tv Cuomo Prime Time CNN June 2, 2020 10:00pm-11:00pm PDT
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shimon prokupecz is in new york. shimon, we saw a lot of peaceful protesters, as we're calling them, but the bad stuff was not over today. what did you see? >> reporter: yeah, no, there were pockets of bad stuff. entire day -- we walked miles, the entire team, the security team, all of us walked miles up and down manhattan today with peaceful protests, people chanting, peel together. it was a day you could really see people excited to be outside again. even walking through parts of manhattan to the upper east side through lower manhattan, you know, people are outside, spectators, just people watching lining up along the streets almost like as if it was a parade, a march. they were out and they were clapping. of course at night there have been some issues but nothing like we saw last night, chris. at this hour of the night, all we were hearing last night were
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sirens, police chasing looters around town. i want to show you just up the street. there are police cars that are driving around. they have their lights on. look how quiet it is. there is no one outside. and that's how it's been here for the better part of the night. behind me here is union square park which has been a gathering point here for many of the protesters. there was a lot of looting in this neighborhood. there's a lot of stores boarded up. there was none of that here tonight. there has been some looting across manhattan, but, you know, it's important to say that we're not seeing what we saw last night. i will tell you we were told by the nypd there were about 200 arrests tonight and that's going to be curfew violations. there was some looting. we and our team witnessed a couple of those incidents. but overall, and i think it's important to note this, it's now starting to rain. so, that's going to help things along as well.
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things much different here tonight, much quieter. and it looks like whatever measures maybe perhaps that the nypd undertook here has helped. the other thing could be there was so much looting last night and quite honestly maybe there just wasn't anything else left to loot. they hit so many stores here last night. that could be it. but i want to say that i think the tactics -- we have seen different tactics from the nypd today, different measures, streets closed, a lot more police officers in strategic locations. and all of that, chris, seems to have certainly helped them. >> i think that the nypd took a different strategy set from what happened yesterday. i think that was a big wake up call for them. and what will be interesting to see in the coming days sh did you'll probably get the information before just about anybody -- is the arrests they make for looting. it's going to be interesting to see how many of those people are in databases of prior criminality as opposed to
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protesters. i think that we're going to learn that people who came out here for the right reasons are getting a bad name. >> yeah. i think you're absolutely right. the other thing that's going to be interesting -- we spoke to chief monahan about this. i asked him, you know, how many of the looters are repeat looters, repeat burglars who they're seeing. he said they have not done that kind of analysis yet. a lot of the officers here have been critical of the new bell laws. and that's what's happening is that these are considered -- they are burglary charges in some cases, considered to be minor under the law, let's say. and what happens is they're not being held on bail. so, the joke here in town among the officers is a lot of them are getting released before the officers are getting home. so, they're going to do that analysis. we've heard this from the commissioner talk a lot about
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the legislation and the issues that he has with it. so, they're going to do that analysis. that's going to be another thing that's going to be interesting to see if people who were looting and were doing these burglaries, if they were getting out and coming back and getting rearrested. that's going to be interesting as well, chris. >> there's no question about it. they didn't like it when it happened. they didn't want my brother to sign it into law. this is something that is controversial. they're going to have sta tikss and we're going to see whether or not the law makes a difference the way it was intended to. it is 1:00 in the morning or after it now. keep eyes out there. your energy is impressive. i remember when i used to have energy like that. so, stay safe with the team. thank you for making the interview with chief monahan a reality for us. that was because of shimon prokupecz and his team that we were able to get this key interview with the chief at the beginning of this evening where he laid out how they were doing things differently tonight. and he also explained why he took a knew with protesters and
