tv Cuomo Prime Time CNN May 18, 2020 6:00pm-7:00pm PDT
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mary and wilford came down with coronavirus in april. because they were both positive, they were able to stay in the same hospital room which was a blessing with their beds pushed together. they were so grateful they could be together as they were in life. 73 years of marriage. think about it. after a lifetime together, they died within six hours of each other. the family says in their final hours they were able to hold hands and say i love you to each other one last time. mary kepler was 92 years old and wir wilford kepler was 94 years old. our thoughts go out to those families and all the families who have lost loved ones and been affected during this pandemic. the news continues right now. i want to hand it over to chris for "cuomo prime time." >> i say it every night, coop, that's because it matters every night, remembering those who are gone, honoring that memory. by taking this situation seriously. it's not just important, it's a
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gift to the audience and to us so we stay focused on the humanity. thank you, my friend. have a great night. i am chris cuomo, and welcome to "prime time." so, it's a monday. i'm going to ask you to try something different tonight. let's just try it once, see how it goes. all right? instead of taking the bait that the president tossed out today about him taking he ining hydroxychloroquine, can we just try looking at why he's doing this today? okay? because this is not an accident. this is another day that he won't have the media pointing out that we're re-opening reckle recklessly. it's another day that he's going to avoid the media, people like me, saying, we don't have proper testing and tracing measures in place. we're the only major nation who doesn't have a central plan to do so? this thing about the drug is a fight he can win because his base believes in the efficacy of the drug. the science is irrelevant. he's not going to lose anybody that he doesn't have already and
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he avoids a fight he doesn't want to have by avoiding a question he has never even attempted to answer. how do we re-open in a way that balances our economic needs with our health needs? he's never even taken a swing at it. so, yes, there's another story tonight as well. there is progress tonight in a race for a vaccine, but that's not a short-term solution. let's hope it's good, but at this point, it's more hype than hope. so we'll bring in our "a" team of doctors to talk about why this doesn't make sense, but don't take the bait. let's stay focused on what matters. we have to re-open, but we have to do it the right way. how? that question remains unanswered. so what do you say together as ever, as one, let's get after it., together as ever, as one, let's get after it. look, the president knows
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that hydroxychloroquine is not supported by science. he knows that it's been flagged by people in his own administration. he oknows his own task force tok a nonposition on the drug when listing the protocols of how to treat covid-19, but he got it in his head early on when he got it wrong that now it speaks to optimism. it speaks to strength. i'm all-in on re-opening, i'll try anything, we should do anything. not testing and tracing. why? if you want to do anything, why? because testing and tracing makes re-opening go more slowly, he thinks. why? because the numbers, what did he tell you about what the numbers do, we have more cases because we test more. we test more than anybody in the world. not true. guess how much of our population we've tested, less than 5%. so we're not overdoing it. what else did he say? and every time you test, you find out something is wrong.
