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Officer Arrested for Floyd's Death Now Charged with 2nd Degree Murder And 3 Other Officers Charged with Aiding and Abetting; Any Minute now Minnesota AG to Announce New Charges in Floyd's Death. Aired 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 3, 2020 - 15:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


[15:30:00]

SARA SIDNER, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Lastly may I ask you just who your daddy was? Just do you mind?

BENJAMIN CRUMP, LAWYER FOR GEORGE FLOYD'S FAMILY: He was a good man but --

SIDNER: If he doesn't want too, it's OK, you can say no, there's no pressure here but if you want to talk about I you can.

All right, all right, then we're good.

Thank you both. Thank you, Quincy, thank you so much for talking to us.

You heard there Benjamin Crump saying this was torture. And for his son to have to stand here and talk about his father's death -- thank you. I know this is really hard. I do. I do. I know this hurts.

For his son to have to keep listening to this and the family has been very clear that they really are thankful for the support, but they are a peaceful family and a prayerful family and that George Floyd with never have wanted any of the madness that had happened. But they want justice. They want peace on one hand and justice on the other.

And right now, it appears that they're starting to get some of the things they've been asking for at least in the form of legal charges against these four officers. People have been waiting here for days, right. For days to see these other three officers charged. Because the sentiment in the streets is and the sentiment from the family is if this had been reversed and the people who were officers had been civilians doing this, everybody would have been charged. No waiting. No questioning.

Now, they would have been taken to jail, charges would have been meted out. Whether or not that goes forward in the justice system that is another thing, but a lot of people see this as special treatment for the police who were supposed to be protecting and serving. And so, you see the emotion here. Because a lot of folks see this as look at how they treat us compared to how they are treated. We want to be treated the same way with the same level of respect.

And that's not what people are seeing. So that's why you're seeing such unrest and such unhappiness. But I can tell you for the last several days it has been nothing but peaceful and people are trying to figure out what to do next not only for this family but to heal this community and that is hard work. And this family has been prayerful and asking for peace for days now. And they're hoping that it will continue to stay that way here in Minneapolis.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN HOST: I hear you. Amen to that. But there is a much bigger issue at play with regard to this justice system in this country and the generations of violence and black and brown Americans, you know, facing it for too long, and so Sara, I appreciate you.

I want to continue this conversation with Derrick Johnson, he's the President of the NAACP. And Derek, just on the point -- we just lost him. We'll work on getting him.

Because I really want to have a conversation with him about is before we heard from Benjamin Crump and George Floyd's son was about how he was -- I think it was almost a cautious optimism with regards to these charge, especially the elevated charge with this police officer Derek Chauvin and he said it will lead to justice, probably.

Quick break. I'm Brooke Baldwin, you're watching CNN. So much to discuss. Don't move.

[15:35:00]

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BALDWIN: Welcome back to the breaking news. I'm Brooke Baldwin. Here's the deal. We have just learned that regarding the death of George Floyd, all four officers now have been charged, three of whom charged with aiding abetting and second-degree murder and that first officer, Derek Chauvin, who was the first to be arrested and forgive me, I should saying former officers, they have long been fired. Derek Chauvin's charge has been upgraded now from third-degree to second- degree.

So, in the wings with me, Van Jones and Derrick Johnson, and Mr. Johnson let me just come back to you, you've been so patient and waiting, President of the NAACP.

Where we had left off -- this is before we heard from Mr. Crump and Mr. Floyd's son -- was you were reacting to the news of the charges and there was a word that you said, you said essentially and correct me, but that it will probably lead to justice or it will lead to probable justice. And I just wanted to focus in on what you mean by that and the also words of Benjamin Crump earlier today, as he was standing at the site -- all of the world is watching, change is going to come. This moment is a tipping point. How do you feel about that?

