t'all for this edition of "dateline." i'm natalie morales. thank you for watching. [music playing] crowds build in the minneapolis suburb where a cop shot a 20-year-old black man dead, preparing for another night. i'm shepard smith. "this is the news on cnbc. her boss said she meant to fire her taser but fired her gun instead, kim potter, arrested and charged in the death of daunte wright. the defense calls a medical examiner witness. >> mr. floyd died of a cardiac arrhythmia. >> so the knee to the neck of george floyd played no role? day 13 in the trial of derek

chauvin. what to do now with the j&j vaccine? the cdc holds an emergency meeting, the push for more doses of pfizer and moderna. the capitol insurrection, now we know they had the warning, that congress itself was the target so why the directive not to use their strongest tactics against the mob? new details from a scathing watchdog report. plus, bernie madoff dead at 82, the helpers behind the vaccine bots, and how americans are spending their stimulus checks >> announcer: live from cnbc, the facts, the truth, "the news with shepard smith." good evening, the police officer who killed daunte wright is in jail tonight, arrested and charged with second degree manslaughter this is kim potter wearing an orange jumpsuit now instead of a uniform. potter's arrest comes just three days after she shot daunte wright during a traffic stop for expired tags in the minneapolis

suburb of brooklyn center. tase him, tase him, tase him i just shot him. >> according to the police chief who has since resigned, potter thought she was firing her taser but drew her gun instead by mistake. we learned today from the prosecutor that potter's taser is yellow with a black grip and was holstered on her left side while her black handgun was on the right. so in order to draw her taser, she would have had to use her left hand, but as you can see here she shot and killed wright with her gun in her right hand we've seen three straight days and nights of unrest and protests taking to the streets and police are now bracing for more demonstrations tonight. nbc's jay gray on the ground for us in brooklyn center.

what sort of reaction are you seeing to that officer's arrest? >> reporter: hey there, shep, i want to give you a realtime look at the situation the curfew has been extended from 10:00 tonight to 10:00 to 6:00 in the morning. the crowd growing substantially in the last few minutes here, packed with people who say they'll continue to call for justice for daunte wright. we've got megaphones out here, banners and a lot of people very frustrated they're frustrated with what's going on here at the police station. i can show you behind the fence stepped up security. we've got the riot police that have just walked in with their shields, helmets and batons. as you move across, you can see a sheriff's vehicle here with a gun turned and someone actively watching the crowd below they are pleased there's been charges in this case so is wright's family according to their attorney ben crump. >> obviously they are glad she got charged, but they do hope and pray for a day that we will get equal justice. >> reporter: yeah, what we're

hearing out here from the crowd is a charge is one thing, a conviction is justice, and that's why they are here, to make sure there is justice for daunte wright. they say they're going to be here for as long as necessary, shep. >> jay gray, thanks very much. >> david henderson now, civil rights lawyer, former prosecutor, cnbc contributor david, can you break down what second degree manslaughter means? is that an appropriate charge in this case in your view >> that's a tough one, shep. i worry that the authorities are making a promise that they know that they cannot keep because we've seen this playbook before whether it's michael brown, eric garner, breonna taylor, something unspeakable happens, and then to placate the public who's demanding justice, the authorities bring a charge but then it will be presented to a grand jury in secret, which is necessary for that charge to be formal here you've got to prove that she consciously risked death or great bodily harm and based on that video, i just don't think you can get there. >> david, do you see this going to trial or no

>> that's the whole problem, shep when you present something to a grand jury, prosecutors are allowed to do it in secret, and the proceedings are secret, and so in the cases i mentioned earlier, those all resulted in the grand jury rejecting charges because i believe the prosecution recommended that that happen. and obviously if that happens, you never have a case, so you can never get to trial. >> well, then what does happen >> what happens is you convince the public to go back home because the only thing right now, shep, in the world of civil rights that's led to changes in police reform has been people taking to the streets and demonstrating as we saw for george floyd minneapolis, as you and i talked about before is on the verge of combusting because in the middle of one of the worst incidents of police violence we've seen another one occurs, and the authorities know that. they're trying to placate the public and convince people to go back home. >> david henderson, thanks very much. derek chauvin's defense team put their own medical examiner on the stand, a retired

pathologist with decades of experiences and hundreds of appearances in court as an expert witness he testified heart disease and drugs led to george floyd's death and that derek chauvin's knee was nowhere near his airway >> how did the heart -- heart and drugs contribute to the cause of death >> there was significant or other -- they contributed to mr. floyd having a sudden cardiac arrest and speaking and making noise is very good evidence that the airway was not closed. >> the medical examiner who actually performed the autopsy on george floyd testified last week that chauvin kneeling on floyd's neck with all the pressure and floyd's pinning him to the ground was the direct cause of the death, even if heart disease and drugs played some role. nbc's gabe gutierrez live outside the courthouse gabe, the cross examination was tense today? >> reporter: yeah, that's right,

