Officers with the killing of Breonna Taylor and only one person in a nearby apartment. That was from overnight where two Police Officers in louisville were shot during protests. Both officers are in stable condition, were told, at this hour. One suspect is in custody. Were also getting reports of vehicles driving into protesters in buffalo and denver. First, we want to get to President Trump being willing to break the constitutional principle of a peaceful transfer of power. Joining is us john harwood and abbey phillips. Lets play it one more time so everybody can hear what the president said yesterday unapologetically. Will you commit to making sure that there is a peaceful transfer of power after the election . We have to see what happens. You know ive been complaining very strongly about the ballots and the ballots are a disaster. Within that people are rioting, will you make sure there is a peaceful transfer of power . Get rid of the pballots and there wont be a transfer, there will be a continuation. Abbey, the president of the United States would not commit to one of the fundamental principles of a peaceful transfer of power. I said this last hour but i will say it all day long and up through election day, this is the moment we have to mark down in our calendars. This is the moment it was different than the other chaotic mornings we report on every morning. This is the moment he told us what to expect on election day. I think this is actually the most important american principle there is. Without the peaceful transfer of power we dont have a democracy any more. We have come to expect public officials, president s, candidates, without even saying it, not even contemplate the idea they would not accept the results of an election they would not leave office if they are voted out peacefully. That is what the president did yesterday. What is astounding to me, there has been really no response to it at all. This is part of a months long effort by the president to undermine faith in our electoral system. This is the end point of it. This is where it all comes to a head. If we have a system in which people dont agree to pass along power peacefully, there is no american democracy at all. I do think this is something lawmakers, especially on the republican side need to be forced to Say Something about. Frankly, there is no backstop, there is no mechanism in the United States system to prevent the president from doing what he said he might do. John, before i had my microphone on, by refusing to commit to the peaceful transfer that in itself is an implicit threat of violence if he loses. Extraordinary. Absolutely, john. This is unamerican behavior, its authoritarian behavior. As abbey said, peaceful transfer of power is what makes democracy a model for the world, even when Richard Nixon became the first president in office to leave. We had a peaceful transfer of power. Its dangerous. We saw last night armed vigilantes walking along the streets along with Breonna Taylor protesters. We saw people lose their lives in kenosha. The more the president talk like this the more people will lose their lives as a result of this. Will the president actually act on the words he says. Hes full of it most of the time with his rhetoric and behaves more like a weak person than strong person and he may not have the nerve to act on this and does not make it any less dangerous and why mitt romney condemned it last night as unacceptable. When the president talked about moving the election, also authoritarian behavior, other Republican Leaders pushed back on that. To minimize the risks, they need to push back. He doesnt have to act on it. Thats part of what is so pernicious. He doesnt have to do anything. What he does is signal to his if there are any overly passionate violent supporters, this is what he is open to, this is what he expects. When he says, we have to see what happens, hes washing his hands of it. If in the streets, theres lots of rioting, well, then, thats just what he is open to, abbey. Go ahead, john. I was going to say, absolutely. People could lose their lives as a result of this. We also have to note what the president is doing here is amplifying the same kind of message that his allies in republican in russian intelligence have been spreading. We heard that from our intelligence officials. They are trying to sew chaos and doubt about the election. They are on the same wave length and it is very dangerous for american democracy. In terms of whether or not its happening and whether or not its just words, we had someone come on that had an article in the atlantic, remarkable, it appears trump campaigns have been in discussions with leaders in states to go around the vote in those states and have the state legislature appoint electors for donald trump if they do not like the outcome of the election. If youre wondering whether or not thats constitutional, yeah, actually. The constitution gives the state power to point electors, however they want. I say its constitution. Thats whats constitutional, whether a Court Approves it or not, is the bottom line. Apparently this is already happening. As to what republicans are saying, we heard from mitt romney and Steve Stivers from ohio put out a statement and marco rubio. I want you to see how efficient this is. Rubio writes, as we have done for two centuries, we will have a legitimate and fair election. It may take longer to know the outcome but it will be a valid one. At noon january 20th, 20 between, we will swear in the president. He doesnt use the words, donald trump, and he could have said, youre wrong. The theme, hes dead on. What he said is the hope of this country. Of course, the question is we are in the middle of its not just something the president said yesterday. This