DERRIK JOHNSON, PRESIDENT, NAACP: You know, that is a true statement. The problem with our justice system is when you have a local district attorney who see themselves more aligned with law enforcement and police unions than he will see himself aligned with justice and the communities he is supposed to serve.

This district attorney held that city, held that county, held this nation hostage because he could not find it within himself to look at the books and determine that these officers sitting on this man's back for 8 minutes and 46 seconds was illegal and they should be held accountable.

Finally we have someone that is not beholden to a police union or see themselves as a part of the blue wall and as opposed to seeing themself as the vehicle by which crimes against the state can be redressed and people can be held accountable irrespective of whether they are a police officer or a young lady walking down the street.

[15:40:00]

They all should be seeing equally, and justice should be applied equally. The only problem we have in this system is the concept of the politics that's behind all of this. A justice system is supposed to be blind. This isn't blind. This has been asinine for us to watch a murder in the middle of the street, broad daylight. And these men have been able to walk free for all of this time.

BALDWIN: What do you want to see next, final question? Officers are charged. Immediately, what's next?

JOHNSON: Officers are charged and now we need to move forward with a system of justice to give them the due process. But yet the family, the hope and belief that their father, their brother, their family members life is of value and that value should be something that is treated equally in our system of justice.

My opinion all four of them were guilty when I finished watching that video, 8 minutes and 46 seconds where they sat on this man's neck. Sat on his back. He was not resisting arrest. He was pleading for his life. I cannot breathe. Calling for his mother who is deceased. A grown man pleading for his life and they sat there with malicious disregard for human life. They should not see daylight and three people in my opinion for the rest of their life.

BALDWIN: Derrick Johnson, I appreciate you. I appreciate all of the work you are leading here at the NAACP. Thank you.

Van Jones, my colleague, my friend, let me bring you in. And as I do, I just want to let everyone know the right side of your screen, this mass group of people, this is what is happening right now at this huge intersection in Los Angeles as people are gathering peacefully in the wake of this news. So, Van Jones, what say you?

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Well you know, it's an incredible feeling, you know. Every step in this process is going to be hard. This is running a marathon through mud. Every step is going to be hard. But every step is a victory. It is a victory. It was a victory when the governor of the state said, you know what, I think we need to have a higher review of this.

It was a victory when Keith Ellison took it under his own advisement. He drove all of us nuts because we wanted to know what he was going to do, they wanted him to go faster, they wanted to know what's going happen. But it was a victory when he uses ethical judgment decision- making to come to a conclusion that he could live with and it was a victory when it was announced.

And so, we've got a whole -- we've got a marathon through mud here. But I believe we're going to get to a good outcome. Because, first of all, you know, I just heard from my son --

BALDWIN: I was just going to ask you about your boys, yes.

JONES: Right. They love you and you know very well these are just good kids. He wrote a letter to the principal of his school that he shared with me after he sent it. And he was talking about how he was afraid now every time his little brother goes outside to play that his little brother might become a hashtag.

You have a full generation, this is not just, you know, one more case, you have a whole generation of young people, black, white and otherwise who are looking at America through the lens of this case. This is a year for them where they've seen a coronavirus, they've seen curfews, they've seen quarantines, they've seen the economy go down. They don't know what to think.

But what they're focused on is, is it OK for a police officer to strangle a man to death in front of other officers and get away with it. And if this generation -- if the answer to that question is that is OK, that means that the lawlessness in the police department that has spilled out into lawlessness now in the streets becomes normalized and you have a whole generation of young people that will have no respect for law and law enforcement. And not just poor kids, and not just black kids, a whole generation. This has shaken a generation.

And so, we are now taking a step forward. My belief is that this is different because all of the old excuses don't apply. Well, he was talking back, he was running, he was throwing a punch, he wouldn't listen. Why did he do this, why didn't he comply? This is such a quick decision how could you second guess?

Eight minutes is long enough, six minutes is long enough. Four minutes is long enough when somebody says they can't breathe to let them have a gasp of air.