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wrong? how is somebody being positive and negative right or wrong? it's only wrong if you don't like what it represents. so why does he bring up this hydroxychloroquine? i don't know if he's even taking it. he's got a letter from his doctor saying that's why he prescribed it. by the way, doesn't mean he's taking it. why would he take -- it's something the media and his opponents may take on and it's all a beautiful distraction. now, here's what he said today and you have seen it picked up everywhere and almost always for the wrong reasons. watch. >> many, many are taking it. i happen to be taking it. i happen to be taking it. >> hydroxychloroquine? >> i'm taking it, hydroxychloroquine. >> when? >> right now. yeah. a couple weeks ago i started taking it. i want the people of this nation to feel good. i don't want them being sick,
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and there's a very good chance that this has an impact. >> i'm telling you, it's a winning argument for him. beat me up all you want. sanjay's going to come on for a second. we got rich besser tonight who used to head up the cdc. excellent doctors. they'll slap around what the president is doing. it's irrelevant. okay? he wins this argument. why? because he believes, because he's taken a chance, because he's strong. he's not the party of no. he's not the democrats, no, don't take the hydroxychloroquine just in case, you stay home, you can't go out, you can't work, you can't eat, you can't live. that's where he's put the democrats. some of it's messaging. some of it's more than that. now, why did he do this? who cares why because it works. all right? now, let's bring in sanjay gupta. okay? sanjay is not here to talk
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politics. he's here to check obvious boxes for us. let's put up the doctor's letter, sanjay, because i did a little calling when this came out, as i'm sure you did n. not easy to find a doctor who says they would prescribe this propholactically. "after numerous discussions the president and i had regarding the evidence for and against the use of hydroxychloroquine, we concluded the potential benefit from the treatment outweighed the relative risks." mouchb how often have you heard this prescribed before you're sick? >> i have not heard it prescribed prophylactically. there's been a lot of anecdotal discussion about this. there is no evidence. i read the letter as well. it says the evidence for and against. there is no evidence to use this prophylactically. there are studies being done to look at this right now for health care workers who've had significant exposures. those studies will come out at some point. there are other studies looking
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at it as a treatment, as you know, chris, you and i have talked about it and those studies are pretty abysmal. they've not shown benefit and shown some potentially significant harm especially when it comes to the heart. so not good as a treatment. evidence is there for that. as far as prorophylaxis, no evidence shows it works. the fda has come out, you talked to these folks, but said do not use this outside of a clinical trial, outside of a hospital, because there's just no evidence here. he's the president. he can get tested and checked out and get ekgs and stuff like that, but what about everybody else? the message is very clear, don't take this. we don't have evidence that it works. it would be harmful. >> now, one quick other medical box to check, and then i want to talk to you about why i think this is not about medicine at all. he, according to you and others, may have a sensitivity with his heart. is what you had seen in tests
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about his heart in any way relevant to what has been discussed about hydroxychloroquine's potential unintended consequence with arrhythmia? >> it's a great question. what i would say is this, and, again, we're learning as we go along, but in people who have covid, meaning that they actually have the infection, this is a concern for the heart. taking this medication. and if you already have existing heart disease, it's a different sort of heart problem that the hydroxychloroquine can cause, but it is a concern for people who have underlying heart disease, if they were to take this medication as a treatment for covid. as a prophylaxis, it's a little unclear. that's what the new studies are going to go and show. chris, you know, this was a malaria prophylaxis, still used in places around the world. i've taken it, actually. other people have taken it in the past, a long time ago. i wasn't screened for anything for my heart at that point. i think at that -- for somebody who doesn't have existing covid
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disease, there's not an indication necessarily, we don't know yet what the impact on the heart would be. but for someone who has the disease and takes the medication, there is now a real concern. so, again, no benefit -- >> right. >> -- proven either for prophylaxis or treatment, potential harm, significant harm, when it's used as a treatment. >> okay. so we've been responsible. okay? now let me talk to you about why i think this is happening. even though i don't usually talk politics you, i think you're going to get this. when the hydroxy -- you can obviously get it, you're a genius. i i'm saying it's worth exposing you to the politics of it. when this first came out, you and i talked about it a lot. i had zpaks and hydro hydroxychloroquine sent to me by well-meaning physicians who were all trump supporters. every one who sent me them believes in the president on one level or another. i don't think that's a coincidence. why? because this became symbolic of one part says no, no, no, no, no, sanjay, no, don't take it,
