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tv   Stephanie Ruhle Reports  MSNBC  November 22, 2021 6:00am-7:00am PST

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with both sides set to deliver closing arguments. we will bring you inside the courtroom when that begins. and while americans are concerned about surging prices and nationwide shortages, there are signs that the supply chain woes are starting to ease up and the ceo of america's largest retailer says their shelves are stocked and they are ready for the holidays. my exclusive sit-down with the ceo of walmart u.s. we have got to start this morning's broadcast in the state of wisconsin where at least five people were killed and more than 40 injured after an suv plowed through a christmas parade in waukesha. nbc news reporting that an individual is in custody as a person of interest. it comes after this red suv crashed through barricades, hitting dozens of people. the moment of impact was caught on camera. we are not going to show that to you, but i want to share the moments leading up to it. and we warn you, it's disturbing.
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♪♪ >> police are now questioning an official person of interest who may have significant criminal history with four senior law enforcement officials telling nbc news that person may have been fleeing from an earlier incident involving a knife. tom winter has been digging into this investigation. tom llamas is live at the crime scene. meagan fitzgerald outside a childrens' hospital where several victims were transported. we have nbc security analyst, clint watts. what do we know about this person of interest? >> we can name, based on five law enforcement officials to myself, and my colleagues, that the individual who is being questioned -- now, this is the person who has not yet been formally charged, but the person
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who has actually not even been named a suspect, but that individual has been identified as darrell brooks, he's 39 years of age, has a significant criminal history, including possible charges as recent as november 5th. this individual is believed to have been involved in some sort of a knife fight or stabbing that occurred just prior to this vehicle incident that occurred yesterday. we don't yet know all the circumstances, we don't know what he has told investigators, if he's told them anything. so we're not calling it a ramming attack or some sort of a homicide at this point, although it's believed that at some point they'll get to the fact they may end up charging him. now, as far as this investigation, there is no indication at this point, stephanie, that this person, darrell brooks, did this as some sort of a terrorism attack. it's still early in the investigation, but there's nothing that points law enforcement to a
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foreign-inspired attack like an isis attack, when they've called for ramming attacks in the past. there's no indication this has some sort of racial or ethnic component. so far, according to the people that have been briefed on this investigation, there's no indication that this is some sort of retaliation for the kyle rittenhouse verdict, which happened last week, as you know, and as you reported on. that's what we know so far. >> this doesn't look like an accident. >> no, and we're not saying it's an accident. but we wanted to say what it does not appear to be, which is to rule out the idea that this is terrorism or some sort of connection to the kyle rittenhouse verdict. we're saying it's early in the investigation because we don't know what types of search warrants have been sought or executed in this particular case. so have they been able to look at his phone devices to see if there's messages or writings, what this individual's search history might be, whether or not they've been able to search this person's residence. we don't know if there's
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anything that might change this investigation, so far they don't believe they have indicators that it's terrorism in a rittenhouse retaliation. we're certainly not saying this is an accident. the video we've watched to its conclusion that you did not show to its conclusion, because obviously it's quite graphic, makes it appear as if this individual was headed towards or knew they were certainly running over these people and now 40 injured and five dead, as you said. >> let's talk about some of those people. 15 victims are being treated in the hospital where you are. are they expected to recover? >> reporter: that certainly is the hope here. childrens' hospital, while they are confirming that they have 15 patients inside the hospital behind me here, they have not yet disclosed the condition of these patients. though we are expecting an update in the coming hours. but we're talking about children, we're talking about families that were there, anxiously awaiting this parade
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they have every year but didn't have last year because of the pandemic. children excited to see santa, who was just moments away from coming down that parade route before this suv came speeding down and taking out everyone in its path. now, i want to get to a statement that's just coming in from the archdiocese of this region here. they say our prayers are with the people who have been injured and killed during this tragic incident in waukesha. among the injured are one of our priests, as well as multiple parishioners and schoolchildren. please join us in prayer for all those involved, their families and those who are traumatized from watching this event transpire. so, you know, those people who are fortunate enough to not be injured, you can only imagine the trauma in seeing this horrific incident play out. also, we're learning this morning that the dancing grannies, a group that is very popular in this parade, older women who dance down the parade