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what his position on whether or not what happened in minnesota was wrongful. and he said of 800,000 police officers, he said i would be surprised if you find one who doesn't think it was wrong. let's bring in james and jonathan right now. it's good to have you both. thank you, gentlemen. >> thank you, chris. >> let's deal with something hard. jimmy, i'll start with you. the idea of figuring out who's in the crowd and who's making trouble. our president sees this as very fertile political fodder for him. boy, it's all the left. the left has to own it. it is bad, bad, bad. every police officer i ask in every one of the cities when i say do you know who it is, can you say who it is and who it isn't, they all say no, that we definitely have the guy fawkes guys with the masks running around, the anarchists, the antifa offshoots. there are a lot of groups here. and we have reports of white
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supremacist organizations posing as others and coming in. he says there's always a mix of people looking for opportunityism. what's your take? >> i'm speaking from working the drug cartels and worked white supremacists. i know the minnesota governor floated that idea out there. i'm not seeing that. i'm not suggesting there's not something like chatter on one of those racist chats like 4 chan or something like that where you get these racists together and they talk about this and talk about that. i'm looking at it from the perspective of the 35,000 foot view down in trying to see what's going on and how this is working out. these groups, chris, it's almost funny we call them anarchists because they are so well-coordinated. they know where the police are. they're using broad band mobile. they're using the cell phones to
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communicate with each other. what they're doing, the police disperse one crowd, they dissipate and reconstitute where the police aren't. the police are left thinking how did that group metastasize over there. really, really difficult, chris. here's my only criticism, and you've done a good job pointing out the vast majority of these people are angry. they're angry about what happened last monday. jonathan and i talked about it. we're angry. it's unconscionable what happened. but the peaceful protesters are not helping in new york city when there's a curfew at 8:00 p.m. and they stay in town whchlt they do that, then the agitators can hide behind them, use them as human shields and the police have difficulty figuring out who is who. >> they say i don't want a curfew. i should be able to protest as long as i want. this is america. and you're putting it on to control my right. but it does make policing harder. it gives good protesters a bad name. and all of it comes down to
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where does it leave us at the end of the day? jonathan, what are your concerns on what you're seeing on the streets? >> i want to jump back to how do you bifurcate the two different groups we're dealing with here in terms of law enforcement intelligence. what we're seeing the agitators are communicating via social media. they are a leaderless group there are sending out messages, and they're coordinating via social media on how to actually get into the peaceful protests and then act na fairs youly when the opportunity arising. so that's really the challenge. so, law enforcement is utilizing open source intelligence methods to try to understand who these groups are. they do know who a lot of them are right now and they do know who the hostile actors are. it's just identifying what the next step is going to be. how are they going to proceed in their actions to try to take this and leverage this moment of hurt across the country for
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their own purposes and their own gain? >> and remember, jimmy, as you pointed to pointed out to me a few riots ago that they can have it both ways. you can pose a protester during the day, find an opportunity, and you go from protester to criminal. that besmer chs the information. thank you for being up late with me and helping my audience understand. thank you both very much. so, flash point for this this time was of course mr. floyd, killed in minneapolis by officers, one with a knee on his neck with many minutes, three others standing by watching. the floyd family has been playing a large role not just in terms of seeking justice, but helping keep the peace while that goes on. we want to check in on that fight and where it goes from
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it then works to turn down acid production, blocking heartburn at the source. with just one pill a day, you get 24-hour heartburn protection. prilosec otc. one pill a day, 24 hours, zero heartburn. we can't lose sight of how we got here. the protests, the the volatility, the violence. stop and look at your screen right now. this is george floyd's 6-year-old daughter with her mom at a press conference today in minneapolis. george had a family. george had friends. george had teams. i want you to listen as she
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explains floyd's death will haunt her deafamily forever. >> i wanted everybody to know that this is what those officers took -- at the end of the day, they get to go home and be with their families. jeona does not have a father. >> these situations are often what people want to make out of them, out of convenience. but at the end of the day they're about loss and hurt and pain. reverend kevin mccall joins us now. he's a spokesperson for george's brother terrence. he called for protests to be peaceful, for communities to be kept intact, so people can live there once the pandemic passes.