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no, don't leave your house, no, don't do this, no, don't do that. and what is trump's argument? re-open, baby. we're strong. we're not playing scared like gupta and all these other guys want us to play. take the hydroxychloroquine, what do you have to lose? you're dying, anyway, from staying home. you're losing all your money. your life is draining away. you're just stuck because the democrats want you there. and by the way, they want you there because they want to steal your freedoms and make you pawns of the oppressive power majority, which is growing faster than anything to do with the virus. that's how this started. you'll remember people coming at you about it that way. why don't you say yes, sanjay? why don't you say yes about this drug? it means more than the medicine. your take. >> yeah, i -- there was definitely a lot of that and people want -- i mean, there's this inflection point between hope and honesty and i think people were very much leaning on the side of, you know, let's
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just be hopeful that this works and, you know, who cares about the data or the science and, you know, as clinicians, as scientists, we always have to say that, look, there can be potential problems with this stuff. there's no evidence that it works. and ended up it was a really -- it was crazy timing. got a lot of pushback on that which was very interesting. again, i think most of my medical colleagues i think have been much more responsible when it comes to this, but there have been -- i know people were sendsing you medications where people were saying, just try it. things can have harm. things may not have benefit. in this case, it -- people started hoarding the drugs. pharmacies were running out of the medication. people who needed it for legitimate reasons could no longer get it. so you really have to play this out and see what all the unintended koconsequences are. that's going to happen again tonight, chris. people are going to start hoarding this medication. people are going to start taking it that shouldn't be taking it and people could be harmed. that's the concern. that's why we keep talking about
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this. >> i'll talk about it. i'll be responsible about it, but i ain't taking the bait. i'm telling you, i'm not doing it. he doesn't want me to mention this is another day without a plan to test and trace in this country the way every other major nation who's seen a downturn in cases has done. not on my watch. not with me and sanjay. not tonight. you need to do more and better and answer the question of how. nobody's forgetting. this is, to use medical parlance, sanjay, let's use the antiseptic light of truth in reality. >> there you go. >> what's happening here. he's going to take hydroxychloroquine but he won't wear a freaking mask? >> right. >> i mean, come on, man. >> right. >> sanjay, thank you for being reasonable. thank you for telling people what we know and what we don't. i appreciate you and love you for that. >> you got it. >> okay? >> you, too, brother. >> me, i amount the sullied. okay? i'm into the politics of this. sanjay, we keep him for the medicine. he talks about public health policy. please, don't have him in here anymore, let sanjay go home. thank you, sanjay.
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leave hem alone i. i'm telling you, i don't want him for this part of the discussion. good. thank you. i don't want him colored by this. i'm sullied by this. i see the politics in this. i don't know if he's taking it or not, but i know that this is helping him. i know it is because his people see it as strength and his determination to do whatever he can and that the democrats are the party of no. they've been caught in messaging. we got senator bernie sanders on tonight to talk about exactly that. now, what does he not want us to talk about by floating out this hydroxychloroquine thing? what the government should be doing to get us to re-open faster. what about the how? who should be talking about that? dr. rich besser. why? he ran the cdc. he understands what this government is capable of. what states should be doing. what they should be directed to be doing. and what's not happening. next.
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re-open or not? not even a question. have to re-open. the only question is how. and it keeps being ignored because it's hard. unless you wanted to go full trump, go full wisconsin, all-in, let's see what happens. right? but almost every poll of you guys says, no, we don't want that. and yet, it gets ignored. we'll talk about hydroxychloroquine and why the president's taking it. who cares. god bless him. i hope he's okay and he doesn't get sick. sure as heck ain't going to be the hydroxychloroquine that saves him, though. there's no science to support it. boy, does it work wonders in politics because here's our reality that you're in the going to hear a lot tonight, even on my competitors' tonight, i guarantee you it will be more about why he would say that, what is it about, why is it right, why is it wrong, than this, all 50 states will have
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re-opened by the end of this week. again, look at who's growing in cases, yet opening. okay? for those of you who have been clambering for a quick re-op re-openi re-opening, listen, i'm with you. we all want to re-open asap. but you got to admit, it's a little weird with states to be re-opening without a testing and tracing plan, no real way to make sure if there's any problem that they can deal with it when their cases are still going up. a little risky. a little weird. it will be interesting to see how many people go out and take risks with their own families. again, we don't want anybody to get sick. okay? it's just about how we do it the right way. a good thing is to tree open, but i've always said, it's just about how. and we ignore that. you've never heard the president talk about how in any real way. especially why we should be concerned. you know why? you hear this? that is the sound of the voiceless. those who will be hit hardest.
