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The Lead with Jake Tapper
Russian POW: Commanders Got High, Gave Absurd Orders; Putin Strives To Reassert Control After Wagner Mutiny; Judge Orders Justice Department To Release Less-Redacted Mar-a-Lago Search Affidavit; Arraignment For Trump Aide Walt Nauta Set For Tomorrow; Pence Admits Campaign Needs To "Do Well" In Iowa; Trump Stays Home As GOP Hopefuls Campaign On July 4; Lindsey Graham Booed By Home State Republicans; DeSantis Tries Positioning Himself To Trump's Right; 15 Mass Shootings Reported During Holiday Weekend; Hundreds Of Palestinians Mourn 12 Killed During Israel Military Operation In Jenin; Outrage Follows Violent Confrontation With Deputies. Aired 5-6p ET
Aired July 05, 2023 - 17:00 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
[17:00:00]
JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: CNN's Ben Wedeman got exclusive access to Russian prisoners of war. Speaking to CNN from a makeshift Ukrainian jail willing to share the at times appalling firsthand stories of fighting Putin's brutal war.
(BEGIN VIDEO TAPE)
BEN WEDEMAN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): No longer on the front lines, Anton recounts how he ended up prisoner of war. Back in Russia, he was behind bars for the third time for drugs.
When they put me in prison, I heard they were recruiting serve six months and they pardon you, he tells me. So he signed up with Storm-Z, a unit made up of convicts attached to the Russian Defense Ministry. After only two weeks of basic training, he was shipped off to the front lines near Bakhmut. After days of intense shelling, no food and only rainwater to drink, he heard Ukrainian troops outside his foxhole. He assumed they would execute him.
I thought that was the end, he recalls. I switched my rifle to single shot mode and thought I'll shoot myself, but I couldn't.
This video shot by soldiers of Ukraine's 3rd Assault Brigade shows the tense moments when Anton and his comrades, Slava (ph), surrendered. The Ukrainian troops told them, unlike Russians, we don't kill prisoners.
We spoke to Anton, Slava and another soldier in a makeshift jail in eastern Ukraine, concealing their faces and not using their real names. The third Assault Brigade granted us access to the POWs and two of their soldiers were in the room for the interviews. The POWs will soon be transferred to Ukrainian intelligence. They didn't appear to be under duress and agreed to share their stories. Slava, also serving time for drugs, said conditions in the trenches were grim. Food was scarce, we didn't have medical kits, he says. His commanders took all the painkillers to get high, he recalled, and as a result issued nonsensical orders. Morale was terrible.
Sergey (ph) was wounded by a grenade before surrendering to Ukrainian troops. He was a contract soldier, not a convict. He completed his six month contract in Kherson and went home. But when he hesitated to sign another contract, a military prosecutor gave him a choice, prison or back to the front. He ended up outside Bakhmut under constant Ukrainian fire discipline collapsed, the officers fled, all illusions are shattered.
It was very different from what I saw on T.V., a parallel reality says Sergey. I felt fear, pain and disappointment in my commanders.
A law passed last year in Russia imposed sentences of three to 10 years for soldiers who surrender voluntarily. If he returns home and a prisoner exchange, Anton manned up, again, back in a Russian prison.
(END VIDEO TAPE)
WEDEMAN: Men like Slava and Anton are barely soldiers, they were hardly trained, poorly led, poorly supplied, they were, to put it crudely, the meat in Russia's meat grinder in the Battle of Bakhmut.
Now the Ukrainian say that they are making slow but steady gains there but they are running into very stiff resistance. The Russians have reportedly poured 50,000 troops into the defense of that town, many of whom will probably end up in the meat grinder. Jake.
TAPPER: Remarkable reporting from CNN's Ben Wedeman in eastern Ukraine, thank you so much.
CNN is also on the ground in Belarus, a close ally of Russia, and now apparently the home of Wagner mercenary warlord Yevgeny Prigozhin after his short lived the largely unchallenged mutiny in Russia last week. It was ill fated, of course. Belarus' leader, Alexander Lukashenko, was not shy about his role in ending Wagner and Prigozhin's rebellion. Lukashenko has claimed he was able to successfully negotiate with Prigozhin when the Wagner boss refused to pick up Putin's phone calls. Let's get right to CNNs Matthew Chance who is in Minsk.
And Matthew, what's the latest on the Putin, Lukashenko relationship? Are they still tight?
