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Early Start with John Berman and Zoraida Sambolin

Victims and Gunman Identified in Boulder Mass Shooting; Senate at Impasse Over Expanding Background Checks; More States Making All Adults Eligible for Vaccines; Biden Extends Affordable Care Act Special Enrollment. Aired 5-5:30a ET

Aired March 24, 2021 - 05:00   ET

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

[05:00:26]

CHRISTINE ROMANS, CNN ANCHOR: Welcome to our viewers in the United States and all around the world. This is EARLY START. I'm Christine Romans.

LAURA JARRETT, CNN ANCHOR: Good morning, Christine. I'm Laura Jarrett. It's Wednesday, March 24th. It's 5:00 a.m. here in New York.

And we begin with another American community reeling from another senseless act of violence after a gunman opened fire at a Boulder, Colorado, supermarket, killing ten people. Authorities have identified all of the victims, shoppers just running errands, store employees who had worked there for years and a police officer just trying to stop that massacre.

The friend of one of the victims remembers her as warm, funny and smart.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

HELEN FORSTER, FRIEND OF BOULDER SHOOTING VICTIM SUZANNE FOUNTAIN: She was a bright light. She was one of those people that I think a lot of people who met her felt they already knew her. We're still a little bit in shock and we're stunned and I think we just have to take one day at a time and remember what she did for all of us and, you know, you hold someone in your hearts whether they're on the planet or not, you know? So I think that that's what a lot of us will be doing moving forward.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

ROMANS: We are also learning more about the gunman and his troubling past. A 21-year-old armed with an AR-15 style assault rifle and a semi-automatic handgun. He is in custody charged with ten counts of first degree murder. Authorities have not shared information on a possible motive.

Here is how one friend described him.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) DAMIEN CRUZ, HIGH SCHOOL FRIEND OF SHOOTER: People chose not to mess with him because of his temper, people chose not to really talk to him because of how he acted and things like that. So, yeah, he was very alone I'd say, but when he was with you, he was approachable.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Now after two mass shootings in the span of just one week, President Joe Biden keeping the White House flags at half-staff as they were already lowered to honor the victims of last week's shooting in Atlanta. He's also using this moment to make a new push for common sense gun reform. We're going to have more on that in just a minute.

First, let's go to CNN's Dan Simon who is standing by live for us this morning in Boulder.

Dan, what more are you learning about the suspect's background here?

DAN SIMON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, good morning, Laura. Well, first of all, we know that when he came to the grocery store, he was armed with two semi-automatic weapons one of which he had purchased just six days earlier. But in terms of the background a lot of information we're getting is from the suspect's own brother and it paints a really disturbing picture. The brother spoke to CNN and said that he thought his brother was mentally ill, suffered from some kind of mental illness.

He talked about how he would put duct tape on a computer camera because he thought he was being followed. He said the paranoia really began in 2018 when he thought somebody was watching him.

But this is a quote he gave to CNN, he said he always suspected someone was behind him, someone was chasing him. We kept a close eye on him when he was in high school, he would say someone is chasing me, someone is investigating me and we're like come on, man, there's nothing. He was just closing in on himself. And he also said that when he was in high school he was bullied and that made him pretty isolated.

The bottom line here is when you take all these components together, the fact that he had a propensity for temper, the fact that he appeared to have some type of mental illness according to his own brother and that he had access to weapons that is a recipe for disaster, Laura.

JARRETT: All right. Dan, thanks so much. We'll have you back in a little bit.

ROMANS: This morning, we are learning more about the victims of the Boulder shooting. Among those killed, a supermarket manager and a soon to be grandfather.

CNN's Sunlen Serfaty has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE) SUNLEN SERFATY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The victims going about their daily lives in a grocery store, customers, employees, some there to get their COVID vaccine.

The ten lives lost from all backgrounds and ages, from 20 to 65 years old.

GOV. JARED POLIS (D), COLORADO: Our hearts ache for those who lost their lives.

SERFATY: Among them 25-year-old Rikki Olds, a manager at King Soopers store, she was raised by his grandparents, her uncle describing her as charismatic, a strong, independent young woman, a shining light he says in this dark world.

