we continue now with live coverage. good evening. it is midnight on the east coast. we are closing out the eleventh night of demonstrations protesting the police killing of george floyd. we have news tonight out of buffalo. this is video. it is the incident where police pushed an older protes to r to the ground and the man hit his he. you can see blood kevcoming fro his head. they are expected to be arraigned on criminal charges tomorrow morning. protests tonight capping off

what was another day fraught with tension in the nations capitol. the mayor of washington d.c. today called on trump to remove all federal troops who have been patrolling the capitol and graszively responding to what have been peaceful protests. today mayor sent a group of volunteers to paint black live matters outside the president's doorstep on the street that leads up to the white house. her office said it was remind the president who the d.c. streets belong to. the mayor officially renamed that street black lives matter plaza. tonight the mayor added more shade. she tweeted out this video of the street lights illuminating the mural on the newly named street. her city turned on the night light for donald trump. so he dreams about black lives

matter plaza. a huge thunder bolt of news. what will be felt loud and clear inside the white house tonight. as of this evening former vice president joe biden has officially clenched the democratic party nomination for president. after more votes from tuesday oes primary have been tallied. with this call from the ap tonight the general election campaign officially begins now. trs a campaign that will take place in a fractured socially distant nation in a lot of pain. angry and still protesting george floyd's killing. it's been a busy kp peaceful day prof tests in america. this was florida today. protestors marching in the pouring rain. here was brooklyn. gathering outside a public

library. in lieu ville, kentucky. a portrait of bre taylor projected on a city building. protestors stayed in the streets into the night tonight. what would have been her 27th birthday. it is taylor and floyd in the long list of african-americans killed by police that brought tens of thousands into the streets for the eleventh straight day. in los angeles protestors made the list. they wrote down the names of 941 people killed by l.a. law enforcement in the last 20 years. they set it down in fropt of the hall of justice. leaving roses throughout the day. here's a live shot of l.a. after 9:00 p.m. the l.a. police chief spoke as a

community echt at police headquarters and called the police killing joiof george floa murder. he went into the crowd and spoke with protestors there. joining us now a correspondent at city hall. in l.a. where the protests are under way in the shadow of the lapd headquarters. talk about what the police chief said today. when he went into the crowd and what's happening now. >> eleven nights. it was a very memorable moment out here. this is where the crowd was gathered a thousand people strong. and it wasn't necessarily in front of lapd headquarters at first. lapd headquarters is down the street. i want to show you. this is the hall of justice.

city hall. and that was lapd. where the small meeting with community leaders is going on with the chief of police. and somebody from this crowd found out about what was going on and took this crowd of 1,000 people down to the headquarters and started chanting in front of the police barricades. chanting until police chief came over and started meeting face to face. during the community meeting and he expressed his solidarity. he was listening. he said there was reform coming to lapd. things like no more -- more money going into communities of color. protestors after wards didn't seem to saying the police chief could say something they weren't

believing it until they saw actual change. as aclu filed a suit against the city of los angeles. lapd. alleging the police brutality during the protests here that the chief says he can't get into specifics on those cases but has seen the videos circulating online of police with batons. and seeing some of the videos has given him cause. he promised independent i don't ever sight. again they are not going to believe the change is coming until they actually see it when the police on the streets. >> not surprising. we are this far from 1992 and the rodney king situation. there is a bit of skepticism about police. the way police are comporting

themselves today and tonight. that has been the concern. police being aggressive with protestors. how have they been treating them today. >> we have been covering this for quite sometime. and i would have to say only from my own observation. we have seen police calmer over the last few nights. for example there was a huge line of police two or three days ago on the hall of justice. rye yours tru riot masks on. things along the perimeters of the protests seem more subdued. you have to take some queues from the chief of police here in l.a. he is called what happened in minneapolis murder. the mayor has called what

happened a killing. using those words on a case that hasn't been adjudicated is sending a clear signal to the community and the officers. the rank and file. stating that that is not going to be tolerated. it's unclear if that is causing police to scale back. orders to possibly be less aggressive. today the lawsuit filed in federal court class action lawsuit on behalf of 10,000 people alleging constitutional rights were violated during the arrests. during the protests. something to watch for. >> all right. on the ground in los angeles. thank you. the minneapolis city counsel today unanimously approved the first changes to the city policing following the death of george floyd last week. the deal requires the judge approval before going into

effect prohibit officers from using neck restraints or choke hold for any reason. in addition requirements for officers to intervene if their colleagues are using too much force. requiring them to quote immediately report the incident while still on scene. to their commander or commander superior. agreement states regardless of rank officers must attempt to safely intervene by verbal and physical means and note if they don't they shall be subject to discipline to the same severity as if they themselves engaged in the prohibited use of force. the deal required the minneapolis police chief sign off on the use to have tear gas and rubber bullets when breaking up crowds. according to the minneapolis many changes will go into effect within days of a judges approval. next week. the announcement from st. paul

mayor he is signed onto the can't wait campaign. eight specific reforms to reduce police violence. he's confident the police department follows those guidelines there are plans to strengthen the policy language. around the use of deadly force. joining us now the mayor of st. paul. thanks so much for joining us. let's talk about the abuse in the neighboring city. in minneapolis. those reforms sound like quite a good idea. are those kind of reforms part of the campaign and do you see the reforms being enacted in st. paul? >> yes. to be clear, revising and rewriting the use of force policy were a top priority for me. we pleaccomplished that with th leadership.

we put those in place a couple years ago. we identified areas that we can be more specific so we can avoid am bigty. >> you voted against the use of tasers for police. can you explain that? do you think they are as much as a problem as other deadly weapons police have available? >> it's an important question. because we start calling tasers less than lethal. the truth is sometimes they can be. i voted against the measure that would have provided a taser for every officer and the thing is while they can be a good alternative at times. than a gun. or firearm. we don't want them used to words or deescalation. and i want to make sure we have the right policy and procedures

in place. so we were sure we were using them safely and importance with standards. >> let me ask this, it's difficult for elected officials to make changes to the way that police operate. misunions have power and influence. how difficult is it going to be for to change the way police operate and apply for supervision to their activity gifen the power of the unions? >> i think it requires courage and it requires fortitude. the american people have it. they're in the community. they are in front of the residences over the country. it's up to those of us in lelkted office to follow them as they lead us forward into the future. it's the work we have been doing here and we're fortunate to have a good department. we have a chief who is focussed on community engagement.

he talks about the reasonable and necessary and respectful and hold ourselves to the highest standards. we have a lot to work with. we know that even though murder of george floyd didn't happen in our city. the work of regaining trust is never complete. with leaders across the country. and if we weren't two weeks ago we better now. >> you attended the memorial service for george floyd. did you speak with members of the floyd family? would you be willing to share with us if they told you what it is they want to see changed in terms of policy? >> i didn't speak directly to members of the family.

i listened as his brother and others talked about who he was. that's so important. while the country and now the world know all of the painful details of how george floyd died. most of us don't know much about how he lived. that's the message right now. when we say black lives matter that says don't just start paying attention to george floyd after he is dead. he died in the way had e did. let's pay attention to want george floyds of the world. before that. so we can say some state together in how people live. we see 43 million americans filing for unemployment. and 100,000 americans died of covid-19. we have a will the of work to do. and the disparity. we have a will the of work today.