shep the prosecution came out swinging during cross examination. as you mentioned, dr. david fowler was a former medical examiner in maryland, and he testified that george floyd did not die because of a lack of oxygen but rather potentially his drug use and underlying medical conditions now, of course he did not examine the body, but he said that floyd's death in his opinion could have been ruled undetermined because of multiple factors including, he said, potentially carbon monoxide poisoning that was due to the exhaust coming from that police squad car, but during cross examination, the prosecution pushed back hard and fowler acknowledged that he had no data to support that. he also acknowledged something else that might not be so favorable for the defense. >> are you critical of the fact that he wasn't given immediate emergency care when he went into cardiac arrest >> as a physician, i would agree. >> reporter: now, during a motions hearing in the morning,

morries hall, one of the passengers in floyd's suv actually appeared in the courtroom but away from the jury and argued that he should not be compelled to testify because he'd invoke the 5th amendment. he didn't want to incriminate himself and answer questions about floyd's drug use the judge actually quashed the subpoena meaning he will not testify. and even before that, the defense put forward a motion of acquittal essentially saying that the prosecution did not meet its burden and the whole case should be dismissed the judge was not buying that, and he denied that motion. more testimony for the defense is expected tomorrow and the judge has told jurors to expect closing arguments on monday, shep. >> gabe, thanks. back to david henderson now. you know the former chief medical examiner of maryland argued george floyd's death was not from asphyxia. you only need one juror as you've been telling me night after night. might he help the defense convince one juror >> you know, shep, if there's a lone wolf out there, this witness gave him or her something to hang their hat on so, yes. it's always difficult when

you're trying to present a case on the theory that the jurors are going to do something that they're not supposed to do, and that's believe a cause that really hasn't been proven. but again, if you've got one on this jury -- and we know so little about them coming out of jury selection, then, yes, they've got something to hang their hat on. >> david, was this the key witness? i mean, where do they go from here >> i think for the defense this is the key witness but here's what you have to remember about a trial it's like you and i talking about something, shep, where i'm waiting for my chance to talk, and then when i start, i'm going to lead with what i believe is the strongest thing i have to say. for the defense in this case, that was george floyd's prior arrest video really what they've done is thrown mud, and if anybody is attracted by that type of approach, this witness gives them something to argue about with the other jurors during deliberations. >> everything's different in person we know this from watching, you know, live sports on tv on movies or whatever, but you wonder if in person the jurors felt the sort of hemming and

hawing when he was asking, well, does that mean that the knee didn't do anything or does that mean that you don't know exactly when he died? there was a lot of that over an extended period today. >> i agree, and for me, what marks that best is this claim that the exhaust might have contributed to george floyd's death, when he had to admit he didn't even know if the car was on, right? so part of what's overlooked in this case is that jerry blackwell does asbestos litigation he's used to questioning experts, toxicologists, doctors, industrial hygienists. he made it clear fowler is a guy who gets paid to deliver an opinion and that's exactly what he was doing. >> you know, we see him like this we see him in the television box. they see a whole room and there are a lot of distractions. do we know how much attention they're paying these days? i mean, we get pool notes from a pool reporter, but do we have a sense of that? >> you know, shep, that's the missing part of the trial for me when you're there in the

courtroom, there are any number of things you observe, and it's not just the way that the jurors behave it's the way the bailiffs behave when they come back in the courtroom and they say, man, number seven is such a pain or number five is late again or number three is falling asleep in the box again we don't get to see any of those things, and i think what you're getting at is a good point we also don't see their reactions to some of the nonsense that we heard on the stand today. >> we think they're getting close. there's a sense that closing arguments are maybe sometime around the first of next week, summations maybe the end of this week we'll know soon. david, thanks so much. >> my pleasure an emergency meeting of the cdc advisers held today to discuss this pause that's happening on the johnson & johnson vaccine. tonight there's new information about the six women who suffered the blood clots afterwards and the debate now about what to do next how long and how well will the moderna vaccine protect people who get it new numbers on the effectiveness after the second shot.

and the ever given, freed after it blocked the suez canal for nearly a week, but now it's in trouble, and this time it will take more than an international salvage team to set it free. >> announcer: the facts, the truth, "the news with shepard smith" back in 60 seconds. so you want to make the best burger ever? then make it! that means cooking day and night until...

