Return to Transcripts main page

CNN NEWSROOM

Thousands Flooded Streets of Boston in Dueling Rallies; Backlash Grows over Trump's Comments on Charlottesville Violence; Trump Will Not Attend Kennedy Center Honors; Confederate Statues & Monuments Defaced, Removed as Tensions Intensify; Bannon Out of White House, Returns to "Breitbart"; Graphic Video of Police Beating Unarmed Black Man in Ohio; Safety Tips for Monday's Total Solar Eclipse. Aired 3-4p ET

Aired August 19, 2017 - 15:00   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.


(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:00:00] (CHANTING)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ANA CABRERA, CNN ANCHOR: Now, this was earlier in Boston. Wave after wave of people rejecting extremism, embracing unity, determined to stand up to hate after last weekend's deadly violence in Virginia.

CNN correspondents, Sara Sidner and Polo Sandoval, are in Boston right now.

Sara, I want to start with you.

There were fears, obviously, that this was going to be a repeat of last weekend in Charlottesville, Virginia, but it certainly was not. Tell us what you've been witnessing and hearing on the ground.

SARA SIDNER, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Ana, we have seen thousands of people, and I'm talking a very diverse crowd. A lot of those marching along chanting "Black Lives Matter" were Caucasian. They were white folk in here in Boston.

I'll give you a look at the crowd that is left. Most of the crowd is dispersed. More than half of the crowd is gone.

This was one of the groups that organized the march against racism, against anti-Semitism, and certainly, a lot of people in Boston showed up for it.

For most of the day now the group has come out, they've been talking to the crowds, preaching to the crowds, if you will, talking about a lot of different issues here in Boston and across America.

If you look at the numbers of people who showed up, pretty incredible numbers in the thousands, no doubt. We saw a couple of incidents where people were running, and police were coming forward with their riot gear, but for the most part, this has been a peaceful rally, especially when you consider the numbers of people who showed up here.

We did notice at one point, Ana, that there was someone from the so- called free-speech rally, a group of people -- and the reason why people were so upset about that rally, in particular, is because one of the people listed initially to speak in that rally had also spoken in Charlottesville, and they spoke during that white supremacist rally. So they're definitely was the sense that it was a dog whistle, these free speech folks, coming out. And they use the words "free speech" so people sounded strange, saying we're against the free- speech rally. Indeed, they were worried they were going to be seeing hate. That's why you see the reaction.

But we noticed that someone came up from that rally, they engaged with protesters. And what you heard from the Black Lives Matter protesters is that they wanted people not to engage. They started chanting, "Do not engage, do not engage." And we saw that they calmed down the crowd, where a few of them ran after the person who was engaging with them. Police took him away. But you did have some people running after him saying, "Get out, we don't want you here."

But for the most part, again, this has been a peaceful rally here in Boston, a relevantly against anti-Semitism and a rally against hatred.

CABRERA: Lots of passion we can here behind you.

Let me turn to Polo Sandoval.

I know that police have taken a lot of precautions going into this rally. They did not want a repeat of what happened in Charlottesville.

What can you tell us? What are you seeing?

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: I tell you what, Ana, we're basically in the same park, different crowd, but same message here as what you just heard from Sara. What we see here, again, these massive crowd here that's basically standing in the northern side of the park. What you see are some police officers that are just blocking off the exit to the park. The concern there is some of these scattered demonstrators may try to make their way on to the street. So they're keeping this peaceful, very passionate group of demonstrators on the park premises.

There was a tense moment earlier that we witnessed in which about nine people were detained. These were counterdemonstrators. They got too close to some of these, quote, "free-speech demonstrators" that were being -- removed by police officers. They had to be removed in a police transport vehicle for their own safety. They were expected to be here for about two hours. They did have to cut that short. Eventually, made their way out of the park after only about an hour or two. The people that remain are these counter demonstrators. And at this point, peaceful.

A few tense moments when those counter demonstrators got too close to the other group, the other group. But at this point, they continue this dialogue and those chants continue to get louder -- Ana? CABRERA: Polo, this was also supposed to start winding down at 2:00.

Are there any signs of these groups breaking up or are they still going strong?