[15:45:00]

And so if this case comes back, we approve, America approves cops can do this. And cops don't have to take any steps, then we're in a different country. A police officer is a good police officer when he stands up to bad actors in the community and bad actors in the department. You do not get to be a good officer -- I'm from a law enforcement family. My father was a cop in the military. My favorite uncle just retired from Memphis City police force, I'm from a law enforcement family.

You don't get to be a good cop just by going after bad actors in the community. You also have to stand up to bad actors on the force and when someone is trying to kill someone or doing something that might lead to their death you can't stand by. That will change law enforcement. That will change law enforcement. But this is going to be a long slog. But today is a victory. A victory on the way to victory.

BALDWIN: And I hear you on the victory and I hear you on the hope. I guess I'm just also -- and you've lived this. I have not. But the fear that is so profound and so deep within black, brown Americans that to have these four officers, and again this is just the beginning as you said of this marathon, you know, I talk to so many folks who just worry about the next generation and their own kids.

You talk about your son and his younger brother. You know, the fear needs to go away but in order for the fear to go away this is going to take much more than four police officers being charged.

JONES: It's true. It's true. But here is the good thing. There is a pathway out of this. Now, there's a pathway forward. It's three steps and it's only three steps. Justice in this case, which means all four officers have to be arrested, charged, convicted, in jail. That's justice. That's one leg.

The other leg, while everybody is completely aware that there is a big problem in law enforcement, let's get together, Republicans, Democrats, law enforcement community, civil rights and pass a bipartisan bill this year. It could be done this year.

You could ban the chokehold this year. You could raise the standards for training this year. You could make it easier to sue police departments because now we're so out of whack you can't even sue them. You can deal with qualified (INAUDIBLE). You could do that this year. You could take concrete step this year and show that the country can work to solve the problem.

And lastly, you're going to have to surge some economic relief to these communities that have been battered economically by the protests, by some of the arson, property destruction, a lot of those black businesses do not have insurance.

Let's surge economic support into these communities and now you're on a pathway back toward wholeness and toward healing. And you have 20, 30, 40, probably 50 million white Americans that would agree with everything I just said and be happy to see it in both parties and you have people that always know that racism was a big issue but it was number 17 on their list. Right now, it is number one on a lot of people's list.

And yet other people who said racism wasn't real and they say, you know what, it is real. We got to do something. So, this is a moment. Justice in the case, bipartisan legislation and economic relief to these communities and you could turn a breakdown into a break-through.

I'm tired of crying about it. I'm tired of -- on the phone last night with black parents until damn near 10:30 in the morning, people talking about how do they talk to their 6-year-old, how do they talk to their 8-year-old? What's appropriate for an 11-year old? Should they be on social media? I mean we're having to manage so much, every time one of these cases

happens, it's like an atomic bomb dropped at our kitchen table and we have to deal with it over and over again and it impacts these kids. And so, this has to stop. It has to stop. You cannot continue.

Look, I'm in L.A. right now. 1992, Rodney King, a video-taped police beating that wound up being handled terribly and this city almost burned down. We are on a pathway right now, Brooke, to five or ten American cities on fire by the end this summer if we get one more videotape, and another videotape, and we get nothing done.

How long are people supposed to deal with this pain and nobody is going to do anything about it? And so, I'm so telling you right now, there is a pathway out to justice. It's bipartisan legislation, it's economic relief, and we move forward to a better place.

BALDWIN: I am hanging on your every word, my friend. Just bless you, thank you so much for coming on, for sharing this moment with me and really the rest of the world. Van Jones, I appreciate you.

JONES: I appreciate you too, Brooke, we'll stay together.

BALDWIN: Thank you.

JONES: And thank you for your heart.

BALDWIN: Of course. Thank you, thank you for your heart.

[15:50:00]

With me now, the Chairwoman of the Minneapolis Board of Education, Kim Ellison and the Minneapolis City Councilman Steve Fletcher. Welcome to both of you.