[ ding ] success! that means... best burger ever. intuit quickbooks helps small businesses be more successful with payments, payroll, and banking. . a panel of cdc a panel of cdc advisers met today to review a possible link between j&j's single dose vaccine and extremely rare blood clots. after hours and hours of debate, the experts decided they need more time to review the data and assess the risks they say they won't vote on a recommendation until they meet again. we're told that could happen in a week to ten days or so so the emergency meeting comes a day after the fda and cdc recommended a pause in administering the shot out of an abundance of caution as they put it the pause remains in effect at least for now. federal health officials say blood clots occurred in six women between the ages of 18 and 48 one woman died, another now critical

they all developed symptoms 6 to 13 days after they got the shot. those six cases out of more than 7 million people who have now received the j&j shot. all 50 states and d.c. have now stopped using the vaccine. the u.s. military and several major pharmacy chains have paused the shots as well cnbc's meg tirrell covers science and medicine for us. did all the cdc advisers want to delay today's vote or was it a split decision >> no, shep, while it was the overwhelming feeling from most of the committee, really not everybody agreed here. a representative from the fda, for example, suggested it could be possible to just update the fact sheets for the j&j vaccine to include warnings about these rare clots, and public health director for the state of maine argued, quote, not making a decision is tantamount to making a decision any extension of the pause, he said, will invariably result in the fact that the most vulnerable individuals in the united states who were prime candidates for the j&j vaccine will remain vulnerable

others, though, pointed out the u.s. has ample supply of the two other vaccines from pfizer and moderna which use a different technology and haven't seen these same rare blood clots. now, the committee seemed influenced by the experience with the astrazeneca vaccine around the world, citing age-based restrictions put in place in the uk, australia, and countries in europe. that vaccine has been tied to more reports of what appear to be very similar, though still rare, blood clots, and the technology is the same approach as for j&j's vaccine but there are still only six cases of these clots identified in the u.s. and the committee felt they needed more time and potentially more data to make a recommendation until then, the j&j vaccine remains on pause, a decision the committee acknowledged that has implications not just for the u.s. but also the rest of the world, which, like us, is still battling this pandemic and watching this very closely >> thank you dr. atul gawande, professor at

harvard school of public health. thank you. the cdc really punted on the j&j decision today are you concerned the longer they wait to make a decision the more harm that could do to confidence in the vaccine? >> no question that will happen, but i understand some of the reasons why they did it is 6 per 7 million, but there was a couple of pieces of new data that came through number one, they were able to calculate the risk for -- actually for women who are ages 20 to 50 who got the vaccine longer than two weeks ago, and that was closer to 1 in 13,000, and that was part of the reason to want to pause most of the women who got vaccinated in the last two weeks we haven't seen the reports come out. second, they recognized a case of a man age 25 in the johnson & johnson trial who had a cerebral hemorrhage from the same type of blood clot, and so they want to assess whether young men are at risk however, i think there is enough information to know that for

people over 50 this is safe, and i think they could have potentially lifted the pause for the older age group. i think that that is where this may land like you saw for astrazeneca in europe. >> not a single person over 50, not a single question over 50, a lot of people over 50 who need a shot, although i got mine, so why not continue over 50 i'm not a professional in this i don't understand it, but i'm very curious. >> yeah, i mean, i think it's because we do have two excellent vaccines, over 100 million people have received the mrna vaccines from moderna and pfizer with none of these cases appearing, and given the option of an excellent vaccine, i think that they're pushing those out i've been advocating for given the surge of cases, we're at 700 deaths a day still and rising from covid i've been an advocate for saying, well, we've got a safe vaccine. let's give the first doses and push the second dose out two, four, six weeks, and we could

double the number of people being vaccinated right now and stem the surge the johnson & johnson availability has been small enough that that has been a reason why they are saying let's use the supply we have >> i listened as the person in charge today said that the agency has no evidence that the j&j vaccine is actually causing the blood clots. with six instances, a spreading virus, is it, in your estimation, did they do exactly the right thing, and is a continued pause in order >> i think that a pause for the young population made sense. i would disagree with the person who said that there is not a clear -- there is not smoke here we have an unusual kind of blood clotting syndrome, very specific to these vaccines in the younger age group women, and it's not like the other kinds of cases that these kinds -- that these rare incidences occur. i think there probably is for

adenovirus vaccines some risk of this rare condition that's elevated in a particular age group, that group of women will likely need some -- you know, should -- may well come out saying they should get an mrna vaccine unless they absolutely have no choice and -- but i do think there's something distinctive going on here. >> but i have a phone and on that phone i have witnessed personally the naysayers are super loud now, and that is -- >> they are. >> we all know that's the last thing we need and it could prolong this hell. >> i would only say that this open transparent process of saying we are constantly assessing the data, taking it seriously, and taking action on it is i think the greatest source of confidence rather than pretending that there is no problem there because people are going to use it for disinformation it is being used for disinformation, and the tinfoil

