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CNN Live Event/Special
Monster Hurricane, Unrest over Police Shootings and COVID-19 Death Toll Rising as RNC Wraps Night Three; New Videos Emerge from Scene of Shooting at Kenosha Protests; Jacob Blake's Uncle Speaks Out on Shooting. Aired 12-1a ET
Aired August 27, 2020 - 00:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
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UNIDENTIFIED MALE (voice-over): This is CNN breaking news.
DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: Here we are. Certainly, is breaking news.
Chris, good evening.
Everyone, good evening.
Chris, good to see you.
I'm Don Lemon. There he is. Chris Cuomo.
You know, this is -- there's no other way to put it, Chris. This is a night of multiple, huge, breaking stories. Right?
All, happening at once. And all taking place in the hours, pretty much, that we're on now. There is going to be new developments in at least a number of these stories.
A monster hurricane, now taking aim. Look at your screen. This is a big one. Taking aim at the Gulf Coast.
Significant developments after the unrest turns deadly in the wake of police shooting -- the police shooting of Jacob Blake. That's in Kenosha, Wisconsin.
And of course, the coronavirus. The death toll in this country, tonight, is nearing 180,000 dead Americans, Chris.
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: We'll be watching Hurricane Laura throughout the night. Category 4 means you're going to have, certainly, sustained winds, that can be over 100 miles an hour. Gusts can be up to 150 miles an hour.
The projected storm surge is being called by the National Hurricane Center as potentially unsurvivable. Entire towns could be underwater. Again, we are expecting it to make landfall, somewhere in the next two hours or so. You know, it's never exact. It will be on our watch. CNN is out in the storm zone tonight. We'll bring you everything we can see.
LEMON: We've got some breaking news, too, on the unrest that I mentioned just a moment ago in Kenosha. The wake of police shooting, the police shooting of Jacob Blake. We have been and others have been reporting on the social media profiles, OK, believed to have belonged to the suspect in last night's shooting that left two people dead, one wounded.
A white 17-year old. That's who they believe is responsible. Kyle Rittenhouse. It shows that -- well, these posts show a teenager with an affinity for guns, who is pro-police and is also a supporter of president Donald Trump.
He attended a Trump rally at Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa. That was on January 30th. Posted a short video from the front row of his social media. And then, there is another social media video. It is believed to be from his account and it places him at the scene of those protests last night.
We -- we have a lot to talk about, when it comes to this story, Chris. What you -- the way it's being portrayed, in many ways, not accurate. Not exactly what it is. Wasn't a lot of talk about this Rittenhouse guy at the convention tonight.
CUOMO: Well, no. And the irony is that vice president Mike Pence called out Joe Biden. Saying, you know, he didn't mention the violence in these cities. But we're about law and order. He didn't mention these shootings.
Why?
Is it because it's a white guy?
Because it was militiamen?
Pro-police is not what he was about because if you're pro-police, then you respect the law. You don't do that when you have a weapon that you shouldn't have if you are 17 years old.
LEMON: And you let legitimate police officers handle the situation.
CUOMO: Now those details. If the reporting is accurate and police encountered this guy and other guys, similarly situated and did nothing to them. Saw them as allies. That is a tremendous problem.
And Mike Pence ignoring it -- because they're going to have a much better chance of knowing about these details faster than we will. You know, these local police there. They're being very quiet.
But they're not going to be quiet with the federal government. And the silence will be deafening if that is the case. Especially, for Mike Pence, Captain Earnest. This will be a huge deal.
And I'll tell you what it will do. The Republican convention wants to show you pictures of riots and say that is the problem. We are about law and order. We will not allow this. They are pointing to the symptom of a problem, that they refuse to address.
Mike Pence said, tonight, Joe Biden says that this country is systemic with its racism. It is. That doesn't mean we're all racists. It means we have institutions that we must force to address. That's what it means.
And if you're going to ignore a kid like this and others similarly situated, shooting people in a crowd and you're going to have state TV have their people celebrate them and say is it any surprise that these guys had to do this?
When nobody else will keep order, how is that pro-police?
LEMON: I heard that. And I was flummoxed. Wait. A 17-year old, who shouldn't have a gun, had no other choice but to go out and defend himself?
First of all, he didn't even live there.
CUOMO: Different state.
LEMON: Different state. So how is he defending his -- a community that he doesn't live in?
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CUOMO: How can you be law and order. And then, say, at least implicitly, that this is OK?
You're law and order. You want law and order. Don't riot. Don't break the law. Oh, but --
LEMON: You're breaking the law.
CUOMO: -- you can't take a long arm and go shoot people that you don't agree with. That's OK.
LEMON: Which you shouldn't have legally. You shouldn't legally have it at 17 years old.
Am I wrong about that?
