hello, everyone. i'm alicia menendez.

we're following breaking news as protesters demonstrate across the country. from new york to san francisco and dozens of cities in between people are taking to the streets calling for racial equality in the wake of the death of george floyd. these are live pictures from philadelphia and denver. those are just a couple of the dozens of cities seeing similar peaceful protests today. it was a different story last night. some of the protests have turned violent with police clashing with demonstrators and demonstrators destroying storefronts and police cars. in minnesota where the protests began the governor has activated the national guard and is calling for demonstrators to stay home tonight. but today we learned that many of the acts of violence are being carried out by extremists hoping to damage the imobject of peaceful demonstrators. here's what the minnesota governor had to say. >> the situation in minneapolis is no longer in any way about

the murder of george floyd. it is about attacking civil society, instilling fear and disrupting our great cities. so as you saw this expand across the united states and you start to see whether it be domestic terrorism, whether it be ideological extremists to fan the group or whether it be international destabilization of how our country works, those elements are present in all of this. >> joining me on the phone is congressman john lewis, an icon of the civil rights movement. congressman, thank you so much for taking some time to be with us today. 55 years since you've crossed the edmund pettis bridge. what do you make of these images we're watching across the country of peaceful protests? >> what we're watching around the country makes me very sad. i felt we have come much

further -- it is a sad time. it is a very dark hour for all americans. and we must continue to preach the way of peace, the way of love, philosophy of nonviolence and never, ever give up on any of our brothers and sisters. we're one people. we're one family. we all live in the same house, not just the american house but the world house. this is the only house that we have. if we cannot save this house for our children and their children there would not be anyplace for us to live or to survive. >> i believe as you've said that a lot of americans share that sadness, that sense of sadness for what it is that they are

watching, and so i ask you what do you tell your fellow americans, where do they put all that sadness? >> i say to all americans not to give up, not to get lost but to keep the faith, and it's going to work out. but we must help it in working out by doing good and being true to the calls of love, peace and nonviolence. >> congressman, i wonder what you make of what we have heard both from the governor of minnesota also earlier today from a.g. bill barr about the possibility of outside extremist groups infiltrating these protests. what role do you believe that they are playing? what more do we need to know? >> i'm not one who's quick to

say that trouble makers are bringing this all about. people in america today especially the young people, and it doesn't matter whether they're black or white, latino, asian-american and native-american, they're very disturbed of where we are as a people and as a nation. >> there is this fundamental question that we keep returning to over and over again, which is what does justice look like, what does accountability look like, what do you believe is the answer to those two big questions? >> well, i truly believe that justice looks like a place, a climate and environment where we respect the dignity and rights of every human being, and we never, ever put down a fellow

human being because of race or color or background. that somehow in some way we must teach each other to learn to live together as brothers and sisters. >> congressman, there are those who look at these images and say the only answer is to turn out, to vote, and there are others who say that is simply too -- that is not how you reach equality in a society like ours. these protests are happening against a backdrop of a global pandemic. they're happening against a backdrop of a prejudice election happening in less than six months. where do you see that all factoring into what we are watching across the country? >> at this moment, this junction

in our struggle and in our history i believe the most powerful thing we can do is on election day literally run to the polls and vote like we never voted before. >> all right, congressman john lewis, thank you. >> thank you. >> let's get to the latest from the ground in minneapolis. nbc's morgan chesky is there. tell us more about these outside actors. what are authorities saying about them? >> reporter: absolutely. and bear with us. it's pretty loud here because we're walking right in the middle of a protest that just started, walking at least a mile to the site where george floyd lost his life monday evening. i believe you mentioned outside actors. that is something that both officials and the people in this very crowd have been talking about today simply because