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who? communities of color, vulnerable populations because of poverty and systemic problems in terms of getting treatment, getting to care. african-americans, 13% of the populations in all areas releasing such data, 27% of deaths. okay? let's take a look at one state, georgia. opened fast. right? home state of the cdc, by the way. black americans, 50% of the deaths, 31% of the population. why? dr. richard besser, former acting director of the cdc during swine flu, h1n1. i've known him a long time. i've been leaning on this man like a crutch for over a decade. it's good to see you, doc. >> nice to see you, chris. >> so, dr. rich besser, why are african-americans and poor populations, minority poor populations, specifically, dying more? >> yeah. i mean, it's -- it's a critical question, and it's something
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that shouldn't -- and there are quite a number of reasons behind it. one is a very high proportion of black americans, latino americans, native americans, fall into that category of essential workers. so whether they're working in health care, whether they're working in transportation, food supply, making sure there's food on the shelves for others to eat, it's putting them at risk because of exposure. so you have that -- that piece of it. you have them in those positions without proper protective equipment. and then when people get sick, what do they do? well, very high proportion of black americans, latino americans, who are either uninsured, there are 28 million people in america without health insurance. so. what do you do? well, you can't call your doctor so maybe you go to the emergency room and if you didn't have covid before, you can get exposed there. then you're diagnosed with covid infection and what do you do? you're told to go home and self-isolate. well, you know what it takes,
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you had this, you know what it takes to shut yourself off from people you lived with. if you live in a crowded situation with many other family members, many of whom may be elderly or have underlying medical conditions, you aren't just one person who is sick. you are the start of a little localized outbreak in your family. those are many of the reasons. there's also, you know, a high proportion of diabetes and high blood pressure. a lot having to do with the conditions in lower-income neighborhoods where the air quality is not as good, sets you up for asthma and heart disease and lung disease. the access to fresh fruit and vegetables isn't there. and this group that we're calling essential workers, before this began, how many of them were even being paid a living wage? >> uh-huh. >> you know, so, see, pit's the perfect storm here, chris, as to why this is occurring. >> right. >> many places aren't even looking closely to identify where the risk -- >> right. >> -- is happening. >> now, just for the audience, real quick, when you guys hear rich, dr. rich besser say, and they weren't even making a
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living wage, you're like, whoa, what does bhun hamoney have to making you sick? what do you use to pay for foods? what do you use to pay for medicine? what do you use to fuel all the things that help you stay healthy? money. and if you don't have it, you're more at risk. if you don't believe it, look at poor right populations. you'll see the same numbers by income, not just color. rich -- >> income is -- >> yeah. >> income is critically important because many people can decide, okay, i'm working remote, i'm at home. >> right. >> for people who are earning a living to put food on the table and pay the rent, they're being forced to make a decision between staying home and doing what's safe or going out and taking care of their family. it's just -- it's a choice no one should have to make. >> putting people at risk. so now you get to my premise of the day. i will not bathe you in hydroxychloroquine but i will suggest to you why the president would rather have people debating whether he's strong for taking it, making the right move, or not. what should be happening in this
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country right now in terms of a centralized, you know, federal government sponsored, organized, funded, testing and tracing plan that filters to the states and that we see resonate across the country based on need that is not happening? >> oh, there's so much. public health is being put forward as the enemy of economic re-opening, but, in fact, it's the path. it's the roadmap to how do you do it in a way that protects people's lives and is sustainable. and it's testing, tracking, and providing support for isolation and quarantine. when you look at other countries, it's not just those two pieces of let's test people and then find out who they've been in contact with. if you don't ensure that everybody who's been in contact with somebody who has covid or is infect ed has a safe place t quarantine and has income to buy food while they're there and they're supported, then you're just counting numbers. you're not preventing outbreaks. you need all three pieces and
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they're expensive, they're going to take federal dollars. they're going to take working with each community so that contact tracers are coming from communities and you're providing support in ways that are culturally appropriate. you know, it can be done. it takes resources but public health knows how to do this. >> absolutely. if they're allowed. cdc -- >> exactly. >> -- couldn't get their guidelines out. they got watered down to flowcharts. they had chapters and chapters of specific things to follow. you know this. you ran the agency. >> yeah. yeah. no, it's -- it's a real challenge. i'm on the committee to the commission to restart and recover in new jersey on the seven-state coordinating group and we shouldn't have to be developing these state by state. it should be coming down from the feds then states should be able to adopt it based on what's happening locally. you know, because the outbreak isn't occurring at the same rate in each place at the same time. so there should be differences but they should all be based on the same national strategy. that's how it works. >> let's just be clear, this is not rich besser's opinion.