is the point that barton gelmanspiece makes, the crux of the reporting weve been doing at cnn for months, there is a Massive Communications effort under way to undermine the election and a Legal Campaign under way that could cast doubt on millions and millions of votes cast by mail. That is the big picture here. It requires a little bit more than just saying we want to have a peaceful transfer of power. I do think the reality is that we have to examine what is actually being done. The president s campaign, the Republican National committee is in court against democrats on the issue of whether ballots cast by mail should count if they are received after election date, mailed before election date, received after election date, if there are errors in the signatures. These battles are real, they will make a difference, and this is why the president is trying to link the peaceful transfer of power to the throwing out of ballots. They are linked in his mind and i dont think that is enough for republicans to just say, i hope this is not what happens. They have to actually start acting on it and condemning some of the president s attacks on mailin voting specifically. Guys, one final note on this point abby just raised. It is worth pointing out for all of the stocking of the federal judiciary President Trump has done during his term, he has been losing more of these major battles in court over voting access and Voting Rights than he has been winning. Things may get to the Supreme Court. So far, the courts have been substantially vindicating democratic claims. Thats a great point. John harwood, abby philip, thanks to you. No charges against the three officers responsible for the death of Breonna Taylor. Breonna taylor this morning is dead. None of the three officers were charged in any way with her killing. One officer was charged with firing shots into a nearby apartment. Joining us is the attorney for Breonna Taylors boyfriend and the attorney for her mother. Tameka palmer, when was she notified and how was she notified about this decision and how exactly was she told . Tameka palmer was notified at the same time america was watching the report made to the Circuit Court judge. We walked into the office at approximately 1 15 yesterday where they informed her one had been indicted of endangerment. It was sad he didnt have the ability to inform her the three counts did not relate to Breonna Taylor and the neighbors in danger and properly charges for them. Persuasive the behavior was so reckless he endangered their lives and the people in Breonna Taylors apartment and also the officers present also recklessly endangered the neighbors in the upstairs apartment for who there are no charges as well. The result of the grand jury does not make legal sense to me. Ive been a prosecutor and defense attorney, and i have to question whether attorney general Daniel Cameron actually presented any questions as it relates to the murder of Breonna Taylor to the grand jury for the grand jury to make the representation or unilaterally make the decision. The case laid out as he puts it is when the police went into the apartment, it was your client, Kenneth Walker, who shot first and shot officer John Mattingly in the leg. It was because Kenneth Walker shot, Daniel Cameron says, the officers were justified in returning fire, and therefore no charges could be filed. Your response to that, counselor . Well, first of all, its not in dispute kenny fired the first shot, after they break in the apartment at 1 00 in the morning, without announcing that theyre police. Mr. Cameron said, well, the police said they announced. Theyre the targets of the investigation. Were going to take their word for it. There was another witness who corroborated that. There were 12 independent witnesses who said they did not announce they were police, neighbors in the neighboring apartment. The witness they say corroborated it, in an interview with the police, he said they did not announce, in the initial interview with police. The police had to interview him multiple times after that to get him to say, yeah, they may not have announced. He has an english barrier, english is not his primary language. Thats back to the problem, when you have a politician sum mary declaring these people were justified, thats what a jury is for. Ive defended multiple homicide cases with selfdefense as a defense. My clients dont get the benefit of the prosecutor saying, were not even going to charge them, it was justified. We have to present our evidence to a jury and let a jury decide if they were acting in selfdefense or not. By declaring them via prosecutorial fiat, youre completely ignoring our entire system of justice. There are mechanisms in kentucky law to assert selfdefense immunity. It is done after youre charged and via a hearing in front of the judge. You dont even have to go all the way to trial. None of that occurs. The other thing attorney general cameron did not address, there are multiple factual statements he made that are not true. One of the things he did not address is you are not entitled, under kentucky law, to claim selfdefense, when you shoot a third party. You must identify the party who is going putting you at imminent risk of Bodily Injury and you are allowed to use selfdefense against them. You dont get to recklessly shoot bystanders. Its like pulling out a machine gun and wiping out a group of people and saying that guy pulled a gun on me. You dont get to its back to thee thing. Release the entire file, let everybody see it and be transparent about it and it will show the information they presented to the grand jury was simply designed not to charge these officers. You were shaking your head, just to restate it, he says, counsel does not dispute it, it was