And Kim, let's just get straight to -- get straight to it, your reaction to these charges facing these now former officers?

KIM ELLISON, CHAIR, MINNEAPOLIS BOARD OF EDUCATION: Amazing. About time. It needed to happen. So, yes.

BALDWIN: Steve, to you, same question.

STEVE FLETCHER, MINNEAPOLIS CITY COUNCILMAN: Absolutely, this was -- and I think when people on gathered on Tuesday to grieve and to mourn on the first night of demonstrations, this was the demand, this was the thing that everybody wanted to see, this is what people thought justice looked like.

After that conflict escalated people are demanding much, much more than that but this was the initial demand and I'm glad at least that aspect of the call for justice has been heard.

BALDWIN: Let be broaden now the conversation because we had you all, you know, booked on the show to also talk about why each of you is making news today. So Kim, to you, on just the school district in Minneapolis, you said your decision to end the contract with the Minneapolis Police obviously coming into all the various schools, school resource officers keeping the kids safe, you said the decision, cutting the contract, it comes down to values. Tell me what you mean by that and why you decided to do this?

ELLISON: Well, we understand, the Minneapolis School Board understands a budget to be a moral document. You spend money on things you value. And we have done a lot of research, searching ourselves in terms of what do we value and what to teach our children in schools. And what the Minneapolis Police Department by their actions shows do not align with our values. And so, it was important for us to say, no more, we cannot spend money on the Minneapolis Police Department.

BALDWIN: And just so I'm hearing you, you would rather not have these school resource officers than have members of the Minneapolis Police Department in your schools. That's how bad it is.

ELLISON: That's how bad it is. And this is not any statement about the school resource officers, we have amazing officers in our schools working with our staff and students. But to spend money, to give money to the Minneapolis Police Department is just something that we could not do.

BALDWIN: It's a strong statement. Steve, to you, I know that as a member of city council, you have tried in the past to make changes to MPD and now you're officially calling to disband the MPD. And I was reading your entire Twitter, you know, string of tweets, and you tweeted that you want to start fresh with a community oriented, nonviolent public safety and outreach capacity, your words. Tell me why and how you even think this is possible?

FLETCHER: Well, you know, I think that we have seen that what we're doing is not working. It is not keeping people safe. It is not something that we can defend any longer. And everybody in the community who has a choice, so the Minneapolis public schools got to vote to end their contract with us, so has the -- I heard the Minneapolis Park Board is working on a similar resolution.

I think that, you know, everybody who has a chance to distance themselves right now is doing that. My constituents are asking me to do the same. You know, the people who don't have a choice except through their elected representatives on the council, would also like to not be funding and interacting with the Minneapolis Police Department based on what we've seen, which has been horrifying to all of us and really misaligned with our values.

BALDWIN: The other piece of it, I'm so mindful of this profound moment on our air a couple of nights ago where a correspondent was basically connecting the Minneapolis Chief of Police to the Floyd family in conversation over TV.

And I just would be remiss not to point out, this police chief, you know, not only agreeing that justice should be served with regard to this family and these former police officers, but in deference, you know, removing his cap to speak to this family, to me spoke volumes. Just one minute left with you, Steve, are they all bad apples? FLETCHER: You know, the department is ungovernable. Chief Arradondo

is a leader that we've all had very high hopes in and that I imagined could play a role in envisioning the next version of public safety. But he has clearly not been able to make the culture change happen that we were hoping for and investing in.

BALDWIN: Steve Fletcher, Kim Ellison, I appreciate both of you very much, using your voices. Nice to have you both here. And I just want to thank all of you who have been listening and who have been watching on this huge news day. I'm Brooke Baldwin.

[15:55:00]

We'll be back here tomorrow. In the meantime, let's go to Washington. THE LEAD with Jake Tapper starts right now.

ANNOUNCER: This is CNN breaking news.

