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NEW DAY SUNDAY

South Korea: Kim Will Give Up Nukes If He Can Stay in Power; Trump Welcomes Home American Released from Venezuela; McCain Reflects on His Life in HBO Documentary; First Lady Not Seen in Public For More Than Two Weeks; Starbucks Stores Close Tuesday for Racial Bias Training; Oldest Surviving Pearl Harbor Vet Remembers the Fallen. Aired 7-8a ET

Aired May 27, 2018 - 07:00   ET

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


[07:00:16] ANNOUNCER: This is NEW DAY WEEKEND with Victor Blackwell and Christi Paul.

VICTOR BLACKWELL, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning to you. And welcome to your NEW DAY.

CHRISTI PAUL, CNN ANCHOR: It is Sunday, May 27th. Here are the top stories for you this morning.

BLACKWELL: With conditions, North Korean leader Kim Jong-un says he will commit to complete denuclearization as long as the rest of the peninsula follows suit and he gets to stay in power.

PAUL: Melania Trump has not been seen in public for more than two weeks now. Her husband insists that she's right there. Why the low profile? "First Ladies" author Kate Anderson Brewer has some insight into the situation.

BLACKWELL: HBO calls the new documentary about Senator John McCain a study of an American hero in the fight of his life. McCain's former presidential campaign manager John Weaver talks to us about his living legacy.

PAUL: And this Memorial Day weekend, we honor those who pay the ultimate sacrifice in America's war. CNN speaks to the oldest surviving veteran of the Pearl Harbor attack.

BLACKWELL: Well, this is a crucial week for the Trump administration beginning with pair of major international developments.

PAUL: Yes, just moments after welcoming home an American who is detained in Venezuela for two years, President Trump reviving home he is sitting down with North Korea's leader next month, despite the fact that, of course, he cancelled the meeting last week.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: We can be successful in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula. It would be a great thing for North Korea. It would be a great thing for South Korea. It would be great for Japan and great for the world. It's moving along very nicely, so we are looking at June 12th in Singapore. That hasn't changed.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: And overnight, the president of South Korea speaking about second summit with the North Korean leader, this for the first time, and announcing if Kim Jong-un is still committed to denuclearization but there's one important caveat.

CNN's Sarah Westwood is live from Washington.

All right, Sarah. What does Kim want?

SARAH WESTWOOD, CNN WHITE HOUSE REPORTER: While Kim Jong-un is still open to denuclearization, that's according to South Korean President Moon Jae-in, but the North Korean leader is said to be fearful that the U.S. might consider a policy of regime change or demand unilateral disarmament without offering to reduce the U.S. military presence on the peninsula.

Now, even as Kim Jong-un is continuing demands for the safety and security of his regime, President Trump is still projecting optimism that the summit he cancelled will still take place as scheduled on June 12th in Singapore even as senior administration officials caution that the 16 days remaining between now and the summit is just not enough time to get ready and it's unclear how the White House plans to bridge the divides that led to the cancellation of the meeting in the first place.

PAUL: All right. I want to ask you about Josh Holt, the man who had been held in Venezuela for two years, welcomed home yesterday to the White House where he saw his family for the first time.

Talk to us about some of the comments the president made. There were a couple of things he said that might have caught somebody's ear.

WESTWOOD: Right. President Trump taking the victory lap on the release of 26-year-old American Joshua Holt from a Venezuelan prison where he had been held for two years, welcoming Holt to the White House. President Trump touted more than dozen prisoners or detainees who had freed from the start of his presidency and he hinted that there could be more Americans welcomed home soon.

Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

DONALD TRUMP, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: It's really very special to have you both. You've gone through a lot.