. >> your father was a police officer. if i recall correctly. >> that's right. three decades. >> so when you talk to members of the other force, off the record of being a mayor and talking with them. do police officers get it that there needs to be more supervision and that supervision and having rules is not a threat to good officers. what is the feed back you're getting from officers about the demand for change? >> most of the officers i know i can't find a single officer who likes that video or thinks it's anything but despicable. police chief said this week he was telling officers if you can find anything honorable in the video bring me your badge tomorrow. same thing with my family. i saw an example of man who put on a badge and something of a cape. and go to work i got a chance to

see the way he would use the badge and uniform to create magic in the community and solve problems. that otherwise couldn't be solved. because he knew the neighborhood and grew up in the neighborhood. raising children in the neighborhood. he would always say if you know a community like that and the people and live with the people and know what's right in the community, you can go out of your way to find a million reasons not it shoot someone. that sh coming up with ways to justify. that's very important. just this week we saw we needed police officers they provide incredible services. protecting rights of the

protestors. we need their help. to help protect our lives and livelihood from the destruction. we saw the anger to the destructive behavior. we needed them. our lives are on the line. >> so well said. st. paul, minnesota mayor. quite a national figure. thank you for that eloquent statement. it's important for police officers to hear. thank you. we also have a lot more to get to this hour. up next the president's stunning take on the news today. we will talk live with congresswoman karen bass about that. and so much more. it's kind of my quiet, alone time. audible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself

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as we mentioned at the top of the hour, this is what the scene in front of the white house looks like tonight. after d.c. mayor muriel bowser

got volunteers to paint "black lives matter" on the street and lit it up with floodlights to make sure donald trump could see it. needless to say the message is not getting through to the current occupant of the white house. amid the growing national outcry over police brutality that's taking place across the country, trump decided to hold a press conference today to tout some slightly better than expected jobs numbers, which still remain near great depression levels. and unbelievably, he actually invoked the name of george floyd in doing so. >> hopefully george is looking down right now and saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country. this is a great day for him. it's a great day for everybody. this is a great day for everybody. this is a great, great day in terms of equality. it's really what our constitution requires, and it's what our country is all about.

>> and while jaws dropped all over america, mine included, maybe even around the world over donald trump invoking george floyd's memory for a bizarre victory lap about the still deeply struggling u.s. economy, the president's favorite news network ran with the idea of, get this, comparing how the s&p 500 performed after the assassination of dr. king, the acquittal of the police officers who beat rodney king, the killing of michael brown, and the death of george floyd. yes, that is a real graphic that really, really ran on american cable tv today. by the end of the evening, trump's tone on george floyd had shifted. rather than using his name as a prop for the power of positive thinking on the u.s. economy, he re-tweeted a clip from glenn

beck's internet show quoting another far-right provocateur in saying of the late mr. floyd, quote, the fact that he has been held up as a martyr sickens me, unquote. huh. and while trump had no answers today as to what he plans to do about systemic racism and police abuse, some democratic members of congress are stepping forward with an actual plan. a group of democratic house members led by the congressional black caucus are set to release a new bill of police reforms when they return next week. and joining us now is representative karen bass, chair of the congressional black caucus, who is helping spearhead that package of reforms. congresswoman bass, i cannot have you on without allowing you to comment on donald trump invoking the name of george floyd to pretend the economy at 13% unemployment is great. your thoughts? >> well, you know, i mean the thoughts are awful. i mean george floyd's family laid him to rest yesterday.

the grief in minneapolis, and that's what he has to say about it? we know that he is absolutely incapable of feeling empathy, and to see such an embarrassing, ignorant display of it was just shameful. but he also -- i mean he's not moved by the fact that we've lost 100,000 americans, so what's the surprise. >> fair point. firm but fair. firm but fair. this is the political report on the bill that you, madam congresswoman, are working on. it says a bill from democratic house chairman hakeem jeffries that would ban the use of choke holds by police even as most large police departments have restricted the practice. the proposal was one of the few areas of disagreement in a lengthy call with chairwoman karen bass. what was the disagreement about if i might ask? >> well, actually, i'm not sure. that's not how i would characterize that call at all. first of all, when i did the call, we didn't have the actual bill. we were just talking concepts.

and i actually found a lot of support on both sides of the aisle. as you know, that's 50% democrat, 50% republican. so i'm not sure what disagreement they're talking about. >> so can you just lay out what would be -- what would be in the bill if this bill becomes law? what would change? >> absolutely. well, first of all, the congressional black caucus and the leadership will introduce the bill, the identical bill, in the house and the senate on monday. and basically the bill addresses the challenges that we all have in holding police accountable. you can't fire them. you can't sue them. you can't prosecute them. so there are very specific provisions that we're proposing. so, for example, qualified immunity is something that applies to police officers, which means that you basically can never sue them. there needs to be a national database so when there is a bad officer, that bad officer can't just leave and go to another area. you remember the officer that killed tamir rice had been fired shortly before that. racial profiling, you mentions

the choke hold, no-knock warrants should be ended. that's what happened to breonna taylor. the militarization of the police. so it has several different aspects, but i would say the center of it -- and we're calling it by the way the justice and policing act. the center of it is accountability and transparency. and so we think it's a landmark legislation. we're going to work very hard to unite our caucus and to reach out to republicans. and back to that call, i found out that two of my republican colleagues, one was a former police officer, the other one's son is a current police officer, and they both talked about how they were horrified at what happened to george floyd. but the way we're framing it also is no profession, no profession wants to have a bad apple bring the name of the profession down. you as a journalist, a teacher, a doctor, a lawyer, nobody wants to have bad apples. so we want the police departments to be able to get rid of them, and we also want to

make sure that they don't go and serve as a police officer in another area. so we want to build support for this. we think this is a critical bill, and we do believe that it will turn the curve. it doesn't solve everything, but we do believe that it will make a very significant difference. >> and is there at this point -- i don't know if you're at the stage yet whether you know whether or not in the other building, are there republicans willing -- you only need three of them to sign on to get it past mitch mcconnell. any thoughts on whether or not there will be enough republicans to make this get through the senate? >> well, you know, i'm certainly hopeful. of course in the senate we have our two cbc members, senator booker and senator harris, and they are taking the lead on it in the senate. and we are moving quickly because the momentum is there. i know talking to the senators they're very hopeful, one, that they can unite their caucus, but also that they will be able to get some republican support. and for us to introduce

