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2 TX Cheerleaders Shot After One Opened Door To Wrong Car; Airlines: "Tsunami Of Retirements" Creating Pilot Shortage; Biden Speaks On Economy, Slams McCarthy & GOP Over Economic Policies as McCarthy Unveils Debit Ceiling Plan; Pizza Guy Dubbed "Hero" After Helping Police Subdue Suspect. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 19, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:31:45]

JIM SCIUTTO, CNN HOST: Here are some of the headlines we're following on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

Police have arrested two teenagers in last weekend's birthday party shooting in Dadeville, Alabama. The suspects, 16- and 17-years-old. They're charged as adults, though, with reckless murder.

Four people at the party were killed, dozens more injured. Prosecutors said that more charges are expected.

House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is pushing to release his debt limit bill. Here he is speaking now on the House floor. He wants to hold a floor vote next week. That, according to three sources familiar with the matter.

McCarthy, facing the toughest challenge of his leadership, says it will have enough votes to pass the Republican-controlled House.

Just minutes from now, President Biden expected to blast McCarthy's spending strategy during a speech touting his own economic plan. The president touring a union training facility in Maryland.

And we are also following, as we get a new look at Ralph Yarl, the Kansas City team who rang the doorbell just at the wrong address, and he was shot in the head and the arms by the homeowners.

Here, this is a new picture. That's a 16-year-old green spirit sitting next to his attorney. The family spokesman calls Ralph a walking miracle but does note he still faces a long recovery traumatic brain injury among these injuries.

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: Further south, we are following yet another shooting in Texas. A man is now charged for allegedly opening fire on a car full of teenage cheerleaders after one of the girls just mistakenly tried to get into the suspect's car in a parking lot after practice. Two of the teens were injured in this. One of them, Peyton Washington,

is in critical condition right now. Police say the suspect was known to law enforcement.

We have CNN's Ed Lavandera, who joins us with details.

Ed, tell us the details of how this all went down. Because it was after the teen left the car and the mistake seemed to be very clear that this all transpired.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, just really senseless the way all of this unfolded.

According to one of the teenagers that was in that car, she told her -- her teammates in a speech individual last night that she had gotten out of the car, they had arrived at the parking lot of this grocery store in Elgin, Texas, just outside of Austin.

It was just after midnight. They had come back from a long drive from the Houston area after a night of practice. She gets into -- started approaching a car and getting into a car that she thought was hers. When she opened the door, she noticed that there was a man in the passenger seat. So she was aware of her mistake.

She got back in the car with her friends. But in that time, police say that man walked around the car and then opened fire rather quickly, according to people around these cheerleaders, on that -- on that car as -- as they were driving away.

So the girl, the young girl said she was trying to apologize to the person for getting in the wrong car. But despite all of that, the shots were fired.

The girl, Heather, Heather Roth, is her name. She was lightly wounded in her legs. She was treated at the scene and released.

But really a lot of the attention right now on Peyton Washington, who is in critical condition.

[14:35:01]

We've gotten some encouraging news here in the last couple of hours that Peyton Washington has been taken off of a ventilator that she's communicating with friends and family.

And there does seem to be some hope that this is moving in a good direction for her, but she has some rather extensive in serious wounds.

But the manager for cheerleading squad told us just a little while ago, she says that her competitive spirit has not been dampened by any of this.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP) LYNNE SHEARER, MANAGING PARTNER, WOODLANDS ELITE CHEER PROGRAM: The realization of the fact that she's not going to be competing this weekend. It was starting to set in. I think so. She was extremely you know, up and down with her emotions, but she was she was talking and for the most part, doing well.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: This cheerleading team was preparing for a huge event this weekend in Orlando, and that's what Peyton Washington was doing.

She is -- a rather incredible story. She has already committed to be part of the Baylor University acrobatics and tumbling team next year.

She was born with one lung. And despite all of that, her coaches say she has reached the heights of her sports.

So a rather inspiring young woman who is fighting for her life today -- Brianna?

KEILAR: Amazing to hear that she's talking to some of her teammates.

Ed Lavandera, thank you for that report.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Now to a story that could have a major impact on your travel. Airlines are warning that a tsunami of retirements could complicate your ability to hit the airways.

CNN aviation correspondent, Pete Muntean, is here to explain.

Pete, a tsunami of retirements. Who is retiring and why?

PETE MUNTEAN, CNN AVIATION CORRESPONDENT: It sounds dramatic, right? You know this whole idea that the alarm bells are getting louder when it comes to the pilot shortage.

And this is coming from regional airlines, which operate those flights between those major hubs and smaller cities. And they're saying the service could come down to smaller cities.

And in some cases, some places would lose service completely because of the pilot shortage.

