Other leaders face another reckoning. And the pandemic ravages americans lives and livelihoods. Next. Announcer this is Washington Week. Corporate funding is provided by life isnt a straight line. And sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected with Financial Planning and advice for today and tomorrow. Announcer kaiser permanente. Additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation. Committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Once again, from washington, moderator robert costa. Robert good evening. It was a week when one death in minnesota rivaled in public intensity 100,000 now dead in the United States from the pandemic. And we begin tonight with that anger and pain on the streets of minneapolis. Millions of americans are alarmed about the treaent of unarmed black men by police. They also wonder what the nations leaders will do or can do to address injustice. George floyd, an unarmed africanamerican man, was killed on monday a video showed a White Minneapolis Police officer kneeling on his neck. Before he died, mr. Floyd cried out that he could not breathe. Since then protests have erupted there and across the nation. The department of justice has announced a federal civil rights investigation. President trump said on friday that he spoke to mr. Floyds family. President trump i want to express our nations deepest condolences and most Heartfelt Sympathies to the family of george floyd. Were determined that justice be served. I understand the hurt. I understand the pain. Robert joining me are four reporters who are covering this important story. Yamiche alcindor, White House Correspondent for the pbs newshour. Peter baker, chief white house compor the new york times, margaret brennan, moderator of face the nation and cbs News Senior Foreign Affairs correspondent and White House Reporter for the washington post. President trumps initial response sparked criticism for inflaming racial tensions. He tweeted in part that the protesters are, quote, thugs, and said he told minnesotas governor, tim walz, a democrat that if there is any dficulty we will assume control and, quote, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. Twitter flagged the president s comments for glorifying violence. Meanwhile, the Presumptive Democratic president ial nominee joe biden said this today. The original sin of this country still stains our nation today. We are a country with an open wound. And none of us can turn away. Ne of us can be silent. None of us can any longer can we hear the words i cant breathe. And do nothing. Robert yamiche, you saw the split screen. What is the political dimension to those responses . It was quite a split screen. You have President Trump really people think pouring salt on the wound of an already reeling nation between the pandemic and niece protests. And africanamerican people real being at their wits end when it comes to the unjustices that theyre facing. The president was really saying i understand and want to sympathize with you but also i need order. Then you have jo biden who really was putting rward what he thought was a personal story and an idea that he was really trying to connect with people saying look, i understand whats going on. This is why im running for president. I think the president , President Trump, has a really hes a rea complication in when htries to say that there are sympathy for the people that are protesting or sympathy for this family because he himself has blatched black lives matter and joked or said that officers should not be nice and not protect peoples heads when theyre dealing with them. Some people saw that as him endorsing Police Brutality. So you have a president , someone who is really i think fanned the flames of the racial strife in this country and then you have joe biden who is presenting himself as an alternative. President trump of course is saying that hes trying to get the case expedited, the case against george floyd who of course and the officer was arrested today, but there are a lot of people who think that it dit t shouldnt have taken four days to arrest this officer. And the president while he was saying that this looks like its inexcusable there are a lot of people who think President Trump is adding to the problem of racial issues in this country. Robert peter, as a student of the presidency, a reporter, how do you compare how the president today and this week has handled this crisis compared to president s in the past . Well, look, president s, many president s anyway have seen their role as being national healers, national unifiers. People to try to urge calm in moments of tinder box tension and fury like we have seen this week. Thats not President Trumps first instinct. His first instinct is to head to twitter and begin to send out pretty incendiary tweets attacking the mayor of minneapolis, threatening to send troops in, what seemed to be anyway threatening violence with that phrase you mentioned about when the shooting starts, when the looting starts, the shooting starts. He later tried to walk it back. And when he finally met with reporters today and later tweet, he said he didnt actually mean that he or the authorities would begin shooting looters or protesters but that the inevitable consequence of looting was that shots would be fired and people would be hurt. And that therefore looting was bad and that they should stop it. It was you know, revision of what his original instinct