MATTHEW CHANCE, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, I mean, it's a fascinating relationship, but it's, you know, it's pretty one sided in the sense that, you know, when Putin asked for something to be done, Lukashenko, this is what it looks like from the outside, Lukashenko just goes ahead and does it. Putin wanted to use Belarus as a launching pad, one of the launching pads for his invasion of Ukraine in 2021, Lukashenko agreed.
[17:05:15] Putin wanted nuclear weapons to be stationed in this country so that he could threaten the west even further, Lukashenko agreed. And when there was that military uprising that attempted coup, as has been described in Russia, by Wagner mercenaries and their leader Yevgeny Prigozhin, what was it last week? Well, you know, Lukashenko stepped in and invited Wagner and Prigozhin to come and live over here. The Kremlin announced all of those things, of course. But Lukashenko, you know, says this was all him.
This was all him showing what an independent, you know, free kind of agency is operating in this region, but the fact is, he's heavily indebted to Russia. So he owes them a lot of money more money than any other country in the world is isolated internationally because of his own terrible human rights record. And those things are pushing Belarus more and more into the arms of the Kremlin. Jake.
TAPPER: CNN's Matthew Chance in Belarus, thank you so much.
Joining us now to discuss retired U.S. Army Brigadier General Peter Zwack, he served as a Senior U.S. Defense Attache to Russia. Also with us in studio, Beth Sanner, former Deputy Director of National Intelligence.
General Zwack, let me start with you. Back to what we just heard in that incredible Ben Wedeman report at the top of the hour, one of the POWs accused the Russian commanders of being high all the time on painkillers and giving at times nonsensical orders. Understandably, this led to very low morale, according to this POW. Do you do you think that's true? Does that comport with other intelligence that we've heard? And what can Ukraine do to capitalize on any low morale?
BRIG. GEN. PETER ZWACK, FORMER U.S SENIOR DEFENSE ATTACHE TO THE RUSSIAN FEDERATION: Good evening, Jake, viewers. War is hell at any level, but especially in the trenches, especially when you're coerced to fight and that we're getting -- we've been getting all since the beginning g of the invasion last year, that most of the Russian forces on the ground, and that would be young soldiers and junior mid-grade officers are an absolutely living hell down there and the coercion and the storm units and everything else. So yes, I do believe whether it's pills or drinking, lots of drinking, that those reports, the things go on at that low level where discipline is on the edge, which we've been reading for quite some time, it is completely feasible.
The troops, I don't think have any faith in your leadership, the only thing they're fighting for at that level, I believe is for their own lives and for their foxhole buddies, but they're not fighting for the regime. And Yevgeny Prigozhin brought that out. So no, this is a real corrosion, erosion within the Russian ranks, that I don't know what the breaking point is but it's there. And now they're going to put in so called another 180,000, that big number, well, a lot of them certainly do not want to come if this is true. And I think we just have to sort of standby.
TAPPER: So that, Beth Sanner, is already the situation before the Wagner Prigozhin attempted rebellion. And you've said that the rings of implication from that attempted mutiny will spread very wide now that we're more than a week out from it. How do you see Putin's grip on power and his reliance on the leader of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko?
BETH SANNER, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: Well, I actually don't think that his grip on power in the very near term is shaken as much as a lot of commentators say. I think more about the rings being more unstable. The closer you get into the elites, the more firm it is, for the time being. And the reason being is because those elites depend on Putin --
TAPPER: Right.
SANNER: -- and Putin's reign. Right? And so, he put his cards in with Shoigu in the military, and now the military, those people owe him even more. So, while there were a few bad apples, certainly, what did Putin do? He raised the pay of the military, he held a ceremony giving them false thanks, right, because they didn't help out during the mutiny, but he held this big ceremony saying how great they were, he's trying to keep those people together. So, I actually think that in the near term, I think that Putin isn't that much weaker.
TAPPER: And then Russian state media reports Ukrainian shelling has killed one person and injured 40 including children in Donetsk, Russian occupied territory damaging kindergarten's medical facilities, apartments, that's what Russia says. Ukraine says they destroyed a Russian military base.
[17:10:12]
When it comes to this sort of like competing claims, do you just automatically discount what the Kremlin says because they've lied about so many things, including whether or not they were going to invade Ukraine?