CUOMO: So the hypocrisy is going to be obvious. But more importantly, this is on Trump's watch. And the role of a president, Right-Left, is to be reasonable and to bring people together. Ignoring this kind of violence will foment it.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: And we all know that. And we saw, tonight, the right kind of measured response, ironically, is by the people that keep getting attacked by the Right, the athletes. They refused to play as a protest to what happened to Mr. Blake.
LEMON: That's what I was looking at in my notes. The Milwaukee Bucks postponing the playoff game, saying, you know what? And if you are in Kenosha, that's your team. They're saying this shooting of Jacob Blake is more important than a playoff game.
CUOMO: That's right.
LEMON: And even -- and all the teams. And even the -- the owners and the coaches saying, there are some things more important than basketball.
Did you ever think that you'd hear from that professional --
CUOMO: And the criticism, as also, we heard from state TV, just shut up and dribble. Play the game.
But I think the time has come that we have to realize you don't ignore problems and expect them to go away. Vice president Pence may have one of the most earnest voices and looks I've seen in the game recently. But he's still playing a game.
And if he wants to be about law and order, then you call balls and strikes, wherever you see them. Not just based on color. And if this kid and the others around them were doing, what we heard from the police, they were doing, the sheriff there is the one who called it vigilante work.
And if the police recognize these people and gave them a pass because they were white, we have big problems.
LEMON: Again, we have lots to talk about when it comes to that issue. A lot of breaking details coming out of that.
But Chris, you know how this is. When you are in the middle of a hurricane, you're in the middle of a tropical storm or any of these, you got to get to people. So let's talk about breaking news now what's happening with the hurricane.
CNN is on the ground in my home state of Louisiana. There you see two men on your screen. First, let's get to Martin Savidge.
Martin, it says you're in Lake Charles, Louisiana. Am I correct?
Are you in Lake Charles right now?
What's going on?
MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: I am, Don. Good to see you.
Good to see you, Chris.
Right now, we are starting to feel the real ferocity of the storm. It's still about an hour and a half away maybe from the worst of it. And we're actually sheltered because we have a very large building all around us. I'm in what we would say is the lee of the wind.
Already we've received extreme wind warnings through our telephone alert system. And the sustained winds of this storm right now are listed at 150 miles an hour. Now if Laura comes ashore with those wind speeds, that will be one of the most intense hurricanes, ever, to hit Louisiana.
That was greater than Hurricane Katrina. And it could be even greater than Hurricane Rita, which was just three week -- or three years ago. And of course, we know that Katrina was -- I'm sorry; Rita was 15 years ago and so was Katrina.
So both of those are really bad. The situation here is the storm surge. We are 30 miles away from the coast. And yet, the storm surge is projected to go 40 miles inland. So yes, the water's going to get here.
In fact, it would probably get up to the height of the light pole you can see behind me here. So we're talking about maybe 9-12 feet that could inundate not just this particular facility but much of the Lake Charles area.
Wind speeds are definitely picking up. Conditions, definitely deteriorating. We've got a long way to go. Mandatory evacuation order went into effect. Nobody can leave now. That window was slammed shut, some time ago. Far too dangerous to even be out and about -- Chris and Don.
LEMON: Yes, Martin, we're going to be on the hour -- on the air for hours now. And I have a strong feeling that we'll be getting back to you a lot. So you hunker down there in Lake Charles.
Chris, I know it very well. Again, it's my home state. Lake Charles on the western end towards Texas. This is the quote you should keep in mind and when you talk, next, to our meteorologist.
They are warning of unsurvivable storm surge. That's a huge concern for Louisiana and for Texas but mostly, for Louisiana. You know the area down there. They are very vulnerable when it comes to storm surge.
CUOMO: Sure. Look, I mean, you grew up there. I've grown up there as a reporter covering these kind of things. And we have to relearn all this different vocabulary and these dynamics every storm season. And that's OK. But the reason storm surge can be unsurvivable, obviously, Don knows this. He grew up dealing with it. But for -- for the rest of us, who don't grow up with storm surge or something like that, it's a complete displacement of that amount of water. So it's not just that it just gently comes in.
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CUOMO: You get, literally, like a wall of water that winds up submerging things instantly; you can't drive out. The ground there is very easily saturated, which means it can't take much. The water has nowhere to go. People are trapped and we know what happens.
And so we'll make it around the way of this storm and we'll keep you definitely informed all night long. If you are in the region and able to watch, we promise we'll get you whatever information we can. Be safe. We're thinking of you.
Let's go to Beaumont, Texas. That is in the storm zone.
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CUOMO: And, Don, you know the big story, of course, is also about evacuation. Who left, who didn't. And that latter group winds up becoming the meat of the story.
LEMON: You heard him say 2:00 to 4:00 am That's us. That's in our wheelhouse. That's when we are going to be on the air tonight. So I suggest you keep it on CNN because, again, we're going to have all of it for you.
You're exactly right, Chris, about that storm surge. Listen. I'm no meteorologist. We got the best out there. We got Derek Van Dam, a meteorologist. Martin Savidge. If anybody knows how to cover these things, it is Mr. Martin Savidge.
