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CNN NEWSROOM

Live Coverage Of Reverend Clementa Pinckney's Funeral; 3:30-4p ET

Aired June 26, 2015 - 15:30   ET

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


[15:30:00] UNIDENTIFIED MALE: When I come to the end of my journey, weary of life and the battle is won, carrying the cross of redemption, he'll understand and he'll say well done. By the Grace and glory, our creator, our ruler and our redeemer, bless and comfort us as we prepare to leave this place. We've mourned today the untimely and tragic death of the Reverend Clementa Pinckney, but we've celebrated his exemplary, spiritual life of work and service. The grievous passing that we rejoice that because he was and is your child. He resides in your eternal presence where there is no gun violence, no racial prejudice, no pain and no danger. Rejoice that he now lives eternally in a land where every day is a day of unspeakable joy.

Let us remember him as we never know life's unpredictable pathways. But we know that if we trust in you, we will never walk alone. Bless his wife Jennifer, his daughters Melanie and Ylana, his father and extended family and the families of the eight other souls. As they grapple with their grief, be their comfort and refuge and strength and help them to remember that even when the visitors are (INAUDIBLE) and phone calls become less frequent, you are still always just a prayer away.

Bless those of us in the AME church and in the broader family of faith. Keep our spiritual arms around this family so that we can be your instruments of consolation and assurance. Bless us to live out our faith as Clementa Pinckney did so we can be advocates for all human kind and change things for the better.

Lord, bless our community, state and world. We've come together in a mighty way to deal with a horrific tragedy. Now, Lord, keep us together so that we can continue to stand and work together and find common ground for equality and prosperity and justice and progress not on our terms but on your terms.

Bless and be with us dear Lord. Lead, guide and protect us so we can remember Clementa Pinckney by serving you as he did. So that some glad mourning in this life is over for each of us, our legacy will say as it does for me and him that epitomizes his legacy, if I can help somebody, then my living will not be in vain. Amen.

CROWD: Amen.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Thank you so much. May you please be seated.

BROOKE BALDWIN, CNN ANCHOR: I want to welcome our viewers in the United States and all around the world as we have been watching the celebration of the life of reverend Clementa Pinckney there in Charleston, South Carolina. It is a capacity crowd, 5400 people there. And you just witnessed one of the most powerful moments in President Obama's time in office. That speech as the city mourns nine lives lost nine days ago.

My colleague Don Lemon is there in Charleston along with Van Jones who once worked with the president there at the White House.

Don, it's tough to even follow the speech but the word I take away is grace.

DON LEMON, CNN HOST, CNN TONIGHT: You know, Brooke, this is quite possibly one of the most powerful and extraordinary moments that I have witnessed on television, especially a speech coming from the president. I never really -- I'm at a loss for words and I'm almost at a loss for words right now. I mean, Van and I couldn't even look at each other.

VAN JONES, CNN POLITICAL COMMENTATOR: Yes. Because this is what happens in the black church every Sunday morning.

LEMON: But not only that, this is what many people around the country wanted to hear from this president for a long, long time.

JONES: Absolutely. Very long time.

LEMON: It's time to step into your legacy.

JONES: It really is. This is a different president. This year, I think, has transformed him. I think a year ago, Ferguson, Baltimore, now Charleston, I think you're seeing the 3.0 version.

When he first came on the scene he was trying to talk about race and (INAUDIBLE), he's trying to --

LEMON: He kept getting hit by people.

JONES: He became the racial pinata. The black saying he wasn't doing enough, the white saying he was doing too much. Suddenly, in this speech, he just decides to give over to the (INAUDIBLE).

LEMON: He said in the podcast, he said I'm fearless.

JONES: I'm fearless.

[15:35:00] LEMON: And you know, once you're fearless and once you really don't give a damn, no one can stop you. And I think that the president is in that mode now. He knows that this is his legacy. He knows, if anyone, not just in this country but anyone in the world can make a change to race relations and getting people understand each other and he said that. He said, we have to stop. We have to start listening to each other.

JONES: I thought it was -- he had to make a choice today. Was he going to talk about the political issues?

LEMON: And he did.

JONES: Was he going to talk about the flag? Was he going to talk about guns, was he going to talk about racism or was he going to talk about the deceased, his friend who died? And he decided to do both.

LEMON: He brought in religion.

JONES: Yes.

LEMON: Right? He began to talk about that. And he talked about the church.

JONES: Yes.

LEMON: What the AME church meant. And I though he was such a God Christ (ph). He kept saying "our." as Christians.

JONES: Exactly. We got to go back to (INAUDIBLE). But what I think is most important is that when he stands up and he begins to sing "Amazing Grace," I have never heard a president do that. Certainly not in the way that he did it. When -- because he hit so many of the deep cores within the African-American community, the organist started coming into the speech. I've never heard an organist come into a presidential speech.

