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The Lead with Jake Tapper

President Biden To Meet With Two Senate Leaders On Infrastructure; House Republicans Set To Vote To Oust Liz Cheney; Cyberattack On U.S. Pipeline From Russia; FDA Authorizes Pfizer Vaccine For 12 To 15-Year-Olds; Another Audit Of 2020 Ballots Underway In AZ By "Big Lie" Believers; Manhunt For Times Square Gunman, Two Adults & A Child Injured; Anger Grows As Colombia Tries To Suppress Protests Sparked By Coronavirus Response. Aired 5-6p ET

Aired May 10, 2021 - 17:00   ET

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

[17:00:00]

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: So let's be clear, our economic plan is working.

KAITLAN COLLINS, CNN CHIEF WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): President Biden offering a full (inaudible) defense of his economic strategy.

BIDEN: I never said and no serious analyst ever suggested that climbing out of the deep, deep whole our economy was in would be simple.

COLLINS (voice-over): Biden responding to GOP criticism after unemployment rose slightly to 6.1 percent and employers only added 266,000 jobs in April.

SPENCER COX, GOVERNOR OF UTAH: It is a terrible jobs report. Not what we were expecting at all, but that's what happens when we pay people not to work.

COLLINS (voice-over): The president is pushing back on claims that increased unemployment benefits are fueling the labor shortage and instead focusing on corporate America.

BIDEN: We also need to recognize that people will come back to work if they are paid a decent wage.

COLLINS (voice-over): Biden is facing a critical week to secure bipartisan deals.

JEN PSAKI, WHITE HOUSE PRESS SECRETARY: We're in the early sausage- making stage of the discussion.

COLLINS (voice-over): He's meeting one-on-one with Senator Joe Manchin this hour and will host congressional leaders Wednesday before meeting with Republican senators on Thursday to talk infrastructure. Biden's chief of staff says he wants to compromise. RON KLAIN, WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: It's basic, basic things that

we're putting forward.

COLLINS (voice-over): And Press Secretary Jen Psaki says Biden wants an infrastructure bill on his desk by this summer.

PSAKI: The president would still like to see progress by Memorial Day.

COLLINS (voice-over): The president will meet with Republicans as the party is in turmoil.

REP. KEVIN MCCARTHY (R-CA): Everyone in leadership serves at the pleasure of the conference.

COLLINS (voice-over): The House Republican Conference will vote Wednesday on whether to oust Liz Cheney from leadership and her potential replacement now has House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy's endorsement.

MARIA BARTIROMO, FOX NEWS HOST: Do you support Elise Stefanik for that job?

MCCARTHY: Yes, I do.

COLLINS (voice-over): Elise Stefanik has repeatedly echoed former President Trump's election lies causing some of her Republican colleagues to liken the party to a sinking ship.

REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Right now it's basically the "Titanic." We're like, you know, in the middle of the slow sink. We have a band playing on the deck. You know, Donald Trump is running around trying to find women's clothing and get on the first life boat.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

COLLINS (on camera): And, Jake, Kevin McCarthy has now sent a letter to House Republicans saying that they should anticipate a vote on Wednesday. He doesn't mention Liz Cheney by name in this letter but he does say, "It's clear we need to mick a change."

JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right. Chief White House correspondent Kaitlan Collins, thanks so much. Let's discuss this now with the executive director of a progressive group, Justice Democrats, Alexandra Rojas and as well as former Republican Congresswoman from Virginia, Barbara Comstock.

Congresswoman, let me start with you. Today President Biden directly addressed concerns from some Republicans who claimed people did not want to go back to work because they were making more in unemployment benefits because of the additional federal dollars.

He's promising to enforce a law requiring anyone who is offered a suitable job must take that job or lose their unemployment benefits. Do you think that shows he's willing to listen to Republican criticism if they come to the table in good faith? What do you think? BARBARA COMSTOCK, FORMER U.S. REPRESENTATIVE, VIRGINIA: Well, I think

that's a good start because we've all heard, you know, certainly anecdotally and I've heard from people where I live about, you know, they can't get whether it's for restaurants or for hairdressers, a lot of service jobs, it's hard to get people in there at a time when we are, you know, certainly increasing our vaccines and people are feeling safer.