And 51-year-old Officer Eric Talley, a husband, a father of seven, who within minutes of the first 911 reports of an armed man inside the store ran into danger. He was the first officer on the scene and then shot and killed.

JOSEPH R. BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: When the moment to act came, Officer Talley did not hesitate in his duty, making the ultimate sacrifice in his effort to save lives.

[05:05:12]

That's a definition of an American hero.

SERFATY: Talley had been in IT before becoming a police officer but at age 40 pursued a career change, joining the Boulder police force ten years ago.

CHRIS MARIS HEROLD, BOULDER POLICE: He didn't have to go into policing. He had a profession before this, but he felt a higher calling. He was willing to die to protect others.

SERFATY: His father saying it didn't surprise me he was the first one there. And revealing he was learning to become a drone operator on the force because the job would be safer.

Talley's police car parked outside the Boulder police station becoming a memorial. And a procession of his fellow officers honoring him Monday evening. Boulder police revealing the other eight victims.

HEROLD: The families of the victims have been notified.

SERFATY: Twenty-year-old Denny Stong, 23-year-old Neven Stanisic, 49- year-old Tralona Bartkowiak, 59-year-old Suzanne Fountain, 51-year-old Teri Leiker, 61-year-old Kevin Mahoney, 62-year-old Lynn Murray, and 65-year-old Jody Waters. Lives lost, families shattered.

HEROLD: Our hearts go out to the victims killed during this senseless act of violence.

SERFATY: Sunlen Serfaty, CNN, Washington.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

JARRETT: Sunlen, thank you so much for that piece.

You are likely to hear a lot about gun reform in the coming weeks but when it comes to expanding background checks on gun sales, well, the Senate is again at an impasse. If you're hopeful lawmakers can find common ground here, consider this exchange between Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal and Republican Senator Ted Cruz.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

SEN. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL (D-CT): Thoughts and prayers are not enough. And yet thoughts and prayers is all we have heard from my colleagues on the other side. Thoughts and prayers must lead to action.

SEN. TED CRUZ (R-TX): I agree it is time for us to do something and every time there is a shooting we play this ridiculous theater. I don't apologize for thoughts or prayers, I will lift up in prayer people who are hurting and I believe in the power of prayer and the contempt of Democrats for prayers is an odd sociological thing.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

JARRETT: Let's go live to Capitol Hill and bring in CNN's Daniella Diaz.

Daniella, good morning.

President Biden trying to meet this moment now pushing for fast action on stricter gun laws. You heard the two senators there could not be more polar opposite. So, walk us through what's already on the table in the House at least when it comes to gun reform.

DANIELLA DIAZ, CNN CONGRESSIONAL REPORTER: Laura, legislation to expand background checks has hit a wall in the Senate. The House passed two bills a couple weeks ago that would expand background checks on gun sales, the first would expand the -- or help with the background check for anything having -- any guns sold at gun sales or over the Internet or between private parties, and the second would close this Charleston loophole which would increase the time for a background check.

But Senate Republicans are not eager to get behind this legislation. They said that legislation to expand background checks would eat away at gun rights and said it wouldn't address the issues that actually happened with these gun crimes.

And that's not the only issue Democrats are facing with trying to pass this legislation in the Senate. They are also facing one of their own members of their party, the usual suspect we bring up over and over, Democratic Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia. He said these measures go too far to expand background checks. He wants commercial background checks on guns, not universal background checks.

So he is someone that Democrats need to also be able to sign on to this legislation. But we always go back to the same issue of this Senate filibuster, the 60-vote threshold needed to pass any legislation in the Senate and right now, Senate Democrats the majority do not have 60 votes to pass this issue in the Senate.

So, it's always the same problems in the Senate that we're covering over and over.

JARRETT: We're just talking about background checks, we are not even talking about some of the bolder plans that the president has in mind when it comes to high capacity semi-automatic weapons.

Also, since we have you, I want to talk about what's going on with some of President Biden's nominees. Two Asian-American senators had threatened to oppose the president's nominees demanding more people of Asian descent in his cabinet. We talk about his cabinet being very diverse but they wanted more people of Asian descent in the cabinet, even though most of the cabinet is confirmed but he still can't afford to lose these senators, Mazie Hirono, Tammy Duckworth. These are important Democratic votes going forward, right?

