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AT THIS HOUR

President Biden Delivers Speech to Joint Session of Congress Tonight; CNN Poll: Majority of Americans Approve of Biden & His Priorities; Sheriff in Andrew Brown Jr. Shooting Calls for Video Release. Aired 11-11:30a ET

Aired April 28, 2021 - 11:00   ET

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


[11:00:23]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Hello, everyone. I'm Kate Bolduan. Thank you so much for joining us.

At this hour, we're about ten hours from President Biden's first address to a joint session of Congress, marking the end of his first 100 days in office. It is an important moment for every president. Setting aside the grand pomp and circumstance that usually comes with this event, it is the moment the president is expected to clearly lay out his priorities for his presidency. What all he's accomplished in the 100 days he's been in office.

That is no different for Joe Biden tonight. What is different, though, is the impact of the pandemic on all of this. Tonight's address will look very different from previous presidential addresses in the House chamber. Usually some 1,600 people will be filling the room.

You know the video I'm talking about. Tonight only 200 will attend in person. Chief Justice John Roberts will be in person to represent the high court. Only two cabinet members will attend. No need for the strangely morbid assignment for one cabinet member, there will be no designated survivor this time.

Also, no first lady's box and no other guests in the House chamber, no unmasked faces except for the president. One historic and long overdue change, two women seated behind the president of the United States for the first time, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Vice President Kamala Harris. Also important, remember that President Biden will be speaking tonight at the site of the violent attack on American democracy, the site of the January 6th insurrection where violent mob tried to break in to that House chamber and deny him the presidency.

A lot is going on tonight, but we're learning more already about what the president will say in his speech.

So, let's get over to CNN's Jeremy Diamond. He's at the White House.

Jeremy, what is going to say tonight?

JEREMY DIAMOND, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Well, listen, Kate, President Biden tonight is going to be delivering a wide-ranging speech looking back at his first 100 days in office, what he's been able to accomplish and deliver for the American people in his view and also looking forward, especially on the coronavirus pandemic. Now that he's reached his goal of 200 million shots, what the future of the coronavirus response looks like and how Americans can be more optimistic about the future.

But the centerpiece of this address will be, aides have told us, the unveiling of this American Families Plan. This is that $1.8 trillion proposal to expand child care, education. There's a whole lot of things in this, including no family paying more than 7 percent of their income on child care, paid family and medical leave, two years of free community college, paid family leave as well.

And all of this is going to be paid for in Biden's proposal by increasing taxes on the wealthiest of Americans, that top 1 percent sliver and sometimes an even slimmer sliver of the top -- wealthiest Americans in the country including, for example, in terms of the president's proposal to increase some of the capital gains taxes. So you will hear this ambitious proposal from the president which has already faced major, major pushback from Republicans.

And it is altogether a component of this overall jobs and infrastructure proposal which totals nearly $4 trillion altogether if you factor in that $2.3 trillion infrastructure proposal that the president laid out last month. The president will also be talking, of course, about some of his other priorities including passing the George Floyd Justice in Policing Reform Act, which he and other Democrats have talked about passing by May 25th, which is the anniversary of George Floyd's death. We know there are discussions on Capitol Hill there.

But, again, the optics of this speech will certainly look very, very different. As you mentioned, Kate, there will be only 200 members in the audience, lawmakers attending compared to the normal thousand that you see. That will make for far less raucous applause than you typically see.

And then, of course, the optics behind the president, the vice president and the speaker of the House, both women, for the first time in history -- Kate.

BOLDUAN: Jeremy, thank you so much.

So, 100 days into the Biden presidency, what are Americans saying about the job he's doing right now?

CNN has a fresh look at that this morning, new polling numbers are just calling in.

CNN's political director David Chalian joins me with a look at that.

So, David, take us through what numbers stick out to you. What jumps out?

DAVID CHALIAN, CNN POLITICAL DIRECTOR: Good morning, Kate. Yeah, this is our brand new poll. Let's look at his overall approval rating as he nears the 1 100-day mark. Fifty-three percent of Americans in our new poll approve of the job that Joe Biden is doing, 43 percent disapprove.