identical bills, i think that gives us a very good head start. so i'm looking forward to going back on monday, having a press conference. on wednesday we're having a hearing in judiciary. then on thursday, it's going to be cbc day on the hill. we're going to have our own briefing where we're going to talk to members from the community, some people that were involved in protests. and then, you know, it's also an opportunity and there is a provision in the bill to provide grants to community-based organizations to begin to re-envision public safety. what type of policing would we like to see in our community? i represent a district that one side is very affluent, and the police deal with that side completely different than they do south central los angeles, which is also in my district. >> congresswoman karen bass, chairwoman of the congressional black caucus, thank you very much for illuminating that information on the bill. we'll be checking that out next week. have a wonderful night. >> thank you. >> thank you. tonight we're getting new information about a shouting

match between donald trump and his top general. an alleged heated confrontation between trump and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff mark milley occurred monday, the same day that peaceful protesters were teargassed outside the white house so trump could take a walk across the street to a church and make a video of himself holding a bible upside down. "the new yorker"'s dexter filkins writes, in a meeting in the oval office, trump expressed a desire to quell the protests by sending forces, not the national guard, but regular military into american cities, and milley resisted. they got into a shouting match one senior military official told "the new yorker" with trump finally backing down. while the white house denies it, another official confirmed the confrontation, saying milley told trump, quote, i'm not doing that. that's for law enforcement. milley did still take the walk. more on this after the break. - i've been pretty stable with my schizophrenia for a while,

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it was supposed to be

routine, procedural. instead, it was fireworks. when the three former officers charged with aiding and abetting in the murder of george floyd appeared in court for the first time, that's when attorneys for the two rookie cops tried to shift the blame to senior officer derek chauvin. who had his knee on george floyd's neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. the lawyer for one of the rookie cops argued, quote, what was he supposed to do? go up to mr. chauvin and grab him and throw him off? and, quote, they're required to call him sir. he has 20 years experience. what is my client supposed to do but follow what the training officer said? is that aiding and abetting in a crime? ah, yes, the lap dog defense, works every time. now, those are the two rookie cops. the third officer who is charged with aiding and abetting, apparently he is cooperating with investigators, which is extraordinary just on the face of it. as "the new york times" notes, quote, it is not common for officers to break ranks or cross what is often called the blue

wall of silence. and here's something else to look forward to. officer derek chauvin, the one they are trying to say is the only one responsible for george floyd's murder, well, he makes his first court appearance on monday. as rachel likes to say, watch this space. joining us now is former federal prosecutor glenn kirschner. he spent 24 years with the d.c. u.s. attorney's office, and, glenn, i really appreciate you being here tonight and staying up with me. so i'm not a lawyer, but i do know that the saying would go, the first one to make a deal wins. so in this case, who do you think is sort of putting themselves in a better position? the one officer who is supposedly cooperating, meaning he's probably cooperating against chauvin, or the other two officers who are saying, hey, wait, not us. we were just the junior guys on the scene? >> well, joy, great to be with up at night this night. here's what i'll say.

i think the state of minnesota has a keen and compelling interest in holding all of these police officers accountable. you know, i had plenty of cases where there were multiple defendants that we were charging with either jointly perpetrating a crime or being part of a conspiracy in committing multiple crimes together. and what i would try to do is if i really needed an insider, an insider to the conspiracy to prove the criminal charges against the other defendants, then i might be willing to negotiate a plea bargain and bring that one defendant on board as a cooperating witness, flipping him against the other defendants. but, you know, we have evidence of this crime in unfortunately living color on videotape. so i don't know that the one officer who might be least culpable because he didn't have his hands on george floyd at least as much as the others, maybe he was doing crowd

control, i don't even know that the prosecutors need his testimony to convict the others. and if they do, let's hope they don't cut him a sweetheart deal but they make him take a big bite of criminal culpability for participating in this murder of mr. floyd. >> yeah. let's talk about while i have you here, i'll take full advantage of having you here. there's a bloomberg article that talks about this push to control the protest in d.c., which have been peaceful protests but have been met with military force. has now topped 7,600 personnel. quote, the document shows total deployments from the u.s. capital police, washington police department, and the u.s. secret service bureau of prisons, the u.s. marshal service, drug and enforcement agencies, u.s. park police and fbi agents. the dallas morning news has reported that, quote, riot forces at the white house include tactical teams that are wearing insignia from texas federal prisons. rachel reported on this earlier. some of the unidentified

officers had shirts on with texas flags and symbols from the texas federal prison system, which the question then becomes if these officers who seem to have been marshaled up by the department of justice, by attorney general william barr from all the federal prison systems and federal agencies, if they commit abusive acts, who then -- how would they be held accountable because a lot of them, no one knows who they are, and they won't tell people who they are. >> yeah, it's a great question, joy. i mean consistency of policing, particularly under really difficult circumstances like mass protests, is -- it's difficult in a perfect world. when you have a unity that has trained together and knows how each other will respond during a protest. i will say that if any of these disparate law enforcement forces commit crimes in the district of columbia, we're going to have

basically dual jurisdiction because if a crime is committed in d.c., guess what? the washington metropolitan police department, mpd, will have jurisdiction over any crime of violence that occurs in d.c., even if it occurs on federal property. however, the federal government, the department of justice, will also have jurisdiction. so it would be concurrent jurisdiction and, you know, different agencies would have to coordinate with each other to decide who's going to take the lead in the prosecution much as we see in the george floyd case with the department of justice announcing it is also opening an investigation into the death of george floyd to see if maybe his civil rights were violated. but bill barr has announced that investigation will take a back seat to the state prosecution because the state has the most direct compelling interest in prosecuting the killers of

george floyd. >> before i let you go, i got to get your take on this dexter filkins reporting that you now have everyone trying to run from the policy of clearing those streets with tear gas. you now have this dexter filkins piece where mr. milley, general milley, is trying to say, you know, that there's a screaming match with him saying he didn't want to use the army in that way. you have attorney general barr sort of walking back from responsibility for creating this secret police force. what do you make of people sort of running away from the policies? >> well, the fact that they're running away from what happened reinforces just how wrong it was to use force against peaceful protesters who were exercising their first amendment right to peaceably assemble and petition the government for a redress of their grievances. the fact that they were -- let's call it what it was -- assaulted with tear gas and flashbang

grenades, somebody should be made to account. frankly, i would like to see some of those protesters walk down to indiana avenue to mpd headquarters and file assault complaints because let's be clear. they were assaulted. the other thing, joy, when you mentions the general milley piece of this, you know, i am glad to see there was a shouting match where it is being reported that general milley pushed back on the president and said basically we're not going to use military forces to enforce civilian law. that happens to be the law under the posse comitatus act. as soldiers, i was in the army on active duty for six years. we are taught that we must disobey an unlawful order, and it sounds like at least general milley for the moment is up to that task. >> yeah, but he still did go along with doing the photo op, which is -- that's why a lot of people are still criticizing him, but excellent point. glenn kirschner, former federal

prosecutor with the u.s. attorney's office in d.c., thank you so much for staying up for us tonight. appreciate it. >> thank you. coming up next, the leaders of the protests -- one of the leaders of the protest in minneapolis joins us live. when we started our business