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route, bringing a lot of cheer and smiles to people's faces, they've come out with a statement saying that they have lost some of their members. they are mourning, just like this entire community this morning. steph? >> the dancing grannies, i have seen them perform at milwaukee bucks games. they are tremendous. tom llamas, take us to the community. i mean, i can't imagine a day more joyful than a christmas parade. >> reporter: you know how excited kids get at the start of the holidays, how excited families get. that's what happened here last night. there were strollers and families. they were six people deep along the parade route. police have shut down main street. this literally happened on main street in waukesha. police are still investigating. everyone is trying to figure out the why. why someone would do this. we've spoken to at least one eyewitness who says he was right there and says, without a doubt, this driver was trying to hit people. there are still strollers on
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main street, abandoned wagons, because you have to remember, there were so many victims, there weren't enough ambulances, so there were literally kids and other people, the dancing grannies, out on the street injured. parents had to pick up their kids bleeding, rush them to their cars and rush them to the childrens' hospital in wisconsin, which is just near will walky. we're just west of milwaukee, about 10, 20 minutes here. the person i spoke to who witnessed this says they look forward to this every year. it's such a tradition within this community and now it's going to be marred forever by this incident. the person in custody, they'll be questioning him and we'll have a news conference today where we hope to learn more. it's really sad and everyone here is praying for all those people that are recovering in the hospital because there's a lot of unknowns right now. there's so many kids in that hospital, families are praying, hoping they can make it out alive. >> of course, we absolutely are. 40 people injured. clint, you've watched this video
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over and over. what's your assessment? >> stephanie, it was a strange video from the start, in the sense that it's not what you would typically see from a terrorism event, like tom was talking about. if you've seen the videos from barcelona in 2017 or a few years back on the west side highway, usually those that are terrorist-type attacks, you will see massive acceleration, the vehicle trying to literally kill everybody that's out there. and just in the footage you just showed, that vehicle could have hit more people. at the same time, there were other points in the video where the driver is actually mowing people down. it's very clear that they were just trying to run over people. so it was very confusing. it's also strange, because usually in a terrorism-type investigation you'll see they try and hit what is a soft target, meaning where there's no law enforcement around or where they think they can make a symbolic impact and we don't see those signs as well.
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so at least in terms of my years looking at terrorism and other violent acts, this is not consistent with that. it's a very strange video and it lends credence to what tom said at the beginning about the circumstances possibly before and this person being someone that's known to law enforcement. >> can you help us understand from a law enforcement perspective the importance of the classification, whether or not this is considered domestic terrorism or not? for the people of wisconsin, those who have family members in the hospital, those who lost family members, i don't know that it's important whether or not it's terrorism, it's important why it happened and what the repercussions will be. >> stephanie, the only thing beyond what happens at a local level is how they treat it investigatively. you'll see as of now the fbi has not taken a lead role, which is indicative they don't think it's interesting that's interstate or international. they don't see connections, at least at this point.
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and it also means that the local police will handle this because they're best positioned, it is in their jurisdiction and they have the authority. so the difference to the public is none. i think the difference to procedures is really about local versus federal, really just about our federal system. and also what other investigative leads do they need to pursue. based on what tom reported earlier, it looks like it will be local police that will be trying to connect the dots on this as to why this parade was ever encountered by this individual and what the motive was behind this deadly attack. >> let me just ask you about security because we see parades like this all the time. we're about to have the macy's thanksgiving day parade in new york city four days from now. should people be worried? should rules be changed? should security be different? >> one thing i do worry about -- actually, two things, is one is the idea of contagion. whether it has anything to do with this accident last night
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and the killing of these people, others might be thinking of an attack like this somewhere in the world. they get the idea, they see what happened, we see the media attention and then they try and replicate that. i think the other thing that i've been quite concerned about in many places, the dramatic increase in outdoor dining and that outdoor dining oftentimes is set in the middle of streets and roads. and just as someone who has worked counterterrorism a long time, i've had times where i'm just very concerned because imagine a restaurant which is completely out in the street or a lot of these structures which we put out into the street due to the pandemic, things are opening back up and i just worry about public safety in general and how we contain it. so any parade i think at this time definitely needs to reconsider their security posture just due to contagion effect. >> i want to jump in real quick, without knowing the particulars of the security for this event in this particular parade, i can tell you as far as new york city goes there is a number of