So I think there is a compromise to be had here. I do think that's a good sign. And then with the infrastructure plans, I think you do see there can be some points of agreement here because that's always something that Democrats and Republicans can find some way to come together.

TAPPER: Alexandra, President Biden is hosting two key Senate Democrats, Joe Manchin from West Virginia and Tom Carper from Delaware at the White House today. No Republicans as of now are on board with the infrastructure plan. Manchin has expressed concerns about its size and its cost. Do you think if Biden can't get Manchin on board, the plan is dead?

ALEXANDRA ROJAS, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, JUSTICE DEMOCRATS: No. I mean, I think that, you know, this is the first time in 10 years since Democrats have had unified control of the House, the Senate and the White House. And so working families have been waiting for a decade on action on a minimum wage, clean energy investments, Medicare expansion, universal child care and so much more.

To let Joe Manchin be the driving force here, understanding the barriers there, we need to put pressure. There needs to be a prioritization of expanding the size, the scope, and the speed of this bill so that way we can get voters, the Democratic voters that gave us this historic governing opportunity to believe in government and to believe in Democrats again by delivering on results that we can campaign on before the highly competitive 2022 midterms.

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Right now, right, we're seeing that as popular as the Democrat Covid Relief Bill was, voters support Biden infrastructure plan as is by an even wider margin, over 35 points. And they also support paying for it by asking the wealthy to pay their fair share. So, we've got to waste no time in watering down a bill that's far more popular than the Republican alternative and remind Joe Manchin and other senators that that's what's at stake right now.

TAPPER: Congresswoman, your former caucus, the House Republican Caucus, is preparing to purge Congresswoman Liz Cheney from her leadership role. She's more conservative than Elise Stefanik who is likely going to take her place. She voted for the Trump agenda more reliably than Stefanik did.

This seems entirely because Cheney refuses to lie about the election and the Capitol insurrection. Sources tell CNN's Jamie Gangel that Liz Cheney thinks her colleagues are suffering from collective amnesia and fear of Trump and they expect she will continue to speak out even more forcefully. What does a Liz Cheney versus Kevin McCarthy public feud mean for Republicans in next year's midterms, do you think?

COMSTOCK: Well, I think it's obviously a mistake to make, you know, fealty to Donald Trump a litmus test. The senators had a much different approach with the leadership over there. None of them voted to, you know, not certify the election on January 6th and I think there does need to be an accounting for January 6th.

Liz Cheney, obviously, supports a commission as do I. I think it's very important because I think that was really a tragic day that really needs to be seriously addressed. I think Liz Cheney is strengthened regardless of what has happened. As Mitt Romney pointed out, Republicans aren't gaining any votes from doing this.

And the problem is, it is looking to the past and Donald Trump and his whole grievance agenda and elections are always about the future. So, the party, you know, while you're hearing some Republicans saying, well, we have to remove Liz Cheney so we can move to 2022, the problem is the focus on Donald Trump is all a looking to the past grievance agenda, things like what you're seeing in Arizona and the bamboo ballots.

So, I do think this will be a mistake and I regret it because I've worked hard to get Republican women and minorities elected. I'm on two boards to do that and down ballot Republicans did quite well and I certainly will still work to get Republicans elected who are more mainstream.

And that means, you know, sometimes it's very conservative members in a really red district, but also the way you get to a majority is those swing districts that did not support Donald Trump and if they make those -- make it a litmus test, then those 15 to 20 seats that get you the majority, that's going to be problematic for them.

TAPPER: And let me just follow up on that because there was a story in "The Washington Post" about how the NRCC, which is the House Republican campaign arm, had polling showing that Donald Trump was a drag in competitive districts like the district you used to represent in northern Virginia.

That as popular as he was with the base, he was unpopular in districts like yours, the ones you were just talking about in order -- that you need in order to win the majority. Do you think that this calculation McCarthy is making is going to keep him from becoming speaker?

COMSTOCK: Well, it's a real problem and within the caucus he always had the Freedom Caucus and those in very red district didn't understand that to get to the majority, you needed to have the swing district and have those vote.

As you pointed out Trump's numbers are going down. You know, 56 percent of Americans thought he should be impeached for the January 6th events and I would go back to CPAC, his own family gathering essentially, a very conservative gathering where his own pollster found he had only 55 percent support among basically his own family gathering. So his -- it is dissipating, and to make him the litmus test, I think is a big mistake. And you look at states like -- we have a Democrat governor in Republican Kansas because Kris Kobach, you know, was the Trump nominee.

