Return to Transcripts main page

CNN News Central

Nine Shot, Including 1-Year-Old, During Fight Near Florida Beach; Drone Attack on Moscow Hours After New Russian Strikes on Kyiv; Today, House Rules Committee Mets for Crucial Vote on Debt Limit Bill. Aired 10-10:30a ET

Aired May 30, 2023 - 10:00   ET

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

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:00:00]

KATE BOLDUAN, CNN ANCHOR: Was it retaliation? Moscow says it was hit by a drone attack today just hours after Kyiv was rocked by another wave of Russian strikes. Ukraine's message to Russia now, don't blame us.

RAHEL SOLOMON, CNN ANCHOR: Also, the debt limit deal about to face its first major hurdle as hardliners on the House Rules Committee could sink the bill. We are live on Capitol Hill with where the votes stand.

JOHN BERMAN, CNN ANCHOR: New video of people running for their lives after gunfire erupts near a popular Florida beach. At least nine people injured including a 1-year-old child. This is CNN NEWS CENTRAL.

This morning, newly released video shows the moment of a mass shooting on a packed boardwalk near Hollywood Beach in Florida. Police say a fight between two groups led to nine people being shot in the area just north of Miami. Another video shows a different area near the beach where people began running for cover after hearing the shots go off.

CNN's Carlos Suarez joins us now from Hollywood. Carlos, give us the latest.

CARLOS SUAREZ, CNN CORRESPONDENT: John, good morning. So, we're expecting another update from Hollywood police at around 11:30 this morning. They should be able to provide us a little bit more information about exactly what happened out here. We know that authorities have detained one person and they're looking for at least one other person in connection with this shooting. The broad walk here behind me, as you can see, has reopened after it was closed yesterday because of this shooting.

Nine people in all were shot out here. Cameras around this part of Hollywood and Hollywood Beach captured as folks ran for their lives. They ran for safety after hearing this shooting take place.

Now, some videos that were posted on social media captured some of the injured being treated right here on the beach. Hollywood Police tell us that they had a number of officers already in the area because they were anticipating some large crowds of folks that were celebrating the Memorial Day holiday. And so they were able to quickly arrive at the scene and take all of the injured to an area hospital.

Here now is the mayor of Hollywood condemning what happened.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

MAYOR JOSH LEVY, HOLLYWOOD, FLORIDA: People come to a holiday, enjoy a holiday weekend on the beach with their families, and to have people in complete reckless disregard of the safety of the public and to have an altercation with guns in a public setting with thousands of people around them is beyond reckless.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

SAUREZ: And so, John, of the nine people that were shot, we're told all nine of them are expected to be okay, including that 1-year-old baby. All of them were told are listed in stable condition at a hospital not too far from where we are right now.

[10:05:00]

Again, we are expecting another briefing from Hollywood Police, hopefully providing a little bit more information, including what may have led to the shooting. Again, we know that this was the result of two groups of people that were in some sort of argument when somebody pulled out a gun.

BERMAN: All right, as you say, a new briefing coming sometime soon. Carlos, please keep us posted. Thank you so much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin, he is now condemning Ukraine for were an early morning drone attack on Moscow today, calling out Kyiv for, quote/unquote, terrorist activity. Ukrainian officials have already, though, said that they had no direct involvement in the alleged attack.

People in Moscow shared videos online of what they saw as drone fragments that they'd found in their yards from these attacks. Russian officials say two people were hurt, three residential buildings damaged in the alleged attack. This happened just hours after another Russian drone attack on the Ukrainian capital, the 17th Russian drone attack on Kyiv this month.

CNN's Frederik Pleitgen is in Kyiv for us. Fred, now we hear Vladimir Putin is speaking out about this. What do you hear from the Ukrainians about these drones in Moscow?

FREDERIK PLEITGEN, CNN SENIOR INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Hi there, Kate. Well, it's quite interesting because the Ukrainians continue to say that they were not behind this, that they have nothing to do with this. An advisor to the presidency here in Ukraine, he came out and he said, of course, they have nothing to do with it. But at the same time, the Ukrainians are also saying that they are quite happy about the fact that this happened and that they believe that things like this could happen in the future again.

And so, obviously, that seems like possibly somewhat of a wink. But, again, officially, the Ukrainians are saying that they had nothing to do with this.