I'm no meteorologist but it's like when you see the tsunami, when the water comes in, except with the tsunami, it washes back out. With the storm surge, it sits there because the ground won't absorb it. And that's how you get the flooding and the deaths from flooding.
And most of the time, in these situations, what do people die from, Chris?
They die from the water more than they die from the winds that come and the drowning and the storm surge so on and so forth.
CUOMO: What's one of the many expressions in covering this?
Is that the wind speeds are for show. The water is what forces you to go.
LEMON: Amen. Over 4 million people are under a hurricane warning, tonight. That is -- many of my loved ones who are down in Louisiana so this story's extra important to me.
This is Hurricane Laura takes aim at the Gulf Coast. We are going to ask the mayor of the city in the path of the storm what he expects to see when the sun rises tomorrow. Don't go anywhere. We got you covered.
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CUOMO: All right. This is no joke. The picture tells the story. Hurricane Laura is on the brink of landfall along the Gulf Coast. It's a near category 5. If it sustains that way, it'll be among the strongest storms to hit that area of the United States. Remember, even Katrina, the devastation of that storm wasn't about its
power, as it came. I think it may have hit as like a 3, which is plenty, by the way. But it was about the situation.
And this, too, in Lake Charles, Louisiana. You have to be very careful, as one of the first cities to take a direct hit. The ground is easily saturated. There's a dense population.
How did it go with evacuations?
Residents who ignored them are now bracing for historic floods. Surges of up to 20 feet. And there is not a lot of gradualism to that surge. It comes in, very quickly and can trap you, God forbid. Lake Charles mayor, Nic Hunter, joins us now on the phone.
Mr. Mayor, can you hear us?
MAYOR NIC HUNTER (R-LA), LAKE CHARLES: I can.
Can you hear me?
CUOMO: Yes. Look, God bless, in advance, down there. Hopefully, the community is spared some of this, by the grace.
How did you do with evacuations and preparations, from your perspective?
HUNTER: Well, we did everything humanly possible to get the message to people. And for individuals, even that did not have the financial means to pick themselves up and evacuate, we did provide transportation via our municipal buses and coordinated with the State of Louisiana so they could get to safety.
We ran that all yesterday and even this morning. I do fear that not enough evacuated. And I just -- very concerned about the -- not only the survival aspect of the storm itself but also the aftermath.
CUOMO: Right. They'll be trapped there, for days afterwards. It's hard to get to them. For those who understand the region. A couple things. One, when you say you have a fear about those who didn't evacuate.
Are you able to put any kind of facts to the fear?
Do you know anything about how many were supposedly staying behind?
Did you get any local reports?
HUNTER: I can't quantify the number, exactly, because it is hard to tell how many people just took it upon themselves to leave versus the ones that actually loaded on the city buses.
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HUNTER: But we, oftentimes, use Hurricane Rita, which was in 2005, as kind of a benchmark. And universally, amongst my administration and city personnel, there's just a feeling that people evacuated, in more numbers, for Rita than Laura.
CUOMO: Well, but, then again, of course, Rita was coming on the heels of Katrina. I was there for both of them. So many of us were. So there was a little bit of a built-in anxiety, after what had happened before.
Well, look. We won't know, now, until tomorrow. We have all our resources on the ground. If there's anything that we can do, please, let me know, Mr. Mayor. And God bless you. I hope you stay safe and I hope the community gets lucky on this.
Mayor Nic Hunter, we are a call away if there's any information you need throughout the night, Don Lemon, who is a local, as you know, to Louisiana. We're on the watch for the next few hours. Let us know how to help.
HUNTER: Thank you so much.
CUOMO: All right. Let's bring in former New Orleans mayor, Mitch Landrieu.
All too familiar with storm prep, right?
You heard that mayor saying I don't think everybody got out. But we won't know, now.
How scary is that, as a local official?
Especially, now, you got different waves of concern, right?
What's the storm going to do?
Who's stuck?
And now, you got the COVID concerns about people you put in shelters. You know, you have an enemy in place at the shelters. This is a tough fall.
MITCH LANDRIEU, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: You got a really bad, bad, bad situation that has developed. I talked to Mayor Hunter earlier today. The governor has been preparing for this. Fifteen years ago, I was standing in Lake Charles when Rita hit. I was there, at the time.
This storm is tracking exactly like Rita did but it's stronger. Ken Graham, who is the head of the National Weather Service, is a guy that's from my area that we've worked with forever. He's never used the term "unsurvivable" storm surge before.
And the reason they say surge instead of flooding is because, as you said before, it is a wall of water that comes in very, very quickly. If you're not where you're supposed to be and that water hits you, you're going to drown. There's really no way to survive that.
I'm very, very afraid of the people that did not evacuate. If you are in Lake Charles, which is further away from the shore than Cameron Parish, which is the parish below that, you're in a better situation. But after Rita hit, which as I said, was weaker than this storm, there
was no building, maybe one or two, left in Cameron Parish when a storm of this size hit. This storm now is probably one of the 10 worst that's ever hit the United States and, certainly, Louisiana, since really Louisiana was founded.