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today in minneapolis a peaceful rally and march honoring the life of george floyd, the man killed by minneapolis last month. the march was organized by a new homegrown activist group in minneapolis and led by a minneapolis native who is hard to miss even in a crowd because he is 6'8" tall. he is royce white, a former nba player who has emerged as a leading hometown voice in the protests in minneapolis. as "the washington post" described it, royce white felt he had to act after seeing the video of george floyd's murder. quote, after seeing the video, white texted a group of 30 minnesota athletes, some of them college players, some of them current and former professionals. his message, it was time to get

publicly involved with the struggle. enough was enough. so they marched from u.s. bank stadium, home of the minnesota vikings, down to interstate 35, where it passes over the mississippi river. dozens turned to hundreds turned to thousands with white in the lead. a week later royce white was back at the stadium once again, today with thousands of peaceful protesters paying their respects to george floyd. and he says their fight is far from over. royce white joins us now from minneapolis. mr. white, it's a great pleasure to have you here tonight. thank you for staying up with us. talk about what it is that your protest is -- what is the message that the protest is meant to convey? what is it that you want to see changed? >> yeah, i guess for me, looking at these situations of politics, my takeaway is that the people of this country have lost their sovereignty. the black community is no different. the black community may be in particular, and marching and

publicly demonstrating our freedom collectively as a unit allows us to fight the tyranny of the state and really re-establish our sovereignty. this is the third march we've done, you know, upwards of 40,000 people. we haven't had one fight. and what that shows you is that we can police ourselves with the right mind-set, with the right attitude, with the right spirit of the people. >> have you heard about these proposed changes to the way that police would be allowed to operate in the city of minneapolis? they would not be allowed to use, you know, stun guns on people. they would not be allowed to use tear gas without permission. the choke hold would be banned. do you think that this activism is going to become that specific to try to support those reforms? >> i'm okay with testing those ideas out. right now in our organization, 10k, we are talking about pushing the police all the way outside the circle of trust and

having them re-establish their entry into the circle of trust through their actions and through proving that they can be trusted in that circle. you know, i don't think that kneeling on a man's neck was ever in their protocols or that their policies call for or allow a cop to murder george floyd in cold blood. so i'm not sure that what's on the books will uphold even the reforms. i'm just not confident in that. i'm confident to the point where a person with a badge, an extension of the state, decides to do something heinous, malicious, that we'll always be talking about it in the reactive sense. and stun guns, all of those things we can try, but we're going to continue to push that we need to re-establish sovereignty, that the state is out of control. the power of these police unions are out of control. and we have to re-establish some self-governance as communities across this country.

>> i don't know if you can see this in your television here. this is the minneapolis police union chief, his name is lieutenant bob kroll. he's depicted in this image with donald trump at a trump rally in minneapolis. this was in october of 2019. do you feel in any way that the president of the united states has negatively influenced the attitudes of police and the way that they behave? >> i just don't think donald trump is that smart. i don't take him serious. i don't think he's a serious person. he's not alone. obviously i think there are a lot of people on the political stage that aren't serious. this guy bob kroll is a crook. you know, he's a kkk guy for sure, and i don't say that flippantly. i think that, you know, as we discussed things over these last two weeks, we have been very familiar with hearing that the kkk has a very strong presence in the police union here in minnesota. that's sad because we have such

a beautiful multi-cultural demographic here in the twin cities and in minnesota. but the things bob kroll said about george floyd are despicable, unacceptable, calling him a violent criminal, calling these protesters terrorists. you know, it's just fruit from the same poisonous tree. i think guys like bob kroll should resign. this isn't just about george floyd and the four cops who were there for his murder. this is about a system that allows those cops to have badges and as such allows a guy like bob kroll to be a lieutenant, somebody who oversees these cops and oversees the union. with a guy like him in charge, the union shouldn't have a leg to stand on in our opinion. >> royce white, former nba player who has become a protest leader in minneapolis, thanks so much for being here tonight. i should note just for our

viewers that we don't have information about mr. kroll and the klan. we don't have that information, that reporting, so i want up guys to know that's not our reporting, but this is this gentleman's opinion on him. thank you so much. really appreciate it. meanwhile, this week in virginia, governor ralph northam ordered the gigantic general lee statue removed from state property in richmond and warehoused while the community figures how what to do with it. meanwhile the mayor of richmond is calling for the all confederate statues to also come down. the new state law passed by the majority democratic legislature will give the city council the power to do that as of july 1st. this is why you vote. still the wait may seem like forever in richmond compared to the pace in other cities. in birmingham, alabama, the mayor took down a monument this week in a city park after protesters started the job. the state attorney general is suing over it under a law that bans removing confederate statues. but, oh, well. at the other end of alabama in

mobile, confederate admiral ralph sims had occupied the intersection of government and royal streets until this morning when the city awoke to find him gone. the mayor says he ordered the removal yesterday, and it was done. and in montgomery, alabama, another statue of general lee was toppled by protesters recently at robert e. lee high school and the local d.a. decided not to prosecute. a march against police brutality is planned at the alabama department of archives and history tomorrow. meanwhile, no word on whether the alabama attorney general intends to go after the mayor of mobile. we shall see. i would not bet on alabama winning this war any more that robert e. lee managed to win the one against the united states, an inglorious defeat that he has been so widely and so ironically memorialized for. investing today wherever you are - even hanging with your dog. so, what are you waiting for?

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the crowds turning out for justice this past week and a half have been amazing to see. it turns out they're also amazing to hear. >> no justice, no peace. >> no justice. >> no peace. >> no justice. >> no peace. >> since i was 12 years old, i've been fighting for justice, for the understanding that black lives do truly matter. >> i think it's absolutely

abhorrent that at this day and time we're still having to go through this. >> at 19 years old, nothing has changed. we are still fighting for the same thing. >> black people have been fighting this fight for years, hundreds of years. and it's a shame that in 1962 to 2020, i'm still seeing the same thing. >> we want change, and you can see that from all the people here. all races, all creeds, all people are here with this one message. and i think that's beautiful. >> i want them to have a purpose, have a life, be free, be people, be happy. >> i ask for all law enforcement to please, please hear our cries. ♪ lean on me when you're not strong ♪ ♪ i'll be your friend