But, certainly, this does seem as though this drone attack that happened in the early hours there in Moscow really having shaken maybe not necessarily the Russian leadership, but certainly a lot of people there on the ground in Moscow. From what we're hearing, one of the drones that was taken down was apparently taken down the Rubliovka district or near the Rubliovka district of Moscow, which is, incidentally, where Vladimir Putin has one of his properties.

Also, in total, the Russians are saying that they took down eight of those drones that came in. They say three of them with electronic countermeasures, but three of them, they also had to use their air defense systems. In other words, shoot missiles at those drones.

And you're absolutely right, Kate. Vladimir Putin did condemn this. Here's what he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

VLADIMIR PUTIN, RUSSIAN PRESIDENT: Kyiv chose the path of intimidation of Russian citizens and attacks on residential buildings. It is a clear sign of terrorist activity. The Moscow air defense system worked satisfactorily. However, there is still work to be done to make it better.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

PLEITGEN: So, once again, the Ukrainians are denying that. They are saying that they did have nothing to do with that, while at the same time they say they believe things like this could happen again. Kate?

BOLDUAN: And, Fred, just to give everyone kind of where you're on the scene of one of the drone attacks on Kiev that happened overnight. Ukrainians say that they were able to take down, I think, most of what they say were most of the drones. But what are you hearing now about this?

PLEITGEN: Kate, yes, they were able, they say, to take down most of their drones, I think all of them except two. But I can tell you from having gone through this as well here in the city, that for several hours, it was certainly something that was very unnerving to a lot of people here in this city.

There was the noise of these drones hovering overhead. There was the Ukrainian air defenses shooting at these drones. You can see behind me, we actually have some of the debris now raining down on us as the crews here are clearing out the debris of one of the buildings that was hit. As you can see, it is substantial. There's a lot of things that are cleaning up now in those top floors. In fact, we pan up. You can see some of that work going on. That's an apartment that got hit there. A woman died in that apartment. In total, there were also several other people who were injured. So, as you can see, the Ukrainians living through this a lot, they say they were very successful in bringing down a lot of these drones. Nevertheless, the damage remains substantial, Kate.

BOLDUAN: It absolutely does. Fred, thank you for being there. Rahel?

SOLOMON: And, Kate, back here in the U.S., could Republican holdouts sink the debt ceiling bill, which is hours from now? The House Republican-led Rules Committee is expected to hold the vote. That is the panel that ultimately controls which legislation makes it to the House floor. The two major holdouts on that committee, House for Freedom Caucus Members Ralph Norman and Chip Roy, well, they would need to convince at least one other Rules Committee member to oppose the bill in order to block it.

CNN Chief Congressional Correspondent Manu Raju is on Capitol Hill with the latest. So, Manu, what do we know about what's going on behind closed doors to try to get this deal to the finish line or at least to the very next leg of the race?

MANUN RAJU, CNN CHIEF CONGRESSIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Well, this is a pivotal day to try to get this bill through, avoid America's first debt default, and questions about whether or not the speaker, the deals that he cut in January to become the speaker of the House, will come back to haunt him in any way, as anger is building on the right flank of his conference over the deals that he did cut with the White House in order to suspend the debt limit up until January 2025, as well as include a number of other concessions that the White House didn't want to give him.

[10:10:11]

Still, that is causing concerns on the right, who some members who believe that he went too far.

At noon today, we expect to hear from members of the House Freedom Caucus, those are the members of his hard right flank who are opposed to this bill. The question is how many members are opposed and whether or not they will try to make a move against him. Just one member could call for a vote seeking his ouster speaker. At the moment, that does not seem to be in the cards. But that was also part of his deal to become speaker to allow one member that power to go against him.

He also made a deal on the House Rules Committee to allow three conservative members to sit on that panel Chip Roy, Ralph Norman, and Thomas Massie. Roy and Norman both plan to vote against the rule in the House Committee today. If they convince Thomas Massie to vote no, that could be problematic for McCarthy because he agreed as part of his deal to only allow for bills to move forward that had the support of seven members of the committee.