SANNER: Well, a lot of times Russia says exactly what you would expect them to say, you know, they're always going to be blaming the other side and they're always going to be trying these false flags. For example, in this Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant them saying that the Ukrainians are about to attack could be a cover for what they do themselves. So, they're always trying to change that perception of their own people in particular. They don't want to be seen as, you know, butchers.
TAPPER: Yes. All right, Beth Sanner and Brigadier General Peter Zwack, thanks to both of you for your expertise. Appreciate it.
Coming up ahead to the 2024 race in what seems to be Donald Trump's laid back approach, at least in the last few days, and we just learned the suspected gunman in that horrific mass shooting in Philadelphia had two ghost guns on him. Those are highly untraceable weapons, Philly's mayor is coming on the show. We'll ask him how much these ghost guns are creating tragedies in his city.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
[17:15:04] TAPPER: In our law and justice lead, we could soon learn new details about the special counsel's investigation into Donald Trump's handling of classified documents. A Florida judge wants the Justice Department to release a new version of that redacted court document that was used to support last summer search of Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago property. CNN's Paula Reid joins us now.
Paula, what is behind this request? And what might we be able to learn?
PAULA REID, CNN SENIOR LEGAL AFFAIRS CORRESPONDENT: So, Jake, what we're going to be looking for here are new details about what the then Justice Department, right, as predates the Special Counsel knew in early August 2022 before they conducted the search at Mar-a-Lago. We'll also be looking for anything mentioned here that didn't end up in the indictment, right, things they may have looked into that didn't result ultimately in criminal charges.
We've previously seen redacted versions of these documents, we expect that these two will be redacted to protect ongoing grand jury investigation sources and methods. But it will be interesting to see if we get any new details. And this can happen as soon as today.
TAPPER: And Trump's aide, Walt Nauta, who is charged alongside him in this case, he's finally --
REID: Finally.
TAPPER: -- finally set to face arraignment tomorrow. As we all remember he showed up on that day, even though Trump was there alongside him with his team of lawyers and Walt Nauta works for Trump, Nauta didn't have a lawyer.
REID: Exactly. He has local counsel here in D.C., but he doesn't have anyone representing him who is licensed in the Southern District of Florida. But it's not that hard, Jake, to find a lawyer who can represent you particularly in these kinds of preliminary matters. This will be his third attempt at being arraigned. Some people have asked Is this a delay tactic? Most likely, yes.
TAPPER: All right, Paula Reid, thanks so much. Appreciate it.
Turning to our 2024 lead, Republican hopefuls descended on Iowa New Hampshire over the July 4th holiday braving rain and kissing babies and shaking plenty of hands trying to be the party's pick to take on President Biden. Former Vice President Mike Pence is going all in on Iowa holding three events there alone today. CNN's Kyung Lah in Sioux City, Iowa where Vice President Pence is due to speak.
Kyung, how is pants going about courting voters? Is he focusing on any specific groups?
KYUNG LAH, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, to focus on the words of Mr. Pence himself, what he's telling the Iowa groups that he's meeting with is that he is doing the, quote, full Pizza Ranch tour. So, what does that mean? Well, Pizza Ranch is a chain restaurant. There's 71 of these restaurants spread out across Iowa, especially in some of those rural counties. It is a gathering place where a lot of the town gathers to meet, at times have dinner and lunch. And so, he is going to those crowds. It is those small little places that he plans on introducing himself, not as Trump's vice president but as Mike Pence presidential candidate.
This first in the nation caucus state really likes to shake the hands of the people they will end up caucusing for, often meeting not just one, but multiple candidates. And some of the voters we are meeting along the way as they are meeting Mike Pence say so far for them, it's working. Take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MAVIS LUTHER, IOWA REPUBLICAN VOTER: It was wonderful. (INAUDIBLE) when you have a chance to really know how they answer questions at your level of communities, in the country, our state.
LAH: Is that how you win in Iowa?
LUTHER: Yes, yes.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
LAH: But the emphasis is that it is in his corner, she is in his corner for now. As you very well know, Jake, people here in Iowa do tend to sway all the way up until caucus day. Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Kyung Lah in Iowa, thank you so much.
Let's discuss with my august panel. Zolan, let me start with you, Vice President Pence clearly targeting Iowa. Makes sense. He is a deeply religious man. There are a lot of important -- in the important block of voters for the Republicans is a deeply religious Evangelical community. This is what he said, Pence said when asked if he needs to win Iowa, take a listen.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
MIKE PENCE, (R) PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATE: Do we need to win Iowa? I think we need to do well. We're going to work our hearts out.
