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tv   Erin Burnett Out Front  CNN  June 8, 2020 4:00pm-5:00pm PDT

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follow me on twitter and instagram @wolfblitzer and always tweet the show @cnnsitroom. erin burnett "outfront" starts right now. outfront next as outrage grows over george floyd's death and policing tactics across the u.s. more cities are taking extreme measures. is disbanding the police an answer? plus, contradicting trump the attorney general on why the president was in a bunker as protests intensified outside the white house. and the truth was that it wasn't to inspect the bunker as trump has claimed. and are republicans abandoning trump? one republican says the president is on, quote, thin ice. he is my guest. let's go "outfront." good evening. i'm erin burnett. outfront tonight breaking news, dividing a nation as protesters take to the streets for a 14th straight day. there are now growing calls for
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action against police, calls to defund or completely disband police departments across the country. the most extreme example, minneapolis, the epicenter of the outrage of course over the death of george floyd two weeks ago today. the city council now announcing veto proof plans to dismantle, that is the word, its police force. other major cities are taking action. los angeles's mayor wants to ship $150 million from police budget to disenfranchised communities. new york is pledging to cut funds from the nypd and give them to social programs instead. tonight the president is seizing on these calls and trying to turn it into an election year issue. >> there won't be defunding. there won't be dismantling of our police. there are not going to be any disbanding of our police. >> all of this tension leading to more protests on the streets tonight. we'll go live to new york city amidst the protesters. what is happening and who's
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there? what's going on? >> reporter: and of course, erin, the chants of "defund the police" can be heard throughout this crowd. several times here. tonight we're now on the east side of manhattan. 48th street and 3rd avenue. this march set off from washington square park where several of the organizers of the march spoke about how there is momentum. how they need to keep going and that momentum is on their side, that the world is watching. there are about 2,000 people here marching now. the destination according to the organizers is gracie mansion, the mayor's home. several times the marchers here, the protesters have sat down, taken a moment of silence. they have read the names of the people who have died at the hands of police. of course, erin, as you know there is no curfew any longer in new york city, so this can go on. i want to note that it is pretty
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remarkable. the police have allowed the protesters to just march. there are no police around them. there are no police ahead of them. there are no police behind them. a very different stance from what we have seen from the nypd. and the marchers say they continue and intend to keep on going basically through the night, erin. >> all right. thank you very much, shimon and as you heard that chant, he said defund the police. tonight thousands have been paying their respects to george floyd. there was a public viewing at a church in floyd's hometown of houston. today marked two weeks since floyd's death. omar jimenez is outfront. >> reporter: as george floyd's body arrives at the fountain of praise church in his hometown of houston, texas, it was the public's last chance to say good-bye. former vice president and presumptive democratic nominee joe biden visited with the floyd family privately for over an hour according to the family
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attorney. it was two weeks ago to the day this single cell phone video led to protests around the country. and the world. over more than just floyd's death. >> this is a most horrific tragedy i've ever personally observed. that george floyd is going to change the arc of the future of the united states. george floyd has not died in vain. >> it is not about whether he was perfect or not but how he died. he died unjustly and god uses us in ways we could never imagine at birth and i think he'll use him to change the world. >> reporter: in minneapolis a majority in the city council is committing to defunding and dismantling the city's police in favor of more community based public safety. a pledge that the city council president lisa bender says means acknowledging the current system isn't working. >> what it would feel like to already live in that reality
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where calling the police may mean more harm is done. >> reporter: not everyone is entirely onboard. including the mayor. >> we need a full on cultural shift in how our minneapolis police department and departments throughout the country function. am i for entirely abolishing the police department? no i'm not. >> reporter: it is a debate now playing out across the country including in new york city where mayor bill de blasio says they will be shifting some funding from the nypd to youth and social services. back in houston a family and those that knew floyd best continue to mourn. we are supposed to be at the end of the public viewing period today but people are still lining up as they have in some cases by the bus load throughout the entire day. tomorrow is when we are going to see the actual funeral for floyd and whether you speak to protesters, family, or even more, they don't look at the burial as the end of floyd. instead, they look at it as almost the beginning of a legacy. we are now seeing play out and