And it's going to require a huge rescue effort. I know 4 million people that are in -- around the Beaumont area, the Lake Charles area, are all at risk. COVID complicates things, for a number of different reasons.
If electricity is knocked out and people can't get back into their homes, and of course, the electric companies can't get the lines back open, you have rolling catastrophes. This is why the federal government needs to refocus its attention.
I understand that we're in election season. The Republican convention is ongoing. But the president really needs to be in the Situation Room is where he needs to be, right now, as does the vice president now that he's finished his talk tonight because this is an all-hands-on- deck response that's going to be required. And it's going to be with us for some time.
CUOMO: As you know, Don is from Louisiana.
Don, you ready to jump in this conversation?
LEMON: Yes, sure.
CUOMO: Obviously, specific concerns to this area, it's uniquely vulnerable which is why it's so sad that it keeps getting hit.
Don, what's your perspective on this for Mitch?
LEMON: Full transparency, Mayor. We've been talking today. We should let the audience know that. And you know, my concern is selfish. Pardon me. Baton Rouge. We talked about Baton Rouge. That's where my loved ones are. I'm worried about them. They are going to get a lot of water and some very strong winds.
LANDRIEU: Well, what happens is when this -- when this hurricane's turning, depending on what side of you -- which way the water goes, you can still get hit if you're not in what I call the cone of discomfort.
So if you look at that, in front of you, Baton Rouge is, if you are looking at the screen, to the right of Lake Charles. And then, of course, New Orleans is further over.
The National Weather Service thinks that, at this moment, Baton Rouge is going to be in fairly good shape. They'll have water. But it's not going to be like the folks that are in southwest Louisiana are going to get or in -- in, you know, southeast Texas. It's going to be dramatically better.
So keep your fingers crossed. I know your family is in Baton Rouge. I have family that's in Lafayette. So we're all nervous.
But I want to just be clear, to the people who are listening, this is a massive storm. This is not a shoo-shoo like Marco was. This is the real deal. It's a big thing. There's going to be tremendous physical devastation.
Hopefully, not nearly as much loss of life if people get out of harm's way. And there's going to have to be a fairly significant rescue effort, a recovery effort and a rehabilitation. And the country needs to be all hands on deck as we solve through this very difficult --
LEMON: One more thing, Chris, if you'll let me get in again. So here's the thing.
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LEMON: I don't think we can talk about the -- the -- how COVID adds insult to injury, when it comes to this. Every single family member I spoke to today said I'm not going to a shelter. I'm not going to go to a hotel. I don't want COVID.
And again, full transparency, the God's honest truth, moments before I got on the air tonight, I got a text. One of my dear friends from high school died, COVID. Underlying condition, asthma. Two years older than me. Graduated high school two years before me. Went to high school at the same time.
So my thoughts and prayers obviously are with the family. So I hope you guys are OK. I did not get permission to say the family's name on television so I don't. But if you are watching, I love you guys. And I'm thinking about you.
But here's the issue. Even my mother won't leave her home to go to better conditions. They would not. I offered them all plane tickets. Come up here. I'll get you a hotel room. We'll get in a hotel together and we'll have a family reunion. Nobody wanted to leave their homes. Everyone is concerned about COVID.
LANDRIEU: Well, I would just make a couple of very broad points here. This was not unforeseen. COVID was not unforeseen. This goes into the bigger issue, of how we, as a country, prepare for what we can expect to come our way.
And our unwillingness to continue to close our eyes to these things is going to continue to hurt. We're going to have more storms. We're not out of COVID, yet. You knew, we all knew, that hurricane season was coming because we know when it is. We knew that we were going to get hurricanes.
When COVID started hitting, we knew that it was going to be an issue. So all these things are things we just have to get a lot better at. This is why I appreciate that we're in a political season and they're in the middle of the Republican convention.
But this is going to be a catastrophic event, 180,000 people have died from COVID. We now have 4 million people in harm's way. We had shootings. We had killings. We've got a lot of stuff going on that we've got to get our hands around in order to keep this country safer than we have been.
So I found some of the comments tonight to be extraordinary, about do people feel safe?
I mean, it's -- I mean, it begs the question, when 180,000 people have now died and we have 4 million people in harm's way and a young man just killed a couple of people in Wisconsin, on top of the fact that another young man was killed.
It doesn't feel safe right now. And we've got to get a handle on this and all hands need to be on deck.
CUOMO: Tough time to be a leader. Mr. Mayor, be well. Mitch. Down there, let us know what's going on.
LANDRIEU: Thank you.
LEMON: Thank you, Mayor.
CUOMO: And, Don, sorry about your friend, brother. I didn't -- I didn't know that. We'll keep an eye on every situation, of course. Baton Rouge will be in our heart but the entire region will be in our head.