everyone wants to make a very clear line between who is who. and we know that last night the governor said that 80% of those arrested in minneapolis and st. paul were from out-of-state. and so that's why they're calling in those additional national guardsmen today, 1,000 of them to help keep the peace tonight when that 8:00 p.m. curfew goes into effect. in the meantime we have this protest that's swelled in size to at least 500 people, and they gathered a few blocks away from the fifth precinct police station, and then they started marching towards this way. we know that they have people here that are frustrated, they're trying to have their message shared, and they want george floyd's memory to live on in the right way, and that is as peacefully as possible in hopes of achieving that justice they say is not reached simply

because one police officer was arrested. they want to see those other three officers who were involved in his death be taken into custody as well, and they'd like to see charges come against them. we'll send it back to you. >> all right, morgan, thank you so much. in cec pkentucky protesters demanding justice for briana taylor. on thursday night seven people were shot over protests over her death. kentucky governor andy bashir shared a message on twitter urging people to march peacefully without hurting each other. this morning am louisville mayor announced a dusk to till dawn curfew in effect at 8:00 p.m. tonight in hopes of preventing anymore violence. cal, what is the latest on the protests there? >> reporter: right now it's very quiet. we are within what isoge going to become a thick police cordon.

if you go in any direction here or there you can see where the cordon is going to be. this is the downtown area. the violence and vandalism was sort of outside this area. we'll have to wait and see when the national guard comes in. and that was the news of the day. the national guard is going to come in at some point. we heard the mayor says there's going to be police here, national guard on the ground and a different situation. there were six people arrested last night, and as i said vandalism at the stores and thankfully no one was hurt except for two police officers. one of them had to go to the hospital for a concussion. the mayor saying it's not going to be the same as last night. and as you said that dusk till dawn curfew that's going to be the key. 6, 7:00, 8:00 p.m., how do police react and how do they keep people from coming on the streets and get them home? >> cal, one of the stories we've been following today you had the attorney general making a statement earlier about the possibility of extremist groups

infiltrating some of these protests. are there any indications that is happening on the ground in louisville? >> reporter: last night, no. tonight, possibly. as i swingover here you can see behind me there's a group of young, white men and some of them are wearing hawaiian shirts. at least one of them has an assault rifle. this was a group whose stated goal was the second war. it is possible there's a male with an assault rifle and a couple of guys wearing hawaiian shirts and the two are not related but that's not the case. it is why things are so tense. it is gnat next chapter that could unfold that could be very, very violent. that's what people are worried about here. i want to take you now to washington, d.c. where there are some dramatic protests happening outside of the white house. take a look at this footage. these are protesters outside the

white house in washington, d.c. you can see there are signs "justice for george floyd." also signs talking about briana taylor, black lives matter. a real range of issues people are there protesting about. again, these are from washington, d.c., a protest that is happening just across the street from the white house. we want to go now to protests in california's bay area turned violent overnight. some local businesses in the area suffered substantial damage. a contracted security officer from the federal protective service was shot and killed outside of the oakland federal building, and another security officer was injured in the shooting. let's bring in nbc's joe friar who's on the ground for us in san francisco. what more can you tell us about the protests there. >> reporter: this protest has

been going on for about an hour now. the group marched down the streetcar yg signs and they got here to san francisco city hall. you can see a large group gathered in front of here. very diverse group, all kinds of ages. they made it very clear they want people to be peaceful here, and so far it's been incredibly peaceful. various people speaking partly chanting black lives matter, no justice, no peace. authorities here in the bay area hope to avoid tonight what happened last night in other parts of the bay area especially in san jose and really in oakland. authorities say in oakland that about 60 people had to be detained for looting, 22 people were arrested. there was tear gas, there was some fires, there was some looting. and authorities say that 13 police officers were injured during the protests that happened there last night. but so far here in san francisco during the daylight we haven't seen any law enforcement in sight here. a peaceful protest taking place right outside city hall.