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welcome to "prime time." thank you for being with us, sir. >> thank you for having me. >> reverend, what can you tell us about the state of the family emotionally and how they're coping? >> they're devastated. they're still in a state of shock in term of what happened. terrence, we got back from minneapolis on last night and terrence didn't want to do anything today, just wanted to rest, and really hold his children close to him because he decided to really think about what transpired with his brother when he went to the scene when his brother was killed. so, they're holding up and they still continue to be in a place of wanting peace. >> the challenge here on one level is to get people to understand that this is their cause as well even if they didn't know george, even if they're not black in america. and the obstacle to that
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challenge is often the optics. well, you know, we did something wrong. sara sidner, one of our reporters,er had words echo in my head since she said them. this was over a $20 bill. this was over $20, this police stop. what do you want people to know about george floyd and his family, people who are slow to want to accept that this is something that shouldn't have happened, that it wasn't about something he helped cause? >> many times when these things happen, unfortunately, people always talk about what transpired. it's not about the victim in terms of what transpired. it's how did we get here in terms of them being dead. it's not about the issue. the issue is the officer stood on his neck for minutes and killed him. so, that's what it's about. so, the question is when they're
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going to lock up the four -- the other three officers. that's the question? >> there is zero justification for how they carried out this supposed arrest. has the family gotten any -- i heard the other day that there had been, like, no contact between the victim's family and police for days after this. is that true? >> yes, that is true. there was no contact in terms of that. they were still trying to figure out -- it was the power of the people. the people put the pressure on. the peaceful protesters put the pressure on for the police chief to respond, for swift justice to happen. when this first transpired, the local d.a. said that it's too early to do anything. and then the next day it was a arrest made. that was the power of the people
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that protest and was calling the d.a.'s office. >> what do you think about the attorney general, keith ellison and his looking over the cases? >> well, we have faith in keith ellison in terms of looking over the case. terrence has faith. he's going to continue to stay in the race in terms of the justice fight. we don't want a swift -- we wanted swift justice. they're calling for swift justice. but they want to make sure that the justice goes in the favor of locking up the officers and making sure that they are charged with the fullest extent of the law. >> what do you say to the men and women in your community who look at your hat and say why are you calling for peace when we keep getting killed, we don't get jobs the same way, we don't get educated the same way, we don't get protected from viruses the same way, we don't get treated the same way in this country?
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why do you have peace on your hat? we're never going to have peace here. >> it's interesting you say that because it seems black people and brown people and latino people have always got the wrong end of the stick. we always had to fight for everything. we had to fight for the right to vote. fight for womens' rights. fight for the civil rights act. so, when it we're going to get the justice we have. there's a saying that the struggle may be long but the victory is certain. if you keep your eyes on the prize and do it peacefully and turn your peace from policy and the policy to change legislation, then you can get the justice you need. that's what we need in this case and in cases across the country. we need peace, policy, and do it through legislation. do it peacefully. it gets results. martin luther king did it and he got results. he is respected to this day. >> there's no question dr.
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king's message is more relevant than ever. his "already letter from a birm jail," you have to have difficult and change in order to create a new norm. what does that mean to you in terms terms of the need for the majority to join the minority in this case or it'll just never get done otherwise? >> well, it's good for the minority and majorities to join together because this has affected everyone. i mean, listen, chris, people in their houses for three months -- three months -- dealing with covid-19 with their left hand. in the place of dealing with that, they had to deal with police brutality with their right hand. so, they had to deal with two viruses right before our eye.
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and this was like a storm that was brewing that really turn sbooded into a tropical storm that really spilled over and is spilling over because people were sick and tired of just not getting the results and being beat up. i mean, you're getting beat up on two fronts. you're getting beat up for not wearing a mask in new york city and across the country. you're getting beat up not having the proper health insurance and health disparities. so, it's something that needs to transpire across this country. so, joining together is the best thing to do so you can get the results you need. you are better together than doing it by yourself. >> one of dr. king's dreams was what an amazing america we could have when we finally harness the strength of our diversity instead of fighting it. that is a dream i guess all of us have to still keep alive. but we're not going to get it done this way. we're not going to get it done by going from crisis to crisis
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and reliving the same challenge but not finding the solutions. reverend, please extend my condolences to the family. please extend my invitation that if there's a message i can help relay, i'm here to do it. but i'm not here to pressure them in any way. they've been through enough. reverend, thank you for joining us tonight, especially at this hour. >> thank you so much. >> god bless, reverend. well, look, one of the things people are being asked to do is vote. you're outraged. vote, vote. tonight there is voting going on. there is change coming at the ballot box. one of the most controversial elected officials who was a main stay of iowa politics was just voted out in a primary. we have the professor ron brownstein with his perspective on what we're seeing on the streets and what it may mean in november. next.