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precautions that are taken to make sure vehicles never come close to approaching this route, including new york city, the sanitation trucks, the sand trucks that normally try to keep the roads free from ice, laden with sand, and it is virtually impossible to get through those trucks. they're all along the parade route to make sure that vehicles have no chance of entering it on top of that new york city's crc, the heavy weapons teams that you see are deployed all throughout the entire parade route to make sure from a vehicle perspective, nobody is getting in. that's the nypd's plan. >> tom winter, clint watts. thank you all so much. we'll keep you updated on this story throughout the hour, throughout the day. coming up next, you are looking live at a courtroom in georgia where closing arguments in the trial of the three men accused of killing ahmaud arbery are set to begin any moment now. plus, we're keeping an eye on waukesha after that suv plowed into a crowd at a holiday
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parade, killing at least five people. someone who was at the parade will join us to describe the horrific scene she saw firsthand. ♪ there are beautiful ideas that remain in the dark. but with our new multi-cloud experience, you have the flexibility you need to unveil them to the world. ♪ ♪day to night to morning,♪ ♪keep with me in the moment♪ ♪i'd let you had i known it, why don't you say so?♪ ♪didn't even notice,♪ ♪no punches left to roll with♪ ♪you got to keep me focused♪ wayfair's black friday sale is on now! score unbelievable savings with our biggest sale ever! like ge appliances up to 40% off
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- san francisco can have criminal justice reform and public safety. but district attorney chesa boudin is failing on both. - the safety of san francisco is dependent upon chesa being recalled as soon as possible. - i didn't support the newsom recall but this is different. - chesa takes a very radical perspective and approach to criminal justice reform, which is having a negative impact on communities of color. - i never in a million years thought that my son, let alone any six-year-old, would be gunned down in the streets of san francisco and not get any justice. - chesa's failure has resulted in increase in crime against asian americans. - the da's office is in complete turmoil at this point. - for chesa boudin to intervene in so many cases is both bad management and dangerous for the city of san francisco.
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- we are for criminal justice reform. chesa's not it. recall chesa boudin now.
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the white house. we just got word on president biden's choice to lead the federal reserve and it's a very familiar name. he's expected to nominate jerome powell for a second term. nbc's shannon pettypiece joins us from the white house. what's the latest? jay powell has been under an enormous amount of scrutiny and people have their arms folded saying, what are you going to do next, buddy, and now here he is on the stage again. >> reporter: right. well, this certainly provides some consistency and not a big surprise, not a big change or reverse of course by the biden administration. it does seem to be an acknowledgment that the white house feels powell has done a good job so far leading the country through the pandemic, through the recovery, and an indication that they want him to
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sort of protect that recovery and stay that course by keeping this consistency here. it's also a name that's probably not going to get a lot of opposition in the senate, though who knows. everything seems to be able to create some opposition in the senate from republicans. but powell has had bipartisan support in the past. so he is someone that should be able to withstand a confirmation process. he is not necessarily the number one pick by the more progressive wing of the democratic party, who wanted to see someone more aligned with their views on banking reform and climate change, but probably not going to create a lot of concern there. so it is a consistent, stable pick for a president who has really seen his poll numbers take a major hit when it comes to handling of the economy and these key issues like inflation, which of course the fed can do a lot to address when it comes to interest rates and other levers they can pull on the monetary policy front, steph. >> and president biden will be holding an event today at 1:20
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p.m. to make this announcement official. thank you, shannon pettypiece. we turn to the ahmaud arbery trial resuming, closing arguments set to get under way any minute now. cal perry is in georgia, criminal defense attorney, danny cevalles joins us and former prosecutor and a member of president obama's 21st century policing task force, and an msnbc political analyst. take us to the scene. what are we going to see today? >> reporter: so today you'll have the closing arguments will begin. we expect them to last most of the day. as far as the prosecution is concerned, expect them to carry on what we saw last week. last week travis mcmichael, the youngest of the three defendants that actually pulled the trigger on the shotgun that killed ahmaud arbery, testified and the prosecutor really seeming to do an excellent job of getting to
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the core of this case, getting him to admit that at no point was ahmaud arbery armed, at no point did he say anything threatening. that really does seem to make it an uphill battle for the defense team. the defense team will have their closings today. unclear exactly how they will handle it. they have seemingly thrown everything at the wall. we've heard at times fairly outrageous comments from one of the defense attorneys. it will be interesting to see if there are any last-minute motions. and outside t courthouse, you can expect the vigil to continue on behalf of the family, as it has since this trial began. >> danny, while the cases are wildly different, much of the country is looking at the kyle rittenhouse trial and the trial we're seeing here now in the same breath. last week you were sitting in that very same seat and said the prosecution in the rittenhouse trial had a very difficult case on their hands. how do you assess this one? >> most folks are expecting at least, i think, this case to be more of a slam dunk for the prosecution. but i would caution folks that