Now Mitch just mentioned what we talked to you about at the top of the show. What's happening in Kenosha. This is a tough time to be a leader. OK?
And Mike Pence made a very important statement tonight. In an election that is very close and the president, very well, could win. So he has to watch this. The Biden ticket has to watch this.
If you had white militiamen taking on protesters after a shooting of a Black man and the police were OK with that, that is very dangerous -- Mike Pence was silent about it, while saying that his opponents were silent about the problem.
This is worth diving into. We've got to get it right, 100 percent. And then, the right thing must be done. We will go live to Kenosha, to nail down details, as we can. Stay with Don and me.
LEMON: We got a lot to talk about on this, Chris. We're going to do it, right?
CUOMO: We'll start, next.
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DON LEMON, CNN ANCHOR: All right. So we -- here's more breaking for us to cover tonight and for you to -- to absorb.
[00:32:43]
New videos are emerging tonight from a scene of a shooting. It's on the street of Kenosha Wisconsin. It happened last night after protests over the police-involved shooting of Jacob Blake. Two people were killed, another injured.
Let's get straight to CNN's Omar Jimenez. He's on the ground in Kenosha. He joins me now. He's been there for all of this unrest.
Good evening to you, Omar. These videos are emerging from the chaos last night. Walk us through, please, what happened here.
OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right, Don. Lots of gunshots that we are now seeing play out on videos that are coming out. And remember, you and I were even talking last night, just on the other side of hearing these gunshots, and we are trying to figure out exactly what was going on. And this is now these pieces coming together.
Now, this first video, I want to warn, this may be considered graphic. It is from a little bit further away, pushing toward the sound of gunfire.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
(GUNSHOTS)
(SCREAMING)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Oh, (EXPLETIVE DELETED). He shot that guy in the stomach.
(GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED). People are getting shot all around us. People are just getting shot everywhere, you guys. (EXPLETIVE DELETED), (EXPLETIVE DELETED), (EXPLETIVE DELETED).
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Wow.
JIMENEZ: And you hear the literal desperate screams right there for "medic" as people are saying people are getting shot left and right. Again, we know two people were killed and a third person injured.
And I want to show another angle of the video that was taken around that same time. And a reminder: yes, this may be considered graphic, but I think it's also necessary to show what was happening on the other side of demonstrations that came for a third night in a row here in Kenosha.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Medic! Medic! Medic! Medic! Medic!
(GUNSHOTS)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED) UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, he just shot them! Hey, the dude right here just shot them! The dude right here just shot all of them right down there! That dude just shot someone, that dude right here! Yes. (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Straight ahead. Someone injured straight ahead.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get out of the way. Get out of the road. Get down!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: (EXPLETIVE DELETED)
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: Is it Don or me?
LEMON: It's you. It's you, it's you. Go on. So --
JIMENEZ: And I was just going to say, Don, that -- that again, as a reminder in what that happened in the context was that two people were killed and a third injured, again, on this third night of protests.
LEMON: OK. Let's talk about this, because there is another video that was posted. This is to a Milwaukee-based right-wing website. Shows a group of men carrying guns, interacting with law enforcement personnel, and the law enforcement personnel are in armored cars.
Among them is a man seen on numerous other videos firing at people with his long gun. Police haven't confirmed that this is the suspect who was arrested earlier today. I want everybody to take a look at this, and then Omar and I will talk. Here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: People from -- pointing their guns at the ground.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Yes. No laser pointers either. No laser pointers. They think that's guns, too. That's what started most of this.
They're back by the gas station again.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Hey, thank you guys again. Do you need water? Seriously. Guy to our right, do you need water? We'll throw you one.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, guys, let's get out of here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We'll throw you a couple. Thank you.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You. You are a civilian. This area is closed off. You're trespassing. Leave. Leave now.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Can you throw one up here? Officer, can you throw one here.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We've got a couple. We've got to save a couple, but we'll give you a couple. We appreciate you guys. We really do.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you! Thank you! Can we go this way? Can we walk this way?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We need water!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I'm sure they have a lot of bottles of water.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you! Thank you!
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Nice truck.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: You're going to have to get out of there. You're getting a last warning. You're going to have to move south or you're going to have to get off this block. This is the last warning. You will disperse.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: All right.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thanks for (UNINTELLIGIBLE).
(END VIDEOTAPE)
LEMON: Omar, what the hell is going on here?
JIMENEZ: At the end of the day, what you saw was people armed with weapons, weapons with deadly force, walking up to these officers and were tossed water bottles. It's -- You can imagine why it's one of the things that was asked to Sheriff David Beth here when he made himself available to the media, because we wanted answers ourselves, but here's what he said.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Sheriff, you did not deputize them, you made that very clear, but there are videos of sheriff's deputies in those BearCats tossing waters out of the hatch of that, encouraging their presents here. Why did that happen?