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it is my opinion. why isn't that happening? because more numbers slow down re-opening. and that's not what the president wants. that's why he's talking about hydroxychloroquine. okay? because it is a distraction from how we re-open and he doesn't want to talk about that. dr. richard besser, it is great to see you. thank you for, once again, helping me understand things better. >> thank you, chris. >> best to you and the family. all right. look. everybody keeps saying can't have any politics in play. you never hear me say it because i've always assumed it was -- look, i'm not cynical. okay? i haven't gotten tired of caring. it's the opposite. i just see what's happening here. it's all politics. and forget about just beating up on the president. it's not what this is about. what about the democrats? they are getting set up as the party of no here. hydroxychloroquine.
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i'm going to take it, what do you have to lose? no, no, no. who's saying that? almost every one of them. democrat. let's re-open, come on, let's go with it, man. we're strong. we'll see what happens. no,saying? democrats. they say science, they say reason. you know what a lot of people in america hear? no. and they don't like it. so am i wrong? let's talk to one of the prominent members of the party. one of the smartest men i know. senator bernie sanders of vermont here next. i just love hitting the open road and telling people that liberty mutual customizes your insurance, so you only pay for what you need! [squawks] only pay for what you need. ♪ liberty. liberty. liberty. liberty. ♪
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so our president wants to talk about how strong he is to take hydroxychloroquine because he just does everything he can to make himself strong and make this country strong. and i hope doing whatever he does keeps him strong, science notwithstanding. i know this much, i don't know that it will help with his health, but it certainly helps
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to cover up his weaknesses. another day that most of the media wouldn't be pressing him about never dealing in any real way with how we re-open. and he bought a pass today on a bad piece of news that i bet you probably haven't even heard about. did you know that the first foreign-directed terror attack since 9/11, foreign-directed, happened on trump's watch? we now know the fbi has found an al qaeda link to that pensacola attack last year at the military base. they were able to break the encryption on the attacker's iphone. we knew he was a saudi military trainee. remember, it was all put on the sauds, right? remember, it was all put on the saudis by the trump administration. now we learned he was apparently a longtime associate of al qaeda who had communicated with operatives from the group as recently as the night before the shooting. remember, three u.s. sailors were killed. several others wounded.
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fbi director chris wray says the pensacola attack was actually the brutal culmination of years of planning and preparation by a longtime al qaeda associate in the arabian peninsula. again, since 9/11, we've had plenty of people, lone wolf, foreign inspired, or just, you know, malignant of mind and soul, but no foreign terrorist organization has successfully directed a deadly attack in the u.s., okay? that's what we get according to a think tank that studies these things. so, again, you're not hearing about that today. why? because you're hearing about hydroxychloroquine. you're not getting pressed by the press to the president about how do we re-open, how do you bring these states together? how do you get it so you balance what we need and what we want? let's bring in senator bernie sanders. always a pleasure to see you. you look well. i hope you and the family are great. >> we're doing great. how are you doing? >> better than i deserve.