alicia? >> as you talk to protesters have you gotten a sense of what a successful protest will look like? >> reporter: it's similar to what we're hearing sort of all around the country. you can sort of read a lot of the signs "respect existence, expect resistance. no justice, no peace." the signs sort of speak volumes for a lot of things people are feeling right now. we haven't been able to hear all the speakers because they're a little farther away from here. but the basic senment is wanting justice for what happened in minneapolis but wider discussions for reforms all around the country. wave been seeing protests in l.a. where more than 500 people were arrested. in sacramento i remember covering protests in sacramento just a few years ago when stephen clark had been killed and that caused night after night of protests. these are issues a lot of folks

here throughout california are familiar with and they want to keep the discussion going. alicia? >> joe, thanks. we want to take you back to minneapolis now where the governor has called in the national guard and is urging people to stay home after days of protests. with me now is candice montgomery. she is the co-founder of the black vision's collective in minnesota. thank you so much for taking time to talk with us. what are the conversations that are happening among activists on the ground? >> yeah, thank you so much for having me on the show. what we're really seeing right now on the ground are folks calling for the demands that we've been calling for the last several years and specifically calling for a defunding from the police department in minneapolis. protesters and community organizers have been fighting for this. we certainly want justice, but what we're recognizing is justice isn't enough for us anymore and now is really the time to divest from an inesh

efficient and deadly police infrastructure, and that's a lot of what we're seeing on the ground right now. folks naming a broader and visionary demand for our elected officials. >> there's conflicting reports of outsiders infiltrating these protests. i'm wondering if you have seen any indication of that on the ground? >> yeah, we have seen indication of that on the ground. and i think, you know, the real conversation we need to be having, though, is some of the distinctions between anarchy and community organizing. and we really are seeing a push for community organizing which is a concerted and clear effort and strategy to move forward on concrete changes that are actually going to impact and benefit our communities. and really having a grounded approach. and, you know, obviously the opposite of that is some of the anarchy that we're seeing. so we want to make sure that

folks are being careful and mindful while people are also expressing very righteous anger. >> it was really important to me to talk to you because so often when these stories become nationalized we lose the main thread, those of us who are not on the ground in the city or community in which this was happening. so i'd louvre for you to tell me a little bit about black visions collective of which you are a co-founder and what it really means to build black leadership in your town. >> absolutely. so black visions came out of the movement for black lives. many of us were part of building the black lives matter minneapolis chapter here and found a need for a clear infrastructure for community members to be coming together because what we know is that these issues are not short-term issues. what we're seeing in the streets right now is actually a legacy of hundreds of years of inaction and continued oppression from

those empowered in leadership. and black visions is an organization specifically centering the lives of young people who fight back and to build power while together investing in our resilience, investing in strategies that keep us safe and keep us healthy. >> all right, thank you so much. >> thank you for having me. >> let's bring in a criminologist and professor of criminal justice at california state university. 80% of those arrested from the twin cities overnight were from out-of-state. minnesota public officials said today some were linked to white supremacist groups. you have the attorney general announcing today, quote, it's antifa and the radical left. how can we know for sure who these people are? >> we have a limed amount of folks who were arrested, and we can do a background check on

social media and other places to see who exactly these folks are. that's not going to be too hard, and some of those folks have been out in the open. here's what i think we've been seeing. most of these protesters and i've just spoken to people who were involved in the churches here in california today as well, are peaceful. unfortunately we have infiltrators as well, and that includes people from the hard right, the hard left and accelerationists who can be of any ideology but generally we're seeing more on the hard right. accelerati accelerationists are people who like anarchy and want to teardown our society. we saw during the 2016 election and this was found by homeland security committee minority side at that time active efforts on social media by the russians to

sow civil disorder including helping to organize things. i'm not saying they're doing it here, but what i'm saying to you is we have a mix of about five sets, right, peaceful, far right, hard left, accelerationists, and those who might be on the tangent who are trying to organize stuff from overseas even to create civil disorder here in the united states. >> given that reality then how do the protesters who are on the ground, who are members of this community protect the integrity of these protests? >> absolutely. and having been involved in peaceful protests you're seeing it on television. have leaders control where people go, make sure people have their cellphones, make sure they're not unarmed, make sure people have first aid in case something happens, but abide by police guidelines and when violence starts taking place, get out.