SANDOVAL: The crowd has thinned out. It does continue to go strong at this point. We could potentially see this for another hour or so. At this point, the free-speech rally that started this off that did end at 2:00, which was what was previously scheduled to take place -- Ana?

CABRERA: Got you.

Polo Sandoval and Sara Sidner are our eyes and ears on the ground in Boston as that rally continues. Thank you.

From Boston now to the growing fallout all across the country from what happened last weekend in Virginia. And a growing number of President Trump's supporters and advisors are now backing away from him after his comments, blaming both sides for the violence in Charlottesville.

The president's business councils, they were shut down after dozens of CEOs resigned in protest. That infrastructure council President Trump mentioned on tuesday, that didn't even get off the ground.

The president's Mar-a-Lago resort, 16 charities and organizations have now cancelled events that were planned there.

And then there are the growing number of Republicans who have called out the president by name over his response.

Now President Trump's comments have also reignited simmering racial tensions and really reopened old wounds in this country.

"Washington Post" columnist David Drehle is joining us. As well as Tanzina Vega, "CNN Money" national reporter for race and inequality. We also have with us Scott Jennings, whose getting seated there. He'll be joining us as well.

I want to start with you, Tanzina, who is with me here in New York.

Hate groups, a white supremacist, they've come out cheering the president's comments that he made, his reaction to the violence in Charlottesville. What does that do to the state of race relations in this country?

[15:35:52] TANZINA VEGA, CNN DIGITAL CORRESPONDENT & CNN MONEY NATIONAL REPORTER FOR RACE AND EQUALITY: It doesn't help. One of the things we've seen is racism is bad for business. Racism is bad for our government. Racism is bad for our country. But it's something that this country is essentially founded on, when we look at the legacy of slavery in the United States. And so, this is opening up wounds that have been festering for quite some time. And it's bringing -- like I said earlier, ripping the Band-Aid off of race relations and the things that we, as a country, will have to reckon with. It's something that particularly white Americans have assumed was in the past, that these weren't issues that were cropping up. That we were never going to see in 2017 a Nazi white supremacist rally. And we did. In fact, we've lost a life in that process. This is opening us and forcing us to define, as Americans, who are we as a country and where do we stand.

CABRERA: Is it such a bad thing that we're now talking, that it has exposed these wounds?

VEGA: I think it's a long time coming, to be honest with you. It's a horrible thing that we have to grapple with. But the fact that this is now out on the table, communities of color, marginalized communities have been calling this out for quite some time, and not being believed or really being heard. And so I think we are being forced to do this. Is that a good thing? Let's hope it move us forward.

CABRERA: I want to bring in CNN political commentator, Scott Jennings, former special assistant to George W. Bush.

Let me read you an internal DHS/FBI memo that was obtained by "Foreign Policy" magazine. It shows that white supremacists killed 49 people in 26 separate attacks from 2000 to 2014. That was more than any other extremist group in the U.S. The authors of that memo predicted that attacks from white supremacist groups in the coming year would be mostly spontaneous and involve targets of opportunity, which we saw exactly happen in Charlottesville.

Scott, do you think Republicans have a greater responsibility of holding the president accountable for his words that some have called dangerous?

SCOTT JENNINGS, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: I think Republicans control the federal government right now, so they have a responsibility to reassure the public that we have a handle on these white supremacist groups. We've seen a lot of local news clippings over the past few days, especially in places that are having debates about Confederate monuments, where white supremacists were saying, we're going to have a rally. Where I am in Kentucky, today, one white supremacist said, we're going to have a rally and it doesn't have to be like Charlottesville, but it could be. So you see people out there that are very ginned up, very interested in causing trouble and you don't want those instances to become violent. So because the Trump administration is in charge and Republicans are in charge in Washington right now, they absolutely have to reassure the public that our Homeland Security apparatus has a handle on these situations.

I was pleased, frankly, today, very little or no violence occurred in Boston. That was a great thing for this situation.

CABRERA: David, in your "Washington Post" op-ed, you argued Donald Trump doesn't want to be president. That's the name of your op-ed. You point to Charlottesville as proof. And you write this, "Rather than speak for the nation, the president's, job, he spoke for Trump. Rather than applied shared values, he apportions blame."