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the idea of just in case, senator, we need you, you're one of the leaders of this country, should you be popping some hydrochloroquine like tic tacs just in case? >> just in case, no. no big-time, you know. i think it's good idea to listen to what doctors have to say. and what they are saying is that particular drug has not been proven to prevent the coronavirus and, in fact, it has some pretty nasty side effects. so, no, i would not be taking it. >> now, in preparation for the interview tonight, i thought i would have a reasonable number to use with you about how many times you chided me not to bother you with what trump was saying because it was a distraction. but the number grew so quickly that it was so embarrassing i thought it was going to give me a fever again. so let's just deal with the general proposition. you are very savvy to when trump is trying to snooker. do you sense that that is what is happening right now? >> i do. he is certainly trying to
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deflect attention from two extraordinary unprecedented realities, and that is right now we are looking at the most severe economic meltdown since the great depression and simultaneously we've now lost over 90,000 americans as a result of the worst pandemic since 1918. combine those two, what we're living through now is an horrific moment in american history. and clearly the focus should be, "a," how do we address the extraordinary suffering the working-class people are now experiencing? chris, as you well know, you've reported on it many times, we have lost over 30 million jobs in the last 2 months. unbelievable number. and many of the people who have lost those jobs are struggling now literally to put food on the table for their kids. they're struggling to pay the rent, not get effected. keep their homes. all of the basic necessities that they need to survive. >> uh-huh.
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>> and you have not heard trump say one word about the need for congress to act and act boldly right now to protect a working class in this country which is suffering in a way we have not seen since, perhaps, the great depression. here is a guy who said, i am a champion of the working class. the republican party is the party of the working class. well, mr. president, stand up and defend workers throughout this country. second of all, dr. besser, a moment ago, got into this. that is, sure, we all want to go back to work, sure, we all want to re-open the economy but you do not want to sacrifice lives unnecessarily in that process. where is the national policy that says to states and employers all over this country, this is a safe way to bring workers back on the jobs. so what you got now, chris, and this is really quite unbelievable when you think about it, you got 50 states
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scrambling on their own. each moving in a different direction. clearly, what we need is a national policy which helps the states and the communities based on science know how to go forward, bring workers back, bring kids back to school, if necessary, but do it in a way that is safe. >> what is your thought about an emerging theory that i have, which is he is painting you, not just bernie sanders, it would be hard to do it to you, honestly, because you have been pushing the democratic party to become the party of yes, yes, we'll try this, yes, we'll do that, yes, we'll expand this, and you had a big impact on the culture of your party's rhetoric, at least. we'll see what biden runs on and what the congress backs up on. but he's now painting you as the party of no. re-open? no, no, no, no, not y et. get back to work, no, no, no, you can't do it this way. get back to living, no, no, no. he's painting himself as yes man
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and you as no man. are you worried about that as a party person? >> i am. what he is doing, and it is extraordinarily dangerous, he has from day one of this crisis, he has minimized the danger. downplayed the danger. not listened to the scientists. not used the defense production act to produce the masks and the gowns that our doctors and medical personnel need. he has downplayed this and now what he's saying is, hey, i'm tough, let's get back to work, don't listen to those namby pamby democrats. i think you're making a good point. and what we have got to say is, of course, we want the american people to go back to work, but we're not going to sacrifice lives unnecessarily. if i'm going to go to work in a factory, you know what, i think i want to know that the guy who's working next to me is not positive for this coronavirus
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because even if i don't get sick, i don't want to go home and get the virus and then give it to my grandmother who has a serious heart ailment or diabetes. i don't want to kill somebody who is vulnerable to this virus. so, trump says you don't have to worry about those things. well, i think you do. and i think we have the science now. we certainly have the capability of creating a methodology by which people can, in fact, return to work. they do want to return to work. they do want to go out to a restaurant. we can do that but do it in a way that is safe and not listen to trump and sacrifice, i fear, many thousands of lives. >> i've said this many times, no question, on the record, on the show, i don't see how your party wins unless it's an all-in strategy and i don't know how if bernie sanders isn't all over the country fighting for the party that you guys win. it's just my opinion. president obama, i also believe that it's an all-in strategy, if
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you don't have him all over the place, i think joe biden has trouble. if he winds up being, you know, officially made the nominee. he is now out there, president obama, in a way talking to kids and doing convocations and end of year er ceremonies, a lot of messaging, the president and he going back and forth a little bit. what is your take on this from a strategy perspective from your party? >> i think what president obama is doing is the right thing. chris, you know, in the midst of this terrible tragedy which is impacting everybody in one way or another, a group we don't pay enough attention to who are really horrifically impacted by this are the young people. all right. you're graduating college right now, where's the job for you? maybe you left school $50,000 in debt, $100,000 in debt. you're graduating high school right now, where is the opportunity for you? so i think we're going to do, actually -- i'm going to be doing a graduation response as well.