SHERIFF DAVID BETH, KENOSHA, WISCONSIN: Our deputies would toss a water to anybody. If someone came walking past, I don't care if they're a protester or who they are, they would -- they would pass water.
We have cases. People have people come to our command post and to this building. We have pounds of water and Gatorade.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
JIMENEZ: And I want to say from the record, our crew observed other interactions with these police BearCats, protesters, among them, most of them unarmed, at the very least not armed in the way we saw these people, and they were met with very different responses. Many of them couldn't even get close enough to even have any sort of conversation.
To see that on the other side, again, of what had been, in some cases, violent demonstrations and contentious back-and-forths with police, especially with the weapons that they were carrying, again, is just incredibly shocking to see.
LEMON: Stand by, Omar.
Chris, jump in here. OI. So let's put up this video, Chris. The first one, Danny, if you will, of the -- the young man walking down the street. They are yelling at them, saying, This guy just shot someone. Watch this. So here it is.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Medic! Medic!
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LEMON: Why don't we take the --
CHRIS CUOMO, CNN ANCHOR: This is a different video.
LEMON: But here's the thing, before that there was a scrum. People were running after him. We cut the best part of that video out. I don't know why. Why did we do that? Can we get the full video of that?
[00:40:01]
CUOMO: This is the video --
LEMON: This is the video. What -- Can you imagine if this was a black eye with a gun, walking towards police, and they're telling you he just shot someone? black eye with a gun walking towards police and they're telling you he just shot someone. What do you think would happen, Chris?
CUOMO: Well, God forbid. Who knows what would happen? Hopefully, the exact same thing, but we just haven't seen it before.
But I'll tell you what: If you want to show America video of what is the problem and not the symptom of a problem, this is the problem. The fact that everybody watching this right now cannot believe that somebody with a long gun who's being accused of having just shot people has BearCat after BearCat go past him, and not until he reaches that cruiser and looks in did a cop say to him, apparently, Hey, step back. Because he goes, steps back like this.
LEMON: I didn't see anybody run after him or tackle him or try to shoot him. None of that.
CUOMO: That is the problem.
LEMON: What happened?
CUOMO: Either everyone is treated equally or they aren't.
Now what do we have to know? Did they recognize this guy? Did they know him from earlier with the water discussion? Does that make it OK? No. But it helps us not have our conscience shocked as much.
LEMON: We don't know if the -- I would assume the water incident was before, but we don't know that for sure.
CUOMO: But I mean, just to make sense of how this happens, because I -- look, you and I have both been in many of those situations. I've never seen anybody being yelled at by police., That guy, that guy --
LEMON: That guy.
CUOMO: -- in a protest/riot, you know, cataclysm; and they give someone a pass. I've never seen it.
LEMON: I've never seen anything like that.
CUOMO: And he's got a gun.
LEMON: People with guns saying -- the people in the BearCats --
CUOMO: Right.
LEMON: -- who are law enforcement, saying, We appreciate you guys. We're going to give you all the water we can.
Come on, people.
CUOMO: I'll tell you what, it does inform as to why they may have --
LEMON: It does.
CUOMO: -- given this guy a pass.
LEMON: It does.
CUOMO: But again, Mike Pence said tonight, Joe Biden didn't mention the violence happening in these cities.
LEMON: Yes.
CUOMO: Dramatic pause. And he didn't mention this.
LEMON: He didn't mention this, and they didn't talk about this. And if you're watching this tonight and you don't see -- it's too easy of a term -- the double standard here, can you imagine?
CUOMO: No, it's not a double standard. It's a one standard.
LEMON: It's --
CUOMO: It's that if you are black, you've got a problem --
LEMON: This is crazy.
CUOMO: -- when it comes to dealing with police, in a way that others won't. It's not a double standard, because that is the fluidity of the standard that is the focus of change. LEMON: And let's remember --
CUOMO: That's all.
LEMON: -- the person who shot. We saw them in the video and I wish we could cut that video better to see what happened before. It's these people running down the street, trying to get that guy, because that guy, I believe, is causing mayhem. He's on the ground shooting at people.
CUOMO: Right.
LEMON: And then --
CUOMO: Sure looks like the same guy.
LEMON: It looks like the same guy. He gets up, walks down the street. Nobody is trying to get him.
And guess what? He's not in the hospital, Chris. He is still alive. With a gun, having shot someone. Not I thought you had a gun.
CUOMO: An illegal gun.
LEMON: I thought you had a weapon. I felt that my life was in jeopardy. If you don't feel that your life is in jeopardy when someone is walking down the street with a long gun and people are telling you --
CUOMO: An illegal gun.
LEMON: An illegal -- then --
CUOMO: The kid is 17, supposedly. He's not of age for open carry.
LEMON: Daryl Johnson is here. He's a former senior domestic analyst of the Department of Homeland Security.
Daryl, OK, there are. I'm besides myself watching this video. I think it's absolutely horrific. It's awful that so many people are losing their lives.