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another big story tonight breaking on our watch. cnn projects that nine-term republican congressman steve king of iowa will lose his primary battle to state senator. king has a long history of racially offensive remarks, his statement last year questioning why the terms white nationalist and white supremacist were offensive was what got him stripped of assignments. let's bring in ron brownstein. what do you think about the state of play in this country and whether or not it does play into the november elections? >> first of all, good to see you back out and on your feet, chris. look, i thought today, before i get to steve king, the contrast between president trump and joe biden today was extraordinarily
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revealing i think the way each of them are going to be running in november. trump's turn back to the phrase i am your law and order president, kind of nixon nostalgia from 52 years ago even though we're a very different country. if all you have is a hammer, everything looks like a nail. he turns back to cultural and racial polarization even though it carries a price. he wants to mobilize his base, but he continues to say and do things that i think add more hurdles for him. then you saw joe biden today and even though by historic standards, biden's overall agenda is on the left end of the democratic spectrum of biden's standards, today i think you saw what he's going to run on which is almost a non-partisan appeal. i'm the healer, i'm the unifier, i'm going to bring the country
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together. it was striking to see the statement from george w. bush today who did not rebuke trump by name but wrote five paragraphs that rebuked him in every clause, comma, and exclamation point. i think you see the contrasting messages that both candidates are going to use, and this, i think, underscores the turbulence that we are living through just underscores the importance of this fundamental divide. donald trump has governed as the president of red america and he has no ability to speak to constituencies beyond his coalition. i think that's painfully apparent in the last few days. >> we have been reporting fully what the president has been putting out about the situation. here's some of what his opponent put out today. >> i can't breathe. i can't breathe. george floyd's last words, but they didn't die with him. they're still being heard
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acoeing a echoing all across this nation. i speak to a nation where too often just the color of your skin puts your life at risk. a country is crying out for leadership, leadership that can unite us, leadership that brings us together. the president held up the bible at st. john's church yesterday. i just wish he opened it once in a while instead of brandishing it. if he opened it, he could have learned something. we're all called to love one another as we love ourselves. i promise you this, i won't traffic in fear and division. i won't fan the flames of hate. i'll seek to heal the racial wounds that have long-plagued our country, not used them for political gain. >> so, if trump's play is to galvanize his base, the gamble for his opponent is whether or not the left, the democrats, the
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left, however you want to look at them, are too stratified to come together in an existential battle where it is either trump or other. is the left able to accept joe biden as anybody but trump, or will their purity tests cause stratification? >> you know, as i've written before, joe biden may never solve the problem of fully unifying the democratic party and mobilizing the new democratic coalition, but he may win anyway. it is possible that joe biden is never going to entirely excite younger voters, especially younger voters of color who after the last week may be even more skeptical that the political system can really deliver change. and looking at these protests in cities that are now run by very liberal democrats, prosecutors and mayors, and yet many of these young people feel that nothing has changed. biden may never entirely solve that problem, but he may win
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anyway because he is running better than any democrat since al gore in 2000. he's running better than any democrat in the last 40 years among older white voters. he's leading seniors by 10 points in that abc "washington post" poll. that's unprecedented. that's something we didn't even see in 2018. in 2018 we saw the erosion for trump in the white collar suburbs. now since then he's continued to -- he's lost ground among older white voters and that's partially around his response to the coronavirus outbreak and suggestions by republicans that seniors almost have a duty to die to get the economy going. i think it's also because they have seen other presidents and realize how aberrant this behavior is relevant to what was coming. biden was alluding to that in his speech today. democrats historically say you have to expand the electorate to expand the map. biden can go to places like florida, arizona, michigan,
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wisconsin, and pennsylvania in a better position for democrats by doing better among older people who reliably vote. >> one observation, one question. the observation is what former vp biden said last week if you don't know who to vote for, me or trump, you're not really black. he was a week short. it was clumsy the way he said it and it took license that he doesn't have and was insensitive. but look what happened a week later. but you contrast that with what you're suggesting what's happening right now means for the president. you say i think it hurts him in the suburbs. why? why doesn't it galvanize peoples' -- especially white america's fears that we need trump. look how angry these people are getting. look at this over one case that's so obvious. why don't they just let them prosecute it. why are they angry? doesn't that help trump? >> there's a risk.
