- Republicans will never turn a blind eye to unjust acts.
- [Ashley Judd] That's Daniel Cameron,
the Republican who turned a blind eye
to the unjust murder of Breonna Taylor.
I'm Ashley Judd, and here's the story
of Daniel Cameron, Kentucky's attorney general,
who went from working for Mitch McConnell
to being shortlisted for the Supreme Court.
- Should I bring Daniel up?
Get up here, Daniel.
(audience cheering and applauding)
- Mr. President, I hope you can tell
that Kentucky is Trump country.
(audience cheering)
- [Ashley Judd] Daniel Jay Cameron
was born in Elizabethtown, Kentucky.
His parents ran a coffee shop,
and his mom also taught at a community college.
- I spent a lot of time in there, but if I wasn't there,
I was either on the ball fields or in church.
- [Ashley Judd] In college, Cameron played
for the Louisville Cardinals football team,
but mostly sat on the bench.
He graduated from law school in 2011.
After law school, Cameron clerked for a federal judge,
and then went off to DC working for Senator Mitch McConnell
as his general counsel from 2015 to 2017.
Cameron spearheaded the confirmation process
of Supreme Court justice Neil Gorsuch.
After his stint with McConnell,
Cameron returned to Louisville, and worked for a law firm,
and a few years later, in 2019,
Cameron threw his name in the hat for attorney general.
He won.
and the first Republican to hold the office in 70 years.
One of the first things he did as the new AG
was call for a temporary ban on all abortions
during the coronavirus pandemic,
arguing it was an elective procedure,
and should be stopped along with all other elective
medical procedures under the extraordinary circumstances,
which is an argument that stands diametrically opposed
to medical professional opinion.
The American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists,
and the American Board of Obstetrics and Gynecology,
released a joint statement saying, quote,
Nevertheless, the Republican-controlled Kentucky legislature
gave Cameron the power to regulate abortion clinics,
and suspend abortions during the pandemic.
However, Kentucky's Democrat governor
Andy Beshear vetoed the legislation.
But what Daniel Cameron is known for
is the case of Breonna Taylor.
Breonna Taylor was a 26-year-old Black emergency
medical technician for the city of Louisville.
Friends and family say she got into healthcare
because she cared about other people.
She had dreams of becoming a nurse,
but that dream was robbed from her
when three plainclothes police officers
executed a no-knock warrant, allowing them
to break in with a battering ram, allegedly unannounced,
in the early morning hours of March 13th, 2020.
As the New York Times notes, quote,
Taylor and her boyfriend, Kenneth Walker,
were in bed, but got up when they heard
a loud banging at the door.
Walker said he and Taylor asked who was there,
when the plainclothes officers broke down the door.
- What about the ballistics reports, Fred?
I mean, Kenneth said he's not sure
that he shot a police officer.
- They're inconclusive.
General Cameron, as much as he would like to say
to you otherwise, has not come out and definitely
proven that the bullet that was shot
by Kenny actually hit Mattingly.
- [Ashley Judd] In return, the police fired several shots,
six of which hit Breonna Taylor.
Breonna received no medical attention
for more than 20 excruciating minutes.
She died on the scene.
- Because of the relationship I have with them,
I come into most discussions and most debates
with a pro-law enforcement view,
because I know when you and I go home
and lay in our beds, we have them to thank,
so that we can sleep soundly.
- [Ashley Judd] Cameron has the power to arrest
the officers who killed Breonna Taylor,
but he protected them.
Cameron admitted he never recommended
murder charges in the case.
The only criminal charges announced
were against Brett Hankison, the Louisville officer
who blindly shot bullets around Taylor's apartment,
and accidentally fired ammo into a neighboring apartment,
endangering three people there.
He was charged with three counts of wanton endangerment
in the first degree, meaning the only officer
who may suffer legal consequences is one who did not
have a direct hand in Breonna Taylor's murder.
The other two officers involved,
Jonathan Mattingly and Myles Cosgrove, shot Taylor
six times out of more than 30 rounds between them.
None of the three officers have been charged
with Taylor's actual death.
- The warrant was not served as a no-knock warrant.
When officers were unable to get anyone to answer
or open the door to apartment four,
the decision was made to breach the door.
- [Ashley Judd] While one witness has corroborated
the Louisville PD's claim, that they identified themselves
prior to breaking in,
- While there are six possible homicide charges
under Kentucky law, these charges are not applicable
to the facts before us, because our investigation
showed, and the grand jury agreed,
that Mattingly and Cosgrove were justified
in the return of deadly fire after having been fired upon.
- [Ashley Judd] But that statement appears to be false.
One of the grand jurors filed a motion
that asked for the proceedings to be made public.
The juror accused Cameron of using the jurors, quote,
In the 20 hours of released recordings of testimony,
the officers claim that they did in fact
announce themselves before breaking in.
However, according to the audio,
It's unclear why the neighbor did not appear
in person before the grand jury.
- It was General Dwight Eisenhower,
a future Republican president, who said,
"Democracy is a system that recognizes
the equality of humans before the law."
Whether you are the family of Breonna Taylor
or David Dorn, these are the ideals
that will heal our nation's wounds.
- [Ashley Judd] But those wounds are still open.
More justice was served to the nearby
bullet-filled apartment walls
than to Breonna Taylor, the future nurse
who just wanted to take care of people.
As protesters took to the street demanding justice
for Breonna Taylor and an end to systemic racism,
Donald Trump announced he was shortlisting
Daniel Cameron for the Supreme Court
in the aftermath of Ruth Bader Ginsburg's death.
In the end, Cameron wasn't Trump's pick,
but it was a gesture which will
seemingly allow him to feel justified,
and proceed throughout his career unchanged.
Roll it again.
- I come into most discussions and most debates
with a pro-law enforcement view,
because I know when you and I go home
and lay in our beds, we have them to thank,
so that we can sleep soundly.
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