and if you can videotape, that's great, too. we've seen different extremists or reports of them -- we've seen groups like the boogaloo boys who want a civil war they sometimes wear hawaiian shirts. some of them are racist 3 percenters and others are oath keepers. not all the right groups, by the way, are bigoted. but many are. and we've seen talk that these white supremacist extremists want to cause civil disorder, want to hurt african-americans or cause violence to make african-americans look bad. and a lot of these videos the people who are committing violence are not people of color. that being said i do think we have to look at the aspect relating to the hard left, which some people call antifa.

they have been involved in some of these types of protests as well. in california for instance in recent years we've seen them involved, too. but most of the homegrown people are nonviolent and peaceful and heed the words of our national treasurer john lewis who you just had on earlier in the hour. >> all right, brian, thank you. up next we'll take a closer look at this historic moment for america. america. now there's new powerwash dish spray. it's the faster way to clean as you go. just spray, wipe and rinse. it cleans grease five times faster. new dawn powerwash. spray, wipe, rinse. ibut that doesn't mean ayou're in this alone. we're automatically refunding our customers a portion of their personal auto premiums. we're also offering flexible payment options for those who've been financially affected by the crisis. we look forward to returning to something

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a protest has begun outside of the white house. nbc news correspondent garret haake is there. garret, what are you seeing? >> reporter: alicia, a crowd of several hundred people here outside the white house. this crowd was originally held off by barricades on 17th over here on pennsylvania avenue. they pushed through that barricade about 10 or 15 minutes ago coming all the way in here from the eisenhower executive white house building and really up into the faces of secret service officers, park police, a coalition of folks who protect d.c. in situations like this. the mood is tense but this is still peaceful. you're here, the same slogans you hear at a lot of these protests over the years, black lives matter, hands up, don't shoot today complemented by i

can't breathe, the last words of george floyd. his name you can hear now being chanted by the protesters out here. this was a protest that was loosely organized by a punch of different local groups. i talked with some folks around the region who told me they heard about it on instagram where they wanted to come out here and be here. they heard about the president's tweets in many cases. and even though he's not here at the white house they wanted to get as close as they could with this message which i think you can hear pretty clearly behind me now, i can't breathe. you can see the rilet police. when folks originally came over the barricades and pressed right up into the police here it was a bit of a tense moment. you can tell some people on the edge of the protest wanted no part of it. like you said it is tense but peaceful. these are folks communicating their anger very clearly. but so far, again, communicating it with their voices. sort of exactly what you would want to see in terms of a

peaceful protest so far. alicia? >> garret, do you get any sense that there is an interest in continuing these protests? is this a one off or is this an indication of more protests to come? >> reporter: i'm glad you asked. i think there is a feeling in the crowd of how do you keep this energy going? we see this happen after police killings of black men in this country on a regular basis, a day or two or three of protests. the folks out here articulating that exact point which is how do you keep this energy going, how do you turn it into a conversation and there's actual accountability for police officers? there's a gentleman standing here just off camera broadcasting to his own followers on social media before i started talking to you having this exact same thought, what happens if these other police officers get off or the other officers aren't charged?

will it continue to be the follow on accountability we have not typically seen in these cases over the years? i think that's absolutely part of the concern here. now, whether that maintainable beyond a week or two and in the era of a pandemic we are still in the middle. it's a question that remains to be seen. there's certainly feeling among the protesters at least the folks i talked to see far this is not a one-off one day flash of anger. this is potentially anpression of something that's been bubbling for quite a long time. >> with me now is the founder of the black futures lab, trisha rose the director of brown university center for the study of race and ethnicity. brittany cooper a professor at rutgers university and the author of eloquent rage, a black feminist discovers her super

power. tamika, i want to start with you and get your response to what we heard earlier today from the attorney general. we also heard from the governor about the possibility that there are outside forces infiltrating these protests. >> well, certainly. first, i just want to say my organization is until freedom, and i'm here representing many people who work within a network across the country that foigs for social justice every day. so, yes, we know not just because of what's happening in minnesota and across the country today and over the last few days, but the history of protest movements and movements in general has been what we always know their if filtrate is. we think about the black panther moment and other moments in history where if filtrators came in and their job is to create