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in georgia, even though there's plenty of evidence that the arbery defendants went to the trouble, got in their car and chased down ahmaud arbery, on the other hand, at the time, georgia had a very broad, liberal citizens arrest statute that has since been amended. but that law dated back to the mid-1860s. >> a citizens arrest for doing what? >> at the time georgia gave someone a privilege to go chase someone and arrest them and detain them if they believed that they were fleeing from a felony and that's why you see so much evidence in this case that the prosecution is putting in that there was no felony, that he was just entering a home and looking around, that it was merely a trespass. but that citizens arrest is a factor in this case, that it was not a factor in the rittenhouse case. so there is a possibility for acquittal if the defendants could convince a jury that they were lawfully performing a citizens arrest and then they were attacked by arbery. still an uphill climb by most
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observers' assessments. >> the prosecution goes first in closing arguments. if you could give them one piece of advice, what would it be? >> it would be to have taken a somewhat different approach than they have so far. in the outside world this case has been so much about racial animus and whether the defendants were racially motivated when they attacked and ultimately killed arbery. but the prosecution has made the defense here -- the decision here, excuse me, to put all of that aside. they did not push to introduce evidence that travis mcmichael used a racial slur after he shot ahmaud arbery, they did not push to bring in evidence that the defendants had a vanity plate that had a confederate flag built into it, so it's really come down to almost a technical question about whether in those
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last moments they were justified in using that violent force. and i worry about that decision. >> then why wouldn't they? from a prosecutorial perspective, why wouldn't they bring that in? >> i think it might be because, as you know, stephanie, this jury has 11 white jurors and 1 black juror. the defendants really succeeded in kicking off out of the jury pool all of the black jurors except for one. they may have made a decision it would be more resonate to this jury not to talk about race. it may also be a sign of strength, that they think they don't need to introduce all of that, which could have created an issue on appeal if there is a conviction that some of that stuff was really prejudicial. >> brittany, what's your take on that? the prosecution mostly shying away from race in the courtroom
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when it's clearly part of this? >> i think, stephanie, it's powerfully telling that the prosecution does not believe that it can win this case with a nearly all white jury if race becomes a part of the conversation. and, you know, stephanie, it's interesting, if only there were, i don't know, some kind of critical theory that helped us understand how race played a role in legal decisions and courtrooms across the country throughout generations. it is absolutely a shame that critical race theory has become such a pariah and we cannot fully use the lens it provides us for trials like the rittenhouse trial and the trial of the murder of ahmaud arbery. but the fact remains true that there was clearly a calculation made that race cannot be a factor if the jury looks like it does. >> self-defense, which is what kyle rittenhouse used and was ultimately acquitted because of,
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any shot these guys can try to use that? how could they possibly say self-defense, they were the only ones armed, three of them, and in a vehicle? >> big difference. in the rittenhouse case there was not much evidence that kyle rittenhouse initiated the contact with any of the victims, but meanwhile, in this case, there is plenty of evidence that they got into a truck, these defendants, and chased ahmaud arbery, even by the defendants' own admissions on the stand, when the prosecutor very effectively in a fashion asked you could have turned here, you could have stopped at this point, yet you kept on going. the defense's challenge is to get the jury to disregard that and get the jury thinking if this was a lawful citizens arrest, we were in the right and arbery attacked us. that, again, is going to be a challenge for these defendants. >> brittany, what is your reaction to the rittenhouse verdict? he is not only acquitted, he is quickly going to become a far-right icon. >> and this is the danger, of
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course. the fact of the matter is the second he went out there with that ar-15, he was positioned to become an icon, a hero or martyr, depending on the outcome of this case because there were folks standing at the ready to make him the kind of exemplary figure they wanted to make him to show other, especially young white men, precisely how to behave in these situations. and it's easy to separate these trials because the circumstances were different, the locations were different, people are different. but whenever we are talking about white supremacy and the culture of violence, we have to look at patterns. those patterns tell us over hundreds of years that this! us system, this justice system does not hand out justice equally and those who stand on the right side of history, whatever color we are, we are to be taught by white supremacy that we're always at risk. so i definitely am frustrated by the outcome, though certainly not surprised, because it fits
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the pattern of american jurisprudence. >> thank you all so much. we're going to take you back to the courtroom as soon as closing arguments begin. coming up next, my exclusive sit-down with the ceo of walmart u.s. while americans are concerned about surging prices nationwide and shortages, he still tells us we have got a strong economy, people are out there shopping, and their shelves are stocked. pain hits fast. so get relief fast. only tylenol rapid release gels have laser drilled holes. they release medicine fast for fast pain relief. and now get relief without a pill with tylenol dissolve packs. relief without the water.
