what's coming ahead.
MEGHAN MARKLE, DUCHESS OF SUSSEX: I didn't fully understand what the job was.
FOSTER: Both sharing the weight of being the constant focus of tabloid fodder.
DIANA: I seem to be on the front of a newspaper every single day, which is an isolating experience and how the media puts you, plays you is a bigger draw.
MARKLE: I am everywhere, but I am nowhere. And from that standpoint, I continue to say to people, I know it's an obsession with how things look, but has anyone talked about how it feels? Because right now, I could not feel lonelier.
FOSTER: The sense of loneliness and isolation leading to a deterioration of her mental health. Diana opening up about bulimia and self harm. Megan to thoughts of suicide, leading to one overarching feeling for both, shame.
DIANA: I didn't like myself. I was ashamed, because I couldn't cope with the pressure.
MARKLE: And as I said, I was ashamed. I'm supposed to be stronger than that.
FOSTER: At their darkest moments, detailing a lack of support from the firm.
DIANA: When no one listens to you or you feel no one listens, all sorts of things start to happen.
MARKLE: I said I needed to go somewhere to get help because I never felt this way before and I need to go somewhere. And I was told that I couldn't. It wouldn't be good for the institution.
FOSTER: Both interviews noting a curiously specific similarity that the women's tours of Australia led to a rise of jealousy within the royal family.
[19:55:09]
Even more alarming, the accusation from both women that the institution was not only not helping but actively working behind the scenes to hurt them.
MARTIN BASHIR, REPORTER: Do you really believe that campaign was being waged against you? DIANA: Yes I did, absolutely. Yeah.
BASHIR: Why?
DIANA: I was the separated wife of the prince of whales. I was a problem, full stop, never happened before. What do we do with her?
MARKLE: The narrative about making Kate cry I think was the beginning of a real character assassination and they knew it wasn't true. I felt if they are not going to kill things like that, then what are we going to do?
FOSTER: And yet, both women ending on a note of optimism, despite the turmoil.
DIANA: I sit here with hope because there's a future ahead, a future for my husband, future for myself, and the future for the monarchy.
MARKLE: We've actually not just survived. We are thriving. You know? This? I mean, just miracles.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
FOSTER (on camera): You know, Harry has talked about his fears of history repeating itself. He certainly sees parallels between the two stories. That's why he says he took his family away from the U.K. and relocated in California. I think he and the palace are hoping that they can heal the rift here in a way that Diana was sadly unable to do, Erin.
BURNETT: All right. Max, thank you very, very much.
And next, Major has been sent to Delaware after biting or they want to say a nip of a security guard. He is not, though, the first presidential pet to act out.
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BURNETT: Major problem, President Biden's dog Major back in Delaware after the White House admits he was involved in what was described as an aggressive incident. Sources say, he nipped a member of the White House security team.
Now, Major is the only dog from an animal shelter to take up residence in the White House. But he's not the first dog to run into trouble.
Teddy Roosevelt's dog Pete was a biter according to the Presidential Pet Museum website. I'm not disparaging him. His claim to fame was chasing the French ambassador up a tree, and tearing his pants off in the process which would've been great to see. Pete like Major was also sent a way.
Millie the English Springer spaniel was much loved by President George H.W. Bush and First Lady Barbara. Ambushing squirrels (ph) though was his claim to fame so she had to be contained, so she would just sit in the Oval Office during all the more rain briefings. And President Ford's golden retriever Liberty had an issue with
carpets, if you know I'm insinuating here. She preferred them to the yard. But she remained with the family there until her death.
As Harry Truman reportedly said, if you want a friend in Washington, get a dog. By the way, he wasn't a dog fan at all.
Thanks for joining us.
Anderson starts now.
