CNN "Newsroom" - Transcript Interview with Andy Beshear

Interview

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[09:30:00]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN ANCHOR: You previously served as the attorney general of Kentucky yourself, you're a lawyer yourself. Are you satisfied with the grand jury's decision in this case?

GOV. ANDY BESHEAR (D-KY): Well, the challenge here is that the facts and the evidence have not been shared with the public. I trust the people of Kentucky with the truth. But they need to be able to see the truth, read the evidence, look over what grand jury may have seen or the investigators or the attorney general looked at.

So I've asked the attorney general at this point, given that they've announced that they're not pursuing charges at least in one direction, to post it all online. It's been done in other places and let people read it and process it, and then to be able to ask the tough questions that we as elected officials have to be able to answer.

But then we don't have that vacuum. That vacuum where sometimes there is a lack of information, and our frustrations and our emotions can fill it up. Everybody deserves the facts and to see the evidence themselves.

SCIUTTO: Governor, the attorney general, the current attorney general is a Republican, called this last night self-defense, and said that given Kentucky's vigorous self-defense laws, as he described them that this shooting was justified. What's your response to that argument?

BESHEAR: Well, my response is that's a conclusion and we ought to be able to see the evidence and see the facts that led to that conclusion. Again, I trust the people of Kentucky with the truth. I trust them to be able to look at the facts, but they're not able to do that right now.

You know, throughout the last six months, there hasn't been really any explanation of the process. The evidence you'd have to secure. What it even takes to make certain charges? And then the evidence, itself, to date has not been shared.

Certainly, I think that now is the time. Let people read it. Put it out there. Trust people with the truth. SCIUTTO: There was -- in the wake of the killing of George Floyd,

there were discussions, there were negotiations on legal changes. You have issues such as qualified immunity, et cetera, that many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have said it makes it difficult to prosecute police when deadly force is used.

I wonder, do you believe that the law as it is today is sufficient to handle cases like Breonna Taylor's or do we need new laws? Do we need to change the laws as they stand?

BESHEAR: I think any time that a tragedy occurs, any time where there is a loss of life that may have been able to be avoided, we ought to look at ways that we can do things. Better, whether our processes are right. Now here, we've already started having discussions on general changes to the law, whether that's warrants, whether it is training. And I think what we have to be able to do is to make sure that every single day we're trying to do better because in those moments, somebody's life might be on the line.

I have been talking with our black legislative caucus here in Kentucky. I have been talking to law enforcement groups. We've been trying to find common ground for even a potential special session. But what's been made very clear to me is if we're going to do something like that, we have to make real progress.

SCIUTTO: Yes.

BESHEAR: And not window dressing. Not something to just make people feel better, but real progress. And I'm committed if we go a little broader to addressing systematic racism here in the commonwealth.

SCIUTTO: OK.

BESHEAR: It exists throughout our country. We have to be willing to acknowledge it and I've got to be willing to start the conversation with admitting that I will never feel the depths of what that feels like and of the frustration. But being committed to listening and trying to hear.

SCIUTTO: Breonna Taylor lost her life, right. Was this a failure of justice, in your view?

BESHEAR: Well, I hope that we could look at any situation like this and to say how can we ensure that something like this does not happen moving into the future and then willing to share the facts, the truth, the investigative file, everything out there.

You know, we have the attorney general who went through and described different pieces of evidence the other day but didn't put the evidence out. He described two ballistic reports. If we describe them, put them out and let people see them. But again right now, what we've got are conversations with a vacuum of facts and we need to make sure that people can actually see those, evaluate them and process them.

Let's trust the people of Kentucky and the people of America with the underlying evidence in this case. SCIUTTO: The president tweeted last night that he spoke with you and

that you -- he says you are prepared to work together immediately upon request. Do you need or are you asking for the president's help?

[09:35:06]

BESHEAR: The president did give me a call last night. He said it looked like we have things under control here in the commonwealth. I believe we do. He said to call if we needed additional help.

But again he had stated and I agreed that we think we have things what's necessary in place to protect everyone, to allow people to express their First Amendment rights, to express their pain and frustration, but at the same time keeping everybody safe. Because we saw last night that we can have 99.99 percent of people doing the right thing, but one person that wants to get out there and do the wrong thing.

It caused a lot of harm and can even change the perception. So we're doing everything it takes here in Kentucky to make sure that people can be heard but that we can keep them safe.

SCIUTTO: Final question, if I can, we saw images of civilians armed to the teeth on the streets of Louisville yesterday, vigilante groups, militias, whatever you want to call them, kind of self-appointed law enforcement. And I'm curious, as governor of Kentucky do you see any place for groups like this responding to protests?

BESHEAR: I see no place for what are often white supremacy groups in our society in general. They've protested me. They hung me in effigy on our capitol grounds, and them being in this situation with the ability to cause chaos if they choose, to potentially turn something peaceful into something that is not is incredibly dangerous. They need to go home. They need to go home.

SCIUTTO: Governor Andy Beshear, thanks for taking the time this morning. We wish you. We wish the people of Louisville the best of luck and peace going forward.

BESHEAR: Thank you very much.

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