was. And its it puts the president in an interesting position. Because he has made a concerted effort to try to reach out to africanamerican voters in this Election Year who africanamerican voters have not been particularly supportive of him. At the same time heas positioned himself as a strong law and order president who has been more supportive of Law Enforcement than his predecessors have been and these two things seem to be in conflict and how manages those. Nuance is not really his specialty trying to sort of reconcile these two positions at this point i think is a challenge for him in the days to come. Robert when you think about that phrase peter used to describe this nation, tinder box and where its at and President Trumps response to this tragedy, the question is, why . Based on your reporting, why is he handling this moment in this way . Well, this is a president s motive. This is what he does. Th is how he operates. This is how he has been going back five years, even into the period before he decided to run for president when he was pushing the birther conspiracy. Whenever the country needs healing, needs people to come together, the president has poured gasoline on the flames. This has been his way of operating for quite a while. And he doesnt seem to have another speed. He doesnt seem to be comfortable with that role of healer in chief. He doesnt seem to be comfortable with the idea of taking a responsibility as a leader of the country when the country is in the middle of not only a massive pandemic that has led to the loss of lives of loss of more than 100,000 lives but also this racial conflagration where people are so as yamiche said, at their wits end over not only just this one case in minneapolis but the systemic issues that have been going on for quite a while and that have been splashed onto the screens with social media. People are so concerned and President Trump doesnt really seem to have it in him to be able to dig deep and essentially heal the wounds of the nation or at least speak to the broader systemic issues of the nation is facing. So the president wants to sort of be the triumphant person in this process. And have enemies and have a punching bag and that seems to be where hes most comfortable. And that doesnt seem to be what the country is looking for at a time where we need national healing. Robert margaret, what about former Vice President biden . What did his response, just a few days after he had a controversy over comments he made last week, we discussed on this program, what did his handling, his response reveal that his campaign . Well, you heard i thought it was particularly specific phrase in that speech that joe biden used which was to talk about how this election and this moment is again about the struggle for the soul of this country. It reminded me of when he launched this campaign and casting it at the time as motivated by charlottesville, another moment of hate and divisiveness and biden saying he wants to run to restore something of america. That is how he has framed this. In terms of how his campaign handled it in the moment, you had fairly predictable response from the campaign which is they put him forward on cable news. They put him forward to answer those questions with a nod toward what you referenced was his verbal misstep h characterized it, just a week ago. But i think the broader political moment were in raises so many more questions about does this moment equal a Political Movement . Is what were seeing that in this very specific case of Police Brutality and Racial Division in minneapolis represent something more to the country at this moment of such heightened tension . You see other protests in the country. And it just as an observer of Political Movements here, you have to wonder if this tension is bubbling over in a way that goes beyond just a week . If this becomes something more . Not just in terms of the plecks six months ago of the election six months ago but what is being sped in this moment when you look at the tremendous amount of inequality that has been just deepened by the past three months or so of this pandemic. It is blk and hispanic america tts been hit by the job cuts and the virus and widening the divisions we knew were existing. Robert lets get into that. Because margarets point is so important. What will this moment trigger beyond this week . Tragedy after tragedy, will this floyd case, this tragedy, trigger something . And yamiche, you spoke with the floyd family, rodney floyd, mr. Floyds brother as well as his cousin, charita tate, lets listen a little bit. The firing of the officers is a start. But ultimately we would like to see them charged, arrested, charged and convicted of murder. They had no compassion, any sort of remorse, no level of humanity. They executed him in front of us. And we watched his life leaving his body. Robert on friday, as yamiche said, the now former officer who used his knee to pin down mrfloyd was arrested and charged with thirdegree murder. Yamiche, does this family, to margarets point, expect justice . This family that is reeling of course from the loss of george floyd, a 46yearold father, they are hoping for justice. But they also have seen so many cases in this country where justice, they think, was not served. You think o eric garner who many people saw be strangled, who said i cant breathe, some 11 times, no conviction. In that case. Then you see george floyd. The criminal complaint