What does mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms say now . Ov firing line with margaret ho is made possible in part by. Corporate funding is pvided by. Welcome to iring line, mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms. Thank you for having me. You are the 60th mayor of the city of atlanta, and your national prile has risen as you have faced more crises in the past several months than many Politicians Face in an entire lifetime. To these fatal sho, both at the hands of police and civilians in your city, to the protests that rocked your city in the wake of the murder of george floyd. You are also considered to be a top v. P. Contenderfo a biden ticket. And so we have a lot but first, i want k to you about what happened more than a week ago when you tweeted this out to the world. How are you feeling no mayor . You know, i feel good. When i look at whats happeningu across thery and theres so much death and sickness, i count myself very fortunate. My husbandnd i dont have Underlying Health conditions, thankfully. So he is sleeping more than ive seen an adult sleep, and my child is asymptomatic. Im just a littlfatigued, but i cant tell if thats covid or if thats just this very stressf job that i have. Id so we co ourselves fortunate. I think the unfortunate part of this is that the story of our family a story of whats happening across america. We were test on june 29th, just routine tesng. I was getting tested. Decided to get my family tested at that time. A that was onday. By the end of the weekend, i just noticed that my husband was sleeping more than usual. We still didnt havere thoslts back. I was able to get tested again through emory university, again, just decided to have e entire family tested. Three of us tested positive that time. On monday the 29th, had we gotten those results ba in a timely fashion, we would have known that we haan asymptomatic child in our house. Its disappointing because we are encouraging peopl to get tested, but we cant go out and sell to the public that the testing is the endall, beall and its readily available. Go and get it ne and then not be able to deliver on that. And i think thats where we are failing nationally and certainly where the state of georgia is failing us here. So how has your experience of testing positive changed your understanding of this disease . It really highlights a lot of things th i already knew. I always felt as if this temperature checking was a false sense of security. I would have made it through a temperature check. And my husband likely would have as well. The other part of that is the testing is only as good as it is at that point in time. On monday the 29th, g when those results back eight days later, i was negative. And my husband was negative. The following monday, we tested positive. And so for us to make real proess with this covid testing, youre going to have to be able to get people tested, get their results back to them tickly, and youre going to have to be aboffer it to them frequently within a weeks time,n you can be exposed and become positive and asymptomatic. So you took a little bit of heat from your local press corp for conducting a press conference while you were waiti for that covid test that you just described. As you look back on that experience, is there anything youd do differently this time or knowing what you know now . And i had a conversation with a locanewspaper about that. I think they misunderstood the series of events. But ere was nothing to make me think that i needed to quarante at that time. One, i would never intentionally and recklessly put anyone in harms way. Its the reason at i always wear a mask in public, frequently wash my hands. And even with that press, conferenhad on a mask up until i was standing at the microphone alone. Ai but i think it really speaks to how easily and quietly this virus can be spread. I think we all need to be very careful, especially when we so that we dont inadvertently put people in harms way. Nd how about everyone yocame into contact with in that intervening time . Have they all been tested . Well, i didy own version of contact tracing. Ive called everyone whota ive come in c with. Thankfully, no one on my senior teamth who i met uring the week has tested positive. And my mother and my three other kids have not tested positive. Y, so thankfuhus far, nobody seems to have been exposed from me. And again, i think icause of wearing my mask. But ill tell you, just the sense of comfort we all tend to get, even before i was retested, i was in a car with my mother, and thankfully, my mother kept her mask on. But while we were driving around, i took my mask off and thankfully, she tested negative. But we cant get comfortable with this virus. L, were were glad to hear that shes okay and she didnt get it. Yo got covid and your state a surge in covid cspike, newly reported cases in georgia have increased since the middle of june, hitting a record last week of more than 4,000 new cases in a single day. At was july 10th. Hospitalizations have been increasing in your city d the death toll surpassed 3,000 this week. What do you attributsurge to, mayor bottoms . Reckless reopening. Its plain and simple. We opened without any regard to science,ga without any to data and metrics. And when georgia reopened, cellphone data shows tha ote. R people flock to our st and so its not a secret. I was looking at the numbers today, and it just showsov that thenor dinot follow the data and the science, because if he had, wed be on a trajectory like other states like new york, perhaps, that got on the other side of this and was able to flatten the curve. But we did everything wrong that possibly could be done in the state of geor well, the state of georgia reopened, as you well know, without following even the White House Corona Task force guidelines. I mean, you have said that your family is personally paying the price for this reckless reopening. You lay the blame at the feet