JOSH HOLT, AMERICAN RELEASED FROM VENEZUELA: Very, very, very difficult two years. Not really the great vacation that I was looking for, but -- but we are still together and starting a marriage rough, but now, we are going to be together and I'm just so grateful for what you guys have done and for thinking about me and caring about me, just a normal person. TRUMP: You were a tough one, I have to tell you. That was a tough --

that was a tough situation, but we have had 17 released and we are very proud of that record. Very proud. And we have others coming. We are in the midst of some very big negotiations to get others out and, in most cases, they are Americans but we can try to help other countries too with this unjustice.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WESTWOOD: Now, Holt's release comes against the backdrop of tense relations between the Trump administration and the Maduro regime. The White House however is saying it made no concessions in exchange for Holt's freedom and that the release of Holt will not change the U.S. policy towards Venezuela -- Christi.

PAUL: All right. Sarah Westwood, we appreciate it so much. Thank you.

CNN political analyst Julian Zelizer is with us now.

Julian, what do you make of the president announcing that they have released 17 others already and that he is actually working to secure more, not just Americans, but others as well?

[07:05:11] JULIAN ZELIZER, CNN POLITICAL ANALYST: Well, this is a president who likes to take victory laps and he likes to count his accomplishments. And so, here, an important release of a hostage is taking place at a critical moment in his foreign policy. So, I'm not surprised to hear that. This is the -- it's the kind of boast President Trump likes to do but in this case, it converges with an important development.

PAUL: They also said the U.S. offered nothing to Venezuela. Do we have any gauge of how this return happened?

ZELIZER: We don't know. What we do know there were back channels established through one of Senator Corker's Latin American aides who's been in contact and negotiating with the Venezuelans for a long time now. And part of it seems to be about the Venezuelan government seeking to develop its own legitimacy and this might have been part of that. But we really don't know if anything was exchanged or exactly what the motivation was behind the release.

PAUL: President Moon, the South Korean president, came out saying that Kim Jong-un has said he will commit to complete denuclearization as long as he gets to stay in power. Is there any indication what the president is going to go into this meeting if it happens on June 12th in Singapore, what he is going to be able to offer, I guess, other than -- other than that? I mean, how -- how does the U.S. balance that with what it has to do to verify that Kim will actually stay with that promise?

ZELIZER: Well, that's the million dollar question and we are dealing with an administration that is probably not going to be fully prepared for the summit if it takes place. President Trump, on his own words, likes to go in without having much

of a game plan, making decisions as this unfolds. So, somehow it seems that the North Koreans will demand some kind of evidence, some kind of verification that they will stay in place, that the U.S. will withdraw some of its military forces from the region. I don't know if President Trump will be willing to do that.

The good news is they are talking or at least it looks like they'll be talking and that is the key for the first summit -- simply to have two people in the room, simply to have a conversation going. The details don't actually necessarily need to be worked out before that takes place.

PAUL: All right. Julian Zelizer, we appreciate your insight. Thank you.

ZELIZER: Thank you.

PAUL: Later this morning, by the way, President Trump's lawyer Rudy Giuliani is on "STATE OF THE UNION," along with James Clapper, the former director of national intelligence. And you can see that right here on CNN at 9:00 a.m. Eastern.

BLACKWELL: First Lady Melania Trump has not been seen in public for more than two weeks. Her husband, the president, insists she is right there. We are looking into why she is keeping such a low profile.

PAUL: And also, HBO is calling their documentary about Senator John McCain, a study of an American hero in the fight of his life.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. JOHN MCCAIN (R), ARIZONA: I know that this was a very vicious disease. I greet every day with gratitude.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: McCain's former presidential campaign manager John Weaver is with us next to talk about John McCain.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: Maverick, American hero, there are a lot of ways that people describe Senator John McCain, but these are his own words. This is a quote here: I have lived an honorable life and I am proud of my line.

PAUL: Yes. In a tribute to a man who's given so much of himself to his country. This Memorial Day, HBO is airing a documentary on the Republican senator who is currently battling brain cancer.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MCCAIN: I was always looking at the next step down the road.

