No Officer Charged in Killing of Taylor
SCOTT JENNINGS, COLUMNIST, "USA TODAY": Same breath was a huge mistake yesterday. My suspicion is, this reminds me of a few weeks ago, Alisyn, when he talked about, well, maybe we should delay the election, and you had the elected leadership and the party leadership of both parties unified in saying that's not happening, and then that was quickly abandoned. So I think if he persists in this, you'll see both parties' leaders unify around a message of, that's not -- that's not going to happen, Mr. President. I agree with Bakari, by the way. I think we will have a peaceful transition and that's what's going to happen.</s>ALISYN CAMEROTA, CNN ANCHOR: But -- why? Why do you think that, Scott, when the president of the United States is saying it's conditional?</s>JENNINGS: Because the president of the United States does not have the ability to just upend, you know, all the tradition and history we have in this country of a peaceful transition of power. I don't -- I just -- I don't think a single human can do that.</s>CAMEROTA: But he does -- Scott, but just -- I just -- I want you to help everybody feel better --</s>JENNINGS: I think the weight of our institutions and the weight of the momentum of our democracy would prevent it. My view.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes? Who's going to stop him? Who's going to stop him, Scott? I mean --</s>BAKARI SELLERS, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: The Secret -- the Secret Service. I mean the Secret Service is going to come in --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, but I'm talking about what he's doing -- but what he's doing is ginning up his supporters. He's not -- he's not saying that he's activating the military. He's ginning up his ardent supporters to go out into the streets. That's why Brian Kemp says there's rioting in the streets, and the president says, well, get rid of the ballots and then it will be peaceful. He likes the rioting in the streets is what he's saying.</s>SELLERS: Yes, I don't disagree --</s>CAMEROTA: How is anybody going to stop that?</s>SELLERS: I don't disagree with that. I think we're talking about two different things, though. I don't -- I don't disagree with the fact that he wants chaos. I don't disagree with the fact that he wants mayhem. I don't disagree with the fact that we may have some hint of fragility in this country after November 3rd. You know, there -- there is a -- there is a legitimate possibility that on election night Donald Trump is leading this race. But he will not be the valid winner after all of the ballots are counted. And that will be moments of fragility in this country where he wants to gin up supporters, where he wants to have mayhem and violence in the streets. That is a fact. There also is another fact, though, that after he loses this election, on -- at noon on January 20th, there will be Secret Service agents that escort him to a helicopter that will take him wherever in the world he wants to go. Both of those things are --</s>CAMEROTA: Yes. I'm -- I'm not actually talking about him staying in the White House. I think that as of yesterday there's a bigger concern. I don't think that him just establishing squatter's rights in the White House is our biggest concern anymore, Scott. I really don't. I think that it's now that he's -- he's open for business when it comes to violence. He said as much. Scott?</s>JENNINGS: Yes, I -- I didn't hear him talk about violence yesterday. I heard him make a very, very poor response to a legitimate question. And so I think you're reading into something that he -- he didn't say. I would just say this, Bakari brings a good --</s>CAMEROTA: He certainly didn't shut it down. He didn't shut it down.</s>JENNINGS: Bakari raised a good -- a good -- Bakari raised a good point of about the period of time between election night and then the few weeks that persist, because it's clear, based on the voting systems in several of the states, that we are going to be counting ballots for a period of time. And so we do have to have a valid winner. And we will have a valid winner. And that should be the point. And everybody's vote should count. Everybody who cast a legal ballot should have their votes counted. And then when we count those votes, we'll have a legal and valid winner. And that's the process we should want. And when it's over, we'll transition. That's the message and it's really no more complicated than that.</s>CAMEROTA: I hope you guys are right. I hope -- I like how sanguine you are. I hope that it's right. Bakari, you have been talking about Breonna Taylor so many mornings on this program.</s>SELLERS: Yes.</s>CAMEROTA: I mean before she was a household name, you were alerting everybody and grabbing all of our attention and telling us about this case. And so what did you think about what happened yesterday?</s>SELLERS: I mean, I think it's pretty clear that black lives do not matter. I think it's pretty clear that justice is fleeting, that if you are a person of color, particularly a black woman in this country, you know, the quest for justice and the road to get justice is longer and harder than most. And I think that yesterday there was -- there was more concern for the walls of the apartment next door, these charges these officers face -- or that officer faces is a sham. You know, when you have one person who's charged for just shooting a gun willy-nilly, as we say down south, with a $15,000 bond, sometimes you just have to smile at the absurdity. You know, I -- you know, my heart goes out to Breonna Taylor's family. And when you wake up this morning, I've said on this show many times that, you know, being black is a perpetual state of grieving in this country. And here we are again. I've come on this show and poured my heart out. I've, you know, cried. I've laughed to prevent myself from crying. It just hurts sometimes. And here we are again at another moment. You have to listen to some Gospel music and just have one of those days. And so for everybody watching, you know, just -- you know, it's tough. It's hard. But we have to get up and keep going.</s>CAMEROTA: Scott, I know that you're close to the Kentucky attorney general, Daniel Cameron. You were a strategist on his campaign. You've become close friends with him. A lot of people think that he got this one wrong. I mean that if you are a young black woman, asleep in your bed, you've done nothing wrong, in your apartment, that you shouldn't be shot six times.</s>JENNINGS: Well, you're right, I am close to the attorney general. And I agree with Bakari about the tragedy of this. And everybody in -- I'm in Louisville, by the way, and, you know, we've all been living this case day-to-day because we live here. It's our community. And it is a tragedy. And her life was lost and it should not have been. There's two parts of this investigation. The attorney general was looking specifically at the shooting events of that evening. As he announced yesterday, the FBI is still looking at the warrant situation, the civil rights situation, and possible federal charges. Because a lot of people want to know, why were the police there in the first place? Why was it in the middle of the night? How did they obtain the warrant that put them in that situation? It was tragic because she was not breaking any laws. She was unarmed. Her boyfriend was not breaking any laws. He was armed. He did fire. The police returned fire. So it was a situation where the police, as Chief Ramsey said earlier on the show, the police had been fired upon, they returned fire and that's what created the tragedy. And that's what the attorney general was investigating was, what was the truth of the events of that night?</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>JENNINGS: But now, Alisyn, I think what the community wants is, what's the truth of the events that led up to the police going to that home in the first place?</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>JENNINGS: And, do we need a review by the process by which these warrants are obtained, how and when they are served and so on and so forth.</s>CAMEROTA: Of course we do.</s>JENNINGS: We've got the FBI looking at that. And General Cameron also said yesterday, he's going to lead a task force reviewing how warrants are obtained and served in Kentucky. We need that. We need that here because you have somebody who's dead, and it's tragic and it's wrong. You have another person -- by the way, I sympathize with Walker. Bakari I'd love you thoughts on this.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>JENNINGS: He was put in a crazy position. He's in -- he's in an apartment. It's the middle of the night. You hear banging on the door.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes.</s>JENNINGS: I mean he legitimately -- he legitimately thought he was in danger, too. And so you've got Walker in a terrible position here.</s>CAMEROTA: Of course.</s>JENNINGS: All-around tragedy and Louisville's heart is broken.</s>CAMEROTA: Yes, guys, I'm sorry, Bakari, hold your thought on that. We have to go. But, obviously, this case is far from over, actually, in terms of all the questions that still need to be answered. Bakari, Scott, thank you both very much.</s>SELLERS: Thank you.</s>JENNINGS: Thank you.</s>CAMEROTA: President Trump is also threatening to intervene in the vaccine approval process. Can he do that? That's next.