TAPPER: Right.

COMSTOCK: You know, and then you had Steve Bannon go in and play an Alabama with the Roy Moore race and we lost that seat.

TAPPER: Yes.

COMSTOCK: Mark Sanford got unseated in South Carolina back in 2018 and we lost that seat, so you go too extreme in these primaries and then you're going to start losing seats. So that's the challenge now when you make Trump the litmus test instead of having a broad coalition which recognizes to get to a majority, we have to have a lot of different people who represent their district.

TAPPER: Alexandra, what do you think this all means for the ability to compromise because President Biden is constantly talking about the need for a strong Republican Party, the need for bipartisanship? How does all this in-fighting on the Republican side impact the need to get legislation passed to help Americans?

ROJAS: Well, I mean, I think that right now the Republican Party as we were just talking about, is a little bit in shambles, right.

[17:10:02]

Donald Trump -- it's become the sort of cult of Donald Trump. They are --don't have a core message. They are sort of bankrupt for solutions to move us forward, at least the folks in D.C., and if we're looking across the country, there are racist voter suppression bills being pushed forward by Republicans in 47 out of the 50 states.

So, I think as Democrats we have to govern. We have to be able to prove that we can show results and compromise with directly the American people which over 55 percent right now are very much in support, that's including Republicans and Democrats, of what President Biden is doing right now and the infrastructure package like I was saying before. It's far more popular than the COVID Relief Bill.

So I think that's what we've got to focus on like we've got to govern and there are lots of opportunities for us to be able to do that, especially after over a decade of our voters, you know, saying that we're going to get stuff done like minimum wage, like clean energy investments and not at the scale that is necessary for the crisis that we're under, and the millions of jobs that we could create, but hasn't done that yet. So, that's what we should focus on is governing.

TAPPER: Alexandra Rojas, former Congresswoman Barbara Comstock, thanks to both of you. Appreciate it. Good to see both of you.

A pipeline that transports almost half of all fuel consumed on the east coast shut down by a cyberattack with links to Russia. I'm going to talk to the former director of the National Counterterrorism Center. That's next.

Then, new data showing more than 400 Americans were injured or killed in shootings in just the last 72 hours. That's ahead.

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TAPPER: In our "National Lead" today, the FBI confirming that a cyber- criminal gang with ties to Russia is responsible for hacking the largest U.S. fuel pipeline system in the United States and demanding ransom. Colonial Pipeline said today that it hopes to restore its lines which run from Texas to New Jersey by the end of the week.

This one company supplies much of the East Coast with gasoline. The Biden administration is helping investigate this ransomware attack by refusing to say if this private company paid up. Let's bring in Michael Leiter. He served as the director of the National Counterterrorism Center for both the Bush and Obama administration.

Michael, thanks so much for being here. So what do you make of this kind of cyberattack on such a critical piece of infrastructure that could have such a huge ripple effect nationwide?

MICHAEL LEITER, FORMER DIRECTOR, NATIONAL COUNTERTERRORISM CENTER: I think it highlights two things, Jake. First, the prevalence of ransomware is much, much wider than people understand. Last year alone an increase of over 500 percent in attacks. It's a real useful tool for criminals.

The second piece of the highlights is really how vulnerable our critical infrastructure remains in this country and around the world, and this pipeline is one example, but the same can be said of our electrical grid, water systems. These are all pieces of infrastructure we all rely on. They all rely on cyber technology and, hence, they are all seriously vulnerable.

TAPPER: And just so people understand because I think probably a lot of people don't even know what this is. These guys or gals break into this infrastructure, these computers and say give us a million dollars if you want this, otherwise we'll shut it down forever and they can do that.

LEITER: Pretty much, and it starts with a very simple attack (inaudible). Usually it's a phishing e-mail. So you get the e-mail and you go, oh, that's interesting, let me click on it and you click on it and that starts to infect one computer and that moves across the computer networks.

And once they activate the ransomware, as you said, it shuts down the computers. They are not accessible and you get a little pop-up window and says pay me a lot of bitcoin. Usually, it's cryptocurrency because you don't normally take checks if you're a cybercriminal.