I think different times call for differently. Republican primary voters have this uncanny knack of choosing the right standard bearer for the right time.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
TAPPER: So, just to go back for a little historical trip down memory lane, Ted Cruz won in 2016. Before that, Rick Santorum, it is a place where the religious right candidate, the more conservative Christian candidate wins.
ZOLAN KANNO-YOUNGS, WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT, "THE NEW YORK TIMES": That's right. And you would think that it takes on increased importance here, particularly when you have somebody that's trying to run a sort of different lane than that of Trumpism, than that of trying to run a sort of in show that there's an alternative option rather than Donald Trump or even DeSantis who seems to be almost trying to run to the right of Trump and see if he can provide an alternative option for those in the Trump base.
[17:20:05]
If you're Mike Pence now and you're not sort of seeking to galvanize off those similar sort of culture wars, well, that being said, certainly still conservative and still appealing to many of those sort of far right policies. But if you're him, you would think that some of these more traditional swing states in Iowa would absolutely be essential, if you hope to break through.
TAPPER: So just for our folks at home, I just -- this journalist, journalist, journalist, Democratic pundit, Republican pundit.
Sarah, as the Republican pundit at the table, how do you -- how do you assess the Republican race right now?
SARAH MATTHEWS, FORMER TRUMP WHITE HOUSE DEPUTY PRESS SECRETARY: Obviously, Donald Trump is leading. And I think that a lot of folks were hoping that DeSantis would be the strongest contender to him and it doesn't seem that that's reflective in polling right now. Obviously, we've seen a dip from DeSantis. But there's still a lot of time between now and when the first vote is going to be held.
Donald Trump isn't really out there on the campaign trail, where you're seeing all these other candidates who are spending a lot of time in the early states like South Carolina, New Hampshire, Iowa, and so they're hoping to raise their name ID and potentially be able to, you know, make a challenge to Trump. But right now, that's going to prove really difficult.
TAPPER: Let's talk about that, Paul, just -- I know you're not a fan of Mr. Trump, but he spent the Fourth of July weekend --
PAUL BEGALA, DEMOCRATIC STRATEGIST: Yes.
TAPPER: -- seemingly sharing memes online --
BEGALA: Right.
TAPPER: -- attacking Biden, praising himself, not campaigning, not out there meeting folks shaking hands, et cetera. Now, you could argue he doesn't need to, he's the leader, he's the front runner, and he also is a former president. Do you think he's doing the right thing?
BEGALA: No, strategically. And you're right, I don't support him. But a lead is not an egg, it doesn't hatch if you sit on it. Get off your tail, sir, go run.
Again, I don't want him to win. But if I -- as a strategist --
TAPPER: Right, that's --
BEGALA: -- you never want to sit on a lead. Now, he's violated every rule of political allegedly many federal laws as well, but he's violated all these laws and succeeded within the party.
TAPPER: Exactly, POWs, it's --
BEGALA: Oh, gosh.
TAPPER: -- everything, right.
BEGALA: But people never want him, particularly in Iowa, New Hampshire, they're famous for this, but it's true. You know, the old story that this -- back in the -- when Barack Obama was an unknown senator, this guy said, well, I'm not sure if I can be for Barack, he's only been over the house two or three times. You know, they really want to see you in person there. God bless Mike Pence for he's out there in the hot sun campaign in heart.
ALAYNA TREENE, CNN POLITICAL REPORTER: I should note, though, that the Trump campaign does say that he did have that rally in South Carolina over the weekend. They're arguing that it was the Fourth of July weekend and that he was still out there, but yes, he wasn't doing the retail politics that we saw all of the other candidates doing on the trail yesterday. And I do think part of it is also the Trump campaign. And Donald Trump himself loves the allure of the big rallies of the, you know, rock concert style rallies, we have 1000s of people coming more so than the more intimate retail politicking what we saw Pence do in Iowa yesterday and today handshaking through a parade, it's just not as much Trump style. So, I just wanted to point that out.
TAPPER: What did you make of the bowing of Lindsey Graham at that South Carolina primary? He's obviously been an unreliable, stalwart in terms of Trump. He's broken apart from him, but he always runs back. He always is supportive.