♪ protect me >> i'm sorry, those are babies. that does it for us for now. see you in a few hours on my show. now time for "the last word." tonight we begin with an almost too obvious point -- this is the wrong president for this moment. in a 53 minute press conference, the president demonstrated repeatedly and tragically just how ill suited he is to understanding and addressing the systemic racial problems facing the united states. in terms he was willfully ignorant and oblivious of the pain and suffering that people of color have been enduring long

since before he took office and he seemed to believe that his band-aid level fixes at best were enough to help people who had been pleading for substantive and deep changes to how this nation handles the issue of race. tonight as the 11th night of protests in response to the police killing of george floyd, we are monitoring these protests and we will go live to reporters on the ground across the country during this hour. the people at these protests are crying out for help. they are crying out for reform. they are crying out for protection and sadly, those cries are falling on deaf ears at the white house. today, president trump called for an amped up police protest -- police response to the protests, protests that we should remind you that are against racism and police brutality and he said he hoped that george floyd was quote, looking down and seeing this, quote, great thing that is

happening for our country. now we don't like to play a lot of sound from the president, i know you don't like to hear it, but it is important in this case how out of touch his words are. >> call in the national guard. call me, we'll have so many people, more people than you have to -- you have to dominate the streets. you can't let what's happening happen. it's called dominate the streets. you can't let that happen in new york where they're breaking into stores and and by the way, hurting small businesses. equal justice under the law must mean that every american receives equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement regardless of race, color, gender, or creed. they have to receive fair treatment from law enforcement. they have to receive it. we all saw what happened last week. we can't let that happen. hopefully, george is looking

down right now and saying this is a great thing that's happening for our country. there's a great day for him, it's a great day for everybody. this is a great day for everybody. this is a great, great day in terms of equality. >> is it ever a great day for a dead man? a man who died after a minneapolis police officer pinned his neck to the ground and choked him for 8 minutes and 46 seconds. it runs counter to the appeal by reverend al sharpton who said this during george floyd's memorial service. >> for those that have agendas that are not without justice, this family will not let you use george as a prop. >> now, donald trump claims that every american should receive

quote equal treatment in every encounter with law enforcement, end quote, but he didn't bring up whether the problem in achieving that goal a lack of just treatment by law enforcement was caused by systemic racism. he reiterated the need to dominate any violent protests, despite rising concerns about violent arrests and alleged assaults on demonstrators as and trump has ignored the demands. after all, why address important societal issues when you can dodge and evade and talk about the economy instead. when pbs news hour's yamiche alcindor asked for him to address the violence he shushed her. he actually shushed her. d her. he actually shushed her.

>> i'd like to sign this bill. >> trump wanted to celebrate a surprising jobs report as the unemployment report in may dropped from that of april. he didn't want to talk about police violence, he didn't want to talk about race. but what the president fails to grasp is that race and prosperity in in country inextricably linked. of particular concern to economists as the country has seen an outburst of protests about racism, black americans saw their unemployment rate already higher than white people increase. whereas the unemployment rate for white people went down from 14.2% to 12.4%, the unemployment rate went for blacks ticked up from 16.7% to 16.8%. there was no acknowledgment by the president today about the unevenness of unemployment

gains. no acknowledgment on that, and trump did not answer the question and instead he chose to disrespect her. >> sir, how would a better economy -- >> i would like to sign -- >> to follow-up. how would a better economy helped george floyd? >> black unemployment went up by 0.1%. how is that a victory? >> you are something. >> how is that a victory? >> thank you very much. >> now, you might have heard just before yamiche asked her question, how would a better economy have protected george floyd? the president didn't answer that either. joining me now, yamiche alcindor and the senior director of progressive programming at sirius xm and the author of "the

end of white politics how to heal the divide." welcome to both of you. in and amongst the back and forth with donald trump you were trying to get to the heart of an important matter. the economy which the president depends on for his popularity insofar as that continues to exist doesn't work the same for african-americans and we have all of the statistics to prove that. so you were asking about racial inequality and he was asking with the economy, and you didn't get what you were looking for there. >> that's right. the president even though it's been several days that we have seen protesters take to the streets in all 50 states the president has never ever talked about systemic racism and his specific plans for people's concerns. what we saw today was the president take a victory lap on the economy and say that we're getting better when in fact he was ignoring the fact as you pointed out that black americans and asian-americans saw an uptick in their unemployment.

when we talk about systemic racism, it's about the fact that george floyd was killed by a police officer and the fact that black people live in neighborhoods that are policed more differently than affluent white neighborhoods and the schools are not equal. what we see is a confluence, a perfect storm of all racist practices that turned into the fact that the police end up shooting a black man disproportionately more than a white man. we're seeing him not show compassion and not doing what protesters are demanding which is actually giving them solutions and talking about what needs to change. he just hasn't done it yet. >> but zerlina, president trump tells everything he is back for african-americans in terms of prosperity.

>> for blacks, the best unemployment we ever had. black unemployment levels are the best in the country. no president has done more for our black community. one of the things i'm most proud about is what i have been able to do for the african-american community. the lowest job numbers in the history of our country. we have never had so many african-american jobs ever, ever, in the history of our country by far. nobody's ever done for the black community what president trump has done. >> and that of course -- that last comment was made today but this is really over the last four months or so. zerlina, who believes him? >> no. certainly not black people. one of the reasons this president does this it it's cynical. he is not trying to win over black voters or win over our

support by demonstrating all the things he's done for us. one of the things he's doing is because partially his rhetoric is overtly racist he is trying to demonstrate to his supporters they can feel good about him. donald trump said he's helping the black people. additionally i think he does this to suppress the vote and continue to do what he has done in 2016. so i think there's sort after two-pronged thing. it gives cover to the racist policies he has been implementing since the beginning of the presidency. i think the pandemic and the protest movement that is built out of the police killing of george floyd is an interesting moment to think of in a through line that goes back to the protest against the muslim ban, the protest against the child separation policies and the fact that what we're really experiencing here is a generational shift and i don't

think it's a coincidence that parents and a lot of young people have been quarantined together for months and they're seeing and able at least to discuss the systemic problems and to ask the president about today. >> yamiche, is there inside the administration -- we have seen op-eds and comments from people outside, particularly republicans, being critical of the president. is anybody inside the administration sort of giving him guidance about the fact there might be a different approach to this moment in american history, we are looking at protesters in denver. as zerlina said, no question this is an important his tore cal moment in america and the president is finding himself on the wrong side of it. is he getting any guidance to switch tactics? >> right after the president made those remarks i ended up

talking to a couple of white house sources about the approach, and he said at the end of the day the president will do what the president wants to do and that's the story on any issue and now it's the same story when it comes to racism and systemic racism in this country. i will say that the president had done this thing he's appealed to african-americans but he's also slipped up in way especially critics say reveal what he's really trying to do. so just recently the president said maga loves black people. he was talking about the people that make america great crowd, his supporters. it indicated to a lot of people that the african-americans are excluded from the group and that is the fundamental issue that president trump continues to run up against when he tries to even try to sympathize with african-americans. they don't believe him in most cases. he doesn't have the credibility on these issues and maybe that's why he's not taking questions because of course at this point he really has not engaged in a

really conversation about all of the things that are going on and americans are taking to the streets. they want change and at this point the president is shying away from having the conversation -- he's not even trying to open it up at all at this point. >> and yet, zerlina, americans of all colors and back grounds are having this conversation. i want to play for a moment what my colleague the reverend al sharpton said at the george floyd memorial yesterday in minneapolis because it's being heard across america. let's listen to him. >> the reason why we are marching all around the world, we were like george. we couldn't breathe because you wouldn't take your knee off our neck. we don't want no favors, just get up off of us and we can be and do whatever we can be.