As you argue that the president should just quit, how does that solve the problem?

DAVID VON DREHLE, COLUMNIST, WASHINGTON POST: Well, it doesn't solve the problem that you started the segment with, which is the long and difficult history of race relations in the United States. That's been a struggle from the beginning that the country is dealt with. It's been an aspiration to have all people created and treated equally but an aspiration that we've also fallen short of.

What would be solved is that we presumably would have a person in the Oval Office who took the responsibilities of the presidency seriously. What we've seen this past week is that Mr. Trump, President Trump, doesn't really want to do the job. It's more important to him this past week to try to win some arcane argument, as if he's sitting in a bar at closing time, rather than do the job of a president, which is to bring us together, to remind us of our shared values, to calm difficult situations, rather than stir them up. And that's the job.

I'm not positive when he ran a year ago that he really expected to win. He's not a man who has spent a long time absorbing the history of the United States. So I'm not sure he really knew what the job was. Now he does, and he doesn't seem to want to do it.

[15:10:31] CABRERA: He has said that jobs are the key to solving America's race problem. Let's listen to what he said in that news conference on Tuesday.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: What people want now, they want jobs. They want great jobs with good pay. And when they have that, you watch how race relations will be.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Tanzina, will jobs solve racism?

VEGA: We heard this comment, and I thought, what data could I start to pull that's going to prove this. This is squarely within the issues I look at in terms of race and the economy.

Let's take a look back at the 1990s when we had big job growth and wage growth. At the same time that that was happening -- and I will say that we have seen an increase in black American's overall income and wealth and education across the years. But we aren't seeing - if we're talking about jobs, let's be specific. In the 1990s, there was a wage growth and people had jobs, but there was also the era of mass incarceration. That was the area of the war on drugs. So while we saw increases in income and wages for black Americans, we also saw a huge percentage of that population being incarcerated and caught up in these unfair drug policies. So we need to look at these things in context.

Let's fast-forward to today, jobs and wages for black Americans versus white Americans, and what we're finding is, even when you have the same experience, the same education, if you're black, you're probably going to be paid less than your white counterparts. When we talk about jobs, what are we talking about? Good paying jobs? Equal paying jobs?

CABRERA: It doesn't sound like there's equity right now.

VEGA: That's right.

CABRERA: That's another area of progress we need.

The White House says President Trump and the first lady, we're now learning, are not going to attend the Kennedy Center Honors in December because they didn't want to create political distraction. Among the honorees this year, we know Norman Lear, Lionel Ritchie, Gloria Stephane, some of these honorees saying they were going to boycott if the president was going to be here. Now the Kennedy Center chairman has come out saying the president's decision, quote, "ensures the honors day remains a deservingly special moment for these honorees."

Scott, the fact that the president is being pulled out and that move is being applauded, what does that tell you?

JENNINGS: This president has a rough relationship with Hollywood. That's not new. That's been going on since the campaign. I suspect it's going to continue. Some of these Hollywood folks are vehemently opposed to his priorities, to him, personally, and they're exercising that right now. So I'm not surprised that they're taking that posture. And frankly, I think maybe the president made the right move to go ahead and announce that he's not going to go, so this doesn't turn into a larger spectacle when it doesn't have to be.

CABRERA: David, I want to show everybody the magazine covers this week that make powerful statements. Several prominent magazines depicting the president associated with Nazis, with KKK symbols. This is "Time," "New Yorker," "The Economist."

David, what does that say about the gravity of the situation and the state of our country?

VON DREHLE: The president had an opportunity to make a clear statement right after Charlottesville about what had happened and what it did or did not say about the United States, and he missed the chance. Then he came out the next day and he attempted to resolve that with a statement that he didn't really seem to have his heart in. Then the next day, when he was supposed to be talking about infrastructure and jobs, he decided instead to have a bit of a tantrum about how he had -- he was really right all along and the rest of the world was wrong. The moment that we're at is that this is a real danger. Hate groups have endangered human populations from the dawn of time. Mass hatred is the most dangerous movement in the world in history. And we need to denounce it when we see it. It was a failure by the president. He still has a chance, I suppose, to get on the right side of this issue, but he needs to take his job seriously.