KANNO-YOUNGS: I was going to say, I mean, I don't know if he's consistently always, you know, broken away from him. Often we talk about, and there's been many times where Lindsey Graham is one of the people we cite when we kind of, as you said, go back to saying that Trump still has a grip --
TAPPER: Right.
KANNO-YOUNGS: -- on Republicans in Congress, right? So, the fact that he's been booed, I think anytime that happens, it brings up the question of, is this breaking through to voters? And by this, I mean, if you're a member of Congress who was asked about a incendiary or hateful post by the Trump campaign or controversial policy, and as we saw for the past five years or four years that you may declined to comment --
TAPPER: Right.
KANNO-YOUNGS: -- or you express your support.
TAPPER: I didn't see the tweet.
KANNO-YOUNGS: Is it -- I didn't see the tweet. Is it breaking through to voters in terms of are you actually still maintaining support? In this case, you see that those people at that rally actually, maybe weren't aware of that or was not top of mind for them at that point.
TREENE: I was there Saturday at his rally I asked some of the people in the crowd why, you know, I mean, the booing was incessant.
KANNO-YOUNGS: Yes.
TREENE: It was before Lindsey Graham got up on stage. It was throughout his entire remarks. And then anytime Donald Trump mentioned Graham, in his own speech --
TAPPER: And this is his home state.
TREENE: This is his home state of South Carolina.
BEGALA: His home county.
TREENE: Exactly. And I think there's a couple factors for the reasoning, some is that they just do not think that Lindsey Graham has been the fiercest supporter of Donald Trump and has broken with him on certain things. And the people at that rally were Donald Trump's fiercest allies.
But the other thing was actually that I found surprising was about his position on Ukraine. A lot of people, and also in my Twitter mentions on Saturday when I was talking about the crowd size in South Carolina, people were rallying against Lindsey Graham for, and calling him a war monger, saying that he's supporting the war in Ukraine, continuing to support aid there. And that was a big gripe that a lot of the supporters have.
TAPPER: So, Donald Trump isn't the only one questioning the U.S. support for Ukraine, Ron DeSantis is as well. We were just talking about that.
[17:25:08]
The DeSantis campaign has been pretty open about its strategy going to Donald Trump's right in many senses, you saw that homophobic anti- LGBTQ ad from the DeSantis war room. Philip Bump of the "Washington Post" writes, "You can't be more conservative than Trump when he defines conservatism." And that's an interesting take, because Ron DeSantis, is defining conservatism through the traditional prism. But I don't know that that's germane.
MATTHEWS: Yes, it's definitely hard to out-Trump Trump. He's trying to run to the right of him and take these more far right stances that then will push Donald Trump even further, I think, to the right. But it's kind of interesting, too, because I think DeSantis thinks that this is the lane for it. But I think what we're seeing in the polling right now is that there is an appetite for a anti-Trump candidate too, someone who's willing to take Trump hat on. We've kind of seen Chris Christie start to go up in the polls in New Hampshire, for example, where his message is being received well.
And I think that that is showing that people want an alternative to Trump and Biden. People don't want to have the same rematch that we had in 2020. And so, DeSantis right now, his polling has gone down. So maybe this wasn't the right angle to take, but who knows maybe that it will pay off. There's still a lot of time between now and November.
BEGALA: I think the most impregnable fortress in American politics is the base Trump voter. They're wonderfully loyal if you're a Trumper, right, maddeningly loyal if you're not. A direct assault on a fixed position is the least successful military strategy. Long way of saying DeSantis is a fool for doing this. You're not going to out-Trump Trump on Trump issues with Trump voters, but half the party does seem open to somebody else. And I do think of everybody I think Christie has, I think you're right Sarah, Christie has done the best job of actually taking Trump on.
TAPPER: Thanks to one and all. Appreciate it.
Ahead, the crisis facing every single lawmaker in the country, the stunning number of mass shootings in the United States, 356 mass shootings so far this year, at least five added to the list just today. We're going to talk to the mayor of Philadelphia coming up about the horrific violence erupted -- erupting in that city.
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[17:31:42]
TAPPER: Just some ugly news in our National Lead, it is officially the worst time of the year for mass shootings in the United States of America July 4th and 5th have accounted for the most mass shootings of any other days of the year in nearly a decade in the United States. And sadly this year is shaping up to be no different as CNN's Ryan Young reports police across the country this week have their hands full solving these horrific crimes.