The tsunami of retirements there warning about really goes really deep. This is the impact. Eleven airports with no service, 42 states with less service compared to before the pandemic, 500 airplanes right now sitting idle.

The issue here is that about 50 percent of all commercial pilots, according to the Regional Airline Association, will retire in the next 15 years. This just came out of the House committee hearing on Capitol Hill.

The other issue here is how to deal with it. They're not a ton of good ideas, and they're pretty controversial.

One idea is to raise the retirement age for pilots. Mandatory that they retire now at 65. The idea is they can retire at 67. We'll see if that takes hold.

The other idea is to lower the requirement and the bar for pilots to reach before they become an airline pilot. And 1,500 hours is the bar that they must reach. And so this is the rev now.

And I want you to listen now to heads of trade associations and the Airline Pilot's Union and what they say here is the best idea. Listen.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JASON AMBROSI, PRESIDENT, AIRLINE PILOT'S ASSOCIATION: I'm not here to say who's dangerous. I can tell you that the Europeans have studied this extensively. Raising the retirement age past 60 with medical - in evidence and have said, no, it's not a good idea, and they're recommending against it.

FAYE MALARKEY BLACK, PRESIDENT & CEO, REGIONAL AIRLINE ASSOCIATION: These pilots are not operating in a different world. They're operating in our country. They're flying over your schools, your churches, your synagogues. They're in our system, and they're flying safety -- they're flying safely.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

MUNTEAN: So the bottom line here, Boris, it's a great time to learn to fly, if you have the ability to. And the airlines are clamoring for people.

We're talking a shortage of maybe 640,000 pilots worldwide over the next few decades, according to Boeing. It's a really big deal.

SANCHEZ: That is a huge deal. What are the airlines doing to prepare for this?

MUNTEAN: You know, airlines can't really do all that much in here in the U.S., short of an act of Congress. They would need Congress to change the retirement age. They would need them to change the requirements to become an airline pilot.

The thing that airlines are trying to do is just trying to get more people in the door, hunt for ducks where there are ducks. They're having bringing training in house, trying to lower the cost of things.

But really the other issue here is that so few young people are interested in learning to become an airline pilot. The under-30 corps of people right now, that's only about 8 percent of all airline pilots.

So it's really hard for them to matriculate up, especially as we're facing the shortage.

SANCHEZ: If you're looking for a job, you're looking for a gig and you're a young person, why not be a pilot? You get to travel?

(CROSSTALK)

MUNTEAN: Yes. You get the bennies.

SANCHEZ: Thank you so much.

Brianna?

KEILAR: As long as Pete doesn't quit his day job, right?

(LAUGHTER)

KEILAR: Do not do that, Pete.

All right, so still to come on CNN NEWS CENTRAL, former Trump Organization CFO Alan Weisselberg is out of jail after serving time for a decade long tax fraud scheme. We have that story next.

And where President Biden -- actually, let's listen in to President Biden in Maryland.

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: -- production I appreciate it. Hello, Operating Engineers, Local 77.

(CHEERING)

[14:39:57]

BIDEN: I might note, from the time I announced for the United States Senate when I was a kid, I had the support of the Operating Engineers. I love you all. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.

You guys are found 122 years ago. That's not what I got endorsed.

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BIDEN: Skilled workers operating all kinds of construction recruitment. It can't be a better place to talk about the progress we made together, how it's working with the country and how our - Brothers, please sit down. I failed to tell you, say that to you. Thank you.

You know, I'm going to just race at the front end. This ain't your father's Republican Party. It's a different deal right now. And the minority of the party, of the MAGA-- I call the MAGA Republicans are control the party, and they're in Congress threatening undo all the stuff that you helped me get done.

That's why I'm here today because you and the American people should know about the competing economic visions of the country that are really at stake right now.

I'm here in this union hall with you. When? Just two days ago, the speaker of the House, Kevin McCarthy went to Wall Street to describe the MAGA economic vision for America. And this very clear they've laid it out. I know when I was telling you

was going to happen to telling folks they looked at me like that can't happen. Well, guess what is attempted to try to happen now.

Massive cuts in programs you count on. Massive benefit protected for those at the top. A lot of, you know, all the tax cuts go to the top. None of the bottom. The threat of defaulting on America's debt for the first time in 230 years. We've never ever default on the debt. It would destroy this economy.

And who do you think will hurt the most? You, hard-working people, the middle class, the neighborhoods I got raised in, not the super wealthy and the powerful but working folks. And that's what I want to talk about today.

You know == and I know where I you know where I stand. I make no apologies. And I mean this sincerely for being the most pro-union president in American history.

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: It's not just because I grew up with you all. It's because it's true.

You know when I speak to the business roundtable on the muckety-mucks are good, a lot a lot of decent people. The very -- all the business enterprises. It looked at me like, hey, guys, don't jump, OK?