[11:05:00]

Worth noting, his immediate predecessor, Donald Trump, never received above 50 percent mark in our polling in approval.

But I want you to look at this broken out by party: 93 percent of Democrats approve of the job Joe Biden is doing, compared that to only 7 percent of Republicans. This is massive polarization. When we talk about our polarized politics, this is what we're talking about, and that's why it's so important to win over the middle, as he's doing with 51 percent of independents.

We tested a whole bunch of issues, Kate, and it is dealing with the coronavirus that is far and away Joe Biden's most successful issue. Two-thirds of the country, 66 percent approve of how he handles the battle against coronavirus. You see here, he's got majority support on environmental policy, racial injustice, his handling of the commander- in-chief role, the economy, which is important, taxes, foreign affairs, he's just below a majority there.

But his weak spots here are clear, right? Immigration, he's at 41 percent approval, well below overall approval. Gun policy at 40 percent.

And then some key attributes that we tested at this 100-day point. Look at what is the top attribute that we tested for Joe Biden. He cares about people like me, 57 percent of Americans in this poll says that fits Joe Biden, that motion that he cares about people by me. That empathy factor, Kate, that we know is so huge.

But he's at majority support across all these attributes.

BOLDUAN: Yeah. And so, we always talk about how a president is doing at this point compared to presidents before him. It's always a measure that we -- that we watch really closely. Biden on that front, David, is down near the bottom. He's just above Donald Trump compared to his predecessors.

But when you look at that, consider how hyper-polarized the country is. Can you put some context around this? Should we be comparing presidents today to presidents past?

CHALIAN: I mean, listen, I think it is a valid comparison to look where it falls. But you're right to note we live in different political times. This is what I was referring to with that polarization.

So, here you can see it was just a different kind of honeymoon that previous presidents years ago had received at this 100-day mark than they receive today. Joe Biden is down here in the Bill Clinton territory, significantly above where Donald Trump was.

But, Kate, I just will note, this goes back to this notion. This is why, and this is different than what we saw in the Trump administration, trying to win over the middle, to your argument, helps you get majority support across the whole country. If you're going to see near total opposition from the opposition party, it's all that more important, that not only do you juice up your base, but you also reach out to the middle.

That was Donald Trump's concern. He always juiced up the base but it wasn't so good at getting support from the middle. Joe Biden is having more success there.

BOLDUAN: And so, what are the lessons in terms of governing? This is a big important question that we'll see how it plays out tonight.

Great to see you, David. Thank you so much.

CHALIAN: Sure.

BOLDUAN: So you wonder what Joe Biden can say tonight, what priorities he can lay out to change more minds among the American public, the middle as David Chalian is just highlighting.

CNN's John Harwood is joining me for more on that.

John, what do you think of that? What is at stake for President Biden tonight?

JOHN HARWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT: Kate, the stakes are enormous. And you talk about opportunities to move minds among the American people. The first speech to Congress in the first few months of a president's term is a much easier opportunity to change minds because views are somewhat softer, even though we're in a highly polarized environment, harder in a president's second, third or fourth year.

But the stakes are enormous in multiple ways for the president. It's critical for his economic strategy to get this jobs and families plan through. All the problems that we've been talking about, the middle class wait stagnation, widening income inequality, special problems for people of color in the United States. All those have been growing throughout Joe Biden's four decades, five decades of service within Washington.

It's critical for his climate strategy. He's got major investments in the electric grid and R&D, advanced batteries, retrofitting buildings, things to try to keep the United States and the world on pace to hold the rising temperatures down and a way to avoid catastrophic effects. That's one of the reasons he needs this plan. It's critical to his political strategy.

We know the Democrats have very narrow majority in the House and Senate. History tells us they have good chance of losing those majorities. So, one, he has a narrow window to get things done. But secondly, he thinks getting big things done like this jobs and families plan is going to be critical to persuading the American people to keep the Congress in Democratic hands.

And, finally, it's critical to the -- his strategy for preserving America's place in the world.

