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Chaos At Youth Basketball Game After Reports Of "Shots Fired"; No Movement In Congress After Biden Urges More Action On Gun Violence; South Florida Condos Deemed Unsafe, Residents Told To Relocate; DHS Warns Of Rise In Extremists Sharing Ways To Attack Power Stations. Aired 2:30-3p ET

Aired April 24, 2023 - 14:30   ET

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

[14:30:00]

JIM SCUITTO, CNN HOST: So people were here reacting as I suppose all of us would.

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Right. It is one of the stories that really captures signs of the times.

Police in Mansfield say that there was an altercation that erupted at the basketball tournament at a fieldhouse there in Mansfield, as you mentioned, south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

And the two men were removed from the fieldhouse and into the parking lot area when police say they one of the people went to their car and got a handgun.

Someone else in the parking lot saw that and yelled "shots fired," and then this panic ensued.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Shooter.

(SHOUTING)

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: Get down. Come here. Come here.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What happened? What happened?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A shooter. An active shooter.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: What!

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And to add to the chaos there, earlier on in the gym, one of the parents running around hit a table. That table fell over causing a loud boom in the gym. So you can imagine how all of that added to the chaotic moments as well. Important to note, in all of this, there were no shots fired. And

police there in Mansfield say they have identified the two men at the heart of the altercation, that they are investigating. But so far, no criminal charges have been filed in this situation -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes. Seeing young people holding hands and running for the exits. I can only imagine the fear. Glad this is not real.

Ed Lavandera, thanks so much for us.

Boris?

BORIS SANCHEZ, CNN HOST: Today is the funeral for 18-year-old football player, Philstavious "Phil" Dowdell. Remember, he was one of four people killed at a mass shooting at a Sweet 16 party in Alabama two weeks ago.

Also today, we're learning that at least nine teenagers are recovering after being shot in an after-prom party Sunday in Texas. Thankfully, their injuries are not life threating.

But this is the sad reality that scenes like this are no longer out of the ordinary.

We're joined now by gun violence prevention activist, Shannon Watts. She's the founder of Moms Demand Action.

Shannon, obviously, after all of the attention that mass shootings have gotten in the last few years, public polling shows that Americans overwhelmingly support certain gun reforms, things like universal background checks, but yet there's no momentum on Capitol Hill for reform.

From your perspective, I am wondering if there is any one piece of legislation that you have hope that may pass.

SHANNON WATTS, FOUNDER, MOMS DEMAND ACTION: Well, you are exactly right. It is not just mass shootings, although we have had more mass shootings this year than we have had days in the year, which is incredibly tragic.

But we are seeing the shootings at pool parties and at prom after- parties. And even last week, we saw many examples where children or teens made simple mistakes and, as a result, armed and paranoid and racist men opened fire, shooting and wounding or even killing them.

So this is the reality that the gun lobby has created in this country, a populous that is armed to the teeth with very little regulation.

My question is, when will the guns make us safer? There are 400 million guns in this country and very few gun laws.

It has not made us safer yet. In fact, we have a 2,500 higher homicide rate than any peer nation.

So you ask about the momentum, and I have been doing this as a volunteer for a decade and we've passed over 500 gun safety laws in the states. And last summer, we passed the first federal gun laws in a generation.

There is momentum in this country for stronger gun laws. There are some gun extremists who have been elected to office who are standing in the way.

But I am confident, especially as I get ready to go into another election cycle, that this issue is top of mind for every parent in this country regardless of the political party.

And we have to vote out those lawmakers who are refusing to stand up to the gun lobbyists and making the children stand up to gunmen.

SANCHEZ: Shannon, you are raising an important point, that if a good guy stops a bad guy with the gun, when is the country going to be safer? It does not appear that the guns are making us safer at the clip that the shootings are happening.

And I want to point out this graphic on gun violence from 2023, 162 children killed. It's the graphic that was just on the board. This one shows that parents are overwhelmingly concerned about gun violence at school. And 77 percent say they are concerned.

But it is not like that when I was in school. Something like Columbine that happened when I was in middle school was an anomaly. Why has the situation deteriorated so much?

WATTS: We'll you're exactly right. Gun violence is now the leading cause of death among teens in this country, which is horrific and tragic, and something every parent in America should be worried about.

[14:35:08]

You asked why we are seeing more of this. The fact that we allow gun lobbies to help to write our gun law. And obviously, they are going to write the laws so they benefit gun lobbyists and not public safety.

We have about triple the amount of guns in this country since the 1970s and yet we are seeing the states, particularly red states, weaken the gun laws. And so this is the logical outcome of unfettered access to guns and too few gun laws.