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and the message is to these young people, this extraordinary potential, but in order to do what has to be done, we have to organize, we have to educate, we have to have the courage to take on powerful special interests and create an economy that works for all of us, not just the few. and you know, chris, in the midst of this unprecedented moment, if there is any silver lining out there, i hope that it is that people are beginning to think, how did we get to where we are today? how were we so unprepared? how do we have a health care system -- for example, you and i may have argued about this one, but you got a health care system today in which for many people their health care is tied to their jobs. >> uh-huh. >> well, what happens when 36 million people lose their jobs? are they not needing health care today? of course, they are. we have got to move to a medicare-for-all system, in my view, which understands that
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health care is a human right, not simply a job benefit. we also, in my view, and the young people have got to fight for this thing, understand how does it happen that in the richest country on earth when people, millions of people, stop getting a paycheck for a week or two, they're suddenly in financial desperation? how does that happen? >> right, because too many people -- >> the answer is -- >> -- are living paycheck to paycheck and now you have people who are saying, oh, they're making too much because they're making $15 an hour, netted up, all of a sudden they're living high on the hog. we have a lot of big issues. nobody has talked about the working class as often and as vehemently as you have, and while i have to test the ideas, that's the job, you will always have a platform anywhere i am to make your case to the american people. >> thank you very much, chris. >> thank you. god bless you and the family. stay healthy. stay well. stay active. it's good to see you, senator. >> all right.
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be well. >> so, now, let's switch stories but keep our intensity. there's new video that surfaced tonight of ahmaud arbery. the young black man killed in georgia. you know that. this tape is from years ago. it has nothing to do with the case, or does it? i want to bring in our top former federal prosecutor to take a look at what this tape tells us about who we were dealing with and how that might have played a role in this situation. next. every financial plan needs a cfp® professional --
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family attorneys for ahmaud arbery say that a newly surfaced 2017 body cam video obtained by "the guardian" is legitimate. it's important to note "the guardian" made some ed dids to the video i'm about to show you only publishing the most critical moments, but wa you're about to see does line up with the main points of the police
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report of this incident. take a look for yourself. >> off work today? >> just rapping in the park. >> got you. you got an i.d. on you, man? all right. thanks, man. >> why am -- >> why am i [ bleep ] with you? you want to know why i'm [ bleep ] you? keep your hand in your pocket. >> i ain't got shit on me. >> i'll tell you why i'm here. this area is known for drug activity. >> take my -- >> back up. you want to back up? >> my [ bleep ] shit. >> turn and put your hands on the car. turn around, put your hands on the car. turn around, put your hands on the car. i'm checking you for weapons. i'm checking you for weapons. >> bro --
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>> i'm not searching you. i'm checking you for weapons. all right, man? you don't have any warrants. [ bleep ]. i know, but you're coming up on me making me kind of nervous. okay? >> you bothering me for nothing. you can't go in my car. >> you're not allowing me to search your car? >> you can't go in -- >> just don't reach the car, man. >> you can't -- >> hands out of your pocket. >> out of your pocket. down. warning. down. >> stay on the ground. stay on the ground. okay? >> keep your hands out. >> i've already checked him for weapons. i've checked him for weapons. >> okay. >> trying to ease my mind. harass me. i rap, bro. >> i got you, man. when you run up on me and you get really jumpy, that's going to make me nervous, too. >> i got one day off a week. one day. one day off a wek. i'm trying to chill on my day off. trying to chill. >> he was very -- yeah, that was -- >> i tried to tase him. >> you did try to tase him? >> yeah. >> got to the point where you had to tase him? >> well, it was -- i didn't
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realize he'd already patted him down for weapons. i can see there's, like, a wallet or something. >> yeah. >> i can see him going like that. he had a big, heavy coat on. e with. >> for what it's worth, arbery had his hands out well before the cop decided to tase him, okay. but this isn't about that specific incident. that's not what this is about. police officers didn't take the life of ahmaud arbery. regular citizens did. and arbery family attorney says this tape clearly depicts a situation where he was harassed by police officers. this behavior is well-documented. we called the glynn county police department for comment but didn't hear back. let's talk to laura coats. what's your take? >> first of all, what it is, chris, is entirely irrelevant for the very reason you said. number one, those officers are not being accused of having killed ahmaud arbery while he was jogging. while their conduct may be
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questionable about the use of a taser, about stopping him, one thing is quite clear, he did know his rights related to the car search. but real issue is whether travis and gregory mcmichael that had right to stop him. they were not officers. they were not deputized in some way as far as we know by the police. they did not have a legal duty to protect the property that larry english owned that they believe ahmaud arbery stopped by on his jog through the neighborhood. so i want to keep people very focused on these issues. the reason this is being brought up, i suspect, is to try to counter, one, the photograph of a young man in a tuxedo to try to convey somehow that he is combative in nature, or to reflect that he was objeshow he was there.