(LAUGHTER)

BIDEN: But all kidding aside, you know they look at me like, why am I always talking about unions? I said, because, you know, they don't appreciate how hard you all work. How damned hard it is for you to get it -- to be able to become something other than an apprentice. It takes four years to train and apprentice just like going back to school.

Tell business leaders all the time, I tell them that I'm pro-union because union workers are the best workers in the world. And you are the best.

(CHEERING)

BIDEN: Not a joke.

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: That's the god's truth. That is the god's truth. You're the best in the world.

It's better in the long term for them to hire you because you get the job done, get it done on time, and ultimately, it's costs them less when they hire you.

So I've said many times, Wall Street didn't build America, the middle class pull America and unions built the middle class. That's a fact, unions.

(CHEERING)

(APPLAUSE)

BIDEN: One of the reasons I ran for president was to rebuild the backbone, the backbone of this country, the middle class. To grow the economy from the middle out in the bottom up, not from the top down.

Because when the middle class does well, the poor have a lighter up on the wealthy do very well still. And the middle class, you get a shot. We do well as well.

That's a clear contrast to my friends on the other side of the aisle these days. Didn't used to be. Didn't used to be. But it is now.

For decades, they've said that the best way to grow the economy is from a top-down, trickle-down economics. But growing up, I didn't see a whole lot of trickle down on our three-bedroom houses, four kids and my dad's kitchen table.

You know what trickle down didn't work for us, and it didn't work for a long time.

And by the way, it's not just what's been in the MAGA Republicans. For the last 34 decades, we've been losing ground.

And you know it's hollowed out the middle class, you know, rewarding wealth, not work. Rewarding companies moving overseas. Because it gets cheaper labor.

Look at all -- a lot of you know, maybe you come from neighborhoods small towns like Scranton, Pennsylvania. I came from Claymont, Delaware, I came from, where there used to be a lot of pride because we had businesses, we had factories that were working and operating.

In Scranton and Claymont. There were 4500 steelworkers. There's none today. And not only do you lose the jobs, you lose a sense of pride. You lose a sense of who you are. You begin to wonder, does anybody see me? I mean, this sincerely.

Those of you from the Midwest, travel through the Midwest, towns where they had a factory of .6800 people. You lose it, you lose everything. A lot of people get this.

[14:45:10]

How many of your friends you know of around the country who have had this conversation their son or daughter, finished his education high school comes to mom and dad and say, mom, I can't stay. There's no work. I've got to move. I've got to leave.

Why does that -- why these jobs go overseas? Because they're cheap labor. Rather than making the product here in America. We made it overseas. They need a wider economic inequity.

Along the way, losing something else. As I said pride. Literally pride. It matters.

My dad never went to college. My dad was a decent, honorable man who busted his neck. But my dad he talked about, you know everybody deserves to be treated with dignity., self -- recognizing self worth. I mean it sincerely. Not -- not -- it's not a joke. This is something I feel my gut, not just my heart and my heart.

You know how many of you -- you know what it's like growing up in a community where that factory does shut down. Where the community gets hollowed out. Gets hollowed out literally.

Folks, trickle-down economics doesn't work. And together, we've been doing everything we can to turn things around.

And with your help, one of the first things we did was passed the American Rescue Plan was not one of the other team voting for it.

You helped --

(APPLAUSE)

KEILAR: All right. We've been listening there to President Biden in Accokeek, Maryland, with a pro-union anti-trickle-down economics message. And you heard him there, he was hitting Republicans for their refusal to raise the debt limit in a clean way.

Now I want to get to Manu Raju on the Hill.

Because there was actually a bit of a dueling speech going on, Manu, with House Speaker Kevin McCarthy laying out the Republican debt limit bill on the House floor.

MANU RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes, that's right. He just announced the Republican plan to raise the national debt limit by $1.5 trillion or as late as early as March of 2024. That's what this legislation calls for.

Remember, if they don't raise the debt ceiling, there could be the first ever U.S. default as soon as this June, or it could even slip into September. But that is the real fear here.

And under this Republican proposal, it would allow for another $1.5 trillion for the debt limit was already north of $31 trillion to be increased.

But pair that with a range of spending cuts. That is what McCarthy detailed on the floor. Among the matters, dealing with the repeal of the Democratic Inflation Reduction Act. That would be part of this legislation.

As well as imposing new work requirements on Medicaid beneficiaries, as well as cutting domestic spending, rolling back current spending levels for domestic programs, not defense programs, but a range of other ones for 2022 levels, which would amount to a significant cut across the board. We have not seen all the details of this yet. But McCarthy said it

would cut and it would save about $4.5 trillion. It's likely over 10 years, according to their estimates.

Now McCarthy is pushing very hard to get this done. He knows full well that Democrats in the Senate won't accept this. The Democrat in the White House won't accept this.