division and really destroy movements from inside out and to create confusion. i know i've been on the ground in minneapolis for the last few days with my team, and we have seen it. number one, we have a lot of white folks who some of them have very, very -- the majority let me say have very good intentions and are really being strong allies in the struggle. but we also see a lot of white folks who are doing things that are outside of what needs to happen in these protests. and i would say, yes, peaceful but more importantly nonviolent protests. and that's really what people are working to take part in across this country, and we've seen groups particularly groups where many white folks are involved starting things that is not in line with what these different events are being organized to accomplish. >> alicia, you know a lot about organizing, you know a lot about

protesting. if you were on organizer on the ground how do you maintain the integrity of our protests knowing that there are nefarious elements at play? >> well, i think you automatically assume that there will -- but you also keep focused on what it is you're doing. the reality is we can't get caught in this trope of good, bad protester versus bad protester, that actually we have to be grounded in what is it people are out here about in the first place? i can tell you with a swiftness today the conversation across every network has been about, you know, white supremacists or, you know, far left elements and protests. and somehow we've gotten away from this conversation of how we got here which is that a police officer put his knee on the neck of a man named george floyd and let his knee be there and pressed down and asphyxiated

him. and he did it on camera and did it not hiding his face but looking directly into the camera. we have not seen as swift a action to hold those officers accountability and we certainly haven't seen as swift an action we need to generate the solutions we need to shift what's happening in minneapolis but also in black communities across the country that are facing a state of emergency. so i'll just finish with this. it is clear that we need to pay attention as a country to the infiltration of white nationalists and white supremacists into our systems that organize our lives. law enforcement is not exempt from that. and if we're going to have a conversation about dangerous elements we need to talk about the elements that our president is activating right now and this week with his tweets about, you know, looters and shooters. we have to talk about the fact

that white nationalists and white supremacists have infiltrated our government, if filtrated law enforcement, and certainly it would make sense they would try to camouflage themselves inside of civil unrest because they also want to see changes in the state but actually our aims are different. and so if we're going to transform policing and it way in which law enforcement operates in this country we absolutely have to have a conversation about white supremacist groups, militias and white nationalists. >> trisha, i'm going to heed alicia's call on what is happening in minneapolis. what does accountability look like in minneapolis specifically? >> well, i think the specific context is really not about minneapolis. it's about police forces in general across the country being

completely accountable to black communities. and there's a requirement here for complete overhauling including the significant and always fought and rejected notion of community oversight and policing management. the purpose of policing has to be understood. much of the policing that goes on on the streets is about containing poor people, about sustaining the forms of segregated violence that are racially marked, and it's about terrorizing black communities. i think it's impossible to talk about minneapolis in a vacuum. people are locally outraged, full of rage and very hurt and traumatized. but that trauma is an accumulated trauma. an cumulated trauma but also about the ways in which that process is nationally ongoing. ongoing and videotaped recently

but ongoing for hundreds of years. and it's extremely important we talk about this being the context for the protests, for the rage and so on. it's not to lose sight of the individuals involved in any particular city, but i really think we do ourselves a terrible disservice by focusing on one city at a time. >> to trisha's point you can't have this conversation in a vacuum. what does it mean we are watching these protests erupt across the country set against the backdrop of a pandemic that has disproportionately impacted the black community? >> you know, i've been apluplectic all morning about these are the choices black people have. either we stand up and exercise our right to peaceful protest in order to say our lives matter and we are tired of centuries of state sanctioned violence but in order for us to do that we have to do it in these mass super spreader events that are going to disproportionately impact our

communities, which really means that black people have these choices, these period victories where we might go out and make our point and we might be able to leverage the kind of convictions and push forward those active agendas in these communities, but we also risk bringing home this virus to the most vulnerable in our communities. and we have seen our community very specifically being ravaged. i heard a statistic earlier this week that if the president had shutdown the country one week earlier it would have spared 12,000 lives. disproportionately those folks have been black, latinx and native-american and disproportionately within that men have been disproportionately impact. on the one hand we're doing all this activist work to protect the sanctity often of black men in the publics space and we're

