we re still here. i m pretty confident no matter what happens, the people of detroit, maybe not the people who left the city of detroit in the past, but the people of detroit will be around for a long time. that optimism that you have, you know, you ve had this for a while. in 2009, you wrote, i thought it was very it evokes the situation, you said we re downtrodden perhaps, but the most downtrodden optimists you ll ever meet. we cling to our ways no matter how provincial they seem on the coasts. we get excited about the auto show. we celebrate sweetest day. we eat coney dogs all year and cruise classic cars down woodward avenue every august and we bake punchki doughnuts. we don t talk about whether detroit will be fixed but when detroit will be fixed. sometimes, i guess you look and say, you know, things change. what industries are in vogue and matter change. like atlantis, some cities die. what if detroit can t be fixed?
all right. it was very personal. but it did take the president six days to speak following the verdict in the george zimmerman trial. when he finally did speak, he did it on a summer friday, without any warning. as in he knew not a lot of people would be tuning in. but this still may have been one of the most important speeches of his presidency and he got a lot of accolades for it. with many echoing what national urban league president mark morial said. he said it had the, quote, perfect tone. earlier i spoke exclusively with nba hall of famer charles barkley and asked him how he views racism in america. when people talk about race, they always want to act like it is only white people who are racist. listen, there are black people who are racist also. barkley said a lot of things that might surprise you. and we re going to have my full interview with charles barkley later on in the show. but first, our other top story tonight, motown is no town. as the nation s biggest investor
standing back while the birth place of muscle cars and motown crumbles? out front tonight, best-selling author, journalist, screenwriter and playwright and 30-year detroit resident mitch albom. good to talk to you again. i know this is a personal issue for you and emotional one. four years ago, the obama administration put $80 billion into general motors and chrysler to help them. obviously we re not going to ever see a lot of that money again, but the government decided it was worth it. and back in the 1970s, you know, gerald ford actually saved new york city two months after the infamous front page of the daily news that said ford to new york city, drop dead. so does washington need to help rescue detroit now? well, we are the largest bankruptcy ever filed in municipal form. and i don t think it is a good precedent for the country to have one of its major cities go under. but i don t think anybody here is necessarily counting on that. this has been coming for a long time.
over backwards to put this trial into a racial context, in spite of the mountain of evidence that it does not exist here. reporter: these are the president s most significant remarks on race in years. and we expect to hear more and more reaction over the coming days as folks closely examine the president s speech. wolf? athena, thank you. that s it for me. erin burnett out front starts right now. up next, joe biden said he s not sure if the federal government can help detroit. so what does that mean about the future at the motor city? new development tonight in the asiana airline investigation. one of the victims that died was killed by an emergency responder. and president obama breaks his silence on the george zimmerman verdict. what did he say? let s go out front.
detroit? so today michigan s governor said the motor city s abysmal financial condition left him no choice but to approve the nation s biggest public sector bankruptcy in history. but vice president joe biden actually seemed to open the door to the federal government getting involved. can we help detroit? we are now going through exactly in detail what we had a meeting yesterday, just getting a brief on the status, the question is we don t know at this point. but white house press secretary jay carney tried to distance the administration and i think he pretty clearly tried to do this, but listen for yourself. you have heard leaders in michigan say and we believe they re correct that this is an issue that has to be resolved between michigan and detroit and the creditors. so is bankruptcy the right way to go and the only way to go? or is this a case of the nation