[Tapper:] Welcome back to STATE OF THE UNION. I'm Jake Tapper. President Trump says he could quickly deploy U.S. military police to try to quell violence in Minnesota, as cities across the nation deal with protests that, in many cases, have gotten out of hand. And joining me now, the national security adviser, Ambassador Robert O'Brien. Ambassador O'Brien, thanks for joining us today. First off, does President Trump have any plans to address the nation during this time of crisis?
[Robert O'brien, U.s. National Security Adviser:] Well, I think he made a very eloquent speech last night at NASA, as we celebrated the launch of two heroic American astronauts to space. But, before, as he prefaced those remarks, I think he made very eloquent comments and expressed our condolences and our sympathy to George Floyd's family. Our prayers are with Mr. Floyd and his family for that horrifying event that took place. And so we're with him. The president also said, we're with the protesters, who are who are demanding answers, just like we are, the peaceful protesters. But we have got to stop the mob violence that is taking place in the country.
[Tapper:] OK, but no no other plans right now to address the country beyond that?
[O'brien:] Well, the look, the president addresses the country almost every day. He's been very accessible to them. And I think he's made it very clear in his initial Twitter responses to the terrible killing and death of Mr. Floyd and his common sense that he's he's accessible the country every day. So, whether he has an address from the Oval or he speaks to the press, he's accessible and will continue to be accessible to the country and give his views on these events, which are which are tragic for the country.
[Tapper:] Let's talk about the violence that we're seeing from coast to coast. Attorney General Bill Barr is blaming quote "far left extremist groups" for using Antifa-like tactics for the violence that we're seeing. A top Minnesota official says that investigators are looking into whether white supremacists and far right groups are involved. The acting Senate Intelligence Committee chairman, Senator Marco Rubio, says that social media accounts linked to at least three foreign adversaries are stoking violence. As the national security adviser, what can you tell us about who is perpetrating and promoting this violence?
[O'brien:] Well, first of all, I want to separate the violence from the peaceful protesters. One of the things that makes this country great, as you know, Jake, is the fact that, when something horrific happens like the killing of George Floyd, Americans can go to the street and protest and petition their government for redress. And we want to know why that officer, who had so many complaints against him, was allowed to stay on the force, why local prosecutors and the mayor and police commissioner didn't do anything about it, and how this happened. And so peaceful protesters are are part of a great American tradition. What we don't want to see are the armed protesters, the those committing violence, those who were throwing bricks at Secret Service officers and Park Police last night in front of the White House, those who have been burning down our cities and attacking the most vulnerable minority communities. And we're going to get to the bottom of it. And I think we're going to the president and the attorney general want to know from Director Wray what the FBI has been doing to track and dismantle and surveil and prosecute Antifa. And if that hasn't been happening, we want to know what the plan is going forward. These Antifa militant radicals who come into our cities and cross state lines, and they're organized, and use Molotov cocktails and fireworks and gas to burn down our cities, especially businesses in minority neighborhoods, it's got to be stopped. And we expect law enforcement to get to the bottom of it, for sure.
[Tapper:] OK. And what can you tell us about any of the far right groups that might be trying to use this as a predicate to prompt a race war, as VICE News reported, that they are also part of some of the unrest, some of the violence we're seeing, and then, of course, Senator Rubio saying that foreign adversaries, through social media, are trying to stoke violence as well?
[O'brien:] Well, I I have not seen those reports. And I haven't read I generally don't read VICE, so I haven't seen the reports on far right groups. This is being driven by Antifa. And they did it in Seattle. They have done it in Portland. They have done it in Berkeley. This is a destructive force of radical I don't even know if we want to call them leftists. Whatever they are, they're they're militants who are are coming in and burning our cities, and we're going to get to the bottom of it. And as far as our foreign adversaries, look, we always have foreign adversaries who are on Twitter and Facebook and other places trying to sow discord among Americans. And the difference between us and our foreign adversaries and I want to send a message to the Chinese or whoever else are taking satisfaction of this. When we have an event like like happened to George Floyd, which was just horrifying and and, again, our hearts go out to his family we mourn and grieve with them we're going to investigate it. We're going to get to the bottom of it. We're going to prosecute him. And we're going to get to the bottom of what those other officers who were standing around while George Floyd was killed, what they were doing. And, if necessary, they will be prosecuted. And we're going to follow that very closely. That's the difference between us and our foreign adversaries. When this happens in America, those those those bad apples who give all of our law enforcement, who are great Americans, a bad name, they're going to be prosecuted. We're going to allow people to protest, and we're going to get to the bottom of it. And that's the difference between us and between the authoritarian countries around the world.