still seeing the disease come in and ravage our communities because of mass governmental mismanagement and a lack of regard for black lives. and the question becomes i'm tired of black people having to choose between fast death and faster death and that's essentially what's happening here is that they're saying, well, the coronavirus is killing us but at least in this context we get to get out, do something, make a stand and say we deserve better conditions than this, and that entire context ought to shape what we're thinking about as a country, that this is what we force people to do, that these folks are literally risking their lives not just at the hands of the state but also risking their bodily health and even the health of their communities. and so when something is that important to communities, our lives, the materiality of those lives, saying that we demand that the state "a," not kill us, and "b," that it creates conditions and context for our thriving which is really what the black lives matter project

has been about. it not just been about the telling the state not to kill us but bringing about a new kind of world in which black living and thriving is possible. and look what we have to risk in order to make that happen. >> all right, thank you all so much. still ahead, the officer accused of floyd's death has been arrested and facing charges. and some lawyers say they're seeing some familiar signs about this case. we'll explain. some familiar sit this case. we'll explain.

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with me now is a former police officer and the author of "police brutality matters" and also with me a public defender and candidate for manhattan district attorney. eliza, i want to start with you. what do you make of these charges? do they go far enough? >> hi, alicia. thank you for having he. so with regard to those charges i've been a public defender in manhattan for over a decade and i've had clients charged far more quickly in far less serious offenses but with intent to do something with far less evidence. and i think that it's quite clear if someone kneels on the neck of another human being that that is an intentional murder, and there is no excuse except for the perpetuation of two tiers of justice, one that exists for, you know, the powerful, for police officers, for the wealthy and well-connected and another for everyone else. for people of color, for low

income communities, for other margealized folks. and i think what is clear here that we need a district attorney from minneapolis to manhattan, we need district attorneys with who are going to hold police officers accountable for their actions. and though the medical examiner says all these pre-existing conditions existed in george floyd, i think the only one not mentioned which is the real one which caused his death is the fact he is a black man in america. >> as a former police officer what was your reaction of the video to the incident with george floyd? >> me, i was in shock. i could not believe that this officer actually murdered this man. i mean my experience as a tactical police instructor this is what i do. i train officers how to apply force. for a long time -- for a very long time you are told, you are instructed by police policy never to use the neck area and the head because they cause

serious injury or death. and what you see here is death. so i was in shock. i was just like the rest of the world. me being a police officer i've seen a lot. so you kind of build up a tolerance to seeing a lot of bad things. so how you actually take it in and you actually deal with it is a little different than the average person because you're used to seeing it. but this particular killing, it bothered me. i couldn't sleep the whole night when i first saw this video. >> eliza, the prosecutor in minneapolis warned about a rush to judgment in the floyd case compare comparing it to the circumstances surrounding freddie gray's case five years ago. i want to you to listen to what governor larry hogan said about this this week. >> i don't think it's a fair comparison. the evidence here seems overwhelming and clear to me. and you have, you know, the video of exactly what happened. however, the situation on the ground is reminiscent somewhat

of the actions that took place afterwards. >> eliza, i wonder what you make of the comparison. >> well, i think that it's quite clear that it is extremely dangerous to be a person of color in this country. and i think that the murder of both men is quite clear, and so i think that our criminal punishment bureaucracy took a long time to be built-up to what it is now, which is a system that does not treat people fairly, that is inherently racist. and it's going to take some time to dismantle it, but what we need to do is think about the fact that we elect these people. we have people in power who are elected district attorneys, who are mayors, who are governors, who are the people who have an impact on how these systems remain in place. they don't want to -- they want to maintain the status quo and

don't want to see progressive change come to any of these positions. it's one of the reasons why i am challenging cy vance who has perpetuted this system that protects police officers and doesn't hold them accountable and disproportionately locks up people of color and poor people and other marginalized communities. >> thank you both for your time. our coverage of the nationwide protests continues. we'll speak with amy klobuchar in just a few minutes. we'll speak with amy klobuchar in just a few minutes.