BILL CLINTON, FORMER PRESIDENT: McCain was always able to break the mold that he was in if it's clearly the right thing to do and that's an invaluable commodity.

GEORGE W. BUSH, FORMER PRESIDENT: I thought I was going to whip him but he thought he was going to whip me.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: He has an authentic inner, even when compromises for political reasons, he knows he is compromising some piece of himself.

BARACK OBAMA, FORMER PRESIDENT: For John to say we're all Americans, we're all on the same team I thought was an indication of who John fundamentally was.

MCCAIN: We need to give the American people what they deserve and right now, they are not getting it.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: John Weaver is with us now. He's a GOP strategist and a former presidential campaign manager to Senator John McCain.

John, thank you so much. We appreciate it.

Tell us something about John McCain that maybe we wouldn't know.

JOHN WEAVER, MCCAIN'S FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER: Well, good morning, guys. Thanks for having me on.

As I traveled the country with John early in the presidential pursuit in 1997 and '98, what we found is that people came to him looking for a return to respect in our government and he had such empathy for that -- for that mission, and he was greatly concerned at that time about what was happening in Washington and it has grown even larger today. His love of country was something I've never seen and not seen since.

BLACKWELL: You know, we have talked even in the intro to bringing you into the show about how other people see John McCain, his legacy, his service to the country, to the military, also in Congress. How does he see himself in those conversations you've had with him?

WEAVER: Well, he never talks about himself. As political consultants, we were always willing to push his heroism, his time in the Hanoi hotel as a prisoner of war to be used politically. And he refused that. He never counted himself as a hero. He talked on limited basis about his time in prison but when he did he talked to others about the sacrifices they made.

We walked through airports and he saw airman or women who were in the military he would stop and say thank you to them and he continuously went out of his way to praise our current members of the military. He never once thought of himself.

PAUL: You know, there is a moment in this documentary where he says, and I think we have the words that we can put up on the screen. He says, I should have said when he is talking about the presidential election, I should have said, look, Joe Lieberman is my best friend. We should take him but I was persuaded by my political advisers that it would be harmful and that was another mistake that I made.

So, it sounds as though he is not saying he regret choosing Sarah Palin, he regrets going with his gut. Is there a lesson there for current and really future lawmakers?

WEAVER: Well, I think so. Look, we -- I try to tell my clients to not only be true -- now I wasn't there when he was talked out of choosing Senator Lieberman and chose Governor Palin instead, but I believe had he chosen Joe, he campaign would have been a happier campaign for him and he would have run it in a much different way. I think the outcome would have similar, quite frankly, but he would have felt better about it himself.

PAUL: John Weaver, we appreciate you sharing some of your time with us this morning -- thank you so very much.

WEAVER: Thanks, guys. Have a great day.

BLACKWELL: Thank you.

PAUL: You too.

BLACKWELL: All right. As Democrats approach the midterm elections, we are deep into the season now with so many primaries happening. What's the best strategy to bring in voters? Excite that base? Or reach out to possibly persuadable Trump voters?

My next conversation with two men who are on opposite sides of that conversation.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:21:46] BLACKWELL: We are well into the midterm election season and Democrats have a decision to make. Where will they dedicate their money? How will they dedicate their resources in order to win in November? Double down on getting out and exciting their nonwhite base, or prioritizing, persuading working class whites who supported President Trump in 2016?

I spoke with two men who disagree on the way forward.

Steve Phillips, founder of Democracy and Color, a political organization focused on race and politics and author of "The New York Times" best seller "Brown is the New White: How the Demographic Revolution has created a New American Majority." And Ruy Teixeira who is senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, and co-director of the State of Change, Demographics and Democracy Project.

Gentlemen, I'm excited to have this conversation. I wanted to have it with you two for a while. So, thank you for being with us.

And this is the right time to have it especially after this historic win in Georgia by Stacey Abrams.