hats do come out on your phone and elsewhere, but this has been a careful and structured process, and ultimately, that's how you keep confidence about these interventions making a big difference. >> dr. gawande, thanks so much. some encouraging news right now in the fight against covid moderna announcing its vaccine protects people for at least six months, roughly 90% effective at preventing the disease after the second shot, and get this, more than 95% effective against severe cases the company's results on par with data that pfizer released earlier this month the promising news brings moderna one step closer to asking the fda for full approval of its vaccine and if the agency green lights the shot, moderna could start selling doses directly to people and private companies all across america. bernie madoff, the mastermind of the country's biggest investment fraud ever, died today in federal prison tonight an inside look at the

scandal that destroyed lives from wall street to main street. and before george floyd and daunte wright, there was eric garner and trayvon martin and stephon clark, and michael brown. tonight we hear from their mothers and hear their call for change ♪♪ ♪ when the road feels endless ♪ ♪ don't know where your strength is ♪ ♪ it's been so long ♪

♪ you get a call from a friend to remind you ♪ ♪ that you're not alone ♪ ♪ then you know deep down inside ♪ ♪ it's gonna be all right ♪ ♪ all right ♪♪ start your day with secret. secret stops sweat 3x more than ordinary antiperspirants. the new provitamin b5 formula is gentle on skin. with secret, outlast anything! no sweat. secret. dealdash.com, the fair and honest bidding site. an ipad was sold for less than $24; a playstation for less than $16; and a 4k television for less than $2. go to dealdash.com right now and see how much you can save. remember, shipping is always free.

bernie madoff, bernie madoff, the architect of the largest ponzi scheme in american history died today in

prison he was 82. madoff's rise to the upper echelons of wall street caused the ripples of his downfall to reach far and wide, billions of dollars gone and countless of lives destroyed. here's cnbc's scott cohn. >> for more than 50 years he was famous on wall street, a big money manager, founder of his firm at age 22. >> the basic concept of wall street which sometimes the regulators lose sight of, as do the academics, is it's a for profit enterprise. >> reporter: he became chairman of the nasdaq, an authority on regulation. >> no one's going to run a benefit for wall street, so whenever i go down to washington and meet with the s.e.c. and complain to them that the industry is either over regulated or the burdens are too great, they all start to roll their eyes. >> reporter: but in december 2008. >> if you work on a trading desk, stop what you're doing for a second. >> reporter: bernard madoff

became a household name. >> the fbi arrested him this morning after he told senior employees yesterday that his business was a giant ponzi scheme >> tonight as much as $50 billion is gone, vanished. >> reporter: from madoff clients around the world including celebrities like steven spielberg, kevin bacon, and elie wiesel, and regular investors who lost everything. >> i just kept saying this can't be this just is not happening >> reporter: madoff confessed he hadn't made a single trade in years, critics like investigator harry markopolos earned the ultimate i told you so. >> i gift wrapped and delivered the largest ponzi scheme in history to them and somehow they couldn't be bothered to conduct a thorough investigation. >> reporter: the stain of the madoff scandal forced a total makeover at the s.e.c. >> i think there is a need for refocus here on investor

protection. >> reporter: but the impact went much further bernie madoff may have done more to tear down investor confidence than any individual in history in 2009 he pleaded guilty to 11 criminal counts and received the maximum sentence, 150 years. in court he insisted it was all his idea his family, he claimed knew nothing. >> are you going to give up your -- >> reporter: how could they not know ruth madoff was bernie's high school sweetheart. for a brief time she kept the books. >> did you see nothing, ruth >> nothing >> nothing >> absolutely nothing. >> reporter: their sons, mark and andrew ran the trading business they too insisted they didn't know, but for mark, the older son, the suspicion alone was too much >> the body of mark madoff was found at his new york city apartment this morning exactly two years after his father was arrested in a massive swindle. >> reporter: just 46 years old, mark madoff became the third suicide linked to his father's fraud.