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there's no doubt there's a risk. there's a level of disorder that will drive away voters biden needs. if i am right that he's never going to galvanize a huge turn out of younger white voters, he has to improve among white voters who usually vote republican. there's a risk this can go too far and scare voters away the way you're describing. but this is not 1968, chris. it's a very different country. it's much more diverse, much better educated, and attitudes about race are different. trump's nixon nostalgia as if he can run the 1968 playbook in 2020 just underestimates the extent to which broad segments of white america have come to realize particularly i think since ferguson that there are fundamental inequities in our system. and a majority of americans have said in polling that the president is a racist. think about that. extraordinary -- as harshly phrased as it can be, and i think that there is a treadmill
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for him that the more he kind of strikes this note of polarization and racial conflict to galvanize and mobilize his base, he adds to the doubts among many of these traditionally republican leaning voters, not only the white collar suburbanites now but the older 50 plus voters that he is too volatile and belligerent to be the president. >> steve king beat them over the head being a bigot. he really didn't even mention it in a real way. what does that tell you? >> well, it tells you two things. it's a very republican district. and in trump's america, he retains a lot of support. i always said to you that he mobilizes the coalition of restoration which are the voters in the parts of the country that are most uneasy with the way america is changing,
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demographically, culturally, and economically. but his political strategy is centered on the idea of squeezing bigger margins out of shrinking groups at the price of generating more alienation among the groups in society that are growing. you know, in 2016 he lost 87 of the 100 largest counties in america. he lost them by a combined 15 million votes. that's where the e economy is growing. that's where the dynamism is happening. i think it's highly likely he will lose them by even more in 2020 not only because of the cultural issues but they were hardest hit by the pandemic. that means he's going to have to turn out even bigger margins in places that are not adding population, turn out more voters, expand his margins. and that becomes hard if you suffer any erosion at all among older whites because those places are very white and they're old. >> why do so many people still think he's going to win? >> because he can win without winning the popular vote. the polling is pretty clear and
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consistent. it's going to be very hard for him to get above 45 or 46% of the vote. but it remains within the realm of possibility that he could somehow squeeze out narrow victories in arizona, wisconsin, and florida even if he loses michigan and pennsylvania and still hold on to the presidency. democrats are never -- probably never going to get to a point where they can feel confident, entirely confident that would happen. but today in part because of what i said, because of biden's greater strength than any democrat in 20 years among older voters, today biden would probably win all three of those states, arizona, wisconsin, and florida narrowly. the historic model in 2018 with andrew gilliam and stacey abrams and bet o'rourke. it was kirsten who wasn't as
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galvanized. she was the one who flipped a sun belt state. i think that's the pod hadal for what we may see for biden in 2020. he's not going to advance the long term project of transforming and reconfiguring the electorate. but he may win on a throw back model of doing better with older blue collar whites along with the shift. >> super quick, how important is it who biden picks as vp? >> i think it is important and i think he would be well-served to go beyond that and give people a better idea about who else he would be bringing into government. there's only so much governmeex generated around making joe biden president. i think he was most effective the last rally before the coronavirus shut down everything about being a bridge to the next generation and stood on stage with kamala harris and cory booker. i think a lot of americans would