TAPPER: Right. LEITER: But not only are they walking down these systems and affecting things like critical infrastructure, they also often now threaten to release sensitive information that they've simultaneously ex-filtrated from the companies or the governments.

Last week, we saw in the District of Columbia the exfiltration of some records from the police department here. So there are lots of ways that they can make people want to pay.

TAPPER: So, in the last hour, the Kremlin told CNN that the Russian government is not involved. Biden also said today that Russia at least, as of now, does not appear to be to blame. But Biden also said that the Russian government holds at least some responsibility here. Do you agree?

LEITER: I do, and I tend to think that attacks like this really are criminal gangs, criminal organizations. There are plenty of people in central Europe and elsewhere in the world who can perpetrate these sorts of attacks. But the problem is even if the state isn't behind it, states like Russia are not enforcing the law.

So, fundamentally, these criminals can do this and get off scot-free. They are not being pursued. There is not adequate international cooperation. So, in that sense, the Russian government, in my view, absolutely would have some responsibility for not helping the United States and other countries enforce computer crimes laws.

TAPPER: And one of the things that I've heard is that often insurance companies get involved here when it happens to a private company and they say pay it, you know, pay the million dollars. It's far easier and far less of a headache than not and you'll get the system back up, and all they want is the money. They don't care about whatever.

LEITER: Absolutely.

TAPPER: Now, a White House official seem to suggest today the advice is evolving on whether or not that's a good idea. Take a listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ANNE NEUBERGER, DEPUTY NATIONAL SECURITY ADVISER, CYBER & EMERGING TECHNOLOGY: The FBI has provided advice in the past that paying a ransom some would encourage furtherance ransomware activity and is so troubling. We recognize, though, that companies are often in a difficult position if their data is encrypted and they do not have backups and cannot recover the data.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

TAPPER: What do you tell people? What do you think? Should they pay the ransom? Should they not?

LEITER: Well, I'm very happy that Anne Neuberger, who is the cyber coordinator at the White House is really outstanding, gave very nuanced advice. From government perspective, the government doesn't want ransom to be paid because it encourages more ransomware attacks, but from a company's perspective there are absolutely instances where they should.

It's faster to get their systems back. It prevents information from being leaked and it might be much less expensive than recreating their entire computer network. So, it is a piece-by-piece analysis based on the facts.

[17:20:02]

And the problem we have now, again, is there is no deterrence of this. There is no ability to get the criminals so they keep doing it over and over again.

TAPPER: So, Kaitlan Collins reported earlier that a source tells that the Biden administration is drafting an executive order that would require American companies to report even suspected cybercrimes to the Feds. Right now, there is no such requirement I guess. I mean, that's unusual to me because I would think that how can the federal government get a hold on this if they don't even know about all the attacks.

LEITER: The U.S. is really behind. We've got a patchwork of 50 states on privacy laws and various cybersecurity. Different parts of the private sector have to report different things to different parts of federal government.

Getting that consistent would be a piece of it, but I think also requiring different types of industries to improve their protections and ultimately, still understanding that once -- even if we spend all the money in the world, there will still be vulnerabilities and how do we have resiliency in this sort of system of pipelines so that even if they do suffer an attack, that we don't have to wait days or weeks to get those system back online.

TAPPER: So, CNN's Oren Liebermann pointed out earlier in the show that the most targeted industries in recent ransomware attacks are health care, education, government. Why are those attractive targets for criminals?

LEITER: Well, in part, because some of those systems can't recover, governments especially. Municipal governments have really limited I.T. budgets and can't get back, Hospitals because if a hospital system goes down, they cannot operate at all. So it puts greater pressure on that system to pay the ransom rather than try to reconstruct their systems.

The fact is though, they will go after anyone. These criminals have no ethics, no morals. It's just like was said, why do it? Why rob the bank?

TAPPER: Right.

LEITER: Because that's where the money is. So why attack anyone? Attack everyone you can and you see where you come out in the end.

TAPPER: In the infamous words, perhaps a pocketful of Willie Sutton. Thank you so much, Michael Leiter. Great to see you again. LEITER: My pleasure. Thanks.

TAPPER: Breaking news, the FDA is now expanding the Pfizer vaccine Emergency Use Authorization to include children ages 12 to 15. That's good news. We'll have more on that after this quick break.

