RNC Special Live Coverage Day 3
DON LEMON, CNN HOST: Do you even have to ask that question?</s>CHRIS CUOMO, CNN HOST: The right answer would be the same thing would have happened. But with don't believe that.</s>LEMON: I was going to say, do you really have to ask that question? I'm not calling you out for that -- but do we really have to ask that question, do we know what would happen? Let's be real.</s>CUOMO: We know.</s>LEMON: We know.</s>CUOMO: But we watched a convention tonight.</s>LEMON: They know.</s>CUOMO: Where people -- listen, I'm telling you. They're blowing up my phone right now.</s>LEMON: No. Just because they talk about it, they know.</s>CUOMO: But they're blowing up my phone saying, isn't that what you want to happen ? Did you want the cops to shoot him? No, I didn't want the cops to shoot him. But the reason people are angry in the streets --</s>LEMON: That's ridiculous. Whoever's blowing up your phone saying that --</s>CUOMO: -- is because people keep getting shot.</s>LEMON: Whoever's blowing up your phone saying that is ridiculous. That's not -- by saying that there is, as we said, a double standard or you saying the standard doesn't mean that you want the guy to get shot. We're pointing at the hypocrisy in all of this. That a person walking down the middle of the street with that much law enforcement on the street and the situation that's happening there with a long gun in full sight, people are yelling, "This guy just shot someone." And that person doesn't get thrown to the ground, doesn't get beaten up, doesn't get shot at, doesn't get shot, doesn't end up losing his life, is not in a hospital -- really? And you're saying did you want -- no, no one wanted the guy to get shot. That's not what we're saying and you know that. And if you don't know that then -- really?</s>CUOMO: But do you think it's a coincidence that state TV's play on it is what did you to expect?</s>LEMON: No. I think it's embarrassing for them.</s>CUOMO: These people are going to be out on the streets like this, are you surprised that this young man had to take matters into his own hands? That's law and order. That is law and order. As reflected by the mouthpiece for the party of Trump. That is the message to America. They think this is OK.</s>LEMON: Only if law and order looks like you. If that's what you mean by law and order, that's -- then -- looks like you. What they're saying is, is that the people who have the right to be out on the street at that hour look like them. They're saying that tacitly. Right? That's what their actions are showing. They must be a good person and on our side because they look like us. That's what they're saying. Because if the person didn't look like you, where would you -- where does your mind go?</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: Where do your actions go? Automatically it is this person is a threat.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: They didn't think that person was a threat -- that person can't be a threat. Why? Because it's a young white guy.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: That is the truth. And when you look at -- when we talk about implicit bias or unconscious bias, black men are deemed to be more threatening just from their look, just from their presence --</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: -- just from their being. Young men. Children. They think they're older than they are, black boys especially. They're taller. "I thought he was" -- we've seen in cases were black children were shot. Black boys. "I thought he was older, he looked older, he was taller." Why is that? Because that's what we're taught to think. That's what --</s>CUOMO: But this is what the election --</s>LEMON: That's what --</s>CUOMO: This is what the election is about.</s>LEMON: -- this society and the country teaches us this.</s>CUOMO: This is what the election is about. When we say COVID and Kenosha, it's not because it's alliterative, it's because it's illustrative. Kenosha is a metaphor for what's happening with systemic racism and the application of justice in the society. And again, Mike Pence made his stand tonight and he's getting a lot of kudos for an eloquent speech. But let me tell you being articulate and well spoken is not the same thing as being a leader. The words that come sliding out of your mouth matter with such grace matter. It's not a style contest, it's a substance contest. And for him to say Joe Biden says that our police have implicit bias and I say no. Then what was that that we saw in Kenosha?</s>LEMON: Implicit bias.</s>CUOMO: And why didn't you say anything about it? They may well wind up winning this election and have to lead this country. This this is happening on their watch now. Don, what do you think? Let's play this Pence speech because I'm telling you, this is what the election's about.</s>LEMON: All right.</s>CUOMO: There is no coincidence that state TV is saying what did you expect them to do? We have to take matters into our own hands. That's what was going to happen. Nobody's keeping the streets safe so he had to do it. Listen to Mike Pence tonight.</s>MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE USA: Now Joe Biden says that America is systemically racist. And that law enforcement in America has and I quote, "an implicit bias" against minorities. When asked whether he'd support cutting funding to law enforcement, Joe Biden replied, "Yes, absolutely." Joe Biden would double down on the very policies that are leading to violence in America's cities. The hard truth is you won't be safe in Joe Biden's America. And under President Trump, we will always stand with those who stand on the thin blue line and we're not going to defund the police. Not now, not ever.</s>LEMON: So where is -- wait a minute. So Joe Biden's the president right now? This is Trump's America. What is he talking about? This completely dystopian speech and convention that's happening. What is he talking about? This is Donald Trump's America right now. Joe Biden's not the president, Joe Biden is not in power. They keep -- they criticize him on one hand says he's not getting out there, he's in the basement, he's whatever. He is too far left and then he's too far right when it comes to police. Make up your mind. Which is it? But he didn't address what you and I talked about.</s>CUOMO: And it's happening on his watch.