of the governor . I ctainly do. And i think every Single Person who has tested positives in thiate can lay the blame at his feet because we havent beenhoughtful about it and we are running out of hospital beds in our icus. Many hospitals are already at capacity. Our black and Brown Communitie our Senior Communities are being especially hard hit. And the story continues. And r what . Thats the question i continue to ask myself. Was this about rpening the economy . Because if it was, we failed at that because now were having to go back and encourage people to stay at home because we are in the middle of another surge that didnt have to happen in our state. So youre doing what you can as mayor. You know, you have announced plans to mandate face masks in publicn youve alsunced that you are going to revert back in atlanta to phase one,ti which is essly a stayathome order. Hes what governor brian kem had to say about your new actions. Whats he talking about . I have no idea at hes talking about. But what i do know is that when i talk with healthcare professionals, when i talk with people who are working in and runninour hospitals and people who are National Experts on infectious disease, they are telling me that Wearing Masks in public is a way to slow the spread. I didnt make that up. F i got thm the scientists and the Public Health experts. I dont know what theor goves basing his decision king on other than talking points and recommendations fr donald trump. Just a few months ago, you had said that you and governor mp had a good working relationship, but it certainly seems like that has changed. Well, we continue to Work Together on those things at we can Work Together on. But as it relates to covid, i will, every ngleay, do what i think is best for the peop of atlanta. So i take no joy in being at odds with the governor on this, but were going the wrong direction. So how detrimental to progress for the pandic is having a different set of msages than the governor of your state . It slows the progress in this ate and it slows the progress in our country because we dont havede very clear gnes. Some of us are making decisions based on science and data and recommendations from National Health experts, and others are making decisions based on nothing more than their willingness to put people at risk so that we can reopen our economy. I support having a robustconomy. We are hurting in atlanta. We have a rge tourist industry in atlanta. Its suffering. People are out of work. We are hurting in this city economically, but also people are dying. How often do you guys talk . How often do you pld the governor speak . Its been a cof weeks since ive spoken with the governor. But thats not unusual. A couple of weeks . I know that our chiefs of staff have communicated. But i dont ta to the governor weekly, and i dont have an expectation to speak with him weekly. But unfortunately, there has been a complete breakdown as it relates to covidat and our communns at this point. And we are where we are. But again, theres a finite of energy that iave as mayor, and i dont choose to use that Energy Taking swipes at the governor. What i choose to do, use that energy is to put it towards making sound decisions on behalf of the people of atlanta. And thats whall ontinue to do. I want to move on to schools because you brought up schools. You have thihysterical tweet where you said. [ chuckles ] look, it makes us all chuckle. Nt but atis in the news as one of the cities that is likely not to go back to sool, in addition to los angeles and san diego and to start virtually. Y so how long expect atlanta schools to work virtually . The serintendent has pushed back that opening until later in august, which is still ptty early compared to a lot of other School Systems and is taking a nineweek approach. First nine weeks Virtual Learning only. I think thats a smart approach. It gives an opportunityen for the superint after the nineweeod. Eassess but just to tell you how difficult this is ony so mople, someone was sharing with me that when a friend receiv that news that she burst into tears because shes a sing mom working from home, and just the added stress and thoughof going back into the fall with kids at home made her cry. Its not where any of us want to be. And i found myself yesterday just so disgusted we had all of spri we had all of this summer to get it right, at the very least for our children to be able to go back to schooll in the and here we are not ready and not prepared to send them back in the classrooms. Mayor, how do you also think about the fact that the american associationia of pediatr has not only talked about sort of the mentalealth of children, and economic gaps appenacial because kids arent in school. They say. As a mayor, how are you thinking abouthat dynamic . Its heartbreaking. You have children in our communities who dont have access to broadband. They dont have access to tablets. So we are attempting to make sure that all of our kidsey have what eed. But it is certainly a challenge. Whats mt heartbreaking ishat our reports of child abuse are down. And the reason they are do is because our children arent physically presenting themselves in school where quite often teachers are able to assess whats happening with our kids. So it is its heartbreaking on a number of levels. And its disappointing thated the untates of america is failing its peopleto as it relateovid19. I want to ask you about other tragic set of circumstances that has roiled your city, and thats the increase in shootings in 31 people were shot rering july 4th weekend alone. The 20 percent ie from over the same time last year. And among those killed, as you know very well, s an 8yearold girl, Secoriea Turner, who was in the car with her mothernd very near the s where Rayshard Brooks was shot. You ve said that the increas in gun violence in your city is a perfect storm of distress inr a. Help us break down. What are the components of that distress what