And I want to be clear that the gun laws work. Data shows it. When you are looking at states that passed stronger gun laws in this country -- and we have just done that in recent weeks in places like Michigan and Delaware and Illinois and soon to be in Minnesota. And Washington State just passed the assault weapons ban.

And so we know they work. And when we are looking at the red states where gun extremists who are elected to office weakened the gun laws on behalf of the gun lobby, we will see more gun violence and gun death. And that is intuitive. But the data is going to bear it out.

So we are only as safe as the closest state with the weakest gun laws. We need the law at the federal level. But until then, we will go to school board by school board, city council by city council, and statehouse by statehouse.

SANCHEZ: Shannon, I am interested in your perspective on the fact that the kind of person who is buying the weapons is changing, is becoming younger and more diverse. What do you make of that?

WATTS: Well, look, we are still looking at data. But we have something -- besides the 25 times higher gun homicide rates than any other nation. And that is the gun lobby.

We have a wealthy and powerful special interest who has allowed a seat at the table to write our gun laws.

And then also marketing the guns to particularly white young men based on fear, and considering your man card that we issued and the picture of the assault rifle. This has led to the proliferation of guns in the country.

And we will see the gun sales spike, because the gun lobby preys on fear and chaos. It's why tens of millions of guns were sold in the pandemic in this country.

Look, there are countries that have high rates of gun ownership and low rates of gun violence.

This is not hopeless. We should not be cynical. We have made huge strides in the last decade toward gun safety, legislatively, electorally and culturally, but we have more work to do.

And I would anyone watching to text the word "fed up" to 64433. Get off the sidelines and use your voice and your vote on this issue.

SANCHEZ: Shannon Watts, thank you for taking time to speak with us. It is tragic that we have been on the air with his show for a week and we've already we've covered, what, nearly a dozen mass shootings.

Thank you again, Shannon.

Brianna?

BRIANNA KEILAR, CNN HOST: In the wake of that tragic condo collapse in Surfside, Florida, officials are not taking any chances. They are ordering residents in a condo to move out after the building was deemed unsafe. We will take you there, next.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:42:33]

SCIUTTO: Dozens of people who live in a south Florida condo must evacuate their homes by tomorrow. The Majestic Isle condominium is in North Bay Village, near Miami. And it's been deemed unsafe after failing inspection. They found dangerous sagging floors and termite damage as well.

CNN'S Leyla Santiago is in Miami. Leyla, as I was reading the story, I think that this is informed, in part, by the collapse of the Surfside building close to two years now. Is that a factor here? Do they have a lower threshold for this type of thing?

LEYLA SANTIAGO, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Listen, those two buildings are five miles apart. And, yes, that is very much on the minds of some of the residents as well as officials.

But when I was out there this morning, my takeaway was the frustration from a lot of the residents, feeling overwhelmed like they are not given the assistance they need or the time to be able to get out and evacuate.

So let's back up and talk about the sort of the timeline. This is a building that was built in 1960, and so they were coming up on the 60- year-old building recertification.

That requires an inspection and, quite frankly, it didn't go well for them. That's why engineers say they found the sagging floors and termite damage and even had partial collapse of the ceiling, given all of the water seen come down in south Florida.

Then Thursday, the residents learned that they have to evacuate, that it is deemed unsafe. They have to get out. And now we are in the 24- hour window, less than 24 hours where they have to get out.

Again, the residents that I spoke to acknowledge what happened in Surfside and they have not forgotten that. But quite a bit of frustration.

Listen to a little bit of the conversation that I had.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

CESAR SANTANA, EVACUEE: Moving on a super-short notice is what I am doing today.

SANTIAGO: How many days did you?

SANTANA: I had -- we had since Friday, I guess. I'm a musician, so I work on the weekends. I was working Friday and working Saturday, I was working yesterday and I did not have too much time.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SANTIAGO: And that was Cezar Santana, who also said to me that none of this makes sense to him, and he questioned some outside interests that could be at play here.

Now the mayor's office has said they are here to help. They do not want residents inside of a home that has been deemed unsafe, offering to work with other businesses in the area to maybe find a place for them to stay if they don't have family or friends.

[14:45:01] But clearly something that the residents say is really sort of upending their lives until they figure out what is next -- Jim?

SCIUTTO: Yes, sure, having to move out with hours' notice is hard for anybody.

Leyla Santiago, thanks for that.

Boris?

SANCHEZ: Now to some of the other headlines we're watching at this hour.

A chaotic scene in Jerusalem. Israeli officials say that five people were hurt in what they are calling a terror attack. Investigators say a man driving this car -- and I will show you in a second -- is -- and rammed it into a crowded popular market. Police say a witness fatally shot the suspect.

