Transcripts For MSNBC The 11th Hour With Brian Williams : v

Transcripts For MSNBC The 11th Hour With Brian Williams



and yes, it coincides with ugly rhetoric from former president trump and others linking the coronavirus and china as the pandemic worsened across our country. one group tracking anti-asian hate say they've received some reports of 3,800 incidents with over two thirds of the attacks reported by women. today the vice president, president, atlanta's mayor all condemned such crimes. >> whatever the motivation here i know that asian-americans are very concerned. we've been speaking about the brutality against asian-americans for the last couple of months and i think it is very, very troubling. >> i do want to say to our asian-american community that we stand with you and understand how this has frightened and shocked and outraged. >> this is an issue that's happening across the country. it is unacceptable. it is hateful, and it has to stop. >> just today the director of national intelligence, the dni, released a new report about extremist violence compiled with the help of the justice department and homeland security. it warns, quote, racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists and militia violent extremists present the most lethal domestic violent extremist threats. it adds increased last year and that it will almost certainly continue to be elevated throughout 2021. meanwhile politico is reporting the talks to create that 9/11-style commission to investigate the 1/6 capitol riot have all but collapsed amid partisan troubles. there's now a plan in the works to turn the entire inquiry over to three house committees as the white house boosts its vaccination campaign at the same time. the cdc today dubbed two new strains out of california as variants of concern. something to keep an eye on. the agency added that early data are showing variants could be up to 20% more transmissible. they warn some coronavirus treatments may not protect as well against all the mutations. experts are also keeping a close eye on cases. at least seven states and the district of columbia have now seen a rise in infections over the past 14 days. today the white house announced it will spend $10 billion on testing for k-12 opportunities to help schools reopen and keep them open safely. as for the covid relief act rollout, the treasury department said it's sent out about 90 million of those $1,400 checks so far. meanwhile the irs is giving everybody extra time to file their taxes. may 17 is the new deadline. the agency cited of course the ongoing upheaval from the pandemic as the reason for this decision. as all that unfolds the administration is trying to manage the surge of migrants over the southern border while also trying to contain the political fallout. "the washington post" reports more migrants were allowed into the u.s. last month even as thousands were still being expelled. today the homeland security secretary defended the administration's actions during a hearing on capitol hill. >> wouldn't it be fair to call it a crisis because that's what your agents are calling it. >> i'm not spending anytime on the language we use. i'm spending the time on operational response to the situation at the border. >> two months ago we didn't have problems. we had agreements with other countries, and we were able to make a very terrible situation much, much better and much safer. >> if we look at the 2019 numbers in february, we take a look at unaccompanied children and the numbers in 2021 are slightly greater than they were in february of 2019. if we look at individuals and family units the numbers were far greater in number in 2019 than they are in 2021. >> one more story from the world of politics that caught our attention today. the republicans are fund-raising off the fantasy notion that donald trump would run against meghan markle for president in 2024. last night trump told fox news he hopes she launches a campaign for the white house because he'd be even more inclined to run. that was all the republican congressional national committee needed to hear because they heard a way to raise money. they are asking donors who they would vote for in such a matchup and who they think would win. the committee also tells supporters trump is waiting to hear from them before he makes a decision. and so it goes. with that let's bring in our lead off guests on this wednesday night. jonathan carl, chief washington correspondent for abc news, long time correspondent. in fact his book is now in paper back with a new afterward that includes new reporting. also back with us dr. kavita patel, now a nonresident fellow at brookings. and frank figliuzzi, former fbi assistant director of counter intelligence. also the author of the recent book "the fbi way inside the bureau's code of excellence." and frank, indeed, because of the events of last night i'd like to begin with you. and from your trade tell our audience what's the justification -- what are the underpinnings that await a declaration perhaps that this was a hate crime? >> brian, we should be listening to what this suspect, long, has told the police because essentially he's already confess today a hate crime. here's why. in 2009 congress passed and president obama signed into law the shepherd bird act. that added for the first time the element of gender as a protected class for purposes of hate crimes. so crimes based on gender now qualify as a federal hate crime. i know we're getting all wrapped up around the asian component to this and absolutely ethnicity