Here is when she said after her win.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

STACEY ABRAMS (D), GEORGIA GUBERNATORIAL CANDIDATE: We have an opportunity to turn out voters who haven't voted in recent years. They vote in the presidential election but not in the gubernatorial election, and we have more than enough of those voters to win without compromising our values and pretending to be moderate to conservative to appeal to a certain segment.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

BLACKWELL: Rudy, this is a great experiment, especially in the South, not just because she is a black woman who is now running for governor but also because she is running in Georgia as a liberal Democrat. She is not reaching out or focusing primarily, I should say, on some of those potentially persuadable conservative Democrats or Trump voters. Do you think that's a mistake?

RUY TEIXEIRA, SENIOR FELLOW CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS: Well, my view on this if you look at the structure that Georgia electorate, white part of the electorate is probably going to be at least 60 percent of voters in this election and she is going to have to reach a certain number of those. I think it is going to be primarily mobilization election where she is going to have to rely on a heavy turnout around blacks and young people, but there is also going to be a necessity to get, say, 25 percent of the white vote, ideally, 26 to 27 percent. So, exactly how she is going to run in the general, we'll have to see.

I think she ran in a certain way for the primary and it worked very well there. I think as she confronts the general election, she will probably make some effort to reach out to at least more moderate whites and try to get them into the fold, because again, it's a kind of situation where you don't get a lot of white support in Georgia but you do need a certain threshold to actually succeed in winning a statewide election.

BLACKWELL: You wrote this week what Abrams is proving the way to increase voter turnout is inspiring progressives, not coddling moderates and conservatives. Question here as we expand the conversation beyond Georgia. Is this transferable? I mean, maybe not to Heidi Heitkamp in North Dakota, but McCaskill in Missouri, Nelson in Florida. What do you think?

STEVE PHILLIPS, FOUNDER, DEMOCRACY IN COLOR: Yes, one of the things that people don't understand about politics is that they're really -- this is the lowest level of persuadable or swing voters that's ever been in the history of recorded polling. And so, this notion that there's all these voters who are up for grabs is completely unfounded empirically. It applies in Georgia and it applies in the other states.

[07:25:00] Jimmy Carter's grandson ran in Georgia. He only got 23 percent of the white vote. So, there's a ceiling there that is what all of the data shows. It doesn't mean you're against those people. It just means that that's what the data shows. Stacey's upside is in Georgia, is that there are 1.5 million eligible

nonvoting people of color. She's quite properly focused on that population as a population that's much more likely to prevail than to be able to win over these people who are -- the unicorns of politics, and that the Heidi Heitkamps and Claire McCaskill, what people don't understand in those states, even those states that Trump won, a lot of people voted against Trump.

And you still have a mobilization issue. More people voted for Hillary Clinton in Missouri than voted for the Republican candidates for senator in the last midterm election. And so, that's why I say we have to inspire the core Democratic constituency, the new American majority of people of color and progressive whites.

BLACKWELL: Would it not, Steve, be electoral malfeasance not to go after those voters that are persuadable that supported Trump in 2016?

PHILLIPS: You know, it's actually electoral malfeasance to waste your money on voters who are not going to be supportive of you. And so, there is no -- I mean, believe me, I would love to have more working white class support. Some of my best friends are white working class people. But there's no evidence in the data that you can get more of them.

And so, the continued to waste all of this money, the Democrats on the progressive side spent $200 million targeting white working class vote and they had zero dollars on the independent side, the super PACs going after African-American voter immobilization. And so, if the black vote had turned out at the same level it did in 2012, Hillary Clinton would be president. But you don't hear about that. You don't get invited on television shows to talk about why are we going after the black vote, but everybody wants to hear about the white conservative, white working class vote. And it's just a fools errand.

BLACKWELL: Rudy, let's talk about that.

TEIXEIRA: Yes.