DIAZ: That's exactly right. Both of the senators have backed off of their threat, Mazie Hirono and Tammy Duckworth. They backed off late last night their threat to not support any nominations going through the Senate unless they were minorities.

[05:10:03]

But this came after a tense exchange that they had with a Biden official. They want the Biden administration to prioritize the AAPI community in light of this uptick of hate crimes happening in the AAPI community with the start of the pandemic.

And Duckworth was upset because she felt that the White House was brushing off her concerns on this issue. Now that they've both backed off of this issue, they backed off because the White House promised to implement a senior level aide that would make this topic a priority, the AAPI community a priority. But they both have still shared their discontent with the fact that the White House does not have an AAPI cabinet secretary.

This would be the first time in 20 years that a president does not have an AAPI secretary. So that is still a concern for these senators.

JARRETT: All right. Daniella Diaz, always good to have you. Thanks.

ROMANS: All right. Ten minutes past the hour.

White House advisers are working on the next piece of President Biden's rescue for Americans. Aides expected to present President Biden with a $3 trillion jobs and infrastructure proposal in the coming days. It is split we're told into two parts, first, infrastructure and clean energy, then key domestic economic issues.

Now, his rescue plan has been signed into law. This would be a recovery plan to strengthen the economy. Now, the infrastructure push has money for roads, bridges and railways with billions for climate- related issues and education infrastructure. The domestic agenda would include top priorities like free community

college, the push for $15 minimum wage, universal pre-K and making that child tax credit permanent.

White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said no final decisions have been made about the size or scope this have proposal.

JARRETT: You know, Christine, I think sometimes when people hear infrastructure their eyes sort of glaze over but we're also talking about jobs here, right?

ROMANS: Absolutely. And you're talking about public/priority partnerships in some cases where you get money flowing to localities to get important projects built that are really an investment. Also when you have interest rates so low there are a lot of economists who have said for years it is the easiest investment you can make in the United States right now with 1 percent interest rates to build out infrastructure. Other countries are doing it, we're not.

JARRETT: Yeah.

Al right. Still ahead, the White House extending its special enrollment for Obamacare as part of the COVID relief law. We're going to break town all the new details for you just ahead.

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[05:16:28]

JARRETT: We've all waited for this moment, vaccines fore everyone. More and more states now offering eligible adults all the shots, but many states are still weeks away from that, running up against President Biden's May 1st deadline. But as more Americans head to restaurants and jump on flights again health experts are still concerned about the case numbers.

CNN's Nick Watt has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

NICK WATT, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, Christine and Laura, about one in four Americans have now had at least one dose of vaccine and this week the White House says they have 27 million doses to allocate. That is up substantially from just last week.

There will come a day when supply meets demand. Not yet. But it will come. And here is a good sign, Texas starting Monday will open vaccine eligibility to every single adult in the state. Now, the average daily death toll from COVID-19 in this country has fallen now below 1,000 a day. First time in about five months it has fallen that low.

But case counts still stuck at over 50,000 every day. And that has some health experts worrying as vaccines roll out, as people gain confidence, as people go out they are concerned of another wave. In fact, polls showed that last week nearly half of Americans went out to eat. Back to you.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

ROMANS: All right. Nick, thank you for that.

AstraZeneca promising to release fresh vaccine data in the next 48 hours. This after this independent review board accused the company of using outdated information that could mislead the public about the effectiveness of its vaccine.

CNN's Melissa Bell in live in Paris.

And, you know, 24 hours ago this was quite a kerfuffle here trying to understand what this dispute was about the AstraZeneca results here. Are they standing by the results of their U.S. trial?

MELISSA BELL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: That's right.

AstraZeneca saying that they're by those results they announced on Monday. We're talking about results not about safety as we've been talking about around the AstraZeneca vaccine the last few weeks and particularly in Europe but about efficacy. What AstraZeneca announced on Monday was that the results from its U.S. clinical trials had shown that the vaccine had a 79 percent efficacy against symptomatic disease and 100 percent efficacy against the stronger forms of the disease and hospitalizations.