</s>LEMON: His watch. And this is also Mike Pence's America --</s>CUOMO: Yes.</s>LEMON: -- because he is the vice president of the United States. But let me ask you, what is the difference? What is the difference between those militia guys out there and Jews will not replace us, blood and soil, tiki torches or Ku Klux Klan? What is the difference? It is the same mentality. My America, this This is how it should be. I have authority even though I am not a sworn law enforcement officer -- I would imagine who were in the sheets or whatever back in the day or even now are law enforcement officers -- we just don't know. But the thing is what is the difference? What's the difference? You should not be out there. It's not your business. Why are you doing it? Why are saying out there you are a Blue Lives Matter supporter, you're a Trump supporter, you do all of these things. Why are you out there?</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: How is this your business?</s>CUOMO: And -- so look, you've always had the threat. The question is why do those people find comfort in this administration? And they say, "Oh, you can't call the president that." I'm not calling the president anything. You tell me why do people who favor white nationalism favor this president? I'll tell you. They don't want Don Lemon to be president. Why? Now that's something for Trump to explain to America. But for Mike Pence -- and again, you can look the part and you can sound the part -- Mike Pence is out of central casting. Good for him. Effective political tools. But on your watch and you are thanking God for the privilege to accept the nomination and serve again -- you better speak about what's happening on your watch, brother. Especially if you want to call yourself a man of God. You tell me how it squares with your faith to look past implicit racism because the white guy with the gun with people saying he just shot people got a pass. "No, he didn't. He was arrested." I'm talking about the matter of apprehension. You've got a guy in the hospital who walked around a car after for some reason the cops couldn't keep him on the ground. And they shoot him in the back seven times.</s>LEMON: And now they're saying well, we believed that there was a knife in the car. That's what they're saying. You believe. Did you believe the guy carrying a weapon? Do you believe he had a weapon or did you see he had a weapon?</s>CUOMO: So you shot him the seven times because you believed it. You see a weapon on a guy with a gun walking with his hands up --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- and you give him a pass. We're not saying he should have shot him, God forbid.</s>LEMON: No -- yes.</s>CUOMO: But have one standard that has fairness on all color band. That's all. And speak to it as a leader. You're the vice president of the United States.</s>LEMON: It's not just Kenosha where you had -- we saw Minneapolis. Once people get to dig into the videos, once the investigations, the results of the investigations are made public you see in a number of these incidences there are, as you say, outside agitators. Or people who are coming in, a number of them militia people, white guys, who come in and start situations. Right? And then run away. Or continue to do it. Some people believe -- I don't know if this is true -- look at the fact checks -- that there are paid actors. I don't know that. I'm always suspicious of the guys with the skateboards. Always suspicious. Because they used to brick windows or they use it as shields. And if you look in the crowd and you see those guys with the skateboards, just be weary -- or leery of those guys because usually -- many times they're up to no good. Look, I'm a skateboarder, I'm not going out there to a riot though. But I know how you can use it to protect yourself and if you need it you can use it as a weapon.</s>CUOMO: Right.</s>LEMON: So --</s>CUOMO: Right. I'm just saying -- look, this guy was apprehended, there are charges, the system is working.</s>LEMON: What I'm saying is -- I want people to be clear of what I'm saying. Do not say these are scary black people out there rioting. Look at the diversity in that crowd. This is not what is, it should not be portrayed that way. And if you portray it that way and if you believe it then shame on you. Look at the people who were -- the person who was arrested for what happened.</s>CUOMO: Right. And look, the riots are symptomatic of the problem. They're wrong. People who riot and commit crimes surrender the high ground and they become what they oppose, which is lawlessness. We always say that.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: Because that's the truth. And we've both experienced it in person and it's scary to be in the middle of it. And I guarantee you, you don't favor anyone who's doing any of that stuff.</s>LEMON: This is a disaster that will continue until we figure it out. There's an earthquake --</s>CUOMO: Deal with the problem. But what we saw tonight with those videos --</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: -- that's the problem.</s>LEMON: But we have a natural disaster that's happening right now, Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right. We got the storm circle going. And things are starting to heat up with Hurricane Laura. It's going to happen on our watch as Don has been telling you. So let's start the loop. I'll start with CNN's Martin Savidge live from Lake Charles, Louisiana. We'll be to Van Dam in Beaumont, Texas in a second. All right. I see you got the helmet on, your pants are whipping around. What's the situation now, my friend?