[15:44:47] CABRERA: All right, we'll leave it there.

Everybody, thank you. Tanzina Vega, David Drehle and Scott Jennings, we appreciate it. Now, one week after those violent and deadly protests in

Charlottesville, hundreds gathered in Chesterfield, Virginia, today to honor Virginia State Trooper Jay Cullen. He and his co-pilot were killed last saturday when their helicopter crashed while they were patrolling the clashes between white nationalists and the counter protesters in Charlottesville.

Virginia Governor Terry McAuliffe was at the service today and he gave an emotional eulogy for the man who had flown him and his family for the past three years.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:15:20] TERRY MCAULIFFE, (D), VIRGINIA GOVERNOR: Today, we lost a member of our family. Dorothy and I are heartbroken. It will never be the same when I step into that helicopter and not see Jay in that front right seat with "Cullen" on the back of his helmet.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: Trooper Cullen was just 48 years old. He was married with two sons. Governor McAuliffe also spoke yesterday at the service for Cullen's partner, Trooper Birk Bates. He leaves behind his wife and 11-year-old twins. Bates died one day before his 41st birthday.

Coming up, Confederate statues and monuments across America are being defaced and vandalized as the president weighs in on a debate getting even more intense.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

TRUMP: So, this week, it's Robert E. Lee. I notice that Stonewall Jackson is coming down. I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really do have to ask yourself where does it stop.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:20:34] CABRERA: Welcome back. The debate over the removal of Confederate monuments is growing increasingly ugly and criminal. And criminal vandals have struck a number of memorials across the country. And just this morning, in fact, Duke University made the decision to remove a statue of General Robert E. Lee that had been defaced there.

While the fight over removing these symbols is nothing new, it has been given new life in the wake of the deadly violence in Charlottesville.

CNN's Nick Valencia reporter.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK VALENCIA, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): It's not just in the south. This week, across America, symbols and monuments to the Confederacy were either taken down or vandalized, sparking the fight over several hundred Confederate monuments and symbols. In Brooklyn, New York, groundskeepers outside the St. Johns Episcopal Church removed two commemorative flags for Confederate General Robert E. Lee. They were expected to be relocated to a church museum. Reactions were mixed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Because of this man, 300,000 Americans were killed.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: At some point, you got to move on and you can't do stuff like this. This is just crazy.

(CHANTING)

VALENCIA: Earlier in the week, in Durham, North Carolina, demonstrators toppled the statue of a Confederate soldier.

(CHEERING)

VALENCIA: Seven protesters were arrested.

Out west, in Arizona, state and local officials woke up Thursday to an extensively damaged Confederate monument along the Jefferson Davis Memorial Highway.

DAVID MCALLISTER, DIRECTOR, SAVE SOUTHERN HERITAGE: That's my family there.

VALENCIA: People like David McAllister are trying to protect monuments like this one in his hometown of Tampa Bay. He leads the group called Save Southern Heritage.

MCALLISTER: Our agenda is the mainstream agenda of cherishing American history.

VALENCIA: Elected officials in New Orleans recently removed several Confederate moments. Mayor Mitch Landrieu thinks those who support them endorse oppression.

MITCH LANDRIEU, (D), MAYOR of NEW ORLEANS: These monuments celebrate a fictional sanitized Confederacy, ignoring the death, ignoring the enslavement and ignoring the terror that it actually stood for.

(SHOUTING)

VALENCIA: Last week's deadly violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, magnified the issue again. And in the wake of it all, the president's comments seem to only widen the gap between opposing sides.

TRUMP: I wonder, is it George Washington next week? And is it Thomas Jefferson the week after? You really do have to ask yourself where does it stop.

Nick Valencia, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: So let's bring in CNN presidential historian, Douglas Brinkley, for a more in-depth conversation on all this.

Doug, these monuments, they will always be a part of American heritage but as a historian what do you think is accomplished by taking them down?

DOUGLAS BRINKLEY, CNN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORIAN: Well, nothing's accomplished by taking them down illegally, like what happened in Durham and you're seeing all these people getting arrested for vandalism and defacing the monuments. Don't do that.