and race play a role and are enumerated in the hate crime but that's going to be difficult to show perhaps. but let's not forget these women targeted were women who happened to be asian. they were asian women. here's why this is significant. he says i was addicted to sex and i was acting out of vengeance against that which embodies -- literally embodies my addiction. he's essentially saying i was targeting women, even perhaps women at establishments he might have actually frequented. i don't know what else would be a gender-based crime than saying i am lashing out at what embodies my addiction. it is women, and that's who i've killed. so that can be corroborated even through investigation of his electronic devices, his communications, friends and family interviews, his history, his track record, his spending. all of that points to a hate crime and that's where this should be headed. for those who are at home saying i'm not understanding this debate. he's going to spend the rest of his living days in prison for murder, what does it matter? it matters a lot. we have hate crimes. we distinguish them because they strike against everything we stand for as a free and equal democracy. skin color, gender, orientation, that's who we are as a free people. when you commit those crimes for those reasons we attach extra penalty to it. we call it something different. it does matter and it should be called a hate crime. >> jon karl, in your book you talk broadly about the national environment created by donald trump when he was in the white house. talk about that in relation to this. >> well, look, how many times did we sit there as we were going through the pandemic, the emerging pandemic and hear donald trump use incredibly racially charged incendiary language to describe what was happening? talking about the china virus, the kung-flu, openly targeting one of my colleagues in the white house briefing room, a chinese american of cbs. just spitting the name china out as he was talking about this and responding to her. that's the context here. we don't know, again, we have to see exactly what was going on in this case. but clearly there is a rising problem really an epidemic of its own in this country of anti-asian violence. >> dr. patel, here we are. this is the life we're living in 2021. we have over half a million of our fellow citizens dead from the coronavirus. do you perversely add these deaths as a kind of collateral damage? the virus didn't kill them. a firearm did. but so did everything else we're talking about tonight. >> yeah, absolutely, brian. and this just illuminates something that we saw before the pandemic and just as john and frank pointed out, violence against women has not only been on the rise since the pandemic began but frankly turned a blind eye against. and the actual notion of systemic racism as a public health problem along, brian, with gun violence, that's all wrapped up into what we're seeing. and it hasn't started today. this started -- or in the last 48 hours. this started in charlottesville. this started in 1982 with a man named vincent kim who was killed because he was mistaken for a japanese-american. and his murderers were not sentenced to anything but basically a fine and probation because they were fine men. and how many decades have we heard that? and it's deplorable. this is something that's been decades in the building, brian. the pandemic is just revealing much more of this, and it's time we put it to a stop. as frank said this is something that's been on the books in the laws. it'll be interesting to see how this unfolds. >> frank, indeed this dni report on extremist groups is chilling. they rarely put out good news, but it takes us right back to our last conversation about the new world being faced by your former colleagues at the fbi. when you read something like this, do you fear they know something that we don't? like an active and obvious threat? >> i do. i think they're warning us that the intel they're getting indicates that we're in for the long haul, that there are organizations, groups and even more disturbingly lone offenders that they are having trouble tracking. they've lost control of that right now. this threat is out in front of them. and i see that reflected in this report. you know, if you change just a few words, some of the verbiage, slap a new date on it, this thing could have been written back in the '50s and '60s in the deep south, in the ku klux klan era and civil rights and violent era of lynchings. have we changed at all? it seems we've not made progress, that we're back almost to where we started in the civil rights movement. and now our own government is telling us we're in this for the long haul. this threat's not going away. in fact, it could become exacerbated. and there's hints of, you know, the political and societal elements of this. that's code word for conspiracy theories, fabrications, political leaders who fan and fuel this movement. it's here for a while. if there's one good news piece out of this it's that our government is finally saying here's the truth, here's the intel, we're sharing it with you. >> frank, it's bracing to hear you talk like that. we are at least fortunate to know there are more good people on the home team than there are bad actors out there to do us harm. jon, contained in the new reporting in the paper back edition of your book is a section about the temper of the former president. tell our viewers the story about how and where it affected a prominent pacific northwest governor. >> yeah. this was -- this