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now to what's on everyone's mind this week as we are officially in the holiday season. thanksgiving just three days away and black friday, one of the biggest shopping days of the year, just around the corner. coming out of this pandemic we have been warned about shortages and supply chain issues and how they've been driving up prices. that is especially true for small businesses. but it turns out that it is not all doom and gloom for big box stores and when it comes to prices there may be good news for the average american shopper. walmart in good shape heading into the holidays with stocked shelves, inventory up and the stores saying everyone who wants a turkey can get one. i spoke to the walmart u.s. ceo,
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john furner, and started by asking, how expensive is thanksgiving going to be? >> we've done everything we can to try to minimize any cost pressures throughout the supply chain, including costs to goods, and we're proud of what people are going to see this holiday. at walmart you can expect for a family to be able to buy a thanksgiving meal for just under $40 and that's about $14 less on average than what customers are seeing around the country. we know price and value are important and we're fighting to keep low prices at the store every day. >> is it more money than that same family paid last year? >> we've seen a little bit of inflation in sort of the mid, single digit range around the store. it's kind of spread evenly amongst categories. basic items like a turkey, this morning we have turkeys for 87 cents a pound, so we're still in really good shape on price relative to where we were a year ago. there's a little bit of inflation that has come through but we're going to fight really hard to ensure we have great
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values for our customers. >> how much do you think we're struggling, if you're saying demand is there and prices aren't up that much? >> well, we really see a strong consumer around the country. certainly we see strong demand, we know that incomes are higher than they were a year ago on average, we know that savings rates are better than they were on average. so there's a lot of demand for holiday products and that's everything from our core fresh food business all the way to gifting. so we think that customers are generally in pretty good shape as we go into the holidays. >> walmart is going to have the items and promotions at the right prices, but the next day is small business saturday. how can small businesses survive at a time like this? >> first, we're really proud of the fact that we source about two-thirds of what we sell here in the united states and that is sold to us from suppliers that range everything from large
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multinational companies to startups and very start companies and we've been encouraged to see the number of startups and small entrepreneurs that have done well the last few years. and one of the things we do that's great for small businesses is we have a walmart marketplace and a lot of suppliers who are starting their business and starting to sell on the marketplace and they can grow from there. this entire economy was founded really by entrepreneurs, and all of them started small and they all grew. so i'm really optimistic about what we're going to see the next few years. we just finished a ten-year period where we had committed to buying an additional $250 billion of products that were made, manufactured or assembled in the u.s. and we just committed to an additional $350 billion over the next ten years. we're really bullish on small business in the country. >> you hired 200,000 workers going into the holiday season, when we have a record number of people quitting their jobs and not returning to work. what is it that brings people back? is it just about higher wages?
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>> i think it's a number of things that bring people back. first, i think people generally enjoy being in the workplace, being around others. we're social beings and it's great to spend time and have these relationships at work. second, our staffing has gotten much better the last few months. certainly with the slowdown at the end of the delta variant, we've had more people apply and are ready to come back. and as you said, wages are up. >> your company and a few other major retailers recently met with president biden to discuss, how do we fix the broader supply chain issues around the country, around the world. what does that look like? >> well, the combination of private enterprise and government working together has been really successful. we've had a lot of participation -- been able to participate in solving some congestion issues, so i would like to give the administration credit for helping get the ports open 24 hours a day, open up
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some of the trucking lines, when the container ships are put onto small trailers and moved off the port. and then all the way through the supply chain there's been a lot of innovation and week after week in the third quarter in particular, sequentially, each month of the quarter got stronger, the number of containers that we were moving through the ports has grown significantly. >> solving these issues solves it for walmart, but you essentially own your own supply chain. you own those cargo ships, you own the planes. how does it solve things for other businesses? >> for the most part we're actually working with a number of supplier partners just the way the rest of the market would. we did charter some vessels for walmart, but the majority of the product we would have imported would have been through some of our large supplier partners who have been quite helpful. once you get into the country, of course we own our distribution centers and some of our trucks, but we also use a number of third parties throughout, so the majority of
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what we would do would be with partners until inventory and product makes it into our supply chain at our regional distribution centers and fulfillment centers. >> given where you were in this position last year versus now, how optimistic are you? what's your outlook for the year ahead? >> i think that we have a strong consumer -- we have a strong economy, all the numbers reflect that. the employment numbers are going up at a time when wages have risen, i think is a positive sign for the country in general. i think the ability of us and other people to be positioned with inventory, ready to go for the holiday, is a positive thing. and i think the final thing is, we're really excited about this commitment with u.s. manufacturing. as i said earlier, we've committed to an additional $350 billion of product that's either made, assembled or sourced here in the united states, and we're looking forward to the impact that's going to have. so i feel a lot better this year than last year, we're better