BLACKWELL: Let's talk about the lesson of 2016 and Michigan specifically. I mean, Trump won Michigan by 11,000 votes. Hillary Clinton underperformed in Wayne County specifically. If she had performed at the level that Barack Obama performed in 2012, she probably would have won that state. So, when you suggest prioritizing or at least going after I guess a priority, the white working class vote, what about the lesson of Michigan and not exciting the nonwhite base there that could have delivered a state?

TEIXEIRA: Well, first of all, I really wish this conversation was not typically posed as sort of, A or B thing. Either, A, you mobilize nonwhite constituency, say, or B, you go after the white working class vote. I'm not saying A or B. I'm saying A and B.

And also Steve would refer to all the data show X because I don't believe the case. There's abundant data that would make the case for A or B. Let's take the 2016 election. The simulations we did of that 2016

election under different circumstances in our State of Change Project, data which have been challenged, which were about as rigorous you can get show definitively that if Clinton had gotten the same level of black turnout in every state as Obama did in 2012, she would not have won the election. She would have carried Michigan. She would have carried Wisconsin, but she would not have carried Pennsylvania.

On the other hand, if she had gotten merely reduce the swing against or nonwhite college voters by one quarter, in other words, still have substantial swing against her and not as large, she would have won the election easily. So, I don't think that Steve is correct in saying that all the data show X. That's I mean, at least that's an arguable point. I think it's absurd for him to claim the data on this side when clearly it is not.

Look at Conor Lamb in Pennsylvania. The data are quite clear he would not have won PA 18 unless he moved a certain number of Trump voters over into his column. That is a fact and I don't see how Steve can deny it.

BLACKWELL: Quick, Steve, responds to that, please.

PHILLIPS: Yes. What I'm talking about is the census data if you look which is the data we have that's going on. You look at that data and Clinton performed at the same level Obama did based --

TEIXEIRA: Steve, it's not right! We used that census data in our modeling and I can assure you that is not the case.

BLACKWELL: Let him finish.

PHILLIPS: The census data shows that in Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and Michigan that that level and you have the same level of black support, she would have prevailed. And Conor Lamb was another example. Conor Lamb got fewer votes than Hillary Clinton did in his district.

And so, the notion that he had to win over all of these Trump voters is completely fallacious and inaccurate. And the most important point is that this is not -- this notion about A or B is fine, yes. We should be trying to do both. But we are in a campaign where you have limited time and limited money, the question is what are you prioritize?

And that's what my argument is. That the Democrats prioritized to the exclusion voters of color and obsessive focus with hundreds of millions of dollars going after this white working class conservative vote to no positive outcomes.

[07:30:15] BLACKWELL: All right. I've been looking forward to this conversation for sometime and it did not disappoint. Steve Phillips and Ruy Teixeira, thank you both.

TEIXEIRA: Thank you.

PHILLIPS: Thank you.

PAUL: All right. Take a look at this paper. I know it looks like another grade school paper, right? There are errors and teachers correcting it.

Well, if talk a closer look, yes, it says the White House there. This is a letter from President Trump to Ivan Mason. She's a retired English composition teacher. And it's full of what she calls, quote, silly mistakes, and she received it in response to a letter she'd written about the Parkland, Florida, school shooting.

Mason did what she always did at school. She corrected the writing. She returned it to the White House and even she said, listen, the form letter was most likely written by a staff member, not the president, but the president did sign it.

It's been more than two weeks since the first lady has made any public appearances and some people are wondering, where is Melania Trump? The author of "First Women" has some insight for us next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:36:43] PAUL: Well, we haven't seen First Lady Melania Trump more than two weeks at this point. We know that she spent five fights in the hospital for a kidney procedure earlier in the month. But Friday, the president did tell reporters she's doing great, happy to hear that.

CNN contributor and author of "First Women: The Grace and Power of America's Modern First Ladies", Kate Andersen Brower with us now.

Kate, thank you for being here.

What is the holdup in seeing her publicly? Is it her recovery?