four years later in 2014, younger son andrew died after a long battle with cancer, maintaining his innocence until the end having refused to speak a word to his father since he and his brother turned him in. >> my father, what he did was awful and affected the lives of so many people stole people's dreams and futures and us among them, and i'll never forgive him for that. >> reporter: to the end in letters from prison, madoff defended his family, even his younger brother peter who also went to prison for falsifying records, but he said others were complicit in the fraud including his bankers and some of his biggest investors. he claimed he pressured them to give some of their money back. those parties were well aware of the incriminating evidence i possessed about their complicit activity and wisely came forward with settlements, he wrote in 2013, but the authorities say madoff was never any help, and

the remorse he claimed in every message is suspect as well at his 2009 sentencing, madoff turned to his victims, i'm sorry, he said, i know that doesn't help you it didn't, and neither does bernie madoff's death. >> stay tuned for more of scott cohn's reporting during a special hour-long documentary, bernie madoff, his life and crimes up next after the news, cnbc president biden announced the date by which the last american troops will leave afghanistan, but new concerns now that ending america's longest war will trigger a resurgence of the terror groups that sowed the seeds of the terrorists who started it in the first place. and the latest on a search and rescue effort after a ship capsizes off the louisiana coast. and a live look, brooklyn center, minnesota, where the crowds are gathering for a fourth straight night to protest the death of daunte wright the officer who shot and killed him charged today with second

degree manslaughter, a curfew in effect from 10:00 tonight until 6:00 in the morning.

i'm shepard smith on cnbc. it's the bottom of the hour, time for the top of the news 100 days until the summer olympics tonight meet a leader for team usa hoping for one last trip to the podium.

intelligence reports ignored, orders not to use powerful crowd control tools, the findings from a new report on the response to the capitol insurrection and today president biden announcing he's withdrawing all u.s. troops from afghanistan marking the end of america's longest war. >> i'm now the fourth united states president to preside over american troop presence in afghanistan, two republicans, two democrats. i will not pass this responsibility on to a fifth. >> the president says the drawdown will start next month from 2,500 troops to none by september the 11th, 20 years since the terror attacks that preceded the war the president of afghanistan said he spoke with president biden and that he respects the decision to withdraw in a tweet he wrote the country will work with the u.s. partners to ensure a smooth transition. some lawmakers over here say they're concerned that pulling our troops out could lead to a resurgence of the terror groups on the ground.

the president's cia director today acknowledged the move will have consequences. >> when the time comes for the u.s. military to withdraw, the u.s. government's ability to collect and act on threats will diminish that's simply a fact >> but director burns added that neither al qaeda nor isis currently has the capacity to attack the u.s. homeland as they once did cnbc's senior white house correspondent kayla tausche. kayla, how did president biden explain this decision to everyone to pull out the troops? >> reporter: well, shep, today, president biden said the u.s. is withdrawing troops from afghanistan because it's reached its goal of destabilizing al qaeda and wants to honor a 2020 peace deal with the taliban. >> it was an agreement made by the united states government, and that means something, so in keeping with that agreement. >> reporter: last february after 18 months of negotiations the u.s. and its allies pledged to remove all troops within 14 months, and in return, the

taliban said it would not use the soil of afghanistan to threaten the security of the u.s. and its allies. a senior administration official called the risk of al qaeda reemerging genuine, but today president biden had harsh words for critics who suggested that only some residual force could prevent a power vacuum there >> we gave that argument a decade it's never proved effective, not when we had 98,000 troops in afghanistan, and not when we're down to a few thousand our diplomacy does not hinge on having boots in harm's way >> reporter: today at nato, defense secretary austin said afghan security forces are now more capable of securing their borders and protecting the afghan people thanks to training from coalition forces. a small military footprint will remain to protect american diplomats and the pentagon is expected to provide an update on where troops will be relocated when they leave afghanistan. shep. >> and kayla, america's top

intel chiefs today said china is now the biggest threat to america? >> reporter: shep, today on capitol hill the first worldwide threats hearing in two years the director of national intelligence called china an unparalleled priority and the director of the fbi said the bureau is working around the clock to combat threats from china at all levels. >> we're opening a new investigation into china every ten hours, and i can assure the committee that's not because our folks don't have anything to do with their time. >> reporter: while china is the top threat overseas, officials said domestic extremism remains the top threat here at home. shep. >> kayla, thanks capitol police were warned that violence was coming on january the 6th and that congress was the target. we know that now because there's a new report today from the internal watchdog for the capitol police it found that police did receive a threat assessment three days before the riots saying unlike

previous post-election protests, the targets of the pro-trump supporters are not necessarily the counterprotesters, but rather congress itself is the target on the 6th. the report also found that police received direct orders barring them from using their strongest crowd control measures like stun grenades, and that while putting together their operations plan, department leaders reported no specific known threats. that was not true. there was a known threat to members of congress. cnbc's eamon javers live in washington this was a long, detailed report, and you wonder why they didn't get the right information. you wonder who's behind that >> reporter: yeah, a lot of questions here, shep this report is just a devastating account of the failures of the capitol police back on january 6th. the inspector general found the police didn't have the right equipment and couldn't get access to some equipment that they did have. the police had less lethal