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positioned this year, but we've got a lot of work to do. it's only november, late november, we've still got six important weeks ahead of us as we get into the christmas season. and then for our team it's get ready for new year's, the super bowl and other events, and we'll be right back off to trading into the new year. >> while the supply chain disruptions have been a challenge for every business, every consumer, it is a bit of a silver lining to hear from walmart and other big companies. walmart now sourcing two-thirds of their goods from u.s. producers, suppliers, manufacturers. this could end up being a boon for u.s. manufacturing. you do not need a cargo ship if you're getting it from a supplier in tallahassee, florida. you can catch more of my exclusive interview with walmart ceo john furner tonight to "nbc nightly news" with lester holt. coming back, we're going to wisconsin, where investigators are working to figure out why an
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it's the hardworking people of the united states postal service. closing arguments are under way in the trial of three men accused of killing ahmaud arbery. let's listen in. >> how fast did he shoot him? how fast did he just pull that trigger? they shot and killed ahmaud arbery. they all acted as a party to the crime. you'll note they've been indicted that way and i'm going to talk about what party to a crime is so that you understand that concept. but the bottom line is, but for their actions, but for their decisions, but for their choices, ahmaud arbery would be alive. and that's why they've been indicted with murder, felony murder, and the four felonies that led to the murder. so what is the defense?
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i'm just going to take it right down there. we talked about that. we've got self-defense. what is that? they're going to try and convince you that ahmaud arbery was the attacker, that he was somehow threatening to them. three on one, two pickup trucks, two guns. mr. arbery, nothing in his pockets, not a cell phone, not a gun, not even an i.d. they want you to believe that he's the danger to them, and it was said in the opening statement, he was scary. so here's the thing. they're going to try to claim that they were justified in their actions, okay, because here's the thing, ladies and gentlemen, you cannot claim self-defense under certain circumstances. you can't. you don't get to say i was acting in self-defense, and
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there's three of them, and it's the law. it isn't made up. there's three of them in the law. if you are the initial unjustified aggressor, you don't get to claim self-defense. if you're committing a felony against somebody, you don't get to claim self-defense. and the third one is if you provoke somebody so that they defend themselves against you, and then you go, oh, look, he attacked me first, but you really were the one provoking the attack on yourself, you don't get to claim self-defense. and that's the law. so here's the problem. they're going to try and claim they were justified in starting this in their driveways, they're going to try to claim they were justified in committing all of these felonies against mr. arbery. how? because they're going to try and convince you this was a citizens arrest. that's what they're going to do. but here is what a citizens
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arrest really is, okay, this is what the law says, this is the statute, and the judge is going to give it to you. a private person may arrest an offender if the offense is committed in his presence, right here, right now, i'm seeing you do it, okay. right here, right now, i'm watching you commit the crime. i'm witnessing it. you're doing it in my presence. so what's the problem for the defendants? well, we all know that mr. bryan is on his porch. travis mcmichael is on the sofa inside the house. where is gregory mcmichael? this all started when i saw him running down the street. now, it also says within his immediate knowledge. the judge will charge you that's synonymous. you've got to think about in my immediate knowledge, what does that mean. think about the eye in the sky at walmart, like you're in
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walmart and you see all those things in the ceiling, you know there's a guy in a booth watching a bunch of video cameras, right? so he's not standing next to the person shoplifting when they shoplift. he's watching it on the camera. that's immediate knowledge. he's not right there next to the person shoplifting, but he's watching it, so he has immediate knowledge because he can see it eye in the sky. that's just an example of how to think of immediate knowledge. but immediate knowledge and in your presence is the exact same thing. in order to make an arrest of an offender, the offense has to be committed in the private citizen's presence. do we have that here? no. in addition, you'll be charged, the second line, if the offense is a felony, so once again the offense has to be a felony, the judge is going to charge you,
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criminal trespass and loitering are misdemeanors, okay. i'm going to ask you to read the criminal trespass thing, in order to be a criminal trespasser, you have to enter on the property with the intent to do an unlawful act or somebody has to have told you you can't come back here like larry english or his representative. mr. arbery was never told don't come back here, you're not allowed, this is private property. so he doesn't fall under criminal trespass. now, i don't want you guys to make the mistake of thinking that we're endorsing or not acknowledging what mr. arbery was doing. let's be real. what was mr. arbery doing? he was going onto somebody else's private property. what was he doing? we can see it. wandering around for a few minutes each time, right? and then what would he do? he would leave. on video, never took anything, never damaged anything. ladies and gentlemen, you decide.