And adding a new wrinkle, on top of all this, Chip Roy contended that he and McCarthy had a handshake deal back in January that they would only consider legislation on the floor that had the support of all nine Republicans on the Rules Committee, something the speaker's allies deny. Now, this is all causing a lot of tension within the ranks, as Chip Roy, who believes this deal should not have been cut, is calling on his members to block it today.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

REP. CHIP ROY (R-TX): I'm going to be making that loud and clear to my Republican colleagues that this is not a deal that we should be taking. The whole point of the Rules Committee was to say that we are going to have a power sharing, where we had a representation of the entire conference. And I'm not thrilled with this bill right now, so I'm not going into the Rules Committee with a very positive view towards this bill.

Kevin is a friend. I think the Republican Party is best when we're unified, but not for the sake of unity.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

RAJU: The expectation among top Republicans is that they will ultimately have the votes to approve the rule in the committee and then tomorrow in the House narrowly pass it in the House. Even as a number of Democrats, progressives in particular, are rebelling against this bill because of concerns over the deals, the White House cut and giving in, and what they believe was far too much to the speaker on a range of issues, including new work requirements on certain social safe net programs.

But there are center left Democrats who are planning to vote for the bill tomorrow and a lot of center right Republicans. So, there could be a coalition that's expected among the leadership to actually get this bill through the House and then it's onto the Senate as they push up closer to that Monday deadline to avoid default. Rahel?

SOLOMON: it will be an eventful few days. Manu Raju live on Capitol Hill for us, thank you. John?

BERMAN: A short time ago, opening statements began in the federal trial of the man accused of killing 11 worshippers at a Pittsburgh synagogue. This was the deadliest anti-Semitic attack on U.S. soil, and prosecutors are seeking the death penalty.

With me now is former federal prosecutor and CNN Senior Legal Analyst Elie Honig. Elie, this is a very emotional day for a lot of people to remember back to what happened in 2018. It's also a legally significant day. This is an interesting trial. It's a federal murder trial. And people will go, isn't murder generally a state charge? So, why federal? What does that mean? What do they have to prove?

ELIE HONIG, CNN SENIOR LEGAL ANALYST: Right. So, most murders are not federal. Most murders are prosecutable and actually prosecuted only in state court. In order to get into federal court, you need a basis for federal jurisdiction, what we call a federal hook. And here the federal hook is that these murders are charged as hate crimes resulting in death. So, prosecutors are going to have to prove not just that this individual killed these 11 victims, but that he did it because he was motivated by religious or racial hatred. Should not be difficult in this case, given that this shooter left behind all sorts of things that he wrote and said, calling for the death of Jewish people. But prosecutors do have to prove that here.

BERMAN: And the fact that it is a death penalty case, we have already seen the impact of that.

HONIG: Yes. So, when you have a death penalty eligible case, it actually impacts your jury, because this is what we call a death qualified jury. And here's what this means. When you're selecting the jury, every potential juror is asked, would you be willing, would you be able, would you be capable of imposing the death penalty in certain circumstances? Could you sign that piece of paper condemning another human being to death? And if a potential juror answers no, they're out.

So, your jury of 12 who's deciding guilt or non-guilt, all of them have said, yes, I would be willing and able. It's a controversial rule because it inherently favors the prosecution, but that is the way this works.

BERMAN: And jury selection took a long time because of that. And the trial itself will be a two-tier process because of it, theoretically.

HONIG: Right. First, the jury will decide whether this shooter is guilty or not guilty. And then if they do the same, jury stays. And then we go into the penalty phase, where the jury will decide death penalty or life in prison.

And at that second phase, anything goes. At that point, the jury will hear evidence that's not relevant to the crime itself, perhaps about the individual's background, any mental incapacity.

[10:15:05]

And prosecutors will argue there what we call aggravating factors, the fact that he was motivated by hate, that he selected his target, that he murdered innocent, vulnerable victims. And then the jury will decide.

BERMAN: And very quickly, for people who have been watching this closely, the political angle of this, hasn't Joe Biden declared a ban on federal executions for now and actually called to end the federal death penalty?

HONIG: There's an interesting political wrinkle here because, yes, the Biden administration has imposed a federal death penalty moratorium. However, this horrible event happened in 2018 at the time under the Trump administration. DOJ back then chose to seek the death penalty. And the Biden administration has sort of threaded the political needle and said, we're not going to seek the death penalty in any new cases, but we're also not going to reverse it if any prior administrations have sought it. BERMAN: Elie Honig, like we said, an emotional day, but an important case to watch it very, very closely. Thank you very much. Kate?