KATE ANDERSEN BROWER, CNN CONTRIBUTOR: Well, I reached out to her spokesperson, Stephanie Grisham, who said she has been meeting with the staff quite a bit to plan upcoming events. There's the congressional picnic is coming up at the end of June. There's also the Fourth of July celebration. So, she is doing things privately, but I think we have to remember, she really prefers not being in the spotlight and this kidney procedure came right on the heels of the Be Best initiative announcement. So, we saw more of her than we have ever seen before in the short amount of time and there were times -- I mean, she only moved to the White House in June of 2017, so a years ago basically.

So, I think that, you know, she prefers to not be too public and we might not see her for a little while.

PAUL: Yes, I was going to say, this could be contributed to being typical of this first lady. She enjoys her privacy.

BROWER: She does. I mean, remember, when she was in Trump Tower with their son Barron, there were periods of time we didn't see her at all and it was kind of a surprise when she tweeted she had moved into the White House last year.

So, she is incredibly private. But she is meeting with staff and she has asked them all to write letters and to get in touch with everyone who has written her notes about her recovery. So, she is not completely shirking her responsibilities as first lady, which I don't think she views the role quite is same as some of her predecessors did.

PAUL: How does she see it differently, do you think?

BROWER: I think that she is -- because she is less public and because she didn't necessarily want to be first lady and this is her first time in the political scene, she is not as prepared as a lot of other women who came before her, including Laura Bush and Michelle Obama whose husband was a senator, of course. She has a staff of 10 people. That's a really small staff, less than half of what Michelle Obama has.

So, I just -- I don't think she has the infrastructure in place to do a lot and I think that says a lot about how she sees the position.

PAUL: But we know she is so enthusiastic about this Be Best initiative, because some of the pictures we were showing, when she is with children, we just see her light up, she shines there.

Kate Andersen Brower, thank you so much.

BROWER: Thank you.

BLACKWELL: Starbucks will close its thousands of stores in the U.S. this week to offer more training to its employees, hoping to prevent what happened last month, when two innocent who arrested in one of their stores while simply waiting for a friend. Next, can a half-day session fix this problem?

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[07:43:49] BLACKWELL: So, this Tuesday afternoon, Starbucks is scheduled to close its 8,000 plus stores, in the company-owned stores at least for bias training. When they reopen, the company hopes something like this will be less likely to happen again.

Here's the video, maybe you remember it. The two men in Philadelphia last month who had called -- police were called on them by a Starbucks manager. The company's CEO apologized to the men and a new policy says anyone is allowed to sit in Starbucks and use their bathrooms whether or not they buy something.

PAUL: So, the question is, can what happened be fixed in an afternoon?

Howard Ross is the man to ask that. He is an expert on unconscious bias and the training needed to overcome it. He's with us now.

Thank you so much, Howard, for being here.

We do have a clip from the training video that Starbucks is going to use. Let's listen to that together first here.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: What did they do? Someone tell me what they did.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Without a doubt, the events in Philadelphia prompted to us bring 8,000 stores and 175,000 partners together on 5/29, because that is not who we aspire to be.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: We are here to make Starbucks a place where everyone, everyone feels welcome.

[07:45:01] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Helping people see each other fully, completely, respectfully.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: A lot of people say, look, kudos to them for attempting this.

BLACKWELL: It's something.

PAUL: No doubt about it. It's something.

The optics, however, bring a lot of skepticism because people wonder how one day of training could really change what people really want to have changed and that is the mindset, the way that we see each other. With that said, what is the value of this one day of training?

HOWARD ROSS, UNCONSCIOUS BIAS EXPERT: Well, I think that it's important for everybody to realize that -- that this is a beginning and one day of training -- I think it's pretty accurate to say one day of training, if that's all they do, is not likely going to likely have very much impact. I mean, it may impact certain people, but it's more likely to impact people who are inclined in that direction any way.

But one day of training, on the other hand, could be the beginning of something really impactful if they follow up with the right kinds of activities. And, so far, relative to their public statements, they seem to be saying that they intend to do that.