for the officer says that the officer kneeled on his neck for eight minutes and 46 seconds. And that for two minutes and 53 seconds of that, he was unresponsive. I was talking to the lawyer of the family today and they said even with those facts, they also look at the fact that complaint says that not only was his death partially dealing with the asphyxiation, there was also possibly Underlying Health conditions. So his family and the lawyers are already feeling like his existence as a black man is already being used against him in the criminal complaint where the officer is being charged with his murder. They also say that the officer is being charged with third degree murder when they think that this video, the 10minute video that was posted on facebook shows pretty much first degree murder and dont understand why any other officers werent charged. There were four officers fired but own one officer charged and this family is looking at the criminal Justice System which has incarcerated africanamericans and latinos and people of color at higher rates and sayg is this the Justice System thats going to work for us . Were not sure. The lawyer tells me that they think theres two Justice Systems. One for black america and one for white america. Thats how the family is feeling tonight. Theyre very, very hopeful that this officer might be convicted but theyre not at all thinking that this is a slam dunk. Because video they say has not changed anything. You think of rodney king and the fact that so many years ago, he was seen getting beaten by those officers, those officers then acquitted so black america especially this family, theyre not convinced that Video Evidence is going to make a difference. Robert peter, whats your response to that point about whats next on the federal level . You see the attorney general, bill barr, moving forward with an investigation. But what have we learned from the past, from this administration, from previous administrations, about how civil rights cases are handled at the federal level and what kind of action is really taken . Well, thats a great question. And it kind of depends on where things end up with the local prosecution of course. The federal government stepped in historically in cases where the local authorities have been either unable or unwilling to prosecute cases that seemed so in need of prosecution. And in this indication you got the county prosecutor, perhaps belatedly according to his critics four days later but pressing chargers against one. Officers and asked why not the other three officers and theyre still looking at it and that may yet come later t may be the federal role is a to keep that pressure on the local authorities until they act. And it may be that they decide to take it on themselves beyond that. Theres not theres plenty of precedent for the federal government to come in with sism rights charges on top of local charges of mder. Murder is generally in this kind of circumstance a local crime or a state crime. But they can charge under federal sism rights statutes deprivation of your civil rights. And the question then becomes, you know, broader than these individual officers. Is there a larger question about this Police Department . Is is the training there adequate . Is there a larger pattern of behavior . Thats where you saw the federal government come in and in ferguson, missouri, under prident obama where they took a look at the broader pattern of behavior by the Police Department there. And thats what i think a lot of people would expect to see out of a Justice Department that wants to take a serious look. Well see whether this administration proceeds in tat direction. Robert margaret,oure sitting down on face the nation this sunday with the superintendent of the chicago Police Department and the floyd familys lawyer. I saw you wanted to jump in. So jump in. No, we will be digging into i think its actually a big decision because up until now, there has been virtually no story that has broken through the pandemic. This has really ignited something within the american public. It has broken through. The violence got a lot of attention. This was well before the president himself weighed in. And i think thats why we are going to be trying to ask that broader question of what what does this mean in this moment . Doeshis represent something more . Is this is this about the floyd family . Is thi broadly about race in america or is this also sort of a catalyst for a lot of pent up anger on a lot of different issues . Does this have is this the beginning of something more . Want to talk to as yamiche detailed there, the family attorney about where we are by sunday. Because this has actually been fairly fast moving. In terms o the public statements. And f all the president s missteps in his free agency of that tweet and then what he tried to do with explaining that it wasnt actually what he meant by using those phrases that he wasnt trying to glorify violence, the administtion around him and the Trump Campaign were very quick to distance themselves from anything happening in minneapolis. That the Trump Campaign actually interestingly even said that now a cnn reporter was treated was wrong and they condemned it. Cnn, a network that has been in the Trump Administration characterization unfair and an enemy today, the Trump Campaign was defending them. A very, very strange sorry. Go ahead. Robert please. That cnn reporter was eventually released. Good