But he wants to prove House Republicans can get a bill through that would raise the debt limit and cut spending. And he's trying to get this on the floor as soon as next week.

And behind the scenes, a furious effort is going on to try to ensure that Republicans, particularly conservatives, who have been skeptical about raising the debt ceiling, would come along to this.

And McCarthy's middle margin for error, he cannot lose more than four Republican votes in order to get this bill, this party line built across.

And what McCarthy hopes to strengthen his negotiating position with the White House and essentially forced Joe Biden to the negotiating table to find some sort of deal to cut spending and pair that with a debt limit increase, something that President Biden right there, as you heard is rejected.

Now. I just spoke with McCarthy as he left the House floor. He is still confident that he will get the votes next week to do this.

And he also defended the push to simply raise the debt ceiling, which differed only do it for about one year, which means that it would kick this again into the election year of 2024. McCarthy believes that he's doing the right thing here.

But this conference will be aligned and the showdown will happen next week -- Brianna?

KEILAR: A game of chicken with huge stakes Manu, the credit rating of the United States and perhaps the global economy.

Thank you for that report from Capitol Hill. We'll continue to watch this.

[14:49:28]

And we'll be right back here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

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SCIUTTO: He was delivering pizza and justice at the same time. This man now being dubbed a hero after helping officers stop a suspect during a high-speed chase.

In a moment of quick thinking, and I think a little courage, Tyler Morrel stuck out his leg, tripped the suspect as police were chasing him. Best of all, the guy didn't even drop the pizza. Have a look.

(VIDEO CLIP)

SANCHEZ: The heroic pizza man himself joins us now, live.

Tyler, it's a pretty dangerous situation that you inserted yourself into. What was going on in your mind when you watched all of that unfold? What led you to stick your leg out?

TYLER MORRELL, HERO PIZZA DELIVERYMAN: So it looked to me like he was going to be able to get away. So I just thought if I can't hold off here and have him think that I'm not going to do anything about it.

I kind of stepped back. And then I pushed forward and threw my leg out at the last second, just because I knew he wasn't going to see it. So I just was trying to stumble him up because I knew, if I did, the cops would then get to him.

[14:55:00]

And so he went, he got sent flying, though, so that was not my intent, but --

SCIUTTO: He did get sent flying. You're not exaggerating. We saw the video.

KEILAR: I mean, that's amazing. This was premeditated for quite some time.

I mean, it's worth noting Superman was Clark Kent by day, and this isn't too different.

Are you going to see maybe a turn to a second career in law enforcement anytime soon?

MORRELL: I have not given it too much thought so far. I'm willing to see any job offers that do come in. I'm willing to entertain anything. Honestly.

SANCHEZ: That that is a great example of the quality of your work. The form on the legs sticking out was fantastic.

I'm wondering how was the pizza? It's incredible you were able to sustain it.

MORRELL: I'm pretty sure it was enjoyed. And I don't-- from the photos and videos that I saw, it looked like it was still completely as it came out of the oven.

SCIUTTO: Yes. And I will say I like your form, too, on making the job pitch during the live television, introducing your open anything that -- that to me, that's a pretty -- pretty good use of your time.

MORRELL: I like to make plugs where I can for anybody, which is why I'm wearing this shirt representing a friend of mine who actually passed away, Kip Taviani, 10 years ago this past week. So I just wanted to pay a little homage to his family who is very close to me.

(CROSSTALK)

KEILAR: That's beautiful, Tyler. That's beautiful.

SANCHEZ: Yes, a great Samaritan all around.

Tyler Morrell, thank you so much --

MORRELL: Thank you.

SANCHEZ: -- for your time.

KEILAR: And any moment, on Capitol Hill, Senators will get a briefing on the potential national security implications of the massive Pentagon leak. We'll have more on that just ahead.

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KEILAR: The 21-year-old Pentagon leaks suspect back in court today. Jack Teixeira's attorneys say they need more time to strategize against some very serious charges under the Espionage Act.

And the Air Force unit where he was assigned under investigation and stripped of any intelligence duties. Could it mean more servicemembers have been implicated?

SCIUTTO: And bias among the badge. A new government report shows at least 17 officers sent or received highly offensive racist text messages while on patrol in Antioch, California. The "N" word commonly used. Now, the people they swore to protect want them gone.

SCIUTTO: And this young woman, she was just carpooling to cheerleading practice. Now she's fighting for her life, shot for confusing someone else's car for her own.

We are following these major developing stories and many more, all coming in right here to CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

[14:59:56]

KEILAR: Right now, every Senator in Washington is about to get a sensitive briefing on the Pentagon document leak. Earlier today, ack Teixeira, the suspect charged with that security breach, was in court, briefly, waiving his right to a preliminary hearing.