However, we've hit a point in the 21st century where we have to do some de-Confederization. They did it after World War II in Germany, the de-Nazi movement to get rid of swastikas and the like.

We've seen Confederate flags going down after Charleston. And now some people are going to be taking down Confederate monuments. The right way to do it was what Duke University did. They did it in a way that was calm and appropriate. And it's gone now.

The showdown, Ana, as I see it, however, on this issue, I mean, states in the south aren't going to be taking down their Confederate statues on their lawns next week. But I do think the U.S. capitol has Confederate statues. And Congresswoman Barbara Lee, from California, and New Jersey Senator Corey Booker are starting to move for this fall to try to get rid of those out of the U.S. capitol. That's going to be a significant fight. We'll see how that unfolds.

CABRERA: The president has made clear where he stands on this issue. He tweeted about it this week: "Bad to see the history and culture of our great country being ripped apart with the removal of our beautiful statues and moments. You can't change history, but you can learn from it. Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, whose next? Washington? Jefferson? So foolish." Also, "The beauty that is being taken out of our cities, towns and parks will be greatly missed and never able to be comparably replaced."

When President Trump says things like, is George Washington next, not that there is a direct parallel here between the president -- former president and a general, but is he playing on people's fear that America's history is at risk or of being rewritten or even erased?

[15:25:01] BRINKLEY: I think what he was playing on was to change the subject of his weak handling of the crisis in Charlottesville. He wanted to shift the topic away from his seeming quasi sympathy to Neo- Nazis or equating them to peaceful protesters, so he went this monument route. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson are not going to be coming down right now.

The question is, were Confederates anti-American? They essentially committed acts of treason. And it is now being used -- and these monuments that he calls historical were put up in the 1920s when the KKK swelled to four million people and D.W. Griffith did the horrific pro-Klan movie "Birth of a Nation," and it became a movement, putting Jim Crow laws in place. It led to the birth of the NAACP and others. But some of these statues remain. And it's understandable why people of color find them offensive. We need to do what Barack Obama did. He saved Caesar Chavez's

birthplace, Harriett Tubman's, Stonewall in New York. Not in my opinion just going Confederate mania. It's like the president did by praising Lee and Jackson.

CABRERA: You brought up the President Obama, and you bring up his history and what he did in response to similar situations. And he tweeted this week, and clearly a lot of people in this country were looking to him for his response. Here's what he tweeted out, photo of him smiling at four young children along with the Nelson Mandela quote, "No one is born hating the other person because of the color of his skin or his background or his religion."

This is now the most-liked tweet ever. So obviously, President Obama made history as the first black president but his post presidency role remains undefined. What do you make of the strong reaction to that tweet of his?

BRINKLEY: You see it in the Boston protests CNN's been covering all day. Peaceful protesters, people of all mixed races and ethnicities, trying to march against hate. And so President Obama represents far more people than the fringe group of Neo-Nazis and KKK, white supremacist groups. He just quoted Nelson Mandela, and the world cheers.

Right now, the United States is being looked at as weird and strange that we're having an argument over saving the symbol of Confederacy, which was about slavery. And it's such a bizarre moment. But I'm afraid the Trump movement seems blinded to it.

So I hope the south and cities like Austin, where I'm at - where the University of Texas, Austin, took down their Jefferson Davis statue, saw it Duke -- that some of these start coming down. And, hopefully, the state governments will recognize it's not worth keeping them in the long run.

CABRERA: Douglas Brinkley, thanks as always.

We have an incredible discovery to tell you about this afternoon. The "USS Indianapolis," lost on July 30th, 1945, after being hit by a Japanese torpedo during World War II, has just been found. We have pictures, incredible pictures of the wreckage. The first time anyone has seen this ship in more than 72 years. The cruiser was found more than 18,000 feet below the ocean surface by a team of civilian researchers. The ship was immortalized by Captain Quinn's famous speech in the movie "Jaws." The "USS Indianapolis" had just secretly finished delivering parts of the atomic bomb that would be dropped on Hiroshima. Roughly 800 of the 1,200 sailors and Marines on survived the sinking. But after four to five days floating on the sea, only 316 were found alive when they finally got help.