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is he this giant burglar who just happened to never show up with a bag or any means to steal anything, or is he a looky-loo? he shouldn't be doing that. we all know this, okay? but it's trespass. it's a misdemeanor. and on february 23rd, 2020, none of the defendants knew that he had been inside in broad daylight that location, and what did he do on the 23rd of february? he did the same thing he always did, wandered around, wandered around, and then left and ran off down the street. but they didn't know that. they had no immediate knowledge of that. it wasn't in their presence. travis mcmichael was on the couch, mr. bryan was in front of his house. greg mcmichael, he can't even see down the road. there's a trailer there. remember the drone video?
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citizens arrest. this was not a citizens arrest. not present when any crime was committed, the suggestion that ahmaud committed a crime is based on what? not immediate immediate knowled speculation. speculation. how do we know? because of the defendant's own words to the police. that's how we know. wanting to question ahmaud demonstrates uncertainty. hey, where are you coming from? they don't know where he's coming from? what are you doing? day don't know what he's doing. remember mr. mcbrian heard, what'd you steal? okay, they don't know what he's done. they don't know why he's out there running. they don't have immediate knowledge. they have no knowledge. they have speculation because he's running down the street. . wanting to question ahmaud demonstrates a lack of immediate
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knowledge, which is required, required under the citizen's arrest law. because it's required, that means this was not a lawful citizen's arrest. remember what greg mcmichael said? did this guy break into this house today? i don't know! but, hey, law enforcement officers, i'm sure he must have committed some crime today, so why don't you figure out and figure out what crime it was that he must have committed today. why do they think he must have committed something? because he's running down the street. he might have gone into someone's house. pure speculation. and after he's lying there dead, gregg mcmichael is telling the police, hey, why don't you investigate, because i'm sure he committed some crime today. that's not a citizen's arrest. not legitimate at all. so what are you going to hear -- >> i hate to interrupt closing argument, but the state is misstating the citizen's arrest law repeatedly in this section of its argument. and i would like the court to instruct the jury that the law
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will come from the court. this is not an accurate statement of it. >> the court is going to charge the jury on the law and as indicated, you'll have a copy of that charge with you to review during your deliberations. >> thank you. the judge is going to charge you these exact words. the judge is going to charge you these exact words. so what are you going to hear? the state suspects that what you're going to hear from the defense is this. that travis mcmichael had probable cause to believe that ahmaud stole the stuff off the english's boat in 2019 and was escaping that felony on february 23rd, 2020 -- not really sure
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how you escape on february 23rd, 2020, from a crime you supposedly committed on some unknown date in 2019 that travis mcmichael's mom told him about. but basically we have this where he came in, took the stand and said, yeah, that's what was going on. so i was going to go ahead and arrest him for this. here's the problem. this was completely made up for trial. because no one, anywhere, at any time, ever mentioned larry english's boat. never. on february 23rd, 2020. travis mcmichael had two hours and 45 minutes to talk to the police. he was given an hour to write a three-page statement. an hour to write it down. never, ever, ever once said anything about this. so what can you go ahead and assume? a year and nine months later? completely made up for trial. all right, so simply put, ladies
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and gentlemen, if you determine that this was not a citizen's arrest, this was not legitimate, he had no probable cause, you can't do this, based on the law, then, guess what? they're not justified in killing him. they're not justified in any of the felonies they committed against him. not a citizen's arrest, therefore, you're not justified. you're the initial aggressor. you're committing felonies. self-defense. and that gets us to the charges in the indictment. so that's what we're looking at here. based on that, that point, you may find him guilty of all the charges in the indictment. all right, ladies and gentlemen. that was the snapshot view of what i think you're probably going to hear from the defense and what the state's position is on that. so now we're going to do some deep diving. what we're going to do is talk about the jury's duty, talk about some legal concepts that you need to be aware of, that