But listen, it's outrageous. There's no other way of putting it. These guys are offering these people, the vigilantes water, telling them We're happy you're here. We need you guys.
Then the man in that video is believed to have shot someone. And he's walking down the street with a long gun towards officers. Nothing has happened to him. Not in the hospital. Still alive.
I say it's a double standard. Chris said no, it is the standard. What do you make when you watch these videos?
DARYL JOHNSON, FORMER DHS SENIOR DOMESTIC ANALYST: Well, Don, I'm at a loss of words. The only thing I can tell you is I think it's a gross example of white privilege. The fact, like you mentioned, if this had been a Muslim carrying an
assault rifle down the street where there's bodies laying down dead, they would have been immediately arrested and taken into custody. Same with a black or Latino.
The fact that you have these white guys hanging around, guarding these businesses, trying to build these, you know, relationships of trust with the police, I think, kind of caused the bias to set in. So they overlook the obvious threat of the guy carrying the gun down the street and, instead, focused on this imaginary boogeyman that didn't exist.
LEMON: Let's -- I want to play something, but OK, before I play that, let me ask you this. Why -- why is -- why are the people in those BearCats? Why is law enforcement -- why do they have -- why are they partial to these people? Why are they allowing these vigilantes? Why are they befriending them? Why are they, in many ways, promoting what they do?
What is it about the guys who are there, or women, in law enforcement that seem partial to these groups and seems to be inviting them into the mayhem? That is, at the very least, unprofessional, and unwarranted, and biased. Why -- what is going on here?
Shouldn't police officers say, You're not a police officer. You are not -- you're not sworn in to handle this. You should be off the street. Get off the street. There's a curfew. Go home.
Why aren't they saying that to these people?
JOHNSON: It's definitely a recipe for disaster when you have people who are untrained, who are not the police carrying guns to a protest.
And so, what I think is going on is, you know, the police are under immense pressure right now from the public, from the media. They probably feel like nobody is supporting them.
And a lot of these militia groups are actually forming these pro- police rallies, Back the Blue. And, so a lot of them, you know, are there. They're trying to build these relationships of trust with law enforcement.
And I think law enforcement right now is so focused on these, you know, civil disturbances and, you know, the property destruction and things like that, that they just appreciate these, you know, vigilantes showing up to help protect businesses, which is wrong.
LEMON: OK. It's outrageous.
Daryl, I appreciate your perspective. Thank you. We have so much to cover tonight. We're going to stay on top of this. It is -- Thank you very much.
It's unbelievable, Chris, when you look at the shooter, the alleged shooter, who is now charged with first-degree intentional homicide. When you look at his background, how he supports the president. He's gone to rallies, part of Blue Lives Matter, on and on.
Complete silence from most Republicans tonight. Nothing mentioned about it at the Republican National Convention.
CUOMO: Worse than that. Mike Pence took the time -- And look, they may very well wind up leading this country for the next four years.
LEMON: And they may talk about it tomorrow, but why not tonight?
CUOMO: This is on their watch.
LEMON: It is on their watch.
CUOMO: Mike Pence is aware of this now, and he said tonight, he said tonight, OK, let's run the race that's marked out for us. Is solving the division here not part of what's marked out for them?
He followed it by saying, Where the spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom.
As a Christian, Mr. Vice President, if you don't believe that your faith demands that you speak about what's happening in Kenosha right now, not in terms of showing riots and fomenting tension, when it's a symptom of a problem that we're seeing in real time, with how this situation was dealt with in real time.
If you don't speak about that, don't talk about the spirit of the Lord guiding a race for you, because you are erasing the guidance that the Lord should have been giving you on this. If you're a Christian, you should care about what happened there, because justice matters,
LEMON: And don't say, This is Don Lemon, Chris Cuomo, liberal media -- we said with the former vice president, Joe Biden, that he should speak out about the violence that's happening on the streets, that he must do it. That it was an issue for Democrats and the possibility of his election.
And also, just in general, he should speak out against -- about violence and about what he wanted to do when it comes to reforming police and also the violence in our country.
CUOMO: But if you don't address that, how do you think aren't going to be outraged and take to the streets?
LEMON: Right. So don't say that it is -- it is the liberal media doing that, pointing out what Republicans are not talking about. Because we did this -- we did that last night.
CUOMO: Whoever is going to lead has to deal with this, Don.
LEMON: We're talking about it tonight, and Republicans have to talk about it. And they have to talk about these vigilantes. And they have to talk about these groups who go in and start this violence and break windows.
We're going to wrap. Relax. We're going to get to the commercial. We've got until 3 a.m. Please.
So we've got to talk about this. They have got to address it, because there are people coming in from these groups. White guys coming in from these groups, starting unrest, promoting violence in places where they shouldn't. They are a big part of the problem, as well.
And so you've got to talk about it, and you've got to own up to it. And stop saying, Well, it's no wonder that a young person would take a gun and want to defend or whatever. That is bullshit. That is ridiculous.