(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)
RYAN YOUNG, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): The long 4th of July holiday ended in tragedy for many communities across the country. A series of mass shootings over the four day period left at least 16 dead and 94 injured according to the Gun Violence Archive. In Philadelphia Monday night, a 40-year-old man armed with an assault rifle and a handgun fired randomly along several blocks in the southwest part of the city, killing five people, one of whom was just 15 years old and injuring at least four others.
The suspects who's being held without bail, made his first appearance in court today. The city's district attorney says authorities are still trying to determine if the assault rifle used in the shooting was purchased legally and Larry Krasner also lashed out over the state's gun regulations calling them crap in comparison to other states in the Northeast.
LARRY KRASNER, DA, PHILADELPHIA: It's time for people who are running for office to swear off NRA money, to swear off gun lobby money, to swear off this absurd interpretation of the Second Amendment that has been put out there by militias.
YOUNG (voice-over): Gunfire erupted late on the night of the 4th at a community block party in Shreveport. Police say this shooting killed four people and wounded seven others. No suspects have been arrested.
COUNCILWOMAN TABATHA TAYLOR, SHREVEPORT, LOUISIANA: You have caused us grief, you have caused us pain. And I want whoever you are to pay and I want you to pay relentlessly.
YOUNG (voice-over): Also, when Monday in Fort Worth, Texas, several unknown men started firing into a crowd, killing three people and injuring eight others during a neighborhood 4th of July parade. Victoria Sally lost her 18-year-old nephew in the shooting.
VICTORIA SALLY, PAUL TIMOTHY WILLIS' AUNT: That was his first day off and like forever and he just wanted to enjoy the little whatever was going on.
YOUNG (voice-over): A mass shooting at an annual block party in Baltimore killed an 80-year-old woman and a 20-year-old early Sunday school, 28 other people were injured.
GOV. WES MOORE (D-MD): I think frankly, people are tired of the finger point in the politics when nothing happens, and nothing gets done except we continue going from tragedy to tragedy.
YOUNG (voice-over): In the nation's capital earlier this morning, shots fired from a speeding SUV. It injured nine people who were celebrating the 4th. The victims include a 10-year-old and a 17-year- old whose injuries weren't life threatening.
MAYOR MURIEL BOWSER, WASHINGTON, D.C.: We are also troubled by violent incidents that we've seen around the country where violence and guns marred a holiday weekend.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
YOUNG: Jake, just tough details in all these cases but just think about this one in the Shreveport case where that shooting happened. One of the bodies that 4th victim wasn't found until this morning and tall grass. That shows you just how hard detectives are working around the scene even to try to identify everyone who was injured or killed in these incidents. And if you think about it from Philly to Baltimore to Shreveport these are all cities where people say they want something done about gun violence.
[17:35:09]
TAPPER: Ryan Young, thank you so much.
And let's go back to Philadelphia and bring in Mayor Jim Kenny. He said last year that he was looking forward to not being mayor anymore because he is so tired of having to deal with the gun violence and the tragedies day after day. First of all, Mr. Mayor, how is the community of Kingsessing doing? What more do they need? What more can people do or the city do to help them heal?
MAYOR JIM KENNEY (D), PHILADELPHIA: Well, they're traumatized and obviously rightfully so. There's no reason in the world that situation should have happened Monday night. And the common denominator in all of these things are guns and the availability of guns and the high capacity of guns. You know, I owned a gun years ago and it was a six shot revolver and I had a permit to carry. Six shot revolver is good for self-protection.
You know, 50 shot clips of armor piercing bullets are only for killing people and killing cops and killing citizens. And there's no reason in the world why these things should be available to anyone. When the -- I was standing in the courtyard of Independence Hall yesterday during our celebration and thinking about the people in that building back in 1775, '76. None of them had any idea what the Second Amendment was going to wind up blossoming into in this environment.
You know, they were talking about a single shot, muzzle loaded long gun to fight the British. They weren't talking about AR-15s to mow down people in streets of Philadelphia.
TAPPER: Police say that the two guns found on this alleged shooter were both ghost guns, which are untraceable. You can get them together from a kid and create them yourself. The city of Philadelphia is now suing two large suppliers of ghost guns. How big of a problem are ghost guns in Philadelphia?