weapons but were ordered not to use them, the report found and then there was the frustration around the riot shields. the report said that when the crowd became unruly, the civil disturbance unit platoon attempted to access a bus to distribute the shields, but they were unable to because the bus door was locked, and even worse, some protective shields shattered upon impact, and some munitions in the armory were beyond their expiration dates. overall, the report made 26 recommendations calling for improvements in everything from training to intelligence gathering to equipment standards. the former senate sergeant at arms reacted to the report today saying that the i.g. had the benefit of hindsight here. he said i don't know if there are a lot of plans in the book on how to counter a presidentially inspired riot now, capitol police inspector general michael a. bolton will testify on capitol hill tomorrow, shep, and lawmakers will have the opportunity to question him about all of this one issue that we do expect to

come up is whether or not congress needs a september 11th type commission to get to the bottom of how this awful situation actually came to be, shep >> thank you federal prosecutors have decided not to charge the capitol police officer who shot and killed a capitol rioter on january 6th. an officer says she shot ashli babbitt in self-defense as she climbed through a broken door during the insurrection. she was a 35-year-old air force veteran and an avid supporter of the former president from san diego. prosecutors say they found no evidence that the officer violated any laws, nor did they find anything to contradict his claim of self-defense. a senate bill targeting the rise of hate crime against asian-americans made it past a key procedural hurdle this evening. the covid-19 hate crimes act would direct the justice department to expedite the review of any hate crimes linked to the pandemic and help law enforcement agencies establish ways to report these incidents

among other things the senate overwhelmingly advanced the legislation 92-6, a rare bipartisan effort which could mean it has a good chance of final passage, but of course there's still plenty of debate before anything like that happens. a group of mothers whose sons died by gun violence or at the hands of police speaking out today. reverend al sharpton introducing them as women who didn't ask to be leaders but felt like they were forced to be when they woke up one day and had their whole world had changed. together they prayed for katie wright, daunte wright's mother, a minnesota officer fatally shot the 20-year-old last weekend as we reported, a tragedy the group is far too familiar with >> my heart goes out to you. i will stay on my knees for you. every day that we wake up, our sons and daughters were killed last night this will never go away. >> my sister katie, you are not in this alone. we are here. we are here for you, as these mothers reached out to you, i reached out to you i embrace you.

i empower you, and i hold you in my heart because i know what it is you're going through. >> whoever said time heals all wounds did not lose a child. because we are never going to heal this country has done something to us that will never be repaired >> sequette clark, mother of stephon clark, a 22-year-old shot and killed by police in sacramento three years ago, gwen carr, mother to eric garner killed in new york city after an officer put him in a chokehold sybrina fulton, the mother of trayvon martin, her son just 17 when he was shot and killed while walking home in florida. also at the event, lezley mcspadden, mother of michael brown, 18 when he was shot and killed in ferguson, missouri. when he wanted to score a play station he created a bot to help him snag one.

now he's using that same technique to land vaccine appointments the instant they become available, but not for him. and hundreds of billions of dollars in stimulus payments have now made it into your wallets. now we're getting a look at how all that money is being spent.

. america's now averaging more america's now averaging more than 3 million vaccines a day, but with so many folks trying to get the shots, appointments can book up so fast, sometimes within minutes now volunteers and bots are working to solve the problem here's one example last night the twitter account vaxx updates posted about new openings at cvs pharmacies in new jersey for americans struggling to find doses the bots can be a lifesaver. so we wanted to find out who's behind the bots. here's cnbc's andrea day. >> lives are at stake. >> reporter: they are working tirelessly behind the scenes. >> it's just 24 hours a day just going, going, going. >> reporter: to gets shots in the arms of strangers when

finding an appointment can be next to impossible. >> if you want one you should be able to get one. >> meet the volunteers donating their time to help thousands >> would you say this is like a full-time job? >> yes, yes, 110%. >> reporter: brett stoker runs a twitter account sharing vaccine appointments in new jersey the minute spots open up. >> my phone is glued to my hand. >> reporter: his real job, broadway actor, his last show shut down when covid first hit. >> and now i am helping others in new jersey set up vaccine appointments what a switch. >> reporter: after seeing how hard it was for his parents to get a vaccine appointment, he came up with an idea, leveraging the same technique he used to score a play station when they were flying off the shelves. >> i was able to use different methods of basically glorified page refreshers to find out when appointments were going live on certain county websites, and it actually worked pretty flawlessly. >> reporter: and he shared the updates in realtime. >> when i created this twitter