LEMON: We do jumped out of our seats. He's in full preacher mode right now.

JONES: Minister in chief.

LEMON: Right.

JONES: At the moment when ministry is needed. But he didn't take the safe way out.

LEMON: Can I ask you a very personal question?

JONES: Yes.

LEMON: How did it feel to watch him as a black man?

JONES: I was proud and I was terrified. I was afraid that he was going too far.

LEMON: I'm so glad you said that. I'm so glad you said that.

JONES: He might have had people misunderstand him and suddenly - I don't think he word, but I worry about it from. I'm thinking to myself, I understand what he's doing. I'm stirred up. I understand these references. I understand the chords but I'm thinking, is somebody going to say that he's playing the race card at a funeral? I still have so much trauma in trying to protect the first black president but he's free.

LEMON: He's free. JONES: And I think - I want to say this. I think that all nine of

the people who died, and that's what it should be about, would be proud of this speech. That's the most important thing I can say. They would be proud. Because when you look at the things that they lived for, if you look at the things that they died for, this is a political assassination. Let's be clear. A political leader was killed. And so many of us, Don, were afraid that Obama would be assassinated. That it would be Obama in a casket.

LEMON: Right.

JONES: And so when you have a young black leader shut down and you have the first black president standing up over that body and he decides to actually tell his own truth, agree with it or not, that is a powerful moment in our community. I was terrified every word he spoke.

LEMON: As someone who is emancipated and who was freed, I, watching that speech as a person call, that is black man was saying, go on, say it. If you don't say it, nobody is going to say it. Go on. Say it. If you don't say it, nobody is going to say it. Be damned what everybody thinks. He is speaking his truth.

He is the president of the United States but he's also the first black president of the United States and he comes from a certain place and that place is OK because he said during the speech, he said, we have always been respectful of history. We've been enamored by history but not each other's history. So we must be -- and he said, you can be proud of that flag but you should not be proud of slavery, of owning slaves.

JONES: The challenge the president now has is he went from being a bridge builder, he became a pinata.

LEMON: Dr. King.

JONES: Dr. King, that's him with same thing. Now he's standing up and he is trying to be an authentic and as you said fearless leader.

LEMON: I don't think he's trying. I just think he's doing it.

JONES: I think he is doing it.

And so, I think now the country has a choice. Do we welcome this level of candor, do we welcome this level of authenticity and meet it with more authenticity or do we go back in to the name game?

LEMON: No.

JONES: He took real chances today. I hope the country can receive it.

LEMON: There's no going back. I think the genie is out of the bottle. And I think that, you know, people can say what they want. You don't have to agree with Obama. You don't have to agree with President Obama, excuse me, I want to pay some respect. You don't have to agree with President Obama, but what you must agree with, out of all of this, even if you don't agree with him, he said, come in, listen, everybody come in, everybody listen, stop calling each other names and start listening. We've had lots of conversations -- I say it all the time, people, we have a lot of conversations then we have a lot of conversation about race but do we ever really do anything about it?

JONES: Well, you know what, I think the part of what I was inspired by and what I was encouraged by also was his faith has been questioned.

LEMON: Yes.

JONES: This was the most Christian speech I've heard from the president.

LEMON: Yes.

[15:39:58] JONES: Some people may be uncomfortable with that but I have to say this, a lot of people on the left are uncomfortable with religiosity and yet they celebrate those church goers who can forgive. So I think the secular left is uncomfortable with religiosity have to recognize and respect that it is their religion that is letting these people be as forgiving as they are. And I think people on the right have to be able to respect the fact this president is speaking authentically about his own experience, he's speaking for a lot of people and truth can set you free.

LEMON: As he said, uncomfortable truth.

JONES: Uncomfortable truth.

LEMON: And the truth will set you free, right?

JONES: Yes.

LEMON: And he said, god works in mysterious ways. And Donna Brazile is joining us on the phone with wonders to perform.

Donna, what did you think of it?

DONNA BRAZILE, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST (via phone): Well, first of all, I wanted to just say thank you to you and Van. But I think today, President Obama paid homage to Reverend Pinckney and the shepherd of his - as the shepherd of his flock. He went some place inside of his pain that I have never felt him as seen in him, though. I think he went some place that was near to where I felt the will of God because it's been a very painful week in many ways for the president. But I believe that he received his inspiration from those families who not only show their -- what I call forgiveness. They welcome, those parishioners, an evil man into their home of worship and then the families forgive him for this despicable act.

I think the eulogy was a teachable moment about not just role in history of the black church and forgiveness, but it also, he talked about the threats and what we are still dealing with and fighting with. He gave a lot of thought, you can tell, and right in his speech and let me just say this. He wrote this. This came from President Barack Obama.