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TAPPER: We have some breaking news and good news in our "Health Lead." The Food and Drug Administration has just authorized Emergency Use Authorization of the Pfizer vaccine for children ages 12 to 15. This is the first coronavirus vaccine authorized for use in younger teens and adolescents.

Dr. Ashish Jha joins us now to rect. So Dr. Jha, does this mean in just a few days any child aged 12 to 15 can get the Pfizer vaccines? How long will it be until shots go into younger arms?

ASHISH JHA, DEAN, BROWN UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF PUBLIC HEALTH: Yes, Jake, thanks for having me back. We're now on to the ACIP, the Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices, that's the CDC's advisory committee. They're going to meet soon. They're going to make their recommendations.

I expect them to recommend that the vaccine be eligible -- be available for 12 to 15-year-olds. And then it will be very quick after that. So my sense is we're talking about a few more days. It's not tonight. You can't sign up your 15-year-old tonight, but within a few days that all should go through and then after kids will be eligible to get vaccinated.

TAPPER: Will there be, do you think, priority given to children who have pre-existing health conditions such as happened with adults?

JHA: Entirely possible. The big difference, of course, is when adults became eligible we had such limited supply that we had to make priorities. That's not an issue right now. We have way more vaccines than we know what to do with. And so it's possible that the CDC might say, you know, here are the priority groups among children 12 to 15.

But alternatively, they just could say everybody who is 12 to 15 can get it. There really shouldn't be much in the way of delays because of the abundant supply we have.

TAPPER: Do you think authorizing this vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15 could potentially lead to vaccine shortages?

JHA: I don't. I mean, first of all, it's only Pfizer so there is going to be a little bit of trickiness because in some places you can imagine that they have a lot of Moderna and J&J, but maybe not as much Pfizer. So, you know, not everybody is going to be able to get it immediately like on the first few days, but we have a lot of Pfizer vaccine around so I'm not actually worried that people are going to have long delays, but there may be short delays in some places. TAPPER: Since March 2020 there have been 1.5 million COVID cases in

children 11 to 17. Now that the FDA has authorized Pfizer under the Emergency Use Authorization do you think schools will make vaccines a requirement?

JHA: Now, that's a very good question. We don't know. First of all, I don't think it's a necessity to get kids back fully this fall, and I think we'll have to see what the data says. Again, I don't expect to have full authorization by the time we get into the fall.

So it will -- they'll have to mandate it based on EUA alone. My best guess is most schools are not going to mandate it for this fall. They might maybe, let's say by the time we get to next spring, but we'll have to see.

TAPPER: A Kaiser Family Foundation survey finds that 19 percent of parents say they will not let their children get the vaccine at all and 15 percent say they would only vaccinate their kids if schools required it. Do you think parent's hesitancy will be the next hurdle for us?

JHA: I do, and my sense is that a lot of parents who are not getting themselves vaccinated are probably the same folks who are going to worry about getting their kids vaccinated.

[17:29:59]

You know, I have two kids in this age range and both of them are excited to get vaccinated. But I do understand that there's a lot of folks out there who going to have questions about safety and kids, and we're going to have to address those. So that is definitely going to be a hurdle in the weeks and months ahead.

TAPPER: Is it the same dosage for kids, 11 to 15 as for adults?

JHA: You know, that's a good question, Jake. I don't actually know the answer. I believe it is, but I'm not sure.

TAPPER: What will this mean for herd immunity? Will this make it easier for the United States to get to that 80 percent or so level?

JHA: Absolutely, right. So this adds about 16 more million people into the pool, were eligible, that's going to I think make a big difference. My guess is half of them will end up getting vaccinated reasonably quickly. That really will help push them the population immunity we have in our country up a lot. So I think for lots of reasons, this is a good thing for the kids themselves, but certainly for the population as well.

TAPPER: So states have been dropping their vaccine orders because of decreased demand, should they still be doing that?

JHA: Yes, you know, when I look at the data across states, and again, it varies from state to state, but most states have a lot of supply on hand. Most states can go weeks without getting any more vaccines from the federal government and still be vaccinating people. So, I don't think this is going to be some big game changer that all

of a sudden they're going to have to start (ph) ordering a lot more. Obviously, if they don't have enough Pfizer they need to order more Pfizer vaccines, but I think most states have plenty of supply on hand to be able to meet this need.