BLACKWELL: You suggest, I read in an article that quoted you, that workers need constant reminders. What do those look like?

ROSS: Well, I think what we have -- we have to think about we are dealing with something that is a long time, obviously, challenge for us and that are the unconscious perceptions that we have with each other based on race, in this case, or gender, sexual orientation or whatever else. And so, of course, it's -- you know, even the most impactful training you could ever do, at best, puts people in a new direction.

And then let's say you do a training and you don't have an incident where you have to deal with the issues that you're dealing with in the training for three months, well, you're not likely to remember it. But if you have things that are embedded into the system, reminders that are embedded into the system or lists that people follow to do the right thing, that sort of a thing, then it could be much more impactful over the long run.

PAUL: It becomes habitual.

ROSS: Yes.

PAUL: What are those things, though? When they sit down together, help us understand what are the conversations going to be to be and what are they prompted about and to see from this point forward?

ROSS: Well, I think can't say definitively what Starbucks is doing -- I can say that in a situation like this, best practice we would suggest are three basic streams of conversation. The first is the what, that is what is unconscious bias? How does it affect us? How does it affect the way we make decisions, especially when we interact with people? That sort of thing.

So, we want people to get the information they need to get a better understanding of how the mind works and the research that we have shows that that was the most important thing any time you're doing some kind of diversity or bias training, that the most impactful thing is to help people understand how they are making decisions. Because most people don't wake up in the morning and say how can I suppress people in another race today? And most of this is very -- individual behavior.

And the second piece is the so-what. How does this impact their behavior? How might this show up on a daily basis so that people can have a sense of not only some of the background experiences and research behind it, but also so they can be on the lookout for certain kinds of situations that might be more prone to bias.

The third is the now what. What are things we can do to mitigate our own reaction to bias individually and do systematically as an organization to see more bias --

BLACKWELL: All right. Howard Ross, thanks so much for being with us this morning. Starbucks on Tuesday will plant the seed. We will look for the fruit. Thanks so much.

PAUL: Howard, thank you.

You know, the oldest surviving Pearl Harbor vet remembers the people that maybe he met, that he fought with on Memorial Day. That's next.

(COMMRECIAL BREAK)

[07:51:23] PAUL: So, if you like the idea of surfing for exercise, but you're not sure about braving the waves, this week's "Staying Well" looks at a surf-inspired on land.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANDREA METCALF, FOUNDER, HANG FIVE FITNESS: This is surf-inspired fitness, and it's done on a surfboard with air breeze underneath to create that fluidity and balance that you feel when you're on water. The surfboard is on top of the air cushions that makes the board rock side to side and then there's some straps that kind of give it a little better stability.

PAUL JANOWITZ, FINANCIAL ANALYST: I'm essentially a wannabe surfer. In the beginning, there is the fear of just balancing and stabilizing on the board, but it doesn't take too long before you kind of get your feel for the board. I just find that that's a great core workout.

LIN DAO, MOTHER OF TWO BOYS: You can't let your mind wander. You've got to focus on what you are doing. My core is stronger. My legs are stronger. My balance is definitely better.

KATE MIHEVC EDWARDS, PHYSICAL THERAPIST: In your feet, we have little muscles called the intrinsic muscles. If you're having to balance all the time and move with the board, then what it will do is it will get those muscles to be stronger which will create a better support system in your entire body.

You can also increase your core stability because you have to move dynamically. If you are an older person that doesn't have great balance, it may serve you better to do some other kind of balance workout.

DAO: Just make sure it is in the warm water and not somewhere cold and I'll be fine.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

BLACKWELL: The teacher who tackled a school shooter in Indiana is now out of the hospital.

PAUL: Indiana Congresswoman Susan Brooks says she met Jason Seaman yesterday and she isn't the only state official calling him a hero. Let's listen to Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

GOV. ERIC HOLCOMB (R), INDIANA: To know that Jason put others before himself is not a surprise to anyone I found out that knows him. I am so proud that Jason is a Hoosier.