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the judge will charge you. we'll go over the charges in the indictment. we'll talk about party to the crime, and then we're going to kind of really get into what self-defense and citizen's arrest is. and i know it's going to take a minute. bear with me, but this burden is on the state. so we have to go through all of these things, all right. so here we go. juror's duty. first off, this is your search for the truth, okay. this isn't about the state. this is your search for the truth. you are glenn county. you decide whether they're guilty or not guilty. not the defense attorneys, not the state, you. your search for the truth. you determine what really happened based on the evidence presented. okay? and ladies and gentlemen, i'm going to go and tell you right now, what's the evidence presented? well, you can go ahead and look at state's exhibit 190, which was the actual video. 191 is the half-speed video. you can take a look at state's
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exhibit 194, the night owl video. you can go ahead and take a look at 129. that's that close-up compressed sort of enhanced for coloration video that was produced, that shows the close-up of travis pulling that shotgun up. you can go ahead and take a look at state's exhibit 117. officer rash's video, you can also take a look at 124, the video from december 17th, 2019, and of course, you can always ask to see state's exhibit 315. the frame-by-frame if you want to see it. so how that works, you send a note to judge walmsley and you come into the courtroom. when you come into the courtroom, we don't get to say anything, okay? nobody gets to talk. and at that point in time, you're in control of what you get to watch here in the courtroom. so i wanted you to be aware of that in case you wanted to review any of this evidence. all right, you are the finder of fact. not the state, not the defense. you are the finder of fact.
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you determine witness credibility, all right? you're the one who decides whether you believe these witnesses or don't believe these witnesses, or how much you weight you give a witness's testimony. you're going to apply the law that the judge gives you to those facts as you find them to be and that's what you're going to do. so you have a duty to follow the law. you're bound by the instructions and the law that the judge gave you. in other words, this isn't about becoming an advocate for one side or the other. this is about what are the facts and here's the law and we apply the law to the facts. you have a duty to deliberate. okay, the reason i put this slide up is because one time we had a woman who went and hid in the bathroom for like an hour and a half. like, hid in the bathroom. and the jurors didn't know what to do. they were just sitting back there for an hour and a half and didn't know what to do. anything like that happens, just send the judge a note. anything weird happens, anything you're unsure of happens, send the judge a note. but you have this duty to
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deliberate, to talk about this case. now, sometimes it's helpful to think about what's inside the circle and what's outside the circle. because there's some things outside the circle that you're not or shouldn't really talk about. and what are those? well, that mostly concerns penalty and punishment. ladies and gentlemen, you're going to be given a verdict firm, and you're going to write not guilty or guilty. that's all you're going to do. okay? so it's not about passion or prejudice or you disagree with the law, you don't like the law, conjecture. it's about the evidence and so what do you consider? well, if you consider the elements walmsley will give you that. the law, expert testimony, okay? fingerprints, fibers, the medical examiner. the photos and documents. look at the crime scene photos. take a look at those photos. they're hard, but take a look at them. the testimony of the witnesses, the credibility of the
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witnesses. the defendant's actions. their driveway decisions and how it led to someone lying dead from two gunshots in the middle of the street. the elements of the offenses. the reasonableness and above all, use your common sense. this is the time when you put on that critical -- that critical thinking cap, okay? meaning, you question everything. it's sometimes really easy to see somebody and you want just to go, i want to believe what they had to say, you know, i don't want to believe automatically that they're a liar or anything like that. i want to give them the benefit of the doubt. this is the time, ladies and gentlemen, that you put on that critical thinking cap, where you go ahead and scrutinize everything that the people on the stand said to you. so reasonable doubt. that's the doubt of a fair-minded and impartial jury honestly seeking the truth.
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it's not about seeking out d.o.t., it's about seeking the truth. and it's not beyond all doubt or to a mathematical certainty. no, no, no, it's just beyond a reasonable doubt. and that's the burden that the state has. so the evidence. the first thing you'll want to do is determine what really happened based on the evidence, but a lot of the evidence isn't in dispute, right? we know dwhas larry english called the police. we know when we have videos. we know this was on february 23rd. the homicide is on video for the most part, okay? a lot of these things are not necessarily in dispute what's in dispute is were they making a citizen's arrest in committing these felonies against ahmaud arbery and then murdering him. the police arrived very quickly.

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