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the pushes for long term change. floyd is set to be buried next to his mother. >> all right. omar, thank you very much. i want to go now to minneapolis city councilman steve fletcher who was at the forefront of the push to dismantle the police department. councilman fletcher, the whole country wants to know exactly -- we hear disband the police chants here in new york city. with protesters tonight. so when you say dismantling the police department, what exactly do you mean? >> we mean ending this department as it currently exists. we don't think this department is reformable and it is time to make a real change. >> so i know you've talked a little bit about what you want to do. mental health professionals for example would be taking mental health calls. emts would respond to opioid overdose calls as opposed to police. cameras could be used for much of your traffic enforcement. today the houston police chief was asked about your idea and told cnn disbanding a police department is in his words an
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invitation to chaos. what do you say to him and others who may share that view? >> first of all that starts from the assumption that we're in a state of safety and stability today. that is not our experience of the minneapolis police department. omar jimenez obviously saw that first hand and i hope he'll not form a permanent impression of our city based on the way he was treated. we have not put our best foot forward in the last couple weeks and a lot of people have come around to really viewing safety as something different from police. it used to be that when people wanted safety they would ask for more police and more and more those concepts are separating in my constituents' minds. >> so today the house majority whip jim clyburn urged democrats on a private caucus call to steer clear of talk about defunding the police and he warned, this is his word, hijack. he said it could hijack their efforts on police reform.
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are you concerned you could be handing a victory to president trump and republicans? >> you know, i think the only way people really decide how they want to vote and exercise their rights in a democracy is by looking at people behaving with conviction, behaving passionately, and doing what is right. what we know at the local level is what is right for us at the local level. the politics i am concerned about is the safety of the people of minneapolis and then if that turns out to not be politically convenient, you know, that is how this is going to work. it is our job to act courageously. it is our job to act decisively. and to make a safer city for minneapolis. >> so, steve, what would happen, you know, in the case of, you know, domestic abuse or child abuse? is there any role for police whether you're any of the ones who work for the department or
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you get rid of all of them? is there any role for someone who can come in, use force on occasion, or have a weapon in your vision here? >> so much less often than what we do now. i think we need to have a conversation which is something we've never been able to do. in my lifetime it's always been taken for granted that police officers with guns and with the threat of force are going to be used to solve any number of problems. we get the chance to step back and ask our community what really makes you feel safe. what actually is going to increase your sense of safety? what we know is for example in domestic violence most of those situations could be resolved peacefully and by someone with conflict resolution and outreach skills that would be actually de- de-escalatory whether when an officer comes in and everyone is worried about if my partner i'm in a fight with gets arrested
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you start to see not effective resolutions. we are not starting from a place of a system that works well and trying to replace it but from a place where we think we can do a lot better than the current system. >> i want to ask you, someone in your community who owns a distillery in minneapolis, it was set on fire and damaged in the riots. we asked him today what he thought about this. he said i just hope it is being done in a thoughtful way. that by defunding the police we don't create a vacuum where rioting can happen again. the police let our city burn once. we don't need to remove them entirely so it can happen again. what do you say to that, that sense that, you know, he is not trying to excuse them, right, he fully acknowledges what happened but also seeing them as providing safety for personal property. >> i think that we have to make sure that we're taking responsibility for everyone's safety and i think that takes a lot of different forms. we are not going to proceed without having an answer to the
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question who is answering your 911 call? the thing that's been scary is that when mpd really abandoned the community as you heard chris say, during these very challenging times, that was the first time i've ever felt like people really can't get through to 911. people were calling me all night long several nights in a row asking if i could help get them through to help and i should definitely not be the 911 responder. we do have answers to how are we responding to these calls? i just think we can respond very differently and with much better and more compassionate resources than we currently do. >> all right. steve fletcher, i appreciate your time. thank you very much. >> thank you. i want to go to the former baltimore mayor. what do you think? steve is laying that out for minneapolis but these are growing calls across the country, in new york at this moment people out protesting, chanting, defund the police. others saying dismantle. what do you say to all this?