TAPPER: Dr. Ashish Jha, thanks so much. Appreciate your coming on to react to this breaking news.

JHA: Thank you.

TAPPER: The 2020 election lives on in Arizona where something of a deranged recount sparked by lies and conspiracy theories is ongoing. The Arizona Secretary of State will join me live next.

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[17:35:56]

TAPPER: In our national lead, a new chapter in the unprecedented partisan ballots recount or audit in Arizona launched by believers of the big lie this week. The 2.1 million Maricopa County ballots cast in the 2020 election are being recounted for a third time. The previous two audits found no evidence of election fraud.

A reminder, the Maricopa County election board is run by Republicans who all attested to the legitimacy of that county's election. The state's governor also is a Trump supporting Republican, nonetheless, the insanity. Cuckoo for Cocoa Puffs continues and it is all happening in a shroud of secrecy.

Only the pro-Trump one America news network is in control of the live stream of the event. A network that continues to push lies about the 2020 election, of course. Legitimate news organizations have had to fight to get just one camera in there. The counting is expected to last well into the summer. There is, of course, a little hiccup of the end of this week. They have to pause because the local high schools need the space for graduations.

The Arizona Secretary of State Katie Hobbs, Democrat joins us now. Madam Secretary, thanks for joining us. You've been outspoken about your criticism of this audit. You called it a hashtag fraud it on Twitter. Some Republicans are going after you for the criticism. You've even received death threats. So first of all, how are you and your family holding up?

KATIE HOBBS (D), ARIZONA SECRETARY OF STATE: We're OK. Thank you so much for asking, I appreciate it.

TAPPER: Given what you're dealing with, do you plan to run for reelection next year?

HOBBS: I am definitely planning on running next year.

TAPPER: A law professor wrote an op-ed in the Washington Post this weekend, arguing not only is the right to vote under account -- attack, so are the people that protect it. He wrote, "Election administration often requires many decisions in the heat of intense political contests.

The cornerstone should be protecting an individual's right to vote while also ensuring election integrity. Both are possible simultaneously, but it will become a lot harder if local election officials are afraid to act for fear of civil or criminal liability". Do you feel that the role of Secretary of State changed during the Trump era?

HOBBS: Well, I certainly think that the activities around this last election highlighted the role of secretaries of state. And I do feel like we sort of emerged as guardians of democracy, certainly. And regarding the same (ph) that you just read, I am concerned about what this type of continued activity is going to do to our ranks of qualified election workers, that offices across the country will lose qualified staff because of these continued attacks.

TAPPER: Yes, we saw some really horrific behavior in Georgia during that state's recount, and this whole audit has been a circus. There's an election conspiracy theorists at the helm of it. One of the ballot counters was a participant in the January 6th insurrection.

There's this deranged conspiracy theory that China sent Arizona bamboo ballots, that bamboo laced that would tip the state for Joe Biden, and new this week, the re-counters are demanding access to router information and voting machine passwords, a move that the sheriff called mind-numbingly reckless. I mean, I'm tempted just to laugh at this, but it also seems very potentially dangerous for democracy.

HOBBS: Yes, I mean, you got that absolutely right. And I share your sense of wanting to laugh at how comical all of this is, but it is very serious and dangerous. And we have been saying since November 4th, that this kind of rhetoric and misinformation is dangerous. We saw what happened on January 6th. January 6th should have lowered the volume, and that hasn't happened. And this is nothing more than people who want to continue to perpetuate the big lie as you said.

[17:40:00]

And that's what they're going to try to do. They're making this up as they go along. There's nothing about this so-called audit that is legitimate at all in terms of an actual election recount or audit. And so, you know, they're just going to try to continue to sow doubt among voters and undermine the integrity of our elections.

TAPPER: So you have on one side, you and the two senators, Democrats from Arizona and the Republican Governor of Arizona, and the Maricopa County canvassing election board, which is majority Republican. On the other side, you have these liars.

And also this audit was just endorsed by Congresswoman Elise Stefanik, who is likely going to replace Liz Cheney as the House Republican Conference chair. What is your message to Elise Stefanik, about the audit that's going on right now that she started extolling in a recent interview? HOBBS: Well, I would say to anyone who is outside of the state of Arizona, and encouraging this audit to continue, that this is an Arizona election, the election is over and done, the results have been certified according to Arizona state law, and you really have no business being here. And I would say that also to the Florida-based Cyber Ninjas as well but, you know, they were invited by our state Senate.

