Protests Erupt Across The U.S. Following Death Of George Floyd; Chicago Imposes Strict Policies After Night Of Violent Protests; C.A. Governor Newsom Declares State Of Emergency In Los Angeles County; Interview With Former U.S. Attorney General Loretta Lynch; Philadelphia Mayor Denounces What He Calls "Anarchists" For Looting.
WOLF BLITZER, CNN HOST: Guys, you know, this is the first time a commercial space craft has taken astronauts to the International Space Station. Yesterday's launch was the first time we've got a launch on American soil in nearly a decade. A thrilling moment in space history and a possible dawn of a new age of space travel. We want to welcome our viewers here in the United States and around the world. I'm Wolf Blitzer in Washington. And this is a special edition of THE SITUATION ROOM. Happening now a nation under siege on two fronts -- protests and a pandemic. And today silence from the White House as mayors survey the damage in the cities and they plea for calm and order. The demonstrations, erupting overnight across America, started with protests in cities both large and small, and then turned violent at times. 13 states activating the National Guard. In fact, curfews were ordered to limit crowd sizes. The outrage boiling over following the death of George Floyd at the hands of Minneapolis police officers.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I want to be able to go in a white neighborhood and feel safe. I want to be able when a cop is driving behind me I don't have to clench and be tense, ok. I want to be able just to be free and not have to think about every step I take. Because at the end of the day, being black is a crime. At the end of the day, being born black is a crime to them and I don't understand why because we're all humans.</s>BLITZER: Today protesters and police face backlash for the growing violence of these demonstrations. The NYPD is investigating after this video showed a police SUV driving into a group of protesters after they threw objects at the vehicle. And this is -- there is also, as you know, mounting economic frustration here in the United States at the same time. More than 40 million Americans facing unemployment because of the coronavirus pandemic. The disease has already taken the lives of more than 103,000 Americans and thousands more are expected to die in the weeks and months ahead. It's but the latest issue disproportionately, by the way, affecting the African-American community. Coming up in a few moments, I'll speak live with the former U.S. attorney general Loretta Lynch about all of this. But first, we have a team of our correspondents watching the protests unfold across the country. Let's start in Chicago, the city that just announced strict new precautionary measures following a violent night of protests including lots of looting. Chicago is shutting down its central business district and initiating a curfew. Protesters smashed windows, vandalized storefronts on Saturday. Mayor Lori Lightfoot responded to those protests earlier today.</s>MAYOR LORI LIGHTFOOT (D), CHICAGO, ILLINOIS: I'm also hurt and angry that those who decided to try to hijack this moment and use it as an opportunity to wreak havoc, to loot and to destroy. You should be ashamed of yourselves. What you have done is to dishonor yourself, your family and our city.</s>BLITZER: CNN's Ryan Young is on the ground for us in Chicago right now. So what more do we know about these new safety measures the mayor of the city are imposing?</s>RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. Absolutely -- Wolf. Some extraordinary steps that are being taken. But First, let's talk about the toll from last night. One person was killed involved in that protest. Six other shootings happened. And now they're taking these steps here that you can see. They've moved in the massive sanitation trucks into this area to block the downtown and business districts in this area. There was massive looting around and as people in Chicago were starting to figure this out, these trucks are blocking the way into that area. And you can see the barricades that are here as well. And a lot of these residents are just finding this out. So when they get to this area and try to get in here, they're being are surprised. In fact, they're telling people right now, you can see, instructing them how to get around this. But just beyond us down the street here, there was massive amounts of looting and it didn't stop just in certain pockets in the downtown district. It spread. In fact, we were told, and the mayor and the governor believe, there were coordinated efforts. People driving U-Haul trucks that all of a sudden showed up outside of businesses and just started looting as police were trying to deal with all the crowds and people. Beyond that, there were protesters who were also angry. They were here to speak about social justice. Something turned, something changed. I've talked about it before. We saw people going around town spray painting and breaking windows and brought objects to do this. In fact some of the protesters became upset when some of those people injured them. We speak about the hundreds of arrests. There were even officers who were dragged yesterday and who were injured during all this. They set police cars on fire. But that doesn't change the fact that some of the protesters have come back again. And they're going to be protesting throughout the day.</s>YOUNG: So through this area, this has been cleaned up for the most part. And we've been talking to people who have actually showed up early in the morning to start trying to help clean up businesses around this area. But there's been a massive impact here. We're told the National Guard is coming this afternoon. The state police will be here. The Chicago Police Department will be here. They even said they did not use tear gas last night. They used pepper spray. You put all that together and talk about the deadly effects of this protest that turned into a riot. That's what people want to try to avoid again today. I want to stress the first four hours of the protest, very peaceful. After that, something changed.