</s>MARTIN SAVIDGE, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the National Weather Service now has reported the first 100 mile per hour gust. That was down in Cameron which, of course, is right on the coast. But that means it's not that far away from us here. There's already tree damage that has happened on the property here so stuff is starting to fly in the air. When it's reaching highway speeds, it's best to put head cover on. It's a combination of the wind speeds here and this was a storm that's clocked at 150 miles an hour as it approaches shore. That's sustained winds, gusts could be higher than that. The wind loads on the building here are extreme. I should tell you that we're actually sheltered So what you're seeing maybe with me or with the rain or anything moving in the background, it's actually a protected area. If you are out in the brunt of it right now it would be hard to even stand up. And then the next thing we're going to worry about is, of course, storm surge. And even though were 30 miles away from the coast storm surge could be going as far as 40 miles inland. Part of the reason for that is the topography around here. If you've been around St. Charles, flat. There is hardly a tree to even stop that kind of a storm surge coming ashore and preventing it from reaching this far in. That's why Lake Charles, they're fearing that much of the downtown area and many of the surrounding communities could be inundated with as much as nine, maybe even 12 feet of water. Twenty feet is the projected absolute height of that storm surge. And remember you're going to have high tide around six o'clock in the morning. So that's another problem. And when the water's there it gets whipped up by the wind and it becomes a liquid battering ram. So that's why they had to tell people to get out. It was mandatory. They can't drag you out of your house here in Louisiana, that's not the law. They can just try to scare you within an inch of your life and say you should leave. Hopefully many people did. But others said, you know what, they weren't going to leave because they feared coronavirus in the shelter more than they feared the storm. That's really a mix up. The storm is going to be much more dangerous people if you're going to try and ride it out, something like this in your home. You'd be much safer in a shelter. But that decision's already been made for you by nature. Chris.</s>CUOMO: All right, Martin. Thank you very much. Appreciate it. Stay safe.</s>LEMON: Yes. Stay safe. Let's get to Derek Van Dam, he's in Beaumont. Because we need to know -- get to our expert here. He's our meteorologist. So Derek, walk us through this. Give us the numbers, what you expect as someone who has done this. This is your forte. Walk us through what's happening on the ground right now.</s>DEREK VAN DAM, CNN WEATHER ANCHOR: Yes. Conditions in Beaumont Texas are deteriorating quickly, Chris and Don. We just started to experience really the persistent tropical storm force winds edging closer to those hurricane-force gusts. Now we know that the potential exists for the landscape here to change completely as we know it from this storm. And people here are scared. And that's saying something because residents of southeast Texas and Louisiana have been through a lot. They've been through so many hurricanes; Harvey, Rita, Ike; the list goes on. So they know what to expect and how much devastation these storms can bring. Now the I-10 corridor, it's open behind me but just 10 miles to my east, it's shut down. That's a major evacuation route from the border of Texas and Louisiana all the way to Lafayette. And that area, that evacuation center -- evacuation area is no longer an option for people. That ship has sailed. We have updated power outage numbers here, Chris and Don. We have 10,000 people without power in Texas, 25,000 customers in the state of Louisiana. And we know that number is going to skyrocket because of the extreme wind warnings that are in place. Something in my professional career I have never experienced before from the National Weather Service. So that is a first for me. We have to treat it like it's a prolonged tornado warning, for instance. Now we have the safety of cover at the hotel that we're at right now. And I am a veteran storm chaser so I know the dangers that are to my left, I know the dangers that are to my right. But we're going to take you through this storm hour by hour as it continues to ramp up because we know the eyewall is approaching the coastline and will get that left quadrant here in Beaumont, Texas where we anticipate winds in excess of 100 miles per hour. And a grown man, 150 pounds like myself, you cannot stand up in those winds. People ask me why do we send our teams in the middle of these storms? Well, my answer to that and to our viewers at home it's because if you're asked to evacuate, it is my job as a journalist and a meteorologist to show you what you evacuated from, why did you put in all that effort? These are the potential missiles that come flying at you when the winds start becoming persistent, 75 miles per hour. So we will not stand here during those moments but you can see just how ferocious things are starting to pick up across this area. And it is only going to get worse from here. In fact, the authorities here have told us that with sustained winds over 35, 40 miles per hour that means that they have removed the ability of search and rescue. And with the duration of this storm we could be talking about the next 12 to 15 hours without having fire and police services available here in extreme southeast Texas and Louisiana. That is because the winds are just simply too strong. Also spoke to a Beaumont police officer earlier this morning. She told me that previous hurricanes had knocked out power in some of the rural parts of this area for over 30 days. So we should anticipate that because this is one of the strongest storms to reach the coast of Louisiana. So if that's any kind of tale -- sign of what's to come, we need to be prepared to be in the long haul for this one. Chris, Don, back to you guys.</s>CUOMO: All right. Appreciate it. Look, I'll be saying it all morning long. Keep the team safe, that comes first. We'll get the information one way or another. We're monitoring it. It's starting to go, the picture tells the story. It's Don's hometown so we obviously have heads and hearts invested in this up to now.</s>LEMON: I'm a little distracted. I keep looking at the text -- texting about that and also my friend who died, COVID. If you listened to the convention tonight, if you listened to Larry Kudlow, it's in the rearview mirror, in the past tense. It's not. I just had a friend who died, tonight. From complications from</s>COVID. CUOMO: And they were speaking to a crowd tonight. No masks, nobody had to be tested. I don't know how they can believe that's the right message.</s>LEMON: Yes.</s>CUOMO: I really don't. But look, we're watching everything tonight, we're reporting on everything. And we're going to talk to a storm chaser who is flying over this monster storm and get that perspective for you. Right after this.