TAPPER: So, what Stefanik said is like this is all just in the name of transparency, which is, of course, junk. But beyond that, not only is the pro-Trump network, OANN, the only network allowed at the audit, they're also fundraising for the audit. Trump has issued statements supporting this. There -- so there really isn't transparency going on there at all, because they just have their own supporters monitoring it.

HOBBS: Right.

TAPPER: Why do you think the Arizona State Senate, the Republicans there are trying so hard to push this big lie right now?

HOBBS: Well, and I want to point out, the only reason that we have, the little bit of knowledge that we do about what's actually going on in there is because we had to go to court to push to allow pool reporters and outside cameras, as well as our experts who know a thing or two about post-election audits and allowing for the procedures to be released.

But certainly, I don't think we'll ever have any level of information about who is actually funding this audit, how much it costs. And, you know, this is the politicians, the Republicans in the State Senate, trying to placate a part of their base, and it is to the detriment of our democracy.

TAPPER: Yes. And the big concern, of course, is that in 2022 or 2024, these people will actually overturn an election. They tried last time, but there were enough Republicans and Democrats with integrity, that it didn't happen, but who knows who they're going to be replaced with, including you, potentially Madam Secretary. Katie Hobbs, thanks so much for being with us.

HOBBS: Thank you.

TAPPER: Coming up next, unrest, unleashed by the economic pain of COVID and a crackdown by official CNN is going live to Colombia, where the U.N. is now investigating human rights violations. Stay with us.

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[17:47:46]

TAPPER: In our national lead today, this weekend broad an epidemic of shootings across the United States. Over 72 hours from Friday through Sunday, more than 400 people were killed or wounded by gunfire. At least nine of the incidents were mass shootings in seven states stretching across the country. Among the horrors, a gunman in Colorado Springs opening fire during a

family birthday party, killing six adults and then himself. There's also a manhunt underway for whomever opened fire on Saturday in New York City's Times Square. Listen for three shots in this video.

Two adults and a child, all of them innocent bystanders were shot and they are recovering. CNN's Alexandra Field is lifers at Times Square. Alexandra, when it comes to this shooting in Times Square, do police have any leads at all?

ALEXANDRA FIELD, CNN CORRESPONDENT: They have released a photo of a person who they say they want to speak to in connection to the shooting, Jake. Law enforcement sources are now telling CNN that the man in that photo is a 31-year-old who is actually believed to be the shooter and who is believed to have been targeting his own brother when three other people were hit. The NYPD has now released body cam video that shows the chaos that ensues in the moments following those shots ringing out in the middle of Times Square on Saturday afternoon.

At one point, you can actually see a police officer sprinting down the street, clutching a four-year-old child who had been struck by a bullet. That child taken to a hospital along with two other women. New York City's Mayor Bill de Blasio saying that all three of the victims are now recovering.

He's also saying that he has added extra police presence to Times Square saying it's important for people to see that this all happening as the city is working desperately to rebuild the tourism industry, decimated by the pandemic, Jake, and they're battling a major hurdle in doing that. A crime surge in New York, the NYPD releasing statistics showing that shootings are up more than 80 percent this year compared to the same time period just a year ago, Jake.

TAPPER: Horrifying. Alexander Field, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

Coming up, CNN live in Columbia. The latest on the government crackdown on protests there. That's next.

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TAPPER: In our world lead, although global attention rightly is focused on the horrific coronavirus spike in India, the South American nation of Colombia has become a hotbed of the virus and a powder keg. Frustration over the pandemics crushing economic pain has sparked nearly two weeks of daily and deadly protests. CNN's Polo Sandoval joins us now live from Bogota, Colombia. And Polo the government's heavy-handed response to -- seems to be making matters even worse.

POLO SANDOVAL, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Yes.

[17:55:00]

And Jake, we spent some time not only here in Colombia's capital but also some of the more colonial historic towns outside the city and it becomes clear that Columbia is across the country that had enough.

And so they have been taken to the streets now for nearly two weeks trying to get their voices heard. A quick reminder for our viewers, how this all started. Because almost two weeks ago, when the administration of Colombian President Ivan Duque rolled out this tax reform that administration had hoped would actually help this country dig itself out of this COVID caused economic hole. However, a lot of members of the middle class or the working class here in Colombia saw that this would directly and negatively impact them.