Also, a key figure in the Biden administration is stepping down. Susan Rice, who is serving as domestic policy adviser, says she is leaving next month. She also served as U.N. ambassador under President Obama.

In a statement, President Biden said there is, quote, "no one more capable and more determined to get important things done for the American people than Susan Rice."

Disney is canceling fire effects during shows in theme parks after this happened over the weekend. An animatronic dragon bursting into flames during a stage show. Officials say that everyone was safely evacuated at Disneyland. The cause is still under investigation.

Brianna?

KEILAR: Yes, that is not part of the show.

Next, an escalating threat to critical infrastructure. Just in, we are learning domestic violence extremists are increasingly sharing tactics on how to attack electric power stations. We have the details ahead.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[14:50:56]

SCIUTTO: All right. This just into CNN. A new government warning coming from the Homeland Security Department. Officials seeing an increasing amount of chatter online on how, specifically, to attack power stations.

You may recall an attack last year in Moore County, North Carolina. Someone shot up Duke Energy substations.

Officials say violent extremists see power stations as a, quote, "low risk, high reward opportunity."

Let's speak to someone who used to be in the DHS, CNN national security analyst, Juliette Kayyem.

Juliette, you had the attack in North Carolina last year. There was another one in Washington State around Christmastime. Tell us how serious, how widespread, and why this particular focus on power stations.

JULIETTE KAYYEM, CNN NATIONAL SECURITY ANALYST: So there has been a consistent throughline of some of these attacks, which they come from a radicalized right-wing element.

There is a reason why that's true. It is anti-government, it is anti- infrastructure, in the sense of how do things work in our society. They want to attack that.

The other aspect of it is it is low risk, relatively easy. And what we are starting to see is, you know, the threat is coming from outside the perimeter.

For someone who worked with critical infrastructure a lot of my career, your biggest threat is internal and safety features, right? Could you protect the wires, could you protect from an internal threat?

Now, the threat is drones, drive-by shootings and potentially other things that are thrown. That's something that -- you can't safeguard against all of that.

SCIUTTO: As I recall with this, the intention of the plotters was, in part, to spark a race war of some kind. You know, the theory being --

KAYYEM: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- you knock out the power, the city goes crazy and eventually people are attacking each other.

What stuck out to me, stood out to me from the DHS report is they've expressed concern that, quote, "gun attacks could become more appealing and spread to other infrastructure sectors, as well."

That raises the problem of we have a lot to protect from a security perspective.

KAYYEM: Yes, yes. Yes, you have about a dozen and a half critical infrastructure systems in the United States, from water to energy to cable and networks aboveground, below ground, in the water, all of it. And we're a connected society.

So the vulnerabilities will always be there. But one of the reasons for these bulletins isn't because there's a specific threat, but simply to warn the private sector, which tends, in this country, to basically own our critical infrastructure.

So be on the alert for this kind of threat. Because this threat -- as you said, this threat is not an end in and of itself. It's a means to an end. Which is, in their skewed vision of the world, if you bring darkness,

natural racial divisions will, you know, breed a violent civil war between blacks and whites. That's their vision.

So this is their starting line rather than their finish line, and that's the scary part.

SCIUTTO: No question. It's the scary part.

Now, I wonder, in terms of chatter here, because one thing the Pentagon leak has revealed is security agencies don't really have access to these closed chat groups on something like a Discord platform.

Is this kind of chatter being shared in places where authorities can peek in or not? Or both?

KAYYEM: Well, so -- both. So there are two pieces to this.

One would, based on legitimate reasons for starting a search, that you could have law enforcement looking into some of these closed sites because of a credible threat.

So there's another reason why they're allowed to go in, and then they learn from it.

The second is state laws tend to be different. States and localities may have transparency about what's happening in the right-wing, you know, social media sphere than the federal government would have authority for.

[14:54:57]

But let's also be clear, these people think that they are more popular than they are. The good news about this -- the bad news about this country is these people exist, right, that they want to start race wars.

The bad news is they're able to. This country, for all its divisions, is solidly against the kind of violence that these people perpetrate.

They are sort of emboldened by thinking that they are stronger than they are, and they tend to do some of this stuff in public. That can be monitored legally.

SCIUTTO: I suppose the downside is they could also still do a lot of damage, even as a threatening minority, as we saw --

KAYYEM: Yes.

SCIUTTO: -- with the Islamic terrorists, as well.

Juliette Kayyem, thanks so much.

Boris? SANCHEZ: In just a few minutes, President Biden will sit down with the three Democratic Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion votes over their act of protest advocating for gun restrictions. We'll bring you their meeting as it happens on CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)