to hear that. That news. He was. And credit to the photographer for keeping the camera rolling throughout that. And to the reporter himself for keeping his cool. This could have gone very differently in the course of a few hours. Robert tolu, tonight, we also marked these grim milestones more than 100,000 americans dead due to the coronavirus. Over 40 million americans have filed unemployment claims. As were taping this live tonight, in washington, there are protests on pennsylvania avenue, across washington, d. C. , explosive fires in downtown atlanta. And youre inside the white house as a reporter. What is this president going to do on the economic front, on the health front . Yeah. If you look at the challenges facing the country, and then if you look at the president s twitter feed, you couldnt see a more stark contrast between the bi grand challenges were facing and the small issues that the president is focusing on. Hes picking fights over the past administration. Hes picking fights with twitter itself saying he would like to shut down twitter if he had the chance. Hes picking fights with cable news hosts and making conspiratorial claims and charging them with murder when theres no evidence to back up those types of clas. So the president has sort of met the moment with sort of the small types of petty fights that he has engaged in over the past 3 1 2 years while the country is going through these massive, traumatic issues ranging from a pandemic that has killed so many people including disproportionately killing and harming people of color and economic crisis which is really depression level unemployment, 40 Million People filing for Unemployment Benefits and disproportionately poorer people and people of color have also been negatively impacted by the recession and the depression era, unemployment that weve seen. So its not clear what the president is going to do. Its not clear if hes able to meet the moment. Its not clear if he has a plan to bring the country out of these twin economic and health care crises. Right now he seems to be focused on much smaller issues. Robert peter, quickly, based on your reporting, congress, the president , does this spark anything on racial justice, on a stimulus . You know, look, there will be talk. I dont know that that necessarily changed the diamontics dynamics on that. The stimulus is laying pretty low right now. Theres a fourth package thats been passed by the house. The democrats on their side, the republicans have said no, not interested. Its filled with all kinds of liberal wish dream, wish list kind of dreams. Were not going to embrace that. And there doesnt seem to be any Serious Movement toward near term new legislation. So i think were still several weeks away from anything like that. Robert yamiche, in the final minute here, i followed your work when you were on the ground in ferguson, to see this again, what does it mean to you . I think for a lot of people, i think black and white americans and people of color, what it feels like is that youre in a car accident. And youre looking around and you survived. But there are airbags that have gone off all around you. And you keep on getting into that same accident. And you keep on seeing those same airbags. And you keep on walking on egg shells. I think thats what this feels like. It feels like everyone is exhausted. Were in the middle of a pandemic. And now we also have to really reconcile again with the idea that even when someone is killed on camera, there are a lot of people who just see that Police Officers can kd of do what they want to do with black life. I think margaret said it was it was poise on omars part to not go off. Robert we have to go. Calm b in reality oh, sorry. Robert dont apologize, yamiche. Youre so right, yamiche. And i apologize. This is a short show. Due to pledge week at some stations across the country. So we have to leave it there. Many thanks to Yamiche Alcindor , peter baker, margaret brennan. Do i need to call them . Robert and tolu. We will continue this in the extra. Theres so much more to say about this critical topic. So thank you all for joining us. We will keep taking you as close to the news as we can. And well continue that rich conversation on the extra. It airs live on you are a Facebook Page and is later posted on our website. Im robert costa. Good night from washington. Announcer Corporate Funding for Washington Week is provided by life isnt a straight line. And sometimes you can find yourself heading in a new direction. Fidelity is here to help you work through the unexpected with financial planing and advice for today and tomorrow. Announcer kaiser permanente. Additional funding is provided by the estate of arnold adams and koo and Patricia Yuen through the yuen foundation. Committed to bridging cultural differences in our communities. The corporation for public broadcasting and by contributions to your pbs station from viewers like you. Thank you. Whos going to remember us . This list, this registry, all these japaneseamerican names when were all gone, maybe someone, maybe our kids, our grandkids, will find out were here, and maybe they can find out what some of us did during the war. The registry was made possible in part by the u. S. Department of the interior, National Park service, japanese american confinement sites grant program, and by the corporation for public broadcasting, a private corporation funded by the american people. [ wind blowing ]