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: And welcome to THE LEAD, I am Jake Tapper and we begin with breaking news right now.

We are waiting for an important press conference from the Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison. Ellison is expected to announce new charges for all four of the officers who were involved in the killing of George Floyd last week, George Floyd of course an unarmed black man.

Court records just filed say that the officer who is visible in the videos kneeling on Floyd's neck, Derek Chauvin, that he has been charged with second-degree murder, that's an elevation from Friday's charge of third-degree murder. The charge of manslaughter also remains. And crucially, three other officers involved on the scene have now also been charged with aiding and abetting second-degree murder and manslaughter.

Let's go to CNN's Josh Campbell who is live for us in St. Paul, Minnesota, where this press conference is going to take place in just minutes. Josh, these new charges are reflected in court documents.

JOSH CAMPBELL, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: That's right, Jake. We heard just hours ago from our law enforcement sources that there had been a major development here in this investigation into the death of George Floyd. And what we were awaiting was some type of official confirmation.

What we were told is that the State Attorney General's office which assumed leadership of this case from county prosecutors days ago, that they had been reviewing the evidence, sifting through all the available video and other eyewitness statements in this case to determine whether or not additional charges would be brought against the police officers depicted in those videos.

We can now report, as you mentioned, that based on court records all of the officers involved in that incident that resulted in the death of George Floyd have now been charged by authorities. Now three of the officers, J. Alexander Kueng, Thomas Lane, and Tou Thao, have been charged with aiding and abetting second degree murder.

The fourth officer, Derek Chauvin, who we've been reporting had previously been arrested on charges of third-degree murder, his case has now been elevated to second-degree murder. He is currently in custody.

Arrest warrants have been issued for the other three, according to court records. What we're awaiting now is Attorney General Keith Ellison, he will address the nation, indeed the world. People around the world have been awaiting this decision to determine whether or not additional charges would be brought.

Of course, Jake, members of this community also have been watching very closely. I've been out reporting, talking to protesters, talking to members of the community who wanted to see some type of justice. We were told by our law enforcement sources that they were taking this slowly, methodically, trying to do it the right way. We are now at that moment, Jake, where we expect to hear from the Attorney General about his investigation and what comes next for these charged officers -- Jake.

TAPPER: All right, Josh Campbell, thanks so much. Stand by, of course, we're going to go back to that room when Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison comes to the podium. CNN's Omar Jimenez is in Minneapolis for us, at the site of Floyd's killing. The site has been turned into a memorial.

Omar, tell us what the mood is like, where you are, and your best assessment about whether or not these charges will do a lot to quell a lot of the anger that we've seen, understandable anger from protesters?

OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Jake, based on people I've spoken to here, it's a good first step, but there is still a level of skepticism because while the charges have been announced here, they want to see things through to a conviction.

And as we know looking at previous cases, it oftentimes is difficult to get a full conviction on a police officer despite how clear people may feel the evidence actually is. I can tell you when the news officially came down, starting off, I should say, from a tweet from Senator Amy Klobuchar, there were audible reactions in the crowd behind me, people cheering, people dancing, people excited, because this was at the very least the direction of developments that people here wanted things to go.

And earlier today, we heard and saw the family and the family attorney at this site make their own remarks, saying that they fully expected to see charges against these officers before the memorial service for George Floyd set to begin tomorrow here in Minneapolis.

And Governor Tim Walz also stopped by the site and we spoke to him about the stakes of this moment, the stakes that his state is currently in. And in his words, he says, we're only going to get one shot at getting this right. And it seems at least for the moment that they're trying to treat this as such -- Jake. TAPPER: All right, Omar Jimenez in Minneapolis. Let's go back to St.

Paul, I want to go CNN's Miguel Marquez now, Miguel, you've been in the middle of a lot of these protests in Minnesota all week. Based on your conversations with the demonstrators, the activists, how do you think they're going to react to this?