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be excited about that kind of transition especially after looking at a picture like yesterday. not only did the president push out the protesters to go through the park, everybody around him was white. that is not america anymore. there is a new america emerging, a metropolitan diverse america. and i think biden can only go so far in recognizing that i think in his vice presidential pick and even beyond that. he needs to acknowledge that he is a transitional figure. >> got to look like america. ron brownstein, thank you very much. that's why i call you the professor. thank you for the good word. god bless you and the family. the president wants you to believe that this is all about people trying to hurt him and to hurt you. the looting, the violence, it's all the work of the radical left. and that means democrats. democrats are behind all this. democrats are trying to destroy america. is it true? boy, sounds good for him, right? we have new reporting that shows what extremists on the right and
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don't be a sucker. anyone trying to tell you that here's the group that's really behind the violence we're seeing on the streets, they've never been in a crowd like this. i have. let me tell you. there are lots of different factions and there are lots of different people there for the wrong reason, and that certainly goes for the president. he is trying to sell you something and he's doing it for the wrong reason. let's bring in donie o'sullivan with the story of one tweet that
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shows the cycle of confusion. first of all, nice to meet you, young man. >> how are you chris? >> good. better for me than you. tell me the story. >> we've heard the story blame pretty much exclusively left-wing activists as he would call them for all the violence we're seeing on the streets across the u.s., particularly one group, antifa, which is an extreme left organization sometimes involved in violence. with that in mind, what started circulating on twitter was a tweet which was reportedly sent by antifa. it said tonight's the night, tonight we say f the city and we move into the residential areas and take what's our. clearly a call for violence there. it got major traction. it got picked up by the president's son don trump, jr.
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he shared it with his 3 million instagram followers as proof that his dad is right and antifa is right. he took the tweet and commented absolutely insane, just remember what antifa really is, a terrorist organization. they're not even pretending anymore. yesterday we find out that twit thaer the account is not run by left wingers but by white supremacists. two things, that tells us that that does confirm suspicions that there are people on the far right trying to meddle and agitate. that does not tell us that antifa is not involved and is not involved in agitation on the street. i should also mention that don trump, jr., there's no indication that he knew who was really behind this account. he like a lot of us sometimes do fell for online misinformation. >> it just happened to say exactly what a supporter of the president would want it to say.
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maybe you could have looked and said is it too perfect for us. it's not about holding it to account for it. he hasn't been elected. it's about what's going on in the country. in vernacular you would understand, there's often bad on both sides. thank you very much. appreciate it. when you're dealing with fringe, you've got fringe on the left and right. i have never ascribed affinity to a radical left wing group or radical right wing group and the republicans or democrats. yes, i'm one that have transitioned to talking about left and right. that's because i think the parties have largely become impotent and it's more about political thought than political organization in this country. i never really ascribed an affinity and i don't know why the president wants to because if he wants the democrats to own antifa or whatever is on the
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righ left, he's got to own the right. does he really want to own white nationalists? maybe that's why he's so soft on them. maybe he does think that's the fair match up of the teams. andrew mccabe is here to help us sort it out. i'm not going to sully you with politics. want to remind people you've got a best-selling book, "the threat: how fbi protects america in the age of trump." are you surprised that the white nationalists found a clever way to scare white people about the black man? >> no. i don't think that's surprising at all, chris. it's exactly what you would expect from these fringe extremist groups who see an opportunity with the nationwide unrest, with the protests that created an environment that's ripe for rioting and looting.