involved the navy ship "mercy." decided to send to the west coast in the middle of march and the navy actually put out a press release in the middle of march saying it was going to seattle. but the press release also noted the governors of washington state and california had both requested it. and i learned in the course of my reporting of an oval office meeting where the president was meeting with one of his political supporters, mike pence came in to give the president an update on the movement of this navy ship saying it was ready to take off to seattle but they were also noting that california had requested it as well. and trump said to them, wait a minute, wait a minute that jerk in washington state he's been awful, gavin -- meaning gavin newsom the governor of california, has been saying the nicest things about me. let's give it to gavin. and then he actually, brian, yelled out to his secretary sitting right outside the oval office, molly, get gavin on the phone. and sure enough gavin newsom is on the phone in a few minutes. he puts them on speakerphone and says, gavin, i've got this navy ship. are know you want it, that jerk in washington wants it. you've been saying the nicest things about me. don't you think i should give it to you? and to his credit i'm told gavin newsom said, look, your people, the navy, they'll give it to wherever it can be used most effectively. but ultimately, brian, the kicker here is that ship did not go to seattle. it went to los angeles. and the navy had announced it was going to seattle. the president had the outburst and this massive naval hospital ship ended up going to the governor that was saying nice things about the president. >> and they accuse trump of having no empathy and being transactional. dr. gupta, one last question for you. i want to read you a quote from "the new york times" and set it up this way. dr. patel, forgive me. and it's about the astrazeneca vaccine. we have it in some amounts here in this country. the fda has not approved it for use on americans. there's an op-ed in "the new york times" to this extent. "one argument for holding onto all the vaccines here seems to be a version of better safe than sorry, that it's preferable to have an excess rather than a shortage. this isn't right or moral." and the op-ed goes onto make that point. so, doctor, with the caveat that the russians may indeed be out to hurt the reputation of astrazeneca, and on social media they have been seen seemingly boosting any and all bad reports or rumors because when you think about it that would help their sputnik vaccine and their business in the european market. where do you come down on this, dr. patel? is there a moral problem with us housing this here unless and until the fda speaks up? >> i think, brian, the moral problem is really in the fact that up until the biden administration we had no participation in any of the global efforts including the world health organization to try to eliminate or at least minimize the effects of covid around the world including thinking about vaccine supply. so sitting on our shelves this was something dr. fauci addressed during his testimony and will likely have to address again in the testimony before the senate tomorrow because there's increasing pressure rightfully so. i do think it's a moral problem to hold onto doses especially when we now know the biden administration has negotiated adequate supply for americans. having said that, i do not think that we should try to say that this supply is now necessarily all going to 100% go to a certain country only because, frankly, brian, we're expecting novavax, astrazeneca, these are going to get read outs shortly within a month and that would mean extra supply well before the may 1st deadline president biden has said. so the question is morally we should be participating giving this vaccine supply where it's necessary especially considering how low the percentage of vaccination is in the eu. but i don't think we should just be -- there's no reason to say that our shelves should be laid bare. recall a year ago we thought we had a stockpile of ppe and other supplies and lo and behold we found out our shelves were laid bare. our supply promised to us from the three current authorized manufacturers is not all here in its entirety. it's entirely conceivable we could see a manufacturing error, a problem with batches. so having this on our shelves is security, having a conversation about the supply we give to the world is also parallel important. and i think that's exactly what we should be continuing to put pressure on the biden administration to do. >> great points and the first time i've all heard that laid out and explained that way. our big three guests tonight, jonathan karl, frank figliuzzi, dr. kavita patel. hook 'em horns. can't thank you enough for starting your evening with us. coming up for us after the first break, the georgia state lawmaker who knew anti-asian violence was only going to get worse and sounded the alarm on the statehouse floor the day before the mass shooting. she joins us next. and later the president says the "f" word but not that one. fires up the filibuster fight. two veteran political watchers standing by to join us for that. "the 11th hour" just getting under way on a wednesday night. t i'm a verizon engineer, part of the team that built 5g right. the only one from america's most reliable network. we designed our 5g to make the things you do every day, better. with 5g nationwide, millions of people can now work, listen, and stream in verizon 5g quality. and in parts of many cities where people can use massive capacity, we have ultra wideband. the fastest 5g in the world. this is the 5g that's built for you. this is 5g built right. only from verizon. don't settle for products that give you a sort of white smile. try new crest whitening emulsions for 100% whiter teeth. its highly active peroxide droplets swipe on in seconds. better. faster. 