Coming up, Steve Bannon fired. Already making stunning headlines, saying, quote, "The Trump presidency that we fought for and won is over." So what does the Trump doctrine look like now?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK) (BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

[15:33:35] UNIDENTIFIED ACTOR: OK, Donald, can I have my desk back?

ALEC BALDWIN, ACTOR & COMEDIAN: Yes, of course, Mr. President. I'll go sit at my desk.

(LAUGHTER)

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: He was portrayed as the Grim Reaper, the puppet master and even as the brain behind Trump. Now Steve Bannon is out as White House chief strategist.

"I want to thank Steve Bannon for his service. He came to the campaign during my run against Crooked Hillary Clinton. It was great. Thanks." That's what the president tweeted this morning.

Sources now tell CNN Bannon believed he put the pieces in place to put the pieces in place for his agenda to live on without him in the White House. And he downplayed concern about his eminent firing, telling associates he would return to his quote, "killing machine, 'Breitbart'." Late yesterday, we learned he did just that.

Bannon telling the "Weekly Standard," quote, "I feel jacked up. Now I'm free. I got my hands back on my weapons. Someone said, it's Bannon the Barbarian. I'm definitely going to crush the opposition. There's no doubt I built a (EXPLETIVE DELETED) machine at 'Breitbart' and now I'm going to go back knowing what I know and we're about to rev that machine up, and rev it up we will do."

Joining me now is CNN senior media reporter, Oliver Darcy.

Oliver, even though he was forced out, Bannon saying he's going to go to war for the president. What are you learning now about the plans he and "Breitbart" may have moving forward?

[15:35:06] OLIVER DARCY, CNN SENIOR MEDIA REPORTER: One person at "Breitbart" told me they're already starting the motion of going to war for Trump, as Steve Bannon says, by basically targeting the individuals that Bannon clashed with in the Oval Office. You're looking at Jared Kushner, Ivanka Trump, Dina Powell, General McMaster. Those are the people we expect we can look forward to in the next few weeks as "Breitbart" will start zeroing in on them and taking the battle to them.

CABRERA: You really think that he is going to continue to defend the president? He doesn't have it out against him?

DARCY: I'm not sure we'll see him defend the president as we'll see "Breitbart" target the inner circle and maybe amply, at least, that Trump's being misled by people that don't have his best interest at heart and these are the things that Trump campaigned on, and we want him to follow through with his promises. We believe he wants to but these people maybe not the best advisors. I think that's the picture we'll see painted. And they'll target Jared Kushner and Gary Cohn and those individuals saying they're not giving him good advice.

CABRERA: Got you.

So on the one hand, we have Bannon thinking his agenda is going to live on. But on the other hand, he also said this to the "Weekly Standard," "The Trump presidency that we fought for and won is over. We have a huge movement. And we'll make something of this Trump presidency but that presidency is over. It'll be something else. And there will be all kinds of fights. And there will be good days and bad days, but that presidency is over."

So that emphasis on "it is over," what does that mean?

DARCY: I think -- there was a "Breitbart" editor of the day that was on the TV, and he was saying that there's no real conservatives or populists in the White House any more. If you look at the White House, it's certainly a little left leaning. A lot of former Democrats are actually in the White House. What Bannon's saying is Trump was elected as this nationalist, populist, and the people he's surrounding himself with now don't hold those views.

(CROSSTALK)

CABRERA: Trump makes the decisions, as we all know. How often is he listening to all the people around him? He's the decision maker.

Really interesting when you look at a picture taken very early on in this presidency. This is back in January in the Oval Office. It shows the president's original circle. Take a look. All of them, with the exception of the vice president there, Mike Pence, are gone. Every White House we know has some turn over. How remarkable is what we're seeing right now at this stage of the presidency.

DARCY: I think it's absolutely stunning. I don't think anyone -- I mean, I certainly didn't expect this much turn over. I think maybe we expected Reince to be out. But, particularly in the beginning, it seemed like Bannon had a lot of power. And everyone was talking about, wow, he's installed himself on the National Security Council. He seemed to be implementing the Muslim ban, et cetera. And it's really remarkable, a few months later, to see him forced him out of the White House as most of the original staff is gone.

CABRERA: A total turnover.