>> zerlina, what's different this time? some black and black women have been dying at the hands of police forever. why is there a moment now that americans are feeling? what are they relating to that is causing everybody to get on this? >> well, i think the pandemic actually contributes to the number of people that actually watched that video of george floyd being killed by the police and the fact that there was a video of amy cooper in central park putting a black man who was not the video, mind you, in physical danger by threatening to call the police. those two things happened in the same week of time and i really think that opened the floodgates because people didn't have any other distractions. they were in quarantine, they had their phones and devices so that was all circulating not only in america, but all throughout the world. the fact that we are seeing protests against police brutality and specifically police brutality committed

against black people in london is amazing to me. because i have never left my house to go protest the leader of another country and maybe i should. but i think it demonstrates that people are understanding that black people should -- are not fully free until they're able to live healthy and in safe communities without the threat of police violence killing them and nobody being held accountable for that. >> and maybe there's some sense that none of us are free, if they are not fully free. thank you to both of you for the work that you do. joining us now from los angeles, gadi schwartz. what's going on in los angeles? >> ali, a remarkable scene. there was a press conference here outside the press conference over there. the chief was addressing a small crowd of community leaders. then all of a sudden, about a thousand people came from a protest over in this area. they came up to the fence, they were yelling and chanting and saying that they didn't

understand why they weren't invited. this seemed like a closed event and now the police chief is over there. he's still meeting with people. in fact, he was just speaking with some people over there, so we'll see if we can chat with him. i know the chief spent some time speaking with you. it looks like you're holding a sign with two men on this. their faces right there. can you tell us what happened here? >> jason, they shot -- he was murdered by the police in 2000. >> this is a 2000 case and 1990 case. did you know them? >> yes, i did. >> what ended up happening with the cases? >> the police officers in this case they walked away and in this case the police officer walked away as well. >> your main concern was it sounded like you want some of the cases to be looked at. what did the chief tell you? >> he says basically that inglewood and culver city, they

both handle in their jurisdiction the cases differently. >> did you feel like he was listening to your concerns? >> i feel like he gave a political approach as i expected. >> were you expecting the answers he gave you? >> pretty much. >> what are you hoping happens? >> i hope that, you know, in this time that these types of cases can be reopened. and retried and looked at and put under a fine microscope. because these police officers that killed these two young men, took their lives very young. when they take the lives of people, they affect the families and the people that love them, that are attached to them. to this day, his mother has been trying to find justice in this system. to this day. that's her son. >> that's year 2000 -- this is about 30 years ago. not only about the cases we're seeing today. you want the see the cases of the past reopened. >> yes, i do. >> thank you very much. i'm coming back here in a second. i want to hear from you guys.

so that's a little bit of what we're hearing. today there was a lawsuit filed against the police chief as well as lapd for some of the events that have transpired during these protests, protesters and black lives matter saying many people were detained against their constitutional rights. they say they have problems with the curfew and the way that people were treated and the chief over there, i have to tell you, we listened to the press conference just for a little while. it was a moment that a lot of ears perked up. i saw two officers in uniform look at each other because the chief said several times this was a murder. again, ali, you know what that means in the law enforcement community. this is a case that hasn't adjudicated and yet the chief said murder when it comes to a case that we're watching and that has not gone through the court system. so it's going to be interesting to see if there is any fallback

within the rank and file, but for now, the chief continues to speak with some of the protesters that are aligned here in front of lapd headquarters. the night is very young and we have a lot more people to talk to, so we'll check in with them. ali? >> 7:19 p.m. in los angeles, gadi, thank you. we'll continue to follow this and the other protests going on around the country. coming up we'll look at what the protesters want and some of what their action has won in the last week and a half. that's next. last week and a half that's next.

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as protesters gather across the country for the 11th night we're looking at sacramento, california. 7:23 p.m. pacific time, this is a die-in. people memorializing the death of george floyd by acting as if they have died, by lying flat and still on the ground to send a message to those who are

following this protest. die-in in the capital of california. some cities have started to implement changes, however, involving law enforcement. tonight, the minneapolis city council approved a ban on the use of neck restraints and chokeholds by the city's police officers. it also now requires officers who witnessed those actions to report it to superiors. also today, manhattan's district attorney announced the office will not prosecute anyone arrested for unlawful assembly or disorderly conduct related to the protests across the country. this is important, because the majority of the arrests over the last week in new york have been for violating curfew. on wednesday after widespread criticism, eric garcetti cancelled a budget proposal that would have boosted the city's police department budget by 7% next year. while these changes are progress, activists say that

reform needs to be more widespread. vox reports quote protesters are demanding life itself be changed, that policing be fairer and kinder, that biases be corrected, that lasting policies be implemented that erase inequality and that all people be able to move through the country without experiencing existential dread, end quote. joining us now, alicia garza, the creator of black lives matter and principal at black futures lab. and the cofounder and the ceo of the center for policing equity and a professor at the john j. college of criminal justice. on one hand we have some examples of progress, we have seen some images of police officers and chiefs taking a knee or marching with people.

on the other hand, you have 57 people in the buffalo unit they have resigned from the unit, they don't lose their paycheck, they have just resigned from the unit because two of the fellow officers were suspended for knocking down a 75-year-old man and seriously injuring him. there are a lot of police on the wrong side of history right now. >> it's try, and frankly, you know, one of the things that we know is that this is why tinkering with what exists doesn't work. frankly the activists and the organizers and the folks who are in the streets right now are not just asking for reforms. reforms are important, but ultimately you need people to oversee those reforms and implement them and time and time again what we see in states across the country is that these kinds of laws will be passed, no chokeholds, no this or that. but yet, there's not a way to implement them. so the protesters in the streets right now are actually calling for us to change the way that we

distribute our resources. frankly, our budgets from cities all the way up to congress are bloated in relationship to punishment, in relationship to policing. and that needs to change. the only way to avoid the kinds of cases that we see and in the case of breonna taylor, in the case of george floyd, in the case of so many names that we now have a long list of people who have died at the hands of the police not just by guns, right, but people who are beaten, tortured in jails. the only way for us to address this is to limit the scope, the scale and the role of police in order to change the role that policing is playing in this country right now. >> so philip, we have heard and i have seen for the last week and a half signs that say, defund the police. is that what what means or it is a reallocation of resources so

that the police have a smaller amount of resources so they're not lethal to african-americans? >> some people are literally saying abolish the police, there should be no police anywhere. [ indiscernible ]. which is essentially that our priorities are way out of whack. law enforcement is sometimes the only public resource that gets any funding going into black neighborhoods. so we don't see hospitals, groceries with fresh food, we don't see medical or substance abuse centers, mental health. all we fund is punishment and if all you fund is punishment and punishment is what responds when you're suicidal or your marriage is in trouble or your kids are having a hard time, that's a terrible life to live. listen to the protesters' demand. people should be free to move about this country without the existential dread. how is it that we have to demand that?