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>> i certainly am not going to substitute my judgment for steve's. he clearly knows his constituents and knows his city and his police department. it has not been my experience in communities across baltimore and i served as president of the u.s. conference of mayors. i talked to mayors all across the country. people aren't asking for less police. they are asking for better police. the notion that he said it is about listening and trying to figure out a better way to respond or create safe communities, that is a worth while conversation. i think making it this litmus test of whether you defund or dismantle the police or not, i think that is a little dangerous. >> and of course there is the risk it becomes just that. i know you support joe biden. he said he does not support defunding police departments. of course president trump is already seizing on it. he posted a whole flurry of tweets as he often does and he
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said this today. >> there won't be defunding. there won't be dismantling of our police. and there are not going to be any disbanding of our police. our police have been letting us live in peace. >> are you concerned about this as an issue for joe biden where he gets put in a corner, where it is sort of you're for the protesters or for police if this gets shaped in such a way that it becomes very difficult for him? >> i am very concerned. i understand the anger and frustration and rage that many of the protesters, even the peaceful protesters have. but in these heightened, emotional times i certainly am not willing to cede any room to our current president who needs to be removed from office or elected out. not re-elected in order for us to have a more perfect union since he is certainly not interested in any unification at all. i'm saying that to say by
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continuing to say defund, dismantle, we are giving trump talking points, feeding his base. we all know that we can do better when it comes to policing. i think it is a missed opportunity not to figure out what better looks like together and a path forward rather than to, again, have this litmus test of your' either for or against us when it comes to dismantling the police departments across the country. >> thank you so much. i appreciate your time. >> thank you. and next the police officer who had his knee on george floyd's neck makes his first court appearance as a defense attorney for one of the other three officers charged reveals strategy. >> he did not stand by and watch. he says to chauvin, well, shall we roll him over because he says he can't breathe? chauvin says, no. >> plus the white house says the president has no regrets using tear gas and rubber bullets to remove peaceful protesters.
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♪ breaking news. this is los angeles and live views of the protests there. it comes as derek chauvin the former minneapolis police officer charged with the murder of george floyd made his first court appearance via video conference. chauvin is the officer seen kneeling on floyd's neck for
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nearly nine minutes. you know, given the pandemic, this was remote. tell us everything about it. >> reporter: well, it was a very brief hearing, ten minutes' long. the only thing chauvin said the entire time was yes and no when the judge asked if he waived his right to a video hearing. the bail was set at $1.25 million. it can be lowered to $1 million if officer chauvin agrees to certain stipulations. that is, to give up all of his weapons, not contact the victims, those sorts of conditions on bail. his defense did not react to that. there is no real indication of how this will play out. his next hearing is later this month. perhaps there will be more there. some of the other officers, officer lane for instance, his lawyer saying his client, officer lane, was holding the feet of mr. floyd that day when mr. floyd was saying he couldn't breathe. he asked, turned to officer
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chauvin who had much more experience and said should we turn him over and chauvin said no. both kueng and lane seem to be pointing in that direction but very difficult right now to tell how and what officer chauvin will do in court. >> all right. miguel, thank you very much. i want to go now to joey jackson criminal defense attorney and our legal analyst. what do you think his defense strategy is going to be here? just to remind everybody this is somebody who had his knee on someone's neck. and then was told there was no pulse. the person said he couldn't breathe and continued to keep the knee on the neck. >> the defense strategy is highly problematic. we are not speaking to the issue of an intentional killing here but talking about a nonintentional, unintentional killing based upon a killing and assault. the only way to go would be to
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suggest that he was actually constraining him or restraining him in a way that was lawful, proper, and appropriate. if you look at the tape it does not appear that restraint he was using was such. so the question then becomes if you were restraining him, were you doing it for a prolonged period of time? i think everyone can see that he was. even if you go with the fact that you were restraining him not assaulting him, when does a restraint become an assault and reasonable minds could conclude after nine minutes they do. i think they are really boxed in. final point on this issue, erin, even if you don't get through that you have the additional issue of criminal negligence. that means he was careless. he was not careful with respect to what he was doing and as a result that still gets you manslaughter. i think the defense, it is highly problematic as it relates to his defense in this case. >> the prosecutors i would imagine are going to be doing everything they can to get to the bottom of the relationship of the two men prior to this. some people watching may know but everyone may not be fully aware that chauvin and floyd