KENNEY: Well, we've confiscated 300 percent more ghost guns in the last three years. We used to have virtually single digits prior to a few years ago, and then we hit 60 and now we're up to 570 so far. And the problem with those guns and the Pennsylvania has the weak -- one of the weakest gun control or lack of a gun control laws in the nation. And these companies even want to go around the bare minimum regulations and be able to sell this stuff by mail to anyone without a background check and without a serial number on the gun. And you can take these guns through magnetometers without being detected. So this is like a level of insanity that no one should ever deal with.
TAPPER: I want to show you a map from the city controller of all the shootings in Philly just this year up to July 4th, not including July 4th for those at home. The yellow dots are people wounded. The red dots are people killed. I know you're calling for stricter gun control legislation. You're critical of politicians who are beholden, in your view, to the gun lobby, to the NRA. But it's not just that, right? What more needs to be done here?
KENNEY: Well, we've just budgeted $233 million in our budget to deal with outreach and social services and job training and those type of non-police services. Also, our police, and I have to say this publicly and I've said it before, our police are top notch. They're some of the bravest people that I know. That Monday night issue, they were facing live fire. They were scooping people off in the street and zooming them off to the hospital to try to save their lives. And they were pursuing a guy shooting an AR-15.
And that man wound up staying alive, believe it or not, after all he did. And I give our police total credit in that evening, in saving more lives that would have been lost otherwise. But we are investing in many different areas. But the bottom line is we've taken 6,200 guns off the street last year. These are crime guns. This is not just privately owned guns that people keep in their house for protection.
These are guns that were used in the commission of a crime. Our homicide rate is down about almost 20 percent from last year. And that's certainly not good enough work. We got to continue to drive those numbers down. But things seemingly are going in the right direction until a thing like Monday night, which is shocking, where a person who should have never had that gun and apparently has more guns, he had more guns in his house, should never have had those guns and should have never been able to kill those people randomly.
TAPPER: So is theory still that the killer had no specific motive other than randomly murdering anyone who came within his path?
KENNEY: I can't get into the specifics of his case because, you know, things are moving forward on the legal end. But there was apparently no relationships between the shooter and any people who were killed or injured.
TAPPER: Just a horrible story in a wonderful city. Philadelphia Mayor Jim Kenny, thank you so much. And best of luck, sir.
[17:40:00]
KENNEY: Take care, Jake.
TAPPER: Coming up in the Situation Room, Alex Marquardt is going to speak with the top prosecutor in this case, Philadelphia District Attorney Larry Krasner. That's going to come up at the top of the hour.
Next here on The Lead, the disturbing video leading to an investigation of two deputies and their use of force on a couple outside of California grocery store.
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TAPPER: In our World Lead today, hundreds of Palestinians marching through the occupied West Bank city of Jenin, carrying the bodies of the 12 who were killed in Israel's two-day incursion into a refugee camp. An incursion meant to dismantle what the Israeli government calls a, quote, safe haven command center for terrorists. Israel said its forces have left, ending its largest military operation in that area in more than 20 years. But as CNN' Salma Abdelaziz reports from Jenin, the bitter tensions remain.
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[17:45:01]
SALMA ABDELAZIZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Chants of anger and defiance ring out in the city of Jenin. The morning after Israel's military withdrew, thousands filled the streets to bury the dead. The Israeli military says that all 12 killed in its incursion were combatants, and that its operation aimed to dismantle terror networks here. But this father said he is proud. His 19-year-old is what he calls a martyr and was a fighter for one of the Palestinian armed factions killed in the incursion.
My son told me he didn't want to get married or have a family, he says. He said all he wanted to do was to dedicate his life to Palestine, to fighting the occupation.
(on camera): This funeral is quickly turning into a demonstration of resistance. Many of the armed Palestinian factions are here to show that they are unbound, unbroken by Israel's reign.
(voice-over): For many Palestinians, Jenin is a name and place synonymous with suffering and resistance. But this battle has come at a heavy cost. In the aftermath, the camp's residents were left without running water, electricity, or basic services, and families returned to destroyed homes. Hanaa Shalaby says she and her three daughters were caught in the crossfire. Our home, all these material things, they can be replaced, she says. But how can I rebuild the psyche of my little girls? How will they ever feel safe again?