[11:10:03]

Joe Biden's consistently made the case that this is a moment when democracies like the United States that are competing with autocracies like China, that can make top-down decisions without the consent of their people, but he needs to show -- the United States needs to show that democracy can still work.

And this is the closing argument he's going to make in this speech and for his plan. That's why he thinks it is so important.

BOLDUAN: Good to see you, John. Thank you so much.

A reminder to all of you. You can watch President Biden's address to Congress, tonight, right here on CNN. Live coverage begins at 8:00 p.m. Eastern.

Still ahead for us, we're going to show you live pictures of a courtroom in North Carolina where a judge is considering whether to release the body camera footage of the police shooting death of Andrew Brown in Elizabeth City, North Carolina. His family is in the courtroom right now. We're going to have much more on that in just a moment.

Plus, warnings. One day before the Capitol riot, what internal emails are revealing about missed and dismissed possible signs that the Capitol riot -- the Capitol was in danger.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:15:30]

BOLDUAN: Right now, we are monitoring a hearing out of Elizabeth City, North Carolina, where a judge will be deciding whether or not to release bodycam footage in the deadly shooting of Andrew Brown Jr. The county sheriff says that he believes it is time for the video to come out, but it has already been six days.

In court, though, the district attorney is arguing against its release saying more time is needed for the investigation before they put it out to the public. CNN's Joe Johns is in Elizabeth City for us.

And, Joe, you spoke to the sheriff as he was heading into this hearing. What did he say?

JOE JOHNS, CNN SENIOR WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: I sure did. He made it clear that he would like to see the video released, all of the videos released. We did learn in that hearing that apparently there are at least four body cameras that recorded video. So there's that.

Let's just listen to what the sheriff said to me in that conversation and then we'll talk more about the hearing. (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: You want it out, right, Sheriff?

SHERIFF TOMMY WOOTEN II, PASQUOTANK COUNTY, NC: Absolutely.

JOHNS: What's been holding it up?

WOOTEN: The North Carolina law. That's why I filed the petition, to get this ball rolling because it's best for the community, the office and the Brown family.

That's what we're going to do. We're kind of late. I need to get in here.

JOHNS: How many cameras actually shot video?

WOOTEN: Everything, everything.

JOHNS: Were there five different angles, was there one?

WOOTEN: I'm not sure right now. I know we have more than one. But we're waiting for the investigation to unfold and we're really close.

JOHNS: Is the D.A. on board?

WOOTEN: The D.A. wanted to -- he didn't want to hinder the investigation. He didn't want to release it so he could do his full investigation. But I'm past that point. I want to put it out.

JOHNS: Thank you, Sheriff.

WOOTEN: We'll be back.

JOHNS: Sheriff, last, was it an execution like the family says?

WOOTEN: Well, the word execution is -- I would say that kind of inflames everybody. But no, I don't agree with the word execution.

JOHNS: Thank you.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JOHNS: So there you go.

Now, during this hearing, Andrew Womble, as you said at the top, Kate, who was the county district attorney, said he would not like to see this video released at least for 30 days until the state Bureau of Investigation concludes an investigation or at the time of trial if there is a trial, for any of the individuals who are on the video. And he said that's because he's concerned about maintaining the possibility of a fair trial.

Also, there are some concerns for the individual officers about the possibility of threats if people are able to make out who it is that appears on the video and what they do. Back to you, Kate.

BOLDUAN: Joe, thank you very much for bringing that to us. We're continuing to monitor this hearing that's ongoing.

At the same time, let me bring in Reverend Greg Drumwright. He is the national organizer for the Justice for the Next Coalition, a group advocating for racial justice.

Reverend, thank you for coming in.

You were actually just in court with the family. What did you hear? How are they doing?

REV. GREG DRUMWRIGHT, PASTOR, THE CITADEL CHURCH: Well, the family is taking this matter day by day. There are days where they're lament and their grief has left them bewildered, plastered, overwhelmed and numb. Something that I call, what they're dealing with is black insanity right now. But considering all things and considering the trauma that they are facing every day, the family is incredibly strong right now.