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both worked security at a club and it is very possible they knew each other, right, that they certainly crossed paths before and may have known each other. the attorney for the floyd family does say he believes chauvin knew floyd. so how could that change things? is that something prosecutors will be pushing to try to i guess establish more of a motive? >> when you go into any case you'll do an exhaustive examination. what was the nature of the relationship, friendly, cordial, was there animus, prior conflict, was there no prior conflict at all? i think that is going to be important. it would be more important on the issue of motive if we were talking about something that had to be intentionally done but could play into the underlying assault because prosecutors have to establish that there was an assault that took place. we see the assault with regard to the restraint, the knee on the neck. that is assault. so therefore it could have been
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motivated by some conduct that the two engaged in in the past. i think it could play in that way if it plays in at all and remember as long as you establish the assault if the death is unintentional as a result of the assault that gets awe conviction of second-degree murder. that gets you statutorily 40 years. of course there are guidelines that bring it down. he would be in a world of hurt. >> so the defense attorney for thomas lane, who is not a name people know as well but he is one of the other three former officers charged, he said his client had only been on the force for four days when this happened, right, setting up what was he supposed to do? here is what his attorney said this morning. >> how is it possible that your client stood by and watched for nearly nine minutes? >> he did not stand by and watch. he was holding the legs because the guy was resisting at first. now when he is holding his legs, he says to chauvin, well, should we roll him over? he says he can't breathe. chauvin says, no.
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>> so he is clearly trying to say, look. my guy was on the force four days. he tried and did the best he could. chauvin is the guy to blame. do you think that could be successful? >> so parcing it out the four day issue is not successful. the fact is that you're an officer. you received adequate and appropriate training. you had an obligation, a duty, a responsibility to do your job. where he could get some mileage in the case is saying, look. what my client did was at the point where george floyd was not perhaps client he at that point was participating. thereafter he was a nonparticipant and not being a participant there he did not really engage in the assault will be the argument and in addition to that he said, hey. should we turn him over? should we stop? then the question becomes yes he did. but was that enough? if you are witnessing someone saying, i can't breathe, if you're witnessing someone saying i'm going to die, you're going to kill me, i want my mom, should you not have done more? even though you are on the force for four days certainly you
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could have and that is going to be the argument. >> joey, thank you very much. >> next, just in attorney general bill barr contradicting trump's claim about the bunker. >> i was there for a tiny short period of time much more for an inspection. there was no problem during the day. >> it wasn't an inspection. plus the head of one powerful police union has called the protests a terrorist movement. what do we know about the unions fiercely resisting change to policing? ok everyone, our mission is to provide complete, balanced nutrition for strength and energy. whoo-hoo! great tasting ensure with 9 grams of protein, 27 vitamins and minerals, and nutrients to support immune health. and nutrients to metastatic breast cancer is relentless,
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tonight the white house standing by its decision to forcefully remove protesters from the front of a church near the white house shortly before the president's photo op. >> is there any regret on the part of the president or anyone here about how people were treated, people who were peacefully protesting and how they were rushed out so violently? >> no. there are no regrets on the part of this white house. >> no regrets for that scene. police fired rubber bullets, chemical agents similar to tear gas at the peaceful protesters. that was also the president -- that was so the president could
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walk across for the photo op with the bible in front of the church. obviously didn't go into the church. here is another reason why the president probably may regret this. a new cnn poll out today shows 65% of americans say the president's response to the protests have been harmful. 84% of all americans think peaceful protests of police violence against african-americans are justified. 84%. a pretty stunning number. one the president no doubt is paying attention to if they were honest. out front now, former president and ceo of the naacp, also president-elect of people for the american way and the democratic mayor jerry demmings of orange county, florida also the former police chief of orlando. i appreciate both of your time. no regrets from the white house. even with the polling numbers which are something the president follows with great detail. are you surprised? >> not at all. donald trump has put himself in the same category george wallace lived most of his life in.
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the only thing to get him out is him doing what george wallace dan finally having a change of heart and digging down deep. i think we are a long way from that day. it's been almost two decades since the central park five were let out of prison and fully, and the case against them tossed out, because dna said they were absolutely innocent. and for 18 years he has insisted they are still guilty. this is a man with issues tinged by race who has never admitted he was wrong and i don't see it changing any time soon. >> mayor demmings members of the trump administration all had talking points this weekend. one of the talking points is there is noi systemic racism in law enforcement, very specific. no such thing exists. here they are, sir. >> i think there is racism in the united states, still, but i don't think the law enforcement system is systemically racist.