earlier today minnesota's governor appeared with faith leaders and other officials from the state, including senator imy klobuchar who made this plea. >> everyone is in pain. it is martin luther king who once said we are all inextricably tied in a single garment of destiny. and what connects one of us connects all of us. >> joining me is minnesota senator and former democratic presidential nominee, amy klobuchar. plenty of people in your state and across the country who legitimately feel that justice has not been served. they want all of these officers charged and they want first degree murder charges. what do you say to those people? >> alicea, first of all, what happened today with the faith

leaders was quite phenomenal community leaders, and that is that people addressed that, yes, that all of us want to see subsequent charges and the u.s. attorney and the state's attorney and others, as keith ellison has pointed out, our attorney general, are looking at those. but what we said today, as horrific as that video is, anyone with an ounce of humanity looks at that and watches george floyd's life evaporate before their eyes knows that is wrong and that there must be extreme consequences. but at the same time when i quoted dr. king is we are all tied in that tapestry of destiny, we feel that in the african-american and community in our state but we also know that burning up their businesses, which is what has been going on, their stores and their pharmacies, they're not the ones doing that.

there are outside people, the governor put out some information that a number of people that have been arrested are from the outside who are literally, as one of our african-american leaders said, standing behind the righteous protesters like you see today, hiding behind them and looting and torching houses. that is why we all stood together from jewish leaders, muslim leaders, our african-american christian leaders and said no. righteous protest, we get it, it has to happen now. but people who are coming here to loot and torch buildings, we don't want to have our community literally torch the very businesses that our african-american community, hispanic community depend on. literally they're destroying grocery stores and their only pharmacies, food deserts in areas that have been thriving. >> these protests have also

brought into the spotlight your record as a former prosecutor. you're also reportedly under consideration to run on the democratic ticket as vice president under joe biden. here's what congressman jim clyburn who to say about the impact of these protests on your candidacy. take a listen. >> first of all, is she qualified to be vice president of the united states? yes, she absolutely is qualified. now, you may recall what i've said from day one, that i personally would be very proud, would be honored as a father of three daughters of seeing the nominee or the pick being an african-american woman. but i said that it was not a must. and i also said that the vice president, the former vice president, must do the polling,

must do the vetting and he must let his heart and his head take all of that into account in making this choice. by that i mean whoever he considered, he must be guided by something other than qualifications that may be found on paper. a and, of course, i lost three times before i ever got elected to office and i told people the time was not quite right. we're all victims styles ometim timing, and some of us benefit tremendously from timing. this is very tough timing for amy klobuchar, who i respect so much. >> your response? >> first of all, i respect jim clyburn very much.

in fact, with joe biden as president, finally some of representative clyburn's economic justice ideas could be put in place to address the economic injustices that we've seen in communities of color over the years. secondly, i just can't discuss politics right now. my city was on fire last night and our communities are hurting and we want to see a better night tonight and that is all i have been focused on. and i know that's what vice president biden is focused on and honestly, joe biden was a great vice president. he will bring compassion and competence to the white house. and he's going to make the decision that he feels is right. he'll decide who he's interviewing, he'll decide who the vice president will be and he'll do it for all the right reasons. but right now my entire focus is on what's in front of me and that is criminal justice reform because, yes, there must be justice, as we discussed, in this case but we must make more

changes in our sentencing laws, allowing people to vote when they get out of jail, which isn't happening in our country, and investing in our schools and this pandemic has put a huge spotlight on the racial disparities that already existed. as castille's uncle who was there, he said pray for peace, people need to go home, respect the curfew and we need to work for the necessary changes, including to the minneapolis police department. >> senator klobuchar, thank you. >> that wraps it up for this hour. reverend al sharpton picks it up

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