</s>BLITZER: Clearly something did change. Ryan Young -- be careful over there in Chicago. We'll talk with you later. Meanwhile, there's also a state of emergency in effect in Los Angeles County right now in response to the unrest there. CNN's Paul Vercammen is joins us from Los Angeles. So Paul -- what has happened? What do you see now and what are you bracing for?</s>PAUL VERCAMMEN, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, Wolf -- here's what we're seeing right now. Entire streets have been sealed off so the cleanup can begin after the looting. I am on Melrose Avenue -- a trendy shopping area not far from the Fairfax district and long after the very peaceful protests ended, way long after that nightfall we saw mass looting. You see right here Pearls -- this was one of those nail salon. And then over there, you see an absolute empty building burned out. That was one of these pop-up clothing boutiques. And it was extremely orchestrated when we saw looters with trash bags clearly targeting, for example, maybe an upscale sneakers store or that sort of thing. So now as we look all the way down the block, this part of Melrose is sealed off. Police are guarding it. The fire department has been putting out hot spots. We have seen something heartening today. And that is citizens coming out and cleaning up on their own, helping city works officials clean up. And I'd like to talk to you real quick. I see you with broom in hand.</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I just got here.</s>VERCAMMEN: What's your mind set when you see all this?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is crazy. I live a few blocks away. I work down West Hollywood. I drove the same street yesterday. I photographed this actual building at 6:30 p.m. All the glass was still there. Then I saw on Twitter by 9:30, the windows have been blown out, it was on fire.</s>VERCAMMEN: This city has been torn apart. The nation is in pain. In agony after seeing what happened to George Floyd. How do you bring everyone together? What does this broom symbolize?</s>UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Well the best parades come out of riots. You know? Change comes out of revolution. I don't really care so much about vandalization, debris, garbage. I care about change. I care about liberation. I care about the memory of George Floyd, of my black brothers and sisters who have been victimized for centuries. So we'll grow out of this, for sure.</s>VERCAMMEN: Thank you so much for taking time out. Appreciate your sentiments. Well, there you have it. Some people coming on down here, noticeably -- Wolf, you know, in pain. Agonizing, seeing what was happening here and -- it was really an interesting moment, because as I said, we were down not too far from here. We're hearing very, very thoughtful protesters expressing their opinions, and asking among other things that all four of the officers be charged, who they saw on that video connected to the death of George Floyd. And they wanted more serious charges brought against the one officer who has been charged so far and somehow it just pivoted and then we saw this mass looting throughout the city of Los Angeles.</s>BLITZER: All right. Be careful over there as well. They're bracing for more of this in the hours ahead. Paul Vercammen on the scene for us L.A. As we watch these protests unfold we're also getting a new glimpse at the moments just before George Floyd's death at the hands of those four Minneapolis police officers, now former police officers. This clip taken from a security camera appears to show police struggling with someone in their cruiser. You cannot see Floyd directly in this new video. CNN's Omar Jimenez -- he's on the scene for us in Minneapolis right now. So Omar -- how might this new piece of evidence help in the formal investigation?</s>OMAR JIMENEZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, at the very least -- Wolf, it's going to help provide context in this. When you look at everything we've seen so far in it, we, of course, first saw that cell phone video showing Floyd on the ground, under the knee of officer -- or former officer Derek Chauvin there. We've also seen surveillance video from business across the street and we know there's body camera footage as all of these officers' body cameras were rolling though we haven't seen that just yet. All of that going into the investigations that re currently ongoing especially since we've only seen charges against one of these four officers involved. Derek Chauvin, facing third-degree murder and a manslaughter charge. But the question is whether the other three are going to face charges. And no doubt this video will again help play into the context of examining how much they are culpable and what happened -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: We're seeing, Omar -- the city -- actually we're seeing the city, Omar -- prepare for another night of protests. We're looking at the governor there, Tim Walz. He made a statement on all of this just a little while ago. So what else are you learning? That building behind you, specifically, it looks like it's been totally destroyed. Reminds me of war scenes I used to cover.</s>JIMENEZ: That's right -- Wolf. I mean, this sadly is not a scene that is uncommon here in parts of Minneapolis right now. And this kind of fits into a cycle that we've seen. We've seen peaceful protests during the day by people trying to honor the memory of Floyd. Then in the nighttime they tend to devolve into violence at times and rioting and looting. And then in the morning, people seem to be cleaning up. These are people of the community volunteers and then also city agencies as well working to clean up the very neighborhoods that were sometime destroyed just the night prior. Now, when you talk about what we saw last night -- it was very different than what we had seen previous nights. It was the strongest law enforcement presence and the most forceful we had seen law enforcement yet over the course of this week. And we heard from Governor Tim Walz earlier today talk about some of those efforts and stepping up what they felt they had to do. Take a listen.