account, i had no expectations for it at all, and it has grown, you know, in ten weeks from 0 to 100,000 people, which is a massive community. >> reporter: across the country in los angeles is software engineer surbhi. >> my family in india got covid. i didn't want anybody else to be in that position where they are suffering because they wanted a vaccine but didn't have access to it. >> reporter: so she developed a bot that surfs the web >> the code scrapes informatione information. >> reporter: making it simple from retailers and every time it finds an available vaccine, it tweets out the information. >> reporter: making it simple for californians to find appointments. >> this is like a very little i can do to, you know, do my part. >> reporter: eda breslin struggled to find a vaccine for her mom in new jersey. >> she's in her mid-70s in remission from cancer, so getting the shot for her was really, really important. >> reporter: after six weeks of trying she found a facebook group run by volunteers who helped book her mom's.

>> the relief i got when i knew my mom wasn't going to die i needed to help others. >> reporter: now she's volunteering booking about 40 appointments every day. >> my alarm is set my phone is never off. >> some people might call you a hero i mean, who knows, you've probably saved some lives here. >> all i'm doing is literally just putting the information out there, trying to help out as best i can and just doing as much of a civic duty that i can present. >> reporter: and shep, his wish right now is that he starts losing followers on twitter if you can believe it, because that means that people are actually getting the vaccine and no longer need his help shep. >> i hope that's soon, andrea, thank you. the fed sent out more than 150 million stimulus checks over the past month, totaling roughly $370 billion so where's going all the money there's a new study that found 45% of americans say they're spending it on rent and other monthly expenses 36% say they're using it for daily essentials like groceries

and transportation, and about a third say they're paying down debt the survey also allowed people to choose more than one response, and the majority of americans say the stimulus checks won't last them even three months, but about a quarter say they're adding the extra cash to their savings. it was a big day for crypto as coinbase shines on wall street, and that's what's topping cnbc's "on the money." coinbase closed at $328 a share in its nasdaq debut, well above the reference price of 250 at one point, it went as high as 429 bucks. the listing briefly valued the digital currency at more than $100 billion as investors get into the action, more people are popping bubbly according to data from nielsen iq. champagne sales up 88% in march over last year lvmh reporting a 22% jump in the first quarter, that french conglomerate owns best selling

brands like veuve clicquot and moet if your dog needs a drink, too, anheuser busch is hiring they're looking for a chief tasting officer to help expand their dog brew the job comes with a $20,000 salary, pet insurance, and lots of beer. on wall street, the dow up 54, the s&p down 17, the nasdaq down 138 counting down to the summer olympics for one athlete it might be the final fight for the podium a look at the legend that is sue bird and her dream to squeeze a fifth gold medal into a very full trophy case and he's famous. he's the size of a small child or a large dog depending on your perspective, and most importantly, he is missing up next, the search for a record breaking bunny

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ back in black ♪ ♪ i hit the sack ♪ ♪ i've been too long... ♪ applebee's irresist-a-bowls are back. dig in for just $8.99. now that's eatin' good in the neighborhood. ♪♪ ♪ i will stand for you ♪ ♪ would you stand for me? ♪ ♪ everybody deserves ♪ ♪ to be free ♪ ♪ and i will lend ♪ ♪ a hand to you ♪ ♪ would you lend a hand to me? ♪ ♪ everybody deserves ♪ ♪ to be free ♪♪

there's a massive search effort happening right now off the louisiana coast, at least one person killed, a dozen still missing after a cargo ship capsized yesterday so far the u.s. coast guard has rescued six people look at this thing they were all aboard 129 foot boat they say they pulled one body out of the choppy waters yesterday afternoon the coast guard got a distress call about eight miles south of port fourchon officials say they deployed two boats, a helicopter and a plane. the captain of the operation

says it's still hopeful of finding survivors. >> you can't do this work if you're not optimistic, if you're not hopeful. so i will tell you that we remain hopeful. >> hard to hear, but officials have not identified the victims and the cause of this accident still unknown. the super size container ship that blocked the suez canal for almost a week is stuck in a brand new way. the "ever given" is now held by egyptian authorities until a $900 million bill is paid. that's according to egypt's state-run news outlet. the hefty price tag accounts for lost revenue, damage to the canal and the cost of the rescue to free the thing. more than 400 ships were blocked from crossing the canal. a spokesman for the japanese company that owns the "ever given" says insurance companies and lawyers are right now trying to work it all out. well, she is part of the summer olympics, which are now just 100 days away

the 2020 games were delayed, of course, a full year due to the pandemic marking the occasion the olympic rings unveiled in tokyo today. another debut, the closing ceremony uniforms that team usa is going to wear courtesy of the designer ralph lauren, and lacing up her sneakers for perhaps the last time is one of the best to ever take the court for usa women's basketball nbc's jimmy roberts now with the story of sue bird. ♪ >> reporter: at the 2004 athens olympics, sue bird served as team captain dawn staley's under study. >> staley played magnificently >> staley banks it in. that will seal it, the best women's basketball team in the world. >> reporter: team usa won gold, sue bird learned just how much that victory meant when on the way home, her flight attendant asked to see bird's medal. >> the minute other passengers saw it, like it was being passed up and down.