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and these are groups that are looking for every opportunity to throw dirt on the other side. doing it by posing as the opposite and trying to blame the other side is typical. >> i've got to tell you, it's worked well. on the political right, they talk about antifa and black lives hatter and the radical left all the time. and you know who has benefited, good play, by this white trash, these white nationalists and the bigots. because they get defended. i have staunch conservatives on a regular basis saying, hey, neo-nazis, antifa, what's the difference? these guys, these nazis are getting really good cover in this new comparison model. you say that's no accident. >> i don't think it is. i mean, i think we saw that in charlottesville, right? the response from the president to charlottesville was there were fine people on both sides. you don't see that same sort of language being imposed on the rioting and the looting that we
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see taking place in new york and the violence we see in d.c. and other cities. i think it's -- look, i spent a lot of time, a lot of years in the fbi running our counterterrorism programs, and i can tell you what an organized hierarchical truly terrorist group looks like. and antifa is not that group. this is not a monolithic entity. it's a loose network of small groups of individuals who share an ideology, they share some political beliefs. they really don't like what they consider to be fascists or racists. they were kind of born through an effort to counter racist protests and political speech. they don't like big business. they don't like capitalists. they're not real fans of the police. so a volatile group but it's not one that's highly organized. it's widely thought to be very small in numbers. and i should say there's also reporting out tonight that
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indicates that the fbi, at least here in d.c., has not seen any indication of the involvement of true kind of antifa identified individuals in the violence we've seen around the nation's capital. so once again, i think what you see is the president doesn't ever let the facts get in the way of a convenient political narrative. and i think that's what he's pursuing with this constantly bringing up antifa. >> well, look, two things that should be pretty obvious. first one is you commit a crime under the guise of being part of antifa, then you're a criminal. that's what you are. and if you come out just to bust things up and it's not an expression of outrage in the moment of being pushed to that point of desperation like we see for many african-americans and brown and black people in this country, but you're a criminal and you're there to cause trouble and there to nix in with a legitimate cause. and if you're with antifa that's what you are. and if they don't want to own you that's on them. the second one is this.
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we get killed in this country by right-wing extremists. those guys are in your count. those are the case count of threats that you guys are tracking down most often. and this battle between radical right and radical left has given those guys cover. and the president has had a subtly and not so subtly sometimes move away from the idea of going after those groups because that's his political play. he can't be as angry at the right-wing groups if he wants to blame the left-wing groups. >> that's exactly right. you have seen that time and time again with what the fbi refers to as racially motivated extremism, which has been on the rise for the last three years. we've seen it in mass shootings across the country. we've seen mass shooters who are referring back to racially motivated extremists in other countries and the attacks that they've waged. there is no question of the lethality that that extremism
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poses to our nation. but it's very hard to see the president or any of his republican colleagues taking a strong stance against those attacks when they occur because it becomes wrapped up in the second amendment issues and everything else, whereas here you've got a situation where you've got clearly criminal activity, opportunistic criminal activity associated with these riots, and there seems to be a really reflexive kind of knee-jerk effort to start to blame this on people on the left. it's very hard to see this without some stench of politics around it. >> andrew mccabe, your staying up this late to talk to me, you are the man. thank you very much for doing it. the best to you and the family. >> thanks, brother. good to be here. >> and look, in terms of how want to feel about this, feel any way you want. just look at the tweets. this president has to be coaxed, has to be forced, pushed by us in the media to talk about white
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wing -- right-wing extremism, to own its wrongs, to own its threat. look how he is with radical left groups. he sees some kind of advantage in pu pushing the left on the radical left and being quiet about the actual groups that are trying to kill us in this country. think about it. even today what he's been tweeting about looting and all this stuff. he took a shot at my brother about it. he took a shot at me in there too. his facts were all wrong. but it's not about the facts. it's about fear. but just think about it. a president who's going to be quiet about bigoted nazi right-wing extremists just for political advantage. what a state of play in this country. this is live picture from portland, oregon. 10:55 p.m. local there. ongoing demonstrations in the streets. no major incident to show. and that is a good thing. you may not like it, but this is
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>> announcer: this is cnn breaking news. welcome to our viewers here in the united states and around the world. i'm natalie allen. >> i'm john vause. you're watching cnn's breaking news coverage of the ongoing racial protests across the united states. >> right now we are tracking the eighth straight night of demonstrations against police brutality. tens of thousands of people have been marching through major cities all over the united states, marked by the red dots you see there on the screen.
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