100% whiter teeth. crestwhitesmile.com overspending on a retinol cream? just one jar of olay retinol24 hydrates better than the $100 retinol cream. for smooth, bright skin or your money back. olay. face anything. and try new retinol24 max. violence against asian-americans has increased by nearly 150% in the past year. recognize that we need help, we need protection and we need people in power to stand up with us against hate. >> you hear the urgency in her voice. that was our next guest one day before the shootings in georgia. the tragedy has escalated an already heightened fear over a rise in anti-asian discrimination and violence across our country. for more we welcome to the broadcast dr. michelle au, a democratic state senator representing the state's 48th district northeast of the atlanta metro area. also happens to be the first ever asian-american woman to serve as a state senator in the great state of georgia. doctor, i know it would sound trite to ask you your reaction to the tragedy, but i'm going to ask only because your words were still hanging in the air in the chamber when you learned the news of what had happened last night. >> yes, brian, thank you so much for having me. and thank you for asking because i think the reaction that i had and that many people had is that we were shaken, obviously. we were shocked especially by the brutality and the lethality of this attack, but we weren't really surprised. this is in some ways a culmination of a lot of asian-american discrimination and violence building for the past year. this is the latest chapter in a long story and long saga of asian-american racism and violence in the united states. so, no, we are not surprised though it is still shocking to see it happen so close to home. >> i am compelled to play for you and our audience the following statement that we all witnessed today and have spent the last few hours processing. this is from a captain part of the local sheriff's department. we'll discuss on the other side. >> it's still early but he does claim it was not racially motivated. he apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction and it's a temptation for him he wanted to eliminate. i spoke to investigators that interviewed him this morning and they got that impression that, yes, he understood the gravity of it. and he was pretty much fed up and at the end of his rope and yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did. >> doctor, can we talk about the way we talk about a crime like this. i've had bad days and i'm reasonably certain so have you, and i'm absolutely certain neither you or i have taken a human life as a result. >> it's remarkable the way that we treat certain perpetrators of crimes. the gentleness with which we handle the shooter and attributing his behavior to him having a bad day and to his wanting to squelch his addiction as opposed to him taking respon

Related Keywords

Way , Country , Women , Asian , Asian American , Danger , Lives , Descent , Well Founded Fear , Six , Gunman , Murder , White House , Counts , Court , Area , Rampage , Spas , Total , Appearance , Authorities , Atlanta , 21 , Three , Eight , Hate Crime , Number , Race , Course , Police , Calls , Crimes , Investigation , Shootings , Determination , Escalation , President , Pandemic , Trump , Coronavirus , Reports , Rhetoric , Others , China , Group Tracking , Incidents , 3800 , One , Vice President , Attacks , Two , Motivation , Issue , Asian American Community , Brutality , Violence , Extremist , Report , Help , Intelligence , Justice , Director , Dni , Quote , Extremists , Threats , Department , Homeland Security , Racially , Militia , Talks , Politico , Commission , 9 11 , 1 6 , 2021 , Plan , House Committees , Troubles , Vaccination Campaign , Works , Inquiry , Something , Agency , California , Variants , Transmissible , Strains , Concern , Data , Cdc , 20 , States , Cases , Experts , Infections , Rise , Treatments , Eye , Mutations , District Of Columbia , Seven , Schools , Treasury Department , Testing , Opportunities , K 12 , Covid Relief Act Rollout , 10 Billion , 14 , 12 , 0 Billion , Everybody , Irs , Taxes , Checks , 1400 , 17 , 400 , May 17 , 90 Million , Administration , Reason , Border , Migrants , Decision , Surge , Upheaval , U S , Fallout , Thousands , Homeland Security Secretary , Washington Post , It , Actions , Agents , Hearing , Crisis , Wouldn T , Capitol Hill , Language , Situation , Problems , Countries , Response , Agreements , Numbers , Individuals , Children , Family Units , Safer , Look , February Of 2019 , 2019 , World , Story , Fantasy Notion , Attention , Politics , Republicans , Fund Raising , Fox News , Last Night Trump , Donald Trump , Campaign , Meghan Markle , 2024 , Supporters , Republican Congressional National Committee , Donors , Money , Committee , Matchup , Jonathan Carl , Guests , Lead , Abc News , Chief Washington , Book , Dr , Frank Figliuzzi , Kavita Patel , Reporting , Fact , Paper , Counter Intelligence , Assistant Director , Fbi , Brookings , Audience , Author , Excellence , Code , Events , Justification , Bureau , Trade , Brian , Declaration , Underpinnings , Suspect ,

© 2025 Vimarsana