[Tapper:] You talked about the president's response to this and his comments standing with the family of George Floyd. The president has also been on Twitter quite a bit, as you know. He tweeted overnight Thursday night, in part quote "These thugs are dishonoring the memory of George Floyd, and I won't let that happen. When the looting starts, the shooting starts." That's a comment that Senator Cory Booker called racist. The governor of Minnesota, Governor Walz, and the governor of Maryland, Governor Hogan, suggested that the president's language was inflammatory. The president had also invoked vicious dogs and ominous weapons being wielded against protesters outside the White House. Do you think messages like that are helping to unite the country and calm fears?
[O'brien:] Well, I think what the president said and he and he spoke about that tweet when some of those comments were made, and he said, look, I don't want he was trying to de-escalate. He didn't he didn't want violence. He's trying to stop the violence that we saw that took place overnight. And the message to and it's a strong message, that we want law and order in this country. We want peaceful protesters who have real concerns about brutality and racism, they need to be able to go to the city hall. They need to be able to petition their government and let their voices be heard. And they can't be hijacked by these these left-wing Antifa militants who are burning down primarily communities in the African- American sections and the Hispanic sections of our city, where immigrants and hardworking folks are trying to get a leg up. And they're having their businesses burned by these radicals, many of whom are imported from Seattle or Portland or who knows where they come from, and cross state lines, and they're hurting our people. So, the president is going to take a strong stand for law and order.
[Tapper:] Right.
[O'brien:] I can tell you, I was with the president on Air Force One when we watched that that horrific video of what happened to George Floyd. He was moved by it. He was disturbed by it. It's awful. And, look, he stands with the family.And we want to get to the bottom. That's why he ordered the FBI and the DOJ Civil Rights Division to get involved immediately. We're going to get to the bottom of what happened there.
[Tapper:] But he's out there also talking about how protesters outside outside the White House, how the Secret Service is going to sic vicious dogs on them, has ominous weapons, how the young Secret Service agents want to get out there for practice. This is not calming language. I don't doubt that President Trump was disturbed by the video of George Floyd. It's horrific and obscene, frankly. But the president, his passion has not been about the way you're speaking this morning, about what happened to George Floyd, and the indecency of that, but about the protesters and the violence that some of them are causing. And we have government officials, Democrats and Republicans, saying that the president is using inflammatory language.
[O'brien:] Well, I think that passion comes from the fact that we have got great law enforcement officers, not not the few bad apples, like the officer that killed George Floyd. But we got a few bad apples that have given given law enforcement a bad name; 99.9 percent of these guys are heroes. They're the ones who are running towards the danger, who are saving our lives. And a bunch of them were outside the White House last night, Park Policemen on horseback, and uniformed Secret Service officers who are having bricks thrown at him. There was a Federal Protective Service officer in Oakland, Patrick Underwood, who was shot and killed.
[Tapper:] Yes.
[O'brien:] And our hearts go out, and we mourn with his family, just like we do with George Floyd's family. So, these these these protesters and the president is very passionate about it.
[Tapper:] Yes.
[O'brien:] The legitimate protesters have a right to be on the streets, and the president defends that. But these Antifa radical militants, who are using military tactics to kill and hurt and maim our police officers...
[Tapper:] Yes.
[O'brien:] ... they need to be stopped. And I think that's where the passion from the president is coming.
[Tapper:] OK. I mean, just for the record, he made the comment about the ominous weapons and the vicious dogs before last night. But let me ask you a question, because you're talking about police. George Floyd is...
[O'brien:] Well, Patrick Underwood was killed Patrick Underwood was killed before last night as well.
[Tapper:] I understand that. Right, but he was talking about when he talked about vicious dogs and ominous weapons, that was at the White House. But I want to ask you about the police, because George Floyd is hardly the only unarmed black American killed recently by police. Do you think systemic racism is a problem in law enforcement agencies in the United States?
[O'brien:] No, I 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 have got the hardest jobs to do in this country. And I think they're amazing, great Americans, and they're my heroes. But you know what? There are some bad apples in there. And there there are some bad cops that are 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. And there's no doubt that there's some racist police. I think they're the minority. I think they're the few bad apples. And we need to root them out. But I will tell you, I'm just so proud of the way our law enforcement professionals are protecting us and handling this situation with restraint. And we love our law enforcement. But we do have to get rid of those that are like like the dirty cop that killed George Floyd. I mean, we need to get rid of those people.