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>> i do not think we have a systemic racism problem with law enforcement officers across this country. >> do you think systemic racism is a problem in law enforcement agencies in the united states? >> let's say this. i grew up in a time when there was real systemic racism. >> interesting, mayor, that secretary carson as the african-american man asked that question did not directly answer it in the way the other two did. but here is the bottom line. you're a mayor, you were a police chief. is systemic racism in law enforcement still a problem? >> let me begin by saying, absolutely america has a problem with racism. i spent nearly four decades as a law enforcement officer immediately prior to being the mayor here in metropolitan orlando area and orange county. i was an elected sheriff and then prior to that served as
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chief of police in orlando as well. so i know a little bit about law enforcement is what i'm saying. there is no question that here in the american institution of law enforcement there are systemic issues that we have to address. until we're honest about it, until we address those issues, the reason why we sometimes see law enforcement disproportionately assigned to minority areas is because i will say in some cases it demands that but it demands that because of the economic disparities that have existed in communities of color for hundreds of years now. and so we have to get about addressing disparities with access to, in terms of access to capital, in terms of access to quality education, quality housing, and getting decent jobs. and so as a law enforcement officer, i was forced to deal with the hand that i was dealt with but i do believe that the time is now for us to take a
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look at our law enforcement agencies and look for those opportunities to reform our agencies to ensure that they are both transparent and they have the appropriate accountability measures in place. >> so, ben, president trump's attorney general, we just saw him briefly there, he contradicted the president today about why the president was taken to the white house bunker last week. here is what the president said originally about why he went to the bunker and here is what attorney general bill barr said tonight. >> i went down during the day and i was there for a tiny little short period of time. it was much more for an inspection. there was no problem during the day. >> things were so bad that the secret service recommended the president go down to the bunker. we can't have that in our country. >> okay. so he said he went down to inspect it. tiny, short period of time. bill barr, things were so bad the secret service recommended the president go down to the bunker. why would the president have
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lied about that? i mean, clearly he did. but why? >> this president likes to play a tough guy on tv. and of course we saw that when he marched across that park with his bible upside down and backwards in front of the church and fired rubber bullets and tear gas in order to get there. the sad part is that in both instances they completely misjudged the spirit of the protesters. sure we've had a problem with a small number of so-called anarchists, infiltrating, stirring things up. the overwhelming majority of people who have been gathering in washington, d.c. have been peaceful especially down in front of the white house. for them to just keep mistaking peaceful protesters for a threat really speaks to the problem of mindset right at the top of our country right now both with the attorney general and with the president. they should spend time actually talking to people, listening to people, invite them into the white house. have a conversation. >> so, mayor demmings, joe biden
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today met with the family of george floyd, an hour that was over, a meeting i'm sorry, that was over an hour behind closed doors. they did release the photo you see here. biden met with george floyd's 6-year-old daughter and her mother. your wife, congresswoman val demmings has been mentioned many times as a possible running mate for biden. do you think she would be the right pick? >> there is no question i think she would be the right pick. i can tell you that she is a person that has had the opportunity to serve at multiple levels of government. she has been serving for the last nearly four years in congress. we're proud of that. she was chief of police as well in orlando and then she started her career as a social worker. so as a mother, with three sons, i believe she gets it. she is a daughter of the south, she grew up in jacksonville, florida to parents who were just average, blue collar workers, but she's had this opportunity
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now to experience the american dream. i think america had the opportunity to see her on front street when she was one of the seven impeachment managers not long ago. so i believe that she is perfectly prepared to be a good running mate with joe biden if he selects her. >> all right. i appreciate your time, mayor demmings. ben, thank you both very much. >> thank you. next, they have become enemy number one for officials who want to reform their police departments. >> let me be very clear. we're going after the police union. >> plus, mitt romney pressed on whether he'll back president trump for re-election. he is answering. effortless is the lincoln way.