Now, that was then queried, concerns were raised by the data and safety monitoring board who said, look, we believe that those results have been based on data that is outdated or incomplete. AstraZeneca saying it has looked at its data, believes it is complete and will be providing, working with and engaging with the monitoring board in order to provide it with that data and with its primary analysis, within 48 hours.

So not only is it standing by its results, Christine, but it says it's going to back them up with that monitoring board. Clearly very important because AstraZeneca clinical trials ongoing in the United States and those results will be essential to working out whether or not it becomes the fourth vaccine to get approval in the U.S.

ROMANS: That's why everybody is so interested.

All right. Melissa Bell for us in Paris, thank you so much for that, Melissa.

Laura?

JARRETT: All right. Back here in the U.S. the Biden administration extending the special enrollment period for Obamacare by three months now to August 15th. This change allows Americans more time to receive benefits they were granted through that new COVID relief law, including federal subsidies to reduce premiums.

[05:20:07] The extension comes on the 11th anniversary of the signing of the Affordable Care Act.

ROMANS: All right. Up next, Georgia Tech's head coach ripping the NCAA over how it treated the women's tournament compared to the men's. Andy Scholes with the "Bleacher Report."

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ROMANS: All right. The coach of the Denver Nuggets becomes emotional remembering the victims of the mass shooting in Colorado.

Andy Scholes is in San Antonio for the women's NCAA tournament and has more this morning in the "Bleacher Report."

[05:25:00]

Good morning, Andy.

ANDY SCHOLES, CNN SPORTS CORRESPONDENT: Yeah, good morning, Christine.

So, Nuggets head coach Mike Malone breaking down in tears before his team's game last night as he spoke about the ten people who lost their lives in that tragic shooting there in Boulder.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MIKE MALONE, DENVER NUGGETS HEAD COACH: I think about Eric Talley and his seven kids. That's what I think about. I'm just heartbroken for them and everybody else. And hopefully we as a country, we as a state can find a way to be better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: A moment of silence was also held before the game in Orlando as they took on the Magic.

All right. Here in San Antonio, meanwhile, the second round of the women's NCAA tournament is under way and last night, hours before their game, Georgia Tech head coach Nell Fortner just blasted the NCAA in a statement over the disparities between the men's and women's tournaments.

Her statement reads in part, to the NCAA thank you, thank you for using the three biggest weeks of your organization's year to expose exactly how you feel about women's basketball, an afterthought.

The NCAA apologized and upgraded the women's workout facility here after admitting that they fell short.

Now, the Yellow Jackets went on to beat West Virginia and advance to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 2012.

After the game, Fortner was asked about her statement.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

NELL FORTNER, GEORGIA TECH HEAD COACH: The inequities are something that need to be looked at. I feel like we are a viable, valuable asset to be able to run a little bit stronger championship. We've got to talk about things, we have to bring things up and get them addressed at times and you can't shy away from that.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SCHOLES: All four top seeds advancing last night here in Texas, UConn punching their ticket to their 27th consecutive sweet 16. A freshman sensation Paige Bueckers is leading the way with 20 points. The Huskies beat Syracuse by 36.

Their head coach Geno Auriemma has yet to join the team here in San Antonio after testing positive for COVID-19. He is expected to be here for the next round.

The Huskies are going to have their hands full for that next game. They're going to face off against Iowa and their freshman phenom Caitlin Clark. The Hawkeyes guard scoring 24 points in the first half. That was two more than Kentucky's entire team.

She finished with 36 as the fifth seed cruised to a 14-point victory over the Wildcats earning their eighth trip to the sweet 16. And, Laura, eight more teams going to punch their ticket to the sweet 16 here in San Antonio. Today, so far, only friends and families have been allowed to the games to the first rounds but once when they get to the sweet 16, fans will be able to be allowed to attend the games at reduced capacity.

JARRETT: I can tell you are joining yourself out there, my friend. Thanks so much. Nice to see you.

All right. Boulder, Colorado, in mourning this morning, joining the list of American communities scarred by a mass shooting. The latest on what we've learned about the victims and the shooter just ahead.

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