[Tapper:] Yes.
[O'brien:] By the way, where were the local prosecutors and where was the police commissioner? That guy, apparently I'm told he had a long record of this sort of conduct.
[Tapper:] It's a good question. It's a good question.
[O'brien:] Why was he still on the force?
[Tapper:] It's a good question. And I'd like to have you back to talk more about the issue of systemic racism vs. bad apples, because I think that there's a lot we could talk about there. But I do want to ask you about the president's announcement to terminate the United States' relationship with the World Health Organization. The president has repeatedly criticized the Chinese government, saying officials ignored their reporting obligations to the World Health Organization and pressured the WHO to mislead the world. But I have to say, WHO leaders claimed they were they were listening to Chinese authorities. And that's what they were doing, which is, by the way, exactly what President Trump was doing during that same time, January and February. Take a take a listen.
[Question:] Do you trust that we're going to know everything we need to know from China?
[Trump:] I do. I do.
[Question:] Are you concerned that China is covering up the full extent of coronavirus?
[Trump:] No. China is working very hard. They're working very, very hard. And I think it's going to all work out fine.
[Tapper:] Why should the World Health Organization be criticized for taking President Xi's word for it, when President Trump did the exact same thing?
[O'brien:] Well, there's a big difference between the health experts, who are supposed to be in on the ground and have the expertise to figure out what's happening with this pandemic, and world leaders, who are being told one thing. So, the World Health Organizations should have been on the ground. They should have been they should have found out what happened. They were repeating not just information, like the president said, that things will be OK, but that there's no human-to-human transmission. They criticized the travel ban that probably saved a million Americans, when President Trump courageously banned travel from China early on in the crisis, when many people were against it, and he was called a racist for doing it. But that's not the where it starts with the
[Who. Tapper:] It wasn't a full travel ban, of course.
[O'brien:] Well, no, we let Americans come home. So, you're right. We did let Americans come home. And I think I think everyone agrees with that. But but, look, this is not the first time the WHO has bungled a pandemic response. They have bungled things going all the way back to AIDSHIV in Africa. And that's why the United States has spent over the past 20 years $142 billion on public health, especially the PEPFAR program that's literally saving the lives, with antiretroviral drugs, of millions of people in Africa.
[Tapper:] Yes. It's...
[O'brien:] And we're going to do the same thing. We're just not going to run that money through the corrupt WHO. We're going to make sure it goes to the Red Cross, to front-line hospitals all over the world. So, we're going to spend the same amount of money on public health.
[Tapper:] So...
[O'brien:] We're just not doing it through the corrupt WHO for now.
[Tapper:] The Republican senator who runs the Health Committee in the Senate, Lamar Alexander, said in a statement that withdrawing from the WHO could potentially lethal consequences for the American people, saying quote "I disagree with the president's decision. Withdrawing U.S. membership could, among other things, interfere with clinical trials that are essential to the development of vaccines, which citizens of the United States, as well as others in the world, need." Couldn't this decision hurt the American people?
[O'brien:] No. Listen, we're going to spend the same amount of money. And the clinical trials that are going on for the vaccine for COVID are not being done under the auspices of WHO here in America. They're being done by great American companies and great American researchers. And we're going to get a vaccine. We're going to go therapeutic. And we're going to beat this COVID disease that was unleashed on us and came from China. But the WHO needs to reform. And what the president said is, the WHO reforms and ends the corruption and ends the reliance on China, the U.S. will very seriously consider coming back. But, in the meantime, we're going to take that $440 million that the U.S. spends, compared to the $40 million that the Chinese spends on the WHO, and we're going to make sure it gets to front-line health care workers, just like we're doing with PEPFAR in Africa. The WHO isn't saving lives for for AIDS and HIV victims in Africa. It's the United States and our generous taxpayers who are saving those lives in Africa.
[Tapper:] Yes.
[O'brien:] And we're not doing it through the WHO. We're doing it as the United States of America. We're going to take that same money and make sure it gets to the Doctors Without Borders and the Red Cross and the hospitals all over the world that need it, and doesn't go through a corrupt international organization that's controlled by the Chinese Communist Party. That's for sure.
[Tapper:] OK, PEPFAR, a wonderful program started by President George W. Bush. Ambassador O'Brien, thank you so much for your time this morning. We really appreciate it.
[O'brien:] Thanks for having me, Jake.
[Tapper:] My next guest is a Republican governor who led his state during racial tensions after the death of Freddie Gray. What Maryland Governor Larry Hogan thinks of President Trump's leadership during this period of crisis that's next.