Oliver Darcy, thanks so much.

DARCY: Thank you, Ana.

CABRERA: Coming up here in the "NEWSROOM," disturbing new video. It shows an officer beating an African-American driver after what seemed like a routine traffic stop. The story behind this and the fallout ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:42:10] CABRERA: Breaking news into CNN, a second police officer who was shot in Kissimmee, Florida, last night has died. Sergeant Sam Howard succumbed to his injuries a few hours ago. He and fellow officer, Matthew Baxter, were killed after shots were fired at them while they were responding to a call in the area. Just one of the three separate police incidents overnight.

There was a second one in Florida just north of Jacksonville. Two officers were shot while responding to an attempted suicide call. The officers exchanged gunfire shooting and killing that suspect.

And on the same night, in Pennsylvania, two state troopers were shot. The suspect was killed.

Another police altercation is getting a lot of attention today. This time, in Ohio. A recording capturing the violent beating of a black man by a police officer right outside one woman's window.

We want to warn you, this video is graphic and disturbing.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Mommy, what is he doing? What's he doing, Mommy?

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Mommy, what is he doing?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he's punching him, though.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED BOY: Is he punching him?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: More than seven million people have watched this video on Facebook and listened to that sobering conversation happening off- camera between that mother and her child.

CNN's Brynn Gingras has the story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my god.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: But he's punching him, though.

(SHOUTING)

BRYNN GINGRAS, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Blow after blow.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Why is he still punching him though?

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: That's a Euclid, Ohio, police officer on top of 25-year-old Richard Hubbard III.

This is Hubbard's arresting photo. His face swollen from those punches.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop! Stop! (INAUDIBLE)

Baby, baby, listen to me. Baby, baby.

(SHOUTING)

AMIOTT: Get back! Get back!

(CROSSTALK)

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Stop! Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! Please stop! Stop!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: The scuffle was also captured on police dashcam video obtained by the "News Herald," and happens two and a half minutes into a traffic stop.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OFC. MICHAEL AMIOTT, EUCLID POLICE DEPARTMENT: The registration shows a suspended license.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

GINGRAS: Officer Michael Amiott said in a written statement, he pulled over Hubbard because the license plate showed the car's owner had a suspended license. Hubbard didn't own the car, but the person driving with him did.

AMIOTT: Step away from me.

GINGRAS: Then, in an official statement, Amiott explains what he says happened in the video. Quote, "Richard quickly pulls his left arm from my grasp and in front of his body out of my control and view. I attempted two knee strikes on Richard. Both had missed. He was attempting to hold on to my legs as I did so. The suspect continually called us weak."

Amiott is now on paid administrative leave from the department while the incident is under review. Records shows Amiott resigned from a different Cleveland-area police

department three years ago after an investigation found he lied about a traffic stop.

But for this case, his union is sticking by him, saying, quote, "We hope that people will not rush to judgment, but rather will understand the literally split-second decision and response required of our police."

The video has gone viral, highlighting tensions between police and the public.

Hubbard didn't want to make any comments to CNN. But the ACLU and NAACP said they were appalled by the brutality.

(on camera): Though this happened last week, the Euclid police chief didn't respond to the public outcry until Thursday. He released a statement on his Facebook page apologizing for his delay and also saying they'll be a thorough investigation -- Ana?

(END VIDEOTAPE)

[15:45:33] CABRERA: Brynn Gingras, thank you.

Let the countdown begin. What you need to know before that once-in-a- lifetime event in the sky.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:50:04] CABRERA: When a terminally ill dog ends up in a shelter, it is likely it will be euthanized. But this week's "CNN Hero" could not stand the idea of these poor helpless animals dying alone, so she dedicated her life to make sure those dogs know love and comfort before they pass. Meet Michelle Allen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(BARKING)

MICHELLE ALLEN, CNN HERO: This hospice is in our home. And when I say in our home, in every single room of our house. This is the last stop for these dogs.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Come on, sweetie.

ALLEN: I don't want them missing out of anything because they didn't get adopted.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

CABRERA: To see more Michelle's nonprofit Monkeys House, go to CNN heroes.com. And while there, nominate someone you think should be a "CNN Hero."