She takes me upstairs to show me what's left of her daughter's room. My youngest, she's only seven years old, she tells me. She says she wishes she was never born. She says I should never have birthed her into this horror. Israel's military says it's achieved its operational goals, wiping out weapons depots and command centers in Jenin. But it has also deepened the hatred and motivated the resistance in a city notorious for always fighting back.
Salma Abdelaziz, CNN, Jenin.
(END VIDEOTAPE)
TAPPER: Salma Abdelaziz reporting from the West Bank city of Jenin.
What the Los Angeles Sheriff's Department is telling CNN about the actions of two deputies and their use of force on a couple outside a grocery store, that's next.
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[17:51:33]
TAPPER: In our Law and Justice Lead claims of excessive force by sheriff's deputies in Los Angeles County. Officials removed two officers from field duty amid outrage over videos showing them roughly throwing a man and a woman onto the ground. This happened late last month outside a grocery store in Lancaster, California. CNN's Natasha Chen is in Los Angeles for us. Natasha, police released body cam footage from the incident. Tell us what happened.
NATASHA CHEN, CNN NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, Jake. The sheriff's department is now investigating this incident. And as we walk through what happened here, it's important to remember the man and woman you're going to see in this video were cited and released, but a deputy talking to us was not able to say what they were cited for. Now, this started in Lancaster two Saturdays ago when deputies responded to a call about a robbery in progress at a grocery store.
And when they arrived, they approached a man and a woman who matched the description given by store security during a 911 call. And here what you're seeing is one deputy arriving on scene. The man approaches -- is sitting there, and actually tells him that he's the one who told them. And by them we think he is referring to the store to call the police and that he waited for police there.
Then police handcuff him as the man is asking what he did and saying that he has nothing on him, the deputies then says to his radio, deputies involved in a fight. The man says, I'm not going to fight you. And as they put him on the ground there, he is constantly asking what he did wrong.
And he's also saying as the woman is starting to be approached by the other deputy, he's saying that's his wife, that she has cancer and that what they're doing is wrong. So let's show you now what the woman said to police as they grabbed her arm as she was filming this.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: No you can't touch me. You can't touch me.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop. Stop. Get down on the ground. Get on the ground. Stop. Stop. Stop or you'll get punched in the face.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: If you punch me and you're going to get sued, too. You already got sued. I got it on camera.
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Stop. Turn around.
UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I got on camera. Get off my --
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CHEN: And right then, you're seeing that she's being sprayed. We don't know what substance she's being sprayed with exactly. She's yelling that she wants a commander to be called. The two deputies here that you're seeing have been reassigned off of field duty. And the sheriff's department released these body camera videos. They said they don't give statements ongoing investigations, but did say that Sheriff Luna has made it clear he expects department personnel to treat all members of the public with dignity and respect and that personnel who do not uphold our training standards will be held accountable.
And in the course of describing what happened, the sheriff's department also acknowledged there is cell phone video from another bystander. They called that video disturbing. And we are still attempting to get a copy of that video ourselves. Jake.
TAPPER: All right. Natasha Chen in Los Angeles, thanks so much.
[17:54:52]
Coming up, the record set yesterday, July 4th. Chances are we all helped contribute to it. Stay with us.
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TAPPER: In our Earth Matter Series for the second time this week, this planet hit its highest temperature since governments in the U.S. and Europe started keeping records of such matters. Scientists say yesterday reached a whopping 62.9 degrees Fahrenheit, which might seem modest, but keep in mind that's the average temperature for the entire world and that shattered the record set just a day earlier Monday's temp 62.6 degrees Fahrenheit. Blame humans for climate change, scientists say.
Experts also say hotter days are trapping more heat and longer, so overnight hours are not cooling off as quickly as they used to. There's often also the urban heat island effect. Cities with more asphalt and taller buildings often retain more heat, while places with more parks and rivers can release that heat. Maybe something to keep in mind next time you hear a debate over climate change and what we should do about it.
Moving on, how about this for the steamy summer? I have a brand new thriller. It comes out next Tuesday. All the Demons Are Here. I try to take you on a wild ride through a bizarre era for the nation the 1970s. The book has Evel Knievel and Elvis post-Watergate, mistrust, cults, disco, the Summer of Sam, tabloids, UFOs and much more. I would be honored if you would check it out. You can preorder it now.
[18:00:18]
Our coverage continues now with Alex Marquardt. He's in for Wolf Blitzer in the Situation Room. I'll see you tomorrow.