[00:50:04]
Seventeen years old, it's illegal. It's not his community. And no one should be a vigilante out there taking lives. Stay home.
Chris is going to talk to Jacob Blake's uncle right after this break.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
CUOMO: Kenosha is a developing situation. We do now know the name of the officer who shot Jacob Blake in the back seven times. His name is Rusten Sheskey, and he has been placed on administrative leave.
Joining us now is Jacob's uncle, Justin Blake. Sir, thank you for joining us.
JUSTIN BLAKE, JACOB BLAKE'S UNCLE: Good evening. Thank you for having us.
CUOMO: How is your nephew doing?
BLAKE: Bad. God had to be present when the situation went down and got totally out of control, and he's still present. He was able to -- my brother went in for the first or second time tonight, thinking about it went in before and he wasn't as conscious. But he went in tonight, and he's doing well. And he was able to sit up and talk to my brother, Jacob. Jacob Senior.
CUOMO: What is the latest you want people to know about how his recovery is coming?
BLAKE: That it's going to be slow. It's going to be progressive. But he's a young man, and he's resilient. And we believe he's going to have a great recovery.
CUOMO: Is there a level of confidence from the doctors at this point that he may have full use of his full limbs?
BLAKE: Yes, we're praying for that now. We're waiting to see what the ultimate outcome is going to be. But he has every chance, as anybody else, to turn the things around.
CUOMO: Now that we know the name of the officer, if you could speak to Officer Sheskey, what would you want him -- what would you want to ask him about why what happened to your nephew happened? BLAKE: Honestly, we don't -- wouldn't like to talk to him at all. We
just want to make sure that the supervisors, those who are in charge, understand that his mother and our brother, his father just want justice. We don't want to talk to him. He should have to deal with the system that's in front of him. And we need to make sure that that system works.
CUOMO: Do you know if your nephew has talked to the authorities about his version of what happened?
BLAKE: No, not aware at all.
CUOMO: So you don't know -- you don't know if it's happened or not happened?
BLAKE: Not at this point.
CUOMO: OK. What do you think about what we were showing earlier in the show, the video of the militiamen who were alleged to have shot and killed people in the street?
BLAKE: We had the opportunity to go out in front of the crowds that were supporting the Blake family, specifically our nephew, Jacob Blake. And we brought them all close. The organizer was able to sort of get everybody in a circle and come close. We specifically asked for the protesters to protest peacefully, for no one to get hurt and for destruction not to happen.
We want justice. And we don't want anything to smear that or take us out of focus. We just want to focus on Jacob's health and the system working. All eyes of the nation and the world are upon us.
CUOMO: What would it mean to you if these white militia guys were getting the appreciation of local police, and one of them was able to walk toward them with people yelling, That guy just shot people, and the police either passed by, or just really talked to him, but didn't do anything to him after what happened to your nephew?
BLAKE: We think that would be the perfect example of white privilege. We didn't get the benefit of getting handcuffed and being taken in easily and arrested. Rather, our nephew was approached in vigorous forums and led to what everybody saw in the video.
CUOMO: What do you think has to happen next?
BLAKE: Well, here's a mother and our brother, Jacob Blake, are all praying that he will receive a great comeback, and he'll be able to just stand up and take care of his children, as he was doing before, and that we get justice from the officers that were in charge.
CUOMO: Well, listen, I know that this would be hard enough on the family to just deal with privately, let alone for now to become part of an ongoing national saga, of the effort, of the challenge, the demand for true justice. More equal justice in this country. And I appreciate you talking to us. I know this isn't easy, but thank you for taking the time. And we'll keep checking on your nephew and, of course, monitoring the investigation.
BLAKE: We appreciate your coverage, and please continue the prayers for Jacob Blake to a speedy recovery. Thank you so much.
CUOMO: All right. God bless the family. Be well.
BLAKE: All right. Thank you.
CUOMO: Don, look, be well. You've got to give the family its space. You know? We don't want to make them politicians and have them commenting on everything that happens.
But just think about it. You're waiting for your nephew to be able to walk again. And he definitely gets into it with the police and the woman and what's going on and what's not going on. And he walks around the car. He's not holding a long gun. They suspect he may have a weapon in the car. He takes seven in the back.
Everybody says, Let's wait and see why they had to do it.
And then you're seeing video of a guy where everybody's screaming, He just shot people. He just shot people.
And he walks up, and the police just go right by him. Yes, the guy's in custody. People are saying to me, Well, the white guy's in custody. The system worked. What are you so upset about?
LEMON: The system worked because the guy turned himself in.
CUOMO: But what would have happened if it were a black guy walking down the middle of the street?
LEMON: Come on.
CUOMO: And look --
LEMON: Do you even have to ask that question?
CUOMO: -- the right answer should be the same thing would have happened. But we don't believe that.
LEMON: I was going to say, Do you really have to ask that question? And I mean, I'm not calling you out for that.
END