people just wanted to touch this moment, and that's when i kind of was like this is different. >> reporter: based on talent alone, bird is different she's one of the most accomplished basketball players of all time, with four olympic gold medals, four wnba championships, and two ncaa championships. from an early age, her enormous talent was clear >> i do remember the first college recruitment letter i got. i had just finished my sixth grade year, and i got it from duke, and i was super excited. looking back, i think that was a big moment for me because i was like, wait a minute, i could go to college for this? >> reporter: bird landed at the university of connecticut in 1998 her college coach was the legendary geno auriemma. >> you know, it starts and ends with coach auriemma.

when i think about like the framework of who i am as a player, it's because of him. >> bird pulls up, it's good. two on one, bird pull up shot. sue bird with the three. sue bird. >> reporter: equipped with auriemma's education, bird rose through the professional and national team ranks. >> bird, got it. sue bird drops in the jumper >> reporter: she and fellow husky and olympian diana taurasi even inspired their college coach to take one more shot at the olympics >> after the london olympics i thought in my heart, okay, that's it. i don't really need to do this anymore. why mess with a really good thing. i think if di and sue weren't playing i definitely wouldn't do it, but i think an opportunity to be around them one more time, it was really hard for me to say anything other than yes.

>> one, two, three. >> usa >> she drills the three. sue bird >> reporter: the rio results were the same for team usa as they had been for the past five games. >> and as they close it out here in rio, the united states women's olympic basketball team showing perfection six straight olympic gold medals. >> reporter: tokyo will bring in a new coach, one that will take bird's olympic journey full circle, dawn staley, the woman she first backed up will now coach the team. >> there's just an intensity about her, a focus about her she doesn't take crap from anybody. i saw it in her as a player and you can see it as a coach. >> reporter: tokyo will likely be bird's last olympics, one last chance to see one of the sport's best a woman whose gifts to the game

fly well above simple statistics >> yes, i call sue bird a legend her resume speaks for itself you know, she's won at every level going for her fifth gold medal, and she's the best point guard in the world >> sue bird, pull up jumper. so impressive. >> sue is definitely a legend. she's one of the g.o.a.t.s of our game to be a legend you have to be selfless, and i think that's who sue is she really gives up herself for her teammates ask that's something special. >> sharing her knowledge and sharing her love of the game with the young ones coming up, i'm so lucky i've been able to play with her and be her teammate and i can't imagine usa basketball without her that will be a weird day >> sue bird, the heartbeat emotional leader of this team. >> i actually have a teammate who plays the song by drake

called "legend" for me, like all the time i know when it's all said and done i've won a lot, and i always say you can't argue that, which is nice, so if that makes me a legend, i'll take it. >> the summer olympics on the networks of nbc universal including this one starting in july first, though, this evening tragedy, anguish and an award-winning record breaking international celebrity is missing, ripped from his own home according to police darius, what guinness calls the world's longest rabbit was kidnapped on saturday in central england. he's 4'3" long, weighs 49 pound, a rabbit at the height of his fame, insured for more than 1.5 million bucks. the search for darius began over the weekend. his owner annette edwards offering a 2,000 pound reward for his safe return, about 2,700 bucks, and calling the day of his disappearance a very sad day.

for updates as our friend rachel would say, watch this space. 40 seconds left on a race to the finish the johnson & johnson covid vaccine remains in limbo, today experts on the cdc panel said they need at least another week to decide whether the state should resume j&j vaccines following concerns over blood clots. crowds growing in brooklyn center, minneapolis, on the fourth night of protests since a police officer shot and killed daunte wright. that officer kim potter arrested today charged with second degree manslaughter she has just posted bond and is now out of jail. she'll make her first appearance in court tomorrow. now you know the news of this wednesday, april the 14th, 2021 i'm shepard smith, thanks for having us in tonight follow us on twitter and instagram @thenewsoncnbc

it's 5:00 a.m. at cnbc here is the top five at 5:00 coinbase looking to keep the party going. after the highly anticipated debut. and the j&j vaccine taking off. the market and regulators dig into the blood clot issue. is everybody getting back on a plane? set to give us their