ihy is this happening in your city right now . There are so many f. People are distressed about covid19. L they aing loved ones and watching people die. Ei theyre losing jobs. Th are losing hope. And violence is often a byproduct of that. There are system issues that lead people to act outn in the wayich they do. And including weve talked a lot about during covid ck of quality access to healthcare in black a Brown Communities. But you add on top of that, almost nonexisnt access to meal healthcare and covid, has highlighted so many thingsd that n be addressed, these systemic issues, and i believe its what dr. King referred to, this fierce urgency of now. We dont have the lury of waiting to provide resources and access to healthcare and Mental Health servicesr r communities. We have to do it now because our communitiesg are sufferd innocent people like Secoriea Turner areo on ter side of whats boiling over in our streets. I want to play for you a clip of what you said at that press conference on july 5th, the one where you didnt know that you had covid. Here it is. Well, we are shooting each other up on our streets in this city. And you shot and killed a baby. You cant ame this on a Police Officer. You cant say that this is aboul crimustice reform. This is about some people carrying some weapons who shot up a car with a 8yearold baby in the car for what . And i wish that i could stand here as mar and tell you whathe answers are and what the solutions are. Buits simple. Just. We got to st this. We are doing each other more harm than any Police Officer on this force. Of course, youve dealt with Police Brutality in your time as mayor. Not very long ago. But in this case, you place the blame on theommunity. And you refused to take the bait and to blame the police force, which caused quite a bit of protesting. Do you stand by that you know, there are i understand that people took exception with that. And what i would say is this. Perhaps i should have made this more clear. Theres a period at the endse of each of tentences. Issues and challenges with our Police Department are real, period. Issues and challenges racial profiling and injustice as it relas to our interactions with people in Authority Continue to be a problem, period. There is also a problem that we have in our communities, and that is violence thats erupting within our communities, period. Now, do i believe that i think that there is a convergence of frustration and anger and all these things that i talked about. Is and i think s the byproduct of it. But i also know that when this is happening within our own community we have to take responsibility for whats happening within our own community in the same y we are demanding that our Police Officers take respoibility for whats happening with interactions with our communies. One does not cancel out the other. One does not negatean the impo of the other. They are are both problematic. And i can tell you to the family of Secoriea Turner, it didnt i matter which owas. At the end of the day, their daughter was dead. The irony of it was that she was killed near the wendys where that was the reason thated. I mentioned them together. This was supposed to be about protesting and honoring Rayshard Brooks life. And here we are talking about the death of an 8yearld child who was killed by somebody from the communitysu who waosed to be in the area honoring his life. You have institut several reforms since the shooting of Rayshard Brooks and rder of george floyd. There are reforms to the police, and one of thems is a citizeview board. And this idea of a citizens review board was actually first debated as a policy solution in 1966 on this program. Here is an argument that william f. Buckley jr. Made against it. There is a generafeeling that in other towns in americavi where an review boards have been instituted, it has carly been the result of political pressure and that nothing very much was accomplished, certainly nothing positively, but almostertainly,so at least i cases, something negative. For instance,ch ter after the riots there. One city with an outside review board, the pice were so careful to avoid accusations of Improper Conduct that ere virtually paralyzed. S so a lot ppened with citizen review boards since 1966. Yo didnt institute one. Forgive me. You actually expanded the powers at the cizens review board. And the argument that itan paralyze the police force, how do you tackle that argument or that aspect of the policy . Well, its not just it relates to our citizens review board. Thats what were facing with our police dertment in particular, and were seeing it across the country. And ive heard tt feedback. Ive heard everything from our officers feel afraid and ralyzed to they are simply confused about what the policies are. And this is a tough conversation that is happening with Police Departments throughout america. Its going to take thoughtful consideration aninput from all sides. I had a meeting with some student activists, and i lovef what onee students said. Weve got to stop having a we versus an us versus them conversation. It has to be a we conversation. So even in the recommendations thatere Going Forward with or looking at implementing with reformr Police Department, were going to get input because thats going to be you have reallyulted to national prominence, by the way you have handled the crises in your city. And you were on team biden b loore you caught the eye of the nation. Any was it so clear to you that he was yourdate as much as a year ago . Im sglad that the rest of t nation has seen what i saw and knew back in june of 2019, and i said it very simply. I know joe. We know joe. And it always struck me and so many other africanamericans across this country and i think is even more significant with where we are in america. This is an older white mang who was will stand beside and behind a younr africanamerican man. And many people may not have recognized that significance, but for commu