</s>GOVERNOR TIM WALZ (D), MINNESOTA: I want to say thank you to all of the people of Minnesota who protected their neighbors, who took an unprecedented step last night of making sure they created the space that an unprecedented force of our neighbors and our public servants were able to come together. Execute the most complex public safety operation in state's history. They did so in a professional manner. They did so without a single loss of life and minimal property damage.</s>JIMENEZ: Now, as for what we were going to see tonight, that still remain a question right now. Likely a lot of the same tactics. The largest deployment of Minnesota National Guard in its history and also they say they identified high-level targets and places they felt likely would see protesters and rioters. They prioritized those and again, you'll see a curfew tonight at 8:00 p.m. -- Wolf. It just depends on how many will actually listen.</s>BLITZER: All right. Omar Jimenez on the ground for us in Minneapolis. Be careful over there as well. I tell all our reporters -- hard to believe I have to tell our reporters in major U.S. cities be careful about what's going on right now. But we're certainly worried about all of you. Thanks very much for your excellent reporting. At a time when our nation needs to heal, President Trump is right now largely staying silent, at least today choosing not the to speak out on camera. But we are hearing from members of his White House team. Listen to what the President's national security adviser told our Jake Tapper earlier today.</s>ROBERT O'BRIEN, WHITE HOUSE NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER: I don't think there's systemic racism. I think 99.9 percent of our law enforcement officers are great Americans and many of them are African-American, Hispanic, Asian. They're working in the toughest neighborhoods. They've got the hardest jobs to do in this country. And I think amazing, great Americans and they're my heroes. But you know what? There are some bad apples in there. And, you know, there are some bad cops that racist and there are cops that are maybe don't have the right training and there are some that are just bad cops. And they need to be rooted out because there's a few bad apples that are giving law enforcement a terrible name.</s>BLITZER: I'm joined by the former U.S. attorney general under President Obama Loretta Lynch. Attorney general - thank you so much for joining us. Let me get your immediate reaction to the statement we just heard from the President's national security adviser Robert O'Brien.</s>LORETTA LYNCH, FORMER U.S. ATTORNEY GENERAL: Well, he's definitely addressing the issue of policing in America and trying to characterize the actions taken against Mr. Floyd as being fairly limited in scope. Unfortunately, I think the reality is, the images of Mr. Floyd losing his life, the images of other officers acting in concert to take his life have become a referendum on policing in America. And we can have the debate about how many officers have this mindset. But the reality, this is the image of policing now. And this is the issue that policing in America now has to deal with. How do we relate? How does law enforcement relate to all of the citizens of this country and not just some of the citizens of this country?</s>BLITZER: Did you see a similar situation unfold during your years as U.S. Attorney General?</s>LYNCH: Well, certainly when we look back on those years and before, we saw several similarly tragic examples. Many also captured on cell phone videos that highlighted the different way in which different groups are policed in America. What we did during that time period was address that issue head-on. You have to have community involvement in this. You have to have a community response as part of this.</s>LYNCH: We have sadly seen these images far too long. Far too many families have had to watch their loved ones lose their lives at the hands of law enforcement. And whether it's limited or a large number of law enforcement officers who feel that way, that becomes the image of policing in America. And that's the reality that law enforcement now has to deal with. How do they, in fact, step back from this perception? How do they step back from that image and work towards regaining the trust of citizens? And it's not just the images of Mr. Floyd losing his life but also law enforcement will be judged by the images that we are seeing as law enforcement reacts to stop (ph) peaceful protests and violent actions as well.</s>BLITZER: You were the leader of the U.S. Justice Department. I want you to react to what we heard the other day from Professor Cornell West of Harvard. He said, and I'm quoting here now, "The Black Lives Matter Movement emerged under a black president, black attorney general and black homeland security secretary and they couldn't deliver." When you hear that -- you were the attorney general at that time. What's your reaction?