BOLDUAN: Reverend, we just heard from Joe Johns that the D.A. is arguing in court. We know the family wants the body camera video released, and they want to see more of it because they did not see all of it from all of the angles when they were able the preview it. The D.A. in court is arguing it not be released for 30 days or maybe even longer.

What would -- what's your reaction to that?

DRUMWRIGHT: Well, my reaction is that is preposterous. I think it is inexcusable of this D.A. to argue against the family's wishes because they have legal standing and legal grounds, legal rights to see that video. It is important to the family to know what happened to their relative.

Imagine if it was your family, if it was your father, if it was your son. Wouldn't you want to know now versus later?

[11:20:03]

And so, the family and the community here, activists and organizers, are all up in arms as to why our criminal justice system is even allowing so much time to transpire. Now seven days later, the family is still arguing for full transparency and accountability.

BOLDUAN: You and many others have gotten to the point of, one, being frustrated with the sheriff and the different attorney and county officials and how they've handled this, but two, gotten to the point where you think the state's attorney general needs to take over this case. Why?

DRUMWRIGHT: Well, because what we're up against here in North Carolina as in other parts of the country is a very broken criminal justice system. There's two courtrooms for black America, for brown America right now.

The courtroom of inequality and the courtroom, as some would say, of equality. What myself and other people that have been fighting this fight here on the ground for nearly a decade now have experienced and what the Brown family is going through, what the Fred Cox family is going through in Highpoint, North Carolina, fighting for justice for him is the other side, the other fight, the fight where we have to constantly put pressure on our public officials, now Attorney General Josh Stein, to step up and take control of this case.

We feel, the clergy community feels, the activist and organizer families feel, along with this family, that this court, this D.A. is inept, incapable and unable to deal with these matters fairly, equitably and justly. And so, we want to see criminal justice reform here in North Carolina. This is happening all across our state.

And what has happened in Andrew Brown's case is no exception to what has been the pattern and practice of our criminal court system here.

BOLDUAN: The sheriff told CNN today that he wants the video released, he disagrees with the D.A. at this point. That's why he went to court this morning. State law, as you well know, makes release of this type of video more complicated in North Carolina than other states.

Does what the sheriff is saying today change your view of what has played out in the last six, seven days?

DRUMWRIGHT: Actually, it doesn't, because we know all of these players on the sheriff's side, on the D.A.'s side, are sitting back in a room discussing this. We know they are aligned in some ways that may not be known to the public. But we're aware.

We've been fighting this fight not just here in eastern North Carolina, but we've been fighting this fight all through out our state. It doesn't make sense to us that the district attorney is arguing against the sheriff, knowing they have had full disclosure about this video and what it contains, and, therefore, we have lost trust. We have lost trust.

I was with the Floyd family throughout their fight for George Floyd's justice, that case in the Derek Chauvin trial. We've lost so much trust across America as it relates to receiving fair, due and equitable process through our court systems.

And that's why right here in North Carolina we're arguing for criminal justice reform. I sit on the state's court commission who advises the governor. And we're putting a full-court press on our public officials to come in and oversee this case so that we can get some justice, some full transparency for Andrew Brown's family.

BOLDUAN: Let's see what happens in court today. We could be getting a decision this morning. I'll be leaning on you to get your reaction after that.

Reverend, thank you for your time.

Coming up for us, a CNN exclusive. Newly obtained emails reveal missed warning signs the day before the Capitol riot.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[11:29:27]

BOLDUAN: CNN has learned Capitol security officials ignored warnings about threatening social media posts just one day before the Capitol insurrection, online chatter calling for people to storm the Capitol and even kill federal workers.

CNN's Whitney Wild has joined me now. She has this great reporting.

Whitney, what was missed?

WHITNEY WILD, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT CORRESPONDENT: Well, my colleague Zach Cohen and I have found that there was a private company that reached out to Capitol security and said we've identified this list of troubling posts.

Here is just one. We will storm government buildings, kill cops, kill security guards, kill federal employees and kill agents. That was a post someone put on social media.

Another member of the Capitol security staff.