JONES: Yes. That's him.

LEMON: Donna, we were saying that. We were saying that earlier. We were saying, we were wondering who wrote this.

BRAZILE: No. He wrote it. This was -- this was Barack Obama, President Barack Obama. Grace, that was the theme, grace. And Van, I was shocked. I mean, he started to sing "amazing grace." I have been in enough black churches all of my life to know that only the best of the best can get up and sing from the pulpit and when they come behind you, but never in my life would I ever thought a president, let alone this president would do that and it came from the heart. That was Barack Obama.

LEMON: Hey, Donna --

BRAZILE: Yes.

LEMON: Can I ask you, you know, because Van and I have been talking about this, where do we go from here? I am of the belief that we cannot go back. We must not go back. And people, us in the media, we have a platform, can't allow it to go back. We must be honest with each other. We must be genuine. We must have open dialogue with each other. We can't go back. And the president cannot be worried about how people are going to react to him speaking candidly about race in this country.

BRAZILE: Well, you know, Don, it's all about calm. As you know, when you are in that position as he is and he's been in this position for almost six-and-a-half years, this is who he is. He is a man of peace. He's pragmatic. And I think going forward, he has spoken his truth.

But this is his moment of Grace as well as a moment for the entire country to understand and believe that we can find a way forward. Healing is possible. I mean, we can do this. We're Americans. But I do believe the president today, what he showed in his humility and his Grace that he received (INAUDIBLE), I am sure, I think he's showing us how we can conduct ourselves.

I'm proud of him. I've always been proud of him and so many others in our world and in our presidents. But today was a moment when I think he touched all of our souls in ways that I hope we never forget.

JONES: He's changed the envelope of what a president can do. This is a different leadership act than we've seen. We have unfortunately from Bill Clinton all the way down, we've seen leader after leader stand up in the wake of tragedy. He's changed the envelope by becoming the minister in chief and speaking in such an authentic way. This is a different kind of Obama, a different leadership act. I am still processing it. I just hope that it's received in the spirit in which it is offered because we need a different modality of leadership to get through this moment. LEMON: And Donna, Van, this is a moment that we have been fortunate

enough because of unfortunate circumstances to witness here in the United States, a president of the United States -- This is a moment -- this is American history. This is history that we have witnessed now.

And as Van said, let's hope it's received in the right tone, the tone in which it was given, in a tone of Christianity and forgiveness and love and open-mindedness and as he said an open heart.

Brooke Baldwin, as I toss back to you in New York City, this has been unbelievable to witness. And I'm so glad that America, the world, really, got to witness what this president had to say today.

[15:45:14] BALDWIN: I think Van is still processing it. I think a lot of people -- a lot of people are still processing the president's words, Don.

You know, to your point a moment ago, the question was, would the president really speak about the deceased, would he speak about reverend Pinckney or would he take all of these issues that the country has been chewing on and wrestling with for years and tackle them head on from the pulpit and he did precisely that.

I want to bring in our chief Washington correspondent Jake Tapper who covered the president for a number of years. And we will talk about these issues.

But Jake, first, I want to play -- when the president spoke, one of the issues that he mentioned, of course, the issue that's been front and center since the shooting death of the nine in Charleston, the issue about this confederate flag flying over South Carolina. Here is how the president handled that.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For too long we were blind to the pain that the confederate flag stirred in too many of our citizens. It's true, a flag did not cause these murders. But as people from all walks of life, Republicans and Democrats now acknowledge, including Governor Haley whose recent eloquence of the subject is worthy of praise, as we all have to acknowledge, the flag has always represented more than just ancestral pride.

(APPLAUSE)

BALDWIN: And there's the organ.

Jake Tapper, I mean, the confederate flag, talking about employments, inequality, police bias, he hit every single major issue. You covered him for years. Have you ever seen anything like this before from this man?

JAKE TAPPER, CNN CHIEF WASHINGTON CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I mean, this is President Obama speaking in a community that he is intensely comfortable in, and speaking at a black church. And you would often, in 2007 and 2008, when he was running for president, he would speak movingly at events like this in black churches.

He's also given very moving speeches and remarks to black churches talking about problems in urban America that urban America needs to solve as well. Certainly, there is something of the second term Obama going on here when you see President Obama start to sing "Amazing Grace." I mean, that was the moment that really struck me because, obviously --.

BALDWIN: The moment, the goose bumps moment.

TAPPER: Yes. You don't see a lot of politicians singing in public like that. And that certainly was a strong moment and spoke to what he was feeling as well as the comfort that he had in the room. It was an interesting speech in a lot of ways. His infusing political issues with religion was something that you don't normally hear. He, talking about by taking down that flag we expressed God's Grace was something you don't normally hear, especially from democratic politicians who tend not to mix religion and the politics.