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mcmichaels were entitled-to-to do as citizens, not officers, and whatever interaction he had with school principal or the tooth fairy before that day is entirely irrelevant to what the interaction actually entailed. >> i see two other angles. one, did the mcmichael who was on the force know anything about this stuff? and was that something that went into this informing of this picture he thought he had of this guy? because the idea of him doing some work on ahmaud arbery knowing him, we heard something reported early on that one of the mcmichaels was involved in a case that he was involved n. there was no case here. he was let go here. thank god the taser malfunctioned, nothing happened and he was allowed to leave. that's one angle. the second angle is ahmaud arbery knew what it was like to be harassed by the cops. he clearly didn't like the idea of somebody messing with him for
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no or bad reason. and it makes you wonder when he's jogging down the street and two guys light him up in a pickup truck trying to stop him for minutes, you know, was he the kind of guy, as his mother said to me the other night, i taught him, you be nice. but if people won't leave you alone and you have to protect yourself, protect yourself. this was a kid who wasn't afraid of standing up for himself. i wonder how it played into the situation with the mcmichaels. >> well, to the first point, it's true that you could -- if there is any indication that the mcmichaels particularly getting scattergory mcmichael while he was an officer had interaction, that would speak to my mind as a prosecutor about how he was able to identify this person and his awareness of who this person was as a suspect in the past, but it would belie logic because they thought he had a weapon on him february 23rd. this videotape, if that's the
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sole interaction, he didn't have anything on him. he complied all the while asserting his belief that they had no right to harass him. so it wouldn't be skibt to suggest that you would think this man is somewhat armed. on the second idea that, of course, yes, most unfortunately brown people in america have had interactions with the police officers, have had interaction and have heard about it or taken it bar beyond the anecdotally note and shows there's a systematic bias that has been demonstrated. why would heavy to stop if he knew his rights with an officer versus a civilian, he has no reason to stop for four minutes. for four minutes they chased him. for four minutes he was probably anxious and afraid and terrified. for four minutes they pursued, chased and eventually shot him.
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>> understood. every piece we can get to understand what motivated this situation to occur is helpful to us. i'm not saying mcmichael knew him from this arrest. but clearly for them to take off from their house when this kid came jogging by, there was more going on. laura coates, thank you as always for making sense. appreciate it. we'll be right back. >> thank you. hey it's me, lily from at&t. i'm back working from home and here to help. hey lily, i'm hearing a lot about 5g. should i be getting excited? depends. are you gonna want faster speeds? i will. more reliability? oh, also yes. better response times?
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denied a green card despite volunteering at new york. she has all these credentials she got here. tonight we're happy to report she is one step closer to receiving that green card. usis reopened her case, approved her national interest waiver. she can continue working at columbia university medical center right now helping covid patients. she is hopeful she will receive a second approval. we'll stay on this story. thank you for staying with us. time for "cnn tonight" with the man, don lemon. >> okay. so i want to start on -- i shouldn't say it's gunshgood ne. because i love this show so much. i love the show so much because there are two characters on that show that remind
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