how is that not already the values that we have and the lives that we're trying to live? i think part of what i'm hearing from the protesters i speak to is that this is more than just policing. right, policing is the spark, but the reality is what we're seeing is the past due bill for the unpaid debts owed to black communities for hundreds of years and if we don't have a set of responses and answers to that, then frankly our answers are too small. if we fixed everything in policing it wouldn't be proportional to this moment we're seeing. >> alicia, african-americans are being 13 and 14% of the population, their economic and political influences even less than that. economic studies show that you need 11.5 black families to make up the median wealth of the white family. whose important is to it to get fixed? i understand it indicated to

white america this is their problem too. if this doesn't get fixed it's bad for everybody. >> that's absolutely right. the disparities that are attacking black communities due to a deliberate disinvestment in the things that we need to live well is everyone's responsibility. look, we live in a country that promises us liberty, freedom an justice for all and yet there are too many of us that don't have access to the things in order we need to live that the country promises us. when we talk about black lives matter we can't think that's nice to do for black people. people in america, black and white, lack access to health care. people in america, black and white, lack access to jobs and whose responsibility is that? the people who represent us, the people who make decisions about where resources are going. and the people who continue to defend rules that are rigged

against our communities. >> i want to remind everybody that while the unemployment rate went down in the country, the unemployment rate for african-americans went up. thank you for joining me tonight. it's an intense week of demonstrations and clashes with police and military. i have been out in the field reporting with so many of my colleagues trying to make sense of a situation that is changing minute to minute. sometimes literally before the smoke clears. coming up next, three of my fellow reporters and i will share what some we have experienced that doesn't always make it during breaking news. en make it during breaking news when we started our business

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we have been covering protests that are demanding racial justice and an end to police brutality for the past 11 days. and now in minneapolis last friday night as many of you saw live during rachel's show i was hit by tear gas a couple of

times and on saturday by a rubber bullet. my final confrontation came as we were retreating from the scene. nobody was doing anything. they pulled in, they opened fire. look at them. they're aiming their fire now, working towards us, they're -- get back, get back, he's hit. he's hit. watch it, guys. we have gas here. all right. bang up, back up, back up. all right. they're now moving toward us. they're now moving toward us. there was -- >> come on, they're shooting at us. >> they're shooting. put your helmets on, guys. we have to stay -- stay with me. okay. we got gassed. moments after that i was hit in the leg with a rubber bullet and some time after that, just being shot at or getting tear gassed we attempted to retreat and

encountering the police and national guard at another intersection. we had our hands in the air, we said we're media and they responded with we don't care and they opened fire again. on tuesday in new york city i asked police why a perimeter line had been established west of union square. we were covering the calm, quiet protesters who had missed curfew. i said if i was on the right side of the line i might be arrested. in new york city for covering the transfer of peaceful protest of those who were zip tied into a van. all of us went back into the field because we exist as journalists to bear witness and to hold power to account. we bear witness to what is happening out there on the streets of merge and that is how we hold power to account.

joining me now to talk about our experiences is nbc's shaquille brewster who is in minneapolis. and cal perry who is covering, louisville, kentucky. he's covered real war zones and garrett haake in washington, d.c. also hit with a projectile while on live tv. garrett, i was just covering the protests. you were navigating and covering policy, things that the white house was doing and the protests. i want our viewers to take a quick look at this and then i want to talk to you on the other side. >> this is an extraordinary escalation on the streets in front of the white house right know. within the last 15 minutes, mounted police have been coming down the street. you're going to see them in the frame now. using flashbangs in front of them and mounted police to clear what has been an entirely peaceful protest. not 90%, not 99%, but 100%

peaceful protest today. there was no throwing of water bottles or objects. but a short time ago, mounted police officers have been clearing the street. >> and subsequently, garrett, you got hit by something. how do you manage the idea that you were covering a protest and you're covering the actions of police and national guard who you and all of are depending on for our own security in some cases. >> yeah, i mean, it depends on the circumstance. you know, i got hit with a projectile the night before and that was a situation where i didn't feel like i was being targeted. i just sort of was in the wrong place at the wrong time. caught between protesters and police who were trying to clear out a space. you know, we just sort of were stuck. the tape you just played from monday afternoon, this is the incident of the clearing out of lafayette park and 8th street which has become an enormous political issue. there was an interview that came out with bill barr, the attorney general, in which he denied ordering the clearing of the

plaza. the park police have repeat lid denied that they used tear gas. they quibbled about the type of material that they might have used. it's the cameras, what we see, what i breath, we have heard lawmakers, they want hearings and they want to get down to what happened in lafayette plaza and so- do it. the white house talked about the idea that bricks and frozen water bottles were being thrown at the officers as part of the motivation for clearing the plaza. bill barr didn't mention that tonight, nobody who was there saw it. that's where these things combine i think. >> cal perry, you're in louisville, kentucky. march 13th, just after midnight police executed something called

a no knock warrant. they rammed the house of an emergency worker, breonna taylor. they got into the gunfight with her boyfriend who had a legally licensed firearm and she is dead today. tonight would have been her 27th birthday and that is fuelling some of the protests on the streets of louisville. >> yeah, tonight is peaceful. tonight is a little bit like a party out here. there are kids out here, but certainty last week was not that. the security forces, the national guard, and the police they decided to confront the protesters so there was a running tear gas that after midnight it was ending in real gunfire. covering a live protest with live ammunition off in the corner. what's changed here is the national guard and the police have withdrawn, they're out of sight. it's calmed the protesters down, it's kept things peaceful. they have removed the curfew.