Kenneth Walker who shot Jonathan Mattingly in the leg, says the attorney general. I dispute that. You dispute he was shot in the leg and still say it was the police even though the fbi ballistics show it was Kenneth Walkers bullet. He didnt say the ebi ballistics. The only ballistics we have was showing kenny actually was hit. Youre not disputing he shot first . No. Theres no dispute that he shot first. Said to the police the night of this incident turned out to be true i want to give Juanita Baker a chance to talk here because you represent the mother of Breonna Taylor. The officers, he says, were acting in selfdefense and therefore, he says, cannot be charged here, what questions remain to you . I was shaking my head, because i agree with the attorney, in that these officers are not entitled to selfdefense. Breonna taylor did not pose a threat to them. Sergeant mattingly, in his own statement, says Breonna Taylor was unarmed. You dont get selfdefense justification for Breonna Taylor. Just as i said, if the neighbors were in danger, the three neighbors were, so was Breonna Taylor and upstairs neighbors, also blackmen, we have an indictment, as should be against three white neighbors and black neighbors there was no indictment returned and you have a black victim, Breonna Taylor, who was not protected here. Daniel cameron failed. He needs to learn the law of selfdefense in kentucky, because as he stated it yesterday he was off base, completely off base. One shot that kenny walker fired does not justify 32 shots being fired blindly into breonnas apartment without target acquisition. Police officers are trained not to shoot unless they actually have a target in mind. They had no target acquisition, nearly hit a furnace. Their actions were completely out of line. For Daniel Cameron to sign off on that kind of reckless behavior is beyond me. Breonna taylor was hit six times. Thank you both for being with us this morning. We did invite Kentucky Attorney general Daniel Cameron to come on our show. He declined. President trump also claims he can overrule the fda if they the president of the United States last night threatened to overrule the fda discussed standards on vaccine approval. Well discuss it next. brad some may wonder how apartmentsdotcom has helped more renters find their place than any other site. By digitally upgrading every one of our employees. Physically. Now, everybody at apartments. Com can, and does, give one hundred and ten percent. [rapid typing and clicking] apartmentsdotcom. The most popular place to find a place. Its extremely political. Why would they do this when they come back with great results. Why would we keep delaying it . We will take a look at it and ultimately the white house has to approve it. Thats the president threatening to override the fda, in discussions for new guidelines for emergency approval of a coronavirus vaccine. The president right there just indicated hes not happy about it and might ultimately overrule their guidelines. Joining us now, dr. Sanjay gupta. When you heard that, your reaction . I didnt know what to make of it. I was watching it realtime and right after that i was on with Francis Collins head of the nih. I asked, have you ever heard anything like this . He had the same reaction and never heard of it and didnt know if it was possible, even what the president was saying and whether its a medical or legal thing. For those not following this part of the vaccine trial, one of the things the fda has to do is basically lay out their protocols and policies to determine whether this is safe and effective. In the past they already talked about the fact they will present a 50 defectiveness data to basically allow an authorization. Then, theyre coming back and saying as far as safety goes we think two months need to pass for the majority of these participants to see if this thing is safe. If there are side effects that will occur, they are likely to occur within two months. Its that two month window the subject of the discussion yesterday. The president said the white house will have to approve the fdas protocol on this. What weve learned subsequently, its ridiculous. I didnt know this could even be done. What has to happen is the fda submits their guidelines to the office of management and budget, and they approve the guidelines and are the division of executive branch of government. I think thats the point the president is sort of signaling he may get involved, saying we may influence you and say dont accept these guidelines from the fda. That would be really really worrisome not only for this vaccine, but i think for the Overall Trust in these types of processes in the first place. We have a certain amount of trust when the fda approves something it is safe and effective. This would possibly really undermine that. Americans are already dubious, as you will hear in my voter panel coming up in a few minutes. They already think the process has been politicized and makes them wary. I want to get to something on capitol hill, dr. Fauci and some other experts were testifying at a congressional hearing. Senator rand paul challenged dr. Fauci and i want to get your take on dr. Fauci sort of pushing back here. Listen to this. The things that are going on in new york to get their test poverty 1 or less is because they are looking at the guidelines that we have put together from the task force of the 4 or 5 things of masks, social distancing outdoors more than indoors, avoiding crowds and washing hands. Or theyve developed enough Community Immunity that theyre no longer having the pandemic because they have enough immunity in new york to actually stop i challenge that, senator. Please, sir, i would like to be able to do this because this happens with senator rand all the time.