Coming soon to a sky near you, it's T-minus two days officially until the first total eclipse of the sun in the U.S. since 1979. This spectacular phenomenon will be visible across a large swath of North America, from Oregon to South Carolina, as long as the clouds stay away. Viewers in the path of totality are in for an awe-inspiring spectacle as the moon blacks out the sun.

CNN Meteorologist Allison Chinchar is showing us what to expect and how to stay safe.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ALLISON CHINCHAR, AMS METEOROLOGIST: Ana, everyone is excited. Two days away now from the big solar eclipse. It's no wonder people are surprised and excited because this is a rare event.

So let's talk about why this is such a rare and exciting event. So here's what we can expect. To have a solar eclipse, it's the moon basically sits in between the earth and the sun, creating a shadow on the earth. The larger shadow, called the penumbra, gives folks a bit of a glimpse at the eclipse. But the tighter shadow, called the umbra, this is the key zone. This is the zone we talk about for people in totality. for example. It's the line that basically stretches from the Oregon coast all the way over to the South Carolina coast in the eastern portion of the United States. If you fall in this path, this is where you have the best chance to see a total solar eclipse. Meaning everything lines up perfectly. We have several cities that will be in that specific spot, including Caspar, Wyoming, Kansas City, Greenville, South Carolina. But more specifically, with some of those particular locations, even if you aren't in this main blue line here of totality, even some of the cities outside of it, say like Cincinnati, Memphis. Even around Oklahoma City or Atlanta, you'll still be close enough to get a decent enough view to actually see the eclipse. It just won't be perfect.

Now, with that said, if you have plans to go outside, make sure you don't stare directly at the sun. Make sure you have specialized glasses for protection so that you don't end up causing damage to your eyes.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

CABRERA: Looking good there, Allison.

In this week's "Fit Nation, a transgender cyclist makes history.

CNN's Sanjay Gupta has her story.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

GILLIAN BEARDEN, TRANSGENDER CYCLIST: Cycling has offered me a sense of stability in my life. I work through every life situation on my bike.

DR. SANJAY GUPTA, CNN CHIEF MEDICAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Gillian Bearden is an elite cyclist. But her ride has not been easy.

BEARDEN: I was born male, as Jonathan Paul Bearden. Having this identity going on in your mind, you struggle on a daily basis. GUPTA: To cope, Gillian turned to cycling and began to compete in the

male circuit, but her struggle with her identity persisted.

BEARDEN: I was contemplating suicide. To want to kill yourself when you have children, when you have a wife, that's a hard decision to make. But that's how dark it is.

GUPTA: Gillian decided to tell her family. And with their support, she began transitioning.

Gillian worked with officials at USA Cycling, and after months of talks and hormonal testing, they granted her a race to race as a female.

BEARDEN: It was extremely emotional. I was finally on that woman's team that I always longed for.

GUPTA: Now she's about to compete in her first professional cycling race as a woman, the Colorado Classic.

BEARDEN: This race is important because I'll be the first transwoman athlete in the United States to race in the pro field.

(CHEERING)

GUPTA: The Colorado Classic is a two-day cycling event that draws the top professional cyclists in the world.

BEARDEN: When you have 83 other riders hitting speeds of 42 miles an hour, it's a crazy thing.

GUPTA: Gillian finished in time to qualify for the second race, a grueling 32-mile course in Breckinridge, Colorado.

(CHEERING)

GUPTA: Racers climbed 3600 feet uphill at an elevation already of almost 10,000 feet.

BEARDEN: It's going to be intense, it's going on the really hard. But I'm just, I'm really blessed to be able to participate in this.

GUPTA: The steep hills proved tough. And Gillian fell behind the pack. Still, she pushed through to the end. Out of 74 riders, Gillian came in 34th.

[15:55:08] BEARDEN: It felt amazing. I've won the race already. I'm alive. I am my true self. That's the best race there is.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[15:59:58] CABRERA: You're live in the CNN NEWSROOM. Thanks for joining us this weekend. I'm Ana Cabrera, in New York. Great to have you with us. Up first, demonstrators and counter demonstrates taking to the streets

of an American city one week after the deadly racial violence in Charlottesville, Virginia.