(CHEERS AND APPLAUSE)

We are so fortunate to have a man like Jason teaching our young ones.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: The governor spoke at a vigil held in Noblesville. Thirteen- year-old student Ella Whistler was wounded, along with Seaman. And her family says she is in critical but stable condition and they appreciate all the well-wishes that they have received thus far.

BLACKWELL: Now, one of the Americans honoring those who died in the line of service this weekend is the oldest survivor of the attack on Pearl Harbor, 106-year-old Ray Chavez.

PAUL: CNN's Dianne Gallagher has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT, FORMER U.S. PRESIDENT: December 7, 1941, a date which will live in infamy.

DIANNE GALLAGHER, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A day that still plays out in the mind of Ray Chavez.

RAY CHAVEZ, PEARL HARBOR ATTACK SURVIVOR: Every day.

GALLAGHER: Seventy-sixty years later.

CHAVEZ: I saw all the ships on fire, a terrible smokescreen through the harbor and covering the ships.

GALAGHER: At 106 years old, Chavez is the oldest surviving Pearl Harbor veteran.

CHAVEZ: Never forget what you see and learn. I remember and then I forget and remember again.

GALLAGHER: Remembering is what brings Chavez to Washington, D.C. this weekend. Although he did meet President Donald Trump at the White House.

CHAVEZ: I look forward to it because I didn't vote for him. And I enjoyed meeting him. Pleasant enough to be right next to him.

GALLAGHER: Chavez travelled across country from San Diego to D.C., stopping in Kansas to refuel and meet with veterans to attend the 105th Memorial Day ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery. He and his family are guests of Defense Secretary James Mattis. But the navy veteran says more than all of the pomp and circumstance surrounding his visit his focus is on those who gave the ultimate sacrifice. It's the act of remembering that is most important this holiday weekend.

CHAVEZ: Nice to know remembrance day because it's very important that the younger generation know and learn at the beginning of the war.

GALLAGHER: Vice President Mike Pence spent part of his Friday at the TAPS Good Grief camp, with a younger generation that knows the consequences of war all too well. All of these children have lost a loved one who served in the armed forces.

MIKE PENCE, VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: A room full of heroes.

GALLAGHER: And many will spend part of their Memorial Day here in Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery, remembering their fathers, mothers, sisters and brothers, veterans of wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and post-9/11 conflicts.

CHAVEZ: I would do it again if I was called to active duty, but chances are never. GALLAGHER: But the secretary and deputy secretary of defense

surprised Chavez Friday night with a reenlistment and promotion. Still, the 106-year-old says the purpose of this weekend is to honor the memory of those he served with.

CHAVEZ: I never will forget that because I met real fine young men.

GALLAGHER: And the sacrifice of the men and women who came after, as well.

Dianne Gallagher, CNN, Atlanta.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

BLACKWELL: Those bells are to honor a soldier who died in World War II. His funeral just now being held nearly 75 years later.

PAUL: In fact, the country, six soldiers killed in action in World War II are finally being laid to rest this Memorial Day weekend. Their names I want to share with you here: Francis Drake, Harvel Moore, Elden Grimm, Thomas Murphy, Jack Krieger, and Walter Backman. Their remains were just recovered in the South Pacific decades, of course, after they died.

BLACKWELL: Here in Hamilton, Ohio, you see the crowd here. They paid respect and welcomed home Thomas Murphy. Each is being buried with full military honors.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: This is one of the days where it is sad but as well as joyous day because we were able to bring them home.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: It's like living legends here. You know, you talk about superheroes. Those are superheroes.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PAUL: Amen. Amen to that.

Thank you so much for spending time with us this morning. And we hope that you make some good memories this weekend as we will all remember all of these men and women.

BLACKWELL: "INSIDE POLITICS" with John King starts right now.