He also talked about gun restrictions, further restrictions on gun ownership saying it would be a betrayal if we allow ourselves to slip back in to a comfortable silence again to go back to business as usual on that subject as well.

So in that, you do see his -- both his policy, views, and also his comfort and also his religious roots, the idea of him speaking in churches, especially in Chicago when he was a community organizer all coming together. So it really did remind me of the Obama that would you occasionally hear on the campaign trail when he spoke at black churches.

BALDWIN: Jake, stand by.

Don Lemon, let me just bring back in.

And you know, you and Van sort of have the same question I did. And I think Donna Brazile answered it. The question being, you know in this nine days, the president, as he mentioned, had been marinating on this sense of grace. Who wrote this? And she kept saying, this was all him.

LEMON: Yes. We have this conversation as he was preaching, Van and I were having the same conversation. I looked at Van because we were saying, Valerie, he got the call about the marriage ruling from Valerie Jarrett as he was writing the speech and I said, who wrote this? And Van said, this was all him. This is all him.

Listen, I love my colleague, Jake Tapper. And Jake, I have to -- this is different than him when he was a community organizer or when he was state senator in Chicago. When I live there, and when he's spoken about it before. This was different. The way he did it in the past, there was a hindrance. He would --

TAPPER: Stutter?

(LAUGHTER) LEMON: He would hedge. He wouldn't go as far as people might have wanted him to go, because he's still a politician. He still had to possibly be elected. He still had to get bills passed. This is -- he does not care anymore, all right, America.

[15:50:39] BALDWIN: Fearless.

(CROSSTALK)

LEMON: This speech did not show you that today, then I don't know what will. He was speaking to a certain group of people, which -- and he spoke to the country, in a black church, which is the same conversations that happen in black churches all over the country on Sunday mornings. Where they welcome people in, where they teach people that their lives matter, that they're smart, that they're just not a statistic, that they're not just someone who lives in a bad neighborhood or someone who may be gunned down. The church on Sunday, the black church on Sunday teaches you, in spite of all of that, in spite of the hideous flag that we hate. Be damn that flag. Nobody cares about that flag. That flag can inspire you. It should come down.

But on Sunday mornings in church, they tell you in spite of those things, you too can make it, you too are important. And that is what the president said to the country today. He was speaking specifically. This was not a dog whistle. This was a yell, and he was preaches to the country. Thank you. All right to you too, amen, right? All right to you. So I think this is different than before. I don't think we can go back. Van, do you agree?

BALDWIN: Jake, I want you to weigh in.

TAPPER: Well, I mean -- I'm just going by reporting, I covered him on the campaign trail for years, and the White House for four. So I mean, that Don can take whatever he wants --

(CROSSTALK)

BALDWIN: Go ahead, Jake.

TAPPER: I do want to talk about one thing having to do with just who actually wrote the speech. I'm told from White House source that the director the speechwriting Cody Keenan wrote the speech, but President Obama obviously, as Van and Don noted, obviously put a lot of work into it as well, but those are the two individuals who are responsible for the speech.

BALDWIN: Jake, can I just follow up on that? If you have somebody who is writing the speech, can you just describe the process? Does somebody initially write the speech? And then how much time -- how much would you president, you know, morph and mold it to make it his own?

TAPPER: A great deal. I mean, what typically happens is there's a conversation about what the speech will be, the speechwriter in this case Cody Keenan, the director of speechwriting, does the first draft. And then President Obama weighs in. This sounds like one of those speeches he weighed in quite a bit, usually in longhand. You can certainly hear his voice and his thoughts expressed throughout the entire speech.

BALDWIN: Jake Tapper, I know you have to get ready for your show. We'll see you in five minutes.

Don Lemon, just quickly, and then I want to bump out to break. We all have to hear amazing grace again. Go ahead, Don.

LEMON: What I wanted to say was I agree with Jake on that. He's said the words before, but the intent and meaning and feeling behind it, he put his whole self into this. That's all I'm saying. I think this is -- you can say the same words, but it can be different, depending on your motivation. That's all I'm saying.

BALDWIN: Don, thank you. Van Jones, thank you. Talk about putting your own self on this. This was the moment, this was the president standing up there singing "Amazing Grace."

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

OBAMA: Clementa Pinkney, found that grace. Cynthia Hurd found that grace. Suzie Jackson found that grace. Ethyl lance found that grace. DePayne Middleton-Doctor found that grace. Tywanza Sanders found that grace. Daniel (INAUDIBLE) found that grace. Sharonda Coleman Singleton found that grace. Myra Thompson found that grace.

Through the example of their lives, they have now passed it on to us. May we find ourselves worthy of that appreciate and extraordinary gift. As long as our lives endure, may Grace now lead them home. May God continue to shed his Grace on the United States of America.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)