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sanitizing classrooms, and ensuring social distancing. tell lawmakers and governor newsom don't cut our students' future. pass a state budget that protects our public schools. the head of the minneapolis police union calls the protests a terrorist movement as officials are saying unions are the most powerful road blocks to changes in policing. >> reporter: as protests grow in the wake of george floyd's death elected officials under pressure
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to overhaul police tactics are pointing to a critical hurdle to reform -- police unions. >> let me be very clear. we are going after the police union. we need to have the culture shift. >> reporter: in minneapolis where four officers were fired and charged in floyd's death the head of the police union is a vocal supporter of president trump. >> the obama administration and the handcuffing and oppression of police was despicable. >> reporter: he called protesters a terrorist movement and vowed to fight for the officers' jobs in a letter shared by the former minneapolis police chief. in buffalo, new york the mayor says the police union pressured 57 officers to quit a special emergency response team after two of their colleagues were suspended for pushing a 75-year-old protester. >> the buffalo police union is on the wrong side of history. they are wrong in this situation. they have been a barrier to further police reform. >> reporter: government officials and labor experts say
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contract provisions make it tough to remove bad cops in police departments nationwide. contracts can limit officer interrogations in misconduct allegations, require the destruction of officers' disciplinary records, and prevent superiors from considering those records in promotion or removal decisions. >> chiefs will say i was forced to promote this guy and i know that this officer is problematic because three years ago, right outside of the period predicted in the contract, there were five incidents that nearly caused me heartburn and that is troubling given the awesome authority police have over people's lives. >> reporter: officer discipline is often handled through arbitration where outside arbiters can overrule the police chief often on technicalities buried in the contract experts say. >> we need reform in the area of the police union to make sure the chief can actually have disciplinary control over the force. >> reporter: police unions say they worked to secure better pay and benefits for their officers
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and that they have a duty to defend their members. >> i think what we need to do is slow down a bit and understand that nobody hates a bad officer more than a good officer because it makes us all look bad. >> reporter: they're also politically powerful using a war chest of membership dues to fund legislation, back political candidates, and lobby against legislation that could limit policing. >> they donate to district attorneys' races, states' attorneys races, state senators, and representatives and so forth. then we wonder why you can't get anything done? >> reporter: now today the executive director for the national fraternal order of police told cnn that they want to be a constructive part of this process and they are willing to talk to anyone, republicans, democrats, activists, and the white house in order to make some progress. erin? >> sara, thank you very much. next, are more republicans about to turn on trump? i'll talk to a former republican governor who says trump is on thin ice. what is he hearing now from his
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fellow republicans? and could trump turn a coronavirus vaccine into a campaign benefit? a warning tonight from two prominent professors of the risk of just that. you know what's good about this? your sign's pointing at my sign, so people are gonna look at my sign.
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can leave you holding your breath. ♪ but bristol myers squibb is working to change things. by researching new kinds of medicines that could help you live longer. including options that are chemo-free. because we're committed to bringing new hope into lung cancer care. new tonight mitt romney not committing to vote for president trump but telling cnn moments ago he likely won't stay quiet about who he'll support. that comes after the president mocked romney today for marching
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with the protesters trump saying in part tremendous sincerity what a guy. it comes as some republicans are questioning whether they can support trump in november. interesting he said hard to believe this kind of political talent that his numbers would tank so badly in utah. former congressman and governor of south carolina, mark sanford. governor sanford, good to talk to you again, sir. when you challenged the president in the primary last year and we talked several times through that process you did say you would support him if he was the nominee. now, though, you say he is, quote, treading on very thin ice. you're not sure if you'll support him. why? >> i think, you know, napoleon had his waterloo moment and at times leaders go too far and they get to the breaking point and i think that lafayette square represented that for a lot of conservatives, a lot of folks in the military who said wait a minute. the first amendment is sacrosanct based on what the founding fathers set up and intended and to go clear the
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square as the president did so he could do a photo op is a bridge too far. it's given me pause. it has given a host of lisa mur them. collin powell did not support trump in 2016. you've been talking to a lot of republicans about this very issue. what are you hearing from them and i guess what i'm saying and, governor, i know you're going to make your final decision, but are we going to hear from them? are they going to speak out? >> well, i think that is what is interesting about general mattis did in writing that piece for the atlantic and i think it was supported with what general kelly did and mike mullen and what admiral mccraven has done. people are beginning to speak out at levels you've not seen before. the fact that mitt romney would say what he said and begin to step out as an elected official and that lisa is doing what she's doing. i think that we have gotten to a
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breaking point. all along there has been chaos with the trump presidency which is disconcerting and weird and strange but the degree to which there has been challenge to a constitutionally enshrined amendment in a way that i've never seen in my life and i think that the same is true for general mattis based on what he wrote. again, people, i think, will 1350ek o speak out and are beginning to do so now. >> mitt romney, the president mocking him for marching with protesters and he was saying black lives matter and he was proud to be there and the president did mock him for doing so. what was your reaction to that just on a personal level? >> i think it is entirely appropriate. again the idea of peaceful demonstration being a controversial thing in the united states of america should give every one of us pause. >> so mitt romney was appropriate, just to be clear.