they have taken away any of the ability for people to confront the police, to confront the security forces. it's made all the difference in this city, ali. >> shaq, you were in minneapolis when i got there. you have been there the whole time. and one of the things that happened this week was the news that the three other police officers had been charged. we were there i think together on friday when we found out one police officer was being charged. let's actually just play the response and then we'll talk on the other side. >> we have seen so many young people here, people who are bringing their children here, saying this is going to be your fight that you're going to have to take. again, they -- it goes back to the young lady i saw -- they're chapping i can't breathe right now. this is why we fight, this is what we want. they feel like they got what they have been calling for. mind you, we talk to a lot of people, this didn't come several days ago but they're happy with

what they're seeing right now. a good warning, someone yelled out, we've got the charges, now we need a conviction. the fight for justice is not over. >> shaquille, you have seen every piece of the emotional roller coaster that people in minneapolis have gone through since you got there. what do we not know? what do you want to tell us about what you're seeing there? >> you know, you saw an evolution from the messaging from the protesters. the morning we woke up to the video, i drove here to minneapolis and the messaging and the feeling that you had -- it was a feeling of anger. we were still several days away from officer chauvin, we were several days away from him being arrested and a week away from all four officers involved in the death from being arrested so people were frustrated and angered by what they're seeing. you had the three nights of

consistent violence, you have some clashes with police in the evening and then the three nights of complete chaos, frankly. after three days and after action started to come about you felt the shift in into. it culminated with the clip where people were relieved. they were celebrating the fact that they got what they wanted and they made clear it was the first step in what they wanted. they believed that the officers should have been charged initially, on day one, and they started to achieve that. today we have the news that the minneapolis city council banned the use of chokeholds. they instituted a policy that requires officers to intervene when using excessive force. someone yelled, that is what we wanted, that is what we're fighting for. >> i think that's an important point. people are look for solutions, they want solutions. they're not out protesting for the hell of it. stay with me, i want to continue

the discussion on the other side. when we come back i'll talk about the real experience of being in the protests day after day. g in the protests day after day. dible is a routine for me. it's like a fun night school for adults. i could easily be seduced into locking myself into a place where i do nothing but listen to books. i never was interested in historical fiction before, but i'm obsessed with it now. there are a lot of like, classic and big titles that i feel like i missed out since i don't have time to read, mean i might as well listen. if i want to catch up on the news or history or learn what's going on in the world, i can download a book and listen to it. because i listened to her story over and over again, i made the decision to go ahead and follow my own dream, which was to help other veterans. i think there's like 180 books in my, in my library now. it changes your perspective; it makes you a different person. it's true, it's so true. to start your free 30-day trial, just text listen17 to 500500.

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for the past 11 days, across the country, we have been taking part in what have been for the most part peaceful demonstrations and while we have shown you a lot of the chaotic moments as they're happening live on the air, we want to take a moment to talk about the peaceful moments that we have had with the diverse group of people about why they're coming out to participate in these demonstrations. we're back with our panel of reporters, shaq brewster in minneapolis, garrett haake in washington, d.c. garrett, like minneapolis where you were got very, very hot at moments, but in between your live reporting and tear gas and mounted police, there were real

people who wanted real change. >> yeah, that's absolutely right, ali. i found a visual that stuck in my head after the first night of protests, someone spray painted the side of a building in lafayette square. they wrote why do we have to keep telling you that black lives matter? every person gave us similar mixes of anger and exhaustion at how long they have been having the fight. in my head, i was thinking back to michael brown in ferguson or the civil rights movement in the 1960s. that building used to be slave quarters at the decatur house here in washington, d.c. just floored me, this whole concept of how long this fight is is quite honestly it's not something that i had really gotten my head around until this week from all the people i talked to, sharing that exact sentiment. >> shaq brewster, on tv, on

thursday night with brian williams i was describing how this was a mostly orderly protest. what i was saying was that the majority of the people there were orderly, but somebody set fire to the building behind me and a lot of people were very critical of how can you call it orderly when there's fires burning and entire city blocks burning down? the fact is i don't know what your experience was in minneapolis, but most people i met in minneapolis were peaceful protesters. >> definitely. and, you know, the big thing that you have to remember and that i continue to try to remind people that when -- during the day you have thousands and thousands of people who have participated in protests. even today, you had thousands of people walking up to six miles to participate in a protest and have that demonstration. that's the majority of what you see, but the problem is it takes just a few of them. it might be even a separate group, it just takes a small amount of people to cause that chaos and cause those scenes and

to start a fire that burns and demolishes a building and that's the problem that you see. where yes, you have the peaceful protests by day and then the scenes of destruction and pure devastation by night. you know one thing that stuck out with me, one night there was a man with a sweatshirt on that said i can't breathe. i thought for a second, wait, you made that switch really quickly and then i went up to him and he reminded me, no i bought this several years ago when eric garner died. that's the frustration, that speaks to the anger that people have, that they're fighting the same fight over again. >> cal perry, you and i have worked together and you're the international guy, you have covered these things in real war zones, in real parts of the world where you would need a flak jacket and a helmet and a gas mask. i have never taken my

bulletproof vest and worn it in america, i never wore a helmet while reporting in america. this is all new. >> it is completely surreal and totally and entirely emotionally draping. i have to constantly check myself and ask myself how would i report this if i were overseas? authorities put down peaceful protest in street, blood in streets, president threatens protesters as thugs. when i saw garrett haake put up pictures of unmarked authorities in d.c., alarm bells went off. we'd be calling back to new york, okay, this is where things go bad. to put protesters down is unimaginable but that's how we'd report it overseas and the bigger picture is more convoluted, more confusing, it's the united states president casting doubt on the democratic process. america used to be the country that would monitor elections and

i'm standing in an american city that was overrun with tear gas, people running and screaming, rubber bullets being fired and i'm asking myself who's going to monitor the process here if things get out of control because the rhetoric coming from the white house is the kind of rhetoric that we hear in authoritarian regimes. it doesn't happen overnight. it's a slow crawl. it started on inauguration day when sean spicer came out and lied to the media and showed fake pictures, called us liars, said that we were all full of it and from that moment on it's been this slow slip and slide and we are about halfway through. this is not chapter one in the authoritarian playbook. this is chapter six. the end of it is the democratic process that falls apart. i constantly check myself how would i cover this overseas because it's completely surreal, ali. >> that's our job. thank you to the three of you, shaq brewster, garrett haake and cal perry. you're symbolizing the work of all those at nbc news and i

don't mean just the reporters, but the cameramen, the security and all journalists who have been out there bearing witness no matter what organization they work with. thank you for the work you're doing. it is important to democracy. we'll be right back with breaking news about the 2020 election. back with breaking news about the 2020 election these folks don't have time to go to the post office

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we have some breaking news before we go tonight. the associated press has just declared that joe biden has reached the delegate total needed to formally win the democratic nomination. so it will be joe biden versus donald trump 151 days from today. that is tonight's "last word." i'm ali velshi. catch me tomorrow morning at 8:00 a.m. eastern. muhammad ali's daughter will be joining me and i'll interview letitia james and i hope you'll join us. "the 11th hour" with brian williams begins right now.

and good evening, once again. day 1,033 of the trump administration, 151 days to go until the next presidential election. as of this difficult and long and emotional week for our country, marches and protests are underway for the 11th straight night since the death of george floyd. today our president said this was a great day for george floyd because of today's economic numbers. more on that comment later. today the city council in minneapolis took a major step toward remaking the police department there, starting with a vote to ban choke holds. in louisville, people remembered breonna taylor, fatally shot as she slept during a police raid on her home back in march. today would have been her 27th birthday. police departments around the country are responding to violent confrontations with protesters. tonight the