</s>LYNCH: Well, you know, I thank Professor West for raising these issues. He's talking about trauma that is literally as old as our country. And he's talking about the Black Lives Matter Movement coming up in an environment that allowed that movement not only to exist but brought that movement to the table at the White House, at the Department of Justice, and sought to include activists and their voice in the discussions of how we deal with policing in America. That was what the focus of the Obama administration was about. Certainly it was my focus as attorney general. Unfortunately, we have lost the voice of the community when it comes to community policing at this time. Wolf -- this is an intrinsic problem. It is, as I mentioned, a problem as old as our country and it requires consistent, persistent effort not just to deal with the case about Mr. Floyd and the way he lost his life in front of his fellow Americans and his family but also the perceptions that law enforcement has of the minority community. The fact that many members of the minority community do not feel safe when interacting with those who should be protecting and serving them. Those problems existed. They will exist. They have to be dealt with head-on but they also have to be dealt with in a continuous ongoing manner.</s>BLITZER: So sad that this issue still continues to plague all of us. President Trump today tweeted this, Attorney General. The United States of America will be designating Antifa as a terrorist organization. Antifa, a far left group, it's a domestic organization. As the former attorney general of the United States, what does that really mean? Designating a domestic organization as a terror organization?</s>LYNCH: Well, when it comes to designating any organization a terrorist organization, there are certain criteria they have to meet. And one of them is the perception that that group opposes government in some significant ways and then it leads to various law enforcement actions that you can take. But I think rather than focusing on frankly the President's tweets, which I don't think are really going to be dispositive of anything in this situation, I think we should be focusing on what can the government do in this situation to get back into the business of bringing the community voice back into policing and working on these systemic issues. We have had for years the ability to work with law enforcement, to look at whether or not there is a pattern or practice of unconstitutional behavior. This administration has sadly turned away from that practice in the beginning of January of 2017. I think it's time to get back to that. I think it's time to strengthen that portion of the Department of Justice that does, in fact, bring community voices, activist voices, all voices to the table on this issue. We will not solve this in the short term. We will not solve it even through the prosecution of the officers involved in Mr. Floyd losing his life. We will only solve it by having all voices at the table, by understanding and admitting, that yes, this is a problem in America, and that we have to be honest and open about it.</s>BLITZER: What would you like to hear right now at this really sensitive, delicate, very dangerous moment in American history? You see what's going on here in the United States, on the streets of major cities right now. The coronavirus taking a toll of more than 103,000 Americans in only three months. 40 million Americans losing their jobs, filing for unemployment in the past ten weeks alone. What would you like to hear, Attorney General, from the President of the United States?</s>LYNCH: Well, whether it's from the President or any of our leaders, I think all Americans would like to hear a sense of empathy and connection and understanding that this is a moment of great pain and trauma in our country for so many people.</s>LYNCH: And as you noted, there is a myriad of issues that are weighing in to increase that pain and trauma. Every citizen deserves the right to be understood and represented by their government. That's what people are expecting to hear from all of our leaders at all levels.</s>BLITZER: The former secretary of homeland security, Jeh Johnson -- a man you worked with, you know well. I know well as well. He spoke about the message the President is sending while watching all of these protests in major American cities unfold. Listen to what he said on CNN.</s>JEH JOHNSON, FORMER U.S. SECRETARY OF HOMELAND SECURITY: Messages like if there's looting there will be shooting is highly, highly counter- productive in this very, very tense circumstance. A president who delivers like that, a message like that, is talking to only one segment of an audience when in situations like this a president' -- national leadership needs to be talking to everyone. Needs to be a voice for reason, for calm, to give legitimacy to those grievances that are real.</s>BLITZER: Do you agree with that assessment from Jeh Johnson?</s>LYNCH: I absolutely do. I absolutely do. I think it is extremely unfortunate and counter-productive to quote old racists in trying to deal with a problem that is so intrinsically tied to race. And I think that we have to focus on the larger issues that we are -- if we are to be one America with all of our different experiences and all of our different things that cause us pain, we have to have leadership at every level up and including the President that acknowledges that. That acknowledges the pain, that acknowledges the trauma, that acknowledges that government has an important role to play in dealing with these issues and indeed has a responsibility. What we are seeing here now is a referendum on the police, yes. But police in America really are the only face of government for so many people. So this really is a referendum on all of government and how connected people feel or don't feel to our government at this time. And whether or not they feel that we have a government that, in fact, views everyone in this country as worthy of support and worthy of respect and worthy of being alive.</s>BLITZER: Loretta Lynch was the attorney general of the United States during the Obama administration. Attorney General -- thanks so much for joining us. Appreciate it very much especially during these very painful, difficult days. Thanks for joining us.</s>LYNCH: Thank you -- Wolf.</s>BLITZER: There's more breaking news just ahead right here in THE SITUATION ROOM. Protests and looting appear to erupt in Philadelphia. Take a look at this. You're looking at live pictures. We'll go live to Philadelphia when we come back.