So what we've seen for the last two weeks since that moment is not only the withdrawal of that reform by the administration, but by then it was too late. We've already seen widespread anger throughout the entire country. However, we have also noticed the evolution of the list of demands from those protesters.

Right now, they are calling really for the government to address this economic inequality that has millions of Colombians hurting. In fact, the latest figures from the government showing that after the pandemic, about 3.5 million Colombians slipped back into poverty, but they also want the government to address what they describe as heavy- handed police response to these protests.

So far, the latest figures from the government showing at least 27 people have died in these protests. But then when you hear from some of the local humanitarian groups, they'll tell you that about 47, that number is actually 47, about 39 of those at the hands of security forces.

So in -- speaking to many Colombians here, Jake, it becomes clear that people are upset with the situation right now. And they feel like it's only going to get worse, obviously, as COVID numbers do continue to rise with the country right now dealing with just one of their latest spikes in coronavirus cases and deaths.

TAPPER: Well, and that's what I wanted to ask you about next, Polo, all this happening while the COVID crisis is also simultaneously spiraling out of control, and hospitals are overwhelmed?

SANDOVAL: And precisely for that reason, the government certainly does not want to see those large crowds that we've actually seen for the last several days. They not only gather in parks, but also they shut down streets. And so, health authorities here are certainly trying to keep up with vaccination efforts.

But it becomes very clear that they are sort of swimming against the current tiers, they tried to reach as many people as they can to get vaccines to where they're mostly needed. So it's certainly one of the big priorities.

But again, this just is -- it's created (ph) this as you put it, as correctly put it, this powder keg with daily demonstrations here in the heart of Colombia, you might be able to hear one here in the Plaza Bolivar, this is a daily occurrence already. Almost two weeks of these demonstrations, so it certainly is a possibility. With so many people taking to the streets that we could see numbers get even higher. TAPPER: And how many people did you say, the activists say have been killed by the government?

SANDOVAL: You know, at this point, it really depends on where you're looking. If you're looking at the numbers that have been shared by the Colombian government, they're about 27. But then when you look at some of those humanitarian groups that are here on the ground that are monitoring the situation, they'll tell you that they are actually 47, 39 of those at the hands of police.

We did speak to the Colombian National Police today and they told us that they are looking into the deaths of 11 of those, and it's quite possible that we could see criminal charges against some of those officers involved. And that certainly would bring the community here and really the country a little closer to where they want to be. Jake.

TAPPER: All right, CNN's Polo Sandoval in Bogota, Colombia, thank you so much. Appreciate it.

More encouraging signs. In our health lead, Los Angeles County is expected to achieve herd immunity by mid to late July if vaccinations keep up at the current rate. The most populous county in the United States has administered more than 8 million doses of COVID vaccine so far.

Those numbers are only going up. And as we just learned, the FDA has authorized the Pfizer vaccine for kids ages 12 to 15. And FDA advisory committee will meet next month to discuss authorizing COVID vaccines for children under the age of 12. We're going to have more on how quickly kids could get vaccinated coming up in The Situation Room.

Before we go today, we would like to take the time to remember just one, one of the more than 582,000 American lives lost to coronavirus. Today, we remember 15-year-old Dykota Morgan, a high school freshman from Bolingbrook, Illinois. Dykota loves softball, basketball, painting, she excelled at school.

Her parents say she was a perfectly healthy, naturally athletic teenager before testing positive for coronavirus, dying only two days after being rushed to the hospital. May Dykota's memory and the memory of all the lives lost in this horrible, horrible pandemic be a blessing.

Finally today, a brief pop culture lead, I have a new novel coming out tomorrow, it's called "The Devil May Dance", it takes place in 1962 Rat Pack Hollywood. It features Charlie and Margaret Marder, the heroes from my previous effort, "The Hellfire Club". I hope you will consider reading it. You can pre-order an autographed copy at JakeTapper.com. We'll take you to independent bookstores on that site.

Follow me on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Twitter at JakeTapper. You can tweet the show at TheLeadCNN. Our coverage continues right now with Wolf Blitzer right next door in "THE SITUATION ROOM."