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>> absolutely. >> and your response to the president mocking him is just you're not surprised? >> it is more of the same. i think i -- the president is a master of the put-down and the master of division. but i would argue that division will carry you about so far in the world of politics and i would argue again whether this is lafayette square or events of late, this may be the high water mark for the trump presidency because while division did carry him a long way, and a lot of promises that were unfulfilled. he said if you elect me i'll eliminate the debt over the eight years i might be in office and in fact debts have spiralled. so a combination of a lot of promises by a good promotor with a fair amount of division will get you aways, it is gotten him aways but i think we're seeing a
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chink in the armor and based on the conversations i had with other republicans would i think you'll be hearing from. >> governor sanford, i appreciate your time. >> thank you. next more states seeing a surge in coronavirus cases as new york once the epicenter in the united states today really, it was reopening here. we'll be right back. so here's the thing. i'm actually closer to my retirement days than i am my college days. i just want to know, am i gonna be okay? i know people who specialize in "am i going to be okay."
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tonight new york city exiting coronavirus lockdown after 78 days and a death toll larger in all but six countries. in 22 states across this country, nick watt is "outfront." >> 100 days since the new york state first case the big apple is back. they're allowing more retail and manufacturing and construction with strict parameters. >> it is the day that we start to liberate ourselves from this disease. the day we move forward, phase one of the restart begins today in new york city. >> reporter: let's not forget the terrible toll on the city. nearly 22,000 deaths so far and black and latinoin x new yorkers
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dying at twice the rate of white residents. >> we're not out of the woods -- >> the governor rode the subway to the daily briefing aptd the message is it is safe. >> we're continuing our decline, the rest of the country is still spiking. >> florida has added more than 1,000 new cases a day for five straight days. texas another early reopener now adding an average of over 1500 cases a day. that is up 50%. bucks count p.a. announced 33 new cases on saturday. 11 of them tied to one person who they say has been partying down at the jersey shore. >> it is kind of coming together of a perfect storm if you will. we have the memorial day weekend, a lot of folks were being relax about precautions and having a bad drop of states reopening and the protesters in the mass gatherings.
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>> reporter: the protests sparked by george floyd's death might be spreading this virus around the country. >> i don't want to catch it. i don't think anyone wants to catch it. but whether it comes to issues of social justice, that takes precedent. covid-19 is going to be here for a little bit. hopefully we'll get a vaccine. >> it is called operation warp speed. >> reporter: but today two professors say they are scared it might move too fast. given how this president has behaved, this incredibly dangerous scenario is not farfetched they wrote in a "new york times" op-ed, he could release a coronavirus vaccine before it had been thoroughly tested and shown to be safe and effective. >> and that was nick watt reporting from los angeles for us tonight. thank you for joining us. we'll see you back here tomorrow night. ac 360 with anderson cooper
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begins right now. good evening. tonight two weeks since the killing of george froyd. protesters continue to fill the street and demanding change in the way policing works in this country. to address systematic inequality that exists far too long. these protests are making all of us as a kush grapple with whether the county sheriff in floyd's home town put it this weekend, we are part of the problem. he joins us. and joe biden has just weighed in as well. saying forces should be dismantled and you'll hear from him on that. he met today with george floyd's family. the president has called the family but yet to meet with them or address the systematic -- and