BOLDUAN: Coming up for us, crews are preparing to knock down what's left, really, of the apartment building in Iowa that suffered a partial collapse this weekend. But it's not clear yet when they'll start, as officials say there still may be people unaccounted for.

Plus, the calendar is set for a historic impeachment trial that will rock Texas politics. It already has. State senators are soon going to decide the political fate of the state's attorney general who was just impeached.

And after a last ditch effort to remain free while appealing her conviction, Theranos Founder Elizabeth Holmes must report to prison today. CNN is there.

We'll be back.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:20:00]

BOLDUAN: On our radar this hour, new video showing the rescue of a woman more than 24 hours after an apartment building partially collapsed in Davenport, Iowa. The woman's daughter says that she called her from the fourth floor apartment in part of the building that was apparently unaffected. But that brings now the number of people rescued from the building to nine after part of the building gave way, Sunday.

Local officials are making plans to demolish the building, but when that process will start, it's not yet clear, as there are still people unaccounted for.

Texas is the latest state to approve a ban on programs that promote diversity, equity and inclusion at public colleges and universities. This bill now heads to Governor Greg Abbott, who's expected to sign it into law. This whole effort follows similar moves made in Florida where Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill, a very similar one two weeks ago defunding DE and I programs at all state universities.

And new this morning, the Supreme Court has decided to not take up a case brought by a victim of sex trafficking who wanted to hold the online platform Reddit responsible. In the case, this woman was joined by parents of other minors who say their daughters were coerced into giving sexually explicit images that were later posted online on the site. This all centers around Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act, a portion of the law that has long been under the microscope.

A district court had previously decided Reddit is protected from liability. Reddit argued that it should not be treated as the creator of unlawful content. Rahel?

SOLOMON: Well, Kate, let's head back to Texas, where the Texas State Senate has decided the impeachment trial of suspended Attorney General Ken Paxton will begin no later than August 28, meaning lawmakers will decide his future by the end of the summer. In one of the last orders of business yesterday, lawmakers delivered the articles of impeachment.

CNN's Ed Lavandera joins us now from Texas. Ed, look, there's been a lot of reaction from both critics and supporters of Paxton. What are you hearing today?

ED LAVANDERA, CNN SENIOR NATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Yes. I hear the Texas legislature bracing for a summer of impeachment here, as the articles of impeachment were formally delivered to the Texas Senate yesterday evening. And we also heard from senators that this trial will begin no later than August 28th. So, it'll probably happen between June 20th, where a senate committee will present the rules of the impeachment process, and that August 28th date at this point. So, that gives both sides several times to prepare.

But Ken Paxton, the attorney general here, facing 20 articles of impeachment in all, a litany of charges that include bribery, obstruction of justice, being unfit for office. It's a long range of charges that he is facing here on the Senate side.

Paxton says he has done no wrongdoing and that this entire process is a sham.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ATTORNEY GENERAL KEN PAXTON (R-TX): The fact that I was prohibited from presenting evidence to defend myself reveals that this shameful process was curated from the start as an act of political retribution.

STATE REP. ANDREW MURR (R-TX): So, this is about facts and this is about evidence. And at the end of the day, my colleagues and I will not stand for public corruption, and that's why we're proceeding to a trial in the Texas Senate.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

LAVANDERA: And the person you heard from there is Representative Murr, who is the chairman of the House Committee that brought these articles of impeachment against him.

But there is still a great deal of support for Ken Paxton. Several hundred people gathered in his home county, Collin County, which is just north of the Dallas area, to show his support for Ken Paxton. This is an Attorney General that has been elected three times here in this state.

And many of the details that have been alleged in these articles of impeachment are details that have been out there. And despite all of that, he has been re-elected. But investigators in House, the Texas House of Representatives, clearly feels very differently about whether or not Ken Paxton is fit for office.

[10:25:01]

SOLOMON: That's a great point. Clearly, something has changed in Texas. We'll watch this space at Lavandera, thank you. John?

BERMAN: Prison Break, the Embarrassing Sequel, a manhunt underway in Mississippi for an escapee who broke out of jail, the same facility where four inmates broke out a month ago.

(COMMERCIAL BREAK)

[10:30:00]